The Couch Potato Report - April 21st, 2007
This week The Couch Potato Report shines the spotlight on some great Canadian inventions and two very different films about two very different American presidents.
First up this week is the DVD release of the exceptionally interesting CBC Television special THE GREATEST CANADIAN INVENTION.
I am a technology freak. A gadget geek. I like reading about them, finding out where they came from, how they work...and I am usually one of the first people on my block to have a new item when it comes out for sale.
So it was with great excitement back on Wednesday, January 3rd, that I sat down to watch THE GREATEST CANADIAN INVENTION, a two hour show that celebrated the finest innovations and innovators our country has ever produced.
Canadians from Coast to Coast to Coast used the CBC's website to vote for the invention they thought was the greatest and the show counts down the top fifty, ending up at our nation's greatest invention.
And I enjoyed this show immensely.
No, sadly, it wasn't perfect, but I did learn alot about some unique items, some I didn't know were Canadian.
For the record, the Lightbulb, the Telephone, Five Pin Bowling, Pacemaker, the Electric Wheelchair, Ski-Doo, Electric Oven and the Paint roller were all invented by Canadians!!
Now, I have heard of the man who hosts the show - CBC Radio's Bob McDonald from Quirks and Quarks - a great radio invention that can be heard on CBC Radio One Saturdays - including today - from 12 am to 1 pm.
And yes, I also know who astronaut Chris Hadfield, basketball MVP Steve Nash, Playwright and Columnist Drew Hayden Taylor, home decoration specialist Debbie Travis, and writer Margaret Atwood, are, as well as several of the other commentators.
But, in all honesty, I didn't know who some of the commentators were, and I found that worked against the show, not the inventions - the show.
However, if you already know who Mike Holmes, Mariam McDonald, Abena Otchere, Vikram Vij, and Joyce Gunhouse or Judy Cornish are you won't have that problem.
No, THE GREATEST CANADIAN INVENTION isn't perfect, but what it does exceptionally well is tell us the who, when and where of these inventions.
That is why it is a must see, and a great DVD to own.
Up next this week is one movie about an American president that is worth seeing and one that you should skip.
I'll start with the one that you should see: DEATH OF A PRESIDENT is a British made film that follows the investigation of the fictional assassination of President George W. Bush on October 19th, 2007.
This film uses actual footage of Mr. Bush, Vice President Cheny, and other top level officials and combines that with interviews with actors who are playing written roles.
The film has a great script and teh story is is told as an investigative documentary that takes place a few years into the future and examines the as-yet-unsolved crime.
There was only one time, once during DEATH OF A PRESIDENT where the illusion that this was a real documentary was broken.
I won't tell you where that is, as perhaps you won't notice it and you won't fault the film at all.
For me, that was the movie's only flaw. Otherwise, it was an exceptionally well done, and very interesting movie. It is one I think you should see, regardless of your political views of the Bush administration.
DEATH OF A PRESIDENT is about the fictional assasination of the current sitting U.S. President and I recommend you see it.
BOBBY is a film about the real assasination of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a man who could have become president.
Kennedy was a great man. This is not a great film and you should ignore it.
Bobby Kennedy remains a fascinating character almost 39 years after his death, but instead of focussing on him writer-director Emilio Estevez instead uses Kennedy's assasination as a backdrop, instead, trying to engage us with the mostly uninteresting stories of 22 people who just happened to be at the Ambassador Hotel when Kennedy was killed.
The cast of BOBBY - including Anthony Hopkins, Sharon Stone, William H. Macy, Elijah Wood, Lindsey Lohan, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Helen Hunt, Martin Sheen - is quite impressive, and their acting is not at fault here.
This film could have taken place at any hotel in any city on any date.
Using the Ambassador Hotel on June 6th, 1968, is a failed attempt to give the film meaning.
It doesn't work. The only part of BOBBY that will ever be remembered are the clips of Kennedy's speaches that are contained in the film.
And with the events this week in Virginia and HOuston, some of his words and questions remain just as relevant as ever.
Someday there will be a great movie made about this great man, but BOBBY isn't it.
However, it is now available on DVD alongside the fictional and interesting DEATH OF A PRESIDENT and the exceptional CBC television special THE GREATEST CANADIAN INVENTION.
