The Couch Potato Report - March 28th, 2006
This week The Couch Potato Report shines the spotlight on one of 2005’s biggest movies and one of the year’s smallest.
Some movie fans like all types of films, while others are more discriminating.
The big blockbuster releases don’t interest the discriminating, they only want smaller, character driven films.
However, the opposite is also true. Some movie fans have no interest in character driven films, they only want blockbusters.
This week, each group should be happy as I have one of both.
KING KONG is the blockbuster, and THE SQUID AND THE WHALE is the character piece.
Each one has it’s own merits, and in the end, I will recommend both of them.
The merits of Peter Jackson’s remake of KING KONG are extensive: The story itself is a classic; the special effects are seamless; Naomi Watts acting is superb, especially when you bear in mind that her co-star is computer generated; and it was generated using the body movements of Andy Serkis, who was also Gollum in THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY.
Peter Jackson used his clout and success from THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY to remake the 1933 classic KING KONG and this update takes place in New York in 1933.
Jack Black from SCHOOL OF ROCK is an ambitious filmmaker who finds a map to a mysterious Island.
He then fools cast and crew to go with him, and it is there where they encounter Kong, a twenty-five foot tall Silver Back Gorilla.
Naomi Watts from THE RING is the film, and the film within a film’s leading lady.
After the Island’s residents offer her up as a sacrifice, Kong seems instantly smitten.
In the original 1933 version of the film, and the last remake in 1976, the action in KING KONG came after the human’s rescued the woman from Kong. That is true in this version as well, but due to the fact that the movie runs over three hours, there is also plenty of other action as well.
I want to make specific reference to the scenes where Kong fights with dinosaurs. If you thought the creatures in JURASSIC PARK looked real, get ready to be blown away!! From now on this is the standard for computer-generated battles between creatures that are extinct.
There is also plenty of action once the humans capture KONG and take him back to New York, and there are plenty of stories there too.
If you haven’t guessed it yet, I loved this version of KING KONG, just as I have loved the other versions.
At over three hours, I will also admit that – even though I loved it – the movie was too long. It would have benefited from having a good editor working alongside Jackson on it.
That said, when the rumoured three-hour and forty-five minute director’s cut comes out on DVD in November, I will be one of the first people in line to buy it.
KING KONG is what it is, a blockbuster, and it is a very good one at that!
The rumoured budget to make KING KONG was $207 million and it grossed over $500 million in theatres around the world.
By comparison, the budget for Noah Baumbach’s film THE SQUID AND THE WHALE was $1.5 million, and it has grossed a little over $7.3 million.
It was no blockbuster.
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE is a wonderfully made, smart and loving film about two brothers dealing with their parents divorce in Brooklyn in the 1980's.
Jeff Daniels from THE HOURS is their father and the always-superb Laura Linney from KINSEY is their mother.
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE may be the best film of 2005 that only a few people saw.
It is superbly acted and well written, and it is also very touching and heartbreaking, especially when the film’s title is explained.
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE was no blockbuster, and I loved it!
KING KONG was a blockbuster, but I loved that movie too!
And now both of them are available now at a store near you.
Coming up in three weeks on the next Couch Potato Report
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA – THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE brings the beloved literary classics to cinematic life; THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED is based on the true story of the 1913 US Open; Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni star in the remake of FUN WITH DICK AND JANE, and it is no fun at all; and then there is BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, a small film about a love story that has hardly received any press at all since it’s release last December.
I'm Dan Reynish. I'll have more on those, and some other releases, in twenty-one days.
For now, that's this week's COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I'll see you back here next time on The Couch!
The Who to release EP in June
While the Who might not have its full-length album ready this summer, the group is releasing "The Glass Household" EP this June, a "Mini-Opera" inspired in part from guitarist Pete Townshend's online novella "The Boy Who Heard Music."
"I decided I would like to release a record prior to the European shows, even if only on the Internet," Townshend wrote on his Web site Mar. 18. "However, Polydor has agreed in principle to release something plastic prior to the main album."
The approximately 11-minute release will contain six songs and is being delivered to Polydor at the end of March. No song titles have been revealed.
Singer Roger Daltrey began recording vocals on Mar. 20 on the project, engineered by Bob Pridden and Myles Clarke. The songs originated from an idea Townshend had in early January and were to be "the backbone for some kind of large theatrical music event."
Daltrey, however, declined to be a part of that particular project. "So the principle focus of my creative output seemed closed to me when it came to writing music for the Who album," Townshend writes. "I managed a few songs that stood alone, but even those seemed to have sprung from whatever was going on in my heart as I worked on TBWHM."
A meeting with Eel Pie manager Nick Goderson changed the idea from a "Magnum-Opus" into a "Mini-Opera" with Townshend creating roughly seven or eight lyrical poems. "I did a couple of quick demos and by January 17th I knew I had about 30 minutes of music that would create a vigorous backbone for the Who album, but allow me to continue to draw on the bloodline of 'The Boy Who Heard Music,'" Towshend says.
After completing ten songs, including two full-length numbers and the remainder being "shorter, punchier or simple and ballad-like," Townshend began working with musicians at his Oceanic studio in late February. The musicians include bassist Pino Palladino, John "Rabbit" Bundrick on keyboards and Simon Townshend and Billy Nicholls on backing vocals. Drummer Peter Huntington, from Townshend's girlfriend Rachel Fuller's band, stood in for Zak Starkey who was wrapping up dates with Oasis.
The release will be the first of entirely new material since the band's last studio album "It's Hard" in 1982. The group will mount a series of European festival shows June 25 at the Wireless Festival in Leeds, England.
New CD Releases - March 28, 2006
Gerald Albright New Beginnings (Peak/Concord)
Monty Alexander Concrete Jungle (Bob Marley tribute; guests Luciano and Delfeayo Marsalis) (Telarc)
Linda Arnold Splash Zone (Rounder)
Atreyu A Death-grip on Yesterday (Victory)
Bangkok 5 Who's Gonna Take Us Alive? (Universal)
Steve Brodsky and Ramona Cordova Split EP (ECA)
Ray Cash C.O.D. (Cash on Delivery) (Columbia)
Charanga Cakewalk Chicano Zen (Artemis)
Ramona Cordova The Boy Who Floated Freely (ECA)
Matt Costa Songs We Sing (Universal)
J DiMenna Awkward Buildings (Exotic)
Disaster Strikes Liberty Toast (Alternative Tentacles)
DJ Boris Believe (mix CD) (Moist Music)
Taylor Eigsti Lucky to Be Me (Concord)
Freeheat (w/ex-Jesus and Mary Chain's Jim Reid) Back on the Water (includes live and studio tracks) (Planting Seeds)
Ghostface Killah Fishscale (Def Jam)
House on a Hill Ladyslipper (ButterMilk)
Jagged Edge Jagged Edge (w/John Legend, Jermaine Dupri and more) (Columbia)
Jonas Brothers It's About Time (DualDisc same day) (Columbia)
Knights of the New Crusade Knight Beat (Alternative Tentacles)
György Kurtág Kafka-Fragmente (ECM)
Lokbra Army of Soundwaves (Lucid)
Claire Lynch New Day (Rounder)
Michelle Makarski Tartini/Crockett - To Be Sung on the Water (ECM)
Margot and the Nuclear So and So's The Dust of Retreat (Artemis)
Teena Marie Sapphire (Universal)
Natasha Miller Don't Move (Poignant)
Morrissey Who Put the 'M' in Manchester? (UMD) (Sanctuary)
Moth Immune to Gravity (Hey Domingo!)
Movies with Heroes Nothing Here Is Perfect (COI)
Orthrelm/Behold...the Arctopus Split EP (Crucial Blast)
The Jaco Pastorius Big Band The Word Is Out! (SACD same day) (Heads Up)
People in Planes As Far as The Eye Can See (Wind-Up)
Rammstein Rosenrot (Universal)
Rosesdead Stages (One Day Savior)
Junior Sanchez Last Night's Party (Moist Music)
Christian Scott Rewind That (Concord)
Shattered Realm From the Dead End Blocks Where Life Means Nothing (Spook City)
Janis Siegel (of Manhattan Transfer) A Thousand Beautiful Things (Telarc)
The Spirit That Guides Us North & South (Goodfellow)
T.I. King (Atlantic)
Theo and the Skyscrapers Theo and the Skyscrapers (CD/DVD combo) (Ozit Morpheus)
Yazoo The Stuff That Dreams Are Made of (Shanachie)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs Show Your Bones (Interscope)
Rob Zombie Educated Horses (w/Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee) (Geffen)
VA Club Mix 2006 (Water Music)
VA Palace Lounge Presents Café d'Afrique (Savoy)
VA St. Moritz Vibes Vol. 4: Les Fleurs du Mal (Milan)
VA The Glory of Byzantium (Milan)
VA Unexpected Dreams: Songs from the Stars (songs by the Beatles, Elton John, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan and more sung by actors Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Irons and others) (Rhino)
OST Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (score by John Powell) (Varèse Sarabande)
OST Take the Lead (drama about dance instructor w/Antonio Banderas) (Universal)
DVD Bastards of Young (punk documentary) (Image)
DVD Destiny's Child Live in Atlanta (July 15, 2005 show w/behind-the-scenes footage) (Columbia)
BLOND BOND SPEAKS
Daniel Craig defending his casting as James Bond to detractors who have threatened to boycott the upcoming Casino Royale because they think he was a poor choice for the part. "I'm a Bond fan," Craig told the BBC. "If I go and see a Bond movie, there are certain things I think should be in it. And they're there."
