From the blog by Linda Matarasso:
This past week Film Critic, Journalist and Author Richard Crouse just revealed that he had gone through Cancer treatments, but in his case nobody knew about it until now. I have known Richard for many years as I used to do the makeup for the Rogers Television show Real to Real when he was one of the hosts. Richard’s revelation was a surprise to many people including myself because he continued on with his very busy entertainment schedule while he was undergoing treatments. I run into him about town every now and then and I never noticed anything different about him and that’s the way he wanted it. He didn’t want “pity” from anyone and chose to have a good attitude and continue living a healthy life.
I am sure Richard will inspire and help a lot of people. Richard wants to save your life so he has decided to tell his story. Read about him HERE.
The Muppets came bounding back into theatres in 2011 with a sweet movie starring humans Jason Segel and Amy Adams that blended the right amount of nostalgia with just enough corny jokes to make it one of the year’s frothiest confections.
The new film from Jim Henson’s felt and fur creations, “Muppets Most Wanted,” is being billed as a sequel to that film, but it isn’t really. It’s more a return to the Muppet movies of old, packed to the gills with show biz in jokes, puns, songs and even a Swedish Chef homage to Ingmar Bergman.
It’s more akin to “The Great Muppet Caper” than Segel’s (who did not return for this film) vision.
The story picks up one second after the last one ended. Kermit, Miss Piggy and the gang are on Hollywood Boulevard after their big comeback, wondering what to do next. A meeting with talent agent Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais) seems to provide an answer. Against Kermit’s best judgment the Muppets accept Badguy’s offer of a European tour to open in “the world capitol of comedy, Berlin, Germany.”
What they don’t know is that Badguy is an associate of Constantine, the planet’s most notorious criminal and a dead ringer for Kermit. The evil plan is to replace Kermit with Constantine, and use the Muppets as a cover for an ingenious plan to steal the Crown Jewels.
The movie’s opening song, “Sequel,” is a tongue and cheek tune that melodically states, “everybody knows sequels are never as good.” Maybe so, but since this doesn’t feel like a sequel it’s hard to compare it to the last film.
The puns are back—“It’s not easy being mean,” says Constantine—and so are the tunes from Academy Award-winning songwriter Bret McKenzie and all the characters you know and love, but the movie feels different.
Whereas Segel’s Muppet movie played heartstrings like Eric Clapton strums the blues, “Muppets Most Wanted” has more of an edge. Well, as much of an edge as a movie starring Kermit and Miss Piggy could have.
The human characters—notably Gervais, Tina Fey as Nadya, a lusty Russian prison guard and Ty Burrell as an outrageous Interpol agent—are just as broad as the puppets which provides some laughs, but the emotional impact is blunted. To place it in an old Hollywood context, it’s more the slapstick of Abbott and Costello than the restrained, sweet comedy of Charlie Chaplin.
Still, the Muppets bring a good deal of goodwill with them and the movie shines brighter as a result. It’s hard not to giggle at the gags but an exchange between Fozzie and Walter hits a bit too close to an uncomfortable plot truth. “Looks like he’s planning some kind of heist bit,” Fozzie says of Constantine. “I hope not,” replies Walter, “they never work.”
A new young adult film based on a best selling series of books is set in a world where diversity is frowned upon; sort of like Arizona without the dry heat.
In “Divergent” a Big Brother style government has divided the post-apocalyptic Chicago into five factions: the altruistic Abnegation sect, the peace loving Amity, the “I cannot tell a lie” Candor group, the militaristic arm Dauntless and the smarty-pants Erudites.
At age sixteen all citizens must submit to a personality test that will help them decide which faction they will join. “The future belongs to those who know where they belong,” is the Orwellian motto.
Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley) is from an Abnegation family, but chooses to join Dauntless, the warrior faction charged with protecting the city. During the grueling training “Tris” meets future love interest Four (Theo James) who helps her disguise the fact that she is “divergent,” a person who cannot be pigeonholed into just one designation. “If you don’t fit into a category they can’t control you,” she is told.
