43 thoughts on “Movie Podcast Weekly Ep. 244: The Mummy (2017) and It Comes at Night (2017) and The Bottom 5 Worst Movie Titles Ever (Part 2 of 3)”

1. Jay,

   The Lego Movie may be one of the most terrifying examinations of utopian societies in cinema. It is horrifying… a world of perfect order and conformity.Those who do not conform are frozen in place, and creativity is smashed and destroyed wherever it is found. It takes heavy inspiration from 1984 and also seeks to expand and create new narrative strings.

   It breaks the fourth wall to explain generational differences and perceptions. It is an amazing achievement in art.

   Fern Gully with large blue aliens, pretty as they may be, is a lazy retelling of the fish out of water scenario with bad dialogue and predictable story arcs. And while it may be stunningly beautiful, it is one of the laziest and poorly written scripts I’ve ever had the displeasure to sit through. “UNOBTAINIUM”?!?!!

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   • OK, I can’t defend or explain “Unobtanium”… You got me there. It’s dumb. Maybe it needs some sort of life-changing reveal, like the meaning of “Kragle.”

     “Avatar” has fewer fish-out-of-water aspects than its environmentalist subtext. But the film really isn’t about either of those things at its core: “Avatar” is actually one of those “white guilt fantasies” in which, ironically, a white Messianic figure becomes the best of — and savior of — the noble savage characters.

     I consider this narrative ironic because unfortunately, what attempts to begin as a white redemption tale actually doubles down on itself and unwittingly reinforces its “white supremacy over native inferiority” message.

     As I said, this is unfortunate, but I think “Avatar” illustrates, case in point, a pervasive near-sightedness about race and racism, especially from the perspective of well-meaning white males (like James Cameron — or me!). This sort of self-damning blunder makes “Avatar” even more hilarious than “The Lego Movie.”

     Indeed, Redcapjack, as with the moon of Pandora, on Earth everything is truly *not* awesome. And while “The Lego Movie” may be a commentary on “1984,” I think “Avatar” is more valuable to demonstrate that we still have the same problems we had back in 1964.

     Your blue people-loving pal,
     J

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     • If you would like to gaze into the farce that is James Cameron and his laziness when it comes to writing take a gander at this little video from my man DO’B.

       https://youtu.be/fOgIljJK_lE

       Avatar is beautiful, stunning even. It’s the reason CGI was born into this primordial hellscape. But that is where praise for the film should end. From dialog to plot to acting there is just a general mailiase about it that makes me hate.

       It’s a big budget Gods Of Egypt with loving parents who won’t do the right thing and euthanize it at the vet.

       Seven sequels and an amusement park…..kill me

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     • Ok. My second d issue with Avatar- hey, corporate jerk who seems hell bent in digging for a previous Orr eitha terrible name… We scientists discovered a high speed means of organic communication that requires no few raw materials and it occurs naturally. This zillion dollars idea is here and ready to be explored for untold wealth..

       No, let’s blow it all up instead.

       It’s not that story is old or bad or even lazy… It’s that it’s so shoddily put together with one trope after another.

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   • I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again; “Unobtainium” is a genuine scientific term used as a generic placeholder type name usually in hypothetical scenarios. I don’t know if Avatar used the term in the correct context or if they arrived at the use of the term through laziness or contempt for the audience but it is technically a word with precedent in the science community.

     Avatar still sucks though.

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     • I know it exsts but it’s designed as a “factor x”, while this is a specified material used with a purpose. Such as it is, that would wholly undermine the usage of unobyainium as a description.

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       • Very good point. It seems like more a thought experiment type thing not something you can claim is an actual tangible substance.

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2. Finally, a listener I can respect. I forgot his name already (I’m pretty sure it was a made up name anyway), but that one guy said something I agree with about the Lego Movie. He’s my new favorite person.

