It’s our third annual best/worst show. Place your bets! REVIEWED: The highlights and lowlights of 2010. PLUS: Our first same-room recording since the beginning.
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Hey kids. We’re taking the week off to prepare for and produce our big ol’ 2010 wrap-up podcast and yearly rating posts. We’ll be back soon, but until then, why not reminisce with our Best of 2009 podcast.
That was this episode seducing you. It needs to be the other way around. REVIEWED: Black Swan. PLUS: Minesweeper.
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I don’t think we ever posted it here, but I’m a big fan of this video of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon doing their dueling Michael Caine impressions:
Michael Caine, apparently, doesn’t dig it so much. Or at least, he felt compelled to have a little fun at the expense of anyone who tries to imitate his Britishy tones:
[Via Badass Digest]
/Film reports that the Razzies have added a new category this year: Worst Eye-Gouging Misuse of 3D. The contenders? So far it’s Piranha 3D, The Nutcracker in 3D and Resident Evil: Afterlife.
Now that’s not the whole list of eligible 3D movies (which isn’t yet available), but it’s the one the media is circling around. Nutcracker makes sense. There’s no reason for that to be in 3D. But where did the other two come from? Resident Evil is a bombastic action flick, a perfect candidate for 3D. I’m not saying it’s great, but how is that a “misuse of 3D?” And Piranha 3D? Half the joke of that movie is that it’s in 3D! I don’t understand it’s inclusion here.
This hallway has so many dimensions!
You want to talk misuse of 3D? How about My Soul to Take? It wasn’t shot for 3D and was post-converted without Craven’s input. It gains nothing from being in 3D and the 3D itself sucks. Surely that’s a better fit for “misuse”. Or what about cheapo afterthought conversions like Clash of the Titans? If you’re just going to make the category “Worst Movies that Were Coincidentally Available in 3D” then call it that.
This episode can’t do nothing for ya, boy. REVIEWED: True Grit (1969), True Grit (2010). PLUS: The Oscar talk begins.
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Happy New Year, folks. I was sitting here trying to think up a post worthy of kicking off 2011. At the same time I was listening to Edgar Wright on Kevin Smith’s filmmaker podcast and he said something I really loved: It’s never too late to see a movie.
Wright told the story of a fan who had just seen Scott Pilgrim on DVD and apologized to him for having not seen it in theaters. You may recall that movie didn’t do so hot at the box office. Wright told him he was just happy he’d seen it. He then recalled hosting a screening of Evil Dead II and asking how many people in the audience hadn’t seen it before. The few that raised their hands got booed by the rest, but Wright shut them up by reminding them how amazing it must be to be see that movie for the first time in a theater full of hundreds of fans. It’s never too late to see a movie.
In college, I found out a friend of mine hadn’t seen Psycho. My first instinct was to chide her. I mean, that’s sheer cultural unawareness. But I was stunned when she added that she didn’t even know how it ended. She’d somehow lived more than twenty years without having the identity of Norman Bates’s mother ruined for her. Never heard it discussed, seen a parody, nothing. My sense of superiority flipped instantly to envy. I’d seen Psycho, but I’d never had the opportunity to experience it with a truly blank slate. She eventually saw it, and enjoyed it in a way that I would never be able to duplicate for myself.
Logan and I certainly haven’t seen everything. A big part of Critical End is having the excuse to watch more movies, old and new, constantly filling the gaps in our cinematic knowledge. I started writing a post about the shame I associate with my own gaps, and how my New Year’s resolution was to atone for my sins. But Edgar Wright just reminded me to relax. I’ll get around to all those films soon enough, but I’m done feeling guilty about them. It’s never too late to see a movie.
Incidentally, Schindler’s List? Haven’t seen it. But I think this is the year.
Finally home from my holiday festivities, and I’ve come baring gifts. Check out the teaser for Kevin Smith’s religious-themed horror film Red State.
Even though this tells us next to nothing, I’m pretty interested. Granted, I’m a Kevin Smith fan, and I’m anxious to see what he can do in this new genre, but casting a crazy priest as your villain seems pretty original to me. I’m probably REALLY wrong about that, so feel free to post links to all the other crazy priest movies in the comments.
