On this week’s episode, Joe Scott and Mike wonder when Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married will get released in theaters, but not before Mike pokes fun at the sad state of affairs that is children’s entertainment these days.
They also discuss the director of Marvel’s Captain America movie, why the upcoming U.S. remake of Oldboy could be worse than anyone first believed, and Nicole Kidman’s upcoming role as a man who becomes a woman.
This week’s reviews: Soul Men, Role Models, and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Stream it! Or subscribe!
With major films Quantum of Solace and Twilight hitting theaters within two weeks of each other, several of the biggest upcoming films for next year got brand new trailers.
Here they are:
Watchmen
Mike disagrees with me, but the first thing I want to say is that this trailer is much, much better than the first one. Syder and company made the wise decision to dump the song the Smashing Pumpkins wrote for Batman and Robin, and more importantly, they reduced all that silly slow motion. For those of you who haven't read the graphic novel, "Watchmen" is a huge, textured story, and there was no way Snyder could cover even a sixth of the book's characterization and plot if every scene was stylishly slowed-down like a music video. Also, this trailer starts to reveal several major points of the story, plus a hint as to what will replace the book's nigh un-filmable 'squid subplot.' While I'm not entirely optimistic about the film not being terrible, I now have a shred of hope - more than I could say for myself even a week ago.
Star Trek
Wow. I knew the film was going to tell the story of a young James Kirk, but had no idea he would be this young. Best part is, it looks as if the characters might actually spend very little time sitting around in the bridge (i.e. the spaceship's living room). I have a friend who has already seen an early cut of this film and can think of few luckier people at this moment.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
More plot, more quiddich, and more characters, but can anything really make us forget the fact that Warner Bros. bumped the film back by over seven months?
On this week’s episode, Joe Scott and Mike wonder when Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married will get released in theaters, but not before Mike pokes fun at the sad state of affairs that is children’s entertainment these days.
They also discuss the director of Marvel’s Captain America movie, why the upcoming U.S. remake of Oldboy could be worse than anyone first believed, and Nicole Kidman’s upcoming role as a man who becomes a woman.
This week’s reviews: Soul Men, Role Models, and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Stream it! Or subscribe!
Those who know me personally understand that I don't do Tuesdays.
What I mean by that is if you're trying to meet up with me, schedule an appointment, or hang out, you're better off trying any other day but Tuesdays. Reason being is that on that day, I am always hard at work on The Movie Show.
Faced with the prospect of Election Day, which always takes place on a Tuesday, I tried to cast an early ballot ahead of time at one of the many polling locations readily available across Greensboro. However, because of a tight work schedule, plus the fact early voting seemed to be all the rage this year (thus creating insanely huge lines), I found myself faced with a serious choice this week: If I was going to vote, I would have to do it on Tuesday.
So that's what I did. I woke up at 4:15 a.m., got to work on today's program so I didn't miss any time, got dressed, and made it out to the polls at 5:40 a.m. I was the second person in line. The doors were not opened yet, but luckily, I had brought along a lawn-chair and my laptop so I could continue working on tonight's show.
Here's a pic of me typing away about a potential remake to Conquest of the Planet of the Apes:
It started to drizzle, hence the troubled expression on my face, but the pollsters soon let us move inside around the 6:15 mark. By that time, I had started revising my take on the brilliant Anne Hathaway film Rachel Getting Married:
Oddly enough, I finished most of my radio program work before they even opened up the polls. I was second in line, so before you knew it, I had voted on what is consistently the busiest day of my work week. And if I can take the time needed to vote on a Tuesday, you can too. No excuses folks. I don't care who you're pulling for, if you haven't done so already, get out and vote.
"Scary Movie Double-Feature": Aftermath (and pics)
I know it's been two days since our Scary Movie Double-Feature, but that was the exact amount of time it took me to recover. The show was cool, the audience rocked, and while there was one major disappointment at the half-way point, everyone had a great time.
For those of you who weren't there, here's what happened:
Mike and I showed up in our costumes. and let me be the first to say that Mike did a great job crafting his Joel Hodges from MST3K costume. Regardless of how many 19-22 year olds thought he was just a Beastie Boy - or even Bob the Builder, who never wore a red Gizmonics jumpsuit that I'm aware of - all the work and time he logged into his costume was definitely worth it.
As for me, I went as Ash from Evil Dead 2. An obvious choice, though not as obvious as say, the Joker, who I would argue has replaced the Crow in terms of the number of people who are going to be dressing up like him this year. My costume was nowhere near as finely crafted as Mike's. I simply bought a blue shirt, a large bottle of fake blood, a toy chain-saw, and a roll of blue painter's tape in order to graft said toy chain-saw over my right hand.
At the 7:05 p.m. mark, there were some worries from theater management that no one besides Mike and I were going to be wearing costumes. I was worried for a minute as well, until I realized that we had five awesome prizes, including Mixed Tape t-shirts, $20-30 dollar gift certificates to various local restaurants, and free movie tickets. If there were no other costume people, Mike and I would have simply cleaned up all the awards, a fact that I was totally cool with until the costumed people suddenly started to show up in droves.
