13 Days of Hallowe'en 2019 Day 10

Day 10

movie: Sheep Skin
starring: Michael Schantz, Laurence Mullaney
genre: Crime, Thriller
year: 2013
format: TV Edit

plot: After his sister is killed, a drug addict and his friends kidnap the ex-boyfriend, believing he's a werewolf.

Not really a horror film, not really a thriller either, but a decent drama. Except for the first five minutes, everything happens within one room, and the character's paranoia pits everyone against each other. I think that's what brilliant about this story. It plays on the claustrophobia and mistrust created by the fear and prejudice the main characters already have. You've got a great metaphor happening for 90% of this film, the other 10% is ...well a werewolf movie.

The pay off in the last 2 minutes, you can see coming a mile away, but it works. I found myself smirking and nodding to the last scene as the screen went black. It takes a long time to get to the point, but the rest of the movie is actually good. You don't mind how long it takes to get to it.

And yes, there is a werewolf transformation, even though it ends up more of a man in a gorilla suite which makes you laugh out loud. I don't know if the intention was just to straight up do a werewolf movie, or if the intention was more to explore the metaphor of fear? I felt it did one better than the other. Through most of the movie you are watching the lead character lose his mind more and more as he's trying to prove he's right and coming up empty. The fact that midway the character is caught taking a handful of pills, causing his credibility to be questioned helps to put more doubt in the viewer's mind.

As a movie about fear and paranoia, this is pretty decent.

Okay, I'm going to bury this here in the graveyard. I'll be back tomorrow with another treat for your Hallowe'en displeasure.

year 5 day 166

movie: The To Do List
starring: Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Scott Porter
genre: Comedy, Drama
year: 2013
format: Netflix Canada

plot: When an over achiever high school student decides she's going to loose her virginity to the hot guy she works with, she also decides to learn everything she can about sex first.

Isn't that sort of the goal of all teenagers? Have as much sex as you can before you get out of your teens?  Was it funny? Sort of. It had it's moments.

It's set in the early 1990's, when sex was still a bit of a mystery to the average teen, unlike today where the internet has exposed...all puns intended...everything. This almost feels like it's trying to be another version of Sex in the City, but doesn't really make it.  The lead character keeps turning to her friends for some advice, but they end up knowing less than she does. Their innocence seems to be focused through their big desire to do nothing but watch the movie Beaches before heading off into the real world.

The other main theme here seems to be not just taking control of your own sex life, but knowing when to keep emotions out of it and when to let them run wild. Or at lest it seems to up till  the end, where it's almost as if the writer/producer/director had to figure out how to sew it all up in a neat little bow, because the lead comes to the big conclusion that emotions are everything.  As she's caught between the guy she's crazy about and the best guy friend she's been "using" all summer who's crazy about her.

what did I learn? I will never understand the appeal of the movie Beaches.

year 5 day 110

movie: 47 Ronin
starring: Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada
genre: Action
year: 2013
format: Netflix Canada

plot: After being disgraced during a jousting competition, a Japanese lord is killed, leaving his villagers outcasts and his daughter at the mercy of a rival. Now that the lord's Samurai are banished and unable to get revenge, they must find away to regain their honor.

So this is halfway based on a real historical events and folklore but with added fairy tale creatures/magick.  And it's about 15 minutes too long. Seriously, they could have removed some of the film and it would have still been fine, or better yet not have everyone speaking so slowly. It was worst than listening to those bad William Shatner impressions people do where they make every word a sentence of it's own.

The story wasn't bad. It had some grit to it, but it dragged. I would have liked to have seen more witchy-whoo-hoo, but I always want more mojo in things.
You could have dropped everyone into England with a Merlin type and it would have come out the same. The king gets vindicated, the princess gets rescued, and the knights slay a few dragons. In fact, the whole backbone of the story is planted firmly on the idea of courtly love. That unrequited love that every story that has a princess and knight seem to carry.

what did I learn?  There is always a dragon to slay

year 5 Day 64

movie: Afternoon Delight
starring: Kathryn Hahn, Josh Radnor
genre:Drama
year: 2013
format: Netflix Canada

plot: Unsatisfied with her daily life, a bored housewife invites a stripper to move in with her family.

