He
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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.
HEAD ON
* * setting: Ont.
(1980) Sally Kellerman, Stephen Lack, John Huston,
Lawrence Dane, John Peter Linton, Robert Silvermann.....Meeting after
a car collision, a married psychiatrist (Kellerman) and a professor (Lack)
begin an affair involving increasingly bizarre, and dangerous, sexual game
playing. Potentially interesting idea, but unsuccessfully realized, with
the characters never quite coming into focus. Kellerman is good,
but Lack is, well, Lack (though he's doing something funny with his voice).
a.k.a. Fatal Attraction -- a use of the title that predates the
higher profile U.S. film. sc: James Sanderson, Paul Illidge. dir: Michael
Grant. - sexual content.- 98 min. (video)
HEADS *
*
setting: USA.
(1994) Jon Cryer, Jennifer Tilly, Ed Asner, Shawn
Alex Thompson, Roddy McDowall, Wayne Robson, Earl Pastko, Charlene Fernetz,
Nancy Drake..... Nerdy reporter (Cryer) in small town U.S.A. investigates
a series of decapitations. Black comedy tries hard to be visually moody
and stylish, but the script contains so few genuine laughs that one almost
wonders if it was written to be serious, then directed to be a comedy.
Either way it's not really funny, suspenseful, or weird enough to be one
thing or another. McDowall, curiously, isn't billed until the end.
sc: Jay Stapleton, Adam Brooks (story Stapleton). dir: Paul Shapiro. -
violence, sexual content.- 101 min. (video)
HEADS OR TAILS see Pile ou face
THE HEARD *
* setting: USA/CDN.
(1999) Colm Feore, David Hemblen, Doug Lennox, Dennis
Allen, Jim Allodi, Don McKellar, Mark McKinney, (voice of) Graham Greene.....Docudrama
about a mammoth government sponsored excercise in the 1930s to herd reindeer
from Alaska to Canada. This NFB produced drama tries to tackle a big concept
premise, but with a little concept budget. Mixing archival footage of the
herd, shots of Lennox (as chief herder Andy Bahr) looking pensive against
sweeping northern vistas, while his voiceover narration is provided by
Greene (why hire one actor to play the part, then another to do the voice?)
and inserts of talking head monologues by Feore, Hemblen, etc. playing
others involved in the enterprise. An audacious attempt to tackle the idea,
and an intriguing bit of Canadiana, the result is interesting in spots...but
not entirely successful either. sc: Peter Lynch, Nicholas McKinney. dir:
Peter Lynch. 91 min.
HEART: The Marilyn Bell Story
* * * setting: Ont./USA.
(2001) Caroline Dhavernas, Ron White, Amy Sloan, Graeme
Somerville, Vlasta Vrana, Kent McQuaid, Lisa Bronwyn Moore, Chip Chuipka,
Jennifer Morehouse.....True story of how 16 year old Canadian Marilyn
Bell (Dhavernas) became the first person to swim across Lake Ontario in
1954. Made-for-CBC TV drama goes the kind of unusual -- and surprisingly
successful -- route of having fun with the story. Dhavernas and White (as
her coach) play it real, but the story is tweaked to accentuate both the
dramatic...and the comic, throwing in cartoony "bad guys" who would seem
more at home in a Disney comedy (like Vrana as the mercenary head of the
Canadian National Exhibition). For a dry bio pic, it's surprisingly fun,
told with polish and gusto (if little subtlety). Dhavernas is good, as
is White (of course). Though, by the end of the climactic, grueling swim,
you kind of feel like you've swum a marathon yourself! sc: Karen Walton.
dir: Manon Briand. 90 min.
HEART OF THE SUN *
*
(1998) Christianne Hirt, Shaun Johnston, Michael Riley,
Merrilyn Gann, Eric Johnson, Jessica Carmichael.....On the prairies
in the '30s, a not-quite retarded woman (Hirt) struggles with her memories
of being sexually abused by the local priest (Riley), much to the bewilderment
of her caring, but unsuspecting husband (Johnston). Well-intentioned drama
is slow and overly mannered (perhaps reflecting its stage origins) and
mired in its heavy-handed pretentions that never quite lets the plot become
a story or the characters become people. By the end, the "issue" the movie
focuses on isn't the priest-molestation thing. Graham Greene has
a cameo. sc: Kim Hogan (from the play "Jennie's Story" by Betty Lambert).
dir: Francis Damberger. 94 min.
