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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.
SELLING INNOCENCE *
* * setting: Alt.
(2005) Sarah Lind, JR Bourne, Mimi Rogers, Joanne
Kelly, Fred Ewanuick, Tamara Hope, Mike Lobel, Charisse Baker.....Aimless
teen (Lind) lands a job at a seeming legitimate modelling agency, and gets
enamoured of the money and life, even though she finds the job involves
her doing few magazine gigs, while posting racier and racier pictures of
herself on the agency's website. Cautionary made-for-CTV drama is kind
of being torn in different directions, from being an earnest "After School
Special" warning about social issues...to a sort of thriller, with a sub-plot
involving a stalker...to a polemic about objectifying women that, at times,
can slide into just old fashioned reactionary prudishness. And the unavoidable
problem with trying to tackle the subject matter is that, in order to do
a movie about sleaze and sexploitation, isn't the danger the movie becomes
precisely what it's criticizing? (Although others criticized the movie
as unrealistic...because the "shocking" photos weren't all that
extreme). Add to that the issue is about the exploitation of minors...which
is hard to remember because Lind is clearly a young adult (but then, if
they had cast a minor, that would raise its own issues). With all that
being said...it works more than it doesn't and where even a few scenes
that seem silly, or illogical, make more sense as the story unfolds. Generally
well put together, with strong performances from Bourne, American import
Rogers (as the mom), Kelly (as a jaded, "older" model) and, especially,
Lind. And as an "issue" movie, it's worth a look, as you gradually realize
this isn't an attack on modelling agencies, but a warning how illegitimate
businesses can masquerade as legitimate ones. Look fast for Instant
Star's Alexz Johnston as a model kidnapped at the beginning. sc: Aaron
Martin, John Moffatt (story Moffatt). dir: Pierre Gang. app; 90 min.
SENIOR TRIP see National Lampoon's Senior Trip
SENTIMENTAL REASONS
* 1/2 setting: Alt.
(1982) Jorge Montesi, Elaine Lakeman, Peter Haynes,
Arvi Liimatainen, Isreal Manchild.....Contract killer (Montesi) arrives
in Edmonton for a hit and becomes overly involved with a prostitute (Lakeman)
who's in trouble. Weak performances and it takes the story forever to get
anywhere, though Lakeman's nude scenes aren't without interest. Nice title
song. a.k.a. Death Target. sc. Peter Haynes. dir: Jorge Montesi.
- female and male nudity, sexual contennt, violence.- 72 min.
SEPARATE VACATIONS
* 1/2 setting: USA./other
(1985) David Naughton, Jennifer Dale, Mark Keyloun,
Lally Cadeau, Blanca Cuerra, Tony Rosato, Laurie Holden.....Bored with
his marriage, American (Naughton) goes to Mexico to try and have an affair,
leaving his bewildered wife (Dale) to mind the kids. Repetitious, predictable,
raunchy sex comedy seems to derive most of its humour watching Naughton
get into one embarrassing situation after another. Well, it's your money.
sc: Robert Kaufman (from the novel by Eric Weber). dir: Michael Anderson.
- partial female nudity, sexual contentt.- 91 min.
SEPARATION *
* 1/2 setting: CDN./other
(1978) Emile Genest, Paul Hecht, Alexandra Stewart,
Robert Rivard, Monique LePage, Sabina Maydelle, Lois Maxwell, Daniel Pilon.....Quebec
threatens to separate if Canada accepts two million British refugees, leaving
the Prime Minister (Genest) to try and keep the country together while
dealing with a caucus revolt. Cheap-looking made-for-TV political suspense
flick is fairly well thought out and manages to be pretty riveting (if
cerebral). sc: Richard Rohmer (adaptation by Sandor Stern). dir: George
McCowan.
SEPT FOIS...PAR JOUR *
1/2 setting: other
(1971) (/Israel) Rosanna Schiaffino, Jean Coutu, Dalia
Friedland, Avner Hizkyau, Jacques Ben-Sira, Ebba Kaiser, Suzanne Valerie.....Canadian
sexaholic (Coutu) working in Israel struggles to curb his libido, succeeds,
but then finds he has trouble committing when a possible relationship presents
itself. Sex comedy is inoffensive enough, with a decent performance from
Coutu and an unusual setting, and boasts some quirkiness at times. But
as a movie it seems unevenly structured and fails to resolve. Ted Allan
(!) is credited with the story. a.k.a. 7 fois...par jour, 7 Times
a Day, Seven Times a Day. sc./dir: Denis Heroux (story Ted Allan).
