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Sample: Title; rating (out of 4); principal setting; year of release; international co-producer (if any); cast; description; scriptwriter; director; content warning; running time.
DEAD AVIATORS
* * * setting: Nfld.
(1999) (/U.S.) Juliana Wimbles, Lothaire Bluteau,
Michel Monty, Marsha Mason, Leslie Hope, Ben Cook, Dan Lett, James Allodi,
Eugene Lipinski, Brooke Johnson.....Bitter teen (Wimbles) staying with
her grandmother (American Mason) in rural Newfoundland, befriends the ghosts
of two French aviators (Bluteau and Monty) who crashed in 1927 making a
trans-Atlantic flight. Made for CBC TV family fantasy starts out like a
zillion other films: surly child protagonist, bitter over his/her parent's
death/divorce, moves to a small town, finds something -- a dog, a moose,
a pet project (in this case, helping the ghosts shake the mortal coil)
-- that gives him/her a renewed purpose, mmaking him/her a better person.
The domestic scenes are peopled by unpleasant personalities, but the movie
genuinely picks up -- getting both funnier and more poignant -- as it focuses
on her relationships with the ghosts, building to a solid climax. Good
looking and very well-acted (though other than Wimbles, Bluteau and Monty
most have thankless parts, including the underappreciated Hope as the mom
and the criminally neglected Johnson). And what is it about the psyche
of Canadian filmmakers that makes it so hard for them to write about ingratiating
people? Look for former TV journalist Sheldon Turcot as a TV reporter (he
passed away only a few months after this aired). sc: Seni Chellas (story
Chellas and Gail Collins). dir: David Wellington. 92 min.
DEAD AWAKE *
* * setting: USA.
(2001) Stephen Baldwin, Macha Grenon, Michael Ironside,
Edward Yankie, Janet Kidder, Maxim Roy, Claudia Ferri, Karen Elkin, Frank
Schorpion.....An American insomniac (Baldwin) gets caught up in strange
twists and turns when he witnesses a late night murder...and then finds
himself considered the chief suspect. With a generic title and low-level
American star, this could easily be dismissed as another bland straight-to-video
thriller...but it's a surprisingly eccentric, comic thriller, that plays
around with chronology and expectations. A little confusing at times, as
it rushes through some explanations, but definitely worth a look. Lots
of quirky characters and decent performances -- particularly Grenon and
Ironside (both in slightly smaller parts than their billing would suggest)
who give delightfully atypical performances as inhabitants of an all-night
diner the hero frequents. That's Conrad Pla as the transvestite hooker.
sc: Terry Abrahamson. dir: Marc S. Grenier. - violence; brief female nudity;
sexual content.- 99 min.
DEAD FIRE *
*
(1998) (/Czec Republic) Matt Frewer, C. Thomas Howell,
Colin Cunningham, Monika Schnarre, Rachel Hayward, Robert Russel, Jim Thorburn,
Lucie Zednickova, Gerard Whelan.....In a future where earth has become
uninhabitable and humans live in an orbiting (American) space station (most
in suspended animation) hoping to figure a way to revitalize the planet,
a megalomaniac (Frewer) and his gang take over the station, leaving a lone
soldier (Cunningham) to try and stop them. Low-budget sci-fi action flick
isn't very good...but is the sort of B-movie where, if you stick with it,
you can find yourself noting it has good aspects to it, like generally
decent actors (particularly Cunningham, not usually cast as heroic leads),
some okay, off- beat scenes (like one in an elevator shaft, or one involving
deactivating a computer in ice water) and, surprisingly, a sense of humour
(hit and miss, sometimes seeming as though the director stepped out for
a smoke and the actors started winging it) and even some effectively sensitive
scenes between Cunningham and Schnarre as his scientist girlfriend. Heck,
Schnarre even appears, briefly, in her underwear! There's even a sense
that it wants to be a real science fiction movie...when it's not being
"Die Hard"-in-space, with the grungy sets, second hand combat fatigues
and excessive brutality one expects from producer Lloyd A. Simandl. All
of which doesn't combine to make an entertaining movie...but it does make
you think how it could've been a better movie if the filmmakers themselves
had aimed a little higher. Prominently billed American actor Howell has
a supporting part (despite his billing), but a pivotal supporting part.
sc: Christopher Hyde, Andrew McEvoy, Nicholas Racz. dir: Robert Lee. -
violence.- 101 min.
DEAD INNOCENT
* * setting: P.Q.
