The Couch Potato Report – October 19th, 2004
In The Couch Potato Report this week, there’s, well, there’s a lot! Corner Gas, SCTV, Garfield, Van Helsing and Ed Wood!
By now I am sure you are well aware of the made-in-Saskatchewan television show CORNER GAS.
If not, it is set in the fictional Saskatchewan town of Dog River, takes place mainly at the corner gas station, and stars Tisdale, Saskatchewan’s own Brent Butt.
CORNER GAS is one of the most popular shows on Canadian television and now CORNER GAS – SEASON ONE is set to become a very popular DVD and video set as well.
CORNER GAS – SEASON ONE features all 13 episodes from the first year of the show, and the 2-DVD set also has audio commentaries on three episodes from Brent Butt and others, a blooper reel and many other extras.
THE TAXMAN, PILATES TWIST, GRAD ’68, WORLD’S BIGGEST THINGS, HOOK, LINE & SINKER, FACE OFF. All of the imminently quotable, and very funny episodes are all included.
Just press play and enjoy!
You can now also press play and enjoy more episodes of SCTV on DVD!
Back in June I professed the first SCTV Box Set that was released to be “The Comedy Release Of The Year.”
I must now amend that statement as SCTV – VOLUME 2 is just as good. Thus, my new statement is – “The SCTV Box Sets Are The Comedy Releases Of The Year.”
SCTV – VOLUME 2 picks up where the first box set left off and we get nine more 90-minute shows from SCTV’s fourth season.
Originally broadcast in 1981 and 1982, this set contains many SCTV classic parodies, including “The Jazz Singer” and “The Godfather,” as well as the uniquely SCTV segments “I’m Taking My Own Head, Screwing It On Right, and No Guy’s Gonna Tell Me That It Ain’t”; Meryl Streep blowing up real good on the “Farm Film Report”; Bob and Doug McKenzie demonstrating how to stuff a mouse inside a beer bottle; “Benny Hill Street Blues”; performances by musical stars Al Jarreau, Natalie Cole, The Boomtown Rats, Talking Heads and much, much more!
The 5-disc box set is also loaded with over 90 minutes of special features, including new & unreleased material, and there is also a 24-page booklet.
Yes, the SCTV Box Sets Are The Comedy Releases Of The Year. And you can expect me to proclaim something similar next year as Volume 3 will be released in February!
Okay, CORNER GAS – SEASON ONE and SCTV – VOLUME 2 are the best of this week’s new releases. Let me briefly tell you about two other releases before I get to this week’s final good title.
The first of those other releases is VAN HELSING. This was supposed to be the start of a franchise that would see Hugh Jackman from X-MEN star in many, many films as a vampire hunter. If they do make it a franchise, I hope they work harder to make sure the next films aren’t also absolutely dreadful.
The sets in VAN HELSING are all amazing, and the characters are interesting, but instead of making a movie, they made a video game.
All of the action that takes place is all done with computer-animated special effects and bad effects at that. Not one thing looks real. It just looks like a computer game. Press this button to kill the bad guys, press that button to change your weapon.
Not long into the movie’s 132 minute running time I found myself actually saying, “Who cares?!?!”
Who cares if Van Helsing succeeds, who cares if he fails, who cares if Dracula’s minions live, or die, who cares, who cares, who cares!!
I certainly didn’t care while I watched the movie and I don’t care now.
Even the presence of the lovely and talented Kate Beckinsale of SERENDIPITY and UNDERWORLD as the love interest slash equal of Van Helsing didn’t interest me. Both she and Hugh Jackman have great screen presence, but together in VAN HELSING they don’t add up too much.
VAN HELSING just isn’t worth your time. See it if you want to, but I don’t recommend it at all.
I also don’t recommend GARFIELD: THE MOVIE, but if you see it you won’t hate it. I certainly didn’t hate it, it just serves no purpose.
On June 19, 1978 the comic strip Garfield debuted in 41 newspapers. Today, Garfield is the most widely syndicated comic strip in the world appearing in 2,570 newspapers.
On June 11, 2004 GARFIELD: THE MOVIE debuted in 3,094 theaters. Even though the film isn’t horrible, and Bill Murray is okay as the voice of the titular cat, here’s hoping we get another 26 years of laughter from the comic strip before they even think about making another film.
None of the characters in the film look or act like their cartoon counterparts and the actual human beings who embody the cartoon people don’t have the personality of the drawings either.
Garfield, the comic cat, is usually funny on several levels. GARFIELD – THE MOVIE isn’t funny, or entertaining at all.
But, as I said, if you see the movie you won’t hate it. You’ll watch it and it will be over.
Over. Done. Finished.
And now that I am over, done, finished with this week’s mediocre films let me get back to something good stuff to wrap up this week’s Report.
Back in 1994, after he had scored major box-office hits with BATMAN, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS and BATMAN RETURNS, director Tim Burton announced that his next film would be a biography of failed 1950’s filmmaker Ed Wood.
Wood resume includes movies that are universally thought of as some of the worst movies ever made. GLEN OR GLENDA, THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST and PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SOACE are just three of his cinematic messes.
Wood loved movies, and he just wanted to make movies, but he could never catch a break, even when Hollywood’s biggest director of the mid-nineties decided to make a picture about him.
Tim Burton’s film ED WOOD starred Johnny Depp, Bill Murray, Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette and Martin Landau, who won an Oscar for his work in the movie. It debuted in theatres in 1994 and it wasn’t a hit.
In his day no one went to Ed Wood’s films and that year no one went to see a film about Ed Wood either.
Well, I shouldn’t say no one went. My friends and I went, and we loved the movie ED WOOD. We loved it then and we love it now.
For us, and others like us, there is now an ED WOOD: SPECIAL EDITION DVD!
If you are a fan of old Hollywood, classic characters, or just a recent convert of Johnny Depp’s due to his work in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, then ED WOOD is a movie for you!
The comic highlight of the movie is a scene featuring a stuffed octopus that was being used as a prop. Since he didn’t have the necessary motor, Martin Landau throws his body down upon the puppet and, in an attempt to create the illusion of mobility, wraps the limbs about him.
It is a classic scene in a classic film many people have never seen, but should tak ethe time to watch.
ED WOOD is one of the best films of all time about one of the worst filmmakers of all time.
CORNER GAS: SEASON ONE, SCTV – VOLUME 2, VAN HELSING, GARFIELD: THE MOVIE and ED WOOD: THE SPECIAL EDITION are all available now at your favourite local video store.
COMING UP IN THE NEXT COUCH POTATO REPORT…
…is a film that is horrible on every level. It is called WHITE CHICKS and it features two male FBI agents who go undercover as rich heiresses. Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans and Jaime King are the “stars” of this complete waste of time.
Man is that movie bad, but luckily next week’s other release is pretty good.
That movie is DAWN OF THE DEAD, the 2004 remake of the respected 1978 zombie movie where zombies overrun the United States. Canadian national treasure Sarah Polley stars with PULP FICTION’s Ving Rhames and Mekhi Phifer from 8 MILE.
I’m Dan Reynish and I’ll have more on those, and some other releases, in seven days.
For now, that’s this week’s COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I’ll see you back here next week on The Couch!
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