Category: The Couch Potato Report

The Couch Potato Report – July 28th, 2007
This week The Couch Potato Report peels a number and an underdog, plus we see IraqÖin fragments.
If there is a number that corresponds to someone or something meaningful in your life, you probably see it everywhere.
For instance…that number for me is 333.
In the early nineties I worked at a music store that was located at 333 Yonge Street and to this day I see that number everywhere – on licence plates, buildings, t-shirts…and I even somehow always seem to look at the clock at 3:33, both am and pm.
Luckily the number doesn’t haunt me, follow me around, or show up right before bad things are going to happen…like the number 23 does to Jim Carrey in the film THE NUMBER 23.
And that number does haunt him in the film.
In this film Carrey plays a man named Walter Sparrow. Even though he might get bored with his life from time to time, he is a character who seems happy with his normal life with his wife and son.
And then…one night while she is waiting for him…his wife introduces him to a book called “The Number 23”.
As he reads the book, he notices eerie resemblances to his own life, including similarities to his own family, and he becomes obsessed with the number 23.
As Carrey reads along, he goes deeper and deeper into madness as he thinks that he must solve a murder which can only be done by unlocking the secrets of the book.
THE NUMBER 23 is a film that has many interesting moments – specifically when it shows us how often the number 23 comes up in everyday life – but ultimately it just isn’t worth your time.
The great Canadian Jim Carrey once again stars from the LIAR LIAR, BRUCE ALMIGHTY and ACE VENTURA comedic roles we all love him in to play the serious lead in the film.
And while his serious work in ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND and THE TRUMAN SHOW was superb, in THE NUMBER 23 he is just the wrong man for the job.
His performance isn’t awful…but he just isn’t believeable as this character.
THE NUMBER 23 isn’t a complete waste of your time…but it is very, very close.
I also fear that a film opening in theatres on August 3rd will also be very, very close to being a waste of our time…but I remain optimistic.
That film?…a live action version of the classic cartoon – UNDERDOG!
Underdog was a cartoon that began in 1964 and ran throughout the seventies on Saturday mornings.
The premise is that the “humble and lovable” Shoeshine Boy is in truth the superhero Underdog, who ducks into a telephone booth when he needs to be transformed into the caped and costumed hero, not unlike a certain super man.
In THE UNDERDOG SHOW there is a great hero, plenty of nasty villains, and it is always engaging to the ear as Underdog almost always speaks in rhymes.
If you even needed to find me at this time on a Saturday morning, thirty-some-odd years ago, you could just look in front of the TV because that is where I was – with my bowl of cereal – enjoying UNDERDOG.
And now the classic cartoon UNDERDOG returns to DVD, in advance of the impending theatrical film, with three new releases…Volumes One, Two and Three of THE CLASSIC UNDERDOG COLLECTION!!
The difference between these UNDERDOG releases and some of the other ones that have come out over the years is the fact that these DVDs have the complete Underdog stories, AND the cartoon shorts that originally aired with them.
Yes, Tennessee Tuxedo, Klondike Kat, Go Go Gophers and The World of Commander McBragg and all of the other characters are all here too!!
It might be thirty-some-odd years since I first saw Underdog on TV…but I had a wonderful time watching the THE CLASSIC UNDERDOG COLLECTION this past week.
I even had a bowl of cereal…or two.
Good times, good memories, good good good!
Here’s hoping the live-action theatrical movie – which I will see – is half as good!
Okay, finally this week, our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD continues.
This summer, while the big summer blockbusters roll out in theatres, I am telling you about at least one foreign film each week, in case you’d like something less commercial to watch.
And there is nothing commercial about the documentary IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS.
This film introduces us to three different individuals – and the people around them – and it shows how their lives are now, after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Many of them can’t understand why things aren’t any better, and some of them would even prefer to have things the way they were.
The thing that IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS does best is provide us a rare glimpse into the lives of ordinary Iraqis.
The people we meet talk at length about school, work, their families, their hobbies, and much more.
While some people might find the amount of details and stories irrelevant, I was engaged from start to finish during this 94 minute film.
IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS is filled with unique faces and places, and for the first time we get to see extended stories about how the youth in Iraq is dealing with life there.
It is an exceptionally interesting documentary and this week’s title in our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD.
IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS, Volumes One to Three of the always entertaining CLASSIC UNDERDOG COLLECTION, and Canadian JIm Carrey’s new film THE NUMBER 23 are all available now on DVD.
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
JEAN-PHILIPPE is one of the best films I have seen this year, it is about Fabrice, a man who has to coinvince his favourite singer, a man who is running a bowling alley, that he is – in reality – a music superstar.
Also next week, I will talk about the hilarious British movie HOT FUZZ, from the makers of SHAUN OF THE DEAD; the epic action film 300 – based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel; the classic MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA; and our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD continues with the animated action film RENAISSANCE from France.
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!

The Couch Potato Report – July 21st, 2007
This week The Couch Potato Report peels four films that might entertain you on a hot summer night and documentary about coffee.
As I am sure you know, it is summer.
This is the time of year when many of us spend most of our leisure time outside in the sun having fun.
The folks at most of the movie studios know this, and they are out doing the same.
That at being the case, there haven’t been any huge new DVD releases of late.
The studios are saving those films for release at the end of the summer, just in
time for Back To School sales and the impending holiday buying season.
But there are still new movies being released each week on DVD, and I have four of them for you that you might mildly enjoy, even though none of them are what you might call “a great movie”.
First up is a film called GRAY MATTERS.
In this film Canadian actor Tom Cavanagh from TV’s ED and the beautiful Heather Graham from BOOGIE NIGHTS star as a brother and sister who both fall in love…with the same woman.
The two are so close that they live together and dance together and even finish each other’s sentences, and after an incident at a party when they are thought to be a couple, they decide that they need to start looking for other people to love.
So Sam agrees to look for a guy for his sister and Gray, that is his sister’s name, Gray says she’ll look for a girl for her brother.
And Gray succeeds!
But once Gray realizes that she loves the woman too, she has to ask some serious questions…like, does she even like men.
GRAY MATTERS isn’t great, and it has an awful ending, but it does have a good heart at it’s core, and some nice characters.
So if you are looking for a light romantic comedy to watch on a summer evening, this one might do the trick.
Next up is FACTORY GIRL.
This movie tells a fictionalized story of mid-sixties socialite and Andy Warhol
superstar Edie Sedgwick.
Edith Minturn Sedgwick – better known as Edie – was an American model actress, and heiress who starred in many of Andy Warhol’s short films in the 1960s.
I could sit here and give you multiple facts about Edie, but all of them would just
be things I found on Wikipedia.
No, prior to watching FACTORY GIRL the only reason I knew who she was came courtesy of a song.
The band The Cult wrote a song about her life called “Edie (Ciao Baby)” which was on their Sonic Temple album released in 1989.