Coming up in the next Couch Potato Report
I'll talk about Helen Mirren's exceptional Oscar Winning performance in THE QUEEN; the spectacular documentary series PLANET EARTH; we'll go to CHILLY BEACH, the Canadian island town where the tourists are few and the beer is plentiful; I'll tell you why you need to ignore the DVD release of the classic television series WKRP IN CINCINNATI; and in THE JOHNNY CARSON SHOW from 1955 and 56 we get to see the man at work before he made "The Tonight Show" his own.
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 next time on The Couch!
Rock is off the air in Cincinnati
The show they thought would never come to DVD actually comes to DVD next week.
And all the reasons they thought it would never arrive may actually be good reasons why it shouldn't be here now.
"WKRP in Cincinnati" was a late-1970s rock radio comedy filled with, shock of shocks, actual rock songs. Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" provided the punchline when bland newsman Les Nessman (Richard Sanders) donned a "hip" curly wig for a date with sexy station receptionist Jennifer (Loni Anderson). Pink Floyd's "Dogs" spun on the turntable as square boss Arthur Carlson (Gordon Jump) tried to discern what strange song zoned-out DJ Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman) was playing. The show rocked with the sounds of Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock & Roll" and Elvis Costello's "Goon Squad."
Note the past tense.
None of those songs makes it onto the first-season DVD set coming Tuesday from Fox Home Entertainment. Every episode has had music replaced, and in places where a song was integral to a scene, footage has been trimmed out.
The blame for what "WKRP" diehards decry as a travesty lies with, your choice:
A. Music licensing costs, skyrocketing as composers/performers/any- body with a hand in the till tries to make a buck from the supposed pot o' gold in TV DVD sales.
B. Greedy corporations, unconcerned with preserving the integrity of a show, taking the easiest/cheapest path toward throwing product onto store shelves.
C.Consumers prizing low prices above all else, making even well-intentioned distributors figure it's not worth shelling out to license original music if it means the set costs more.
Any or all answers might be apt. "It's the kind of a situation that Fox couldn't really win with," says Gord Lacey, whose authoritative TV Shows on DVD Web site was recently incorporated into TV Guide's online domain. "They either release the show with music substitutions," Lacey says, "or they don't release it at all."
During "WKRP's" original 1978-82 CBS run, the rights to the rock songs it played would have been licensed for TV series broadcast (which often includes syndicated reruns). Remember that 30 years ago even the videocassette market didn't exist, much less DVD or online. Retaining the rights to those songs in new digital media means relicensing their use. And that means getting permission from everyone involved - composers and publishers of music and lyrics, song performers, record companies and down the line.
While fans like to blame DVD distributors' greed, "sometimes people simply won't license [the use of] their songs" at all, Lacey says. Or they demand fees exorbitant enough to drastically hike DVD costs. NBC's cult fave "Freaks and Geeks," for instance, was released with its many '80s pop songs intact - but the 18-episode set had a list price of $70, at least $10 more than most drama sets of 22-plus episodes. "With other shows," Lacey says, "they can't even clear the theme song." DVD seasons of "Married ... With Children" replaced its "Love and Marriage" theme, and the new "George Lopez" set comes without "Low Rider."
Are those crucial losses? Maybe not. Are the "WKRP" songs? Maybe. Even casual fans could wonder why they're hearing generic instrumental riffs instead of recognizable song vocals.
"WKRP" diehards are livid, filling online message boards with invective and vows to boycott what they consider a bastardized release.
They might note, however, that series creator Hugh Wilson acknowledges in the DVD's pilot commentary (alongside costars Anderson and Frank Bonner) that music was replaced because it cost so much. Wilson later says in commentary for the classic "Turkeys Away" episode that he finds the substitutions "pretty good. I don't mind those music replacements."
Well, sure. He's probably busy admiring the scripts he wrote and the actors he cast, both of which hold up remarkably well nearly 30 years later. (So, surprisingly, do the crisp videotape visuals.) Longtime fans will be assessing the episodes' overall impression - at least partially dependent on the hot hits that made "WKRP" cool. As Loni Anderson says in DVD commentary, "music was kind of the ninth star" of the show.
