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    « Movie Moan - ON STEROIDS! | Main | Movie Moan - Your Move Williams »
    Wednesday
    Jul172013

    Movie Moan - Death By Sandler

    You can watch this week's show on Blip:

    Or on Youtube:

    Ladies and gentlemen, it is my sad duty to inform you that our good friend and film critic for The Playlist & Jump Cut Junkies, Mr Gabe Toro, is dead.  It was hard enough being a man who had grown too old for even solid blockbuster entertainment but, with the mountain of mediocrity we've had to sit through this summer, and the harsh truth that he helped contribute publicity to 'Grown Ups 2' by writing two reviews for it (and doing a third on this show), he decided he'd had enough and took his own life...

    ...then again, he's still tweeting so I could be wrong.

    But whether he's still with us or not, please sit back and enjoy Gabe's finest performance on our show to date, and that is saying something.  Also joining us as the brave champion of robots vs. monsters is Mr. Spencer Perry, writer for comingsoon.net & superherohype.com.

    6:30 mins - Our epic review of 'Pacific Rim' contains mighty battles and terrible over-acting, just like the film itself.

    53:20 mins - Jamie tells us that 'Grown Ups 2' is the 'Bad Boys 2' of Adam Sandler movies.  Gabe takes a pistol into the bathtub.

    80:55 mins - Phil digs the Sealab 2020 costume that Jamie Foxx's Electro has found himself wearing.

    84:50 mins - Bond 24 hits UK cinemas in October 2015 so Jamie and Phil finalize some holiday plans.

    90:40 mins - Gabe closes with a look at some wonderful alternative films to the crap you would otherwise have to choose from this weekend.

    Download the audio only MP3 version right here:

    Movie Moan - Death By Sandler (audio version)

    Reader Comments (4)

    Do you do the Universal podcast too!?

    07-17-2013 | Unregistered CommenterJay

    Great show guys, fun and insightful as always. Great seeing Gabe and Spencer back too.

    Found it weird that of all the movies you've compaired Pacific Rim, the one that it most reminded me wasn't mentioned, especially as I remember you guys liked this one more than the rest of the internet (or at least I got that from other podcasts, I haven't listened to the review of it)....and that movie is G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Both movies felt like the directors decided to do a movie primarily for their inner 13 year old; not so much a love letter to one or more sub genres, but a fitting, yet noteworthy entry in them.

    Still, looking back at the movie I'm disappointed in it. Not because it was terrible or anything...it wasn't, but because I shoud have LOVED this movie, but instead I found myself only really liking it. While I'm a fan of Del Toro (Mimic is pretty meh though, and I haven't seen Devil's Backbone yet), my interest in this movie lied in that growing up (and still, though not quite as much) I was huge mecha fan. So when I heard about a big budget film about mechas and kaijus (a genre I like too), that was going to be directed by someone whose work I quite liked...I got really excited. I was eating away at all the info we were getting, the posters, the pictures, the trailers- hell, I even read an early draft of the script (really early draft, so I wasn't too worried about spoilers, it didn't had Hannibal Chau, the Hansens, and there was another female character that had Newt as her sidekick).

    Anyway, I finally saw the movie and I was both entertained and engaged. I loved the world they made (especially the Jaeger side of it....Cherno Alpha is just insane), I like the tone, l like the actors- even Charlie Hunnam, who I felt was OK, even if he had that problem that all non american actors have when doing an american accent (and Taylor Kitsch)...they feel a bit stiff and sound as if every line was ADRe. Though I agree with Jamie in that an actor that brought more personality to the role might have been better. Not a star, but definitely someone who feels like he brings his own personality (or makes one) to the role... think Will Smith in Independence Day (before he was THE Will Smith).