(1997) Genevieve Bujold, Nancy Beatty, Graham Greene,
Emily Hampshire, Jonathan Scarfe, Lynne Adams.....Workaholic defence
lawyer (Bujold) is held hostage in her own apartment via video surveillance
by a vengeful psycho who has kidnapped her daughter. Despite the heavyweight
cast, this has the look and feel (and premise) of a low-budget affair,
including a sluggish rhythm at times. The middle of the film is more unpleasant
than suspenseful (like a lot of "hostage" movies), but generates some thrills
in the last half (think of it as *1/2 plus
**1/2
averaging out to **). Kudos, though, for a
movie like this both to get an all-Canuck cast and to actually be set in
Canada! Actress Botsford's feature directing debut. sc: Dolores Payne,
Mort Pattigo. dir: Sara Botsford. - violence.- 92 min.
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(2003-2005) (/U.S.) * * 1/2 Ellen Muth ("George Lass"), Laura Harris ("Daisy Adair"), Callum Blue ("Mason"), Jasmine Guy ("Roxy"), Mandy Patinkin ("Rube"), Cynthia Stevenson ("Joy Lass"), Greg Kean ("Clancy Lass"), Britt McKillip ("Reggie Lass"), with Christine Willes ("Dolores Herbig").....Comedy-drama/fantasy about a young woman who dies...and is, reluctantly, recruited to be a Grim Reaper...a being that frees souls by touching a person just moments before death. Despite being undead, she still has a corporeal form, meaning she needs a day job and a place to live, resulting in all the usual trials and tribs of life, except that she also is required to help others pass over into the next world. Blue, Guy and Harris play fellow Grim Reapers -- Harris joined the cast a few episodes iinto the show as a deceased 1940s starlet with a penchant for using her fate for money-making schemes, replacing Rebecca Gayheart. Patinkin plays their wise n' weary chief. Stevenson, Kean and McKillip play "George"'s parents and kid sister, still dealing emotionally with her death, unaware she's kind of still alive (she looks different to their eyes in her new guise). Willes plays the relentlessly up-beat floor manager at Happy Time, where "George" works. Of the main cast, only Harris is Canadian, of the supporting cast, Kean, McKillips and Willes are Canadian. Cut a little from the same cloth as shows like "Touched by an Angel" and the Canadian Twice in a Lifetime, in that it's about otherworldly agents touching the lives of others...but made for cable, it's a quirkily askew, black humoured version of those sort of feel good shows, with plenty of profanity. In truth, the series seems more than a little inspired by "Six Feet Under", the quirkily askew, black-humoured, surprise critical hit about life at a funeral home. If so, the makers of this show seemed to focus on the macabre aspects of that previous series, not realizing that was only a small part of the show's overall make-up. Here, they seem to relish parading out endless, often "comically" grisly ways people can die without backing it up with quite the same smarts as "Six Feet Under". The series' point is basically to use the premise as a not-so-subtle coming of age story, with George as a young adult slacker who dies...and finds she now must accept all the adult responsibilities she hoped to avoid, with greeting card-style life lessons carefully spelled out for us in the wry voiceover. Taken in measured doses, the series can be funny, even witty, with a decent cast, with Muth inparticular quite good as a surly misanthrope with a heart. But it can also get tired very quickly, sliding from clever to cutesy with rapidity. It just ain't half as smart as it thinks it is. And the metaphor at the show's heart can be problematic. Sure, it's supposed to be about a teen learning you sometimes have to do things you don't want to, but with Patinkin grimly slapping her down (verbally) every time she questions the will of God (or whoever) it can also be viewed as an unfortunate paen to fascism, where our heroine -- and, by extension, the viewer -- is assured there's nothing wrong with "just following orders". Created by Bryan Fuller (who left the series early when, supposedly, the executives wanted the stories to focus more on the characters and lives (or deaths) the Grim Reapers impact on, and not just the Reapers themselves). Fuller later created the stylistically very similar, short-lived, "Wonderfalls". Hour long episodes, shown in Canada on The Movie Network. |
DEAD MEN TALK a.k.a. The Breakthrough
DEAD OF NIGHT *
* 1/2 setting: USA.
(1972) John Marley, Lynn Carlin, Richard Backus, Henderson
Forsythe, Anya Ormsby, Jane Daly, Michael Mazes.....A family rejoices
when their presumed dead son (Backus) returns home from Vietnam, only he's
acting pretty weird and is really a kind of vampire/zombie. Sometimes slow,
sometimes ham-handed to the point of silliness, but other times, a genuinely
kind of creepy low-budget little horror flick (with maybe a shade or two
of Jacobs' "The Monkey's Paw"). Given a boost by the obvious allegorical
implications and some deeper-than-to-be-expected characterization. Forsythe
is memorable as a local doctor. a.k.a. Deathdream. sc: Alan Ormsby.
dir: Bob Clark. - violence.- 90 min.