Other than that…I only knew she was one of Andy Warhol’s gang who all gathered and worked and hung out at a place in New York called The Factory.
But after watching this movie, I guess I know a little bit more…however, I am not really that curious about her.
I suspect the real Edie Sedgwick lead a very interesting life, but the movie about
her isn’t very interesting at all.
The problem with this film has nothing to do with the cast – Sienna Miller is great
as Edie, Guy Pierce is spectacular as Andy Warhol, and Canadian actor Hayden
Christensen from the STAR WARS films does a good enough job Bob Dylan impersonation as a character who is, but isn’t named Bob Dylan- but their movie is just too artsy fartsy.
The filmmaker uses multiple camera angles and technicques, shoots on video, digital and film, and is constantly changing from film mode to documentary mode to too many other modes to care about.
And I get it, Edie Sedgwick and the Andy Warhol gang were creative and artistic, so they want the film to be artistic…but it ends up being a movie that has too much style and not enough substance.
I like artistic films that take chances, but FACTORY GIRL is just too artistic…thus, it is too artsy fartsy for me.
And yes, that is the first time I have ever called any film that…and hopefully it
is the last!
If you want to see something that is a bit different than the mainstream films that are the norm, the FACTORY GIRL is for you.
If you don’t…check out THE ASTRONAUT FARMER.
Billy Bob Thornton plays a former NASA astronaut who was forced to retire years earlier so he could save his family farm.
But he has never give up his dream of space travel, and he builds his own rocket in his barn and plans on going into space…despite the government’s threats to stop him.
THE ASTRONAUT FARMER isn’t a movie based in reality.
It is a story of a dreamers, and a movie for full of hope, and as such it requires
the viewer to take a huge leap of faith.
I was willing to do that, and I found it to be a good little film with some great
surprises, none of which I will spoil for you now.
So, if you suspend disbelief, and maybe dream just a little, you might enjoy THE
ASTRONAUT FARMER as well.
I mentioned that if you suspend disbelief, and maybe dream just a little, you might enjoy THE ASTRONAUT FARMER.
Well, if you have a kid who can do that, and that kid has never seen E.T. – THE
EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, well then they might enjoy THE LAST MIMZY.
THE LAST MIMZY is a fantasy film for the whole family about a brother and a sister who discover a mysterious box while they are at the beach.
They open it and inside they find a magical stuffed rabbit who tells the girl that
it’s name is Mimzy.
Also inside that box are other mystical toys, which give the children some unique
and exceptional powers.
Soon, the kids begin to attract the attention of their parents, teachers… and even the FBI.
The source material for THE LAST MIMZY pre-dates E.T. by nearly four decades, but that film is so iconic that this movie suffers by comparison.
It isn’t a bad movie, in fact, it is a pretty good movie for kids, but as an adult,
all I kept thinking was: this would be a pretty good movie for kids.
So, if you have some young kids you need to entertain, or just need some grown-up time this summer, this might be the film for you…I mean them.
Finally this week, our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD continues with the British
documentary BLACK GOLD about the international coffee trade and its ramifications for the farmers who grow coffee.
Around the world, more than two billion cups of coffee are drunk everyday and coffee is an eighty-billion-dollar-a-year business.
Personally, I have never had a cup of coffee in my life, so I sat down to watch this film with the eyes of an outsider.
However, if you do drink coffee, and you see this film, you may start to look
differently at your cups of java from now on.
BLACK GOLD takes us from the first Starbucks in Seattle to the region in Ethiopia where they grow some of the beans the chain uses.
In moments, we go from excess to famine.
If you are a coffee drinker, you might want to avoid this movie or your cup of black gold may never taste the same!
BLACK GOLD is entertaining, interesting and very insightful. It is a superb
documentary and the latest entry in our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD!
The superb documentary BLACK GOLD, and the good but not great quartet of THE LAST MIMZY, THE ASTRONAUT FARMER, FACTORY GIRL and GRAY MATTERS are all available now on DVD.
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
Jim Carrey stars as a man who can’t escape THE NUMBER 23 and the classic cartoon UNDERDOG returns to DVD
Plus, our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD continues with the documentary IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS, featuring stories from modern day Iraq as told by Iraqis living in a time of war, occupation and ethnic tension.
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!

The Couch Potato Report – July 14th, 2007
This week The Couch Potato Report peels two Canadian films and we learn Esma’s secret.
On Friday in Chicago, a jury of nine women and three men found former Canadian media baron Conrad Black guilty of three counts of criminal fraud and the serious charge of obstruction of justice — but cleared him of racketeering, wire fraud and tax evasion.
The convictions mean Black faces a maximum sentence of 35 years, if served consecutively, and $1 million US in fines.
Sentencing will take place at a later date and as expected, Black’s attorneys announced they will appeal the guilty verdicts.
New on DVD this week is CITIZEN BLACK – a documentary that chronicles Conrad Black’s downfall.
And this isn’t one of those documentaries that only features interviews and comments friends, relatives, and former co-workers of Mr. Black’s.
No, CITIZEN BLACK features the man himself.
Black didn’t actually sit down for a one on one interview with filmmaker, and former CBC employee, Debbie Melnyk but she did correspond with him by email, and she did follow him around as he promoted his book about Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States.
CITIZEN BLACK isn’t a spectacular documentary as too often it tells Debbie Melnyk’s story and not Conrad Black’s, but it is very, very good.
It is a movie with a great sense of humour, and it also gives us a look at Mr. Black’s personal life and some of the eccentricities that he and his wife posess.
Debbie Melnyk is no Michael Moore, but through all of her films flaws, I respect her tenacity in trying to get Mr. Black to sit down for an interview as she chases him from one book signing to another.
And the film was always interesting, so ultimately I think CITIZEN BLACK is a film that is worth your time.
Up next this week is the Canadian film PARTITION.
Generally, a partition is a splitting of something into parts.
The Partition of India led to the creation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on August 14th, 1947, and the Republic of India on August 15th, 1947, upon the granting of independence to British India from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The movie PARTITION is about these events, but it is primarily a love story played out against a backdrop of political and religious upheaval.
Determined to leave the ravages of war behind, a Sikh soldier resigns from the British Indian Army to a quiet life.
His world is soon thrown in turmoil, when he suddenly finds himself responsible for the life of a young Muslim woman, traumatized by the events that separated her from her family.
Slowly, resisting all the taboos, they fall in love.
Canadian actresses Kristin Kreuk (Kroook) from the televison series SMALLVILLE and Neve Campbell of the SCREAM films atar along with the Indo-British actor Jimi Mistry in PARTITION, and they all give great performances.
Plus, the locations in British Columbia and Northern India where the movie was made look incredible, but in the end the film just never caught my attention.
I am a huge fan of TITANIC and THE ENGLISH PATIENT, and several other films that use actual historical events as a background for a love story.
But as much as PARTITION strives to be a good as those films, it just isn’t.
