Cineplex Events has today announced that the widely popular Great Digital Film Festival will now be known as Flashback Film Fest. The event is Canada’s only coast-to-coast festival, bringing a line-up of sci-fi, fantasy and fan favourites back to the big screen. This year, Cineplex Events and renowned film critic, Richard Crouse, curated a line-up of 17 of the most blood-pumping, thrill-inducing and heart-warming films in cinema that will screen in over 24 cities across the country from February 3-9, 2017.
Please click here for a message from Richard Crouse and Cineplex Pre-Show Host Tanner Zipchen.
“We wanted to give the festival a new name that better reflects how it has evolved and why it has been so popular over the years,” said Brad LaDouceur, Vice President, Event Cinema. “Flashback Film Fest fits perfectly with our Event Cinema business which offers guests exciting, unique content that ranges from classic films to renowned stage productions. We take them on tours of famous galleries and put them courtside at sporting events without them ever having to set foot on a plane, or in this case, a time machine.”
“The great thing about this festival is that audiences will have a chance to relive these movies in the way they were meant to be seen; on a big screen, with an audience,” said author and film critic, Richard Crouse. “The best and most powerful way to see a movie is to fully immerse yourself in the theatre experience, surrounded by people who are enjoying it just as much as you are. I’m personally looking forward to seeing films like Fight Club, Blade Runner – The Final Cut, Pulp Fiction and Shallow Grave in all their glory.”
The 2017 Flashback Film Fest Line-up includes:
Air Force One (1997) *20 year anniversary
Blade Runner – The Final Cut (2007) *10 year anniversary/35 year anniversary of original
Blood Simple (1984)
Fargo (1996)
The Fifth Element (1997) *20 year anniversary
Fight Club (1999)
The Fugitive (1993)
Groundhog Day (1993)
Heat (1995)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Legend (1985)
The Princess Bride (1987) *30 year anniversary
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Running Man (1987) *30 year anniversary
Shallow Grave (1994)
Starship Troopers (1997) *20 year anniversary
Trainspotting (1996)
Tickets for festival films cost $7.99, $6.99 for 5 or more films and new this year film fanatics can buy the “I Want It All” pass for $69.99 allowing them access to all 17 films for a price of $4.11 per admission. For a complete list of show times, or to purchase tickets, visit Cineplex.com/FBFF .
Richard and Cineplex pre-show host Tanner Zipchen announce this year’s Flashback Film Festival! More details to come… in the meantime watch Tanner and Richard HERE!
There was a time when serial killers ruled the movie theatres. Movies like “Kiss the Girls,” “Se7en” and “Silence of the Lambs” were big hits and law enforcement types like Alex Cross and Clarice Starling were big draws. Now those stories have been moved to the small screen and television shows like “CSI” and “Criminal Minds” track down the kinds of killers their big screen counterparts used to stalk.
“The Calling” is a throwback to the type of 90s thrillers that made Ashley Judd a star and kept audiences on the edge of their seats.
Drawn from the pages of Inger Ash Wolfe’s mystery novels, Susan Sarandon plays pill-popping Detective Hazel Micallef, a world weary small town Canadian cop just a drunken whisper away from unemployment. The sleepy little town of Fort Dundas doesn’t offer up much in the way of major cases until a string of grisly murders—slit throats and organ removals—forces Micallef to dust off her detecting skills and track down a killer with driven by fanatical religious fervor.
First time director Jason Stone ratchets the bleak atmosphere up to Creep Factor Five in this eerie character driven mystery. There’s a little bit of “Fargo” in the mix, with some dark humor—“I just found the guy’s stomach!”—and disquieting imagery, but the real draw is watching the characters navigate through the film’s unsettled but strangely familiar world.
Sarandon is terrific as outwardly tough detective with a self-destructive center, while Sutherland brings his patented gravitas to the role of a priest who knows more than he is willing to let on. They, along with Grace, Burstyn (who isn’t given enough to do) and Gil Bellows as a no nonsense detective, temper the story’s more outrageous holistic killer Catholic elements.
“The Calling” could have snapped up the pacing a bit, but the slower tempo gives us more time to sit back and enjoy the performances.
“January 12, 1965. Very snowy that day. 7.2 inches of snow that day.” – Rain Man
1. Snow Business Hollywood, a leader in providing fake snow for movies, says they have 168 products they can use to create screen snow. What’s the advantage to filmmakers of using artificial snow on a film set? “You can control it,” says owner Roland Hathaway. “Also, you’re never dealing with the cold weather.”
2. To create the sound of swirling snow heard on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back
Foley Artists recorded surf sounds and tinkered with the sound by raising and lowering the volume. The Empire Strikes Back was shot at Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, the same film studio where The Shining was made. As a result much of the fake snow used for Kubrick’s film was also used for the Hoth scenes.
3. Asbestos was often used as fake snow in Hollywood films in the 1930s and 40s. The White Christmas sequence in Holiday Inn—showing Bing Crosby singing the classic tune amid the falling snow—exposed the cast and crew to asbestos fiber.
4. The “snowy” maze near the conclusion of The Shining consisted of 900 tons of salt and crushed Styrofoam.
5. Fake snow was also used during the uncharacteristically snowless Denver shoot for Die Hard 2.
6. Sam Raimi learned some techniques about shooting in heavy snow or A Simple Plan from the Coen brothers, friends of his who had been responsible for Fargo.
7. It’s a Wonderful Life was shot in the sweltering heat of a Los Angeles summer in 1946, necessitating the need for fake snow. Instead of using cornflakes painted white—which was loud when stepped on—director Frank Capra and RKO studio’s head of special effects Russel Sherman invented a quiet—and sprayable—version by mixing foamite with sugar, water and soap flakes to create the winter wonderland of Bedford Falls.
8. The usually snowy Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport was chosen as the location for the field and terminal scenes in Airport but the film’s producers had to use bleached sawdust as a supplement, to make up for the lack of falling snow, until a snowstorm hit the Twin Cities area during the production of the film.
9. A “beginner” model movie snow machine will set you back about £1000 ($1584.02 in Canadian dollars.)
10. To create blowing snow for a scene, throw laundry soap flakes or instant potato flake in front of a powerful fan. Be warned! Soap flakes can make the set slippery. To make laying snow mix 1⅓ cups of liquid starch, 4 cups of laundry soap flakes and several drops of blue food colouring. To add a sparkling effect, add glitter.
