I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Akshay Tandon to talk about the new releases in theatres, including the live-action “Moana,” the sport comedy “Racewalkers” and the wacky “Wizard of Oz” homage “Gail Daughtery and the Celebrity Sex Pass.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to drink a Mai Tai. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the live-action “Moana,” the sport comedy “Racewalkers” and the wacky “Wizard of Oz” homage “Gail Daughtery and the Celebrity Sex Pass.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass,” Zoey Deutch plays a Midwestern hairdresser who travels to Hollywood in search of her “celebrity sex pass” after her fiancée hooks up with an a-lister.
CAST: Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Ben Wang, Sabrina Impacciatore, Jon Hamm, Weird Al” Yankovic, Henry Winkler, Elizabeth Perkins. Directed by David Wain.
REVIEW: A Hollywood farce that mistakes sincerity and commitment-to-the-bit for humor, “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” stretches its “Wizard of Oz” parody to the breaking point.
The idea of a celebrity hall pass is simple. An agreement between couples, it allows both partners to get a one-time “pass” to sleep with a specific celebrity without it counting as cheating.
It’s a simple and fun hypothetical unless it actually happens.
That’s the case in “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass.” Small town Kansas woman Gail (Zoey Deutch) and her fiancé, Tom’s (Michael Cassidy) relationship is put into doubt when the unlikely happens, and Tom meets and has relations with his celebrity pass, Jennifer Aniston, who plays herself.
Gail decides she must “even the scales.”
“I had a celebrity free pass thing with my fiancé,” she says, “but he took it literally. So now I need to have sex with Jon Hamm to even up the score and save my relationship.”
On her quest for some “Hammertime,” Gail and BFF Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) travel to Los Angeles in what becomes a loose riff on “The Wizard of Oz,” complete with stand-ins for Toto, The Tin Man, The Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow and, of course, Jon Hamm as The Wizard.
Along the way they’re joined aspiring talent agent Caleb (Ben Wang), a paparazzo (Ken Marino) whose lifelong dream is to get a candid snap of Jon Hamm, Hamm’s former “Mad Man” co-star John Slattery who plays a comedic version of himself as an out-of-work, down-on-his-luck actor whose texts to Hamm always go unanswered, and a group of assassins (Sabrina Impacciatore, Joe Lo Truglio, Mather Zickel).
“Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” travels its own Yellow Brick Road in search of whimsy. It’s light and frothy, a nonsensical collection of scenes performed in a heightened, upbeat way, by a cast who energetically commits to the general ludicrous tone of the piece.
The consistent tone, however, when amplified, doesn’t have enough variance from scene to scene to hold interest.
That the cast are stymied by a script that leans into its absurdist style more than presenting genuinely funny moments blunts the film’s effectiveness.
The satire of celebrity culture and the chasm between Hollywood and the small-town Gail, representing Anytown USA, should have provided fertile ground but, time after time, the script, written by director David Wain and co-star Ken Marino, goes for silly over sentiment or any kind of satire with real bite. The result is a film that wastes a hall pass.
SYNOPSIS: Based on a Stephen King novel (written under the alias Richard Bachman) of the same name, “The Long Walk” is set in a world so hopeless that, ironically, a march to the death is the only option to obtain a better life. “One winner,” says the Major (Mark Hamill), “no finish line.”
CAST: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Roman Griffin Davis, Jordan Gonzalez, Josh Hamilton, Judy Greer, and Mark Hamill. Directed by JT Mollner.
REVIEW: “The Long Walk” covers a lot of ground. The story of march to the death is a harrowing look at authoritarianism and the extremes that despairing people will go in search of hope.
Set in a dystopian United States after a war has left the country struggling financially under a totalitarian government, the film centers around a televised endurance contest meant to inspire work ethic in the downtrodden public. Like “The Hunger Games,” but without the costumes or folk songs, the titular walk sees fifty young men volunteer to, as the Major (Mark Hamill) says, “walk until there’s only one of you left.”
