Canary Duty - Men in Black International

The original Men in Black is still a pretty good movie; hard to remember past the dumb retread of MIBII and the "OK but with issues" of III, but it was a bit of a game changer back in the day.  It was perhaps one of the first blockbusters since the original Ghostbusters to go for such a high-concept approach and making it work so well in action/comedy terms, at least not one based on an already well-known brand.  (Before anyone @s me, yes I know it was based on a comic, I typed "well known brand", it was one lessor Malibu title!)  I think the trouble the sequels had was a studio mistaking form for function; that every single ingredient had to be there for the audience to like it again, hence an immediate retreat to the J and K dynamic, when the first film gave a definitive end to that.  Now this one, operating Will-less shall we say, is doing what the sequels should have done; open things up a bit, explore more of the world of the MIB, give us some new faces with a slightly different dynamic.  So does it work?

Canary Duty - Ma

Hmm, it seems "kindly woman played by a noted character actress turns out to be psychotic" movies are like buses; you wait for ages, no sign of any, and then two come along at once.  Seriously, there's often a little cluster of these sorts of films all at once (Misery, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Single White Female), and then a while without them.  We recently had Greta, directed by Neil Jordan and with Isabelle Huppert in the title role, and now we have Ma, a Blumhouse project re-uniting Tate Taylor and Octavia Spencer, the director and star of The Help.  So, how does this one rate in this grand tradition?

Trailer of the Week - Dave Made a Maze

So a side project I've had has been my Silly Movie Trailer of the Day blog on Tumblr.  That's been a lot of fun, but it's something I've dropped in and out of so many times, and I've realised that one of the reasons why is that, though it has been good writing practice, doing those articles for daily release does mean eating up a lot of other writing time for things like my blog, fiction I'm working on, and freelance articles.  Besides, Tumblr's future is looking... interesting at the moment.  So with this in mind, I thought I'd split the difference, go for a weekly schedule, and co-ordinate most of my writing on here from now on.  Right then, let's have a trailer for something very thematically appropriate...

Why start with Dave Made a Maze?  Well, given that the titular character is a bumbling artistic type who's problem with never seeing various creative projects through to a proper conclusion, and in turn roping in quite a few friends to such matters... dunno, I can't see any significance, can you?

Canary Duty- X-Men Dark Phoenix

Hey, so yeah, fell out of touch on here a while ago, didn't I?  I know I keep doing this, so I've decided to try a new little strategy to stay regular; a change of identity.  Yep, I'm changing the names of the blog, doing a bit of a tidy up, and starting a new look for here as The Film Canary.  Plain and simple, I'm looking to be a bit of a film explorer, going into new releases or long running series to see if the way is safe for all, or if things get a bit toxic.  I have a Limitless cinema card, and I get a lot of my discs second hand, so it's low risk for me.  So with that in mind, for this inaugural post under the new format, let's take a look at today's big new release in the world of superhero movies... well, it's a release in the world of superhero movies, not sure big is the word...

Happy Birthday to Me! - Under-Appreciated Movies in my Lifetime

Yay, I'm older!  To mark this occasion, I decided to follow Moviebob's lead and present to you a list thirty three underrated films, one for every complete journey around the sun I've made so far.  DISCLAIMER: I am not saying these are necessarily the best of the years they came out in, or that they are all the same level of quality or anything like that, they're just a bunch of films that I think need a bit of a better reputation then they already have.  Some might already have a good following but are not household names yet, some may be ones that are well thought of but are/were overshadowed by something else, others may be really obscure ones that need to find an audience.  How many of these have you seen?  Agree with my choices?  Comment below!

October Horror Movie Challenge 2018 – Round Up

Well, the Halloween season is done for another year, and with it, another one of my October Horror Movie Challenges.  This year I managed to get up to a new record of 49 movies!  Granted, I may have done a teeny bit of cheating in being a bit vague about what counted as "horror", but on the whole I'm still impressed with how many I got through, especially given my "stuff I found in charity shops" method of obtaining material.  My fundraiser for the challenge is still open, so if you have been following my Instagram posts on my progress, do please give what you can to Crisis, winter is a hard time for the homeless.  So, let's wrap up the whole thing with a look at various highs and lows amongst my movie viewing in Spoopy Season...

October Horror Movie Challenge 2018 - Pledge and Play Along at Home! #OHMC18

For months it lay dormant, now the October Horror Movie Challenge has arisen once again!  The rules for the challenge are, as always, that across the 31 days of October, you must watch at least 31 horror movies, and at least half of those (so 16 or more) must be ones that you are seeing for the first time.  Well, I have a big ol' stack of stuff I've been gathering mostly from charity shops across the year, ready to watch on a random draw basis.  Also, the London Film Festival is on, and I'm already booked for a bunch of the cult titles they are showing. My current record is 43 films, let's try for even better.

As in previous years, I'm doing this sponsored for Crisis, so please donate what you can.  I am likely to turn my brain inside out going through the discards gained from Oxfam shops, lets have at least something good come from the experience.  Also, as in previous years, I have a few recommendations of some recent/upcoming releases that you might want to try if you'd like to try the challenge yourself.  One good source of films I can recommend right now is Shudder, a very good streaming site with a great selection of horror titles I checked out earlier this year.  If you already have Amazon prime channels, you can access it there too.  Let's take a look then at some films to get you started with your own journey into fear this year, starting with something coming out on DVD tomorrow...