All posts tagged: movies that suck

Followup Questions: An Interview with Caelum Vatnsdal, author of They Came From Within!

November 4, 2014
by Matt
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books / film

Last week I reviewed the ten year anniversary edition of Caelum Vatnsdal’s classic Canadian horror retrospective They Came From Within. It’s an excellent book, well worth checking out if you’re into Canadian film or horror movies in general. I approached Vatnsdal’s publisher, Arbeiter Ring Publishing, about an interview and was lucky enough to ask the talented scribe a few questions about one of his favoured topics. Read on for a fun conversation about the state of Canadian […]

Review: They Came From Within (Second Edition), by Caelum Vatnsdal

October 29, 2014
by Matt
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books / film

When you think of a quintessentially “Canadian” film, what is the very first thing that comes to mind? Maybe a windswept Prairie scene, a dilapidated old farmhouse and a family tragedy somehow involving land exchanging hands? An NFB documentary, perhaps, about our country’s vast Northern wilderness, spiced up with some bear, moose or mountain goat action shots? Young men forced from their homes to look for work after economic collapse, headed towards either Toronto in […]

Review: The Fictional Man, by Al Ewing (2013)

January 5, 2014
by Matt
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books / comics / film

Here’s another fun Hollywood-centred novel to add to my recent reading, alongside Zeroville, Beautiful Ruins and Night Film. In a world just a few steps away from our own, cloning technology has advanced to the point that living, breathing humans can be crafted out of traits culled from a fictional work. Hollywood is eager to jump in on this innovation as it saves them having to think too hard about casting people for roles, and by […]

Sitting in the Dark With Strangers 2013 REVISED AND UPDATED

January 3, 2014
by Matt
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sitting in the dark with strangers

Here’s a list of all the new movies I watched in theatres (for the most part) this year, ranked from 1-47. It was a very good year! Upstream Color Spring Breakers Inside Llewyn Davis The Act of Killing The World’s End 12 Years a Slave Stoker The Broken Circle Breakdown Pain and Gain Gravity From Up on Poppy Hill Sightseers This is the End Pacific Rim The Wolf of Wall Street Rush The Grandmaster (HK […]

Review: Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter

December 17, 2013
by Matt
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books / film

The gods returned to Rome one last time in the summer of 1962, as filming began on the 20th Century Fox film Cleopatra. The production is now mostly known for being legendarily troubled and over-budget, the primary reason being the tempestuous romance between megastars Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Their frequent lovers’ quarrels, combined with Taylor’s myriad health issues and Burton’s gargantuan drinking habit, made Cleopatra run way over schedule and even threatened to destroy […]

Sitting in the Dark With Strangers 2012: Part One

January 1, 2013
by Matt
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film / sitting in the dark with strangers / the spoiler show

Hey there folks, it is once again time for the fifth (!) installment of my annual movie review post! The first few were on facebook, and I actually had to hunt around for them in preparation for this year’s list, because facebook is dumb. If you’d like to check out the previous years’ lists, here’s 2011 and 2010. The list is entirely subjective and somewhat mercurial. Each movie could probably shift around a spot or two as […]

The Spoiler Show Notes (Supplemental) – Let’s All Go to the Lobby with KEVIN MARTIN!

December 15, 2012
by Matt
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the spoiler show

Hey folks, Matt here with a supplemental Spoiler Show episode for you. This week, I had the privilege of sitting down on the couch at The Lobby and talking to Kevin Martin, owner and operator of that fine establishment. He’s also half of the dynamic duo that run Dedfest, Edmonton’s yearly horror film festival and monthly retrospective screenings at the Metro Cinema. http://spoilershow.podomatic.com/entry/2012-12-15T19_16_51-08_00 We talk at great length about the state of movies these days, […]

The Spoiler Show Notes – Episode Twenty-Five: Grab Bag!

December 15, 2012
by Matt
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the spoiler show

Hey there folks, here’s a new Spoiler Show comin’ at you! This week, Marcus and I talked about all kinds of stuff today, from the current state of the Movember project to the release of the new GTA trailer.  http://spoilershow.podomatic.com/entry/2012-11-16T06_41_20-08_00 As ever, the Creative Commons attribution link for our theme song can be found here: “Bonaparte – I Can’t Dance” (Noise Problems Selections) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 If you have any burning questions for The Spoiler […]

The Resolution Project Season Two: Never Let Me Go (2005)

November 21, 2012
by Matt
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books / the resolution project

Video Accompaniment: Linda Ronstadt, “What’ll I Do?” The Resolution Project Season Two: For my New Year’s resolution last year (2011), I decided to try and read all one hundred of the novels picked by Time Magazine as the best since their inception in 1923 to the list’s publication in 2005. I got almost halfway through. I’ve decided to bull-headedly push on through and try and finish the challenge, continuing with the same caveat as before: I’ve exempted myself […]

THE SPOILER SHOW EPISODE FIVE – PROMETHEUS ROUNDTABLE

June 29, 2012
by Matt
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the spoiler show

What’s that? It’s #spoilerfriday again? Well it must be time for another episode of The Spoiler Show! This week, Marcus and I are joined once again by Jeff “Old Man Time” Turner, as we engage in a spirited roundtable discussion of Ridley Scott’s PROMETHEUS. It’s a no holds barred look at the overarching themes and imagery of the film, with spoilers aplenty. Does this much-ballyhooed movie live up to all the hype? Listen and find […]