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DigiGods Episode 263: Welcome Back, Prince
302 Plays5 months ago
It’s a 4k bonanza with Purple Rain, Team America, UHF, The Karate Kid, Godzilla X Kong and more! And did we say that the original TV Flash, starring John Wesley Shipp was on Blu-ray? Also, Oscar-winning American Fiction and… Welcome Back Kotter! #4k #UHD #DVD #Bluray #4k #TV #Movies
In this episode, the Gods discuss:
* Abigail (Blu-ray)
* All That Breathes (Blu-ray)
* American Fiction (Blu-ray)
* American Gigolo [Limited Edition] (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* American Hustle 10th Anniversary 4k Stelbook (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* The American Society of Magical Negroes (Blu-ray)
* Anatomy of a Fall (Blu-ray)
* Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* Ancient Empires (DVD)
* Angel Has Fallen - Steelbook (Blu-ray)
* Arthur the King (Blu-ray)
* Bandits of Orgosolo (Blu-ray)
* Basket Case [Limited Edition] (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* Blue Velvet (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* Bound (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* The Boy and the Heron (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* The Boys in the Boat (Blu-ray)
* Cemetery Man (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* Child's Play (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* Crimson Peak [Limited Edition] (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* Danza Macabra: Volume 3 - The Spanish Gothic Collection (Blu-ray)
* Dark Water - Limited Edition (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* Dexter's Laboratory: The Complete Series (DVD)
* Directed by... John Farrow (Blu-ray)
* DogMan (Blu-ray)
* Doom Patrol: The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
* Drive-away Dolls (Blu-ray)
* Escape Plan Trilogy (Blu-ray)
* Extreme Ghostbusters: The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
* Fairly Odd Parents - Season 8 (DVD)
* Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* The Flash - The Original Series (Blu-ray)
* Frasier (2023) Season One (DVD)
* The Game of Clones: Bruceploitation Collection, Vol. 1 (Blu-ray)
* George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead - Steelbook (Blu-ray)
* Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* Girlfight (Blu-ray)
* Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* The Guyver (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* Hatchet: The Complete Collection - Limited Edition Steelbook (Blu-ray)
* Icons Unearthed: The Simpsons (Blu-ray)
* Imaginary (Blu-ray)
* Immaculate (Blu-ray)
* Kamen Rider Geats - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
* The Karate Kid 40th Anniversary UHD 4k (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* Kung Fu Panda 4 (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* Lawman: Bass Reeves (Blu-ray)
* Madame Webb (Blu-ray)
* Manifest - Season 4 (Blu-ray)
* Manifest: The Complete Series (DVD)
* The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* Monkey Man (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* Mute Witness [Limited Edition] (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* Narc [Limited Edition] (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* NCIS: Sydney - Season One (DVD)
* Ordinary Angels (Blu-ray)
* Orlando, My Political Biography (Blu-ray)
* Peeping Tom (Blu-ray)
* The Powerpuff Girls - The Complete Series (DVD)
* Purple Rain (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* Querelle (Blu-ray)
* Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (Blu-ray)
* Shinobi (2-Disc Limited Edition) (Blu-ray)
* Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes (BBC Series) (Blu-ray)
* South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut - 25th Anniversary 4k UHD (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* South Park: Joining the Panderverse (Blu-ray)
* Sympathy for the Underdog (Blu-ray)
* Team America: World Police - 20th Anniversary 4k UHD (4k UHD Blu-ray
* Three Revolutionary Films by Ousmane Sembene (Emitaï, Xala, Ceddo) (Blu-ray)
* True Detective: Night Country (Blu-ray)
* UHF (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* The Underground Railroad (Blu-ray)
* Victims of Sin (4k UHD Blu-ray)
* Welcome Back, Kotter: The Complete Series (DVD)
Please also visit www.Cinegods.com and Substack.HollywoodHeretic.com.
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Transcript
Somber Beginnings: Assassination Attempt and Celebrity Deaths
00:00:26
Speaker
So this is one of those shows which we we begin on a somber note. We are we are recording this not quite 24 hours after the assassination attempt on the life of but Donald Trump. And Dave had already had three celebrity deaths, one of which we only further found out about this morning. so it's ah it's It's a pretty dismal moment, but we're gonna we're going to do our best to to elevate it. We're going to start low. and found here you know we've We've had shows where we come along go, wow, thank goodness somebody died.
Celebrating Celebrities: Media Moments and Contributions
00:01:02
Speaker
So here's our here is our obit list from since we did our last show.
00:01:07
Speaker
Dabney Coleman, e Fred Roos, producer, godfather, ah Morgan Spurlock, documentarian, supersized me, Willie Mays, Jerry West. I know we're getting get into athletes here, but- Yeah, all of these all of these people had moments in the media where we got to that was a great cartoon. Anyway, go ahead. Yeah, I mean, Willie Mays was on Bewitched, you know, playing himself. yeah Donald Sutherland, one of the great Canadian actors of all time. Don't call him American. He was Canadian and proud of it. Anouk A. May, one of the great French actors of all time, a man and a woman and so many other wonder, La Dolce Vita. I mean, she she holds down La Dolce Vita. She is the the real woman in that movie. Martin Mall, one of the great all time comedic geniuses of television.
Anecdotes: Robert Towne and Hollywood Tales
00:01:54
Speaker
Robert Town, Chinatown. how can you get We had some interesting conversations about you, you all you are and our buddy wait Ray Greenham. It's interesting conversations about Robert Towne. Met him a few times out there. I interviewed him in his living room. and he He did his level best to convince me that that Billy Crudup was the best the prefontaine, better than than Gerald. It was the funniest funniest thing ever. I sat there i sat it for an hour and a half in his living room.
00:02:21
Speaker
um John Landau, ah cameron James Cameron's producer, you know ah taken from us ah prematurely by cancer. Shelley Duvall just a few years a few days ago, yeah so beloved in so many great Altman films and of course, The Shining.
Remembering the Departed: Celebrity Deaths and Movie Season
00:02:37
Speaker
shiine you know and that the The ultimate final girl of any horror movie in The Shining. ah And then yesterday we started with Richard Simmons, then we went to, or we started with Dr. Ruth Westheimer, then we went dr ruth Then we went to Richard Simmons and then this morning we found out that Shannon Doherty also. shannon doty done yeah So, ah man, this is people in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. We had just covered all these generations. It's been a rough few weeks and, um you know, I, boy, but but the summer movie season is
00:03:13
Speaker
interesting.
Industry Changes: Sales and Streaming Strategy
00:03:14
Speaker
We've had ah not only movies that they claim have tanked, which I don't think the fall guy did so poorly. I honestly don't think Fiosa did so poorly. They didn't do as well as expected, but I think in the long run they'll do fine. But we also just saw Paramount Pictures sold to Skydance, David Ellison's company, which I predicted would still happen. But, you know, Did that almost happen and then it didn't and then it did again? Yes. And then the Criterion Collection was sold to Steve Rails, the producer who behind Indian Paintbrush, who's been behind so many great ah Wes Anderson movies. And I think that's kind of how it happened because Wes Anderson loves the Criterion Collection. I suspect he probably put a call in to Steve Rails and said, would you buy a Criterion? And Rails is massively wealthy. So, you know, the value of Criterion is like pocket change for him, but still I had talked to the people at Criterion some years ago, and they told me straight up, we're not for sale. We are not for sale. So it's a very interesting time. They've always been looking, they've out they've always been looking for a way, though, to really monetize that collection, and they never really, really found it. Not not and not a way to maximize the monetization of that collection. Correct. And, you know, eventually, it's like, okay, you know, this is a great collection, but it's got to generate some dough, you know what I mean? yeah
00:04:35
Speaker
Did they was
Streaming Challenges: Profitability and Content Costs
00:04:36
Speaker
associated with Hulu many years ago? You did all the criteria with your chunks that were there and and that didn't sort of work out and then the criterion channel, of course, you know, and so, you know, and and and to be honest with you, I think I love it. You know, I love it. But yeah are there enough subscribers just like for anything else? Paramount Plus, Apple Plus. its got million yeah Are there enough subscribers? to sustain a criterion channel? I mean, really? So so that's the that's an interesting question. It's one we don't really have an answer to. um you know they They had some layoffs, pretty substantial layoffs a few months ago to sort of get themselves ah oriented for this new moment. And then criterion stuff started appearing on VOD and on digital download. You can buy criterion movies for digital download. You don't have to get them on disk anymore. So you can have an all digital criterion collection.
00:05:23
Speaker
ah So, I mean, clearly they're looking to boost their revenue stream based on the way that consumers are changing their
Consumer Frustrations: Ad-Supported Streaming Models
00:05:29
Speaker
behaviors. I think the the big driver here is, and oh, and by the way, just going to plug ourselves, go to cinegods.com for ah for other reviews and whatnot. Listen to Tim and to me on l LAist, which is scpr dot.org, or just go. That's it. If you gather that film dial. And go check out my new sub stack at hollywoodheratic.substack dot.com. I'm doing podcasty interviews there and I've got one up with um John Fithian, former CEO of the National Association of Theater Owners and his two ah colleagues in his new business endeavor. It's a very interesting hour long conversation. So you can see that at the Cine Gods YouTube channel as well.
Fragmented Streaming: The Case for Bundling
00:06:16
Speaker
So here's what I think is going on.
00:06:19
Speaker
um Everybody thought streaming would be the the big the big holy grail and nobody stopped to think about what the what the monetary calculation was for consumers. Because consumers were for a long time fine with the idea that I pay this 50, 60, 70, 80 bucks, maybe over 100 bucks if I want to really, really elite you know set up with a lot of pay channels and I get i get a cable package. And I've got you know hundreds and hundreds of cable channels and all this crap going all day long that i that I'm never probably going to watch, but at least it's available to me. And I don't feel and i don't feel that I'm getting cheated because I'm at least watching a few channels.
00:07:00
Speaker
So, I look at the price that I'm paying and the price that I'm paying, it pays for whatever it is that I'm watching. So, if I'm all watching you know ah CNN and and NBC and you know the shopping network, then that as long as that price is okay for those, that's fine. If somebody else wants to watch you know ah Fox Business and The Learning Channel, and I can't imagine anybody who would combine some of these things but just bear with me and ESPN well then that's your that's your that's your package and what happened was then everything fragmented with cord cutting people are paying 40 50 bucks for their internet access to start yep then they're paying and more like 80 now but yeah 80 and then you're and then you add on about another 50 or 60 for your your bundle for cord cutting and then we haven't even started to touch netflix and max and disney plus and peacock and paramount plus and all all of whom have raised their prices to one extent or another that's it And then you're like, well, what's left for for Criterion Channel and and for Film Movement
Managing Costs: Streaming Subscriptions and Consumer Behavior
00:08:14
Speaker
Plus and for the Cohen Channel and for Haya? Crunchyroll, you start getting down there and now you understand why it is the Tubi, which is ad supported, and Pluto, which is ad supported, are the ones that people default to because it's like, you know, I paid already, I gave already.
00:08:34
Speaker
And and it's that this new model was supposed to be cheaper for consumers and give them more choices instead of costing them three times as much and giving them less. And I think people are bitter when they talk to their friends and their friends will say, oh, did you see the offer? ah No. What's that on? Paramount Plus. Oh, I don't get Paramount Plus. Did you see, yeah yeah did did you did you watch Stranger Things? What's that on? Oh, it's on Netflix. Oh, I don't get, now I give up on Netflix. Oh, well what did did you see the Acolyte? Well, what's that on? Oh, Disney Plus. No, I don't i don't get Disney Plus. Right? and and And so now and we don't have a common we don't have a common cultural experience anymore. no You have to find the person who lives with your network. And I think they're all realizing that that maybe the old model is better. And that's why we're starting to see bundling. And eventually, I think Max and Peacock and and Paramount Plus are going to have to bundle. Those three are going to have to put in together so that you have all your sports covered and you have two networks covered and it would be nice if Disney Plus decided to throw in so you throw the all three networks in together now, right?
00:09:40
Speaker
And so now you're going to be able to get HBO and Showtime and CBS, NBC, ABC, and four major studios worth of, five major studios, if you include 20th, so five major studios worth of library, right? Disney, 20th Paramount, Universal, and Warner Brothers. And that's kind of the big deal if you can get those those four companies to agree to bundle then the only one left is sony and sony doesn't actually have a streaming presence they have a deal with netflix so um you know we're we're we're getting back to sort of bundling and i feel like that's almost where we ought to be.
00:10:19
Speaker
but they're going to have to figure this out in the next three to four years because they're all still losing. I mean, everyone is celebrating, yay, we only had a $1.2 billion dollars loss last quarter, which is, you know, ah cut our cut our loss in half. Well, you're still losing billions. You're still losing money on streaming. You didn't, you know, i so they got to figure it out. They got to figure it out. And the thing of it is that what they you would what what what they cannot balance it on are the backs of the consumer no ah the the consumer.
Media Consumption: Evolving Experiences
00:10:47
Speaker
The consumer only has so much money. I mean wages have have gone up. relatively blah blah bla ah and and a A lot of it for the consumer is psychological. that's true my wage my my My wages have gone up. i i but
00:11:00
Speaker
I do not want to spend x number of dollars on either yeah yeah yeah frankly ah yeah individual streaming services or a bundle or ah the cord i have a number above which i am not willing to pay for. yeah and And i can't i can't even tell you what the number is i can only tell you that i can i know when i'm at it and because i started cancer things it's really my but it's it's it's it's and i do i think everybody has it everybody really talks about all do you think um i think i might cancel i think i might do it but i haven't been there's a moment when you actually do it.
