Farscape (2001) – Incubator, and Meltdown

Aboard a Peacekeeper command carrier, Scorpius (Wayne Pygram) and Braca (David Franklin) are trying to sort out the wormhole equations in the neural chip that was recovered from Crichton’s (Ben Browder) brain. Things aren’t going well. And Scorpius comes up with a plan. Incubator was written by Richard Manning and debuted on 13 July, 2001….

Go West (1925) – Buster Keaton

Sometimes you just want to revel in the artistry and talent of cinema of yesteryear, so I decided to dig into a Buster Keaton film I hadn’t seen, Go West. It’s charming and Keaton who stars and directs knows how to make the magic work. His character, simply referred to as Friendless in the credits,…

Monkey Man (2024) – Dev Patel

Dev Patel directs and stars in Monkey Man, an action revenge film that makes sure to add in emotion, trauma, as well as some commentary on religion and politics. It’s all done without losing the driving, pulse-pounding action sequences that make this film incredibly enjoyable and watchable. As the nameless hero of the film, known…

Death on the Nile (2022) – Kenneth Branagh

Kenneth Branagh continues his exploration of the Agatha Christie creation, the world’s greatest detective, Hercule Poirot and his little grey cells with Death on the Nile. It follows on the tail of Murder on the Orient Express, which Branagh also directed and starred in. I do like the fact that Branagh seems to have taken…

TIFF ’23: Hell of a Summer

Long-time friends Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk share directing, producing, writing and starring credits in their enjoyable and goofy riff on camp slasher films. It’s summer, and Camp Pineaway is gearing up for another round of campers and counsellors. In fact, the counsellors gather the weekend before camp opens to prepare, get reacquainted, drunk, high,…

TIFF ’23: Poolman

Chris Pine stars, directs and co-wrote Poolman, a sun-baked film noir that never quite finds its tone in spite of its best efforts, and feels like the love child of Chinatown and The Big Lewbowski. A pastiche of the eccentricities and lifestyles of LA, Pine populates his film with characters you could only find in…

TIFF’23: Knox Goes Away

I’ve said it before, and I know I’ll say it again. I love a good noir, and Knox Goes Away directed by and starring, Micheal Keaton may be one of my new favourites. making fantastic use of his framing, lighting, score and production, Knox Goes Away, despite its modern trappings, feels like a throwback to…

Rocky Balboa (2006) – Sylvester Stallone

Stallone returns to write, direct and star in Rocky Balboa, which sees Stallone’s iconic character return to the boxing ring one last time. Watching all of the films this close together, this entry actually has some nice emotional resonance. Rocky (Stallone) is mourning the death of Adrian (Talia Shire), he’s stepped away from boxing for…

Rocky V (1990) – John G. Avildsen

Sylvester Stallone writes and stars in Rocky V, which sees the return of John G. Avildsen to the series, back for the first time since his directorial turn in the original Rocky. This one get slammed pretty hard by Stallone and some fans (at least it doesn’t have any robots in it) but this may…

Rocky III (1982) – Sylvester Stallone

With ‘Eye of the Tiger’ blaring from every radio station in 1982, it’s wild to think of a time before the song, and the film existed. 1982 was a great year for moviegoers, and Sylvester Stallone brought Rocky back to the screen for a third go-round, in Rocky III. Once again, he wrote, directed and…