TIFF24: The Wild Robot dir. Chris Sanders

I closed out my TIFF run this year, with the latest animated effort from Dreamworks. Based on the children’s book by Peter Brown, Sanders not only directed the film, but adapted the story as well, and it’s going to be a family classic to be sure. When a robot, Roz (Lupita Nyong’o) awakes from her…

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) – 4K

Tom Cruise returns as IMF agent Ethan Hunt in his seventh Mission: Impossible outing Dead Reckoning Part One which comes home on 4K and physical media today from Paramount Canada. It’s epic and brings in a number of story and character threads from the entire franchise and, of course, looks absolutely stunning in 4K. This…

The Equalizer (1989) – Endgame, and Suicide Squad

Endgame is a tale of manipulation, and revenge, and seems to almost sneak up on the fringes of Saw territory, as the episode finds two sisters pitted against one another. Written by Coleman Luck, the penultimate episode of The Equalizer aired on 10 August, 1989, well after the season should have finished in May. McCall…

Dawn of the Dead (2004) – Zack Snyder

It takes guts to want to remake a Romero zombie classic, but that’s where we are with the next zombie film featured in DK Canada’s highly enjoyable Monsters in the Movies book. Zack Snyder, a wonderfully visual director, who never actually seems to be able to handle story and character (or any measure of subtlety)…

Miami Vice (1987) – The Big Thaw, and Child’s Play

All series have their handful of weaker episodes, but most Miami Vice has been solid storytelling, but of course they are going to stumble on occasion. And this, The Big Thaw,  is definitely one of those. Written by Joseph DiBlasi (Michael Duggan), it aired on 23 October, 1987. Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson), Ricardo Tubbs (Philip…

Mission: Impossible Fallout (2018) – Blu-Ray

Paramount Pictures invites you to bring home the next (and biggest – to date) assignment from the IMF as Mission: Impossible Fallout comes home on blu-ray. We’ve followed Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise)  since 1996, over the course of fifth films, and now, the sixth film, is probably the biggest, most impressive entry into the franchise…

Miami Vice (1985) – Rites of Passage, and The Maze

Rites of Passage was penned by Daniel Pyne and first debuted on 8 February, 1985. The story finds Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Micheal Thomas) rekindling a romance with an old flame, when Valerie Gordon (Pam Grier), a fellow cop from New York, comes down to Miami in search of her sister, Diane (Tery Ferman), to save…

Father Figures (2017) – Blu-Ray Release

Hitting blu-ray and DVD from Warner Brothers this week is this goofy, semi-sweet, adult-humoured quest story from first time director, but experienced cinematographer, Lawrence Sher, starring Owen Wilson and Ed Helms. Helms and Wilson play fraternal twin brothers, Peter and Kyle, who lead separate and different lives from one another and the rest of their…

Pulp Fiction (1994) – Quentin Tarantino

  Pulp Fiction, quite possibly the best film in Tarantino’s oeuvre, is the next title in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film comedy section for me to take a look at. While not necessarily a full-out comedy, it is neither a full-out drama nor thriller either. What it does have is a fantastic…