The Couch Potato Report - March 28th, 2009
This week The Couch Potato Report peels Bolt, Dog Bolt, Bond, James Bond, Big Stan and a not so noble, Nobel son.
What a great week I had watching movies this final full week of March!
Sure, there was one movie that was an absolutely awful piece of garbage...but for the most part, this was been a great movie week!!
That garbage is coming up, just to ensure you completely avoid it...but up first is this week's HOT POTATO...the Academy Award nominated, co-directed by a Canadian, animated film BOLT.
I loved this film, it was fun, had great action and characters, the animation was great and I loved it.
So, need I say more?
Well, I will say more, only because the it is worthy of the time, plus, it gives me a chance to mention that I met the directors of the film Byron Howard and Chris Williams on the Red Carpet at the Oscars last month!
And Chris Williams was born and raised in Kitchener, Ontario!
BOLT is about a dog - voiced by John Travolta - who is the star of a television show where he has superpowers.
And, when the cameras are off, he still thinks he has superpowers.
When Bolt believes that his co-star and friend Penny - played by Miley Cyrus - is in trouble, he runs away from the trailer he is kept in to try and save her.
He is aided in his efforts by the films most entertaining character, a star-struck, running ball-enclosed hamster named Rhino.
BOLT is fun for the whole family, I loved it and when I have time I will definitely see it again.
Just as I will happily see this week's next five films again...and again...and again...and again...
The latest Bond, James bond film QUANTUM OF SOLACE came out this week, so four other films in the series have also been re-released, and are available now for the first time on Blu-ray...just in case you want to upgrade to hi-definition.
I will get to the other four in just a moment, but first, I would like to rave about QUANTUM OF SOLACE
QUANTUM is Daniel Craig's second outing as Bond, and the film picks up right where CASINO ROYALE left off, and I mean literally right after, so if you didn't see Craig's first outing as Agent 007 you will be a little lost when watching this one as it begins with a spectacular car chase that is actually Bond taking a prisoner in for questioning.
The interrogation and subsequent events uncovers a global conspiracy named Quantum, that has members in positions of prominence and power who are all up to no good...but the film is only partially about them.
It is primarily about Bond seeking revenge toward those who killed the woman he loved.
QUANTUM OF SOLACE isn't the best Bond film ever made, but it is still a great movie, and I liked it, and Bond Girl Olga Kurylenko a lot. However, if you are going to see it, make sure you watch CASINO ROYALE first...unless you prefer the older Bond films instead...and if that is the case, well you are in luck!!
The space based MOONRAKER with Roger Moore, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH starring Pierce Brosnan, and two Sean Connery Bond films - NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN and GOLDFINGER are now available once again!
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN is the 1983 film that say Connery return to the role of Bond in a film that many don't even consider an official Bond film, and while it isn't one of my favourite films, I do like it. But I love GOLDFINGER!!
It was the very first Bond film I ever saw, and even if you think you don't like this series of films about the super-suave British secret agent, I can still highly recommend GOLDFINGER!!
From the long-lasting and legendary James Bond cinematic character, we now move on to a character who should be ignored and forgotten.
This next film is so bad, so awful and such a piece of garbage that I only mention it so you can make sure you avoid it...even if you have laughed at films by Rob Schneider in the past.
Those films may have included, The Benchwarmers, The Hot Chick, The Animal, or Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo...and Schneider has also been funny in almost all of Adam Sandler's films...but he is not funny in his latest release!!
It is called BIG STAN and it is garbage!! Absoulte garbage!!! Even if there is nothing else in the store to rent, do not rent BIG STAN...it is a complete waste of your time!!
And that is enough time wasted on this mess!
Let me tell you about a real comedy! One that may not be for everyone, due to the fact that it is absolutely NOT politically correct, and some of the humour and references are waaay out there, but still, WET-HOT AMERICAN SUMMER made me laugh.
And isn't that what a comedy is supposed to do?
WET-HOT AMERICAN SUMMER is a film set in a summer camp in 1981 and it stars Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Molly Shannon, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Amy Poehler from Saturday Night Live and Christopher Meloni from LAW & ORDER: SVU.