    So what was my problem with the film? Mako. Not Rinko Kikuchi, she was great in the role (I was also expecting her to only speak japanese, figured that's why we never heard her speak in the trailers); but with how she was written. At first she's a great, if stereotypical, character, with her own arc that is pretty well set up and then developed. But after we get the scene of her and Raleigh having lunch, everything concerning her just grinds to a halt, and worst of all we never get to see her arc resolved. We know it's resolved because Gipsy Danger never goes berserk again, but we never got to see Mako finally put aside the trauma of the event or the need for revenge, and resolving to focus herself on protecting those she cares about. I know, that sound a tad nitpicky on my part, but this is the kind of stuff that make big blockbuster movies feel complete, no matter how silly or stupid they are. Look for example at Independence Day (another similar movie), where the main characters (Smith, Goldblum and Pullman) all had arcs that were followed through the film (well, Smith had more of a set up-payoff thing), and that made the whole experience feel more emotionally and viscerally engaging (intellectually though....well we've all seen that film), and I feel Pacific Rim shortchanged itself because it failed to do that properly. And while we are talking about her....she was also robbed in the film; she never got to co-pilot Gipsy, she was just along for the ride while Raleigh was barking all the moves that the had to do. She pointed the fact that they had a sword, but that's it. Really wieird considering it's a movie about cooperation, which brings me to the ending, in which the lone hero activates the self destruct mechanism and then escapes. This just goes completly against the point of the film, that no one stands alone. Hell, even for a second there, when Raleigh slips and is about to fall into the grinds below the cockpit, I was expecting to have Mako show up, having not gone up in the escape pod, she then help him activate the mechanism and then both go on the other escape pod. That would have been great...but it wasn't. C'est la vie I guess, it's not like it's a dealbreaker anyway.

    I also had a small problem with not getting a good look at the Kaijus (except for the two from the Hong Kong sequence), but I feel that's problem that a Blu-ray copy, a pause button and the brightness settings can fix.

    Still, you can feel the love in the movie. It sounds silly (and like it's out of other reviews) but you do. You feel Del Toro and his writers (as well as Thomas Tull, who pretty much gave him as close as a blank check as he's ever gonna get) love these genres, as well as their staples. Sure there are characters like Mako or Gottlieb who feel very much like a stereotype, but they love those stereotypes too, and they had fun with them. This is really the big diference with Transformers, where you feel Bay really loves the military, fancy cars, hot girls, conspiracy theories (ok that's more Orci, but we also had some of that in the 3rd one) and the plight of the uper-middle class non-jock-non-geek white teen/young adult (I.e: himself)...but not Transformers. He's not missing the point, he's deliberatly evading it. Look at the first movie, it's about 1/3 of a proper Transformers movie, 1/3 of a soldiers vs aliens movie and 1/3 The X-Files by way of Michael Bay. I know, there were budgetary and technological constraints...but seriously, look at the movie; the only ones that have any interaction with a transformer are Shia, Megan Fox and to a lesser extent, John Turrturo. Everyone else just stares in awe or shoots at the things. There barely characters and more plot devices, props or elements of set pieces. So why bother with a franchise about sentient robots and not make it about that. While you look at Pacific Rim....hell, you look at Rise of Cobra too...and they are about their own high concept, and everything else in the film is influenced by it.

    To sum it all up. It's a pretty good movie, the most fun I've had this summer (haven't seen This is the End yet- I get in November I think- or Fast & Furious 6, but for other reasons...also it's winter here), and probably the best disappointment ever.

    So that's my comment/review. It's fairly big, but I feel given how you guys like to really go on about movies (as well as the subject matter of the movie...ha ha) this is where it belongs.

    P.S: I LOOOOOOOVE SPEED RACER TOO!!! It gets better every time I watch it.

    07-18-2013 | Unregistered CommenterTheMati

    Lovely show lads. Quite enjoyed it.

    Has there ever been Summer Movie season that has left many of us in such as depressed state?

    07-18-2013 | Unregistered CommenterLou aka OldDarth

    LOL Gabe I got two words for you: Ad Aware. It's free online and does a great job of keeping ads off your computer.

    I have no interest in seeing any of the movies you covered this week and it seems like neither did much of America so thanks for taking one for the team, everyone!

    07-22-2013 | Unregistered Commentershelly

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