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IGN Digigods Podcast Episode 300
53 Plays12 years ago
It's Giveaway time! Plus, GI Joe: Retaliation and Blu-rays featuring Elvis Presley, Toby McGuire and Venus and Serena Williams.
Digigods Podcast, 07/30/13 (MP3) -- 29.0 MB
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In this episode, the Gods discuss:
- 3 Businessmen (DVD)
- Aerosmith: Rock For The Rising Sun (Blu-ray)
- An Affair of the Heart (Blu-ray)
- The Andy Hardy Film Collection Volume 2 (1937-1958) (DVD-R)
- Angelina Ballerina: Mousical Medleys (DVD)
- Ben 10 Omniverse: Heroes Rise (DVD)
- Benji - 4 Movie Set (DVD)
- Bert Stern: Original Mad Man (DVD)
- Between Us (DVD)
- Beyonce: Baby and Beyond (DVD)
- Bus Stop (Blu-ray)
- Carnival Story (DVD)
- Cloudburst (DVD)
- Dora & Blue's Clues Double Feature: Dora's Musical School Days and Blue's Big Musical Movie (DVD)
- The Fog Collector's Edition (Blu-ray)
- Foolish Wives / The Man You Love To Hate (Blu-ray)
- GI Joe: Retaliation (Blu-ray 3D)
- Graceland (Blu-ray)
- Harlow (Blu-ray)
- The Ice Storm (Blu-ray)
- The Incredible Melting Man (Blu-ray)
- JFK: A New World Order (Blu-ray/DVD)
- Koryo Saram: The Unreliable People (DVD)
- The Legend of Korra: Book One: Air (Blu-ray)
- Let's Learn: Colors (DVD)
- Liberty's Kids: The Complete Series (DVD)
- London: The Modern Babylon (DVD)
- Love For Levon: A Benefit to Save the Barn (DVD)
- Love Me Tender (Blu-ray)
- Martha And Friends: Summer Fun (DVD)
- Meet the Small Potatoes (DVD)
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season Three (DVD)
- Monsuno: Power (DVD)
- Niagara: 60th Anniversary (Blu-ray)
- Once Is Not Enough (Blu-ray)
- The Ring (DVD)
- Robotech: 2-Movie Collection (The Shadow Chronicles, Love Live Alive) (DVD)
- Rushlights (DVD)
- Sesame Street: Arts and Crafts Playdate (DVD)
- Solomon Burke: Live At Montreux 2006 (DVD)
- Summer and Smoke (Blu-ray)
- Syria Behind the Lines (Frontline) (DVD)
- Teenage MutantÊNinja Turtles: Enter Shredder (DVD)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 3 (DVD)
- Turtle's Tale 2: Sammy's Escape from Paradise (Blu-ray/DVD)
- Venus and Serena (Blu-ray)
- War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security State (DVD)
- Wiener Dog Nationals (DVD)
- WUSA (Blu-ray)
Please also visit CineGods.com.
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:05
Speaker
From
Introductions and Podcast Updates
00:00:06
Speaker
the outer limits, it's the IGN Digigods. So please welcome two demons with a glass hand, Wade Major and Mark Kaiser.
00:00:27
Speaker
And yes, we are going to eventually get around to doing all the new intros, but right now we need outros. The intros we'll do when we have time to hook up with Corey, but this week I've got a high school reunion and I'm going to Texas for wedding. We have outros. We're getting more outros, but send us more. Makoto Tsukushima, send us some outros. Eric Altieri, send us some outros.
Contest Winners Announced
00:00:46
Speaker
And by the way, by the way, speaking of Makoto, Makoto was one of the three winners of the Erase DVD contest, by the way. What? Yes, he was. Makoto Tsukushima, along with, who's in Canada, by the way. Yay, Canada. And blame Canada. And then Brian Langenwalter in Mesa, Arizona, and Brad Kaufman in Lancaster, PA. They all won the Erase DVD. The bad news for them is that they are not eligible for this week's giveaway.
00:01:15
Speaker
We have another giveaway? We have another giveaway. I was a very special giveaway, Mark. You are very generous, Wade. It's a very special giveaway. It's one that's near and dear to my heart, as we will explain later. So this is a giveaway you will not be explaining now? No. Well, here's the thing, Wade. We have a lot to talk about.
00:01:37
Speaker
We do. We have a ton of things to talk about. We got little Francis Ford Coppola to talk about. We got some great classic movies this week. The new movies this week.
Movie Reviews: Classics and Favorites
00:01:44
Speaker
I'm not going to say they blow. There just aren't a lot of them. Also, one of the great, horrible movies of my youth. Which would be? Is now on DVD, not Blu-ray. That's kind of lame. Well, anyway. Wade, do you want to try what I made? What'd you make?
00:02:02
Speaker
Well, I made something that I like and everybody else I've given it to doesn't like. So I'm letting you decide whether it's good or not. Just so you understand, I spend the better part of every day dealing with urine and fecal matter. So whatever, there's nothing that you can give me that's gonna gross me out. I don't eat it, obviously, but you know, I'm exposed to a great amount, to large amounts of bodily fluids and feces every day.
00:02:28
Speaker
Well, I'm not sure how that relates to what I'm about to give you, but there you go.
Olive Oil Cake Controversy
00:02:32
Speaker
So I made an olive oil cake. Now an olive oil cake. What's a hum? Olive oil cake. An olive oil cake. Yes. It's a cake. It's just a flat cake. It's not like a big German chocolate cake. But instead of butter, you use olive oil. I see. So it's a very moist, tender crumb. Would you like a piece of this?
00:02:52
Speaker
Sure. Now I'm going to give you a small piece of it because everybody hates it. So I'm going to waste it. Okay, go ahead. If you like it, I'm happy to give you more. Fine, whatever. But I'll give you a small piece for now. Go fetch the cake. I'm going to go fetch the cake. Fetch the cake. But don't talk about this yet because this is awesome. I know, I know. Talk about something else. Okay. Well, I go get the cake. I will do that. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go through the through the kid vid. What am I going to do? The perfect time for me to get up and leave. There you go. You know, The Legend of Korra, book one.
00:03:19
Speaker
is out on Blu-ray and DVD. We got the Blu-ray. And if you're not familiar with this, this is a spin-off of sorts from Avatar The Last Airbender. Not to be confused with Avatar, the James Cameron film, but this is the other Avatar, the original Avatar that was made into a terrible M. Night Shyamalan film called The Last Airbender. The animated Avatar The Last Airbender is actually pretty cool.
00:03:42
Speaker
And this is... It all exists in the same universe.
Kid Vid Spotlight: Legend of Korra
00:03:47
Speaker
It's quite a nice Blu-ray, actually. That's olive oil cake. Once you taste the olive oil cake, again, olive oil cake is just cake, but instead of butter, don't smell it. Just take a big bite out of it. Smells like pound cake. Okay, fine. Just taste it for crying out Jesus. There you go.
00:04:05
Speaker
Jesus Christ. No one wants to hear you chew. Just say whether you like it. Say you're eating it. Would you like me to talk about something while you're eating that? I'm not talking about kid vid. Because you have a kid, that's all you. That's all you. You know what? Here. I would move on to something else. I got a bunch of music stuff. Okay. Now you have to tell me honestly whether you like it or not. There you go. Do the music stuff. I'm doing the music stuff a Wade enjoys, or possibly doesn't enjoy, my olive oil cake.
00:04:31
Speaker
Okay, Aerosmith, they have been around forever. We love Aerosmith. Thank you. Everybody hates it, but my mother didn't like it. Our friend Phil didn't like it. Well, fine. But you, I like it.
