On the Saturday April 12, 2025 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet artist and musician Sean Ono Lennon. A new documentary called “One to One: John & Yoko,” is a look at New York City in the early 1970s through the actions of two of its most famous residents, John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Newly restored footage, with remastered audio overseen by Sean Ono Lennon, of John Lennon’s only full-length, post-Beatles concert is intercut with talk show appearance, home movies and news accounts to create a sense of time and place. In this conversation we talk about the film and how, for Sean, working on it is “almost like getting more time with my dad.”
Then, we’ll meet the creative team behind an intense new film called “Warfare.” Based on ex-Navy Seal Ray Mendoza’s real-life experiences during the Iraq War, “Warfare” is a harrowing portrait of modern warfare that sees a platoon of American Navy SEALs in battle with enemy combatants. On this show we meet co-directors Alex Garland and Rayn Mendoza and star D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai.
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
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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 gritty “Warfare” and then answer the question, How did an army captain inspire a classic cocktail?
Listen as Shane and I talk about KFC flavoured toothpaste and the chicken jockey phenomenon HERE!
Then, on Booze & Reviews listen as I talk about how an army captain inspired a classic cocktail HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to do a high five! Have a look as I race against the clock to pickup what “Drop” is putting down, and tell you about the dramas “Warfare” and “The Amateur.”
SYNOPSIS: Based on ex-Navy Seal Ray Mendoza’s real-life experiences during the Iraq War, “Warfare, now playing in theatres, is a harrowing portrait of modern warfare that sees a platoon of American Navy SEALs in battle with enemy combatants.
CAST: D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Taylor John Smith, Michael Gandolfini. Directed by Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland.
REVIEW: “Warfare” is not a movie you “enjoy.” It’s one you experience.
Created from the memories of the actual combatants, “Warfare” is a gut-wrenching recreation of the Navy SEALs who oversaw the movement of U.S. forces through insurgent territory in Iraq in 2006.
It’s a visceral slice-of-life-and-death that strips away all the pretence of war movies by highlighting the sacrifices made by the Seals. The up-close-and-personal combat sequences provide an interesting take on warfare. The battle scenes are visceral, “you-are-there” in nature, with visuals of dismembered limbs and carnage that would make Hieronymus Bosch turn his face away, but it is the portrait of the personal toll paid by the soldiers that resonates.
The first half hour is all about quiet, nervous expectation as the soldiers prepare for the onslaught to come. Once shots are exchanged, it becomes a visceral, boots-on-the-ground story of modern warfare, told in real time.
A bomb blast leaves soldiers on fire, mutilated and screaming in agony. These scenes, which make up the majority of the film’s running time, are gorier than most horror films and left me jarred, unable to shake the intensity of the experience.
Am I glad I saw “Warfare”? Yes. Would I want to sit through it again? Hell no. It’s an antiwar film that very effectively makes its point by immersing the viewer in a world of violence. Not an easy watch, but it isn’t meant to be.
Two film critics, three movies, thirty seconds! Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as me and myself review three movies in less time than it takes to chew a stick of Doublemint gum! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about twofold De Niros in “The Alto Knights,” the return of “Snow White” and the dramedy “Bob Trevino Likes It.”
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” for “Booze & Reviews!” This week I review Robert De Niro’s “Klump” style performance in “The Alto Knights” and open Al Capone’s cocktail vault.
Listen to Shane and I talk about how Michael Fassbender’s 007 audition resulted in Daniel Craig getting the gig HERE!
What cocktail did Al Capone order after a day of mayhem and murder? The answer may surpriuse you. Listen to “Booze & Reviews” and find out!
SYNOPSIS: Set in the 1950s, and based on a true story, “The Alto Knights” stars Robert De Niro in the double role of gangsters Frank Costello and Vito Genovese and their battle to control the streets of New York City.
CAST: Robert De Niro, Debra Messing, Cosmo Jarvis, Kathrine Narducci, and Michael Rispoli. Directed by Barry Levinson.
REVIEW: A story of friendship and betrayal, “The Alto Knights” is the tale of gangsters Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, one a violent hothead, the other a cautious diplomat, both played by Robert De Niro.
Director Barry Levinson keeps De Niro busy, but this isn’t exactly “Nutty Professor II: The Klumps,” which saw Eddie Murphy play five of the Klump family members in the same scene. De Niro is the star X 2 of the show, the fourth wall-breaking narrator, and even appears as the de-aged Costello.
It’s a whole lotta De Niro, which his fans may enjoy, but you can’t help but think he’s breathing new life into two old characters.
His Frank Costello plays like “Casino’s” Sam “Ace” Rothstein with a few years more experience while his Vito Genovese feels like a riff on Joe Pesci “Goodfellas” role. It’s a fun gimmick, but De Niro’s double the fun approach doesn’t add much to the film overall.
De Niro differentiates the two characters with vocal inflections, and Vito usually wears a hat, but other than that and their temperaments, it’s sometimes difficult to keep track of who is who.
Written by Nicholas Pileggi, whose book “Wiseguy” was the basis for “Goodfellas,” it covers familiar ground. According to IMDB, the rivalry between Costello and Genovese, and the resulting busts at the famed The Apalachin mob boss meeting, have been part of no less than 22 other productions.
A deeper dive into their relationship as kids and ultimately, their Cain and Abel conflict—we are mostly told about the past through Costello’s expository narration—may have freshened things up, raised the stakes to and turned “The Alto Knights” into a human drama of power and betrayal rather than a retelling of a shop-worn tale.
“The Alto Knights” is a slick movie, with nice period details, but the shallow look at the relationships of the protagonists and a repetitive, drawn-out script blunts the power of the story.
On the Saturday April 12, 2025 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet artist and musician Sean Ono Lennon. A new documentary called “One to One: John & Yoko,” is a look at New York City in the early 1970s through the actions of two of its most famous residents, John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Newly restored footage, with remastered audio overseen by Sean Ono Lennon, of John Lennon’s only full-length, post-Beatles concert is intercut with talk show appearance, home movies and news accounts to create a sense of time and place. In this conversation we talk about the film and how, for Sean, working on it is “almost like getting more time with my dad.”
