Categories
Back Seat Producers Season 04 Shows

BSP Episode 118: Happy Halloween!

jackpumpkin

We talk about Horror, Thrillers and Suspense movies.

Sorry for the short show notes, but it’s time to go trick or treating.

I leave for you instead the picture above.  Tony’s pumpkin this year.

(A Quick Note – We’ve discovered a technical glitch in the audio file of this episode.  While Chris RE edits the file, why don’t you take a moment and listen to a favorite old episode or rub your tummy full of Halloween  candy, much like Adam/David does every episode. )

(Follow-up Note – The episode has been fixed and can be downloaded NOW in its complete and astounding glory.)

Categories
Back Seat Producers Season 04 Shows

BSP Episode 117: Big Trouble in Little China

David as Egg Shen

Gong!

Adam is now David.

David botches the intro.

Phil threatens David’s colon.

High level impressions.

David makes arbitrary, “I haven’t seen Ghostbusters.”  Comment.

Sarah can’t figure out how to use the chatroom.

Who else could have been Jack Burton?

Phil uses Kim Cattrall to cross the streams of Egg Shen and Yoda.

Phil condones lubing up of Kim Cattrall.

Phil calls out ‘that one white guy’ in the movie.

(Why is Phil leading the conversation?)

Phil drops some truck trivia.

And now we jump on the plot train…

David calls out Darrell as a racist.

More plot.

Is anyone else snickering whenever they say ‘Wang’?

Rule 34 is mentioned.

Kurt Russell = Will Smith

Sarah gets her nails done with dudes.

Phil owned a Fiero.   Listen for it… David is getting bored.

Green Eyes = Bucket Leather Seats.

Security is probably the only thing that’s tight at the White Tiger.

David does Egg Shen.  No one calls him out as racists.

David comments about the size of Wang.

Quotes from the movie and laughter.

Out of context quote:

“… Wang and Jack off…”, said David.

Phil sets the story straight… in creepy voice.

David gets upset when Phil starts quoting Egg Shen early.  Not because it’s out of order, but because Phil beats him to the quote.

Communist allegory?

Oh hell, just listen an enjoy.  Seriously, why are you reading this?

Egg Shen is the Asian Neville Longbottom.  (This explains soooo much about David.)

Splorted?

Phil and David talk about someone who isn’t there to defend himself.   And they’re wrong.

Sarah and Chris are apparently involved in some role-reversal.

David pees.

Categories
Back Seat Producers Season 04 Shows

BSP Episode 116: Highlander

There can be only one.

We wish there were only one.

Since there aren’t we decided to pick the only one worth talking about.

Please let us know your thoughts on Highlander and be sure to check out the Big List o’Movies on the website to see what our forthcoming topics are.

Categories
Back Seat Producers Season 04 Shows

BSP Episode 115: 9

In this episode, we discuss Shane Acker’s expanded vision of his short film, 9.

We discuss the world that the stitchpunks inhabit and the aspects of each of the 9 characters of this film, along with the antagonists they encounter.

Let us know your thoughts on the film.

Promo: Movie Mantras

Categories
News

Weekend Box Office – October 23-25

#1 Paranormal Activity from Paramount jumps from #3 to #1 in it’s fifth week with a weekend gross of $21.1 million (+7.6%) in 1945 theaters (+1185). Total gross to date is $61.5 million. Budget was $0.015 million.

#2 Saw VI from Lions Gate Films debuts at #2 with an opening weekend gross of $14.1 million in 3036 theaters. Budget was $11 million.

#3 Where the Wild Things Are from Warner Brothers drops from #1 to #3 with a weekend gross of $14 million (-57.1%) in 3735 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $53.5 million. Budget was $100 million.

#4 Law Abiding Citizen from Overture Films drops from #2 to #4 with a weekend gross of $12.4 million (-41%) in 2890 (no change) theaters. Total gross to date is $40 million. Budget was $50 million.

#5 Couples Retreat from Universal drops from #4 to #5 with a weekend gross of $10.6 million (-38.4%) in 3074 theaters (+65). Total gross to date is $77.7 million. Budget was $70 million.

#6 Astro Boy from Summit Entertainment debuts at #6 with an opening weekend gross of $6.7 million in 3014 theaters. Budget was $65 million.

Rounding out the top 12 are:

#7 Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant debuts at #7 with an opening weekend gross of $6.2 million in 2754 theaters. Budget was $40 million.