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3. Uh – amen to what Ryan said. Sorry J. Sometimes we’re just wrong about things. 🙂

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4. Hey all, Mr. Barlow here from over at the HMP podcast. Had to post my thoughts on IT Comes At Night
   *****SPOILERS*****SPOILERS*****SPOILERS*****SPOILERS****SPOILERS***

   I am probably going to be alone in this boat seeing as how much praise this movie has gotten. In some cases I think a nontraditional movie format works, I don’t think it worked in this case. I myself am a fan of traditional movie making. Meaning I like a beginning, a middle, and an end. For this movie I felt it was just the middle of the story.
   The characters were strong, and expertly portrayed by their respective actors, but I didn’t appreciate the several set-ups without any payoffs.

   Set-up 1: The story about the brother that ended up being a brother in law.
   Set-up 2: The dog goes missing and is returned nearly dead.
   Set-up 3: Son drawing creepy pictures of things in the woods.
   Set-up 5: Son sees something horrible in the woods.
   Set-up 6: Absolutely nothing comes at night.

   I know this is a thinking man’s movie (of which I am not), but I didn’t appreciate the building of intensity and tension only to not reveal anything at all. Yes, the dynamic between the members in the house was interesting and the tension built was real, but I believe this entire movie could have been executed as a short. I really feel as though you can talk all you want with out spoiling this movie because there is nothing to spoil.
   Like I said, I know I’m gonna be alone in this boat, and I’m no movie critic, but thought I would add a counter to all the glowing reviews I have seen.

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   • What I realized only after leaving the theater (I was in a similar place as you right after seeing it) is that the movie does reveal everything, and there is something significant to spoil. Well, it doesn’t reveal it overtly, but it’s there. And brilliantly obscured, IMO. I really can’t say any more, though. Suffice to say that how the dog got back inside and how the red door was open, and what the situation at the end really is, all does have an answer.

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   • POTENTIAL SPOILER!!!!!!

     Hint: What comes at night, for you and me and most people? It’s not nothing. And maybe what that is isn’t what it appears to be as depicted.

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     • Hey Eric,
       Like I said I’m not an extremely deep thinker 🙂 I picked up on a few things, and I do like some mystery, but I don’t like walking out of a theater and having to think if I liked a movie or not. For me it should be automatic. That factor just wasn’t there for me. I do like quite a few movies that others think are horrible, but that’s the great thing about a variety of people and a variety of movies. There is something for everyone:)

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5. “You’re his Insurrection…..that’s what she said.” Hahahahaha, why was I so shocked to hear that come from Jay?!

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6. Jay, I think the preface you added to the beginning of the podcast actually makes things a lot weirder than they actually are. I know it was a good thought that came from a good place, but it was a bit creepy haha. Just saying.

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7. Since it was never reviewed on MPW (Why do you hate the cinema, Jay?), I just wanted to throw a bit of love to Power Rangers.

   I’m someone who had very basic knowledge of Power Rangers. I watched it when I was in the first and second grade (The beginning of Might Morphin Power Rangers and stopping not long after three ranger (Black, red, and yellow?) were replaced) and I’ve heard some of the titles for the later seasons (There was like neo, in space, dinosaurs? Idk…) Since the trailers looked pretty decent, I wanted to give the movie a chance, even though I didn’t have any high expectations. Script wise, there’s absolutely nothing “New”. It follows the same basic story for any superhero story. However, from the very beginning, there was a fun value to the film. Billy, the blue ranger, a character I never cared for even as a kid, this time around actually stole the show for me. With the character being on the spectrum, it brought something more to the role rather than just being the geek.

   While I’m sure there’s nods to the other seasons, there were just enough nods to the seasons I’m familiar that would peak my interest every once in awhile. Some of those nods would be classified as spoilers while others are more fair game to mention (EG. The use of the classic theme song late in the movie). The film took the time to introduce the characters, show their training, coming together, and even showed restraint for how quickly they’d create the Megazord by combing all of their zords (I have very little memories of the individual zords getting in much action as it was mostly all about just forming the Megazord). There was one moment in the film that had me having to restrain myself from yelling “Nooooo!” at my screen. Sure, there was some cheesiness to the movie, but it wasn’t anything compared to the original TV series.

