I’m join NewsTalk 1010’s The Rush spend a few minutes talking about the famous floating door from “Titanic,” Kevin Bacon going to the prom, 7/11’s Hot Dog flavoured sodas and two historical dramas, “Manhunt” on Apple TV+ and “A Gentleman in Moscow” on Paramount+.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I join CP24 to have a look at the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em action of “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” the found footage scares of “Late Night with the Devil,” the Liam Neeson actioner “The Land of Saints and Sinners” and the family film “Autumn and the Black Panther.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I joined CP24 Breakfast to have a look at new movies and television shows coming to theatres and streaming services. Today we talk about the found footage scares of “Late Night with the Devil,” the Liam Neeson actioner “The Land of Saints and Sinners” and The Paramount+ series “A Gentleman in Moscow.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in with CKTB morning show host Tim Denis to have a look at the found footage scares of “Late Night with the Devil” and the Liam Neeson actioner “The Land of Saints and Sinners.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Hot on the heels of 2023s “Godzilla Minus One,” the first ever Academy Award winner in the giant reptile’s decades long film career, comes “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.” The Oscar winning movie focussed on drama more than destruction, but the new film is pure spectacle. A ballet of kaiju chaos for fans.
Set three years after “Godzilla vs. Kong,” the last entry in the MonsterVerse franchise, a new threat has emerged. “For most of human civilization, we believed that life could only exist on the surface of our planet,” says Kong Research Director Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall). “What else where we wrong about? This world has more secrets than we could possibly imagine.”
Having defeated Mechagodzilla the last time around, the Godzilla, and his atomic breath, and King Kong, the ruler of a subterranean ecosystem deep within the Earth called Hollow Earth, face a new threat.
When Andrews discovers large red hand marks on Skull Island, imprints that did not come from Kong, it becomes clear there is another giant ape with his eye set on taking over Skull Island, and beyond.
Even at 337 feet (102.7 m), and equipped with a giant axe and a mechanized power glove, Kong isn’t capable to do battle on his own.
“They don’t have to like one another,” says the “hippy dippy Ace Ventura” veterinarian Dr. Trapper (Dan Stevens) of Kong and Godzilla. “They just have to work together.”
Val Lewton and generations of horror/suspense directors who followed, kept their monsters off screen as long as possible. It was less-is-more filmmaking, that understood your brain would fill in the blanks; that what you didn’t see would be scarier than anything they could show you. It allowed the imagination to run wild, but “Godzilla x Kong” leaves nothing to the imagination. It is a bigger-is-better movie, the cinematic equivalent of a Monster Truck Rally.
It’s all about Kong, Godzilla and new characters like the 318 foot (96.8 m) tall simian Titan Skar King and an adorable-but-feisty mini-Kong named Suko, loud and proud, in action, leaving a trail of carnage behind them.
The human characters exist only to explain things, provide occasional comic relief, utter lines like, “What the bloody hell is that?” and look in awe as the Titans do battle. On the plus side, Brian Tyree Henry and Dan Stevens do look like they’re having fun.
The CGI is dodgy from time to time, the clunky story is essentially an excuse to pit Kong and Godzilla against other Titans and it doesn’t have the grace or emotion of “Godzilla Minus One,” but “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” turns it up to 11. It’s a crowd pleaser, although milage may vary depending on your level of fandom of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em action, that comes in and goes out with a roar.
“In the Land of Saints and Sinners,” a new Irish thriller now playing in theatres, sees Liam Neeson take a welcome step away from the generic action movies that have populated his IMDB page post “Taken.” He’s joined by an all-star cast of Irish actors, including Kerry Condon, Jack Gleeson, Colm Meaney and Ciarán Hinds, in a movie that mixes violence with compassion, revenge with redemption.
In what could be described as an Irish Western, Neeson plays Finbar Murphy, an assassin looking to leave his violent ways in the rearview mirror. His habit of planting a tree atop the remote graves of his victims has left behind a veritable forest, and now Finbar wants to concentrate on penance in the quiet coastal town of Glencolmcille. It’s a relatively peaceful enclave, far away from the political violence of most of 1974 Ireland.
At least it is until IRA team leader Doireann McCann (Condon) and her cohorts arrive, on the run after a car bombing kills several innocent children in Belfast. As Finbar’s life overlap with the newcomers, a deadly war of revenge begins that involves the entire village. “Mr. Murphy has done something,” says Doireann. “Something unforgivable.”
The action at the center of “In the Land of Saints and Sinners” sounds like it could sit nicely on the shelf with any of Neeson’s recent, more generic, actioners, but there’s a different, more nuanced, flavor to this one.
Much of that comes from the performances. The man-with-a-past/protector-of-the-innocent is a role Neeson has played many times before, but the combination of his natural gravitas and, perhaps counter intuitively, his empathy, set Finbar aside from the pack. He’s a stone-cold killer, but understands the toll a life spent holding a gun has extracted from his soul, and that quality adds something new to the Neeson oeuvre. Also, his interactions with up-and-coming-killer Kevin, nicely played by Gleeson, humanizes both characters, and enrich the film with a healthy dose of empathy.
Condon, best known for her Oscar nominated performance in “The Banshees of Inisherin,” plays Doireann as equal parts passion and compassion. She is an extremist, violent and driven by hatred, but Condon allows warmth to peak through the cracks in Doireann’s cold façade.
“In the Land of Saints and Sinners” succeeds because it delivers tension and interesting characters, but, just as importantly, because it drops some of the cliches of Neeson’s recent output in favor of authenticity.
“Late Night with the Devil,” a new, high-concept horror film starring “Oppenheimer’s” David Dastmalchian, and now playing in theatres, is a hybrid of TV talk show, teen exorcism movie and found footage film.
Dastmalchian plays Jack Delroy, host of the late-night television chat show “Night Owls.” Nicknamed Mr. Midnight, he’s popular, but after six years chasing late night king Johnny Carson, he is a perennial also ran. His highest rated show fell a ratings point behind Carson, and, in a grab for attention, his show has become sensationalized, like Jerry Springer but with a budget.
Facing cancellation, Delroy plans a Sweeps Week Halloween spectacular featuring a traditional costume parade, psychic Christou (Fayssal Bazzi) and an Amazing Randi-esque skeptic named Carmicheal (Ian Bliss). As Christou attempts to speak with spirits, the arrogant Carmicheal debunks his supernatural power as mere parlor tricks.
It’s typical shock TV until paranormal researcher Dr. June (Laura Gordon) and patient Lily (Ingrid Torelli), subject of the best-selling book “Conversations with the Devil,” show up. “Ladies and gentlemen,” says Delroy, “please stay tuned for a live television first, as we attempt to commune with the Devil… but not before a word from our sponsors.”
Goaded into proving that a demon named Mr. Riggles lives inside Lily, Dr. June appears to summon something from deep inside her patient. “Is this a talk show or a freak show?” Carmicheal demands to know.
But is it actually a demon, and most importantly, will it save “Night Owl” from cancellation.
The bulk of “Late Night with the Devil” purports to be the master tape of what went to air on that eventful Halloween broadcast. Although one wonders where the off-stage footage came from, the film’s conceit works well. Directors Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes effectively set the scene, with grave opening narration from legend Michael Ironside, painting a picture of a world plagued by the political unrest, an economics crisis and Satanic Panic.
Into that comes the comforting normalcy of Night Owl.
The talk show format—the live band, the sidekick (Rhys Auteri) and cheesy Jimmy Carter jokes—is so familiar that when the strange stuff starts to happen, the impact is heightened.
It’s all light and funny until all hell breaks loose.
The film’s production value and attention to detail makes it seem like we’re watching a suppressed tape of an actual broadcast, like “War of the Worlds,” only real. The skillful filmmaking builds up the tension to an exciting and eye-popping payoff.
At its heart, “Late Night with the Devil” is a Faustian show biz satire about the price some are willing to pay for success. Delroy is the smiling face of ambition, the man who is willing to unleash evil in exchange for a point or two in the ratings. Dastmalchian nails the hosting duties, but it is his darker side, the suppressed fear, anxiety and greed, that impresses. “We’ve got to get you back as soon as possible,” he gushes to Dr. June seconds after she’s beckoned a demon for the camera, “it could become a regular spot.”
“Late Night with the Devil” feels rushed near the end, but contains enough genuinely disturbing images and ideas to become a found footage favorite.
French director and journalist Gilles de Maistre specializes in making family films like “The Wolf and the Lion” and “Mia and the White Lion,” that raise awareness about the protection of animals and the environment. His latest, “Autumn and the Black Jaguar,” about the bond between a young girl and her childhood friend, the jaguar of the title, is a sweetly saccharine story with some mild action-adventure woven around its messages regarding illegal wildlife trafficking.
Lumi Pollack spent ten months imprinting with two jaguars in the jungles of Mexico to prepare for the role of Autumn, a precocious fourteen-year-old who grew up in the Amazon rainforest. As her animal rights activist parents work fighting against poachers, she forms a bond and helps raise jaguar cub Hope. When Autumn’s mother is killed by poachers, her father (Paul Green) relocates them to the urban jungle of New York City.
The jaguar is always on Autumn’s mind, and when she learns her childhood village is under attack by poachers, she goes rogue, and returns, with her socially anxious biology teacher (Emily Bett Rickards) along for the ride, to find Hope before the poachers do.
“Autumn and the Black Jaguar” is a wholesome film, fit for the whole family, with oversized performances, stereotype characters and predictable story beats. But, as an issue forward filmmaker, de Maistre shapes the movie’s events to suit the messages, not the other way round. The result is a movie that works mostly as a conveyance for environmental lessons about wildlife trafficking than a convincing action-adventure film.
I appear on “CTV News at 11:30” with anchor Andria Case to talk about the best movies and television to watch this weekend, including the Netflix sci fi series “3 Body Problem,” the Aopple TV+ sci fio horror “Constellation” and the theatrical release of “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 19:50)
