Richard joins CP24 to have a look at new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres including he scary “spiritual sequel” “Candyman” (in theatres), the wild Lil Rel Howery comedy “Vacation Friends” (Disney+), the Megan Fox thriller “Till Death” (VOD) and the drama “They Who Surround Us” (in theatres).
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard sits in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres, VOD and streaming services including the scary “spiritual sequel” “Candyman” (in theatres), the wild Lil Rel Howery comedy “Vacation Friends” (Disney+), the Megan Fox thriller “Till Death” (VOD) and the drama “They Who Surround Us” (in theatres).
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Richard joins NewsTalk 1010 guest host David Cooper on the coast-to-coast-to-coast late night “Showgram” to play the game “Did Richard Crouse like these movies?” This week we talk about to talk about Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in “Candyman,” the wild Lil Rel Howery comedy “Vacation Friends” and the Megan Fox thriller “Till Death.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Can Richard review three movies in just one minute? Have a look as he races against the clock to tell you about “Candyman,” “Vacation Friends” and “Till Death.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
“Till Death,” the new thriller from Megan Fox, now on VOD, sees an unhappily married woman wake up one morning, handcuffed to her soon-to-be-dead husband Mark (Eoin Macken). Like an unholy mix of “Sleeping with the Enemy,” “Weekend at Bernie’s” and “Saw,” it’s a study in the toll emotional abuse takes, and the resilience required to rise above it.
Before the handcuffs and the literal interpretation of the “Till death do us part,” wedding vow, Emma (Fox) feels trapped by a loveless marriage. But as her eleventh wedding anniversary looms, she calls off the relationship she’s been having behind her lawyer husband’s back with his associate Tom (Aml Ameen) and accepts Mark’s invitation for a weekend away to work on their relationship. “Things have been bad between us,” he says, “and I’m sorry.”
At first the weekend seems to be heading toward healing the scars that mar their marriage. But things take a dark twist when Emma wakes up, hungover and handcuffed to Mark as he then shoots himself in the head. Connected to his corpse, Emma finds herself a pawn in a dangerous game of survival. “I have been chained to this nightmare all day!”
“Till Death,” just one of the five films Fox has scheduled for release in the 2021/22 season, begins like a hundred other thrillers. A bad marriage, a vague sense of unease and a remote location. And so what if Fox appears to be on autopilot in the film’s opening minutes? There’s a hint of some neo-noir action in the air.
It takes about twenty-five minutes, but by the time Mark blows his head off, filling the air with a bloody mist, the movie finally distinguishes itself as the nasty piece of work it is. It also gives Fox the opportunity to branch out from disinterested to engaged as director S.K. Dale allows her to shed the story’s dead weight (literally) and shine. She hands in a fun performance that is more subtle than the movie’s main metaphor of a late, toxic husband as a literal anchor or ball-and-chain.
“Till Death” is a simple movie of survival. When two abusers (Callan Mulvey and Jack Roth) from Emma’s past arrive as part of Mark’s master scheme to terrorize her, she must muster all the courage she has from years of pent-up frustration to stay alive. There aren’t many twists and turns you won’t see coming, but slick direction, a tense score, a self-depreciating tone and Fox’s study in resilience should earn the movie a look from fans of survival horror.
By Richard Crouse – Metro In Focus
Since 2002 Milla Jovovich has played a genetically altered zombie fighter with telekinetic powers in six Resident Evil films.
Like the undead fleshbags who populate these based-on-a-videogame movies, you can’t seem to kill this franchise, although the title of this weekend’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter seems to indicate the end is near.
But just because the Resident Evil movies aren’t Shakespeare doesn’t mean we can’t learn something from them. Here’s what I took away from Jovovich and Company in the last 13 years:
1. The undead have really, really bad aim.
2. No matter what stunt she has just performed, whether it’s plummeting 19 stories down an abandoned mine shaft, or battling legions of bad guys, Mila’s hair will, at most, only look slightly tousled, as if Vidal Sassoon had just finished running his magic fingers through her locks.
3. The amount of rainfall in the future makes Vancouver look arid.
4. To act in one of these movies you must perfect one of two facial expressions: a. steely determination, or b. uncontrolled rage (which can be alternated with a sadistic smile if necessary).
5. Characters will say, “What the hell is going on here?” when it is quite clear what the heck is going on.
6. Most of the people to survive the deadly plague that destroyed most of humanity look like Abercrombie & Fitch pinups.
7. Why take the stairs when you can drive a Rolls Royce down an escalator?
So there you have it — lessons learned.
Despite legendary director Jean-Luc Godard’s claim that, “All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl,” both of which are amply on display in the Resident Evil movies, they still feel more like a videogame projected on a big screen than a movie.
But who cares what I or other film critics think? These movies have been phenomenally successful and for over a decade have proven to be critic-proof. Roger Ebert placed Resident Evil on his most hated films list in 2005 and called its sequel, “an utterly meaningless waste of time,” adding, “Parents: If you encounter teenagers who say they liked this movie, do not let them date your children.”
Leonard Maltin added to the pile on calling Resident Evil: Apocalypse “tiresome” while Dark Horizons said the third movie, Afterlife was, “perhaps the first 3D motion picture to simulate the experience of watching paint dry,” and yet the splatter flick went on to gross $300 million worldwide.
Critics aside, others in the film biz love the movies. Avatar director James Cameron called Resident Evil his biggest guilty pleasure and the Ontario Media Development Corporation acknowledged the Toronto-shot Afterlife as the most successful production in Canadian feature film history.
Bottom line is that in total, the series has grossed almost $1 billion — a feat recognized by the Guinness World Records Gamers’ Edition who called the Resident Evil films “the most successful movie series to be based on a video game,” awarding them with the record for Most Live-Action Film Adaptations of a Video Game.
