Category: The Couch Potato Report

The Couch Potato Report – August 17th, 2013

There are two very artistic films inside this week’s Couch Potato Report, it is definitely a week of style over substance.

An Art House Film is one that is typically serious film, usually aimed at a smaller, niche market. They aren’t usually produced courting mass appeal. Occasionally art films cross over and become hits, but at beast the usually become cult classics.

In the past few decades PAN’S LABYRINTH, BLUE VELVET, MEMENTO and ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND crossed over. ELEPHANT, WINGS OF DESIRE, LOST HIGHWAY and I’M NOT THERE did not.

Neither did director Terrence Mallick’s recent Art House Film TO THE WONDER.

Terrence Mallick is the textbook definition of an Art House Filmmaker. He received an Academy Award for Best Director for both THE THIN RED LINE and THE TREE OF LIFE, but neither were huge hits at the box office, and most movie fans would be hard pressed to tell you anything about them.

In a few years that will be true with TO THE WONDER as well…even though it stars Oscar winners Ben Affleck from ARGO and JAVIER BARDEM of SKYFALL and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, along with London, Ontario born actress Rachel McAdams from MIDNIGHT IN PARIS and THE NOTEBOOK.

The characters in TO THE WONDER don’t really talk to each other, they mostly just whisper what is happening – or has happened – to the audience.

TO THE WONDER is a beautiful looking Art House Film, Terrence Mallick definitely knows how to make a movie look good, but it isn’t for everyone, it’s an Art House Film.

I have no regrets that I’ve seen it, I wanted to see it and it wasn’t a waste of my time, but I’ll never watch it again. It truly is a movie that offers style over substance

There is also a lot more style than substance in ON THE ROAD, and even though it is very interesting at times, ultimately I just didn’t care.

ON THE ROAD is a partially filmed in Quebec adaptation of the 1957 novel of the same name by Jack Kerouac and it received some coverage upon its release because it co-stars Kristen Stewart from THE TWILIGHT SAGA.

Personally, I was more excited about the fact that it co-starred Elizabeth Moss, Peggy from MAD MEN.

The book “On The Road” is based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across America.

The movie is about a young writer who becomes friends with a free spirited guy and his girl, Marylou.

As they travel across the country, they meet a mix of people who change their journey in one way or another, some in good ways, some in bad.

But I didn’t care. The movie is smart and I was interested in what happened and how close it was to the book, but I just didn’t care for the majority of the characters and that is ultimately why ON THE ROAD isn’t a movie I could recommend.

It too is a style over substance Art House Film…one of the ones that movie fans will soon be hard pressed to tell you anything about.

Another film that has more style than substance is the British crime drama WELCOME TO THE PUNCH.

In this one a former well-known criminal is forced to return to London when his son is involved in a heist gone wrong.

That return gives the police officer the criminal once shot another chance to catch him.

WELCOME TO THE PUNCH has a great cast of easily recognizable British actors, it looks great and is above average as far as these types of films are concerned, which is why I can mildly recommend it, but it is never great.

It is just the third movie this week that offers too much style, and not enough substance.

Many people – including myself – still enjoy watching their favourite television shows each week when new episodes air. And we want to own them to add to our collection as soon as we can.

But there are also fans who are patient enough to wait so they can watch a whole season of their favourite shows when they come out at the end of each season on disc.

COMMUNITY is a show that I could never wait for. I need to see new episodes of this show as soon as they air!!

I also thoroughly enjoy re-watching them on disc.

COMMUNITY. It is also smart, hip, funny, always fresh and full of characters that I always enjoy hanging out with!!

COMMUNITY is sitcom about a group of people who met when they joined a study group at Community College in Colorado who have become a family over the course of the four seasons that the show has been on the air, and in THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON, they continue to have their ups and downs…and the show did too.

After the third season, the show’s creator – Dan Harmon – was fired from his own show and in year four you could tell that someone else was calling the shots because it just wasn’t as good, or as funny.

Okay, some of it was still funny, but SEASON FOUR of COMMUNITY isn’t the series’ best, but it is still fun and still has an amazing ensemble cast.

If you are looking for some laughs, you will definitely find some in THE COMPLETE THIRD – and FIRST and SECOND seasons of COMMUNITY…and, who am I kidding, you’ll also find some in THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON of COMMUNITY as well.

Just not as many.

I also didn’t find as many laughs in THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON of the show GIRLS either, which I merely attribute to the sophomore slump as creator, writer, director and star Lena Dunham is still gainfully employed as the main character in this show about the comedic and heartbreaking experiences of a group of girls in their early twenties.

As I am not a girl, I can’t fully relate to everything the characters in this show are going through, but I too was once a person struggling in my early twenties – believe it or not – so I can appreciate most of it,

I just didn’t always care.

I didn’t – and don’t – like some of the characters in the show, and since its asking me to invest in them and care if they succeed or fail, that is when I find it difficult.

GIRLS suffered a creative lull during its SECOND SEASON, as some shows do, but not enough of one to scare fans away…so fans, grab this one as you will love it!!

Non-fans…let’s see how SEASON THREE turns out before I recommend the whole series to you, or not.

I’ll always recommend this next show. Always, because the eighties show FAMILY TIES remains one of my favourites!!

FAMILY TIES came to an end after seven seasons due to Michael J. Fox’s burgeoning film career…and I am happy to now own, and tell you about, THE SEVENTH SEASON on DVD.

THE SEVENTH AND FINAL SEASON offers us a grown, maturing Keaton Family and sees Alex get a high playing job on Wall Street. As the show ends, he is moving to New York.

If you remember FAMILY TIES fondly, then this set for THE SEVENTH SEASON is a must own…and if you’ve never seen it, check it out!! It is very much rooted in the years 1988 and 89 when it was made, but I still love this show!!

It is one of my all-time favourites and I will always love spending time with the Keaton Family.

Finally this week…it was back in 1979 when Jim Henson’s lovable creations made their big screen debut it THE MUPPET MOVIE, and now – almost 35 years later – we get THE MUPPET MOVIE – THE NEARLY 35th ANNIVERSARY EDITION released on blu-ray.

THE MUPPET MOVIE is all about Kermit and his new found friends as they trek across North America to find success in Hollywood, against some seemingly insurmountable odds.

This NEARLY 35th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of THE MUPPET MOVIE includes some great old Special Features, but doesn’t offer a retrospective or any new documentaries, and that is too bad as the movie – especially the scenes where Kermit is riding a bicycle – wasn’t easy to make.

But it does offer the film, and the print – while it isn’t pristine – is very good and the movie itself is still great!!

THE NEARLY 35th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of THE MUPPET MOVIE is available now on blu-ray and I highly recommend it. Pick it up and have some fun, with the whole family!!

THE NEARLY 35th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of THE MUPPET MOVIE, which is still fun and entertaining; THE SEVENTH AND FINAL SEASON of the great eighties show FAMILY TIES; the overly dramatic and less funny COMPLETE SECOND SEASON of GIRLS; the not as good as the first three FOURTH SEASON of COMMUNITY; the just average crime thriller WELCOME TO THE PUNCH; the never great adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel ON THE ROAD; and director Terrence Malick’s visually stunning – but little else – romantic drama TO THE WONDER co-starring London, Ontario born actress Rachel McAdams are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

The Academy Award winning Foreign Film AMOUR; SCARY MOVIE V; the second season of REVENGE; the third season of BOARDWALK EMPIRE; plus the interesting small film WHAT MAISIE KNEW.

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 – August 10th, 2013

We’re heading to Schenectady via London inside this week’s Couch Potato Report AND we’ll head back to Ishtar.

Schenectady is a city located in upper New York State with a population of 66,135. The name “Schenectady” is derived loosely from a Mohawk word for “on that side of the pinery,” or “near the pines,” or “place beyond the pine plains.”

For the purposes of the latest film starring London, Ontario, born actor, Ryan Gosling the name Schenectady is translated to mean “The Place Beyond The Pines.”

