Movies

A collection of the reviews of the movies we have seen as well as what's next, along with other events that are taking place. If you have suggestions for events, movies to see etc, send me an email, or call me.

The basement project is now finished it can be found over on it's own page at Basement Pictures.

Upcoming events and Movies

Movie Stuff

The movie reviews have ceased for the time being, I might get back to them at some point at least if I get a request or two

Jan 27th, 21 Grams, yet another depressing movie, the cut editing is a little disconcerting at first but the overall effect is good if you are willing to stick with it.

Jan 20th, Last Samurai, yet another movie where Tom Cruise proves that he is best when he doesn't say very much. Well done movie although some of the fight scenes are a little much.

Jan 13th, Mona Lisa Smile, good solid flick, no great performances or story line but just a solid flick.

Jan 6th, House of Sand and Fog, please be in a good mood when you see this. It's a great movie but oh my lord is it depressing

Nov 25th, I want to see either Looney Tunes or My Life with Me. Drop me a line to tell me which you want

Nov 18th, The Secret Lives of Dentists, now we went to this movie because Dennis Leary was in it. Have not been to a movie that he was in that I didn't like, oh well live and learn. It's not that it's a bad movie, just slow and without much purpose.

Nov 11th, Human Stain, Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman in bed, naked even, reminds you of Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones. If you can get beyond that it's a rather interesting story. Ed Harris as the bad guy, just don't see why he is so pissed, you need to know why he is pissed to make sense of half the movie. Oh well

Nov 4th, The Matrix Part 3, ok it's getting silly now, during the heavy introspection parts people are giggling in the theatre, yes the special effects are great, but my lord the story has gotten out of hand. They should have stopped at 2

Oct 28th, Intolerable Cruelty, I liked it, it was fun, relatively smart with no redeeming features what so ever. Good fun

Oct 21st, Kill Bill, didn't make it. Saw Runaway Jury later instead, nicely done movie. Gene Hackman makes a great bad guy. Go see it.

Oct 7th, Mambo Italiano, a number of people have been comparing this to My Big Fat Greek Wedding, well yes and no. Yes it's about the trials and tribulations of a young person from an Italian family as they grow older but it's nowhere near as nice and sweet as the Greek version. There are some nasty scenes in this movie that just are not in Greek. Still a decent movie, just not as fresh as the other one.

Sept 30th, Lost in Translation, as opposed to Matchstick Men, I didn't agree with most of the other reviewers. This movie was definitely missing something. Just could not get into this movie. Not Bill Murray's best work.

Sept 23rd, Matchstick Men, decent movie, as per other reviews, the two main characters make this a fun movie to watch.

Sept 16th, Once upon a time in Mexico, ok take Pulp Fiction, cross it with The Three Amigos and add 1/2 a tab of acid, what do you have. I'm not really sure but it sure ain't Pirates of the Caribbean. It is however very loud, lots of people making big holes in other people with guns and at times rather humorous, although with lots of people getting shot.

Sept 9th, Thirteen, don't go and see this if you have daughters around this age. Well done but as Mark pointed out, makes you want to slit your wrists at the end.

Sept 2nd, Seabiscuit, neat movie, although I don't think it lived up to the hype

Aug 12th, Laura Croft, nope nowhere near as much fun as the first, and what was that shark thinking anyways

Aug 5th, we were supposed to see 12th Night but it was raining so we saw Dirty Pretty Things. Good movie well worth seeing

June 17th, Finding Nemo, lots of fun, go see it with some kids or at least some juvenile adults. Not as good as Shrek

June 3rd, Down with Love, more like down with the poor excuse for a plot. Ok the premise is very Dorris Day, Rock Hudson from the 50's but it died about 1/2 way to 2003. Complete with some really bad attempt to combine some Pillow Talk and some Austin Powers. It had some really funny moments but the last third was just so bad. And what was Tony Randell doing in this movie?

May 27th, Bruce Almighty, not too bad, so much was seen in the trailers it was almost a shame to see the movie. Jim has done better

May 20th, Matrix Reloaded, depends on what you were looking for, lots of special effects, lots of blowed'em up pretty good, minimal acting, minimal plot, then this is your movie. Otherwise, try Bend it like Becham

May 6th, A Mighty Wind, a send up of the folk music scene much like Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman. Done by the same people of course it had some really good moments and a great performance by Eugene Levy.

Apr 29th, Anger Management, better than I thought it would be, ending is a bit stupid but then this is Adam Sandler. Jack is used to great effect though.

Apr 22nd, Phone Booth, Another interesting flick, the movie plays in real time and Keiffer Sutherland plays a great threatening voice. This movie which seems to last only slightly longer than the advertisements and trailers (it's actually about 1hr 10mins) really keeps things moving. Good movie to see.

Apr 15th, The Good Thief. My lord is Nick Nolte looking haggard, but then I said the same thing when he was in 48 hours, which was like decades ago. Anyways, Nick is playing the old thief, many times caught so how good can he be. It was an okay movie but it reminded me of Star Trek episode where the movie ends and you wondered where all the pop went. You keep expecting something and then......

Apr 1st, The Core, Ok, let's get one thing straight, don't go into this movie thinking it has any real link to reality. Making that assumption it's not a bad movie. Blockbuster?? Not a chance. But still it was fun to watch, just not too closely

Mar 11th, Spider, now this is one whacked movie. I never did figure out what exactly happened to the mother.

Mar 4th, Chicago, wow Richard Gere singing. It won a bunch of Oscars but I'm not sure why.

Feb 25th, Daredevil, now here is comic book turned into a movie that I would never have thought of. Not too bad though.

Feb 11th, Adaptation, From the people who brought you Being John Malcovich, this one is not as strange a premise but the people sure are unbalanced. Good movie.

Jan 21st, Catch me if you can, now this is an interesting movie, it's advertised as a fun keystone cops buddy chase movie. But what we have is story of a mixed up teenager (Leonardo) who goes on a fraud spree for a couple of years and leads the FBI (lead by Tom Hanks) on a wild chase all over the US and to Europe. Well worth the time to see it.

