Peter Dinklage « Richard Crouse

Posts Tagged ‘Peter Dinklage’

RICHARD’S WEEKEND MOVIE REVIEWS FROM CP24! FRIDAY JULY 24, 2015.

Sunday, July 26th, 2015

Richard’s CP24 reviews for “Southpaw,” “Pixels” and “Paper Towns.”

Watch the whole thing HERE!

Metro: Pixels could be Adam Sandler’s last chance after a string of flops

Friday, July 24th, 2015

From a career point of view, Pixels may be the most important movie of Adam Sandler’s career. The big-budget action comedy sees the comedian help save the world from aliens who attack using classic video arcade games like PAC-MAN, Donkey Kong and Centipede as models for their assaults.

In real life, it’s not Donkey Kong Sandler needs to battle, but audience apathy. A string of box office flops, controversies and terrible reviews — critic Liam Maguren was so horrified by Sandler’s 2011 “comedy” Jack and Jill he wrote, “Burn this. This cannot be seen. By anyone” — have threatened to torpedo his career.

Even his own studio seemed to have turned against him. In last year’s Sony email hack, one employee complained, “we continue to be saddled with the mundane, formulaic Adam Sandler films.”

Movies like Billy Madison, Happy Gilmour and Big Daddy were hits that established his persona as the angry but sweet everyman, a misfit character he trotted out for two decades. Occasionally he’d get serious in pictures like Punch-Drunk Love or Reign Over Me and soak up some good reviews, but by and large, the Sandleronian oeuvre has been ripe with anger management issues and jokes of … how to put this delicately: a gastrointestinal nature.

Not highbrow, but that’s OK — not everything has to be Noel Coward — as long as audiences care.

But at some point, it seemed they stopped caring.

Perhaps it was the inconsistent nature of his movies. Just when you think he’s turned a corner with the excellent Reign Over Me into interesting adult roles he slaps you in the face with the zero-star rated follow-up I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.

Or maybe it’s quality control issues. Last year Kevin Nealon told me about being offered a role in the Sandler-produced Grandma’s Boy.

“It was so lowball and crass,” said Nealon. “I thought it might be a little embarrassing to be in that one. So I told Sandler I’d probably pass on it and he called me and said, ‘I really hope you do this because if you don’t do it and it’s a big hit I’ll feel bad, but if you do it and it’s not a big hit, no one is going to see it anyway.’”

That attitude may be realistic but it doesn’t exactly speak to high standards. More than that, however, is the static nature of Sandler’s comedy. His everyman character hasn’t changed much throughout the years. Usually these days he lives in nicer houses or has more money but it’s the same old shtick.

The old saying, “He got bigger, but didn’t grow up,” perfectly applies to Sandler.

He may have matured (chronologically at least) but the urination gags and rageaholic jokes that characterize his comedy haven’t.

We don’t need to feel sorry for Adam Sandler. He has movies in the pipeline and a new deal with Netflix, but Pixels is still an important moment for him. Rolling Stone called his last film, The Cobbler, “beyond awful and beyond repair,” and it went on to become his biggest flop to date.

If Pixels is a hit, and it may be, the trailer generated 34.3 million views worldwide in its first 24 hours online, he will be redeemed — at least until his next movie’s new round of toilet humour and cleavage shots.

RICHARD’S “CANADA AM” REVIEWS FOR JULY 24 WITH MARCI IEN.

Friday, July 24th, 2015

Richard’s “Canada AM” reviews for “Southpaw,” “Pixels” and “Paper Towns.”

Watch the whole thing HERE!

PIXELS: 1 ½ STARS. “There are Donkey Kong games with more laughs.”

Friday, July 24th, 2015

It’s Arcadegeddon.

Imagine Donkey Kong meets “War of the Worlds” and you’ll get the idea behind the new Adam Sandler comedy. Question is, Will it be the end of the world or the end of Sandler’s career?

