I joined CP24 to have a look at new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres. Today we talk about David Fincher’s thriller “The Killer,” Emily Blunt in “Pain Hustlers,” the mascot mayhem of “Five Nights at Freddy’s” and the John Cena action flick “Freelance.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in with CKTB morning show host Tim Denis to have a look at David Fincher’s thriller “The Killer,” the mascot mayhem of “Five Nights at Freddy’s” and the John Cena action flick “Freelance.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show to talk the new movies coming to theatres including David Fincher’s thriller “The Killer,” the mascot mayhem of “Five Nights at Freddy’s” and the John Cena action flick “Freelance.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
In “Freelance,” a new action comedy now playing in theatres, John Cena plays a man fighting back against a life of quiet desperation, a feeling audiences will be familiar with by the time the end credits roll.
Cena is Mason Pettits, a do gooder trying to find his place in the world. After few miserable years of practicing law left him wanting more—”I thought it would make me feel normal,” he says, “but it made me hate myself.”—he joins the Special Forces. Fulfilled, he says the job allows him to find a much-needed purpose to his life.
That is, until a mission to assassinate dictator Juan Arturo Venegas (Juan Pablo Raba) goes south. Wounded and disillusioned, he leaves behind the life of adventure, and settles down, returning to law and marriage and a safe suburban life.
Bored and unhappy, he accepts a job from Sebastian (Christian Slater), a former Special Forces colleague now running Contractual Defense Industries, a one stop shop-and-shoot mercenary business. “We sell security,” he says.
The job is sounds simple but there is a catch. He will accompany journalist Claire Wellington (Alison Brie) to South America and keep her safe as she interviews Juan Arturo Venegas, the very dictator at the heart of the mission that ended Pettits’s Special Forces career.
“Freelance” is the kind of movie that once gathered dust in direct-to-DVD bins at Blockbuster.
Not even the considerable charm of the leads, Cena and Brie, can overcome the generic action, the weird shifts in tone from bloody gun battles to light comedy, a forgettable villain (played by the usually reliable Marton Csokas) and a goofy dictator who, on one hand speaks about the exploitation of poor countries by corrupt international corporations, while on the other delivering silly lines like, “I believe when one encounters danger, one must sing to it.”
With very few exceptions, “Freelance” feels very been-there-done-that, as if director Pierre Morel tried to pay tribute to the direct-to-DVD genre, but forgot to bring the fun.
Richard joins CP24 anchor Nathan Downer to have a look at the weekend’s new movies including the unholy horror of “The Nun” and the slash and dash of “Peppermint.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
A weekly feature from from ctvnews.ca! The Crouse Review is a quick, hot take on the weekend’s biggest movies! This week Richard looks at the continuing bad habits of “The Nun” and the momvenge of “Peppermint.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard has a look at the low budget, low wattage scares of “The Nun” and the mom-venge of “Peppermint” with the CFRA Morning Rush host Bill Carroll.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
“Peppermint” begins with America’s sweetheart Jennifer Garner offering a guy, up close and personal. “You don’t remember me do you?” she asks before ventilating his body.
Five years previous she was a mom with a young daughter (Cailey Fleming) and husband (Jeff Hephner). Just days before Christmas on her daughter‘s birthday hubby makes a decision that puts him in the way of some very bad people. “Make an example out of him,” the bad guy (Juan Pablo Raba) says, “a loud one.“ A hail of bullets puts an end to her family life, and when police hit a dead end in the case—“We know everything but can’t prove anything.“—her switch is flipped from adoring soccer mom to avenging angel of death. On the fifth anniversary of the murder of her husband and daughter she returns to unleash holy hell against the cartel drug dealer who ordered the hit. “You don’t deserve justice,” she says to one of her victims, “but I do.”
“Peppermint” is not a sweet as the title might suggest. Garner got her start as an action hero on television’s “Alias” before straying into kinder and gentler roles. In “Peppermint” she finds her way back. She bloody knuckles her way through those who done her wrong with efficiency but the action scenes don’t feel quite frenetic enough.
Director Pierre Morel doesn’t infuse the film with the same forward momentum as other recent one-person crime waves are like “John Wick” or “Atomic Blonde.” Still, as mom revenge movies go, there is a fair amount of action and even a few laughs. And make no mistake, Garner, even while she is blowing away the baddies is in full-on mom mode. For instance, after she steals a car to chase down some bad guys the first thing she does is do up the seat belt. Safety first!
“Peppermint” isn’t quite a refrigerator movie. That’s where you think about the movie later, as you stand in front of the fridge looking for a snack, and your mind wanders back to the movie. As you reach for the leftovers it dawns on you that the film didn’t make any sense. That’s a refrigerator movie. “Peppermint” is different. You know it doesn’t make sense even as you watch it. I was willing to forgive some of its leaps of logic right up until the end. John Ortiz caps off the action with one of the silliest speeches in action movie history. And that bar is pretty high.
Richard sits in on the CJAD Montreal morning show with host Andrew Carter to talk about the low budget, low wattage scares of “The Nun” and the mom revenge of “Peppermint.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
