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Film Junk Podcast Episode #243: 2012

Sean — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:30:53 +0000

0:00 - Intro 3:12 - Headlines: Wipeout Contestant Dies, Robert Zemeckis to Direct The Nutcracker 3-D, Joss Whedon's Dollhouse Canceled, Blockbuster to Start Renting Movies on SD Cards, Cinema Eye Nominees, Francis Lawrence to Direct Sgt. Rock, Oldboy Remake is Dead, The Exorcist Remake?, Rachel McAdams is Black Cat? 25:00 - Review: 2012 43:30 - Trailer Trash: Clash of the Titans, Date Night, Kick-Ass 53:30 - Other Stuff We Watched: Fata Morgana, Goodfellas, Monsoon Wedding, The Thin Blue Line, Wendy and Lucy, A Boy and his Dog, Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm 1:07:51 - Junk Mail: Best Directors on a Limited Budget, Guy Pearce, Movies You Didn't Like But Are Glad You Saw Anyway, Film School, Top 100 Movies that Define the Decade 1:36:15 - This Week's DVD Releases 1:45:30 - Outro » Download the MP3 (51 MB) » View the show notes » Vote for us on Podcast Alley! Subscribe to the podcast feed:

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Clash of the Titans Remake Trailer

Sean — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:19:09 +0000

Well if there's one thing they want us to know about Louis Leterrier's upcoming remake of the 1981 epic Clash of the Titans, it's that it's hip and cool and edgy! Since this is just a teaser trailer, they can get away with showing quick clips of action scenes and melding it together into a music video of sorts. It works fairly well, and I'm sure this is going to excite fans of 300, which is clearly their target audience. Still, I have to wonder, is this music indicative of what the actual soundtrack will be? Because if so, that's pretty lame. The movie stars Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Gemma Arterton, Ralph Fiennes, and of course, Pete Postlethwaite (among others). It looks like this will be sufficiently epic and the special effects certainly give a much-needed update to the original, but is it just me or do some of the creature designs seem like a rip off of Pan's Labyrinth? Clash of the Titans hits theatres on March 26th; check out the teaser trailer after the jump.

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Film Junk Podcast Episode #242: The Box

Sean — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:32:13 +0000

0:00 - Intro 3:52 - Headlines: Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin to Host Oscars, James Marsh to Direct The Vatican Tapes, David Fincher to Direct The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, Yogi Bear Casting, Owen Wilson is Marmaduke, J.J. Abrams' 500 Rads, Risk Movie in the Works, Fox Adding Pop Up Trivia to DVDs, Jamie Foxx and Martin Lawrence in Sheneneh and Wanda 25:42 - Review: The Box 42:00 - Other Stuff We Watched: The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Crazy Rulers of the World, V, The Prisoner, By The People: The Election of Barack Obama, Act of God 55:20 - Junk Mail: Reed's Favourite Films, Favourite Film Genres, The Last Broadcast and The Room, Casting Racism, Found Footage, Tim and Eric, Mad Max, Troma on Blu-ray 1:32:45 - This Week's DVD Releases 1:34:42 - Outro Note: Our additional spoiler discussion of The Box is now available here. » Download the MP3 (44 MB) » View the show notes » Vote for us on Podcast Alley! Subscribe to the podcast feed:

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The Men Who Stare At Goats Review

Sean — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:14:02 +0000

The Men Who Stare At Goats Directed by: Grant Heslov Written by: Peter Straughan (screenplay), Jon Ronson (book) Starring: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges Since the dawn of modern warfare, people have fantasized about the concept of super soldiers, enhanced human beings that could defend their homeland and give them the edge over their enemies. At this point, we're not just talking about fictional characters like Captain America, either; today's soldiers really are trained to push their body beyond its physical and mental limits, and outfitted with bleeding edge technological advancements. Military interests drive scientific research like few other fields, leading to all kinds of wacky pills and biological experiments. But would it surprise you to learn that U.S. military has delved into even stranger realms in the past, and may still be doing so today? In his 2004 book, The Men Who Stare At Goats, Welsh journalist Jon Ronson reveals the eye-opening story of a top secret program that had been set up in the 1980s to research applications of paranormal and spiritual techniques in the military. Based on interviews with actual personnel involved, he relays tales of officers who attempted to train themselves to walk through walls, read minds, and even kill living creatures just by staring at them. Apparently some of them actually succeeded. While there may be some debate over just how true it all is, the scary thing is that it's not hard to believe certain world leaders would turn to wacky, unproven theories in their time of need. It's definitely another great example of how reality is quite often stranger than fiction, and of course, someone eventually saw the potential for a pretty funny movie in all of it. The project ended up attracting some serious A-list talent in the form of George Clooney and Ewan McGregor, but could it hold up on screen in the hands of a relatively inexperienced director? The movie adaptation of The Men Who Stare At Goats constructs a fictional storyline that finds a journalist named Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) stumbling into the middle of a psychic soldier's top secret mission in Iraq. After he meets Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) at his hotel, he convinces him to bring him along into the desert. Along the way, he learns about the history of the First Earth Battalion (told largely through shaggy-haired flashbacks), a program headed up by Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), a Vietnam vet turned New Age hippie. As things go terribly awry during their mission, however, Wilton starts to wonder if Cassady really is a Jedi Warrior with paranormal abilities or if he's just plain crazy. As you might imagine, a large part of this movie is quite simply The George Clooney Show. Clooney hams it up just as much here as he has in such movies as The Coen Brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Burn After Reading. If you don't like comedy Clooney, you probably won't like this movie, that's not to say that he isn't required to bring a little bit of depth to the character as well. Personally, I can't get enough of his wacky facial expressions and fast-talking ways. Speaking of Coen Brothers films, here Jeff Bridges is probably the closest he's come to reprising his now legendary role as The Dude from The Big Lebowski. His casting as Bill Django was spot on, although I suppose a little bit predictable as well. There are definitely some straight-up stoner comedy moments in the film, and Bridges nails them all. Ewan McGregor makes the perfect wide-eyed reporter, while Kevin Spacey plays the would-be villain of the piece, a fellow First Earth Battalion trainee named Larry Hooper who is jealous of Cassady's gift for all things mental. The Men Who Stare At Goats delivers a good mix of broad laughs along with some dry British humour, and it truly is a movie that draws alternating waves of laughter from two different sections of the audience. The latter half of the film tries to get a little more serious by introducing doubt into the equation, and eventually pulls out a strange last-minute subplot about freeing some prisoners. Although it loses a bit of steam somewhere in the middle, it manages to go out on a fairly high note. I guess one of the problems with a fictional adaptation of a non-fiction book is that sometimes you have to shoehorn characters into a convenient story arc in order to make it work. Screenwriter Peter Straughan previously adapted Toby Young's hilarious memoir How to Lose Friends & Alienate People with much less success, but here he does a good job of creating a loose narrative while also incorporating many memorable and funny elements from the book. (Although I haven't read the book, I've seen part of the accompanying documentary and I was surprised by how many things were taken directly from it.) He also plays it with just the right level of farce, leaving it somewhat open-ended as to whether or not some of the First Earth Battalion techniques really are possible. Grant Heslov, a long-time actor turned producer and now director, co-wrote and produced George Clooney's Oscar-nominated Good Night, and Good Luck. He also previously directed some episodes of Soderbergh's Unscripted series for HBO (the movie also shares a similar incredulous tone with Steven Soderbergh's The Informant) but other than that, his only feature-length directorial credit was an original indie comedy called Par 6. Heslov brings an artful eye to what would otherwise be just a goofy comedy, along with brilliant director of photography Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood, Michael Clayton, Syriana). The Men Who Stare At Goats may not the best movie of the year, nor the funniest, but it is a solid comedy full of thoroughly entertaining performances and just enough mystique to keep you thinking about it after the fact. Fans of the book may balk at a few of the fictional fabrications, but if you enjoy quirky comedies and oddball true stories, you won't regret seeing this flick. Just remember, at the heart of it all is a cold, hard truth: people will believe just about anything. Whether that's good or bad is up to you to decide. -- Sean

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Film Junk Podcast Episode #241: Paranormal Activity and The House of the Devil

Sean — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:38:03 +0000

0:00 - Intro 8:04 - Headlines: Tom Hardy Confirmed for Mad Max 4, Evil Dead Theatrical Re-release, Paranormal Activity is the Most Profitable Movie?, Ouija Board Movie Gets Lost Writers, Clancy Brown to Play Lobo?, Spider-Man 4 Villain Will Be The Lizard, Neil Marshall or Neill Blomkamp for Dune?, Adam Sandler Signs on for Jack and Jill, Short Circuit Remake Gets Paul Blart Director, Joss Whedon Terminator Letter 33:50 - Review: Paranormal Activity 1:01:08 - Review: The House of the Devil 1:17:20 - Trailer Trash: Prince of Persia, Avatar, Nowhere Boy 1:33:00 - Other Stuff We Watched: Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Dog Bite Dog, Hellraiser, Happy Birthday To Me, It Might Get Loud, Prince of Darkness 1:55:25 - Junk Mail: Encouraging Piracy, Twister Drive-In Urban Legend, Manga, Cannibal The Musical, Stargate, Filmmaker Influences, Remakes of Crappy Movies, Living a Movie, Cloverfield 2 2:30:50 - This Week's DVD Releases 2:33:35 - Outro » Download the MP3 (73 MB) » View the show notes » Vote for us on Podcast Alley! Subscribe to the podcast feed:

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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Trailer Starring Jake Gyllenhaal

Sean — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:29:42 +0000

After a low quality version of the trailer found its way onto YouTube earlier today, IGN has wisely decided to unveil the official trailer for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time a few hours early. I have to admit, I've been pretty curious to see what Jerry Bruckheimer and Mike Newell could do with this video game franchise on the big screen. All the right elements are here for an epic action/fantasy film, but will it just turn out to be another terrible game-to-movie travesty? One thing I can say after watching this trailer is that it looks very... expensive. I mean, the amount of special effects on screen here are ridiculous, at times almost on par with that 5-minute clip from Roland Emmerich's 2012. Although I like what I see of the costumes and scenery, I'm not too sure about a lot of the weird CG effects. But hey, it's cool because Jake Gyllenhaal is running up walls! It's hard to say if there's actually a decent story underneath all this, but the sad thing is it looks like it could easily be a massive mess on par with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. At least they could have waited for part 2 or 3 to unveil this much craziness! What do you think? Prince of Persia hits theatres on May 28th, 2010; the trailer is embedded after the jump.

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James Cameron’s Avatar Theatrical Trailer in HD

Sean — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:18:20 +0000

The new trailer for James Cameron's Avatar has been out in theatres for a week or so now, but it has finally debuted online today in HD over at Yahoo!. This comes hot on the heels of recent accusations against James Cameron that he may have stolen some of the ideas for Avatar from a 1957 short story by Poul Anderson entitled Call Me Joe. Fortunately for Cameron, this new trailer is a huge improvement over the initial teaser trailer, and is likely going to be impressive enough to erase any of these thoughts of plagiarism from people's minds. This three and a half minute clip provides a lot more context for what is going on in the film, including who the Na'vi are, why the military is interested in them, and what Sam Worthington's back story is. However, it certainly reinforces the fact that most of the action will be 100% CG animation (albeit very high quality CG animation) while it remains to be seen just how much more thrilling the 3-D viewing experience will be. What do you think, does this new trailer change your mind about the film? Check out an embedded version after the jump.

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Film Junk Podcast Episode #240: Where The Wild Things Are

Sean — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:48:17 +0000

0:00 - Intro 2:30 - Sean Talks about Japan 7:25 - Jay Talks about the Flyway Film Festival 16:55 - Greg Talks About his New Gig 19:30 - Headlines: Ricky Gervais to Host Golden Globes, First Official A-Team Image, Chris Farley DirecTV Commercial, New Anti-Paparazzi Law, Mad Max 4 Casting Rumours, Chris Pine is the New Jack Ryan, Jackie Earle Haley Rumoured for Sinestro, Wes Anderson Directed Fantastic Mr. Fox via E-mail 41:05 - Review: Where The Wild Things Are 58:20 - Trailer Trash: Edge of Darkness, Until the Light Takes Us, The Expendables 1:09:00 - Other Stuff We Watched: FlashForward / Community / Eastwick, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Trick r Treat, The Brothers Bloom, Crude Independence, Astro Boy, Outrage, Assassination of a High School President, In The Loop 1:33:00 - Paranormal Activity Audience Rant 1:39:35 - Junk Mail: Val Kilmer, What We Eat While Watching Movies, HMV Prices, How Film Junk Got Started + Greg and a Hooker, Observations From an Early Episode, The X-Files, Film Festival Music Rights, The Venture Brothers 2:08:50 - This Week's DVD Releases 2:12:00 - Outro » Download the MP3 (65 MB) » View the show notes » Vote for us on Podcast Alley! Subscribe to the podcast feed:

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Paranormal Activity Review

Sean — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:51:02 +0000

Paranormal Activity Written and Directed by: Oren Peli Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs Every couple of years, a big independent film success story comes along to remind people that massive budgets and bankable stars are not required to make a movie that strikes a chord with the general public. Earlier this year we already had Neill Blomkamp's District 9, which was independent and low budget in comparison just about every other summer blockbuster out there. Oren Peli's Paranormal Activity, however, is in another class entirely. Reportedly shot for the ridiculously cheap price tag of just $11,000 (less than The Blair Witch Project) back in 2006, the movie was picked up by Dreamworks in the wake of a new surge in handheld horror movies like REC and Cloverfield. However, after Paramount acquired Dreamworks, it simply sat on a shelf for a couple of years. At one point, it looked like the studio was going to try and set up a remake of the film instead, but then this September they suddenly decided that they had nothing to lose by releasing it a few theatres to see if audiences would respond. And they did. Buoyed by a unique marketing campaign that allowed audiences to cast votes online to bring the movie to their city, Paranormal Activity continued to build positive buzz until it has finally reached a wide release going head to head with Saw VI. So, is it really one of the scariest movies of all time? The concept seems ridiculously simple, and plenty of independent filmmakers out there are probably kicking themselves for not thinking of it first. A young couple move into a house together, and starting hearing strange noises at night while they sleep. Katie believes that she has been haunted since she was a young girl, but her boyfriend Micah doesn't really believe it. In order to get to the bottom of the occurrences, he buys a video camera and sets it up to record at night while they sleep. As the intensity of the so-called "hauntings" escalate, Katie gets more and more terrified, while Micah becomes hostile and stand off-ish. All of the madness is captured on camera for us to see. Comparisons to The Blair Witch Project abound and are completely warranted, but nowadays that may be seen as a bit of a negative thing. People seem to think that The Blair Witch Project was hyped undeservingly, but regardless of how you feel about that movie, Paranormal Activity is the real deal. I think it will have a much easier time connecting with people since the victims are helpless in their own homes. It's a classic haunted house scenario that people can relate to, and it plays out with a great degree of realism. There's also not much "shaky cam" to worry about since most of the scary stuff happens while the camera is firmly resting on a tripod in the corner of their bedroom. If you feel sick to your stomach during Paranormal Activity, it will be because you are genuinely frightened, not because of motion sickness. The pacing is near perfect, as things start off relatively harmless and almost laughably inconsequential, but then build toward something much more dangerous and disturbing. In fact, some people may find the end of the film almost a little too explicit in what it shows, but I think it will satisfy mainstream viewers who felt that The Blair Witch Project didn't actually show anything at all. The movie's few stumbling points are when it tries to show something a little too obvious (the ouija board scene) or when it tries to insert a little bit of a back story (Micah's internet search that turns up a previous victim with similar circumstances). Much like The Blair Witch Project, however, Paranormal Activity is at its most effective when it is merely hinting at possibilities that make your imagination run wild. It truly is all about what isn't shown on screen rather than what is. There's a terrifying sense of dread that sets in every time night rolls around. At the heart of this movie is the relationship between Katie and Micah, which provides two opposing perspectives on the strange phenomenon happening around them. Some people have complained about the believability of Micah's reactions in particular, where he seemingly remains unconvinced after witnessing some pretty crazy stuff. I agree that in places this is a bit of a stretch, but I think his macho attitude is not as uncommon as you think (indeed, the nervous laughter and scoffing of certain "tough guys" in the theatre around me only prove the point). The acting ability of unknown stars Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat does falter slightly here and there, but the conflict within their relationship still felt convincing to me. In the end, I have to say that Paranormal Activity is indeed worthy of most of the hype surrounding it. This is a clever, original and well-executed film that will chill you to the core, assuming you are willing to give it a chance. Although I haven't seen Saw VI (and probably won't), there's no question in my mind that this is the horror flick to see this Halloween. Just be warned -- you may not be able to sleep with the lights off again for quite some time. -- Sean

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Cantankerous Episode #9: Watermelon Popsicles

Jay C. — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:55:23 +0000

Thankfully, I've had this episode of Cantankerous on hold for a while now, in case of emergencies and such. With Sean in Japan and no Film Junk podcast for this week, I thought it might be a good idea to break the glass and pull the Reed Alarm (a sound so obnoxious it will drive even the most jaded businessmen fleeing out of an office building, fire or not). This week Reed talks about his watermelon popsicles, Beatles rock band, a clogged urethra and the death of MJ, among other things. It's time to sit back, remove your pants and light your face on fire. Cantankerous, Episode #9, is here to stay. NOTE: Unfortunately, I do not have the technical skills to update our many Cantankerous feeds, so until Sean returns from Japan, you will have to simply download the mp3 below. Thanks for your patience dudes. Download the MP3 (63MB) Cantankerous Archives Subscribe to the podcast feed:

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Film Junk Podcast Episode #239: Capitalism: A Love Story

Sean — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:59:36 +0000

0:00 - Intro / In-House Stuff 5:30 - Sean and Jay's Embarrassing Stories 10:26 - Headlines: Predators Casting, Rambo 5 Goes Sci-Fi, A-Team and Green Hornet Photos, Letterman Extortion Scandal, PS3 Firmware Update Goes Bad, Paranormal Activity Director Goes to Area 51, Blair Witch Sequel? 38:00 - Review: Capitalism: A Love Story 55:30 - Trailer Trash: Brothers, Pirate Radio, Michael Jackson: This Is It 1:05:30 - Other Stuff We Watched: The End of the Line 1:11:05 - Junk Mail: Jay's Uncle "Frank", Magazines and Michael Mann, Irish Films, Favourite Decade, Favourite '80s Action Star, Shane Meadows, Sponsorship, The Dark Knight vs Spider-Man 2, Dinner Party with Movie Characters 1:57:45 - This Week's DVD Releases 1:59:25 - Outro » Download the MP3 (58 MB) » View the show notes » Vote for us on Podcast Alley! Subscribe to the podcast feed:

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