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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.
FRAME-UP BLUES
* * 1/2 setting: other
(1990) (/France) Kim Coates, Roberta Bizeau, Ronald
Guttman, Jean-Pierre Bouvier, Beatrice Benscik.....Down-and-out musician
(Coates) is hired by a gangster (Guttman) to be seen with his wife (Bizeau)
to provide grounds for a divorce. But when the gangster is murdered,
he becomes the prime suspect. The first fifteen minutes or so of
this film noire-suspenser are a write-off, but then it picks up.
Technical short comings and an obvious story are balanced with good performances
from Coates, Guttman and Bizeau (in a thankless part). A 3
Themes-Hamster production. sc: Robert Geoffrion (from the novel
The
Cheaters by Ledru Baker Jr.). dir: Josee Dayan. - sexual content, violence.-
92 min.
FRANKENSTEIN '88 a.k.a. The Vindicator
FREAKSHOW
* setting: USA.
(1989) Audrey Landers, Peter Read, Dean Richards,
Michelle Scattolon, Dan Gallagher, Will Korbut.....Lighthearted horror-anthology
flick framed by a story of a cold U.S. TV reporter (Landers) and her visit
to an odd museum. Amateur hour, kiddies and pals, from the direction
to the acting to the pointless stories. And, yes, that is Gallagher
the VJ. sc: Bob Farmer. dir: Constantino Magnatta. - extreme violence,
sexual content.-
Freckles, a novel by Gene Stratton Porter, became the TV movie City Boy.
FREE MONEY *
* * setting: USA.
(1998) Marlon Brando, Charles Sheen (a.k.a. Charlie
Sheen), Thomas Haden Church, Mia Sorvino, Donald Sutherland, Christin Watson,
Holly Watson, Jean-Pierre Bergeron, Remy Girard.....Story of a couple
of small town U.S.A. losers (Sheen and Church) who end up in a joint shotgun
marriage to teen-age twins (the two Watsons) whose father is a corrupt,
psychotic prison warden (Brando); then Sheen's character gets the idea
that they can make a life away from the father by robbing a train bringing
old U.S. bills down from Canada (the movie's concession to its Canadian
origins). Sorvino plays an F.B.I. agent already investigating the warden,
and Sutherland her estranged judge father. Sprawling, odd-ball black comedy
takes a bit to decide where its headed, though that's actually part of
the appeal, and manages to be decidedly off beat and darkly amusing throughout.
Slick and benefitting a lot from the, for the most part, low-key performances.
Brando, Sheen, Church and Sorvino are all American imports, not to mention
Martin Sheen (Charlie's real life dad) and David Arquette (as a car dealer)
in cameos. Sutherland has a curiously small part, playing it serious. Set
in the U.S., but most of the supporting cast are made up of noteworthy
French-Canadian actors, wasted in bit parts and cameos, putting on strange,
mumbling-under-their-breath accents that probably won't fool anyone. sc:
Anthony Peck, Joseph Brutsman. dir: Yves Simoneau. - violence, sexual content,
brief female nudity.- 93 min.
Freefall, the non-fiction book by Will & Marilyn Hoffer, became the TV movie Falling from the Sky: Flight 174
FRENCH IMMERSION
* * setting: P.Q.
(2011) Pascale Bussières, Gavin Crawford, Fred Ewanuick, Karine Vanasse, Robert Charlebois, Martha Burns, Jacob Tierney, Ali Hassan, Olunike Adeliyi, Laurence Leboeuf, Yves Jacques, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Colm Feore.....Story of the Francophone inhabitants of a Quebec town, whose main industry is the local French immersion school, and the gaggle of disparate Anglophones who are enrolled -- from the politician (Crawford) seeking to brush up on his French, to the guy (Ewanuick) who needs it to get a promotion. Comedy is clearly intended to play upon some of the bilingual success of Bon Cop, Bad Cop, mixing a popular Quebec cast with some familiar Anglophone faces, and mixing scenes of French and English. And the result...is frustrating. It is funny, and buoyed by an engaging enough cast -- there are laughs, but also some sweetness (all sides are spoofed, but good-naturedly). But can feel a bit too old fashioned, like a Carry On film, or some "All-Star" Hollywood extravaganza out of the '60s...or an '80s teen comedy, only with adults (and instead of a summer camp, it's a French immersion school). It's a farce, but not hilarious enough to just coast by on the gags, and it has character threads and romantic undercurrents...without them quite coalescing into a sustained plot that drags you to a climax, often with threads that peter out and characters that feel undeveloped (wasting a lot of the huge cast...Feore has what amounts to a recurring cameo). Even what could be perceived as a central romance between Ewanuick and Vanasse feels like it's missing a middle act. It's maybe trying too hard, with too many characters and ideas (even throwing in a road hockey tournament and a Bollywood musical number!) The result is a likeable effort, with some chuckles (the sly, wry humour working better than the broader stuff) but is still liable to leave you restless before the end. As I say: frustrating. In a mix of English and French. sc: Jefferson Lewis, Kevin Tierney. dir: Kevin Tierney. - brief female nudity.- 98 min.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (TVMS)
* * * 1/2 setting: other
(1990) (/France/Italy/Germany) Klaus Maria Brandauer,
Jane Seymour, Francois Cluzet, Jean-Francois Balmer, Andrezj Seweryn, Marianne
Basler, Sam Neill, Christopher Lee.....Chronicle of the French revolution
and the major participants. Neither a dry text book come-to-life,
nor a sudsy bodice-ripper, this is an intelligent, gripping docudrama.
