The Couch Potato Report - October 1st, 2004
In The Couch Potato Report this week there's one of the best films of the year, and the absolute worst.
Please allow me to start with the one that is one of the best.
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND is the new film from writer Charlie Kaufman. His previous works include BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ADAPTATION, HUMAN NATURE and CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND.
The one thing that all of those films have in common is that they are all brilliant, odd and not for everyone. Kaufman is a writer who exists on a different plane than most of us, and that makes his vision a bit askew.
In ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND Canadian Jim Carrey is a man who tries to erase his ex-girlfriend from his memory. Be warned, this isn't your typical Jim Carrey movie. And as I've alluded to, this isn't your typical movie.
The luscious Kate Winslet plays the girlfriend and while Carrey is undergoing the procedure to erase her, he changes his mind. He wants to keep the memories, but since this is all going on inside of his head the erasure team cannot hear his request that they stop.
So he, and his memories of his ex-girlfriend are forced to flee around his mind to hide.
I told you it wasn't a typical movie.
But it is the kind of film that I truly love. A movie that keeps you guessing and shows you things you haven't seen before.
At it's core ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND is a love story. A love story that juggles morality, identity, and heartbreak at at once.
I enjoyed it on every conceivable level and highly recommend it, even though I know many people will not like it at all.
Something that many people do like is fast food, especially McDonald's.
If you count youself among that group, then you absolutely have to see the documentary SUPER SIZE ME.
In this very entertaining film Morgan Spurlock subjects himself to a steady diet of McDonald's cuisine for 30 days, just to see what will happen.
What happens is he gets fat, his cholesterol sky rockets, his organs take a beating, and he becomes subject to headaches, mood swings, symptoms of addiction, and has a lessened sexual energy.
SUPER SIZE ME is not a perfect film, but it will entertain you.
Surprisingly, it also made me crave McDonald's, and I haven't eaten there in over two years. In the end I went home and made some rice, but I will always remember how much fun eating at McDonalds was when I was a kid.
I will also always remember The Alamo. The actual place, not the film THE ALAMO that is now available on video and DVD.
And as a history buff, I am actually mad that this film is so bad. I didn't expect it to be a documentary, as it is a movie, but I didn't expect it to be as bad as it is either.
The history and battle that took place at the actual Alamo remains a great idea for a movie. This version of THE ALAMO is just a movie with a very bad screenplay, poor direction, and, well, let me just stop at two bad things, but I could go on.
Now, after all that negativity, I suppose I should say something nice about THE ALAMO...well, okay, admittedly Billy Bob Thornton isn't bad as Davy Crockett.
But other than that bad is the word I would use to sum up THE ALAMO. Skip it, ignore it, check out something else.
But whatever you do, don't make that something else ENVY.
Envy is a mortal sin, and the fact that I had to watch this film was a sin too!
And in a million years, I would never have thought that I would say that as ENVY stars two of my favourite actors: Ben Stiller from DODGEBALL and MEET THE PARENTS and Jack Black of SCHOOL OF ROCK and HIGH FIDELITY.
But, and there is no getting around this, ENVY doesn't have one laugh and it is the worst movie I have seen this year.
In ENVY one man's invention tests the bonds of his friendship with his closest friend and neighbour. The friend has the chance to buy in on the idea, but says no thanks. Once the invention becomes a huge success, hilarity should have ensued, but it does not. Not once. Not at all!
If you never have to sit through ENVY, know that I am envious of you, because I had to.
And that is a sin!
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, SUPER SIZE ME, THE ALAMO and ENVY are all available at your favourite local video store.
COMING UP IN THE NEXT COUCH POTATO REPORT
FAHRENHEIT 9/11 is Michael Moore's documentary about the events surrounding 9/11. It is the highest grossing documentary of all time and it may also become the first movie to topple a president.
The classic animated Disney film ALADDIN, with Robin Williams as the voice of the genie, will finally make its debut on DVD.
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW is this past summer's ecological disaster film. Up to a certain point it is actually very good.
And in the religious comedy SAVED! two high school groups battle over religion and morals. The great young cast includes Jena Malone, Mandy Moore and Maculay Culkin.