Jan 7th, Two Towers, the second of the three Ring series, another looooNNNNGGGG movie, gets boring at times but still worth seeing. You get feeling during the entire movie that it's all building for the third and final movie.

Nov 26th, Harry Potter, boy is this a long movie, almost 3 hours. Some of it is pretty good, some is just slow. You can tell they had a difficult time trying to condense this book down to fit into a movie timeframe. There was a lot cut from the book but it still felt long.

Oct 29th, Bowling for Columbine, great movie made my Michael Moore, explores the gun culture in the U.S.A. tying them back to the shootings in Columbine.

Oct 22nd, Punch Drunk Love, combine the director of Magnolia (remember the raining frogs) and Adam Sandler and what do you get. For some one of the worst movies they have seen in a long time. I don't know if I would rate it that far down but it certainly will not be on my must see on video list.

Oct 15th, Transporter, ok, let's start off with the things you need to know about this movie, not much dialog, not much plot, good car chase scenes, lots of things being blowed up real good, oh and the dialog that there is has some neat bits to it. This is not a movie destine for the Oscars but it's still fun to watch.

Oct 1st, Austin Powers, the opening sequence is great, after that it's uneven in parts but still well worth seeing

A couple of changes, after 15 or so years I have decided to make some modifications to the movie list. First I am switching from using Winfax to another program. I started using Winfax back in the 80's because everyone had a fax, except for a couple of us that used BBS's there was no email. That has entirely changed, no one is receiving the list via fax anymore and it was silly to continue to use Winfax to send it out. So if you want on the list send me an email and I will put you on the new list, don't bother sending me an email asking me to put Billy or Bob or Mary on for them. If they want on then have them send me an email from their email address they want the list sent to.

Second, because of the abysmal turn out this summer I am not going to be sending out the weekly email. If there is a movie you really want the gang to see send me an email or if I see one that I really want to see I will send out an email but I don't know if I will ever get in the habit of doing it every week again. Just not enough interest anymore. Back at the beginning of the year I had 60 people on the list, so far only 15 have responded to my request for people to renew their interest.

Some pretty good movies of late, most carry the well done tag, 3 out of 5 stars. Extra 1/2 stars for movie's like Rare Birds who are government sponsored but still end up pretty good.

July 30th, The final regular movie night, Midsummer Nights Dream in High Park, an interesting and energetic version of the classic, puck is played by a 10 year old with a reverb hooked up to his mike. Well worth seeing. On till the labour day weekend, Tues-Sunday at 8pm.

July 23rd, Men in Black Due, It was funny, but the thrill is gone, but seeing them do the same stuff again has lost it's charm. If you never saw the first one go and see it but otherwise I wouldn't bother

July 16th, 13 Conversations about 1 thing , now here is a movie you don't want to see if you are already depressed. Well done, but boy is it depressing, did I mention it is depressing. Anyways, good acting, another take on the many strangers that end up meeting in various ways movie. But well done.

Mr Deeds, saw this as a double bill at the Docks drive-in, note to anyone going to the Docks drive-in, give the people there a swift kick and get them to turn down the volume on the speakers located at the back of the drive-in, the echo drives you crazy. It's a remake of a Gary Cooper (I hope I have this right) flick where a hick from a small town inherits a lot of money. In the original Gary plays a greeting card writer who's relative dies and leaves him a couple of million dollars, in the remake Adam plays a pizza parlour owner who is trying to write a greeting card that one of the greeting card companies will publish, oh and his uncle leaves him $40 Billion. Oh how times have changed. It's a decent movie, lots of laughs, no magic moments (although the boys singing Bowie in the helicopter comes pretty close), no outstanding acting just a decent summer comedy. Reminds me of some of the other Adam Sandler movies without the gross out jokes. Oh and would somebody please tell me why Steve Bochemi was wasting his time in this movie.

July 2nd, Minority Report, not a bad Tom Cruise movie, although trying to ignore all the product placement adds got a little annoying. I really liked the attempts by the futurists hired by Spielberg to see into the future. There was a little too much Jetsonist look to car travel, no flying cars just zipping around on automated carways. As for the movie itself, the premise is interesting but the movie can't seem to be a brighter Disneyfied version of Blade Runner, I know that's not terribly accurate but it's the feel I get. The acting of course takes a back seat to all the geewiz stuff.

June 25th, Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, Canada SQ, 6:50pm, beer afterwards at the Juke Box.

June 18th, Wind Talkers, just in case you forgot that war is hell, John Woo is here to remind you. As in Saving Private Ryan you get to see all the death up close and personal, flying body parts, bloody holes being ripped into people, lots of fun to be had by all. Oh and there is some good acting as well.

June 11th, Importance of Being Ernst, a great bit some summer fluff, a great time waster for a Tuesday evening.

May 21st, Spiderman, finally got out to see this, not a bad little movie, much better than you might think after seeing some of the other live action cartoons that have come out in past years. Toby does a good job of the lead character maintaining, at least in the first movie, the feeling of wonder at being able to do all these wonderful acrobat manoeuvres. The character development is well done and the acting is good. It's not winning any Oscars but it should bring in some big bucks

May 14th, Last Orders, good British movie. Cross of Waking Ned Devine, 4 Weddings and a Funeral and Amazing Grace. Well worth seeing, heck we even got to see the last period of the Leafs 7th game against Ottawa

May 7th, Life or Something Like It, decent enough, Angelina Jolie does a great job as the brittle/fragile lead who discovers she supposed to die in the next week. The story is a little weak but Angelina makes it happen.

Apr 30th, Panic Room, now here is a fun movie. Jody Foster and company do a good job of keeping everyone on the edge of their seats although you can't start to get too picky about some of the errors in the movie (propane sinks it does not rise). Good to go and see.

Apr 23rd, Fast Runner, This is one of those movies you really should see twice, the second time just so you can understand what you saw the first time. It was sort of like Shakespeare, it a while to actually figure out who was who and what the story line was. Well worth seeing

Apr 16th, The Rookie, Your typical Disneyesk type of movie. Except it's a true story. Don't go expecting to see a baseball movie. Think more like Field of Dreams.

