Tag Archive for ‘movies’
Say hello to the East End bad guys
Unless you’re a sci-fi fan with a ‘Total Recall’ memory, you may not recognize this hardworking actor from east end Toronto. Even his name sounds tough: Michael lronside. Imagine Jack Nicholson in a bad mood! Though he has over 200 movie and TV titles to his credit, lronside still sees himself as a regular working [...]
Dickens, Carrey and the Beach
“May it haunt their houses pleasantly” - Jim Carrey, in A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. Around 1981, I saw a young, rubber-faced comic perform in a small club. His wacky impressions wowed the crowd. Jim Carrey went on to become one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. This September he was back in town shooting [...]
Beach vet consulted on The Great Escape
Nov. 11 is a day of Remembrance…lest we forget. Each year there are fewer veterans around to keep their stories alive. How will their courage be remembered? It sure won’t be in Hollywood movies which have ignored or distorted Canadian history since the early days of cinema. I grew up with a bomb in my [...]
Hollywood rewrites history again in Affleck’s Argo
Identifying with past experiences and pondering their significance deepens our experience of what it is to be human. History is a dialogue between the past and the present. We ask questions about the past because of things that we’re concerned with now. – Prof. Jan Noel, U of T Magazine, Autumn 2012 Tensions in the [...]
Beach actor back in town for TIFF
Actor Katie Boland has been called “Canada’s Sweetheart” and lives part of the year in L.A., but the Beach is still close to her heart. Katie grew up near enough to the GOOF (Garden Gate Restaurant on Queen) to smell the moo goo guy pan. She comes from a creative family: her dad is retired [...]
Filmmaker focuses on mental illness
An East Toronto filmmaker is nearing completion of a film exploring themes of mental illness, race and culture, and their relation to society, through a profile of rapper Khari ‘Conspiracy’ Stewart. Khari partnered with his twin brother Addi ‘Mindbender’ Stewart as the hip hop group Supreme Being Unit, an underground crew that made minor waves [...]
Sets and the City: summer of the remake
A Ferris wheel on the waterfront? Don’t worry, the ‘Lakeside Amusement Park’ was just a movie set at Cherry Beach for the horror flick Silent Hill: Revelation 3D coming out Oct. 26. In a bygone era pleasure parks were very popular in the Beach. There was even a Ferris wheel at Munro Park way back [...]
Edwin Boyd: Danforth boy gone bad
Edwin Boyd died in 2002, but he would be smiling to see his name in headlines once again. Toronto’s most infamous criminal always wanted to be the centre of attention, a Hollywood star like James Cagney. Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster is a beautifully shot period piece with terrific performances from Scott Speedman, Kevin Durand, Kelly [...]
Titanic movies often draw inspiration from real life
One hundred years ago, the sinking of the Titanic sent an electric shock wave through the Gilded Age of progress. People around the world are still fascinated by the disaster, seen as a parable of the human condition, inspiring countless books and a dozen movies. For better or worse, we learn about the past through [...]
And the winner is…
Awards season is here. The Oscar nominations are out and the red carpets are ready to roll for the Academy Awards on February 26. Try this quiz to test whether you’ve been watching way too many old movies: 1) Her life is a rags-to-riches tale. Little Gladys Marie Smith liked to ride her bike down [...]
