May 11, 2007
Film Friday: This Column is Rated "Arr!"
This week, the biggest news in movies is that Warner Bros. has decided to stop all advance promotional screenings of its films in Canada, in attempt to stem the flow of pirated movies from Canada. Yo ho ho! Unfortunately, they’ve likely decided that Canada is a hotbed of disgusting movie pirates on some pretty wonky data. Though apparently there’s no law against recording movies in a theatre onto a camcorder in Canada, which is kind of crazy.
The Toronto International Film Festival has selected its opening night gala, Fugitive Pieces. Launching the festival on September 6th, it’s based on the novel by Anne Michaels, and is written and directed by Jeremy Podeswa. But what’s it about? It’s the story of Jakob Beer (played by Stephen Dillane), whose life is haunted by his childhood experiences during the second World War, and how he comes to terms with them, through writing and finding love. So, that’s that.
In other local festival news, the Toronto Jewish Film Festival ends this weekend, plus there’s the Indie Can Film Festival and the Ryerson University Film Festival.
Though it’s not a Warner Bros. production, Liam Lacey at The Globe and Mail probably wouldn’t mind if they just stopped all screenings of Georgia Rule in Canada, simply because he hates it so much. It’s rare to see a zero star review, and in particular for a film that’s received middling reviews elsewhere, but he notes “a script…that seems to be little but a sequence of emotional non-sequiturs” that creates “a comic drama so confused in tone, the actors often seem to be acting in different movies.” Cary Elwes plays a paedophile, which we could never believe (The Dread Pirate Roberts? Never!), so we agree: zero stars.
Surprisingly positive reviews of 28 Weeks Later, however. The original was a horrible waste of film, but considering the Dawn of the Dead remake managed to take speedy zombies and actually do something with them, we suppose they thought it was worth having another try. Starring the always excellent Robert Carlyle, Eye’s Jason Anderson says, “It may all be too much for some viewers…but the film's ferocity is damn impressive.”
Also out this week: Waitress, described by the Star’s Geoff Pevere as “a kind of über-romantic comedy, a late-'70s Sally Field movie as interpreted by Jim Jarmusch in an especially feminine mood” (that sounds like something we’d want to see); Jindabyne, Delta Farce and The Ex, which we’d love to rate highly, featuring, as it does, the superb Jason Bateman, but it’s also got that bloody Zach Braff in it. Ick.
Oh, and finally, The Brunswick Theatre is showing The Toxic Avenger at 8 p.m. on Saturday night. It’s not as good as the later sequel, Citizen Toxie, but it’ll do. Mention Torontoist, and see the full double bill (it’s followed by Jungle Holocaust) for $10.
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Though there are no particularly clear laws about recording a movie on a camcorder in a theatre, it's very explicitly illegal to sell or otherwise disseminate that footage once you do it.
Also, if the venue posts "no recording allowed," which they do, then no recording is legally allowed.
Well, absolutely. But there's no real excuse for recording a film in a cinema on a camcorder though, is there? I won't lose sleep if it's legislated against.
I'm amazed that people actually buy those DVDs of handheld camcorder-recorded cruddy footage with muddy sound. WTF? And if the studios want to stop it in Canada, then they should be pushing the cops to crack down harder on the people that make them. Every time I walk through Chinatown, there they are right on the street, and the Pacific Mall has often had them sitting there right on display. I even saw a big bootleg DVD layout at Yonge and Wellesley, and people were practically lined up to buy them.
Some of those bootlegs are actually of decent quality. I think they are also concerned with internet piracy, as it would have a more widespread effect.
28 Days Later a "horrible waste of film?" Did you see the same film I did? Despite an unfortunate final act and a rather silly ending - most of 28 Days Later, I thought, was brilliant. The post-Apocalyptic empty London scenes were gorgeously filmed in digital and were truly shiver-inducing and some of the "zombie" chase scenes were terrifying. And the soundtrack was fantastic. What people seem to forget was that 28 Days Later was really only a zombie film by default - it was more of environmental-disaster warning kind of film, with shades of a western-military complex out-of-control movie, a don't-fuck-with-nature and/or genetics kind of film, in the same vein as Children of Men, with a pinch of Lord of the Flies.
28 Days Later (which I loved, by the way) can be most accurately described as a combination of The Day of the Triffids and Resident Evil.
I don't see what makes it similar to Resident Evil, unless you mean the film, not the game series, as I haven't seen the film.
And it's a shame to sully a brilliant piece of writing like Day of the Triffids by comparing it to 28 Days Later. Other than similar beginnings, there's little comparison. The writing of 28 Days Later is astonishingly bad, and that's even if you ignore the depressing way the female lead devolves someone who can take care of herself into a squealing damsel in distress, relying on the hero to save the day.
She didn't rely on the hero to save the day. She thought he'd been taken out by the soldiers and shot. That she realised she couldn't physically overpower a gang of armed rapists does not make her a "squealing damsel in distress". Do you remember her attempt to use her pharmaceutical knowledge to ameliorate the experience for the pubescent girl? "It will make it so you don't care." An ugly choice, but the only one left besides suicide or acceptance.
One, mistaken, gender issue with the film is not reason to turn against it. Neither was the writing weak, apart from the weaker ending. Watch it again, Matthew.
No, I don't think I will, thanks. It's not the singular gender issue that's the problem - as I said, it was a problem of writing that was weak in general, that was merely one example. A much stronger film could have been made, I feel, but if you were satisfied with it, good on you.
No need to be condescending. I haven't say what I thought about your ability to review.
Apologies. I didn't mean to come off condescending. Sorry.
Some theatres within the Cineplex chain are having bag checks at the doors.
28 days later: good movie over all. the writing was NOT bad. some weak moments, but good over all. if i had the choice between it and the latest david lynch pice of pretentious tripe, zombies will win every time.
Did Cary Elwes change his name to Carly Ewes?
I think I've always had dyslexia for that guy's name.
28 Days Later was brilliant, but I'm not expecting great things from the sequel.
The Warner Brothers thing is a transparent ploy on the behalf of the MPAA to push for Canadian copyright laws to be 'harmonized' with American laws and get us our very own DCMA. When it turns out their opening weekend box office returns have taken a hit, they'll blame continued piracy (somehow) instead of fewer people hearing good things from advanced viewers/reviews.