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In Episode 131 of Movie Podcast Weekly, you’ll hear Jason and Karl bring you Feature Reviews of It Follows and Insurgent and A Most Violent Year.
We also bring you Mini Reviews of The Gunman, Automata, Snowpiercer, House of Cards Season 3 and The Battery. Karl also bring you his Great Performances segment. Don’t miss it! Thanks for listening!
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
— No Andy tonight
[ 0:01:26 ] II. Mini Reviews
Karl: The Gunman, Automata, Snowpiercer, House of Cards Season 3
Jason: The Battery
III. What’s New in Theaters This Past Weekend
It Follows
Get Hard
Home
Man From Reno [ Limited ]
While We’re Young [ Limited ]
A Girl Like Her [ Limited ]
Cupcakes [ Limited ]
White God [ Limited ]
The Riot Club [ Limited ]
The Salt of the Earth [ Limited ]
Serena [ Limited ]
FEATURE REVIEWS HAVE TIME STAMPS:
[ 0:21:35 ] IV. Feature Review: IT FOLLOWS (2015)
Jason = 8.5 ( Theater / Buy it! )
[ 0:30:30 ] V. Feature Review: INSURGENT (2015)
Karl = 8 ( Theater / Buy it! )
[ 0:43:43 ] VI. Feature Review: A MOST VIOLENT YEAR (2015)
Jason = 6.5 ( Rental )
[ 0:53:55 ] VII. Specialty Segments:
KARL HUDDLESTON’S GREAT PERFORMANCES AND MIGHTY LINES:
Film: Billy Elliot (2000)
Great Performance: Jamie Bell as Billy Elliot
VIII. Wrap-Up / Plugs / Ending
— Special thanks to Shane, Randy, Michal, Shannon, Clayton, Juan and David
COMING UP ON MPW NEXT WEEK:
Episode 132 when we’ll be reviewing “Furious 7” and “Son of a Gun” and “Wild Card.”
LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:
Jason highly recommends trying out Mattroid and William Rowan Jr.’s new, must-listen show — The SciFi Podcast
Provo Film Society on Facebook
Provo Film Society on Twitter
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
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.
Jason Pyles… an 8.5 out of 10 for IT FOLLOWS?! You disappoint me, son.
On a serious note, I’ve had similar experiences with waking up at night since seeing the movie. Actually, the night I saw the movie I woke up in the middle of the night, and my son was standing directly next to my bed just looking at me. No lie, I jumped up so high and screamed that I woke up my wife, and my son got scared and ran back into his bedroom.
This movie definitely stays with you.
Would you say that It Followed you? Hmmm… not very clever… meh that’s all I got bro :/
Umm, yeah… do better next time.
Quick note for you HMP guys before I run to work…
Last night Wolfman Josh and I recorded our in-depth review of “It Follows,” where we dove deep into its themes and everything else. We discussed it for a little over an hour. It may be one of my favorite podcast reviews ever! That will release in HMP Ep. 050 on Friday, April 17th! (I also explain why it’s an 8.5 to me and not a 10.)
I only mention it here because I hope Juan can see it before then. We go more in-depth than I did here on MPW, but we still avoid any major plot spoilers. Definitely a must-listen if you loved that movie.
I’ll write more later! Thanks for your comments!
Jay
You’re tearing me apart, Jay! I guess I’ll have to hold off on the podcast until I watch it. More than likely during the weekend.
@Juan – You have time, bro. Episode 48 is dropping this week, so we won’t get 50 for another month.
Nevermind… just re-read Jay’s post and saw that episode 50 is dropping in two weeks!
You still have time to catch IT FOLLOWS, though. I already have tickets to see it again tomorrow, and will probably go a third time a day or two before HMP episode 50 drops just so I can be fresh for the discussion.
@Jay – Hearing this brings a big smile to my face.
Quick question: if episode 48 is dropping tonight just after midnight and episode 50 is dropping on April 17, does that mean we’re getting new episodes three weeks in a row? Or, is 49 just an unlucky number for you, so we’re skipping it altogether?
By the way, I was just razzing you about your 8.5 rating. Film is subjective and we’re all entitled to our own opinions on movies and art, blah blah blah… besides, I know, 8.5 is a good rating… even though you’re wrong.
Maybe we’ll get HMP episodes for 3 weeks in a row and then we’ll be back to releases two weeks apart so that it alternates with the SFP release dates again?
Makes sense.
Btw, where’ve you been, my friend?
