Film | by Shane “Don’t Feed Him After Midnight” Hnetka
Fan entitlement has always been around but it amuses me when fans think they can fix whatever they don’t like about a movie with an online petition. For example, some fans dislike Joss Whedon’s Justice League edits and have a petition demanding Warner Bros. release a Zack Snyder cut of the film. Other fans have petitioned for a Whedon-only cut. It’s ridiculous. There’s a petition to have The Last Jedi removed from the Star Wars canon. I can’t recall any of these fan petitions resulting in change, but at least people are passionate about movies.
Flashback 2018
Cineplex’s annual Flashback Film Festival is back Feb. 2 to 8. You’ll find full dates and times in the movie listings on page 13. This year’s line-up of classics includes The Big Lebowski — the Coen brothers classic about kidnapping, bowling, art and a rug that really tied the room together — The Iron Giant, Gremlins and Drunken Master, but there’s so many great choices.
Drunken Master, which screens in the original Cantonese, is about the secret art of drunken kung fu whose deadly practitioners fight buzzed. It’s hilarious and action-packed, and celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2018. Star Jackie Chan did a sequel that was better but the original is still a treat.
Joe Dante’s 1984 horror-comedy Gremlins is still amazing years later. It’s the simple story of an ill-considered Christmas gift that causes the near-complete destruction of a small town. The gremlin puppets are better than anything computers could animate. Controversial opinion: I’ve always said this is my favourite Christmas movie over Die Hard. How can terrorists compete with hundreds of mischievous, murderous gremlins who multiply in water and like Disney’s Snow White?
A View to a Kill was Roger Moore’s last Bond movie. The previous two, For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy, were arguably Moore’s best and A View to a Kill just doesn’t match them. Bond girl Tanya Roberts is absolutely terrible, constantly screeching “help me James!”. Compared to For Your Eyes Only’s crossbow-welding Carole Bouquet and Maude Adams and her international gang of women fighters/thieves/circus performers in Octopussy, Roberts is a huge step back. That said, the movie’s final fight is on top of the Golden Gate Bridge and involves a blimp.
I don’t think anything needs to be said about Monty Python and The Holy Grail except that it’s brilliant.
Lots of awesome stuff to go see at the Flashback Film Festival. Go! It’s so much better than sitting at home, spilling water on monsters.
Shane Hnetka is a made-in-Saskatchewan film and comic book nerd.