Warner Bros. Pictures

Directed

• Steven Soderbergh

Produced by

• Nick Wechsler
• Gregory Jacobs
• Channing Tatum
• Reid Carolin

Written by

• Reid Carolin

Cast

Channing Tatum

• Michael “Magic Mike” Lane

Matthew McConaughey

• Dallas

Alex Pettyfer

• Adam “The Kid”

Olivia Munn

• Joanna

• Joe Magnaniello’s penis… how else would you start this review?
• Stereotypical plot.  Wait, there was a PLOT?
• Channing Tatum is pretty.  That’s about all that can be said about that.
• Oh, he can dance, too.
• McConaughey played… McConaughey (good casting).
• She’s got a serious case of b-face.
• Nobody cares about your furniture story.
• Do strippers find their jobs satisfying?
• Male cheesecake movies vs. female cheesecake movies.
• It tried to be a drama, but it never quite worked.  Neither did the comedy route.
• Creeping penis!
• Penis pump!
• Why did he keep pursuing Brooke?
• Rom-com friend… used to be nerdy, now they’re slutty.
• Apparently, Tony is all about the face.
• …and Tarzan.
• Joe Manganiello, in the words of David… MASSIVE!
• Tony wanted more McConaughey, Tarzan and Munn and less Tatum, Adam and b-face.
• Don’t underestimate horny women!
• Spiderman sidetrack.

Kevin Weiser and Jen Dixon of The Walking Eye recently had a fire in their apartment and can use some help to get them back on their feet.  Dig into your pockets and help fellow podcasters!  Click on the link below for more information and to help.

http://ortiz.chipin.com/kevin-weiser-and-jen-dixon

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• David

This episode was recorded: 11/21/2012

• 10/7/2011

Columbia Pictures

Directed by

• George Clooney

Produced by

• George Clooney
• Grant Heslov
• Brian Oliver
• Leonardo DiCaprio

Screenplay by

• George Clooney
• Grant Heslov
• Beau Willimon

Based on “Farragut North” by Beau Willimon

Cast

Ryan Gosling

• Stephen Meyers

George Clooney

• Mike Morris

Philip Seymour Hoffman

• Paul Zara

Paul Giamatti

• Tom Duffy

*NOTE* Back Seat Producers will be on a bi-weekly schedule through the end of the year 

• Back Seat Producers or Fanboy Smackdown?
• A discussion about politics or will they speak of their collective love for Clooney & Gosling?
• Ryan Gosling… a tool or a TOOL?
• Political, but not obnoxiously so.
• Hmmm… does atheism matter when it comes to politics?
• Is Marisa Tomei a vampire?
• The acting was all top shelf.
• What about morality?  Good thing or bad thing?
• Evan Rachel Wood… oh what a tangled web she weaves.
• *Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler*
• In politics, if it’s a possibility, it’s real.
• There is a difference between what happens and what is perceived to have happened.
• A lesson on the appearance of impropriety… take heed!
• An autobiographical cathartic experience through film.
• The logic of cheating.
• You can’t con an innocent man.
• Of course the President nominee would check his cell phone during a press conference… don’t all Presidents do that?
• More cynical movie than All The President’s Men… and that’s a good thing.
• This is about campaigns, not government.
• Yes, Tony… living in a battleground state (Florida) does suck!
• All political banter seen on Facebook must be true!

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Deuce

This episode was recorded: 11/1/2012

Lionsgate

Directed by

• Drew Goddard

Produced by

• Joss Whedon

Written by

• Drew Goddard
• Joss Whedon

Cast

Kristen Connolly

• Dana Polk

Chris Hemsworth

• Curt Vaughan

Fran Kranz

• Marty Mikalski

Richard Jenkins

• Gary Sitterson

Bradley Whitford

• Steve Hadley

The hosts review:

• Deuce watched it five times within a week… ‘nuff said.
• David’s reasons that this movie worked:  1 – Thor, pre-Thor, even!  2 – He likes a movie where he can SEE the monster, and this was utterly satisfied.  3 – There were heroes, not people making stupid choices in the face of danger.
• The ultimate choice… do you kill one person to save the world or do you let the world end?
• Special kudos to the Japanese school children!
• Scooby Doo… yes, I think everyone thought that, too.
• The cup bong was the amazing!
• Stereotypical behavior via chemical enhancements… and not the kind you’re thinking about.  Well, a little bit but not all of it.
• Why did they only bring one dirt bike?  Five people, one dirt bike?
• If you were in the basement, what item would you have picked up?  The puzzle ball?  The conch?  The diary?  The necklace?   The music box?
• Fornicus, Lord of Bondage and Pain.
• Tony reads a list of monsters/evil and their origins.
• Merman!  Messy to clean up, though.
• An interesting twist would have been in Marty was the virgin.
• Cabin in the Sexist Woods.
• It’s a great movie with a full plot and not contrived.  It lifted the veil off of all horror movies.

In the scene where Jules kisses the wolf head on the wall, the wolf’s tongue is covered in powdered sugar to give it a dusty look and to make the scene tolerable for the actress.

Fran Kranz (Marty) received extensive prop and behavior training in order to capture the stoner persona.  He received a two-hour joint rolling session and a separate bong lighting session from expert consultants.

On the white board in the control room, when the staff is taking bets on the victims’ potential killers, both “Deadites” as well as “Angry Molesting Tree” are listed.  These are obvious references to The Evil Dead films which also feature a cabin in the woods.

Immediately after an early previous screening with Fan Q&A, the first question Director Drew Goddard was asked was, “Will there be a sequel?”  To which he responded, “Have you seen the ending to my movie?”

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Melina
• Tony/Deuce
• David

This episode was recorded: 10/24/2012

Note: The audio on this one is a bit iffy.  Totally my fault and should be corrected in the next episode. – Tony

Magnolia Pictures

Directed and Written by

• Eli Craig

Produced by

• Morgan Jurgenson
• Albert Klychak
• Rosanne Miliken
• Deepak Nayar

Cast

Tyler Labine

• Dale

Alan Tudyk

• Tucker

Katrina Bowden

• Allison

The show begins with a poignant, heartfelt speech by Deuce.

The hosts review:

The hosts all enjoyed the movie.  None had any expectations but they were all satisfied.  David said that what worked was that the audience had to believe the play between Tucker and Dale and the believability as to why the kids seemed to be killing themselves.  The ridiculousness of it works.  One of David’s favorite parts was that, whenever Tucker was injured, he treated each horrific wound by pouring beer on it.  They also agreed that the chemistry between Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk was really good.

They discussed how this movie turns the commentary on horror movies and how hillbillies would usually be the bad guys.    They also touch on how, in almost every horror movie, the young people will almost always jump to conclusions, thus setting themselves up to be killed.  The conversation touches on “reasonable” ways to save oneself from the horrors of being killed while on a camping trip.

There was also a touch of sadness at the fact that there was no camping-sex, as tends to be the norm for these movies, as well.

Talk then turns to wet t-shirt contests… and David’s participation in said contest, and SausageFest antics of past years.

**There is still time to donate to SausageFest**

Summing this all up, David ranked the movie (out of five fat hillbillies) with four fat hillbillies and one skinny hillbilly.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Tony/Deuce
• David

This episode was recorded: 10/10/2012

This is filled with so much awesome, I have to watch it again!

From the opening scene test drive, the characters are there and letting their personalities shine through.

Low budget? Yep.  Cheesy? Sure.  Did it work back then? Oh, yeah.  Today this would be a Nickelodeon movie; exactly the same except with a teenage cast.

This is so ridiculous, it’s hilarious.

A neo-Doc Savage story.

There’s Perfect Tommy, but Buckaroo is BETTER than him.

Where’s Pixie?  We haven’t heard from Pixie yet!

“The people at these conventions we go to really need to brush their teeth better.”

3-2-1 Rule of Con going, people!

SausageFest, SausageFest, SausageFest! (yes, you can still donate!)

Buckaroo Banzai and his friends are kind of a SausageFest.

Ellen Barkin is the cheesecake.

This movie is right up there with Howard the Duck.

It would have worked better without Ellen.

Yakof Smirnoff!

Would the kiddies watch it if it was remade?

Did adults like it when it came out, or just younger people?

A brilliantly creative concept… the aliens are here, they’re just hiding in the 8^th dimension.

How did he not know that his wife had a twin sister?

Oh no, the Taking the Hobbits to Isengard YouTube video!

We should all go to the nearest canal and walk in a box.

In every scene I’ll wear a different colored nightie

Your hosts

• Jack – jackmangan.com
• Desert Pixie
• Tony
• JR – ofgnomesanddwarves.com

Recorded: 10/2/2012

Release date:  7/20/2012

Warner Bros.

Directed by

• Christopher Nolan

Produced by

• Emma Thomas
• Christopher Nolan
• Charles Rovan

Screenplay by

• Jonathan Nolan
• Christopher Nolan

Story by

• Christopher Nolan
• David S. Goyer

Based on

• characters by Bob Kane

Cast

Christian Bale

• Bruce Wayne

Gary Oldman

• Commissioner Gordon

Tom Hardy

• Bane

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

• John Blake

Anne Hathaway

• Selina Kyle

Michael Caine

• Alfred Pennyworth

The hosts review:

Quick and dirty to start things off… all the hosts liked it.  They drift off for a few minutes to the Avengers, whether one was better than the other, possible future Avenger projects and general TV commentary.  David thought it wasn’t as good as The Dark Knight, but Deuce disagreed.  Tony didn’t really get the full effect of the movie until a few days after seeing it, mostly because some of the timelines in the story were compressed and some weren’t.  He brought up Bruce Wayne’s time in prison as a prime example.  David thought Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s John Black character was unnecessary; not because of bad acting, but just the character in general.  The argument was that Blake is the young character who will carry on the story.

Deuce said that The Dark Knight Rises should be viewed (and reviewed) as a trilogy, not just as a stand-alone film.  What follows is an in-depth discussion about whether Christian Bale is fat or muscular… and the best part is that there isn’t one single female partaking in this discussion!

Tony thought that Bane’s plans shouldn’t have worked and, more than that, both of his plans were terrible (he also thought that The Joker’s plans shouldn’t have worked, either).  Deuce compared the three movies of the trilogy, likening the 1^st and 3^rd to Bond-type films with gadgets, terrorists and espionage, except that in The Dark Knight Rises, it takes you half way between a superhero film and a Bond-type film.  They also get into a discussion as to whether Superman and Batman can exist at the same time and place.

David thought that every character in the movie rose to the challenge except Batman… everyone else disagreed.  Deuce brought up that part of the story of this film is that Batman can’t be Batman forever.  Tony said that Wayne’s biggest challenge was breaking out of prison.  Part of Wayne’s “rise” is going from a state of action to inaction, rising above vengeance to live as a person and not a superhero, and that’s where the disagreements come in.  In the end, Wayne is comfortable enough to be able to walk away from (rise above) Batman.

Beginning the discussion of acting performances, David thought that Christian Bale was good, but not in the film very much.  Darrell thought that the two best performances came from Tom Hardy and Anne Hathaway, but there was a little bit of disagreement with Tom Hardy because his face is covered throughout the movie.  Two other fantastic performances, according to David and Tony agreed, were from Michael Caine and Gary Oldman.

Talking about the three movies as a whole, they thought up that The Dark Knight was more about the characters.  Each movie had its own set of flaws, but each one is entertaining as a whole and on its own.  They said that it was a credit to Christopher Nolan that he was able to elevate each movie.

They loved the Bane character – he wasn’t a thug, he was as intelligent as Batman.  They also agreed on the Catwoman character – well played, especially because they put a lot of focus on Selina Kyle and not just Catwoman.  Regarding the women in all three movies, they were all in agreement that Katie Holmes was the least talented.  They also liked Marion Cotillard’s Miranda character.  They thought SPOILER REDACTED.

Trivial bits ‘n pieces:

Around 10,000 extras were used to shoot the Gotham Rogues scene in Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A number of Pittsburgh Steelers played football players, as well as a former Steelers Coach and the mayor of Pittsburgh.

Tom Hardy described Bane as an absolute terrorist: “He’s brutal, but also incredibly clinical in the fact that he has a result-based and oriented fighting style. The style is heavy-handed, heavy-footed… it’s nasty. It’s not about fighting, it’s about carnage!”

Hardy said he based his voice for Bane on Bartley Gorman (1944-2002), an Irish Traveller who was the undefeated Bare-knuckle boxing champion of the United Kingdom.

This movie brought together a number of actors from “Inception” – Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard and Cillian Murphy.

Nolan said that this film’s theme deals with “Pain”. For Batman Begins, it was “Fear”, and The Dark Knight was “Chaos”.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Tony/Deuce
• Darrell
• David

This episode was recorded: 10/3/2012

Release date:  12/16/2000

Toei Company

Directed by

• Kinji Fukasaku

Produced by

• Masao Sato
• Masumi Okada
• Teruo Kamaya
• Tetsu Kayama

Screenplay by

• Kenta Fukasaku

Based on

• Battle Royale, by Koushun Takami

Cast

Takeshi Kitano

• Kitano-sensei

Tatsuya Fujiwara

• Shuya Nanahara

Aki Maeda

• Noriko Nakagawa

The hosts review:

Darrell liked the movie, with all its gore, and thought it held up quite well.  David agreed, thought it was okay and a bit rough.  The hosts brought up comparisons to The Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies.  Going all the way back to Lord of the Flies, these were children that were unintentionally put in their position.  The Hunger Games and Battle Royale came at the story line from a slightly different place and from a similar background, with children being placed/forced into survival.  Another difference in The Hunger Games and Battle Royale are the different roles that the “audience” played.  In The Hunger Games, the games were a form of entertainment to the wealthy, but in Battle Royale, the media was only seen once in the beginning of the movie.

The hosts discussed the girl shown in the beginning of the film who appears to be a winner of Battle Royale, but there was no one winner *SPOILER* in this specific battle.  Darrell thought it was the girl who survived (one boy and one girl survived) but David didn’t think that made sense in the story.  Lena (chat room) at first thought the girl was a stand-in used to fool the public into thinking the battle was successful, but later found out that the girl was a winner of a previous battle… who shows up in the second Battle Royale movie.

Another Hunger/Battle comparison was the depiction of females.  The Hunger Games had a strong “girl power” theme but that was definitely not the case in Battle Royale.  The Japanese girls were, for the most part, portrayed as hysterical and without any leadership.  This, naturally, brings up the question of, “What would you do if you were in that position?”  Would you kill your best friend, would you hide out as long as you could, would you commit suicide or purposely put yourself in line to be killed so that you wouldn’t have to participate at all?

The discussion took at odd turn at this point, in the direction of Sausagefest 4 = Battle Royale… with kielbasa.

Darrell discussed how Battle Royale had difficulties finding an American distributor due to its high level of violence.  The Japanese DVD release was even postponed because of a slashing incident (an 11 year old girl slashed and killed a female 12 year old schoolmate) in which the child had read Battle Royale.

One thing that Tony liked about Battle Royale, in comparing it to The Hunger Games, is how much more visceral the violence was.  He didn’t find that it glorified violence but rather showed it respectfully and showed what a horrific thing has happened.

Trivial bits ‘n pieces:

The painting of all the students was created by Takeshi Kitano.

Battle Royale is one of the top-10 highest-grossing films in Japan.

Director Kinji Fukasaku has said that he based this movie on his experiences in World War II Japan, where he worked in a factory that was regularly bombed by Allied aircraft and many of his fellow workers were killed on their first or second day on the job and he never got to know any of them.

Awards:

Battle Royale was nominated for nine Japanese Academy Awards in 2001 and won three (Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing, Popularity Award and Newcomer of the Year for Tatsuya Fujiwara and Aki Maeda)

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• David

This episode was recorded: 9/26/2012

Warner Bros.

Directed by

• Frank Darabont

Produced by

• Frank Darabont
• David Valdes

Screenplay by

• Frank Darabont

Based on

• The Green Mile, by Stephen King

Cast

Tom Hanks

• Paul Edgecomb

Michael Clarke Duncan

• John Coffey

David Morse

• Brutus “Brutal” Howell

The hosts review:

Darrell thought the movie wasn’t bad but had trouble getting into it because of the length of it, he thought the plot point dragged on.  The hosts break into a side discussion about Stephen King’s books and, when he writes about lighter supernatural elements and the characters are real, the stories are much better.  The human elements in this story aren’t driven by the supernatural events; the story is driven by the characters.  Another example of this is Shawshank Redemption, which has no supernatural elements at all.

