Category: The Couch Potato Report

The Couch Potato Report – June 1st, 2013

There’s a TV show about one family’s arrested development inside this week’s Couch Potato Report, and some airheads.

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT ran for three years from 2003 to 2006 and it won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series after its first season. Unfortunately that victory, and the consistent high quality of the show’s jokes and humour, never translated into ratings as it is odd and eclectic and not really for everyone, and so it was cancelled.

But people – like me – who did watch it, we loved it, and so the demand began for more episodes – or even a movie – even before it was officially taken off the air.

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT is about the exceptionally dysfunctional Bluth family, a formerly wealthy now bankrupt family, and now, seven years after the brilliant last show aired, we have fifteen new episodes to watch!!

In addition to its tremendous writing, the main reason this show works is because of the cast…simply put it is one of the greatest ensemble casts ever assembled, and it includes Jason Bateman and Canadians Will Arnett and Michael Cera, plus Tony Hale, David Cross Portia de Rossi, Jessica Walter, Jeffrey Tambor, and it is all narrated by Hollywood icon Ron Howard.

I was so excited about the return of this show, but I was also so nervous!! Could the fifteen episodes live up to the hype and expectations? Would the writing and acting still be as strong as it was while the series was on the air? Would I still care about the Bluth family after all these years?!

Happily, I do still care, the writing and acting are both still very strong, and it did live up to the hype and my expectations.

What creator Mitchell Hurwitz and his team have done is given us fifteen individual episodes about what the characters have been up to in the years since the show aired, and they have filled each one with other stories, sight gags and jokes that pay off in later episodes.

Added up it is one very entertaining 7.5 hour story that is laugh out loud funny!!

Now, truth be told, if you have watched ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT in the past and didn’t care for it, the new episodes in SEASON FOUR won’t win you over. They are best viewed by people who are already huge fans of the show.

But, if you’ve never seen it, see it, both the original and the new ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT episodes are fun and funny and quirky and odd, and smart and completely moronic all at the same time.

As a HUGE fan, I really enjoyed SEASON FOUR, and look forward to more episodes, or a movie, or whatever the cast and crew decide to do…if anything.

Welcome back Bluth Family!!

Up next is THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of the made-in-Toronto supernatural medical drama SAVING HOPE.

This is a show about a highly respected veteran doctor in a coma who meets patients and wanders the hospital halls in “spirit” form. He is also the narrator of what is going on, and so he tells us that he’s not sure if he’s a ghost or a figment of his own imagination.

His fiancée and fellow surgeon Alex works to save him while existing in a constant state of shock, and she is also trying to save other patients as well.

The supernatural side of THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of SAVING HOPE wasn’t ever that interesting…the conversations he had with other patients in their mysterious dream state never won me over, it just seemed like a gimmick…and the medical cases the living doctors were dealing with weren’t always that interesting either.

However, the mostly Canadian cast is very likeable, and so by the end of the season I was rooting for them. Not enough to make me watch SEASON TWO of the show when it airs every week this summer, but enough to mildly recommend SEASON ONE, but only to people who really like medical dramas.

I have a pair of releases to tell you about right now, and I am lumping them both together under the heading “Two To Avoid”.

No matter how much you enjoy or appreciate the genres, the people starring in them, or how good the trailers make them look, they are “Two To Avoid.”

Especially the Tom Cruise action film JACK REACHER. Especially this one!! What a mess!!

Jack Reacher is the protagonist in a series of books by British author Jim Grant, who writes under the pen name of Lee Child.

Jack Reacher – the character – is a drifter and former U.S. Army Military Police Corps officer.

JACK REACHER – the film – is based on the ninth book in the series, ONE SHOT, and it features the title character investigating a case involving a trained military sniper who shot five random victims.

But as he digs deeper into what happened, Reacher discovers that maybe it wasn’t random at all.

The book that JACK REACHER is based on is great, in fact all seventeen of them are great and I’m looking forward to the new one that is due this Fall, but the movie is so slow and boring and by the time the characters figure it all out you absolutely will not care…and that is why you should just skip this mess.

Yes, it has a great cast that also features Rosamund Pike from BARNEY’S VERSION, Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins, and Hollywood icon Robert Duvall, and it is based on a great book…but the movie should be avoided at all costs.

And that’s the fact, Jack Reacher!!

You also need to skip, stay away from, ignore and avoid the sci-fi horror flick DARK SKIES. This one is a complete waste of your time.

DARK SKIES is about a family in a quiet little town who have fallen on hard times. The husband has recently lost his job, and is having no luck finding a new one, oh, and aliens may be after them.

I don’t mind the premise of DARK SKIES, and some interesting horrific things do take place, but the majority of what happens doesn’t work…for instance, right after an expert tells them that aliens live among us and are taking kids, aliens come to their home to try and take one of their kids.

Kids, by the way, who have bruises and marks and brands – actual brands – all over their bodies, but the parents never notice them…only strangers do.

And stranger, stranger than that, the father sees some of the weirdest stuff he’s ever seen, stuff that has no earthly explanation, no possible explanation at all, he refuses to accept that it might be aliens.

Oh, oh, and I could go on…but I think I’ve made my point. DARK SKIES is a movie to avoid, at all costs.

I would rather have to deal with the aliens in this movie than have to watch it again.

It is plain awful!!

And there you go. Those are “Two To Avoid!!

Finally this week, is a very stupid comedy from 1994 that I love and is now available on blu-ray. This is AIRHEADS!!

AIRHEADS stars Canadian Brendan Fraser of THE MUMMY as the leader of a band of musicians who are desperate to make it big.

So desperate that they take a radio deejay hostage until he plays their song.

Joe Mantegna plays the deejay and Adam Sandler is also in the band.

AIRHEADS is an over the top, very funny comedy with a great cast – that also includes Steve Buscemi and Chris Farley – and it is jam packed with rock and roll jokes, cameos, comments and questions.

Sadly, the new blu-ray for AIRHEADS doesn’t feature any retrospective features or any special features at all, but the film looks and especially sounds great in high definition…plus it is still one of the most entertaining rock and roll films from the nineties.

All of that adds up to a 92 minute film that I highly recommend!!

The silly but still very funny comedy AIRHEADS, the sci-fi horror flick DARK SKIES, Tom Cruise’s failed turn as JACK REACHER and THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of the not great made-in-Toronto series SAVING HOPE are available now, either on disc or on demand.

All fifteen new episodes for SEASON FOUR of the very entertaining show ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT – for fans only – are available now on demand on Netflix.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

The Zombie Comedy WARM BODIES; Bruce Willis is back playing John McClane in the useless sequel A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD; Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy star in the comedy IDENTITY THIEF; and – ahead of June 6th – the six part Canadian television series D-DAY TO VICTORY, with real soldiers telling their story.

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 – May 25th, 2013

The stories told by Sarah Polley’s family are inside this week’s Couch Potato Report and so are three films to skip!!

Sarah Polley is an Academy Award nominated, Genie AND Gemini Award winning performer who grew up right in front of our eyes each week playing Sara Stanley during the years she starred on the CBC television series ROAD TO AVONLEA.

Since leaving the show, we’ve seen her grow into a woman in films like THE SWEET HEREAFTER, EXOTICA, DAWN OF THE DEAD and GO. With her recent releases AWAY FROM HER and TAKE THIS WALTZ, we’ve also watched her mature as a writer and director.

Sarah Polley is a well-known Canadian celebrity, and like anyone who has been in the public eye as long as she has, we know everything there is to know about her…don’t we?!

Nope, we do not…but now, with the release of the documentary STORIES WE TELL…now, I think we just might.

