Thursday 26 March 2015

Episode 98: 2006 - Lady in the Podcast



So we prepared for this one, adequately we felt. We have noticed that year shows at the latter end of the journey are somewhat... how shall we say... baggy. The pace of film production has just gone mental these last few years.

We took a look at the list of major releases recorded for 1976 the other day and it looked like someone had left off 75% of the titles to our jaded modern eyes. So we carefully selected the movies to look at and the ones to group and discuss en masse. We stuck to the plan. We knew we could keep our discussion time down.

We failed.

So what went wrong??? Well, 2006... and this sounds like a cop-out but really it's not... 2006 was a very cerebral year at the pictures. Not so much in Hollywood where it was all pirates and secret agents and failing to do Superman properly again. The smaller projects are the problem. How can you not spend quality time discussing Children of Men? Or Deja Vu? Or Idiocracy? Or Pan's Labyrinth? There's just so much to talk about!

Thank goodness we did V for Vendetta in our Wachowskis retrospective, because honestly that might have taken us past the 2 hour point. Thankfully 2007 is shaping up to be completely boring, so next time... next time...

Incidental Music by incompetech.com

Thursday 19 March 2015

Episode 97: Noughties Procedural Action Men - The TV show



Procedural drama. You know the stuff. You have your cast of regulars who act as problem solvers and each week they get to do their job, working their way through whatever crisis is going on in a neat format be that Murders, Undead Horrors or Aliens come to Earth to stir up trouble.

Of course we've got over an hour to kill talking on this topic on our episode so this necessitates a degree of formula. After our attention grabbing opening skit we sink our teeth into 'Angel' as this series more than any other seemed to umbrella over so much of what we wanted to discuss. This quickly leads into a more worldly chat about the frantic '24' and then onto the crime shows of 'CSI', 'Lie to Me', The Mentalist', 'Criminal Minds' and that UK attempt at '24' style show ... 'Spooks'. If we were a procedural show all this would fall before our first ad break so you can safely assume it will be a dead end as we move on to new lines of inquiry after a word from our sponsor.

We then head into the thrilling middle section as the problem only seems to deepen. Taking our conversation to the amazing but gritty 'The Shield', the undying 'Supernatural', the much beloved 'True Blood', the quirky 'Eureka' and charming 'Warehouse 13'. But all this is mere run around that only leaves us with an ever deepening mystery.

Finally, getting desperate, Leo lets Ian off his leash and lets him talk on the shaggy Doctor Who spin off 'Torchwood', and while he's waffling away to himself something he says makes a connection in Leo's mind and suddenly in a dramatic final scene all is explained and the topic put to bed in time for the closing titles.

And next week will be very much the same I expect. But I think people find such things reassuring.

Incidental Music by incompetech.com

Thursday 12 March 2015

Episode 96: The 80s Kids Summer Predictions - LIVEish...



Not content with having plenty of time to consider their choices before being wrong the 80s Kids went onto Google Hangouts on 7th March 2015 to be wrong before an audience of their peers.

Never has inaccurately taking a punt about what may or may not be a big hit/massive flop at the pictures been so... immediate. Across the categories of Sci Fi, Action, Childrens, Comedy and Horror the 80s Kids try to foresee the summer's big hitters and find one wretched turkey in the pile. Have they actually managed to get anything right except for the unremarkable statement that Avengers: Age of Ultron might be a bit of a thing?

Well, they managed to ignore the Pixar movie and Disney's Tomorrowland altogether. This should give you an indication of how close their finger is to the pulse. Really we all just tune in to this just so we laugh that little bit harder in October when the Summer Review comes out, aren't we? And how much sweeter as that show will most assuredly be a live webcast as well! Enjoy.

Wednesday 4 March 2015

Episode 95: The Wachowskis



This week Leo and Ian have a darn good natter about those latter day divisive writers/Directors/Producers the Wachowskis. Famed for inventing the black leather martial arts with philosophy genre with the Matrix and then, perhaps very ironically, kind of killing it off with the Matrix Sequels.

Here our duo of Leo, a confessed Wachowskis apologist and Ian, a Washowskis agnostic, rumble through their film career. Going from Assassins to Jupiter Ascending is quite a journey with many an ascent and descent along the way. Such as the note worthy V for Vendetta, the annoying blur of Speedracer and the fascinating but flawed Cloud Atlas.

Special time and attention is paid to the Wachowsikis' latest cinematic master piece Jupiter Ascending, which has proven to be a test of faith for Fan boy Leo and much ranting is to be had if you like that kind of thing. What is sure to be on nobody's like list is the political discussion surrounding V for Vendetta, if you feel the need to comment back on any of this please use our Facebook page, as I understand this website is the most common place to be complaining about Obama anyway.

Incidental Music by incompetech.com