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Happy St. Patrick’s Day, and welcome to Movie Podcast Weekly, Episode 129. During this show, your hosts bring you Feature Reviews of Run All Night and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. 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
[ 0:03:11 ] II. Mini Reviews
Karl: Chappie, Shining Through
Jason: Come Early Morning, Freaks (1932)
Andy: Surfwise, Verunga, The Producers (1968), Jodorowsky’s Dune, Big Hero 6
III. What’s New in Theaters This Past Weekend
Cinderella
Run All Night
It Follows
Seymour: An Introduction
The Wrecking Crew
FEATURE REVIEWS HAVE TIME STAMPS:
[ 0:54:32 ] IV. Feature Review: RUN ALL NIGHT (2015)
Jason = 8 ( Theater / Buy it! )
Karl = 8 ( Theater / Rental )
[ 1:15:12 ] V. Feature Review: THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL (2015)
Karl = 7.5 ( Theater / Buy it! )
[ 1:25:31 ] VI. Specialty Segment:
ANDY’S UNSEEMLY HOMEWORK:
Rio Bravo (1959) = 6 ( Rental )
VII. Wrap-Up / Plugs / Ending
COMING UP ON MPW NEXT WEEK:
Episode 130 when we’ll be reviewing “The Gunman” and “Maps to the Stars” and “Inherent Vice.”
LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:
Don’t forget to check out William Rowan Jr.’s The Sci-Fi Podcast
Provo Film Society on Facebook
Provo Film Society on Twitter
Jay’s 5 Minutes of Horror review on “The Remaining” (2015)
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:
E-mail us: MoviePodcastWeekly@gmail.com.
Leave us a voicemail: (801) 382-8789.
Follow MPW on Twitter: @MovieCastWeekly
Leave a comment in the show notes for this episode.
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Keep up with Josh:
Twitter: @IcarusArts
Josh covers streaming movies on: Movie Stream Cast
If you’re a Horror fan, listen to Jason and Josh on HORROR MOVIE PODCAST
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Thanks for listening, and join us again next Tuesday for Movie Podcast Weekly.
Something tells me this podcast discussion will be better than RUN ALL NIGHT.
I can’t believe Jay and Karl rated it higher than Chappie! I will kill for this!
And Automata is fairly decent. It has some great ideas, but the execution and story end up falling a bit flat. There is one major plot point that blew my mind though. But it doesn’t even compare to Chappie, come on Jay!
There’s a lot of heresy (not hearsay but heresy) going on right off the bat in this comments…
Dino — Have you seen “Run All Night”? … Because I’m hoping that you’re simply assuming it won’t be good. That’s acceptable. But if you saw it and didn’t like it, I would be astounded! It’s a pretty solid Crime film!
And Juan — I know how smart you are, but this time, your comment is easily thwarted: All you have to do is compare the ending of “Automata” with the ending of “Chappie,” and that alone tells me which film is better.
The reveal in “Automata” (the big revelation) and a character that we encounter very late in the film are both better than anything I saw in “Chappie” (and they make up for “Automata’s” slow and aimless build-up).
J
I know about the big revelation and that was quite amazing, I’ll give you that. But one twist a movie does not make. And the character that you refer to has nothing on Chappie. Jay, you described Automata’s biggest problem in one word: aimless. The film starts out very strong. It’s almost like a spiritual sister film to Blade Runner, but it quickly devolves into a film that doesn’t know what it wants to be and doesn’t know where it’s going. Chappie, even with all of your unfair complaints, is a cohesive film that is not aimlessly wandering for more than half its running time until it stumbles into some cool twist to bring it back to life.
And Jay, I’m not that smart. I think that adjective should be reserved for people like David and Dino who put what little brain power I have to shame.
@Jay – I haven’t seen RUN ALL NIGHT. My comment was based purely on the lackluster reviews of the film. I pulled an Andy on that one.
I generally enjoy these Liam Neeson crime/action/thrillers, even if the last few affairs have been less than stellar. And, I’m a big Joel Kinnaman fan having just binge-watched THE KILLING.
I’m sure I’ll end up renting this with my father at some point later this year. He loves these kinds of movies.
Wow, an 8/10 for RUN ALL NIGHT!
Ok, maybe I’ll check this one out in the theater.
I think automata is everything chappie is not but should have been. Automata is 8/10 and i agree with jay, people should watch automata instead of chappie.
Chappie blows.
I don’t know if this is still relevant, but it’s funny nonetheless.
http://www.polygon.com/2015/3/20/8263355/new-too-many-cooks-stars-bill-clinton-china-screaming-howard-dean-and
Am I a politically incorrect dolt of unique proportions or does anyone else fail to see what’s so shameful about the movie “Freaks”? I always thought that the shameful element was more the way society reacted with disgust at seeing these human beings filling acting roles perfectly capably. I’ve always thought of “Freaks” as a film that’s way ahead of its time. It’s about acceptance rather than exploitation. The “Freaks” may do some scary stuff in the movie but they’re never truly painted as monstrous, which stands in stark contrast to the more aesthetically conventional characters. All the bans and uproar have always felt more like a case of society wanting to sweep these kind of people under the rug and pretend they don’t exist as opposed to a rejection of anything that’s actually unethical about the film.
