October 12th, 2016

Not sure if I wrote about the only TIFF film that I managed to see, which was the Blake Lively film, All I See Is You. About a blind woman, who lost her eyesight in her early days and is now late 20s-early 30s and married and living with her adoring husband. They are very much connected and in love. She is offered the chance at an operation to try and regain her eyesight and takes it. Her husband, played by Jason Clarke, knowing she has never seen him when she does asks “How do I look?” and her immediate response is “Different”. From there you see that she sheds her frumpy wear that he had her in, and you see that he is very conscious of his looks and station (he obviously married above his number – borrowing from She’s Out of Your League). He’s a 4, she’s an 8 and it can obviously never work! So she begins to spread her wings, and he tries to hang on. Things happen and the relationship strains and bends in ways it did not before. He yearns for the olden days, pre-sight for her. Then it becomes a tale of just what does the other person know, and how will it get resolved. Lively is paid to look pretty. She isn’t a great actor. The premise for her is good and it is worth a look on Netflix. I don’t see this having a long run in the theatres.

On Netflix I watched My Old Lady last night which was a TIFF film a couple years back with Kevin Kline who I had not seen in ages, along with Maggie Smith and Kristen Scott-Thomas. A New Yorker (Kline) inherits a luxurious and stately apartment in Paris, from his departed father, and he goes to check it out for a quick flip sale. He finds an old woman already living there and learns about the Parisian concept of paying a tenant for their life and taking ownership fully and clearly when they die. Smith is in her 90s and they start off with a rather cold reception to one another. Time passes and more is revealed as Kline imparts more of his failed life and troubles, and we learn more about Smith and the daughter (Thomas) who takes care of her. There are some great scenes of Paris and Notre Dame. There are some good observations about family and parents too. There is interesting twists and turns that lead to a satisfying conclusion. I am glad that I watched this, and think that Kline shows good range of emotion here. The cast is solid and there are some good lines. This was better than the other Maggie Smith effort set in Britain, Lady In The Van, also from TIFF, and also on Netflix. This was slow moving to the point that I had to stop watching it.

October 3rd, 2016

I like Mark Strong. I think he plays bad guys really well and effectively. He plays smart and cunning people. He was good in Stardust. Also with The Imitation Game. Then Netflix is showing Approaching the Unknown. A lousy title (initially anyway) because this looked like a poor man’s The Martian. Strong plays the astronaut who invents a way to make water from sand and makes the logical leap that he wants to go to Mars. So on he goes with a spaceship and heads towards Mars. Then not much happens. Days of routine. Something unusual happens as is inevitable and the story changes. All in all slow. And the ending is confusing and takes a different path. Suffice it to say there is a metaphor that plays out.
A word has to be said about production value and CGI. Seeing this film in comparison to The Martian or Interstellar gives you an appreciation for those films and the quality they put on film. The realism. The visuals. I couldn’t help but think the production company should have borrowed the leftovers from The Martian; case in point was the space suit. But everything. Space ship. Stars. Take off just feel like a school project or idea as opposed to a professional production with a massive budget.
I like Mark Strong. I just wish he had Ridley Scott and that production value to make for a stronger effort.

September 19th, 2016

If I could change the title of a movie, I would change the title to “Sully” to be “Birds”. It is a more appropriate name for this film I think, and provides the funniest aspect of a film that couldn’t crack a smile if it sat on a whoopie cushion.

And to be fair, the Eastwood directed film is not all that joyous and funny of a subject, since planes landing in water (it’s not a crash) is not an everyday event.

Still this is a slow and disjointed effort. Most puzzling to me is the overall tone and actions of the National Air Safety Board. Here there is a pilot who just saved 155 people (every one) on a plane by landing in the Hudson River, and is a national hero going on Letterman and Katie Couric’s show and being hailed, and you decide you want to railroad him and call it “pilot error”. Why? For what purpose? What, on earth, could be your motivation, unless you work for the insurance industry and don’t want to pay up for what is clearly a No Fault accident on anyone’s part. Laura Linney’s part is poor as she frets over bills and getting Sully back up in the air. There is a worthy short film here, but trying to stretch out a 200 second event into an almost 2 hour film just doesn’t work.

I actually took my timer out on my phone to see from the flight recorder info, just how long it took between “Birds” being heard and the decision being made to head back to LaGuardia. 43 seconds. Birds.

