Month: November 2012

The Couch Potato Report – November 17th, 2012

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report is a brave headstrong young princess and an aging Hollywood Queen.

Here is all you need to know about the low budget made-in-Montreal film LIVERPOOL – a young coat-check attendant in a bar named Liverpool decides to bring an unclaimed coat back to its owner and ends up in the middle of an ongoing criminal war alongside a regular from the bar who has a secret crush on her but – until this one night – has never had the courage to even speak to her.

That is all you need to know…anything else would be too much, and thi sis one of those movies that you should know too much about going in, so it can surprise you.

Okay, I will tell you a little bit more about LIVERPOOL, it is a well-written movie with two lead characters who you will like and you will root for. You might even learn a thing or two about electronic waste.

Oh, and the final thing I will tell you about LIVERPOOL is that I really enjoyed it!

It isn’t perfect, but you should definitely search this one out! I highly recommend it!!

You won’t have to search out the twenty-fourth installment of Don Cherry’s long running video highlight series, ROCK ‘EM SOCK ‘EM 24 will be everywhere!!

Just as numbers 1 through 23 have DON CHERRY’s ROCK EM SOCK EM 24 features the best plays, goals, saves, bloopers, hits and fights from the 2011-2012 NHL Season, as well as highlights from Coach’s Corner – as seen on CBC Television’s Hockey Night in Canada.

Plus, as has become the tradition, DON CHERRY ROCK EM SOCK EM 24 is also a season recap…and a look back at last season’s Stanley Cup Playoffs.

ROCK EM SOCK EM 24 delivers exactly what Don Cherry has been giving us for almost two and a half decades on video, DVD and now on blu-ray for the first time as well.

I have enjoyed the first 24, and look forward to number 25 next year!!

Before we get to our feature review of the animated film BRAVE, how about a short film…or a whole disc of them…because that is what you will find if you pick up the PIXAR SHORT FILMS COLLECTION – VOLUME 2.

These are the short films that run before Pixar films like WALL-E, UP, TOY STORY 3 and others in theatres and there are twelve of them in this magnificent collection.

They are tremendous pieces of entertainment that feature great sight gags and are inventive and fun.

I highly recommend the PIXAR SHORT FILMS COLLECTION – VOLUME 2, and VOLUME 1 as well!! These short films will live forever!

Once the short film is over, the main feature begins…shhh, BRAVE is starting…

BRAVE is the Pixar studio’s follow up to Toy Story (1995), A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Cars (2006), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010) and Cars 2 (2011) and even though there is a lot of great stuff in the movie, I didn’t love it the way I have loved most of those films.

This is the studio’s attempt at growing up, and they don’t quite pull it off.

Now, if any other animation studio tried to make this movie they probably would have failed miserably, so I give Pixar credit for trying to create a timeless story about a headstrong young Princess who is determined to create her own future, breaking from age old traditions…but once the story changes to her working to overturn a curse she brought on, my attention started to wane.

With few exceptions, there just isn’t really anything here that we haven’t seen before in Disney animated films like BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and ROBIN HOOD.

Now BRAVE does have enough going for it to enable me to mildly recommend it – it is certainly the best looking animated film I have ever seen and some of the patented Pixar secondary characters are a lot of fun – but I must admit that I am more looking forward to next year’s Pixar film MONSTER’S UNIVERSITY than I am in ever seeing BRAVE again.

I have three films to review right now…and unfortunately two of them are awful, and I only tel you about them as you might seriously think of watching them.

I’ll save the worst for last, and start with one of my favourite films of the year…a romantic dramatic comedy called YOUR SISTER’S SISTER.

This tremendous low-budget film begins at a party where a woman named Iris – played the great actress Emily Blunt – extends an invitation for her grieving friend Jack to get out of town and go spend some alone time at her family’s remote cabin.

He accepts, but upon his arrival he isn’t alone, Iris’ sister is also at the cabin trying to deal with her own grief…and misery loves company.

Misery soon meets love as one of the sisters professes love for Jack to the other, but it might be too late for any of them to be together, get together or even speak again due to how the events all unfold while the three are around each other.

YOUR SISTER’S SISTER features three characters that you will enjoy spending time with, an engaging story with several great twists and turns, and I really love this movie!!

Search it out, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!

I did not like or even remotely enjoy this next movie…and I even went into it with very low expectations. I expected SAVAGES to be bad, but it was worse than I could have ever imagined.

SAVAGES is awful!!

SAVAGES is a crime thriller directed by Oliver Stone, based on the novel of the same name by Don Winslow.

The story is about two lifelong friends named Ben and Chon who are in the drug business. When a Mexican drug cartel wants them to start working for them, and they say no, the cartel kidnaps their shared girlfriend…and therein lies the film’s biggest problem, the producers cast Blake Lively from THE TOWN and GREEN LANTERN as the girlfriend and she can not act and so you won’t care.

Lively can’t act, and the supporting cast is full of Hollywood veterans who are all overacting. Benicio del Toro, John Travolta and Salma Hayek are all wasting their time and talents here.

SAVAGES does have a few good action scenes…as the director of PLATOON and NATURAL BORN KILLERS, Oliver Stone knows that territory well…but overall this film is a complete waste of time.

Skip it at all costs…even if you think you will enjoy it, and you love the cast, skip it!!

You have been warned!

You also need to skip the modern day vampire romantic comedy VAMPS, even though you may feel inclined to pick it up because it reunites Amy Heckerling and Alicia Silverstone, the director and star of CLUELESS.

But don’t let nostalgia fool you, VAMPS is awful!!

Silverstone and young actress Krysten Ritter play female vampires in modern-day New York City looking for love…and you won’t care.

Even with a supporting cast that includes Richard Lewis, Sigourney Weaver, Wallace Shawn, Malcolm McDowell, Marilu Henner from TAXI, Kristen Johnston of THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN and some great cameos from several actors who also worked with Amy Heckerling on FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, you won’t care.

VAMPS isn’t fun, it isn’t funny, it isn’t interesting, and it isn’t going to take up much more of my time.

Skip it…it is a complete waste of your time!

Finally this week, an Academy Award winning cinematic classic…director Billy Wilder’s 1950 film SUNSET BOULEVARD.

That is just one of many quotable lines in this film about a down on his luck no talent screenwriter named Joe Gillis who meets and becomes the companion and of a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.

Gloria Swanson played Norma Desmond, a woman who thinks her young companion is going to write her comeback vehicle, but he just doesn’t have the talent to do it, and her old friends – including Hollywood legend Cecil B. DeMille – who plays himself – don’t have the heart to tell her.

SUNSET BOULEVARD received 11 Academy Award nominations and won three Oscars, for Best Music, Best Screenplay and Best Art Direction. Everything the film has to offer now looks spectacular in High Definition on blu-ray, and the release comes with over two-and-a-half hours of bonus features.

SUNSET BOULEVARD is tremendous in every way, it is a must see for anyone and everyone who loves movies!!

Billy Wilder’s classic Hollywood fable SUNSET BOULEVARD, the awful wannabe comedy VAMPS, Oliver Stone’s less-than-entertaining crime thriller SAVAGES, the exceptional film YOUR SISTER’S SISTER, the very entertaining PIXAR SHORT FILMS COLLECTION 2, the not classic but still very good animated film BRAVE, DON CHERRY’s ROCK ’EM SOCK ‘EM 24 and the nice little Montreal made romantic crime thriller LIVERPOOL are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON of the CBC series REBUBLIC OF DOYLE – THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of the CBC series ARCTIC AIR, the ALL ACCESS EDITION of HARD CORE LOGO, LED ZEPPELIN – CELEBRATION DAY and BILL AND TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE debuts 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!

The Couch Potato Report – November 10th, 2012

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report is a television show about women working in a munitions factory during the war.

The first release I have for you this Remembrance Day weekend is a made-in-Toronto television series, set during World War II, about a group of women working in a factory building bombs for the Allied forces fighting on the European front.

It is called BOMB GIRLS.

BOMB GIRLS was originally just going to be a six-part mini-series, but it was picked up for a second season…and you may have seen it in the entertainment news this week as former talk show host Rosie O’Donnell has joined the cast for Season Two

Season One of BOMB GIRLS introduces us to Lorna, Gladys, Kate, Betty and the women who risk their lives every day. They are from all walks of life, rich and poor, some even start off as rivals, but they become friends as they become liberated from their home and social restrictions of the time.

BOMB GIRLS isn’t a great show, there is some really bad acting and make-up work here, but the show has some people you will care about. Ultimately I did enjoy SEASON ONE enough to mildly recommend it.

And here’s to the actual bomb girls, and all military veterans and personnel this Remembrance Day weekend…Lest We Forget.

The last Spider-Man movie in the trio of films starring Tobey Maguire was released in 2007 and it was a mess. There were too many villains, too many storylines and things going on, and most of the cast seemed bored and no longer interested in being in the series.

So – even though it was the highest grossing film of the three – the studio decided to hire a new actor to play Spidey and reboot the series…so now Andrew Garfield from THE SOCIAL NETWORK stars as the webslinger in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN.

