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Showing posts from August, 2015

Why does Elizabeth May Hate Saskatchewan?

                Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau, Tom Mulcair –what do they all have in common? As far as they want you to know, nothing. Apart from the fact they’ve all been to Saskatchewan on their campaign trail this election. But one major leader has curiously left our exceptionally shaped province off of their foreseeable campaign list.                 Everyone seems to agree Elizabeth May did very well in that first debate. She’s even gained some momentum for the Green Party and boosted her popularity. People who aren’t hipsters or stoners now know who she is! But then why has she stuck so close to the coasts and more importantly, not visited Saskatchewan. This province needs some Green but May is skipping over it. It makes you wonder, why does Elizabeth May hate Saskatchewan?                 Could it be the province’s staunch leanings towards the Tories in the past number of years? Could it be Brad Wall and the provincial conservative (I mean the “completely different Saskatc

The Cold War’s Back On for U.N.C.L.E.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was a popular TV show in the 1960s starring Robert Vaughn and David McCallum as a pair of spies at the height of the Cold War. One was American and one was Russian which seems like a risky move especially for the time. Humanizing a character from a communist country was not exactly popular back then. Five decades later and Guy Ritchie has turned that series into a movie. But are Cold War spies still relevant?                 Not exactly, but that’s why The Man from U.N.C.L.E. works more as a throwback to the spy movies of old but with a modern style and sensibility. The film follows CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and KGB agent Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) the best of their respective agencies and enemies. However they are forced to be partners when they learn a rich couple with ties to former Nazis are creating a nuclear warhead. They are also allied with Gabby (Alicia Vikander) the daughter of the man who’s constructing the weapon. So they have to

Deus Ex Machina?

              Original science fiction movies don’t come along very much. Most that we see whether they be superhero movies, space operas like Guardians of the Galaxy , or even attempts at exploring a high concept or idea like Interstellar , aren’t very original. And there are definitely aspects of Ex Machina that aren’t original, that have been seen and explored before. But what makes Ex Machina different is how it takes these somewhat familiar concepts like A.I. and restricts them to a confined setting and few characters and it works wonders creating a thrilling narrative and a gripping work of speculative fiction.                 Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) is a coding programmer working for the movie equivalent of Google who wins a contest to spend a week at the secretive home/lab of the company’s reclusive CEO Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Once he arrives he finds there’s a catch: that he has to administer the Turing test on Nathan’s new robotic creation Ava (Alicia Vikander) to prove t

The Best Movie in Theatres May Be the One You Haven’t Heard Of

               By now we’ve all heard how the attempt to reboot a superhero series that was pretty bad to begin with, has failed so spectacularly no amount of black magic can revive it. So besides Fant4stic , what else is playing this week? Ricki and the Flash may be decent but I’m still recovering from the last time I heard Meryl Streep sing. How about that British animated movie that’s surprisingly playing in North America?                 Shaun the Sheep: The Movie is based on the British series of the same name, and like that series is from Aardman animation. I’m a fan of the studio, most famous for its stop motion like Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run . But it’s also turned out some really great CG animated films like Flushed Away and Arthur Christmas . This film was of the former technique and you can really tell. The stop-motion lends itself very well to the tone of the film and as always shows immense effort and makes the whole story look real. The film also looks li

Fair Election 2015: Let the Games Begin

It’s the most wonderful time of the year again: election season! Time for the third of the population who actually votes to go and figure out which of this year’s crop of party leaders is the lesser of three evils. The election was called today a mere ELEVEN weeks before we’re actually going to be casting our votes. Yippee…. Each of the major leaders gave a speech when the election was announced. So did Gilles Duceppe and Elizabeth May (May’s in particular was adorable –she really believes she could get a seat). And so everyone’s gearing up, stating their platforms, who they’ll fight for, and so on. The Conservatives and Stephen Harper have the advantage so far in that in addition to showing their Trudeau attack ads every couple minutes on most major Canadian networks, they’ve also recently passed the Fair Elections Act which is stacked pretty highly in their favour. For example Elections Canada is not allowed to encourage young people to vote. Young people who generally may not be

China Gets the Olympics…Again!

Moose Jawvians are very disappointed to have once again lost the Olympic bid. Beijing who hosted the Olympics back in 2008 have managed to win the 2022 Winter Games outraging many locals here in Moose Jaw who’ve been bidding to host the Olympics for well over twenty years. “It’s an outrage!” says public worker Andy Nohandis. “They don’t even have snow! WE have snow!” “I think it would have been a show of good faith to give Moose Jaw a chance,” says an anonymous representative from City Hall. “In addition to putting in a bid every two years, we’ve hosted band festivals, word festivals, and even Toby Keith. Surely we can handle a minor Olympic ceremony like the Winter Games.” Moose Jaw is surrounded by nothing for miles in any direction providing ample space for Olympic tracks and stadiums. The city is even home to an arena, Mosaic Place. “I don’t see why they can’t just hold international figure skating and speed skating competitions at Mosaic” says the same representative C