seanotron

http://www.sadtrombone.com/?play=true

I love this stupid movie. An episode would be great.

I think that was the one. I don't have any affinity for this film series, but it was still totally fascinating.

Yup. We need to put the So Upsetting meme on standby, because it will definitely be deployed.

Oh I'm with you on this. Normally I don't have issues separating art from artist, otherwise I couldn't watch or enjoy much of anything. The Jeffrey Jones thing just bothers me on a level that's hard to explain, I think because I really, really did like him as an actor and thought he had such a gift for comedy and he's so key to many of my favorite films and so it almost felt like a personal betrayal on some level. That's ridiculous, I know, but it's there in the recesses of my brain. So coupled with the fact that I already found Howard the Duck a deeply disturbing experience the first time around, I'm thinking I'll skip the rewatch.

No, Chinatown was made in 1972/3, the rape was in 1977.

I actually am kind of hesitant to rewatch this because of Jeffrey Jones. I loved that guy as an actor (he's in so many of my favorite movies) and his gross kiddie porn issues make me retch. At least if I watch Chinatown I'm not forced to look at Roman Polanski the entire time.

I remember seeing a decent documentary on the Friday series, I want to say it was hosted by Tom Savini?

If you look closely at the prints of this movie you can see the teethmarks Faye left behind as she chewed the scenery. I could have sworn we had a topic going on this, but I can't keep that stuff straight anymore. Peter O'Toole is in this. For reals.

Lea Thompson has a lot to answer for.

I'll admit I got a giggle from the dildo ships.

Yeah, you don't want to wade in there. It's dark and scary and there are cobwebs and I hear Dan Aykroyd's penis nose from Nothing But Trouble is loose in there.

Well, the original concept in Alien was the Aliens were incapable of breeding, so any humans they captured they used as incubators for new Aliens or transformed into eggs in order to create facehuggers. There's a cut scene in Alien where they show Dallas and Brett being turned into eggs.

I think we all remember the dark times of SpiceGate.

I think people are just a bit sensitive to this lately as it seems there have been tons of threads started on movies that really don't fit the bill for the podcast. But by all means, if you didn't like Man of Steel feel free to share your thoughts on it. You shouldn't feel pressured to delete a post just because it's not a popular opinion. There really are no hard-and-fast rules around here, so don't feel like you did something wrong, you absolutely did not.

Well, not exactly. In F&F, they're literally just having a blast and don't give a shit how it effects anyone. They don't even really care about the bomb, they just care about the pardons. Superman is facing off against dozens of superbeings who are arguably stronger and better fighters than he is. He's more or less at their mercy for most of the movie. In Superman 2, the villains have a reason to follow Superman out of the city, but here they really don't. They'll just kill everyone the minute he leaves. I think Superman is open for reinterpretation just like any other superhero or mythic figure. And I think a big problem with the character in the past has been the fact that he's essentially perfect. He always saves everyone, he always does everything perfectly, he's always stronger or smarter than his opponents. I thought it was interesting to see an early, untested Superman who is facing off against foes that he's not 10-steps ahead of. That being said, I definitely think the destruction wrought here should carry over into the next movie. It would be interesting to see some people blaming Superman for what happened. To see Superman dealing with the aftermath of killing Zod and essentially destroying his own civilization. That sounds like the setup to an interesting story to me.

I think you're taking my statement too literally (or I was probably being too literal by referencing the 'license to print money' thing). I think the question IS always the most important thing, otherwise the podcast would just be 'Let's talk about movies!'. But more broadly - as IsiahER points out - it's how did THIS get made? How did THIS decision get made? How was THIS line in the script not removed? In Wild Wild West, how did they not think the weird racism would be off-putting? Or the the constant disabled jokes? What do giant spiders have to do with ANYTHING? In Batman & Robin, how did they not realize they had dialed the camp up too far? Etc., etc.

But isn't this pretty much every superhero/myth ever? There's always tragedy before victory.

I get what you're saying and I definitely don't think you're crazy. One thing I'd point out though is Metropolis is basically Manhattan, and Manhattan only has about 1 million and a half people in it, so no way were the casualties in the millions. Thousands, yes. The destruction was big, but it wasn't millions big. Metropolis is still there at the end, admittedly worse for wear. And I'm not trying to downplay thousands of people dying, that's awful. But in the end, he's saved literally BILLIONS of people. I think most people would consider that a pretty big win.

Exactly! That opening sequence on Krypton could have been an entire movie, basically. This is the first time I've felt Krypton was represented as truly alien, and not just a place where people stand around in white robes in soft focus. And yes, I was worried we'd see a Dark Knight approach here, but I feel they successfully gave it weight without weighing it down.

I think one of the big mistakes with this movie was the budget. It's crazy huge blockbuster money being used on a property that in the US was not really that well known (coupled with the aforementioned agnostic/atheist undertones). Harry Potter had smaller budgets, and those books were a runaway success pretty much everywhere. The Dark Materials books did not see great popularity outside of the UK, at least not on the level of Narnia or Harry Potter.

See, I thought all of that was very much there. I've read these reviews saying it's grim and a downer, and that's just not the movie I experienced.

They definitely say the Ursas were engineered by another race, we just never see them or hear anything about them. At this point, I would totally buy the Psychlos explanation.