Burlington Ontario News, Articles and Reviews

With some exceptions, most good parties require planning. The host knows how he wants things to go, and selects the elements to create that experience. The very best parties have a uniqueness that’s a reflection of the skill of the host’s planning. And with director Baz Luhrmann as our host, The Great Gatsby is an excellent party indeed.

Adapted rather faithfully from the classic novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, we view the story through the eyes of Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), World War I veteran, bonds trader and aspiring writer. Luhrmann’s framing concept here is that the depressed and hospitalized Carraway, years after these events, is encouraged by his doctor to write down what happened during the fateful summer he lived on Long Island, in a small cottage next door to the enigmatic Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio).

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As the first Marvel movie released after The Avengers, expectations have been high for Iron Man 3. Luckily, it’s a good sequel to both that film and its own franchise, but for a few alterations to the storyline that will undoubtedly upset comic book fans.

Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) bristling personality always masks some inner conflict, and this time it’s nightmares and anxiety attacks following his battle against the invading aliens in New York City some months before. To cope, he spends many hours in his basement, tinkering with his Iron Man armour and developing new prototypes.

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By now, everyone knows what a Michael Bay movie looks like – chaotic, loud, and usually empty. These characteristics are sometimes welcome, sometimes not, often depending on the quality of the story they’re attached to. The story in Pain & Gain, based on an actual criminal case, is wild and crazy enough to fit Bay’s style – as such, the movie is better than you have any right to expect.

It’s the mid-90s, and personal trainer Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) is on a mission. A well-muscled specimen, he spends his days trying to make wealthy clients look more like him, all the while dreaming up ways to make the rest of his life more like theirs. Unfortunately, Lugo isn’t above criminal activity to achieve the American dream – he’s already done time for fraud, and is moving up to kidnapping and extortion, with a streak of poor man’s revenge. He doesn’t want to merely steal the money of wealthy deli owner Victor Kershaw (Tony Shalhoub), he wants Kershaw’s life, and to see the distasteful little man brought low.

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As Jurassic Park returns to theatres in a 20th Anniversary 3D edition, it’s a good time to reflect on how movie making has changed. There can be no doubt it’s still a great film, but will today’s young audiences, raised on a steady diet of CGI effects, view it with the same wonder as those in 1993?

Despite the outdated computer hardware on display throughout, the story (from the late Michael Crichton’s novel) is still fresh, given the debates about DNA research and cloning we’re still wrapped up in. Billionaire entrepreneur John Hammond (Sir Richard Attenborough) has sunk his fortune into building a game preserve for dinosaurs, recreated from DNA found in fossilized mosquitoes. Hammond claims to have spared no expense, but there have been problems, and when a worker is killed by one of the particularly nasty velociraptors, his investors raise concerns.

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This past week, Major League Baseball held its annual tribute to Jackie Robinson, the league’s first African American player in the modern era, who joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1947 season and changed not only the sport, but the world. 42, released to coincide with the anniversary, tells the story of the events leading up to and during that legendary year. It isn’t a world-changing film, but it is entertaining, and a fitting tribute to the man.

Dodgers owner Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) has decided it’s time to change baseball’s “tradition” of excluding non-white players, and begins searching the Negro Leagues for someone he can invite to tryouts. A religious man, Rickey chooses Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) as much for his youth and talent as for the fact they’re both Methodists, though Robinson doesn’t seem to be much for prayer or bible study.

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