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Back Seat Producers Season 07 Shows

BSP Episode 225: Almost Famous

Part 2 of our 5 part Rock ‘n Roll series

Release date:                           9/15/2000

DreamWorks and Columbia Pictures

Directed and Written by         Cameron Crowe

Produced by                            Cameron Crowe

                  Ian Bryce                   

Cast

Billy Crudup                           Russell Hammond

Patrick Fugit                           William Miller

Frances McDormand              Elaine Miller

Kate Hudson                           Penny Lane

Jason Lee                                Jeff Bebe

Initial comments by the hosts:

Before discussion of the movie began, the hosts talked about how difficult it was to find Almost Famous in streaming form.  It’s available for rental, and even that is limited, and the movie is also broken up into 12 parts on You Tube.

This is a semi-autobiographical movie of how Cameron Crowe got his start and you really get the sense that this movie feels a biopic, even though it’s a fictional story.  Darrell points out that there are lots of little inside jokes in the movie (some of these will be listed at the end of the notes).  Darrell thought it was funny that, only in the 1970’s, could a 14 year-old boy get a job with Rolling Stone Magazine, go on tour with a band and his mother does NOT completely freak out over this.

Lena (from the chat room – watcher of the You Tube version) noted that it was nice to be reminded that Kate Hudson is actually talented.

Tony thought Frances McDormand was fantastic; her character was a force in this movie.  He also was impressed with the acting talent throughout the movie, not only of the main stars but also of the background/secondary characters, such as Fairuza Balk and Anna Paquin (The Band Aids), Zooey Deschanel, Jimmy Fallon, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, to name just a few.  Every character had a distinct voice and Crowe did a very good job at capturing and realizing these different people.

Billy Crudup did a very good job at portraying Russell Hammond, the lead guitarist of Stillwater, who struggles through his ascent from musician in an up and coming band to a Rock God.

Two of the favorite “quirks” of controlling single mom Elaine Miller (McDormand) was her referring to Simon and Garfunkel as the devil’s music and her making her kids celebrate Christmas in September, “when it’s not commercial.”

Jason Lee was good at portraying Jeff Bebe as the leader of Stillwater, both insecure and someone who knows what to look for, what can (and eventually does) cause a rift in the band.

Patrick Fugit, as William (Billy) Miller, was able to capture the innocence of a teenager in the 70s, the excitement of a fan travelling with a band and the eye-opening breaking through from adolescence to adulthood as he begins to see what life is really like outside of the world his mother created for him.

The critical scene, near the end of the movie, shows not only the band members crumbling under the threat of their plane crashing, but also Billy Miller’s transformation from boy to man when he confronts the band about how they treat their fans… specifically their biggest fan, Penny Lane (Kate Hudson).

Trivia notes for this movie (this is only a small selection):

This film was Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical account of life as a young Rolling Stone reporter. The actual group that Crowe first toured with was The Allman Brothers Band (Gregg Allman kept asking him if he was a narc).  The near-fatal plane crash happened while traveling with The Who, and the character of Russell Hammond is based on Glenn Frey (Eagles).

The roles of Russell Hammond and Penny Lane were originally offered to Brad Pitt and Sarah Polley.  Polley dropped out to work on her own project, and Pitt worked with Crowe for months before finally admitting, according to Crowe, “I just don’t get it enough to do it.”  Kate Hudson, who took over the role of Penny Lane, had been originally cast as William’s sister.

Crowe wrote the liner notes (at age 18) to the “Frampton Comes Alive!”, and Peter Frampton returned the favor by acting as a music consultant for the film.

Frampton taught Billy Crudup how to play the guitar for the concert scenes.

Stillwater’s songs were written by Frampton, Crowe and Nancy Wilson (Crowe’s wife and member of the band Heart).  This was mentioned early in the credits, although the music acknowledgments credit Russell Hammond and Stillwater as if they were real authors/performers.

Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) provided the guitar track for Stillwater’s songs.

Not only did Patrick Fugit’s voice break during filming, but he also grew three inches, forcing Billy Crudup to wear platform shoes.

Your Producers for this episode were:

  • Tony
  • Darrell

This episode was recorded: 4/4/2012

Note: Six years ago today, we released the first episode of Fanboy Smackdown… which became Back Seat Producers.  Thanks for 6 great years.  Let’s ROCK!

Categories
Announcement

Theatrical Review: The Cabin in the Woods

I’m running a little behind on this one, I’d originally intended to post it last weekend, but unfortunately, personal circumstances came ahead of it. But still, better late than never…

As The Cabin in the Woods starts, were introduced to two technicians, Sitterson and Hadley, as they’re beginning to start their day. By their conversation, it all sounds like it’s going to be rather mundane, but as the title of the movie comes up, you certainly get the idea that there’s something way more to this than it seems. We immediately flash to a group of five college students who decide that they’re going to get away from it all for the weekend, literally heading to the titular cabin in the woods. but as they leave, we soon find out that they’ve been under some major surveillance and that aspects of their trip and preparations for it have been totally manipulated. As they get to the cabin, they realize that they’re getting way more than what they bargained for and both of the scenarios that we’ve been presented with are about to collide in a way that neither have expected.

Sorry if all of that sounds rather cryptic, but saying much more would lead into some major spoilers for this film, and I just don’t want to give too much away at the start of this review. The Cabin in the Woods comes to us from director Drew Goddard and producer Joss Whedon who also collaborated on the story together. These guys certainly have geek street cred, having worked together on the Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series and having separate credits like Goddard having been a writer on Lost and Alias as well as writing the movie Cloverfield and of course, Whedon also being responsible for such things as Firefly and Dollhouse as well as next week’s highly anticipated Avengers film. Lionsgate has been sitting on releasing this one for awhile, though I have to admit after seeing the trailer and knowing the pedigree here, I was certainly looking forward to it. Unfortunately, immediately after seeing it, I really wasn’t that thrilled by it, in fact, I just didn’t like it. Having had a week further to stew on this (and also having a chance to read an extensive interview with Goddard), I appreciate it more now than I did immediately after seeing it, but I still don’t think it’s that successful in getting it’s points across.

The Cabin in the Woods is some pretty ambitious meta-commentary from both Goddard and Whedon, not only on what they see as the state of horror films but also about the ideas of sending the young off to do the bidding of the old. It’s pretty apparent from the start that there’s some sort of master manipulation going on here. But, thanks to the rather snarky treatment that all of the characters and the situations get, it was hard for me to give a damn about either side and so the point for me was to see what exactly the punchline was at the end. And when it does get to the end, it does all get resolved, but to a point where there’s really no “pro” side to what they’re commenting on. Basically, if you look at the implications of it’s final moments, it’s not really saying much for the side of the young, at least from my point of view.

In the interview that I read with Goddard, The Cabin in the Woods was described as a love/hate letter to horror films. While I get Goddard’s points, they just didn’t come across to me in what I was being presented. To me, it’s points about horror films and it’s characters were more on the mocking and contemptuous side more than anything else with their “love” side being more confined to the film’s end and then still just not balanced enough.

And then there’s the characters… Each of the five college students are essentially playing two roles; pre- and post-manipulation. But the pre- side gets quite a bit short-changed, so much so that basically they all just blend together. Kristen Connolly plays the red-headed lead amongst the college kids, Dana, and she’s a bit on the dry side here, having me think that she was cast only because Felicia Day (a perennial Whedon favorite) just wasn’t available (and having said that, I think Day could’ve brought quite a bit more here). Fran Kranz (who played Topher in Whedon’s Dollhouse) plays everyone’s stoner friend Marty and is just too cartoonish to me, so much so that I had a hard time buying that the other kids would even be hanging out with him. It’s also worth noting that Chris Hemsworth is one of the college students having made this film before he ever played Marvel’s Thor character.

Faring better are the characters of Sitterson and Hadley played by Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford respectively. There’s certainly plenty of snark shown with these guys as well, but they have their moments where they do display the gravity of the situation that’s about to unfold and that certainly goes a long way. Giving them support, you have another perennial Whedon favorite, Amy Acker as a fellow tech and Brian White who plays security for this group. White stands out for me as he’s all-business in his part, and amongst the cast is the one who totally shows the importance of what’s about to go down. It’s also worthy of note that you do have a big-name actress (who’s a bit of a horror icon her own self) who comes in for a very important cameo.

There’s massive elements of The Cabin in the Woods that are very similar to parts of both the Angel and Dollhouse TV shows (specifically the Wolfram and Hart firm on Angel). The advantage that those shows have though, is that they had time to develop and here, it’s just shown as sketches more than anything else. I tend to think if we’d had just a little more time with the college students at the start and some more time with the organization behind this master plot, this could’ve been a lot more satisfying to me. As it stands, The Cabin in the Woods seems to me to be more concerned with it’s contemptuous lampooning more than anything else. I’m not adverse to this stuff getting fun poked at it all, but here it just went overboard and maybe some more serious development time would’ve helped to balance this better.

