I appear on “CTV News at 6” with anchor Andria Case to talk about the passing of entertainment legends Dolly Parton andTim Curry, and the live action/animagtion hybrid “Coyote VS. Acme,” now playing in theatres.
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 38:04)
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 13:38)
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Listen to 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 animated anarchy of “Coyote VS Acme,” the dystopopian “The Dog Stars,” the fresh rom com “Finding Emily,” the silly smarts of “Idiots” and the supernatural slasher “Buddy.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
CAST: Will Forte, Lana Condor, Tone Bell, Luis Guzmán, Martha Kelly, P.J. Byrne, John Cena. Eric Bauza, Kenneth Choi, Candi Milo, Jim Cummings. Directed by Dave Green.
REVIEW: Shot years ago and shelved as a tax write off by Warner Bros. Discovery in 2023, “Coyote vs. ACME” is finally getting its richly deserved chance at a big screen release courtesy of Ketchup Entertainment.
Anyone familiar with Wile E. Coyote’s endless pursuit of the Road Runner, will also know of his unsuccessful use of rocket-powered roller skates, anvils, dehydrated boulders and many other tools of destruction manufactured by ACME.
After years of unsuccessfully using their products Wile E. Coyote has had enough. Holding a placard reading “ACME SUCKS,” he hires down-on-his-luck attorney Kevin Avery (Will Forte) to sue ACME Corporation for selling defective gadgets. “ACME has knowingly been making dangerous products for decades!”
As ACME’s lawyer, the ruthless Buddy Crane (John Cena), prepares to go scorched earth on Avery—“I don’t just want him scared, I want him ruined!”—the case reveals ACME as a profit-obsessed conglomerate with no regard for the safety of its customers. “Wile E. Coyote,” says Crane, “is reckless and all his injuries are self-inflicted.”
A mix of live action and animation, à la “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” “Coyote vs. ACME” blends a high-level comedic cast, led by Will Forte, and classic cartoon characters in a rambunctious comedy that captures the anarchic spirit of Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies films.
It’s a love letter to the cartoons that inspired it, but it’s not simply a rehash of decades old animated movies. Instead, it takes well-known characters, like Wile E. Coyote, the Roadrunner, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck and many others (mostly voiced by Canadian actor Eric Bauza), and creates a new world for them to inhabit without losing what made them fun in the first place.
Wile, for instance, is taking on ACME, an even bigger foe than The Roadrunner, but just like in the old shorts, he refuses to give up no matter what. His perseverance against Sisyphean odds is the thing that makes him lovable, and when echoed in Avery’s rediscovery of what the law can do for his client, brings a nice symmetry to the storytelling. “He’s one of the most hard-working people I’ve ever met,” Avery says of Wile. “He would never think of quitting. And I think everyone should be inspired by that.”
Fans will uncover Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies tributes throughout. “That’s all folks,” written in dust on the back of Avery’s car, is a throwback reframed as a veiled threat from opposing council. The non-consensualist Pepé Le Pew is blasted with anti-predator spray, and Foghorn Leghorn as ACME CEO.
Hard core fans will note that Forte’s character, Kevin Avery shares a last name with Tex Avery , director and co-creator of the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies style.
“Coyote vs. ACME” is a lot of fun, creating something new from the nostalgia fans feel for these characters and their trademarked brand of comedic chaos. It hits the anvil on the head (or should that be the other way around?) with impossible cartoon physics, humor—Forte and Cena are live action but have a fun cartoon vibe—heart and even some unexpected anti-corporate messaging.
SYNOPSIS: In “The Yeti,” a new low budget monster movie now on VOD, a rescue team sets out to find an oil tycoon and a famous adventurer whovanished in Yeti territory.
CAST: Brittany Allen, Eric Nelsen, Jim Cummings, William Sadler, Corbin Bernsen. Directed and written by Gene Gallerano and William Pisciotta.
REVIEW: A return to “a guy in a furry suit” monster movies, “The Yeti” is a lo fi survival flick with practical effects that harken back to the heyday of drive-in creature feature nights.
First-time directors Gene Gallerano and William Pisciotta clearly have a love for the direct-to-video/DVD genre. They were the movies you rented when you had either seen everything else at least twice, or you wanted something to watch with a few beers, or something stronger.
Populated with fading and/or emerging stars, they were generally formulaic, genre driven grindhouse style movies that generally made up in fun what they lacked in production value.
Such is the case with “The Yeti.”
The marquee comes decorated with names like “L.A. Law” star Corben Bernsen and genre favorite William Sadler, in addition to an eager cast of players, including the entertainingly named Elizabeth Cappuccino.
The story itself is pure b-movie hokum.
Set in 1947, it picks up after a famed adventurer (Sadler) and an oil tycoon (Bernsen) vanished without a trace in the wilds of Alaska. Curious to know their father’s fates, the missing men’s kids (Brittany Allen and Eric Nelsen) assemble a ragtag team, with nicknames like Watchdog—“Watchdog doesn’t fetch… he hunts.”—Doctor, Radio and Demolition, to bundle up and travel to snowy Alaska to retrace their father’s footsteps. The worst part of the adventure? It’s not the unforgiving weather or the isolation. It’s the ferocious Yeti, a giant, hairy beast, the result, we’re told, of “20,000 years of primal evolution.”
This trip to Yeti territory is actually a journey down memory lane to a time when movie monsters lurked in the shadows to create suspense and disguise any shortcomings in the creature’s makeup. In this case the Yeti, a kind of man-shaped polar bear, is more fun than terrifying, but Gallerano and Pisciotta take their time, working up to the Yeti’s bloody on-screen debut, building tension up to the reveal. That the practical effects bring more of an organic feel to “The Yeti” than actual scares is OK because they are delivered with old-school b-movie exuberance and buckets of blood.