Apr 9th, Death to Smoochy, starts out as a good dark comedy moves to kissy friendly committee inspired ending Barney would be happy with but we were not.

Apr 2nd, Kissing Jessica Stein, now this was a fun romantic comedy. Sort of like When Harriet met Sally but without the deli scene. Good light comedy.

Mar 5th, Rare Birds, this is another quirky comedy staring William Hurt, he seems to be a quirky movie staple. The pacing is good, the acting above average and the CodCo staff are used to good advantage, especially Andy Jones. Andy seems to steal so many scenes he could almost star in the movie. Extra points to those who figure out who Andy is related to (hint they are in the movie as well).

Feb 26th, Italian for Beginners, never made it to the movie, maybe one of the gang who saw it can send in a review

Feb 19th, In the Bedroom, now here is a depressing movie, well acted, directed the whole enchilada but my lord is it depressing.

Feb 12th, Count of Monte Cristo, another well done effort, not outstanding but well done. This is starting to get boring, need to see another sloch movie so I can slag something. However this is not it.

Feb 5th, Monster's Ball, neat movie, well done drama, great cinematography well worth seeing even if Billy Bob is prancing around naked.

The Shipping News tells the story of a man (Kevin Spacey) who is going home... way back home to where his father came from; an out port in Newfoundland. This is all prompted by the death of his parents, his wife (Cate Blanchett) and the arrival of his aunt (Dame Judi Dench). The story is of new beginnings and dealing with the past. While I haven't read Annie Proulx's novel, you can tell that Hollywood has changed things to fit mainstream tastes. I could have lived without over characterizations of Newfoundlanders, but the brilliant work of Gordon Pinsent helped offset that. I kept wondering why Canadians couldn't of played the leads... I just kept thinking of how "Dame Judi" and Julianne Moore didn't quite fit (accents?)... but somehow all of that goes to the waysides. This was a lovely movie, and yes... you can pay full fair for you and a friend for a Saturday night showing. 8.5 out of 10 stars... leaning to 9.

Jan 22nd, Vanilla Sky, never made it to the movie because of work, so here is Owen's review (slightly edited)

Having only recently watched "The English Patient", I kept thinking that these movies were similar. Tom Cruise plays the "patient"; he is a young millionaire publisher with a "great life" his friends envy (i.e. Cameron Diaz as his "girlfriend"!). Young Tom decides that she is not worth committing to and goes for Penelope Cruz, whom his friend brought to his birthday party. He falls in love and this is where the movie goes off the "rational" path. The remainder of the movie are splices between potential outcomes of his life, while he awaits trial for... I'll leave that, why spoil it for you? The ending kept reminded me of that Heaven's Gate Cult, and their leader Marshall Applewhite or the Solar Temple Cult in Quebec, beyond belief or just plain weird! I didn't really know what to make of it. I do give it a 7 1/2 out of 10 stars, which probably had something to do with the actresses, and that lovely painting by Monet...

Jan 15th, Royal Tennebaums, very strange movie. It's not as ha ha funny as the trailers would make you think. But it was still funny.

Jan 8th, Lord of the Rings, Yes it is the first part of trilogy, no they don't get rid of the ring in the first part. Now that is said, for all you Ring fans, no it's not a strict interpretation there are additions, deletions and the like. Some of the special effects are great, some are just weird. I had a good time although it was a little long, it did not seem to really drag although you could tell there were many people starting to wonder when they were going to get to the good part of the final battle (see first part of the review).

Jan 1st, Recovery of the Silly Night's inbibments, 10:30am till 4pm in front of the TV

Dec 11th, Harry Potter, good fun, the acting is ok but is overshadowed by the special effects at times.

Nov 27th, Amelie, great fun movie. Subtitled for those care, well worth the effort

Nov 20th, Heist, This is one movie that tries to damm hard. It's like a teenager on their first date trying very hard to please but just not making it. It was a movie to get good lines from but heck except for one they were all in the trailers, "he's so cool, when he sleeps sheep count him", or "she could talk her way out of a suntan". Great lines, sort of but not enough to make a movie of.

Oct 16th, Training Day, wow now here is a movie that you don't want to see when you are depressed. Definitely worth seeing. Great interaction between Ethan Hawk and Denzel Washington.

Oct 9th, Serendipity, this would be labelled summer fluff except it's fall and it's set in mostly New York in late fall (snow starts coming down, Christmas at Bloomies). For a Hollywood love story it has all the usual suspects, two fated souls who just can't seem to meet, their weird best friends, their present day fianc�s, and fluffy snow flakes in NY. This movie moves along with all the predicable ness of a McD's hamburger. Questions though, why does the guy's best friend come across as an amusing but likable jackass but the girl's best friend is a ditz? Why is the girl's fianc� a jerk but the guy's fianc� a really great lady who any guy would love to be with. Why do the women all seem to be planning towards that big day all their lives? Just wondering

Oct 2nd, Hearts in Atlantis, One of those coming of age movies. Mostly well done, but heh this is Anthony Hopkins and few of his movies are duds. It's just not one of the better ones.

Sept 25th, The Holy Grail, this is the first time I had ever seen this movie on a movie screen, seen it a number of times on TV but never in a theatre. It was very hard not to parrot the dialog (I'm not dead yet, in fact I'm feeling much better). I can't say whether it was a good movie, after seeing it so many times it's hard to be objective but it sure is fun. Just don't get annoyed at the people around you who starting farting in your general direction to dirty filthy English pig dogs. Run away, run away

Sept 18th, Hardball, Ok so Keanu Reeves is in it and it's supposed to be a touchy feely movie sort of like The Bad News Bears but not playing it for yucks. This could be a formula for disaster. But it turned out to be a pretty decent movie. Now if we can get Keanu to show us something other than stunned bewilderment and passionate anger we could be getting somewhere. Oh you will love the ending.

