Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
DigiGods Episode 260: In Memory of the Motherscratcher
339 Plays8 months ago
Criterion’s Saint Omer trumps Oscar-winner Anatomy of a Fall — and why is Warner Bros. afraid of musicals? Also, the film that put Rod Lurie on the map, the end of the Snyderverse and some great television boxes… #DVD #Bluray #4k #TV #Movies
In this episode, the Gods discuss:
- The 355 (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- The Act: The Complete Limited Series (Blu-ray)
- All That Money Can Buy (a.k.a. The Devil and Daniel Webster) (Blu-ray)
- All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Blu-ray)
- Ancient Aliens®: Aliens & Artifacts Edition ― Complete Seasons 11‒18 (DVD)
- Anyone But You (Blu-ray)
- Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Carrie (2013): Collector's Edition 4K UHD (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Child's Play (2019) Collector's Edition (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- The Color Purple (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Colt .45 - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
- Contagion 4k (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- The Contender (Blu-ray)
- The Expendables 4-Film Collection (Blu-ray)
- Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 - The Complete Film Collection (Blu-ray)
- Harriet (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Heroes: The Complete Collection (Blu-ray)
- Icons Unearthed: Star Wars (Blu-ray)
- Invaluable: The True Story of an Epic Artist (Blu-ray)
- The Iron Claw (Blu-ray)
- Kickboxer Steelbook (Blu-ray)
- Little Monsters Steelbook (Blu-ray)
- Lynch / Oz (Blu-ray)
- Migration (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Mister Organ (Blu-ray)
- Quigley Down Under 4K UHD (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island (DVD)
- The Ring Collection (The Ring, The Ring 2, Rings) (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- The Runner (Blu-ray)
- Saint Omer (Blu-ray)
- SAW 10-Film Collection 20th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray)
- Shivers Steelbook (Blu-ray)
- Stephen King's The Shining (Blu-ray)
- Suits: The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
- Ticket to Paradise (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- To Die For (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Wake Up: Stories from the Frontlines of Suicide Protection (DVD)
- Wednesday - The Extraordinary First Season (Blu-ray)
- Wonka (4k UHD Blu-ray)
Please also visit www.Cinegods.com and Substack.HollywoodHeretic.com.
Recommended
Transcript
Evolution of Spring Break
00:00:27
Speaker
And we're back. And spring break is coming up, which for parents is both a blessing and a curse. I teach college. So spring break is a relevant kind of thing for the old college kids. And I got to tell you, it's not what it was back in the day. Now it's never one of those spring break kids, you know, movies. I think there must be three movies called spring break from the 80s.
00:00:53
Speaker
There got to be at least two or three of them called Spring Break. I was never really one of those kids. So we had Spring Break at the top of the month, and the kids often did whatever they did. But apparently, they've done away with all of that rowdy Spring Break. You don't see those movies anymore. There are no movies called Spring Break anymore. That's true, except for that couple. I don't know if you saw this on the news. There were some couple in Florida. I mean, no offense people in Florida.
00:01:22
Speaker
You know, if I say a couple of panhandle types, you know what I'm talking about. And a couple of panhandle types, you know, all just tatted and inked up and they passed out in the sand and lost their kids.
00:01:38
Speaker
Oh, for God's sake. And the authorities showed up and arrested them, and the couple is just cursing at each other, and, you know, I want my kids back. Well, you should have thought about that like two hours ago. No. Anyway, you know, there it is.
Oscars Commentary
00:01:54
Speaker
There it is. But anyway, Oscars, we haven't talked about Oscars. Oh, yeah.
00:02:00
Speaker
Let's just do a quick recap on how we feel about that. I did some stuff on my Hollywood heretic sub-stack. I kind of summarized that. What's your take on the very predictable awards otherwise? There were a few that weren't so predictable.
00:02:20
Speaker
Well, I mean, you were generally speaking correct in your assessment that Oppenheimer was going to be very, very, very successful. I said it would get seven or eight, probably seven, and it got seven. So right there, first of all,
00:02:35
Speaker
Yes, very predictable ceiling and Robert Daly jr. Dave line joy Very interesting a stone interesting interest the one right? That's the one it was like oh crazy. That's great No, no perfectly perfectly reasonable to give that a stone but still interest as opposed to little players Here's here's what I found really interesting
00:02:59
Speaker
In every category where there was a strong front runner, no upsets. In every category where there was a weak front runner or a really strong contender, upset. And I thought that was interesting. The ones that were the most predictable all went exactly that way. The ones that were a little bit on the bubble, upset right down the line, every which way. I mean, it would like, Barbie, everybody was picking for costume and production design, nope, went to poor things.
00:03:28
Speaker
I was picking, you know, uh, Emma went, went, or Emma was picking Willie, went to Emma. Went to Emma, yeah, yeah, yeah. But Dave Hine and Robert Downey and Chris, obviously, next picture and all. Yeah, those things were kind of a given. Now, the, you know, the winner is not with, with standing. I thought it was a really good show.
00:03:50
Speaker
I love that thing that they did where they had the previous winners of the best male sporting act. All those, and they come out and they did those little, you know, direct addresses. I rather enjoyed that. It's certainly, it's certainly, it's certainly better than any kind of bit that they might have done. You know, they come out and they do the bits. No, don't do it. Just have somebody come out and say something in earnest.
00:04:13
Speaker
They did that back in 2009, the first time, and it caught a little bit of flack at the time. People said, oh, this is so pretentious, and they said, well, no, but I get what you mean by pretentious, but really, would you rather have two people come out and, like you said, do a bit, do some shtick? Would you just roll our eyes at? No. See, what I like about that is
00:04:34
Speaker
It's not designed to entertain us, the audience at home. It's designed to give the nominees a sense of legacy, a sense of connection in their craft. And that's really important to actors. And, you know, it's really tough being a nominee and losing.
00:04:51
Speaker
And you get to dial up the makeup and the hair and the days and the interviews and you're going there. And let's be honest. I mean, for example, let's just take all the other actresses in Best Sporting Actress. They all knew they were going to lose to Divine Joy Randall. They all knew they were going to lose. She had it in the bag. She'd won everything else. It was her. So you're basically dialing yourself up to go there to make an appearance for somebody else's honor.
00:05:17
Speaker
And when somebody comes out, one of your peers on that little pantheon of great actresses and pays tribute to you, well, now that whole moment has been worth it.
Oscar Nominee Value & Legacy
00:05:30
Speaker
That made that moment worth it. In the moment, you were honored for what you did. You didn't win the award, but you were honored there on national television in front of millions of people, nearly 20 million this time. It's a good little uptick from last year.
00:05:42
Speaker
And so I think that is more I thought it would be a bigger uptick. But yes, yeah, I did too. I thought I thought it would be up around mid 20s. I'm not thinking another 5 million. But you know, it at least it's in the right direction. But yeah, you're absolutely right, dude. And what it does is it puts the truth to the notion that being nominated, just being nice to that notion. Because I
00:06:05
Speaker
It is, you know me, I'm not a competitive guy, I'm not big on the, I would love it if they were simply awards of recognition. This year, the Oscars recognized, never used the word winner or loser, and recognized a lot of people for a lot of shit because when you start talking about recognition of achievement, recognition,
00:06:27
Speaker
then, you know, you can talk about a lot of people, which is what that moment allows. It allows us to simply say, all you people were great. And you did fantastic work. And we see you and we appreciate you in being nominated is a win. Yes. And then we're going to give this little statue to the homie over here. Yeah, that's all.
00:06:47
Speaker
That's all. I mean, I think it's all movement in the right direction. Obviously, I think we could see some movement in some other directions. I thought Jonathan Glaser kind of blew it by speechifying too much and he should have let his movie speak for itself because now there's all this controversy that's focusing on him and the speech and not the movie.
00:07:09
Speaker
that sometimes is the fallout. But yeah, I like, I hope they keep doing that with the
Artistic Intent vs Audience Interpretation
00:07:14
Speaker
actors. I think that's a great thing. I can't believe, you know, it's 2009. It took us this long to get back to it. But anyway, unbalanced. I'll ask you a tough one, though. How do you divide, because this is a conversation that I've been having.
00:07:28
Speaker
And Jonathan's zone of interest, of course, is international feature. And then, of course, the Maria Paul documentary. How many days in Maria Paul? Twenty five. Twenty, twenty, twenty days. And his speech. Now, how do you how do you juxtapose speeches, which are very similar to my mind?
00:07:50
Speaker
It's similar. I think the difference is that the Maripaul guy, number one, it's a documentary and people cut docs a lot more slack because docs are more, they're more of a statement to begin with. The doc in and of itself is a statement. He was talking specifically about that conflict. He didn't read a statement.
00:08:09
Speaker
So it didn't look like he prepared a thing, right? Glazer went up there and he read, and it was like, oh my gosh, you knew you were going to win, and then you prepared a thing, and it just, it felt, and then he pivoted, right? And he pivoted from the Holocaust to the current situation.
00:08:27
Speaker
And that's sort of like giving your movie an addendum. I think the Mario Paul guy was just keeping within what the film was already saying. And I think that's probably the difference. Stay within the walls that you've already established. But, you know, I always go back to when Chris Okyslowski, when I was at the 94 Can Film Festival and Kislowski was there with the last chapter in Blue, White, Red.
