The Couch Potato Report - July 20th, 2005
This week The Couch Potato Report features two films that I nether loved or hated.
It is very rare that an edition of The Couch Potato Report has two films that I am indifferent toward.
Usually I will really like at least one of the films I am reviewing.
But this week, indifference is the order of the day.
Since it doesn't really matter, let me start with the supernatural action film CONSTANTINE.
Keanu Reeves follows up the very successful MATRIX TRILOGY by playing a man who keeps a delicate balance between Heaven and Hell.
CONSTANTINE is based on the very unique comic book Hellblazer. The comic is unique because it is part horror, part action and part fantasy.
Sadly, the film is never horrific enough, doesn't have enough action, and the fantasy elements are okay at best.
Even if you've never read or seen the comic, that statement is true.
The film's title character is John Constantine. He walks the streets of Los Angeles to eradicate those who don't belong on this mortal coil in order to ensure that "the balance" between God and the devil is maintained.
Throw in a police officer who is trying to clear up the mystery surrounding her sister's death and some comments on religion and Catholic salvation, and that is CONSTANTINE.
To its credit, CONSTANTINE is never boring. There is enough things going on in the film - either actually on screen or in your head due to the script - that you will feel like seeing how it ends.
But once it ends, that is when the indifference will come.
The film isn't bad, but it isn't good either.
It is just there, and then its over.
If you like cinematic comic book adaptations, or really loved THE MATRIX TRILOGY, then perhaps your feelings after watching the film will be different than mine.
I however, remain just as indifferent to CONSTANTINE after seeing it twice, as I did after seeing it just once.
Once was enough for this week's other new film, the not great, but not bad ICE PRINCESS.
If you know a young lady who enjoyed THE PRINCESS DIARIES films then this is another movie for her.
It is a fairy tale for girls who dream about what or who they would like to be.
Michelle Trachtenberg of EUROTRIP and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER is an A plus student who begins studying the science of figure skating as a project to get a University scholarship.
Along the way she discovers that not only does she have talent, she likes figure skating.
And to simplify the rest of the synopsis, with the help of her coach, her parents, and the boy who drives the Zamboni machine, nothing can stop her from having her dreams come true!
ICE PRINCESS doesn't take itself too seriously, and admittedly it is geared for a younger audience than me, but in the end the film just follows the tried and true movie formula of: dream, go for your dream, dream comes true.
Had it given its audience something more, I might happily recommend it.
As it is, the film isn't bad, but it isn't good either.
It is just there, and then its over.
As for me, I'm just indifferent, toward both of this week's releases.
That said, CONSTANTINE and ICE PRINCESS are both available now at a store near you.
COMING UP IN THE NEXT COUCH POTATO REPORT
THE UPSIDE OF ANGER is one of my favourite films of 2005, and it is finally available on video and DVD. Joan Allen from THE NOTEBOOK and PLEASANTVILLE plays a woman who's husband has vanished without a trace. The film is about her attempts to save herself and her family. It is a superb movie!
Another superb film, for a different reason is the one that Steve Martin made his film debut in back in 1979. Now, in 2005, we have a 26th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of THE JERK.
We also have the THIRD SEASON of the late nineties TV show SLIDERS, the show about four people who found a gateway to another dimension, but they forgot one problem... how to get back!
I'm Dan Reynish and I will have more on SLIDERS, THE JERK, THE UPSIDE OF ANGER, 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!
Cusack's new film a labour of 'Love'
LOS ANGELES (AP) - After some 20 years playing unconventional heroes, it's surprising to discover that John Cusack looks classically heroic in the flesh.
In a hotel promoting the new romantic comedy Must Love Dogs, the beefy six-foot-two actor seems to loom larger than most of his best-known screen characters.
Among them: the romantically challenged, boom-box hoisting Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything (1989); bumbling, stumbling young playwright David Shayne in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (1994); and the wise-beyond-his-years U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin in the action blockbuster Con Air (1997).
In Must Love Dogs, Cusack is Jake, a down-out divorcee dragged into the world of Internet dating, where he meets another reluctant romantic, played by Diane Lane. Based on Clare Cook's 2002 confection of a novel, the breezy date film is one of the last places you'd expect to find the 39-year-old Cusack, who generally prefers meatier fare.
AP: The character of Jake builds boats that he seems to care more about crafting than selling. It seems as if putting art over commerce is an important tie that binds you with this guy.
Cusack: I think the character has started a small business and made some money and now he's sort of doing what he wants to do, and so I think sometimes that might be kind of what I've done, which is I've tried to do some more commercial movies so that I can go do movies that I want to do. In that sense, I'm like him in a way. You know, he's sort of stubborn in a way. And I think I probably am, too.
AP: You seem to have always favoured artier films over commercial ones. And when you have gone for the blockbusters, there's been surprising artistic integrity. Take Con Air.
Cusack: There's always that balance. I mean, I would be totally disingenuous if I said I didn't always think, Well, can this movie be good and successful. Can this be commercial, but is it going to be a big release? And you think about all those things. It would be a lie if I said I don't. A movie like (Con Air), you know it's going to be a big summer release and it's (produced by) Jerry Bruckheimer ... it's designed to be this big, commercial thing.