Sept 11th, Planet of the Apes, Poor Charly Heston, demoted to being a dieing ape, oh the inhumanity. The movie was blaahh. I guess the events of the day didn't help much. I thought about putting up a page about the attack on the WTC but decided I couldn't do it justice. My only comment is that the world has been changed in ways we cannot imagine and that I hope we don't react in the wrong way. The thing that scares me is that I don't know what the right way is.

Sept 4th, Captain Corelli's Mandolin. One request would actors please, please, please stop using these silly affected accents. We know Cage is supposed to be Italian, he doesn't need to do a really bad Italian accent to prove it. You don't see the German officers doing a Colonel Klink so what's with this accent. Anyways, it's a decent movie, not a great one. Hurt does a good job of the father and Cruz does the wide eyed innocent reasonably well. Strangely the best actor was the one playing the German officer, clearly out of his element trying to figure out why everyone seems to hate him and the brutality that is happening around him.

Aug 28th, American Pie II, well Owen and Patricia, thanks for showing up for a movie you guys picked. However it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. Part of that is from Eugene Levy who comes across well as the well meaning father, I'm sure you have seen the trailer, Dad comes in to see his son at the college dorm, who just happens to be having sex with his girl friend, Dad doesn't leave but sits down telling his son he nothing to be ashamed of. That's one of the high points of the movies. If that's not your cup of tea then maybe should have tea with someone else before seeing this sort of movie.

Aug 21st, The Others, Cross between Eyes Wide Shut and Hitchcock, I am still trying to remember what movie The Others reminds me of but aside from The Sixth Sense I haven't come up with one. It has the same slow build up of suspense, although Kidman gives a great (or overacted take your pick) performance of a woman close to the edge of her sanity. Neat ending and some decent scary bits.

Aug 14th, High Park, Will Shakespeare, The Tempest. I am never sure what to do with a review of traditional Shakespeare. It usually takes me the first 1/2hr to get back into the Elizabethan english where I don't spend the entire time trying to figure out what they are saying and just enjoy the play. And then of course at High Park you can spend the last hour trying to get your butt not fall asleep. Aside from that it was a good play and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Aug 7th, America's Sweethearts, We ended up going to a movie instead of the play in High Park because it was agreed it was too stinking hot. As for the movie I admit I was expecting dreck, silly summer movie with no redeeming features. I was pleasantly surprised, it moved well, the timing was great and it wasn't so sweat or silly that it made you reach for the insulin. All in all a fun summer movie.

July 31st, The Score, decent movie, Brando was a waste though. I guess I was expecting more, maybe if I had gone in excepting something less I would have enjoyed it more.

July 24th, Cat's and Dog's, first 15 minutes slap stick fun, the rest was ok but it lacked something. It was trying to parody action movies but ended up just being a boring one itself. And what is with Jeff Goldbloom doing, his performance was so bad. Something for a Sunday video rental.

July 17th, Nothing, sold out. But several people saw different movies that week, Shrek, as I suspected everyone who saw it thought it was fun. Swordfish, parts were really good, but as a whole it reminded me of a John Woo movie on Prozac.

Can you image a poor blend of Boyz in the Hood and Days of Thunder with a Mark Wahlberg snowboarder type as the lead? I can't, but that is about all you will get with this movie. The plot (if you can call it one) sees a motley crew of over motored punks street racing in LA, stealing TVs and DVD players, while a cop tries to make in roads (pardon the pun) on a gangster's sister and the gang. While I expected there to be some nice driving scenes, the movie fell flat, just the like torque curve of an old GM 4 banger! The big street race could have been recorded straight off your kid's Sony Playstation (and not new one the old one), then digitally pasted on the streets of Scarborough... boring if not totally stupid! This movie is best left to a night where your insomnia is more powerful than your sense of culture and you can see it on CityTV's "Late Great Movies" for free! Rating 3 stars out of 10.

June 26th, Evolution, this is the latest of Ivan Reitman's movies. The same guy who brought us Ghost Busters. Well I've seen The Ghost Busters and this is no Ghost Busters. It's a harmless flick but little substance and aside from the odd belly laugh not that funny either. Something to watch on video.

June 19th, Moulin Rouge, as I said, it is a musical. Rogers and Hammerstein on acid. Well done movie.

June 12th, Memento, wow, what a great way to make your head hurt. The basic premise is the main character was injured and now has no short term memory so he can't remember anything for more than a couple of minutes. This is an interesting enough premise but then they run the movie backwards

June 5th, Shrek, good fun movie, nothing more, nothing less. Note to Disney, you have some really good competition here.

May 29th, A Knights Tale, the past two movies, Mummy Returns and Driven have both been basically cotton candy movies, nice to look at, tastes ok but rather empty. Knights Tale was more like good ice cream, no important lessons, no great artist vision, just good fun. Really good entertainment. Taking the kid from the wrong side of the tracks makes good tale, put in back in the days of knights on horse back and put a sort of modern spin on things. I would tell more but I risk spoiling a bunch of the fun of watching some of the "modern" spins to things. Highly recommended by all who attended.

May 22nd, The Mommy Returns, a silly sequel to the latest Mummy movie. The first one was better but this one is good for a few chuckles.

May 15th, Driven, Ok CART cars in F1 races, driving down University Avenue and ending up in Chicago, those things I can believe. But Burt Reynolds new face lift, oh my lord. It looks like a casualty simulation gone horribly wrong. Oh and the movie, Mark thought it was just stupid. Me I had fun watching the whole spectacle, some of the special effects were quite amazing and the driving looked great. So for some mindless fun on a Tuesday it's not bad.

May 8th, The Claim, this is one of those productions that I like but can't for the life of me come up with a compelling reason why.

May 1st, Pollock, It reminded me of Pollock's paintings. Interesting but I wouldn't pay a lot of money for one. The acting was great, the movie portrayal seemed good (don't know anything about him so I will assume it was), but as entertainment I found it lacking. There was no explanation of Pollock's behaviour, and the movie was deadly boring. But this was supposed to be a biography so exciting was not the point, an examination of life was, and the lack of any information on what shaped his life was a big loss. Why was his mother so pissed at him, why was his one brother so supportive, why was he so tortured? None of these questions was even partially examined. Also it would have been nice to see what other art was out at that time to put his work into some sort of context. With today's eyes it looks common place but placed 60 years ago it was spectacularly different.

I would rate the performances up there at 4 or 5 but the movie as a whole would not get better than a 3 from me.

Apr 17th, Along Came a Spider, an exercise in how many close ups of Morgan Friedman we can handle. It's decent enough but the foreshadowing gives the ending away far too early.

Apr 10th, Blow, ok we were supposed to see the Mexican but Silly City cancelled out at Yorkdale, Blow however was a good choice. Johnny Depp plays the amoral drug smuggler as he goes from zero to hero and back again. Well done and worth seeing

Apr 3rd, Tailor of Panama, so you take James Bond, drop his IQ and morals a notch needing to get back in her majesty's good graces, add in a ex-con clothing the elite of Panama who lies a lot and you have the Tailor of Panama. Pierce Bronsman takes the James Bond character and turns it on it's ear, to some really funny effect. Jamie Lee Curtis is wasted here but Jeffery Russ does a wonderful turn as someone who manages to get just a little over their head and can't figure how to get out. Worth seeing

March 27th, Enemy at the Gate, missed it but Steve said it was good movie, the ladies also seemed to like it.

March 13th, In the Mood for Love, finally I make it to a movie and I can't even get excited about it. The story involves two couples in Hong Kong in 1962. You only see the wife of the first couple and the husband of the second. What's supposed to be developing is a love story. The film feels like something done by a film student trying to imitate a great film maker. The cinematography is for the most part well done but seems to get in the way of the story alot. This is the sort of film you are supposed to oh and ah over, but it reminded me of a rice cake with caramel on top the first bite is ok until you realize all the rest is Styrofoam.

Feb 13th, 13 Days, Really good movie, even knowing what eventually happened you are still caught up in the drama of the moment. Well worth seeing.

Jan 30th, Miss Congeniality, this is one of those movies that Sandra Bollock and the rest of the actors in the movie do so well, light comedic fluff. It doesn't answer any of the worlds problems, it won't win any awards but it sure is fun. We giggled all the way through. Well worth seeing if only to take your mind off the days problems.

Tom Hanks finally gets to do his movie. While Tom gives a solid performance, the film doesn't really take your breath away as the plot is nothing surprising. It is his life after the escape that is the more meaningful part. Unfortunately it isn't developed to the same extent as the island scenes. The movie could have shaken off the hint of being one big FedEx commercial and become something special, but it didn't. Helen Hunt a co-lead was great and so was the volleyball! I rate this a 7.5 stars out of 10.

Jan 16th, The Family Man, a sort of revisionist "It's a Wonderful Life", Cage gets to play the slightly psychotic big city executive who gets dropped into the life he might have had if he had married his college sweet heart. Well actually he is rather well adjusted until he gets dropped into the role of dad, then he gets a little psychotic. It was a fun movie, it's not going to win any Oscars or become a holiday classic like It's a Wonderful Life, although it would be interesting to watch them back to back.

Jan 9th, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, this love story in a martial arts movie was very well done. Could have used a little help with the cinematography (some of the scenes were just too dark to see the action) and trying to read subtitles while the action was going on was as little distracting, but it was a really good movie. Well worth seeing

Jan 2nd, It's the new millennium, and since someone finally used the request form, we are going to see What Women Want, here we get to see Mel's sensitive side, no not Mayor Mel, he doesn't have a sensitive side, this is Mel Gibson, he of Lethal Weapon and Mad Max fame. Here he does what he did so well in Bird on a Wire, romantic comedy, although without any physical action this time, except for a little exfoliating. A good time was had by all, although I think the women over did the "you go girl" just a bit. Well worth seeing.

Dec 19th, Bounce, Ben Affleck and Gwennth Paltrow are no Boggie and Hepburn. Their performances are very good but their just doesn't seem to be the chemistry between them that would make this a real tear jerker. It's a shame because if you watch Shakespeare in Love you can see the chemistry that just doesn't develop here.

Dec 12th, The annual Christmas present delivery went great, we took all the presents that were left, about 150, and did our best to deliver them. Thanks to all who attended.

Dec 5th, The Grinch, as I watched the Grinch I was struck by how much Jim Carrey's Grinch was like Jim Carrey's The Riddler. I really tried to like the movie, laughed at all the right spots, but I came away disappointed. Like most of the group I grew up with the cartoon version of the Grinch and I had expected something different than what the movie gave me. I expected something more or maybe something less and my expector got hurt. It's a decent enough movie but I wouldn't be first inline to see it.

Nov 28th, Charlie's Angels, now here is a movie that was played strictly for yuks with some special effects from the Matrix thrown in. Sometimes I really wish they hadn't invented those flying through the air effects because it gets really annoying after the first time or two, sort of like a high tech knock knock joke. Drew Barrymore does a great impression of Nicole Kidman in one party scene. Bill Murrary is great as Bosley. It's a farce and the girls play it as such. Great giggles for an evening, just don't take it seriously and no one will get hurt.

Nov 21st, Pay it Forward, there are two ways to view this movie. The first epitomized (look it up) by Owen's review.

Yes, another Helen Hunt movie. This time she plays a single mother who has a boy (Haley Joel Osment) that is encouraged to do something grand by his social studies teacher (Kevin Spacey). Haley comes up with the pay it forward concept. It is helping at least three people in some life altering way with the hope that they do the same for a few more people, sort of like a pyramid scheme done upside-down with no profit motive. This is the stuff that urban legends are made up of or at least what the producers were hoping it would encourage. While the movie mildly achieves a heart warming feeling, the characters are not very strong. Kevin Spacey is literally in idle for most of the movie, having his talents waste away. Haley Osment manages to turn up the ham meter to heights not seen since the Little Rascals, while Helen Hunt is being herself again, riding the wave of having won an Oscar. 6 out of 10 stars.

The second is mine. Yes Helen Hunt is in the movie, she plays a trailer trash cocktail waitress, you can't swing a cat without seeing her in a movie this year (5 this year, that we could remember last night after the movie), and yes Ormont playing her son, redoes his earnest looks from the 6th Sense but I thought they both worked well with Kevin Spacey playing Osment's social studies teacher. Spacey's performance was very restrained, he plays a man that has withdrawn into himself in an attempt to deal with his past demons. Hunt and Osment both deal with Hunt's current liquid demon very well. The plot is well known, (read Owen's review), but I think it is dealt with well here. As well the plot twist at the end makes for at least 2 hanky movie. I think it is well worth seeing and give it 7 Stars.

Nov 14th, Dr T. and the Women, fortunately, according to the people who went, I did not make it to the movie. I went later and saw Jackie Chan in Drunken Master, poor plot, lots of fun with Jackie and his minions going a great synchronized martial arts ballet. As for Dr T., Mr O has a review for you and is as follows.

The Dr. T and the Women was one of the worst examples of what a cast of thousands of famous actors and blonde actresses can do. The plot line was very thin... Dr.T is driven insane by women, because he loves them too much. His wife goes insane, his oldest daughter is a lesbian, his youngest a JFK assassination historian, and his sister-in-law an alcoholic. He meets up with the flavour of the year actress (Helen Hunt) for a fling. All of this happens in the context of his OB/GYN office with hoards of demanding clients. The end of the movie features a straight out of "The Wizard of Oz" fly away scene which leaves him in Mexico to deliver a baby boy (he rejoiced at that fact!)... and yes the producers managed to pay someone enough to film them giving birth... just want you wanted to see at the end of a really bad movie! Rating - 1 star out of 10... this movie had no redeeming social or entertainment value... may those that picked this turkey be forced to watch it (this means you Peter)!

Nov 7th, Best in Show, I must admit I wasn't in the best mood for this movie which probably explains my lousy take on the movie. Everyone else thought it was very funny, the same people who thought Meet the Parents was funny. The acting was very good, Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara were great. I just found their performances to be too close to real to make it funny, more like embarrassing than funny.

Oct 31st, Contender, Steve again didn't make it, very good movie with only a little flag waving to give Canadians pause. Like a very good episode of West Wing.

Oct 24th, Meet the Parents, ok so Steve didn't make it, something about severe jet lag. Good thing too. Every once in a while it showed something that could have been really funny. But they kept on going for the cheap laugh. Sorry I just didn't find it that funny. Steve you might so go see it after you get over the jet lag.

Oct 17th, The Exorcist, this movie shows how a great movie can seem to be very ordinary if not down right slow after 25 years. Make no mistake it's a good movie to go and see just don't expect the same sort of fair as you saw last week at the megaplex. Let's dispense with the bad stuff, the special effects are pretty tame, the scariest thing is a phone ringing at an unexpected time, some of the acting is pretty wooden and audio tracks do not translate well to the new theatres (cars going by, people talking in the background, extraneous little noises, all seem far too loud). On the positive side, some of the acting is great, the suspense is allowed to build very smoothly (it takes over an hour before Linda Blair's head turns around). It's a good example of why going back can be fun, just don't expect it to be just how you remembered it.

Oct 10th, Remember the Titans, race relations as done by Disney. Ok get past the race relations and how everyone becomes buddy buddy and it's a really nice movie. The acting is decent, the plot and the action move along. Well worth seeing.

Oct 3rd, Nurse Betty, a black comedy that gets one of two reactions, wow that was neat or that was just terrible. I fit into the neat category, mind you it took some effort to ignore Chris Rock's hysterical acting, and not hysterical as in funny. Morgan Freedman and Rene Zeegwilier (how do you spell her last name anyways?) were great, playing the roles as straight as arrows while the rest of the world was falling apart around them. Well worth seeing.

Sept 26th, Almost Famous, a coming of age flick, however this coming of age flick takes place in the early 70s as the 15 year old wanna be writer follows a rock group on their road tour around the US while writing a story for Rolling Stone. This is supposed to be a semi-autobiographical tale, his meeting with the band, the groupies, the management, and the assorted hangers on. Oh he also supposedly looses his virginity to 3 of the groupies as they decide to deflower Opie. It's a good flick with some really decent acting. Definitely a go see.

Sept 19th, Tao of Steve, after all the laughing from Saving Grace the week before a nice romantic comedy (?) was a reasonable choice, not too much in the way of chuckles but not so sombre as to cause us withdrawal symptoms. A decent Tuesday or video movie but not much more.

Sept 12th, Saving Grace, I don't think I have laughed so hard in a long time, at least not since Monday volleyball. This movie is well worth seeing, even on a Saturday night. It's like a stoned version of Waking Ned Devine, very good.

Sept 5th, The Cell, this movie is as visually stunning as What Dreams May Come. However like that movie it also is missing some things. It has a great plot, some of the actors are very good and the acting that is there is by and large good. However the character development is seriously missing. There are hints of some really interesting stuff but it never gets developed. Also it isn't scary in the least. It's well worth seeing for the visuals but it could have been so much better with just a little more work.

August 29th, Coyote Ugly, I thought it was going to be the normal summer fluff but it turned out to be more than that, not much more but enough to make it a good summer movie to see. The acting was predicable but well done and no breaking the laws of physics this time either.

Aug 22nd, Space Cowboys, a movie that shows that even if you don't obey the laws of physics you can still have lots of fun. This is a typical Hollywood fluff piece, some good yucks, a little tension here and there but just generally good fun.

Aug 15th, Try to see Shakespeare again (rained out on the 8th) if it looks like rain or is raining we will go see Space Cowboys at the Eglinton Theatre at 7:15pm.

Aug 8th, Shakespeare in High Park, Taming of the Shrew, picnic before hand, play starts at 8pm, Rained out.

Aug 1st, What Lies Beneath, Michelle and Harrison play a husband and wife living in Vermont. He's a workaholic and she's just a little spun. Well maybe a lot spun. The movie manages to keep a decent level of suspense going without to many "what are you stupid, get out of the house" moments. Just enough scary bits to keep people from falling asleep but not so you won't be able to fall asleep at night.

