Cinema releases by week

, 1h49
Directed by Allan A. Goldstein
Origin Canada
Genres Drama, Crime
Actors Michael Ironside, Brad Dourif, Don S. Davis, Bruce Glover, Rae Dawn Chong, Ken Pogue
Rating60%
The film is based on Alan Aylward's work with physically disabled children as a recreational therapist at a residential chronic care centre in Toronto from 1974 to 1980. The original script suggested Nick Nolte as Blake (played by Mike Ironside) and John Hurt as Johnnie (played by Brad Dourif). Hurt (who Aylward had worked with on his Documentary Series - The Disability Myth, was interested in the role of Johnnie) Nolte's agent wanted a few million dollars for a retainer which Aylward couldn't muster in his life. Thus the next choice - Ironside. The film only got made because of Mike Ironside. He was on set with Nick Nolte and Powers Boothe in New Mexico making a film called Extreme Prejudice. Aylward gave the script to Lori Rotenberg, Mike's Toronto agent, who sent it to Ironside to read for the role of Blake. Ironside just finished the script (a prison story) when Nolte emerged from his trailer to announce that he had just secured the rights to produce "Weeds", based on the book by the same name - and also "a prison story". Ironside thought it was pure serendipity. If Nolte's gutsy enough to make a prison film, why not Ironside. Mike optioned the script from Aylward in 1987/88 and despite the odds, got it produced in Vancouver and released within two years - Kudos to him. A few years later, the British Columbia Corrections Ministry started a program between prisoners and institutionalized handicapped patients based on the fictitious rehabilitation program in Chaindance.

, 1h42
Directed by Jim McBride
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Horror
Themes Vampires in film
Actors Harley Venton, Patrick Bauchau, Jason London, Kim Johnston Ulrich, Michelle Johnson, Bo Hopkins
Rating50%
The film opens in Loving County, Texas, where a teenage boy named Cody Puckett (Jason London) awakens one ominous night to find his parents staked and burned by a heretic vampire hunter group called the S.C.A.V., which stands for the Southern Coalition Against Vampirism. After shooting him with a crossbow, the vampire hunters allow Cody to escape, hoping he will lead them back to his extended family.

, 1h42
Directed by David Mamet
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime
Actors Joe Mantegna, William H. Macy, Rebecca Pidgeon, J. J. Johnston, Lionel Mark Smith, Keith Johnson
Rating68%
Bobby Gold (Mantegna) is an inner-city homicide detective on the trail of Robert Randolph (Rhames), a drug-dealer and cop-killer on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. En route to nab an accomplice of Randolph, Gold and his partner Tim Sullivan (Macy) happen upon a murder scene: the elderly Jewish owner of a candy store in a black ghetto has been gunned down, reportedly for a fortune hidden in her basement. The deceased woman's son, a doctor, uses his clout to have Gold assigned to the case in the belief that Gold, himself Jewish, might be empathetic to his plight. Gold, however, seems to disregard his ethnicity, and beyond that, he's irritated about being pulled off a much higher-profile case. Ultimately, though, this is offset by interactions with members of the Jewish community that play on Gold's feelings of inadequacy and incapability of fitting in.

, 1h33
Directed by Michael Hoffman
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Romantic comedy, Romance
Themes Films about sexuality, Films about television, LGBT-related films, Transgender in film, LGBT-related films, LGBT-related film
Actors Sally Field, Kevin Kline, Robert Downey Jr., Whoopi Goldberg, Elisabeth Shue, Teri Hatcher
Rating65%
Celeste Talbert (Sally Field), the longtime star of the daytime drama The Sun Also Sets, is targeted by her ambitious co-star Montana Moorehead (Cathy Moriarty); Montana connives to supplant Celeste as the show's star by promising sexual favors to its producer, David Seton Barnes (Robert Downey, Jr.). To make the audience hate Celeste's character, Montana and David come up with a last-minute plot change in which she will accidentally kill a young, destitute deaf-mute, played by the newly-cast Lori Craven (Elisabeth Shue). Despite the strong objections of Head Writer Rose Schwartz (Whoopie Goldberg) and Celeste herself, the scene plays out, but is interrupted by Celeste's recognition of Lori as her real-life niece. Network honcho Edmund Edwards (Garry Marshall) sees potential in the relationship and makes Lori a regular cast member.