Watch Richard review three movies in less time than it takes to ring for the butler! Have a look as he races against the clock to tell you about “Top Gun: Maverick’s” need for speed, the animated sitcom spinoff “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” and the oddball “The Middle Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard joins NewsTalk 1010 host David Cooper on the coast-to-coast-to-coast late night “Showgram” to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about “Top Gun: Maverick’s” need for speed, the animated sitcom spinoff “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” and the oddball “The Middle Man.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Richard joins CP24 to have a look at new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres. Today we talk about the thirty-six-years-in-the-making “Top Gun: Maverick,” the animated “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” and the absurdist “The Middle Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard sits in on the CKTB Niagara in the Morning morning show with guest host Stephanie Vivier to talk the new movies coming to theatres including “Top Gun: Maverick’s” need for speed, the animated sitcom spinoff “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” and the oddball “The Middle Man.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Richard sits in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres including “Top Gun: Maverick’s” need for speed, the animated sitcom spinoff “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” and the oddball “The Middle Man.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
The new film “The Middle Man,” a new dark comedy now playing in theatres, is the story of Frank (Pål Sverre Hagen), an unemployed man who takes a job in the accident capital of America.
The setting is Karmac in Any Midwest State, USA. Terrible things happen on an almost daily basis. It’s so grim there the flags at City Hall are permanently at half-mast. The only growth industry in town is accident clean-up, the crew that comes in to tidy up after bad things happen.
The city is going broke, pretty soon they won’t be able to turn on the streetlights, which, says the local doctor (Don McKellar), will lead to even more mishaps, so they need to hire a Middle Man, someone to deliver bad news to the families of the bereaved.
Frank, out of work for three years, applies, even though his only qualifications are a hangdog demeanor and telling his mother that his father fell off a ladder, hit his head and died.
He gets the gig, learns the ropes—”Crying is a privilege that belongs to the next of kin,” says the sheriff (Paul Gross), “not the middle man.”—and forms a bond with receptionist Blenda (Tuva Novotny). When Bob (Trond Fausa Aurvåg), Brenda’s ex-boyfriend and failed Middle Man candidate, strikes and kills Frank’s best friend, it sets into motion of events that causes an overwhelmed Frank to wonder if his new position is right for him or not. “It’s a busy job,” he says, “accidents don’t keep office hours.”
Norwegian director Bent Hamer, who also wrote the script based on a novel by Norwegian-Danish writer Lars Saabye Christensen, may have set the story in the Midwest, but his dark, deadpan humour is purely Scandinavian. This semi-comedic study of loss and grief, is macabre in tone but maintains a quirky, if bleak, sense of itself. Dialing up the farcical aspects of the story may have increased the film’s commercial appeal but may have chipped away at Hamer’s thoughtful consideration of life in a small, unusual town.
“The Middle Man” won’t be for everyone, but viewers with a taste for unconventional but restrained absurdism will find much to enjoy.
“Last Knights,” the new feudal lord drama starring Morgan Freeman and Clive “The man who might have been Bond” Owen, is set in the manly world of honour, loyalty and revenge. It plays a bit like “Game of Thrones,” but without the dragons or the nudity.
At the heart of “Last Knights”—and no, this isn’t another of Freeman’s “Last Vegas” old geezer on the town movies—is the relationship between Lord Bartok (Freeman), a nobleman tired of paying exorbitant taxes to the Emperor’s (Peyman Moaadi) ambitious and greedy first minister Gezza Mott (Aksel Hennie), and warrior Raiden (Owen). The soldier isn’t just hired muscle, he’s a trusted confidant and extremely loyal. When a double-cross forces Raiden to perform an unthinkable act, the kingdom is thrown into chaos until the inevitable revenge plot kicks into action.
From Morgan Freeman’s majestic opening narration to the pounding score and wild swordplay, the first moments of “Last Knights” are ID. That’s Incredibly Dramatic in bolded, capital letters with a flourish of calligraphy thrown in for good measure. It sets the slightly over-the-top tone for the rest of the film, but despite some wild performances—I’m looking at you Hennie—a “Rambo” inspired action sequence and a beheading or two, director Kaz I Kiriya’s deliberate pacing eats into the theatrics. Couple that with a long mid-movie stretch that sets up the climatic battle but actually sucks the guts out of thirty minutes of running time, and you’re left with a film with expertly staged sword fights, suitable grimy warriors and a paranoid and dangerous villain, but not as much entertainment value as the opening promises.
Next time perhaps hire a dragon co-star.