AP: Still, it doesn't appear as if you've ever sold your soul.
Cusack: No, I actually think a movie like that is actually more straight up than some movies that pretend to be art-house movies but are really kind of pandering.
AP: How about Must Love Dogs?
Cusack: This is one that's kind of both. I was going to go off and make another film, and it fell apart because the business is so weird these days. ... And then they called and said, Well, there's this romantic comedy with Diane Lane. I went, Wow! I guess that would be pretty good because I hadn't done a lot of romantic comedies lately, and I thought the opportunity to work with her was so great. And then I met (director) Gary Goldberg and he seemed like just the greatest guy in the world: totally collaborative, open, and just this great person. ... And it ended it up being a really great experience - really wonderful, wonderful group of people. You know, it's light fare in the sense that it's not about war and disease or any of that stuff. It's about dating and love and it's a very kind of springtime movie. ... But (Goldberg) very much was intensely interested in these characters, and loved them, and really wanted to give them the biggest stage to work on that he could, flesh them out. So, it was a very, very enjoyable kind of artistic process to go do it.
AP: What do you think the film says about dating and romance?
Cusack: We're all kind of God's fools. The process is going to make fools out of all of us, I think: fools in the best sense, in the sense of struggling and innocent and vulnerable.
AP: Are you a dog guy?
Cusack: Yeah, I love dogs.
AP: It's got to be hard, because you're on the road a lot.
Cusack: Yeah, it's hard for my lifestyle, because you're gone. But one day ...
'Star Trek' Star James Doohan Dies
LOS ANGELES - James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original "Star Trek" TV series and movies who responded to the command "Beam me up, Scotty," died Wednesday. He was 85.
Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. at his Redmond, Wash., home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, he said.
He had said farewell to public life in August 2004, a few months after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
The Canadian-born Doohan was enjoying a busy career as a character actor when he auditioned for a role as an engineer in a new space adventure on NBC in 1966. A master of dialects from his early years in radio, he tried seven different accents.
"The producers asked me which one I preferred," Doohan recalled 30 years later. "I believed the Scot voice was the most commanding. So I told them, 'If this character is going to be an engineer, you'd better make him a Scotsman.'"
The series, which starred William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as the enigmatic Mr. Spock, attracted an enthusiastic following of science fiction fans, especially among teenagers and children, but not enough ratings power. NBC canceled it after three seasons.
When the series ended in 1969, Doohan found himself typecast as Montgomery Scott, the canny engineer with a burr in his voice. In 1973, he complained to his dentist, who advised him: "Jimmy, you're going to be Scotty long after you're dead. If I were you, I'd go with the flow."
"I took his advice," said Doohan, "and since then everything's been just lovely."
"Star Trek" continued in syndication both in the United States and abroad, and its following grew larger and more dedicated. In his later years, Doohan attended 40 "Trekkie" gatherings around the country and lectured at colleges.
The huge success of George Lucas' "Star Wars" in 1977 prompted Paramount Pictures, which had produced "Star Trek" for television, to plan a movie based on the series. The studio brought back the TV cast and hired director Robert Wise. "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" was successful enough to spawn five sequels.
The powerfully built Doohan, a veteran of D-Day in Normandy, spoke frankly in 1998 about his employer and his TV commander.
"I started out in the series at basic minimum - plus 10 percent for my agent. That was added a little bit in the second year. When we finally got to our third year, Paramount told us we'd get second-year pay! That's how much they loved us."
He accused Shatner of hogging the camera, adding: "I like Captain Kirk, but I sure don't like Bill. He's so insecure that all he can think about is himself."
James Montgomery Doohan was born March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, British Columbia, youngest of four children of William Doohan, a pharmacist, veterinarian and dentist, and his wife Sarah. As he wrote in his autobiography, "Beam Me Up, Scotty," his father was a drunk who made life miserable for his wife and children.
At 19, James escaped the turmoil at home by joining the Canadian army, becoming a lieutenant in artillery. He was among the Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach on D-Day. "The sea was rough," he recalled. "We were more afraid of drowning than the Germans."
The Canadians crossed a minefield laid for tanks; the soldiers weren't heavy enough to detonate the bombs. At 11:30 that night, he was machine-gunned, taking six hits: one that took off his middle right finger (he managed to hide the missing finger on screen), four in his leg and one in the chest. Fortunately the chest bullet was stopped by his silver cigarette case.
After the war Doohan on a whim enrolled in a drama class in Toronto. He showed promise and won a two-year scholarship to New York's famed Neighborhood Playhouse, where fellow students included Leslie Nielsen, Tony Randall and Richard Boone.
His commanding presence and booming voice brought him work as a character actor in films and television, both in Canada and the United States.
Oddly, his only other TV series besides "Star Trek" was another space adventure, "Space Command," in 1953.
