Episode 240.5 — Minisode 240.5

[Episode 240.5 — Minisode 240.5]

On 5/29/2020 at 11:39 AM, theworstbuddhist said:

Listening to the end now, good stuff. Nice reminder that everyone should both read and watch the film of The Kid Stays in the Picture, the Robert Evans autobio. I also really need to catch on Rebels now that I watched the end of the Clone Wars series, which is every bit as good as Paul and Jason were saying. And Leisure Suit Larry memories, good times.

So next week is Ninja 3: The Domination, continuing the general low budget 80s action trend. Should be fun.

After reading that book I'm honestly alive that Robert Evans is still alive at this point, the dude might as well have cocaine for blood at this point.

[The One (2001)]

What's more nuts about this is how the ending essentially spits in the face of its basic premise. The reason that Statham and Delroy Lindo are hunting bad Jet Li is if he becomes "The One," it could destroy the multiverse, but in the end he is sent to a prison colony where is he last shown fighting an endless army of other inmates, all of whom have presumably been convicted of similar crimes that he has. So even though Bad Li is only one of two Lis left with near god-like powers, the numbers game will eventually catch up to him and he will be killed by his opponents, leaving good Li as the only one in the multiverse.

Also how the hell did they not show the Good Li universe's version of Statham like they did for Lindo?  This movie also has another sign of a bad movie in that it features a song on its soundtrack that doesn't really fit with the movie and has been used in numerous movies, especially movies that were released in close calendar proximity to one another as I think this was the third movie to have Papa Roach's "Last Resort" featured heavily in the movie along with Ready to Rumble and Pay It Forward, which were two that I could remember off the top of my head but I'm certain there are more.

[Quentin Tarantino's Unrealised Silver Surfer Project]

11 hours ago, theworstbuddhist said:

Sorry to be that guy, but the novella is under King's name - it is one of the four in Different Seasons, which also includes The Body (Stand By Me) and The Shawshank Redemption. Not a bad collection! And yeah, the film is relatively limp compared to the source, though the cast was fine.

I have mixed feelings about Tarantino as a person from what little I know about him, but I do like most of his films. I still haven't seen The Hateful 8. I quite enjoyed Once Upon a Time. Maybe his last will be a musical!

Damn you're right. Think I got it mixed up with Thinner which was a Bachman but sold separate of the first four Bachman stories. Hateful 8 I really enjoyed, as it is kinda of a whodunnit in a Western setting with great performances from the small cast.

7 hours ago, GrahamS. said:

I think there’s a good chance he’ll be like Steven Soderbergh, where he says he’ll quit and might lay low for awhile, but come back to movies or streaming platforms in some capacity.

I would not be surprised if he starts doing either TV episodes like he's done in the past or a miniseries, which technically isn't a movie.

[Quentin Tarantino's Unrealised Silver Surfer Project]

35 minutes ago, GrahamS. said:

I read the book—or novella, I think (isn’t it a Bachman book?)—when I was whipping through Stephen King books in high school. I remember the film was well acted, I just remember it feeling creepily exploitative with no real point to it and wondering who the hell it was made for. Haven’t watched it since, have no desire to watch it again. Too many Nazis in real life.

I also think a third Kill Bill would be fucking awesome.

Yeah the book, which was a Bachman, was a bit more heavy on the kid being a fanatic about the Holocaust and what happened there, and there was a shit ton more killing than what was in the movie, especially in the altered ending which features a shooting spree from the kid. As for the third Kill movie, I remember QT basically saying it would be a revenge film attempted against the Bride featuring the survivors of her killing spree in the first two films, it would have Daryl Hannah shown to still be alive and working with Lucy Liu's assistant who was butchered by the Bride, and that they've trained Vivica Fox's daughter to get her revenge for seeing her mother killed in front of her. It definitely could work depending on the genre he wants to influence the movie.

[Quentin Tarantino's Unrealised Silver Surfer Project]

4 hours ago, GrahamS. said:

That’s a very entertaining book, but it’s hamstrung by the fact that she’s hellbent on portraying him as a talentless dweeb. I’m not saying that he’s flawless (she did mention that Roger Avary didn’t get his share of the credit for Pulp Fiction’s success, which is—by various reports—true), But—and bear in mind that my memory is rusty since I read the book many years ago—she acts like Tarantino stabbed them in the back by disowning the film....which I don’t blame him for, because the film is WAY less nuanced than a typical Tarantino project and, is totally over the top and generally sucks (in my humble opinion). Tarantino only has a story credit—Oliver Stone rewrite the script as a satire because he’s so deft with light, topical humor (that’s my snarky asshole side right there)—and I think NBK pales in comparison to any Tarantino film (except maybe Four Rooms, but that film is such a train wreck it’s at least fun to watch). 
 

