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DigiGods Episode 251: Spring into Action
54 Plays1 year ago
An untimely obit, Wade’s big news, Oscar winners on 4k and Blu-ray plus some unusual Criterions, retro-VHS classics on Blu and that pesky M3GAN.
DigiGods Podcast, 04/04/23 (M4a) — 53.6 MB
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In this episode, the Gods discuss:
- Alice, Darling (Blu-ray)
- All Quiet on the Western Front (2023) (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Babylon (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Black Sunday (Blu-ray)
- Children of the Mist (DVD)
- Chilly Scenes of Winter (Blu-ray)
- The Chocolate War - MVD Rewind Collection (Blu-ray)
- Colosseum (DVD)
- Dead Silence (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- The Desperate Hours - MVD Rewind Collection (Blu-ray)
- Dirty Laundry (Blu-ray)
- Disturbing Behavior - MVD Rewind Collection (Blu-ray)
- Dragonslayer 4k UHD (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Dream a Little Dream (Vestron Collector's Series) (Blu-ray)
- The Exorcist III 4K UHD + Blu-Ray Collector’s Edition (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Extreme Prejudice (Blu-ray)
- The Fan – Retro VHS (Blu-ray)
- Fear – Retro VHS (Blu-ray)
- Final Justice (MVD Rewind) (Blu-ray)
- Forever in My Heart (DVD)
- Forget Me Not: Inclusion in the Classroom (DVD)
- Gerry Anderson: A Life Uncharted (DVD)
- The Good Fight - The Final Season (DVD)
- Inland Empire (Blu-ray)
- Jim Gaffigan Stand Up Comedy Special (DVD)
- Kentridge and Dumas in Conversation (DVD)
- Knockabout (Blu-ray)
- Labor Day (Blu-ray)
- Last Hurrah for Chivalry (Blu-ray)
- Liar's Moon - Collector's Edition (MVD Rewind) (Blu-ray)
- Life & Life (DVD)
- London (Blu-ray)
- The Long Wait (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- M3GAN (Megan) (Blu-ray)
- Mantra (DVD)
- McENROE (DVD)
- Miami Blues (Blu-ray)
- Mike Birbiglia Stand Up Comedy Special (DVD)
- Mildred Pierce (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Missing (Blu-ray)
- My Imaginary Country (DVD)
- The Paper – Retro VHS (Blu-ray)
- Phenomena (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Plane (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Problem Child – Retro VHS (Blu-ray)
- The Replacement Killers – Retro VHS (Blu-ray)
- Rick and Morty: Season 6 (Blu-ray)
- ROCKY I-IV 4K 4-Film Collection (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Seriously Red (Blu-ray)
- Shadowlands – Retro VHS (Blu-ray)
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Season One Steelbook (Blu-ray)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Series! (DVD)
- Tiger 24 (Blu-ray)
- Tubular Bells: 50th Anniversary Concert & Live Tour (DVD)
- Ultimate Triple Feature (Ultimate Life, Ultimate Gift, Ultimate Legacy) (DVD)
- Ultraman Max - The Complete Series (DVD)
- Vampire's Kiss (Special Edition) MVD Rewind (Blu-ray)
- The Walking Dead” Season 11 (Blu-ray)
- The Weapon (DVD)
- Wendy O. Williams (DVD)
- The Whale (Blu-ray)
- Women Talking (Blu-ray)
Please also visit CineGods.com.
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Transcript
Seasonal Changes and Weather Woes
00:00:24
Speaker
All right, and we are back. It is right around the end of March. It's going to be early April, by the time this thing airs. So spring is here, everybody, and none too soon. I think we're getting a little tired of the rain. Yeah, something like spring, anyway. A lot of rain. Hey, look, my backyard is ridiculously green. I know. I have to admit that. And my backyard has been like a little desert.
00:00:50
Speaker
I think this ridiculously green is wonderful, but no, I get it. The rain, this much rain can eventually be problematic. Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. And it's time we start drying out. I'm ready. I'm ready.
Lance Reddick: A Tribute
00:01:04
Speaker
We only have one obit this week, and then we got a little news that we'll talk about, which I think anybody who's on Facebook is probably already keen to, and I'm finally happy to be able to talk about it.
00:01:14
Speaker
But Lance Reddick, man, at age 60, was it? He was 60. Yeah, Lance was born in 62. It's crazy that Lance was actually younger than me. I knew Lance for 20 odd years, you know, me, terms, hour, hour, buddy. It's really an odd thing because they kept saying of natural causes.
00:01:38
Speaker
you know for the natural cause seems to have been a heart attack and i suppose that that's a natural cause but he was sixty yes it's you know about three sixty one yes i'm sorry i can't agree that at age sixty one on account i'm sixty-one that it's a natural god damn cause i'm gonna say no to that uh... and and but that's that's what it is anyway go go way back with lance all the way back to oz
00:02:10
Speaker
Before that, but definitely Oz. When he was walking around that show, and of course Lance walked around everything from the fridge to the wire. It was really funny. Way back in the early 2000s, late 90s, early 2000s, when he was on Oz, I would see him all the time. Actually, he and my wife were friends because she actually
00:02:31
Speaker
She was actually, Bridget was actually in a British Petroleum commercial with Lance. Lance played her husband in a British Petroleum commercial. This is like 100 years ago, right? And so those connections in Sherman, Oz, and all that kind of stuff. Lance,
00:02:46
Speaker
Lance was a Yaeli. Lance went to Yale. We always thought it was kind of funny that for a good chunk of his early career, Lance played these kind of guys, these kind of guys in prison and guys and stuff like that. I'm like, it's the Yaeli.
00:03:02
Speaker
But eventually he started playing guys in suits and chiefs of police and detectives and the guy in fringes and authoritative figures and guys who were much more reflective of who Lance was, including that guy in the John Wick movies.
00:03:18
Speaker
Yeah. And are we deep enough into into into the John Wick release now to talk about the irony? I what do you think maybe not if let's let's just it's made $150 million globally. So I think we can otherwise we will say to people, there's a spoiler here. So you might if you don't want the spoiler, fast forward about a minute and a half.
00:03:40
Speaker
Yeah, about a minute and a half. I look bad. I gotta tell you, I go to see this John Wick movie, the movies of which I deeply appreciate. I really love that first movie and, you know, and have an appreciation for the rest of the canon. And nearly the first thing that happens to that movie is that Lance's character, Sharon, is killed. Yep.
00:04:00
Speaker
And I'm like, are you freaking kidding me here right now? You know? And then, of course, across the arc of the movie, it's a big deal that this character was killed. Everybody's talking about it. We go to his funeral in the movie. All the characters, John Wicker, always talking about what a great guy he was in the movie. Yeah. So, ah.
00:04:18
Speaker
Creepy meta. Creepy meta. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and he was getting ready to do press for the movie too. Yeah. Missing. And that makes it, that's a thing that just doesn't happen that often that someone passes just on the eve of the movie opening.
00:04:34
Speaker
the press becomes much about them and there's a lovely little you know the title card the end in the morium to him so. What's so sad really sad you know he's he's just he's kind of heart and soul of those movies to be honest yeah i really be honest with you i think about him in those movies first.
00:04:54
Speaker
Yeah, Daniel Keanu and Ian McShane and all that stuff, but that guy standing there with that look. It's just he's the concierge and that's a symbolic thing. I almost think of him as
00:05:12
Speaker
guarding the gates to either heaven, hell or purgatory. Sort of, he's this very stabilizing figure in those movies, almost like the conscience of the films, you know? And he's the one guy you could always count on and because, you know, Ian tried to like, did shoot him in the last one. He has no loyalty, you know, Lance is the only guy who really had that moral center in those movies.
00:05:36
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, I did. They obviously they could not have known any of that X number of years ago when they were, you know, writing that tripped and shooting the film and blah, blah, blah. But it is an odd sort of thing that these happens occasionally. So there it is.
00:05:52
Speaker
Well, I'm going to get us
Busby Berkeley Biopic Announcement
00:05:54
Speaker
started. We got a lot of stuff. We had some things that have kind of pile up and it's, it's, it's holiday season. But first I do want to talk about the news, which we broke on, uh, on the Facebook pages for Cindy gods and digit gods, which is, and if you go there and visit it, there's the indie wire piece. Uh, so it's out in the open now that, um, my, and Tim has been, you know, privy to this whole thing for,
00:06:17
Speaker
For the very, very long time that it's been emerging, but my wife and I have acquired the film and stage rights to Busby Berkeley's unpublished memoirs and memoirs that were long thought to have not sort of been in a state of limbo and nobody knew if anyone had the rights and no one seemed to care. So in fact, it is a story that will completely come to light one day, not really the time now, but
00:06:47
Speaker
We've been making a lot of progress at putting it together and it has been an adventure and it will continue to be an adventure but the goal is to finally and you know the attempt to make a biography of Busby Berkeley's life goes all the way back to the 1950s. They tried when he was still alive to do one in the 50s which wouldn't have made any sense. It sort of missed, I think at that time it missed the most important chapter of his life or at least the concluding chapter.
00:07:15
Speaker
But you know they tried in the seventies and they've tried a number of times since Ryan Gosling was attached to one few years ago but it's all a big long dramatic continuum and the drama is not over but stay tuned. Much more news to announce on that front but we're going to get it done.
00:07:33
Speaker
It must be. Everyone just look them up. Yeah, we've reviewed a ton of Busby Berkeley movies on this and Blu-ray releases from the Warner Archive collection and it's been, I have to say, it's been weird and you know it's been weird because we've had these conversations where it'll be, you know, 42nd Street or Gold Diggers of 35 and where it's like we're talking about this on the show and you and I before the show, I'm like, well, that's weird, you know.
00:07:59
Speaker
I hear you gotta pretend like nothing's going on. So, it's all in the open now. Everything is signed, sealed and delivered and now it's just a matter of getting the movie made and that is no small feat. No, no false way because it has to be an extraordinary film. It is. I've circulated with movie stars because the life of Busby Berkeley was populated with movie stars.
00:08:22
Speaker
It is, it is, as I have been saying from the very beginning, if the movie about his life is not at least as spectacular as the movies that he made during his life, there's no point in making it.
00:08:37
Speaker
Alright, but in the meantime, let's talk about somebody else's crappy movies. So first, I just want to roll through some Mill Creek titles. We've had a few Mill Creek titles here that have kind of accumulated. There's some worthwhile stuff in here and some of the Mill Creek and the MVD stuff that capitalizes on the
00:08:58
Speaker
the rewind thing, the old VHS redstone look. They both have that line. And there's a few of those that
Nostalgia: VHS-era Films
00:09:04
Speaker
we've got here. So I kind of want to push some of those out, also the Vestron series. There's all these that are kind of from different distributors, but they do play a part. They do kind of brand themselves with the old VHS thing. I got to tell you, we got about, in my estimation, we got about five more years of the be kind, rewind, making sense to
00:09:26
Speaker
Anybody under 60. Very true. About five more years and that's going to make it such a rewind. What's a rewind? What is that? What is rewinding? Exactly. That's going to be funny. Yeah. Well, anyway, so we got a movie here called London. This is all from Mill Creek right now. This is London by way of Samuel Goldwyn.
00:09:49
Speaker
This is start you know when it came out start Chris Evans and Jessica Beal and Jason Statham and. You know I love Fisher and Dane Cook and a lot of people in it didn't do a huge bunch of at the box office actually but as it's a nice non marvel Chris Evans performance.
00:10:10
Speaker
Yeah. Jessica Beale is lovely in it as well. It's a good solid romantic drama. Jason Statham is terrifying as a drug dealer. It's got a 90s vibe to it. A lot of those gritty crime films, I don't want to say that it's
00:10:36
Speaker
It's not quite like true romance, but it kind of is in a way, right? It's a little bit in that, in that sort of vein. Yeah. Yeah. Look, a hunter, hunter, hunter, richest writer, writer, director, guy did not know his work. He did a lot of, you know, script doctor kind of guy.
