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Colossus Vaughan Cinemas Celebrating 'Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore' With A Mini Carnival

2010-07-29T23:35:00.000-04:00

This Saturday (July 31, 2010) the Colossus Vaughan Cinemas will be hosting a mini carnival in celebration of the release of the Warner Bros. family film, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (pictured). Between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. kids (and their families) will have the chance to get their faces painted, enter giveaways, and participate in a variety of other events and activities before

Open Roof Films Coming to Amsterdam Brewery

2010-07-29T02:09:00.000-04:00

For seven nights in August non-profit organization Open Roof Films will be hosting an outdoor movie and music series at the Amsterdam Brewery. The series launches on August 6 with a screening of the hit documentary The Parking Lot Movie (which played at this year's Hot Docs festival) and a performance by the Toronto-based band Little Girls (there's also a conversation with a working director

E1 Entertainment is now Entertainment One

2010-07-29T00:12:00.002-04:00

I received a press release last week from E1 Entertainment informing me that they are now Entertainment One (or eOne for short). While this news means absolutely nothing to 99% of the movie-going population it does affect the studio as it will be moving from London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) to the Main List of the London Stock Exchange. And since this is more of a public service

TIFF 2010: More Details on 'Biutiful', 'Buried', and 'Made in Dagenham'

2010-07-28T01:30:00.002-04:00

More details on films screening at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) keep pouring in after yesterday's Galas and Special Presentations announcement by TIFF. As with Warner Bros. sending extra info on Ben Affleck's The Town, Maple Pictures has followed suit with further blurbs, images, and trailers on their films Biutiful, Buried, and Made in Dagenham. Check it all out below.

TIFF 2010: A Closer Look at Ben Affleck's 'The Town'

2010-07-28T00:43:00.016-04:00

After the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) announced some of the selected films screening in the Galas and Special Presentations programmes at TIFF 2010 yesterday, I was contacted by Warner Bros. with further details on Ben Affleck's crime drama The Town, which thy are releasing in North America on September 17. As a huge fan of Affleck's 2007 film Gone Baby Gone I'm quite excited to

RIP Maury Chaykin (1949 - 2010)

2010-07-27T21:52:00.000-04:00

Award-winning actor Maury Chaykin passed away today, which also marks his 61st birthday. Best known for his work in the 1994 Canadian film Whale Music (which he won a Genie for) and for his recurring role as studio exec Harvey Weingard on HBO's Entourage (the character was based on film mogul Harvey Weinstein), Chaykin was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York to an American father and a

TIFF 2010 Announces Galas and Special Presentations

2010-07-27T14:19:00.000-04:00

At a press conference in Toronto today, 15 Galas and 35 Special Presentations were announced for the 35th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and with new films from Robert Redford, Michael Winterbottom, Guillaume Canet, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Mike Leigh, Julian Schnabel, and Woody Allen having their world or North American premieres, it’s ramping up to be one

New On DVD: July 27, 2010

2010-07-27T12:10:00.000-04:00

The new Clash of the Titans (pictured) got a bum rap during its theatrical release earlier this year mainly because of the shoddy fake 3-D conversion Warner Bros. decided to give it. Compared to the terrible 1981 original, and without the distraction of bad technology, the remake is a much more solid film than credited for though and the action scenes are great (even if the dialogue is laughable

New On DVD: July 20, 2010

2010-07-20T23:34:00.001-04:00

The Runaways is a fun biopic of the '70s all-girl teenage rock band that consisted of members Joan Jett (guitar, vocals), Cherie Currie (vocals), Sandy West (drummer), Lita Ford (guitar), and Jackie Fox (bass). Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning shed their good girl images in their portrayals of Jett and Currie, respectively, and both deliver excellent performances. Directed by Floria Sigismondi

'Green Zone' Paintball Event (or How Universal Home Entertainment Almost Killed Me)

2010-07-18T15:44:00.019-04:00

A few weeks ago Universal Home Entertainment put me on a bus and shipped me, and about 15 other people in the media, off for tactical paintball training to promote the release of Matt Damon's Iraq war movie, Green Zone, on DVD and Blu-ray. I had never done paintball before and was not ready for what was in store by the highly trained (and competitive) guys at CQG Tactical Paintball & Training

TIFF 2010 Opening Night Film Selected

2010-07-14T13:54:00.000-04:00

Michael McGowan's comedy-musical Score: A Hockey Musical (pictured) has been selected as the opening night film of the 35th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The film, about a young man who is picked to join a major hockey league, stars Olivia Newton-John, singer Marc Jordan, and upcoming talent Noah Reid and Allie MacDonald. Musicians Nelly Furtado, Hawksley Workman and John

Q&A With Filmmaker Nelofer Pazira On Her Latest Film, 'Act of Dishonour'

2010-07-14T11:50:00.000-04:00

Acclaimed Canadian filmmaker, author, and journalist Nelofer Pazira was born in India and raised in Kabul, Afghanistan before immigrating to Canada with her family in 1990. She made waves onscreen with the 2001 film Kandahar, where she played an Afghan-Canadian heading back home to try to find her suicidal sister. In 2003 she co-directed the first-person documentary Return to Kandahar, which

NFB Mediatheque Showcases the Best Animation and the Best Short Films

2010-07-13T12:40:00.001-04:00

The NFB Mediatheque has two great events planned this month that should please both animation geeks and short film lovers alike. On Thursday, July 15 at 7 p.m. the Best of the 2009 Ottawa International Animation Festival (the largest animation festival in North America) will be featured. Co-presented by the Toronto Animated Image Society the evening has a stellar line-up of some the greatest

New On DVD: July 13, 2010

2010-07-13T11:23:00.000-04:00

If you haven't seen Atom Egoyan's Chloe yet (which I did a full review of the other day) I strongly recommend it to anyone looking for a good dramatic thriller. Great performances from Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, and Amanda Seyfried, and as a bonus for us Torontonians -- it's not just shot here but set here. Give it a chance and let it grow on you and you'll find a great film. Available on DVD

TIFF 2010 Tickets Now On Sale

2010-07-12T10:00:00.001-04:00

While VISA cardholders have been able to purchase tickets for the 35th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) since July 5, the box office opens for cash and debit shoppers beginning at 10 a.m. ET on July 12 (VISA is still the only credit card accepted at the TIFF box office). This year the festival has added a new TIFF Choice package which will give buyers five tickets to screen Canadian

DVD Review: Chloe

2010-07-11T15:05:00.001-04:00

Believing that her husband is cheating on her, Catherine (Julianne Moore), hires a young prostitute, Chloe (Amanda Seyfried), to throw herself at him and see what he does. Chloe reports back to Catherine with the juicy details about her romantic liaisons with David (Liam Neeson), each encounter more sexually graphic than the last. The thought of her husband's affair somehow arouses

Opening Weekend: Despicable Me, Predators, The Kids Are All Right, and The Girl Who Played with Fire

2010-07-09T12:18:00.003-04:00

Despicable Me (pictured) is one of the biggest surprises of the summer. From the trailers and clips I watched online I was expecting something along the lines of last year's extremely dumb Planet 51 and instead got something closer to the great Pixar film The Incredibles. Although there are a few scary scenes for kids it is one of the better films the entire family can enjoy and is downright

2010 DGC Nominees Announced

2010-07-08T18:46:00.000-04:00

The Directors Guild of Canada announced the nominees for the 2010 DGC Awards today and Atom Egoyan's Chloe (pictured), Jacob Tierney's The Trotsky, Ruba Nadda's Cairo Time, and John N. Smith's Love & Savagery are competing for Best Feature Film. Nominated for the coveted Best Director award are Penelope Buitenhuis for A Wake, Atom Egoyan for Chloe, George Mihalka for Faith, Fraud & Minimum Wage,

Checking out the Maple Pictures iPhone App

2010-07-08T00:38:00.001-04:00

Maple Pictures, the second largest film distributor in Canada, released an iPhone app back in June that allows users to access trailers, upcoming release dates, and information on every movie in Maple's catalogue of flicks. Users can also get location-based show times, purchase Maple films directly from the iTunes store, and connect with Maple's Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages. It's a

New On DVD: July 6, 2010

2010-07-06T11:26:00.000-04:00

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is easily one of the best thrillers I've ever seen. It's also one of the best films of the year. Based on the Stieg Larsson novel, the film unfolds as journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is hired to investigate a forty-year-old missing persons case. What Mikael doesn't know is that a young computer hacker/security expert named Lisbeth Salander (Noomi

Hey Canada, Want to See the Grease Sing-A-Long in Your City? Demand It!

2010-07-06T09:21:00.000-04:00

Paramount Pictures is at it again with creating buzz around one of their properties using the Eventful Demand It! service. It worked out last year for the studio when a lot of people demanded Paranormal Activity to open in their city and it went on to make just under $200 million worldwide. Whether people want to watch the 32-year-old John Travolta-Olivia Newton-John musical Grease again -- in a

Opening Weekend: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, The Last Airbender, Solitary Man, and Love Ranch

2010-07-02T18:18:00.001-04:00

Fans of The Twilight Saga will most likely have already seen Twilight: Eclipse, the third film in the sparkly vampire series. (It opened on Wednesday and has made close to $100 million so far.) If you're not a fan and wonder if this will be the one to convert you, it won't. It starts out fine, being a little darker than the previous entries, but then gets right back to the typical

NFB Launches iPad App

2010-06-30T14:26:00.001-04:00

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) released their fancy (and free) new iPad app today. With over 1000 documentaries, animated shorts, and trailers being streamed (with the option to download and store locally for 48 hours), and some content available in both high-definition and 3-D, this is going to be the app that could make a lot of Canadians run out and buy an iPad. Other features

Movies Under the Stars at Downsview Park this Summer

2010-06-29T23:12:00.001-04:00

Seems that free outdoor movie screenings are popping up all over Toronto this summer. I wrote about the series that the Entertainment District BIA and TIFF are putting on in Metro Square a few weeks ago and now I'm hearing about Movies Under the Stars -- family-friendly films being projected in Downsview Park every Friday night from July 2 to September 1 (full schedule of films below).

New On DVD: June 29, 2010

2010-06-29T14:00:00.001-04:00

If you haven't seen the Irish drama The Eclipse (pictured above) run out and rent it today. Based on the story Tales from Rainwater Pond by Billy Roche, it's a very eerie near-perfect film with great directing, atmosphere, and acting (especially from Ciarán Hinds and Iben Hjejle). Watch with the lights out and enjoy. Also available on DVD and Blu-ray this week: The Crazies (2010) (DVD/Blu-ray)