DEAD RINGERS *
* * setting: Ont.
(1988) Jeremy Irons, Genevieve Bujold, Heidi von Palleske,
Barbara Gordon, Shirley Douglas, Stephen Lack.....Unstable twin gynecologists
(Irons), who share everything, find their interdependent relationship being
disrupted when one falls in love with a troubled actress (Bujold). Melancholy
psychological drama marks Cronenberg's shift from his violent-horror films.
Strong performances from Irons and Bujold (in essentially a supporting
role) and haunting, gothic atmosphere help to counteract the slow pacing.
Impressive twin f/xs. Jill Hennessey makes her film debut (with
her real life twin sister) as twin hookers. Won ten Genies including Best
Picture, Actor (Irons), Director and Adapted Script. sc: David Cronenberg,
Norman Snider (from the book Twins by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland).
dir: David Cronenberg. - sexual content, partial female nudity, extreme
violence.- 115 min.
DEAD SILENCE *
* 1/2 setting: USA.
(1997) (/U.S.) James Garner, Kim Coates, Marlee Matlin,
Charles Martin Smith, Kenneth Welsh, Lolita Davidovich, James Villemaire,
Gary Basaraba, Barclay Hope, Vanessa Vaughan, Blu Mankuma, Mimi Kuzyk.....Escaped
killers (led by Coates) take a busload of deaf children hostage, including
their teacher (Matlin), in a broken down slaughter house in rural U.S.A.,
and a hard-nosed F.B.I. negotiator (Garner) must try to resolve things.
Made-for-cable-TV suspenser is pretty blah and mild in the suspense department,
but squeaks by on slickness, a competent ensemble cast, and a general briskness
to the story that keeps it from dragging. But the characterization is pretty
unsurprising and the overall result simple-minded. sc: Donald Stewart (from
the novel A Maiden's Grave by Jeffery Deaver). dir: Donald Petrie
Jr. - violence.- 99 min.
DEAD SILENT *
* 1/2 setting: USA.
(1998) Catherine Mary Stewart, Rob Lowe, Arlen Aguayo-Stewart,
Larry Day, Mark Camacho, Allen Altman, Sean Devine.....Workaholic American
medical intern (Stewart) finds herself the reluctant guardian of her niece
(Aguayo-Stewart), who hasn't spoken since the murder of her parents --
and the killers still seem to be after her. American actor Lowe plays her
neighbour. Mix of suspense and character drama improves as it goes along,
though still suffers from the static pacing of a lot of straight-to-video
flicks (not helped by the leden musical score) and a few too many dumb,
implausible scenes that keep it from being more than O.K. sc: Ed Fitzgerald,
Paul Koval. dir: Roger Cardinal. - brief sexual content.- 95 min.
DEADBOLT
* * setting: USA.
(1992) Justine Bateman, Adam Baldwin, Michele Scarabelli,
Chris Mulkey, Cyndi Pass, Anthony Sherwood, Ellen Cohen, Colin Fox, Amy
Fulco.....After a burglary, an American woman (import Bateman) advertises
for a male roomie -- and gets the perfect guy (import Baldwin): considerate,
quiet, handsome...and possessively psychotic. Pedestrian time-filler borrows
shamelessly from similar suspensers -- but even the cliches lack flare.
Competent performances, though most of the cast have just tiny parts and
Sherwood's amounts to a cameo. sc: Mara Tafficante, Frank Rehwaldt. dir:
Douglas Jackson. - violence.- 94 min.
DEADLY APPEARANCES *
* 1/2 setting: Ontario
(2000) Wendy Crewson, Victor Garber, Robert Hays,
Domini Blythe, Simon Callow, Kevin Hicks.....Amateur detective Joanne
Kilbourn (Crewson) investigates when a politician and longtime friend (Hays)
is accused of murder. Second made-for CTV Joanne
Kilbourn Mystery has some weaknesses in characterization and plausibility,
but is overall a well-acted, reasonaby entertaining whodunnit. sc: R.B.
Carney (from the novel by Gail Bowen). dir: George Bloomfield. - app. 90
min.
DEADLY ARRANGEMENT
* * 1/2 setting: USA.