This movie has a slow pace to it, at first coming across like it's going to be a story of opposites. But as it progresses, it's purely the inner struggles of the lead character.  She becomes obsessed with this young stripper after her and her husband go to a strip club together, to the point she starts hanging around outside the club. The two women form a friendship, and when the stripper is suddenly homeless, she takes her in.

The story starts off about the lack of a sex life between the wife and her husband, but evolves more into a lack of real connection that the lead is feeling in general. We see her begrudgingly continue to hang out with the other moms in her group of friends, tired of the constant talk of  school fundraisers and recipes, feeling trapped. We see her therapist telling her about her own life, instead of the other way around, soaking up what's left of her self esteem. Meanwhile, her husband is doing the same things with his buddies he'd done forever, never feeling the same lack of connection.

It wasn't a new story, bit on the predictable side. But it kept my attention more then I thought it would.  You almost have to wonder if this should be taken as a cautionary tale? The lead under the guise of wanting to help someone, is actually reaching out herself for help. It's not till everything falls apart on her that she realizes what she was really doing.

what did I learn? Not everything is about you even when it is.

February Food n Flix

This month's Food n Flix selection is The Lunch Box, and is being hosted by Culinary Adventures with Camilla.

 plot: After making lunch for her husband, and finding out it was delivered to the wrong person, a young housewife finds herself in an emotional affair.

This is the 2013 drama starring Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur 

I talked about this movie before on the blog  (Year 3 Day 141)
And once again, I watched this on Netflix Canada, so you will notice a lack of dvd cover in the photos. 

For those of you who have been following my blog for the last year during the group posts, you know I get teased for the fact I like to be thorough with my food lists seen in the movies.  Well, yeah that ain't going to happen this time around. The movie's food scenes kicked my arse. I don't cook this style of food, rarely eat it, and had some difficulty identifying  most of what was seen.
I did however, see rice, apples, bananas, green beans, tortillas, curry soup/vindaloo, deep fried rice balls, tea/coffee, spices, yogurt, bottled pop/juice, bread, carrots, potatoes, onions.  The subtitles mentioned cauliflower, pasanda, lamb, wantons (the sign they are standing in front of).  Then there was what I think I saw... ravioli, stuffed plantain, noodle salad, jerky and candy (at the stand when he buys cigarettes) spare ribs or chicken wings (wasn't a close up couldn't really tell), stuffed grape leaves, rice pudding (one of the end scenes when he is talking about the wedding and they are just holding a dessert cup of something) and I thought of sardines (the fact everyone is jammed on the bus) twix (every time he grabbed his glasses case)

So, because I thought at one point there had been a spicy curried rib, I really wanted to do that. And you're all thinking...what? You're a vegetarian, you blast that fact every chance you get!  True. I have been a veggie since 2001. But, my mother let me talk her into letting me cook for her. She can't do spicy food, so I ended up compromising with a honey garlic sauce, and they were drumettes. (I couldn't find any spare ribs that morning)

They, ironically turned out beautiful. But when I pulled up the movie once again to show my mother what I was planning, I realized, that it was not ribs in the scene.

And you're wondering, why am I bothering to talk about it if it's in the end, nothing to do with the movie?  After I thought about it, it sort of fit with the whole "mistaken identity" part of the film.

Mistaken Identity Wings

Tin foil the baking sheet, then lightly oil the surface

rinse the drumettes before placing on the oiled tin foil

cook for 30 minutes depending on your oven at 350 degrees





The honey garlic sauce, is the most basic you can do,

mix to your taste, the honey and soy sauce
with 1 Tablespoon of minced garlic



I used a prepackaged minced garlic, simply because my mother doesn't keep spices in her place and I didn't want to be carrying more then I needed to.


