By Katie Daubs Feature Writer Thu., Dec. 6, 2018 A Hallmark Christmas movie is a beloved staple of holiday programming, and it has a certain rhythm. A high-powered woman returns to her small town for the holidays, bruised by some romantic or professional disappointment. She faces a Christmassy challenge and finds solace in her family, the town, its traditions, and a handsome man she didn’t expect, even if the rest of us saw it coming. You might think it’s easy to dream up a premise, but not everybody can sustain the magic over 120 pages of a script. Ron Oliver is one of the fixers Hallmark calls — sometimes a week before shooting — when a movie is missing that special touch. “It’s hard to find writers who understand that brand,” the writer-director says. “The ones we use again and again, they tend to be the ones that get it.” When he dives into a script, he usually sees the same issues. Writers are lured … [Read more...] about Cracking the Hallmark movie code: Take girl. Add boy. ‘Christmas the crap out of it.’ Shoot in Sudbury
Proud family full movie
How The Hangover movie helped us learn about real hangovers
By Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall Excerpt from Hungover Sat., Nov. 24, 2018 In Hungover: The Morning After and One Man’s Quest for a Cure, journalist and raconteur Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall explores what happens to our bodies and minds when we over-imbibe and all the ways, over time and through different cultures, that we’ve tried to fix it. He delves into the infamous consequences of those rough mornings experienced by the greats of the past — from Noah to Churchill to pitcher David Wells — and reveals his own personal quest to find relief, and quite possibly his own cure. To briefly recap, The Hangover is a 2009 film about an ill-fated bachelor party and the groom’s friends from out of town — including the wacko brother of the bride, a well-groomed professional and a guy so nondescript he’d make a pretty good spy. They raise a glass to the groom at their hotel, then the rest is madness and mayhem. It involves … [Read more...] about How The Hangover movie helped us learn about real hangovers
Mile 22’s Mark Wahlberg gets talky for fourth movie with Peter Berg
It is no wonder Hollywood star Mark Wahlberg and US director Peter Berg keep working together back to back, considering they think so much alike. The 47-year-old US actor said: "We wanted to do something where we could have some fun, but our idea of fun is creating a world that is full of violence, betrayal, deceit and all of these things that I think make for a great story." The movie is action thriller Mile 22, which opens here tomorrow and is their fourth project together after Lone Survivor (2013), Deepwater Horizon (2016) and Patriots Day (2016). An elite paramilitary team has to transport a foreign intelligence asset35km (or 22 miles, hence the movie's title) from a US embassy in the fictional South-east Asian country of Indocarr to an airfield for extraction in 38 minutes. Along the way, they have to battle the city's military, police and street gangs who are trying to reclaim the asset. Wahlberg is James Silva, a CIA operative and leader of the secret team. Indonesian martial … [Read more...] about Mile 22’s Mark Wahlberg gets talky for fourth movie with Peter Berg
This week in Toronto: Fresh films and a veteran popster
Sun., March 18, 2018 TUESDAY P!nk Watch This For: A party of the highest flying order. Since her Y2K arrival, P!nk, as Alecia Moore’s stage name is stylized, has methodically ascended the pop ladder while many of her more celebrated peers from those days have faded — “damn Britney Spears … that just ain’t me,” was how she put it then. She hasn’t so much changed as put her rebel persona, her rasping, mighty voice and breath control, and her emancipating anthems at the centre of a well-honed spectacle both earthbound and aerial. Fans just love to sing along to the hits, at least when they’re not picking their jaws up off the floor. A chandelier and an oversized Eminem inflatable are among the props for this Beautiful Trauma tour, in for two nights, including Wednesday. (Air Canada Centre, 40 Bay St., 7:30 p.m.) —Chris Young Article Continued Below What a Young Wife Ought to Know Watch this if: You have a womb or … [Read more...] about This week in Toronto: Fresh films and a veteran popster
There’s devotion
Re: “Ex-park staffer ‘aided hunting group’,” (BP, Feb 10). Not only the defence on the 25 “borrowed” wristwatches worth 39.5 million baht (“NACC vows to wrap up Prawit probe”, BP, Feb 10) challenges common decency of logic but your latest news of the deputy police chief considering charging Wichien Chinnawong, chief of the Western Thungyai Wildlife Sanctuary, for not having collected admission fees from the influential tycoon has given me a mixed feeling of either to laugh or cry. Despite influence from all sides and an attempt at bribery, Wichien and his team must have been so disgusted with the carcasses of a 1.48-metre black panther, a kalij pheasant and a barking deer to forget his place of being a subordinate of someone in Thailand and did what a few officials dare to do by causing an uproar of disgust. (Seeing him in one of your photos standing and sleeping after two days without sleep and with a monthly reported pay of 9,000 baht … [Read more...] about There’s devotion