STORIES WE TELL begins with Polley asking each of her four siblings and Father to tell the story of their family, and tell they do. We learn everything about them, warts and all.

Sarah Polley is working as both a investigator and a filmmaker here as she collects the stories from her family, some of them are even about her, and then carefully dishes them out to us. Ask any Canadian family to sit down and tell their story, as individuals and not as a group, and – much like what happens here – the truth on any matter depends on who is telling the story.

The members of the Polley Family are all great characters and it is interesting to get to know them, and their Mother, who seems like she would have been a blast to know, and it is because of how personable they are that you will want to know what happens…and something does happen, but I won’t be the one telling you what it is.

STORIES WE TELL is one of those movies where the less you know going in, the more you’ll enjoy it. I knew going in that there was a twist, that the family did have a secret, but I didn’t know what it was and that is all you should want to know too.

This movie is fascinating and fun and interesting and populated with a great group of people. I highly recommend that you check it out.

I won’t highly recommend that you watch any of the other releases I have for you this week, but I will strongly suggest that you skip them. All of them. No matter how curious you are, no matter how much you like the actors in them…skip them!!

Look, Arnold Schwarzenegger is back in his first role since leaving politics, and if you watch the making of features on THE LAST STAND you’ll see that he is convinced that he has returned in a super special piece of filmmaking that has resulted in an amazingly fantastic movie that you can’t miss.

But if you watch the film itself – as I have – you’ll actually see a predictable, very boring movie about a small-town Sheriff who won’t let big city bad guys – or officers of the law – push him around.

Come on filmmakers…this is Arnold Schewarzenegger…big time action star…former action star…we know he isn’t going to lose a fight to a younger, much stronger man, even one who has a series of concealed weapons and some really sharp knives…so why do you try to make us think he will?!

THE LAST STAND isn’t the Schwarzenegger of old, and I sure hope it isn’t the Arnold of the future either. Skip this one, at all costs!! It is nothing special at all.

Another failed action film you must skip is PARKER, starring Jason Statham from THE EXPENDIBLES and THE TRANSPORTER films. This useless mess is adapted from Flashfire, the 19th “Parker” novel, written by Donald Westlake under the name Richard Stark. The books are great!! This movie is not!!

PARKER is a professional thief with a code: He doesn’t steal from the poor or hurt innocent people. When he is double-crossed by a crew, he sets out to get his revenge…and you will not care.

Jason Statham has been the best thing about a lot of really bad action and fight films, but he is walking through this one. And Jennifer Lopez is horribly miscast as the real estate agent who helps Parker.

Plus, the bad guys aren’t evil, or brilliant, or clever, they’re just stupid. It all adds up to something you should avoid. PARKER is a complete waste of time.

The only reason I don’t say that STAND UP GUYS is also a complete waste of time is because – at times – the cast of Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin are fun to see together.

But mostly they don’t do anything…and the result is a film that wants to be a comedy, but is just a complete bore.

Pacino plays a man released from prison after a twenty-eight year stretch in STAND UP GUYS, and Walken is his best friend, who picks him up upon his release, but has been given the assignment to kill him from a mob boss.

The friends get together with their old partner and have a night on the town, featuring fast cars, beautiful women, and all the pharmaceuticals they can steal.

As I said, because of the cast involved, STAND UP GUYS at least held a few moments of entertainment value, but primarily it is just completely boring.

Great cast…noting great about the movie…at all!!

The boring would be comedy STAND UP GUYS, the useless would be crime thriller PARKER, the predictable would be return to action flicks by Arnold Schwarzenegger – THE LAST STAND, and the fascinating documentary STORIES WE TELL – about Canadian actor, writer and director Sarah Polley and her family – are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of the made in Toronto television series SAVING HOPE, Tom Cruise is JACK REACHER, Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher and Rebel Wilson all star in BACHELORETTE, the 50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of CLEOPATRA and – just for fun – the 1994 comedy AIRHEADS, starring Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, Adam Sandler and Joe Montegna.

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 – May 18th, 2013

We’re up in the clouds inside this week’s Couch Potato Report, for a pair of films that take risks. They both fail, but A for effort!

We live in a day and age when the major motion picture studios don’t usually bankroll anything new or unique, which is why we tend to get movies based on comic book superheroes and sequels and sequels and sequels to films starring characters we already know and have spent money to see.

That is why I was excited when I heard that the filmmakers who had made the very original films THE MATRIX and RUN LOLA RUN were working together on a project.

Even if it was horrible, I thought, it would be interesting to watch. And it is…CLOUD ATLAS is horrible, and it is interesting to watch!!

CLOUD ATLAS is a dramatic science fiction film thriller comedy written, produced and directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski – who gave us THE MATRIX TRILOGY – and Tom Tykwer – the man behind RUN LOLA RUN.

CLOUD ATLAS was adapted from the 2004 novel of the same name by David Mitchell and it features multiple plotlines set across six different eras with Tom Hanks, Halle Berry Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant and others all playing multiple roles.

CLOUD ATLAS is about how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, and I was never bored once during it’s almost three hour running time…but I also didn’t really care.

But because there are six stories, with so much going on in each one, it is hard to get invested in any of them…and almost every time the actors appeared in a new role with new hair, make-up and prosthetics, it took me out of the film. I get that they did that to show the connection between space and time…but it doesn’t always work.

But all of that is why CLOUD ATLAS is a fantastic failure…because they tried something different, in a day and age when we almost never get that. I completely respect the film, but unless you’ve read the book, I do not recommend it – my friend Charlie says that it is great if you’ve read the book – but my stance is that we shouldn’t have to read a book to understand a movie, and that is why I recommend you skip it.

It is a fantastic failure…but a failure nonetheless.

Another failure is A GLIMPSE INSIDE THE MIND OF CHARLES SWAN III, starring Charlie Sheen as a successful graphic designer whose selfish life of luxury falls apart when his girlfriend breaks up with him.

A GLIMPSE INSIDE THE MIND OF CHARLES SWAN III was written and directed by Roman Coppola – who received an Oscar nomination this year for co-writing MOONRISE KINGDOM with Wes Anderson. The guy can write and the most interesting thing about this film is the words that Charlie Sheen and co-stars Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray say. What their characters do – how they behave and act – that is what makes the movie not worthy of your time.

A GLIMPSE INSIDE THE MIND OF CHARLES SWAN III has style, a tremendous cast, and it tries to be something different, and I will give it an A for effort for trying, but you won’t care for the majority of the characters in the movie, and even though it is only 86 minutes long, it seems much, much longer.

You should skip this one too.

I have a trio of new releases to tell you about right now, and all of them are interesting, yet none of them are must sees.

The documentary ONE DAY ON EARTH actually takes us to the seas, and it also has sections on music, love, marriage, animals, farming, garbage and more.

On October 10, 2010 – 10-10-10 – people from around the planet recorded and filmed what they were doing that day, in the 24-hour period, and over 3000 hours of footage was submitted to onedayonearth.org.

That was then edited down to a one hour and forty-four minute film.

There is so much to see and witness in ONE DAY ON EARTH, and some of it is incredible, footage you’ve never seen before, and may never see again.

But because there is so much of it to get in, the majority of what we are shown feels rushed. We never get to really take in what is going on for too long, because soon enough it is off to something else.

ONE DAY ON EARTH is exceptionally interesting, and visually stunning, but I was only compelled to watch it all the way to the end so I could review it. After a while I just wasn’t engaged anymore and even started to get bored a bit.

But I never disliked it, so…let’s call that a mild recommendation.

I was bored during parts of the Cuban film SEVEN DAYS IN HAVANA…really bored!