(1998) Michael Ironside, Currie Graham, Lori Petty,
Patricia Charbonneau, George Buza, Paul Coeur, Richard Riehle, Kevin McNulty,
Jacqueline Samuda.....American police detectives (Ironside and Graham)
investigate a drug rip-off and murder in which a crucial witness (Petty)
-- a stripper -- used to know one of them.. Convoluted suspense-drama (the
above synopsis is just the bare bones) has star-turned-writer-director
Ironside investing the scenes and characters with more intelligence and
dimension than the average straight-to-video thriller. But the basic plot
is a little run-of-the-mill, and structurally it seems more like a good
novel, with lots of characters and plot threads, but as a movie it could
use some tightening and focus. A good watch, just not a great one. A follow
up to One of Our Own. American actress Petty,
though not perhaps to everyone's taste, brings her usual quirk to her role.
a.k.a. Bad Blood. sc./dir: Michael Ironside. - violence.- 98 min.
DEADLY COMPANION a.k.a. Double Negative
DEADLY CURRENTS
* * * setting: other
(1991).....Documentary explores, through interviews,
the Palestinian- Israeli conflict in modern Israel. Fascinating, enthralling
film interviews moderate doves to fanatics on both sides. Though some felt
the film tended to sensationalize and over-emphasize the militants. dir:
Simcha Jacobovici. 114 min.
DEADLY DESCENT
* 1/2 setting: B.C.
(1987) Damian Lee, David Mitchell, Sonja Belliveau,
Paul Coufos, Donny Lalonde, Franco Columbu.....When his brother is
killed making a dangerous descent, a ski photographer (Lee) decides to
tackle the slope himself. An interesting attempt at realism, but ultimately
this film will only be of interest to ski-buffs -- if then. sc: Daniel
Lynch, Armand Leo. dir: Damian Lee.
DEADLY HARVEST
* * 1/2 setting: Ont.
(1976) Clint Walker, Gary Davies a.k.a. Geraint Wyn
Davies, David Brown, Nehemiah Persoff, Jim Henshaw, Dwayne McLean, Kim
Cattrall, Dawn Greenhalgh, Tami Tucker, John Stoneham, Jan Rubes.....A
world wide food shortage puts a farming community at risk from maurauders.
So-so suspenser suffers from uneven performances and general low-budget
clunkiness, but manages to sustain interest and even be kind of provocative
and disturbing in its implications. Intelligent characterization. Davies,
in one of his earliest screen roles, is quite good. sc: Martin Lager. dir:
Timothy Bond. - violence.- 86 min.
DEADLY ISOLATION
* * setting: USA.
(2004) Sherilyn Fenn, Nicholas Lea, Andreas Apergis,
Marcel Jennin, Sara Bradeen.....Suspecting their dead ex-partner stashed
some stolen loot in his house in a small island town, a couple of dangerous
American thieves decide to try and find it by one of them (Lea) ingratiating
himself with the dead man's widow (Fenn). Suspense-drama is slick enough
put together, with mostly good performances (though import Fenn is problematic
-- not terrible, but not great either), buut spends so much time with him
wooing her...it kind of forgets to be a thriller, and though the scenes
between Fenn and Lea are okay, they aren't sufficiently compelling as a
drama to compensate. Not terrible, but a generic version of a familiar
premise without much to distinguish itself. sc: David Rosenfelt. dir: Rodney
Gibbons. 88 min.
DEADLY PURSUIT
* 1/2 setting: USA.
(1984) Doug Stone, Russell Ferrier, Laura Centeno,
Craig Williams.....A crazed Vietnam vet seeks revenge against the U.S.
soldiers responsible for his friends' deaths, eventually going after a
group of them at a war games camp. O.K. action/thriller is undone by its
shoe-string budget. Filmed on video. An Emmeritus-CHCH production.
DEADLY SURVEILLANCE
* * setting: USA.
(1991) Michael Ironside, Christopher Bondy, Susan
Almgren, Vlasta Vrana, David Carradine, Chip Ciupka, Michael McGill.....A
narcotics surveillance job is complicated by the bickering between the
two U.S. cops (Ironside and Bondy) and the fact that the latter is involved
with the suspect (Almgren). Serio-comic suspenser suffers from a sluggish
rhythm and pacing which tends to undermine the decent performances and
funny bits. Notable, though, for the fact that unlike most Canadian movies
of this ilk, the lead characters are actually played by Canadian actors!
In fact, imported Carradine has only a couple of scenes as their chief.
sc: Hall Salven, Paul Ziller. dir: Paul Ziller. - partial female nudity
and brief male nudity, extreme violence.- 93 min.
DEAF AND MUTE
* * setting: P.Q.
(1986) Armand Laroche, Tara Workman, Lory Berger,
Rodney Lefevre, Bertha Weizman.....A group of eccentric tenants join
together to fight their landlord who's trying to force them out with the
help of a couple of thugs -- one deaf and the other mute. Off-beat comedy
can't quite cut it due to inexperienced performers, but it still manages
some chuckles. sc: Howard Tessler, Hunt Hoe dir: Hunt Hoe. 79 min.
DEAR JOHN *
1/2 setting: CDN.
(1988) Valerie Buhagiar, Stan Lake, Thomas Rickert,
Daniel MacIvor, David MacLean, Evelyn Kaye, William Beddoe.....Story
of the relationship between two prostitutes, a novice (Buhagiar) and a
bi-sexual transvestite (Lake). Gritty drama about various people on society's
fringes seems well-meant, but lacks sufficient plot -- it tries to throw
in suspense near then end, but to no avail. Its main weakness, though,
is that it's just too long. Not just the movie, but each individual scene
needs serious trimming. Too bad. Lake, inparticular, is notable. sc./dir:
Catherine Ord (from a short film by Ord and William MacKay). 108 min.
Death and Deliverance, the non-fiction book by Robert Mason Lee, was turned into the CTV TV movie Ordeal in the Arctic
THE DEATH AND LIFE OF NANCY
EATON * * setting: Ont.
(2004) (/U.K.) Alice Krige, Jessica Pare, Brendan
Fletcher, Greg Lawson, Leslie Hope, Meghan Black, Barclay Hope.....Story
of Nancy Eaton (Pare) -- of the Eatons -- and her mentally unstable
childhood friend, Andrew Leyshon-Hughes (Fletcher), and how he eventually
brutally murdered her in a senseless assault. Made-for-CTV docudrama is
slick-looking, with a good cast, but is no more than a lurid, True Crime
expose. Although there's some provocative material when dealing with the
medical profession, and its inability to properly treat, or even diagnose,
Andrew's problems, it's basically akin to watching a train wreck where
even the filmmakers, in some dialogue, suggest there's no point or message
to be gleaned from the events. Typically, it's more about Fletcher's character
than Pare's, but either way, it's a tragedy but doesn't really have enough
-- plot-wise or character-wise -- to make a movie. And they probably wouldn't
have made it if she hadn't been an Eaton. Ciccoritti's directing tricks
range from clever...to self-indulgent. Import Krige plays Eaton's mother.
Fletcher received the Best Actor Gemini. sc: William Scoular (from the
book A Question of Guilt by William Scoular and Vivian Green). dir:
Jerry Ciccoritti. 90 min.
DEATH IN HOLLYWOOD *
1/2 setting: USA.
(1985) Phil Rush, Elizabeth Leslie, Doug Stone, Simon
Richard, Mari Welsh.....Flamboyant, practical-joking film director
(Rush), trying to make a comeback, may or may not have committed murder.
Shoe-string budget "Sleuth" styled movie has some genuine twists but is
undermined by a rambling plot and so-so performances. Filmed on video.
An Emmeritus-CHCH production. a.k.a. Death Stalks Beverly Hills.
sc: Peter Warren. dir: Larry Pall.
DEATH SHIP *
(1980) (/U.K.) Richard Crenna, George Kennedy, Nick
Mancuso, Sally Ann Howes, Kate Reid, Saul Rubinek.....Survivors of
a sunk liner board a mysterious black ship that turns out to be a haunted
Nazi torture boat. Rubinek gets killed off early but the rest of the solid
cast has to suffer through this unpleasant, and frankly inept, horror flick.
Dialogue (and accompanying characterization) seems almost non-existent
and the characters' behaviour irrational. sc: John Robins. dir: Alvin Rakoff.
- extreme violence, brief female nudity.- 91 min.
DEATH STALKS BEVERLY HILLS a.k.a. Death in Hollywood
DEATH TARGET a.k.a. Sentimental Reasons
DEATH WISH V: The Face of Death
* * 1/2 setting: USA.
(1994) (/U.S.) Charles Bronsan, Lesley-Anne Down,
Robert Joy, Michael Parks, Chuck Shamata, Saul Rubinek, Miguel Sandoval,
Erica Lancaster, Kenneth Welsh.....When his girlfriend (Down) is injured
at the order of her mobster ex-husband (Parks), a former vigilante (Bronsan)
decides to take the law into his own hands. Canadian made sequel to the
U.S. movies follows the usual routinue: bad guys go around doing violent
things to people for the first half, then Bronsan goes around doing violent
things to them in the second. O.K., though no one's going to win any Genies
for it (though Parks inparticular does a good job) with some attempts at
quirkiness. But be forewarned, it rates as high as it does simply because
the revenge genre doesn't engender great expectations to begin with. sc./dir:
Allan Goldstein (story Michael Colleary, Goldstein). - extreme violence,
partial female nudity.- 95 min.
DEATHDREAM a.k.a Dead of Night
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