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joel_rosenbaum

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Posts posted by joel_rosenbaum


  1. I'm at home with my daughter, who had a nasty fall yesterday. It's been a harrowing 24 hours to say the least but all will be well. The upshot is that I've got a little time of my hands to weigh in on this, one of my favorite movies from high school. Like Cameron and grudian pointed out, this movie holds up well enough, although for 1993 it is a little backward looking. One of the hidden gems of this movie is that you get a window into a time that is nearly completely forgotten now. Almost anyone can remember Vanilla Ice and his tragicomic career has been covered elsewhere, but who remembers P.M. Dawn? I mean they fucking nailed those guys. 

    pmdawn.jpg.7e5cd51261bc90097a413bd2fb556126.jpg

    Plus, all the Cross Colours (!), a brand that was pretty much dead by the time this movie was released. Anyways, I have a fair number of thoughts on this movie but I'll leave it there. I'm generally impressed that they could pull this movie off for $1 million and a single recognizable actor (Larry Charles).

    • Like 4

  2. 6 hours ago, gigi-tastic said:

    So I haven't had a chance to see the movie yet. I know they go to Samo but are they going to the country Samo or the American Samoa territory? 

    Fun facts the country of Samo has no military and should they need an army relies on New Zealand's military.  

    Ironically the American Samoa territory has the largest U.S military enlistment than any other state or territory. However citizens of America Samoa cannot vote for President, and are not considered nationalized citizens at birth. It's truly fucked up.

     

    Radiolab did an entire episode of this.

    https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/americanish

    • Like 3

  3. Drunk food is entirely location-dependent.

    Southern California has to be late night taco shops; in San Diego it was -Berto's (there are like 10 places with that suffix). 

    In Seattle it's gotta be Dick's.

    At home it's popcorn.

    • Like 3

  4. 8 hours ago, Cameron H. said:

    The one reaction I really didn’t understand is Carrie Fisher’s excitement to the insurance check. She asks like it’s a financial windfall, but isn’t it just covering the cost of her home and possessions? Like, if your home burns down, your insurance covers the repairs or whatever, but it’s not like you’re suddenly wealthy - you’re still homeless. Even weirder is she says she had no idea her riverboat was “worth so much,”

    Maybe she was... (pinkie to mouth) underwater on her houseboat payments?

    • Like 3

  5. 4 hours ago, Cameron H. said:

    IThe poet: “I’m sorry you feel that way, Team Sanity, but I wrote it with the intention Team Fred understood it to have.”

    Oppenheimer, they tell me you are writing poetry. I do not see how a man can work on the frontiers of physics and write poetry at the same time. They are in opposition. In science you want to say something that nobody knew before, in words which everyone can understand. In poetry you are bound to say... something that everybody knows already in words that nobody can understand.

    Paul Dirac (allegedly)

    • Like 2

  6. 1 minute ago, muttnik said:

    Agreed, and as Team Fred, fundamentally I get why anyone would dislike this movie. I can absolutely point out things I dislike in it, or that should have been executed better, but for some reason, I cannot see it as a bad movie. The logical side of my brain can't make heads or tails of this. Congo is another movie from my childhood that I love, but I'm well aware of and can agree full-heartedly on how bad it is. The badness is part of what draws me in on adult viewings. I guess I can't really explain it. I'd say I hope someday all the Team Sanity folks find their Drop Dead Fred, but maybe it's for the best of they don't!

    *also your handle reminded me that the doctor in this movie looks like a dollar store Dr. Phil.

    Iron Eagle was mine, and that one's especially bad because I hate all the messages that the movie is trying to convey.

    • Like 1

  7. 9 hours ago, theworstbuddhist said:

    Love the late Rik Mayall and Phoebe Cates but yeah, no interest in seeing this again. And this episode was really unpleasant to listen to, honestly.

     

    6 hours ago, Jesse Carrigan said:

    I. Have. Never. In 7 years of listening to this podcast (no big deal) stopped an episode before the end, but I was so exhausted listening to this one that I stopped it over 40 minutes from the end. I may return to hear the audience Q & A on my upcoming vacation, but I need some time to rest, do some self-care, reflect on my life choices, and perhaps ingest some edibles to finish it up. I love you all, and if this is the last episode at least it was...well, I don't know what it was. I'm tired

    I understand these sentiments, but oddly found this to be one of my favorite episodes, even if the movie itself was total garbage. Part of what made me enjoy the episode was the genuine disagreement over how to interpret a movie that did (albeit crudely) aspire to be something bigger. My take on this is that June and Jason were arguing in favor of the movie that the filmmakers aspired to make, whereas Casey and Paul were arguing against the movie that existed.

    There's something to be said for trying something big and coming up short -- Heaven's Gate and Ishtar have their adherents -- and I will say that these movies make for much more enjoyable HDTGM episodes than the cynical crap that occasionally gets featured. However, at the end of the day, art is what it is. I could spend years of monumental effort and best intentions trying to sculpt like Rodin but I guarantee that it would be nowhere comparable.

    Or in other words, this:

    7 hours ago, doxrus said:

    Team Sanity. I think June and Jason are defending the movie based on its themes, not on the filmmaking. Because they love the themes so much, they're far too forgiving of the film's lousy writing, acting, direction, etc. And they're also giving the screenwriters too much credit for what they perceive the film to be saying. Do they really believe that the writers of HURRICANE HEIST - and not much else - have this much insight into female psychology and gender relations? And when challenged by Paul and Casey on points they can't defend, they just fall back weakly on "It's only a movie."

    • Like 5

  8. Did anyone else notice that this is the sole writing credit ever attributed to Elizabeth Livingston? 

    Apparently here is (some) of the story behind that.

     

    Quote

    New York based screenplay writers Tony Fingleton and Carlos Davis had met UK comedian Rik Mayall in London during Comic Relief. They’d loved to do a film together preserving Rik’s qualities from his British hit tv show The Young Ones, but aimed at an international audience. At that time Carlos and Tony were talking to a mutual friend Elizabeth Livingston who was writing a magazine story based on her little daughter’s imaginary friend Drop Dead Fred. Fingleton’s eldest daughter also had an imaginary friend when she was young. And hence the movie idea was born.

     

    • Like 3

  9. Quote

     I would also hard agree that this is 100% not a kid’s movie.

    Same; I remember seeing this movie as a kid and loving it largely because of the swearing. 

    I did not enjoy my recent rewatch, so mark me for team sanity. However, seeing this movie again did clarify that I was misremembering a lot of scenes -- mixing them up with ones from Little Monsters (released two years prior). So that's something.

    • Like 1

  10. 8 hours ago, theworstbuddhist said:

    Yeah. Was there even a knuckleball in the forties? Pitchers back then were expected to throw strikes and let the outfield handle balls put in play. It wasn't the role it is today.

    Definitely were; there were more varied pitches used in the old days, not less. Hoyt Wilhelm (who debuted in the 1950s) was a pure knuckleball guy.

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