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 tell you about the romantic entanglements of “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy,” the adorable “Paddington in Peru” and the new MCU offering “Captain America: Brave New World.”
Watych the whole thing HERE!
I join the CTV NewsChannel to talk about the new MCU offering “Captain America: Brave New World,” the adorable “Paddington in Peru,” the romantic entanglements of “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” and the sci fi love story “The Gorge.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: Renee Zellweger returns as the title character in “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.” In this romantic comedy, now streaming on Prime Video, Bridget finds herself widowed with two children and a job as a television producer. Four years after the death of her beloved husband Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), she decides to restart her life, and meets a much younger man.
CAST: Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Leo Woodall, Isla Fisher, Josette Simon, Nico Parker and Leila Farzad. Directed by Michael Morris.
REVIEW: The general rule of thumb for sequels is that the further you get away from the source, the worse the movies get. The first cut is almost always the deepest, and while there are exceptions, by the time you get to the fourth movie and twenty-fourth year of a franchise, it’s all about diminishing returns.
One cinematic guest who hasn’t worn out their welcome, however, is Bridget Jones as played by Renée Zellweger. Since 2001 at the movies (and 1995 in Helen Fielding’s article and books) her quirky, and often messy, romantic adventures have entertained without a trace of sequelitis.
The new film, “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” sees Bridget restart her romantic life after the death of her husband. “It’s time to live,” she writes in her famous diary.
Of course, there are complications. It wouldn’t be a Bridget Jones movie without them.
The awkward Bridget never met an embarrassing situation she couldn’t amplify, and lip filler is definitely not her thing. Those slapstick moments provide the nostalgic blast of the old Bridget we’ve come to expect, as do cameos by series regulars like Hugh Grant, as aging playboy Daniel Stern (who teaches Bridget’s kids to make a cocktail called a Bad Mommy) and Dame Emma Thompson as Bridget’s friend and gynecologist, but this time around it’s the story’s more poignant aspects that resonate.
Bridget Jones has grown up, somewhat, and so have the movies. This time around there is a melancholy vibe, the result of Mr. Darcy’s passing, and Bridget’s difficulties navigating life as a single mother.
The callbacks to the other movies serve as a reminder of how long we’ve been part of Bridget’s life. And while “Mad About the Boy” is loaded with familiar jokes and echoes the first film in terms of its romantic entanglements (no spoilers here), it is in its examinations of what it means to move on and maybe even find happiness, without leaving the past and someone you love completely behind, that it tills fresh ground. It’s a welcome new chapter for Bridget and for those of us who have known her for almost a quarter century.
“What’s Love Got to Do with It,” starring Lily James, fresh off “Pam and Tommy,” and Shazad Latif, and now playing in theatres, is a rom com that examines the customs surrounding arranged marriages.
James plays Zoe, an award-winning British documentary filmmaker focussed on her work. She swipes right from time to time, but says, “I’m still interviewing. I haven’t met the one yet.”
“I’m fine without a boring old prince,” she says.
Her childhood next door neighbor, Kaz (Latif), now a handsome and successful doctor, doesn’t use dating apps, because he’s agreed to follow the example of his traditional Pakistani parents.
“I’m going old school on this one,” he says. “I’m getting an arranged marriage. Well, ‘assisted marriage.’ That’s what we’re calling it these days.”
“What,” Zoe jokes, “like assisted suicide?”
When he spouts data that suggests the divorce rate is lower among those with arranged marriages, she proposes that she follow the process, from introduction to marriage, with camera in hand. Her bosses go for the idea, even if they jokingly call the planned documentary, “Love Contractually.”
Zoe interviews other British couples with arranged marriages until Kaz gets engaged via Skype to Maymouna (Sajal Aly), a law student from Pakistan. “Love at first Skype,” says Zoe. Travelling to Lahore for the wedding, Zoe focuses her camera on Kaz as he “walks into love.”
“What’s Love Got to Do with it?” refreshes the usual rom com formula while still hewing the line enough to be recognizable within the genre. Director Shekhar Kapur, working with a script from Jemima Khan, embraces most, but not all, of the tropes of the genre. They forgo the most obvious—and often most odious—rom com conventions, in favor of something deeper. It’s still a rom com, but the absence of the usual meet cutes and airport runs are welcome omissions.
Kapur tugs at the heartstrings in the film’s closing moments, amping up the melodrama to provide an unexpectedly emotional finale, even if the actual ending of the film is completely expected. Much of that impact is due to the chemistry between James and Latif. An easy charm exists between them, the kind of vibe that makes the audience feel like they really did grow up next door to one another. That relationship goes a long way to adding dimension to their story, both platonic and possibly even romantic.