- partial female and male nudity, sexuaal content.- 85 min.
SERAPHIN: A Heart Made of Stone see Seraphin: Un homme et son peche
SERAPHIN: Un homme et son
peche * * * setting: P.Q.
(2002) Pierre Lebeau, Karine Vanasse, Roy Dupuis,
Remy Girard, Celine Bonnier, Robert Brouillette, Benoit Briere, Yves Jacques,
Normand Chouinard, Anne-Marie Cadieux, Louise Portal, Marie Tifo.....In
19th Century rural Quebec, young lovers (Vanasse and Dupuis) find their
happiness shattered when she is promised in marriage to Seraphin (Lebeau),
the sinister and miserly mayor of the town. Familiar Quebecois period rural
romantic tragedy, surprisingly, became one of the highest grossing domestic
films, provincially, in Quebec history. Not, perhaps, special enough to
warrant such success (then again, neither was "Titanic"), nonetheless,
if you're looking for a tearjerker -- if occasionally hokey -- melodrama,
this is reasonably well down, with nice performances and a certain grandeur
to its intimate story. Done before as a novel, radio series, and TV mini-series!
English title: Seraphin: A Heart Made of Stone. sc: Pierre Billon,
Charles Biname, with Antonine Maillet, Lorraine Richard (freely adapted
from the work by Claude-Henri Grignon). dir: Charles Biname. - sexual content;
casual male nudity.- 128 min.
SET ME FREE see Emporte-Moi
Seven Streams of the River Ota, a play, was the source for the movie, No.
SEVEN TIMES A DAY see Sept fois...un jour
SEVEN TIMES LUCKY *
* * setting: CDN.
(2004) Kevin Pollak, Liane Balaban, Jason Chernick,
James Tolkan, Babz Chula, Gordon Tootoosis, Aleks Paunovic, Laura Jayne
McDonald, Ryan Black.....Story of fringe-dwelling grifters and con
artists during the Christmas season, focusing on an world weary pro (import
Pollak) and his young protégé (Balaban) -- and the double
crosses that accompany their latest scam. Low-key suspense-drama is one
of those flicks where there are so many double crosses, lies, and hidden
agendas going on you can lose track of whether it really makes sense or
not. But it's got a decent cast, an effectively atmospheric melancholy
mood, and is told with a brisk enough tempo (without seeming frenetic)
that it holds your interest to the end -- and that's kind of the point.
The character stuff doesn't fully click the way it wants to, but a generally
interesting little film. A deliberate timelessness to the period actually
adds to the evocative mood. Received the Genie for Best Song. sc./dir:
G.B. Yates. 85 min.
Sex and the Criminal Mind, a series of case histories by Norman Winsk, served as the source for the cable TV movie The Man in the Attic
THE SEX OF THE STARS see Le sexe des etoiles
LE SEXE DES ETOILES
* * setting: P.Q.
(1993) Denis Mercier, Marianne Coquelicot Mercier,
Tobie Pelletier, Sylvie Drapeau, Luc Picard, Gilles Renaud.....Introverted,
astronomy-obsessed teen (Marianne M.) becomes attached to her long lost
father (Denis M.) when he returns, but has trouble dealing with the fact
that he is now a she thanks to a sex change operation. Moody, handsome
drama is O.K. but ultimately too slow, without enough to sustain a feature.
The two Merciers aren't related. English title: The Sex of the Stars.
sc: Monique Proulx (from her novel). dir: Paule Baillargeon. 105 min.
