Category: The Couch Potato Report

The Couch Potato Report – January 12th, 2013

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report are Two Oscar Nominees and a judge, jury and executioner from a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

The nominations for the 85th Annual Academy Awards were announced early Thursday morning, and Steven Spielberg’s film LINCOLN leads the pack with 12 nominations and the film based on Saskatoon author Yann Martel’s book LIFE OF PI received 11.

Since neither of those films will be available on Blu-ray or DVD until the Spring, let me focus this morning on two Oscar nominated films that are available in stores and online right now.

The first one is the French Canadian film that was nominated in the Best Foreign Language category, WAR WITCH.

WAR WITCH tells the story of a girl who is kidnapped by African rebels at the age of 12 and forced to become a child soldier against the government.

The reason the child is given the title of War Witch by the leader of the rebels is due to her ability to see grey ghosts in the trees that warn her of approaching enemies.

WAR WITCH begins with the now 14 year old girl telling her story to the unborn child growing inside of her as she tries to come to grips with the things that she has been forced to do and from beginning to end it is an exceptional film.

Due to its subject matter and it’s very graphic depiction or war, it is never an easy movie to watch, but I recommend that you do see it.

WAR WITCH is a very interesting movie…an Academy Award nominated Canadian movie!!

The other Oscar nominated new release that I have for you this week is one that was shortlisted in the Best Animated Feature Film category…Tim Burton’s FRANKENWEENIE.

FRANKENWEENIE is a stop-motion film that is a remake of Burton’s own 1984 short film of the same name.

A young boy named Victor Frankenstein uses science and electricity to bring his beloved dog Sparky back to life, because he loves and misses him AND wants to win the science fair at school, but his joy at having Sparky back in his life is only matched by the horror of others who want the raised from the dead creature out of their lives.

FRANKENWEENIE is a dog brought back to life onscreen and off as Tim Burton has gone back into his past to retell a story that he loves, a story that is both a parody of and a tribute to the 1931 film FRANKENSTEIN, based on Mary Shelley’s book of the same name.

I for one am glad he did as FRANKENWEENIE is very entertaining…not as entertaining as his stop-motion classic THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, but still very entertaining.

PLUS, several of the voices are provided by the great Canadian actors, and SCTV veterans Martin Short and Catherine O’Hara.

FRANKENWEENIE is a fun flick that is a deserving nominee in the Best Animated Feature Film category for the 85th Annual Academy Awards.

Now to a film that didn’t receive a single Academy Award nomination…but, it was also left of the list of the films nominated for The 33rd Annual Golden Raspberry Awards, which recognize the worst films of the year.

And that is about where DREDD sits…in the middle. It isn’t one of the best movies of the year, but it isn’t one of the worst either.

DREDD is a sci-fi action film based on the British comic Judge Dredd about law enforcers in a futuristic city who are given the power of judge, jury and executioner in a vast, post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Karl Urban from the newest STAR TREK films stars as a Judge who must break in a new partner, all while trying to bring order to a 200-storey high-rise controlled by an evil drug lord.

There was another film done based on these comic books, 1995’s JUDGE DREDD starring Sylvester Stallone and I’m happy to report that this newer film is much better than that one, and is more like the comic books.

That said, DREDD is not great, and because it was made to be seen in 3D, if you don’t see it in that format it is far too gimmicky, but it does have some very cool scenes and I think it is good enough for action film fans to check out.

Yes, DREDD is a good rental.

Here we are, Wintertime in Canada, and if you don’t like to get outside and ski, skate, or enjoy the great outdoors, I three television show sets that are newly released for you, which will provide you with hours of entertainment.

The first one stars one of the original FRIENDS – Matt LeBlanc!! He leads the cast of an amazing television series called EPISODES.

In the show, a British husband and wife team bring their successful and award winning television series to America, making all of their dreams come true, until the network changes almost everything, and suggests they cast the former FRIEND…who changes almost everything about their beloved show, and their lives.

The two main reasons that EPISODES works so well – and it does work very, very well – is due to the very smart writing and the fact that Matt LeBlanc is playing a very odd, but sort of real version of himself, kind of, and the show is better for it!!

EPISODES is smart and funny and I really enjoy it…although, the second season of the show isn’t as good as the first.

It is still funny – laugh out loud funny at times – but there were some slower episodes in SEASON TWO, not enough of them for me to not recommend the two disc set that features THE COMPLETE FIRST AND SECOND SEASONS of EPISODES, but thought I should mention it as I suggest you search it out.

I will also recommend THE COMPLETE FIFTEENTH SEASON of the still on the air animated show THE SIMPSONS.

Can you remember a time when The Simpsons weren’t on the air?

Yes, you can probably remember when you stopped watching the show as you didn’t think it was as funny as it used to be, but the show is still on the air, producing new episodes well into its twenty-fourth season.

THE COMPLETE FIFTEENTH SEASON of THE SIMPSONS is what I am focussing on this morning, as the four disc set is out there – full of hours of bonus features – and available for you to add to the shelf beside the other fourteen sets.

No, this season isn’t the best one the show has ever had, but it did make me laugh out loud, it did entertain me, and I do recommend it!!

THE COMPLETE FIFTEENTH SEASON of THE SIMPSONS is great TV!

I am sure there are those out there who consider the show SMASH to also be great TV.

Others, will simply refer to SMASH as a great guilty pleasure, a musical soap opera…and if that’s what they, if that is what you think, I have no problem with that.

I also have no problems with SEASON ONE of the show, in its entirety. I don’t love it, but I never hated it…and I had heard enough bad things about it that I thought I might.

SMASH is the show starring former American Idol finalist Katharine McPhee as one of two women competing for the lead in a Broadway show about Marilyn Monroe and in SEASON ONE we see the production from conception to opening night.

But SMASH just isn’t about the production of a Broadway musical in New York City, it is also about the lives and loves and drama caused by the loves and lives of the people working on the show.

Most days, there is more drama behind the scenes than on the stage.

As I said, I had heard a lot of bad things about SMASH before I sat down and watched SEASON ONE of the show this week, and perhaps it was because my expectations we so low that I sort of enjoyed it.

The music and songs aren’t that great, and the lip synching is laughable at times, but the cast is very good with the material they’re given. The stories aren’t anything unique, but there are some moments when you will genuinely care about these characters.

And the show could have been more fun, it really isn’t ever that fun…but with all of that said, I still thought that SEASON ONE of SMASH was okay. Not great, not bad, but okay.

I didn’t love it, but I never once wanted to stop watching.

So, to people who love musicals, or enjoy going into things with low expectations, consider that a mild recommendation!

SEASON ONE of mildly entertaining musical series SMASH, THE COMPLETE FIFTEENTH SEASON of the still occasionally laugh out loud funny show starring THE SIMPSONS, THE COMPLETE FIRST AND SECOND SEASONS of the laugh out loud adult comedy EPISODES, the not awful, but not great sci-fi action flick DREDD, Tim Burton’s entertaining and fun feature length version of FRANKENWEENIE, and the very interesting Canadian made Academy Award nominee WAR WITCH are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

Liam Neeson is back fighting bad guys in TAKEN 2, Woody Allen, Alec Baldwin and Roberto Benigni all star in the ensemble comedy TO ROME WITH LOVE and Academy Award nominee Jennifer Lawrence stars in the Ottawa made horror thriller HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET.

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 again next time on The Couch!

The Couch Potato Report – January 5th, 2013

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report is one of the worst films of 2012, one of the best, and a game from 1997.

Toronto born director David Cronenberg is one of our country’s best known and respected filmmakers.

From his early career low budget horror films SCANNERS and VIDEODROME to his Hollywood releases THE DEAD ZONE and the box office hit THE FLY, he has stayed true to his roots and shot most of his films in and around Toronto.

Of late, he has been making smaller, lower budgeted films like 2005’s Academy Award nominated A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE and the 2011 drama A DANGEROUS METHOD. David Cronenberg’s movies may be small, but they tend to feature well-known actors, and that is definitely true with his latest – COSMOPOLIS.

Based on the novel of the same name by Don DeLillo, COSMOPOLIS was shot in Toronto and stars Robert Pattinson from the TWILIGHT films as a billionaire who just wants to go across town in his limo to get a haircut, even though there are people threatening to kill him.

Yes, COSMOPOLIS is a film about a guy – who very badly wants a haircut – and only occasionally gets out of his car…but primarily it is about a guy who keeps letting people get into his car, even though there are people threatening to kill him.

Those who get in the car include Academy Award winner Juliette Binoche, Academy Award nominee Samantha Morton, and Canadian character actors Kevin Durand from LOST and Jay Baruchel from GOON.

COSMOPOLIS has a great cast, a director I respect and admire, a few unique surprises and twists, but the end result is a movie that you won’t care anything about full of characters you won’t like.

The movie is boring from start to finish and is a rare mis-fire from David Cronenberg. The man has confused me many times in the past, many times, but he has never bored me until now.

COSMOPOLIS is one of the worst films of 2012 and you should skip it at all costs. At all costs!! It is really that bad!!

We travel now from one of the worst films of 2012, to one of the best, but we don’t time travel because in the great science fiction crime thriller LOOPER time travel is against the law.

LOOPER stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt from INCEPTION and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES as Joe, an assassin living in the year 2044.

When the mob in 2074 wants someone killed, they are sent back in time to 2044 where a hired gun awaits.

One day, Joe’s future self shows up as the target, and he doesn’t kill him…he doesn’t kill himself, causing all types of problems.

Bruce Willis plays the future Joe and in one great scene they meet at a diner.

LOOPER is a great flick, a great character driven sci-fi action movie, but it is not a perfect film.

The middle portion starring the always lovely Emily Blunt really slows down, but I give it credit for always only telling the audience what we need to know. It never rushes ahead to let us in on the story, we find out when writer/director Rian Johnson wants us to.

But even though it is not perfect, it is entertaining and smart and I really enjoyed it, and can easily recommend it.

It is my pleasure now to tell you about two very good releases that I really enjoyed watching.

The first one is an Italian romantic comedy called THE AGES OF LOVE that tells three separate stories about love at various ages and stages.

In the first segment a young attorney is engaged and deeply in love with a beautiful woman, but when he is sent to a small country town on business he meets someone new.

In the second story we meet a happily married television news anchor who allows himself to be seduced, with dangerous consequences.

And in the final segment of THE AGES OF LOVE, Robert DeNiro stars as a retired professor who falls in love with his neighbour’s beautiful daughter, played by the always stunning Monica Bellucci.

THE AGES OF LOVE is a nicely done movie with a great ensemble cast and some spectacular Italian locations and scenery and I really enjoyed it.

It isn’t the best movie I’ve ever seen, and isn’t likely to win many awards, but it was a pleasure spending time with it, and it’s characters.

Search this one out!!

I also really enjoyed spending time with the characters in THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON of the television series JUSTIFIED, even if I didn’t like some of them at all!

JUSTIFIED is the modern day western about a U.S. Marshal who is reassigned from sunny and beautiful Miami back to his childhood home in the poor, rural high crime area of Eastern Kentucky.

In SEASON THREE the Marshall has to contend with dirty politicians, drug cartels, murder, hidden fortunes and multiple criminal forces warring for control – including his archenemies Boyd and Dickie who would just as soon see him dead.

Plus, there is a new bad guy in town too, a lethal mob enforcer who doesn’t care for the Marshall too much.

THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON of JUSTIFIED, much like the other two seasons, is one that I enjoyed sitting down with over the course of a few days and watching the whole thing from start to finish.

Timothy Olyphant continues to be perfectly cast as the lawmen who enforces his type of justice, which sometimes gets him in trouble with his superiors, and Neal McDonough from the movie MINORITY REPORT is a great villain!!

Plus, JUSTIFIED is well written – mostly by Canadian Graham Yost – with great twists and turns, and it is also very funny.

As I said, you won’t care for everyone in this show, but you will care for the show. Search this one out too!!

Finally this week is a relatively new feature here on The Couch Potato Report. From time to time I will dig into the vast film library of titles that have been released throughout the years for a Catalogue Classic.

This week, in case you received a movie as a gift over the holidays you don’t necessarily want, I suggest you return it and pick up David Fincher’s 1997 mystery thriller THE GAME.

THE GAME stars Michael Douglas as a wealthy financier who is given the gift of a game by his brother, played by Sean Penn.

Soon, this game takes over his whole life…and he no longer knows what is real, who is real, and who or what are a part of the game.

Director David Fincher made THE GAME in between his modern day classics SEVEN and FIGHT CLUB and it is nowhere near as beloved as those two movies are. In fact, many people – including myself – who saw it when it first came out didn’t care for it at all.

But in the intervening years, we have come to appreciate THE GAME’s intriguing and interesting premise, and get into – instead of dissecting – it’s many twists and turns.

THE GAME isn’t perfect, as you will have to suspend some disbelief to accept that what takes place is even possible, but it is a movie that takes risks. There is nothing safe about it at all.

And that is why THE GAME is a Catalogue Classic.

David Fincher’s THE GAME, the very entertaining COMPLETE THIRD SEASON of the television series JUSTIFIED, the very good romantic comedy ensemble THE AGES OF LOVE, the entertaining and smart sci-fi action flick LOOPER, and David Cronenberg’s boring waste of time COSMOPOLIS are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

Tim Burton’s FRANKENWEENIE, SEASON ONE of the television series SMASH, THE COMPLETE FIRST AND SECOND SEASONS of the very entertaining series EPISODES, and the French Canadian film that has been submitted as Canada’s entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 85th Academy Awards, WAR WITCH.

The nominations for the 85th Academy Awards will be announced on Thursday, by the way.

I’m Dan Reynish. I’ll have more on the nominations, and the newest releases, in seven days.

For now, that’s this week’s COUCH POTATO REPORT.

Enjoy the movies and I’ll see you back here again next time on The Couch!

The Couch Potato Report – December 31st, 2012

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report are some film suggestions – and ones to stay away from – for New Year’s Eve.

If you need a movie suggestion or two for New Year’s Eve, I can help you with that, and I’ll start with the made-in-Montreal drama THE WORDS, starring Bradley Cooper from THE HANGOVER films.

Bradley is a failed writer here who finds a manuscript in an old satchel his wife buys for him in Paris.

That manuscript is better than anything he’s ever written, and it brings his wife to tears…so he claims it as his own and becomes a huge success.

Everything in his life is finally going well…until the man who actually wrote the words comes looking for him.

THE WORDS is one of those films where you can’t wait to see what happens next, and why. I almost went a few chapters ahead to find out, but ultimately decided not to. But I wanted to!!

Even though it isn’t perfect, there are several huge plot holes and when the focus shifts to the third level of the story my attention started to wander, even with those flaws THE WORDS has a great cast – that also includes Dennis Quaid, Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana and Jeremy Irons – and I really enjoyed it.

It is a mature film that takes it’s time and it will make a great rental for New Year’s Eve.

From something worthy of your time, here now is the opposite.

The success of the television series GLEE is the only reason this next movie exists as PITCH PERFECT liberally uses that show – and elements of several movies – including BRING IT ON, BEST IN SHOW and actual footage from THE BREAKFAST CLUB to tell its story…a story about an all-female a cappella singing group who must rise up – and rise together – in order to beat their rivals at regionals.

PITCH PERFECT might have been fun if it had an original moment in it – which it does not – and didn’t take itself so seriously…it takes itself way too seriously.

Instead, what we are left with is a predictable and unfunny movie about a group of characters that you won’t care anything about, and several you won’t even like.

The music numbers are well done, so huge fans of GLEE may enjoy the movie a little, but my suggestion is that you just skip PITCH PERFECT. It isn’t worthy of any of your busy holiday time.

Also not worthy of your time – absolutely any of your time – is the very boring and completely unfunny comedy BUTTER.

This is an example of when bad movies happen to good people as the cast includes Jennifer Garner, Hugh Jackman, Ty Burrell from MODERN FAMILY, Olivia Wilde, Rob Corddry, Ashley Green from the TWILIGHT films and 90s star Alicia Silverstone.

All good actors and people, all starring in a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad movie!!

BUTTER is about butter carving in small-town Iowa, and that part of the movie is interesting as I had never seen it done – on screen or in real life before.

But as the movie goes on and a controlling local woman works to win a competition against a young adopted girl, stopping at nothing, you won’t care. Not once, not at all.

BUTTER is a complete waste of time and you should skip it on New Year’s Eve, during 2013, and for all time.

Great cast…really bad movie.

Let me get back to saying positive things again, in the Final Couch Potato Report of 2012, and I will say them about a high school reunion movie called 10 YEARS.

People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive – Channing Tatum – stars in 10 YEARS along with Rosario Dawson, Justin Long, Chris Pratt and Aubrey Plaza from PARKS & RECREATION, Ron Livingston from OFFICE SPACE, and a bunch of young actors who you will probably recognize from their other films.

The movie takes place on the night before the high school reunion as the old friends get together at a bar for some drinks and reminiscing.

I really, really liked parts of 10 YEARS…and I didn’t care for other parts at all…but I still liked it enough to recommend it and tell you that it is a good rental.

I have a pair of titles to tell you about right now, and you probably haven’t heard of either of them…even though one of them is from an Academy Award nominated writer and director who is known around the world.

Spike Lee’s RED HOOK SUMMER is coming up, but right now I want to tell you about a very interesting documentary about Ai Weiwei, a Chinese contemporary artist who was an artistic consultant for the Beijing National Stadium at the 2008 Olympics.

In addition to being an artist, Ai Weiwei is also a political activist who has been highly and openly critical of the Chinese Government’s stance on democracy and human rights.

AI WEIWEI – NEVER SORRY is a documentary about the man, his work, and his detention by Chinese authorities in spring of 2011.

I knew of AI WEIWEI (I WayWay) but I didn’t know that much about him until I saw NEVER SORRY and now I am fascinated by him.

This is a great documentary about a very interesting human being.

It doesn’t necessarily tell both sides of his story, as the filmmakers don’t speak to the Chinese government about Weiwei and why he was arrested, but the story it does tell is worthy of your time and comes highly recommended by me.

Spike Lee is an Academy Award nominated filmmaker who has been making films since 1983.

His works include DO THE RIGHT THING, MALCOLM X, SHE’S GOTTA HAV EIT, CLOCKERS, CROOKLYN, INSIDE MAN and JUNGLE FEVER.

He is also an outspoken advocate of race relations, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty, and other political issues.

Spike rarely flies under the radar when he does things, especially when he releases a new movie…until now.

In 2012, Spike self-financed and released a movie called RED HOOK SUMMER…and hardly anyone knew.

But now that it is out on DVD and Blu-ray, you will know about it…as I am going to tell you about Spike Lee’s RED HOOK SUMMER.

RED HOOK SUMMER is not Spike Lee at his best, in fact I was thinking more than a few times while watching it, “This is a Spike Lee movie?!?

The story is definitely Spike Lee…A middle-class boy from Atlanta travels to the housing projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York, to spend the summer with his deeply religious grandfather…but the film is missing that special thing that Spike usually brings a film, and that is why it fails.

When watching the almost two-hour making of and listening to the commentary, the story behind RED HOOK SUMMER – the fact that Spike paid to make it and get it out there – comes out and that story is interesting.

RED HOOK SUMMER itself is not. What could have been an interesting fish out of water story isn’t, and as the story moves from being about the boy to the deeply religious grandfather I lost interest.

He has made some great movies in the past, and since it is his own money, Spike Lee can do whatever he wants with it.

But I suggest you skip RED HOOK SUMMER.

The results of his labour aren’t worthy of your time.

Finally this week is a new feature here on The Couch Potato Report. From time to time I will dig into the vast film library of titles that have been released throughout the years for a Catalogue Classic.

And with it being so close to New Year’s Eve, this week’s Catalogue Classic is WHEN HARRY MET SALLY

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY is director Rob Reiner’s 1989 romantic comedy written by the late, great Nora Ephron and starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan.

Harry and Sally have known each other since graduating university, and have had an on again off again friendship for years, until they finally end up in bed together…and things don’t go well.

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY is warm and funny and features real people and I love the movie and highly recommend it!! If you are looking for something to watch on December 31st this is a great movie to dig out, especially since it all culminates on New Year’s Eve.

The Catalogue Classic WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, Spike Lee’s failed RED HOOK SUMMER, the very interesting documentary AI WEIWEI – NEVER SORRY, the likeable good rental high school reunion comedy 10 YEARS, the boring and unfunny comedy BUTTER, the completely unoriginal singing competition non-comedy PITCH PERFECT and the very good made-in-Montreal drama THE WORDS are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

And whatever you end up doing on New Year’s Eve, Happy New Year from all of us at The Couch Potato Report!! Here’s to a 2013 full of happiness, good health and good movies!!

Coming up next week inside another all-new edition of The Couch Potato Report

Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt star in the great science fiction action film LOOPER, David Fincher’s underappreciated mystery thriller THE GAME is the Catalogue Classic and Robert Pattinson from the TWILIGHT films stars in David Cronenberg’s made-in-Toronto mess COSMOPOLIS.

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 again next time on The Couch!

And for more of my movie reviews, visit: http://www.cbc.ca/couchpotato

The Couch Potato Report – December 22nd, 2012

Yes, inside this week’s Couch Potato Report are some last minute gift ideas for the movie fans on your list.

With Christmas now just a few days away, I have some new releases that might make great gifts for the movie fans on your nice AND naughty lists. Or, they just might provide a few hours of entertainment – or peace and quiet – while your friends and family are visiting.

In a moment, suggestions for people who love critically acclaimed films, action flicks, and comedic Christmas Vacations.

Up first, is a baseball movie, and with the Toronto Blue Jays signing R.A. Dickey this week, and several key players this off-season as they re-load for 2013, Clint Eastwood’s TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE comes just in the nick of time for fans needing a fix.

Clint stars here as an aging and ailing baseball scout with the Atlanta Braves who is starting to lose his sight, but one of the most important trips of his career is coming up as the team needs to decide whether to draft a talented young player, or not.

Amy Adams from THE MUPPETS and THE FIGHTER plays his occasionally estranged daughter and she is working toward becoming a Partner in her law firm, but when she hears about her Dad’s condition, she decides to go along and help…whether he wants her to or not.

And music superstar turned actor Justin Timberlake also stars as former player Clint once scouted. He is a friend to Clint, and a potential love interest for Amy.

I love baseball, and I am a huge fan of both Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams, so I loved TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE…but it is not perfect.

Clint is just playing the same curmudgeon that he has played in the last few films he’s done, and the movie is too melodramatic at times and too perfect at other times.

So, let’s call that a mild recommendation for the movie fan on your list, but a last minute gift idea for the baseball fan you know.

And in 2013, GO JAYS GO!!

If there is a movie fan on your list, who only loves movies that are critically acclaimed and tend to win at the Academy Awards, you absolutely must get them a movie called BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD!

This is a movie about a strong six-year-old girl named Hushpuppy living in an isolated bayou community known as the Bathtub who has to fight for life, limb and love as her father, and those who live around them, suffer from health issues and flooding.

Hushpuppy live in what she calls a “busted” universe, one that that melts the ice caps and unleashes an army of prehistoric beasts.

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD won the Caméra d’Or award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, and it is likely to be nominated for several Academy Awards, including one for little Quvenzhané Wallis, who plays Hushpuppy.

It is very interesting and well-acted, and in many ways unlike anything that you’ve ever seen before…but it isn’t for everyone, I didn’t love it…but it is the type of movie that critics love, wins Awards, and appeals to people who study film and tend to enjoy films that are critically acclaimed.

So, if you know someone like that, get them BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD! They will not be disappointed!!

When I saw the remake of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger action film TOTAL RECALL in theatres this summer, I thought that it was a pointless waste of time. I understood why they would want to re-do it for today’s audiences, but what they made was a film that wasn’t very good, didn’t make smart choices and was – ultimately – pointless.

But now that I have watched the much longer Director’s Cut, I liked it.

Made in and around Toronto, this version stars Colin Ferrell from IN BRUGES as Douglas Quaid, a man who may be a spy, or a double agent, or a member of the rebellion…or all of the above.

The beautiful Kate Beckinsale plays his wife, and the person hunting him down, and Jessica Biel is the possible love of his life, and the person helping him get away.

TOTAL RECALL 2012 is a mindless action film, and you will enjoy it if you shut off your brain and just watch things blow up real good.

I never loved it, either version of it that I’ve seen, but I enjoyed it enough to mildly recommend it, especially to the action film fan on your last minute gift list.

That said…I prefer the original and still enjoy that each and every time I watch it!!

There are four new releases that I am going to talk about right now, none of them great, but there are reasons that you might want to see them.

The final film featuring Whitney Houston leads things off. She plays the Mother of three sisters who form a girl group behind their Mother’s back and soon become local sensations.

But fame becomes a challenge as the close-knit sisters start to drift apart, and everything looks to be over when their Mother finds out.

SPARKLE is a remake of a 1976 film starring Philip Michael Thomas – before he was on MIAMI VICE and Irene Cara – before she starred in FAME and it wasn’t a great film either.

This is a mediocre musical melodrama that doesn’t have any memorable songs and is predictable from start to finish…even if you’ve never seen the original.

SPARKLE doesn’t sparkle…and you should skip it. You have better things to do – and watch – this Holiday Season.

And as far as Whitney Houston is concerned, she deserved to leave this world in a better film that this. May she rest in peace.

The premise of this next film is so stupid that I thought the movie had the potential to be amazing!!! Not an Academy Award winner or anything like that, just a good, cheesy fun time at the movies.

The story here centers on a woman named Dusty who is on a rescue mission to save her brother Derek, a conspiracy theorist who is convinced Osama bin Laden is still alive, despite having been buried at sea.

It turns out that Derek was right as Osama has returned from his watery grave and is making an army of zombie terrorists.

I did say it was stupid.

What I have yet to say is the name of the movie. This is OSOMBIE!!

Dusty and her brother team up with a team of Special Forces Soliders to try and find and destroy the root of the zombie insurgency before it infests the rest of the world…and doesn’t that sound like it had the chance to be a good, cheesy fun time at the movies?!

