How To Train Your Dragon 2 review

Directed by Don DeBlois, adapted by DeBlois from a book series by Cressida Cowell Steering clear of all things Transformers this week—does anyone really need another one of these Michael Bay monstrosities?—I decided to catch a friendlier looking sequel. I do have to say, there's something kind of shameless when a sequel comes out with…Read More

40 Years of Chinatown

Roman Polanski's Chinatown turns 40 today. It opened in cinemas June 20, 1974. I never cease to find the movie astonishing in it's acting, sense of place, and most of all, screenplay. The narrative locomotion, how it starts slowly, dropping clues to the mystery of personal and municipal malfeasance, then speeds up in the final…Read More

Tracks review

Directed by John Curran, written by Marion Nelson from a book by Robyn Davidson Tracks is one of the summer's gems, and easily one of the best movies so far this year. I saw it last year at the Atlantic Film Festival, and am happy to see it a second time.  It's based on the true…Read More

Chef review

Written and directed by Jon Favreau It's tempting to analogize the story of Chef with Favreau's career as an actor and director. Favreau came to prominence as the writer and star of the late-90s indie Swingers, with his buddy Vince Vaughn (they paired again in Made),  which he parlayed into acting and directing gigs. He…Read More

The Fault in Our Stars review

Directed by Josh Boone, written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, adapting the book by John Green I'll admit it. I cried. I saw the way this movie set me up to get emotional toward the end and it didn't matter an iota that I was aware of its machinations. So, crying-credit where it's…Read More

Edge of Tomorrow review

Directed by Doug Liman | Written by Christopher McQuarrie, and Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, adapting Hiroshi Sakurazaka's novel All You Need Is Kill. Things I've learned about the source material for Edge of Tomorrow since I experienced — no, was assaulted by — the film last night at the Bayer's Lake IMAX: Author Sakurazaka named…Read More

Fading Gigolo review

Written and directed by John Turturro Murray (Woody Allen) is a New York bookseller. His buddy, Fioravante (Turturro), is a florist. Things are a little slow in both of their businesses, so Murray hatches a plan to pimp his chum out to dissatisfied, wealthy women, including  Dr Parker (Sharon Stone) and her libidinous BFF Selima (Sofia…Read More

More thoughts on Under The Skin

I'm going to guess all you keeners out there who are into quality science fiction and fantasy will have sought out your local cinema showing Jonathan Glazer's Under The Skin.  And I figure since it's opened in Halifax, it's pretty much playing everywhere. Here are a few of my random musings/observations on the film since…Read More