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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.
MR. HOCKEY: The Gordie Howe Story
* * 1/2 setting: USA/CDN.
(2013) Michael Shanks, Kathleen Robertson, Martin Cummins, Dylan Playfair, Andrew Herr, Emma Grabinsky, Lochlyn Munro, Donnelly Rhodes.....Story of Canadian-born American hockey superstar Gordie Howe (Shanks), focusing on his mid-1970s renaissance when, after having retired in his 40s (and already nicknamed "Mr. Hockey") he decided to make a professional comeback, playing on the same team with his own sons, and joining the then upstart World Hockey Association (which was challenging the established NHL). Made-for-CBC hockey drama joins a long list of hockey bio-pics, and is slick and well produced, with good performances (particularly Shanks) but suffers, like a lot of hockey movies, because it's more aimed at hockey fans than movie fans. There are various good themes (the aging star, the mixed feelings of his sons playing with their famous dad, and the politics of the WHA/NHL rivalry) without delving enough into any one of them to make it the emotional heart of the drama. Instead, it can feel kind of episodic, presumably dramatizing key anecdotes, without making them part of a sustained narrative. Put another way: if this wasn't a true story, it would be seen as a pretty tepid drama. Still, if you are a hockey fan...worth a look. sc. Malcolm MacRury. dir: Andy Mikita. app. 84 min.
MR. NOBODY
* * setting: other/USA/CDN.
(2010) (/Belgium/France/Germany) Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Linh-Dan Pham, Rhys Ifans, Natasha Little, Toby Regbo, Juno Temple, Clare Stone.....Story of a dying, 118 year old man in a hi-tech future who reflects back on his life (in modern times) -- or rather, various possible and alternate lives he might have led. Visually sumptuous film is one of those things that polarizes viewers: some declare it one of the best films they've ever seen...and others find it pretty, but empty. It's well acted, though some of the actors playing the characters as teens -- Regbo, Temple and Stone -- steal the movie from their adult counterparts (indeed, the adult women in his life: Polley, Kruger, and especially Pham, are a bit short changed -- though as they are Canadian, German and French, maybe were billed so prominently as part of a co-production quota; most of the cast is either from the U.K., or American, like star Leto). It's an expensive, lavishly mounted production, full of striking visuals, artful colour schemes, and quirky stylistic techniques, and can be seen as borrowing from "Slaughterhouse Five", "2001: A Space Odyssey" and with occasional nods to Terry Gilliam. Unfortunately, the flash and sizzle tends to swamp the simple human drama, too often reducing it to a backdrop for the production design, rather than vice versa (and fractures off into so many alternate timelines you can lose track of which reality is which). More about the mis-en-scene than a sustained narrative (the sequence with the teen hero finding himself the adopted brother of his true love is the most sustained). Maybe it would've been better to have it be the hero is aware he's living alternate existences, to provide a consistent protagonist -- as it is, it's almost like an anthology of unrelated stories just featuring the same actors. Well, except in one time-line he does seem aware of the others, which is maybe another problem: it doesn't stick to its own (vague) inner logic, particularly by the end! Ultimately, beautiful-looking and striking, but frustrating as a story...and wa-ay too long. sc./dir: Jaco Van Dormael. - sexual content; brief female nudity.- 157 min.
MR. PATMAN
* *
(1980) James Coburn, Kate Nelligan, Fionnula Flanagan,
Candy Kane, Michael Kirby, Tabitha Herrington, Charles Joliffe, Les Carlson.....Troubled
psychiatric nurse (Coburn) tries to provide sensitive care for his patients
even as he, himself, is cracking up. Drama has a lot going for it,
including its cast, but it doesn't seem to have enough story (or events)
to fill out the narrative -- while at the same time leaving questions unanswered.
Philip Hersh wrote the original script. a.k.a. Crossover.
sc: Thomas Hedley. dir: John Guillermin. - female nudity.- 105 min.
