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.
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.
Trivial bits ‘n pieces:
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
The show begins with a poignant, heartfelt speech by Deuce.
The hosts review:
The hosts all enjoyed the movie. None had any expectations but they were all satisfied. David said that what worked was that the audience had to believe the play between Tucker and Dale and the believability as to why the kids seemed to be killing themselves. The ridiculousness of it works. One of David’s favorite parts was that, whenever Tucker was injured, he treated each horrific wound by pouring beer on it. They also agreed that the chemistry between Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk was really good.
They discussed how this movie turns the commentary on horror movies and how hillbillies would usually be the bad guys. They also touch on how, in almost every horror movie, the young people will almost always jump to conclusions, thus setting themselves up to be killed. The conversation touches on “reasonable” ways to save oneself from the horrors of being killed while on a camping trip.
There was also a touch of sadness at the fact that there was no camping-sex, as tends to be the norm for these movies, as well.
Talk then turns to wet t-shirt contests… and David’s participation in said contest, and SausageFest antics of past years.
**There is still time to donate to SausageFest**
Summing this all up, David ranked the movie (out of five fat hillbillies) with four fat hillbillies and one skinny hillbilly.
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 1st and 3rd 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”.
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)
Darrell thought the movie wasn’t bad but had trouble getting into it because of the length of it, he thought the plot point dragged on. The hosts break into a side discussion about Stephen King’s books and, when he writes about lighter supernatural elements and the characters are real, the stories are much better. The human elements in this story aren’t driven by the supernatural events; the story is driven by the characters. Another example of this is Shawshank Redemption, which has no supernatural elements at all.
David liked the movie, but he doesn’t like the use of older characters used to tell their stories from years ago, as Tom Hanks character does to begin and end the movie. Tony brought up that in this particular case, it gives you a few hints as to what the “gift” is that John Coffey gave Paul Edgecomb. This brought up the question of, ‘Just how old is John Coffey? How long has been around before he’s ready to leave?’ Lena (chat room) thought that the scars on his arms might have meant that he might have been a slave.
In discussion the actors, the hosts agreed that Tom Hanks did a great job, and his best quality as an actor is the ability to be understated and to improve the quality of everyone working with him (see: Wilson – Castaway). Michael Clarke Duncan did a really great job at playing Coffey’s character and switching from an innocent to someone with the power to heal. The hosts thought Sam Rockwell did a fantastic job at Wild Bill. Michael Jeter as Del, Doug Hutchison as Percy, David Morse as Brutal, James Cromwell as Warden Moores… all believable, all really good characters.
In true Stephen King style, a lot of the movie showed each character’s set up; who everyone is, what their role is, how everyone interacts, and each part was necessary. There has to be three executions because each one sets up information about the next one. Percy have to have every one of his scenes to show what kind of a character he is so that it’s understood why Coffey gives a small part of himself to Percy so that justice could ultimately be done to Wild Bill. Edgecomb’s back story had to follow that particular path to understand why Coffey gives part of his gift to him.
The hosts go into short, impromptu lists of top boob movies and top dong movies… yeah, that’s what I said.
Trivial bits ‘n pieces:
At the beginning of the movie, when the old Paul Edgecomb is walking to get some breakfast after waking from that bad dream, he is walking on a tiled floor that is very green, as if it’s his Green Mile.
In actuality, Michael Clarke Duncan (6’5”) is only one inch taller than David Morse (6’4”) and two inches shorter than James Cromwell (6’7”). Among other things, creative camera angles were used to create the illusion that Duncan as John Coffey towered over the prison staff, even Brutal Howell and Warden Moores.
When Stephen King visited the set he asked to be strapped into Old Sparky to see how it felt. He didn’t like it and asked to be released.
When the producers were having trouble finding the right actor to fill the role of John Coffey, Bruce Willis suggested Duncan, who co-starred with him in Armageddon.
Many actors in this film have previously or subsequently appeared in other Stephen King adaptations. Morse appeared in the Langoliers and Hearts in Atlantis. Cromwell was in Salem’s Lot. Patricia Clarkson acted in Carrie. Jeffrey DeMunn and William Sadler were both in Shawshank Redemption and The Mist. Harry Dean Stanton appeared in Christine and Gary Sinise was in The Stand.
Awards:
1999 Academy Awards – 4 nominations
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role-Michael Clarke Duncan
Best Picture
Best Sound Mixing
Best Adapted Screenplay
2000 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films – 3 wins
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress-Patricia Clarkson
Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film
The Green Mile also won the following awards:
2000 Black Reel Award (Best Supporting Actor)
2000 Blockbuster Entertainment Award (Favorite Actor)
2000 Broadcast Film Critics Association (Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor)
2000 People’s Choice Award (Favorite All-Around Motion Picture and Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture)
David enjoyed the movie and, because some of the scenes were so long and drawn out and Taratino-esque, he started to read the trivia and realizes that it was, in fact, written by Tarantino. Tony added that it wasn’t completely like Tarantino because some of the dialogue wasn’t as clever and snappy throughout. He does, though, keep to his love of monologues. Tony felt that the Elvis parts could have been cut out and it wouldn’t have taken anything away from the movie, and David agreed that it didn’t seem to make much sense. David originally thought the movie was going to be dreadful, judging solely by Christian Slater’s beginning monologue, but once Patricia Arquette showed up, it was a great improvement.
They break now to talk about the long list of actors/characters. David thought that Slater improved greatly after the first monologue, although he’s not a big fan of Slater’s Jack Nicholson tones. Both hosts really liked the scene where Slater confronts Gary Oldman. The Dennis Hopper/Christopher Walken scene was fantastic, but what a letdown when neither of them were in the movie again! The one that was surprising, as Tony thought his scene would be a “one & done” was Brad Pitt.
Both Tony and David thought Arquette was fantastic, and they were pleasantly surprised by her performance. They liked her playfulness and they thought she and Slater had good chemistry. They both also really appreciated her fight scene with Gandolfini. It was a very atypical fight scene and it worked really well. Lena (from the chat room) said that she loved Gandolfini’s expression when he first punched Arquette; it was a mix of evil and joy. Even the way that Arquette’s prostitute falls in love with and marries Slater’s character meshed and seemed realistic… as much as it could be.
Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Bronson Pinchot, Saul Rubinek… all really good performances. They also talk about how they both feel that Brad Pitt is underrated as an actor.
Touching on the Recently Dead Guy Podcast theme, Tony said he could easily see why True Romance was one of Tony Scott’s most critically acclaimed films. The hosts then go into a list of Scott’s films.
They returned to the cast again to talk about Oldman’s pimp character and Samuel L. Jackson’s dietary preferences.
Wrapping up, the hosts agreed that there were a few scenes that could have been cut a little shorter. They liked that it was a very unpredictable movie where the slate is effectively wiped clean by the film’s end. If you’re into Tarantino, you’ll like this film. David brings up the alternately ending in which Clarence dies at the end and Alabama goes on a crime spree with Mr. White from Reservoir Dogs.
Trivial bits ‘n pieces (many of which the hosts brought up during the recording):
The screenplay of True Romance was originally part of a very long screenplay written by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary. The other half of it was used for the film Natural Born Killers. In both films Tom Sizemore plays a cop.
The structure of the script was different in Tarantino’s original script. The first two parts of the movie were told in trademark Tarantino nonlinear fashion. Director Tony Scott hired Avery to change the script to linear structure for filming.
According to Dennis Hopper, the only words that were improvised in the scene with Christopher Walken were “eggplant” and “cantaloupe”.
Following the “eggplant scene”, Hopper was concerned about being “shot” by Walken with the prop gun so close against his head for fear of being burned by the barrel. Director Scott assured him the gun was 100% safe, and even tested it by having the prop man fire it against his (Scott’s) own forehead. But upon firing the prop gun the barrel extended about a third of an inch and Scott ended up on the floor with blood pouring from the wound.
The work “f*#k” and its derivatives are said 225 times.
Tony Scott gave Patricia Arquette the Cadillac featured heavily in the film as a gift after filming wrapped.
In the diner scene, when Clarence asks Alabama what her turn-offs are, she replies “Persians” in the finished film. Being turned off by her character appearing racist in that scene, Arquette name-dropped a different ethnicity for each take that was shot. She said she wanted to be equally offensive to all people.
First and foremost, welcome back to our long, lost host… David!
David liked it, but not for the obvious reasons. He thought the racist epithets were weird and shocking, although it was more common for the mid-70s to hear that particular kind of language. Lena brought up that there wasn’t any real cussing in the movie, as it was rated PG. David was also surprised by the surprise “child abuse” when one of the coaches slaps a ballplayer in the face. Tony brought up that the movie gets into the little social issues that surrounds kids sports that are still around and probably worse today.
Lena found some parts of the movie to still be funny, even after almost 40 years. She also found it neat to remember what things were like from her childhood years. Tony and Lena agreed that Tatum O’Neal was a fashion plate, and then it was briefly discussed the other actresses that were initially slated to play the role of Amanda.
Darrell found it interesting that, with all the racial slurs being tossed around in the movie, there was very little backlash at having a girl on the baseball team.
Tony mentioned that there was an alternate ending to the movie in which Kelly is safe at home and the Bears win, but test audiences liked the more realistic ending.
Lena learns what a “boilermaker” is… please hold your laughter until the end of the review, thank you.
We briefly break into a side conversation of how Vic Morrow died while filming Twilight Zone: The Movie.
Tony liked how the movie exposed what happens with kids and sports. Lena’s favorite scene was when Kelly (Haley), a skinny fourteen year-old, was hitting on the adult woman in Amanda’s ballet class. Tony also found that the way the parents were portrayed in the movie is pretty much still the way a lot of the parents are today.
The review breaks off into a discussion of which of the child stars did anything else after Bad News Bears. Erin Blunt, who played Ahmad Abdul Rahim, also played one of Lonnie’s kids in our previous movie, Car Wash (full circle, baby!)
Trivial bits ‘n pieces:
Tanner uses the word “crud” or “cruddy” 11 times in the movie (Tony brought this up early in the review)
Throughout the film, Buttermaker constantly drinks beer, yet is rarely seen drinking the same brand. He is seen at various times in the film drinking Budweiser, Miller High Life, Schlitz “Kingers”, Pabst Blue Ribbon, and original Coors. On several occasions, he is shown drinking Budweiser.
Bill Lancaster’s screenplay was based on his experiences with his father, Burt Lancaster. Buttermaker was based on Burt, who was known for his grumpiness and the character of Amanda was based on himself.
Saturday Night Live did a parody of the film with Matthau as the guest host (12/2/1978) called “The Bad News Bees” with John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and the rest of the cast in their recurring “bee” costumes. The coach gives his team of bees some advice on life after one of them is caught masturbating, which was referred to as “buzzing-off”.