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The Couch Potato Report

Here are some suggestions if you need something to watch this long Canada Day weekend!!

The Couch Potato Report – June 30th, 2012

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report: this year’s Academy Award winning Best Picture and a great box set for a long weekend.

It is the Canada Day Long weekend…Happy Canada Day, everyone!! Whether plan to be outdoors enjoying our home and native land, or indoors watching DVDs, blu-rays or enjoying a digital download with family and friends, I hope you are able to enjoy Canada’s 145th birthday. She sure looks good, for 145, doesn’t she?!

And you know what else looks good? Indian Head, Saskatchewan, as seen on screen during THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON of the Canadian television series LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE!

In the fifth season of this entertaining, informative and educational show Amaar finally proposes to Rayyan, but life – and the people they share their small town with – continually get in the way of their happy ever after.

However, by the end of the thirteen episode season, the whole gang is back together – including Reverend Magee and Yasir – and life is good in fictional Mercy, Saskatchewan.

LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE finished it’s run earlier this year, and it came just in the nick of time as toward the end of the series – and during THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON – the show started to become less engaging. But, in this two-disc set it does succeed – and make me laugh – more than it fails…so I will continue to recommend it, whether you go to a Mosque, Church, Temple, or Synagogue.

Back in February, at the end of the 84th Annual Academy Awards, Tom Cruise walked to the microphone and made the announcement that THE ARTIST would forever be known as the Best Picture of 2011.

THE ARTIST is a black and white, mostly silent movie…meaning no dialogue…about a huge movie star who thinks that the talkies are a passing fad and doesn’t want anything to do with them.

Yes…the film just has music, because it is a silent film…Now, as the movie star shuns the talkies, his career fades…just as a new actress named Peppy Miller, who loves the actor, begins her meteoric rise to success.

For a silent film, the THE ARTIST is surprisingly fast paced, and very entertaining. I have seen some of the original ones that move very slowly, but this tribute to them – and to the movies in general – is charming, fun and funny and features some great performances from Best Actor Oscar winner Jean Dujardin and the entire cast.

I really, really enjoyed it and highly recommend it to everyone!!

Somehow, for some unknown reason, 2012 has become the year that features not one, but two movies about the well known fairy tale SNOW WHITE.

In theatres right now is the action fantasy film SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN, starring Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart, and Chris Hemsworth.

And now available on disc and for download is the comedic fantasy film MIRROR MIRROR starring Lily Collins, Julia Roberts, Armie Hammer, Nathan Lane, and Sean Bean.

Sadly, neither one is great, neither one can be labelled the fairest of them all.

MIRROR MIRROR stars Julia Roberts as an evil Queen who uses her charm and magic to take control of a kingdom, exiling Snow White to the forest, where she meets seven…ummm, resourceful rebels.

There is also a prince, love, and maybe even a poisonous apple…yes, if you know the fairy tale, you know most of the film’s tale.

MIRROR MIRROR has a lot of style, but very little substance, and the sets that it was filmed on always looks like it is a movie set and never the real world.

It just isn’t anything special at all, and so you should just skip it.

Another film you should skip is the wannabe dramatic thriller GONE.

Amanda Seyfried from MAMMA MIA! plays a woman who believes that she was kidnapped and left in a well, and now – years after she escaped and it trying to put her life back together, she believes that the kidnapper has returned because her sister has gone missing.

She believes all that, problem is…very few people believe her.

GONE doesn’t work because there are literally dozens of red herrings that never pan out, and there is too much back story that is left untold. Once it ended, I had no problem with the conclusion, but the execution of the story didn’t work for me.

I remain a fan of Amanda Seyfried…but I am glad that I am now finished with GONE.

Finally this week is a keeper!! I am about to highly praise the seven disc box set CHRISTOPHER NOLAN DIRECTOR’S COLLECTION with MEMENTO, INSOMNIA, INCEPTION, BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT.

I love Nolan’s Batman films, and can’t wait for THE DARK KNIGHT RISES – in theatres on July 20th – but the best film in this set is still MEMENTO, the told backwards tale of a man, suffering from short-term memory loss who uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.