#8 The Stepfather drops from #5 to #8 with a weekend gross of $6.2 million (-46.2%) in 2734 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $20 million. Budget was $20 million.

#9 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs drops from #6 to #9 with a weekend gross of $5.2 million (-34.5%) in 2741 theaters (-296). Total gross to date is $114.8 million. Budget was $100 million.

#10 Zombieland drops from #7 to #10 with a weekend gross of $4.2 million (-44.8%) in 2447 theaters (-724). Total gross to date is $67.2 million. Budget was $23.6 million.

#11 Amelia debuts at #11 with an opening weekend gross of $3.9 million in 820 theaters. Budget was $40 million.

#12 A Serious Man jumps from #15 to #12 in it’s fourth week out with a weekend gross of $1.0 million (+29.8%) in 176 theaters (+94). Total gross to date is $3.1 million. Budget is unknown.

The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $105.9 million (-17%).

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:
Box Office Mojo

Categories
Back Seat Producers Season 04 Shows

BSP Episode 114: Porky's

Straight off, sorry about the sound quality.  We thought we were going to have an easier go of this, but Skype wasn’t playing nice.

Adam and Tony chime in with one of the shortest BSP episodes in history. (They should have probably called in Tee to help them fill out the show some more.)  And who would have thought that they couldn’t have talked longer about a movie with one of it’s most memorable scenes taking place in or describing events in a women’s locker room.

Categories
Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: Paranormal Activity

In 2006, a young couple, Micah and Katie started to live together. She’s a student who’s studying to be a teacher and he’s a day-trader and as Paranormal Activity is starting, they’re starting to conduct their own experiment with a video camera set-up. Now that Katie has moved in with Micah, she’s revealed to him that since here childhood, she’s suffered from mysterious events that seem to haunt her at night, and now, Micah, wanting to get some proof of this, decides to use a video camera to record themselves throughout the day and especially during the night as they’re sleeping. This experiment follows the couple through 3 terrifying weeks in their lives… building to a conclusion that neither ever expected…

And that’s the basic premise to Paranormal Activity the latest “little movie that could” that’s been gaining ground through a very successful viral campaign that’s not unlike what happened with The Blair Witch Project years ago. Costing under $20,000 to make, this tells an extremely effective story, that at least for me ranks as one of the best things I’ve seen this year. If you want to see a good ol’ creepout, this is the movie to see delivering a tale of demonic possession that’s about as effective as The Exorcist was years and years ago.

From what I’ve seen, this, much like Blair Witch is pretty polarizing, with people either declaring that it’s just terrific or else that it’s the worst low budget, poorly acted piece that can be foisted on the public to which I think they miss the point but to each their own I guess… I know I had a terrific time with this and even now am wondering how some of this stuff was pulled off with such a low budget…

I like these movies that are filmed with a video camera, and I really like the turn this one takes to not be theatrical in the slightest, which in this case includes no title or end credits, purely just letting it’s video-filmed events unfold and primarily letting it’s two main characters tell the story. One of the cooler things to me was a regular device used in this, which was the stationary mounting of the camera in the couple’s bedroom at night- yeah, this does let you know ahead that something is about to happen, but what- you don’t know and as the movie goes, it builds and builds…

And a primary reason for that building, comes from the relationship of Micah and Katie, which certainly seems real to me, the sort of behavior a young couple like this might have with events like this unfolding- something she’s lived with and something that he in turn feels the need to provoke. Actors Micah Sloat and Katie Featherstone play the self-titled couple and they’re really good and I have to give kudos to director Oren Peli for casting someone like Featherstone here, who’s body type doesn’t necessarily fit with what might be the norm for other more Hollywood productions.

I didn’t think I was going to get the opportunity to see this in theatres, but fortunately I had that opportunity, and I’m glad I did. We had a pretty good audience for this and they reacted just the way that you might’ve seen in the television previews for this, but not at all obscuring the action of the film (which wasn’t the case when I saw Quarantine). It’s a solid good time and really well made considering the cost of the film, and highly recommended, especially if you’re willing to give in to something made this way…

Categories
Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: Saw VI

The Jigsaw killer is still out there, with Detective Hoffman carrying out more of the final wishes of John Kramer, this time against a health insurance giant who refused Kramer on the specialized cancer treatment that he wanted to get so long ago, all the while with Hoffman now having to dodge the FBI further in their investigation of Jigsaw and also deal with Jill Tuck, Kramer’s girlfriend…

If that sounds confusing to you, well, then obviously you don’t follow the Saw franchise, now in it’s sixth iteration with the appropriately titled Saw VI, which continues to build on everything from the previous five movies and further sets things up for a seventh, much to the dismay of everyone who likes to label the series as “torture porn.” But not to mine… I love this series and look forward to every October when a new installment hits.

