After a couple of lean and mean episodes, we bring the show back to is usual epic size and clock in a 3.5 hour conversation. This is due to a number of things. Everyone was able to catch Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams and discussion about art, 3D, and Wernerisms ensue. Andrew has been taking in the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival and talks about boarding schools, Eva Green and troll hunting. Matt Gamble (Where the Long Tail Ends) returns after a week hiatus and reviews Scream 4 (*SPOILER HEAVY*) and this leads into a discussion of the whole Scream franchise but really, Kurt and Matt only want to talk about The People Under the Stairs. Then there is a fairly heated argument about Speed Racer and how it is kind of like Ronin Miller’s Crossing. Kurt gets angry. Matt gets condescending. (Things get even less civil later on when talking about Philip Ridley’s dark and unclassifiable fairy tale, Heartless.) Moving along, and putting arguing styles aside, we move into what we watched which includes couple of interesting documentaries, one of the super rich the other on mysterious street art. There is some talk about The Joneses and joy of David Duchovny’s self-caricature idiom, there is lots of worship of Christopher Lee and The Wicker Man. And, of course, the proverbial much, much more!
As always, please join the conversation by leaving your own thoughts in the comment section below and again, thanks for listening!
http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_11/episode_209.mp3
Full show notes are under the seats…
MAIN REVIEWS:
– Cave of Forgotten Dreams
– Scre4m (SPOILERS!)
MINNEAPOLIS ST. PAUL FILM FESTIVAL (M-SPIFF):
– The Troll Hunter
– Cracks
WHAT ELSE WE WATCHED:
Matt
– The One Percent
– The Joneses
– Heartless
– “Game of Thrones”
Kurt
– Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles
– The Wickerman
– Tomorrow, When the War Began>
DVD PICKS:
Kurt
– The Way Back
– Somewhere
Andrew
– Somewhere
– Rabbit Hole
Matt
– Ip Man 2
– Short Circuit 2
INSTANT WATCH NEW RELEASES/EXPIRING SOON:
Kurt
– The Fly (new)
– Fear Me Not (new)
Matt
– Titanic 2 (new)
OTHER DVDs NOW AVAILABLE:
The King’s Speech
The Way Back
Gulliver’s Travels
Kes (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
Sweetie (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
Mortal Kombat [Blu-ray]
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation [Blu-ray]
Born to Raise Hell
The Last Legion [Blu-ray]
Tokyo Gore Police [Blu-ray]
The Prophecy Triple Feature
Fubar: Balls to the Wall
Zombie Holocaust
OTHER STUFF MENTIONED:
Inside in real life
Kurt’s kids’ review Speed Racer
NEXT WEEK:
13 Assassins
PRIVATE COMMENTS or QUESTIONS?
Leave your thoughts in the comment section below, or email us:
feedback@rowthree.com (general)
andrew.james@rowthree.com
kurt@rowthree.com
the TUG print of Speed Racer… I disagree that it was ‘pristine’ – to me it was around 50-60% of how it should look. Not awful, but not that crisp. Comparably to the blu ray everything looked kind of rubbery and bleeding into each other. I think it actually of all scenes affects the racing scenes which Kurt didn’t like as much as other scenes. Perhaps that’s why. I don’t know.
I think beyond everything Speed Racer is a fantastic experiment with tone, being unapologetically goofy, campy, silly, cartoony, while being quite earnest in the way the family relate to each other. I do actually notice so many more little touches every time, like how they frame scenes with John Goodman and Emile Hirsch showing he has learned from how he dealt with Rex, etc.
I take umbrage with the idea that there’s nothing there, not because its so deep or anything, but because what they do with what they had to play with. To me they maximized the potential of that material, and the script and dialogue have a lot of attention to detail. I mean, when I hear week to week about obscure genre films being trumped up as these cool/fun/awesome pieces of work, it’s weird for me to hear that this film isn’t worth revisiting because there’s nothing to chew on, when visually, tonally, comedically, etc, there is enough to warrant endless screenings and being able to catch a new detail every time.
More spoilers!!!! not just one but 2 films!!! By the times that’s more than a hour to jumo over, there’s no point even dl’ing the f’n thing.
Usually a great podacst as well, just a shame to ruin it for the guys who haven’t watched the films spoilered
Well to be fair, Speed Racer has been on DVD for a couple of years so is kind of fair game I think. And secondly, it’s pretty superficial. Yes, we spoil one particular plot thread but it’s not like a major twist or anything heady that you don’t see coming anyway. I think you’re pretty safe to listen to everything in this Cinecast except for maybe the Scre4m discussion…
And honestly, movie probably isn’t worth watching anyway.
Goon, I completely agree. Like I said in the show, this is a film I will be able to throw on once every year or two and enjoy the hell out of it. I really do think it is something special and unique and something that has already begun to show signs of being an inspiration and a landmark in certain visual territories (Scott Pilgrim I’m looking at you).
And yeah, on Blu-ray this thing is gorgeous. Essentially Almodovar on… speed.
I still believe Speed Racer was greated with a lot of prejudice or cynicism and distrust upon its release because people were so (rightfully) pissed about the Matrix sequels. I think time is leveling the playing field out that now people can walk into this thing with less bias.
To me they maximized the potential of that material, and the script and dialogue have a lot of attention to detail.
A fair point and one I’d probably agree with. But the cartoon wasn’t particularly deep or all that interesting, and while the Wachowski’s clearly loved the source material I didn’t, making the adaptation really not all that interesting to me, no matter how much love is pumped into it.
More spoilers!!!! not just one but 2 films!!! By the times that’s more than a hour to jumo over, there’s no point even dl’ing the f’n thing.
If I cared about spoilers I’d be on the /Filmcast.
JD, are you new to the Cinecast? They been pretty upfront about spoilers from day one. If your looking for spoiler free discussion check out those annoying morons on Slashfilm.
Soooooooooo. Speed Racer, Enter The Void Double Bill or Speed Race, Scott Pilgrim Double Bill? Which is more appropriate?
Speed Racer/Scott Pilgrim for me. I’m glad I saw Enter the Void once, but I don’t need to see it again. But both Speed and Scott I can watch over and over.
Speed and Scott have more in common and more similar sensibilities… like playing F-Zero and then playing Super Street Fighter II. Speed and Void is like playing F-Zero and then playing a bootleg version of Mario where you only P-Wing over every level, the pixels are all broken and every princess you rescue is blowing Bowser when you get there.
Agreed, GOON / JANDY.
I’d love to hear a Movie Club Podcast on both Scott Pilgrim and Speed Racer, two films that I’ve seen once and liked but not eager to revisit. They were fun at the time I saw them, and I do want to rewatch them again, but I’m not in a hurry for either/or.
Also, I lost my shit when Kurt said “oh fuck off” to Matt during this episode. But sadly, I’m with Matt on Heartless. That movie was lame as fuck. Nothing redeemable at all. I wish I had been painting my house when i watched it, and I’m a sucker for wussy melodrama usually.
For what it’s worth to the haters, here is my HEARTLESS review from 2010′s Toronto After Dark Festival: http://www.rowthree.com/2010/08/23/toronto-after-dark-heartless-review/
I’ll throw my hat in with Kurt (my own review at my blog). Sturgess was excellent in the film, Marsan was tons of fun (though there only briefly) and the story and imagery were dealt with in mostly subtle terms. I still haven’t tracked down Ridley’s other films, but hope to at some point.