Movie Podcast Weekly Ep. 161: Steve Jobs (2015) and The Last Witch Hunter (2015) and 10 Cinematic Halloween Treats

Episode 161

Happy Halloween from your spooky friends at Movie Podcast Weekly, where we’re Not Overly Serious About Anything, Except Maybe Movies… We have a special, Halloween-themed episode for you. In Episode 153, we bring you Feature Reviews of Steve Jobs and The Last Witch Hunter. Each MPW host also provides two creepy movie recommendations (plus two bonuses!) that will be perfect for watching during Halloween.

Also in this episode, Jason, Andy and Karl take this opportunity to rate Ryan’s performance after his first five months as an official MPW host. Oh, and we should probably warn everyone up front that Andy sparks some controversy with his opinions of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” versus “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Joins us!

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
— This is our 2015 MPW Halloween Special
— Reporting to James: The MPW David Lynch episode
— Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens – highest box office ever and a new idiot group
— Oct. 21, 2015 Back to the Future Day


[ 0:12:58 ] II. Mini Reviews
Karl: PBS Nature series – Pets: Wild at Heart
Jason: (Dark Matter TV series on Netflix), Everest, The Flash Season 1, Episodes 1-7, San Andreas, Rating Geek Cast Ry, From One Second to the Next – Werner Herzog short film documentary
Ryan: * * * (Nothing. Minus two rating points…)
Andy: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), Magic in the Moonlight, Kill the Messenger, Fury


III. New in Theaters This Past Weekend:
Steve Jobs [ Nationwide Expansion ]
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension
Jem and the Holograms
The Last Witch Hunter
Rock the Kasbah
Suffragette
I Smile Back
Burnt [ Opens in NYC / LA ]
Nasty Baby
Difret


FEATURE REVIEWS HAVE TIME STAMPS:

[ 0:53:11 ] IV. Feature Review: STEVE JOBS (2015)
Jason = 6.5 ( Low-priority Rental )
Karl = 9 ( Theater / Rental )

Steve Jobs article that Jason recommends.


[ 1:15:30 ] V. Feature Review: THE LAST WITCH HUNTER (2015)
Ryan = 7.5 ( Buy it! )


— Listen to Kyle “Dr. Walking Dead” Bishop on this RadioWest interview about zombies!

[ 1:29:19 ] V. MPW Halloween Special: 10 CREEPY MOVIE RECOMMENDATIONS TO WATCH THIS HALLOWEEN

1. The Vanishing (1988) – Jay’s pick.

2. It Follows (2015) – Andy’s pick.

3. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949) animated – Karl’s pick.

4. Stephen King’s It (1990) – Ryan’s pick.

5. Dead and Buried (1981) – Jay’s pick.

6. John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) – Karl’s pick. (Karl also recommended “The Lost Boys” (1987) while not “on the air,” after this recording.)

7. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) – Ryan’s pick.

8. Trick `r Treat (2009) – Andy’s pick.

(Bonus) 9. Let the Right One In (2008) – Andy’s pick.

(Bonus) 10. Alice Sweet Alice (1976) – Jay’s pick.


VI. Wrap-Up / Plugs / Ending


COMING UP ON MPW NEXT WEEK:
Episode 162 where we’ll be reviewing “Truth,” “Burnt,” “Bone Tomahawk” and “Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse.” Join us!


LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

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.

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

Jason recommends supporting: Operation Underground Railroad

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.


13 thoughts on “Movie Podcast Weekly Ep. 161: Steve Jobs (2015) and The Last Witch Hunter (2015) and 10 Cinematic Halloween Treats

  1. Solid episode, fellas. It was both entertaining and irritating.

    I haven’t seen STEVE JOBS, but I don’t plan to see it, either. Mostly because, from what I’ve heard, it’s not actually very representative of Jobs’ life. Also, as good a writer as Aaron Sorkin is, I often find his dialogue to be somewhat distracting. I think J nailed it on the head when he said that sometimes it’s too perfect.

    Going to have to check out BONE TOMAHAWK sometime this week. Glad you guys are covering it (a shame it couldn’t make the upcoming cannibal themed episode on HMP).

    And for the record, Ry, I said Chicago drools… not sucks.

      • I can’t really remember, now. I think it was either the CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY discussion or the STEVE JOBS discussion… probably both.

        With CHARLIE, I was getting a very strong anti-remake vibe, which is very closed-minded and always bugs me. With JOBS, it bugs me when people make these “factual” claims about someone as if they actually knew the person. By all accounts, from what I’ve heard, the Walter Isaacson biography was not actually very accurate. I’m not saying Jobs, the man, wasn’t a tough individual… that he was is pretty well documented… but those who were closest to him (his wife, Tim Cook, etc) almost universally claim Isaacson’s book inaccurately portrayed the reality.