00:08:54
Speaker
And the beauty of Kieslowski, and when I interviewed him one-on-one before he died, you just got this beautifully, the guy didn't really think much of himself. He was just completely unassuming. There's no ego whatsoever. And he thought all these festivals and these awards was just ridiculous. He considered himself a failed novelist because he just didn't have the talent to be a writer. He thought, you know, I'm too lazy to be a novelist. I mean, really.
00:09:15
Speaker
Very, very. He's like, novels, that's the great art. What I'm doing is just whatever. I mean, he didn't regard cinema as like some great thing. It's just something he could do. And we're just a little bit like Stephen Frears. I mean, we got a lot of those guys. It's a job, right? It's just a job. They don't really consider themselves great artists. But every question that Kieslowski got about
00:09:34
Speaker
know, what does red mean? You know, you chose this color and it's in certain scenes and the way that the red bleeds into blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They give him all these questions and he just kind of sit there and he go in Polish through a translator and go, yeah, all right. I guess if you see that, sure, that's good.
00:09:52
Speaker
Like, I mean, he was just very, very dismissive. I was like, yeah, sure, see what you want, whatever. He didn't give anybody any handles. He didn't help them, right? To him, it was like, you know, the movie is what it is, speaks for itself. And think of it what you will. If you love it, you love it. If you hate it, you hate it. If you think that it's got all kinds of symbolism, knock yourselves out. I'm not going to hold your hand through any of that. And I kind of, and I like that.
00:10:16
Speaker
You know, I like that. There are very few filmmakers who've honestly engaged the art in that way that we always show. Oh, you have to make the art for yourself. Whatever, it's the painting, the song. Yeah. You have to make it. You have to do it for yourself. No, most artists are hoping that somebody will buy that painting, love that song. There you go. It's true. But he is among those who
Tributes to Entertainment Figures
00:10:43
Speaker
really did. You know what? I'm just going to go ahead and
00:10:45
Speaker
and do this and we'll see and we'll see how also the shakes out. So we've got a couple of obits, actually four, but two of the biggies. Steve Lawrence has returned to Edie. He's up there crooning with the rest of them with Frank and...
00:11:01
Speaker
and Mel Torme and Dean and Sammy and all the rest of them. They're all up there just in and Steve and Edie are doing their thing. So Steve Lawrence, wonderful crooner, Edie Gourmet is his lovely wife, preceded him by several years. So I think it that's
00:11:19
Speaker
You know, that's something, it almost feels like cause for celebration. Stephen Eddy, Stephen Eddy, if I just, something about Stephen Eddy. All right, so, Steve was born in 1935. Steve was as old as my dad. My dad was born in 39. So these are the people who are elderly. It is very interesting to me that Steve and Eddy were icons of our generation. I know.
00:11:46
Speaker
I grew up watching Steve and Edie. I did too. Steve and Edie were people that I turned on the television because Steve and Edie are gonna be on the what? They're gonna be on the show, they're gonna be on the Love Boat, they're gonna be on the radio. They're gonna be on Men Real Sisters. And you know what, I'm 12, I'm 13, this is what the early 70s, whatever it would be. And I'm Jonzen on Steve, Steve launched an Edie gourmet.
00:12:08
Speaker
And in all the cats that you just mentioned, now, this is what's interesting. So, you know, they have this moment. It sort of bleeds over into our generation. And then you probably lose them for a bit in terms of the sort of, you know, their back, their back. I got these nieces and god daughters, you know, 20 this, 20 that, 30 whatever.
00:12:29
Speaker
All about steve and edie all about sammy davis jr all about dean all about you in terms of the music the style the whole thing it's like it's in there's something just sort of.
00:12:45
Speaker
that lasts forever about the stuff that they do. It's timeless, the stuff that they do. Anyway, I just had to say that. They will never go away. Never, ever. And I loved every TV appearance they ever made. And their version of Baby It's Cold Outside is still one of my favorites. I think the one that Tom Jones does with the, what's your name, the Cranberries lead singer, I think that is arguably the most fun because it is subversive and so filthy just the way that they sing it.
00:13:15
Speaker
And I can't think of an equivalent sort of, back then there were a lot of quote, unquote, Steven Edie's version would have been Sonny and Cher. An earlier version would have probably included Gracie and. And Burns and Allen. And Burns and Allen, because they did a little soft shoe singing and dancing to it and the jokes and all this kind of stuff and appeared in movies and all this kind of stuff. And then that sort of quote, oh, I don't know, maybe the captain and Tennille
00:13:43
Speaker
to the late 70s, early 80s. And then that kind of goes away. I can't, it doesn't exist anymore. So the husband, wife, you know, team, they certainly dance, they act, they're in the movies, they're on the TV shows. Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love never did anything together. No, no, no. Who's that chick who married to Dex?
00:14:06
Speaker
The Dax Shepard. Oh, Dax Shepard, Chris and Val. They hang around a lot. Yeah, they do. They do. They do commercials for like Autotrader or whatever. Yeah, as an actual. So a couple, but they've never cut a record. So no, no.
00:14:20
Speaker
Well, we also lost M. Emmet Walsh in the last 48 hours. 88 years old, solid career, man. That guy was, I mean, when you stop to think about everything he was in, he's one of those character actors who literally never stopped working. And a buddy of mine said, I never got the impression that anybody ever needed to direct him. That he just walked on every set and he just,
00:14:45
Speaker
nailed it. And I do want to say it is because of M. Emmet Walsh that I actually use the word mother scratcher.
00:14:57
Speaker
Uh, do you remember that little, that one great scene of his in raising Arizona? Not Bill Parker, that mother scratcher. Uh, so that's why I use the word mother scratcher and people will look at me and go, what's a mother scratcher? It's just so, and like, so like there are, there are no quote unquote.
00:15:20
Speaker
Emmett Walsh movies, like, you know, yeah, he made so many films. Oh, my gosh. I mean, he's the Blade Runner. Blade Runner, Blood Simple. I mean, it's just on and on and on and on. I mean, he was such an amazing fixture for so many years and he made every movie better. He was just that great character actor who just grounded it, right? He just, you put him on screen and it just pulls that movie right into the soil. It just,
00:15:50
Speaker
They run the X-Files every fucking five minutes on the television behind me, on the channel. Just literally, so when did he pass? Like in the last couple of days or something like that? No, no, it was like day before yesterday. Day before yesterday, he played Arthur Dale, which was this whole ongoing character on the X-Files. So he played the old Arthur Dale. And that was just on like last night.
00:16:18
Speaker
I'm like, oh man, he's everywhere, just everywhere. And then a couple of other passings that didn't make huge news. One may even barely, I mean, both of them kind of barely. My friend Steven Silverman passed. It turns out last July and word has been slowly trickling out.
00:16:38
Speaker
didn't really get big. Oh, but Stephen was a former reporter for People, wrote a ton of books, including a great biography of David Lean. He wrote the biography of Stanley Donin and did a great book on the history of amusement parks a few years ago, and his final book, He Didn't Live to See published, which came out in December. We'll talk about it soon on this show. I just got hold of it. The definitive book on Stephen Sondheim, which was published Sondheim by Stephen Silverman in December.
00:17:07
Speaker
So, in honor of Stephen, we're going to talk about that on a future show, but Stephen was just a wonderful entertainment journalist, a scholar, and a historian. And one of those guys that you could sit with, he lived in New York, but he was from L.A. And, you know, whenever he'd come to L.A., we'd sit down and have a lunch, and I would just revel in the stories because he was one of those raconteurs, right?
00:17:30
Speaker
He'd spin his stories and tell you, you know, he and Stanley Dolan lived in the same building at one point in New York, and he had all these stories. It was just so much fun. And then we also lost my very dear friend Eileen Meisel, producer of a number of films, including Onegan, the Ray Fiennes film. She was also a producer on the Golden Compass. She was originally a Lorimar executive, and she was the Lorimar executive who put dangerous liaisons together.
00:18:00
Speaker
and everyone knew Eileen. She always took great pride in the fact that in Julia Phillips' book, you'll never eat lunch in this town again, where Julia just rips this whole town apart and slams everybody. It is just a scandalous tell-all. The only person in that book that she has a nice thing to say about was Eileen. And for good reason, Eileen lived in London for 35 years, but she was
00:18:28
Speaker
developing a number of projects for Disney Television through 20th Television and they are still presumably there, but we always sit down and have a lunch here and just an amazing lady, just a wonderful, gracious kind. Everything that you don't think Hollywood people are but you wish they were, Eileen was. She was just the salt of the earth and, you know, have been really helpful.
00:18:52
Speaker
Oh my gosh. The exact opposite of what people say about, you know, Hollywood people. No, let me help you. She, you know, if you were ever in London, she would, she kept it. The Clarages was, you know, the hotel and wonderful restaurant, which has been there for like a hundred and some odd years. That was her office. She didn't keep like an office.
00:19:13
Speaker
as she went to Claridge's and everybody at Claridge's knew her and she had her table and you'd just get, you'd rotate through her table all day long and she'd treat you to the Claridge's experience and it was, it was an amazing thing. So I'm going to miss her terribly but you know, she set an example and I would say anyone who knew her, you know what the example is. If you want to be something in Hollywood and you want to be a good person and do good work, you can look no further than Eileen Meisel.
