On the Richard Crouse Show for August 9, 2020 we meet Jay Baruchel. He’s been acting since the age of twelve and has appeared in everything from “Knocked Up” and “Tropic Thunder” to “The Trotsky” and “She’s Out of My League” to the action-fantasy “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and “This Is the End.” He’s probably best known as the voice of Hiccup in the wildly successful “How to Train Your Dragon” franchise but he says, despite all the success in front of the camera, what he really wants to do is direct.
Two years ago he wrote and directed the sports comedy “Goon: Last of the Enforcers.” Now he appears both in front of and behind the camera in “Random Acts of Violence,” a genre film that asks serious questions about how we relate to violence in art.
Based on a 2008 Image Comic, “Random Acts of Violence” begins with comic book writer Todd (Jesse Williams) suffering a case of writer’s block. His series, a grisly and successful adaptation of a real-life serial killer dubbed Slasherman, is coming to an end and he doesn’t know how to wind it down.
On a press tour from Toronto to New York to promote the final issue, Jesse and friends, visit the scene of the Slasherman’s crimes. As the group fall victim to a series of heinous copycat crimes the film asks, “What are the real consequences when life (and death) begin to imitate art?”
I talk about that with Jay in this interview but we started by reminiscing about the “beforetime” when we could go to the movies. I asked him what movie memories stand out for him when he thinks back to the theatre experience.
Then, we meet Mike Scott, the founding member, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of The Waterboys. He is a restless creative spirit, known for radical changes in music style throughout what he refers to as his “allegedly unorthodox” career. The music on his solo albums and with The Waterboys explores a number of different styles, including folk, Celtic and rock and roll, fusing them together to create a sound that is not only catchy but unique.
The press release for his newest record “Good Luck, Seeker,” says the songs are populated by unrepentant freaks, soul legends, outlaw film stars and 20th Century mystics, drawing inspiration from the Stones, Kate Bush, Sly and Kendrick as well as Mike Scott’s very own musical past.
It’s a genre busting effort with epic songs like the dramatic, spoken word tune “My Wanderings In The Weary Land” to the earworm of the extremely catchy single “The Soul Singer.”
In this interview we talk about the construct of time, the power of the Clash and why he liked a record by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich enough to spend 8 and sixpence, or about 50 cents on it…
I began the interview by asking Mike Scott why he’s never made the same record twice.
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 Ethan Hawke, director Brad Bird, comedian Gilbert Gottfried, Eric Roberts, Brian Henson, Jonathan Goldsmith a.k.a. “The most interesting man in the world,” and best selling author Linwood Barclay.
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Check out episode twenty-six of Richard’s web series, “In Isolation With…” It’s the talk show where we make a connection without actually making contact! Today, broadcasting directly from Isolation Studios (a.k.a. my home office) we meet Jay Baruchel. He’s been acting since the age of twelve and has appeared in everything from “Knocked Up” and “Tropic Thunder” to “The Trotsky” and “She’s Out of My League” to the action-fantasy “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and “This Is the End.” He’s probably best known as the voice of Hiccup in the wildly successful “How to Train Your Dragon” franchise but he says, despite all the success in front of the camera, what he really wants to do is direct.
“I was really lucky in that my parents would give me a kind of film or music 101,” he says in the interview. “Whenever they would tell me something they would explain why it matters. Why they care about it. What the landscape that it came out in was like and then, of course ,then they would get into sort of inside jokes. They also showed me “Monty Python the Holy Grail” and pause after every punch line and be like, ‘Do you understand why that’s funny?’ This is called dry humor. Literally. Verbatim. This is called dry humour. Then dad bought me “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” on VHS for my ninth birthday. And that started my collection that I’m still crippled by because I still buy physical media. But I’ve never stopped. Somewhere in there I realized that as much as I adore writing stories, I realized that movies were the thing.”
Two years ago he wrote and directed the sports comedy “Goon: Last of the Enforcers.” Now he appears both in front of and behind the camera in “Random Acts of Violence,” a genre film that asks serious questions about how we relate to violence in art.
