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Panic pick, but have wanted to watch the original and think it's on Amazon Prime/streaming right now.. A Star is Born (1937) And I'm sure we can definitely discuss/compare the remakes (especially the latest one)

Sorry I've been MIA in the forums : ( I have missed y'all and being in the discussions Let me think of a pick real quick!

Yes, most movie villains really need to have read the Evil Overlord List. This would seem to fall under #17: "When I employ people as advisors, I will occasionally listen to their advice."

This will probably come off as a bit nitpicky, but it's a personal bugaboos so I'm going to point it out. When we are introduced to Mr. Hyde, we are shown that he's this hulking brute of a monster that appears to be about 3 ft. taller than Van Helsing with a head that is easily 3 times as large. Now, I have no problem with the fact that most of Hyde's clothes are still on him. Years of reading and watching the Incredible Hulk has given me pretty unreasonable expectations and a certain tolerance for extreme pant waist elasticity. Hell, it doesn't bother me that when he grows his pants are somehow loose enough that he actually has to pull his pants up to cover his butt crack (also, incidentally, confirming that Dr Jekyll goes commando). No, what bothers me is the fact that the cigar he is smoking is somehow proportionate to his increased mass and not to a normal human. How does that work? Where the Hell was he able to scrounge up a cigar the length of a adult man's femur?

This month, I’m going to let Grudlian dictate which Friday we do this since I know he watched all the other Twilights in preparation for this, and I would hate for him to have gone through all that effort just to miss out. Grud, which Friday is better for you: the 5th or the 12th?

Quite simple actually he rolled his own

For all the great jokes made about Van Helsing's hat, our hosts missed what I think is the most obvious one. Look at this damned Wanted poster: It shows you absolutely NOTHING about Van Helsing's face. Literally the only detail there for people to latch onto is his hat. If he's having so many problems with people telling "MURDERER!" at him everywhere he goes, TAKE OFF THE HAT. BUY A DIFFERENT HAT. NO ONE WILL RECOGNIZE YOU.

We've missed you too! I hope everything is going well with you

I just saw that all the Twilight movies are on Hulu right now.

I want to write a bit on Dracula’s peasant farming and its long term sustainability. We’re told that they only take “one or two [villagers] a month.” Or, as Dracula puts it, just enough to sustain them. First of all, I’m not sure if by “one or two” villagers per month they mean per vampire or if one or two villagers is the number of villagers required to comfortably feed a family of four adult vampires for an entire month. Since the movie’s phrasing is ambiguous, let’s err on the conservative side and say they share their victims. This means that each year, at the very least, somewhere between 12 and 24 villagers are devoured by the undead. I mean, that might not sound like a lot, but that’s a huge number - especially for a tiny village in the Romanian hinterlands. And while I admit I don’t exactly have the census information for the town on hand, based on what is shown in the movie, I would estimate that the town doesn’t have more than maybe 200 people in it. At one or two persons per month, that means that each year 6-12% of their total population is killed off by Dracula and his wives. To put that into perspective, if you were to apply the same percentage to modern day America, 6-12% would make “death by vampire” the third leading cause of death behind Heart Disease (23.4%) and Cancer (22.5%). Their harvesting of souls also doesn’t take into account for death from natural causes, accidents, or homicidal undertakers. And furthermore, at that rate of death, it would be impossible for the villagers to breed fast enough to create a state of equilibrium. Although, I suspect birth rates would drop precipitously. After all, what’s the point of having children if they’re destined to be chattel for your demonic overlords? What all this means is that in less than a decade, these four vampires will have completely exhausted their food supply. Of course, this is all assuming that Van Helsing never arrives and they are able maintain their status quo. Once “thousands” of baby vampires are unleashed upon the world, each eating at least a quarter human each month, it’s not going to be long before their New Vampire World Order comes crashing down from a full blown vampire famine. Not smart, Drac!

