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 animated adventures of “Dog Man,’ surreal sci-fi of “Companion” and the doc “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join the CTV NewsChannel anchor Roger Peterson to talk about the surreal sci-fi of “Companion,” the animated adventures of “Dog Man’ and the doc “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in with CKTB morning show host Steph Vivier to have a look at movies in theatres and streaming including the surreal sci-fi of “Companion,” the animated adventures of “Dog Man,’ the doc “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story” and the wrestling flick “Dark Match.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about Bill’s story of meeting Liza Minelli, and the new movies coming to theatres including the surreal sci-fi of “Companion,” the animated adventures of “Dog Man,’ the doc “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story” and the wrestling flick “Dark Match.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I join CTV Atlantic anchor Todd Battis to talk about the animated adventures of “Dog Man,’ surreal sci-fi of “Companion” and the doc “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPIS: “Dog Man,” a new animated movie featuring the voices of Pete Davidson and Isla Fisher, and now playing in theatres, begins when Petey, the “world’s evilest cat,” blows up Officer Knight and his dog Greg. In a lifesaving operation, Greg’s head is grafted onto Officer Knight’s body. “I tried to get rid of both of you,” says Petey, “but instead I made a supercop.”
CAST: Pete Davidson, Lil Rel Howery, Isla Fisher, Poppy Liu, Stephen Root, Billy Boyd, Ricky Gervais. Written and directed by Peter Hastings.
REVIEW: Like an episode of Short Attention Span Theatre, most of “Dog Man” is so fast paced, it’s like someone is leaning on the fast forward button. To say it is frenetic is an understatement, like saying Count Orlock is not a morning person.
Adapted from the phenomenally successful graphic novels by Dav Pilkey, creator of the “Captain Underpants” books, “Dog Man” values silliness above all else. It never misses an opportunity to crack wise or showcase a visual gag. For instance, archenemy Petey (Pete Davidson) attacks Dog man with the one thing every dog is afraid of, a giant vacuum cleaner. It’s “an approach that sucks,” says “Live Breaking News Live” reporter Seamus (Billy Boyd). When that fails Petey resorts to The Butt Sniffer 2000 and mechanical exploding squirrels.
By the time an entire block of buildings, that fart great green clouds of gas, comes to life, the movie begins to resemble an acid trip for kids.
Subtle, it is not, but in between the goofy jokes are good messages on the importance of family, however you define it, logical or biological.
The style of animation will be familiar to lovers of the books, and there’s a lot of you out there, as the graphic novels have sold 60 million copies globally. Director Peter Hastings calls it “high-end handmade,” and it captures the organic feel of the original book art, which blends “South Park” style, comic book art and Pilkey’s book art. It’s exaggerated, playful and fits the film’s wild tone to a T.
“Dog Man” is a lot. It’s a pedal to the metal experience, filled with childish humor (and the odd gag aimed at parents) but the anarchy is tempered somewhat by heartfelt messages of the importance of doing the right thing, forgiveness and family.
Despite the title, “Dumb Money,” a new ripped-from-the-headlines dramedy starring Paul Dano, now playing in theatres, is a smart take on how an on-line investment blogger led the French Revolution of Wall Street.
Dano is Keith Gill. By day he’s a financial trader, at night he’s Roaring Kitty, host of a quirky on-line show broadcast from his Brockton, Massachusetts basement. Wearing tie-dyed cat t-shirts, topped with a red headband, he offers up stock advice for a tiny audience, who respond with torrents of abuse. In early 2021 he makes waves when he goes all in, sinking his life’s savings, into an unorthodox hunch.
“Yo! What up everybody,” he says on the show. “Roaring Kitty here. I’m going to pick a stock and talk about why I think it is interesting, and that stock is GameStop.”
Wall Street hedge funders had been short selling the video game retailer’s stock, hoping to profit if the stock fails, but Gill thinks the stock is undervalued, that there is life left in the company. His passion for the GameStop slowly wins over his handful of viewers, who snap up the cheap stock. As more and more people buy, the stock rises, and soon rockets to upwards of $500 a share.
The ”retail traders,” the students and restaurant workers who take Roaring Kitty’s advice, get rich while the billionaire hedge funders, in particular Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen) of Melvin Capital, begin to lose money, to the tune of $1 billion a day.
Roaring Kitty becomes an internet sensation, an underdog David against Wall Street’s Goliath.
“A lot of people feel the system is broken,” he says. “The whole idea of the stock market is if you’re smart, and maybe with a little luck, you can make your fortune. Certainly not anymore. There’s no hope for the little guy. But maybe now there is.”
As the stock soars, the mainstream media takes notice, as does the White House and Congress.
“You got the rich dudes pissing their pants,” says Keith’s brother Kevin (Pete Davidson). “They’re coming after you.”
Once you get past the dense financial jargon about short selling, etc, “Dumb Money” is a fist-in-the-air crowd pleaser. It’s a very specific story, based on true events, but there is a Frank Capra-esque quality to the account of outsiders giving the middle finger to power, and, for the most part, winning.
Dano is nicely cast as Gill, an outside who, as an agent of chaos, briefly fought against a rigged system and emerged victorious. In addition to bearing a remarkable resemblance to the real Gill, Dano brings forth the resolute nature of the character, a man who valued the power of the class movement he started more than the dollars that accumulated in his portfolio.
Stealing scenes is Davidson as Keith’s wild card younger brother Kevin. He is as brash as Keith is reserved, as impulsive as his brother is methodical, and provides a blast of energy every time he’s one screen.
“Dumb Money” doesn’t get too bogged down by the financial verbiage, although it may be worth a trip to the “short sell” Wikipedia page before buying a ticket. It’s a rousing, high energy story of leveling the playing field that captures the spirit of the time.
“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” the globe-trotting seventh installment in the “Transformers” live-action film series, is both a sequel and a prequel. Set in 1994, it wedges the story between the events of “Bumblebee,” set in 1987, and “Transformers,” which takes place in 2007.
Primarily based on Hasbro’s “Beast Wars” storyline, it reboots the franchise with a new cast and a new tribe of Transformers.
The story begins as Noah (Anthony Ramos), an unemployed Brooklyn-based electronics expert, desperate for cash to help his ailing little brother, steals a silver-blue Porsche 964 Carrera RS 3.8. What he doesn’t realize is that the car is actually a rebellious Autobot named Mirage (voice of Pete Davidson) with the ability turn invisible and create illusions.
Meanwhile, while working at a museum on Ellis Island, artifact researcher Elena (Dominique Fishback) discovers a bird sculpture with unusual markings and the symbol of the Maximals, the mostly peaceful descendants of the Autobots. More fuel-efficient than their ancestors, with a cry of “Maximals, MAXIMIZE,” they transform into animals like a western lowland gorilla (Ron Perlman), a peregrine falcon (Michelle Yeoh), a white rhinoceros (David Sobolov) or a cheetah (Tongayi Chirisa).
Inadvertently engaging a key for interdimensional space travel, Elena attracts the attention of the heroic Optimus Prime (voice of Peter Cullen), the Maximals, the dark, planet-destroying god Unicron (Colman Domingo) and an evil subgroup of the Decepticons called the Terrorcons.
“Once I have this key,” snarls Unicron, “I alone will reign supreme.”
If the planet is to be saved, the Autobots, Maximals, Noah and Elena must join forces, travel to a remote village in Peru and secure the all-powerful key. “This is about the fate of all living things,” says Optimus Primal (Perlman).
“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” delivers what fans expect from the franchise. The transformations from car-to-character are cool, the action scenes deliver the expected heavy metal punch, Optimus Prime is as stentorian as ever and the Maximals are underused, but pretty cool.
Director Steve Caple Jr. also adds in an appealing human element with the addition of Ramos and Fishback, and even the alien robots are imbued with a bit more soul—and in Mirage’s case, more personality—than usual.
It’s a shame then, that the simple story isn’t more interesting. The individual elements work well, in some cases better than in Michael Bay’s franchise instalments, but we’ve seen too many end-of-the-world scenarios in recent years. It may be Armageddon time, but familiarity breeds, well, maybe not contempt, but complacency. The stakes just don’t seem all that high because they’re hung on a predictable story with a generic superhero premise.
Having said all that, “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” is a good time at the movies. Sure, it could use a little more air in the tires in the mid-section and there is way too much exposition as we reach the end game, but it delivers what matters to fans: rock ‘em, sock ‘em robot action writ large.
For six seasons on “Saturday Night Live” Pete Davidson has tempered humour with acute candor to forge a deeply personal kind of comedy based on his life experiences. His new film, “The King of Staten Island,” now on VOD, is his most self-confessional work yet.
Davidson plays Scott, a semi-fictional version of himself, as a directionless twenty-four-year old still living with his widowed mother Margie (Marisa Tomei). When he was seven his firefighter father was killed in the line of duty, leaving a wound on Scott’s psyche that has never healed. He’s so skinny and pale with such large dark circles under his eyes his on-and-off girlfriend Kelsey (Bel Powley) says he “looks like an anorexic panda,” and his patchwork of random tattoos leads a friend to call him a “human sketchbook.” He dreams of one day opening up a restaurant-slash-tattoo parlor but spends most of his time smoking weed and hanging out with his childhood pals.
When Margie becomes romantically involved with Ray (Bill Burr), a firefighter with a hair trigger temper, it forces Scott to confront the past tragedy in his life so he can move forward.
“The King of Staten Island” is an imagined version of Davidson’s life if he hadn’t found comedy and become famous. His father Scott was a member of Ladder Company 118 in Brooklyn Heights and died responding to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. That loss has become the bedrock of his work and provides the emotional backbone of this film.
Director Judd Apatow is no stranger to making films with big hearts and dirty mouths. Like his previous films, like “Trainwreck,” he frontloads the story with outrageous laughs that slowly give way to a funny but more restrained resolution.
Along the way Davidson delivers a performance that lifts his patented millennial slacker routine to a new level. He’s a natural performer, charismatic and likeable, with a deep well of emotion that lies just beneath his pothead exterior. He’s a perfect vessel to tell a story about someone experiencing profound loss.
The supporting cast is terrific. Burr embodies the ragehead with a heart of gold, drifting through life while Tomei has an interesting arc as a woman who lets go of the past to find a new future.
The premise of “The King of Staten Island” doesn’t sound like the stuff of comedy but this story of how tragedy effects a family balances humour with heartfelt and humanistic observations in a very winning way.
