Episode 7 - 15 - 13

This weekend a fat asshole was found not guilty for murdering the unarmed teenager he murdered. We, on the other hand, saw a live-action anime where monsters fought robots. The Japanese girl from Babel and a reanimated Heath Ledger pilot an Eva...sorry...a Macross...sorry, a Jaeger and battle some monsters, an honest-to-god anime made non-animated. I'm starting to lose some of the geek hero-worship for Guillermo del Toro. The man can do sets and effects like a boss, but his writing can be infantile and nerdy in the worst ways.

We heard music from the following:

Back to the Future, 1985 - Alan Silvestri
Men in Black III, 2012 - Danny Elfman
Godzilla films - various
The Mysterious Island, 1961 - Bernard Herrmann

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Episode 7 - 8 - 13

After a Fourth of July filled with explosions and hot dogs, sometimes simultaneously, we basked in the collective schadenfreude of the Lone Ranger remake's dismal performance at the box office and used the occasion to reflect on the state of the blockbuster today and Johnny Depp's decline from Dead Man to Tonto-tarded.

I reviewed the horror anthology VHS 2...which had almost no VHS in it. While the "films" framed in the story were found on a VHS tape, they were very explicitly shown to be made with digital cameras. I thought this kinda whizzed away the whole nostalgic focus (if not the point) of the original, which, while not groundbreaking, had an interesting framing device. That being said, a couple of the films in this sequel were probably better than anything in the original, it just didn't have a convincing meta.

We heard music from the following:

Kill Them All and Come Back Alone, 1968 - Francesco de Masi
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, 2003 - Klaus Bedelt
Dead Man, 1995 - Neil Young

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Episode 7 - 1 - 13

Jim Kelly died. A Raccoons live-action film starring Will Forte, Amanda Peet, and Dash Mihok was greenlit. The Boom Operator dished on his film experience on Greater.

To the Wonder: I'm a fan of Malick's, but this is still one I could only sparsely admire, and purely from an intellectual standpoint rather than an emotional one. The writing was fine, but the prancing and oblique cuddling really took me out of it after a while. I'm not sure. On paper this was no different than previous films, which I've pretty universally admired. Maybe I'm just finally tired of this wide-angle schtick and Malick's lonesome search for meaning in the openness of the American West. Bah.

Tonight we heard music from:

Enter the Dragon, 1973 - Lalo Schifrin
Black Belt Jones, 1974 - Dennis Coffey
Tree of Life, 2011 - Alexandre Desplat
The Thin Red Line, 1998 - Hans Zimmer

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Episode 6 - 24 -13

Reviews of Monsters University, Stoker, Hatchet III, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, Now You See Me, World War Z, Before Midnight.

We heard music from:

The Omega Man, 1971 - John Granier

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Episode 5 - 13 - 13

After a brief tragic delay to allow for The Boom Operator to do some actual Boom Operatin' for a local film here in and around town(!) we're back with reviews of Iron Man 3, Mud (another A-State pride film) and the remake of Maniac. We also had to pay homage to Ray Harryhausen, whose stop-motion gewgaws and monsters enlivened so many of us growing up.

As for Maniac: I have no idea why anyone thought William Lustig's film needed to be remade, except by the horror-crazed French Aja/Lavasseur/Khalfoun, who have the love and influence to make good filmmakers, but not the actual ability. Elijah Wood is not as nasty and disturbing as Joe Spinell, which dampens some of the effect, but the slicker production and better core also highlight what made the original memorable. Still didn't justify a remake, but there you go.

Mud: The Boom Operator thought this Arkansas film was a good take on Southern culture, steered by career-defining performances from Matthew McConnaughey and Ray McKinnon.

Iron Man III: Although I enjoy the American national metaphor-interplay in the Iron Man movies, I did not like this one. Shane Black's dialogue didn't get any good deployment, nor did the Iron Man: Extremis storyline, and there just wasn't enough good in the overlong, visually bombastic story. The Iron Man trilogy was always more interesting to talk about than to actually watch, overall.


We heard music from the following:

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, 1958 - Bernard Herrmann
Mysterious Island, 1961 - Bernard Herrmann
The Chipmunk Adventure, 1987 - Randy Edelman
Chain Reaction, 1996 - Jerry Goldsmith

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Episode 4 - 29 - 13

Lords of Salem: Rob Zombie, once again, can do absolutely nothing except trot out a cast of his wife and friends and lovingly ape the styles and environments of his favorite filmmakers. Lords of Salem may be his most visually and aesthetically impressive film to date, but it also never rises above pastiche and reference. The individual sequences were great - Kenneth Anger meets Ken Russell, but don't have a narrative to give them context and heft.

We heard music from the following:

Suspiria, 1977 - Goblin
Delta Force, 1986 - Alan Silvestri
Iron Man, 2008 - Ramin Djawadi
Bedknobs and Broomsticks, 1971 - Various

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Episode 4 - 22 - 13

On this week's show we discuss the downfall of physical media, as we pour one out for the closing of one of our local entertainment superstores.

The Place Beyond the Pines was reviewed by the Boom Operator this week, and was very much a movie in three acts, two of which were fairly interesting and drew you in only to be laughably disappointed by the wrap of act three. Can we please cast Ryan Gosling in something other than the crazy silent type role? You know, all of his characters would have restraining orders on them in the real world...but since he's sexy...that's another story.

Regarding Oblivion: A curious mixture of over-explaining things best left to our imagination and over-explaining plot points that were far too obvious. On the plus side the visuals, Icelandic scenery, and Tangerine Dreamy score by M83 created an interesting palette. The weak side, sadly, is what makes (and will make) most sci-fi like this unmemorable, the inability to properly handle a complicated, disturbing concept (cloning), not because this film came down on the optimistic side of a bioethics issue for once, but that it did so shallowly. Who cares if Tom Cruise #2345 dies? We have a spare!

We heard music from:

King Solomon's Minds, 1985 - Jerry Goldsmith
Flashpoint, 1984 - Tangerine Dream
The Place Beyond the Pines, 2013 - Mike Patton
Oblivion, 2013 - M83

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