Cinecast #32: Suspense At 35,000 Feet
"Red Eye" isn't the supernatural scare-fest that Adam and I expected it to be, but Wes Craven's new thriller with Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy is undeniably successful as simple summer entertainment. "Red Eye" also makes for a great late summer curtain call for McAdams and Murphy, both of whom played juicy supporting roles in two of the summer's biggest hits -- "Wedding Crashers" and "Batman Begins," respectively.
Also on the show, our Overlooked DVD Picks of the Week and the Top 5 Overrated Movies.
Music by Dan Bern courtesy of Messenger Records ... Cinecast theme music by Age of the Rifle.
Cinecast #32
:34-9:17 - Review: "Red Eye"
Music: Dan Bern, "Alaska Highway"
9:52-13:30 - Listener Voicemails
13:31-20:20 - Overlooked DVD Picks of the Week
Music: Dan Bern, "New American Language"
21:00-37:18 - Top 5 Overrated Movies
Have a comment or Top 5 list you'd like to share? Send us an e-mail at cinecast@cinecastshow.com. Or give us a call at 206-203-CINE and leave a voice message.
24 Comments:
Are you guys so PC that any movie that insults any minority group you hate. Why do you guys feel uncomforatble whenever a movie has a prejudice character, or dialogue? Whenever race, or sexuality are brought up in a movie you guys always complain about it.
Didn't we just give The 40 Year Old Virgin 4 stars? And my overlooked DVD pick of the week was Repulsion? Race... Do The Right Thing has been on like 3 top five lists. Is this about As Good As It Gets? That movie is offensive just because it's bad... not because it's politically incorrect.
Thank you so much! Your top 5 redeemed your bottom 5 easily for me. Because of this show, I can finally come out from hiding and boldly say that I liked Shakespeare in Love more than Saving Private Ryan (Elizabeth is actually far superior to both). Although I never found As Good as it Gets overly crass (I've only seen it once...), it never really did anything for me. And I would never call Boogie Nights overrated but I do agree it is the weakest of PTA's films... so no offense taken there either.
The only pick that I take issue with is Monty Python... but I can at least understand where you're coming from. At least you didn't step on any of my top 10 of all time like you did last week!
Jake
Hey...way off topic but I wanted to add The Crow to your top 5 revenage and top 5 comic book movies. I love that film and I think it's often overlooked.
Love your show.
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I am so glad you two liked "Red Eye". I had a blast with this film
I know this is a bit late, but THANK you for giving THE USUAL SUSPECTS a place on the top 10 overrated list... I have been made to feel like an aberrant freak for not seeing the genius of this mildly entertaining film with a "you've seen it once, you never need to see it again" twist ending.
As for "Holy Grail," I think it's definitely a nostalgia thing... my D&D playing nerdy high school friends and I found it hilarious, although seeing it fresh now at 34 I don't get a whole lot out of it. If anything, though, it still stands as a barrometer of "geek chic" and a rite of passage for many a high school student (I'm a teacher now, and played it for my advanced Brit Lit class...)
-Matt-
Hey Guys. Just a word on your Holy Grail pick. I am not sure i can call it a nostalgia film mostly because i saw it for the first time last year (I am 16). I loved the movie, though not as much as Life of Brian. What I think makes Holy Grail great is the same thing that works in the Hitchhiker's books. I didn't really laugh out loud the first time I saw it, but the joke are so well crafted (and usually do have a lot of intelectual depth) that I find myself laughing a lot with each new viewing. The whole swallows bit is purely making fun of everything beuraucratic in the world and i love it every time.
Great job on the show and keep going at it.
Right now, I can't think of 5 of my most overrated films, but I've got four:
(In no particular order)
* House of Flying Daggers
I saw it in the cinema here in Taiwan, and I've never heard an audience laugh so much at a period drama. It was ridiculous and overblown, and the twists were so obvious we were cracking jokes about them before they were even revealed.