(Sam showed up dressed as Salvador Dali, but I think I might have been one of the only people who appreciated that fact.)
In the end, Over 200 people showed up.
They loved the hell out of The Monster Squad (which was awesome because many people had said they'd never seen it before) plus our insanely cool mix of trailers courtesy of Matt Pennachi. Here are a few highlights:
The Stuff
Teen Wolf
-and-
Cool As Ice
(Excuse the digital watermarks. This was the only version of the trailer I could find)
People were having a great time and The Monster Squad got the roaring cheers and audience affection it deserved when it came out. When the credits for the first film started to roll, we were gung-ho and ready to watch Jason hack and slash in 3-D. Little did I know, it would be one of the greatest disappointments of my life.
Old-school 3-D is a fickle thing. Until the late 80's, 3-D films were shot and presented in an over-under process which requires a mirror box to take two images and turn them into a stereo-vision projection which will be converted into 3-D when viewers wear those nifty red and blue glasses.
(An example of an over-under 3-D image)
We had the glasses, we had the mirror box, and we even had a guy who knew how to work the mirror box. But for whatever reason, it simply didn't work out. I would say part of it had to do with the limited amount of light coming out of the projector. The image was too dark to see anything, and the alinement of the two images was way off. I have to shoulder my part of the blame in this, because when the technician said, "We'll be good to go on Thursday night," in retrospect, I should have pushed to make sure everything would be up and running properly BEFORE the audience showed up, regardless of whatever assurances were given to me.
A few people booed, some walked out, but then Carousel director of operations Rob McHone had great idea of taking a digital 2-D copy of the film (i.e. a DVD), and running it through his insanely hi-rez digital projector. I was very anti, because I hate the idea of projecting a DVD. But you know what? The DVD looked great - especially when compared to the dark, old ass film print of the film we had - and the 85% of the people who stayed for the DVD had a great time riffing on the film MST3K-stlye, feigning shock and awe at all the scenes that were obviously shot for 3-D.
In the end, I learned two valuable lessons that night. 1) Never enter a war zone holding two guns until you are completely certain that the second one will work. 2) The only thing better than antiquated 3-D is a killer audience.
Happy Halloween from Joe and Mike at The Movie Show!
This week, the guys discuss the first comments Christopher Nolan has made regarding a sequel to his wildly successfulThe Dark Knight, the Jonas Brothers starring in their first movie about a farting dog (seriously), and Steve Carell’s upcoming turn as a cavalier Frenchman. They also serve what will be the final Trilogy of Terror for 2008.
As many of you know, in the next couple of weeks here, Mike and I have no less than two events that are part of the Mixed Tape Film Series.
Here's the first one:
Scary Movie Double Feature Friday the 13th Part III in 3-D -and- The Monster Squad
The Mixed Tape Film Series continues to roll ahead with this special grindhouse-styled presentation which kicks off with the 1980's horror cult classic Monster Squad. Best described as The Goonies meets the classic monsters of yesteryear, this nard-kicking monster mash-up created a storm in the bootleg DVD circuit until it's official release last summer.
Then after the Squad, we'll be kicking things up into the third dimension with Friday the 13th Part III in 3-D. Watch Jason wear a hockey mask for the first time as he slashes his way through a bevy of lusty camp counselors in literally eye-popping 3-D.
Admission for this special one-time only event is $6. 3-D glasses will be provided, and as always, the beer is $1 a bottle.
Also note that the people who wear the best Halloween costumes will win awesome prizes like free movie tickets, pizza, CD's, T-shirts, and more.
A lot of people are excited about this event. Matter of fact, we are dangerously close to selling out. Do not be that guy or girl who spends hours - or even minutes - whipping up a costume only to show up to the theater on Thursday night and be turned away.
In the fall of 1998, filmmaker Wes Anderson released his second feature film Rushmore. Not only was the film a well-written comedy about extracurricular activities and unrequited love, but it also featured the greatest soundtrack of licensed music and reinvented Bill Murray's floundering career. This film created the template for the quirky/somber indie comedy for our generation, and without it, there would be no Garden State, no Napoleon Dynamite, no Juno, and no Nick and Norah.
Ten years later, The Mixed Tape Film Series will be giving fans who missed their chance the first go around to watch this contemporary classic in 35 mm on the big screen.
Granted the fact that Eastwood is almost 90, I would probably be scared - or at least slightly mystified - if I was a violent thug and this guy got in my face. I hear that Eastwood still works out every day and is in better shape than people half his age, so I'm sure he would have no problem kicking some ass -- so long as his hip doesn't give out.
That said, if the marketing execs can find a way to tap the male depends demographic, this film should be a moderate hit for Warner Bros.
In other news, Mike has always said that if they made a live-action film based on Frank Miller's book "The Dark Knight Returns," that Eastwood would be perfect as an elderly Batman. And while I'm not sure if he would ever be willing to do it, after watching this trailer, I agree.
Let us play your reviews, opinions, or requests over the air. Call and leave a message on The Movie Show Hotline at (336) 510-4119. Keep your message relevant, timely, and appropriate, and we promise to play it on the air.
