This week on the podcast, Glenn and Daniel unwittingly produce an abundance of pull-quotes for the marketing of Zack Snyder‘s latest disposable superhero mashup. Samples for the press include, “Unrelentingly grim,” “Gal Gadot is in this movie,” and “Supes could’ve blasted his medulla oblongata”(50:38).
May contain NSFW language.
FilmWonk rating: 5.5/10 (Daniel); 3/10 (Glenn)
Show notes:
Music for this episode is the original 1966 Batman TV series theme song. And we end with “Kryptonite” by Three Doors Down.
This week on the podcast, Glenn and Daniel had an intense, lengthy, thematically trenchant discussion about Minions. Then some villainous hackers struck and we lost most of it. So here are some highlights! (03:03).
This show may contain NSFW language.
FilmWonk rating: N/A
Show notes:
Music for tonight’s episode is “My Generation” by The Who.
Listen above, or download: Minions(right-click, save as, or click/tap to play on a non-flash browser)
This week on the podcast, Glenn and Daniel take a leisurely stroll through a pretty well-executed genre exercise by writer/director Scott Frank (The Lookout). (41:39).
May contain NSFW language.
FilmWonk rating: 7 out of 10
Show notes:
Music for tonight’s episode is Nouela‘s cover of “Black Hole Sun“, from the film’s trailer.
Joining us for this week’s episode is Seattle artist Jason B., who will happily sell you a delightful pop-art print (or a mug) of Daniel’s mug here. Check out his other artwork and blog over at Catastrophic Shift.
The two detective characters that were name-dropped in the film were Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe (created by Raymond Chandler, whom we mistakenly mentioned instead).
We referred to a recent Cracked article about a convicted drug smuggler, now out of prison, who is now a professional speaker – that was this one, from Brian O’Dea. But we actually mixed in a detail from this article (from an anonymous writer), about how drug dealers are often not the people you expect.
We referred to the lackluster success rate of Alcoholics Anonymous – for reference, check out this NPR interview with Dr. Lance Dodes, who claims that AA’s success rate is as low as 5-10%.
Listen above, or download: A Walk Among the Tombstones(right-click, save as, or click/tap to play on a non-flash browser)
This week on the podcast, Glenn and Daniel screen a subpar Sex Tape from director Jake Kasdan, and a cast they usually enjoy, including Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, and Rob Lowe. What went so horribly, tragically, erotically wrong with this film? Tune in below – and then stay tuned as we’re joined by FilmWonk’s senior Obscure Film Correspondent, Rebekah O’Brien, who joins us to review The Purge: Anarchy(53:58).
May contain NSFW language.
FilmWonk rating (Sex Tape): 2 out of 10 FilmWonk rating (The Purge: Anarchy): 7/10 (Daniel and Rebekah), 5/10 (Glenn)
Show notes:
(01:57): Sex Tape
(14:30): Spoilers for Sex Tape
(23:35): The Purge: Anarchy
(37:47): Spoilers for The Purge: Anarchy
Music for tonight’s episode is the track “Turn It Up” by Ruba, from the Sex Tape soundtrack, and the track “Drink” by Alestorm, which is not on either movie’s soundtrack, but feels anarchy-appropriate.
We made a reference to the Streisand effect, a phenomenon whereby an attempt to censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of making that information more widely publicized. Read up on it via the link above.
Update: Gizmodo just posted an amusing article about how to get your sex tape off the internet, including via a DMCA takedown notice as we discussed on the podcast.
Listen above, or download: Sex Tape, The Purge: Anarchy(right-click, save as, or click/tap to play on a non-flash browser)
This week on the podcast, Marc Webb, Andrew Garfield, and Emma Stone do whatever a spider can, and Glenn and Daniel are unimpressed. Listen below to hear why Glenn posted on Facebook that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is “a tedious, exploitative, and aggressively stupid piece of disposable, commercial tripe” (45:05).
This episode contains even more NSFW language than usual. We were not happy campers with this film.
FilmWonk rating: 3 out of 10
Show notes:
Music for this episode comes from a pair of Spider-Man TV series theme songs. The first is the classic 1967 animated series theme, with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster and music by Bob Harris. The second is from the 1994 Fox Kids’ animated series, with music by Joe Perry of Aerosmith.
We didn’t realize when we compared this to Michael Bay‘s Transformers films that TASM2 was cowritten by none other than Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, also the screenwriters behind Transformers and Transformers 2. They also cowrote last year’s Star Trek Into Darkness, which had many issues in common with this film in terms of insubstantial spectacle. We’re big fans of these guys from Alias and Fringe, but it may be time for them to return to TV for a while.
We compared the final battle with Electro to Animusic, a series of MIDI-visualization videos produced since the mid-1990s. There are plenty of them on YouTube… Here’s an example.
Matt Singer from The Dissolve and Drew McWeeny from HitFix both liked this movie better than we did, but they wrote a pair of excellent thinkpieces about what an empty spectacle like this film means for the future of cinema:
New to the series? Check out our HIMYM Episode Skip List here!
In this special TV edition of the FilmWonk Podcast, Glenn and Daniel take a deep dive into one of their favorite sitcoms, How I Met Your Mother, created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, which recently concluded its ninth and final season on CBS. And we had plenty to say about that ending. Spoilers for the entire series run will begin after about the 10 minute mark (55:15).
May contain some NSFW language.
Show notes:
Music for this episode comes from several original songs from the series run, including:
The structure of Season 9, and the distant origins of the main event.
