Welcome to the Weekend Watch. Where we try to point you towards the best ways to spend your viewing time (or, at least, steer you clear of the garbage).

Movies

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 

Loren:!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Etc.

RDT: Yeah, I guess I’ll see it.

Rick: Now that I’ve fallen ill (*grumbles*), I’ll have to wait and see this when I’m healthy. So, I guess I won’t be on the internet for like a week…

Jen: DUH!

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Collateral Beauty 

Loren: I’m good. It’s like one of those holiday movies (Love Actually, New Years Eve) but with Tragic Circumstances being the holiday.

RDT: I saw this and Jen and Rick are both 100% right with what they said below. It’s cloying, manipulative, Oscar bait. It’s also predictable as hell (as I said on Facebook “It’s the moviest movie that ever movied”). And I desperately wanted to hate it. But the cast and the performances really elevate the writing (which is not good). What we got is not good, but there is a good movie in there somewhere.

Rick: Is it “Will Smith Wants An Oscar” season already? Pass.

Jen: Can we have an adult drama that doesn’t deal with someone’s kid dying? It seems the in thing, of late, to define your protagonist by the loss of their child. I find it cheap, manipulative, and, yes, painful. Move on Hollywood. Continue reading →

As we head towards the end of the year, let’s break down some pop culture news.

• Reverse Tomb Raider cast
• Rogue One is good (we heard)
• But the, rumored, Episode VIII title is not
• Power Rangers gets some Zords, and a new backstory
• All the trailers!
  • Baywatch
  • The Mummy
  • The Wall
  • War for the Planet of the Apes
  • The Fate of the Furious (this is the full trailer, but only the teaser dropped when we recorded)
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming (scroll down)
• King Arthur and Ponch & John switch places
• Little Shop re-opens for business
• Powerless gets a debut date
• The Flash gets a Gypsy
• Ducktales, woo hoo!
• Bad Robot Glares at HBO
• Nintendo’s Switch (and some dude) drop in in Fallon
• JL and the Batflick play musical chairs as Zack Snyder “takes a break” from the DCEU
• Spider-Man: Homecoming trailer debuts (and Loren breaks it down)
• Richard E. Grant is not Mr. Sinister in Logan

All that, the usual tangents, and what we’re watching in the Weekend Watched.

As always, please check us out on Facebook and Twitter.

Don’t forget to rate/review on iTunes and now Stitcher, too. We’d really appreciate it!

 

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I’ve said it on the podcast, much like RDT’s favorite Superhero is The Flash, mine’s Spider-Man. Ever since I was a little kid Spider-Man is what got me into comics as a whole. He’s that guy that most people reading comics at the time felt was totally relatable (you know except for the incredible super powers thing). But Peter Parker had the same problems that you did, plus added threats of the The Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, or The Vulture. He was easily the most accessible superhero.

Over the years Spider-Man movies have ranged in their quality. We got two pretty great stories in the first two movies, though a lackluster Peter Parker in Tobey Maguire. Then we got a terrible hodge-podge of a Spider-Man/Venom/Sandman/Green Goblin story that reeked of studio interference in the abysmal Spider-Man 3. Sony rebooted the franchise just 5 years later with The Amazing Spider-Man. In that we got another origin story, a too cool for school Peter Parker, an incredible Gwen Stacy from Emma Stone, and (I had to look this up because I couldn’t actually remember who it was) the Lizard as the villain. Followed by and even more lazy sequel with another Green Goblin (sort of) and Electro as the villains.

This brings us to Marvel Studios deal with Sony to re-acquire the use of Spider-Man. Long story short years ago Marvel was going bankrupt and sold off the film rights to a lot of their characters. Spider-Man went to Sony, The X-Men and Fantastic Four went to Fox, Hulk went to Universal etc. Some of those properties reverted to Marvel after they weren’t used (Daredevil). Some have been churning out whatever they can to keep the property (Fantastic Four) but Sony realized that they were losing money on the Spider-Man franchise and couldn’t get the right version of the character out there. Marvel had wanted to use Peter Parker/Spider-Man (and presumably, many of their other characters) so they struck a deal adding a new Spider-Man to the already existing MCU. Still basically owned by Sony, this Spider-Man could show up and interact with MCU heroes like Iron Man and Captain America. Cue Captain America: Civil War where we got our first glimpse of this Spider-Man and the rest is history. Now Marvel, in co-production with Sony is releasing the first stand alone movie featuring Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. But enough history, let’s talk about the first Spider-Man: Homecoming trailer: Continue reading →

Welcome to the Weekend Watch. Where we try to point you towards the best ways to spend your viewing time (or, at least, steer you clear of the garbage).

Movies

La La Land (Limited)

Loren: Look, this city is a nightmarish hellhole but this makes even that look beautiful. And the fact that it harkens back to old movie musicals with a modern update has me pretty sold. This is a solid yes from me.

RDT: If you listen to the podcast, and I don’t know why you wouldn’t, you know I already saw this (in one of the craziest screenings I’ve ever been to). The movie is phenomenal, definitely one of the best of the year.

