Movie Podcast Weekly Ep. 127: Focus (2015) and The Lazarus Effect (2015) and the Loss of Leonard Nimoy

Episode 127

Welcome to Movie Podcast “It-Takes-Frikin-Forever-for-This-Damn-Show-to-Release-Sometimes” Weekly, Episode 127. I know everybody’s mad at Jason Pyles, but you really need to blame Jason Voorhees… In this show, your hosts Jason, Andy and Karl bring you some pretty humorous banter. We also have two Feature Reviews: Focus and The Lazarus Effect. In addition we bring you our usual Mini Reviews and a brief tribute to the Great Leonard Nimoy. Join us!

If you’re new to our show… Movie Podcast Weekly typically features three hosts — Jason, Andy and Karl — along with frequent guests. We give you our verdicts on at least one new movie release from the current year that’s currently playing in theaters, as well as several mini reviews of whatever we’ve been watching lately. And we usually provide specialized genre recommendations. New episodes release every single Tuesday.


SHOW NOTES:

I. Introduction
— Actor Michael Caine listened to one of Jason’s other shows, The Traders Podcast, in a London taxi cab.


[ 0:06:52 ] II. Live Long and Prosper
— The loss of Leonard Nimoy


[ 0:15:47 ] III. Mini Reviews
Jason: Better Call Saul (TV show) Season 1, Ep. 001: “Uno”; Brainstorm
Karl: All the President’s Men, Downton Abbey
Andy: Murderball, The Brothers Bloom, Amélie, Brain Games (TV), The Rover


IV. What’s New in Theaters This Past Weekend
Focus
The Lazarus Effect
Maps to the Stars [ Limited ] – Cronenberg
’71 [ Limited ]
The Hunting Ground [ Limited ]
A la mala [ Limited ]
Everly [ Limited ]
The Salvation [ Limited ]
My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn [ Limited ]


FEATURE REVIEWS HAVE TIME STAMPS:

[ 0:54:33 ] V. Feature Review: FOCUS (2015)
Karl = 5.5 ( Rental )


[ 1:00:14 ] VI. Feature Review: THE LAZARUS EFFECT (2015)
Jason = 4.5 ( Low-priority Rental )


[ 1:08:01 ] VII. Specialty Segment:

ANDY’S UNSEEMLY HOMEWORK:
Russian Ark = 8 ( Avoid )
The Man From Earth = 6.5 ( Rental )
Coherence = 9.5 ( Buy it! )

— Brief discussion about Neill Blomkamp’s upcoming Alien project (slated for 2017!)


VII. Wrap-Up / Plugs / Ending


COMING UP ON MPW NEXT WEEK:
Episode 128 when we’ll be reviewing “Chappie.”


LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

Jason highly recommends trying out Mattroid and William Rowan Jr.’s new, must-listen show — The SciFi Podcast

Jason recommends supporting: Operation Underground Railroad

Contact MPW:
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Leave a comment in the show notes for this episode.

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Twitter: @IcarusArts
Josh covers streaming movies on: Movie Stream Cast

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We’d like to thank The Dave Eaton Element and Dave himself for the use of his music for our theme song. Buy Dave’s Eaton’s music: BandCamp.com


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Thanks for listening, and join us again next Tuesday for Movie Podcast Weekly.


22 thoughts on “Movie Podcast Weekly Ep. 127: Focus (2015) and The Lazarus Effect (2015) and the Loss of Leonard Nimoy

  1. Pingback: Episode 045 — Releasing Late Tonight! |

  2. I’m so happy that Andy liked my recommendations and that he saw the parallels between them. Not that it wasn’t super obvious haha, but still. I’m very pleased with that guy right now. And great reviews! It makes me want to go watch them right now. By the way, Coherence is streaming on Amazon Prime if you guys want to watch it.

    • Hi Juan,
      I have to confess… I think I’m the one who misled Andy about your recommendations, citing them as David’s… Sorry, Brother. You, Jeff Hammer (and now Andy) have got me really curious about “Coherence.” It’s high on my list, thanks to you, Sir.
      Jay

    • I’m sensing that this is a joke, Juan. … Right? I’m not good at discerning… But I’ll tell you — if this is real — EXACTLY what this reminds me of: “The Sneetches”

      http://amzn.to/1BUO0nA

      To all: If you have kids, order this book right now. Important stuff.
      Jay

      • Yeah it’s a joke. You can tell by the fact that you can’t actually buy the product. The Paypal link doesn’t actually work.

  3. I love that when Andy got in trouble for “Tokyo Gore Police” Juan’s name was thrown around as the culprit and now I’m getting credit for recommending Andy smart and sophisticated stuff. What a sweet deal!

    • And to be honest, your recommendation was great, David. It’s just not a movie a married man with kids should be watching home haha. And that was Andy’s fault. Shame on him.

      • Why did “Gone Girl” get you into trouble, as opposed to, say, your umpteenth rental of something like “Man with Machete Hacks Bikini Babes to Bits: Part IV — The Reckoning … Brutus Comes Home” for HMP? Does Nat even know about Horror Movie Podcast?

  4. About Christopher Walken’s best roles, I would’ve thrown in True Romance, Biloxi Blues, and Pulp Fiction. For me, he is at his best when in cameo roles like in Pulp Fiction. The watch scene is classic Walken. If you want more dramatic roles then The Deer Hunter for sure and also King of New York. His filmography is extense, so there might be better examples of his work that I’m not aware of, but I think the movies above showcase the quirkiness of his that we all love. I would also watch his SNL skits. He is HILARIOUS! I love how he is able to pull funny and scary at the same time. There is an unpredictability to his delivery that always makes him a joy to watch.

  5. I’m totally willing to accept Andy’s being generally unmoved by Christopher Walken. All’s fair in love and the cinema. (I tend to enjoy Walken most in small doses, like his note-perfect appearance in “Catch Me If You Can.” Tangent: Glancing at C-Dub’s filmography alerted me to the fact that there is currently in production a sequel to “Joe Dirt,” with Walken set to reappear in support of David Spade. Having professionally reviewed “Joe Dirt” many years ago, I can only respond: Sweet raspberry marmalade! There is nothing that Hollywood won’t do to make a nickel.)

    The real takeaway for me from Ep. 127 regarding C. Anthony Howell, film commentator, is that he gets bugged when he has to actually pay attention and watch a movie with his eyes, as opposed to sorta listening in while doing something else entirely as a movie plays in the background. I find this behavior questionable. Having watched films in Andy’s presence, I can personally attest that this is not his universal approach. Still, it kinda makes me wonder whether we should attach a wee disclaimer to his oft-proclaimed AFI 100 calling card: Andy has watched, or at least been in the same room as, all of the films on both AFI 100 lists.

    I gotta admit, though, his review of “Coherence” did get me fired up.

    • Cody, please watch it. Everyone, I urge you to watch Coherence. It’s such a great little indy film. I absolutely loved it and now I have Andy to back me up on that, so I know I can’t be that wrong. and if you want to add another cool little sci-fi gem for good measure, watch Frequencies. It’s a little rough around the edges, but worth your time.

      • It was free on Amazon Prime for a while, and may still be available there. If so, then I’ll try to find the time to look into it. I first heard about it mid-last year, and have had a simmering interest ever since. But I’m also lazy about seeking out hard-to-find films.

    • Hey now…Cody- I’ve never claimed to have understood all AFI top 100, and I’ve freely admitted that I fell asleep in many of them. In my opinion, if the movie can’t get in through osmossis, that’s the film’s fault.

      • Fair enough, I suppose. I’ve sat through movies before that I probably would have gotten nearly as much out of simply by slipping the disc under my pillow before bed.

        I do sometimes put on a movie before doing something relatively mindless and repetitive, like folding a giant pile of clean laundry. I don’t ever do that with movies I haven’t seen, though. I can only really enjoy listening to a movie if it’s a long-beloved favorite.

        In the future, Andy, if you’re bored by a movie but feel obligated to finish watching it, my pro tip is to watch it on x2 fast forward. You can generally still make out all of the dialogue, and visually track everything that happens on screen, but the movie gets watched in half the time it would normally take. Even you could have handled “Russian Ark” in one sitting that way.

  6. I just got Coherence on DVD from Netflix. I’m pretty pumped to see it based on the comments in this episode.

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