Posts Tagged ‘Central Intelligence’

CTV NEWS AT SIX: NEW MOVIES AND TV SHOWS TO CHECK OUT THIS WEEKEND!

Richard speaks to “CTV News at Six” anchor Andria Case about the best movies and television to watch this weekend including the poignant coming-of-age drama “Belfast,” the Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot action comedy “Red Notice” and the vicious Hollywood satire “The Beta Test.”

Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 37:35)

RICHARD’S WEEKEND MOVIE REVIEWS FROM CP24! FRIDAY NOVEMBER 12, 2021.

Richard joins CP24 to have a look at new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres including director Kenneth Branagh’s poignant coming-of-age drama “Belfast,” the Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot action comedy “Red Notice, the searing Hollywood satire “The Beta Test” and the literary adaptation “Passing” starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga.

Watch the whole thing HERE!

NEWSTALK 1010: BOOZE AND REVIEWS WITH RICHARD CROUSE ON THE RUSH!

Richard joins guest host Jim Richards and Jay Michaels of the NewsTalk 1010 afternoon show The Rush for Booze and Reviews! Today he talks about the origins of the Irish Coffee, the Kenneth Branagh coming-of-age film “Belfast” and the action comedy “Red Notice” on Netflix!

Listen to the whole thing HERE!

RICHARD’S CTV NEWSCHANNEL REVIEWS FOR NOV. 05 WITH Merella Fernandez.

Richard joins CTV NewsChannel and anchor Merella Fernandez to have a look at new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres including director Kenneth Branagh’s poignant coming-of-age drama “Belfast,” the Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot action comedy “Red Notice” and the literary adaptation “Passing” starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga.

Watch the whole thing HERE!

CFRA IN OTTAWA: THE BILL CARROLL MORNING SHOW MOVIE REVIEWS!

Richard sits in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres, VOD and streaming services including Kenneth Branagh’s poignant coming-of-age drama “Belfast,” the Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot action comedy “Red Notice,” the literary adaptation “Passing” starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga and the Hollywood satire “The Beta Test.”

Listen to the whole thing HERE!

THE SHOWGRAM WITH JIM RICHARDS: DOES RICHARD CROUSE LIKE THESE MOVIES?

Richard joins NewsTalk 1010 guest host David Cooper on the coast-to-coast-to-coast late night “Showgram” to play the game “Did Richard Crouse like these movies?” This week we talk about Kenneth Branagh’s poignant coming-of-age drama “Belfast,” the Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot action comedy “Red Notice” and the literary adaptation “Passing” starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga.

Listen to the whole thing HERE!

RED NOTICE: 3 STARS. “one star each for Reynolds, Gadot and Johnson.”

“Red Notice,” a new globe-trotting crime caper movie starring the powerhouse trio of Ryan Reynolds, Gal Godot and Dwayne Johnson, and now streaming on Netflix, is set against the backdrop of international crime and the theft of priceless, ancient treasures.

The story begins in 30 BC as Roman general and statesman Mark Antony gifts his true love Cleopatra with three gilded eggs. Think Fabergé eggs, only bigger and rarer than rare. Two of them are in private hands but a third disappeared thousands of years ago and now an Egyptian businessman has offered a king’s ransom to anyone who can locate the third egg and reunite it with the others in time for his daughter’s birthday. The promise of a huge payday draw the attraction of two international criminals, the smart-alecky art thief Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds) and the coolly calculating Sarah Black (Gadot), both the subject of the Interpol-issued Red Notice, a warrant for immediate arrest and detention.

Leading the investigation into the theft of the eggs is Inspector Das (Ritu Arya) with FBI profiler Agent John Hartley (Johnson). When Hartley becomes a suspect in the egg heist, he teams with Booth to prove his innocence and bring Black to justice.

“Red Notice” is an odd couple buddy movie that takes advantage of the existing personas of Johnson and Reynolds. Johnson makes full use of his physicality to provide some goofy slapstick while Reynolds displays his way with a one-liner. They click and make the most of the generic action and plot.

It’s also great example of a deeply average movie made enjoyable by its charismatic cast. If you took away The Rock, Van Wilder and Wonder Woman from the screen all you’d have left is an empty heist flick with exotic locations, implausible plot twists and villains right out of Central Casting.

Instead, the trio brings just enough charm and good times to the story to make it a check your brain at the door old fashioned fun and that’s why I gave “Red Notice” three stars, one star each for each of its stars, Reynolds, Gadot and Johnson.

RICHARD’S WEEKEND MOVIE REVIEWS FROM CP24! FRIDAY JUNE 17, 2016.

Screen Shot 2016-06-17 at 2.46.24 PMRichard and CP24 anchor Nneka Elliot talk about the weekend’s four big releases, including “Finding Dory,” the buddy comedy “Central Intelligence” with Duane Johnson and Kevin Hart, and a duo of documentaries, “De Palma,” an unflinching look at the films of Brian De Palma and the self explanatory “Raiders! The Greatest Fan Film Ever Made.”

Watch the whole thing HERE!

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE: 1 STAR. “fails to let us smell what The Rock has cooking.”

Screen Shot 2016-06-11 at 1.07.50 PMThe key to “Central Intelligence,” a new action comedy comedy from “Easy A” director Rawson Marshall Thurber, will be the rapport between stars Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart. Physically they’re Laurel and Hardy, Johnson is at least one foot taller than Hart and weighs a hundred pounds more, but physicality aside, do they have the chemistry to pull this off?

Today Bob Stone (Johnson) is a CIA assassin who bears an uncanny resemblance to wrestler The Rock. He’s a mountain of a man but that wasn’t always the case. In 1996 he was a ninety-pound weakling so teased by his classmates even his principal says, “Well, there’s no coming back from that,” after one particularly humiliating hazing stunt.

On the other end of the high school scale is Calvin Joyner (Hart). Popular, he was homecoming king and voted most likely to succeed. He is, as the principal says, “Everybody’s favourite all round guy.” The future buttoned-down accountant was also the only kid in school to treat Bob with any humanity.

When Bob reconnects with Calvin on Facebook Calvin has a hard time remembering his former classmate. “You lost like two hundred pounds,” he says when they meet in person. Bob is now a CIA agent, but there’s a problem. The agency thinks he has gone rogue and is now a terrorist trying to hawk classified military secrets. To help clear his name Bob enlists Calvin. “Bottom line,” he says, “are you in or are you out?” Calvin wants out. “I thought you’d go, ‘I’m in Bob!’” says Stone, “and we would have a really cool moment but you kind of ruined that.” Of course Calvin is in, otherwise there’d be no action in this comedy.

The good news is Johnson and Hart have chemistry. They click. The bad news is the script doesn’t give them much to work with. There is the occasional funny moment but frankly, “Central Intelligence” rarely garners more than a titter from an audience who want to laugh, who want desperately for Hart to let loose or Johnson to display the kind of comedy chops he’s showed on “Saturday Night Live” and the kind of action aptitude he’s shown, well, everywhere else. Instead we’re handed a tepid action movie with badly choreographed fight scenes, few laughs and anti-bullying pop psychology better suited to an afterschool special.

What could have been a vehicle that played up to its star’s strengths is little more than a generic action flick that fails to let us smell what the Rock has cooking.