The Couch Potato Report - April 12th, 2008
This week The Couch Potato Report peels a very bad television show, sharks, Bonnie, Clyde, Harold AND Kumar.
I have said it before, and I shall say it again - I am a very lucky man.
I say that because one of the things I get to do each and every week is watch the newest releases on DVD, and then tell you about them.
It is a something that I truly enjoy, even when something is a complete waste of my time.
Since I don't have a lot of time in this forum each week, I usually just ignore any releases that fall into that category.
However, even though I think this week's Hot Potato is absolutely awful...I am still going to talk about it because it is a Canadian show, and who knows, maybe you will like it.
I doubt it...but who knows.
That show, and this DVD is RENT-A-GOALIE, a real service that is actually provided to rec hockey teams in Toronto, but all told this show has very little to do with hockey.
Sure, occasionally it does feature the game, but for the most part it is just a show about unlikable people who find themselves in unfortunate situations, ususally as a result of something they did.
The stupidity of the characters in thsi show made it hard to sit through, but the main thing that I couldn't get past was the language. Now I am not easily offended by any means, but this show - which airs on the cable channel Showcase and is intended for mature audiences - uses profane and highly objectional language, just because it can!
The language doesn't seem to take place because the characters or on-screen situation warrants it, they just know they CAN use this language, so they do.
And they do that, and other hard to fathom things, a lot!!
Even the guest stars - such as hockey greats Tiger Williams and Phil Esposito - seem to show up, just so they can swear on a TV show!
Truth be told, RENT-A-GOALIE wants to be CHEERS, especially as it attempts to re-create the Sam & Diane dynamic between it's two lead characters.
But the characters in CHEERS were likable, they had something to say, and they were funny.
The characters in RENT-A-GOALIE have nothing to say, and they are not funny, and even during the few, brief moments when you do maybe start liking them, the writers make them say or do something, and you just don't care again.
If you like the low-life characaters and humour of TRAILER PARK BOYS, then maybe...MAYBE you will find something to like in SEASON ONE of RENT-A-GOALIE.
Otherwise, this 2-DVD set is just a complete waste of time. This is time I am never getting back!!
Up next this week is a film that I liked a lot more than RENT-A-GOALIE, however, I did not love SHARKWATER - a film that seeks to debunk historical stereotypes and media depictions of sharks - and I fully expected to.
But...while I didn't love it, SHARKWATER is a film that I would still recommend.
For filmmaker Rob Stewart, exploring sharks began as an underwater adventure. What it turned into was a beautiful and dangerous life journey into the balance of life on earth.
Driven by passion fed from a lifelong fascination with sharks, filmmaker Rob Stewart takes us under and above water with him as he travels to some of the most beautiful locations in the world to save sharks from being put on the endangered species list.
There are some amazing stories in SHARKWATER, some spectacular undersea footage, and some unique facts.
For instance, did you know that pop machines kill more people each year than sharks?
But in the end, what causes SHARKWATER's ultimate downfall is the fact that filmmaker Stewart starts to tell his story, not the sharks.
So instead of spending extra time with renegade conservationists, or seeing more of the battles with shark poachers in Guatemala, or additinal footage of boat rammings or gunboat chases, we spend time with Stewart as he is laid up in a hospital bed, due to injuries he suffered while making the film.
Less filmmaker, more sharks would have made SHARKWATER a better film, but even the way it is, this is still a film I liked. I didn't love it, but I liked it.
It is great to look at, and at times it is very informative.
Nope, didn't love SHARKWATER, I liked it, but BONNIE & CLYDE, now that is a film I love!!
BONNIE & CLYDE is an Academy Award winnning film from 1967 about Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, the real-life bank robbers who roamed the central United States during the Great Depression.
It it's day BONNIE & CLYDE was regarded as the first film of the New Hollywood era, in that it was very violent and sexual, and it was popular with younger audiences.
On this day, the film stands up, over forty years later! This is a true Hollywood clasic, and the cast and filmmakers seem to know that as the new Two-Disc Special Edition has some great retrospective documentaries that features almost all of the principles, from director Arthur Penn, to stars Gene Hackman, Faye Dunaway and even publicity shy Warren Beatty.
Yup, BONNIE & CLYDE is a classic, and to some, the made-in-Toronto stoner comedy HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE - about two guys just trying to get some hamburgers, even though Murphy's Law is preventing that from happening - is a classic too!
With the sequel HAROLD AND KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY due in theatres in two weeks, this new DVD version features deleted scenes & outtakes; interviews and commentaries and much more.
Harold And Kumar are this generation's Cheech & Chong and HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE still makes me laugh.