SPOILERY CORRECTION: We slightly flubbed the order of events on this. At the beginning of Season 6, Ted was revealed to be attending a wedding where he would meet The Mother. At the end of Season 6, Barney is revealed to be the groom. At the end of Season 7, Robin is revealed to be the bride. In Season 8, Robin is revealed to be having second thoughts, and Ted decides to move to Chicago.
Robin’s career vs. happiness
The “Urkelizing” of Barney Stinson
Our alternate structure for Season 9, assuming we keep the same ending.
Running gags/jokes/mythology
How well will the show hold up over time?
Correction: The final season was 24 episodes, not 22.
Correction: We made a pithy (and inaccurate) reference to Ted…mingling…with the Mother’s old roommate, Cindy. They had one date, which ended badly – while they made amends in a later episode, nothing further happened between them.
We referred to Cristin Milioti‘s lovely rendition of “La Vie En Rose” – we didn’t include it on the podcast, but it is available on YouTube as of this writing.
The long-term bet between Lily and Marshall was as follows: Marshall bet that Ted would end up with Robin. In the final episode, he is shown to pay off Lily on the day of Ted’s wedding to the mother, indicating that he lost the bet. Presumably, a refund might ensue sometime in 2030.
Listen above, or download: How I Met Your Mother(right-click, save as, or click/tap to play on a non-flash browser)
This week on the podcast, Glenn and Daniel take another angry departure from their original screening plans to check out the latest pretender to the Hunger Games throne, Divergent. Will Shailene Woodley prove a worthy contender, or will she be taken out with slings and arrows in the first round? Find out below (37:40).
May contain some NSFW language.
FilmWonk rating: 5 out of 10
Show notes:
Music for tonight’s episode is “Beating Heart” by Ellie Goulding
and “I Won’t Let You Go” by Snow Patrol, both from the film’s soundtrack.
CORRECTION: It is Lake Michigan, but the Chicago pier in question is called “Navy Pier”, not “Fisherman’s Wharf” (the latter of which is in San Francisco).
This week on the podcast, Glenn and Daniel take a deep dive into historical whimsy in Wes Anderson‘s latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel(34:00).
May contain some NSFW language.
FilmWonk rating: 8 out of 10
Show notes:
Music for tonight’s episode was the track Canto at Gabelmeister’s Peak, from the film’s original score by Alexandre Desplat.
Correction: The conversation between Jude Law and F. Murray Abraham takes place in the 1960s, not the 1980s.
We referred to the historic Empress Hotel in Victoria, B.C. as a visual reference for this film. According to Wikipedia, two real hotels in Hungary and the Czech Republic were influences, as well as archive images from the Library of Congress.
Alas, my epidemiological French vocabulary isn’t what it used to be… Grippe is the French word for influenza, not measles.
The term “bellhop” does indeed come from a slightly demeaning etymology. “Hop to it, I rang a bell” is an accurate summary of its origins.
Listen above, or download: The Grand Budapest Hotel(right-click, save as, or click/tap to play on a non-flash browser)
This week on the podcast, Glenn and Daniel bear witness to Luc Besson’s latest take on “An Aging American Action Star in Paris”, featuring Kevin Costner in 3 Days to Kill.
Spoiler alert: We’re not shy about our disdain for this film, and we are a bit more lax than usual about concealing plot details.
Check out our discussion below (28:58).
May contain some NSFW language.
FilmWonk rating: 2.5 out of 10
Show notes:
Music for tonight’s episode features Edith Piaf‘s “Non, je ne regrette rien”, and MC Solaar‘s “Sauvez le monde”.
Sarah Silverman was indeed credited as “Raving Bitch” in the 2000 Christopher McQuarrie film, The Way of the Gun. She appears directly below another actress credited as “Sloppy Prostitute”.
We also referred to a 2002 film featuring Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock working for the “Dumb CIA”- that film was Bad Company, directed by Joel Schumacher (not Besson).
I couldn’t find a French legal citation, but I was able to find several references to the French squatters law, all quite similar in that they suggest that squatters cannot be evicted in winter. More info on EU squatting law here.
Listen above, or download: 3 Days to Kill(right-click, save as, or click/tap to play on a non-flash browser)
Movies, Podcasts, Kevin Costner, 3 Days to Kill, Luc Besson, McG, Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld
This week on the podcast, Glenn and Daniel are pleasantly surprised by another unnecessary remake of a 1980s film that manages to be a little bit more than the sum of its parts.
Check out our discussion below (49:00).
May contain some NSFW language.
FilmWonk rating: 6.5 out of 10
Show notes:
Music for tonight’s episode includes the track “First Day” from the RoboCop (2014) soundtrack, composed by Pedro Bromfman. It also includes a brief snippet from the original 1988 RoboCop theme song, composed by the late, great Basil Poledouris. I kept this cut brief because the soundtrack is out of print, so I was unfortunately unable to find a decent digital copy of the original track.
We made a brief reference to philosopher Jeremy Bentham‘s concept of the Panopticon – you can read more on Wikipedia if you’re interested in the topic.
“The subjects were not necessarily consciously aware of their decision until they were about to move, but the cortex showing they were planning to move became activated a full 7 seconds prior to the movement. This supports prior research that suggests there is an unconscious phase of decision-making. In fact many decisions may be made subconsciously and then presented to the conscious bits of our brains. To us it seems as if we made the decision, but the decision was really made for us subconsciously.”
Listen above, or download: RoboCop(right-click, save as, or click/tap to play on a non-flash browser)
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