Stir till desired consistency, then pour over chicken

cook for another 20 minutes, turning it over at the midway point

Okay, so as I stated, I'm vegetarian so I DID NOT eat these myself.  It's been fifteen years since I've cooked any kind of meat dish, so for me this was a big step towards rebuilding my skills. And they must have been good, because mother devoured them without complaint.

And some of you might be scratching your head, wondering why would I make something I can't eat or for that matter, taste test during cooking myself? To be brutally honest, I get ideas for these films sometimes that I haven't done simply because you can only do so much with tofu and potatoes.

Year 5 Day 38

movie: Thor 2 Dark World
starring: Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins
genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy
year: 2013
format: TV Edit

plot:Asgard is under attack, and Thor must team up with Loki to save it.

Dude, I got confused. The Natalie Portman character was possessed by a doorway?  And for some reason there was an insane guy with spacy-weapons...that's what you get with tv edits, lately lots of confusion. So we had a parasitic doorway that ended up with demonic style powers...I think. Then the bad guy sucked up the parasitic doorway like a leech and became walking charcoal.

What I did understand was that in typical sequel fashion, the hero had to team up with the villain to battle an even bigger bad.  There were a lot of space ship air fights, that sort of seemed out of place. And the battle scenes seemed to drag on, and actually made it feel like we were watching the same scene over and over. I don't know if that was just because it was a tv edit or what?

what did I learn? Science/Medicine and the occult are the same, pay attention.

year 5 Day 29

movie: Iron Man 3
starring: Robert Downey Jr., Guy Pearce
genre: Action, Sci-fi
year:2013
format:TV Edit

plot: When a series of bombings brings up unanswered questions, Stark begins to research on his own. What he digs up is not just an elaborate plan to kill the president, but ghosts from his own past.

So I got to see one of the missing pieces to the Avengers series. And in true superhero fashion, everything got blown up. Big kabooms all around.
I know this was a tv edit, but I would have liked an explanation to why in the big fight scene at the end, Pearce's character suddenly had glowing tattoos? One second he was normal, commercial break and the next chest full of glowing dragons.

The film seemed to focus a lot on the relationship between Stark and the kid. I don't know if that was the angle of the film originally, or the angle created from the tv edit? But I thought it was interesting and kept waiting for some be revelation about the kid. Which never came. Again, that might have been because it was a tv edit.

what do I think I learned? You can do a lot of damage with x-mas balls and a nail gun.

Year 5 Day 14

movie: The Paperboy
starring: Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman
genre: Drama, Crime,
year:2012/2013
format; Netflix Canada

plot:While reporting about a murder, a young reporter is dragged into the center of it. Falling for the girlfriend of the man who's innocence he's trying to help prove, while learning about some of the darker aspects to those around him.

This is based on the novel of the same name.

This starts off as a pretty straight forward crime story, but looses itself a bit when it takes a turn into the relationship between the Efron character and Kidman's.  It's dark without really jumping full throttle into the shadows, just sort of edging around them.
I can't say I didn't like it, and I can't fully say I did.  There is a semi-sex scene that is between Kidman and John Cusack. It's devised to be as awkward as possible, as Kidman shows what she's willing at that point to do for her boyfriend; with many cut aways to the other characters while they are stuck in the room with them.

The ending as predictable as it is, still manages to pack a punch, as we see Efron's character making his way through the swamp.  I do like the scene earlier in the film, where Efron is swimming and attacked by the jellyfish, and manages to in his dizziness focus on Kidman. It's the point in the character's arch where he realizes there is no going back to what his life was like before meeting her.

what do i think i learned from this movie? Love is never cut and dry, there are too many reasons not to take the risk and too many reasons to.

Year 5 Day 11

movie: kickass 2
starring: Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Aaron Taylor-Johnson
genre:Action, Comedy
year: 2013
format:Netflix Canada

plot:After the death of her father, Hit Girl tries to live a normal life but finds herself unable. Meanwhile, Red Mist faces the death of his mother, and descends into further madness, creating his army of super villains.

Based on the comic book series.

I don't have a lot to say about this one. It has it's moments, but it lacks in areas. There is one action scene where Hit Girl is on top of a moving van that plays like something you would expect from a typical action film. Her character is dealing with a whole mean girls thing, which almost makes it seem like two separate movies sliced together at times.
We see the after affects of the superhero movement, with other people suddenly in costumes trying to clean up the city. The message is there to not sit on the sidelines letting the bad happen.
Then you have the Red Mist character, who gets a name change and actually ends up being the comic relief for 90% of the film.

This is the part of the blogging day I love...we get to play my favourite game; how many actors in this movie have done vampire movies: Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Fright Night remake) Jim Carrey (Once Bitten) Chloe Grace Moretz (Dark Shadows) Steven Mackintosh (Underworld 2 and 3)

what do i think I learned from this film?  don't have sharks for pets, they will eventually eat you.

Year 5 Day 9

movie: The English Teacher
starring: Julianna Moore, Michael Angarano
genre:Comedy, Romance
year;2013
format: Netflix Canada

plot:When a high school English teacher, bumps into one of her former students one night, after hearing about how he's been struggling to get his play done, she vows to help. She manages to talk the school board into producing the play, and before long everyone who's involved is involved.

Jealousy, greed, secret crushes gone wrong. Kind of a predictable film, but funny enough to keep you wanting to watch. Moore is pretty much gold in everything she does, and she manages to take this desperate housewife style mid-life crisis and give it some believability.

Luckily, they only did one musical number, and given it was Nathan Lane signing, I forgive the film that two minutes. But I have to say, like the theme running through the film, in which everyone wants to change the ending of the play,  I hated the ending.  The ending wrapped up too sweet for me.  *spoiler alert* she ends up with the dad of the student she had the affair with.

what do I think I learned from this film? High school is never over.

13 Days of Halowe'en Day 9

Carrie (remake)

plot: After being bullied by the girls in her school, a shy girl learns that she has telekinesis. One of the girls; Sue, feels guilty, and tries to make up for her part in the bullying, by letting Carrie go to the prom with her boyfriend. But Chris, one of the worst of the bullies, had video taped the incident, and after getting caught, is banned from the prom. Chris takes revenge by setting a trap for Carrie, which involves rigging the prom votes and a bucket of blood. Carrie soon turns her high school humiliation into a town wide disaster.

This is the 2013 thriller starring Chloe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore. Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.

Well...I watched this online, and it didn't really have many differences from the original 1976 movie version. I did think the ending of the pregnant nightmare was an interesting way to come full circle in the story though. 
I was glad to see, that they did not over do it with modern technology in this version. The use of cell phones and internet as props were kept to a minimum. I don't think you can make a movie that will hold up over time, when you over run it with gadgets. It dates something worse then any bad fashion/hairdo could.

I would have loved to have seen some more back story for Moore's character of the mother. For instance, there is a scene where she has to deal with a customer in her shop and she starts to slice her leg open under the counter while the customer rambles on. Why? I would love to have been given a few scenes where we learned more about what made her the way she was.

13 days of Hallowe'en Day 7

Warm Bodies

plot: A few years into the zombie apocalypse, we follow a few of the zombies through their daily life. One of whom, after eating the brain of a young man, begins to take on his memories and emotions, falling in love with the dead guy's girl. Fearing separation from the new love interest, the zombie takes it upon himself to keep her safe, and accidentally exposes her to a worse breed of zombie.

This is the 2013 romantic comedy starring Nicholas Hoult and John Malkovich. Based on the book of the same name.

Have I mentioned lately how much I really really really hate the story Romeo and Juliet? Cause I do. I was always a Hamlet girl myself.  But...that's what you've got here, a zombie spin on the Shakespeare tale. And did I happen to mention this film is by the same people who did the Twilight films...enough said.

