Richard and CP24 anchor Jamie Gutfreund have a look at the weekend’s new movies, “Logan,” the latest (and greatest) Wolverine flick, the time travel teen angst movie “Before I Fall,” the animated “Ballerina,” the quirky “Table 19” with Anna Kendrick and the controversial Christian movie “The Shack.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
“People do weird things at weddings,” says Huck (Thomas Cocquerel), a handsome stranger who takes Eloise (Anna Kendrick) for a spin on the dance floor in the almost-rom-com “Table 19.” Maybe that’s true, but in the case of this movie, they do quirky and sometimes unpredictable things, but weird? Not quite.
On the day of her childhood friend’s wedding Eloise (Kendrick) repeats the mantra, “Today will not suck.” She may be close to the bride but is attending the wedding begrudgingly. Her ex-boyfriend Teddy (Wyatt Russell), a flame-haired dim wit who dumped her by text with the words “good luck in your future endeavours,” is the best man and she still hate-loves him.
She arrives to find herself seated at Table 19, a collection of misfits she says, “should have known to send regrets but not before sending an expensive gift.” There’s Jo Flanagan (June Squibb), a pot smoker who was once the bride’s nanny, the Kepps (Craig Robinson and Lisa Kudrow), distant friends of the family of the groom, ex-con Walter Thimple (Stephen Merchant) and Rezno Eckberg (“Grand Budapest Hotel’s” Tony Revolori), a young man who introduces himself with, “I have achieved puberty and I’m in the band.”
Because they are the outcasts, invited out of politeness and seated far from the action, they spend the day together. Secrets are revealed and the complex nature of relationships is explored. Will Eloise be able to speak to Teddy? Will the Kepps’ marriage survive the weekend? Will Renzo ever get a date? What will become of Jo and Walter?
“Table 19” is a rom com, but not a traditional one. It’s a super-reverso-rom-com that begins after the couple already has a history and broken up. It’s no secret that the heart of the movie will be their relationship so your enjoyment of the movie will be related to how much you care about this quirky collection of folks.
Kendrick is an agreeable presence, bringing equal parts edge and vulnerability to Eloise. Robinson and Kudrow banter like an old married couple and Squibb radiates warmth while Revolori and Merchant dial up their eccentricities. It’s an interesting group who by times are quite funny but most often feels like a collection of characters rather than real people. They shuffle from one set-up to another—Whoops! They knocked over the wedding cake!—lurching through the wedding on the way to the end credits and some sort of relationship resolution.
“Table 19” will raise a laugh or two or three, but the artificial nature of the situation isn’t weird enough to truly embrace the quirkiness of the characters or interesting enough to engage the audience.
Richard and CP24 anchor George Lagogianes have a look at the weekend’s new movies, “Doctor Strange,” the fourteenth film in the Marvel Universe, “Trolls,” the return of a 1970s pop culture phenomenon, Andrew Garfield as real-life WWII hero and pacifist Desmond Doss in “Hacksaw Ridge” and the Iggy and the Stooges documentary “Gimme Danger.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard sits in with Marcia MacMillan to have a look at the weekend’s new movies, Benedict Cumberbatch in “Doctor Strange,” the fourteenth film in the Marvel Universe, “Trolls,” the return of a 1970s pop culture phenomenon with Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick, Andrew Garfield as real-life WWII hero and pacifist Desmond Doss in “Hacksaw Ridge” and the Iggy and the Stooges documentary “Gimme Danger.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
By Richard Crouse – Metro Canada
Anyone who grew up in the 1970s will remember The Trolls. The vinyl creatures with DayGlo Eraserhead coifs and big goofy smiles invaded pop culture, decorating everything from rear view mirrors to teen’s bedrooms. Unlike modern day internet trolls, these creatures were joyful, hug-happy little things with more personality than your average Pet Rock and a ubiquity that made them one of the symbols of a kinder and gentler time.
Then they, like other 70s fads like disco music, streakers and Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific shampoo, they faded into obscurity, banished forever to the Retro section of your local junk shop.
Now they’re back in Trolls, an animated adventure from the makers of Shrek Forever After and Mr. Peabody & Sherman that aims to spread some cheer amid a fraught election season.
Co-director Walt Dohrn says he hopes the film’s message of optimism in the face of adversity will be “an antidote to the madness of the world.”
“When Walt and I set out to make this film,” says co-director Mike Mitchell, “we did want to make a film about happiness because the news and the media is so scary. And not just for kids, adults too. The internet is so judgemental and snarky.”
