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I have a question about the number of balls in a snowman. So as the majority of us are from North America and if we were asked to draw a snowman we'd draw a three balled snowman. Head, body, and legs. However, as I soon discovered after moving to Japan, not every country does this. In fact Japan and Korea both do two ball snowmen, head and body. Throughout the film we see nothing but two ball snowmen. The killer even uses a two ball snowman as his calling card. Yet, if you look at the original Norwegian book cover and movie poster they use a three ball snowman. From what I gather Norway is a three ball snowman country. However, the director of the film and a lot of people involved in it are British and England is a two ball snowman country. Were they unaware of this fact? Did they see the original stuff and just ignore it? Or does Norway go both ways when it comes to snowman balls?

Maybe they go into these details later in the episode, I had to take a break because they were trashing Harry Hole's abilities too much. Harry Hole or Hoola, (as he is called by different official audiobook readers) is the greatest detective in all of Norway. Paul, these are great books well worth reading. He isn't Sherlock Holmes. Harry Hole's detective philosophy is that you should essentially brainstorm. You do a lot of guesswork and free association and this gives you leads. In the book, he follows those leads down doggedly, while succumbing to his alcoholism and being deeply flawed. In this movie, he is useless. While the purpose of the Black Mold guy is not clear in the movie. In the book, an offhand remark he makes about his outfit leads Harry to understand that Matthias is the killer. Harry dated Rakel for several books. He is NOT Oleg's father (though the movie is not as clear on this). Oleg's father is supposed to be a Russian diplomat Rakel met when she was working for Norway's version of the state department, and in book four or five, he sues for custody. She is a state department official and lawyer. In the movie, she is a gallery owner, a job few outside of New York or Santa Fe are involved in. Anyway, while she is working for Norway's diplomatic service, she is banging two dudes. One is a Norwegian state official. The other is Russian. The Norwegian guy is married already or not interested in getting married, and so she tells the Russian he is the father, even though he isn't. This is revealed in response to an article saying that some ridiculously high percentage of Norwegian children are not actually being raised by the men who sired them. Matthias, the Snowman, is one of these children being raised by a father who is not actually his father. He starts killing women who have essentially tricked these men into raising kids that are not theirs (Including in the book, his own mother. It has been a while since I read the book, but I believe he murdered her; he didn't just watch her die. (Please correct me if I'm remembering that wrong fellow Nesbo heads. BTW, the audiobook readers always say it as Nesba. But if he did watch her die; he's happy about it, so he would be smiling not she). Also, Harry does not kill him at the end of the book. Matthias starts plotting this scenario where Harry will accidentally kill Rakel (who is cheating with Harry during this case) to punish him. He doesn't fall for it, and as in the movie, saves her at the expense of a finger or two. Matthias is dying of a rare disease which disfigures you (melts you like a snowman) and is very painful. He hopes to die but Harry keeps him alive to deliberately punish him. In the next novel, Harry is helped by a now disfigured Matthias and slips him drugs to OD on, because he hopes to die. I should add that Erin's instinct that this movie and these novels are misogynistic is on point (see the above info about all Norwegian women tricking men into raising their babies), as is her idea that Harry is an alcoholic for something beyond just the disease (though that is the main reason; one day at a time...) Women are constantly, needlessly