Month: February 2013

Categories
Television

This just keeps getting better and better!!

Ben Stiller to guest on ‘Arrested Development’

It’s neither trick nor illusion: Ben Stiller will appear on the revived Arrested Development, EW has learned. The film star will reprise his role as Tony Wonder, rival magician to GOB (Will Arnett), in one episode during the new season of the cult comedy, which Netflix will stream in May.Exactly how he fits into the plot is being kept under wraps. But it may not be a bad idea to check the dumbwaiter.

Stiller guest-starred as Wonder in seasons 2 and 3 of Arrested, which originally aired on Fox from 2003 to 2006.

The upcoming season will also include guest spots with Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Conan O’Brien, Isla Fisher, and John Slattery, among others.

Categories
Television

More, more, more!!! We want more please!!!

‘Arrested Development’ Won’t Get Second Netflix Season

Arrested Development’s revival on Netflix will last just one new season, the company’s CEO, Reed Hastings, told investors yesterday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“Arrested is a unique property, we don’t anticipate being able to do season five, six and seven,” said Hastings. “We have less of a stake in it. It is really a fantastic one-off, which is coming together incredibly. I think it will be amazing for us, but think of it as a nonrepeatable amazing.”

Q&A: David Cross on ‘Arrested Development,’ Cutoff Shorts and Overpowering the Grid

The return of the beloved cult comedy (which originally aired on Fox from 2003-06) was announced back in October 2011, and Netflix picked up exclusive rights to air the series the following month. With the entire original cast returning, as well as creator Mitchell Hurwitz, Arrested Development’s fourth season is set to air in May, with all 14 new episodes premiering at once.

Hastings said that Netflix’s current goal is to “build shows and develop franchises over the long term. In that way, Arrested Development is a wildly successful tactic as opposed to fundamental to the strategy.” He pointed to the company’s other endeavors, such as the Ricky Gervais comedy Derek, and the recently debuted political thriller House of Cards, staring Kevin Spacey. Another possible reason for just the one season, as one company official told The Wall Street Journal, is that it would be very difficult to reunite the show’s entire cast again.

While Hastings seems certain about Arrested Development’s new run only lasting just one season – he added in a conference call that Netflix got the show under “unrepeatable circumstances” – a spokesperson later clarified to HitFix that the company would like to produce more of the show in the future.

“We’re hopeful there will be more seasons,” the spokesperson said. “If anyone can pull it together, it’s going to be [content chief] Ted [Sarandos]. But by no means is this the end of it. We’re definitely planning to do more with them. We have first rights, so it’s not like you’d see it anywhere else. We’re absolutely hopeful there will be more.”

Hurwitz has said that he would like the show’s new fourth season to serve as an introduction to the much-rumored Arrested Development movie; however there’s still no word on whether the film is happening.

Categories
Awards

I think we all agree that it is time for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to host!!

Seth MacFarlane Says “No Way” He’ll Host Oscars Again, While Cat (Yes, Cat) Reviews His Performance

When it comes to what everyone thought about how Seth MacFarlane did as host of the Oscars, we’ve already heard from the likes of Russell Crowe, William Shatner and Steve Martin.

And now comes word from a certain feline friend.

“My cat said the show went well,” MacFarlane tweeted on Monday night along with a photo of the cute kitty.

Of course, MacFarlane’s pal with paws was just one of many who tuned in to watch the guy lead Hollywood’s biggest night. The 2013 Oscars brought in 40.3 million viewers, up from the 2012 Oscars’ 39.3 million.

But despite such numbers, the Family Guy creator insists he won’t be back for an encore.

When asked by a Twitter follower if he would host again should producers approach him for a redux, MacFarlane replied: “No way. Lotta fun to have done it, though.”

No word yet from his cat on that decision.

Categories
Awards

It was a surprise, for sure!!

Oscar ties — How frequently do they happen?

Oscar office pools were sent into complete and total disarray after the Academy Award for Sound Editing went to not one but two winners.

Mark Wahlberg and BFF Ted surprised the attendees (and millions of viewers) at the 85th Annual Academy Awards with the announcement that the Oscar for Best Sound Editing went to both “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Skyfall,” two completely different movies about secret agents on secret missions.