* Hero (by Zhang Yimou)
Sure, it's a pretty film, but it's so... I don't know what it is, the story just seems stupid. Like Flying Daggers, the acting was good, it was technically well executed, but it just seemed ham-handed, particularly the modern political story it implied (the whole "sacrifice yourself to the motherland for your own good or else," which was obviously done to please the Chinese authorities and aimed at Tibet, Taiwan, and Hong Kong).
* Kill Bill
Everyone goes on about how Tarantino's a genius, and I love most of his films too, but this just annoyed me. I hated it. I keep hearing about how it pays homage to all these great Asian films and genres, but it suffers from the same thing I think killed The Replacement Killers - it gets the outward trappings done fine, but it's got no soul. Tarantino's focused far too much on making it look right and not enough on giving it the same soul and spirit these other films he goes on about loving so much have. It feels mechanical. Plus I couldn't shake the "look how cool and hip and alternative I am! I am a GENIUS!" thing Tarantino seemed to be injecting into it. It was Tarantino masturbating publicly. That was one of the few films I've walked out hating. My friends, though, loved it, so maybe I'm just nuts.
* Braveheart
Seriously. I don't know what it is about this one either, but it just seemed like it wanted to be epic too much. It's an OK film, and I don't mind it, but it just seems so undeserving of all the glowing praise I keep hearing. And come on, Mel Gibson as a Scottish folk hero? What, was every single Scottish actor on holiday?
On the Holy Grail thing - I think you guys might've been letting your memories of how other people latched on to it so stupidly bias you. The movie itself is great, but I can see how everyone just dragging out the lines and beating them to death publicly could influence your feelings about it. I can kind of sympathize, in that I really despise the Austin Powers movies for that reason. I thought they were... OK. Not great, not crap, just OK. But after hearing every man and his goddamned dog quoting from it (badly, I might add) all the goddamned time for like three years running I really grew to despise the movies, almost as much as the people who wouldn't stop quoting them.
Hamster--
that's the definition of a nostalgia movie-- one you see when you're young (and yeah, 16 *is* young :)). That's about the same age my friends and I discovered it as well... see how you feel about it in 15 years :)
To call all the works of Mel Brooks 'Overrated"...well, one person can only take film snobbing to an extent. I suggest you guys go back and study the difficulty it took to bring "Young Frankenstein" to the screen, how detailed Mel was and how it almost didn;t eve get made.
Mel's films were never made to uphold the traditional rules of comedy, a new concept I was just introduced to by you two (I honestly never knew comedy WAS supposed to have a set of rules...thank you SO MUCH for enlightening me *said with sarcasm*), they were ment to be film parodies of specific genres of cinema, and he did them excellently. In saying his films are overrated, you are basically saying the the entire genre of film parody is an invalid one that should not be enjoyed by film snobs at all. Keep in mind in doing this you lump in the Naked Gun Movies, the Hot Shots films, and most of all classics like "Airplane" and "Abbot and Costello Meets Frankenstein" (the cinema world's first true parody).
Boo Hiss to you both. I boycott your show for a week in response
Your overrated films, make me hate you SO much. You two are obvioulsy insane, and to say Shakespeare In Love is a perfect film, makes me vomit. That is the most overrated movie of all time. May you burn in the underworld for your comments.
Sam, your inclusion of Mel Brooks films as your most overrated films proves you must have no sense of humor. I would like to know what movies you think are funny then. The Producers, Young Frankenstein, and Blazing Saddles are some of the most funniest movies of all time. But if you liked Shakespeare In Love then why I am not surprised.
First time I saw "History of the world part 1" I laughed so hard. I mean big, turn your face red, not able to breathe, belly laugh. Sam I think you missed the mark naming the entire Mel Brooks library.
Couple of quick thoughts... most of which shouldn't actually need to be pointed out.
1) How difficult it was to make a movie is irrelevant. Just as how fun it was to make a movie is irrelevant. As Roger Ebert is fond of relating, if it was then Cannonball Run would be the greatest movie ever made.
2) Burn in the underworld... well... gosh.
3) You need to get over the Mel Brooks thing. Seriously. If you listen to the segment, I'm pretty sure Sam acutally likes all of the movies he mentioned. He just doesn't like them as much as apparently all of you do. I don't see the crime here. Some of you almost make it sound like we should all laugh at the same things. Doesn't work that way, thank God.
