Jump to content
🔒 The Earwolf Forums are closed Read more... ×

DanEngler

Administrators
  • Content count

    1617
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    40

Posts posted by DanEngler


  1. 48 minutes ago, DrGuts1003 said:

    Has anyone contacted Paul (or anyone else associated with the show) about the Swordfish episode?

    Yes, dozens of people on Twitter have asked Paul and/or the @HDTGM account about it and the only time they addressed it* was to say "Don’t watch movies announced for live shows. Those are for the live shows and don’t always correlate to the podcast release dates." Evidence suggests they don't plan to release it.

    * Paul may have addressed it in the past but he uses a service to periodically delete all of his old tweets, so I can't be sure.

    • Like 2
    • Sad 1

  2. On 7/4/2019 at 12:38 PM, Cameron H. said:

    Huh, I just chalked that up to the helicopter having rescued a couple of other dudes down river. I didn’t even consider it might be a goof.

    I didn't know if it was this, or the helicopters were retreating from an ambush and the dangling men were enemy soldiers, or just bad filmmaking. 🙃

    • Like 1

  3. Did anyone else notice that, when the helicopters initially fly past the escapees as they float down the river, there are already two guys hanging from the skids? The fact that this isn't listed as a goof on IMDb (i.e. accidentally using a shot from the attempted rescue a minute later) has me wondering if I missed something.


  4. 1 hour ago, Cameron H. said:

    It just feels like it takes so long for it to get going. I mean, yeah, I get the argument that if you cut a lot of the wedding stuff the rest of the film suffers, but that’s only if you cut the wedding scene as is and don’t attempt to rewrite the scene more economically.

    Beyond the (alleged) goal of padding the length of the film, I think the extended wedding scenes came from writers struggling to give the audience any reason to sympathize with a group of unlikable characters. When your protagonists are drunk assholes who drive recklessly and aren't perturbed by women getting slapped around or having guns waved in their faces, and who possibly enlisted as an excuse to shoot Vietnamese people ("Kill a couple for me!"), it's hard to care when they're subjected to the horrors of war.

    Paul's opinions this week strongly echo my own. I appreciate Platoon for its hyperrealistic portrayal of the war from someone who experienced it firsthand, and Apocalypse Now as an impressionistic fantasy based on "the war" as it diffused through American consciousness. I don't feel The Deer Hunter adds anything new to this duality, and I don't think it belongs on the AFI 100 for that reason.

    Also, I see Paul and Amy getting some pushback on Twitter for discounting a queer interpretation of The Deer Hunter. When Cimino has demonstrated so little interest in subtlety for the majority of the film, I can't imagine him playing coy about Michael and Nick's sexuality, especially when the simplest explanation (Michael pining over Linda while feeling honor-bound to not pursue her) slaps you in the face every five minutes.

    • Like 3

  5. 3 minutes ago, tomspanks said:

    Imho you don’t need a recipe. Making it is easier than spelling it. Grate some cucumber - I seed them if they’re seedy and leave about 20% skin on for the color - salt them a little, gently squeeze out water, add it to yogurt, add a bit of grated garlic, s&p, and opa!  You can add dill but someone in my house doesn’t like it :(

    This! If I'm making something with raw garlic (like tzatziki or hummus), I always cut the cloves in half and remove the germ to temper its pungency.

    • Like 6

  6. Hard "no". The human characters are nightmarish, the jokes are all very "first thought", it's clear which parts of the dialog were voiced early in the process (where the actors sound big and theatrical before relaxing into natural performances), and Randy Newman is like nails on the chalkboard of my soul. If either WALL-E or The Incredibles were added to the list, they would merit a spot much higher than #99.

    • Like 3

  7. While I don't count Vertigo among history's greatest plots, I think it deserves its spot on the AFI list for direction/cinematography alone. Watching it for the first time, there were so many moments that I had to rewind just to marvel at what seems like an impossible amount of beauty captured on screen. And this video gave me an even greater appreciation for Hitchcock's amazingly intricate choreography.

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1

  8. 2 hours ago, Kickpuncher said:

    While I was listening to this, I kept thinking that Will had also played a basketball coach in another recent episode, but I can't find it.  I checked his last ~2 years of appearances, and the only one that doesn't list his character in the description is the 2018 Holiday Spectacular.  Since these are usually all recurring characters, I assume he was playing Morpheus, but then it also feels like a perfectly Will Hines thing to not do that.  Does anyone know who he was playing in that episode, or remember another coach character?

    #582 Practice Sacks with Joe Wengert as the coach of the Bismarck Dinner Dogs?

