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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.
WOJECK (TV Series)Short-lived (despite terrific ratings) this TV series had more guts and nerve than practically any other series anywhere, before or since, and is still a little daring, even by today's standards, both in what it said and how -- including use of flashbacks and jumbled narrative techniques. Its influence can be seen in the U.S. series "Quincy" and many Canadian ones including Sidestreet, Night Heat and Street Legal (especially the character of Leon). Vernon was excellent and the on-screen chemistry between him and Collins was electric, but the series belonged to the stories and the issues. Dated in some ways, lacking subtlety and technical finesse, but still powerful and provocative. Look for a young Margot Kidder in the episode "After All, Who's Art Morrison Anyway?". A TV movie sequel, Wojeck: Out of the Fire, was aired in 1992. Best bets: the highly regarded "The Last Man on Earth", about a native Indian's suicide; "Listen! An Old Man is Speaking", about an outspoken old man, shunted aside by society. 20 hour long episodes (including 2 two-parters) in black and white and colour on the CBC. When the series was shown on Showcase in 1995, even the colour episodes were broadcast in black and white -- perhaps to give the series a uniform look, or perhaps recognizing that the black and white episodes are regarded as having more atmosphere; one e-mailer pointed out that sometimes shows used to be transferred to black and white film for distribution copies (as film was a more universal medium than video) which might also explain why Showcase had B&W versions of colour episodes. |
WOJECK: Out of the Fire *
* * 1/2 setting: Ont.
(1992) John Vernon, Patricia Collins, Christianne
Hirt, Dominic Zamprogna, Ted Follows, Michael Hogan, Alan Jordan, Maurice
Dean Wint.....Former crusading coroner Steve Wojeck
(Vernon) returns to T.O. after 21 years in Africa and must deal with his
doctor daughter and ex-wife (Hirt and Collins) while trying to help an
illegal immigrant family. The hero of the revolutionary late '60s hit CBC
TV series returns with class despite a troubled production history. Excellent,
moody direction, a haunting score, sharp, intelligent dialogue, and fine
performances all go to make this a success, though the plotting is awfully
thin. And the issues -- the backbone of the original -- seem a little soft-peddled.
Wojeck, the character, has lost none of his bite or venom, but Wojeck,
the movie, seems a little...safe. Still, on a technical level (the nuanced
performances from the leads, the artful dialogue, and the thoughtful direction)
this remains one of the best made TV movies ever produced in Canada.
sc: Malcom MacRury (story Ian Sutherland). dir: George Bloomfield. 89 min.
"The Wolf Hunters", a story by James Oliver Curwood, served, in part, as the source for the cable TV movie, Warrior Spirit
The Words see No
THE WORLD'S A PLAY a.k.a. Gold: The World's a Play
A WOMAN IN TRANSIT see La Femme de l'hotel
WOMAN ON THE RUN: The Lawrencia
Bembenek Story (TVMS) * * 1/2 setting:
USA./Ont.
(1993) (/U.S.) Tatum O'Neal, Bruce Greenwood, Peggy
McCay, Colin Fox, Alex MacArthur, Kenneth Welsh, Saul Rubinek, Catherine
Disher, Victor Garber.....True story of American "Bambi" Bembenek (O'Neal)
a one-time cop and whistle-blower convicted of murder on, what many considered,
highly suspect evidence, and her eventual flight to Canada. Drama starts
out weakly but becomes better, and more compelling, in the second half.
Strong cast, but American actress O'Neal is too weak, both as an actress
and as a character (though, likewise, improves). 4 hours. sc./dir: Sandor
Stern (from the book Woman on Trial by Lawrencia Bembenek). (video)
Woman on Trial, Lawrencia Bembenek's book, was the source for the Global mini-series Woman on the Run.
A WOMAN SCORNED *
1/2 setting: USA.
(1994) (/U.S.) Andrew Stevens, Shannon Tweed, Stephen
Young, Kim Morgan Greene, Michael D. Arenz, Dan McVicar, Paul W. Carr,
Perla Walters.....After her husband's (McVicar) suicide, an American
(Tweed) goes after the man (Stevens) she holds responsible, ingratiating
herself into his dysfunctional family and seducing his son (Arenz), and
also him and his beautiful wife (Greene). Only slightly erotic suspenser
is often silly and unbelievable and lacks someone to root for...even the
dead hubbie was an S.O.B. O.K. performances, particularly Greene. Stevens
and Canadian Tweed have made a bunch of these sorts of "erotic-thrillers",
but this is the first with any Canadian involvement, and even then it's
pretty minor. Young, prominently billed despite having just a bit part,
was presumably added as Can-Con. sc: Barry Avrich (story Karen Kelly).
dir: Andrew Stevens. - partial female and male nudity, explicit sexual
content.- 103 min. (video)
WOMAN WANTED *
* 1/2 setting: USA.
(1999) Holly Hunter, Kiefer Sutherland, Michael Moriarty,
Carrie Preston, Jackie Richardson.....A perky
housekeeper (imported Hunter) comes to stay with a dysfunctional family
comprised of a middle aged professor (Moriarty) and his troubled, belligerent,
adult son (Sutherland). Drama boasts nice performances from the three leads
and a brisk tempo and maintains interest. But it's one of those stories
where the very quirks, neurosies, and eccentricities of the characters
can make them seem a little too much like players in a story rather than
real people, rendering the whole thing a little mannered. And though there
are scenes that seem intended to be comic, they come across more as light-hearted
rather than actually funny. Sutherland, apparently, directed, but must
have been sufficiently dissatisfied, or felt the project was taken away
from him by the Canadian producers, that he substituted the standard industry
pseudonym of Alan Smithee for Canadian prints of the movie. The American
version, apparently, adheres closer to his intent and that version still
has his name on it. sc: Joanna McLelland Glass (from her novel). dir: Alan
Smithee. 96 min. (video)
Workin' for Peanuts
* * setting: USA.
(1985) Carl Marotte, Jessica Steen, Shawn Thompson,
August Schellenberg, John Hemphill, Doug Lennox.....Story of a working
class teen-aged sports stadium vendor (Marotte) who begins wooing a rich
girl (Steen). Competent but ultimately ineffective youth-aimed hour long
drama doesn't really come together as either a romance or a socio-political
thesis. And this is no Romeo & Juliet, choosing instead to reinforce
class distinctions, rather than criticize them. First aired on Global.
sc: Marisa Gioffre (from the book by Todd Strasser). dir: Martin Lavut.
The Worst Soccer Team Ever, the comic children's novel by William Taylor, was turned into part of the limited series All For One
WOULD BE KINGS (TVMS)
* * setting: Ont.
(2008) Currie Graham, Ben Bass, Natasha Henstridge,
Robert Forster, Stephen McHattie, Stana Katic, Clare Stone, Maxim Roy,
Matt Gordon, Paulino Nunes, Joeis Jarsky.....Story of two cousins and
big city cops, one, a respected ranking officer (Graham) and the other
a drug addict one step away from dismissal (Bass) -- and how the former
slowly finds himself drawn into corruption even as the latter is transferred
to Internal Affairs. Ambitious crime-thriller can kind of be seen as CTV's
answer to CBC's Dragon Boys. It boasts a
good cast all around, moody direction, and some nicely written scenes...but
ultimately the whole is less than the sum of the parts, becoming unintentionally
silly in the second half! It never quite shakes the feeling that too much
of it is a film noire cliché and despite the ambitious concept in
the character progression (the "good" cop goes bad and the "bad" cop goes
good) doesn't fully pull it off. Frankly both characters start out kind
of sleazy and remain kind of sleazy. And for a story all about the characters,
it has trouble making the relationships gel, emotionally. Like a lot of
mini-series, part of it seems too protracted, as if they're desperately
padding the running time...even as, in other ways, it seems choppy and
abrupt, as if they needed more time to develop it (like having an extended,
teary-eyed funeral scene in the second half for a character whose relationship
to the leads didn't seem that significant in the first half!) Ultimately
with all its good points, and the nice fact that CTV would commission a
mini-series that is just entertainment (as opposed to some "wrenched from
the headlines" docudrama), you want to root for it...but it misfires on
too many crucial cylinders. Billed as being based on Shakespeare's Henry
IV -- though one suspects that was more a marketing gimmick. 4 hours.