It co-stars Burnaby, British Columbia’s Carrie-Ann Moss from THE MATRIX films.

And I absolutely can’t forget INCEPTION, the partially filmed in Alberta thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio about a team of people who plant ideas in your mind while you dream. This movie is literally mind blowing!!

The weakest film in the set is INSOMNIA – starring Academy Award winners Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank – but even it is worth at least one viewing if you have never seen it.

If you are looking for a series of above average films to watch this long weekend, do not miss the CHRISTOPHER NOLAN DIRECTOR’S COLLECTION!!

The fantastic CHRISTOPHER NOLAN DIRECTOR’S COLLECTION BOX SET, the okay rental GONE, the full of style – but little else – MIRROR MIRROR, the spectacular Academy Award winning Best Picture THE ARTIST, and THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON of LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up in inside the next Couch Potato Report

Willem Dafoe stars as THE HUNTER as a man on hunt for the last Tasmanian tiger, the 1968 science fiction camp classic BARBARELLA debuts on blu-ray, and the eighties television show 21 JUMP STREET gets a modern day update.

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 – HAPPY CANADA DAY!! – and I’ll see you back here again next time on The Couch!

Categories
People

Poor Katie!!

Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes to divorce

Actress Katie Holmes has filed for divorce from her superstar husband, actor Tom Cruise, in New York City, a long-time attorney for Cruise said on Friday.

“Katie filed for divorce yesterday. Tom is very saddened by that, and right now he is concentrating on the kids,” Los Angeles-based attorney Bert Fields told Reuters.

Fields, who said he was not representing Cruise in the divorce, but was speaking as a friend, would not give a reason for the filing, saying only that “Tom wants to be very private.”

A representative for Holmes could not immediately be reached for comment, but earlier on Friday, People magazine cited Holmes’s lawyer, Jonathan Wolfe, as confirming the divorce.

“This is a personal and private matter for Katie and her family,” Wolfe told People. “Katie’s primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter’s best interest.”

The pair married in an elaborate ceremony in Italy in 2006, and they have one daughter together, 6-year-old Suri. Because of their status as top Hollywood stars, their relationship has been closely followed in the celebrity and tabloid press.

Cruise, 49, has been among the world’s highest-paid actors, with films ranging from 1983’s “Risky Business” to the hugely successful “Mission: Impossible” series and currently playing musical “Rock of Ages.”

He was previously married to actress Mimi Rogers and actress Nicole Kidman, with whom he has two children.

Holmes, 33, rose to fame on the U.S. television series “Dawson’s Creek” and has worked in big-budget movies such as “Batman Begins.” Her marriage to Cruise is her first.

Categories
People

Very sad news, may she rest in peace!!

Filmmaker and author Nora Ephron dies at 71

Journalist, author, playwright, filmmaker, and three-time Oscar nominee Nora Ephron passed away today, reportedly after a battle with leukemia. She was 71.

The seeds for Ephron’s trailblazing career as a pop-culture polymath arguably began soon after her birth in New York City in 1941. She was the first of four daughters to Henry and Pheobe Ephron, who were successful screenwriters for films like Carousel and There’s No Business Like Show Business. They based their play Take Her, She’s Mine on their eldest daughter’s experiences in college. (It was adapted into a feature film starring Jimmy Stewart and Sandra Dee in the Nora Ephron role.)

After graduating from Wellesley, Ephron became one of the leading female voices of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s, writing for the New York Post, The New York Times Magazine, New York, and Esquire. Her second marriage, to famed Washington Post Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein, helped launch her move into screenwriting after she worked with her husband to rewrite William Goldman’s script for All the President’s Men. That script was never used, but it ultimately led to a gig co-writing the 1983 Meryl Streep docudrama Silkwood, and Ephron’s first Oscar nomination for best original screenplay.

Ephron turned her acrimonious divorce from Bernstein into the novel Heartburn, which she adapted for the 1986 film of the same name, starring Streep and Jack Nicholson. But it was her script for Rob Reiner’s megahit 1989 romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally… that vaulted Ephron into the top tier of feature screenwriters (and won her second Oscar nod).