00:11:34
Speaker
When you actually say, you know what? I really don't watch anything on Paramount+. plus You actually take the time to punch through all the crap that you got to do to cancel a thing yeah and cancel it. and And if you get me there, ah then you've lost me because I just took 35 minutes to figure out a way to cancel you and everybody has that spot. I know people who cancel and re-up with Netflix every time there's a new Stranger Things season because that is all they want to watch. And in their mind, if all I want to watch is Stranger Things, then I'm only going to pay for Stranger Things for that one month fee to watch the whole thing, right? So in their mind, it's like, all right, I'm paying $15 for Stranger Things. It's like a movie admission.
00:12:26
Speaker
like yeah and And they're willing to let it stack. That's it. They're they're willing to let, they know strange things that started dropping to Howard many X weeks ago. yeah And they will wait, i yeah I know that this is true because I've done this, and and wait until that last one drops. Go ahead and pay that $7.99 or if they're real, and for me it was ah Discovery, the the Star Trek series over on Spotify Plus. yeah And I go and I do one of those Paramount Plus for for ah for a month for free thing. yeah And I joined Paramount Plus and I watch all the Discovery and whatever other craft that I might watch cause I'm over there. And in about three days before it ends, I said, Alexa, they tell me cancel your Paramount Plus subscription. And then, and this is the, in you know, going back to what I said, this is the important part. And then I actually go do it. yeah I actually go and cancel the Paramount Plus subscription. And then brother, I will do that forever and I can't be the only one, as you said.
Flops vs Hits: Film Industry Expectations
00:13:21
Speaker
They're finding out that a lot of people do that.
00:13:24
Speaker
A lot of people do that. and so If that's your if that's your your vibe, then you're you're going to you know do better if you can put a bunch of these networks together, a bunch of these streamers together, and convince people ah that this is the you know yeah you'll you'll stick with it longer because, yeah, there's time between the two stranger things, but then I might want to start your discovery. Right? So that's that's how these – I don't know, but it's still – look, it's a paradigm shift for sure. We we talk a lot, go back and forth, um ah you know, and in in in our various different circles about ah the future of all of this sort of media consumption and and and and what does it mean to Hollywood ah writ large, particularly in terms of theatrical presentation, you know, yeah the big movie screens that you that you and I grew up going watching going up. And, of course, you and I have been through it. We are we are in that interesting moment in history where we were born into a media world that consisted of television, and television was relatively speaking new, particularly with me, you know, but there it was, and movies were there, and people were worried about about television killing movies as they had been worried about movies killing the radio. and so on and so forth, but all of it kept rolling, all of it kept rolling. So I think that you and I are two people who say that no, nothing's gonna kill anything. yeah Nothing ever kills anything. yeah The landscape gets reshaped. Sure, that's true, but nothing ever kills anything. Movies, the theatrical movie experience is alive and more well. yeah yeah And you're right, it is interesting what we call a flop and what we call a hit. yeah um um it Because now it seems to me flop
00:15:10
Speaker
is strictly associated with whether or not a film does um ah projected numbers on the weekend that it opens. And anything outside of that is a flop. It doesn't make any difference whether or not that movie goes on to linger in theaters for 13 weeks and creep over $500 million dollars if it didn't make that projected $150 million dollars on weekend one or whatever the number is. yeah It's a flaw. But then, you know, you wait eight weeks, 10 weeks, 13 weeks, and you go look at those numbers, and there that movie is, you know, with $300 million in the, you know, you were worth of accumulated box office. And it still has a whole big ol' life to live in every other venue that movies, yeah you know, have their lives. And and and by ah kind the time all is said and done, it's made four times and its, um ah p and a you know, yeah yeah production costs and P and&A.
00:16:05
Speaker
yeah Which is all any movie is ever trying to do anyway. It used to be three times, now it's four times. yeah do your yeah Production costs and P&A. That's all any movie is ever trying to do. And the, the range of time that it takes the film to do that, um, I don't, I don't really see, I mean, I know why that matters in some, in to to in in Hollywood brain terms, yeah but I do not understand why it matters in real terms, in real terms.
Media Future: Optimism for the 2030s
00:16:32
Speaker
You didn't make it all this weekend. It took you eight weeks. What do the hell cares? Well, it's, uh,
00:16:42
Speaker
we're we live We're living in weird times, man. but It's in every possible way. in every possible way it's ah It's going to be an interesting decade to see how it all shakes out. I've said for a long time, the 2030s are going to be amazing. I don't know how, I don't know why, but I just feel like whatever, we're going to work it out by then. I feel like the the world has to, figure we ah we just always do. Human beings always figure this stuff out. So whatever we've got to do to figure it all out, we're going to figure it out by 2030.
Film Reviews: Horror and the Genre's Evolution
00:17:09
Speaker
We'll get there. Let me, let me be the ridiculous optimist here. I am having a fabulous time. just he personally just tim Over here in Tim World, everything's fabulous. and so so So, you know, I don't know if you're having a you had tough time out of there, just, you know, dip in over here. Everything's great. And, and and yeah you know, I mean, I can see it. I see all the stuff that's going on out there, but hello, around over here. Everything's pretty cool. I even saw a couple of good movies since we got on the radio. What'd you see? What'd you see? I saw your rundown and I was like, oh my gosh, it looks depressing. So tell me something good.
00:17:40
Speaker
That Nick Cage horror movie that's part Silence of the Lambs, part part you know any given episode of The Egg of Miles, and and and in in part ah rosemary but Rosemary's Baby is is very effective. Well done. that's ah That Oz Perkins, Tony Perkins kid. You know, yeah yeah you got him and a couple of these horror kids that are around, you're actually making some pretty good, very effective movies. They're all callback, to ah t what's his name, T-West, I-West. Yeah, T-West. Yeah, I got, you know, with with ah with with stuff he's been doing. They're all these sort of callback movies of the 70s and 80s and whatever. ah But nevertheless, they're very effective and for folks who are into that genre, those movies you're out there and they're good movies being made well. I saw this
00:18:20
Speaker
beautiful beautiful, uh, uh, Icelandic, ah British, uh, Japanese film by Baltazar, whatever his name of the mcor cormo one hu touch how is, it touch how is it beautiful way really really really wonderful um and you know i either i dig him but you know i go with him way back i think i interviewed from for one on one rikaekck way back in two thousand and ninety nine whenever that neat little movie yeah ice atlanticic movie came out and he's done all kinds of stuff i think he did two guns with the uh, the guy named He did, he did, which which our friend Brandt, you know, who who directed our short, Brandt was a producer on that, yeah. Yeah, and then and and and so he has this lovely movie that I think is just gonna really, really break some hearts when we creep over into the awards season as we're as we're about to. And, you know, in all of these movies, all of these movies are um wonderful. so so So we got that going on there. And then we'll have to, look, we're gonna have to wait and see
00:19:16
Speaker
About the big yeah inside out to make plenty of money bad boys made plenty of money to speak with me for me plenty of money i don't think any of you got the idea you know i don't know that's that that to me is a perfectly Reasonable Summer, ah we'll see what happens with ah Suicide Boy and Wolverine, whatever that is, you know, um yeah yeah the the Wolverine movie with Deadpool. You know, yeah I'm kind of over all of that, but in my bones, I'm kind of thinking that movie's gonna do all right. I think it's gonna do great because they didn't push it. They didn't push so much Marvel on us, so everybody, absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? So we're we're all kind of, all right, like it looking forward to it, yeah.
00:20:00
Speaker
Yeah, and and and they are both characters that are individually loved. I love Wolverine and, that frankly, with, you know, post-Logan, which don't really mind seeing a Wolverine movie. A Wolverine movie. Yeah. Love that character. And, and you know, and Ryan as Deadpool, those are always fun. Yeah.
Collector's Paradise: Boxed Sets and Nostalgia
00:20:15
Speaker
ah So, I don't feel like I'm even in a big old Marvel Universe movie with with with this, you know, with all of this sort of canon that we have to account for. Yeah. we we We just do, we just hang out with these guys, these characters we like. And, you know, to the extent that it's Marvel stuff, who cares? Yeah, I agree. There we are. I agree. I agree. All right. Well, let's let's get into covering a few things. um let me Let me knock out just a few of these ah kind of box sets and other things. First, Severn has a lot of really great stuff out right now. Severn, of course, is traditionally kind of a cult label.
00:20:52
Speaker
but they've been putting out some major box sets. This one I just think is so great. ah The Game of Clones Bruceploitation Collection Volume 1. And I love the sticker on it too. It's the, which I've saved. Impossibly limited bonus disc version. Impossibly limited. ah Anyway, this is, so if you don't understand what Bruceploitation is, when Bruce Lee died, Suddenly there were there was this explosion of actors in Hong Kong and all across Southeast Asia in movies whose names was either Lee or Bruce. It was Bruce Lai, Bruce Lowe, Bruce Kwon, Bruce, it was Bruce everything. And it was like, Dragon Lee, it was, you know, a Viper Lee. it was It was lots of Lees and lots of Bruces. It was it was just shameless. It was shameless, but it was flattering at the same time. So they they are going to do a whole, and I mean there must be a hundred of these movies. So there's going to be plenty to do. I mean, they can probably come out with 15, 16 different volumes of this. So ah they have got Bruce Lee, Bruce Love, Dragon Lee, Bruce Leung. All of these guys are are are in these various movies. Some of them are pretty good. A lot of them are really cheesy.
00:22:05
Speaker
Yes, they dress like Bruce Lee. They're doing the thing with the thumb on the nose like Bruce Lee. They're using nunchucks and wearing all the same clothes. I mean, they're obviously all trying to imitate Bruce in some way and capitalize on what he did. But it's kind of fun to watch all this stuff, like the big boss part. two is one of these movies. Well, it has nothing to do with The Big Boss, but why not borrow the title as well? So ah if you if you really kind of want to get nostalgic about that, it's great. It comes with a booklet. It's a wonderful, beautiful box set. ah Absolutely highly recommended. I also think volume three of Danza Macabre is pretty great too. if you If you follow the first two volumes of these, um this is all ah you know Gothic horror, Spanish style.
00:22:49
Speaker
And they've got four new brand new classics in this one. um ah ne nero Necrophagus. I i've practiced that before the show. Necrophagus. I can never get that out. a cake of blood, cross of the devil, and the night of the walking dead. All a little bit cheesy, but um you know all made during that kind of giallo period in Italy when they were doing something a little bit similar in Spain. and You know, like Cross of the Devil is is not entirely terrible. um So they all have kind of this ah there's a really garish look and there's some there's some really interesting stuff in here too. And there's a ton of special features, eight hours of special features. And they've done really good transfers. They've really been very attentive. They haven't gone and dug up like grind house prints that look all scratched and disgusting and lame.
00:23:41
Speaker
And then also from Severn, a couple of Sherlock Holmes titles um with great actors, all kind of ah hammer adjacent. So one is Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace, directed by Terrence Fisher, starring Christopher Lee as Sherlock Holmes, who makes it, he cuts a pretty darn good Sherlock Holmes. ah And this is a fun movie. It's it's brisk and quick and smart and hit you know they previously had hounded the basketballs together so turns fissure and christopher lee are going through the motions again uh sherlock holmes and what's interesting to me on this is they they but they re-scanned this negative from the german negative they went and got a and print from germany or a negative from germany and scanned it
00:24:22
Speaker
And then we finally have the Peter Cushing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes series from the BBC. This is Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Stock as Dr. Watson. The original series aired on BBC in 1968 and it's pretty great. It's got the BBC countdown clock on them and there's a great interview here with David Stewart Davies interviewing Peter Cushing. and audio commentaries for every single episode. So it's really, really fun. ah You learn a lot. They got some people who've written books on Sherlock Holmes to do these. And, you know, so this is all kind of hammer adjacent, but it's all very, very Sherlock Holmes and really, really fun.
New Releases: Steelbooks and Stallone Stories
00:25:05
Speaker
And then lastly,
00:25:08
Speaker
directed by John Farrow, which is a boxed set as part of the Impulse line. This is from, I'm sorry, Imprint line from VIA Vision in Australia. And this is an import, but, you know, VIA Vision with the Imprint line does a great, great job. They they they dig up films that nobody else will do. And ah John Farrow, of course, is Mia Farrow's dad, who was a really workman-like director in the 30s and primarily in the 40s and yeah made- Yeah, an Australian guy. It made a couple dozen films, and they've got six of them here. ah One is a documentary about him, John Farrow's Hollywood Man in the Shadows, and then the other five films are, actually this it's the six, it's a double feature here, The Hitler Gang, along with Commando Strike at Dawn, but it's the extra one. Commando Strike at Dawn is the main film. Night has a Thousand Eyes, Submarine Command, and Botany Bay, not Botany Bay from Star Trek with Ricardo Montalban. This is like and the movie Botany Bay from 1953.
