Toronto After Dark 2018

It’s that time of year again, and it seems Toronto always knows what to get me for my birthday – a film festival. Specifically the Toronto After Dark film festival. Running October 11th through to the 19th the genre festival features films from around the globe that highlight horror, action and science fiction films that…

Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – Blu-Ray Review

After ten years, and eighteen previous films, the Marvel Cinematic Universe came together in a way that no other film series has done. Since 2008, with the introduction of Iron Man, Marvel has built upon each film, creating an interwoven reality, and hinting at a terrible threat to come. That threat has arrived. Avengers: Infinity…

A Quiet Place (2018) – Blu-Ray Review

The horror game-changer, A Quiet Place, hit blu-ray and DVD this week from Paramount Pictures, and it’s just as amazing and terrifying in your home theatre. Director and star John Krasinksi (who also had his hand in the screenplay – and for some people will always be Jim from The Office, though this film definitely…

Sophie’s Choice (1982) – Alan J. Pakula

The recommendations from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film for my screening of Schindler’s List are all powerful and exceptional films, and the first one featured some truly stunning performances. Adapted from the novel by William Styron, Pakula adapted and directed this moving and stunning film that sees Meryl Streep, in an Oscar…

Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Blu-Ray Review

Hitting blu-ray and DVD today from Disney is the latest instalment in the Skywalker Saga, The Last Jedi, director/writer Rian Johnson’s follow-up to 2015’s The Force Awakens. Johnson delivers a strong film that has proven divisive with some fans, but for yours truly, it’s up there with The Empire Strikes Back, it sends characters in…

Disney/Pixar’s Coco Blu-Ray Review

The Golden Globe winning (and Oscar nominated) film from Pixar, the stunningly beautiful Coco is released to blu-ray and DVD today. Over the course of nineteen films Pixar has established itself as the foremost makers of family entertainment. Entrenched in a faithful and gorgeous representation of Mexican beliefs and traditions, the story follows a young…

The Leopard (1963) – Luchino Visconti

The next film on the What Else to Watch list from DK Canada’s The Movie Book following my screening of Ossessione is this three hour epic starring Burt Lancaster. Lancaster plays Prince Don Fabrizio Salina, the ageing patriarch of a dying dynasty. It’s Sicily in the 1860s and political and social upheavals cause Fabrizio great…

The Daylight War (2013) – Peter V. Brett

Digging into the third book of The Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett has been long overdue, but it was very much worth the wait. After the climactic conclusion of the previous instalment, not to mention some of the revelations, the characters are left in some strange places. The novel picks up shortly after the…

Blade Runner 2049 (2017) – Denis Villeneuve

Villeneuve’s stunningly beautiful sequel to the seminal, and iconic, 1982 Ridley Scott film is released to blu-ray and DVD today from Warner Brothers. With Scott serving as executive producer, and a story by original film scribe Hampton Fancher (joined by Michael Green), Villeneuve working with cinematographer Roger Deakins brings us another tale set in the…