Movie Podcast Weekly Ep. 153: No Escape (2015) and Z for Zachariah (2015) and Sinister 2 (2015) and Meru (2015) and MPW’s 2015 Summer Blockbuster Recap

Episode 153

Welcome to Movie Podcast Weekly. This is Episode 153. Your four usual hosts and special guest William Rowan Jr. (of The Sci-Fi Podcast) are back this week to bring you four Feature Reviews of No Escape and Z for Zachariah and Sinister 2 and Meru.

In this episode, we also bring you a 2015 SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER RECAP and some movie-related highlights from the Guinness World Records 2015 edition. We also engage in a rousing (albeit speculative) “Man on Wire” versus “The Walk” trailer debate. Don’t miss this one!

If you’re new to our show… Movie Podcast Weekly typically features four hosts — Jason, Andy, Karl and Geek Cast Ry — 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 Wednesday.


SHOW NOTES:

I. Introduction
— Welcome special guest William Rowan Jr. of The Sci-Fi Podcast
— Highlights from last week’s Podcast Takeover
— The Loss of Wes Craven


[ 0:23:16 ] II. 2015 SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER RECAP


[ 0:39:04 ] III. Guinness World Records 2015 — Movies


[ 0:55:25 ] IV. Mini Reviews
Karl: Hitman: Agent 47, American Ultra, Kill Me Three Times
William Rowan Jr: Atari: Game Over, Bigfoot’s Reflection
Jason: Fed Up, Michael Jackson’s This Is It
Ryan: The Walk trailer (Man on Wire)
Andy: Lord of War, The Hurt Locker, Dinosaur 13, Walk of Shame, The Drop, A Most Wanted Man


V. New in Theaters This Past Weekend:
We Are Your Friends
No Escape
Z for Zachariah [ Limited ]
War Room
The Second Mother [ Limited ]
Queen of Earth [ Limited ]
When Animals Dream [ Limited ]


FEATURE REVIEWS HAVE TIME STAMPS:

[ 1:41:18 ] VI. Feature Review: SINISTER 2 (2015)
Jason = 6 ( Rental )


[ 1:44:57 ] VII. Feature Review: NO ESCAPE (2015)
Jason = 9.5 ( Theater / Buy it! )


[ 1:52:19 ] VIII. Feature Review: MERU (2015)
Andy = 10 ( Theater / Buy it! )


[ 2:01:04 ] IX. Feature Review: Z FOR ZACHARIAH (2015)
Jason = 4.5 ( Avoid )
William Rowan Jr. = 6 ( Avoid )


X. Wrap-Up / Plugs / Ending


COMING UP ON MPW NEXT WEEK:
Episode 154 where we’ll regrettably be reviewing “The Transporter Refueled” and looking ahead at the remaining new movie releases coming in 2015. Join us if you’re a glutton for punishment…


LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

Check out the two new Horror Movie Podcast T-Shirts

Links for William Rowan Jr:
Listen to The Sci-Fi Podcast — a must-listen
Check out TeePublic’s Sci-Fi T-Shirts
The Sci-Fi Podcast on Facebook
Subscribe to The Sci-Fi Podcast on iTunes and on Stitcher

Ry’s BIO
Ry’s flagship show: Geek Cast Live Podcast
DONATE here to facilitate the creation of more Geek content!
Blog: Geek Cast Live
Web site: Geek Harder.com
Facebook
Twitter: @GeekCastRy

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.

Listen to MPW:
Add MPW to your Stitcher playlist: Stitcher.com
MPW on iTunes
MPW’s RSS feed
Right-click to download the MPW 100 Rap

Josh’s links:
Hear Josh named as one of the Top 5 Up-and-Coming Directors on The Film Vault Podcast!
Twitter: @IcarusArts
Josh covers streaming movies on: Movie Stream Cast
Hear Josh on The SciFi Podcast
Hear Josh on Horror Movie Podcast

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


If you like 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. (Every little bit helps!)

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


19 thoughts on “Movie Podcast Weekly Ep. 153: No Escape (2015) and Z for Zachariah (2015) and Sinister 2 (2015) and Meru (2015) and MPW’s 2015 Summer Blockbuster Recap

  1. While I don’t quite share Shannon’s enthusiasm for this episode (it was solid, “aight” at best), I do want to throw some kudos J’s way. At the 25:14 mark, J tried to slip in a “that’s what she said” to Ry. Tried. It didn’t quite land, but you get an “A” for effort, J. Juavino has successfully corrupted the good mormon boy. 🙂

      • It was a combination of rushing through the feature reviews and the lack of conversation surrounding the feature reviews. I know the rushed nature was a product of a time restriction (J’s, I gather), but if there was a hard stop time to end recording I would have preferred more time be spent on feature reviews than the rest of the stuff earlier (as enjoyable as it was).

        The lack of discussion, I’m sure, wasn’t helped by the rushed recording schedule, but I think it actually points to a deeper problem. I really, really wish the show would just pick 1 or 2 new releases per week that they all get to see. I think the discussion would benefit from the multiple perspectives they’d all bring to the table. If a few of them get to see more new releases that week and also want to do a solo* review then that’s gravy, but I generally feel the shows that devolve into a collection of 4 or 5 solo* feature reviews suffer.

        I know J is hell-bent on reviewing as many new releases as possible, but I think this is a case of quantity hurting quality.

        * My use of the word “solo” here has nothing to do with you, Solo. By “solo review” I mean a 1-person review, as opposed to a “Solo review” meaning a typically well-thought out, informative, intelligent, entertaining, and generally awesome review.

