The Couch Potato Report – October 13th, 2007
This week The Couch Potato Report peels a 2 DVD set from the Air Farce and a pair of Special Edition DVDs.
I have three titles to tell you about this week, and none of them really need much introduction, since they have all been around since at least 1998.
I’ll start with the elder statemen in this week’s group, the thirty-four year old Royal Canadian Air Farce.
The one and only Air Farce started performing under that name in 1973, and later that year their CBC radio show began.
It was on the air for 24 seasons through 1997.
The first Air Farce television special aired in 1980, and a short-lived TV series went to air in 1981.
After a long hiatus from TV, it was a 1992 New Year’s Eve special for CBC television that brought the group back to our airwaves in October of 1993…where it continues to this day.
THE ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FARCE – FARCEBOOK is a double-DVD of Air Farce comedy, featuring one disc with 43 of their best sketches from last year, and another one with their entire 300th show, including some special guests.
For the record, I have done 378 episodes of my show!
Anyway, the thing that always makes me appreciate the Air Farce is the fact that always spoofs Canadian politics and politicians, Canadian trends, our commercials, and even some of our well-known institutions, like the CBC.
THE ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FARCE – FARCEBOOK is a very funny collection of Canadian comedy, and I think you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.
Oh, and don’t forget that you can see the AIR FARCE every Friday night at 8 pm on CBC Television.
Up next this week, just in time for the release of ELIZABETH – THE GOLDEN AGE in theatres yesterday, is a SPECIAL EDITION of the Academy Award winning 1998 film ELIZABETH.
Academy Award winners Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush and Richard Attenborough star in this great movie that is loosely based on the early reign of Queen Elizabeth the first of England and it primary follows Elizabeth being courted by suitors as she deals with various threats to her reign.
Yes, there are many historical inaccuracies with ELIZABETH, so it probably shouldn’t be shown in a history class as a documentary on the era, but if you enjoy costume dramas, then this is a film for you!
It is engaging, entertaining, and features some incredible acting, costumes, make-up and locations.
The film ends with Elizabeth assuming the persona of ‘The Virgin Queen’, and initiating England’s Golden Age, and that is where the new movie – now in theatres – picks up her story.
This SPECIAL EDITION DVD includes a look at the new film, and some making of features on the first one as well.
It is a great movie to add to your library!
Another film that you can now add to your library is the 1980 Al Pacino film CRUISING as it is finally available on DVD, and as a DELUXE EDITION no less!
CRUISING stars Al Pacino as an young cop who goes under cover in New York City in the 1970s to try and find a serial killer that is targeting gay men.
His work takes a toll on his relationship with his girlfriend and leads him to question his own sexual orientation.
CRUISING is by no means a classic, and it is very homophobic at times, but it remains a film that has a hard to figure out murder mystery at it’s core, one that I finally understand, but only because I listened to director William Friedkin’s commentary, and watched the behind-the-scenes documentaries on the DVD.
If you are a fan of Al Pacino, and you are a completist, then this is one for you!
The DELUXE EDITION of CRUISING, the SPECIAL EDITION of ELIZABETH, and THE ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FARCE – FARCEBOOK are all available now on DVD.
And rememberÖyou can see all-new episodes of the AIR FARCE every Friday night at 8 pm on CBC Television.
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
YOU KILL ME is a mafia comedy thriller made in Winnipeg starring Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley; In THE HOAX Richard Gere is a man who sells a fake biography of Howard Hughes to a premiere publishing house in the early 1970s; PLANET TERROR is director Robert Rodriguez’s half of the GRINDHOUSE movie duo from earlier this year, and this is the better half; And Steve Carell from TV’s THE OFFICE and THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN stars in the most expensive comedy ever made, a film called EVAN ALMIGHTY.
I’m Dan Reynish. 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 time on The Couch!
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