The Lame Show: Ray’s Guest Appearance
August 13th, 2009
I had the pleasure of being on a podcast I didn’t have to meticulously edit myself, and had a blast discussing summer movies with Eddie and Noah. Although it took me a few minutes to warm up, those of you always hoping for something between now and Monday should find more than enough here to enjoy.
Haven’t seen G.I. Joe yet. Didn’t expect anything, and even though reviews have been negative, “The Totally Rad Show” (one of my favorite podcasts) all loved it, and so does Ray! Its weird. However, I have absolutely no connection to the universe of G.I. Joe so I don’t think I would be able to enjoy it. Except it does take place in Paris, which is cool since I could recognize a bunch of places (I even did in the trailer).
Transformers (and 2) was an abomination. Especially in 2, they stuff lore that no one cares about down your throat for half an hour. Yea, Ray essentially summed up my whole feelings to the movies. And I think the reason theres a huge discrepancy between ratings and money made is that its a spectacle film. Everything is big and inspires awe. Its almost like a tourist attraction, in a movie.
Terminator. Sigh. For those few people that care about the story (me…), this one doesn’t help clear anything and just continues to muddle it. However, I liked it more than Transformers 2. T:S was consistently alright, never being great while T2 was so up and down the entire time, but when it was down; it was down.
Wait, you don’t like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter Ray?? Wow… those are probably my two favorite story-type collections. But it does explain why you managed to never play Sonic and the Black Knight. Anyway, I thought HP6 was the best one. I was in tears at the end. However, Goblet of Fire is my least favorite (sorry Eddy). So many random story changes that aren’t necessary. Granted, from what it sounds, none of you have read the books. It definitely changes GoF, at least for me.
Nice podcast overall, especially to a cinema geek like me
Just for reference, here’s my review of G.I. Joe:
I still can’t believe how much fun I had at this film. Simply put: it’s a campy, explosion-filled ride that never truly asks to be taken seriously. Having no prior experience with anything G.I. Joe related, I had nothing to compare it to. At first I was a bit taken back at how awkward the visual effects seemed, how poor most of the acting was, and how loose reality seemed, but that’s when I realized it was all simply the gateway to helping enjoy the film for what it was meant to be: a glorified cartoon show. So I just sat back, put on my 12 year-old mindset, and laughed continuously out of pure enjoyment. I don’t know if I should be recommending it or not, but all I know is that I left the theatre very happy.
What got edited out of the podcast was our discussion of who has read the Harry Potter books. Here’s the score: Noah 7, Eddie 5, Ray 0
Personally, I found “Order of the Phoenix” to be the most emotionally moving film, yet also too short compared to the book, which I read afterward.
I’d like to blame it on the book… It’s too long. You can’t just sit there for 4-5 hours watching a movie, can you? But that book is so long that they have to cut some parts of it.
I agree that OotP is incredibly emotional. I just felt that the movie didn’t quite stir me in the way HBP did. Don’t get me wrong, they are both fantastic movies (David Yates is by far the best director so far), just the end of HBP (holding up the wands and the phoenix cry) really hit me. It was also the first time that Michael Gambon did a fantastic job as Dumbledore. He toned himself down and ended up giving his best performance in the film.
I was really happy that they kept the scene with Fawkes, with the book to movie transition.
My favorite so far, by far, is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The darker tones in the movie really worked well with the series as a whole and the specific movie. In all honesty, I feel that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was the worst title in the series, both book-wise and movie-wise. In the book, very little happened of actual importance (aside from the very last scenes), and the rest was an overall bore.
In my opinion, David Yates is the worst director so far, but that may be due more to the scripts he is given. Up until OotP came out, I always walked out of a Harry Potter film feeling that I had seen one of the best films of the year. At OotP (and, although to a lesser extent, at Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince</em), I was unsure of my feelings regarding my enjoyment of the film, and in the end, I felt that neither film was the best in the series. I felt that the things that they got right, the got really right, and the things they got wrong, they got really wrong.
Regarding OotP, I felt that they left far too much out of the film for it to reach its full potential. Some may argue that it is justified, due to restrained time-limits (meaning they could not make the film any longer, or it would go to long). The fact is, though, that it is the shortest film in the series. Even Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stonewas longer by 14 minutes, with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets surpassing even that with 23 minutes on OotP. Yes, the two shortest books in the series were made into movies that were longer than the longest book in the series’ movie. With that extra twenty minutes, they could have included plenty of more parts from the book.
While H-BP includes more from the book, it does not convey the story as well as the other films. Much of the story is exchanged for a plethora of humor that, while accepted, was not as important enough to drop the story. However, in this films defense, the final scenes of the film (from the scene of Dumbledore drinking from the Goblet to his funeral) were some of the best in the series.
Well, there are my thoughts.
~ Obilink
So my thoughts:
– Apple segment went on too long, but I guess that’s a personal issue of mine as I’m just tired about hearing about Apple in general.
-Yes, Wii Sports Resort is awesome, though I haven’t been playing it that much.