As I’ve said in previous reviews of the other movies, this continues to build this epic horror storyline, adding details, that fit right in to previous movies as well as setting things up further, complete with it’s grisly thrills and always with a twist thrown in by it’s end, this time with a couple that further advance this story, and here at least to me, this seems to be building to something that I could see finally concluding this in maybe another couple of installments. Do some things border on the ridiculous? Sure, but then I tend to think everything does eventually in long running series with some sort of continuity.

But as with other reviews in this series, this is purely recommended for fans of the series and not for anyone else, unless you’re a fan of extreme horror, and have never touched the series or haven’t ventured further than the first one, and then I say give them all a shot.

Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Shawnee Smith and Tobin Bell are all back for this (yes, flashbacks galore) and all with good stuff that again, fits right in to everything. Mandylor in particular is impressive to me here, simply because he isn’t nearly as clever at this as what John Kramer (Tobin Bell) was, and as this storyline builds, he leaves many seams showing which Kramer wouldn’t have and which wisely the storyline picks up on.

It’s quickly paced, very inventive still in it’s deathtrap “games,” and again, I just think pure fun for the fans of the series, all else need not bother, unless of course you fit the criteria that I mentioned above…

Categories
Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: Astro Boy

Astro Boy from IMAGI and director David Bowers is the latest take on Osamu Tezuka’s classic character and it’s first time out as an all computer animated feature. The basic origin for the character is that brilliant scientist Dr. Tenma loses his son Toby in a tragic accident, and using his skills in robotics, re-makes his son as the world’s most perfect robot, only still to reject him in the end, but the little robot still manages to find his place in the world, thanks to other friends. Tezuka produced thousands of pages of material around the character and there’s been three prior animated series (all worth seeking out) and it’s just fun stuff, primarily made for the younger reader/viewer in mind, but still appealing to this older one as well.

This new movie takes a lot of liberties with the details of Tezuka’s original, obviously with the idea in mind to make it more palatable to an audience today (and one would figure also to remove some of the cruelty inflicted on the character in those early stories) and while I don’t think all of these choices were necessary, in the end, I do think it’s basically in the same spirit as what Tezuka has done. Will that still make it something that people and their children in particular will want to see? Well, that’s pretty hard to say, especially considering that this character has been out of the limelight for quite awhile.

Before seeing this though, I’ve actually been reading some of Tezuka’s original stories and have been watching some of the cartoons from both 1980 and 2003. While I don’t consider myself an expert on the character by any means, I still managed to see a lot of similarities in this new production with what’s been done before and on top of that, I just plain like all of this stuff and really like the sense of wonder about it all. But for some who are really familiar with this, well, it’s kind of hard for me to say how they might take some of the more drastic changes (particularly around the setting, around Dr. Tenma, who gets a major overhaul here, and Astro’s overall “age”).

The animation is really nice and though it’s inevitably going to be compared to the gold standard (i.e. Pixar), I think what IMAGI has done here is quite well done with some real nice set pieces and some nice subtleties here and there.

There’s a pretty stellar voice cast at work here too, headed up by Freddie Highmore as Astro and Nicolas Cage as Tenma, and also including Kristen Bell, Bill Nighy, Donald Sutherland and Nathan Lane amongst others, and overall, I think it’s pretty well done, with no real missteps.

I had a real good time with this and hope it does well enough to see more in the future- Tezuka’s got tons and tons of ideas that would make for some great ideas for future installments – but I have my doubts that this will continue, at least in this form. I have no doubts that there will be other versions of the character to come eventually, but will this more Americanized version stand the test, it’s hard to say…

Categories
Back Seat Producers Best Picture Nominated Season 04 Shows

BSP Episode 113: District 9

Wikus Van De Merwe is just a man trying to do his job.

And boy does ole’ Wikus have some ZANY adventures.

Listen as the Back Seat Producers recount some of his trials and tribulations as he works to relocate ‘The Prawns’ from District 9 to their new ‘home’.

Promo: J.C. Hutchins’ print release of 7th Son: Descent to be released October 27th.