Episode 6: In this week’s episode, Ian and Cassie talk about the Star Wars casting, John Oliver, the continued late night wars, and they swap classic films (The Apartment, Chinatown).
Image via Comedy Central
“Life. It’s literally all we have. But is it any good?”
The Comedy Central Renaissance is as strong as ever. Kroll Show, Broad City, and Inside Amy Schumer got a new sibling this season.
Review has a simple enough premise that it doesn’t seem to have any legs: instead of reviewing movies or books, a man gets a show and reviews life experiences. This is enough for a self-contained cartoon. Luckily, Review goes way beyond the initial promise of its premise. We could use more of that in this world, because very few TV shows and films ever do.
Your grandparents are here right now eating lunch. They have great pastrami on rye. Also, this place was on the Guy Fieri Program once.
Summer is fast approaching and you are just a few weeks away from being able to burn all of your textbooks for firewood.
You will probably have a lot of free time this summer, and a lot of that time might be spent seeing relatives that you haven’t seen in a while. Perhaps those people are your grandparents, who might be heading up north to escape Florida. The humidity is no good for them.
Everybody knows that nothing brings families together like a day at the movies. Everybody also knows that nobody gets a movie title wrong like your grandparents do. They happen to come up with some creative titles that usually make absolutely no sense at all. Yet, they are often more creative than anything that most writers could come up with. One time, my grandpa referred to The Lincoln Lawyer as The Cadillac Man. In my eyes, that is pure gold.
In honor of all of the grandparents out there who just want to spend the day at the picture house, I have decided to breach the gap between two generations by providing what I hope is an accurate translation guide to accompany the one I came up with for holiday movies. Here is a helpful guide to the big movies of the summer, according to your grandparents:
Possibly a metaphor for the latter part of Adam Sandler’s career. Image via Uproxx
They can’t all be good.
It is easy to forget that every year, with all of the anticipation that the summer blockbuster season brings, a lot of movies are released that nobody asked for. Usually, the end of August and the entirety of September are reserved for the worst bombs of summer that Hollywood wanted to hide from you. However, some of those sneak into June and July. After all, it just wouldn’t be summer without a subpar sequel and an Adam Sandler movie.
Here are the four movies coming out this summer that I want to see the least. I chose four because numbers are irrelevant. Also, instead of the individual trailers, I have decided to accompany each movie with an SNL skit that at least one of the actors from said movie was in. It is partly because you can find the trailers on your own, and partly because I want to remind you that I still love Adam Sandler:
Episode 5: In this week’s episode, Ian and Cassie talk about the Parks and Recreation season finale, the unsung brilliance of Bob’s Burgers, and Joss Whedon’s In Your Eyes. Plus, Nick Ferreiro stops by to give us a lesson about Aereo.
Sad white people be sad. Image via Word and Film
Perhaps the only reason that In Your Eyes has gained so much attention is because it was released on Vimeo on the same day that it debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival. I admire any project that experiments with platform release. However, sometimes the experiment overshadows the product itself, and it would help if In Your Eyes was better than it actually is.
In Your Eyes is written and produced by Joss Whedon, who has been using that sweet Avengers money to make weird little indie films (last year, he directed a micro-budget, modern day version of Much Ado About Nothing). In Your Eyes is a sci-fi romance that is not nearly as smart as it thinks it is. Simply, this film is about two different people who are somehow mentally connected to one another. To Whedon’s credit, he never tries to explain this strange phenomenon. Inception really did kill the idea of movies spending long periods of time trying to explain the unexplainable.
Round up the usual suspects! Image via Paste Magazine
Just like March, summer goes in like a lion (whatever giant franchise offering Disney has to offer in June) and out like a very wimpy lamb (whatever Paranormal Activity spin-off is lated for release in the last week of August).
It would be unfair to immediately dismiss this summer’s entire lineup just because it doesn’t contain many original ideas. For now, originality is dead in Hollywood. That is a well researched fact, just like the how dogs are better than cats and Jaden Smith is terrible at grammar. Instead of rejecting it, it is better for a cinephile’s psyche to find the silver linings.
While there will still be plenty of sequels, prequels, remakes, and adaptations this summer, some of the worst qualities of modern Hollywood are starting to go the way of the dinosaurs and M. Night Shyamalan. For instance, this summer will give us a few major blockbusters that don’t hit the three hour mark, as well as a worldview that is more fun than gritty. Gritty is for Oscar season. Summer is for fun. Smart fun, if that is in anyway possible.
Here are the five movies coming out in the summer of 2014 that I look forward to the most:
Episode 4: In this week’s episode, Ian and Cassie talk about Joe, Fargo, Community, this week’s shocking episode of Game of Thrones and much more.
Image via ScreenCrush
Today, the common wisdom is that television is so much better than film. What people fail to mention is that TV wouldn’t be where it is today without film.
That being said, TV is getting inspiration from just about any source it can, and lately they have been turning towards older movies. Bates Motel and Hannibal, which are still running strong today, made headlines when they debuted last year. This past Wednesday, Fargo premiered on FX and accomplished the nearly impossible task of replicating the unique tone and style of The Coen Brothers.
Turning a movie into a TV show used to be viewed as a poisonous idea (anybody remember My Big Fat Greek Life?), but now it has become a popular practice filled with rewards. TV shows adapted from movies work when they take what they have been given and craft it into something new. Don’t try and rewrite history: have the series take place in the same world as the given movie, with an unspoken awareness that this movie and the events that took place in it actually happened at some point in either the past or future.
As much as I would love to rant against this trend as a killer of originality, it just seems pointless. It is easier to accept that some stories will just be told over and over again in different forms because that is how storytelling works. Besides, given the liberties they take, Fargo and Bates Motel might as well be separate stories. The truth is that familiar brands sell.
So instead of fighting against this trend, I will embrace it. Here are a few films, new and old, that could make great TV shows:
Joffrey, you don’t deserve Natalie Dormer’s love. Image via IMDB
Moral of the story: Don’t get married in Westeros.
Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones was a big one, and it is one that every fan has been waiting for since season one. So for now, I will say SPOILER ALERT. If you don’t want SPOILERS for this week’s episode of Game of Thrones, do not read beyond this point. I put SPOILERS in bold/caps lock because you see, I’m trying to make a point.