Weird, right? It’s also extremely rare, as the odds of an Oscar tie are 1000 to 1, according to Johnny Avello of Wynn Las Vegas. In fact, there have been only five previous ties in the history of the Academy Awards. Weird, right? It’s also extremely rare, as the odds of an Oscar tie are 1000 to 1, according to Johnny Avello of Wynn Las Vegas. In fact, there have been only five previous ties in the history of the Academy Awards.

The first tie happened in 1932, when Fredric March and Wallace Beery tied for Best Actor for “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and “The Champ,” respectively. This wasn’t an exact tie, mind you — Beery received one vote more than March, but the rules at the time stated two winners would be honored if the count was within three votes. The rule subsequently changed, according to the Academy.

The other four ties are as follows:

— 1949: “A Chance to Live” and “So Much for So Little” tied for Best Documentary Short.

— 1968: Barbara Streisand and Katherine Hepburn tied for Best Actress for “Funny Girl” and “The Lion in Winter,” respectively.

— 1986: “Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got” and “Down and Out in America” tied for Best Documentary Feature.

— 1995: Franz Kafka’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Trevor” tied for Best Live-Action Short.

Well, we now know how hard a call it can be when it comes to sound editing! Meanwhile, our sympathies go to the curators of every Oscar office pool around the globe — according to Avello, if you don’t have written rules, you have to pay both winners.

Categories
Music

I care…welcome back boys!!!

Pete Wentz on Fall Out Boy reunion: ‘We didn’t think people would care’

Pete Wentz has revealed that he “didn’t think people would care” about Fall Out Boy reuniting after a four-year hiatus.

Earlier this month (February), the band announced that they were reuniting to release new album ‘Save Rock And Roll’ and set off on a US tour. However, Wentz admits that he expected no one to turn up to the band’s first show in Chicago.

“When we got on stage in Chicago, it was crazy,” he told MTV News. “It was a rush, because we honestly didn’t think people would care, and that’s the truth. But it felt like we didn’t miss a beat.”

He added:We’re having the reunion sex, so like it’s so awesome that we don’t have to bring in the whips yet.

Wentz admits that he was worried how to act onstage now that he is older but says he’s come to terms with the changes in the band’s dynamic, saying it’s “cool to do Fall Out Boy as Fall Out Men”.

The bassist also said that the reunion has gone so well that the band are already beginning to talk about recording new songs – even though they’ve yet to release their comeback album, which is due out in April. “We have other cool ideas”, he said. “But we’re definitely not in that part of being in a band where you’re like ‘Oh, well, this dude likes this song, so I guess we’ll put it on the album, and we’ll probably never play it and nobody will care about it’.”

Categories
Movies

I will see IDENTITY THIEF one day, on either DVD or Blu-ray.

Box office report: ‘Identity Thief’ steals the No. 1 spot from ‘Snitch’ with $14.1 million

The biggest hit of 2013, Universal’s $35 million comedy Identity Thief, returned to the top spot at the box office in its third weekend. The Melissa McCarthy/Jason Bateman vehicle dipped 41 percent to $14.1 million, lifting its total to a robust $93.7 million. By this time next week, Identity Thief will have swiped over $100 million domestically, which bodes very well for Melissa McCarthy’s upcoming Sandra Bullock collaboration The Heat, due out June 28.

Were Identity Thief not holding so well, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s latest action thriller Snitch could have won the weekend. As things stand, though, it will have to settle for second place with a not-half-bad $13 million. Snitch‘s debut can’t hold a candle to Johnson’s recent efforts in ensemble sequels like Fast Five ($86.2 million opening) and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island ($27.3 million opening), but it opened much better than his last effort as a leading action star, Faster, which started with $8.5 million in 2010.

Distributor Summit, who acquired the film from Exclusive Media and Participant, did not disclose a budget for the film when reached, though IMDb estimates it cost $35 million to produce. Snitch earned a middling “B” CinemaScore grade from audiences, which were 53 percent male and 57 percent above the age of 30.

The Weinstein Co.’s animated effort Escape From Planet Earth continued to benefit from being the only family film in the marketplace, dropping just 31 percent to $11 million for a decent $35.1 million ten-day total against a $40 million budget. The film, which opened with $15.9 million last weekend, started its run well behind both both Safe Haven ($21.4 million) and A Good Day to Die Hard ($24.8 million), but thanks to its great hold, passed both of those pictures this weekend. Speaking of, Safe Haven fell by 51 percent this weekend to $10.6 million for $48.1 million after two frames. Relativity spent $28 million on the Nicholas Sparks adaptation. Die Hard, meanwhile, fell by a full 60 percent to $10 million for a $51.8 million after eleven days. The Bruce Willis vehicle cost Fox $92 million.

Just outside the Top 5, Weinstein/Dimension’s extraterrestrial horror film Dark Skies fizzled on opening weekend with only $8.9 million from 2,313 theaters. Fortunately for the team behind the Keri Russell thriller, which earned a weak “C+” CinemaScore grade, it cost only $3.5 million to produce.

1. Identity Thief – $14.1 million
2. Snitch – $13.0 million
3. Escape from Planet Earth – $11 million
4. Safe Haven – $10.6 million
5. A Good Day to Die Hard – $10 million
6. Dark Skies – $8.9 million

Categories
Awards

The show itself was b-o-r-i-n-g, but congrats to all the winners!!!

‘Argo’ wins Oscar’s big prize

Loath to miss a love-in, in Sunday’s 85th Oscars the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences followed the lead of nearly every other awards show this season, and gave the best picture trophy to the CIA/Canadian Caper movie Argo.

The award was even presented via live feed by First Lady Michelle Obama.

But that’s pretty much where the love stopped. Ben Affleck’s film won only film editing and best adapted screenplay for Chris Terrio. Affleck himself wasn’t even nominated for best director.

The rest of the major awards were a mixed bag of everyone who caught the Academy’s eye. Daniel Day-Lewis won best actor for Lincoln, Jennifer Lawrence best actress for Silver Linings Playbook, Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables) and Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) got the supporting awards, Life Of Pi director Ang Lee won best director and Django director Quentin Tarantino won an original script award.

Affleck has taken heat from up North over short-shrifting Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor in his re-telling of the 1980 Iran hostage smuggling tale. In his acceptance speech as producer, he rushed the words, “I want to thank Canada” out of his mouth.

Interestingly, Canadians seemed to get more props from Life of Pi (based on a Canuck novel by Yann Martel). Toronto composer Mychael Danna won for best original score, and a visual effects Oscar was given to a team that included Vancouver-based FX artist Guillaume Rocheron (the movie also won a cinematography award). In his speech, Lee thanked, “my Taiwan (film) team, my Indian team and my Canadian team, I love you.”

Day-Lewis broke a “Spielberg curse” that has seen the director’s actors shut out of awards over the years. He thanked, “the mysteriously beautiful mind, body and spirit of Abraham Lincoln.”

There was one shock and one “awww,” as the Oscars for supporting actor and actress were handed out.

No one was surprised when Anne Hathaway won best actress at the 85th Oscars for the role of Fantine in the musical Les Miserables.

“It came true!” said the actress who’d performed the song, I Dreamed A Dream in a segment earlier in the evening. She dedicated the award to a future when poverty-stricken single mothers like Fantine “will only be found in stories and never more in real life.”

But – opposite favourites Robert De Niro and Tommy Lee Jones – it was a definite surprise when Christoph Waltz won best supporting actor for his role as a German bounty hunter in Quentin Tarantino’s slave-era action film Django Unchained.

He had previously won a supporting nod for his portrayal of a Nazi officer in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

In his acceptance speech, Waltz spoke to Tarantino directly, paraphrasing his character. “You scale the mountain because you’re not afraid of it, you slay the dragon because you’re not afraid of it, and you cross through fire because it’s worth it.”

Les Miserables also took two technical awards in the early going, for makeup & hairstyling and sound mixing, while Anna Karenina won for costume design. The abuse-themed short film Curfew won for live action short, while Innocente, about a homeless artistic teen, won documentary short.

As expected, Michael Haneke’s Amour (which was also nominated for best picture) won best foreign-language film, while the acclaimed Searching For Sugar Man, the surprising documentary about a presumed-dead musical legend, took the feature doc Oscar.

In other awards, Pixar’s Brave – a female-centric heroic fairy tale set in the Scottish highlands – won best animated feature, while Disney’s theatrically released short Paperman won best short animated film.

In sound editing, there was a rare tie between Zero Dark Thirty and the James Bond film Skyfall, while Argo took the award for film editing and Lincoln was honoured for production design. Skyfall’s Adele and Paul Epworth – also took the best song Oscar for the movie’s theme.

Best Motion Picture of the Year
Winner: Argo (2012) – Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, George Clooney

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln (2012)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Winner: Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Best Achievement in Directing
Winner: Ang Lee for Life of Pi (2012)

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Winner: Django Unchained (2012) – Quentin Tarantino

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Winner: Argo (2012) – Chris Terrio

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
Winner: Skyfall (2012) – Adele, Paul Epworth(“Skyfall”)

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Winner: Life of Pi (2012) – Mychael Danna

Best Achievement in Production Design
Winner: Lincoln (2012) – Rick Carter, Jim Erickson

Best Achievement in Editing
Winner: Argo (2012) – William Goldenberg

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Winner: Anne Hathaway for Les Misérables (2012)

Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Winner: Skyfall (2012) – Per Hallberg, Karen M. Baker and Zero Dark Thirty (2012) – Paul N.J. Ottosson

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing
Winner: Les Misérables (2012) – Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson, Simon Hayes

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Winner: Amour (2012)(Austria)

Best Documentary, Feature
Winner: Searching for Sugar Man (2012) – Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn

Best Documentary, Short Subject
Winner: Inocente (2012) – Sean Fine, Andrea Nix

Best Short Film, Live Action
Winner: Curfew (2012/I) – Shawn Christensen

Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling
Winner: Les Misérables (2012) – Lisa Westcott, Julie Dartnell

Best Achievement in Costume Design
Winner: Anna Karenina (2012/I) – Jacqueline Durran

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Winner: Life of Pi (2012) – Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik De Boer, Donald Elliott

Best Achievement in Cinematography
Winner: Life of Pi (2012) – Claudio Miranda

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Winner: Brave (2012) – Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman

Best Short Film, Animated
Winner: Paperman (2012) – John Kahrs

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Winner: Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained (2012)

Categories
Awards

Well done once again, Razzies!!

Razzies put bite on ‘Twilight’ as worst picture

The Twilight team finally has earned some love — or loathing — from Team Razzies.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2 was picked as last year’s worst picture Saturday by the Razzies, an Academy Awards spoof that hands out prizes for Hollywood’s lousiest movies on the eve of the Oscars.

The finale to the blockbuster supernatural romance dominated the Razzies with seven awards, including worst actress for Kristen Stewart, supporting actor for Taylor Lautner, director for Bill Condon and worst screen couple for Lautner and child co-star Mackenzie Foy.

Adam Sandler was named worst actor for the raunchy comedy That’s My Boy, his second-straight win after 2011’s Jack and Jill, which swept all 10 Razzie categories a year ago. Pop singer Rihanna won worst supporting actress for the action dud Battleship.

Twilight movies had been well represented in Razzie nominations over the years but had not won any key awards there. Razzie voters joke that as with The Lord of the Rings finale winning best picture at the Academy Awards, they were waiting for the last Twilight flick on which to heap their scorn.

“I have a pet theory, which is that the box office on Twilight films is very impressive, but my theory is that instead of 40 million individual girls going to see it, it’s 8 million girls going to see it five times each. People who love those movies just adore them,” said Razzies founder John Wilson.

“I believe the attitude of people who really love Twilight movies toward this subject is very similar to the pomposity with which the Academy Awards addresses the whole rest of the world. Our whole existence is all about making fun of pompous, so Twilight really is right up our alley.”

The Twilight finale also won for worst screen ensemble and worst remake, rip-off or sequel. For worst picture, it beat out Battleship, That’s My Boy, the family flick The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure and Eddie Murphy’s comedy flop A Thousand Words.

Stewart’s worst-actress prize came for both Twilight and her fairy-tale update Snow White and the Huntsman.

In the five Twilight movies, Stewart stars as sullen teen Bella Swan, who falls for ageless vampire hunk Edward Cullen (worst-actor nominee Robert Pattinson) and finds herself at the centre of a love triangle with him and her childhood pal, werewolf stud Jacob Black (Lautner).

Stewart set a consistent standard of emotional stoniness throughout the Twilight movies, Wilson said.

“Acting should involve having an expression on your face, and she is blank, other than the morose kind of half-Goth thing her character does,” Wilson said. “I didn’t realize Snow White and Bella were soul sisters, because of the very limited range of what she can do. I think it was Dorothy Parker who said about Katharine Hepburn that she runs the ‘gamut of emotions from A to B.’ Kristen Stewart is so expressionless she might as well be a brick wall.”

Sandler’s That’s My Boy, which also won the worst-screenplay Razzie, flopped at the box office and continues a gradual decline in receipts for the comic actor’s movies.

“He’s an enormous star who is on what I call the ‘down-alator’ of his career,” Wilson said. “He’s about to step off the same cliff Eddie Murphy stepped off about 10 years ago. Eddie Murphy has never come back, and Murphy is more talented.”

Categories
The Couch Potato Report

If you need a movie to watch before the Oscars…maybe you’ll find a good one here!!

The Couch Potato Report – February 23rd, 2013

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report is the movie that will win Best Picture at the Oscars Sunday night and a game of thrones.

On Sunday night, the 85th Annual Academy Awards will be given out in Los Angeles and after all the other Awards have been handed out, one Hollywood icon or another will be introduced and they will give out the final Oscar…the most important one…the one for Best Picture of 2012.

AMOUR, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, DJANGO UNCHAINED, LES MISERABLES, LIFE OF PI, LINCOLN, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK and ZERO DARK THIRTY are the other films that will be mentioned, but the winner will be Ben Affleck’s ARGO…not necessarily because it is better than the others, although it is very good, but because Affleck wasn’t nominated as Best Director.

That fact alone has seemingly carried his film to victory at the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild and almost every other ceremony this Awards season.

Now, had Ben been nominated as Best Director, his movie would have lost to Steven Spielberg’s LINCOLN, but since he wasn’t, Spielberg gets the Director’s Oscar, and Affleck’s ARGO wins Best Picture, which is fine with me because it is a great film.

Based on the true story, ARGO tells the story of the joint CIA-Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran in 1980.

Ben Affleck – who also gave us THE TOWN and GONE BABY GONE – directs and stars as the CIA exfiltration specialist tasked with getting the Americans home. Bryan Cranston from BREAKING BAD plays his supervisor, a man who – along with his boss – knows that the rescue attempt may fail, and fail badly.

AGRO is a fantastic film that is full of tension and real drama as the race against time to get these people free goes down to the wire.

I really enjoyed it, and highly recommend the movie AND the wealth of Bonus Materials, which include interviews with the real people who planned and carried out the rescue, including the real CIA agent and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

Don’t miss ARGO, and also…don’t be surprised when it wins the Oscar for Best Picture on Sunday night.

Another film you absolutely should not miss is the documentary BULLY that shows us the results of peer-to-peer bullying in schools. Specifically, it introduces us to five students who face bullying on a daily basis.

BULLY is tragic, for many reasons, especially when we meet the parents of kids who could no longer live with being bullied anymore.

BULLY is heartbreakingly sad at times, but it is also uplifting and inspiring as some kids refuse to back down.

BULLY is one of those movies that everyone should see, parents, kids, teachers, students, educators…everyone should see this movie.

Anna Karenina is a classic piece of literature from the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy that was published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877.

It has been adapted for film over a dozen times throughout the years, starting in 1914 and continuing last year with a British version directed by Joe Wright – who also gave us the latest version of PRIDE & PREJUDICE in 2005 – and this latest comes from a screenplay by Tony and Oscar winner Tom Stoppard.

Costume drama queen and Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley – from THE PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN films – stars here as the aristocrat Anna Karenina who has an affair with a younger man, leaving behind her older Russian statesman husband.

Academy Award nominee Jude Law from the SHERLOCK HOLMES films plays the husband, and in this latest retelling of ANNA KARENINA, he is actually a decent, sympathetic guy.

ANNA KARENINA is a classic piece of literature, and there have been some great film versions of it over the years, but this latest one is not one of them.

I never really understood why she wanted to have an affair, her husband seemed like a good enough guy, AND the guy she takes up with is nothing special at all. Aaron Taylor-Johnson – of the film SAVAGES – plays the young count and his performance is stiff and uninteresting. He isn’t appealing in any way and I kept thinking, this guy? She is willing to throw it all away for this guy?!?

This newest version of ANNA KARENINA has received four Academy Award nominations – for Best Cinematography, Costume Design, Best Original Score and Production Design – and so it is a well-made and beautiful looking film, but I didn’t care for it at all. The changes to the text don’t suit the story well, it was boring far too often, and at almost two hours and ten minutes long I just couldn’t wait for it to end.

Now, if you want to see a film version of ANNA KARENINA that is worth your time, look for the 1935 version starring Greta Garbo and Fredric March. Now that one is a classic.

This newest one is not…and I recommend that you just skip it.

Here now is something worthy of your time, although it too is a bit boring in the middle…but it finishes strong.

ROBOT & FRANK is a comedic crime drama set in the not-too-distant future about an aging and forgetful former thief who is given a robot by his son, to help take care of him and clean the house.

But Frank discovers the robot has other uses as well, and soon the two are working together planning heists.

Stage and screen character actor Frank Langella – who received an Academy Award nomination in 2008 for playing Richard Nixon in FROST/NIXON stars as the human here and his work in ROBOT & FRANK hits all the right notes. What he remembers, what he has forgotten, we are never quite sure until the end.

It is a bit slow…but ROBOT & FRANK was always interesting and I liked it. It’s not a classic, and I probably won’t ever watch it again, but I liked it and recommend that you see it once too.

I also probably won’t watch BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: BLOOD & CHROME again, but I completely enjoyed watching this made-in-Vancouver release as it allowed me to immerse myself in the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA universe once again!!

Battlestar Galactica was an American military science fiction television series that aired from 2004 to 2009 and was a re-imagining of the 1978 series of the same name. Since it went off the air there have been several attempts to launch a prequel series – most notably with a show called CAPRICA – with not much luck.

BLOOD & CHROME was also intended to kick start a new series, but it too won’t succeed at that mission and it is now being released as a stand-alone film.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: BLOOD & CHROME is about the first mission of young William Adama in the First Cylon War and it does have a few surprises & a couple of unique scenes, just not enough of them for me to recommend it.

However, even though I didn’t love BLOOD & CHROME I did enjoy watching BATTLESTAR GALACTICA again…so here’s hoping they find a way to do a new series that works, and lives up to the original, one day. I’d love to see it!!

Finally this week, adventure…drama…fantasy…beautiful women and men…action…dragons!! All of that and much, much more can be found in THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON of the series GAME OF THRONES.

This is a show has great twists, offers up plenty of surprises, and features tremendous acting from a great cast of strong men and women. SEASON ONE of this show was great…SEASON TWO is even better!!

GAME OF THRONES is primarily about what happens surrounding a civil war in a sprawling fantasy kingdom, but it’s also about family, honour, loyalty and friends.

Plus, there is plenty of good – old fashioned – battles, sword fights and love making to entertain you.

GAME OF THRONES is a great show!! I really enjoyed watching it, and can recommend THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON, and the first season as well, to all!!

THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON of the spectacular series GAME OF THRONES, the not great but not awful BATTLESTAR GALACTICA prequel BLOOD & CHROME, the likeable ROBOT & FRANK, the very boring latest cinematic version of Tolstoy’s ANNA KARENINA, the must see documentary BULLY and director Ben Affleck’s movie that will win Best Picture at the Oscars Sunday night – ARGO – are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

The made-in-Quebec City drama ALL THAT YOU POSSESS, THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of the made-in-Halifax CBC show MR. D, SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS, and we’ll celebrate the 25th ANNIVERSARY of one of the greatest action films ever made – DIE HARD.

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 the Academy Awards!! I’ll see you back here again next time on The Couch!

Categories
Music

I can’t wait to hear that!!

Questlove: Elvis Costello and the Roots Recorded ‘A Brilliant Album’

Elvis Costello clicked with the Roots so well during his various appearances on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon that a collaboration with them snowballed from one song to an entire album that seems like it will be ready for Record Store Day on April 20th.

Roots drummer Questlove recently talked with NYU Local about jamming with Costello in the Roots’ dressing room studio at Fallon and the album they made together. “After Elvis Costello’s third appearance, we liked him so much we were like, ‘Hey why don’t we make a record?'” said Questlove. “What went from being one song to be released on Record Store Day became ‘Why don’t we try four songs?’ Now we have a brilliant album.”

Questlove says he’s more than pleased with the nearly finished album, the title of which Costello wants to keep under wraps for now. “In the whole history of the Roots, I have never bragged on an album first, but I actually love this record,” Questlove said.

The drummer also said the Roots will start working with Al Green on his next album, and that he’s going to team with comedian Amy Schumer on a special. He’s teaching a course at NYU this semester called “Classic Albums,” and is currently working on D’Angelo’s long-awaited new album.