Episode 178.5 - Minisode 178.5

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

The cover art for Second Sight always fascinated me when I went to video stores as a kid.

 

 

So Dan Fielding and Balki Bartokomous are in some kind of action-comedy together? And Balki is Electro or something? What is this? Never pulled the trigger on renting it, though.

 

So this should be a fun watch for me.

[Cam Bert 8145]

The cover art for Second Sight always fascinated me when I went to video stores as a kid.

 

 

So Dan Fielding and Balki Bartokomous are in some kind of action-comedy together? And Balki is Electro or something? What is this? Never pulled the trigger on renting it, though.

 

So this should be a fun watch for me.

This is definitely one of those covers that is burnt into my mind from the video store as a kid.

[joel_rosenbaum 1269]

 

Always the one that I remember. That and Fatso.

 

Oh, and Happy New Year's everyone.

[grudlian. 4725]

This is definitely one of those covers that is burnt into my mind from the video store as a kid.

This for sure. I really wanted to watch this as a kid because I liked Perfect Strangers and Night Court so much. I seem to remember my parents not wanting me to watch it and I assumed it was because it was too adult for me. Now I assume it's because my parents didn't want to sit through it.

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

Okay, I’ve got an end of the year question for the forum. What movie could you not stop talking/thinking about this year? It doesn’t have to be from 2017. It doesn’t have to be good or bad. It just has to be remarkable.

 

I would not have expected this before seeing the movie, but it's Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

 

Not just because I thought it was a surprisingly interesting/nuanced take on the Star Wars franchise and blockbuster filmmaking in general, but because the fan response has been so polarized about it, so I've been in constant Internet discussions/arguments about its merits. In general I'm not bothered if people didn't like a movie I liked, but the reasoning behind the dislike for this one has fascinated me, and I've been slightly obsessed with getting to the bottom of it. Sure, some of it is just horrible sexism/racism, but beyond that there is a way this movie really messed with people's expectations in such a way as to make them furious. I didn't expect to see THAT from the Disney-owned Star Wars franchise in this day and age.

[Cam Bert 8145]

I think I may have written about this once before but I will again because I have no shame.

 

The video store we went to when I was a kid had a separate room by the front that had the kids movies and video games. The entire room was walled with class so parents could send their kids off into it and still be able to keep and eye on them. It was a good idea. What wasn't a good idea was the fact the the biggest section of the glass wall looked out straight at the horror movie shelf. So you are looking at the cover to Land Before Time and you turn around and staring in at you is a shelf of nightmare fuel. As a result I remember The Blob remake cover scaring me and looking for the Cat's Eye cover as the "safe zone"

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

I haven't actually watched "Second Sight". Is it worth-it bad?

[grudlian. 4725]

I haven't actually watched "Second Sight". Is it worth-it bad?

I'm halfway through. Nine year old me would have loved it. Current me is not having a great time. Bronson Pinchot's performance is broad even for Bronson Pinchot.

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

I'm halfway through. Nine year old me would have loved it. Current me is not having a great time. Bronson Pinchot's performance is broad even for Bronson Pinchot.

Agreed about the broadness, but that means it is definitely not boring. And John Larroquette is trying so hard to play the disaffected straight man to Pinchot's wackiness that his performance becomes over-the-top as well. Guys, as much of a mess as this movie is... I think I kind of like it! Bonus: it's under 90 minutes!

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

Bonus: it's under 90 minutes!

 

And yet, it still feels like there was a lot of padding.

[grudlian. 4725]

Agreed about the broadness, but that means it is definitely not boring. And John Larroquette is trying so hard to play the disaffected straight man to Pinchot's wackiness that his performance becomes over-the-top as well. Guys, as much of a mess as this movie is... I think I kind of like it! Bonus: it's under 90 minutes!

I understand that. I might watch this again tonight because I did genuinely enjoy the opening scene. I was really tired though and was forcing myself to power through it before bed. So, I kind of spaced out a bit then tuned in and could not believe what was happening. So, I think it deserves a more attentive watch for the craziness.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Agreed. The situation in Get Out is definitely horror, but it's more like an episode of the Twilight Zone since there is almost no gore. It is a fucked up spin on the Stepford Wives.

Jordan has said that Stepford Wives is a huge inspiration for him too!

 

In this vein I also want to recommend It Follows on Netflix if you've never seen it. There's not really any gore and it's so well done. The movie is set in some sort of alternative timeline where it's the 80's but people have modern technology and the premise is spooky as hell.

I think that's just Detroit lol.

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

because the fan response has been so polarized about it, so I've been in constant Internet discussions/arguments about its merits.

i'm just out of it .. prepare yourself ..

 

 

now i'm only a casual star wars viewer but from where i was sitting it was a mess. first up .. someone must have taken a giant scissors to it in the editing room or something cause it was awful. there was no flow to it at all which meant the score ended up feeling like snippets of a best of john williams album.

 

then there's the dialog .. it was terrible. again, this is from a casual viewer, it was mostly sentimental gobbledygook. maybe if you're into the whole lore of star wars it might have stirred something in you but for me it was boring. i felt sorry for the actors .. kind of .. i thought the only one who did a good job was adam driver. what happened ridley and boyega??? and what the hell was going on with benicio??? but was it their fault or was it was the director/writer? or editor?.. i don't even know.

 

and the attempts at humor ... i was in a big cinema and i didn't here one laugh through all the miserable attempts at funny. i kept thinking back to the holiday special. that's how cringy i felt the whole thing was.

 

and why were the first order so slow at everything. SPOILERS!!! .... there was about 20 escape pods .. they could have wiped them all out in a minute and they still escaped?? it's so dumb. .. and half the movie was just a slow chase between two giant ships in space. think of all the stuff that happened to finn and rose and the time it would have taken them to get to the casino and back ... it must have taken hours ... and all the while back in the slowest chase ever it's just .. "they'll run out of fuel soon ... hopefully" ... i mean??? .. ah man ... now i'm thinking of that awful scene where finn and rose meet ... not a good day at the office for john boyega there ..

 

but in saying all that .. and i'm going to stop now because i have to pick someone up ... i thought some of the shots in the last 20 - 30 minutes were beautiful, awesome even, and emotional. so i am still looking forward with hope but this, as a whole, was hugely disappointing. do you know what really bugs me about it all ... it was how childish it was. from all the little pests on the blaskets, to the kids in the stables (they were the worst), to the "oh .,. he bumped into something" humor, to the childish relationships everyone seemed to have ... this is a bad kids film. that's it .. and 80% of it is boring.

 

but i am sure proper star wars fans got alot out of it and that's great. i just can't be bothered with the spiritual BS they were spinning.SPOILERS!!! i actually laughed once in this .. when yoda blew up the tree with the books ... because he was right. none of it means anything. just do what's right and stop sulking on an island off the west coast of ireland luke!!! MAJOR SPOILER!!!! i was also disappointed with the little hologram trick they did. that was cheap .. and again, childish. and how luke died .. if you're going to kill him off then let him die in battle, not whatever that was ...

 

ok, i'll stop ... i didn't like it is what i'm trying to say ... what a bummer

 

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

i'm just out of it .. prepare yourself ..

 

 

now i'm only a casual star wars viewer but from where i was sitting it was a mess. first up .. someone must have taken a giant scissors to it in the editing room or something cause it was awful. there was no flow to it at all which meant the score ended up feeling like snippets of a best of john williams album.

 

then there's the dialog .. it was terrible. again, this is from a casual viewer, it was mostly sentimental gobbledygook. maybe if you're into the whole lore of star wars it might have stirred something in you but for me it was boring. i felt sorry for the actors .. kind of .. i thought the only one who did a good job was adam driver. what happened ridley and boyega??? and what the hell was going on with benicio??? but was it their fault or was it was the director/writer? or editor?.. i don't even know.

 

and the attempts at humor ... i was in a big cinema and i didn't here one laugh through all the miserable attempts at funny. i kept thinking back to the holiday special. that's how cringy i felt the whole thing was.

 

and why were the first order so slow at everything. SPOILERS!!! .... there was about 20 escape pods .. they could have wiped them all out in a minute and they still escaped?? it's so dumb. .. and half the movie was just a slow chase between two giant ships in space. think of all the stuff that happened to finn and rose and the time it would have taken them to get to the casino and back ... it must have taken hours ... and all the while back in the slowest chase ever it's just .. "they'll run out of fuel soon ... hopefully" ... i mean??? .. ah man ... now i'm thinking of that awful scene where finn and rose meet ... not a good day at the office for john boyega there ..