00:04:50
Speaker
I like it. It's a very moist, tender crumb. It definitely has a different texture than butter. Very nice. Thank you very much. Damn it. God, it took forever to find someone to like this damn freaking cake. Anyway, okay. I'm happy to give you more. I just gave you a small piece because nobody's been liking it.
00:05:07
Speaker
I will have more later.
00:05:27
Speaker
This is a tsunami, a 2011 Japanese tsunami benefit concert. We have Love in an Elevator, Living on the Edge, Monkey on my Back, Toys in the Attic, lots of stuff you've heard about, Walk This Way, and a couple bonus tracks. So it's good stuff. Rock for the Rise and Sun benefit concert with Aerosmith. A Fair of the Heart is a look at,
00:05:53
Speaker
is a look at, an up-close look at, Wade. Rick Springfield. Totally. So into this. Now, Rick Springfield had one hit. And it's a great hit. And come on, who doesn't love Jesse's Girl? Come on, folks, give it up for Jesse's Girl. Totally. Rick Springfield actually had two careers, as you, I'm sure, know, or maybe don't know, actually. He was a soap opera actor for many years. And he also had a pop career in the 70s, or in the 80s. And Jesse's Girl, a terrific song, one of the 80s classics, was his big hit, his only big hit, really. He had a couple of other good ones, actually.
00:06:22
Speaker
Have you seen that video of him playing Jesse's girl, unplugged, with Mike Huckabee backing him up? Oh, in Fox News, Mike Huckabee? Yeah. I have not. It's kind of weird. Just saying. Just pointing it out. It was a very strange thing. I never expected to see that. So anyway.
00:06:41
Speaker
and it's it's a documentary about uh... affair the heart is a documentary about every spring but it's kind of enjoyable you know cuz lucky he's a good guy he means well he had a moment he's been acting for years and it's kinda he hasn't seen that the type of guy they would really want a full-blown documentary but you know what now that it's here i i don't know it's kind of nice i'm kind of in it uh... affair the heart to check it out move this down from saving them for last salman berk live at montre two thousand six i saw salman berk at um...
00:07:24
Speaker
Now, Bumbershoot still goes on. Now, when I saw Bumbershoot, and I think it was like 2000, I don't know, it was like 10 years ago, Salmond Burke was there, he was great. Salmond Burke is that great blues singer who, he actually died recently, he would sing all the songs on a throne. And I think the reason he would sing all the songs on a throne is not because he, you know, was like some regal guy, it's because he was gigantic fat.
00:07:32
Speaker
at Bumbershoot in Seattle about 10 years ago.
00:07:47
Speaker
And I just think he was just too heavy to stand up. He sort of folded that into his act. Folded. He folded it, so to speak. He folded it into his act. Sit on the front. But he was fantastic. Anyway, Salman Burke, Live at a Mantro 2006. He's one of the great soul singers. A lot of classic songs on this thing. Georgia On My Mind. Sit on the Dock of the Bay. Detroit City. That's how I got to Memphis. Salman Burke, Live at a Mantro. Love him. This is on DVD, not Blu-ray.
00:08:12
Speaker
Beyonce, there was a Beyonce documentary that was on HBO recently, if I'm not mistaken. This, however, is not that one. That one was called Home. This one is just called Baby and Beyond, Unauthorized Biography, Beyonce. Honestly, I would really pass on this. I think that the HBO one, although a little more self-serving, is still a better documentary. This one, you know,
00:08:37
Speaker
just like
00:08:56
Speaker
was a historian of great blues and rock and bluegrass music. He teamed up with all sorts of amazing artists over his career and Levon had a concert in 2012 that was sort of like in his honor and there are some amazing people on this thing. Roger Waters and John Mayer and Greg Allman and Jacob Dillon and
Levon Helm Tribute Concert
00:09:20
Speaker
You know, John Hyatt's on here. I just love this thing. This is great. Love for Levon. Joe Walsh and Bruce Hornsby and Mavis Staples. Ah, so good. Actually, I saw a documentary on Levon Helm at the LA Film Festival a couple of years ago called, I think it's called, Ain't Doing It For My Health, I think is what it was called.
00:09:39
Speaker
It was a terrific documentary about Levon Helm, and he is just up from the earth. This guy is just up from the soil. He is so down home and so brilliant, and unfortunately he passed away. But here, love for Leon, his 27 great songs.
00:09:55
Speaker
on two DVDs and one and two CDs. So even though it's not Blu-ray, it's still two DVDs and two CDs, which is great. So I would totally get this. If you love the band, if you love Levon Helm, check out Love for Levon. Love it. Nice. Yep. Good stuff.
00:10:11
Speaker
So wait, there you go. Done it for music? Huh? Done it for music? Unless you have something that you have been hiding from me. Well, let me finish the kid vid. Give me six minutes to blow through kid vid. Oh, you gave me a challenge. Hang on. I'm setting the old iPhone to six minutes. Here we go. Ready to roll? It might take 10, but let's try it for six. No, no. I'm going to set six. I'm going to make sure the alarm is nice and loud.
00:10:35
Speaker
Go! Alright, anyway, we were talking about Korra! Legend of Korra, Book 1, Air. This is the first time that a Nickelodeon series has been on Blu-ray. This is, of course, spin-off from The Last Airbender, Avatar The Last Airbender, except Korra, she's a girl. And it's a little bit like Milan in the world of the avatars and airbenders.
00:10:55
Speaker
It's good, commentary isn't all 12 episodes, pretty great. Looks really good. Then, also from Nickelodeon, we have got Double Pack, two DVDs in one, Musical School Days, Dora the Explorer, and Blue's big musical movie of Blue's Clues. You know, this is just for Tiny Tots, and I gotta tell ya, as much as I love being the father of a Tiny Tot, I just cannot imagine myself watching this stuff with her, so I gotta tell ya, it's still gonna be all about the Chuck Jones for me.
00:11:23
Speaker
Turtles Tale 2, Sammy's Escape from Paradise, this is a Blu-ray 3D Blu-ray and DVD combo pack. The first one of these, Turtles Tale 1, was a pretty shameless Finding Nemo ripoff. This is
00:11:41
Speaker
Not a terribly interesting sequel, but they try. They at least try to give it an interesting spin. The animation is okay, the voice characterizations are cute, and it's decent. You know, the 3D, nothing really particularly interesting there. 40 episodes of Liberty's Kids, the complete series. This is from Mill Creek. We got some other Mill Creek stuff to talk about in a little bit in the Kung Fu department, if we can get to it.
00:12:06
Speaker
You know, the Liberty's Kid thing is pretty interestingly educational. It does a good job of kind of wrapping a lot of American history into some decent animation, even though Mark hates this kind of animation because it looks very film-ation. Has that kind of look to it. But still some really good voices here. You know, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Annette Bening, Michael Douglas, Sylvester Stallone. Pretty great. That part of it is fun.
00:12:31
Speaker
And then from Cartoon Network, we have got yet another Ben 10 Omniverse, Heroes Rise. I am so tired of this Ben 10 stuff. My eyes just glaze over. My recommendation will mean nothing to you. If I curse it, it'll mean nothing to you. Your kids probably love it.
00:12:47
Speaker
Angelina Ballerina. Mouse-icle. Medleys. No way in hell is my daughter ever going to watch a mouse in a tutu. But a lot of people love the Angelina Ballerina, so there it is. If you're collecting them, go grab it. Monsoono. Power. Pretty cool. The Monsoono stuff keeps coming out, keep pumping it out. It's a touch of anime. This comes from Shout. It's one of those shows that sits kind of halfway between American animation and Japanese animation.