There are just too many side stories that ultimately have no relevance, and at one point a period of five years passes, and no one seems to change or age at all.
So, if you enjoy very romantic love stories set against turbulant times, perhaps you will enjoy PARTITION more than I did.
I didn’t dislike it, but I can’t fully recommend it either.
Finally this week, the action filled, very loud, check-your-brain-at-the-door summer movie season continued in theatres this week with HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX.
If you’d prefer an alternative, each week during the summer movie season I will tell you about at least one current release on DVD that you’ll need your brain to enjoy.
This is the FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL on DVD!
This week’s entry is ESMA’S SECRET, a movie from Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Germany and Croatia.
ESMA’S SECRET focuses on the Balkan War’s painful aftermath on a Bosnian woman named Esma and her daughter Sara who live in a quarter of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.
Esma works several jobs and does laundry and tailoring for her friends and neighbours to earn money and when Sara wants to go on a school trip, her mother struggles to find the money.
Esma has told her daughter that her father is a war hero, and even though a certificate proving that would allow her a discount for the trip, Esma tries to find a way to pay the full price.
The reason why, is Esma’s secret.
ESMA’S SECRET doesn’t show any scenes of the horrific war and genocide in the former Yugoslavia, but by the end of the movie you will know what the pain of war feels like.
It is a very interesting film that features people and locations that we don’t normally get to see, either in films or in real life, and it all adds up to a movie that will get you thinking.
Like I said, you’ll need your brain to enjoy the selections I have for you in this summer’s FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL on DVD!
The very interesting ESMA’S SECRET, the Canadian film PARTITION and the documentary CITIZEN BLACK are all available now on DVD.
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
GRAY MATTERS stars Tom Cavanagh and Heather Graham as a brother and sister who both fall in love with the same woman.
FACTORY GIRL tells a fictionalized story of mid-sixties socialite and Andy Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick; Billy Bob Thornton stars in THE ASTRONAUT FARMER as a farmer who builds his own rocket; and our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD continues with the British documentary BLACK GOLD about the international coffee trade and its ramifications for the farmers who grow coffee.
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!

The Couch Potato Report – July 7th, 2007
This week The Couch Potato Report peels monkey warfare, Miss Potter, two “classic” TV shows and the dignity of the nobodies.
MONKEY WARFARE was named Best Canadian Feature Film and given a Special Jury Citation at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival and it is about two ex-revolutionaries from Vancouver, with a less than law abiding past, who are now living underground and off the grid in Toronto.
Dan and Linda earn money by scavenging through the garbage and selling their discoveries on the internet.
And to them, they are living a happy, very satisfying life.
Then Dan befriends a young drug dealer named Susan, and her rebellious ambitions could expose the couple’s troubled past.
While most films today shoot for months and have budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars, MONKEY WARFARE was shot in two weeks with the film’s thirty thousand dollar budget borrowed from the director’s line of credit.
That makes it very low budget.
It is also very Canadian, due to it’s locations, dialogue and references, and, at times it is very good.
But for some reason, even though the movie is only seventy-five minutes long, it just can’t sustain that good for very long before it gets slow, boring and uninteresting.
Luckily it only goes down that road a few times, and never for very long.
Okay, bottom line, I liked it.
I liked that it was low budget, and Canadian, and I was interested enough in the characters to hope that everything worked out for them in the end.
MONKEY WARFARE isn’t a great movie, and due to it’s drug references and language, it might not be for everyone, but if you see it in your local movie store, I say give it a shot.
If you see it there…most stores these days don’t carry many low budget Canadian films…but that is a topic for another time.
Our next movie is one that is so cheery, so postivie, so polite, and so nice that I can’t believe I liked it because I usually like films that have a bit of an edge to them.
But I did…I did like MISS POTTER.
MISS POTTER is “based-on-the-true-story” of Beatrix Potter, the author of the timeless, beloved and best-selling children’s book, “The Tale of Peter Rabbit”, and her struggle for love, happiness and success as she attempts to get her books published.
Ewan MacGregor is the book publisher and Renee Zellweger plays Beatrix Potter in this movie that is just delightful.
Potter’s life wasn’t all sunshine, roses and beautiful, and this film does show the lows as well as the highs, and those lows are heartbreaking and moving.
The actors all seem to really be enjoying themselves and as a result, I enjoyed myself too, and their film.
I wouldn’t call MISS POTTER one of the best films of the year, but I did really enjoy it.
Okay, up next this week are two DVD box sets for two classic television shows.
The five-disc set for the last season of MIAMI VICE and the six-disc set for the first season of CHiPs.
CHiPs is a police drama about the adventures of Ponch and John, two California Highway Patrol motorcycle officers.
It ran from September 15th, 1977, until July 17th, 1983, for a total of 6 seasons.
Unlike some other shows from the seventies that get released on DVD, CHiPs – THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON is very well done and it features the actual episodes as they first aired, with all of the original music and title sequences.
CHiPs is the final great tv show from the 1970s to make it to DVD, and I am glad that we now have it to add to our libraries…just as I continue to be glad the 1980s show MIAMI VICE is available on DVD.
In fact, MIAMI VICE: SEASON FIVE is the final DVD set for the series because after five trendsetting seasons the show went off the air with an exposive finale and this set allows us to have the complete series at our disposal to watch anytime we’d like.
For me, that is often.
I loved MIAMI VICE when it aired, and I love it now.
Finally this week, with the opening of the TRANSFORMERS movie in theatres this week, the action filled, very loud, check-your-brain-at-the-door summer movie season continues.
If you’d prefer an alternative, each week during the summer movie season I will tell you about at least one current release on DVD that you’ll need your brain to enjoy.
Welcome back to our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL!
The FESTIVAL ON DVD continues with the very moving film THE DIGNITY OF THE NOBODIES from Argentina.
This documentary introduces us to some of the poor and dispossessed people of Argentina and their recent increasingly successful battles against neo-liberalism and globalization.
We also see their ongoing problems due to repossessed farms, enormous poverty, widespread joblessness, and a socialized health care system in chaos.
THE DIGNITY OF THE NOBODIES goes all across Argentina to tell its story and it is presented as a series of specific portraits, or sketches of situations as seen through the experiences of individuals.
We meet a woman whose only wish in the world is that she could send her kids to school.
A doctor who can’t understand why people can’t get the medicine they need.
And a family who were forced to sell their farm for less than it was worth when they didn’t get the help they needed after the Father had a stroke and couldn’t work anymore.
But there are also some positive stories as well!
Toba is a teacher who runs a free food kitchen.
He saved the life of Martin, a delivery man who was shot by police at a 2001 police riot.
Postive stories…negative stories…human stories…they are all contained in this very interesting film.
THE DIGNITY OF THE NOBODIES, Season Five of MIAMI VICE, Season One of CHIPS, MISS POTTER and the Canadian film MONKEY WARFARE are all available now on DVD.
