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Well … begrudgingly, we bring you Movie Podcast Weekly, Episode 246, which had the potential to destroy this very podcast and the friendships that were forged herein… If you brave this show, you will hear two Feature Reviews of Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) and Oh, Hello on Broadway (2017). To clarify, the latter is the subject of much controversy. It is currently streaming on Netflix, so if you listen to this show, you are involved. This means you must watch the production on Netflix and then vote in our dispute-settling poll question below. We also drag special guest William Rowan Jr. (of The Sci-Fi Podcast) into the fray… Poor William.
PLEASE CLICK TO VOTE ON OUR DAMN POLL HERE!
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
— Warnings about this episode
— Welcome guest William Rowan Jr.
[ 0:04:35 ] II. Mini Reviews – Part 1
Karl: William Rowan Jr’s “The Villa” (2017)
[ 0:15:36 ] III. Feature Review: OH, HELLO ON BROADWAY (2017)
[ 0:44:46 ] IV. Mini Reviews Continued…
Karl: Harry Potter’s 20-year anniversary, Vice
Jason: Jesus of Nazareth (1977) mini series, The Sci-Fi Podcast: Guardians … Vol. 2
William Rowan Jr: The Batman LEGO Movie, The Shannara Chronicles
Ryan: Live PD
Andy: The Last Man on Earth – Season 1, Ep. 1
V. New in Theaters This Past Weekend [ Friday, June 23, 2017 ]:
Transformers: The Last Knight
The Bad Batch
The Shunning of Jake
Ripped
Renegade Sun
The Big Sick
Vengeance of Youth
Post
A Beginner’s Guide to Snuff
FEATURE REVIEWS HAVE TIME STAMPS:
[ 1:10:55 ] VI. Feature Review: TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT (2017)
Jason = 2 ( Avoid )
Karl = 6.5 ( Theater / Rental )
William Rowan Jr = 2 ( Theater / Rental )
VII. Wrap-Up / Plugs / Ending
COMING UP ON MPW NEXT WEEK:
Episode 247 where we’ll be reviewing “Baby Driver” and “The Beguiled” and “Despicable Me 3.” Join us!
LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:
Be sure to hear more from William Rowan Jr. on The Sci-Fi Podcast!
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Post
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Thoughts on Oh, Hello on Broadway.
First, a preface
– I had zero knowledge of this comedy act prior to watching this.
– I watched it before listening to the podcast, so I had zero knowledge of who liked it or who hated it. All I knew was that apparently there was a debate, without even knowing how many hosts were involved in it.
– I enjoy and watch a good amount of stand-up specials on Netflix. Not all of them are my jam, but I probably watch more comedy specials than movies on Netflix. Speaking of which, the new Netflix standup comedy series, The Standups, had six greatly enjoyable episodes. Check it out.
– I was familiar with both comedians before hand. I’ve loved the 2-3 John Mulaney comedy specials that I’ve seen. For Nick Kroll, I did love him on The League, I think he tends to be really good in movies particularly the indie dramas, but I hated his role on Parks & Rec and the single episode of the Kroll Show that I could stomach before refusing to watch any more.
– Most importantly, I watched the entire Oh Hello on Broadway.
With all of that out of the way, I can honestly say I hated Oh Hello. I’ll admit, a few of the jokes made me chuckle, but that was very rare. Most of the time I sat in silence, not even being entertained if this was background noise. Multiple times throughout the special, I had to pause it just to see how much time was left. Although it’d be easy to knock Jay and Karl for not watching the entire special to get a fair idea of what the entire special was like, I can’t say they missed anything if they both gave up within 30 minutes. I know I wanted to give up too. Their entire shtick was just to bring up quick little jokes about being old and casual observational based jokes, such as the ones about the theater. I ended up being very frustrated because here Netflix had a new special with Kroll and Mulaney, which I should be loving, but instead they play these over the top characters which I ended up hating. The entire special dragged on and on.
Ultimately, what this accomplished is that when combined with my past with Kroll’s characters, I have ZERO desire to ever watch Kroll playing a character again. In addition, I don’t know how much excitement I will have the next time I see there’s a new stand up special featuring John Mulaney.
