We want to welcome you to our newest feature, Weekend Watch. Each week, we’ll give you, the reader, a heads up on what’s new and noteworthy (or not so noteworthy) for the weekend. We won’t cover everything because it’s a lot, and we’re lazy. However, we will try to point you towards the best ways to spend your viewing time (or, at least, steer you clear of the garbage).

We also want to take this opportunity to introduce you to our newest contributor to the site. So let’s all welcome Rick with open arms. And wallets. (He thinks he’s getting paid.) Rick, say hi!

Hi everyone! Rick here. Thanks to Ryan (but not Loren, cause he’s a stinking liar) for letting me contribute to this fine web site.

 

Movies

Knight of Cups

Loren: Is this the one with Dinklage and the dude from True Blood?

RDT: Isn’t that Game of Thrones? Regardless, I know literally nothing about it, but I’ve never seen a Terrence Malick movie before, so why start now?

Rick: I don’t care for everything of Malick’s I’ve seen (I’m sorry but, despite the subject matter being right in my wheelhouse, Badlands bored the hell out of me), but his more recent output has been more languid and philosophical, which I kind of dig. In.

 

London Has Fallen

Loren: The trailer made it look kinda like a fun action movie. The reviews say it’s absolute dog shit. Didn’t see Olympus, probably won’t see this.

RDT: I didn’t care when Olympus fell. I don’t care about London falling. And I won’t care when the 3rd thing (the moon?) falls, either.

Rick: Like Ryan, I didn’t give a damn when Olympus fell. I do kind of want to see this one, though. I blame the unintentionally hilarious tagline that conjures up images of a half-assed Shaft sequel. “The Irish mob wanted London. They got Shaft instead. Get ready for bloody Hell!” (Rick, I would watch the hell out of that movie. –RDT)

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Last night, I watched the 88th Annual Academy Awards (otherwise known as “The Oscars”). That is nearly 100 years of cinematic history, and I have to post something, anything, about it (don’t I?). But I don’t know what to write.

Leo (finally) won, Stallone (sadly) lost, and Spotlight (kind of) upset. Old memes are falling. New memes are rising. And everyone is talking about diversity. But I don’t know what to write.

This is the one awards show I watch every year (sorry, Emmys. don’t care about you, Grammys. and, srsly, fuck off Golden Globes) and have watched every year for as long as I can remember. But I don’t know what to write.

I love movies. Good movies (I tell people that The Godfather: Part II is my favorite), bad movies (but we all know it’s Road House) and even god awful movies (I am literally watching Magic Mike XXL as I type this). But, everybody now, I don’t know what to write.

This all leads me to the big question – “Is there anything new to say about The Oscars?” I could tell you my opinions of the show (too long, somewhat underwhelming, Chris Rock was funny, if a bit one-note), but they’re no different than anything anyone else is probably saying. And even more so, like the show itself, they’ll be forgotten in a day or two, if that. Which leads to the bigger question – “Are the Oscars even still relevant anymore?”

And the answer is, especially with ratings at their lowest in 8 years, maybe not….? Maybe they never were? I don’t know, and I’m not sure anyone else really does either.

By all accounts, I am an old(ish) (very) white man with a bit of a cynical streak (given that, shouldn’t I be in the Academy?), but I’m also still that 11-year-old kid who gets emotionally invested in these awards. Who was sad when Stallone lost and ecstatic when Brie Larson won. Who even, maybe just a little, misses those weird dance numbers. And who is happy when people who seem to genuinely love what they do, and work hard at it, are rewarded.

I don’t have all the answers. Hell, I don’t even have all the questions. But what I do have is this place, our podcast and an opportunity for discussion.

And with that, I close out this post not sure exactly what I wrote, but at least I wrote something.

Check us out next week as Loren and I try to tackle those big (and bigger) Oscar questions.

From the couch,

–RDT

 

 

 

 

We live in a world of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). No longer is a series of progressively shittier and shittier sequels enough (although it looks like the Terminator franchise is still trying…). As with anything in Hollywood, success breeds copycats. (“They made money doing that thing that made sense for them. So we should do that thing too!”) Warner Bros’ DCEU (DC Extended Universe), spinning out of Man of Steel, launches next month with the legal proceeding of Batman v. Superman. And Universal recently cast Tom Cruise as Van Helsing and Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man for their Monsters Universe. Trust me when I say these are all things we will be discussing in the coming weeks/months/years.

