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IGN Digigods Podcast Episode 306
50 Plays11 years ago
The Gods are haters this week! Hear their angry thoughts on Star Trek Into Darkness, Big Bang Theory: Season Six and The Office: Final Season.
Digigods Podcast, 09/10/13 (MP3) -- 30.5 MB
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In this episode, the Gods discuss:
- Army Wives: The Complete Seventh Season (DVD)
- The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Sixth Season (DVD)
- Blue Bloods: The Third Season (DVD)
- Castle: The Complete Fifth Season (DVD)
- Chicago Fire - Season One (DVD)
- Delete (Blu-ray)
- Desperate Acts of Magic (DVD)
- Eight is Enough - The Complete Fourth Season (DVD-R)
- Enlightened: The Complete Second Season (DVD)
- Friday The 13th: The Complete Collection (Blu-ray)
- Grey's Anatomy: The Complete Ninth Season (DVD)
- Hammer of the Gods (Blu-ray)
- Haven - The Complete Third Season (DVD)
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 8 (DVD)
- The League Season 4 (DVD)
- Love is All You Need (Blu-ray)
- The Office Season Nine - The Farewell Season (Blu-ray)
- Online (DVD)
- Parks and Recreation: Season Five (DVD)
- Peeples (Blu-ray)
- Porn Shoot Massacre Unrated Edition (DVD)
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Blu-ray)
- Revolution: The Complete First Season (Blu-ray)
- Scandal: The Complete Second Season (DVD)
- Scavengers (DVD)
- Sinbad: The Complete First Season (Blu-ray)
- Sons of Anarchy Season 5 (Blu-ray)
- Spartacus: War of the Damned - The Complete Third Season (Blu-ray)
- The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (Blu-ray)
- Stag (DVD)
- Star Trek - The Original Series - Origins (Blu-ray 3D)
- Star Trek Into Darkness (Blu-ray 3D/DVD)
- Stranded (Blu-ray)
- Supernatural: The Complete Eighth Season (Blu-ray)
- Twilight Zone Season 5 (DVD)
- The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Fourth Season (Blu-ray/DVD)
- Wish You Were Here (DVD)
Please also visit CineGods.com.
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:05
Speaker
From the pit of the all-powerful Sarlacc, it's the IGN Digiguys! And now, please welcome the special edition re-release of Wade Major and Mark Keiser!
The Mystery of Lou Grant on DVD
00:00:28
Speaker
So, Mark, how are you getting used to the labs? I have a question for you. First off,
00:00:33
Speaker
First off, most important question of all time. Why is Lou Grant not on DVD? Lou Grant? Lou Grant. That show's terrible. That show was, it won Emmys. It won tons of Emmys. So did whatever. Lou Grant's not on DVD. What made you think of that? Never has been.
00:00:49
Speaker
You know, I was listening to the radio this morning, and they were saying, uh, 40 years ago today, blah, whatever, 30-something years ago, the Emmy Awards went to Taxi and Lou Grant, and I thought, Lou Grant, that, you know, Ed Azer, he's still around, he's still got his back hair, what's, where is that show? He did have a lot of back hair. He still does. Really? Oh my gosh. Is it Robert? Is it Robert Williams-esque?
00:01:10
Speaker
Oh, please. He puts Robin Williams to shame. He's the original Sasquatch man. I will never forget. The two
Nostalgia: Network Stars Events
00:01:21
Speaker
things, well three things. I have three core memories from attending all of those Battle of the Network stars that they used to have at Pepperdine University when I was a kid. Remember the Battle of the Network stars? Oh, I used to love that show.
00:01:31
Speaker
And I used to go to that because it was minutes away. And I have three very strong recollections. Number one, I was amazed at how tiny and fragile William Shatner's ankles were.
00:01:48
Speaker
Tiny, tiny, you know, itty bitty. Little tiny ankles. Like if he were to go skiing, they'd just snap and his feet would come flying off. Number two, Ed Asner took his shirt off and children ran screaming. It was horrifying the amount of back hair and just hair. It's just unbelievable. Ed Asner, he's a simian. It's unbelievable.
00:02:13
Speaker
Then the third which is a very fond memory unlike those other two I remember when the with the softball dunk you remember you pick a pick somebody and you get they sit in the in the On the little platform above the water and you have to throw the softball and you hit the target and drops them into the dunk I remember Scott Baio was up and he got to pick somebody and like the like the marketing genius that he is he said I want
00:02:40
Speaker
Heather Thomas and Heather Locklear to sit up there. Oh my God. It's
Vigilante Justice in Ciudad Juarez
00:02:48
Speaker
a hottie sandwich. But Heather, the both Heathers, the two, the Heathers, the Heathers. Yeah, Heather Thomas and Heather Locklear. Heather Thomas from the fall guy and Heather Locklear from Dynasty, of course, at the time. And he dunked him. And I was standing maybe seven feet away. It's a memory. It just, it lingers with me. It really is one of those special things from my adolescence.
00:03:10
Speaker
And then if you saw a picture of Heather Thomas right now, you would probably scream. Actually, no, she used to have a house on... Leave me with my memories, please. She used to have a house, maybe she still does, on San Vicente in Santa Monica. Yeah. Like when you're going west down San Vicente on the right side of the street. Sure. All those gated houses where they're all... Oh, she had one of those? They're all obscured in trees and you can't really tell what they look like. Richard Reardon has one of those. Richard Reardon, former LA mayor. Yeah. Wow. Very exciting.
00:03:40
Speaker
Alright, has the show started yet? Show started yet. What? By the way, did you hear about the... Well, not that. Diana, the killer of bus drivers. Have you heard about this?
Amor DVD Contest Winners
00:03:51
Speaker
Diana, the killer of bus drivers? In Ciudad Juarez, this has nothing to do with movies. It's just a cool story. Look, I made your glasses fall off. In Ciudad Juarez, the Mexican border town.
00:04:00
Speaker
Apparently for years there has been this epidemic of sexual assaults on women because I guess there's a makeup industry or something down there and they work late and all these women, they have to take buses home at night and so for years there were like mutilated bodies showing up and the last note they ever had was that they'd gotten on the bus and so the thought is that all these bus drivers were just sexually assaulting women.
00:04:23
Speaker
And like last week, on consecutive days, a woman dressed all in black, wearing blonde hair, could be a wig, could be dyed, nobody knows, came up to a bus, started to get on, pulls out a gun, plugs the bus driver twice and the head kills him. Two bus drivers dead. And then like a note shows up to the press saying, you know, signs saying, we've been taking enough of this, we're gonna take matters into our own hands, women are not as weak as you think, signed. Diana Huntress of Bus Drivers. You know, when you walked in,
00:04:54
Speaker
Pretty awesome, right? When you walked in, you said, we have so much to talk about. I know. And yet, here we are. OK. Oh, my scone's ready. Oh, geez. Now, you can't have the scone. OK, fine.
Listener Favorites and Mortality Humor
00:05:06
Speaker
It is a, because it has bacon in it. All right, you will get the scone. I will just cover a few little tidbits. Like, for example, are the winners of our Amur. Excuse me while I get my scone. Yeah, you do that. Winners of our Amur DVD giveaway contest. Todd Cassell, Daniel Clark.
00:05:22
Speaker
Long time listeners, Mario Mendez and Cheval Dixon got in there, and Roy Rodriguez, so congratulations guys for playing and congratulations on your new DVDs of Amor, the brilliant Michael Haneke Film Academy Award winner and Cannes Film Festival winner, coming your way, courtesy of Sony Classics. And then also Mario asked us to also give him a plug, his brother Mike's movie, Big Ass Spider.
00:05:52
Speaker
is going to be released in theaters and VOD on the 18th of October. So I know nothing about Big Ass Spider, but Mario, let us know how we can get a copy of that and discuss it on the show if possible. Big Ass Spider. Sounds cool. Good name, good title. Also, just a few little, a couple of listener mails worth reading. One from Sean, Dear Wade and Mark. Mark, you're listening?
00:06:19
Speaker
Yes, I am. Okay, good. It is with great sadness that I announce I am dying.
00:06:26
Speaker
I'm not sick or anything, but I've reached the age of 50. And like my father, who died at the age of 94, I can feel the icy fingers of the grim reaper approaching. I might have a yay. I might have another 44 years. I just don't know. My final wish is to recommend a movie to the two of you, as you have both recommended so many to me. My three favorite movies that I can watch over and over again are Ed Wood, Up in the Air, and The Last Man, starring Jerry Ryan and David Arnott.
00:06:55
Speaker
The disc sells for 84 cents to $12 on Amazon or you could put it in your Netflix queue or you could ask JJ Abrams to get it for you for your birthday. Seriously, it's a great
Peter Bogdanovich: Film Critique
00:07:04
Speaker
little movie and don't you love watching great little movies that no one else knows about? Have to go now, feel a sharp pain. I love that email.
00:07:13
Speaker
Thank you, Sean. You know what? I have never heard of the movie, but I checked it out. And Last Man. Looks like it's got all kinds of great comments on Amazon, and it's one of those little discoveries that might be worth taking a look at. And then also, yes? Nothing. Oh, OK. Keep going. All right. And then we also got an email from Al in San Francisco. Stop or ignore me if my emails are wearing you out. Your opinions on Peter Bogdanovich's adaptation of Daisy Miller?
00:07:43
Speaker
I'm not only moved by the work itself, especially its last fade to white scene, but also genuinely impressed or inspired by Peter Bogdanovich's deliberate, near selfish maneuver to follow up his more mainstream What's Up doc and Paper Moon with this merchant ivory-ish project where it wasn't quite the art house fashion until the early 1980s. Bogdanovich got absolutely no love from audiences or critics for the film. A common but erroneous accusation was he took liberties with Henry James' dialogue and modernized it.
00:08:12
Speaker
But he did nothing of the kind. In fact, in terms specifically of brave, singular, unwavering, inspiring career decisions, I regard two specific Bogdanovich projects equally with John Cassavetti's entire auteur oeuvre. Juan
TV Releases and Popular Shows
00:08:26
Speaker
Cara Wise, happy together, Floyd Mutrix's dusty and sweet's McGee, Frank Capra's the bitter tea of General Egan, Peter Watkins' entire career, Daisy Miller, and the criminally overlooked, obscure St. Jack.
00:08:38
Speaker
You realize who starred in Daisy Miller? Arlene Brennan, who died recently. Oh my gosh, that's right. You know, and you will be able to put that microphone back on your person at some point. Well, I have to get my scone. Go get your scone. But anyway, no, it's true. And then, of course, he wants to know if St. Jack is going to come up with a cleaned up version. I wouldn't bank on it anytime super soon, but St. Jack is part of the Corman collection. So at some point, Corman's going to get around to releasing a Blu-ray of that.
00:09:06
Speaker
through Shout Factory, probably, which is the new contract. As for Daisy Miller, you know, I think it's an okay film, but I think, I think, Civil Shepherd is weak in it. I mean, it's a good movie, you know, Henry James, you can't go wrong, but, Civil Shepherd is the weak link there for me. But, you know, I think it's certainly an interesting choice for Bogdanovich.
00:09:29
Speaker
A lot of people love it. What can I say? All right, you want to get your scone and I'll start off on some television? Yes, people want to hear DVD recommendations where you're wasting their time with the woman who shot the guy in the bus or something. Yeah, I know. Diana, Huntress of Bus Drivers. It's going to be a graphic novel next week.
00:09:48
Speaker
We've got just a friggin' crapload of television and a lot of this arrived like in the last 48 hours and so I'm gonna be honest, we have not had ample time to look at much of this but you know, we've just given a cursory look to some of it, some of the extras but man, this is just a gigantic massive pile of television because so much of this stuff is coming back on with the new seasons.
00:10:14
Speaker
So we're going to blow through this and get you all set up. Scandal, big deal on ABC from Shonda Rhimes, who of course created Grey's Anatomy. This is her new hit, which apparently is now bigger than Grey's Anatomy ever was. So Shonda Rhimes is like a list showrunner now. That woman can put anything on television that she wants. Pretty great. This is the complete second season of Scandal. And you know what? It's scandalous.
00:10:43
Speaker
The whole political thing that it's got going on, you know, it's politics and sex, what can I tell you? And it's really made Kerry Washington quite a star. The woman had a really good career going, kind of, you know, playing wives and girlfriends and whatnot. Shonda Rhimes stuck her in this show. Man, she is through the roof. She is all over the place now. So she's on magazine cover, she's a big girl. Smell that. Yeah. Okay, that's great. Smells like bacon.
00:11:09
Speaker
What's that about? Onions, bacon, peppers? It has everything that is delicious in the world. You're a strange man. Anyway, bonus features here on this set. And by the way, Tony Goldwyn, this kind of resurrected his career too. He was like the horrible person in Ghost for a long time. He directed a couple of movies, it went nowhere, and now he's like, he's the shiznit.
00:11:28
Speaker
Anyway, bonus features here. Mostly feature-ready stuff and an extended finale, some deleted scenes and outtakes I took a look at. It did not impress me enormously, but it's scandal. What do you want? People love it. I love this show, Mark.
00:11:47
Speaker
You know what, people do love this show. And you know what, I'm starting to hear more good things about Oranges in the New Black, which I haven't checked out yet. Neither have I, but you know, Women in Prison, I still remember the... You're thinking Corman. I'm thinking Prisoner's Cell Block H, remember that? It was like the soap opera. The Women in Prison soap opera. It was kind of like a Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, with like a kind of...
00:12:08
Speaker
Is Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman on DVD? It's coming out, the complete series. Really? Yes, just announced like four days ago. How about Fernwood tonight? No, not yet. Eventually. Castle, another ABC show. This is now out in its complete fifth season. I never in a million years would have imagined that this show would be sticking around this long.
00:12:29
Speaker
Basically, Castle does that thing that Glenn Gordon-Karen excelled at for so long with Remington Steel and moonlighting and countless other shows. And that's fine. It's the tension between the two characters. It's fun. A lot of good banter on this show. And same with the bonus features here. It's deleted scenes, bloopers, some audio commentaries, a bunch of featurettes.
00:12:56
Speaker
And then moving along, Army Wives is now in its seventh season, which is another thing that kind of blows my mind. You know, Lloyd shot a bunch of these. Really? I think he still does, yeah. And honestly, seven seasons of Army Wives? Like, how did that sneak in there? Well, look,
Casting Choices and Career Trajectories
00:13:15
Speaker
how good does Army Wives have to do in order to...
00:13:17
Speaker
get picked up. Bobby does very well in, you know, Bobby does very well in the South. Well, but that's the thing. I mean, it's an ABC show, so it's like, you know, the demands for the network shows, because their saturation is so much greater, are huge compared to things like AMC. AMC doesn't have to get ridiculous numbers watching its shows, yet they do.
00:13:37
Speaker
There's a lesson there, I don't know what it is. Anyway, not much by way of extras here, just bloopers and deleted scenes. That's a little disappointing. But anyway, there it is. Army Wives, my goodness. Yeah, Army Wives. It's been around forever. Okay, let's talk for a second about Sons of Anarchy. Season five. This includes the exclusive creators cut extended episodes.
00:14:07
Speaker
creators cut. Not directors cut, creators cut. You realize that show stars. Yes. Charlie Hunnam. Charlie Hunnam, who was so awesome as the Joker when he won an Oscar in The Dark Knight. He was. He was good. He was. He was good. I admit it. Okay, Mark, why don't you tell us the real reason that Charlie Hunnam, the Heath Ledger lookalike, is now a big deal.
00:14:34
Speaker
because he's going to play Christian Grey in the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey. I could not be more disinterested. And the woman who's playing the female lead is that hag who was created by the unholy union of Melanie Griffith. Look, that girl's beautiful. I'm being funny. Oh, good. Thank you. Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson. That's their daughter.
00:15:00
Speaker
It is their daughter. I have no interest because I haven't... You know what freaks me out? You know what freaks me out is I remember an interview with Don Johnson where he was saying, well, you know, my little girl asked me the other day, Daddy, are we rich? And I thought for a second, I thought, I better say no, no, we're not. And then I just don't mail like, holy crap, that little girl is now going to be doing nasty things. And I'm just, I feel violated.
00:15:24
Speaker
I don't care about that. Why is everybody all hot and bothered about that? Because with a segment of the population, we're not. That thing was a phenomenon. Why? It's like Twilight. We don't get Twilight, but a segment of the population, we're not. Why? Because it's dirty.
00:15:40
Speaker
Yes, it just tapped into that middle-aged woman, malaise, you know, seven-year itch, whatever thing. Well, Charlie Hunnam, Sons of Anarchy. And you know what? I mean, it's a well done show. I've never really gotten this show. Kurt Sutter created it and he did a whole bunch. This is a little more raw than it is when it shows up on FX.
00:16:02
Speaker
But it's well done, it's an interesting idea, the whole biker gang thing. Everybody gets to be grungy and dirty, and I'm sure they probably have a ridiculous... There he is, there he is. Look, look, look. He's for a gangster. He's Heath Ledger. He is. He's a Heath Ledger lookalike.
00:16:21
Speaker
But again, not my, not exactly my deal, but this is on Blu-ray and it is good looking, good looking Blu-ray. Also really good looking Blu-ray is complete first season of Sinbad, which is a BBC show that kind of attempts to do the, it's, you know, it's the fantasy thing that everybody's all hot and bothered about.
00:16:40
Speaker
And it's not exactly the Sinbad of lore, but it kind of does a good job of going where shows like Game of Thrones and Rome and a lot of the mythological, exotic locale shows have gone. They do
Criticism of Popular TV Shows
00:16:59
Speaker
a good job of it. It's really high production value. Some great acting. Writing leaves a little bit to be desired, but it's set in the 8th century of Arabia.
00:17:09
Speaker
with a lot of people who are clearly not Arabs and it's alright. So that's Sinbad, complete first season. Oh, extras. Very little. Three featurettes. That's it. Done. Mark. Enlightened might have won Lord Dern a Golden Globe, but it didn't earn a third season. Nope. So we have the complete second season of Enlightened on DVD.
00:17:38
Speaker
Not Blu Ray. The only thing I did like about this show is that I like the cast. I like Mike White. Who does like Mike White? I like Mike White. Jonathan Demme directed a couple of these. Nicole Holopciner. Did he really? Yeah. You know, Nicole Holopciner has a new film coming out on the 20th. It's the James Gandolfini deal. His last film. Is that right? Yep.
00:18:01
Speaker
Um, so there's some good pedigree on the show. I just, it never really, you know, the, the, the problem with HBO shows is that they either have to be amazing or they fall off the radar. I know. There's no middle ground. No, there's no like little engine that could sort of HBO show anymore. They got to be phenomenons like game of thrones or sopranos.
00:18:19
Speaker
6 feet under. The HBO stuff, it's got to be a home run. If it's just an average HBO show, people are like, well, then why am I getting HBO? I can watch an average show on FX or AMC. We were talking about the Big Bang Theory before the show.
00:18:35
Speaker
Yes, or you don't get it. I was saying, I just, this show is terrible. This, I just think the show is dreadful. The writing is dreadful. The writing is dreadful. I don't get it. I don't know why people laugh. I know. It seems like when I, when I watched the show, it just seems like these are the scripts that would be cranked out by like first year's screenwriting, TV screenwriting students. I know. I agree with you. It's a Mr. Spock joke. It's just like Smurfs. It's a Star Trek thing to do the Star Trek thing. I know.
00:19:01
Speaker
It's the worst. And the whole thing with Jim Parsons, I mean, whatever, he's fine. I just think the show's terrible. I know. The complete sixth season is on...
00:19:12
Speaker
DVD, couple good special features, if you like the show, which of course I don't. But you know what, the Paley Fest thing is good. Here in Beverly Hills, they have a museum of television. And every year they have this thing called the Paley Fest. The Paley Fest, you get all the stars and all the showrunners and the writers from these shows. They do a whole big song and dance about a Q&A and a speech, and they get up on stage, they talk about their show, the whole thing. And that can be very interesting.
00:19:40
Speaker
These guys, of course, don't deserve that sort of honor, but they got it and it's on the DVD. Anyway. Nice. Very nice. Thank you. You know, Mark, I'm going to talk about some old classic television here for a second. Everything else that we're talking about today is new school, but this is old school.
00:19:57
Speaker
First off, I've got a Blu-ray here. This is Star Trek Origins, the original series. Kirk Spock, Pike, Khan, Klingons, Tribbles. It's real stretch. Clearly, this is being released to pump something else we'll be talking about this week, which is Star Trek Into Darkness 3D.
00:20:16
Speaker
There's some controversy with that that we will get into, but clearly they were like, oh gosh, there's a thing to do with the Star Trek Into Darkness. Maybe we can try to piggyback that. Let's see if we can peddle a disc from the old series. It talks
Classic TV Show Releases
00:20:30
Speaker
about origins, one of which kind of ties in, but let's not be so obvious that it gets ahead of us.
00:20:35
Speaker
So, uh, yeah, one of these things, one of these things ties in with Star Trek Into Darkness. Is it Kirk? Is it Spock? Well, clearly, but what about the others? The Spirk! Pike? Well, he was in the last film. Khan? Maybe? Klingons? Tribbles? I don't know. Anyway, uh, so yes, you get the Cage, which is the pilot that was eventually folded into the Menagerie, uh, Where No Man Has Gone Before, uh, Space Seed, Errand of Mercy, and The Trouble with Tribbles.
00:21:01
Speaker
And I think that is an utterly bizarre collection of episodes to just throw onto a random disc. It's basically every original episode you need to see in order to understand Into Darkness. Yes, but it's also just a random bunch of episodes that really don't belong together.
00:21:21
Speaker
Yeah, but it's Star Trek. Silly. Just silly. Anyway, nonsense. Twilight Zone fifth season, out again. This is, again, Image is releasing these things in short order to get them out in chronological order. And 36 episodes from the phenomenal fifth season and some really great stuff in here. It's just amazing. I don't know why you would buy these DVDs when you can just buy the Blu-ray for the same price. Well, because some people don't have a Blu-ray player.
00:21:48
Speaker
You know, they're just, this is more affordably priced. It's out again for people who have never seen any of these. Nightmare at 20,000 feet. Love it. William Shatner flipping out. Gremlin on the wing. Awesome. A kind of stopwatch. Oh my gosh, that's so good. Living Doll. Living Doll. Remember Living Doll? Yeah, it's talking Tina. I'm talking Tina. I'm going to murder you.
00:22:14
Speaker
And I Am The Night, I Am The Night, color me black. The masks, remember the masks? The guy who's reading his will and he's dead and everybody puts the masks on and it like shows their inner self and it distorts their faces, so which an awesome. And. Well you just read every episode tiled off. Okay, fine. Anyway, some really good episodes there. Good stuff. Fun stuff. Your office season nine, Wade.
00:22:40
Speaker
Wait a minute. Is that what I think it is? Yes, it is. The complete fourth season of 8 Is Enough, which is out from Warner Archive. A lot of the Warner Brothers produced stuff that is just kindly figured that nobody remembers this show, so they put out a lot of these shows on 8 Is Enough.
00:22:59
Speaker
Yeah, so I didn't even read the fan pad. This has been out that they've been kind of blowing these out on from Warner Warner Archive for a couple of years. And I wasn't even aware of it. So yeah, there we go. Now, did you know that the first two were even out? They look. No, I didn't. I had no idea. I had no clue. That's why I recommend that people go to Warner Archive and see what they've got on TV there, because some of your favorite TV shows that you might have assumed have not been put out. If they were created and produced by Warner Brothers, they may very well be out. So you got to 1977 to 1981. WarnerArchive.com.
00:23:28
Speaker
Gotta go check it out and see what's out there. There's a lot of other cool stuff out there. Anyway, but yeah, if eight is enough, man, that show was the biggest deal for the longest time. I used to watch the show. These are terrible. These shows are all terrible. I'm gonna be agony to watch this. Dick Van Patten is a master thespian and I will not have you bad-mouthed him on this show.
00:23:48
Speaker
Willie Ames. Adam Rich was the... I know. He was like kind of the younger generations, like Gary Coleman, short, weird guy. Adam Rich. Let's see, how old is Adam? He was so cute back then. Yeah, he ain't cute no more. Personal life. No, he's messed up now. He currently occasionally makes personal appearances at his marketing script ideas for TV shows and films. In 2002, he was arrested for drunk driving. He's been in drug rehab three times.
00:24:16
Speaker
Anyway, so eight is enough. The complete fourth season, parts one and two shrink-wrapped together. And yeah, Willie Ames, you know, a lot before he did the Scott Baio deal. And Dick Van Patten,
Long-Running TV Show Impacts
00:24:28
Speaker
who was just, he's a mighty force of nature, Dick Van Patten.
00:24:32
Speaker
Not a bad show at all. I wasn't a bad show. I mean, it's kind of cheesy when you watch it now, but... It's like watching The Waltons. Actually, The Waltons... I bet The Waltons is good only because it's probably pretty timelessly lame. It is. It was lame then. It's probably lame now. Just lame. Just timelessly lame. Alright. Office, bro.
00:24:48
Speaker
The Office Season 9. This is the final season of the show. You finally get to see the documentary that they spent, you know, eight years doing. You know, the show, I have to say, was kind of running out of steam at this point. It's mostly about the relationship between what's-her-name and what's-his-name. You can quote me on that, by the way. OK. You want to watch the other night, I watched the final episode of Futurama. Oh, yeah. Futurama was canceled, finally. I know. I know. After, like, nine seasons. Did they meet the Jetsons? No. OK.
00:25:18
Speaker
And I have to say that the final episode is not that great. I think the show has officially run out of steam and it just comes grinding to a halt in the last episode, which was not that funny. And it was not even that melancholy or sad, which the show surprisingly is good at, which is being pretty emotional, getting to its characters and having these kind of emotional moments. The show is surprisingly good at that, but this final episode of Future Om was not that great.
00:25:42
Speaker
Anyway, The Office Season 9, you know, if you've got all eight at this point, you might as well get the ninth as a blooper reel. There's some cast farewells, which is kind of nice. There's some audition tapes that they dug out of the archives. So there you go. You get to see what's his name and what's her name getting married. That's nice. Fantastic. Grey's Anatomy.
00:26:01
Speaker
You were just talking about Shonda Rhimes. Yeah. And, uh, you know, Sandra Oh has left the show. Yeah. I remember when McDreamy, what's his name? McDreamy. I remember when he said that he, the only reason he does the shows cause like car racing is really expensive. Cause he has like this car racing hobby. He's like, you know what I do the shows cause car racing is really expensive. I need to work. And that really pissed off a lot of the fans. You know what? Too bad. Awesome. Anyway, I was with, I was with the show for a few seasons and then it was just, it was just McSteamy, McDreamy, McSteamy, McDreamy. It got old.
00:26:30
Speaker
yeah you know what uh... there's a lot of lab coats and uh... and uh... insects uh... vampire diaries you know here's here's three shows that actually go perfectly well together vampire diaries in its fourth season and which means that senior year senior year i don't know where this is going to go now uh... it is beautiful a lot of beautiful people who are uh... her vampires are turning into vampires
00:26:53
Speaker
It's just, you know, I guess if I were to watch every single episode of this damn show and kind of try to get the vibe, it would probably kind of soak in and I'd love it. But it just strikes me as yet another one of these kind of CWE shows where it's a lot of beautiful people and we're still trying to ride the vampire sexy bandwagon.
00:27:13
Speaker
I just don't get it. It just is not compelling to me. There are a ton of featurettes on here and they are all geared toward people who just think these actors are totally important and they're all meaningless to me. So again, I'm not totally into it, but I will tell you the combo pack, Blu-ray, DVD and ultraviolet, so that you can make this thing follow you around everywhere and carry it on every device that you want and watch it on your damn phone on the bus or on the plane or whatever.
00:27:37
Speaker
It's really nicely done. The Ultraviolet
Sitcom Trends and Male Appeal
00:27:39
Speaker
is really first rate and I've been trying to look at more of the Ultraviolet stuff. Also, really, really impressive on the Ultraviolet end. Another one of these CW shows, Supernatural, 8th season.
00:27:51
Speaker
uh... more than coming through coming back again uh... for tonight's season c w and uh... this is just yet another one of those shows it's just beautiful people and uh... genre storytelling and it's uh... that just i i i don't get it's not it not interesting me but that being said the uh... the featurets here are better much more involved so they put in the higher production effort into these featurets and uh... the ultraviolet looks absolutely pristine
00:28:18
Speaker
And then, lastly, another show on a great Blu-ray DV ultraviolet combo pack with first-rate ultraviolet and really, really great-looking Blu-ray is Revolution, first season. And I don't like the show. I think it's kind of a, this is a JJ show. And it's a little bit, you know, it's a little bit cheesy. It's post-apocalyptic cheesy. It's like they said, why don't we do a thing with Lost except the world has ended.
00:28:46
Speaker
Well, I mean, they try hard to give it production value, but it still strikes me as just kind of soapy and cheesy. You think JJ's richer than God? I know. So anyway... Star Wars and Star Trek. They've got some stuff on the creating of the thing. Somebody we went to school with. A bit on the pilot, and then there's an exclusive on the Blu-ray. Can you imagine if they gave him James Bond, too? From the 2013 Paley Fest.
00:29:10
Speaker
We just talked about the Paley Fest. Yeah. They should give him James Bond. Why not? Can you imagine if he does every single gigantic franchise ever? Let him do Avengers. Give him James Bond, Avengers, Star Wars, Star Trek. What else can we give him? Rocky. Let him do the next Rocky film. Let him do Rocky in space. This would be another Rocky film. Get him to do Rocky in space. Alien versus Predator versus Rocky versus...
00:29:35
Speaker
See, you know when they did that? Terminator. Terminator. Oh, give him the Terminator. An alien. An alien. Give him the Terminator, Alien, Star Wars, Star Trek, James Bond. Yeah. Why not? He can do two movies a year. We went to school with him. And Avengers. What am I doing? Rock on.
00:29:49
Speaker
The league complete fourth season. This is the FX show about guys, men and their rotisserie football league. You know, this is obviously meant for, you know what, there's an interesting trend going on in sitcoms, which is sitcoms about men. There's actually a sitcom coming out, I think it's called We Are Men.
00:30:12
Speaker
And then there was the one that had the one sheet that was a ripoff of the hangover. I forgot the name of that show. That thing was on NBC. That thing flamed out. So suddenly it's like the moment of the men to have their own sitcoms. Maybe because they realize that sitcoms are probably seen a lot mostly by women. And they want to bring more men into the sitcom. Of course.
Unconventional Shows and Success
00:30:31
Speaker
They've already crunched those numbers. This has cult.
00:30:36
Speaker
show written all over it. I come from this rotisserie world, although I haven't been part of a rotisserie league for a long time, but I get it. These guys are lovable losers. They're always the butt of the joke, which is kind of fun. So there's some good stuff in it. And the good thing is that, the one thing I do like about the show is that it doesn't try to get too overly sitcom-y.
00:30:58
Speaker
You know, it sort of lets things, even those kind of crass, a lot of the jokes of crass, a bunch of bros talking about their genitals and whatever. Yeah. It's not all that like, which I kind of appreciate. But yeah, this thing has cult all over it. And the new season premieres in October on FX. It's always sunny in Philadelphia now and it's 7000 season.
00:31:17
Speaker
I've never enjoyed this show and I know it kind of got on the air in a fluke. They shot something on VHS and then transferred it to Beta and sent it to somebody via courier and somebody saw it and said, that's damn funny, let's make a show out of it.
00:31:32
Speaker
That's what it is, that's what happened. I actually went to a, I don't know why I went to this, I think I was bored, because I hadn't really seen the show at this time, but I went to a talk with the makers of the show, including some of these guys who starred in the original YouTube video, and they said that Danny DeVito did it because he wanted to. It wasn't like they got on TV because somebody knew Danny DeVito, Danny DeVito wasn't somebody's uncle. It was just, it either came to them, I forgot, either through their agency or whatever it was, and Danny just wanted to do it.
00:32:02
Speaker
Cause you know, I mean, Danny DeVito had not done a sitcom since...
00:32:07
Speaker
pretty much it's taxi. And here he is doing this show and he's stuck with it and the show is, moves along, people love it. Some networks are okay with small, rabid followings. I would prefer that Danny DeVito not do that show and go back to directing movies. Yes, I throw Mama from the Train. Like the Michael Douglas, War of the Roses. War of the Roses is hilarious. Oh my gosh, it's a great movie.
00:32:35
Speaker
Even producing, look, if it wasn't for him like, get shorty, because Jersey Films was, back in the day, a huge company doing great films.
00:32:44
Speaker
got three shows
Formulaic TV Shows: A Commentary
00:32:45
Speaker
here that are all about the people who take our tax dollars and uh... and and are paid with them uh... who get public pensions you know what if you really upset that rescue me the benefit of the uh... dennis larry uh... firefighter show that kind of was a big deal after nine eleven uh... that you know ended its decade long run and you think i got me some firefighter i gotta have some firefighter tv what am i going to do well you know what dick wolf to the rescue because dick wolf is given a season one chicago fire
00:33:10
Speaker
And it comes back on NBC momentarily, and you know what? Dammit, Dick Wolf, somehow you keep striking gold, because this is actually one of his better shows. Even though I am not sick of Law & Order, having seen every single episode 975,000 times, because that's what you do when your wife's pregnant,
00:33:29
Speaker
And you just sit around waiting and waiting and waiting every single day for the baby to come and you just watch whatever episode of Law and Order is on television at any given hour of the day because there are nine networks that are always showing Law and Order all day long every day.
00:33:45
Speaker
This is a part of marketing that I have not admitted and I just admitted it to you today. Yesterday, for the first time in my life, you're all going to be flabbergasted. I got a DVR. Never had a DVR. Well, it's not like you've ever needed one. So, I got a DVR. Of course, a DVR doesn't frickin' work. It's not recording shows and I don't know what I'm going to do now because it's a pain in the ass.
00:34:05
Speaker
But anyway, so I got the TV on for like two hours trying to figure this thing out, which I still have not figured out. And there's a law and order on, just on the random channel. There always is. Like I said, there's nine channels that are always showing law and order at a given time. I had never really seen a law and order. It's just not my thing. And it looks so formulaic. Like that, who's the guy Chris Knoth? Is that a Chris Knoth?
00:34:26
Speaker
Yeah, he's one of them. He's one of the 97 detectives on the show. He's at some furniture store, and he's looking at the hinge on the little drawer. That's what they do. Look, this is a Meridian 7 hinge. Excuse me, furniture lady. Who manufactures drawers with a Meridian 5,000 hinge? That's what they do. Oh, there's only three manufacturers in the greater New York area that manufacture with a Meridian 5,000 hinge. It's police work. And then he just goes off and does his thing. That's police work.
00:34:54
Speaker
It was like a close up of his little hand going over the hinge. Look, what is this hinge? It's a meridian hinge. This is why I always enjoyed the cop shows that we grew up with back in the day, and I'm going to say back in the day so I don't actually say the decade, but you know what I'm talking about. When Stars can hunch, you know how they did police work? They bust some chops.
00:35:12
Speaker
You know how Beretta would do police work? Well, he'd bust his wife's chops eventually, but he'd dress up like a woman and put a parrot on his shoulder and do all kinds of things. How'd Magnum do it? He'd call TC and they'd fly around in a chopper and he'd drive a Ferrari. Come on, screw the police work. Give me some fun stuff.
00:35:29
Speaker
Now they stare at hinges. That's what they do now. They stare at hinges. That's how they solve the crime. Anyway, speaking of, now that we've gone totally afield,
Parks and Recreation Highlights
00:35:35
Speaker
Chicago Fire, season one, good show. Let's see where it goes in subsequent seasons, not a lot here. There are some behind the scenes things and Otis' podcasts. And here's what I think is really cheesy. All of Universal's shows, their whole, you know what, Universal has a website for their shows now. You know what the website, you know what the URL is? It's like, come on, Universal, seriously, this is really, this is what you, who came up with this?
00:35:58
Speaker
GreatTVShows.com. But not just GreatTVShows, it's Great-TV-Shows.com. Worst URL ever. Get rid of that. Right now, I'm going to go to GreatTVShows.com. Okay, more public service people. Parks and Recreation Season 5.
00:36:13
Speaker
You know what, this show has never quite worked for me. I love everyone on this show, but it still just strikes me like all these pseudo-documentary format things that have all ripped off The Office, and that includes Modern Family, even though everybody loves it. It's still the same problem for me. I just still feel like this is that same deal. GreatTVShows.com is some URL where people squad or somebody's squatting, but Great-TV-Shows.com is universal.
00:36:41
Speaker
Yeah. So anyway, Parks and Recreation, Amy Poehler, always great. Everything else in the show, a little bit uneven. There is some great stuff with Patton Oswalt in this season. I mean, really just classic stuff. And tons and tons of deleted scenes and extras on this thing, hour and a half that you'll never get through. But the main
Blue Bloods Consistency
00:37:00
Speaker
reason for this is the Patton Oswalt filibuster episode. That is on this season, and it is the Citizen filibuster where he just ad-libs that whole Star Wars spiel. Fantastic.
00:37:10
Speaker
That's great TV, even if the rest of the season's a little uneven. And then, cops. We always gotta have a good cop show. Blue Blood's third season, speaking of Magnum PI. That damn Tom Selleck does not age. I just do not know what the deal is, but I love Donnie Wahlberg. I love Tom Selleck.
00:37:26
Speaker
The show is surprisingly decent. And, you know, third season in, I've seen enough episodes to kind of, you know, get the chemistry and the familial relationships and all that junk. And, you know what? It's pretty decent. It's a pretty decent show. So this is going to be around for a while. I have a feeling Tom Selleck just anchors these shows with a calm and a cool reserve. The guy is just, he's a pillar. He's just a freaking pillar.
00:37:58
Speaker
And then a couple more. I'm going to let Mark dwell on the show that he loves so much.
00:38:05
Speaker
But Spartacus,
Spartacus on Blu-ray
00:38:06
Speaker
War of the Damned, from Starz, they have kept this Spartacus train going for so long. Again, it's not my favorite show, but it is awfully well done. And it really is really well done. And when you see it on Blu-ray, it looks so much better than it does in broadcast on Starz. You can tell they really, really piled some money into this show.
00:38:28
Speaker
It's it still feels a little bit too much to me like you know 300 the TV series, but that being said There's some very good stuff in it and some great bonus features here excellent excellent featurettes that are like little mini documentaries they did more than EPK stuff and on the blu-ray version you get some really really good audio commentaries and Episodes that are longer than they normally are on stars, which is what we call an extended episode Last of television mark wrap us out
00:38:57
Speaker
Thank goodness. Wade, we have Haven. Haven is a sci-fi show which means that it is one of those weird Canadian-American co-productions that nobody understands and they seem like regular American shows but just a little more retarded.
00:39:14
Speaker
Like, they're almost like the slow-witted cousin of the smart guy. Yeah. That's what Canadian American shows are. Mm-hmm. But anyway, but Haven, if nothing else, it
Supernatural Themes in Haven
00:39:22
Speaker
is based on a Stephen King novel, which is cool. And of course, it's all about... Every Stephen King book is about strange events in a small town. I know. That's what he does. I know. Now here, the strange events in a small town is... It's in Maine.
00:39:37
Speaker
Okay. You know what? You know what? That's why Stephen King, Mark, looked me in the eyes, looked me in the eyes. Stephen King's my main man. You looked away. Wait, what does that mean? It's so said main. I'm just... Who are you? I don't know. Okay.
00:39:56
Speaker
Anyway, there's an FBI agent played by that pretty girl, Emily Rose. And she winds up in Maine and there's all sorts of supernatural stuff going on. She's got to figure it out. So, you know, I just don't understand. These shows seem like a dime a dozen and Haven is one of them. You know, you can always kind of tell which characters and which storylines have that sort of Stephen King creativity twist coolness to it. And then which one is like the writers who think they're Stephen King, but they're not trying to fill out a whole season.
00:40:25
Speaker
Bonus features include a documentary on the making of the show and some interviews and there you go. Yep. Not
Star Trek Blu-ray Release Issues
00:40:33
Speaker
a big fan of Haven. No. Alright Mark, we're going to talk about new movies now. I'm going to let you start the conversation. Now first of all, we're going to talk about Star Trek Into Darkness 3D, which we have in a Blu-ray, 3D, Blu-ray, DVD, digital copy, ultraviolet combo deal.
00:40:50
Speaker
everything is piled onto this. And you think, oh my gosh, it's great, I gotta go out and get it, I gotta go out and get it. It's got the Blu-ray 3D on one, and the regular Blu-ray on another, and the feature film on DVD on a third disc, and it's got all these great extras. Oh my gosh, what extras does it have? Well, they're totally copping to the con thing, so this is no longer a secret now. They assume the secret's out, so we can just declare to everybody that Benedict Cumberbatch plays con, even though there's nothing about him that looks anything remotely like Ricardo Montalban.
00:41:19
Speaker
Well, I don't think it's necessary for him to look like Ricardo Montalbano. I think that's optional. Yeah, but, you know, at least be the, you know, the whole point of... By the way, you know, people who love Benedict Cumberbatch, they have names now. Big fans of Benedict Cumberbatch. Cumberbitch. They call him Cumberbitches.
00:41:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. That's like a real thing. Well, first of all, let's just point out that he is going to be, this is his year, right? This is a big deal for him. I mean, the guy's been kind of on the cusp for a little while. Sherlock has had him in a good place. But between Star Trek and then end of the year, you know, he is in both 12 Years a Slave
00:41:54
Speaker
Which is getting just mind-boggling reaction out of Telluride and Toronto. It's just through the roof. Through the roof. People are nuts. I mean, this thing could walk away like everything. But there are a number of movies, but he's not only in that, he's in the other movie that people think could walk away with everything, which is The Fifth Estate. Which is not getting confused. Where he plays Julian Assange. Which, by the way, is not getting confused.
00:42:18
Speaker
Very good reviews out of Rotten Tomatoes. I saw some great ones. I saw some great ones. Yeah. Interesting. I think Rotten Tomatoes has like a 36% now. Well, because, you know, because WikiLeaks is controversial. So I think a lot of people are importing their WikiLeaks. You know, is it accurate? What's it doing? What's it not doing? It's not kind of condemning the people it should condemn and praising the people it should praise. It's like, you know, hey man, I trust Bill Condon. Anyway, Mark, your opinion of the movie?
00:42:51
Speaker
Here's the thing, I'm willing to go with what JJ's done with this universe. It doesn't have to be my Star Trek as long as it's a Star Trek I can enjoy. But the issue is always the same thing, which is that JJ is such a slave to his influences. And whether it's Super 8 or any or Cloverfield or anything else he's done, that now we have a movie where he is trying so hard to give fans who don't know the old con their version and give
00:43:11
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:43:20
Speaker
older folks, the old con and little wings and nods to the old movie, you're really trying to, you can't make a new movie by surreptitiously, cleverly copying the old movie. Either make a new movie or remake the old movie.
00:43:35
Speaker
Or when they were baiting everybody about what this was going to be. It was going to be something referential. I think a lot of people felt like, oh my gosh, they're going back to the original series. They're going to give us Gary Mitchell, right? I mean, you thought it was Gary Mitchell. A lot of people thought, oh, Gary Mitchell. Well, then when you're not going all the way back to something cool like that, and you're just kind of doing a quasi remake of the Wrath of Khan, that's like, oh, really? That's lame.
00:44:01
Speaker
That's the thing. You got expectations all hooked that they were going to do something really cool referential and they wound up doing something kind of meh referential.
00:44:09
Speaker
Yeah, and you know what, it's so exciting and it's so fast cut and moves so fast and it's so action-filled. It's almost like I need some character here too, don't forget. Yeah, and I will say it's a gorgeous Blu-ray and they really just did a beautiful, beautiful job with it. However, the extras, the featurettes on there, there's some controversy about this.
00:44:36
Speaker
And those who've been kind of following the, this was posted actually on the Facebook page as well. A guy at the Digital Bits was alerted to this fact by a lot of fans, a lot of readers, who pointed out that there are, you know, it's like, wait, where's the commentary by JJ? Did JJ not do a commentary? Oh, he did. He did do a commentary. But that commentary is only available like on the iTunes download.
00:44:58
Speaker
And then there are other featurettes that are more extensive documentaries that are only available with the Amazon exclusive and then others with the Best Buy. They took all of these extras and they split them up. So if you want to actually get all the added value material, you actually have to double dip this thing quintuple times.
00:45:15
Speaker
And you've got to go to the Amazon, and the Best Buy, and the Target version, and the iTunes download, and then you've got to buy the Blu-ray, Blu-ray, 3D, DVD, digital copy, ultraviolet combo, and then eventually, after you've spent $850,000, you've now got the movie five times, and you now have all the extras. That blows, man. That's really uncool. Why would Paramount do that?
00:45:36
Speaker
Well, I emailed our contact who handles all the Paramount stuff, and I said, I'm sure you're aware of this story. It's going a little bit viral. Would you mind seeing if you can get a statement from Paramount? That was a week and a half ago. Nothing. Because Paramount, much like Disney, they don't care what we think. Yeah. They all put stuff out in cardboard packaging and a broken spindle, and you got to live with it. Yeah. Well, as long as they make their money. There we go. So Star Wars.
New Sci-Fi Films
00:46:01
Speaker
Star Wars. So Star Trek and the darkness. What are we saying? We were saying that. You know what?
00:46:05
Speaker
It has great surface sheen, it's very exciting, lots of stuff going on, but ultimately it's such a slave to Star Trek II that either remake Star Trek II or make another movie because I just got, even as somebody who revered Star Trek II and saw it eight times when it came out and has seen that movie more times than anybody and got every single reference, even then I'm like, you know what, I'm not seeing this movie so that I can be tickled and pleased by your little references, I want to see a standalone movie.
00:46:32
Speaker
So distracting real quickly got three more space movies as long as we're on the Star Trek vibe three more space movies I'm gonna make quick mention of scavengers new from image straight to video thing about rival mercenary teams in space It's kind of doing the the alien thing It's taking most of its stylistic cues and its narrative cues from movies like alien and aliens and you can feel that and they yeah, it's not
00:46:55
Speaker
It's not big budget. It's kind of got, you know, like sci-fi, TV level production value. But you know what? It's surprisingly engaged. You've got some good people in here. Sean Patrick Flannery, who I always liked as an actor, and Jeremy London, whom I always liked as an actor. And I thought, I was like, oh, it's a pretty decent cast and they've grown up well, so not bad. Directed by a guy named Travis Zaremwini.
00:47:17
Speaker
And I gotta say, Travis, dude, you gotta, I don't know, change that name or make sure that you hit it so big that people know exactly how to pronounce it because I sure as hell don't. But anyway, good little sci-fi action there. And then Stranded is a low-budget sci-fi film with Christian Slater. This is straight-up alien rip-off in every conceivable way. It's about a U.S. moon base and... Moon base alpha?
00:47:42
Speaker
It's just a hint. No, not nearly that nice. Chris and Slater runs a moon base. There's like five people there. And there's Meteor Storm and then next thing you know, there's like an alien creature that's invading them and taking over one guy and doing nasty gross things. And it's just really, really weak. It's not like Moon, you know, the Sam Rockwell deal. It doesn't have that production value. It doesn't have that intensity or that kind of intellect. It is just a straight up rip off.
00:48:07
Speaker
of Alien, directed however by that mighty artist, Roger Christian. Roger Christian, you know, Roger Christian who directed Battlefield Earth? Battlefield Earth. Yeah. He's an outstanding cineast. He's an auteur. And then lastly from the Doomsday series is Delete with Seth Green in it. This is from Guy in Vivendi on Blu-ray.
00:48:34
Speaker
And it's trying to be kind of a cyber-era, paranoid, sci-fi thriller. And it tries to escalate Seth Green to the level of an action star. And no, this doesn't really work. It's kind of nuclear fear, cyber fear, cyberpunk. It doesn't make an awful lot of sense. But if you're a Seth Green fan, I guess you'll be totally into it. Also, no one shows up, and this thing is Matt Fruer. I haven't seen him forever.
00:49:02
Speaker
He was in Watchmen. Of course he was. He was. Like I remember that. He was. My fault he was in the Watchmen. The English teacher is on Blu-ray. This is with Julianne Moore, Greg Kinnear, Nathan Lane. And you know, it's one of those movies about, it's supposed to be, it's kind of cutesy. Julianne Moore plays this spinster teacher in a small town. She's an English teacher and one of her star pupils goes to New York to become a playwright, fails, and then returns to the small town.
00:49:31
Speaker
And
Indie Film Reviews
00:49:32
Speaker
it's a little bit, it's a little bit cutesy. It's kind of like, it's almost like watching Glee or something. It's one of those sorts of, the tone is kind of something like that. I mean, any Julianne Moore lead performance is a gift and that's great. But I kind of feel like this thing is just so thin. If you want to see a movie about a teacher, an oddball teacher in a small town, you really got to watch Wonder Boys with Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire.
00:50:01
Speaker
That's a terrific film. Curtis Hanson. I love that film. I don't love it as much as a lot of people, but it's a good film. It's just so terrific. I think the English teacher wanted to be something like Wonder Boys, but in the end, not going to happen. So there you go. A little too cutesy for me. Alright. We got a thing here that some of our listeners are really excited about Hammer of the Gods.
00:50:23
Speaker
which is from the magnet line of Magnolia, it's on Blu-ray. And this is just straight up, this is the new thing, right? It's all kind of the Game of Thrones-y, let's go to just medieval gore. It's a little bit like Vikings and Game of Thrones and all these shows have gotten everybody, Spartacus to some degree, they've all been, 300 certainly was one of the first to do it, but everybody's got all excited about just medieval hell.
00:50:47
Speaker
And this is a Viking thing. It takes place in the 9th century in Britain and stars Charlie Bewley as a Viking who is on a quest to recover his brother. And, you know, then just fill in lots of fighting and, and, and, fill in the words. That's how everybody talks in this movie.
00:51:11
Speaker
And yeah, lots of, lots of hammers and axes and swords and metal and just crunching thunderous, just unholy terror. Is it any good? I guess if you just like this kind of stuff, it's not really plot oriented. It's just, it's really about a lot of testosterone and blood. And you get it. But it is an awfully good looking Blu-ray. They really did a nice job. So bravo to the people at Magnolia, who really always do very nice Blu-ray work.
00:51:38
Speaker
Wait a couple quickies on the DVD is the overlooked interesting film called wish you were here with Joel Edgerton Teresa Palmer Yeah, and a bunch of people and stuff and junk. Yeah I Said stuff. Yes, you did Joel Edgerton, of course is from warrior and What's it called the box the square? Yeah square the box He's one of those Aussie finds that now is sort of like where the square or those Aussie finds kind of in mid-career now and his brother and his brother
00:52:08
Speaker
I don't know if I like all their choices, but I do like Wish You Were Here. This thing kind of went under the radar. It's about a couple. They go on a South Asian vacation, and somebody disappears, and you've got to figure out what happened. And it's a mystery, and it's a thriller, and it's character-based, so it's not just a bunch of cheap horror thrills. And this thing was good. I was really surprised. I did not expect much. Very taught.
00:52:30
Speaker
very well constructed, good performances by everybody. I liked it. And there's themes of guilt and doubt that they sort of are not afraid of because it'll be too smart and people won't be scared every single moment. Good stuff. Wish you were here. Also, Shadow Dancer. This is from James Marsh. Now James Marsh
00:52:51
Speaker
is the guy who directed the documentary Man on Wire. Now Wade, you love Man on Wire, right? I think Man on Wire is a great doc, I do. Well, you'd better, because if you didn't, I was going to- No, it's a terrific film. ... yell at you until you were blue in the face. Yeah. I don't know what that is. I know. Anyway,
00:53:08
Speaker
Angie Reisborough who's this English actress is kind of like up and coming. She is arrested She remember the IRA she's arrested in London and Clive Owen who has kind of fallen off the radar I think he kind of left America now it comes as these British thriller type movies. He plays an MI5 officer who gives her a choice Difficult choice regarding either going to prison or spying on her family and it's you get into that kind of stuff It's pretty good. I you know, I think that this stuff
00:53:38
Speaker
Probably could have been better directed by somebody who is more in tune with the beats of a thriller, you know. Marsh, I think, is a great documentarian, but I still think that he might have something to learn about constructing thriller material chase scenes.
00:53:56
Speaker
Tension narrative tension that kind of stuff. Yeah, but it's still pretty good. I mean it's really it's really a not a bad movie I'm just saying that I wish it was directed by somebody else who really could have taken the same material and put it over the top But it's really not bad shadow dancer so to overlook films you may want to check out shadow dancer and even more wish you were here
00:54:11
Speaker
A couple of films from... Wait, what are we doing here? How long is this show? This show's been like an hour and a half. We're not even doing an hour yet. What? No. You hate working with me. And I hate working with you, so meh. We've a couple of great films here from some wonderful female directors. One better than the other. But the one that I really like here is Love is All You Need, new Suzanne Bier film. You know, Suzanne Bier has had a really interesting career.
00:54:34
Speaker
tremendously successful Danish filmmaker. She made After the Wedding, which back in 2006 was an Oscar nominee. It was just
Female Directors' Film Themes
00:54:43
Speaker
grueling, gut-wrenching, emotional, just pummels you in the face. And then she made her American English language debut, Things We Lost in the Fire. Not so great, Halle Berry. It didn't really work.
00:54:55
Speaker
And then she went back and made, among other great films, she made In a Better World, which wound up winning best foreign language film finally for her 2010. Great movie. And here she is, she's taken her shot once again at kind of an English language American film. It's sort of, I don't want to say it's a Hollywood film, it's not really a Hollywood film.
00:55:18
Speaker
But it's got Pierce Brosnan, and that's worth something, right? And this is a total change for her. It is not gut-wrenching, intense horror, people are dying, families falling apart. It doesn't sock you in the gut emotionally. It's a romantic comedy.
00:55:33
Speaker
Pierce Brosnan and the Danish actress Trini Dearholm against a lovely Italian backdrop. It's just a wonderful old-fashioned, it's a little bit like what Ridley Scott thought he was making with that, what was the, thank you, what the hell are you doing with the microphone? The microphone got caught in my glasses. Because I'm not used to wearing glasses, so they sometimes have a mind of their own.
00:55:57
Speaker
Of course they do. The microphone got caught in my glasses. A likely story. A likely story. A dog eat my microphone. Anyway, it's a lovely romantic comedy. Really
Comedy Film Critiques
00:56:07
Speaker
fun. It's kind of what, again, what Ridley Scott thought he was doing with that Russell Crowe and the Marion Cotillard thing. Star Wars? No, what was that called? Another year, another season, some damn thing. Oh, the wine thing. Yeah, oh gosh. Wow, Ridley, you have a real light touch. Like an anvil.
00:56:24
Speaker
And then the other one here is Mira Nair, one of my favorite directors in the world. But she just keeps kind of missing the target with a lot of these things. And she did her Amelia Earhart thing. That didn't really get just, it's like, gosh, that could have been so good. And this is the reluctant fundamentalist. Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Leah Schreiber, and Kiefer Sutherland in a movie that should be super, super timely.
00:56:51
Speaker
And it kind of, it's about 65% there, you know. Mira never, she's just, I don't know if she's not getting the support or if the screenplays aren't quite there, but this just tries so much to wrap its arms around the post-9-11 world and, you know, terrorism and the role of Pakistan and the CIA and all of these things. And it really tries to just drill down into all this stuff.
00:57:19
Speaker
Somehow it all just gets convoluted with a little bit of kind of a soapy story. So, I mean, it's worth watching. I would say rent this one. It's worth watching on Blu-ray because Mira's films always have really, really good production value for very little money, but it just kind of misses the mark. My name's Mark.
00:57:37
Speaker
I know. And then a few things that they call comedies. I'm going to go through real quickly here that I don't think are comedies. People's from Tyler Perry. Not Tyler Perry as a director, just Tyler Perry Presents. This is written and directed by Tina Gordon Chisholm and it is just really kind of dumb.
00:57:55
Speaker
Kerry Washington, who we talked about earlier in Scandal, is lovely to look at. David Alan Greer has been funnier. And Craig Robinson, I still don't think, is all that funny. He just keeps doing the same shtick over and over and over and over again. You can get this Blu-ray and ultraviolet. And it's not worth either of them. And then there's a thing called Stag, which is exactly what you would imagine. It's like a really lowbrow version of that old movie Bachelor Party with Tom Hanks.
00:58:23
Speaker
kind of the same deal, except it's a little more raw and it's one of those things that Donald Faison keeps doing. He's doing lots of this straight-to-video stuff that just is not going to help his career very much. Desperate acts of magic, a little low-budget film, with people who can't act. I reviewed this for radio and this is being self-distributed by these people. I admire the hell out of them for actually getting this movie made, but it's just these people can't act.
00:58:50
Speaker
It's basically about a guy who wants to be a magician. He has a dream being a magician and he chases that dream and then there's a magician woman who's a bit of a con woman. They're on again, off again relationship and then this competition to be the great magician that he and the woman wind up in when they're on and off. It's just, oh my gosh, really being a magician is not that interesting. And if you had people who could act, it might be a little more interesting.
00:59:14
Speaker
It's an admirable independent film that they actually got this thing made, but you know what? Just having people who can do magic doesn't make a movie. You've got to actually have people who can act. That's better magic. And then here is a movie, unrated edition of Porn Shoot Massacre. What do I really need to say anymore?
00:59:34
Speaker
Let me read you the tagline on the back. Seven unlucky adult film stars are about to switch genres from porn to gore. Will any of them make it out alive? Do I even need to give you a plot on what this thing's about? It's so bad. It's really bad and it's really funny. If you have a guilty pleasure, if you're yearning for a guilty pleasure, that might be a good one.
00:59:53
Speaker
Next week, a dramatic reading of the script. I don't know if we're going to end on this. I hope we do, because I'm hungry.
Christian Film Review
01:00:00
Speaker
Anyway, online is one of those Christian-based stories that gets thumbs up from the Dove Foundation. It's about this guy, happily married, and he logs on to Facebook or some social networking site.
01:00:14
Speaker
And he winds up rekindling a relationship with a past romance. So it becomes he's tempted. He's not really married, but he's tempted by this past romance. And of course, he turns to God to help him decide what to do. And of course, God tells him to dump his wife and kill her.
01:00:29
Speaker
and then have a dirty, filthy sex with the past flame. It's amazing. It's an unbelievable story. It's not the way you thought it was going to go. You see, you thought that in a Christian-based film signed off on by the Dove Foundation that the guy would eventually turn to God. God would tell him,
01:00:45
Speaker
You need to covet your wife and need to forget this past relationship. Not true. God tells him to kill the wife and run away with the past relationship. It's a really interesting movie. I really think that it's incredible how that happened. The Tom
Horror Collection on Blu-ray
01:01:00
Speaker
Foundation, they gave their seal of approval to the porn shoot massacre as well. They did. So clearly they're being a lot more progressive in their thinking these days. I'm all turned around about the adult fantasy. I know, right? Just when you think
01:01:13
Speaker
They turn around and surprise you. Here's what we're going to end on, Mark. We've got a couple of movies. One is a box set. A couple of things. We're going to talk more about the one box set, obviously, when the holiday show rolls around, because this is going to be prime there. Good holiday viewing. The complete Blu-ray collection of Friday the 13th. Yeah, baby. 12 films of terror. That's right. So you get all 12.
01:01:37
Speaker
And when I say all 12, I mean all 12 of the Friday the 13th movies. Can you believe it? Gosh. I mean, it includes even the new Friday the 13th, by the way. The 2009 one is included. Freddy versus Jason. Jason X. Jason goes to hell the final Friday. Friday the 13th, Part 8. Jason takes Manhattan. The New Blood. Which, by the way, the New Blood. You know what? Corey Feldman. Could we just talk for a second about Corey Feldman?
01:02:05
Speaker
If you like. Because remember Corey Feldman was in, what was it, was it in part six? Jason Lives or New Beginning? Maybe it's the New Beginning. Final chapter, New Beginning. It's one of those. He's in one of those where he becomes like the new Jason or whatever at the end. He shaves his head. Did you read the thing that I posted about his frickin' lingerie party? I did not. Oh my gosh.
01:02:25
Speaker
it truly are a he he had a lingerie party invited a journalist for one of these online rags and uh... the guy shows up and writes it doesn't write up which he didn't like and then it explodes into the cyber war and it is flame war through twitter and i think the writer you gave me sense of press release and i get a press release about i will not be cyber bullied by kori feldman strangest press release i've ever gotten
01:02:48
Speaker
Utterly bizarre. He wants his moment in the sun. He's trying to milk it. Really sad. Anyway. So, uh, Friday the 13th. Complete collection. 12 films on Blu-ray. Every film that has ever had, uh, that has ever had Jason Borhees in it. And, uh,
01:03:05
Speaker
It's kind of an achievement because they had to get multiple studios working together on this, namely Paramount and Warner Brothers via New Line. And there were a lot of strings to pull clearly as far as rights and who gets what participation. But son of a gun, they did it. They pulled it off. So the complete Blu-ray collection of every single Friday the 13th movie ever, you will have a wonderful holiday marathon with that thing. We will cover that more a little bit in
Classic Spy Film Re-release
01:03:30
Speaker
depth when the gift guide show comes around.
01:03:33
Speaker
And then lastly, criterion can't be a great week without a great criterion from 1965. The wonderful, fantastic, the spy who came in from the cold.
01:03:43
Speaker
This may be the best spy movie ever made, just because it is so psychological. It's based on a John Liqueret novel, and it is a really, really great film. Maybe the most unusual film that Martin Ritt ever directed. Martin Ritt, of course, was basically known for doing kind of, you know, very earthy, rural American stories and... Norma Ray. Norma Ray and, you know... Murphy's romance with... Murphy's romance.
01:04:08
Speaker
HUD with Paul Newman. That's what he did. But this is a really unconventional film for him. You gotta really give him props. He just went off on a totally different direction and he nailed it.
01:04:26
Speaker
Really a fascinating film, very much of its era, very much a Cold War story, but it is really, really beautifully done. Magnificent black and white photography and just riveting, riveting performance from Richard Burton and great supporting performances from Claire Bloom and Oscar Werner, really good stuff. A lot of fantastic extras here. There's a scene by scene kind of intermittent commentary with director of photography, Oswald Morris, one of the all-time greats.
01:04:54
Speaker
And then a 2000 BBC documentary on John Lakeré called The Secret Center, as well as a fascinating interview with Richard Burton from 1967 on the BBC show Acting in the 60s. Just great stuff all the way through. So you can't miss this, the spy who came in from the cold, first rate. So with that, we're wrapping up the show.
01:05:20
Speaker
has gone away. He's gone away to eat a scone. Do we have an outro that you wanted to try? I didn't know I was vice president of outros. Well, I don't know. Give me an outro. Give me something. Hang on. I'm going to give you something. You ready? Here it is. The outro this week is going to be a little thing we like to call this coming to us from Joseph R. Thornton. Ladies and gentlemen, here's cooking at you, kid.
01:06:18
Speaker
you