By John H. Foote (****) I loved every second of this magical film. No humbug here folks, this was pure enchantment. Though The Polar Express has its detractors, humbugs among us, I thought director Robert Zemeckis, his computer artists, his sound and sound engineers, editors, cinematographers, musicians and songwriters, designers, and his wonderful actors captured…
By Alan Hurst This month has been a full-on immersion into the life Julie Andrews with the release of her second autobiography “Home Work”. The book details Andrews’ experiences in Hollywood and abroad, from her arrival in 1963 to film Mary Poppins (1964) to That’s Life! 22 years later. It’s a continuation of her more…
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 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 (****) 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 (***) Nominated for ten Academy Awards, Gangs of New York was thought to be the film that was finally going to land Martin Scorsese his long-overdue Academy Award for Best Director. Often nominated for films such as Raging Bull (1980) and Goodfellas (1990), the most gifted American director of his time…
By Craig Leask Who doesn’t like a good old black and white monster movie, especially around Halloween? My other half and I pull them out each year to help us get in the mood for the annual night of haunts. I guess they’re all somewhat simplistic today, but they really are a weird kind of…
By Alan Hurst The 1930’s were a heyday for comedy films. Other decades may have owned other genres, but the world needed – and wanted – to laugh during a decade of intense depression, poverty, and the slowly simmering build up to World War II. Comedy was the great escape. Gangster films also flourished, as…
By John H. Foote (*) Just four years after his film Chariots of Fire (1981) stunned Hollywood by winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, besting the superior Reds (1981), Hugh Hudson delivered this mess in December 1985. Touted as a massive epic about the American Revolutionary War, the film was expected to be an…