MR. PATMAN
* *
(1980) James Coburn, Kate Nelligan, Fionnula Flanagan,
Candy Kane, Michael Kirby, Tabitha Herrington, Charles Joliffe, Les Carlson.....Troubled
psychiatric nurse (Coburn) tries to provide sensitive care for his patients
even as he, himself, is cracking up. Drama has a lot going for it,
including its cast, but it doesn't seem to have enough story (or events)
to fill out the narrative -- while at the same time leaving questions unanswered.
Philip Hersh wrote the original script. a.k.a. Crossover.
sc: Thomas Hedley. dir: John Guillermin. - female nudity.- 105 min.
MR. RICE'S SECRET
* 1/2 setting: USA.
(2000) David Bowie, Bill Switzer, Teryl Rothery, Garwin
Sanford, Zach Lipovsky, Jason Anderson, Tyler Thompson, Richard DeKlerk,
Tyler Labine, Campbell Lane.....Story of a troubled teen (Switzer),
with Hodgkin's Disease, and the various antics he gets up to with friends,
including, sporadically, trying to unravel various clues bequeathed to
him by the enigmatic neighbour he had befriended (Bowie, in a small part).
There's a sense this could've been a good film, but doesn't find a proper
tone. Is it a brooding rumination on mortality? A boisterous Disney-esque
romp involving kids getting into mischief? A supernatural flick (as it
becomes, rather belatedly)? Or what? It seems too much like scenes and
ideas are cobbled together haphazardly from other sources (it's not even
clear how the character achieves his life affirming epiphany by the end!)
But the real problem is that the filmmakers seem to derive their vision
of childhood from "The Lord of the Flies", with the kids verbally abusing
each other, kicking the Bejeezus out of each other, threatening each other,
and stoning each other with baseballs. Even the nice guy dad is a proponent
of corporal punishment! And one can't even say the filmmakers see this
as bad, since even the "up beat" end involves kids beating up or verbally
threatening each other. It's a movie that wants to explore the human condition...even
as the filmmakers seem to have misplaced their humanity. Still, slick and
competently acted (Rothery and Sanford are nicely restrained as the parents).
Look for Terry David Mulligan as a guy looking at a house. For other takes
on childhood mortality see Princes in Exile,
The
Whole of the Moon and Digger. sc: J.H.
Wyman (a.k.a. actor Joel Wyner). dir: Nicholas Kendall. 93 min.
MRS. 'ARRIS GOES TO PARIS
* * 1/2 setting: other
(1993) (/U.K./Hungary) Angela Lansbury, Diana Rigg,
Omar Sharif, Lothaire Bluteau, Tamara Gorski, John Savident, Lila Kaye.....Widowed
English maid (Lansbury) in the '50s saves up to go to Paris and buy a Dior
dress where she befriends and helps various wealthy people. Light-hearted
drama does a fine job evoking its time and place, but is slow and simplistic.
Should appeal nicely to those who like its sweet, old-fashioned temperment,
but others might get a toothache. sc: John Hawkesworth (from the
novel by Paul Gallico). dir: Anthony Shaw. 93 min.
MURDER AT NIGHT or Murder by Night
Murder at the Mendel, the mystery novel by Gail Bowen, became the TV movie Love and Murder (2000).
MURDER BY DECREE
* * * 1/2 setting: other
(1979) (/U.K.) Christopher Plummer, James Mason, David
Hemmings, Anthony Quayle, Susan Clark, John Gielgud, Donald Sutherland,
Genevieve Bujold.....Sherlock Holmes (Plummer) and Dr. Watson (Mason)
are asked to investigate the crimes of Jack the Ripper, which involves
them in cover-ups and conspiracy. Holmesian pastiche is an entertaining
mystery-suspenser and one of the few technically accurate flicks about
the Ripper. Sometimes funny, sometimes very serious and sometimes
moving. Plummer and Mason are effective and Bujold exceptional in
a small but pivotal role. Film received the Best Actor (Plummer)
and Director Genie. sc: John Hopkins. dir: Bob Clark. -- violence.-
124 min.
MURDER BY NIGHT
* * * setting: USA.
(1989) (/U.S.) Robert Urich, Kay Lenz, Michael Ironside,
Jim Metzler, Geoffrey Bowes, Richard Monette.....New York amnesiac
(Urich) may have witnessed a serial killing, but also worries that he may
be the killer himself. Good cast, stylish direction, etc. in this
restrained and likeable thriller. The solution is pretty predictable,
but it still feeds you enough doubts to make it work. Look fast for
VJ Michael Williams as a street reporter. sc: Alan B. McElroy. dir:
Paul Lynch. - violence.- 100 min.
MURDER BY PHONE a.k.a. Bells
MURDER IN SPACE *
1/2 setting: USA./other
(1985) (/U.S.) Wilford Brimley, Michael Ironside,
Martin Balsam, Damir Andrei, Arthur Hill, Kate Trotter, Wendy Crewson.....A
series of murders aboard a multi-national space flight has everyone scrambling
around trying to find the killer or killers. The usually good cast
wanders through their roles in this rather right-wing unsuspenseful suspenser.
For all that it was originally shown sans ending as part of a whodunnit
contest, much of the solution is downright silly. A novelization
was published...also sans ending. sc: Wesley Ferguson. dir: Steven
Hillard Stern. 89 min.
MURDER IN THE FAMILY (TVMS)
*
* 1/2 setting: P.Q.
(1986) Gabriel Arcand, Daniel Pilon, Emile Genest.....Continuing
saga of the extended Plouffe family around W.W. II and of eldest son Ovide's
(Arcand) marital problems which lead him to be accused of murder.
O.K. soap is expanded from the feature Le crime d'Ovide Plouffe,
a sequel to Les Plouffe, both of which were
based on the fifties TV series which, in turn, came from the novel.
Whew. Dubbed from the French. 6 hours. sc. ... (from
the novel by Roger Lemelin). dir: Denys Arcand. - sexual content, casual
female nudity.-
MURDER MOST LIKELY
* * setting: CDN./other
(1999) Paul Gross, Marie-Josee Croze, Janine Theriault,
Kim Huffman, Tom McCamus, Martha Burns, Stephen Ouimette, William B. Davis.....True
story of undercover R.C.M.P. officer, Patrick Kelly (Gross), involved in
all sorts of illegal business, who eventually gets charged in the suspicious
death of his first wife (Croze). Made-for-CTV flick is slick but almost
completely...empty. I honestly hesitate to review it, because I felt nothing
toward it -- it's as if I never saw it. Weird. Though oddly appropriate
given its ambiguous main character who neither the filmmakers, nor Gross,
really seem to have a hold of. Perhaps what contributes to the movie's
over all ambivalence is the crucial legal question: on one hand, the filmmakers
seem to want us to infer Kelly murdered his wife, on the other hand, his
conviction was based on highly suspect evidence, suggesting a miscarriage
of justice. A narrative paradox that the filmmakers seem unable to make
work. Or maybe I'm just numb to these "shocking true story" dramatizations,
most of which seem to trivialize the human tragedy (such as the repeated,
"artful" slow-motion shots of Croze's death scene, which seem in bad taste
when you realize this represents a real human being). Burns (as the only
woman not involved with Kelly) is Gross' real life wife, and Beau
Starr, one of his Due South co-stars, has a
small part as an American gangster. sc: Rob Forsyth, R.B. Carney (from
the book "The Judas Kiss" by Michael Marris). dir: Alex Chapplle. 92 min.
MURDER 19C see Detective Murdoch Mysteries
MURDER ONE
* * setting: USA.
(1987) Henry Thomas, James Wilder, Stephen Shellen,
Errol Slue.....Young teen (Thomas) goes along with his two escaped-convict
brothers and their friend as they rob and murder their way through the
Southern U.S. Pretentious and, to its credit, fairly tastefully directed
suspense-drama lacks depth and any real insight into the characters.