Labour Day 2016 – September 5th

Pete’s Dragon – this is a real life (humans not cartoons) of the 1980s cartoon of the same name. It is a basic story (with Disney there must always be parental death) for a little boy who lives and survives in a forest in the American northwest. The parents die and the boy must live – and he finds help in the form of a giant dragon – who acts more like a dog mostly and has green fur instead of scales making the dog mannerisms more canine. The story is ET-like in some ways with adults acting as hunters and also observers. The adults work to understand the child and the existence of the dragon. This is well told and has some predictable turns. It also has some good performances with the young boy (Oakes Fegley – a name destined for cereal boxes everywhere!) and some of the adults. I enjoyed this and it kept youngest son’s attention. He liked it. And that is a pretty big deal. We saw this for $12 together at a small theatre in Bracebridge. It was worthwhile.

I also finished Stranger Things. I enjoyed this. The performances from some were campy (like Winona Rider) but the chief, and the boys and Eleven were all good. Where this second season goes it has many possibilities. I would tune in and see. I thought that they did a good job with the second dimension. And the monster.

I also watched the short French series with the father who is terminal called Deep. It was in black and white and well done. There were some parallels with Breaking Bad. Thanks for the recommendation. Both of these series were good.

I am starting up Game of Thrones – now season 2. I am two-thirds finished the book. I expect the DVDs will catch up to my reading rather quickly. TIFF begins next week and it should be fun – I just can’t justify spending $56 for movies like Arrival that will be in theatres in a few weeks later.

August 8th, 2016

You know, I really wanted to like Jason Bourne. After the disappointing Jeremy Renner attempt at keeping the magic, the return of Maaatt Daaamon and the director (Paul Greengrass) from the previous series was promising.

But alas, like a date you wish was just more interesting than they really are – I stood by and watched getting more and more disappointed. By the end, the “yea right” moments as a standard SWAT SUV cuts through heavy Strip traffic in Vegas like a hot knife through butter, was just a little too much to take. And like that date, you begin to shuffle in your seat and check your watch for the time. What did that SUV do??!! And from a universe where Jason Bourne was a member of an elite squad of government operatives changing policy and governments throughout the world — we end up with Bourne chasing a guy around trying to prevent an assassination of a Mark Zuckerberg type. Huh? How the mighty fall to become so small.

The craters (read: cra-ters) on Tommy Lee Jones’ face get deeper and deeper and his agency leader is a pale comparison to a Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) who is missed.

The fighting is still shot way too tight with no one seemingly being able to hold a camera steady. Hasn’t anyone ever heard of a tripod? They were invented years ago.

I will also make mention of the motorcycle race with Julia Stiles on the back. I might believe that Bourne could MAYBE do that – but NOT with her on the back. And why do we have to get Daddy-issues with this film?? All questions that are head scratchers but in truth are excuses to set up action sequences that we have seen before. And have been done better. So I can’t recommend this movie – however much I wanted to like it and be entertained.

It has been a quiet summer with plenty of “Blocks” in the Blockbusters. Sigh. An air conditioned theatre is always a nice way to get out of the heat.

August 3rd, 2016

I tried to see Jason Bourne last night but the theatre was full and decided to pass on wrenching my neck from the first row (especially with herky jerky fight scenes that will leave one seasick).

I did watch the Final Part 2 Mockingjay Hunger Games on Netflix and was completely underwhelmed. The conclusion and big epic battle did, in fact, require the pristine heroine to actually shed some blood and put down some of the enemy, but it meandered and was directionless for so long. The ending was utterly disappointing as she ends up with a Coke and a smile and a babe in arms in a green forest – with Pita!! Little pipsqueak Pita! Who wants to be with a midget named after bread?! It was just silly. There were not even any great battle scenes and the culminating event with the Dictator was telegraphed from miles away.

So for me, this series ends in a whimper but not as quietly as Divergent. I grow weary of these stories where the heroes are teens (and the world is dependent on they coming up with the world-altering plans). Most teens I wouldn’t trust much more than mowing my lawn – let alone defeating the baddies and enemies of the state.

So little in the theatre worth watching. I do not need to see Suicide Squad and the early reviews are terrible. So I am hopeful as the end of August approaches that TIFF can bring some light on the silver screen.

