I join CP24 to talk about the big movies hitting theatres and streaming this week including the sweet body-swap movie “Freakier Friday,” the horrifying and hilarious “Weapons,” the family dramedy “Shook” and the action comedy “The Pickup.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Deb Hutton is off, so I sit in with host Jim Richards on NewsTalk 1010 to go over some of the week’s biggest entertainment stories and let you know what’s happening in theatres. We talk about Dean Cain, former Superman, becoming an ICE agent, james Cameron’s thoughts on AI could make “The Terminator” feel like a true story, the Criterion Cabinet coming to Toronto and a “Freakier Friday” review!
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I joined CTV NewsChannel anchor Roger Peterson to have a look at new movies coming to theatres, including the sweet body-swap movie “Freakier Friday,” the horrifying and hilarious “Weapons,” the family dramedy “Shook” and the action comedy “The Pickup.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with guest host Andrew Pinsent to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the sweet body-swap movie “Freakier Friday,” the horrifying and hilarious “Weapons,” the family dramedy “Shook” and the action comedy “The Pickup.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make the bed! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the sweet body-swap movie “Freakier Friday,” the horrifying and hilarious “Weapons” and the family dramedy “Shook.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In the popular 2003 fantasy comedy “Freaky Friday” Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan played Tess and Anna, a mother daughter combo who switched identities. “Mom,” said Anna in Tess’s body, “you have to let me live my own life!” Twenty-two years later they’re back at it in the sequel, “Freakier Friday.” This time around they double the body swap chaos as Tess and Anna switch identities with their step granddaughter and teenage daughter respectively.
CAST: Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons, Manny Jacinto, Mark Harmon. Directed by Nisha Ganatra.
REVIEW: More sweet and nostalgic than funny, “Freakier Friday” milks the body-swapping premise for a few laughs, mostly courtesy of Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan who are clearly having a blast revisiting this material. There are a handful of big laughs, but Canadian director Nisha Ganatra is more interested in plucking your heartstrings than tickling your funny bone.
The gimmick that fueled the 2003 film is in place, but since this is a direct sequel, it’s been amplified. Just as “Jurassic World” upped the ante with the genetically engineered super-dinosaur Indominus Rex, and “Age of Ultron” introduced the massive, titular CGI villain, “Freakier Friday” increases the story’s scale by doubling up on the body switching—Tess Coleman (Curtis) switches bodies with her soon-to-be stepdaughter, Lily (Sophia Hammons), and Anna Coleman (Lohan) switches bodies with her daughter, Harper (Julia Butters). But like a stick of Spearmint gum—double the flavor and double the fun—instead of diluting the emotional stakes, as is so often the case when sequels get bigger and louder, the extended swapping amplifies the film’s message of learning about others by walking a mile in their Manolos.
It’s a blended-family journey of discovery, of getting a deeper understanding of one another, crammed into a story fed by a hodge-podge of misunderstandings and slapstick. Curtis is the MVP, embracing her inner teen, deftly playing a pouty Lily for much of the film’s running time. “I’m bloody decomposing,” she shrieks, as teenager Lily sees herself as Tess for the first time.
Lohan is more restrained. Her moments of physical comedy are overshadowed by Curtis’s uninhibited work, but she conjures up a misty sentimental feel in the film’s more heartfelt scenes.
The intergenerational jabs provide most of the humor. “I bent down and didn’t toot,” says an amazed Tess from her young body. Add to that some updated Pickleball and crypto gags, and you have an amiable family comedy that, while predictable, occasionally confusing and definitely overlong at 1 hour and 51 minutes, preserves enough of the original movie’s fairy tale charm to sell its story of fantasy and unconditional love.
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 transformational horror of “Wolf Man,” the resilience of “The Last Showgirl” and star power of “Back in Action.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: Pamela Anderson hands in the performance of her career in “The Last Showgirl,” a new film now playing in theatres, about sudden endings and new beginnings.
CAST: Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka, Billie Lourd, and Jason Schwartzman. Directed by Gia Coppola.
