This week’s episode of our podcast WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show is up! Hear WAMG’s Jim Batts and Tom Stockman with special guest Lynn Venhaus discuss the weekend box office. We’ll review SECRET IN THEIR EYES, THE GOOD DINOSAUR, BY THE SEA, THE NIGHT BEFORE, CREED, and the new HUNGER GAMES movie. Tom’s wife will call in and talk about meeting Quentin Tarantino at the Directors Guild screening of his latest, THE HATEFUL EIGHT, in New York last week. WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show is a weekly podcast and can be heard streaming at ONStl.com Online Radio.
Katniss returns to face her oppressors in the final installment of THE HUNGER GAMES franchise, but does it pack the same punch as the first three? You know it does!
Panem is in the midst of war, and Katniss is preparing to take President Snow (Donald Sutherland) out. On a mission as ‘the face’ of the war, she and her team of friends, Gale (Liam Hemsworth), Finnick (Sam Claflin) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) continue try to liberate the citizens throughout the districts. Although they are out of the games, they face greater dangers than they ever have. This time, the entire nation depends on it.
The tone of this film is much different from the previous films. It’s serious, sure, but there are a couple of new surprises. Director Francis Lawrence leaned more on CGI for some of the dangerous beings in this film, and I found that there were a bunch of jump scares. I don’t recall any of the other films making me jerk out of my chair. It makes sense for this film to be a bit darker in tone, seeing as how the entire country is at war, and part of the film is shot inside underground pipes, but the changes definitely stick out.
The cast is incredible, as usual, in these films. Lawrence, however, is even more dynamic in her final portrayal of Katniss than I thought possible. It’s incredible to see her character grow, and Lawrence does a fantastic job of showing her evolution, both internally and externally.
It takes a bit for the film to perk up, and move into the battle scenes. If you’re expecting all out war, you’re going to have to wait a bit. Keep in mind that this film is over two hours. They can’t just dive into the meat and potatoes! Have some appetizers first.
If you’ve read the books, you are already familiar as to how the story ends. This is the same for the film. Although I enjoyed the ending, I didn’t find it satisfying… and that’s ok. I sort of like the way they slowly tied things up. Not to spoil anything (which means, if you don’t want to risk learning new information, stop reading), but there isn’t a giant triumph of victory. It just, kind of, happens. Afterwards, she slowly goes back to her old life. I enjoy that. What do we expect? A huge victory, and then a picture perfect life of spoils? This ending is a true Katniss ending. It’s humble, and it gives the audience more to grasp onto.
Let’s face it… You’re going to go see this film, and you should! You’ll be happy you did, and may the odds be ever in your favor!
The blockbuster Hunger Games franchise has taken audiences by storm around the world, grossing more than $2.2 billion at the global box office. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 now brings the franchise to its powerful final chapter in which Katniss Everdeen [Jennifer Lawrence] realizes the stakes are no longer just for survival – they are for the future.
Recently, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutchinson, Liam Hemsworth, Francis Lawrence, and Nina Jacobson sat down with a small room of press in Hollywood to talk about the film. Check out part of the press conference below!
With the nation of Panem in a full scale war, Katniss confronts President Snow [Donald Sutherland] in the final showdown. Teamed with a group of her closest friends – including Gale [Liam Hemsworth], Finnick [Sam Claflin] and Peeta [Josh Hutcherson] – Katniss goes off on a mission with the unit from District 13 as they risk their lives to liberate the citizens of Panem, and stage an assassination attempt on President Snow who has become increasingly obsessed with destroying her. The mortal traps, enemies, and moral choices that await Katniss will challenge her more than any arena she faced in The Hunger Games.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 is directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Peter Craig and Danny Strong, from an adaptation by Suzanne Collins, and features an acclaimed cast including Academy Award®-winner Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Academy Award®-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Willow Shields, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone, with Stanley Tucci and Donald Sutherland reprising their original roles from The Hunger Gamesand The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The impressive lineup is joined by The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 co-stars Academy Award®-winner Julianne Moore, Mahershala Ali, Natalie Dormer, Wes Chatham, Elden Henson and Evan Ross.
