Hi everyone -
I'm very excited to finally start posting here - I have been listening to the show for over two years from the beginning, and finally got to the end of my queue last week with the 'Stealth' miniepisode. This meant I could finally start participating by watching the film in between mini and regular episode, and actually follow along with the commentary. A momentous day for me.
Anyway, I'm very glad to be here, and to see so many familiar names that I know from the podcast Corrections and Omissions section.
I'm slightly bummed that my first proper episode was a movie this bad, but a few things I noticed:
- This movie was filmed (at least in part) in Australia, which meant that I got to go Aussie-spotting. I thought it was hilarious that North Korea was so prolifically populated with Eucalyptus trees, and the colour of the dirt and leaves made it very clear that they were in the Blue Mountains just west of Sydney. Needless to say, trees like that don't grow in North Korea. In the first scene where we meet Keith Orbit (if this were Wheel of Fortune, he's just a few letter-spins away from being Keith Urban), his attractive girlfriend/secretary/whatever comes in with a broad Fair Dunkum Aussie accent - that's Megan Gale, a Perth model who played The Valkyrie (the one who is set up as naked 'bait' when Furiosa and Max arrive in the Rig) in 'Mad Max: Fury Road'. Seeing Megan and noticing that Keith was played by Australian actor Richard Roxburgh, I figured 'oh, okay, this inventor will be Australian too', but no, Keith speaks in a scene-chewing American accent, where his lazy vowels betray his origin at every turn. Later on, a news report delivering news on the Attack on Rangoon comes from an Australian Channel 7 newsdesk - with the anchor speaking in her broad Australian accent. And finally, the Evil Doctor from the Black Ops who tries to murder Josh Lucas is played by John Waters, a great Australian actor and fixture from the local movies and television of my childhood. Again, putting on an American accent (although that one made more sense). I'm sure there's more hints to the filming location of this thing throughout, although apparently the residents of the Blue Mountains weren't particularly happy about the presence of the film due to the noise in the protected bushland and the risk the filming ran to the 'Giant Dragonflies' of the area (source).
- Did anyone else notice the amazing 'Terminator 2' link, almost certainly accidental? Joe Morton appears as the Naval Captain who for some reason lets Sam Shepard have some alone time so that he can do his voicemail suicide. Joe Morton, of course, played Miles Dyson, the engineer who, in 'Terminator 2', profited from finding the half-destroyed computer chip from the Terminator, boosting Cyberdyne Industries, and eventually prompting Judgement Day. In that movie Miles says that even though the chip was damaged, he was able to replicate the advanced technology, thus leading to Arnie tracking it down to destroy it. Even though they've made so many sequels since, at the time I was touched with the idea that destroying the two remaining chips would avert Judgement Day. Fast forward to the post-credits scene from 'Stealth', where we pan interminably across the wasteland of "North Korea," looking at the for some reason abandoned debris from the firefight from the previous week (if it's after Jamie Foxx's funeral, and all the fires are out, then it's some time later - so where are all the murdered North Korean soldiers and why has no one come to clean this all up?). As we find EDI's OS, suddenly the red light comes on, signalling that EDI is alive and might be salvageable - but this time, rather than by Cyberdyne Industries, by the Glorious Leader himself! Stealth 2: North Korea's got EDI, and Judgement Day looms...
So glad to finally get a chance to join the forums. I can even forgive all of the shade thrown at the Phantom film a couple of weeks ago - because while I am a lifelong Phantom comic reader, that movie was pretty damn bad.
Cheers!