It did, but it doesn’t all add up.

OSOMBIE is actually an okay zombie movie, and it has a few really good action scenes and some fun stuff, but there is some really awful stuff in it as well, and the CGI was done with a very low budget.

Now if zombies are your thing, don’t miss it, otherwise skip it. This is not a good, cheesy fun time at the movies!

TALES OF MASKED MEN – A JOURNEY THROUGH LUCHA LIBRE is up next. This is a 55-minute documentary that looks at the world of Mexican wrestling and the tradition of the masked Mexican wrestler.

I didn’t know that much about Mexican wrestling, or its history and many traditions, before watching TALES OF MASKED MEN, but I got caught up in this very interesting and informative PBS documentary.

TALES OF MASKED MEN – A JOURNEY THROUGH LUCHA LIBRE isn’t great and it will primarily appeal to wrestling fans, but I would also recommend it to anyone who has even been curious about Mexican wrestling as well.

The final of the four that are not great this week, but there are reasons that you might want to see them, is THE FIFTH SEASON of the television series CALIFORNICATION, starring David Duchovny as a writer from New York who – five seasons later – is still living life in California and missing the city that never sleeps.

And – five seasons later – he is also still trying to maintain his career, all while having a relationship with the women who he still thinks is his soul-mate, all while unable to deny his appetite for other beautiful women.

Five seasons later CALIFORNICATION is still exactly the same…with one HUGE exception…it is no longer entertaining.

I don’t care of Duchovny’s Hank Moody grows at all, let him be a man-child for as long as the writers want him to be, for everyone around keeps forgiving him and enabling his behaviour and the show’s writers during this season seem to be struggling to find good storylines and things for him and his friends to do.

I used to love…absolutely love CALIFORNICATION…but THE FIFTH SEASON isn’t good at all.

I still like the characters, but the time has come to end this show that is now about two seasons past its prime.

Finally this week is a new feature here on The Couch Potato Report. From time to time I will dig into the vast film library of titles that have been released throughout the years for a Catalogue Classic.

And with it being so close to the arrival of Santa Claus, the very first Catalogue Classic is NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION.

CHRISTMAS VACATION is the 1989 comedy that was the third installment in National Lampoon’s Vacation film series starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, and a wide array of up and coming young actors…including Anthony Michael Hall, Jane Krakowski, and in this one Academy Award nominee Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki from THE BIG BANG THEORY.

And who could ever forget Randy Quaid, as Cousin Eddie?

In CHRISTMAS VACATION, Clark W. Griswold’s plans for a big family Christmas predictably turn into a big disaster.

Written by the late, great John Hughes, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION is still hilarious and if you and your loved ones need something to watch together, I highly recommend this CATALOGUE CLASSIC.

The still hilarious NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION; THE FIFTH SEASON of the two-years past its prime CALIFORNICATION; the interesting documentary TALES OF MASKED MEN – A JOURNEY THROUGH LUCHA LIBRE; the okay zombie flick OSOMBIE; the mediocre musical melodrama SPARKLE; the well-made, if unnecessary action remake TOTAL RECALL; the very interesting critically acclaimed BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, and the not great, but likeable baseball movie TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

And there are some last minute gift ideas for the Catalogue, Action, Critically Acclaimed and Baseball movie fans on your list!!

Happy Holidays from all of us at The Couch Potato Report!!

I’ll be back with an all-new Couch Potato Report next week, and at that time I will talk about

The singing comedy PITCH PERFECT; the comedy BUTTER starring Jennifer Garner, Hugh Jackman, Olivia Wilde, Ashley Greene, Alicia Silverstone and Ty Burrell from MODERN FAMILY; plus the next Catalogue Classic – just in time for New Year’s Eve – is WHEN HARRY MET SALLY.

I’m Dan Reynish. I’ll have more on those, and some other releases, in seven days.

For now, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!! That’s this week’s COUCH POTATO REPORT.

Enjoy the movies and I’ll see you back here again next time on The Couch!

The Couch Potato Report – December 15th, 2012

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report is a great love story, a foul mouthed teddy bear and Tom Hanks chases Leonardo DiCaprio.

Leading off is a mostly-made-in-Montreal, beautiful love story called LAURENCE ANYWAYS about two soul mates who – over the course of a decade – struggle to maintain an intimate relationship as society and almost all of their friends turn against them.

Occasionally, they even turn against each other.

When we first meet Laurence and his girlfriend Fred, they are very much in love, and very much in sync with each other’s needs, wants and desires.

But we are shown that Laurence is occasionally unhappy, with no explanation, until he breaks down and confesses to the love of his life that he feels he’s a woman trapped in a man’s body.

His girlfriend is initially shocked, but decides to stay and fight for their love as if nothing has happened, because no matter what, he is LAURENCE ANYWAYS.

LAURENCE ANYWAYS features some tremendous performances and a great love story, and I really liked and rooted for the characters.

It isn’t perfect though, it is almost three hours long and gets a bit too artistic at times when a less is more approach might have served the film better.

But none of the negatives took that much away from LAURENCE ANYWAYS for me as I really enjoyed the movie and easily recommend it.

Remember when you were a kid, and you made a wish? Whether it was to play in the NHL, be rich, or have Jodie Foster fall in love with you…which would have happened if you’d only met…we all made wishes as kids.

Well in the movie TED, a lonely little boy wishes that the teddy bear he received for Christmas would come to life and be his best friend…and his wish comes true!

TED is the feature-length directorial debut of Seth MacFarlane, who has also given the world the television series FAMILY GUY and AMERICAN DAD, and it stars Mark Wahlberg as the grown-up boy, who is still best friends with his bear, named Ted.

Mila Kunis – also from FAMILY GUY and the films BLACK SWAN and FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS – co-stars as Wahlberg’s love interest, his long suffering girlfriend of four years, who wants more from their relationship…and less from the also now adult, but also rude and profane Ted.

TED is easily the funniest movie of 2012, and it features one of the funniest scenes I have ever seen in a movie…ever…when Wahlberg and Ted are fighting in a hotel room.

The downside of TED, however, is the same thing that it benefits from… Seth MacFarlane. Occasionally, much like his work on television, the writing doesn’t strive to be great…it is just lazy and even racist. And there is a whole sub-plot that doesn’t really work, with the exception of giving the film a villain.

But that said, as I said, this is easily the funniest film of the year…with some great cameos and computer animation…and while I don’t think everyone will appreciate its juvenile, sophomoric humour, I loved it!

TED is laugh out loud funny!!

Hey…imagine if they made a sequel to TED…but instead of featuring the same bear, and Seth MacFarlane to provide the voice, they replaced him…but kept referring to him and talking about him over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Now imagine, instead of that sequel to TED, imagine they made a fourth film in the JASON BOURNE series, and replaced Matt Damon…but kept referring to him, ad nauseum.

Well, you don’t have to imagine that, my friend…they have done it!! Jeremy Renner from THE AVENGERS and THE HURT LOCKER is the new man on the run in THE BOURNE LEGACY.

THE BOURNE LEGACY was partially filmed in Alberta and it all takes place around the same time that the events in the third and final Matt Damon film, which allows the filmmakers to mention Jason Bourne so much.

This is not a bad film, Jeremy Renner is a great actor, the action scenes here are very well done, the supporting cast including Rachel Weisz and Edward Norton are very good and the story is interesting enough, but with a different director and star, this is just a wannabe BOURNE movie that doesn’t have the look or feel of the previous three…plus it can’t go ten minutes without referencing Jason Bourne and that is a huge distraction.

I liked THE BOURNE LEGACY, but I loved the Matt Damon Trilogy. Call that a mild recommendation…and a hope that Matt Damon decides to return to the series, or they move on from his character altogether, should the studio decide to make another one.

The Holiday Season is well underway, which means family and friends will soon be getting together, and maybe even watching a movie or two, so here are two movies for families and one for friends…and I really hope that you don’t get them mixed up.

THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN is one of the family films and it stars the great Jennifer Garner from ALIAS and JUNO and Joel Edgerton of WARRIOR. They are a beautiful couple who desperately want a child, but can’t have one of their own and aren’t having any luck finding one to adopt either.

Before emotionally moving on, they decide to write down their dreams and hopes for the child they want and put their notes in a box, which they bury in their backyard.

And the next morning, a child appears…but he may not be all that he seems.

THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN is a nice movie, with a good cast, and it has its heart in the right place…but it is almost completely devoid of emotion.

A childless couple, a kid comes along, their wishes and dreams appear to be coming true…yet there is no emotion in the film, which is why I ultimately feel that it is nothing special.

However, at times it is interesting and even fun…so it might provide a good distraction if your own family needs one over the next few weeks.

So call that a mild recommendation for THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN. Very mild.

Another family film that may offer some distractions for kids, but not many for adults at all, is the fourth film in the ICE AGE series about Sid, Manny, Diego and a group of mammals surviving the Paleolithic ice age.

In ICE AGE – CONTINENTAL DRIFT the guys are trying to get back home, after their continent is set adrift.

Along the way they share yet another adventure and meet a wealth of new friends.

I do like the characters in these ICE AGE films, especially Scrat,and this time around the regular voice cast of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary are joined by Peter Dinklage, Jennifer Lopez, Wanda Sykes, Drake and Nicki Minaj.

ICE AGE – CONTINENTAL DRIFT is not the best film in the series…but it isn’t awful either.

I hope they don’t make too many more of them…but I enjoyed this fourth one enough to recommend it to the young, and young at heart. Adults, and non-animation fans, you won’t get much from it, so you should probably skip it.

Press play when you are cooking, or if you just need some alone time over the Holidays.

Here now is the release that you absolutely should not mistake for a family film…and if you read the description on the Internet Movie Data Base, you won’t.

This is what it says about the horror film VHS:

“When a group of misfits is hired by an unknown third party to burglarize a desolate house and acquire a rare VHS tape, they discover more found footage than they bargained for.”

Nope…not a family film at all!

VHS is an out and out horror film, and a very gross and gory one at times, and fans of the genre – whether it is the Holiday Season or not – will love this film as it has some great twists and turns and some HUGE jumps.

People who are not fans of the genre should stay away from it…as far away as possible as VHS will offend and repulse you.

Finally this week is the debut on blu-ray of director Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, starring Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio and a quartet of young and up and coming actresses who would go on to bigger and better things…Jennifer Garner, Ellen Pompeo, Amy Adams, and Elizabeth Banks from THE HUNGER GAMES .

The young, then mostly unknown cast is great to watch, but the primary reason for seeing this film are the performances of DiCaprio and Hanks.

Leo plays Frank Abagnale Jr., who – before his 19th birthday – managed to cash over four million dollars’ worth of counterfeit cheques while pretending to be a pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor.

Hanks is the FBI agent who is hunting him down.

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN has always been a good looking movie, and that is especially true in HD. It looks amazing in this format.

As for the movie itself…I have always really liked, enjoyed and respected it, and the majority of the performances are great, but I’ve never loved the movie…and still don’t. It is very good, but isn’t the best work of anyone involved.

I do love the cast though, and the abundance of special features, where we get to hear both Leo and the real Frank Abagnale Jr. talk about life as a con-man.

Now that stuff I love!!

The entertaining – if not great – CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, the twisted and occasionally entertaining horror film VHS, the okay – but never great – sequel ICE AGE – CONTINENTAL DRIFT, the okay – but somehow emotion free family film THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN, the very good but missing Matt Damon sequel THE BOURNE LEGACY, the very entertaining buddy comedy TED, and the great Montreal-made love story LAURENCE ANYWAYS are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

One of the most acclaimed films of 2012, the dramatic fantasy BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD; the made-in-Ontario remake of TOTAL RECALL – starring Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel; and the Clint Eastwood baseball movie TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE, co-starring Justin Timberlake and Amy Adams.

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 again next time on The Couch!

The Couch Potato Report – December 8th, 2012

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report a great genre picture, a great superhero movie, and a great animated family film.

Not all post-apocalyptic horror thrillers are created equal. Some are worthy of the time of the casual movie fan, some are not…but if you love the genre above all others, then most of the films created within it will work for you.

THE DAY is one such film that will definitely work and please all fans of the genre, but casual fans probably won’t get into it – even though it does has some great story twists – primarily because it has an overabundance of violence.

Made in Ottawa, THE DAY is about a group of five people – who were once a group of twelve – fighting to stay alive. They wander the countryside after an unexplained past and stumble upon an abandoned farmhouse, where they decide to rest and stay the night. All is not what it seems in this quiet, restful place and soon their numbers begin to dwindle once again when they are attacked.

THE DAY has some great twists and turns that you won’t see coming, and it is very good post-apocalyptic genre picture. Because of the fact that it is very, very violent, profane and gory – and due to the fact that you won’t want some of the people in the movie to survive – that all prevents me from recommending it to everyone.

But if this is the type of movie you love and tend to enjoy…do not miss THE DAY!!

Back in 2005, director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale re-invented the Batman franchise on the silver screen with the great origin story BATMAN BEGINS, and then in 2008 they took it to a whole other level as THE DARK KNIGHT – co-starring Heath Ledger as The Joker – was the biggest movie of the year, and some would argue, the best comic book superhero movie ever made.

Nolan had always said that he wanted to make a trilogy, and this Summer the concluding chapter was released…and even though it wasn’t quite as good as the one that came before it, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is still a tremendous movie on its own.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES picks up eight years after the fight that took away the love of Bruce Wayne’s life, made Harvey Dent a hero, and forced Batman to become known as an enemy and not a caped crusader.

When a new villain – known only as Bane – arrives to terrorize Gotham, the Dark Knight rises to try and save the city…but after an eight year layoff, he may no longer have what it takes.

Tom Hardy from INCEPTION stars as Bane and he does a tremendous job, but the best performance in the film comes from Anne Hathaway of THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. She plays Selina Kyle…also known as Catwoman.

I am both a huge fan of Batman, and Christopher Nolan’s Work, and I really enjoyed THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. It is my favourite film of 2012…so far.

Even though it isn’t perfect…there are more than a few plot holes and things that happen only to move said plot along…it is still both a great movie and a very satisfying conclusion to Nolan’s trilogy…a trilogy that I continue to recommend highly.

As I’ve been saying since 2005, even people who don’t normally like movies based on comic book superheroes should watch these films.

Adults and kids can watch and enjoy THE DARK KNIGHT RISES…but only adults will be able to enjoy the drama HOPE SPRINGS, and so only adults should watch it.

HOPE SPRINGS stars Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones as a middle-aged married couple who decide after thirty years of marriage to attend a week-long counseling session to work on their relationship.

She suggests is and really wants to go…he really does not.

Eventually he does agree to go – or there would be no movie – and the couple arrive in small-town Maine to work with a marriage counsellor played by Steve Carrell from THE OFFICE.

Although he usually is, Carrell is not funny here, in fact the entire movie is not funny. It is dramatic and actually uncomfortable at times as you imagine Tommy Lee and Meryl as a married couple…and that was the biggest problem I had with HOPE SPRINGS. These two are tremendous actors, but they just didn’t pull off these roles. It always seemed like it was Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones…I never once felt that they became Kay and Arnold Soames. I wanted them to disappear into the roles…and I felt bad for the people in the story…but I never once believed in them.

HOPE SPRINGS has a great cast and a premise I bought into, and I never once disliked it, but I could only recommend this to my mother, and some other couples in her age bracket, but not to anyone younger.

This is a movie starring and made by adults for adults.

Finally this week is a movie I could, would, and do recommend to absolutely everyone…young and old alike!!

If you’ve seen it, you can enjoy it again and again in HD, and if you haven’t…if you have never seen this movie, you should…you must!! You must see FINDING NEMO!!

FINDING NEMO is the animated 2003 Academy Award winning film about a scared clownfish – voiced by the great Albert Brooks – who leaves his safe home to travel the ocean to bring his captured son home.

The great Ellen DeGeneres voices Dory, an optimistic fish with short-term memory loss who helps the father in his search.

FINDING NEMO is new on blu-ray – with a wealth of new and old special features – and all I can say is WOW!! The colours are amazing, the sounds superb, and the film comes alive in the format. I absolutely love this movie, and seeing it in high definition enabled me to enjoy it and perhaps even love it more.

Pick this one up…and enjoy, either for the first time, or – if you have kids – the one-hundredth?

The Pixar classic FINDING NEMO, the made for adults drama HOPE SPRINGS, Christopher Nolan’s fantastic Batman finale THE DARK KNIGHT RISES and the very good made in Ottawa post-apocalyptic thriller THE DAY are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

The Quebec made love story LAURENCE ANYWAYS, Jeremy Renner takes over from Matt Damon in THE BOURNE LEGACY, and one of the silliest, stupidest and most entertaining comedies of the year – Seth MacFarlane’s TED starring Mark Wahlberg as a grown up man whose best friend is a talking teddy bear.

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 again next time on The Couch!

The Couch Potato Report – December 1st, 2012

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report we head to Yellowknife and travel back in time to the dust bowl of the 1930s.

There haven’t been that many television series filmed in Yellowknife, or the Northwest Territories, so I was very excited when it was announced that the CBC series ARCTIC AIR would not only be set there, but that it would also be partially filmed there…giving us the chance to see a part of our home and native land we don’t get the chance to see all that often.

My excitement continued as I watched the show…because it’s good.

Manitoba born First Nations actor Adam Beach of the television series LAW AND ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT and Clint Eastwood’s feature film FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS stars here as Bobby Martin, a man raised in the Territories who left his world behind – as fast as he could – and moved to Vancouver in search of bigger and better things.

When he returns home for a business deal, and to go to a family wedding, he discovers that the airline founded by his late father is on the brink of bankruptcy. So he is forced to decide whether he should stay and save the company or retreat back to the big city once again.

The planes and pilots in ARCTIC AIR fly people, goods and supplies across Canada’s North and that is what I especially like about the show, that we see Canada’s North.

I also like Adam Beach and Pascale Hutton who plays Beach’s potential love interest.

What doesn’t work for me are most of the other main characters. Too many of them are unlikeable. I know a show needs conflict to work storylines around, but when you can’t see both sides of any arguments, when one side is always seemingly wrong, that works against the show for me.

No it isn’t perfect, but THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of ARCTIC AIR has enough good stuff for me to recommend it. I liked it!

And don’t forget, SEASON TWO of ARCTIC AIR will premiere Wednesday, January 9th at 9 pm on CBC Television!!

Yes, I liked THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of ARCTIC AIR…but I loved, absolutely loved documentary filmmaker Ken Burns’ latest project – THE DUST BOWL.

The Dust Bowl was a period when a wheat boom on the Plains followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s nearly swept away the breadbasket and caused major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands.

Burns’ documentary tells several American stories from people who survived the Dirty Thirties and historians who put it all in context. And it also takes us inside the dust storms using historic pictures and old video footage.

I know…a four hour documentary about dust and dirt…how could that be interesting? Well, it isn’t just interesting, it is also informative, entertaining and heartbreaking.

Not unlike his previous productions – Baseball (1994), Jazz (2001), The War (2007), and Prohibition (2011), KEN BURNS’ THE DUST BOWL is fantastic and I highly recommend it!

Once again this week I have a trio of releases for you. One is very good, pretty good, and the other is very bad…but it does have a pretty actress as the star.

Two releases for the horror fans among you are coming up, but to start the trio I have the very good LAWLESS.

Based on the historical novel “The Wettest County in the World” by Matt Bondurant LAWLESS stars Tom Hardy from THE DARK KNIGHT RISES and Shia LaBeouf from the TRANSFORMERS films as two of three bootlegging brothers in Depression-era, prohibition-era Virginia.

Their successful business is threatened by a new deputy and other authorities who decide that they want a cut of the Bondurant Brothers’ profits.

But these boys ain’t hearing none of that!!

Characters actors Gary Oldman and Guy Pearce, and the always lovely actress Jessica Chastain round out the cast of this well-made crime drama…a film that is very good, but as much as I enjoyed it, I wanted to like it more.

Don’t get me wrong, LAWLESS is very good, and I did enjoy it…but you know how sometimes a movie is just missing that something that makes it great, and you can’t quite put your finger on it? That is true with this movie.

Anyway…check it out, because unlike some other films released this week, LAWLESS is actually worthy of your time.

Okay, so if LAWLESS is a movie that is just missing that little something, this next one is the type of film that should have been better than it is. It is still pretty good, but why isn’t it great?

Why isn’t PARANORMAN great?!

Norman is a boy who isn’t very popular with his classmates and only has one friend. One living friend.

You see, Norman is able to speak with the dead, including his late grandmother and various ghosts in town, but unfortunately, almost no one believes him, and others just don’t like him.

Then, Norman’s time to shine comes when the boy who has paranormal abilities has to use them to take on ghosts, zombies and even grown-ups to save his town from a centuries-old curse.

PARANORMAN is shot using stop-motion animation and it looks great. Plus, it has a voice cast that includes Casey Affleck, Jeff Garlin, John Goodman, Anna Kendrick, Leslie Mann, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, all great voices for animation.

Plus it has that great, time tested story of the outsider who longs for acceptance and finds it when he rises up to become a hero… so why isn’t PARANORMAN great?!

I liked it, but it just isn’t great. Sometimes movies don’t always work.

PARANOMAN is pretty good…so call that a mild recommendation.

Now to the very bad movie, with the pretty actress as the star.

It is called THE APPARITION and Ashley Greene from the TWILIGHT films stars here as a woman who is part of a couple who are being haunted by a supernatural presence, one that was unleashed during a college experiment.

And guess who co-stars with her in this mess? Tom Felton from the HARRY POTTER films.

Yes, the HARRY POTTER and TWILIGHT worlds come together in THE APPARITION and you won’t care!

THE APPARITION doesn’t offer anything that we haven’t seen before in dozens of other horror films. It just isn’t new or original in any way, so even with the convergence of the TWILIGHT and HARRY POTTER worlds, you should skip it at all costs.

You have better things to do…and better horror films to watch, as we head into the Christmas season.

Finally this week is a movie I did not like, one that I hope to never have to sit through again, the pointless cash grabbing sequel MEN IN BLACK III.

The original 1997 sci-fi comedy starring Will Smith as a streetwise New York City detective who joins and Tommy Lee Jones in a secret organization that polices extraterrestrial affairs on Earth was amazingly entertaining.

The 2002 follow-up had a few good scenes, but not much to offer…although kids did love the talking dog Frank The Pug.

And now we have more of the same, and not the good stuff, the bickering and arguing and look Will Smith is funny, and Tommy Lee Jones needs to relax…ha ha ha haa!!

The only thing, and I mean the only thing about this third MEN IN BLACK movie that even remotely works is Josh Brolin’s performance as a younger Tommy Lee Jones. When Will Smith has to go back in time to prevent his partner’s assassination he meets the younger Tommy Lee, played by Brolin and Brolin nails it. That stuff is good.

But too much of MEN IN BLACK III doesn’t work…simply put, this movie was a waste of my time. Don’t let it waste your time too…just skip it.

The pointless second sequel MEN IN BLACK III; the boring horror-thriller THE APPARITION; the enjoyable but not great animated ghost story PARANORMAN; the very good crime drama LAWLESS; Ken Burns’ tremendous documentary on THE DUST BOWL; and the very good THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of the CBC series ARCTIC AIR are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

The made-in-Ottawa post-apocalyptic thriller THE DAY, the Pixar classic FINDING NEMO debuts on blu-ray and Christopher Nolan’s spectacular Batman Trilogy concludes with THE DARK KNIGHT RISES.

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 again next time on The Couch!

The Couch Potato Report – November 24th, 2012

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report are the latest adventures of Jake Doyle, Hard Core Logo and LED ZEPPELIN reunite.

On December 10th, 2007, the surviving members of Led Zeppelin took the stage at London’s O2 Arena to headline a tribute concert. Founding members Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were joined by Jason Bonham, the son of their late drummer John Bonham, and I will tell you about the film of that night – CELEBRATION DAY – in just a few minutes to conclude The Report this week.

To start things off, we head to one of the greatest places in the world, St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, because that is where the CBC series REBUBLIC OF DOYLE takes place.

REPUBLIC OF DOYLE centers around a father and son who are private investigators and the very colourful group of family and friends who help them and work with them as they travel the streets of St. John’s solving cases, and trying to stay out of jail themselves.

Allan Hawco stars as the son – Jake Doyle – and in the entertaining, engaging and action filled COMPLETE THIRD SEASON he is once again joined by a wealth of great Canadian guest stars, including Gordon Pinsent, Victor Garber, Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea and one well known non-Canadian, Academy Award winner Russell Crowe.

I enjoy REBUBLIC OF DOYLE and I can easily recommend the thirteen episodes in the three disc set for THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON!!

Oh, and don’t forget, SEASON FOUR of REPUBLIC OF DOYLE can be seen on its new night, Sundays at 9 pm, starting January 6th on CBC Television!!

Back in 1996 a mock documentary – a mockumentary – was released about a once great fictional Canadian punk rock band who reunite for a western Canadian tour and one more chance at success.

The tour could end before it even begins as egos, in-fighting and unresolved issues between the four members pop up again, but they somehow get back out there, taking their music to the people once again.

Director Bruce Macdonald’s HARD CORE LOGO succeeds because it loves the music and the musicians that were at its center and because of the performances of Hugh Dillon from the show FLASHPOINT and Callum Keith Rennie of MEMENTO and the reboot of BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA as the two leaders of the band.

They completely embody the punk singer who desperately needs the band because he doesn’t have much else and the guitarist who already has another opportunity lined up once the inevitable break up happens again.

HARD CORE LOGO is now available on blu-ray for the first time in an ALL ACCESS EDITION that is housed in Steelbook packaging – for a limited time – and comes with a wealth of Special Features…including the made-in-beautiful Watrous, Saskatchewan sequel HARD CORE LOGO 2, which is one of the worst films ever produced.

HARD CORE LOGO 2 has very little to do with the first film, and it is virtually unwatchable, but I do recommend the first film. The original HARD CORE LOGO isn’t always great, but due to some very good writing, music and performances it is always interesting…and it does have some amazing scenes and a great rock and roll attitude!!

It is “check your brain at the door” time now, for if you do that you will have a blast watching Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terry Crews and Randy Couture tear it up and shoot almost everything in sight in THE EXPENDABLES 2.

This sequel to the testosterone filled 2010 film is about a group of elite mercenaries even ups the ante by adding more former action superstars to the mix, namely Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme, and some young blood in the form of Liam Hemsworth from THE HUNGER GAMES.

All together, THE EXPENDABLES 2 adds up to something special…and it delivers what you want it to.

Check your brain at the door and you will completely enjoy THE EXPENDABLES 2…I certainly did!

The two films I have to tell you about right now had the chance to be very good, even great, but ultimately each one fails.

Especially THE WATCH, this mess fails miserably!!

THE WATCH puts Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn on screen together for the first time since DODGEBALL, a film that many – including myself – consider a modern day comedic classic.

The main problem with THE WATCH is that it is doesn’t really know what it wants to be – a profane and sex filled comedy made for adults? Or a science fiction style comedy that plays to teenagers? That inconsistent tone really works against it.

PLUS, with few exceptions, the jokes aren’t funny. Even with Stiller and Vaughn, plus Jonah Hill from 21 JUMP STREET and a script co-written by Canadian Seth Rogen and Even Goldberg, who gave us SUPERBAD, even with all that it is not funny.

THE WATCH is about a group of four men who form a neighborhood watch group and find themselves defending the Earth from an alien invasion and you won’t care.

This thing isn’t worthy of your time, so if you loved Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn in DODGEBALL and want them to make you laugh again skip THE WATCH and just watch DODGEBALL again.

The next film that had the chance to be very good – but isn’t – is a foreign film from France called ELLES.

This movie stars Academy Award winner Juliette Binoche from THE ENGLISH PATIENT as a journalist in Paris for Elle magazine who is researching an article about female student prostitution.

The journalist meets two young women, and although they are not initially interested in speaking with her, she eventually persuades them into being part of her article.

The other side of the story in the film ELLES is the weakest one, the journalist’s home life. She has two sons and a husband and seems disconnected from all three of them.

Which is why you could see how she might start to get lost in the world the students are telling her about, or find a connection to the students themselves…and the film does have a few scenes where you can see that she is connecting to it, but they end and are never referenced again.

The journalist meets two women who have freedom, pride, and empowerment…something she doesn’t seem to have at all, but instead of chasing after change…she just goes for a walk.

Really…that is what she does…she goes for a walk and then goes back home.

Yes, ELLES has an awful ending.

The first half of the French film ELLES is great. It is smart, well written and very interesting.

The second half doesn’t hold up, which is why I just can’t recommend the film.

This movie also had the chance to be great, but in the end it fails, and so you should just skip it.

We have arrived at the celebration now. To conclude The Report this week is LED ZEPPELIN’s CELEBRATION DAY.

In December of 2007 The Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert was held in memory of music executive Ahmet Ertegün at The O2 Arena in London. The headline act was Led Zeppelin, who performed their first full-length concert since the death of drummer John Bonham in 1980, in a one-off reunion.

Bonham’s son Jason Bonham played drums, sharing the stage with John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

The blu-ray and DVD for LED ZEPPELIN – CELEBRATION DAY doesn’t feature any backstage interviews or conversations with the band members, it just gives us the concert, and while I would have liked to hear what they were thinking as they took the stage together for the first time in thirty-two years, the concert is pretty good on its own!

I wouldn’t call myself the world’s biggest fan of the band, but I really enjoyed this concert. Zeppelin fans, this one is for you, and you need to get the blu-ray as the music sounds amazing!!

The amazing CELEBRATION DAY concert by Led Zeppelin, the okay but poorly concluded foreign film ELLES, the completely awful wannabe action comedy THE WATCH, the exceptionally entertaining retro action flick THE EXPENDABLES 2, the ALL ACCESS EDITION blu-ray of the Canadian rock and roll classic HARD CORE LOGO, and THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON of the very entertaining made-in-St. John’s CBC series REBUBLIC OF DOYLE are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of the made-in-the-Northwest Territories CBC series ARCTIC AIR, the made in Quebec movie LE TORRENT, and Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones return for MEN IN BLACK III.

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 again next time on The Couch!

The Couch Potato Report – November 17th, 2012

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report is a brave headstrong young princess and an aging Hollywood Queen.

Here is all you need to know about the low budget made-in-Montreal film LIVERPOOL – a young coat-check attendant in a bar named Liverpool decides to bring an unclaimed coat back to its owner and ends up in the middle of an ongoing criminal war alongside a regular from the bar who has a secret crush on her but – until this one night – has never had the courage to even speak to her.

That is all you need to know…anything else would be too much, and thi sis one of those movies that you should know too much about going in, so it can surprise you.

Okay, I will tell you a little bit more about LIVERPOOL, it is a well-written movie with two lead characters who you will like and you will root for. You might even learn a thing or two about electronic waste.

Oh, and the final thing I will tell you about LIVERPOOL is that I really enjoyed it!

It isn’t perfect, but you should definitely search this one out! I highly recommend it!!

You won’t have to search out the twenty-fourth installment of Don Cherry’s long running video highlight series, ROCK ‘EM SOCK ‘EM 24 will be everywhere!!

Just as numbers 1 through 23 have DON CHERRY’s ROCK EM SOCK EM 24 features the best plays, goals, saves, bloopers, hits and fights from the 2011-2012 NHL Season, as well as highlights from Coach’s Corner – as seen on CBC Television’s Hockey Night in Canada.

Plus, as has become the tradition, DON CHERRY ROCK EM SOCK EM 24 is also a season recap…and a look back at last season’s Stanley Cup Playoffs.

ROCK EM SOCK EM 24 delivers exactly what Don Cherry has been giving us for almost two and a half decades on video, DVD and now on blu-ray for the first time as well.

I have enjoyed the first 24, and look forward to number 25 next year!!

Before we get to our feature review of the animated film BRAVE, how about a short film…or a whole disc of them…because that is what you will find if you pick up the PIXAR SHORT FILMS COLLECTION – VOLUME 2.

These are the short films that run before Pixar films like WALL-E, UP, TOY STORY 3 and others in theatres and there are twelve of them in this magnificent collection.

They are tremendous pieces of entertainment that feature great sight gags and are inventive and fun.

I highly recommend the PIXAR SHORT FILMS COLLECTION – VOLUME 2, and VOLUME 1 as well!! These short films will live forever!

Once the short film is over, the main feature begins…shhh, BRAVE is starting…

BRAVE is the Pixar studio’s follow up to Toy Story (1995), A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Cars (2006), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010) and Cars 2 (2011) and even though there is a lot of great stuff in the movie, I didn’t love it the way I have loved most of those films.

This is the studio’s attempt at growing up, and they don’t quite pull it off.

Now, if any other animation studio tried to make this movie they probably would have failed miserably, so I give Pixar credit for trying to create a timeless story about a headstrong young Princess who is determined to create her own future, breaking from age old traditions…but once the story changes to her working to overturn a curse she brought on, my attention started to wane.

With few exceptions, there just isn’t really anything here that we haven’t seen before in Disney animated films like BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and ROBIN HOOD.

Now BRAVE does have enough going for it to enable me to mildly recommend it – it is certainly the best looking animated film I have ever seen and some of the patented Pixar secondary characters are a lot of fun – but I must admit that I am more looking forward to next year’s Pixar film MONSTER’S UNIVERSITY than I am in ever seeing BRAVE again.

I have three films to review right now…and unfortunately two of them are awful, and I only tel you about them as you might seriously think of watching them.

I’ll save the worst for last, and start with one of my favourite films of the year…a romantic dramatic comedy called YOUR SISTER’S SISTER.

This tremendous low-budget film begins at a party where a woman named Iris – played the great actress Emily Blunt – extends an invitation for her grieving friend Jack to get out of town and go spend some alone time at her family’s remote cabin.

He accepts, but upon his arrival he isn’t alone, Iris’ sister is also at the cabin trying to deal with her own grief…and misery loves company.

Misery soon meets love as one of the sisters professes love for Jack to the other, but it might be too late for any of them to be together, get together or even speak again due to how the events all unfold while the three are around each other.

YOUR SISTER’S SISTER features three characters that you will enjoy spending time with, an engaging story with several great twists and turns, and I really love this movie!!

Search it out, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!

I did not like or even remotely enjoy this next movie…and I even went into it with very low expectations. I expected SAVAGES to be bad, but it was worse than I could have ever imagined.

SAVAGES is awful!!

SAVAGES is a crime thriller directed by Oliver Stone, based on the novel of the same name by Don Winslow.

The story is about two lifelong friends named Ben and Chon who are in the drug business. When a Mexican drug cartel wants them to start working for them, and they say no, the cartel kidnaps their shared girlfriend…and therein lies the film’s biggest problem, the producers cast Blake Lively from THE TOWN and GREEN LANTERN as the girlfriend and she can not act and so you won’t care.

