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 Amy Adams in “Nightbitch,” the ghost story “Presence” and the sky high “Flight Risk.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about Amy Adams in “Nightbitch,” the ghost story “Presence” and the sky high “Flight Risk.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 14:43)
I join the CTV NewsChannel anchor Roger Peterson to talk about Amy Adams in “Nightbitch,” the ghost story “Presence” and the sky high “Flight Risk.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in with hosts Jim Richards and Deb Hutton on NewsTalk 1010 to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about Amy Adams in “Nightbitch,” the ghost story “Presence” and the sky high “Flight Risk.”
Listen to 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 Amy Adams in “Nightbitch,” the ghost story “Presence,” the sky high “Flight Risk” and the crusty drama of “Hard Truths.”
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 I give you the perfect libation to enjoy while watching the Mark Wahlberg actioner “Flight Risk.”
Listen to Booze & Reviews HERE!
Listen to Richard on the best and worst Hollywood has to offer HERE!
SYNOPSIS: A thriller set 3000 feet above the earth’s surface, “Flight Risk” sees a U.S. Marshal, a government witness and a hitman at odds on a small plane flying from Anchorage, Alaska to Seattle, Washington.
CAST: Mark Wahlberg, Topher Grace. Michelle Dockery. Directed by Mel Gibson.
REVIEW: “Flight Risk” is the kind of movie Hollywood used to make all the time. Start with a simple premise—US Marshall Madelyn Harris (Michelle Dockery) transporting an important government witness (Topher Grace) from the wilds of Alaska to Seattle—add in an unusual location—a rickety cargo plane—some human drama—Harris has a traumatic past—and a wildcard—the pilot (Mark Wahlberg) isn’t who he seems—and you have a simple, throwback thriller in the vein of “Phone Booth” or “Shut In.”
Essentially a chamber piece in the sky, 99% of the film happens on board the plane chartered to move Winston, an accountant with verbal diarrhea. “This isn’t a private plane,” he says of the rough cargo transport. “This is kite with seatbelts.”
It’s a tight space for the tightly constructed thriller and while it doesn’t exactly offer up much new in the way of plot developments, it makes the most of what its working with.
Basically a three-hander, “Flight Risk” gives “Downton Abbey’s” Lady Mary a chance to kick some as and Grace gets to crack wise. Only Wahlberg, with a Larry the Cable Guy accent, is underused. He isn’t given all that much to do except be bald and bad, both of which he pulls off.
They are all stock characters; there’s the uptight cop haunted by her past, the obnoxious, scared witness and a psychopath who loves his work a little too much. “I do this for free,” he says. “I do it for the fun.” They all behave pretty much the way you expect them to, so there’s not much in the way of surprises from the lead trio.
The movie’s biggest surprise is that it’s directed by Mel Gibson. His name is conspicuously absent from the trailer, although it is trumpeted in the closing credits. Gibson keeps things taut, following Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s rule, “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise, don’t put it there.” You see the flare gun, so you know later the flare gun will be used. In a stripped-down movie like this, the details matter, and Gibson ensures that nothing is extraneous.
“Flight Risk” is a straightforward, old-fashioned thriller with a little bit of human drama, a conspiracy theory or two, some good versus evil and a whole lotta tension. It doesn’t reinvent the form but is reliable in its ability to move you to the edge of your seat.
Most movies for kids often have just enough adult content to give parents a chuckle as the young ones giggle to the silly stuff. “Shrek,” “Minions” and even the wholesome “Toy Story” movies have embedded subliminal messages and jokes for parents who sit dutifully by as their children watch
The same is not usually true with movies aimed at grown-ups. Mature themes about house husbanding, unfulfilled career ambitions and marital discord aren’t exactly the stuff of family movie night. And that’s what makes “Me Time,” a new Netflix comedy starring Kevin Hart and Mark Wahlberg such a head-scratcher. Hart and Wahlberg should be able to squeeze some adult laughs out of the story of self-discovery by men who explore uncharted avenues in their lives, so why is so much of the humor aimed at kids?