David liked the movie, but he doesn’t like the use of older characters used to tell their stories from years ago, as Tom Hanks character does to begin and end the movie.  Tony brought up that in this particular case, it gives you a few hints as to what the “gift” is that John Coffey gave Paul Edgecomb.  This brought up the question of, ‘Just how old is John Coffey?  How long has been around before he’s ready to leave?’  Lena (chat room) thought that the scars on his arms might have meant that he might have been a slave.

In discussion the actors, the hosts agreed that Tom Hanks did a great job, and his best quality as an actor is the ability to be understated and to improve the quality of everyone working with him (see: Wilson – Castaway).  Michael Clarke Duncan did a really great job at playing Coffey’s character and switching from an innocent to someone with the power to heal.  The hosts thought Sam Rockwell did a fantastic job at Wild Bill.  Michael Jeter as Del, Doug Hutchison as Percy, David Morse as Brutal, James Cromwell as Warden Moores… all believable, all really good characters.

In true Stephen King style, a lot of the movie showed each character’s set up; who everyone is, what their role is, how everyone interacts, and each part was necessary.  There has to be three executions because each one sets up information about the next one.  Percy have to have every one of his scenes to show what kind of a character he is so that it’s understood why Coffey gives a small part of himself to Percy so that justice could ultimately be done to Wild Bill.  Edgecomb’s back story had to follow that particular path to understand why Coffey gives part of his gift to him.

The hosts go into short, impromptu lists of top boob movies and top dong movies… yeah, that’s what I said.

Trivial bits ‘n pieces:

At the beginning of the movie, when the old Paul Edgecomb is walking to get some breakfast after waking from that bad dream, he is walking on a tiled floor that is very green, as if it’s his Green Mile.

In actuality, Michael Clarke Duncan (6’5”) is only one inch taller than David Morse (6’4”) and two inches shorter than James Cromwell (6’7”). Among other things, creative camera angles were used to create the illusion that Duncan as John Coffey towered over the prison staff, even Brutal Howell and Warden Moores.

When Stephen King visited the set he asked to be strapped into Old Sparky to see how it felt. He didn’t like it and asked to be released.

When the producers were having trouble finding the right actor to fill the role of John Coffey, Bruce Willis suggested Duncan, who co-starred with him in Armageddon.

Many actors in this film have previously or subsequently appeared in other Stephen King adaptations.  Morse appeared in the Langoliers and Hearts in Atlantis.  Cromwell was in Salem’s Lot.  Patricia Clarkson acted in Carrie.  Jeffrey DeMunn and William Sadler were both in Shawshank Redemption and The Mist.  Harry Dean Stanton appeared in Christine and Gary Sinise was in The Stand.

Awards:

1999 Academy Awards – 4 nominations

• Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role-Michael Clarke Duncan
• Best Picture
• Best Sound Mixing
• Best Adapted Screenplay

2000 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films – 3 wins

• Best Supporting Actor
• Best Supporting Actress-Patricia Clarkson
• Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film

The Green Mile also won the following awards:

• 2000 Black Reel Award (Best Supporting Actor)
• 2000 Blockbuster Entertainment Award (Favorite Actor)
• 2000 Broadcast Film Critics Association (Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor)
• 2000 People’s Choice Award (Favorite All-Around Motion Picture and Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture)

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• David

This episode was recorded: 9/19/2012

Warner Bros.

Directed by

• Tony Scott

Produced by

• Gary Barber
• Samuel Hadida
• James G. Robinson

Written by

• Quentin Tarantino
• Roger Avary (uncredited)

Cast

Clarence Worley

• Christian Slater

Alabama Whitman

• Patricia Arquette

David enjoyed the movie and, because some of the scenes were so long and drawn out and Taratino-esque, he started to read the trivia and realizes that it was, in fact, written by Tarantino.  Tony added that it wasn’t completely like Tarantino because some of the dialogue wasn’t as clever and snappy throughout.  He does, though, keep to his love of monologues.  Tony felt that the Elvis parts could have been cut out and it wouldn’t have taken anything away from the movie, and David agreed that it didn’t seem to make much sense.  David originally thought the movie was going to be dreadful, judging solely by Christian Slater’s beginning monologue, but once Patricia Arquette showed up, it was a great improvement.

They break now to talk about the long list of actors/characters.  David thought that Slater improved greatly after the first monologue, although he’s not a big fan of Slater’s Jack Nicholson tones.  Both hosts really liked the scene where Slater confronts Gary Oldman.  The Dennis Hopper/Christopher Walken scene was fantastic, but what a letdown when neither of them were in the movie again!  The one that was surprising, as Tony thought his scene would be a “one & done” was Brad Pitt.

Both Tony and David thought Arquette was fantastic, and they were pleasantly surprised by her performance.  They liked her playfulness and they thought she and Slater had good chemistry.  They both also really appreciated her fight scene with Gandolfini.  It was a very atypical fight scene and it worked really well.  Lena (from the chat room) said that she loved Gandolfini’s expression when he first punched Arquette; it was a mix of evil and joy.  Even the way that Arquette’s prostitute falls in love with and marries Slater’s character meshed and seemed realistic… as much as it could be.

Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Bronson Pinchot, Saul Rubinek… all really good performances.  They also talk about how they both feel that Brad Pitt is underrated as an actor.

Touching on the Recently Dead Guy Podcast theme, Tony said he could easily see why True Romance was one of Tony Scott’s most critically acclaimed films.  The hosts then go into a list of Scott’s films.

They returned to the cast again to talk about Oldman’s pimp character and Samuel L. Jackson’s dietary preferences.

Wrapping up, the hosts agreed that there were a few scenes that could have been cut a little shorter.  They liked that it was a very unpredictable movie where the slate is effectively wiped clean by the film’s end.  If you’re into Tarantino, you’ll like this film.  David brings up the alternately ending in which Clarence dies at the end and Alabama goes on a crime spree with Mr. White from Reservoir Dogs.

Trivial bits ‘n pieces (many of which the hosts brought up during the recording):

The screenplay of True Romance was originally part of a very long screenplay written by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary.  The other half of it was used for the film Natural Born Killers.  In both films Tom Sizemore plays a cop.

The structure of the script was different in Tarantino’s original script. The first two parts of the movie were told in trademark Tarantino nonlinear fashion. Director Tony Scott hired Avery to change the script to linear structure for filming.

According to Dennis Hopper, the only words that were improvised in the scene with Christopher Walken were “eggplant” and “cantaloupe”.

Following the “eggplant scene”, Hopper was concerned about being “shot” by Walken with the prop gun so close against his head for fear of being burned by the barrel. Director Scott assured him the gun was 100% safe, and even tested it by having the prop man fire it against his (Scott’s) own forehead. But upon firing the prop gun the barrel extended about a third of an inch and Scott ended up on the floor with blood pouring from the wound.

The work “f*#k” and its derivatives are said 225 times.

Tony Scott gave Patricia Arquette the Cadillac featured heavily in the film as a gift after filming wrapped.

In the diner scene, when Clarence asks Alabama what her turn-offs are, she replies “Persians” in the finished film. Being turned off by her character appearing racist in that scene, Arquette name-dropped a different ethnicity for each take that was shot. She said she wanted to be equally offensive to all people.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• David

This episode was recorded: 9/12/2012

Paramount Pictures

Directed by

• Michael Ritchie

Produced by

• Stanley R. Jaffee

Written by

• Bill Lancaster

Cast

Coach Buttermaker

• Walter Matthau

Amanda Whurlitzer

• Tatum O’Neal

Roy Turner

• Vic Morrow

Jackie Earl Haley

• Kelly Leak

Chris Barnes

• Tanner Boyle

The hosts review:

First and foremost, welcome back to our long, lost host… David!

David liked it, but not for the obvious reasons.  He thought the racist epithets were weird and shocking, although it was more common for the mid-70s to hear that particular kind of language.  Lena brought up that there wasn’t any real cussing in the movie, as it was rated PG.  David was also surprised by the surprise “child abuse” when one of the coaches slaps a ballplayer in the face.  Tony brought up that the movie gets into the little social issues that surrounds kids sports that are still around and probably worse today.

Lena found some parts of the movie to still be funny, even after almost 40 years.  She also found it neat to remember what things were like from her childhood years.  Tony and Lena agreed that Tatum O’Neal was a fashion plate, and then it was briefly discussed the other actresses that were initially slated to play the role of Amanda.

Darrell found it interesting that, with all the racial slurs being tossed around in the movie, there was very little backlash at having a girl on the baseball team.

Tony mentioned that there was an alternate ending to the movie in which Kelly is safe at home and the Bears win, but test audiences liked the more realistic ending.

Lena learns what a “boilermaker” is… please hold your laughter until the end of the review, thank you.

We briefly break into a side conversation of how Vic Morrow died while filming Twilight Zone: The Movie.

Tony liked how the movie exposed what happens with kids and sports.  Lena’s favorite scene was when Kelly (Haley), a skinny fourteen year-old, was hitting on the adult woman in Amanda’s ballet class.  Tony also found that the way the parents were portrayed in the movie is pretty much still the way a lot of the parents are today.

The review breaks off into a discussion of which of the child stars did anything else after Bad News Bears.  Erin Blunt, who played Ahmad Abdul Rahim, also played one of Lonnie’s kids in our previous movie, Car Wash (full circle, baby!)

Trivial bits ‘n pieces: 

Tanner uses the word “crud” or “cruddy” 11 times in the movie (Tony brought this up early in the review)

Throughout the film, Buttermaker constantly drinks beer, yet is rarely seen drinking the same brand. He is seen at various times in the film drinking Budweiser, Miller High Life, Schlitz “Kingers”, Pabst Blue Ribbon, and original Coors.  On several occasions, he is shown drinking Budweiser.

Bill Lancaster’s screenplay was based on his experiences with his father, Burt Lancaster. Buttermaker was based on Burt, who was known for his grumpiness and the character of Amanda was based on himself.

Saturday Night Live did a parody of the film with Matthau as the guest host (12/2/1978) called “The Bad News Bees” with John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and the rest of the cast in their recurring “bee” costumes.  The coach gives his team of bees some advice on life after one of them is caught masturbating, which was referred to as “buzzing-off”.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Lena
• David

This episode was recorded: 8/29/2012

Universal Pictures

Directed by

• Michael Schultz

Produced by

• Art Lindstrom
• Gary Stromberg

Written by

• Joel Schumacher

Cast

Lonnie

• Ivan Dixon

Lindy

• Antonio Fargas

T.C.

• Franklin Ajaye

Duane/Abdullah

• Bill Duke

Daddy Rich

• Richard Pryor

The hosts review:

Darrell found it kind of rough to watch a 35 year old film with no plot and a very thin story line because you’re waiting for something to happen… and it never really does.  Tony describes it as a ghetto slice of life movie, set in a car wash, with no over arcing plot.  It’s just a day in the life of guys who work in a car wash, although there are some very interesting characters who he would have liked to have had more of a story.  It’s basically a character study loosely strung together, which Darrell found to be the movie’s downfall.  Tony #2 brought up that, during the 1970s, there were quite a few films that experimented with character study as a structure.

They liked the character of Lindy, a flamboyantly gay man.  What they also liked was that their coworkers were supportive and, when Lindy was hassled, defended him, as well.

While Darrell thought it came close to being a Blaxploitation movie, Tony and Tony #2 disagreed and thought it was very much the opposite.  They go into a brief listing of Blaxploitation films… then drift back to Car Wash.  The only scene in the film that possibly came close to being a “stereotype” is the scene where the employees were dancing and singing while washing cars.  Tony thought that Kevin Smith borrowed heavily from this structure in making Clerks… slice of life study and people whose only common thread is working together.

They talked about Richard Pryor being one of the top-billed actors in the movie, although he was in only one scene.  One of Tony’s most memorable “one of” scenes in the movie was the Beverly Hills woman who comes to the car wash with her son with an upset stomach.  Her main concern is that the employees clean up her son’s vomit from the car, and NOT that fact that her son is sick.  When she drives away, her son projectile vomits all over the inside of her car and her.

The hosts discuss the more tragic story lines in the film.  T.C., who spend the entire movie trying to win concert tickets for a girl that he likes, but this girl barely gives him the time of day.  Lonnie, who works in an almost supervisory role, but doesn’t have the title or the pay that goes with it.  He’s also struggling to be a good father while dealing with a parole office that keeps popping in to check up on him.  Duane/Abdullah, the “angry young man,” knows most of the employees are slackers and he wants more for himself.  These also provided some of the serious moments in the midst of the comedy.

They note that the movie didn’t really become cohesive until the end when the different story lines came to a close, specifically the scene in which Lonnie is closing the car wash and Abdullah (after being fired) returns to the car wash with a gun.

They were also a little disappointed in George Carlin’s cab driver character.  They wished it was more like George Carlin – he wasn’t an intelligent character, he was a goofball character.  Carlin also had a high billing on the movie and wasn’t in it all that much.

Darrell brought up that there was a number of well-known actors whose scenes ended up on the cutting room floor; Brook Adams and Danny DeVito, to name a few

Darrell mentions that Car Wash was Ivan Dixon’s last movie role, and they briefly mention his long list as a Director.

Tony brings up Richard Pryor’s quote about his role in Car Wash: “On the set of ‘Car Wash’ I was too coked out to know any better.”

Trivial bits ‘n pieces:

This was Ivan Dixon’s last movie acting role and Bill Duke’s first movie acting role, who also became a Director in later years.

The name of the Los Angeles car wash used to film the movie was the Figueroa Car Wash, near MacArthur Park.

The movie’s title song was a #1 hit and was also one of the biggest selling singles of  the 1970s disco era.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Tony (say what?) It’s the return of Tony #2!

This episode was recorded: 8/8/2012

20^th Century Fox

Directed by

• Hugh Hudson

Produced by

• David Putnam

Written by

• Colin Welland

Cast

Harold Abrahams

• Ben Cross

Eric Liddell

• Ian Charleston

Ian Holm

• Sam Mussabini

The hosts review:

Darrell starts off by mentioning the Chariots of Fire representation in the opening ceremonies of this year’s Summer Olympics… featuring the one and only Mr. Bean!

Tony felt that the music, even being 30 years old, sounded dated even for its time, specifically the synthesizer.  Darrell thought that the music worked well, and was surprised that they used modern music for a movie that takes place from 1919-1924.  He then went on to talk about how the Chariots of Fire theme is integral to the movie, how it immediately conjures up that iconic image of men running on the beach.

Darrell enjoyed the movie and found it to be a true “drama.”  He appreciated the movie a lot more now than he did years ago, as did Tony.  Tony, though, didn’t think it was as fantastic as critics proclaimed it to be, and found the dialogue “clunky.”  Darrell said that a lot of the dialogue was based on a journal by one of the characters in the movie, and Tony concurred that it did sound like written word and didn’t always flow naturally.  He found that it almost appears to be a “talking down” to the audience.

Tony also brought up how the anti-Semitism and racism was apparent, even in a very polite manner, from the onset of the movie.  There were constant little snips at and about Abrahams Jewish heritage.  There were also offhand comments regarding Abrahams personal coach, Mussabini, who was of Italian and Arab descent.

The hosts also discussed the different reasons and passions behind each man needing to run.  Abrahams runs to win and Liddell runs for God, and how each of them faced hurdles (no pun intended… I think) to accomplish their goals of Olympic gold.

They talk about how in most other sports-themed movies, there is usually a big build-up to the main sporting event.  In this movie, the race was almost an anti-climactic moment, an after-thought.  The “meat” of the story was in getting to the Olympics, in each man’s journey and struggle to get there.

They found it almost amusing to compare the opening ceremony scene of the 1924 Olympics to the grand spectacle of the 2012 Olympics.

Darrell mentioned that he wondered what Liddell did when he returned to China as a missionary:

Liddell’s first job was as a teacher at an Anglo-Chinese school for wealthy Chinese students.  The belief at the time being that by teaching these wealthy children, they would grow up to be influential figures and promoters of Christianity in China.

He also competed periodically in local and North China championships.