This week’s episode of our podcast WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show is up! Hear WAMG’s Michelle McCue, Jim Batts and Tom Stockman discuss the weekend box office, and next weekend’s releases. We’ll review SPOTLIGHT, BROOKLYN, LEGEND, and TRUMBO . We’ll also preview BY THE SEA, THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES, MOCKINGJAY 2, and CREED. We will recap the St. Louis International Film Festival and talk about The Academy’s Governors Awards. WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show is a weekly podcast and can be heard streaming at ONStl.com Online Radio.
This week’s episode of our podcast WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show is up! Hear WAMG’s Michelle McCue, Jim Batts and Tom Stockman discuss the weekend box office, and next weekend’s releases. We’ll review THE 33, SPECTRE, and LOVE THE COOPERS . We’ll also preview MY ALL AMERICAN. We will discuss the St. Louis International Film Festival, including the upcoming Tod Browning Tribute there. We’ll talk about our favorite 007 films and pay tribute to the late Gunnar Hansen and Melissa Matheson. WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show is a weekly podcast and can be heard streaming at ONStl.com Online Radio.
Peter Landesman (PARKLAND) has been set to direct the historical spy thriller FELT, which will star Academy Award nominated actor Liam Neeson (TAKEN).
FELT is based on a script by Landesman, who will also produce. MadRiver Pictures will finance and produce, alongside Scott Free Productions, Playtone and Cara Films. Ridley Scott, Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks, Giannina Scott, Marc Butan, Christopher Woodrow and Jay Roach will produce. Steven Shareshian and Michael Schaefer will executive produce alongside Michael Bassick and Steven Marshall.
Principal photography is set to begin in March 2016; the filmmakers are in discussion with additional cast.
FELT is a taut spy thriller, centering on “Deep Throat”, the pseudonym given to the notorious whistleblower for one of the greatest scandals of all time, Watergate. The true identity of the secret informant remained a mystery and source of much public curiosity and speculation for more than 30 years. That is until, in 2005, special agent Mark Felt (Neeson) shockingly revealed himself as the tipster. This unbelievable true story chronicles the personal and professional life of the brilliant and uncompromising Felt, who risked and ultimately sacrificed everything – his family, his career, his freedom – in the name of justice.
This will be the second collaboration for writer/director Peter Landesman, Giannina Scott and Ridley Scott, following their very successful collaboration on CONCUSSION starring Will Smith, which Sony will release wide on Christmas Day.
CAA arranged the financing and will introduce the project to domestic distributors at AFM. Sierra/Affinity will handle the foreign rights. Neeson and Landesman are both represented by CAA.
This week’s episode of our podcast WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show is up! Hear WAMG’s Michelle McCue, Cate Marquis and Tom Stockman discuss the weekend box office, and next weekend’s releases. We’ll review BURNT, OUR BRAND IS CRISIS, I MISS YOU ALREADY, and SUFFRAGETTE. We’ll also preview PEANUTS and SPECTRE. We will discuss Tim Burton’s ED WOOD and talk about many of the events featured at this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival.WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show is a weekly podcast and can be heard streaming at ONStl.com Online Radio.
If you are uptight and faint of heart, SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE is not your movie. Still here? Ok, good. If you aren’t easily offended, and are looking for a laugh mixed with some jump scares, this movie is for you!
In SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, three life-long scouts team up with cocktail waitress after a zombie outbreak spreads through their town. They don’t have long to use their survival skills and try to make it out before it’s too late.
Sound like a familiar plot? Sure… but I promise that you haven’t quite seen a zombie movie like this. This movie is completely predictable, but fun! Director Christopher Landon combines the modern-day tale with elements of 80’s horror and adventure films. In other words, there are plenty of cheesy, raunchy moments… and yes, even boobs. I’m an old school, campy horror fan, so I found this movie to be funny. Some won’t. I guess you could say that this film is like blue cheese… it’s not for everyone!
