I appear on “CTV News at 11:30” with anchor Andria Case to talk about the best things to watch this weekend. This week I have a look at the movie “Champions” starring Woody Harrelson and the silly and scary “ScreamVI,” both now playing in theatres.
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 19:14)
I join NewsTalk 1010 host Jim Richards on the coast-to-coast-to-coast late night “NewsTalk Tonight” to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about the return of Ghostface in “Scream VI,” the sports drama “Champions” and the charming and funny “I Like Movies.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I joined CP24 to have a look at new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres. Today we talk about the return of Ghostface in “Scream VI,” the sports drama “Champions,” the charming and funny “I Like Movies” and the eco-drama “Blueback.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Marcia MacMillan to talk about the return of Ghostface in “Scream VI,” and charming and funny “I Like Movies” and who will win Best Picture at Sunday night’s Oscars.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join 1290 CJBK in London and host Ken Eastwood to talk the new movies coming to theatres including the return of Ghostface in “Scream VI,” the sports drama “Champions,” the charming and funny “I Like Movies” and the eco-drama “Blueback.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres including the return of Ghostface in “Scream VI,” the sports drama “Champions” and the charming and funny “I Like Movies.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to sign a cheque! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the return of Ghostface in “Scream VI,” the sports drama “Champions” and the charming and funny “I Like Movies.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Ghostface is back, kicking and screaming—and stabbing, punching and shot-gunning—in another bloody adventure where real life imitates the reel life of slasher movies. Like the other entries in the franchise “Scream VI,” now playing in theatres, sets out to deconstruct slasher movies, but actually delivers the gory slasher goods.
Set following the events of the 2022’s “Scream,” the new film moves the action out of Woodsboro, California, site of the previous Ghostface killings, to New York City at Halloween. The “core four,” the survivors of Ghostface’s latest rampage—sisters Samantha and Tara Carpenter (Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega) and twins Chad and Mindy Meeks (Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown)—hightailed it across country to attend school and put the past behind them, but trauma has a way of following a person.
Sam, who killed her boyfriend Richie Kirsch (Jack Quaid) when she discovered he was a Ghostface killer, in love with her simply because she is the daughter of the original killer in the screaming mask, is now seeking treatment, but admits, stabbing him 22 times, slitting his throat, and shooting him in the head, “felt right.”
No spoilers here, but suffice to say, the movie follows the “rules” laid out by film student Mindy: Rule one: As the franchise ages, the movies will get bigger. Rule two: Expect the opposite of last time. Rule three: Legacy characters and main characters are cannon fodder. No one is safe.
“Scream VI” feels fresher than you would expect from an almost thirty-year-old movie franchise. A rotating cast of new and old faces helps with that, providing new stories wrapped in nostalgia, but it also has something to do with the franchise’s desire to entertain at almost any cost.
This one is a tightly knit, if familiar-ish, story, amped up with gorier-than-usual killings—I’m sure I saw intestines!—and what Alfred Hitchcock would have called a “refrigerator climax.” That means it seems to make sense while you are watching it, but later, when you’re standing in front of the fridge looking for something to eat, and your mind drifts back to the film, you realize just how preposterous it was. The Grand-Guignol ending is over the top, but hey, remember rule number one?
“Scream VI” doesn’t exactly slash a new path for the franchise, but the expected mix of humor, gore and self-reverence and its willingness to be silly and kinda tense at the same earns it a recommend.
There’s no shortage of teen coming of age stories based on nerdy guys head-over-heels with the hottest girl in school; think American Pie, The Girl Next Door, Fanboys along with dozens of others. There’s even a reality show called Beauty and the Geek that pairs up models with self-confessed nerds, among them a Rubik’s Cube Record Holder and Karl, who listed his profession as Dungeon Master. A new film, I Love You Beth Cooper, based on a novel by author / screenwriter Larry Doyle, mines this territory pairing up a high school valedictorian with the most popular and wildest, girl in school.
Nerdy Buffalo Grove High School valedictorian Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust) chose an unusual moment to declare his love for Beth Cooper (Hayden Panettiere). “The one thing I will regret if I never say it is I love you Beth Cooper,” he announces on-stage during his high school graduation, “I never told you because we never spoke.” Beth is one third of “the trinity,” the three hottest girls in school; a cheerleader who never gave Denis a second look. Never gave him a second look, that is, until after he publicly declared his love for her. That night, after the fateful graduation speech, when Denis, Beth and their friends hit the town it becomes the best night of his life despite Beth’s psycho chiseled-jawed ex-boyfriend. “All my memories from high school are from tonight,” he says.
I Love You Beth Cooper starts off promisingly. The first five minutes is funny, touching and sets up what could have been a good coming-of-age movie. Unfortunately the remaining hour and forty minutes is flat, flat, flat.
Director Christopher Columbus is no stranger to comedy, having helmed the Home Alone movies; no stranger to romance, as he proved with Only the Lonely and no stranger to teen fare, having made the first two Harry Potter movies, but here his usual deft touch is too heavy handed. Call it You Bore Me Beth Cooper. The bones of the movie are quite good; it’s well cast (with one glaring exception), the idea is cute, but any movie that relies on flashbacks that simply don’t work, the old champagne cork to the face gag, a lame soundtrack and lessons like “you’re not alive unless you’re living,” is bound for failure.
When the movie sticks to the sweet mushy stuff, exploring teen loneliness and love, it works reasonably well. When it swerves into its more slapsticky moments it becomes run-of the-mill. Played too broadly to be poignant it loses the touching x-factor that made it promising in its opening minutes.
Add to that a badly cast Hayden Panettiere in the titular role and I Love You Beth Cooper becomes a miss from a usually reliable filmmaker.