   With how much fun it was watching Power Rangers, I’m completely down for a Power Rangers 2 to come out. It’s worth the watch if you were (Are?) a fan of Power Rangers or just superheros in general.

   I’d give it a rating of 7/10.

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   • Dito, Sal. I was also very impressed by what I saw. Perhaps because I wasn’t expecting much, but it does do a lot of things that a movie like this typically doesn’t. It’s a 7.5 for me. I’d give it an 8 or higher if it hadn’t fallen apart a little towards the end, but I guess they had to go all Mighty Morphin’ on our ass.

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8. I haven’t listened to the Wonder Woman ep yet, so I don’t know if these bad titles were mentioned then, but I give you two that are both from 1994, both star Tim Robbins, and both are excellent:

   The Hudsucker Proxy
   The Shawshank Redemption

   The latter being one of my top films of all time, and last I checked, still holding #1 on IMDb. So sure, the name hasn’t hurt in the long run (and it is very fitting), but I think both of them tanked at the box office because of their names.

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9. Hey Jay, just curious if you guys are having issues with your servers timing out…I’ve noticed my comments from here and HMP disappearing only to reappear the next day. No biggie just didn’t want to fill the comments with double post.

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   • It’s possible, Mr. Barlow. (Sorry about that.) Our Web host has changed many things recently (and it hasn’t always been for the best). So, please feel free to post, and if I see duplicate comments, I’ll just delete the duplicate. Thanks for letting me know. — J

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     • Can you check the visibility of my posts by anyone other than Jenifer for the last several months?
       😜

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       • HaHa. Crickets.

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10. I liked the new Mummy okay (6.5). Yeah, it’s not spectacular, but it was a decent enough thrill ride for me, and I liked Tom Cruise’s intensity and character. I think the criticism for it is somewhat overblown.

    But yeah, I liked the 1999 one a lot more (I’d give it an 8). When you compared that to Indiana Jones, I had just seen this video posted: https://youtu.be/nSEgLzTY4-4 – 24 Reasons The Mummy (1999) is Just Like Raiders of the Lost Ark.

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    • WR Jr.’s Scooby Doo scene description was HILARIOUS!
      😆

      I can’t argue against any of the complaints about the movie. I just ran with it and enjoyed it okay.

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      • Thanks Eric…
        You’re my new best friend.

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        • Ooh, you make me live!
          😎

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          • Er, it occurs to me that I should mention that was a reference to the Queen song, “You’re My Best Friend.” Otherwise, that might have seemed like a very odd response.
            😜

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11. The Lego Movie is outstanding.

    And Avatar is pretty great, too.

    We all live in a yellow chrono-synclastic-infundibulum.

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12. Jay is totally underselling how well The NeverEnding Story holds up in his mini review. This film is packed with so much strange, beautiful and vivid imagery that it never fails to capture my imagination. Also, It’s unafraid to push the boundaries when it comes to scariness in a kids movie, it’s chock full of genuine heart, boasts some truly mesmerising practical effects and sets and has one of the greatest theme songs ever. If you can’t enjoy it as an adult them I’m afraid for the welfare of your inner child, Jay.

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    • I’d have to see it again to be sure I agree with you, David, but I did see Neverending Story many years ago as an adult and loved it. J admits not liking kids/animated movies, generally speaking, so I don’t trust him much on those. Speaking of which…

      I had a little bit of interest in watching Storks, as I thought the trailer and premise was pretty funny, but I stopped watching about 15-20 minutes in because it was pretty awful up to that point. According to J, that’s exactly when it gets good, but it would have had to really make a leap to keep my interest from that point.

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    • I also thinks it holds up pretty well too.

      I’m not sure what aspects Jason thought didn’t work anymore, maybe I should of asked him in the moment… my bad.