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
At this point a jury of nine women and three men are still deliberating in the court case against former Canadian media baron Conrad Black and the film CITIZEN BLACK is a documentary that chronicles Black’s downfall during the most tumultuous period of his life. A period that lead to the recent trial.
The Canadian film PARTITION is a love story played out against a backdrop of political and religious upheaval.
Billy Bob Thornton stars in THE ASTRONAUT FARMER as a farmer who builds his own rocket.
And our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD continues with ESMA’S SECRET, a movie from Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Germany and Croatia.
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!

The Couch Potato Report – June 9th, 2007
This week The Couch Potato Report peels another film that was made in Saskatchewan and offers some Father’s Day gift suggestions.
Since The Couch Potato Report first began in 1991, I have reviewed films on almost as many formats. There have been video cassettes, video discs, laserdiscs, VCDs, UMDs and more than a few others.
And the future of home viewing is already upon us with Blue Ray and HD-DVD gaining popularity…, but for the time being I will continue to just talk about new releases that are available on DVDs.
Including the DVD that is now in stores for the made-in-Saskatchewan horror film THE MESSENGERS.
When this film opened in theatres back in February, it became the first film made in that province to open in the number one spot on the box office charts.
In THE MESSENGERS Dylan McDermott from TV’s THE PRACTICE and Penelope Ann Miller of KINDERGARTEN COP fame are a couple who have packed up their life in the city and moved to the country with their two children, including a teenage daughter who has done something terribly wrong.
The young actress Kristen Stewart from PANIC ROOM is the daughter, and soon after they arrive at their spooky old house in the middle of nowhere, she starts to see things…and hear things…and no one …especially not her parents…believes her
During the very brisk 84 minute running time of this film, we also get to meet a banker, a few kids from the neighbouring town, and a mysterious stranger who becoimes the family’s hired hand.
What we don’t get is much originality.
THE MESSENGERS is a “what you see is not what you’ve seen” sort of film that borrows heavily from other well-known horror classics like THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, Alfred Hitchcock’s THE BIRDS, THE GRUDGE and POLTERGEIST, and it is for those reasons that I can’t strongly recommend it.
But, ultimately, I do recommend it.
If you enjoy horror films, and movies that have a few good scares in them, then this is a good one to watch.
On Easter Monday of this year, CBC Television covered the rededication ceremony of the war memorial in Vimy, France.
As I watched the new DVD this week featuring the highlights of the many features and stories that my CBC colleagues had produced for that broadcast of the Monument’s rededication, I felt the same way as I did when I sat and watched their original airing:
Wow!!
VIMY RIDGE 90 made me proud to be a Canadian, and it also made me want to make a pilgrimage to see this spectacular tribute to the Canadians who gave their lives so we could be here today.
VIMY RIDGE 90 is three hour highlight package from an unforgettable day in Canadian history. You get to witness the Sunset Ceremony, the Lighting of the Monument, and you’ll experience the newly restored memorial in all of its glory, the Freedom of the City parade; and much, much more.
It is a must see and a title that you must own.
This DVD would make a great Father’s Day gift next weekend…and so would the Two-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition of director Howard Hawks’ classic western RIO BRAVO!
Simply put, RIO BRAVO is one of the top five western movies ever made.
John Wayne is Sheriff John T. Chance, Dean Martin is his sobering-up alcoholic friend Dude, and Ricky Nelson is the hotshot new kid Colorado.
They are what stands between a currupt prisoner and the growing list of people who want to break him out of jail.
There is fightin’, horse ridin’, heroes, villains, a saloon, a perty gal, and everything a classic western should have.
Plus, this Ultimate Collector’s Edition features a remastered version of the film, a commentary, documentary, featurettes, the press book, a comic book, teh film’s lobby cards and more!!
If you like Westerns, this is the package for you, and if your Dad likes them, then this would be a great gift for him next Sunday.
Okay, it is time for the next release in our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD.
This summer I will be telling you about a different film each week in a foreign language.
German is the language spoken in the Austrian film ANTARES.
This movie features people who have secrets and lies
Specifically we meet a three women, whose paths cross in a large building complex.
There is a married nurse who has a lover that hardly speaks.
A cashier who is lying to her boyfriend that she is pregnant.
And a divorced woman who has problems getting rid of her ex-husband.
The destinies of the women we meet all have something to do with each other, and it is all quite engaging.
ANTARES is the type of movie where you won’t understand everything that you see in it until the very end, and then it will all be clear.
I really enjoyed watching it all fall into place.
The engaging Austrian film ANTARES (an-tair-eez), the Two-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition of director Howard Hawks’ classic western RIO BRAVO, the exceptional VIMY RIDGE 90, and the made-in-Saskatchewan film THE MESSENGERS are all available now on DVD.
Coming up in the next Couch Potato Report
MISSING VICTOR PELLERIN is a Canadian film about a young star of the art scene who burns a fortune in paintings and leaves Montreal without a trace; SNOWCAKE focusses on the friendship between a high-functioning autistic woman and a man who is traumatized after a fatal car accident.
I will also talk about Season Two of the superb television series THE CLOSER; and the based-on-a-true-story spy thriller BREACH.
Also next week, our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD continues with the French film TOI ET MOI. It juxtaposes real-life relationships with those of fiction and shows us how and why we sometimes get confused.
Mon dieu!!
I’m Dan Reynish. I’ll have more on those, and some other releases, in seven days.
For now, that’s this week’s COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I’ll see you back here next time on The Couch!

The Couch Potato Report – June 2nd, 2007
This week The Couch Potato Report peels a comedy collection, two monsters, and our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL will continue on DVD with a Finnish film about soccer.
From 1982 until he retired from acting in 2000 Canadian born Michael J. Fox was one of the biggest and most succesful stars in the world, and he remains one of the world’s most beloved performers to this day.
That is due to the fact that he was Alex P. Keaton in the TV show FAMILY TIES, Marty McFly in the BACK TO THE FUTURE films, Mike Flaherty in television’s SPIN CITY and the cinematic voice of STUART LITTLE.
And now, four of Fox’s films are available in THE MICHAEL J. FOX COMEDY FAVOURITES COLLECTION.
My favourite of the group is 1987’s THE SCRECT OF MY SUCCESS about an educated boy from a small town who moves to New York City to make his name in the business word.
Twenty years later, I still love this movie!!
In 1991’s THE HARD WAY Fox stars as an actor who goes undercover as a police officer to research a role that he is dying to play.
James Woods is the cop who is ordered to tak ethe actor under his wing, and he is none too thrilled.
1993 saw Michael J. Fox teams up with the lovely Gabrielle Anwar as he plays a hotel consierge with big dreams in the romantic comedy FOR LOVE OR MONEY.
And in GREEDY from 1994 Fox is part of an all-star cast as he stakes his own claim on his rich Uncle’s fortune. The cast also includes another well-known Canadian icon, the late, great Phil Hartman.
