This episode we catch up to 1985 and evaluate the 5 films from 1984 nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. It's been a while since the last episode, but to make up for it, it's a bit longer than usual? Anyway, this will be the last decade in series that we look at for now since we've already done an episode on the Best Picture nominees from 1995, 2005, and 2015. As always, beware of the fearsome spoiler that lurks throughout, and enjoy!
00:10 Introduction
04:27 A Soldier's Story
18:25 Places in the Heart
27:40 A Passage to India
45:39 The Killing Fields
54:26 Interlude about ranking nominees by vote totals (Bob was right in his gut reaction: voting results are not made publicly available)
55:51 Amadeus
01:09:45 Films from this year featured in other episodes of our podcast: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Star Trek III, The Terminator, Dune, Blood Simple
01:14:40 Random odds and ends to conclude
Intro and Outro music excerpted without alteration other than length and volume from AcidJazz by Kevin McLeod under a Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode
So...there were some challenges with this one. We do apologize for the slow release pace, but in this case the audio required a lot of work to tune up. We're talking Best Picture for the 47th Academy Awards (films from 1974). SPOILERS abound, as always.
00:10 Intro
00:57 A good year?
03:21 The Conversation
12:25 Gene Hackman interlude
13:35 (Yes, yes; we were thinking of A Few Good Men)
18:14 The Godfather Part II
34:53 Chinatown
48:53 Lenny
55:07 The Towering Inferno
1:02:34 Digression about film rights and availability of old films
1:08:00 Quick review of other notable films from 1974
1:12:40 Our picks for Best Picture
1:14:13 (We are moving ahead a decade)
It's been a little while, but we've jumped another 10 years closer to the present with an episode on the best films of 1964. Unfortunately for filmgoers it was a bit of a fallow year, but it does make for some good conversation. We mostly talk about the 5 Best Picture nominees, but a few more films come in for a mention in passing.
As ever, we SPOIL the endings, middles...everything really about these movies without regard for what you might not have seen, so be warned. Watch the films first if you don't want to know how they end.
00:10 Intro to the podcast/topic
00:56 (Absolutely we did not get caught up to the current year)
03:34 Mary Poppins
18:03 Becket
29:55 My Fair Lady
31:12 Bob remembers correctly about Shaw and the Greek origin!
38:15 The superior original ending
43:53 Dr. Strangelove
45:51 The prior episode where we talked about Dr. Strangelove
46:25 Bob might be misremembering Hayden's late-life problems
52:00 Zorba the Greek
57:21 Bob gets on his high horse a bit
01:01:57 Picking our winner
01:05:18 Next episode plans and conclusion
Intro and Outro music excerpted without alteration other than length and volume from AcidJazz by Kevin McLeod under a Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode
Bob finally gets busy and edits this episode wrapping up the past calendar year. It's a bit out of date, but then most of the episodes are too since we're almost always looking at films from years earlier. Not too many spoilers this time round, but be wary; one never knows when they may strike!
00:10 Intro
04:53 Favorites watched for the podcast
07:27 Movies from 2024
17:53 Bob and Indian cinema
20:25 Rowdy. Rowdy Rathore. (trailer)
21:57 How Bob sees films; film volume
25:09 First time watches not from 2024
34:48 Bob and Mark argue a bit about Free Solo
39:58 It's over!
Intro and Outro music excerpted without alteration other than length and volume from AcidJazz by Kevin McLeod under a Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode
00:10 Intro
02:04 The White Parade, copyright, and availability
09:02 Which ones did we watch?
10:45 It Happened One Night
11:53 It was the Valentine's Day episode about rom-coms in 2022
15:10 Bob's a little off; Miami was 110,000 in 1930, up from less than 30,000 in 1920
20:05 Bob did! See above.
20:57 The end of the Pre-Code era
23:23 Cleopatra
28:13 Imitation of Life
33:18 Flirtation Walk
38:05 The Gay Divorcee
45:06 The Thin Man
49:25 Drunks on film
53:37 Of Human Bondage
59:06 And the Winner Should Have Been...
01:03:45 Upcoming episodes
Intro and Outro music excerpted without alteration other than length and volume from AcidJazz by Kevin McLeod under a Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode
This week we talk about the films of Ralph Fiennes. We haven't seen all his movies, but we have seen a goodly number. If you're afraid of the sneaky and nefarious SPOILER, you probably ought to be cautious since we fear it not.
00:10 Intro and the topic
02:40 Fiennes and the theater (theatre?)
06:11 Bob attempts to categorize Fiennes' films
07:05 Bob's very wrong about Macbeth being on streaming
08:00 The bulk of Fiennes' movies
13:37 Fiennes as villain
16:03 The Avengers (1998) Bob will be wrong a few seconds later about Fiennes being the villain (it's Sean Connery); not only that, Fiennes plays the hero, which would have been a good thing to have looked up before having the rest of this conversation. Do your homework, kids!
