Got my confirmation / invitation to help out at Toronto Roller Derby's Quad City Chaos, where I'll be assisting in a non-skating official capacity (which means I help with the score-keeping). March 23 and 24 there will be much excellent derby going on in Toronto. And I will be there kind of watching it, but mostly hectically scratching down numbers.

I think that the Netlix should have a sub-section just to showcase short lived / cancelled too soon teevee programs. The latest one I've gone through are the twelve episodes of Running Wilde. This high concept romantic comedy comes from some of the folks behind the pure brilliance that was Arrested Development, and even has the hilarious Will Arnett playing essentially the same character. It's a funny show, and only bitter-sweet to watch because after the non-ending of the final episode, you will be furious that something like this lasts only half a season while reality shows keep marching along endlessly.

I know that I'm a year late, I am similarly running behind on most of my teevee watching and book reading and everything else in my too hectic schedule, but watched the first pisode of the second season of Sherlock. Can Steven Moffat and the BBC do no wrong!? This episode is titled A Scandal in Belgravia, and like all three of the ninety minute movie length episodes that came before it, it was great. BBC has to be respected for not beating a good idea into the ground, and being ok with formats like the three episode mini-season.

With reimaginings such as Sherlock, I get distracted in how the present day alternate universe is different than ours. If there's a Sherlock Holmes in 2013, it stands to reason that Arthur Conan Doyle didn't start writing stories about him in 1887. Does the writer even exist in that timeline? Did he write more stories about dinosaurs instead? Was Disney's Great Mouse Detective movie a mouse version of some other famous literary detective? Who did Peter Cushing and Michael Caine and Robert Downey Jr play instead of Sherlock? These are the time space continuum conundrums that I think about instead of just sitting back and enjoying quality teevee.

A friend of mine has a hand in the website Animation News, whose business statement is the following: We aggregate and curate content from across the web and social media to create a comprehensive, evergreen, one-stop portal for information on the animation industry.

Cartoons are awesome, go check out the site!

Tomorrow night at 7pm (and the 30th & 31st) at the Mayfair we are screening Ping Pong, a documentary about a ping pong tournament in which the mimimum age of a player must be no less than 80 years old. It is hilarious and inspiring and awesome and really makes you want to just give up everything else in your life to concentrate on training to become a professional ping pong player. I wonder if we could fit a ping pong table into the theatre?

Currently am in the midst of a day-job gig helping set up stuff for Winterlude (y'know...lights that will point at things and pretty up the surroundings). Winterlude, for those not in the know, is the celebration of all manner of winter stuff as celebrated by the people's of the capital city of this fine country of Canada.

I do not dislike the cold or snowy things, but am often perplexed by the thought of going out of ones way to be outside in such weather. I am only out in this weather because I am being paid to do so. Surprisingly, many people go out of their way, under their own free will, to freeze to death and partake in various activities in -20 surroundings. Can you imagine trying to explain such things to pioneer type folks who didn't have the luxery of heating and electricity and winter months mant fending off certain death? I am also not sure what a lude is.

The ice sculptures sure are impressive though.

Everyone (well, not everyone, there are always disagreeable sorts on any given subject) seems to think that the latest in the long line of James Bond films is the best one ever produced. I do not disagree with this thought.

I am not what you might call a 007 geek, there are some highlights of course, but over-all I find the series hovers somewhere between offensive and goofy. It's a horrible word I know, but I am also not the first to think that the character is a little bit rape-y in his sexual conquests over the past few decades. Sean Connery's original incarnation was somwhat of a psychopath, Roger Moore was like a handsy drunken uncle at a family reunion, most don't remember Timothy Dalton or the guy who did a single film, and Pierce Brosnan's 007 films all kinda' blur together.

Although I am not a fan of the series, I quite enjoy the current Daniel Craig run with the character. It's a shocking and argument inducing statement for some, but I don't think the Bond films have ever been as good as they are now. I think Skyfall is hands down the best in over-all quality film of any Bond story ever made. I also think that in the age old immature schoolyard 'who would win in a fight' line of questioning, that Craig would destroy all previous Bond's who came before him.

We start our run of Skyfall tonight at the Mayfair at 6:30pm. It is every bit as good as you have hard it is.

Hmm... evidentially when I read the news that JJ Abrams will be directing the next Star Wars movie it causes me to scream in joy at my computer screen. A valuable lesson learned. I look forward to all the glorious lightsabre lens-flares.

Like any story-telling art form, when at their best, comic books have the power to raise your spirits with a reveal and then to crush you with a plot-twist. The ninth issue of Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples amazing genre bending space-opera did both those things to me as I read it. It also made me laugh out loud and cheer (well, not a real out loud cheer...but an inner cheer at least).

Saga is everything that is great about comic books, and continues along the once inexplicable to consider fact that Image Comics seems to be the best publisher going today. I said it before and I will say it again, if you are not reading Saga, you should be. If you like reading comics and don't read Saga you are missing out. If you don't read comics and think you might want to try one out, this is an excellent introduction into my favourite storytelling medium. And it has a giant talking cat.

I have seen many a bad movie in my day. You might have heard that the directorial debut from Wu-Tang Clan member RZA, which is presented by Quentin Tarantino and was co-written by Eli Roth, is a bad movie. I would argue that it is not a bad movie, but is in fact one of those rare gems that is so bad that it is amazing.

If you are at all familiar with the music of the Wu-Tang Clan, it is not all that surprising that one of them would have an interest in putting together a kung-fu movie. Being that Quentin is involved, it is equally logical that the film is a loving homage / copy-cat of an existing geek genre that that his director worships.

I have read that RZA filmed so much footage that there was some thought along the lines of cutting it into two films, Kill Bill style. That did not happen, and I think that somewhere along the line they went a bit too far and edited down to a slim 96 minutes. In trimming down to this short running time, it feels like that by mistake a bunch of important plot-points may have been lost in the shuffle. The movie races along, assisted by narration from the director (in the form of his Blacksmith character). If not for the help of this, there is even a higher likelihood that no-one would have any idea what was going on.

To be fair, I have also seen a lot of kung-fu movies, and they are equally poorly put together most the time. These types of cinema aren't exactly to be watched and enjoyed for their great achievements in scriptwriting, you watch them for the cool fight scenes. So, although it might be a bit difficult to pass on exactly what was going on in the movie, all that really matters is that good guys team up to fight bad guys. One of those good guys is Russell Crowe, who seems to be having a great ole' time chewing up the scenery to the high levels of an out of control mad Shakespearian thespian.

This retro grindhouse tribute film is filled with Wu-Tang music, insanely violent kung-fu action, deadly warriors, crazy weapons, prostitute assassins, a Colossus style man of brass, an Oscar winner playing a character named Jack Knife, and of course a man with iron fists. How could a movie with so much awesome possibly be all bad?

The Man with the Iron Fists screens January 23rd & 24th at 9:30pm at the Mayfair.

Once upon a time, movie posters were a wondrous art-form that inspired imagination and were amazing accompanying pieces to a film. Now-a-days posters are mostly big head-shots of the movies star, or generally sub-par cut and paste messes.

There has been a bit of a resurgence of cool movie posters of late. The posters for the upcoming Wolverine, Iron Man and Oz movies are all pretty great. Unfortunately, most other movies...like say The Avengers...have movie posters that are shameful and seemingly put together by someone who is not quite familiar with the concept of photoshop.

News came out today that Disney has approached the legendary Drew Struzan to paint posters for upcoming Star Wars films. If you are not familiar with Mr. Struzan, look up his work and then be perplexed as to why Hollywood doesn't employ movie poster painters anymore. If this happens, and he is reunited with the galaxy far far away, it is further proof that geeks should rejoice that the future of Star Wars is indeed in good and caring hands.

I would never want to make light of the horrible violence that continues to unleash itself around the planet, whether that be in the military form of war, or gun related attacks on schools or movie theatres or any other location. Any time such a horrible thing happens, fingers get pointed at pop culture and the arts as the blame for influencing people to be so violent. This is of course ridiculous. It seems especially like a point of foolishness when in 2013 the NRA points at films like American Psycho and Natural Born Killers as the problem. You would think that they could at least lay blame on a movie not from 1994 or 2000 and instead admit that guns just may be the problem. How about trash Django Unchained or The Last Stand instead? At least falsely lay fault on a motion picture that is still in theatres.

I know for a fact that violent movies don't effect most people to resort to mass murder. And if a movie did, it is not the fault of the movie, because that person that related to horrendous violence is crazy. If a movie didn't set them off, a box of cereal or a squirrel would do the same thing.

I have seen pretty much every violent movie ever made...I've also read all the violent comic books and used to play all the violent video games. Partaking in all of this viewing and reading and playing has never influenced me to go and buy a gun and then start randomly shooting everybody.

On top of that, one of my favourite sub-genres of movies is one featuring an assassin theme (like The Professional, Femme Nikita, Collateral, Road to Perdition, Hanna, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Ghost Dog, Grosse Point Blank, The American, etc...). The latest cool movie with a central character that is an assassin is Killing Them Softly. There will be no horrible repercussions from you seeing this movie, especially if you do it the next couple of nights at the Mayfair (tonight at 9pm and Monday January 21st at 9:30pm).

One of the most fascinating documentaries ever produced is the ongoing Up series from Michael Apted. In 1964 the filmmaker began on the 39 minute television project, which interviewed a bunch of seven year old kids, as a researcher. He then took the reigns and ended up directing longer Up projects, which revisited these documentary subjects every seven years of their lives, right up to the most recent addition of 56 Up.

We hosted the Ottawa premiere of the film last night and had a great crowd turn out. 56 Up screens at the Mayfair again tonight and Sunday January 20th at 6pm, and the 21st and 23rd at 6:30pm. Join us for the latest puzzle to the documentary piece that Roger Ebert has praised as one of the 10 greatest films of all time.

A few months ago I had the bright idea to try and sell advance tickets at the Mayfair for special screenings of hard to find cult movies. Since the availability of 35mm prints of such cinematic treasure were few and far in-between in terms of availability, shipping them in from private collectors was a pricey endeavour. I figured that if we could sell just 75 tickets that that would cover the extra costs, and ensure an awesome movie night for our cult movie fans.

The experiment was a resounding failure, and after much effort and a big on-line and in theatre push to get the word out, we ended up selling a whopping 21 tickets. I cannot tell a lie, I was a bit crest-fallen at the lack-luster ticket sales. I made many a jaded joke that from now on we should just screen architecture and food documentaries 'cause at least that fan base always seems to support what they love. When very few people showed up for The Goonies and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, my thoughts on the matter did not greatly improve.

Tonight is the chance to turn this all around thanks to our fancy new digital projector. Tonight's late late show at the Mayfair is none other than They Live. They Live is an incredible aliens among us 1980's action extravaganza directed by cult movie master John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China) and starring Canada's own Rowdy Roddy Piper. It's not only alien invasion Orwellian calibre sci-fi fun, it also just happens to have what many praise as one of the greatest fight scenes ever in the history of cinema.

If tonight goes well, the doors open wide to even more great movies newly available thanks to the new digital age. Don't forget your sunglasses.

They Live screens tonight (Friday January 18th) at 11:30pm at the Mayfair.

Norm Macdonald - The Cobras by NormMacdonald

Watched the NAC orchestra perform the score from West Side Story, accompanying the movie playing on a big screen over their heads. I love the mix of seeing live music from an orchestra as combined with a pop-culture twist. I have also seen the NAC orchestra perform alongside Looney Tunes classics, I've seen an orchestra perform to highlights from the six Star Wars films, and we've had such things at the Mayfair before with films like Metropolis and Night of the Living Dead.

It was an enjoyable night out, but I cannot tell a lie, the whole time I could not help but think of one of my favourite SNL skits of all time (conceived by Norm MacDonald and featuring Robert Downey Jr). Norm's parody of West Side Story perfectly points out the silly suspension of disbelief that one must undertake to enjoy a Hollywood musical.

I don't really venture out of the Mayfair to do my big-screen movie watching. It would make me feel too much like I'm supporting the man & also like I was cheating on my beloved theatre. The rare occasion that I do go outside of the Mayfair is when I get free passes to advance screenings, because I am thrifty, and in those cases the multiplex isn't getting my cash. Plus there's always a chance that you might win a t-shirt or a baseball cap or some other kinda movie-geek swag.

This-evening I partook in one of these free movie outings to see Arnold Schwarzenegger's leading role action-hero come-back, The Last Stand. I'm not the biggest Arnold fan in the world, though I of course Love The Terminator, Predator, and True Lies as much as any action movie connoisseur. With the return of one of the biggest movie stars of all time, an "actor" who at one time was the biggest movie star of his time in fact, I would expect something bigger or more original. I would think that if Arnold was going to come out of retirement that he would try to break some new ground or try something new...take a risk, turn some heads, break some rules.

The Last Stand could have been a generic action movie starring him or any other fill-in-the-blank action star of the 1980's or 90's (except for Bruce Willis, who breaks all the rules and is an action star with actual acting chops). The Last Stand is not boring, it's not bland, it's not without humour or guns-a-blazing action...what it is is just another action movie. Every single character in the whole movie is a cardboard cut-out, and every plot-point is by the books without any twists or turns or surprises in store for the viewer.

The biggest shame is that the film is the American debut of amazing South Korean filmmaker Jee-woon Kim, whose films include Tale of Two Sisters, The Good The Bad and The Weird, I Saw the Devil, and a segment from the anthology Doomsday Book. When I read that he was directing Arnold's action vehicle I expected some grand cinematic effort. Instead it's just a movie with good guys & bad guys that could have been a script from 25 years ago, with the exception that Arnold spouts some "I'm too old for this" jokes every so often.

Oh well, maybe his Danny DeVito reunion film Triplets will be better...oh wait, there's no way that that won't be awful. At least we have another Expendables to look forward too.

Read the first issue of Superior Spider-man today, which ushers in the Doctor Octopus brain in the Peter Parker body era of our formally amazing hero.

Dan Slott provides another fine comic book script filled with action and intrigue and this new Spidey humour twist of a mad scientist trying to do good...but still kinda doing it for all the wrong reasons. I really like this storyline, and my only qualm with it is that I have a feeling that despite the hype it's not going to last for all that long. I hope that Marvel lets this storyline sit and develop for a while before the inevitable happens, and and Peter Parker returns from beyond the grave and ends up back in his own body and mind. In the mean time I hope that this crazy mad scientist turned wannabe hero gets to cause some trouble and instigate some page-turning stories before he ends up back as the bad guy.

I will gladly and happily stand geek corrected if this is actually more of a Wally West as Flash thing and Peter Parker actually stays away for a couple years...I find that highly unlikely in this age of Marvel syncing things up with blockbuster movies as much as they can though. For now, I remain team Superior.

Spent a portion of the day getting caught up on some tv watching that has been put on the sidelines thanks to the busy holidays and the east coast trip. Watched a couple episodes of American Horror Story (so amazing and horror / sci-fi complex I have no idea how season 3 can top this), New Girl (I love Zooey), Letterman (which I watch religiously), IT Crowd (not new, but just got into watching it), and Bob's Burgers. Bob's Burgers is my favourite new show in a while, it is smart and original and most importantly very funny. It is also a much better way to spend your cartoon watching time than another tired re-hash of the offensive and now boring Seth Macfarlane style of Family Guy formula.

I know that this might sound like I'm just upselling a movie 'cause I always want the Mayfair to do well and sell tickets, but I cannot emphasize enough that Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is an incredibly impressive film. It easily could have been knocked off as a phoned-in B-movie sequel, but for some reason everyone involved seemed to actually really care about the final product and the result is something special. Imagine that!

Who would have ever thought that Hollywood could learn a lesson from the fourth Universal Soldier movie? Amongst other overwhelming praise, the movie has not only been called the best action movie of the year, but was even quoted as being better than Skyfall. This film is not just a good guy vs bad guy punch-out, it has some intense acting, some bizarre twists, and elements more familiar in something along the lines of Apocalypse Now. Don't get me wrong, the film also features some great fight scene face-off's, old school car crashes, and rather insane levels of guns-a-blazing action.

And lest we forget, it of course also features a couple of great supporting roles for Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren. The Universal Soldier veterans not only get to show off some old timer fight skills, but also get in some nice acting amongst the violence. If there is any justice, director John Hyams will get to graduate onto grander budgeted motion picture productions after this impressive turn.

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is on tonight at 9pm, and tomorrow at 9:45pm (Sunday the 13th & Monday the 14th) at the Mayfair.

Talented actors Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche were guests on a Nerdist podcast that I listed to while dog-walking and going to and from the Mayfair amongst other multi-taskings today. It wasn't a new episode, despite listening to nothing but Nerdist in my mp3 listening to time, I am still months behind from catching up to their present day programs. Amongst other acting accomplishments, Paulsen and LaMarche are veterans of Animaniacs, which is one of my favourite cartoons of all time. Upon request from Nerdist host Christ Hardwick, Paulsen took on the voice of Yakko Warner without missing a beat and sung the nations of the world song. It brought both Chris and myself much joy, brought back memories of watching cartoons before heading off to school. I hope you like it too.