“The world is kind of a difficult and dark place,” adds Dohrn, “so putting something out there that talked about happiness, where it comes from, what happens when you lose it…”
“…will get people discussing the power of a positive attitude and happiness,” says Mitchell, finishing his friend’s sentence. “I’m hopeful this will start a trend of, It’s OK to be happy. It’s cool. Especially with this clowny, weird election going on.”
Trolls the movie is as eye-popping as the psychedelic creatures that inspired it. Mitchell and Dohrn have made a movie that is possibly the weirdest and most colourful kid’s entertainment since H.R. Pufnstuf. They had the freedom to do so because the beloved 1970s toy Trolls came with no backstory.
“That’s what was cool about working on this,” says Mitchell. “Even though these Trolls had been around forever and ever, there was no story. No mythology to it so Walt and I got to make a whole world. We could create a whole new world you’ve never seen before, create whole new characters.”
They created a realm where the Trolls (voiced by Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Zooey Deschanel, Russell Brand, James Corden and Gwen Stefani) make a daring escape from the Troll Tree in Bergen Town. The Bergens are snaggletooth ogres, as miserable as the Trolls are joyful. True happiness for the glum townies only comes with eating Trolls, obviously a huge problem for our heroes.
“Walt and I are huge fans of old fairy tales,” says Mitchell on the inclusion of the Troll-eating Bergens, “and those stories always had someone going down, having their heart taken out.”
“We’re finding the younger viewers don’t have a problem with it,” says Dohrn. “It’s the parents trying to protect them.”
The cheerful co-directors finish one another’s sentences and have a camaraderie that suggests they have taken the movie’s messages of friendship to heart.
“He’s an optimist and I’m a pessimist,” says Mitchell. “That’s kind of how we approached directing this film. We had a balance. In making it I discovered the power of a positive attitude.”
Anyone who grew up in the 1970s will remember The Trolls. The vinyl creatures with DayGlo Eraserhead coifs and big goofy smiles invaded pop culture, decorating everything from rear view mirrors to teen’s bedrooms. Unlike modern day internet trolls, these creatures were joyful, hug-happy little things with more personality than your average Pet Rock and a ubiquity that made them one of the symbols of a kinder and gentler time.
Then they, like other 70s fads like disco music, streakers and Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific shampoo, they faded into obscurity, banished forever to the Retro section of your local junk shop.
Now they’re back in a big screen adventure from the makers of “Shrek Forever After” and “Mr. Peabody & Sherman.”
In this new, updated story the Trolls make a daring escape from the Troll Tree in Bergen Town. The Bergens are snaggletooth ogres, as miserable as the Trolls are joyful. True happiness for the glum townies only comes with eating Trolls, obviously a huge problem for our heroes. Led by King Peppy (voice of Jeffrey Tambor) the colourful creatures relocate to a place with “clean air, freshwater and great acoustics” they truly live in harmony. On the 20th anniversary of their emancipation from Bergen Town they do what they do best, throw a wild, loud party that attracts the attention of the head Troll Hunter and cooker of Troll Treats (Christine Baranski). The Bergen party crasher stomps into Troll Town, making off with dozens of citizens, leading Princess Poppy (Anna Kendrick) to lead a rescue mission to deep into the heart of darkness, Bergen Town.
“Trolls” the movie is as eye-popping as the psychedelic creatures that inspired it. Possibly the weirdest kid’s entertainment since “H.R. Pufnstuf.” More sensory overload than narrative, “Trolls” is a fun ride but it is more concerned with entertaining the eye than the brain. In a blur of neon the story unfolds with a mix of kid friendly pop songs, supervised by Justin Timberlake, and psychedelic story telling that allows strange characters—like a stoner cloud (Walt Dohrn)—to inhabit a weird and wonderful place for eighty-five quick minutes.
“Trolls” doesn’t have the impact of “Frozen” or the messages of “Zootopia” but it is a brightly coloured, optimistic and chirpy way to spend a Saturday matinee with the kids.
Richard and CP24 anchor Jamie Gutfreund have a look at the weekend’s new movies,“The Accountant,” starring Ben Affleck as a deadly bookkeeper, “American Honey” starring Sasha Lane, “Unless” with Catherine Keener and “Christine” with Rebecca Hall!
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Ben Affleck plays the title role in the thriller The Accountant. “Like, a CPA accountant?” asks a Treasury Department worker. “Not quite,” replies agent Ray King (J. K. Simmons) in what might be the understatement of the year.
Affleck is a pocket-protector-wearing forensic accountant who “risks his life cooking the books for some of the scariest people on the planet; drug cartels, arms brokers, money launderers, assassins.” An autistic math genius with a violent side, he survives his dangerous world through dual facilities for math and mayhem.
“He’s a very distinct and unusual character,” Affleck told Entertainment Weekly. “A little bit different than your average, everyday person in the way he processes information and social thinking, and the way he sees numbers and logic, and that he’s trapped a little bit in his own mind.”
Affleck joins a long list of actors who have looked for loopholes, legal, financial and otherwise, on the big screen.
The late, great Gene Wilder became a star playing bookkeeper Leo Bloom in The Producers. “I spend my life counting other people’s money. People I’m smarter than.” It’s Bloom who comes up with the get rich quick scheme to mount a terrible Broadway musical and make off with the investor’s cash when the show flops. His plan falls apart when Springtime for Hitler becomes a hit but his business partner still has good things to say. “You’re an accountant,” raves Max Bialystock. “You’re in a noble profession! The word ‘count’ is part of your title!”
Rick Moranis played Louis Tully, an accountant possessed by an ancient spirit in Ghostbusters. Before he goes all supernatural Louis throws a bash to celebrate his fourth anniversary as an auditor at his swanky Central Park West apartment. “I’m givin’ this whole thing as a promotional expense,” he says, “that’s why I invited clients instead of friends.” The scene was shot in one continuous take with Moranis making his way through the party, improvising perfectly nerdy CPA dialogue—“This is real smoked salmon from Nova Scotia, Canada, $24.95 a pound! It only cost me $14.12 after tax, though.”—throughout.
In The Untouchables Charles Martin Smith plays Oscar Wallace, the bespectacled book balancer who puts together the tax evasion case against notorious mobster Al Capone. The character was largely based on Frank Wilson, the IRS Criminal Investigator who spent years keeping tabs on Capone’s financial dealings before laying charges. A self-penned article on his exploits, He Trapped Capone, inspired the 1949 Glenn Ford film The Undercover Man.
Cher initially turned down the Oscar winning role of Loretta Castorini, the widowed accountant in Moonstruck who falls for a one-handed baker. Though exhausted from one of the busiest years of her career, she ultimately took the part, showing up on set just one day after wrapping The Witches of Eastwick. When Moonstruck was done she took a week off before shooting the courtroom drama Suspect. The singer-turned-actress later called making the film, “too silly, too much fun to be work,” and became only the second female performer, alongside Barbra Streisand, to have a #1 hit and an Oscar.
Bloom, Tully, Wallace and Castorini are reel life bookkeepers, but in real life several actors almost chose figures over fame. Bob Newhart worked the ledger books for United States Gypsum and Eddie Izzard studied accountancy at the University of Sheffield.
In “The Accountant” Ben Affleck plays a pocket-protector-wearing forensic bookkeeper who “risks his life cooking the books for some of the scariest people on the planet; drug cartels, arms brokers, money launderers, assassins.” An autistic math genius with a violent side, he survives his dangerous world through dual facilities for math and mayhem.
Affleck is Christian Wolff. By day he’s a small town strip mall CPA, but when the sun goes down his darker side emerges. Working for the worst of the worst he erases money trails and helps bad guys and gals launder money.
Although Christian has trouble relating to people there are several folks who would dearly like to meet him. First is the soon-to-be retired Treasury agent Director Raymond King (J.K. Simmons)—“I was old ten years ago,” he says.”—who assigns financial analyst (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to the case. “He’s like, a CPA accountant?” she asks. “Not quite,” replies agent Ray King (J. K. Simmons) in what might be the understatement of the year.
Just as worrisome, but infinitely deadlier is Braxton (Jon Bernthal), a hitman hired by a robotics company to eliminate Christian and researcher Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick) after they exposed the company’s fraud.
Luckily Christian (or whichever alias he’s using today) is part James Bond, part John Nash. A deadly mix of tactician and mathematician, he balances the books by offing some bad guys. “How does he do that?” asks Braxton. “Hit them over the head with an adding machine?”
There are twists and turns aplenty in “The Accountant” but at its heart the movie is a character study. Affleck, never a particularly animated actor, excels in a role that requires him to stay an arm’s length from people—unless he’s engaged in up-close-and-personal face-to-face combat. He is the film’s core, the center from which everything else revolves.
Sadly everyone else is underused, including Kendrick, Simmons, Lithgow and Tambor. It’s a stellar and seasoned supporting cast but by the end credits it’s clear they exist simply to give Wolff a reason to go on his mission. Addai-Robinson, best known from TV work on shows like “Arrow” and “Chicago Med,” benefits from some extended screen time, although her big scene involves some third act exposition that goes on for much longer than necessary.
“The Accountant” doesn’t add anything to the conversation about autism or how people on the spectrum really lead their lives, but despite longwinded explanations, flashbacks and story swerves, it’s a tautly told story that satisfies as a thriller.
