On today’s round table we discuss:
1) Major Movie Blog Re-Design coming
2) Plans for a LIVE Audio Edition show
3) Star Trek – A House Divided
4) 4 Weddings 3000 Funerals and a lot of opinions
5) Review of Clerks 2
6) Review of Lady in the Water
7) Comments section getting out of hand
8) Iron Man Villain – Mandarin
9) Peter Cullin is Optimus Prime again
10) Darren talks about Devil Wears Prada
All this and a few things more.
Warning: This podcast contains language that may not be suitable for even sailors. Listener discretion is advised.
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Hello to all. This is my first day on the Internet. What should I do?
Thanks!
Drewbacca (and others):
Ned Danny explains a lot of stuff in a radio interview he did that is posted here (although the interviewer is pretty lame): http://neddanny.com
Uh, I actaully agree with Darren.
First off, who has their wedding on a Tuesday? They were stupid for having their wedding on a Tuesday in the first place.
Second, if in fact their wedding was Saturday, the day on which most people have their wedding, then why would people not go 4 days AFTER 9/11?
Maybe the lady should have a bit more understanding, but I have to admit, the money and time put into having a wedding borders on astronomical and is, in most cases, the biggest day of your life. For friends and family to not come because of a tragedy that happened four days ago is a bit rude actually. Now, if the wedding was supposed to be in NYC, then that’s different. But if it’s in Denver or Minneaplis or something, why couldn’t people turn off their TVs for a few hours and celebrate something good? I’m confused about you guys thinking Darren is crazy. I think he’s exactky right.
~Drewbacca
MoviePatron.com
Hey Ive only been listening for a few weeks but so far I love your show… hilarious and the best movie news out there. Any way you guys were taking about a Live Audio adition and I think this service is built just for live podcasting and might work better then shoutcast.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Default.aspx
Anyway keep it up…
Lady in the water was brilliant – Shamhammer does it again
(sarcasm)
my boyfriend’s an excellent drummer. he plays doublebass EASILY. he loves death metal and all those music i find disturbing. but trust me, he’s got EXCELLENT rhthym (if u know wat i mean).
one thing though.
he’s in asia.
send ticket?? =)))
Hey John,
I had an idea for the live podcast.
If you want to keep your bandwidth usage down, I would lean towards making the Audio Edition more interactive instead of trying to do video. The best way would be to use something like IceCast or Shoutcast or even Live365.com to broadcast the Audio Edition live and while you’re broadcasting, have some sort of messenger open so the listeners/audience can ask questions and make comments, although picking a common IM may cause problems so you may need more than one.
If you’re not strongly for having video in the broadcast, that’s probably the best way to do it.
from imdb news…..
Director Bryan Singer has acknowledged that the less-than-stellar performance of Superman Returns has made prospects for another Man of Steel sequel a bit “iffy.” The Associated Press quotes him as saying, “We haven’t concluded a deal,” but if a sequel gets a green light from Warner Bros, “the intention is to do it for [release in] 2009.” Separately, Singer told Britain’s Empire magazine, “Now that the character is established, I’d like to take the opportunity to bring in a more threatening element, a more terrible, foreboding element
The dude needs to have a life too, you know.
That being said, John, will you please update the movie blog? pretty please? ;)
man, looks like there’s not gonna be any posts up today. :(
john, you should really get someone to help you out with getting more posts up.
Varun. People protest films without doing research. Even without seeing the film they are protesting. People will just see the name and that he is a villian. Thats it. Then the drama will start. Good free press though.
Whan Doug made the joke about The russian missile launcher coming with a free copy of tetris… I burst out laughing.
I was on a quiet bus.
Campea double-booked. PIMP!
that was some funny shit…. when you kept one-upping each other with the missile jokes…. mmmhmmmm, I was making a fool out of myself on my comute to work laughing out loud at a group of high school girls. Thanks for that! =)
Redesign? Hm, just don’t go all flash and fuck up the simplicity of the site. ‘ts all.
Great show, fellas. I don’t have any ideas for a redesign because I think it’s fine as it is but if you want to make everything look shiny and cool that that’s alright by me. I’m not into the idea of a forum thing either because I just like reading comments related to the stories you post. Not that arsed about other stuff.
– I’d like it if Favreau did make Mandarin’s gadgets alien in origin. All of the superhero movies try to ground everything and make it sciencey. It’d be nice to have a superhero franchise that wasn’t afraid to go a bit out there with the aliens and time travel and that kinda thing. That would certainly seperate it from the Batman films (and it needs that if they aren’t bothering with the alcoholism issue).
Favreau’s already done well with fantastical stories (Elf and Zathura). Too many superhero movies try to be cool before they try to be fun. That was where Fantastic 4, Punisher and to a certain extent Daredevil failed. They should go just as nuts as the writers do in the comics and not be embarrassed of the source material. If they do this and show some balls instead of trying to fit into the Batman/Spider-man mould then I’ll be there opening day.
Great show. The first six minutes were insanely hilarious. As for the site re-design, as much as I like the idea of being able to discuss something to the ends of the earth, I’m not a big fan of forums. They get tedious and insanely slow to load – not to mention that, as anonym mentioned, they tend to get out of hand if not monitored regularly and at the rate the site is growing, I’m not sure you want to be doing that.
I also like his suggestion of category links. This would be fabulous, especially when I’m trying to send friends links to your posts about Trek.
My only other suggestion would be post e-mailing capability so I could click on a button and send a link of a specific post to a friend. Recently I’ve been sending a link to the page but by the time they get around to looking at it, the story is buried. This would be a fantabulous little addition.
Have you ever considered adding a regular female co-host to the mix…just to get a different view of things? Even one that gets excited about most of the movies you discuss (me) often has a different take on things. Just a suggestion.
Excited to her the livecast. Great idea.
Keep up the great work. It’s a great show and a great site.
My opinions for your great “site redesign”…
1. Keep the blog format of the posts. It is after all the Movie Blog… don’t do the “article” format where you list the title of the articles and you have to click on it to read them. (How you have your older posts set up is perfect for older information but I wouldn’t want it for the new posts)
2. I agree with Vix. A permanent link to your top 10 and worst 10 would be a great idea. We hear about it, but I would love to be able to see it anytime (as you update it).
3. I also like the idea someone else stated that the comments should be in one location so we can keep the discussions going longer and to make it a little more forum like. (The key is to not actually do a forum because that will encourage flaming and the creation of stupid topics like “Why Tom Cruise is gay” or “OMG!! (female celebrity) sex video link!!!”.)
4. I have seen a few other blogs that have along the side, a list of topics that will take them to every post on that topic without having to use search. The list would be a great for upcoming movies so that someone can come to the site, click on the topic, and see every bit of information you have found on said movie (great example would be Transformers). After all, most people are too lazy to use search, especially since you could have referenced to in another post about something else.
5. Yes. It is very much time to change/update the pictures of you and Doug (and they need to include Darren).
6. Thanks for not having pop-up ads or any video ads. Much appreciated. :-)
Other than that, keep up the good work.
-AB
EVERYONEVERYONEEVERYONE
Here is a news alert…..about THE MANDARIN….
The villan The Mandarin takes his name from the definition of “A high government official or bureaucrat” (do a little background research on the character) it is like having a villan called “The Gentleman” so don’t worry about the name using the character is about as racist as any Fu Manchu pastiche in existence.
Also the Renassaince trailer is intense
I myself get a bit hot with my comments but I try to walk away and approach it later with a cooler head. sometimes it does work, sometimes it makes me more pissed off…
…i will say this: The nature of the comment section here has been getting to a point that I have hesitated to post for the past week or so. Now that I know you’re not going to stand for it, i’ll come back and post a bit more freely.
I will tell you this right now: I will not be part of a website like AICN where there IS no healthy discussion.
well that’s a bit of a generalization. but you DO get my point.
Hey John…
I just have to say… Thank God!!! Thank God that someone other than myself wants TPTB to recast the voice of Megatron. I grew up with the Transformers. I also love the voice work that Frank Welker did in the cartoon… but like you guys… I don’t think his voice would work for the film.
As for who I think should do the voice… Nimoy is a good choice, but I keep thinking of someone like Brian Cox or maybe even Clancy Brown. Who knows.
I’m just so thankful that Cullen is back, that as long as Megs sounds evil as fuck I don’t care who does the voice! Also, Frank Welker has done quite a bit of other voice over work(and most of it is quite good), so with the right amount of digital tweaking, he actually might be able to pull off a genuinly evil sounding Megatron.
John,
I was just in the middle of listening to your podcast and I have to say I think you’ve been SNOWED…
Ned Danny, the supposed director of the film, is not a real person. He is a character in a series of films by director Thom Stylinski.
