Thursday, June 15, 2023

Ape Watch: King Kong (1933)



Watched:  06/11/2023
Format:  BluRay
Viewing:  Unknown
Director:  Merian C. Cooper / Ernest B. Schoedsack


So, last week Stuart sent me a link to a doc on YouTube to watch.  It was, roughly, a 3-part series on King Kong (1933) and the impact of the film over decades.  I texted him 15 minutes in to the first part and said "there's no way I don't wind up watching Kong this weekend", and, indeed, I'm a man of my word.

We all have our foundational films, and King Kong, in it's very roundabout way, is one of mine.  

Growing up in the 1970's and 80's, and in the wake of the 70's monster craze, Kong was more or less a household name, concept, etc...  Everyone had an idea of King Kong as a giant ape liberated from an island who winds up in Manhattan and wreaks havoc, winding up atop the Empire State Building.  

My first exposure to Kong's full story was in a hard-back book my dad read to me (and, I assume, my brother) when I was about 5.  Only later would I learn it was an official novelization worked on by no less than Merian C. Cooper, director of the film.  

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

PodCast 245: "Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse" (2023) a KTB episode w/ Dug, Jamie & Ryan



Watched:  06/03/2023
Format:  Theater
Viewing: First
Decade:  2020's
Director:  Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson




It's a leap across the Spider-Verse, and that means bringing the gang together from across space and time. Join Jamie, The Dug and Ryan as we ponder the latest installment in the adventures of Gwen and Miles. Join us as spin a web of conversation, and try to decide if this movie is Signal Watch Canon.


SoundCloud 


YouTube


Music:
Annihilate - Swae Lee, Lil Wayne, and Offset 
Calling -   Swae Lee, Nav, A Boogie w/ a Hoodie 


Marvel Movies Playlist 

John Romita, Sr. Merges With the Infinite




Much as Carl Barks was "the Good Duck Artist" to a generation or three, Romita was, to me, THE Spider-Man artist.  Sure, he did plenty else, but his work on Spider-Man was so foundational to the character, his design and humanity brought to each panel, a key player in re-figuring the style at Marvel, and therefore the style of modern comics.  



The world of Spider-Man was surely full of colorful characters, but they weren't defined by their powers, they had unique personalities and character, and Romita brought it right to the surface.  

He was also the artist who brought classic moments we're still dealing with in comics.

Like, the intro of Mary Jane Watson.



and, of course, everything with the Stacy's.

And that's how everything ended up with Gwen and Captain Stacy.  Everyone cool and living happily ever after.

I love this era of Spidey.  It's the height of personal and super-hero drama, and has Spidey working in a milieu I think he operates in best.  And when I think of this era, sure I think the title is well written, but it's also the Marvel Method, which means Stan worked out a storyline with the artist and cut them loose, to come back and fill in dialog later.  So it's artistic storytelling, refusing to rely on text or words.

We'll miss knowing Romita Sr. was out there.  We lost a giant this week.


Friday, June 9, 2023

Ghibli Watch: My Neighbor Totoro (1988)




Watched:  06/09/2023
Format:  Max
Viewing:  First
Director:  Miyazaki

So, aside from a movie or two, I had never really delved into the Studio Ghibli output.  Sue me.  I love animation, but I love a lot of things, and I always thought someone would foist it upon me, and that hasn't happened.  Thus, in 2023, I finally decided to start making my way through the Ghibli output.  

It does seem silly, however, to try to add to the conversation on these much-watched, well-loved films with millions and millions of fans, and plenty of ink spilled over them.  All I'll really say is:  what an absolute delight of a movie.  I felt like I got the full Miyazaki experience on this one.




Thursday, June 8, 2023

PodCast 244: "The Big Lebowski" (1998) - A Coen Bros Rewatch w/ Stuart and Ryan




Watched:  05/28/2023
Format:  BluRay
Viewing: Unknown
Decade:  1990's
Director:  Coen Bros.




Stuart and Ryan try to keep their minds limber to keep up with all the moving pieces and new things that have come to light. We're rewatching a cult favorite and maybe the Coen Bros. best remembered film? Anyway, we don't roll on shabbos, but we do podcast. So, join us for a convo on a fan favorite!


SoundCloud 


YouTube





Music:
Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) - Kenny Rogers & The First Edition 
Dead Flowers - Townes Van Zandt 


Coen Bros. Films

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

The Iron Sheik Merges With the Infinite


Wrestler Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, known to generations of fans as the colorful character The Iron Sheik, has passed.  

