Categories
Television

I’m looking forward to it!!

Doyle Season 4 best season ever, says Hawco

Allan Hawco, the star and co-creator of “Republic of Doyle” on CBC Television, describes the first episode of the fourth season of his program as the start of the series’ best season ever.

“It feels like the best premiere we’ve ever done in terms of the dramatics,” said Hawco, who plays private detective Jake Doyle.

“It’s an action-packed first episode on Sunday, I tell you.”

Resolution to cliffhanger

Republic of Doyle ended its third season on a cliffhanger with character Des Courtney getting shot in the stomach, and Jake Doyle’s beloved Pontiac GTO destroyed. Hawco promised fans that the season premiere will bring resolution to those Doyle dilemmas.

Hawco said this season, fans will get to know more about Jake’s family members and friends, including some growth in the character of Tinny — Jake’s niece — and an intriguing plot surrounding RNC Sgt. Leslie Bennett.

“We took some risks this year, dramatically,” said Hawco.

Lots of guest stars

Republic of Doyle has become known for attracting high profile guest stars, such as Oscar winning actor Russell Crowe, and the fourth season will continue to feature well-known faces.

In Sunday’s premiere episode, Braveheart actor Angus Macfayden makes an appearance as Jake’s uncle, visiting from the north of Ireland. Hollywood character actor Luis Guzman will show up in an episode later this season. Newfoundland actors Gordon Pinsent, Bob Joy and Joel Thomas Hynes will be featured in several episodes. Canadian actor Paul Gross will have a recurring guest star role as Kevin Crocker, Jake’s former police partner and Tinny’s father.

Show a Canadian hit

Hawco credited people from Newfoundland and Labrador, at home and away, for spreading the word about Republic of Doyle when the television series first started, and helping turn it into a Canadian hit.

Hawco points out that ratings are also high for the show in cities such as Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary, where many viewers have no personal connection with his home province.

“What [co-creator] Perry [Chafe] and [producers] John [Vatcher] and Rob [Blackie] and I were trying to do was sort of open a window into sort of our ideal version of St. John’s,” said Hawco.

“And I feel like we may have opened a door so that people feel they’ve come to visit us for a week.”

The Season 4 premiere of Republic of Doyle airs Sunday at 9:30 p.m. in Newfoundland, 9:00 p.m. in the rest of Canada, on CBC Television.

Categories
Awards

One of these will win the Academy Award too!!

Life of Pi, Lincoln among Writers Guild Award nominees

Life of Pi, based on a novel by Canada’s Yann Martel, and Lincoln, based in part on the book Team of Rivals, have earned nominations for best adapted screenplay from the Writers Guild of America.

In the adapted screenplay category, Life of Pi and Lincoln are competing against Silver Linings Playbook, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Argo, about the Canadian embassy operation that helped six Americans escape from Iran during the 1980 hostage crisis.

In the original screenplay category, there were nominations announced Friday for sci-fi story Looper, Moonrise Kingdom, Zero Dark Thirty and The Master, which was overlooked at the Producers’ Guild Award nominations revealed Thursday.

Screenwriter David Magee bags the nomination for Life of Pi, about a boy adrift in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger, based on Martel’s Booker Prize-winning novel.

Tony Kushner, who won a WGA award in 2005 for an adaptation of his own play Angels in America, is the writer for Lincoln, one of several frontrunners for Oscar nominations next week. He based his script in part on the non-fiction book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Argo, with a screenplay by Chris Terrio, was based on a selection from The Master of Disguise by Antonio J. Mendez and the Wired Magazine article “The Great Escape” by Joshuah Bearman.

But the film came under heavy criticism in Canada for downplaying the role of Ken Taylor, the Canadian ambassador who stickhandled the rescue, instead focusing on the story of one CIA agent.

The WGA Awards are to be handed out during simultaneous ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles on Feb. 17. They are one of a clutch of industry honours that pave the way for the Oscars.

The nominees for original screenplay:

Flight, written by John Gatins.
Looper, written by Rian Johnson.
The Master, written by Paul Thomas Anderson.
Moonrise Kingdom, written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola.
Zero Dark Thirty, written by Mark Boal.

The nominees for adapted screenplay:

Argo, screenplay by Chris Terrio.
Life of Pi, screenplay by David Magee.
Lincoln, screenplay by Tony Kushner.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, screenplay by Stephen Chbosky.
Silver Linings Playbook, screenplay by David O. Russell.

The nominees for documentary screenplay:

The Central Park Five, written by Sarah Burns, David McMahon and Ken Burns.
The Invisible War, written by Kirby Dick.
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, written by Alex Gibney.
Searching for Sugar Man, written by Malik Bendejelloul.
We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists, written by Brian Knappenberger.
West of Memphis, written by Amy Berg and Billy McMillin.

Categories
Awards

Awesome!!!

James Bond Heading to the Oscars: Ceremony Will Honor 50th Anniversary of Superspy Film Franchise

The name’s Oscar. Um, that’s it, really.

But come the Feb. 24 ceremony, the name will be Bond, James Bond, as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that its 85th annual broadcast would include a tribute to the legendary cinematic superspy.

And hey, we already know he looks good in a tux.

The special celebration of the James Bond franchise will be featured in honor of the 50th anniversary of Ian Fleming’s creation, currently incarnated by Daniel Craig.

There’s no word yet, however, if Craig or any of the past Bonds will be taking part in the presentation.

“We are very happy to include a special sequence on our show saluting the Bond films on their 50th birthday,” Oscar telecast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron said. “Starting with Dr. No back in 1962, the 007 movies have become the longest-running motion picture franchise in history and a beloved global phenomenon.”

The latter of which was proven only recently when Skyfall became the first-ever Bond film to cross the billion-dollar mark at the box office.

As for the rest of the vaunted night’s honorees: The Oscar nominations will be announced Jan. 10.

Categories
People

Sad News – May she rest in peace!!

Singer Patti Page dead at 85

The 85-year-old, who recorded Tennessee Waltz, passed away on New Year’s Day. The top-selling female singer of the 1950s, Page recorded 15 gold records and three gold albums.

She also reached the top of the U.S. charts four times and fronted her own hit TV variety shows. She also made several appearances on The Dean Martin Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, and The Steve Allen Show, before making her film debut in 1960’s Elmer Gantry.

Born Clara Ann Fowler in Oklahoma in 1927, Page became a singer on a Tulsa radio show at the age of 18 and picked up her stage name from sponsors the Page Milk Company.

She was discovered by band manager Jack Rael in the mid-1940s and signed with Mercury Records in 1947. Page became the label’s first successful female artist, thanks to hits like Confess and With My Eyes Wide Open, I’m Dreaming.

She recorded Tennessee Waltz in 1950 – the song became one of the biggest-selling singles of the 20th century and it is also one of only two official state songs of Tennessee.

The singer also scored a hit with children’s tune (How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window, and she hit the charts with All My Love (Bolero), I Don’t Care If the Sun Don’t Shine, Back in Your Own Backyard and I Went to Your Wedding.

She was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 1997 and will now be honoured posthumously with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys next month.

Categories
Awards

And Awards Season Is Now Fully Underway!!!

‘Lincoln,’ ‘Les Mis,’ ‘Argo’ earn producers honors

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Civil War saga Lincoln, the musical Les Misérables and the Osama bin Laden thriller Zero Dark Thirty are among the nominees announced Wednesday for the top honor from the Producers Guild of America.

Other best-picture contenders are the Iran hostage-crisis thriller Argo; the low-budget critical favorite Beasts of the Southern Wild; the slave-turned-bounty-hunter saga Django Unchained; the shipwreck story Life of Pi; the first-love tale Moonrise Kingdom; the lost-souls romance Silver Linings Playbook; and the James Bond adventure Skyfall.

Walt Disney dominated the guild’s animation category with three of the five nominees: Brave, Frankenweenie and Wreck-It Ralph. The other nominees are Focus Features’ ParaNorman and Paramount’s Rise of the Guardians.

Along with honors from other Hollywood professional groups such as actors, directors and writers guilds, the producer prizes help sort out contenders for the Academy Awards. Those nominations are announced Jan. 10.

The guild, an association of Hollywood producers, hands out its 24th annual prizes Jan. 26. The big winner often goes on to claim the best-picture honor at the Oscars, which follow on Feb. 24.

Previously announced nominees by the Producers Guild for best documentary are A People Uncounted, The Gatekeepers,The Island President, The Other Dream Team and Searching for Sugar Man.

Other nominees:

• TV drama series:Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, Homeland, Mad Men.

• TV comedy series:30 Rock, The Big Bang Theory, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Louie, Modern Family.

• Long-form television: American Horror Story, The Dust Bowl, Game Change, Hatfields & McCoys, Sherlock.