Lively can’t act, and the supporting cast is full of Hollywood veterans who are all overacting. Benicio del Toro, John Travolta and Salma Hayek are all wasting their time and talents here.

SAVAGES does have a few good action scenes…as the director of PLATOON and NATURAL BORN KILLERS, Oliver Stone knows that territory well…but overall this film is a complete waste of time.

Skip it at all costs…even if you think you will enjoy it, and you love the cast, skip it!!

You have been warned!

You also need to skip the modern day vampire romantic comedy VAMPS, even though you may feel inclined to pick it up because it reunites Amy Heckerling and Alicia Silverstone, the director and star of CLUELESS.

But don’t let nostalgia fool you, VAMPS is awful!!

Silverstone and young actress Krysten Ritter play female vampires in modern-day New York City looking for love…and you won’t care.

Even with a supporting cast that includes Richard Lewis, Sigourney Weaver, Wallace Shawn, Malcolm McDowell, Marilu Henner from TAXI, Kristen Johnston of THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN and some great cameos from several actors who also worked with Amy Heckerling on FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, you won’t care.

VAMPS isn’t fun, it isn’t funny, it isn’t interesting, and it isn’t going to take up much more of my time.

Skip it…it is a complete waste of your time!

Finally this week, an Academy Award winning cinematic classic…director Billy Wilder’s 1950 film SUNSET BOULEVARD.

That is just one of many quotable lines in this film about a down on his luck no talent screenwriter named Joe Gillis who meets and becomes the companion and of a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.

Gloria Swanson played Norma Desmond, a woman who thinks her young companion is going to write her comeback vehicle, but he just doesn’t have the talent to do it, and her old friends – including Hollywood legend Cecil B. DeMille – who plays himself – don’t have the heart to tell her.

SUNSET BOULEVARD received 11 Academy Award nominations and won three Oscars, for Best Music, Best Screenplay and Best Art Direction. Everything the film has to offer now looks spectacular in High Definition on blu-ray, and the release comes with over two-and-a-half hours of bonus features.

SUNSET BOULEVARD is tremendous in every way, it is a must see for anyone and everyone who loves movies!!

Billy Wilder’s classic Hollywood fable SUNSET BOULEVARD, the awful wannabe comedy VAMPS, Oliver Stone’s less-than-entertaining crime thriller SAVAGES, the exceptional film YOUR SISTER’S SISTER, the very entertaining PIXAR SHORT FILMS COLLECTION 2, the not classic but still very good animated film BRAVE, DON CHERRY’s ROCK ’EM SOCK ‘EM 24 and the nice little Montreal made romantic crime thriller LIVERPOOL are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON of the CBC series REBUBLIC OF DOYLE – THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of the CBC series ARCTIC AIR, the ALL ACCESS EDITION of HARD CORE LOGO, LED ZEPPELIN – CELEBRATION DAY and BILL AND TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE debuts on blu-ray!!

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 again next time on The Couch!

The Couch Potato Report – November 10th, 2012

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report is a television show about women working in a munitions factory during the war.

The first release I have for you this Remembrance Day weekend is a made-in-Toronto television series, set during World War II, about a group of women working in a factory building bombs for the Allied forces fighting on the European front.

It is called BOMB GIRLS.

BOMB GIRLS was originally just going to be a six-part mini-series, but it was picked up for a second season…and you may have seen it in the entertainment news this week as former talk show host Rosie O’Donnell has joined the cast for Season Two

Season One of BOMB GIRLS introduces us to Lorna, Gladys, Kate, Betty and the women who risk their lives every day. They are from all walks of life, rich and poor, some even start off as rivals, but they become friends as they become liberated from their home and social restrictions of the time.

BOMB GIRLS isn’t a great show, there is some really bad acting and make-up work here, but the show has some people you will care about. Ultimately I did enjoy SEASON ONE enough to mildly recommend it.

And here’s to the actual bomb girls, and all military veterans and personnel this Remembrance Day weekend…Lest We Forget.

The last Spider-Man movie in the trio of films starring Tobey Maguire was released in 2007 and it was a mess. There were too many villains, too many storylines and things going on, and most of the cast seemed bored and no longer interested in being in the series.

So – even though it was the highest grossing film of the three – the studio decided to hire a new actor to play Spidey and reboot the series…so now Andrew Garfield from THE SOCIAL NETWORK stars as the webslinger in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN.

Yes, even though we are only five years removed from the last series, and a decade away from the fantastic first film in the last series, we have another origin story about how mild mannered teenager Peter Parker becomes a superhero after being bitten by a genetically modified spider.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN has some great action sequences and fight scenes, and great chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone – who plays Gwen Stacey, the first true love of Peter Parker before he developed deep feelings for her friend and rival, Mary Jane Watson – they have great chemistry…but where the film doesn’t always succeed is when Garfield is Spider-man.

I didn’t always buy him as the character I know so well, from the original comic books and the cartoon series I loved as a kid, and the more recent movies.

That said, I do still recommend this film…as there is far more good than bad. THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN isn’t a perfect action film, but it is a very good one.

Very good doesn’t begin to describe THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW…it is a television masterpiece, a classic show that remains hilarious to this day, especially their parody of GONE WITH THE WIND, called WENT WITH THE WIND.

There were 278 episodes hour long episodes of this show produced over 11 years, and it isn’t likely they will all ever be released, but on the six disc set CAROL’S FAVOURITES there is over eighteen and a half hours of laughs and quality entertainment.

Including the old gang – Carol, Harvey Korman and Tim Conway – looking back on their efforts.

I used to sit and watch this show on Saturday nights with my big sister Wendy, and we used to laugh and laugh, so THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW will always have a special place in my heart…but the show has earned that place as was – and remains – hilarious.

CAROL’S FAVOURITES is something I highly recommend to everyone, and I know a certain sister who might even get one as a Christmas gift.

Did you realize, that after this weekend, there are only six weekend left until Christmas? Yes, the holidays are fast approaching and you are about to see more and more holiday releases available to buy on disc and download.

One of the newest ones is called ARTHUR CHRISTMAS and it is the story of what happens on Christmas Eve at the North Pole when there is one child who Santa doesn’t leave a present for, and so his young clumsy son looks to use his father’s high-tech operation to ensure everyone gets a gift.

ARTHUR CHRISTMAS has a great voice cast featuring James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton, Ashley Jensen, Laura Linney, Eva Longoria and Michael Palin, and there is some good stuff here for kids, but adults might have a hard time sitting through it.

I will mildly recommend it, but only because I am not a Grinch toward anything Christmas.

I will also recommend the film 360 starring Anthony Hopkins, Ben Foster, Rachel Weisz, and Jude Law, but not mildly…very highly.

360 is an ensemble piece about a group of people from different social backgrounds and their intertwining relationships.

360 is a story of good people trying to do their best but aren’t always capable of that and it is incredibly well-written and acted and it is also very interesting.

It is just a few scenes short of being great, however as it is, 360 is very, very good.

Not as great is EVEN THE RAIN, a movie with some very good character arcs, but it all doesn’t add up to a film that you need to see.

EVEN THE RAIN is a Spanish film that introduces us to a director and his crew who are trying to shoot a controversial film about Christopher Columbus in Bolivia, while the locals are demonstrating against plans to privatize the local water supply.

Although I did find EVEN THE RAIN interesting, I didn’t think it went far enough with any of the stories it tries to tell and so while I liked a lot of it, I don’t recommend that you see it.

There are other people on my Christmas List who will be receiving a different movie as a gift this year…the 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of one of my favourite holiday films of all-time: THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL.

This was the very first film that was produced with The Muppets after Jim Henson’s untimely death in May of 1990 and their version of Charles Dickens’ classic is fantastic, and new this week in HD on blu-ray.

Muppet fans…in case you are wondering…the version of the film now on blu-ray is the theatrical one…so the song “When Love Is Gone” is not included here…so, if you have the DVD of the movie, hold on to that – even if you pick this up – to keep this great scene that has long been omitted from the movie as it was deemed not appealing to children.

The 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL has some great bonus features, old and brand new, but mainly it has the tremendous holiday treat that is good for the whole family!

The 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL, the foreign film EVEN THE RAIN, the very good intersecting drama 360, the okay animated family film ARTHUR CHRISTMAS, the sensational 6 disc set CAROL’S FAVOURITES featuring THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW, the very good but not great reboot THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, and SEASON ONE of the made-in-Toronto series BOMB GIRLS are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

The made-in-Montreal romantic action comedy LIVERPOOL, DON CHERRY’s ROCKEM SOCK EM 24, director Oliver Stone’s SAVAGES, the cinematic classic SUNSET BOULEVARD and Pixar’s summer box-office hit BRAVE.

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 again next time on The Couch!