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Sample: Title; rating (out of 4); principal setting; year of release; international co-producer (if any); cast; description; scriptwriter; director; content warning; running time.
FLAG
* 1/2 setting: other
(1987) (/France) Richard Bohringer, Pierre Arditi,
Philippine Leroy Beaulieu, Anne Letourneau, Philippe Pouchain.....Paris
cop (Bohringer) suspects his boss and best friend may be involved in criminal
activity, so he decides to stage an elaborate sting to trap him.
Plodding, muddled crime-drama never succeeds in generating tension...or
much interest. Slow-moving, and Bohringer's performance is a bit
one-note. English title: Red Handed. sc: Jacques Santi,
Simon Michael, Tansou. dir: Jacques Santi. - brief female nudity.- 106
min.
FLESH GORDON 2: Flesh Gordon
Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders * *
(1989) Vince Murdocco, Tony Travis, Robyn Kelly, William
Dennis Hunt, Morgan Fox, Bruce Scott.....Scatological parody of old
movie serials, with hero Flesh Gordon and friends kidnapped to a planet
suffering from mass impotence. Incredibly vulgar, tasteless comedy is definitely
not for those easily offended (or even those hard to offend) but the actors
play it with gusto and there's a kind of spritely tempo that means you
can't actually call it boring. And the intentionally cheesy special effects
are actually kind of neat. Despite being a loose sequel to a 1970s American
semi-porno film (that found mainstream, albeit cult, success), and there's
plenty of sex talk and some nudity, the humour actually seems to revolve
more around other bodily functions (does the phrase "toilet humour"
mean anything?), meaning it's not really an "erotic" comedy. Actually,
this movie makes the original "Flesh Gordon" seem positively wholesome!
Hunt, as the villain, is the only carry over from the original film. sc:
Howard T. Ziehm, Doug Frisby. dir: Howard T. Ziehm. - partial female nudity,
brief male nudity, sexual content, violence.- 95 min.
FLICKS *
(1969) Robin Ward, Kathleen Sawyer, Austin Willis,
Sean Sullivan, Ty Haller, Tony Moffat-Lynch.....Dr. Frankenstein (Ward),
who may or may not be descended from Mary Shelley's character, comes to
a North American university and gets teased for his name, involved with
hippies, and starts experimenting with mind control. Pretty bad horror
thriller with Sawyer being topless a lot. But the film has achieved
some notoriety -- thanks to its weird premise and counter-culture jargon
-- as a bit of kitsch. Best part of tthe film: music by the '60s rock
group Lighthouse. a.k.a. Doctor Frankenstein on Campus.
sc: David Cobb, William Marshall, Gilbert W. Taylor. dir: Gilbert W. Taylor.
- partial female nudity, violence, sexual ccontent.- 82 min.
FLIGHT FROM JUSTICE
*
setting: P.Q.
(1993) (/France) Jean Reno, Carole Laure, Bruce Boxleitner,
Vlasta Vrana, David Francis, Jack Langedijk.....French soldier (Reno)
and a lady doctor (Laure) team up when his old army buddy (Boxleitner)
gets into trouble and goes missing in the Quebec wilderness. Light-hearted
suspenser has some banter that might be cute...if everything else wasn't
so bad. Nice scenery. sc: Robert Geoffrion, Sylvain Saada (story
Philippe Niang) dir: Don Kent. - violence.- 93 min.
FLINCH *
* setting: USA.
(1994) Judd Nelson, Nick Mancuso, Gina Gershon, Frank
Cassini, Marilyn Norry, Veronica Lorenz.....Two Americans (Nelson and
Gershon), working as mannequins in a store window -- is there really such
a job? --, witness a murder (by Mancuso). Light-hearted suspenser
isn't nearly as bad as you'd expect, with a clever concept, some decent
performances and some not-bad dialogue. But the plot's too thin,
and as a thriller, well, it fails to thrill. Set in the U.S. but
they keep showing shots of CN trains. sc: Tippi and Neal H. Dobrofsky.
dir: George Erschbamer. - female nudity.- 93 min.
FLIRTING WITH DANGER
* 1/2 setting: USA.
(2005) Charisma Carpenter, James Thomas, Victoria
Sanchez, Karen Cliche, Allison Graham.....After a friend dies unexpectedly
of supposedly natural causes, a man (Thomas) becomes suspicious when he
learns some other men died in similar circumstances, and all may have been
having an affair with an unknown woman, and his suspects include a woman
(American actress Carpenter) he's just started seeing himself. Made-for-TV
semi-erotic suspenser (there are a lot of love scenes, though with a minimum
of actual nudity -- presumably a body double -- and with an aspect of equal
opportunity exploitation) is something where everyone involved seems competent
enough, but maybe needed to put a little more time into it. The writer
needed to give the script another draft, and the actor and director needed
to take more time rehearsing. As it is, you kind of know what the characters
are doing, but not always why...as in motives, or what the characters are
feeling or thinking. And the mystery plot is rather thinly developed. A
sub-text about classism, though admirably meant to give the story an extra
level, is a bit awkward, as it veers into reverse snobbery and doesn't
quite ring true -- the working class characters don't seem that
working class, and the rich characters don's seem that rich. sc:
Joyce Brotman. dir: Richard Roy. - sexual content; casual female nudity.-
89 min.
LA FLORIDA
* * * setting: USA.
(1993) Remy Girard, Pauline Lapointe, Yvan Canuel,
Jason Blicker, Marie-Josee Croze, Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge, Michael Sarrazin,
Margot Kidder, Raymond Bouchard, Denis Bouchard, Gildor Roy, Martin Drainville
.....A
Montreal bus driver (Girard) buys a Florida hotel and moves his family
there, only to discover their dream may not be all they thought it would
be...particularly when they get into a feud with another French-Canadian
hotel owner. Sprawling, amusing comedy-drama with a good cast, particularly
the always fine Girard. Michael Sarrazin and Kidder have just bit
parts. In French with some English bits (not surprising given the
setting), but some of the dialogue is lost in the idiotic use of white
subtitles on white backgrounds. sc: Suzette Couture, Pierre Sarrazin.
dir: Georges Mihalka. - brief female nudity.- 115 min.
FLY WITH THE HAWK *
* setting: Ont.
(198_) Peter Snook, Peter Ferri, Michael Wearne, Shelly
Lynne Spiegel..... Anti-social youth (Snook) becomes lost in the woods
and is taken in by a hermit who teaches him the ways of the wild and spiritual
contentment. Shoe-string budget but not too bad when it stays with
the forest scenes thanks to Snook's O.K. performance. Filmed on video.
An Emmeritus-CHCH production. sc: Peter Ferri with Andre Vosu, Robert
Tanos. dir: Robert Tanos.
FLYING
* setting: USA.
(1986) Olivia d'Abo, Rita Tushingham, Keanu Reeves,
Jessica Steen, Renee Murphy, Eugene Clark, Sean McCann.....Teen-ager
(d'Abo), a gymnast before an accident, wants to prove herself and win a
championship. Most of the cliches are here, but it's pretty poorly
done. a.k.a. Dream to Believe. sc: John Sheppard. dir:
Paul Lynch. 94 min.