00:10:52
Speaker
Excuse me, wandering around, doing all kinds of stuff for a long time. A couple of shorts and whatnot. But he pulled this thing off. The marketing was bad. We're going back to 2005, is what we're talking about, folks. The marketing was not great at this time. I remember this movie from 2005. And I thought it was a pretty decent film. And with a pretty decent cast, it should have been better. I'll tell you what you'll like about this film, folks. 2005, Jason Statham still had hair.
00:11:22
Speaker
Kind of weird, right? Yeah, he has a whole hit of hair. It's right there on his head. And he looks great. Anyway, I thought it was a pretty cool movie for back in the day. Joey Bryant, like you said, a few people walking around this movie. Paula Padden walking around this movie. Dane Cook walking around this movie. Louis C.K. walking around this movie.
00:11:42
Speaker
You know, a lot of people walking around in this movie. This was not some little fucky-ass film. This was a movie. It was, for sure. Absolutely for sure. It's kind of weird when you go back to some of those movies and people just suddenly, you know, who've gotten really big. Like, you would never be able to afford that cast today. No,
Film Reviews: Shadowlands to Miami Blues
00:11:59
Speaker
no. Everybody recalls. Kat Dennings walking around in this movie. A good chunk of people walking around in this movie today lead movies. Yep.
00:12:08
Speaker
All right, so here we go with the Be Kind Rewind stuff. This is the Mill Creek stuff first, and then we'll get to the MBD stuff. But they're all going for the little retro VHS stickers and whatnot. One of Richard Attenborough's last films, Shadowlands, which a lot of people love, and I am one of them. This is all on Blu-ray, Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger, true story of the great author and theologian and thinker, C.S. Lewis, and his romance with the American Joy Gresham.
00:12:36
Speaker
and it's an amazing movie. I mean, Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger just kill it. It's so sweet. Beautifully, beautifully, beautifully written by William Nicholson based on his stage play, which I have never seen live, but it's really sensitive. I love William Nicholson. Oh, yeah. Les Mis and Gladiator. It's a beautiful movie and it just makes me weep every single time. Shadowlands,
00:13:18
Speaker
Because there was this moment where when Debra Winger had retired. Yes, that's right. She had this moment where she had retired, very young, very young, but she was done. But she came back to make this movie. This was the movie that brought her back from that short retirement of hers.
00:13:32
Speaker
Not really like a VHS throwback, but that's how they branded it.
00:13:36
Speaker
And then we have a Tony Scott film, and there's this beautiful tribute to Tony Scott at the end, of course, of Maverick. And this is a Tony Scott film most people have forgotten about. The fan! Robert De Niro stalking Wesley Snipes.
00:13:54
Speaker
Here's the one thing that just shows that this was directed by an Englishman is that the big finale, the big crazy finale, the big, uh, fatal attraction finale, right? Cause it's basically fatal attraction.
00:14:09
Speaker
Is it a baseball game? In the pouring rain. Somebody needed to pull Tony aside and go, they call a game. They call games in the rain, Tony. Particularly what is pouring down like it is, is this fucking game. But he wanted to backlight the rain, right? It was all mood. It was all Tony Scott. That's what Tony does. That's what Tony does. I just thought that was hilarious.
00:14:30
Speaker
You got yourself, again, you got yourself a youngish, Benicio del Toro, walking around this movie. You got yourself a youngish, Michael J's, walking around this movie. You got a whole Sony Jackson walking around this movie. This is what, 90-something again, I can't remember, 96. I remember doing the junkies of this. I still have the little piece of, they gave us a lot of swag for this movie. One of the things they gave us was an actual watch.
00:14:58
Speaker
with a San Francisco Giants emblem on it. I still got that watch. So the battery ran out 25 years ago. I never, I never bothered to replace it because I'm from St. Louis. Yeah. Where the Cardinals are the only baseball team. But yeah, there it is. De Niro, Stipes, Ellen Barkin. Not crazy. Yeah. And then we've got fear talking about the young Mark Wahlberg and young Reese Witherspoon and young Alyssa Milano in what's basically still another one of those kind of
00:15:26
Speaker
I don't want to call it an erotic thriller. It's like a not quite erotic thriller, but it's still in that pocket, right? This is 96. It's all that Joe Esterhasi kind of adjacent stuff from that moment. You know, it's perfectly fine. It's not really what Mark Wahlberg does. It's not what he was even doing then. But Amy Brenneman shows up
00:15:49
Speaker
this too. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's, you know, it's, it's perfectly fine. It's an imagined thing. You know, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. And directed by James Foley, who we were just talking about an email. Yeah, Chris Crowe, Chris Crowe, Christopher Crowe stripped, I think. Yes. And you know, James Foley, who I have all kinds of stories about because his first film was reckless with Quinn and
00:16:15
Speaker
And that opened when I was in Usher at the theater, and he was hanging out every weekend for several weekends, just wringing his hands, nervous. Does the audience like it? Do they not like it? And here I am, I'm in Usher, and he's 10 years older than I am, and he's sitting there like, I'm having to talk him off the cliff.
00:16:37
Speaker
No. It's like, no, they like it, dude. They like it. They really like it. That was a funny thing. I mean, Jane. A popcorn. You, me, Ray, and maybe Mark. I think Mark were chit-chatting about at Close Range a couple of days ago. Which Ray just re-watched and thinks, too. That's why. That's why. That's why. That's what it was. Of course, Lingary and After Dark, My Sweet. That's my James Foley movie, After Dark, My Sweet. Yeah, there it is. All that 50 shades. Most recently, all that 50 shades.
00:17:07
Speaker
And then we've got Antoine Fuqua directing Mira Sorvino and Chow Yun Fat in The Replacement Killers, which, you know what, I mean, it's, I was probably not kind enough to this film at the time, because coming back and looking at it, I'm like, you know what, that movie's all right.
00:17:22
Speaker
For the moment, it lives in the moment. Everybody is doing the thing that was happening in the moment. This is 96, 78, 88, something like that. And you got Michael Rooker in Mira, and Mira is still slightly young and sexy and coming off that Oscar win. And again, this is one of those movies. You got these cats walking around this movie. You got Danny Trejo walking around this movie. You got Cliff Collins Jr. walking around this movie.
00:17:51
Speaker
You know, we were thinking about these people at the time, but they're all right there, you know, being movie stars, pre-movie stars. And then we have the very, very unfortunate movie, Problem Child, directed by Dennis Dugan, who would, of course, direct many, many horrible, horrible Adam Sandler movies. Problem Child does not have Adam Sandler, and it's too bad because he probably would have made it bearable. I mean, this is just, Michael Oliver is so annoying in this movie.
00:18:16
Speaker
He's totally so irritating. John Ritter almost makes it bearable. Jack Warden almost makes it bearable. But man, it's just otherwise it's this. The kid is a problem child. He really is. He's actually too irritating to be endearing in this film.
00:18:32
Speaker
too irritating to be endearing. But again, Mike Richards, Gilbert Gottfried. Even Dennis Dugan is in the movie, he walks around the movie. So it's one of those. I heard Dennis Dugan when he was an actor in Richie Brockleman P.I. with a really, really good Mike Post theme song.
00:18:52
Speaker
What did this go on with his dentist and kid the the part the young guy and her be the love bug is that Dennis. Oh gee whiz not. He was a Disney guy he's a Disney guy for sure. Oh my gosh you may be right I'd have to go back and check. And then the last of the mill creek VHS tiles here is the paper.
00:19:12
Speaker
Which is a you know honestly the i mean ron howard directed this thing it's a good it's a good kind of. Broadcast newsy look at the world of journalism great cast do the ones we're talking about people in a movie seriously michael keaton glenn close marissa tome randy quaid and robert duvall and i mean jee whiz you couldn't get that cast today.
00:19:34
Speaker
Well, you know, and then and then and then all the other ones that we wouldn't think about cause Clint to the movie, you know, Clint's going to be in the movie. That's right. He's got Jill Hennessy. You got a ridiculously young, young Jill Hennessy. You got Jeffrey Owens in this movie. Catherine O'Hara is walking around the movie. You know, a small and great walk around the movie. The movie.
00:19:51
Speaker
It hearkened back to those old newspaper movies of the 30s. You know, with Clark Gable, The Front Page, and all that kind of stuff. That's what it intended to do. And I liked it a lot, the copes writing David and Stephen. I liked that movie. The two caps, the David cap. The caps, yeah. And so, you know, you can't make those kind of movies today. No.
00:20:13
Speaker
Uh, now we get into the MVD rewind collection, which puts the little fake stickers on there. Don't be fined. Please rewind. Uh, the next one did Miami blues. Uh, Alec Baldwin, when he was trying to be just a straight up good looking honky movie star and, uh, did a pretty good job of it for a minute.
00:20:30
Speaker
Jennifer Jason Lee and Fred Ward in here as well. George Armitage, who's attached to actually direct a script that a friend of mine wrote, does a great job. I think Miami Blue's totally underrated movie. I think this is really, really sharp. I think Alec Baldwin is great, even though he outgrew this kind of part very, very quickly. But this was an Orion film. It's got a good bunch of middling extras on it, interviews and trailer and whatnot.
00:21:08
Speaker
was coming off his run on Knott's Landing, late 80s. He was on Knott's Landing. The TV show was a spinoff from Dallas. And during its late run, Alec had come onto that show and he really just exploded on that show. He had that little moment on TV and then he got out of there real quick and fast and started making movies and this was one of his early ones and it really blew him up.
00:21:25
Speaker
but it's just kind of a good solid 90s era cop film. I really liked it.
00:21:35
Speaker
And then we also got the desperate hours, Michael Cimino working with Mickey Rourke and Anthony Hopkins again, Kelly Lynch and Mimi Rogers. I don't know what happened to Kelly Lynch. I had a great interview with her years ago. She was just so smart. And I don't know where she is now. I guess she's just checked out. But, you know, Michael Cimino got into, you know, he's always been in the crime vein ever since he wrote Thunderbolt and Lightfoot for Eastwood.
00:21:59
Speaker
And you know the is little weird to me looking back on this it was produced by do you know the rent is i think i've forgotten that completely but you know what i mean pretty pretty solid pretty solid mickey work you know when he was doing when he was right in the pocket in that moment we make of the.
00:22:19
Speaker
remake of the original Desperate Hours. The original Desperate Hours, right? Yeah, remake. Yeah, I remember that, which was kind of a tough... Huffer Bogart, right? The original Desperate Hours. Yes, the original Desperate Hours. I think you're right. Yeah, kind of a tough, kind of a tough remake with with Anthony Hopkins and Mickey Rourke.
00:22:37
Speaker
And you know what's really weird like we look at this and we're like yeah it's total Michael Cimino film you know totally you know it's like it's noir and Mickey works tough and you know the women are tough and it's a it's good solid old-fashioned noir updated for you know the 90s but what what's weird is that roughly like a little bit before this Michael Cimino was actually once attached to direct Footloose.
00:23:01
Speaker
Oh, what would have been the cabin making blah, blah, blah. Can you imagine? No, that's not working at all. In my head. That's not working at all. We've also got Nicolas Cage in Vampire's Kiss, which is weird because he's in Renfield now. It's like the sequel to Vampire's Kiss.
00:23:25
Speaker
Frickin' weird how he keeps coming back to all that stuff. But yeah, this has the be kind with a little picture of a bee. Remember to rewind.
