I join CTV Atlantic’s Todd Battis to talk about the epic “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the absurd “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants,” the feel-good divorce drama “Is This Thing On?” and the psychological thriller “The Housemaid.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in with CKTB morning show host Steph Vivier to have a look at movies in theatres including the epic “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” rthe absurd “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants,” the feel-good divorce drama “Is This Thing On?” and the psychological thriller “The Housemaid.”
Listen to the whole thing 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 epic “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the feel-good divorce drama “Is This Thing On?” and the psychological thriller “The Housemaid.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In the third installment of the “Avatar” film series, “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” ex-Marine Corporal Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his Na’vi family’s peaceful way of life on their home planet of Pandora is threatened by the violent Ash People and returning baddie Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang).
CAST: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Dileep Rao, Matt Gerald, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Jemaine Clement, Britain Dalton, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Jack Champion, Bailey Bass, Filip Geljo and Duane Evans, Jr. Directed by James Cameron.
REVIEW: “Avatar: Fire and Ash” does what cinema is meant to do; transport the audience to new worlds while reflecting and commenting on the reality of our world. An epic for the eyes, the visualization of Pandora is impressive and immersive, but the a-list visuals are let down by a b-movie story.
First, the look.
Rendered in eye popping 3D, Cameron’s concept for Pandora and her environs is spectacular will have your synapses firing on all cylinders. An ode to French impressionism by way of the sci fi landscapes of Frank Frazetta, whether his camera is gliding through the jungles of Pandora or swimming under the planet’s oceans or traipsing around gritty fire and ash biodomes or soaring though the sky on the back of a winged Great Leonopteryx, Cameron delivers a dopamine hit directly through the eyes.
It’s a whole lotta CGI, which is ironic, given that this is a story about the organic connection between nature and all of God’s creatures in which all the dazzling images were created in the least organic way possible. Still, the pictures, no matter how they were created, do come alive on the screen.
Less exciting is the story.
Cameron has spent the better part of two decades world building, creating the belief systems, language and traditions of the Na’vi people, only to hang them on the most generic of fantasy storytelling. His hot button pet themes of colonization, government overreach, community and environmentalism are very much in place, but the storytelling isn’t as passionate as the visual work.
Essentially picking up a few months after “Avatar: The Way of Water” left off, when “Fire and Ash” begins Jake (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their children Lo’ak, Tuk, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), and Spider (Jack Champion) are grieving the death of Neteyam, the family’s eldest son.
Their peaceful life amid the reef-dwelling Metkayina clan is disrupted when Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the ruthless RDA colonel reborn as a Na’vi recombinant, teams with the aggressive, volcano dwelling Mangkwan, or “Ash People,” lead by the vicious Varang (a compelling Oona Chaplin).
As Jake fights for the survival of his family, the fate of all of Pandora hangs in the balance.
Packed with big action set pieces, smaller, more intimate family moments, and one, “I am Spartacus” scene, “Fire and Ash” has a new, unsettling villain in the form of Varang but otherwise recycles old ideas under a slick CGI veneer.
The mix of A-list tech and B-movie dialogue like Quaritch’s quip, “I guess I don’t die that easy,” feels like watching a Saturday morning serial with boffo, stare-of-the-art visuals that distract from the often-cheesy dialogue.
The familiar story beats and the worn-out dialogue quickly take a backseat to Cameron’s unique vison. He is the star of “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” Like the other films in the franchise the new one invites the viewer to exit the real world and enter his world of imagination of three hours, and, despite some déjà vu story wise, it’s a trip worth taking.
I review the highly anticipated “Avatar: Fire and Ash” for CTVNews.ca!
“‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ does what cinema is meant to do: transport the audience to new worlds, while reflecting and commenting on the reality of our world. An epic for the eyes, the visualization of Pandora is impressive and immersive, but the A-list visuals are let down by a B-movie story…” Read the whole thing HERE!
