It's time.
Day: Friday - 04/28/2023
Time: 8:30 Central, 6:30 Pacific
Runtime: 1 hour 34 minutes
Cost: $4
(link live ten minutes before show)
Film. Comics. Sci-Fi. Superheroes. Pulp. Noir. History. Superman. 20th Century Archaeology.
Friday, April 28, 2023
Thursday, April 27, 2023
PodCast 240: "Deep Blue Sea" (1999) - an Angry Animals podcast with Jamie, SimonUK y Ryan
Format: HBO?
Viewing: second
Decade: 1990's
Director: Renny Harlin
SimonUK takes Jamie and Ryan to the darkest depths of late 90's sci-fi horror action so they can all take a bite out of a film that's a little fishy. Join us as we flap our jaws discussing sharks with engineering degrees, sea bases of dubious design, that old chestnut of imitating better films, and neat-o puppets.
SoundCloud
YouTube
Music:
Main Title - Trevor Rabin, Deep Blue Sea OST
Deepest Bluest - LL Cool J
The Angry Animals Playlist
Jerry Springer Merges With The Infinite
Not many talk-show hosts get a movie playing themselves doing their own talk show. Not many talk-show hosts inspire operas. Not many talk-show hosts wind up doing a talk-show after a major political scandal involving paying a hooker with a signed check and then *still* winding up as mayor of a major US city for a stint.
Jerry Springer was probably not a good man, but in 2011, I did meet him in the sportsbook at the Planet Hollywood hotel in Las Vegas where he was very nice to me and posed for drunken blurry pictures that have since been lost to bad asset management on the interwebs. He was there hosting the Vegas nightly show of America's Got Talent. He smoked a giant cigar and looked bored.
Like many talk-shows, Springer started off trying to do reasonable interviews that went in-depth on important issues, but when cancellation seemed imminent, he and his producers transformed his show into the chair-hurling, fist-tossing, hair-pulling bonanza it was. Which made Springer rich, ultimately ran for roughly 25 years and spun off a few other shows, including a behind-the-scenes that made no one look good. But when your set is designed to look like a sewer with a stripper pole, I guess no one cares?
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Harry Belafonte Has Merged With The Infinite
Actor, singer, activist and icon Harry Belafonte has passed at the age of 96.
Belafonte appeared in innumerable films, on television and was a popular recording artist. Because I grew up in the shadow of his peak era as a performer, I knew him as a curious mix of "the guy who sang the Banana Boat song" and who would appear on television to weigh in on important topical issues - and be taken seriously. Which is not something then or now that I or the culture give many celebrities leeway. But as a player in the civil rights movement, Belafonte carried the torch forward for his entire life.
It was in college I came to understand his role as a Black man in film, and his broad appeal as a performer that helped him speak to everyone. Of course, my first exposure to Belafonte was probably his appearance on The Muppet Show, which is a curiously moving episode.
Here's to Mr. Belafonte, who fought the good fight.
Sunday, April 23, 2023
Watch Party Watch: Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
Watched: 04/21/2023
Format: Amazon Watch Party
Viewing: Unknown
Director: Sidney J Furie
I won't get into why we did this, but we did do it as a watch party, and I think folks enjoyed the experience if not the film.
But here at The Signal Watch we also recently podcasted the film, so if you didn't listen to the episode then (and it's pretty good, if I say so myself), now is a great opportunity to hear three dudes who know a lot about Superman stuff talk about the movie.
SoundCloud
YouTube
Thursday, April 20, 2023
Friday Watch Party: Superman IV - The Quest for Peace
 |
| cool job, but you left two behind, Clark |
Earlier this week we saw the 85th anniversary of the first appearance of Superman and Lois Lane in print in the famed Action Comics #1. It's a great comic, and Superman has had many great stories to tell over the years.
This is probably not one of them.
Starting from a promising set-up, the movie is plagued with budgetary issues that impact everything along the way. It has its highlights, but... yeah.
Join us as we leap a good decision in a single bound, and behold: Superman's apartment and its curious decor! Lenny Luthor! Lex's goofy scheme to infinite wealth! A literal Chippendale's dancer as our super-powered meanie/ horn-dog!
It's the movie that killed a franchise and set Superman back 20 years at the cinema!
Day: Friday 04/21/2023
Time: 8:30 Central/ 6:30 Pacific
Cost: $3
Runtime: 90 minutes
(link live ten minutes before showtime)
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Superman and Lois at 85
April 18th marks the 85th anniversary of the release of Action Comics #1. This comic includes the first published story of Superman and Lois Lane.
Originally, Superman was imagined as an unstoppable force for good and a champion of the oppressed. This hasn't fundamentally changed, but the scope and scale at which Superman operates in comics and film has expanded to include liberating whole planets and more nuanced takes on what a man of steel can do and not be painted as a villain by the general public.
In many ways, Superman is a combination of traits borrowed from existing popular fiction. Doc Savage had a Fortress of Solitude, The Shadow had dual identities to fight crime, Zorro was out there swashbuckling and in a love triangle of which he was two sides. John Carter of Mars was an alien on Mars whose origins on Earth made him super-human elsewhere.
PodCast 239: "The Raid 2" - A MikeS/ Social Bobcat PodCast Episode w/ Ryan
Format: Netflix
Viewing: First
Decade: 2010's
Director: Gareth Evans
The Social Bobcat is back, and this time he brought a whole case of whoop-ass. Join Ryan and MikeS as we talk about the surprisingly well-developed sequel to the 2011 film that came flying out of Indonesia like a boot to the head. In this installment, we ponder sequels that increase the scope and breadth of the original and stand-alone just fine. And somehow still manage to kick a metric ton of ass.
SoundCloud
YouTube
Music:
Prison Riot - Joseph Trapanese, Aria Prayogi, Fajar Yuskemal, The Raid 2 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Showdown - Joseph Trapanese, Aria Prayogi, Fajar Yuskemal, The Raid 2 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Action Watch!
Monday, April 17, 2023
Nintendo Watch: The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
I officially entered a new phase of life on Saturday when I went to see The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) with a cohort of second graders in support of my nephew's birthday. I'm now an uncle who goes to movies he didn't select. It's a good thing.
I am not anti video games, but I can describe my relationship to gaming as "apathetic". The how's and why's of this phenomenon are uninteresting and best served in a dedicated blog post. But even when we got our first Nintendo Entertainment System, I didn't have any Mario-related games. I was spending my money on comics and tapes at the time. Aside from a brief flirtation with a Wii and Mario Kart, never got into it.
90's Watch: Chungking Express (1994)
As Jamie and I discussed after the movie - the 90's were the wild west for cinema in the US. Indie cinema and the *flavor* of that indie movement were a truly big deal. It was also a rich era for a semi-mainstreaming of international cinema as the same theaters that carried those indie pics also brought in some European film and Hong Kong cinema. I'm not saying no theaters do this anymore, but it was much more a part of your standard film scene at the time.
And if you didn't see it in theaters, you might still find the movies for rent - maybe not next to Robot Jox at Blockbuster, but in the go-go 90's Austin film rental scene, I could walk across the street from my dump of an apartment and get whatever I wanted at I Luv Video.
But, as mentioned before, I just never picked up the films of Wong Kar-Wai. I was too busy watching Chow Yun-Fat kick ass or whatever. I was still a dude in my 20's. Grant me peace.
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