As I sit here freezing in my office it occurs to me that the Revenant is the perfect movie for this wintery week. Why? You're already cold anyway, you may as well watch a movie that will make you grateful that you have a roof over your head and warm clothes to put on.
This week we reviewed the Revenant, the movie for which Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Oscar. I think we may have done more research for this movie than we have with any others. The man the movie is based on, Hugh Glass, is a legend in his own right. The explorer lived a very exciting and varied life. The movie itself was shot beautifully in all natural locations. For me that makes the movie far more visceral than what it could have been had it been shot on green screen or in a studio. I'm not even certain that you could have made the movie unless you were in the natural elements. The performance from DiCaprio is nuanced and beautiful. It was one of the few occasions in which I've seen an actor fully inhabit a character to the point where you begin to forget that it's not real. Please pardon the infant in the background. Chris and CC's son decided to make a stealthy cameo that we were unable to edit out of the episode. Hope you enjoy!
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I've been sitting here staring at the screen for ten minutes trying to come up with a base description for the movie we reviewed this week. The problem is that the movie was so forgettable and inconsequential that I just can't seem to find the right words to describe it.
It's not that the movie was bad. It really wasn't awful. It just wasn't all that fantastic either. Even this supplementary blog post keeps stalling out. Everything is distracting me from my main purpose. RIPD is about a cop who is double crossed by his partner. When he arrives in "heaven" after falling to his death, he is put to work rounding up escaped souls and finding a way to stave off the apocalypse. Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges turn in passable performances even though they are playing every character they've ever played in this movie. Certainly not their best film, but far from their worst. I've never read the graphic novel that this was based on so I have no idea if this is a faithful adaptation or not. I was overall entertained by the movie as I was watching, but now that it's over? Meh. As exciting as this post was, I hope you'll still take the time to listen to the episode. It'll certainly be more fun that watching the movie itself.
I found Fanboys when going through Kristen Bell's IMDB page. If you've followed me for any length of time and/or know me in real life, you already know of my undying adoration for Ms. Bell's person and catalog of work. Since I am a fangirl for so so many things, I thought that checking out any movie called Fanboys would be right up my alley. What I found in Fanboys is a thoroughly enjoyable movie that I have been able to watch again and again.
One of the things that I loved the most about it is it's generality. Granted, the movie is about Star Wars fans and the fandom associated with it. What I mean to say is that the movie didn't have to be about Star Wars specifically. You could have dropped the idea of any fandom into the movie and it would have been a great concept. Ages and ages ago when I was a teenager, I worked at the local movie theater. That was my first experience with fandom in general. There were people sleeping in their cars trying to make sure they had the best seats for the movie. This was back before the days of stadium seating and showing movies in multiple theaters. One print of the movie had to be run between two projectors. Not an easy feat back then since it was actual and physical film reel. People lined up throughout the entire mall. They stayed for multiple viewings. Just as crazy, the projectionists were made to stay in the booth with the print at all times, something which up until this point had never happened before. I was never a Star Wars fan. What little I had seen I enjoyed well enough, but not enough to understand why everyone was freaking out. In a way, even though I'm still not a fangirl for Star Wars, it was my fandom gateway. I started branching out with regards to the things I loved. I joined online communities and chat rooms (Hey, remember AOL Chatrooms? That was a thing that existed. Ha!) , I started to realize that there were hardcore fans of the things that I was into at the time. I found entire groups of people who were unashamed nerds and geeks. People who would gladly talk with me for hours about Buffy cannon. BEFORE we even called it cannon. Fanboys, as a movie, relayed all of those things to me. Even in the opening scenes at the Halloween party when they are discussing minor details of a movie that has long gone by. This movie was me. This movie was my friends. The subject matter didn't have to be the same. This was us. There are a million little things to love about this movie. I would attempt to list some of them for you but I think you'd be better off discovering your own favorites without me having to tell you. We had a lot of fun recording the podcast for this movie. I'm still incredulous that the biggest Star Wars fan of the group had never seen it. I hope you enjoy the movie and the episode of the podcast.
