I join CP24 to talk about the big movies hitting theatres and streaming this week, including the dark comedy “My Friend Zoe,” the survival drama “Last Breath” and make some Oscar predictions.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” for “Booze & Reviews!” This week I talk about the deep sea survival movie “Last Breath” and I suggest cocktails that will put you in the mind of the ocean.
Listen to me on the life and legacy of Gene Hackman HERE!
Listen to the oceanic pleasures of Booze & Reviews HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to do a high five! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the dark comedy “My Friend Zoe,” the survival drama “Last Breath” and the feel good “Superboys of Malegaon.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: “Last Breath,” a new thriller starring Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu, and now playing in theatres, is the true story of deep-sea saturation divers as they attempt to rescue a crew member trapped hundreds of feet beneath the ocean’s surface.
CAST: Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, Finn Cole, Cliff Curtis, Djimon Hounsou, Mark Bonnar. Directed by Alex Parkinson.
REVIEW: A ticking clock survival drama, “Last Breath” juxtaposes tight spaces with the vast openness of the ocean depth to create tension.
The claustrophobia of the submersible is a nightmare for anyone (like me) with a fear of enclosed spaces, but the lonely, seemingly endless enormity of the ocean in the underwater scenes emphasizes the helplessness of feeling being stranded and deepens the movie’s impact.
The film’s atmosphere of danger is its most important asset and is used very effectively by director Alex Parkinson, who co-directed an acclaimed documentary of this same story in 2019.
Given that this is a well-documented story and the ending (NO SPOILERS HERE) is not exactly a surprise, Parkinson wisely mines the extremes in settings for all they are worth. Whether the actors are packed tight or left stranded in the underwater wilderness, Parkinson takes a very specific situation and makes it universal by playing on the audience’s primal fears.
The stars, Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu and Finn Cole, take up much of the on-screen time.
Harrelson is the big-hearted jokester who leads with emotion and instinct. Liu is the stoic technician, who displays grace under pressure while Cole is the newbie, willing to take risks to prove himself. They are disparate characters, bonded by a sense of duty and compassion and the camaraderie between the men, who risk everything for a paycheque, is the film’s second big selling point.
“Last Breath” is a simple story of an extraordinary effort that succeeds because it’s not just about survival or the unusual situation, but because of the heroic, human effort that went into the rescue.
I’ll be hosting virtual Q&As at Cineplex theatres in Halifax, Toronto and Winnipeg with “Last Breath” director Alex Parkinson on Wednesday February 26, 2025. Check your local listings for a theatre near you! We’ll talk about how the story hits differently because it is a true story rather than a fictional feature, how he cast the film and much more!
Some info on the film:
SYNOPSIS: Set against the unforgiving backdrop of the North Sea, “Last Breath: recounts the true story of diver Chris Lemons. While conducting maintenance on an underwater oil rig, Lemons becomes untethered and trapped at a depth of 100 meters, with only minutes of oxygen remaining. What follows is a desperate, nail-biting rescue mission that tests the limits of teamwork, resilience, and human endurance.
ALEX PARKINSON (Co-Writer, Director) is an Emmy-nominated director who is making his narrative feature directorial debut with Last Breath. Parkinson’s other work includes HBO Max and Channel 4’s documentary, Lucy The Human Chimp, which he both wrote and directed. It follows psychologist Janis Carter taking on the seemingly impossible task of giving a chimpanzee raised as a human a new life in the wild. Directing documentaries for more than 20 years, Parkinson has also made films for a number of global broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, National Geographic, Animal Planet, History and Travel.
SYNOPSIS: During the 1960s Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union, a relationship develops between the NASA lunch director and a New York advertising executive brought in to make sure every American knew what NASA was all about. “When I’m done,” says advertising exec Kelly Jones of the Apollo 11 astronauts, “these men are going to be bigger than the Beatles.”
CAST: Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Jim Rash, Anna Garcia, Donald Elise Watkins, Noah Robbins, Colin Woodell, Christian Zuber, Nick Dillenburg, Ray Romano, Woody Harrelson. Directed by Greg Berlanti.
REVIEW: Space Age rom com “Fly Me to the Moon” reaches for the stars, but never quite gets there. Charming a-listers Johansson and Tatum play fictional characters, a fast talking advertising executive—“The Killer From Manhattan,” they call her—and a tightly wound NASA launch director. As per the rom com formula, they meet cute, have an immediate attraction, and then spend much of the remainder of the movie’s over-long 2-hour and 12-minute runtime falling in and out of lust.
As if that wasn’t enough, their flirtation takes place against a backdrop of one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs—and one of the biggest conspiracy theories—of the Twentieth Century.
It’s an odd mix, and one that only works sporadically. When director Greg Berlanti allows Johansson and Tatum to parry, the movie works.