00:23:35
Speaker
Jennifer Beals and Elizabeth Ashley in this. By the way, speaking of Jennifer Beals, the 4K of Flashdance just arrived. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but it's Flashdance. It's 4K. Who cares? Give me a break. It's Flashdance. Yeah, Nicolas Cage in Vampires Kiss, Maria Conchita Alonzo. What's happened to her? Still hanging around. This was a cold hit at that moment. Absolutely was.
00:24:01
Speaker
Yep. 1988, I think 88, 89, cult hit. I consider any movie from 88 and 89 to basically be sort of adopted into the 90s. Just want to be clear on that. Good. Disturbing behavior with James Marsden, Katie Holmes, and Nick Stahl, all of them looking incredibly young and dashing.
00:24:23
Speaker
Um, directed by David Nutter, who, you know, has kind of gone on to do not a whole lot. Uh, you know, this one, this kind of pre, this was one of the earliest of those, uh, post brat pack, but pre, um, all the, all the horror films that were, uh, you know what I mean? Before the, uh, before the, um, all of the, uh, streams and yeah, all that stuff.
00:24:49
Speaker
So this kind of, I guess it's relevant in that sense. But, you know, I mean, it's stylish. Nutter was a, you know, he was an X-Files guy. Yeah. So, you know, it's got a certain style. But, you know, as, I don't know, it just kind of, it feels cold. I'd never really respond. When they get, when they go for like too many young, pretty people, it's a little bit hard to kind of buy a lot of the, they're all just looking, they're too young and pretty.
00:25:17
Speaker
It's like, what high school is this? Really? Everybody looks like this? That was not my high school. My high school had me in it. So we can't cast this.
00:25:32
Speaker
You know, talk about Dennis Dugan as an actor turned director that we're not overly fond of. Let's talk about one that I'm super fond of, Keith Gordon. Remember Keith Gordon? I love Keith Gordon. Waking the Dead is one of my favorite movies from that period. So good. Keith was an actor, too, of course. Well, yeah, you know, with Roddy Dangerfield and Back to School and, of course, in Christine, you know, John Carpenter's Christine. I mean, very good actor. But it really became, and hasn't directed much lately, but it's such a talented director. Well, he wrote and directed The Chocolate Wall.
00:26:01
Speaker
And that's an interesting one to be out on a rewind collection. I would really recommend this to people. John Glover, Wally Ward, Jenny Wright, and even Bud Court pops in there with a special appearance credit. But, you know, The Chocolate War is based on a novel and a very, very controversial novel. And I think this is an incredibly smart adaptation of it. It's all, it's one of those,
00:26:30
Speaker
prep school genre movies, you know, if everything goes wrong in the prep school. In this case, it's a Catholic boys' school, but it pushes a lot of the same buttons as some of the previous movies on the subject matter, but it does so beautifully. It's not Dead Poets Society, but it's kind of adjacent to that in some respects, and really great performances. I think it's just an absolutely terrific movie. Oh, yeah. Chocolate War, beautifully made by Keith Gordon, really well worth finding.
00:27:00
Speaker
Keith, like all smart directors, moved his ass to television quite some time ago. So Keith knocked out a whole bunch of Homeland and a whole bunch of Legion and a whole bunch of Fargo's and a couple of two, couple of two better call Saul's and some leftovers. That's where Keith has been. So, you know, but doing it in the medium where it happens, you know?
00:27:20
Speaker
Joe Don Baker in Final Justice. You know, I pretty much like every actor that ever played Buford Pusher. Okay with that. And so Joe Don Baker basically does kind of the same thing here in this kind of semi low budgety 1980s movie. Here he plays a guy with the ridiculous name of Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III.
00:27:49
Speaker
Now, I don't know what kind of controlled substance the writer was on when he got that name up. Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III. That's quite a mouthful. But it's basically Buford-Poster. It's basically kind of an unofficial
00:28:07
Speaker
It's an unofficial Walking Tall movie. He's just a small town law man. Anyway, it's the same movie that Graydon Clark always made. Although he did direct Black Shampoo, which is like this sort of Black exploitation film from the middle that I love. Graydon Clark, Graydon pretty much made the same movie all the time.
00:28:32
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Anyway, this is definitely one that gets Be Kind Rewind. This is definitely a VHS movie. Oh, yeah. And so, frankly, is Dirty Laundry. This came in and I thought, Dirty Laundry?
00:28:46
Speaker
Dirty laundry? I don't even remember that one. What's funny about all of these is what I like about it. The way that they do the rewind thing for the Mill Creek stuff is it looks like there's a tape sliding out of the case. The way they do it on the NVD stuff is they make it look as though it's been really abused. It's been returned and just shattered. Things are torn apart and you can see the VHS sticking out a little bit.
00:29:13
Speaker
I kinda like that a little better dirty laundry i was like where when when did this movie come out honestly i had i still can't remember that this movie ever came out we talk about the nineteen eighty seven one or we talk about the nineteen ninety six the eighty seven there are a bunch of them but from that area no this is the one that with with uh frankie valley sunny bono yeah lee mccloskey remember him oh yeah
00:29:37
Speaker
Yeah, this is, Greg Louganis even, you know, pops in here and can't act his way out of a paper bag. It's unfortunate, so unfortunate. Very, very unfortunate.
00:29:46
Speaker
No, this is one of those, it's a bag of money movies. Danny Boyle made a bunch of those and the Coen brothers have kind of forged with that. There's a bag of money movies and somebody all kind of starts in a laundromat and there's a drug deal and he walks out with a bag full of money instead of a bag full of laundry and all hell breaks loose and there you go.
00:30:10
Speaker
So, I mean, it's a contrived scenario, but it's got its moments. I mean, it's a little wacky, but hey, I always enjoy watching Sonny Bono because, you know. Yeah, Sonny Bono. I mean, the beauty of Sonny Bono, especially that episode of the Love Boat where he falls in love with the deaf girl, which I can't, I can't stop laughing about that. And I know I shouldn't. I know that sounds horrible and politically incorrect, but it's just, here's the thing. Sonny genuinely, truly, honestly,
00:30:39
Speaker
doesn't have an ounce of any kind of talent in his body. Not one. He can't sing, he can't act. Yeah, he succeeded at the mall. And you succeeded at the mall, and you kind of want to tip your hat and go, dude, you are so my idol. I don't know how you pulled it off. I know I pulled it off. You stand the next to Cher.
00:30:58
Speaker
Well, you're standing next to shared. People tend to believe whatever the fuck you're saying. So, you know, what do you say, Sonny? Sounds great. Who's that again? Anyway, that's Sonny. I like Sonny. Yep. Well, and then just one more here from MVD Rewind and a couple of restaurants. Liar's Moon with Matt Dillon and Cindy Fisher. Liar's Moon, another one that made me think, gosh,
00:31:23
Speaker
Do I even remember that one just vaguely? And yeah, I kind of do. Matt Dillon made so many of these movies around that same time. And he's kind of the same guy in all of them, right? It's all like sort of small town, middle America. And he's like a tough kid who's misunderstood or he's a tough kid who's not misunderstood or he's a tough kid who's in love. He's always a tough kid doing something. And he made like 20 or 30 of these.
00:31:53
Speaker
five years. Anyway, so yeah, this is, you know, it's a romance. It's a guy and a girl. It's kind of a Romeo and Juliet thing, but it's all right. It works. Yeah, it works. The David Fisher, director David Fisher. Yeah. The Lee, Cindy Fisher, David's sister. Right. David's sister. And she was in a whole bunch of stuff for years, and she was walking around
00:32:21
Speaker
She's one of those beautiful, blonde actresses that was just in all of those movies since she was just sort of there, doing her thing, always good, never became a movie star, but she's just one of those folks who just sort of imprint themselves in your mind. I remember an episode of Remington Steele that she was in, Cindy Fisher. There's some who just imprint whether they become movie stars or not, and she was one of them. She's in Swiss Family Robinson, I remember that.
00:32:50
Speaker
That's true. That's true, yeah. Then we got from Vestron, the Vestron collector series, which is, of course, very, very VHS oriented, even though they don't fully claim to it, but Vestron was like a huge VHS thing.
Exploring 'Extreme Prejudice'
00:33:03
Speaker
Extreme Prejudice, Nick Nolte and Powers Booth, and again, Maria Conchita Alonzo, directed by Walter Hill, who's just kind of phoning it in a little bit, but it's very Walter Hilly, you know, it's guys and guns and, you know, hot women and
00:33:15
Speaker
you know vengeance and it's very Walter hilly. A little bit of a kind of a modern western vibe to it. I like to think of this as the Chuck Norris movie in which Nick Nolte plays Chuck Norris, which is kind of what it is. Well, John Milius, all that John Milius. Yeah, it's very John Milius-y too. Yeah, definitely has that vibe to it. But it's got a few interesting extras on it. Michael Ironside is in this as well. He's in it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
00:33:42
Speaker
You know it's a waltry hill movie i don't know what else to talk about it with all those old guys i love these guys and i have to mention them because they're there so you got clancy brown yeah you got to get to larry bee scott you got your tom tiny lister.
00:33:59
Speaker
Walking around this movie. Yeah, you know, I mean these guys are great in their great faces If you don't know their Mickey Jones, if you don't know their names when you look them up and you see their faces They will register in your memory. I promise you they will. I love character actress dude. I love the long-standing Character actors who just you know started swinging 30 40 50 years ago and just keep swinging
00:34:24
Speaker
Yeah. And the last one here also from Vestron dream a little dream. Now, this was this was at the time kind of in the in the body switching moment that we had, you know, there was there was like father like son, there was a big I mean, there were there were a whole bunch of them at the time. And this was kind of one of the lesser ones of it. It was more of a mind swap thing. Then we had two quarries, you know, the story that's what they call them at the time, the two quarries.
00:34:53
Speaker
And it's hard for me to look, you look at this now and I think, wow, you know, it had, they threw Jason Robards and Harry Dean Stanton in there to give it a little bit of legitimacy. But the two Koreys, it's very sad, obviously, because Corey Haim has left this life. And you can't look at it without sort of knowing everything that he had suffered.
00:35:13
Speaker
what had happened to him and how much turmoil his life was in at the time. But then also, Meredith Salinger is in this movie. Piper Laurie bringing a lot of the legit too. Oh, Harry Dean and Harry Dean Stan. Meredith Salinger, whose sister was a publicist that we knew very well and worked with for a long time. And Meredith Salinger, who weirdly is now married to Patton Oswalt.
00:35:40
Speaker
Yeah, I, you know, honestly, if I, if I were to go back to this time and somebody had said to me, you know, Meredith Salinger is going to be married to this kind of schlumpy guy, this comic guy that isn't really on the scene yet, but, but he's playing some clubs around town. I would have said, you know what? She's just don't troll me.
00:35:55
Speaker
That's just crazy. That's just crazy. There we go. There we go. Which that's really mean because it's Meredith at the time of this movie, for instance. It's just flaming, flaming, flaming, flaming, flaming. That's the point. Weird turns. Yeah, you never know what's going to go down. There you go. Life takes weird turns. All right.
00:36:19
Speaker
Let's
Tiger 24: Animal Rights vs Human Safety
00:36:20
Speaker
go into, so we got 4K, we've got TV, we've got new movies, we've got a ton of stuff here. The deal of choice, man, you grab anything you want, I'm along for the ride. We got the LGBT stuff. You know what, let's just run through some docs because we got one here that we've talked about in the past, we interviewed the director, we're gonna make a big deal out of it. Oh, sure. Let's talk about Tiger 24.
00:36:40
Speaker
Oh, wow. Yeah. A very powerful doc. Warren, Warren Pereira, you know, we had a chance to talk to him on this podcast a few months ago when it was in release. And he told us the amazing stories. And he is, of course, the one man band that made this. I mean, directed it and wrote it and edited it and produced it and he hosts it. And it's kind of amazing. But the story of Tiger 24 is is really what shines through. And Warren made it a life's life's love. And I just think it's terrific.
