Episode 137 - The Avengers: LIVE!

[bonjourjamie 61]

Please please please let that couple have a child and name it Kumate!

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Omg I got to the end and I got verklempt when the guy proposed! I'm so happy they got to come back and have that moment!!!

 

Congrats to you two if you ever see this lol!

[Amy the Gorilla 732]

Awww... I feel kinda bad about June not liking short guys/ guys shorter than her. I'd be totally okay with dating a guy my height or shorter than me. (I'm only 5'5"/5'6" depending on shoes) and her being so adamant about being against it made me kind of uncomfortable.

 

I could understand her stance on flexible men, and their buns but I don't know if I understand this one.

[tomspanks 9039]

A correction - Jason referenced Sean Connery as the first James Bond, but technically, the first James Bond was Barry Nelson in a 1954 tv special "Casino Royale" (yes, that Casino Royale). Seven years later, the first official James Bond movie (Dr. No) with Sean Connery was released. However, in the now iconic opening sequence with James Bond seen through the opening of a gun barrel, a stuntman portrayed James Bond. So, the first image of James Bond in the first Bond movie wasn't even Sean Connery.

 

Speaking of Sean Connery, Paul and the gang expressed their discomfort with the choking scene. This scene made me uncomfortable too. I can't help but recall the allegations made by Connery's first wife that he had verbally abused and beaten her during their marriage. I tend to believe her, because in past interviews, Connery has stated that it's ok to slap around a woman if you use an open hand instead of a fist. When confronted in a tv interview by Barbara Walters, he digs the hole deeper and says that sometimes slapping a woman is warranted because women don't know how to let things go.

 

During the audience questions, someone pointed out that Connery's flower resembled female genitalia. I don't think this was a coincidence, because orchids have long been associated with sex. In the Victorian era, orchid blossoms were considered inappropriate for public display for this reason, lest they give the innocent frail women the vapors.

[tomspanks 9039]

Please please please let that couple have a child and name it Kumate!

 

I loled so hard when the crowd started chanting KU-MI-TE! KU-MI-TE!

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Awww... I feel kinda bad about June not liking short guys/ guys shorter than her. I'd be totally okay with dating a guy my height or shorter than me. (I'm only 5'5"/5'6" depending on shoes) and her being so adamant about being against it made me kind of uncomfortable.

 

I could understand her stance on flexible men, and their buns but I don't know if I understand this one.

I understood it to be a bit based on the reaction that Jason gave her when she said it was uncomfortable to watch them kiss on screen when they were the same height. That's why at the end she brought it up again and basically said she didn't really believe that because she doesn't see height. Kinda like in Masters in the Universe when they started jokingly making fun of "garbage poor people."

 

But I'm not 100% sure on this. That's just how I took it.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

Kinda like in Masters in the Universe when they started jokingly making fun of "garbage poor people."

I was just thinking about that bit the other day (because of a joke about "garbage people" in the wonderfully hilarious Lady Dynamite that all of you are soon going to be sick of me bringing up), but I couldn't remember what movie it was from. Thanks for the reminder! Now I must go re-listen.

[JeffKelly 2]

Not gonna lie, I'm a little disappointed that they were talking about The Avengers, and Game of Thrones...and didn't mention the fact that Diana Rigg/Olenna Tyrell originated the role of Emma Peel in the original TV show version of Avengers.

 

(But I loved the episode, I should note)

[bonjourjamie 61]

Great ep and great movie choice! I was completely lost the whole way through but the bear scene made it all worth it. Two things that drove me a little nuts:

 

1) On the drive over to meet Sean Connery / de Wynter, Steed tells Peel that the man is so obsessed with weather that he's named his children May, June (Diane???), July, etc. Those aren't weather terms, they're months! No one says it's Octobering outside.

 

2) What the hell is up with the old-timey portrait of Uma, or possibly Twoma, in de Wynter's castle? It looks like he has a 19th-century oil painting of her on one of his ornate walls. Just how long has he been cloning her, anyways?

[SlidePocket 707]

Jeremiah S. Chechik, the director of this film, also made National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and Benny & Joon! To see him go from the promise of his first two features, to sliding down to this pretty much ended his feature film career. He does focus on TV work these days from shows like "Chuck", "Burn Notice", "Leverage" and "Gossip Girl", so it's not a complete loss, but what would've been if he continued helming movies if The Avengers was a success.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Not gonna lie, I'm a little disappointed that they were talking about The Avengers, and Game of Thrones...and didn't mention the fact that Diana Rigg/Olenna Tyrell originated the role of Emma Peel in the original TV show version of Avengers.

