I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Akshay Tandon to talk about the latest mystery from Benoit Blanc, “Glass Onion,” the sports drama “The Swimmers” and the animated “Strange World.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in with CKTB morning show host Tim Denis to discuss the weekend’s flickers including the latest mystery from Benoit Blanc, “Glass Onion,” the sports drama “The Swimmers” and the animated “Strange World.”
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 latest mystery from Benoit Blanc, “Glass Onion,” the sports drama “The Swimmers” and the animated “Strange World.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
“Strange World,” the new animated film from Walt Disney, starring the voices of Jake Gyllenhaal and Gabrielle Union, is a colorful ode to making the world a better place.
The story centers on the Clades, led by intrepid explorer Jaeger (voice of Dennis Quaid). The Clade clan is devoted to finding a way out of Avalonia, their home and small nation, tucked away between unpassable mountains.
On one of their journeys through the snow-capped mountains—“Exploration is ‘snow’ joke,” Jaeger snorts as he leads the crew through an icy patch.—Searcher (Gyllenhaal) discovers a glowing plant that has a pulsing energy all its own.
Jaeger is unimpressed. Conquering the mountains is his dream, a victory he sees as his legacy. “Avalonia’s future is beyond the horizon,” he says. Determined to move forward, he leaves Searcher and crew behind with the glowing plant. As he disappears into the wintery wilderness he also leaves behind any semblance of a relationship with his son.
Cut to twenty-five years later. Searcher is now grown up and resembles a cartoon John Krasinski with a bulbous nose. His discovery has literally energized the country. Called Pando, it’s a wonder plant that supplies the power that transformed Avalonia into a kind of steampunk paradise. It fuels their airships and keeps the lights on in their homes. “No Pando,” they say, “no power.”
Searcher is a Pando farmer, alongside his wife Meridian (Union) and son Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White), a teen who is more interested in catching the attention of a local boy named Diego than harvesting the crops.
When the Pando crops begin to fail, Avalonia president Callisto Mal (Lucy Liu) reaches out to Searcher looking for help. The crops all across the land are related by an interconnected root system. When one field fails, eventually they all will.
Getting to the source of the trouble means taking a trip to a strange world that lies under the surface. Callisto Mal recruits Searcher to undertake an expedition but it soon becomes a family affair when Ethan stows away on board and Meridian comes to rescue him. Together they enter a surreal subterranean land, home to amorphous, cute-but-not-so-cuddly blobs, hungry phosphorescent creatures and walking mountains. “We are definitely off the map now,” says Callisto Mal.
As they attempt to discover the cause of the Pando plight, they also come across another unexpected find, Jaeger, still searching for whatever is on the other side of the mountain.
“Strange World” puts the action adventure right up front, never missing an opportunity for the characters to take a wild ride of some sort or another. These sequences are imaginative and over-the-top with their stylized action and crazy creatures, but screenwriter and co-director Qui Nguyen isn’t just interested in making your eyeballs dance. He’s crafted an emotional story about legacy, and how the burdens and expectations of one generation can inadvertently passed to the next. Jaeger and Searcher have obvious father son snags, but the friction between Searcher and Ethan isn’t as pronounced, but the issues are the same.
The film does a heartfelt job of essaying the rifts that became chasms over time. Progressive and creative, it casts its eye to a world where respect and acceptance are a balm for troubled relationships.
By the time the end credits roll “Strange World” has established itself as an exciting adventure that values its character-driven messages just as much as the action.
Richard joins the NewsTalk 1010 afternoon show The Rush for Booze and Reviews! Today we talk about “Ambulance,” the video game flick “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” and Johnny Depp in “Minamata.” Then we take a sip of the Japanese favourite cocktail the Ginza Mary,.
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 This?” This week we talk about the frenetic Beyhem (look it up) of “Ambulance,” the video game flick “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” and Johnny Depp in “Minamata.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
“Transformer” director Michael Bay’s movies are so distinctive the internet has coined a new term to describe his pedal-to-the-metal action style: Bayhem. His latest, the chase flick “Ambulance” starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Jake Gyllenhaal, and now playing in theatres, falls in line. It keeps the foot on the gas in true Bayhem fashion.
Decorated veteran Will (Abdul-Mateen II) is desperate for money. His wife needs surgery but the coffers are dry. To raise the cash, he reluctantly asks his adoptive brother and career criminal Danny (Gyllenhaal) if he can help.
Turns out Danny can help, if Will is willing to bend the rules to get the money.
A lot of money.
Danny is planning a bank heist with an estimated bounty of $32 million. “I need an extra man,” Danny says. Will isn’t sure, but Danny is persuasive. “Have I ever gotten you in anything that I couldn’t get you out of?”
The bank heist goes off without a hitch, but the getaway is rough. With things falling apart, they hijack an ambulance. Trouble is, the ambulance is transporting a wounded policeman (Jackson White) and a paramedic (Eiza González). With police in hot pursuit, they take the ambulance on a high-speed chase through the streets of Los Angeles. “We’re not the bad guys,” Danny says. “We’re just trying to get home.”
The stakes are life and death. Cue the Bayhem.
“Ambulance” isn’t a heist movie. Bay milks excitement out of the setup and execution of the sequence but this is a getaway flick with an interesting family dynamic between Danny and Will.
Gyllenhaal’s performance as the charismatic sociopath older brother is as amped up as the movie itself. Which is to say it’s pedal to the metal all the way.
Bay’s relentless camera is in constant motion. It zooms, caresses the actor’s faces in extreme closeups, flies up and down the sides of buildings, and, of course cruises alongside the ambulance as it careens through the streets of Los Angeles. The camerawork and the editing are so fast it’s as though Bay has his finger on the fast forward button the entire time.
If you get motion sickness you might want to take some Gravol along with your popcorn.
If “Ambulance” was music, it would be a Yngwie Malmsteen guitar solo. Fast and heavy, it bowls you over with technical skill but doesn’t engage much more than that. There’s no sense of pacing, it’s all forward momentum. As Danny and Will say several times, “We’re a locomotive. We don’t stop,” but occasionally tapping the brake might give the viewers and the actors a chance to catch out collective breath.
“Ambulance” is raw, unadulterated Bayhem. From the frenetic editing to the characters, who all speak like they are in a Michael Bay action movie, and the anxiety inducing soundtrack, it is frantic Bayhem with all the good and bad that implies.
Richard speaks to “CTV News at Six” anchor Andria Case about the best movies and television to watch this weekend including the Apple TV+ special “Mariah Christmas: The Magic Continues,” the Kieran Culkin movie “The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys” on Starz and the Jake Gyllenhaal film “Stronger” on Starz.
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 37:39)
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!