In 1943, he was interned at the Weihsien Internment Camp when the Japanese took over the mission station he was serving.  He died in February of 1945, still in the internment camp, of an inoperable brain tumor.  In his final letter to his wife (who had returned to her native Canada with their children when the Japanese had become aggressive toward China), he told her that he had suffered a nervous breakdown.

Trivial bits ‘n pieces:

Most of the runners training on West Sands in St. Andrews during the title sequence were St. Andrews golf caddies.

Chariots of Fire was named as one of “The 20 Most Overrated Movies of All Time” by Premiere.

The producers intentionally added profanity to the film to avoid a G rating because they thought people would associate a G rating with a film for children.

Abrahams also competed in the 1920 Olympics: he finished fourth in the 4×100 relay, 20th in the long jump and was eliminated in the quarter-finals of both the 100m and 200m races.

Kenneth Branagh was a gofer and an extra for the shoot. He is a Cambridge student in the “Society Day” crowds, wearing a grey knit vest with dark trim, a white shirt, and a dark tie. He’s on screen for 20 seconds, starting at about 11:00.

Stephen Fry is also an extra in the film, singing in the chorus of the Cambridge ‘H.M.S. Pinafore’ production. He is the third face to the right of Harold Abrahams, singing “He Is An Englishman”. He’s on screen for about 35 seconds, starting at around 32:00.

Awards won by Chariots of Fire:

1981 Academy Awards (Best Picture, Original Music Score, Writing Original Screenplay and Costume Design)

1981 Cannes Film Festival (Best Supporting Actor/Ian Holm, Prize of Ecumenical Jury-Special Mention/Hugh Hudson

1981 BAFTA (Best Film)

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell

This episode was recorded: 8/1/2012

Release date:  6/3/1955

20^th Century Fox

Directed by

• Billy Wilder

Produced by

• Charles K. Feldman
• Billy Wilder

Written by

• George Axelrod
• Billy Wilder

Cast

The Girl

• Marilyn Monroe

Richard Sherman

• Tom Ewell

The hosts review:

The first point brought up is that, while The Seven Year Itch has the most iconic image of Marilyn Monroe (dress blowing up over the subway grate), the movie doesn’t show the full image.  They also talk about how it was said that Monroe was “difficult” to work with during this movie, with her being late more often than not and flubbing a number of her lines.  This was also due to her depression.

Both hosts found it a little disconcerting that the main character, Richard Sherman (Ewell) had an inner dialogue that he utilized by talking, out loud, to himself.  They played on Richard’s overactive imagination in a nice way, with his dialogue and his “fantasy thoughts.”  They also liked the scene in the vegetarian restaurant in the beginning of the movie… a very bohemian/hippie restaurant, very alternative for the mid-1950s.  Tony was really amused by the waitress who tries to talk Richard into donating to the nudist society.

The Seven Year Itch was originally a stage production, and the movie is played out in very much the same way, with Richard breaking the “fourth wall” quite a few times in the film.  It was also filmed in a stage style in that there were only four or five sets and there wasn’t a lot of movement outside of these scenes.

One of the differences between the stage version and the film version is that the film had to have the risqué stage dialogue toned down, which the hosts preferred because it gave Richard a more innocent look.  It also played well in how he over-reacted to the scenes he imagined in his head, which would have been much more blatant on the stage.

Lena (from the chat room) brought up that Walter Matthau was the original actor that Billy Wilder wanted to play the role of Richard Sherman, but 20^th Century Fox did not want to risk this movie on a newcomer, so they turned to the actor who played the role on stage, Tom Ewell.  Lena thought that, while Matthau certainly could have done a good job, Ewell was the better choice.  Tony disagreed and said that he would have liked to have seen Matthau take on the role of Richard.

One of the favorite lines from the film (Lena’s pick) was when Richard said, regarding his wife, “She’s not as young as she used to be.  She’s 31 now.”

Tony and Darrell also discussed Marilyn Monroe and her contribution to this movie and her other movies.  They also talked about what she had to go through; the paparazzi, the tabloids, and the pressure she was constantly under… and how even today celebrities have a hard time dealing with the pressures that almost originated with her.

All in all, they both found it to be a fun, sweet movie.  Monroe’s character (The Girl) was a very sweet girl, not at all malicious or seductive in nature.

Bonus… at approx. 27 minutes in, Tony and Darrell talk a little bit about The Dark Knight Rises… no spoilers are involved, just general movie chit-chat.

Trivial bits ‘n pieces:

As Tony brought up earlier in the podcast, the classic shot of Marilyn Monroe’s dress blowing up around her legs as she stands over a subway grate was originally shot on Lexington Avenue at 52nd Street (Manhattan) 1:00 am, with 5,000 onlookers whistling and cheering through take after take as she repeatedly missed her lines. That original footage never made it to the screen; the noise of the crowd had made it unusable.  Billy Wilder re-staged the scene on the 20th Century-Fox lot, on a set replicating Lexington Avenue, and got a more satisfactory result. However, it took another 40 takes for Marilyn to achieve the famous scene.

A 52-foot-high cutout of Marilyn Monroe (from the blowing-dress scene) was erected in front of Loews State Theater, in New York City’s Times Square as part of the campaign for the release of this film.

Tom Ewell won the 1953 Tony Award for Actor in a Drama for “The Seven Year Itch” in the role of Richard Sherman, which he reprised in this film.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell

This episode was recorded: 7/25/2012

Release date:  6/15/1966

Monterey Media

Directed, Produced, Written by

• Bruce Brown

Cast (as themselves)

• Michael Hynson
• Robert August
• Bruce Brown (narrator)

Step into Liquid

Release date:  4/20/2004

Artisan Entertainment

Directed by

• Dana Brown

Produced by

• John-Paul Beeghly

Cast (as themselves)

• Laird Hamilton
• Dave Kalama
• Dale Webster
• Jesse Billauer

For any of you who might still be jonesing for more surfing documentaries, there are two follow-ups by the same producers: The Endless Summer II (1994) by Bruce Brown and The Endless Summer Revisited (2000), by Dana Brown, which contains unused footage from the The Endless Summer and The Endless Summer II.

The hosts review of The Endless Summer:

Darrell thought The Endless Summer was fun to watch.  It’s a travelogue type movie and easy to watch.  He liked that it showed a more innocent time; two surfers travelling the world, chasing the sun and the surf, literally having an “endless summer.”

He also liked the scene at their first stop in Africa where the surfers complained about the cost of their hotel as $30 per night, per person!  Tony added that in that scene, they also complained that the cost of gas was close to $1.00 a gallon (which, truly, was A LOT for 1966).

Tony’s first impression was that it reminded him of a lot of the school documentaries he saw as a child: single camera, lock focus, no dialogue, a single narrator.

Darrell noted that Bruce Brown read a book on how to make movies on the flight to meet his fellow surfers.  Also, to raise money for this film, he gathered his previously shot 16mm footage on surfers (called Waterlogged) and showed it around.

What kept Tony going throughout the documentary was the sense of humor from Brown.  He was occasionally snarky and dry and witty, but if you weren’t watching the film at the same time, the jokes were easily lost.  One such comment was when the surfers were in South Africa, and Brown stated that when not surfing, the guys hung out with the natives.  On the film, though, one of the men is laying on the beach between two bikini-clad South African women.

Both hosts agreed that it’s probably best to watch The Endless Summer in small doses, as opposed to sitting through the full 95 minutes all at once.

Lena’s (from the chat room) favorite line came during the filming in Africa.  Some of the locals were gathered at the beach watching the surfers and Brown said, “Being good Africans, they threw rocks.”  Tony’s favorite was when they were talking about the female surfers in Australia, Brown said (of the girls’ bikinis, when they wipe out), “They just roll up in a ball and go into a clam hole.”

Darrell thought that this was a great time capsule to look at the world in the mid-sixties.  There was no hidden message to this movie… just two guys travelling around the world trying to surf and live an endless summer.

The hosts review of Step into Liquid:

Darrell compared the two as “stepping from the stone age to the space age,” in terms of the technical sport of surfing.  This was the difference between surfing six foot waves and then sixty foot waves.  Both Darrell and Tony also really liked the advances in how they surf (using the wakes from super tankers was pretty cool to see).

Also, the cinematography was amazing (not just in comparison to The Endless Summer, but just within the movie itself.)

This wasn’t noted earlier, but Dana Brown (Step into Liquid) is the son of Bruce Brown (The Endless Summer) and dad Bruce is featured in son Dana’s film.

There was also a much broader group of surfers in Step into Liquid, covering the sport of surfing itself, instead of a singular focus on the two surfers travelling the world in The Endless Summer.

Tony talked about the scene with Jesse Billauer, where they talk about the different ways to surf.  You can be standing on the board, sitting, kneeling, even flat on your belly; it’s all surfing.  You then find out that Jessie was paralyzed in an earlier surfing accident and continues to surf with his buddies (they carry him to his board and he surfs on his belly).  The camaraderie between the surfers was really nice to see.

The section in the second movie that focused on the female surfers was worlds away from the brief mention in the first movie, as well.  A quote (or as close as I can remember) about the women: “Remember that tomboy girl that beat you in sports when you were a little kid?  Well, she’s grown up now and gorgeous and she STILL beats you in sports.”

One surfer that was shown in the movie, Dale “The Daily Wavester” Webster, was on his was to setting a record of consecutive days of surfing, at 10,407.  He did break that record on February 29, 2004.  I also found another mention of his consecutive days of surfing and found that he got at least as far as 13,000 days on April 6, 2011.

Trivial bits ‘n pieces:

In 2002, The Endless Summer was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

The previously unknown break off of Cape St. Francis in South Africa, featured in The Endless Summer, went on to become one of the world’s most famous surfing sites.

The 66-foot wave ridden by Mike Parsons in Step into Liquid at the Cortez Bank was believed to have been the largest wave ever surfed at the time the movie was released.  It has since been surpassed by a 70-foot wave ridden by Pete Cabrinha in 2004 at Peahi in Hawaii.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell

This episode was recorded: 7/17/2012

Paramount Pictures

Directed and Produced by

• Sean S. Cunningham

Written by

• Victor Miller

Cast

Betsy Palmer

• Mrs. Pamela Voorhees

Adrienne King

• Alice Hardy

Your hosts review:

Darrell hadn’t watched the movie in decades… he could definitely see where it would have broken the bonds for horror movies (in its day), but after this length of time, it didn’t really work for him.  It’s easy to see now why the movie is considered a cliché.  Tony and Darrell discussed how this movie and, before it, Halloween, brought the slasher film into mainstream.

Tony thought that, in looking back, Friday the 13^th did some different things with the music, the camera work, the antagonist (in the shadows most of the time, the motivation of the killer).  He also found it interesting that Jason doesn’t really appear in this first movie (with the exception of a dream sequence), and he’s not even the killer (SPOILER!!) until the second movie.  They also discussed that the origin of the movie doesn’t even take place with this movie; it’s something that happened over 20 years earlier.

Lena’s tip (from the chat room):  A message for moms to their daughters… if you run around in your underwear at camp, you die.  If you remain fully clothed, you live.

They bring up the comparisons of how this would work… or not work, as the case would be… if this was happening in the present time.  If the camp counselors found a crazy old man hiding in their pantry, they would have simply beaten the guy up.  Tony and Darrell also admired the camp director and his super cool porn-stache!

Darrell commented about the acting, “If it was any more wooden, it would be in a saw mill.”  But both hosts had praise for Kevin Bacon for having a higher level of acting chops.

They also talked about the manner of killings in this first movie, compared with how much more creative they get in later films.  Tony waxed poetic about a scene involving a harpoon gun and a crotch.  Kevin Bacon’s death in this movie was the only one that still can make viewers squirm a bit.

Watching this film was interesting and fun in that you can see how far horror movies have come in the last 30+ years.  Tony remembered hearing a rumor, when he was a wee lad, that there was going to be 13 Friday the 13^th movies.  To date, there have been 12:

1980 – Friday the 13^th
1981 – Friday the 13^th Part 2
1982 – Friday the 13^th Part III
1984 – Friday the 13^th: The Final Chapter
1985 – Friday the 13^th: A New Beginning
1986 – Friday the 13^th Part VI: Jason Lives
1988 – Friday the 13^th Part VII: The New Blood
1989 – Friday the 13^th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
1993 – Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
2002 – Jason X
2003 – Freddy vs. Jason
2009 – Friday the 13^th

Tony also remembered a TV show based on Friday the 13^th (1987), which focused on two cousins’ attempts to recover cursed antiques that were sold from a shop they inherited from their uncle.

Scott (from the chat room) commented that for as simple as it was, it was so much better than all the other sequels.  Tony thought that the second movie was also pretty well done, but that one only.

Trivia bits ‘n pieces:

Betsy Palmer said that if it were not for the fact that she was in desperate need of a new car, she would never have taken the part of Pamela Voorhees. It’s said that after reading the script, she called the film “a piece of shit”.

The movie was filmed at Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco in New Jersey. The camp is still in operation, and it has a wall of Friday the 13^th movie paraphernalia to honor that it was set there.

Composer Harry Manfredini has said that the infamous “Chi, chi, chi; ha, ha, ha” in the film’s score is actually “Ki, ki, ki; ma, ma, ma”.  It’s meant to be Jason’s voice saying “Kill, kill, kill; mom, mom, mom” in Mrs. Voorhees’s mind.  The effect was created by speaking the syllables “ki” and “ma” into a microphone running through a delay effect.

The film made $39,754,601 and had a budget of $550,000.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell

This episode was recorded: 7/3/2012

Release date:  9/21/1975

Warner Bros.

Directed by

• Sidney Lumet

Produced by

• Martin Bregman
• Martin Elfand

Screenplay by

• Frank Pierson

Based on “The Boys in the Bank” (Life magazine article)

• P. F. Kluge
• Thomas Moore

Cast

Sonny Wortzik

• Al Pacino

Sal Naturile

• John Cazale

Sgt. Eugene Moretti

• Charles Durning

Leon Shermer

• Chris Sarandon

Before the hosts get into the movie review, they talk about a few documentaries they’ve recently seen.  Tony saw “The Other F-Word,” in which a number of former punk rockers, who are now fathers, are interviewed.  Jill watched one on PBS that covered the evolution of Pearl Jam, called “Pearl Jam Twenty.”  She also saw “The Woodmans,” about a family of artists and the aftermath after their photographer daughter killed herself… each one highly recommended.

The hosts review:

Darrell hadn’t seen the movie in a long time and found it refreshing to see again.  He also thought that Al Pacino completely dominated this film.  Thirty-seven years later, this film is still very watchable and very enjoyable.  Jill thought that Pacino brought the character of Sonny to an almost heroic stature, and she liked the conflict between the general populace and the “establishment.”  Tony thought the acting was fantastic; Pacino, Cazale, Sarandon, the bank staff, everything worked, and everyone was good.

They liked the opening scene, how it showed the juxtaposition of the grimy, rundown neighborhoods of New York and the more suburban areas.  Darrell mentioned that this is a Sidney Lumet theme, to show these stark differences.

Even though Sonny is robbing a bank, the character is played out in a way that the audience felt bad for Sonny, how his life is falling apart around him, and how all Sonny wanted to do was to take care of the people he loved and he wasn’t able to.

Jill liked “The Mouth” character, the head teller, who was the epitome of a stereotypical head-strong, opinionated New York woman.  Tony liked how she remained strong throughout the bank robbery and hostage situation, always making sure that “her girls” were taken care of and safe.  They also all agreed that the theme of this movie could play out today and be every bit as relevant.

Tony brought up one part of the film that he wasn’t sure if he liked or not… the scenes that kept cutting back to the airport and preparing the plane for Sonny and Sal’s escape.  Jill said it was to build up the hope that they might actually pull of their heist and escape, but Tony could not put his finger on what didn’t work for him.

The hosts talked about Al Pacino for a few minutes, how he controls his emotions within his characters, how his subtle movements show more than dialogue can.

Darrell brought up an interesting point in the contrast between Sonny and Sal as the day went on.  Sonny became more and more disheveled, the heat of the day gets to him, but Sal never seemed affected, in the physical sense.  He didn’t even appear to break into a sweat, even though every other person in the bank was covered in sweat.

Darrell also talked a little bit about Sidney Lumet’s directorial style, the fact that he started his career as a stage actor, thus giving him an insight into how actors tick.

