As we make the transition from film to digital, The Artist —a black and white silent film—takes us back to 1927 as movies were transitioning to the “talkies”. George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), a gesticulating star of the silent era, scoffs at the addition of sound, just as he gives Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) her big […]
Film + TV
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Terrific Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
A new adaptation of the John le Carré novel, previously made into a BBC TV series starring Alec Guinness in the 1970s. Here the George Smiley character is played by Gary Oldman, a veteran spy recruited to root out a possible double-agent in the highest echelons of British Intelligence. These are the original grey men, […]
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Red Tails goes down in flames
Word has it George Lucas, as producer, has been working on this WWII flick (directed by Anthony Hemingway) since the late ’80s. You’d think a couple of decades would be time enough to concoct fully developed characters and credible dialogue. As it is, this tribute to a group of black pilots in the Tuskegee program, […]
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Underword: Awakening, Franchise: Repetition
There’s little point in stepping in for the 4th edition of the Underworld vampire fantasy series if you’re not already a fan. “Death dealer” Selene (Kate Beckinsale), a vampire, awakes from 12 years in cryogenically frozen captivity, right where she left off: fighting the Lycans (a werewolf species). And, surprise, she has a daughter now! […]
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All the new movie reviews
All the new movie reviews are here, from January 20 and January 13 release dates. (Click on the title for the review.) A Dangerous Method Joyful Noise Contraband The Iron Lady Carnage Haywire The Artist Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Red Tails Underworld: Awakening
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Haywire kicks ass
The last time Steven Soderbergh coloured outside the lines with his casting of a female lead was in The Girlfriend Experience, when he unleashed the vacant stare of petite porn star Sasha Grey. Mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano is an entirely different specimen and produces much better results as the star of Haywire, playing […]
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Banff Mountain Film Festival comes to Halifax
A travelling festival of “mountain life” related films, The Banff Mountain Film Festival, arrives in Halifax next week, Wednesday January 25 and Thursday January 26. The screenings take place at Empire Park Lane (Park Lane Mall, 5657 Spring Garden Road) at 7pm. Tickets are available at The Trail Shop (6210 Quinpool Road, 423-8726) but are […]
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Massage Addict to appear on CBC’s Dragon Den
Local business Massage Addict (1472 Martello Street, 407-4040, and three other locations in Halifax and Dartmouth) will appear on Dragon’s Den, airing Wednesday at 8pm on CBC Television. Massage Addict is a membership-based massage therapy company started in 2008 by Lori MacKenzie. She and Massage Addict COO, Chris Harker, will pitch their concept to the […]
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Mr D‘s second episode tonight on CBC
We’re hearing a lot of positive buzz about Mr D, the CBC sitcom created by comedian Gerry Dee. The first episode—it aired last Monday at 8pm, the second is tonight—earned 1.23 million viewers on its premiere. Great news for the show, which was shot in Halifax in 2011. The show is based on Dee’s experiences […]
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Like the Dickens
If the great Charles Dickens was still with us, he’d be pretty darn ancient. Two hundred years young, to be exact. In honour of his two centuries as one of literature’s best, the Dalhousie Art Gallery’s winter film program is screening adaptations of Dickens’ works on Wednesday for free, all the way until the end […]
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Conventional Contraband
This Mark Wahlberg vehicle is the celluloid version of a fast food burger, utterly unremarkable and yet comforting in its familiarity. Wahlberg plays a reformed smuggler who’s forced to get back into shady boat business after his brother-in-law (Caleb Landry Jones) botches a run and is threatened by a vicious crime boss (Giovanni Ribisi). The […]
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The Iron Lady shows some rust
Margaret Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady arrives already bruised by fair criticism from across the pond; supporters who find it presumptuous the filmmakers show the former British Prime Minister struggling with loneliness and senility in her twilight years, detractors who think the portrait is too compassionate of someone who lacked that very quality while in […]
