The programming cycle is back in full swing and I am up to my eyebrows in movies, which is making it a little tricky to keep up with everything — as if these little updates weren’t spotty enough. So happy Friday, everybody, and I’ll do my best to catch you up.
In this week’s episode of Someone Else’s Movie, I talked to enthusiastic filmmaker (and even more enthusiastic Ottawa cinema owner) Lee Demarbre about his favorite movie, Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch — or at least I thought I did.
Listening back to the episode, it turns out we didn’t really discuss the film itself as much as its impact on action cinema over the decades. Which is a pretty intriguing approach for this picture, and one I’m kind of delighted with. Check it out at all the usual hubs: You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher and/or Spotify, or download it directly from the web. It’s a fun one!
And then catch up to last week’s editions of Shiny Things, in which I examined my relationship to Michael Bay’s Transformers movies now that they’re all in a big Paramount 4K boxed set, and also caught up with Arrow’s charming special edition of The Last Starfighter and Paramount’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves now that both of those are out in UHD. But you have to update your subscription for those.
That’s about it. Back to work! Oh, but also if you’re in Toronto you should know I’ve programmed another restoration down at the Lightbox, and it’s a goodie: Raiders of the Lost Ark, back on the big screen in a splendid 4K restoration. There are two generations of fans who’ve never seen this with a crowd — if you’re among that cohort, don’t miss the chance to experience Steven Spielberg’s delirious adventure the way it was meant to be seen. Trust me.