July 25th, 2016

This weekend I saw Star Trek Beyond. What I discovered is that there is no universal love of the Federation of Planets. Seems it breeds maniacal dictators hellbent on causing mass destruction with many lives. In this case your future betrothed Idris Elba (an Alison favourite!). The storyline takes our well-travelled crew into an area where they are ambushed and left for dead or slaves. There are some inside jokes (the best with Bones I think). They must deal with said maniac and a weapon that seems to borrow heavily from the Matrix.
I had expected this story to address the Klingons with the ‘inevitable war’ but that was not the case. Instead we have an introspective executive not sure where they really belong until they find a force that brings common purpose.
It was fun and a good spectacle. I am not a fan of tight Bourne-like fights where the angles are so close. And I wonder why the all-powerful baddie needs to resort to fisticuffs at all. There were a few ‘yea right’ moments where I decided to suspend my disbelief. It passed. Still. This is worth seeing.
I would like to see Spock and his story explored further. What does the survivor of a holocaust of an entire planet do? How do you cope? Especially when you don’t really feel. We will see if we get there. The Sulu thing was just funny…..

July 11th, 2016

I was catching up on some Netflix movies in the past little while. I noted that they just got The Big Short which I expect to check out once again.

Last night I watched the comedy special Freedumb where he has a live talk in Nashville during this year. Jim Jeffries is the guy who did the brilliant bit about Gun Control which has gone viral. He addresses it about halfway through his special. Sadly he remarks that his email blows up when other tragic events happen (like Paris) where the gun activists will say (“See it happens everywhere….” to him).

He has an equally brilliant discussion about Donald Trump and radicalizing youth that I will leave to your own time. I had some really good laughs here, and he makes some good points and he also uses the “c-word” more than anyone I have heard previously – he is apparently the Rosa Parks of the c-word in getting it used in comedy clubs again! He also had some good points with freedom and which countries are “more free” than the US (Canada is an example).

I started watching Roger Waters The Wall, which is a film about a performance of the music, but also about his own personal journey with his own family – which is less interesting than the music. Life After Porn was interesting too as a film talking about what impacts such a life has on those who perform for a time in it.

I expect to hit the theatre again soon with the release of the new Star Trek and later the new Bourne film. So there will be some time to see more films. I have little interest in Secret Life of Pets nor other things presently out.

June 27th, 2016

A weekend to suspend your level of disbelief

This ended up being a weekend where I was able to catch up on a few movies both in theatres (which was a treat) and then on the TV.

In the theatre I started Friday with The Shallows. I wanted to see this for the shark really, and it had nothing to do with orange bikinis – but despite that I enjoyed this more than I thought that I would. I don’t know much of Blake Lively’s work (having never seen Gossip Girl nor Green Lantern nor others.) I did see her in The Town where I thought that she was decent as a tough, street person with a son. Here like Tom Hanks in Cast Away she IS the movie. If you don’t believe her, it falls apart. She is a medical student taking a hiatus on a beach after the recent death of her Mother and trying to “find herself”. That is the basic premise. She seeks an out-of-the-way beach where her Mom was when she was pregnant with her. She likes to surf, and is out with just a couple other locals. That and a sizeable shark that stakes a territory there. It becomes a tale of survival and wits where at times that level of disbelief has to shine through. Like the timing of a calm swimming shark as it passes by and her thinking that she can time how long she has before it comes back. What is lost in the logic is that the shark can also swim faster, and be there sooner. And the level of smarts for a shark that can presumably be hunger-satisfied in other ways that are readily apparent. But never mind. There is some real tension, and questions about how this woman will ever get through this. There is a cheesey last few minutes that could have been left out.

On Saturday it was Finding Dory, the much hyped, well attended sequel to the beloved Finding Nemo. This isn’t as good. Despite getting us re-acquainted with some old friends (like the sea turtle Crush, and Mr Ray the Manta Ray teacher and of course Dory, Marlin and Nemo – the same energy is not there nor the strength of story. Dory’s quest here is to find her long lost family. Apparently they live in California – now WHY California was chosen rather than some place in Australia or even New Zealand is beyond my comprehension. How did Dory ever get to Australian seas to begin with?! Can a Tang actually swim that far? How old does a Tang really live? Her parents are a curiousity. How does a Tang with Short Term Memory Loss remember anything long term? Is that even possible? We explore all these head scratchers. Then we go beyond this through introductions to new characters like a Whale Shark, a beluga whale with his sonar on the fritz and Hank the Octopus. Hank’s story is introduced (something scared him and he doesn’t want a repeat performance – but we have no idea what). And he is an octopus that can change colour as a chameleon to things around him but to degrees that are unrealistic. Further he can climb up and out of the water and by the end he is doing things and moving places that make little sense. It was Hank and his character that took away from the story for me, and my daughter. We both felt a little cheated and the story went way beyond where it really needed to go. Yes, in the first a pelican carrying two fish in it’s mouth into a dental office was far fetched, but it flowed. Here not so much. So there are some cute gags, and some interesting conversations. There are some genuine touching moments, but it was not on the same level as the original. The theatre was packed and sold out on a Sat night! Plenty of little kids, plenty of chatter throughout. Not sure just how engaged youngest son would have been for this one. It was still good to see, and if you do make sure that you stay to the very end of the credits (like Ferris Bueller).