Recognizing her rare place as a powerful woman in Hollywood, Ephron followed up the film with her directorial debut, 1992’s This Is My Life, starring Julie Kavner as a struggling stand-up comic and co-written with her sister Delia, a regular collaborator. The film flopped, but Ephron’s next film as a director, 1993’s Sleepless in Seattle, was a massive hit, grossing $228 million worldwide and earning Ephron her third Oscar nomination.

Along with re-teaming Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan for You’ve Got Mail, Ephron went on to work with Steve Martin (in Mixed Nuts), John Travolta (in Michael and Lucky Numbers), Nicole Kidman (in the ill-fated Bewitched), and Meryl Streep again, in Ephron’s last film, 2009’s Julie & Julia. In the final decade of her life, Ephron branched out beyond filmmaking, penning Broadway plays and blogging for the Huffington Post. Her latest project reflected her lifelong interest in telling the stories of real people: Lucky Guy, a play about the late Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mike McAlary, recently announced as Tom Hanks’ Broadway debut.

Ephron is survived by her husband, writer Nicholas Pileggi, and her sons Jacob and Max Bernstein.

Categories
Blu-ray

I want them now!! I want them now!! I want them now!! I want them now!! I want them now!! I want them now!! I want them now!!

Indiana Jones Swings Onto Blu-Ray This September

Boy, the folks at Lucasfilm and Paramount sure know how to stretch out an announcement, don’t they? Way back in February we heard the news that all four Indiana Jones movies would be coming to Blu-ray “this fall” (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the only one to have already received a Blu-ray release). Then we saw an actual trailer for the collection, but still without a firm release date, which was really just rubbing salt in the wound. Now, several months later, we finally have more information: Indiana Jones: The Complete Collection will hit shelves on Tuesday, September 18th.

The set will include all four Indy flicks: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, Last Crusade, and the one we all tried to forget about, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Finally getting the films on Blu-ray would be exciting enough, but they’ve also been meticulously cleaned up by Steven Spielberg and sound designer Ben Burtt. According to the press release, “the original negative was first scanned at 4K and then examined frame-by-frame so that any damage could be repaired.” For the sound restoration, they went back to Burtt’s original master mix:

New stereo surrounds were created using the original music tracks and original effects recorded in stereo but used previously only in mono. In addition, the sub bass was redone entirely up to modern specifications and care was taken to improve dialogue and correct small technical flaws to create the most complete and highest quality version of the sound possible while retaining the director’s vision.

Finally, the films will be accompanied by a stellar array of bonus features which we will outli–what’s that? We still don’t have details about the bonus features? See what I mean about doling stuff out slowly? They’re just toying with us now! Alas, all we know is that the set will include “a collection of documentaries, interviews, featurettes and new bonus features.” Does it even matter? We’re all going to buy it anyway!!

Categories
Music

If it is done right, it could be a great deal of fun!!

Spice Girls unite to launch musical ‘Viva Forever’

LONDON (AP) — The Spice Girls gave fans what they want — what they really, really want — Tuesday, reuniting onstage to announce the details of a musical based on their songs.

Producers stress that the stage show “Viva Forever” isn’t a biography of the band, but there are plenty of real-life resonances for the 1990s “Girl Power” group in its tale of female empowerment and friendship tested by fame. The show opens in London in December.

“We’re going to be introducing a whole new generation to ‘Girl Power,'” said Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham, who attended a media launch alongside Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell, Melanie Chisholm and Melanie Brown — also known as Baby, Ginger, Sporty and Scary Spice.

“Viva Forever” aims to tap the same vast female fan base as world-conquering ABBA musical “Mamma Mia,” which has been produced in 14 languages and spawned a hit film starring Meryl Streep. The Spice Girls show tells the story of four friends whose bond becomes strained when their band enters a TV talent show.