        • Really, solo reviews are like masturbation – it gets the job done, but ultimately is not satisfying. I’d very much rather have a three+ some. [too far]

          • Yes! Yes! Yeeeeeees! 100% agree with young Dino. I don’t care how many movies get reviewed. That’s not the reason why I listen to these podcasts. What I crave (and haven’t been getting lately) is discussion and interaction between the hosts. Keeping a consistent weekly schedule is tough, I understand this, so if episodes need to be skipped once in a while in order to keep the quality of the show then I’m all for it. I think rushing through your reviews is a big mistake. You should take the time to flesh out and articulate your thoughts, not just say a few words and throw a number at us. Jay, I know you’re a very determined person, but please consider giving you and your hosts some room to breathe. I guarantee you that the show will only benefit from less content, but with a higher concentrationof fun and intelligent thoughts. There’s just no reason to review every single movie. I say be more selective with your picks. If there’s nothing interesting out in theaters, then don’t review anything. I fell in love with the show for a reason and I feel like you’re slowly loosing sight of what makes MPW work so well. Having said all of this, I did love all the shenanigans you guys talked about. It’s one of my favorite parts of the show. It shows the hosts’ personalities and makes for very entertaining, one-of-a-kind material that can’t be replicated.

  2. The Guinness World Records game was a total train wreck and I loved every second of it.

    I would bring up how much money WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS made in the week and a half since the dud talk in the blog post, but at this point it’s just beating a dead horse. I will say it’s awfully sad seeing a movie bomb so hard when it’s budget wasn’t even high in the first place.

    • What kind of a “Train wreck” was working? I’m asking because I might want to try to use that idea for another podcast and I’m not sure if it’s something you can encourage, reproduce, and/or needs to happen spontaneously.

      • I don’t know if anyone can duplicate the awesomeness of the MPW’s host and their general indifference to every idea Jay has. Jay puts in the effort and the others care only enough to bother answering. If this happened on nearly any other podcast, it would be a disaster. Here, it’s part of the charm of the show.

        Solo, you, Mattroid, Station and Spacewolf Josh have your own pros that makes TSFP worth listening to.

  3. I’ve been cheated! I was a guest on the very first episode of The Sci-Fi Podcast, and I never got a nickname. They must have cooked up that tradition later on.

    I gotta disagree with Andy and Ry about the “The Walk.” I think Robert Zemeckis could totally turn that into a cool movie, and I think the trailer is, if not a masterwork, at least fun and on point (minus the, yes, amusingly hubristic “unlike anything you’ve seen before” tag). “Man on Wire” is an excellent documentary, but I agree with Karl that the fact there’s a great doc already on record doesn’t rule out the possibility of a highly entertaining and engrossing feature film.

    One thing that’s interesting to me is that, as cool as Petit’s story is, and as incredible a feat as his wire walk was, it’s not even the most incredible story you could go to for a film like this. In 1859, on the eve of the Civil War, another French wire walker, Charles Blondin, set up a tightrope across Niagara Gorge, just below the falls. He crossed several times from the U.S. to Canada, and mixed in various gimmicks, including crossing while blindfolded, crossing while pushing a wheelbarrow, crossing and stopping in the middle to cook an omelet, and crossing while carrying his manager piggyback. Think about THAT. Taking your life AND somebody else’s into your own hands. Blondin actually got tired in the middle and had his manager step down onto the rope behind him, wait a minute, then climb back up so they could finish. Daguerrotype:

    http://public.media.smithsonianmag.com/legacy_blog/DDblondin1.jpg

    Petit had to grapple with fear of a much longer fall (1,300 feet vs. 160), but Blondin made a much longer walk (1,200 feet vs. 200), and did it over and over again. I’d love to see someone take a crack at a Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Gorge movie.

    Great episode, as always, fellas. Even the Michael Jackson-inspired child sex abuse discussion was interesting. Solidarity with Andy: I was a church youth leader for six years recently, and though I rarely if ever thought about the volatility of the situation in the moment, it’s always in the back of one’s mind. You can’t not worry about it. LDS youth activities for male teens are run through Boy Scouts of America, and BSA takes pains to drill leaders about the importance of constant vigilance to protect both the kids and adults. The number one rule of Scouting for adults is “two deep” leadership (you should never, ever, ever be alone with any number of boys, and deniability is always listed as one of several important reasons for that), and you can never run an activity that has equal numbers of leaders and boys present.

    • Cody,
      I’ll talk to Mattroid, and see if we can come up with Sci-Fi nick names for out biggest fans, or maybe have a Contest of sorts, and the winner gets a sci-fi nickname… I’ll get back to you.

      • Solo Jr., I was very impressed by your contribution to Jay’s discussion of “Fed Up.” That’s some serious will power, my friend. Have you satisfied your weight loss desires, or are you still soldiering on?

        I once managed to give up processed sugars for almost five years. I’ve frequently given thought to going back down that road, but haven’t yet mustered the gumption to go cold turkey from sweets all over again. I have, on the other hand, been actively working on getting my weight down this summer (and last), and I find that I do best with a combination of counting calories (which forces me to both limit my intake and generally choose healthier foods) and regular exercise.

  4. Hey Cody…I was the guy looking for you that got Cody Clarke interested in having you on his podcast…It was great twist of fate…Everyone check out this episode of the SMUG Film Podcast…Cody gives lots of love to our boys here…http://smugfilm.com/ep44/

  5. I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t wait until they add the first episode of Cultural Zeitgeist Weekly to this movie podcast network 🙂

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