Awards and Nominations:

Dog Day Afternoon won an Academy Award for Writing-Original Screenplay.  It was also nominated for five other Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role/Pacino, Best Actor in a Supporting Role/Sarandon, and Best Film Editing) and seven Golden Globes (Best Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Actor/Pacino, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor/Cazale and Sarandon, and Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture/Sarandon).

The film is #70 on AFI’s list of 100 Years… 100 Thrills.

Al Pacino’s quote of “Attica! Attica!” is #86 on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movie Quotes.

In 2009, Dog Day Afternoon was named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically” significant.

Trivial bits ‘n pieces:

John Wojtowicz, the real bank robber that the film was based on, watched The Godfather (Al Pacino and John Cazale were both in The Godfather) to get ideas on robbing the bank.

The phone call between Sonny and Leon was improvised.  Other noted improvised lines in the film were Sonny’s cry of “Attica! Attica!” and Sal’s response to what country he wanted to fly when they made their escape (Wyoming).

15 year-old Harvey Fierstein makes an uncredited appearance as one of the gay demonstrators.

The real life robbery and aftermath because a part of police training on how to deal with hostage and out of control crowd situations.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Jill

This episode was recorded: 6/27/2012

Universal Pictures

Directed by

• Francois Truffaut

Produced by

• Lewis M. Allen

Screenplay by

• Jean-Louis Ricard
• Francois Truffaut

Story by (novel)

• Ray Bradbury

Cast

Oskar Werner

• Guy Montag

Julie Christie

• Clarisse/Linda Montag

Cyril Cusack

• The Captain

Darrell hadn’t seen the movie in a long time and thought it wasn’t bad; it had problems but it was a decent interpretation of the novel Fahrenheit 451.  Jill thought it had some good elements and was surprised at how prophetic the film was, especially in its use of language.  The hosts also commented on how a lot of what was written in 1953, especially the anti-socialism aspect, has come true today.

Darrell brought up the feud between Truffaut and Werner and how that affected the portrayal of Montag.  Tony liked the movie (both now and years ago).  He also likened Montag’s character to the concept of The Seven Year Itch in the way he reacts to his wife vs. Clarisse.  He thought some of the performances were robotic, on purpose, but it didn’t necessarily work.  The hosts all agreed that Julie Christie’s performance as Linda and Clarisse were very good.

Jill thought that the soundtrack acted almost as another character in the film and that the music drew you in.  The opening montage with only the spoken word introductions was also a brilliant move.  They also loved the scene in which Montag picks up a newspaper and the viewer sees that the newspaper is drawn as a cartoon and has no words at all.

The theme of narcissism, how the characters were almost programmed to be that way was an interesting contrast to The Captain’s earlier speech of how the only way to make everyone happy in society was to make everybody equal.

Jill liked the scene in which the older woman burned herself with her books, both as the woman’s stance as an individual and how the books seemed to come alive as they burned.  The group of people at the end of the film, who all memorized and subsequently “became” their book, brought up the very difficult question of, “Which book would you pick, which book would you BE?”  Tony would be The Stone and the Flute by Hans Bemmann.  Jill toyed with the thought of picking/being The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.  Darrell brought up an interesting point regarding the people who have chosen to memorize and become a book to preserve that particular work.  There are certainly many more books than there are people to memorize them (as far as the film goes) so there will still be many more books lost than kept alive.

The hosts discussed censorship today and what they remembered when they were younger.  None of them were alive when there really did burn books but they all remember the PRMC and music censorship.  Today there is internet censorship, but what exactly gets censored is interesting, which brought up the age-old question of who decides what should and should not be censored and how.

Movie trivia bits n’ pieces:

Among the books burned by the firemen is the film journal Cahiers du Cinema, which was written by director Francois Truffaut.  Also among the books burned are The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, both written by Ray Bradbury.

According to producer Lewis M. Allen, it was his idea to have Julie Christie play both main female roles, as Truffaut thought that the characters should not be good vs. evil but should instead be two sides of the same coin.  Allen said that Terence Stamp, who was originally slated to play Montag, then withdrew from the movie because Stamp felt that with two parts, Christie would overshadow him.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Jill

This episode was recorded: 6/13/2012

Lionsgate

Directed by

• Lee Daniels

Produced by

• Lee Daniels
• Gary Magness
• Sarah Siegel-Magness
• Oprah Winfrey
• Tom Heller
• Tyler Perry

Screenplay by

• Geoffrey S. Fletcher

Based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire

Cast

Gabourey Sidibe

• Precious

Mo’Nique

• Mary

Paula Patton

• Ms. Rain

In honor of the passing of Ray Bradbury (and keeping with the Recently Dead Guy Podcast convention), our next movie review will be Fahrenheit 451.

Also, before the hosts dig into the movie, all of you lucky home-listeners get a nice little history less about the naming of movies and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America).  There may or may not be a test at the end of the movie review.

Initial comments by the hosts:

Darrell thought it was a movie worth watching, but not worth watching twice.  Lena really liked it and was pleasantly surprised by how good Mo’Nique was, and she probably would watch it again, although there were definitely parts that were tough to get through.  Tony thought it was a great movie but it was hard to watch because of the subject matter.  The way this very tense and uncomfortable subject was written and portrayed was very visceral and real.  Darrell classified it as one emotional punch right after the other.

Gabourey Sidibe, in her first major role, and Mo’Nique, who was known solely as a stand-up comedienne and from her roles in various comedies, both turned in fantastic performances as Precious and her mother, Mary.  Darrell was amazed at how raw and brutal Mo’Nique portrayed Mary.  All of the hosts liked Lenny Kravitz’s role as Nurse John and Mariah Carey’s role as Ms. Weiss.  They liked how both characters were humble and understated.

The language used in the movie was rough and raw, but completely necessary for both the area that the characters lived in and the time frame of the movie (1987).  Lena asked the hosts what they thought of Precious’ fantasy/dream sequences.  Darrell thought some of them were a little weird but understood what they were trying to accomplish.  The most telling one, they all agreed, was the fantasy where Precious was looking at herself in her bedroom mirror but the reflection that comes back to her is of a thin, white, rich girl.

The conversation turned to what Tony rightly called the elephant in the room… not just the fact that it was a “rapey” movie, but fact that Precious was repeatedly raped by her father (it was also mentioned that her grandfather raped her, as well) and impregnated twice by her father.  Mary (Mo’Nique) had a monologue at the end of the movie in which she explained what her life was and what she was upset about, which was mind-blowing, to say the very least.  That scene left the viewer running through every emotion during her 15-20 monologue, even to the point of almost feeling sorry for her, or possibly, having a little bit of empathy for her.  Even though Mary is seen as a purely evil character (and she pretty much is), you begin to see traces of humanity and pain.  The difference, though, is that Precious had no say in the unspeakable things that happened to her, but Mary did, and regardless of the fact that Mary was also damaged by it, she still could have stopped what happened to her daughter.

The way that Precious began her journey into self-discovery was handled very well, it was a slow progression and very real.  There was no light-bulb or Ah-ha moment, there were small steps taken over time as Precious began to realize that she was more than she had always been told she was.

Darrell wrapped up the review by stating that if you want to see a movie that’s raw, plays with your emotions, punches you in the face and then makes you feel good about it afterwards, this is the movie to see.

Trivial bits and pieces:

Precious was shot in five weeks.

During the scene in which Precious slaps a fellow student for calling her fat, Sidibe was instructed to slap the other actress as hard as she could, and the other actresses were not told about the slap beforehand, so their reactions were all unrehearsed and real.

The Awards for Precious (this is an abridged listing):

Mo’Nique

• Academy Award
• Critics Choice Award
• Golden Globe Award
• Independent Spirit Award
• NAACP Image Award
• Screen Actors Guild Award
• Sundance Film Festival – Special Jury Prize

Gabourey Sidibe

• Independent Spirit Award
• NAACP Image Award
• National Board of Review Award

Geoffrey Fletcher

• Academy Award
• Independent Spirit Award
• NAACP Image Award

Lee Daniels

• Independent Spirit Award
• NAACP Image Award

Precious

• American Film Institute Award (10 Best Movies of 2009)
• Independent Spirit Award
• NAACP Image Award

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Lena

This episode was recorded: 6/6/2012

Walt Disney Pictures

Directed by

• Joss Whedon

Produced by

• Kevin Feige

Screenplay by

• Joss Whedon

Story by

• Zak Penn
• Joss Whedon

Based on “The Avengers”

• Stan Lee
• Jack Kirby

Cast

Robert Downey, Jr.

• Tony Stark/Iron Man

Chris Evans

• Steve Rogers/Captain America

Mark Ruffalo

• Bruce Banner/The Hulk

Chris Hemsworth

• Thor

Scarlett Johansson

• Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow

Jeremy Renner

• Clint Barton/Hawkeye

Tom Hiddleston

• Loki

Samuel L. Jackson

• Nick Fury

This is also the first BSP to be broadcast through Google Hangout and You Tube.

David kicks the discussion off by asking if The Avengers lived up to the hype.  All around, the answer was YES.

Now he turns to the component movies and asks for a quick Yay/Nay on each:

Iron Man I & II – Yay all around, especially Iron Man I.

The Incredible Hulk – David and Sam gave it a Yay, Tony gave it a Yay for the start of the movie and Darrell gave it a Nay.

Thor – David and Sam gave it a Nay, Tony and Darrell gave it a Yay.

Captain America – All-around Yay for this one.

Tony questioned the hosts as to which of the previous movies was the most necessary to watch (if any), leading up to The Avengers?

Dissention creeps in as David, Sam and Darrell all chose Captain American because Captain America was so underpowered, compared to the rest of the team, and therefore needed to be developed into the heart of the team, so his character needed more of a build-up.  Tony chose Thor as it established the relationship between Thor and Loki and introduced Loki’s background.

Darrell initially brought up why Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) were part of the Avengers team, but understood that each of them had specific skills that only they could bring to the table.  David could not disagree more, as far as Black Widow was concerned.  David would only concede that the scene where Black Widow “plays” Loki is her only worthwhile scene.  He also added that the movie did a disservice to women, Johansson and Cobie Smulders (Agent Maria Hill) being the examples.  Tony countered that Hill was an establishing character, as Nick Fury’s (Samuel L. Jackson) second-in-command in future movies.

Sam felt that the reason this movie was so successful is that when you usually have a large ensemble of important characters, inevitably certain characters will be lessened or left out.  In The Avengers, everyone had something significant or pivotal to do with the story.

Going back to Captain America, David and Sam brought up the fact that he came from a different time and he was a different kind of superhero, which is why David thought that Captain America should be the movie to be watched before The Avengers, to give that backstory to understand where he’s coming from.  The other superheroes don’t need that kind of introduction/background.

Discussion turned to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and how Stark was the only person who treated Bruce Banner/Hulk the way he wished to be treated… just as a man, not as someone to be feared.  Stark was more interested in Banner’s scientific mind than in The Hulk’s brute strength.

Tony and David felt as if there was something missing with The Hulk between the first and second half of the movie.  There was a sense that Stark poked and prodded at Banner in an attempt to find out what triggers his control of The Hulk.  It’s as if there was a missing scene in which Stark gave Banner the tools to control himself… and they all hope that perhaps something will show up in the director’s cut.

David’s next topic of discussion:  Scarlett Johansson is not as hot as Cobie Smulders.

Tony disagrees with how they look now, adding that Smulders was more attractive a few years ago.  She’s lost weight and curves in the past few years.  The same was also said about Johansson.  Sam agrees with Tony on all counts.  They also thought that Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) was sexy, and decided that they would like to see an Avengers B-Team movie with Paltrow, Natalie Portman (Thor) and Jennifer Connelly (Hulk).

All of the hosts were highly impressed with the action sequences in the movie and how each superhero’s powers were put into play.  They liked how Captain America took the lead of the group and Hawkeye was used as a sniper and a strategist.  They also liked the inside jokes that were funny even if you didn’t know the origin of the joke, as some of them came from the original comic stories.

Sam’s favorite line from the movie was poorly placed, from a cinematic point of view.  After Hulk beat down Loki, it was almost impossible to hear him say “Puny god.”

There were a few things from the movie that didn’t pan out at the time, which the hosts appreciated because they could be utilized in future movies: Thor releasing his hammer and The Hulk not being able to pick it up, Thor’s lightning and the Iron Man suit not being used too much in the movie.  These things, the hosts agreed, can be used against Thanos in the next movie.  And, of course, they all LOVED that Thanos was introduced in the final (not counting the schwarma) scene.

Trivial bits ‘n pieces:

Lou Ferrigno voice The Hulk in this film, and he has played The Hulk in almost every live-action version since 1978 (The Incredible Hulk series and three TV-movies, he voiced Hulk in the big-screen version of The Incredible Hulk and had a cameo in Hulk as a security guard).

The Science and Entertainment Exchange provided a science consultation for the film.

The film was converted to 3-D during post-production for the theatrical release.

Although the battle cry of “Avengers Assemble” was never spoken during the film, Chris Evans would use text that to the rest of the cast when they would hang out off of the set.

BONUS: After the music, keep listening for a special Booster Seat Producers review of The Avengers!

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• David
• Sam

This episode was recorded: 5/17/2012

Roadside Attractions

Directed by

• Tarsem Singh

Produced by

• Tarsem Singh
• Ajit Singh
• Tommy Turtle

Written by

• Tarsem Singh
• Dan Gilroy
• Nico Soultanakis

Cast

Lee Pace

• Roy Walker/Red Bandit

Catinca Untaru

• Alexandria/Red Bandit’s daughter

Before discussion of the movie even begins, there is a necessary and sexy discussion regarding David’s beard, it’s transformation and the future of his facial hair.

Initial comments by the hosts:

Darrell thought it was a very strange movie (in a good way!) that sucked you in, in the way that it kept falling into the fantasy and Alexandria’s (Catinca Untaru) imagination of what Walker’s (Lee Pace) story meant to her (how she translated it in her young mind).  He also thought that between the sounds and the visual beauty of the film, you kept falling down this rabbit-hole, not knowing where it was going to end.  David adored the movie and loved that this film fully explored the visual medium.  He was very impressed with the fact that there were no special effects used in the movie.  He was less interested in the story in the hospital, but thought it was still fantastic.

The hosts all agreed that the little girl stole every scene she was in.  Because most of Untaru’s acting consisted of reacting to what was given to her and not having very much of a scripted dialogue, she gave a very natural performance.  Tony said that when he finished the movie, he was still processing it, and it wasn’t until later that he could fully embrace how good the movie was.  The hosts all appreciated how the film was less about the story itself and more about the relationship between Walker and Alexandria.

One thing that resonated with Darrell was the way that Walker used and manipulated Alexandria to procure drugs for him (morphine), as an addict does.  Tony and David argued that neither of them felt that Walker was an addict, but was only trying to kill himself.

The manner in which Alexandria pulled the characters (the hospital workers in dual roles) into Walker’s story was reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz and very well done.  The hosts also liked how Walker used his relationship with his Evelyn and Sinclair/Odious to shape his story for the little girl.

Tony and Darrell brought up how the sounds of the outside world would bleed into the story and impact it, as sometimes happens in dreams.  They also liked how Walker had to keep adapting the story to keep Alexandria interested, as one would have to do for a child.  Another fantastic piece was how Alexandria believed the story was real throughout most of the film, but when Walker began to kill off the characters at the end, she insisted that Walker was making that part of the story up.

The hosts all enthusiastically recommend this film

Trivial bits and pieces:

This movie was inspired by the Bulgarian movie, Yo ho ho.

The film was shot on 26 locations over 18 countries.

Catinca Untaru initially believed that Lee Pace was really a paraplegic, and Tarsem Singh found that this brought an added level of believability to her dialogue, so he decided to keep almost the entire cast and crew under the same impression.  It was difficult to keep up the lie, as a makeup artist almost passed out from shock after walking into a room to find Pace standing up.

The hospital scenes with Untaru were shot in chronological order, as the child’s English improved over time; she grew taller and lost her two front baby teeth before filming started.