Gosling – from DRIVE, BLUE VALENTINE and THE NOTEBOOK – stars in THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES as a motorcycle stunt rider from a traveling carnival who decides to stay in the title city when he finds out that he has an infant son.

Unable to support the boy and his mother, played by Eva Mendes, he turns to robbing banks.

His decision to turn to a life of crime allows the film to introduce us to an ambitious rookie cop played by Bradley Cooper from SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK. Then, not long after we meet him, the film switches gear and starts to tell us the cop’s story, and then the story of his son.

Eventually it all leads back to Eva Mendes and the characters we met at the start of the story.

THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES is a very slow moving, but very engaging film. It definitely isn’t like every other film that is available for you to watch this weekend, and that works both for it and against it. I was totally wrapped up in the first and last stories, but the middle one – with Bradley Cooper – wasn’t that great.

That said, I’ll still recommend THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES, but only mildly.

I’ll also mildly recommend the Tom Cruise post-apocalyptic science fiction film OBLIVION this morning, primarily because I really liked seeing a sci-fi flick that takes place during the day.

Set in the year 2077, Cruise plays one of the last drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Yes, basically he is a human WALL*E.

According to our hero in OBLIVION, the planet was nearly destroyed sixty years earlier, during a war against a race of alien invaders known as Scavengers.

As the film goes on, Cruise begins to question what he knows about his mission, himself, the woman he works with and lives with, and the mysterious woman he keeps seeing in his dreams.

OBLIVION has some very good twists, great special effects and CGI, and – as I mentioned – it is a sci-fi flick that primarily takes place during the day!! When was the last time you saw that?

Admittedly I never loved it, but I did enjoy it enough to mildly recommend it to you. Go in with low expectations – as I did – and you might enjoy it too.

TV on DVD is what I have for you now…specifically SEASON 3 of the great guilty pleasure DUCK DYNASTY!

DUCK DYNASTY is a reality series about the Robertsons, a Louisiana bayou family who became millionaires because of the Duck Commander, a top-of-the-line duck call, and the decoys they make out of salvaged swamp wood.

But these millionaires don’t live in huge mansions, they do have pretty big houses, but they still live in the backwoods and go fishing and hunting, sometimes in the middle of their workday and in SEASON 3 they even bring their wives.

The best part of SEASON 3 of DUCK DYNASTY continues to be the commentaries offered by the guys to explain things to us viewers.

This show is very funny at times and always interesting because the Robertsons are who they are and haven’t let success change them that much. I really like that about the show.

DUCK DYNASTY is very entertaining, and if you’ve never seen it, check it out. This is a great guilty pleasure full of some very interesting people!

From the Louisiana bayou, we head now to Australia, specifically Australia in the 1960s.

It is 1968 and four musically talented Aboriginal women form the soul-singing girl group The Sapphires under the tutelage of an alcoholic, Irish talent scout named Dave Lovelace. He is played by Chris O’Dowd from BRIDESMAIDS.

The four women face racial prejudice on and off stage, just about everywhere they go, but no matter what happens they believe that they’re destined for fame.

THE SAPPHIRES end up getting a job entertaining the troops in Vietnam and are well on their way to success, until infighting and jealousy threatens to tear them group apart.

There are times when THE SAPPHIRES is exactly like every other movie about a band – especially THE COMMITMENTS – but at other times its unlike anything else you’ve ever seen.

I didn’t love THE SAPPHIRES, but I did like it. It’s based on a true story I didn’t know, has some great music, and I liked it.

Search this one out.

Finally this week is a film that is so notorious, and was such a box office flop, that it was never released on DVD in North America. Even twenty-six years after its release just the mention of its name makes even people who have never seen it think about how bad a movie it is.

That name, is ISHTAR.

Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman star in ISHTAR as two terrible New York City lounge singers who manage to get a gig playing in a Moroccan hotel and become a part of international power play between the CIA, the Emir of Ishtar, and the rebels trying to overthrow his regime.

Doesn’t sound that awful…right? That could work…right? Nope.

Even in the days prior to the internet ISHTAR received plenty of media attention in 1987 because of substantial cost overruns on top of a lavish budget, and reports of clashes between the director, the producer, and the cinematographer.

A change in studio management during post-production also led to professional and personal difficulties that undermined the film’s release. And as a result, it became one of the most notorious flops ever.

ISHTAR was a flop, and there is no denying that or the film’s place in Hollywood history and I wish the new blu-ray had some retrospective features that had the cast and crew either defending it or trying to distance themselves from it.

Unfortunately there are no features on the blu-ray at all, there is just the film…a film that I’ve never thought was great – no it is not great at all, in any way – but it also isn’t as bad as people always say it is either.

The never great, but occasionally funny eighties flop ISHTAR; the likeable but not great Australian musical comedy THE SAPPHIRES; the great guilty pleasure that is SEASON THREE of DUCK DYNASTY; the good – never great but good – Tom Cruise set in daytime sci-fi flick OBLIVION; and the very slow but engaging crime drama THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES – co-starring London, Ontario born actor Ryan Gosling – are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

Another London, Ontario born performer – Rachel McAdams co-stars with Academy Award winner Ben Affleck in director Terrence Malick’s romantic drama TO THE WONDER; ON THE ROAD is a partially filmed in Quebec adaptation of the 1957 novel of the same name by Jack Kerouac; and I’ll happily review THE NEARLY 35th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of THE MUPPET MOVIE.

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 – August 3rd, 2013

There are two entertainment legends inside this week’s Couch Potato Report and the next generation crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

It’s a long weekend at the beginning of August, traditionally not exactly the biggest week of the year for the studios to release new films for home viewing, which means I get to tell you about some great catalogue releases this week instead. Catalogue releases that star Marilyn Monroe and The King Of Rock And Roll, Elvis Presley.

The King made his big screen debut in 1956 in a film called LOVE ME TENDER…a movie not originally written as a vehicle for him, as we find out in the wealth of extras on the new blu-ray.

Set in 1865, you know, before rock and roll was invented, LOVE ME TENDER is the story of two brothers. One, played by Elvis, who stayed home, and his brother Vance who left home to go off and fight in the Civil War.

Upon arriving home after the war, Vance finds out that his girlfriend married Elvis…plus, to make things worse, before the end of the war he was involved in a train robbery.

When he sets out to make things right with the law, he goes against the wishes of some of the other robbers.

After the truth about his brother comes to light, Elvis believes in his brother’s innocence, and has no idea that the man is still in love with his girl.

LOVE ME TENDER features Elvis trying to actually be an actor, and not lazily walking through some of the other films he did, and the result is a very good movie. One that looks crsip and clean in the high definition transfer on blu-ray.

I can easily recommend it to both Elvis and movie fans.

Of the two new Marilyn Monroe films now out in HD, I can also easily recommend one of them to her fans AND movie fans, but the other is for fans only.

The better of the two is the mostly filmed in Ontario release NIAGARA. Both the star, and the Canadian Falls look amazing!

Originally released in 1953, this sixty year old beauty is about a married woman plotting with her lover to kill her husband. Things don’t go as planned, however, as the husband – played by Joseph Cotton from CITIZEN KANE, and an innocent couple vacationing in Niagara Falls, get in the way.

NIAGARA is a great thriller and I have always loved it, which is why I recommend it.

I’ve never really felt the same way about her 1956 release BUS STOP.

In this one she is a saloon singer who a hunky and naïve cowboy falls in love with. For him it is love at first sight, so he takes her – not kidnaps, per se, but picks her up and takes her on a bus so they can get married and live on his ranch in Montana.

BUS STOP is not Marilyn’s worst film, but it is far from her best. It does look great on blu-ray, but this one is for fans only.

Expectations.

I have spoken many times here on The Couch Potato Report over the years about expectations. Depending on the cast, the director, and their past efforts and works, the expectations we place on films can be immense…or as in the case of the three releases I have for you right now, expectations can be very, very low, so low that you expect almost nothing from a film.

I expected literally nothing from these three films…and that is basically what I got, especially from the big budget sequel G.I. JOE – RETALIATION.

The first film in this series – 2009’s G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA – was so awful that I must admit my surprise that they even made a sequel, but they did and it is almost as bad, even though it adds action film mainstays Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson AND Bruce Willis to the cast. A cast that already includes Channing Tatum, the star of the first film.

This time around the G.I. Joes are not only fighting Cobra, they’re forced to fight their own government after a sabotage kills most of the Joes.

Attention fans of any member of the cast of this film, and people who have to watch absolutely every movie that features cartoon violence and things blowing up: Attention all of you…you will really enjoy G.I. JOE – RETALIATION.

Everyone else needs to skip this one. Yes, there are some really great action scenes, but it is one of the most boring action films I’ve ever had to sit through.

I’ve had to sit through two G.I. JOE films now. I really hope there is never a third!!

I had heightened expectations to see this next release, the action crime drama DEAD MAN DOWN, because its directed by the same guy who gave us the original Swedish version of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, Niels Arden Oplev.

Noomi Rapace, Oplev’s starred in that film as Lisbeth Salander and in DEAD MAN DOWN she plays a woman who convinces a modern day New York City gangster to kill a man who did her wrong.

What she doesn’t originally know is that he is seeking retribution as well, and they bond and fall for each other as they’re both looking to rid themselves of their pain.

DEAD MAN DOWN has some great moments, and interesting scenes, but it is a very slow moving film, and even though it is stylish – die to the work of the director and his team – but ultimately it didn’t meet my expectations.

Ultimately it is just a pretty good, but never great revenge film that might help you kill 118 minutes if you are in the mood for a movie like this, but can’t find anything else to watch.

In that case, enjoy!! Otherwise, skip it.

Talk about expectations for this next movie…WOW!!

Francis Ford Coppola won his first Academy Award in 1970. He won the Oscar for best original screenplay as co-writer of PATTON.

His directorial prominence was cemented with the 1972 release of THE GODFATHER, which won three Academy Awards – including Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture, plus Coppola was nominated as Best Director.

He followed that with THE GODFATHER – PART II in 1974, which became the first sequel to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It also brought Coppola three more Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture.

This man also gave audiences THE CONVERSATION and APOCALYPSE NOW in the seventies, and some other great films through the eighties and nineties.

He only occasionally makes movies now, and when he does, when Francis Ford Coppola makes movies now…talk about expectations!!!

But even if you go into TWIXT, Coppola’s latest, even if you go into it with little to no expectations, it is still the latest from the man who gave us PATTON, THE GODFATHER PARTS I & II, THE CONVERSATION and APOCALYPSE NOW…and no film could live up to those expectations.

TWIXT certainly does not.

In TWIXT Val Kilmer plays a writer who arrives in a small town to promote his latest release, only to get caught up in a murder mystery that might make for a great book, and revive his declining career.

There are other things that happen in TWIXT as well, but most of it is either to artistic or dramatic to be interesting and so the result is a movie that not only gets crushed by the career of the man who made it, but also comes across as an experimental film school production.

That is why film students need to see TWIXT, but everyone else needs to stay as far away from it as possible.

And if you’ve never seen Francis Ford Coppola’s PATTON, THE GODFATHER PARTS I & II, THE CONVERSATION or APOCALYPSE NOW…they are all very worthy of your time!!

Every single one of them! Those are films which you can have expectations, because they will be met and exceeded!!

The final new release I have for you this week is the blu-ray set for SEASON FOUR of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, or as I like to call it – the season when this show became amazing!!

In this season Data experienced fatherhood, Worf got to know more about his Klingon heritage, and Picard took a relaxing holiday. Plus, there was the conclusion of the Borg story. The season opener and the conclusion of THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS is television at its finest!!

And once again, the blu-ray set comes with a wealth of special features including the continuing retrospective series where the entire cast and crew look back at the show.

THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION looks amazing on blu-ray and is a must own for fans, and a must see for those who haven’t ever seen it.

I highly recommend it, even if you don’t usually watch science fiction.

The superb SEASON FOUR of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION; the art flick TWIXT from Academy Award winner Francis Ford Coppola; the okay action movie DEAD MAN DOWN from the director of the original Swedish GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO movie; the bad sequel G.I. JOE – RETALIATION, which is for HUGE fans of the cast only; the Marilyn Monroe films BUS STOP and NIAGARA; and Elvis Presley’s first film LOVE ME TENDER are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

One of the most notorious box office flops in Hollywood history, the comedy ISHTAR starring Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman, debuts on blu-ray; Canadian actor Ryan Gosling stars with Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes in THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES; and Tom Cruise leads the cast of the sci-fi flick OBLIVION.

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 – July 27th, 2013

There are scares and frights inside this week’s Couch Potato Report and a very good film about Jackie Robinson.

We’ll begin with the number 13 this week, and end with the number 42. We’ll also begin in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan where the low budget horror flick 13 EERIE was shot in just twenty days.

13 EERIE is about six forensic undergrads who must complete a university field examination of staged murdered corpses on a remote and deserted island prison. What they don’t know – what they can’t know – is that the island had been used for illegal biological experiments on life-term prisoners…experiments that now bring the dead back to life as zombies.

13 EERIE is the feature length debut of Regina director Lowell Dean, whose next project will be a movie called WOLFCOP, and I hope that movie is as entertaining as this one.

13 EERIE is not a spectacular movie, but it is entertaining as it knows what it is – it knows that it is a zombie movie – and so fans of this kind of film should not miss it.

I enjoyed it and can easily recommend it to horror fans.

I can also easily recommend the remake of the 1981 horror classic THE EVIL DEAD…and make no mistake; I’m referring to the original as a classic. This 2013 remake slash reimagining is not a classic, but I can recommend it…to fans of the genre.

The story here is that five friends head to a remote cabin in the woods, where the discovery of a Book of the Dead leads the group to unknowingly summoning up demons living in the nearby woods.

The evil dead then possesses them until only one is left to fight for their life.

What made the original a classic was the fact that when I saw it I was a teenager and hadn’t seen anything like it before, and that is the target audience for the remake: teenagers who haven’t seen anything like it before.

But whereas the original was funny and campy – thanks primarily to the performance of Bruce Campbell – and was produced with a less is more attitude – since they didn’t have the money to include more – this remake was made backed by plenty of money, so there is an abundance of everything, especially blood and gore.

I didn’t think it needed it all, so I did not love the 2013 version of EVIL DEAD, but to fans of the genre I do recommend it.

You will love it, and to you I say enjoy!!

Time for some great advice now: Live every week like it’s Shark Week!

Advice told, here’s the history: Shark Week was first broadcast on the Discovery Channel in 1987. Held each year since then in July or August Shark Week is a week-long series of television programs dedicated to sharks that was originally developed to raise awareness and respect for sharks.

There have been some great compilations of SHARK WEEK shows over the past few years, but this new one – SHARK WEEK: FINS OF FURY – is perhaps the best.

SHARK WEEK: FINS OF FURY is a two disc set that features seven programs and over five hours of footage about sharks and the people who photograph and study them. There are some great stories featured here!

I look forward to SHARK WEEK every year and I also look forward to watching these compilations. They are informative, entertaining and educational.

And this year, SHARK WEEK: FINS OF FURY even features an episode where they go to the real life area where the fish in the movie JAWS attacked.

This is awesome stuff!!

Not as awesome as a Shark Week documentary, but still very good is Danny Boyle’s latest film TRANCE.

Boyle has given us such great films as TRAINSPOTTING, 28 DAYS LATER, 127 HOURS, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE and now TRANCE.

This one stars James McAvoy from X-MEN FIRST CLASS as an art auctioneer who starts working with a group of criminals. They are partners in a plot to steal a priceless painting, but due to amnesia he can’t remember where he hid it.