“Divergent” feels like a greatest hits version of recent young adult stories. Mixing and matching “Hunger Games” with a taste of “Harry Potter” and a splash of “Twilight,” results in a new story that feels familiar, like a sequel to a movie that doesn’t exist.
The film does take pains in the first hour to establish a world, with a unique set of rules—like once you choose a faction you can’t go back—and then promptly proceeds to break their own guidelines. The disregard for the rubrics blunts the power of the story, changing it from a high concept sci fi idea to simply a shifting situation for the characters to exist in. It’s a state of affairs passing itself off as an idea.
That won’t matter to the film’s core audience, teens, who will be more interested in Tris’s grrrl power, the dynamic of the Dauntless recruits and Four, the movie’s heart throb. Director Neil Burger aptly juggles all these elements well, and despite the plot lapses and some bloodless action—a zip line aerial scene that should be visually spectacular doesn’t make the eyeballs dance like it could—but the film is a little darker and grittier than you’d expect from a blockbuster-to-be. It would have been interesting to see what a director with true futuristic vision, like Terry Gilliam, could have done with the material, but ultimately it’s not about dystopia.
The young adult story thrives off subtext and in this case it is more about family, being yourself and facing fears, all subjects that will resonate with the target audience louder than any sci fi premise.
“Divergent” is “Hunger Games” light, but Woodley and James bring some heat to the leads and it’s fun watching Kate Winslet sneering her way through a villainous role.
I have a secret to tell you that I think Miss Piggy would rather remain undisclosed.
The blonde bombshell, that porcine paradigm of perfection, was in Toronto on Tuesday to do some press for her new film Muppets Most Wanted, and sit in for a press conference hosted by moi.
Like everyone else I had heard the stories. The word diva comes up frequently when Miss Piggy is discussed. She has a No Competing Diva clause in her contracts and has even written a book titled The Diva Code.
In the film she does a duet with Celine Dion, and when asked who was the biggest prima donna on set she snapped back, “Well, naturally moi.” I’m here to tell you it’s not true.
She was on time, primped and ready to go and had very funny answers to all the questions. She admits to enjoying “making a statement wherever she goes,” and Tuesday’s presser was no exception. When I asked her if she got star struck around co-stars Tina Fey and Ricky Gervais, she said it’s others who get star struck by her, before adding, “others are struck by a star if they get between moi and the camera.”
The only hint of diva-ish behaviour came when she was asked who could portray her in a biopic. “Moi, of course,” she said, but later when asked if she knew she was a gay icon she replied, in a most un-diva-like way, “I’m an icon to anyone who will have moi!”
When The Muppet Movie was released in 1979 the Muppet Show Fan Club pointed out the differences between the movie and the puppet’s popular television show.
“If you think it’s a film version of The Muppet Show, you’re in for a surprise.
For one thing, it doesn’t take place in the theatre. The Muppet Movie is set in the real world — it’s like waiting in line at a gas station and looking up to find Fozzie and Kermit driving the next car over.”
In the subsequent seven theatrical Muppet movies that magic has been maintained, but the methods have changed over the years. In 2011’s The Muppet Movie all the puppets were real, but the way they were filmed changed. To give the puppets a full range of movement the puppeteers — or Muppeteers as they prefer to be called — were often in full view of the camera and digitally removed in post production.
“We removed the puppeteers later,” said visual effects artist Max Ivins, “so it gave the puppeteers a lot more freedom in that they didn’t have to hide from the camera to do everything.” It’s a technique used in Muppets Most Wanted, which sees the furry and felt puppets get into trouble on a world tour when it turns out that Kermit’s doppelgänger is the world’s number one criminal. Co-starring with the Muppets is Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell and Tina Fey. In the years before computer generated imagery, however, Muppeteers hidden from view manipulated all the puppets. And it wasn’t always so comfortable.
Everyone remembers Kermit sitting on a log, playing his banjo, in the middle of a swamp in The Muppet Movie, but did you know that Jim Henson, Kermit’s creator and operator until 1990, was under water for the five days it took to shoot the scene?
According to the Muppet Fan Club he was wedged into a metal tube “under the water, under the log, under the Frog” while hooked up with an air hose, a monitor and a rubber sleeve which allowed him to manipulate the puppet.