Cast members Tye Sheridan, Joey Morgan, and Logan Miller work together extremely well. You can tell that they really got along, and they were believable as friends. Actress Sarah Dumont, on the other hand, was hit and miss. There were moments where her kick-ass, bad girl act really paid off, and moments where she fell really flat. She kind of has this flat, hard to read acting style going on to where I couldn’t tell if it was part of her character, or not. David Koecher is funny as usual, but he’s not in the film enough to be a huge influence. Cloris Leachman, on the other hand, wasn’t in the film enough, but really added the laughs for me! To have a legend do what she does in the film is incredibly ballsy, and it paid off!
One cool thing that Landon did in this film was use practical effects. This is always a big plus for me, because I think it really pays off in the end. It’s so easy for filmmakers to cop-out and use CGI, and the slightest mistake with it throws you out of the movie. With practical effects, the audience tends to be more forgiving. Plus, no one wants an animated zombie. Give me a real human splattered with blood and flesh wounds!
The jokes in this film are really going to upset some people, and make them cringe. There are plenty of crass, ‘I can’t believe they went there!’ moments. Even I made a few audible gasps in the theater. If you are easily offended, I’m going to tell you to just stay home right now. This movie is just going to piss you off. Sometimes we need a break from our PC society, and I commend Landon for having the balls to tell jokes with no apologies. I know critics are going to eat this film alive, but can’t we just go into a movie and take it for what it is? It’s not trying to be the next big Oscar contender… It’s just trying to have fun! Take it, or go rent FORREST GUMP.
“There are not many men yet. Just a few tribes scattered across the wilderness. Never venturing far, unaware that other tribes exist even. Too busy with their own lives to be curious. Too frightened of the unknown to wander. Their laws are simple: the strong take everything. This is Akhoba, leader of the Rock Tribe…”
So what’s brewing at Webster University’s Strange Brew award-winning cult film series this month? It’s Raquel Welch in the movie that made her a star! Raquel teamed up with a fur bikini, special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen, fellow 60’s starlet Martine Beswick, and Hammer Studios in 1966 for ONE MILLION YEARS B.C., one of the very best films of the 1960’s! The sexy prehistoric fun happens at Schlafly Bottleworks Restaurant and Bar in Maplewood (7260 Southwest Ave.- at Manchester – Maplewood, MO 63143) next Wednesday, November 4th. The movie starts at 8pm.
Long before Spielberg made dinosaurs popular with the Jurassic series, a prehistoric creature craze hit this country in the 1960’s. Fueled both by 1950’s monster movies and new archeological discoveries, dino’s began popping up everywhere—in toys, television, and the movies. For their 100th film project, Hammer Studios in 1967 acquired the rights to remake the old 1940 Hal Roach programmer ONE MILLION B.C. This tale of the Shell people and the Rock tribe attempting to survive deadly volcanoes, dinosaurs, and each other was entertaining and visually exciting, if not historically accurate (dino’s and humans missed each other by at least several million years). Ray Harryhausen created a large variety of creatures for this remake, which is often chided for including sequences of live animals, such as a giant iguana, at the expense of animation; however, this was actually Harryhausen’s idea in an attempt to add variety (and a lower budget) to the effects sequences. Things start slowly with the iguana and a few glimpses of a brontosaurus, then there’s a rampaging turtle! But Harryhausen makes up for these with three awesome scenes: an attack by an allosaurus, a battle between a triceratops and a ceratosaurus, and the climactic attack/fight involving a pteranodon and a pterodactyl. The movie was a huge success and spawned two sequels along with countless copycats. Harryhausen often remarked that he wasn’t sure what was the bigger attraction, the dinosaurs or Raquel Welch in her fur bikini. A relatively unknown starlet with only one (as yet unreleased) major studio credit at the time, Welch actually dominates much of the film with her beguiling looks and intelligent manner. ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. not only launched her career on a sex symbol trajectory that would last for decades, but also created one of the most iconic images in film history—the strong, beautiful, prehistoric goddess defiantly ready to face any challenge.
The movie starts at 8pm and admission is $5. A yummy variety of food from Schlafly’s kitchen is available as are plenty of pints of their famous home-brewed beer.
In SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, three scouts and lifelong friends join forces with one badass cocktail waitress to become the world’s most unlikely team of heroes. Recently, I sat down with director Christopher Landon to talk about the film. I have to add that he is an incredibly wonderful interview! I had a blast talking with him, as you will see below!