I appear on “CTV News at 6” with anchor Andria Case to talk about the weekend’s best movies in theatres. We have a look at the political drama “Ella McCay,” the kid-friendly horror of “Dust Bunny” and holiday horrors of “Silent Night, Deadly Night.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 37:03)
SYNOPSIS: In “Dust Bunny,” a macabre midnight movie—but for kids—now playing in theatres, a ten-year-old (Sophie Sloan) hires her hit man neighbor (Mads Mikkelsen) to kill the monster she believes ate her foster family.
CAST: Mads Mikkelsen, Sophie Sloan, Sheila Atim, David Dastmalchian, Sigourney Weaver. Directed by Bryan Fuller.
REVIEW: “Dust Bunny” trusts that kids don’t have to be molly coddled, that they can handle some darker themes, particularly when they are presented with a great deal of offbeat humor.
The feature film debut of television showrunner Bryan Fuller, of “Pushing Daisies” and “Hannibal” fame, sees ten-year-old Aurora’s (Sophie Sloan) convinced there is a monster under her bed when it emerges and eats her foster parents.
“I’m wicked. It knows I’m wicked,” she says. “It ate my family because it knows I don’t deserve one.”
Ever resourceful, the youngster turns to the enigmatic man (Mads Mikkelsen) next door she believes is an assassin. Offering to pay him with money she stole from her church donation basket, she asks him to kill the beast.
“What makes you think I kill monsters?” he asks. “You seem like you’ve killed a lot of things,” she replies.
Trouble is, he thinks the monster is the result of Aurora’s overactive imagination. He’s convinced he was the target, and an assassin killed thew little girl’s folks by mistake.
Edgy and dark, “Dust Bunny” is the kind of children’s fairy tale you’d expect from the showrunner of “The Silence of the Lambs” spin-off “Hannibal.” Dr. Suess this ain’t. Imagine a mix of “Léon: The Professional” and “Goosebumps” and you’ll get the idea.
With a whimsical style reminiscent of “Delicatessen” and “Amélie” director Jean-Pierre Jeunet by way of Tim Burton, Bryan Fuller infuses the story with maximalist, eye-catching design—like a taxidermy chicken lamp with a lightbulb protruding out of its rear and Sigourney Weaver’s high-heel pistols—and the fruits of Aurora’s anxieties and imagination. She protects herself from the sting of losing her family through fantasy, creating a world where a monster becomes a proxy for her pain.
That emotional undercurrent, plus the odd couple relationship between Aurora and the hitman, grounds the fantasy in relatable reality. Sloan and Mikkelsen have great chemistry, she’s all exuberance, he’s stoic but as they navigate the story their differences evaporate into understanding.
“Dust Bunny’s” bloodless body count—one that defies the conventions of kid’s entertainment—and mild scares leading up to a wild climatic showdown isn’t recommended for kids under eight, but as gateway horror goes, it’s inventive fun that should spark young imaginations.
SYNOPSIS: In “The Gorge,” a new thriller now streaming on Apple TV+, Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller star as elite snipers, one Lithuanian, one American, posted for a yearlong hitch as guards on either side of a deep gorge. “Do we need to stop people from going on the gorge?” asks Levi (Teller). “No,” comes the reply. “You need to stop what’s in the gorge from coming out.”
CAST: Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sigourney Weaver, Sope Dirisu, William Houston. Directed by Scott Derrickson.
REVIEW: A mix of science fiction, horror, action with a dollop of romance (it’s coming out on Valentine’s Day after all), the genre-bending “The Gorge” is about two mad, bad and dangerous people who fall in love. Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Levi (Miles Teller) are star crossed lovers, but before they can be together, they must first battle some zombie-ish baddies.
Director Scott Derrickson throws every genre in book at “The Gorge” but at the end, after the sci fi, horror, conspiracy, action and more, this is a story of soulmates finding one another. The other stuff, the sharp shooting and monster action, is set dressing. Pretty cool set dressing, but set dec nonetheless. The leap across the gorge, isn’t just a feat of derring-do, It’s a leap of romantic faith.
