My Week in Film

There has been a bunch of big film stuff going on recently! I spent a glorious 5 days at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival which continues to impress with its selection of fantastic Asian film. See my complete coverage of the festival here.

Although I caught up on a several new releases, including heading out to catch JCVD in it's theatrical release, I think it is safe to say that *the* film of the moment is none other than Twilight (click through for full review). I went on opening night with my sister Jamie and it was one heck of a fun time. We were originally going to go to a mid afternoon show, but when I noticed it was in theatre 14 (at Scotiabank - good theatre, but one of if not the smallest there), I asked if there we tickets still available for the prime time showing. And there were. And it was in theatre 1 - the biggest house. I exchanged those suckers right then and there and then heard something I've not heard at a regular theatre for a while:

"It's going to be pretty crazy. I'd recommend coming 45 minutes early."

Oh course, I wouldn't have expected something other than craziness but being in a full theatre in a non festival setting happens to me so infrequently that it got me nostalgic and added to the fun of the experience. For the record, we ended up going 30 minutes early and sat 3rd row up on the side and those seats are just fine. It's exactly where I sat when I watched Mongol.

Other films I've taken in are the latest Bond instalment Quantum of Solace which I enjoyed a fair amount, likely due to revisiting many of the classic Bond films from Dr. No to Live and Let Die over the summer. I felt Quantum of Solace holds up well and it's refreshing to see that it continues where Casino Royale left off and that they chose to break the formula by showing the effects of events over time.

The last trip to the regular theatre lead me to what may very well be the best US release of 2008 that I've seen so far: Rachel Getting Married. The acting is was absolutely fantastic not only by Anne Hathaway but the entire cast, the story is compelling and the setting feels so real. For me it was a kleenex required screening and at one point I had pools of tears in my clavicles, and was hoping for a loud scene so I could sniffle away unnoticed. A stunning film that I highly recommend.

Hey, that's my 55 cents! Ticket prices have increased at some of the Toronto downtown theatres recently. From trekking to the theatre I found out that Varsity and Scotiabank tickets have gone from $11.95 to $12.50 and the Carlton lists new prices as $10.50 from $9.95. It does feel like ages since the price has been raised but those feel like odd numbers for tickets. But, 2 for $25 is a very convenience pocket price.

Odd to note is after the preshow (read: cycling adds) at the Twilight screening they actually had a slide that went up saying 'Thanks for watching the preshow'. I didn't know anyone but me referred to it as that. Weird!

How was your week?


One of the few times I've actually pre purchased tickets! Of course it was on the day of the first big snow.


Twilight crowd on opening night. Were you there?