March 30, 2007
Film Friday: Because...3-D!
Interesting and depressing news today in the Toronto Star, with the revelation that there are no plans to release the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theatres in Canada. Why is that, hmm? The article states (quite correctly) that it’s one of the most popular shows on The Detour on Teletoon (where you can watch it at 10:15 p.m. weeknights) so why they’re not giving it at least a limited release here confounds us.
However!
In the grand non-sequitur tradition of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, we’ll be running a competition next week to win some swag. For a film you won’t be able to see. So stay tuned!
But there are a bunch of films out this week which the grand evil overlords of cinema have deemed the lowly citizens of Canada worthy to see, including, not unsurprisingly, Canada’s Top Ten films Congorama and Radiant City. Now, we hated Radiant City (utterly and completely; a shame, as we still like Waydowntown) but haven’t seen Congorama. It hasn’t received too warm a critical response, however. “Charming if scatterbrained” says Eye’s Jason Anderson, at least.
We also had a chance to see The Host at TIFF 2006. Released this week, if you want a big monster movie with some thick black comedy then you’re in luck! We recently discovered it’s not even half as good as one of Bong Joon-ho’s previous films, Memories of Murder, but more accessible, at least.
Moving on, lets skip past Firehouse Dog and Are We Done Yet? (you should be) to take note of Meet the Robinsons, Disney’s new 3-D film, the trailers for which reveal so little you’d think it had no plot at all, because…3-D! And according to the Sun’s Liz Braun, despite... 3-D! “It's tough to overlook the fact that ... there is no story, really.” Ah well. Similarly plot deficient, we imagine, Blades of Glory features both Will Ferrell and Jon Heder as male figure skaters. Considering Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson as male models is just as lame a concept but Zoolander was great, it could be alright…right? Oh, it also apparently features Montreal prominently. If you're into that.
In festival and indie, Cinefranco finishes off this weekend, the Toronto Student Film Festival is tonight and tomorrow, the Bloor is showing a series of documentaries, including Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey (introduced by Bill "Spaceman" Lee tonight at 7 p.m.) and a Hot Docs Doc Soup showing of Souvenirs (Wednesday at 6:30 and 9:15 p.m). The Royal is showing Between Two Notes on Wednesday at 7 p.m. with the director in attendance.
Not to forget that Cinematheque continues its awesome Ken Loach season. Kes tonight at 6.30 p.m. Poor Cow tomorrow night at the same time, if you missed it. Don’t miss it this time!
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I highly urge you to skip the Host, unless you are really into splashy CG, way-over-the-top acting, cringe-inducingly cliched portrayal of family dynamics (whatever that means), and just all in all a laughably sophomoric attempt to be a piece of political commentary. Just recalling this movie made me throw up a little in my mouth.
I couldn't disagree with Siqi more. I loved this film and found the monster totally mesmerizing. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
I highly urge you to see The Host, especially if you're into restrained CG, indepedent characters in a family dynamic, and just all in all an refreshing take on the old monster movie chestnut with a bit of OldBoy-like black comedy. Just recalling this movie made me want to see it again.
This is not a Hollywood monster movie; very few cheap scares, you actually get to see the monster instead of contrived shake-cam obstruction. It also goes where few monster movies do: the monster attacks in the middle of a city of 10 million people, so there is a lot of public fallout and consequences. Most monster movies isolate the whole experience down in a cave or in the middle of nowhere, so you don't get the public reaction, the political/military response. I won't say The Host lived up to *all* the hype that preceded it over the past year+, but it's definitely worth seeing.