I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about the captivating canine action of “Heart of the Beast,” the provocative “Primetime” and the sports biopic “The Stunt Driver.”Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 14:30)
I sit with NewsTalk 1010 host Deb Hutton on NewsTalk 1010 to talk about the biggest Billboard hit of 2026, the “Sound of Music” museum, an AI host, Brigette Bardot’s copy of the Kama Sutra and I review Brad PItt and his canine co-star in “Heart of the Beast.”Listen to the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 27:45)
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Renée Rodgers to talk about the captivating canine action of “Heart of the Beast,” the provocative “Primetime” and the sports biopic “The Stunt Driver.”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 the captivating canine action of “Heart of the Beast,” the provocative “Primetime” and the sports biopic “The Stunt Driver.”Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” to talk about “American Idol” leaving Los Angeles, what prompted a roomful of critics to burst into applause, and I review Brad Pitt’s latest movie “Heart of the Beast and tell you who the real star of the movie is. On Booze & Reviews I’ll suggest some doggie style cocktails to drink whiule watching the movie!Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to wind your watch. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the captivating canine action of “Heart of the Beast,” the provocative “Primetime” and the sports biopic “The Stunt Driver.”Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: The story of a man and his dog, “Heart of the Beast” sees Special Forces officer James Belmont and his loyal combat dog Odin fight for survival in the Alaskan wilderness. “It’s not who you live for… It’s who you’d die for.”CAST: Brad Pitt, J.K. Simmons, Anna Lambe, Uber. Directed by David Ayer.
REVIEW: Brad Pitt stars as Special Forces officer James Belmont, a thirty-year combat veteran haunted by decades of battlefield action. To quiet his troubled mind Belmont and Odin, a three-legged German Shepard combat scouting dog who suffers from PTSD, who is also Belmont’s “greatest love and friend left on this earth,” take a trip to the Alaskan wilderness to experience the healing power of nature.
When their plane crash lands in the middle of nowhere, they are forced to rely on their combat skills to survive in the face of vicious cold, the unforgiving landscape, injury and threats from a variety of predators. The hurdles are huge, but, as Belmont says, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight that matters,” says Belmont. “It’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
Like “The Littlest Hobo” with a taste of “The Revenant’ thrown in for seasoning, “Heart of the Beast” is a simple survival story anchored by a great performance.
But I’m not talking about Brad Pitt. He’s fine, doing a good job with a thinly written character, a resourceful soldier haunted by his past. His work is understated, far more subtle than you might expect from a movie like this.
No, the star here is Uber, the canine actor who plays Odin. He manages to do something George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon have not been able to do, and that’s steal every scene they perform together.
Their relationship—they’re alone on screen for 90% of the movie—is the film’s emotional core. Belmont treats the dog as an equal, a fellow soldier who, like him, has been to hell and back. They have a bond, and that unbreakable connection is the film’s main draw.
Perhaps that’s why a number of flashbacks to their early military service left me with the feeling that director David Ayer, working from a script by Cameron Alexander, missed the chance to tell the more interesting story of the beginning of Belmont and Odin’s bond and battlefield experiences.
Set against the rugged beauty of New Zealand (standing in for Alaska), “Heart of the Beast’s” action is episodic, predictable and only occasionally pulse-racing. It’s a raw portrait of endurance, with a few grim moments and nice cameos from J.K. Simmons as a fellow traveler and “North of North’s” Anna Lambe, but it is the connection between man and dog that carries the movie and may have you reach for a Kleenex in its final twenty minutes.
SYNOPSIS: In the “The Accountant 2,” a new Ben Affleck action comedy now playing in theatres, money laundering forensic accountant Christian Wolff (Affleck), his bruiser brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) and Treasury Agent Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) must use Christian’s special set of skills to stay alive as they track down a group of human traffickers. “Most brains seek a pattern that’s familiar,” Christian says. “My brain doesn’t work that way.”
CAST: Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, J. K. Simmons, Daniella Pineda. Directed by Gavin O’Connor.
REVIEW: Appropriately released during tax season, this buddy film of two brothers, a neurodivergent accountant and a hitman, is equal parts light and playful and dangerous and dark. With a line dancing scene and a human trafficking ring run out of a pizza company, it’s complicated and messy, but thoroughly entertaining.
The key to finding the film’s entertainment value is patience. Following a standard action thriller set up involving a retired FBI financial crimes agent (J.K. Simmons), a mysterious killer (Daniella Pineda) and determined FBI agent Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), the movie finally gets to the heart of the matter, the dynamic between brothers Christian (Ben Affleck) and Braxton Wolff (Jon Bernthal).
The movie still goes a bit heavy on exposition, but Affleck and Bernthal are an appealing combo who dance on the thin line between danger and whimsy. Both are stone cold killers, but each brings a different flavor to the story.
Affleck plays Christian as part 007, part John Nash. A deadly mix of mathematician and tactician, stereotypically, he speaks in clipped sentences and is matter of fact in the extreme, but in his relationship with Braxton there’s a sense of history and nuance in a movie that doesn’t favor nuance.
Bernthal is volatile and vulnerable, physical and funny, but his real strength is as a foil for Affleck. His action movie bona fides give some extra oomph to the climatic shoot out, but it is the brotherly bond, and their love-hate relationship, that gives the movie a beating heart.
“The Accountant 2’s” unnecessarily complicated plot and serviceable action exist essentially to put Christian and Braxton on screen together, which is fine when the result is as entertaining as this movie.
SYNOPSIS: In the new Yuletide action flick “Red One,” when Santa Claus (code name: Red One) is kidnapped twenty-four hours before Christmas, the North Pole’s Head of Security, an ELF “(Extremely Large and Formidable”) named Callum Drift, played by Dwayne Johnson, teams with Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans), hacker and the world’s best tracker, in a dangerous mission to save Christmas. “There are worse ways to go out than saving Santa Claus,” says Jack.
CAST: Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Nick Kroll, Kristofer Hivju, Wesley Kimmel, and J. K. Simmons. Directed by Jake Kasdan.
REVIEW: As Santa’s bodyguard Callum Drift, Dwayne Johnson complains that for the first time ever more people are on the naughty list than the nice list. It’s ironic, then, that as the star of “Red One,” the new high-tech, low-reward holiday movie directed by Jake Kasdan, Johnson’s name belongs at the top of that ignominious list.
A Christmas movie with product placement for the whole family, from Hot Wheels to Bulleit Bourbon, it’s a formulaic action film, with generic CGI battles and Johnson in automaton mode.
Johnson is in his wheelhouse. This is a big family action flick, reminiscent of “Disney’s Jungle Cruise” and “Jumanji: The Next Level.” Difference is, both those movies gave Johnson the chance to exercise his comedy chops as well as his muscle-bound physique. “Red One” sees him as a dour, oversized ELF with resting Grinch face who, when he isn’t barking orders is glaring at the film’s baddies. Despite one slightly amusing size-shifting fight scene, it’s a particularly uninspired performance that should get noticed come Razzie Awards time.
Chris Evan fares slightly better. He shrugs off the Captain America persona to play a Jack, a deadbeat dad, drunk and degenerate gambler. “I’m not a scrupulous person,” he sneers. “Ask anybody.”
Of course, they will learn from one another. Jack will discover how to be good from Callum, while proving to Callum that there is good in everyone, even a “Level Four Naughty Lister.” The movie’s messages of nice triumphing over naughty are the usual holiday fare, hammered home with the subtility of fifty-foot Christmas tree.
Add to that a forgettable villain with very little screen time and even less presence when we do see her and you’re left with a film about the magic of Christmas, with very little magic.
“Red One” is a big, $300 million movie, but, as the season has taught us, not all good things come in big packages.
