Movie Podcast Weekly Ep. 234: Ghost in the Shell (2017) and CHiPs (2017) and The Shack (2017)

Episode 234

Though Jason is merely a ghost in a shell, we’re starting to ramp up to full speed again here on Movie Podcast Weekly, Episode 234, where your four favorite hosts bring you three Feature Reviews of Ghost in the Shell and The Shack and an actual, for real review this time of CHiPs (Karl saw it). In this episode you’ll hear a pretty good debate about animated feature film storytelling and a decent debate about the possible underwhelming nature of “Ghost in the Shell.” Join 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. New episodes release every single week!


SHOW NOTES:

I. Introduction
— Jason still recovering from open-heart surgery and podcasting from his mom’s attic in Moundsville, WV
— Karl published in his favorite tech magazine, Sound and Vision
— Ryan asks for Karl’s help in selecting new headphones
— Ryan is getting another tattoo
— In case you missed it, last week Andy hosted MPW.
— And we hope you didn’t miss Ep. 232: Movie Podcast Women, because it is definitely a must-listen (more so than Andy’s show…).


[ 0:10:28 ] II. Mini Reviews
Karl: Life; Hans Zimmer’s North American tour; Roland founder, Ikutaro Kakehashi, has died; Moana vs. The LEGO Movie, other Disney movie plots, Kubo and the Two Strings, Jim Gaffigan’s Cinco, The Man in the High Castle Season 2, Karl’s recommendation: Blade Runner (1982) theatrical release; The Dish (2000)
Jason: The Dressmaker
Ryan: The Walking Dead Season 7 finale, Cubs baseball has begun, Rick and Morty
Andy: Green Day’s American Idiot album, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, A word or two about Amy Schumer


III. New in Theaters This Past Weekend [Friday, March 31, 2017:
Ghost in the Shell
The Boss Baby
The Zookeeper’s Wife
Full Dark
The Prison
The Blackcoat’s Daughter
A Night Without the Moon
Here Alone
The Discovery
Live Cargo
Pinch
The Death of Louis the XIV
Carrie Pilby
Persephone


FEATURE REVIEWS HAVE TIME STAMPS:

[ 0:53:01 ] IV. Feature Review: CHiPs (2017)
Karl = 6.5 ( Rental )


[ 0:58:14 ] V. Feature Review: GHOST IN THE SHELL (2017)
Jason = 9.5 ( Must-See in Theater / Buy it! )
Karl = 8 ( Theater / Buy it for a demo! )
Ryan = 7 ( Theater / Buy it for a demo! )


[ 1:27:14 ] VI. Feature Review: THE SHACK (2017)
Jason = 7 ( Strong Rental )


VII. Wrap-Up / Plugs / Ending
Thank you to our wonderful listeners who literally keep this podcast afloat with their generous and continued support:
Vance
Lance
Joseph M. in Australia
Bonnie
Christian
Joshua G
Shannon N
Tony I
Randy G
Michal
Shane W
Robert B
Mario L
Leigh B
Amos B
Adam M
Eric E
German R
Phil E
Juan


COMING UP ON MPW NEXT WEEK:
Episode 235 where we’ll be reviewing “Going in Style” and perhaps “T2 Trainspotting.” 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.

Ryan’s new Facebook page
Ry’s BIO
Ryan’s New Facebook Page
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

Fake Ryan Movie Titles:
Full Dark
A Night Without the Moon
Pinch
Persephone


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 week for Movie Podcast Weekly.


12 thoughts on “Movie Podcast Weekly Ep. 234: Ghost in the Shell (2017) and CHiPs (2017) and The Shack (2017)

  1. Last few months I was on site working but finally back to working on a computer so I have just caught up since February.

    Great to hear you are well J

    2017 so far hasn’t been the best for films except a few, so here are my top 5 wastes of time to stay away from. (or watch at your own risk of boredom)

    1.) Monster Trucks- Seriously don’t this whole concept was doomed to fail right from the start. They try and make the so called monsters fun and friendly so much so, that when they pretend to be scared of them at first its almost laughable. (3/10)

    2.) A dog’s Purpose – Don’t Judge me I was hungover and wanted something to watch or have on in the background but my oh my this was bad. You are basically watching a 2 hour video of an owner playing with a dog and someone pretending to say what it thinks.(1/10)

    3.) A dog’s Purpose – This is here twice its that bad (1/10)

    4.)The Bye Bye Man – The concept of this got me very excited but overall was just a bit of a let down. (3/10)

    5.) Underworld Blood Wars- If this series had finally ended that would be great (3.5/10)

    I wouldn’t wish these on my worst enemy, but if any off you disagree please let me know.

  2. John,
    I had been feeling sorry for myself for being subjected to open-heart surgery, but now that I see you’ve been exposed to both “Monster Trucks” AND “A Dog’s Purpose,” my heart really goes out to you, Sir, you poor soul…

    I’m glad you’re listening to MPW, though, because we warned people about those two films leading up to them, so hopefully we can save you pain in the future! : )

    Thanks for writing, Buddy.
    J

  3. J, I left you guys for two months and look what happens. I thought I was ready to explore the world of cinema on my own, how wrong I was.
    Just imagine if I had left it one more month who knows what could of happened I may of been an owner of Pan on DVD.