    • Like 1

  9. Amy & Paul cross-examine 1962’s Southern drama To Kill A Mockingbird! They compare the slice-of-life storytelling to later filmmakers like Richard Linklater, reveal Brock Peters’ on-set nickname, and ask whether the film can be considered separately from the book. Plus: author and professor Wayne Flynt talks about his friendship with Harper Lee in her later years.

    For Vertigo week, what other mental disorders could be the title of a Hitchcock film? Call the Unspooled voicemail line at 747-666-5824 with your answer! Follow us on Twitter @Unspooled, get more info at unspooledpod.com and don’t forget to rate, review & subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts. Photo credit: Kim Troxall

    This episode is brought to you by Turo (www.turo.com code: UNSPOOLED) and Ooni Wood Fired Pizza Oven (www.ooni.com code: UNSPOOLED).


  10. 5 hours ago, taylorannephoto said:

    I battle clinical anxiety and depression every day and let me just say that I could not agree more with everything Elektra has said here. I've never met anyone that suffers from a mental illness that wasn't actively trying to be the best and nicest person they can be.

    Also, Elektra, we love you so much here and every time I see you post it makes me happy.

    Same, on all counts.

    To reiterate what Paul said, if anyone reading this needs someone to talk to (confidentially and for free) call 1-800-273-8255. Their site has resources for Spanish speakers and deaf/hard of hearing people too.

    And if you're trans and you want to connect with fellow trans people who understand what you're going through, the volunteers at Trans Lifeline are waiting. Call 1-877-565-8860.

    • Like 9

  11. If anything, Amy needs to be dragged for naming Rian Johnson as one of the most talented directors at taking a stagnant property in a radical new direction. Not because I disagree with her—Brick is one of my all-time favorite movies and I've been a huge fan of Rian's work ever since—but because Amy is a close friend of both Rian and his wife (and past guest) Karina Longworth. This is a horrible conflict of interest and is totally unacceptable in the high-stakes, contractually-binding world of movie podcasts!

    source.gif

    • Like 3

  12. 35 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

    I do think they were nitpicking Black Panther, like arguing it misses one emotional beat at some point.  That's the end-all of a movie?  I don't mind not liking it fully, but that seems oddly specific reasoning.  What I like about Unspooled is while they may have a lot of specific facts to share, they aren't nitpicking the quality of the films to death. 

    I don't know if I consider it nitpicking because I agree with Amy & Paul: the majority of Black Panther is electrifying, which is why the final act feels so underwhelming in comparison. In fact, when I revisited what I remembered to be a deeply emotional cliff/sunset/death scene, I realized I was actually thinking about the end of War for The Planet of The Apes. I pray that Black Panther 2 really sticks the landing so counting it among the 100 best films of all time is a no-brainer.

    • Like 2

  13. After the first 10 episodes of Unspooled, @Cameron H. came up with the brilliant idea to include a weekly poll so we could determine, once and for all, whether each film belongs in the AFI Top 100. While the podcast is focusing on 2018's best films this month, I figure it would be a good time to add polls to the episodes we'd missed and allow everyone to exercise their democratic rights.

    Vote now! Polls are open until March 1.

    • Like 4

  14. On 1/14/2019 at 6:05 PM, ol' eddy wrecks said:

    If there was a Western you'd like to see on the AFI (or whatever list), what would it be?  (If it's already on there, e.g. we have to cull the number of westerns on the list, which one would you really want to keep).

    I'd rank Johnny Guitar (1954) above all of the Westerns we've covered so far, although I'm not sure fans of the genre would even consider it a Western. Yes, it features cowboys and horses and gorgeous vistas and stagecoach robberies and bar room brawls and crooked lawmen and tense showdowns with menacing villains, but the protagonist is played by Joan Crawford and its dialog is as snappy as the best film noir and its theme is a torch song performed by Peggy Lee.

    All I know is, if Karina Longworth (host of You Must Remember This) and Millie De Chirico (TCM and FilmStruck programmer) and Fresh Air's Terry Gross have all independently recommended a film, it's a guaranteed classic.

    Here's a trailer that arguably gives away too much of the plot:

    • Like 3

  15. 6 hours ago, taylorannephoto said:

    We're still gonna hold off until we figure out what the next episode will be right? I just wanna make sure so I don't start talking about this piece of art too soon.

    Someone asked Paul on Twitter whether there would be a new minisode this week and he responded "Nope but about 15 min intro with June, Jason and I that might be one of my favorite things we didn this year." So it sounds like a rebroadcast of an old episode with a new intro?

    (I'd link to his response, but Paul is using some tool that automatically deletes all of his old tweets, and it's already been scrubbed from his account.)

×