Review: Fire of Conscience
Hong Kong action cinema is certainly past its heyday, but that doesn’t mean it’s dead. Talented young filmmakers are breathing new life into the genre via hard-hitting, fast-paced dramas. Alongside Johnnie To and Wilson Yip, director Dante Lam is carrying the torch with his latest picture, Fire of Conscience. It’s loud, the fight sequences are mesmerizing and the narrative is strong enough to keep your attention between punches.
Review: Stake Land
The post-apocalyptic sub-genre of horror and sci-fi films are popular amongst filmmakers because it often means being able to tell a story on a tight budget. The world has been razed by some force so there’s no need to put a lot of cash into elaborate set designs; it just has to look demolished. That said, because there are so many entries into the category, it’s important to present an original idea or risk losing the audience. Stake Land adds vampires to the mix, but fails to shake up anything else.
Review: Red Nights
Red Nights marks two significant events: a debut and an overdue return. The film is directors Julien Carbon and Laurent Courtiaud’s first feature, having built their careers as screenwriters, most notably for Johnnie To’s thriller Running Out of Time. The long awaited return is that of Hong Kong starlet Carrie Ng, who is famous for her sexy and deadly presence in such films as Naked Killer and Sex and Zen. These occasions blend as the perfect ingredients for an erotic thriller evocative of Dario Argento’s bloody escapades into sex and death.
Review: Insidious
There hasn’t been a good, true haunting flick in a while. Most recent releases have been rehashes of ‘70s and ‘80s films, which leaves little room for surprise. The genre has been longing for an injection of originality and it’s finally received a healthy dose. When it was announced the creators of Saw, director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell, were re-teaming AND joining forces with the producers of Paranormal Activity, genre fans were shivering with anticipation. The consequence of this union is finally ready to be seen and results are far from disappointing. The film’s telling title is Insidious, which is a word used rarely but never more aptly.
Review: John Carpenter’s The Ward
A mental institution is in no way a new setting for a horror movie. It’s popular because there are so many possibilities: abusive doctors, patients used for experiments, dangerous disorders – all of which can be presented as living, breathing human beings or as ghostly remnants haunting the facility. Nonetheless, the location is reminiscent of a particular brand of horror that became popular in the 1980s – the slasher film. And as The Ward director John Carpenter says, “I’m an old school director making an old school horror movie.”
Review: Vanishing on 7th Street
In the late 1500s, all the inhabitants of Roanoke, one of the first American colonies, disappeared without explanation. The only clue found by the new arrivals was a word carved into a tree: Croatoan. Many theories have been put forward, including a rage-inducing virus in an episode of the television series Supernatural, but the disappearance remains a mystery. The same word is found in the film Vanishing on 7th Street and even though the direct cause is shown, the reason behind the occurrence remains a mystery.
Review: Super
The atypical superhero movie is gaining more popularity with each release. But unlike Kick-Ass, Super did not emerge from comic book origins. Instead it was the brain child of writer/director James Gunn, who intended on developing a short film but couldn’t stop expanding the story. The result is a tale about a man who is a person first and a hero second.
Review: Bunraku
Bunraku feels like a movie that a lot of filmmakers have been trying to make for a very, very long time. What makes the film work, where others have failed, is that it takes a very simple premise – seeking revenge on the guy at the top – and filters that through very complex, diverse and beautiful art forms on top of intricate and exciting fight sequences. Read more
Review: Fubar II
If you haven’t seen the 2002 Canadian classic, Fubar, don’t despair. It’s really not necessary that you know the back-story in order to appreciate Michael Dowse’s brilliant follow-up. In fact, I’ll catch you up in three short sentences: Dean and Terry are slacker headbanger pals. They drink a lot of beer. They give’r. That’s all you need to know.
TIFF ’10: Midnight Madness programming announced
The line up of TIFF’s Midnight Madness program is one of the things I look forward to most at the festival. This year’s selections, programmed by Colin Geddes, looks to be packed with action, thrills, and chills, and not an insignificant number of big names. The list of world and North American premieres includes filmmakers as John Carpenter, James Wan, James Gunn, Brad Anderson and Dante Lam. And the films feature performances by Demi Moore, Ellen Page, Josh Hartnett, Liv Tyler, Hayden Christensen, Kevin Bacon, Thandie Newton, John Leguizamo, Rainn Wilson, Woody Harrelson and Rose Byrne. Read more
