I appear on “CTV News at 6” with anchor Andria Case to talk about the Netflix documentary “Untold: Raygun: Breaking Bad” and the Apple TV+ action movie “Mayday” with Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh.Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 36:33)
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about the stylish and satirical “Onslaught,” the big stars of “Mayday” and the vengeance of “By Any Means.”Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 14:08)
I sit with NewsTalk 1010 guest host Jim Richards on NewsTalk 1010 to talk about the Dollyfest celebratation of Dolly Parton, more “Odyssey” and the new Apple TV+ movie “Mayday.”Listen to the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 25:23)
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Renée Rodgers to talk about the stylish and satirical “Onslaught,” the big stars of “Mayday” and the vengeance of “By Any Means.”Watch the whole thing HERE!
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Watch the whole thing HERE!
CAST: Ryan Reynolds, Kenneth Branagh, Marcin Dorociński, Maria Bakalova, David Morse. Written and directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley.
REVIEW: “Mayday” is a throwback to odd couple flicks like “Red Heat” that mixed big stars with Cold War concerns and comedy.
Set in 1987, the movie stars Ryan Reynolds as U.S. pilot Lieutenant Troy “Assassin” Kelly sent on a top-secret SR-71 mission over Soviet Russia. When a midair collision forces him to pull the ejection cord, he lands, alone and injured, in the Russian wilderness.
He wakes up in the cabin of Nikolai Ustinov (Kenneth Branagh), an ex-KGB agent whose home is decorated with American flags, Coors posters and a well-worn VHS copy of “Top Gun.”
“This may shock you,” he tells Kelly. “I admire your country very much. Your democracy, your culture, and your films, and your food. I have never had McDonald’s, but I suspect I would love it.”
With the Kelly’s promise of American citizenship for Ustinov and his daughter (Maria Bakalova), the unlikely duo find a way to work together to find a way to thaw the Cold War.
“Mayday” may have two above-the-title stars, but make no mistake, this is Kenneth Branagh’s movie. Dusting off his “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit”/”Tenet” Russian accent, his lovable but lethal Nikolai steals every scene.
There are lots of action scenes—from the high-flying ejection scene and a chase through Moscow in an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile launcher to a zero-gravity airplane cabin fight scene and a wild train jump—that feel reminiscent of the 1980s movies that clearly inspired directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein.
But despite all the action, “Mayday” wouldn’t be nearly as entertaining if not for Branagh’s comedic performance. He makes up for Reynolds’s one note, same-old performance and the film’s lack of an interesting villain. Even when he has to mouth some gag worthy dialogue—”You have found so many ways to fight us, but you never take the time to get to know us.”—he still dominates.
SYNOPSIS: A likeable documentary about a likeable subject, “John Candy: I Like Me” is a straightforward look at a comedian whose work is still entertaining audiences three decades after his passing.
CAST: John Candy, Dan Aykroyd, Catherine O’Hara, Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, and Macaulay Culkin. Directed by Colin Hanks.
REVIEW: Martin Short told “John Candy: I Like Me” documentary producer Ryan Reynolds and director Colin Hanks (whose famous father co-starred with Candy in “Splash”), they would not be able to find anyone with anything bad to say about John Candy. Short was right. Everyone in the doc speaks glowingly of Candy, his generosity of spirit and luminous talent, but this isn’t a straight up hagiography.
Those nearest and dearest to the late comic actor, like his children Jennifer and Chris, widow Rose, Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Macaulay Culkin, Dan Aykroyd and Catherine O’Hara, paint a colorful portrait of a larger-than-life character who battled weight issues and an anxiety disorder.
Thirty years after his passing on a film shoot in Durango, Mexico, Candy’s work remains as funny and endearing as it was when first released. Hanks’s film offers up copious evidence in the form of clips from “SCTV,” “Uncle Buck,” “Splash,” “Spaceballs,” “Home Alone,” “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” (it’s a line in the latter that gives this movie its name: “I like me,” Candy says as Del Griffith. “My wife likes me.”) and many others, and while it’s lovey to revisit those moments, it’s the picture of Candy off screen that compels.
New interviews with school friends, family and colleagues like Dan Aykroyd, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short and Steve Martin tell the tale. From growing up in a working-class Toronto family, to his father’s passing of heart disease at age 35 when John was four years old, to putting his dreams of football stardom aside after a knee injury to discovering acting in college, we learn how each of these events shaped the trajectory of his life and career from the people who were there with him.
Everyone describes him as a charismatic character, the first one to pick up the tab in the early days, even though they were all making the same money. He was a people pleaser, but as Conan O’Brien points out, “The hazard of this business is that it’s very unhealthy for people pleasers.”
More up-close-and-personal are the remembrances of his Chris, Jennifer and Rose. They provide an intimate, behind-the-scenes glimpse of a man who, as his daughter says, “took care of people” but didn’t necessarily take care of himself. He liked a drink, a cigarette and, as anxiety entered his life, became convinced he would die early, just as his father had.
Ultimately, “John Candy: I Like Me” is a straightforward, heartfelt documentary with a bittersweet ending. Candy passed at age 43, but the wealth of material he left behind, the TV shows and movies, still entertains, three decades after his passing.
SYNOPSIS: A likeable documentary about a likeable subject, “John Candy: I Like Me” is a straightforward look at a comedian whose work is still entertaining audiences three decades after his passing.
CAST: John Candy, Dan Aykroyd, Catherine O’Hara, Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, and Macaulay Culkin. Directed by Colin Hanks.
REVIEW: Martin Short told “John Candy: I Like Me” documentary producer Ryan Reynolds and director Colin Hanks (whose famous father co-starred with Candy in “Splash”), they would not be able to find anyone with anything bad to say about John Candy. Short was right. Everyone in the doc speaks glowingly of Candy, his generosity of spirit and luminous talent, but this isn’t a straight up hagiography.
Those nearest and dearest to the late comic actor, like his children Jennifer and Chris, widow Rose, Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Macaulay Culkin, Dan Aykroyd and Catherine O’Hara, paint a colorful portrait of a larger-than-life character who battled weight issues and an anxiety disorder.
Thirty years after his passing on a film shoot in Durango, Mexico, Candy’s work remains as funny and endearing as it was when first released. Hanks’s film offers up copious evidence in the form of clips from “SCTV,” “Uncle Buck,” “Splash,” “Spaceballs,” “Home Alone,” “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” (it’s a line in the latter that gives this movie its name: “I like me,” Candy says as Del Griffith. “My wife likes me.”) and many others, and while it’s lovey to revisit those moments, it’s the picture of Candy off screen that compels.
New interviews with school friends, family and colleagues like Dan Aykroyd, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short and Steve Martin tell the tale. From growing up in a working-class Toronto family, to his father’s passing of heart disease at age 35 when John was four years old, to putting his dreams of football stardom aside after a knee injury to discovering acting in college, we learn how each of these events shaped the trajectory of his life and career from the people who were there with him.
Everyone describes him as a charismatic character, the first one to pick up the tab in the early days, even though they were all making the same money. He was a people pleaser, but as Conan O’Brien points out, “The hazard of this business is that it’s very unhealthy for people pleasers.”
More up-close-and-personal are the remembrances of his Chris, Jennifer and Rose. They provide an intimate, behind-the-scenes glimpse of a man who, as his daughter says, “took care of people” but didn’t necessarily take care of himself. He liked a drink, a cigarette and, as anxiety entered his life, became convinced he would die early, just as his father had.
Ultimately, “John Candy: I Like Me” is a straightforward, heartfelt documentary with a bittersweet ending. Candy passed at age 43, but the wealth of material he left behind, the TV shows and movies, still entertains, three decades after his passing.