Rosario Dawson from SIN CITY plays a hypnotherapist who is trying to help them find it…or is she?

TRANCE is a bit too loud, noisy and high concept at times, as most Danny Boyle films are, but the majority of it is an entertaining and smart thriller…especially at the start. It starts off very, very strong.

The other reason I can recommend TRANCE – and I do recommend it – is because of the Danny Boyle career retrospective included in the bonus materials. In it the man himself spends looks back on most of his films.

There is a television series that aired last year that was utterly forgettable. Oddly enough, the show is called UNFORGETTABLE.

In it, the lovely and talented Poppy Montgomery from WITHOUT A TRACE stars as a former police detective who suffers from a rare medical condition that gives her the ability to visually remember everything.

She can remember absolutely everything and – because the series’ plot needs her to – she rejoins the force and uses her ability to solve crimes.

THE FIRST SEASON of the show is the complete opposite of UNFORGETTABLE.

Poppy and the cast of UNFORGETTABLE are okay, and the idea isn’t the worst one I’ve ever heard of when it comes to police procedural shows as she also struggles to remember who killed her sister…but when it gets to the point where she is remembering something, the show just stops and her memories are mostly in slow motion. Plus the cases are never really that hard to figure out. The show is so unexceptional that I was actually quite surprised to find out that there will be a Second Season of it.

THE FIRST SEASON of UNFORGETTABLE is now available in a 6 disc set, but you have better things to do with your time, so my unforgettable suggestion is that you skip it.

And don’t forget that I said that.

Finally this week is a movie about a man who stood tall, didn’t fight back against racists and – as a result – changed the world.

42 is the story of Jackie Robinson and how he broke the colour bar and became the first African-American player to suit up for a major league baseball team.

42 is Jackie Robinson’s story, but it’s also partially the story of Branch Rickey, the man who broke a gentlemen’s agreement between the owners of the major league teams and decided to give Robinson a shot.

Branch Rickey is played by Harrison Ford.

Make no mistake, 42 is not a documentary about Jackie Robinson. Some facts and some people’s names have been changed in the name of good storytelling, but it is still a very entertaining film about a courageous and historic person.

I love baseball and baseball movies, and I have the utmost respect for Jackie Robinson and his accomplishments on and off the field, so I can easily recommend 42…the number Robinson wore…even to non-baseball loving fans.

First and foremost, this is a story about people and how their actions changed race relations for the better.

And in addition to the film, I also recommend you go deeper into Jackie’s story and how he changed the game of baseball. You can do that through his blunt and honest autobiography called “I Never Had It Made”.

The very good baseball biopic 42; the forgettable FIRST SEASON of the television series UNFORGETTABLE; the pretty good heist flick TRANCE; the very entertaining SHARK WEEK: FINS OF FURY collection; the for-genre-fans only remake of EVIL DEAD; and the not bad made-in-Moose Jaw low budget horror flick 13 EERIE are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

SEASON ONE of the Award winning made-in-Toronto series ORPHAN BLACK; SEASON FOUR of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION on Blu-ray, and the action flick G.I. JOE – RETALIATION, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum.

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 – July 13th, 2013

Two alternatives to the Summer Movie Season are inside this week’s Couch Potato Report along with one of the worst movies of the year.

The Summer Movie Season is primarily loud and action filled and in order to enjoy movies the movies that come out at this time of year – like PACIFIC RIM, IRON MAN 3, MAN OF STEEL, FAST & FURIOUS 6 and WORLD WAR ZED – you have to turn off your brain and just enjoy what unfolds on the screen in front of you.

Don’t question it, or try to figure it out…just enjoy.

No, films that come out in theatres at this time of year in don’t tend to challenge us, but I have a couple for you this morning available for home viewing that just might.

The first one is a New Zealand comedy called BOY.

Set on the east coast of New Zealand in the year 1984, this is the story of an 11-year-old kid – who everyone calls Boy. His Father has just returned home from prison and the boy is excited that he finally gets to spend some time with his Dad. But his Dad is really only there to try and find a bag of money he buried years ago.

As it is 1984 and the boy in BOY is an 11-year-old boy, he is a huge Michael Jackson fan and that fact, and his attempts to get a pretty girl to notice him, all adds to the film’s charm.

BOY is not a classic film, but it has a lot of personality and I really liked it. This is a very good little flick that I can easily recommend as an opposite to the Summer Movie Season 0f 2013.

Another alternate is the Academy Award nominated documentary THE GATEKEEPERS. This one is fascinating from start to finish.

Nominated at the Oscars this year in the Best Documentary Feature category, THE GATEKEEPERS includes interviews with all of the surviving former heads of Shin Bet, the Israeli counterterrorism agency.

What they know is information that had all been closely held state secrets, until now.

Imagine the head of the CIA or FBI sharing the classified stories behind some major world events and – to only a slightly lesser extent – that is what THE GATEKEEPERS offers. It gives us an up close look at how state-sanctioned violence, whether it was done pre-emptive or in retaliation, has taken a crippling toll on these men and their region, even though – in their minds – it was all done in pursuit of peace.

Search for THE GATEKEEPERS, track it down if need be, this is a real life look at what some of this year’s Summer Movies are trying to fake and it is fascinating!!

Tina Fey and Paul Rudd are actors I like…and if I like an actor, if any of us like certain actors, we can forgive them just about any poor decisions they might make regarding the movies they star in.

That is definitely true with a film Tina and Paul – I like them so much I just use their first names – that is true with a film they made together called ADMISSION. If Tina and Paul weren’t in it, I would probably call it a slow, predictable, boring film with two leads who don’t have much romantic chemistry and seem more like brother and sister.

But because it stars Tina and Paul, Paul and Tina…oh, and the great Lily Tomlin…because they are all in it, I can forgive it. I’m just not sure I can recommend it.

Tina Fey came into her own on Saturday Night Live before breaking out with the movie MEAN GIRLS and the television series 30 ROCK.

Paul Rudd seems to star in just about every second comedy that comes out…he is literally in almost everything. Some of his best include OUR IDIOT BROTHER, DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS and ANCHORMAN.

In ADMISSION Tina plays an admission officer at prestigious Princeton University. It is her job to try and find the brightest and the best students in the world to pay their money to attend the school.

Paul is a teacher and caretaker of a school and he feels that one of his students should definitely get in.

Especially since he may just be the son she gave up years ago in a secret adoption.

ADMISSION is not really that funny, it is very predictable, and I’m still not sure if it is supportive or criticising the process that is used to by major institutions – such as Princeton – to decide who gets in and who doesn’t.

But in the end, all of that aside, I liked it…or, more to the point, I liked Tina and Paul in it.

If you like them too, don’t miss it…just don’t expect much.

If you don’t really care for that woman with the glasses who played Sarah Palin and that guy who is in just about every second comedy they make today, then skip it.

Finally this week…something is so bad, so awful and such a complete waste of time that I only mention it so you can stay as far away from it as possible.

No matter how much you like any member of the cast, and no matter how much you have enjoyed the work of Stephenie Meyer in the past, even if you love her TWILIGHT SAGA, even if you enjoyed the book that this film itself is based on, skip the film.

Skip THE HOST at any and all costs…even if it is free, skip it!!

THE HOST is an attempt at a modern day INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS film, crossed with the type of love triangle that made the TWILIGHT SAGA appealing to millions around the world, crossed with the concept that love conquers all and all worlds…but it just doesn’t work.

Nothing happens in THE HOST for long stretches of time, the story is told in a non-linear fashion so it always feels like we are dumped somewhere in the middle, and the conversations between the young woman and the alien possessing her body are mostly laughable.

THE HOST is TWILIGHT lite, it is teen angst and melodrama that you can live without. Ignore it, at all costs. This is one of the worst movies of the year.

