Andrew Parker

Film Editor - Andrew Parker writes for numerous blogs and publications, including Notes From the Toronto Underground and his more personal pop-culture blog, I Can't Get Laid in This Town. He is also the curator of the Defending the Indefensible series of films at the Toronto Underground Cinema.

Rampart Review

February 22, 2012

Despite being the mind behind the brilliant L.A. Confidential, writer James Ellroy’s work rarely transitions well to the big screen. Much like graphic novelist Frank Miller, Ellroy needs a director who can temper his sometimes unnecessarily over the top and formulaic material into a watchable package. With Ellroy’s latest outing Rampart, director Oren Moverman show’s that he’s simply not up to the challenge leading to film that feels wholly indistinguishable from the author’s past big screen outings about dirty Los Angeles cops. Continue reading

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Goon Review

February 22, 2012

Calling Goon this generation’s Slap Shot would be an understatement. Aside from the obvious surface comparisons to the George Roy Hill/Paul Newman classic about a minor league hockey team going nowhere, director Michael Dowse (Fubar) and co-writer/co-star Jay Baruchel have created a film that outdoes what many hail as the greatest hockey comedy ever made. Continue reading

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Interview: Alison Pill

February 22, 2012

Dork Shelf talks to another Goon cast member, Toronto native Alison Pill, about what to look for when choosing a love interest role, working with Seann William Scott and Jay Baruchel, and her fear of improv. Continue reading

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Interview: Marc-Andre Grondin

February 21, 2012

The charming and candid Marc-André Grondin talked to Dork Shelf about the upcoming hockey comedy Goon and what it’s like to play someone so irredeemable as his character, how to dress like a douche for the camera, and how challenging it can be to make a French Canadian character funny without turning it into a stereotype. Continue reading

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This Week in DVD: 2/21/12

February 21, 2012

During a big week for DVD releases, we take a look at Brett Ratner’s Tower Heist, the film festival favourite Martha Marcy May Marlene, the multiple Genie award nominee Café de Flore, and a trio of big name direct to DVD features starring the likes of Chris Evans, Colin Farrell, Keira Knightley, Ryan Reynolds, and Julia Roberts. Continue reading

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Defending The Indefensible: Judgment Night

February 20, 2012

In the first entry of the published offshoot of the popular screening series, Defending the Indefensible curator Andrew Parker looks back at the “overlooked and under-appreciated” 1993 thriller Judgment Night, starring Emilio Estevez and Denis Leary. Continue reading

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Interview: Donovan’s Echo Director Jim Cliffe

February 20, 2012

Dork Shelf talks the director of the Canadian drama Donovan’s Echo, Jim Cliffe, about working with Danny Glover and Bruce Greenwood, making the transition from animation to live action, and the importance of having a really great mathematician during the writing process. Continue reading

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Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance Review

February 17, 2012

While technically a step up in quality from the first film in terms of storytelling, the second entry in the somewhat unnecessary Ghost Rider franchise still manages to feel like a bit of a missed opportunity given the talent both in front of and behind the camera. A film starring Nicolas Cage and directed by the duo of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Crank, Gamer) should be balls to the wall, action packed insanity. Instead, what we get is a film that feels curiously neutered in terms of content and budget. Continue reading

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The Secret World of Arrietty Review

February 17, 2012

Even dubbed into English, it’s hard to go wrong with almost any film bearing the Studio Ghibli name on it. Similarly, the much beloved children’s novel The Borrowers – written by the late Mary Norton with no fewer than four big and small screen adaptations – stands as an enduring brand in family entertainment. While only written by Ghibli head maestro Hayao Miyazaki and only somewhat faithful to Norton’s beloved source material, The Secret World of Arrietty still manages to be another solid, but slight effort from the Japanese powerhouse. Continue reading

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This Means War Review

February 17, 2012

This Means War refers not only to the title of director McG’s latest romantic action-comedy, but also to the exact sentiment I felt about forty minutes into the film. Staggeringly unfunny with a masochistic mean streak, only one of the jokes in the film even manages a single actual laugh, making for an extremely long feeling 95 minute sit. Ugly, incoherent, and all around lazy as hell, this is exactly the kind of movie I feel I will be weeping about when it inevitably hits number one at the box office. Continue reading

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Potted Potter Review

February 15, 2012

Much like similar attempts to reduce the complete works of Shakespeare into a single scant theatrical running time, the unauthorized J.K. Rowling reduction Potted Potter (now on stage until March 25th at the Panasonic Theatre in Toronto after successful runs in the UK) has the feeling of a madcap romp boiled down to a science. This cramming of all seven Harry Potter books into a 70 minute production definitely skews slightly towards a younger crowd, but the fan appeal is undeniable and the uninitiated will have a hard time erasing the ear to ear grin from their faces. Continue reading

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This Week in DVD: 2/14/2011

February 14, 2012

Not much of anything romantic on DVD this Valentine’s Day (unless you count the family dynamic in the brilliant Take Shelter), but there are a pair of decent horror films, a drunken Johnny Depp, Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones arguing in a room for 90 minutes, and some pretty great philosophical discussions. Something for everyone! Except romantics. Continue reading

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