By: Addison Wylie By this point, you pay to see The Quiet Ones and sort of know it’s going to be the fifty-seventh by-the-numbers possession film you’ve seen within the past decade. You get a vibe that the film is riding off the success of other, more successful horror films and a lot of the scares will be abiding by the rules of “gotcha” spooks. The Quiet Ones reminded me of movies like The Conjuring…
By: Addison Wylie I thought As Above, So Below was very, very dumb. And, I’m someone who throughly enjoyed both National Treasure movies. What does that say about me? Not wise enough in general, or wise enough to draw a line? My self-prognosis coming soon. But, yes, As Above, So Below is as dumb as movies get, and it wants its audience to take it so very seriously. The aforementioned National Treasure movies fill similar…
By: Addison Wylie Before another year of moviegoing goes into full swing, TIFF respectively collects a list of features and short films that astounded audiences and erupted conversation within the past year. TIFF’s annual Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival began on January 2 with Sturla Gunnarsson’s documentary Monsoon, and continues with other Canadian favourites such as Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Susan Avingaq’s doc Sol, as well as Xavier Dolan’s Mommy, which sparked buzz after the Québécois filmmaker won…
By: Addison Wylie Most of the complimentary things I can say about Rob Marshall’s Into the Woods stem from how inspired its original work is. The broadway musical of the same name (written by James Lapine with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim) interweaves your favourite fairy tales into a story that sprawls over three magical nights. The story then continues with a pragmatic epilogue which results in a topsy-turvy conclusion. Lapine’s musical has a…
By: Addison Wylie The Hunger Games series has been particularly strong with its film adaptations. However, something always appears to be slightly off key. Not always a detail that greatly affects the film as a whole, but an attribute that hampers the film from being great. The Hunger Games was a powerful introduction to dystopian District 12 and all the have-nots that inhabited such a mucky home. Audiences also received a brutal – yet PG-13…
By: Addison Wylie Reviewing The Starving Games won’t take very long, so leave your coat and shoes on. This halfhearted send-up to The Hunger Games has been pieced, glued, taped, and mashed together by infamous spoofmeisters Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. It crawls and wheezes to feature length, yet only has enough material to fund a commercial bumper on the MTV Movie Awards – even that is pushing it. Friedberg and Seltzer have never hit a…
By: Addison Wylie Into the Storm secures its audiences with that title and its exciting poster. You can already picture thrill seekers lining up in anticipation for an entertaining time at the movies, hoping Steven Quale’s movie will measure up to other enjoyable guilty pleasures. Twister would be the easiest to link to. In fact, the advertising’s power of persuade movie goers works so well, that we instantly recognize the bad weather as the main…
By: Addison Wylie The Planes franchise is not for me. However, I’m not a seven-year-old boy who’s obsessed with airplanes and other miscellaneous aviary vehicles – the demographic these films are so clearly for. That’s not to snub the seven-year-old boy who likes to play with toy airplanes in his parents’ living room. Being a kid is a great time and should be cerished. There’s a lack of responsibilities, you have no dire worries, and…
By: Addison Wylie Moms’ Night Out is a tame movie. It’s tamer than tame. If movies were made from the fabric that makes those mattresses they drop bowling balls on to show you how soothing your sleeping habits will be, Moms’ Night Out would be the ideal prototype. The film isn’t worthy of being labeled “bad”. That status goes to movies that try to achieve something, and flounder in spectacular ways. Moms’ Night Out doesn’t…
By: Addison Wylie Mel Brooks hasn’t directed a film since 1995’s Dracula: Dead and Loving It. After watching the comedy for the first time, it’s quite possible this is where Brooks may have fallen out of love with filmmaking – a tragic end to our coverage of TIFF’s retrospective. Now, of course, I could be speaking out of school. Brooks has served as a producer on numerous projects (including some upcoming work in 2015), and…