“What’s Love Got to Do with It?” is an elevated rom com which challenges the idea of love as a sweet old-fashioned notion.
Richard joins Ryan Doyle and Jay Michaels of the NewsTalk 1010 afternoon show to talk about the history of 007’s other favourite drink, the Vesper, some Oscar news and reviews of “Cruella” and “Moby Doc.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Richard Crouse makes a Salty Dog, the perfect cocktail to enjoy while paying tribute to animal actor stars of “Cruella,” the latest Disney live-action reboot. Come have a drink and a think about “Cruella” with us!
Watch the whole thing HERE!
“Cruella,” now available in select theatres and on Disney+ with Premier Access, is an origin story that explains the reason why one of Disney’s greatest villains hates Dalmatians.
One eventful day defined Estella’s (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland) life. In less than twenty-four hours, the precious preteen with the distinctive mop of black and white hair, got kicked out of an upscale private school, snuck into a fashion show and thought, “for the first time in my life, I feel like I belong,“ and developed a lifelong hatred of Dalmatians. I won’t say why, but she does have a good reason to harbor animosity toward the spotted dogs. Most tragically, she lost her mother that same day.
Cut loose and alone, she lands in 1964 London. Falling in with petty thieves Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser), Estella (now played by Emma Stone) forms an impromptu family, pulling off scams using disguises designed and made by her own hand.
Still, she’s not satisfied. “I want to be a professional designer,” she says, “not a thief.”
Securing an entry level job at an upscale department store, she gets the attention of The Baroness (Emma Thompson), a cruel, imperious clothing designer who says things like, “Gratitude is for losers.” She is the undisputed matriarch London fashion and will crush anyone who gets in her way.
As Estella rises through the ranks, she becomes aware of a connection between The Baroness and the death of her mother. Until then, she believed she was responsible for her mother’s passing and had gone through the five stages of grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Now she adds a sixth stage, revenge.
“I’m starting to remember that you have an extreme side,” says Estella’s old friend Anita Darling (Kirby Howell-Baptiste).
Determined to ruin The Baroness, break her spirit, her confidence and her business. Estella creates an alter ego, the disruptive Cruella. In a series of staged public stunts Cruella humiliates The Baroness and becomes the darling of the fashion world. “Some call her a designer,” a TV talking head breathlessly reports, “some call her a vandal.”
As the “mad, bad and just a little bit sad” Cruella’s antics escalate, Estella’s personality grows fainter. “I’m not sweet Estella, try as I might. I’m Cruella.”
“Cruella” has lots going for it. Great costume design, a rippin’ soundtrack and arch attitude, but by the time the end credits roll, it is all about the dueling Emmas, Stone and Thompson.
“Wow,” says Cruella. “You really are a psycho. “How nice of you to say,” The Baroness snaps back.
Both hand in flamboyant performances that capture the wickedly humorous tone of the story.
Stone’s performance straddles the line between her two characters as Estella’s attempts to fit into the regular world fade, as bits and pieces of Cruella’s anything goes mentality filter through until she goes full-on baddie. The punk rock-glam inspired clothes help in the transformation, but the heart comes from Stone, who does something difficult, bring a tragic heart to a villain.
As The Baroness, Thompson is the is the Queen of the Side Eye. It’s a wonderfully comedic performance, equal parts disdain, evil and ridiculous, she redefines arrogance. Think “The Devil Wears Prada” with a sharper edge. It’s the kind of work you want to watch at least twice to catch all the small bits of business she weaves into the performance.
Propelled by the performances and a music-heavy soundtrack featuring everything from The Doors and Nina Simone to Iggy & The Stooges (this must be the first Disney film to feature the proto-punk tune “I Wanna Be Your Dog”) and Tina Turner, “Cruella” rocks along at a clip until it loses steam near the end as it prepares itself for the sequel.
Until then, however, “Cruella” is the most audacious of the recent live action reimaginings of a classic Disney character.
Another franchise, another eccentric genius. Robert Downey Jr. laves Tony Stark behind to return to the big screen in a reboot of a remake of a classic story of a man who could talk to animals.
When we first meet Dr. John Dolittle (Downey) he’s at the Howard Hughes recluse stage of his life. The passing of his wife has left him despondent, unable to enjoy the company of humans so he lives in seclusion with only a menagerie of animals for company.