In the first (or previous) film ‘The Cleaners’, the Ned Danny character is a documentary filmmaker documenting his world in which murder has been made legal (the video is on YouTube right next to the 4W3Kfunerals clip)
I think the Stop Ned Danny website was just a bit of propaganda to raise awareness for the new ‘funerals’ movie which may not even exit (only one interview in the preview, no IMDB references for Ned Danny or Stylinksi)
Aintitcool has not reported anything on this yet, I think you may need to do some investigating and find out if this is really a REAL movie. It seems like Stylinkski is on his way to building his own ‘Askewniverse’ around the Ned Danny thing…
That being said I hope you keep up your own fine documentary work. I’m very much looking forward to your new movie ‘Prints of Pee – God of War’ in which struggling avante garde artist Doug Nagy goes around Toronto painting pictures of national landmarks with his own urine. I assume he has to enlist in the Canadian military to support their 3rd world war mongering or something, and that’s where the ‘God of War’ stuff comes in, huh….Anyway, Excelsior!!!
Hahaha had to share
this is sweet
James Lipton Interviews Soundwave
pt. one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_Jok-XWQ_A
pt two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tyRLkn_REk
Frank Welker as Megatron would be fantastic.
Just as Iconic I think as Peter Cullen.
They added digital reverb even just slighty to all the voices.
Think of what they could make them sound like now doubled over and awash with mechanical revrby effects.
Why exaactly did you dismiss him as an obvious choice?
hear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBcLlgzyI3A
also get a giggle and watch Peter Cullen do the voice
hear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fCkE2s4y90
I think Frank Welker should be Megatron as much as Peter Cullen should be Optimus Prime.
Fu Manchu was what I thought of, the way The Mandarin looks is very much in that style of “Yellow Peril” villain. I don’t personally think it would be a problem, but it’s worth asking the question.
Another great podcast, guys. Thanks.
– Glad to hear you have such great problems, John. A double-booked date is one of those things I’d put on a list with ‘There’s too much damn money in my wallet’ and ‘I have a nine inch hammer’. If only we were all cursed with such terrible luck!
– One of the things I love about this site is that it’s refreshingly free of AICN-style poo-flinging. I hope it stays that way. I used to check AICN daily, but the bile in the talkback sections means I only go there maybe once a week to skim the headlines (and now I come here instead!).
– On the Mandarin thing, I think it’ll all depend on how the character is portrayed. If it’s a white guy in a Fu Manchu costume, the whole thing’ll stink. Write a well-rounded villain and have him played by someone like Chow Yun Fat and you’ve got no problem.
Great show guys. John, having woman come to your place! Wow, I am impressed. In my day, it was either pick them up at their place, or more likely meet at a neutral site.
I hear you on the posting section, I know I have been guilty of some poorly worded posts. Let’s hope your site can stop from degenerating into the flame threads that live at AICN. It is going to be tough though as your attracts more traffic and posters.
As to suggestions for changes at web site, any affinity on moving the posting section to a message board? That way threads will live longer and be easier to access. At the least, how about some Preview/Edit functions in the posting section?
I am intrigued about what is in store for you guys. Sounds like an invitation from a major con/media outlet has been made, perhaps?
Finally, my last word on Trek, it has been called dead many times before by men greater than you and I. Who knows what the future holds in store for Trek? My mind remains open.
I have one idea for how to do a live show, if there is a college or university (such as say U o T)that have a radio facility, then you might be able to work your way into taking it over so you can use those facilities for webcasting, and proper phone calling. Although I would have no idea how you would approach then with it.
Or you could use skype caller list combined with live webcasting.
Anyway hope you figure it out soon, can’t wait to hear what Nagy would say to the callers.
John God Bless YOU! I could not agree with you more about saying screw the “trekies”. To hell with them. And doug keep preachin the DS9 hatred. The show was ass.
One of the worst films I have EVER seen, is that bobby long movie with travolta. OH MY GOD !
Hmmm….
1) Oh no. Is this cause for alarm? Everytime I get attatched to a nice film discussion site outside of Zoetrope’s boards, when there’s “changeover” the friggin ship goes down…I’m sure everything will be fine…what are you gonna do? Change the colors?
2) That would be sweet. The only thing I can think off the top off my brain at this point is a vidcam confrence (?) or perhaps like a radio station may do streaming audio. Or perhaps if there was a way to get multiple phone lines/callers…? As far as “events” – ever think about coming down to Michigan and see if you can’t get an interview with Jeff Daniels in Traverse City? Or how about a film fest or two where you tend to take God Of War? All that’s a crapshoot, though.
3) You know what I feel about this. You think I’m wrong, you think you’re right
:P I think JJ will have Star Trek pre-Kirk…but “after” Enterprise. I still would like post TNG and have an all new crew and then there could be the conflict of which you so desire.
Everything else I commented on below except for the film reviews.
As for the alleged Worst Movie List: Will Shaylaman’s flick bump off Batman & Robin?
and…could I use my influence and say ‘Twister’?
John can you cover “renaissance” ? It looks really cool, I don’t know if you are into this type of productions, i.e. sin city meets scanner darkly, although I hated SD. This “renaissance” flick though looks pretty neat.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/renaissance/trailer1/
Hey John,
#1 – The ability for readers to rate the movies that you’ve reviewed would be cool as an added feature. Stuff like top 10 lists and the like as a regular section would be welcome too. Speaking of that, can’t wait to see your Top 10 Worst Movie List
#2 – A live Audio Edition would be awesome. I’d wake up early to catch it :) I’ve listened to podcasts that involved calls so perhaps they were using something like Skypecasts. Not totally certain.
#3 – No arguments from me about a reboot for Star Trek. I’m a fan but the series has gotten boring as the years have passed. As much as I tried I couldn’t get into Enterprise as much as TNG or TOS. DS9 is one of my favorites but yeah looking at Star Trek from a different point of view would be different and interesting. It’s one thing to include references that “true” fans would get but to pander to a small demographic does not make for a good movie experience.
#5 & 6 – I am so excited to see Clerks II. I hope it comes to cinemas here soon. At first the trailers for Lady in the Water intrigued me but the more recent ones just confused me and with the ratings and reviews this could be something that I would watch if there was nothing interesting at the theatre.
Hebrew is a language as well. I don’t think we would name a character Arabic or Swahili even though they are languages (I realize that Arabic is a language as well as a people group).
We probably don’t mind calling a character Mandarin because we tend to consider the people who speak it a dominant people group.
He’s not named “The Chinese”. Mandarin is a language. And a fruit.
I may be wrong, but I don’t think ANYBODY will care if he’s called the Mandarin.
Hi John,
A couple things…
1)I would also me interested in hearing a list of your 10 worst films.
2)I think you can make an argument that Mandarin is a questionable name for a villian. We would never have a jewish villian named The Hebrew. We have to remember that we do have a long history of discrimination against various Asian communities in North America (even if that doesn’t seem to exist now). I don’t really have a problem with the Mandarin as a name but it is worth a discussion.
Come oh John… 42! :P
That opening story was absolutely hilarious. Seems enthusiasm is going a little down for some of the news, which is fine. No outbursts or extreme word-abuse at the Peter Cullen news? It’s fine though, it makes the moments that much better.
I can’t believe I didn’t catch you going berzerk though. Damn.
James i agree
Also you should have a 4 people audio edtion with Darren wife.
Iam a drummer but not doublebass but i can mimic a double
I would definetly be interested in hearing about your top 10 worst movie list in a future Audio Edition. Or at least if you could post it.
I love a good movie list, your top ten brutal movies would certainly get some chatter going.
Seven years in tibet was the only movie i actually fell asleep in the theatre for, BRUTAL
you double booked? thats hiarious, too bad
I am also 34.
Sorry, I cant watch the Audio Edition cause I am on dial up :(
But I hope that I have not been a part of the problems that have been eluded to. I want to second what Nathan said above. I have been coming to this site for some time just for the quick news and stuff about things I am interested in. Its been great. Only recently have I begun to post.
I hope you plan to keep it up for soem time.
Who the hell said I was 42?!?!?!?! I am NOT 42.
34.
Cheers!
~John
I like the current design John. Why rock the boat?
Are you 42 and single ? that is odd…
I’ve been listening/reading for a while now. I personally tend to avoid most of the comment section because of the haughtiness of many of the postings. That being said I think it’s only a small percentage of people that use the podium/forums to bully the excited or respectfully opinioned. However as a reader I’m so put off by some of the shit slinging that goes on I tend to close the window and move on. So I can imagine how our John must feel as he tends to represent the opinions being shunned. Whether or not we agree with him we all owe John many thanks for giving us fan-boys, geeks, movie-buffs, speed-freaks, tricks and pricks the international community known as themovieblog. This being said John does owe us respect as well, for as fans we keep his sight alive. I personally think he’s done just that by having this very forum for us to express our own, and the fact that he keeps up with it just further proves this guys genuinely interested in all things cinema regardless of personal position. I think John has been very careful in explaining his own opinions fully, showing reasoning and honest introspection rather then just attempting non-conformity. The sheer restraint he shows in not stooping to insults is expressed in his closing of responses. And as fans of this site or just assholes that need attention on forums we all owe John, Doug, and Darren a cheers in return. So… cheers and thanks from Texas (its in North America) to wherever you are. god damn liberal canucks