 

(But I loved the episode, I should note)

They do mention Diana Rigg when Paul says that she was offered a role in this movie and she did a hard pass. They just don't mention that she was a Bond girl and is now on GoT.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

They do mention Diana Rigg when Paul says that she was offered a role in this movie and she did a hard pass. They just don't mention that she was a Bond girl and is now on GoT.

Doesn't Jason call her Olenna during all of that?

 

Like, I don't think he specifically says "Diana Rigg now plays Olenna Tyrell," but I thought he said something about how Olenna is very wise or something.

 

(I could have imagined that or just inserted what I was thinking and ascribed it to Jason)

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Okay I have to admit that I actually also liked the first scene of this movie but only based on that very first shot that made me think of The Son of Man by Rene Magritte.... I just realized my art history degree is coming out again... ANYWAY HERE'S WHY

 

So it's clearly not an exact like "oh see what we did here?" kind of shot because that would just be bonkers as Magritte isn't even a British painter, but the green vines with the way he stood and not being able to see his face was soooo well done in my opinion. Plus how perfectly he was framed in that door was just ah goodness.

 

If the whole movie had been shot with that same care and attention to detail? We may not even be discussing it right now!

[Jillybean 104]

And Jason and June are in Lady Dynamite!! I know they mention that in the podcast but I just felt compelled to shout it. I love it!!

[Cameron H. 23786]

Steed and Peel may have been terrible spies, but at least they weren't fighting above their weight class.

 

When Steed and Peel go to infiltrate Connery's island, they cross the water in huge, inflatable hamster balls--I guess because it was...cool? Anyway, I believe Connery sees them casually walking across the water on one of the monitors and then does absolutely jack shit!

 

They are in huge balloons! You have a weather machine! A machine that can instantly call down gale force winds! Just aim that shit at them. Even if it doesn't kill them, you can prevent them from getting to you. And even if they do managedto fight the winds and reach the island, they would be so exhausted it would be incredibly easy to dispatch them.

 

Also, I Googled the script for one of my earlier posts to make sure I was quoting the movie correctly and the only one I could find was the original. In it, unless I'm reading it wrong, it seems to imply that the year is supposed to be 1999!

 

When Steed is introduced it says:

 

JOHN STEED, late 30's. Handsome English gent, roguish looks, dandy's clothes. A Beau Brummel figure in a Savile Row suit, velvet collar, embroidered waistcoat. A debonair Etonian, Steed oozes charm, wit and - when he chooses to -- hard-edged, steely menace. He drives through -- LONDON (1999)

 

Now, to be fair, I may be misinterpreting that, but it may also mean we have another Apple scenario where a screenwriter grossly miscalculated the technology that would be available in the very near future.

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

Okay another one of my questions...

 

Was Mrs. Peel in this movie supposed to resemble Marvel's Black Widow? Her character in the comic books was already well established even though there was no thought of having her in a movie yet, but did they think that would get comic book nerds to spend the money to see this piece of crap? Just cause they thought they would get a taste of Natasha Romanoff?

 

Cause shit Uma Thurman just looks like such a knock-off Black Widow and I can't stand it.

 

Someone on a website referred to this as the Black Widow and Jarvis Avengers. I'm still upset about it.

 

Emma Peel's jumpsuits on the show weren't all leather. I really didn't like Uma Thurman's version. I thought it looked very fetish. I mean, a leather jumpsuit is always going to be sexual. But Diana Rigg was kind of mod and cool. You'd never look at Uma Thurman and think, "Totally normal outfit."

 

 

And my fave, the Kate Bishop!Hawkeye cosplay:

 

[tomspanks 9039]

It's been a while since chem 101, but I still had some issues with the "science" of this movie. The movie introduces Emma as the former chief of the Prospero Project, which is a weather shield for the UK. How does it work? Who the fuck knows. They gave as little information about it as possible. Emma explains that they were "bombarding protons and ions to make antimatter"..."artificially creating weather systems." First, what? Second, adding a proton to an ion (an atom that has a different number of electrons than protons) would result in a different atom all together. Add a proton to hydrogen and you get helium (though it would be unstable), not "antimatter." What do antimatter have to do with weather systems anyway? Well, this matter (har har) is dropped altogether when later, in Sean Connery's green house of sexual assault and vagina flowers, Emma talks about altering cloud patterns by using "microtransmissions." Now they're just making up science-y sounding words. So how is manipulating cloud patterns result in rain or snow? Wouldn't they need to control the air temperature and pressure systems as well?

 

Some other things that drove me nuts:

- In the meeting of bears, each bear had a fucking cup in front of them. How are they supposed to drink their beverages through a bear mask with no mouth hole?