Hart is Sonny Fisher, husband to architect Maya (Regina Hall) and father to two adorable kids. While Maya is advancing her career, Sonny put his dreams of being a musician to stay home with the kids. At home he’s a natural. It’s in the outside world that his awkwardness comes to the fore.
On the other end of the spectrum is his best friend Huck Dembo (Wahlberg). The embodiment of YOLO, he’s a party-boy and a risk-taker with a way with a phrase.
When Maya convinces Sonny to opt out of a family vacation and take some “me time,” he reluctantly agrees and winds up on Huck’s latest birthday adventure, a trip to Burning Man with a bus load of party people.
Cue the odd mix of adult reckoning and infantile gags.
“Me Time” wastes its two leads in a sea of wasted opportunities. Individually, Hart and Wahlberg bring the funny, so the comedic combo effect should be doubled, but director John “Along Came Polly” Hamburg keeps his two stars apart for most of the film’s first half. By the time their hijinks really begin, the mix of sincerity and silly has already worn thin. Both actors try hard to elevate the poop jokes and frenetic physical comedy, but are left hanging by a script that attempts to mix-and-match adult concerns with juvenile jokes.
The result is a movie that feels like it can’t decide who it is for, the poop joke audience or the buddy comedy crowd.
“Me Too” is a childish movie that attempts to examine what it means to be an adult.
“Father Stu,” a new, inspirational Mark Wahlberg movie, now playing in theatres, is the unlikely, but true, story of a potty-mouthed, rough ‘n tumble boxer whose road to redemption begins with a detour into the Catholic Church.
When we first meet Stuart Long (Wahlberg), he’s an amateur boxer with visions of the big time. He’s good, but not good enough to go pro, as his mother (Jacki Weaver) likes to point out. “Don’t be careless with your life,” she says. “You’re the age when most people pack it in.”
He’s an angry guy. Angry at his deadbeat father (Mel Gibson). Angry at his little brother who died young. Angry at himself and the world.
He’s a nasty drunk with a hair trigger temper, but when a medical condition forces him to retire from the ring, he sets his eyes on Hollywood. “I’ll cash in on my face,” he says. “Not my fists.”
A smooth talker, he manages to get a job at a grocery store where he hopes to meet actors and directors who will give him a gig. Instead, he meets Carmen (Teresa Ruiz) a devote Catholic who reluctantly begins dating the unpolished Stu, but only if he gets baptized. She is, as a friend says, “as Catholic as the cross itself.”
His road to redemption begins as he helps Carmen teach Sunday School. His plain-spoken way is a hit with the kids, Carmen and even her strict father but it takes a drunken motorcycle accident for Stu to literally see the light and devote himself to the church. “God saved me to show there is a reason why I’m here,” he says as he tells Carmen of his intention to become a priest.
In a life filled with dramatic turns, there is one more in store for Stu. One that may prevent him from realizing his dream of becoming a priest. “God is all about fighting the odds,” he says, “of having the strength to endure a difficult life.”
“Father Stu” has inspiration to spare. It is a movie about religion’s power to heal and motivate, which will have many saying “Amen,” but the story’s execution resembles a movie of the week, with predictable plot points and an accelerated timeline that packs too much into too little time.
Even at two hours, the pacing is jagged as director and writer Rosalind Ross attempts to cover as many facets of Stu’s personality as possible. She takes the adage “everything happens for a reason” to an extreme and, as such, the movie feels rushed on some scenes, too leisurely in others, but rarely gives us the deep insight that would make Stu’s motivations resonate.
Wahlberg, who also produced the film after hearing Stu’s story during dinner with a group of priests, undergoes an extreme transformation to play the character—and I don’t mean his ridiculous moustache. His charisma shines through the weight and make-up and it is in these scenes that he elevates Stu from the cartoonish bad boy of the movie’s first half, into a compelling character. It’s too bad, that Ross attempts to tie up some of the loose story threads just as the personal story really finds its humanity.
“Father Stu” is being released around Easter, so given its subject matter and messages, it would appear to be a movie for the whole family, but be warned, Stu’s language is authentic, i.e. pretty raunchy throughout the film’s running time.
“Father Stu” is a movie about change, about overcoming obstacles and living with purpose. Good messages all, it’s just too bad they are tied up in a clumsy movie.