Doohan's first marriage to Judy Doohan produced four children. He had two children by his second marriage to Anita Yagel. Both marriages ended in divorce. In 1974 he married Wende Braunberger, and their children were Eric, Thomas and Sarah, who was born in 2000, when Doohan was 80.
In a 1998 interview, Doohan was asked if he ever got tired of hearing the line "Beam me up, Scotty."
"I'm not tired of it at all," he replied. "Good gracious, it's been said to me for just about 31 years. It's been said to me at 70 miles an hour across four lanes on the freeway. I hear it from just about everybody. It's been fun."
Springsteen 'Storytellers' Headed To DVD
Bruce Springsteen's recent turn on the VH1 series "Storytellers" will emerge on DVD Sept. 6 via Columbia Music Video. The footage has been re-edited, expanding the program from the one-hour version that premiered April 23 on the music channel to nearly two hours for the home video release.
Beyond Springsteen's introductions and anecdotes regarding the eight songs he performed at the April 4 taping at the River Theater in Red Bank, N.J., the DVD includes a Q&A session with the audience that was not part of the VH1 broadcast. The show was recorded in high definition and the DVD boasts a 5.1 Surround Sound mix and a PCM Stereo mix.
The material Springsteen selected to discuss and perform for the show was equally balanced between recent fare and vintage songs. Two songs stemmed from his latest solo album, "Devils & Dust" -- the title track and "Jesus Was an Only Son" -- and two from 2002's "The Rising" -- the title track and "Waitin' on a Sunny Day."
For the older selections, Springsteen reached back to his 1973 debut album, "Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.," for "Blinded by the Light" and to his 1975 classic "Born To Run" for the anthem "Thunder Road." He also explained the title track to 1982's spare solo project "Nebraska" and was joined by wife/E Street Band singer/guitarist Patti Scialfa on "Brilliant Disguise," from 1987's "Tunnel of Love."
Springsteen is in the midst of his second leg of solo North American tour dates in support of "Devils & Dust," playing Bridgeport, Conn., tomorrow (July 20). As with the tour's first leg, each show pays dividends to a local food bank through World Hunger Year's (WHY) Artists Against Hunger & Poverty Program.
Each organization receives a pair of tickets to a show to auction, an arrangement that raised more than $50,000 for the 14 groups participating in the tour's first leg, according to WHY. The charities also distribute information and collect donations at their local concert.
Here is the "VH1 Storytellers" DVD track list:
"Devils & Dust"
"Blinded by the Light"
"Brilliant Disguise"
"Nebraska"
"Jesus Was an Only Son"
"Waitin' on a Sunny Day"
"The Rising"
"Thunder Road"
A Smurfin' Movie Deal
Fans of a certain animated tribe of small, blue woodland creatures haven't gotten a lot of love lately: No new TV episodes, no old TV episodes on DVD (outside of a couple of import releases), no real news on a long-rumored movie.
Now, finally, things are looking rather smurfin'.
A 3-D, CGI-animated Smurfs feature film will bow in theaters in 2008, Daily Variety reported Tuesday. The extravaganza from Paramount's Nickelodeon Movies will be the first in a planned trilogy, it said. According to Newsweek, the project has been trying to get off the ground since at least 2003.
Word of the done deal comes a week after DreamWorks and Paramount set a July 4, 2007, release date for The Transformers, another animated TV series due for a big-screen makeover. But while Transformers fandom has thrived, fueled by new series and product, the smaller legions of Smurf faithful have waited.
"Dude, a Smurf movie?" went a message-board post on TheMovieBlog.com last month after Newsweek noted a film was nigh. "That's the smurfing best thing I've heard in smurfing forever."
Like the Transformers, the Smurfs were a phenomenon of the 1980s, unless one lived in Europe, where the characters have been mainstays since 1958, when Belgian artist Pierre Culliford, better known as Peyo, introduced them in the comic pages. The new movie's planned release date supposedly is tied to Smurfdom's upcoming 50th birthday.
Peyo's creations--the aforementioned small, blue woodland creatures who lived in homes shaped like mushrooms, whistled happy tunes, conjugated the word "smurf" in any way they saw fit, and named themselves Ramones-style (Papa Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, etc.)--blew up as big as any Transformer robot in 1981 when The Smurfs debuted on NBC. The Hanna-Barbera-produced series won two Daytime Emmys, moved much merchandise, from Smurf-Berry Crunch cereal to countless figurines, and dominated Saturday morning TV until 1990. A 1983 big-screen adventure, The Smurfs and the Magic Flute, grossed $11 million, per the box-office site The-Numbers.com, even though it was nothing more than a retitled, redubbed version of a 1976 Belgian-produced movie.
There was no word on voice actors for the new film. The Smurfs' family recently lost Gargamel, the bad, and Baby Smurf, the good, in the death of performer Paul Winchell. Don Messick, who voiced Papa Smurf and others, died in 1997. Smurfette, meanwhile, lives. Lucille Bliss, who gave high-pitched voice to the tribe's lone female member, is 76, and still working.
As for Peyo, he died in 1992. His progeny, however, has kept right on their merry way.