Sadly, for Michael J. Fox, those films made him wander from a direct or straight course.
At the time of thier releases, none of them were as successful, as well-liked, or as good, as some of the work Fox had done before them.
It seemed that Fox was just taking any roles that were offered to him.
Years later, in his autobiography – LUCKY MAN – A MEMOIR, he admitted that once he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease that he did just accept everything that came along because he wanted to focus on his work while he still could.
Now that time has passed, and Fox hasn’t had a major role on televison or in the movies in the better part of this decade, I have to admit that while I didn’t have fond memories of these movies from their initial release, with the exception of THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS which is one of my all-time favourite films, it was fun to go back and watch them all again.
We have to switch gears now for this week’s next two releases.
These films feature a cinematic monster in HANNIBAL RISING and a real life monster is at the centre of the documentary DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
Let me begin with the fake one…and in this film Hannibal Lecter is fake.
The trend in movies these days is to take a succesful film franchise and reboot it, taking us back to the origin of the character and story.
It worked very well in BATMAN BEGINS and CASINO ROYALE, sort of well in SUPERMAN RETURNS, but – sadly – it doesn’t work at all in HANNIBAL RISING.
Hannibal Lecter is one of the greatest screen villains of all time, but this attempt to reboot the frenachise with an origin story doesn’t work.
And that is both a huge surprise, and a major disappoinment, as Thomas Harris, the man who created the character in his 1981 book RED DRAGON, wrote the screenplay for HANNIBAL RISING.
The story is HANNIBAL RISING is this – after the death of his parents during World War II, young Hannibal Lecter moves in with his uncle and his beautiful wife and begins plotting revenge on the people responsible for his sister’s death.
That is how be became the monster we know him as today.
But, you don’t need to see this film to learn that. Hannibal Lecter is a perfect villain as he is, and fortunately, as bad as HANNIBAL RISING is, it cannot change that fact.
Another fact that cannot change is the fact that there is nothing entertaining in the documentary DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
I was uncomfortable during every minute of it’s 103 minute running time.
In the 1970s Father Oliver O’Grady was a Priest who moved from one parish to another in Northern California and quickly won each congregation’s trust and respect.
Unfortunately, while he was earning the trust and respect of the parents, he was ruining the lives of some of their children.
DELIVER US FROM EVIL features an extended, deeply unsettling interview with O’Grady himself, and we meet some of his victims and their families as they share their tragic stories of molestation and abuse.
We also find out, that O’Grady’s superiors knew what he was doing, and had done, and they did nothing to stop it.
DELIVER US FROM EVIL is a heartbreaking movie. There were times that it actually brought me to tears as the children, now grown up, and their parents tell their stories.
But ultimately, this film is about love. The love that the parents have for their children, and the love for life that keeps the victims going from day to day, no matter how that might be sometimes.
Because of it’s subject matter, and how unpleasant some of the stories in it are to hear, this is not a movie for everyone, but it is a look at a real life monster that you will not see every day.
Originally, I wasn’t going to talk about that film, because of how uncomfortable a subject it is, but I decided to include it here because as a piece of cinema, it has it’s place.
But lets move away from that subject matter now to once again celebrate a film from another country as our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD continues.
This summer I will be telling you about a different film each week in a foreign language.
This week the FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD features the Finnish film FC VENUS, a romantic comedy about men, women and soccer.
This film is about a group of men who are huge soccer fans.
It starts off at a wedding, and even the vows contain refereneces to their beloved game.
Luckily, their wives, girlfriends and partners are understanding of their partner’s love of the game, up to a point.
Once they cross that line, something has to be done.
So the wives, girlfriends and partners make a bet. Theyw ill play the men in a game. If they win, the men have to stop watching, loving, and talking about soccer forever.
If the women win, the men will pay for them to travel to Germany for a vacation, and give them their tickets to the World Cup Soccer Tournament.
FC Venus isn’t just about some people’s love for soccer though, it is also a love story between men and women, and it is very funny at times as well.
I found this movie from Finland to be good from start…to finnish.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist that.
I also can’t resist saying that this is another must see entry in the FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD
The very entertaining FC VENUS, the uncomfotable DELIVER US FROM EVIL, the useless HANNIBAL RISING, and the very entertaining films in THE MICHAEL J. FOX COMEDY FAVOURITES COLLECTION, are all available now on DVD.
Coming up in the next Couch Potato Report
The made-in-Saskatchewan horror film THE MESSENGERS debuts on DVD; as does CBC’s Coverage of the Vimy Ridge Memorial in April on the superb VIMY REMEMBERED.
I’ll also tell you about the Two-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition of the 1959 classic RIO BRAVO, which might make a great Father’s Day gift; and our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD continues with the Austrian film ANTARES, about three women, whose paths cross in a building complex.
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!

The Couch Potato Report – May 26th, 2007
This week The Couch Potato Report peels some Inuit journals, a few Oscar nominees and a moustache.
Another very busy week with five new films to talk about, so let me get right to them!
The original Inuktitut language is spoken in THE JOURNALS OF KNUD RASMUSSEN, a Canadian film about an Inuit shaman and his headstrong daughter.
This is the latest release from the people who gave us the superb THE FAST RUNNER back in 2001.
THE JOURNALS OF KNUD RASMUSSEN is told from the views of a man who traveled the Arctic in the 1920s. There is no narration, but what he sees and discovers is what we experience as well.
And these experiences are very uique.
This is a movie with some great stories, and some superb acting, from a mostly unknown cast of actors.
There is a point in the film where the shaman is explaining how he survived his birth, despite a curse on his mother, and became the leader of his people.
It is all done in one extremely long take, one that goes on for almost twenty minutes.
I’d like to see some of the biggest names in Hollywood do that!!
My only complaint with THE JOURNALS OF KNUD RASMUSSEN is that it has some of the worst subtitles I have ever seen.
There are many times when people on screen are talking, mostly in groups to other people, and instead of telling us what is being said, the subtiles just read “lamenting”, “murmuring” and “chattering”.
I wanted to know what was being said so I could understand the characters even more, but I didn’t get it.
And unless you speak Inuktitut, you’ll never get it either, because the subtitles don’t tell us.
And you may not even want to, THE JOURNALS OF KNUD RASMUSSEN isn’t the type of film that is for everyone because it is very, very slow moving.
But, this film that takes place in the Canadian Arctic in January of 1912 does feature several things in it that you aren’t going to see in many films – like the construction of an igloo, for instance – and that is why it is worth seeing.
It is not an exceptional film, but it is exceptionally interesting from start to finish.
Up next this week is VENUS. This movie features screen legend Peter O’Toole in his Oscar Nominated role as an aging actor who finds a new friend in a young woman who becomes his ideal of female beauty
Peter O’Toole has starred in some of the greatest films ever made – including Goodbye, Mr. Chips, The Lion in Winter, and Lawrence of Arabia – and in VENUS he plays a famous actor who – not unlike the man himself – is in the twilight of his career, and life.
His “Venus” is the niece of his friend.
At first she ignores him as she does her elderly Uncle.
But then they come to a mutally beneficial arrangement.
He spends money on her, and she makes him feel young.
O’Toole and the other actors in VENUS do a great job, but I was ultimately disappointed by the film.
The emotions and relationships seem real, but parts of the story feel forced. There is also a subplot about a boyfriend for the neice that is completely unnecessary.
VENUS isn’t a bad film, but it isn’t good enough to recommend.
And that is true about THE GOOD GERMAN as well.
Tobey Maguire, George Clooney and Cate Blanchett star in THE GOOD GERMAN.
Clooney is an American military journalist in post-war Berlin who is drawn into a murder investigation involving his former mistress, his driver, and a man named Emile Brandt.
The film tries to answer the question: Who is Emile Brandt, while the question that I have is how did director Steven Soderbergh let a film with this many flaws get released. The story moves from one uninteresting plot point to another with no sense of momentum, the acting is unfocussed and even though the film was shot in black-and-white, there is nothing special about that either.
If you are the type of film lover who always laments that “they don’t make ’em like they used to”, then you might enjoy the look and feel of THE GOOD GERMAN.
Usually I am that type of person, but this film just didn’t do it for me. I am glad I saw it, but I won’t ever see it again.
I will see our next film this week again…in fact, I have seen it three times already.
That film is Clint Eastwood’s Academy Award nominated LETTER FROM IWO JIMA.
Originally envisioned as a companion piece to Eastwood’s FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS this second movie is no companion. It surpasses that movie!
FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS is a very uninteresting movie that tells the life stories of the six men who raised the flag at The Battle of Iwo Jima, those men have been seen millions of times in the iconic photograph that was taken of them.
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA tells the other side of that Battle…a side unseen in a Hollywood film until now.
This film shows us the Battle from the perspective of the Japanese.
Whereas FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS was over long, boring at times, and a complete waste of my time, LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA is engaging, full of interesting characters, and with it’s unique perspective, I enjoyed it immensely.
The film was nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Writing, Original Screenplay for Canadian Paul Haggis’ original story, and Best Picture.
It certainly was one of the best films of 2006.
And since it is in Japanese with subtitles, it gives me a great segue into our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD.
The action filled, very loud, very hyped, check-your-brain-at-the-door summer movie season is upon us in theatres, this week’s entry is the very loud, very explosive and very hyped sequel PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN – AT WORLD’S END.
So, if you would like something different, I’ll be offering you an alternative every week.
This week’s selection is the French film LA MOUSTACHE.
This film begins in a bathtub as a man is washing and shaving.
He tells his wife that he is thinking about shaving off his moustache and her immediate reply is “I don’t know you without it.”
So as she goes out to get some food, he shaves it off.
Once she returns home he playfully hides his face and the reveals his newly shaven face to he, and waits patiently for his wife’s reaction.
But neither she nor his friends seem to notice.
Then, he calls them on it, and they all insist he never had a mustache.
Is he going crazy?!?
Is he the victim of some elaborate conspiracy?!?
Or has something gone terribly awry with the world just because he has shaved off his moustache?!?
Well, I am sure not going to tell you.
LA MOUSTACHE is a very interesting film because it doesn’t provide an easily understood ending with everything explained and a bow on top.
Instead, it will leave you with more than a few questions, and you can fill in the blanks any way you’d like.
Watch it with someone you enjoy talking about movies with, because you will definately want to discuss it when it is over.
It is another must see entry in the FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD
LA MOUSTACHE, the engaging LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA, the not very special THE GOOD GERMAN, and VENUS, and the not exceptional, but exceptionally interesting, Canadian film THE JOURNALS OF KNUD RASMUSSEN are all now available on DVD.
Coming up in the next Couch Potato Report
THE MICHAEL J. FOX COMEDY COLLECTION features four of his best known films not named BACK TO THE FUTURE, including THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS.
We will also meet a cinematic monster in HANNIBAL RISING and a real one in the documentary DELIVER US FROM EVIL. Plus, Season Two of teh superb television series THE CLOSER is now on DVD and the FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL on DVD continues with the Finnish film FC VENUS, a romantic comedy about men, women and soccer.
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!

The Couch Potato Report – May 19th, 2007
This week The Couch Potato Report peels an old Joni Mitchell concert film and asks: Who the bleep is Jackson Pollock?
While we will always have her music, on CDs and albums, we will likely never get the chance to see Joni Mitchell live in concert anytime soon.
In a 2002 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Mitchell voiced her discontent with the current state of the music industry, describing it as a “cesspool.
She also stated her dislike of the record industry’s dominance and her desire to control her own destiny.
So Joni no longer tours or performs in concerts, and that is too bad for those of us who never got the chance to see her.
Even though we may never get to see her live, there are now several DVDs available that document her tours during the heyday of her success.
Including REFUGE OF THE ROADS
This sixty-minute disc features a performance from Joni’s “Wild Things Run Fast” tour in 1983.
Okay, it is a concert, but we only hear the audience a few times, and they are never seen.
But we don’t really need an audience, because REFUGE OF THE ROADS gives us Joni Mitchell, live, on a stage with musicians, and they all look like they are having a great time.
The DVD also includes some very interesting film footage, including Joni backstage.
No, you and I may never get the chance to see Joni Mitchell live, but if more great DVDs like REFUGE OF THE ROADS are made available, it will be a pretty good substitute.
Up next this week is a film I will not use the words “pretty good” to describe.
Instead, I will refer to THE FOUNTAIN as a wonderful failure.
Partially filmed in Montreal THE FOUNTAIN is the latest film from director Darren Aronofsky, who worked for four years to complete this epic-sized love story that stretches across centuries and galaxies.
The film takes place in three time periods – the 16th century, the present day, and the 26th century.
Hugh Jackman from the X-MEN films and Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz from THE CONSTANT GARDENER play a couple who struggle to stay together, only to keep losing each other through death and time.
Much like Darren Aronofsky’s other films – PI and REQUIEM FOR A DREAM – THE FOUNTAIN is very poetic, beautiful to look at and has an interesting premise and great performances, but it just isn’t a good piece of entertainment.
I respect this film, and continue to admire the filmmakers and actors, but I just didn’t care for their movie
As I said, THE FOUNTAIN as a wonderful failure.
Okay, now on to our next film…a film that is a great piece of entertainment.
Teri Horton is a very profane 73-year-old former long-haul truck driver with an eighth grade education.
She bought a painting for her friend and she paid five dollars.
But there is a chance it is worth a few dollars more…fifty million dollars more.
Jackson Pollock was an influential American painter and a major force in the abstract expressionist movement. In November 2006 Pollock’s “No. 5, 1948” became the world’s most expensive painting, when it was auctioned to an undisclosed bidder for the sum of $140,000,000.