Not one to be left behind by their cinematic brethren, Star Wars’ first theatrical spinoff, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, releases in December of this year, with the recently confirmed an as yet Untitled Han Solo, umm, solo movie coming May of 2018. While Rogue One will deal primarily with new characters, Untitled Han Solo is the Han Solo origin story we’ve always wanted (or not). Below, Loren and I take a look at the rumored casting shortlist of those young actors looking to fill the shoes of Harrison Ford.

• Miles Teller
  • RDT: While a pretty good actor (see Whiplash, don’t see Fant4stic), I just don’t see it. I also get major douche-chills from him.
  • Loren: No.

• Ansel Elgort
  • RDT: Though I’ve seen The Fault in Our Stars, I’m probably not familiar enough with his other work to say one way or the other, but I will anyway. He’s like a poor man’s Miles Teller. (See above.)
  • Loren: No.

• Dave Franco
  • RDT: My preferred Franco, but still, meh.
  • Loren: No.

• Jack Reynor
  • RDT: All I’ve seen of his work is Transformers: Age of Extinction. I have nothing else to say.
  • Loren: No.

• Scott Eastwood
  • RDT: Son of Clint, I literally haven’t seen a thing he’s been in. (Though if/when they recast Wolverine, based on looks alone, he gets my vote.)
  • Loren: No.

• Logan Lerman
  • RDT: This kid seems to show up on every genre casting shortlist. I believe he was in the running for at least the last 2 Spider-Man reboots. Anyway, too baby-faced.
  • Loren: No.

• Emory Cohen
  • RDT: Awful in Smash, but great in Brooklyn. Also, looks super douchey in his official IMDB photo. So…maybe? (But probably not.)
  • Loren: No.

• Blake Jenner
  • RDT: Oh shit, that’s this guy? I saw him on Glee and Supergirl and he was fine, I guess. Blah.
  • Loren: No.

Literally as I was drafting this post, 2 more (rumored) frontrunners seem to have emerged. (This is the internet, so take it all with a grain of salt.) They are:

• Taron Egerton
  • RDT: I liked Kingsman. But, yeah, I dunno.
  • Loren: No.

• Alden Ehrenreich
  • RDT: He’s getting a lot of buzz off of Hail, Caesar playing a character nothing like Han Solo. That’s not to say he couldn’t play Han Solo. I just don’t think he should play Han Solo.
  • Loren: No.

• How about an unknown???
  • RDT: This may be the best (only) option. I feel like the actors above are bringing too many preconceived notions to the part. Maybe it’s me (and maybe I’ll be wrong), but I don’t see Han in any of them.
  • Loren: No.

Final thoughts:

Loren: The fact of the matter is I don’t want anyone to play a young Han Solo besides young Harrison Ford. We already got all we needed about his backstory from the Original Trilogy. It’s a story that doesn’t need to be told. It’s a bit of a different situation than we had with Young Indiana Jones in Last Crusade and the Chronicles where we have actually seen this character age in real time from a young man to a grizzled veteran and having someone else play him will always feel wrong. But mainly, I think that there are so many other Star Wars Stories we can be told, either using pre-existing characters (Obi-Wan, Bounty Hunters) or completely new characters (Rogue One). I mean I’ll still see it, because it’s Star Wars, but I’ll always hold to it being superfluous and unnecessary.

RDT: Yes.

From Hollywood,

–RDT and Loren

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Can we all take a moment to bask in the awesomeness that is Deadpool?

From the “leaked” footage to the genius marketing efforts, some of which are seen below, to the hilarious social media presence.

But that means nothing if the movie isn’t good. And it is, good. Really good. Really fucking dirty. REALLY fucking funny. But also really, really good.

And it seems like I’m not the only one who thinks that either.

84% on Rotten Tomatoes

Record breaking $12.7 million Thursday night. (My $15 was part of that!)

On track to blow away all records and projections with a $100 million (or more) opening weekend gross. 

Loren and I will be having a (not so) spoiler-free discussion of the flick this week (he hasn’t seen it yet) and what this could mean for R-rated super-hero movies going forward.

Hope you give us a listen.

From the couch,

–RDT

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’re working on it…