Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Episode 10: The Muppets

Timeline:
·         0:00 - Rest In Peace, Patrice O'Neal
·         0:46 - Paul Simon - Me And Julio Down By The School Yard
·         1:16 - Intro, "The Muppets" discussion
·         17:52 - Stuff Chris Watched (Hugo [kinda], The Simpsons)
·         19:53 - Stuff Matt Watched (Dexter)
·         20:49 - Stuff Kat Watched (Parks & Recreation, The Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen, Dr. Who)
·         28:22 - Video game stuff
·         34:53 - Outro, Starship - We Built This City

This episode is dedicated to Patrice O'Neal.

Links:

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Review: The Muppets (2011), dir. James Bobin

The following review is spoiler free and is meant to be read BEFORE seeing the movie, as opposed to the upcoming podcast episode, which will contain spoilers and an in-depth discussion of this movie

The Muppets is a hard movie to judge objectively. I don’t think it’s a great movie because it can be slow at times. Some of the humor falls a little too flat as well. The Muppets is self-aware in a way that is cute, but comes dangerously close to being too cheesy.

However, The Muppets is more than a movie. The Muppets is a piece of nostalgia that isn’t draped in irony or cynicism (much like I Love The 80’s seemed to be). It is a reminder of an important aspect of many of our childhoods. It takes us back to a time of innocence and wonder. It makes us feel happy. Most of what I loved about this movie had to do with The Muppets themselves, and not with the movie.

After all, in my mind, a movie should be self-contained. Much like The Passion of the Christ or the Harry Potter series, the movie is meaningless if you have no frame of reference. The Passion of the Christ, Harry Potter, and The Muppets do nothing to help any viewers who are not familiar with the source material, and The Muppets will suffer for it if anybody goes into it not knowing just what is so special about the Muppets.

Some jokes will work, and the celebrity cameos are brilliant in every way, but most of the references will leave those unfamiliar with the history with nothing to grasp onto.

Now, if it feels like I am being too down on this movie, I will elaborate that I loved the experience of watching this movie as a fan of the Muppets. It had everything I had ever wanted to see from the Muppets since I last watched them regularly (over 20 years at this point). So while I think it was an okay movie, it was an amazing experience as a Muppet fan.

If you grew up watching the Muppets, you need to see The Muppets; if you did not, then you can skip this one.

Rating:
««½
 (2.5/4)

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Bonus Episode: Planes, Trains & Automobiles... and other BS (guest Matt "Saint Mort" Kelly)

Timeline:
  • 0:00 - The Yardbirds - Train Kept A Rollin'
  • 0:30 - "Planes, Trains & Automobiles Discussion, interspersed with many digressions
  • 54:26 - Steve Miller Band - Jet Airliner

This episode is a bonus episode, and there are no attempts at structure or discipline. Okay, there are ATTEMPTS at structure and discipline... I just failed. Please enjoy this tribute to Planes, Trains & Automobiles. We discuss John Candy, Steve Martin, and how much I suck as a person because I forgot that John Hughes wrote the Vacation movies (among other reasons).

Monday, November 14, 2011

Episode 9: Immortals

Timeline:
  • 0:00 - Spoiler Warning, KISS - God of Thunder
  • 0:30 - Intro, "Immortals" discussion
  • 11:11 - Stuff Matt Watched (Trick 'r Treat, Blue Velvet, Human Centipede II)
  • 19:07 - Stuff Kat Watched (The Lookout)
  • 22:36 - Stuff Chris Watched (30 Rock, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
  • 25:56 - Outro, Queen - Who Wants to Live Forever

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Review: Immortals (2011), dir. Tarsem Singh Dhandwar

The following review is spoiler free and is meant to be read BEFORE seeing the movie, as opposed to the upcoming podcast episode, which will contain spoilers and an in-depth discussion of this movie

Tarsem’s Immortals is not a worthless film. To call it that would be disingenuous. Immortals is a film with a negative net worth; worthless would imply that its net worth is zero.

Immortals is presumptuous enough to think that we’ll care what is happening. It is presumptuous enough to take itself seriously when it is impossible not to laugh at some of the ridiculous occurrences found within. At one point, a character is injured and rendered incapable of breeding. This event was met by laughter by not only me, but many others in the theater.

Of course, there are plenty of other moments that are poorly executed: a clunky romantic scene that can’t decide if it wants to be modest or titillating, and winds up being neither; a series of messengers to King Hyperion who somehow know what happens to many groups of people who are wiped out with no survivors; a magical wall that somehow makes it possible to survive a tsunami; and a not-so-rousing speech that somehow turns fleeing soldiers into enthusiastic fighters in a matter of twenty seconds. There are more moments that are terrible, but instead of taking notes during the movie, I was busy trying to find an implement to slit my wrists (I didn’t find any).

Immortals is the worst movie since Richard Kelly’s The Box. It is a worse movie than John Tucker Must Die. But I’ll throw it a bone: I liked it more than Jaws: The Revenge.

Rating:
«
 (1/4)

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Episode 8: Tower Heist

Timeline:
  • 0:00 - Dream Theater - Beyond This Life
  • 0:30 - Intro, "Tower Heist" discussion
  • 8:30 - Stuff Kat Watched (Sleepaway Camp, Dead Alive, Cabin Fever 2, Suspiria, Black Christmas, Halloween, Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice, Night of the Living Dead)
  • 12:06 - Stuff Chris Watched (The Conversation, Attack the Block, Jackie Brown, Cop Land, The Social Network)
  • 16:05 - Outro, Huey Lewis & The News - Hip to Be Square

Friday, November 4, 2011

Review: Tower Heist (2011), dir. Brett Ratner

The following review is spoiler free and is meant to be read BEFORE seeing the movie, as opposed to the upcoming podcast episode, which will contain spoilers and an in-depth discussion of this movie

Nobody has ever said “The new Brett Ratner film is out; we must sojourn to the theater and attend the first screening!” Mostly because fans of Brett Ratner a) don’t exist, and b) wouldn’t be the type of people who could form coherent sentences if they did exist. He has no visual style, no interest in developing one, and would be terrible at it if he tried.

So now that we’ve settled that Tower Heist is visually uninteresting we can move on to the story, which is uninspired. Every story beat has been hit before but this movie brings nothing new to the table. At least with Star Wars, the movie made us feel like we were watching a tried-and-true formula for the first time. Tower Heist gives us the conventional heist film… again.

I am finished calling attention to how mediocre most of the ingredients of this movie are. Now I can discuss what works: the actors. Ben Stiller, Casey Affleck, Eddie Murphy, Matthew Broderick, Gabourey Sidibe, and Alan Alda are all reasons to watch this movie. Their performances are not great, but everybody is clearly having a great time in this movie, and it can’t be argued that Eddie Murphy is a funny man.

There is nothing original here, but it wasn’t unentertaining, and it was a pleasant diversion.

Rating:
««½
(2.5/4)