16:51 Our discussion of The English Patient
19:18 "Never" the hero? Didn't you guys just say he was the hero of The King's Man? Tells you how forgettable that film was.
20:13 Fiennes is an actor not a star?
26:31 Work in children's films
31:46 Odds and ends
37:19 Getting off topic and talking about physical media
43:27 Favorite Ralph Fiennes film
47:25 Digression about commentaries, food, other nonsense
51:24 Least favorite Ralph Fiennes film
54:51 Winding down; upcoming episode
56:45 Quick mention of two upcoming films
Intro and Outro music excerpted without alteration other than length and volume from AcidJazz by Kevin McLeod under a Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode
Bob jumps straight into the topic this episode with SPOILERS from the very start. This episode we assume that you have at least a familiarity with the basic plot of the Terminator films even if, like Mark, you've never seen them. We discuss the first three films and ignore the latter three (which neither Bob nor Mark has seen). Enjoy!
00:10 Intro
00:45 Mark had not seen The Terminator; cultural significance and Schwarzenegger
05:37 Evolution from conclusive to open-ended
08:42 The Terminator
12:30 Does James Cameron care more about technical filmmaking than the story elements?
20:04 Masking the antagonist in Terminator 2
23:10 Linda Hamilton/Sarah Connor
25:41 Which is best and supporting cast
27:43 Terminator 3 is a real step down
31:12 Schwarzenegger is inextricably linked with the Terminator
34:05 Rough story moments in the second filmmaking
35:21 Edward Furlong - American History X
36:25 Robert Patrick
37:10 Kristanna Loken
40:25 Time travel and its problems
44:07 Special effects
48:35 Mild spoilers(?) for Reacher season 2
49:27 Prosthetic effects in The Terminator
52:08 Actor miscellany
56:35 Winding down
Intro and Outro music excerpted without alteration other than length and volume from AcidJazz by Kevin McLeod under a Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode
We return triumphantly with...a filler episode! Okay, they can't all be about timeless classics. This episode we look back at what we've seen so far and what is on the horizon. Mostly it's not great, but there were a few gems and several films which augur well. Minimal spoilers too! Enjoy!
00:17 Intro (and the brief return of the clicky pen!)
04:32 Bob's Top 5 of 2024 (so far)
08:32 Mark's movie-going (or lack thereof)
11:34 Bob raves about Perfect Days
13:58 What *should* movies be about? Are we jaded?
19:40 So many sequels/remakes on the horizon
23:57 The War of the Rohirrim
24:58 Writers strike and streaming
28:23 Movies we're looking forward to
31:38 Movies we *aren't* looking forward to
32:58 Back to The War of the Rohirrim
35:35 Upcoming release dates
42:14 Ralph Fiennes
44:00 Terminator(s)
45:49 Wrapping up
Intro and Outro music excerpted without alteration other than length and volume from AcidJazz by Kevin McLeod under a Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode
00:00 Intro
04:54 Starting the topic
06:55 What's the key understanding?
12:10 A role departure for Denzel Washington
15:57 Mark's choice for a unique Washington role
22:20 Another, similar, actor
23:52 It's not necessarily bad...
26:10 Glory
29:02 Comparing to Tom Cruise
31:51 Man on Fire vs The Equalizer
36:02 (It was from Sicario. -Ed.)
36:29 Noble self-sacrifice
39:42 Roman J. Israel, Esq.
41:40 Inside Man
43:00 Training Day
43:22 Mojo Jojo?
45:45 Wrapping up? No, of course not quite yet.
47:39 Much Ado About Nothing
50:05 Unstoppable
51:27 Two Guns
53:44 Manchurian Candidate(s)
55:40 Wrapping up for reals this time
Back this episode to talk about Jane Austen adaptations. There are many, but we only have time to watch and discuss a handful. At first Bob and Mark seem to be on the same page, but by the end...well, you'll hear. As ever, SPOILERS, but really, these stories are 200 years old. If you don't know them already, that's on you.
00:00 Introduction
2:28 Austen adaptations
7:25 Pride and Prejudice (1995 and 2005)
14:30 Bob compares it to Ozu, because of course he does, and we discuss the stories as a group
20:58 Persuasion (1995)
25:11 Social conventions
40:29 Sense and Sensibility (1995)
47:30 Bob and Mark disagree vehemently on the relative quality of the films, then Sense and Sensibility specifically
51:47 Mark finds watching a group of similar movies back to back diminishes his enjoyment
52:36 The perils of watching a lot of movies
56:30 Wrapping up
58:31 Baseball!
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Music:
Intro and Outro music excerpted without alteration other than length and volume from AcidJazz by Kevin McLeod under a Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode