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Jessica introduces Charlie to one of her favorite films, 1981’s acting tour-de-force On Golden Pond. They discuss the deliberate casting, knockout performances and the one and only Dabney Coleman. Listen to find out Jessica’s least favorite 80’s slang term, and the one aspect of the movie Charlie hate hate hated. Continue reading “Episode 26 – On Golden Pond” →
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Billy and Topher from We Watched a Thing get up bright and early in Australia to talk about the 1972 Andrei Tarkovsky masterpiece Solaris. We wax philosophical about time, space, memory and wedding hangovers. We also get into all of the obstacles Tarkovsky had to hurdle in order to create this film, and whether that’s what made him the groundbreaking artist he was. If you’re into Alex Garland’s new movie Annihilation, make sure to listen! Continue reading “Episode 25 – Solaris” →
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Co-host of the podcasts Adam Sandler Please Stop and Mistakes Were Made Robert Bacon joins us to reminisce about the 1993 Disney film Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993). Despite some misgivings we all find it IMPOSSIBLE to not like this film. We talk animal actors, and HUMAN actors! Plus, we develop several sequels and spin-offs we’d like to see made. Continue reading “Episode 24 – Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey” →
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We continue our abbreviated 2018 Academy Award Best Picture series with The Shape of Water, joined by our guests from our first two episodes, Adam and Ally. We try to interpret the meaning behind the character’s behavior, the creature design and the color scheme, but it appears that Guillermo del Toro has already told the whole world all of these things already. We break down all the Academy Award nominated performances. And we ask ourselves the important questions such as “What does it take to establish emotional intelligence?” and “What’s the worst thing you can encase in Jell-O”? Continue reading “Episode 23 – The Shape of Water” →
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In honor of the 2018 Oscar nominations, we hit the theater to watch the multiply nominated coming-of-age tale Lady Bird (2017). We recount how the film reflects our own high school experience, how Greta Gerwig manages to stuff so much into such a small run time, and why Laurie Metcalf is the best ever. We do stop short of singing Dave Matthews Band lyrics, but just barely. Continue reading “Episode 22 – Lady Bird” →
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We’re back from our holiday hiatus, and Charlie has brought his mom, Marcy Wallace on the show to talk about Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Turns out it’s easy to get caught up in the details if you’re re-watching this one. But in between Jessica and Charlie’s plot quibbles, we get Marcy’s opinion on whether this holds up as an action/adventure flick today. Choose wisely, sit back, and take a listen (ha, GET IT?).
Clarifications:
The younger hand/arm of Henry Jones Sr. is played by Alex Hyde-White, who plays Reed Richards in the storied 1994 movie The Fantastic Four. Which I know, because I had to watch it for the Merry Marvel Movie March our sister podcast is doing. Check that out here!
The Monkey King is apparently a mythological Chinese figure, whose integration into the script might have been slightly less hilarious than we thought when we recorded this.
I quickly began to wonder whether there would have been suitable torch alternatives when this movie took place. Wikipedia has the answer, as always! Indy was indeed being reckless.
Marcy forgot to mention that the “smile for the camera” moments of the movie really reminded her of Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood. This isn’t too surprising actually, since Indiana Jones draws a lot of inspiration from 1930’s matinee serials and movies of that period.
Notes regarding Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, from our EP:
Also, The Goonies is technically directed by Richard Donner, although Spielberg had his hands all over it so it doesn’t undermine anything we say.
Adam’s main problem with the choice of Grail is that technically the cup didn’t belong to Jesus at all. It’s not like the Last Supper took place at Jesus’s house, so there’s no reason to think it would have anything to do with him being a carpenter. Guess Indy just got lucky!
From the moment we first see the tank, to when we realize Indy has NOT fallen over the cliff, about 16 minutes has elapsed. Quite a bit of the film!
Indy murders a lot of people in this one, but he’s not alone. I won’t spoil the actual body count for you, but here’s the video proof!
Movies We Reference:
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Odd Thomas (2013)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Local Hero (1983)
Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made (2015)
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Eric Mackie joins us to visit the 1984 John Hughes film Sixteen Candles for the first time. He’s a little surprised to find it’s not quite like the other John Hughes movies he’s familiar with. Jessica finds the good parts in this movie, but Charlie seems unable to look past the parts of the movie that haven’t “aged well”. But we all agree that the kid brother should have gotten his own movie.
Clarifications:
When reviewing the episode, EP Adam mentioned that I seemed angry the whole time. I kinda was. Certain scenes reminded me very much of current events and I think that comes through a bit in my faint praise. I probably didn’t give this movie a fair shake on its non-offensive points, but I will point out that I’m not alone in this. If I can find the TV edit Jessica talks about maybe I’ll give it another chance.
Here’s the article by David Blum which coined the term “Brat Pack”, and answers some questions we didn’t quite know the answers to while recording. Surprisingly included in The Pack: Nicolas Cage!
Also found this cringe-worthy moment where an interviewer tries to get Gedde Watanabe to do his Sixteen Candles lines in the accent, complete with inverted screen for when he’s hanging upside down from the bed. I don’t envy Mr. Watanabe, I’m pretty sure he gets asked to do this all the time.
Things We Reference:
“Sweet Disposition” by The Temper Trap
“I Can’t Go On” by Bayside
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This week Jessica is in the hot seat, since she had never seen the 1975 summer blockbuster Jaws, with special contributor Kara Hulce. We talk about whether the slower pacing of the film works, if the animatronics hold up, and we get a little confused about who the shark ate and when. Boy, that shark sure does eat a lot of people…
Clarifications:
This article says John Williams had scored 25 Spielberg films as of its publish date (2012). So there’s more now, you can do the math yourself. I say my guess of 25 was pretty darn good. Although, the upcoming Ready, Player One is notable in that John Williams will NOT score it.
Finding Nemo theory confirmed (well, as much as a wiki confirms anything…)
Not a lot of additional material for you this week, except that Adam also thought it was weird that Jaws was considered a horror film. By the same token, couldn’t Jurassic Park be considered horror?? Just think about THAT for a minute.
And here’s your exploding whale, about 2 minutes in.
Movies We Reference:
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Your hosts welcome Doug Gobeski to the studio to dig deep on Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014). It won the Oscar for Best Picture, and was co-written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu. So why doesn’t it get traction with half the user reviews on the internet? And what does the movie have to say about art vs entertainment? And, dare I ask, what do we talk about when we talk about love??
Clarifications:
We get through the entire episode without mentioning the name of the director/co-writer of the film, Alejandro González Iñárritu. That’s probably because we spent time beforehand practicing and discussing how to pronounce his name, and then just forgot! We regret the omission.
Adam points out that Best Picture doesn’t mean much to him. I’m not sure I fully buy that, but I think we can all agree that Crash (2004) is a horrible movie and if you like it you are a horrible person.
The “one shot” movie Doug is referring to is called Russian Ark (2002).
So our discussion about the intent of the film is pretty clearly addressed in this Deadline interview. But it’s nice that we seemed to have figured out some of it on our own! It’s a good read, do it!
And please also read Beginners, which was the title of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love before Raymond Carver’s editor changed it. And then imagine how it could possibly be adapted for the stage…
Movies We Reference:
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We welcome our first sibling to the podcast, Lesley Wallace, to talk about The Shawshank Redemption (1994)! Despite the near constant airing on TNT, Lesley had never managed to watch this, well, except the ending. But it still managed to hold a few surprises, including some of the bushiest eyebrows in cinema. So get busy living, get busy dying, or get busy listening to this episode (the third one sounds the easiest to me)!
Clarifications:
Here’s that Vanity Fair article I talk about in the episode. Lots of good stuff in there! In fact, most of my facts were referenced from here, so the show notes are going to be a bit light today…
Apparently, most people don’t quite know the breadth of Stephen King’s literary career, and there’s an anecdote about a run in with a lady in this interview by Neil Gaiman which makes it worth the read by itself.
Here’s a clip from the unfortunately named Cougar Town where you can get “the full Shawshank experience”.
And we’ll end with Will Forte making things awkward, which he excels at.
Movies We Reference: