The Couch Potato Report – November 23rd, 2013
Calvin & Hobbes was a daily comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Watterson.
The very funny strip was about Calvin, an imaginative, mischievous, and adventurous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his blunt and usually sardonic pet tiger, who was real to Calvin, but a stuffed toy to everyone else.
Calvin & Hobbes ran from 1985 to 1995 and came to an early and quite unfortunate end as Watterson – feeling constrained by the daily deadlines and shrinking panels in newspapers – decided to stop doing it. He also didn’t want to merchandise or commercialize his characters, something his syndicate did want as they could have made hundreds of millions of dollars.
Part of the new documentary DEAR MR. WATTERSON focuses on the fact that the man walked away, but it primarily features interviews with fans – including director Joel Allen Schroeder – and other cartoonists, all discussing how the strip changed comics and even affected their lives.
What it doesn’t feature is an interview with Bill Watterson. Since walking away from the strip he values his privacy, rarely gives interviews and hardly ever makes public appearances.
I am a huge fan of Calvin & Hobbes, I Still read a few of them every day, so I really, really enjoyed DEAR MR. WATTERSON, especially the segment where the director visits the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at Ohio State University where the cartoonist’s original artwork is stored.
Fans will enjoy it for sure, but I also recommend it to non-fans of Calvin & Hobbes as DEAR MR. WATTERSON is entertaining and informative.
Search this one out, it is available online right now for you to view or download.
We have arrived now at THE WORLD’S END, but this isn’t just a movie about the end of the world, The World’s End is the name of a pub, the twelfth and final drinking establishment on a pub crawl undertaken by five friends who reunite in their small hometown to recreate something they failed to do twenty years earlier while in high school, visit all twelve pubs in one night.
However, upon arriving home, the people all look familiar, but seem different because…they are. They’ve all become robots, and it’s now up to the five guys to defeat them, save themselves and their hometown, and maybe even save the world.
THE WORLD’S END is from the same guys who gave us the great flicks SHAUN OF THE DEAD and HOT FUZZ and I really, really enjoyed it. The film has a great cast, is loads of fun, and I can easily recommend it.
This is fun stuff!!
Also fun and funny is the straightforward Summer Comedy WE’RE THE MILLERS
Jason Sudeikis from Saturday Night Live is a drug dealer who creates a fake family so he can transprot a huge shipment of marijuana into the U.S. from Mexico. Jennifer Aniston pretends to be his wife and Emma Roberts his daughter.
I’ve seen WE’RE THE MILLERS twice now, and it even made me laugh the second time. It isn’t the funniest film of the year, but it is funny. I recommend that you shut off your brain and have a few laughs this weekend, courtesy of the Miller family.
I have a couple of kids films to review now. Neither is a classic, but I think both of them are good enough to entertain kids.
We’ll start in the air with PLANES, from some of the folks who brought you CARS. Any kids who liked CARS will also like PLANES.
PLANES is about a cropduster with a fear of heights who dreams of something bigger. He dreams of competing in an around-the-world aerial race, and – with the help of his friends – his dreams may just come true.
Unless some of his competitors get in the way of his dreams.
PLANES is never great, but it is pretty good. Like I said, any kids who liked CARS will like it, but it probably won’t resonate with anyone older.
TURBO is another movie for kids who liked cars, and for kids who like racing movies, even though it is highly implausible.
TURBO is about a garden snail who realizes his dream of racing in the Indianapolis 500…alongside cars.
Yes, this is a film about a snail who races in the Indy 500.
A freak accident turns an everyday garden snail into a racer and so now he might achieve his biggest dream: winning the Indy 500.
That is honestly what TURBO is about.
I didn’t think much of the idea behind this film, even though I love animated film and comic books and cartoons, a snail racing in the Indy 500 against cars just seems a bit too far-fetched for me.
Yet the film made using that story isn’t as bad as the idea. TURBO has dozens of colourful characters, and is bright and shiny and colourful, you know…for kids.
Kids who enjoy playing with cars and such will likely like TURBO, but it probably won’t resonate with anyone older.
The final new release I have for you this week is the blu-ray set for SEASON FIVE of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION.
There are some tremendous episodes in SEASON FIVE, especially the two-parter “Unification”, where Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise have to pursue a rogue Ambassador into enemy Romulan territory.
The Ambassador is Spock, Leonard Nimoy from the original series.
And once again, the blu-ray set comes with a wealth of special features including the continuing retrospective series where the entire cast and crew look back at the show, including Patrick Stewart.
SEASON FIVE of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION looks amazing on blu-ray and is a must own for fans, and a must see for those who haven’t ever seen it.
I highly recommend it, even if you don’t usually watch science fiction.
This is great stuff!!
SEASON FIVE of the still great STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION on blu-ray; the only okay animated film TURBO; the pretty good but not great animated film PLANES; the fun and funny Summer Comedy WE’RE THE MILLERS; and the very funny and entertaining buddy-comedy-action-film THE WORLD’S END are all available now, either on disc or on demand.
The fantastic documentary DEAR MR. WATTERSON, about the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes and it’s creator, is available for digital download now, and will debut on disc December 15th.
And that’s this week’s COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I’ll see you back here again next time on The Couch!