00:37:09
Speaker
Basically, we'll just recap, but it's the story. In India, they have these preserves where tigers are protected, and they all typically have a buffer zone around them, except for this particular one and maybe some others. But this one, because there's a temple that is inside the preserve area, there's this ridiculously non-existent interface between humans and where the tigers roam.
00:37:31
Speaker
And then the question is you know people die and is the tiger defending himself or is the tiger a man eater and you know it winds up being this really interesting argument about you know where animal rights begin and end human rights begin and end.
00:37:48
Speaker
conservation is the process right and you know what's gonna happen to this port tiger which is now out of its habitat and in a zoo and it's a really really powerful movie. Yeah and it poses that question and perhaps we don't think about it that much in the United States.
00:38:06
Speaker
these things come up here too, you know? And Bobcat Country, you know, we live in Los Angeles, which is actually Bobcat Country, Mountain Lion Country, and human encounters with all kinds of wildlife across, you know, and so the question becomes, look, if the tiger is in the tiger preserve, then how could the tiger be wrong for doing what the tiger does?
00:38:30
Speaker
I remember you bringing that up on radio. Yeah, absolutely true. Absolutely true. So anyway, there we go. Great doc, so very powerful, very thoughtful.
00:38:39
Speaker
Another wonderful doc, I covered this one on radio too, Children of the Mist, which is this beautiful, beautiful kind of embed yourself with the people ethnographic documentary about the Hmong people in Vietnam, which is of course an ethnic minority in Vietnam, most popularized here in of all things, Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino.
00:39:02
Speaker
which dealt with an immigrant Hmong population in the US. And here they are basically looking at the way they live. I don't want to compare them quite to the Amish, that's not really an accurate comparison, but they certainly are a separate group within the Vietnam culture, within the Vietnamese population. And the issue here is specifically about, you know, this young woman and her desire to
00:39:31
Speaker
you know, to have a life outside of what is typically, to what they're accustomed to, arranged marriages and whatnot. So it's, you know, without giving anything away on the, I mean, most people who know about this know that it's about this practice called bride kidnapping, but don't let that sort of throw you. It's about more than that. It really is a kind of a coming of age thing and it's about, you know, modernity and tradition and all of these things specifically relating to this one community.
00:39:59
Speaker
Very nicely done really really one of those docs where you wonder how you were you on the like a fly on the wall I mean you there is so much legit stuff really a good good film children of the mist yeah holly dm the director is it's about you know child marriage and agency amongst these young women they sometimes they're forced into these marriages as early as age 14 and it's and and it's it's all very complicated but yet very interesting very powerful movie.
00:40:27
Speaker
The Showtime documentary McEnroe. Dude, you are the champion. Tell us about Johnny. I really love this doc. In this doc, what we have is Johnny sitting there in this black outfit. He pretty much wears black. It's all right.
00:40:46
Speaker
He's sitting in a black room, at a black desk, in a black chair, in a black outfit. It's on a keylet. And he talks about his entire career, his life and his career, including his relationship with his father. And for anyone who's ever wondered about John McEnroe's nature on the tennis court when he was a young tennis player.
00:41:05
Speaker
and that sort of explosive and intense nature. Watch this doc and meet his father, and meet his daddy, and you'll know who built John McEnroe to be the way he was. It's a very interesting thing. And you also sort of realize this in watching this doc. John McEnroe is very obviously, very obviously, the natural sitting there, John McEnroe, on the spectrum.
00:41:31
Speaker
Yeah, very obviously on the spectrum, which he knows and admits I'm not, you know, calling out anything. But it's funny how in a certain sort of circumstance, you can start to see that. And of course, there was not a thing called the spectrum, you know, 45, 50 years ago there. And but it's a very powerful, what I love most about it,
00:41:52
Speaker
a previous documentary called Board McEnroe, which was a film, too, with Shia LaBeoufie. In this film, he talks about his relationship with Beyond Board. And I think it's
00:42:10
Speaker
It's probably the truest representation of that relationship that I've encountered. Because from all those other representations, the films, the narrative films and the other documentaries, you would have thought that they had an antagonistic relationship, but they didn't. They are very, very, very, very good friends. They were very good friends then, all the way back then. And it's just striking the things that we think we know and how incredibly wrong we can be.
00:42:39
Speaker
Yeah, it's very true. Great doc here also by Patricio Guzman. It's called My Imaginary Country.
00:42:50
Speaker
And it's, Guzman is Chilean and made a really a very rousing documentary here about the revisiting the history of the Chilean revolution that overthrew Pinochet and how it sort of connects to modern day Chilean history. And, you know, it's amazing. This was made last year and in many respects it almost feels outdated. Things have moved so fast in Chile and it never really makes the news.
00:43:16
Speaker
Really, if you want to wrap your head around just how complicated and messy that history is, it's so much more so than I think we ever imagined. But it's really a very, very interesting, it's just an absolutely fascinating
00:43:32
Speaker
reconstruction of that history. So that's from Icarus, and it's My Imaginary Country by Patricio Guzman. His films, The Battle of Chile, it's like in two parts, The Battle of Chile, one of them is fantastic, not to mention, and a great companion for, I forget to direct it, but Chile, Chile 76. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, all that together. Just great stuff.
00:44:02
Speaker
I got a thing here called Life and Life, which is about a musician by the name of Reggie Austin. I'm not going to give away what the key of the story is, but he went through
00:44:17
Speaker
Let's just say his life was basically stolen from him, and he's trying to reconstruct his life. He's trying to sort of repair his memory, repair his soul, and life and life is talking about basically the two different lives that he's led, the life that he has been living and the life that he's trying to now connect to, now that he's putting everything together again. Anyway, it's pretty powerful, and the music is a huge part of it.
00:44:47
Speaker
the healing power of music, the therapeutic power of music, not just for those who hear it, but those who create it. It's a doc that's really, really well worth discovering. So let's see if you can dig that up. Life and life.
00:45:00
Speaker
Um, another one here called, uh, forget me not, which really made quite a wonderful run around the, uh, the festivals. Um, this is about a, a three year old. Well, it's about disabilities in the education system, something that I'm unfortunately discovering a lot about, you know, as you.
00:45:18
Speaker
when you have kids and you get involved in school boards and school districts and whatnot. And this is in New York and it's about this little boy with Down syndrome and he's three years old and it's how the system does and does not integrate him into
00:45:38
Speaker
what should be, you know, a very welcoming and constructive educational pipeline. You know, the kids with Down syndrome kind of are the also-rands, right? They're, well, they're not going to go to college, so what are you going to do with them? I mean, they're not really going to boost the school's numbers. They're not going to, you know, kick up your, all the data points that get you, you know, all your state aid and this kind of stuff.
00:45:59
Speaker
It's a really, really sad but also inspiring film because the people here really, really care. So that's a beautiful film too. That's from Cinema Libre. It's called Forget Me Not.
00:46:13
Speaker
Wrapping down three final docs here, Kentridge and Dumas in conversation. This is by a very talented filmmaker named Catherine Myberg, M-E-Y-B-U-R-G-H. And this is not about Alexander Dumas, no. This is about William Kentridge and Marlene Dumas, who are big, big figures in the international art scene.
00:46:38
Speaker
and they basically have a conversation about art, and that's it. There is nothing else to this film, but it's really interesting. It's like my dinner with two pretentious art people who really grow on me. I don't know that I like the art that they're necessarily talking about. I don't know that I even like their art, but I really did enjoy listening to them talk. Interesting.
00:47:05
Speaker
And then the last two here, a History Channel doc on the Coliseum, which I had the privilege of seeing last year. It's an eight episode documentary series from Lionsgate and A&E, aired on the History Channel, and it gives you the whole history of the Coliseum, which actually was not called the Coliseum originally. I did not know that. Yeah, and they get into that. It's a fascinating history, but it's all the stuff that we got in our big tour when we toured the Coliseum.
00:47:34
Speaker
And it's really super fascinating and what i like about this is that they have these recreation is live action recreation sequences which i kind of wish that we had you know guys put on the gladiator show. When we did it would have felt a little bit more cool anyway it's a really fascinating history and it's well worth watching even if it'll make you want to go there.
00:47:54
Speaker
If you've been there it'll make you want to go back why i'm in the last one jerry anderson life uncharted the great jerry anderson behind all the super marion nation shows we love so much like the birds and of course also space nineteen ninety nine and ufo and boy what you know.
00:48:12
Speaker
Why it is like we know Jerry Anderson, but we don't know as much about him as we know about other icons like that. Like we know everything there is to know about Gene Roddenberry. Yeah. Right. But do we know anything about Jerry Anderson? No, we just know what he created. Yeah. Well, this gets into his very long and and kind of a
00:48:29
Speaker
You know, I mean, a real pioneer, but also kind of a tempestuous guy. They talked to a lot of people here, friends and people who worked on his shows. And he came from a really, really nasty upbringing. His background was tough. It was hard scrabble.
00:48:51
Speaker
And he was a tough guy to deal with. Like, he was not easy. So that kind of, you know, makes me a little more fascinated. It makes me respect the guy a little bit more, especially when you see where he came from. Well, an interesting thing, and I'll have to check this out. Look, you can't talk about Jerry Anderson without talking to you. This Jerry Anderson without talking about Sylvia. Exactly. That was a messy divorce, too. Oh, it was a thing. But I got to tell you, Sylvia,
00:49:19
Speaker
When you watch all of those shows, Sylvia was the costume designer, the designer for many, many things on the show, but definitely the costumes. I've got to tell you, much of those programs, UFO and all that kind of stuff, was about the costumes. Yeah, Sylvia, you know, it was all very
00:49:35
Speaker
very pop, British pop in the early seventies and all those kinds of things. But Sylvia kept it sexy. Sylvia kept it captivating and colorful. And frankly, she kept me, very often, she kept me tuned in because you never knew what somebody was going to wear. Fishnet. Sylvia was very much into fishnet. So, you know, yeah. Oh, man. All right. Let's do the forecase.
00:49:58
Speaker
Let's do some 4Ks. And some of these are some like Babylon I know is in there, right? Let's start with the 4K steelbook of Babylon. The over the three hour and 10 minute R rated suicide wish for Damien Chazelle. I don't know what he was thinking. But again, moving back to the Busby Berkeley thing, I have been immersed for a very long time now in the world of in this particular period. This is just before, right?
00:50:26
Speaker
Buzz comes here in the early 30s. And that's Sam Goldwyn and Warner Brothers and MGM and building musicals for the sound era. This is the period building up to the shift to sound. This is the silent era. And you know what? My big problem with Babylon, I got a lot of problems with Babylon. And everybody knows I love me some chisel. I do. La La Land is near and dear to my heart.
00:50:50
Speaker
But man, I just didn't like this movie in any way whatsoever. And part of it is because, and I had this conversation with Amy, by the way, because Amy liked it. And I said, yeah, but it's not even remotely the 1920s. He's recreating like the 19 teens and passing it off as the 1920s. And in terms of filmmaking and technology, that's like the difference between the Stone Age and the Roman
00:51:14
Speaker
in antiquity i mean it's a ton of things changed between nineteen thirteen say nineteen twenty seven so i i just i felt like it was sort of all over the map and uh... you know a little too crazy in debauch but i don't know you tell me. No i'm saying look the movie lost me in the opening sequence is the opening sequence in this movie involves an elephant.
00:51:33
Speaker
And by the time that opening sequence is over, which is before the big party begins, I'm already out of the movie. So I'm like, you've told me what you think, Damien. With that scene, you've told me what you think of all this. For a guy who ostensibly loves Hollywood, it just struck me as hot. Two great things in the film.
00:51:59
Speaker
A really solid performance from Brad Pitt and a really solid performance from James Smart. And a really solid performance from the throwing it all at the wall, Margot Robbie. What bugged me about the discussion of this movie were the attacks on Margot Robbie as though the problems of this movie were her fault.
00:52:22
Speaker
Yeah, no. She's giving it all. She's giving it all. She's leaving it all on the floor. She handed herself over to these directors, a bunch of men, frankly. And just like Elizabeth, I think it was, who was in Showgirls? Elizabeth, whether... Oh, Elizabeth Berkley. Elizabeth Berkley. Because this is the equivalent to me. This is the present day equivalent of Showgirls.
00:52:45
Speaker
And Elizabeth Berkley handed herself over to, you know, Paul Vermon, and I'll do it and say, all right, you guys, you guys know what you're doing. I'm just a young actress. I'll swing it. I'll swing with you guys. And Margot did that. And then when this movie tanks, everybody came after Margot.
00:53:01
Speaker
as if Damien Chazelle hadn't killed two big budget movies in a row. This one and, frankly, First Man. As if all the, he wrote every word of this movie, Damien Chazelle. Yes, he did. All 100, and his director's got apparently over four and a half hours. You? I can't.
00:53:17
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no. Everything about this movie has to rest with him, and that is it, and that is all. Whatever you think about it, if it had been a big hit, it would have accrued to him, too. But it isn't, and it didn't. And there's some really interesting ideas in this movie. All that stuff to do with the anime Wong-style character and all that.
00:53:38
Speaker
That's great history. This is great Hollywood history. And to get it wrong, just sort of jack it up like that. Really, it's sort of interesting because what it means is it'll be tough for someone else to come along to want to do some of this history. And Hollywood will be like, oh, no, can't do that. Now, fortunately, Fincher's film, Mank, came out a year or two, maybe the year before this. 10 nominations. You know, and would be so. I'm like two, yeah.
00:54:04
Speaker
But, you know, if we could have done these in order, I would have rather Babylon came out and tanked and then May came out and got his chin up. So, you know, we'll deal with it.
00:54:12
Speaker
Well, from the Ridiculous to the Sublime, All Quiet on the Western Front almost seemed like it was going to walk away with some Oscars or some big Oscars a few weeks ago. Here's what's fascinating. It did walk away with four. It got four technical awards and the International Award. But Netflix has all the rights to this amazing German film here. But Netflix also made this their first ever
00:54:39
Speaker
4K UHD release. So that if you want to see this in the best possible form, you don't have to actually go and watch it on Netflix. You can buy it on a 4K Blu-ray. That's interesting that Netflix has made that decision. I find that totally- It's a little better on the 4K than it will on Netflix. On Netflix, you never know what you're actually going to get when you're streaming Netflix.
00:55:04
Speaker
No. And this is amazing. I will say that. This is one of the best looking 4Ks I've seen in a very, very long time. I mean, it's really, really, really tremendous. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful transfer. This thing won seven BAFTAs, including the best picture. Has an audio commentary from Edward Berger, the director, and a
00:55:25
Speaker
24 page booklet that has, you know, it's, I mean, it's, it's all right. It's fine. It's it's sort of what you expect. But it's the it's the commentary by Berger and the interview with Daniel Shope Flug, who is the historian. You and those names. Shope Flug. Yeah, you know, I mean, here's the thing. I know Andy kind of groused about this when we had our Oscar preview show that it makes some changes in the book.
00:55:49
Speaker
And I get it, you know, Andy's a big, big literary stickler. But, you know, the original movie won nearly 100 years ago, came just a year after the publication of the book. It was very much contemporary with World War I, just a few years after, you know, talking late 20s, early 30s. An American movie, of course.
00:56:06
Speaker
American movie contemporary with those events adapted from the book one best picture germany itself could not bring itself to tell this story for nearly a century so it now has hindsight it has not just world war one but has world war two in the rearview mirror so you can you can kind of now make this story.
00:56:26
Speaker
and see things in it that even the author couldn't have seen in his own story at the time, sort of forecasting what was going to happen again. And on that level, I think it's just unbelievably powerful. I know a lot of people have problems with it. I don't like the score. I'll admit that. I think the music is very distracting. But just as a piece of raw cinema just putting it together, I mean, it really is an impressive movie.
00:56:50
Speaker
Well, the technology today is, you know, obviously the technology today, you know, as opposed to the technology of almost all the years. So you have that. And, you know, a certain sort of perspective. What do you call those two little dots they put over all the names? Is that the umlaut? Is that the umlaut? That's the umlaut, yes. I've never seen so many umlauts.
00:57:19
Speaker
I haven't seen so many omelettes since the Monsters of Rock.
00:57:26
Speaker
invited all of those heavy metal bands to use the Omelettes. All those dots. It's crazy, man. It's funny. This is interesting. I mean, concurrent with Creed III being out in theaters and having done its thing, we now have a Rocky 4K collection, which is interesting.
00:57:46
Speaker
And this is why it's interesting because it's they've given us a nice little tight box set and very slim one case of 4K versions of Rocky Rocky 2, Rocky 3, Rocky 4. And that's it. Just Rocky 1, 2, 3, and 4. Because everyone tries to pretend like Rocky 5 doesn't exist.
00:58:06
Speaker
I don't know, why do you think that is? It's just so terrible, bad with that kid. And interestingly, Creed 3, so Rocky 1 through 4, all good movies, all solid, populist movies. Rocky 1 is a serious film that deserved that screenplay. And then after that, he just starts making these populist movies that aren't particularly serious, but nevertheless,
00:58:32
Speaker
very popular movies. And sometimes I get confused about what's happening in which movie to be honest with you. I think the second one is the second battle with Apollo that he wins. And the third one is going to be, that's going to be Clevver. And then we got Dolph Long and the Russian dude, right? And the fourth one. All solid movies. All solid movies. And then we did a whole lot of time elapses, actually. And for whatever reason, they make Rocky V.
00:58:57
Speaker
And with that boxer kit. But the thing is that in Rocky V, Rocky V is missing the two things that I think make the Rocky saga 1, 2, 3, and 4. This is a complete saga. And it's a complete saga because it has two things that none of the other Rocky movies have. And that is
00:59:19
Speaker
Adrian, who's not in five, and Apollo Creed. And that's a really interesting thing to me, because what it says is that it's not just about Rocky. It's about Rocky, his nemesis, and his woman.
00:59:35
Speaker
You've built a whole family by the time you get to four, and that family is going to do battle in four against the, you know, whatever four came out, 80, whatever the hell it was, 90, whatever the hell it was. So the Russians were still a thing. And frankly, in that period, you can get the entire nation
00:59:55
Speaker
to line up behind the Soviets. Let's say the Soviets. Let's not say Russians. Let's say Soviets. Everybody in the United States of America. Look, I had spent the late part of the 70s in the entire first half of the decade of the 80s in the United States Air Force, where our mortal enemy was the Soviet Union. You're not even the Chinese yet.
01:00:20
Speaker
It was the Soviet Union. So it was really easy to get everybody to sort of line up with Rocky and Rocky IV for Rocky IV. Interesting that today, in today's political environment, I'm not sure Rocky IV would be a hit. I'm not sure who'd be rooting for Dolph and who'd be rooting for Sylvester in the America of today. But way back then, it was all Rocky for real. So one through four makes sense.
01:00:46
Speaker
And it does make sense because I also think his relationship with Adrian, his relationship with Apollo...
01:00:53
Speaker
they carry through a complete arc. I mean, he and Apollo have made up, they are compadres by four, but his relationship with Adrian is stressed. So I think that is a very interesting switch. And I do think that the four films, uneven as they are, really do represent a complete saga. And there's an exclamation point at the end of four. And I think at that point, then we're kind of off in a different universe. But
01:01:18
Speaker
I do want to also say the Eye of the Tiger montage in Rocky III is maybe the best thing that Stallone has ever directed, and it may be the best movie montage I've ever seen. I just love it. I love it. Yeah, he figured it out by then. He figured it out by, by, by, by III. Yeah, for sure. Let's see a few other things here on 4K. We got an old Dario Argento movie called Phenomena. It's on a two-disc set from Synapse.
01:01:45
Speaker
And it includes the original international version. And then it also includes the, I'm sorry, the original Italian version. And it also includes the international and quote unquote, creepers. Yes, yes. So I am not a Dario Argento fan. Nah, not a big fan. I appreciate it, but I don't really like it. But I do love Junction for Connelly. Junction for Connelly in 1985 is a hell of a thing.
01:02:15
Speaker
I agree with you there, but there is no version of this movie that works for me. No, there's just no version of it that works for me. But I do agree. I mean, I like the music. It's got kind of a, you know, it's got a cool rock soundtrack. I mean, but that's, you know, talking about Umlaad's got Motorhead on it. Get away from the Umlaad. But yeah, but, you know, I mean, apart from the music, I mean, it just
01:02:44
Speaker
I don't know. It's another one of these, you know, Jennifer Connolly goes to this private school and, you know, and Dario Gento does weird crap and it, you know, it just, eh. Not my fan. But anyway, yeah, no, I agree with you. It's got great audio. It looks good. It's 4K. Fantastic.
01:03:03
Speaker
for people who like Dario Argento, I guess. We also got the very, very first ever 4K from Classic Flix, believe it or not. They're jumping on the 4K bandwagon as well, which is a great thing. And this is a 1954 film called The Long Wait.
01:03:21
Speaker
which is a Mickey Spillane thing, not top tier Mickey Spillane. It's got a great cast. It's got Anthony Quinn and Gene Evans and Reggie Castile, Charles Coburn. It's a good, solid
01:03:38
Speaker
It's a good, solid, kind of B-level noir, I guess, is maybe the best way to put it. But yeah, you know, Mickey Spillane, his DNA is all over this thing. And if it had slightly better actors and maybe a little better direction, it would be kind of top tier. But, you know, as it is, Victor Saville. Excuse me. Thank you. I've never seen this on the show before.
01:04:06
Speaker
Uh, but yeah, I mean, it's, you know, Victor Seville is a kind of meat and potatoes director from the period night, early, early fifties, 1954. Uh, and, uh, you know, it's, uh, it's one of those, um, one of those amnesia deals, right? Guy has gotten an ax and he has amnesia. And then, you know, a lot of few contrived things happen. And, uh, it's, this is, you know, it, it's an, this is one of his handful of non-Mike Hammer stories. And, uh,
01:04:33
Speaker
Even though it still feels like a Mike Hammer story, you know, it still does. But no, it's worth checking out. It's definitely a really interesting entry from the period. DC animated movie Batman, the doom that came to Gotham.
01:04:51
Speaker
one of the better recent DC animated movies. I do like what they're doing. I'm wondering what's going to happen now that the whole DC universe is being refashioned over there. I wonder what's going to happen with these, but I hope they don't do too much with the animated stuff because this is, you know, this is pretty sharp. It's dark and it's, it's got a, you know, interesting, uh, interesting take on the Gotham lore. It can't be, it can't be, it can't be,
01:05:16
Speaker
Look, I've been watching Gotham, Gotham Knights, I guess is what they call it, all over on the CW, this new thing with these kids running around with this entirely disparate take on the entire Gotham world where, you know, Batman gets killed, he's got some adopted kid, and Robin is just a teenage black girl, and I'm just like, for God's sakes, people.
01:05:39
Speaker
What are you doing to me here? I just want to watch Batman, man. Can I just watch Batman? And the answer is no. You cannot. You got to deal with whatever we decide is happening in these universes. And I'm too old. I'm too old. I'm too old. I can't do it. I'm too old.
01:05:56
Speaker
This is very dark. It deals with Doomsday Cult and Gotham and, you know, all this kind of stuff. But and, you know, these, well, I won't get into the Robin stuff. There's an interesting thing that's going on. There's a lot of Robin stuff to do. Nightwing Robin. It's not like it's just one, but, you know, whatever. Do what you're doing, kids. Do what you're doing.
01:06:14
Speaker
Oh, Gerard Butler, dude. Oh, plain. Yeah, plain. I mean, you know, Mike Colter, I can forgive because Mike Colter just kind of he sort of understands what he's doing when he walks into these things. He'll walk into a bad movie and out of it and into a good movie. But I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Tell me. I don't know. Help me out.
01:06:35
Speaker
What are you going to say? You know, the guys are playing, it's just the whole shebang. Now, Gerard has been doing this for a while. This is no different than those, you know, they're trying to kill the president movies. He did four or five of those, three or four of those, you know? And this is what he has been doing. And it's funny, you're right. Hey, look, Gerard, I mean, Mike, Mike's trying to have a payday.
01:07:03
Speaker
uh you know he's like look can you get me something where i can make some money he walks over he walks around this movie makes a couple of bucks it feels to me like there's just too many things going on here like a plane crashes on an island and then there's like a political revolution happening and then turns out that mike coulter is a
01:07:19
Speaker
is a convict, is an escaped convict or some, I don't, there are like too many things happening that just would never coincide in the same place, in the same story. It's like the writers were just sitting around taking some kind of drugs and going, I don't know, what if there's like a thing? And they just, and everything they came up with, they just threw in.
01:07:41
Speaker
Yeah. And it's a very strange movie. It doesn't make any difference to whether it makes any sense or not. Yeah. And it mostly does not. It mostly does not. We got Dragon Slayer on 4K. I always loved this movie. I'm so corny. Matthew Robbins. I always loved this. Peter, Peter McNichol and Ralph Richardson. I can't help it. This terrible movie. I just love this movie.
01:08:04
Speaker
You know and that's and that's what I was gonna ask you because I I didn't like this much at the time Terrible and and it's and it feels kind of weirdly nostalgic like watching it now. This is 1981 You know, this is that early genre moment. Yeah after Spielberg and Lucas have sort of cracked the whole thing open They've opened the Pandora's box and now everybody's jumping through and making fantasy and sci-fi and spaceships and dragons and fantasy and it's just the whole you know, the everything's wide open now and I you know, I mean it's
01:08:33
Speaker
It is kind of retro in an endearing way. It's so retro. I sort of feel bad about not liking it at the time because it's the same way I look at Kroll, right? I hated Kroll. Couldn't stand it. And I look at Kroll now and I go, oh. Oh, Kroll. Hey, look. You know, Guillermo del Toro's, you know, the recent Nokia.
01:08:58
Speaker
Yeah, if I'm not mistaken, Matthew Robbins is one of the writers on that movie. Oh, is he? Yeah, I'm almost certain he is. I don't know that I even noticed that. Scrape around and look it up. So you know, he's been around mimic and dragon's Lee, all that kind of stuff. So as a writer, I was kind of Doug Matthew, a whole Crimson Peak is Matthew Rob, you know, don't be afraid of a whole bunch of cool stuff he wrote. You know, I don't know. This movie is not a great movie. But for whatever reason, he wrote here, I just love
01:09:28
Speaker
I always love Peter McNichol for one thing. He's just great. The underdog guy, you know, and all this kind of stuff. And so Ralph, and that one great sequence where he has to, you know, he has to be all standing on top of the thing and kill the dragon with the braid. That's just so cool.
01:09:44
Speaker
It is cool, it is cool, I admit. But it's a terrible movie, you're absolutely right. Peter McNichol, my favorite Peter McNichol line in any movie that he has ever been in, do you know what it is? Is it in the second Ghostbusters movie? It sure is. What's the line? And the line is, and I will do the accent as best I can, it's right near the end of the movie when he says, why am I covens this goo?
01:10:14
Speaker
He is brilliant in that movie. He really is. Very funny. He is brilliant in that movie. He walks away with that movie. And it's one of the few moments where Bill Murray said, you know what, this guy's funny. And just let him have everything. Yes, indeed. So then a couple from Shout Factory, Scream Factory. We've got the James Wan film Dead Silence on 4K and Blu-ray.
01:10:39
Speaker
You know what, it's an evil doll movie. It's like those Twilight Zones and everything else. I mean, there's a million of them. Good screenplay by Leif Wannell and based on a story that he wrote with James Wan. Wan's direction, pretty solid, good in this genre.
01:11:02
Speaker
I don't know. It- Oh, it's fine. You got the kid from, the kid from Orion. What's his name? From True Blood. Yeah. Yeah. It's fine. It's fine. I mean, it comes with two different cuts on it, theatrical and unrated, a bunch of featurettes and whatnot. Yeah, it's fine. And then the last one here, the last 4K is real oddity. William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist III.
01:11:27
Speaker
1990. Yeah. I mean, it's such an odd thing because, you know, Blatty, of course, wrote the book and then went after the first film, which is a classic, and then the second film, which was John Borman Losing His Mind, and it's considered one of the all time worst movies ever made, even though I think that's a little bit harsh, but it's really insane.
01:11:48
Speaker
And then suddenly we get, you know, written and directed by William Peter Blatty, who never actually wrote a screenplay or directed a movie in his life, but, you know, hey, it's his property. He gets to do what he wants. He probably negotiated that for him for the rights to do that second film, which is funny that, you know, that terrible film would get him a shot at making an even worse film.
01:12:14
Speaker
But you know what? Josh Scott actually maintains a measure of gravitas in this film. He does. It almost makes you buy it. He brings a level of real gravitas to it. It makes you not hate it. I agree. So good choice in picking Joyce C.
01:12:34
Speaker
Indeed. So what's interesting here, three different cuts of this, and they're very interesting to compare. Unlike the Dario Argento thing phenomena, these cuts are really interesting. But you only get one of them in 4K. So you only get the theatrical cut in 4K. And then you get the, on Blu-ray, you only get the Legion cut.
01:13:00
Speaker
And the Legion cut was his original director's cut, which had been thought lost and it's very, very interesting. It's really worth checking out. I don't know that it's better.
01:13:11
Speaker
And there's a really interesting documentary here about the making of the film, which is crazy. But it's interesting to see what the director's cut looked like and to compare it. I think, in some respect, it's better. I think, in most respect, it's not. But it makes you wonder whose idea were some of the choices and the changes. Brad Doreff, also very, very good in this, want to give him a shout out. And Nickel Williamson, who, of course, was so wonderful in
01:13:40
Speaker
as Merlin in Excalibur. So, yeah, so it's a fascinating movie. All right. Let's see. Oh, let's do some new movies because we got some Oscar-y stuff in here, too.
Brendan Fraser's Oscar Win for The Whale
01:13:52
Speaker
It was recently nominated. Let's first give a shout out to Oscar winner Brendan Gleason. Sorry, Brendan Fraser for The Whale, directed by Darren Aronofsky, who does a very good job of getting
01:14:06
Speaker
directing really depressing movies that win people Oscars. Yeah. The whale being a movie that I didn't particularly care for, but deeply appreciated both Brendan's performance. Excuse me. And of course, the young lady who also got nominated, you know, is in the movie a couple of great performances and what's effectively. Thank you. Thank you.
01:14:28
Speaker
and what's effectively kind of a stage play. The problem is that it feels like that for me. It felt like that to me. And there's a reason for the guy. He's morbidly obese and he's... Yeah, he's got his daughter and he wants to... It's a daddy-daughter thing. I should respond to it on that level, but again, it feels like one of those movies that was designed to win someone an Oscar.
01:14:54
Speaker
Yeah. And then it has this idea, this central idea at the center of it, too, that, look, you're morbidly obese. Okay. That's the thing. I know some big people. Not all of them are shut in. Some of them are just big people roaming around the world like Elizabeth.
01:15:12
Speaker
You know, Lizzo. And don't give a damn about being fat and living their lives. And so, you know, I get the people who have issues around that notion. On the other hand, it's a character that I actually, that I certainly can believe would have the issues that he had around his sort of body type and body size and all that kind of stuff. But didn't really care for the movie. Great performance, though.
Oscar Fashion and Women Talking
01:15:38
Speaker
And Sarah Pauli, our lovely Sarah Pauli, who's been just a wonderful young actress in all of those Adam McGaughan movies. And, you know, all the way back now, she is a a mom and a filmmaker. And she wore she wore just a straight up tuxedo suit to the Oscars. It was so funny on the red carpet. They were asking her, are they thinking, oh, is this some kind of a statement like a feminist statement? And they said, you know, can you talk about and they give her the usual spiel about, you know, who are you wearing and why are you wearing? And she just straight up said, she goes, I just want to be comfortable.
01:16:08
Speaker
Yeah. That was it. She just wanted to wear something comfortable. Yeah. And good on her. She's entitled. And I look good in this suit. Women talking really just extraordinary. Yeah. Screenplay wise, I felt like it was just the best screenplay. Yeah. Again, a stage play dynamic, right? Because for why we basically were in that barn. But I never felt like I was just watching. It opens it up just enough with some of those flashbacks and some of the other stuff at the beginning. Yeah, it opens it up just enough.
01:16:37
Speaker
Based on a book by Miriam Taves, I think is how you pronounce it. And yeah, I mean a story of a, what's the, what is the, they don't say so in the film. Are they Mennonites? What are they? Mennonites, correct. So it's a Mennonite,
01:16:58
Speaker
commune where some unsavory things have happened to the women, men drink too much so forth and so on and so the women are having a very confidential secret congress in a barn talking about are we gonna fight back or are we gonna leave? And the thing that I find most compelling about this is not just how well rounded all the characters are and how they all have a point of view and that they're able to maintain this tension of conversation or the duration of the film but
01:17:26
Speaker
I like the fact that they are still committed to their faith. At no point do they say the men who control our faith have caused us to lose faith. To them, the men are betraying the faith. These women are the ones who are upholding it.
01:17:46
Speaker
and they see themselves as spiritually superior and really that they need to do this, not just for their own safety, but for God. That, I thought, made the whole thing so rich and fascinating. It added such a powerful dynamic to it. So not an easy screenplay to write, even if you're working from a book, really, really good stuff. Yeah, yeah, a book based on, you know, generally speaking, true events. Yes. Broadly speaking, true events, yes. Very true.
Thrillers and Dramas: Megan to Alice Darling
01:18:13
Speaker
I did not win an Oscar cuz it came out this year will not win an Oscar next year but Blu-ray unrated Megan. Talking about evil doll movies on the radio with the with Christy on this one Christy love this I just I can't get with it it's got it's got both cuts on red theatrical doesn't make a difference so yeah this is kind of like a child's play meets I don't know two thousand one or.
01:18:42
Speaker
Blade Runner or something anyway it's a young woman who is you know she creates an AI doll for children for the toy company she works for and of course the doll is just a little bit too AI it's like chat GPT on and the doll just becomes a little bit too attached to her niece.
01:19:03
Speaker
who loses her parents in the very first film of the first scene of the film. Anyway, I mean, you know, ultimately, it's okay, they're gonna make a sequel to this thing. Well, it's just a creepy doll. And I'm sorry, but look, Chuckie, at least you've got the demon in that dolls, your demons, the demons, the demons, the demons. You can't do anything about the demon doll. No matter what you do, the demons in the doll.
01:19:24
Speaker
Megan, hey, take the batteries out of the freaking cell. Just let the battery run down. It's easy to fix Megan. She's not running on a nuclear charge or anything. Just unplug the broad. Whatever. Go ahead, people.
01:19:40
Speaker
Oh man. So this was expected to get a little bit of a run at the awards season and it did not for whatever reason. Alice Darling with Anna Kendrick. I just think Anna Kendrick keeps getting the short end of the stick. She got one Oscar nomination and she just keeps not getting them.
01:19:56
Speaker
You know what this is this is a really really strong performance but a film that i think just kind of missed people a little bit and i'm not quite sure why it's just the abusive relationships all dynamics going in the house is a young woman she has to wait she goes on off on the trip boyfriend boyfriend thing is he's.
01:20:17
Speaker
he's a gas light. It's not like he's this physically abusive guy in the film. I'm not giving anything away. This is gas light. And Mary, Mary Nye, Mary Nye is director Bill, Bill Nye's daughter, I think, if I'm not mistaken, right. Right. And directing here and it
01:20:34
Speaker
And I had to review it for the show. It's a little bit nebulous, and it floats around, and it's speaking to this thing that's relevant in the post Me Too or still Me Too sort of moment. But I don't know. It just didn't congeal as a movie, as a whole movie for me. It just sort of floats around this space where these things happen. And I'm like, yes, there's this space. These things do happen. But then, no.
01:21:04
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and then, you know, she, of course, got her Oscar nomination for Up in the Air.
Seriously Red and Missing: Quirky Charm and Tension
01:21:10
Speaker
And so I this way, I would normally have talked about when we talk about
01:21:15
Speaker
catalog films, but I want to bring this in because of Up in the Air. The 2013 Jason Reitman film Labor Day with Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin out on Blu-ray now. It's funny looking at this in hindsight now that Jason Reitman is kind of, I think, looking for a groove in his career. I mean, going to the Ghostbusters sequel and
01:21:35
Speaker
Kind of, you know, he's a little bit all over the map right now. I think he's trying to sort of find his footing against it's up in the air. But in hindsight, this is a much better movie than I gave it credit for at the time. And I got to say that 2013, I think I was looking for, you know, something else out of him. And I think I've mentioned here before that I was on the
01:21:54
Speaker
AFI shorts jury the year that his student film was in the mix and you know it was kind of came down to between his student film and this amazing film that eventually got an Oscar nomination called Two Cars One Night by Taika Waititi. I didn't know who Taika was. I definitely knew who Jason was but I didn't know who Taika was. Well we gave the award to Taika and look at him now. You know he's blown up huge. I feel like a proud papa.
01:22:18
Speaker
But no, really, Jason Reitman did a really, I think, a really much better job here. I think if this film were released today, it would probably hit a much more welcome audience.
01:22:29
Speaker
It's a very, very mature film. I think Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin are, I mean, it's a whole unlikely romance thing, damaged people and that kind of a thing. It's a familiar kind of sub-genre, but still, I think they're really, really good in it. Josh Brolin has rarely been better. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:22:51
Speaker
is an Australian kind of romantic comedy, super campy. I mean, this is such an Australian movie. If you like Muriel's Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Strictly Ballroom and all those really gaudy Australian kind of poppy campy movies of that particular era in the 90s, you will love this because it is right in that pocket. Gracie Otto directs this fascinating
01:23:20
Speaker
Movies starring crew boiling who also wrote it basically wrote it for herself Where she plays a woman with a complete obsession with Dolly Parton She wants to be a Dolly Parton impersonator and she winds up hooking up with a Kenny Rogers impersonator And the whole thing is just gets so weird and so creepy. But the thing is she's secretly gay and
01:23:44
Speaker
And that's kind of the thing that she doesn't want to admit it to her family. And so that creates a really interesting subtext to it. I can't say it totally works, but you just kind of can't take your eyes off it. Bobby Cannavale's in it, Rose Byrne. You know, it's a really, I mean, if you like those other movies, I think you'll respond to it. It should be better, it could be better, it's a little bit kind of imbalanced, but
01:24:12
Speaker
It's got a good heart. It's got a really good heart. It's kind of funny. Hey, look. It's seriously red. Seriously red. I thought it was kind of sweet and rather enjoyed it. I think if I'm not mistaken.
01:24:27
Speaker
No, I was thinking of a different person. Never mind. Go on. Go on. All right. Next one, another new movie called Missing with Storm Reed and Nia Long. And, you know, this is this is all right. This is almost certainly shot during the pandemic. So in some respects, you kind of feel the long shadow of the pandemic.
01:24:53
Speaker
But, I don't know, did you get a chance to see this? I did, I did, I did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's a pretty good thriller, right? Yeah. It's a pretty decent thriller. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Chick trying to find her mother. And, you know, look, I dig that story, and it's sort of well done, but I think you're right. Besides that, it's me along, I really dig me along.
01:25:15
Speaker
And I'm a big fan of this young actress. What's her name? Is it? Storm? Yeah. She's running the family. But I like her a lot. She's really, really good. Yeah, I think so too. But I have to, the way that it incorporates technology and there's a whole social media thing to it. It just feels like it was probably a different script until the pandemic hit. And then they said, let's just incorporate all this social media stuff so that we can
01:25:42
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of time on computers, a lot of time on phones, but that's okay. Two more here, two more new movies, and then we'll dive into TV and then call it quits, I think.
Thrillers: The Weapon to Mantra
01:25:53
Speaker
The Weapon, which has a bunch of people that should be doing better movies, including Cooper Gooding Jr. and Bruce Dern, but that's okay. This is sort of a standard issue grindstone. We talked about a grindstone movie actually on Film Week this week.
01:26:10
Speaker
And the Grindstone Lionsgate thing, it's just a formula and it kind of works. And, you know, I mean, they get they get some good actors like Sean Patrick Flannery and Cooper Gooding Jr. And they stick them in what's basically just kind of a straight up revenge thriller thing. You got, you know, meth and gang biker gangs and the mob and mafia. And it's, you know, I mean, it's we've seen this a million times, but
01:26:39
Speaker
Son of a gun. It kind of all plays. Back in the day, this would have been the kind of movie that would have had a nice little run of the box office. Joel Silver would have produced it. Exactly, exactly, exactly. Now, these movies have a nice little live streaming one place or another. And there's a whole fan base that comes out to see these bad boys. Yeah, yep. I agree. I agree.
01:27:03
Speaker
And the last one here is a curious little indie film called Mantra. You know, I feel like this would have been a Christopher Nolan movie at one point, actually, like back in his, you know, early days, it sort of it sort of has a similar vibe to it. It's an interesting little script. It's it's about a guy, his brother was killed and, you know, he has these haunting dreams.
01:27:27
Speaker
and a psychiatrist subjects him to a particular treatment that kind of breaks his connection with reality. And then it gets really, really twisted and weird and interesting.
01:27:43
Speaker
Um, again, doesn't perfectly work that doesn't quite stick the landing either. Uh, but, but some very ambitious filmmaking in it that you got to give it props for. I mean, it's a reach exceeds its grasp, but that's okay. So, uh, yeah, the movie is mantra.
Martial Arts and Classic Films on Blu-ray
01:28:01
Speaker
Uh, oh, let's, let's do criterion and arrow real quickly. Okay.
01:28:05
Speaker
That's cracking to some of that. Yeah, because this is really kind of an unusual week for the criterion stuff. But first, the arrow stuff. I'm so glad all this Jackie Chan stuff is coming out. I really am. Just a ton of it. And got a really interesting martial arts. It is not a Jackie Chan movie, but they do have some Jackie Chan stuff that's coming out, more of it coming out. But this is from basically the same era. It's a Sam O'Hung film. It's knock about.
01:28:33
Speaker
And I never imagined that this would be something that would make its way to Blu-ray anytime soon. Knockabout is really an awesome movie. It's not fun. But it's kind of, you know, if you're not really immersed in Sammo and the Hong Kong New Wave stuff, you probably wouldn't have, you know, picked this one because it's kind of early. It's from 1979. And it's just on the cusp of before
01:28:59
Speaker
the really great stuff happens in the hong kong new wave basically in the in the nineteen eighties leading into obviously the all the great stuff in the nineties so nineteen seventy nine is right about when samo and jackie are becoming samo and jackie right yeah so this is this is one of those but it's got some amazing fight choreography in it samo is just such a master at that and uh it's just tons and tons and tons of fun and he's got all the you know the usual guys in it yun bu and
01:29:26
Speaker
and his usual crew of brothers so in la car wing did the fight choreography if you know la car wing brother of la carla young. Amazing stuff so knock about really really a lot of fun well worth checking out from arrow and the other one from arrow is the immortal black sunday on bruce dern again.
01:29:47
Speaker
Man, Black Sunday was such a thing when we were younger, wasn't it? Oh, man, are you kidding me? Yeah, yeah. John Frankenheimer, Texas hype, yeah, you know. Bob Evans? Bob Evans? Yeah. Ernst Lehman, Ernst Lehman wrote it. I mean, the novel was a big deal. John Alonzo, you know, shot this thing. John Williams' music. I mean, really, it's kind of got some amazing credentials when you look back on it and you go, wow.
01:30:12
Speaker
You know, I mean, the whole idea of this daring terrorist attack on the Orange Bowl, you know, I mean, kind of a little prescient, don't you think? No, man. It's just really kind of, yeah, another thing with the blimp and all that stuff. But you know, Frankenheimer was a little bit ahead of his time with respect to a whole lot of that stuff. Yeah, you know. For sure. For sure. Well, anyway, there's some great extras on here. Amazing extras. They've got the
01:30:41
Speaker
a Frankenheimer kind of documentary from 2003, which has all kinds of great interviews. And it's got Frankenheimer before he passed, Kirk Douglas, Sam Jackson, Roy Scheider, Rod Steiger. I mean, it's really, it's a nice tribute to him. And then there's this terrific essay by Sergio Angelini
01:31:00
Speaker
which, you know, talks all about this film and how it sort of fits into the socio political context of the 70s. You know, when we of course have like, you know, the the the the Munich killing of Israel, athletes and all the stuff that was sort of happening in the 70s, all the hijackings and Carlos the jackal. So it really kind of puts it in its in its place. The criterions this week, very interesting. So David Lynch's Inland Empire,
01:31:24
Speaker
is out on a Blu-ray from Criterion and it's all cleaned up and pretty. And the original- It wasn't that good looking of a film in the first place. It was not. He shot this thing on the dirtiest digital camera available and they've really kicked it up. I mean, it looks like a whole new movie.
01:31:42
Speaker
I really does whole new movie and it also includes a couple of two thousand seven films one of what which which you're not supposed to know who made them even though because my wife used to work for lynch we know exactly because i remember when they were being made so.
01:31:59
Speaker
It's a little bit anticlimactic to me. I see two films from 2007, Lynch One and Lynch Two by Black and White. All right. I know who Black and White is. I know very, very well. We were almost involved with the films, to be honest.
01:32:20
Speaker
It's a little funny. I feel like I know something that's secret. Anyway, no, Inland Empire, I still don't think it's his best, but I do think now that they've cleaned up the video, my main concern is addressed.
01:32:34
Speaker
Yeah, well, it looks more like a big, but at the time, yeah, you know, the cow and all that. Yeah. Yeah. For Criterion also released a 4K of Mildred Pierce, one of Joan Crawford's best performances for Michael Curtiz. Great noir, great femme fatale stuff, really one of the all time best kind of noir-y melodramas of the period from 1945, right there at the tail end of World War Two.
01:33:01
Speaker
Yeah, Mildred Pierce is just incomparable. My wife absolutely adores this. I don't think Crawford's ever been better. And on 4K, man, this thing just kills it. There's a ton of extras, Q&As, and interviews, and an episode from The Today Show with James N. Kane, who, of course, wrote the book. Yeah, I mean, it's a lot of great extras. And just, man, this movie is so creepy. It's still so creepy. And life just gives me chills.
01:33:31
Speaker
Chili scenes of Winter by Joan Micklin Silver. I always forget this movie exists. 1979 as well, back when Sammo was making his movie, Joan Micklin Silver.