This was my first Chaplin film, and I loved it. I’ve seen lots of films by Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, but always resisted Chaplin for some uncertain reason. I think it had to do with the way the Little Tramp character is all over pop culture, and my incorrect view of Chaplin as overly sentimental and sappy. Like Amy, I found myself laughing out loud at City Lights probably more than any other silent comedy I’ve watched. The boxing scene is physical comedy perfection, and every single actor involved does an amazing job. One small observation about the boxing match and its treatment of the Black boxer. It seems a lot of the films I’ve seen from the era either marginalize their Black characters as servants or in similar stereotypical roles, or they present them as minstrel show-like caricatures in an attempt at comedy. It was nice and a little surprising to see the boxer presented as just another character in the scene. City Lights definitely belongs in the AFI top 100.

Fantastic episode! Seth Rogen's exuberance is contagious. One thing that really bugged me about this movie is that Beckinsale and her ancestors get to go to Heaven on a bullshit technicality. We're told by Van Helsing's boss that 450 years ago Beckinsale's great-great-great grandfather made a vow to God that his family would "neither rest nor enter Heaven until they vanquished Dracula from their land." But...they didn't vanquish him - Van Helsing did. In order to fulfill this vow and lift the family curse, shouldn't Beckinsale be the one to deliver the killing blow? Otherwise, it's just a bunch of nonsense. That means it never really mattered how Dracula died, just that he did - eventually. They could have just waited him out until he choked on some Texas Toast or slipped in the shower or some shit. Because, apparently, it really didn't fucking matter. What this movie really needed was a mid-credits scene where Kate and her lover-brother march up to St. Peter only for him to tell them, "Um, not so fast..."

I went and saw Van Helsing in theaters and at the end of the movie when we see Anna’s face in the sky my buddy said “Simba” in his best James Earl Jones voice. The entire theater erupted in laughter and as we were walking out people were asking each other who said it. We kept our mouths shut smiled and walked out. Funniest part of the movie!!

lol- Shenanigans! Rolling a cigar is an art! I refuse to believe Mr Hyde took the time out of murdering "12 men, 6 women, 4 children, three goats" and massacring poultry to properly age tobacco leaves and case them. That being said, a Van Helsing prequel featuring Mr Hyde as an apprentice torcedor is a something I would very much like to see.

I just want to know how the hell they got Van Helsing's automatic crossbow to fire SO MANY damn arrows. Looked like he fired off a hundred or more, but did he ever have to reload? It's not like he had some kind of ammunition belt or something, and anyway for something as large as an arrow it would be way too cumbersome to carry that many around. Where were they coming from?!

I just wanted to say how much I love having you on here and I'm going to miss you a lot. Please let yourself heal and take all the time you need to take care of yourself! If there's anything I can do to help you get through this let me know. I have been through some shitty health times and I understand how isolating it can be. We will be here for you when you get back! Also I truly had such a fun time watching this with you. It was really fun and I actually really liked this movie. You made it all the more enjoyable. If you ever wanted to get in touch don't hesitate to ask I can get you my email address or something. Is that presumptuous?

I can only agree and add on to what everyone else said and that is take care of yourself first and foremost and that you'll be in my thoughts and will be sending good vibes, prayers, whatever you believe in your way. Also, don't bring yourself down saying it was a shitty choice, I really enjoyed this as well. I have a lot of affection for CCBB and as I mentioned in our Rabbit stream, I used to use Hushabye Mountain as one of my three go-to audition songs.

I wish you the best of health, and in everything else. I look forward to you returning, but most of all, I hope all your health difficulties are resolved post-hate! Best of luck!

The museum in the city I grew up in had an entire section of one of the floors done up to recreate my hometown as it was in the 1920s. One of the things they had was an old fashion movie theater in which they would play the films of Charlie Chaplin. My earliest memories of this movie (although outside the 1920s time period) are sitting in the theater with my grandfather and watching the movies. That probably taints a little my ideas on this film but so be it. This film is absolutely charming. It is a delight in every which way. The fact that you can have such great and funny scenes as the ballroom and the boxing match and still deliver a story that is affecting is really telling as to the power of Chaplin. I think like Paul said it is that ability to weave a story and get real emotion while delivering on the laughs and set pieces that really drives this film over his others as being the top one. This is the guide to a comedy film.

coming soon to hulu or amazon or netflix

It makes me happy when I hear Gourley go into things he loves (like drawing and James Bond) and just has to tell Conan "trust me on this," and Conan has no idea what he's getting into lol!

I remember seeing this on Prime and felt it was very mediocre. It had some interesting death scenes but even in the end it was ho-hum through and through.