Movie Podcast Weekly Ep. 155: The Visit (2015) and Child 44 (2015) and Cop Car (2015)

Episode 155

Welcome to this week’s pared down version of Movie Podcast Weekly. This is Episode 155. In this show, Jason and Karl hold down the fort, as Andy and Ryan deal with The Plague or something akin to it. This week we bring you Feature Reviews of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit and Child 44 and Cop Car. We’d love for you to join us, even if we are podcasting with a skeleton crew this week. Thanks for listening.

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
— No Andy or Ryan this week


[ 0:02:33 ] II. Mini Reviews
Karl: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (and SLC Comic-Con 2015), Ken Burns’s “The Civil War,” (Later on: Beautiful Girls, The Negotiator), Speculation on upcoming movies: Steve Jobs (2015), Goosebumps, The Martian. Sal Roma’s comment about downer Jason
Jason: Currently streaming on Netflix in the US: S.W.A.T., The Patriot, Next, Road House, Batman & Robin, Congo, Hostage. Trying to buy Star Wars Ep. I: The Phantom Menance


III. New in Theaters This Past Weekend:
The Visit
The Perfect Guy
90 Minutes in Heaven
Coming Home [ Limited ]
Wolf Totem [ Limited ]
Sleeping With Other People [ Limited ]
Time Out of Mind [ Limited ]
Goodnight Mommy [ Limited ]


FEATURE REVIEWS HAVE TIME STAMPS:

[ 0:48:43 ] IV. Feature Review: THE VISIT (2015)
Jason = 7 ( Theater / Solid Rental )


[ 1:03:58 ] V. Feature Review: CHILD 44 (2015)
Jason = 6 ( Low-priority Rental )


[ 1:10:51 ] VI. Feature Review: COP CAR (2015)
Jason = 7 ( Rental )


VII. Wrap-Up / Plugs / Ending


COMING UP ON MPW NEXT WEEK:
Episode 156 where we’ll be reviewing “Black Mass,” “Everest” and “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials.” Join us!


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


29 thoughts on “Movie Podcast Weekly Ep. 155: The Visit (2015) and Child 44 (2015) and Cop Car (2015)

  1. In regards to my depressing comment in MPW #154, some of the recent happenings in MPW:

    – Last week’s talk about an old friend (I believe his name was Bruce?) who had recently died.

    – Various mentions of whenever there’s a stabbing or scare at a theater. I want to say there were two recent episodes with tales of this.

    – The tearful goodbye to Jon Stewart.

    I believe there’s a couple of other stories mentioned early on in the episodes that I can’t recall at the moment. There may have been some talk about an actor that recently passed. Possibly reflecting on Philip Seymour Hoffman? It wasn’t part of a podcast, but one of the first times I came on this website, Jay had posted his thoughts on the death of Roddy Piper. I’m 99% sure that they all happened on MPW and not on HMP (Jay has his own exclusive depressing stories to tell on HMP).

    Totally not knocking the show for talking about some of these depressing matters though.

  2. I can completely relate to Jay at the crazy prices for the Star Wars DVD’s. I had never gotten around to buying Episode 3, so last year I went on Amazon to finally pick it up. Holy schnikes. I can’t justify spending around $50 for a single DVD. It made me instantly regret not buying it a decade ago when Episode 3 and the other movies were all $15 or so.

    So my DVD shelf continues to look awkward with Episode 1, Episode 2, and a box set for the original trilogy.

    At $20 a pop, even the streaming copies are far more expensive then I have any desire to pay for a movie. For $20, I either want all six movies (Maybe I’d be okay with a trilogy) or have a physical copy in my hand. How is it that a Star Wars streaming movie cost $20, but the Blu-Ray trilogies are only $35?

    If you ask me, the Empire is behind these crazy prices. Yoda wouldn’t have ever allowed these prices when he was alive.

  3. Bravo on the speedy posting of the new episode, Jay! Excellent work. Unfortunately, I only listened to Ep. 154 last night, so my apologies in advance for the following off-topic post.

    First of all, as much as I enjoyed the comedy of the in-show (Ep. 154) release date changes on last week’s episode, there are much better options in the online movie universe than IMDb for current release date info. The two best, in my humble opinion, are The Projection List and Box Office Mojo (humorous reveal coming):

    http://projectionlist.com/#/site/theatrical
    http://www.boxofficemojo.com/schedule/

    The Projection List hasn’t been around very long and wouldn’t be the first site to fail at what it’s attempting to do, but it’s pretty spiffy for now. Box Office Mojo’s schedule is almost always accurate and up-to-date, and the site itself is far more tenured. Oddly (and amusingly), although IMDb owns/operates Box Office Mojo, they apparently don’t share its information with themselves. (Amazon, of course, owns IMDb, so maybe it’s really all Jeff Bezos’s fault.) When I was still “in the biz”, I would often compare the two release date schedules, and IMDb was always far less reliable than BOM. I still use IMDb for plenty of other stuff, but Box Office Mojo (and, recently, The Projection List) is my huckleberry when it comes to release dates and movie grosses.

    Also, I think “Avatar” is great. I’ve got your back, Jay. I don’t know whether I need three sequels, but “Avatar” is a totally fun watch. And while even a fan of “Avatar” could (justifiably) quibble with the screenwriting on several counts, Cameron didn’t actually invent the word “unobtainium” (or rip it off from “The Core”). “Unobtainium” is used a lot more loosely in sci-fi, but it first appeared as an actual aerospace engineering term for a theoretical substance that doesn’t exist (yet) about 70 years ago:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium

  4. Jay, I’ve heard you profess both your love for “Flash Gordon” and your belief that it’s a terrible movie a few times now but I’ve never understood what’s so “terrible” about it. Sure it’s ridiculously campy and over-the-top but that’s all part of the point isn’t it? It’s a totally self-aware homage to the cheap and cheerful serials of the 1930’s. It’s refusal to take itself too seriously and it’s unashamedly fun approach are incredibly charming to me and I think it’s executed very well indeed. The intention of the filmmakers was obviously not to make anything other than a wacky, retro popcorn flick and I feel like they succeeded entirely. “Batman and Robin” on the other hand is just a joyless, ill-calculated mess.

    Personally I’ve always thought of “Flash Gordon” as a sort of saturday-afternoon classic, up there with stuff like “Jason and the Argonauts” and the “Godzilla” movies.

    • You’re going to hate me for this, David, but I’m kind of with Jay on this one. There’s a certain atmosphere in those Joel Schumacher movies that make me all giddy inside. It’s self-indulgent to the extreme, sure, but in a really cheesy and whimsical kind of way.

      “Batman and Robin on the other hand is just a joyless, ill-calculated mess.”

      Isn’t that what the ’90s were in all honesty? They were trying too hard to be cooler than the ’80s, but in reality they were just an extension. There’s no way that anyone can look at Batman and Robin and take it seriously. Even if at the time it was meant to be the corporate definition of cool, it’s clearly not the case now by a long shot. Actually, that’s part of the charm. It’s It’s so bad, it’s fun. It’s so uncool, it’s cool.

      • I’ll say this for BATMAN & ROBIN, look wise, it’s an interesting movie. It feels more comic book-y to me with it’s bright colors and unnatural sets. It’s almost worth watching just for the trippy visuals.

      • “Batman and Robin” definitely is a product of its time and very much representative of the style-over-substance approach of the 90’s. It’s arguable whether or not that’s a good or a bad thing and I can definitely see their being a strange sort of charm to it because by today’s standards it seems so novel and bizarre.

        Just on a personal level I feel like “Flash Gordon”, in spite of it’s self-awareness, has a kind of innocence and sincerity to it, which is something I find lacking from something like “Batman and Robin”. Based on nothing more than intuition I feel like “Flash Gordon” was designed and created by genuinely passionate people having fun while “Batman and Robin” feels like it was pieced together by a committee of clueless marketing executives. Again, that kind of goes with the territory of the 90’s but it’s something that I can’t help but be bothered by. It seems a less natural and far more cynical celebration of campiness and excess.

  5. Have any of you guys seen “Turbo Kid” yet? It’s low budget and extremely over-the-top but for fans of gritty post apocalyptic stuff, corny 80’s action, early Peter Jackson-esque splatstick and cheesy synth-scores I highly recommend it. Definitely one for Shannon and maybe Juan to check out.

    • Ha! David you truly know me better than my mom. I’ve been aware of this movie and have been trying to catch it at the theater, but apparently I missed the window, so I’ll have to search for it on demand I suppose. It looks fantastic and if it plays out the way I imagine, then this is the movie that my inner child has been waiting for his whole life. I take it you’ve seen it?