Based on a 2008 Image Comic, “Random Acts of Violence” begins with comic book writer Todd (Jesse Williams) suffering a case of writer’s block. His series, a grisly and successful adaptation of a real-life serial killer dubbed Slasherman, is coming to an end and he doesn’t know how to wind it down.
On a press tour from Toronto to New York to promote the final issue, Jesse and friends, visit the scene of the Slasherman’s crimes. As the group fall victim to a series of heinous copycat crimes the film asks, “What are the real consequences when life (and death) begin to imitate art?”
I talk about that with Jay in this interview but we started by reminiscing about the “beforetime” when we could go to the movies. I asked him what movie memories stand out for him when he thinks back to the theatre experience…
NOTE: The language in this interview is NOT suitable for all age. NSFW!
Watch the whole thing HERE on YouTube or HERE on ctvnews.ca!
1. Controversial Twerking! In April no one knew what “twerking” was. Unfortunately now we all do.
2. Amanda Bynes threw a bong out the window of her 36th floor apartment. It was “just a vase,” she said.
3. After calling Bruce Willis “greedy and lazy” Sylvester Stallone charged $395 per autograph at NY Comic-Con
4. Tom Cruise said Katie Holmes filed divorced because of Scientology
6. Michael Douglas admitted he didn’t get that he got throat cancer after engaging in oral sex.
7. Kat Von D not so cleverly named her new lipstick “Celebutard.” Sephora pulled the plug amid complaints from Down Syndrome Uprising, Family Member, Inclusion BC and All About Developmental Disabilities.
8. Ke$ha says she drank her urine and, “It tasted kind of like candy.”
9. Banksy stall sells art works worth up to $30,000 for $60 each in New York’s Central Park.
10. Justin Bieber’s pet Capuchin monkey, Mally, was confiscated at a German airport after the singer tried to smuggle it into the country.
Top TV moments
1. Two words: Tentacle porn. – Anthony Bourdain’s Tokyo Parts Unknown episode.
2. Zombies falling through the ceiling of a department store in The Walking Dead
3. “I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really… I was alive.” – Walt (Bryan Cranston) on the Breaking Bad finale
4. Orphan Black Clones!
5. Cooking lessons from Hannibal Lector on Hannibal.
6. The bisected cow on Under the Dome.
7. Nick and Jess’ first kiss on The New Girl. So passionate, Jess says the kiss made her see “through space and time for a minute.”
8. Orange is the New Black’s duct-tape sandals.
9. The “Red Wedding” massacre on Games Of Thrones. “My King has married and I owe my new Queen a wedding gift.” ― Lord Walder (David Bradley)
10. The car crash death of Downton Abbey’s Matthew in the final minute of the period drama’s 3rd season.
Top General Entertainment Stories
1. Lou Reed Dead at 71
2. James Gandolfini Dead at 51
3. Angelina Jolie announced double mastectomy
4. Paula Deen gets fired for using the N word
5. Kanye West declared himself the “number one rock star on the planet” in a BBC interview.
6. The last movie ever rented at a Blockbuster? This is the End.
7. Sinead O’Connor accused Miley Cyrus of “behaving like a prostitute and calling it feminism.”
8. Born! The Royal Baby, Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge.
9. Cory Monteith R.I.P.
10. Star Wars: Episode VII release date announced. The Force will return to theatres on December 18, 2015.
Top Online Moments
1. The prank video showing the baffled and terrified reactions of customers in a NYC coffee shop reacting to a woman with telekinesis tearing up the place.
2. Grumpy Cat vs Tommy Lee Jones meme. A side-by-side comparison of Jones at the Golden Globes and Grumpy Cat reveals that they might be long lost relatives.
3. Wisest tweet of the year: Always remember! Many of the people on the Internet telling you what’s what are not old enough to rent a car. – @KenJennings
4. M.I.A.’s Psychedelic Dance Party at the YouTube Music Awards
5. Raven-Symone came out on Twitter after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn The Defense of Marriage Act. “I can finally get married! Yay government! So proud of you.”