When their peaceful town is ravaged by a zombie invasion, three scouts will fight for the badge of a lifetime and put their scouting skills to the test to save mankind from the undead.
The first question I have to ask is how this movie come about?
CHRISTOPHER LANDON : How did this wack-a-doodle thing get made? [Laughs]
Yeah! It’s a lot of fun!
CHRISTOPHER LANDON : So, I just finished PARANORMAL ACTIVITY : THE MARKED ONES, which had a lot of comedy in the beginning of it. So, Paramount called me up and said ‘We have this script called SCOUTS vs. ZOMBIES, which was the original title, and I instantly thought ‘either this is going to be awesome, or really stupid,’ and it was both… and I was really happy about that. [Laughs] I read it, and I was like ‘this is a surprisingly sweet movie.’ It was written, at the time, as PG-PG13, and I was like ‘that’s a hat trick.’ I don’t know how you can make a zombie movie for kids. So, I went back to them and I said ‘You know what? I think this is cool. I think this could be really funny. I think it should be Rated R, and I think it should be gory, and I think it should be balls out crazy! I was surprised that they were like ‘OK! Go for it!’ When they said ‘Go for it!’ they really meant it. so in my dream bag of what I would want to see in this kind of movie… I got to pull all of that stuff out… and they were really supportive of that. It just, kind of, evolved. I think I wrote a couple of – I think I wrote two drafts – and then the next thing I knew we were off and making it. It was surprising too. I think that size of the movie is hard to get made right now. You’re either dealing with very small, Jason Blum style 5 million dollar movies, or your GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. There’s very little in between now, and so the fact that the studio was willing to make this movie was impressive. The fact that they were willing to make a movie with no real major stars was impressive, but also that they really supported me in my vision to make a movie that felt like THE GOONIES, and felt like GREMLINS… that was a throwback. I wanted to make an 80’s style movie. It was pretty cool.
It’s great that you mention GREMLINS and THE GOONIES because it does have that 80’s kind of feel. You have the friendship, but you also have the raunchy elements… you have the boobs!
CHRISTOPHER LANDON : The boobs are there! [Laughs] By the way, it’s funny because my friends all make fun of me because I’m gay, and they’re like ‘Why does the gay guy always have boobs in his movies?’ [Laughs] I’m like ‘I don’t know! They just keep popping up!’ It’s horror!
It’s horror! There should be boobs! [Laughs] It’s cool that you threw that stuff in, because a lot of horror today sort of misses the mark on the themes and patterns of 80’s films. What other influences did you have going into this?
CHRISTOPHER LANDON : My big influences, of course, was THE GOONIES, MONSTER SQUAD was there, but then there were echoes of SUPERBAD. That was something that I really loves, and felt like kind of had a place in this movie. Even, in a weird way, and this is the weirdest reference, but STAND BY ME. There was a tinge of that, and you’ll see that in the campfire scene. I really wanted to sell the idea of this friendship, and of these three guys, and the experience that they’re going through. I think it’s a very relatable thing… to be in high school, and to find yourself at a crossroads in your friendships, where you’re outgrowing a friendship, or you’re at least in the process of reevaluating a friendship because you want to trade up to things that don’t really matter, which is something that I talked about in the movie. So, I really wanted to capture it all in a very relatable story, but then still deliver the ridiculous headpieces, and the scares, and the fun, and all that kind of stuff.
When it comes to the comedy in this film, and how dirty it goes how did you find the balance between it and the horror, and was there anything that went too far that you couldn’t put into the movie?
