Movie Podcast Weekly Ep. 050: Riddick (2013) and Sharknado (2013) and Prince Avalanche (2013) and The Grandmaster (2013) and Four New Top 10 Lists

Congratulations to us! We’ve hit EPISODE 050, and we’re celebrating the one-year anniversary of our launch (a couple of weeks early) with this 3 hour and 22-minute show! We hope you’ll permit us a little navel-gazing and come along with us and celebrate with some reminiscing and tangents and weirdness. But we get down to business, too:

EPISODE 050 gives you four feature reviews: Riddick (2013), Sharknado (2013), Prince Avalanche (2013) and The Grandmaster (2013). And then your four favorite movie podcast hosts have four new Top 10 film lists for you! Andy brings you his Top 10 current working actresses under the age of 50 (in his humble opinion), and Karl Huddelston delivers his Top 10 movie soundtracks / scores and why they make the film better, and Joshua Ligairi gives us his Top 10 Best working directors under 50 years old, and Jason Pyles declares his Top 10 Most Influential Films on the Cinema Itself (of the last 50 years)!

This episode is dedicated to Michal and Dorota Rutka, Mr. Scott Teal and all our listeners… Thank you!

Movie Podcast Weekly is a show that releases every Monday, giving you reviews of at least one new movie that’s currently in theaters. Download this episode and subscribe!

SHOW NOTES
I. Intro

II. Movie Podcast Weekly Statistics on our First 50 Episodes

III. Other Random Coverage:
— Reflecting on the listeners’ responses to our poll question about Karl’s profanity
— Fun Movie Trivia
— Trailers: Robocop, The Fifth Estate

IV. Mini Reviews
Andy: Trouble With the Curve (and later during this segment, London Boulevard)
Karl: Austenland, Hitchcock
Jason: n/a
Josh: 127 Hours, The Edge (and at the end of this episode: Slither)

V. Andy Howwell’s Top 10 current working actresses under the age of 50 (in his humble opinion)

V. Feature Review of “Riddick”
Ratings and Recommendations for RIDDICK
Jason = 6.5 ( Rental )

V. Karl Huddelston’s Top 10 movie soundtracks / scores and why they make the film better

V. Feature Review of “Prince Avalanche”
Ratings and Recommendations for PRINCE AVALANCHE
Josh = 7 ( Rental )

V. Joshua Ligairi’s Top 10 Best working directors under 50 years old

V. Feature Review of “The Grandmaster”
Ratings and Recommendations for THE GRANDMASTER
Karl = 10 ( Theater / Buy it! )

V. Jason Pyles’ Top 10 Most Influential Films on the Cinema Itself (of the last 50 years)

V. Feature Review of “Sharknado”
Ratings and Recommendations for SHARKNADO
Jason = 5.5 ( Rental )
Andy = —8 ( Avoid )
Karl = 6 ( Rental )
Josh = 0.5 ( Avoid )

X. Karl’s Bonus List of Supporting Actors That We Should See More Of…

XI. Wrap-Up

NEXT WEEK’S MOVIES: Insidious: Chapter 2 and The Family with special guest Anthony Bruno, author of “The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer”

Links for this episode:

Our friend and listener Chad Downey’s incredible home theater

Want to do some inexpensive DVD or Blu-ray shopping? Karl recommends: Deep Discount.com

Josh to be on the reality show Pursuit of the Truth (airs on Sept. 12)

Check this out: Josh’s Mila Kunis visual aide

Follow Movie Podcast Weekly on Twitter: @MovieCastWeekly

Follow Joshua Ligairi on Twitter: @IcarusArts

Check out THE DONUT SHOW

Especially for HORROR FANS: Horror Movie Podcast.com

Listen to Jason’s Movie Stream Cast here: Movie Stream Cast.com

Special thanks goes out to singer-songwriter Frederick Ingram and the voice talents of Midnight Corey Graham from The Electric Chair Podcast, Willis Wheeler from the Terror Troop Podcast and Mr. Ron Baird for their help with our recommendation segment intros.

We’d also like to thank The Dave Eaton Element and Dave Eaton himself for the use of his music for our theme song. Today is Dave’s birthday — happy birthday, Dave!

If you like what we do here at Movie Podcast Weekly, please subscribe and leave us a review in iTunes. If you want to support the show, we have PayPal buttons in our right-hand sidebar where you can make a one-time donation or you can become a recurring donor for just $2 per month.

You can always contact us by e-mailing MoviePodcastWeekly@gmail.com. Or you can call and leave us a voice mail at: (801) 382-8789. And you can leave us a comment in the show notes for this episode.

Thank you for listening, and join us again next Monday for Movie Podcast Weekly.

21 thoughts on “Movie Podcast Weekly Ep. 050: Riddick (2013) and Sharknado (2013) and Prince Avalanche (2013) and The Grandmaster (2013) and Four New Top 10 Lists

  1. It was fun having you guys over for a movie in the theater. We definitely need to get together again to watch something with a bit more merit than “Sharknado”. I enjoyed watching Sharknado, but I think it was a bit of a mistake to watch it with the volume up so high – I think the conversation would have been a bit more interactive if the volume would have been turned down a bit. I was planning on picking up the blu-ray of Sharknado after hearing so much about it and wanted to thank Jason for sparing me the expense.

  2. Speaking of actresses that can transform into a character – your list made me think of Claire Danes in the HBO movie Temple Grandin. Claire Danes performance is one more where I was able to totally forget I was not watching a portrayal.

    Karl – I’ve been wanting to see The Grandmaster. You should come over and watch a couple more Wong Kar Wai films – In the Mood for Love and Chungking Express – Both movies have incredible cinematography and based on your review of The Grandmaster, these are probably must see movies for you.

  3. I wonder why Andy did not mention Sandra Bullock and Scarlet Johansson in his Top 10 actresses, not even in the honorable mentions….

  4. TC Tan –

    I didn’t mention SJ. I thought about it, but my list was running too long. SJ has made many such lists of other people. I don’t dislike her, but she’s not one of my favorites.

    As for Sandy B, she was intentionally excluded from my original consideration because I was looking at actresses under 40, not fifty. When we were doing last minute preparation for the show, we decided to call my list “actresses under 50” because it was our 50th show. And, although my list was of actresses under 50, it contained no actresses in their 40s, including Sandy B. Had I started with a list of under 50s, Sandy B would have been near the top of my list.

    • What has ScarJo really wowed you in as an actress? She’s beautiful, but I haven’t seen her do much interesting work. LOST IN TRANSLATION is an obvious exception, she is incredible in it, but all she has to do is be quiet and be pretty. I’m also a big fan of VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA, but she’s like the 5th or 6th reason the film is any good. Sadly, her best performance in a decade is her Janet Leigh impersonation in HITCHCOCK, which again, is not a reason to see the film. I’m not dissing her, I really like to see her do good work, I just think your list doesn’t need her.

      Same with Sandy. Even without the under 40 exclusion, I don’t think she should make the list. She has the skill to do anything, but I think her film choices are really bad. I haven’t liked any of her movies since the mid-90s, though I’m hoping GRAVITY will change all of that.

      What I’m really saying is: Andy, your list is strong.

  5. Guys! I loved the stats at the beginning. If you don’t know why you have unusually high listenership in Indiana, just give me credit 🙂 Andy shouldn’t feel bad for falling asleep, I did it once during The Resurrection of Zombie 7 podcast and I was sitting across the table from Ron. We were covering The Prophecy franchise though, so I deserve some slack. I agree with most if what Karl said about Hitchcock but I thought in the end it suffered from the fact that real life just isn’t always interesting. I loved the behind the scenes Psycho stuff but the relationship as portrayed in the film wasn’t all that compelling, probably because it was the truth. I personally think a performance by Anne Hathaway that is brilliant is Havoc, probably not for Karl because its ever bit as debaucherous as Spring Breakers but I feel she did a great job of portraying one of these teens that have bad parents, too much money and too much time on their hands. I think the movie is just okay but I thought she was great at transforming into her character. I love Josh calling Moon pseudo-smart, I couldn’t agree more. It’s a one-trick pony in my opinion. I also agree with Josh’s disappointment with the score not soundtrack list. I was ready for The Lost Boys to show up… Probably a random film but I love it when “When You’re Strange” kicks in. I want to see Prince Avalanche, I’m a big Rudd fan. Have any of you seen I Could Never Be Your Woman? I think it’s a great rom-com featuring Rudd early on in his career. Awesome stuff guys.

  6. Jason I am really disappointed by the last two of your picks. I could even let blair witch project slide but Philadelphia was a lot earlier to bring homosexual discussion to major movie screen and tom hanks won Oscar. And if you put avatar up there you might as well just put titanic up there too because to me they are the same…aftertaste.

  7. @Que — Thanks for your feedback. Remember, my list is of the Top 10 movies of the past 50 years that have been **most influential** on the cinema itself. “Philadelphia” is a great example to cite. To me, though, that movie started a lot of conversation about homosexuality and AIDS, but I don’t recall it opening the flood gates for depictions of homosexuality in mainstream theater releases… I think “Brokeback Mountain” did that. Off the top of my head, “Milk” springs to mind (lead character is openly gay). Brokeback seems to be the film that burst through that barrier. But even so, you have a good point with “Philadephia.”

    As for “Avatar,” I knew I’d get some resistance to that pick. I actually considered choosing “Titanic.” And though “Titanic” was an impressive achievement (especially technically), I’d argue that its technical excellence remained within that film itself; whereas, I think “Avatar” contributed to the way modern films can be made.

    Thanks again for your great comment (and thanks for listening).

    Sincerely,
    Jason
    Movie Podcast Weekly

  8. Karl, I enjoyed your Top 10 soundtrack list. I listened through the Blade Runner soundtrack, and the tracks that didn’t sound like background music to a sleazy 80s adult film were pretty good.

    Just joking. You gotta love “Tears in Rain” and the “End Titles” off the Blade Runner soundtrack. I agree with you on Tron: Legacy’s soundtrack also. Good stuff when you are feeling a little techno.

  9. Just started listening, great show. The Matrix didn’t make it into the top 10 influential films? Maybe I missed it? I was working while listening and may have tuned out for a minute. I also agree that Paul Bettany is a great actor, loved him in Wimbledon and Master and Commander.

  10. Hi Jeff,
    Thanks for your comment (and thanks for listening to our podcast). Yeah, “The Matrix” was among my considerations for most influential films — especially due to the “bullet time” technique, but ultimately, I bumped it because I felt my other picks had a more significant scope of influence.
    Thanks again.
    Jason

  11. Hi guys, congrats with your 50th episode. With this one you’ve stopped with timemarks, too much burden I suppose. Anyway, I would like you to ask your opinion about a movie which is 10 for me but has rather poor reception in US. It is (based on a true story) The Intouchables http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1675434
    Have anyone of you watched it? I would like to hear your opinion about it, especially to hear why do you think it has a bad reception in US?

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