I speak to “CTV News at 11:30” anchor Andria Case about the best movies and television to watch this weekend. This week we have a look at the feel-good “Fisherman’s Friends: One and All,” the Christmas musical “Spirited” and the ripped-from-the-headlines drama “She Said.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join NewsTalk 1010 host Jim Richards on the coast-to-coast-to-coast late night “NewsTalk Tonight” to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about the restaurant revenge movie “The Menu,” the Christmas musical “Spirited” and the feel-good “Fisherman’s Friends: One and All.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to go to the mailbox! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the restaurant revenge movie “The Menu,” the Christmas musical “Spirited” and the feel-good “Fisherman’s Friends: One and All.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I joined CP24 to have a look at new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres. Today we talk about the restaurant revenge movie “The Menu,” the ripped-from-the-headlines “She Said,” the Christmas musical “Spirited” and the feel-good “Fisherman’s Friends: One and All.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in with CKTB morning show host Tim Denis to discuss the weekend’s flickers including the restaurant revenge movie “The Menu,” the ripped-from-the-headlines “She Said” and the Christmas musical “Spirited.”
Listen to 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 restaurant revenge movie “The Menu,” the ripped-from-the-headlines “She Said,” the Christmas musical “Spirited” and the feel-good “Fisherman’s Friends: One and All.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I doubt that “Spirited,” the new Will Ferrell Christmas musical now streaming on Apple TV+, will give people the same holiday feels as his stone-cold Yuletide classic “Elf,” but Ferrell and co-star Ryan Reynolds work as hard as Santa’s reindeers on Christmas Eve to spread goodwill.
In this modern twist on the 1843 novella “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens—it’s “like the Bill Murray movie and every other adaptation nobody ever asked for,” says Jacob Marley (Patrick Page)—the story focusses on the haunters, not the haunted.
For almost 200 years, under the guidance of Marley, the afterlife spirits, the Ghost of Christmas Present (Ferrell), Ghost of Christmas Past (Sunita Mani) and the Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come (voice of Tracy Morgan), scare one Scroogey type—a “perp” they call them—into changing their lives for the better.
“That’s what we do,” says the Ghost of Christmas Present, “we change a person into a better person, and then sing about it.”
Trouble is, after almost two centuries of the work—there’s a year-round research process before the actual haunting—G.C. Present wonders if he wants to continue transforming the lives of strangers. He could retire, get his gold watch, Sephora gift card and return to life as a mortal in present day, but he has his eye on one more client.
He wants to redeem the unredeemable. Clint (Reynolds) is a slick spin doctor who works for politicians and corporations, and, with help from assistant Kimberly (Octavia Spencer), digs up damning dirt on their competitors. Between them they’ve ruined more lives and careers than you can shake a Yule log at.
The charismatic but evil Clint—“He’s like the perfect combination of Mussolini and Seacrest,” says G.C. Present.—turns out to be a challenge. “So, out of all the people on the planet, murderers, people who thrown gender reveal parties,” he says, “I’m the guy you choose to haunt?”
As G.C. Present works to reform Clint, the specter finds himself falling in love and questioning his own path in the afterlife.
“Spirited” is worth the monthly Apple TV+ fee for the Dickensian duet “Good Afternoon” from songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Oscar-winners for “La La Land”). Based on the worst insult you could say to someone in 19th century London, it is a showstopper, funny and perfectly suited to the talents of Ferrell and Reynolds.
Both bring their well-established personas to the film. Ferrell’s finely crafted goofiness contrasts with Reynolds’s sardonic character. They’re not exactly Hope and Crosby, but, as funny, all-singing-and-dancing combos go these days, they’ll do. They have great chemistry and riff off one another in a jaunty, good-natured way. It’s lighthearted, very aware—they often break the fourth wall to comment on what is happening in the scene—stuff that updates the 179-year-old story with subplots about the dangers of on-line life in addition to the more traditional themes of the importance of forgiveness, generosity and compassion.
“Spirited” owes a debt not only to “A Christmas Carol” but also, in its modern take, to “Scrooged,” the 1988 Bill Murray movie that shares the same DNA. Like “Scrooged,” “Spirited” finds a way to make an old story, feel fresh and that is its biggest gift to the audience.
Richard speaks to “CTV News at 11:30” anchor Andria Case about movies on VOD and in theatres to watch this weekend including “On the Rocks,” the new film from Bill Murray and Rashida Jones, the Gloria Steinem biopic “The Glorias” and the apocalyptic rom com “Save Yourselves!”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 19:24)
“Save Yourselves!,” opening in theatres across Canada this weekend, is a whole new genre of movie. A mix of romance and aliens, it is, as far as I can recall, the first apocalyptic rom com.
Young Brooklynites Su and Jack (“Glow’s” Sunita Mani and John Reynolds of “Stranger Things”) are at a crossroads in their lives. Their jobs are unfulfilling and when they bump into an old friend who now runs a company that makes sustainable 3-D printed surfboards out of algae, they realize their lives aren’t contributing to society at large.
To get their heads together and figure out a path forward they go off the grid, disconnect from their devices and spend a week hibernating at a cabin in the mountains. The lack of technology doesn’t bother Jack, but Su has a harder time cutting the iPhone and laptop cord. When she sneaks a listen to a strange voicemail from her mother, she doesn’t register that something really weird is happening in the world outside of their idyllic getaway.
When an alien creature, imagine one of “Star Trek’s” Tribbles, or as jack says, “a tiny, furry footstool,” shows up on the property, they must fight for their lives. Trouble is, as Su says, “We don’t have any skills.”
What they do have, however, is each other.
“Save Yourselves!” is a slight but enjoyable rom com with a quirky premise but some real chemistry between the characters. Su and Jack are what may kindly be called cidiots, people who think anything north of 125th Street is Upstate New York. Unprepared for any crisis outside of a Starbucks pumpkin spice shortage, they are forced to adapt and engage with their new surroundings.
It’s here the movie works best.
Mani and Reynolds bring the funny during the crisis but the humour is always grounded in some sort of situation that recalls the issues in their relationship that pushed them to visit the cabin in the first place. Director/writers Eleanor Wilson and Alex H. Fischer have crafted a story about two hapless folks trying to improve their lives without a clue of how to do it. It has humour and heart and despite a lull in the middle, “Save Yourselves!” is goofy good fun.