I think this has been the best top 5 list yet. Just look at all this commotion. I liked Sam and Adam's lists and agreed with some of the picks. Monty Python for one (people love that movie for some reason unknown to me). I might have laughed twice during the four times I've seen it.
I would also include Top Gun in my list. This is the biggest chick flick I've ever seen. They put 15 min. of fighter jets in it so guys think it's some kind of war movie and go nuts.
Also two movies that critics love that I would include are Crumb and All the President's Men.
I've only seen Crumb once and was not impressed. "I make drug induced comic books, I hate people, my brothers are crazy, I'm moving to France, blah, blah, blah." Needless to say, it sounded like a lot of whining to me. I didn't care anything about the guy and had no real interest in his family and their problems. I did like a lot of his art though.
I've tried to watch All the President's Men three different times and can't suffer through it. It's just boring. Maybe I'm too far removed from the story.
Come to think about it, I dont even think the underworld would allow you guys in if they got a look at your top overrated movies.
Satan: "They put Saving Private Ryan, Network, Boogie Nights,and Mel Brooks movies on their overrated movie list!? And they liked that piece of burning dung Shakespeare In Love! To hell with them, I dont even want them here!"
You hit the bullseye Sam with your inclusion of all of Mel Brooks movies which have become (or have always been?) unfunny. And they have nothing left to show since they are entirely based on gags and contain no memorable or innovative storylines etc... All you get is an empty shell with obvious 'i saw it coming a mile away' jokes.
But my god Monthy Python and the holy grail !!!! Adam i thought you had a sense of humour. Or at least you could recognise genius filmaking (even though it might have failed for you as a comedy, it has NO place in an overrated list). But come on, coconuts for horses ? The Witch segment ? Castle Anthrax ? The Wedding ? ....
My wife and I were discussing our overrated movies:
The English Patient - The sub-plot was more interesting than the main plot.
Gosford Park - boring boring boring. We couldn't think of any Robert Altman movie that we liked.
Braveheart - We didn't give a hoot about any of the characters.
Sin City - We left in the middle of the second segment.
Judging by the number of comments (and the enthusiasm of at least a few of them) your latest show is a big sucess!
Loved the overrated movies bit. I disagree with a few of them, obviously (I loved Network) but then so did you two on many of them.
Geof, you aren't alone on Kill Bill. Even after I saw it and left feeling somehow insulted, all I could hear was how wonderful it was! Women with swords! I mean... they're women... and they kill things. That's awesome! Right? They're mean and cold and technical and there's lots of blood and missing limbs. And the pretty girls do it. Sweeeeeeeet. Blarg.
I think the only movie that left me unhappier was Sin City. I can say "neat concept", maybe even "neat execution of that concept", but overall I just felt abused.
Mel Brooks movies are worth seeing. They're funny. They're almost alone in their genre, but I don't know that lack of competition means that they're Really That Good. They're kind of like a lot of those books that we had to read in High School. Knowing it indoctrinates you into culture, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're as good as all that. I suppose the same goes for Monty Python.
I get the feeling that some of your listeners may have been missing the point ofthe concept of an over-rated film.
Just because you think it is over-rated doesn't mean you think it's bad. Just that you don't like it as much as a lot of others do and that you feel it may have gotten credit for being something it doesn't deserve to be.
However, as Roger Ebert likes to say Film viewing is a subjective art-form. What i like you may not, and vice-versa. I don't hate you guys or wish you ill will for thinking some of my favourite films (MP and Holy Grail, Fight Club, The Usual Suspects) nor do i wish you to burn in a fiery hell.
However, you may feel that way about myself when i tell you that my top over-rated film is in fact "Heat"...
I found this film immensely boring, frustratingly slow and full of characters as superfluous as a third nipple.
But hey, you win some you lose some.
Great show, keep it up.
Oh yeah, and i was also curious how much hate mail you got from Brits who said you could never understand the true wonder of Monty Python because you guys are American...
#1 over-rated modern movie: Minority Report
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