This is a Spanish language anthology film that all takes place during a week in the Cuban capital.

There is one film for each day, and each segment is directed by a different filmmaker.

SEVEN DAYS IN HAVANA does have a couple of stories that are interesting, but for the most part there is nothing here that you must see.

Havana looks beautiful in the film, but you have better things to do than spend seven days there.

Skip this one…it just isn’t worth your time this long weekend.

Now this, this next release is worthy of your time!!

With the eighth and final season of the show set to begin, THE SEVENTH SEASON of DEXTER has been released on DVD and blu-ray.

DEXTER is a multiple award winning show about Dexter Morgan – played by Emmy winner Michael C. Hall of SIX FEET UNDER. He is a bloodstain pattern analyst who uses forensic science to help the Miami Metro Police Department catch criminals.

Oh, and he also moonlights as a serial killer.

In THE SEVENTH SEASON of DEXTER our anti-hero has to find a way to keep his sister from turning him in as SEASON SIX ended with her catching him in action.

She now knows he is a killer.

DEXTER is a smart police procedural drama, that is exceptionally well written and if you have never seen it, you should.

This is an amazing show, and even though THE SEVENTH SEASON isn’t the series’ best, it is still better than most of the shows on television today.

I remain excited for SEASON EIGHT and can’t wait to see how it all ends!

Finally this week is an Academy Award winner from 1968. Barbra Streisand stars as Fanny Brice in FUNNY GIRL, which is now available on blu-ray.

Barbra Streisand has been a star for so long, it can be difficult sometimes to remember that she became a star because she can act and in FUNNY GIRL she acts, she dances and she sings…some classic songs such as “People”.

The real Fanny Brice was a very popular and influential comedian and singer who appeared on stage and screen. In FUNNY GIRL Streisand brings her to life, and Omar Sharif is the love of her life.

The blu-ray for FUNNY GIRL doesn’t offer much in the way of extras, but the film – and its stars – all look and sound amazing in HD!!

If you’ve never seen this one…don’t miss it! Streisand tied with the legendary Katharine Hepburn to win Best Actress for her performance here. It was deserving of that honour then, and your time now.

The Academy Award winning 1968 film FUNNY GIRL, the good but never great SEVENTH SEASON of DEXTER, the uneven anthology SEVEN DAYS IN HAVANA, the interesting but not engaging documentary ONE DAY ON EARTH, the odd and not very good A GLIMPSE INSIDE THE MIND OF CHARLES SWAN III and the fantastic failure that is CLOUD ATLAS are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

Jason Statham and Jennifer Lopez star in the action film PARKER, Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin are STAND UP GUYS, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first post political work is the crime thriller THE LAST STAND, and STORIES WE TELL is Canadian director Sara Polley’s fascinating documentary look at her own family, warts and all.

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 – May 11th, 2013

It’s the Mother’s Day Weekend so there is a Mama inside this week’s Couch Potato Report and The Great Gatsby.

Happy Mother’s Day Weekend to all of the Mother’s out there…I hope that you are having a great morning so far!

I wish I had a better cinematic representative of what you mean to us to review right now, but alas all I have is a made in Ontario horror film called MAMA, and the filmmakers are lucky that my Mother always said “If you haven’t got anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”, otherwise I’d be a lot more critical of it.

MAMA stars Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain from THE HELP and ZERO DARK THIRTY as one half of a couple who become the guardians of two young girls who were left alone in a cabin in the woods for five years.

Well, horror fans, they weren’t actually alone, they were being protected by a ghost who acted as their Mother figure, and now that the girls have returned to society, Mama has come with them.

Truth be told, because my Mother always told me to tell the truth, MAMA isn’t the worst horror film I’ve seen this year. It’s never great, but it isn’t awful either.

Horror fans, go in with low, very low expectations, and you might enjoy it. Might!!

Happy Mother’s Day, MAMA!!

Up next, THE CAPTAINS – A FILM BY WILLIAM SHATNER.

THE CAPTAINS is a documentary that follows William Shatner around North America and to England as he interviews the other actors whom have portrayed Starship captains within the STAR TREK franchise.

Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, Scott Bakula, and even the latest Captain, Chris Pine, they are all here, and there is plenty of William Shatner too.

At times this film is a little self-indulgent, we certainly learn more about Shatner than any of the rest of THE CAPTAINS, but it is also informative, fun, funny, interesting, entertaining and engaging.

Sadly, it doesn’t have the one thing that I wanted the most – a scene with them all together – but I still enjoyed it immensely and have no problem recommending THE CAPTAINS, even to people who don’t know what Starfleet Academy is.

This is great stuff!!

There are people who LOVE the romance novels of Nicholas Sparks, and the films based on them. Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook,Dear John, The Last Song, The Lucky One, people love these books and movies!

There are probably even those who love his latest, SAFE HAVEN, but please don’t count me as one of them.

This may be the most clichéd, emotion free love story ever told.

SAFE HAVEN is just plain awful!

Julianne Hough from ROCK OF AGES stars here as a woman on the run who ends up in a beautiful, clichéd, small town, where she meets a hunky clichéd widower, played by Josh Duhamel of the TRANSFORMERS movies.

Of course she meets a hunky guy, and of course he has a cute kid – who is also a cliché – and of course after fighting it for about a half an hour of screen time, they fall in love.

There is no action or reaction in SAFE HAVEN, just plot points, and at the end there are several things that happen that lead me – each time – to actually say out loud, “Come on?!?! Really?!?!”

The studios have produced some great movies based on the words of Nicholas Sparks, but they might need to take a break as SAFE HAVEN is awful in almost every way.

Skip it!!

There are hundreds of television shows that air every night of the week, and as good as some of them are, there are better ones that people never see. The simple truth is that no one can watch everything, not even me.

But I do tend to watch more than most, so let me recommend two series to you now, that you might have missed, or skipped, or just never had time for.

The first is the made-in-Toronto police procedural series ROOKIE BLUE.

ROOKIE BLUE started off as a show about the lives of five rookie police officers who has just graduated from the academy, and now that we are in THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON, the show continues to show us their challenges – personally and professionally – as they try to protect and serve.

I enjoy police procedural shows, and so I do enjoy ROOKIE BLUE…although the cases these officers have to solve are never really all that difficult…usually the first person you think did it, did.

However, even with hit and miss stories, and too much romantic drama at times, ROOKIE BLUE still has a great cast and I liked THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON of the show, just as I’ve liked the first two seasons.

If you have never seen it, check it out!

Another show that I love actually ended this year after seven low rated seasons…and they knew their audience wasn’t huge.

30 ROCK stars Tina Fey as the head writer on a late night variety show – not unlike Saturday Night Live – and the kooky and crazy people who work on the show and the oddball situations they continued to find themselves in.

30 ROCK is odd and quirky and very quotable.

30 ROCK – SEASON SEVEN – THE FINAL SEASON wasn’t the best season of the show, it knew it was going off the air so it wasn’t afraid to try some plotlines that just didn’t pay off, but for anyone who has been watching the show since it debuted back on October 11, 2006, it did pay off with more huge laughs and the best ensemble cast on television.

I love this show, and if you’ve never seen it, there are now seven seasons, 138 episodes, and plenty of laughs just waiting for you.

Enjoy!!

Finally this week, with the Leonardo DiCaprio adaptation brand new in theatres, let’s go back to 1974 for the Robert Redford version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s THE GREAT GATSBY.

Nick Carraway is a young man who decides to Summer on Long Island, and it is there where he meets a self-made millionaire named Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is a charmer and a recluse who throws lavish parties on his estate each night, but only rarely attends them.