00:26:07
Speaker
So these are all 40s and 50s, none of his stuff from the 30s unfortunately for a reason I'll explain in a moment. But yes, John Farrell was Australian born, Mia Farrell's dad was an Aussie, but had a really good solid career in Hollywood, a bit of a controversial figure, but nonetheless He he was a workman like director. My father knew him from from when they worked from them they worked at at at Warner Brothers. And I never really quite knew what the connection was. you know My father was not exactly a fan. I should point that out. He observed observed certain behaviors that he didn't necessarily prove up, which explains a lot with Mia. But nonetheless, nonetheless you know I was always like, gosh, I wonder how my father actually, i mean you know did he just bump into each other in the lot? And then I found out what it was.
00:26:52
Speaker
John Farrow. Here, I'm gonna i'm go to pull up the details so that I don't get it wrong here. So John Farrow made a movie in 1938. One of those little programmers, right? It's only 65 minutes long. So it's it was like a total B movie or whatever. But in 1938, he made a movie for Warner Brothers called Little Miss Thoroughbred. which which was, you know, it's a girl in an orphanage and there's a horse and, you know, a racetrack. It's all that stuff that all those movies did. Kids and horses, kids and horses, you figure it out. Orphans, is better they're even better if they're orphans. Anyway, um the ah the little girl in this thing, the little wannabe Shirley Temple character is Janet Chapman. And Janet Chapman's drama coach was my father.
00:27:45
Speaker
Oh. There is. My father was coaching the little girl in a John Farrow movie. that's that's how it it That was the connection. I'm like, there it is. Now I know. I've done my um my detective work. So anyway. A little crossover there. I'm still waiting for Little Miss Thoroughbred to show up on DVD so I can actually see my father's handiwork and see whether this little girl could act or not. Oh, and Sheridan's in that movie. Yeah. yeah i and I mean, I've never seen it. I've never seen it. It's never been out in any form that I can see. I don't know it. Yeah, that's great. ninety so Yeah. Yeah. yeah nine thirty eight So there it is. But, uh, directed by John Farrow, a nice boxed set, a lot of really cool films, forties and fifties, uh, you know, worth, uh, worth checking out. Um, shall we do, uh, steel books and then go into the four K's? Sounds great. Yeah. All right. Got four steel books this week.
00:28:35
Speaker
Uh, one is the complete collection of films I had never heard of until this showed up. The Hatchet Collection, which includes Hatchet, Hatchet 2, Hatchet 3, and... Victor Crowley. yeah its Oh, yeah, that's crazy. and So, uh, have you ever seen these Hatchet films? No, I do not know. What period? they from the eighty These 80s, this is 80s, right? No, these are like 2000s. This is from 2007 to 2017. I do not know. I know. i know ah It's a very peculiar thing. Anyway, it's ah it's it's ah it's an American low budget horror series.
00:29:19
Speaker
And yeah, it's a you know horrific disfigured guy with a hatchet, um you know whose name is victorrow Victor Crowley. I just think it's funny that that that instead of Hatchet 4, they're just like, screw it. Nobody's watching these movies. Just give it the guy's name. Just call it Victor Crowley. Because if we call it Hatchet 4, then people feel like they got to catch up with 1, 2, and 3. So just give it another title, because they'll just don't even worry about it anymore. They gave up. They gave up. Hatchet 2, Hatchet 3, Victor Crowley. He cracks me up so funny. Anyway, you know yeah, he's an assort. It's funny because i mean during the VHS era, early VHS era, era, that's the kind of thing that that you got all the time. you know exactly yeah you yeah Again, coming out of the 70s, you got get these series of movies made by whoever, yeah and and and there would be a guy with a hatchet. They make it for a buck 95.
00:30:15
Speaker
it's and it's It's all just just Jason Voorhees and Mike Myers rip off stuff and maybe a little bit of, ah you know, Leatherface. Look, but he's disfigured. He's got a hatchet. He lives in a swamp. Just stay out of his swamp. Don't go near his swamp. Yeah, don't go over there. good' just go go Don't go to Hatchet Swamp. Don't. Just don't. Stay away from the swamp. Go to like Disney World or something. Don't god it don't go to the Hatchet Guys swamp. Where are you going this week? I'm going down to Hatchet Face Swamp. Really? Anyway, okay we got and we got ah we got another four god not also in Steelbook, another one of these 4K has fallen movies with Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman saving the world again and again and again. I just don't know who's around to watch these movies, but here we go. Angel has fallen.
00:31:05
Speaker
Um, you know, they're, they're collecting a payday. So there they go. Morgan Freeman's the president and Gerard Butler is the secret service agent. It's kind of a bad time for this movie to be released, to be honest, but, yeah bad day and what um, you know, if you can kind of put all that in your rear view mirror, uh, you know, I, it's not, it's no worse than the others. It might be a little better because it's kind of settling in. ah Well, all I know is if I were the president, I'd want Gerard Butler to be nowhere near my secret service detail. Oh, he saves the day. No, he might be the reason why trouble follows him everywhere. No, that's okay. We'll be all right.
00:31:47
Speaker
And then we got George Romero's Diary of the Dead in a Walmart exclusive steelbook, and then another Walmart exclusive steelbook, Escape Plan Triple Feature. And these are not bad, right? The Escape Plan movies are not bad. Like, they're good solid mid-level, um... you know, Stallone movies. They're just, there're they're they like like, you get the good deal. Like, they've got decent people in them, right? You got Vinnie Sant, and you got Dave Batista, and Jim Caviezel, and, and ah you know, Arnold Schwarzenegger shows up. like I mean, these are these are like, this is a real cast. Is is Escape, is are the movies that great? I mean, they're good enough. They're they're they're they're good enough. So, um
00:32:30
Speaker
You know, this is a nice little triple feature on a steel book. And then Diary of the Dead, if you're into the whole Romero thing, I mean, you don't have to have to have seen all the prequels or whatever. they're They're all about zombies. It's, you know. Yeah. Look, that escape plan series is a series that sometimes I forget that of Sylvester Stallone's many, many, many, many, many, many series. But there it is. There are four of those. I think you're you're three or four of those. if I think you're only four expendables. There are four expendables. yeah If you count the the Creed's, I think we're up to like seven or eight. There's three Creed's now. Yeah, so that's like eight Rocky films. So, Sylvester is a guy who figured something out. ah yeah I do think you do and didn't do it again. I'll tell you, it's it's it's really kind of amazing when you think about
00:33:17
Speaker
actors who have generated franchises, who who have been able to not just be part of a franchise, but generated a franchise themselves, not just a that that they are the star of it, but that they came up with it, that they came up with the idea. Stallone has done four. so escape I just i forgot forgot about the ara yeah ram yeah yeah forgot about that ah yeah Rambo escape plan and expendables. I mean, that there's something very impressive about the fact that he has been able to do that. And he's tried his stuff that didn't work. Cobra didn't work. You know, ah that what was the thing he did with Kurt Russell, something, something, what was it called? yeah to kill it tango and tango and cash that didn't quite be but that's not a bad film
00:33:59
Speaker
that's not a bad no no no one look I enjoyed some of Stallone's comedic excursions. Oh, Rhinestone. I know they're not good. Rhinestone is funny. and and Him and Dolly coming around over there. i a Stop or my mom will shoot. I'm sorry. that i Now, did he did he have the success that, ah say, Arnold. arnold had When Arnold decided to go comedy, him and Danny DeVito, twins, ah kindergarten. Arnold had a lot of success. True. ah When he went comedy and and and and started, you know, kind of coming off of, you know, although you had the Predator movie and all those other big movies. yeah arnold Arnold got funny and in had stoned for whatever reason, wasn't given that break. Yeah. ah But I'm sorry, Rhinestone is funny. Yep. I agree with you, completely agree.
00:34:45
Speaker
ah So let's go into some 4K. We've got got a few Aero 4Ks here. So the Aero keeps coming out with great 4Ks. It's taken us a second to get to some of these. um Here are the latest Aero 4Ks that we've taken a look at. Mute Witness, American Gigolo, NARC, Crimson Peak, dark water, and a basket case, limited edition basket case, which is a very underrated little kind of horror bit. But I want to just mention, particularly about, I mean, American Gigolo speaks for itself, but Mute Witness, and I interviewed the director of- Oh yeah. Anthony Waller. Yeah, I interviewed Anthony Waller right before he did American Werewolf in Paris. Interesting guy. And you know, Mute Witness is a very, very kind of creepy-skilled
00:35:35
Speaker
skillfully made film. ah you know it's It kind of combines elements of a lot of things like ah like ah blow up and blow out. are here a little bit the the what's the What's the Audrey Hepburn Alan Arkin thing? Oh, after dark, wait until dark. Wait until dark, right? It's got a little bit of that in there too. So, I mean, all of this stuff, it was shot in Russia, you know, it's all kind of, it takes place behind the scenes of a slasher film being shot in Russia, right? And it's kind of interesting that there's a slasher No. The makeup girl, the makeup girl is... The makeup girl is... She's mute. She's mute. Yeah. And why it's a bit chased by this guy. Anyway, so it's a very kind of meta thing that's going on, but it's a really sharp film. It's worth checking out if you haven't seen it. Anthony Waller, very interesting, very intense guy. He has a great audio commentary on this thing. Oh, yeah. I highly recommend it there. I mean, NARC, one of the better...
00:36:29
Speaker
kind of in The more intense ah performances from ah from Jason Patrick ah does a really good job here. i mean he made a lot of real I wish he'd act more again, but really cool, intense performance there. Basket case. you know Look, it's low-budget schlocky horror, but it's ah it's perfectly entertaining in ah in a very groovy, grind-house-y way. ah and um You know, I mean, American Jigalow, I think looks just really, really cool on 4K too. And Crimson Peak. Crimson Peak. And Darkwater, which is ah a great J-horror movie from Hideo Nakata. So all all of those, I think, are worth ah worth a look on 4K. They all do right by. Hello. um let's ah Let's see. so American Hustle.
00:37:16
Speaker
american movie now yeah American Hustle's on 4K now. This is the 10th anniversary, Tim. It's the 10th. Wow. Has it been? Wow. Yeah. Wow. went I know. I know. So 2013 American House. It doesn't hold up, I wonder. I mean, you know, um David Oh, because yeah this might have been his really last sort of successful conception, but I wonder ah if it actually holds up, because I haven't seen this film since 2013. It does hold up. But it holds up in, it still feels i mean it felt retro at the time, so it feels even more retro now. Because you know it's the it's basically about the abscam scandal. For those who don't remember abscam, it doesn't matter. You can still enjoy the film. ah For those of us who remember abscam, it was it it kind of, you know it was bizarre. It was it was almost surreal that something like that could happen. And in fact, they do a very good job of of parodying it without making a complete mockery of it. but
00:38:13
Speaker
christian bale is terrific bradley cooper is wonderful i might be the last actual performance that jennifer lawrence gave um you know uh jeremy renner gives a real performance to it's a it's a good cast it's a good solid film and it's on 4k with a movies anywhere code so uh david l russell wait and he he had a run there for a moment didn't he Yeah, he he also did that that thing with Taylor Swift in it that was ah that I call it David O. Russell directing, ah making, for for some reason, ah making making a um ah
Director's Vision: Guy Ritchie and 'Monkey Man'
00:38:46
Speaker
Wes Anderson film. Oh, yeah, yeah. that that yeah you That thing he made was really a Wes. I'm like, why is David O. Russell making a Wes Anderson film? It's Amsterdam or something like that. Yeah, that was a mess. Oh, my gosh. I was like, yeah, man. yeah ah We also have ah Cemetery Man ah by Michel Suavi. This is also from Severn. I am not at all certain why this warrants a 4K release. No offense. I'm sure it has the the following for it. um But it's ah it is ah it is a bit of an unusual genre horror film.
00:39:19
Speaker
to put on 4k i mean some of the other stuff that we mentioned from sever and i almost would think would've been you know more justified but made what do i know ruppert ever it's in this me he has a great interview and you know he's he's young when they made this and so i i suppose that there is kind of a post jello because this is more recent Italian. It's like 90s. So and it was just kind of, you know, jello really sort of mostly goes through the 80s. And so this is sort of semi post jello. Anyway, I don't know, I guess, I guess, ah there it is. You know, it's it's ah if you're a Swavi fan, if you if you've never heard of Michelle Swavi, and and but I'm not gonna mean anything to you. Tim, did you see the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare?
00:40:01
Speaker
I do not remember that one. What was that? That is the ah Guy Ritchie thing that he he came out with just a couple months ago. um Based on the oh yeah you know Churchill sends a bunch of basically Churchill pulls together his own dirty dozen and he sends them down off the coast of Africa to pull off a German sabotage thing to blow up a U-boat. I mean it's a whole or to blow up supply. It's like glorious bastards with English accent. Yes, it's like Inglorious Bastards with English accents or the Dirty Dozen without so much dirty and they're not quite a dozen. But the problem is, it's like nobody's heart is in this thing. It's based on a real event. It's literally a real event. This really happened. Churchill really did give the go-ahead to this this Black Ops group that had no authorization from any other part of the British government. He could have brought down his entire um ah leadership.
00:40:54
Speaker
And he sends this ragtag group out to go and pull off this off-the-grid maneuver down off of Africa, which could have completely been ah blown up in his face and been a big geopolitical mess. And you would think that they'd kind of find a tone and stick with it, but they don't. Sometimes it feels a little laborious to bastard. Sometimes it's a little bit dirty dozen. Sometimes it's just, everyone's just sort of disinterested and and nobody seems to really know, are we being funny? Are we being an action film? Are we being a parody? Are we taking it, are we playing it straight? So it just it just didn't work for me. But um anyway, it's Alan 4k for anybody who's who who wants to take a look. And ah it's ah you know it's a respectable cast. I mean, Henry Cavill wearing a ridiculous beard, and playing the real guy. I mean, this guy really existed.