00:19:39
Speaker
So, farewell Eileen, gonna miss you terribly. Also, you know, we get stuff from from listeners every so often had a really interesting request from a listener and from Keith Black, who made a short film he asked us take a look at called Ghosted.
00:19:56
Speaker
which he, you know, it's basically a one person short guy in his car just working on this, not to give anything away, but a woman that he's trying to make a connection with and feels like he's being ghosted.
00:20:13
Speaker
And it's a bit, right? It's the kind of thing that you would normally see on like a Jimmy Fallon or the Tonight Show or a Late Show or any of the late night talk shows would do as a bit. Carpool Karaoke, right? These are all little bits that they do. So this is something that might show up as kind of a bit on one of those things. But what sets the part is it's not a late night bit. This is the kind of thing that people can do. And I want to make an emphasis on this.
00:20:42
Speaker
that you really can do great work if you just have a good idea. And Ghosted is an example of doing terrific low budget short film work based on a good idea with next to no money.
00:20:58
Speaker
Good idea, well executed. Good idea, well executed. That's all you got to do. And I always hear people say, oh, I got to raise $25,000 to make short film because I got this great. No, you don't. If you want to make a great short film, you can make a great, just get a great idea.
Creating Impactful Short Films
00:21:17
Speaker
Great ideas don't necessarily, I mean, if your great idea includes a cast of thousands, that's going to be a problem.
00:21:23
Speaker
But there are inexpensive ways to execute great ideas. And not all great ideas are expected. Just achievable. And great idea, by the way, doesn't equate to just, yeah, I had a lot of students get stuck on this, so I need to do something original, original, original. I'm like, look.
00:21:41
Speaker
I understand what you mean by that, that word original, but here's the reality. The last incipient originality, probably sometime in the 70s. Everything else has been a relatively speaking derivative. What you do within that, that's on you.
00:22:02
Speaker
But a lot of times when you go out, what you end up making is something nonsensical. And nonsensical might be original, but it won't be good. So don't worry about that word original.
00:22:18
Speaker
What is your idea? What do you want to say? What's the joke? What's the hook? What's the – I don't know. And whatever that is, how you construct that, that's all that matters. That's all that matters. And you execute well and, you know, it's sometimes you – it's funny, you see how comedians get into these sort of like –
00:22:40
Speaker
beefs about some comedian taking some other comedian's joke. Now, you and I are long enough to be around when we not only knew that comedians took each other's jokes, they expected it. If you didn't take my joke, admit that it might not be funny.
00:22:58
Speaker
Dave Chappelle has the best story of that when he was young and that other comic asked if he could use a joke, an older comic, and then later said, I think I'd like to buy that joke from you, which comics would do. I'd pay you for that joke. And he said, well, no, I just let you use it, but it's my joke. I'm going to use it in my routine. And he says, and then that guy said, then I'm going to take it.
00:23:19
Speaker
And that was his first great lesson as a standup comic. He was like 17 years old and he realized how cutthroat the business was. I was like, that was Dave Chappelle's wakening because he was trying to build material, right? Like every joke counted. I mean, you don't realize it takes, you know, if you're doing, if you're a Dave Chappelle and you're like, like at that time he's 17, a set would be what, 10, 15 minutes? I mean, it takes weeks and weeks of workshopping and creative,
00:23:49
Speaker
crafting to get just 20 minutes of material. It takes a lot of time and you lose a joke. That's costly to a young comic, especially a 17-year-old. Anyway, it's a
Movie Box Set Discussions
00:24:05
Speaker
crazy thing. It's a crazy thing, man.
00:24:06
Speaker
Let's get into the movies. Yes, real sure. Real fast, talk about just some, we'll get into some 4Ks here in a second because, you know, I like Tim, you like to start with the 4Ks and we got a great bunch of 4Ks today. Yeah. But I should mention that the Contender is out on Blu-ray from Giant. The Contender, of course, is the Rod Lurie debut film when Rod went from being a film critic to a filmmaker.
00:24:36
Speaker
And how do you think the contender holds up today? You know, in the context of today's geopolitical, you know. That's why I asked. Which I suppose are every days. We always say, oh, today's. And then I think it was, yes, but that was always true. Nevertheless, what was he, like, the first Jewish president, I think, is the context.
00:25:00
Speaker
Well, it's Joan Allen. Jeff Bridges is the president. He wants Joan Allen to be his vice president. But then there's all this dirty laundry and the nomination. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Gary Oldman is the one who's really interrogating her in the committee. I mean, it got a couple of Oscar nominations. And Joan Allen was really on a roll at the time. And I asked, you know, Rod. Yeah, they joined the movie star, yeah.
00:25:29
Speaker
Rod really nailed it. I mean, he got this movie made because he had courted Joan Allen for years, seeing her at junkets and whatnot, saying, I got a great role for you, I got a great role. I mean, he really, he worked it and started his career, his second career. Yeah, as a studio, as a filmmaker. That first film that he made, in which your boy, your boy, Kevin, played the first Jewish president. Yeah, that one.
00:25:57
Speaker
I think it was called The Current.
00:26:01
Speaker
Which was a sharp little movie, too. And that movie didn't push him, though, and then was this movie that ultimately did the deal. Yeah. So the Expendables has been out like a billion times and in Steel Books for all the 4Ks. But this is the first time, this is not a 4K set, they'll come out with that later. But you know what? All four Expendables movies in one tight little box set that won't take up a whole lot of room.
00:26:30
Speaker
And it comes with the digital copies and the whole deal. If you insist on the 4Ks, you'll have to wait for something else. But they finally have the whole four expendables thing in a set. And that tells me they're probably not going to make any more. I think everybody's joints are creaking.
00:26:45
Speaker
Well, yeah, look, I was probably the only critic that had something nice to say about the expense formals. Yeah, beat up bad out there. But I'm sorry, I thought that movie, and again, as it's true, it's all all of those movies, but that one in particular understood what it was, what it is, what it's doing. And it just did it, you know, in 50 Cent with the stupid one-liners.
00:27:11
Speaker
Like, you know what? When the movie understands what it's doing and just does it, I'm okay with that, man. So yeah, put that in a box set and call it a day. And another box set from Lionsgate, also with the digital copies, is the 20th anniversary edition of Saw, 10 films, an average of one every other year. You know, I just have absolutely-
00:27:37
Speaker
I hated them too. But a lot of people like them, so if you feel the need to have about not quite 20 hours worth of torture porn sitting on your shelf for that happy time when you're throwing a dinner party and you say, you know what? When you're done with dessert, how about we throw on sauce seven? I don't know why anybody would want that, but I guess somebody would.
00:28:00
Speaker
James Wan and Lee Whannell, who created that series, really went on to sort of re- because it's not like that genre of films didn't exist before, but to sort of reinvigorate it. So out of that comes
00:28:15
Speaker
the insidious films and so on and so forth, which frankly put a whole bunch of filmmakers to work over the last 20 years. So in that context, way to kill them, boys. Way to kill them. And we got a couple of new films that are not 4K.
Rom-Com & Drama Reviews
00:28:30
Speaker
So let's pop these out real fast. Anyone but you with Glenn Powell and Sidney Sweeney trying to bring back the rom-com with two people who are up and coming.
00:28:39
Speaker
Sidney Sweeney didn't do so well in Madame Web, but nobody really expected her to. I mean, how do you feel about this in particular? I mean, it did well. I didn't think it would do well.
00:28:54
Speaker
No, no, no, it's cute and it's sexy. And again, I'll say the same thing I said about it. It understands what it is, what it intends to be, and it just sort of picked around the best of that. Look, Sydney Sweeney, you're crazy fine as hell. You look particularly fantastic in a bikini. Bring that, and she's like, you know what? You're absolutely right. And then see, she owns it. She knows her assets and it's true.
00:29:21
Speaker
She's also a very fine actress. She's funny. She's also really smart. I mean, she was asked about the failure of Madam Webb and she was very blunt about all that's wrong with Hollywood and the film business. I mean, she's very smart. I give her a lot of credit.
00:29:41
Speaker
And then also new on Blu-ray and DVD combo set here with the digital copy as well, also from Lionsgate, is The Iron Claw, which was expected to have a little bit of awards traction, wound up not really getting any. But I was shocked at how fascinating this film was. If you don't know the story, the Von Erich family are legends, legends in pro wrestling.
00:30:05
Speaker
This is from Sean Durkin, who's done Martha, Mary, Mae, Marlene, whatever that thing was called. He really has been a great kind of indie filmmaker for a number of years. The Iron Claw is his attempt at telling the story of this family, the Von Erich family and the multi-generations of how they became this dynasty of wrestlers.
00:30:30
Speaker
And it is really fascinating the, you know, the ferocious dad who's just this, I mean, kind of King Lear figure, the sons who are all, you know, he just has them all completely in his palm, teaching them how to carry on the next generation. Zach Efron, who's who's put on muscle like I can't believe he's totally unrecognizable, really good performance. Yet this movie got no awards love, and it really kind of fell into an awkward place in the marketplace. I have a theory. I'm curious if you've got one.