Again, I certainly appreciate The Cabin in the Woods more now than I did immediately after seeing it and I certainly admire the massive ambition that’s here. Compared to a lot of reviews I’ve been seeing, I’m in the minority on this one. I think it’s unsuccessful, but… I’m not going to discourage anyone from seeing this, and more, if you haven’t seen it yet and are of a mind to see it, I’d encourage you to do so. It may not have been successful to me, but there’s still some good ideas here and they very well might work for you.

Categories
Announcement

Theatrical Review: The Raven

The time is 1849 and the place is Baltimore, it’s the final days in the life of famed writer Edgar Allen Poe and during this time a mysterious killer is using methods from Poe’s own stories to commit his crimes.  Poe is enlisted to help solve the crimes by a smart young detective, Emmet Fields.  The stakes soon become even more personal to Poe when his fiancee, Emily Hamilton is kidnapped by the killer and used as bait for Poe to chronicle what he has seen.

This is the premise to The Raven the newest movie from director James McTeigue and starring John Cusack as Edgar Allen Poe.  Previously, McTeigue has been an assistant director working with the Wachowski Brothers on The Matrix films and more recently he’s been directing on his own with such films as V For Vendetta and Ninja Assassin, both of which I enjoyed a great deal.  Combined with the inspired casting of Cusack as Poe, I was looking forward to seeing this and I had a great time with it.

The Raven certainly salutes a good portion of Poe’s most memorable works like Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Pit and The Pendulum but at it’s core, this is a mystery/detective thriller and that itself, at least to me, is also a salute as many consider Poe to be the father of the modern detective story.  Writers Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare have certainly done their homework and have crafted something here that’s a pretty nice extrapolation of what could’ve led up to the mysterious circumstances to Poe’s own death.

The visual style of the film is first rate and most will likely compare it to more recent films like Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow or more recently, Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes films.  For me, I think McTeigue has gone back a little further and the look  reminds me more of a combination of Roger Corman’s classic Poe adaptations and  the horror films of the Hammer and Amicus studios.  It’s very appealing and doesn’t have overt flash, but certainly the right detail (with the one notable exception being that Cusack is sporting a beard that the real Poe didn’t have- this will no doubt bother some, but I was OK with it).

And speaking of Cusack, I just thought he did a fantastic job here.  To me, it was obvious that he threw himself into his research and it shows on-screen.  Poe’s not made to be some sort of super-hero in this film, he’s basically the picture of desperation at this point in his life and it certainly adds to how he helps solve the mystery.  Luke Evans plays Detective Emmet Fields.  Evans has most recently been seen in movies like The Three Musketeers and Immortals (and will soon be seen in the new Hobbit films).  Evans does a terrific job here and though his role isn’t quite as flashy as Cusack, he still does a great job of keeping up with him and the two have very nice chemistry together.

Alice Eve plays Emily Hamilton more closer to a contemporary heroine, though it doesn’t feel out of place here at all.  Brendon Gleeson, Kevin McNally, Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Sam Hazeldine all fill out the rest of the main cast and do a nice job on the support, though I do want to call out Hazeldine a bit here.  I can’t really say why as I don’t want to spoil things, but I do really appreciate what he did in the film.

Now, The Raven isn’t perfect.  There’s a few plot holes here and there that fortunately don’t really bother me that much thanks to the film’s even pace and strong performances.  Also, it’s main credits sequence is totally out of place- it looks like something that would be used in a contemporary David Fincher film- but fortunately, they’ve kept this sequence to run at the end of the film.  If it had been set at the beginning, it would’ve stood out more on the negative side.  Still, I was plenty entertained by The Raven, primarily due to the performances of both Cusack and Evans, the good uses of Poe’s works in the murders and James McTeigue’s thoughtful visual style.  It’s a fun and cool diversion and certainly worth seeing if you have the chance.

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Back Seat Box Office Shows

Back Seat Box Office #84

Picks:

Andrew:

  1. Think Like a Man
  2. The Five Year Engagement
  3. The Pirates!
  4. The Lucky One
  5. The Hunger Games

Jonathan:

  1. The Five Year Engagement
  2. Think Like a Man
  3. Pirates!
  4. The Lucky One
  5. The Raven
Tony (whose fault it is that this is stupidly late):
  1. Think Like a Man
  2. Pirates
  3. The Lucky One
  4. The Raven
  5. The Five Year Engagement

Safe is also in wide release this weekend.

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Back Seat Box Office BSBO Results Shows

Back Seat Box Office #83 Results and Voice Mail

Show notes to follow

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Back Seat Quickies Shows

Back Seat Quickies #43: Quadrophenia (supplement)

Do scooters really have a backseat?

Hosting:
  • Scott
Recorded: 04/24/12
Categories
Back Seat Box Office Shows

Back Seat Box Office #83

Picks:

Jonathan, Mrs. Beast:

  1. The Lucky One
  2. The Hunger Games
  3. Think Like a Man
  4. The Three Stooges
  5. The Cabin in the Woods

Andrew:

  1. The Lucky One
  2. Think Like a Man
  3. The Hunger Games
  4. The Three Stooges
  5. The Cabin in the Woods

Father Beast

  1. Hunger Games
  2. The Lucky One
  3. Think Like a Man
  4. Cabin in the Woods
  5. The Three Stooges

There are no other new wide releases.

Categories
Back Seat Box Office BSBO Results Shows

Back Seat Box Office #82 Results and Voice Mail

Thanks to Art and Tad for their voice mail.

Congrats to Tad and Jonathan for their 25s!

Categories
Back Seat Quickies Shows

Back Seat Quickies #42: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Hoopy Frood:

  • Scott
Recorded: 04/16/12 with a towel.
Categories
Back Seat Producers Season 07 Shows

BSP Episode 224: Quadrophenia

Part 1 of our 5 part Rock ‘n Roll series

Release date:  9/14/1979

The Who Films

Directed by

  • Franc Roddam

Written by

  • Dave Humphries
  • Franc Roddam
  • Martin Stellman
  • Pete Townshend

Produced by

  • Roy Baird
  • Bill Curbishley

Cast

Phil Daniels

  • Jimmy Cooper

Leslie Ash

  • Steph

 

This recording starts with a discussion about the finale of The Walking Dead.  It contains spoilers so… fair warning… if you haven’t seen the finale yet and don’t want to know what happened or if you don’t watch The Walking Dead and want to skip forward, the section runs from the beginning to 9:55.

 

Initial comments by the hosts:

David likes The Who (or other “old British bands – The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Rush” but I’m not really keeping score) but this movie makes him not like The Who.  Darrell said it was hard to watch but he made his way through it and kind of liked it, or at least liked the movie.  Tony found the movie almost unwatchable at points.  He thought the movie was trying too hard to be A Clockwork Orange and it was a failure.

There was also a general consensus… or was that confusion… that there was a great deal of naked males but NO naked females.  Even during the sex scenes, there were no female bits and pieces to be seen.

Some of the scenes were much too long, with 360 degree tracking shots and some scenes that seemed more like time fillers.  The hosts thought that the movie could have easily been cut down to no more than an hour (running time is 117 minutes) and been more interesting.

Tony thought that Phil Daniels (Cooper) looked and acted like Christian Bale and David thought that this movie should have won an award for the “most actors who look like other people.”  He thought that one of Cooper’s friends looked like one of the Weasley twins (doesn’t matter which one).

Scott (from the chat room) summed it up with the statement, “This is a cast made up of ugly British people.”

David admitted to jumping ahead in five minute intervals out of sheer boredom and correctly assumed that he really wasn’t missing much.  Tony didn’t understand the angst that the movie was trying to convey.  Cooper comes from a working class background and he has a job.  Given, he doesn’t really like his job but he still HAS a job, which is a hell of a lot more than most of his friends have.

When the discussion turned to the Steph character, Tony thought that the character was written to be a hated person.

Tony admitted that the hosts made the conscious choice to watch Quadrophenia as part of the Rock ‘n Roll series over Pink Floyd’s The Wall… at least he’s proud enough to admit that this might not have been the wisest choice!

 

And now on to… The Hunger Games! (Starts at 32:07)

It was widely agreed that the best parts of The Hunger Games were Lenny Kravitz (Cinna) and Woody Harrelson (Haymitch).  Tony thought the movie overall was good, David thought it was great (your happy note-taker agreed with David).  They also liked the characters of Rue and Thresh, but David’s only complaint was the District 11 scene (after Rue is… ) because they broke the 1st person immersion.

David thought that the Katniss character was a strong female heroine that hasn’t been forced into a female “gender” role.  She’s all business throughout the movie and she doesn’t break out of that role.  He also would have liked to have seen more of an interaction between Peeta and Haymitch.

Tony didn’t think the movie lived up to the hype.  Neither did David, but that didn’t change his opinion that he really liked it.

Also listen to Tony’s idea for an earlier story line on Cinna and Haymitch.

 

Your Producers for this episode were:

  • Tony
  • Darrell
  • David

This episode was recorded: 3/28/2012