Mike's Bloggity Blog

No matter what you’re doing this weekend, you’ll probably find yourself wanting to watch at least one scary movie.  Since it’s such a spooky weekend, I thought I’d take a moment to share with you my three favourite scary movies. Chances are you haven’t seen them, so you’ll have to just trust me, these are the three movies you’re looking for!

Dawn of The Dead (remake).  I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this movie, which stars Sarah Polley.  It is one of those movies that the second that I see it’s on, I stop whatever I’m doing and watch it, even though I already own it.  I love it.  Scary, smart and lots and lots of gore. Definitely a must for fans of The Walking Dead.

The Mist. Not very many people know about this movie, but the movie adaptation of Stephen King’s book is terrifying, sad and seems like it could be all too real, I mean besides the monsters living in the Mist, the really scary things that happen are all cause by the humans trapped by the mysterious fog, yeah I’m looking at you Marcia Gay Harden. Oh and the last five minutes?  Unforgettable.

Drag Me To Hell. Sure people love Sam Raimi for his Spiderman movies or Evil Dead.  But me, well I love the director for his little seen Drag Me to Hell.  And while it wasn’t a box office hit, the 92% it has on Rotten Tomatoes cannot lie, this is a fantastically scary movie.  It really is a roller coaster and it’s one of those movies that I would base friendships on.  If you don’t like its humour, its scares and the twists and turns, then I don’t know if we could be friends!

Honourable mention goes to Scream 1, 2 and 4, Halloween, The Ring and The Others.

What are you favourite scary movies?

Movie buffs, grab your collections, because two of the coolest guys in cinema are heading out on tour! Acclaimed actor and director Kevin Smith joins his long-time friend and on-screen sidekick Jason Mewes across Western Canada for five exclusive engagements in Jay and Silent Bob Get Old. The duo will bring their famous comedic banter live to Vancouver (December 7), Edmonton (December 8), Calgary (December 9), Saskatoon (December 10) and Winnipeg (December 11).

If you’re fans of Mewes and Smith, It’s not like I need to tell you just how many fantastic movies these two have worked together on. Making their debut in Clerks, the first movie written and directed by Smith, they have since built a huge cult following starring in Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma and, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

Am I the only one who loves seeing how much Kevin Smith loves our country? I had a chance to check out his screening of Red State a few months ago and it was packed with fans who paid a pretty penny just to be close to their favourite director. Smith was appreciative, funny and sincere. And no, I’m not just saying that because he loves Degrassi, almost as much I as do. I said almost.

Click here to get your tickets.

Oh Vancouver and Toronto, what did you do!?!

On Tuesday night both cities will be hosting advance screenings of Paranormal Activity 3 after “winning” an online contest, why people getting to see this terrifying movie early can be classified as winning is beyond me.

It was all a part of the “Tweet to See It First” campaign, where city’s that tweeted the most about wanting to see the third movie in the franchise, got to see a screening two nights before the rest of the world. Depending on who you ask, Toronto and Vancouver are the lucky Canadian cities to win.

If you’re in either of these cities and you’re a glutton for punishment, then you have to RSVP your seat for Tuesday night’s screening. To RSVP visit the official site at www.ParanormalMovie.com. 

 I wish there was a way to tweet to not have this movie come to you’re city, it looks way to scary for my liking.

Photo via REUTERS/Mark Blinch

This story is also available on Huffington Post.

We’re only a few days into the Toronto International Film Festival and I’m already exhausted. The parties, the red carpets, the celebrity encounters. It’s absolutely draining. Oh, maybe I should clarify that I’m still in Calgary, I’m mostly just tired of hearing about the festival from Canadian media outlets, since they all seem to have given up on talking about the actual movies at the festival.

It’s not that that I don’t think that TIFF is important. On the contrary, I can’t think of a more influential festival in the entire country. (Sorry Bacon Fest.) But this time around, the original excitement of the festival definitely isn’t translating across the country. Having grown up in New Brunswick, with a quick stop over in Toronto and now calling Calgary home, I can tell you that outside of the 416 and 647 area codes, people really aren’t that interested in the world-renowned festival anymore.

And can you really blame them? Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, Canadians are now getting a second-by-second update by the festival. Sadly, it isn’t about the movies, the directors or even the actors. Instead, social media has translated TIFF into a 10-day brag-fest. TV personalities, journalists and bloggers spend their days boasting about the cool celebrities that they are hanging out with, the pricey swag they got at parties, the open bars and sending out tweets about what kind of coffee Stacy Keibler just ordered. If your profession has afforded you these luxuries, chances are the average Canadian doesn’t want to hear about it.

If I had a friend who randomly ran into Ryan Gosling in the street and they ended up talking about The Red Green Show — that is cool, they can tweet about that. But if you work for media outlet and you stood on the red carpet for three hours to talk to him for 30 seconds, because you were next in line, yeah, that’s not cool, that’s your job. It may seem like I’m grumpy (and a little jealous) but for the past few days, all I’ve read are tweets that start with, “I just chatted with to so and so.” Like they’ve been friends for years, when what they really mean is, “Their publicist gave me the opportunity to ask three pre-approved questions.” It just feels so inauthentic.

Judging from the amount of people I’ve had to unfollow this week, those attending TIFF have lost touch what initially made this festival so successful. For a while, it seemed like TIFF was a place for movies, big and small, to find a receptive and appreciative audience. Some would go on to win Oscars, others would develop a cult following. Either way, we were just happy to have them debut in our country. TIFF was a place where celebrities could feel welcome and a little adored. It was all very Canadian and I loved it. However with all this bragging and showboating, the Canadian festival, all of a sudden feels like anything but.

Okay, I don’t usually use this blog to talk about birth announcements and things of that sort, but the announcement of Sarah Polley being pregnant is like Kate Middleton announcing something simlar…at least it is to me.

News of the pregnancy comes just days before Sarah Polley returns to TIFF with her new film, Take This Waltz, which stars Michelle Williams and Seth Rogan. Now, it’s obviously great news for Polley and her new husband David Sandomierski, who were married just a few weeks ago.

I mean of course, as I’m sure most people are, there is a little bit of disappointment.  Her pregnancy means that a sequel to the fantastic Dawn of The Dead movie is that much further away.  It’s true that it has never been something that has been promised, but I’ve always held out hope that someday Polley would return to shoot more zombies in the head.

Speaking of babies, how awkward is this scene from Dawn of The Dead now:

Okay, that’s no way to end a blog post baby announcement, so how’s about a scene of the Polley’s new movie Take This Waltz instead?

Oh Google, you’re soooooooooo sneaky!

The internet giant quietly launched a new movie service yesterday for Canadians on Youtube. It’s so quiet, that you almost have to look for the new ‘Movie’ link beside the launch bar.

For $4.99 each, you can rent new movies like Paul, Soul Surfer, Sucker Punch and Battle: Los Angeles.  Once you rent them, you have thirty days to start watching and once you watch, you have 48 hours to finish!  Older movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Doctor Zhivago and Iron Giant for $3.99 each.  Right now, YouTube has a library of more than 3,000 titles.

Quickly looking through the selection, I’d say it is Okay Plus.  It’s a made up rating system, but basically means that if I had a gun to my head, I could find something to watch, which in itself would be a funny situation.

Obviously this a competitor with Netflix and in a way Shaw Movie Club, but since Shaw Movie Club is naturally only available to Shaw subscribers.

Take a look and let me know what you think?  Are you digging the new way of watching movies, or do you prefer your YouTube to have more cats eating spaghetti!

Well, I guess it was only a matter of time.  It was announced tonight that Blockbuster will soon be closing all of its Canadian stores, not only that, but they’ll be closed within a matter of days!

Seriously, I can’t believe this franchise is done.  I can’t think of a store I visited more growing up.  On Christmas Day, it was the only thing open on Christmas, as a teenager I must have applied to work there dozens of times, and I can still remember buying my first DVD ever there, it was the Perfect Storm.

It has definitely been stormy for Blockbuster over the past couple of years, which eventually succumbed to competitors like On Demand and Netflix.   The writing was on the wall earlier this year when the franchise closed more than 150 stores and now it will dim the lights on the country’s remaining 250 shops.

Well for what it’s worth, thank you Blockbuster.  Thanks for letting me spend hours upon hours wondering your aisles, recommending movies to strangers and letting me discover the classic movies that my parents and grandparents grew up on.

Before you close, I’ll try to swing by one last time, for old times’ sake.

Are you bored with your Canadian films?
Do you want to see something that doesn’t have Paul Gross directing, starring and working Craft services?

Well there’s a new Canadian flick that’s currently being produced in the Toronto-area that ass me all kinds of excited…and kinda scared.

The movie is called  Dead Before Dawn and the flick is actually directed by April Mullen and written by Tim Doiron, the same guys that made the cult hit RPS: Way of The Tosser a few years ago, so I already know it’s going to be funny.  But other signs of it being cool include, that it is being shot in 3D (which I normally hate, unless it is for scary movies, like FD5.) It is also going to star one of my all time favourites Christopher Lloyd! Remember when he played the bad guy on Dennis The Menace? Classic.  Dead before Dawn also stars  Martha MacIsaac (Superbad), Devon Bostick (from the Wimpy Kid flicks), Jay McLaren (Being Erica), Brittany Allen (All My Children), Kevin McDonald (Kids in the Hall) and Rossif Sutherland (ER).  And lastly, ZEMONS.  Yeah, you heard me right, ZEMONS.  I’m not really sure what ZEMONS are, but I do know that they are a mix of zombies and demos and that my friend is COOL.

The flick is described as a fast paced adventure comedy that follows a bunch of college kids as they accidentally unleash an evil curse that causes people to kill themselves and turn into Zombie Demons, AKA ZEMONS!!!

Good enough for me.

If you have some time, head of over to the website for Dead Before Dawn.  It’s kinda a new experience in making films, allowing fans to be involved in every step of the production with tweets, videos and other behind the scenes stuff.

Admittedly, I’m a little biased towards all things Canadian horror movies (Dale and Tucker VS. Evil, Ginger Snaps, Score: A Hockey Musical) but at least it’s fun to see a Canadian flick that doesn’t seem to be taking itself too seriously with gun slinging cowboys or melodramatic family dramas.

Look for Dead Before Dawn to hit the big screen around mid-2012!

Finally got to meet Kevin Smith.
I got a photo.

I call it: “Neither of us are dressed appropriately for our respective ages.”

One of the most successful movie franchises going right now is Transporter, (Please note, by successful I mean what it costs vs. what it makes,) which is why The Movie Network has just announced that we’ll soon be able to get our weekly dose of the action and international espionage in a new series.

The show will be filmed in Toronto and is going to feature Canadian Rachel Skarsten (Servitude), who is joining the already announced cast which includes Chris Vance (Prison Break), Andrea Osvart (Duplicity), Francois Berléand (The Transporter 1,2, 3)

Sadly, there’s no indication that the films’ star Jason Statham will be making an appearance, but if we all cross our fingers, maybe we can get a cameo.

Transporter follows the adventures of professional transporter Frank Martin (Vance), who can always be counted on to get the job done. Operating in a seedy underworld of dangerous criminals and desperate players, Frank plays by three rules: never change the deal, no names and never open the package.

The films are known for their gritty international destinations, so I’m looking forward to seeing how they make Toronto look like different places from around the world.  I guess they could just film everything in the basement of Honest Ed’s.

Transporter doesn’t have a release date yet, but I’d say you’d have to wait until early 2012.