27 thoughts on “Movie Podcast Weekly Ep. 160: Bridge of Spies (2015) and Crimson Peak (2015) and Goosebumps (2015)”

1. Those prizes sure are…something. Ha

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2. I’d like to recommend Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter. It’s available for streaming on Amazon Prime. It’s one of my favorite movies of the year. Highly recommended.

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   • Thank you, Juan! Great pick! I appreciate this reminder.

     Andy and I have been trying to get around to that one for months now, especially for its “Fargo” tie-in.

     Thanks again.
     J

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     • I thought we were emailing these in… I sent a few over to you.

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       • Get with the program, bro.

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         • Juan, you ruined EVERYTHING!

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3. Even though Karl already reviewed this movie, I don’t believe Jay, Andy or Ry gave any thoughts on Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Since I tend not to watch “Good” movies, that’s probably the best movie I’ve seen this year.

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4. I’m going to have to think of something great to suggest, but may I request that even if I win first place, i want the second place price. I’m really looking forward to dusting off my 1989 VCR and watching Karate Kid again. 🙂

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5. Solid episode, fellas.

   J, I agree with about 98% of your CRIMSON PEAK review. That’s a movie that is very much style over substance, in my opinion. But you can’t ignore the style because it is absolutely beautiful. The look of the house with the hole in the ceiling and leafs or snow falling through was amazing and dreamlike. The red clay bleeding through the snow and, sometimes, even through the floor boards. And, as the movie progressed, del Torro gave us glimpses of the walls actually bleeding red clay in the background or corner of the frame, almost as if the house was crying over Edith’s deterioration (or, rather, mirroring her deterioration).

   There’s a lot to that movie… a lot of meaning found within the style elements. I never felt like anything was done in a way just to be beautiful; it always tied back into the story somehow. The lack of substance to me, though, is in the story itself. You mentioned this, and I completely agree – the story was pretty basic and didn’t really hit for me. Nevermind the disappointment that the film was not the horror ghost story it promised… I can get over that… but the story we got wasn’t really all that compelling, either. What a shame to waste such beautiful style and excellent acting on a rather ordinary story.

   Where we disagree, however, is whether or not this is a horror movie. The film isn’t a full blown ghost story (you rightly mentioned the self-referential line about it being a story with ghosts in it), nor is it ever really scary. It is, however, very macabre throughout, both in theme and style. Because of this, I still consider it to be within the horror realm. I also really dug the design of the ghosts, which you didn’t seem to keen on.

   I’ve been meaning to share some thoughts on this movie over on HMP as a 31 Days of Halloween post, but I’m still not quite sure where I fall for a number rating on this one. My initial feeling after seeing the movie was right around where you are, J, in the 7 range. But the more I think about it the more I want to see it again. Ultimately, I think I’ll need to watch it at least one more time in order to get a good handle on my feelings for it.

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   • And, by leafs, I meant leaves.

     Sorry, too many years working in hockey has ruined the pluralization of that word for me.

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     • And, by “seem to keen on” I meant “seem too keen on.”

       I is smart.

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       • Dino fail English? That’s unpossible.

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         • I see what you did there.

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   • “I think I’ll need to watch it at least one more time in order to get a good handle on my feelings for it.”

     That’s exactly what she said 😉

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     • Exactly.

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6. J’s mini-review of THE PRINCE OF EGYPT made me laugh, hard. It also got me thinking of times I showed my son a movie that wasn’t necessarily age appropriate, but I didn’t realize it wasn’t age appropriate until we were watching it together. Two instances immediately came to mind, although neither of them are as funny as J’s.

   The first is when I showed my son JURASSIC PARK when he was just 2 years old. He was going through a huge dinosaur phase at this time, so I thought it was perfect. Of course, the very first scene of the movie with that raptor attack is pretty intense. My boy immediately threw his face in my lap and said “I’m scared, I’m scared!” #dadFail

   The second instance was when I showed my son SPIDER-MAN (2002) last year. My boy is a superhero nut, and Spidey is his absolute favorite. I figured 4 years old was a good age for him to finally see that movie, since it’s rather bubble gum and only PG. As we’re watching it, there were certain words spoken and things that were happening on screen – of both the romantic sort and the borderline scary sort – that made me think “hmmm, this is pretty intense for a PG movie.” It didn’t help that my wife walked into the room as one of these questionably inappropriate moments was happening. She immediately said “what are you showing him?!” I said it’s Spider-Man, and not to worry because it’s PG. After that, she immediately went over to the DVD case, looked at it, and said “it’s PG-13, you idiot… turn it off.” Of course, my son protested, so she let us finish the movie. But, she made sure I knew that I would be the one waking up with him the next few nights when he woke up with nightmares… which, of course, happened.

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   • Hahahaha I loved that your wife called you the I word right after she slapped your hand for showing him a PG-13 movie. I have no kids, so whenever you, Jay, and the others start talking in daddy terms, it makes me wonder if I’m too insensitive to be one. For instance, when Jay said that the baby killings depicted in Prince of Egypt were too much for his kid, I immediately thought “really?” haha. Sigh… what’s wrong with me? :/

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     • I find it to be an unique situation, particularly when it comes to parents around my age group worrying about what they’re children and then there’s me who has these memories of the fun of watching something that you weren’t supposed to watch. Did watching something “Inappropriate” give me nightmares? Sure, but that was part of the experience and became this exciting story to share with your friends in the whole “Can you top this?” story.

       So whenever I hear about these responsible adults discussing what not to show their children, a part me of is wanting them to let their kid watch something really scary so that the kid has that badge of courage and something to brag about. I do realize that’s not the most responsible thing to do though.

       I think that’s part of the appeal of being an uncle compared to being a father. You don’t need to worry so much about your niece or nephew watching something too intense for them as long as they don’t tell their mom. A few years back, something similar happened when I was looking after my niece and nephew and I only learned after the fact that they weren’t exactly allowed to watch Invader Zim. To this day, I’m not sure why that show was banned at that point, but when my sister told me that, a part of me wanted to show them more episodes. Ha

       So don’t feel bad, Juan.

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       • Gentlemen, I felt similarly (and, in some ways, still do) as the two of you. All I can say is, for me, everything changed once I had this little person I was responsible for. I won’t presume to speak for all father’s out there, but I imagine it works the same for most people.

         Of course, there are also different levels of sensitivity, and different things that we are (or aren’t) particularly sensitive to. So, it’s all relative.

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         • Honestly, a lot of it has to do with sleep, too. In other words, theoretically, I’m completely fine with showing my son any horror movie of mine that he wants to see. I would love that. In reality, though, I know that his young mind wouldn’t be able to deal with it, which means he’ll be waking me up with nightmares in the middle of the night for the foreseeable future.

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         • Ha, that last post makes me sound like a completely callous, selfish father!

           It’s true, though…

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7. Just a general note to MPW –

   Just because something is in the trailer for a movie doesn’t mean that it isn’t a spoiler for the movie.

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   • Is this in reference to them playing the trailers before their reviews?

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     • Not at all. I like that J puts those in… gives the podcast a level of professional quality.

       Plus, for some reason, it’s easy to tune out and/or forget words and sound when there are no visuals to go along with them.

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   • Dino,
     I completely agree with you. 100 percent. And I try to “protect” viewers’ experiences when a movie’s trailer reveals blatant spoiler material. For instance, I warn against watching the trailer if it’s awful about spoilers — such as the trailer for “Sicario.” I’m also the one who selects and edits the trailers that precede our reviews, so I try to be very choosy about the content of the trailer excerpts…

     And I know that you actually avoid trailers altogether for this reason. And I would probably do the same thing, if I weren’t so obsessed with getting inside the theater early to “prepare myself” for each movie experience.

