RICHARD’S OSCAR PICKS WITH MOORE IN THE MORNING HOST JOHN MOORE!
Richard’s Oscar picks with Moore in the Morning host John Moore on NewsTalk 1010!
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Archive for February, 2014
The “Canada AM” Friday panel gives hints for your Oscar Ballot!
Ready for the Oscars on Sunday? The “Canada AM” Friday Panel sounds off on their predictions.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Rob Minkoff, the man behind The Lion King, brings Mr. Peabody back to life.
By Richard Crouse – Metro Canada
Rob Minkoff may always be best known as the co-director of The Lion King, one of the biggest animated hits of all time, but long before he brought Simba, Mufasa and Scar to life, he was a fan of a dog named Mr. Peabody.
Mr. Peabody is a beagle in the world of humans — imagine Family Guy’s Brian with less attitude but more PhDs. He’s a Harvard grad, a Nobel Prize winner, advisor to heads of state and in his spare time he invented planking and auto tune.
With his adopted human son Sherman, he’s also a time traveller, taking the WABAC machine — “It’s not WHERE we’re going, but WHEN!” — to various spots in history in a weekly segment on the show Rocky and His Friends called Peabody’s Improbable History.
“Whenever it came on, I would watch it,” says Minkoff, director of the new animated film Mr. Peabody & Sherman, “so I’ve seen all the episodes multiple times.
“I was always a fan but I don’t recall thinking, ‘Oh, that would make a great movie one day.’ It didn’t occur to me that way. It all started 12 years ago with a conversation I had with (executive producer) Jason Clark. He came to me and said, ‘What do you think of Mr. Peabody and Sherman?’ My answer was, ‘I love them.’ He said, ‘What about making a movie out of them.’ I thought, ‘They’re great characters. There’s a lot to them. There is an unexplored well of stuff, like the time machine and time travel.’”
That was 12 years ago. “Once you get your teeth into something creatively,” he says, “you never really let go.”
Over the years the idea for the film has shifted and changed. At the very early stages it was suggested that the movie could work as a live action story.
“It didn’t take very long for me to come around to the idea that I would prefer to do this as an animated movie because I didn’t understand how it would work as a live action thing. It would lose some of its appeal, some of the quirkiness of it.”
The film retains the eccentricity of the original series: It’s probably the only kid’s movie with an Oedipal joke. But Minkoff hopes the movie will appeal to all ages.
“The original show was always popular among college educated, smarter people, and that was something we thought was important but at the same time, we wanted to) make it kid friendly.
“I didn’t want to copy (the TV show) exactly because I couldn’t possibly do that. So it was taking the spirit of it and letting that be. Trying to get to the core of what it is rather than the surface.”
NON-STOP: 2 ½ STARS. “The whole movie has been Neesonized!”
Liam Neeson joins the mile high club in “Non-Stop.”
He plays Bill Marks, an aging U.S. federal air marshal safeguarding the 150 passengers (including Julianne Moore, Corey Stoll, Linus Roache and flight attendant Lupita Nyong’o) on an international flight from New York to London.
He’s also a burn-out, a lonely guy with a loaded gun and a propensity to get loaded on booze. The routine flight becomes fraught with danger when he receives text messages from a mysterious source threatening to kill a passenger every twenty minutes unless a ransom of $150 million is deposited into a bank account. When that account is discovered to be in Marks’s name he’s accused of being a hijacker.
“Non-Stop” has more red herrings than a fish and chips shop. Clues are dropped and discarded and the plot is so ludicrous that every now and again someone has to say, “I can explain this,” so the audience has a fighting chance of making some kind of sense of the intrigue. The story is simple but is muddied by outrageous twists. Once I decided to not try and play along—this isn’t “True Detective” where every word and scene counts—I enjoyed watching Neeson in action man mode. He’s better than the movie and he made this movie better simply by showing up.
There is a certain cheesy joy to be found in the image of Neeson floating in zero gravity, grabbing a gun out of the air and getting business done. Nothing can spice up a borderline action movie like the Flying Neeson Shot ™. He has carved a unique action niche for himself and seems to be having fun growling and gunning his way through trashy action movies.
Is “Non-Stop” great art? Nope, but did you really expect it to be? It’s the Neesonator after all.
Director Jaume Collet-Serra makes good use of the airplane’s small spaces, builds some nice scenes of claustrophobic tension and even makes a comment on how news organizations jump to conclusions, using conjecture instead of facts to fill the twenty-four hour wheel but story credibility is not his strong point.
Building tension, however, is. The movie is bookended by two terrific scenes. At the beginning Collet-Serra takes his time with the nicely shot boarding of the airplane sequence. Unease builds as the passengers, one of whom is a terrorist (not a spoiler, watch the trailer), take their seats.
The climax (SPOILER ALERT) is a typical ticking bomb sequence, but it’s an exciting one with cool visuals and the aforementioned Flying Neeson Shot ™.
The supporting cast is serviceable, in underwritten and generic roles. I hope Julianne Moore buys something nice with the pay cheque. She gets the job done, but that part could have been played by anyone. I feel worse for Lupita Nyong’o. She’s an Oscar nominee for “12 Years a Slave,” but here she’s reduced to a Grace Jones impersonator with just a few lines.
Despite a good pace and mounting tension, “Non-Stop is almost undone by superficial characters and a silly story. I say almost because it’s been Neesonized, the action movie equivalent of a sprinkle of fairy dust.
Liam Neeson’s new life as an action hero. Metro Canada, Feb. 26, 2014
By Richard Crouse – In Focus Metro Canada
Much of the fun of 2008s Taken was watching beloved thespian Liam Neeson go all Chuck Norris in a dirty little Euro trash thriller.
In the action adventure movie Neeson played a former “preventer” for the US government. A specialist in black ops, he was an undercover agent who contained volatile situations before they got out of control. Retired, he lived in Los Angeles near his estranged seventeen-year-old daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). When she is kidnapped by a child slavery ring he has only 96 hours to use his “particular set of skills” to get her back. His rescue mission takes him on a wild rampage through the soft underbelly of Paris. “I’ll tear down the Eiffel Tower if I have to,” he says.
It’s a down-and-dirty little flick, classed up somewhat by the presence of Neeson in the lead role and it became an unexpected lightening-in-a-bottle hit. It also redefined Neeson’s recent career.
At an age when many actors are staring down the barrel of character parts and cameos, the sixty-one year old has made an unlikely U-turn into action movies. “I was a tiny bit embarrassed by it, “ he says of Taken, “but then people started sending me action scripts.”
Arguably best known for his Best Actor Oscar nomination as the charismatic but humble German businessman Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s List, the Irish actor has fully embraced his new career path. Vanity Fair even acknowledged the twist in an article called, “Wham! Bam! Thank You, Liam!”
His latest actioner is Non-Stop, a high-flying thriller that takes place on an international crossing from New York to London. Neeson is an air marshal who must prevent a crazed killer from murdering passengers in flight.
The actor’s rebirth as a gun-toting, neck snapping gravel-voiced Stallonite™—aging action star—works not only because he has the physical presence to be taken seriously as a hard man, but also because he has the acting chops to make us believe him as a ruthless and efficient killing machine.
Taken and Taken 2 (which were essentially the same movie) worked not just because the action sequences were out of control, but because audiences had some empathy for Neeson’s character as he kicked butt across Europe. It was a personal mission; he was trying to get his daughter back.
Action movies like Wrath of the Titans, The Grey and Unknown may not burnish Neeson’s rep as a great thespian, but when asked why he keeps making them, he has a solid reason: “Because they’re dumb enough to offer them to me!”
CTV National News: Laughing with Harold Ramis. Monday February 24, 2014
Tributes pour in for one of Hollywood’s beloved comedians. John Vennavally-Rao has more on a man who spent his life making people laugh.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
The critically acclaimed The Trial Of Ken Gass returns with a star studded cast!
“The mishmash of Kafka’s bureaucratic frustration, Beckett’s oddness, and Del Rio’s sense of humour puts an entertaining spin on the Canadian theatre controversy.” -Mooney on Theatre
“Del Rio’s dialogue is lively, and Salgueiro has fun being the aggressor, twisting Gass’s statements into politically correct pretzels of incoherence.” -NOW Magazine
Monday February 24, 2014 (Toronto): By popular demand, HLIBKA ENTERTAINMENT INC. in association with BIG PICTURE CINEMA are bringing back the critically acclaimed comedy THE TRIAL OF KEN GASS from Friday March 21st to Thursday April 3rd.
The remount has a STAR-STUDDED cast including: Stratford veteran David Fox, actor/playwright Matthew Edison, Canadian comedy legend Kenny Robinson, movie reviewer Richard Crouse, Second City mainstage alum Anand Rajaram, Kids in the Hall alum Paul Bellini, performer and personality Ryan G. Hinds, Caitlin Driscoll, indie film darling Robert Nolan, Just for Laughs comedian Sandra Battaglini, and many more.
The Trial of Ken Gass is a play based on the famous dismissal of Canadian theatre legend Ken Gass. In a Kafkaesque series of interrogations, Ken Gass is continually put on trial for crimes he is not aware of. The absurdist comedy is a metaphor for the power institutions wield over artists and individuals.
The play is being put up by producer / conceptual artist Jonathan Hlibka and will again be directed by acclaimed playwright Bobby Del Rio. Every show, the spectacular Jess Salgueiro returns to play SARAH BRIGHT opposite DIFFERENT ACTORS PLAYING KEN GASS!! It is highly encouraged to see multiple performances as each performer will bring their own unique interpretation to the role of Ken Gass. Lighting and set design will be a collision of minimalistic expressionism and pop art design styled by Jonathan Hlibka.
Opening March 21st: Matthew Edison – 8:00pm
March 22: David Fox – 8:00pm
March 23: Amish Patel 2:30pm matinee, Kenny Robinson – 8:00pm
March 24: Richard Crouse – 8:00pm
March 25: Caitlin Driscoll – 8:00pm
March 26: Anand Rajaram – 8:00pm
March 27: Ryan G. Hinds – 8:00pm
March 29: Paul Bellini – 8:00pm
March 30: 2:30pm matinee TBA, Robert Nolan – 8:00pm
March 31: Sandra Battaglini – 8:00pm
April 1: Derrick Chua – 8:00pm
April 2: TBA
April 3: TBA
In 2013, at the Sterling Studio Theatre’s first one-act playwriting competition, The Trial of Ken Gass ended up as a top-3 finalist. The original production was at Sterling Studio Theatre in July 2013. Highlight performances from the first run include: Peter Keleghan (The Newsroom), Diane Flacks, Huse Madhavji (Saving Hope), Pat Thornton and Julian DeZotti.
The play will open Friday, March 21st @ 8pm. It will close on Thursday, April 3rd @ 8pm. All shows will be @ 8pm. The show will run every night from March 21 – April 3 (except Friday March 28th). On Sundays, there will also be matinees @ 2:30pm. All tix are $15, with PWYC Sundays for both shows. Passes for all performances for the run of the show are available for $35. Big Picture Cinema is located at 1035 Gerrard St East. Tickets can be purchased at the door, or online at www.bigpicturecinema.com
POMPEII: 2 STARS. “You dragged me from a perfectly good brothel for this?”
The spirit of Steve Reeves lives on. If you aren’t familiar with Mr. Reeves’ oeuvre, he was Hercules before Kevin Sorbo, a legend of beefcake historical drama movies. His movies were all about bulging muscles, swinging swords and damsels in revealing togas.
Which brings me to the spiritual cousin to the Reeves movies, Pompeii, which adds spewing lava, but not much else to the sword and sandal genre. Physically Jason Statham sound-a-like Kit Harrington is up to the heroic Reeves role but is slowed down by the thick layer of molten cheese covers almost every frame of this film.
Set in the shadow of the gurgling volcano Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii Game of Thrones heartthrob Harrington is the muscle bound Milo. His tribe, including his entire family, was wiped out by the vicious Roman Senator Corvus (Kiefer Sutherland) dooming him to a lonely life of servitude under the thumb of Roman masters.
Years later as a gladiator in Pompeii’s coliseum he sees a way to exact revenge and save Cassia (Emily Browning), the most beautiful girl in the lush resort town. As warriors Milo and Atticus (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) battle Roman soldiers in the coliseum the volcano erupts, causing havoc.
Will Milo get vengeance and save Cassia before a rolling mountain of lava and ash covers the city?
Harrington, Sutherland and Browning are the above-the-title stars here, but the real scene-stealer is Mount Vesuvius. Unfortunately it takes way too long for the volcano to to blow its top and when it does the special effects aren’t quite as spectacular as you might hope from a CGI extravaganza. As you might expect there are flying lava meteorites, bubbling lava and crumbling buildings, but it’s mostly just a bombastic CGI fest.
On top of that is muddy looking 3D that would make Steve Reeves squint. The film overall is dark as though the whole thing was shot through a cloud of volcanic ash.
I did get a kick out of a prison guard loudly waking up the jailed gladiators by shouting, “Wake up scum!” but by the time the credits started to roll I felt that slave trader Graecus was speaking directly to me when he said, “You dragged me from a perfectly good brothel for this?”
3 DAYS TO KILL: 3 STARS. “Costner has a world weary, easy charm.”
A late career make over as an action star with a particular set of skills worked for Liam Neeson, so why not for Kevin Costner. In “3 Days to Kill” Costner gets his Neeson on, starring in a Euro-thriller with unusual bad guys, a daughter and lots and lots of gunfire.
Ethan Renner (Kevin Costner) has a lot going on. After five years of dangerous undercover work away from his family he has been diagnosed with a terminal disease. He opts to spend his final months making amends with his estranged wife (Connie Nielsen) and daughter (Hailee Steinfeld) in Paris. His plan is disrupted when a mysterious CIA femme fatale (Amber Heard) turns up with an offer he can’t refuse. In exchange for an experimental drug that could save his life and a lump sum of cash he must go on a wild shooting spree in the City of Light, exterminating a very bad man called The Wolf (Richard Sammel) and his brutal enforcer The Albino (Tómas Lemarquis). Ethan is a family man and contract killer.
Unlike Neeson’s “Taken,” which reveled in its trashiness, “3 Days to Kill” isn’t cheeseball enough to provide the same kind of down-and-dirty fun. Director McG has pitched the movie as an uneasy mix of sentimentality and ultra violence. When Ethan isn’t ramming people with his car or grilling their hands in a sandwich press, he bonding with his daughter, trying to make up for lost time. He teaches her dance, ride a bike and even cuts a torture session short so he can have a meeting with her school principal.
There are some outlandish plot points—for instance, looking for advice about his daughter he goes to the home of a man he has just finished torturing to ask advice from the man’s teenaged girls—and the tone is jokey but unfortunately only about half the gags actually hit home.
Costner has a world weary, easy charm here that helps sell the humor and he appears comfortable with the action but “3 Days to Kill” is a little too generic overall to score with audiences who embraced Neeson’s leap into the action fray.