    Thanks for keeping the episodes coming they make work just that little bit better!

    Cheers
    John

  4. Hey you guys,
    if you want to check out a really great Australian stop motion picture watch “Mary and Max” (based on a true story) – no need to watch the trailer first.

    And if you haven’t been appreciating “Kubo and the two strings” enough, just watch those two:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDhxQloX5wc
    and
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhFRjaWYe_0

    And btw: Thanks to Mattroid for joining the club last week! Great guest on the show!

  5. With Karl’s brief mention of CHips being raunchy, it reminds me of a disappointment I’ve had with comedies as of late. I don’t if it’s because it is really this overwhelmingly common or if, god forbid, my personal tastes have changed some and I’m not as into vulgarity, but I’m finding every mainstream comedy film I’ve watched in the last few years to be so underwhelming. There’s a certain sameness where it’s a thin plot (Most of the time involving some out of control party) with non-stop vulgarity. Trying to come up with ratings for these films lately hasn’t been easier either. If I enjoy it for an one off (Christmas Office Party), it’s just in the 6/10-7/10 range and if I hated it (Ghostbusters), it’s far lower.

    Am I just missing the good comedy films and there’s actually some variety to be found? It seems to me that comedies are just missing the heart that they used to have. Sure, a movie like Planes, Trains & Automobiles is a classic and it’s unfair to expect every comedy to compare to it, but even something as recent as 2003’s Bad Santa had heart to it whereas 2016’s Bad Santa 2 was devoid of it. These days, the only comedies I care enough about to be willing to watch more than once are those with mixed genres like the fantastic Deadpool (Comedy/Superhero), The Lego Movie (Comedy/Family), or The Final Girls (Comedy/Horror).

    What happened to good comedies that didn’t just revolve around a series of endless sex jokes?

    • It’s a little bit kiddish at times, but “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” is pretty hilarious, and it feels much different than other recent comedies. My wife and I had a good time with that one. Check it out.

  6. Totally agree with the review of Ghost…. Not to put words in Ryan’s mouth but the way I described the film aside from the great CGI and visuals was simply “shallow”. It had zero depth and literally glazed over what could and should have been powerful themes. What a pity…. We had waited eagerly for this film!

  7. I loved Ghost in the Shell. I also loved the Anime. I feel like Scarlett Johanssons lack of human acting ability was finally given a voice by playing a robot.
    Please ask Karl to talk about QLED tvs on the next episode. I really wanna see one…

  8. 7-11 Movie Giveaway/Karl Huddleston Origins Watch, Day 87. #TheStruggleIsReal

    Does anyone know where Juan is? Can we fire up the Juan Signal? Check it out, Juan: The one and only Jason Pyles is blowing people up on MPW for not properly appreciating animated films. 🙂 I mean, of all the cinema that Jason hates, there’s always been a special place of flippant disdain and uncritical dismissal in his black heart for the cartoon movies that the kiddies watch. Happy to hear all of the love for the excellent Moana, as well as for Kubo and the Two Strings, my personal favorite film of 2016.

    I’m not sure who was trolling Jay by live-taping audio grabs for Mini-Bar: The Feature-Length Documentary during Karl’s review of CHIPS, but sincere kudos to Mr. Pyles for acknowledging the disruption once with a clever quip about scaffolding, and then steadfastly ignoring it until it went away. It definitely irritated me. That was a Herculean display of self-control, Jay. Bravo. While I understand the throwback impulse to dig up an amusing bit of MPW history by attempting to recreate the madcap whimsy of Karl/Andy/whoever opening a bag of M&Ms/clicking a pen/sitting too close to the upstairs drain, you have to pick your spots with that sort of thing. This attempt was too calculated, too noisy, and too prolonged.

    Also, despite not having seen The Shack, I have to back Jay 100 percent and commend the producers for their bold and outside-the-box casting choices. I mean, having a guy from Israel play Jesus is NEXT. LEVEL. radical revisionism. Mind BLOWN.

    • I see what you did there Cody Clark. I’ve been a busy little Juan, but I’ve been listening and I agree that the only one with any sense in this episode was Jay. Andy’s taste in animated movies has always baffled me. He likes good stuff for sure, but he tends to dismiss the truly great stuff for some reason. For the record, The Lego Movie is great, but it’s not even close to being one of my favorites. Definitely not top ten, maybe top 25. Maybe.

  9. HI MPW,

    I found this video about Moana which might be of interest to you guys. Andy was saying that the movie lacks substance, maybe this theory about Moana’s heritage will add another layer to the amazing story and explain few things. (you might think the video is silly at times but sit through it, its worth it).
    (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg2EA0XEnRM.
    I personally loved Moana, almost as much as Kubo and the Lego Movie. And on another note, I loved Ghost in the Shell, will definitely check out the original anime soon.

    Btw, love the show, weekly listener from Scotland:D

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *