Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Episode 25: The Avengers

Episode 25 is finally up and ready for consumption! And since I will be vacationing in the Outer Banks for ten days, we will return with new episodes within the first week of June.

  • 0:00 - Rush - Dreamline
  • 0:30 - Intro, "The Avengers" discussion
  • 18:28 - What Chris Watched (Thank You For Smoking, The Descendants, Black Swan)
  • 22:17 - What Kat Watched (Modern Family, Parks and Recreation, Battlestar Galactica, Frisky Dingo)
  • 30:02 - Next on Celluloid Freaks & Outro
  • 32:27 - Billy Joel - Laura
Links:

Monday, May 14, 2012

Coming Soon: The Avengers podcast episode

Hello fans!

I'm currently editing our Avengers podcast and I will likely have it up late Tuesday evening. The movie has been out for two weekends, but it's not likely to be out of theaters anytime soon, what with it earning $1 billion dollars in 10 days!

It's an exciting time for Celluloid Freaks, actually! We've had a massive spike in podcast subscribers and I would like to thank each an every one of you for listening to our shows. I also appreciate your patience while I take the time to edit each episode. Given my hectic schedule it is quite difficult to get the show up within hours  after recording it as I have done in the past. Lately it can take several days, but it's always pleasing to see the download numbers after an episode posts; you fans are wonderful.

And feel free to email any suggestions, comments, constructive criticisms, death threats, etc, to celluloidfreaks@gmail.com.

I would like to encourage our fans to send us their top 5 and bottom 5 movies of all time for us to read on the air and discuss!

Happy Mond-- oh God, I can't even finish that sentence. Just have a great week; it will be Friday very soon!

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Review: The Avengers (2012), dir. Joss Whedon


The following review is spoiler free and is meant to be read BEFORE seeing the movie.

The Avengers is the kind of movie that is made for people who like movies. It has drama, comedy, action, suspense, and spectacle. It has good characterization, good visuals, good effects, and good dialogue. And at two hours and twenty minutes, it never once feels like it is too slow or it has gone on for too long; the pacing is fantastically perfect.

This ensemble cast is treated as if each one of them is the lead at all points during the movie. I couldn’t even fathom how difficult it must have been to not given anybody short shrift in this one. There are six Avengers and they all feel as if they could be the lead of this movie. Nobody outshines anybody else, and that’s even considering the not-so-super-superheroes such as Black Widow or Hawkeye.

One of my favorite things about The Avengers is how each of the Avengers needs to face off against each other at certain points during the movie, thus proving how evenly matched they are against each other throughout the runtime. By the time the movie gets to the point where they are all fighting, together, against a threat, you know their prowess in battle. This helps for anybody who hasn’t seen ALL of the previous Marvel movies such as Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger.

I saw this movie with three of my friends, and one of the things that I didn’t notice but was pointed out to me was that The Avengers did not tell us things as an audience; it showed us things. It’s easy to realize when a movie is insulting your intelligence (Christopher Nolan has a habit of explaining exactly what the themes in his movies are), but I have a habit of taking for granted movies that have faith in me to figure things out for myself. I need to make it a point to realize when a movie doesn’t treat me like I can’t understand it without its help. I love it when a movie doesn’t feel the need to hold my hand.

So, The Avengers is not an important movie with big ideas and a big message. It is merely a tightly edited, near-perfectly crafted piece of entertainment. I’m not giving The Avengers my highest score because it’s on par with The Godfather (it’s not), but because at a certain point all movies above a certain tier aren’t worth measuring any higher. There is a lot range of qualities in movies I give with the highest star ratings, because after a movie reaches a certain level of greatness, it isn’t worth it to try rank it any higher. The Avengers is just great. It is a great movie.

Rating:
««««
 (4/4)

Friday, May 4, 2012

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Please subscribe to our iTunes feed so that you may enjoy every new episode as it comes out! The show notes will still be posted to our blog page here.


Episode 24: First Blood (still great after 30 years)

Timeline:

  • 0:00 - Spoiler Warning, Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush - All Along The Watchtower
  • 0:30 - Intro, "First Blood" discussion
  • 14:05 - What Matt watched (A Clockwork Orange, Casablanca, The Man From Earth, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Sherlock)
  • 19:00 - What Kat watched (Big Bang Theory)
  • 21:35 - Game of Thrones diversion
  • 24:35 - What Kat watched (Battlestar Galactica)
  • 27:14 - What Chris wathced (Battlestar Galactica)
  • 30:30 - Next week on Celluloid Freaks & Outro
  • 30:54 - Ramones - Surfin Bird


Links:
First Blood
A Clockwork Orange
Casablanca
The Man From Earth
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Sherlock
Big Bang Theory
Game of Thrones
Battlestar Galactica
Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush - Tales of the Unexpected
Ramones - Rocket to Russia