Cameron H.

I think Emilio provides hope because the world of the movie is so epically fucked at that point. It’s a hopeless world where baby coal miners lay abandoned in the street and the only shining object for miles around is the secondhand saxophone being blown by the lonely transient in a grimy, little shantytown. The people in this movie have no way to improve their lot in life. No matter what they do or how hard they work, the people who eat three meals a day at the Pork Chop Diner will never work at McCandless. With no upward mobility, 5 blocks might as well be 500 miles. For them, wealth, comfort, and health are all equally unattainable. In essence, due to the firmly entrenched social structure, free will has been virtually stripped. And without free will where does the average citizen find hope? From a Freejack of course! While Emilio knows (and even admits) that everything he’s doing is reactionary, to the citizenry at large he’s proof that perhaps everything isn’t quite as set in stone as it might appear. There is still hope. There’s still a chance to avoid being consigned to a fate not of your own choosing. The longer he evades the Bonejackers, the longer he’s free to upset their plans, the more the plaster veneer of their oligarchical social structure begins to chip away. It exposes the McCandlesses of their world for what they actually are: Faberge Eggs. Beautiful, perhaps, but brittle and hollow. As for Boone and his grandmother, he might be dressed nicely, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s wealthy. I don’t think the McCandless corporation would smile too fondly on their chauffeur/bodyguards dressing like an escapees from a Siberian gulag. It could be that he does the best he can for his grandmother. It’s also possible that she’s just an empathetic person. She’s old so she probably has a sense of what the world used to be and should be like.

Was anyone else shocked by apparent lack of quality at the Pork Chop Diner? For a restaurant that seems to deal exclusively in pork, and has what appears to be a fully functioning abattoir directly behind the kitchen (complete with freshly butchered pigs hanging from the ceiling), you’d think it would be better.

Yup

Oh, I know. It was a pretty weak assumption. It was all based around the fact that he said "I" instead of "we." Emilio might as well have been like, "What the fuck, bro. Don't you think I like caviar too? Are you selling me out?"

Like, I totally get them some people thought that this movie felt long. And, I have to admit, the second act sagged worse than Emilio Estevez’s sensible, gray, cotton, granny panties. But by at least by one measurement Freejack felt far too short. A one hundred and ten minute movie is not nearly long enough for a character to twice uncover another character’s hidden desire via Freudian slip. The first time occurred when Rene Russo wondered what “the other wives” would be wearing to the race, and the second time was when David Johansen exalted, “I’ll be eating caviar!” Honestly, I feel like - even at the best of times - Freudian slips are a pretty lazy way to reveal characterization, but to do it twice in less than two hours is utterly shameful.

I would just like to post a little something about gun safety. I’m not saying Emilio’s character doesn’t have any experience with guns - for all I know, he’s down at the gun range every weekend - but I am saying this: he’s not a soldier. Nor is he some kind of loose-cannon detective in the vein of Riggs or McClane. He’s an F-1 racer. And Formula One racing isn’t a sport generally known for its propinquity to firearms. I'm just saying, I found the way Emilio kept shoving that pistol down the front of his pants to be extremely reckless. You’re 100% going to shoot your dick off, dumb-dumb.

I agree with both Buckaroo Banzai and They Live.

Provided I have the time, I might just watch them both anyway.

I think the most perplexing moment in the movie for me came at the end of the movie during Hopkins’ big reveal. I didn’t have a problem with him wanting to get inside of Emilio’s bod so much, but I had real issues wrapping my head around the rules regarding Hopkins’ holographic mental projection. For instance, why does a mental projection need to smoke? I get it in terms of the ruse he’s been playing up to that point, but once it’s revealed that he’s just Hopkins’ consciousness, and not a physical being, what’s the point? Why does his brain need a fake cigar? Did the programmers have to write some code so he could have a stogie or is smoking such a fundamental part of who he is that his mental construct isn’t even able to manifest without one? But even beyond that, this “projection” - if that’s what it is - seems to be able to physically interact with the environment. At times, he physically touches both Emilio and Rene. How is that even possible? We just saw him materialize out of thin air and now he has the ability to influence the environment beyond the realm of the Spiritual Switchboard? I mean, the motherfucker has to physically touch a device to transfer his consciousness into Emilio!* That makes no sense! He’s just a thought! He shouldn’t be able to touch anything! And, if he’s able to do all of that, then it kind of seems like Freejacking is pretty much obsolete technology anyway. It feels like it should be a relatively low hurdle to clear to go from stored consciousness, hologram, hologram that can touch things inside of a specific room, hologram that can touch things outside of a specific room. Heck, we’ve already seen him assume Emilio’s visage. So, theoretically, you could download yourself into any shell you wanted to create for yourself. It seems like jacking Emilio is just this side of being completely redundant. *I also found it bizarre that brain transferral seems to accomplished through your fingertips. You’d think the head would be the more direct route. Wouldn’t some kind of headgear-type apparatus be more appropriate?

That would be amazing!

I would have been happy re-watching La La Land, but I’ve been wanting to watch Umbrellas since Tom reviewed it last year. So I’m excited.

HDTGM D&D group?

And the sample size gets even smaller when you realize, not only do you have to know the exact moment of death, not only do you have to have a video of the death (from a third-person perspective that doesn't have direct eyes on the target), but the death has to be of such a catastrophic and explosive nature that people won't question for a second why there aren't any remains left behind. And, since the likelihood of your Average Joe meeting all that criteria is pretty astronomical, the only people I can think of that might have cameras so ubiquitously on them that they might capture something like that would be some kind of celebrity or other public figure. But, then again, it can't be - for obvious reasons - somebody too famous either. So - by that logic - Emilio is really one of the very few viable candidates for being Freejack'd at all. I'm guessing the future is just lousy with Z-List celebrity race car drivers.

Boring!

Awesome! I hope all your comments are done in character as a chaotic evil, arakocra bard.

It sounds like the 16th is best so we'll set it for the

I don’t think he’s supposed to be sexy. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say he was cast for his boyishness. At one point in the movie, a screen pops up with some of Alex’s stats and it says he was born in 1955. His crash takes place in 1991 (which he confirms for himself by checking his wristband) which makes Alex 36 at the time of his death. In movie, I’d say this might be a commentary on how well kept his body was, and consequently, why he’d be a desirable candidate. As far as production reasons, I’d say that his looks can, in the right circumstances (i.e. lighting, makeup, wardrobe, etc) make him appear older or younger than Rene as the scene required. He’s kind of like the anti-John Hamm. Speaking of their age difference, my guess is, at the beginning of the movie, that Alex was supposed to be considerably older than Julie - say, 36 to her 25. This would make her ~43 (as opposed to ~53) at the end of the movie and actually close their age gap. Of course, I have no evidence to back any of that up, but I do feel like early 90’s movie execs would take real issue with the leading lady being *too* much older than the leading man.

Currently listening, but I just want to say, because I don't think I have yet, I love Jessica St Clair as co-host. She's absolutely hilarious. I would love it if she could be brought on as a permanent co-host. Not as a replacement for June, but in addition to. I know that probably would never work, but she's been so great that I'm going to be sorry when this run ends.

You haven't seen it? You are in for a real treat.

I don’t. I think I just did a free trial on it recently, too. If no one has Showtime, then we’lol just move to the next one. No biggie.

Oops! I meant we should be doing it the 9th but we can delay until the 16th. See? Off my game

I’m surprised this hasn’t been picked already.

Lol - That scene pisses me off. Harry should be like “Look! ‘Stopper on Death!’l

I found them to be even more insufferable in the books. At least in the movie you get a relatively quick montage set to Lykke Li’s “Possibility” with her looking out the window forlornly as seasons pass. The book is all INTERNAL MONOLOGUE! You have to sit through every insipid thought. It’s like when you have that friend that just can’t seem to get over a breakup and living in their brain - forever!