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FILM / NOW PLAYING
Selected mini-reviews, rated on a system of 0 to 4 stars, by Rick Groen, Liam Lacey and Jennie Punter. Full reviews appeared on the dates indicated.
Hunted and haunted by the Twi-Hard hordes
Elaine Lui runs the website Laineygossip.com and is a reporter on CTV's eTalk
HIGHLIGHT JFK
Director Oliver Stone worked the conspiracy-theory angle to a fever pitch in this 1991 treatise focusing on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The controversial director assembled his script from two popular novels challenging the accepted version of JFK's death in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. The film begins with the murder of presumed lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald (Gary Oldman), then fast-forwards to the investigation into the assassination initiated by former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner). As the film's moralistic hero, Garrison deconstructs the Warren Commission Report and files charges against flamboyant New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones) for orchestrating the plot. Running nearly 3½ hours and packaged like a music video, JFK rattled some critics and historians for inflating Garrison (who appears in a cameo) into a heroic figure, and for drawing his own conclusions on the supposed cover-up. The truth: Stone has never hidden the fact that his movie was a mostly fictionalized account of events. All conspiracies aside, the story is worth a second look for the parade of A-list actors - nearly three-dozen! - in fleeting cameo roles. Standing out in the crowd is Joe Pesci playing the bewigged and bugged-out alleged conspirator David Ferri and the late John Candy as a sleazy New Orleans solicitor.
NEW MOON, NEW MEDIA / TWILIGHT MANIA
If tweets sounded like they're spelled, the mania surrounding The Twilight Saga: New Moon would have mid-November chirping like a sunny spring day.
Bella remains the most compelling attraction
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
NOW PLAYING
Selected mini-reviews, rated on a system of 0 to 4 stars, by Liam Lacey, Stephen Cole and Jennie Punter. Full reviews appeared on the dates indicated.
Even in a season of apocalyptic films, these facts are really, really scary
Collapse Directed by Chris Smith
A piece of Twilight for sale
When The Twilight Saga: New Moon is released in theatres this week, pay special attention to the Cullen house. Like it? A lot? It can be yours.
'It was drudgery, every day, I tell you'
It's rare to meet a male actor who, when asked, won't cough up his age. But Vancouver native Chris Heyerdahl will only offer his in vampire years.
FILM
The Twilight Saga: New Moon , across the country on Friday. "Excruciatingly lovely and forever 17," is how author Stephanie Meyer describes Edward Cullen, the glam-pire hero of her Twilight books. In The Twilight Saga: New Moon , the sequel to last year's box-office smash, Bella (Kristen Stewart) is devastated when Edward (Robert Pattinson) departs but finds solace with werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). Upping the erotic ante, New Moon is full of shirtless, buff were-dudes. You may have seen them in their natural habitat: They're the hairy guys at the gym who always hog the Nautilus machines.
FILM / NOW PLAYING
Selected mini-reviews, rated on a system of 0 to 4 stars, by Liam Lacey and Stephen Cole. Full reviews appeared on the dates indicated.
HIGHLIGHT / MISSISSIPPI BURNING
The shameful era of life in the American South, circa early-sixties, came flooding back in this powerful 1989 drama. Directed by Alan Parker and inspired by real-life events, the story begins with the murder of three young civil rights workers - two white and one black - in small-town Mississippi. At first considered a missing-persons case, the FBI airlifts in two agents named Anderson and Ward, played by Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe. Ward is the by-the-book type, while Anderson is more personable and more understanding of the Southern culture. Both men feel the local law enforcement's seething distrust at their presence and both are shocked at the open displays of bigotry in the town. Once the bodies are discovered, the agents have reason to suspect the Ku Klux Klan, but all efforts to gain information on the local chapter prove fruitless. Hackman and Dafoe are outstanding as the G-men thrust into the racially charged environment. The dramatic quotient is pushed higher by several brand-name support players, including Michael Rooker and Brad Dourif, as townsfolk and, most notably, Frances McDormand as the wife of an unrepentant Klansman. As in all her screen performances, McDormand is a powerful presence in a small role.
HOLLYWOOD-BOUND
The film De père en flic - which ranks as the highest-grossing French-language movie ever released in Quebec and Canada - has grabbed the attention of a major Hollywood studio.
Apocalypse by the numbers
2012 Directed by Roland Emmerich
Holiday movies
Review: A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol you can believe in
Also in Friday's film package:
ON THE WEEKEND
$31-million The Film A Christmas Carol , directed by Robert Zemeckis using performance-capture technology and starring Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge, came in on the low end of Disney's expectations.
Patricia Clarkson enjoys her career – somewhat
Her role in Cairo Time gives her an excuse to come clean with two men she used to be in love with at the same time
The Collector
There's a reason for all this torture porn: It makes money
