New Releases:
Insidious: The Red Door – The horror franchise’s original cast returns for the final chapter of the Lambert family’s terrifying saga. To put their demons to rest once and for all, Josh (Patrick Wilson) and a college-aged Dalton (Ty Simpkins) must go deeper into The Further than ever before, facing their family’s dark past and a host of new and more horrifying terrors that lurk behind the red door.
Expectations: The finale of a chilling and jump-scare-filled series arrives and lead actor Patrick Wilson steps behind the camera in his debut as a director to shepherd the end to the screen. This film definitely has its built-in audience so I don’t see it grabbing any new fans. I will also say that the first two films, directed by creator James Wan, are the best in the bunch so I don’t see this one outdoing it at all.
Joy Ride – The hilarious and unapologetically explicit story of identity and self-discovery centers on four unlikely friends who embark on a once-in-a-lifetime international adventure. When Audrey’s (Ashley Park) business trip to Asia goes sideways, she enlists the aid of Lolo (Sherry Cola), her irreverent, childhood best friend who also happens to be a hot mess; Kat (Stephanie Hsu), her college friend turned Chinese soap star; and Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), Lolo’s eccentric cousin. Their no-holds-barred, epic experience becomes a journey of bonding, friendship, belonging, and wild debauchery that reveals the universal truth of what it means to know and love who you are.
Expectations: Every trailer I see for this movie makes me more and more intrigued to check this movie out because it looks absolutely hysterical and a film destined to get the same praise as Bridesmaids or The Hangover. Stephanie Tsu is a future star, without a doubt, already having earned an Oscar nomination but I really think that the rest of the cast will get some love as well, especially Sherry Cola who also has the comedy Shortcomings releasing soon, the directorial debut of Randall Park. I must recommend that people check out the red band trailer for the film and you too will be on the road to seeing Joy Ride just like I am.
The Out-Laws -Owen Browning (Adam Devine) is a straight-laced bank manager about to marry the love of his life, Parker (Nina Dobrev). When his bank is held up by the infamous Ghost Bandits during his wedding week, he believes his future in-laws (Pierce Brosnan, Ellen Barkin) who just arrived in town, are the infamous outlaws.
Review: The new collaboration between Netflix releasing and Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison production company, luckily this pretty dim action comedy doesn’t feature Adam or his merry band of friends but instead extends it to Workaholic’s Adam Devine. which definitely includes a small part for Blake Anderson. The is pretty dumb, as I’v said, but it has sparks of really great comedy in it that had me laughing, so I definitely won’t call the film a waste of time. There is a Pierce Brosnan joke in it that absolutely delighted me so I have to give the film a little love.
July Talk: Love Lives Here – A natural project for a band that has built a compelling and artful visual world alongside their award-winning, chart-topping catalogue, July Talk: Love Lives Here asks a fundamental question: What is essential in a time of upheaval? Farhat documented the months of panic and epiphany in the leadup to July Talk’s lauded Drive-In Shows of 2020, and with the help of unreleased archival footage spanning a decade, follows the thoughtful group of artists to a crossroads of identity and circumstance. July Talk: Love Lives Here balances the raw spontaneity of July Talk’s live performances with the intimacy of closed-circuit interactions – phone conversations and backstage moments that go unseen by fans – against a backdrop of ten years of band history.
Review: I love a music documentary and the post-pandemic landscape of live performances has definitely been an area of interest and that’s exactly where this story resides with a very gifted and entertaining Canadian band. With the uncertainty of live venues looming, their idea of doing an all-inclusive drive-in show in Ontario is so fascinating and the way it is pulled off is really cool. It’s also neat to see the creative processes of July Talk, an energetic and lively bunch that definitely rotates on their own access. This is a cool doc full of great Canadiana.