Gatsby is watching what is happen at his events, looking, hoping that one night a special woman will attend, and then he can see her again.

Carraway has a cottage near Gatsby estate, and he gets caught up in the man’s life.

Gatsby is searching for Daisy Buchanan, played by Mia Farrow, and once he finds her he is unable to let her go.

THE GREAT GATSBY is a story about obsession and tragedy set during the roaring twenties and it will always be a great book, but this 1974 film version has always been a bit slow for me. It is interesting, because the original story is, but it moves very slowly, and it isn’t always easy to see the chemistry between Mia Farrow and Robert Redford.

I’ve never disliked this version of THE GREAT GATSBY, but I have never really loved it either. So consider that a mild recommendation for the new blu-ray, which features a very good print of the film, but no Special Features whatsoever.

The 1974 version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s THE GREAT GATSBY; SEASON SEVEN – THE FINAL SEASON of the underappreciated show 30 ROCK; THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON of the entertaining made-in-Toronto police procedural series ROOKIE BLUE; the awful, cliché ridden would be romance SAFE HAVEN; the self-indulgent but very entertaining documentary THE CAPTAINS – A FILM BY WILLIAM SHATNER; and the never great, but never awful horror film MAMA, which is not a great gift for Mother’s Day, are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

A GLIMPSE INSIDE THE MIND OF CHARLES SWAN III, we’ll spend ONE DAY ON EARTH and SEVEN DAYS IN HAVANA, and the creators of THE MATRIX TRILOGY give us the dramatic sci-fi flick CLOUD ATLAS.

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 – May 4th, 2013

There is guilt trip inside this week’s Couch Potato Report, the Borg take Picard, and a superb documentary about Eagles.

Some ideas for movies look great on paper…but the execution of them doesn’t always pan out.

For instance, imagine this…iconic actress and singer Barbra Streisand is cast as the well-meaning mother of an only son, who – after many years of it just being the two of them – has been away from home for years and isn’t very close with his Mom any more.

The son is played by Vancouver born actor Seth Rogen of KNOCKED UP and PINEAPPLE EXPRESS. He loves his mother, but he doesn’t always have the patience to accept who she is and what she has to say…yet he still invites her to join him for a cross country road trip from New Jersey to San Francisco.

Now Seth Rogen is a very funny actor, and Barbra Streisand has been funny in some of the things she has been over the years, but neither one of them are very funny in this film, called THE GUILT TRIP. Once they head out on their cross country road trip hilarity doesn’t not ensue, instead they disagree and fight just about every kilometre along the way, until they get in a big fight, and go their separate ways, before the inevitable reunion takes place at the end.

The only time that I was actually entertained by this film was the scene prior to Barbra Streisand participating in a steak eating contest.

THE GUILT TRIP, isn’t the worst movie that I’ve ever seen, it isn’t even the worst this year, but it is one of the most predictable movies I’ve ever seen – you can see the ending coming a mile away.

It does have some nice moments, but not enough of them, so I think that you should skip it, the concept is much better than the final result.

One movie that is worthy of your time, and has a concept that works well as a feature film, is the Academy Award Winning drama SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK.

Bradley Cooper from THE HANGOVER films is a man with bipolar disorder that was hospitalized for eight months for almost beating a man to death when he discovered the man was having an affair with his wife.

Upon his release he moves back in with his parents as he tries to get his life back in order, and win back his wife.

Everything changes for him when he meets a recently widowed woman named Tiffany, who has some medical problems of her own. Tiffany is played by Jennifer Lawrence from THE HUNGER GAMES, who won the Oscar for Best Actress this year for her performance in this film.

Parts of SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK are predictable, but mostly this is a movie populated with real characters that you will feel empathy for, and wish them well as they try to find happiness…with life, love and football…or just try to find a way to get through a day, together and by themselves.

I really enjoyed this movie, and highly recommend it.

The film I recommend the most this weekend is this next one, a three hour documentary about the Eagles.

HISTORY OF THE EAGLES – THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN BAND shows us the formation of the band in Los Angeles in 1971, the path they took to become one of the most successful bands of that decade, up until their break-up in 1980, and their reformation in 1994.

As a fan of the band, and Glenn Frey and Don Henley as musicians and solo artists, I enjoyed every second of this documentary, and wish it was longer…especially during the times – recent and past – where it shows them warts and all.

HISTORY OF THE EAGLES – THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN BAND is a must see for fans of the Eagles, and for all music fans as it also shows how some of the band’s biggest hits – like Life In The Fast Lane and Hotel California were written.

I highly recommend HISTORY OF THE EAGLES, and even though I’ve already watched it twice this week, I can’t wait to watch it again, along with the 45 minute concert from 1977 that comes on a bonus disc.

This is great stuff!!

I am a music fan. I like music. I am also a fan of movies, and I do love movies made about music and musicians…well, I want to love them.

Unfortunately one came out this week that I can’t love, I wanted to, I just can’t because NOT FADE AWAY just isn’t very good.

NOT FADE AWAY is set in suburban New Jersey the 1960s and it is the story of a group of friends who form a rock band and try to make it big…even if their fathers don’t want them to.

The main reason this little film is getting attention is because it was written and directed by David Chase, the man who created and ran THE SOPRANOS. Without his talent behind it, this film would have gone unnoticed by most people as it isn’t very good, and it doesn’t have anything in it we haven’t seen before, in other movies like Tom Hanks’ 1996 film THAT THING YOU DO.

NOT FADE AWAY has a tremendous soundtrack, the music here is spectacular, but the movie itself is not. I’m not disappointed that I’ve seen it, because I love this type of movie, but I don’t think you should bother with it.

It’s just not very good…unfortunately.

What is good, what I do think you should bother with, is a five episode BBC television series called THE SYNDICATE.

SERIES ONE of THE SYNDICATE is about five financially strapped supermarket workers who form a group to buy lottery tickets together – a syndicate – and they win a huge grand prize, changing everything about their lives. Some of the changes are good, some are not.

Each of the five episodes in THE SYNDICATE tells the story of one of the five members, in addition to advancing the entire story of the group, and that is unique.

Some of their stories are heartbreaking, some find them creating their own problems, and all of it is interesting and engaging.

I really enjoyed SERIES ONE of THE SYNDICATE. You may not find it everywhere, but you should search it out.

If you are in the mood for an Academy Award nominated historical drama this weekend, you are in luck!! A ROYAL AFFAIR is one. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Oscars and it is a Danish film set in the 18th century where a young queen, who’s married to an mentally ill King, falls in love with her physician

A ROYAL AFFAIR is a great film that is both interesting and entertaining. I enjoyed watching it, and thought the writing, the performances, and the costumes were all extremely well done.

I highly recommend it.

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

The introduction of the Borg in this season gave The Next Generation a spectacular villain all their own and was a great addition to the Trek Mythology, and that season cliffhanger in THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS is television at its finest!!

This is also the season with YESTERDAY’S ENTERPRISE, the episode that brought back Tasha Yar and was also a great episode of TV.

THE COMPLETE THIRD 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 COMPLETE THIRD SEASON of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION; the very good Academy Award nominated Best Foreign film A ROYAL AFFAIR; SERIES ONE of the great British show THE SYNDICATE; the not very good music drama NOT FADE AWAY; the fantastic documentary HISTORY OF THE EAGLES; the great Academy Award winning SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, with Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro; and the not great wannabe comedy THE GUILT TRIP with Barbra Streisand and Vancouver’s Seth Rogen are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

William Shatner’s THE CAPTAINS – which brings together all those who have piloted a ship in the televised STAR TREK universe; plus the horror film MAMA; we’ll head to a SAFE HAVEN; meet JACK REACHER; and spend time with Liz and Jack and Tracey and Jenna and Kenneth in THE FINAL SESON of 30 ROCK.