The still funny stoner comedy HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE, the still classic film BONNIE & CLYDE, the very informative and interesting SHARKWATER and SEASON ONE of the awful Canadian television series RENT-A-GOALIE are all available now on DVD.
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
JUNO - the Academy Award winning film that everyone seems to love, except for me - debuts on DVD; so does BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, the latest from the director who gave us TWELVE ANGRY MEN, SEPRICO, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, NETWORK and THE VERDICT.
Also next week is the horror film P2; in RESERVATION ROAD, one father loses a son and another tries to live with the guilt of a hit-and-run accident; And THE PROM NIGHT COLLECTION contains the four original films in the Prom Night Franchise including the original film from 1980 starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Saskatchewan's own Leslie Nielsen.
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!
Coldplay Indulges Experimentation On Fourth Album
Coldplay lets its creative flag fly on its fourth studio album, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," due June 17 via Capitol. "We're still obsessed with making songs that can be sung to the rafters," frontman Chris Martin says. "We just wanted to present them differently."
To accomplish that goal, the group turned to co-producers Brian Eno and Markus Dravs, who adorn the material with grandiose embellishments the likes of which have never been heard before on a Coldplay album.
"Viva La Vida" begins with a strident instrumental, "Life in Technicolor," built as much on an arpeggiated synth foundation as it is on an acoustic guitar melody. The same instrumental is tacked onto the final song, "Death and All His Friends," as a hidden track dubbed "The Escapist."
In between, the band frequently breaks from verse-chorus-verse constructions, particularly on "42," which is comprised of three distinct, seemingly unrelated sections. "Yes" shifts from a string- and tabla-driven rocker into a shoegazer-y breakdown, while a funky groove emerges from out of nowhere in the middle of "Death and All His Friends."
Elsewhere, Martin and the piano are at the forefront of the shimmering "Reign of Love," while "Cemeteries of London" conjures a foreboding vibe apropos of its title and "Lost!" swells with massive-sounding church organ strains.
Drummer Will Champion credits Eno with upending Coldplay's usual working habits in the studio. "Brian has this amazing ability to demystify wonderful music and make it seem very achievable," he says. "We weren't afraid to try anything."
Coldplay recorded a number of other songs that did not wind up making the final track list, including "Postcards From Far Away," "Lukas," "Rainy Day," "The Goldrush" and "Now My Feet Won't Touch the Ground," but it's unknown if they will be released in some form down the road.
Here is the track list for "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends":
"Life in Technicolor"
"Cemeteries of London"
"Lost!"
"42"
"Lovers in Japan"/"Reign of Love"
"Yes"
"Viva La Vida"
"Violet Hill"
"Strawberry Swing"
"Death and All His Friends"
AC/DC Recording With Brendan O'Brien
AC/DC is recording its first studio album in eight years with producer Brendan O'Brien. No release date has yet been announced for the Columbia project.
The news came via a Web post from Supersuckers frontman Eddie Spaghetti, who said his own band's album is being delayed due to O'Brien engineer Billy Bowers' work with AC/DC. Bowers is producing the Supersuckers' as-yet-untitled disc.
"[Bowers] wants to make some last-minute tweaks and, well, he can't right now," Spaghetti wrote. "He's been detained by a little Australian band called, uh, AC/DC."
AC/DC is expected to tour in support of the album, with dates to be announced.
Beastie Boy makes basketball documentary
NEW YORK - Some of college basketball's brightest stars, including Kansas State's Michael Beasley and UCLA's Kevin Love, are featured in Beastie Boy Adam Yauch's new documentary, "Gunnin' for That No. 1 Spot."
And while it's less than two years since he followed the then-high school players for a week, he still can't get over how much they've changed.
"They already look different, and I think it will be really interesting to look at this doc five or 10 years from now and see these guys when they were high school students. There's a good chance that several of them may be superstars in the NBA," Yauch told The Associated Press in an interview this week. "They were like babies in this picture."
Yauch took his camera to Harlem's famed Rucker Park, made famous by streetballers, in September 2006 to document some of the nation's top high school talent, who were playing in an event there.
Yauch said he was struck by how the players — who also included Jerryd Bayless of Arizona, Donte Green of Syracuse and Kyle Singler of Duke — could act like kids one minute, yet live in such an adult world.
"They have this infrastructure around them, and they are being groomed for stardom," he said.
"When I was in high school I wasn't getting the quantity of media that these guys are," he said. "But it's not necessarily a bad thing."
Yauch, 43, said the documentary, which premieres April 28 at the Tribeca Film Festival, doesn't make a judgment on the world where the precocious teens lived, but does give viewers a glimpse into it. He added: "The people around these kids really do care about them."
"Gunnin' for That No. 1 Spot" is slated for wide release June 27.