Gerald Wright's Movie Coverage      

THE 11th FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL 2007

North America's premiere (and largest) genre film festival. It usually takes place in the month of July, in the city of Montreal, Quebec. It is a place where distributors come to pick up genre films from around the world for North American release, and where fans come from all over North America to see films that normally would not even be screened on the Art House or repertory circuit for fear of low turnout.

Created by Pierre Corbiel, Andre' Dubois and Martin Sauvageau, Fantasia started in 1996 screening Asian films from Hong Kong and Japan, with Japanese anime as well. In 1997, the festival its focus to bring in genre films from around the world. Fantasia is the only member of the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation outside of Europe.

This year's festival was packed with every type of film imaginable. Below is a couple of films that I found very interesting.

In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale

Directed by: Uwe Boll
Running time: 150 minutes, 35mm
Genre: Action, Adventure and Fantasy
Distributor: Freestyle
Germany/Canada/USA - English language (2007)
Cast: Jason Stratham, John Rhys-Davies, Ray Liotta, Ron Perlman, Leelee Sobieski and Matthew Lillard.

This is an adaptation of the popular Dungeon Siege video game, Jason Stratham is Farmer a simple man who wants nothing more than a quiet simple life with his family. His surrogate father Norick (Ron Perlman) dreams of signing up for King Konreid's (Burt Reynolds) army, but Farmer wants nothing to do with that. When rampaging hordes of evil creatures attacks and kills his son and take his wife captive, eventually Farmer finds himself joining the King and his mystical mage Merick (John Rhys-Davies) against the hordes led by the powerful evil villainous Gallian (Ray Liotta). The subplot is the king's nephew Duke Fallow who tries to undermine the throne and Merick's daughter Muriella (Leelee Sobieski) who gains mystical powers from the evil and alluring Gallian who realizes he using her. The mountain settings and impressively huge battle scenes are quite exciting with the use of CGI. Fights were chereographed by veteran Hong Kong ace Tony Ching best known for his work on Hero and House of Flyer Daggers.

Retribution (Sakebi)

Directed by: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes, 35mm
Genre: J-Horror, Thriller and Crime Drama
Distributor:Lionsgate Films
Japan - Japanese language (English subtitles)
Cast: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Manami Konishi, Tsyishi Ihara, Riona Hazuki and Jo Odagiri.

Recently the director and star of this film co-starred opposite Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett in Babel. In this exceptional film he is Detective Yoshioka, a weathered and beaten man trapped in a fading relationship with a nurse Harue Nimura (Manami Konishi) and troubled by sudden lapses and blurs in his memories. He's assigned to investigate a series of murders, but the more he probes, the more he begins to wonder if the serial killer he is chasing might be himself. With the recurring images of a ghostly, shrieking, red-clad woman (Riona Hazuki) are the crimes scenes has him recalling images of his past - questioning how he knows her? This is a haunting piece of work with anger, regret and isolation, beautifully shot and flwlessly performed. Clever suspenseful sequences.

We Are the Strange

Directed by: M dot Strange
Running time: 94 minutes, HD
Genre: Anime, Thriller and Fantasy
Distributor: M dot Strange
USA-English language
Cast voices:David Choe, Stuart Mahoney, Halleh Seddighzadeh, M dot Strange and Claylon Blancett.

This is a collision of 8 bit video game graphics and anime created with HD. The story echoes glimpses of Howl's Moving Castle and Paprika . The plot is a woman named Blue who is wounded and is trying to make her way through the sinister realm around her. Emmm is an odd but likable little doll-boy who really wants some ice cream. The particular ice cream parlor he wants it from is in the evil sex perverted Stopmo City. The same city Blue once was banished from by HIM (pimp and bad guy) who runs the city of vice. When the mismatched pair of Blue and Emmm meet, they decide to venture back to this evil city through the Forest of Still Life where they meet up with a mind-bending monster called Ultraviolent Rain who considers himself a hero as he rescues Blue and defeating the evil around them. This is an imaginable and a very technically innovative piece of work.