00:31:00
Speaker
Well, no, I don't have a theory about it, and I was a little bit amazed about it, particularly with respect to the critics' organizations, because there was a lot of chatter about it in the critics' organizations, but it just never seemed to make it over the top. I don't suppose that I thought it was going to do that particularly well when it made it up to the big boys, you know.
00:31:22
Speaker
But no, and there's some really good performances in this movie. Ooh, some amazing performances. Emile White from over there at the, the Bear. He plays one of those. These guys, when I paid attention to a thing called wrestling in the late 60s, early 70s, these were the guys that I was paying attention to, this family here.
00:31:42
Speaker
Anyway, what is your theory about here? Well, first of all, they got pushing the film in award season too late. They didn't make it easy to see. They didn't make it easy to get a link for. So they didn't play it. They didn't bombard you with, hey, have you seen this yet? Have you seen this yet? Here's a link. Here's a disc. Here's a thing. Here's a booklet. They didn't really work
00:32:04
Speaker
work hard enough to keep it on everybody's radar when all the other movies were working overtime. But the other thing is, I think what this is, this is basically an independent style biopic.
00:32:17
Speaker
So let's call it a blue state movie about a fundamentally red state preoccupation. Now that's being, you know, in the current polarized political environment, that's maybe simplifying things a little bit too much. But I do think that that, that it falls in a crack, right? It's the people who are the natural fans of wrestling
00:32:39
Speaker
would not necessarily be engaged by kind of an artsy biopic, you know, focus features kind of movie. And I think the people who normally go to see those movies would look at it and go pro wrestling. I don't want to say anything about that, right? I think it falls between the cushions in a weird way. So I'm hoping people find them Blu-ray and elsewhere.
00:33:02
Speaker
Yeah, when he gets to streaming well, great performances in this movie, really good. And speaking of Cynthia Erevo and her great performance, her Oscar-nominated performance is Harriet Tubman. He is now on 4K from Universal, along with the Movies Anywhere code. And I will dare say it looks better on 4K at home than it looked in the theater, which was probably 2K.
00:33:28
Speaker
Interesting. Interesting. Yeah, but let's direct you there. Yeah. With Leslie Odom Jr. and Janelle Monae both in very interesting roles in that film. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's you know, it didn't didn't win anything at the Academy Awards, but worth worth seeing again on 4K. The 355. Did you see this? I think I did see the 355. Oh, gosh, I would have thought that the oh, yes. When the when the yeah.
00:33:57
Speaker
No, the Simon's movie, Simon Kinberg's movie. Yeah. With the, you know, his wannabe action. Feminist action team deal. I love every actress in this thing. I love every single one of them. I love Jessica Chastain. I love Lupita Nyong'o. I love Diane Kruger and Penelope Cruz and Bing Bing Fan. But it just felt like trying a little bit too hard.
00:34:26
Speaker
Yeah, Simon is not a director. Simon is a producer. In a writer. In a writer, but he produced the Martian. But when he puts on that director's hat, that's just not your spot, man. That's just not your spot. And some people want it so bad, but that's just not what you do because you're a producer.
00:34:50
Speaker
Also on 4k ticket to paradise as long as we're talking about romantic comedies George Clooney and Julia Roberts shaking it up Not it's kind of like if the if the if you if you if you look at anyone, but you and you imagine that those two people City Sweeney and Glenn Powell have parents who don't like each other but you mean together that's this movie. Yeah. Yeah
00:35:14
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Did you not like it? Because a lot of people love this movie. I did not. This one didn't hit it for me. It's such a weird thing because I adore Julia. I'm a real big fan of George. But they never had chemistry to me.
00:35:38
Speaker
Just individual personal chemistry, just never. Not even in the Oceans films? No, no, no, sorry, no. No, I do not disagree. This film felt a little flabby to me. I mean, it felt like something, boy, give me like three or four months to work that script over. I'll bet you could have made something over it. Yeah. Anyway.
00:36:03
Speaker
4K box set of the Ring movies, the Ring Collection. This is not Ringu. This is not the Japanese films. These are the American remakes of them, which are just as terrifying. I can point out Naomi Watts and, you know,
00:36:22
Speaker
It's just, utterly just very, these movies just creep
Relevance of Horror with Technology
00:36:27
Speaker
me the hell out. They really do. The Japanese versions, but especially the ones that Naomi wants. So, the name Samara just, it makes me have nightmares when I think of her just crawling out on a TV with the hair and the whole thing. I mean, it's just, but here's a question I have. These movies are very much tied to the technology of a videotape.
00:36:50
Speaker
Yeah, that VHS. What is more scary to today's generation? Maybe I should ask my daughter, what is more scary? The idea of a girl crawling out of a cathode ray tube television because you put the wrong video tape in? Or the idea that somebody actually owns a VHS deck and a cathode ray television? What's scarier?
00:37:12
Speaker
Well, you got you got to you have to explain Cathy O'Dray, you know, who says that anymore. There you go. I am, man. Yeah. See, that's, that's what I was looking at. I can see people like Gen Zers watching this and going, well, there's your problem. You're using old tech. Yeah. What is the giant plastic cassette? This wouldn't
00:37:35
Speaker
happen if you streamed it. I mean the next one would be you know watching it on your phone and Samara crawls out of the phone but she's like four inches tall.
00:37:45
Speaker
Anyway, there we go. So, the Ring Collection at 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray and that's from Shout Factory via Scream Factory and it's pretty great. I mean, I do love these movies, but they just creep me the hell out. What doesn't creep me the hell out is Child's Play. This is the newer Child's Play.
00:38:08
Speaker
from 2019, in which the idea is not that Chucky is possessed by the spirit of a serial killer who just died in the electric chair or whatever. No, no. Now Chucky is appropriate to the times and foreshadowing our current moment a little bit. Chucky is an evil AI manufactured in China. Does that work?
00:38:36
Speaker
No. No, didn't work at all. Didn't work at all. Which is funny because in that 1988 movie, that didn't make any sense either.
00:38:52
Speaker
I'm like, you guys have, you had 40 years to figure out a way to make, to get, when you have to, it's still, it's still, it's still completely and totally unnecessary in every possible way. Also, not terribly scary, especially in our current moment is contagion, which is also on 4K. But this is, you know,
00:39:16
Speaker
I, given that we've just been, like when Soderbergh made this. Was that 2011? Yeah, 2011. It's only a decade ago. That's a while ago. That's a decade before the- Very competent movie.
00:39:31
Speaker
Very competent movie made by Steven Soderbergh, really, really sharp, good looking movie, great cast. I mean, there were a number of them at the time, like Wolfgang Peterson made Virus. Remember that, where you're getting a point of view of the virus flying around, it gets, you know, dusting off and sick and blah, blah, blah.
00:39:48
Speaker
And this was kind of the real one. Everybody was sort of imagining what that moment might look like. Marion Cotillard and Matt Damon and Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow and Lawrence Fishburne and Kate Winslet.
Speculative Fiction vs Reality
00:39:59
Speaker
I mean, this is a great cast and Kate Winslet is particularly good in this. But
00:40:03
Speaker
The thing is, now that we've been through it, you look back on this and I'm like, I didn't really, that's kind of missed the mark. It's not what it was like. We've been through it now. Speculative fiction that turned out to be completely speculative.
00:40:19
Speaker
and not really representative of the reality. Well, they try to take advantage of the moment. There's a little feature out on here, how a virus changes the world, but it's more a novelty. Anyway, for Soderbergh completists, good thing to pick up.
00:40:37
Speaker
We've also got Quiggly Down Under on 4K, which I never would have seen coming. Shout Select made that volume 48 for theirs. I always liked that Tom... That's when he was still trying to do that thing that was way harder back then. From television to movies. This is another one of his big swings at that. He had about three or four of them.
00:41:06
Speaker
And I thought this movie worked for me. Plus, Alan Rickman, this is his second best villain.
Classic Film Highlights
00:41:12
Speaker
Second best villain. It's true. It's true. Yeah, I agree. He's best villain die hard. Second best villain after die hard. Yeah, I agree with you. I agree with you completely. For sure. Yeah, quickly down under, fun movie, underrated, didn't expect to see it on 4K.
00:41:27
Speaker
But I'm glad that Shout put it there. They know their audience, and it's got a certain cult following, so good on them. Like Chucky, we also have the updated Carrie, which by Kimberly Pierce, who's a good director. And this was made in 2013. This isn't even that new, but it's not the original old Sissy Spacey kind of comic Carrie. Yeah.
00:41:50
Speaker
So, it is fine on 4K. I mean, it's, you know, I guess the story still kind of sort of works. We're going to talk also about, you know, other Stephen King things today and when King does stuff that, you know, on his own that doesn't quite work. But what separates this is my question, Chloe Grace Moretz. What separates this carry from the DePaul McCarry? Why does this one just not scratch it quite as well?
00:42:18
Speaker
Hmm, I don't know. It's an interesting thing. The context is more or less the same, you know, the religious mother, all that kind of stuff. But I don't know. You tell me. Other than time, everything that's happened in the interceding, I don't know, whatever, 40 years, 45 years? Yeah. The only thing I can come up with, because I was trying to think about it. I mean, it's perfectly effective.