The awful, so awful, just horrible wannabe sci-fi action flick THE HOST; the not great film ADMISSION – that I liked because I like the cast of Tina Fey, Paul Rudd and Lily Tomlin; the spectacular Academy Award Israeli documentary THE GATEKEEPERS; and the small New Zealand film BOY, which has a lot of personality and is great alternative to the Summer Movie Season, are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up in two weeks, inside the next Couch Potato Report

SEASON ONE of the Award winning made-in-Toronto series ORPHAN BLACK; the political docudrama KILLING LINCOLN; the baseball biopic 42 about the legendary Jackie Robinson; and the re-imagining of the horror classic EVIL DEAD.

And I am calling the original a classic…not the “re-imagining”. Just to be clear.

I’ll have more on those, and some other releases, in fourteen 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 – July 6th, 2013

There are five releases inside this week’s Couch Potato Report and I am saving the best of them for last.

Five, yes, count ‘em, five! I have five new releases this week, and the first one is UPSIDE DOWN…and that is both the name of the made-in-Montreal sci-fi romance fantasy flick AND the reality some of the people in the film have to live with.

Young actor Jim Sturgess from ONE DAY stars with Kirsten Dunst of ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND in this tremendous looking movie as people named Adam and Eden who fall in love as teens, even though they come from different worlds where integration is not possible.

And let me make sure you understand the two worlds thing fully…there are two planets that exist next to another. Look up, or down, and right there – within arm’s reach – is the other planet.

The gravity of the planets have three rules:

1) All matter is pulled by the gravity of the world that it comes from, and not the other.

2) An object’s weight can be offset by matter from the opposite world. Unless you used weights from the other world, you’d float back to your planet.

3) But, after some time in contact, matter in contact with items from the other world burns.

It seems that for Adam and Eden, love is not meant to be, especially after a forced separation.

Ten years after it seems he will never see her again, Adam sets out on a dangerous quest to reconnect with the love of his life and everything – even gravity – are working against him.

UPSIDE DOWN does look great…the images, the sets, the visuals, even the actors in it all look fantastic, but the movie itself is nothing special. It just doesn’t have a script that lives up to the premise and the result is an interesting concept that resulted in a mediocre movie. Too bad, this one could have been great!

THE CALL could not have been great as it is based on the tired, clichéd thriller model. This is a movie that only find its way to a conclusion because of coincidences, not because the writers thought up anything interesting.

THE CALL stars Academy Award winner Halle Berry as a veteran 911 operator who once made a mistake that got a young girl killed. Now only training new operators – instead of taking any calls – she is the only person, the one and only person in the entire call centre who can talk to another teenage girl who has just been abducted.

And, wouldn’t you know it, this girl may be with the exact same killer from Halle Berry’s past.

THE CALL is only 94 minutes…but it seems much, much longer. This film is boring and too hard to believe to be anything other than a movie you skip. Do not take this call, for any price.

Let me say “yes” now to NO, a film from Chile about that country’s 1988 referendum. A talented and in-demand advertising man is asked to help produce the commercials for the NO side and he creates something young and hip and fresh. Yes, this film looks as a time when advertising tactics started to be widely used in political campaigns.

The debate in the movie comes from the historic plebiscite over whether general Augusto Pinochet should have another 8-year term as President. At the time, even real life celebrities – like Christopher Reeve – were involved in the local ad campaigns.

NO was nominated at the Academy Awards this year for Best Foreign Language Film, and I really enjoyed it. I didn’t remember much of the story, so it was mostly new to me, and the film is creatively shot and edited together to look like it is from the late eighties.

That is why I can easily say “yes” to NO.

I also say “yes” to a quirky and odd, creepy and interesting mystery thriller called STOKER. This one is about a mysterious “Uncle” who comes to live with an 18-year-old girl and her unstable mother.

He is charming and charismatic and may be a killer, and the more the teenager gets to know about him, the more she becomes infatuated with him.

STOKER is from the same Japanese director – Chan-Wook Park – who gave us the spectacular film OLDBOY, and while this one isn’t as great as that film, it is still very good. It isn’t for everyone, it is too odd and dark and creepy for everyone, but I liked it and can recommend it to anyone who is attracted to odd and quirky and dark and creepy.

To you I say enjoy!!

It is best for last time now, the best release this week is FALCON, a four-part television series released on disc as two 90 minute films, about a brilliant police detective in Seville, Spain.

Javier Falcon’s personal and professional life is continually compromised by dark secrets from his own past, and the past of members of his family.

FALCON is an exceptionally well-written series about a flawed man, and one movie picks up after the next and will leave you wanting more.

I really enjoyed them, and look forward to more!!

FALCON might not be available in every store, so you’ll probably have to search it out, but it is worth the extra effort. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it!!

The fantastic two movie series FALCON; the creepy & odd mystery thriller STOKER; the very good Academy Award nominated Foreign Film NO; the boring wannabe thriller THE CALL; and the nice to look at made-in-Montreal romance fantasy flick UPSIDE DOWN are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

The New Zealand comedy BOY; the Academy Award nominated Israeli documentary THE GATEKEEPERS; Tina Fey and Paul Rudd star in ADMISSION; and THE HOST is a romantic science fiction film based on the novel of the same name from the creator of THE TWILIGHT SAGA.

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 – June 29th, 2013

A documentary about a well-known Canadian musician is inside this week’s Couch Potato Report and well go deep under the sea.

Bruce Cockburn is an Ontario raised singer/songwriter and activist who is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame.

His hit songs include “Wondering Where the Lions Are”, “Coldest Night of the Year”, “If a Tree Falls” “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” and “Lovers in a Dangerous Time”, among others.

The documentary BRUCE COCKBURN: PACING THE CAGE features the man looking back on his life and career, along with others – famous and otherwise – singing his praises.

The best part of PACING THE CAGE are the more candid moments when Cockburn is relaxed and just talking.

PACING THE CAGE isn’t a definitive Bruce Cockburn documentary, it does go back to the beginning of his career a few times but it primarily focusses on his more recent efforts, but it is still a very good look at an artist who has created some music that will stand the test of time, and can be called Canadian Classic, and he is also a person who has worked tirelessly in Canada and elsewhere to try and make the world a better place.

I can easily recommend it.

I can’t easily recommend THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE, primarily because it is a comedy that really isn’t that funny…but it does have a few laughs…and a cast that includes Steve Carell from THE OFFICE, STEVE BUSCEMI of THE BIG LEBOWSKI, the late James Gandolfini from THE SOPRANOS, Olivia Wilde from HOUSE and the one and only Jim Carrey!!

THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE stars Carrey as a pain loving magician who is making the more traditional pair of Carell and Busemi look stale. Trying to keep pace, they try their own dangerous stunt…which fails…and so they break up.

Eventually the story brings them back together, and fade to semi-happy ending…but if only THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE was funnier, then it would be something I could recommend.

As it is, I say check it out if you like the cast, especially if you are a fan of James Gandolfini, as this is one of his last on camera roles.

May he rest in peace.

Hey DOCTOR WHO FANS…Whovians…THE SNOWMEN and PART TWO of SERIES SEVEN are now available on blu-ray, and they are amazing!!

Doctor Who is the fifty year old BBC series about a time traveling time lord and if you haven’t been watching this show over the past few years, you have been missing some exceptional television!!

The only complaints I have about these releases of DOCTOR WHO – THE SNOWMEN and SERIES 7, PART TWO… SERIES 7, PART ONE for that matter…is that one day, down the road, these will all be released – like the other seasons – in one big box set with a wealth of extras. These releases have little in the way of extras…and that is a complaint.

But they do still have some great DOCTOR WHO action, adventure, time traveling fun, and new companion Jenna-Louise Coleman, so I will recommend them to old and new fans alike…but maybe rent or borrow THE SNOWMEN and SERIES 7, PART TWO, so you don’t have to buy them twice.

Finally this week is the blu-ray release of one of the greatest documentary series of all time…and one of the most disappointing blu-ray releases of all time.

The BBC’s THE BLUE PLANET has been upconverted for High Definition – because it was made in Standard Definition – and it doesn’t look great.

Since the release of THE BLUE PLANET in 2001 the spectacular BBC Natural History Unit crew have pioneered the use of high definition cameras for their unequaled nature films, and that is why it took so long for this one to come to blu-ray, because it wasn’t produced this way.

But, the content still holds up…I am always impressed when I see the footage here of thousands of baby turtles trying to reach the ocean, shrimps fighting a much bigger starfish, dolphins playing with leaves, sharks on the hunt and whales fighting whales.

That content is why I easily and highly recommend THE BLUE PLANET.

The blu-ray may not be as pristine as the ones for PLANET EARTH, LIFE and FROZEN PLANET, and that is truly disappointing, but I am still glad that I have it on my shelf now anyway.

The spectacular BBC documentary series THE BLUE PLANET…which doesn’t look great on blu-ray…SERIES 7, PART TWO and THE SNOWMEN episodes of the great DOCTOR WHO; the not great comedy THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE, featuring Canadian Jim Carrey and the late great James Gandolfini; and the very good documentary BRUCE COCKBURN: PACING THE CAGE are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

The classic Mel Brooks film THE PRODUCERS starring Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel debuts on blu-ray; Halle Berry stars in the wannabe thriller THE CALL, and the made-in-Montreal fantasy romance film UPSIDE DOWN tries to put a new twist on the age old tale of people who were meant to be together, against all odds.

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 – June 22nd, 2013

A great movie about a great Canadian is inside this week’s Couch Potato Report along with an awful movie with a great cast.

This week we begin with the made-in-Winnipeg biography JACK, about the late NDP Leader Jack Layton.

When he died of cancer in August of 2011 Jack Layton was the Leader of the Official Opposition. Most people know the end of his story, and the fact that he lead his New Democratic Party to a historic victory in the Spring 2011 election.

This biopic wants you to know the man’s whole story, who he was and why, and it succeeds admirably.

I knew that Jack Layton grew up in a political family, and that he was a city councillor in Toronto for 17 years and spent a year as head of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. I also knew that he spoke several languages, loved his wife Olivia Chow dearly, and was always full of energy.

But I had no idea that Jack Layton played the guitar and used to sing to his family, friends, staff, reporters, basically anyone who would listen.

I had no idea, and that is why the film succeeds, because it told me things I didn’t already know. That is something all good biopics should do.

JACK also succeeds because the story of the man at its core is so strong and none of the performances get in the way of that story. No one is flashy or over acting, they are just inhabiting their roles, playing real people. As a result, at only 90 minutes, JACK could have been twice. There is just so much more about Jack Layton that is worth sharing, and – I’m sure – so much more that we don’t know.

From one film that works, we move now to two that do not. Absolutely do not!!

JACK THE GIANT SLAYER is the first one, and this fantasy adventure film based on the fairy tales “Jack the Giant Killer” and “Jack and the Beanstalk’ is from Bryan Singer, the director of the first two X-MEN films.

A young man named Jack takes some magic beans, they grow into a giant beanstalk, and he climbs it – with the King’s knights – to save the Princess he has fallen in love with from some giants…and you won’t care.

The giants are all done by CGI, bad CGI they all look fake, plus this film is boring. We’ve all read the books, and so we know how it all turns out, and the filmmakers don’t give us anything new to hold our interest.

I know that JACK THE GIANT SLAYER is meant for a younger audience…but do them a favour, get them the books. This movie is a waste of their time.

Skip it!!

You also need to skip MOVIE 43…and that is the title of it, MOVIE 43. You need to skip this one even though it has a cast that includes Academy Award winners Kate Winslet and Halle Berry, plus Hugh Jackman, Richard Gere, Naomi Watts, Anna Faris, Chris Pratt, Emma Stone, Chloë Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Seann William Scott, Gerard Butler, Elizabeth Banks, and many other popular stars.

This movie is like a car accident…you don’t want to look, but you can’t help yourself…you have to.

But you need to not look at this cinematic car accident. MOVIE 43 is horrible, absolutely horrible!!

MOVIE 43 has a series of short films featuring different stars, and none of it is funny, even remotely. I didn’t laugh once…in fact, I kept wondering how the people in the film agreed to do it. How did they get all of those stars to do this movie?!?

Skip MOVIE 43…at all costs. Even if you think it looks funny…it is not. Look away…walk away…there is nothing to see here!!

At this point, I would like to offer up a quartet – a drama, a documentary, and two would-be comedies.

And the quartet begins with QUARTET…a nice little film for an older crowd starring the great character actors Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly, Pauline Collins and Michael Gambon.

Their characters all reside at a home for retired musicians, and their world is shaken up when one of them refuses to be part of the annual concert to celebrate Verdi’s birthday.

Legendary actor Dustin Hoffman is the director here, and he does a great job with the story, the music and his great cast and the result is a film I can easily recommend to an older crowd. The closer you are to retirement age – or beyond – the more you will enjoy the film.

Personally, as someone in his mid-forties, I liked it…but it was a bit slow for me at times.

Let me talk about the documentary KIVALINA V. EXXON now.

Kivalina, an ancient Inuit village on a tiny island off the northwest coast of Alaska.

The winter sea ice that once protected the 400 residents is receding at an unprecedented rate, exposing the village to the powerful fall and winter storms and putting the village’s buildings and infrastructure in “…imminent danger of falling into the sea.”

Traditional hunting practices have also become less productive and increasingly more dangerous. With time running out for their village, and convinced that the erosion was due to man-made global warming, the residents sought legal advice and a suit was filed on their behalf by two of the top litigators in the United States.

Their lawsuit is against two dozen of the world’s most powerful oil, coal and power companies and they the plaintiffs are asking the court to make Exxon and the companies pay all the costs of moving the village to safe and protected ground.

KIVALINA V. EXXON is an interesting and unfortunate film. The people in the small town deserve a better ending than they are likely to get…and with the case still pending, this film has no answers.

But it does have enough to keep you interested. This is a documentary that I can highly recommend.

In my cinematic world, there is nothing sadder than a comedy that is not funny. Unfortunately I have two of them to tell you about right now…and that makes me sad.

21 & OVER is a “comedy” about a promising medical student and his friends partying the night of his 21st birthday…which is also the night before his big medical school interview.

Yes, this is one of those movies where people make the decision to do something they know they shouldn’t do, and everything ends up happy at the end…even when you think it won’t.

But you won’t be happy along the way if you watch 21 & OVER – and I highly recommend that you don’t – as it is not funny. People named Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughan, Bill and Ted and Harold and Kumar have done this before and done it better.

This one is as predictable as a movie gets, and it isn’t worthy of your time. It is just an unfunny film.

BACHELORETTE is also unfunny, painfully unfunny.

BACHELORETTE stars Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher, Lizzy Caplan, James Marsden, Rebel Wilson and Adam Scott and it is about three selfish, self-centred and irresponsible women in their late twenties who reunite with their high school friend for one last night of fun before she gets married.

And hilarious hijinks are supposed to ensure and the trip are put in ridiculous situation after ridiculous situation after ridiculous situation, each one less possible than the last, and each one making you dislike these characters more and more.

I wrote notes as I watch movies for The Couch Potato Report, usually the more I like a film the more I write. For this one I didn’t write very much. I just wrote unfunny, uninteresting and predictable.

Skip BACHELORETTE!! Even if you think you’ll like it…I highly doubt that you will.

It is just another unfunny comedy…and that just makes me sad.

The final title I have for you this week will turn fifty years old on July 4th, and it continues to be one of the best action films ever made.

Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence and James Coburn all star in THE GREAT ESCAPE.

Based on a true story from World War II, THE GREAT ESCAPE is the story of the attempted escape of 250 Allied soldiers from a prison camp.

How they dig a tunnel, how they get rid of the dirt from said tunnel, and how they plan to just walk away is all exceptionally well done, and very interesting.

The only problem I have with the new blu-ray for THE GREAT ESCAPE is that the studio didn’t work harder to clean it up. We’ve seen some recent re-releases of fifty year old films look amazing in HD. This one does not, the picture here doesn’t look great and the sound isn’t impressive either.

But the film itself is still amazing…after all it isn’t THE MEDIOCRE ESCAPE, it is THE GREAT ESCAPE…and so there is enough for me to recommend you make the upgrade to HD.

And man, this is a great movie!!

The action classic THE GREAT ESCAPE; the useless non-comedy BACHELORETTE; the predictable non-comedy 21 AND OVER; the great documentary KIVALINA V. EXXON; the okay for an older crowd drama QUARTET; the all-star flop MOVIE 43; the boring and uninteresting big screen version of JACK THE GIANT SLAYER; and the great bio-pic JACK – THE JACK LAYTON STORY are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

BRUCE COCKBURN: PACING THE CAGE is a documentary that features the Canadian icon, singer, songwriter and activist reflecting on his life and his career; the spectacular BBC documentary series THE BLUE PLANET debuts on blu-ray; and THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE stars Jim Carrey, Steve Carell and the late, great James Gandolfini in one of his final screen roles.

May he rest in peace.

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 – June 15th, 2013

The first seasons of two amazing television series are inside this week’s Couch Potato Report, along with a gorgeous Cleopatra.

At this time of year the days are longer, temperatures are warmer, and – most days – there is plenty of sunshine.

My friends, Summer is almost here!! Now, since Summer does have a few rainy nights, sometimes more than a few, no matter where you live, let me suggest two shows that I consider exceptional AND tremendous for your absolute viewing pleasure.

In all honesty, I could even sit and watch these on a Sunny day and not worry that I was wasting a nice day, they are that good.

I’ll start with Aaron Sorkin’s THE NEWSROOM…since I work in a newsroom.

Sorkin is the Emmy and Academy award winning writer who has given us THE WEST WING, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, A FEW GOOD MEN, SPORTS NIGHT and MONEYBALL, just to name a few.

This show takes us behind-the-scenes of a nightly news show that airs weeknight on the fictional Atlantis Cable News channel. We see how stories come together, how the people work to get them on the air, and how those people work together…and sometimes can’t work together.

THE NEWSROOM features a great ensemble cast including Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, Alison Pill, Dev Patel, Olivia Munn, Jane Fonda and Sam Waterston.

The show mixes real life news stories from the not too distant past – including the oil spill along the Gulf Coast, the killing of Osama Bin Laden – and shows how they get on the air, dramatically. This is not a documentary, and at times you may wonder why the people who work in this newsroom bring all of their personal baggage to work with them…and constantly air it out in front of everyone else…but during the ten episodes in THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON, the main thing you will see is tremendous actors performing scenes with some amazing Aaron Sorkin dialogue.

THE NEWSROOM is a tremendous show full of real people, in real and sometimes very uncomfortable situations, and I highly recommend it!

This is entertainment at its finest and I can not wait for SEASON TWO!!

There is no first title this week on The Couch Potato Report, and then a second one, and a third, with the quality going down a little with each one. This week there is 1a and 1 b, both of these first two releases are equal in terms of quality, writing, performance and how worthy of your time they are.

And HOUSE OF CARDS is very, very worthy of your time!

This exceptional show is a political drama set in present day Washington, D.C.

Oscar winner Kevin Spacey plays a very ruthless and brilliant politician who – after getting passed over for appointment to Secretary of State – decides to exact his revenge on those who betrayed him, using whatever means are at his disposal, including the press.

Unlike other shows such as this, Spacey’s main confident and advisor is his wife, played by Robin Wright. No matter how dirty his hands get, and they occasionally get very, very dirty, no matter what happens her tells her just about everything.

The supporting cast of HOUSE OF CARDS all bring something unique to their roles and that is why the thirteen episodes in THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON are so entertaining. This show has great stories to tell, that are told using some amazing – and believable – twists and turns, and it is all driven by Spacey’s amazing – soon to be Emmy winning performance.

I highly recommend HOUSE OF CARDS, and don’t feel that you have to save it for a rainy Summer night, it is available on disc and Netflix right now for you to watch…and enjoy!

As I have said before on The Couch Potato Report, and on Saskatchewan Weekend, Facebook, Twitter, in conversations, and at almost any time the subject comes up, the months of January, February and March are dumping grounds for the movie studios.

Good films rarely come out during the first three months of the year, it is where they dump stuff that can’t compete with the bigger action films of the Summer Movie Season, and can’t compete with the prestige films that come out late in the year for Awards Season.

And as it goes, what comes out in theatres, eventually makes it way to the home viewing formats…so here now are three films that might interest you…but you should stay away from.

The biggest of the three is Sam Raimi’s prequel to THE WIZARD OF OZ, OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL.

James Franco from 127 HOURS and PINEAPPLE EXPRESS stars here as a small-time magician who is swept away by a storm to an enchanted land. Once there, he is forced into a power struggle between three powerful – and beautiful – witches, played by Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams.

OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL is based on L. Frank Baum’s novels, and it pays homage to the classic 1939 film, and the storytelling angle of it is based in beautiful words and fiction, but the film just doesn’t come together.

It was all shot on stages using green screens, so it all looks horribly fake, I know it is supposed to be set in a magical world, but we have to be able to believe in what we are seeing, and since it looks as bad as it does you won’t, and you won’t care.

Plus, Franco is horribly miscast. He doesn’t have the personality or talent to make you care about him. You wish the residents of Oz well, but you won’t care what happens either way.

I respect what director Sam Raimi tried to do, and I love the source material, but OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL is a failure. A noble failure, but a failure nonetheless.

Less a failure is the interesting concept film HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS. The idea here is that after the two children save their lives by outwitting the cannibalistic witch who has trapped them, they grow up to become professional witch hunters.

Jeremy Renner from THE AVENGERS and Gemma Arterton of QUANTUM OF SOLACE play the siblings.

Of the films the studios dumped on us this year, the one I minded the least was this one. The actors in HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS are well cast, especially Gemma who is a young actress I am a huge fan of, and I like the story…so I went in with very low expectations and found it to offer some good cheesy fun.

HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS is never great, but I liked it…a little bit…once again proving my belief that if you like an actor, you can like their film.

And that is definitely true with SNITCH as well.

If you love Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, don’t miss it. Otherwise…miss it.

Inspired by true events, SNITCH features Mr. Johnson as a regular Joe father who goes undercover to try and help the authorities arrest a drug dealer, after his son gets arrested for drug possession and won’t snitch on who gave him the drugs.

If the father gets the information, his son’s sentence will be shortened, and this is one Father who will do anything for his boy.

SNITCH is not an awful film, but Dwayne Johnson is miscast in the film. He is a big, huge strong guy and so it isn’t hard to believe that he would be capable of helping put his kid this way.

A smaller, less muscular actor would have been more believable and so – as it is – this is for fans of The Rock only. Otherwise – and I hate to be a snitch – but the film just isn’t worthy of your time.

So just skip it.

Finally this week is the stunning beauty of both the late great Elizabeth Taylor and the film she made fifty years ago…CLEOPATRA.

This historical epic depicts the triumphs and tragedy of the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra and it has now been released in High Definition on a 50th ANNIVERSARY blu-ray, that looks and sounds terrific!!

There was an immense amount of drama surrounding this film when it was originally released, including Liz Taylor almost dying and having an affair with co-star Richard Burton, and all of that is covered in the wide array of old and new Bonus Materials that come with the film, including this story about Taylor’s reaction after seeing the film.

CLEOPATRA is not the greatest epic of its day, it has always been a bit slow for that to be true and it isn’t always that compelling, but it remains an epic as they don’t make ‘em like this anymore. And now, this new 50th ANNIVERSARY edition, is the definitive way to see a film that – at 251 minutes – continues to be both bloated and beautiful.