So the basic theme here that I gathered, was that whole idea that you should never give up hope, and to always have faith in love and never stop believing that everyone is redeemable.
They  really seem to play up the idea that love is blind, which I suppose it would have to be to date a corpse. Not too mention nose blind cause...anyways, half the zombies make it to the end of the movie because like the virus that is never explained that turned them to begin with; the love Romeo and Juliet feel, spreads like a ...virus. And the half that don't make it to the end of the movie, the weird skeleton zombies...yeah I don't get how that works either...have long since given in to despair and depression, having lost touch with their humanity because they lost the love...man.

Did I like it?  It was cute. Would I watch it again? Sure down the road but not right away again. Would I buy it? No doubt it.
Seriously, why people continue to think Romeo and Juliet is the big romantic story, is tragic. Cause basically it's telling a bunch of teenagers that that first rush of lust is the end all and that it never gets better therefore you should over react and kill yourself.   Dude, seriously, it's not meant to be beautiful, it's meant to be a slap to the face to tell people not to be that gullible.

Theme Week part 4- Vampires

Only Lovers Left Alive

plot: Adam, a reclusive musician is depressed and thinking of killing himself, while his wife Eve is vibrant and soaking up life. They are currently half way across the world from each other, until Eve decides to return to Detroit to stop Adam from being so lonely. After awhile, Eve's sister arrives, drinking too much and killing Adam's only friend. After banishing her from Detroit, the couple return to Morocco to find another of their vampire friends; and their blood supplier, is dying of blood poisoning. 

This is a 2013 drama starring Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton.

I can't believe I waited so long to see this film.  Okay, I have to admit, there was about ten minutes in the first half that sort of seemed like it had gotten off track, and left me wondering if I was watching a vampire movie or a history lesson on Detroit?  But, as the movie progresses, you see where it ties in, as the themes of water and regrowth/population is brought up.

What starts off as a metaphor for addiction, reveals itself to be a comment on the world's clean water issue. I love it, two metaphors in one film.

The film also plays with the idea of ying-yang, having Eve practically an albino dressing in light creams and pale colours, while Adam has jet black hair and wears only black and navy.  His style reminded me of  every goth guy every in the late 80's early 90's, as well as the character The Crow. 
When the sister arrives on the scene, she's a strawberry redhead who dresses in a rainbow of colours and a orange-y fox fur coat. Which represents her wild nature perfectly.

You are dealing here with themes of trust, love, betrayal, addiction, survival, and hope.  And I get the impression that Eve is suppose to have been the muse for hundreds of writers over the centuries, if not the writer of famous works herself, as well as Adam having been either the muse to hundreds of musicians or else the musician himself.  The topic of staying anonymous vs grabbing glory is brought up more then once as well.

Theme Week - Vampires

You knew this one was coming!

Fright Night 2 New Blood

plot:While in Romania, exchange students Charlie, Amy and Evil, find themselves at the mercy of their professor Gerri Dandridge, who as it turns out is a vampire. Not only is she a vampire, she's the legendary Elizabeth Bathory. After the police refuse to believe him, Charlie lets Evil talk him into asking tv star and ghost hunter Peter Vincent to help them. But time is running out, as Bathory has kidnapped Amy upon discovering she was born at the stroke of midnight on a full blood moon; and drinking her blood will turn the countess into a daywalker.

This is the 2013 remake starring Jamie Murray and Will Payne.

I read the reviews for this over a year ago, at at the time they were all negative. I have a feeling the reviews were written by folks who didn't actually sit through even half of the film; because damn this was a really good movie.

Putting the "2" in the title is a mislead though. As this is a remake of both the original 1985 and 2011 versions, and not really much to do with the 1989 sequel.  The only connection this might have with the 1989 film is that we have a female vampire lead.

There are a few minor plot twists in this -other then the Countess Bathory element- one has to do with Charlie's sacrifice in the last few minutes of the film, and shift in Peter Vincent.  

