I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Scott Hirsch to recap the final days of TIFF and talk about the harrowing “The Long Walk,” the soapy “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” and the rockin’ “Spinal Tap: The End Continues.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with guest anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about new movies in theatres including the harrowing “The Long Walk,” the soapy “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” and the rockin’ “Spinal Tap: The End Continues.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 13:09)
I join CP24 to talk about the harrowing “The Long Walk,” the soapy “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” and the rockin’ “Spinal Tap: The End Continues.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join CP24 to talk about the big movies hitting theatres and streaming this week including the soapy “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale,” the rockin’ “Spinal Tap: The End Continues” and the Netflix doc A.K.A. Chatlie Sheen.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I joined CTV NewsChannel anchor Roger Peterson to have a look at new movies coming to theatres including the harrowing “The Long Walk,” the soapy “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” and the rockin’ “Spinal Tap: The End Continues.”
Watch 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 review the rockin’ “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” and suggest a cocktail to enjoy while watching the movie.
Click HERE to listen to Shane and me talk about how to correctly pronounce Denzel Washington’s name (you’ve been doing it wrong), a new Davbid Bowie musical and an unlikely stand up comic.
For the Booze & Reviews look at the rockin’ “Spinal Tapo II: Last Rites” and some cocktails to enjoy with the movie click HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make the bed! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the harrowing “The Long Walk,” the soapy “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” and the rockin’ “Spinal Tap: The End Continues.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” a new mockumentary now rockin’ in theatres, sees the estranged members of metal legends Spinal Tap thrown together for one last gig. Times have changed, but have they?
CAST: Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Fran Drescher, Questlove, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Kerry Godliman and Paul Shaffer. Directed by Rob Reiner.
REVIEW: “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” the legacy sequel to the forty-one-year-old classic mock rock doc, captures the spirit of the original, but does not turn the volume of laughs up to 11.
Following a fifteen-year break, the estranged members of heavy metal band Spinal Tap— David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel, and Derek Smalls (Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer)—are forced to reunite for a one-off show in New Orleans.
Their acrimonious split sent them in different directions. Guitarist Tufnel has a shop called Nigel’s Cheese & Guitars, where he trades cheese for musical instruments. Singer/guitarist McKean writes scores for b-horror movies like the retirement home horror “Night of the Assisted Living Dead”, and bassist Smalls runs a glue museum called Stick to It.
Reluctantly reunited, they are once again under the scrutiny of documentarian Marty Di Bergi (Rob Reiner) who captures the backstage drama, ego trips and the search for a drummer.
The original film was groundbreaking, a masterful mock doc that set the template for everything from “Bob Roberts” and “Borat” to “The Office” and “A Mighty Wind.” The new film, however, feels like nostalgia. We’re used to the form, and while it’s nostalgic fun to spend time with silly-but-sweet rockers, our familiarity with the original blunts the impact of the new one.
There are some laugh out loud moments in “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” but the satire doesn’t land in quite the same way it did forty-one years ago. British comedian Chris Addison’s portrayal of the music hating concert promoter is bang on. He’s the embodiment of the ruthless music executive who, with a straight face, suggests it would secure the band’s legacy if, “during the gig at least one, but ideally no more than two of you were to die.” When he’s on screen the spoof is sharpened to a fine point.
It’s when the film gets awkwardly reflective with a mix of satire and emotion that it hits a flat note. As old wounds are opened and an air of mortality hangs over the band, the jokes become fewer and further between. A new song, “Rockin’ in the Urn,” is a reflection on aging, but it hits the expected tone, self-serious, over the top and metal as hell. That scene hits the right chord, managing laughs with the band’s reflections on refusing to stop rockin’ in the face of their own impermanence.
“Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” is a cover version of a fan favorite. Guest, McKean, Shearer and Reiner, who directs as well as appears as Marty Di Bergi, are game, but the looming specter of the original casts a long shadow over the proceedings.
The rarely seen and often misunderstood cinéma verité Beatles documentary “Let It Be,” mostly unseen since the 1980s, is now available on Disney+, courtesy of a remastered treatment from Peter Jackson.
At a brief 81 minutes, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s film is a rougher document than its companion piece, the sweeping, textured, 468-minute “Get Back” docuseries Jackson created out of the salvaged outtakes from Lindsay-Hogg’s 1969 shoot.
“Let It Be” is contextless, a fly-on-the-wall document of a band rehearsing and recording songs for their twelfth and final studio album “Let It Be;” allowing the creative sparks to fly and land where they may. It’s of historical interest because those songs, presented here in utero, would go on to become some of the most beloved tunes of the twentieth century, and are performed by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, who, at that moment, were the most famous musicians on the planet.
At its release, the film was picked apart by critics like the Observer, who called it “a bore… clumsily edited, uninformative and naïve.” Presented without a storyline, shot on 16 mm and blown up to 35 mm for theatrical release, it was grainy and dark, both visually and in tone.
Released in May 1970, just a month after the band’s very public divorce, “Let It Be” became ground zero for Beatles conspiracists who analyzed the footage, looking for clues as to why the world’s most beloved band blew apart. Was Paul the bad guy? Did Yoko Ono cause a fissure between band members? The movie is singlehandedly responsible for much of the mythology surround the band’s breakup.
But the new film, restored from the original 16mm negative with sparkling remastered sound, reveals something else. There are moments of tension, notably between McCartney and Harrison, but in the new, cleaned up version, the gloom has lifted to reveal a literal band of brothers making art under extraordinary circumstances.
The sessions came just months after the recording of the “White Album,” and were meant to be a return to their roots in the wake of the death of their manager Brian Epstein, press scrutiny and internal tensions. Their relationships may have been frayed by external pressures, but a closer look at ”Let It Be,” free from the furor of the break-up that coloured the 1970 release, reveals the shared joy of creation.
There is a certain level of performance in “Let it Be,” like Paul making love to the camera as he sings an early version of the title track, but mostly what gives the film its punch is that it is an unvarnished look at four very public people at the height of their fame, unencumbered by the spin of publicist or the glare of the spotlight.