Scored to Spice Girls hits including “Wannabe,” ”Spice Up Your Life,” ”Mama” and the title track, it was written by comedian Jennifer Saunders — co-creator of celebrity-skewering sitcom “Absolutely Fabulous” — and produced by Judy Craymer, the woman behind “Mamma Mia.”

Craymer called the musical, with its focus on female friends and mother-daughter relationships, “a heartwarming family tale” that touches on the role of media and celebrity in the modern world.

“There’s just something empowering about women’s stories that interests me a lot,” Craymer said.
Saunders — who once spoofed the Spice Girls in a mock band called the Sugar Lumps — said the show aimed to catch “the joy that they brought, their energy and their positivity.”

The Spice Girls said they were delighted with the show, which was unveiled for the press in the grand neo-Gothic hotel where the video for their 1996 breakthrough hit “Wannabe” — in which the band promised to “tell you what I want, what I really, really want” — was filmed.

“Sixteen years ago when we were writing the words ‘zig-a-zig-ah,’ we could never have imagined they would be in a West End show,” Halliwell said, quoting the catchy if confusing refrain of “Wannabe.”

Added Chisholm: “It’s better than we could ever have imagined.”

“They sing it better than us,” said Brown.

The band’s outsized personalities and Halliwell’s Union Jack dress made the Spice Girls icons of 1990s “Cool Britannia,” and they sold 75 million records around the world. Halliwell left the group acrimoniously in 1998 and the Spice Girls effectively split a decade ago. The five members have not appeared together since a 2007-2008 reunion tour.

Since then, several have released solo records, and Beckham has become a fashion designer and part of a celebrity power couple with her soccer-star husband, David Beckham.

Despite their past differences, they appeared in good spirits as they joked and praised one another Tuesday.

Halliwell said her band mates “individually and collectively, they’re really lovely.”

“She’s only saying that because she left!” said Chisholm.

True, Halliwell conceded, “but they took me back.”

“Viva Forever” begins previews Nov. 27 and opens Dec. 11 at London’s Piccadilly Theatre.

Categories
People

Get well soon, Alex!!

‘Jeopardy!’ host Trebek suffers mild heart attack

NEW YORK (AP) — “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek is in a Los Angeles hospital recovering from a mild heart attack.

Sony Television spokeswoman Paula Askanas said Sunday that Trebek was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Saturday. She says the 71-year-old Trebek is expected to fully recover and be back giving answers when “Jeopardy!” resumes production on a new season in July.

While he was in the hospital on Saturday, “Jeopardy!” won a Daytime Emmy award for best game show.
Trebek has been hosting “Jeopardy!” for 28 years.

Categories
Movies

I do want to see BRAVE…maybe later today.

Disney’s ‘Brave’ shows mettle with $66.7M debut

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A new Disney princess has ascended to the box-office throne with a No. 1 debut for Pixar Animation’s “Brave.”

The latest from the makers of “WALL-E,” ”Finding Nemo” and the “Toy Story” movies opened with $66.7 million domestically, according to studio estimates Sunday. “Brave” added $13.5 million in 10 overseas markets for a worldwide start of $80.2 million.

Featuring a feisty Scottish princess, “Brave” was the first of Disney’s Pixar animations with a female protagonist. And it left American hero Abraham Lincoln in the dust.

The 20th Century Fox action tale “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” opened far back at No. 3 with $16.5 million, behind “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.”

DreamWorks Animation’s animated “Madagascar” sequel had been No. 1 for two weekends and added $20.2 million to raise its domestic total to $157.6 million.

“Brave” is the 13th-straight Pixar release to open at No. 1 since “Toy Story” launched Hollywood’s age of computer animation in 1995.

“Their track record is just unbelievable,” said Paul Dergarabedian, analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com. “The Pixar brand just carries so much weight with the audience, it doesn’t matter almost what the story is about if it has the Pixar name.”

The weekend’s other new wide release, Steve Carell and Keira Knightley’s apocalyptic romance “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World,” misfired with just $3.8 million, debuting at No. 10.

