Episode 43 — Wild Wild West

[admin 330]

Kevin Smith comes prepared with his Kenneth Branagh & Salma Hayek impressions on this week’s How Did This Get Made? Kevin joins Paul, Jason, and June to share his early involvement with a Superman movie that reveals the origin of the giant spider. We also get into Dr. Loveless’s spider fetish, the huge robot dildo, how racist the old west was, and Bai Ling.

[KajusX 1807]

Oh kewl! You got him!

[MatthewJamesMcNaughton 11]

The first thirty minutes are just an interview with Kevin Smith. I wish you had actually talked about the movie.

[Lukas Holmes 2287]

The first thirty minutes are just an interview with Kevin Smith. I wish you had actually talked about the movie.

 

That's true, but in fairness the episode is an hour long which is close to twice as long as most episodes. Kevin Smith is probably the most 'industry' guy they've ever had, so you have to give him his space and let him talk. You have to expect that when he shows up. But lots of fun inside stuff and they did still get to talk about the movie a lot.

[karateslap 15]

Guys, he says "The Butcher of New Liberty." That gives a count of zero n-bombs. I guess it's understandable to start expecting outright racism after a lynching scene, but nope it doesn't get that bad.

[Lukas Holmes 2287]

Guys, he says "The Butcher of New Liberty." That gives a count of zero n-bombs. I guess it's understandable to start expecting outright racism after a lynching scene, but nope it doesn't get that bad.

 

I think this gives us a deeper look into Jason's psyche.

[Jeff MacDonald 71]

I actually really enjoyed the format of a pseudo-interview before getting into the movie. And to be fair, Kevin's stories at the beginning did tie into this movie.

[Azuth11 0]

Great episode but Im surprised that while they were talking about the whole movie promotion machine, they didnt mention the massive multi-million dollar musical performance at the MTV movie awards.

[overtheseatoskye 0]

The episode was fine, but I'm surprised to hear Kevin Smith hate on the Vince Vaughn/Russian nesting doll scene in The Watch. I must not be in the 25 year old male demo, because the scene almost killed me - Vaughn's childish delight at the revelation of each new doll was too funny for words.

[seanotron 2307]

I did feel like the movie wasn't dissected as much as usual, but at the same time how can I complain about Kevin Smith's insider stories about Jon Peters' spider obsession?

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

I was wrong last week in saying that Smith's involvement would seem like a waste for this episode, that they should have saved him for "Southland Tales" (holy shit, guys, get on that one already!), as this week's show was pretty interesting. I saw "Wild Wild West" once in theaters, and bits and pieces since, but it's not one I'd particularly bother to re-visit, so I didn't mind the discussion straying from the film all that much. It's not so outlandishly bad to where you can discuss it endlessly like "Batman and Robin", it's just kind of there and didn't work, which is almost worse, as it doesn't really have a legacy. It didn't help any careers, but it didn't kill any either. I don't think it's really anyone's go-to when you want to show someone an enjoyably bad film.

 

Speaking of the Superman stuff, I highly recommend the book "Superman Vs. Hollywood: How Fiendish Producers, Devious Directors, and Warring Writers Grounded an American Icon" by Jake Rossen. It covers Superman's entire history in popular media until shortly after the release of "Superman Returns". It's funny how after the Christopher Reeves series went down in flames and Burton's "Batman" became huge, Warner Brothers' model for Superman became "What works for Batman? Fuck it, we'll do the same thing for Superman, because all that comic shit is the same, right?", because DC Comics was and forever will be WB's bitch. There's also a book called "Comic Wars: How Two Tycoons Battled Over The Marvel Comics Empire...And Both Lost!" by Dan Raviv that shows the exact opposite situation happening over at Marvel, how they were being controlled and run into bankruptcy by people that DIDN'T want to utilize their characters in other mediums, only to be saved by people in their own subsidiaries and turned around into a self-sufficient powerhouse. It only covers through the release of the first Spider-Man movie, before they started their own studio and later got absorbed into Disney, so it would be pretty interesting to see a follow-up.

[Todd Mason 21]

"Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" by Larry Niven

 

http://www.rawbw.com/~svw/superman.html

 

Niven was one of the brigh new stars in science fiction writing in the 1960s, though outside the literary sf community he's probably best known (or was) for the disaster novel/mild-sf bestseller LUCIFER'S HAMMER in the late '70s...though he's worked on things as far afield as the STAR TREK cartoon.

[Hot - Slunch 772]

Who cares that they didn't talk about the movie 'as much' this week? That happens with every director and actor they have as a guest. Smith's stories really added to this and I hope he comes back. The Bruce Willis tidbits I found particularly interesting. I never saw Cop Out, but I could see it definitely taking a hit in quality with someone half-assing it.