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    • I just bought it on blu ray. It’s been a while since I have seen it but I am sure it will hold up for me. Jay just hates the cinema.

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13. Not sure if anybody has mentioned it yet but Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia has to be one of the very worst titles of all time.

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14. Talking about bad movie titles – I’m not sure if you guys know that they sometimes change or translate movie titles here in Germany.
    That’s probably helpful for non-English speakers but more often it’s just simply dumb, e.g. “Bend it like Beckham” is now “Kick it like Beckham” (yes, in English…I still don’t get that one).
    But one of the worst ones is probably “Dodgeball” which is “Voll auf die Nüsse” in German and means something like “Right in the nuts”.
    Does that mean the marketing sucks or just the target audience?

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15. Speaking of The Lego Movie, I’m sure you have heard (or will soon) that the directors of that have been fired from the Han Solo movie. Big wow to that. I’d be looking forward to it, regardless, but that was a pretty big draw.

    Apparently, Ron Howard is the forerunner to take over. He’s a great director, but I haven’t outright loved a movie of his in a very long time. Shooting had almost wrapped, though, so presumably whoever takes over is just doing some readjustment and reshoots. I can’t imagine they would scrap too much of what has already been shot. But who knows.

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16. Thought while we were on the subject of horrible movie titles I’d bring up these awesome knock off movie posters from Ghana. They lack descent facilities there for watching movies, so they form movie clubs. Since it is an extremely underdeveloped region they create their on movie posters. Some of the posters are created without the artists ever seeing the movie. Even if they are bad they are awesome, but there is definitely some extremely talented people creating these. I here they are going for big bucks now.
    http://twistedsifter.com/2011/09/30-hilarious-bootleg-movie-posters-from-ghana/

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17. Of course hearing the hate for The Hobbit, tears me up. Sadly, I love the fact that they were brought to the big screen, but YES, it failed on delivery. I won’t make excuses for Peter Jackson,but I feel the entire Hobbit series was a studio trying to tap that cash cow. When it was originally announced with only 2 films, I was ecstatic. Once the move to the trilogy format, I groaned immediately. The book is great, but not how it translated to film. I actually took a class in college all about The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. So I feel I have a deeper understanding to the film, only having it broken down on different levels. The LOTR series still holds tight. The Hobbit series needs a severe re-edit to only 2 films. It drags, bit with Peter Jackson having to take over as director when Guillermo Del Toro was pulled off. Then PJ was given an accelerated schedule for the film to be delivered on schedule. The Hobbit needed MORE time to correct all the errors that were made, only to save on time when it actually hindered the film. I wanted the films to be great and only got good. The story was tweaked slightly from various source material, Tolkien wrote and this was Peter Jackson’s interpretation. I feel the Hobbit trilogy is entertaining, but suffered from the studio demanding a quick return. Ugh! I want to defend, but it’s hard to. I’m always willing to discuss. And yes, The Similarian is another Tolkien book that was used for material and I hope it is made into a film. Keep cashing in on that cow. I’ll be there opening weekend.

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18. Got a chance to see Band Aid yesterday. It’s a film by (and starring) Zoe Lister-Jones, about a married couple (her and Adam Pally) that fights all the time and finds it therapeutic to write songs about their fights. They form a garage band with their odd neighbor (Fred Armisan from Portlandia), and hilarity ensues. Well, not often hilarity. It’s alternately funny, touching, and poignant, and digs into some deep places that I related to from my marriage.

    I kind of wish it had been just a little more funny, overall, though I suspect that it would have made it harder to go to some of its heavier places if it was more of an outright comedy. And though Fred Armisan is always likeable, his character here turned out to be more absurd than I think was fitting. The very first scene with him is terrific, though, before you know too much about him.

    Worth mentioning for a film involving songwriting is that the songs are fitting and funny for what they’re supposed to be, but not very memorable or musical. Don’t go into this expecting to leave humming the tunes like Sing Street or La La Land. But the couple are just hobby musicians doing this on a whim, so its just as well that what they churn out isn’t going to compete with Lennon/McCartney.

    7.5

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19. A big “like” to Gesche from Germany for the adapted movie titles and to Mr Barlow about the bootleg movie posters. It’s fun to hear about the pop culture and movie experience of those living outside the US. As a US citizen who has never lived in another country, I sometimes like to think and wonder about how Hollywood drives this industry around the world. How [I think] (other than Bollywood) there’s no real equivalent worldwide and how different it must be to watch “all the movies made in and by the United States”. I watch maybe one or two foreign films a year and am largely unaware of films coming from other places. Gesche, do you watch a lot of German-made films? Many “foreign” films? Do you even call them “foreign”? Do I sound like the stupidest American ever?

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    • Haha, no, those are great questions, Jenifer! I just hope that I won’t bore you with my unqualified answer 😉

      There are good and big German film productions and some of them even are successful internationally – for example “Victoria”, “The Lives of Others”, “Downfall” – all of them got Oscars or at least nominations in the last few years. But of course our companies don’t deal with those amounts of budgets and distribution rates like Hollywood does.
      Films from Hollywood are very present here in Europe, or at least in the big cinemas. I just counted: The local Cinemaxx is playing 18 U.S. made movies right now, 2 German ones and one animation film which is a European cooperation. So of course films from the U.S. (including Netflix productions etc.) influence the mainstream market.

      But on the other hand Europe has its own important film productions, companies and festivals – like Cannes and the Berlinale. The variety in smaller cinemas is huge: German, British, French, Dutch, Belgian, Luxembourgian and Icelandic productions (and a lot of international cooperations) are just a few of the origins of the pictures that are in our local theaters right now. I guess it is a huge advantage that we often have the opportunity to choose between a dubbed or a subtitled version which makes it much easier to enjoy a variety of international films (although dubbed versions can be pretty bad).
      I heard that it’s not allowed to dub foreign films in the US – is that right? If that’s true, I guess that’s one of the reasons why European films are not as present over there as they could be. Well, and I’m pretty sure Hollywood is not interested in a successful diverse market – are there more Oscars for international productions than the “Foreign language Oscar”? Why would they produce remakes of perfectly good movies? (I’m still crying about “Oldboy”).

      So to answer your questions: I do watch German films, if they are worth watching (and not another chick flic etc.). And I would call a non-German film a “foreign film”, but I assume that those are much more present and accessible over here than in the United States.

      I hope that was a bit insightful (and not too much jibberish – it’s really late over here) and I hope you guys stay curious! There is some good stuff out there!
      If you enjoy really dark humor I recommend “Adams apples” (from Denmark);
      If you like to smile watch “Babies” (a documentary without any words from France);
      And one of my favorite stop motion pictures is “Max & Mary” which deals with a complex friendship “…between two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York” (not necessarily for kids). Well, this film is not from Europe but from Australia and still one of my favorites. Enjoy!

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      • Oh and “The Intouchables” was a very successful French comedy film based on a true story about an aristocrat who hires an unqualified caregiver from the projects. We have it on Netflix, but I can’t see if you can watch it in the US.

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20. Baby Driver includes ample amounts of both rock and roll. 9.5

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21. Gesche; thanks for the thoughtful reply and the recommendations! I have seen “Babies” multiple times and we love to listen to the soundtrack, too. Very wonderful. I’m putting the others you suggested on my list.

    I don’t know about the dubbing rule, ( bet I can count on one hand the number of dubbed movies I have ever watched) and as far as I know there are no other awards for foreign films except that one. And the film industry over here seems primarily interested/motivated in the big budget movies. Jay and the gang talk frequently about the dearth of indie films in the theaters and how and why so many movies go to limited release. We have to look really hard to get off the beaten highway sometimes and see something that is not spoon-fed to us.

    It’s fun to hear how movie watching is for you. You sound like a smart person who watches quite a variety of things. I’ll be watching for your comments around here. Happy watching, Gesche!

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