Richard speaks to “CTV News at 11:30” anchor Andria Case about the best movies and television to watch this weekend. This week we have a look Rebel Wilson in the Netflix comedy “Senior Year,” the Stephen King “Firestarter” reboot, the Ron Perlman neo-western “The Last Victim” and the Crave thriller “See For Me.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 19:01)
Richard joins CP24 to have a look at new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres. Today we talk about Rebel Wilson in the Netflix comedy “Senior Year,” the Stephen King “Firestarter” reboot and the Ron Perlman neo-western “The Last Victim.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Watch Richard Crouse review three movies in less time than it takes to eat a handful of peanuts! Have a look as he races against the clock to tell you about the Rebel Wilson coma comedy “Senior Year,” the Stephen King “Firestarter” reboot and the Ron Perlman neo-western “The Last Victim.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard sits in on the CKTB Niagara in the Morning morning show with host Tim Denis to talk the new movies coming to theatres including Rebel Wilson in the Netflix comedy “Senior Year,” the Stephen King “Firestarter” reboot and the Ron Perlman neo-western “The Last Victim.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Richard joins CTV NewsChannel anchor Marcia MacMillan to talk about the Rebel Wilson coma comedy “Senior Year,” the Stephen King “Firestarter” reboot and the Ron Perlman neo-western “The Last Victim.”
Watch 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 the Rebel Wilson coma comedy “Senior Year,” the Stephen King “Firestarter” reboot and the Ron Perlman neo-western “The Last Victim.”
Listen to 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 the Rebel Wilson coma comedy “Senior Year,” the Stephen King “Firestarter” reboot and the Ron Perlman neo-western “The Last Victim.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
“The Last Victim,” starring Ron Perlman as a sheriff on the hunt for some ruthless killers, now streaming on VOD, is a throwback to gritty neo-westerns like “Hell or High Water” and “No Country For Old Man.”
Beginning with a calculated but brutal slaughter at a small-town Southwest American diner, “The Last Victim” follows Jake (Ralph Ineson), the vicious ringleader of the restaurant slaughter as he attempts to dispose of the bodies at the ramshackle, and seemingly closed-for-the-season, Yaj Oolal Overlook Nature Preserve.
Jake’s plan is interrupted by Susan (Ali Larter), an anthropologist with OCD, and her husband, Richard (Tahmoh Penikett), who stumble across the place on a cross country drive. The killer makes short work of Richard, shooting him on sight. Susan is luckier, disappearing into the woods. “Go see if she was dumb enough to make a run for it,” Jake tells his henchmen as their deadly game of cat-and-mouse begins.
As Sheriff Hickey (Perlman) and Deputy Mindy Gaboon (Camille Legg) begin their investigation into the diner murders, Susan must stay one step ahead of Jake to avoid becoming the last victim.
In his directorial debut Naveen A. Chathapuram has made a stylized, tense story of survival. The film has an aura of dread, that builds as the story ticks down to the inevitable climatic showdown.
Chathapuram is aided by a menacing performance from Ineson, who oozes evil, Perlman, whose presence evokes a certain, special kind of gravitas, and Larter’s authoritative work. They make up for some of the movie’s weaknesses, like some o-so-serious voiceover, a somewhat too leisurely pace in the film’s mid-section and a tacked-on ending sequence that adds little, except for a few minutes to the overall running time.
“The Last Victim” is a very strong directorial debut that packs excitement into the storytelling, including a rather surreal climax, with enough twists to keep the story of survival compelling throughout.
By Richard Crouse – Metro In Focus
Since 2002 Milla Jovovich has played a genetically altered zombie fighter with telekinetic powers in six Resident Evil films.
Like the undead fleshbags who populate these based-on-a-videogame movies, you can’t seem to kill this franchise, although the title of this weekend’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter seems to indicate the end is near.
But just because the Resident Evil movies aren’t Shakespeare doesn’t mean we can’t learn something from them. Here’s what I took away from Jovovich and Company in the last 13 years:
1. The undead have really, really bad aim.
2. No matter what stunt she has just performed, whether it’s plummeting 19 stories down an abandoned mine shaft, or battling legions of bad guys, Mila’s hair will, at most, only look slightly tousled, as if Vidal Sassoon had just finished running his magic fingers through her locks.
3. The amount of rainfall in the future makes Vancouver look arid.
4. To act in one of these movies you must perfect one of two facial expressions: a. steely determination, or b. uncontrolled rage (which can be alternated with a sadistic smile if necessary).
5. Characters will say, “What the hell is going on here?” when it is quite clear what the heck is going on.
6. Most of the people to survive the deadly plague that destroyed most of humanity look like Abercrombie & Fitch pinups.
7. Why take the stairs when you can drive a Rolls Royce down an escalator?
So there you have it — lessons learned.
Despite legendary director Jean-Luc Godard’s claim that, “All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl,” both of which are amply on display in the Resident Evil movies, they still feel more like a videogame projected on a big screen than a movie.
But who cares what I or other film critics think? These movies have been phenomenally successful and for over a decade have proven to be critic-proof. Roger Ebert placed Resident Evil on his most hated films list in 2005 and called its sequel, “an utterly meaningless waste of time,” adding, “Parents: If you encounter teenagers who say they liked this movie, do not let them date your children.”
Leonard Maltin added to the pile on calling Resident Evil: Apocalypse “tiresome” while Dark Horizons said the third movie, Afterlife was, “perhaps the first 3D motion picture to simulate the experience of watching paint dry,” and yet the splatter flick went on to gross $300 million worldwide.
Critics aside, others in the film biz love the movies. Avatar director James Cameron called Resident Evil his biggest guilty pleasure and the Ontario Media Development Corporation acknowledged the Toronto-shot Afterlife as the most successful production in Canadian feature film history.
Bottom line is that in total, the series has grossed almost $1 billion — a feat recognized by the Guinness World Records Gamers’ Edition who called the Resident Evil films “the most successful movie series to be based on a video game,” awarding them with the record for Most Live-Action Film Adaptations of a Video Game.