And all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
Wait, wrong story. Let's start again. For this week's release we decided to give you two episodes for the holidays. Instead of going with the usual picks of classics or family favorites, we decided to expand our holiday movie repertoire and watch something different. One of the picks was The Night Before. I personally enjoy the majority of the movies that Seth Rogan and Joseph Gordon Levitt appear in so I was excited to see this one. I was not disappointed. The movie premise is that three friends are ending their yearly holiday traditions in favor of moving forward into new ones. What occurs throughout the film is your typical buddy shenanigan comedy with a holiday twist. The writing is moderately clever with some of the best lines being delivered by Levitt and Rogan throughout the film. While there is a fair amount of physical comedy within the movie, it's far from slapstick. I also wouldn't consider it too profane or vulgar. Of course, you likely don't know my gauge for such things, but nothing really shocked me. Krampus on the other hand is touted as a horror movie. This movie actually felt like two movies within one. If you don't know the historical context of Krampus, I suggest you check here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus The first half of the movie is used to build the personal drama and suspense as Krampus is picking off the family members one by one. The second half of the movie plays out visually like a Dark Crystal remake. One of the things that I like best about the monsters themselves is that for the most part they were not computer generated. There are obvious exceptions to this but all of the larger "people sized" monsters were clearly people in detailed costumes. I didn't find the majority of the movie very scary and despite my general dislike of her work, Toni Collette was tolerable. And this is coming from someone who hates horror movies. We hit a milestone in our listenership last week. It's a small one, but a good one. We're so excited to continue making content for you and we hope you're still enjoying listening. We also wish you and yours a very Happy Holiday!
To say that the movie Blade Runner was a disappointment for me would be a massive understatement. It’s considered a classic. It’s considered a paragon of the Science Fiction community. The problem is that it sucks.
I know, I know…what is WRONG with me? I genuinely wanted to like it. After all these years of hearing how wonderful it was, I expected that I would like it. Harrison Ford? Check. Dystopia? Check. Androids? Check, check, check. I enjoy Science Fiction but this movie was so incredibly boring to me. I should have known not to read the book prior to watching the movie. I think that may have led to the majority of my disappointment. The novel by Phillip K Dick is so much richer in scope and tone. You’re on an existential journey with the main character as he tries to understand what it means to be truly human. The desolate wasteland that is described on the page is far richer than what is portrayed in the movie. I realize that the movie is only meant to be based on the book. A loose interpretation of it. As with so many book to movie adaptations, certain liberties are taken with the plot in order to make the movie more enticing. While I agree that there are aspects of many novels-turned-movies that need a bit of a boost cinematically, I don’t think this is one of them. That being said, I do understand the limitations of attempting to portray such a cerebral novel onto the big screen. One thing I did like about the film were the visual effects. The effects they were able to pull off given the technology at the time are fairly mind-blowing. Unfortunately, there were no effects that could erase Daryl Hannah from the movie. The entire team was bored and confused by the movie which made it nice for me. I hate being the only one who didn’t like the movie we watch. Have a listen. Do you agree with us? Did you read the book or watch the movie? www.geekendcast.com Itunes: http://apple.co/2eBvJ8P Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2f0cZm1 Google play: http://bit.ly/2dQY37q
What can I say about the movie Authors Anonymous that I haven’t already said? There have been several movies over the course of these recordings that I’ve loved. This was not one of them. The characters were just so unlikeable that it was hard to care about the struggles they faced.
The idea that one of the main characters becomes a published and successful author without being able to name a favorite author is disheartening. How could anyone who is a legitimate writer or even a lover of books have faith in that person's work? What if you read an interview with John Grisham, or Stephen King; in which they said something to the effect of “I don’t read other books.” Or, “I don’t have a favorite author”. All the heart would go out of their work. It would for me at least. As an aspiring writer, the idea that Hannah is getting by on her looks is flat out horrifying. With literature, it should always be the subject matter that counts. We should be able to succeed based on the quality of the worlds we create. We shouldn’t be creating content just for the sake of creating content. We should be creating because we’ve found something true that we want to share with the world. Movies like this present a problem for us as a podcasting group. We struggle to fill our time. We don’t want to have wasted the effort of watching the movie but it’s hard to find things to talk about when all you want to say is “I didn’t care for it” and then move on. As always, we hope that you enjoyed this episode. Even if you were only moderately entertained by the podcast it would still be way more entertaining than the movie itself. As always, you can find us with the various information below or on the right-hand side. www.geekendcast.com Itunes: http://apple.co/2eBvJ8P Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2f0cZm1 Google play: http://bit.ly/2dQY37q
Hey everyone! I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend. I ended up travelling to South Carolina to spend turkey-time with some of my family. I’m currently suffering from too-many-days-off-in-a-row syndrome. Five days is too much time off and not enough time off simultaneously. I forgot to post on Friday, I was in my Gilmore Girls coma after staying up late to watch the first episode.
