Results tagged “reel toronto”

This film should have been great, what with honourary Torontonian Sam Jackson and the cool special effects and all. The filmmakers also went all out, filming in Tokyo, Egypt, Rome, and…Peterborough. That's right—no matter how exotic you get, you can't make a film this flawed without giving Toronto and the GTA a little love!

This is a movie about a taxi/limo driver, played by Jackie Chan, who wears a magic suit that makes him do kung fu shit, and he fights evil criminals with help from a scientist or secret agent or something played by Jennifer Love Hewitt. Yeah, this is precisely the sort of movie that usually gets shot here.

We have to admit we kind of like Fever Pitch. Sure, it's a formulaic rom-com, but it's a lot better than what we typically have to sit through. More to the point, it makes such great use of its Boston locations (particularly the stuff in and around Fenway Park) that you would hardly know how much of it was shot here.

It's hard to deny that Robin Williams can be a funny fellow, and he even earned an Oscar for Good Will Hunting, which, of course, was shot here.

When Reel Toronto has nightmares, they are about films like Cheaper by the Dozen 2. You might not think it possible to take so many talented, funny people and make such a dreary, soul-sucking blockbusterish family movie. But they did it. Twice.

Wow, it’s a critically acclaimed, shot-in-Toronto movie! And you can’t really tell it was shot here! Reel Toronto lives for these rare moments.

Frequency is certainly better than your average shot-in-Toronto thriller, and not just because it makes such subtle use of local locations that you'd never notice.

Though film shoots in our city have really taken off in the last fifteen or twenty years, they did make movies up here before we gained any kind of rep as “Hollywood North.” It’s fun to watch some of them old movies at least partially because they’re better, on average, than a lot of what’s made nowadays. On the other hand, they present more of a challenge for us here at Reel Toronto.

According to Wikipedia, Detroit Rock City made a pathetic five million dollars at the box office but has since become a cult classic that "has been often compared to the 1993 film Dazed and Confused." That might be a nice way of saying it tries damned hard to be like Dazed and Confused (a real cult classic about a single, crazy night in the '70s), right down to the dude who apparently hoped to build a career born out of playing a combination of Slater from D&C and Jay from Kevin Smith's movies. Yeah, that didn't happen.

The Taking of Pelham 123 remake got us thinking about pointless-but-passable remakes of 1970s flicks with numbers in the title, and that got us to thinking of 2005's Assault on Precinct 13.

Hey, it's a parable about the need for socialized medicine starring Denzel Washington. What's not to like? Obviously something, since John Q didn't exactly tear up the box office. Roger Ebert pulls no punches, saying he's down with its message while describing it as "so earnest, so overwrought and so wildly implausible that it begs to be parodied." The New York Times' Elvis Mitchell similarly said "it is a remarkable document, so ham-fisted that it sabotages its own worthwhile arguments."

Eugene Levy? Comedy genius—love him.

Here's a film that should have been good. But it wasn't. Killshot is based on a Elmore Leonard novel which, amazingly enough, starts off in Toronto at the Hotel Waverly. It was directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) and the cast includes Rosario Dawson, pre-Wrestler Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Johnny Knoxville was also in the film but his scenes were cut.

Looking back, it's hard to imagine there was a time when Steven Seagal ruled the box office. Come to think of it, it was a bit baffling then too. The man's Wikipedia page makes him look like something of a Renaissance man (a singer-songwriter, no less!), but before he got all puffy and lame, the black belt "actor" was king. A man for his age. A man big on movie titles with three words.

Well, here's one of those generic thrillers they shoot here on a regular basis. 16 Blocks probably looked good on paper, but it's mostly a good example of a two-star flick coming to town to save a few bucks. To its credit, they shot enough footage in New York—and used Toronto sparingly enough—that you almost wouldn't recognize our fair streets. Almost.

So, here we are. Another average, big-time Hollywood film that treats our hometown like so much innocuous background. Damn you, Hollywood! Mr. Magorium isn't a terrible movie, but it sure is mediocre, especially given the front-of-camera talent here.

This Norm MacDonald vehicle is not by any stretch of the imagination a good movie, but that doesn't mean it isn't funny. There's no real acting (Norm is Norm, which is just fine), it features some interesting cameos (Don Rickles, Chevy Chase, and a brilliant-but-on-death's-door Chris Farley), and (all together, now!), it was filmed on the streets of our fair city!

Last Night is that rarest of birds. Not only is it unabashedly set in Toronto, it's good! Even people outside of Canada saw it! And liked it!

Time has flown by but it's time to wrap up Marky Mark Movie Month here at Reel Toronto. We've already tackled Four Brothers and Max Payne and now it's time to reach back to 1998's The Big Hit which is a big, dumb, action flick that pokes almost enough fun at itself to be watchable. If nothing else (not to dis Marky Mark), it has a ridiculously over-the-top Lou Diamond Phillips performance which seems designed to make people start quoting him in cool situations...whether you choose to actually do so is entirely up to you.

We got all fired up last week when we started working on Four Brothers and found Mark Wahlberg is the king of Toronto action films. We figured we'd try to dig up a couple more in celebration of what we've dubbed "Marky Mark Movie Month." It didn't take us long to find the New York–set, recently-released Max Payne was a natural choice for where to go next.

As a film location, Toronto's bread and butter can easily be summed up: generic thrillers and TV movies. Heartwarming tales of the human spirit (like Good Will Hunting), or true-blue blockbusters (like The Incredible Hulk) are merely exceptions that prove the rule.

We darn near didn’t know what the heck to make of Shoot 'Em Up. Here’s a movie that’s basically an absurd, over-the-top action movie that seems to have a sense of humour about itself. So, is it an ironic send-up of such films or could they just not figure out what they were really going for? We’re still not sure, even though it starts with a dude killing another dude with a carrot.

Some people have a hate-on for ol' Ben Affleck, but we like him just fine. One of his underappreciated flicks is this here little number, Hollywoodland.

The Rocker is not the best movie, but it's at least good for a laugh or two. It’s got a great cast—everyone from Rain Wilson to Howard Hesseman!—and a decent high-concept premise. See, Wilson is the drummer in an up-and-coming hair metal band, but they cut him loose and become huge. Many moons later he hooks up with a high school band and they overcome challenges, become famous, and he gets to realize his dream, blah blah blah.

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city.

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city.

Some movies are good, some movies are bad, and some movies are so bad they are good. There are even movies that are so bad they’re not good but they at least have some sort of kitsch factor. Cocktail falls into none of these categories. It’s just plain bad. So bad that even if one ranks the Great Bar Movies of the 1980s, it takes a distant second place to Road House. So bad that the tagline was “When he pours, he reigns.” We’re not making this stuff up.

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or--in rare cases--proudly display our city.

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city.

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city.