The Couch Potato Report - June 9th, 2007
This week The Couch Potato Report peels another film that was made in Saskatchewan and offers some Father's Day gift suggestions.
Since The Couch Potato Report first began in 1991, I have reviewed films on almost as many formats. There have been video cassettes, video discs, laserdiscs, VCDs, UMDs and more than a few others.
And the future of home viewing is already upon us with Blue Ray and HD-DVD gaining popularity..., but for the time being I will continue to just talk about new releases that are available on DVDs.
Including the DVD that is now in stores for the made-in-Saskatchewan horror film THE MESSENGERS.
When this film opened in theatres back in February, it became the first film made in that province to open in the number one spot on the box office charts.
In THE MESSENGERS Dylan McDermott from TV's THE PRACTICE and Penelope Ann Miller of KINDERGARTEN COP fame are a couple who have packed up their life in the city and moved to the country with their two children, including a teenage daughter who has done something terribly wrong.
The young actress Kristen Stewart from PANIC ROOM is the daughter, and soon after they arrive at their spooky old house in the middle of nowhere, she starts to see things...and hear things...and no one ...especially not her parents...believes her
During the very brisk 84 minute running time of this film, we also get to meet a banker, a few kids from the neighbouring town, and a mysterious stranger who becoimes the family's hired hand.
What we don't get is much originality.
THE MESSENGERS is a "what you see is not what you've seen" sort of film that borrows heavily from other well-known horror classics like THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS, THE GRUDGE and POLTERGEIST, and it is for those reasons that I can't strongly recommend it.
But, ultimately, I do recommend it.
If you enjoy horror films, and movies that have a few good scares in them, then this is a good one to watch.
On Easter Monday of this year, CBC Television covered the rededication ceremony of the war memorial in Vimy, France.
As I watched the new DVD this week featuring the highlights of the many features and stories that my CBC colleagues had produced for that broadcast of the Monument's rededication, I felt the same way as I did when I sat and watched their original airing:
Wow!!
VIMY RIDGE 90 made me proud to be a Canadian, and it also made me want to make a pilgrimage to see this spectacular tribute to the Canadians who gave their lives so we could be here today.
VIMY RIDGE 90 is three hour highlight package from an unforgettable day in Canadian history. You get to witness the Sunset Ceremony, the Lighting of the Monument, and you'll experience the newly restored memorial in all of its glory, the Freedom of the City parade; and much, much more.
It is a must see and a title that you must own.
This DVD would make a great Father's Day gift next weekend...and so would the Two-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition of director Howard Hawks' classic western RIO BRAVO!
Simply put, RIO BRAVO is one of the top five western movies ever made.
John Wayne is Sheriff John T. Chance, Dean Martin is his sobering-up alcoholic friend Dude, and Ricky Nelson is the hotshot new kid Colorado.
They are what stands between a currupt prisoner and the growing list of people who want to break him out of jail.
There is fightin', horse ridin', heroes, villains, a saloon, a perty gal, and everything a classic western should have.
Plus, this Ultimate Collector's Edition features a remastered version of the film, a commentary, documentary, featurettes, the press book, a comic book, teh film's lobby cards and more!!
If you like Westerns, this is the package for you, and if your Dad likes them, then this would be a great gift for him next Sunday.
Okay, it is time for the next release in our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD.
This summer I will be telling you about a different film each week in a foreign language.
German is the language spoken in the Austrian film ANTARES.
This movie features people who have secrets and lies
Specifically we meet a three women, whose paths cross in a large building complex.
There is a married nurse who has a lover that hardly speaks.
A cashier who is lying to her boyfriend that she is pregnant.
And a divorced woman who has problems getting rid of her ex-husband.
The destinies of the women we meet all have something to do with each other, and it is all quite engaging.
ANTARES is the type of movie where you won't understand everything that you see in it until the very end, and then it will all be clear.
I really enjoyed watching it all fall into place.
The engaging Austrian film ANTARES (an-tair-eez), the Two-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition of director Howard Hawks' classic western RIO BRAVO, the exceptional VIMY RIDGE 90, and the made-in-Saskatchewan film THE MESSENGERS are all available now on DVD.
Coming up in the next Couch Potato Report
MISSING VICTOR PELLERIN is a Canadian film about a young star of the art scene who burns a fortune in paintings and leaves Montreal without a trace; SNOWCAKE focusses on the friendship between a high-functioning autistic woman and a man who is traumatized after a fatal car accident.
