Month: August 2012

The Couch Potato Report – August 25th, 2012

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report a pair of would be comedies and two enjoyable cinematic anniversaries.

CLIP – ZOMBIE – Bring It
TIME – 15 seconds

I have several releases to tell you about this week, and the first one is the made-in-Sudbury, Ontario would be horror comedy A LITTLE BIT ZOMBIE.

After becoming infected with a zombie virus, a mild mannered man attempts to fight off an all-encompassing desire for brains, and keep his wedding on track to a less than believing fiancé.

CLIP – ZOMBIE – Little Bit
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A LITTLE BIT ZOMBIE has a few jokes that work as the man, his bride and sister and brother in law are all at an isolated cabin, but most of them fall flat. And every scene featuring the zombie hunter and his beautiful sidekick are way over the top.

This is never an awful movie, it does have some cool zombie moments and some fun and funny scenes, just not enough for me to recommend the film.

A LITTLE BIT ZOMBIE tries…it just doesn’t succeed.

CLIP – ZOMBIE – Zombie
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Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest would be comedy THE DICTATOR also doesn’t succeed, in fact it fails…I’d even say that it fails miserably. But that said, it definitely tries. The writers, director and the star himself really try to produce something funny, so I will give them kudos for trying. Unfortunately, most of their comedy just didn’t make me laugh.

CLIP – DICTATOR – Sailor Man
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In THE DICTATOR, Sacha Baron Cohen – the creator of BORAT and BRUNO – plays the oppressive Saddam Hussein/Kim Jong Il type ruler of The Republic of Wadiya.

When he is summoned to New York to a UN assembly to address concerns about his country’s nuclear weapons program, he ends up with none of his usual riches and is stripped of his power.

As he works hard to gain it all back, he is helped and falls for an earthy woman, played by Anna Farris of the SCARY MOVIE films.

CLIP – DICTATOR – Okay
TIME – 15 seconds

THE DICTATOR has some great cameos, but most of them – like the film itself – just don’t pay off. I laughed a couple of times, but not that often, and certainly not out loud, which is why I say that you should skip THE DICTATOR.

CLIP – DICTATOR – Cheney
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I wasn’t quite what to expect when I sat down to watch the latest film from the director and star of the very entertaining 2003 film SCHOOL OF ROCK.

Jack Black and director Richard Linklater have reunited for a film called BERNIE where Black plays a mortician in small-town Texas who befriends and then – in a fit of frustration – kills a wealthy widow, played by Shirley MacLaine.

CLIP – BERNIE – Servant
TIME – 15 seconds

Matthew McConaughey plays Danny Buck, the man prosecuting Black for the murder and the fact that this film has the cast that it does…and I later found out the story it is based on really happened…left me not sure what to expect.

CLIP – BERNIE – Kiss Her
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Ultimately BERNIE is more interesting than entertaining, but it did hold my attention all the way through, so I will give it a mild recommendation.

CLIP – BERNIE – Clapping
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There are some performers that no matter what films they star in we will watch them. I have certainly sat through more than my fair share of bad movies just because I like Jennifer Connelly.

For every A BEAUTIFUL MIND, DARK CITY, THE ROCKETEER or LABYRINTH that she has given us, there is the corresponding INVENTING THE ABBOTTS, MULLHOLLAND FALLS, HIGHER LEARNING and OF LOVE AND SHADOWS.

But good or bad, I will watch her in anything, which is why I sat down to watch a movie called VIRGINIA this week…even though I could tell going in that it was going to be one of the bad ones.

CLIP – VIRGINA – Think
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In VIRGINIA Jennifer Connelly plays a psychologically disturbed woman who has been having an affair with a small-town married Sheriff for two decades. Adding more drama to the mix is the fact that Virginia may be dying and her son – who may or may not be the Sheriff’s – is in love with a girl who may or may not be his half-sister.

CLIP – VIRGINA – Life Now
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VIRGINIA was written and directed by Dustin Lance Black, who won an Oscar for writing MILK in 2009 and his involvement, and the fact that it stars Jennifer Connelly are the only two reasons I watched it.

I was barely interested in what was going on, and by the end I just didn’t care. I am glad I’ve seen it, but you should skip VIRGINIA.

And here’s hoping that Jennifer Connelly’s next film – a movie called WRITERS that will debut at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival – is better!!

CLIP – VIRGINA – That
TIME – 15 seconds

Our final two releases this week are films celebrating anniversaries, and I will start with the one that remains my absolute favourite animated film to this day – 1977’s THE RESCUERS.

CLIP – RESCUE – Police
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Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor voice and bring alive two mice who work for the Rescue Aid Society – and international mouse organization headquartered in New York and shadowing the United Nations, dedicated to helping abduction victims around the world at large.

Together they search for a little girl who is being held by Madame Medusa and forced to search for a missing diamond.

CLIP – RESCUE – Else
TIME – 15 seconds

THE RESCUCERS has been released in a 35th ANNIVERSARY EDITION and the film looks better than ever. The hand drawn animation is beautiful.

Sadly, it is very light on the special features and doesn’t include any retrospectives. However, it does include the not-as-great but still pretty good 1990 sequel THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER, which features the voice work of the late great John Candy.

CLIP – RESCUE – Fair Fare
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I still love THE RESCUERS and easily recommend it to everyone, whether you saw it in a theatre 35 years ago, or for the first time this week.

CLIP – RESCUE – R-E-S-C-U-E
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I can also easily recommend the partially filmed in Toronto, but set in Boston, Academy Award winner GOOD WILL HUNTING.

CLIP – HUNTING – Coffee
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GOOD WILL HUNTING won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Robin Williams and Best Original Screenplay for Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. All three appear in a great retrospective included in the new 15th ANNIVERSARY EDITION.

CLIP – HUNTING – Hindsight
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Matt Damon plays a math genius who would rather hang out and get drunk with his buddies than apply himself, Minnie Driver is a woman who loves him, and Robin Williams is the psychologist trying to give Will some direction.

CLIP – HUNTING – You
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GOOD WILL HUNTING is a movie that I still enjoy, because the acting and writing are both so strong, and so I have no problems recommending this new 15th ANNIVERSARY EDITION.

CLIP – HUNTING – Apples
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The 15th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of the still entertaining GOOD WILL HUNTING, the 35th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of the classic animated film THE RESCUERS which also includes THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER, the not great VIRGINA – starring Jennifer Connelly the interesting mild recommendation BERNIE, the unfunny would be comedy THE DICTATOR and the made-in-Sudbury, Ontario would be horrific comedy A LITTLE BIT ZOMBIE are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

CLIP – ZOMBIE – Seriously
TIME – 15 seconds

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

The made-in-Niagara Falls comedic drama A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO ENDINGS, the crime drama EDWIN BOYD: CITIZEN GANGSTER, Jean Renoir’s 1937 classic LA GRANDE ILLUSION and THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON of THE WALKING DEAD.

CLIP – WALKINGDEAD2 – None
TIME – 15 seconds

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!

CLIP – DICTATOR – Thank You
TIME – 15 seconds

CLIP – ROMULUS – Wasted Time
TIME – 15 seconds

(Now to hear it with those clips, go to http://www.cbc.ca/couchpotato)

The Couch Potato Report – August 18th, 2012

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report another great movie about a teacher, the hunger games and Duh nah…

Over the years there have been dozens of films made about teachers who inspire their students. GOODBYE MR CHIPS, MR. HOLLAND’S OPUS, DEAD POETS SOCIETY, DANGEROUS MINDS, LEAN ON ME, STAND AND DELIVER, TO SIR WITH LOVE are just some of them. Teachers are a universal theme in movies because we all went to school, we all had them, and many of us have been fortunate enough to have had teachers that have inspired us.

You can now add the made-in-Montreal film MONSIEUR LAZHAR to the list of movies made about inspirational teachers.

MONSIEUR LAZHAR was nominated as the Best Foreign language film at the Academy Awards this year, and it is an amazing film about an Algerian immigrant who is hired to replace a popular grade school teacher who committed suicide in her classroom.

As he helps the students work through their grief, they help him work through his own, as we find out he has also recently suffered a loss.

In addition to the Oscar nomination, MONSIEUR LAZHAR won six Genie Awards earlier this year, including trophies for Best Actor and Best Picture. Simply put, it was the best Canadian movie made last year, and it is a beautiful movie about love, loss and a teacher who inspires people.

I really enjoyed it, and highly recommend it.

“The Hunger Games” is a global pop culture phenomenon created by Suzanne Collins that has resulted in sales of over twenty-six million books and one movie – so far – that has made almost $700 million dollars at the box office.

My review of THE HUNGER GAMES is not aimed anyone who has read the books – and loved them – or seen the film – and loved it. You have already made up your mind and so to you I just say, enjoy the film and the extra disc of bonus features!

Instead, this review is for uninitiated movie fans who are wondering if they should spend their money and set aside the almost two-and-a-half-hours it will take to watch the film.

THE HUNGER GAMES is set in a post-apocalyptic future where once a year one 12 to 18 year-old boy and one 12 to 18 year-old girl from the twelve surviving districts are selected by random draw to take part in a competition…to the death…on live television.

Katniss Everdeen is the hero of the piece. She is a sixteen year old girl from District 12 who volunteers to take part when her younger sister’s name is chosen.

Ultimately what director Gary Ross and the writers have given us is a movie with no immediacy to it. It takes forever to get to the Games themselves, and once it does nothing happens.

This is supposed to be a fight to the death, but the participants we are introduced to – who we are supposed to believe are blood thirsty – are content to take their time…for instance: at one point an alliance of five bad characters manage to trap Katniss up in a tree, and after shooting two – count ‘em two arrows – and failing to climb that tree, they decide to wait her out.

Not shoot more arrows, cut down the tree, or smoke her down…they wait.

The lack of immediacy in THE HUNGER GAMES is the primary reason why it isn’t a great movie, plus, the computer graphics all look cheap, most of the cast is wooden, and the movie takes far too long getting where you know it is going…even if you haven’t read the book.

But…all that said… the young actress Jennifer Lawrence and veterans Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson and Canadian Icon Donald Sutherland are so entertaining in their roles that I have to admit I didn’t dislike the movie. That is why I will mildly recommend THE HUNGER GAMES to movie fans.

However…here’s hoping that when the second film – CATCHING FIRE – comes out next year the filmmakers do a better job of transferring Suzanne Collins’ words to film.

Not great, but not awful. Those five words easily sum up these next two films.

THE FLOWERS OF WAR stars Christian Bale from THE DARK KNIGHT films in this historical drama as a Westerner who poses as a priest and stays in a church with a group of women and girls in a church during Japan’s Nanking massacre of 1937.

Historians and witnesses have estimated that 250,000 to 300,000 people were killed during this massacre, and the film centres on Bale’s reluctant decision to try and get the women and girls to safety.

THE FLOWERS OF WAR is a well made film with some very smart action scenes, and even though it is almost 2.5 hours long it goes by fast. However, there are more good intentions contained in it than good moments and that is why I can only use those five words to describe it: Not great, but not awful.

So, call that a mild recommendation.

We are off to Los Angeles, California, now because that is where the film GIRL WALKS INTO A BAR is set. This is a pseudo-sequel to a 2010 film called ELEKTRA LUXX and a movie from 2009 called WOMEN IN TROUBLE.

And even though I love the girl who walks into the bar – and all the women in the film – the film itself isn’t awful, but it also isn’t great.

The women in the film include Canadian actress Emmanuelle Chriqui from ENTOURAGE, Carla Gugino and Rosario Dawson of SIN CITY, and former model Amber Valletta. I am also a fan of most of the men who co-star, including Danny DeVito, Robert Forster, Zachary Quinto and Vancouver’s Gil Bellows.

The stories here take place in ten different Los Angeles bars over the course of one evening and how they overlap is what is interesting about it.