To make a long story short (too late), while the book is undeniably entertaining, Hamsher is so bitter at points that she is an unreliable narrator. Plus she went on to produce Apt Pupil, a Bryan Singer film (which has it’s OWN giant bag-of-worms scandal behind it) that also fucking sucked. 
 

i am interested to see what his final project will be. I was kinda hoping for an R-rated Star Trek. Hell, give him the reins for a Star Wars spin-off.

Oh there's definitely an edge of a person who didn't reach the heights they were hoping for going after those who did in their opinion, especially after hearing from her former partner who produced the film with her how their partnership imploded shortly after the movie and book came out. While NBK is no perfect film, I think it's made solely on the various characters in it rather than the peyote fueled ramblings of the director. It's an odd thing as despite what the story is, which is a condemnation of modern media and then celebrity culture, the characters are fantastic on their own with amazing, if not over the top, performances from two leads as well as Robert Downey Jr. Rodney Dangerfield, Tommy Lee Jones, and Tom Sizemore. As for Apt Pupil, that was one I enjoyed for the performances of the leads, especially Ian McKellan, even though it is a very watered down adaptation of the source material.

As for QT's final movie, I don't know what it could or should be but at this point I don't think it should be something like a TV show adaptation, especially given how fandom reactions can get to anything that strays even the slightest from the perceived canon and style. And with how many things he's talked about making  over the years, I'd love to see the Kill Bride movie that he's talked about.

Also if there was ever a person that has a filmography made for HDTGM, it's Hamsher's former partner Don Murphy who was the producer for Double Dragon, the entire Transformer series, League of Extraordinary Gentleman, and Splice, among others.

[Quentin Tarantino's Unrealised Silver Surfer Project]

All I've found was that it was basically written and submitted to the film company after he found success with Reservoir Dogs, so it should have seemed like a sure thing it would have been made, I'm guessing it was a bit too off-brand for what a studio was thinking a comic book movie should have been at that time. If you want an interesting read on Hollywood at that time regarding QT movies, check out Killer Instinct by Jane Hamsher, one of the producers of Natural Born Killers. It basically details how they got the original script for a steal because it was right before Reservoir Dogs premiered and all of a sudden they found themselves holding the hottest script in town once that movie was a hit and every studio was trying to buy any and all scripts he touched. Also if Tarantino does stick to his claim of retiring after his tenth film, I'd want either him or a film historian to publish a book on all of the films he wanted to make and/or talked about making but never got far into the process for, because that could easily fill 300-400 pages with how many things he's talked about doing over the years.

[Rat Race (2001)]

I remember seeing this in theaters and not having much problem with it, though it's not a great film. I also remember being the most pissed at Smash Mouth just taking the bag of money and assuming it's a donation for their benefit concert. They straight up Putin the racers in seeing the money and grabbing it from them, then putting it on the tally board  with the sense of "yeah be an asshole and say that this isn't a donation now."

[Episode 240: Megaforce LIVE from Montreal!]

5 hours ago, pscudese said:

So at the end of the film when Megaforce is escaping via the cargo plane, everyone leaves their deadly and secretive equipment behind enemy lines?! Wait, What?! 

In fact I would love a scene at the end of the film when they return to base and Egg is just standing there, looking at an empty plane. We have an extreme close up on his face and you can see Egg contemplating suicide, because the only other option is to rebuild all the vehicles AND ensure they are superior to the ones that were left behind in enemy hands.

 

So according to the wiki page for this movie, all of the vehicles have a self destruct ability that can be activated if it's clear that the rider needs to abandon it or they are killed. I can't remember if that was shown in this movie since it's a blur of total nonsense, but that's the given reason for why they so quickly leave their murder vehicles.

[Episode 240: Megaforce LIVE from Montreal!]

So did anyone else notice in the first scene the Megaforce is revealed that one of the stunt drivers almost completely bites ass on his bike and crashes? It looks like his front tire hits one of the blown up bits of those balls they were shooting and lost traction to where he almost wiped out on the desert terrain. Also, there is probably now worse way for a weaponized vehicle to have a main attack than by forcing the riders to have to be in a wheelie for their main action of shooting machine guns and missles.Not only is it incredibly inaccurate to fire, but the rider is already doing a bit of work to keep themselves level on a single wheel, so why not make their vehicle more unstable by having the front end of said vehicle launching all types of high velocity projectiles from it.

