Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to brush your teeth. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the anarchy of “Minions & Monsters,” the relationship woes of “The Invite” and the music bio “Peter Asher: Everywhere Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join CTV Atlantic’s Stephanie Tsicos to talk about anarchy of “Minions & Monsters,” the relationship woes of “The Invite” and the music bio “Peter Asher: Everywhere Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Akshay Tandon to talk about the new releases in theatres, including The anarchy of “Minions & Monsters,” the relationship woes of “The Invite” and the music bio “Peter Asher: Everywhere Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join “CP24 Breakfast” hosts Nick Dixon and Jennifer Hsiung to talk about the anarchy of “Minions & Monsters,” the animated adventures of Disney+’s “X-Men ’97” and the Prime Video “Legally Blonde” prequel “Elle.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Minions & Monsters,” a chaotic animated film now playing in theatres, the jellybean shaped Minions unleash real monsters on Los Angeles when they try and make a monster movie.
CAST: Pierre Coffin, Trey Parker, Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeff Bridges, Zoey Deutch, Bobby Moynihan, George Lucas, Phil LaMarr. Directed and co-written by Pierre Coffin.
REVIEW: A Valentine to the movies, “Minions & Monsters” is equal parts shambolic and sentimental. The trademarked Minion madness is still firmly in place, but director Pierre Coffin wears his love of movies on his sleeve, weaving tributes to 100 years of the Universal logo, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, “The Blob,” the pioneering 1902 film “A Trip to the Moon” and the opening scene of “Citizen Kane” throughout.
The action begins with a tour through the Universal Studios museum. Exhibits include George Lucas (playing himself) in a glass case and statues of Minion movie legends James and Henry (Pierre Coffin supplies the voices of all the Minions). When the tour group admits they don’t know anything about the Minions, eager tour guide Olivia (Alison Janney) gives them a history lesson. “They are legends who changed Hollywood forever,” she says.
As the story goes, the Minions, on a quest to work for the worst villains in history, stumble into a train robbery movie shoot in 1920s Hollywood. Thinking the robbery is real, and they’ve come across a new bad guy they could work with, they are instead discovered by studio heads Frank and Elwood Bright (both voiced by Jeff Bridges) who instruct director Max (Christoph Waltz) to cast them in a series of slapstick silent movie comedies.
They become “Kings of the Box Office,” but their time at the top is cut short. Unable to adapt to the advent of sound because of their incomprehensible gibberish language, they lose their film contract, but not their passion to make movies. Shunned by Hollywood, James comes up with an idea to make his magnum opus, “Minions & Monsters.”
To find the perfect monsters they use a stolen spellbook to conjure up real beasts like the Lovecraftian Gary Orcam Oliver Magma Ichabod the Deceiver, a.k.a. Goomi (Trey Parker), sea creatures Phillip (Bobby Moynihan) and Howard (Phil LaMarr) and a multi-eyed orange blob and “eater of worlds” called Irene.
When the creatures reveal their secret, evil apocalyptic plan, the Minions must embrace their heroic side to save the world and their movie.
“Minions & Monsters” isn’t really about the story, it’s about a heartfelt love of movies—”Watch the movie play in a theatre full of people,” says tour guide Olivia about the film-within-the-film. “There’s nothing better.”—and the antics of the title characters.
The sheer silliness on display is infectious. Conjuring up memories of everything from vaudeville and Bugs Bunny to The Three Stooges and silent era comedians like Harold Lloyd, they go beyond slapstick to create something akin to pure unadulterated joy.
I chose the word “unadulterated” for a reason. The definition fits, their comedy is pure and untainted, but I also believe it’s humor for un-adults. That’s people of all ages who allow their inner child to get lost in the movie’s juvenile humor.
The movie cleverly suggests the Minions could have been silent movie stars, and, for sure their absurdist, physical humor is perfectly suited to the medium. But “Minions & Monsters” isn’t a silent movie and if I have a quibble, it’s that I found some of the Minionese—i.e. their gibberish Banana language—scenes less effective than their slapstick sequences.
“Minions & Monsters” has fun animation, better action scenes than “Supergirl” and loads of laughs for movie fans of all ages.
I join the CTV NewsChannel to talk about the big movies from the weekend, including Edgar Wright’s “The Running Man,” rhe magical thieves of “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” the Oscar worthy “Sentimental Value” and the animated “In Your Dreams.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” a new comedy heist flick, now playing in theatres, illusionist thieves The Four Horsemen—think Robin Hood types who use magic instead of bows and arrows—recruit three young magicians to stage their biggest heist yet. “I’m talking about a trick that is bigger and better than anything you have ever seen,” say head Horseman Danny Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg).
CAST: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher, and Morgan Freeman, alongside new cast members Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa, Ariana Greenblatt, Rosamund Pike. Directed by Ruben Fleischer.
REVIEW: Midway through “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) tells the assembled magicians that in the magical house they’ve just entered, “Up is down. Left is right.” He‘s right about the house, it’s a topsy turvy place, but everything else about this movie is pretty much the same from the previous entries in the franchise, 2013s “Now You See Me” and “Now You See Me 2” from 2016.
That means loads of movie magic, but not the good kind. The magic word in this story of the world’s greatest magicians isn’t “Abracadabra,” it’s “CGI.” Because the magic is mostly computer-generated-imagery at its best it feels inorganic, at its worst, dull. There’s no childlike wonder, no astonishment on display, just cold pixels, polygons and texture maps.
I wasn’t expecting the cast to all become David Copperfield, but if Margot Robbie can learn to land triple axels for “I, Tonya,” and Tom Cruise can learn to fly a helicopter through a 360° death-spiral at 8,000 feet, Eisenberg and company can at least learn convincing sleight of hand.
When director Ruben Fleischer isn’t staging big CGI spectacles, he moves the story along with less than magical exposition that over describes the film’s most obvious details. Now you see it, now it is explained for you. The endless chatter slows the momentum and blunts some of the story’s thrills and surprises right up until the film’s sequel ready ending.
There is a generation gap spark between the younger magicians Charlie (Justice Smith), Bosco Leroy (Dominic Sessa) and June (Ariana Greenblatt) and the returning cast—Danny Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) and Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher)—but the twelve-year-old franchise’s magic has disappeared.
SYNOPSIS: A mix of humor and pain, “A Real Pain,” a new dramedy from writer/director Jesse Eisenberg, and now playing in theatres, sees polar-opposite cousins David and Benji (Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin) embark on a tour of Poland to honor their Holocaust-survivor grandmother. As their odd couple trip progresses the double meaning of the title becomes apparent. Is Benji’s wild behavior a pain, or is it the result of pain?
CAST: Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Will Sharpe, Jennifer Grey, Kurt Egyiawan, Liza Sadovy, and Daniel Oreskes. Directed by Jesse Eisenberg, produced by Emma Stone.
REVIEW: “A Real Pain” is both an oddball couple comedy and road movie, but, most importantly, it’s about personal pain and coping mechanisms. As David, Jesse Eisenberg says his, “pain is unexceptional,” and yet he is anxious and medicated, hobbled by feelings he cannot control.
Benji (Kieran Culkin), on the other hand, is a raw nerve, charming and charismatic, but quick to temper and bitterly selfish. “Forgive me if I don’t see his magical spark,” says Mark (Daniel Oreskes), another traveller on their heritage tour.
The characters share DNA and a handful of memories, but despite their familial love, they are oil and water, and it is that dynamic that drives the movie.
Despite its subject, “A Real Pain” is a gently amusing movie. There are no jokes in the traditional sense, just situational and character-based humor that bubbles forth through their interactions. David’s exasperation with his cousin’s antics is milked for some laughs, but it is Culkin who delivers the goods.
As Benji he is an anti-establishment motor mouth who makes pronouncements like, “Money is like heroin for rich people,” and never entertains an unexpressed thought. Benji is overbearing, but this isn’t a big performance.
The beauty of it is in the small details.
The way he snaps an elastic band against his wrist as a coping mechanism is a subtle touch but speaks loudly about his state of mind. Culkin grabs Benji’s complexities, his kindness and cruelty, his humor and pain and folds them into one fascinating character.
“A Real Pain” is a quiet movie, with some somber moments, like the tour’s visit to the former concentration camp Majdanek, but Eisenberg finds the tricky balance between the heartfelt moments and the humor.
Rare is the movie that can ride the line between scatological and sublime, absurdist and acute. The deeply weird “Sasquatch Sunset,” starring Riley Keough and Jesse Eisenberg, is that movie. A portrait of how a Sasquatch tribe reacts to the encroaching modern world, it plays like “Quest for Fire” with poop jokes.
The movie follows a family of Sasquatches, the mythical human-like creatures played by Eisenberg, Keough, Nathan Zellner and Christophe Zajac-Denec, foe a year as they navigate life deep in a Pacific Northwest forest. It’s a slice-of-life look at them getting it on Bigfoot-style, foraging for food, throwing feces at crows as they eat the corpse of one of their friends, and making art out of twigs. Oh, and there’s grunting. Lots of grunting. And a pooping montage.
Narrator-less and dialogue free, the first part of “Sasquatch Sunset” feels like a nature documentary that focusses on Bigfoot mating and bathroom habits. It wanders, seemingly pointlessly and is sophomoric fun for a time, but just as the novelty of seeing movie stars draped in Sasquatch pelts begins to wear thin, directors David and Nathan Zellner turn up the sincerity.
When the family comes across a campsite, the modern world makes itself known. A boom box blares the Erasure song “Love to Hate You” as they learn the poignant message that they are not alone in the world. From that point on their lives become a confused quest for survival as they encounter things they cannot control.
If nothing else, “Sasquatch Sunset” is unfalteringly dedicated to its premise. It has more of a focus on feces than your average National Geographic doc, but Keough and Eisenberg dive in (big) foot first, delivering what will surely be the strangest, but most committed performances of their careers.
You will believe a Sasquatch can throw their poop. But will you care? Depends on your commitment to the premise. It is both poignant and repugnant, ridiculous and genuine. It will not be for everyone. The slow pacing and the sheer audacity of the idea will separate the movie’s friends from foes, but even skeptics will have to admit, making and releasing a Bigfoot movie this odd in 2024 is no small feat.
