Podcast Episode 59: TERMINATOR Is The Ultimate B-Movie

Like a giant bowl of sugar cereal, the Terminator franchise is deeply flawed yet also a complete delight.  Each of these movies has their issues: the original has almost no plot, the T2 is saddled with human awkwardness generator Eddie Furlong, the T3 suffers from a profound lack of Linda Hamilton and Terminator: Salvation is far too dour for its own good.  And yet, I love them.  I love them all.  (Okay, Salvation really tests the limits of my affection.)  So while, yes, the marketing for the upcoming Terminator: Genisys has been complete dogshit, I still find myself excited at the prospect of more time travelling killer cyborg adventures.  Because while the series has been in freefall for over a decade, at its core this is a franchise whose very premise allows it to be completely stripped down and reinvented at any given moment.  I will always hold out hope that Terminator will be awesome.

In the lead up to the release of Terminator: Genisys, we'll be revisiting all four of the previous films week by week starting this week with James Cameron's original B-movie masterpiece.  In truth, this is the movie with which I am probably the least familiar, as I did not see it in its entirety until much later in life and, before last week, I think I'd only seen it once all the way through.  Why this wasn't in constant rotation on TV when I was a kid, I will never know.  But it's good to revisit these things periodically, to give yourself the chance to marvel at Stan Winston's mindblowing work creating practical Terminator effects or to remind yourself that yes, that IS Bill Paxton playing a street punk with blue spiky hair.

I'm really looking forward to the next few weeks of podcasting.  I'm particularly excited for the chance to extol the virtues of T3: Rise Of The Machines, which is sneakily kind of wonderful.  As always, be sure to subscribe on iTunes or SoundCloud!

Next Week: Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Jurassic World

Spoiler Fans Will Love This TERMINATOR: GENISYS Trailer

So there's a new trailer out for this summer's upcoming and unfortunately titled Terminator: Genisys and it is apparently EXTREMELY spoilery in terms of this movie's particular timeline-related twists.
I have, therefore, not watched it.  But you might want to.  So it's embedded below.

Look, I've long held that studios give away far too much information about a movie in their attempts to sell it to audiences.  With a known quantity like Terminator, this habit is all the more baffling. However history judges this particular installment, we all know what we're getting when it comes to the franchise as a whole.  If killer robots and time travel isn't your bag, then these aren't the movies for you.  Otherwise, you're probably already on board, or at least morbidly curious.  That's sort of where I fall at this point - skeptical but intrigued.  So I guess this means I'm officially into my traditional marketing blackout mode now that summer is almost upon us.

For all you Terminator fans out there, we're planning on doing a full franchise rewatch on the podcast in the weeks leading up to the release of Genisys, so dust off your DVDs and get psyched!  For what it's worth, there's a $50 box set available on Amazon, or you can do what I did and buy each movie individually and save yourself $16.

Podcast Episode 42: THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Proves A Whole Lot Of Nothing

I tend to look forward to the avalanche of serious, high class, IMPORTANT MOVIES that overrun the box office each December, all searching for a taste of that Oscar glory.  But I must admit that so far this year I've been largely disappointed.  I think that the Best Actor race is going to be very hotly contested (as it usually is) and while most of these performances will absolutely deserve all that praise and more, the films themslves simply have not measured up.  There's no better example of this conundrum than The Theory Of Everything.

Eddie Redmayne does some astonishing work, both physically and emotionally, as the brilliant cosmologist Stephen Hawking.  Watching him slowly succumb to the ravages of Lou Gehrig's Disease is a heart breaking affair and it's a wonderfully realized transformation.  Felicity Jones matches Redmayne punch for punch as Hawking's wife Jane Wild, who is put in the unenviable position of havingtory to not only spend a lifetime caring for her crippled husband (who's initially given a prognosis of two years to live) but also raising three children without the benefit of live-in assistance.  The strain and pressure that puts upon Jane, as well as the guilt the Hawking experiences over his lack of self-sufficiency, hardly makes for an ideal household.  More than anything else, this is a story about the burgeoning young romance that slowly and inexorably crumbles apart.

That's all well and good, but the movie never really manages to break the surface in regards to the themes, characters, their relationship, or the plot.  In fact, I'm not even sure if the movie really has a plot, strictly speaking.  It's more just a series of events tied together by a Rocky IV-esque number of montages.  There's seemingly no bigger message to unpack here.  I was hoping for something examining the price of success at the expense of family, or the ability of hope and strength to overcome incredible obstacles, or even just a keen juxtaposition of intellectual achievement set against extreme physical degradation.  None of those ideas are actually present in the film, despite director James Marsh's attempt to convince you otherwise in the last ten minutes.

I'm honestly left wondering if this film even needs to be about Stephen Hawking, as the film doesn't seem particularly interested in his work or personality.  You could essentially tell the exact same story with fictional protagonists and the only thing that would be missing is the name recognition that sells tickets.  It's a shame, because Redmayne and Jones really are doing great work and the sun-drenched cinematography by Benoit Delhomme is fairly stunning.  Unfortunately, the largely hollow script by Anthony McCarten simply strands everyone, most notably the audience.

This week marks the first episode of the show sans Bart.  Thankfully, Jamie stepped up in his absence in order to keep the podcast train rolling.  We also talk about the newly minted cast of Suicide Squad, Benedict Cumberbatch taking on the mantle of Doctor Strange, and the intriguing first trailer for the unfortunately titled Terminator: Genisys.

Jamie also makes a smart suggestion which I've been contemplating for a while now.  I ask you readers, would you prefer two shorter podcasts each week, one covering movie news and one examining a new film in detail, or do you like the single stream, longer format that we're currently producing?  I'm open to suggestions!

Next Week: Some combination of The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies and/or The Imitation Game.

Podcast Episode 37: BIRDMAN Or The Virtue Of Artistic Douchery

First things first: Birdman is a film whose technical beauty is irrefutable.  The cinematic prowess on display by director Alejandro Inarritu is nothing short of breathtaking and his "all-in-one-shot" aesthetic not only creates a tremendous sense of tension and momentum, but it recreates the breathless frenzy of being backstage at a major theatrical production with deft perfection.  On top of that, you've got some great work from stars the likes of Edward Norton, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Ryan, Naomi Watts and the single greatest performance from Michael Keaton in a decade.  With all those things working in its favor, Birdman is an easy film to praise.

But I don't think it's an easy film to love.  Actors will love it.  Theater people will love it.  And having been both of those things in my life, I'm probably a little more forgiving of the movie than many.  But I suspect most of middle America is going to have more than a bit of trouble identifying with any of these characters.  I'd hardly blame you for walking out of the theater hating all actors, or at the very least feeling like you just spent two hours watching an indulgent circle-jerk about artists doing "important work."  After all, this is a movie in which the protagonist stalks around the theater treating his self-scripted, self-directed attempt to remain socially relevant like it was a matter of actual life or death while completely ignoring pain and injury of a fellow actor who had a stage light fall on his head during rehearsals for seemingly no other reason than "he was a terrible actor."

Then again, it's also a movie in which my favorite Batman screeches like a bird and levitates in his tighty whities.  Suffice it to say, I'm more than a little conflicted.

Bart and I discuss all things Birdman with my wife Jamie and his girlfriend Jenna Gabriel.  We also address Marvel's finalized Phase 3 slate, whether or not Gotham is actually a sneaky comedy, and the disheartening first look at Terminator Genisys.

Next Week: We take to the stars with Chris Nolan's Interstellar.