Blu-Ray:
The Truman Show 4K – Truman Burbank is an ordinary man, living in an average town. He grew up to be a desk clerk for an insurance company, living an ordinary life, having an ordinary wife, an ordinary neighbour and an ordinary bud, who pops in from time to time with a six-pack. But Truman is not happy with his life. He wants to see the world. He wants to get away from his happy-happy, ever-tidy, nice ‘n’ shiny little island town at the seaside. In reality, Truman was an unwanted pregnancy. His “father”, Christof, a reckless TV-Producer whom he had never met, made up the Truman Show – the greatest show on earth – a show in which life is lived. So, everyone around poor Truman is an actor with a little headphone in the ear. One day, Truman accidentally bumps into a catering area backstage and gets pretty suspicious. His plan now is: Pretend to be sleeping and steal away…
Review: This is probably Jim Carrey’s best performance, along with his portrayal of Andy Kaufman in Man On The Moon, and it comes from legendary Australian director Peter Weir, the man behind Walkabout and Picnic At Hanging Rock to name a few. Now in 4K, I think with today’s reality show clime it is the perfect time to revisit a film that seems to capture so much of the reality versus false backdrop so brilliantly. The originality of this story is also so well done.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geek Outs:
The Boy With Green Hair – In a police station, a child psychologist uses his ability to interview a runaway boy with hair completely cut-off that is reluctant to speak. The boy tells that his name is Peter Fry and his parents had travelled to London and have not returned yet; meanwhile, he is living with Gramp Fry, after being lodged in the houses of many relatives for short periods. He gets along with Gramp, the locals, his schoolmates and his teacher; however, when he discovers that he is an orphan of war, his hair turns green the next morning and Peter is rejected by his community.
Review: This one is cool as a David Lynch fan as Blue Velvet star Dean Stockwell features in the title role as a child actor in a film that got both director Joseph Losey and screenwriter Ben Barzman blacklisted shortly after the McCarthyism era. Funny enough, in another Twin Peaks connection, this was the feature film debut of Russ Tamblyn who would go on to play Dr. Lawrence Jacoby in the legendary series so Lynch must have been a young fan of this film as well. The film was also featured recently in the Fran Lebovitz Netflix documentary “Pretend It’s a City” which was done by Martin Scorcese.
The Courtship Of Eddie’s Father – Realizing that he needs a mother — and his widower father, Tom (Glenn Ford), requires a wife — precocious Eddie Corbett (Ron Howard) is determined to get his dad remarried. While Tom dates numerous women, including the uptight aristocrat Rita Behrens (Dina Merrill), nobody seems to be a good fit for Eddie or his father. Soon it becomes apparent that Tom’s ideal match may be closer than he thought, as he develops feelings for his lovely neighbour, Elizabeth Marten (Shirley Jones).
Review: Featuring a very young Ron Howard and a younger Ms. Partridge with the lovely Shirly Jones, this film was widely loved as a sweetheart crowd-pleaser and still pretty much plays that way today. One of the many hits of Oscar-winning filmmaker Vincente Minnelli, the film is a big inspiration for the widely beloved nineties from com Sleepless In Seattle, which features many of the same tropes. Sadly, when Minnelli’s many cinematic accomplishments are listed, this film is rarely mentioned.
Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear – Ranger Smith, tired of Yogi’s picnic basket stealing, has he and Boo-Boo shipped off to the San Diego Zoo. Yogi escapes being sent away, unknown to Yogi’s girlfriend Cindy, who goes looking for him and is kidnapped by a circus owner. Yogi and Boo-Boo are forced to sneak out of the park and travel across the country to save Cindy and bring her back home.
Review: If you ever thought that the live-action hybrid movie with Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake was the debut of Yogi Bear on the big screen, well, this Warner Archive release is here to prove you wrong. The film was the first theatrical feature from Hanna-Barbera Productions and the first animated film based on a TV series. It would also feature a snickering dog named Mugger, belonging to the Chizzling Brothers, who would eventually be developed into the character Muttley for the widely popular animated series Wacky Races. As a Saturday morning cartoon veteran, I had an appreciation of this film that not many under my generation do.
Television:
The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 2 Part 1 (Netflix) – Mickey Haller, an iconoclastic idealist, runs his law practice out of the back seat of his Lincoln, as he takes on cases big and small across the expansive city of Los Angeles. Sidelined after an accident for almost a year, Haller is back in the courtroom, recovering from a drug habit. When Hollywood lawyer Jerry Vincent is murdered, Haller inherits his practice, including the defence of Trevor Elliott, a tech billionaire accused of murdering his wife and her lover. But as Haller prepares for the case that could launch him into the big time, he learns that Vincent’s killer may be coming for him next.
Review: The film that predates this series, starring Matthew McConaughey and directed by Brad Fuhrman, was a decent enough movie, a well-told drama mystery with a solid cast around the lead including Marisa Tomei, John Leguizamo and Bryan Cranston. That said, I never once thought I needed a series continuation but this show won me over in its first season. The cast is again where it excels with The Magnificent Seven remake’s Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and, a personal favourite, Canadian actress Neve Campbell but the added charm is with Ugly Betty’s Becky Newton who I absolutely adore. This is a solid little law series and, with part one of two hitting this week, I assume this is the beginning of the end of it.
Steve Stebbing 