     However, having established above that I agree with you, I think it’s important to recognize that *most* (and I don’t hesitate to say most) of the world considers trailer content to be “fair game,” when it comes to spoiler material.

     Now here’s where I make enemies of my friends…

     You wouldn’t know this, but behind the scenes in the recording of MPW, I am outnumbered three to one when it comes to spoilers. Each week I probably completely remove three to five percent of what Karl says (ha ha — Karl is our most egregious spoiler), and I have to edit Andy from time to time, and even Ryan (albeit rarely).

     My hero David Chen on The /Filmcast is such a Nazi about spoilers — and he’s so hyper-sensitive to spoilers — that he actually drives me a little bit nuts with how obnoxious he can be toward his co-hosts and especially his guests. So, I’ve tried to temper myself somewhat, in order to avoid David Chen extremes.

     However, in this upcoming, MPW Halloween episode, for instance, I still feel it necessary to put a pre-show spoiler warning on the episode for “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (1971) because Karl spoils the film’s biggest moment. I know it’s more than 40 years old, but still.

     Anyway, interesting comment. Was there something we did in this episode that you were referring to?

     Thanks,
     J

     P.S. I got your e-mail. I’m checking into it, and I’ll write back soon! Thanks.

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     • Jason, I appreciate it.

       I often avoid trailers…like the latest “Star Wars Episode VII” trailer. I am avoiding that one like a champion. I even let my kids watch it while I went to the other room. They told me it was awesome, but they didn’t give me specifics. They know daddy wants to be surprised when we all go see it together in a few months.

       I hesitated listening to your “Bridge of Spies” review for fear of spoilers, but you guys handled it masterfully. Thanks for keeping Karl’s spoilers at bay. (And I am glad I listened; it sounds “Spies” is better suited for the cheap seats or a rental.)

       Much appreciated. Keep up the good work.

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     • J, you generally do a great job of protecting the listeners from spoilers, and for that I’m very grateful.

       Even though I mostly* avoid trailers, I also get to the theater early, like you, to “prepare” for a movie. I’ll just throw on my headphones and listen to a podcast with my eyes closed during the trailers. Or, if I’m with someone, I’ll step out of the theater and wait for them to text me when the trailers are over. Yes, I know, I’m ridiculous.

       Now, in reference to this episode, there wasn’t anything specific that spurred my comment**. It was more just in response to a phrase that gets bandied about on the show frequently (mostly by Karl), which is “and this isn’t a spoiler because it’s in the trailer…” It drives me a little crazy whenever I hear that. It did pop up during the BRIDGE OF SPIES review but, like I said, my comment was more of a cumulative response to that phrase making a frequent appearance on the show.

       Similarly, discussing actual events that a movie is based on is also spoilery for two reasons: 1) it can’t be assumed that everyone knows about the actual events, and 2) even if we know of the actual event, it’s never guaranteed that the movie will faithfully represent what happened. I realize it can get tricky to discuss “based on actual event” type films in any substantive manner without referencing the actual event, but I feel like in these instances it’s often used as an excuse to not be sensitive to spoilers at all.

       I guess what I’m basically saying is it’s never a good idea for someone who isn’t sensitive to spoilers to be making all of these “it’s not a spoiler because…” statements. From my perspective, nine times out of 10, it ends up being a spoiler.

       All that said, I know that I am an extreme case on the spoiler sensitivity scale, and I by no means expect the rest of the world to conform to my standards. In fact, I realize that a big part of the fun in the movie-going experience for a lot of people is watching and discussing trailers. That’s great for those people, and I would never want to take that experience away from them. All I hope for in return is for “those” people to respect the experience we in the spoiler sensitive crowd are trying to achieve.

       *I’ll watch a trailer for a movie I’m not really interested in, so I’m not exactly 100% anti-trailer… just 100% anti-trailer for interesting movies.

       **You guys definitely made life difficult for me with the Star Wars trailer discussion right at the beginning of the episode! I skipped through it, of course, but man it was killing me. 🙂

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