• Non-fiction television:American Masters, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Deadliest Catch, Inside the Actors Studio, Shark Tank.

• Live entertainment and talk television:The Colbert Report, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Real Time with Bill Maher, Saturday Night Live.

• Competition television:The Amazing Race, Dancing with the Stars, Project Runway, Top Chef, The Voice.

• Sports program:24/7, Catching Hell, The Fight with Jim Lampley, On Freddie Roach, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.

• Children’s program:Good Luck Charlie, iCarly, Phineas and Ferb, Sesame Street, The Weight of the Nation for Kids: The Great Cafeteria Takeover.

Categories
Dan's Stuff

Happy New Year from all of us at anythingbut.com!!! May 2013 be a spectacular year for us all!!

Auld Lang Syne

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o’ lang syne!

Chorus:
For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne!

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pu’d the gowans fine,
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary foot
Sin’ auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl’t in the burn
Frae morning sun till dine,
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin’ auld lang syne.

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere,
And gie’s a hand o’ thine,
And we’ll tak a right guid willie-waught
For auld lang syne!

And surely ye’ll be your pint’ stoup,
And surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne!

Categories
The Couch Potato Report

If you need something to watch top close out 2012, ring in the new year with some of these!!

The Couch Potato Report – December 31st, 2012

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report are some film suggestions – and ones to stay away from – for New Year’s Eve.

If you need a movie suggestion or two for New Year’s Eve, I can help you with that, and I’ll start with the made-in-Montreal drama THE WORDS, starring Bradley Cooper from THE HANGOVER films.

Bradley is a failed writer here who finds a manuscript in an old satchel his wife buys for him in Paris.

That manuscript is better than anything he’s ever written, and it brings his wife to tears…so he claims it as his own and becomes a huge success.

Everything in his life is finally going well…until the man who actually wrote the words comes looking for him.

THE WORDS is one of those films where you can’t wait to see what happens next, and why. I almost went a few chapters ahead to find out, but ultimately decided not to. But I wanted to!!

Even though it isn’t perfect, there are several huge plot holes and when the focus shifts to the third level of the story my attention started to wander, even with those flaws THE WORDS has a great cast – that also includes Dennis Quaid, Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana and Jeremy Irons – and I really enjoyed it.

It is a mature film that takes it’s time and it will make a great rental for New Year’s Eve.

From something worthy of your time, here now is the opposite.

The success of the television series GLEE is the only reason this next movie exists as PITCH PERFECT liberally uses that show – and elements of several movies – including BRING IT ON, BEST IN SHOW and actual footage from THE BREAKFAST CLUB to tell its story…a story about an all-female a cappella singing group who must rise up – and rise together – in order to beat their rivals at regionals.

PITCH PERFECT might have been fun if it had an original moment in it – which it does not – and didn’t take itself so seriously…it takes itself way too seriously.

Instead, what we are left with is a predictable and unfunny movie about a group of characters that you won’t care anything about, and several you won’t even like.

The music numbers are well done, so huge fans of GLEE may enjoy the movie a little, but my suggestion is that you just skip PITCH PERFECT. It isn’t worthy of any of your busy holiday time.

Also not worthy of your time – absolutely any of your time – is the very boring and completely unfunny comedy BUTTER.

This is an example of when bad movies happen to good people as the cast includes Jennifer Garner, Hugh Jackman, Ty Burrell from MODERN FAMILY, Olivia Wilde, Rob Corddry, Ashley Green from the TWILIGHT films and 90s star Alicia Silverstone.

All good actors and people, all starring in a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad movie!!

BUTTER is about butter carving in small-town Iowa, and that part of the movie is interesting as I had never seen it done – on screen or in real life before.

But as the movie goes on and a controlling local woman works to win a competition against a young adopted girl, stopping at nothing, you won’t care. Not once, not at all.

BUTTER is a complete waste of time and you should skip it on New Year’s Eve, during 2013, and for all time.

Great cast…really bad movie.

Let me get back to saying positive things again, in the Final Couch Potato Report of 2012, and I will say them about a high school reunion movie called 10 YEARS.

People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive – Channing Tatum – stars in 10 YEARS along with Rosario Dawson, Justin Long, Chris Pratt and Aubrey Plaza from PARKS & RECREATION, Ron Livingston from OFFICE SPACE, and a bunch of young actors who you will probably recognize from their other films.

