Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
IGN Digigods Podcast Episode 297
54 Plays12 years ago
The Gods talk The Beatles and new releases from Tina Fey and Twilight author Stephenie Meyer.
Digigods Podcast, 07/09/13 (MP3) -- 31.4 MB
right click to save
Subscribe to the Digigods Podcast
In this episode, the Gods discuss:
- 56 UP (DVD)
- Absolute Deception (DVD)
- Admission (Blu-ray)
- American Mary (DVD)
- The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceau escu (DVD)
- The Black Kungfu Experience (DVD)
- Blood and Sand (Blu-ray)
- Boy (Blu-ray)
- Boy (DVD)
- The Brass Teapot (Blu-ray)
- Brooklyn Castle (DVD)
- Cohen & Tate (Blu-ray)
- Death by China (DVD)
- Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder (DVD)
- The First 70 (DVD)
- The Gatekeepers (Blu-ray)
- Hard Times (Blu-ray)
- Hell's House: Kino Classics Remastered Edition (Blu-ray)
- Hell's House: Kino Classics Remastered Edition (DVD)
- Help! (Blu-ray)
- The Host (Blu-ray/DVD)
- Into the White (Blu-ray)
- Kentucky Fried Movie (Blu-ray)
- The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg (DVD)
- Of Human Bondage: Kino Classics Remastered Edition (Blu-ray)
- Of Human Bondage: Kino Classics Remastered Edition (DVD)
- Of Two Minds (DVD)
- The Only Game in Town (Blu-ray)
- The Power of Few (Blu-ray)
- The Producers (Blu-ray)
- Save the Farm (DVD)
- Scavanger Hunt (DVD)
- Shoah (Blu-ray)
- Summoned (DVD)
- Would You Rather (Blu-ray)
Please also visit CineGods.com.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Hosts
00:00:06
Speaker
From inside John Hurt's chest, it's the IGN Digiguides. Put your hands together for two facehuggers, Wade Major and Mark Kaiser.
Context on 'The Butler' Film Dispute
00:00:27
Speaker
Alright Mark, in the roulette game of Butler, are you putting your money on Warner Brothers or Harvey?
00:00:33
Speaker
Well, we should probably give some context to that, because I don't know if everybody knows this story. And I got to tell you, it's an interesting story. You know, there's so much, like, inside baseball negotiations and whatnot that go on with these movies. And this one, which Wade will explain, is an interesting little fight between Harvey Weinstein, who was always the heavyweight champ in all these scenarios, and all her brothers. Well, it always, you know, everything always boils down to Harvey using a dispute with the MPAA or a dispute with the MPAA rules.
Story of 'The Butler' and Title Conflict
00:00:59
Speaker
to generate publicity for a movie and it's unbelievable because every time he gets an NC-17 where he wanted an R or an R where he wanted a PG, all he does is just make a stink and stamp his feet and throw a tantrum and then he eventually gets his way and the tantrum wound up being free publicity and the movie winds up making money which is all he wanted in the first place. I mean Bully being the most recent example but now this is the butler
00:01:22
Speaker
which is the newly Daniels family, Daniels who did Precious, which is based on a true story of a guy who was a butler in the White House who, you know, he was a sharecropper son and he, he, you know, came from the cotton fields and never had a formal education and wound up, you know, working his way up becoming a butler in the White House. And he served every president from
00:01:42
Speaker
Eisenhower all the way through Reagan and then was invited back when Obama became president. The whole thing of seeing a black man elected president and just kind of vindicated his whole life. The concept behind it is very moving. We'll see how the movie is.
00:01:59
Speaker
But, you know, Forest Whitaker plays the lead and they've been promoting this thing for months as the butler and then all of a sudden Warner Brothers says no under MPAA because you're a signatory to the MPAA and so are we.
Harvey Weinstein's Legal Maneuvering
00:02:12
Speaker
There are MPAA rules that say that you have, if you want to use a title for your movie that is owned by, that belongs to another movie that is owned by another MPAA member, we have to go to an arbitration or you have to ask permission.
00:02:23
Speaker
And we have a 1916 silent comedy short that is also called The Butler, and we don't want you to use the title. And they went to N.P.A.A. Arbitration, which ruled for Warner Brothers, and they went neener-neener, and then Harvey went and hired David Boyce of, you know, 2000 Florida election fame, of the Gore Bush fame, and also of, Boyce was on the Gore side, right, wasn't he?
00:02:48
Speaker
He was on the Gore side. He was on the Gore side, yes. And he was on the Gore side and then he also was on Prop 8 with his former opponent from the Bush-Gore fight, right? They like joined forces, right? And the guy who lost his wife in 9-11, what's his name? I must forget his name.
00:03:05
Speaker
Anyway, never mind. It's not important. So anyway, they hired David Poins to send, you know, to file a restraining order and to do all this mean stuff and we're not going to abide by the fines and then the Warner Brothers attorneys are firing back these nasty letters.
Warner Brothers' Motives & Publicity
00:03:19
Speaker
I'm sorry, I just keep thinking it's like maybe Warner Brothers is technically correct by the rules, but just by doing this and saying we're trying to protect the title to a 1916 silent short that we've never even seen fit to put out on DVD or even stream and we
00:03:33
Speaker
We may not even know where the hell the negative is and it might not even exist anymore. That's just lame, dude. It just makes you look petty. It really does. And Harvey's been smart in making Warner Brothers look horrible because this is a civil rights story about African Americans. And Lee Daniels sent a personal letter, which of course he made public, to Kevin Sujihara, the new CEO of the new studio head over at Warner Brothers.
00:03:59
Speaker
And Sujihara apparently wrote a private letter back, so who knows what the content of that was, but that was sent the same day that the Warner lawyers, you know, started spouting off. But Warner Brothers just doesn't look good here. And allegedly, there's something else going on behind the scenes, which is that Warner Brothers wanted the rights to some Weinstein movie to remake, and Harvey didn't play ball, and they're pissed off about it.
00:04:22
Speaker
It's still Warner Brothers. It just looks lame. It just goes it's like it's like going back to the Groucho thing, you know the Night in Casablanca Yeah, it's which was again Warner Brothers saying, you know We don't want you to use the name Casablanca and he sent that really unbelievably funny letter But the difference is is that Groucho Marx can send a letter to Warner Brothers attorneys that is just gut-bussingly funny and then Warner Brothers would send back a letter to Groucho saying Can you please explain the plot of your film because we didn't quite get it from your letter and
00:04:49
Speaker
And then there's another letter, it's even more cryptic. And then they just released the movie anyway. But now you get Lee Daniels, who's like, obviously there's no more humor left in these sorts of situations. So Lee Daniels' letter, if you read it, is very heartfelt and the movie's a lot to him, it's a civil rights story. So yeah, you know what? That's the thing, it's like these things make big, huge Hollywood, you know, monkey mugs look very petty.
00:05:14
Speaker
Well, it will be resolved. I mean, there's going to be an agreement. Although, you know what? I suppose this is funny. Warner Brothers did sign off on Lee Daniels, the butler. They just did not sign off on the butler. You're not going to release it as Lee Daniels, the butler. Which is John Carpenter? John Carpenter's the thing. John Carpenter's the butler. It's not going to happen. I mean, they'll come to an agreement, but the result of all of this dust up during the interim will be to do only two things.
00:05:43
Speaker
It'll give the butler a lot of free publicity, like we're giving it right now.
Transition to Linda Oobst's Book
00:05:48
Speaker
And it'll make Warner Brothers look petty. I mean, I don't see how that's ever a positive for Warner Brothers. So, I mean, Harvey is already winning this. It's just, and let's say Warner Brothers does prevail and they preserve the title for the butler. Well, Goody Bully For You, that 1916 silent comedy short is really gonna rake it in, isn't it? I mean, are you gonna remake it? Are you gonna remake it because it's got pre-awareness, that title?
00:06:13
Speaker
because people are, oh, I've been waiting for them to do
Insights on Hollywood from Linda Oobst
00:06:15
Speaker
that. I heard that was really good. It like stars people I've never heard of. I don't even know what it's about. No one does. It's been a butler. Whatever. It's high school. You know, these guys are duke, you know, like it's high school. Whatever. Speaking of pre-awareness, and everybody apparently really liked the interview that I did with Stefan Hammond last week. Gave you the week off. Do you have a good Independence Day?
00:06:33
Speaker
I did have a good independence day. I saw fireworks and I had a nice meal with my mother. Good deal. Talk to Stephen Hammond, who I haven't seen since the month of the handover of Hong Kong. I saw him in Hong Kong in 1997. He came here. He's looking to start doing more books and stuff again. We talked about Hong Kong film. It was a great interview. A lot of people seem to really like it.
00:06:56
Speaker
And on that account, on the Facebook page, I have certainly been saying a lot of amazing things about the new Linda Oebst book, Sleepless in Hollywood.
00:07:05
Speaker
And Mark's getting up to go get his copy of it. It looks like, yes he is, he's running to go get his copy. You know, Linda Oebst, the producer of countless great movies, mostly romantic comedies, things like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Sleepless in Seattle. I just slammed it on the table. And Contact, and what else has Linda Oebst done? I mean, lots of amazing books. Let me read the back of her book.
00:07:26
Speaker
Linda Obes directed, produced The Fisher King. There you go, The Fisher King. Adventures in Babysitting. Hope Floats. Stevens in Seattle. This Is My Life, whatever that is. This Is My Life was the Nora Efren thing. And Star Wars. What? Julie Kavanagh. Anyway, Linda Obes, an amazing producer, had previously written the book Hello, He Lied, which was all about her initial adventures in Hollywood. This is about the new Hollywood. And Linda Obes used to be an editor at the New York Times Magazine.
00:07:54
Speaker
And she kind of put her journalist hat back on for this book because she wanted to figure out why is it so hard to be a producer when you were always a successful producer, not just for her, but for so many others? Why has the business just suddenly become all about superheroes and sequels? And why is it so hard to get anything done? And why is it the sky is falling? And so she went and she talked to all of the people that only she has access to, right? She went to Jim Giannopoulos and she went to
00:08:19
Speaker
agents and marketing people and, you know, Peter Chernin and to really kind of figure this out. It's a little bit of a detective story and it includes a lot of her own experiences at Paramount, which is the middle chapter of the book. Have you read it yet? Have you? I'm on page 110. Okay, so you're not yet into the Paramount stuff.
00:08:41
Speaker
actually the premise of actually that's the that's the chapter I'm on for you now to paranoia that that is an unbelievably riveting chapter anyway the this is a great book and I think it's the most I would say it's the most important book written about the movie business and where it's going since William Goldman's adventures in screen trade
00:09:01
Speaker
Well, you know, it's funny. My my aunt was in town over the weekend and we were talking about movies and, you know, my aunt is 70 and lives in New York and isn't, you know, she loves movies, but she's not a super consumer of the business. And we were talking about movies and she's and we're talking about Man of Steel and she says, yeah, because nowadays, you know, they just make movies for teenage boys. Hang on for a second. That's actually that's true. But that's almost.
00:09:26
Speaker
5 to 10 year old thinking because what they're really doing is they're making movies for China. Yes. And that's the crux of Linda's book. And it is it is an amazing book. I mean, it's amazing, isn't it? Aren't you loving it? You know, it's here's the thing. She says nothing that I think we haven't already thought of, but she says in an entertaining way with inside access.
00:09:46
Speaker
That's enjoyable to read. Absolutely. It's stuff that we say every week on the podcast, that I say every week on NPR, that we all talk about with each other after every bad screening and we all rant about it, but she somehow brings it all together and puts it up, you know, on a canvas with a frame and makes it
Linda Oobst Interview Announcement
00:10:03
Speaker
understandable. And it's just, it's brilliant. I think it's an incredible book, Sleepless in Hollywood.
00:10:07
Speaker
And I was so enamored of the book that I actually chased her down, believe it or not. Really? Yes, I did. You didn't tell me that. I chased Linda Obes down and I talked to her last week for an hour on the phone. What? And I recorded it. And it's going to be a midweek... See, I didn't tell you about that. No, you didn't. I don't know this. This is going to be a midweek update to the podcast. Really? I'm going to have IGN throw this up middle of the week and a few days after this episode goes up. What the hell? I would have wanted...
00:10:36
Speaker
I would have been interested in interviewing her, too. Well, you were taking your week off. This was your off week. You're mean. I had no knowledge of that. I know. What are you booking guests behind my back? Interviewing them and putting
Impact of Podcasting on Media
00:10:48
Speaker
them on the podcast. Well, I was doing all this stuff during the off week. So what did you do? So you talked to our agent? The publicist for the publisher. I got hold of them and I just said I would love to talk to her. I'd love to be able to set something up at a
00:11:02
Speaker
cafe or something. Turns out she's in New York. She's on her book tour, so it had to be a phoner, but we just got to talking. It was illuminating on a level I can't even ... I mean, it crystallized all the stuff from the book. I obviously brought up a lot of things that aren't in the book, and she was wonderful. She's just great. I'm going to throw that up in the middle of the week. I don't want to have to go to IGN to listen to our podcast.
00:11:26
Speaker
fine. I'll send you the file. Thank you. I'll send you the file separately. Thank you. You can, you can listen to it. Now it, she, it was, it was, she's just great. And I'm so, you know, so glad that she's out there doing this and fighting the good fight. And the thing about the book is, don't you agree? She's kind of like a prophet of doom, but also a prophet of,
00:11:43
Speaker
like, salvation at the same time. Like, she's telling us how bad things are and how bad it's gonna get, but they're still light at the end of the tunnel. Well, I'm just not sure, you know, through this book, and since I didn't get to interview Linda, I don't know, but I'm just not sure who's gonna be shamed.
00:12:01
Speaker
by reading this is any studio will any studio had be shamed oh yeah into making into well shamed into doing something differently no but does anybody come is dizzy gonna be shamed into making anything other than pixar well not shamed but i think what she talks about eventually is that the economics that there are that they are relying on
00:12:21
Speaker
cannot, it's an unsustainable dream. Well, it's kind of like what Spielberg and Lucas said a couple weeks ago. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And also, if you want to talk about people who don't come off smelling very good in the book, I mean, you're in the chapter right now. There's a certain studio head right now of a certain studio. Oh, is Brad Gray? Who really doesn't look very good in this book.
00:12:43
Speaker
I'm literally on that chapter right now from Paramount to Paranoia. Yeah, I mean, I'm not gonna, you know, say anything specific. I'm only on one, two, I'm only on the third page of the chapter. Oh, you have no idea. You haven't even, oh, this is- I'm sure it's Brad Grey. This is brilliant stuff. I'm sure it's Brad Grey. No, because she loves Sherry Lansing.
00:13:00
Speaker
Oh, everyone loves Sherri Lansing. I mean, Sherri Lansing comes up, and the thing is, everyone loves Sherri Lansing legitimately for all those reasons. I mean, Sherri Lansing is so universally beloved because she's friends with everyone and she just loves everyone. Sherri Lansing talked to my Peter Goober class when I was in film school. And among many other people, I mean, obviously we had John Peters and David Putnam and Larry Gordon and Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson. I mean, they all came and talked to our class at that time. Goober was able to really pull in the cream of the crop.
00:13:30
Speaker
at the time to really talk to this class. It was unbelievable. I look back and I'm like, holy crap, did all those people really come in and talk to our class? Are you kidding me? But they did. And Sherry was one of them. And she said to the class, she goes, you know, I tell everybody, I'm going to tell you. And I may resent saying this to a film school class, but I return every call that I get every day.
00:13:49
Speaker
And I thought, you are an unbelievable lady because I would normally say you're stupid but I know you're not stupid. That's amazing because I guarantee you half the people in this class are going to call you up and go, would you return my call? I want you to make my movie. Like, I mean, and she's going to do it. She's going to return calls that film students send to her. I just thought that's amazing that you would say that to a film school class. I return every call I get every day.