“Anyone can win if you don’t give up!”
Fall behind or failed to keep pace you get a ticket, as in, get your ticket punched.
As the title suggests, “The Long Walk” is just that, a long walk punctuated by character insights, explosive diarrhea and the odd gunshot. It’s a horrifying situation, but despite King’s name attached to the project, this isn’t a horror film. There are no jump scares, nothing supernatural—unless you regard the walker’s ability to stay awake for five days on their 300-mile marathon as mystical—and the only monster comes in the form of a very human, totalitarian ruler known as The Major.
With a minimum of fuss director Francis Lawrence, who directed three of the “Hunger Games” movies, presents the story for what it is, a talky literary adaptation. The characters put one foot in front of the other and speak reams of dialogue, but Lawrence trusts the material to organically provide intensity as the audience gets to know and become involved in the lives and deaths of the characters.
It’s an ensemble piece, with a large cast of Hollywood up-and-comers like Tut Nyuot and Charlie Plummer, but it’s Cooper Hoffman as the resilient Raymond Garraty and David Jonsson as the loyal Peter McVries that stand out. They become the de facto leaders of the Walkers, and the guides who remind us that there are humans at the heart of the movie’s dehumanizing ordeal. Although they come to the Walk with differing motives, as friendship blossoms between Ray and Peter it suggests other King relationships born out of adversity, like John Coffey and Paul Edgecomb in “The Green Mile” or “The Shawshank Redemption’s” Andy Dufresne and Ellis “Red” Redding. Their connection and empathy stand in stark contrast to the bleak backdrop of the Walk.
“The Long Walk” may be overlong and Hamill is one note in his portrayal of evil, but in the telling of the tale is a relentless intensity that builds until the film’s final, explosive moments.
SYNOPSIS: Set three years after the events of “Cobra Kai,” “Karate Kid: Legends,” the sixth film in “The Karate Kid” franchise, sees teenage kung fu prodigy Li Fong (Ben Wang) and his mother relocate to New York City from Beijing, China after a family tragedy. Li befriends classmate Mia Lipani (Sadie Stanley) and her pizzeria owner father, which puts him in the crosshairs of Mia’s ex-boyfriend, aggressive karate champ Connor Day (Aramis Knight). Challenged to a karate showdown, Li trains with kung fu teacher, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), and the original Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) to prepare. “Li is to me what you meant to Sensei Miyagi,” Mr. Han says to Daniel LaRusso.
CAST: Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio, Ben Wang, Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, Ming-Na Wen. Directed by Jonathan Entwistle.
REVIEW: At a tight 90 minutes, the new movie in the “Karate Kid” franchise doesn’t attempt to reinvent the wheel. Essentially a remake of the original film, it treads a familiar path with a simple feel-good story of an underdog and a bully.
“Karate Kid: Legends” is formulaic, predictable and leans heavily into fan service, but in this case, familiarity doesn’t breed contempt. Director Jonathan Entwistle rushes through the narrative, attempting to deepen the story with a tragic history for Li Fong and his mother, a budding romance and a shake-down gang story. None of them are particularly well developed—although as Li and Mia, Ben Wang and Sadie Stanley have good chemistry—and all serve essentially as McGuffins to point the plot in the direction of Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio and the film’s climatic showdown between Li and his nemesis, a one-dimensional Karate expert named Connor (Aramis Knight).
The presence of Chan and Macchio goes a long way to make up for the film’s complete lack of innovation. As Li’s mentors they bring humour and a warm nostalgic feel. Like so many of the film’s elements, they’re underused—Why wouldn’t they examine the parallel life paths of Li and the original Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso?—but when they are onscreen the movie perks up.
“Karate Kid: Legends” isn’t a great movie. Six movies in, it feels as repetitive as the endless “jacket on, jacket off” training Mr. Han subjects Li to throughout. It’s a film that could have gone directly to streaming, but its short runtime doesn’t overstay its welcome, and the classic underdog story still works, even if it feels a bit frayed around the edges.