Clooney, Pitt, Damon a Go for 'Ocean's 13'
LOS ANGELES - Now that George Clooney's an Academy Award winner, he and his crew are returning to their thieving ways.
Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon will star in "Ocean's 13," the third flick in their franchise about a gang of lovable crooks, distributor Warner Bros. announced Monday.
A supporting-actor Oscar winner for the oil-industry thriller "Syriana," Clooney will reprise his role as leader of the pack Danny Ocean, with the group pulling off a new heist in Las Vegas.
Clooney's producing partner Steven Soderbergh, who made the 2001 hit "Ocean's Eleven" and its 2004 sequel "Ocean's Twelve," will direct again.
Julia Roberts, Clooney's love interest in the first two movies, and "Ocean's Twelve" co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones will not be back for the third movie, according to Warner Bros.
"It was a script issue. We didn't have a place to really use talent like theirs, two big stars like that," said Jerry Weintraub, the franchise's producer. "They're very good friends of ours, and neither Soderbergh nor I would prevail on them to come back and do nothing just to do it."
Weintraub said if the filmmakers hit on a good idea to include the actresses, there was a chance Roberts and Zeta-Jones could return.
The studio expects the rest of the cast, including Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia, Bernie Mac, Carl Reiner and Elliott Gould, will return. Joining the cast will be Ellen Barkin.
Production is scheduled to start in July, with "Ocean's 13" due in theaters in summer 2007.
Scarlett Johansson ranks No. 1 on FHM's 'Sexiest Women' poll
NEW YORK (AP) - Scarlett Johansson tops a lovely list of the "100 Sexiest Women in the World," in a poll of readers by FHM magazine.
"One of the best things for a woman to hear is that she is sexy," the 21-year-old actress, star of Match Point and Lost in Translation, said in a statement. "I'd like to thank FHM's readers for the huge compliment."
Angelina Jolie is No. 2 on the list, followed by Jessica Alba, Jessica Simpson, Keira Knightley, Halle Berry, Jenny McCarthy, Maria Sharapova, Carmen Electra and Teri Hatcher.
Johansson ranked ninth on last year's list. Jolie was No. 1.
"It's remarkable how Scarlett Johansson has caught the attention of our readers," said Scott Gramling, the magazine's U.S. editor in chief, in a statement. "Her sultry voice and striking beauty certainly have a lot to do with that, but so does the confidence she exudes."
"She seems to be one of those women who would be equally at ease on the red carpet as she would just hanging out with the guys."
The magazine's May issue goes on sale April 4.
'SIMPSONS' GOES LIVE WITH 'OFFICE' PARTY
Funnyman Ricky Gervais helped "The Simpsons" lampoon reality TV and skewer its own network in the process.
The putty-faced comic - best-known as the creator of the British comedy series "The Office" - wrote and starred in last night's episode of "The Simpsons" on Fox. The show also featured a novel, "live-action" sequence that replaced the show's animated characters with real-life actors for the show's famous opening.
In the episode, Gervais, 44, supplied the voice (and likeness) of Charlie Heathbar, the husband of a stern professor from Yale, who agreed to participate in a reality-TV show with the Simpsons.
The show, called "Mother Flippers," was a send-up of TV's tacky spouse-swapping reality shows, "Wife Swap" on ABC and "Trading Spouses" on Fox.
The Simpsons signed up to appear on "Mother Flippers" while on a tour of Fox Studios in Hollywood, where they were exposed to fictional Fox reality shows such as "Dwarf or Midget?" and "Million Dollar Fart-off."
In addition to writing and starring in the show, Gervais contributed two original songs.
Throughout the episode, Homer was on a quest to obtain a new high-definition, flat-screen TV.
It was a stellar episode.