Ass-kicking women are the main attraction in Zack Snyder’s latest addition to his repertoire—he directed 300 and Watchmen —of comic book fantasy flicks. Babydoll (Emily Browning) is orphaned at age 20. Instead of escaping from her abusive stepfather’s care, she’s sent to the loony bin. Only she can free her fellow patients, all beautiful women, […]
Empire 17 Cinemas Bayers Lake
Posted inArts + Music
Battle:Los Angeles wins
An alien army arrives on Earth to annihilate humanity and it’s up to a few good Marines to save the world. Sound familiar? Yep, Battle: Los Angeles is a long way from original, but it’s in the same area code as enjoyable due to its relentless action and occasional feints in the direction of allegory. […]
Posted inArts + Music
Drive Angry‘s a hell of a movie
Patrick Lussier’s splatterfest is fully aware of its own glorious idiocy, yet it works mostly because its star, Nicolas Cage, attacks his absurd role without so much as a single knowing wink. Cage is deadpan as a dead man who’s escaped from hell to track down the cult that murdered his daughter and is about […]
Posted inArts + Music
Sanctum‘s easy on the eyes
Executive producer James Cameron’s name is slapped all over it, but credit director Alister Grierson for making this claustrophobic thriller about divers trapped in a flooding cave system so engrossing. Expert explorer Frank (Richard Roxburgh), his emotionally estranged son Josh (Zack Morris clone Rhys Wakefield) and cocky money man Carl (Ioan Gruffud) are the nominal […]
Posted inArts + Music
Silence speaks loud in Rabbit Hole
John Cameron Mitchell’s directorial resume, which includes the sexually explicit Shortbus and the transsexual rock star romp Hedwig and the Angry Inch, hardly identifies him as a candidate to helm a delicately measured and deeply resonant film about loss. But here it is all the same. Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart play a couple mourning […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Movie Theatre
Seventy-four years old and still the favourite cinema in town, so kudos to Empire Theatres for giving the place a facelift this summer, with fresh paint perking up the facade. Known primarily as an art house, it’s the perfect room to watch a new Woody Allen picture (Midnight in Paris did gangbusters there this summer) […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Empire Theatre Ticket Prices Go Up and Down
With Iron Man 2 opening wide last week, the summer blockbuster season has begun in local cinemas and across North America. In the next few weeks we can expect a deluge of marketing to prep us all for that new take on Robin Hood, a second Sex & The City movie and more Shrek than […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Rainy Day Haven
Should you be embarrassed, oh Coast Reader, for choosing the monolithic BLIP multiplex as your place to escape the rain that comes so frequently in this seaside town? Nah. With 17 screens, you’ll probably find something to see that’s worthwhile, and with so many quality films never showing downtown, heading to Bayers Lake is your […]