To sum it all up: Oh Hello on Broadway broke my spirit.
I heard the beginning of the episode and hear “Jay hates the theater”, stopped, started to watch *oh, hello” for ten solid minutes. I will watch the rest later, have not restarted this episode, and am already going to give my thoughts on this one Netflix Original….
But first, let me preface something… I write plays. I have had three original plays produced, am in rehearsals for my fourth. I have had three stage adaptation of other works produced, including “night of the living dead”, “Snow White and the queen” and a current run of “Alice’s Adventures in wonderland”. I am deeply involved in the local theater community and watch more taped stage performances than the normal viewer, always trying to keep up on trends for both Broadway and off-btiadway productions. I am not a stranger to stage shows.
This is what i call “the blue hair” fare, a successful show that appeals to the safe and quaint audience if blue-haired buddies who enjoy a night out at the theater. It’s largely safe and harmless comes with painfully predictable jokes and comfortable character play. It’s not a stand-up special so much as it’s a sketch show stretched over the length that it does. It is not the kind of theater I tend to enjoy, and it’s frustrating to think that this is being used as an example for theater everywhere.
With that said, theater is not a movie. Theater is not television. It is a different medium.and it needs to be watched in a different way… And it should be enjoyed live more so than watched on video. It is an experience between the performers and the actors when it is done right… You may have a longer pause as you ride laughter, you may need to build tension a little more or less during a stage production and it will not translate in a video.
Oh, Hello may be an incredible live experience for many, but it isn’t really my cup of tea. But it us a good example of what it is supposed to be and it should probably be judges on that. I promise I will finish this viewing and offer a rating at that time, but I wanted to pipe in before I lost my train of thought.
Thank you.
I am now 39 minutes into the podcast and listening to RW jr start to discuss film theory, and I already know why there’s a divide between the hosts. And while I haven’t finished watching the Netflix show am going to side with Andy and Ryan. I admire their ability to view this as it should be seen… Where they have embraces the “live” aspect of the show and placed themselves in the moment, as opposed to Jay and Karl who are viewing this as a movie. There are many things you are going to miss if you don’t place yourselves as flies on the wall… If you view this as a film rather than a live experience. I once laughed when I found out there was a class on how to watch live theater, but I think that the differences between stage and screen are far more noteworthy than I originally believed.
Something else I learned during your discussion: Karl’s moniker as “actor” is extremely subjective, as he’s only done one play and doesn’t like live performances. I will never understand what a performer thinks he is doing in front of a camera they won’t perform.live.
I really enjoyed Oh Hello!
I’d love to find a way to watch Villa…
Transformers was hands down the WORST movie I have seen in recent memory. THE. WORST.
More on the SciFi podcast……
T5 us the best if the Transformers movies I’ve seen, and that’s not at all high praise. But I thought I’d answer some of the living questions that seemed a little “off” in relation to the film.
1. The floating stuff was all that remained if Cybertron. It was raw material to rebuild.
2. The character of Quintessa was the same character in the end “teaser” if the film, transformed to pass as human.
3. The character of Uniccrin is from the original animated film. So when they refer to what Unicron is, this never seems to effect THIS film, but rather future films.
None of this will help make the film a cohesive storyline, but you’ll at least know why it’s a mess and won’t hold out hope for a cross-over.
Oh, Hello…
Since we’re all PRE-facing our comments, I’ll PRE-face mine by saying I have to abstain from voting in the poll because I’m Switzerland on this topic. I didn’t see Oh, Hello: On Broadway as wholly funny or wholly not funny. There were many elements I really enjoyed: I loved all of the NY references, the guest appearances were both gold… pure gold, and many of the individual jokes were hilarious… “can you imagine doing something so fucked up there’s no more Toyota Camry?” BUT, there were also long stretches where I just wanted to rip my eye balls out of my skull.
