“Oh hi Mark!” – One of the many, many “classic” quotes from Tommy Wiseau’s cult favourite The Room there. Since it’s original debut back in 2003, The Room has taken on a new life that has seen millions fall in love with it, attending various screenings of the film, meeting Wiseau and his co-stars, and […]

Long gestating since the original was released to over $817 million worldwide in 1996, becoming that year’s top-grossing movie, it seems director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin are pushing ever closer to making Independence Day 2 (and 3) a reality. One of the biggest sticking points of the sequel was whether Will Smith, star […]

One of the most recent troubled productions in Hollywood, it looks like Black Mass is finally going into production this summer. Johnny Depp (The Lone Ranger) had long been rumoured to be involved in the film, with Barry Levinson (Rain Man) set to direct and Joel Edgerton (The Great Gatsby) set to co-star. But after […]

In the third of a three-part Jackson Ball discusses the evolving Disney Princess, last up is Frozen…. Moving towards the contemporary end of Disney’s animated timeline, this essay’s final focus film is 2013’s Frozen. Despite being nearly 70 years later, the film meets many of the criteria first set by Snow White and the Seven […]

Frances Ha, 2012. Directed by Noah Baumbach.Starring Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Adam Driver, Michael Zegen, Charlotte d’Amboise and Grace Gummer. SYNOPSIS: A story that follows a New York woman (who doesn’t really have an apartment), apprentices for a dance company (though she’s not really a dancer), and throws herself headlong into her dreams, even as […]

Java Heat, 2013. Directed by Conor Allyn.Starring Kellan Lutz, Ario Bayu, Mickey Rourke, Frans Tambuan, Atiqah Hasiholan. SYNOPSIS: A Muslim detective works together with an American to track down the criminal responsible for a series of bombings on the Indonesian island of Java. According to the intro line of this mediocre cop-actioner, the archipelago of […]

Escape (Norway: Flukt), 2012. Directed by Roar Uthaug.Starring Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Kristian Espedel, Isabel Christine Andreasen and Milla Olin. SYNOPSIS: Ten years after the Black Plague ravaged their country, a poor family sets out on a journey for a new home.  On a remote mountain pass, they are attacked by a band of merciless killers […]

A Late Quartet, 2012. Directed by Yaron Zilberman.Starring Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Mark Ivanir, Imogen Poots, Wallace Shawn and Liraz Charhi. SYNOPSIS: A well-established string quartet begins to suffer some setbacks after one member is diagnosed with Parkinson’s and the others get mixed up in love and affairs. Given the names on […]

Scenic Route, 2013. Directed by Kevin Goetz and Michael Goetz.Starring Josh Duhamel, Dan Fogler, Miracle Laurie, Christie Burson, Peter Michael Goetz, Jamie Donovan and Ethan Maher. SYNOPSIS: The relationship between two old friends is tested as they are stranded in the desert. I love the movies that come out of the festival circuit.  They’re at […]

Dial M for Murder, 1954. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.Starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings and John Williams. SYNOPSIS: An ex-tennis pro carries out a plot to murder his wife. When things go wrong, he improvises a brilliant plan B. Rarely does 3D demand your attention. Avatar broke the mold; Life of Pi brought heart […]