This week we watched and reviewed Dirty Grandpa. Half the reason I'm writing this post is simply to have something else out there in the world where a person could look something up about the movie other than the miles of sameness available online. In attempting to research this movie I found almost nothing.
After seeing the movie, I'm not surprised. It follows the adventures that occur after a recently widowed Grandfather (Robert DiNero) forces his Grandson (Zac Efron) to road trip after the death of his wife. The road trip off course includes many crazy situations that would never occur in real life. The supporting cast definitely helps the narrative and without them the movie would have been worse than it already is. It's not that it's a bad movie. I've definitely seen worse. It just wasn't as funny as I wanted it to be. Most of the laugh out loud moments for me centered around Jason Mantzoukas's character Pam and his drug trade. That and the scene on the beach with a mostly naked Efron and an awful little kid. Overall the movie is exactly what you expect it will be. People behaving badly, becoming intoxicate, arguing with each other, realizing something profound about themselves, and then making life changing decisions. You aren't going to love it but you likely won't hate it either. Teresa had some issues with Aubrey Plaza's character that she gets into during the episode as well. Have a listen to the Dirty Grandpa episode. Do you have any embarrassing grandparent stories to share?
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I originally saw Joy shortly after it came out. I spent the majority of the movie trying to keep myself from screaming at the TV. The film portrays Joy's family as some of the most wretched, selfish, and rude people I've seen in a while. It wasn't just on or two of them either. It was the majority of them. Knowing that this was based on a true story made it moderately worse. I've since read that a lot of the way her family behaved was creative license, but one wonders how much truth there was in it.
Joy is the story of Joy Mangano, the inventor of the Miracle Mop. It follows her struggle as a single mom through the invention and implementation and sales of her first major product. The real life Joy has gone on to invent multiple household products and holds a ton of patents. As for Jennifer Lawrence, I wouldn't necessarily say that this was her best role. She spent a lot of time staring into space and taking the abuse that her family doled out on her. That doesn't really make for a amazing biopic. If I'm being honest? Our review is probably more entertaining than the movie itself. Take a listen to the latest episode. As always you can find us on all your favorite podcasting sites and apps. Just search for Ctrl+C or visit us on our website below or in the menu at the top.
Finally! I get to write about Much Ado About Nothing!
This movie is one of my go-to films when I need a little bit of extra happiness in my week. I will be the first to admit that I don't always "get" Shakespeare when I read it. Sometimes the language he uses is just so far out there that I can't wrap my head around what they are trying to say. For me it's easier to see it performed than it is to read it. That being said, I really enjoy adaptations in which they make the setting modern but keep the old style language. I loved it when they did it with Romeo and Juliet back in the 90's with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes and I loved it with this adaptation. It's no secret by now that I love the movies and shows that Joss Whedon makes. I've yet to see anything of his that I did not enjoy thoroughly. His adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing is no exception. Everything from the choice of actors to the decision to make it black and white to filming it at his own home. Everything was perfection for me. This comedy comes alive with these pieces in place. Everything fits perfectly and flows as it should. The cast is a who's who of previous Whedon projects that starts with the leads, Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof. The two of them have a ridiculous amount of chemistry and you can see the years of working together in their choices. The physical comedy in this movie has both subtly and slapstick qualities. The actors are able to make you laugh with a raised eyebrow just as easily as they do with a pratfall. If you don't care for Shakespeare because you don't understand it I completely understand, but give this movie a try. You may find that it helps with understanding the way the language flows. If not? Then take a listen to our podcast instead. We discuss all this and much much more.
Secret of Nimh is probably one of the best kept secrets of the 1980’s animation explosion. One could say that it helped to usher in the Disney boom that followed it. Unfortunately, it sometimes gets lost among the others because of it.
For the longest time all I could really remember about this movie was the shiny red necklace, that there were rats, and that Nicodemous was incredibly creepy. I didn’t necessarily remember his name, but I remembered the face. Of course, as a kid I missed all the nuance about laboratory testing and focused on the magical aspect of the movie. Honestly, I couldn’t even tell you where I saw the movie for the first time. It came out when I was two and I don’t think we owned the VHS. Years later I saw the movie for sale in the $5 bin at Wal-Mart. I generally try to stay away from that bin because I’ll lose more money than I should, but this classic from my childhood was a no-brainer. Then, when Teresa mentioned she wanted to do a 1980’s animated movie I was thrilled when she picked Secret of Nimh. The movie itself is about how far a mother will go to save her children, filled in with themes of loss, love, and moral ambiguity about lab rat testing. Throw in a little “do you ever really know a person” and you have a movie worthy of Disney, without the branding. It’s also a relatively faithful adaptation of the children’s book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. The artwork this week is from the artist Mark Lone and I am madly in love with this piece. You should check out the rest of his work here: http://markloneart.bigcartel.com/ The newest episode featuring our review of the Secret of Nimh is up now with all of our other episodes. Have a listen if you get the chance.
If you haven't actually seen Sausage Party, I'll go ahead and save you the trouble. Just don't. Spare yourself the awfulness and just watch literally anything else. I should have quit as soon as the thing raped the juicebox to death. Yeah, you read that right. It ends with a full on food orgy, giving a whole new meaning to the hashtag "food porn". They aren't shy about it either. It's disturbing and crass and disgusting. It made me nauseous.
At some point, I just got angry at the whole thing. Why on earth am I toiling away at my desk job (ok toiling is a stretch, but you get the point) when schmucks like this make piles of trash like this? If someone wants to throw $19 million dollars my way, I'd be happy to make something way better than this. In watching the trailer and reading about it online before it came out, it seemed like a really interesting concept. I just think that they went entirely too far. Hey, it made $140 million dollars at the box office, so what the hell do I know? If you'd like to hear more about the team's thoughts on the movie, check it out below. We hit 1,000 plays of our podcast today. That means someone listened to or downloaded our episodes 1,000 times. Now obviously in the grand scheme of things that’s not much. Most other podcasts like have 1,000 download days. Heck, there may be some that have 1,000 download hours.