- When the invisible man stands in front of the projector, he bends the light and his outline is shown to be wearing a suit. So when he turned invisible, his clothes were turned invisible too? Why is he still wearing clothes for that matter?

[Cameron H. 23786]

When the invisible man stands in front of the projector, he bends the light and his outline is shown to be wearing a suit. So when he turned invisible, his clothes were turned invisible too? Why is he still wearing clothes for that matter?

 

That bothered me too! At first, I just assumed he was naked, which made me giggle thinking of a prim and proper English spy just walking around totally nude as he talks shop with Steed. But, as you said, he stands in front of a projector and you see he's wearing clothes. However, the problem I have with that is he said he became invisible "due to an accident." Okay. Fine. But the other objects he interacts with don't turn invisible just because he's touching them. Does that mean that he hasn't changed his clothes in years!?! Does he wash them every night or does he just let his stink proceed him wherever he goes?

[Amy the Gorilla 732]

I understood it to be a bit based on the reaction that Jason gave her when she said it was uncomfortable to watch them kiss on screen when they were the same height. That's why at the end she brought it up again and basically said she didn't really believe that because she doesn't see height. Kinda like in Masters in the Universe when they started jokingly making fun of "garbage poor people."

 

But I'm not 100% sure on this. That's just how I took it.

 

Yeah, I just finished the ep. and that did make me feel less bad. lol.

 

Something else about their high might also have to do with the fact that Uma always seems to be in heels, so even if they were the same height, she'd still look taller.

[Amy the Gorilla 732]

Also the "coke lines" in question.

 

[Amy the Gorilla 732]

Okay, so I had a thought, after they talked about there being no normal people anywhere, and so few spies and bad guys, so it must be the post apocalypse.

 

So, let's say it was. Everyone seems to be so inept, and their plans don't seem to make any kind of sense. So what if the worlds population had been mostly wiped out, and the population being rebuilt looks to the media of the past and the thing that the new population in Britain look at are British Spy films. They worship them, and try to rebuild the secret service based solely on those movies. And everyone either has to be a spy, or a villain. No one is a normal person.

 

There's no mention of a Queen that I'm aware of, though, there are a lot of things in the dialogue that flew right past me, but even that makes sense in the context of people trying to emulate campy Spy movies/tv shows.

 

 

Also substituting apocalyptic people with Aliens would work too.

[RuncibleShaw 21]

I never saw this movie. My former roommate quotes Connery's, "Now is the winter of your discontent line", a lot. Though I never saw it, what I do vividly remember is one of those 'HBO First Look' episodes about the movie. The fact that London is basically a desolate ghost town is specifically mentioned and they actually put up a bit of the script that describes "Avengers World". I wish I could find that episode. The bit I'm remembering is similar to this from the script that was posted:

 

This is 'Avengersland': a parallel world painted by Rene Magritte, forever England. Bright pinks, greens and reds, an imperial city in final decadent bloom. White stucco buildings. Regency style in candy colors. A surreally 90's city like a hipper, edgier version of the 60's preserved in aspic, where --

 

I remember as a teenager finding it really weird that London being empty was promoted as a feature rather than a bug. It's also strange to me that this movie came out after Austin Powers and arguably does a much worse job of capturing the 60's British spy vibe.

 

(Also, Hi, I'm new. Be kind.)

[Smigg 1488]

And this hunk of shit movie, which shouldn't have anything to do with my great nation, is the reason why the Marvel movie had to be called "Avengers Assemble" in the UK.

[Cameron H. 23786]

Okay, so I had a thought, after they talked about there being no normal people anywhere, and so few spies and bad guys, so it must be the post apocalypse.

 

So, let's say it was. Everyone seems to be so inept, and their plans don't seem to make any kind of sense. So what if the worlds population had been mostly wiped out, and the population being rebuild looks to the media of the past and the thing that the new population in Britain look at are British Spy films. They worship them, and try to rebuild the secret service based on those movies. And everyone either has to be a spy, or a villain. No one is a normal person.

 

There's no mention of a Queen that I'm aware of, though, there are a lot of things in the dialogue that flew right past me, but even that makes sense in the context of people trying to emulate campy Spy movies/tv shows.

 

 

Also substituting apocalyptic people with Aliens would work too.

 

Do you think this movie is occurring in an England concurrent to the events in Hell Comes to Frogtown?

[Smigg 1488]

The other female lead in The Avengers was Joanna Lumley

 

 

She would later star in "Absolutely Fabulous", one of the most revered BBC comedies of all time