July 25th, X-Men, decent enough movie but nothing special, a good summer waste of time. Patricia won't like that Patrick Stewart is in a wheelchair for the movie.

July 18th, Perfect Storm, George Cloony and Markie Mark go out on the high seas with a bunch of other sailors to find sword fish. The women stay home and look concerned while the boys battle the high seas. Some great special effects but some unbelievable stunts done by George out on a boom. Just in case you haven't guessed the boys on the boat don't come back.

July 11th, Shaft, a fun movie, just like 60 Seconds. Decent enough summer faire sort of like McDonald's food, not something you want a steady diet of.

July 4th, Gone in 60 Seconds, a fun movie, a big bang movie but not a really good movie. Lots of good scene's of cars going really fast and doing dangerous things. Sort of like Ronin without the guns. Go see it when you want some wow's and oh's and stuff like that.

June 27th, East is East, one of the better pictures I have seen in a while. Imagine a Pakastani Archie Bunker, set in the 70's in Manchester England. The father now in his fifties and his English wife deal with the problems trying to bring up their English children. Things start to boil when he tries to make his children conform to his view of how a Pakastani family should behave. A very real type of movie. Next week back to Hollywood.

June 20th, Mission Impossible, Sorry I just don't get Tom Cruise as action hero or romantic lead. He does much better when the entire movie doesn't revolve around his smirk. They could have used a couple of Smurfs for the other MI characters. What the heck was Anthony Hopkins thinking. He had more screen time in Zoro.

June 6th, Gladiator, best described as a cross between Ben Hur, Spartacus and Matrix. Some parts of the movie were quite spectacular, the story was reasonably decent but it just didn't hang together very well. In particular the editing seemed to actually detract from the story. I was disappointed because the acting was quite good for the most part.

May 30th, Shanghai Noon or Kung Foo meets Fast Times at Ridgemount High. This is one of those put your brain in neutral for 2 hours type of movie. Watch as Jackie Chan jumps all over the place and does neat martial arts tricks with a pair of moose antlers, now with a couple of evergreens and for a finale watch him get hurt during the outtakes at the end. There are some good yucks but in the end it's a watered down Chan we are watching. Go rent some of his stuff from 5 or 10 years ago to see how he used to do before it became Chan, Hollywood style.

May 23rd, Doubt, a play featuring an author who has writer's block. The play had a very 6th Sense plot to it. Since it stopped playing on the 28th I can give away the ending, he doesn't die.

May 16th, Frequency, a decent movie for Tuesday night, heck if it had a better ending it would be really good Friday night movie. It's got a good premise, decent acting and moves along at a good pace with some fun twists and turns. Just a really cheesy ending.

Oh we also have a review of Road Trip, this is a movie done by some of the same people who did Animal House all those years ago. It has the same college/toilet humour, lot's of site gags, partially clad women, gross out antics that are part of this genre. There are some other good bits and Tom Green's narration is great but there was something missing, that franticness that made Animal House so much fun. Good to watch on video, at the frat house or 400 of your favourite friends in Curtis lecture hall J.

May 9th, Keeping the Faith, this movie is just so much fun. These guys managed to keep the yuks coming while still managing to keep it fairly serious. Good to see even on a Friday.

May 2nd, U571, Yet another movie night I missed, this is getting silly. The gang seemed to like it although the revisionist slant to a number of items in the movie bothered some more than others.

April 11th, High Fidelity, a movie where John Cusak explores the reasons why none of previous relationships worked, all the while examining what his top 5 songs are. This is at times a very funny movie and well worth seeing. I would strongly recommend you buy the sound track for the movie though. The songs are supposed to be great.

Apr 4th, Topsy Turvy, it was interesting but I wouldn't pay $10 to see it. More of a PBS movie.

March 28th, Erin Brockivich, Julia Roberts does a fine job of playing the struggling mom who beats all the odds to end up on top. Aside from all the swearing it could have done by Disney. Good video movie.

March 21st, Ninth Gate, Johnny Depp playing a antique book version of Indian Jones, although without the physical heroics. The movie was a little weird but fun to watch. More video tape fodder.

March 14th, Mission to Mars, sort of a 2001 meets NASA at Disney World. Almost looks like a promo done by NASA. There was enough good stuff to keep you watching but I came out feeling a little cheated. The cast just didn't seem to be involved, you could always see what was coming, there seemed to be little suspense, especially if you had seen any of the trailers. By the way why do they call them trailers when they are always shown at the beginning now??

March 7th, Wonder Boys. This is a movie that you should see. Well acted and with an interesting story. It is just warped enough that we liked it. Now if they would just stock real mayo at the Pickle Barrel it would be a really good evening.

Feb 29th, The Cider House Rules. I didn't make it out to the movie but the rest of the gang thought it was great.

Feb 15th, Angela's Ashes. A really well done tale of a poor Irish family growing up in the thirties. A lot of people warned that this was a very depressing film. I don't think so, I thought it showed a lot of spirit in a family that just keeps on getting smacked in the head. This is one movie you really should see.

Feb 8th, The Hurricane, a movie designed to show the best and worst in humans. It was a very good movie but I kept on getting that it was the Disney version of the story. But if you can get around that portion, there are some great performances and a very good story.

Feb 1st, Play it to the Bone, a movie that tries to appeal to the guys with a 20 minute fight sequence that is all too real looking and to the girls with Antonio and Woody naked. In the end, we got a movie that entertained a little and splattered blood and sweat everywhere. You also get to see Robert Wagner being a shmuck.

Jan 25th, Girl Interrupted, very good movie if a little depressing at times. Winona should give Tom Cruise some acting lessons.

Jan 18th, Magnolia, this was one strange movie. You know it's strange when Tom Cruise actually does a decent job. Well for him anyways. The movie up to the final act has some great moments but can't seem to come up with a decent ending so it falls apart. Pretty decent film though.

