The Couch Potato Report - February 17th, 2007
This week The Couch Potato Report shines the spotlight on one Oscar nominee who is Canadian and another who is guaranteed to win!
When the 79th Annual Academy Awards are given out next Sunday night in Hollywood Canadian actor Ryan Gosling's name will be one of those listed off in the category of Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for his work in the film HALF NELSON.
It is my belief - and the belief of prognoticators world wide - that Forest Whitaker will deservedly win the category for his work in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND.
But if there was going to be an upset, Gosling's performance is the one that could do it.
In HALF NELSON Gosling plays an eighth-grade history teacher in an inner-city school deep in the heart of Brooklyn.
He is a passionate, committed, engaging person who is trying to teach the kids to understand history, instead of just memorizing it.
But he has a secret...at least until the night that one of his 13-year-old students finds him almost passed out in a bathroom stall - from smoking crack.
After that night the film focuses on the unique friendship between the two, and his struggles to prevent her from ending up like him.
If you are looking for an interesting, engaging film, full of real people that doesn't promise you a happy ending, but simply tells you the story of two people and their effect on each other's lives, then search out HALF NELSON.
It isn't the type of film you can watch with the whole family, but I recommend that the grown-ups see this superb film featuring an incredible performance from an up and coming Canadian Actor.
Now if you are wondering why Ryan Gosling's name sounds familiar, he is the person who won Rachel McAdam's heart in the very entertaining, and very romantic film THE NOTEBOOK.
No, Ryan Gosling isn't expected to win an Oscar this year...but Martin Scorsese is.
The director has never won an Academy Award, despite the fact that he has been nominated five times in the past for such classics as RAGING BULL and GOODFELLAS.
Scorsese will get his first trophy on February 25th for his latest classic THE DEPARTED
In their song "Dead On Arrival the band Fall Out Boy sing: "The songs you grow to like never stick at first", and that is true about movies as well.
When I first saw Scorsese's latest in theatres, I didn't care for it at all, but after watching it again this week on DVD, let me paraphrase that song lyric: The movies you grow to like never stick at first.
If you are like me and think TAXI DRIVER, RAGING BULL and GOODFELLAS to be some of the best films ever made, then go out and get THE DEPARTED.
It is worthy of the Scorsese legacy.
In the film, Matt Damon is a mob informant who becomes a police officer and Leonardo DiCaprio is a police officer who becomes a gangster.
Eventually each side realized that their is a mole in their operation and violence and bloodshed are the result.
In addition to Damon and DiCaprio, the cast of THE DEPARTED is all a-list: Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg - who was the only actor in the film to receive an Academy Award nomination - and the great Alec Baldwin.
THE DEPARTED is actually a remake of a superb Hong Kong action film called INFERNAL AFFAIRS - but if you pick up the superb TWO DISC SPECIAL EDITION DVD you will find out that in addition to taking material from that film, it is also based on a real mobster in Boston.
Plus, that edition of the film also has an 85 minute documentary featuring Martin Scorsese talking about this film, and his many others.
Now, if you are curious about the sourse material after you have seen the remake, well you are in luck my friend!
There is a new Special Collector's Edition Box Set available for the incredible INFERNAL AFFAIRS and that set features the original, it's prequel and a sequel.
INFERNAL AFFAIRS 2 and 3 aren't as good as number one, but it is my opinion that THE DEPARTED is better.
It is also my opinion that you see them for yourself and make up your own mind.
The final release I have for you is THE U.S. VS. JOHN LENNON.
This is a documentary on the life of the former Beatle that focusses on his life in the early seventies when he turned from being a lovable moptop into an anti-war activist.
As a fan of Lennon's, I was hoping that this film would give us some never-before-seen insight into his well documented FBI file, and feature an explanation of why Richard Nixon and his White House staff always seemed to have it in for him.
And there is some of that, but the majority of THE U.S. VS. JOHN LENNON is for people who don't know the man's post-Beatle history.
If you are one of those people, or a Lennon completist, than this is a must see.
Actually, the film is also a must see for those of us who know the story and have heard and seen the interviews with Lennon countless times before, simply because the man and his life will always be interesting and worth seeing.
THE U.S. VS. JOHN LENNON, Martin Scorsese's soon to be Oscar winning THE DEPARTED, the Special Collector's Edition Box Set for INFERNAL AFFAIRS - the film his movie is based on, and HALF NELSON featuring an Academy Award nominated performance from London, Ontario's Ryan Thomas Gosling are all available now on DVD.
Coming up in the next Couch Potato Report
In TRAILER PARK BOYS: THE MOVIE - Ricky, Julian and Bubbles come up
with a scheme to steal large amounts of untraceable coins; After sweeping the Grammy Awards the DIXIE CHICKS documentary SHUT UP AND SING will debut on DVD, FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION features the same folks that gave us WAITING FOR GUFFMAN and BEST IN SHOW and in THE PRESTIGE two magicians vie to be the world's best.
Then, in two weeks, director Terry Gilliam's made-in-Saskatchewan film
TIDELAND debuts on DVD.
I'm Dan Reynish. I'll be back with more thoughts and reviews (from the
couch in 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 time on The Couch!
Jays take first step toward '07 season
DUNEDIN, Fla. -- The next step has arrived. While fans back home in Toronto were digging themselves out of the winter's worst snowfall, the Blue Jays began reporting to their Spring Training complex in Florida.
With the offseason now officially in the rearview mirror, Toronto is eager to build on the progress it made last season. That quest began on Friday, when the Jays' pitchers and catchers filed into Dunedin, Fla. -- the only spring site the Jays have known in their 31-year history. On Saturday, those players will head to the Bobby Mattick Training Center for the club's first official workout.
"We like our team," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said on Thursday, when he first arrived at the complex. "We like the way we finished up last year and we think we're going to get better."
Once on the mounds, a select group of Toronto pitchers will enter into a competition that will last deep into March to determine the back end of the rotation. Right-handers John Thomson and Tomo Ohka, who both signed with the Jays in January, are the leading candidates for the final two spots, but they'll have to fend off Shaun Marcum, Josh Towers, Casey Janssen and Dustin McGowan.
The drills for pitchers and catchers will be in full swing by the time Toronto's position players are required to report on Wednesday. Then, on Thursday, the Blue Jays will hold the first full-squad workout for their revamped roster.
At that time, Gibbons will get a look at all the pieces he's been provided with for the upcoming year. The Jays reeled in free-agent slugger Frank Thomas, added shortstop Royce Clayton, and picked up a few reserves in outfielder Matt Stairs, infielder Jason Smith and catcher Sal Fasano.
Some of Toronto's biggest offseason moves actually dealt with players already on the roster. In December, the Jays locked up center fielder Vernon Wells with a seven-year, $126 million deal that begins in 2008. Then in January, Toronto handed first baseman Lyle Overbay a four-year, $24 million extension.
Thomas, Wells and Overbay, along with All-Stars Troy Glaus and Alex Rios, help give Toronto one of the best offenses in the American League. It will be up to Gibbons this spring to find out how exactly that impressive lineup will shape up for Opening Day.
"I think [the fans] like what we've done," Gibbons said. "You see each year we get closer and closer to where we want to be, and it's time to get over that hump. It won't be easy, but it's long overdue."
The Blue Jays will use Spring Training to help answer some of their remaining questions. Once the season begins, Toronto hopes to make a run at the playoffs. Last year, the Jays placed second in the American League East, marking the first time the club finished higher than third in the division since 1993. It was a step in the right direction, but the Blue Jays want to take the next step.
ACTRA, producers reach deal
Canadian actors have reached a tentative deal with producers to end a six-week-old strike.
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), which represents 21,000 actors from across the country, verbally agreed with Canadian and Hollywood producers to end the dispute Friday afternoon.
Jeff Brinton, the spokesman for the Canadian Film & Television Production Association, said some details still need to be ironed out and the deal is subject to ratification, but an agreement is essentially in place.
Terms of the deal were not immediately available.
Wages and internet rights have been at the centre of a bitter battle between Canadian actors and producers that began in October and reached a head when ACTRA called a strike on Jan. 8.
The walkout began in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and took effect later in other jurisdictions.
During the strike, ACTRA allowed its members to work only with producers who signed a special continuation letter, agreeing to ACTRA's terms on wages, benefits and electronic rights.
There was word earlier this week that the two sides might be inching closer to a deal.
'Batman' Sequel Lands 'Smoking' Two-Face
After a lengthy process in which nearly every 30-something actor in Hollywood was linked to the role, the part of Harvey Dent in the upcoming sequel "The Dark Knight" appears to be going to Aaron Eckhart.
According to a variety of media reports (and ample Internet scuttlebutt), Eckhart is in final negotiations to take the key role as district attorney of Gotham City. It's a part that Billy Dee Williams played in Tim Burton's 1989 "Batman." However, as fans of the DC lore know, Dent becomes the mad crime boss Two-Face and Tommy Lee Jones took on the part for "Batman Forever" in 1995.
"The Dark Knight," Christopher Nolan's sequel to the franchise rebooting "Batman Begins," already has one newly added villain in Heath Leger's Joker. Christian Bale is reprising his titular role and Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman are also believed to have booked return engagements for the summer 2008 release. Katie Holmes won't return as Bruce Wayne's love interest and casting rumors are afoot for new female leads.
Other actors linked online (and therefore probably not in the real world) to the Dent part, but nudged aside by Eckhart include Jamie Foxx, Ryan Phillipe, Josh Lucas, Guy Peace and Ethan Hawke.
Eckhart, who earned Golden Globe and Independent Spirit nominations for his work in "Thank Your For Smoking," next co-stars with Catherine Zeta-Jones in "No Reservations."