Yes, even though we are only five years removed from the last series, and a decade away from the fantastic first film in the last series, we have another origin story about how mild mannered teenager Peter Parker becomes a superhero after being bitten by a genetically modified spider.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN has some great action sequences and fight scenes, and great chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone – who plays Gwen Stacey, the first true love of Peter Parker before he developed deep feelings for her friend and rival, Mary Jane Watson – they have great chemistry…but where the film doesn’t always succeed is when Garfield is Spider-man.

I didn’t always buy him as the character I know so well, from the original comic books and the cartoon series I loved as a kid, and the more recent movies.

That said, I do still recommend this film…as there is far more good than bad. THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN isn’t a perfect action film, but it is a very good one.

Very good doesn’t begin to describe THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW…it is a television masterpiece, a classic show that remains hilarious to this day, especially their parody of GONE WITH THE WIND, called WENT WITH THE WIND.

There were 278 episodes hour long episodes of this show produced over 11 years, and it isn’t likely they will all ever be released, but on the six disc set CAROL’S FAVOURITES there is over eighteen and a half hours of laughs and quality entertainment.

Including the old gang – Carol, Harvey Korman and Tim Conway – looking back on their efforts.

I used to sit and watch this show on Saturday nights with my big sister Wendy, and we used to laugh and laugh, so THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW will always have a special place in my heart…but the show has earned that place as was – and remains – hilarious.

CAROL’S FAVOURITES is something I highly recommend to everyone, and I know a certain sister who might even get one as a Christmas gift.

Did you realize, that after this weekend, there are only six weekend left until Christmas? Yes, the holidays are fast approaching and you are about to see more and more holiday releases available to buy on disc and download.

One of the newest ones is called ARTHUR CHRISTMAS and it is the story of what happens on Christmas Eve at the North Pole when there is one child who Santa doesn’t leave a present for, and so his young clumsy son looks to use his father’s high-tech operation to ensure everyone gets a gift.

ARTHUR CHRISTMAS has a great voice cast featuring James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton, Ashley Jensen, Laura Linney, Eva Longoria and Michael Palin, and there is some good stuff here for kids, but adults might have a hard time sitting through it.

I will mildly recommend it, but only because I am not a Grinch toward anything Christmas.

I will also recommend the film 360 starring Anthony Hopkins, Ben Foster, Rachel Weisz, and Jude Law, but not mildly…very highly.

360 is an ensemble piece about a group of people from different social backgrounds and their intertwining relationships.

360 is a story of good people trying to do their best but aren’t always capable of that and it is incredibly well-written and acted and it is also very interesting.

It is just a few scenes short of being great, however as it is, 360 is very, very good.

Not as great is EVEN THE RAIN, a movie with some very good character arcs, but it all doesn’t add up to a film that you need to see.

EVEN THE RAIN is a Spanish film that introduces us to a director and his crew who are trying to shoot a controversial film about Christopher Columbus in Bolivia, while the locals are demonstrating against plans to privatize the local water supply.

Although I did find EVEN THE RAIN interesting, I didn’t think it went far enough with any of the stories it tries to tell and so while I liked a lot of it, I don’t recommend that you see it.

There are other people on my Christmas List who will be receiving a different movie as a gift this year…the 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of one of my favourite holiday films of all-time: THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL.

This was the very first film that was produced with The Muppets after Jim Henson’s untimely death in May of 1990 and their version of Charles Dickens’ classic is fantastic, and new this week in HD on blu-ray.

Muppet fans…in case you are wondering…the version of the film now on blu-ray is the theatrical one…so the song “When Love Is Gone” is not included here…so, if you have the DVD of the movie, hold on to that – even if you pick this up – to keep this great scene that has long been omitted from the movie as it was deemed not appealing to children.

The 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL has some great bonus features, old and brand new, but mainly it has the tremendous holiday treat that is good for the whole family!

The 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL, the foreign film EVEN THE RAIN, the very good intersecting drama 360, the okay animated family film ARTHUR CHRISTMAS, the sensational 6 disc set CAROL’S FAVOURITES featuring THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW, the very good but not great reboot THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, and SEASON ONE of the made-in-Toronto series BOMB GIRLS are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

The made-in-Montreal romantic action comedy LIVERPOOL, DON CHERRY’s ROCKEM SOCK EM 24, director Oliver Stone’s SAVAGES, the cinematic classic SUNSET BOULEVARD and Pixar’s summer box-office hit BRAVE.

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!