00:42:46
Speaker
If this had come out in the 70s, it'd probably have been a huge hit and Chloe Grace Moretz would have gone on. But I think there's something about the way that movies looked in the 70s. The quality of the film stock, the lighting, the sound that makes them creepier. I think when things get too polished, they're not as scary.
00:43:07
Speaker
It's a theory. It's purely a theory and maybe I'm off, but that's what it feels like to me. That's why it feels like John Carpenter was never able to make anything as scary as Halloween again. Why all of Wes Craven's scariest movies are Hills Have Eyes and all the stuff he made in the 70s. This is something about the 70s. It's creepy, man. Every now and again, the director, I think of that guy, I think his name is Ty West.
00:43:32
Speaker
This is true. Yeah, we call X not too long ago now. Yeah, that movie to look like a lefty shot it on 16 and it is creepy as hell and it's creepy as hell. It works so well, but but 70s, but he made sure that he shot it to look like a movie made in the 70s. And yeah, very different than yeah.
00:43:52
Speaker
We got four more 4Ks here, all of them brand new movies. Let's talk about which ones worked and didn't. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. It did him. What went wrong?
Film Critiques & Marketing Missteps
00:44:06
Speaker
What went wrong here?
00:44:08
Speaker
Well, look, I don't I don't want to beat it up any more than I would beat up any of the other movies. And this is James Wan, which we just talked about. Yeah. These universes where, frankly, this is just conceptually bad. This movie doesn't look good. It's it's it's it's bad for all the reasons for the same reasons that let's say Black Adam and The Flash movie. Yeah. Yeah.
00:44:34
Speaker
They all don't work for exactly the same reason. One, they are leaning wholly and completely on whatever apparatus of special effects they intend to use. That's what they're doing. And they're hoping to dazzle you with that. And narratively, they have not built strong stories or strong characters that matter at all.
00:45:01
Speaker
And frankly, even kind of in the context of these universe versus so this is just really bad. I think that hits everything. The only thing I would add is I think that everyone now knows that this was part of the Snyder verse. Yeah. And that this is quite literally the last moment that this is bringing in the caboose. Yeah. You know, the flash was a little bit.
00:45:23
Speaker
all over to the other homies. They're just handing it all over. This is the last. So it's not like this is bringing us onto a new adventure. This is bookending everything in a very, it's like everybody's just fulfilling their contracts, right? Jason Momoa just worked with the last commitment on the contract. Nicole Kidman, the last commitment on the contract. They're all just
00:45:43
Speaker
fulfilling the contract and kind of phoning it in. It's a little too bad. I am so bummed that Migration did not get an Academy Award nomination for Best Ambientist Film. I know they didn't push for it. They made it very hard for LAFCA and other critic groups to see. I don't know why. I mean, it's just an absolutely wonderful film from Illumination who does, you know, all the
00:46:10
Speaker
Minions and all the rest of that stuff. Despicable Me. Illumination is just one of the top companies and this just is a wonderful movie. Mike White, one of the writers, I fit the other. Yeah. But Mike White, one of the writers, very funny. Legit. Johnnie, Elizabeth Banks, voicing.
00:46:32
Speaker
Elizabeth Banks and Camille Nanjiani are basically voicing the parents in a duck family and two kids, one little boy and a little girl. And dad is super hyper protective and doesn't want them migrating, but they convince him, let's go on a migration. And of course, turns into this hellacious journey, but it's a journey of growth for the family. I mean, you kind of know where this movie goes, but it's so much fun and they have so many great
00:46:58
Speaker
characters along the way. I had so much fun. My daughter loved it. She doesn't love a lot of animated films these days because she's going to be hypercritical. She's turning into me. I thought it was wonderful. Even though it didn't get any Oscar love, boy, I think that's a terrific movie. No, I think most kids will like that movie.
00:47:20
Speaker
So last two here, really interesting conversation. Let's talk about Warner Brothers 2 musicals of the season, both of which were not marketed as musicals. The Color Purple and Wonka. Color Purple was not released at the same time overseas as it was in the United States. It had a very, very conservative release here.
00:47:41
Speaker
didn't make a lot of money and Wonka, they blew out everywhere and it wound up making about $630 million and counting around the globe, way more than expected. Now, I'm not going to be the guy who says, well, they just didn't want to put all the money into the movie with the black cast.
00:48:00
Speaker
Even though that feels a little bit like the old trope, that's not going to play overseas because those are black actors. I'll let you address that. I'll let you address that. I'll tell you, first of all, The Color Purple is a very good movie. It is a great movie. It is a powerful movie. If you're thinking about that 19 whatever it is, 84 movie, I guess it was that Steven Spielberg made with Oprah Winfrey.
00:48:24
Speaker
Yes, it's that film, but it's not that film, obviously. It's a musical. The songs and the production numbers are fantastic, but the narrative is also shifted in this ever so subtle way that it gives you a different film. This is a film about forgiveness. It's a film about enfranchisement. It's a tough film. It's still the movie. It's still the Alice Walker book, but that's what's going on in this movie. It's a very, very different movie.
00:48:52
Speaker
Fantasia Barrino, I think she was fantastic. Obviously, our Daniel Brooks was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. And just to answer, I'm going to answer your actual question here. I just want to point out that Danielle and Dave Vine were both nominated in Best Supporting Actress category. Now, if Dave Vine, who was not the Best Supporting Actress in the Holdovers, she was the lead actress in the Holdovers. She had been nominated properly in her proper category.
00:49:22
Speaker
And who knows, maybe, maybe Emily Stone still wins or Lily Gladstone or whatever, I don't know. But then I can promise you Danielle Brooks would have won this Best Supporting Act. That's how good she was, you know. She is, here's what makes her performance so great. And she was on Broadway before. I mean, she knows this character. She played this character on Broadway.
00:49:44
Speaker
But she is so spectacularly good because she is not just stepping into the performance that Oprah Winfrey established. She's doing that Oprah Winfrey part in a film that Oprah Winfrey is now producing. So the woman who originated the part is your boss watching everything you are doing in the dailies and even though you think you nailed it on Broadway,
00:50:11
Speaker
This is a different deal. The pressure of that had to be just, but you know what? She just owns it. She makes it her own. She is wonderful. I was fortunate enough to see this. I saw this with Mark. We saw it at the academy. It was the first screening anywhere.
00:50:30
Speaker
It was like hot out of the lab or whatever they call the digital lab. And the audience went nuts. The audience could not get enough. And usually, you know, you're like, all right, cast and crew, you know, everybody loves it. But it was genuine. You just felt it. And then it was the Q&A afterwards and Oprah and everybody else up there and just having a lot of love. And it was wonderful hearing them talk about it. But Blitz Bozewule, who is a Ghanaian filmmaker,
00:50:57
Speaker
This is his biggest film today. This guy's kind of like, he was a child genius, he's been making movie music videos and he went to these elite schools there. I mean, he's a real big deal. But this is a huge step up for him. He directs the hell out of this movie. I mean, he just directs the hell out of this movie. And you can understand why. When he came and he just stood up there in his purple suit, they were all wearing purple to really get the idea across. He stood there in his purple suit rocking it, you know, like Prince.
00:51:26
Speaker
He has this mellifluous voice. It's like he was hosting the auditorium. Thank you for being here for my movie. I was sitting there and I'm like, direct me right now. Just direct me. Whatever. Whatever. You got me in your palm of your hand. Tell me what to do. You could just tell this is a guy with unbelievable command. He's going to make some amazing movies. I am a huge fan. Blitz Bozzawoule even though the color purple got bonked by the Warner marketing people who didn't know what to do with it.
00:51:54
Speaker
Wonka. Let's talk about Wonka now for a second. Which is a different story. Yeah. Because it's a prequel. And you're right. Why did they not market this movie as a musical? Because you wouldn't have known it was a musical. Because Warner Brothers is afraid that younger audiences won't go. And here's why I know that. Because after I saw The Color Purple, I called up the people, the agency that was handling it.
00:52:21
Speaker
I said, I know people at Warner Brothers in marketing, but I don't know the upper, the strategizers, the one who designed the marketing strategy. I just know the lower level publicists. Could you talk to them and explain to them that they're going to kill this movie? They're going to kill it before it even comes out by not marketing it as a musical to the older audiences who are literally looking for that? It's not going to come out of the gate with a head of steam. You need it to. You're putting it out there in like 2,500, 2,800 screens.
00:52:49
Speaker
You need for people 35, 45, 55 to come out and see this movie. Opening weekend, second weekend, third weekend. Oh man, that didn't go over well. It did not go over well. But Wonka's got those audiences. It's so great. The songs are great in the color purple. They were so good. They were uplifting, powerful, sort of gospel-y shape. And dancing. But you're right, in Wonka dancing. And Corey Hawkins was right. But Wonka, you know, I don't know. It's an interesting thing.
00:53:16
Speaker
But they got it with Wonka. Part of it is because Wonka is more of a family film. I'm not going to let my daughter watch Color Purple yet. She wants to. She's begging to. I'm like, oh my gosh, there's heavy themes there. But Wonka she's seen and she really liked, and all the other kids really liked Wonka. So I think that may have been partly why the Warner marketing didn't get sabotaged.
00:53:41
Speaker
To the same degree because the kids came the families came and made up for the fact that they didn't lean into a musical but i'll tell you we screen this here at the house and with our with our awards link and we have a bunch of other families over and all the adults when i was a musical.
