THE COUCH POTATO REPORT – January 5th, 2008
This week The Couch Potato Report peels Canada, a film made in Canada, the work of a master filmmaker, and Gilligan’s Island.
Well, here we are…only a few days into a whole new year.
Have you got all of your vacations for 2008 planned out yet?
If you haven’t, our Hot Potato this week is full of ideas, and it will take you from coast to coast to coast.
It is a DVD called O CANADA – A HISTORIC AND MAJESTIC 3-PART JOURNEY ACROSS CANADA.
Narrated by the great Peter Gzowski the first part of O CANADA is called POSTCARDS FROM CANADA and it will take you on a truly breathtaking, fact-filled trip through our home and native land.
Including some destinations both unfamiliar, and very familiar.
With stunning footage, and insightful commentary, this National Film Board Of Canada movie is full of travel ideas for those of us who live in Canada, and those who might be thinking about coming for a visit.
There is also a feature called A CANADIAN SCARPBOOK with more than a hundred photographs and another named ULTIMATE CITY ARIEL ADVENTURES that shows you Vancouver, Quebec City, Niagara Falls, Toronto and some other cities from the air.
Yes, this is a great DVD to own, give, or use to make travel plans with.
Again, it is called O CANADA – A HISTORIC AND MAJESTIC 3-PART JOURNEY ACROSS CANADA.
Search it, you will not be disappointed!!
Now, had you been looking for Academy Award nominated actors Paul Giamati and Clive Owen earlier this year, you would have found them, and the beautiful actress Monica Belluci in Canada as well.
They were all there making the very energetic action film SHOOT EM UP.
Man, I enjoyed this film! It features cartoon violence at it’s finest, and great actors just having fun!!
Owen, from CLOSER and INSIDE MAN stars as a mystery man with both an extensive military background and a fondness for carrots, not unlike a certain wascally wabbit.
Our man wants nothing more than to be left alone, but he soon finds himself embroiled in a complex political conspiracy once he aids a pregnant woman who is being chased by a hitman.
Paul Giamati from SIDEWAYS is that hitman and Monica Bellucci from MALENA and the final two MATRIX films is Owen’s love interest.
They are all perfectly cast in a film that is loud, violent…and I loved it!
This is a movie that friends will recommend to each other, and it will be watched and enjoyed as a cult classic for years.
If loud and violent don’t bother you, then check it out, and watch some serious actors letting loose and having fun!
SHOOT EM UP is one of my favourite films of the past year, I enjoyed it that much!
I can’t say that any of the films in STANLEY KUBRICK – THE WARNER HOME VIDEO DIRECTORS SERIES 10-DVD BOX SET entertained me as much as SHOOT EM UP, but I still revere all of them as classics.
So, hoping they would all grow on me, I sat down again and rewatched the remastered special editions of 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut.
I also watched the feature length documentary about the director called “Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures”, which is also included in this set.
As I said, I revere all of these films, and consider them classics, and I think Kubrick is a master filmmaker, but I do not like all of these movies.
I can appreciate them, but I don’t watch them with any sort of frequency.
My favourites are still THE SHINING and FULL METAL JACKET, but maybe you love 2001, as I know many people do, or A CLOCKWORK ORANGE…or maybe even EYES WIDE SHUT.
If you are a fan of films, and filmmakers, then STANLEY KUBRICK – THE WARNER HOME VIDEO DIRECTORS SERIES 10-DVD BOX SET is just the thing for you!
Up next this week, Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from a tropic port
Aboard a tiny ship.
The mate was a mighty sailing man,
The skipper brave and sure.
Five passengers set sail that day
For a three hour tour.
A three hour tour.
Gilligan’s Island aired for three seasons from September 26, 1964 to September 4, 1967, and now every episode of the show, including the rare pilot episode featuring two women not named Ginger or Mary Ann, and many other special features are all available in the 9-DVD Box Set GILLIGAN’S ISLAND – THE COMPLETE SERIES COLLECTION.
No, the show isn’t Dostoyevsky, but it was never intended to be…it is was it always has been, just fun…and funny!
Finally this week are the the latest releases in the WALT DISNEY TREASURES collection – THE CHRONOLOGICAL DONALD: VOLUME 3, OSWALD THE LUCKY RABBIT and DISNEYLAND: SECRETS, STORIES AND MAGIC.
The WALT DISNEY TREASURES are two-disc DVD sets of classic Disney works, covering work from the studio’s earliest days to more recent releases.
I was originally most excited about the third Donald Duck release, because I love his classic cartoons, until I started to watch the other two.
Yes, THE CHRONOLOGICAL DONALD: VOLUME 3 does feature 31 one-of-a-kind Donald Duck Cartoons, but DISNEYLAND: SECRETS, STORIES AND MAGIC takes us behind the scenes of the theme park when it was being built.
Among other things, it uses time lapse photography to show us how fields of Orange groves became “The Happiest Place On Earth.”
And the insightful OSWALD THE LUCKY RABBIT set shows us the character who could have been Disney’s main character, instead of Mickey Mouse, if Walt hadn’t let the copyright expire.
Each of these three newest entries into the WALT DISNEY TREASURES collection have intereresting stores, and they are all included on the DVDs. They are great to watch, to study, and to enjoy!
WALT DISNEY TREASURES collection – THE CHRONOLOGICAL DONALD: VOLUME 3, OSWALD THE LUCKY RABBIT and DISNEYLAND: SECRETS, STORIES AND MAGIC, GILLIGAN’S ISLAND – THE COMPLETE SERIES, STANLEY KUBRICK – THE WARNER HOME VIDEO DIRECTORS SERIES 10-DVD BOX SET, the energetic and entertaining action film SHOOT EM UP, and the spectacular O CANADA – A HISTORIC AND MAJESTIC 3-PART JOURNEY ACROSS CANADA are all available now on DVD.
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
THE TUDORS – THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON is an Emmy Award-nominated CBC television series that is based upon the early reign of Henry VIII; EAGLE VS. SHARK is a quirky little film from New Zealand, starring Jemaine from FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS.
DEEP WATER is a real life documentary about a man who lied about sailing around the world; 3:10 TO YUMA is an interesting remake of the western classic starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale; and THE COSBY SHOW – VOLUME 5 AND 6 feature more antics from the timeless Huxtable family.
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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