sc: Tassie Cameron, Esta Spalding. dir: Peter Wellington. - violence, sexual
content.-
WOUNDED *
* setting: USA.
(1996) Madchen Amick, Adrian Pasdar, Graham Greene,
Jim Beaver, Francois Chau, Daniel Kash.....U.S. Park Ranger (Amick)
is severely wounded by an uber-poacher (Pasdar), who also kills her boyfriend
and some F.B.I. agents. But, while recovering, she's strangely unco-operative
with the authorities...because she wants personal revenge. Suspense-drama
is a very familiar, simply-plotted "hero plots revenge on baddie" story...but
tries hard to be more thoughtful and psychologically driven than that.
It seems almost like it was conceived as a low-brow action flick, with
some cardboard characters and unrealistic dialogue (Greene's description
of all the people he's killed and the friends he's lost in the line of
duty kind of makes you ask: where's he a cop -- Beirut!?!), then re-imagined
as something more highbrow. But it doesn't quite pull off the metamorphosis.
It wants to be deliberately paced and introspective...but ends up more
slow-moving and listless, with Amick a little too blank in the lead, though
Pasdar is O.K. and Greene adds some spark part way through as a cop with
his own emotional baggage. Half the cast seem to be American imports. sc:
Harry S. Longstreet, Lindsay Bourne. dir: Richard Martin. - violence.-
94 min. (video)
THE WRONG GUY
* * 1/2 setting: USA.
(1997) Dave Foley, David Higgins, Colm Feore, Jennifer
Tilly, Joe Flaherty, Dan Redican, Alan Scarfe, Richard Chevolleau.....American
executive (Foley), mistakenly believing he's suspected of murder, goes
on the lam...his path unwittingly intersecting with that of the real killer,
a professional assassin (Feore). Comedy-spoof starts out uneven, though
it's not aggravating the way so many Canadian comedies can be, then gets
better, inducing more and more chuckles, and some genuine belly laughs.
It's even clever in spots (like a turnabout parody of farmer vs. bankers
movies). Worth keeping an eye out for if you like silly humour...though
it should've been funnier -- and the usual penchant for hyper-Americanism
in this Canadian movie is distracting. Extremely snazzy opening credits
are meant as a homage to the '60s-style/Hitchcockian films it's parodying.
Look for one of Foley's Kids in the Hall buddies
as a motel clerk; director (and one-time actor) Steinberg as a guy in a
neck brace; and the pop band the Barenaked Ladies as musically inclined
cops. sc: Dave Foley, David Higgins, Jay Kogen. dir: David Steinberg. -
violence.- 91 min.
WRONG NUMBER *
* 1/2 setting: USA.
(2002) Brigitte Bako, David Lipper, Kane Picoy, Barry
Blake, Eric Roberts, Cas Anvar, Simon Peacock, Jo Marr, Karen Cliche, Chip
Chiupka.....A wealthy businessman (Roberts) is murdered, and suspicion
falls on either his widow (Bako) or his partner (Lipper). Surprisingly
off-beat suspenser (it begins being narrated by Roberts' ghost!). Although
with its jumbled way of telling the story -- piling on flashbacks within
flashbacks, dramatized speculations, and dream sequences -- it can blur
the line between being convoluted...and just plain confusing. It suffers
a little from straight-to-video flaws (including some uneven performances)
but it's also a lot cleverer and wittier than you'd expect. Worth a look.
sc./dir: Richard Middleton (story Lorna Lambert). - violence, partial female
nudity.- 96 min. (video)
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