NathanGordon

Holy shit, 11 minutes in and this is my favorite episode. One thing I didn't get about the movie is that Jobe seems way less powerful in VR. He can make phones ring? In real life he has crazy telepathic and telekinetic powers, he can create a swarm of CGI bees, he can even take people apart on some kind of atomic level or something. The VR world looks... like a screensaver. How does his body disappear? WHY DOES HIS BODY DISAPPEAR?

I really enjoyed Arrival for a bunch of reasons. It's one of those rare sci-fi films in theaters that manages to tell a smart story in a smart way. I didn't read reviews or watch the trailer beforehand, and I'm really glad I didn't. It's not perfect but it's well executed. So far, Villeneuve has been pitching a perfect game, in my book. I watched a ton of 80s horror films last month, and my favorite one that I hadn't seen before was Elves. It would be perfect for this podcast, but it's probably too obscure. Let me just give you IMDB's summary of the storyline: Tell me that doesn't sound like a good time to you.

Emily Heller!!! Her podcast with Lisa Hanawalt (creator/artist, Bojack Horseman) is Baby Geniuses. I haven't listened to this episode yet but I'm just gonna give it a C+ right now. Emily is the best.

As someone who has never watched a Cars movie, I have to ask -- do people drive the talking cars, or do they drive themselves? Are there people in this world, or is it some kind of post-apocalyptic shitscape where Skynet won and the machines wiped us out? What will happen when they reach peak oil?

Anyone who doesn't love or appreciate The Pixies is probably a terrible person, or at least one I don't want to know. This is a great list! You should make a separate post, with a poll. My vote for worst romantic couple has to be Chevy Chase and Demi Moore in Nothing But Trouble, that one stands out as particularly chemically repellant.

Ryan, you gotta check out Lawnmower Man 2 and tell me what you think/how much beer you had to drink. I know you're on a DLM challenge! ... I didn't mention Up because I feel like that is a universally recognized definitely make everyone cry thing. Another one for me is the Muppet Movie, the very beginning when Kermit sings "Rainbow Connection". The song comes up on iTunes shuffle from time to time, too, and I always get a lump in my throat. It's just such an optimistic, hopeful song that also acknowledges the unknowable nature of life ("Who said that wishes / would be heard and answered?"), it really encapsulates what I loved about the Muppets and Jim Henson as a child. That life is a challenge, but a worthwhile one -- so get your friends together and put on a show!

Crying scenes: I can't even think about the end of The Fox and The Hound. My brother knows this, and one time he made me cry just by texting me "we'll be together forever". I'll probably cry now if I reread that sentence. *actually I think it's "best friends forever" but same thing.

Kubrick was a perfectionist and famously hard on his actors. I think he took that Hitchcock line about treating them like cattle seriously. In A Clockwork Orange, there's a scene where Malcom McDowell's Alex gets his head dunked in water by two policemen (his old friends, actually). Apparently Kubrick required many, MANY takes of this before he was satisfied. McDowell was basically getting halfway drowned for a couple days straight and ended up catching pneumonia. He hated the director after that, although they made up years later. The man got results though! The Shining is probably as perfect as a film can be. ... Lawnmower Man related trivia: Jenny Wright, who plays the woman Jobe brings home and gets her brain scrambled, is the lead actress in a terrific movie from 1987 by then unknown director Katheryn Bigelow (Point Break, The Hurt Locker) called Near Dark. The film also starred HDTGM alumni Lance Henriksen and Joshua Miller ("I took the liberty of ironing your homework.") as a gang of vampires on the run. Underrated movie, check it out.

This is all I'm going to be able to remember when I think of Dreamcatcher:

Jeez, I got drunk last night and bought Lawnmower Man 2 on Amazon (it's only $4). Has anyone else seen this? It is crazy terrible, in that special way that bad-good movies sometimes are. Like nearly every single decision made here is laughable and awful, though some of the actors seem over the top enough that it must be intentional. I'm surprised I haven't heard this film mentioned in the usual "so bad it's good" discussions. Here is a great example of the air tight writing and acting of Lawnmower Man 2: *eta also this is a thing that happens in this incredible sci-fi film: Yes that is a dog putting a cd-rom into a computer.

Ryan, you should check out the early years of Excalibur, the first 50 issues or so are crazy good. The art and writing were mostly British, so that's probably why they weren't subject to the same trends popular in American comics at the time. It's like the fun of classic X-titles without the angst. I might have to check out that Marvel digital thing, that sounds pretty sweet if all the old stuff is there.

Also I'm beginning to hate that thing they do in trailers now, where they have a cover of a classic pop song but played SLOWER and EDGIER. This does it with Depeche Mode, Suicide Squad had Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams" (also used on Clash Of The Titans), A Walk Amongst The Tombstones had a sad version of "Black Hole Sun", even Birdman did this with Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy".