in danger or brutally murdered. To the Alcoholism, Harry has seen his Mother die of cancer (and maybe helped her die?), first real girlfriend commit suicide, another one be killed, killed another police officer in a drunk driving accident, accidentally shot an American secret service agent who wasn't doing his job, lost a female partner to a corrupt cop's pro-gun and white nationalist organization, and been told he could no longer investigate his sister's rape. His sister, by the way, has, and I quote here, "a touch of down syndrome." Not to mention, another male cop he mentors is killed leaving a female friend of his left pregnant and alone, and then eventually also killed, and a whole lot of other fucked up shit. Possibly the most infuriating part of The Snowman is the end where he says, "I'll take the case." In the book, Rakel and Oleg leave Norway for the Netherlands to get away from the horror they experienced. Harry, horrified by all he has seen dealing with Norway's first serial killing, moves to Hong Kong and becomes an opium addict. He eventually pulls it together and comes back a different hot female detective flies out to tell him his dad is dying and another serial killer is baffling Norwegian Police (the one alluded to in the details of the file, the Leopard). The movie made no sense unless you read the book. It was as if everyone seeing the movie would go, "Oh of course! Oleg. Harry's essential stepson!" Oh, one detail of the novel I remember is that they go to a heavy metal concert, not the weird concert in the film. I want to say it was Slipknot, but I'm not positive. The creepy looking doctor character (Toby Jones?) worked with Matthias and went to the same school at the same time, so Matthias deliberately frames him as the Snowman (and Harry buys it because Matthias seems super boring and the other guy has piles of evidence that he is guilty). Katrine's dad (Val Kilmer) figures it out 9 years earlier but is killed by Matthias. The Creepy doctor guy is friends with JK Simmons as well. I can't remember what he does for him to get invited to the cool parties in society. The doctor is alleged to have been involved in a sex ring/pedophilia, but it turns out he was just treating Norwegian prostitutes for diseases and I think getting off on it because he's a creep. Maybe JK Simmons is running this. Definitely, the movie does not make this clear. Katrine Bratt (AKA Rebecca Fergusson) is the female detective. As Paul noted, she does not die. She is alive as of the most recent novel. One thing to note about her is I felt she was played as a mousey, insecure detective. In the novels, she is a confident sex kitten who garners Harry's respect almost immediately (and to be clear, Rebecca Ferguson is a gorgeous woman, but she played this role way different from the way Bratt is in the novels). She makes a few attempts to seduce Harry Hole, all of which he resists because of his on the spectrum personality and his love for Rakel. At the end, because she dresses as a dominatrix and tries to torment the JK Simmons character into confessing the Snowman crimes he did not commit she is placed in a mental institution. She helps Harry out on his next case using her hacking ability, and eventually, makes it out to help him more directly on cases. The little girl in the donkey mask does not exist and Harry hates small children. He has nothing but contempt for the male child whose mom is killed. He does not make a special connection with him by re-enacting Pinnochio. That kid sucks the whole way through. That's all I can remember right now. Interestingly, while the Snowman is the most popular of the Novels (certainly makes sense for why Scorcese wanted to make a movie) it was my second least favorite (after Cockroaches). I would recommend starting with The Bat. Not the best novel, but a great introduction to a dark character. Then skipping to Redbreast (book 3 after Cockroaches aka 2) and reading the rest. Harry is a compelling and entertaining character. I might remember more, but I hope this puts me in the running to win absolutely nothing.