THE HEAT LINE see La ligne de chaleur
HEATER
* * * setting: Man.
(2000) Gary Farmer, Stephen Ouimette.....A day
in the life of a homeless man (Farmer) and a schizophrenic (Ouimette),
and their scheme to try and make some money with the electric heater the
former has. Effective, neo-realist drama, with strong performances from
the two leads, particularly Farmer in the less splashy role of a man walking
a line, trying to maintain some semblance of integrity in a desperate world.
The two stars are basically the whole show, though other characters appear
in bits, such as Tina Keeper as a shelter doctor. sc./dir: Terrance
Odette. 87 min.
THE HEATWAVE LASTED FOUR
DAYS * * 1/2 setting:
P.Q.
(1974) Gordon Pinsent, Alexandra Stewart, Lawrence
Dane, Domini Blythe, Al Waxman.....Freewheeling TV camera man (Pinsent)
tries to blackmail an escaped mobster (Dane) but winds up being forced
to help him instead. O.K. suspense-drama is hampered by an overly matter-of-fact
approach to the suspense but benefits from Pinsent's performance. sc: Douglas
Jackson, Milo Spearer, Daniel Heargrove. dir: Douglas Jackson.
HEAVEN ON EARTH *
* setting: Ont.
(1987) (/U.K.) R.H. Thomson, Sian Leisa Davies, Cedric
Smith, Eric Peterson, Fiona Reid.....Story of orphans brought over
from England and given new homes in pre-W.W. I Canada. Made-for-CBC TV
film tries focusing on a number of people but ends up not focusing on any.
Despite strong performances, you don't care about the characters. Thomson
is wasted. sc: Margaret Atwood, Peter Pearson (with Nancy Botkin, Allan
Kroeker). dir: Allan Kroeker. 82 min.
HEAVENLY BODIES
* setting: USA.
(1984) (/U.S.) Cynthia Dale, Richard Rebiere, Walter
George Alton, Laura Henry, Stuart Stone.....Young woman (Dale) opens
an aerobics studio and has romantic troubles (sort of) and business problems
(in a way). Sloppily assembled with microphones bobbing into the frame
and Canuck flags when it's set in the U.S. Virtually non-stop dance numbers,
but it's not very sexy. Look for co-scripter (and one-time movie critic!)
Base as a football player in a red sweat shirt. sc: Lawrence Dane, Ron
Base. dir: Lawrence Dane. - sexual content, partial female nudity.- 89
min. (video)
HEAVY METAL *
1/2 setting: USA/other
(1981) (/U.S.) voices: John Candy, Don Francks, Susan
Roman, Jackie Burroughs, Roger Bumpass.....Animated sci-fi anthology,
not for kids, very loosely strung together by a recurring orb of pure evil.
There's a curious commonality to 90 percent of "adult" animated films:
namely, they're extremely sophomoric and have all the coherence of an acid
trip. Which is fine, if that's your cup of tea, but others be warned. Plenty
of sex and violence, but the mainly smarmy segments are often no more than
vignettes expanded way beyond their point of interest. Stronger plots and
characterization would have been nice -- or at least humour that was actually
funny. The animation can be interesting, but other times it's stilted and
literally headache inducing. The title comes from an American adult comic
book magazine. This film was unavailable on video for many years due to
copywrite disputes over the music, but has since been released on tape.
Followed, almost 20 years later, by Heavy Metal 2000.
sc: Dan Goldberg, Len Blum (based, in part, on stories and art by Richard
Corben, Angus McKie, Dan O'Bannon, Thomas Warkentin, Berni Wrightson).
dir: Gerald Potterton. - extreme violence, female nudity, partial male
nudity, sexual content.- 90 min. (video)
HEAVY METAL 2000: F.A.K.K.