CHRISTOPHER LANDON : Ok, oh man. I’m gonna get in trouble. Let’s see what we can print here. So, um… I … First of all, I always tend to follow the ‘South Park’ rule of comedy, which is that I don’t think that anything is sacred. I think that life is meant to be laughed at as much as possible. I have a gallows humor that I grew up with, so I don’t find anything particularly taboo. I never felt like I was personally crossing a line. I know that in terms of personal taste, for some, I have. There are moments in the movie… there’s one moment in the movie that tends to offend some people. I’m not going to say what it is, but that’s the one that kind of makes me… I find it kind of interesting because people are offended at this one particular scene, but then they’re not offended by other stuff, and I’m always like ‘That’s so weird to draw a line in the weirdest places.’ But, I wrote one scene that ended up not making it. I had to come up with a pretty quick replacement for it because the studio got cold feet. I will tell you what it is if you want to hear it. I’ll get in trouble for what it is, but I don’t care. [Laughs]
Of course I wanna hear it! [Laughs]
CHRISTOPHER LANDON : So, there’s a scene in the movie where out scouts encounter a homeless zombie, and they have a sing-a-long with the zombie. You saw the movie?
Yes. I saw it last night.
CHRISTOPHER LANDON : Ok. So, they do a sing-a long. The original version of that scene was, and this is why I was gonna go to hell… They’re walking down the street and they see a school bus off to the side of the road, and it turns out that it’s a short school bus… and an intellectually and developmentally disabled child comes off the bus, and they can’t figure out if he is a zombie, or it’s part of his disability. So, they are debating back and forth on if they should shoot him or not, and he keeps getting closer, and closer. It was hysterical! [Laughs] It was hysterical, but horribly mean and offensive. So, the studio…
That was NOT the direction that I thought you were going! [Laughs] #00:08:24.9#
CHRISTOPHER LANDON : So, they were like ‘We’ve been really cool about everything, This one is not ok with us!’, which was tough, because I knew it was going to be the funniest scene in the movie. It’s so wrong that it’s right. I know most of my audience would have been you… and they would have died laughing, but I would have gotten hate mail! It wasn’t even one of those ‘I can fight for it’ moments, it was the head of the studio calling me, saying ‘We won’t let you make the movie if you keep this scene.’
Oh, yeah! That was the line in the sand! [Laughs]
CHRISTOPHER LANDON : But it was really funny! [Laughs] It was a really good scene!
So, I’m guessing this won’t be on the bonus features either?
CHRISTOPHER LANDON : No. This will not be on the bonus features! I literally was trying to find a way to shoot both somehow without them knowing… like, I was gonna swap the cards out, and find the actor, and do the whole thing, but there was no time in the schedule, and it was literally one of those that if I got caught, I could get fired deals. So I was like ‘Fine. I won’t do it…’ It’s a really tough scene to watch for me, because while I’m so proud of that moment, and I think it plays really well, and it’s definitely quirky and funny, It always reminds me of the one that got away!
Wow! Where do we go from here in the interview? [Laughs] Cloris Leachman! Super excited about that! How did you convince her to do this? [Laughs]
CHRISTOPHER LANDON : She’s amazing! YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN was one of my all time favorite movies, so I’ve been a fan of hers ever since then. It was really just a call. It was a ‘Will you do this?’ and she said yes! I heard ‘Oh, she’s pretty out there! She’s really crazy, and fun to work with!’ but there is nothing that prepares you for this woman. She shows up. She’s a force of nature. Her first day on set, I was waiting by her trailer, because I wanted to be there when she arrived – she’s a legend, so you have to show your respect. So, I’m standing there with Logan, and she pulls up, and she’s already in character, and she’s clawing at the window like a zombie [laughs] looking at me. She gets out of the car, and the first thing she says to Logan is ‘I’m gonna eat your ass!’ [Laughs] I was like ‘You’re gonna be so much fun to work with!’ and she was! She was crazy, and she would tell the funniest stories! Every night, when we would wrap her, I would walk her to her car. We would do an arm in arm, and I would take her though set… and as I walked her through set she would literally go to every single crew member [whispers] ‘Goodnight’ [as she was flipping them off]… [Laughs] She’d flip everyone off! We had one night where we had a crowd of looky-lou people watching in the neighborhood… kids, and everyone… and when she came out, she flew two birds at them [laughs] and I was like ‘You’re a nutcase! I love you!’
That sounds amazing! [Laughs]
CHRISTOPHER LANDON : It was pretty fun. We were always laughing, and it was tough sometimes because there were times when we really needed to get the shit moving faster. It was hard because we had really funny people on set that made you laugh all the time.
SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE hits theaters tomorrow