Nice comment, David.
OK. If I may, here’s my take, but first, a preface:
In 2007, there was a forgettable action film called “The Condemned.” It was produced by WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). The irony was thick. Its tagline read: “10 people will fight. Nine people will die. You get to watch.” That’s the tagline; then the movie proceeds to lecture us, the viewers, on how immoral it is to enjoy violence as entertainment! All this, coming from World Wrestling Entertainment, no less…
Tod Browning’s “Freaks” pulled a similarly ironic stunt: The movie goes to great lengths to condemn those who dismiss and disparage the community of freaks because they aren’t like “us”; they’re a bunch of monsters… But then, after having beat this drum of tolerance for its 64-minute runtime by trying to demonstrate that these misfits “are just people, too” and not monsters — the film badly missteps at the end and proves our suspicions all along that these freaks are indeed monsters, after all. Just like we thought…
What do you think, David?
J
Also, getting an episode of MPW on a Friday is pretty novel. Now I’m going to kick back with my beer and Korean Tacos and enjoy the rest of the show!
Korean tacos? David!!!! I’m not a fan, but I have a good excuse for being a taco purist haha. What kind of Korean tacos? Korean BBQ, kimchi?
Haha. Well they were home-made vegetarian tacos with mushrooms marinated to an ostensibly Korean recipe. It was probably an offensively inauthentic dish but delicious nonetheless. And I had a Southwold Hibiscus Wheat Beer.
Haha it’s ok, David. If they’re homemade then they get a pass, especially if cooked with love. That beer though. It gets a big seal of approval! I haven’t tried that brewery’s in particular, but I’ve had similar beers and they really hit the spot.
And David, thanks for your good attitude about this late, Friday release. All will be redeemed SOON — in the coming weeks! I appreciate you.
J
@Dino, Juan and David (et al.)…
Thank you all for still hanging with us. Podcasting often has fickle fans, but not ours… It is a fact (I’ve experienced it!) that if a show is late or misses a release once or twice, listeners will simply bolt and find a new podcast.
And it is their right and yours…
But I won’t forget that you guys hung with us through thick and thin. Brighter days are coming, my Brothers.
Sincerely,
J
I don’t want to speak for Juan, David, or anyone else, but I know I’ll be sticking with you guys for as long as you stick with the podcast. And not just this show, but the whole Movie Podcast Network. You guys have a certain special sauce that I can’t get enough of.
“You guys have a certain special sauce that I can’t get enough of.”
That one’s just too easy.
Lazy, I know. But, sometimes I gotta lob these beach balls.
You guys are tearing me apart!
David, Dino has a very particular set of skills. Skills that he’s acquired over a very long career. Skills that make him a nightmare for guys like us. If you let his words go, that’ll be the end of it. He will not look for you, he will not pursue you. But if you don’t, he will look for you, he will find you, and he will lob beach balls at you. Good luck.
I’m with Dino (well, not WITH Dino). There’s no need for thanks. All I do is listen and comment, you’re the ones doing all the hard work. I’m just grateful that you’re still going strong and I hope that’s always the case, because it’ll be a sad, sad day if I ever hear the words “I quit” like Karl and Josh have ushered in days past. Bunch of quitters those two! Haha just kidding guys 🙂
Can I recommend TV shows for Andy’s Unseemly Homework or does it have to be movies?
Big hero 6 was based on a comic book
Thank you, Willis! I was about to comment on that. It’s loosely based on a comic that in turn is heavily influenced by manga (the movie even more so than the comic). So, when Josh said that the movie looked generic, that really hurt. Generic from where? :/ It’s full of references man!
I do have to agree with Andy and Josh on the ranking of the movies. I loved all three, but How to Train Your Dragon 2 took the cake, followed closely by The Lego Movie, follows closely by Big Hero 6. But Jay is right in that Big Hero 6 is hilarious.
I think I align more with Jay on this one – BIG HERO 6, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2, then THE LEGO MOVIE is how I would rate them. They’re all very close for me, though.
***SPOILERS FOR THE LEGO MOVIE***
Regarding THE LEGO MOVIE, I thought it was incredibly clever, had some smart humor, and a really good message. My only real issue with it was when the movie switched between the lego world and the real world at the end. I know there’s no other way for them to have done that, but it really broke the magic of the film for me.
The following contains a handful of plot spoilers for “The Lego Movie.”
Ok, let me put to bed the issue of the ranking of certain children’s movies. On this very particular subject, I consider myself somewhat of an expert. I watch a lot of children’s movies. I have two children at cartoon movie watching age. We do not have broadcast television at our house. Until this last Christmas, the children were not really aware that they could stream Netflix on their TV. What this all means is that my kids watch movies. I prefer movies to episodic tv. I think the stories are better, I think my kids are less likely to develop ADHD (no, I have no statistics to back this up, just a hunch), and I’m more likely to watch with them. As a result of this, I own most of the more popular kids movies (thanks in large part to Uncle Karl who gave my girls a plethora of classic Disney films). And, I have seen most of the kids films in excess of 10 times. So what this means is I know kids movies.