Although I didn’t think I’d actually been inactive enough to appear notably absent, it’s still very kind of you to ask, good sir.
I’ve been somewhat under-the-weather this week with some weird illness that’s left me barely enough strength or focus to type the simplest of sentences.
I have watched quite a few movies though, and I think I’m beginning to get better.
@David – That’s a bummer, but good that you’ve been able to get some movies in. Hopefully some good ones.
@Jay –
I’m not sure what hurts more – the surprisingly low 8.5 rating you gave IT FOLLOWS or the snub you handed me when mentioning your old faithfuls. What’s a guy got to do to be a part of the faithful puppy club?!
#brokenheartclub
@Juan – If you still haven’t seen IT FOLLOWS, I’d recommend seeing it before listening to this podcast. Jay doesn’t necessarily give away spoilers, but he does give a rather complete synopsis of the film (I guess it’s pretty near impossible to talk about a movie without, you know, talking about it a little). If the movie’s plot is still unknown to you, I’d go in completely blind.
Dino, I’ve read about it (but not too much), I’ve seen the trailer, and I listened to Jay talk about it. He did give out a pretty comprehensive description of it. I would’ve held back a bit, but I don’t think anything’s been spoiled. At least that’s what I’m hoping. I’m watching it this week. I don’t know when because I’ve got family visiting from Mexico and I have a few freelance jobs that I really need to take care of. It’s been a busy week for me and it doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down anytime soon. I’m so tired :/
The feeling I had when the movie first shows you what’s going on (it’s pretty early on) was “wait, that’s it?” And then the movie went on to absolutely blow me away.
Maybe I’m over-selling it, but I really think it’s that good. It affected me in a way no other horror movie has in a long time.
It’s really hard not to over-sell because it is such a great experience. Especially if you go in cold, like I did (and it sounds like you did, Dino).
Yes indeed, I went in completely blind. The only thing I had seen of the movie going in was the movie poster.
I sent in some comments on the film to Jay a few days after I had seen it, but was trying to be as vague and general as possible because I didn’t want to spoil anything for him in case he hadn’t seen it yet. It’s not easy trying to give completely spoiler-free comments of a movie while still making your point!
Thanks for the zombie-lite recommendation. I’ll have to check out “The Battery” sometime.
I saw a trailer for what I think is a zombie-esque movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abigail Breslin called “Maggie.” I thought it looked interesting–not your usual zombie movie. Check it out: https://youtu.be/EWU0D9K1g5E.
Hi Vance,
I second Jay’s recommendation of The Battery, though his score is pretty low in my opinion. The Battery is very low budget, but if you can overcome some of its very understandable shortcomings like some spotty acting, then you’re in for a great time. I love The Walking Dead and although the show does many things that I think would happen in real life, I think The Battery is much closer to how things would actually play out if a zombie outbreak ever happens. The Battery is a 9 for me.
I think Karl nailed his review of Automata. I’m 100% with him about the first half being better than the latter half. The character introduced at the end is not that cool, Jay. I don’t understand why you think it’s so great. Chappie is like a million times better. Come on, bro! I do agree with you (Jay) about the very heavy Blade Runner feel that the movie had at the beginning. Too bad it didn’t last for too long.
Karl,
If you’re taking on some more sci-fi homework, let me recommend two movies that I think you might like:
Frequencies (2013)
The Machine (2014)
My prediction is that you’ll love Frequencies and that you’ll be disappointed by The machine, but for different reasons than Automata. I think The Machine is more ambitious and executed much better, but like Automata, it suffers from a weak second half. But I think you’ll be so impressed with the beginning that you’ll still score it higher than Automata.
I haven’t listened to Ep. 131 yet (probably get to it tomorrow), but I have to give Jay prop (just one) for his “deep cut” Harmons joke in Ep. 130. I can’t really give him props, because it wasn’t that good of a joke, but I was listening, brother, and I do have your back on this and all future deep cut Utah culture jokes.
Also, I have to bust on Dr. Howell for using the “check your brain” justification in defense of either “The Bag Man” or “The Gunman” (don’t remember which it was). I’ve heard that phrase so many times that it’s almost a muscle reflex at this point for me to raise a hand and (respectfully) disagree. I’ve probably given this same rant on these very message boards before, but … I watch movies precisely because I wish them to engage my full attention. Any movie that demands less than my baseline cognitive function is worth correspondingly less of my time. A *good* (fill in the genre) movie, one that is well made and tells an entertaining story about intriguing characters, does not ever require me to actively not think about what I am watching. Thank you. That is all.