^^^ I'm not a super fan of the original Ghost In The Shell -- it gets bogged down in pseudospiritual nonsense, when the best parts are the thriller/action stuff. The casting of Scarjo is pretty disappointing, I gotta say. You can handwave it away by saying "she's a cyborg/all new parts/etc", but it was always a Japanese character in a Japanese setting. I realize that casting her is probably why the movie got made, but still. The guy playing Batou doesn't look a thing like him, either, assuming that guy with the eye implants is supposed to be him. Whatever. Worst of all, it doesn't look like they're even sticking to the original story. Scarjo's Major is now the only cyborg in the world, which is a drastic change from the original -- everyone was part or full cyborg, androids and robots were common, 100% humans were a rarity. Based on just the trailer, it looks like it's gonna be Matrix-y action in a Blade Runner-ish world, probably more style than substance. Writer and director have previously worked on Snow White & the Huntsman and Straight Outta Compton, very little else. Not much faith in this.

Well, how about that. Time for a Murder She Wrote reboot!

Charlie Hales is in Dune??? Or is this a Portlandia reference? (Locals loathe the show). The book is all about political intrigue, religious conspiracy, and these thousand-year plans to control the universe; every character has complicated motivations and is rarely being honest when speaking with other characters. As a result of this, there is a TON of internal dialogue all the time, as well as mind reading and magic shit, so at times it more or less reads like it does in the movie. The difference being that it's spread across hundreds of pages, and not compressed into a two hour movie. And then even with all that exposition, the studio still felt that they had to add an additional narrator (the princess).

Is the new Beauty and the Beast going to have all the songs from the original? It's too bad some of the original voice actors have passed on, like Angela Lansbury and Jerry Orbach. It looks great though, although Gaston doesn't look quite as beefy as his cartoon version.

Holy shit, I'd never seen the Paul ones, those are hilarious! I'm dying.

Hi guys! I've been so distracted and distressed by the US election that I haven't been here in a couple weeks. This movie has helped me heal a little bit; I'm still smarting. I believe in the restorative powers of comedy podcasts. My favorite part from this episode:

This is one of just a few non-MST3K bad movies I will never tire of watching. Samurai Cop, The Room, Deadly Prey, and an obscure Canadian piece of shit called Beyond The Seventh Door. Anyone who hasn't seen this absolutely needs to.

There must have been scenes explaining this that were cut, because it was never directly addressed in the movie. Another thing: animals in the woods are running from the alien threat, and later a dog is infected. So the aliens can use the animals to breed, as well? If so, that's a lot easier than using humans. This was totally wierd. You have a sick guy at your cabin -- a random helicopter flies overhead and you just assume they can airlift him to a hospital? It's hard to believe that this film wasn't intentionally goofy. There's too many elements that can't be anything but comedy; namely, the butt stuff, Morgan Freeman's eyebrows, and Jonesy's campy Mr. Grey. The quippy script seems to support this reading top. The problem is that the film doesn't commit to that b-movie tone and plays it pretty straight, at least up until the military arrive. Then it's just all over the place. It is super entertaining though, that I will say. Those two hours fly by.

The dialogue is so weird in this movie, too. There's a lot of quippy banter that feels really forced, like the "fuckeroo" thing. It's also bizarre how everyone talks about Duddits like he's basically Jesus (which I guess he is but...), saying "You know how much Duddits loves us" and in general talking about him like he's been dead for 20 years or something. Was Duddits being alive supposed to be a big reveal?

Okay, let me see if I get the basic plot correct: - four kids befriend Duddits after saving him from bullies. - at some point after, Duddits gave them telepathic powers (when?) - as adults, they had an annual brodown at their winter cabin (without Duddits?) - Duddits psychically "nudged" Jonesy into traffic, which gave him a traumatic brain injury that left him partially protected against a future alien possession by Mr. Grey (hazy on this). - later that year, they meet up again, Jonesy is now fine, everyone has Duddits on their mind. - aliens begin an invasion, led by Mr. Grey as Jonesy, who is attempting to put the ass worms in the water supply. - the military is attempting to fight the aliens, covering it up with a biological scare (who is the source of that, anyways? I missed that). - Timothy Olyphant and bobo Michael Madsen drive down the block and pick up Duddits because...? He's magical or something. - Duddits turns into a different alien species (I think?) and defeats Mr. Grey. All is well. I think that's basically it? My main question is: Duddits was actually some kind of sleeper agent sent by a benevolent alien race to protect against other aliens from invading Earth? Are there more Duddits around the world or universe? And what was the alien's end game? Put ass weasels in everyone, profit? Also, the telepathy everyone had barely came into play -- I'm sure it has much more relevance in the book -- it felt entirely incidental, after making a big deal about it and showing how all four used it in their lives.

It's just wild, like these guys had to know how insane the movie was while they were making it, right? Or do you just read the script and go "Huh, Stephen King, whatever man"? I guess the basic aliens/monsters story isn't so out of the realm of the usual King/Koontz/Straub crazy genre stuff. In a lot of ways it's kind of a throwback, because King kind of abandoned supernatural and paranormal themes during the 90s, or at least wasn't leaning on them as heavily. By the way, did everyone catch that leaked Dark Tower trailer?

Wait, do vampires ONLY eat blood? Can they have blood based products like blood sausage or blood pudding? Are they seriously not getting any roughage at all? Their colon cancer rates must be sky high.

holy shit I'm dying