Posts Tagged ‘Defendor’

ISOLATION STUDIOS: WHAT TO WATCH WHEN YOU’VE ALREADY WATCHED EVERYTHING PART 6!

What to watch when you’ve already watched everything Part Five! Binge worthy, not cringe worthy recommendations from Isolation Studios in the eerily quiet downtown Toronto. Three movies to stream, rent or buy from the comfort of home isolation. Today, a human-animal hybrid, a homemade superhero and a country music legend.

Listen to the whole thing HERE!

DEFENDOR: 4 STARS

DefendorIn “Defendor” Woody Harrelson plays a man whose rich inner life spills out into his real life. By day he is dead-end-job-Arthur but by night he is Defendor, a masked superhero do-gooder. His task? To clean up the streets of Hamilton, Ontario. It sounds like the kind of thing we’ve seen before but Canadian actor turned director Peter Stebbings puts a unique spin on Arthur’s story.

Speaking in comic book clichés—“Look out termites,” he says, “it’s squishin’ time!”—and with a duct tape “D” on his chest Defendor and his homemade arsenal of weapons patrols the streets looking for crime to prevent. He’s a bit delusional, but his heart is in the right place.

“Who writes your dialogue?” asks a bad guy, “Spiderman?”

“No, I do it myself,” he answers innocently, before opening a can of whoop-ass on the guy.

His goal is to infiltrate the lair of Captain Industry, the crime king-pin Defendor believes to be responsible for all of Hamilton’s civic woes. On his journey he befriends a drug addict with a heart of gold and battles a corrupt cop (Elias Koteas).

Gritty and very funny, this is a hard one to categorize. It’s not exactly a comedy, nor is it a crime drama. It’s somewhere in between. I’m not sure if that indefinable quality will make this a harder sell at the box office or not—people like to pigeonhole their movies—but for those willing to be go along for the ride the movie is an enjoyably genre busting good time.

On paper Woody Harrelson’s role looks unpromising. He’s the disillusioned man with mental health issues who sinks into a fantasy world to help him deal with the pain of a troubled past. We’ve seen this before, but Harrelson’s mix of sincerity and pathos in his reading of the character breathes life into a role that could easily have fallen into cliché. He’s aided by a script—written by the film’s director Peter Stebbings—that gives him room to firmly establish the character, both as a superhero who believes guns are for cowards and as a real person who is tormented by his mother’s descent into a world of prostitution and drug abuse. It’s a solid performance that provides an anchor for the entire movie.

Also very strong is Kat Dennings, best know for her turn as a 13-year-old girl who hires Samantha to handle publicity for her bat mitzvah on an episode of “Sex and the City” and “The House Bunny.” Here she is the drug addicted hooker who doesn’t exactly have the proverbial heart-of-gold, but does discover the goodness in herself.

Like its main character “Defendor” is a bit delusional—it’s a low budget superhero flick going up against the Spidermans and Iron Men of the world—but like its main character I like its spunk.

Defendor an undeniable, genre-busting good time RICHARD CROUSE METRO CANADA February 19, 2010

quick-fix-movies-to-watch-defendor-imageIn Defendor, Woody Harrelson plays a man whose rich inner life spills out into his real life. By day he is dead-end-job-Arthur, but by night he is Defendor, a masked superhero do-gooder.

His task? To clean up the streets of Hamilton, Ont. It sounds like the kind of thing we’ve seen before, but Canadian actor-turned-director Peter Stebbings puts a unique spin on Arthur’s story.

His goal is to infiltrate the lair of Captain Industry, the crime king-pin Defendor believes to be responsible for all of Hammer Town’s civic woes.

On his journey he befriends a drug addict with a heart of gold (Kat Dennings) and battles a corrupt cop (Elias Koteas).

On paper Woody Harrelson’s role looks unpromising. He’s a disillusioned man with mental health issues who sinks into a fantasy world to help deal with the pain of a troubled past.

We’ve seen this before, but Harrelson’s mix of sincerity and pathos in the reading of the character breathes life into a role that could easily have fallen into cliché.

He’s aided by a script—written by Stebbings—which gives him room to firmly establish the character, both as a superhero who believes guns are for cowards and as a real person who is tormented by his mother’s descent into a world of prostitution and drug abuse.

It’s a solid performance that provides an anchor for the entire movie.

Gritty and very funny, Defendor is a hard movie to categorize. It’s not exactly a comedy, nor is it a crime drama.