00:14:14
Speaker
Did you call her? Of course not. I'm not going to do that. That doesn't mean she's going to make your movie. It just means she's going to return your call. That's true. That's all. We used to talk about DVDs on this. We used to and we need to again. And speaking of the butler. That includes the word butt. One of the people who's in the butler actually is Cooper Gooding Jr. who has not made an actual movie
00:14:40
Speaker
And by an actual movie, I mean a movie that has been released in movie theaters for, I don't know how many years. I know. He's like Mr. Straight to DVD. So I'm hoping that maybe there's something in the butler that will, you know, that will resurrect his career. But that being said, we've got a couple of straight to DVD cuba going vehicles here. And, you know, if it weren't for the butler, I wouldn't even be mentioning them. But Mark, what do these two have in common?
00:15:09
Speaker
Kuba Gooding Jr. carrying a gun? Well, yeah. One is summoned. And the other one, the title is absolute deception. Yes. And both of them have a picture of Kuba holding a gun on the on the cover. Well, because you know why? Because it's straight to DVD and you see the cover and he's looking all 70 doubt in absolute deception. He's carrying a gun. You figure it's a thriller. It's exciting. Lots of violence. I'm on board. But this movie obviously is terrible.
00:15:34
Speaker
Yeah, neither one of them is terribly good. And the thing is that there's nobody else in the film. And there's a woman on the cover of both of them, too. That is true. But there's nobody else in these films but him. I mean, it's him and a bunch of people you've never heard of. That's right. Payday. Vote payments. It's a payday. So anyway, do we have to explain what these are? No. I mean, in absolute deception, he plays an FBI agent. And in Summoned, he plays a serial killer and Kuba's got to find him.
00:16:00
Speaker
What can I say? He's terrible. He's on the case. He's on the case. And it's so great how like now these straight to DVD movies get to say, starring Academy Award winner, Kuba Gooding Jr. You know there's a movie coming out called In a World? I know. I know. I know. Starring what's-her-face. She directed it. Was that right? Yeah.
00:16:24
Speaker
Yeah, Ray saw it. He saw it up at Sundance. Oh, was it good? He didn't think much of it. Really? No. And then also should point out, the Clint Eastwood 20 film collection has come out on Blu-ray. That came out about a month ago. And the only, they didn't send it to us, of course, but they, because it's, you know, too expensive to send to us, it's like 180 bucks and, you know, 130 on DVD. So that they can't send a lot of those around.
00:16:49
Speaker
Not that they're losing anything on it, that's just being cheap. But damn Warner Brothers, you and your Butler problems, and now you're being cheap on us. Damn you, Warner Brothers. But they did send us Eastwood Directs, the Untold Story, which is the documentary about his whole directing style and all the people he's worked with. And I gotta tell you, it's really good, but there's no Untold Story here.
00:17:14
Speaker
Stories been told I mean I always hate that it's that's like the worst cliche the untold story It's like something that appears on a on a you know an unauthorized biography by Kitty Whatever her name is well, there's two there's the Eastwood factor and then there's Eastwood directs the untold story Those are the two kind of documentary things on this big disc was like a hundred bucks But it's you know, it's right out there He has trouble with the curve which I thought was old-fashioned and fun J Edgar not good hereafter not good and Victor's not good Gran Torino was hilarious
00:17:43
Speaker
Gran Torino is a weird movie because I don't know that Clint Eastwood expected us to think that movie was so goddamn hilarious. It's not that movie hilarious. No, not at all. I don't think he really wanted us to just bust a gut over how horribly racist this guy was, but I just couldn't stop laughing. Well, you know.
00:18:00
Speaker
Look, it's it's a fun film whether it's intentional or not doesn't matter. You know, it's a fun film to space Cowboys. I think space Cowboys is fun I like that movie I do and people love space Cowboys. That's right. Where's James Garner and it's like all the old dudes is astronauts. Yeah Fire remember Firefox. I love Firefox. That was that was that the magic year. Was that an 82 film? Fire it was right in there. Let me I don't think it was 82 film might have been like, you know, it was 82 was 82 see that damn 82 man. It's awesome
00:18:30
Speaker
So, Clintus sent to Russia or the Soviet Union to steal a prototype jet fighter. That can be controlled by your mind.
00:18:39
Speaker
That was the first big effects film that John Dijkstra did after Star Wars. Remember, because he lost the gig after Star Wars. Dijkstra wanted too much power over the next Star Wars film, so when they did Empire Strikes Back, they brought in Bryan Johnson, who had done all the stuff on Space 1999. Bryan Johnson. That's how you know that story, because it's related to Space 1999. Of course, of course, Bryan Johnson. I'm like, how do you know that? Bryan Johnson was the effects guy for Space 1999, and he came on and did Empire Strikes Back, and John Dijkstra was kind of thrown to the curve with his
00:19:08
Speaker
I think it was Apogee. Apogee. Apogee. Apogee. Yeah, that was his effects company. And then he finally got another big gig with Firefox. It was great. Now, speaking of light comedies, why don't you talk about what's in your head right now? We're going to talk about documentaries first. Mark, this is the subject of more Mark Kaiser jokes in history than any other movie. So I'm going to let you talk about it.
00:19:33
Speaker
Criterion we're talking about criterion documentary release which you should set some time aside for I mean as much as we're gonna laugh at this I mean this is as much as we're gonna laugh at this. This is this is a groundbreaking Yeah, all-time masterpiece. This is the Claude landsman's nine-hour showa
00:19:51
Speaker
now show us from nineteen eighty five and uh... it's about the holocaust and he interviews survivors and people who live through the war experience the war he visits uh... you know but a bunch of key sites uh... from the holocaust all across uh... pollany visits a cold extermination camps testimony i mean show it is absolutely definitive it is about as definitive a documentary as you'll ever get about any subject
00:20:18
Speaker
First of all, because it's nine freaking hours. Yes. But also because it is just that good. So obviously nine hours is, you know, that's a, that's a, that's, that's a good five days of watching. And we should point out at age 87, he is still making documentaries. He was recently with one at the Cannes film festival. So, but he's never done anything that sort of show is his, you know, his magnum opus. And it really is an unbelievable movie. I mean, it is, it is the labor, it is a labor of love. It is a labor of passion. It's the labor of justice. And, uh,
00:20:47
Speaker
Criterion just went bananas on this thing. So as you have to really But it's long just bear in mind. It's long, you know, it's 566 minutes it it and it definitely wears you down Emotionally at a certain point you just kind of you just sort of check out and it becomes academic There's just no other way to sort of react to it and respond to it. Although we gave it best documentary way back in 1985
00:21:11
Speaker
Yes, we did, before we were given in the group. That is true. Anyway, so... I wish I asked Myron about that. Myron, what was it like when you voted show at the best documentary? Did people actually watch it? Or were they just guilted into it and just said, I can't? You know what? I'm fine. Sure. Here it is. What am I going to vote against this? Let's just say that... Do I need to watch nine hours to know I'm going to vote for this?
00:21:29
Speaker
In your 1985 Oscar pool, if you didn't click this, you were out of your mind. Anyway, this is a 4K digital transfer, so obviously the footage is very old, but it still looks fantastic. Yeah, beautiful. There's three additional films by Landsman that are included here. There's a conversation between Landsman and that's a great interview right there. So again, I don't know what to say of otherwise, other than if you love documentaries and you're a Holocaust scholar and any interest in the Holocaust show is a masterpiece.
00:21:57
Speaker
we got a lot of foreign a foreign affair type stuff on the documentary front this week uh... the next one is uh... the two thousand and twelve best documentary uh... nominee the gatekeepers yeah which i think you know i think should have won this also won our lafka award uh... i thought it should have won the oscar but i understand why the the searching for sugar man
00:22:15
Speaker
one because it's cool. Search of Sugar Man's a cool documentary. But The Gatekeepers is unbelievable. This is essentially a documentary that brings together every single living former head of Shin Bet, which is the Israeli secret service, to talk about the current situation in Israel and their experiences and what they've done wrong and what they should do going forward if you had to do it again.
00:22:39
Speaker
And how are we going to solve this horrible situation? And mind you, every single one of them without fault, without exception says, you know what, this ain't working.
00:22:51
Speaker
We got to do something else. That's the amazing part of it. Every single one. These guys are not cherry picked to say what the director wants them to say. These are former heads of Shin Bet. Every single former head of Shin Bet. There are only two heads of Shin Bet from the beginning of the State of Israel who are not interviewed here. One of them is dead and the other one is the current head who obviously because of his position is not allowed to talk to documentary crews.
00:23:16
Speaker
But every single other guy who has ever run Shin Bet from the beginning of the State of Israel is interviewed here. And without fail, they all say the same thing. It ain't working. I mean, really, it's powerful. Wherever you lie on the political spectrum, you can't watch this and not go,
00:23:29
Speaker
well i guess is another side of the coin there isn't it's just it's amazingly persuasive and they don't uh... yeah they're not cherry-picked and it's it's just beautiful film yes i don't know if it really is others on blu-ray from some pictures classic also on dvd will get a blue ray in front of us and uh... i don't normally say all you know the documentary uh... you've got to see on blu-ray but this when you really do there's just something uh... something that just kind of it is that those faces the faces are just seeing those faces in high-def really really just makes it so personal
00:23:57
Speaker
away death by china is a another documentary this is almost more of a d i y uh... situation here uh... this is all about how uh... america's
00:24:09
Speaker
you know manufacturing relationship why china's wonderful is going to be an issue unless you work the movie biz in which case you should just do nothing but praise china for from the from here we turn it yet but uh... the fact you know his they waited a hundred years long dead i i just think that china's like just on the world i mean is a billion of them yeah but you know what that uh... well i mean this uh... a lot of these this this doc doesn't necessarily get into so much but a lot of you were saying chinese economy is going to implode
00:24:38
Speaker
Well, there's rapid, rapid growth in China. And remember, China doesn't actually own any intellectual property. This is the thing. The United States and England and France. Every one of these countries has industry that people rely on. We've got Apple Computer and we've got Google and all this stuff. What does China make that they actually own? They don't. They make the stuff that everybody else invents.
00:25:02
Speaker
It's just, it's, you know, whereas we're a consumer driven economy, China is a manufacturing driven economy. And that can read that that's a bubble that can pop. It's, you know, and problem is, it's a bubble that can pop and bring everybody else down with it. That is true. And you'll, you'll hear some of that in death by China, which is a look, it's vital. It's interesting. It's a good primer on the subject. It puts people on notice. So it's good stuff. Death by China.
00:25:25
Speaker
the auto bio, we're heavy, heavy stuff today, the autobiography of Nikolai Shausescu. You know, as people know, who know me know, I'm not a fan of dictators. Like, you know, they sort of bugged me a little bit. A lot of that comes from the fact that I, my mother grew up under Hitler. So I tend to view them rather negatively. And I'm literally under Hitler.
00:25:46
Speaker
literally under was at a desk and that's it as you go to the desk precisely up uh... sha sha sku uh... i i i i celebrated the day that he and his wife got shot in the alley i really did uh... this guy was just such a brutal horrible miserable uh... individual what he did remain is just inexcusable and uh... the autobiography of nickel i sha sha sku is uh... is all about this psychotic lunatic
00:26:10
Speaker
And what's interesting is it uses his own, all the stuff that he shot to generate his own myth, all of his own propaganda. It sort of uses it against him. And boy, does it beautiful. It's just so well put together. They went through like a thousand hours of stuff to come up with this movie. It is really, really well done. Director Andre Ujica. I hope I haven't murdered his name.
00:26:34
Speaker
uh... really really was a great job this is just an exceptional film a beautiful look at history and uh... bravo katina lauber for bringing it out uh... wait uh... one of the great documentary experiments of all time continued last year with uh... michael aptas fifty six up yeah now in uh... nineteen sixty four i think it was michael aptid young michael aptid
00:26:58
Speaker
did a documentary called 7 Up. It was actually, it was 7 Up. He interviewed a group of seven-year-olds about their childhood and what they want when they grow up and what their life is like and living in England. And he revisited that group of kids every seven years. There's been a 7 Up, a 14 Up, a 21 Up, 28 Up, 35 Up, 42 Up.
00:27:20
Speaker
49 up and now 2012 you have 56 up. So if you look at the totality of This series it is Unbelievably remarkable because you see what these kids wanted to be when they were 7 and 14 and 21 and how their lives actually turned out What's he gonna call the last one like up yours or yours? Well, it's funny because some of these subjects They feel like the life's been kind of ruined by this documentary series because they feel like every seven years There's gonna be there's going to be a public accounting
00:27:49
Speaker
That's what's interesting. Is this documentary really hands off or is it a little bit like a reality show where, I mean, are you really watching lives as they would unfold or is the movie become part of the lives unfolding? Well, at seven year increments, it's tough to say that I don't know that the subjects say to themselves, wow, I can't do that because it'll wind up in the documentary in five years.
00:28:13
Speaker
Because seven years is enough of a gap where they probably just live their lives. Don't you think at some point it's going to be like, you know, go away.
00:28:21
Speaker
No, well, no, some of these he I know look Michael a app that he had to chase these people down I know and some of them didn't want to talk to him I know so I think he got them all But it's just absolutely Remarkable nothing like it cannot wait for what's 56 plus 7 cannot wait for 63 70 is apt gonna be around for 70 up and
00:28:44
Speaker
I think he's got it in his 70s. He's in his 70s. Yeah. He was born in 1941. How old was he? Oh, 1941. Let's see, that makes him 72. 72. Wow. Yeah, 72. So in 79, when he's 79, he'll be doing 63 Up, which shows how young he was when he started this project. Yeah, so he'll be in his 80s to do 70 Up.
00:29:05
Speaker
Yeah, but you know he will I because you know I didn't do it this year But I usually run a 5k race on the 4th of July, and he's always there. He is he's always there. He's running man He's keeping himself fit so he'll be he's keeping himself You know ready to he'll be there for 70 up you got to you got to go from 70 up to 70 7 to 70 Yeah, do it because it's the perfect deal, right?
00:29:25
Speaker
And because he directed a Bond film, it's the seven thing. 007. Oh yeah. Bam. Yeah. Super bam. Anyway, 56 up is a double seven up. Believable. A couple of first run features titles here that come in the little fin eco packaging stuff here.
00:29:44
Speaker
One is called Fairland Getty, A Rebirth of Wonder. This is a film by Christopher Felver. If Fairland Getty is like this, he's like a beat generation fixture. I've never read his poetry. All I know is what I've seen in the documentary, and I have to say I don't particularly care for the poetry, but he's a central figure. He's right there with Burroughs and Ginsburg and Kerouac.
00:30:13
Speaker
His bookstore is very famous that he opened in the 1950s. I thought it was an interesting portrait of a guy, a guy I probably wouldn't have any interest in otherwise. Then we've also got Eleven Flowers by Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai. Mark, say that ten times quickly.
00:30:33
Speaker
This is not a documentary, but I'm throwing it in there because first-run features so rarely actually comes up with films that are, I mean, most of what they do are documentaries. So it's nice when you get a first-run feature that is narrative, and this is really quite touching. This is one of the few new Chinese films that I'm actually fond of because so many of them are just so generic now, and they're either very
00:30:55
Speaker
kind of reaction area or the very kind of party line. But this is a cultural revolution story about a young boy and it's just his, how he and his family are just making it through and trying to somehow keep their, hold their lives together right at the end of the cultural revolution and hopefully make it to the next stage. Beautiful story, very much like some of the fifth generation movies that I love so much by, you know, Zhongi Mo and Chen Kaige, the stuff that they just don't do anymore. It's really nice stuff.
00:31:22
Speaker
And then I want to plug a couple of documentaries that some friends of mine made. Dammit, Mark. I'm going to assume you'll rave. Do you know Doug Blush? Have you ever met Doug?
00:31:35
Speaker
You've mentioned him to me, but I've not met him. Doug, I know Doug through Ray, and Doug was very, Doug and his wife, Lisa Klein, tremendous documentarians, really, really good people, and they had all kinds of success with their documentary Of Two Minds, which is now out from DocuRama, which is formerly a division of New Video, which of course is all a division now of Cinny Dime, the new Chris McGurk empire, Chris McGurk formerly of Overture, whose house we were at where we saw Dustin Hoffman.
00:32:05
Speaker
Oh my god, it was so embarrassing. Because I loved Dustin Hoffman so much, and you're like, what are you gonna say to Dustin Hoffman? Oh my god, here comes Dustin Hoffman. And I was like, I've loved all your movies since I was a kid, and it was just something, and I was like, god, you're such an idiot. What is wrong with you? And then, and then, get this, we were there, remember? We were with Andrew Curtis?
00:32:26
Speaker
Yes, we were. Did he tell us that? No, no, no, we're with Andrew. And then Andrew, of course, Mark Diddy was like, I love you. Maybe I like you. Then Andrew walks across the grass. He's like, 1992, Prospero. No, it was Shylock. Shylock on the boards at the Globe. You were brilliant.
00:32:44
Speaker
and of course that's the office like well thank you sir that's very nice of you what is your name is like a dream they were much like a little bit great advice on that uh... you know that i'm like why didn't i think it's something that cool british accent you can't do something specific yeah that's like an actress and i saw you on the stage in the west and nineteen ninety two dm it's doing shakespeare that's what you that's how you suck up to an actor tell me i'm going to check it out
00:33:12
Speaker
Well, anyway, coming back around. Of Two Minds is really an unbelievably touching and heartfelt movie about bipolar disorder. And it's so funny because you wonder, well, hasn't anybody made a movie about bipolar disorder? Actually, no. Nobody has really made a movie looking at it and looking at the people who suffer from it and how it affects their lives and their relationships. Because they can't focus enough to make the movie. That's why.
00:33:41
Speaker
But this is really good. I mean, they did a great job here. It's sometimes really hard to watch, but it's really touching and very insightful and it will make you a more compassionate person as a result. And then The Black Kung Fu Experience by Martha Burr and Mei Jun Chen. Martha Burr is a good friend of mine. She used to be an editor at Wushu Kung Fu magazine where I wrote intermittently and semi-regularly.
00:34:04
Speaker
And Martha has done a number of these martial arts documentaries and they are all absolutely outstanding. And this is so long overdue. The Black Kung Fu Experience, which was originally aired on PBS, looks at the, you know, like Jim Kelly just died, we should point out, which is rather, you know, a tragedy that coincides in a very timely way because one of the reasons that Enter the Dragon was such a huge hit in the urban community in the United States,
00:34:32
Speaker
Not just because Bruce Lee was really, really big in the urban community but because Jim Kelly was also big and he was in that movie with the kung fu and the fro and the whole thing. Nobody has ever really, really gotten to the meat of where this thing happened. Kung fu movies exploded in the US but they exploded first in the black community. What is it with kung fu and black people? That's what this gets into. It looks more specifically at a group of pioneering black martial artists.
00:35:00
Speaker
Ron Van Cleef, Dennis Brown, Tyari Cassell and Don Hamby. I've never heard of these guys, but man, it totally makes sense. All of a sudden you understand how these two different cultural experiences coincide and why they coincide at a particular point in time and it's a great documentary. So Martha and her co-director, Major Chen, did a great job. So bravo to them. Awesome. Love it.
00:35:23
Speaker
Speaking of awesome love and wait, we have a terrific documentary called Brooklyn Castle. Brooklyn Castle is a doc that takes place at a school in Brooklyn where over half the kids live below the federal poverty line, but they have the highest ranked junior high chess team in the nation.
00:35:41
Speaker
and the documentary charts these kids who are great at chess and they're all quite poor and it's a great documentary. It's lively and it's fun and you just love these kids and it's all about these kids. They have such horrible home lives but yet they're smart enough to just be these amazing chess players and it's great. It's emotional and it's powerful and it's positive and Brooklyn Castle is a really cool dock and you will love it. It's a great story. Brooklyn Castle, highly recommended.
00:36:11
Speaker
beautiful and then I got a trio here as we wind down the doc segment got a trio here from the cinema libre people which are all you know their stuff is all very politically active left of center to progressive and these are three from their earth now series one of them is the first 70 which is about the the
00:36:31
Speaker
threats to California's state parks. I actually live near a number of state parks. I got to say they're not terribly well maintained. There is something to this. The California state park system is in problem. The other one is called Save the Farm, which is about the—and this is interesting. There are actually a number of celebrities who show up in this
00:36:51
Speaker
including Amy Smart and Daryl Hannah, who's always active at something. And this is all an urban farm in the middle of South Central LA, which of course we're supposed to call South LA now. You know that, right? They've been doing that for years. It's like, wow, suddenly it just became safer because they changed the name.
00:37:07
Speaker
But it's interesting, you don't realize that these little kind of, you know, these community farms, these little urban farms are sometimes the only pieces of green in these giant concrete and asphalt landscapes. So that's an important story. That one, you know, I remember some of this stuff when, you know,
00:37:25
Speaker
In fact, I'm not even sure it was this one. I remember there was one. I think it's Santa Monica that there was a big dust up over. Anyway, this is a good story. And then the last one is Scavenger Hunt, which is all about the California condor. And I found this so informative and it increased my appreciation of the condor even more because I've actually seen a condor. Did you know that?
00:37:46
Speaker
I saw three days at the Condor. I've seen a Condor once. It strafed our house. My wife thought it was a plane at first. It was so huge. We see hawks all the time. They're big, right?
00:38:02
Speaker
Condor is like enormous. It's like a Boeing 747 compared to a Cessna. It's freaking enormous. You're not accustomed to seeing it. And it was the one time strafe the house and you just go, that is the biggest thing I have ever seen in the sky. It is huge and so impressive. So bravo to California Condor. Keep it big. Wait, bravo to Allen Ginsberg. And Allen Ginsberg, if you don't know, he was a beat poet.
00:38:28
Speaker
And a major literary figure of the time and the time we're talking about like the, you know, 60s or whatever, 50s and 60s. The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg is a terrific sort of a two-disc primer on his life. It includes interviews with a bunch of people who were there at the time, including John Baez and
00:38:47
Speaker
William Burroughs and Timothy Leary, but also includes new interviews with stars. You're like, really? They cared about Allen Ginsburg? Oh yes, Johnny Depp. If you're here, cares about Allen Ginsburg. Oh, Johnny Depp? Isn't he the star of some movie that's tanking miserably right now? I know. You know what? It's just...
00:39:04
Speaker
The thing with Lone Ranger is that it can't really decide what it wants to be. Does it want to make a typical Western, an atypical Western, an action comedy, a mystical thing? So it just winds up being everything. Not to detour too much from Allen Ginsberg, but I want to tell you, they missed their opportunity because they had a chance
00:39:24
Speaker
to reboot the Lone Ranger in a very, very relevant way compared to like with the housing crisis and the economic crisis. People can't get loans. If he were the Lone Ranger. I knew there was something stupid coming. I could tell you, see, you'd be a bad poker player because I knew something bad was about to happen. The LOAN Ranger. In this film, there's no Clinton Spillsbury to speak of. Clinton Spillsbury
00:39:50
Speaker
Yeah, I know. Who is the star of the last Lone Ranger. I know. I know the one from 19. What was it? 81. Yeah. And it was the only film boy that he ever did. He ever made. It's a Lone Ranger. It's a tainted franchise. It really is. At this point. Well, I mean, if if you spent a quarter of a billion dollars and can't make it work, who's going to who's going to jump on that bandwagon?
00:40:15
Speaker
The Lone Ranger was created by the same guy who created the Green Hornet. You know that, right? In fact, the Green Hornet, the character of the Green Hornet is supposed to be like the grandson of the Lone Ranger. There's a connection between the two stories there. Did you know that? No, that I didn't know. Yeah. It's like the Lone Ranger's grandson or great grandson is the Green Hornet. That's the whole thing. And given how well audiences embraced the Green Hornet two years ago,
00:40:44
Speaker
What were they thinking? Well, no one really knows that. But you know what? I think, too, that the Lone Ranger is almost as a character to be played properly. He's really too old-fashioned for this world. He's just like this straight arrow guy who just wants to do right. Well, he's a different generation of superhero. And that kind of describes Allen Ginsberg, too, doesn't it? Allen Ginsberg is a new generation of superhero.
00:41:08
Speaker
Anyway, good stuff. 120 hours of footage was shot by director Jeffrey Aronson and Jerry Aronson, and he did a great job putting it together. This is great stuff. If you want to know what it was like in those days and how heady and unique those days were, then check out the life and times of Allen Ginsburg. New movies, and this shows you what a slow week this is. The new movie this week is Admission.
00:41:34
Speaker
This is it. This is it, Mark. We got the one that you're holding there and admission. These are the two big new releases this week. So we're kind of in a phase now where the January and February movies are getting released in some March movies and it's not a lot of great stuff. You know, admission I thought got kind of unfairly hammered. I think Tina Fey and Paul Rudd are wonderful. I love them both. I think their chemistry is wonderful. There's just nothing remarkable about the story. So it's kind of like they're
00:42:00
Speaker
You admire their strokes, but they're still swimming upstream. I don't know how people just come up with some of these stories. I really don't. Anyway, Tina Fey plays a Princeton admissions officer, and Paul Rudd plays a former classmate that she bumps into.
00:42:26
Speaker
I guess we're supposed to just suddenly really tune into all their wonderful romantic travails. Paul White's decent job directing this, but it's just not great material. It's just, again, swimming upstream. So there it is. You get this, you can do your little ultraviolet thing on this. I got here a Blu-ray DVD, ultraviolet digital copy combo mondo thing from Focus Features, which of course is a division of Universal, so it's all ultraviolet.
00:42:56
Speaker
uh... wade uh... stephanie myers the writer of the original twilight series you know what that means that means when you have a hit that means every other book you've ever written or will write is will be automatically made into a movie yeah until they all flop until they all flop and that that uh... that string of flops uh... has begun well the host
00:43:13
Speaker
last year this is this stars a sure sure sure sure Ronin I love her she's awesome yeah she is yeah Dan Krueger Jacob Bell who's like the latest it guys she's in Byzantium too have you seen that the Neil Jordan film Byzantium is it good
00:43:29
Speaker
Everybody's ripping on it, man. Alonzo just tore it to shreds. I liked it. I mean, yes, it's not your typical vampire movie. It's more of an existential and kind of art house vampire movie, but so what? I dug it. I thought it was cool. Max Irons, the son of Jeremy Irons is in it, as well as William Hurt. Anyway, this movie just did not really take off the boat. Oh, Max Irons. He's hot. He's nicknamed Hot Irons.
00:44:05
Speaker
I like Rupert Grint. I respect anyone who's trying to shed the Harry Potter thing.
00:44:14
Speaker
And I don't even know if this, I'm a little bit out of it, Mark, because if I'm not on the radio on a given week, I'm not worried about what gets theatrically released. Did Into the White actually make it into theaters? Oh, God, I had never even heard of it until the Blu-ray crossed our desks. Okay, well, this is from Magnolia. I got the Blu-ray right in my hand. And you have what in your hand? The Blu-ray. Oh, stop it.
00:44:36
Speaker
You can't why no, this is this is actually a pretty cool film It's it's about it. You know, it's a survival movie basically about I guess it's a little bit like What's the what's the John Borman movie? Not hope floats hope no, no hope and glory. No, no, no the John Borman movie with the the American and Japanese on the with the you know what I'm talking about
00:45:01
Speaker
uh... star wars the original film that was remade as uh... enemy mine by uh... oh yeah it's uh... hang up these old no i think it i think it keeps on yeah anyway that's kind of what this is uh... it is it's partly a true story and about a couple of fighter pilots one german and uh... one british who and uh... they have to kind of uh... you know survive together in this cabin uh... is somewhere in this desolate part of norway after the after the crash
00:45:30
Speaker
and uh... it's uh... it's a really interesting story i mean it doesn't overly kind of preach the uh... you know you were in a museum you have to be brothers angle it doesn't really bram that down your throat it just kind of lets the actors do their thing
00:45:42
Speaker
I don't, if this didn't get a theatrical release, it really should have because it's good. It's well done all the way through by Peter Ness, or Petter Ness, who I'm going to assume is a Norwegian director and it's really good. It's got Rupert Grint and Stig Henrik Hoff, David Cross, Florian Lucas, and Lachlan Niebore.
00:46:03
Speaker
So as you can tell by the fact that I have just destroyed the names of the rest of the cast, the only person here of note is Rupert Grint. And I guess his success in Harry Potter was not enough to convince people that he has any marquee value outside of Harry Potter. So anyway, good film, Into the White. Definitely check it out. I love World War II movies and this is a good one.
00:46:19
Speaker
Wade, mixed feelings about the brass teapot. This is, this star is Juno Temple, who I like a lot. I like Juno Temple a lot. She's good. She's, I'm just waiting for her to explode. She's going to win an Oscar. She's going to be like, you know, at some point she will, she's not going to be the next Jennifer Lawrence, but she's going to pop like Jennifer Lawrence. She'll get that part. There'll be a part and she'll just be like the, the next hot thing and everybody, she'll be on every magazine cover and it'll be, oh, Juno, Juno. That moment will come and it hasn't come yet, but it will.
00:46:46
Speaker
But she has to stop doing these marginal films that are okay but not great and don't get much attention. Anyway, Magnolia also brings us the brass teapot. This is the magical story about two crazy young kids who go to an antique store and they find a magical teapot that spouts money every time somebody's in pain.
00:47:09
Speaker
really anything when there was a story whenever they're near somebody feeling physical pain it's about money really yes okay that is a movie okay and of course it's uh... it's a bit uh... you know uh... allegorical and uh... it's okay you know that again that the two stars it's uh... you know and michael and go around though i don't know that it reminds me a little there might be a little bit of that uh... that that william shattered while i don't
00:47:34
Speaker
Yeah, they go into the diner. Yeah, and then shatter heats. No, it's it's the thing that gives them the little fortune. Yeah Anyway, the the report did look the the two leaves are pretty appealing and I'll do love Juno Temple It's just it's just a bit of a minor, you know for those curiosity for those who don't live in in the United States the the or even in Los Angeles I'm assuming that maybe Los Angeles is the only place this happens about the Twilight Zone marathon on 4th of July best thing ever. No, no, I think that's on sci-fi network
00:48:04
Speaker
Is it sci-fi network? I don't remember. All I know is I turn the television on the 4th of July, flip around, I always find a Twilight Zone episode all day long. Boy is a really, really good New Zealand film. And I have a little bit of a connection to this. This is from Taika Waititi, who is an Academy Award nominee for short film from a number of years ago. And his awesome short film Two Cars One Night is also included on here. Now, I'm going to tell you something. When I was on the shorts jury at AFI Fest many moons ago,
00:48:33
Speaker
We gave the winning award to two cars one night, uh, right before he got an Oscar nomination. Uh, and Taika Waititi was there. This guy is an unbelievable director. He's so talented, such a sweet short film. And this is a really short, I mean, he's good with kids. He's really good with kids. This movie, uh, boy takes place in 1984.
00:48:49
Speaker
And it's about this 11-year-old kid and his just this unbelievable adventure that he goes on in the summer of 1984. And it's a wonderful coming-of-age film. It's not at all what you would expect. It's got this just really cool New Zealand sensibility to it. And Taika really should be a much bigger director than he is. I hope this is the beginning of really big things for him. The interesting thing about that year when we were giving awards to the shorts
00:49:18
Speaker
There was another short that we did not give the award to, even though it was really good, by a young guy named Jason Reitman. So I'm proud of all these people. But anyway, Boy is from Kino, Kino Lorber. It's on DVD and Blu-ray. Definitely check it out on Blu-ray. It's really nicely shot. Taika Waititi, just a terrific filmmaker and big things will happen. So you watch this movie, you're discovering a guy who is going to be a big deal very soon.
00:49:43
Speaker
uh... wade uh... the director of the power of few has obviously seen uh... population because uh... this will be just like a picture it does that decent cast including chris roentgen and christian slater and anthony anderson and uh... it's always where there's like it's said in new orleans and there is five sets of characters and five stories they're all taking place at the same time and then
00:50:11
Speaker
And then sets of characters will be in the foreground for one story, received to the background and kind of walk through the frame and maybe show up for a line of dialogue or two as one of the other stories comes to the foreground. And Pulp Fiction did that so brilliantly, this one not so much, although it is a decent take on it. I have to say that if you were bored out of your mind and you whip up Netflix and you're like, you know what, what's the power of few?
00:50:33
Speaker
I think I'll kill two hours watching the power of few. I think you could do a lot worse, but... Sure you could. I think you're better off in terms of buying the Blu-ray, no way. It's a total Netflix time killer, but it's not bad, the power of few. Wade, I have a question for you. Yes, hit me. Not literally, just hit me with the question. But what if I wanted to hit you? Well, we'll take it out back. Okay. There's a movie, Wade. Yes. Called, Would You Rather? Oh, dear.
00:51:00
Speaker
So it's based on those questions. Like, would you rather, would you rather be, you ready? Yeah. Would you rather be Cinderella or be Ariel?
00:51:13
Speaker
Jeez, I don't know. Cinderella had better dresses. I'm going to say Cinderella, better style. There's no, you know, not your own answer to that. Ariel from The Little Mermaid, right? How about this? Would you rather have a lightsaber from Star Wars or a phaser from Star Trek? Oh, phaser, please. Give me a break. Friggin' lightsaber. What do you do with that damn thing? It's got no range.
00:51:33
Speaker
No. That's a funny one. OK. Would you rather only be able to laugh at violently racist jokes or only be able to laugh at intricate Star Trek jokes? That's not much of a question. That's the strangest question I've ever heard. I'm not plugging the website. I just happen to know it exists. There's a website called YouRather.com. Yeah. And they give you these Would You Rather questions. Like here's one. Would you rather. Wow. Would you rather eat.
00:52:02
Speaker
a chocolate covered turd or eat a turd. What? What? I'll give you another one. What? What is this? Okay, would you rather eat Chinese food all the time or only Mexican food all the time? Isn't there a movie to talk about? No. This is better. Oh hey, here's one. Would you rather be anorexic or obese? Go. Oh my gosh, that's horrible. Would you rather be anorexic or obese?
00:52:26
Speaker
Obese because I can work it off. Anorexic is like a psychological disorder. Good grief, no.
00:52:35
Speaker
Obese, you're just lazy. You're just a fat ass. Anorexic, you got to go to therapy. Hell no. No, no. Obese. Anytime. Because I like running. It'll come off. Okay. You have a daughter, right? Yes. Oh, geez. Good night, folks. We're done. This is the greatest website ever. Would you rather regurgitate food to feed your daughter or lick your daughter to bathe her?
00:52:57
Speaker
I'm liquor anyway, so the latter. Good grief. Who comes up with this? Dreadful. Anyway, never mind. There's a movie called Would You Rather? And Mark just completely took the steam out of the movie. It's with Brittany Snow and you know, it's one of those movies. The movie posits like if you were offered a million dollars to solve all your problems, would you take the money and
00:53:24
Speaker
what would happen would you know it's a bit like a decent proposal except with money instead of sex i see and uh... i'm just gonna have to pass on it there although it does start sasha gray who i thought was terrific in uh... sort of birth a girlfriend experience nice otherwise uh... uh... she's born right she's born actress she's a point of view i have one more for you yet
00:53:44
Speaker
would you rather eat all your meals with the food is freezing cold or eat all your meals with five tablespoons of salt port on freezing cold dude that's the horrible thing uh... one more new movie before we get into with some some classics and some library titles american marie starring uh... wonderful actors into that kathryn isabelle is by the soska sisters now i don't know the soska sisters are but all i know is this is uh... one of the few new horror films are actually is really cool so a bunch of awards at the uh... at scream fest
00:54:12
Speaker
And Catherine Isabella is great. I think she's definitely going to emerge from genre anonymity into mainstream notoriety with this. She basically plays a med school student who gets into underground surgery and body modification. And this is a little bit like the stuff that Niptuck didn't dare show you on television because they couldn't.
00:54:37
Speaker
Honestly, I think this is really cool. It's got style, it's got sensibility, it's got tongue and cheek, and it's, you know what, it's actually genuinely scary. So you want to definitely check this out. American Mary, a big hit at Screamfest from the Saska sisters who I think they're probably going to do some more stuff too.
00:54:53
Speaker
Oh, wait, we have two DVDs and associated Blu-rays of two pre-code Bette Davis classics, ladies and gentlemen. One is Hell's House, and this had a great 35 millimeter restoration from the good folks at Keynote. This is Bette Davis. This is sort of before she was super famous, because it is 1932. And you know what, it's kind of like a reform school kind of a story. Like the Hell House is a reform school. I'm about to cough now, Wade.
00:55:22
Speaker
Go ahead, cough. Do it. All right. Yeah. I'm done now. This is kind of fun. And I really do like pre-code movies. This is on Blu-ray and DVD. You certainly don't need the Blu-ray. But if you're a Blu-ray collector, go for that. Also, of Human Bondage is based on the Somerset Maugham novel.
00:55:38
Speaker
And this is from 1934, and this is really one of, I think this is one of Bette Davis's first breakout performances. It's with Leslie Howard, who started with Gone with the Wind, and it's great stuff. Of Human Bondage is a classic, it's based on Somerset Maugham's novel, and Hell's House is a little bit kitschier, because it's about to perform in schools, but it's still kind of fun.
00:55:57
Speaker
Both on Blu-ray or DVD. Nice, sweet. DVD. I got some titles from Twilight Time here. We love to be with Twilight Time. They always scour up some really interesting old titles. Remember the Twilight Time stuff you can only find at ScreenArchives.com. ScreenArchives, plural, .com. 3,000 units and then they're gone, they're done. So you want to scrounge these up as soon as you possibly can.
00:56:26
Speaker
Hard Times was a film that Pauline Cale went nuts for, which is saying something because she didn't go nuts for an awful lot. But this is an early Walter Hill film from 1975 and the year before Rocky, you've got Charles Bronson as a depression-era street fighter in a really, really cool touching film, co-written and directed by Walter Hill, as I said, and with action sequences, believe it or not, edited by Roger Spottiswood.
00:56:51
Speaker
Another former Bond director. Yeah, isn't that great? And some great supporting performances here. Struther Martin, who everybody always forgets about, he's a drug-addicted cut man in this movie. He's great. James Coburn is the
00:57:04
Speaker
really sleazy promoter it's just uh... it's got a really great styles one of those good solid seventies movies that uh... everybody always forgets about and uh... twilight time has snatched that up from the uh... columbia library got to go to screen archives dot com to find it and then the only game in town uh... which uh... it'll and believe also these uh... worth pointing out these all have isolated soundtracks uh... that's part of the screen archives thing
00:57:29
Speaker
So the isolated score available on all these Twilight Time titles. This one's from the 20th Library, the only game in town.
00:57:38
Speaker
uh... which is kind of sad because it reminds me what were they used to look like every time i see warren baby as a young man is like a strapping young stud i just go man he's like old and jolly now it happens to all of us it's so depressing anyway warren baby is in this with elizabeth taylor who frankly is is a lot worse for the wear than warren baby these days and uh... because she's dead mark
00:58:02
Speaker
Anyway, this is the last film directed by George Stevens, believe it or not. I had forgotten that George Stevens kept his career going right up to 1970, just so that he could say he actually made a movie in the 70s, even though the 1970s technically part of the previous decade. But you know how that's how we do it. We start with zero.