Johansson’s Kelly is a compulsive liar, someone who doesn’t mind bending the rules to get what she wants—for instance, she hires actors to do news interviews for press shy NASA engineers—and when she is in full flight, the character is wicked and fun. “We’re not lying to customers,” she says slyly, “we’re changing the way they think.”
Tatum has less to do, but is a solid leading man who can play it straight or bring a laugh when necessary. It’s not rocket science, but he pulls it off.
It’s when the movie shifts toward the moon launch story that it begins to fizzle like a wet firecracker. The move away from romance toward the supposedly tense July 16, 1969 Apollo 11 lift-off adds little to the movie except an extra half-hour.
Despite fun 1960s period piece details and charming leads, “Fly Me to the Moon” gets lost on lift-off.
In Hollywood he last name Farrelly comes with expectations. As a duo, the Farrelly brothers, Peter and Bobby, were mainstays of big-screen gross-out comedies with titles like “Me, Myself & Irene” and “There’s Something About Mary” decorating their IMDB page.
On his own, eldest brother Peter scored big with “Green Book,” an earnest film whose depiction of race relations in 1960s America won three Oscars, but was a step away from the kind of work that made him famous.
This weekend, younger brother Bobby strikes out on his own with “Champions.” A remake of a 2018 Goya Award winning Spanish film, the new version starring Woody Harrelson, now playing in theatres, is neither as funny as his early work or as Oscar-baity as his brother’s solo debut.
The action begins at a J League, Iowa Stallions basketball game. The clock is counting down when Coach Phil (Ernie Hudson) makes a call that irks assistant coach, and basketball know-it-all Marcus (Harrelson).
“He knows the game better than anyone I’ve ever known or played with,” says Phil, “but he doesn’t know the players.”
As usual, the hot-headed Marcus lets his temper gets the best of him and he pushes Phil to the ground. Fired, he drowns his sorrows at a bar, gets arrested and is sentenced to ninety days Community Service coaching the “Friends,” a b’ball team of adults with intellectual disabilities at a local rec center.
With an eye toward competing in the Special Olympics, Marcus teaches the team as they teach him to see the players for who they really are, and not just for their skill set on the court.
“Champions” is a very specific story about Marcus’s redemption via a team that teaches him the true meaning of what it means to be a team, but in its specificity, it becomes an open-hearted, universal tale of the power of respect and acceptance. And fart and barf gags because, this is, after all, a Farrelly movie.
It is also a Farrelly movie in the way it treats its characters. The film was shot in Manitoba and cast through St. Amant, a non-profit organization that works with Manitobans who live with developmental disabilities and autism. Echoing past movies like “Stuck on You” and “There’s Something About Mary,” Farrelly wisely makes the young actors who make up the team the film’s beating heart. He treats them with respect while allowing them to carry a large part of the story.
Even though the story was inspired by the Aderes team in Burjassot who won twelve Spanish championships between 1999 and 2014, “Champions” is predictable. You can guess that, win or lose, Marcus will be as affected by the team as they are by him, so it’s about the journey, not the destination, and Farrelly has cast well, choosing actors we get invested in. Harrelson brings edge and warmth, and Kaitlin Olson, as Marcus’s sorta-kinda love interest has edge and compassion. Everyone in the film is a champion in their own way but it is the Friends who make this a winning film.
In “Kate,” a new action thriller now streaming on Netflix, Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays the titular character, a ruthless killer with just twenty-four hours to get to the bottom of a murder—her own.
When we first meet Kate she’s in Japan. Her handler and mentor, played by Woody Harrelson, has arranged a hit of a high-level yakuza. She takes the shot, hits her target, leaving his young daughter Ani (Miku Patricia Martineau) in tears over his body.
Later, on another gig, just as she’s about to take a shot her eyes blur. Unable to aim, she misses, takes another shot and misses again. After a wild chase she lands in the hospital where she is told she’s been poisoned and has just twenty-four hours to live.
Her quest for vengeance leads her to an unlikely ally, Ani, the daughter of one of her victims.
“Kate” is a fast-paced riff on “D.O.A..” the seventy-year-old Edmond O’Brien movie about a victim who tries to figure out who poisoned him and why. French director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan amps up the action, staging everything from wild car chases through the streets of Tokyo to up-close-and-personal fight scenes, all focused on Kate’s ability to jump, punch, shoot and generally lay waste to all comers. Winstead, who proved her action bona fides as Huntress in “Birds of Prey,” brings the kick assery in fight scenes that are fleet-footed and plentiful.
Set against the background of the ticking clock, “Kate” delivers some high velocity action, even if the premise isn’t exactly new.
What to watch when you’ve already watched everything Part Five! Binge worthy, not cringe worthy recommendations from Isolation Studios in the eerily quiet downtown Toronto. Three movies to stream, rent or buy from the comfort of home isolation. Today, a human-animal hybrid, a homemade superhero and a country music legend.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
