theworstbuddhist

Bump! Totally watching Megaforce in a little under 2 hours! I'll probably sit on Discord and chat about it, so if you want to join in watch this space and I'll post a link if I can figure it out. Also just to give you a chuckle, I will confess at this point that I texted Paul for the first time today at 917 877 0657 to say hi and thanks for the excuse to watch Megaforce, and he sent a very kind reply, plus now I'm subscribed to his picks texts, so thanks Paul.

High five! How I envy anyone who sees this movie for the first time now. And that reminds me, for people who were wondering, apparently you can rent Megaforce from Amazon Prime for $3 in the US, so that's not too bad. Not sure about any other streaming options. Since I have a surprise day off on Friday I think there is a good chance that I will get super baked and watch Megaforce on Thursday night just to refresh my memory before the episode drops. If anyone wants to join me I'll probably start around 10 PM ET.

Can't believe I forgot to link to the title song from the film by a band called 707 (who I confused for years with 38 Special).

MEGAFORCE AT LAST!! I am going to be pretty hard to live with during this. I apologize in advance. Fun fact: I make comics in my spare time and happen to be working on a Megaforce-inspired comic RIGHT NOW. I mean, not literally now, I'm at work, but in my spare time that's what I am doing.

Wow, the writer of Cool World almost worked on Always, aka Audrey Hepburn's last movie, which is that remake of A Guy Named Joe discussed in the Blake Harris interview.

There's a pretty good recent documentary about Kathleen Hanna too, speaking of. Sort of

I don't really do music streaming services but if anyone is looking for film scores to look up and listen to, I highly recommend: Haywire Stay Solaris (the Soderbergh one) The Man From UNCLE Drive Round Midnight Man of Steel I'd be interested to hear everyone else's recommendations, film scores can be a real rabbit hole. Edited to add: I don't do streaming services because I am limiting my subscriptions to stuff, no judgement intended. I do have some musician friends who tell me that they prefer Bandcamp, for what it's worth.

That's an awesome list and I feel it would be improved by The Go! Team

I think someone mentioned it in the episode? Or am I... delirious?

Fair enough, though I think I would give Frazetta the bulk of the credit for that movie. The roto looks OK in that trailer at least!

This cool looking movie is streaming free on Mubi today! FYI https://mubi.com/films/ema-2019

Ah nice, thanks for pointing this out - I'm slow to learn the names of young/emerging directors but I've seen and enjoyed a lot of his work. To your later point about films or shows getting remixed back into chronological order: I think I still have a copy of the TV series Lost that some maniac put into strict chronological order. I would also dearly love to see the Topher Grace remix of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, though I guess that is more about compressing the films into a shorter, saner single film. I think someone has done that with The Hobbit films as well. Steven Soderbergh used to post some fun film experiments at his blog too... sorry, it's Friday and I'm high and rambling Have a great weekend everyone

Ha, wow. I had never heard of this but I can't say I am surprised, she seems like a challenging person to deal with.

Oh, Cool World. Oy. I hate Bakshi and rotoscoping (at least, 90s and earlier roto) so hard to say if I'll put myself through that again. One comment about the Harry Potter audio books: Jim Dale is fine but Stephen Fry reads the UK editions. And for those like me who enjoy HP well enough but wish it was more, shall we say, gay: I highly recommend the two Simon Snow books by Rainbow Rowell, Carry On and Wayward Son. It's essentially HP fanfic, but well written and compelling and fun. They are actually spinoffs of one of her other books, Fangirl, which is also good but honestly I like the Snow books the most of all her stuff so far.

Yeesh, this movie was even dumber than I expected. As others have pointed out, a lot of Memento in there. I'm kind of surprised that literally no one has used the phrase "Jacob's Ladder Scenario" with reference to this movie yet.

Holy cats you guys, this Netflix "original" starring Olivia Munn wants to be a new Four Weddings and a Funeral but with only one wedding and nearly no laughs. It is amazingly bad considering the cast and the Italian setting. Here is the trailer, which makes it seem perfectly watchable, but IT IS NOT.

I like Hornby but haven't read that book or seen the film yet. But I will! One of them anyway. I like Apatow too, for the most part, and especially enjoyed his recent documentary about Garry Shandling.

This should answer all of your questions about Hair and several other musicals for that matter:

The buddy-stands-in-for-his-dead-friend is a pretty standard war movie trope dating back to the 40s if not earlier, and as someone pointed out spoilerly, it's a major plot point in TV's Mad Men. I watched a lot of war movies and had a particular interest in Viet Nam growing up, because it was winding down and America was starting to cope with the aftermath, cinematically and otherwise, in the late 70s with films like Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter (and even, a bit later, First Blood). I see the film of Hair as a bit of a cynical cash-in on both the respectability of the Viet Nam films so far and the sudden popularity of retro movie musicals, especially Grease. That said, the film itself is OK, not aging terribly well like many musicals. Watching it now feels the way it feels to watch Rent. Like you've found your old View-Master and some forgotten reels.

To be fair, that's what anyone would think watching a Luc Besson trailer these days. HI EVERYBODY. Sorry I haven't been here much lately. We made the super smart decision in late Feb. to move to a new bigger apartment for April, but as the pandemic came on I found myself having to do that move pretty much all on my own. It went OK, all things considered, and we are happy and safe in the new place, but man I was tired for a bit there. I'm at the point of unpacking now where I'm just consolidating random boxes of hurriedly packed junk and I thought you all might enjoy this thing that I totally forgot I had. For not only did I see Valerian in theatre, I saw it with a free pass given me by my local comic shop, Strange Adventures, and at the screening we were given these little USB promotional fans, which when activated give you a little laser show: So, yeah. That's where I am at these days. I hope you are all well too. Speaking of comic shops, if I may, you may not be aware how Quite Fucked that industry is right now, even more than usual, especially in the US and Canada due to the fact that for some while now there has essentially been one distributor of comics to comic shops, and they have shut down until further notice. Fortunately many shops are getting creative, even without new stock they are selling a lot of books and toys and games and whatnot through the mail or with curbside pickup or whatever is safe. So, I encourage you to support your local comic shop if you can. I actually might try to put together a benefit for my local shop that would be of particular interest to HDTGM fans. I will make some inquiries and if it seems like it would work, I'll post a new topic about it.

I chuckled when Paul talked about Andy Lau and how he starred in Infernal Affairs. Andy Lau is a HUGE star in China and around the world. He never quite penetrated North American recognition the way Jackie Chan or even Tony Leung have, but... yeah. Like those other two, just a seemingly ageless megastar actor and singer (yes, Jackie Chan is also a very popular singer). I think all three of them are in Drunken Master 2, though Andy's part is more of a cameo. Jackie and Tony are costars of the film Gorgeous, and Andy's costar in Infernal Affairs was Tony. Now I want to watch a bunch of Cantonese movies again. Maybe I'll do that in these self-isolating days leading up to some parental leave. I'll make a list if anyone is interested. I've literally seen hundreds of them starting from the early 90s especially, thanks to an early interest in John Woo* that led to watching any movie that came on the Chinese station from Toronto. Anyway, I think Jason alluded to the fact that The Great Wall is a Chinese production, but the podcast (understandably, given their location) pretty much just focused on the American actors, especially Matt Damon. Considering the insanely cheap and quickly made quality of older Chinese films, it's wild to see their industry start to take these steps, making more and more self-mythologizing period dramas with hired guns like Damon to shore up the global box office. I think people also commented on how shitty the CG was. Which is certainly fair. But really, for the most part the Chinese audience doesn't seem to care if the effects are clunky. These are people used to traditional theatre performances and crazy wire work in movies. Personally, I don't like the CG alien dog things but it's not because of the CG (though it is bad) - it's because I don't like the trend of action movies creating a weird creature that the heroes can literally just mow through and we gross human beings who get bent out of shape if someone is mean to a kitten will look at these alien creatures, judge them solely on their looks, and say yeah, that thing has to die. *I hate every movie he made in the USA. Yes, even Face/Off.

Advice for callers from Florida! A woman falls under a train and triggers June's panic response, but they are both ok. And, should Paul watch the Resident Evil films? Paul also offers advice on the Paul Help Line, goes through Corrections and Omissions for Underworld: Blood Wars, and checks in with Devin and Cody for recommendations on how to spend your isolation time. Plus, find out which movie will be covered next week!

Nice. I feel like I have seen this back when it came out but I don't really remember anything about it. It certainly seems like a good fit for the podcast. It looks like a weird fusion of The Fugitive and Eternal Sunshine. As for suggestions, this one reminds me of some great 80s and 90s neo-noir: Dennis Hopper's adaptation of The Hot Spot starring Don Johnson, Jennifer Connelly and Virginia Madsen; Romeo Is Bleeding, with Gary Oldman and Lena Olin; and The Last Seduction, with Peter Berg and Linda Fiorentino as a particularly wicked femme fatale.

I'm the opposite - hated the show, always hated the band (who were before my time anyway, apart from their 80s revival) but was impressed that they would make a film that called the band "plastic" and that they would position themselves with musicians like Frank Zappa rather than do what everyone probably expected, eg. a remake of A Hard Day's Night or worse, yet another version of A Star Is Born. It's a crazy document of a crazy time. But yeah, probably helps if you get super high before you watch it. Speaking of, if you DID like Head, check out Zappa's 200 Motels, which makes Head look like Oklahoma!

I dunno if US Netflix gets sweet stuff like this, but if you do, I think we should be ok for a while.