        • This is what I said over at the sci fi podcast…If you haven’t seen Turbo Kid yet…Do it now…If I had seen it back when I was a teenager in the 80’s it would be my favorite movie of all time…It’s the most 80’s sci fi movie I’ve ever seen that was made 30 plus years later…The love and passion for the material just oozes from this movie…

  6. What I want to know, Jay, is why are you even trying to buy “The Phantom Menace” on DVD? Your son did the right thing! Your collection is now complete. (Although still not as complete as it would be if he were to also break “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith.” 🙂 )

    You don’t have to *own* that abomination to watch it again. Borrow it from someone else (friend, neighbor, etc.; you live in Utah, so there are probably a dozen available copies just in your immediate neighborhood), or get it at a public library. There are five DVD copies and two Blu-ray copies at the Orem Public Library, and when I checked just now, three of the DVDs and both Blu-rays are checked in (because, honestly, why wouldn’t they be?).

  7. So I listened to MPW #144 a couple of days ago and I have to give a shout out to Kevin aka Geek Cast Dad aka Dr. Death aka Expert of all things Giada De Laurentiis’ cleavage. He fit in perfectly when Jay asked him what he thought about JURASSIC WORLD (With Jay undoubtedly trying to get another guy to agree with him on his opinion of the movie) and Kevin completely shot him down by admitting that he hated it. It’s those small moments where things don’t go as Jay’s expecting that makes for a fun experience here on MPW.

    Ry’s coolness factor also went up a lot by all of the tales of his family and their movie related activities. It ranged from the “Hey, that’s a really neat thing to do” (Sending a DVD through the mail to everyone in your family with everyone filling out a little postcard with their thoughts) to the morbidly hilarious (That poor cousin traumatized for winning a celebrity death pool by predicting Philip Seymour Hoffman’s death.

    Not only do I demand that Kevin return at some point, but I’d love to hear more movie related stories involving Ryan’s family.

  8. I need help remembering the title of a movie that I think Jay reviewed about six months ago.

    Here’s what I do remember: The movie is about a wedding, and is shot from the perspective of the videographers(i.e. the characters acknowledge the presence of the camera man), and apparently the film crew is capturing a lot of behind the scenes drama on the wedding day.

    I’m not sure when it came out, I don’t remember any actors names’ mentioned and, I’m pretty sure it was low budget indie movie.

    Any help would be much appreciated.

  9. Jay, I vaguely remember one of your reviews. It’s of a Boston crime drama with Johnny Depp in it. There’s mob guys in cahoots with the FBI, and it’s based on a real case. I think it was called “Black Sabbath,” or something. Depp plays a thug who has a color in his name. Something like Red Grinder. It’s directed by that one guy who did the thing with Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, and Woody from that show about the bar where everybody knows your name.

    Could you find that one for me? Thanks!

  10. Cue up the 36:00 mark and tack on “because streaming is better” at the end. 😉

    J, you mentioned CONGO in your “streaming of consciousness” (see what I did there?) section. I have to admit that I love this movie. I recognize that it’s not very good, but there’s something about it that just makes me happy. I’ve watched it several times in my lifetime, and I’m sure I’ll watch it several times more in the future.

    As far as Netflix streaming recommendations, I’ll try to throw a few out randomly from time to time. For now, I’m going to suggest everyone streams THE ACT OF KILLING (2012). It’s a documentary that explores the Indonesian death squads that were responsible for thousands of deaths in the mid-’60s. Even if you’re not normally into documentaries, this is a must see for everyone. It’s not your typical documentary, and it’s highly affecting.

    If you’re not convinced by my words, then you can listen to what Josh and Rachel Ligairi had to say about it on episode 37 of Movie Stream Cast >> http://www.moviestreamcast.com/movie-stream-cast-36-mitt-2014-oscar-docs-pt1/

  11. I liked THE VISIT. I found it to be effectively thrilling and entertaining. I’ll save the more in depth discussion for HMP. For now, I’ll say the thing that bothered me the most is a problem that I usually have with Shyamalan films, which is that he always has to spell everything out. It’s as if he feels he’s so much smarter than the audience that if he doesn’t hold our hand then we’ll miss just how smart he is.

    That said, I did really like the film. I’m somewhere around an 8 or 8.5 out of 10 on it.

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