The movie did have some success though as inspiration for such things like Team America: World Police after Trey Parker showcased his knowledge of the film during a DVD commentary, and the flying  bike would later become a vehicle that could be purchased in Grand Theft Auto 5 Online.

 

[Bet Your Life (2004)]

It being in Cleveland reminds me of the Family Guy cutaway where Quagmire thought he could make a low budget movie with B list actors for a low budget action flick which stars Jeff Bridges and Laura Linney, a couple years before both their career resurgences,  in Danger in Cincinnati where they deal with a a bomb that has an invisible explosion and decide to walk to their HQ rather than take a helicopter since it's not in the budget. As for the Action Star show, I remember VH1 doing a similar thing with their show Scream Queens which the winner of each season got a "leading role" in an upcoming horror movie. The winner of season 1 was in Saw 6 while the following season had a role for Saw 3D. The first winner basically had a five minute scene in an opening trap where she ends up taking off an arm to escape, and with no real lines except screaming at her opponent, and she did get a quick cameo in the next film. The second winner didn't get better as he role was just screaming while trapped under a car while Chester Bennington of Linkin Park tries to escape from the trap and save his gang.

[Cutthroat Island (1995)]

What's probably the most shocking thing about this movie was that in order to fund it, Carolco cancelled the only other movie that they had in the pipeline at that time, a film called Crusade that had Arnold fucking Schwarzenegger starring in it, to fund this movie. Cancelling that film cost the company 13 million right off the bat  and so they also had to sell partial rights to other movies they had such as Stargate and Showgirls. So that's showing how much this company either didn't know what the hell it was doing or how much they thought they had a smash winner on their hands that they would cancel a film with the one of if not the biggest movie star in the world in it in order to make a pirate film easily 20 years past that genre's expiration date.

The only thing I actually remember about this was a trailer I saw for it on another VHS that spent more time promoting the various merchandise for the film, such as shirts and birthday party decorations, than the actual movie. This movie is also another example of why I can't stand a lot of the reverence given to Roger Ebert's reviews as he gave this crapfest 3 out of 4 stars, this isn't his worst example as he really gave the rating for what he called the "skill" shown in the movie but he doesn't delve into where he saw it.

[Trick (2019)]

A god awful slasher from the guy behind Drive Angry and Jason X, Trick is a bad attempt at misdirection with cast of people who really should know better. Basic premise is a loner goes on a killing spree at a Halloween party, but when it seems he is fatally wounded by the police, disappears and apparently comes back each Halloween to massacre another party. Featuring for some reason Omar Epps, this actually has a decent setup of the killer having possible supernatural origins as basically he's a blur in the high school crowd who has no real record of existence prior to his initial killing spree, but it quickly devolves into a bad version of the Kevin Bacon show The Following. It doesn't help that the kid moves around faster than Jet Li could ever hope to and slices people up like he's trying to get a role in The Raid 3, adding to the sense that there will be a supernatural element to the final reveal, only for it to be "just because."

 

[Episode 239 - Cool World]

Okay so I finally got to listen to the episode and can easily bring some prison/crime expertise to this thread and what was discussed on the show. In regards to the sentence Byrne received, I'm assuming the term murder is being used generally to describe his crime, which is most likely negligent homicide/involuntary manslaughter which carries a sentence of 6 months to a decade on average. I'm guessing it was like in Con Air where a fight broke out between two parties, in this case Byre and the guy sleeping with his wife, and in the course of the fight the other guy died by accident, like he fell and cracked his head on something.  But rather than put that time and effort into explaining why he was behind bars. the writer just went with murder which in turn just creates more questions.

As for his drawing setup in his cell, that is a non-plausible thing as depending on the state, most prison cells aren't bigger than a small storage unit, usually 6' x 10'. Some newer facilities are going with a dorm style unit, called pods, which house around 6 inmates, and those are much larger in size. But that doesn't mean one guy can prop his shit up and just take over space, that will get his ass kicked in no time flat. Also, an inmate can make money while in prison from a personal business venture, they just can't make money off of their crime. A recent example was when OJ Simpson wrote his book If I Did It a couple years back that was very controversial, but he was able to write it and make money off of it as he was acquitted in his criminal trial. Tex Watson of the Manson family tried to do a similar thing at my facility a few years back with both a manuscript and I think some paintings, and that shit got shut down quickly because it was directly linked to his crimes, he also received some additional charges if I recall because of the back channel ways that he was trying to do it. So for a guy like Byrne to just be writing a comic book series and having it sold, that's completely fine, I mean at my facility there are a few guys who have self published books or have sent art out for sale, and they're able to as it doesn't pertain to their crimes.

[Volcano (1997)]

On 5/7/2020 at 11:32 PM, nthurkettle said:

I agree with these ratings. Dante's Peak tries to take itself more seriously while starring Pierce Brosnan as a volcano expert who's all intense and haunted because of the volcano that killed his beloved, and that's so stupid a plot to try and treat seriously.

Whereas Volcano just owns being incredibly stupid and ends with Randy Newman singing "I Love L.A." and it's infinitely more watchable.

Yeah Dante's Inferno did have some great set piece moments, but then it tried going for stupid shit like the couple boiling to death in the hot springs or the dipshit grandma jumping out of the boat in the acid water when they were 10 feet from the dock, that really made it just look like a bad dumb film.

[Volcano (1997)]

Would love to see this covered for so many reasons that have been mentioned already as well as Jones racing timed explosions on a motorcycle. I enjoyed this one a bit more than Dante's Peak as it was the more actiony of the pair, though that's the route I usually go with twin movie releases.

Armageddon > Deep Impact

Tombstone > Wyatt Earp

The Prestige > The Illusionist

Olympus Has Fallen > White House Down

 

[Desperate Measures (1998)]

On 5/2/2020 at 9:44 AM, Funkdog78 said:

Aside from The Godfather part III and Ocean's 11 this is by far the best Andy Garcia film ever made.  So yeah, let's take a journey on this together.

Oh yeah you could really see he was trying to make this a breakout role to show himself as an action star as well as a serious dramatic actor, and fumbled on both counts.

[HDTGM and the Oscars]

4 hours ago, SlidePocket said:

Cool World

Winner

Kim Basinger - L.A. Confidential

Brad Pitt - Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Pitt also won a Best Picture Oscar for 12 Years a Slave.

Douglas also won a Best Picture Oscar for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

[Episode 238 — Bloodshot (w/ Adam Scott)]

13 hours ago, DannytheWall said:

Did I miss something? Because my question is, did Ray Garrison ever get called Bloodshot at all during the movie? Is it a codename for the process or some other thing? Would anyone who comes into this movie and doesn't know that it comes from a comic book called "Bloodshot" know what the movie title was referring to?

And what kind of name is Bloodshot? Because his blood is ... shot with nannites? Because he ... shoots people with guns and they bleed? I kid 'cause I love. I was a comic book fan in the 90s. This was coming from same era when a very common satire was to make a compound word for a hero name taking something randomly from column A and column B. After all, this was the decade that gave us names like Hellboy, Witchblade, Shadowhawk, Shatterstar, Ripclaw, Bloodwynd, etc etc. And, yes, even Deadpool.  

Was wondering if he was called Bloodshot due to his eyes being red i.e. "bloodshot,"  but then looked around online and it's because of what you said, he had nanites shot into his bloodstream, receiving the titular blood shot.

[Episode 238 — Bloodshot (w/ Adam Scott)]

5 minutes ago, zotts said:

I said to my wife and son (both big F&F fans, I am not) that I was sure he would punch a rock like character, bigger, strong than himself. And who is he first seen beating up, why a concrete pillar (i.e. Rock). He's got a real big chip on his shoulder. 

 

 

Yeah Diesel's ego has become really something over the years since Fast 5 brought him back to movies that turn a serious profit, with Fast 8 and XXX 3 being just big long love fests for himself. I can't remember where I read the review but it was for this movie and it basically boiled down to the reviewer being amazed at Diesel's career now being one of two things, franchise films that succeed in spite of him being involved or solo vehicles that nine times out of ten flop because studios forget that people aren't lining up to see the F&F films for the acting chops of Vin Diesel but rather the whole group of characters who work and the awesome action set pieces, and unfortunately even Diesel doesn't realize it. I go back to the Fast 5 episode of the podcast and remember the clip of him talking about fighting the Rock on screen the first time and him saying people wanted it because it was "great for cinema," as if that fight was what was needed to take the art form to the next level. Then his recent interview with The National, Diesel said he talked to Steven Spielberg recently who told him it would "be a crime against cinema" if he never directed a film again, which even other new sites who picked up the story were openly expressing their suspicion of this actually happening.