Alexandria’s misinterpretation of the letter E as the number 3 in the “morphine” note written by Walker was an actual mistake by Untaro.  Singh realized he could adapt that into a clever twist in the story.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• David

This episode was recorded: 5/9/2012

Release date:  3/2/1984

Embassy Pictures

Directed by

• Rob Reiner

Produced by

• Karen Murphy

Written by

• Christopher Guest
• Michael McKean
• Harry Shearer
• Rob Reiner

Cast

Rob Reiner

• Marty DiBergi

Michael McKean

• David St. Hubbins

Christopher Guest

• Nigel Tufnel

Harry Shearer

• Derek Smalls

1:03  2012 RPG Podcast Listeners’ Survey – TAKE THE SURVEY!

http://rpgpolls.com/fill/survey/2012-RPG-Podcast-Listener-Survey/The-Podge-Cast

3:28  Prometheus – Happy Birthday, David.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFyU10B5Jt0

4:05  David discusses watching Michael Fassbender urinate.

5:10  Host reviews.

8:00  This is the one time the pod didn’t open, why didn’t they show all the other times?

8:25  David (unless you’re Tony, then he’s Adam) has hairballs.

8:50  David’s the only one at the table who could shave and pull off a Wolverine.

9:25  David admitted that he fast-forwarded every time a song started… you what??

9:35  Big Bottom… Sex Farm.

9:40  I’m gonna plow your beanfield!

9:48  My silo is rising!

10:10  The hosts loved the cameos.

10:42  David: Who’s Angelica Houston?  Jill: (sighing) Oh my God.

11:40  What Jill liked…

12:10  What Tony liked…

12:25  Rob Reiner’s awkward hand movements.

12:45  Rob Reiner in spandex?  There isn’t a pod big enough!

13:12  Some else’s vomit.  You can’t dust for vomit.

14:15  The bass player with the pipe, he’s the intellectual one.

14:45  Jill dared to say it… Nic Cage is not aging well!

15:00  David will take any Nic Cage he can get.

15:10  How did Lenny Kosnowski become David St. Hubbins?

15:52  Stonehenge sh*% was hysterical!

16:10  We have armadillos in our pants!

17:23  Trivia time with Jill.

18:00  Is Spinal Tap a real band?

18:40  Darrell discusses Spinal Tap’s DVD releases and copywriting issues.

19:20  Help, we are going into the pop business!

20:00  Well, we’re huge in Japan.

20:34  The hosts get sentimental with lyrics.

20:35  My baby fits me like a flesh torpedo, I love to sink her with my pink torpedo.

20:45  Talk about mud flaps, my baby’s got ‘em!

21:00  The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand.  Or so I have read.

21:08  Drives me out of my mind.  How can I leave this… behind?

21:27  Lick my love pump.

21:35  It’s a mix between Mozart and Bach.

22:00  Oh, she’s dead.  What?  No.  Yeah.  No.  No, she’s not dead.  You’re right.

22:45  Geoff: Part of the brilliance of the movie was the gradual deterioration of the band’s success as represented by dwindling Americana.

23:09  And the puppets have a bigger dressing room.

23:55  Odd sexual references to Deuce and Luke.

24:45  Mr. Bentley from The Jeffersons.

25:30  Their other movies; A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, For Your Consideration, Waiting for Guffman.

25:55  They named the drummers after the different “Curly” characters from The Three Stooges.

26:25  A nice wrap-up to the Rock Series.

26:35  David was disappointed by the lack of penis in the movie.

26:50  Well, there WAS the cucumber!

27:23  Instead of a movie where a nobody becomes a rock star (Rock Star), this was a movie about how a rock star can become a nobody.

28:00  Back to Rock Star, lamenting the fact that Jennifer Aniston didn’t get naked.

28:36  David wants Tony to record a parody video, playing the part of all three characters.

28:45  Challenge accepted (yet… I’ve seen no such video).

29:00  Spinal Tap-only karaoke at David’s Cinco de Mayo party.

29:44  Broken mailboxes and more vomit.

30:10  David’s beloved track pants.

30:30  Darrell wraps this party up by stating that This Is Spinal Tap is rated by The Library of Congress as one of the Top 100 Movies of all Time.

31:10  David’s turned on by lists.

31:20  Melina calls David to get the story straight.

32:30  Relationship pro-tip from David.

33:18  Is that Sauron’s University?  U of I?

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Jill
• David

This episode was recorded: 5/9/2012

Release date:  9/7/2001

Warner Bros.

Directed by

• Stephen Herek

Produced by

• Robert Lawrence
• Toby Jaffe
• George Clooney (executive)
• Mike Ockrent (executive)
• Steven Reuther (executive)

Written by

• John Stockwell

Cast

Mark Wahlberg

• Chris “Izzy” Cole

Jennifer Aniston

• Emily Poule

Dominic West

• Kirk Cuddy

Initial comments by the hosts:

Darrell points out that this movie was inspired by what happened with Judas Priest when they replaced lead singer Rob Halford with Tim “Ripper” Owens (who had been in a Judas Priest and Pink Floyd tribute band.)

The consensus from all three hosts was that the movie was… okay… filtered, lackluster, problematic in how the story was told.  The basis of the story was less about realizing your dream than it was in living someone else’s fantasy.

David wasn’t thrilled with Jennifer Aniston’s performance, but Darrell and Tony both thought she wasn’t all that bad.  Their complaint was in how the character was written.  Emily (Aniston) seemed completely oblivious to the “rock star” life and her reactions to hers and Izzy’s life were very unrealistic.  The movie seemed to be pandering to much less of a rock ‘n roll audience than a mainstream audience.

Tony listened to the commentary track after watching the movie and stated that some of the most interesting parts of the movie seemed to have been cut out, including one scene in which Emily’s character had taken drugs with some of the other rock wives and girlfriends.  The movie appeared to be designed to make Izzy’s character sympathetic so that the audience would approve of Izzy and Emily getting back together at the end.

Their biggest complaint was not in the acting or the actors, but in the editing, writing, deleted scenes.  Tony would have liked to have seen Izzy’s character be a bit darker, which would have fit more into the story.  They all thought Aniston was miscast in this role.  She was still doing Friends at the time and they thought that having Aniston portray any type of unpleasant character might not have gone over well with fans of Friends.

One of the other issues the hosts brought up was that in Izzy’s life, there was no conflict; he liked his day job, he loved his music and his family and friends were supportive of what he did.  Even when Emily broke up with him, there was no conflict!  The only time Izzy faced any kind of opposition was when he brought some of his own music to Steel Dragon and they dismissed him.  This is what ultimately caused Izzy to leave Steel Dragon (in the same way he joined Steel Dragon).

Many of the musicians in the movie are actual musicians:

Mark Wahlberg – Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch

Jason Bonham (Steel Dragon drummer) –Bonham, and he is the son of John Bonham (Led Zeppelin)

Jeff Pilson (Steel Dragon bassist) – Dokken

Zakk Wylde (Steel Dragon guitarist) – Black Label Society, and he played with Ozzy Osborne

Blas Elias (Blood Pollution drummer) – Slaughter

Brian Vander Ark (Blood Pollution bassist) – The Verve Pipe

Nick Catanese (Blood Pollution guitarist) – Black Label Society

Stephan Jenkins (Black Babylon singer) – Third Eye Blind

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• David

This episode was recorded: 4/25/2012

Release date:  11/9/1998

Miramax Films

Directed by

• Todd Haynes

Produced by

• Christine Vachon
• Michael Stipe
• Bob Weinstein
• Harvey Weinstein

Written by

• Todd Haynes
• James K. Lyons

Cast

Ewan McGregor

• Curt Wild

Jonathan Rhys Meyers

• Brian Slade

Christian Bale

• Arthur Stuart

Toni Collette

• Mandy Slade

Eddie Izzard

• Jerry Devine

Initial comments by the hosts:

Darrell isn’t a big fan of “flash-back” story telling but he liked this movie and thought it offered a nice little history of glam rock.  Jill loved it, thought it had a lot of layers but didn’t see it as a historical piece.  She looked at it not to look back at history but to look forward to where we are now.  David thought he would hate it, but he really enjoyed it because it wasn’t about the music itself, it was about the human interaction.  Tony liked all the pieces of the movie but wasn’t blown away by it as a whole.  He thought that acting, the music and the visuals were great.  Jill, being a big David Bowie fan, said she constantly finds new references every time she goes back to watch this movie again.

The hosts get into an interesting discussion regarding whether culture today embraces the different musicians/styles/visuals the way that Britain did in the early 1970s, and specifically whether America did versus the way Britain adapted to that style.  They also agreed that the movie is more about Arthur’s (Christian Bale) character than either of the musicians.

Jill liked how the music was used to push the narrative along with abstract music video pieces, performance pieces and soundtrack pieces.  It was also impressive that both Ewan McGregor and Jonathan Rhys Meyers both sang for this movie.

Tony brought up that he found the story line very similar to Eddie & The Cruisers in that the lead character faked his death and a reporter tries to figure out what really happened, but the similarity pretty much ends there.  The story itself is more about the reporter trying to figure out who he is, his experiences, and how he related to that movement.

David appreciated that this movie tackled relationships not in a childish way, which he tends to see in music-themed movies, but in a more realistic way that shows relationships as “complicated, messy, and broken.”

It was agreed that all of the acting was outstanding, with extra kudos to Eddie Izzard for stealing every scene he was in.

David brought up the question of whether music played an integral part in your development as a person.  Jill emphatically said “yes” and followed it up by saying that this movie is an indictment of the United States in that the cultural references die away in this country, more so than others.  David stated that, which he has specific memories tied to some music, he doesn’t have any emotional connections to music.  Jill found that this movie resonated with her in that you can be an “alien” and find a world of other aliens/alienated people, through music.  David would have been perfectly fine if this movie had removed the soundtrack because the human narrative spoke more to him than the music did.

The parallel of podcasting is brought up, and both Tony and David talk about how podcasting (though not necessarily in the genre of movie reviews) is an essential part of their lives at this point.  The friendships that have been gained over the years through this shared forum are often closer and/or stronger than friendships gained through childhood.

It was brought up that there were a lot of critical complaints about this movie that there was no real completion to the story lines.  The hosts disagreed with those complaints; arguing that there were, in fact, completed story lines (What happened to Brian Slade?) and also arguing that there didn’t need to be a completion regarding Arthur Stuart’s character.  You don’t know what will happen next with him, you just know that he will move on, move forward, and he’ll be fine.

Jill asked about the similarities between this movie and last week’s movie, Almost Famous.  Tony correlated Russell Hammond and Stillwater to Curt Wild.  One is about being the musician that they want to be and the other is about striving to be an iconic figure/performer that the fans will adore.  Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee, Almost Famous) is the one who wants to be an icon, while Hammond just wants to play his music.

A few trivia bits and pieces:

Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ewan McGregor sang their own songs, but a few of Rhys Meyers’ songs were overdubbed by Thom Yorke (Radiohead).

A great deal of the dialogue stems from the writings of Oscar Wilde.

The name of Brian Slade’s persona, “Maxwell Demon,” and his band, “The Venus In Furs”, are references to two of glam rock’s biggest artists: Maxwell Demon was the name of a band in which Brian Eno performed in England in the 1960s, and “Venus In Furs” is a Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground song.  Both artists are on this film’s soundtrack.

Curt Wild’s character is largely inspired by David Bowie’s relationships with Iggy Pop and Lou Reed.  Iggy Pop hailed from Michigan and, for a time, had long blond locks, while Reed was forced to undergo shock therapy for bisexuality as a teen and was also rumored to have had an affair with Bowie before their later falling out.

When Brian first sees Mandy, he asks “Do you jive?” This is what David Bowie reportedly said when he first saw his future first wife, Angela Bowie.

During the scene where we’re first introduced to Curt Wild’s character, during the Festival scene, Ewan McGregor was only supposed to moon the audience.  He had been so inspired by Iggy Pop that he improvised and dropped his pants to his ankles and began to jump around the stage.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Jill
• David

This episode was recorded: 4/11/2012

Release date:                           9/15/2000

DreamWorks and Columbia Pictures

Directed and Written by         Cameron Crowe

Produced by                            Cameron Crowe

                  Ian Bryce                   

Cast

Billy Crudup                           Russell Hammond

Patrick Fugit                           William Miller

Frances McDormand              Elaine Miller

Kate Hudson                           Penny Lane

Jason Lee                                Jeff Bebe

Initial comments by the hosts:

Before discussion of the movie began, the hosts talked about how difficult it was to find Almost Famous in streaming form.  It’s available for rental, and even that is limited, and the movie is also broken up into 12 parts on You Tube.

This is a semi-autobiographical movie of how Cameron Crowe got his start and you really get the sense that this movie feels a biopic, even though it’s a fictional story.  Darrell points out that there are lots of little inside jokes in the movie (some of these will be listed at the end of the notes).  Darrell thought it was funny that, only in the 1970’s, could a 14 year-old boy get a job with Rolling Stone Magazine, go on tour with a band and his mother does NOT completely freak out over this.

Lena (from the chat room – watcher of the You Tube version) noted that it was nice to be reminded that Kate Hudson is actually talented.

Tony thought Frances McDormand was fantastic; her character was a force in this movie.  He also was impressed with the acting talent throughout the movie, not only of the main stars but also of the background/secondary characters, such as Fairuza Balk and Anna Paquin (The Band Aids), Zooey Deschanel, Jimmy Fallon, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, to name just a few.  Every character had a distinct voice and Crowe did a very good job at capturing and realizing these different people.

Billy Crudup did a very good job at portraying Russell Hammond, the lead guitarist of Stillwater, who struggles through his ascent from musician in an up and coming band to a Rock God.

Two of the favorite “quirks” of controlling single mom Elaine Miller (McDormand) was her referring to Simon and Garfunkel as the devil’s music and her making her kids celebrate Christmas in September, “when it’s not commercial.”

Jason Lee was good at portraying Jeff Bebe as the leader of Stillwater, both insecure and someone who knows what to look for, what can (and eventually does) cause a rift in the band.

Patrick Fugit, as William (Billy) Miller, was able to capture the innocence of a teenager in the 70s, the excitement of a fan travelling with a band and the eye-opening breaking through from adolescence to adulthood as he begins to see what life is really like outside of the world his mother created for him.

The critical scene, near the end of the movie, shows not only the band members crumbling under the threat of their plane crashing, but also Billy Miller’s transformation from boy to man when he confronts the band about how they treat their fans… specifically their biggest fan, Penny Lane (Kate Hudson).

Trivia notes for this movie (this is only a small selection):

This film was Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical account of life as a young Rolling Stone reporter. The actual group that Crowe first toured with was The Allman Brothers Band (Gregg Allman kept asking him if he was a narc).  The near-fatal plane crash happened while traveling with The Who, and the character of Russell Hammond is based on Glenn Frey (Eagles).

The roles of Russell Hammond and Penny Lane were originally offered to Brad Pitt and Sarah Polley.  Polley dropped out to work on her own project, and Pitt worked with Crowe for months before finally admitting, according to Crowe, “I just don’t get it enough to do it.”  Kate Hudson, who took over the role of Penny Lane, had been originally cast as William’s sister.

Crowe wrote the liner notes (at age 18) to the “Frampton Comes Alive!”, and Peter Frampton returned the favor by acting as a music consultant for the film.

Frampton taught Billy Crudup how to play the guitar for the concert scenes.

Stillwater’s songs were written by Frampton, Crowe and Nancy Wilson (Crowe’s wife and member of the band Heart).  This was mentioned early in the credits, although the music acknowledgments credit Russell Hammond and Stillwater as if they were real authors/performers.

Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) provided the guitar track for Stillwater’s songs.

Not only did Patrick Fugit’s voice break during filming, but he also grew three inches, forcing Billy Crudup to wear platform shoes.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell

This episode was recorded: 4/4/2012

Note: Six years ago today, we released the first episode of Fanboy Smackdown… which became Back Seat Producers.  Thanks for 6 great years.  Let’s ROCK!

Release date:  9/14/1979

The Who Films

Directed by

• Franc Roddam

Written by

• Dave Humphries
• Franc Roddam
• Martin Stellman
• Pete Townshend

Produced by

• Roy Baird
• Bill Curbishley

Cast

Phil Daniels

• Jimmy Cooper

Leslie Ash

• Steph

This recording starts with a discussion about the finale of The Walking Dead.  It contains spoilers so… fair warning… if you haven’t seen the finale yet and don’t want to know what happened or if you don’t watch The Walking Dead and want to skip forward, the section runs from the beginning to 9:55.

Initial comments by the hosts:

David likes The Who (or other “old British bands – The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Rush” but I’m not really keeping score) but this movie makes him not like The Who.  Darrell said it was hard to watch but he made his way through it and kind of liked it, or at least liked the movie.  Tony found the movie almost unwatchable at points.  He thought the movie was trying too hard to be A Clockwork Orange and it was a failure.

There was also a general consensus… or was that confusion… that there was a great deal of naked males but NO naked females.  Even during the sex scenes, there were no female bits and pieces to be seen.

Some of the scenes were much too long, with 360 degree tracking shots and some scenes that seemed more like time fillers.  The hosts thought that the movie could have easily been cut down to no more than an hour (running time is 117 minutes) and been more interesting.

Tony thought that Phil Daniels (Cooper) looked and acted like Christian Bale and David thought that this movie should have won an award for the “most actors who look like other people.”  He thought that one of Cooper’s friends looked like one of the Weasley twins (doesn’t matter which one).

Scott (from the chat room) summed it up with the statement, “This is a cast made up of ugly British people.”

David admitted to jumping ahead in five minute intervals out of sheer boredom and correctly assumed that he really wasn’t missing much.  Tony didn’t understand the angst that the movie was trying to convey.  Cooper comes from a working class background and he has a job.  Given, he doesn’t really like his job but he still HAS a job, which is a hell of a lot more than most of his friends have.

When the discussion turned to the Steph character, Tony thought that the character was written to be a hated person.

Tony admitted that the hosts made the conscious choice to watch Quadrophenia as part of the Rock ‘n Roll series over Pink Floyd’s The Wall… at least he’s proud enough to admit that this might not have been the wisest choice!

And now on to… The Hunger Games! (Starts at 32:07)

It was widely agreed that the best parts of The Hunger Games were Lenny Kravitz (Cinna) and Woody Harrelson (Haymitch).  Tony thought the movie overall was good, David thought it was great (your happy note-taker agreed with David).  They also liked the characters of Rue and Thresh, but David’s only complaint was the District 11 scene (after Rue is… ) because they broke the 1^st person immersion.

David thought that the Katniss character was a strong female heroine that hasn’t been forced into a female “gender” role.  She’s all business throughout the movie and she doesn’t break out of that role.  He also would have liked to have seen more of an interaction between Peeta and Haymitch.

Tony didn’t think the movie lived up to the hype.  Neither did David, but that didn’t change his opinion that he really liked it.

Also listen to Tony’s idea for an earlier story line on Cinna and Haymitch.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• David

This episode was recorded: 3/28/2012

• Tony
• Becca
• Sam
• William
• Lena

This episode was recorded: 2/22/12

Roadside Attractions

Based on Mark Millar’s “I Love You Phillip Morris: A True Story of Life, Love, and Prison Breaks

Directed & Screenplay by              Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Produced by                                        Andrew Lazar, Far Shariat

Cast

Jim Carrey                                           Steven Russell

Ewan McGregor                                 Phillip Morris

Leslie Mann                                         Debbie

Initial comments by the hosts:

Sam really liked this movie.  He thought it was funny and an interesting character study and dubbed it “the two gay guys-funnier Shawshank Redemption.”  Jill did not like the movie at all and had to go back to it three times to finally get through it.  She did not connect with the characters at all and found them to be superficial stereotypes and didn’t see how the relationships made sense.  Darrell thought he wasn’t going to like it and was surprised to find that he really enjoyed it; he thought the story was compelling.  Tony said that the movie surprised him at every turn.  It was not the movie he was expecting it to be, and he was very happy with it.  He’s very hit-or-miss with Jim Carrey, and he really liked him in this performance.

Sam thought the narration worked very well in this movie and Jill thought it was necessary in order to explain some of the more absurd parts of the movie.  Tony liked that the narrator (Steven Russell) flat-out lied, because the character can’t tell the truth.  During Jimmy’s death scene, from AIDS, Steven appeared to be mourning Jimmy’s death but years later Steven faked his own death from AIDS.  So, was Steven really sad when Jimmy died or was he simply filing that bit of information away to possibly be used later?

Jill took issue with how Steven’s life took such drastic changes when #1, he found his mother and #2, he came out of the closet as a gay man and took on that stereotypical, over the top, extravagant lifestyle.  She appreciated, at least, that they also portrayed him as a liar and a jerk.  Sam thought it wasn’t that much of an unrealistic portrayal since the movie would have taken place in the late 1970s and into the late 1990s, as that wasn’t really a set stereotype at that time.  Darrell countered that Steven, who moved to Miami, would have lived during the time of that exact type of life, that stereotype.  Tony thought that this showed one of the flaws of the character.  Steven was attracted to men but he only knew how live as a gay man by fulfilling this stereotype, that this was the only thing he knew.

Throughout most of the film, Jim Carrey played the character in a reserved manner, as he clearly should have, but Jill found a few moments in the film when Carrey let his larger-than-life comedic side come forward, and all the hosts agreed that this was unnecessary.  Darrell brought up the scene where Steven is walking up to his office and finds a slew of FBI agents waiting for him.  In his escape, he took a slightly more physically comedic route, and that would have played much more realistically if it has been played in a more reserved manner.  Sam thought that the movie, in its narration, was framed through the lens of a comedy more than a drama.  He thought that the comedy was Steven trying to poke fun at himself in hindsight.  Tony disagreed with the major life-changing event of the car accident, which then brought Steven to announce that he was gay and this subsequently changed every single aspect of his life.  He found it to be too much of a leap to be believable.

Jill wondered if, without knowing that the movie was based on a true story, the viewers would buy the story?  Tony agreed that he wouldn’t have and Sam stated that he simply enjoyed the movie, true story or not.  Tony thought that if the movie could have earned some of its storytelling points, instead of just leaping at them, it could have gone on to be a good story.

One of the questionable story lines for the hosts is how could someone who spent almost his entire life mired in lies and cons be believable as being in love with Phillip Morris?  Could Steven Russell love anyone other than himself?  Tony said that it was real and believable for him during the early stages of their relationship when Steven and Phillip could only communicate through notes.  You begin to see something deeper develop between them.  On the other hand, the movie never got too deeply into any of Steven’s other relationships (Debbie or Jimmy) so there wasn’t a lot to compare it to.  These were some of the movie’s shortcuts that made the storyline a challenge to find plausible.

They liked Ewan McGregor’s character as the soft-spoken Phillip Morris; they found his naïve character pretty believable.  Even when Phillip knew that Steven was a con-man, his naiveté played well in that he never questioned some of the blatant contradictions in Steven’s character.

It would be interesting to compare the movie to the book to see if the movie took a more comedic turn.  All in all, with the exception of Jill, the hosts found it a fun movie to watch.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Jill
• Sam

This episode was recorded: 3/21/2012

Directed by

Matthew Vaughn

Screenplay by

Matthew Vaughn

Jane Goldman

Based on “Kick-Ass” by

Mark Millar

John Romita, Jr.

Produced by

Matthew Vaughn

Brad Pitt

 Kris Thykier

 Adam Bohling

 Tarquin Pack

David Reid

Cast

Aaron Johnson                        Dave Lizewski/Kick-Ass

Nicolas Cage                           Damon Macready/Big Daddy

Chloë Grace Moretz                Mindy Macready/Hit-Girl

Christopher Mintz-Plasse        Chris D’Amico/Red Mist

Happy Birthday, Sam!!

Initial comments by the hosts:

Melina thought it was a great overall movie with awesome acting, writing and music.  Jill enjoyed it and thought there were some neat parallels to other movies and she loved the characters.  Sam thought this movie was surprisingly violent, appropriately voiced-over and he enjoyed the hell out of it!  Darrell thought… simply put… it kicked ass!  David really liked it.  Tony thought it was hyper-violent and hyper-awesome.  One thing the hosts brought up is that they pretty much all thought that the movie was going to be a light comedy with superhero elements… not so much.

As much as Aaron Johnson gave a good, solid performance as Kick-Ass, Chloe Grace Moretz stole the show as Hit-Girl.  Nicolas Cage was fantastic in this movie!  They thought his voice and mannerisms were very Adam West-Batman/Captain Kirk.  The hosts didn’t think that any other actor could have pulled off the father/daughter relationship any better than Cage.

David liked that the arc of this story didn’t follow the typical arc of a comic-book story.  Typically there is one single large-scale event that motivates the character to become a superhero, or an event that physically changes the character. In Kick-Ass, Dave Lizewski (Johnson) is bullied and sees too many people turning the other way when they witness bullying.  This is his motivation.

Favorite “kills” from the movie:

Tony – when Hit-Girl is wearing the school girl outfit and she shoots the other guys in the building lobby through the man’s mouth… and after everyone else is dead, she casually turns back and shoots the first man one more time to kill him.

Melina – her favorite sequence is Hit-Girl’s first scene (where the funky version of the Banana Splits theme was playing) and in between killing people, she looks up at Kick-Ass and gives him a big, creepy smile.

David – his favorite sequence is Kick-Ass’s jet pack scene, completely with a portion of “An American Trilogy” by Elvis Presley.

Darrell – he liked the scene where Hit-Girl had all pretty much lined up and then she’s waiting with guns in both hands and she explodes out and kills them out.  His favorite scene in that part was where she reloaded her guns, by tossing the magazines in the air, while still marching down the hallway.

Sam – as much as he loved the microwave scene, his favorite was when she was in the library and, after she shoots one of the men, he falls and his sawed-off shotgun then shoots him through his chin.

Tony liked how the crime wall and the back story for Damon Macready/Big Daddy were all hand drawn in comic book style.

Nicolas Cage modeled his speech mannerisms as Big Daddy on original Batman – Adam West. According to Matthew Vaughn, Cage started acting out his lines this way at the first costume fitting. The director was happy for Cage to continue with this performance in the film, citing his irritation with the gravelly voice Christian Bale used in “The Dark Knight.”

According to Mark Millar, the “C-word” moment in issue three of the comic ultimately convinced Vaughn that it was a worthy project.

Cage came up with his character’s “disguise”: that Damon Macready would have a mustache, while “Big Daddy” would have an even larger mustache via adhesive extensions.

The comic montage of Damon Macready/Big Daddy’s past life was illustrated by artist/co-creator John Romita, Jr.

In response to criticism towards Hit-Girl’s character, Chloë Grace Moretz stated in an interview, “If I ever uttered one word that I said in Kick-Ass, I would be grounded for years! I’d be stuck in my room until I was 20! I would never in a million years say that. I’m an average, everyday girl.” Moretz has said that while filming, she could not bring herself to say the film’s title out loud in interviews, instead calling it “the film” in public and “Kick-Butt” at home.

There was a cameo of Stan Lee as a man watching news footage.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Jill
• Melina
• David
• Sam

This episode was recorded: 3/14/2012

Directed by                             Spike Lee
Written by                               Spike Lee
Produced by                            Pamm R. Jackson
                  Spike Lee
                  (Credited as Shelton J. Lee)

Cast
Tracy Camilla Johns                Nola Darling
Tommy Redmond Hicks         Jamie Overstreet
John Canada Terrell                Greer Childs
Spike Lee                                Mars Blackmon

Welcome back, David!

Initial comments by the hosts (short and sweet):

David liked the movie, although he expected not to.  Jill liked it, and she’s also a fan of Spike Lee movies.  Sam didn’t like the movie.  Tony thought it was good for an indie movie, it had flaws but it was an interesting character study… he thought he would end up liking the discussion more than the movie itself.

Tony was disappointed in the fact that the three men, who all knew they were in a relationship of sorts with Nola, were “babies” about it.  Each thought they had something more important than the other, some kind of power/control over her, but none of them did.  None of the hosts agreed with Tony, though.  They didn’t see any of the male characters as thinking or feeling as if they “owned” Nola in any way.

While Greer seemed to treat Nola more as an accessory or a trophy than a partner and Jamie seemed to be more the female counterpart of his relationship with Nola, he is also the only one who took a stand and told Nola that she had to make a choice or he was leaving.  Mars appeared to be the only one who had the most realistic view of the relationship, although he also wasn’t too happy about it.

The hosts also discussed the “rape” scene… was it truly a rape scene at all?  Nola never said no to Jamie, never moved to stop Jamie.  She took on the submissive role, for the first and only time in the movie.  Did she force Jamie to play that more violent hand by calling him over in the middle of the night for sex (while he is already in his bed with another woman)?

The hosts discuss what IT might be, but there isn’t a clear answer.  Is it sexual satisfaction, is it a general satisfaction with her life, is it a singular relationship, is it power or control, is it independence?

David brought up the fact that the movie is not presented in a way to portray Nola’s sexuality as negative and was hard pressed to think of other characters treated in the same way.  The only other comparison that was brought up was Samantha Jones in “Sex and the City.”

Tony found it interesting that Nola went to a sex therapist, considering she didn’t have any personal issue with her relationships.  Then Sam brought up the fact that Nola also entered a phase, albeit short-lived, of celibacy.  For someone who seemed so steady in her beliefs and in how she lived her life, she still took in the judgments made by the people in her life and took time for self-examination before returning, again, to knowing that she is who she is.

Tony compared Nola Darling’s character to a precursor to “500 Days of Summer” in that she was always honest and upfront about who she is and how she leads her life.  Sam saw a little bit of a “Chasing Amy” comparison.

Darrell (from the chat room on this night) liked the fact that the actors constantly broke the 4^th wall.  David didn’t like that, reminding him too much of current reality TV.  Tony said it was done in “mockumentary” style.

Tony asked if, at the end of the movie, was Nola truly happy with her life?  David and Jill thought so, even though they show Nola being alone at the end, she is ultimately living the life she wants to live.  She has always known, and after looking deeper into herself, reinforces the fact that she does not want just one man in her life, she is not a sex-addict, she is perfectly fine as she is, and any problems that arise from her multiple relationship are caused by these men, not her.

Jill brought up that, because the film’s budget was so tight, there were no second takes of any scenes.  Also, whenever the cast broke for a meal, Spike Lee instructed them to save their soda cans so they could be turned in for recycling money.  The film was shot in twelve days on a budget of $175,000.

Spike Lee wrote a book detailing the making and distribution of this film, entitled, “Spike Lee’s Gotta Have it: Inside Guerilla Filmmaking.”  His father, Bill (who was also cast as Nola Darling’s father) wrote the jazz score for the movie.

This movie won the “Award of the Youth” Foreign Film award at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, the “New Generation Award” at the 1986 Los Angeles Film Critics Awards and the “Best First Feature” award at the 1987 Independent Spirit Awards.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Jill
• David
• Sam

This episode was recorded: 3/7/2012

Release date:               5/21/82

Universal Pictures

Directed by

Carl Reiner

Written by

Carl Reiner

George Gipe

Steve Martin

Produced by

Carl Reiner

Richard McWhorter

David V. Picker

Cast

Steve Martin               Rigby Reardon

Rachel Ward               Juliet Forrest

This movie was chosen specifically because it’s a comedy, a parody, a satire, and it uses the movies from the 1940s and 1950s interspersed with the modern actors and dialogue.

Initial comments by the hosts:

Tony thought that this movie was the perfect capper to the last month of movies that they’d been watching.  Tony, who isn’t a fan of voiceovers, thought that they were hysterical in this movie.  Darrell agreed in that it was a “relief” after the four more downer-themed movies and it spotlighted and made fun of the tropes that they’d been looking at in the last four movies.  He also compared watching it now to when he saw it when it came out in 1982.  He didn’t have a lot of knowledge about film noir then, so it was simply a comedy film at that time, and not necessarily a successful comedy. Now, having a stronger base comprehension of noir, he could much more appreciate how funny the movie was.  Sam questioned how did that film, relying so heavily on the audience having a noir background, not make it an automatically successful movie?

This brought the discussion back to who this movie is for?  It was a movie that poked fun of movies made 30-40 years earlier, so the audience would need to have a touch point to those older films.  This would be the equivalent to making a movie today that makes fun of movies from the 80s.  Sam brought up Hot Tub Time Machine as such a movie in that filmgoers would need to have some kind of a memory of movies and culture from the 1980s to understand Hot Tub Time Machine.

At this point the discussion turned to the idea that one needs to have particular cultural references to enjoy certain films. Sam stated that American Pie is not going to make sense in 20 years.  Tony disagreed, but Sam thought that technology would advance enough and social interaction will have changed enough that the perils of American Pie simply will not be relevant.  Please feel free to insert your own personal “pie” thoughts and jokes here.  Tony used Animal House as his comparison, and Lena (from the chat room) argued that if Sam’s American Pie argument held up, no one would ever watch Porky’s again.