Handsome, gritty and well-played, particularly by the always fascinating
German actor Brandauer. 8 hours, but also shown in a shorter 4 hour
version (unreviewed). sc: David Ambrose. dir: Robert Enrico, Richard
T. Heffron. - violence.-
LE FRERE ANDRE *
* 1/2 setting: P.Q.
(1987) Marc Legault, Sylvie Ferlatte, Andre Cailloux,
Michel Cailloux, Rene Caron.....Story of real life Brother Andre (Legault),
a Montreal religious figure who died in 1937 and was believed to perform
miracles. Low-key drama doesn't try to explain the miracles but is
O.K. and uses rather innovative flashbacks to (cheaply) tell the tale.
English title: Brother Andre. sc: Guy Dufresne. dir: Jean-Claude
Lebrecque. 88 min.
FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH - PART X a.k.a. Jason X
FRIDAY'S CURSE a.k.a. Friday the Thirteenth: The Series
A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY
* * 1/2 setting: CDN.
(2005) Laura Harris, Eric Johnson, Kim Coates, Sabrina
Grdevich, Greg Lawson, David Lereaney, Shaun Johnston.....After moving
to a small town, a young woman (Harris) finds herself increasingly unsettled
as she begins to suspect her next door neighbour, David Snow (Coates),
is a serial killer and is stalking her and no one, not even her husband,
believes her! Inspired by fact (though heavily fictionalized) made
for CTV movie starts out rather like, well, a generic TV movie, with some
clunky dialogue and vaguely drawn characters, but gets better as it goes,
particularly as the heroine acts increasingly paranoid so that the others'
disbelief in her theories is, if not okay, at least understandable. Remains
a fairly generic telling of a familiar thriller plot and, despite the "true
story" angle, plays fast and loose with the facts (surely trivializing
the experiences of those involved) -- but is ultimately successful on a
visceral level. Interestingly, although set in Canada with an all-Canadian
cast, this aired on the U.S. Lifetime network (a year before it aired in
Canada in 2006!)...though, in one interview, Coates claimed he wanted to
use a more Canadian accent...and the director nixed that idea. sc: Michael
Amo (from the memoir, A Friend of the Family, by Alison Shaw). dir:
Stuart Gillard. - brief female nudity, violence.- app. 90 min.
FRIENDS AT LAST
* * * setting: USA.
(1995) (/U.S.) Kathleen Turner, Colm Feore, Julie
Khaner, Sarah Paulson, Megan Bouchard, Faith Prince.....Story of a
New York housewife (Turner) and columnist (Feore) and their daughter: they
start out happy, then the marriage falls apart as she feels increasingly
neglected and unfulfilled, and of their ultimate reconciliation when it's
almost too late. Strong, effective made-for-TV drama (melodrama?),
well written and very well acted by all. Main quibble (aside from
being set in the States) is that Feore is sufficiently unsympathetic in
the middle (perhaps because we don't see enough of his side) that it undermines
(slightly) the ultimate reunion. American actress Turner produced.
Khaner has a thankless part considering her billing. sc: Susan Sandler.
dir: John David Coles. 91 min.
The Frog Prince
* * * 1/2
(1971) (/U.S.) Trudy Young, Gordon Thomson, voices
of Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Carl Banas, Richard Hunt, John Lovelady,
Daniel Seagreen.....Musical-comedy about a prince who's turned into
a frog and a princess (Young) cursed by an evil witch so that her words
are incomprehensible -- to stop the witch the frog must "bake the hall
in the candle of her brain". Highly memorable hour-long (54 minutes)
family film is great for youngsters and pretty entertaining for adults,
too. American muppet creator Jim Henson's second made-in-Canada TV
special features mainly muppets (including the obligatory Kermit in a pivotal
supporting part), with Young the only live person. Thomson, as the
human-version of the prince, only has a small part. See Tales
From Muppetland. sc: Jerry Juhl. dir: Jim Henson.
FRONTIER (TVMS)
* * * * setting: other/CDN.
(1987) (/Europe) Daniel Ceccaldi, Mel Martin, Matt
Birman, Mathieu Carriere, Neil Munro, Graham Greene.....In the 1700s
a bumbling, though noble-hearted, French Baron (Ceccaldi), a white man
raised by Mohawks (Birman) and an English Lady (Martin) framed for her
husband's murder, become caught in the middle of the war between France
and England involving Canada. That rarest of all things, an old-fashioned
swashbuckler! Well-paced and original with plenty of sword fights,
romance, heroism, cliffhangers and a fine blending of comedy and thoughtful
drama. A true delight. Ceccaldi steals the show. 6 hours.
Equally fun shown in either hour long or 2 hour segments. Three decades later the title would be used for another Canadian historical adventure series -- reviewed below. sc. Pat
Ferns, adaptation Didier Decoin (story Pierre Nivolet, Jean-Claude Camredon).
dir: Victor Vicas, Pierre Lary.
FROSTBITE a.k.a. The Movie Out Here
FROSTFIRE *
* 1/2 setting: N.W.T./Ont.
(1995) Wendy Crewson, Mosha Cote, David Qamaniq, August
Schmolzer, Robert Clothier, Seporah Ungalaq.....While visiting his
home, an Inuk teen (Cote) rescues a mysteriously sick woman on the tundra,
and then he and a hard-nosed reporter (Crewson) find evidence of an international
cover-up. Nicely done drama with strong atmosphere is both helped
and hindered by its really low-key approach to the story. It gives
it some of its mood, but also robs it of any real intensity, let alone
suspense. sc: Marc Strange. dir: David Greene. - partial female nudity.-
90 min.
FROZEN a.k.a. The Thaw
FULL BLAST
* 1/2 setting: CDN.
(1999) David La Haye, Louise Portal, Marie-Jo Therio,
Patrice Godin, Martin Desgagne, Luc Proulx, Daniel Desjardins, Danica Arseneau.....Story
of various characters in a small town when the local mill workers go on
strike, focusing on a sexually confused young man (La Haye) involved in
various relationships. Largely directionless drama is one of those films
where (at least in the first half) the actors, delivering often opaque
performances (particularly La Haye), mutter one or two largely inconsequential
lines, followed by long stretches of mute scenes, then another line or
two, then another long stretch... Might have worked better if the film
truly evoked the realist feel it might've been aiming for, but director
Jean seems more interested in setting up his artful, constructed shots
rather than in the characters. At one point the characters start up a band,
making one think of British films like "Brass", "The Commitments" or even
"The Full Monty"...but that turns out to be a minor part of the film, and
doesn't go anywhere. In French. sc: Rodrigue Jean, Nathalie Loubeyre (from
the novel L'ennemi que je connais by Martin Pitre). dir: Rodrigue
Jean. - sexual content, male nudity.- 92 min.
FULL CIRCLE a.k.a. The Haunting of Julia
FULL CIRCLE AGAIN
* setting: USA.
(1984) Robert Vaughn, Karen Black, Stephen Markle.....Boston
scientist (Vaughn) murders his wife (Black), then meets a woman who looks
just like her in California. Wooden performances and matching dialogue
in this very boring suspense flick. sc: Mary MacPherson. dir: William
Fruet.
FULL DISCLOSURE
* * * setting: USA.
(1999) Fred Ward, Christopher Plummer, Rachel Ticotin,
Kim Coates, Penelope Ann Miller, Virginia Madsen, Nicholas Campbell, Roberta
Maxwell, Dan Lauria.....A burned-out New York reporter (Ward), haunted
by things he'd done in his youth, gets roped into sheltering a woman (Ticotin)
hiding from the law. Then he learns she's wanted in connection to a Middle-Eastern
motivated terrorist assassination (she says she's an innocent dupe) --
a case he's already in the middle of covering and, indeed, is the star
reporter on. There's a feeling this suspense-drama could've been a classic,
but falls a bit short: nonetheless, it's pretty good. Playing around with
murky, grey-shade morality and themes of redemption, it's ambitious and
nicely acted by Ward and Ticotin, with a respectable supporting cast. Though
of the above names, only Plummer & Coates (as F.B.I. agents) and Campbell
& Maxwell (as radicals who get Ward involved) are Canadian. Former
teen star Chris Makepeace served as third assistant director and has a
cameo as a pilot. a.k.a. All the Fine Lines. sc: Tony Johnston.
dir: John Bradshaw. - violence.- 96 min.
FUN PARK a.k.a. Breaking
All the Rules
| FUTURE FANTASTIC (TV Limited Series)
* * *
(1996) (/U.K./U.S.).....Gillian Anderson hosted this look at new technologies and the possible shape of future life on earth, given a novel pop-cultural context by connecting it to old science fiction stories -- essentially how yesterday's fiction might become (or even have inspired) tomorrow's fact. Strangely atmospheric, entertaining BBC-produced series could be fun in its wide-eyed, "gee whiz, we'll believe anything" sort of way, whole-heartedly embracing claims about teleportation, immortality, artificial intelligence and others; rarely distinguishing between the probable, the possible, and the completely nutso. Engaging if taken with a grain of salt, more troubling if taken too seriously. In addition to its largely uncritical acceptance of alleged technology, it was often rather lax in asking hard questions about the morality of some of the advances glibly envisioned. Actress Anderson (an American, raised in England, and living in Vancouver while filming the U.S. science fiction/horror series "The X-Files" -- and therefore, no doubt, appeasing all production partners) was an appealing host and, since celebrities are hired for a show like this hoping to tap into a pre-existing fandom, it's worth noting that not only did she provide the voice-over, but she also appeared on-camera frequently in cut-away sequences. In a way, an interesting "factual" companion piece to Prisoners of Gravity. The series may have been somewhat trendsetting (for better or for worse): subsequently, a number of science fact programs started using the gimmick of connecting their themes and subjects with science fiction. The series' theme music was later released as part of a Compact Disc compilation partly selected by Anderson called "Future: A Journey Through the Electronic Underground", with Anderson providing (spoken word) vocals...and performing in the somewhat sultry accompanying video. Whether this series actually qualifies as Canadian is unsure, but, when aired in Canada, the end credits claimed it had been produced in "association" with Discovery Channel Canada. 9 half-hour episodes, shown in Canada on the Discovery Channel, but also edited together into 5 hour-long episodes for the States (I know, I can't figure out the math either). |
F/X: The Illusion *
1/2 setting: USA.
(1996) Kevin Dobson, Cameron Daddo, Christina Cox,
Carrie-Anne Moss, Richard Waugh, Jason Blicker, Kim Coates, John Neville,
Phillip Jarrett.....A New York movie special effects man (Daddo) and
his cop buddy (Dobson) find themselves investigating when he gets framed
for murder and smuggling. Made-for-TV suspenser was a sequel to the
U.S. theatrical movies and a pilot to the weekly series. Professionally
mounted but almost excrutiatingly tedious. Slow-moving and lacking
the clever twists and scenes that a movie called "The Illusion" would imply.
sc: John Fasano. dir: Paul Lynch. 91 min.
FX: The Series (TV Series)This TV series was based on the successful U.S. movie and its somewhat less successful sequel. Professionally done, with the acting, writing and direction all capable, and Dobson and Daddo reasonably personable, but unfortunately it wasn't much more. The weekly episodes were better than the pilot (F/X: The Illusion, reviewed separately) but it still tended to be draggy, often bringing in the con-job element late in the story and, even then, the "Stings" weren't usually all that clever...or suspenseful...or even funny. "Mission: Impossible" it ain't. Ultimately it wasn't terrible, but neither was it interesting enough to make must viewing. Ironically, Australian actor-singer Daddo had already appeared in one Canadian production (Golden Fiddles) and became a dual Canadian citizen during filming, subsequently appearing in a number of other Canadian-filmed programs, including the TV series Hope Island. Based on characters created by Robert T. Megginson, Gregory Fleeman. Two seasons of hour-long episodes (approximately 44) shown in Canada on CTV. |
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