 

but in saying all that .. and i'm going to stop now because i have to pick someone up ... i thought some of the shots in the last 20 - 30 minutes were beautiful, awesome even, and emotional. so i am still looking forward with hope but this, as a whole, was hugely disappointing. do you know what really bugs me about it all ... it was how childish it was. from all the little pests on the blaskets, to the kids in the stables (they were the worst), to the "oh .,. he bumped into something" humor, to the childish relationships everyone seemed to have ... this is a bad kids film. that's it .. and 80% of it is boring.

 

but i am sure proper star wars fans got alot out of it and that's great. i just can't be bothered with the spiritual BS they were spinning.SPOILERS!!! i actually laughed once in this .. when yoda blew up the tree with the books ... because he was right. none of it means anything. just do what's right and stop sulking on an island off the west coast of ireland luke!!! MAJOR SPOILER!!!! i was also disappointed with the little hologram trick they did. that was cheap .. and again, childish. and how luke died .. if you're going to kill him off then let him die in battle, not whatever that was ...

 

ok, i'll stop ... i didn't like it is what i'm trying to say ... what a bummer

 

 

I disagree with literally everything here.

 

I liked the dialogue/humor and thought most of it landed with the audience I saw it with. Just the right touch of irreverence.

 

I thought the acting was generally good (maybe the best Hamill has ever been outside of voice acting). I don't dislike any of the main characters, Finn and Rose included.

 

The cutesy stuff seems no cuter than what you find in any other Star Wars movie. Same for "spiritual BS," which is pretty much what the entirety of The Empire Strikes Back is about.

 

By the same token, the "slow chase" is no worse an example of slow-burn plotting than ESB, a movie that literally stops itself for the entire second act so Han and Leia can have romantic entanglements inside a giant worm on a floating asteroid, while Luke talks to a tiny frog man about the Force. The Last Jedi gives a reason for why the First Order can't just destroy the Resistance ship immediately and also for why they don't see the escape pods. I mean, either you get on board with the plot of the movie or you try to re-write the whole thing yourself.

 

As for Luke:

 

 

I find it baffling that some people are bothered by his final scenes (my theater cheered at both his "shoulder brush" moment and when his trick was revealed). It's made very clear that Luke gave up on training Jedi because he believed there was too much darkness and violence involved. At the end of the movie, he finds a new path: helping Rey and the resistance by use of wisdom and calm, not violence, just like Obi-Wan did. He goes out like his Jedi masters before him. It's a beautiful finish.

 

 

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

Anyway, here are some pieces I really liked that go over why they found The Last Jedi meaningful.

 

https://filmcrithulk.blog/2017/12/15/the-force-belongs-to-us-the-last-jedis-beautiful-refocusing-of-star-wars/

 

https://bittergertrude.com/2017/12/20/this-is-not-going-to-go-the-way-you-think-the-last-jedi-is-subversive-af-and-i-am-here-for-it/

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

 

I disagree with literally everything here.

 

i thought you might. that's cool. clearly you have more invested with the star wars universe than i and i would never even try to make you change your mind. you loved it. that's great. i think it's a fans movie and that is one good thing about it. the fact that they would make such a big movie for fans is impressive. it just left me cold. or, judging by a re-read of my post, hot ... as in under the collar ... i definitely wont be re-watching it anytime soon

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

i thought you might. that's cool. clearly you have more invested with the star wars universe than i and i would never even try to make you change your mind. you loved it. that's great. i think it's a fans movie and that is one good thing about it. the fact that they would make such a big movie for fans is impressive. it just left me cold. or, judging by a re-read of my post, hot ... as in under the collar ... i definitely wont be re-watching it anytime soon

 

If someone just doesn't like Star Wars, period, then I'm not going to be surprised if they don't like this movie.

 

I suppose the reaction that most fascinates me is from people who call themselves Star Wars fans and are downright angry about the new one. And in many cases it seems like they're angry about the new movie doing things that were almost certainly done in previous movies (including the "good" ones). It's been strange to watch.

[tomspanks 9039]

If someone just doesn't like Star Wars, period, then I'm not going to be surprised if they don't like this movie.

 

I suppose the reaction that most fascinates me is from people who call themselves Star Wars fans and are downright angry about the new one. And in many cases it seems like they're angry about the new movie doing things that were almost certainly done in previous movies (including the "good" ones). It's been strange to watch.

 

Same here. The outrage - and to an extent the sense of entitlement - regarding The Last Jedi from "hard core fans" has been fascinating.

