Alphabetical Movie – Last Train from Gun Hill
Kirk Douglas, guys. Just look at the guy!
No, motherfuckers. I’M Spartacus!
He’s a manly man if ever there was a manly man! The dude is almost 100 and has had a stroke and he still could kick my ass. Of course, I’m pretty sure my eight year old could kick my ass.
Don’t tell him that….
Geeks Without God Cover the Oscars!
Another week, another podcast! I was pretty excited to record this week’s episode because we were doing a geeky boner episode and I had a pretty big one. Heh heh. Yes, I know I can be pretty immature somethimes.
This week, I got to talk Oscars! Yes, I know they are kind of ridiculous and they always seem to be voting for movies that a different generation enjoys and the film that wins the Best Picture Oscar is rarely one of the top five films that came out in a particular year.
But I geek out over them anyway. And Molly and Nick were very patient with me. They allowed me to geek out about them for a very long time. So thanks, Nick and Molly!
You can listen for yourself and decide if they should have shut me up sooner!
Alphabetical Movie – Last Action Hero
Last Action Hero is a film that, depending on who you ask, is either an expensive failure or far better than people think. In geek circles, it is one of those movies that typically inspires lengthy tirades about how the movie is misunderstood and how the critics were idiots and how the movie is actually brilliant.
And when it comes to the critical savaging the film received, I’m in general agreement that they blew it. The movie wasn’t as bad as all that. It isn’t that bad at all. In fact it is, at times, very good.
I’d stop short of calling it brilliant.
Alphabetical Movie – Ladyhawke
I like Ladyhawke but it is hampered by one of the worst movie trends of the 1980’s.
I’m talking, of course, about the 80’s synthtrack.
Bad in the best of films, having pulsing 80’s synthesizer music play over a medieval fantasy love story is just about as painful as the re-tuned version of “Losing my Religion.”
Alphabetical Movie – The Lady Vanishes
Most of The Lady Vanishes takes place on a train and it got me wondering – what is it with trains in movies?
Alfred Hitchcock, we know, had a thing for trains. I suppose that is to be expected given that he comes from Europe, where people actually ride trains. He was so enamored with trains, he even made Strangers on a Train. We won’t even talk about the train going into the tunnel at the end of North by Northwest.
Except I just did.
New Vilification Tennis Silliness
We’ve been having a few problems with the Vilification Tennis website as of late so updates have been slow to come. This week, though, we have managed to get things a little bit sorted out and there is some new stuff to read and listen to.
Specifically, I wrote a new Movie Dick article about the Oscars. I think it captures the averager person’s opinion of the Oscars pretty well.
There’s also a new Vilification Tennis podcast that involves a whole lot of misogyny in preparation for our February show, the White Male Priviledge show. Don’t worry. It’s ironic misogyny. That makes it better, right?
Alphabetical Movie – Lady Jane
I have to wonder why anyone in England would have wanted to be born royalty. Seems to me that anyone who was Royalty in the 16th and 17th centuries came out of the womb with a dotted line across their necks to make it easier for the headsman to do his job.
Certainly a movie about the era is not complete without at least once character getting their head chopped off. Usually it’s the main character but at times, five or six secondary characters also get similar treatment.
They’re sort of collateral damage.
Alphabetical Movie – Lady and the Tramp
Please note: I didn’t know the man so what I’m saying is complete speculation
I don’t think Walt Disney was a cat person.
What Lady and the Tramp teaches us, among other things, that dogs are capable of caring for human babies and cats will make every effort to destroy them. While the film stops short of having the cats try to steal the babies’ breath, it sure doesn’t make cats look like loving creatures that could bring warmth and happiness to any home.
It isn’t really fair to judge Disney by one movie, though. Looking at the “classic” Disney films (the ones made before his death), let’s see how cats make out, shall we?
Well..there’s 101 Dalmatians. That movie has..a whole lot of dogs…and…um…one cat. He’s a nice cat so that’s something, I suppose. Of course he is involved in a strange military hierarchy where he is out ranked by a dog and a horse. A horse? Had these people met a cat before? There is not a cat on this planet that would take orders from a horse.
From a cat perspective, the fact horses allow themselves to be saddled and ridden is the source of ridicule and contempt. At least it would be if cats could bring themselves to give a shit about horses.
Double the Podcasting Goodness
As has been the case for over six months now, Tuesday morning is reserved for a new episode of Geeks Without God. This week’s episode is devoted to the fundamentalist Christian film Left Behind which, I was surprised to discover, wasn’t just offensive and stupid, it was also horribly bad.
Given how much the three of us suffered for our “art,” you should head on over and listen to the results of our pain.
As if that wasn’t enough, last week we launched Fearless Comedy. You may have heard me mention it.
At the launch party, Joshua Humphrey of the TC Theatre Podcast interviewed Jena Young (our marketing director and co-author of the YoungNotions blog) and myself about the launch party and the new company.
Click here if you’d like to listen to the results!
Alphabetical Movie – Labyrinth
I’m putting it right out front – I don’t want to hate on David Bowie, OK? I love David Bowie.
I love his music. I had Changesoneboowie on vinyl! When he appeared on the Bing Crosby Christmas special to sing that messed up version of Little Drummer boy, I was excited about it because David Bowie was singing with some old pipe smoking dude with an annoying voice!
Grail Diary 