Tag: Review

Episode 18 – Cast a Deadly Spell

Scott and world weary private dick Lee watch Cast a Deadly Spell, an HBO joint from the early 90s. Magical chocolate meets noir peanut butter in this surprisingly good urban fantasy. Also tons Lovecraft lore before it was in literally (figuratively) everything.

Featuring: H.P. Lovecraft, people at cons who believe in magic, kung fu masters, industrial thaumaturgy, taunting the elder gods, The Maltese Falcon film and book, passive aggressive Batman, spoilers for The Automatic Detective, gargoyle nards, elder god outsourcing, and our tv show idea ‘Just Kidding, Cthulhu!’

Episode 17 – Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Scott and anthropomorphic chicken Lee (and Sally!) watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Phil Lord’s first animated movie, but not his last. He also wrote the excellent Lego Movie, the tv show Clone High, and a bunch of other stuff that’s probably also amazing.

Featuring: Sally peeking through windows, jokes on jokes, olive helmet texture, food furries, watching TV at work, wonderful A. Lee Martinez books, Mr T., Ayn Rand again (we might be secret Objectivists), and gasp takes.

Check out Sally Hamilton’s freelance graphic artist services. She’s quite good!

Episode 16 – MCU Part 1 – Odintown

Scott and Lee and Adrienne talk MCU! Marvel needed saving apparently.

We’re back after our longest hiatus yet! Hopefully we won’t make a habit of it.  Scott and special agent Lee (and first guest ever, Adrienne!) get all opinionated about the MCU. Part 1 covers Iron Man through Winter Soldier chronologically.

Featuring : Our first guest!, Nick Cage saving comic book movies, Red Skull as plucky underdog, lot’s of Lee gushing about Man Thing, and Odintown in the touristy section of Asgard.

This episode brought to you by Copper Key Designs. They didn’t pay us or anthing, but.. baby steps. If you are selling a home in the DFW area, consider home staging to make the process faster and more profitable.

Episode 15 – Anacondas: Hunt for the Blood Orchid

Scott and Lee watch Anacondas and feel some sympathy for the snakes.

Scott and adorable capuchin monkey Lee watch Anacondas: Hunt for the Blood Orchid. It’s a formulaic monster movie that we strip mine to find traces of writing gold and diversity silver.

Featuring Captain Handsome and his stabby knife, damned attractive actors, consumerism, Hollywood’s hatred of science, snake racism, Borneo being a real location, and believable conflict.

Episode 14 – The Campaign

Scott and Lee watch The Campaign and are finally forced to talk politics. Goodbye blissful ignorance.

After a long break, we’re back! Scott and Lee watch the Campaign, a satirical (?) treatment of modern american politics with Will Ferrell and Zack Galifianakas. The Campaign is a hard movie to classify. It’s not exactly a typical Will Ferrell comedy, and little too accurate to be funny sometimes.

Featuring: The exponential progress of technology, sweet sweet ignorance, the double down from KFC, how good Anchorman 2 clearly is, demagoguery(of course), Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero, goat blowjobs, realistic Batman, and Nazi hipsters.

Episode 13 – Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Scott and Lee talk about Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and lament what the expanded universe could have been.

Scott and mad scientist Lee watch Kerry Conran’s only movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. We dive deep on this one into what makes a character believable. Lee goes on at length about how much he likes and is inspired by old pulp stories. Also Kerry Conran, if you ever kickstart anything, I will give you money!

Featuring: Emoting!, how to make a proper homage, media juggernauts, Monster Squad, the genesis of Scott writing an article, Sepia tones, Polly Perkins comics, me am play god, lying with statistics, Hot Shots part Deux, objectivist independence, the island of Dr. Thoreau, british serials, and why we enjoy the wheel of metaphors.

The Art of Convention

 

A lot of movies that we watch here at Save the Movies have stories that are predictable. Often that description would be considered an epithet, especially when applied to a story or movie, but being able to guess the beats a story will hit doesn’t mean we won’t enjoy it.  We’ve watched and enjoyed movies like Speed Racer, even though about 15 minutes in, most people could probably make an outline for the rest of the movie that would be pretty close to the actual script. Spoiler alert, Speed Racer wins the big race!

It’s not a surprise to anyone watching, but that doesn’t stop it from being an entertaining movie. It doesn’t matter that we know where Speed Racer is going to end up, the ride is a lot of fun. Looking at our uploads so far, the majority of movies that we’ve talked about fit into conventional themes, which makes sense. A good twist can be difficult to pull off. Continue reading “The Art of Convention”

Episode 12 – The Last Dragon

Scott and Lee watch The Last Dragon, and finally answer the age old question ‘Who’s badder than the master?’.

Scott and Lee (the Shogun of Lewisville), watch The Last Dragon, Berry Gordy’s classic kung fu movie. Taimak, Vanity, Julius Carry, and a totally radical 80s soundtrack make up this timeless cult hit.

Featuring being old enough to remember the 80s, Speed Racer again, classic kung fu plots, Taimak!, celebrity mortality, DeBarge, the durability of monetary policy as a writing device, 80s fashion, DeBarge dopplegangers, henchmen team building, villain tryouts, and proper character motiviation.

Episode 11 – Speed Racer

Scott and Lee review the Wachowskis’ randian allegory (we were surprised to) Speed Racer

Scott and mysterious racer Lee take on Speed Racer, a super stylized live action movie based on the classic cartoon, written and directed by the Wachowskis. Featuring bee catapults, racer-sexuals, Rocky IV, Roger Allam’s exquisite villainy, accessible objectivism, a smidge of science, and a dash of politics.

Episode 10 – The Car

Scott and Lee review The Car, a 1970s horror movie about a murderous vehicle that won’t take no guff. An excellent movie whether you like your metaphors car shaped or not.

Scott and alcoholic deputy Lee review The Car, a 1970s era horror film about a killer car terrorizing a small town. The Car’s thirst for blood won’t be denied, so we don’t! Featuring an emoting car, Ronny Cox’s alchoholism, serious character development, native americans as normal people, and the prestigious Alex award that Lee totally didn’t make up.

This episode also introduces our new segment The Wheel of Metaphors! Since art can mean whatever you want it to mean, we let fate take the wheel (pun intended) and tell us what the movie really meant.