00:58:17
Speaker
The last film by George Stevens, great score by Maurice Jarr, I should point out. So the isolated score here is just wonderful. This is a tremendous Maurice Jarr score. Is it a great George Stevens movie? No, it's like George Stevens, like a lot of other directors at the time, is kind of trying to remain relevant. And what he's doing here is basically adapting a
00:58:39
Speaker
play that I it still feels like a play and you know Beatty and Elizabeth Taylor they're good but they're still basically in a play and it's kind of a sort of a small movie but I don't know I guess it I guess it you know it look Warren Beatty and Elizabeth Taylor you can't totally dismiss it and again the best thing about this is the score Murray's jar score so both of these on quite good blu-ray
00:59:03
Speaker
A way to have three cult movies now that needs to be purchased, or I will reach through the internet IGN lines. IGN.com is the website that we're part of. If you want to reach through the computer lines, it's the
00:59:21
Speaker
through the through the ethernets yes sure why not boy did i blow that one saving the best for first we have the producers which it's just such a shame that the producers needs to be put up by shout factory we love shout factory we support all their stuff love shout factory but the thing is that the producers were the funniest ones ever made it's an all-time classic it has been out it has been out many times on uh... dvd and this is actually it's uh... first time on blu-ray which is a bit of a shame and just really
00:59:51
Speaker
Is sad that who I don't know if it's Warner Brothers who owns this or MGM whoever owns this the rights to this thing Did they really not see any value? I don't know coming out with the producers on are you kidding me? I don't know I mean luckily it was gotta go to somebody I'm glad I went to shot factory because there's a great documentary here called the making of the producers like over an hour
01:00:10
Speaker
There's a deleted scene, there's another featurette, it's shorter, it's so fine, called Mel and His Movies, Mel Brooks and His Movies, but it's the producers, and this thing is an absolute unbelievable blast. Gene Wilder, who just turned 80 recently, stars in it, along with Zero Mustell, and of course Dick Sean. Wade loves Dick Sean.
01:00:29
Speaker
I do love Dick Sean. Can't get enough Dick Sean. I think I'll put this over here. Nope. Nope. I'm going to watch this tonight. I'm going to watch it tonight. No, you're not. You're never going to watch it. You say that. You're never going to watch it. Ow. I fell on my keys. I'm hysterical. I'm wet and I'm hysterical. I'm in pain and I'm wet. He was the best. I loved Gene Wilder. God, he was the best.
01:00:58
Speaker
so good the other occult uh... film from nineteen sixty-five is the Beatles help now Richard Lester had directed uh... the first Beatles film A Hard Day's Night and it was kind of a little bit of a low-budget affair but it did very well so he was given more money to do help and you can tell because it's in color and they shot a bunch of exotic locations and uh... I don't know help is not as good as A Hard Day's Night uh... I think uh... Hard Day's Night was more
01:01:22
Speaker
control lunacy whereas this one just feels kind of all over the place but i do like this film they supposedly base it on the marx brothers duck soup that was kind of an inspiration for it but you know the beetles weren't really necessarily fans of this movie i think that they spent most of this movie smoking marijuana
01:01:40
Speaker
all the time because that's what they did in the mid 60s they like smoked pot for breakfast but still a lot of great songs help you're gonna lose that girl ticket to ride I think it's cool I really do like help this is a terrific film if your Beatles completist you cannot avoid purchasing the blu-ray of help awesome put this here
01:02:05
Speaker
Now the other movie that I'm gonna put right here is one of the funniest movies in the history of everything.
01:02:14
Speaker
We all love the spoof movies, the Waynes Brothers spoof movies and Date Night and Scary Movie and we all have Airplane and all that kind of stuff. But before all of that, the one that started it all was from 1977, John Landis's Kentucky Fried Movie. Oh, totally. This thing. This was Landis and Zaz. It was written by. Everyone forgets they work together.
01:02:36
Speaker
It was written by the Zucker brothers and James Abraham, as he's credited here, and it was directed by John Landis. And this is just a hilarious segment. It's a movie. It's an anthology thing. It's got like, you know, a couple, like maybe 12 or so different little tiny mini
01:02:54
Speaker
many vignettes in it, and they're all really funny. A lot of them were from stars from back in the day, like Bill Bixby, who played the Incredible Hulk on TV, Donald Sutherland, the father of Kiefer Sutherland, George Lazenby, who played James Bond in one film, and the great Henry Gibson. And actually, there's 22 segments. And I just love this movie, Kentucky Fried movie. When it came out, we had never seen anything like it. And it's great. It led to the Naked Gun. It led to Airplane. Of course, John Landis went on to do Animal House and Blues Brothers. And I'm going to put this right here.
01:03:25
Speaker
You know... I'm putting this right here, Wade. Yeah, we'll talk. Blood and Sand. Right there, Wade. I'm gonna do a thing. I'm gonna do a thing. I'm gonna do a thing for you. You ready for this? You ready for this? This is a thing that you're gonna hate. Yes. Okay, George Stevens. We just talked about George Stevens' last film, right? Yes. Okay. Well, George Stevens also directed The Sun Also Rises, right?
01:03:44
Speaker
And In The Sun Also Rises, which starred Robert Evans as a bullfighter, right? Robert Evans, the Robert Evans, who would eventually produce The Godfather. Very handsome in his youth. Well, as it happens, that movie also starred Tyrone Power, and Tyrone Power played a bullfighter in the movie Blood and Sand. What?
01:04:01
Speaker
Do you like how I just made that connection? Do you like how I just... I did a little thing. I did a little thing. I moved somehow from Warren Beatty and Elizabeth Taylor to Tyrone Power and Blood and Sand. Just with connections. Just concept connections. Just stream of consciousness. That's how I do. This is a 20th Century Fox film.
01:04:21
Speaker
from the Golden Era and Tyrone Power and Rita Hayworth, as you've never seen them before. Actually, as you've seen them in just about everything else I've ever done. Blood and Sand, also with Anthony Quinn. You know, perfectly decent Hollywood Golden Era film from Reuben Mamoulian, otherwise famous as the guy who directed the very first ever Technicolor film.
01:04:43
Speaker
Becky Sharp, but it's a melodrama, nothing unusual about it. It's basically just a straight up guy. It's a little bit like weathering heights, I guess, with bullfighting instead of weathering. I don't know.
01:05:00
Speaker
Anyway, he wants to become the greatest matador in Spain and bring his woman with him anyway. It's, you know, it's one of those typical Hollywood melodramas that they made back in the day. And I know you hate it when I say back in the day, but I'm going to keep saying it.
01:05:16
Speaker
And the best thing about this, actually, is the commentary by Richard Crudo, who was the director of photography and was previously president of the American Society of Cinematographers. So I, again, I always enjoy these movies. Tyrone Power was a student of my father's, so I always kind of had a little connection to these things. But, you know, it's kind of standard-issue melodrama with a couple of really fetching stars. And by the way, Rita Hayworth also a student of my father's. So there we go. I feel suddenly like it's family.
01:05:45
Speaker
Speaking if we go... Oh, are we getting to the end of the show? Yes. Hold on, where are we? Oh my goodness, we're over time. You know what? I'm gonna give... I'm gonna mention one last old classic film and then we'll be done with it. Mark, Conan Tate. You remember Conan Tate?
01:06:01
Speaker
I do not. You don't? Really? You have no recollection of Cohen and Tate? Nope. This is a 1989 movie starring Roy Scheider and Adam Baldwin. Adam Baldwin, like, kind of coming right off of my bodyguard, but before he was, you know, and actually a full metal jacket. He had just done full metal jacket, I guess, as well briefly. So anyway, Adam Baldwin, a guy who never really got a great run at this, but this was written and directed by a guy named Eric Red, who, to my knowledge, never really had much of a career after this at all.
01:06:29
Speaker
But this is what they did was they took the ransom at Red Chief, the O. Henry short story, and turned it into kind of a big cop film.
01:06:37
Speaker
And it ain't bad. I don't know why this kind of vanished off the map, but Shop Factory has brought it back. It's on Blu-ray. And among other things, it features a commentary with Eric Redd and interviews and deleted scenes. And I actually think it's pretty sharp. Anything with Roy Scheider from this period, I always like. Roy Scheider just makes everything better. So yeah, I kind of, you know, Ransom of Red Chief imposed into a kind of a mob story from the late 80s.
Listener Engagement & Sign-Off
01:07:03
Speaker
Kind of a cool, lost little movie. Wow.
01:07:07
Speaker
I like it. All right. And, Mark, we're still looking for sign-outs. So, you know, e-mail us. We've had some suggestions, some interesting ones, some good ones, looking for more. So send us your suggestions for how we should sign out and sign off the show at gods of digigods.com. Send us listener mails. Send us box boxes. We've got, I think, maybe one box box left that we banked a few weeks ago, and we're going to get rid of that on the next show, I think. I've got to check to make sure we've still got that.
01:07:35
Speaker
And then, you know, here we go, signing off. See you next week.