The movie takes place on the night before the high school reunion as the old friends get together at a bar for some drinks and reminiscing.

I really, really liked parts of 10 YEARS…and I didn’t care for other parts at all…but I still liked it enough to recommend it and tell you that it is a good rental.

I have a pair of titles to tell you about right now, and you probably haven’t heard of either of them…even though one of them is from an Academy Award nominated writer and director who is known around the world.

Spike Lee’s RED HOOK SUMMER is coming up, but right now I want to tell you about a very interesting documentary about Ai Weiwei, a Chinese contemporary artist who was an artistic consultant for the Beijing National Stadium at the 2008 Olympics.

In addition to being an artist, Ai Weiwei is also a political activist who has been highly and openly critical of the Chinese Government’s stance on democracy and human rights.

AI WEIWEI – NEVER SORRY is a documentary about the man, his work, and his detention by Chinese authorities in spring of 2011.

I knew of AI WEIWEI (I WayWay) but I didn’t know that much about him until I saw NEVER SORRY and now I am fascinated by him.

This is a great documentary about a very interesting human being.

It doesn’t necessarily tell both sides of his story, as the filmmakers don’t speak to the Chinese government about Weiwei and why he was arrested, but the story it does tell is worthy of your time and comes highly recommended by me.

Spike Lee is an Academy Award nominated filmmaker who has been making films since 1983.

His works include DO THE RIGHT THING, MALCOLM X, SHE’S GOTTA HAV EIT, CLOCKERS, CROOKLYN, INSIDE MAN and JUNGLE FEVER.

He is also an outspoken advocate of race relations, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty, and other political issues.

Spike rarely flies under the radar when he does things, especially when he releases a new movie…until now.

In 2012, Spike self-financed and released a movie called RED HOOK SUMMER…and hardly anyone knew.

But now that it is out on DVD and Blu-ray, you will know about it…as I am going to tell you about Spike Lee’s RED HOOK SUMMER.

RED HOOK SUMMER is not Spike Lee at his best, in fact I was thinking more than a few times while watching it, “This is a Spike Lee movie?!?

The story is definitely Spike Lee…A middle-class boy from Atlanta travels to the housing projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York, to spend the summer with his deeply religious grandfather…but the film is missing that special thing that Spike usually brings a film, and that is why it fails.

When watching the almost two-hour making of and listening to the commentary, the story behind RED HOOK SUMMER – the fact that Spike paid to make it and get it out there – comes out and that story is interesting.

RED HOOK SUMMER itself is not. What could have been an interesting fish out of water story isn’t, and as the story moves from being about the boy to the deeply religious grandfather I lost interest.

He has made some great movies in the past, and since it is his own money, Spike Lee can do whatever he wants with it.

But I suggest you skip RED HOOK SUMMER.

The results of his labour aren’t worthy of your time.

Finally this week is a new feature here on The Couch Potato Report. From time to time I will dig into the vast film library of titles that have been released throughout the years for a Catalogue Classic.

And with it being so close to New Year’s Eve, this week’s Catalogue Classic is WHEN HARRY MET SALLY

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY is director Rob Reiner’s 1989 romantic comedy written by the late, great Nora Ephron and starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan.

Harry and Sally have known each other since graduating university, and have had an on again off again friendship for years, until they finally end up in bed together…and things don’t go well.

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY is warm and funny and features real people and I love the movie and highly recommend it!! If you are looking for something to watch on December 31st this is a great movie to dig out, especially since it all culminates on New Year’s Eve.

The Catalogue Classic WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, Spike Lee’s failed RED HOOK SUMMER, the very interesting documentary AI WEIWEI – NEVER SORRY, the likeable good rental high school reunion comedy 10 YEARS, the boring and unfunny comedy BUTTER, the completely unoriginal singing competition non-comedy PITCH PERFECT and the very good made-in-Montreal drama THE WORDS are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

And whatever you end up doing on New Year’s Eve, Happy New Year from all of us at The Couch Potato Report!! Here’s to a 2013 full of happiness, good health and good movies!!

Coming up next week inside another all-new edition of The Couch Potato Report

Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt star in the great science fiction action film LOOPER, David Fincher’s underappreciated mystery thriller THE GAME is the Catalogue Classic and Robert Pattinson from the TWILIGHT films stars in David Cronenberg’s made-in-Toronto mess COSMOPOLIS.

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!

And for more of my movie reviews, visit: http://www.cbc.ca/couchpotato