The “Billy Madison” star plays Sam, a Nerd Brigade television installer who, as a teen was part of a gang of video game obsessed kids, Will (Kevin James), Ludlow (Josh Gad). While Sam’s dreams of becoming an international gaming star were crushed when he lost the 1982 worldwide arcade game championships to Eddie “The Fire Blaster” Plant (Peter Dinklage), his best friend Will went on to become the President of the United States. “I’m just a loser who’s good at old videogames,” he says.

Now it looks like all those hours spent saving the world from Galaga and Centipede may finally have some real life application. An alien race has misinterpreted old arcade video game signals for a declaration of war from earth. In retaliation they have created an army of invaders based on1980s style characters like PAC-MAN, Donkey Kong and, of course, Space Invaders. Sam’s plans for world domination in his “sport” may have been pushed aside, but when he gets a call from the President, he and his friends use their skills to save the world from the pixelated predators.

There might be some 1980s “Pac Man Fever” nostalgia for those who came of age during the Reagan years but as good-natured as the movie is, there’s not much here to recommend it as a comedy. There are Donkey Kong games with more laughs than “Pixels.” Sandler’s man-child with a heart of gold character is now as creaky as an arcade game joystick after a Battlezone binge.

There is an interesting story in how pop culture can have a massive impact on people’s lives, but the movie is content to stick to the Sandler template, using the inventive premise as a frame for another of the comedian’s tired romantic hook-ups. Predictable and not nearly heart warming enough to make you care about the characters, “Pixels” feels lazy, as though it was too much work to make the video game warrior aspect anything more than a sentimental gimmick. It’s Game Over for “Pixels.”

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN: 2 ½ STARS

Wednesday, September 4th, 2013

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe had the most ungainly title of 2005 but that didn’t stop audiences from shelling out upwards of 700 million dollars to see the story of four children who travel through a wardrobe to a magical land where animals talk and an evil ice queen has taken power. In the inevitable sequel (expect lots of Narnia in your future—there’s seven books of source material) the same kids are catapulted back to the wondrous world of Narnia.

This time around, however, the world isn’t so wondrous. In the one year they lived in the human world, 1300 years passed in Narnia and the once lush place is now ravaged by war. The four kids—teenagers in England, Kings and Queens in Narnia—are summoned by the deposed true king of Narnia, Prince Caspian. Together they form an uneasy alliance to defeat the evil Telmarines, protect Narnia and place Caspian on throne, where he belongs.

Despite the lion king Aslan’s sage words, “things are never the same way twice,” The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian follows the template set by the first movie, for better and for worse.

On the plus side, like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian is a classic tale of good verses evil. This time around though, the story is lumbering and takes far too long to get in gear. Aslan is largely absent—the subtitle Waiting for Aslan wouldn’t be too far off the mark—and while there are some whiz bang action sequences sprinkled throughout, the long connecting passages drag. When Trumpkin (Peter Dinklage) asks young Lucy (Georgie Henley) where she’s been for the last 1300 years, she says, “It’s a long story…”

It’s hard to disagree with her as the movie chugs past the two hour mark, with wooden performances making it seem even longer. As in the first movie director Andrew Adamson, who previously helmed the Shrek movies, is more at home with the animated characters than the flesh and blood actors. New additons, including a mouse whose personality seems cribbed from the Puss In Boots character in Shrek 2, add some dashes of humor, but overall the tone is much darker than the original.

This installment doesn’t skimp on the violence—a massive slaughter of Narnians trapped in a castle may be a tad too intense for a movie featuring cuddly, talking animals—but, like The Forbidden Kingdom, another recent family friendly action film, the brutality is bloodless. There’s loads of gouging, stabbing and general mayhem, but not one ounce of blood squirts or dribbles from any of the wounds. It takes some of the edge off the violence, and, I guess, smoothes out some of the viciousness, but make no mistake, this is a violent movie with as high a body count as any of the Lord of the Rings movies.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian presents interesting ideas about loss of innocence, courage and chivalry but those messages are overshadowed by a movie that is overlong and relies too heavily on action scenes.