The Focus Features film, playing in much narrower release than other top-10 movies, stars Carell and Knightley as heartbroken neighbors on a road trip as a killer asteroid hurtles toward Earth.

Woody Allen’s Italian romance “To Rome with Love” pulled in huge audiences in limited release, debuting with $379,371 in five theaters. That gave the Sony Pictures Classics release a whopping average of $75,874 a theater, compared to $16,028 in 4,164 cinemas for “Brave.”

“Brave” features a voice cast led by Kelly Macdonald and Emma Thompson in a mother-daughter story of a young Scottish princess defying tradition that requires her to marry against her will.

The film proved that audiences will turn up for a female hero, not just the male protagonists of past Pixar flicks, such as Woody and Buzz of “Toy Story,” the robot of “WALL-E” or the rat and his chef buddy of “Ratatouille.”

“Brave” matched the $66.1 million debut of Pixar’s “Cars 2,” with male automotive lead Lightning McQueen, over the same weekend a year ago.

“It is a phenomenal thing, these guys and their mastery of big storytelling and character development, delivering something that plays well to adults as well as kids, to girls as well as boys,” Dave Hollis, Disney’s head of distribution, said of Pixar.

The audience for “Brave” did lean toward females, who accounted for 57 percent of viewers. Two-thirds of the film’s business came from families, who also continued to flock to “Madagascar 3,” making a rare weekend when two PG-rated movies led the box office.

The R-rated “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” was a clever idea — the 16th U.S. president waging his own civil war against the blood-suckers of the republic. But critics were unimpressed, and action fans had only a passing interest in the movie, which featured relative unknown Benjamin Walker as Lincoln.

Still, it was made for $69 million, a modest budget for a summer action movie, and 20th Century Fox had hopes it would hold up well over the next week or so before “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “The Dark Knight Rises” swoop in to take over cinemas in July.

“It’s actually a good start for this movie,” said Chris Aronson, the studio’s head of distribution. “This is an interesting and untested genre that I think audiences are going to continue to seek out. Mash-ups have been done, but the historical mash-up has not been done.”

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Brave,” $66.7 million ($13.5 million international).
2. “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted,” $20.2 million ($30.1 million international).
3. “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” $16.5 million ($8.1 million international).
4. “Prometheus,” $10 million ($12.7 million international).
5. “Snow White & the Huntsman,” $8.01 million.
6. “Rock of Ages,” $8 million.
7. “That’s My Boy,” $7.9 million.
8. “The Avengers,” $7 million ($2.3 million international).
9. “Men in Black 3,” $5.6 million ($10.5 million international).
10. “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World,” $3.8 million.

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The Couch Potato Report

Here are some viewing ideas for the weekend!!

The Couch Potato Report – June 23rd, 2012

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report is the evolution of Metal Music and the sweet hereafter.

Banger Films is a production company in Toronto that specializes in music documentaries. They have given the world several tremendous films so far, including IRON MAIDEN: FLIGHT 666 and RUSH: BEYOND THE LIGHTED STAGE.

Now, Banger Films has produced an 11 episode series called METAL EVOLUTION that looks at how the hard rocking music style came to be through interviews with people like Alice Cooper, Slash, Lemmy, Iggy Pop, and members of Rush, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Slayer, Van Halen, Soundgarden, Mötley Crüe, Rage Against the Machine, and Canadian music producer Bob Ezrin…a man who was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2004.

Hosted by anthropologist and film-maker Sam Dunn METAL EVOLUTION picks up where the 2005 documentary METAL – A HEADBANGER’S JOURNEY left off as Dunn travels the world to find out how this music he – me, and so many other people love – came to be.

As much as I enjoyed this series – and I really enjoyed it – I can’t label METAL EVOLUTION the definitive documentary of the genre because it barely mentions AC/DC and a few other bands that helped make heavy metal and hard rock music what it is today.

But it does get to almost everything else, including grunge and even eighties hair metal and that is why METAL EVOLUTION is an amazing series. I highly recommend it to all music fans!!

Music fans will love METAL EVOLUTION, and fans of the Zombie genre will love the Ontario-made-movie EXIT HUMANITY…which refers to itself as “A Zombie Saga”.

