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
TIME – 15 seconds
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
TIME – 15 seconds
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
TIME – 15 seconds
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
TIME – 15 seconds
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
TIME – 15 seconds
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
TIME – 15 seconds
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
TIME – 15 seconds
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
TIME – 15 seconds
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
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(Now to hear it with those clips, go to http://www.cbc.ca/couchpotato)