So I came across this video interview that Jo Nesbo did before the movie came out and there are some stunning things said in it... First, Nesbo calls him Harry Hole, not Holy or any sort of accented version of the word. He said he was 'relieved' that Fassbender was cast as Harry, but other than Shame it doesn't really sounds like he has seen anything else he has done. He says he's a "bit worried it [the film franchise] might take over my universe" - I don't think he has anything to worry about there. He is in the movie (or at least he filmed a scene for the movie) where he is holding a 'dangerous' and 'forbidden' dog from Slovakia. WHAT?!? Aside from filming that scene he seemingly had no input on the film's production. Nesbo says it was important for the director to shoot the film in Norway, but Nesbo says they could have shot it anywhere because the character is more important than the place. He was really looking forward to the scenes shot in Bergen. - I'm guessing he ended up being massively disappointed. The video also shows a picture of the book cover which has a tagline that says "Beware the falling snow" which would have been a much better tagline for the film than any of the convoluted ones that Paul mentioned in the show.

I felt betrayed by Spielberg when I first saw this, because it was the first movie where it was cemented for me that he wasn't my fun uncle Spielberg any more, the guywho made great adventure movies like Jaws or Raiders for me, and all the other American kids. Spielberg had favorites, and this movie was made for his favorite nephews, not for all of his nephews. This movie was made as a metaphor about the Holocaust, and it was made for a certain bigoted portion of the the American Jewish population, while trying to entertaining in a cheap bloodthirsty way, the rest of us. The metaphor the movie is aiming for, and expected to be understood by the Jewish members of the population, is that Ryan is a surviving Jew, and saving the surviving Jews is really important, and dying to do so is really worthwhile. I doubt that anyone who believed in equality for everyone, that everyone is a human being, and that everyone's life is worthwhile, and worth saving, would agree with this. The movie is horribly focused on educating the audience towards this Truth. The Beach invasion sequence is designed to raise one's blood lust towards the faceless German soldiers, so we can cheer when they are machinegunned in their trenches at the end. When the topic of war crimes is brought up, we are repeatedly given sequences where our boys are killed, while the question of whether mercy should be shown to Germans is repeatedly answered with the answer "No". The "Steamboat Willie" soldier is spared, but only to return later to kill the nice Tom Hanks. Upham hesitates on the stairs while the Jewish soldier is being slowly stabbed (with his own souvenir Hitler Youth knife), metaphorically representing the late entry of the U.S. into World War II, which arguably caused Jews to die. Amy is very perceptive noting the structure of the film, the Germans slaughtering Americans, and then the satisfying payback as the Americans slaughter Germans. It's repeated over and over, and it's for entertainment purposes, and bigoted refusal to see the enemy as human adds to the entertainment factor. "Steamboat Willie" is a pretty ugly dude, in a Hollwood sense, and he's the biggest villain of the piece. We only see the eyes of the Sniper, before God helps the American sniper kill him. The message of the film is that God was on the side of the Americans, even if the film proffers an insincere cynicism about the value of what they are doing as soldiers, and the reason that God is on their side is because .... they are saving the surviving member of a large family (Ryan/The Jews of Europe). Upham is bad because he is cowardly and lets a literal Jewish character die due to his cowardice. The question the film asks, is the horror of war worth the effort? And the answer the film unironically presents is, yes, if it saves Jews. That Spielberg tries to be subtle about this (in his clumsy Spielberg way) is why the film is confusing to many. It's a lot simpler a movie. Germans Bad, Ryan Good, Dying to Save Ryan good. Blah. I'm not Jewish, and don't think that, even if I were, I would think dying to save me would be worth someone else's life. Only a bigot would think this way, and I'm sad that my Uncle Spielberg turned out to be one.

My read on this film was super misogynistic. It basically seemed to me like some Men's Right's Activist, anti-choice, trying to be pro-dad BS. You all have already addressed the whole Oleg situation, and the rampant distrust of women who are all promiscuous and lying to the men about who are the fathers of their kids. But there was some real anti-choice messages (and I feel like the director was kind of muddled in whether he was pro-choice). For example, we know that Chloe Sevigny had an abortion just before she died, and when she's on the phone with the Snowman, she says something about, "it wasn't your child, it was mine" and her "twin" made some comment about "she got rid of the baby." Also, so I understand (could be wrong?) the Snowman was actually the "pregnancy doctor" which I took to mean "abortion doctor." I attributed the awkward phrasing to the English translation? And wasn't JK Simmons giving money to the fertility clinic that was performing the abortions? The whole thing felt like a mess of men being pissed about not having reproductive control over women's bodies. When that control is lost, and when women prove themselves slutty liars, they're knocked off. Here comes hero Michael Fassbender who steps up into a father's roll KNOWING he's not Oleg's biological dad, and they really drive that point home. The main message of Snowman seems to be: Fathers = AWESOME; Women = lying sluts who deserve to die. Except Charlotte Gainsbourg (?) I have feelings about The Snowman, and none of them good. Glad I didn't pay to watch it. I didn't know about Fassbender's history with women, or I'd probably have skipped this all together.

I have no idea how this bonkers as fuck movie hasn't been suggested yet, but I can't find anything in the search, so here we are. Earth passes through the tail of a comet and reduces nearly every human to a tidy little pile of red dust. Two survivors (and sisters), Reggie (Catherine Mary Stewart, also known for The Last m'f'n Starfighter) and Sam (Kelli Maroney, also known for CHOPPING MALL) venture out to find other survivors. They stop at a mall, where they loot/have a fun dance montage to a karaoke version of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". And then there's a mall shootout. I don't want to spoil the rest for you, because that would be rude. But isn't the fact that there's a mall shootout enough for you? It should be!

Scientology strikes again!

If you want to learn more about this FILM without actually having to watch it you can listen to the The Flophouse episode that covers it ( its #253 ). They get more into the actual " plot " while still ripping it to shreds and laughing at it. Also, i fuck!ng love Erin ( and Brian ).

For what it's worth, I had a hard time with all of them, which I mentioned. "Erin yelling, Bryan booming, Jason yelling. Poor Paul."

The comments on female guests "screaming/shrieking/yelling" during live shows are getting boring. I've listened to the episode and she is matching the volume set by the men, but nope apparently it's just her fault and she's the one no one can listen to. We get it y'all.

I just started, but this episode seems like a complete mess. Erin yelling, Bryan booming, Jason yelling. Poor Paul. I was really looking forward to them covering this..."film"...but I'm not sure I'll make it through if this continues.