SHADES OF BLACK *
* * setting: CDN/other
(2006) Albert Schultz, Lara Flynn Boyle, Jason Schombing,
Rick Roberts, Amy Price Francis, Jason Priestley, Jeremy Akerman, Cedric
Smith, Sharry Flett.....Drama about controversial Canadian business
mogul, Conrad Black (Schultz), as he reflects back upon his life while
facing charges of fraud and corruption. Fact based made-for-CTV drama is
a not wholly unsympathetic portrait of Black, and the writer and director
are clearly taking their inspiration, less from "true life docudramas"
and more from old style Hollywood melodramas like "Citizen Kane" or even
"A Christmas Carol" -- sometimes with scenes and even camera angles seeming
deliberately meant to evoke those movies. The result is a lot of stylish,
richly drawn scenes, with strong, pulpy performances from Schultz (nicely
made up to evoke Black and delivering an uncannily evocative performance),
American actress Boyle (as Barbara Amiel), Price Francis (as Black's first
wife) and, well, everyone. But does suffer from the usual flaws of both
business bio-pics (you're often not quite sure what's going on -- further
confused by the jumbled chronology) and of true stories in general, in
which, if taken as a simple story it doesn't entirely take you anywhere,
but if taken as fact -- well, it's still basically just speculation. The
movie also kind of sidesteps politics -- we're told Black and Amiel are
right wing, but then given little example of their philosophies. As such,
the whole isn't maybe as strong as the parts -- but the parts are pretty
strong. sc: Andrew Wreggitt (from the book by Richard Siklos). dir: Alex
Chapple. app. 90 min.
Shades of Love * * 1/2....Series of made-for-cable TV movies produced by the Harlequin Romance novel publishers and adapted from published works. Generally: career woman meets man, they dance around each other for a while trying to decide if it's genuine, then they "get together" -- frequently with some female nudity (perhaps to attract males to a largely female genre?). Not as bad as you might think given the rep of "romance" novels. Not great, but generally O.K. and amusing and not pretentious. Some are better than others and some are available on video. titles: The Ballerina and the Blues, Champagne for Two, The Emerald Tear (one of the best), Lilac Dreams, Little White Lies, Make Mine Chartreuse, Midnight Magic, Moonlight Flight, Sincerely Violet, Tangerine Taxi, others. The company would try again in 1994 with new movies (see Harlequin). - sexual content, partial female nudityy.-
SHADOW DANCING *
* 1/2 setting: Ont.
(1989) Nadine Van Der Velde, James Kee, Christopher
Plummer, John Colicos, Gregory Osborne, Shirley Douglas, Jennifer Inch,
Brent Carver..... Novice dancer (Van Der Velde) in a small dance company,
finds herself being possessed by the spirit of a dead dancer. Innocuous
and stylish supernatural/dance/murder-mystery lacks genuine suspense (until
the last 15 min. or so) but has good performances, dialogue, etc. Too many
close-ups during dance numbers, though. sc: Christian Foster. dir: Lewis
Furey. - sexual content.- 100 min.
SHADOW LAKE *
* setting: Ont.
(1999) Graham Greene, Joy Tanner, Gabriel Hogan, Roberta
Maxwell, Frederic Forest, Shirley Douglas, Michael Hogan, Mag Ruffman,
Steve Smith.....The discovery of a 14 year old corpse in a northern
Ontario town leads the local police (Greene) and the murdered man's daughter
(Tanner) to investigate, particularly when it seems to be tied to a long
ago diamond robbery. Lethargic TV movie spends the first half seeming like
an old "Murder, She Wrote" episode -- unfortunately, what works in episodic
TV doesn't necessarily generate suspense in a stand alone, movie-length
format -- then it turns into the standard "girl-trapped-in-a- deserted-hotel-being-chased-by-psycho"
genre. A nice cast, with particularly strong performances from Douglas
and M. Hogan (though import Forest's American accent doesn't gel with the
location), but the characterization never really clicks. sc: Paula J. Smith
and Donald Martin, Jane Wylie, Alex Galatis. dir: Carl Alexander Goldstein.
94 min.
SHADOW OF THE HAWK
* 1/2 setting: USA.
(1976) Jan-Michael Vincent, Marilyn Hassett, Chief
Dan George, Pia Shandel, Marianne Jones, Jacques Hubert.....Half American
Indian (Vincent) must escort his grandfather (George) back to his village
to battle an evil witch, plagued by evil spirits all the way. Potentially
interesting scenes in this supernatural thriller are ruined by terrible
dialogue, awkward direction and poor performances. Still, the scene where
a car runs into an invisible wall is pretty nifty. sc: Norman Thaddeus
Vane, Herbert J. Wright (story Peter Jensen & Lynette Cahill and Norman
Thaddeus Vane). dir: George McCowan. 92 min.