Could Fox have done it differently? If they had licensed even a couple of joke-essential songs, say "Hot Blooded" and "Dogs," fans might not have gotten quite so worked up. (Search "WKRP" at YouTube to view those sequences with original music intact.) Suppose Fox had spent so much to license music that it raised the season's list price from $40 to $50. Would that have cut hugely into DVD sales? The first seasons of "Scrubs" and "Home Improvement" came out listed at $50. But most sitcoms of the "WKRP" vintage list for less: "M*A*S*H" is $40, while "Three's Company" and "The Facts of Life" are $30.
At least the catchy "WKRP" theme song ("Baby, if you've ever wondered/Wondered whatever became of me") is there at the start of every episode.
Thank God Hugh Wilson wrote it.
More thrillers invade box office
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Another weekend, another couple of thrillers. As the domestic box office catches its breath before plunging into the summer tentpole season, the Anthony Hopkins whodunit "Fracture" and the hotel horror "Vacancy" will attempt to scare up some ticket sales. Industry experts expect them to open in the $10 million-$15 million range.
Also new is the femme-centric comedy-drama "In the Land of Women," which stars Adam Brody of "O.C." fame, and will be hard-pressed to top the $10 million mark.
The film that looks to be generating the most buzz is the British cop comedy "Hot Fuzz." But the R-rated film is bowing in only 825 theaters -- vs. more than 2,000 for each of the other newcomers -- so won't overtake the board leaders.
The challenge for the newcomers is to win over a marketplace that might be suffering from thriller overload. Last weekend, the nosy-neighbor thriller "Disturbia" beat expectations to open at No. 1 with $22.2 million tally. A respectable 40%-50% drop would see the teen-oriented movie pull $11 million-$14 million.
New Line's R-rated "Fracture" boasts the best genes. Oscar winner Hopkins plays a wily murderer who matches wits with a young district attorney (Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling). It was directed by Gregory Hoblit, who mined similar territory in the Edward Norton breathrough "Primal Fear." Trailers that pit Hopkins against Gosling echo "The Silence of the Lambs."
Screen Gems' R-rated "Vacancy" stars Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson as a married couple stranded in an out-of-the-way motel where hidden video cameras track their every move. It marks the first American feature of Hungarian director Nimrod Antal ("Kontroll").
If it hopes to challenge either of the two new thrillers, "Women" will have to peel young girls away from "Disturbia" and its newly minted star, Shia LaBeouf. Its best hope for doing that lies in the appeal of Brody, the hunky star of Fox's teen soap "The O.C." In the film, he plays a young man who becomes entwined in the lives of his new neighbors, played by Meg Ryan and Kristen Stewart. The PG-13 film represents the directorial debut of Jonathan Kasdan, son of Lawrence Kasdan.
The film that looks to be generating the most fan excitement is the British cop comedy
"Hot Fuzz," already a hit in Britain, was directed by Edgar Wright, who made a name for himself with the zombie comedy "Shaun of the Dead." He directs co-writer Simon Pegg and Martin Freeman as mismatched partners in the Rogue Pictures release.
In limited engagements, ReelSource will screen "The Tripper," a horror film about hippies who encounter a maniacal killer with a Ronald Reagan fixation -- the killer's dog is named Nancy. The R-rated movie starring Lukas Haas and Thomas Jane marks the directorial debut of David Arquette, who enlisted his wife, Courteney Cox, to play a role.
For fans of more genteel comedy, Sony Pictures Classics will open "The Valet," from veteran French farceur Frances Weber, in Los Angeles and New York.
Pitt feels the "Burn" for Coens
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Brad Pitt has signed on to join his "Ocean's Thirteen" co-star George Clooney in the Coen brothers' black comedy "Burn After Reading." The project, which also stars Frances McDormand, centers on a CIA agent who loses the disc of the book he is writing.
Like the film's title, the screenplay is shrouded in secrecy, and it was unclear what role Pitt would play.
The actor will begin shooting the film in late August.
Joel and Ethan Coen penned the screenplay, and Joel Coen will direct. Focus Features will distribute worldwide.
Pitt, whose "Ocean's Thirteen" will unspool at next month's Cannes Film Festival, recently wrapped "The Assassination of Jesse James." The "Babel" star's upcoming films also include "Benjamin Button," which he is finishing in New Orleans.