We judged a few movies and talked way more than normal...

Original air date: 9-24-12
We return this week with a brace of reviews for new wide releases: Dredd and The Master. The former was something of a pleasant surprise, taking a smaller and less drastically speculative glance and everyone's favorite totalitarian sturmfuhrer. This Dredd was less of a larger-than-life character and the film followed a more mundane (though still dangerous) situation in Mega City One. A few unnecessary visual flourishes didn't quite detract from the overall minimalist style and setting; this is something of a Die Hard with cooler guns, but neither technology nor the somewhat grounded, occasionally quirky vision of the future are really foregrounded above the pure exposition. Unusual, and cool.

The Master, however, was high art, by god, and predictable in that Paul Thomas Anderson idiosyncratic, uncomfortable-as-fuck spazz-out way. A few powerful scenes, fabulous acting, meticulous construction, and yet the whole thing was a somewhat empty ode to artistry. At least, that's how it felt. PTA's movies are always weird dialectical experiences to me: I'm impressed, but I never want to watch them again.

We heard music from the following:

Conan the Destroyer, 1984 - Basil Poledouris
Judge Dredd, 1995 - Alan Silvestri
Masters of the Universe, 1987 - Bill Conti

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We interrupt this broadcast, because our shit died.

Original airdate: 9 - 17 - 12
Still no movies to report on, because all the movies in theaters suck mammoth cock right now. Well, as I type that first sentence our laptop has died right in the middle of our show! Our equipment is hilarious. We had to awkwardly cram all our talking into about ten minutes after the music failed, so, um, ehh, good show?

Tonight we heard music from the following:

Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, 1991 - David Newman
Bird with the Crystal Plumage, 1970 - Ennio Morricone
Judge Dredd, 1995 - Alan Silvestri

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The toys in this attic have nothing to do with Aerosmith.

Airdate: 9 - 10 - 12
We were fortunate enough to get a screening of Toys in the Attic, an American repackaging of In the Attic, or Who Has a Birthday Today?, the traditional stop-motion feature by Jiri Barta. This film is going to feel utterly bizarre and unpalatable to anyone unfamiliar with older stop-motion productions. It took a while for the whole experience to settle over me, but when it did, it was satisfying in a way 10,000 Pixar and/or DreamWorks turds never will.

We heard music from the following:

Robocop II, 1990 - Leonard Rosenman
Point Blank, 1967 - Johnny Mandel
Eyes Wide Shut, 1999 - Jocelyn Pook
"Forever Knight," 1992 - 1996 - Fred Mollin
Get Carter, 1971 - Roy Budd
We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, 1993 - James Horner

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Beasts of the radio dial.

Airdate: 8 - 27 - 12
This only film seen this weekend was Beasts of the Southern Wilds, a Tree of Life-y mythology-concerning tale from the swampy post-apocalypse (sans apocalypse) New Orleans wetlands ("The bathtub"). It was ok, not fully understanding its own relationship with mythology and discursiveness as much as playing with imagery and environment, but I'll applaud the effort.

We heard music from:

Cookie, 1989 - Thomas Newman
The House of Flying Daggers, 2002 - Shigeru Umebayashi
Enter the Dragon, 1973 - Lalo Schifrin
Six-String Samurai, 1998 - Brian Tyler
Serpico, 1973 - Mikis Theodorakis
The Island, 2005 - Steve Jablonsky

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Adios Tony. Thanks for some movies.

Airdate: 8 - 20 - 12
So, sad news (I guess). Tony Scott, director of films one has to have the attention span of a gnat to watch, leapt from a bridge in Los Angeles to his death, presumably because he was suffering from brain cancer and did not want to convalesce (ok, now the news is that the whole brain cancer bit is nothing but a rumor, so who knows). Anyway, we played music from his movies.

I had a chance to see a couple of movies this weekend: ParaNorman and The Expendables II. The former was a cute stop-motion romp and ode to zombie films, the latter was an extended episode of Family Guy with aging action stars. The difference between the action films of yore is that they were slyly self-aware; Expendables seemed to occupy the same head-space, but this sequel is a fucking over-the-top wankfest of in-jokes and/or one-liners. All sense of involvement is lost as every major action star is trotted out, given a gun, given some old references to make for what ultimately amounts to one big joke that is only mildly amusing once, if at all.

We heard music from the following:

Top Gun, 1986 - Various, Harold Faltermeyer
Crimson Tide, 1995 - Hans Zimmer
Days of Thunder, 1990 - Hans Zimmer
Beverly Hills Cop II, 1987 - Harold Faltermeyer
Zombi 3, 1988 - Stefano Mainetti

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