It’s somewhere in between. I’m not sure if that indefinable quality will make this a harder sell at the box office or not — people like to pigeonhole their movies — but for those willing to be go along for the ride, the movie is an enjoyably genre-busting good time.

Like its main character, Defendor is a bit delusional — it’s a low budget superhero flick going up against the Spidermans and Iron Men of the world — but like its main character, I like its spunk.

Harrelson goes to battle with Captain Industry RICHARD CROUSE METRO CANADA February 16, 2010

defendor01Just 24 hours before going into production on Defendor, a funny, genre-busting superhero movie, director Peter Stebbings got a mixed message from his star Woody Harrelson.

“Woody invited me to his place and said ‘I have never been more unsure about what I’m going to do on a movie as I am on Defendor, and I’ve never been as OK with that as I am on Defendor,’” says the director.

Harrelson was prepping himself to play Arthur, an emotionally stunted man who, with the help of a homemade costume and makeshift weapons, embarks on a crime fighting spree to bring down his arch enemy, Captain Industry, in his hometown of Hamilton, Ont.

“My nerves were a jangle,” says Harrelson.

“I felt like I was out of my turf. It’s one of those things that you can study and look at it from a lot of angles, which I did, but that doesn’t mean you know what you’re doing on the day they say ‘Action!’”

Turns out the pre-game jitters were dispelled on the first day when Harrelson shot some of the film’s most difficult, emotional scenes — a series of psychological interviews opposite actress Sandra Oh.

“I’m glad it happened like that,” he says. “It pushed me. I didn’t know what I was doing but at the end of that day I told my buddy, ‘Rudy, I think I’m getting it.’”

Stebbings courted Harrelson for the part after seeing him in No Country for Old Men.

“I had two thoughts,” he says. “One: Where has he been? He took a six-year hiatus, and secondly, what a great jaw line. I thought he’s never been bad in anything he’s done and he’s always a sympathetic character so I was thrilled when he was excited to be a part of it.”

Despite his initial anxiety Harrelson is pleased with the result.

“I like the fact that Arthur is going after Captain Industry because, to me, I look at what’s wrong with the world and it’s the captains of industry — the greedy bastards who control the politicians.”  

Defendor’s stars hit the town In Focus by Richard Crouse FOR METRO CANADA September 14, 2009

UnknownWho could have imagined that one of the hottest parties at this year’s TIFF would happen on the top level of a parking garage in the heart of Toronto’s trendy Yorkville district?

On Saturday night, the stars of the gala film Defendor — along with hundreds of other party-goers and scene-makers — held sway at ET Canada’s Festival Central, a glamorous “pop up club” high atop an industrial building.

The setting was a good match for the movie, which is a mix of star power — Woody Harrelson, Kat Dennings and Elias Koteas — and downtown urban grit. It’s the story of Arthur Poppington (Harrelson), a regular man whose rich inner life spills out into his regular life. By day, he’s dead-end-job-Arthur but by night, he’s the homemade superhero Defendor who combs the streets of Hamilton in search of his arch-enemy, Captain Industry.

Wearing pink wristbands (All Access!), the stars of Defendor and other celebs (including Being Erica’s Erin Karpluk; Bridget Nickerson, Miss Canada International 2010; The Guard’s Steve Bacic; and TIFF favourite Kristin Booth) walked the red carpet on their way to mix and mingle in the elegant open-air club.

Michael Kelly, who plays Arthur’s boss in the film, told Metro that now that the premiere was done, he could take some time and relax in Toronto. The former Sopranos star said, “Tomorrow I’m going to go watch NFL football at Gretzky’s, which I do whenever I’m in town, then I’m going to go to Burrito Boys and then go to Barbarian’s tomorrow night. I’ve got it all planned out. Toronto is one of my favourite spots.”

The Canadian-born New York-based (and Robert De Niro look-a-like) Elias Koteas, who plays Arthur’s rival in the film, will be spending some time with his old friend and director Atom Egoyan. “I’m going to Chloe tomorrow and we’re doing a screening of The Adjuster on Wednesday night.

“I haven’t seen it in 19 years,” he says of the TIFF film that helped launch his career. “It’ll be wild to see myself at 28-years-old with all that hair.”

Co-star Kat Dennings told Metro she loves the festival. “It’s wonderful. Torontonians really embrace film and really love it. It seems like the whole city is really energized. There’s a buzz. It’s like a hive of Canadian film bees!”

For full coverage of the Defendor party, and a look at the fêtes for Chloe and Glorious 39, check out ET Canada weeknights at 7 p.m. on Global.