The Couch Potato Report – August 11th, 2012
Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report is a trip to Moon Point, a close look at Bob Marley and Clue: The Movie.
Moon Point is where we get things started this week, for that is the title of the first release and the destination of a 23-year-old slacker named Darryl. As the story begins, he lives with his Mother, and sees no problems with living with her forever.
His desire to go to Moon Point stems from the fact that his elementary school crush is making a movie there, and he thinks that he can get there, he’ll get the girl, and get his life in order.
But life – even in movies like this – rarely goes as planned.
Now Darryl doesn’t drive, and neither does his paraplegic friend Femur, so they only way he can get to Moon Point – which is over two-hundred kilometres away – is to hook a wagon onto the back of his friend’s electric wheelchair.
As you might expect in a road movie such as MOON POINT, the guys meet some unique people along the way, and befriend a woman…who has some problems of her own.
Together though, they all might just be okay.
The Ontario scenery looks great here, and the young cast are all very good. Almost everything in MOON POINT works, until one of the characters lies to another, so then you spend the rest of the film waiting for the other shoe to drop…and it does drop…making an otherwise decent film far too predictable.
MOON POINT was so close to being great. As it is, I still liked it. It is a quirky road movie that I can mildly recommend.
Thirty-one years after his death, Marley remains the most widely known and revered performer of reggae music, and is credited with helping give Jamaican music a global audience.
You know his name, you know his music, but, how much do you actually know about him?
The aim of MARLEY – a new film from Academy Award winning documentarian Kevin MacDonald – is to make sure you know almost everything.
MARLEY features the man himself, his wife, his children, bandmates, friends, family, lovers…it features just about everyone who ever knew him or worked with him. It is a love letter to him.
I have read just about every book written about Bob Marley, and I still learned things about him from this film. It is informative, interesting, and entertaining.
Bob Marley was a complicated guy and he remains a man whose music will live forever. I highly recommend you check out MARLEY and get to know him…or get to know him better, man.
In 1972, Bob Marley and the Wailers released their classic album “Catch A Fire”, featuring “Stir It Up”, “Kinky Reggae” and “Stop That Train.”
Also in 1972, a man named Theodor Seuss Geisel released a book that chronicles the plight of the environment.
That book was called THE LORAX, and that man is better known around the world as Dr. Suess.
The Lorax speaks for the trees, and in the big screen movie version of the story he is voiced by Danny DeVito.
DR. SUESS’ THE LORAX is a fun flick about a boy searching for a real tree to give to the girl he loves, which leads to him meeting the greedy Once-ler, which leads to us meeting the Lorax.
This is a very entertaining, good for the whole family film, full of a wide array of characters and critters. Even little, very young kids will enjoy it as it is bright and colourful.
I really enjoyed it.
All too often, the movies made in this day and age cater to a younger crowd. Very rarely do we get movies geared toward adults and mature audiences.
Well, I am happy to report that this week, not only is there one release that has been made for adults, there are two.
THE DEEP BLUE SEA is the first of the two and in this one Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz from THE CONSTANT GARDENER and ABOUT A BOY plays the wife of a judge who wants a divorce after she finds herself caught up in a passionate love affair with a pilot.
Set in 1950, the story takes a very dramatic turn when the pilot forgets her birthday and she decides – since he will never love her as much as she loves him – that she should kill herself.
That she survives doesn’t change things, he will just never care for her in the same manner.
THE DEEP BLUE SEA is a serious film – for adults – that is exceptionally dramatic, and at times it moves very, very slowly.
But I really enjoyed it, and can easily recommend it.
The other release this week that is meant for adults is the three-part television mini-series based on the actual feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys.
Academy Award winner Kevin Costner plays the head of the Hatfield family and Bill Paxton from TITANIC stars are the leader of the McCoy clan.
As the story begins, they fought on the same side during the Civil War, but they became enemies after they returned home to their lives on the West Virginia/Kentucky border.
These two families just did not get along – even when one member of the family or another worked hard at it and tried to, even falling in love. To this day people worldwide know that these two families had one of the longest and best known feuds in American History.
The problem with the HATFIELDS & MCCOYS mini-series is the fact that at four hours and fifty minutes it is way too long. Had it been shorter – a two part series, instead of three – and thus closer to three or three and a half hours instead of five hours it would have been much more interesting.
HATFIELDS & MCCOYS has a great cast, and it starts off really strong and isn’t horrible, it is just too long and that is why I can’t call it a must see.
I only mildly recommend it, especially to adults.
Finally this week, we go to the year 1985, for a film about six guests who are invited to a strange house and must defend themselves as they strive to solve a murder mystery in CLUE – THE MOVIE.
Based on the board game CLUE, this film will have you wondering if it was Colonel Mustard in the study with a candlestick? Miss Scarlet in the library with a knife? Or did the butler do it?!
The best thing about CLUE: THE MOVIE has always been the cast. It features Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Eileen Brennan, Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren and Madeline Kahn.
I’ve never thought that CLUE: THE MOVIE was great, but I have always enjoyed it’s manic pace and at times it is fun, funny and very entertaining.
CLUE: THE MOVIE, the far too long 5 hour HATFIELDS & MCCOYS, the very, very dramatic THE DEEP BLUE SEA, DR. SUESS’ exceptionally entertaining THE LORAX, the spectacular documentary MARLEY about the life, times and music of Bob Marley, and the almost great quirky Canadian road movie MOON POINT are all available now, either on disc or on demand.
Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report
The Academy Award nominated Montreal film MONSIEUR LAZHAR, Katniss Everdeen is available for you to watch at home in THE HUNGER GAMES, and JAWS, the very first summer blockbuster debuts – and looks and sounds amazing – 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 again next time on The Couch!