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 – April 27th, 2013

A movie based on a Booker Prize winning novel is inside this week’s Couch Potato Report, and so are dinosaurs in 3D!

“Midnight’s Children” is a 1981 novel by Salman Rushdie. It won the Booker Prize – a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe – and it also won the “Booker of Bookers” Prize and was named the best all-time prize winner in 1993 and 2008 to celebrate the Booker Prize’s 25th and 40th anniversary.

Toronto based director Deepha Mehta has now turned this beautiful book into an interesting movie.

MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN is about a boy named Saleem, one of 1,001 children who were born at midnight on the day of India’s independence from Britain.

Each of these children have an extraordinary gift, a gift that is both a blessing and a curse. For example, Saleem has telepathic powers and he can communicate with the other 1000 children even while he is alone in his room.

The other part of Saleem’s story in MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN is the fact that he was switched at birth. Instead of growing up the illegitimate son of a poor woman, he is raised as the offspring of a wealthy couple.

However, as his life goes on, destiny brings him together with the boy he was switched with, as they are both Midnight’s children.

MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN is an interesting film that looks beautiful as it moves through the years against the vast, colourful background of the India of this century.

But as interesting and beautiful as it was…I was never invested in it. I didn’t wish anyone harm, but I didn’t really care what happened to any of the characters in the movie.

MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN isn’t bad, and if you love the book you should see it, but if you only have time for one movie this weekend, this isn’t the one you should watch.

Instead, if you only have time for one movie this weekend, THE IMPOSSIBLE is the one you should watch.

Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor star in THE IMPOSSIBLE as a family – with their three boys – who are on vacation in Thailand and get caught in the destruction and chaotic aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Watts was nominated for Best Actress for her work here and she and the entire cast are amazing…and the special effects are also spectacular as the filmmakers recreate the disaster, both physically and emotionally.

THE IMPOSSIBLE is based on a true story and it is very, very dramatic. It is also very, very good. I highly recommend it.

There are parts of the natural gas drama PROMISED LAND that I would also highly recommend, but overall the film is a bit slow.

Oscar winners Matt Damon from GOOD WILL HUNTING and Frances McDormand, of FARGO play salespeople who work for a company that specializes in obtaining natural gas trapped underground through a process known as fracking.

The two are sent to a small Pennsylvania farming town to buy the rights to drill beneath the local’s land for the lowest price possible.

All is going well until a local teacher and an environmental advocate raises the question of the safety of fracking and what happens to the land afterward.

I have seen several documentaries about fracking and the results and after effects, the good and the bad, and while PROMISED LAND does delve into that, it isn’t a documentary. This is a movie, and some of it is very good.

Other parts are slow and predictable, but overall it is very good. Call that a mild recommendation.

The months of January, February and March have become dumping grounds for the movie studios. No matter how big the stars who are in the films released in those months are, they are not going to be great…with the exception of the ones left over from Academy Award Season.

I have two films that were dumped into 2013 for you now…AND two documentaries that weren’t that are actually worthy of your time.

I’ll save the best until the end, and start with the crime drama GANGSTER SQUAD.

GANGSTER SQUAD is set in Los Angeles in 1949. Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling lead a secret crew of police officers who are working to take down mob king Mickey Cohen, who runs the city.

Sean Penn plays Cohen…and when he is on screen, the film has some pop. The rest of the time, no pop…it doesn’t even snap or crackle.

Nick Nolte and Emma Stone are also in the cast of GANGSTER SQUAD, but it doesn’t matter. The film just isn’t very good…in fact at all times it just played to me like a poor imitation of the Academy Award winning 1997 film L.A. CONFIDENTIAL.

Now that is a great crime drama set in L.A.. GANGSTER SQUAD, not so much, so skip it.

And you also need to skip the film BROKEN CITY, even with the tremendous cast it has.

Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta-Jones all-star here, along with the great character actor Jeffrey Wright.

Wahlberg is a former police officer, current private investigator. Crowe stars as the mayor of New York City and he hires the PI to investigate his wife and the affair he thinks she’s having…then she tries to hire him to stop.

Yes, BROKEN CITY has some interesting twists and turns, and it is a well-made movie with that great cast, but I just didn’t care…at all. In fact, I was so disinterested in the film that I went to get groceries in the middle of it, and met up with some friends, before I reluctantly returned home to finish it.

Unless you love this cast, and I mean LOVE them…you should skip this movie. You have better things to do…like get groceries, or meeting up with some old friends…which you might do to see some good movies, as the Summer Movie Season will soon be upon us!!

We’ve survived the dumping ground for yet another year!!

Luckily during the time the studios have been releasing less than high quality films in theatres there have been some great documentaries produced, including the latest from Ken Burns’, who also gave us The Civil War (1990), Baseball (1994), Jazz (2001), The War (2007), Prohibition (2011) and now THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE.

This documentary examines the 1989 case of five black and Latino teenagers who were convicted of raping a white woman in Central Park.

They spent between 6 and 13 years each in prison before a serial rapist confessed to the crime.

Yet even though they were convicted of a crime they did not commit, and were wrongly imprisoned, THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE still haven’t reached a settlement with New York City.

They are still awaiting justice.

THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE is a compelling and heartbreaking film. It is very difficult to watch at times, and even more difficult to believe that such a miscarriage of justice took place, and has yet to be resolved.

This documentary is a must see!

Up next is another documentary…actually, this one is a bike-umentary, according to the packaging.

PEDAL DRIVEN shows us the escalating conflict between mountain bikers and their desire to ride trails on their mountain bikes and the land managers who must protect the public lands from damage, ensuring their use for decades to come.

The main question in PEDAL DRIVEN comes from the lyrics of the song THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND: specifically the line: “This land belongs to you and me”. The people in this film wonder if the land does belong to them, and they also want to know why there doesn’t seem to be a place for mountain bikers?

PEDAL DRIVEN – A BIKE-UMENTARY is a very entertaining documentary that shows both sides of the issues at hand. It also features some amazing camera work from riders on trails in the U.S. and in Whistler, B.C.

Search this one out, it is only 63 minutes long and very worthy of your time!

Finally this week is Steven Spielberg’s classic 1993 film JURASSIC PARK! This still-great action film is turning twenty this year and was released to theatres converted to 3D, and that added dimension adds a lot as the dinosaurs look great as they are moving toward and running at the camera.

That 3D version is now available on blu-ray – and you also get the regular blu-ray and DVD as well – and even at home it looks great and the 3D conversion is exceptionally well done!!

As the dinosaurs get loose in the theme park and the people run for their lives, we the viewer get a great movie experience JURASSIC PARK 3D is worth the money and twenty years later the movie continues to be worth your time!!

Steven Spielberg’s classic action film JURASSIC PARK 3D; the very entertaining documentary…I mean bike-umentary PEDAL DRIVEN; Ken Burns’ compelling and heartbreaking doc THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE; the never awful but nowhere near great drama BROKEN CITY; the not great period piece GANGSTER SQUAD; the very strong natural gas drama PROMISED LAND; the superb Academy Award nominated drama THE IMPOSSIBLE; and Toronto based director Deepha Mehta’s interesting cinematic version of Salman Rushdie’s 1981 Booker Prize winning novel MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

Vancouver born actor Seth Rogen from KNOCKED UP and PINEAPPLE EXPRESS co-stars with Barbra Streisand in THE GUILT TRIP; HISTORY OF THE EAGLES is a three-hour documentary about the legendary band; THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION debuts on blu-ray; and Jennifer Lawrence won an Academy Award for her performance in SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

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 – April 20th, 2013

There is a great documentary about record stores – remember them – inside this week’s Couch Potato Report, and Django is unchained.

Record Store Day is an internationally celebrated day observed the third Saturday of April each year. Its purpose is to celebrate music and it brings fans and artists together at thousands of independent record stores across the world.

LAST SHOP STANDING – THE RISE, FALL AND REBIRTH OF THE INDEPENDENT RECORD SHOP is the official film of Record Store Day 2013 and it is an amazing piece of entertainment for all fans of music and record stores as it introduces us to some of the people who have survived, and continued to sell albums, even when the Record Companies tried to kill it off.

LAST SHOP STANDING is based on the book of the same name by Graham Jones and it features Jones having conversations with over twenty record store owners in the U.K., and some musicians who still love to shop in them, like Paul Weller, Johnny Marr, Norman Cook and Billy Bragg.

LAST SHOP STANDING is basically a love letter to people who work in and love record shops, but it is very entertaining and anyone who has ever worked in one will appreciate some of the stories.

LAST SHOP STANDING – THE RISE, FALL AND REBIRTH OF THE INDEPENDENT RECORD SHOP is a must see, not just for people who shop at Fred’s Records in St. John’s, Vertigo Records in Ottawa, The Vinyl Exchange in Saskatoon, Freecloud Records in Edmonton, or Beat Street Records in Vancouver, but for all music AND movie fans as it is informative, nostalgic and funny.

If you can’t find the film where you normally get your movies, visit your local independent record store as they may have it, especially if they are the last shop standing.

When I made my list of the top films of 2012, this next film was close to the top of the list. It’s Quentin Tarantino’s Academy Award winning DJANGO UNCHAINED.

Set in the antebellum era of the Deep South and Old West, Oscar winner Christoph Waltz plays a German bounty hunter here, who helps a freed slave – played by Jamie Foxx – rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays the villainous Calvin Candie.

Like all Tarantino films, DJANGO UNCHAINED is an exceptionally well written film – he did win Best Original Screenplay for it back in February – and it has some fantastic scenes of people just talking. But it is also has some scenes that are exceptionally violent. There are two that are so over the top that even I – someone who isn’t squeamish all that often – have to turn away from.

As much as I love Quentin Tarantino and his movies, I can’t deny that DJANGO UNCHAINED is not his best film…but it is still better than the majority of movies released over the past year. His worst is still much better than most director’s best.

Due to the violence, and the profanity and language contained within, it isn’t for everyone, but I still highly recommend it.

As much as I love nature documentaries – and I do love nature documentaries – not all of them are created equal.

Almost all of them feature spectacular visuals of animals and creatures we’ve never seen before, and may never see again…but it is the narration that sets them apart. Is it meant to inform us, or preach to us about how these creatures will die is humankind doesn’t change their ways.

Now I don’t mind warnings about how we all must work hard to save the planet, even repeated warnings, but I don’t want to hear nothing but that for ninety minutes. I just want to see things I’ve never seen before, like an octopus changing its colour as it moves through the ocean. That is the stuff I love!!

PLANET OCEAN is a nature documentary that features some spectacular visuals that look amazing and I really enjoyed it…at least most of it.

Sometimes, it was informative.

Too often though, it was preachy.

However, that extra preachy fact aside, I still enjoyed PLANET OCEAN enough to recommend it, and I do recommend it, primarily because the images and what it shows us are amazing.

Sci-fi fans…HUGE sci-fi fans who love the genre, and I mean LOVE IT so that the cheesier the film gets, the better… YOU will need to see this next film. Everyone else needs to skip JOHN DIES AT THE END at all costs!

At all costs!!

This is a movie set in a world that needs a hero. When people take a new street drug – called Soy Sauce – they have an out-of-body experience…but once they come down, they’re no longer human.

Yes, a silent otherworldly invasion is underway, and mankind needs a hero.

Instead of a hero, or even heroes, what the world gets instead is John and David, a pair of college dropouts who can barely hold down jobs.

JOHN DIES AT THE END is never great, and if the whole thing sounds stupid to you…it is.

Sci-fi fans…as I said, this is one for you!! It is never great, but you’ll enjoy it enough to never feel like you are wasting your time.

Everyone else…you’ve been warned!!

Finally this week is a mostly made-in-Toronto-and-Northern Ontario drama called A DARK TRUTH, starring Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, Andy Garcia from THE GODFATHER III, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES’ Eva Longoria, Saskatoon’s Kim Coates, Toronto’s Deborah Kara Unger and Steven Bauer from SCARFACE.

All good actors, who have done good work, but with this film, even though the story is interesting at times, it seems that the main instruction director Damian Lee gave them was to be as boring as possible.

Andy Garcia plays a former CIA operative turned political talk show radio host in A DARK TRUTH. He is hired by a woman to expose her company’s cover-up of a massacre in a South American village.

A DARK TRUTH isn’t awful, but with everyone doing their best to under-act, and how predictable their actions are most of the time, it all doesn’t amount to much and so it isn’t worthy of your time.

If you see it on the shelf, or available to watch online, just skip it.

The made-in-Northern Ontario action thriller A DARK TRUTH, the goofy pretty good sci-fi flick JOHN DIES AT THE END, the informative but a bit too preachy nature documentary PLANET OCEAN, Quentin Tarantino’s DJANGO UNCHAINED, which is not his best, but is still very entertaining, and the official film of Record Store Day 2013: the very entertaining documentary LAST SHOP STANDING – THE RISE, FALL AND REBIRTH OF THE INDEPENDENT RECORD SHOP are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

Toronto based director Deepha Mehta gives us a cinematic version of Salman Rushdie’s 1981 Booker Prize winning novel MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN; Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts stars in THE IMPOSSIBLE – about the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Oscar winner Matt Damon stars in PROMISED LAND and JURASSIC PARK will be available for home viewing in 3D!!

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 – April 13th, 2013

There is a Queen Of Hearts that wants to be a Maverick inside this week’s Couch Potato Report and Billy Murray is Franklin D. Roosevelt?!?

There have now been three made-for-television movies produced in British Columbia with former BEVERLY HILLS 90210 star Luke Perry playing John Goodnight, a circuit judge in the western territories, circa 1880.

He is a man who travels the west protecting the innocent from injustice.

This third film, GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE – QUEEN OF HEARTS, begins with the judge saving a women from an attack on the stagecoach she is traveling in. There is evidence indicating that she may have been a prisoner being transported by armed guard, but the judge decides to believe her story instead…that she was merely being escorted to safety.

The problem here is their journey, and the potential for a love connection, is almost the exact same one taken in the 1994 film MAVERICK starring Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster. In that much better movie they too meet on a stagecoach, maybe have some immediate chemistry and feelings for each other, even though they both have their own agenda, and it all concludes on a gambling riverboat.

But unlike MAVERICK, GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE – QUEEN OF HEARTS is not very good.

This movie is completely predictable from start to finish and – also unlike MAVERICK – I didn’t care what happened to any of the characters.

GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE – QUEEN OF HEARTS wasn’t a complete waste of my time – because B.C. always looks great on film – but it isn’t worthy of any of your time.

Even if you’ve never quite gotten over your crush on Dylan McKay, you should still skip it.

In his fantastic career, the one and only Billy Murray has played some unforgettable characters.