        In all truth, though, saying the episode irritated me because of these two things is a bit of a misrepresentation of reality in itself. Sort of like I was channeling my inner-Isaacson when I wrote that. It moreso just highlights my main frustration with the podcast format in general, which is the inability to immediately retort what is being said on the show.

        • I hear ya. I’ve found myself screaming at my phone quite a few times.

          I don’t think I got the same vibe as you. I think they just really like the original movie, which isn’t that good in all honesty. It’s so boring. Im not gonna lie. I’ve never been able to watch it in its entirety :/

          As far as the factual claims. I’m with you there. People—and by people I mean all of us—sometimes get too excited about something or someone and claim things that aren’t facts or if they are, there’s no way they would know for sure. But hey, nothing wrong with a little fanaticism here and there. It’s pretty normal, I think.

  2. Even though fans tend not to talk much about Stephen King’s recent work, I’m still a big fan of his work. Without trying to be too dramatic, Revival hit me really hard. It’s a soul crushing novel that makes life feel so short. Maybe I’ve just reached a point in my life where life takes on a different meaning and it doesn’t feel as everlasting as it does for kids, but Revival made me feel so much.

    I really dig any of the segments where Karl talks horror. For someone who self admittedly dislikes the genre, it makes for an interesting listen when he openly praises some horror.

    Dead & Buried is a nice little 80’s hidden gem. My first time seeing it ended up being frustrating though. By the end of the movie, I guess there were some smudges on the DVD, causing it to skip. As much as I wanted to stop the movie so I could clean the disc, I was so invested in the story that I didn’t want to stop it.

    Alice Sweet Alice has to be at the top of my “I’ve been meaning to watch it” list. It seems as if every October for the last few years, it’s been on my list to watch, but for whatever reason, I keep skipping over it.

    • Hey Sal, I’m not sure if you’re a comic book guy, but there’s a comic called REVIVAL that you reminded me about with your comment. It’s about a little town in Wisconsin where for the duration of 24 hours, the dead come back to life. Not as zombies, as regular people. Well, as regular as one can be. Then, there other things a play… like murder! It kind of plays like a murder mystery. It’s a lot of fun!

      • I never got into comics. Even as a kid, I had maybe…8 comics, some of which were just the free ones that stores sometimes had. At this point, I believe I own…2(?) comics:

        – Halloween Nightdance – It’s Halloween and Michael Myers. Why else would I own it? Side note – holy crap, it’s not cheap anymore. Ha

        – WWF: When I Get My Hands On You! – Only comic I kept from my childhood. Contains two issues of WWF Battlemania with The Ultimate Warrior needing to find the strength to battle The Undertaker and The Big Boss Man saves some snot nose kids from The Mountie.

        I did read the first…102 issues of The Walking Dead through less than legal means online though.

        I might see if I can find REVIVAL though. Zombie comics can be kind of fun.

  3. The episode is just ending in my ears right now and was surprised my name came up…I hope you guys like Bone Tomahawk because for once I hope the general consensus is good…

  4. C’mon guys – up your game! Aren’t you horror film aficionados? 🙂 You must know that the theme music from ‘Halloween’ is a ripoff (or riff, depending on your generosity) of ‘The Excorcist’s extremely popular theme music from 5 years earlier, Mike Oldfield’s spectacular ‘Tubular Bells’:

  5. So Jay tells Ry that he’s about to say something that will make Ry happy. Then he says, “I just finished watching the first 7 episodes of” and then *doesn’t* say, “Game of Thrones.” I forget, did Jay ever even actually watch an episode, or did he just announce that he was going to? I vaguely remember that he might have watched one episode and then never spoken about the show again.

    Also, I agree with Andy that “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is surprisingly good, and that Johnny Depp is even more surprisingly good in the role of Willie Wonka. I don’t think that diminishes Gene Wilder’s performance at all. Johnny Depp just also plays that character well. Although the hints of Michael Jackson are creepy and weird. Still, “Charlie” is a very solid take on Dahl’s material by Burton, Depp and the rest. Fun and undervalued movie.

    Ridley Scott directed the Macintosh ad that aired during the Super Bowl in 1984, so maybe the “Steve Jobs” filmmakers were thanking him for that influence, or something. Is the ad shown in the movie? Kinda bummed that Jay didn’t like it more, but I’ll probably still act on Karl’s strong recommendation and go see it. The Ashton Kutcher movie is actually decent. Not great, but engaging probably on a lot of the same levels, and has a fun cast peppered with a shload of B-listers.

  6. Hi fellas !

    Just a tip for next time someone is planning to mention it : Spoorloos is pronounced
    something like “spore-lows” 🙂

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