 

My theater experience was overwhelmingly positive - lots of laughter (at appropriate times), spontaneous applause, aww's, sniffles/tears.

[Cameron H. 23786]

What I find fascinating (as someone who won't be seeing the movie until it's streaming), is that no one seems to be allowed to have an apathetic feeling regarding The Last Jedi. Either you love it (and don't recognize "Art" when they see it) or they hate it (and everyone else is being blind its many significant flaws). I feel like, once I've seen it, I feel much the way I felt when I first say TFA - that is to say, disappointed at first, but grow to like it for what it is. I just think it's weird that there's (apparently) no middle ground.

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

What I find fascinating (as someone who won't be seeing the movie until it's streaming), is that no one seems to be allowed to have an apathetic feeling regarding The Last Jedi. Either you love it (and don't recognize "Art" when they see it) or they hate it (and everyone else is being blind its many significant flaws). I feel like, once I've seen it, I feel much the way I felt when I first say TFA - that is to say, disappointed at first, but grow to like it for what it is. I just think it's weird that there's (apparently) no middle ground.

 

It also makes me wonder if we would have seen this same freakout for The Empire Strikes Back or The Phantom Menace or even The Star Wars Holiday Special if social media had existed in those days. Is it something about The Last Jedi specifically or just modern Internet outrage culture?

[taylor anne photo 11311]

What I find fascinating (as someone who won't be seeing the movie until it's streaming), is that no one seems to be allowed to have an apathetic feeling regarding The Last Jedi. Either you love it (and don't recognize "Art" when they see it) or they hate it (and everyone else is being blind its many significant flaws). I feel like, once I've seen it, I feel much the way I felt when I first say TFA - that is to say, disappointed at first, but grow to like it for what it is. I just think it's weird that there's (apparently) no middle ground.

If it makes you feel better my mom said she didn't hate it but she definitely didn't like it either. She can only pinpoint two specific moments that she herself didn't like but she said overall she was just bored by the whole thing. I on the other hand can pinpoint things I didn't like but ultimately I still fall in the really liking it category.

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

If it makes you feel better my mom said she didn't hate it but she definitely didn't like it either. She can only pinpoint two specific moments that she herself didn't like but she said overall she was just bored by the whole thing. I on the other hand can pinpoint things I didn't like but ultimately I still fall in the really liking it category.

 

Truth be told: I think I’m alread starting to feel Star Wars fatigue

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Truth be told: I think I’m alread starting to feel Star Wars fatigue

I really wish they weren't doing these side stories (and I say that as a huge fan of Rogue One). I think the story becomes more meaningful when there isn't a movie coming out every single year. And now that Rian Johnson has announced this other trilogy I have to roll my eyes. I'm a huge fuckin SW fan (I've finally found the SW tattoo I want) but even this is something I don't want. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I'm going to skip the Han Solo movie. I literally don't care about what he was doing before we discovered him in that cantina. That's part of his charm!!!

[joel_rosenbaum 1269]

It also makes me wonder if we would have seen this same freakout for The Empire Strikes Back or The Phantom Menace or even The Star Wars Holiday Special if social media had existed in those days. Is it something about The Last Jedi specifically or just modern Internet outrage culture?

I mean ... I was never a Star Wars guy but I did see Phantom Menace in the theater. There was a lot of hype for that movie and the immediate response was stunned silence. Then denial. Finally acceptance.

 

And this:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

I really wish they weren't doing these side stories (and I say that as a huge fan of Rogue One). I think the story becomes more meaningful when there isn't a movie coming out every single year. And now that Rian Johnson has announced this other trilogy I have to roll my eyes. I'm a huge fuckin SW fan (I've finally found the SW tattoo I want) but even this is something I don't want. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I'm going to skip the Han Solo movie. I literally don't care about what he was doing before we discovered him in that cantina. That's part of his charm!!!

 

You mean people don’t want all mystery stripped away?

 

I 100% agree with you. The stories that seem to stick are the ones that introduce you to a new universe, but don’t necessarily fill in all the gaps. When the Harry Potter books were coming out, my favorite part was the speculation between books.

 

Of course the down side to all of this is that is you end up writing the “perfect” story in your head. Consequently, it took me awhile to accept Deathly Hallows for what it was. I’m sure that’s what’s happening with TLJ. I refuse to believe it’s as good or bad as everyone is saying. I think that with time and distance people will end up falling somewhere in the middle.