I will also talk about Season Two of the superb television series THE CLOSER; and the based-on-a-true-story spy thriller BREACH.
Also next week, our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD continues with the French film TOI ET MOI. It juxtaposes real-life relationships with those of fiction and shows us how and why we sometimes get confused.
Mon dieu!!
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!
Regina to host Geminis
The 22nd annual showcase for Canada's television industry will be held at Regina's Conexus Arts Centre in October.
Two television networks are teaming up for the event. CBC-TV will broadcast the Oct. 28 award ceremony while Global will cover the red-carpet event before the main show.
The awards recognize the best in television, including news, drama, sports and comedy.
The announcement was made in Regina Friday by Paul Gratton, the chair of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.
Gratton said when he saw Regina's proposal to host the awards, he couldn't turn it down.
The province will contribute $150,000 toward the $250,000 fee for the event.
The Saskatchewan Film and Video Development Corp. [SaskFilm] and the City of Regina will each contribute $50,000.
Premier Lorne Calvert, who was on hand for the announcement, said the province's $150,000 will be money well spent.
"We'll get that back in a half an hour of sales tax revenues," he said. "The dollar here is assured. What is also assured is the profile being raised."
Saskatchewan is known as a great place for film and television, Calvert said, pointing to the success of the such TV shows as Corner Gas and Little Mosque on the Prairie.
The annual awards ceremony was held in Vancouver last year. Before that, the galas have been held in Toronto.
Spice Girls Reunion a Well-Seasoned Rumor
The Spice Girls are still oceans apart when it comes to getting together.
First, it was Live 8 in 2005, and this time it's the July 1 tribute to Princess Diana that the '90s-era British pop stars will not be performing at, sticking a fork in yet another rumor that Scary, Sporty, Baby, Ginger and Posh are ready to take the stage again.
"Despite media speculation at this time, there is no confirmation of a Spice reunion," Victoria Beckham's rep, Cheryl Maisel, told E! News.
"Victoria is moving to L.A., Emma is due to have a baby and Mel B has only recently given birth, so at this time there really is nothing to confirm."
A source told People, however, that Beckham, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown and Melanie Chisholm could all be caroling together come Christmastime.
"It should be happening in December," the source said. "Geri [aka Ginger] and Emma [Baby] have been in the studio writing new material and they want to do a worldwide tour."
People reported that a Spice Girls greatest hits album is in the works, with sources saying it will include several new songs—"one in particular is fantastic," a recording studio insider said.
The Spice Girls, sort of the Backstreet Boys of England at the time (as in, they didn't know each other and answered an ad in the paper looking for singer-dancers], was the brainchild of American Idol mastermind Simon Fuller, who signed the group to 19 Management in 1995, soon after which the ladies inked a deal with Virgin Records.
Halliwell left the group in 1998 and the remaining four Girls' final studio album, 2000's Forever, wasn't one for the books, peaking at number 39 on the Billboard 200. After a few TV performances, including one at the MTV Europe Video Music Awards in November 2000, the Spice World stars went their separate ways.
The closest they've come to a reunion since was Bob Geldof's announcement in 2005 that they were discussing an appearance at Live 8 that July in Hyde Park. Brown reportedly had a prior commitment in Los Angeles and the deal fell through.
Another insider told People that whether or not the reunion takes place this time hinges on Simon Fuller, now that Chisholm (Sporty) is finally on board.
"It's been a long time coming and the negotiations have been going on for a while," the insider told the magazine. "Mel C. was the last one to come onboard as she has been pushing her solo career."
Chisholm started her own company, Red Girl Records, in 2004 and has released four solo albums, with her first, 1999's Northern Star, being the most successful, hitting number four on the U.K. charts.
Meanwhile, Bunton, who appeared in a multi-episode arc on the final season of Absolutely Fabulous and has been busy making commercials in Britain, is expecting her first child with longtime boyfriend Jade Jones.
Brown gave birth to a baby girl, who may or may not be Eddie Murphy's child, in April. The actor is listed as the father on Angel Iris Murphy Brown's birth certificate, but paternity has not yet been established.
Halliwell also had a baby last year, Bluebell Madonna, whose Apr. 22 baptism attracted all of her mum's group mates, minus Brown. The singer, who has released three solo albums, has also taken up writing, signing a six-book deal with Macmillan Children's Books to pen a series revolving around a heroine named Eugenia Lavender.
And, considering she's the most famous of the five—largely thanks to her tabloid-friendly marriage to U.K. soccer superstar David Beckham—it's hard to imagine that Easy V would come for free.
Beckham, whose solo recording efforts picked up little steam but who had more success on the fashion-design front, has also remained tightlipped about any plans to Spice up her life in the near future.
She told a British radio station in October that she just didn't think a reunion was going to happen.
"I think we're all just happy doing our own thing now and, obviously, having three children, I can't really see myself jumping around on the stage anymore," she said.
The petite footballer's wife is set to star in a one-hour prime-time NBC special chronicling her family's relocation to Los Angeles, where her hubby has signed a $250 million deal (including salary and endorsements) to play for the local Galaxy for the next five years.
The NBC show was originally presented as a six-episode reality series, but Victoria reportedly opted to remain in England and watch David Beckham make his return to the national team rather than fly to L.A. to shoot more footage.
Posh and Becks are expected to make the transatlantic move in mid-July.
Beastie Boys switch gears with instrumental album
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Long known for their relatively epic waits between studio releases, the Beastie Boys surprised fans this spring with the announcement that their new record would arrive a scant three years after 2004's "To the 5 Boroughs."
But the Beastie Boys are also long known for sudden stylistic left turns, and shortly thereafter, they revealed that the album would consist solely of instrumentals.
As promised, "The Mix-Up," due June 26 via Capitol, goes heavy on the groove, especially the splashing, crashing Meters-inflected funk the band has been consistently serving up since 1992's "Check Your Head." But there's not a rhyme to be found.
"If we were trying to maximize our demographic or whatever, I'm not sure we'd come with an instrumental record right now," says Michael "Mike D" Diamond, whose bad self runs things on the drum kit throughout the album. "But I think we have to give people who've been listening to us some credit. They've gone to different places with us already, in terms of the influences we bring to the music we make, so hopefully they'll be able to hang with this curveball as well."
The curveball began taking shape about a year or so after "To the 5 Boroughs" was released. "With '5 Boroughs,' we were each working on beats, sitting in front of our laptops and samplers," Diamond says. "This time, we thought, 'Let's do a 180 from that, and sit down and play some instrumentals and see what happens that way.' We just didn't really stop until we finished."
The 12 tracks on "The Mix-Up" are all new and were never seriously considered for lyrics, although Diamond concedes that the band is mulling highly tentative plans to release a second version of the record with guest vocalists. "The more we kept working on these songs, the happier with them we became, and the more confused in terms of where there was room to put vocals on them," he says.
The Beasties -- whose last instrumental record was the 1996 compilation "The In Sound From Way Out!" -- are turning their attention to getting the word out to their college-age fan base and beyond. In perhaps the most telling sign of a significant shift toward an older audience, "The Mix-Up" will be on sale at Starbucks.
Tour plans are still in the works -- including some U.S. dates that haven't been announced yet -- and some shows will be instrumental-only. (Before their recent two-night stand at the Sasquatch Festival in George, Wash., the Beasties played a surprise show for several hundred fans at Seattle's Crocodile Cafe.)
"We've got plenty more work ahead of us," Diamond says. "We kind of have a pretty broad list (of songs) to pick and choose from."
Washington out of `Grey's Anatomy'
LOS ANGELES - Isaiah Washington has lost his job on the hit ABC medical drama "Grey's Anatomy," five months after creating a furor with his use of an anti-gay slur.
Washington's contract option was not renewed for next season, series producer ABC Television Studios said Thursday.
"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore," Washington said in a statement released through his publicist, Howard Bragman, without elaboration.
He drew fire after using the anti-gay epithet backstage at the Golden Globe Awards in January while denying he'd used it previously on the set against cast mate T.R. Knight.
Gay rights groups and cast member Katherine Heigl, who publicly denounced Washington, were among his most vocal critics.
"This is something that will have changed the scope of his life," Heigl told Entertainment Weekly last month. Washington was "sorry and embarrassed" for the mistake, she said.
Washington tried to make amends and said he was seeking therapy.
He also met with officials from the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and filmed a public service announcement in which he said "words have power" to hurt or heal.
The May finale of "Grey's Anatomy" opened the door for the departure of his character. Burke was on the verge of marrying Dr. Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), but her doubts at first delayed and then derailed their splashy wedding.
Later, Yang found that Burke cleared out his favorite possessions from their apartment.
In May, Bragman said the actor intended to spend the summer working and not worrying about the show. Washington intended to continue his charity work in Sierra Leone, which a DNA test showed to be his ancestral home, and work on an independent movie.