00:41:42
Speaker
you know yeah Yeah, I don't know. guy Guy's films. Well, for one thing, Guy's films have not um evolved true over the last 25 years. ah guys guys kind of Guy's kind of making the same movie. No matter what it happens to be, ah he makes it the same. No matter what it's said, he makes it the same. And yeah even that tell that that ah that series, that streaming series, um yeah the The Gentleman, I think, there' it's called. yeah And I'm like, yeah he yeah so he has to sort of... fixation with this sort of juxtaposition of the notion of the of the gentleman, and and and and and yet this sort of rough, tough, badass guy, but they're all but all'll tipped their hats at you. ah You got Monkey Man over there? Monkey Man, yeah, let's pull out Monkey Man. That Dev Patel, I don't know if it's a directorial duty or not. It is, it is. It is, was it? Because I got to tell you, I thoroughly enjoyed that film.
00:42:37
Speaker
um This was originally supposed to be a Netflix film and then netflix just meant Netflix paid for this and then they let it go. They said, yeah, we don't really want it anymore. So they gave it back to him. Scott Fried didn't ask for anybody to pay them a dime. Can you believe that? So then whoever picked it up was like, really? We don't have to pay anything? Like, we get this movie. Yeah. All right. Rock on. And there it is. That's that's what that's what happened with Monkey Man. It's crazy. I mean, yeah it tells you it tells you how much money Netflix is rolling
Franchise Success: Kung Fu Panda and Despicable Me
00:43:10
Speaker
in. Yeah. um ah is Right there. So so so it was in any case, I dug this place. Yeah. it's it's you know it's him It's basically Dev doing his own variation on the John Wick films.
00:43:21
Speaker
the genre and yeah it's it's bloody it's bone crunching ah yeah it's it's it's pretty it's pretty cool and he you know dev kind of kicks it up a notch because he usually plays guys who are a little bit more kind of milk toasty or a little bit a little bit weak but here he is just badass all through and through so it's a nice Well, it's ah it's it's a very deliberate and and and and not the first one, actually. He he did the what green night. That's right. That's right. He did do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah as the that Where he's like, look I'm not the kid from some dog millionaire anymore. I'm a tall, handsome, fairly well built. Yeah.
00:43:59
Speaker
yeah Man from South India that's perfectly capable of killing everybody in a room. That's it. and he And you know, that Netflix let it go. You went to Jordan Peele. He said, would you like to put your name on this and bring some cachet? Jordan said, absolutely. Let's take it to Universal. Universal got behind it, released it, and boom, there we are. Collector's Edition, Dev Patel doing the yeah doing the badass thing on 4K Ultra HD and a lot of cool extras too. ah Child's Play is back in a 4K set from a shout factory a Shout Factory slash Scream Factory. um You know, I got to be honest, I thought most of these movies have just been stupid, even the ones that that had Ronnie directed, you know, bringing the Hong Kong. Yeah, I'm bringing that. Ronnie, you directed, you know, a couple of these, bring a little bit of Hong Kong action sensibility to it and make it campy. But the original Child's Play is still, for my money, the one that works the best.
00:44:49
Speaker
It just is. um In any case, this is not the original 1988 child's play. ah This is the ah more recent remake of it ah in which Chucky is not possessed by the spirit of a dead a serial killer. Chucky is basically just a crazed AI and you know with a bad Chinese chip in him and going crazy. That's thats the whole that's what That's what this one's all about. um but ah But I guess for a certain generation, this did okay. So it's got an audio commentary with the with the director Lars Klevberg. And it looks perfectly fine. And ah you know it's got a few other fun extras on it. So knock yourselves out. um Got three here from Paramount.
00:45:39
Speaker
two ah Two significantly which go together, which I will start with. We've got now 4K of Team America and South Park Bigger Loan Uncut. ah Nick and Trey. um Tim, how do we feel like these movies hold up? Well, Team America holds up. Oh, my gosh. Follows Rock, F, yeah. Oh, my gosh. That's so funny. All there is to that. And in in in and if frankly, South, ah bigger, longer. Uncut, you know, uncut is uncut. But bigger, longer, it is was plenty strong ah to me. South Park holds up. It does. Broadly. Blame Canada. over these What is it now?
00:46:21
Speaker
30 years. la yeah Is it 30 years? Everyone is overlooking how long South Park's been on the air because it's like a year or two behind the Simpsons. Everybody keeps saying, oh, the Simpsons, longest-running TV. vote you You realize South Park is just on its heels. like As soon as the Simpsons goes off the air, South Park only needs to run for another couple of years or three years, and it beats the record. i mean Okay yeah yeah yeah yeah and you know matt and trade do all the voices more or less and they're younger than dan castelaneta and julie cavernor so i'm just saying yeah you know at a certain point i feel like south park if they want it to be the all-time longest running tv show in in his or at least in the united states nothing will ever be dr who but i don't see how you can read i don't think i thought i don't think i you can recast.
00:47:06
Speaker
No, you can't really. ah You can't recast. you know yeah you yeah It's like a clicking flag. You can't recast. and and and and and though you know dan there There are a lot of actors on on yeah and The Simpsons, but somehow I still think you can't recast. My favorite thing from this era was Robin Williams singing Blame Canada on the Oscars. It was just the best. It was so good. It was so smart. Anyway, yeah, so that's a two disc set. They all have, but because it's Paramount, they have Fandango Now ah codes, not Movies Anywhere codes. I wish Paramount would just get with it and go with Movies Anywhere like everybody else.
00:47:41
Speaker
But ah yeah, I got a theatrical version in 4K and then you have a sing-along version in Blu-ray along with the special features on the second disc. And you know, Team America is just, it's got a whole bunch of extras on here all about doing the stuff with the puppets, which is so much more challenging than you could possibly imagine. They make it look easy. It isn't easy. That's why they haven't done another one of these, because it's freaking hard.
Franchise Fatigue: Godzilla and Ghostbusters
00:48:05
Speaker
It's really difficult. But um also has an uncut version of the film on Blu-ray on disc two with the special features. But the ah theatrical cut is on 4K on the first disc. So i you know Team America, just mark Mark Kaiser cannot stop laughing at that movie. As funny as we all think it is, Mark thinks it's funnier than anybody else.
00:48:27
Speaker
Also 4K, theatrical and unrated versions as well of Anchorman with Will Ferrell, The Legend of Ron Burgundy. This is the 20th anniversary. I hate aging, Tim. I can't stand it. No, it's just, it's this it's ah something to pay attention to. But what are you going to do? You know, i my favorite line in this whole thing, Steve Carell, I killed a guy with a trident. and During that whole, that street fight that goes completely off the rails. This movie is ridiculous, but everyone knows it's ridiculous. They're all playing it for laps. yeah Yes, yes. Oh, Christina Applegate, Young Invents. Fantastic. i was say Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, it's wonderful. Absolutely. Paul Rudd with the hair and the mustache and the whole thing. Fantastic. Absolutely great. So go get that on from Paramount on 4K as well. Absolutely terrific. um Have you kept up on the Kung Fu Panda movies?
00:49:24
Speaker
You know, I got through Kung Fu Panda 2. I know this that they were we're out to four. I can only hope that you don't need to have seen three to enjoy four. I hope. i You know what? i Truly, I started to watch, and I can't. i just i can't i can't it's It's the same crap over and over. I mean, God bless Jack. He's making outrageous amounts of money. I'm sure you know he's probably worth $100 million dollars at this point just from doing this panda. But um I kind of don't get it. But again, I don't really get Despicable Me. You realize Despicable Me is now the most the the highest earning animated franchise in movie history? I did not know that. Despicable Me movies have now globally grossed like $5 billion. dollars More than all the Toy Story movies. More than the Toy Story movies.
00:50:14
Speaker
ah So yeah obviously we're adding in that the what the minion the the yeah movies. Yeah, there's like one or two. all everything Everything related. Okay, okay. It's just, yeah, okay. Anyway, whatever. No, I don't, I can't, I can't, I just can't get my mind around it, you know. i Look, this, this, this, way yeah of yeah Aquafina, okay. Viola Davis. is a voice in the Kung poo kung ah Fu and movies, dude. I know. What the hell is going on? I don't know. I don't know. I try i try to understand it. i I just kind of don't. But yeah you know, look. That's like if Sidney Poitier was in a Yogi and Boo Boo cartoon.
00:50:53
Speaker
If you know it, it would Sydney Portier as the voice of the Ranger. I don't know, whatever, it's insane. So, Empire is the new word, Tim. Empire, if if we were playing password, and I know I'm i know i'm dating us ah here, but if we were playing password, the word would be Empire. Empire. Empire. Empire, as in Godzilla X Kong, the new Empire, and Ghostbusters, Frozen Empire. Yes, yes, yes. Everything wants to have an empire. Everything has to have an empire. I don't know what's going on over there. I don't know. I saw that Godzilla comic movie for the radio show. And I must say that near the end of it, I was laughing so hard that in that way, it is an enjoyable film. It's funny. There's a moment in this movie
00:51:50
Speaker
when Kong ah hurts his arm, right? if This whole thing goes down, right? But you know what? It's okay. Because they have a gigantic gorilla ah ah but of cast thing, this mechanical gorilla arm that they can get. Which they just happened to build because you never know when Kong's gonna hurt his arm. And it's just funny, Dan Stevens, he's like, oh, he seems to have hurt his arm. Okay, it's all right. We got a gigantic gorilla arm over here. We're gonna go ahead and put that thing on him. And I'm like, really? yeah Really? We just got all this shit laying around, dude. Just in case something goes down with Kong. So I'm like, you know what, guys? Let's do it. Let's do it. Whatever we're doing, I'm down with it. I'm not going to do this all the way through this movie. Because plainly, you don't give a damn. So I'm not going to give a damn. Here's the problem that I have with this movie.
00:52:40
Speaker
Which I did not see, I will admit, I just can't, I can't. But here's the problem I have with it. The original Godzilla versus King Kong, the old cheesy one for whatever it was, 1962 or 63, whatever, the the Japanese one, has long been lambasted from making them the same size. one Godzilla is about 350 feet tall. King Kong is about 20 feet tall. in the original film, the original film. Yeah, he to yeah he has to climb that empire state building. If we're going off of the Peter Jackson film, okay, I'll give you 50.
00:53:23
Speaker
But Godzilla is still seven times taller than King Kong. And now we come out with the, and like this movie makes the same mistake. It's like, wait a minute, they're the same size? Are we are we making King Kong 350 feet, which is stupid? Or are we making Godzilla like 50 feet, which just makes him a big lizard? I don't understand. This doesn't work. Why do we have to do this? No, no, no, no, no, that's just terrible. true and And some of that has to do with yeah that whole universal monster yeah series, they were which was just a big giant. yeah well didn't even It didn't even get off the ground, really.
00:54:08
Speaker
um and they had to pivot yeah they had to pivot and and and they just threw, you know, a whole bunch of money at Godzilla and Skrulls and the other and there it is. Yeah. Well, okay. So now let's get to Ghostbusters Frozen Empire, which ah yeah is all part of ah Jason Reitman basically taking over his dad's legacy and, you know, with the last film. And then, you know, this one is ah Jason and Ivan his who passed since they finished it, producing, and Gil Keenan takes over directing chores.
00:54:43
Speaker
um
00:54:46
Speaker
And I get it. We're trying to get back to the original Ghostbusters without while while still kind of pivoting to younger Ghostbusters. I get it. Paul Rudd is holding it down and we bring, you know, Murray and Ernie and Aykroyd back doing doing their, you know, reprising their original characters. I love that we're adding in Carrie Coon, who I just adore. know i don I love that we brought back Annie Potts, who's just still wonderful. um And you know I love the kid from Stranger Things, bringing him in. I think that's cool. That's all fine. I love that Patton Oswalt is in this. But it doesn't, Jason Reitman's sense, and he wrote this with Gil Keenan, he doesn't bring the same levity that his dad did. He's a different kind of filmmaker. And this still feels both derivative and at the same time not as fun.
00:55:40
Speaker
So, I don't know. it feels It feels a little heavy. It feels a little intense. And and and and and it's funny because, you know, everybody everybody, for a whole lot of reasons, some of them not particularly a coach, as we saw, went after those girls when they did that girl Ghostbusters. And so, you okay, fine, fine. yeah go youre Okay, we'll give you back. We'll give you, we'll give you, year we'll give you you we'll hit the reset button and and give you your other Ghostbusters back. You know what? Still don't work. Because we're done now. See, I think okay if that's Yeah, we're just we're we're done now and we have been for a while. they were There was a great Ghostbusters cartoon that ran you know after the you know the the the principal Ghostbusters movies.
Nostalgia Revisited: Karate Kid and More
00:56:24
Speaker
And if you want and a Ghostbusters extension, find it in those cartoons. By the way, I am still a bigger Ghostbusters 2 fan. I know i'm I'm one of the few.
