Closing out the Toronto After Dark Film Festival today is the UK film Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break. And what a way to close the festival! Without disclosing too much, this sure fire crowd pleaser follows Paul Dood (Tom Meeten) in his pursuit of a glimmer of internet fame by auditioning for internet sensation Jack…
Tag: uk
TAD 2021: Nightshooters dir. Marc Price
Nightshooters is a kinetic, frenetic, UK actioner laced with humour, cold tea, and explosive gore, and it’s enjoying its Canadian premiere on today’s line up of Toronto After Dark titles, as the virtual format of the film festival continues! Falling squarely into the wrong place wrong time of action films, the film follows a group…
Never Send Flowers (1993) – John Gardner
James Bond is back, and while I’ve enjoyed Gardner’s efforts with Ian Fleming’s 007, with the minor exception of The Man From Barbarossa, this entry, his thirteenth (of sixteen) feels like a real stumble. It seems to want to be more in line with the cinematic 007, but without a solid story, or set pieces…
Doomsday (2008) – Neil Marshall
Writer/director Neil Marshall pays homage to Snake Plissken and Mad Max with his actioner, Doomsday, which, as I rewatched it, had an opening that seems incredibly relevant as a pandemic sweeps the UK, and as the virus spreads there are lockdowns, quarantines, and curfews – until the infected are all locked away in Scotland, a…
Mother Riley Meets The Vampire (1952) – John Gilling
This comedic title which features the next machine menace in DK Books’ Monsters in the Movies is a film that could have been filed under vampires or robots (though the vampire is definitely in it a lot longer than the robot). Apparently Mother Riley films were a thing in the UK, the character is played…
The Secret Adversary (1922) – Agatha Christie
This week’s Agatha Christie novel, her second, introduced me to characters I’d never met before. I was aware of Poirot (in fact he was the only character of hers I did read when I was originally introduced to her books as a child), Miss Marple, of course, but I had never heard of Tommy and…
1984 (1956) – Michael Anderson
DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies provides a glimpse into a dystopian future that may not be so different from a time we live in now, with the 1956 adaptation of Orwell’s classic novel, 1984. The screenwriters say they ‘freely’ adapted the original story so there are differences from book to screen, but thematically, it…
Constantine (2005) – Francis Lawrence
Keanu Reeves takes on the role of DC’s Vertigo Comics character of John Constantine aka Hellblazer in the next title to be featured in DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies as I traverse its visions of hell. Constantine was originally written as a UK character but was changed to American to make it more bankable…
The Devil You Know (2006) – Mike Carey
UK author Mike Carey launched a new series with The Devil You Know, which sees him visiting territory that is very familiar to him considering his past writing credits, including The Girl With The Gifts as well as the comic series Lucifer, and Constantine. He treads the realm of the supernatural noir easily in a…
Octopussy and The Living Daylights (1966) – Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming’s final James Bond book, the second published posthumously and the fourteenth 007 book overall is a collection of previously published quartet of short stories. And it’s a great collection to go out on, though of course Bond would continue to live on under other authors, and of course, as an ongoing film franchise….
The Mind Reels 