Waves of tragedy crash ceaselessly on a Sri Lankan refugee who moves to Nova Scotia in this bleak film by Rohan Fernando. When her family dies in the 2004 tsunami, Parvati (newcomer Kalista Zackhariyasits) immigrates to Canada to stay with her strict relatives and work at a dismal motel. Therein she befriends fellow wounded souls, […]
Jacob Boon
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Things to make you go “Arr”: The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Forgive The Pirates! Band of Misfits for coming along after our culture has already reached pirate saturation. The stop-motion adventure film, based on the comedy books by Gideon Defoe, roars along with considerable charm. In order to win the “Pirate of the Year” award, the deluded pirate captain, Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant), attempts to wow […]
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Safe easily cracked
No one really pauses to talk things out in the latest Jason Statham beat-em-up flick, Safe. Statham plays an ex-cop/ex-cage fighter/ex-special forces operative who vows to keep a Chinese girl safe (get it?) so she can use the combination in her head to open a safe (get it?). The Chinese mob used the girl’s photographic […]
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The Five-Year Engagement nearly feels that long
A shambling rom-com from writers Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and that movie’s star Jason Segel, finds Segel as a San Francisco sous chef who nervously proposes to grad student girlfriend Emily Blunt as the movie opens. As one expects from the title, plans go awry. The couple moves to Michigan when Blunt receives a […]
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A bruising Bully
Earnest and stubbornly real, Bully doesn’t flinch from showing the torture faced by children every day. Director Lee Hirsch follows five American families and shows the bullying their children experience. Young Alex is punched, stabbed with pencils, threatened with death, and takes it all with a haunting, hollow look in his eyes. It’s hard to […]
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Greg Proops: Pod god
Comedy fans and seafood restaurants take note: bespectacled stand-up Greg Proops is coming back to town and bringing his podcast with him. The diamond-sharp comic, probably best known for his appearances on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, returns to appear at the Ha!ifax Comedy Fest. In between those shows, he’ll also be treating patrons of […]
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Get outta the StreetDance 2
A stumbling sequel to StreetDance 3D, itself a vehicle for winners of Britain’s Got Talent, this newest dance film falls flat on its face. The stakes can’t possibly be lower when street dancer Ash assembles a team of misfit European dancers devoid of anything close to characterization, all so he can get back at a […]
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Lockout has the action-flick key
An ex-CIA operative’s only chance for redemption is to rescue the president’s daughter from rioting inmates inside a high-tech prison. In space. Luc Besson co-wrote this high-concept action flick, which aptly blends its futuristic setting with tense action scenes. Thankfully, the movie about a space prison doesn’t take itself too seriously. Murderous inmates and secretive […]
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A poke in the eye for The Three Stooges
A lot of people are hit on the head in the Farrelly brothers’ contemporary update of The Three Stooges. When Moe (Chris Diamantopoulos), Larry (Sean Hayes) and Curly (Will Sasso) learn the orphanage they grew up in is set to be sold, the three morons set out to raise money and buy it back. Diamantopoulos, […]
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The Raid: Redemption = Plenty of fighting
In this Indonesian action spectacle, an elite SWAT team storms a high-rise apartment building to rout out a bloodthirsty gang leader. Brutal, nonstop fighting follows suit. Welsh director Gareth Evans and star Iko Uwais showcase the traditional Indonesian martial art of Silat, a practice that demonstrates the voluminous number of flailing fists and elbows an […]
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The Lorax is bloated
Astonishing in its ability to offend both sides of the environmental debate, The Lorax is the latest bloated 3-D CGI studio mutation of a classic Dr. Seuss book from Universal Pictures. Zac Efron voices young Ted, who undertakes a quest to find the once-greedy Once-ler (Ed Helms) and figure out what happened to all the […]
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Dazzling Pina
“Words can only evoke things,” one dancer says to the camera early in Pina. “That’s where dance comes in.” This Oscar-nominated documentary puts that ethos to the test; presenting a breathtaking string of world-class dances in tribute to celebrated German choreographer Pina Bausch. Fellow German Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire) directs, presenting the film in […]