We managed to see Cloverfield a few weeks ago, and with the release of Diary of the Dead (above) this week, we have to say it's rather timely to discuss our opinion of it. As tired as this quote is, there's really no better way to describe Cloverfield than to take from Macbeth's famous soliloquy: "Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." It's particularly relevant because Cloverfield and Diary of the Dead are similar......

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. Mediocre Action Movie + Toronto + Sam Jackson = HELL YEAH! Let’s get this out of the way: The Long Kiss......

It's been a strange week for Leaf Nation. On Tuesday, Toronto was embarrassed 7-1 (on home ice, no less) by the Carolina Hurricanes—and by Wednesday, the media was gleefully sounding the death knell for this year's edition of the Maple Leafs. On Wednesday night's edition of Off the Record, the panel spent ten minutes analyzing what was going wrong with the Leafs' year, which by then was exactly four games old. The team had......

Out of respect for the funeral of Richard Bradshaw, the Toronto International Film Festival Group chose not to hold their traditional big final press conference in Nathan Phillips Square yesterday, and so with slightly less fanfare than usual we received a massive lump of press releases from the Festival announcing that they’ve announced absolutely everything about the festival there is to announce, pretty much. So what does that entail? Well, in the 32nd Toronto International......

Yesterday, thousands of University of Toronto students took to the front campus to protest the University's policy of allowing graduating students to bring no more than two guests to their Convocation ceremony. Their attempt at revolution fell short, and the policy stands. No, actually, the above is a shot from the trailers for the Don Cheadle vehicle Talk To Me, arriving in theatres today. Based on the context, we would guess it's supposed to......

This week our attention is almost completely owned by Cinematheque Ontario’s offerings, even with the thought of Christina Ricci chained to a radiator in Black Snake Moan grasping at us. Not only are Cinematheque Ontario hosting the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, they’re also showing From the Tsars to the Stars, a series of Russian sci-fi. How awesome is that? (There’s more to Russian sci-fi than just Solaris, doubters.) Maybe they’ll do a season......

As a movie-going experience, last night’s opening of Snakes on a Plan would be hard to beat. The audience at the Paramount was down: from the crew wearing afros (presumably a reference to star Samuel L. Jackson’s role in Pulp Fiction) dancing in the aisles before the show to the heckling on trailers (On Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning: “NO SNAKES!”), giddy anticipation was at a high. And then there was the movie itself. Perhaps......

Let’s open with an image. By far our favourite image of film in the past...Ooh, ages, Date Movie’s unique take on Napoleon Dynamite. I can almost hear the two (count ‘em) writers from Scary Movie in the pitching office. “Okay, get this, right. We’ve got a version of Napoleon Dynamite. Now, you know how all the kids are wearing those ‘Vote for Pedro’ t-shirts, right?” (The movie exec nods with recognition, a feign he’s......

Restaurants: Hero Comes to Save the Day...

They've made this movie a million times over, and they'll make it again. Samuel L. Jackson will no doubt bring home the bacon when Coach Carter, yet another in the 'whip these inner city kids into shape by showing there's more to life than sports and violence' genre, dribbles onto screens today. Meanwhile, a slightly less mainstream, but no less melodramatic offering from Pedro Almodovar, Bad Education, galumphs onto screen, replete with boy heartthrob du......