But for us? A little random podcast of movie reviews created by six friends in my living room? It’s kind of a big deal. We’re six months in and while we aren’t seeing exponential growth, we are seeing consistency. We’re seeing people check us out all over the world. That’s really cool. We don’t have lofty ideals of being podcasting superstars, but we are wanting to expand. We’re still having fun doing it and can’t wait to continue. We have some great episodes coming up and a summer slasher kick-off that we enjoyed recording. Personally I have a few ideas for some podcasts that I’d like to get going. If I could quit my job and do this full time I would. Well, I’d probably spend half the day reading and then podcast, but you know what I mean. Oh to be independently wealthy. HA! There’s a big thank you in order to everyone who helped us get off the ground. A big thank you to everyone who listened and who will continue to listen. www.geekendcast.com
If you could go back in time and change one thing, what would it be?
This week’s podcast is all about one of my favorite movies, Safety Not Guaranteed. The premise of this movie is of a magazine writer and his coworkers travelling to find the man who place the ad: "Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box 91 Ocean View, WA 99393. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before." While trying to determine if he’s just crazy or not, they all end up going on personal journeys in the process. It’s hard to give a full review without spoiling the ending, but what I can say is that by the time you get to the end, you’ll be completely on board. Mark Duplass is charming and earnest. Aubrey Plaza is reserved and awkward. Both of the characters they play blossom on screen and their burgeoning love story does not feel forced or contrived. Overall the movie is enjoyable, but it’s the ending that will grab you and stay with you for a while.
Here’s the thing about a movie like Silver Linings Playbook, I think that maybe you need to have experience with mental illness to fully appreciate and understand this movie. I don’t mean that there’s no way you could understand it at all, just that it helped to have gone through some of the things that the characters do.
Growing up and well into my young adulthood, I struggled with depression and anxiety. I won’t sit here and tell you that I’ve been “cured” of my depression, but I can say that it has lessened to a dull roar in the back of my head. I still have anxiety about a number of things. Sometimes it manifests as a worrisome internal battle as to whether or not I should say or do something. Other times it’s trying to convince myself to leave the house altogether. I’ve missed too many outings because the mere thought of going in public left me terrified for no discernable reason. I toe the line between “being particular” and having genuine OCD. Members of my family also struggle with various shades of mental illness such as Bipolar Disorder and have manic episodes not unlike the ones depicted in the movie. Everyone deals with their mental illness differently. Some need medication, others therapy, others ignore it completely and hope it goes away. Whatever the method, there’s still too much of a stigma with regards to the various mental disorders. They are far more common than people think. If you are suffering and need help you should absolutely reach out to one of your local organizations or even online as there is a plethora of support for you. Take a listen to the episode. I hope that it helps you in knowing that you are not alone. https://www.mentalhealth.gov/get-help Rocky Horror Picture Show is one of my favorite musicals. I can watch it once a year and never feel like it's getting old. It's one of those movies where, even if you haven't seen it, you likely at least know about it. The suggestion of this movie to the group was met with derision from Chris who had previously made it clear that he did not care for it, you'll have to listen to the episode to hear why. About a week after we recorded the episode, the team went to see the movie with a live audience. If you're not familiar with this tradition, there are several different versions of this that carry on all over the US during the Halloween season. Some performances have what's called a "Shadow Cast" in which actors act out the movie on the stage while the movie itself is playing. The other way, is simply to have the movie playing on a large screen in the theater. Of course, that's not all. I've seen both a Shadow Cast and just the movie, but in each instance there are props. Throughout the movie there are triggers that have been created throughout the years for audience participation. At the beginning when the original couple gets married, everyone throws rice. When it's raining and Brad & Janet are walking up to the castle? Half the people brought newspapers to place on their heads and half brought water guns to simulate the rain. Never seen a live show before? A little nervous? Never fear! There's always someone wandering around with lipsticks to write a big red "V" on your forehead. They'll shout "We got us some virgins over here!" and then be on their way. People shout at the screen unabashedly. Everyone sings every song and raises their lighter and/or cell phone flashlight during "There's a Light". People on the ends of the aisles jump into the aisles to do the Time Warp. This year's show did not disappoint. On top of the usual shenanigans, this particular theater had a live bad singing old dance songs and invited everyone onto the stage to dance. There was a random spontaneous sing-a-long to one of the songs they were playing over the loudspeaker between the live band and the actual movie. There was something magical about 1,000 people singing "I Want to Know What Love Is" by Foreigner at the top of their lungs without provocation. We converted Chris that night. Or, at least he claims he was converted. If you're just "meh" about Rocky Horror, I highly recommend seeing a live show when it comes around. In the meantime, you'll have to make do with our podcast episode. Traditionally Rocky Horror is viewed around Halloween because of the B-movie Horror quality of it. Or maybe it's the costumes, I don't know. I'd argue that Rocky Horror is really about trying to find love. Some of us are lucky and we find our Brad/Janet. Some of us have to Frankenstein a mate together. In the end, everyone just wants to be loved.
This week we took on Now You See Me 2. A confusing jumbled romp back into the world of the Four Horsemen. The movie touts excellent visual effects and a stellar cast but it falls short in many ways. Unfortunately, unless you've seen the first movie you'll end up incredibly confused. You may end up confused even if you have seen the first movie.
The tricks themselves are entertaining enough to watch, however, the plot is muddled. Take a listen to the new episode and let us know if you agree. |