00:13:17
Speaker
So it's got a little bit of an anime flavor. Good action-adventure stuff. You know, Monsoono's a totally cool character, and this one is, this is Groovy. What can I tell you?
00:13:29
Speaker
Let's see, Wiener Dog Nationals, oh my gosh, this is just stunningly not good. This is not animated, but it is definitely for kids and the only thing that's worthwhile in here is the fact that Morgan Fairchild shows up in this just ridiculous movie about Dachshunds and, you know, don't pay attention to dogs, just look at Morgan Fairchild and ask yourself, how does that woman manage to not age over the course of 40 years? She hasn't aged.
00:13:57
Speaker
Season 3 of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. This is the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and oh my gosh, compared to the more recent Power Rangers shows, this thing just looks like it was made in the silent era. The costumes are horrible, the effects are ridiculous, the editing is just dreadful. I love every second of it. It's just cheese, like, it's like, it's Velveeta. It's Velveeta on DVD. Martha and friends, summer fun, wee! Mark, how freaky is that? Come on, take, it's just, add a few seconds and tell me an animated Martha Stewart does not creep you out.
00:14:26
Speaker
every sort of Martha Stewart crew, animated live action, doesn't matter. It's just terrifying. Anyway, you know, the Martha and friends is really probably the worst idea that has ever been created. And somehow creating this whole craft thing for kids with an animated Martha Stewart, I find it really sociopathic on a level I can't even describe.
00:14:48
Speaker
Meet the Small Potatoes is an adventure with potatoes. It's like Mr. Potato Head, except far less imaginative. And I've got to tell you, this thing is just totally psychotic. Who comes up with this stuff? And of all things, they actually got Jerry Bach to write the songs for this thing. Jerry Bach, who did Fiddler on the Roof. Are you kidding me? Seriously? This is nuts. Anyway, it's a bunch of animated shorts with freaking potatoes. I don't get it.
00:15:17
Speaker
I really don't get it. Anyway, speaking of arts and crafts, we got some Sesame Street arts and crafts, and this is a disc called Playdate, and I might hang on to this and do this with my daughter at some point. You know, there's some interesting little crafty things that you can do here.
00:15:38
Speaker
Very rudimentary stuff, because I'm not good with coloring books. But, you know, that's kind of where my arts and crafts skills end. And then we've got some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stuff here. We've got Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Season 3. And then we've also got Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Enter Shredder.
00:15:55
Speaker
Okay, now, the interesting thing here is that one is from Lionsgate, and the other one is from Paramount. And the one from Paramount is, of course, a Nickelodeon title, which is all CG animated, and the other one is the original hand-drawn animation. Now, I'm going to go out, and I'm going to tell you, the original Season 3, Far Superior.
00:16:14
Speaker
The Enter Shredder animation, not so great. I'm not into it. So yeah, this show has not really improved, and the new Nickelodeon stuff, I'm not so keen on. The original is much more engaging. And then lastly, yeah, we got a little more crafty stuff here, another Nickelodeon title, Let's Learn Colors, right? Oh, I'm almost done. Few seconds, just literally within seconds. Yeah, Let's Learn Colors.
00:16:44
Speaker
which includes episodes from Bubble Guppies, Dora the Explorer, Team Umizoomi, Blues Clues, and Wonder Pets. This is one of those compilation things that they always do. They'll find a theme and they'll ram a bunch of stuff together. It's not bad. And then Robotech, this is a two movie collection, The Shadow Chronicles, collector's edition, and Love Live Alive, premier release. Robotech is sort of like Transformers for adults.
00:17:11
Speaker
The Robotech stuff, I always thought was really cool. I think these are, if you're not totally into the Robotech world, this is not necessarily going to be your entry, but if you've watched every episode of the original Robotech series, this will be deeply meaningful to you. It's just deeply, deeply entrenched in that universe. What am I gonna say?
00:17:41
Speaker
We got too much else to talk about. You know what we have to talk about? We should talk about old movies. You know why? Why?
John Carpenter's The Fog Appreciation
00:17:48
Speaker
Because this is a movie I have to talk about right now. What do you have to talk about? Oh, come on. Go for it. I won't tease you anymore. Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you from 1980, John Carpenter's The Fog. For me, this is the first John Carpenter film.
00:18:07
Speaker
This is the first John Carpenter film that I remember going, God, I love these movies. It kind of was. This was the one. I mean, for a lot of people, it was Halloween, but for our generation, it wasn't so much Halloween. You know, the problem with Halloween is that the fog had like, it was scary and it was cheesy and it was low budge, but it had a lot of suspense.
00:18:26
Speaker
Halloween was like a slasher movie. True. Different, different deal. This thing's got cult written all over it. I mean, it's got the same structure as Halloween. It's a small American town and, uh, you know, Halloween felt very exploitative, right? The fog felt, you're like, okay, I get it. It's low budget. It's horror. I get what he's doing. It's the guy from Halloween, but yet it felt a little more artistic, right? It felt more cinematic, didn't it? It felt like he was, he was, you know,
00:18:51
Speaker
Well, John Houseman's in it. Yeah, I mean, it just felt more like this is something different. It's original, it's an auteur-driven horror thing. You know what I'm saying? Janet Lee is in it. I know. It's the best. It is. It's the fog. John Carpenter's the fog. And then they remade it and made a crap movie.
00:19:06
Speaker
Well, of course. Don't get me started on that. But John Carpenter does a audio commentary on this thing, which is great. And there's a new one. That's an old audio commentary. There's a new audio commentary with Adrian Barbeau and the production designer at a new interview with Jamie Lee Curtis, who stars in the film. And I cannot recommend the fog enough. It's an old film. It's a low budget film, but the Blu-ray still looks pretty good. And you just got to love all the extras, including outtakes and theatrical trailers and TV spots and photo galleries. Awesome.
00:19:35
Speaker
Anyway, John Copper is the fog. Old school thrills, folks. Old school. Love it. Well, talking about old school, you know, the year 1977, there were a lot of great movies, right? I mean, there was, you know, Star Wars and Sorcerer.
00:19:49
Speaker
That's what we think of in 1977. No, there was another genre movie in 1977 that of course completely got lost in the Star Wars thing because it kind of belongs more to the previous decade's worth of movies.
The Incredible Melting Man Review
00:20:03
Speaker
And that is writer-director William Sacks' The Incredible Melting Man.
00:20:09
Speaker
I remember I first became aware of this movie when I read a whole thing on Rick Baker and Greg Canham doing the makeup stuff in Starlog magazine and this was one of the kind of like inspire the creation of Fangoria and I remember looking at it just this disgusting horrible just you know like skull and teeth peeking through melted flesh and eyeball hanging out kind of makeup effects it was just nasty and I just thought I got to see that.
00:20:36
Speaker
And the movie itself is just terrible. But it's terrible in a wonderfully entertaining way. And the plot of The Incredible Melting Man is pretty standard. It's sort of like a zombie plot almost.
00:20:51
Speaker
You got a guy who goes to Saturn and then he comes back and he's acquired some weird disease that makes his flesh melt and he has this voracious appetite for human flesh and blood. So he becomes the incredible melting man.
00:21:07
Speaker
It's yeah, it's silly. It's it's totally stupid but You know it the effects are even though they're cheesy. They're just massively entertaining You just have to imagine that someone had an awful lot of fun playing with makeup. So wait, you ready? Yeah, I'm gonna shout factory on that one I'm gonna name for you some films other films that came out in 1977 You tell me you tell me if they're better or worse than the incredible melting man. Yeah, you ready? Just I'll give you just a few. Okay, just say the word better or worse. Okay, Annie Hall worse
00:21:37
Speaker
Close encounters. Worse. Saturday night fever. Worse. Eraser head. Better. How about this? Wait, here's the good-bye girl. Oh, same. Yeah, but does the incredible melting man, he also does not like the panties hanging on the rod. There you go. You got to know that. That's right. Demon seed.
00:21:59
Speaker
Worse. High anxiety. Better. All 1977. Yeah. Pumping iron. Worse. Pumping iron, of course, starring. Schwarzenegger Arnold. That is right. Let's see, what else? Oh, here it is, you ready? Yeah. Better or worse, The Incredible Melting Man or The Island of Dr. Moreau. Island of Dr. Moreau is worse than The Incredible Melting Man.
00:22:20
Speaker
Okay, oh, you know, okay, here's a great one. You better say- An unmarried woman? No, almost. Yeah, right? Almost. Julia? Looking for Mr. Goodbar. Ah, worse.
00:22:29
Speaker
Really? What? All 1977. By the way, I don't like hockey, but a great hockey movie came out in 1977. Of course it did. One of the best hockey movies ever. Yeah. Of course, it is Slap Shot. Yep. That is great. Totally. Oh, my God. Remember Telefon? Yes, I do. Charles Bronson? Yes. Okay, we're moving on. 20th Century Fox has released a fantastic movie on Blu-ray that I just cannot get enough of. It is Love Meets Tender.
00:22:56
Speaker
Elvis Presley and Love Me Tender. You know what? People forget, Love Me Tender is a civil war movie. I mean, we were accustomed to Elvis like, oh, he's like, they're all movies set in the 60s, they're all groovy. No, Love Me Tender is set in 1865. And it's about three brothers who don't know that the war has ended.
00:23:22
Speaker
and they steal a payroll from the Union Army and, well, the youngest brother sings songs and loves women. What can I tell you? Look, it's an Elvis Presley movie. Don't worry about anything else.
00:23:39
Speaker
If you want to see Elvis in a period film, go see it. It's kind of a riot. I thoroughly enjoy this film. And it is kind of a weird, strange Elvis anomaly and classic at the same time. You know what else is great, Mark? I have only increased my appreciation for this film over the years, even though it's not... Look, Francis Ford Coppola made a lot of masterpieces, and he made a handful of movies that are just generally entertaining and solid and not extraordinary.
00:24:06
Speaker
But Peggy Sue Got Married really does date incredibly well. I gotta say it really dates well. It's a bizarre turn for Francis Ford Coppola. I mean this is a guy who went from Apocalypse Now and The Godfather to Peggy Sue Got Married. I know.
00:24:23
Speaker
but yet it's really entertaining. I mean, the whole idea, it's a really, really charming, it's not really a time travel thing. It's like if you imagine that you had a second chance in high school, right, or whatever. It's just charming, and I gotta tell you, yeah, totally. Nick Cage and those prosthetic teeth, that just kills me.
00:24:40
Speaker
You know what else is in this is one of his earliest roles is Jim Carrey. Looking very young, because Peggy Sue is from 1986. It's just charming. And Kathleen Turner, you never really buy her as, you know, a high school age, Peggy Sue, but she is so good in it. She's just so good. I was watching her and there was something on TV, War of the Roses. Yeah. And there was a time when. I love that movie. And there was a time when Kathleen Turner was like a hottie. I know. Body Heat. Yep. A hottie. Yeah. Look at her now. Yeah.
00:25:12
Speaker
You know, Alex Cox makes weird-ass movies, dude. Alex Cox made a movie that has been out of print on DVD for quite a while, and Micro Cinema has recently cut a deal with Alex Cox to release a lot of the movies that have been out of print. One of them is Three Businessmen, which is one of his more obscure movies that is kind of famous among fans, but it never had a chance in theaters.
00:25:35
Speaker
And Three Businessmen is, it makes Repo Man look like Snow White. It's just really, really bizarre. It is a totally weird off-the-wall movie. It's like almost this bizarre
00:25:52
Speaker
inside your brain post-apocalyptic dreamscape that turns from one city into another city. These two businessmen, they're sort of lost in this weird purgatorial urban landscape. Sometimes it's Liverpool and then it's Tokyo and Hong Kong. And then they hook up with this third guy.
00:26:15
Speaker
And the whole thing is just this very weird philosophical meditation. It's a very odd movie, but it's actually really cool at the same time. If you're an Alex Cox fan, you'll totally vibe to it, because Alex Cox, he's the man, you know? He's a UCLA Bruin, what can I say? I got a root for Alex Cox. Lame. But did you know Alex Cox also, during the writer's strike of whatever it was, I was forget the year, he intentionally scabbed and got kicked out of the WGA.
00:26:45
Speaker
Haha, it's I thought that was just it's kind of gutsy in a way. I don't know if I should admire that or condemn that
00:26:51
Speaker
Wade Jean Harlow was one of the great tragic figures of the 30s. She died, I think she was about 25 or 26 when she died in the 1930s. And in 1965 there was a movie based on her life called Harlow. Carol Baker plays Harlow and this is with Martin Balsam and Red Buttons. Angela Lansbury, all of course very young. Martin Balsam was the original Dr. Rudy, six million dollar man Dr. Rudy.
00:27:19
Speaker
Really? Yeah. Martin Balsam was also one of Stanley Kubrick's original first choices for The Voice of Hal. Oh, I didn't know that. You didn't know that? I did not know that. You're serious? You didn't know that? I did not know that. Google it right now. Martin Balsam, Voice of Hal. Pretty cool. Honestly, it could not have been worse. Wow. Imagine... Well, look. Imagine Marlon Brando was Lawrence of Arabia. That nearly happened, too. Oh, my God.
00:27:42
Speaker
Anyway, this is a pretty good movie. I do like this film The life of Jean Harlow is so tragic I'm surprised that it has not been made since but then again, she's from the 30s. No one really knows who she is So there you go Harlow, it's also a very good video transfer considering it's so old A summer in smoke is based on the Tennessee Williams play and I do like this film this is
00:28:03
Speaker
stars Geraldine Page and Lawrence Harvey. And yeah, it's good stuff. Summer and Smoke. I'm going through this very fast. Andy Hardy, Film Collection, Volume 2. This is 5 Discs, 10 features featuring Andy Hardy. Andy Hardy, of course, is, you know, he was a teenage sensation back in the day. Mickey Rooney, Mickey Rooney plays Andy Hardy. We're talking the 30s and this is, he did a whole boatload of films as Andy Hardy. And this is 10 of them.
00:28:30
Speaker
and you gotta love that. Jacqueline Suzanne was one of the best-selling novelists of her era. A lot of cheesy soap opera-y stuff came from Jacqueline Suzanne. This one is called Once is Not Enough. This is with Kirk Douglas and David Jansen, George Hamilton, and Brendan DiVicaro. This is from 1975. I will be sure to miss that.
00:28:51
Speaker
I know, this is all pretty... It just sounds dreadful. Once is not enough, this is all so proper crap. And finally, we have WUSA, an interesting film with Paul Newman and his wife, Joanne Woodward, and also Anthony Perkins. This is from 1970. By the way, all this stuff is from Olive Film, and you know Wade and I are very much in favor of Olive Film.
00:29:08
Speaker
Yeah, because they do a good job of taking Forgotten films and give them very nice treatment on blu-ray Yes, wait. Anyway, Paul Newman plays a disc jockey who offers his services to a right-wing hate station That broadcast out of New Orleans and it is a political and pecans and pointed and I liked it a lot This is a kind of a forgotten film and it's called W USA. I remember liking it at the time You know, I was a little young for it, but I do remember like oh there's like this political thing going on and It's like an adult movie that my dad would like but adult movie
00:29:38
Speaker
Well, you know, it's like right wingers. Oh, hate radio. And, you know, it's like I was a little young for that. But I remember hearing about it. Not not an adult movie as in like, you know, porn. No, like Captain Spearman and his journey to the Amazon Island of Captain Spearman. I don't know. OK, on Blu-ray, we also have more blonde bombshell stuff, not just Jean Harlow. We got a couple of Marilyn Monroe movies on Blu-ray.
00:30:02
Speaker
And these are from the 20th Century Fox Studio Classics line, and this is great. Both of them absolutely terrific, one obviously better than the other. Niagara and Bus Stop. Really great transfers. Fox has done a beautiful job with a lot of their classic stuff of late.
00:30:20
Speaker
better than they had done for a few years. And this is Henry Hathaway's really, really one of his better films, Marilyn Monroe and Joseph Cotton. Just a terrific pair. And I never would have thought that those two would have chemistry together. But when you see this film, you're just like, that's just great classic movie making perfect pairing. And it's pretty great.
00:30:39
Speaker
You know, it's a honeymoon set in Niagara Falls, as many people do, but things just go terribly wrong. Bus Stop is a slightly more controversial film, controversial because a lot of people aren't, they're not in agreement as to whether or not it's a good film. Some people like it, other people think it's just junk, which is kind of par for the course for a lot of Joshua Logan movies. Josh Logan, of course, did not only the much-debated Camelot,
00:31:05
Speaker
But he also did the film that you actually like a lot, which is, you know, your stupid Bali high crap. Oh, come on. South Pacific rules. The best ever. Dreadful. Have you seen it lately? No, of course not. Okay. You need to see it because I took Christie to see it. What about a little over a year ago?
00:31:24
Speaker
At a big anniversary screening at the Academy and truly at the end I was like, oh you guys this is like a classic movie at the end of it I'm like, I'm so sorry. I made you sit through that. I'm so sorry. I made you sit through that like that is most insufferably boring thing I've ever seen it's just it will not end and then uncle Martin from my favorite Martian shows up and
00:31:43
Speaker
you know he's like wearing the toucan on his head i don't know well which is better which is better that or paint your wagon which is another i love paint your wagon i do marvin clinties would like singing hand me down that can of beans and me down that can of beans terrible great joshua logan sucked i know he did he really i don't know how you know what it was will mr roberts mr roberts made him
00:32:03
Speaker
And then everything else was crap. Well, but John Ford started Mr. Roberts and then Logan finished it. So really it's John Ford's work you're loving. The only Joshua Logan film I have no reservations about loving is Fanny, which is good because he took a Broadway musical, stripped the songs out and made it a straight melodrama with a lot of people who've been in Gigi, you know, like Maurice Chevalier is in it and Leslie Caron is in it.
00:32:31
Speaker
It looks like Owen plays the title part. That's a great film. And we're doing everything we can to not talk about Bus Stop because I don't know. The problem that I have with Bus Stop is that it would be a great movie if not for Don Murray in his very, very first screen role and he's just not that good. He doesn't kind of bring it to be on screen with Marilyn Monroe.
00:32:51
Speaker
But that said, you know, it is an interesting film from the Monroe filmography. And she is certainly good in it, even though the film itself is uneven. So I would, I would guardedly recommend that as well, along with Niagara. So rock on there.
Ang Lee's The Ice Storm Discussion
00:33:09
Speaker
Wade from Criterion this week, we have the highly recommended The Ice Storm by Ang Lee, who of course has won more best directing Oscars than Steven Spielberg.
00:33:18
Speaker
putting it out there. Spielberg's won too, actually. Yeah, I guess that's true. Yeah, he has. Oh, that's right. He won for Schindler's List. Which got Best Picture, and then he won again for Saving Private Ryan, but that did not win Best Picture because Shakespeare in Love won Best Picture. That's right. It was a split that year. Damn, I was hoping that... It's okay. You know, it was a cute thing to say. It was funny, even if it wasn't true.
00:33:41
Speaker
It was as cute as it was inaccurate. Anyway, it's 1973 and Richard Nixon is not a crook. That's the air in which this thing takes place. And it really does deconstruct relationships in the 1970s. As the nation falls apart, this family falls apart in a parallel fashion. And I found this thing is just a great film. It's emotional, it's provocative, and it's just great. Kevin Kline is great in it. What's his name? Toby Maguire is in it.
00:34:08
Speaker
Christina Ricci. Christina Ricci's in it, Sigourney Weaver's in it, and it's great. It's great. I remember when I was at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 with Christie when this was in competition, along with the film that Christie had worked on, which was the of inventors film, The End of Violence. And I remember the junket day for this very, very well. And afterwards, Sigourney Weaver was there and we kind of hung. We were tight with everybody. It was cool. For 10 seconds, we brushed with greatness.
00:34:36
Speaker
This is a 2K digital transfer, I wish it was a 4K, but it's a 2K digital transfer, which still looks good. There's an audio commentary featuring Ang Lee and the producer, James Sheamus, and a documentary featuring all the actors. This is a great film, The Ice Storm, by Ang Lee. Gotta see it. Yeah, good stuff.
00:34:53
Speaker
You know, Kino really has knocked it out of the park so many times by taking some of their classic stuff, putting them on Blu-ray. Kino is doing a great, great job with Blu-ray. And here's another one. This double feature has been out before on DVD. It is now on Blu-ray, and that would be Eric Von Stroheim's Foolish Wives Along With...
00:35:12
Speaker
uh... the documentary the man you love to hate uh... if you have the dvd get rid of it pick this up this is just fantastic the uh... the transfer comes from archival print from the uh... arthur lennig restoration by the a f i and it is just absolutely pristine uh... foolish wives is one of those
00:35:33
Speaker
It's just so typically von Stroheim. It really is. He made the movie in 1922. It is almost two and a half hours long and it is just indulgent and excessive. It's just about the wife of an American diplomat who has this affair with this Russian Count or a guy who claims he's a Russian Count played by von Stroheim.
00:35:56
Speaker
And the whole thing is just excessive and indulgent and just dripping with the
00:36:04
Speaker
with just madness and all that Von Stroheim excess. It's just really a beautiful thing to watch. It really is. You never would have imagined that movies can go so far over the top. And then, of course, the feature-length documentary, The Man You Love to Hate from 1979, is a complete look as there has ever been of Eric Von Stroheim. And it will scare the daylights out of you. It really will. This guy is the stereotype that all imperious directors modeled themselves on.
00:36:34
Speaker
And for good damn reason, because he rules. There's also some New York sensor board cuts on here, Photo Gallery, the original 1922 Sigmund Romburg score performed by Rodney Sauer, and a great, great, great audio commentary by Von Stroheim's biographer Richard Kazarsky. So this is, it's just, there's no end to how good this is. You gotta get it. Oh, there's an end to how good it is. Oh, no, there isn't. Well, you know what, there's no end to how good it is?
00:37:02
Speaker
I'm gonna I will kill you. This is off at spindle too. It's really Wait, let me tell you something. Yes, Joe camp has directed 10 movies 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 of them are Benji movies
00:37:20
Speaker
The other three are HOMPs, whatever that is, the double MacGuffin, and a movie from 1980 that I remember called Oh, Heavenly Dog. Oh, Heavenly Dog might as well be a Benjy movie. Anyway, Benjy, the original dog movie, was from 1974, and it was a big hit at the time. It was a big, big hit. It was about a dog who saves these kids from getting kidnapped, and it's not like a cheesy talking dog kind of a movie. It's just a cute puppy that saves a couple kids.
00:37:49
Speaker
And it's good. It's a good film. I can't vouch for the 17,000 sequels, but Benji at the time was kind of like a thing. So here on DVD, we have Benji 4 Movie Collection. This is Benji. Benji off the leash from 2004. For the love of Benji. For the love of Benji in 1977 and 1978. Benji's very own Christmas story. You know you're starting to lose it when it becomes like Benji's very own Christmas story. A very Benji Christmas.
00:38:16
Speaker
So these films have gotten increasingly horrible and in 2004 was the last one, Benji off the leash, which of course is here also. So you know what, it's good for kids. He's a cute dog, saves a bunch of kids from being kidnapped. I remember I saw this for a friend's birthday party when I was a kid and I just thought it was the stupidest thing I'd ever seen. Of course Benji. You know a couple from VCI before we get into foreign language films and the week's giveaway.
00:38:41
Speaker
Uh, VCI has released a couple of old classic movies that I think are a hoo- well, one of the hoot and the other one is really interesting. This one's from 1954, and it is Carnival Story starring Anne Baxter as a, uh, as a woman. She's a German girl. This is ridiculous. Anne Baxter's German. Are you kidding me? Anyway, she, uh, it's a love triangle set against a Carnival and circus backdrop. You know, she's a high-wire act and whatever.
00:39:04
Speaker
If you want to watch a really good melodrama, watch Trapeze. That's the Burt Lancaster thing. That's a better film. Trapeze also has the footage in Trapeze. Let's just say there are other movies that have used the footage from Trapeze, which makes it priceless and hysterically funny.
00:39:24
Speaker
But a carnival story is just kind of cheesy, but I enjoy it just because it's got Ann Baxter who of course you know did all about Eve and she plays the Queen who's caught between Ramses and Moses in the Ten Commandments. Oh Moses, Moses!
00:39:41
Speaker
which is still a variation on Eve. Everything that she's ever done is a variation on Eve. And then a really interesting movie is The Ring, which is just this fascinating independent movie that was made in 1952 and released by United Artists. And what makes it so interesting is this is like one of the first movies to actually confront the issues of racism
00:40:03
Speaker
racial segregation among Mexican Americans in Los Angeles and white people in Los Angeles. At the time, obviously in the 1950, you know, early 1950s, people were focused on civil rights movement and, you know, black Americans and black, white and separate, you know, restaurants and separate eating areas and water fountains and bathrooms and all that stuff.
00:40:23
Speaker
That's what people were focused on in the early 1950s. You know, segregation in the army, and armed forces, and Truman turns that around, and all that kind of stuff, and the Korean War, and these issues faced by Latinos and Latino immigrants and Mexican Americans, not really on the radar. So this movie is fascinating.
00:40:42
Speaker
Because it's about this kid this Mexican-American kid who wants to be a boxer and how he finds that even once he succeeds He still doesn't have the respect of white people. It's a really really interesting film totally ahead of its time a Terrific lead performance by this kid Lalo Rios who I've never heard of before never seen again, and you know who else is in this movie Rita Moreno She's awesome. God I love Rita Moreno so young so young
00:41:08
Speaker
So young and she almost a decade before West Side Story for crying out loud, you know, she's getting these sag lifetime achievement award next year as Well, she should you wait as well. She should speak of older actors, you know There is a an exciting pre-order available now. It is a It is a James Dean ultimate collector's edition
00:41:32
Speaker
Warner Brothers. It's one of those book things that they always do. It's going to include Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden and Giant. And it can't beat that. So there's no release date for this thing. I mean, it does include a 40 page commemorative book and the three films he did and some behind the scenes photos. It's distant. I don't think it's going to be released this year. I think they're just taking pre-orders on it to bank some early cash. I suspect that'll be a next year thing.
00:41:57
Speaker
I don't know, yeah, it's a little bit of a tease. Yeah, it's a bit of a tease. I mean, if this thing is like six months down the road, it's like, come on, guys. It's not. I mean, I'm already getting announcements for, you know, September and October stuff, which those are starting to be the big titles for the holidays, right? And I'm not, so unless in the next four weeks I get an announcement on that thing, I don't think it's gonna happen. I mean, there's also this crazy X-Men collection called the Adamantium Collection. Yeah. It's got X-Men,
00:42:26
Speaker
X-Men Last Stand, X-Men First Class, Wolverine, The Wolverine, and then this legacy thing, Wolverine and the X-Men. And every single album that Adam and the Ants ever did. Don't drink, don't smoke. What do you do? And the Adam Ants you play in- That's the most menotinous song ever written.
00:42:43
Speaker
I like this song. It's like two notes for 17 minutes. And the Adam Antium collection comes in this cool little packaging that includes a glove with little claws coming out of it, like Wolverine. That's great. You didn't see the Wolverine. I did. Oh, you did see it. I talked about it on radio on Friday. You don't listen to me on radio, do you?
00:43:02
Speaker
Hell no, I see you. I listen to you anyway. Okay, so Wolverine, yes or no? You ready? I have three words for it. Good, not good enough. That's four words. From the sublime to the ridiculous. That is literally the trajectory of the film. It started off well enough. It feels like this noir kind of merged with a modern day Japanese gangster slash samurai movie. And that's cool.
00:43:24
Speaker
And that's cool for about an hour, and then it just disintegrates into all the generic superhero crap. It's just so frustrating. Well, that I agree. The last half hour is not great. And seriously, the big climactic thing at the end, it's just a variation on the end of Iron Man crossed with a variation on the end of Thor. I mean, could you really seriously? That's best you could do. That same battle all over again, the big mecho battle? Come on, stop.
00:43:49
Speaker
Foreign language films, got two. I'm going to get this one right out of the way real quickly. This is on Blu-ray from Drafthouse and it is called Graceland. It has nothing to do with Elvis. This is a Filipino thriller and it's about a chauffeur who gets caught in all of this just tempestuous, turbulent series of events surrounding the kidnapping.
00:44:14
Speaker
of someone he was supposed to protect. Anyway, it is so interesting because it gets a little bit into politics, a lot into crime and law enforcement, but it's just a really, really interesting and unusual thriller from a country that we don't often see movies from. I think Filipino films have kind of really ebbed and flowed over the years. They've never really gotten their, you know, never gotten their feet under them as far as having a really consistent film industry, but this is a good movie.
00:44:43
Speaker
This is a good movie and it's a good pick up from Drafthouse and definitely worth watching. So go check out the Blu-ray of Graceland. Pretty cool foreign language thriller in Tagalog. Tagalog. It's a good name for a language. Don't you think, Mark? Tagalog? It sounds too much like Tagalong. Those girls got cookies. Alright, Mark.
00:45:04
Speaker
This is our giveaway this week. What? I have in my hands a fantastic blu-ray of an amazing movie that has been out of, it's been impossible to access for the longest time. André Téchionnay's The Bronte Sisters. Now I am a huge fan. What are you looking at?
00:45:21
Speaker
I thought you did the audio commentary for this. I did. I did. I was looking for your name on it. Well, it doesn't put my name on it. No, you suck. Because I'm not worth putting on the back. It just says audio, feature length audio commentary, because, you know. With a loser. Thank you.
00:45:36
Speaker
Thanks for spoiling the big reveal. The Brontë Sisters, Andrew Teshinae's amazing biography of the famous three Brontë Sisters, the greatest literary family in history from 1979.
00:45:51
Speaker
It's on DVD and Blu-ray. We are going to give away five DVDs. Five DVDs in honor of my co-audio commentary. Before I get into the movie, here's the way the giveaway is going to work. You're going to send us an email to gods at digigods.com. You're going to put Bronte in the subject line. Just B-R-O-N-T-E. You don't have to put two dots over the E. Don't worry about it. We're not going to enforce that.
00:46:16
Speaker
There's not two dots over it on the cover of this anyway. So we're not going to be sticklers. But just brawnty in the init and include your address, your mailing address. And make sure that that gets to us. Time, or date stamped, no later than.
00:46:36
Speaker
Uh, Friday, August 2nd. So as long as it is date stamped Friday, August 2nd, 2013, you will be in and eligible for the giveaway. We're giving away five DVDs of the Brontë Sisters, the Andre Teixenet Classic from 1979. If those who won the last contest, not eligible for this one, but everybody else, go ahead and give it a shot.
00:46:57
Speaker
You know, if you're not familiar with the story of the Brontë sisters, you are missing out. Charlotte Emily and Anne Brontë, three unbelievable literary giants. We mostly know Charlotte Brontë because of Jane Eyre. We know Emily Brontë because of Wuthering Heights. Anne Brontë was a genius in her own right. The tenet of Wildfell Hall, not as famous as the works of her sisters, but certainly a great film nonetheless.
00:47:21
Speaker
And you've got Isabelle Hubert playing Anne Brontë, Marie-France Pissier playing Charlotte and Isabelle Ejani playing Emily. And I've got to tell you, Anne, even though it's a French-language film about British literary greats, it's an incredible film. It just gets it absolutely right. And André Tachiné just pulls out all the stops. It is a wonderful film. Also because there's a fourth Brontë, you know, there were two sisters who died early.
00:47:46
Speaker
And then there's a brother, Branwell, who was a bit of a loser. And this gets into all the dirty laundry. I had the privilege of doing the audio commentary for this with a great Brontë scholar named Sue Lonoff, who is a former professor at Harvard.
DVD Release: The Bronte Sisters
00:48:03
Speaker
And basically, this commentary was a delight. I know the film Inside Out, but I am not a Brontë scholar. I've certainly read a lot of biographies. I know the stories, but I could not talk about
00:48:14
Speaker
all these nuances of the literature and their lives and so forth. Sue Lonoff is amazing. She is the star of this audio commentary. It's pretty much me hosting and letting her doing all the heavy lifting. And it was just wonderful. You hear me say things like, you know, everyone always dies off screen. You're gonna hear me say that like 150 times in this movie.
00:48:33
Speaker
It's true. Everybody always dies off screen. No one actually dies on screen. It's an interesting, fascinating choice. But, you know, Sue Lonoff, wonderful commentary. You will learn so much, not just watching the movie, but listening to her incredibly scholarly commentary. And, you know, I have to do a shout out to Juliet Barker.
00:48:51
Speaker
who is a great Bronte biographer, who is from Yorkshire, who connected us with Sulana, so thank you to Juliet Barker, another great Bronte scholar for helping facilitate this. This was a lot of fun working with the Cohen Media people, and looking forward to more in the future. So, Bronte, in the subject line, address, in the body of the email, send it to us at gods of digitgods.com. Five people, if you are date stamped by August 2nd this Friday, you are going to get
00:49:19
Speaker
You're gonna be in the running, and if you win, you're gonna be one of the five people who get a DVD with my obnoxious audio commentary on it. Keyword, obnoxious. Here we go. All right. I wish this show was live, because then I can ask people what screening I should see tomorrow. Because I asked you what screening I should see tomorrow, but you wouldn't answer. That's right. The choices are Lovelace, with Amanda Seyfried, or whatever her name is, as one of the first, pretty much the first porn star.
00:49:49
Speaker
Or should I see two guns with Denzel Washington? I do lovelace, frankly. Really? I don't know. Two guns. It's Mark Wahlberg and Denzel and bang, bang, bang. They shoot things? Yeah, they shoot things. All right. Hang on here. Let me see here. Let's go through a few documentaries, Mark.
00:50:11
Speaker
I think we should. Well, through a few documentaries and then we'll hit some of the new movies and I'll see if I can get to some martial arts stuff at the end. Robert Greenwald, ever since he directed Xanadu, he gave up movies and he makes now left wing political movies. Kind of a strange twist. I'd sort of like for him to do Xanadu again, wouldn't you? I've seen this movie. What do you think of War on Whistleblowers? I didn't like it.
00:50:29
Speaker
You know what it is? Here's the thing with Robert Greenwald. The guy is pretty much just a factory of left-wing documentaries, and there's nothing wrong with being a factory of left-wing documentaries. Well, some of them are good. Some of them are very good. They're skewed, you accept his point of view, but they're well done. He's a skilled filmmaker. Look, I think he got a bad rap after Xanadu, but anyway, go on.
00:50:51
Speaker
But the more he cranks out, the more they just seem perfunctory. Look, here's the next one. So he lines them up. These guys who blew the whistle on various government improprieties. So all these people are definitely brave, and they definitely did their country a great service, even if the government tried to pretty much track them down and shut down their lives. But that said, Robert Greenwald doesn't really tell this story in any particular depth or with any new information or with any particular style. So it really is just a primer for
00:51:22
Speaker
who want to hear about whistleblowers. The strange thing about this film, and I'm only saying this because I know they will never listen to this podcast, is I was asked to review this film for an outlet and only as I was watching the end credits of this film, which I was a little disappointed in, did I look at who produced it and who co-produced it and I realized that I hired them on my job. My job
00:51:46
Speaker
is a TV producer and the executive producer of this film, Jeff Cole, who's very talented. I hired him to do a project for me a few years ago and co-produced by Natalie Kotky, also very talented. She co-produced this film. So I emailed my editor and I said, I don't know if I can review this because I literally
00:52:06
Speaker
The executive producer and the co-producer worked for me. I hired them. No kidding. And so I wrote it under an alias. There you go. The first thing I wrote for that outlet, the review for War and Whistleblowers, I wrote under an alias. Well done. Thank you. Good for you. You probably want to know what the alias is, don't you? I do. I'm not going to tell you.
00:52:24
Speaker
You know what? A fascinating documentary from Micro Cinema is Corio Saram, The Unreliable People. This is so good. This won Best Documentary Award from the National Film Board of Canada. This is such a fascinating story. I had no freaking clue. No clue. No clue at all.
00:52:41
Speaker
Dictators have done a lot of horrible things, a lot of horrible things, and it's just no wonder that we keep finding out all the horrible, dreadful, just irreprehensible things that Joseph Stalin did. There's so, so many of them that they just keep popping out of the woodwork, and this is one of them. In 1937, before World War II officially just unleashes on the world, Stalin decided that the ethnic Koreans that were living in Russia near the border of the northern border of Korea, which is now North Korea,
00:53:10
Speaker
they were quote-unquote an unreliable people. So he began this campaign of ethnic cleansing and as part of that 180,000 people ethnic Koreans were moved into just this barren wasteland 4,000 miles away into what is basically modern-day Kazakhstan. And this is the story of those people and those horrible those poor people who were just treated so horribly and moved and deprived of land and liberty
00:53:38
Speaker
And it explains why the people in Kazakhstan today, many of them ethnically, look like Koreans. Because they are. It is just fascinating. Such an unbelievable story. I can't even recommend this highly enough. A wonderful documentary. Really, really compelling.
00:53:55
Speaker
And also compelling, a more modern tragedy and more current tragedy is the front line documentary, Syria Behind the Lines, life on both sides of a sectarian war. Needless to say, everything is changing over there in Syria so quickly that this is like obsolete as of 10 minutes ago. And but that being said, it's still relevant. Everything here is just it just it reminds you of just what a horrible, horrible situation that is and certainly will help us all.
