Posts Tagged ‘The Running Man’

CINEPLEX: RICHARD ON THE 2017 Flashback Film Fest, FEBRUARY 3 – 9.

Cineplex Events has today announced that the widely popular Great Digital Film Festival will now be known as Flashback Film Fest.  The event is Canada’s only coast-to-coast festival, bringing a line-up of sci-fi, fantasy and fan favourites back to the big screen.  This year, Cineplex Events and renowned film critic, Richard Crouse, curated a line-up of 17 of the most blood-pumping, thrill-inducing and heart-warming films in cinema that will screen in over 24 cities across the country from February 3-9, 2017.  

Please click here for a message from Richard Crouse and Cineplex Pre-Show Host Tanner Zipchen. 

“We wanted to give the festival a new name that better reflects how it has evolved and why it has been so popular over the years,” said Brad LaDouceur, Vice President, Event Cinema. “Flashback Film Fest fits perfectly with our Event Cinema business which offers guests exciting, unique content that ranges from classic films to renowned stage productions.  We take them on tours of famous galleries and put them courtside at sporting events without them ever having to set foot on a plane, or in this case, a time machine.”  

“The great thing about this festival is that audiences will have a chance to relive these movies in the way they were meant to be seen; on a big screen, with an audience,” said author and film critic, Richard Crouse.  “The best and most powerful way to see a movie is to fully immerse yourself in the theatre experience, surrounded by people who are enjoying it just as much as you are.  I’m personally looking forward to seeing films like Fight Club, Blade Runner – The Final Cut, Pulp Fiction and Shallow Grave in all their glory.”

The 2017 Flashback Film Fest Line-up includes:

  • Air Force One (1997) *20 year anniversary
  • Blade Runner – The Final Cut (2007) *10 year anniversary/35 year anniversary of original
  • Blood Simple (1984)
  • Fargo (1996)
  • The Fifth Element (1997) *20 year anniversary
  • Fight Club (1999)
  • The Fugitive (1993)
  • Groundhog Day (1993)
  • Heat (1995)
  • Jurassic Park (1993)
  • Legend (1985)
  • The Princess Bride (1987) *30 year anniversary
  • Pulp Fiction (1994)
  • The Running Man (1987) *30 year anniversary
  • Shallow Grave (1994)
  • Starship Troopers (1997) *20 year anniversary
  • Trainspotting (1996)

Tickets for festival films cost $7.99, $6.99 for 5 or more films and new this year film fanatics can buy the “I Want It All” pass for $69.99 allowing them access to all 17 films for a price of $4.11 per admission. For a complete list of show times, or to purchase tickets, visit Cineplex.com/FBFF .

Participating theatres include:

British Columbia

  • Cineplex Cinemas Langley
  • SilverCity Victoria Cinemas
  • The Park Theatre
  •  

Alberta

  • Cineplex Odeon Eau Claire Market Cinemas
  • Scotiabank Theatre Edmonton

 

Manitoba

  • Scotiabank Theatre Winnipeg

 

Saskatchewan

  • Cineplex Cinemas Regina
  • Scotiabank Theatre Saskatoon and VIP

 

Ontario

  • Cineplex Cinemas Courtney Park
  • Cineplex Odeon Devonshire Mall Cinemas
  • Galaxy Cinemas Waterloo
  • Galaxy Cinemas Guelph
  • Scotiabank Theatre Toronto
  • Cineplex Cinemas Scarborough
  • SilverCity Newmarket Cinemas
  • Cineplex Cinemas Ancaster
  • SilverCity London Cinemas
  • Cineplex Odeon South Keys Cinema
  • SilverCity Sudbury Cinemas
  • SilverCity Thunder Bay Cinemas

 

Quebec

  • Cinéma Banque Scotia Montréal

 

Atlantic

  • Cineplex Cinemas Trinity Drive
  • Scotiabank Theatre St. John’s
  • Cineplex Cinemas Park Lane

Cineplex: Richard and Tanner Zipchen announce the Flashback Film Festival!

Richard and Cineplex pre-show host Tanner Zipchen announce this year’s Flashback Film Festival! More details to come… in the meantime watch Tanner and Richard HERE!

Hunger Games isn’t the first film to pit human against human for sport

Jennifer-Lawrence-In-The-Hunger-Games-Mockingjay-Part-1-ImagesBy Richard Crouse – Metro Canada

Since the release of the first Hunger Games novel in 2008, literary sleuths have picked it apart, searching for connections to other books and films.

The scrutiny increased when the first film in the tetralogy set records for the biggest opening weekend for a non-sequel in 2012, and continues unabated with the release of this weekend’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1.

Based on Suzanne Collins’s mega-successful series, the movies are set in a dystopian world ruled by a fascist-style president (Donald Sutherland) who presides over The Hunger Games, a televised battle-to-the-death between 24 young players, two from each of the country’s districts, including Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson).

The series draws on things we’ve seen before, in everything from the human sacrifices of Greek mythology or Survivor-style television shows to news stories of government corruption to create a world with its own rules, style and customs.

The most often-cited influence is Battle Royale, a 2000 Japanese movie based on a book by Koushun Takami. Like The Hunger Games, it’s a story of school kids in a televised government-sanctioned death match.

Battle Royale’s DVD box set even included a quote from a critic suggesting there’d be no Hunger Games without the Japanese film. “This is the movie that started it all,” it reads.

Hunger fans were quick to point out differences in the two films. The Japanese movie is about survival, they said, while Collins wrote about revolution. The author revealed her main influences were reality television and the Iraq war.

“I had never heard of that book or that author until my book was turned in,” she told the New York Times.

It’s worth noting that the idea of humans being preyed upon for the entertainment of the upper classes dates back at least as far as 1932’s The Most Dangerous Game. The story of a big-game hunter who tracks humans for sport on an isolated island is based on a Richard Connell short story that also loosely inspired episodes of everything from Gilligan’s Island to Lost in Space. Since then, Norman Jewison’s Rollerball, Roger Corman’s Deathrace 2000 (and its 2008 Jason Statham remake) and The Running Man have mined similar territory.

As for the author who wrote Battle Royale, he gave ABC News a very diplomatic answer when asked about the similarities between the two stories. “I think every novel has something to offer,” he said. “If readers find value in either book, that’s all an author can ask for.”