01:33:39
Speaker
was making her career with this, and it was kind of a shortened career, but I mean, you know, this is actually still a really, this is not a bad movie, it's just a difficult movie. Oh yeah, yeah, great cast, John Hurd and Mary Beth Hurd, John Hurd and Mary Beth Hurd and Peter Reardon. Yeah, difficult film, but yeah, yeah. I mean, it's sort of anti-sentimental, which is,
01:34:06
Speaker
which is interesting and a little tricky, but I mean, at the time, kind of, you know, 79 is an interesting year. You're kind of getting the Spielberg, Lucas stuff going, but you're also right around the same time, the pocket for, you know, Kramer versus Kramer, right? So you're still dealing with some pretty heady social issues in a lot of these movies. And I think it's a good solid film. So didn't expect this to get the criterion treatment, but I'm glad it did.
01:34:34
Speaker
And then the last criteria is Last Hoorah for Chivalry, which is a John Woo period film from 1979 again, before John Woo was John Woo. This is when John Woo was just making period films and martial arts films and kind of honing his skills before he decides to become an auteur. But so I just, I'm stunned that, you know,
01:34:59
Speaker
that this film would wind up on Criterion. Somebody at Criterion must absolutely love this movie. I like it. I don't love it. And so I find it a totally strange and curious Criterion release, but I'm- Might be a sort of John Woo, completist sort of thing, you know? Just all Woo must be Criterion now. Could be. I mean, it's just, it's like, it's a medieval, you know, Chinese melodrama slash action film. You killed my father. A lot of swordplay. A lot of swordplay.
01:35:29
Speaker
you know, a lot of swordplay. But it is, if you're John Woo completist, you'll totally get into it for sure.
TV Series Roundup
01:35:35
Speaker
All right, let's just hit a few TV things. Do some TV. Where we going? Yeah, all right. TV. I'll just start off real quickly. Another Ultraman, Ultraman Max. Again, I can't tell the difference. It's the helmet, it's the helmet and the shape of the helmet.
01:35:53
Speaker
That's funny. I don't get it, man. I really don't get it. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the complete series. Which series? I don't know. One that has 124 episodes. It's from Nickelodeon. I can't keep track of all the different Mutant Ninja Turtles series. This one ran from 2012 to 2017. So it's not the first one. It's not the most recent one. It's one that somehow slots in the middle there. And I'm sure there's somebody somewhere that absolutely loves this, but I'm not one of them.
01:36:23
Speaker
Umm, the good fight, the last season of the good fight. Have you watched much of the good fight? Oh sure, I watched quite a bit of that. You know, spin-off.
01:36:32
Speaker
from the good wife, I guess. A good doctor, a good wife. I don't know, spin-off or something. But actually a pretty strong spin-off, as it turns out. Started to kick that off back in, I don't know, 2017 or something like that. And it's still pretty good. You know, Christine Baranski and all that. Rather enjoyed it, but the best thing about it, Delroy Lindo.
01:36:55
Speaker
And Felicia Rashad, really doing a really interesting change in what we're accustomed to. When you've done the Cosby Show, you're associated with those characters in such an iconic way that it's often very hard. Most of the people on that show
01:37:12
Speaker
could not really escape their association with it. And she's really, I mean, she just takes it in a totally different direction and you watch it and you just can't, you can't imagine that, you know, it's Felicia Rashad, it's great. She did a really good job. And Christine Baranski can just do no wrong. So she's so good. She's just so good and everything. Let's talk for a second. Let's do some Star Trek here. Strange New Worlds, the first season.
01:37:40
Speaker
You know, I have not watched that much of Strange View World, but I'm told that folks dig it. It's better than Picard, better than Discovery. I don't know. You tell me. I'm a Star Trek guy, because that's the one that I have in the bed. I know Larry, our guy Larry over at Film Week. Larry loves Strange View World.
01:38:00
Speaker
I had all but thrown the towel in because I thought everybody was just, you know, they're phoning it in. I think there's a new Star Trek series announced today, which is, you know, it takes place in Starfleet Academy. And I'm like, you know what? I watched Jason the Star Command back in the late 80s. I get it. I've been there.
01:38:19
Speaker
So that's lame. And I thought, oh, Christopher Pike. Yeah, of course. You're just literally squeezing this thing until you just take all the joy out of it. But you know what?
01:38:31
Speaker
There's something really, really compelling about this show. I'm inclined to say it's probably the best show since Deep Space Nine. And I don't think it's because they're trying to do well. I think it's because they chose a...
01:38:51
Speaker
I think it's because the fact that it is Christopher Pike and the pre Kirk enterprise era that they sort of have to write it hems them and they've walked into a room with walls.
01:39:06
Speaker
walls that are defined by the original series. And where you're doing things that take place after the original series or after Next Generation, you can sort of, you know, do what you want. The walls aren't there. You're building your own walls. These walls are very defined. You literally are leading into the original series. And so they have to be creative within those parameters. And I think it forces the writing to be stronger. I think it allows the actors
01:39:32
Speaker
to have a benchmark. And it's very interesting. Well, I hope so. I hope so. Look, we know you're in the context. What's the name of that original thing? So Pike and all that and what goes down and Spock taking the ship back and all. So there's a thing that happens. And with Discovery,
01:39:51
Speaker
they allude to those things, but they also suggest that there might be some other, I don't know, perhaps multiverse or different dimension or different timeline where perhaps those things didn't happen or they happened, you know what I mean? And I didn't really care for that, you know? Because I'm living in history, man. I'm a history guy. And I got a history here, and the history is already written.
01:40:14
Speaker
If you're gonna go back you have to leave my history intact i don't want a new timeline for something else happens and this is this seems to be more you know. Yeah i hear you i hear you. And then the walking dead the complete. You love and yeah yeah how many i mean you know i just if you're if you're sticking with the show after eleven years good on you.
01:40:37
Speaker
Well, look, 11 seasons and what, three or four iterations, right? Do you fear the Rocking Dead, some other Walking Dead, someplace else walking around dead? You know, so, you know, 11 seasons and several iterations. Man. Yeah, I don't know what else I can say. Look, I'm not going to get you. I tapped out on Walking Dead, all things Walking Dead, season three. Yeah.
01:41:01
Speaker
I have the same fear for the story of us. I feel like they're going to get maybe three good seasons out of that. And then it's going to be awfully tough to sustain that premise.
01:41:14
Speaker
Well, you know, three good seasons is fine. That's my thing. What's wrong with three good seasons? What's wrong with that? Three good seasons as opposed to eight seasons of which three are good. And I get it. Everybody wants to make as much money as they can. So I'm not dumb in that context. But sometimes I do like it when folks say, you know what, we'll make some more money someplace else.
01:41:38
Speaker
And Rick and Morty, season six, you know, Adult Swim. I've never gotten it from the time we started this podcast. I've always said I don't really get Adult Swim, but I understand why people like Rick and Morty, but season six, does it deserve season six?
01:41:54
Speaker
Have we have we earned six seasons of Rick and Morty? I got Rick and Morty and appreciated it. Thought it was really sharp and funny. And then I got where the little dark corner and the guy in the frustrated I took one season, one season. Yeah, I was good. I was good. You know, but you know, there you go.
01:42:14
Speaker
All right. And then lastly, on the TV front, we've got from Cinny Dime, some mushy gushy stuff in the Hallmark. Hallmark-y, lifetime-y vein. The first one is Hallmark Channel Original Movie Forever in My Heart. You know what? Stoop to pretty white people just being really mushy. And it all takes place in Ireland, which is supposed to make it like
01:42:44
Speaker
I don't know, special or something. It doesn't really. It is what it is. It's like all the rest of those things. Then we've got the ultimate triple feature, which is not really an ultimate triple feature. It's just a triple feature of movies in a trilogy that put the word ultimate in their title, marketing ploy, which is the ultimate gift, the ultimate life, and the ultimate legacy.
01:43:12
Speaker
None of these are ultimate anything. They're just, you know, they're just inspiring little movies about life and family and finding that something that is just really, really special. And I get it. You know, people need something uplifting, especially coming out of the pandemic. I just wish that that uplifting was
01:43:38
Speaker
was better filmmaking and better writing. That's it. That's it. Uh, let me see if there's anything else we should, uh, mop up here before we, uh, before, you know, let me just, uh, a couple of things.
01:43:54
Speaker
What have we got? What have we got? There's some performance-y things here.
Comedy Specials: Birbiglia and Gaffigan
01:43:57
Speaker
If you're a fan of Mike Birbiglia or Jim Gaffigan, there are some new DVDs out from Mill Creek of their stand-up spotlight series. It's two comedy specials a piece. And I like Mike Birbiglia. I also think he's a very talented filmmaker, although he's a little obscure. And Jim Gaffigan, everybody loves Jim Gaffigan.
01:44:20
Speaker
It cracks everybody up. So anyway, you got a couple of stand up spotlight titles here, Two Specials a Piece. And then you also have, I've been trying for weeks, I've been wanting to talk about this, Wendy O. Williams, live and blanking loud from London, I'm not gonna curse. You know, Wendy O. Williams, it probably means nothing to most people listening to this show, but Tim and I- Oh yeah.
01:44:50
Speaker
You know what? I mean, speaking of the Omelouds is that Motorhead shows up on this too. Wendy O. Williams was the lead singer of the Plasmatics. Oh, man. And Wendy was intense. And that music was hard and Wendy wore some interesting, nothing solo outfits. But Wendy showed up in some interesting places too. And cinema, reform schoolgirls and the legend of Billie Jean, she was all around her
01:45:17
Speaker
Bill Jean and died way too young actually. Wendy lost Wendy in the late 90s or something like that. But Wendy was a hell of a thing. Wendy is in one episode of the old MacGyver. The MacGyver. Oh, is she? Oh, yeah. She played Big Mama. Oh, I didn't know that. Way back. And so, you know, she showed up in the oddest places, but she was always
01:45:41
Speaker
Wendy O. Williams. Yeah. Once she showed up, yeah. She was famous for at one point, I think it was, didn't she take a chainsaw and cut a car in half on stage? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which I know people will think like, what does that have to do with music? Nothing. Wendy did a great many things on stage, doesn't have anything to do with music. Very true. You know.
Remembering Wendy O. Williams
01:46:04
Speaker
Yeah, well anyway, some of the songs here from this concert that was recorded in Camden Palace in London on October 1st, 1985. Some of the songs, the titles of which that I can actually share on the show. Let's see, Jailbait, Ain't None of Your Business, Bump and Grind, Pedal to the Metal.
01:46:28
Speaker
And then some of the others, I'm just not gonna, I'm too nice and I'm too classy and I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna get it.
01:46:35
Speaker
Let's see, and then live from the Royal Festival Hall is the 50th anniversary tour of the Tubular Bells, which as long as we mentioned The Exorcist 3 earlier, you know, Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells were made, that performance was made famous with The Exorcist. And so this is from just last year, the 50th anniversary tour
01:47:01
Speaker
performed at the Royal Festival Hall and it has a really interesting interview with Mike Oldfield and Richard Branson on here. But yeah, this is a two disc set and you know, I mean it's not everybody's kind of music. It's still very 70s and kind of new agey, but it's haunting and cool and it's nice to kind of revisit all that.
01:47:22
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah. Interesting. So that
Spring Break Plans
01:47:25
Speaker
is that. All right. And with that, we are done. And we have spring break. So we're going to be gone for a couple of weeks at least. But we'll be back in about three weeks. You doing anything? You don't have a spring break. I didn't. Actually, spring break at the university where I teach. Oh, that's right, you do. It was kind of early, so it broke for spring for that. No, no, nothing right now. I'm going to go see my mom a little bit later. I know you and the ladies are going to ready to take a trip. Yep. So it should be great.
01:47:52
Speaker
Awesome. All right, everybody. Have a great time. Let's hope the spring comes to all of you and that we get lots of flowers and no more rain and snow because the country's had enough of that. All right. Have a great time. See you guys next time.
01:49:17
Speaker
Bye!