Hot Docs 2014: Living Stars (Gaston Duprat & Mariano Cohn)

Having its Canadian Premiere this afternoon at the Scotiabank Theatre at 1:45, this joyous mixtape celebrates life and music through that most intimate and revealing art… dance. Filmed on location in Buenos Aires, everyday folk cut loose before a static camera while family, friends and pets watch, go about their daily lives or join the party. (Sometimes…

Kill Bill (2003/2004) – Quentin Tarantino

  The 101 Action Movies brought me the fantastic 4th film of writer/director Quentin Tarantino to view again. Broken up over 2 films, released 6 months apart, this film is the ultimate homage to 70s films, be it, the revenge flick, the kung-fu flick, the exploitation flick, it pays respect to all of them, as…

The Fast and The Furious (2001) – Rob Cohen

  The 101 Action Movies made me sit through this one. Pretty people (with questionable acting skills)  in slick cars, with a pulsing soundtrack and somehow this series is still going… In a page stolen right from Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break but not as brilliantly executed, Paul Walker is undercover officer Brian O’Conner, who is working…

Gladiator (2000) – Ridley Scott

  The 101 Action Movies brings me Ridley Scott’s Best Picture winner Gladiator for me to re-watch and enjoy. Starring Russell Crowe as Maximus, a Roman general in service to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris). When the emperor is murdered by his devious and power-hungry son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), Maximus is ordered to be…

Evil Dead The Musical Returns to Toronto!

  Back in 2007, while I was living in Kingston, I heard something incredible… someone had turned one of my favorite cult series, into a musical with lots of blood… In the space of 48 hours, I had ordered the soundtrack from Amazon, got my tickets for the Splatter Zone seating section, and bought my…

Toronto After Dark: The Battery (2013) – Jeremy Gardner

  Zombie Appreciation Night continues following the UK zom-com Stalled with the character driven undead piece The Battery. Made for a budget of barely $6000, the film focuses on Mickey (Adam Cronheim) and Ben (Jeremy Gardner), a pair of former ball players, paired together as survivors, constantly on the move as they eke out an…

Modern Times (1936) – Charlie Chaplin

  The Great Movies – 100 Years of Film continues to entertain as I continue to make my way through the 5 associated titles with The Gold Rush. This effort also directed and starring Chaplin features a rudimentary soundtrack, and is delightful fun. Even in the 30s the continuing, striving pace of technology and progress…

The Hunt For Red October (1990) – John McTiernan

Tom Clancy’s techno-thriller, which I remember reading back in grade 9, when my friend Michael introduced me to it and after that, every Christmas until I 1989, I would receive Clancy’s new novel in hardcover for Christmas, was put to film by John McTiernan. Coming off of the incredible run of success that Predator and Die…

Top Gun (1986) – Tony Scott

The 101 Action Movies brings this flag-waving American classic back into my life. With Tony Scott’s typical super colour-saturated framing, quick editing, fantastic rocking score, Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise), struggled to prove his the best of the best at the fighter pilot school known popularly as Top Gun. Tons has been said about…

48 Hrs. (1982) – Walter Hill

The 101 Action Movies brings me one of the classic buddy action movies, and despite the fact that it’s really good, it’s really tough to like any of the characters in it. Almost all of them come across as coarse, racist, and unlikable. Nick Nolte plays Jack Cates, a bit of a loose cannon of…