WET-HOT AMERICAN SUMMER is the type of film that not everyone will enjoy...but I did.
I also enjoyed NOBEL SON. It isn't a great movie, but it is very good.
This film is a very black comedy about a dysfunctional family who have to deal with a kidnapping following the father's winning of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Alan Rickman from DIE HARD plays the very arrogant prize-winning professor.
NOBEL SON has a great cast that also includes Mary Steenburgen, Bill Pullman, Eliza Dushku, Danny DeVito and Ted Danson, and it almost succeeds at being a hip and cool, fast, heavily edited flick, but there is very little suspense and that takes away from it in the end. Like I said, this one is not great, but it is very good.
Finally this week is the two disc set for SEASON TWO of the televison show THE RICHES.
Minnie Driver and the great star in this show about a family of crooks who assume the identity of an upper-middle-class suburban clan in the Deep South.
Personally, I never thought THE RICHES was as good as it could have been, but is still an above average sgow and I really enjoyed seeing how it played out in this second, and as it turns out final series, as the show has now been cancelled.
Cancelled or not, THE RICHES is a very good show and SEASON TWO of it is available now on DVD alongside NOBEL SON, WET-HOT AMERICAN SUMMER and the awful piece of garbage that is BIG STAN!!
The James Bond reissues NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, GOLDFINGER, MOONRAKER and THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, the great newest Bond film QUANTUM OF SOLACE, and the very entertaining animated film BOLT are available now on DVD and Blu-ray.
Oh, and the OUT & ABOUT feature from this year's Academy Awards featuring my interview with BOLT's director Chris Williams can be heard online at www.cbc.ca/saskweekend...just look under LINKS.
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
I will tell you about a new Canadian made documentary called AIR INDIA 182 and the Academy Award winning film SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.
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!
CBC comedy Sophie cancelled after two seasons
CBC has cancelled Sophie, the half-hour comedy about a single mother starring Natalie Brown.
The series has run two seasons on CBC-TV and was also picked up by U.S. network ABC for its family channel.
Brown plays Sophie, a talent agent who ended up a single mother in the first season after her boyfriend left her for her former best friend.
Created by Montreal studio Sphère Média Plus, the show is an adaptation of the successful francophone series Les hauts et les bas de Sophie Paquin (The Highs and Lows of Sophie Paquin).
Jeff Keay, head of media relations for the English network, said the cancellation was unrelated to the programming and job cuts announced at CBC on Thursday.
The season finale of Sophie aired earlier this week.
CBC made the decision to cancel Sophie more than a month ago, he said. The show is running Monday evenings at 8.30 p.m.
On Thursday, CBC announced there would be fewer episodes of several other primetime shows, including This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Being Erica.
Metallica's Making Hall Of Fame Induction A "Family Reunion"
Metallica is using its upcoming Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction to stage what drummer Lars Ulrich calls "a sort of family reunion."
"I don't think there's a better time to come together than when it's about celebration," Ulrich tells Billboard.com. "I think everybody is proud of their association (with Metallica), so we're reaching out to everybody who's been a part of this, both inside the band on and on the periphery of the band over the years. And there's a big group of people coming to Cleveland for the weekend, so I look forward to seeing a lot of people I haven't seen for a long time."
The Metallica guest list for the April 4 induction includes staffers from the band's previous labels, Megaforce and Elektra, journalists and photographers who have been supportive over the group's career, producers and musician friends. Metallica also invited founding guitarist Dave Mustaine, who is unable to attend, and former bassists Ron McGovney and Jason Newsted, who will. Newsted is also planning to perform with Metallica during the ceremony. Ray Burton, father of the late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton, will accept on behalf of his son.
Guitarist Kirk Hammett says Metallica was inspired to be all-inclusive after it witness Blondie's acrimonious induction during the 2006 Rock Hall ceremony. "There was so much politics and so much drama," Hammett recalls, "that we collectively said to each other that if that ever happens and we get inducted...we don't want any of that, because it kind of really puts a whole bad, sour note on the celebration itself. We said to each other, 'Let's celebrate the fact and let's not turn it into something negative."
Hammett calls Metallica's induction "pretty huge," and both he and Ulrich say they're pleased the group is being honored while it's "still a vital band, still somewhat relevant and somewhat active in making records and touring," according to Hammett. "To be in a position where we are simultaneously being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and putting out a video game ("Guitar Hero: Metallica," coming out Tuesday), it's a very, very cool thing."
"Sometimes," Ulrich adds, "especially with younger people, one has a tendency to quickly, when accolades come your way, kinda go the cool way and say it doesn't mean that much, 'Try me again in 10 years, [i]dahling[/i]...I'd much rather be inducted into the Hall of Fame while I'm still conscious enough to experience and enjoy it and certainly more interested than it being 65 years from now or whenever."
Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea will induct Metallica during the ceremony, which will be broadcast live by Fuse TV. Metallica is taking a break from the European leg of its Death Magnetic tour to attend the ceremony and recently announced a new set of North American dates, starting Sept. 14 in Nashville.
'Family Guy' reunites 'Trek' crew
Science fiction and animated parody seem to go together like, uh, Captain Picard and Dr. Crusher.
OK, clumsy analogy. But seriously, what is it about sci-fi that makes it so ripe for mockery by animated comedies such as Family Guy?
"I think it's easy to mock things that take themselves too seriously," said David Goodman, the show-runner and co-executive producer of Family Guy. "Star Trek is both wonderful and pompous at the same time."
Great point. And Goodman, by the way, is a self-confessed "hardcore Trekkie," as is Family Guy creator and voiceover star Seth MacFarlane.
Anyway, in a new Family Guy episode titled Not All Dogs Go to Heaven, which airs Sunday on Global and Fox, the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation reunites in animated form.
"They all were very game," Goodman said. "Many of them already had done the show (individually). Patrick Stewart (who played Captain Picard) is sort of in the family, because he has a recurring role on American Dad and he has done Family Guy more than once.
"It was not hard at all (to convince them). They were fans of the show. They couldn't have been nicer or more game to spoof themselves. As a group, they could not have had a better sense of humour, which you don't always find with actors. A lot of actors don't like to play themselves, don't like to spoof themselves, but this group is just the opposite."
Star Trek: The Next Generation ran for seven seasons -- longer than any other Star Trek series -- from 1987 to 1994. But that's quite a long time ago.
So, Goodman was asked, why parody TNG now?
"You could ask, why did we do a Back to the Future reference last week, when the movie is (24) years old?" replied Goodman, whose show has another Star Wars parody and a Tootsie spoof in the works, too.
"Seth and I are huge fans of Star Trek and we realized that although there had been plenty of episodes in episodic television that brought back the cast of the original series -- in fact, I wrote one of them for Futurama -- nobody had reunited The Next Generation cast. And The Next Generation was a hugely popular show in its day. I think they got like 10 or 12 million viewers a week, and I think we only get like eight million.
"We aren't necessarily going to reference the most current show, although we do that (sometimes). Our stock in trade is our own memories of shows we watched when we were younger."
In Not All Dogs Go to Heaven, Stewie (voiced by MacFarlane) builds a transporter and beams the cast of The Next Generation to his bedroom so they can spend a fun-filled day together in Quahog. The guest voices from TNG belong to Stewart, LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, Wil Wheaton, Denise Crosby, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes.
"They're all playing themselves (as opposed to their TNG characters), so we had fun playing with who they really are, and Stewie discovers what it's like to hang out with them," Goodman said. "It's the Family Guy twist on your expectations, so I'm very pleased with the surprises in the episode."
Goodman was asked what the funniest line of dialogue in the episode is. "To me the best line is what Stewie says to the (TNG) cast at the end of the episode," Goodman said.
"I'm not going to give it away. But (Stewie) didn't get to ask his question at the Star Trek convention, so he kidnaps all of them and has a little bit of a journey with them.
"His final words to them, I think, are very funny." Can't wait.