Posts Tagged ‘Judy Greer’

NEWSTALK 1010: BOOZE AND REVIEWS WITH RICHARD CROUSE ON THE RUSH!

Richard joins Ryan Doyle and Jay Michaels of the NewsTalk 1010 afternoon show The Rush for Booze and Reviews! Today he talks about the Death in the Afternoon, a drink that sprung from Ernest Hemingway’s legendary liver, the Death in the Afternoon, the new “Velvet Underground” documentary, the latest from Michael Myers “Halloween Kills” and the reason Andrew Lloyd Weber bought a comfort dog.

Listen to the whole thing HERE!

RICHARD’S CTV NEWSCHANNEL REVIEWS FOR OCTOBER 15 WITH JENNIFER BURKE.

Richard and CTV NewsChannel morning show host Jennifer Burke chat up the weekend’s big releases including the relentless return of Michael Myers in “Halloween Kills,” the emotional family drama “Mass” and the rock ‘n’ roll documentary “The Velvet Underground.”

Watch the whole thing HERE!

HALLOWEEN KILLS: 2 ½ STARS. “Slash, slash, squirt, squirt, evil dies tonight!”

Keeping track of the storylines of the various “Halloween” movies and their sequels can be a mind-bending experience. Forty-three years ago the original John Carpenter-directed movie established many of the rules of the slasher genre, and spawned a prolific franchise that so far has churned out an additional 11 movies detailing unstoppable masked killer Michael Myers’ penchant for killing good looking teenagers.

There have been reboots, returns, prequels and sequel to remakes. Laurie Strode, the original film’s heroine played by Jamie Lee Curtis, has faked her own death, gone into hiding, decapitated, shot and stabbed Myers and yet, a new movie, “Halloween Kills,” featuring Strode and Myers, hit theatres this weekend.

Director David Gordon Green gets around the labyrinthine comings-and-goings of the mad masked killer by simply ignoring the movies made between 1981 and 2009. His 2018 film, “Halloween,” is a direct sequel to the 1978 film of the same name.

Confused? No need to be.

All you really need to know is that after an extended flashback to 1978, it’s Halloween night in Haddonfield, Illinois, and the action picks up minutes after the 2018 sequel. Michael Myers, the “essence of evil,” is in the basement of a burning house, trapped there by Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis), her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak). The nightmare should be over, but this a “Halloween” movie which means the nightmare will never be over. Myers manages to escape and, as he resumes his killing spree, Laurie, her family and some motivated townsfolk aim to end his reign of terror. “You and Allyson should not have to keep running,” Laurie tells Karen. “Evil dies tonight.”

The best horror movies are never about the monster or the killings. That’s the gooey, gory stuff that keeps us in our seats, ready to absorb the larger social messages woven into the script. “Halloween Kills” wants to make poignant, timely points about how anger divides us and fear keeps us apart, but, trouble is, “Halloween Kills” is not one of the better horror films.

Far from it.

It is brutal. Michael Myers is as unrelenting and remorseless as ever, maybe even more so. Green’s interesting POV shots of the victims coupled with nasty, squishy sound effects provide several memorable moments of gory glee that horror fans will enjoy. Slash, slash, squirt, squirt! Oh my! He’s got blood on his shirt!

The first half of the movie offers up rather inventive kills. It’s fun when Myers is onscreen, lumbering his way toward another victim. Unfortunately, it’s less fun when the vigilante mob endlessly chants “evil dies tonight.” We get it.

And everything else about the plot.

For such a simple story, they sure do waste time explaining the same points over and over. Add to that over baked dialogue—”Let him take my head,” Laurie sneers, “as I take his.”—and a too-long running time and you’ll be wishing it was already November 1.

 

PLAYING WITH FIRE: 3 STARS. “isn’t just “Backdraft” for kids.”

Released on a week following the news of out of control fires scorching thousands of acres of California landscape forcing the evacuations of thousands of people, comes “Playing with Fire.” But this isn’t a ripped-from-the-headlines story of first responders risking their lives. Instead, it’s a kid’s comedy about “smoke jumpers” who are transformed by the very people they are there to protect.

Wrestler-turned-actor John Cena is Superintendent Jake Carson, a second-generation smoke jumper and a by the book guy. “We must be at our very best every second of every day,” he says. His team, the former accountant Mark (Keegan-Michael Key), motor mouth Rodrigo (John Leguizamo) and the intimidating Axe (Tyler Mane), are an eccentric but loyal bunch, willing to put their lives on the line to fight fires and save lives.

On one spectacular mission Jake is lowered into a burning cabin on a remote mountain, rescuing three kids, teenager Brynn (Brianna Hildebrand), high-spirited tyke Will (Christian Convery) and babe-in-arms Zoey (Finley Rose Slater). Their parents are on vacation and, as employees of the US Department of Forestry, Jake, Mark, Rodrigo and Axe are legally bound by the Safe Haven Law to look after the kids until they can be handed over to the guardians.

It’s not a natural fit. The kids arrive just as Jake is nominated for the Department of Forestry’s top job. As he tries to keep the station in a-one shape in advance of his boss Commander Richards’ (Dennis Haysbert) arrival and awkwardly court a local scientist (Judy Greer) the rambunctious children turn his life upside down.

“Playing with Fire” isn’t “Backdraft” for kids. There are some fiery action scenes but kid friendly awkward humor is the name of the game here. There are pratfalls, physical gags, poop and barf jokes but Cena’s goofy charm plus Key, Leguizamo and Mane’s strange exuberance distract from the movie’s predictable plot. Yes, it’s one of those stories where the tough guys reveal hidden reservoirs of tenderness and learn as much from the kids as the kids learn from them, but there are enough genuine laughs, for kids and adults, amid the silly stuff to warrant the price of a Saturday afternoon matinee ticket.

WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE: 3 STARS. “creates a compelling central character.”  

Based on Maria Semple’s 2012 bestseller “Where’d You Go, Bernadette,” is a mystery-comedy that explores motherhood and mental illness.

Cate Blanchett plays the title character, an agoraphobic architect, once heralded as a genius, now a hermit who hasn’t designed a building in decades. Described as one of architecture’s “true enigmas,” she hates travelling, complains that people are rude and yammer too much, can’t sleep—“Anxiety causes insomnia,” she claims, “and insomnia causes anxiety.”—rarely leaves the house and has poured all her prescription drugs into one jar. “The colours and shapes are amazing together,” she says.

The other moms in the area, next door neighbor Audrey (Kristen Wiig) and “all her flying monkeys,” don’t like her and Bernadette makes no effort to build bridges with them. “I’m not good when exposed to people.”

The only bright spots in her life are husband Elgin (Billy Crudup), 15-year-old daughter Bee (Emma Nelson) and her virtual, on-line assistant. A series of unrelated but catastrophic events, including a mini-mud slide, an identity theft ring and an intervention, prompt Bernadette to disappear without a trace, leaving Bee and Elgin to figure out where she went.

“Where’d You Go, Bernadette” is more story driven than director Richard Linklater’s recent, more slice-of-life films. In movies like “Everybody Wants Some!!” he excelled in crafting interesting situations for his characters to inhabit. Here the details aren’t so much focussed on the location or building atmosphere, but in creating a layered and compelling central character.

Blanchett applies a light touch here, playing up the funny moments, but still digging in when it comes time to deal with the “formality of life.” It’s a lovely performance in a film that rambles somewhat, but ultimately finds touching moments in the story of a woman who had to get lost to find herself.

HALLOWEEN: 4 STARS. “direct follow-up to the original film is all treats, no tricks.”

Did you love “Halloween III: Season of the Witch”? Wipe it from your memory. What about “Halloween H20: 20 Years Later”? Fuhgeddaboudit. How about “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers” or any of the other masked killer films that came after John Carpenter’s 1978 slasher classic? They don’t exist. When you lay down money for a ticket to the new “Halloween” you are erasing four decades of slashing and dashing and seeing a direct follow-up to the original film.

Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie Strode, the resourceful babysitter who, forty years ago, bravely stood up to masked killer Michael Myers (Nick Castle). The intervening years have seen her raise her now estranged daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and live in a home fortified with booby-traps in case Myers should reappear. “He’s waited for this night,” she says. “I’ve waited for him.”

At the beginning of the film Myers—known as ‘The Shape’ in the first movie—is still paying the price for killing his teenage sister Judith and the subsequent slaughter of four others. Tucked away in Smith’s Grove Sanatorium he is silent, a man who hasn’t spoken since committing his first murder at the age of six.

When Aaron Korey (Jefferson Hall) and Dana Haines (Rhian Rees), two British true crime podcasters, try to pry and interview out of Myers they arrive just before the Bogeyman escapes on October 31, 2018, put on the famous mask and reboot his killing career with an eye toward the one victim who got away all those years ago.

The 1978 and 2018 movies share more than a title and a leading lady. They share structural DNA and frights galore. The 2018 film feels fresh, timely and like a throwback to the moody low-fi scares of the original slasher flicks.

Castle is as eerie as always but it is Curtis who steals the show. Strode is grown up, suffers from PTSD and by her own words is “a basket case.” What she is not is broken. “I prayed every night for him to escape,” she says, “so I could kill him.” The trauma of 40 years ago has hardened her but she’s a warrior and a survivor who uses the great personal price Myers extracted from her as fuel to keep going. It’s tremendous stuff and in the #MeToo era the kind of heroine reclaiming her power that should make audiences cheer.

“Halloween” is both a reboot and a bloody love letter to the director who started it all, John Carpenter.

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: 3 STARS. “throwback to drive-in movies of the 1950s”

“Do you guys put the word quantum in front of everything?”

That’s the question Paul Rudd, playing Scott Lang / Ant-Man, asks in the new Marvel movie “Ant-Man and The Wasp.” Having seen the film I wonder why he didn’t speak up earlier, like when the screenwriters were scribbling about quantum physics, quantum realm, quantum void, quantum this and quantum that. These movies are supposed to be about a smart alecy guy who can shrink himself down to the size of an ant to solve crimes, not the Heisenberg principle.

The movie begins as Lang has just three days left on his house arrest following the events of “Captain America: Civil War.” Trapped in his apartment he has a strange dream. He sees Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), wife of scientist Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), mother of Lilly van Dyne a.k.a. Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), trapped in the quantum wormhole she disappeared into three decades before. Meanwhile Hank and Lilly are perfecting a method to rescue their loved one from the quantum hike she now calls home. Trouble is, they can’t do it alone. They need any information that may be trapped in Rudd’s head and money from a grubby bad guy. Time is of the essence as Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), a spectral presence who can walk through walls, also seeks out Janet’s quantum power to heal her cellular disorder.

From the kitschy sounding title to the size-shifting characters to the scientific mumbo jumbo that takes up much of the screen time, “Ant-Man and The Wasp” is a throwback to drive-in movies of the 1950s. It’s been updated with better special effects and more authentic sounding science jargon, but make no mistake, for better and for worse, this has just as much in common with flickers like “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman” and “Them!” as it does with the Avengers. Like the 50s b-movies that were undoubtedly an influence, this is a loud-n-proud genre film but like many of the Avengers films that are part of the Ant-Man family, it is marred by excess. Too many characters, too many story shards—a rescue mission, two sets of baddies chasing down the quantum technology, a romantic subplot, a family film angle—too much exposition to much quantum theory.

There is a funny scene about an hour into the movie where Michael Peña, playing Lang’s former cellmate and current business partner, recaps the story so far. It takes two minutes, is laugh-out-loud funny and completely negates the need for much of the exposition—people in this movie love to ask things like, “What have you done?”—that comes before it. Move that to the beginning of the film and they could have saved pages of dialogue and juiced up the film’s fun factor by at least fifty percent.

“Ant-Man and The Wasp” does plough some new ground—it is the first time a female superhero’s name is in the title of an MCU film—but feels scattershot in its execution.

ADVENTURES IN PUBLIC SCHOOL: 3 STARS. “not a matriarchal ‘Great Santini.'”

According to the dictionary the definition of helicopter parent is, “a parent who takes an overprotective or excessive interest in the life of their child or children.” That definition is stretched to the point of breaking by Claire (Judy Greer), overbearing mother of home-schooled teenager Liam (Daniel Doheny), in the new comedy “Adventures in Public School.”

Liam has a head full of stars. His dream of becoming a physicist, going to Cambridge to study with Stephen Hawking, is fully supported by his enthusiastic mother, who has prepped him academically. Before jetting off to England—with mom in tow—

he must take a high school equivalency exam. Within minutes of his first time in an actual school the guileless Liam falls for Anastasia (Siobhan Williams), a schoolgirl who lost a leg to cancer. In a moment of teenaged hormonal impulsivity he makes the decision to purposely flunk the exam so he can become a student at the school. Mom is displeased—she sees her alma mater as the root of much of what went wrong in her life—but comes to understand that Liam needs to be socialized before moving on to higher education. A fish-out-of-water, the Liam enrols—under an absent student’s name—and gets schooled in the mysteries of teen life.

“Adventures in Public School” succeeds as well as it does due to a heartfelt script that finds a new view of the kind of awkward teenaged character we’ve seen time after time in coming of age films. Doheny is an amiable presence, gawky but genial, who brings a great deal of charm to the quirky role. Similarly, Greer is a charismatic actor who shapes her character’s random assortment of personality quirks into a real person, both compelling and comic.

Director Kyle Rideout (who also co-wrote the script with Josh Epstein) wrangles the almost-too-close-for-comfort relationship between mother and son. What could have been a story of over-dependency is, in fact, grounded by just enough sincerity and affability to save it from becoming an a matriarchal “Great Santini.”

OUR SOULS AT NIGHT: 3 ½ STARS. “low-key movie about two people leading quiet lives.”

Two of the highest-flying stars 1960s, 70s and 80s, film legends Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, reteam for the low key “Our Souls at Night.” On screen they’ve played lovers in “The Chase,” “The Electric Horseman” and most famously in 1967’s “Barefoot in the Park.” That movie portrayed the first blushes of young love. In the new film, Fonda says, “we play old people love and old people sex.”

The screen legends play Louis and Addie. Long time neighbours, both are widowers, living alone in homes that once brimmed with life and love. Lonely and alone, Addie goes next door with a proposal to a man she barely knows. “Would you be interested in coming to my house and sleeping with me?” she asks. “It’s not about sex, it’s about getting through the night.”

Their sleepovers begin innocently enough, just the sharing of some company and a mattress. As they get to know one another their life histories are laid bare. Louis cheated on his wife, an extramarital affair that left a deep scar on his relationship with his daughter (Judy Greer). Addie’s life is complicated by the sudden appearance of her son Gene (Matthias Schoenaerts) who is in no shape to look after his son, seven-year-old Jamie (Iain Armitage). While Gene figures things out Jamie moves in, completing the second-time-around family.

“Our Souls at Night” is a low-key movie about two people leading quiet lives. Louis and Addie are people you know, your grandparents, neighbours or elderly friends. Perhaps better looking grandparents, neighbours and elderly friends than we’re used to, but this Redford and Fonda we’re talking about here. They are people just looking to make a connection, to spend their remaining days in the company of someone they love. “I just want to live out my day,” says Louis, “and then come home and tell you all about it at night.” It’s touching stuff, made more effective by the presence of the leads, actors we have literally grown up watching. They feel familiar, although a little more thread bare than we’ve seen before. Redford shuffles when he walks, Fonda is delicate but as their relationship blooms the colour returns to their cheeks and the chemistry we first saw fifty years ago kick in. Their spark and naturalistic performances even help gloss over some of the more melodramatic elements of “Our Souls at Night’s” story.