– I am just not a fan of DC comics. I used to watch some of the shows, but I just don’t like their characters much. And I especially don’t like how there’s about 20 of each hero. The only comics I’ve read are Deadpool ones, who also has a new series running!
– Btw for those of you who don’t know (but you should!) Ryan Reynolds is also doing a Deadpool movie, set to be released in 2011, and the character should have nothing to do with the abomination that was Deadpool from X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
– I have no interest in either Transformers…XD
– Ray, I think we’re opposites. I, for the most part cannot stand futuristic motifs, but I adore Medieval motifs. However, I can say it could be a mistake to avoid one or the other, because what did I avoid because I didn’t like futuristic motifs? Yeah, Metroid. Now look where I am. Of course, Starcraft is okay, but I far prefer Warcraft. As for actual movies. I hate Lord of the Rings anyway. XD I love Harry Potter though. I don’t like Star Wars though, again probably because of the futuristic motif.
– I enjoyed Half-Blood Prince, but as that was the first book I read, I was able to nitpick and it made it less enjoyable, it was a good movie though, but I far prefer Prisoner of Azkaban.
– I honestly didn’t want Half-Blood Prince to end because there was just so much that they didn’t cover and I was like, “Wait!”. XD
-I’m not a huge movie person, so I usually only see movies when I see the trailers far beforehand and go, “I want to see that.” I very rarely see movies on a whim.
– For me, movies right now that I can’t wait for are, well, number one, definitely Deadpool. If they do it right it really could be one of the best movies ever, combining action and comedy. As long as they keep his origin story right, I’m good. Other two movies I can’t wait for are Pirates 4 and National Treasure 3.
In response to what you said you are looking forward to, here is my list of Films I can’t wait for:
– 9
– The Last Airbender
– Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland
– Toy Story 3
– Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
– Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II
– X-Men Origins: Magneto
– Iron Man 2
– Batman 3
– Pirates of the Caribbean IV
– Robin Hood (2010)
– The Hobbit: Part I
– The Hobbit: Part II
– The Bear and the Bow
– National Treasure 3
Like I said below, I am a big movie buff, so I am looking forward to a lot of films.
~ Obilink
Correction:
I forgot the following films:
– Star Trek 2 (Important!)
– X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2
– Avatar
– The Green Lantern
Some of the ones you listed I am interested in as well I just forgot about like Harry Potter…and…actually that’s it. Never mind. haha. Like I said above, I don’t particularly care for DC comics, so not really looking forward to any of those. X-Men Origins: Magento could be okay, but I’m not a big Magneto fan, and as for Wolverine 2…meh. The first wasn’t that good and I only saw it for Deadpool and they screwed him up so, I’m not expecting much.
I just REALLY want to see that Deadpool movie. I cannot wait. Ryan Reynolds is making it clear that he wants it to be accurate to the comic books, and I believe he’ll follow through. Deadpool is such an amazing character and even in those 20 minutes in Wolverine in which he was accurately portrayed, he was awesome.
We have an incredibly similar list. I look forward to all of those (except National Treasure), but you’d have to add Inglorious Basterds and Where the Wild Things Are. Both look amazing (and I’ll find out if the former is in a few days).
No National Treasure!?!? I love those movies.
Yeah, the National Treasure films are fun. The first was the best.
@Tacos – Where the Wild Things Are did not look at all good to me. Of course, I was never a fan of the book, so… As for the other film, I just cant get past the cursing in the film’s title. I am completely against cursing, so…
~ Obilink
I agree that the first National Treasure was a good and enjoyable film. However, the second one lost me and I don’t really care too much anymore.
Where the Wild Things Are looks like a film that will resonate with people who are looking back on their childhood. Since I’m leaving for college in about 2 weeks, this feels incredibly relevant with my life right now and looks like it will pull some emotional strings.
And I love Quentin Tarantino and most everything he’s done (not Death Proof though). The cursing really shouldn’t make a difference to anyone. If it helps, its called Inglorious in the UK. No cursing at all.
My thoughts –
1) Great job, Ray. You stole the show in many areas.
2) I thought The Lame List was good, except for the Apple App Store one. You have put it on the list far to many times, and it is now just boring to listen to. Put some other lame things on it, maybe some lesser-known ones.
3) The movie part was…OK. While you got many movies in, you neglected some huge ones. The typical “Summer Movie Season” starts in May and ends in August, so there are some big movies you missed, such as:
— Star Trek
— Up
— Public Enemies
— The Taking of Pelham 123
— X-Men Origins: Wolverine
— Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
— Angels & Demons
And of course many others. I am especially upset you didn’t mention the upcoming Summer films, including District 9 and Ponyo. I am a huge movie buff, so I was not pleased by the fact that these movies were not including, while Land of the Lost, of all films, was.
Overall, the podcast was decent. It wasn’t bad enough to get on the Lame List, but it wasn’t as good as 2P Start! Live.
~ Obilink
Ray what about the huge sword hanging on your wall?
Can’t listen to the podcast. The links in this blog entry are broken.
How are they broken? Both work fine for me….
http://podcast.hawktaildesign.com/2009/08/12/episode-50-revenge-of-the-summer-movie-trio/
Both work for me too now. Hm.