THE FLYING SNEAKER
*
* setting: other
(1992) (/Czechoslovakia) Ludek Navratil, Katka Pokorna,
Vlastimil Brodsky, Katerina Machackova, Lubor Tokos.....An introverted
boy (Navratil) befriends a magical fairy. Children's pic is well-done
and fanciful, with oodles of stop-motion f/x, but ultimately, it's just
too thin on plot. See Tales for All.
sc: Bretislay Pojar, Jiri Fried. dir: Bretislay Pojar. 90 min.
|
(1999) * * 1/2 Ken Finkleman, Sarah Strange, Clare Sims, Arsinee Khanjian, Tony Nardi, others.....Quasi-anthology focusing on different characters each episode, but interweaving them with the characters from the other episodes, all under the surrealistic umbrella of filmmakers (Finkleman and Strange) making a TV series (the characters would be interrupted in mid-story to be interviewed by the camera). Finkleman's third series in as many years was better than his problematic More Tears, but no where near The Newsroom. This time eschewing comedy entirely, these "relationship" dramas benefitted from good performances, direction and decent dialogue, but precious little genuine insight. Finkleman portrayed love affairs, infidelity, etc., but never answered why these particular characters behaved in this particular way in these particular circumstances...which is, surely, the heart of storytelling. Anyone can tell you something happened...a storyteller conveys why. The final two episodes tried to veer into comedy and even greater surrealism, but suffered because humour is, surely, the result of the real meeting the surreal; surrealistic gags in a surrealistic context just kind of sit there. More to the point, doing a whole episode meant to analyse a character when that character doesn't remotely approach being a fleshed-out, 3-dimensional characterization is just another example of the series' flash and sizzle over substance. Ironically, this "cutting edge" series was more than a little reminiscent of the kind of National Film Board drama you'd be expected to watch in school (at least the first four episodes). Finkleman (and his fans) were quick to point out European art film influences, while neglecting to mention the obvious hints of the style of Britsh TV writer Dennis Potter -- though Finkleman couldn't match Potter'ss flare for colourful dialogue or eccentricity. Though the monologue where Finkleman's character breaks off an affair was some right good writing. 6 half hour episodes on the CBC. |
FOOLPROOF *
* 1/2 setting: Ont.
(2003) Ryan Reynolds, Kristin Booth, Joris Jarsky,
David Suchet, David Hewlett, James Allodi.....Three friends who play
a game of plotting foolproof robberies for fun are blackmailed by a crook
(Suchet) into planning, and executing, a job for real. Light-hearted suspenser
is reasonably slick, but never quite becomes more than O.K. with too little
real thrills, or lasting emotional resonance. Not the breakthrough hit
it was expected to be...but neither is it bad, either. It's entertaining
enough, with a nice performance from Reynolds. Hewlett is wasted in a bit
part as an employee at the company they're planning to rob. Atom Egoyan
was one of the executive producers. sc./dir: William Phillips. - sexual
content.- 93 min.
FOOLS DIE FAST
* 1/2 setting: USA
(1995) Peter Outerbridge, Victor Ertmanis, Kate Greenhouse,
Robert Morelli, Wendi Coles, Dan Warry Smith, James Purcell.....One
night in a small, out-of-the-way diner in the Southern U.S. in the 1940s,
a psychotic but charismatic drifter (Outerbridge) woos a ditzy waitress
(Greenhouse) and imprisons and torments her obnoxious, abusive boss (Ertmanis).
Stagey, black and white drama-suspenser at times seems like the quintessential
Canadian movie -- and I don't mean that in a good way. Unlikeable characters
do unpleasant things to each other for 90 minutes...and it's set in the
U.S.! Vaguely, maybe, sort of inspired by the Charles Starkweather case.
The sort of play that, no doubt, strikes an aspiring writer as edgy...but
hopefully he grew out of it. Largely uninsightful and pointless, with an
otherwise respectable trio of actors seeming too much like they're play
acting, and actor-turned-director Purcell's direction is a little too obvious
and claustrophobic. It, maybe, is trying to be a comedy-drama at times,
with its over-the-top evocation of period films and certainly the scenes
with Morelli et al, in a cutaway part, are played for laughs. But the fact
that it's unclear how much is meant to be amusing says volumes about whether
they succeed. sc: David Blackwood, Linda Watt, additional dialogue Louis
Di Bianco (from Blackwood's play). dir: James Purcell. - violence.- 84
min.
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