Movie Review: Ready or Not

One of my favourite things about seeing movies in the fall is that once we've left blockbuster season behind us, movies have to focus on character, concept, and story, rather than simply air conditioning, to get us back into our seats.

Probably my favourite horror movie this year, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett's Ready or Not, was a delightful thriller, with a neat little twist, and just about the best theme song for a game of hide and seek you could possibly imagine.

The film follows a young woman named Grace (Samara Weaving) on her wedding day to Alex Le Domas (Mark O'Brien), a member of an extremely wealthy family which owns a board game empire. As part of family tradition, newly married in members are invited to play a game at midnight on the wedding day, and Grace draws the childhood classic, Hide and Seek. Unfortunately for Grace, when Hide & Seek is chosen, the game becomes much deadlier than expected.

Overall there were two things I loved about this movie. First off, the portrayal of the Le Domas family, a group that had inherited their status in life, was a really fun look at what can happen when your only succession plan is based on birth, rather than merit, and the fact that Grace is portrayed as a foster child who grew up to be a smart, resourceful and decent person. So often in stories foster-care seems to be used as code for damaged, and I thought the fact that Grace had basically the opposite of every member of the wealthy family in upbringing was a nice touch.

The story moves quite nicely, has a lot great twists and turns and will definitely be getting a place on my DVD/Blu-ray shelves in the future.

Genre Character of the Week: Kiera Cameron

Early every morning over a cup of coffee and (when I’m being good) breakfast, my family sits together and watches about an hour of television.  Usually it’s shows on DVD, but upon occasion it is the new stuff as well.  Over the years we’ve seen everything from sitcoms to dramas and at the rate of five hours a week, we tend to make it through most series in every couple weeks (or a month for longer ones).

Right now we’re watching the Canadian science fiction series Continuum.  The show follows a cop from 2077 who has been transported back to 2012 along with 8 terrorists and her attempts to stop them from altering the future.  The police officer in question (called a protector in her own era) is our genre character of the week, Kiera Cameron (pictured left).

In the series, 2077 is a corporate-controlled world where governments have fallen (BTW, I should really do a review of Jennifer Government soon – a great SF novel suggested to me a few years back by my BFF Mike) and the status quo is threatened by a terrorist cell called Liber8, who have recently bombed a number of significant buildings in Vancouver Canada with a death toll number in the thousands.

After their arrest and trial, the eight ringleaders of the group are sentenced to die, and during the execution they use a device to escape through time – and because she saw the device and attempted to wrestle it away, Kiera is pulled back with them.

The majority of the show takes part in modern-day Vancouver, Canada.  Kiera (played by Rachel Nichols – who was a green-skinned Orion cadet in the 2009 Star Trek film, which is probably why Mike is watching the show) is a mother who, in addition to trying to stop these terrorists, is also hoping to get back to her nine-year-old son Sam.  In a lot of ways this show parallels the 2008 BBC series Ashes to Ashes which also features a cop trapped in the past attempting to return to her child in her present.

So far we’re only a couple episodes in, but the family is enjoying it, and a big part of that comes down to the main character.

First Impressions: Lost Girl (TV Series)

Last night my wife and I checked out the pilot for the new genre series, Lost Girl. The show focuses on a woman named Bo, who has spent years on her own, travelling from place to place and using her strange abilities to feed on the sexual energies of others.

Discovered by other supernatural beings (called the Fae), Bo is drawn into a world wherein everyone must choose a side (light or dark) and nothing is as it seems. My wife said the idea of Canadian Fae running about is very similar to Canadian fantasy author Charles De LInt's Newcastle series of books, and the series definitely plays up the humour to match its dark premise (it turns out that Bo is a succubus, and that both groups of the Fae may want her dead), in introducing a side-kick character for Bo, a young girl named Kenzie who is both quite brave and a little stupid (a great mix, by the way).

I would consider the series Urban Fantasy, and although the subject matter means it is not for younger audiences, I think that older teens would probably find the show a lot of fun. The cheese factor is pretty high, but finding a good balance between humour and dramatic tension can definitely win a show over for me.

Overall, the pilot was fun, I think we'll be watching the series from now on (unless it goes horribly wrong), and I'm quite interested to see where they are going to go with this intriguing characters throughout the season.

Things I've Noticed: My Canadian Content is way up!

For those of you who are not from Canada, we actually have laws here which state that any TV or radio station should play a certain amount of Canadian Content each day. Growing up in Canada this mostly meant that my radio played a lot of Corey Heart and Brian Adams, and virtually every kid I ever met could sing along with this animated short which played every Saturday morning before the real (American) cartoons came on the air.

It’s kind of funny, but as I was making up my yearly list of TV show finales, I realized that I currently watch a lot of Canadian content. Each week I’m enjoying Hiccups, Dan for Mayor, and especially The Bridge (a cop drama featuring Aaron Douglas from Battlestar Galactica - pictured right). In addition to that I’m a pretty big fan of Being Erica, 18 to Life, and Little Mosque on the Prairie too.

Just like I’ve seen every Oscar winner for Best Picture, I’ve worked my way through a majority of the Genie Awards (the Canadian Oscars), and have made a point of seeing Canadian films whenever they play in my local theatre. As I was writing this I wonder – how many of your own local productions do you go out and see (even if you are American, how many productions from your own State do you see) as opposed to more mainstream fair?

I definitely think that you shouldn’t limit yourself to only your local stuff, but at the same time, if you are from the place where something is made – shouldn’t you check it out? Just some food for thought – Bookmonkey.