GIRL WALKS INTO A BAR does feature actresses and actors I like – many of who play interesting characters – and there are some interesting topics of conversation, but the sum of its parts isn’t all that great.

Once again the filmmakers seem think they have given the world a comedy with some dramatic moments…but after three attempts, I wish they would stop making these movies.

Admittedly, GIRL WALKS INTO A BAR is not great, but it is also not awful. However, unless you absolutely love one or more of the performers, you might just want to skip it.

With the new television season about to begin, the DVD and blu-ray sets for last season are starting to be released at a frantic pace. I have a trio of them for you right now, and we begin with THE SIXTH SEASON of DEXTER.

DEXTER is a multiple award winning show about Dexter Morgan – played by Emmy winner Michael C. Hall of SIX FEET UNDER. He is a bloodstain pattern analyst who uses forensic science to help the Miami Metro Police Department catch criminals.

Oh, and he also moonlights as a serial killer.

In THE SIXTH SEASON of DEXTER our anti-hero has to track down a delusional religious zealot or pair of zealots.

DEXTER is a smart police procedural drama, that is exceptionally well written and if you have never seen it, you should.

This is an amazing show, and THE SIXTH SEASON is fantastic!! This show keeps getting better and better!!!

I can’t wait for SEASON SEVEN!!!

Another dark show that has come out on disc this week is GRIMM – a police procedural fantasy drama set in a world in which characters inspired by Grimms’ Fairy Tales exist.

Set in modern day Portland, Oregon, a police detective discovers that he is part of a line of guardians known as Grimms. They are charged with keeping balance between humanity and the mythological creatures of the world.

I am a huge fan of procedural dramas, and the fact that GRIMM is set in the supernatural world gives it a unique twist. Unfortunately there are no characters in the show that I like and am interested in following. Plus, the computer effects here are not that great. It looks really fake when some of the characters change from being regular folk to members of the supernatural realm.

GRIMM – SEASON ONE has a great premise, but it isn’t fully realized. I liked it, but it is never great.

One show that is great, is COMMUNITY. It is also smart, hip, funny, always fresh and full of characters that I always enjoy hanging out with!!

COMMUNITY is sitcom about a group of people who met when they joined a study group at Community College in Colorado who – over the course of the first two seasons became a pseudo family and during the newly released COMPLETE THIRD SEASON, they continue to have their ups and downs…and we get to enjoy it all!!

COMMUNITY isn’t the greatest show on TV, but it is fun and has a great ensemble cast.

If you are looking for some laughs, you will definitely find some in THE COMPLETE THIRD – and FIRST and SECOND – in all seasons of COMMUNITY!!

We are off now to the beach…get in the water…if you dare.

On June 20, 1975, a movie about a great white shark that terrorizes a small island community was released.

In the film – directed by a then unknown talent named Steven Spielberg – the community fights back as a police chief, a marine scientist and grizzled fisherman set out to capture it.

JAWS was a huge hit and it is known around the world as the first summer blockbuster.

JAWS has now been completely remastered for release in High Definition and it looks and sounds fantastic!! Plus, there are some great retrospective features, old and new.

JAWS is a classic film and this blu-ray is one of the best releases of the year!!

Pick it up…and get back in the water…if you dare.

Steven Spielberg’s still amazing JAWS, SEASON ONE of the okay supernatural police procedural GRIMM, THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON of the very entertaining show COMMUNITY, THE SIXTH SEASON of the very smart show DEXTER, the well cast but not great movie A GIRL WALKS INTO A BAR, Christian Bale’s never great non-BATMAN movie THE FLOWERS OF WAR, the phenom THE HUNGER GAMES – which I can mildly recommend to movie fans, and the great Canadian Academy Award nominated film MONSIEUR LAZHAR are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

The made-in-Ontario undead comedy A LITTLE BIT ZOMBIE; Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine and Matthew McConaughey star in BERNIE; Sacha Baron Cohen of BORAT infamy is THE DICTATOR; and the Academy Award winning, partially made-in-Toronto film GOOD WILL HUNTING gets a Fifteenth Anniversary Edition.

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!