Rick: I’ve been anxious to see this for months. I plan on seeing it the first chance I get.

Jen: Shut up and take my money!

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Office Christmas Party

Loren: Like, I kinda want to see this but I will in no way pay actual money to do so.

RDT: I enjoy most of the people in this cast. Yet I have no desire to see this at all.

Rick: Why does every comedy feel like it’s just filled with people yelling anymore? Do they not think we’ll get the joke otherwise? It’s a shame, really. I like most of these people. They’re talented comedians, but I’m more than okay not seeing this.

Jen: I do love 90% of this cast. Also, Olivia Munn is in this. It’s no Elf or Christmas Vacation, but I might eventually seek it out on a quiet December night when I want to remember my partying days.

Continue reading →

Welcome to the Weekend Watch. Where we try to point you towards the best ways to spend your viewing time (or, at least, steer you clear of the garbage).

Movies

Jackie

Loren: This isn’t for me. I want to like Natalie Portman but I haven’t really since she was a kid. Unless I hear that this ends up being a “must see”, I think I’ll pass.

RDT: I’m hearing the quality of her performance outweighs the quality of the film overall. Unless I get access to a screening/screener (yay for industry connections!), I doubt I’ll rush out to see it. But I’ll give it a view eventually.

Rick: I know I’ll wind up seeing this, and I have a feeling it’ll be worth it. However, I’m anticipating an on-again, off-again accent from Natalie Portman. It (hopefully) won’t be enough to distract from the rest of her performance.

Jen: This is right up my alley, a mid-century, female-led historical drama. I have no strong feelings on Natalie Portman (which surprises me) but I can’t imagine I won’t be seeing this.

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Incarnate

Loren: Look I’m a wrestling fan, but this is co-produced through WWE studios. That should tell you about the quality of this flick. Pass-a-jawea.

RDT: If you read this column with regularity then you know I’m not gonna see this movie (unless Rick deems it Whitsett Theater worthy at some point in the future).

Rick: Exorcism movies are REALLY hard to do well. They all, on some level, wind up being clones of The Exorcist. There are very few in the genre that are worth your time. This flick does have a clever conceit, but it’s still borrowing bits of Insidious. I may catch this at a second run theater just out of curiosity or on Netflix down the line.

Jen: This feels like Hackers meets The Exorcist. I’m sure there is an audience for that. I’m not part of it though.

Continue reading →

Hey folks,

It’s me, RDT! I want to welcome you to our newest column, Do That, Hollywood! Every week or two(ish), I’ll take a look at something I think “Hollywood” fucked up and suggest how I would fix it. Consider it part op-ed, part casting exercise, and part Monday morning quarterbacking (that’s a thing, right? Sports!) for the entertainment industry. This week, we kick off with the cinematic X-universe.

Continue reading →

Until we have a main topic worth talking about, we’re sticking with (pop culture) news.

• Rogue One and Han Solo updates
• Kingsman and Alien movies swap places
• Highlander reboot (will it be gritty?) scores a director
• The gritty Wizard of Oz reboot no one asked for
• ST:D casting
• Snowpiercer: The Series
• Dr.(not Thanksgiving) Smith has been cast
• Chappelle’s (Netflix) Show
• New Mutants get animatic-ed

So yeah, kind of a short one this week. You’re welcome!

All of that, plus the usual tangents!

As always, please check us out on Facebook and Twitter.

Don’t forget to rate/review on iTunes and Stitcher, too. We’d really appreciate it!

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Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

Welcome to the Weekend Watch: Holiday Edition. Where we try to point you towards the best ways to spend your viewing time (or, at least, steer you clear of the garbage) over this, hopefully long, holiday weekend.

Movies

Allied

Loren: I have this feeling that this is going to be bad but the trailers/tv spots look really good. I’m super torn, which means I’ll probably skip it in the theater and might catch it streaming.

RDT: I like Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, but I literally have no desire to see this. Not one bit.

Rick: I’m iffy on this one. I would bet cash money that there’s a movie from the 1940s that has the exact same plot and did it better. Unless reviews are good I’m okay skipping this one.

Jen: Didn’t Cillian Murphy make this movie a few months ago? With a weird-o sci-fi name? Was that a different Nazi spy-hunter movie? Arachnothoid? Artropod? I skipped that one and probably won’t see this one either.

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Moana

Loren: Disney has done a pretty incredible job making their computer animation division (or just regular animation division now I guess) on par with Pixar. Well, at least with some of Pixar’s weaker efforts.

RDT: I don’t know that I’ll run out and see this. But I do enjoy me some Dwayne TR Johnson. And the rest of the cast/filmmakers are pretty talented. So I’m sure I’ll see it eventually.

Rick: This may give Kubo and the Two Strings a run for its money as the best animated movie of 2016 (seriously, Kubo is uniformly excellent). I’m in for this.

Jen: Lin-Manuel Miranda? The Rock? Tiki? Disney? I think I dreamed this movie up myself. SO IN!

Continue reading →