This week on the Richard Crouse Show we meet Chris Pratt and Taylor Kitsch. You know Chris Pratt as the star of the “Jurassic World” franchise and as Star-Lord in Marvel Studios’ “Guardians of the Galaxy.” Taylor Kitsch is a Canadian actor, known for his work as Tim Riggins in the NBC television series “Friday Night Lights,” and starring in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” “Battleship,” “Lone Survivor” and for playing David Koresh in the miniseries “Waco.”
They are teamed to talk about their new series on Amazon Prime, “The Terminal List.” The series follows James Reece, played by Pratt after his entire platoon of Navy SEALs is ambushed while on a covert mission. Reece returns home to his family with conflicting memories of the event and questions about his culpability. As new evidence comes to light, Reece discovers dark forces working against him, endangering not only his life but the lives of those he loves. Kitsch is Ben Edwards, Reese’s best friend and fellow Navy Seal.
We’ll also meet Chloe Traicos. You know her from the black comedy “The Righteous Gemstones,” a series created by Danny McBride that follows a famous yet dysfunctional family of televangelists. You can find the show on Crave here in Canada. Chloe played Gloria Freeman, the wife of televangelist “Baby” Billy Freeman, who abandoned her and their son in a pet store. She also stars in “Introducing Jodea,” a comedy about a struggling young actress whose fortunes change when a world-famous movie director drives into the back of her car. It’s available wherever you legally buy and download movies. She has a fascinating story. Born and raised in Zimbabwe, she is unable to return because she made a controversial documentary about the country’s former leader, Robert Mugabe.
Then, we’ll spend some time with Clare Pooley, the Cambridge educated author of “Iona Iverson’s Rules For Commuting.” After working in advertising for twenty years it dawned on her daily ‘wine o’clock’ habit was out of control. She wrote the popular “Mummy was a Secret Drinker” blog and a memoir, “The Sober Diaries,” published in 2017 to critical acclaim. Her debut novel, “The Authenticity Project,” was inspired by her life and her seemingly perfect facade. Her new novel, “Iona Iverson’s Rules For Commuting,” is an entertaining novel about unexpected friendships and the joy of connecting.
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
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Coming soon to the Richard Crouse Show, the stars of the Amazon Prime psychological action thriller “The Terminal List.” Chris Pratt and Taylor Kitsch join Richard to discuss getting into the role of an unreliable narrator and what they learned from the show’s Navy Seal consultants!
A new 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 mind bending Jennifer Lawrence movie “mother!” and the Michael Keaton thriller “American Assassin.”
Richard sits in with CTV NewsChannel anchor Jenifer Burke to have a look at the Jenifer Lawrence freak-out “mother!,’ the most confounding studio movie to hit theatres in years and the generic thrills of “American Assassin.”
In this weekend’s American Assassin a Cold War veteran trains undercover executioners. Movies like “The Mechanic” and “The Professional” have breathed similar air, but the new movie updates the tale, adding in a terrorism subplot.
Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Vince Flynn, the film stars Dylan O’Brien as Mitch Rapp, a student whose life is changed forever when his girlfriend Katrina (Charlotte Vega) is killed by terrorists while on vacation. Stricken with grief and hungry for revenge he trains himself in the art of counter terrorism to the point where he is able to go undercover and infiltrate an Islamic terrorist cell.
Turns out, however, he’s not as undercover as he thought. The CIA, have their eye on him, impressed by his MMA skills and general hatred of terrorism. To fine-tune his kill skills he is teamed with black ops expert Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton). Why did they bring him on? “To kill people who need to be killed.”
Hurley teaches his student the fine art of slicing and dicing for fun and profit, prepping him for a giant mission involving a nuclear device and an ex-American Navy officer (Taylor Kitsch) turned bad and looking for revenge on his fellow service members.
The opening scene is harrowing. The full-scale attack on a beach is so tense because we’ve seen footage like this in real life in recent years. It kicks the movie off with a realistic bang. Too bad everything that follows barely rises to the level of cartoon cliché that borrows heavily from everything from “The Karate Kid” to the JBs—Jason Bourne and James Bond.
In as generic and unmemorable a role as Keaton has ever played—and that includes a bit of cannibalism—he redefines tough guys, spewing platitudes word for word from the 1984 edition of the Macho Man Handbook. O’Brien is stoic, yet reckless in the most profoundly uninteresting of ways. There’s sullen and then there’s this guy.
The action scenes have a bit a snap to them, but would have benefitted from the “John Wick” treatment; fess frenetic editing, more focus on the handiwork involved.
“American Assassin” has one too many revenge plots but not enough thrills.
Canadian actor Taylor Kitsch discusses his new film ‘The Grand Seduction’ with “Canada AM’s” Richard Crouse, and how he feels about Newfoundland and the people there.
“We’ve been looking for a doctor eight years,” says the mayor of Tickle Head, Newfoundland in the new Don McKellar comedy “The Grand Seduction.”
“Well,” replies Murray (Brendan Gleeson), with perfect logic, “let’s stop looking and start finding.”
And that’s just what they do, using every underhanded and dirty trick in the book. These are decent people who try and do the right thing, but they also understand that sometimes you have to bend the rules to get what you want.
Tickle Head, “a small harbor with a big heart,” has had more of its share of hardship since the bottom fell out of the fishery. Unemployment is high and the only jobs are “in town” in St. John’s, a ferry ride away.
The town fathers have a bid on a petrochemical byproduct repurposing plant that makes… well, it doesn’t matter, as they say in the film, it makes jobs. That’s what’s important. One key element is missing, a doctor. The factory deal won’t go through unless there is a local doctor.
When Paul Lewis (Taylor Kitsch), a city slicker plastic surgeon, lands in the harbour for a month long residency, the entire place (population 121) bands together to convince him to stay… by any means necessary.
Not everyone in town is on board. Kathleen (Liane Balaban) doesn’t want an oil company to set up shop in her harbor and certainly doesn’t want to be used as bait to attract the new doctor.
A remake of the French-Canadian hit “La Grande Seduction” is a comedy with a poignant edge. The set-up is outrageous—they spy on Dr. Lewis, tap his phone and even stage a tournament of cricket, his favorite game—but this is a story of a town fighting for survival of their town and their way of life.
There are plenty of laughs along the way—Gordon Pinsent is particularly effective as the deadpan Simon, who has never left Tickle Head—but the heart and soul of the film is in its fondness for the people and their harbor.