Teri’s decade long attempt to sell her painting is chronicled in the film WHO THE BLEEP IS JACKSON POLLOCK?
This documentary is exceptionally engaging because of Teri Horton personality, and because of the lengths she has gone to prove skeptical Pollock and art experts of the validity of her painting.
Some say that she has a Jackson Pollock…some say she doesn’t.
After you watch WHO THE BLEEP IS JACKSON POLLOCK?, and I recommend that you do, you will have your own opinions as well
Finally this week, our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD continues.
The action filled, very loud, very hyped, check-your-brain-at-the-door summer movie season is upon us in theatres, this week’s entry is the animated sequel SHREK THE THIRD.
So, if you would like something different, I’ll be offering you an alternative every week.
This week’s selection is the Mexican film PAN’S LABYRINTH from director Guillermo del Toro Rating.
There were two fantasy films released in the past year that featured a young girl as the main character.
One of those films was the made-in-Saskatchewan, non-Academy Award nominated film TIDELAND.
The other is the three time Academy Award winning PAN’S LABYRINTH.
When TIDELAND came out on DVD I invited some people to watch it with me and this is what one of those people – Russ – had to say.
Now the opposite of what Russ said is the truth about PAN’S LABYRINTH.
It is entertaining.
And it does have a great story!
PAN’S LABYRITH is a masterpiece!!
Set in rural Spain in 1944, this film is a fairytale for adults about a young girl who moves in with her new stepfather, a tyrannical military officer.
As he forces he life to change, she is only left with her imagination, but with it she discovers a mysterious labyrinth and the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur.
PAN’S LABYRITH features real characters, is beautifully made, and it is an exceptional movie.
It is a must see entry in the FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD
The masterpiece PAN’S LABYRITH, the very entertaining documentary WHO THE BLEEP IS JACKSON POLLOCK?, the wonderful failure that is THE FOUNTAIN, and the concert film from Joni Mitchell REFUGE OF THE ROADS are all available now on DVD.
Coming up in the next Couch Potato Report
THE JOURNALS OF KNUD RASMUSSEN is a Canadian film about an Inuit shaman and his headstrong daughter; VENUS features screen legend Peter O’Toole in his Oscar Nominated role; George Clooney and Cate Blanchett star in THE GOOD GERMAN; Clint Eastwood’s LETTER FROM IWO JIMA tells the story of the battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it; and our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD will continue with the exceptional French film LA MOUSTACHE, about a man who shaves off his moustache…and his whole world changes.
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!

The Couch Potato Report – May 12th, 2007
This week The Couch Potato Report peels a show about an apartment building in Vancouver and our Foreign Film Festival Continues!!
Robson Street is a major thoroughfare in downtown Vancouver.
Its name honours John Robson, a major figure in British Columbia’s entry into the Canadian Confederation, and Premier of the province from 1889 to 1892.
ROBSON ARMS is a Canadian anthology television series that takes place in and around the Robson Arms apartment building in Vancouver.
Each episode of the show focuses on a different tenant of the building.
The stories include a recently divorced Mother and her son starting a new life with a widower, newlyweds who are working hard to trust each other, a gay couple dealing with health issues, a teenager learning to get along with his grandmother, and one woman who is just looking for her place in life.
The show also has lots of Canadian music and references and in addition to a new story every week ROBSON ARMS also features a large ensemble cast of well known Canadian actors that rotates from week to week as well.
I really enjoyed seeing some of these folks on screen again, especially Anne of Green Gables herself – Megan Follows, who still has one of the world’s greatest smiles, William B. Davis from “The X-Files”, Mark McKinney from “The Kids In The Hall”, Margot Kidder, MadTV’s Will Sasso, Saskatchewan’s own Shirley Douglas, and almost all of the cast of CORNER GAS, including Brent Butt.
Unfortunately, while ROBSON ARMS is engaging at times, most of the episodes just aren’t that interesting, in fact…some of the characters are exceptionally unlikeable, and…in the end, I just didn’t find the show really isn’t all that entertaining.
To me, a television show, or a radio show for that matter, has to entertain. The people who put these show on the air can’t expect me to watch, or listen, just because they have spent the time to create it.
While I have always had a great time on Robson Street in Vancouver, the show ROBSON ARMS didn’t entertain me, and so I can’t recommend the two-disc set for SEASON ONE that is now available on DVD.
Up next this week are three new movies now on DVD, and the first of those is the wannabe romantic comedy MUSIC AND LYRICS.
Hugh Grant plays a washed up star from the eighties who used to be in one of the world’s biggest pop duos, before his partner left him for a tremendously succesful solo career.
He is given an opportunity to write a song for a Britney Spears-like pop star, but he only has a few days to get it done, and he doesn’t write lyrics.
Drew Barrymore walks into his apartment one day to fill in for the woman who normally waters his plants, and wouldn’t you know it, as it happens in movies like this, she becomes the one person who can help him in his work, and his love life.
Now I like Hugh Grant, and I love Drew Barrymore, but together they just don’t work. There is no chemistry, and absoluety nothing about the premise of the film seems in any way logical.
MUSIC & LYRICS is a cinematic love story that just doesn’t work on any level. It is best ignored.
Now, if you want to watch a love story that does work…well then, check out the wonderful film THE PAINTED VEIL.
Now this is a love story!!
Naomi Watts from THE RING films and KING KONG plays a spoiled upper-class woman in the mid-1920s who is in need of a husband as her parents no longer want to support her.
She meets and marries a middle-class doctor for the wrong reasons and after they move to Shanghai, she falls in love with someone else.
Edward Norton from THE ILLUSIONIST is the Doctor and when he uncovers her secret, he accepts a job in a remote village in China ravaged by a deadly epidemic as an act of revenge, and explains to her that she has no choice but to accompany him.
It is at this point that their love story begins, and even though the film moves very, very, very slow at times, it is that love story that made me love this film.
THE PAINTED VEIL is exceptionally made, full of beautiful people, and I completely enjoyed it, even though it is very, very slow at times.
I also enjoyed BREAKING AND ENTERING, but not quite as much.
This is the latest film from director Anthony Minghella – the man who gave us the Academy Award winning film THE ENGLISH PATIENT.
Jude Law from CLOSER and ALFIE is an architect working in the bad part of London who loves his job and long-time girlfriend and her behaviorally challenged thirteen year old daughter.
But after a series of unsolved break-ins he starts to re-evaluate his life.
Soon he is dating the mother of one of the teenagers who broke in to his office, and she finds out. Juliette Binoche from THE ENGLISH PATIENT is the Mother and once she realizes that this man holds the key to her son’s future she has to decide how far to go to protect her son.
BREAKING AND ENTERING is a a very interesting character driven movie that is also very slow moving.
It is not the type o fmovie that everyone will enjoy, but once you get used to the pace of the film, I think you will enjoy it.
It is another one of those movies that is good for mature people who love movies.
Finally this week, our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD continues.
The action filled, very loud, check-your-brain-at-the-door summer movie season is upon us in theatres, this week’s entry is the zombie film sequel 28 WEEKS LATER.
So, if you would like something different, I offer you an alternative.
This week’s selection is the German movie INTO GREAT SILENCE.
If you want the opposite of loud, then this is your film.
INTO GREAT SILENCE is a documentary that takes place in a monastery in the French Alps.
The monks there have been praying in nearly-total silence and solitude for nearly a millennium.
It took the filmmakers over a decade to obtain permission to film at the monastery, but the results are incredible as it follows the monks through their day and over the course of a year, from the deep snows of winter, through the planting season, and around again to winter.
INTO GREAT SILENCE is a film that features very little talking, but does include long, lingering shots of the monks at prayer — favoring closeup shots of an ear, fingers, lips and eyes.
I started watching it in the morning of a day that was sunny and twenty-seven degrees. I thought I would start it, and then finish it after a day outside…but I watched it all the waythrough in one sitting.
I just found the sights, sounds and silence of it all, fascinating!!
The Foreign film INTO GREAT SILENCE is now available on DVD, along side the mature film BREAKING & ENTERING, the slow, but enjoyable THE PAINTED VEIL, the useless MUSIC & LYRICS, and SEASON ONE of the not very entertaining Canadian television series ROBSON ARMS.
Coming up in the next Couch Potato Report
JONI MITCHELL performs live in the 1983 concert film REFUGEE OF THE ROADS that is now available on DVD; THE FOUNTAIN is a very poetic cinematic failure; WHO THE BLEEP IS JACKSON POLLOCK is a documentary about a woman who may have bought a fifty million dollar painting for five dollars; and our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD will continue with the Academy Award winning masterpiece PAN’S LABYRINTH.
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!

The Couch Potato Report – May 5th, 2007
This week The Couch Potato Report peels an inspiring, yet tragic Canadian story, some little children and our summer FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL will begin!
The CF-105 airplane – The Avro Arrow – is the stuff of legend!
Canadian legend!!
The Avro Arrow was an interceptor developed in Malton, Ontario, in the 1950s for the Canadian military.
This is a plane that could have been the fastest plane in the world, it could have been the best Military defence against our enemies at the time, and it could have been the catalyst for Canada becoming one of the world leaders in aircraft design and construction.
Could have been…instead, The Avro Arrow is now only the stuff of legends!
The reason the Arrow is a legend, and not a reality, is the fact that just as the team of designers and engineers were close to finishing the plane, and the unique Canadian engine for it, the Canadian government – lead by Saskatchewan’s own John Diefenbaker – cancelled the project, destroyed all of the research information, documents and blueprints pertaining to it, and demolished the few planes that had been built.
However, Canadians haven’t forgotten this unique part of our history and the inspiring, yet ultimately tragic story and the legacy of the plane itself is told in the CBC film THE ARROW.
Make no mistake, THE ARROW is not a documentary.
It is a based-on-a-true-story film, with composite characters and scenes that take place in offices, rooms and homes where we will never – sadly – know what actually happened or what was actually said.
No, THE ARROW isn’t a documentary, but it is a very entertaining film about a unique time in Canadian history.
The bonus features on the DVD include stories from two great CBC programs that no longer exist as well – Midday and The Journal – as we are given the chance to meet the real engineers, politicians and military reps in The Arrow’s story, and watch an investigation of the real story behind Canada’s most famous aircraft.
From the stuff of Canadian legend, we go now to LITTLE CHILDREN – a very, very interesting movie starring Kate Winslet.
Winslet plays a housewife and mother who spends her days at the playground with other neighborhood mothers. She is bored and feels alienated from the others until the day she meets the only stay-at-home father in the neighborhood.
Winslet was justifiably given an Academy Award nomination for her work, and so was Jackie Earle Haley, the one-time child star who played Kelly Leak in the BAD NEWS BEARS films.
His character returns home following a conviction for exposing himself to a child. The townspeople react to him with predictable venom, even as their own misdeeds play out before our eyes.
LITTLE CHILDREN is a well-written film, populated by a wealth of lonely, interesting characters who aren’t all likeable, and don’t always communicate what they are feeling or thinking.
It also features a great narrator.
Due to it’s sometimes graphic content and language LITTLE CHILDREN isn’t a film for everyone, but I recommend it as a great film for adults.
It is a very complex movie with characters who go from likeable to pathetic and back again within a few minutes, and are – at all times – interesting.
Alright, lets go from a complex movie with many characters, to an easy to understand – and laugh at film – with one man playing many characters.
The one man is Chevy Chase, and the film is FLETCH.
FLETCH is one of my favourite movies of all time, and even though I have seen it dozens of times, I still laugh out loud to it each and every time.
Chase is at his career best playing an investigative reporter for a L.A.. newspaper who has gone undercover to expose drug smuggling activity among the Los Angeles Police Department.
Along the way he is asked to commit a murder, meets a beautiful woman, dons numerous disguises, and says one classic line after another.
THE JANE DOE EDITION of FLETCH is a special edition that features some interesting extras, but sadly, Chase himself doesn’t appear.
That makes the extras less than spectacular, but the film itself remains a classic.
Finally this week, with the opening of SPIDER-MAN 3 in theatres yesterday, the action filled, very loud, check-your-brain-at-the-door summer movie season is upon us.
If you’d prefer an alternative, each week during the summer movie season I will tell you about at least one current release on DVD that you’ll need your brain to enjoy.
Welcome to the FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL!
This week’s film is LE PETIT LIEUTENANT from France and it is a great alternative to the loud summer films.
This movie takes 30 minutes to introduce everyone before the major plot point is introduced, and I found that an inventive decision by the filmmakers.
In LE PETIT LIEUTENANT you get to know the personal lives of an elite French police unit on the most intimate level.
Yes, there is murder and death and crimes to be solved, and they allow us to see some of the flaws of human behavior on both sides of the law.
I think it is best if you don’t know much about the plot in advance in order to enjoy the film, but even if you do, I think you will find this to be a very interesting, quiet and engaging film.
LE PETIT LIEUTENANT is the first entry in our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL and it is available in stores now, alongside the always entertaining film FLETCH, the complex LITTLE CHILDREN, and THE ARROW, a very entertaining movie about a unique time in Canadian history.
A time when Canada almost ruled the skies.
Coming up in the next Couch Potato Report
The TV series ROBSON ARMS debuts on DVD; Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant star in the wanna be romantic comedy MUSIC AND LYRICS; THE PAINTED VEIL is a love story set in the 1920s that tells the story of a young English couple; in BREAKING AND ENTERING an Architect’s dealings with a young thief cause him to re-evaluate his life; and our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL will continue on DVD.
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!