With that said, we have had an ongoing discussion (probably not the right word) comparing and contrasting “The Lego Movie” and “Big Hero 6”.
“The Lego Movie” is a masterpiece. It is one of the best children’s movies ever made. It will never be received as such by the likes of AFI or American Academy of Arts and Sciences because it is, at its core, a children’s film. It is INTENTIONALLY jam packed with jokes and silliness, and this fact, to one only casually observing the film, will make the film seem scattered and hyper. I, myself, have seen the movie more than 40 times (maybe even closer to 100). There are still little funny nuances that I’m discovering in the movie. You cannot appreciate all of the awesomeness in “The Lego Movie” with one viewing. It demands repeat study.
The mere casual observer will be lost to the idea that the pacing is intentional and critical to the masterpiece that is the story behind “The Lego Movie.” Remember, what is so amazing about the movie is that you realize at the end that you have experienced the movie not from the typical third person, but rather from an 8 year old perspective second person.
And let’s talk about the payoff. “The Lego Movie” has one of the best surprise payoffs of any kids films. Finding out that this movie and the world you’ve just watched comes from the mind of an 8 year old to whom you are only introduced at the end is absolute brilliance. Further, to identify the true antagonist at the end further speaks to its genius.
Lastly, from a father’s standpoint, I love the message from “The Lego Movie.” It says to kids that they have the power to be special and that it’s ok to be different and think differently. It’s also ok to follow the instructions and be part of a team. Awesome.
I know I’ve belabored the point too long. In summation, here’s a breakdown:
“The Lego Movie”: 10 out of 10, MASTERPIECE.
“Big Hero 6”: 8 out of 10. It’s a fine movie for kids. It is not, however, on the same level as “The Lego Movie,” its little golden statue notwithstanding.
Andy: I’m impressed, sir. I may not have seen any movie, ever, that many times. Not even “Star Wars,” which I saw 25-ish times one summer when they played it free almost daily in the screening room at the local public library. (Something that I doubt a public institution could get away with today. It was a different era.)
I probably enjoy big studio, mass market animated films as much as anyone who listens to this podcast. And that goes back to long before I had kids, a condition which, admittedly, tends to affect one’s intake. I enjoyed “The LEGO Movie” quite a bit, though I’ve only seen it probably three or four times total. The first time on a date with my daughter, once with the family after we got the DVD, and then maybe two or three times in fragments here and there (being in the room while the kids are watching, etc.).
I love the originality and general fearlessness/mile-a-minute wackiness of “The LEGO Movie.” I never played with LEGOs as a kid. Fisher Price made something kinda similar for a while called Construx (haven’t seen those in years), and that made up essentially the entirety of my snap-together build imaginative stuff play time as a kid. I remember doing things like making a replica “Ghostbusters” plasma rifle (that was part of a Halloween costume one year), building a version of the ship from “2010: The Year We Make Contact,” and making stealth attack helicopters like the one from “Blue Thunder.”
Maybe because I didn’t actually use LEGOs in childhood, however, there’s a core appeal of the “The LEGO Movie” that is lost on me. I enjoy it quite a bit, and would probably rate it at 8 or 8.5 out of 10. What Dino said above kind of describes how I feel about the Will Ferrell part. I get what they’re trying to do there, and it’s cool, but it doesn’t quite work for me. I actually agree with Jay: I think “Big Hero 6” is the better movie, though maybe only by a couple of smidges. That one’s more of an 8.5 or 9 out of 10.
I will say that I have been where you now find yourself. I have a deep, deep love of “Wreck-It Ralph.” And nobody else in the world other than my dear wife and a couple of my brothers seems to respond to that movie in quite the same way. Arcade games, Atari, Nintendo and such like were probably formative/influential for me in the same way that LEGOs appear to have been for you. “Wreck-It Ralph” makes me deeply, thoroughly happy and I admire it with an intensity that at least approaches your love of “The LEGO Movie.” And, like you, while I appreciate the effect of nostalgia, I don’t think “Wreck-It Ralph” is A Brilliant Movie If You Loved Video Games As a Kid. I think it’s A Brilliant Movie. Period. It irks me a little that almost nobody else seems to entirely agree. I just have to live with the satisfaction of a) knowing I’m right, and — far more importantly — b) loving the movie down to my toenails every time I watch it.
Also: Loved your comment in this episode about a lot of the stuff available on streaming services and in stores like Walmart or Target that people call “movies” for children. There is some dumb, dumb shiz out there.
Hi jay,
i finally caught up on “the drop” and i absolutely loved it. slow paced at times, the movie felt never boring or slow. i am now redownloading your older episode just to listen back to what you guys discussed – and it is cerntaily superior than “god’s pocket” you reviewed in the same show.
the drop – 7.5/10 for the accurate story telling, tom hardy’s excellent performance. the movie came out in 2014 but it is so far the best i have seen this side of 2015 for crime drama.
will run-all-night compare to the drop?