Dr. Peter Venkman in GHOSTBUSTERS, Carl Spackler in CADDYSHACK, Phil Connors in GROUNDHOG DAY, Phil Connors in GROUNDHOG DAY, Big Ernie McCracken in KINGPIN, Herman Blume in RUSHMORE…and too many other great ones to mention.

Yes, Bill Murray has played a lot of characters, but he has only played real people in movies on a couple of occasions.

In 1980’s WHERE THE BUFFALO ROAM he was Hunter S. Thompson, and now – in 2012’s HYDE PARK ON HUDSON – he is FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States.

Murray does a great job playing FDR, especially when he is required to be Presidential as the King and Queen of the United Kingdom visit looking for America’s support on the eve of World War II.

What doesn’t always work in HYDE PARK ON HUDSON is the story of the love affair between FDR and his distant cousin Daisy. It’s not that the acting isn’t good, both Murray and Oscar nominated actress Laura Linney are very good, but they don’t really say or do anything and their mutual attraction doesn’t seem to be based on anything other than availability, no matter what they say.

In those scenes, they are good…the movie is not.

Overall I liked HYDE PARK ON HUDSON, it kept me interested from start to finish both times I watched it, but I can fully admit that it isn’t great.

So call that a mild recommendation.

I can also mildly recommend the crime thriller KILLING THEM SOFTLY starring Brad Pitt as a mob enforcer who is brought in to restore order when a protected card game is robbed.

I can only mildly recommend KILLING THEM SOFTLY because most of it is really boring. There are some great visuals and scenes, and the cast that includes James Gandolfini, Richard Jenkins and Ray Liotta is amazing, but it moves so slowly and nothing happens during too many drawn out scenes.

So only spend your time on this one if there is nothing else that sparks your interest…and I mean nothing else.

TV on DVD!! That is what I have for you now…three shows now available on DVD for the first time. All of them are about families, and all of them are worthy of your time, for different reasons.

The reason this first one is worthy is because it is a guilty pleasure. Yes, I feel guilty each and every time I watch 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 still live in the backwoods and go fishing and hunting, sometimes in the middle of their workday.

Sometimes in their own small workshop.

But the best part of DUCK DYNASTY, especially in the two disc set SEASON 2: VOLUME 1, are the commentaries offered by the guys to explain things to us viewers.

This show is very funny at times and always interesting. Sure, some of it is hard to appreciate – like when the uncle is excited about the squirrel he is cooking to eat, but at least the Robertsons are real. They are who they are and I like that about the show.

DUCK DYNASTY – SEASON 2: VOLUME 1 is very entertaining, and if you’ve never seen it, check it out. This is a great guilty pleasure full of very interesting people!

This next TV on DVD set is worthy of your time for a different reason other than it being a guilty pleasure.

It is a smart, well written show that features a premise not seen before.

Oscar nominee Chloe Sevigny from the movie BOYS DON’T CRY and the television series BIG LOVE stars in the British series HIT & MISS as Mia, a contract killer with a secret: she’s a transgender woman.

A dying former lover also reveals a secret in a letter on her deathbed, when Mia was a man named Ryan…he fathered a child and is now the boy’s only guardian.

As Mia becomes the guardian to a new family in THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of HIT & MISS she is forced to mix her killer instincts with her newly developing maternal instincts and the result is very interesting as she has to work to keep all of her secrets.

Because of its subject matter and how profane and violent it is, HIT & MISS is not a show for everyone, but I did really enjoy almost all of THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON and so I have no problems recommending it, primarily because the writing is so strong.

Those two shows are still in production, making new episodes, this last family show that is new on DVD stopped production in 1989, after seven seasons, due to Michael J. Fox’s burgeoning film career…but it makes me happy to now own THE SIXTH SEASON of FAMILY TIES on DVD.

THE SIXTH SEASON is the one where Alex gets a new girlfriend, played by a young Courtney Cox.

If you remember FAMILY TIES fondly, then this four disc set for THE SIXTH SEASON is a must own…and if you’ve never seen it, check it out!! It is very much rooted in the years 1987 and 88 when it was made, but I still love this show!!

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

Finally this week is one of the most interesting films I have seen in a long time.

THE OTHER SON is a foreign film about two 18-year-old boys who have grown up with the wrong parents as they were accidentally switched at birth.

If that wasn’t a big enough issue, one is Israeli and one Palestinian.

Because of their faith and beliefs, both fathers are reluctant to accept their actual sons, while the mothers want to get close to their real children.

The characters in THE OTHER SON are faced with an incredible dilemma, and at different times during the film what they may eventually do changes because they aren’t completely sure how to feel and definitely don’t know how to act.

That all makes THE OTHER SON such an interesting film, and even with one scene near the end that I didn’t like and didn’t need to be included at all, I highly recommend it

The very interesting THE OTHER SON, THE SIXTH SEASON of the still great series FAMILY TIES, THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of the interesting British show HIT AND MISS, SEASON 2: VOLUME 1 of the guilty pleasure DUCK DYNASTY, the less than great Brad Pitt crime thriller KILLING THEM SOFTLY, the good but never great historical drama HYDE PARK ON HUDSON – starring Bill Murray – and the predictable made-in-British Columbia western GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE – QUEEN OF HEARTS are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

Quentin Tarantino’s Academy Award winning DJANGO UNCHAINED, the made-in-Ontario action thriller A DARK TRUTH, the documentaries ONE DAY ON EARTH and PLANET OCEAN, and the official film of Record Store Day 2013: LAST SHOP STANDING – THE RISE, FALL AND REBIRTH OF THE INDEPENDENT RECORD SHOP.

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 – April 6th, 2013

There is an odd yet likeable made-in-Quebec film inside this week’s Couch Potato Report and a baseball documentary about the knuckleball.

I begin this week with a film named after a man called Esimesac, a man who was held in the womb longer than his siblings, and so even though he is younger than they are, he is the tallest of them all.

Oh, and he doesn’t have a shadow.

Did I mention yet, that this movie – called ESIMESAC – is odd? I did, okay, well it’s also likeable and in many ways unlike anything you’ve ever seen before…at least the majority of it is.

ESIMESAC lives in a small, out-of-the-way small Quebec town where there is barely enough food to survive. Everyone is trying to grow their own food, with no luck, so our hero convinces them all to work together on a community garden…and even though their fields are full of rocks, they all start to believe that food will grow there.

And that is the part of the film that is likeable and unique as Esimesac – a loveable, gentle giant – does everything possible to help, including pulling a giant rock out of the field all by himself.

But then the film switches gears as Esimesac walks away from the garden project to help a selfish, greedy blacksmith build tracks to try and ensure a railway stop is built in their town…and he convinces everyone else to help too.

None of the stuff involving the railroad storyline worked for me…that part of the plot is see-through…but ESIMESAC has enough likeable people, characters and whimsical and odd scenes that I did ultimately enjoy it, so let me give this Canadian movie a mild recommendation.

Let’s cross the pond from Canada to Britain now for the crime drama THE SWEENEY, a movie based on the 1970’s television series of the same name.

The Sweeney Flying Squad are an elite crime fighting force who are not afraid to use old school bare-knuckle violence to bring down modern day criminals.

Plain and simple, with a major case to solve, a master criminal on the loose and a major bank heist in progress the members of The Sweeney will do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Because this is a police drama, there has to be a boss who is trying to keep his rogue team in line, and someone from internal affairs who is trying to bring the whole group down because he doesn’t like their methods. Those scenes are stereotypical and predictable, but when those two characters aren’t on screen there is some great stuff in the film – like a car chase in a trailer park and a shootout through Trafalgar Square.

That stuff I liked, which is why I recommend THE SWEENEY. It is never great, but it is very good.

The most fun I had this week while working on The Couch Potato Report was watching the political comedy VEEP, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus from SEINFELD as the Vice President of the United States.

Louis-Dreyfus won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her work here, playing a former Senator who finds out that being Vice President is nothing like she expected….but for us viewers it is very funny.

The eight episodes in THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of VEEP are all very funny, due to the great cast and their superb timing and abilities, and they also feature some great political insight into what happens in Washington…but mostly they are funny.

THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of VEEP is quite profane, so it isn’t for everyone, but I really enjoyed it. This is a smart and entertaining comedy and I am really looking forward to SEASON TWO!!

Finally this week, I have a great documentary for you about the oddest pitch thrown by baseball pitchers, the KNUCKLEBALL.

KNUCKLEBALL is an interesting and dramatic film that takes us inside the legendary subculture of the knuckleball and the brotherhood of men who have thrown it professionally over the years – Charlie Hough, Wilbur Wood, Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, 18-year veteran Tim Wakefield, former Toronto Blue Jay Tom Candiotti, and current Jays ace R.A. Dickey.

I love baseball and so I was preordained to enjoy KNUCKLEBALL, which I can easily recommend to other fans of this great game, but even if you don’t tend to enjoy baseball, I still think you’ll be able to appreciate this interesting and even dramatic film that will introduce you to the majority of the men who have made it to the major leagues throughout the years by throwing this very odd pitch.

The great documentary KNUCKLEBALL – starring Toronto Blue Jays pitcher R.A. Dickey – GO JAYS GO!!!, the very entertaining COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of the television series VEEP, the very good British crime drama THE SWEENEY, and the likeable made-in-Quebec film ESIMESAC are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

The made-in-British Columbia western GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE – QUEEN OF HEARTS, Bill Murray stars in the historical drama HYDE PARK ON HUDSON, HIT & MISS is a dramatic television show about a contract killer with a secret, and for those who miss the eighties, go back to for THE SIXTH SEASON of FAMILY TIES, starring Michael J. Fox.

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 – March 30th, 2013

We visit a futuristic Montreal inside this week’s edition of The Couch Potato Report and Daniel Day-Lewis is Lincoln.

We have a Canadian science-fiction film to start things off with this Easter Weekend.

MARS ET AVRIL – or Mars and April – is based on the graphic novels of the same name. It is about an elderly musician and his instrument maker who both become obsessed with the same woman and is set in a futuristic Montreal, in a world that is about to set foot on Mars.

The beautiful and talented Caroline Dhavernas from the film PASSCHENDAELE and the television series WONDERFALLS plays the woman…Avril.

Shot almost entirely on green screen, with real Montreal settings such as the Habitat ’67 block apartments and the Montreal Biosphère in Parc Jean-Drapeau included to make the future more recognizable, MARS ET AVRIL is a visually interesting film from start to finish, especially for those who know the city well.

MARS ET AVRIL is an odd film, but I was interested in where it was going the whole time…even when it got boring, and it was boring at times…but ultimately I enjoyed it. It isn’t the greatest sci-fi film you’ll ever see, but I did enjoy it.

I also enjoyed Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award winning film LINCOLN, primarily because of Daniel Day-Lewis’ amazing performance.

LINCOLN is about the 16th President of the United States and covers the final four months of his life, focusing his efforts in January of 1865 to have the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution passed by the House of Representatives, an Amendment that would outlaws slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.

The movie itself is only very good, it’s basically a by-the-book history lesson, but what elevates it above many other historical dramas is Daniel Day-Lewis. As I said, he is amazing and so is Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln. They are the reason I recommend LINCOLN to you…and I do recommend it

Hey…do you like your movies pandering, predictable and insufferable at times? Have you been waiting for a modern day remake of UNCLE BUCK with not one, but now two people who don’t really know how to take care of kids put in charge when their parents are left with no other options?

Well if the answer to either of those questions was yes, you are in luck!!

PARENTAL GUIDANCE is all of those things!!

This movie stars Billy Crystal and Bette Midler as grandparents who rarely see their daughter or her husband and three young kids, even though everyone does actually love each other.

When the parents leave town and they are forced to leave their kids with Grandma and Grandpa, problems arise as parenting in the 21st century collides with how it was done in the old days…and hilarity ensues…or at least it is supposed to. Mostly it does not.

PARENTAL GUIDANCE just tries too hard, and ultimately it doesn’t work. I didn’t find it funny or heartwarming…although, I must admit, I did like the ending. If the rest of the film was as good as the ending, I could easily recommend this would be family comedy.

As it is, I do not. You should just skip it, you have better things to do this long weekend.

Another family flick that doesn’t work at all – at all – in any way – is the animated movie RISE OF THE GUARDIANS.

Based on William Joyce’s “The Guardians of Childhood” book series and his “The Man in the Moon” short film this is the story about the Guardians – Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and the Sandman – who ask Jack Frost to help them stop the villain Pitch Black, who wants to take over the world with darkness….and you won’t care at all.

By the way, yes, you heard me right… RISE OF THE GUARDIANS features Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and the Sandman as superheroes who have to save the world, and that didn’t work for me, and neither did the crude animation style.

What did work is the voice cast. The film features the great voices of Chris Pine from STAR TREK, Alec Baldwin of 30 ROCK, Hugh Jackman from X-MEN and Isla Fisher and Jude Law, but they can’t save it.

RISE OF THE GUARDIANS might be bright and colourful enough to appeal to very young kids, but not older ones. Skip this one, it just isn’t good at all.

Now, if you want something good, actually something great for the whole family…search for the nature documentary TO THE ARCTIC, narrated by Meryl Streep.

TO THE ARCTIC also features music by Paul McCartney as it shows up the travels and tribulations of a mother polar bear and her two seven-month-old cubs as they navigate the changing Arctic wilderness they call home, sometimes spending days at a time just trying to survive.

As I have said many times over the years, I love nature documentaries and TO THE ARCTIC is no exception. The visuals here are spectacular, the narration interesting and playful, and it doesn’t get too preachy about how everything we are seeing needs to be saved. It is preachy at times, but never too preachy.

Bottom line is, I really enjoyed it…and highly recommend it to the whole family.

Finally this week is the blu-ray release of a show that some Trekkies have been dying for, yet others – even those who have to own absolutely everything connected to the franchise – can live without.

THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE!!

ENTERPRISE – as it was actually known for the first two seasons – takes place 100 years before the adventures of James T. Kirk and Spock in the original television series.

Scott Bakula from QUANTUM LEAP plays Captain Jonathan Archer of Earth’s first Warp 5 starship, the Enterprise….picking up, actually beginning STAR TREK’s adventures.

Of all the STAR TREK shows, ENTERPRISE has always been my least favourite, but I admit that I did really enjoy watching the series this week on blu-ray. The show hasn’t been remastered, like the previous TREK shows have, but it is in HD and features a wealth of brand new retrospective features.

Huge fans…don’t miss STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE – THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON on blu-ray. Casual fans, I’d wait until the price goes down in a few months.

THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE, the entertaining nature documentary TO THE ARCTIC, the boring animated family film RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, the pandering and predictable would-be family comedy PARENTAL GUIDANCE, Steven Spielberg’s very good LINCOLN, featuring an amazing performance from Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis and MARS ET AVRIL, the very interesting sci-fi drama set in a futuristic Montreal, are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report

The likeable made-in-Quebec movie ESIMESAC, the very good British film THE SWEENEY, Brad Pitt stars in KILLING THEM SOFTLY, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus from SEINFELD plays the Vice President of the United States in the very entertaining show VEEP.

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!