Category: Back Seat Producers

Release date:  9/19/1990

Warner Bros.

Directed by

• Martin Scorsese

Produced by

• Irwin Winkler

Screenplay by

• Martin Scorsese
• Nicholas Pileggi

Based on Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi

Cast

Ray Liotta

• Henry Hill

Robert DeNiro

• Jimmy Conway

Joe Pesci

• Tommy DeVito

Lorraine Bracco

• Karen Hill

Paul Sorvino

• Paul Cicero

The hosts review:

• You can watch this several times and get something different out of it each time.
• Although Henry Hill’s character lies throughout the movie, you still learn what that life was like.
• One of the best 1^st person narrative movies made (up there with Taxi Driver).
• Foot soldiers’ view of mob life.
• Very different Don than The Godfather.
• Henry Hill died 6/12/12, which makes this a Recently Dead Guy Podcast.
• Enjoying some Henry Hill anectodes.
• If you’re short, you demand respect.
• Was Paulie a weak leader?  Opinions differ.
• You don’t get a real view of Paulie because you only see him through Henry’s eyes.
• Henry didn’t want to be a Don, he just wanted to be a Wiseguy.
• Power without responsibility.  If we wanted more, we took more.
• The scene when Hill drops off his brother and he’s being followed by helicopters was played really well; it was frantic and frenetic.
• “For a second I thought I was dead. But, when I heard all the noise, I knew they were cops. Only cops talk that way. If they’d been wiseguys, I wouldn’t have heard a thing. I would’ve been dead.”
• Tony rocks an old-school DVD!
• Financial comparison between Goodfellas and The Last Temptation of Christ… and other Scorsese movies.
• Lorraine Bracco… when she hides the gun in her panties… yeah, that’s hot.

Awards (short list):

Goodfellas has won the following awards:

• Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (Joe Pesci)
• British Academy Film Awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Editing and Costume Design
• Venice Film Festival Silver Lion for Best Director, Audience Award (Scorsese), and Filmcritica “bastone Bianco” Award (Scorsese)
• New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor (DeNiro)
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Pesci), Best Supporting Actress (Bracco) and Best Cinematography

Goodfellas has also made some of American Film Institute’s lists:

• AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies  #94
• AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies (10^th Anniversary Edition)  #92
• AFI’s Top 10 Gangster Film  #2

Trivial bits ‘n pieces:

• The “You think I’m funny?” scene was based on a story that Joe Pesci acted out for Martin Scorsese about working at a restaurant years earlier and he told a mobster that he was funny; the mobster was not amused.  Scorsese allowed Pesci and Ray Liotta improvise the scene.  Scorsese didn’t tell the other actors in the scene what would happen because he wanted their genuine surprised reactions.
• The word “f$&k” is used 296 times, for an average of 2.04 f$&ks per minute.  About half of them are said by Joe Pesci.
• Scorsese’s mother, Catherine, plays Tommy’s (Pesci) mother.  She and the cast ad-libbed the dinner scene.  Scorsese’s father, Charles, plays the prisoner who puts too many onions in the tomato sauce.
• When Paulie confronts Henry after Henry’s released from prison, Paul Sorvino improvised the slap to Liotta’s face.
• The MPAA ordered 10 frames of blood removed from the film before granting it an ‘R’ rating.
• Liotta’s mother died of cancer during filming, and he said that he used his anger over losing his mother for certain scenes, the pistol-whipping scene in particular.
• Lorraine Bracco demanded real jewelry to be used for Karen’s dresser. The production designer rented expensive gold and stones that were protected by armed guards.
• DeNiro wanted to use real money for the scene where Jimmy hands out money.  The prop master gave DeNiro $5,000 of his own money, and at the end of each take, no one was allowed to leave the set until all the money was returned.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Tony/Deuce

This episode was recorded: 12/13/2012

 

 

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Run date:  4/26/2000 – 3/16/2001

Funimation Entertainment (US Release)

Written by

• Yoji Enokido

Music by

• The Pillows

Cast/Voices

Barbara Goodson

• Naota Nandaba

Stephanie Sheh

• Mamimi Samejima

Kari Wahlgren

• Haruko Haruhara

Joe Martin

• Kamon Nandaba

 

The hosts review:

• Someone paid major bucks to own this show, sight unseen.
• We clearly do not have a consensus on FLCL.
• It’s like a big conglomeration of cool stuff that they threw together… some worked, some didn’t.
• It has a certain acquired anime-taste.
• Naota IS Japan.
• A coming of age story, but only half way through.
• Juvenile sexual humor.
• Tony wanted to punch Ta-kun (Naota) him numerous times during the episodes.
• “Hey, I am sprouting robots from my head!”
• Typical 12-year-old, or whiny little d-bag?
• Eyebrows…
• Hey, South Park kids!
• Overboard emotions…so much emotions.
• Discussions about what they’d like to see for a sequel.
• David hates puns, except this time.
• The guitar art is the physical manifestations of everybody’s soul.
• If FLCL was live action, the dad would be a combination of Jack Galifianakis and Crispin Glover.
• A bit of talk about Samurai Champloo.
• The Walking Dead
• Sons of Anarchy

 

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• David

This episode was recorded: 12/5/2012

 

 

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Release date:  5/14/2010

Present Pictures

Directed and Written by

• Jac Schaeffer

Produced by

• Jennifer Glynn
• Rikki Jarrett
• Jac Schaeffer

Cast

Emma Caulfield

• Oona O’Leary

Michelle Borth

• Steph DePaul

John Patrick Amedori

• Mikey Evers

Desmond Harrington

• Dan the Man

 

The hosts review:

• Darrell could not return the movie’s love, much as he wanted to.
• Could have been a light-hearted Twilight Zone episode.
• You’re setup to be skeptical from the beginning.
• If you get a TiMER after you’ve already met your soul mate, does it still go off?
• TiMER – self fulfilling prophecy or teller of the future?
• {momentary side-tracking to touch on “rapey” movies}
• Emma Caulfield is weird.
• There was a notable lack of b-face.
• The scene with her dad made no logical sense.
• The hosts delve into the anatomy of relationships.
• It’s a good date movie.
• Does David have a future as a con-man?
• They get silly over b-face (again).
• Stripper-face.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Tony/Deuce
• David

This episode was recorded: 11/28/2012

 

 

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Release date – 6/29/2012

Warner Bros. Pictures

 

Directed

• Steven Soderbergh

Produced by

• Nick Wechsler
• Gregory Jacobs
• Channing Tatum
• Reid Carolin

Written by

• Reid Carolin

 

Cast

Channing Tatum

• Michael “Magic Mike” Lane

Matthew McConaughey

• Dallas

Alex Pettyfer

• Adam “The Kid”

Olivia Munn

• Joanna

 

• Joe Magnaniello’s penis… how else would you start this review?
• Stereotypical plot.  Wait, there was a PLOT?
• Channing Tatum is pretty.  That’s about all that can be said about that.
• Oh, he can dance, too.
• McConaughey played… McConaughey (good casting).
• She’s got a serious case of b-face.
• Nobody cares about your furniture story.
• Do strippers find their jobs satisfying?
• Male cheesecake movies vs. female cheesecake movies.
• It tried to be a drama, but it never quite worked.  Neither did the comedy route.
• Creeping penis!
• Penis pump!
• Why did he keep pursuing Brooke?
• Rom-com friend… used to be nerdy, now they’re slutty.
• Apparently, Tony is all about the face.
• …and Tarzan.
• Joe Manganiello, in the words of David… MASSIVE!
• Tony wanted more McConaughey, Tarzan and Munn and less Tatum, Adam and b-face.
• Don’t underestimate horny women!
• Spiderman sidetrack.

 

Kevin Weiser and Jen Dixon of The Walking Eye recently had a fire in their apartment and can use some help to get them back on their feet.  Dig into your pockets and help fellow podcasters!  Click on the link below for more information and to help.

http://ortiz.chipin.com/kevin-weiser-and-jen-dixon

 

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• David

This episode was recorded: 11/21/2012

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Release date

• 10/7/2011

Columbia Pictures

Directed by

• George Clooney

Produced by

• George Clooney
• Grant Heslov
• Brian Oliver
• Leonardo DiCaprio

Screenplay by

• George Clooney
• Grant Heslov
• Beau Willimon

Based on “Farragut North” by Beau Willimon

Cast

Ryan Gosling

• Stephen Meyers

George Clooney

• Mike Morris

Philip Seymour Hoffman

• Paul Zara

Paul Giamatti

• Tom Duffy

*NOTE* Back Seat Producers will be on a bi-weekly schedule through the end of the year 