 

Seriously, Southland Tales was bad. It might be the only movie I've ever turned off.

 

The episode was fine, but I'm surprised to hear Kevin Smith hate on the Vince Vaughn/Russian nesting doll scene in The Watch. I must not be in the 25 year old male demo, because the scene almost killed me - Vaughn's childish delight at the revelation of each new doll was too funny for words.

 

I was very surprised at that tangent, but so glad it happened. When he first opened the doll and was shocked, I thought, "They're going to do that 4 more times aren't they?" And then they did. I saw that bit coming a mile away and just wanted to get on with the movie. Actually that's how the whole movie felt to me... It felt like it was trying to build toward something, but just never got around to it.

 

The first 20 minutes of Shaun of the Dead was building, and then everything gets amazing. The Watch? Nope. I had high hopes for that movie even though Vaughn never really did much for me, but I left underwhelmed.

 

To each their own though.

[sauze 111]

Really liked this episode , Kev Smith of course has some excellent stories to tell , it'd be GREAT if you could have him back. Cheers .

[MotorboatJones 41]

Very enjoyable episode -- much more enjoyable than the joyless movie. I wish Smith hadn't stopped before talking about being in Southland Tales with Bai Ling.

[GregJ.Hansen 316]

I was listening to this episode and I had some notes! In regards to the verbal sparring between Kenneth Branagh and Will Smith, I think it would have been better to describe it as "half a man vs. three fifths of a man".

 

/exeunt

[cdawg87 8]

I'm in the minority of people who really don't like Kevin Smith, so I knew I'd be a little disappointed before even starting the episode. I don't mind industry talk, but when it's half the show I get a little frustrated. I'm down for 25-30% industry talk and the rest about the movie. I mean, I sat through WWW, so I'd like to hear more about it. Personally.

 

The director's edition episodes have a really great balance between the two - I especially loved the Punisher: War Zone episode.

[Kickpuncher 5012]

 

That's true, but in fairness the episode is an hour long which is close to twice as long as most episodes. Kevin Smith is probably the most 'industry' guy they've ever had, so you have to give him his space and let him talk. You have to expect that when he shows up. But lots of fun inside stuff and they did still get to talk about the movie a lot.

 

Agreed. And I say that despite generally disliking Smith. I thought the stories were interesting (and relevant enough) and there was still plenty of time for discussion of the movie.

[KajusX 1807]

When I first got into podcasts in 2007 I was subscribed to Adam Carolla and SModcast and all that stuff, but starting at about the one year mark I began unsubscribing due to the same voices telling the same stories. I hung onto Smodcast for a while (straight through Smith's hardcore mj usage after Zack and Mary underperformed), and even ventured out into the other Smodcast Network stuff here and there, but after a while I just wanted to hear new things.

 

I was amazed by Clerks and Mallrats as a high schooler, and have seen all of Smith's films, and you know, I like other stuff now. Doesn't mean I don't appreciate Smith's work or his stories any less.

 

So while I had heard Smith's WWW and Cop Out experiences before on his live Q&As and stuff, it was nice to have him on HDTGM? for this episode.

 

Everything in moderation, folks.

[VampiresVampiresVampires 303]

I'll be kind here: I used to be a huge View Askew nerd. My wife went to the same Vancouver film school he and Mosier went to. Something personal happened for me to cast him off as chaff. The death knell came when he called Jason "hey man." Not even enough respect to call anyone by name. I have a sick Chris Gore feeling in my stomach.

[KajusX 1807]

I just looked through the photo gallery, and this episode should have been entitled: "Wild Wild West, a.k.a. Shorts & Jorts."

 

Nice to see the HDTGM? crew feeling the stupid-as-balls heat too. These past couple of weeks have been agonizingly hot.

[chesterdouglas 291]

I'll be kind here: I used to be a huge View Askew nerd. My wife went to the same Vancouver film school he and Mosier went to. Something personal happened for me to cast him off as chaff. The death knell came when he called Jason "hey man." Not even enough respect to call anyone by name. I have a sick Chris Gore feeling in my stomach.

 

Is it just me, or is this entire string of comments extremely enigmatic?

 

I am intrigued, but I also don't think I really have any idea what you're talking about.

 

Oh well.

[VampiresVampiresVampires 303]

Sorry about that, Chester. I was on some heavy duty pain pills. Here is the gist: Kevin Smith just doesn't care about anything anymore. And it pisses me off when he does it on one of my favorite podcasts.

[NicholasvanAmen 2]

Did anyone notice that the lip readers name was Miss Lippenreader????????? wtf????

[Lukas Holmes 2287]

Did anyone notice that the lip readers name was Miss Lippenreader????????? wtf????

 

I didn't believe you so I went and looked at IMDB. That is so....so...upsetting.