I have to say, the way the Peter Vincent character was done this time around, which was basically a mix of both previous versions of him - he's a desperate tv star needing quick cash like the original version played by the late Roddy McDowall and a bit of the occult collecting geek version played by David Tennant- was brilliant. 

Instead of using mirrors as their vampire test like in the other films, we get the use of a camera phone, with no vampire showing up on film.  And the addition of bat sonar was not just a first for the series, but as far as I can say right now, for vampire movies in general. Where as in other vamp films we see the vampires become bats, this time we see them just have the ability to use sound waves to locate objects; and as a weapon.

There is one big goof up in the film, and that is when Evil is fighting Vincent and gets the left side of his face burned. A few scenes later, the right side of his face has the burn scars.

All in all, it keeps to the main soul of the original while expanding on the story. I really liked it.

Random movie Friday 13th March 2015

Generation Um

plot:What appears to be three friends recovering from a wild party, spending their day using a stolen video camera, talking about their difficulties in life, turns out to be two prostitutes and their body guard.

This is a 2013 drama starring Keanu Reeves and Bojana Novakovic.

This movie tries to be like the  Before Sunrise franchise. Had it been done 20 or even 15 years ago, it might have been considered a "concept", but in the light of the times, it's just a go nowhere do nothing film. It tries to make depth of an empty wine glass, while keeping the lead actor to the left or right of the screen to draw your attention to the world around him. And sadly, that camera move is the only really cool thing about the movie.
The last four minutes when we follow the trio to a bachelor's party, is truly the only interesting thing in it. You finally get some depth to the otherwise cut-out characters.

Random movie Feb 15th 2015

Lucky Them

plot: A music critic is given the assignment of locating her rockstar ex, who is thought to have killed himself over a decade before. She ends up joining forces with another former lover who decides to make a documentary of the experience.

This is a 2013 film starring Toni Collette and Thomas Haden Church.

This started off very familiar, the first half hour rang so much like the 1989 Canadian rock film Roadkill by Bruce McDonald (about a record production assistant sent to find a missing rock band and the documentary film crew that go with her across Canada)  And for that first half of the movie all I could think of was the original.

I did like this movie. It is subtle in it's portrayal of a woman who is haunted by her past love. She's unable to have a real relationship because she's still clinging so painfully to the memory of what that big love was to her. And in the end, she not only learns to let go, but sees she was the only one stuck in the past.
Johnny Depp has a small 5 minute cameo as the lost rockstar.

Random movie Feb 6th 2015

Powder Room

plot: Sam decides to go out to a club with some friends she hasn't seen in years, only to bump into her current group of friends. As she feels embarrassed by her current life, she spends half the night jumping back and forth between the two groups and hanging out in the ladies room, where she overhears bits and pieces of everyone's drama.

This is a 2013 British movie starring Sheridan Smith and Jamie Winstone, and is based a stage play.

I have to admit, I went into this not sure I was even going to make it through the first ten minutes, but it ended up surprising me.  It's funny in all the right ways, without being overly rude. At the core of it, you have a group of women who are all for one reason or another, not completely happy with the way their lives have turned out, and all trying to live up to some expectation of what a powerful/sexy woman should be.
From the good girl who can't get into phone sex no matter how hard she tries, to the under aged teens who sneak into the club, to the fashion divas and perpetual party girls; each character has to learn where to draw their own line.

I actually really liked this. And I'm not the type of girly-girl who digs "sisterhood" type films.

Year 3 Day 141

movie: The Lunch Box
starring: Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur
genre: Drama
year: 2013
format: Netflix Canada

plot: After making lunch for her husband and having it delivered to the wrong person, a young housewife finds herself in an emotional affair.

Okay, first off, I was really reluctant to watch this. After the first few minutes of screen time that the lead male had, I was ready to turn it off. I was having a difficult time getting past the fact the actor looked like my dad, and in fact I did turn it off and went to do something else for twenty minutes.

