13 thoughts on “Movie Podcast WOMEN Ep. 232: Beauty and the Beast (2017)”

1. Wow, what an awesome show. I would rather listen to you guys (er… ladies) any time, than those other shlubs. But damn, are you tough! Laying down some serious criticisms.

   I’m with Jenifer in loving Beauty and the Beast 2017. I only saw the cartoon once, though, many years ago, so this seemed very fresh and charming, and concerns about whether it was merely aping the other version didn’t apply (but I can see why they could for big fans of the animated film). With Cinderella and Jungle Book, I think Disney is now 3-for-3 in their new live action films, and this was the best yet. 8.5.

   Oh, and Natalie, please make up your own mind about whether you like a movie. After all, your husband hates the cinema. Or at least, use him as an “opposite barometer.” When he tells you that Gods of Egypt and Collateral Beauty are great, you’ll know otherwise.
   ?

   That being said, I suppose it’ll be good to have him back next week… ??

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2. Ladies, I really enjoyed this show! It was fun and refreshing. I think Jason and the crew should consider cycling you all as guests once in a while.

   How wonderful it was to hear a review of Netflix’s The Crown by someone who has actually watched it! (as opposed to Karl as an example…).

   Jason, glad you are on the mend!

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3. I kind of hated Beauty and the Beast. It has too much amateur hour CGI for me. All of the CGI looks like CGI; none of it looks like a convincing illusion (with dimension and substance) of a fairy tale place. I also found the color palette and the visuals in general far too muddy and dark. Some of the performances are fun (Luke Evans, mostly, though Ewan McGregor is decent), but others are too vanilla. I don’t think Emma Watson has any glaring weaknesses as Belle, but she also doesn’t really have any engaging strengths. She’s blandly adequate. In general, there’s too much slavish imitation of the animated version, which is doubly problematic because a lot of the things they tried don’t work nearly as well in live action as they do in animation. I really wish Kenneth Branagh had taken this one on as well after finishing up with Cinderella. 4/10

   What I didn’t hate was the Movie Podcast Women, or as Jay (via Natalie) kept referring to them, the “ladies” of MPW. Fine work by Natalie, Shawn, Catherine and One-N-ifer. Even Geek Cast Wife nailed it with the fake movie titles. Natalie had my two favorite lines of the evening: “Your listeners will probably know me best as the villain of Jason’s movie-watching obsession” and “They would have talked about Emma Watson for 45 minutes!” The really funny thing is that, as One-N-ifer points out, they already did that, way back whenever when the casting was first announced. (Although if memory serves, the discussion was mostly about how Emma Watson isn’t as “hot” as cartoon Belle from 1991.)

   Also, I have to, as Jay would put it, back One-N-ifer 100 percent in her recommendation of The Crown. I know I’ve taken up for it before around these parts, but I just can’t say enough good things. The Crown is about as perfect as historical drama gets. The acting is tremendous, and the writing is phenomenal. It’s top-notch in every particular, really: casting, costumes, sets, cinematography, special effects, etc. The acting and writing, however, are otherworldly great. One of the most impressive things about the writing is how carefully and effectively the story builds on itself. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another longform where the throughlines are integrated this successfully with the storytelling of individual episodes. The ninth episode, for example, “Assassins,” could stand by itself as an enormously moving and well-told story about age and relationships, but its emotional impact is doubled or tripled by what’s already been shown in earlier episodes about the characters and their individual struggles. One-N-ifer is RIGHT. It’s worth subscribing to Netflix just to watch The Crown. 15/10.

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   • P.S. about The Crown: It’s also worth mentioning the score. It’s not necessarily that the music is John Williams-level memorable, although the main theme and a few of the stronger recurring themes are pretty impressive in that respect. Music is used about as well in The Crown, however, as in any other movie/show I’ve ever seen. A couple of the stronger themes resonate so powerfully that they’re almost like secondary characters. The placement and emphasis of music is masterful throughout.

     Special note and shout-out to Karl: Rupert Gregson-Williams scored the entire series, with one notable exception. The main theme was composed by Karl’s personal movie soundtrack hero, Hans Zimmer.

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     • HaHa! Thanks for listening Cody! (And all the rest of Y’all too!!) And thanks for saying all of that about “The Crown”. You say it a lot better than I can. Imma watch the whole thing again as soon as I find somebody who wants to watch it with me. (Mr. One-N – you crack me up, Cody – is a no-go) Some things you just want to share so bad!!!

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       • My wife and I tend to line up almost perfectly on movies and TV, which is nice. Since much of the time that is available to us to spend together comes only late at night (after the kids are in bed and, more critically, asleep), a fair amount of our couple time is spent “watching something.” This can be somewhat limiting. For example, my wife only very occasionally watches R-rated films, so I mostly don’t watch them either, except when I’m a) prepping for a podcast (one that involves an R-rated movie, anyway), or b) catching up for MPW end-of-year listmaking purposes.

         I’ve already hooked my parents on The Crown and watched the first three episodes with them. We’ll probably catch the rest after my father is home from the hospital (back surgery) and recuperating. You should try an Andy-and-GCR style exchange with Mr. One-N. Tell him you’ll watch something he chooses if he watches The Crown with you. Maybe it will surprise him. 🙂

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         • HaHa. Good try. He really doesn’t like spending time watching anything. I have to trade mountain climbing and such.

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     • Yes, The Crown is excellent and worth the price of admission to Netflix on its own.

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4. I don’t write very often/at all, but this was an awesome show. Great energy, humor and insight from all the guest “lady” hosts (I’m glad they decided against taking all of J’s notes). I hope this isn’t the last time we get to hear from them, though I do hope this is the last time our esteemed host has to go through any of this hospital business. Thanks for keeping the show going despite everything that must be on your plate. Looking forward to hearing how the rest of the crew felt of the show, though I should know better than to expect them to actually listen. Get better soon Jay!

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5. Ladies, great show! It was nice to get an all female perspective for a change. The guys would have never caught the detail of Mrs. Potts missing her son’s smell. I know I didn’t. Good catch. Kind of makes me want to see the movie again. Do you think it’s possible that the general feeling of like/dislike toward the movie was due to you being so familiar with the original that the relative faithfulness of the remake made it feel superfluous? As for me, I’m not really an traditional cell animation guy and haven’t seen the original since the early 90’s but I enjoyed this version. I took my 6 year-old daughter who loved it. She sat silently, tuned in, throughout the entire movie. This is not her normal state, by the way, sitting still… or silent. This is the same child that got up and started jumping around during Star Trek Beyond and NOT because she was so into the movie. Embarrassing. Hope to hear you “ladies” on the show in the future. I’ll close with wishing Jay a speedy recovery. I’m glad to hear you’re doing well.

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6. The Discovery is an original Netflix film about a guy (Robert Redford) who discovers proof of the after-life, supposedly, which causes millions of people to commit suicide. What a cool premise, and it approaches living up to that but doesn’t quite. The cast is great, with Jason Segel, Rooney Mara and Jesse Plemmons, and especially early on it gives them interesting things to say, but that devolves a bit as the plot goes on. And unfortunately the plot is frustrating in some ways. I don’t want to say too much about that, but it ends up being more of a tease in some respects, not feeling entirely plausible for the situation, and it seems like it doesn’t give the kind of information you would expect for something like this. Eh, hard to explain what I mean without spoiling things.

   In some ways it reminded me of one of my favorite movies growing up, Brainstorm, where Christopher Walken invents a method to record people’s experiences, including when they die. (Also notable as Natalie Wood’s last film.) The Discovery has the feeling of being a more modern and “important” version of that sort of thing, but I’m not sure if it captured the “wow, WTF” feeling of its implications well enough.

   Eh, I’ll give them some credit for producing a pretty interesting film with an original-ish premise. Definitely worth the price you already pay for Netflix to give it a look. 7.5

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7. This episode was a refreshing change of pace. I thought everyone was a lot of fun to listen to, but Jason better look out because Natalie was a definite pro at handling the hosting duties. Well done!

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8. She IS a pro! And don’t you think she has the most lovely, lyrical voice?

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