REVIEW: To paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, Shelly Gardner’s (Anderson) job as one of the lead showgirls in a mid-market revue called Razzle Dazzle came to an end in two ways, gradually, then suddenly. An avatar of old Vegas’s glitter and excess, Shelly’s brand of fantasy burlesque has slowly fallen out of favor, replaced by bottle service, DJs and the hallucinogenic eye candy of The Sphere. She’s a relic of another time, blinded by her costume’s sequins to the realities of the changing world around her. “Las Vegas used to treat us like movie stars,” she says ruefully.
The setting of “The Last Showgirl” is very specific. From the darkened backstage dressing rooms to the sun dappled strip and neon drenched casinos it’s a singular place, but the film’s messages regarding ageism, regret, resilience and reinvention are universal. As an avatar for everyone who feels chewed up and spit out by a job, Shelly discovers, the hard way, that the thing she loved—her job—didn’t love her back.
As Shelly, Anderson plumbs previously unseen depths. Famous for decades, she has never been given the opportunity to sink her teeth into a role like this, one that allows her to play off her reputation as a sex symbol while deftly commenting on the way show business can cruelly abandon those who have given their lives to it. Her presence brings poignancy to the film, but this isn’t simply the stunt casting of a woman who was similarly betrayed by the biz. Anderson delivers the goods, doing a high wire act, playing Shelly as simultaneously steely and vulnerable.
She’s very good in this, and her work is sweetened by the fact that while Anderson may have been a Shelly at a certain point in her career, she is now on the rebound, defying expectations and giving herself a much-deserved new act in life.
Anderson is ably supported by Jamie Lee Curtis as Annette, Shelly’s best friend and former showgirl. Now an overly tanned cocktail waitress, Annette finds herself increasingly pushed aside in favor of younger servers, but she loves the life and is unwilling to walk away. Her performance to Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” is a showstopper, at once sad yet defiant.
“The Last Showgirl” is a touching story about women tossed aside from jobs they love, but it’s also a universal story of resilience in the face of being let go from a dream job, no matter what the profession.
SYNOPSIS: “Borderlands,” a new sci fi action comedy based on the video game series of the same name, prompted me to write words you don’t often see in the same sentence: Cate Blanchett, action star. The two-time Academy Award winner plays ruthless bounty hunter Lilith in a post-apocalyptic world, hired by the powerful president of a giant corporation (Edgar Ramírez) to track down his kidnapped daughter Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt). The search leads her to the planet of Pandora, a wasteland at the edge of human civilization, home to monsters, “psychos” and a treasure trove of valuable alien technology.
CAST: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Edgar Ramírez, Ariana Greenblatt, Bobby Lee, Florian Munteanu, Gina Gershon, Jamie Lee Curtis. Directed by Eli Roth.
REVIEW: It’s hard to know exactly who “Borderlands” is aimed at. It shares the bright and bold aesthetic from the video games that inspired it, but the tone is radically different. The lewd and crude video game, rated M for mature audiences, features mature humor, strong language, gushes of blood and decapitation. The PG13 rated movie, directed by Eli Roth, maker of splatter movies like “Cabin Fever” and “Hostel,” smooths down the video game’s rough edges, leaving behind a movie that is neither fan service or something new.
Of course, Blanchett pulls off the action hero role. She’s Cate Blanchett and can do anything. She could play a doorknob and it would be the greatest doorknob in cinema history. It’s just too bad the script requires her to spout recycled action movie platitudes.
Kevin Hart inspires a sense of déjà vu in his portrayal of warrior Roland. He’s likable, and earns some of the film’s few laughs, but his performance here is interchangeable with almost every other character he’s ever played on screen.
Fan favorite CL4P-TP, better known as Claptrap, the chatty, uni-wheeled cycloptic robot featured in the video games, is part of the gang of characters. Voiced by Jack Black, he’s like an annoying little brother who never knows when to shut up, and, who poops bullets.
“Borderlands” aims to be a good time at the movies, but by trying to appeal to a wider audience it betrays the source material, and falls flat.