SHADOW OF THE WOLF *
1/2 setting: CDN.
(1993) (/France) Lou Diamond Phillips, Toshiro Mifune,
Jennifer Tilly, Donald Sutherland, Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Nicholas Campbell,
Raoul Trujillo, Qalingo Tookalak.....In the '30s,
Inuk Aguguk (Phillips), the quintessential angry-young-man, kills a white
trader and then heads across the tundra with his girlfriend (Tilly). Drama
starts out awful thanks to bad dialogue, direction, and performances from
the non-Inuit Inuit actors that belong in a B-movie western, then improves
slightly thanks to Sutherland. But only slightly. The most expensive Canadian
movie made to that point (over $30 million), it has nice scenery, big sets,
a $2 million rubber whale...too bad it didn't have a stronger plot. sc:
Evan Jones, Rudy Wurlitzer, adaptation David Mihaud, Jacques Dorfmann (from
the novel Aguguk by Yves Theriault). dir: Jacques Dorfmann. - partial
female nudity, violence, sexual content.- 112 min.
SHADOWBUILDER
* * 1/2 setting: USA.
(1997) Michael Rooker, Leslie Hope, Shawn Alex Thompson,
Kevin Zegers, Tony Todd, Catherine Bruhier, Hardee Lineham.....A troubled,
gun-totting priest (Rooker) comes to small town U.S.A. to protect a young
boy (Zegers) whom a demon intends to sacrifice to bring eternal darkness.
Good-looking, well-produced horror-thriller is presumably a low-budget,
straight-to-video quickie...but doesn't seem like it. Not bad (though not
great), with a good cast (where even the bit roles are played by respectable
actors like James B. Douglas, Paul Soles and Gordon Michael Woolvett),
nice f/x and a script that's actually thoughtful at times. A bit slow,
though, and suffers from the fact that, except for the priest, there isn't
any real characterization. Hope (as the boy's guardian) and Thompson (as
her Sheriff boyfriend) and Zegers are basically just generic protagonists.
Rooker and genre vet Todd, as a local eccentric, (kind of his generation's
Christopher Lee) are American. a.k.a. Bram Stoker's Shadowbuilder.
sc: Michael Stokes (from the story by Bram Stoker). dir: Jamie Dixon. -
violence, brief nudity.- 100 min.
SHADOWS OF THE PAST*
* setting: P.Q.
(1991) (/France) Erika Anderson, Nicholas Campbell,
Richard Berry, Heidi von Palleske, Dennis O'Connor, Lorne Brass, Jacques
Herlin.....Partially amnesiac photojournalist (American Anderson) in
Montreal finds both cops and shady figures believe she was involved in
some criminal plot, but she can't remember. Suspenser has decent enough
ideas, and throws in light badinage and romance (with Campbell as a Mountie
assigned to watch her). But it's hurt by a low-budget feel that evokes
old drive-in movies, where the professional actors seem unpolished. The
plot -- and the questions it provokes -- just aren't that interesting.
The movie doesn't sustain what suspense it creates, while the light humour
is more good natured, rather than actually amusing. Well-intentioned, but
not quite. Brass gets a change-of-pace role as poshly-accented villain.
sc: David Preston. dir: Gabriel Pelletier. - sexual content.- 92 min.
THE SHAMAN'S SOURCE
* *
(1990) Billy Merasty, Eric Schweig, Jim Kewakundo,
Peter Read, Don Lamont, Vanessa Dylyn, Denis Nadon, Banito Brown.....Three
Ojibway men (Merasty, Schweig and Kewakundo) go in search of a mystical
underground spring, with a ruthless industrialist (Read) and his people
close behind. Low-budget adventure flick does manage to sustain interest,
despite uneven performances, dialogue and direction. Merasty and Schweig
almost make it work. sc: John Gregory, Brian Dick. dir: Robert Bouvier.
86 min.
SHANIA: A Life in Eight Albums*
* 1/2 setting: Ont./USA.
(2005) Meredith Henderson, Reva Timbers, Shenae Grimes,
Megan Follows, Eric Schweig, Gordon Tootoosis, Darrel Dennis, Lynne Cormack,
Lubomir Mykytiuk, Katie Boland.....The early life
of Canadian-born country-rock superstar Shania Twain (born Eileen Twain)
is chronicled, from her poor childhood to her struggles to get a toe hold
in the music business. Made-for-CBC bio pic is okay but maybe has trouble
finding a consistent narrative thread or theme (most people's lives don't
form a convenient narrative) where even Twain herself remains a slightly
vague personality. And though aspects of the movie might be eye opening
-- showing her dirt poor childhood and emphasizing a Native Indian heritage
(though the filmmakers are a bit coyly ambiguous about the fact that it
was her stepdad who was Native, not Twain herself) -- it's not clear how
or if that impacted upon her later country-rock pop music, which some might
argue is more about baring her midriff than baring her soul (for the record,
Henderson only briefly flashes her abs in one scene). And are the vaguely
southern accents adopted by Follows (as her mom) and others really authentic
for small town Ontario? In the acting, writing and directing, not a bad
musical biography...but not a great one, either. sc: Shelley Eriksen. dir:
Jerry Ciccoritti. app. 90 min.
SHAPESHIFTER
* 1/2 setting: USA./other
(1999) (/Romania) Paul Nolan, Bill MacDonald, Catherine
N. Blythe, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Teodor Danetti, Serban Celea, George Ilie.....When
his ex-CIA agent parents are kidnapped, an American teen (Nolan) goes to
Romania to rescue them...and discovers he is heir to a Gypsy magic that
allows him to transform into any animal. Youth-aimed adventure movie (kind
of "Manimal, the Younger") is brimming -- over-brimming, actually -- with
ideas (let's not forget the evil witch who is in league with the Romanian
warlord, or the cyber-being from the future!) Might appeal to kids who
will enjoy the larger-than-life premise, though older viewers will probably
notice the thin plot (despite the above mentioned over-brimming ideas),
budget limitations, and indifferent performances (despite a mostly competent
cast), and that it's, well, kind of inane in spots. Even the tone is a
bit unsettled, ranging from serious, to tongue-in-cheek, to Blythe hamming
it up as the evil witch like she's just stepped out of The Wizard of OZ
or HMS Puf'n'stuff. And there's something off-putting about a movie that's
so jingoistically, propagandistically American...when it's not actually
Americans who are making it! Presumably intended to spawn sequels, or a
TV series...but it didn't. sc: Thom Richardson. dir: Cristian Andrei. 90
min.
SHATTERED CITY; The Halifax
Explosion (TVMS) * * * setting;
N.S.
(2003) Vincent Walsh, Shauna MacDonald, Zachary Bennett,
Gordon Michael Woolvett, Paul Doucet, Tamara Hope, Ted Dykstra, Richard
Donat, Lynne Griffin, Leon Pownall, Max Morrow, Clare Stone, Graham Greene,
Pete Postlethwaite, Joan Orenstein.....Story of the notorious 1917
explosion that levelled much of war time Halifax -- the largest pre-atomic
man-made explosion in history -- focusing on the family of a recently returned
soldier (Walsh) who's suffering from battle fatigue. CBC mini-series stretches
its budget pretty well, looking fairly expensive (while side-stepping,
presumably for budget reasons, some of the post-explosion fires, flooding
and blizzard). Old fashioned disaster movie doesn't always develop its
character threads as well as it should, has largely workmanlike direction,
and the climactic trial sequence pushes credibility more than once, but
it nonetheless emerges as fairly compelling for all that. It benefits nicely
from a genuine attempt to create a thematic thread formed by its shell
shocked hero, his disillusionment with war, and likening the chaos of the
devastated city to the chaos of the battlefield an ocean away. Some dramatic
license can be forgiven, such as having German spies prowling the city,
but portraying the harbour master (Pownall) as an arrogant British naval
officer when, apparently, he was really Canadian, is downright misinformation.
Four hours. sc: Keith Ross Leckie. dir: Bruce Pittman. - extreme violence.-
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