The Couch Potato Report – March 21st, 2009
This week The Couch Potato Report peels heaven on earth, two vampire movies, and a flying bat man’s anthology.
There are 11 DVDs and over 25 hours of movies and television shows for me to cover this week, so without any further delay, let me tell you about this week’s HOT POTATO, the latest film from Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta, it is a movie called HEAVEN ON EARTH.
This Toronto-based director has earned worldwide acclaim for her films, including the trilogy of Fire (1996), Earth (1998), and Water (2005).
HEAVEN ON EARTH is about a young Indian Punjabi woman named Chand who finds herself in an abusive arranged marriage with an Indo-Canadian man.
While her new family, including her sister-in-law, justify the abuse and tell Chand that she must accept it, some of the women’s co-workers give her other advice.
HEAVEN ON EARTH is an interesting film, the costumes and outfits are beautiful, and the mythological aspect of it peaked my curiosity, but this is a film that I just couldn’t recommend to anyone, and not just because of the abuse and violence in it.
There are scenes in Black & White that seem to represent a dream world that Chand retreats to…but then there are Black & White scenes that feature what the abusive husband is doing, and these aren’t her dreams.
I am sure there is an audience for HEAVEN ON EARTH, but I am not a part of it…although I do continue to admire and respect Deepa Mehta and her work.
Our next release is primarily for all the Twilighters out there. That is the term used by fans of the Twilight series of books.
For the uninitiated, this series is made up of four fantasy/romance novels that feature Vampires.
They were all written by Stephenie Meyer and the books follow the life of Isabella “Bella” Swan, a teenager who moves to Forks, Washington, from Phoenix, and finds her life turned upside-down when she falls in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen.
Twilighters rejoyced last November when the first book was released in theatres as a film, and today they are all over the moon ecstatic as TWILIGHT is now available on DVD and Blu-ray!
When the movie debuted, my friend’s-15-year-old-daughter Chloe saw it, and she sent me a message that reads – all in capital letters, and followed by several exclamation marks – THAT WAS THE GREATEST MOVIE I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE! IT WAS SO GOOD! YOU HAVE TO SEE IT IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY!!!!!
Now prior to seeing the film, Chloe – like many teenagers – loved the books.
As for me, while I consider myself someone who is up-to-date on all relevant things in pop culture, I must admit that I had never even heard of these books until Breaking Dawn – the fourth one in the series – was released on August 2nd of last year…and I still haven’t read them.
And I admit, the reason is because stories about teenage vampires just dosn’t interest me, even in the slightest.
So – that said – you can imagine my excitement when I sat down this week to watch TWILIGHT.
And you know what? I have to admit that I liked it. I actually liked it!!
This film, is smartly written, the Vampire Baseball stuff is pretty cool, and I like the performances given by Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson – the actors who play Bella and Edward.
Now, don’t get me wrong…TWILIGHT isn’t a cinematic masterpiece! Some of it is very poorly directed and parts of it are just cheesy teen melodrama…but that said, I still liked it! Not enough to read the books…but enough to recommend it.
However, no matter how much I liked TWILIGHT…it isn’t the best vampire movie out this week! That title goes to the Swedish film LET THE RIGHT ONE IN.
Now this is a vampire movie for us grown-ups!!
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is also based on a bestselling book, but fans of this one don’t have a nickname yet.
This film is about Oskar, a bullied 12-year-old boy who becomes friends with the new kid in the neighbourhood, a pale, androgynous-looking 12-year-old girl….who we eventually find out is a vampire.
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN features some great scenes, and is just plain creepy!
Some may find it a bit slow, but I completely enjoyed this movie…just make sure “you” LET THE RIGHT ONE IN.
The classic 1953 film THE ROBE is up next.
This new SPECIAL EDITION of the Biblical epic about the Roman military tribune who commands the unit that crucifies Jesus stars Richard Burton, Jean Simmons and Victor Mature and it looks and sounds great!!
I have seen THE ROBE about a dozen times over the years, and it remains a true classic.
If you are looking for a film to give someone for Easter this year…I easily suggest this one.
If a classic Biblical epic isn’t to your liking…how about a classic TV show?
BARNEY MILLER – THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON is now available as a 3-DVD set.
I remain a huge fan of this show, and I loved sitting through the THIRD SEASON again this week as it features all of my favourite characters from the show, characters who not long after would die in real life, or leave for their own show.
I am talking about Abe Vigoda as Detective Phil Fish.
Jack Soo as Detective Sergeant Nick Yemana.
And the great Steve Landesberg as Detective Arthur Dietrich!!
If you love this show too, I hope you can find THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON of BARNEY MILLER as it is full of laughs!
I also hope you can find this week’s final release, as most stores that I have gone in to this week are sold out of it.
So good luck, when you are looking for the BATMAN: MOTION PICTURE ANTHOLOGY 1989-1997 on Blu-ray!
This five disc Box Set includes Tim Burton’s classic 1989 film simply titled BATMAN and 1992’s BATMAN RETURNS.
And it also includes Joel Shumacher’s BATMAN FOREVER from 1995 and 1997’s BATMAN & ROBIN.
PLUS, in the bonus features for BATMAN & ROBIN, a film which is almost universally despised, Schumacher apologizes for it…sort of.
BATMAN: THE MOTION PICTURE ANTHOLOGY 1989-1997, THE ROBE, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN and TWILIGHT are all available on Blu-ray and DVD.
Deepa Mehta’s Canadian film HEAVEN ON EARTH and BARNEY MILLER – THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON are both available now just on DVD.
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
I’ll tell you how much I enjoyed the Academy Award nominated, co-directed by a Canadian, aninated film BOLT.
And I will also have some thoughts on the latest James Bond film QUANTUM OF SOLACE and some re-issues of classic Bond films on Blu-ray.
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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