We’re reviewing Justice League: Flashpoint Paradox this week. This is an animated movie that explores what might occur if the Flash were to go back and save his mother from being murdered. The results are disastrous. The movie itself flows really well despite the fact that you get thrown directly into the story without much exposition. This makes it feel like the plot moves forward quickly and you’re not left wondering when the movie is going to end. If you’re not entirely familiar with the cache of DC characters, there may be a time or two that you end up feeling a bit lost. Additionally, I am personally not a fan of this style of animation. The characters do not necessarily emote enough in a “human” way for my taste, however, it’s really only a personal preference. Stylistically the movie is dark in tone, color, and content. Perhaps the most striking visual within Flashpoint is the idea of what Superman would have become. Emaciated and tortured, he is not the Superman we know and love. My only criticism with the movie is something that I also fully understand can’t be broached within a single ninety minute film. We’re just supposed to accept that all these horrible things occur based on an action taken by Barry to save his mother when he was a child. I would have rather seen the actual pathway from his actions leading into the current situation. They do show us the alternate origins of the characters, but not how that came to be specifically because of Barry. That being said, I do realize that you can only cram so much into a single movie before it gets to be too much. I did enjoy that Batman was Thomas Wayne instead of Bruce. That made more sense than anything they presented to us within the movie. Overall I liked it. Definitely a good addition to the DC universe. I’m excited to see where the Flash TV continues to take the storyline. I hope you go and listen to the new episode. We recorded it before the premiere of the Flash on the CW so it may sound a bit dated. www.geekendcast.com Itunes: http://apple.co/2eBvJ8P Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2f0cZm1 Google play: http://bit.ly/2dQY37q
It’s Podcast Pregame day! So incredibly happy to not have to promote Cheap Thrills anymore. If you haven’t listened to the episode, I recommend you do. If you’re a fan of my ardent opinions, you’ll find that I express them quite clearly with regards to that terrible movie. Just thinking about it makes me feel gross.
This week it’s one of my favorite classic comedies. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. There aren’t many Thanksgiving movies out there. Even fewer that are any good. I’ve always loved this movie simply because I really enjoy Steve Martin and John Candy. It even makes me a little sad. How many comedies are out there right now that rely solely on the merits of the actors? Think about it… There are barely any other actors in the movie that have speaking roles without counting the attendants at the airport, train station, etc. It’s almost an entire movie of allowing Steve and John to just do what they do best. BE FUNNY. I’m going to try and keep up with the posting next week. With the holiday I might slack a little. As always, the podcast info is below. Happy Watching! www.geekendcast.com iTunes: http://apple.co/2eBvJ8P Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2f0cZm1 Google play: http://bit.ly/2f3LAML1 CTRL+C is live my friends. So far we're up to 400 listens over the span of eight episodes. That's not too bad for a random group of schmoes. Each week we'll be posting a review of a random movie picked by one of the team members. CTRL+C is the brain child of myself and my business partner Chris. We had one of those moments of kismet. "Hey, you know what I would LOVE to do?" "No way! Me too!!" It took us a full year to get our act together and get all the equipment and an actual plan in place for how we would be structured. Part of that was because Chris and his wife CC got married, had a baby, and bought a house. Things like that tend to take up one's time and energy. You might be wondering how we came up with the name for the podcast considering the fact that it's a little more of a technological or computer reference. The Team is made up of Chris, Teresa, Ray, Linzi, Billy, and CC. Did you catch it? it's our first initials. Billy is the add-on so he gets represented by the plus sign. He joined us a few months in to recording and after we had named the thing. We get together once a month at our designated meetup space and record four episodes. We decided on a rotating host structure so that no one person has to carry the burden of being the host. So far we're having a great time. We're hoping that our listeners do as well. We are of course looking to expand and become a "network" of sorts. We all have different ideas of shows we want to do and I'll keep you updated as we go. I've personally got an idea percolating about history that I think will be pretty fantastic. Just have to figure out the details. In the meantime, I've listed all the places you can find us. We're on most of the platforms, so go with whatever makes you happy. Social media on the links on the right, listening ability below. www.geekendcast.com iTunes: http://apple.co/2eBvJ8P Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2f0cZm1 Google play: http://bit.ly/2f3LAML1 |