Richard joins CP24 to pay tribute to Sidney Poitier and have a look at new movies coming to VOD and streaming services including the animated sequel “Hotel Transylvania: Transformania,” the home invasion thriller “See for Me” and the dystopian drama “Mother/Android.”
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, VOD and streaming services including the animated sequel “Hotel Transylvania: Transformania,” the home invasion thriller “See for Me” and the dystopian drama “Mother/Android.”
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 these movies?” This week we talk about the animated sequel “Hotel Transylvania: Transformania,” the home invasion thriller “See for Me” and the dystopian drama “Mother/Android.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Imagine a near future where androids co-exist with people. That’s the way “Mother/Android,” the new Netflix post-apocalyptic thriller starring Chloë Grace Moretz, begins.
Human in appearance—think “The Terminator” but without the muscles—the droids are mostly support staff, serving drinks at parties and working as household help. All is hunky dory until the robots blow a gasket and turn on their human counterparts. “They’re not supposed to be able to do that!” shrieks one victim. “They are programmed not to be able to do that.”
We first meet Georgia (Moretz), a young pregnant woman, enjoying a Christmas party with her boyfriend Sam (Algee Smith) and some others when a robot waiter short circuits and attacks the partygoers. And the murderous bot isn’t alone; he’s part of an A.I. apocalypse happening across the country.
Jump cut to nine months later. Georgia’s baby is overdue and she and Sam, like so many others, were forced to flee from cities to the relative safety of rural military camps where electromagnetic transmitters provide protection from rampaging robots.
But it’s a losing battle. “I’m fighting a war here against an enemy that literally never sleeps,” says the camp leader.
In a last-ditch effort to find a safe place for their baby to grow up, Georgia and Sam plan to leave the United States for Korea, where the robots haven’t taken over. First though, they must traverse the dangerous No Man’s Land, the deadly wilderness between them and safe passage out of the country.
“Mother/Android” made me wonder whether a twist is still a twist if you can see it coming a mile away. No spoilers here, but as an audience we’ve seen a lot of post-apocalyptic movies in the last decade or so, and, I would guess, so has writer-director Mattson Tomlin. Much of the imagery and general idea of a folks on the run from some sort of catastrophe are familiar, and feel borrowed from other movies. The twist will be predictable to fans of the genre, adding to the movie’s generic feel.
Moretz is the best thing about “Mother/Android.” She brings a steeliness and vulnerability to Georgia’s story of resilience and survival as the movie plods around her. A third character, whose intentions are not immediately clear, appears midway (AGAIN, NO SPOILERS HERE) and spices things up a bit, but even that doesn’t get the blood pumping.
“Mother/Android” feels like the love child of “Children of Men,” “The Terminator” and “A Quiet Place” and, as such, commits the biggest sins of speculative fiction—it’s short on originality and long on derivative ideas.
Richard joins NewsTalk 1010 host Jim Richards 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 to talk about the much anticipated “Sopranos” prequel “The Many Saints of Newark,” the latest adventures of the Gomez, Morticia and Company in the animated “The Addams Family 2” and the Jake Gyllenhaal thriller “The Guilty.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
The weird and wonderful Addams Family, Gomez (Oscar Isaac), Morticia (Charlize Theron), Wednesday (Chloë Grace Moretz), Pugsley (Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton) and their chrome domed Uncle Fester (Nick Kroll), are just like any other family. Sure, they live in a house of horrors and are “mysterious and spooky and all together ooky,” but underneath it all, they are a regular, loving family.
The latest instalment in their lengthy documentation of family life, the animated “The Addams Family 2,” now playing in theatres and premium VOD, sees Gomez and Morticia, like so many parents, concerned that their kids are growing up too fast.
The action begins at Wednesday’s high school science fair. When she only earns a participation award for her project—transferring octopus intelligence into her Uncle Fester—she becomes more withdrawn than usual. To bring the family back together, Gomez and Morticia plan a family road trip to—where else?—Death Valley.
Along the way complications arise, including Cyrus Strange (Wallace Shawn, son of editor William Shawn who ran the Addams Family cartoons for decades in the pages of the New Yorker), an evil scientist who convinces Wednesday she is not really part of the Addams Family.
“The Addams Family 2” has top flight voice work from Isaac, Theron and especially Moretz, who nails the detached but spirited tone of her death-obsessed character. Her empowerment—”I’m not a freak,” she says, “I’m a force of nature.”—will also likely strike a chord with anyone who has felt like an outsider.
What the film doesn’t nail, however, is that Addams Family X-factor, the sense of gleeful dread. This is mainstream family animation, padded with songs and dance numbers, that smooths out the offbeat, macabre heart and soul of the source material. It’s goofy, not ooky, with none of the eccentric charm of the 1960s TV show.
Directors Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon bring a light touch to the story, where none was needed.
Richard speaks to “CTV News at 11:30” anchor Andria Bain about movies on VOD and in theatres to watch this weekend including Chloë Grace Moretz’s action thriller “Shadow in the Cloud” and the poignant documentary “Sing Me a Song.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 24:18)
Richard sits in on the CTV NewsChannel with host Anita Sharma to have a look at the new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres including Chloë Grace Moretz’s action thriller “Shadow in the Cloud” and the poignant documentary “Sing Me a Song.” Then we look at the top five movies to stream right now!
Watch the whole thing HERE!
A tribute to the pulpy adventure movies of the 1940s by way of “The Twilight Zone,” “Shadow in the Cloud,” now in select theaters and on VOD and digital, is a popcorn movie, for better and for worse.
Chloë Grace Moretz is strong willed Women’s Auxiliary Air Force officer Maude Garrett. The only female presence on a massive B-17 Flying Fortress military plane, her mission is to protect, at all costs, a precious piece of cargo but the chauvinistic attitude of the male crew makes the job next to impossible. Stuck in a turret in the belly of the plane, Garrett has an almost unobstructed, 360° view of their airspace. When she reports a “shadow in the clouds,” a possible enemy attack, she is ignored. When airborne gremlins (you read that right) attack, she is blamed. “Whatever is in that package,” the men say, “is what’s causing the failures on this plane.”
Cue the first of the movie’s outrageous twists.
The first half of “Shadow in the Cloud” is a showcase for Moretz. For much of the film’s running time it’s a one person show, with the “Kick Ass” star strapped into a gunner’s turret, spewing hardboiled dialogue. She’s energetic, holding the screen with sheer force of personality. Garrett even finds room in the generic 1940s style cliched dialogue to convincingly poke through the veneer of chauvinism from her plane mates.
The second half is frenetic, with airborne action and Gremlins! Gremlins! Gremlins! The movie becomes less character driven and more a vehicle for director Roseanne Liang’s prowess with a camera.
Each half has its strengths, but they are bound together by twists that would make even M. Night Shyamalan shake his head. There are logic holes big enough for a B-17 Flying Fortress to soar through which would be OK if the twists didn’t feel tacked on for the sake of shaking things up.
At just 83-minutes offers up two movies and while there are moments of interest in the busy second half, the film is strongest when Moretz is on screen alone, before the film’s twists tie it into a Gordian knot.