Jan 11th, Sleepy Hollow, another grey fest from Tim Burton. You would think that Tim Burton with all the colours he has at his disposal would pick something other than grey to do his movies in. He does however a great job of creating feelings in his movies with this simple palette. This movie is not the Disney tale of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. This one includes adultery, witchcraft and lots of people loosing their heads. Ichabod is changed from a hapless school teacher to a New York city police detective sent to Sleepy Hollow to find the person who cut the heads off 4 people. Johnny Depp does a good job of trying to be brave and scared out of his wits at the same time. Christopher Walken, great headless horseman. It's a good nights entertainment

Jan 4th, Bicentennial Man, more impersonations, this one of a robot by Robin Williams. It's a decent impression and Williams doesn't go to over the top with it but I found it very slow at times. It was missing something. Still if you are stuck for a rental some night give it a shot. I wouldn't waste a Friday night for it.

Dec 30th, Man on the Moon, essentially a 2 hour long impersonation of Andy Koffman by Jim Carey. It was a very good impersonation but there is was little in the story that added to information that I knew about him or added any flesh to Andy's public persona, and Courtney Love's performance was completely wasted, they could have used a computer animation for all the work that was given to her.

Dec 23rd, Toy Story 2, as good or better than the original. If you liked the first one you will like this one as well. Well worth seeing if for no other reason than it's a fun time at the theatre.

Dec 14th, James Blonde, unfortunately I didn't make it to see this one. The gang seemed to be divided, half thought it was good fun. The rest thought Bond has lost his zip.

Well the Christmas present delivery went well and again we took out over 230 presents, big thanks to all involved. Bigger thanks to Liz and Chris for having us all back to their place for Christmas tree trimming.

Dec 7th, Our annual Christmas party is taking place this year at 3675 Keele St. at 7pm, the building is just south of the one last year. To get in go to the north side of the building and go in the middle of the three doors at the back. As in the past the party will consist of delivering presents for Scouts Canada and Toronto Star. Everyone is encouraged to come, bring your friends. Last year we delivered over 200 presents.

Nov 30, Dogma. This is one of those movies that shows that someone still has a little bit of imagination. It's good harmless fun, with a small amount of blasphemy thrown in for good luck. Aside from GOD having really bad fashion sense well worth seeing.

Nov 23, Bone Collector. Great movie, I haven't had this much fun at a movie in a while. Like Seven, it has a number of disturbing looking scenes but there is little graphic violence or imagery. Most of the violence is implied. Some very good cinematography. Well worth seeing.

Nov 16, Inside John Malcovich, Unfortunately I didn't get out to see this. The group thought it was one of the more imaginative movies they have seen in a while, like Fight Club a movie that breaks out of the normal Hollywood mould.

Nov 9, Fight Club. This had to be one of the more interesting movies I have seen in a number of years. Some of the cinematography was really wild, the acting was pretty good and premise was completely whacked. But a good whacked. You should see this movie.

Nov 2, Bringing Out the Dead, I liked it, most of the rest of the gang were not thrilled by it. I thought it was a cross of Leaving Las Vegas and MASH, the others thought it was just mashed up lost wages. I still think it's worth seeing.

Oct 26, We did two, Random Hearts and Double Jeopardy. Random Hearts should only be attempted by someone with lots of caffeine in their blood stream. It is a very sssloooww movie. The acting is pretty decent but at times pretty pedantic.

Mean while over at Double Jeopardy, we have very predictable mystery movie. The gang were not impressed. A rather lame attempt at adding a twist to the fugitive with Tommy Lee trying to extend his character for one more sequel.

Result for the films, a rather tepid go see on Tuesday if there is nothing else playing and you are wired for Random Hearts and a why bother for Double Jeopardy.

Oct 19th Mystery Alaska, aka The Mighty Ducks meets Northern Exposure. A Disney type movie of the little guy battling big odds without most of the Disney syrup. There are still some of the heart tugging scenes but with enough good stuff thrown in to keep it interesting. All in all a good Tuesday flick. Nothing cutting edge, just good entertainment.

Oct 12th, Three Kings, one of the first movies made about the "war" in Iraq. The movie seemed a little confused, it could not decide if it was a blowed'em up real good movie or a tale about how wars today are not black and white but grey and greyer. There are some really well done parts to the movie, some disturbing shots and some stuff that seems to be stuck in there just to make good trailers. The trailers seem to indicate this is going to be an update on Kelly's Heroes, bunch of soldiers go behind enemy lines to get some gold that the bad guys have taken. Kelly's Heroes (with a really great cast) was an almost fun romp with the good guys versus the bad guys. This is the grey guys against the greyer guys with a bunch of purple people tossed into the mix just to confuse the issue. It is still for the most part well done and is well worth seeing any day of the week.

Oct 5th, American Beauty, the tale of 2 dysfunctional families and some of the people around them. This was a really good movie, worth standing in line for. Kevin Spacey plays a slightly whacked out father going through a mid life crisis with a slightly frozen wife and slightly rebellious daughter. This is a must see movie.

Sept 28th was Blue Streak, a low budget version of Beverly Hills Cop with Martin Lawrence trying to imitate Eddie Murphy. The car chases weren't as good and his partner was no Judge Rinholt but heck it was fun.

Sept 21st was Bowfinger, staring Steve Martin with some help from Eddie Murphy and Heather Graham. It was a decent Tuesday night flick, fun with no brain work involved at all on the viewers part.

Sept 14th was Runaway Bride, unfortunately I was unable to be there for this movie so I will have to make do with the comments from the rest of the group. The consensus seemed to be a light weight comedy with none of the bite of Pretty Woman. Nice to see but definitely a Tuesday night movie.

Sept 7th, Sixth Sense, I found it very enjoyable. A movie trying to prove that there is life in movies for Bruce Willis after action movies. Haley Joel Osment who plays Cole the young boy who sees ghosts proves that when acting with children and animals the older actor is always upstaged. Haley shows a range of emotion that seems to be foreign to Bruce Willis. Willis does well in his performance as the child therapist but his cocky smirk and earnest looks just don't make it set against performance of Haley. Well worth seeing.

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