Based on a true story. sc: Fleming B. Fuller. dir: Graeme Campbell.
- violence.- 82 min.
MURDER SEEN *
* 1/2 setting: USA.
(2000) Callum Keith Rennie, Nicole Eggert, Timothy
Bottoms, Will Sanderson, Kent Allen, Lisa Marie Pollock, Gerald Lenton-Young,
Wendy Anderson.....American university student (American Eggert) starts
having psychic flashes relating to the kidnapping of a fellow student...but,
not surprisingly, finds the local cops -- a nice guy (Rennie) and a emotionally
embittered guy (Bottoms) -- are more suspicious of her insight than appreciative.
Low-key suspense drama doesn't offer much that's fresh, and could've used
some more bumps and twists to the plot, but it's O.K. Better than you might
expect for what it is (a low-budget quickie); with some stabs at characterization,
and a general avoidance of being too lurid or distasteful. Nice performance
from American actor Bottoms as a cop struggling with his own issues. There's
nothing to say where the story is set: no flags, no mailboxes, no recognizable
license plates...yet the filmmakers still work in extraneous dialogue to
assure us it's not set in Canada! Sheesh! sc: Marilyn Webber. dir: Rob
King. 93 min.
MURDER SEES THE LIGHT
* * * 1/2 setting: Ont.
(1987) Saul Rubinek, Kenneth Welsh, Kate Lynch, Joan
Orenstein, Janet- Laine Green, George Buza, Gary Reineke, Peter MacNeill,
Catherine Disher, Mary Ann MacDonald, Graham Greene.....Private eye
Benny Cooperman (Rubinek) is hired to keep an eye on an American evangelist
(Welsh) hiding out in Algonquin park. Pretty soon Cooperman stumbles
on some secrets of his fellow campers and bodies start popping up.
Second Cooperman mystery is a fine blend of comedy and drama thanks, in
part, to Rubinek's charmingly funny protrayal. Sequel to The
Suicide Murders. sc: Howard Engel (from his novel). dir: Harvey
Hart. - violence.- app. 100 min.
MURDER UNVEILED
* * * setting: B.C./other
(2006) Anita Majumdar, Chenier Hundal, Hassani Shapi,
Lushin Dubey, Sanjay Talwar, Vinay Pathak, Michael Benyaer, Vik Sahay,
Cedric de Souza.....Story of an Indo-Canadian girl (Majumdar) who falls
for a poor Indian taxi driver (Hundal) against her strict, class-obsessed
parents' wishes...with murder resulting. Inspired by fact, this CBC TV
movie manages that rare feet of being a "true crime" shocker...that, nonetheless,
works as both a movie, and seeming as though it truly is tackling greater
social issues, rather than just being a lurid exploitation of headlines.
Though the flashback/flashforward structure could've been clearer and the
ending is a tad anti-climactic. Nice performances, particularly from newcomer
Majumdar and Indian actor Hundal. And a nice attempt to do a movie that
is set in Indian (and Canada, too) and tackling corruption and prejudice
in an Indian context, but told with a western style and flavour, making
it all very accessible (though some of the accents have to be adjusted
to). sc: S. Bennett, MR Smith. dir: Vic Sarin. - violence; sexual content.-
app. 90 min.
MURDERERS AMONG US: The
Simon Wiesenthal Story (TVMS) * *
1/2 set: other
(1989) (/U.S./Europe) Ben Kingsley, Renee Soutendijk,
Craig T. Nelson, Louisa Haigh, David Threlfall.....Story of real-life
Wiesenthal (Kingsley) and how he survived a W.W. II death camp to become
a Nazi hunter. Handsome and at times powerful, but also somewhat
sloppy and unsatisfying. Interestingly, Wiesenthal himself declined
to come to Canada to publicize the movie because of his feeling that the
Canadian justice department was not doing enough to hunt down war criminals.