EXIT HUMANITY is set after the American Civil War as a man tries to survive an outbreak of the undead and others who are still alive as he travels the countryside to try and find his son.

EXIT HUMANITY gets credit for being a low budget film, that doesn’t look like it was cheaply made. The costumes and effects are very well done, and the film also includes some great animated sequences.

What takes away from it is the running length. At 108 minutes it was far too long as the time that was included to set up the tension only slowed it down…a lot.

I never loved the movie, but it was never awful, and while I don’t think everyone needs to see it, I can easily recommend it to fans of the zombie genre.

No matter how hard you search, nowhere in Canada will you find anyone who supports the Canadian film and television industry like The Couch Potato Report. Each and every week, we proudly fly our nation’s flag, letting you know about the latest releases shot in Canada, by Canadians, starring people born and raised in our home and native land.

BEING ERICA is a Toronto-made show starring Jasper, Alberta born actress Erin Karpluk as Erica Strange, a young woman who decides to see a therapist because she wants to start dealing with the regrets she has in her life.

In each episode she would go back in time to actually relive her regretful moments, even change them.

In THE COMPLETE FOURTH – AND FINAL – SEASON of BEING ERICA, she is finally happy…mostly…thanks to the guidance of Dr. Tom, but it is now almost time for her therapy to end, as she begins the final stage of her therapy as a doctor in training.

I have watched BEING ERICA since it first began back in 2009. The show has always been too hit and miss for me to ever be a huge fan, it just misses far too often, but I like the character of Erica, I have always rooted for her happiness, and I like her group of family and friends, and so, even though it isn’t perfect, I like the show and can easily recommend THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON, and all of the seasons of BEING ERICA to you.

It had a very good run.

BEING ERICA is hit and miss…but – sadly – the made in Toronto and Southern Ontario CBC television movie SUNSHINE SKETCHES OF A LITTLE TOWN is mostly miss.

“Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town” is a sequence of stories by Stephen Leacock, first published in 1912. It is generally considered to be one of the most enduring classics of Canadian humorous literature.

The book is funny, the movie it is based on…made me want to read the book again.

The film does have a great Canadian cast – including Gordon Pinsent, Jill Hennessy, Ron James, Patrick McKenna, Colin Mochrie, Debra McGrath, Eric Peterson and many others, and this adaptation starts off strong, but by the end it really slows down and as it became a coming-of-age story, I just lost interest.

At times SUNSHINE SKETCHES OF A LITTLE TOWN is charming, witty and whimsical…just not often enough for me to recommend it.

Read the book, skip the movie.

Of this next release, I would say see the movie…skip the movie.

See the 1935 John Wayne western THE DAWN RIDER, skip the 2012 re-make DAWN RIDER.

Christian Slater stars in this British Columbia made film as a man who is searching for the people who killed his father. Trouble is, he has no idea that the person responsible may be living under the same roof.

Edmonton born actress Jill Hennessy from Law & Order and Crossing Jordan plays the love interest, and Canadian acting icon Donald Sutherland is a bounty hunter…and truth be told, DAWN RIDER is never an awful film, it is an okay western…it just isn’t as good as the original, and so if you can find the John Wayne version, watch it and skip the remake.

If you can’t find it, this one is okay too…and since it was filmed in Canada, by picking it up, you will be supporting the Canadian film and television industry, and that is never a bad thing!!

Finally this week…ohhh, baby!! Two Canadian classics…from Victoria, B.C. raised director Atom Egoyan…1994’s EXOTICA and 1997’s Academy Award nominated THE SWEET HEREAFTER.

THE SWEET HEREAFTER is about the effects of a tragic school bus accident on the population of a small town in British Columbia.

It won three awards at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, six trophies at the Genies that year and was nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 70th Academy Awards.

EXOTICA…one of my favourite Canadian films of all time…is about a group of people who are connected by a tragic event, which is only revealed to the audience late in the movie.