To pass the time he plays chess with a timid gorilla named Chee-Chee (voice of Rami Malek) and in conversation with the various animals who crowd his home, including his trusted macaw advisor Polynesia (voice of Emma Thompson) and Jip (voice of Tom Holland), a bespectacled dog.
“I don’t care about anyone, anywhere, anymore,” the doctor says.
Of course, that’s not true. When animal lover Tommy Stubbins (Harry Collett) shows up at Dolittle’s gate with an injured squirrel (voice of Craig Robinson)—“I’m too beautiful to die,” the squirrel says.—on the same day the doctor is summoned to Buckingham Palace to see the ailing Queen Victoria (Jessie Buckley), he is brought back into the human world. Her Majesty is gravely ill and if she dies the treasury will take the animal sanctuary Dr. Dolittle calls home. Worse, all his animals will be thrown out into the world during hunting season.
To save the Queen‘s life he must embark on a journey to find the Eden Tree and its magical, healing fruit. It’s trip fraught with danger and is the same journey that cost his beloved wife her life. Add to that some palace intrigue, an island of misfits and thieves, turbo boosting whales, a vengeful squirrel and even a dragon and you have a new chapter in the life of the man who can talk to animals.
Kids will likely find “Dolittle’s” chatty animals amusing but this isn’t simply a movie about wise cracking beasts. At its beating heart it is a movie about pain, but, as one character says, not the kind of hurt inflicted by a bullet or a knife. It’s about the agony of losing someone. Dolittle’s heart is broken by the death of his wife, and that ache is the engine that propels the entire movie. So, while the young’uns may giggle at the animals but the movie’s underlying downer vibe and generic approach suggests that Dolittle’s wife isn’t the only lifeless part of this movie.
Downey plays the character with a sense of bemused confusion, topped with a mealy-mouthed Billy Connolly impression that changes from scene to scene. It’s a pantomime performance that makes the best of his finely tuned comic timing but feels sloppy and needlessly mannered.
“Dolittle” contains some good pop psychology for children about working together—”Teamwork makes the dream work!”—and facing their fears but overall a movie featuring talking animals shouldn’t be this banal.
This week “The Avengers,” well, at least one of them, aren’t saving the world. Instead Thor portrayer Chris Hemsworth sets his sights a little lower, breathing new life into the flailing “Men in Black” franchise. Twenty-two years after the original hit film and a few years after a cancelled third sequel he’s joined by Marvel Universe citizens, “Avengers: Endgame’s” Tessa Thompson and “Iron Man” writers Matt Holloway and Art Marcum. The question is, Can the mighty Marvel alumni bring some of their magic to a different universe?
This reboot keeps the basics of the franchise. There are still loads of chatty aliens, Emma Thompson returns and the Men in Black remain a nattily dressed but top-secret organization that monitors and polices alien activity on Earth. They’ve managed to stay undercover for decades by the use of a neuralyzer, a device that erases the memories of those who witness their efforts to keep the world safe from alien attack. It’s a failsafe but in at least one case it isn’t entirely effective. In a flashback we see a family, including a young girl named Molly (Mandeiya Flory), neuralyzed after an incident.
Cut to present day. Now grown up Molly (now played by (Thompson) is about to realize her life-long dream, to become part of the best kept secret in the universe. “It took me twenty years to find you” she says to Agent O (Emma Thompson) head of MIB’s US branch. “I found you which makes me perfect for this job.” Dubbed Agent M, she is assigned to the UK branch, headed by High T (Liam Neeson) and teamed with Agent H (Hemsworth), her mission is to root out the biggest MIB threat yet, a mole in the organization. “We are the Men in Black,” says Agent H, “errr, the men and Women in Black.”
Unless there is a mass neuralization of audiences “Men in Black: International” will not make us forget the charms of the first “MIB” film. Director F. Gary Gray’s take on the film delivers actors with sparkling chemistry—Hemsworth and Thompson first lit up the screen in 2017s “Thor: Ragnarok” and continue to do so here—who elevate an otherwise unremarkable reboot of a well-loved franchise.
It has the earmarks of the original but, aside from Kumail Nanjiani as a tiny Marvin the Martian-esque alien named Pawny, there is nothing extra special about the extraterrestrials. For a movie about the “scum of the universe,” that seems like a missed opportunity. Nanjiani is provides some much need comic relief in the film’s last section but where is the creativity in the creature design?
Having said all that, despite the predictability of the plot, the chemistry on display makes “Men in Black: International” a fun, lightweight romp.