00:53:57
Speaker
Okay. It was weird. It was like this LA snobbery. And I was like, yeah, it's a musical. Shut up, sit down and enjoy it. And they did. But that was the first because they didn't know it was a musical. Yeah, it was not a it was not a welcome surprise at first. That's why you got to be honest with audiences.
00:54:16
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Tell them about the movie you're making. Is Timothy Chalamet the biggest star in the world right now? At the moment, yeah, D2. Dune 2. I can't think of anything. And frankly, he's the last really good host on Saturday Night Live. You can count that in, too.
00:54:39
Speaker
All right, we're gonna get into some TV here in a second, but I wanna mention some steel books that are not, you know, this is not 4K, but they're steel books.
Nostalgia & Film Era Reflections
00:54:51
Speaker
For people who really need more Jean-Claude Van Damme in their lives, Kickboxer is now in a Walmart exclusive steel book. Talking about baby. Yeah, from Lionsgate. You know, I didn't used to like this movie, somehow it's weirdly nostalgic for me now.
00:55:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's a period when Van Damme was just doing a whole lot of the same movie over and over and over again. But here's what I remember about this. I remember that we saw this movie, and it's a brother thing, right? There's no explanation as to why one brother has a Belgian accent and the other one doesn't, and it doesn't really matter. It's a Van Damme movie. You just suspend your belief.
00:55:31
Speaker
Oh, wait, 1989 is nostalgic for everybody.
00:55:44
Speaker
The part of the other brother was Dennis Alexeo. Dennis Alexeo, yeah. Now, Dennis Alexeo, unlike Van Dam, it was, and I don't even know what his current status is, he's like mid-50s now or something, but Dennis Alexeo was a legit kickboxer. Not just legit in the sense that he was a pro kickboxer, legit in the sense that after we saw this movie, my group of friends and I, we started watching some of his fights.
00:56:13
Speaker
Dude crushed people. Alexia would come out, fists and feet flying, elbows. It was like Mike Tyson time. He would drop people in 30, 40 seconds. Oh, yeah. It was a movie.
00:56:29
Speaker
Oh my gosh. And he was a heavyweight. And whereas Van Dam was, you know, leaping into the air, doing splits and all this kind of stuff. No, no. Alex, Alexia would have broken him in half. Yeah.
00:56:49
Speaker
The last two steel books here are Little Monsters and David Cronenberg's Shivers, both of them part of the Vestron video series, also from Lionsgate with digital copies on them. Here's the thing, Little Monsters
00:57:04
Speaker
Interesting only because it has a very young Fred Savage overacting and Howie Mandel is kind of weird and funny in it. It's a little bit of a cult classic for that generation. A little bit like Earth Girls Are Easy for people slightly older. I will say Cronenberg Shivers, I don't think is a very good film. I think it's a real schlocky movie.
00:57:28
Speaker
But it has its moments and you can see the evolution of Cronenberg. This was made in 1975, so it's a very young Cronenberg. But you can sort of see where there are bigger ideas and bigger skills and where it's coming from. And a lot of these horror guys who kind of came of age during that time, and that includes, you know, even Peter, Lord of the Rings.
00:57:53
Speaker
Oh yeah, Peter Jackson. Peter Jackson and a few others who were all horror then and Sam Raimi being another one. They all kind of came around at the same time and then became more sophisticated filmmakers. But yeah, this is Cronenberg really in evolution. So it's interesting in that respect and lots of extras, including a Cronenberg commentary.
00:58:14
Speaker
interviews with Cronenberg and, you know, Lynn Lowry, who stars in it, and, you know, the visual effects, featurettes, and interviews from, you know, years ago in 1998 when Cronenberg was previously interviewed about it. So, a lot of stuff to kind of bring you up to speed, but nice deal book, but really for Cronenberg purists and compleists.
00:58:32
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I became a bigger fan of Cronenberg later, as we creep into the 90s, it exists. Exactly. Dead ringers, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah. This early sort of horror stuff had more in common with the, I don't know, Giallo with Dario. Yeah. Of course, it was a big influence on Cronenberg when he was a kid. Yep, yep, hearing it.
00:58:59
Speaker
Let's hit some TV here. I'll start us off real fast with this release from Universal, a limited series, The Act, which I had not seen, and I don't think I had even heard of
Miniseries Reviews
00:59:12
Speaker
this. This is based on a BuzzFeed article.
00:59:15
Speaker
from 2016 called Didi wanted her daughter to be sick. Gypsy wanted her mom to be murdered. That's the entire name of the actual article. And this man, this is a- Oh, this is that thing with Tristan Arquette and- Yeah, enjoy King.
00:59:33
Speaker
Yeah. And Patricia Arquette got an Emmy for this, and I guess I had totally missed that because I stopped watching the Emmy's ages ago. But it's kind of... I'm watching this and I'm thinking, okay, this is creeping me out big time, this whole mother-daughter thing. It's really... I get why this is a claim, but I'm really... And then I was like, baby Jane.
00:59:58
Speaker
This is like mother-daughter version of baby Jane, the sister thing. That's what this is. So isn't this the one where the actual daughter just got out of jail like not too terribly long ago, right? Yeah, yeah. Out of jail and she's kind of doing the circuit and everything? Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's that one. Yeah, man. Yeah, yeah, creepy situation. So this is that the munchals and by proxy. Yes. That went down. She did all kinds of creepy stuff to this kid. And then this kid gets the boyfriend to smoke the mom.
01:00:29
Speaker
It's just, it is, but there's a baby Jane thing going on here. There really is. Just without Bette Davis. Let's talk about some of these complete TV series here, Tim. Got old, got new, got recent-ish. Which one? Stephen King's The Shining. Oh, there we go. Which is the worst, The Shining.
01:00:57
Speaker
As opposed to- King swears this is the version he really likes. Yeah, he always talked about it. I didn't care for the Kubrick film, he didn't care for the young, all this kind of stuff. Of course, Kubrick film is brilliant, though eventually Stephen King gets a chance to, you know, to do the Shining, he makes the Shining. I directed the thing himself, if I'm not mistaken, right? Did he direct this himself? I think he directed this one. No, it was directed by Mick Garris. Out by Mick Garris. He wrote it, he wrote the teleplay. Okay.
01:01:24
Speaker
And it's very literal. That's right, because maximum overdrive. That's this thing. And it's very literal, right? So everything that Cooper took and made sort of conceptual, all of the things that he mostly put inside Jack's mind, right? Stephen just puts in the room.
01:01:47
Speaker
You know, and it just makes it very, very, and I'm like, you know, no, Steven, no. At least on the page he does anyway. So, I don't know. Yeah, it didn't work at all. Complete series of suits. How much suits did you ever watch? None until that little sister married.
01:02:12
Speaker
I'm like, who? I used to watch LA law religiously. I mean, law shows never really did it for me, but LA law was kind of cool because it was in LA and I knew some lawyers. The 134 episodes of a corporate law firm and it's
01:02:33
Speaker
And it's very well-dressed, beautiful people. It wears thin on me after just a few episodes. And I'm trying to figure out what, you know, this is 34 Blu-ray discs. 104, 34 episodes. Somebody is going to love this. Somebody really loves it. And it's back, dude. I mean, it's back streaming.
01:02:53
Speaker
And it's one of the most popular shows, streaming, wherever it's streaming. Every single one of those characters appears, Gabriel Mach, and I think it's Patrick Adams. They appear in, they were in those Super Bowl spots, they appear in all these commercials, playing these guys, you know, playing, I guess you're playing these guys, you're wearing suits. So there's some sort of thing going on in the culture.
01:03:16
Speaker
We must be. Yeah, I agree. I agree. I agree.
01:03:32
Speaker
You know, Heroes, I came too late. It had already done its whole and complete run. And then I had just gotten my subscription to Hulu back when Hulu was a fairly new thing. And one of the first things running on Hulu was the entire series for Heroes. And that's where I got to watch it. And I got to tell you, I came to rather enjoy it. I kind of hoped it would always figure out a way to come back.
01:03:56
Speaker
So, you know, and I have double connection to this because, you know, Greg Grundberg and Greg was one of the original heroes. And then my friend Natalie wound up being a writer on the show at a certain point.
Cultural Impacts of TV Series
01:04:09
Speaker
I think second season is when Natalie came in. It was very interesting hearing her stories, too, because there was there was a I don't want to say friction, but there were two schools of writers. There were the TV writer people like Natalie and there were the comic book nerds who were not writers, but they were bringing
01:04:26
Speaker
the everything that they knew about this world, right? And, you know, those are things that cream would want to do that makes a little bit of sense to me. Yeah. And, you know, that's the kind of tension that will oftentimes create good material. But I can see how that's sometimes not necessarily a fun writing environment. But yeah, what's nice about this is it has it includes a never before aired 73 minute premiere episode, which is
01:04:51
Speaker
very, very cool. There are reasons why it was never aired, but yeah, that is very interesting. And, you know, alternate ending for season two and lots of really interesting deleted scenes and breakdown of special effects and how they shot things and, you know, how the writers worked and all kinds of behind the scenes stuff about the show is really, really interesting.
