REVIEW: 9 [2009]

“You forget to remember to be scared” Is it wrong that Coheed & Cambria was playing in my head the entire length of my screening of Shane Acker’s 9? I guess that just goes to show how memorable the trailer is or how large my affinity for the band. I say that as an anecdote, though, not to cryptically express how I thought the film was boring—it’s far from it. I have not seen the 2005 Oscar nominated short for which Acker has expanded this from, but he has definitely…

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REVIEW: Fracture [2007]

“Helpless actually” “Think of yourself,” says David Strathairn’s DA Joe Lobruto. To which Willie Beachum replies, “I’ve done enough of that.” It is a great exchange towards the end of the film that expresses beautifully the mind set of this young hotshot attorney, thinking he could sleepwalk through his last case in the public sector before jumping ship to the lucrative private one. Ryan Gosling is the kind of actor that can pull off the confidence of a man on top of the world, while also the haunted one that…

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REVIEW: Halloween II [2009]

“Hit the bricks Dorothy” The second Halloween II—same name, no relation at all, (or so I hear, never saw the other). Rob Zombie seems to have decided that his selling out and doing a Hollywood budgeted horror remake left a little to be desired. So, for his second go-round, he went back to the well and what got him on the shortlist to even direct that first film—creepy carnie mayhem. This film is not good, by any means, yet it does have some really great style and aesthetic. Unfortunately, it…

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TIFF09 PREVIEW: For the Love of Film indeed …

September 10th is the day that friend/co-worker Chris Schobert and I head back up north for our third year at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). We’ve done the middle three days (2007) and the last three days (2008), so we thought, “What the hell?”, let’s try our luck with the opening four. Rolling out of bed, speeding down the QEW, and landing at the box office hours before our first film wouldn’t quite be effective for this year’s journey, however. Being in TO for FaneXpo last weekend meant we…

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