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!
I join CTV Atlantic anchor Todd Battis to talk about the transformational horror of “Wolf Man,” the resilience of “The Last Showgirl,” the star power of “Back in Action” and the life and times of David Lynch.
Watch 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 transformational horror of “Wolf Man,” the resilience of “The Last Showgirl” and star power of “Back in Action.”
Listen to 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.
I join CTV Atlantic anchor to talk about the Christmas actioner “Red One,” the drama “Magpie” and the stop motion animated “Memoirs of a Snail.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in with CKTB morning show host Steph Vivier to have a look at movies in theatres and VOD including the Christmas actioner “Red One,” the drama “Magpie” and the stop motion animated “Memoirs of a Snail.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” for Booze & Reviews! This week we have a look at the Yuletide action flick “Red One” and I’ll tell about a drink that’ll get you in the sspirit of the season!
Listen to “Booze & Reviews” HERE! (Starts at 10:44)
Could there be a Simon & Garfunkle reunion happening? Find out HERE! (Starts at 20:47)
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 Christmas actioner “Red One,” the drama “Magpie” and the stop motion animated “Memoirs of a Snail.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In the new Yuletide action flick “Red One,” when Santa Claus (code name: Red One) is kidnapped twenty-four hours before Christmas, the North Pole’s Head of Security, an ELF “(Extremely Large and Formidable”) named Callum Drift, played by Dwayne Johnson, teams with Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans), hacker and the world’s best tracker, in a dangerous mission to save Christmas. “There are worse ways to go out than saving Santa Claus,” says Jack.
CAST: Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Nick Kroll, Kristofer Hivju, Wesley Kimmel, and J. K. Simmons. Directed by Jake Kasdan.
REVIEW: As Santa’s bodyguard Callum Drift, Dwayne Johnson complains that for the first time ever more people are on the naughty list than the nice list. It’s ironic, then, that as the star of “Red One,” the new high-tech, low-reward holiday movie directed by Jake Kasdan, Johnson’s name belongs at the top of that ignominious list.
A Christmas movie with product placement for the whole family, from Hot Wheels to Bulleit Bourbon, it’s a formulaic action film, with generic CGI battles and Johnson in automaton mode.
Johnson is in his wheelhouse. This is a big family action flick, reminiscent of “Disney’s Jungle Cruise” and “Jumanji: The Next Level.” Difference is, both those movies gave Johnson the chance to exercise his comedy chops as well as his muscle-bound physique. “Red One” sees him as a dour, oversized ELF with resting Grinch face who, when he isn’t barking orders is glaring at the film’s baddies. Despite one slightly amusing size-shifting fight scene, it’s a particularly uninspired performance that should get noticed come Razzie Awards time.
Chris Evan fares slightly better. He shrugs off the Captain America persona to play a Jack, a deadbeat dad, drunk and degenerate gambler. “I’m not a scrupulous person,” he sneers. “Ask anybody.”
Of course, they will learn from one another. Jack will discover how to be good from Callum, while proving to Callum that there is good in everyone, even a “Level Four Naughty Lister.” The movie’s messages of nice triumphing over naughty are the usual holiday fare, hammered home with the subtility of fifty-foot Christmas tree.
Add to that a forgettable villain with very little screen time and even less presence when we do see her and you’re left with a film about the magic of Christmas, with very little magic.
“Red One” is a big, $300 million movie, but, as the season has taught us, not all good things come in big packages.