Frank Oz was also submerged for Miss Piggy’s water ballet scene in The Great Muppet Caper. “I was under the water for a week,” he says. “I had three days of scuba training and then down I went.” Finally, almost every Muppet movie features Kermit riding a bicycle. How did they do it in the early days? Director James Frawley jokes, “I put him on a three-wheeler until he got his balance, and then I put him on the two-wheeler.”
In fact, the effect was achieved by intercutting long shots using a Kermit marionette and close-ups with a hand puppet operated by Henson who rode along with the bike on a low-rolling dolly.
Every week, Richard Crouse stops by to tell you what movies are worth seeing, and to talk about the watercooler moments of the week. However, today he came in to talk about something that could save your life. Most people are not aware that over the past few months, Richard has been treated for colorn cancer. He’s doing well and his prognosis is good, but he wanted to share his story with you to make sure that everyone gets tested. Richard is a private person, and he hasn’t shared his story with a lot of people. I am so incredibly proud of him for coming forward to help raise awareness, and to help spread the message that cancer is beatable, so don’t be afraid. Just get tested. Thank you, Richard. Be well, my friend.– AM Producer Jen
“Michael Bay is directing a remake of Casablanca” and, “It’s not you, it’s me” appear on the scroll of things that hurt my ears. Top of the list, however, is, “We’ve found a tumor.”
In mid-2013, I had a colonoscopy, a procedure so routine I thought I’d be in and out and on my way to my favourite sandwich shop by lunch. I’m a nonsmoker, moderate drinker and I watch my diet. I even eat kale — lots of it. I had no symptoms, felt fine and only went because my doctor told me I had to due to my age.
Those four simple words went on to inform the next months of my life.
The doctor, squeezing my arm, saying, “I’m sorry,” before walking away, didn’t do much to alleviate the fear that quickly overtook me.
Besides becoming a human pincushion, pumped with toxic chemicals, the mental effect of being told you have cancer lingers.
I began the journey with the usual shock, but quickly skipped ahead, past denial, to anger. I was mad that a bullet shaped tumor in my colon — a dark spot that had grown quietly and insidiously inside me for the past few years — could possibly sideline all I had worked for.
The anger stage was quickly replaced by acceptance after long talks with the ever-rosy Andrea, my long-time girlfriend, and the cadre of doctors brought in to assess me.
It was then I decided to live my life with as little disruption as possible. It was my way of saying, “Screw you, cancer. You’re not making the rules, I am.” Optimistic maybe, but I firmly believe that a good attitude is one of the keys to leading a healthy life even in the face of serious medical issues.
I’m through the treatment now and the prognosis is good. It was a long journey — a trip down a dark and twisty road. I won’t miss feeling like I’m living in someone else’s body, waking up exhausted everyday or fearing the sinister tumor that was growing in me.
Today I’m confident that the surgery — I toyed with using the nickname Semi Colon Crouse in tribute to what was left of my insides, but better sense prevailed — more tests and scans than I can count and the gallons of chemo pumped into my system was all worth it.
This is my story, but it’s not my message.
I waited until after my treatment for my cancer coming out party because I didn’t want pity. I didn’t want to be viewed differently. I just want you to know that if this could happen to me, it could happen to you. March, being Colon Cancer Awareness Month, seemed like the time to share my story.
What I want now is for you to get tested.
Colonoscopy is a big word, but it could have a huge effect on your well-being. Having one at age 50 saved my life and it could save yours. Make an appointment today. Your colon and I will thank you.
Just the facts
The National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC) acknowledges colorectal cancer (CRC) as the third most common cancer and the second most common cause of death from cancer for both Canadian men and women.
On average, 423 Canadians are diagnosed with CRC every week.
One in 14 men is expected to develop CRC during his lifetime and one in 27 will die of it. One in 15 women is expected to develop CRC during her lifetime and one in 31 will die of it.
175 Canadians, on average, die of this disease every week.
Anyone 50 and up should be screened regardless of family history.
From the blog by Linda Matarasso:
