The Little Prince gets a little lost
Movie review: The Little Prince
An uneven effort with plenty of good intentions, Mark Osborne's adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's kid-lit classic gains a new dimension but loses some depth
Robert Carlyle boards new train as director
People: Robert Carlyle
Robert Carlyle gets back to his Glaswegian roots and takes a bit off the top as a barber with Barbicide on his mind, and a mother who loves a good game of bingo as much as a grisly murder in The Legend of Barney Thomson.
By Katherine Monk
VANCOUVER, BC – Everyone’s been asking him about Trainspotting 2, but Robert Carlyle has more on his plate than a plan to reprise the role of Begbie in an as-yet-to-be scripted sequel to Danny Boyle’s breakout film about heroin addicts.
For the past few years, he’s been living in Vancouver playing Mr. Gold in the successful Disney TV series Once Upon a Time, and before that, he was Dr. Nicholas Rush in the B.C.-shot SGU: Stargate Universe. He says he loves Canada’s west coast. But after making his directorial debut with the Glasgow-shot black comedy Barney Thomson, released in theatres this week, Carlyle says he’s looking at a tough decision somewhere down the road. He may want to hang around town. Even ...
Peanuts, Macbeth, a big whale and an evil car hit home entertainment
Entertainment: @home releases for March 8
Embrace the joy of Snoopy or explore the many faces of man-made evil as Michael Fassbender cuts to the bone in Macbeth, James McAvoy breathes life into Frankenstein and James Brolin tries to stop a killer car
By Katherine Monk
We love you, Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie (4/5)
The hand-drawn essence of Charles Schulz’s iconic comic strip comes through with flying colors in this gentle transition to digital from Ice Age director Steve Martino. Martino and the animators realized they didn’t need to reinvent the characters for a modern audience by making Charlie Brown look like a human kid, or turn Snoopy into a drooling lump of pixelated fur.
They went for the feel of the source material: ever roving between pre-teen daydream, birthday party bliss and existential angst – with an emphasis on the latter, because it’s that quiet ache of looming adulthood that makes Peanuts the pop culture monolith it is.
Charlie ...
London Has Fallen and it can’t get up
Movie review: London Has Fallen
Gerard Butler returns as the bulletproof bodyguard who slays terrorists, butchers an American accent and saves the free world before breakfast
News: The National Film Board and Vimeo launch new service
News: Streaming Services
New platform showcasing short films from the Oscar-winning studio is available now
By The Ex-Press
It’s the first rule of drug dealers and encyclopedia salesmen: The first one is always free. And now, the National Film Board will be adopting a similar strategy hoping to get you addicted to short films.
Partnering with Vimeo, the on-line streaming service, the NFB has created NFB Shorts on Demand. The subscription-based, on-demand platform (SVOD) was unveiled in a press release late Wednesday — declaring it available immediately.
One newly added film will always be available for free, but after that, there’s a $4.99 subscription fee for monthly unlimited streaming, a $1.99 single streaming fee, or a $3.99 charge for download-to-own.
The new outlet is designed to showcase the latest work coming out of the acclaimed studio, unlike the current film board website, which allows access to a great deal of the deep and decorated short film ...
Loved The Danish Girl, Hated Lili
Movie review: The Danish Girl
How Alicia Vikander's performance as a wife who loses her husband to another woman proves there's more to being a female than donning silk frocks and fancy shoes
The Ben Affleck Batman Smackdown!
Superheroes: Who Makes the Best Batman?
Batman vs. Superman - Dawn of Justice may be getting all the attention, but Ben Affleck has already fought the first battle just by taking on the role of the truly human superhero beneath the cowl.
By Chris Lackner
Holy happenstance Batman! Who could have predicted Ben Affleck would give us the best caped crusader yet?
That’s not one of The Riddler’s tricky questions. The supporting evidence was there long before Affleck’s greying, embittered, flinty-eyed Bruce Wayne showed up in trailers for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Affleck’s initial casting sent fans and pundits into an uproar. (Apparently, two Oscar wins doesn’t give you enough cred to don a cape). Ahead of the film’s March 23 debut, we examine why the actor’s critics were blind as a bat:
Hollywood’s Dynamic Duo:
Affleck was tailor-made for this part. He’s been playing Batman to Matt Damon’s Superman ever since Good Will Hunting. Damon has always ...
The Ex-Press Oscar Predictions 2016
Movies: Oscars 2016
Our expert guide -- and some good guesses -- about who will win the little man with the gold complexion come curtain time
By Katherine Monk
Chris Rock is in a hard place. Hosting this year’s Oscars isn’t a task for amateurs who get by on dimples, he’ll need to do an entirely different song and dance and address, and hopefully undress, the diversity issue that continues to ripple through every corner of the industry, putting legendary stars in embarrassing situations.
Poor Meryl Streep. You know she’s going to get some zinger about about how “we all come from Africa.” And poor Sylvester Stallone, having to represent Creed as the white guy, and poor Bryan Cranston and Michael Fassbender who handed in spectacular performances as two different brands of genius in Trumbo and Steve Jobs but will not take home the big prize.
It was a year of great performances in so-so movies, or at least movies that never fully connected with audiences in the ...
Movie review: Where to Invade Next
Movie review: Where to Invade Next
Michael Moore plays chatty tour guide as he treks through Europe to discover healthy school lunches, free college tuition and - gasp! - women in power!