 

• Back Seat Producers or Fanboy Smackdown?
• A discussion about politics or will they speak of their collective love for Clooney & Gosling?
• Ryan Gosling… a tool or a TOOL?
• Political, but not obnoxiously so.
• Hmmm… does atheism matter when it comes to politics?
• Is Marisa Tomei a vampire?
• The acting was all top shelf.
• What about morality?  Good thing or bad thing?
• Evan Rachel Wood… oh what a tangled web she weaves.
• *Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler*
• In politics, if it’s a possibility, it’s real.
• There is a difference between what happens and what is perceived to have happened.
• A lesson on the appearance of impropriety… take heed!
• An autobiographical cathartic experience through film.
• The logic of cheating.
• You can’t con an innocent man.
• Of course the President nominee would check his cell phone during a press conference… don’t all Presidents do that?
• More cynical movie than All The President’s Men… and that’s a good thing.
• This is about campaigns, not government.
• Yes, Tony… living in a battleground state (Florida) does suck!
• All political banter seen on Facebook must be true!

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Deuce

This episode was recorded: 11/1/2012

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Release date:  3/9/2012

Lionsgate

Directed by

• Drew Goddard

Produced by

• Joss Whedon

Written by

• Drew Goddard
• Joss Whedon

Cast

Kristen Connolly

• Dana Polk

Chris Hemsworth

• Curt Vaughan

Fran Kranz

• Marty Mikalski

Richard Jenkins

• Gary Sitterson

Bradley Whitford

• Steve Hadley

The hosts review:

• Deuce watched it five times within a week… ‘nuff said.
• David’s reasons that this movie worked:  1 – Thor, pre-Thor, even!  2 – He likes a movie where he can SEE the monster, and this was utterly satisfied.  3 – There were heroes, not people making stupid choices in the face of danger.
• The ultimate choice… do you kill one person to save the world or do you let the world end?
• Special kudos to the Japanese school children!
• Scooby Doo… yes, I think everyone thought that, too.
• The cup bong was the amazing!
• Stereotypical behavior via chemical enhancements… and not the kind you’re thinking about.  Well, a little bit but not all of it.
• Why did they only bring one dirt bike?  Five people, one dirt bike?
• If you were in the basement, what item would you have picked up?  The puzzle ball?  The conch?  The diary?  The necklace?   The music box?
• Fornicus, Lord of Bondage and Pain.
• Tony reads a list of monsters/evil and their origins.
• Merman!  Messy to clean up, though.
• An interesting twist would have been in Marty was the virgin.
• Cabin in the Sexist Woods.
• It’s a great movie with a full plot and not contrived.  It lifted the veil off of all horror movies.

In the scene where Jules kisses the wolf head on the wall, the wolf’s tongue is covered in powdered sugar to give it a dusty look and to make the scene tolerable for the actress.

Fran Kranz (Marty) received extensive prop and behavior training in order to capture the stoner persona.  He received a two-hour joint rolling session and a separate bong lighting session from expert consultants.

On the white board in the control room, when the staff is taking bets on the victims’ potential killers, both “Deadites” as well as “Angry Molesting Tree” are listed.  These are obvious references to The Evil Dead films which also feature a cabin in the woods.

Immediately after an early previous screening with Fan Q&A, the first question Director Drew Goddard was asked was, “Will there be a sequel?”  To which he responded, “Have you seen the ending to my movie?”

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Melina
• Tony/Deuce
• David

This episode was recorded: 10/24/2012

 

Note: The audio on this one is a bit iffy.  Totally my fault and should be corrected in the next episode. – Tony

 

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Wherever you go, there you are!

This is filled with so much awesome, I have to watch it again!

From the opening scene test drive, the characters are there and letting their personalities shine through.

Low budget? Yep.  Cheesy? Sure.  Did it work back then? Oh, yeah.  Today this would be a Nickelodeon movie; exactly the same except with a teenage cast.

This is so ridiculous, it’s hilarious.

A neo-Doc Savage story.

There’s Perfect Tommy, but Buckaroo is BETTER than him.

Where’s Pixie?  We haven’t heard from Pixie yet!

“The people at these conventions we go to really need to brush their teeth better.”

3-2-1 Rule of Con going, people!

SausageFest, SausageFest, SausageFest! (yes, you can still donate!)

Buckaroo Banzai and his friends are kind of a SausageFest.

Ellen Barkin is the cheesecake.

This movie is right up there with Howard the Duck.

It would have worked better without Ellen.

Yakof Smirnoff!

Would the kiddies watch it if it was remade?

Did adults like it when it came out, or just younger people?

A brilliantly creative concept… the aliens are here, they’re just hiding in the 8^th dimension.

How did he not know that his wife had a twin sister?

Oh no, the Taking the Hobbits to Isengard YouTube video!

We should all go to the nearest canal and walk in a box.

In every scene I’ll wear a different colored nightie

 

Your hosts

• Jack – jackmangan.com
• Desert Pixie
• Tony
• JR – ofgnomesanddwarves.com

Recorded: 10/2/2012

 

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Sausage Fest 3 is next weekend!  We’ve reached out first goal of exceeding last year’s pre-event donations and there’s a rumor that Tony might shave his head if we hit $2,000 before October 13th.  Check out sausagefeststl.com to donate and check out the perk levels!

 

Release date:  7/20/2012

Warner Bros.

Directed by

• Christopher Nolan

Produced by

• Emma Thomas
• Christopher Nolan
• Charles Rovan

Screenplay by

• Jonathan Nolan
• Christopher Nolan

Story by

• Christopher Nolan
• David S. Goyer

Based on

• characters by Bob Kane

 

Cast

Christian Bale

• Bruce Wayne

Gary Oldman

• Commissioner Gordon

Tom Hardy

• Bane

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

• John Blake

Anne Hathaway

• Selina Kyle

Michael Caine

• Alfred Pennyworth

The hosts review:

Quick and dirty to start things off… all the hosts liked it.  They drift off for a few minutes to the Avengers, whether one was better than the other, possible future Avenger projects and general TV commentary.  David thought it wasn’t as good as The Dark Knight, but Deuce disagreed.  Tony didn’t really get the full effect of the movie until a few days after seeing it, mostly because some of the timelines in the story were compressed and some weren’t.  He brought up Bruce Wayne’s time in prison as a prime example.  David thought Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s John Black character was unnecessary; not because of bad acting, but just the character in general.  The argument was that Blake is the young character who will carry on the story.

Deuce said that The Dark Knight Rises should be viewed (and reviewed) as a trilogy, not just as a stand-alone film.  What follows is an in-depth discussion about whether Christian Bale is fat or muscular… and the best part is that there isn’t one single female partaking in this discussion!

Tony thought that Bane’s plans shouldn’t have worked and, more than that, both of his plans were terrible (he also thought that The Joker’s plans shouldn’t have worked, either).  Deuce compared the three movies of the trilogy, likening the 1^st and 3^rd to Bond-type films with gadgets, terrorists and espionage, except that in The Dark Knight Rises, it takes you half way between a superhero film and a Bond-type film.  They also get into a discussion as to whether Superman and Batman can exist at the same time and place.

David thought that every character in the movie rose to the challenge except Batman… everyone else disagreed.  Deuce brought up that part of the story of this film is that Batman can’t be Batman forever.  Tony said that Wayne’s biggest challenge was breaking out of prison.  Part of Wayne’s “rise” is going from a state of action to inaction, rising above vengeance to live as a person and not a superhero, and that’s where the disagreements come in.  In the end, Wayne is comfortable enough to be able to walk away from (rise above) Batman.

Beginning the discussion of acting performances, David thought that Christian Bale was good, but not in the film very much.  Darrell thought that the two best performances came from Tom Hardy and Anne Hathaway, but there was a little bit of disagreement with Tom Hardy because his face is covered throughout the movie.  Two other fantastic performances, according to David and Tony agreed, were from Michael Caine and Gary Oldman.

Talking about the three movies as a whole, they thought up that The Dark Knight was more about the characters.  Each movie had its own set of flaws, but each one is entertaining as a whole and on its own.  They said that it was a credit to Christopher Nolan that he was able to elevate each movie.

They loved the Bane character – he wasn’t a thug, he was as intelligent as Batman.  They also agreed on the Catwoman character – well played, especially because they put a lot of focus on Selina Kyle and not just Catwoman.  Regarding the women in all three movies, they were all in agreement that Katie Holmes was the least talented.  They also liked Marion Cotillard’s Miranda character.  They thought SPOILER REDACTED.

Trivial bits ‘n pieces:

Around 10,000 extras were used to shoot the Gotham Rogues scene in Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A number of Pittsburgh Steelers played football players, as well as a former Steelers Coach and the mayor of Pittsburgh.

Tom Hardy described Bane as an absolute terrorist: “He’s brutal, but also incredibly clinical in the fact that he has a result-based and oriented fighting style. The style is heavy-handed, heavy-footed… it’s nasty. It’s not about fighting, it’s about carnage!”

Hardy said he based his voice for Bane on Bartley Gorman (1944-2002), an Irish Traveller who was the undefeated Bare-knuckle boxing champion of the United Kingdom.

This movie brought together a number of actors from “Inception” – Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard and Cillian Murphy.

Nolan said that this film’s theme deals with “Pain”. For Batman Begins, it was “Fear”, and The Dark Knight was “Chaos”.

 

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Tony/Deuce
• Darrell
• David

This episode was recorded: 10/3/2012

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Sausagefest is less than two weeks away!  Go to our website, sausagefeststl.com, and donate to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  There are lots of perk levels so you can also get nifty stuff for your donations!

 

Release date:  12/16/2000

Toei Company

Directed by

• Kinji Fukasaku

Produced by

• Masao Sato
• Masumi Okada
• Teruo Kamaya
• Tetsu Kayama

Screenplay by

• Kenta Fukasaku

Based on

• Battle Royale, by Koushun Takami

Cast

Takeshi Kitano

• Kitano-sensei

Tatsuya Fujiwara

• Shuya Nanahara

Aki Maeda

• Noriko Nakagawa

 

The hosts review:

Darrell liked the movie, with all its gore, and thought it held up quite well.  David agreed, thought it was okay and a bit rough.  The hosts brought up comparisons to The Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies.  Going all the way back to Lord of the Flies, these were children that were unintentionally put in their position.  The Hunger Games and Battle Royale came at the story line from a slightly different place and from a similar background, with children being placed/forced into survival.  Another difference in The Hunger Games and Battle Royale are the different roles that the “audience” played.  In The Hunger Games, the games were a form of entertainment to the wealthy, but in Battle Royale, the media was only seen once in the beginning of the movie.

The hosts discussed the girl shown in the beginning of the film who appears to be a winner of Battle Royale, but there was no one winner *SPOILER* in this specific battle.  Darrell thought it was the girl who survived (one boy and one girl survived) but David didn’t think that made sense in the story.  Lena (chat room) at first thought the girl was a stand-in used to fool the public into thinking the battle was successful, but later found out that the girl was a winner of a previous battle… who shows up in the second Battle Royale movie.

Another Hunger/Battle comparison was the depiction of females.  The Hunger Games had a strong “girl power” theme but that was definitely not the case in Battle Royale.  The Japanese girls were, for the most part, portrayed as hysterical and without any leadership.  This, naturally, brings up the question of, “What would you do if you were in that position?”  Would you kill your best friend, would you hide out as long as you could, would you commit suicide or purposely put yourself in line to be killed so that you wouldn’t have to participate at all?

The discussion took at odd turn at this point, in the direction of Sausagefest 4 = Battle Royale… with kielbasa.

Darrell discussed how Battle Royale had difficulties finding an American distributor due to its high level of violence.  The Japanese DVD release was even postponed because of a slashing incident (an 11 year old girl slashed and killed a female 12 year old schoolmate) in which the child had read Battle Royale.

One thing that Tony liked about Battle Royale, in comparing it to The Hunger Games, is how much more visceral the violence was.  He didn’t find that it glorified violence but rather showed it respectfully and showed what a horrific thing has happened.

 

Trivial bits ‘n pieces:

The painting of all the students was created by Takeshi Kitano.

Battle Royale is one of the top-10 highest-grossing films in Japan.

Director Kinji Fukasaku has said that he based this movie on his experiences in World War II Japan, where he worked in a factory that was regularly bombed by Allied aircraft and many of his fellow workers were killed on their first or second day on the job and he never got to know any of them.

 

Awards:

Battle Royale was nominated for nine Japanese Academy Awards in 2001 and won three (Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing, Popularity Award and Newcomer of the Year for Tatsuya Fujiwara and Aki Maeda)

 

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• David

This episode was recorded: 9/26/2012

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