Irrelevant But Awesome

Joel:  There’s a point in the movie where the great conspiracy is being uncovered that Zoolander asks “But why male models?” David Duchovny then goes on to explain the whole conspiracy and at the end Zoolander again asks “But why make models?” Supposedly, Ben Stiller (who also directed the movie) had forgotten his next line and was taking the scene back to that point to reshoot it, but the fact that Duchovny’s reaction to getting the same line twice works in the final movie as well as it does gives you a good idea of how doofy of a movie it is. So much of this movie shouldn’t work. But somehow when it all comes together on screen it actually does. It must be the unfailing confidence that Stiller and company had in their jokes. Anything less than 110% commitment to this stupidity and it would have been a terrible movie. But everyone committed full tilt and we ended up with this little minor miracle of a comedy. Jason: Oh what can be said about Zoolander? Let’s start ...

Joel:  Thanks to what was pretty much an eight year break from filmmaking, Arnold Schwarzenegger has a pretty clear line between the “action star” part of his career and the “action star who’s still got it” part. Sabotage is one of the first handful of that “still got it” part of his career where we get to see if he in fact does still have it. For the most part he does. He’s still fun to watch, and even though he’s clearly filling in the “old timer” role now, he’s still a pretty great presence on screen. It’s not a bad movie, not a great one either. It kind of hits that middle where you think it might have been a better script for a direct to DVD movie but if it had gone that way, you could have seen it fairing ok in theaters as well. It’s a good first step for Schwarzenegger getting back into the action genre and getting to find what types of movies fit him best in his new role as “grizzled, experienced guy.” It looks like he’s going to be good at it. Chris:  I h...

  It's usually a bad sign to start out a book review talking about a different, better book than the one the review is supposed to be about, but that's what I'm doing. Just a quick note, if you haven't read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or its sequels you need to do so at once. Good Omens reminded me a lot of the Hitchhiker's series and while I'll say that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a better book, that really shouldn't be a knock on Good Omens . In fact, before reading Good Omens , I wouldn't have thought there was another book out there that was even really worth comparing to The Hitchhiker's Trilogy . But it turns out that there is. Good Omens is the story of an angel and demon who are both tasked with general angel and demon work here on earth from their respective sides in the great celestial chess game between heaven and hell. And part of that work, at least on the side of the demon, is to look after the newl...

Here we are, heading into the final month of Summer of Netflix. Soon all the kids will be back to school, our busy lives will continue and there will not be a need to sit around and figure out what to watch on Netflix every day. But we've still got one more month of movies for us to share together before that time comes and here it is: The August schedule for Summer of Netflix!

Joel:  This movie was dumb. And not the good kind of dumb where it can still be enjoyable to turn off your brain for ninety minutes and just enjoy the movie for what it is. This is the cringeworthy, painful to watch kind of dumb where you check your watch and can’t believe it’s only been four minutes since the last time you checked and will this terrible, terrible movie ever end. And it’s not that I don’t get the jokes, or it’s just not a movie for me. Each joke of the movie gets the reaction of “I get it. It’s not at all funny, but I get what the joke is supposed to be.” Don’t be a Menace was one of the first parody movies where references to other movies started to replace actual jokes about other movies. It’s a symptom that has continued into the more recent Epic Movie , Meet the Spartans , The Starving Games , etc. This one is slightly better than the other ones because at least it keeps most of its references within the same genre of “Growing up in the hood” movies inst...

Joel:  You know what I ended up really liking about this movie? It is abundantly clear in every scene of this movie how important of a project it was for writer/director Cameron Crowe. There are a lot of movies that are described as a “love letter” to this thing or that thing, but this is very much a case of this movie being a love letter to Crowe’s experience with rock ‘n’ roll and the culture surrounding it that he experienced. It’s nearly impossible not to be taken up with the director’s love for the subject and enjoy the movie through his eyes. Almost Famous is incredibly heartfelt. Alexa:  Almost Famous has always been my favorite Cameron Crowe movie, but it’s probably been years since I’ve watched it until now. And I fell in love with it all over again. So what exactly is so special about this movie? Well, in the words of Russell Hammond, “To begin with… everything.” The authentic tone and retro aesthetic that Crowe creates here are infectious, and he bring...

When you think about the character of Buck Rogers, you probably group him with the likes of Flash Gordon and other characters who were popular sci-fi characters in the 30s and have pretty much existed forever. So when you see that someone is making a Buck Rogers origin story it looks like Hollywood is inventing an origin story for a character that's never really needed one before because origin stories are all the rage now. (See the Flash Gordon TV show from 2007) Turns out that Buck Rogers not only has an actual origin story that was written in 1928 in a series under the title of Armageddon 2419 AD. The series first appeared in the pulp magazine Amazing Stories and Buck went under the name of Anthony Rogers at the time. In the story, Rogers is a World War I vet who gets trapped in a gas mine and put to sleep for 500 years waking up in the year 2419. Upon awaking he discovers that the remains of what was once the United States is now at war with the massive Soviet Empire, ...

For those who remember the vast roundup post of everything that was missed during Comic-con weekend (see it here ) there was a post about Warner Bros. making an adaptation of The Killing Joke . We wondered at the time if Mark Hamill who had pretty much retired as The Joker might pull out the character one more time for perhaps his most famous story. Well it looks like we can say that it's actually going to happen According to collider.com, Mark Hamill will voice the Joker in the upcoming animated feature though no other cast has been mentioned. It should be noted that Warner Bros. has yet to make any official announcement but it can be a small grain, because Mark Hamill has tweeted interest in the project and you can bet that if he's interested Warner Bros. will be thrilled to have him back. The Killing Joke is scheduled to be released some time in 2016.

Joel:  This is really the type of movie that Netflix is best used for. It was a movie that I heard about one time before it made it into theaters and thought “Oh, that might be interesting.” before it came and went seemingly without making a mark. I thought very little of it till it popped up in Netflix options several months later. So with no real idea of what it might be about, besides kind of being interested in the trailer that one time, It was nice to see a movie that I otherwise probably wouldn’t have ever gotten around to seeing. It’s not perfect, and does have some serious flaws, but all in all it’s a sweet movie with a positive message and some really good moments. Simon Pegg gets a chance to play a bit more of a quite complex character than the always “cranked to 11” types that he seems to be playing. There are some pretty spectacular locations in the movie, and the writing and drawing on the screen that I thought was going to get annoying very fast ended up staying...

Alexa:  Few movies nowadays feel wholly original, but In Bruges has the distinction of being one of them. I watched it for the first time years ago but hadn’t seen it since until now, and I forgot how masterful and immensely entertaining it is. Martin McDonagh crafted a whip-smart screenplay that’s darkly funny without turning the hitmen at the center of the story into caricatures. Before this movie, I knew Colin Farrell as that guy from Phone Booth and SWAT, but In Bruges proved what a talented actor he really is. It doesn’t hurt that he’s surrounded by equally outstanding cast mates who deliver nuanced performances with ease, particularly Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes. Though the film’s climax is action-packed, the story overall is rather introspective, underscoring the characters’ humanity as they grapple with guilt, regret and their complicated friendships. That In Bruges succeeds in intertwining humor, action and quiet character study so sublimely is a testament to Mc...

Joel:  Batman you guys. Ok, so Batman, at least in popular culture has pretty much been confined to the Christopher Nolan version of Batman in the past several years. And for the most part that’s fine. All three of his movies are impressive with at least one of them easily standing as one of the best comic book movies of all time. But just because there are great Batman movies from 2005 onward, doesn’t mean that we should disregard some of the earlier incarnations of Batman. In 1989 Tim Burton made an incredible Batman movie. It was easily the best comic book movie of it’s day and still holds up incredibly well all these years later. The dark twisted gothic noir of Gotham is beautifully stylized in a representation of how Burton would see that crime ridden city. The score is amazing. John William’s score for Superman is heralded as it should be but Danny Elfman did something truly spectacular with the music in this movie. And again, it’s difficult now not to simply cast Batm...

Alexa:  I loved Silver Linings Playbook when I first saw it back in 2012, but I could see it being a movie that wouldn’t hold up as well for me the second time around. Fortunately, I found the repeat viewing just as endearing. The tone of Silver Linings Playbook is complicated, jumping back and forth from charming romantic comedy to angst-ridden drama to somewhere in between, but somehow it works, thanks in large part to director/screenwriter David O. Russell’s deft handling of the material and a singularly talented cast. (However, as exceptional as Jennifer Lawrence is in this film, I still stand by my opinion that Jessica Chastain deserved the Best Actress trophy that year.) At its core, Silver Linings Playbook is about some damaged people coming to terms with their turbulent pasts and looking hopefully if tentatively toward the future, and how their relationships shape them in the best and worst of times. Early on in the film, Bradley Cooper’s character, after chucking ...

We've finally come to the last show that I got a chance to see in my time in New York, so today I want to take you through the proud loser of the 2015 Tony Award, Something Rotten . (No seriously, it was nominated this year, but when it lost to Fun Home , the show ran an ad of other famous shows that also never won "Best Musical" saying they were happy to be among such good company.) Something Rotten takes place in the time of William Shakespeare, the Renaissance where everything is new and exciting and plays are the hit of the town. There we meet a pair of brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom who can't seem to get a hit out or get out from the shadow of the famous Shakespeare. This doesn't bother Nigel so much as he's a big fan of The Bard's work, but it upsets Nick to know end. He gets an entire song called "God, I Hate Shakespeare" that is about that exact thing. In an attempt to get a leg up on the competition, Nick goes to see a soothsayer who...

Update: Hogan made a statement via  PEOPLE  that apologized for his words in the audio that was unveiled as part of his legal proceedings against Gawker. "Eight years ago I used offensive language during a conversation. It was unacceptable for me to have used that offensive language; there is no excuse for it; and I apologize for having done it.  This is not who I am. I believe very strongly that every person in the world is important and should not be treated differently based on race, gender, orientation, religious beliefs or otherwise. I am disappointed with myself that I used language that is offensive and inconsistent with my own beliefs." The TNA wrestling organization also distance themselves from Hogan, who was part of their roster from 2009 until 2014. Forbes  reported that the Hogan controversy has caused WWE's stock to drop 4% which cost shareholders roughly $50 Million. **** The relationship history between WWE and Hulk Hogan (real name Terry B...

Joel:  So it looks like I will never stop being amazed by the stop motion animation work that Laika does. I was so incredibly impressive throughout the entirety of The Boxtrolls, that it was like I hadn’t seen them do something that good twice already. Story Wise, it isn’t quite as clean or as powerful as Coraline and Paranorman , but it’s still easily a must. The first line, the very first line is such a great joke, that you know you’re in for something good. This kind of creepy, weird kids movie is just the thing that there should be more of. It’s a shame that it takes two years for one of these to come out, but then again, that’s how we end up getting the impressive visuals and animation. And that’s this really good movie get that final boost to a great piece of cinema. I already need to go back and watch it again, just to see those characters move. It’s incredible. Jason:  I have always been fascinated with stop-motion animation. Nightmare Before Christmas is o...

Very few movies hold a universal reverence across all walks of life like the original Space Jam does, starring Michael Jordan and all your favorite Looney Tunes cartoon characters and the world has long been asking for a sequel. The past couple years, the sequel rumors have been swirling around current NBA megastar, LeBron James. And today,  we're one step closer  to that rumor being true as LeBron and Warner Bros have announced a partnership and also comes on the heels of of Warner Bros filing just about all the Space Jam-related copyright claims you can imagine. James got quite a bit of praise for his role (as himself) in the recently-released Trainwreck so I'm sure Warner Bros are probably convinced to go ahead and give Space Jam 2 the greenlight. Now, I'm not gonna sit here and turn this into an argument over whether is LeBron is on the same level as Michael Jordan in the NBA but James has an incredible high mountain to climb to come close to living up to the ori...

We live in a world when even the smallest hint of Harry Potter information is posted and re-posted all over the internet. And I get that. but sometimes something is reported that results in us having to pull the "News Control" feature out of storage. Today is one of those days. You may have seen something about a new Harry Potter movie that Chris Columbus is interested in. No, not the new Fantastic Beasts movie that's set in the Harry Potter universe, but one staring the main three characters that takes place sometime between the Battle of Hogwarts and the epilogue scene nineteen years later. So here's the full extent of what happened. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly Radio, Chris Columbus (who directed the first two Harry Potter movies) said he would like to direct another one, and that he knew exactly what story he wanted to tell. Here is the exact quote from Columbus. “I would love to go back and do another one. Not Fantastic Beasts as much,...

Joel:  Ok, so that ended up being a pretty incredible movie. Very smart, slick and incredibly fast paced. In all honesty, I didn’t think the idea of the train was really going to work. Yeah the claustrophobic feeling of a train car would be a great setting for one action scene. But an entire movie? With multiple action beats? I don’t mind admitting I had doubts about that working. Well, not only does it work fantastically, one of the best aesthetic aspects of the movie is the setup of the train. Each train car can only be so wide, and the movie never forgets that. It stays tight, and there’s never a scene with an impossibly wide car that’s hand waved away because it’s one of the “nice cars.” The crowded feeling continues all the way up to the engine. There’s some pretty clear influences from the work of Terry Gilliam (down to the naming of one of the main characters) and if you enjoy any of his sci-fi work, this is a pretty great movie to check out. Chris:  It's ...

This week's short film takes the idea of an unreliable narrator to the extreme. Set in an old western town, we get a Stranger Than Fiction like scenario where the film's narrator can be heard by the characters in the movie. This is a narrator that can see the thought process and motivations of each character and is happy to tell the audience like a good narrator should, but causes chaos in the story that he is narrating. As an added bonus, Nick Offerman of Parks and Recreation fame is the voice of The Narrator. Check it out below.

A while back, we talked about the new "adult" prime time Muppet TV show that will be premiering on ABC this fall. The show was described to me as "The Office but with Muppets." And then came the  trailer  that suddenly made me NEED for the show to be on the air. Now comes an extended look at the show. ABC's YouTube channel posted a 10 minute video that was originally only meant for the Comic Con attendees (a slight nudge and a wink at DC, I'm sure) but has release the video that was presented as a pitch video that originally got ABC on-board to making the show. I'll let you go ahead and watch the video below but I'll go ahead and share my thoughts: I need this show like I need water.

Chris:  First off the bat, I have to warn all of you of one thing: don’t watch this movie on an empty stomach or else the food portrayed in this movie will torture you for almost 2 hours. Never in my life have I wanted a grilled cheese sandwich more than when I watched Jon Favreau’s character make one for his son. This movie shows that as much as Favreau does a great job as a director (screw you guys, I enjoyed Cowboys & Aliens), we need to see more of Favreau IN movies and does a fantastic job carrying this movie. You knew this movie would have a neatly-wrapped happy ending and, although I typically roll my eyes at the thought of it, you find yourself rooting for Casper not only to have a successful business but to stop being such a jerk and connect with his kid. Finally, I really enjoy John Leguizamo as a supporting actor, sure his comedy can be cheesy at times but every now and then, he’ll deliver a one-liner that is golden. Alexa: I completely agree about not wa...