Merry Festival of the Bells, folks! Like Logan said, it’s a short week. We wanted to get you guys the Tron/Tron Legacy show today, but holiday travel and technical difficulties intervened. We’ll have it for you next Wednesday, and, if all goes well, True Grit the week after that. It’s a Very Jeff Bridges Christmas.
Speaking of, here’s a bit of Tron to tide you over. The well-remembered 1982 Tron Holiday Special from Funny or Die.
[Via Badass Digest]
I tell ya, this Spider-Man musical, huh? Am I right? The shakily-reviewed, fan-maligned, still unreleased Broadway debut of your friendly neighborhood wall-crawler has been delayed once again. Â So what’s the deal this time? Â More horrifying wrist injuries? Â No, apparently, one of the main issues is that preview audiences have had a tough time following what the hell is going on.
/Film says that producers “have decided that the second act, which is where the show strays from the classic Spider-Man mythology, is unclear and needs to be tinkered with.”  So, first, great job fucking up the story of one of the most recognizable characters in popular fiction to such a degree that it’s not only disappointing, but flat out incomprehensible.
Second, if the whole point of a musical is to tell a story through music, I’m going to guess that the droning, generic contributions of Bono and THE EDGETM probably aren’t cutting it. Not a surprise, based on what we’ve already seen. C’mon, that could be a song about literally anything. What does it tell us about Spider-Man?
Luckily, Batman swoops in to the save the day. Not that probably-also-shitty Batman musical they’re cooking up. I’m talking about Christian Bale himself. Check out this interview where he actually starts to sing a song from Newsies. Sure, he stops after only two words, but it still made my day. Plus he transitions in the Powerpuff Girls theme for some reason, which is amazing in its own right. Any father who exposes his daughter to an excellent cartoon that’s been off the air for six years is a great dad in my book.
[Clip via Badass Digest]
Who me? No, no, I don’t live here. I’m just Johnny Depp. No problem, I get that a lot. REVIEWED: The Tourist. PLUS: Filler!
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Not a ton going down today, but remember that new CG animated Road Runner short WB was working on? Well here it is (in full this time), and you don’t have to suffer through some terrible Cats & Dogs movie to see it.
I dig it. It hit all the right beats, had me laughing out loud, then got out quickly. And it reminded me of Tangled, in that it was produced with CG, but was obviously tailored to look like its hand-drawn source material. Nice going, WB. Let’s see more where this came from, hopefully in front of better movies than Cats & Dogs.
[Via /Film]
Don't freak out, it's totally consensual.
So here’s what we know. First and awesomest, Disney has released an official synopsis for the new Muppet flick:
On vacation in Los Angeles, Walter, the world’s biggest Muppet fan, and his friends Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) from Smalltown, USA, discover the nefarious plan of oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to raze the Muppet Theater and drill for the oil recently discovered beneath the Muppets’ former stomping grounds.
To stage The Greatest Muppet Telethon Ever and raise the $10 million needed to save the theater, Walter, Mary and Gary help Kermit reunite the Muppets, who have all gone their separate ways: Fozzie now performs with a Reno casino house band called the Moopets, Miss Piggy is a plus-size fashion editor at Vogue Paris, Animal is in a Santa Barbara clinic for anger management, and Gonzo is a high-powered plumbing magnate.
With secret, signature, celebrity cameos, The Muppets hits the big screen Nov. 23, 2011.
That’s pretty much what we’ve been hearing with some great new details on what the disbanded Muppets are up to at the film’s beginning. You’ll also note that the release date has been moved form Christmas to Thanksgiving, meaning you’ll get your Muppet fix a full month earlier.
In bittersweet news, Paul Rudd has squashed the rumor that he’s voicing Segel’s puppet pal Walter. Bitter because we all love Paul Rudd, but sweet because my preference is for Muppeteers to voice Muppets. It’s the natural order of things. Of course it’s still possible they’ll go for a celebrity dub job to pull in a broader audience. It’s also possible that Celebrity Dub Job would make a great title for a gameshow.
Last thing, Muppet Central linked some sneaky set pics posted at On Location Vacations. They’re guaranteed to satisfy all your dour-looking-gentleman-manhandling-Beaker needs.
The one where we DON’T complain about the 3D. REVIEWED: Tangled. PLUS: The only podcast with a “C Moon” joke.
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