2 * * 1/2
(2000) (/U.S./Germany) Julie Strain Eastman, Michael
Ironside, Billy Idol.....Not-for-kids animated
sci-fi about a warrior woman (voiced by Strain) who survives her people's
destruction and sets out into space after the killer (Ironside), who is
almost unkillable and seeks to become truly immortal. Long-in-coming follow
up to Heavy Metal is a single story (as opposed to an
anthology) and seemed to be the Heavy Metal movie that even many fans of
the original didn't like. With that being said, it's tightly-paced and
has a few twists and unlike most "adult" animated movies, it's actually
coherent (for the most part). The story seems like an embellishment on
the final segment from the original Heavy Metal movie (though this time
spruced up with dialogue and humour). Not great, more of a guilty pleasure
(at best), but an improvement over the first one. The heavy metal sound
track grates though, with indistinguishable songs seeming as though they
were lifted randomly from a playlist, rather than because they enhance
a scene (presumably the producers needed something to put on a soundtrack
CD). Violent, the movie is actually tamer--sex-wise--than its predecessor.
There's still nudity, just not as much as you might expect. Even the heroine's
skimpy red outfit that's depicted in the poster art is only donned near
the end. B-movie and adult movie actress Strain is the wife of Kevin Eastman,
current editor of the Heavy Metal comic magazine. sc: Robert Payne
Cabeen (with Robert Geoffrion and John Minnis, Lorenzo Orzani, George Ungar)
from the comic book story by Simon Bisely, Eric Talbot, Kevin Eastman.
dir: Michel Lemire, Michael Coldewey, Michael David Donovan. - extreme
violence, partial female nudity, sexual content, casual male nudity.- 87
min. (video)
HEAVY METAL SUMMER a.k.a. State Park
HECK'S WAY HOME
* * setting: CDN.
(1995) Chad Krowchuk, Michael Riley, Shannon Lawson,
Don Francks, Gabe Khouth, Alan Arkin, Cecilley Carrol, Peter Jordan.....When
his owners pack up to move to Australia, accidentally leaving him behind,
a dog travels from Winnipeg to Vancouver to catch them before they set
sail, while his boy owner (Krowchuk) anxiously waits for word of him. Made-for-TV
family flick tries to be a modern Lassie Come Home or
Incredible
Journey but, though slick, it never really becomes inspired -- or that
original. O.K., particularly for kids, but not something to engender great
enthusiasm. sc: Chris Haddock. dir: Michael Scott. 91 min.
The Heist, the non-fiction book by Ernest Volkman & John Cummings, served as the source for the TV movie,The Big Heist.
HELLO MARY LOU - PROM NIGHT II
* 1/2 setting: USA.
(1987) Michael Ironside, Wendy Lyon, Justin Louis,
Richard Monette, Lisa Schrage.....30 years after a prom queen's death,
her ghost possesses a teen (Lyon) to exact revenge on her former beau (Ironside)
and anyone else who gets in her way. Horror flick has nothing to do with
its predecessor and is neither scarey nor all that interesting. Though
the full frontal nudity in one scene is unusual for this kind of film.
Sequel (in name only) to Prom Night and followed
by Prom Night III: The Last Kiss. sc: Ron Oliver.
dir: Bruce Pittman. - extreme violence, female nudity, sexual content.-
97 min. (video)
HEMINGWAY VS. CALLAGHAN
(TVMS) * * 1/2 setting: Ont./other
(2003) Robin Dunne, Vincent Walsh, Gordon Pinsent,
Carly Pope, Michelle Nolden, Kristen Holden-Ried, James Allodi, Patrick
McKenna,
William B. Davis, Len Cariou.....News of American
writer Ernest Hemingway's suicide in 1961 causes a media frenzy at his
old newspaper, The Toronto Star, with various people reminiscing about
him, especially Canadian novelist Morley Callaghan (Pinsent), who remembers
their friendship in the 1920s, both as reporters in Toronto, and then as
rising writers in Paris, hobnobbing with F. Scott Fitzgerald and others...before
having a falling out over a boxing match. Dunne and Walsh play a young
Callaghan and Hemingway, respectively. Made for CBC mini-series seems a
bit directionless, as if they had latched on to the hook (Hemingway had
a Canadian connection) but weren't sure what to do with it. Though ostensibly
based on Callaghan's memoirs, the first part focuses mainly on Hemingway,
and is told in a confusingly jumbled way, not just by jumping back and
forth between the '60s and the '20s, but even the 1920s scenes don't always
follow chronologically. Picks up in the second half, as the focus shifts
to Callaghan and his encounters with the Literati of the "Lost Generation"
in Paris, and he discovers the feet of clay of his erstwhile idols. In
fact, unusual for a Canadian movie, Callaghan's straight-laced, level-headedness
-- his stereotypical Canadianess -- isn't dderided when contrasted with
Paris' "hip" and "wild" American expats, but is what makes him sympathetic.
Though even here the movie still seems as though it's unsure of its point,
or theme. Pinsent's performance is the stand-out, but much of the 1960s
stuff -- which occupies a lot of the program -- is more distracting than
anything, disrupting the narrative flow of the 1920s scenes. Other notable
turns include Holden-Ried as Fitzgerald and Davis, in an unassuming part
as the kind of unofficial keeper of the Hemingway archives at the Star.
But, ultimately, it seems a little like much ado about nothing. Four hours.
sc: Malcolm MacRury (from the memoir,
That Summer in Paris, by Morley
Callaghan). dir: Michael De Carlo. - brief female nudity, violence.-
HEMOGLOBIN *
* setting: USA.
(1997) Rutger Hauer, Roy Dupuis, Kristin Lehman, Jackie
Burroughs, John Dunn-Hill, Joanna Noyes, Felicia Shulman, Janine Theriault,
Lisa Bronwyn Moore, Leni Parker.....A woman and her sickly husband
(Lehman and Dupuis) arrive on a small New England island hoping to find
clues to his ancestry (and his strange affliction), unaware of a colony
of subterranean monsters. Import Hauer plays the local doctor who aides
them. Horror flick has some nice, traditional ideas (some borrowed, uncredited,
from a couple of H.P. Lovecraft stories like "The Lurking Fear"), a competent
cast, and tight pacing that keeps the thing from actually being boring.
But weak direction and a failure to tell the story through the characters
and a lack of surprises, or thrills, undermines it. More likely to induce
queasiness in spots, rather than scares. American scripters O'Bannon and
Shusett wrote the hit film "Alien". Why do Canadian filmmakers set movies
in the States when they're not fooling anyone? Despite the plethora
of American flags, one review I read of this still described it as being
set in Canada! French-Canadian Dupuis' accent (not that he has much of
one) is explained by having him be raised in France...how would it have
undermined the artistic and thematic vision of the story by having him
be raised in Canada? How? a.k.a. Bleeders. sc: Charles Adair and
Dan O'Bannon & Ronald Shusett. dir: Peter Svatek. - extreme violence,
partial female and male nudity, sexual content.- 93 min. (video)
HENRI
* * setting: P.Q.
(1986) Eric Brisebois, Jacques Godin, Marthe Turgeon,
Claude Gauthier, Yvan Ponton, Lucie Laurier.....Teen (Brisebois), picked
on at school and frustrated by his increasingly withdrawn widower father
(Godin), decides to participate in the local marathon. At times interesting
drama but frequently muddled and not well though out. English title:
Breaking
Through. sc: Jacques Jacob. dir: Francois Labonte.
HENRY AND VERLIN *
* setting: Ont.
(1994) Gary Farmer, Keegan MacIntosh, Nancy Beatty,
Robert Joy, Eric Peterson, Joan Orenstein, Margot Kidder, David Cronenberg,
Neil Dainard .....Small town, Depression era story of the friendship
between a mentally handicapped man (Farmer) and his semi-autistic young
nephew (MacIntosh) and the trepidation and prejudice it evokes in some
of the family and the town's folk. Serio-comic pic is atmospheric and well-acted,
but suffers from an oppressive, almost leden ambience and a mixture of
grittiness and whimsy that tends to cancel each other out. Ultimately,
it suffers from thinly drawn characters, half-heartedly explored issues
and plot threads that are never really developed or resolved. sc./dir:
Gary Ledbetter (from short stories by Ken Ledbetter). 90 min. (video)
HERE AND NOW see L'initiation
HERE'S TO LIFE!
* * 1/2 setting: USA/B.C.