So, where does that leave me on the show overall? Well, to start, it means I can’t really vote in the poll because I don’t see the show in black and white. On that topic, though, I don’t really see the point of the poll to begin with because a show like Oh, Hello is such a subjective piece of material… you’re either going to respond to it or you’re not, no matter what everyone else thinks. I know this is true of all forms of entertainment, but I feel it’s particularly true in this case.
Given that I was pretty split on the show as a whole, I’ll probably come in relatively near the middle of the road at a 6/10. But that’s when factoring in that some parts are a 10/10 and others are more like a 2/10. This is something I won’t be revisiting on Netflix, but if I have the opportunity to catch the show live next time I’m in NY (is it still running?) I’d probably take that opportunity.
William, any chance of there being a screening of The Villa at the upcoming Movie Podcast Network meetup?
DINO… That’s a great idea!!!
I will pass that on and up to the MPN Captains and see what they think.
That’s why they call me The Idea Man.
Actually, nobody has ever called me that.
OH, HELLO!
You have asked for the opinions of the listeners, and I am here to say that watching Oh, Hello on Broadway was DEFINITELY Too Much Tuna. Mulaney and Kroll exhibit these characters with such enthusiasm and charisma, you want to laugh along, even if you know you’re outside of the inside-joke they’re cracking. I found myself in this frame of mind often, thinking: “I’m certain that this would be a hilarious reference if I lived in or near Manhattan, or had often conversed with an older Jewish man.” And yet, and yet…..laughter is not won by force, but can only be withdrawn through clever coercion.
There were legitimate guffaws, like the Camry joke, but I mostly found myself trying to feel relevant to the comedy they were presenting. I’m too far removed from the theater scene, and therefore removed from theater criticism. I do, however, watch plenty of stand up. This was not stand up, and becomes harder to classify. It’s a Broadway play streamed to me on my couch, and it didn’t feel right. There were no stakes in place that would otherwise accompany a live show. No pressure to laugh at the jokes being received by the crowd around me; no pressure to laugh out loud by myself in a quiet theater, and certainly no way to reach out and touch the lively city they’re so clearly riffing on.
That’s not to take anything away from Kroll and Mulaney, whose comedic timing is unquestionably solid, and their past work speaks for itself. However, with Oh Hello, the combination of a NYC/theater-specific brand of humor, coupled with a strange format for viewing resulted in a less-than-funny experience for me. I kept checking how much time remained, so that I could watch The League or their stand-up specials afterwards to cleanse my comedic palate.
Well said DJ Godzilla… and I totally agree.
In my mind, I was trying to say the exact same thing on the podcast, but maybe I didn’t verbalize/communicate it very well.
That’s why the listeners are so important… they help support you went to most need it.
I thought your assessment was spot on!
I also forgot to mention in my comment, but count me in as another listener who would be interested in watching The Villa.
Where might I find it when it becomes available? Hell, I’ll even pay for it!
Has anybody seen Brimstone yet?
I have to warn you that it is dark, disturbing, intense and very violent.
It is my BMOTY! (and it will be hard to beat).
IMDB says it is a 2016 movie but it also says it’s theatrical release was 2017, so going by Jay’s rules I am including it in my 2017 movies.
Dakota Fanning is fantastic and Guy Pearce is phenomenal. In my opinion this is Guy Pearce’s best performance ever.
I don’t want to spoil anything about this movie so just go and watch it right now.
I have literally just finished watching this but it could be one of my favourite movies of all time! I had not even heard of this movie but I saw that Guy Pearce and Dakota Fanning were in it so I just bought it and I am so glad that I did.
I have a headache from the intensity and darkness of the movie but it was worth it.
Please go and watch this movie I would love to hear what you all think.
I don’t even remember hearing about that, this year or last. Sounds great, and I’ll definitely look for it. Thanks for the heads up, Andrew!
I have to watch the rest later, but I watched the first maybe 3-4 minutes of Oh Hello just now and there are already probably 6-7 decent jokes. Not uproarious or LOL, but funny and clever. Performed by, binge-watch again next week, Hamilton and no other examples, etc. Seems pretty dense with comedy so far. Looks like I’m with Andy and Ry on that.
Comedy is subjective. You may find something funny that I may not.