[Victoria Film Festival ’14] Plenty of Laughs can be Found with Cas & Dylan

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Cas & Dylan Movie Poster

Not many road trip style movies are both tearfully funny and musically joyous at the same time. In Cas & Dylan, the meeting of two unlikely individuals creates a deeply moving tale and a great character building drama.

When Cas Pepper (Richard Dreyfuss) is a widowed oncologist diagnosed with a medical problem, he has a few choices to make. He can either get it treated or retire. Or, he can embark on a road trip so he can find some peace. Little does he know, a spritely young writer Dylan Morgan (Tatiana Maslany) leaps into his life and what she likes to do is cause chaos.

What makes this film wonderful to watch is that these two characters are both on a journey of self-discovery and awakenings.

Pepper is a bit of an old codger. He’s stuffy and loves his country music. Dylan, on the other hand, is a young minx who loves rock and roll. Her troubled life needs a hand. Maybe she needs a strong father-figure in her life to help guide her, and because she has been hanging out in the hospital Pepper works in, maybe she saw something in Pepper that she liked.

Writer Jessie Gabe crafted a great, layered, story that shows how the two unlikeliest of people manages to bond. Even director Jason Priestley demonstrates he knows his comedy very well. He directed for television many times and his transition to working on feature length films looks like a promising one. The way he had Maslany come to life on the screen is beautiful, and she will no doubt be a star on the rise. Dreyfuss is just as wonderful in his transformation of realizing he can be happy again.

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Even the choice of bluegrass music used is a sweet touch to drive home the idea that the type of music Donnie & Marie mixed together is still reverent today. This heartwarming film with a message will no doubt change the formula for odd couple comedies still to come. All this product has to do is to break out of the film festival circuit and hit the domestic with marketing revving up everything it can do to make this film known.

5 out of 5

[Victoria Film Festival ’14] Just Who is Alan Partridge? A Movie Review

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Alan Partridge Alpha Papa poster
Continues at the Odeon Theatre #2 – 6:45pm Feb 14

Directed by Declan Lowney
Screenplay by Neil Gibbons, Rob Gibbons, Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci, Peter Baynham

Not everyone on this side of the pond will know who British presenter Alan Partridge is. But after seeing the movie Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (the UK title of this film) his fame in North America will no doubt rise. Who knows, maybe he might get his own TV show in the States — heaven forbid. This fictional character is a media personality who has declined in fame over the years, and to see him claw his way back to the top is sad but funny.

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A Tale of Two Geeks: Trying to get to Cineplex’s Great Digital Film Festival!

By Otaku no Culture

Cineplex-FilmFestiva-620

E: Gen X’ers, geeks, Gen Y’ers and nerds should unite! Nearly 50 years of pop culture cinema is being offered at the Great Digital Film Festival, which is playing all across Canada in select Cineplex Odeon theatres (January 31 to February 6).

21 films will be playing throughout the day for one week, and if James and I do not collapse from exhaustion (there’s only so much my buddy’s old age can take), we may take in more than five films of this mega-extravangza. The one thing I find interesting is that while I know it was not intentional, this show takes place right before the Victoria Film Festival.

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The Great Ghost Rescue, A Movie Review

Despite the hiccups that The Great Ghost Rescue has for pace, this product can be an enjoyable light-hearted Halloween treat for the entire family.

The Great Ghost RescueHumphrey was once an ordinary boy with an ordinary life. Well, that is, until he died—quite by accident, really. But just do not tell his best friend, Barnabas, that. His death literally sets in motion The Great Ghost Rescue, a tongue-in-cheek horror comedy from the UK about dislocated spirits looking for a new home.

This movie made a quiet releaseThe Great Ghost Rescue on this side of the pond with very little fanfare during a Halloween season. Also, this film is by no means a faithful adaptation of Eva Ibbotson’s original novelThe Great Ghost Rescue of the same name, published 1975. And the message it makes about how one particular family can stay strong during a moment of crisis cannot go unnoticed.

While children may not get all of the jokes, older audiences can easily chuckle at the hilarious sight gags and crazy societal dysfunction going on. This production is a blend of the humour from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the grisly silliness from The Addams Family. Even though the laughs are cheap and the acting over the top, this film can be enjoyed when everyone is sharing that same sugar rush after trick or treating.

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The Minions Just Wanna Have Fun in Despicable Me 2

In Despicable Me 2, the Minions are still working for Gru (Steve Carell) like lemmings with a renewed purpose.

Despicable Me 2 GangLet’s face it, the big reason why the Despicable Me 2 is successful is because of all those Minions. The most prominent are Phil, Kevin and Dave along with all 101 of them, if that’s the correct count.

They are just as cute as those Dalmatians, however they are more like the Martians from Toy Story, ooohing and aahing at everything they encounter. And these characters do not disappoint in their hilarious hi-jinks in the sequel.

In fact, they even outdo the Penguins of Madagascar as great comedic teams. Fans of slapstick will no doubt be looking forward to the Minion movie, due in theaters Dec 2014, more than the Penguins, due in 2015.

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