6. Andrew Huang’s video of his rap song without using the letter “E” and it’s about NOT using the letter “E”!
7. Swedish Chef Ramsay meme. “Why did the bork bork? Because you borked the bork!”
8. “I want Drake to murder my vagina.” – Amanda Bynes on Twitter
9. Best web series: The Booth at the End starring Xander Berkelely as a mysterious man who grants wishes… for a price.
10. Homeless Army Veteran Turns Life Around in Amazing Time Lapse Video
“This is the End,” a new apocalyptic comedy starring a who’s who of millennial stars, is the most meta movie of the year. Maybe of the decade. Possibly ever.
The story begins when best friends Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogen attend a party at James Franco’s house in the Hollywood Hills. The “How to Train Your Dragon” isn’t happy at the crowded get together. He’s uncomfortable with phoniness of it all and Jonah Hill’s “I loved you in ‘Million Dollar Baby’” pandering.
Jay and Seth get some air on a smoke and snack run to a nearby convenience store, but before they can pay for the Marlboroughs and Munchos, something strange—really odd—happens. Flames fill the sky. The earth opens, swallowing people, places and things. Blue lights from the heavens beam blessed people skyward, leaving the damned to stay put.
It’s the end of times, but back at Franco’s mansion it’s business as usual. Michael Cera is snorting cocaine, Jason Segal is mingling and Craig Robinson is leading a singsong of a song called “Take Off Your Panties.”
The shaky town partygoers are nonplussed as the earth rumbles—it’s earthquake territory after all—until a giant sinkhole in the front yard gobbles up many of the guests, (MILD SPOILER) including Cera, Aziz Ansari, Rhianna and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.
Inside the survivors—the broken social scene of frenemies Baruchel, Rogen Hill, Franco, Robinson and Danny McBride—ration what few supplies they have and try and figure out what the hell is going on.
“When disaster strikes,” says Franco, trying to maintain calm, “who do they rescue first? The actors!”
Thus begins a story of survival of the famous and a lesson on how to get on the right side of the Rapture.
Each member of the scruffy core ensemble—including two Oscar nominees!—play heightened versions of their screen personas. For Rogen’s fans there’s the easygoing stoner. Franco plays it pretentious and edgy while Hill actually refers to himself as “America’s Sweetheart.”
Dynamics develop.
Franco is fixated on Rogen, Hill hates Baruchel and McBride is the wildest card in the deck.
As an experiment in insider tomfoolery bordering on narcissism, it’s a hilariously unhinged look into celebrity that takes no prisoners. They poke fun at their own work—particularly “Your Highness” and “The Green Hornet”—careers and personas. It’s a brazen mega meta idea that works well, more so if you’re already fans of the guys.
Emma Watson buffs will also be treated to a different, axe wielding side of Hermione and Channing Tatum’s cameo must be seen to be believed.
The biblical aspects of the story are played remarkably straight for a pedal-to-the-metal frat boy comedy. Anatomically correct Harryhausen-esque demons wreak havoc and a moral message about sacrifice and a “do unto others” sentiment is somewhat unexpected given the tone of the rest of the film.
Not unexpected from this bunch is a reliance on juvenile barf and bodily fluid gags. Kicking a dismembered head around like a soccer ball is one thing in a funny movie about earth and destruction, but screenwriters Rogen and Evan Goldberg play up the low brow aspects just a bit to much.
“This is the End” packs a great deal into its one hour and forty-five minute running time. Not all the jokes land—in fact quite a few don’t—but when it is clicking on all cylinders it is the funniest and most inventive comedy of the summer.
On the Richard Crouse Show for August 9, 2020 we meet Jay Baruchel. He’s been acting since the age of twelve and has appeared in everything from “Knocked Up” and “Tropic Thunder” to “The Trotsky” and “She’s Out of My League” to the action-fantasy “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and “This Is the End.” He’s probably best known as the voice of Hiccup in the wildly successful “How to Train Your Dragon” franchise but he says, despite all the success in front of the camera, what he really wants to do is direct.