It’s a daring mix, that sometimes feels like a jigsaw puzzle with too many pieces.
Surprisingly, it’s the romance that carries the day. The initial long-distance flirting—remember there is a huge gorge separating them—is goofy, but lighthearted. They hold up signs and dance, and while it isn’t perhaps exactly the kind of behavior you expect from two highly trained killers, it works. Even snipers can get smitten.
When all hell breaks loose—literally—“The Gorge” loses some of its uniqueness, even though the action sequences are large scale and well staged.
The creature designs, kind of a cross between Groot and a Yeti are cool and achieved through makeup and costumes. It gives the fight scenes a dynamic feel and heightens the stakes. Drasa and Levi aren’t battling CGI creations, they’re fighting creatures that feel organic.
At its heart, however, “The Gorge” isn’t really just a creature feature. It’s big budget actioner about human connection, but when it is running, jumping, shooting etc, it feels less inventive than it does when it focusses on the simple stuff, like the bond between two people who have searched for love.
For almost 50 years writer/director Paul Schrader has essayed God’s lonely men; “Taxi Driver’s” Travis Bickle, Julian in “American Gigolo” and “First Reformed’s” Reverend Toller, among others. They are isolated characters, men who live outside regular society, haunted by the lives they’ve led.
In his latest film, “Master Gardener,” now playing in theatres, Schrader adds a new name to his soul-searching rogue’s gallery.
“Gardening is a belief in the future,” says horticulturalist Narvel Roth, played with a quiet intensity by Joel Edgerton, “that change will come in due time.” His words come steeped with meaning. A former neo-Nazi—his repulsive, racist tattoos now hidden under ever-present long-sleeved shirts—he has turned his life around and now works at the stately Gracewood Gardens. The hundred-year-old botanical beauty sits on a property owned for generations by the Haverhill family, and is the pride of mercurial old money maven Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver).
Meticulous and methodical in his duties, Roth cultivates the award-winning garden with a steady hand. It’s a simple, spartan life, ruled by self-discipline and routine.
When he isn’t digging in the dirt, he occasionally visits the big colonial house for a meal, a quick tryst or a consultation with Haverhill. On one such meeting he is told that Haverhill’s biracial grandniece Maya (Quintessa Swindell) will be joining his team. The troubled young woman has fallen in with a bad crowd, and Haverhill thinks the discipline and quietude of working in the garden will straighten her out.
He agrees to show her the ropes, not realizing that her presence will upset the serenity of the garden, his new life and his relationship with Haverhill. “The seeds of love grow like the seeds of hate,” he writes in his journal.
“Master Gardener” observes racism and redemption, wondering aloud if emancipation from the stigma of past deeds is possible.
Roth is a complex character, played like a tightly wound Chauncey Gardiner, whose terrible past presents itself in flashbacks that hint at the maelstrom bubbling beneath his stoic exterior. He is a Schrader architype, a solitary man whose involvement with a protégée could complicate his life, but Edgerton sets him apart from recent Schrader characters with a mix of the serene and physical. The work is both elegant and aloof, straightforward and elliptical, and showcases Edgerton’s charisma and versatility as a leading man, when not covered in a layer of blue make-up.
He is ably supported by Swindell, who brings intelligence and understanding to the role, even if her horror at Roth’s racist past evaporates a little too easily.
Weaver, as a stereotype of every isolated wealthy matron, chews it up, delivering lines like, “I thought you had a green thumb, but it turns out you have a green middle finger,” with gusto.
“Master Gardener” is apparently the wrap to Schrader’s recent Calvanist guilt trilogy. While interesting and as rich in allegory as the previous two films—”First Reformed” and “The Card Counter”—its study of redemption, while hopeful and even-handed, requires too many leaps of logic to fully embrace.