Now, with that confession out of the way...it surprised me. This is something that ironically reminded me of a Jane Austen story with food.  The two leads never meet. They spend the whole time, communicating through letters and food. What starts off as an off handed criticism ends up being a way to express the unexpressed.
We see both character's arch as they begin to come out of their shells, the one reconnecting to society after the death of his wife, the other gaining courage to leave her husband.  The Khan character starts to soften towards a new co-worker who ends up being his replacement, first sharing his meal with him, allowing himself to forgive the fact the younger co-worker has been conning him.

I'm wishing there had been more food prep scenes. The first half hour is heavy on the importance of the food, then slowly shifts it's focus onto the letters they share. The two looking more forward to little scraps of notes then the actual meals.

You can look at this from a few points of view, one being how universal the expression of emotions through food truly is, another is about how trust is something that can pop up in the most unlikely of places. The theme of loneliness screams at you from every angle, when we see the Khan character sitting watching old vhs tapes of his wife's; to him just staring at the neighbours over dinner every night, to how the Kaur character finds herself buried in her daily tasks as caregiver to both her kid and parents, to how she tries to get her husband to even talk about the most basic of things.

I'm very pleased with myself for not crying through this. Films like this usually have me in tears, but for once, I am dry eyed and snot free. 

year 3 day 131

movie: Vamp U
starring: Gary Cole, Adam Johnson
genre:Comedy
year:2013
format:DVD

plot:A centuries old vampire currently working as a history professor, is unable to make his fangs extend. The guilt of having killed the love of his life 300 years before is keeping him from being able. That is until he meets a young student whom he starts an affair with, and accidentally turns into a vampire. He then learns that she is the daughter of his long lost love, who herself had been accidentally turned into a vampire when he bit her. The trouble then starts as the new vamp plots to turn half the university campus into more vamps.

This had me laughing out loud for most of it. Twilight is a running theme in this, as the Gary Cole character is obsessed with the books. ("No I marked the page, when exposed to sunlight they sparkle") I love the Wayne Gretzky stuff...the lead character is constantly being asked if he was named after the hockey player.

I did not escape my notice that once someone is vamped, they end up looking like a goth kid, or that we only ever see female vampires other then the Johnson character.

This is one of those movies that if you liked the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie or Lesbian Vampire Killers for that matter, you will dig this.

year 3 day 118

movie: The Grand Seduction
starring: Taylor Kitsch, Gordon Pinsent
genre: Comedy, Drama,
year: 2013
format: Shaw Video On Demand

plot: The entire population of a small town in Newfoundland, are in desperate need of a local doctor in order to win the bid on a factory. In order to do so, they spend a month coning a big city doctor into thinking the town is tailor made for him.

This is an English remake of the 2003 French film

Don McKellar directed this, one of the most notable names in Canadian film/television (Roadkill, Highway 61, Twitch City) along with Mary Walsh and Cathy Jones from Cod-Co and This Hour has 22 Minutes, and Peter Keleghan from the Red Green Show. You know you're in for a good showing with names like this.

Okay, so I admit, there's nothing new here, and not just because it's a remake, but because it's the kind of story you've seen more then once on Canadian tv, but it's done with such brilliant humour and a lightness that it absorbs you into it before you know it.
You believe the people in this small town are that crafty to pull out all the stops in order to get the young doctor to stay, like when the Gordon Pinsent character dresses up in a scuba suit and plants the frozen fish, or the silliness of the found money that just happens to be laying in wait every night when the doctor leaves the bar.

Taylor Kitsch, as perfect as he is in everything; there are moments when I was thinking he played the character almost too innocently. The character starts off in his first scene as this big shot doctor caught with cocaine, which sets up the idea that he's going to be this hard core ass, but by his second scene, he's shown to be a puppy. That sort of threw me as most movies progress into the character's softening. In this case he just was. And of course that just added to the idea that he's the knight in shinning armor.

Would have loved to have had Pinsent have more monologs, but then again, I love anything when it's done with a Newfie accent.