The Iron Sheik was representative of WWF/ WWE's early smash success via playing out America's psychoses via avatars of various concepts in the zeitgeist appearing in the ring, often to battle the heroes of the WWF.  The Iron Sheik was, of course, the threat Americans saw of the Middle East and Saudi Arabia in the post-gas-crisis world.  

Vaziri was not, however, actually Saudi.  He was from Iran, and I have a very hard time figuring out when and how he came to the States, but it was in the early 70's and tied originally to Olympic wrestling.  I think.  That he would choose not to villainize Iran in his heel-turn of the 1980s is not a shock.

Like many kids of my generation, I liked the villains as much as the heroes of the WWE, and The Iron Sheik was a favorite.  With social media, he resurfaced, pounding out tweets in the broken dialect he employed as his character to cutting and hilarious effect.  I think I saw him tweeting just last week, so his passing is a bit of a surprise.

I'm aware of the brow-furrowing concern that media cops have put on wrestling then and now.  I get it.  But if I may... not once did I think The Iron Sheik was representative of anything but silliness and sweet wrestling moves, and while not fitting a rubric of acceptable, he's still a beloved figure of a certain era of my life.

Godspeed, you maniac.

Monday, June 5, 2023

Review Watch: Spider-Man - Into the Spider-Verse (2018)




Watched:  06/02/2023
Format:  Blu-Ray
Viewing:  fifth?  I don't know

Not going to write this up, but we did a re-watch in preparation for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which we saw Saturday morning.  

This movie holds up like crazy.

80's Watch: Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985)




Watched:  06/02/2023
Format:  Watch Party
Viewing:  Unknown
Director:  George Miller

In memory of the great Tina Turner, this week we put on Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985) for our group watch party.  This is also the last one for the summer (or longer).  Life is resuming, and while I enjoy the experience, my own life and those of the folks who participated, has changed once again.  

Anyway, this was a movie I saw at age 10 and in the theater.  Subsequently, it played interminably on HBO, I believe, during one of the periods where my parents would pay for premium cable, and I'd seen it a lot during a crucial window in my life.  I'm well aware that it's not a patch on The Road Warrior, and in its way, not as fresh as the first Mad Max.  And, it's just not as good as Fury Road, which feels like the real distillation of the concepts and final word on the idea of Mad Max - until George Miller does it again.

But it's still a watchable movie and has more ideas per minute than a season of most sci-fi TV.  And like all sci-fi that works, it feels plausible and comments back to us about who we are.  

This Mad Max film sees Max wander into a town where capitalism has met with the apocalypse and you can't enter unless you have something to trade.  Having recently been relieved of his camels(!) and car, Max is recruited to kill the muscle of a brains/ muscle combo by the person who founded Bartertown but has lost control of it to an engineer who is turning pig shit into methane.  

Like I say: lots of ideas.

Friday, June 2, 2023

Friday Watch Party: Mad Max - Beyond Thunderdome




Last week we lost world-famous musician and performer Tina Turner.  

Turner didn't appear in that many films, but she was in a starring role in the least likely of films, the third Mad Max installment, Beyond Thunderdome.  She plays the mayor-figure and matriarch of a town in post-apocalyptic Australia, and she has magnificent earrings.  

Opinions vary on Turner in the film, but we've been team-Aunty Entity since we literally jumped into a van full of kids being taken to the movie at the local cinema.  But this is also, simply, a pro-Tina Turner household.


Day:  June 2, 2023
Time:  8:30 Central, 6:30 Pacific
Runtime:  107 minutes
Cost:  $4.29 HD / $3.79 SD

I'm realizing I saw this when I was 10, and, hoo-boy.  My parents were paying zero attention to what I was watching as a kid.

(link live 10 minutes before show)


Wednesday, May 31, 2023

PODCAST @ Superheroes Every Day: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)



Watched:  05/19/2023
Format:  Disney+
Viewing:  First
Director:  Peyton Reed

Well.  I was going to watch it eventually.  

Danny (of Superheroes Every Day) and I talk the 2023 critical kryptonite and box office disappointment that is one of Marvel's greatest missteps to date.  Join us as we pick up this particular dud and keep turning it over to figure out what worked, what didn't, and how this thing even came out of Marvel Studios.

Part I




Part II




Part III