I join CTV Atlantic anchor Todd Battis to talk about the action comedy “The Accountant 2,” the David Cronenberg movie “The Shrouds,” the stoner documentary “Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie” and the family fantasy film “The Legend of Ochi.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I joined CP24 Breakfast to have a look at new movies coming to theatres, including Ben Affleck in “The Accountant 2,” David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds,” the documentary “Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie” and the family fantasy “The Legend of Ochi.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including Ben Affleck in “The Accountant 2,” David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds,” the documentary “Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie” and the family fantasy “The Legend of Ochi.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to roll a joint! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds,” the documentary “Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie” and the family fantasy “The Legend of Ochi.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” for “Booze & Reviews!” This week I review the documentary “Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie” and talk about a new Stevie Nicks album and Cameron Crowe’s new book about old interviews!
Listen as Shane and I talk about Stevie Nick’s new album inspired by Prince HERE!
Then, on Booze & Reviews listen as I talk about THC inspired cocktails HERE!
SYNOPSIS: A look back at the 50-year career of Cheech & Chong, the duo Lou Adler called “the first rock ‘n’ roll comedians,” “Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie” takes us from their beginnings in Vancouver to, as they say in the movie, “two guys with a bag of Goodwill clothes and one roadie living the rock and roll life.”
CAST: Tommy Chong, Cheech Marin, Lou Adler, Geraldo Rivera. Directed by David Bushell.
REVIEW: “So, is this a documentary or a movie?” Chong asks at one point. It’s a good question. The film uses elements of traditional documentary filmmaking, but director David Bushell isn’t afraid to use staged scenes to move the story along.
The hybrid style provides an in-depth look at the origins of the duo’s stoner comedy, their time at the top, and the creative frictions that caused an acrimonious split in the 1980s.
It’s a detailed time capsule, that leaves no stone unturned, no roach un-toked. The approach is supported by archival material, animation, fresh interviews and some connective new material of Cheech & Chong riffing while driving through the desert.
Casual fans—ie, those who don’t know who the prissy Sister Mary Elephant is—may get bogged down but for the duo’s hardcores the timeline provides interesting insight into how the pair’s various skill sets dovetailed into the hippie stoner style that made them famous.
Chong’s stagecraft and Cheech’s social awareness combined to create a male double act for their time, like a countercultural Abbott and Costello, or anti-authority Laurel and Hardy.
Along the way are insights into how they created their most famous sketches, like the improvised “Dave’s Not Here,” how a wild ride with Jack Nicholson inspired “Basketball Jones” and how George Harrison ended up playing guitar on that record. They’re fun stories but the compelling info comes later when Bushell delves into their financial and creative partnership.
After signing a bad deal with producer Lou Adler—”We got a pair of lime green shoes out of it,” Cheech says of the $100 box office of their film” Up In Smoke.”—the “Freaks of Frivolity” took control of the career even as they began to drift apart. “The essential part of what was funny never changed,” says Cheech. “What changed was who got to decide what was funny.”
What emerges in this segment is a, shall I say, sober contemplation on how their evolving roles within their partnership broke them up. The hurt from that time reverberates through their contemporary interactions. Bushell captures the easy chemistry between the two, in the old and new footage, but when the tensions arise, the pain is palpable.
“Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie” ends with their career divorce, giving short shrift to the decades of sporadic reunions, trouble with the law (Chong spent 9 months in federal prison for trafficking in illegal drug paraphernalia) and, most importantly, placing them into cultural context. As counter cultural icons, they deserve more than a quick montage over the final credits—including Chong’s stint on “Dancing with the Stars”—to define their effect on comedy. Nonetheless, it’s an enjoyable walk down memory lane with two fun tour guides.
In Hollywood he last name Farrelly comes with expectations. As a duo, the Farrelly brothers, Peter and Bobby, were mainstays of big-screen gross-out comedies with titles like “Me, Myself & Irene” and “There’s Something About Mary” decorating their IMDB page.
On his own, eldest brother Peter scored big with “Green Book,” an earnest film whose depiction of race relations in 1960s America won three Oscars, but was a step away from the kind of work that made him famous.
This weekend, younger brother Bobby strikes out on his own with “Champions.” A remake of a 2018 Goya Award winning Spanish film, the new version starring Woody Harrelson, now playing in theatres, is neither as funny as his early work or as Oscar-baity as his brother’s solo debut.
The action begins at a J League, Iowa Stallions basketball game. The clock is counting down when Coach Phil (Ernie Hudson) makes a call that irks assistant coach, and basketball know-it-all Marcus (Harrelson).
“He knows the game better than anyone I’ve ever known or played with,” says Phil, “but he doesn’t know the players.”
As usual, the hot-headed Marcus lets his temper gets the best of him and he pushes Phil to the ground. Fired, he drowns his sorrows at a bar, gets arrested and is sentenced to ninety days Community Service coaching the “Friends,” a b’ball team of adults with intellectual disabilities at a local rec center.
With an eye toward competing in the Special Olympics, Marcus teaches the team as they teach him to see the players for who they really are, and not just for their skill set on the court.
“Champions” is a very specific story about Marcus’s redemption via a team that teaches him the true meaning of what it means to be a team, but in its specificity, it becomes an open-hearted, universal tale of the power of respect and acceptance. And fart and barf gags because, this is, after all, a Farrelly movie.
It is also a Farrelly movie in the way it treats its characters. The film was shot in Manitoba and cast through St. Amant, a non-profit organization that works with Manitobans who live with developmental disabilities and autism. Echoing past movies like “Stuck on You” and “There’s Something About Mary,” Farrelly wisely makes the young actors who make up the team the film’s beating heart. He treats them with respect while allowing them to carry a large part of the story.
Even though the story was inspired by the Aderes team in Burjassot who won twelve Spanish championships between 1999 and 2014, “Champions” is predictable. You can guess that, win or lose, Marcus will be as affected by the team as they are by him, so it’s about the journey, not the destination, and Farrelly has cast well, choosing actors we get invested in. Harrelson brings edge and warmth, and Kaitlin Olson, as Marcus’s sorta-kinda love interest has edge and compassion. Everyone in the film is a champion in their own way but it is the Friends who make this a winning film.
Jennifer Lopez walks a similar path to Marie Osmond in “Jenny from the Block’s” new Amazon Prime action comedy. Marie is a little bit country, and a little bit rock ‘n roll, while “Shotgun Wedding” showcases Jennifer’s duality, a little bit of amore, and a little bit of adrenaline.
When we first meet Darcy (Lopez) and Tom (Josh Duhamel) it is the night before their elaborate Philippine destination wedding. Family and friends, played by funny people like Jennifer Coolidge, Cheech Marin, D’Arcy Carden and Sônia Braga, and Darcy’s hunky ex-boyfriend (Lenny Kravitz), come from far and wide to celebrate the big day.
“I’ve been looking forward to this moment,” says Carol (Coolidge), “since Tommy was cut out of my belly.”
Trouble is, Tom is too focused on the details. In his effort to make everything seamless, he overlooks the most important element of the day, his bride-to-be. “What if the wedding isn’t perfect? What if your parents never like me?”
As friction develops between the couple, on another part of the island the entire wedding party is taken hostage by pirates who want the fortune held by the bride’s father.
Separated from the group, the couple must play a dangerous game of till death do us part to save their loved ones and their relationship.
“This weekend hasn’t exactly gone to plan,” Tom says. “Pirates chasing you wasn’t on your vision board” replies Darcy.
“Shotgun Wedding” is a bit of a rollercoaster, and not in a good way. A jumbled mix of slapstick and action, of comedy and relationship drama, it careens through the story so quickly, with no tether to any kind of reality, that it becomes positively whiplash inducing.
Despite the likability of the topline cast, it feels as though it mixes the worst elements from the various genres that make up the story. A combination of the predictability of a rom com and some lame, light action (although a surprisingly high body count for a wedding movie), it has a bit of everything except suspense or deep laughs.
Depending on which way you look at “The War with Grandpa,” a new family comedy starring Robert De Niro and now playing in theatres, it’s either about a child trying to assert some kind of control in his life or a gruesome exposé of elder abuse.
Based on the children’s book of the same name by Robert Kimmel Smith, “The War with Grandpa” is far more family-friendly than “Dirty Grandpa,” De Niro’s other ancestral comedy. The Oscar winning actor plays Ed, an old codger who gets arrested after causing a scene at the self check out at his local grocery store.
Widowed and out of step with the times—he can’t figure out how to swipe on an iPhone—his daughter Sally (Uma Thurman) decides it’s time he moved in with her family, husband Arthur (Rob Riggle) their two daughters and son Peter (Oakes Fegley). Trouble is, there’s no room. Grandpa can’t handle the stairs to the basement apartment. Ditto the attic loft so Peter is forced to give up his room and he’s not happy about it. The youngster declares war, pulling a series of escalating pranks on his grandfather designed to force him out of the room. Trouble is, grandpa fights back. “We’re in the middle of a turf war over a bedroom,” Ed says.
“The War with Grandpa” is part “Home Alone,” part “Jackass” but with an old guy. The warfare consists of slapstick gags mixed with the story’s easy sentimentality—Peter says, “I love you grandpa… but the war is still on.”—and adult diaper jokes. In other words, it is exactly what you imagine it will be.
De Niro does a riff on his tough guy persona, tempered with age and humour, that the film hopes will inevitably become endearing. That there are no surprises will be comforting to some happy to see old school stars like De Niro, Thurman, Cheech Marin, Christopher Walken (whose collective careers don’t exactly scream family entertainment unless you are the Addams Family) and Jane Seymour have some juvenile, if forgettable, good fun on screen. Just don’t expect anything you haven’t seen before, except, perhaps the tacked on anti-war message near the end.
“The War with Grandpa” is a harmless family film but the movie lover in me couldn’t help but cringe just a bit watching “The Deer Hunter” co-stars De Niro and Walken return to battle against a bunch of tweens.
