Celebrate the 75th anniversary of “Sunset Boulevard” with us and check out my filmed introduction to the classic Hollywood film noir on the big screen!
“75 years later the movie holds up, not just because of intense performances or beautifully crafted filmmaking, but because the issues it addressed in 1950 are still hot button topics today. I couldn’t help but see echoes pf “Sunset Boulevard” in “The Substance.” Of course, Billy Wilder could never have imagined the extremes of “The Substance’s” visuals, but both films, made decades apart, are timely Hollywood horror stories about what happens when the white-hot spotlight of show biz dims.”
HERE‘s a preview. To see the whole thing, check your local Cineplex listings for times and a theatre near you!
Celebrate the 10th anniversary of “Mad Max: Fury Road” with us and check out my filmed introduction to the classic action movie on the big screen!
“It is a chase movie where characters chase immortality, a new life in a better place, love and one another across a vivid landscape. Gone are the grey tones of dystopian movies like ‘The Road.’ In its place is a dusty but vibrant backdrop that frames the non-stop action. Miller keeps the pedal to the metal but he keeps the action earthbound. The laws of physics are respected by the director’s use of practical effects. So, for instance, when a car blows up it doesn’t rocket into space, instead it explodes spectacularly but organically…” HERE‘s a preview. To see the whole thing, check your local Cineplex listings for times and a theatre near you!
I’ll be doing an on-screen introduction for the 30th anniversary of “Clerks” at Cineplex’s Classic Film Series this May.
“Years after Kevin Smith used his four years of experience working as a clerk in New Jersey convenience stores as the basis for his first film, he told me, ‘I didn’t make ‘Clerks’ wondering what the critics would think. I made it because I wanted to see it. I wanted to see what it would look like.'”
“Smith says he was inspired by Richard Linklater’s “Slackers” to make movies, so much so, he enrolled at the Vancouver Film School. After just four months he decided to quit, thinking that making his own film was a better use of money…” Buy tickets HERE!
I’ll be doing the on-screen introductions for “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Rear Window” at Cineplex’s Classic Film Series this October and November!
Find out which famous film director was so traumatised by “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” he became a vegetarian for four years after seeing the film and my favorite line in “Rear Window.”
50 years ago, five youths on a weekend getaway in the Texas countryside fell prey to a butcher in a mask made of human skin and his cannibalistic family, and horror cinema would never be the same. Violent, confrontational, and shockingly realistic, director Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre terrified audiences in a way never thought possible when it was unleashed on a politically and socially tumultuous America in 1974.
Rear Window (1954)
Select Screenings from Nov. 8 – 14
Tickets on sale soon
The story of a recuperating news photographer who believes he has witnessed a murder. Confined to a wheelchair after an accident, he spends his time watching the occupants of neighbouring apartments through a telephoto lens and binoculars and becomes convinced that a murder has taken place.
More info from Cineplex.com:
From creepy classics to new nightmares, Cineplex has genre fans covered with a spooktacular Halloween lineup. Kicking off with the 50th anniversary of Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacreand the late, great Shelley Duvall’s final film, The Forest Hills, Cineplex will also screen the 40th anniversary of Wes Craven’s timeless slasher A Nightmare on Elm Street, the 20th anniversary of the zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead, the 10th anniversary of the supernatural horrorIt Follows, before wrapping up Halloweekend with the 65th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock’s gripping North by Northwest.
Continuing to honour the master of suspense, Cineplex will present additional Hitchcock classics with the 70th anniversaries of Dial M for Murder and Rear Windowon the big screen throughout Noirvember, as well as the 75th anniversary of Orson Welles’ memorable performance in The Third Man.
From Cineplex: In celebration of Keanu Reeves’ milestone 60th birthday this September, Cineplex will honour the legendary actor with special screenings of his most timeless films. From his roles as the reluctant hero Neo to the lovable and clueless Ted to the vengeful and intense John Wick, Reeves is one the most beloved Hollywood stars to come out of Canada. Cineplex invites audiences to celebrate his remarkable career by screening six indisputable classics at ‘Keanu-Fest’. Cineplex will commemorate the 35th anniversary of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, the 25th anniversary of The Matrix, and the 10th anniversary of John Wickby bringing these essential films back to the big screen for a limited time. There will also be VIP one-night-only screenings of his unforgettable supporting roles in Parenthood,Something’s Gotta Give, a fun screening of Point Break with RiffTrax, providing comedic live commentary on this 90’s classic, and a Saturday matinee of his hilarious appearance in the family favourite The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run.
Screening from August 30 throughout September in select theatres nationwide, the special screenings are part of Cineplex’s year-round programming.
Celebrate Keanu’s birthday month and the 25th anniversary of “The Matrix” with a special introduction from Richard Crouse during select showings from Sept. 6 – 19, 2024. Check cineplex.com for more details.
“The Meg” stars Jason Statham. There’s a giant shark. Its tagline is “Pleased to eat you.” There is no need for a review. You know exactly what you’re getting into here but, because I am paid by the word, here we go.
Based on the book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten, “the Meg” sees action-man Statham play Jonas Taylor, a rescue diver who must face his fears to save the crew of a marooned deep-sea submersible from a fate worse than sharknado. Think Quint from “Jaws” without the expressive range. Years before Taylor narrowly escaped being eaten by a 70-foot shark, the Carcharodon megalodon—“Meg” for short—a 100,000 pound, prehistoric great white thought to have been extinct for about 2 million years. Now it appears the giant beast is back and hungry for the crew trapped inside the submersible. Hired by Chinese oceanographer (Winston Chao) Taylor must not only save the stranded sailors but also make sure the Meg doesn’t eat the world… or something. “Man versus Maggie isn’t a fight,” he grunts, “it’s a slaughter.
“The Meg” tries to take all of the thrills of Shark Week and compress them into two hours. It almost gets there but not quite. There are some silly thrills but humungous squids, scientific mumbo jumbo and b-movie dialogue that would make Roger Corman blush buffer the excitements.
“The Meg” is ridiculous. Start to finish. It’s a giant shark story that plays like a watery “Valley of Gwangi.” The key to its ridiculous effervescence is twofold. First, the aforementioned giant shark. Second, Jason Statham, the po-faced hero who, deep down, knows this is silly but is too stoic to admit it to himself or to us. Some people are method actors, relying on past experiences to create their performances. Statham simply glowers. He’s an actor whose dead-eyed stares make up 95% of his method. Running, punching and blowing up sharks comprise the other 5%. Range? He don’t need no stinking range, he just needs to save the world or at least whatever is in peril. A reassuring presence, he’s exactly the same in every movie regardless of the plot. No surprises, just extreme machismo with a side order of sentimentality. Here it works. He’s like a silent movie star, easy to read and fun to watch and without him “The Meg” wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.
“The Meg” has a few scenes that’ll make you chew your popcorn a bit faster and doesn’t skimp on the silly. In fact, there probably won’t be a more hare-brained underwater adventure this year until “Aquaman.”
Keep an eye open for Richard’s “Oklahoma!” primer in the Cineplex Pre-Show. The movie, which celebrates its 60th birthday this month will screen at select Cineplex theatres across the country on May 10, 2015. Click HERE for more information.
The most famous movie about the 20th-largest state in the United States wasn’t actually shot on home soil. The movie of Oklahoma! based on one of the most loved Broadway musicals of all time—the original 1943 stage production ran for 2,212 performances—was actually shot in Arizona and on Hollywood sound stages.
Director Fred Zinneman wanted to shoot the story of two young cowboys, both in love with the beautiful Laurey, in Oklahoma but the real state in 1955 was so heavily developed with farms and oil wells that few authentic locations could be found that resembled the undeveloped Oklahoma of the show’s rural turn of the twentieth century setting.
To maintain some sort of legitimacy the town of Nogales, Arizona was made an “honorary” part of the state of Oklahoma for the duration of the film shoot by order of the governor of Arizona… To learn more check out the Cineplex preshow!
I own a lot of DVDs and Blu Rays. In fact, if you poke around the closets, drawers and hidden nooks of my house you’ll uncover old VHS videos and a handful of laser discs as well.
Trouble is, I rarely ever watch them. Given my line of work as a film critic I like having instant access to my favorite movies, but until the day comes when I can erect a giant screen in the den and have 50 people over to watch them with me, my preferred way to see a film will always be in the cinema, surrounded by strangers.
I love a big picture, big sound and hearing the reactions from an audience. There is no better sound than 500 people laughing at the same thing, or a few hundred gasping simultaneously in horror. Movies bring us together and, for my money, are best experienced in large groups.
So, when Cineplex asked me to help program the Great Digital Film Festival I was thrilled. Instead of rooting through dusty piles of DVDs to see some of my favorite films I now have the chance to see them the way they were meant to be seen, on the big screen.
To choose the films programmer Matt DeVuono and I asked ourselves one question, What movies would we like to see again on the big screen? Seems easy, but we’re both film geeks and the list quickly got unwieldy. We pared it down, looking for connections and anniversaries in amongst all the cool titles we had chosen. Eventually we had a list that included everything from all the X-Men movies, to retro cult hits like The Rocketeer and The Monster Squad, and a twofer from Guillermo Del Toro, Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy. We also programmed 25th anniversary screenings of Darkman and Dick Tracy, Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2, and for sci fi fans, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, Alien and Aliens.
Another of the great pleasures of helping to put this together was the chance to sit and speak, exclusively, to Guillermo Del Toro about the making of Pan’s Labyrinth. It is a beautiful film and he was very open and honest about the challenges of bringing his vision to the screen. That interview will run just before the movie on the Monday and Thursday of the festival.
The Great Digital Film Festival is the country’s only national film festival, but more than that, it’s a way to reconnect and remember why we loved these movies in the first place.
Cineplex’s Great Digital Film Festival is on right now at 26 theatres across Canada. Check out pristine prints of sic fi, horror and genre favourites like The Monster Squad, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, Darkman, Dick Tracy, Alien, Aliens, Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2 and much more! Find out details HERE!
As an added bonus at screenings of The Monster Squad, Darkman, Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2, Dick Tracy, Richard will introduce the movies on the big screen! The Monday February 2 and Thursday February 5 screenings of Pan’s Labyrinth will feature Richard’s exclusive interview with director Guillermo Del Toro on the making of the film!
Celebrate the 75th anniversary of “Sunset Boulevard” with us and check out my filmed introduction to the classic Hollywood film noir on the big screen!