As for this movie, I have zero interest in watching it as I was never a huge fan of the comic and the movie honestly looked terrible, but hearing the discussion about the ending I looked up how it ended and was bummed it didn't end in a Repo Man-type twist. I mean when you're whole marketing campaign gives away the films twist within 30 seconds, why not have a bigger twist in the wings ready to blow viewers' minds? Just imagine how great it would have been if Diesel takes out Guy Pierce and walks away with KT and the hacker, only for it to pause and cut Pierce's control room where the whole movie was a simulation to see what possible errors could arise if they went through with bringing Diesel back and treating him how they do to get their end result, the whole movie ending with Pierce just saying something like "okay try simulation attempt 42," to really bring home how long they've been screwing with his consciousness. It could still lead to a sequel or crossover with other Valiant characters while also giving an unexpected end to what is a very cookie cutter film otherwise.

[Episode 238 — Bloodshot (w/ Adam Scott)]

Slight correction:

When Paul was talking about what Bloodshot looks like in the comic and what X-Men character he resembles, I believe he was thinking of Mr. Sinister who has chalk white skin and red diamonds on various spots of his body, who also has a similar power in that he's able to modify his body at a molecular level in order to help withstand damage he receives.

 

As for the repeating of the prepping scenario the bad guys do, the only other film that I've seen it done to a more horrifying extent was 50 First Dates with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. The lengths that her family go through to have her relive the day of the accident where she got her brain injury, including buying hundreds of copies of the local newspaper that day, getting a VHS copy of the football game they were going to watch that night, buying numerous birthday cakes, and getting the local diner to go along with it as well since she went there for breakfast that morning, I'm amazed that they didn't kill themselves from the tedium of it all. Then when Sandler gets involved and ends up revealing to her what actually happened, the family has the local doctor Dan Akroyd on speed dial to come tranquilize her because she obviously and understandably has a nervous breakdown at the realization of what her life is at that point. The most telling moment is when Sandler asks the dad what's going to happen years down the road when she wakes up thinking she's in her mid-30s and looks into the mirror to see she's decades older, only for the dad to say something along the line of "I don't know and I hope neither me or her have to experience that," like he hopes God takes mercy on the family and kills one of them.

[The VelociPastor (2017)]

Yeah the assassination of his parents really lets the audience know what kind of movie they are getting and it's great. This should really be a double live show with Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter.

[Daylight (1996)]

On 4/27/2018 at 5:03 PM, Ofcoursemyhorse said:

I love that trope from that era of films that had the hysterical notion that people who looked like Sid Vicious were of course constantly committing bank heists.

And it wasn't so much a heist as it was a very fortuitous snatch and grab, only for them to get notified via the in-car fax machine, that some version of lowjack had already contacted the cops. Then add to it the trucks carrying toxic waste that apparently blows up like thermite and you have pure mid-90s Stallone schlock. Even more amazing was the director originally wanted Nic Cage for the lead role but Universal thought Stallone was more commercially viable, which is pretty true considering this earned $160 million, and that Cage was a "character actor" despite him just winning an Oscar and The Rock would come out six months prior to this and earn twice as much at the box office and starting his peak run of blockbuster hits in the late 90s.

[Color Out of Space (2019)]

On 4/5/2020 at 9:06 AM, jjulius said:

I think those moments feeling 'out of place' is what made them work so well. He's under the incluence of something from another world. If his performance felt right, it would have been wrong.

Looking back I realize that it works, but it is quite a bit similar to how he was in Mom and Dad with some of his rants to his kids so I feel it could have been a bit different, although asking Nic Cage to choose a tempo other than subdued or coke-addled manic might be asking too much.

[Color Out of Space (2019)]

I'm near the end of this and in my opinion is really good, especially given that Lovecraft adaptations are more miss than hit. Stanley was the perfect choice for director and it makes me really want to see him make his version of The Island of Dr. Moreau because he shows he is really able to create dread and terror in a film. The color work in this film was amazing as it should have been, which further amplified the tone of the movie and its subject matter. Cage's Cage-isms in the early to mid part of the film seemed out of place at times but otherwise it was a solid performance, very much in line with the previously stated Mom and Dad and Mandy.

[Episode 235 — Underworld: Blood Wars LIVE!]

What I still don't get is how Scott Speedman thought he was too big to return to this series.