Sam brought up the fact that everyone probably has a movie or two that, as you watch it again and again over the years, delivers something new each time.  His examples were Blade Runner and Ghostbusters.  Lena also brought up Tootsie and Airplane as her examples of movies that changed/evolved as she’s seen them again over the years.

Other movies that rely on cultural references?  Darrell brought up It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Sam brought up South Pacific and Rent.  Tony mentions North by Northwest as a movie that can’t be remade for modern audiences due to technological or social advancements, stating that a simple phone call clears up the whole problem, but things are too far gone by the time they get to that point.

Some of the hosts’ favorite quotes from Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid:

Jimmie Sue’s father: Don’t go near my daughter again. Don’t try to see her. Don’t write her and don’t phone her.
Rigby Reardon: Can I use her underwear to make soup?

Juliet Forrest: But what does “FOC” mean?
Rigby Reardon: It’s a slang word. It’s when a man and a woman are in love, the man puts his…
Juliet Forrest: No, no. It’s written here: “F. O. C.”

Rigby Reardon: My plan was to kiss her with every lip on my face.

Rigby Reardon: I hadn’t seen a body put together like that since I’d solved the case of the Murdered Girl with the Big Tits

Cary Grant: You don’t smoke, do you?
Rigby Reardon: No, I have tuberculosis.
Cary Grant: Oh, thank heaven for that.

Performers who appear in this film in footage from earlier classic movies include: Edward Arnold, Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, Wally Brown, James Cagney, William Conrad, Jeff Corey, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Brian Donlevy, Kirk Douglas, Ava Gardner, Cary Grant, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Charles Laughton, Fred MacMurray, Charles McGraw, Ray Milland, Edmond O’Brien, Vincent Price, Barbara Stanwyck and Lana Turner.

Steve Martin suggested using footage of William Hartnell, Red Skelton, Jerry Lewis, Jack Benny, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.  But Carl Reiner refused, believing it would be funnier if they used footage of actors who spent their careers away from comedies.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Sam

This episode was recorded: 2/29/2012

Release date:

10/7/05

Warner Independent Pictures

Directed by

George Clooney

Written by

George Clooney

Grant Heslov

Produced by

Grant Heslov

Cast:

David Strathairn

Edward R. Murrow

Initial comments by the hosts:

For an independent film, the hosts agreed that it didn’t have the look or the feel of an independent film.  Darrell liked the movie and thought it had a nice feel to it.  Even though it’s a serious subject, he thought that you could really sit back and enjoy the film.  Jill agreed and thought it was tight and finely crafted and had excellent acting and an interesting subject matter.  She liked that the story was confined and George Clooney didn’t try to make it a complete biography on Edward R. Murrow.  Tony agreed and thought they made some interesting choices on the stories that were about the people in the newsroom as side stories, but they weren’t necessarily directly tied to McCarthy or Murrow.  He thought it was a subtle way of bringing out those extra stories.

One of the underlying themes of the movie was how much CBS Corp. was so deeply in bed with all of its advertisers and in fear of trying to keep their advertisers to keep their programs on the air.  Darrell found it interesting how relevant the story still is.  How you can remove the word “communism” and replace it with “terrorists” and still have the same story today.  Also, the point still stands that news is driven by entertainment value and advertising dollars.  Jill liked the speech “bookends” of how the story was set up, how it kept your focus.  The hosts also liked the jazz singer, Jill likened her to the Greek chorus who explains the story but this also gave the viewer time to process the information you’d been given between the scenes.

In discussing acting, they all loved David Strathairn’s portrayal of Edward R. Murrow.  Darrell thought he had Murrow’s voice and mannerisms down cold.  They liked that every clip of Joseph McCarthy was the actual footage of McCarthy from that time.  Also, some of the video used in the monitors was actually Murrow, as well.  Darrell found Murrow to be a cold, unsympathetic man, but Jill disagreed and found that to be passion about doing the right thing and telling the truth.  She liked the use of facial expressions, silence, fading to black (to the point of making it uncomfortable for the viewers), to convey his conflicted emotions and his struggles.  Tony thought that as much as Murrow seemed aloof, he also seemed disconnected.  He didn’t seem to know a lot about the things happening directly around him because he was so focused on what he was doing.  The hosts also singled out the performances of Robert Downey, Jr. as Joe Wershba and Frank Langella as William Paley.

Jill believed they did a nice job at incorporating archival film footage into the movie and made it look seamless.  Tony learned, through this movie, some of the underhanded tactics that McCarthy used to get information.  He also gained a respect for journalism during that time.  Journalism today is completely different, the integrity is lost, and no one can (or would) do today what Murrow did then.

In discussing the use of actual McCarthy footage (instead of using an actor to portray him), Clooney said that 20% of the people who saw a test of the movie didn’t know who McCarthy was and wanted to know who was the actor portraying him.  Clooney also thought that no matter which actor played McCarthy, he would be played as a jerk.  Instead, if you’re watching the actual footage of McCarthy, you can see how some people could have understood and took his side.  Clooney wanted this movie to be a conversation starter.  It also shows the “other side” in which McCarthy had a good idea in that there was something to be afraid of with communists infiltrating the government, but he took it to a level of zealotry that became a problem.

As Jill mentioned this speech earlier in the podcast, the text of Edward R. Murrow’s speech bookending the movie was taken word-for-word from the actual keynote address he delivered to the 1958 RTNDA (Radio-Television News Directors Association) convention. The actual conclusion to the speech, after Murrow’s line about television, used strictly for entertainment rather than education, being nothing more than wires and lights in a box, went as follows: “There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful. Stonewall Jackson, who knew something about the use of weapons, is reported to have said, ‘When war comes, you must draw the sword and throw away the scabbard.’ The trouble with television is that it is rusting in the scabbard during a battle for survival.”

The film was shot on color film on a grayscale set, then color-corrected in post.

The entire set was built on one floor. The elevator interior was built on a turntable, so it could be rotated to a new “floor” during unbroken shots.

The American Film Institute named Good Night, and Good Luck as one of the Top Ten Movies of 2005.

It was also nominated for six Oscars at the 2006 Academy Awards:  Best Picture, Best Director (George Clooney), Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (David Strathairn), Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction, and Best Cinematography.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Jill

This episode was recorded: 2/15/2012

Release date:               11/2/01

USA Films

Directed, Written and Produced by:

Joel Coen

Ethan Coen

Cast:

Billy Bob Thornton     Ed Crane

Frances McDormand  Doris Crane

Michael Badalucco     Frank

James Gandolfini        Big Dave Brewster

Initial comments by the hosts:

Sam thought the movie was “decidedly meh.”  Darrell thought it was pretty good.  It had a slow pace but eventually got into the story.  If you’re a film buff, you’ll really like it; he liked the cinematography.  Tony thought it was a good noir picture but the story ambled along without any deep meaning.  Sam thought that the movie meandered through the story just like Ed Crane meandered through his life.

Tony thought Billy Bob Thornton was fantastic, Frances McDormand was great (she successfully created a very unlikeable character) and he always enjoys James Gandolfini and this movie was not a letdown.  All the performances were equally solid.  Darrell talked about how every other character was over-animated against Ed Crane’s cardboard cut-out character that everything and everyone moved around.  Lena (from the chat room) thought that Ed Crane literally looked like cardboard and Darrell added how Crane’s suit was always pressed, his barber’s smock was tight and neat, adding to that appearance.  Sam loved Richard Jenkins’ Walter Abundas character.  They also talked about how the relationship between Ed Crane and Birdie Abundas seemed to be developing into something weird (romance or father/daughter or both?), until you realize that each of them has developed that into a completely different relationship than the other.

Tony enjoyed all of the performances.  Sam didn’t think McDormand was that great in this movie (or Fargo).  Lena mentioned (chatroom) how Frank (Badalucco), was more like a character in a play, and Tony added that since Ed is so quiet, the others have to have something to do or say to fill the void.  They also discussed the narration and even though not all of the hosts are fans of narration, they agreed that it was necessary in this kind of film.  Telling the story would not have been as successful without Ed Crane’s narration.

Darrell brought up the use of light and shadow.  The movie was shot in color and then transferred to black and white, and Tony questioned the intention of doing it that way.  Darrell explained how, when you shoot in color, you can then adjust all of the black and white shadow patters and you can do more with that than if you shoot in straight black and white.  It’s also more difficult to shoot in black and white.  Darrell also brought up the scene where Big Dave’s widow visits Ed Crane’s house and how, in her shots, she was in stark contrast to the darkness of then night behind her and when the shot turned back to Ed, you see all the moving shadows of the leaves.

Sam thought that, in general, the movie was a great representation of the late 40’s/early 50’s.  Tony and Darrell disagreed on the life that Crane was living.  Tony thought Ed Crane was content with his miserable life but Darrell thought that he was dying but didn’t know what to do.  Sam countered with the fact that Crane seemed to stumble through his entire life, not actually making any choices but letting the choices be made for him.  When Crane made his big “decision” in the movie, is it because he truly wanted to change his life or is it because, after finding out that his wife isn’t who he always thought she was, this was just one more decision that was placed into his lap for him to simply follow, just like everything else?  Even in the scene where Crane stabbed Big Dave, was that simply a reflex reaction of self-defense or was that Crane taking some kind of a stand with his own life?  In turning their discussion to the perspective of Big Dave, it was brought out how Ed Crane comes across almost as cold and heartless.  The argument easily goes both ways.

Tony thought that Ed Crane’s biggest failing was that he truly believed that he was invisible and that he could get away with things because he thought people didn’t notice him.  Inasmuch as he was part of the background, he was always acknowledged, he was always noticed.

Who is this movie for?  Film noir fans, Billy Bob Thornton fans, Coen brothers fans.

Joel and Ethan Coen came up with the story for The Man Who Wasn’t There while working on The Hudsucker Proxy.  During a barbershop scene, they saw a poster of 1940s haircuts and developed a story about the barber who cut the hair in the poster.

In the scene where Scarlett Johansson’s Birdy character is playing the piano for him, Thornton made it look like Ed Crane had an erection.  When the Coen Brothers later found out, they made it clear that Ed would not be aroused in the scene.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Sam

This episode was recorded: 2/8/2012

Release date: 4/2/99

Zeitgeist Films

Directed by:

Christopher Nolan

Written by:

Christopher Nolan

Produced by:

Emma Thomas

Jeremy Theobald

Peter Broderick

Cast:

Jeremy Theobald         The Young Man/Bill

Alex Haw                    Cobb

Lucy Russell               The Blonde

John Nolan                  The Policeman

Initial comments by the hosts:

Sam wasn’t really all that interested until the last eight or so minutes, and then it ended up being an OK movie, not a great movie (Tony was convinced that Sam would change his mind by the end of the discussion… he did not).  He thought it took too long to set up the premise and he also thought some pieces were sloppy (fight scene) and some of the cuts were not very good.  Jill agreed in that parts of the movie were slow, but overall, she liked it.  She knew it was going to follow the same formula as Memento (Christopher Nolan’s 2^ndfull-length film) so she was already looking for clues as she watched.  The idea that he made this for 6 million dollars with only two or three takes per shot and the way he had the film structured, which was relatively new at the time, solidified Nolan as a genius filmmaker to her.

Darrell liked it and thought it was a nice tight little drama.  He said that you can get a lot out of this film.  Tony also really enjoyed it, too. He said he could completely see how Christopher Nolan got every other job he ever got after Following.  Watching it through a 2^ndtime, he saw how many little things were laid out from the very start.  Nothing is actually hidden, but it’s obfuscated by the nature of jumping through time.  Tony also said he almost wished they hadn’t reviewed Clerks earlier so that they could compare the two to show what a great director (Nolan) can do against what a great writer (Smith) can do.

The hosts all thought that the acting as a whole was OK, unimpressive, passable.  Alex Haw (Cobb) was the best actor of the bunch. As for Lucy Russell, they all pretty much agreed that she was probably very lucky in that her bad acting played well into the cold character she portrayed.  Jill countered that female characters in film noir usually aren’t multidimensional characters.  Tony added that they tend to play damsels in distress, vamps, ice queens… and she played all three of those, but still all “cold”.  Lucy Russell’s character struck Sam as a more jaded Ilsa from Casablanca.  Darrell said to keep in mind that she’s playing The Blonde as cold because she’s setting Bill up, but she truly cold/stoic throughout the scene.

Jill thought that she was dressed in black in every scene except the one when the gangster is leaving the house and she’s waiting for Bill to arrive, in which she’s dressed in white.  Sam said that she’s also in a white shirt in the last scene when she tells Bill how he’s been set up.

Cobb tells Bill, as they’re going through someone’s apartment, “You take it away… to show them what they had,” and this is the recurring theme in the movie.  What Bill doesn’t realize is that Cobb is flat-out telling this to Bill that this is what he’s doing to him, but Bill doesn’t realize this until the end.  Bill only sees what’s going around him and not what’s literally being put right in his face.  Tony brought up that it’s similar to what M. Night Shyamalan does not too long after in The Sixth Sense, when the boy tells Bruce Willis that he sees dead people.  They don’t know they’re dead yet, but they are.  The boy is telling Bruce that he’s dead but he doesn’t see the big picture right that’s right in front of him.

It’s a very short, compact movie; 70 minutes long including the credits.  Sam notes that the ending is very abrupt.  All the “webs” that are set all comes together in the last eight minutes and then it’s over… nothing extra, noting unnecessary.  Tony compares the ending of Following to the ending to Usual Suspects, differentiating by adding that the ending of Usual Suspects almost feels like a “cheat.”  The audience never sees any of the clues in the Usual Suspects until they’re all laid out at the end, as opposed to Following, in which the clues are throughout the movie.  The audience is shown the clues and they get to enjoy the discovery of piecing it together themselves. The audience is not given this opportunity in The Usual Suspects.  The beauty of Following and The Sixth Sense is that you can go back and see the clues that you might not have caught the first time, the clues that were easily glossed over until the ending is fully presented.  It’s an intellectual puzzle for the audience to solve.

Sam thought that Following was more of a master’s thesis, so to speak, that sets the style for Christopher Nolan films.  Sam is still not convinced that this was a great film.  Ultimately it was slow and it came together too quickly at the end.  He thought it didn’t have the amazing visuals (Batman Begins), the creative storytelling (Dark Knight) or the jaw dropping reactions (Memento) of Nolan’s later films.  In essence, it’s like watching his first “student film.”  You can see a lot of artistry and craftsmanship in this first film.

Even though Nolan chose to film this in B&W, for budgetary reasons, but none of the hosts can imagine this film in color.  This is the resume for the rest of Nolan’s career.  This is the film in which you can see what he has to offer in all of his later films, in how he tells a story both visually and through dialogue; it’s creating his brand in the same way that Do The Right Thing IS Spike Lee and Clerks IS Kevin Smith.

Jill mentioned how the movie was shot on Saturdays because everyone (cast and crew) had full time jobs.  The cost of making the film ($6 million) came out of Nolan’s pocket.  Darrell brought up how Nolan had the actors were made to practice their lines so that he would only have to have one or two takes per scene, to conserve film and time.

Bill’s apartment, with the Batman sticker on the door, was Bill’s real apartment.

Christopher Nolan came up with the idea for Following because his home had been broken into and he wondered what the people thought as they went around looking at his belongings.

As Nolan’s debut film, it was designed to be as inexpensive as possible to make.  He mostly used available light to save on the expense of professional lighting equipment.  Apart from providing the script and direction, Nolan also did the photography, editing and production himself.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Jill
• Sam

This episode was recorded: 2/1/2012

Release date: 10/8/83

Universal Pictures

Directed by:

Francis Ford Coppola

Screenplay by:

S. E. Hinton

Francis Ford Coppola

Based on the novel Rumble Fish, by S. E. Hinton

Produced by:

Francis Ford Coppola

Doug Claybourne

Fred Roos

Cast:

Matt Dillon                 Rusty James

Mickey Rourke           Motorcycle Boy

Diane Lana                  Patty

Dennis Hopper            Father

Initial comments by the hosts:

Tony wasn’t sure what to expect, as he went into watching this movie with an expectation of seeing something more akin to The Outsiders, but by the end he really liked the whole presentation.  Darrell thought it was a pretty good movie but thought that; overall, the plot was convoluted.  You had to carefully pay attention to get everything out of it.  Tony also added to that by bringing up the how the score was part of the story; when the dialogue really didn’t matter much, the score rose.  The music showed you that hearing what they’re saying isn’t necessarily the most important part right now, and you needed to focus on what’s on the screen instead.