I'm Dan Reynish and 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 next week on The Couch!
FBI ordered to release Lennon files
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The FBI must turn over the remaining secret files on Beatle John Lennon to a professor who has waged a more than 20-year legal battle to get the documents, a judge ruled.
U.S. District Judge Robert Takasugi rejected government arguments Tuesday that releasing the last 10 pages would pose a national security risk because a foreign government secretly provided the information. The government was not publicly identified.
Jonathan Wiener, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, sued the U.S. government for the documents in 1983 under the Freedom of Information Act. He received 248 pages in 1997 as part of a settlement.
The previously released files, which were gathered from 1971 to 1972, include memos detailing Lennon's donations to a group planning to demonstrate at the 1972 Republican National Convention. But they contain no allegations Lennon was involved in planning or committing illegal acts.
Wiener, a historian, originally sought the files for his 1984 book, "Come Together: John Lennon in His Time." After the 1997 release, he wrote "Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files."
His battle with the government went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
NBC Gives 'Joey' a Full-Season Pickup
LOS ANGELES - "Joey" is doing OK without all those friends, so NBC gave the "Friends" spinoff a full-season pickup Thursday.
The network ordered at least nine additional episodes of the sitcom starring Matt LeBlanc, who moved over to his own show after "Friends" wrapped its decade-long run. Drea de Matteo ("The Sopranos") co-stars.
NBC trumpeted "Joey" as the season's top-rated new comedy among adults ages 18 to 49 and among total viewers, and the No. 2 comedy overall in the advertiser-favored 18-to-49 demographic, behind NBC's "Will & Grace."
But the series has yet to match the success of "Friends," which had been a bulwark of NBC's Thursday schedule.
CBS' "Survivor" drew more viewers last week in head-to-head competition with "Joey" and "Will & Grace," undermining NBC's longtime domination of Thursday night — a key night for lucrative weekend movie ads.
MGM Pushes Back Bond Film Release Date
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It looks like super-spy James Bond can keep his tuxedo in the closet for at least another year.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., on the verge of being sold to a group of companies led by Sony Corp., has pushed back its target release date from November 2005 until sometime in 2006, a spokesman for the film studio said on Thursday.
He cited the failure so far to line up a director for the movie, which would mark the 21st installment of MGM's venerable film franchise.
MGM, which together with EON Productions owns the Bond movie rights and distributes the films, had insisted as recently as late July that a script was finished and the next film was on track to arrive in theaters in November 2005.
But without a director on board by summer's end, producers were not sure they could begin shooting as planned in January or February in order to make a November deadline for release, the spokesman said.
"We're not going to be the slave to a release date or shoe-horn it in so we can make a date," he said, adding, "We're still in the development process."
One factor in the delay has been MGM executives' preoccupation with negotiations leading to the recent deal for a Sony-led consortium to acquire the studio for about $2.85 billion plus debt, one insider told Reuters.
"We had plenty on our plates in the last few months," the source said. "Moving forward on Bond is always a process of agreement between us and EON, and that requires 50-50 agreement, and that's never a simple thing."
Another question mark is whether Irish-born actor Pierce Brosnan would return to star as the suave secret agent.
Brosnan, 51, who has portrayed agent 007 in four films starting with "GoldenEye" in 1995, told Entertainment Weekly magazine this summer he was through with the Bond franchise.
The MGM spokesman acknowledged that no one has been cast to play Bond and that Brosnan fulfilled his MGM contract with his appearance in the last Bond film, 2002's "Die Another Day," but has not been ruled out for a fifth picture.
All casting decisions will await the signing of a director. Among the filmmakers being discussed for the job are Paul McGuigan, who directed MGM's recent "Wicker Park," and Matthew Vaughn, Guy Ritchie's producing partner for "Snatch" and "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels."
The James Bond series, which began in 1962 with "Dr. No," starring Sean Connery as the fictional British spy first popularized in Ian Fleming's novels, is one of MGM's biggest assets. "Die Another Day" alone generated more than $425 million in worldwide ticket sales.