00:54:25
Speaker
Pray for an end to it very, very soon because there is nothing positive happening in Syria right now. It's just so dreadful, and this just hammers it all home. Written, directed, and produced by Ali Lambert, who does a hell of a job. It's only an hour long, and you could probably do 20 more hours and not even duplicate a single frame.
00:54:45
Speaker
Two terrific documentaries. We'll hopefully wrap up with Wade. Are we almost done? A couple of new movies here we'll dip into. JFK and New World Order is a terrific, highly recommended eight-part documentary series about our former president. This is a great documentary. It is very thorough. Again, it is eight episodes. It's got an amazing bonus disc, which is kind of worth the price of admission. The bonus disc includes the Kennedy versus Nixon debate,
00:55:14
Speaker
Which is the very first, it's not the very first TV debate, but it's the one that sort of turned the tide in terms of how a presidential candidate needs to present him or herself on TV in order to be effective. Also, there is a very interesting documentary here from 1971. This was directed by John Ford and narrated by Charlton Heston. And it is sort of a pro-intervention documentary. It's really interesting stuff.
00:55:37
Speaker
It's a good documentary to check out. Also, the footage from the funeral service of Kennedy and very interesting black and white Secret Service newsreel footage about the quote unquote facts of the assassination. And this is of course was back in the day. So that's just the bonus disc, let alone the actual documentary, which is just terrific. So I highly recommend JFK New World Order. Also, much smaller scale, but still quite interesting is from Julian Temple, London.
00:56:07
Speaker
modern Babylon and what I like about this little ditty is that it is all about these
00:56:14
Speaker
It's all about like how these bohemians and immigrants sort of help shape London and make it what it is. And I kind of like that because London is very much a very cosmopolitan, very, you'd think New York is a melting pot type city. I mean, London is the ultimate melting pot type city. And including nowadays, of course, there's a huge Muslim population that live there and that gets very controversial in London. So it's really good stuff, very engaging. It's Julian Temple. So visually, it's very interesting. And I highly recommend London, the modern Babylon from Julian Temple. Sweet.
00:56:44
Speaker
A couple of wrap-out documentaries here before we get into a few new movies just to end the show. Bert Stern, original Madman, is a terrific first-run features documentary about the ad guy who really, he is the original Madman, as in Mad Men. I mean, Bert Stern was
00:57:03
Speaker
the guy who just kind of created everything that Madison Avenue is today. He, as a photographer, he defined advertising. He defined so many things that have just become a part of our visual advertising and commercial vernacular. Really, just an unbelievably influential guy. And this is a great profile of him. And what a life. I mean, you know, this guy
00:57:27
Speaker
You don't love him by watching this. You appreciate him, but you realize he was also quite a jerk and had quite a provocative life at the same time. Venus and Serena is a documentary that is pretty straightforward about the two sisters who have come to... One of them would have been the greatest female tennis player of all time, if not for the other one. Their meetings together are probably the only things that deprive them both of being able to
00:57:56
Speaker
Break every record imaginable the the best part of this documentary is really the stuff that deals with their dad and Racism and the things that he had to overcome just unbelievably horrible stuff that he Put behind him in order to give his daughters the the best life imaginable and their success is a tribute to his perseverance and
00:58:16
Speaker
and his stamina and resilience and tenacity. And that part of it is really good. It doesn't give you much new information. It's not gonna break any great documentary ground in its portrait of these two athletes who everyone knows just about everything about. But what it says about their dad, I found to be more interesting than anything else. Directed by Macon Baird and Michelle Major, no relationship of mine. But produced by Alex Gibney, who of course is a terrific documentarian by any account.
00:58:43
Speaker
All right, and Mark, get your butt down. We got a few more movies to talk about. All right, just a handful of new movies really quickly. Very, very quickly. Rush Lights is a kind of an interesting little thriller. I had to talk about this on radio at the time. It stars Josh Henderson, who plays the young JR, JR Jr. on Dallas, and has no other claim to fame.
00:59:12
Speaker
It's kind of a southwestern noir. We've had a few of these over the years, these movies that really adhere strictly to a noir formula, but they're all set in New Mexico and Arizona and Nevada, and they all have that dusty desert feel to them. The whole idea here is that he's this guy, and there's this girl in the diner, and they wind up basically through the death of her roommate, they come into
00:59:42
Speaker
a scam where they're gonna try and collect some money but things don't quite turn out as intended because she looks like her roommate and they think they're gonna be able to pull this off but you know you've got a sheriff played by Beau Bridges who will not have the wool pulled over his eyes and you know he's got a half-brother played rather
01:00:01
Speaker
ably by Aidan Quinn. Interesting little noir angle there. A slightly more interesting movie is Between Us which is like a kind of a second tier version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf with a terrific cast that includes Taye Diggs and Melissa George, David Harbour and Julia Stiles and they are all absolutely outstanding especially David Harbour who you know always shows up in supporting roles I mean you expect Taye Diggs and Julia Stiles to be really good but
01:00:29
Speaker
I'll tell you, David Harbour is really, really good in this. And it's about these two couples who at one point were best of friends and now have fallen apart and kind of jump back and forth between two different events. The day when they're trying to reconcile and the day when everything fell apart and you kind of see what happened. Those two events, those two, the flashback and the current event eventually kind of coincide. Really interesting piece based on a play, obviously.
01:00:55
Speaker
And before I let you wrap us out with that, I'm going to recommend Cloudburst, which comes to us from Wolf, which normally releases gay-themed stuff. But this is much more mainstream than the usual stuff because it has a great cast, Brenda Fricker and Olympia Dukakis. Oscar winners both, and here they play a lesbian couple and you fall in love with both of them like you cannot imagine. This is just absolutely wonderful.
01:01:19
Speaker
Um, terrific, terrific movie, terrific performances, Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker. I cannot get enough of them. I, whether they're lesbians or not, I could watch this movie forever. You know what, that movie Brenda Fricker does not star in?
01:01:33
Speaker
I'm gonna guess she's not in G.I. Joe. That is true. G.I. Joe retaliation 3D. I told you. This thing is a big, gigantic, wet dream if you're 12 years old or you're an NRA member. This is nothing but 110 minutes of just people running around fighting and slashing and doing nothing else but fighting and slashing because they like to fight and slash.
01:01:53
Speaker
And this thing is just, you know what, it's like this summer's been such a bad summer for film because we're just tired of like nothing, just nothing but fighting and fighting and fighting, there's no character, there's no story, there's nothing interesting. It just disappears, the moment you're done seeing it. And GI Joe is pretty much 110 minutes of that.
01:02:11
Speaker
So it's got a good cast, I guess. I mean, Bruce Willis is in it and Channing Tatum, who is starting to make some interesting choices. I like Channing Tatum as an actor. I'm kind of getting to like him. You know, he's done a couple of Soderbergh films and got to respect that. And so I'm all about that. This film is written by a guy I used to work with.
01:02:27
Speaker
Actually, Rhett Reese, who also co-wrote Monster Zink, the original Monster Zink. He's a good guy. He co-wrote this thing with his partner, Paul Wernick, who I also know, or knew, not anymore. I haven't talked to him for a long time. But I have to say, that being said, this thing's junk. I hope the check cashed.
01:02:42
Speaker
And they can move on to bigger and better things. But otherwise, G.I. Joe, this thing is just a big, gigantic, fetish-y looking movie about guns and swords and flying people. And if I'm 15 years old, I'll think this is the greatest thing ever. Otherwise, pass. All right.
Conclusion
01:03:00
Speaker
Mark, I got an outro for us. What is it? Cut and print.
01:03:11
Speaker
you