Jill loved this movie and said it is one of her all-time favorite Coppola movies.  There is so much going on, visually, there’s so much complexity, that you can (and should) go back and find things you didn’t notice the first time.

They discussed the use of black and white and what the meanings behind it might be, as there are numerous uses.  Is it primarily because Motorcycle Boy has not been able to see color since he was a child, or is it because, once you strip the color away, once you take away the “distractions” of color, you only see the contrasts because everything becomes sharper?  Even though it’s black & white, the story is shades of gray.  The only colors you ever see in the film are the red and blue rumble fish in the pet store and Rusty’s reflection in the police car at the end.

Jill mentioned that Coppola refers to Rumble Fish as his “carrot” for finishing The Outsiders.

Darrell added that Coppola wrote this screenplay on the Sunday he had off while doing the Outsiders.  He also used a lot of the same cast and crew, and filmed it right after The Outsiders was finished.

Everyone agreed that Mickey Rourke and Dennis Hopper were amazing.  Jill and Tony agreed that the scene with Hopper, Rourke and Dillon in the bar was one of their favorite scenes.  Jill also loved Tom Waits’ character.

Mickey Rourke reminded the hosts of Marlon Brando in the way he portrayed Motorcycle Boy.  He seemed distracted in the way he delivered his lines.  Rourke said that he approached the character as if he was “an actor who no longer finds his work interesting.” Darrell classified it as a gangster who just doesn’t want to be a gangster anymore; who’s outlived the reputation and realizes how stupid it all is.  Motorcycle Boy is also still very child-like, even though the character is said to be 21.  The cut of his hair, his level of play when he steals his father’s whiskey bottle, his laughter, the hugging scene on the mattress with his dad and brother; all still boy-like qualities.

Jill thought Matt Dillon did a really good job of showing pain without looking weak and showing angst without going over the top.  He reminded her of James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, in the slow flow of his lines, and how it worked for Rusty James’ character.

The first rumble scene reminded Tony of “Beat It” and Jill of “West Side Story” in that it was such a theatrical scene.  Darrell thought the whole rumble scene was designed to look like a stage.  The boys are playing roles, they’re not being true to themselves and they’re playing at being 1950’s-esque gang members.  The movie is also designed to not let you know exactly when it’s taking place until you later get to the scene where someone is playing a video game and you hear the Pac Man music… and Diane Lane’s big 80’s hair!

Rusty James created a fictional life memory in that he’s still admiring the yesteryear gang brotherhood and he longs for the time “when the gangs come back,” as if that was the Golden Age.  He has an idealized vision of his older brother and what he did and that’s where the myth, in his mind, is born from.  Darrell talked about how everybody talks over Rusty’s head and he can’t make the connections to what is all means.  This added to the tension between him and his father and his brother, because they always seem to be talking “around” him and he’s sitting on the outside wondering what’s going on.

Tony said that the one scene that really drew him into the movie is the one in which Rusty James is beaten up in the alley way and then has an out of body experience and floats above everything.  This is where he had to reevaluate what the movie was saying.  It’s such a bizarre departure; it doesn’t fit with anything else that happens in the movie.  He stopped thinking about the linear story because it’s not as literal as what they’re putting up on the screen.  Nothing is being fed to the viewer; you have to look for your own answers.  Darrell commented that this is the driving force behind why Motorcycle Boy left Tulsa years earlier, to find his own answers.  Rusty James keeps saying that if he can just get out of here, things will change, but he’s so attached to the myth of his brother, gangs and his own fear, he doesn’t want to leave the world he knows.

Motorcycle Boy knows that he failed at his intended goal, although we never find out what that goal is or why he failed.  He only says that, “California got in the way.”  In the pet store scene, you realize that Motorcycle Boy knows he’s going to die, and he uses this to try to “force” Rusty James to be free.  He tells his brother to take his bike and go to the ocean; leave this place, find your own life.  Rusty James had previously said that he never had a reason to leave, and now his brother is giving him that reason.  Darrell didn’t care much for the scene as a whole, he thought the tension was a bit too “weird,” and he just didn’t like the way they put it together.  He understood that the scene was critical, but it wasn’t to his liking.

Time flow is a very key part of the story; there’s a clock in every scene, the lengthening shadows, moving clouds, ticking of clocks. Clouds crossing over through the pet shop window is an image that is burned into Jill’s head, from seeing it in the theater when she was younger.

It’s also agreed that one of the things that Coppola and Hinton do very well (Rumble Fish and The Outsiders) is to show the intimacy of male bonding and love between brothers.  It’s not something you see very often, but it’s handled very well in this film.

Francis Ford Coppola has said that Rumble Fish is one of his top five favorite films of his own.

Coppola was drawn to S.E. Hinton’s novel Rumble Fish because of the strong personal identification he had with the subject matter – a younger brother who hero-worships an older, intellectually superior brother, which mirrored the relationship between Coppola and his brother, August.  A dedication to August appears as the film’s final end credit.

Coppola initially intended to have an experimental score to complement his images.  As he began to work on it, he realized that he needed help from a professional musician… enter Stewart Copeland (The Police), who he asked to improvise a rhythm track.  It wasn’t long before Coppola let the far superior composer take over the soundtrack.  Copeland recorded street sounds of Tulsa and mixed them into the soundtrack with the use of a Musync, a new device at the time, that recorded film, frame by frame on videotape with the image on top, the dialogue in the middle, and the musical staves on the bottom so that it matched the images perfectly.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Jill

This episode was recorded: 1/25/2012

Paramount Pictures

Directed by:

Trey Parker

Written by:

Trey Parker

Matt Stone

Pam Brady

Produced by:

Trey Parker

Matt Stone

Scott Rudin

Cast/Voices:

Trey Parker:

Gary Johnston

Joe

Kim Jong Il

Hans Blix

Carson

Matt Damon

Drunk in Bar

Tim Robbins

Sean Penn

Michael Moore

Helen Hunt

Susan Sarandon

(Others)

Matt Stone:

Chris

George Clooney

Danny Glover

Ethan Hawke

(Others)

Kristen Miller:

Lisa

Masasa Moyo:

Sarah

Daran Norris:

Spottswoode

Phil Hendrie:

I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E.

Chechnyah Terrorist

Let it first be noted, and never forgotten, that this movie was Sam’s pick!  Partly because he loves this movie and partly because it fulfills the Recently Dead Guy Podcast formula (Kim Jong Il).

The MPAA rated this movie R, with a specific explanation, “For graphic crude and sexual humor, violent images and strong language – all involving puppets.”

Sam could not contain his excitement from the very beginning, before the discussion of the movie even started, setting a clear tone for the night, “God damn it America, f**k yeah!”

This is the MOST animated I have seen Darrell… (granted, I’ve only been listening for a couple of months, but still!)

The initial comments by the hosts:

Darrell thought it was the funniest thing he’d seen in a while, and the funny/odd part is that a lot of the stuff talked about in the movie has sort of come true.  Tony thought it was funny and a great parody and social commentary in that both sides of the issue are equally skewered.  Trey Parker and Matt Stone make everyone look ridiculous.  Sam thought that it’s the greatest modern satire or our era and that Stone and Parker are this generation’s best satirists because no one is safe.

It was also agreed that Parker and Stone couldn’t have gotten away with covering any of this subject matter with actual actors or even as an animated movie (South Park-ish).

Team America: World Police hit on so many movie clichés – the tragic love triangle, the character who is a jerk for no other reason than to be a jerk and the reluctant hero hitting rock bottom and then finding his courage, to name a few.

In the opening scene in Paris, all the bricks on the ground are actually croissants.  Tony also notes that in this opening scene, Parker and Stone show, in extremes, what the rest of the world sees Americans as.  We are the cops for the WORLD… We’ll take care of things for everyone else, whether they like it or not!  The fact that Team America levels almost every inch of Paris… the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triumph, the Louvre, leaving the residents of Paris with looks of terror and dismay on their faces as Team America makes their “triumphant” departure back to the U.S. is not only priceless, but also introduces that attitude of arrogant Americans.

The opening scene also included a puppet puppeteering a smaller puppet, which completely freaked out your happy note taker (Lena)… because those puppets aren’t creepy enough on their own!

Everyone wholeheartedly agreed that the puppetry was very good.  They loved how, during the fight scenes (which Sam dubbed “Puppet Fu”), the puppets just flail wildly at each other but during the sex scene, the intricate puppet maneuvers were painstakingly choreographed.

This sex scene initially garnered the movie an NC-17 Rating by the MPAA.  The scene was edited 12 times before they were finally given the R rating Parker and Stone were aiming for.

Tony also loved that Kim Jong Il was really an alien cockroach that gets into his rocket ship and flies away at the end.

The music in the movie also played a huge part in adding to the mood and movement of the story.  And thank you, Sam, for singing bits and pieces of the songs during this part of the discussion!  Sam also mentions that, at the very end of the credits, there is one more uncredited song sung by Kim Jong Il, “You Are Worthless, Alec Baldwin.”

It’s also noted that song being played in the bar (Derka Derk) is the Star Wars Cantina theme played backwards.

As for the infamous “D**k, p***y, a*****e speech , as much as I would love to get into this, not only could I not do it proper justice, but it would just be line after line of asterisks… so I highly encourage you all to listen to this entire podcast!

While discussion the overt racism and how necessary it was for Parker and Stone to make their points, Scott notes (from the chat room), “It’s so racist it’s like it loops around just ridiculous, back through racist again and back to nuts.”

Sergio states (also from the chat room) that this film is made for high school boys, college men, basically the male population of the world, except for Koreans.  {Lena’s additional note: as none of the above, I’m just going to have to disagree with Sergio on that one… I LOVED this movie!}

It’s much too easy to dismiss this as a simple film about puppets who swear and have sex – UNLESS you actually take the time to watch it, think about it, and discuss it!

Darrell noted that there were shades of Quentin Tarantino in the film; namely the scene with Team America walking down the hall in the palace on their way to battle with the “Battle Without Honor or Humanity” from Kill Bill.  (This was featured in the movies Kill Bill,Transformers, Shrek the Third, Hotel for Dogs, Team America: World Police )  Also, in a nod to Tarantino, is the big shootout, filled with gore, blood and guts flying all over the place.

In the overhead shot of Gary lying in his own vomit (perhaps the most favorite scene of the hosts), it’s actually Trey Parker wearing a pair of fake legs so the proportions are right.  The “vomit” was a mixture of soup and beer.

Matt Stone referred to the puppet technique they used as “supercrappymation.”

Sean Penn was so insulted by his portrayal in Team America that, in his letter to Parker and Stone, he closed it with, “a sincere f**k you, Sean Penn.”

Matt Damon was originally written as an intelligent puppet, but when they saw the finished product, they thought he looked dumb and decided to portray him as such.  Also, Matt Damon and George Clooney were both quoted as saying that they would have been offended if they weren’t in the film!  Alec Baldwin also reportedly round the project very amusing.

The Michael Moore puppet was filled with ham before they blew him up.

I couldn’t find anything “official” but I did find a few YouTube links (one below) for “You Are Worthless Alec Baldwin”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfOXhGbwdm0

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Sam

This episode was recorded: 1/18/2012

Kevin Smith

Produced by:

Jon Gordon

Cast:

Michael Parks – Pastor Abin Cooper
John Goodman – ATF Special Agent Keenan
Melissa Leo – Sarah
Kyle Gallner – Jared
Michael Angarano – Travis
Nicholas Braun – Billy Ray
Stephen Root – Sheriff Wynan

The host reviews were just slightly mixed.  Tony was a Kevin Smith fan up through Jersey Girl but believes that Smith’s movies have not “grown up” over the years.  Darrell had to force himself to watch the movie.  Jill felt that it could have been good as one or two different movies but Smith didn’t solidify what this particular movie was going to be; things were meshed together and just didn’t work out.  Even the credits at the end were broken up into three groups (Sex – Religion – Politics).  All of them did agree that the performances by Michael Parks and John Goodman were fantastic.

Red State was billed as a horror movie, but once you get past the three teenage boys being captured by the Five Points Trinity Church, there is no more “horror.”  When the phone rings and wakes up Agent Keenan, this introduces almost a “second” movie.  The violence from this point on is more akin to an action movie than a horror movie.

This same dividing line, the introduction of Agent Keenan, also divides the two political statements in the movie; that of religion and that of the government.

The hosts all agreed that there are two elements of evil in this movie (Cooper and the government) but neither is the one true monster. The hero is Agent Keenan but was he truly redeemed at the end?  Yes, he was.

Darrell didn’t like the hand held camera shots, he found it very distracting and thought it didn’t add anything to the filming.  Tony thought there was too much off-screen violence; he wanted to have a more visceral reaction to the film.  Jill questioned if Smith’s message was that we (the audience) are being duped… the media portrays all of these right-winged groups as monsters but the real ones still exist in the shadows and we’re being distracted from what the real monsters are doing.

Darrell brought up that Samuel L. Jackson was considered for the role that eventually went to John Goodman.

Smith wrote the role of Pastor Cooper for Michael Parks after seeing his performance in From Dusk Till Dawn.  Smith said that if Parks had not agreed to be in the film, he would have dropped the project entirely.

Smith did not initially know that Michael Parks was a country singer early in his career (1960s & 1970s).  Many of the country-gospel songs sung in the film were suggested by Parks during filming.  Three of the six songs listed in the soundtrack were performed by Parks.  After the film was completed, Parks re-recorded the songs onto an album.

Smith had stated that the original ending of Red State continued through with the trumpets signaling the Rapture.  After Cooper tells Keenan to shoot him, Cooper’s chest explodes, followed by the remaining family members’ chests and the government agents’ chests exploding one by one. During these deaths, the ground shakes and splits, and Keenan curls up on the ground and closes his eyes. When he opens his eyes he sees the last agent killed with a giant sword coming out of his chest, which is being wielded by an enormous armored angel. The angel looks at Keenan, puts a finger to his lips, and says “Shhhhh”. The angel then flies off into the sky, and as the angel banks out of the picture the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse descend.

It has been widely acknowledged that there are ten “easter eggs” in this film.  One is known, but the remaining nine will only be discussed by Smith once they are discovered by fans.  I searched online for quite some time but I couldn’t find if any one had uncovered any of the other easter eggs.  The first one is that Sheriff Wynan enters and exits the film with a shot to the face.  Tony wonders if another one is that Keenan was named after hockey coach Mike Keenan, as Smith is a well-known hockey fan.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Jill

This episode was recorded: 1/11/2012

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• David
• Darrell

This episode was recorded: 1/4/2012

Tony’s Interesting Point (TIP):

• Note what David says at the end of this about Kathy Bates… then make sure you listen to what he says about her in the next episode.

Your Producers for this episode:

• Tony
• David
• Darrell
• Jill
• Charles

This episode was recorded: December 28, 2011.

Lena’s Noteworthy points:

• David has never seen ANY of the Rocky movies.
• David brought up Star Trek TNG Ambient Engine Noise (Idling for 24 hrs)
• Tony brought up Taking the Hobbits to Isengard 10 hours

Hosts for this episode:

• Tony
• David
• Darrell
• Jill

This episode was recorded 12/21/11.

Hosts:

• Tony
• David
• Darrell
• Jill

Thanks to Lena for helping out with the show notes!

Here is a link to the article discussed during the last half of the episode:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/advanced-batman-theory-why-nolan-will-kill-bruce-wayne/

This episode was recorded: 12/7/2011

• Tony
• David
• Darrell
• Sam

This episode was recorded on  11/23/11, Skanksgiving!

Tony

David

Darrell

This episode was recorded: 11/30/11.

• Tony
• Darrell
• Scott

This episode was recorded 11/16/11.

• Tony
• David
• Darrell

This episode was recorded on 11/9/11.

Your producers for this episode are:

• Tony
• David
• Darrell

This episode was recorded 11/2/11.

Enjoy!

• Tony
• David
• Darrell

This episode was recorded: 10/26/11

• Tony
• David
• Darrell

This episode was recorded 10/19/11.