On Netflix I caught Trumbo last night which I had been meaning to catch since TIFF and the Oscars. A known story of the Hollywood blacklist. I find it interesting that Ronald Reagan was the head of the Actors Union with reviewing Un-American activities. He and John Wayne both did not come across as being very good people – at least in this fight!! I also had not realized that Edward G Robinson was such a key figure as well, who decides to sell a Van Gogh painting (!!) to fund Trumbo and his team of Communists. This was a good performance on a number of fronts including Diane Lane, playing his Wife and also from the children. Interesting how the writer keeps writing and the almighty dollar and writing scripts for movies that sell ultimately eliminate the blacklist. Kirk Douglas comes out on the right side and Spartacus is an important movie for fighting the good fight. It was a sad part of American history and important to show how lives and careers were destroyed for the paranoid few. Tricky Dick takes another shot in the nose to his lasting legacy.

Finally I had read a while back Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett and stopped watching the episodes to read the book. The book was memorable and enjoyable and I liked it better than the series here (with Canadian content like Donald Sutherland and Gordon Pinsent). Eddie Redmayne too is here, but fresh from the Jeff Bridges School of Speaking with Marbles in Your Mouth. His early speaking is garbled and hard to understand. Amazing he becomes this Oscar Winning actor – although not for speaking!! Anyway, there is a great deal of Game of Thrones feeling here although this is more based in truth and history. There is a lengthy battle for the throne of England after a mysterious shipwreck with a royal member aboard. Many stories and people are impacted and all these stories eventually come together. The church building to me is fascinating – although the religious undertones can be a challenge at times. Anyway, it was an 8 episode series that I enjoyed watching.

Finished Homeland Season 4 – in Pakistan and thought that this was well done.

June 13, 2016

So this week there was nothing, and I mean nothing in the theatre that I have wanted to see. Not the various multiple superhero movies. Not any of the other films that are around. So I am delving further into Netflix.

I saw TIFF movie from last year “He Named Me Malala” which is a documentary about the young Pakastani woman who is shot by the Taliban, along with two of her friends and survives. She then becomes a spokesperson for various women’s causes including the right for education and a voice. She also is the youngest person to get the Noble Peace Prize. I of course am sympathetic to this young woman’s plight. And anyone living in these conditions in these countries rules by extremists and radicals. I cannot understand any culture that wants to remove education for their youth – women or men. Still, there is a part of me that thinks that Dad is involved in pushing his own agenda. He is a nobody basically, who now through his daughter gets an audience with the Queen, and President Obama and the UN world leaders etc. All in the name of escorting his daughter. She is well spoken. She is passionate. Still his life has risen dramatically. There is a political purpose here for this young woman – showing the terror of the Taliban regime. I am not clear whether this is what’s best for this young woman.

I managed to see Terminator Genesys with the now known to me Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) playing Sarah Connor. This updated Terminator tries to reflect current technology and issues, and turns the whole premise on its ear. Ah-nold is still there, but is quick to point out how he is not obsolete, and repeats it back to perhaps convince himself of it. The time travel stuff works, a bit, but you have to believe. And there are flaws to me in logic as John Connor seems to have a Matrix-like Agent ability to become almost anyone – and thereby stay close to fleeing people. But where did that ability come from? How the heck did he get into that helicopter?! It is not answered. I liked Clarke here, and the new Kyle Reece was interesting. Ah-nold – with the greying hair and an obvious need of an upgrade isn’t what he once was – but maybe that is the point. The real threat seems to be shifting to the Web and the Cloud and inter-connectivity.

I am watching Homeland too with the Season in Pakistan – a theme from Malala. Carrie is in Pakistan when a higher up gets whacked and she had a front row seat for it. Now she needs to figure out how it all became bad. Saul is a private security consultant. She leaves behind her daughter in the US early on, and deals with this new problem.