00:56:34
Speaker
Uh, with Peter, Peter, Peter, uh, Peter, uh, yes. yeah it did Yeah. He is so funny. I went, when he comes out of it right at the end of the movie and he's covered in all the slime and with that ridiculous accent, he says, if I am my covet, it's this goo. I laugh so hard. Just that one line reading, just it wipes me out. He's great. He's great. You know, he's, he's, he's wonderful. Anyway, a Karate Kid. We got a brand new Karate Kid on 4K. 4K Ultra HD. They make it look all kind of VHS-y, you know, worn around the the edges. It's got a new commentary and deleted scene dailies. And it's got a Movies Anywhere code. And this is all because Cobra Kai is so hot on television and we have a whole generation of fans of that show.
00:57:23
Speaker
who have never who've probably never even really experienced the original movie. So we got to take them back. And you know what? Yeah, it it it it's look, it's still rocky. It's John Avelton doing the rocky thing with Ralph Macchio. I'm gonna tell you, Pat Morita is so good. The story is still so good. It just works. Elizabeth's shoe is wonderful. Everything is great. It still works. It still works, man. Yeah, yeah. Which is why it was such a fantastic foundation for them to yeah do a different thing. koperka They made the Will Smith film with Jackie and tried to do what you just talked about. a new generation ill No.
00:58:01
Speaker
No, ah that didn't work at all. Just let it let it be what it is. ah and and and and you And you find Ralph and you find a homie. epi yeah you know they You know, you know, you know, they're developing a crossover sequel. You know that with Jackie and with Ralph Macchio and with Jaden Smith. And they're going to somehow try to marry the two. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. Oh, my God. I know. OK, see, sometimes they just go to that well. sometimes Sometimes you go to the well so much you just come up with a bucket of mud. yeah I just made that up. I just made that up. And and it was it was brilliant. ah Studio Ghibli, 4K of the boy and the heron. Hayao Miyazaki's second Academy Award given this year. um ah Beautiful movie.
00:58:51
Speaker
It's a beautiful movie. It's been all the big American animation once again. I didn't think it would, but it did. I thought they'd give it to Spider-Verse again. And you know what? it They gave it to this one because it is just such a beautiful story of this kid losing his mom to war and all of this all of this my ah my mysterious stuff that happens ah after he moves in this mystical land. It's just it's really, really wonderful. ah it's ah It's a beautiful film. um I was the big ah boy ah robot games fan ah yeahzure for the same yeah period. but and in But, you know, I i can't can't, you can't deny Hayao Miyazaki. You can't deny it. um The one thing I will say about this, and and this just this is not a rub,
00:59:43
Speaker
Narratively, ah this film is very similar to a number of films Michael has made. you know because he He lives in a narrative space. Perfectly fair of things to do with the war and children in and around the war, things which are perfectly reflective of things that happen to him and in in his life and things around the dropping of the bombs and all of those sort sort of things. And narratively, it's very familiar territory. Whereas, Robot Dreams, was narratively new territory and obviously visually the the opposite of of this beautiful lavish thing that Miyazaki always does. Robot Dreams is just something just north of stick colored in stick figures. ah so That's the reason why I was kind of leaning into that one. that but This is a beautiful movie.
01:00:30
Speaker
ah We also have a movie called the guy ver which was a bit of a cult classic for a moment. ah You know about this human alien hybrid monster thing this i mean know this came in your early nineties it was kind of the the the migration that we had from alien and and predator and i was kind of looking for something that was in the same vein but maybe a little different so. They cooked up the giver, which has always kind of had a little mini cult following. It's from, you know, 1991. And we now have a three-disc 4K collector set, which has just an unreal amount of extras, interviews with every single human being, outtakes from commentary. And it's just, ah I mean, this movie must have a bigger cult following than I ever imagined for them to justify this. But anyway, it's out there.
01:01:21
Speaker
That guy who directed it and wanted to come back. There are two of Screaming Man George and Steve Wang. That guy. The first guy. Well-known, very well-known special effects guy from that period. Did all the really good looking stuff on Predator and this, that, and the other thing. I think a lot of it has to do with that. It's him. He has a following. ah Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah ah Getting down to the bottom here, we got two ah kind of classic films that are a little bit underrated and I am fond of both. Weird Al Yankovic and UHF is a movie I see you're laughing. Everyone laughs.
01:02:02
Speaker
yeah Did you you hate that? I don't know. This movie is so silly. It's so wonderful. Everybody's like, oh, weird Al. It's like, no. And michael Michael Richards first kind of blew on the scene. After he'd done Fridays, he did this movie. He's hilarious in this movie. Everybody's funny in this movie. everybody it's so like a It's a great big just crazy mad joke of a movie. It's hilarious. So you got to see it. I love the guys walking around asking everybody for change. and then the end Well, I won't give it away. It's funny. It's a great get change. It's a great gag.
01:02:35
Speaker
and they just pull it out all the way to the end of the movie. Yeah, there's this Comic-Con 2014 panel when they got everybody back together again. There's Director Jay Levy and Weird Al do a commentary, deleted scenes and promos and, yeah, I mean everything. It's got, the 4K obviously is on one and all the extras are on another, but it is an awfully cool movie and good on Shout Factory for resurrecting this thing and giving us a 4K of it because it really deserves it. And then also Matinee with John Goodman in a 4K collector's edition. Oh, yeah wow. Yeah. It's just terrific. um this If you love old movies and if you love kind of ah exploitation films and monster films and 50s movies, all the whole atomic era thing, this is just a great throwback. It's hilarious. It's one of Joe Dante's best movies. I love it.
01:03:28
Speaker
And John in it is playing a version of that guy from the He would put the things and he would have the nurses in lobby. yeah william castlefe you baby playing William Castle, our version of he's playing William Castle, who was just the greatest showman i mean of that day. he was He was like the Barnum and Bailey of of ah exploitation films. So it's a lot of fun. And Joe Dante knows this this territory. He knows William Castle. He knows these movies. And he just does a wonderful job tipping his hat to it. So that is also out there on 4K with a boatload of extras on two discs, all most of the extras on on the second. but um
01:04:13
Speaker
it's ah It's a lot of fun. ah Drew McWeenie, who is ah a LAFCA colleague of ours participates in in the audio commentary. and um Yeah, it's ah it's pretty great. It's pretty great. so Definitely check it out. um and Lastly, Tim, Purple Rain. Purple Rain. Purple Rain. What are we? What are we, about 40? 40th anniversary or so? Know how I know that? Because Purple Rain, when it came out in 1985, I was assistant manager of the Man's Plaza Theater, where it opened and played for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks. I saw, actually, I heard that movie probably 300 times, and I saw it maybe three dozen times.
01:04:56
Speaker
but But it was, it's yeah, I lived that whole purple rain moment. It was, I can still quote almost every single line of this movie. um And you know what, in fairness, parts of it are cheesy. Parts of it are deliberately cheesy. ah You know, that whole kind of ah seduction scene with Apollonia is just ridiculous. it it It really kind of placed the crowd. but Well, Albert, albert ah yeah, who's the USC guy, from what I'm saying, where our boy Ray went. ah you you know and and and And they had a bit of a career, you know, with would various different sort of things like that, but this would probably be the highlight. For sure. For sure. and and And it's funny because Magnolia was at ah at USC ah just a year or so behind James Foley.
01:05:45
Speaker
who I used to, and Foley, I had worked at the Man's National right before I got promoted. I had worked at the Man's National when ah James Foley's directing debut opened there, which was the, why am I drawing a blank, Aidan Quinn, Daryl Hannah. Not breathless, but something mouthless. Well, yeah, but yeah yeah like I'm gonna look it up. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I'm gonna get it. This is killing me. This is what happens when you get older, folks. but and Yeah, I'm telling you, because it's right on the tip of my tongue. And you're back. I always confused it with breath. Reckless. Thank you. Anyway.
01:06:20
Speaker
Yeah, because he's on that motorcycle. I remember, if only he used to show up. I shouldn't even be saying this. I mean, you know, but whatever. If only he used to show up. and And I would always talk to everybody. I was the only person on the staff that kind of wanted to talk to the filmmakers and the executives as they came in. Everybody was else was intimidated. And I'm like, no, I want to talk to these people. And Foley, when he talked to me at the door. He's like, are people liking him? Like, what's the reaction? Are you are do are you watching? the He was so nervous that people would hate his movie. Oh, wow. man, people are digging it. It's all right. They like it. They love the, you know, like like kids in America comes on and the lights are going all over the swimming pool and they're digging it. It's got a real rock and roll feel to it. And somehow, you know, let's read a sigh of relief. He was like asking me, and I'm putting, here I am. I'm like, what am I? I'm like, I'm 19 years old. I'm putting and putting him at ease. It's ridiculous. But anyway.
01:07:10
Speaker
Uh, it's too funny. So. Have some popcorn, James. Relax. It's too funny. Magnolia, I never met. But anyway, the movie I, I, you know who, the who the hit, the real star of the stars of of um Purple Rain. and because Prince is a brilliant performer, but Prince is not going to give you comic relief. You need Morris and Jerome to show up to make you laugh, and they, with that mirror that Jerome holds for Morris, and oh my gosh, it's just, that's the comic relief, and that just is wonderful that they brought Morris Day and the time into ah
01:07:48
Speaker
Yeah, more stay in the time. but yeah that that that That juxtaposition, you Prince's band with all of that sort of artistic and then more stay in the time over there, just having a fabulous time. Both teams, all the music from both sides is fantastic. So the audience never has a moment when we're not having fun. but And one of the great all-time soundtracks.
Critiquing New Releases: Storytelling and Direction
01:08:09
Speaker
sorry it's just it's like one great print song after another boom boom boom boom it's great stuff so purple rain on 4k love that sucker up into your movies anywhere account and watch it wherever you want it is fantastic still still a really really fun film um let's talk about a few new movies that are not on 4k but we got a few others in here drive away dolls um is we're talking about for a minute because this is ethan cohen going solo from joel just as joel went solo and did uh
01:08:39
Speaker
did Macbeth so now we get to see Ethan minus Joel and I don't think I like it when they work separately. the Well, narratively, I didn't like this movie. It lives in the vein of a Coen Brothers movie, but it doesn't have nearly the full range of wit, of sharpness, of comedy. And I imagine that's because half of the wit and hearing comedy wasn't at work that day. So you get half as much. And it didn't have the narrative just in terms of just the story itself, tightness.
01:09:16
Speaker
um of of when they're did the the the movies are tighter ah when they're together. And I think that might have something to do with somebody saying that, you know, that's not working. Take that out. So, you know, ah yeah, there there you go. Margaret Qualley, Beanie Philstein, you know, and I don't know, it's it's ah sort of a funky little mean, nasty movie. yeah yeah Funky, mean, and nasty go with Co. brothers. But somehow in this movie, I didn't like it. Yeah, I didn't either. And I, you know, I mean, there are a couple of people in this that I thought like Bill Camp is is funny and his little um in his little cameo as the guy behind the camera. Matt Damon's kind of funny, but it just it does doesn't entirely work. it's I think Joel and Ethan meet each other, but for whatever reason, that's out there, a collector's edition on Blu-ray. Not much by way of extras. Also going to make mention of, this apparently was also on 4K, but they only sent it to us on Blu-ray because I guess maybe they caught wind of the fact that I had been on um
01:10:17
Speaker
On film week, and I had torn it to absolute shreds, we're talking of course about Madam Web, which is, which, uh, look, if you, I, I give nothing, I get it. If you, if you love all the actresses in this thing and you don't care if the movie's any good and you just kind of want to see them in tight outfits and you get your movies anywhere code, you're good. But this is a terrible movie. this is like This is like a rough draft, like a first draft screenplay that someone did an assembly cut of and then released into movie theaters. Nothing in this plot makes any sense. I'm not even going to rid ridicule the film making. The woman who directed it is a perfectly credible career directing television, S.J. Clarkson. She's done a lot of British TV, a lot of American TV. She's very capable. It's not her fault. It's just somebody handed her a script in which people just do stupid things for no reason other than to motivate the script.
01:11:06
Speaker
It's terrible. yeah terrible yeah so yeah yeah yeah This will not have a sequel. and and the Dakota, who I usually like, is just walking through this movie. It's as if she figured out somewhere along the line, they have no idea what they're doing, so why should I pretend like I have any idea what I'm doing? I'm going to say the lines and try to get home as soon as I can. A couple of movies here that are ah very heartwarming yeah and increasingly this is something that a lot of actors are doing. They're trying to to push something a little bit more positive and less ah overtly studio. Mark Wahlberg of all people, Arthur the King and Hilary Swank in Ordinary Angels. And I think ah both of these movies are worth kind of mentioning of a piece because they they're sort of going in the same general direction. They're also both Lionsgate releases.
01:11:55
Speaker
ah other than that, the comparisons end. But, um you know, they're they're just simple, not overly expensive, ah really uplifting movies. They're not, I wouldn't call them faith-based, they are faith-adjacent, maybe. But ah there's kind of a a new direction here, and I think it's because these movies are affordable and because they can put good actors in them, and actors can get these movies made as long as they attach
Ordinary Angels: Film Overview
01:12:21
Speaker
themselves. So anyway, ah the Hilary Swank film, ordinary angels.
01:12:27
Speaker
is ah you know one of these It takes place in in rural Kentucky, small town. and It's about this this hairdresser played by Hilary Swank who meets a widower and he's got a couple of daughters. and you know you can fill in the rest. there's a there's ah you know One of the daughters is ill and she's looking for a transplant. and you know It gets a little saccharine, but everybody takes it so, so seriously and and so sincerely. and ah In Arthur the King, ah you know it's a guy and a dog. i mean The guy and dog movies, they're they're they're wonderful. and You have some great supporting performances here from
01:13:04
Speaker
some really really good solid actors and i I think you know this is a new thing so it's worth paying attention to. We're going to get a lot more of these movies every year. um Let's talk about the American Society of Magical Negroes. Yeah, I do. Look, I wanted to love this movie. I love the title of this movie. It's a very interesting sort of notion in the black community with respect to film characters.
01:13:37
Speaker
Spike Lee is the one who first called out this trope. which is the, which which you get is like, you know, the Will will Smith is but and Bagger Vans. and Yeah, with the Bagger Vans. Yeah, it goes on the other, the ah help. So many kills. So many kills in a wonderful sketch mocking it, which is truly brilliant. But anyway, carry on. And that's what shit that's what this needed. This needed the the the penetrating wit and sharpness of that key and pill sketch of that that that sort of comic genius. And the thing of it is, I like some of the people involved in in this, but they don't get to the point of the thing, and therefore the jokes, it it does not cut to the heart of it, and therefore the jokes don't really work. ah And it just left me feeling like this was an opportunity miss, mostly.
01:14:25
Speaker
I will say because because what's great about the key and peel bit is that it the whole concept in in in like five minutes and it makes you laugh at it how ridiculous it is but without hating it or resenting it. they They sort of find a middle road of saying, we understand this is a thing and a lot of people like it. We think it's ridiculous. So we're going to enable you to understand why we think it's ridiculous and laugh at it as though it's ridiculous without making you feel bad about the fact that you still like this.
01:15:02
Speaker
Oh, in the key and peel thing that I think that I like about it anyway is that ah one of the things they do is they take it and they use it. If you want to do this, we're going to make it work for us.
Trope Discussion: Magical Negro in Film
01:15:18
Speaker
And and and and but with this movie never seems to, that that's quite, get there. It's not mean, and it is funny when it's funny. and but but But in terms of just just say, hey, this is a thing that you that you know about this, it's it's a thing that rubs them the wrong way. and David Allen is really funny in it. He's the he's the main magic when he goes to sell the little young guy. because yeah
American Fiction: Screenplay and Narrative Praise
01:15:44
Speaker
Anyway, whatever. and Let's segue from that appropriately to Academy Award-winning American fiction. Court Jefferson's amazing directing debut, but I think a fabulous screenplay deserving of an Academy Award. Look, um when we vote, they send us the actual physical scripts, a little booklet form, so we can write it as a PDF, so we can read them. And I read this. i usually I don't like reading scripts. I don't even like reading my own scripts, to be honest. i just It's not a fun process.
01:16:15
Speaker
But Court Jefferson is a wonderful writer. And I don't mean writer in terms of coming up with stories. He uses language beautifully. And this is a wonderful screenplay to read. If you want to read a screenplay, it's not cute in that Shane Black way. You know, Shane Black will say like, and then head to head for the big mansion in the hills. You know, the one that I'm going to buy after I sell this script. You know, that's Shane Black's way of making a script. read Yeah, inside being court. Corey Jefferson just uses the language beautifully. It's a pleasure to read how he shapes dialogue and how he shapes description and how he could kind of carries you through the script. He really has ah has ah as a wonderful ah grip on the language. and um Boy, when I saw this, I said to you, I said, Tim, Corey Jefferson just made a movie about you.
01:17:06
Speaker
I swear to God I'm saying it all last. This guy, and it just really, really is very, very sharp. This college professor who's written this very erudite book, it's not about anything particular black. played by Jeffrey Wright and and but you know all his literary agent wants from him as a you gotta give us something to something we can sell something so he writes one of these books and And makes all of this stuff up and it becomes the cell of it. No, this is and it's written by Percival Everett. Yeah the book Who's the USA? Yeah, I believe so. I believe so. Yeah, yeah And really just has a sort of interesting take on that thing. I thought it was interesting how all of that
01:17:51
Speaker
translated from the world of of literary ah fiction into the world of filmmaking because it worked it has worked exactly the same way in filmmaking. ah You know, there was a time in the early 90s where if I had wrote a book with three hookers and somebody selling crack, and you know you're like, I could have got that movie, I could have got that screenplay made in a heartbeat, you know, but ah if, ah you know, write a screenplay about, you know, ah and and an LA screenwriter. right and You can get that made for anything, so very strong. Also, having had having read that book, Percival's book, I can tell you he that he's also a really wonderful screenwriter, here adaptive screenwriter, because he called out of that book a very different kind of screenplay. and That's a pretty dark-ass book. yeah That book is dark.
01:18:39
Speaker
and goes to some really mean... ah he didn't he didn't he didn't make He didn't write that screenplay and therefore he didn't make that movie. The thing that I find most fascinating about American fiction is hair and the way that this compares to get out, for example.
Filmmaker Backgrounds: Influence on Storytelling
01:18:53
Speaker
The same genre, not the same story, but they have a lot of the same kind of ah thoughts on their mind. And Cor Jefferson mixed race, he was white. Jordan Peele mixed race, mom's white. I'm wondering if there isn't something from that background. I haven't heard either of them address it, but I'm wondering if there isn't something there about coming from a mixed race household that makes your experience maybe a little different and that gives them a window onto this. I think so. Look, it's it's a different thing, so that so it's a different thing. We talked about this before and on the show, and it's ah and it's an adjustment that even I've had to make, not even I had to make, I have had to make about that. Mixed race is a real thing. For a very long time in the black community, it's not a thing that we paid any the attention to.
01:19:41
Speaker
i Which is why, you know, we always just thought of, ah ah yeah for instance, President Obama ah as just our black president. Faculty matter is President Obama as a mixed race person. But if you're from a certain generation, my generation, his generation, our generation, we always just call that black. and and and didn't bother with the mixed race part. And it it and really and yeah another couple of movies here to their dog man, a new Lucas on movie, which Lucas on movies just don't make the splash that they used to. ah This is, you know, this is kind of ah ah a very peculiar, I mean, he's not doing a big action film about a genre film.
01:20:20
Speaker
This is kind of um back to um not even a lot of fun Niketas. This is trying to think of what what even this we could compare this to. I mean, it's a very unusual story about a guy. No. Yeah. Oh, two, three, and four. This ist this is this ah ah those early films, those friction. When you you went to, kind of, in 94? 94? Yeah. Two, three, and four. ah Maybe it was two. Films like Man By Dog. um and you and and caleb get landy jones who's a very unusual actor as a hard time ah of ah you know french but whatever o is kind and
01:21:00
Speaker
and wow i mean it's and you know it's an action film but it's a meditative french luke bassson action film for whatever that may be it's ah it's interesting you know i loved george clooney's the boys in the boat And it got no awards love, it got no traction. It's basically, it's like, it's a fire with with rowing, with crew. That's what it is. It's, it's it's ah you know, the story of the 1936 Summer Olympics. the The American crew team, University of Washington going for gold. That also is the Olympics where where Jesse Owens was, you know, the superstar Jesse Owens makes little cameo in this and there's a thing with the crew team. I mean, I thought it was a really lovely movie. Yeah, it's an underdog sports drama, but George Clooney directs the hell out of it. And if you have a chance to see it, I mean, it really kind of got to no love during during the end of the year, but it's a sweet, sweet film, and it just makes you feel good. It makes you feel good. A couple of other ah here, Abigail, collector's edition, and Immaculate with Sydney Sweeney, who who is, ah you know, the new lady of the moment. um but Thanks, dude.
01:22:04
Speaker
The new Anju at the moment. So look, both of these are going to a place where a lot of movies are going now, which is um horror centered around young women or even young girls. yes And ah we're getting a lot of that with T West as well. he's He's kind of going to that same place. So I don't know what's necessarily in the the zeitgeist ah for all of this stuff, but ah it's living there. I think of these two films, Immaculate, is not that terrifying. you're You're seeing it really just to see Sydney Sweeney if you're a big fan of her and her attributes.
01:22:39
Speaker
ah ah but but
01:22:43
Speaker
oh yeah You know, you know yeah I got to say this, i gotta you because you you and I are guys of a certain of a certain age, right? So Sydney Swinney, this young ingenue girl, she's got these big old boobs, and she's where she works the hell out of it. ah Yeah, I just said it, just say it out right. She's got these big old boobs, and she works the hell out of it and with her outfits and things like this. and and and And I hear these people, and they say these things, all this kind of stuff. now I have to say that you and I grew up as people, as young fellas. That's very true. It was very ordinary, very ordinary for ingenue actresses to have assets just like Sidney's and work the hell out of them. And sometimes we come to Maryland Monroe, and we can go right through. Raquel Welch, you know, this video of Angie Dickinson. I mean, all the way I could do this. Joey Heatherton.
01:23:36
Speaker
ah And but yeah we get to 2023, 2024 and Sydney Sweeney comes along and she's got this, and we're like, oh, we're gonna, I'm not gonna do that. I spent my entire young male adulthood in childhood, some of it, in love with actresses like Sydney Sweeney, yeah who who who who who had what she was working with and came to work with it. and And I didn't talk shit about it. And I'm from that generation. And you're not gonna make me talk shit about Sydney Sweeney. That's it. thank you So here's the deal with Abigail. A bunch of guys think they're going to kidnap a rich guy's 12-year-old daughter, little ballet girl named Abigail. Hold on to her. Easy money, right? Make make millions. Except ah Abigail is not just a 12-year-old ballerina. Abigail's a little vampire. And I'm not giving anything away. Abigail just becomes absolutely horrible. um It's stupid, but it's well done, I guess.
01:24:37
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, last time we you only go roger died we we did a little trip. ten couple weeks ago yeah some Roger Corman kind of guy. Was Roger on a list? had He died already. Last time we talked
01:24:53
Speaker
We've already done, okay. Good. You come to the meeting and you say, blah, blah, blah, Abigail, vampire, little girl, vampire, adults locked in the house, Abigail shoots a vampire, she's gonna eat them. I'd say I'd give you a million bucks to make it. Not a penny more. Not a penny. You're gonna get a bunch of actors, I don't even know any of them. You're gonna get a little girl, which by default means I don't even know who she is. Everybody can, I'm paying for the blood. And for the and for if whatever you break and so top house down that subject and in out with a movie called Imaginary. yeah ah From the, you know, Matt's Freddy's Blumhouse approach a little bit. You know, it's ah he's a t he's not imaginary and he's not your friend. So, um you know, I get it.
01:25:50
Speaker
ah ah it It's trying to do that thing, that teddy bear childhood, ah the iconography of childhood and making it horrible and nightmarish. I understand. That's a long standing trope in horror films. But I almost feel like it's too polished. I almost feel like it doesn't feel gritty enough. I see all of the tricks coming. did I don't know if you felt the same. Why? like I don't feel like and you were just saying if they had made this movie for a million dollars, and it's a better movie. You have to spend a million bucks, have that limitation, and get the actual crime. Let's get some criteria. Simply um you know buying your scare.
01:26:32
Speaker
Yeah, might as well ah blow through some of these. I want to talk about the the first one here, which is an absolutely wonderful box set. This is the first box set for Usmani Tsimane.
African Cinema: Usmani Simbani's Legacy
01:26:45
Speaker
Perhaps the great ah African filmmaker of all time, but he he really kind of set the the the tempo for all for African cinema, for all for ah whether you come from Uganda or Mauritania or Nigeria. Everyone said, you know, they look to Osmane Simbeni, who is Senegalese, and it just really, really kind of found a particular groove to represent so that continent's cultural ah sensibilities. And these are all wonderful films, all from 1970s. Emmettai, Zalla, and Cheddow. And these are just absolutely beautiful films. They're all different. ah They all deal with different things, politics. ah is so ja ah Zala is ah is a satire. Cheado is you know this this very beautiful period film. so All of these are in completely different genres, different sensibilities. He's a very diverse filmmaker. and There's a wonderful documentary on here on the making of Cheado, 1981.
01:27:46
Speaker
um It's just a great box set. but So I highly recommend that you get this beautiful conversation here that gets to the the root of why he's an important filmmaker internationally as well as on the continent. um It is called Three Revolutionary Films by Usmani Simbani. So definitely check that out. um Let's talk for a second about some of the things, like Anatomy of a Fall gets its good criterion release here. I am not a fan. This won the Cannes Film Festival, Tim. Let's talk about Anatomy of a Fall. It's an interesting thing because I say that Anatomy of a Fall is a very complicated sort of Perry Mason episode wrapped in a very complicated episode of like 30 something.
01:28:35
Speaker
ah but but but but but but But, you know, with the murder. so yeah Or perhaps not stuck. So, I watched this movie that everyone is is going bananas about and and I'm just thinking to myself, you know, i have this is this is fancy television. um This is fancy. um ah yoy and yeah and And it's all fine. It's fancy television. But this is not this is not cinema. And that's the other thing about it. It's also not cinema. It's not cinematic in this whole fucking movie. There's a lot of good acting in this movie, a lot of good performance in this movie, but there is nothing cinematic in this movie. That courtroom is not cinematic. Oh my God. I think a lot of people were just enamored of the French court system because it looked different. They didn't know what was coming next. It's not like a miracle court. It cheats. This film cheats. It's too long. It's way too long.
01:29:26
Speaker
and I won't give it away but there's and and you know look hey it's got a criterion release if you're a completist you got to get this but there's a moment where they do a thing because one of the character one of the the deceased character had done a thing and I just sat there and rolled my eyes and I said I'm sorry this would never have happened this is yes Yeah. You're making shit up. I'm sorry. You're just making shit up. And I get it. with it's just It's a movie. yet it's all make but you're net But you're literally making shit up and and and and in you're in you're making it up badly at that this point. yeah A Perry Mason episode. Really, really interesting criterion release here that I see coming. And I barely even knew that this existed oddly enough. No Perry Mason episode would have ever done that. Barry Jenkins, The Underground Railroad.
Magical Realism: The Underground Railroad
01:30:15
Speaker
you know ah ah it now it is It is not a film per se. This is basically a mini-series. This thing is you know like 10 hours long. i mean It is it is ah oh what is a massive, massive ah undertaking. um but i just didn't I didn't see this coming up on Criterion and i and I didn't see it at the time. Um, and this is really, really quite unbelievably powerful. I don't understand why this didn't get the attention that it probably should have gotten at the time. Why, why did this just kind of fall under the rate? Was it, was it the pandemic? was It wasn't because we were in the middle of the pandemic. Is that what kind of, yeah, yeah that's really, that's all of really interesting too, because three, you would have thought that that would have worked the other way. That would have worked for it.
01:31:01
Speaker
rather than against rather than a g at least in my mind, it would have worked for it rather than against it. um ah the underground what so So it it is to submit a mini-series. Joel Edgerton and a few others adapted to the thing. and the underground It imagines that the Underground Railroad of ah the Antebellum South of of of of of of ah slavery times was real. an actual thing. And it's really sort of mystical and magical. Now, I think maybe for some people that might have put them off a bit. People have been so, when you talk about, particularly talk about that period, people look for something sort of very, very straightforward and dramatic.
01:31:43
Speaker
And Barry drifted off into this into this other space, and I think it might have put some, in the same way that, frankly, Lovecraft Country um ah sort of did that. you know It sort of drifted off into this other space, and it was, and people loved it. The people who loved it loved it. And then we've also, yeah I mean, it's absolutely worth watching. It's very, very powerful and interesting and surrealistic sur realistic and i'm magically realistic. And then we also have David Lynch's Blue Velvet ah from Criterion. and ah T-boy. No, yeah. yeah
01:32:19
Speaker
And Blue blue Velvet in 4K, so it just gets full treatment and you know drugs Lynch approved. This is the film, of course, where we first get a bite of the the real David Lynch. this is you know He's made Dune, he's made the Elephant Man, he's done all his for higher jobs, and now he's just getting down to doing his thing. And this is when everyone finally gets a sense of what David's head is is all about. And ah boy, what a what a just wild trip.
01:32:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yes, it does. Yeah, this Wild at Heart was right in this pocket. And Wall walks right up to Mulholland. And that's
Precursor Films: Bound and Wachowskis' Vision
01:33:04
Speaker
about it. I mean, my wife came in right around that time. Those lost highway. Four films. Yeah. That's the other one. Yeah. And then Upbound, the original film by the Wachowskis, the not the first film, but it's the one and that really kind of, this is a 4K disc, Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, and ah Joey Pantoliano, Joey Pants. I'm not gonna go anywhere other than just to say this is a very interesting and telling film. There's a lot...
01:33:43
Speaker
Well, yeah, look i look. No, I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. If if those two Wachowski brothers at the time, brothers, two boys, men, brothers at the time, they make this movie with these two lesbians in this and this world of these gangsters, and they and they got to do this thing. It's just a really great movie. the the The narrative is wonderful in the movie. But the thing that is bubbling in the movie, this transition in the movie, are these two women, these lesbians. and their now if you If you tell me that, what, 15 years later, those two fellas, because i'm i I'm looking at this, I'm like, these are some really sensitive guys. These guys really seem to have their finger on the heart of the way these women feel in this feeling in this world of men and all this guy. guy got god got got yeah um i think you know This movie will continue to be fascinating to people for decades. to you understand why I will leave it so there. i that's what be will i We have two more 4Ks from Criterion. We've got Peeping Tom, the amazingly weird Michael Powell movie that's like no other Michael Powell movie ever made. And then Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas with ah Johnny Depp basically playing Hunter S. Thompson. on You know, the ah boy, the both of these movies just kind of
01:35:03
Speaker
Um, there they're, they're, they're, they're just more weird than I wanted them to be. And that's why I'm pairing them up. You know, Peeping Tom is kind of famous because Michael Powell famous for just very elegant movies, you know, through all through the, the forties, primarily. like And that is not this, this is, uh, This is weird, kind of almost Brian De Palma territory and it's just not what you would have expected ah from Michael Powell. yeah ah You know, 1960 is like he immediately saw all the 60s are going to be like this, are they?
01:35:37
Speaker
And there's an interview with Elma Schoonmacher, his widow, of course, you know i'm editing all of Scorsese's stuff right up until the present. ah There's also an introduction by Martin Scorsese, you know, two audio commentaries on here, one with ah Ian Christie and one with Laura Mulvey, both of them absolutely outstanding film scholars. um But yeah, this is just, you know, this horrible yeah man, misogynistic, but man woman murdering guy, serial killer, ah with all of these weird diploma kind of obsessions and compulsions. It's a very disturbing movie and it ah it it's still controversial today. And then, you know, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, I didn't enjoy this at all, any part of this.
01:36:24
Speaker
I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, it's interesting. I don't like it anymore. I did at the time because I think I was engaged in the, in the whole sort of- Hunter F. Thompson. Hunter F. Thompson. Yeah. I, yeah I, michael um um um ah but gonto's journal is a you're and loathing guy ah the the the johnny is playing um I,
01:36:47
Speaker
that whole ganzo the new new new new journalism thing and all that kind of stuff and I think i was sort of caught up in all that yeah man And over the years, i've taken I've changed my mind about what I think about Gonzo journalism and then and in new journalism, Tom Wolf and all those kind of people. I think those people all said shit. um um and and and and and and And we're getting away with a thing ah that I think actually did that that harm to real journalists. Well, as long as we're on our weird trip, let's talk about Rainer Werner Fassbender's chorale, which is French for choral based on a novel.
01:37:23
Speaker
So, you know, Fassbender, fascinating guy um in his in his real life, bisexual, a very volatile life, incredibly selfish individual, brilliant, brilliant filmmaker, but enormously difficult. And um this is a straight up Tom of Finland style ah Castro district. just this is gay cinema before there was such a thing as gay cinema. He is just taking it to every imaginable stereotype and somehow turning it into a surrealistic art film. And ah it it's ah it's a very, very weird expressionistic ah kind of surreal landscape that he creates here. And I you know i know people of of all sexual orientations who have problems with this film. And yet everyone has to acknowledge it is incredibly artful. So that's the struggle with Corel. I'm glad, I'm thrilled that Criterion has put it out. Because it is a film you have to wrestle with. It's 1982. It just kind of pre-aids And as a result, it's just in a very awkward place culturally, because two or three years later, you could never have made this film and gotten it released as a mainstream film. um So, very, very interesting movie. ah Brad Davis is probably his best performance ever, but boy, what a really unusual film. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. ah Midnight Express, Midnight Express, Alan Parker.
01:38:58
Speaker
Well, at midnight, was it the one where he's in Turkish prison? Brad Davis. Yeah. Midnight Express. Yeah, yeah. Frank O'Neill in this film. I don't know. No, it's because this is surreal. This takes place in a kind of a surreal way. This is almost more like what was the horrible film from last year? The M.O. 1, the Oscar for. It's like a Yorgos Lanthamos movie almost. poor things. it has it's This lives in the world of poor things. Yeah, yeah. but Imagine imagine yeah gay poor things and that's that's less that's more about ah ah more stereotypes than it is about Frankenstein. That's this movie. you know now say okay Okay, interesting. Yeah, go ahead.
01:39:47
Speaker
Cruising, cruising, cruising, yeah. Yeah, it's like it's like if cruising had been turned into poor things. yeah yeah yeah What was it? Really quickly, Emilio Fernandez's victims of sin is out in a lovely, from 1951, lovely Blu-ray set. you know This is a great and kind of classic Mexican film from the 1950s that most people are probably not familiar with. Emilio Fernandez is significant, however, as the as the director of this because For those who don't know, Emilio Fernandez is modeled the Oscar. So when you look at the Academy Award, when you look at that Oscar statuette, that is Emilio Fernandez, who also happened to be an actor, but he was also a wonderful, wonderful filmmaker. And this is a beautiful movie. It's ah it's a great it's a great it's like ah it's ah it's a great kind of crime.
01:40:41
Speaker
melodrama and it's got a beautiful performance in the middle of it by Nino Sevilla who's just a she's beautiful and wonderful and you know she's she's like everything that Carmen Miranda wasn't times 10 she's fantastic she's really really great so ah it's it's a great kind of Mexican noir and Emilio Fernandez he's the he modeled the Oscar he modeled the Oscar because he was Dolores del Rio's friend and it was Dolores del Rio who recommended it yeah yeah oh yeah yeah that's right that's right he is
01:41:12
Speaker
and well that there's young guy ah you honestly i want to talk say about karen kassaa's girlight his first film guy he looked like which has a wheel story around it ah is and that kar kasama had worked or john sales and ah he read her screenplay for girlight and he said i will give you a million dollars of my own money to make this movie and john sales finance and his distance directing debut That's right, that's right, he is. And well, with the young guy. Uh, look, I mean, this is, this is a movie about a, uh, you know, Michelle Rodriguez's first film. It put her on the map. She's girl wants to be a boxer. It's a girl boxing movie and it's wonderful. And it's just, it's touching and it's tough and it's well made. And, uh, it was made from, uh, for a million dollars and it's like a girl. It's girls. written It's a little rocky. I love it.
01:42:00
Speaker
It's a great movie. yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I love it too. ah You might think about a movie like Million Dollar Baby Clint Eastwood would make some years later. That's a lovely, beautiful movie too, but that movie has all of the governments of Hollywood. This movie didn't have any of that. ah Michelle was not anybody. She wasn't even really an actress. She was kind of a boxer girl. and And then really fast, and and other titles are also from Janice Contemporary, which is another criterion line, is the documentary, All in the Greeds, as well as Orlando, My Political Biography by Paul Preciado. And ah then we also have from Radiance, the great Kinji Fukusaku film, sympathy for the underdog, which is, ah you know, just a Kinji Fukusaku, one of the all time great gangster filmmakers. That is a terrific release.
01:42:52
Speaker
ah We also have Vittorio de Ceta's Bandits of Orgasolo, not De Sica, De Ceta, Vittorio de Ceta, S-T-A, which is this wonderful kind of semi-crime film set in um rural Sardinia. it's really it's it it's beautifully done guy asked ah you know, he's a peasant, he's got to fight the bandits. He's really almost like a Sardinian Western. And and then lastly from Radiance, a ah trilogy of the Shinobi films, a Band of Assassins, Revenge and Resurrection by Yamamoto Mori. These are
01:43:29
Speaker
pretty Pretty great kind of Japsploitation-ish ninja movies. A lot of fun from the nineteen early 1960s. Pretty great. so Well worth checking out. um That also from Radiance. and ah Let's wrap up with some TV, shall we? let's talk let's we're gonna oh we're going to do We're going to do a a giveaway here. we got I think we got we can do maybe a couple giveaways. we've got a couple giveaways. So our first one is going to be, we're going to be giving away four copies of South Park joining the Pandaverse, their special event that was so controversial. ah Send an email to godsatdigigods.com, godsatdigigods.com, or godsatcinegods.com. Put a pander in the subject line.
01:44:17
Speaker
And if you get it to us by ah July 21st, Sunday, July 21st, we will alert you by that Monday morning, whether you have won or not. So go ahead and do that. um But did you watch the special ah special event of South Park joining the Pandavirus? So they basically decide they're going to... everything Everything that they have not made fun of, they're just going to go straight at everything. So they keep a running list of every all the all the politically correct cultural stuff that they haven't yet skewered. And they they have a makeup show every once in a while. And this is one of those. They're like having that time to get to all this stuff. So let's just have a special show where we kind of clear out the closet.
01:45:00
Speaker
And that's what it is. i'm going to read I'm going to read you what it just says on the back. It's the best summary. i can't I can't beat this. In this South Park special event, Cartman's deeply disturbing dreams portend the end of the life he knows and loves. The adults in South Park are also wrestling with their own life decisions as the advent of AI is turning their world upside down. And from there, it's just mayhem. It's just absolute it's just absolute mayhem. there is no There is no one, no group, no orientation, no religion, no anything that is spared. and i kind of I sort of love that nihilism of them. so and you know what Paramount and and MTV, they just kind of give these guys ah carte blanche now. They can come to Central or whatever. They get to do what they want. They get to do what they want. so ah no more No more controversy. Just do what you want and just don't tell us about it. so Anyway, ah send us pander in the subject line to godsatdigigods.com or godsatcinegods.com. Yep. And get it to us by the 21st. We'll let you know by the morning of the 22nd whether you want or not. Let's see here. um Manifest. Manifest. Complete series. And then we also have the fourth season on Blu-ray. Manifest. The complete series on DVD.
01:46:09
Speaker
um
01:46:12
Speaker
TV. The complete series on DVD. Yeah.
