I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with host Zuraidah Alman, to talk about the animated action adventure of “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” the photorealism of “Mufasa: The Lion King” and the thrills of #Carry-On.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 14:06)
I join CTV Atlantic anchor Todd Battis to talk about the animated action adventure of “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” the photorealism of “Mufasa: The Lion King” and the thrills of #Carry-On.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host BIll Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres including the animated action adventure of “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” the photorealism of “Mufasa: The Lion King” and the thrills of #Carry-On.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Carry-On,” a new thriller now streaming on Netflix, Taron Egerton plays an airline security guard blackmailed into smuggling a dangerous package through an LAX security checkpoint and onto a plane on Christmas Eve.
CAST: Taron Egerton, Sofia Carson, Danielle Deadwyler and Jason Bateman. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra.
REVIEW: Another entry into the “Is it a Christmas movie or not?” category, “Carry-On” is a preposterous thriller, set on Christmas Eve, that reverberates with echoes of “Die Hard 2.”
This is the kind of movie that feels like you’ve already seen it, even as you watch it for the first time.
There’s an unlikely hero, racing against time and circumstance to save the day. There’s an airport setting. Been there, done that.
But “Carry-On” isn’t looking to break new ground. Director Jaume Collet-Serra is more interested in taking familiar tropes and twisting them just enough to feel fresh.
As Ethan, Taron Egerton is a classic b-movie everyman hero, a guy of modest ambition—he’s a middling TSA agent who wants to be a cop—thrust into an extraordinary situation.
For much of the movie he’s stationary, sitting behind his screening station, reacting to orders being barked through an earpiece by a ruthless terrorist played by Jason Bateman. It takes some chops to keep these sequences compelling and Egerton, with the help of some slick filmmaking from Collet-Serra, manages to convey a suitable amount of paranoia and tension even when nothing much is happening on screen.
When the action finally kicks in the movie becomes a bit more conventional but the high velocity third act, while completely silly, will up your pulse rate.
By the time the end credits have rolled “Carry-On” reveals itself to be a Christmas movie for people who don’t like Christmas movies, a showcase for Bateman playing against type and a bit of forgettable fun.
“Songbird,” a new film produced by Michael Bay and now on premium VOD, feels ripped from the headlines.
Like, today’s headlines.
The first film to shoot in Los Angeles during the lockdown details life during COVID.
Set in 2024, during the fourth year of pandemic, COVID has mutated, leaving the United States under martial law were infected citizens are forcibly removed from their homes. Treated like walking, talking biohazards they are housed in concentration camps called Q-Zones.
Meanwhile, motorcycle courier Nico (KJ Apa) is immune. A recovered COVID patient, he has the antibodies to fight off the disease. When his locked-down girlfriend Sarah (Sofia Carson) is suspected of contracting the virus, Nico springs into action to save her from being taken away.
There are side characters galore, like Bradley Whitford’s sex-crazed record producer, a lovelorn veteran played by Paul Walter Hauser, Demi Moore’s protective mom and an over-the-top Peter Stormare as the evil head of the Los Angeles’ “sanitation” department–but most of them exist only to heighten the grim desperation of the situation.
“Songbird” isn’t a politicized screed about masks or the virus’ origin. Instead, it’s a star-crossed style romance—”You’ve never been in the same room,” says Sara’s mother, “but he loves you.”—set against the backdrop of the worst world event in decades.
It would be one thing if “Songbird” had something to add the conversation about COVID, but it doesn’t. Instead, it plays off our worst collective fears in clumsy and exploitative ways.
It’s likely to appeal to conspiracy enthusiasts who may finger their tinfoil hats in excitement at the mention of bracelets for “munies”—the immune—an unchecked department of sanitation who arrest at will, apps that will report you if your temperature is above normal and ever-present surveillance.
For those not inclined toward dystopian extremes, “Songbird” is a crass reminder of the real-life death, sickness, unemployment and heartache COVID has wrought. It feels tone deaf, and worse, it’s a bad movie.