01:05:18
Speaker
You know, Tim King does a bunch of commentaries with cast and crew. It is really, really solid. And I think that this show was onto something that nobody else was onto at the time. And in looking back, I'm sorry that the whole superhero genre went so far toward the fantastical because this was so grounded and so interesting and felt so much more real
01:05:45
Speaker
I think I think just maybe a year or two later, this might have been a show would have had 10 years in it. But anyway, yeah, so it's really, really, it's it's sharp, you know, this is four seasons plus heroes reborn. And all together here, you got everything heroes related, it's a good set. So, you know, everything that they've done,
01:06:08
Speaker
including the little reborn reboot thing. It's all there. So you're a little lower than I am. So I'm not going to make you feel bad. But are you old enough to have seen Colt 45 on TV? In reruns. I never saw it. Never even heard of it.
01:06:26
Speaker
I don't remember that. But definitely just wait, wait, Preston. That one, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it was very, what's the what's the one that spells the name differently than I do? There's a Y in it. Yeah. Yeah. What's what's the one with with Chuck Connor with that shotgun? That's that was the rifle rifle rifleman.
01:06:49
Speaker
Oh, no, no, wait, wait. Was Chuck Connors the Rifleman? Was Chuck Connors the Rifleman or was it Steve McQueen? Which was the one that Eastwood was. Was Eastwood the Rifleman? Eastwood was in Rawhide. I think Chuck Connors was the Rifleman. You're right. Connors the Rifleman and Eastwood's Rawhide. See, I love this. This was a quick, because Steve McQueen, young Steve McQueen was in one, too, where he had that little half, that little half rifle. Yeah. Wanted something, wanted something. See, I watched Maverick. I always saw Maverick. I kind of caught the tail end.
01:07:19
Speaker
his maverick, right? Who's the guy that had the chess piece? The, oh, that was his thing. Oh my gosh. But this was among the, you know who this guy is? So once upon a time in Hollywood, right?
01:07:35
Speaker
Yeah. The character or the actor that Leo is playing. Yeah. Wade Preston would have been him. Oh, wow. He would have been at that time. Got it. In this show. Yeah. So yeah. Well, it's an interesting show because it's like it's about an it's sort of a it's kind of a quasi spy show before the Wild Wild West. Yeah. Right. It's like a pre James Bond. Like he's an intelligence officer in the Wild West.
01:08:03
Speaker
Yeah, he's in the cult and he's part of the cult family. Yeah, I mean it's, you know, I wanted, they didn't, did cult put money into this show? Yeah, but yeah, it's like, it was, it was, it was, it was, that's the thing. And you have all these sort of references, you had all these sort of references to all the, the sort of actual Western figures of the day, Doc Holliday. Yeah.
01:08:29
Speaker
I think Batman played Doc Holliday. Yes, he did. He did. Adam West. Adam West's Leonard Nimoy shows up here. I'm telling you, dude, you're bringing a whole weird thing back right now. Sandy Kofax. Sandy Kofax guest starred on this thing.
01:08:46
Speaker
It can kind of actually act. It's weird. And yeah, Robert Conrad shows up, you know, kind of kind of find this like road testing is future James West persona a little bit. Yeah, no, it's, it's quite, it's quite a cool show. Anyway, it's well known, but yeah, it was a cool show.
01:09:10
Speaker
Three seasons, only three seasons, 67 episodes from the late 50s, kind of 57 to 60-ish is when it ran. And they went back and they got the original camera negatives. They did them up in 4K, transferred them to Blu-ray and high def. It looks beautiful. Just beautiful. It's really, it's terrific. Really nice stuff. Ancient Aliens, what are we going to say about Ancient Aliens season? More Ancient Aliens.
01:09:40
Speaker
Seasons 11 through 18, here's how seasons 11 through 18, I just want to repeat that, 11 through 18 of ancient aliens. Here's how they differ from seasons 1 through 10 before this.
01:10:06
Speaker
Let's move on here to Hanna-Barbera's Superstars 10, which includes a whole bunch of great Hanna-Barbera characters in movies. These are 10 movies featuring their beloved Hanna-Barbera characters, including The Good, The Bad, and Huckleberry Hound, The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones, which I always enjoyed.
01:10:32
Speaker
Rockin' with Judy Jetson, not that great. Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School, terrible. Scooby-Doo and the reluctant werewolf, terrible. Scooby-Doo meets the Boo Brothers, even more terrible. Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats, really fun. Yogi and the Invasion of the Space Bears, weird as hell.
01:10:54
Speaker
Yogi Bear in the magical flight of the Spruce Goose is totally unnecessary. And Yogi's Great Escape is okay. So you're basically buying this for the Jetsons Meet the Flintstones. That's what I'm telling you. But it's a lot of fun. That's an interesting historical reference to how he was, for those of you not old enough to know what the Spruce Goose is a reference to.
01:11:20
Speaker
Last on the TV list, season one of Wednesday, which is fun. That dance has taken the world by storm. It's a really fun dance. It really is. One of my daughter's best friends, she did that at the school talent show, which was the first I had seen of it. I'm like, that is such a weird cool dance. She did a really good job. She's got the long hair and the whole thing, right? Such a weird dance. Where'd that come from? She goes, it's Wednesday.
01:11:46
Speaker
She's wet on the sheet. It's cute. Jenna Ortega says, relax and enjoy your stardom and don't talk so much. Yeah, these kids don't talk so much. Just enjoy your thing. Enjoy your stardom. Don't talk so much. It really is. She was going around talking about how she was a writer because she would write, you know,
01:12:12
Speaker
And I got to tell you, the writers on the show were like, look, kid, you know, because you suggested to the director that, you know, you say this and stuff, that don't make you a writer. You're not going to stop saying that. It's like when Bradley Cooper was walking around talking about how he conducted the New York... Stop saying that. Stop saying that. Anyway, what happened?
01:12:38
Speaker
Real quickly, a few docs here. Radioactive, the women of Three Mile Island by Heidi Huttner is, you know, we don't talk about Three Mile Island too much anymore. That was for those who are, you know, not as old as Tim and I.
Historical Incident Reflections
01:12:52
Speaker
That was a partial meltdown. Yeah, that was a hell of a little nuclear disaster right here in the United States of America. It was scary as can be when it nearly happened. And then they made
01:13:03
Speaker
The China syndrome was China syndrome before after right after it was like right after it was almost concurrent with it. Well, they were shooting it when Three Mile Island happened. Jack Lemon and Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas.
01:13:20
Speaker
Well, anyway, this looks at the accident and its aftermath and specifically through the eyes of four women who went all the way to the Supreme Court with their case. It's pretty intense. It really is. Well done all throughout.
01:13:43
Speaker
It's, you know, I mean, it goes back to a very unfortunate incident. Well, it's the event that undid what was intended in terms of nuclear power here in the United States. We were supposed to be, those things are supposed to be all over the country by now or a long time ago, really. And that never happened here because of that as opposed to the way it happened in Canada.
01:14:11
Speaker
But no, that never, or in Europe, just generally speaking, no, we didn't do that. Which of course means that something else happened, which was oil. Which means that something else happened, which was a whole lot more chloroquine. Anyway, go on. Very true. Very true.
01:14:27
Speaker
on the movie End of Things is invaluable, the true story of an epic artist, which is a curious doc. This is from Synapse. This is a look at the life and career of Tom Sullivan, who was one of the special effects and makeup effects specialists who worked on the Evil Dead movies with Sam Raimi.
01:14:53
Speaker
And it really, I mean, it puts him front and center and it's a lot about those movies, but it's more about him and how he became, how he came to do the things that he does. And there's a lot of, you know, archival footage.
01:15:11
Speaker
all kinds of interesting little tidbits. I don't know that he is ultimately important enough to justify a feature-length documentary, and this is 103 minutes.
Documentary Critiques
01:15:21
Speaker
I mean, it's all about him. But there's a lot of interesting Evil Dead stuff in here. So it feels like it probably should have been about a 45-minute Evil Dead featurette short doc, but just the same. You know, it's a little flabby, but worth checking out.
01:15:36
Speaker
And interesting people, you got Ted, you got Bruce Campbell, you got, you know, a lot of people have been hanging around this industry doing interesting stuff for a really long time.
01:15:46
Speaker
Six-part documentary series, Icons Unearthed, Star Wars, as if we need more on the origins of Star Wars. It's been literally done to death. But there's a lot of very interesting material here, including interviews with people we've never seen really sufficiently interviewed before.
01:16:09
Speaker
Specifically, and this is all in the bonus features, I would say the series itself is perfectly fine. It does what it needs to do. It's mainly for Star Wars fans who just can't get enough of this stuff. Everything that I've seen in this, I've seen 150 times in other documentaries.
01:16:28
Speaker
There's nothing new. What's really interesting is watching the uncut interviews with Marshall Lucas and Anthony Daniels in particular. It's almost like three hours of each of them. It's really utterly fascinating. Marshall Lucas is somebody that most people are probably not that familiar with. She cut Star Wars. She was married to George Lucas at the time.
01:16:51
Speaker
And, you know, really I hope she got a piece of Star Wars in perpetuity because she made that movie. It's her editing that really, really just killed that movie. And when I say kill, I mean in a good way, not a bad way. And then there's a half hour interview with Billy Dee Williams as well, but he's talked about this thing for years and on and on and on. There's not a whole lot new there.
Film Analysis & Themes
01:17:11
Speaker
Mr. Oregon, an incredible true story of psychological warfare. Did you see this? No, I did not see it. Fascinating little movie. And when I say this, I know you're going to laugh, but it's legit.
01:17:29
Speaker
This is about, first of all, the guy who made this, did you ever see the previous movie tickled? Oh yeah, that guy. Right. Well, this is the same filmmaker. Okay. So it's the same filmmaker. So he's got to find something weirder than competitive tickling. So he decides to try and track down a con man and outwit a con man.
01:17:56
Speaker
And the way that, if you remember from Tickled, it's very much like he's getting through doors he shouldn't be getting through and he's getting footage he shouldn't be getting. And the whole thing has a very disturbing almost, it's beyond citizen journalism. He's doing the same thing here.
01:18:18
Speaker
It's, you're never quite sure where it's going and you're never quite sure if it's going to come to a grinding halt. Like there are like six or seven moments where you're like, oh, this, this movie's over. They're not going to, they can't possibly, and it always goes further and it always goes into weird, remarkable corners. And, um, it's, uh,
01:18:38
Speaker
It keeps you on your toes. It's the closest I've seen to a Hitchcockian thriller documentary form. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's quite a thing. And then lastly, a very important documentary from Freestyle called Wake Up, which is stories from the front lines of suicide prevention. Very, very important. You know, mental health is a real thing. Unfortunately, suicide has become politicized in many respects.
01:19:07
Speaker
Nobody knows why a lot of people have suicidal thoughts. Suicidal ideation is very, very complicated. So don't make this the one and only, one and done. Just understand, watch this and know that a lot of people out there are hurting and if any of them are friends and loved ones, make sure that you know the resources to point them to or to help you help them is what I would say.
01:19:29
Speaker
Let's see, we got about five, six, seven minutes left. Is there anything we should jump all over? Criterion? Should we hit the criterion? Oh, we must. Yeah, let's do some of that. All right. Let's, yeah, I'm sure there's some good stuff in there, St. Olmer, Runner. There is, yeah, yeah, yeah. Start with to die for. Start with to die for. The movie that showed everybody that Nicole Kidman was more than Tom Cruise's squeeze.
01:19:58
Speaker
And Gus at the top of his game right about then. Really was this golden moment. Yeah, yeah, that decade there. And really wonderful writing from the late Buck Henry. Joyce Maynard in the late Buck Henry. Yeah.
01:20:16
Speaker
Yeah, very, very cool film. 4K looks gorgeous, deeply, deeply disturbing. And it is worth pointing out that Joaquin Phoenix kind of broke through in this and a little bit terrifying here really is.
01:20:32
Speaker
Casey Affleck is in here as well. I mean, it's quite a movie, quite a historic piece. Lots of cool extras. It's audio commentary with Van Sant and other collaborators as deleted scenes. It's really, really sharp. Good entry from Criterion.
01:20:53
Speaker
Also, not in 4K, that's the only 4K that we have this week, but not in 4K is Lynch Oz. What an unbelievably strange documentary this is. I mean, it's kind of a documentary. It came out a couple of years ago.
01:21:10
Speaker
And it is based on a premise, which is that the Wizard of Oz is deeply embedded in all of David Lynch's work. And I've heard that with respect to Wild at Heart, which is very obviously connected to the Wizard of Oz. But this is saying it's much broader than that. And Lynch loves the Wizard of Oz. We all know that. So this really, really analyzes it.
01:21:32
Speaker
And I, after seeing it, I don't agree, but good try, good effort. We watch, we've all, you know, with David's films, but you have a very direct relationship to David and in his work over the years. Our Amy Nicholson is one of the film critics on the show. I forget who Amy writes for now, maybe the
01:21:57
Speaker
I don't know. She's named the Guardian. She's writing Guardian. The Guardian, yeah, yeah. John was an interesting people. So yeah, no, I don't think I agree with the, the, the, uh, uh, deposit either though. Yeah. Uh, then we also have all the beauty and the bloodshed by Laura Poitras, uh, from also from the 2022, this got a little bit of, uh, awards love. It didn't really win anything, but people were very much aware of it.
01:22:24
Speaker
This is effectively about Nan Golden. And like, Lafka gave this, I think there were a lot of, there was a lot of love in the room. It just didn't quite come all the way through. Anyway, yeah, Nan Golden is an activist who tried to raise awareness about the opioid crisis and the way the Sackler family was involved in actually exacerbating it.
01:22:54
Speaker
And, you know, this, that kind of has tangents that go off into other areas, but it's sort of painting a full picture of activism. And it is, it is, it's about a lot. I mean, it really is about a lot. Look, I appreciate this film, but it really is about a lot. So Nan Golden and who she is, that's an artist, a photographer. She's all kinds of interesting. All that's in this movie.
01:23:21
Speaker
So, if you told me you were making a doc about Nan Goldin, I'd be like, great. And then there's this doc about, you know, the Sackler family and the Opie that, Nan, you know, this is an event that happened in her life and all that kind of stuff. But these two films, in a fundamental way, don't actually go together.
01:23:42
Speaker
Nan Golden being part of a film about the opiate crisis and the Sackler family's involvement in that, that would be a great movie. And a movie about Nan Golden who, as it happens, became addicted to opiate. That would be a great movie. But they're not the same movie. And this tries to make them one movie. It just never did work for me.
01:24:05
Speaker
Saint-Omer is a fascinating, beautifully made, troubling, but really unbelievably compelling movie, again, from 2022. A lot of good stuff came out in 2022. It kind of all got lost in the pandemic kerfuffle. But this is Alice Diop, who is a renowned documentarian. This is her first non-documentary. This is her first scripted narrative film.
01:24:33
Speaker
And documentarians, just they bring a certain punch sometimes when they make that transition, just like, you know, the killing fields. That was, that was the, that was, I think that was his first narrative film, wasn't it, Roland Johnson? Yeah, yeah. And documentaries before that, and then kind of brought that, that punch to the, this is similar. So this is, this is about a young Senegalese woman who is accused of murdering her baby daughter.
01:24:59
Speaker
And it's about the novelist who, you know, has to sort of, who covers this and struggles with it. And it is, you know, it's all taking place in a French courtroom. And as far as courtroom movies go, that movie from last year... I've never even evolved. This is far and away superior. So not even a blip on the radar of this movie. This movie is so much more intense and powerful.
01:25:27
Speaker
It's just a beautiful film. So, Alice Diop, huge future, I think, in narrative films. Hope she keeps making documentaries as well. But really, St. Omer is a brave, powerful, strong film with great, great performances. And there's a great conversation on here from the Director's Cut DGA podcast where Alice Diop and Dee Rees have a conversation.
01:25:54
Speaker
And it is really, really great. It's wonderful. Two just terrific lady filmmakers going deep. Loved it. So anyway, forget about Anatomy of a Fall. If you have a chance, get this wonderful Blu-ray Saint-Omer from Syrian. And right at the very end here, let's make mention of The Runner by Amir Naderi, which is also an absolutely beautiful film in Farsi.
01:26:20
Speaker
from 1984, it's sort of the very beginning of the Iranian new wave. It's just right when it's starting to pop and the authorities haven't quite cracked down a little bit, haven't quite figured out how to get control of the civilization or of the society. But anyway, this is very semi autobiographical.
01:26:45
Speaker
It's one of the best of those early films. It's just beautiful. It's about this boy who's kind of looking for his own path. It's very much a metaphor for what Iranian society in the post-revolutionary period is doing. Beautiful film, kind of 400 blowsy in some respects.
01:27:03
Speaker
And then last one here, all that Money Can Buy, William Dieter Lee's very famous film, which is supposed to be known, which I always knew as The Devil and Daniel Webster. But apparently, all that Money Can Buy is the original title and Criterion is going with it. I think they're going to have a hard time selling it unless they somehow make sure that people know that the title that is most famous by is The Devil and Daniel Webster.
01:27:31
Speaker
Yeah, which is which that's what I always knew it as 1941 classic film. It's amazing. It's beautiful. Renard Herriman score is to die for it's just absolutely terrific film. So but yeah, that's that's my only reservation here. Lots of great stuff here. I mean, Alec Baldwin does a reading of the story, you know, Devlin Daniel Webster, that's just great. I mean, it's great. That's excellent.
01:27:56
Speaker
But yeah, lots of great stuff here. I just wish that they had gone with the original title. Because it is really one of the great creepy films of all time. Mindy Walter Houston. Oh my gosh. The ridiculously beautiful Simone Simon. She was so beautiful in general, but in that film. Yeah, for sure.
01:28:16
Speaker
And there we have it. So we are done this week. That's it. We'll be back in a couple of weeks after the spring break. Tim, you doing anything? You're just taking it easy. I'm taking it easy. I've already had spring break at my university, so I'm going to finish out the semester. And hey, man, the award season is over. You know what that means? It means that the award season is about to start.
01:28:41
Speaker
You know what I'm getting ready to see? I am dying to see Furiosa. That new trailer I watched like 47 times. I'm gonna go watch the 48th time then. The summer should be interesting. Yeah, we have some things to talk about now. Alright. See you next time everybody.
01:31:12
Speaker
Bye!