01:46:19
Speaker
On Blu-ray, they have not released Complete Series on Blu-ray, and we only have the Complete Series on DVD. I'm not quite sure what the marketing decision is. What do you think of Manifest? On Blu-ray, okay. Okay. I got it. I watched all of Manifests, actually enjoyed it for quite a while. It did that thing ah like all ah the creams, if I'm not mistaken, and then and all other stuff eventually sort of goes off to rails. ah by dick But i I dug the sort of foundational notion this airplane disappears some seven or eight years ago and then suddenly reappears and all the people on the plane of the same age they were then, but have to integrate back into society. What happened? The thing of it is they have no idea what happened.
01:47:06
Speaker
The writers of the show have no idea what happened. The producers of the show have no idea what happened. So they make things, they start making things up. but But it's a lot of fun. I am so glad that you were out. You summarized it that way because to me, but you it was this. There's a moment where you're like, how do we remake a lost without an island? You don't know what happened. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. We've also got ancient empires, and also, which is three episodes on two discs. like This is kind or the island kind of i mean this is this solid. It's Tori Alexander, the great Cleopatra, and Julius Caesar, the three sort of legendary antiquity and, you know, tyrant ah slash romantic rulers of antiquity. um These are documentaries, but they're docudromic. They do staged recreations at least as much as they can without blowing up the budget. ah It's very informative, very, you know, nice and kind of quasi dramatic. I think, you know, it's good stuff. It's educational. It's better for kids.
01:48:08
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, they get the history right. They get it right. And it's more oriented for like teenagers, right? It's it's shooting for a it's shooting for like a middle school, early high school. Do they try the keys did do they try to keep the six-part documentary series from Icons on Earth, The Simpsons, which is great. um Because we we all love The Simpsons. we've but We've never really seen the stories about the making of The Simpsons. So that's where this goes. And it ah it takes us behind the stories, behind the origins, how the characters are created, how the shows put together. It's great. it's ah and And it's just hours and hours of interviews. And they are all endlessly interesting. And it's really, really good. It just it tells you how much work goes into that show because it otherwise looks almost effortless sometimes. That's it.
01:48:54
Speaker
Oh no, yeah that that show is lots and lots of hard, hard, hard work. yeah ah And then Dexter's Laboratory, the complete series for kids. you know the My my don daughter didn't really watch this. It's kind of more of a boy thing, you know, but it's... ah it's a you it's It's good because it teaches boys that you can kind of be ah a brain and you can work in a laboratory and you can admire kids that aren't tough and that have that a little more intellectual, and there you go. so i mean i I think it's cute. It's not brilliant or anything, but i'm I'm good with it in terms of how it kind of breaks down stereotypes.
01:49:27
Speaker
um Yeah, yeah, for sure. Absolutely. It's absolutely terrific. Fairly Odd Parents, season eight, if you haven't seen this. It's my name is John Chris Lilsey. His style is super aggressive animation. ah You know, Ren and Stimpy style character design. um I don't know that I love this show beyond that. It's five episodes here. ah Love Triangle, Timmy Secret Wish, Invasion of the Dads, When Losers Attack, and Meet the Odd Parents.
01:49:58
Speaker
I don't know, I guess it's your thing, but don't start in season 8, you know? You're just getting there. The New Frasier. Do you watch any of the New Frasier? Yeah, yeah. Two, yeah literally. So I watched the first episode, kind of hated it. But it's the first episode. so so so so and but yeah and Not nothing, dude. Frasier is Frasier. You have to do well. You have to be doing better than Cheers to to make Frasier. Frasier was a show that had to be better than Cheers.
01:50:37
Speaker
Think about that for a second. or Or why did you exist? I can watch this guy on my phone. But it's not. but ah And so so it had to be better than Cheers. and it is So, Frasier. It reminds me of when W.K.R.P. came back with all these new characters and missing some of the original characters. And he screws up the chemistry. He doesn't have Niles, he doesn't have his dad. And and and then you know, without Niles and dad, you've'veve you've got now they got his son and that doesn't really work. Yeah. Well, the foundational reason that he went to Seattle was to was to take care of his dad. And that was a great relationship that really built the rest of the show. Him and his dad fish out of the water. And if you do anything else like they do on this show, you're just making stuff up. And frankly, it gets weird and uncomfortable because Kelsey Grammer still wants to play the romantic lead. But how do you think about True Detective now that it has moved into female territory? True Detective, nice country. Foster and Callie Rice, how do we feel about that particular direction? Yeah, I agree. Well, the up and down of True Detective has been up and down. I think this is an up for True Detective. I think this is a back up. For one thing, this one is completely and totally based in the real world. The Latinx one had all kinds of things going on that were mystical and magical. And that was beautiful. And I understand that that was an interest in connecting with the cultural dynamic. I agree. It's a good move. It certainly did. And then here we, as long as we are on detectives, we're going to talk about lawman bass reeds. I like this. And we got two giveaways on this. So go ahead and send an email to gods at digigods.com or gods at cinegods.com with lawman, M-A-N. This is lawman.
01:52:29
Speaker
Excuse me. My goodness. I'm going to have to edit that out. ah This is, this is a law men, M-E-N, bass read. You know what? You know, I'll take it back. Send us an email with bass. Just make it bass. I'm making these. um So, B-A-S-S. I'm changing my mind mid-show. B-A-S-S in the subject line, B-A-S-S and godsdigigods.com or godsatcinegods.com. yeah And um we will also let you know by the morning, of as long as it gets to us by the 21st, let you know morning of the 22nd if you're a winner. This is this is ah this is David Oyelowo.
01:53:05
Speaker
bring to pass a dream that he's had for years and years and years and finally kind of pulled together because Taylor Sheridan got on his team. and It's the story of the famous black lawman Bass Reeves. um i i you know My problem with this is it's six hours long and I i feel like it's working overtime to stretch out to that link. I feel like this could have been done in about three hours. I don't know. Yeah, it look, um and and and David has said this himself. David wanted to make a story about, he wanted to make a family drama. ah he wanted He wanted to explore the the inner personal life of Bass Reeves. So we get a lot of bass. Exactly. Guy with a family and all this kind of stuff. We get a lot of that. ah Now, I got to tell you, the stories I hear about Bass Reeves, the stories about Bass Reeves riding out to catch a bad guy.
01:53:56
Speaker
Yeah. That's what I want to hear. I dont guy do not you need to hear Bath arguing with his wife. yeah but yeah bad yeah yeah back in that like And there's a lot of, you know, so soap opera-ish drama in this. And that's the story he wanted to tell this big whole life story, humanize the guy. but ah But to me, I would rather mythologize the guy because he has not been properly mythologized yet. Bass is a character that you and I know, and some people know, but if you don't know who Bass Reeves is, you don't know who Bass Reeves is. And and yeah frankly, he's a mythical figure. And I wanted him to be just a big ass myth. yeah friend And that's another thing. ah Bass Reeves was supposed to be, you know, like Jack Reacher, like six foot five and in in whatever. I mean, who knows what's true. It's it's it's like Mel Gibson playing William Wallace. You know, William Wallace with... I mean, Mel is 5'11 on a good day. And William Wallace was allegedly like 6'9". I mean he's just enormous. I mean he struck fear into the British troops because they yeah they could see him standing on the hill and they knew which one he was. he was ah He was two feet taller than everybody else. you know It was just this massive figure. So yeah, it's the same kind of a deal. But i am i'm glad i mean I'm glad that they got
01:55:12
Speaker
Bass Reeves story told at least first because now somebody else can tell it again and in a different way and maybe take yeah an angle on it. But, you know, amazing figure. I mean, people don't realize Bass Reeves are arrested thousands of outlaws. I mean, Wyatt Earp didn't come close to the number of arrests that Bass Reeves had. Bass Reeves cleaned up parts of the West that nobody else can close to. It's an amazing story. Yeah, it was amazing. He did it all while being a black man. So also being a Powerpuff Girls complete series is nothing I can really say about that. It's made it twice as hard to get into any kind of anime looking bubbly thing, 78 episodes. Lots of content here. My daughter never really grooved onto this, kind of predates her a bit. The Powerpuff live action series was supposed to happen, didn't happen, kind of tanked.
01:56:02
Speaker
heard a lot of careers, but this animated series is still very, very cute. We've also got Kamen Rider Geats, the complete series. This is more of that kind of, you know, mecha, live action, ah power ranger-y stuff. It's, you know, either either you love it or you don't, ah this stuff doesn't really work for me. but it's to the you know It's sort of like, if a it's it's game show oriented, right? It's this sort of ah gladiatorial. It's like if the Power Rangers were gladiators, best way I can put it. Silly stuff. um The original The Flash, not the not the most recent series, but the original John Wesley ship flash. And John Wesley ship plays the flash here, then would come back and play in the new flash with the, to play the, the you know, but no the the Golden Age Flash and his dad and he you he played a number of characters in the series. Nice crossover and Mark Hamill originated the puzzler on this show and then played it in the new one. So that's the one other crossover. series to um But I don't think this series, I really like this series. I thought it was cool. I thought it was ahead of its time and I just don't think it really it really got the
01:57:11
Speaker
yeah I mean, 22 episodes, it didn't give it a chance. You know, today, we'd probably get three or four seasons of this, and they'd give it a shot, but it really it got canceled just before it had the chance to really do anything interesting.
01:57:24
Speaker
so cool yeah a lot of cool people and dick milon then last oio the last four shows here and then we ah wrap it up do patrol the for the final
01:57:36
Speaker
So But it's four seasons and done, and, you know, if you like the heroes. Okay, I'm not really into any of these. A last woman, um you know, negative man, but not my thing. But anyway, ah that's done. We also have NCIS Sydney, season one, taking it to Australia. Kind of weird, sort of weird, right? I don't know. I mean, it's yeah I'm kind of done with it. Yeah.
01:58:08
Speaker
I'm like, why am I watching the show set in Australia? But then I'm like, yeah, whatever. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Well, you got to figure you're killing two birds with one stone because obviously it's the show that airs in Sydney, that airs in Australia, I should say. And why not just take it in here and maybe it owes to the fact that they figured out, we have figured out that Americans will in fact, watch foreign language shows, right? yeah So even when they're dubbed, so they'll definitely watch a show that's just set in Australia. These people aren't even actually speaking foreign language. And then Extreme Ghostbusters is a complete series. This is the the Ghostbusters animated show. We will watch the TV show. Nothing brilliant, but ah you know it takes place like years after the real Ghostbusters. So you segue from real Ghostbusters to extreme Ghostbusters, trying to make a saga of it. Doesn't really matter. It's still kind of the same sort of stuff. I mean, look, there are Ghostbusters animated versions of them. They're fighting monsters and they're doing their thing. It's fine. It's cute. ah you know just if It just doesn't do anything new. And then very last, We finally have the complete series of Welcome Back, Cotter. Not on Blu-ray, on DVD, but Cotter is here and the sweat hogs are here and everyone gets to see how John Travolta's career began. yeah and
01:59:35
Speaker
Mmm. Yeah. i this was This was a particularly interesting show on a lot of levels. I mean, this was that moment in the 70s when I probably felt like um every show was suddenly going to be, you know, the next race and it wasn't going to be a big deal and we were kind of breaking down a lot of boundaries. And for so somehow, it didn't really translate into the 80s. We didn't really make it into the 80s. But um it's you know this is an inner city school in Gabriel Kaplan. Gabe Kaplan does ah you know plays the the Wiseacre teacher over these this a fascinatingly mixed group of ah kind of goofy, difficult kids and John Travolta is one of them. And I you know i just think it's ah i think it's a really it's a much sweeter show than people ever gave it credit for. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. you know Because we the the classroom and all of that, but we went home with game.
02:00:30
Speaker
hema and met his wife, and the kids would come by the house, and and it was this whole thing, it was this whole thing. Now, later, um ah when the head of the class went along, and we had Howard... It's a great point. oh Howard Hessman, and eventually eventually Billy Comally took over that show. We stayed in the classroom. um i really that That was in the classroom, that was you know the owl was all it was all at school, and a lot of those shows, too. Like this one, we went home, and you'd pay Howard's wife, and they would talk. and ah And I love those episodes when John Travolta would be there hanging out of his house, ah you know, at Mr. Carter's house, Mr. Carter, you know, like that, and and make a sandwich. And all eating was it it was just it was just great. yeah It was so, so, so, so, so, so real. um ah Gabe Brightly was an executive producer, creator of this show. People forget Gabe was a fairly noted, high-level comedian. He was he was yeah when, you know, this which why I guess he got the show in the first place. um Gabe was smart enough to to to own a chunk of this show, unlike many of the the folks who, so Gabe made a fortune
02:01:40
Speaker
off of this show in reruns. It didn't make any money from those 95 episodes. And that is why he is now a gambler on late night poker shows. The show has been in reruns for 50 years, since 1975. The game has been getting paid. Alright, thanks everybody. We will be back probably closer to the end of August. i' got an back out out of town and a little um the ah right coming back so yeah We'll be back probably around the end of August and um Have a wonderful summer. Otherwise try to be good people in the world We have a we have a hard time in the country right now. The movies need you go to see some good movies
02:02:18
Speaker
help hold this business up till it gets back to normal. The Teamsters and the the trades have not yet struck a deal. So we are we are effectively still in a de facto strike mode a year after the last strikes, just so everybody knows. We're in a hard place. We're in a hard place. Movies are not not yet back. So help help us get there and be good and we'll see you when we come back.
02:03:56
Speaker
Bye!