(2000) (/U.S.) Eric McCormack, James Whitmore, Kim
Hunter, Ossie Davis, Marya Delver.....A shallow, repressed American
retirement home director (McCormack), is blackmailed by three seniors (Whitmore,
Hunter and Davis) into taking them on a vacation to Canada; but once there,
their plans for "their" vacation change as, one by one, they become more
interested in making him their pet project, by helping him woo a local
woman (Delver). Serio-comic flick starts out a little too trite and cliched,
but improves as its more individual plot elements take root. Still suffers
from that "neither fish nor fowl" syndrome -- it isn't that funny,
nor that dramatic (though there are some decent scenes). But benefits
from its cast -- not just the trio of American old pros (particularly the
always effective Whitmore), but Canadian McCormack remains an under appreciated
talent (if you can call someone under appreciated who stars in a hit U.S.
sitcom). But if filmmakers really want to show respect for seniors...why
not just hire talents like these for a regular movie, instead of ghettoizing
them in these "tributes" to the elderly? Still, the fact that the movie
actually admits much of it is set in Canada is a nice surprise. Actor/director Charles Martin Smith was executive producer and appears
as the hotel manager. Hunter's last film. sc./dir: Arne Olsen. 94 min.
(video)
A HERO'S LIFE see La vie d'un heros
HERSENSCHIMMEN see Mind Shadows
HEY BABE!
* * setting: USA.
(1984) Buddy Hacket, Yasmine Bleeth, Marushka Stankova,
Vlasta Vrana .....Story of the relationship between a delinquent orphan
(Bleeth) in New York, who wants to be a star, and an aging bum (Hacket),
who used to be one. Not bad little flick is undermined because it can't
seem to figure out who its target-audience is. It seems like a young teen
pic but occasional seediness suggests something else. sc: Edith Rey
(story Rey, Anna Fuerstenberg, Rafel Zielinski). dir: Rafel Zielinski.
Hey, Cinderella
* * 1/2
(1969) (/U.S) Belinda Montgomery, Robin Ward, Joyce
Gordon, Pat Galloway, voices of Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Jim Henson.....Comic
variation on the Cinderella story. Good hour-long (54 minutes) family
film, though probably it plays better with kids than adults (though there
are still some good grown-up gags). American muppet creator Henson's first
Tales
from Muppetland TV special -- made long before the "Muppet Show" and
Muppet movies phenomena -- features mainly live actors with muppets (including
Kermit the Frog) in supporting parts. Followed by the more accomplished
The
Frog Prince. sc: Jon Stone, Tom Whedon. dir: Jim Henson. (video)
Hey, Malarek!, the autobiography by investigative reporter Victor Malarek, was turned into the feature film Malarek and served as the inspiration for the CBC TV series Urban Angel
HEYDAY! *
* setting: Nfld.
(2006) Adam Butcher, Peter MacNeill, Joanne Kelly,
Tom McCamus, Deidre Gillard-Rowlings, Gabriel Hogan, Greg Malone, Gordon
Pinsent.....During World War II, a Newfoundland teen (Butcher) helps
care for his dying mother by entertaining her, and himself, with fantasies
about working at the ritzy hotel in nearby Gander airport -- then a major
connection between North America and Europe, frequented by troops and movie
stars. Writer/director Pinsent does Dennis Potter in this heartfelt and
handsomely mounted CBC TV movie, with great performances, effective Newfoundland
ambience, and some nice writing and stylish directing. There are individual
scenes, as written, acted, directed, filmed, etc. -- particularly between
Butcher and MacNeill as his kindly dad -- that are as good as anything
you'll see in a Canadian movie. But what's missing is a plot to hold it
together. It just gets repetitive. Because so many of the scenes are fantasy,
Pinsent doesn't bother to develop them as a real story (the boy muses about
spies, but it's not like we get enough of a story to actually suspect people...or
care), yet then also tries to turn them into dramatic character scenes...when
the boy's just imagining scenarios. Perhaps we're supposed to feel
that, though fantasies, some of the scenes he imagines parallel reality,
such as with Kelly as his pretty next door neighbour who really does
work at the hotel. But it just doesn't quite work. And the "real" scenes
with the mother don't really form a story/plot either. A movie that, for
all its strengths, either needed another rewrite...or had maybe received
one rewrite too many (Pinsent had, apparently, been working on it for 15
years). Ironically, Pinsent had, as a youth, worked at such a hotel...but
chooses to do a movie about someone who only fantasizes about it!
Though the story here is intended to be deep and artistic, if Pinsent really
had just told a tale of a teen caught up in the glamour and intrigue of
spies and movie stars making stopovers in Gander...it might've been a more
captivating film! Leah Pinsent (Gord's daughter) and Mark McKinney have
bit parts as celebrities (McKinney plays Bob Hope). sc./dir: Gordon Pinsent.
app. 90 min.
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