8 thoughts on “Movie Podcast Weekly Ep. 249: War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)”

1. Finally! Episode 249 is here. This is a fun show, to be sure, but I can’t wait to bring you Episodes 250 and 251. Coming very soon! I promise!
   — J

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2. Boo to Karl on The Big Sick. 😜

   Well, going into it, I wasn’t expecting a comedy. Sure, it’s about a comedian, but I got the impression (from the title and trailer) that it was about equally dramatic, and I think it does deliver more of its punch on the dramatic side. But there is also a lot of humor throughout. Not always laugh out loud, but very witty and charming.

   I’m upping my rating to 14 to offset Karl. 😀

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3. I gather from the general tenor of his participation in this episode that The Procedure did not cause there to be a vas deferens in Andy’s demeanor and personality. I salute your cojones, sir. I myself have resisted spousal insinuations along those lines for years. Plenty of less invasive options for avoiding a literal misconception.

   Semi-serious question for Jay: How many pre-Natalie girlfriends did you have, sir? I feel like anecdotes about Jay’s former girlfriends have become almost as commonplace as Andy reviewing movies he hasn’t seen. And since the anecdotes are almost never connected to prior reminiscences, it seems like we’re hearing a story about a new and different past girlfriend every time. (It was the Pacemaker Puncher who was featured in this episode.) My mental picture is now that Jay was a true blue Casanova back in the day. Or maybe I’m the weird one. I probably went on a few dozen first and second dates in my time, but only had two serious relationships — ergo two girlfriends — before stumbling into a permanent connection. Maybe I was using the wrong bait all those years, or maybe I just suck at fishing (so to speak). Jay, on the other hand, was the Roland Martin or Jimmy Houston of hooking up.

   Nobody in the studio seemed to pick up on it, but I giggled for several seconds over Ry’s “Meth Damon” crack about Jesse Plemons during Andy’s mini-review of Fargo. Meth Damon, indeed. My own favorite Jesse Plemons performance is his series-long run as Landry Clarke in Friday Night Lights.

   Great work, team. This episode has it all: awesome mini-reviews, a fine group review of an apparently excellent film (War for the Planet of the Apes; haven’t seen it yet, but it’s on the list), and some hilarious tangents: “Are you open to that, Karl, are you open to hot springs?” “Um. I’m not opposed.” “Well, what percent open are you?” “If I was freezing, and I happened upon one.” Excellent (and probably appropriately dismissive) discussion of Twilight, as well. Back in the day, when I was still a newspaperman, I wrote an award-winning two-minute screenplay for the entire four-book series that I have probably even posted a link to in past comments sections. (And will do so again right here: http://bit.ly/1hbAXmH ) Because if you think this is the first time that the fellas have ever talked Twilight, then you don’t know MPW. 🙂

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4. I went to Karl’s IMDb page and discovered that he is only 5 feet, 9 inches tall! Actors are always so much shorter in real life than they look on screen.

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   • Solid photograph, though. I wish I still had that much hair. 🙁

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5. I cannot believe you gave so high notes to the War for the planet of apes! For me it was only 3 in scale 1-10. Boring, too long and there was no war. Cesar proved himself to be stupid. Silence 30s before you answer anything cliche was just annoying. They spend most of the budget on CGI and fake good reviews – just check IMDb reviews section, my 3 is very generous comparing to lots of 1s. Cannot agree more with them.

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6. I just listened to the first episode of a new podcast from Radiotopia called; “Ways of Hearing”. It was a super interesting little look (30 minutes) of the evolution of analog to digital sound. Since most of us are listening to our content digitally these days, I thought some of the rest of you might be interested. Then they began talking more about digital and analog timing in music recording and I thought that our musicians, specifically Jay and Eric would be interested. I thought it was pretty cool. Let me know if you check it out!

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   • Jenifer, I meant to say thanks for recommending that. I listened and really enjoyed it, and will follow the series.

     For me, I can appreciate both sides of it. There is something about the feeling and energy that only analog recordings, done in the moment, can best capture. But… I really appreciate the open opportunities that digital recording can offer.

     I can remember going to studios and often feeling like, eh, that take was good enough, because we had limited tracks and it was costing an arm and a leg for each hour and for each analog tape we filled. But a lot of times, listening later, I wasn’t happy with it. With digital recordings, you have practically unlimited tracks, and with the ability to do decent quality at a home studio, as much time as you want to give yourself. I once did something like 85 vocal takes for a song until I was happy with it (never “perfect,” regardless, but what I wanted).

     That being said, I’ve read about how The Beatles did 80-90 takes of some songs, and then went back to pick the one they felt was best. But they could afford as much time as they wanted in the analog studio.

     Also, as far as the timing thing, that is both a blessing and curse, depending on the situation. Mostly, you want to play things to a click track for the innate sense of rhythm and timing that we have. But… a lot of early recordings (into the 80’s, even) were done loosely. I can hear that looseness in some cases, but I still couldn’t imagine those classic recordings being any different than they are.

     On my last family album, our band had rehearsed the songs for months, but about a month before going into the studio, one guy had suggested that we start practicing to a click track. I kind of wish we hadn’t, though, because our drummer wasn’t used to that. For the most part, it turned out good, regardless, but there are a couple songs where I feel like his drum playing was a little bit stifled or flaccid, because he was trying too hard to stay with the click, instead of just playing by the feel of it, which had worked well enough in earlier rehearsals.

     Anyway, interesting stuff!

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