It took me forever to get around to seeing this one. And I openly admit to having built it up in my mind, and was worried that it wouldn’t stand up to what I thought it should be. And while it wasn’t really horrific, it was a laugh-out-loud horror film that plays as part satire,…
Tag: students
Smallville (2002) – Redux, and Lineage
Redux first aired on 29 October, 2002 and was written by Russel Friend and Garrett Lerner. There’s lots going on in this episode! It seems a number of Smallville High students are aging rapidly. What’s causing that? And if Clark (Tom Welling) didn’t have his hands full with that, there’s more trouble at the school….
TIFF 25: Bad Apples dir. Jonatan Etzler
Saoirse Ronan shines as Maria, an elementary school teacher pushed too far in Jonatan Etzler’s darkly funny thriller, Bad Apples. If you’ve read the tagline for the film, do yourself a favour and don’t read anything else about it. Go in with the knowledge that Maria is working to keep her class engaged. She has…
The Substitute (1996) – Robert Mandel
Its action sequences are flawed, and don’t look anywhere as near as cool, and sharp as they could, but 1996’s The Substitute (which spawned three increasingly bad direct-to-video sequels) is packed with familiar faces. The cast is led by Tom Berenger, and includes Raymond Cruz, Luis Guzman, William Forsythe, Rodney, A. Grant, Ernie Hudson, Marc…
Galactica 1980 (1980) – Galactica Discovers Earth: Part 3, and The Super Scouts
Troy (Kent McCord) and Dillon (Barry Van Dyke) are able to foil Xavier’s (Richard Lynch) to help the Nazi and their V2 rocket with some help from Jamie (Robyn Douglass) and Major Stockwell (Christopher Stone) in the third part of the series opener, Galactica Discovers Earth. Written by series creator Glen A. Larson this episode…
Family Ties (1984) – Keaton and Son, Fabric Smarts, and Hotline Fever
Alex (Michael J. Fox) is looking for a job, hopefully at a bank to be close to the money, but he may have to take whatever comes along, which may mean working with his dad, Steven (Michael Gross) down at the station. Keaton and Son was written by Lissa Levin and was first broadcast on…
TIFF ’23: The Holdovers
Director Alexander Payne reunites with his Sideways star, Paul Giamatti in this earnest and laugh-out-loud dramedy that takes us back to the winter of 1970 and Barton, a boy’s prep school where Paul Hunham (Giamatti) teaches Ancient Civilizations and often finds himself clashing with not only his fellow teachers but his students as well, particularly…
M*A*S*H (1980) – Letters, Cementing Relationships, and Father’s Day
Dennis Koenig pens Letters, which is a bit of a vignette show, that first aired on 24 November, 1980. In the midst of a huge rainstorm that is bringing down camp spirits, Hawkeye (Alan Alda) gets a slew of letters from his hometown of Crabapple Cove, Maine. One of the schoolteachers there has had her…
Prince of Darkness (1987) – John Carpenter
Prince of Darkness was the third John Carpenter movie I saw ever, before that I was delighted with Big Trouble in Little China, and had found my favourite horror movie with The Things (Jaws is not a horror film, it’s an adventure movie).I remember seeing print ads for it on the back of the comic…
The Mutations (1974) – Jack Cardiff
DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies continues to bring me atomic mutations. This offering is a little odd, and features some recognisable actors in a rather bad film called The Mutations, but also known as The Freakmaker. Donald Pleasance plays Professor Nolter, a scientist who is fascinated by the combination of animal and plant as…
The Mind Reels 