The new blu-ray versions of EXOTICA and THE SWEET HEREAFTER are incredibly well produced, and each also include all of the old special features from the DVDs and all-new audio commentaries full of insightful information about the films…for instance, Ian Holm wasn’t the original star of THE SWEET HEREAFTER.

If you have never seen them, these are both well-written, well-acted films, that I easily recommend. And if you have seen them, don’t miss these new blu-rays. They are now the definite way to see these two great films!!

The Atom Egoyan classics THE SWEET HEREAFTER and EXOTICA, the not as good as the original British Columbia filmed Western remake DAWN RIDER, the okay but never great made-near-Toronto CBC movie SUNSHINE SKETCHES OF A LITTLE TOWN, THE COMPLETE AND FINAL FOURTH SEASON of the hit and miss series BEING ERICA, EXIT HUMANITY – the Ontario filmed Zombie saga for genre fans only, and the not definitive but exceptional music documentary series METAL EVOLUTION – from Toronto’s Banger Films – are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON of the made-in-Saskatchewan series LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE, the Academy Award winning Best Picture THE ARTIST, and the seven disc box set CHRISTOPHER NOLAN DIRECTOR’S COLLECTION with MEMENTO, INSOMNIA, INCEPTION, BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT.

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 again next time on The Couch!

Categories
People

Is this the first time “ugly” has been used in a sentence regarding Carrie Underwood?!

Underwood backlash gets ugly

Country star Carrie Underwood has defended her stance on gay marriage amid a barrage of criticism and abuse from her Christian fans, insisting she answered a tough question as honestly as she could.

The Jesus Take The Wheel singer publicly offered her support of same-sex marriage during a recent interview with British newspaper The Independent, stating, “I definitely think we should all have the right to love, and love publicly, the people that we want to love,” – but her comments have incensed many God-fearing devotees.

One former fan called the star a “disgrace” in a recent tweet, while others have accused her of having links to the devil.

Addressing the backlash in a statement released on Thursday, Underwood says, “I was asked a difficult question in the last five minutes of an interview and I answered it the best way I knew how… I generally try to stay out of any kind of controversy.

“I just really try hard to do what I do and try to be nice to people and make great music and if people think they can look up to that, that’s wonderful. If not, that’s OK too.”

Categories
Polls

To quote Spinal Tap, “What’s wrong with being sexy?!”

Olivia Newton-John’s ‘Physical’ named sexiest song ever

Olivia Newton-John’s 1982 single ‘Physical’ has been named the Sexiest Song of All Time in a poll by Billboard.

The poll was compiled based on the performance of songs about sex on the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart from its inception in 1958. The list calibrated the most popular songs about sex, based on the number of weeks they spent at the top end of the chart.

Billboard claims that the ‘sexiest lyric’ from ‘Physical’ is: “I took you to an intimate restaurant, then to a suggestive movie/There’s nothing left to talk about unless it’s horizontally”. Scroll down to watch the video for the track.

Newton-John’s disco track came first in the Top 50 ahead of Rod Stewart’s ‘Tonight’s The Night’, which came in second and Boyz II Men’s ‘I’ll Make Love To You’, which was in third place.

Also in the Top Ten were Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’ and Donna Summer’s ‘Hot Stuff’ as well as Madonna’s ‘Like A Virgin’ and a second entry from Rod Stewart – pictured above – with ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’.

Billboard’s Top Ten Sexiest Songs of All Time are:

1. Olivia Newton-John – ‘Physical’
2. Rod Stewart – ‘Tonight’s The Night’
3. Boyz II Men – ‘I’ll Make Love To You’
4. Next – ‘Too Close’
5. Marvin Gaye – ‘Let’s Get It On’
6. Donna Summer – ‘Hot Stuff’
7. Captain and Tennille – ‘Do That To Me One More Time’
8. Madonna – ‘Like A Virgin’
9. Exile – ‘Kiss You All Over’
10. Rod Stewart – ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’

Check out the whole Top 50 at: http://www.billboard.com/features/the-50-sexiest-songs-of-all-time-1004066338.story#/news/sexy-songs-5-1004066343.story