4 hours. sc: Abby Mann, Robin Vote, Ron Hutchinson. dir: Brian Gibson.
- brief male nudity.-
|
THE MURDOCH MYSTERIES (TV Series) (2008-) * * * Yannick Bisson ("William Murdoch"), Helene Joy ("Dr. Julia Ogden"), Thomas Craig ("Insp. Brackenreid"), Jonny Harris ("Constable Crabtree"), with Georgina Reilly ("Dr. Grace").....Mystery series about a Victorian-era Toronto detective (Bisson) who investigates with an intellectualism and reliance on "cutting edge" forensic science that often puts him at odds with his more bullish, old fashioned superior (Craig). Joy plays a lady coroner who shares "Murdoch's" interest in science as an investigating tool and Harris his good natured constable. Reilly was added as another female coroner -- providing romantic tension with "Crabtree". "Murdoch" is also supposed to be Catholic, his faith occasionally tested by the crimes he investigates, and which makes him something of a "minority" in (then) predominantly Protestant Toronto. This series is reminiscent of the earlier CBC TV series, The Great Detective (creator Jennings even cited the same inspiration -- real life Inspector John Wilson-Murray). Murdoch began as a character in some novels by Maureen Jennings, and first came to the small screen in a series of TV movies starring Peter Outerbridge as Murdoch...and where the results were a tad dry. Transformed into a weekly series, the results are more effective. Given a slightly jauntier tone and brisker pace, at first "Murdoch" himself isn't the most riveting of heroes...but grows on you in his combination of a repressed Sherlock Holmes and "CSI"'s Gil Grissom, with Bisson a personable performer. In fact, with its emphasis on 19th Century forensics ("finger marks"), the series billed itself as a Victorian "CSI". The desire to work in period allusions -- from him teaming up with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to the characters making prophetic observations ("can you imagine if...") -- can sometimes get a bit overly cutesy....on the other hand, lend the series an air of fun the earlier TV movies lacked. And like with the previous Great Detective series, the period details are kind of the point -- why do a historical mystery series and then not make the period essential to the stories? The cast is good, Yannick sympathetic and English actor Craig nicely blustery, yet nuanced. Though Joy has little to work with (the series has romantic tension between her and "Murdoch", increasingly overt in later seasons...but they have too few scenes to make that integral) and Harris is an arguably ground breaking casting choice in that he's got a strong Atlantic Canada accent. And though Atlantic Canadian accents are common in Canadian series set in the east, this is arguably one of the first times such an actor has been cast in a Central Canadian series and where it's completely irrelevant to the part. Ultimately, a series that doesn't necessarily grab you with a single watch, but grows on you with its old fashioned, unpretentious, Ms. Marple, tell-a-story-in-an-hour intentions. It's not subtle, or edgy...nor is it trying to be. Industry watchers were a bit stunned when, despite consistently decent ratings (and international sales), City TV announced they were cancelling it after its 2011-2012 season...claiming the series was not a right "fit" for their targeted demographic. But a reprieve came when the CBC announced they would pick it up. And after initially rerunning the last City TV season on the CBC to respectable-but-modest ratings...the gamble to pick up the discard was entirely vindicated when the CBC started airing first run episodes and The Murdoch Mysteries saw its best ratings ever, and top ratings for the CBC! Best bets: the one about the gay man murdered before his wedding. Hour long episodes on the CHUM stations. |
MUSIC HALL (TVMS) *
* setting: P.Q.
(2002) Claude Blanchard, Veronique Cloutier, Patrick
Huard, Serge Postigo, Michele-Barbara Pelletier, Julien Poulin, Jean-Nicholas
Verreault, Jean Petitclerc, Murray Head, Annie Dufresne.....Night club
owner (Blanchard) works to open a new club (after his last was destroyed
in a suspicious fire), auditioning and preparing the in-house acts, while
trying to manage his mob-backed investors; plus there's the trials and
tribs of the various performers and employees. Curious drama should be
fun in its unabashed, hokily old fashioned melodrama way...but one can't
shake the feeling it's meant to be taken seriously, as opposed to being
the kitschy, slightly campy affair it plays like (though the over-the-top
incidental music suggests a certain tongue-in-cheek). But it's actually
kind of hard to follow (with lots of names being bandied about that it's
hard to put to specific faces) and the characters just aren't that interesting...let
alone appealling...nor are their relationships and sub-plots well
developed. A huge hit in Quebec, even spawning a sequel, but one wonders
if that was due simply to the non-stop classic (American and British) pop
music used on the soundtrack (they even released a soundtrack CD) ala a
number of previous movies that owe a lot of their appeal to just rehashing
tried and true hits. The series also suffered from an antiquated anti-English
streak (hypocritical given the soundtrack tunes) with the club's comedian
engaging in racist jokes, and the only one who takes offense is a bad guy
mobster (ooh! hiss!) Should've been grand, unpretentious, pulpy entertainment...but
it's, frankly, kind of dull (though the final revelation about who torched
the old club was good). The series also experienced a curious broadcasting
history in English sub-titles on the CBC, which either reflects a blundering
of the programmer...or that it was a ratings disaster. The first three
hour long episodes were shown weekly for three weeks, Tuesday at 9 PM,
then it was pre-empted for two weeks (who pre-empts a mini-series?) before
the fourth episode aired, then the final two episodes were supposedly aired,
well, sometime, I guess, I think. Maybe. Eventually it was shown
in its entirety almost a year later, in an 11:30 PM Monday timeslot. Though
it's a good bet most of its audience missed the final instalments. In French.
Six hours. sc: Fabienne Larouche. dir: Alain DesRochers. - violence, partial
female nudity, casual male nudity.-
MUST BE SANTA *
* 1/2 setting: Ont.
(1999) (/U.S.) Arnold Pinnock, Deanna Milligan, Dabney
Coleman, Gerard Parkes, Peter Millard, Keena McWilliams, Brian Miranda,
Steve McCarthy, Jordy Benattar.....Shiftless man (Pinnock) finds himself
accidentally tagged to be Santa Claus' (Parkes) replacement, much to the
chagrin of the no-nonesense manager of the North Pole (Coleman), but with
the support of his angelic assistant (Milligan). Made-for-CBC TV movie
(one of the most expensive in CBC history) boasts some magical sets and
effects, good performances from the three leads, and a genuine sweetness
that almost compensates for a plot that lags and a feeling that too many
ideas were thrown in, but few realized fully. Even the main character is
half-baked: is he a man born to be Santa, but must convince others, or
is he a flawed man who must learn to be Santa? Both ideas are fine...but
are contradictory in the same movie. And the fact that the old Santa dies,
or that elves are the ghosts of dead children, might make the movie unsuitable
for younger kids. Better than One Magic Christmas,
but still not a yuletide classic. Despite the similar premise to the U.S.
hit, "The Santa Clause", Bowie had apparently been working on this script
for a decade. sc: Douglas Bowie. dir: Brad Turner. 90 min.
MUSTARD BATH *
* setting: other
(1993) Michael Riley, Martha Henry, Tantoo Cardinal,
Alissa Trotz, Eddy Grant, Elizabeth Shepherd, Fernardo da Silva.....An
introverted medical student (Riley) returns to his Guyana birthplace to
study as a doctor and to come to grips with his feelings of isolation and
abandonment. Good looking (and this was supposedly low-budget!) deliberately
paced drama has a good cast and mood and does sustain interest for the
most part, but kind of lacks something crucial: a plot. And the Freudian
psycho-babble that forms the film's heart hardly warrants a whole movie.
Filmed on location. sc./dir: Darrell Wasyk (story Wasyk and Bebo
Haddad). - male nudity, explicit sexual content, partial female nudity,
violence.- 109 min.
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