Movie Podcast Weekly Ep. 064: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) and The Last Days on Mars (2013) and Hours (2013)

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There’s a lot of ranting that goes on in Episode 064 of Movie Podcast Weekly — from the clueless Golden Globes to the idiotic Disney Vault to the inexplicable lack of Christmas movies streaming on Netflix — your favorite movie podcast hosts are wound up this week! Josh wasn’t with us during this episode; he was attending the “Survivor” finale in Los Angeles. But we were joined by special guest CODY CLARK, the former film critic of The Daily Herald newspaper in Provo, Utah.

Movie Podcast Weekly typically features four hosts (and frequent guests), who give you their verdict on at least one new movie release that’s currently in theaters, mini-reviews of what they’ve been watching lately, and specialty recommendation segments. New episodes release every single Monday.

SHOW NOTES

I. Intro:
— Welcome Cody Clark
— Check out our new Love Actually Commentary
— Listener feedback from Gerdywerdy and Martin from Germany
— Evidence that Rankin and Bass’s “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1964) is a sexist film
— Willis Wheeler’s rebuttal to Karl and Jason and “Thor: The Dark World,” courtesy of The Donut Show

II. Mini Reviews:
Karl: The Europa Report, Karl’s rant about movie awards shows and The Golden Globes
Cody Clark: Pi, Eagle Eye, Sweetwater
Andy: The Devil and Daniel Johnston
— Josh interviews the director: The Documentary Blog Podcast: Episode 001
— Jason interviews the director: The Songwriting Podcast: Creating Art for Art’s Sake
Andy’s Mini Reviews continued… Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away, Andy’s rant about the lack of Christmas movies streaming on Netflix
Jason: Jason’s rant about The Disney Vault, Dallas Buyers Club, The Heat

III. Feature review of THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG:
Jason = 6 ( Theater / Rental )
Andy = 7.5 ( Theater / Rental )
Karl = 4.5 ( Avoid )
Cody Clark = 6.5 ( Theater / Rental )

IV. Feature review of THE LAST DAYS ON MARS:
Jason = 4.5 ( Avoid )

V. Feature review of HOURS:
Jason = 8.5 ( Theater / Buy it! )

VI. Recommendation Segments:

ANDY’S ABSURD ASSOCIATIONS:
A Worse Place to Live Than Wheeling, West Virginia:
Answer: Anywhere in Missouri
Why: Winter’s Bone (2010)

JAY OF THE DEAD’S CREEPS AND CRIME:
Creeps: Top 3 Christmas Horror Movies (for the Uninitiated)
1. The Children (2008)
2. Black Christmas (1974)
3. Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

ROBOTIC ROMANCES WITH KARL HUDDELSTON:
Romance with Christmas; Obscure Christmas Specials for December: Annabelle’s Wish (1997)

VI. Wrap-Up

What’s coming up?
— Next week on MPW: “American Hustle” with special guest JEFF HAMMER
— Episode 066 will cover the best movies of 2013, so subscribe to Movie Podcast Weekly on iTunes to make sure you don’t miss it! Subscribe FREE here!

Links for this episode:

Get help managing you Netflix queue from Josh on: Movie Stream Cast

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 Donut Show 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.

If you like what we do here at Movie Podcast Weekly, please subscribe and leave us a positive 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 also check out our Premium podcasts, available at BandCamp for a minimum donation of $2. Lastly, remember to start your Amazon shopping here by clicking through our banner ads at no additional cost to you.

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.

16 thoughts on “Movie Podcast Weekly Ep. 064: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) and The Last Days on Mars (2013) and Hours (2013)”

  1. Jason here: I sent an e-mail to Andy after this show, telling him that I really liked “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” review / discussion. I loved his e-mail reply, and I asked him if I could re-post it here for the MPW community.

    Andy wrote:
    It’s funny because I really did like the film. It’s a super interesting story. And I didn’t HATE the music. I found some of it to be interesting, but it just isn’t GOOD. Johnston was compared to Bob Dylan by my wife and a couple of friends, and I think on some levels it was a fair comparison. But on the whole, every “artist” comparable to Johnston has at least one GOOD aspect of their “art”. I fail to see that with Johnston’s music. Here are some examples: Dylan – terrible voice, mediocre music, tremendous lyrics. Johnny Cash – mediocre voice, easy-but-catchy tunes, great lyrics. And the several bands that have covered Johnston’s works were all very gifted musicians and lyricists.

    To me, Johnston’s claim to “art” comes not from the product itself, but from his triumph over what should be a crippling mental illness. He is in an inspiration in much of the same way that murderball participants are good basketball players. Chris Burke (Corky from Life Goes One, who has Trisomy 21, aka Downs Syndrome) is a fine actor, given his disability. Inspiring for sure, but he’s not going to win an Oscar.

    Now that’s not to say that I think able-bodied people are always better than their disabled counterparts. That’s not at all the case. There are skiers, and track stars, and olympians who have some form of disability yet they are able to compete toe to toe with any athlete in their discipline. But Johnston’s music, in my opinion, falls short of greatness in comparison to others known for musical virtuosity.

    Also, I’m a jerk.

    I miss Paul Walker.

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    • I was not familiar with Johnston so I went to youtube found a list of his clips to watch. I will have to say, No.

      There might have been a time when the ordinary song writer had his appeal when listeners were from specific background finding the songs describing their feelings and went for it, say, the college students from that time… but I think the love for this guy is more about loving the those memories of the listeners for those times, or cheering for his effort out of disability condition as inspiration… His music holds very little value unless you are listening from a very specific angle… I didn’t listen to this guy when I was falling in love with my first girlfriend so no, watching him performing is rather painful.

      with a little effort I think Andy can even do better… lets make a lyric and do a 3 chore song. I’d even play my harmonica to help.

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  2. I think you all do a good job handling spoilers for the most part. I do wish sometimes you’d just say it and not give it so much weight. Like a few weeks back, just from what you say about spoilers and the end of All Is Lost… I’m guessing I know the ending. But if I remember I’ll tell you if I’m right.

    Completely random… But I watched an episode of Arthur with my daughter. The rabbit started writing movie reviews for the paper from a kids point of view and his friend gets jealous cause he thinks he knows movies better. He’s like Josh, he likes the cinematography and foreign films and fancy stuff. The two see a foreign film and the rabbit ends up loving it and the other character (I don’t know what the thing is supposed to be) hates it and they all get along. It reminds me of Jason and Josh. I think I’ll call Jason Rabbit, you like 8 Mile right Jay?

    When Karl says the two kids in Mud are better than the great actors in a film he’s yet to see, he sounds a little like Jason reading an imdb review in which a person says Lonesome Dove is better than The Godfather.

    I’m a comic guy, you just think you want to see other Thor villains. You don’t. They are terrible. Spider-man has the good depth of villains, Thor and Iron Man, not so much. Unless they are so tough it would take the entire Avengers team. This is why I despise Iron Man 3’s treatment of Mandarin.

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  3. Which country does have Netflix in Europe? There are few of them, since September it is available in The Netherlands. Do you recall my struggle to watch Cleanflix about a year ago because Netflix was not available here then? I know that it is also available in few scandinavian countries and probably in Great Britain. So it is safely to assume that they have already infrastructure on the old continent. IMHO issues that they are not yet available in Germany are copyrights related. Anyway, it is funny that you can travel and trade through the whole European Union freely and yet it is almost impossible to broadcast TV signal from one country into another. As an example, many dutch people are living in border regions abroad (like Germany) and on their home address they are not allowed to receive dutch TV legally. If they buy a satellite receiver subscription for dutch signal they must give a (fake) dutch address where it will be used.

    BTW, I left a comment on your 50th episode for which I never got any reply – I was asking you to review a french film which I like very much and was interested about your opinion. Could you revisit the subject?

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  4. Europa report was rather a disappointment for me. Not that it is bad, i guess i have just recently showered myself with too many movie that is quite similar with the set up, the theme and the style of the plot. things such as Prometheus, Sunshine, Apollo 18 and Moon comes immediately to mind. That is not to say Europa report is a bad movie, it somehow failed to bring me that fresh breeze of surprise I was looking for.

    Andy was being naughty for Paul Walker! Sure he is not the among the elite acting talents but I think he does have potential to be something better than the recent cameo in F&F series… i think he needs a good script and good director who can help him reach his potential, then he might be able to surprise us all… He needs his ‘brokeback mountain’ movie, where he can team up with Ryan Gosling … how does that sound everyone? Andy? :oP

    this week has been good with double podcast to listen to. and I am watching Three Kings just to be part of next weeks scenery.

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    • You know Paul Walker died right Que? I think he was great in Running Scared and The Fast and the Furious (specifically the first, I think that one is a truly great film.) Also, I think I’m gonna get killed for my opinion of Three Kings next week.

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      • Yes Jeff I know that he is no longer with us, which is also why its sad because I think he Didnt get to develop his full potential as actor. His recent work is getting more and more interesting, running scared is significantly so.

        In the later fast and furious movies as the heist team grow in size, his character is no longer standing out. There are many other personalities more interesting and with cool skills. That’s why I feel his character in them almost like cameo…

        And yeah,I think he could have worked with better directors. The broke back mountain comment is mocking Andy as he is being naughty to Jason lately…. Hahaha, and I think he looks alright as an protagonist.

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        • Okay, I was pretty sure you knew but some of it threw me off. I think the outpouring of love for him made people a little but bigger fans of his though. I never heard anyone saying how good he was before. Except Jason of course, but even he admitted his limitations.

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          • Nah he was not that good. To me, I can see him getting better – recent movies being noticeably better than the earlier ones… but he still have curves to go through.

            He has the potential. It is sad that he could not be there to prove us right or wrong.

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  5. Jay. Silent Night, Deadly Night is terrible. Silent Night, Zombie Night is better. And you definitely should see A Cadaver Christmas, it’s directed by Joe Zerull (of Attack of the Killer Podcast) and it’s worth noting it was out before Grabbers. If that makes no sense, it will if you watch it. It’s low budget and a horrir comedy but had an awesome janitor.

    Reply ↓

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