Movies that aren't bad but would be good for the show.

[Syme 548]

Babe 2: Pig in the City

 

There's a bit of a cult following of this movie and one would assume it's some kind of ironic thing, how could a sequel to Babe possibly be any good? You'd understandably assume it would be a lazy sequel made quickly to make money. (Which it failed to do since it was put out the same day as a Bug's Life) But it's a genuinely brilliant, imaginative, dark, children's fantasy film.

 

Roger Egbert was a huge fan http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/babe-pig-in-the-city-1998 and wrote about why it flopped at the box office here http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/studio-slaughtered-babe-2

 

Jesse Thorn is also a fan, so would be a good guest for the episode.

 

It'd be perfect for a How Did This get Made that actually looks into how it got made, because it's amazing that a studio allowed a children's film this creative and dark to get through unchecked.

[rcavanah 21]

Yeah, it's actually a really great movie. My wife and I watched it after a very sad day when we had to have our sick puppy put to sleep, and pretty much bawled.

 

If they watched it, though, I think the episode would wind up a little bit like the Odd Life of Timothy Green episode did. Dunno whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, but with Jesse Thorn as a guest, it could work.

[PhillipMedoc 648]

The first one is okay but Babe 2: Pig in the City is a great movie. I like talking animals -- this one has a bunch, the writing is terrific and doesn't push too hard on the sentimental cheese factor, and the the voice acting is top notch. I started a thread for Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3 because I enjoyed it on a silly/fun/semi-ironic level but Babe 2 is really a legit good time. I feel like it'd be a good test for potential friends; if you're above it or can't enjoy it, no good.

 

There's so many movies that are not "bad" or bad/good but just deserve discussion. Sometimes commentary tracks are illuminating, but rarely. I think the Slate Culture Gabfest is pretty good at this, although it's never too in depth. There's a ton of foreign movies that I would love to know HDTGM, like say,

. It's not a bad movie at all, it's absolutely insane what they were able to accomplish with a surplus of creativity, youthful energy, and very little money (in a manner perhaps similar to the first Evil Dead).

 

I think David Lynch's Dune + Jodorowsky's failed attempt is another topic worthy of delving into. Lynch's Dune is apparently, to many people, a complete failure although I love the thing. You can really appreciate how much he was able to accomplish and how close he got to some details if you've read the book. But the source material was just too much for any one film. I haven't seen the TV series that came out a while back, it looked kind of cheap and I just wasn't interested; perhaps it does a better job. Then again, some movies are best left as books.

 

This is really an endless topic. There's a big number of films which are not bad but beg the question "HDTGM?"; I think there's certainly a wealth of material in no/low budget indies like the earlier Troma movies, some Roger Corman stuff, tons of interesting 80s horror with very creative practical sfx, big Hollywood flops like Heaven's Gate or The Postman, or just bizarre stuff like Rubin & Ed. I just love film and learning about the creative process behind it, whether the results are bad or good, because it's almost always an interesting story. That's a big part of what makes this podcast so wonderful -- there's (usually) a joy in trying to understand a movie's internal logic (e.g., Sleepaway Camp). Like people have mentioned, "not just be a hater", but actually try and answer the question of HDTGM.

[denimgremlin 1179]

this is a really intersting topic. the first thing that popped into my head was Miami Blues. not a bad movie at all but just so weird, Alec Baldwin as a charming psychopath who beats up a cop and steals his badge and dentures then goes around killing other criminals,

[rcavanah 21]

Oh, Wild at Heart! It's a truly GREAT movie, but so weird. Same with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, and really any Lynch film of the era. I'd say Inland Empire, but they'd probably scoff at it for being too arty, which I'd get bummed out by because it's actually one of my favorites.

[Lando 2019]

Point Break. I think that this is a genuinely enjoyable action movie, but it is riddled with dated cliches and it would be fun to hear them riff on things like "You're a real blue flame special, aren't you, son? Young, dumb and full of cum, I know. What I don't know is how you got assigned here. Guess we must just have ourselves an asshole shortage, huh?"

[seanotron 2307]

I think David Lynch's Dune + Jodorowsky's failed attempt is another topic worthy of delving into. Lynch's Dune is apparently, to many people, a complete failure although I love the thing. You can really appreciate how much he was able to accomplish and how close he got to some details if you've read the book. But the source material was just too much for any one film. I haven't seen the TV series that came out a while back, it looked kind of cheap and I just wasn't interested; perhaps it does a better job. Then again, some movies are best left as books.

 

I like it, but I like it as its own thing rather than a real adaptation of Dune. Lynch added a lot of odd & unnecessary stuff (the heart plugs, making the Weirding Way a gun basically, and that ending - oh boy, that ending), but I still credit him with creating a reasonably coherent movie. It's not like Jodorowsky was going to pull of coherent. And like you said, Dune has such dense world-building that I don't think any 2 hour movie was ever going to do it justice. They'd have to do it Lord of the Rings style to have it make any kind of sense.

 

The miniseries is totally worth watching, IMO. It is done on the cheap, but it kind of works. It's almost like watching a theater production of Dune. Some of the casting is off, but that was true of the Lynch version. I appreciated it for staying closer to the books in some aspects and just doing something completely different.