The 50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of the Hollywood classic slash cautionary tale CLEOPATRA, the not awful, but never great dramatic action film SNITCH; the cheesy fun flick HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS; the not interesting noble failure OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL; the exceptional COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of Kevin Spacey’s HOUSE OF CARDS and the tremendous COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of Aaron Sorkin’s THE NEWSROOM are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

The CBC biography JACK – the Jack Layton story, Steve McQueen’s THE GREAT ESCAPE turns 50 and debuts on blu-ray; MOVIE 43 features a cast that includes Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber, Uma Thurman and Halle Berry, but is almost unwatchable; and I’ll also review one of the biggest flops of 2013 – JACK THE GIANT SLAYER.

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 – June 8th, 2013

There is a documentary that takes us from D-Day to Victory inside this week’s Couch Potato Report and a great zombie comedy.

In the military, D-Day is the day on which a combat attack or operation will begin. The best known D-Day is June 6, 1944 — the day of the Normandy landings — initiating the Western Allied effort to liberate mainland Europe from Nazi occupation during World War II.

The six-part Canadian documentary D-DAY TO VICTORY starts there and takes us all the way to the Allies victory over Nazi Germany and it features the stories of the men who did the fighting.

The stories in D-DAY TO VICTORY are full of fear and elation, and there are also some stories of regret as the men look back…and it is their stories that make this series one that is a must see.

What works against D-DAY TO VICTORY is the recreations of the explosions. They have some actual footage of the War, but mostly they recreate what took place, so they could have it all in High Definition for today’s modern audiences. It is all exceptionally done, but I would have preferred more real footage and not the abundance of 3D recreations that are included here.

That negativity aside, the stories here are the reason why I easily and highly recommend this series to everyone, because it has been almost seventy years since D-Day, and some of the men who were there and share their stories in D-DAY TO VICTORY might never appear on film again and their stories need to be told…lest we forget.

Switching gears now, if you find yourself looking for some great television to watch now that the latest television season is over, how about THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON of the television series BREAKING BAD?

Multiple Emmy Award winning actor Bryan Cranston continues to play Walter White, one of the most complex and devious characters on television today!! He is a crystal meth maker who started off just trying to secure his family’s financial future after he was diagnosed with cancer, but five seasons in he’s not only trying to survive his diagnosis, but also the situations he keeps putting himself – and his family – in.

Now, I didn’t really care for the first two seasons of BREAKING BAD, but I really enjoyed SEASONS THREE, FOUR and now FIVE as it has more tension that the other four added together, and also offers up some of this series’ most amazing twists and turns.

BREAKING BAD is a tremendous show, one that I highly recommend. Do not miss the eight episodes in THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON…in fact, if you are looking for a great television series to watch this Summer, go back to SEASON ONE and watch it all and enjoy!

Just about all of the television shows and movies that have come out of late about zombies tell serious stories, very serious stories about life and death trying to survive the walking dead.

But now we have our first zombie comedy…zombie romantic comedy, actually. It is called WARM BODIES and it is based on Isaac Marion’s novel of the same name.

After a zombie epidemic, a young zombie man decides to save a beautiful young woman from a pack of the undead, including himself. They stay together – so he can protect her – and as the two struggle to survive their bond deepens, and he starts to become more and more human.

As the young zombie becomes human again, that begins to transform the other zombies as well, and through their WARM BODIES the whole lifeless world could be saved….if the humans decide to trust them.

Simply put, I liked WARM BODIES!! Made-in-Montreal, it features zombies with personality, has a great young cast and the special effects and CGI are very well done. It is definitely worth a rental on a rainy night this summer.

If you need a laugh this weekend, I have a few releases here that will – in the very least – give you a few laughs, and one that has been making is laugh for thirty years now!!

The new film IDENTITY THIEF has a few laughs…not many, but a few.

The great Jason Bateman from ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT stars here as a mild-mannered businessman who has his identity stolen by Melissa McCarthy of BRIDESMAIDS so he decides to travels from Denver to Miami to bring her back as the police won’t do anything unless she is right in front of them.

As you might expect, things don’t go easily, but what you might not expect is the fact that the film isn’t that funny…in fact, at times Melissa McCarthy is insufferable and not funny at all, and neither is her movie.

Ultimately IDENTITY THIEF does have enough laughs that you’ll enjoy it if you like the cast. Just know that it doesn’t have that many laughs because it piles character on character and action scene on action scene which all adds up to too much that takes away from the road trip that Bateman and McCarthy are on, a trip that promises the most humour and occasionally even delivers.

Not often, but occasionally.

The 2006 film MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND, directed by Canadian filmmaker Ivan Reitman, also delivers an occasional laugh…but the premise is still the funniest thing about it.

Luke Wilson plays a regular guy who meets and falls for a beautiful woman – played by Uma Thurman – who also happens to be a superhero, and very, very, very needy!!

When he breaks up with her, she uses her powers to make his life a nightmare.

MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND is new on blu-ray, and it does look great in HD, I just wish the jokes in the film were as strong as the premise and the cast, that also includes Rainn Wilson from THE OFFICE and Anna Farris from the SCARY MOVIE films.

This is another comedy, with a few laughs, but for fans of the cast only.

On July 29th, 1983, a small comedy was released in theatres about a regular family man who was taking his family on a road trip across the country to an amusement park called Walley World, driving so they could spend more time together.

Thirty years later, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION is thought of around the world as a comedy classic, and worthy of a new 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION blu-ray!!

Chevy Chase’s performance of Clark W. Griswold was perfect, and the writing and directing was also top notch…and the supporting cast that includes Canadians Eugene Levy and the late great John Candy was amazing!!

In addition to the film, there is also a documentary on the new 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION that shows how hard it was to produce a film as good as this one and features the cast and crew looking back. Here’s director Harold Ramis:

NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION also spawned some sequels, the best being CHRISTMAS VACATION and EUROPEAN VACATION is also very good. The least of the follow-ups has been released in HD on blu-ray for the first time, and even though VEGAS VACATION isn’t great – in any way – it does still have a few laughs.

It’s doubtful that there will ever be a 30 ANNIVERSARY EDITION of VEGAS VACATION, it is for completests only, but the original 1983 VACATION remains a comedy for everyone.

It is a true comedy classic and a must see, especially if you are down the holiday road with your loved ones this Summer!!

And there you go, if you need a laugh this weekend, those releases should – in the very least – give you a few laughs.

The final title I have for you this week is a movie that is not only one of the worst and most disappointing films of 2013, but it is also the one that might have killed the DIE HARD action movie franchise.

The first film in the series continues to be one of the greatest action films of all time, but each of the sequels have gone down in quality to the point that we now have the almost unwatchable A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD.

Bruce Willis is back in the role that made him a star and this time John McClane travels to Russia to help get his estranged son Jack out of prison. But instead of merely being the wrong guy in the wrong place in the wrong time – as he’s been in the other four films in the series – he is just a guy caught up in the crossfire of a terrorist plot in a generic action film.

A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD is a complete waste of time on all fronts. The action is all done cheaply using computers and nothing looks or feels remotely plausible, the story is poorly written, and very quickly in you won’t care…I certainly didn’t.

I like these films, I like Bruce Willis, and I like the character of John McClane but this one is so bad that it has me hoping they never make another one.

Skip it, ignore it, don’t bother with it.

The absolutely awful in just about every failure of a sequel A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD; the not great but not quite awful sequel VEGAS VACATION and the 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of the still funny original VACATION; Ivan Reitman’s okay but not great comedy MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND; the failed, but occasionally funny IDENTITY THIEF; the very good zombie comedy WARM BODIES; THE FIFTH SEASON of the still great series BREAKING BAD; and the very compelling six part Canadian documentary series D-DAY TO VICTORY are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

The drama INCH’ALLAH (INCHallah) about a Canadian doctor working in Palestine, THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASONS of great shows THE NEWSROOM and HOUSE OF CARDS, director Sam Raimi’s OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL, and the guilty pleasure action flick HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS.

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!