order of operations

[ill Neal 42]

which do you prefer? to listen to a podcast first, and then watch the movie? or to watch the movie fresh, and then listen to the podcast?

 

honestly... i think i like listening to the podcast first. i only discovered this podcast a few months ago so when i got into the game i had a huge stack of episodes to listen to... which i did. now i've been going back and watching the movies that i think will be the most ridiculous, and i have NOT been disappointed, by any means!!!

 

but i'm just curious what others think. i watched superman III after the podcast. i watched barb wire after the podcast (actually the end credits are rolling as we speak). there are things in the movie that i feel i wouldn't have caught on to, had they not been pointed out by the podcasts... for instance, jason's adamant objection to the fact that this film takes place so far in the future, yet everyone knows who batman and sonny & cher are. i wouldn't have put that together.

 

anyway, just curious if you prefer to listen to a podcast and then watch the movie, or watch the movie before listening to the podcast.

 

and now to go post in the 'barb wire' thread...!!!!

[Lando 2019]

Generally if I can I watch a movie after the minisode, but if I can't find it by then I will watch it when it becomes available. I keep track of the movies and of the 59 titles they've done so far I have seen 44

[sillstaw 414]

For me, the better question is if I watch the movie at all. In cases where I've seen the movie already, I see no need to watch it again. If I haven't seen a movie they're going to cover, and it's something where I don't want to watch it, I just listen to the episode. (Bad comedies, i.e. "All About Steve" and "Old Dogs," as well as stuff like "Sucker Punch," falls under this category.) If it's something like "Drive Angry," where I want to see the movie anyway, or something that sounds fun-bad ("The Tourist," "Skyline"), then I'll watch, then listen.

 

For what it's worth, this is probably part of the reason there are a bunch of episodes I haven't listened to yet.

[JustinL 216]

I've been with them practically from the beginning and have watched every movie and listened to every episode. I started out having not seen most of the movies. Birdemic changed things for me. I had been hearing about the film for a while but hadn't seen it and I didn't want it to be ruined for me. Having knowledge of the movie made listening to the podcast a much more intimate and entertaining experience as I could often hear my thoughts and issues being expressed by the group. I decided from then on I would always watch the movie first.

 

This also helped me feel a greater sense of empathy for them, as many of the movies have been quite a chore to watch. "The Back-Up Plan" is still the most excruciating experience I've had so far. It's the only film where every single minute I wanted to turn it off. Other films have just bored me with their mediocrity (88 Minutes, Trespass) to the point where I wondered why they thought it was a good film for the podcast, only to listen to the show and laugh my ass off as they point out all the ludicrous things that just slipped by me. Then there's those shared thought moments: I thought Leelee Sobieski was blind too!

 

Going back to watch the movies I missed is great because I get to have their comments confirmed or "debunked." The Last Airbender was exactly as boring as they said it was. Crank 2 and Punisher were exactly as fun as they said they were. Fast Five was an atrociously stupid and boring piece of shit that I could barely pay attention to and they were totally wrong to like it. But that's okay! I feel better and enjoy the show more when I have an actual informed opinion about the movie. That's why I recently spent two weeks hunting down and now own an $8 used copy of Spice World and couldn't be happier about it.

[thestray 361]

I have to watch the movie first, I feel like I enjoy the podcast better that way. At first I'd sometimes watch the movie after, or not watch the movie at all, but I've found that I enjoy the episode a little more when I've seen the movie and know exactly what they're talking about, especially for those "OH MY GOD YES!" moments where they say the exact thing you were thinking. Like JustinL said, it feels more intimate. When I've seen the movie I don't feel like I'm just listening to people talk about a thing, I feel like I'm "in on it".

 

I'll put off episodes til I watch the movie, even if it's a movie I've seen before I'll watch it again just to refresh my memory. There have definitely been some movies that are hard to sit through, those I'll either watch with a friend and joke about them all the way through, or I'll just watch it in pieces throughout the week. Or sometimes I'll just put the movie on while I'm cleaning or drawing or something.

[ill Neal 42]

ACTUALLY i just realized an error in my first message. i actually watched "birdemic" before listening to the podcast. i knew what birdemic is, who hasn't right? i just never got around to seeing it. i actually had a copy of birdemic ready to watch for months it just sat around i never got to it. so finally i started listening to HDTGM and saw this episode and thought "okay i have to watch this before listening to the podcast"...

 

anyway so i saw the film first, then watched the movie and.... eh? i kind of get upset when they don't mention the hilarious things that i focused on! for instance, i was obsessed... OBSESSED about the line "where is (your girlfriend)?", "oh she's out taking a shit". followed by "the war... i couldn't take all the fucking killing!"... it was just a light PG movie until all the sudden they threw this random profanity in!!! again i was obsessed with it. and then i listened to the podcast and they didn't give it as much attention as i felt they should have!!! and i didn't like it.

 

don't get me wrong it was funny but in my mind i'm like "OHHHH WHY AREN'T YOU DISCUSSING THE THING THAT I THOUGHT WAS SO FUNNY!!!!!!"

 

so that being said... i think i prefer to listen to the podcast prior to watching the film. a) they point out things for me to look out for because i wouldn't notice them watching the film on my own and i don't get angry when they don't discuss the things i want them to discuss after i see the film... because i haven't seen the film myself yet.

 

i do like and appreciate the "chore" aspect, though. i recently watched "speed 2". that was BAD. so dull and boring. not entertaining in any aspect (EXCEPT for the parts hilariously pointed out by our favorite podcast hosts).

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

I've been a big movie watcher and collector, I've worked at a movie theater for approximately forever, and I've even BEEN IN a lot of movies (see the "Abduction" thread for my adventures on that set), so I've seen many of the films that have been covered here. If they're going to do an episode on a film I haven't seen, I may or may not check it out depending on availability, my free time, and whether or not it's something I want to see anyway. If it's something I HAVE seen that I have readily available, I'll give it another spin as a refresher like I did with "Devil's Advocate", which besides the movie being bonkers was actually a pretty fun re-visit, as I'd seen it in the theater and purchased a first generation DVD of it nearly 15 years ago, but hadn't watched it since. It may as well have been on VHS.

 

SOME movies have been so bad/memorable though that I could still recall every crazy little bit of it, such as "88 Minutes". Fuck "Dark Knight" or "Avengers", THIS was one of the most enjoyable and funniest after-work screenings ever. On the flip side, you've got "Speed 2", which I've seen several times, but can never seem to remember any details to. I think it says a lot about a film like "88 Minutes" when you can watch it once and it's so bad it sticks with you forever.