By Nick Maylor (***) Netflix is going to be a major contender at next year’s Academy Awards with The Irishman, Marriage Story, and Dolemite is My Name being just a few of the studio’s major releases this year. Another film that is gaining significant praise (particularly for the performances of its two leads) is The…
By Nick Maylor (****) Getting one’s hopes up in anticipation of a film release can be dangerous. Building the hype too much can make the experience of finally viewing the film underwhelming. Despite my devoted and pure love of all things geeky, Avengers: Endgame (2019) only made it to the second spot on my list…
By John H. Foote (***) In the early eighties the most exciting new actors in movies were Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, William Hurt, and Robin Williams. By the end of the decade, Williams was working steady, doing impressive work consistently. Hurt, having won an Oscar and three consecutive nominations could not draw an audience, while…
By Nick Maylor Everyone is talking about “Baby Yoda” The internet showed me photos of Baby Yoda… Baby Yoda is the reason I started my free trial of Disney+ last night. Not the multitude of Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars content, just Baby Yoda. The Mandalorian is a space western Disney+ series set in…
By John H. Foote On May 31, next year Clint Eastwood, two-time Academy Award winning Director, two-time Academy Award winning producer, two-time DGA winner and twice nominated for Best Actor turns 90. 90! His new film Richard Jewell is another superbly crafted example of cinematic storytelling, which Eastwood mastered four decades ago. And once again…
By John H. Foote (***) One of the most intensely controversial and criminally under appreciated films of the eighties finally makes its way to Blu Ray. Cruising, perhaps the last great film from Academy Award winning director William Friedkin, has been released leaving a handful of seventies films including the searing Looking for Mr. Goodbar…
By John H. Foote (***) Watching Tom Hanks emerge into one of American cinema’s greatest actors has been nothing but a pleasure. From his breakthrough as the man child in Big (1988), to his two consecutive Academy Award-winning performances as the AIDS afflicted lawyer in Philadelphia (1993) and the idiot savant stumbling through American history…
By John H. Foote (****) The first time I screened this film was the second day of its run at the Carlton Cinemas, an Art House theatre in downtown Toronto. Sherri and I braved the protestors and picketers outside the theatre trying to get folks in the line to not go in. One of them…
By Alan Hurst Released in the fall of 1980, Robert Redford’s Ordinary People was greeted with laudatory reviews, strong box office and easily found its place as the front runner at that year’s Academy Awards. It’s only in retrospect that people have questioned its win as Best Picture over Martin Scorsese’s searing Raging Bull, but…
By John H. Foote (*) I must open this review with an apology to my colleague Craig (Cal) for crucifying yet another Disney film and again bringing to a review their obscene greed. I suspect Disney films meant a lot to Craig growing up (me too!) but I am appalled by what they are becoming…