Strange Aeons Radio

221 REMAKE ME!

April 13, 2023 Strange Aeons Radio Season 5 Episode 221
Strange Aeons Radio
221 REMAKE ME!
Show Notes Transcript

221 REMAKE ME!
Not sure how we got here, but don't be an asshole to film festivals! Also discussed: Tetris, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, Children of the Corn.

Support the show
Unknown:

Oh, I'm sorry did I break your concentration somewhere between science and superstition such sites to show you strange aeons. Welcome to strange aeons radio. That's Eric over there. Hello. That's Vanessa over there. Hello, I'm Kelly. Guys. We are only about a month out from crypto con Seattle. Oh my god, it's coming up. Eric, you must be flooded with all the film stuff that you have to do. As of this recording, we've got about a little over a week before the notifications of who got in and stuff like that. Very excited is always sent out. And that's always a well, longtime listeners will remember the fun letter I got last year. But that's that's pretty rare. To be honest. Most people are really cool about it. But it's always hate sending the you did not make it in Notifications. But remind us what happened with that letter. I know that the guy was upset because he was going to bring a bunch of people to his world premiere of his film. Yeah, we would all be very sorry that we didn't want to work. It's going to be the largest horror movie ever. I don't even remember the name of it. And I can guarantee you it has not become the largest or movie ever. Well, I mean, that movie went on to be malignant. I don't want anyone to think I'm petty. But I have been following that filmmaker since that letter. Let's just say it is not the biggest film in the world. In fact, there is zero notice of it even on his own page. Oh yes, well, if he did, he did pull something that I'm going to say if you're a filmmaker, don't ever, ever do this, where he put on his social media that he'd been accepted into a giant Film Festival, which he has not. And he won an award at that festival. This particular festival does not even give awards out. So it's pretty easy to figure out he was full of crap. Don't pretend your movie got into something it didn't because no matter what you might think the film festival world is relatively small. Well, I don't know what like what are you going to get out of that? Like a couple people buy your DVD on Amazon because you're not going to get anyone from Hollywood being like, Oh, wow, it got into this fest because they're gonna know like, they're gonna know right away that like That's bullshit. Like, no one's that stupid. That got into this fest. You didn't even tag the festival. I love it. Also, a crypt calm we will be doing another live show. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Looking forward to that in the past. We have done John Carpenter movies and we are going to continue that run. Yeah, we're doing a deep dive into a particular John Carpenter film. So looking forward to that looking forward to you guys looking forward to hanging in with old friends making new friends. All of that stuff getting drunk. Yeah. No, I was just talking about right now. I'm getting drunk. Oh, sure. Water bottle in front of him is I saw a movie. Oh, good. Oh, guys. I saw three movies. I don't want to talk about quite honestly. Any of them. Oh, right. Which of these shitty movies Shall I tell you guys about? Okay. Wow, Winnie the Pooh. Blood and Honey. Oh, shocking. Heard pretty bad note. Now this could have been a lot of fun. Yeah. And it wasn't. It wasn't even in the so bad is good category. It was just really bad. And all it needed was a little more humor. Look, you come into this with a mindset and I thought, Oh, this is a guy who's going to take advantage of these characters and and play on things we know about them and make it a funny film right now. This movie is deadly serious. Yes. He doesn't get stuck in a hole and get pushed out. I mean, there's, there's a little bit of First of all, it starts off great in that it's roughly animated. So there's these black and white scribbles very uncomfortable scribbles of Winnie the Pooh and ER and all this stuff. And when Christopher Robin's leaves the 100 Acre Wood they had they had gotten you know treated so well by him. They didn't know how to take care of themselves. So the winter comes and they have no food and they end up having to eat piglet or E or somebody I can't remember. And I was like, alright, alright, yeah, these guys are doing what I was hoping would happen. And then Christopher Robin's comes back and I didn't mind all the horrible acting. I didn't mind the bad special effects. What I minded was that they tried to make it a serious horror film. That's come on And so, thumbs down for me Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey. Oh, man. Well, I don't know if you guys men catching up on your television RU. But have you watched the latest episode of Yellowjackets which is I started the new season but I only made it through episode one. It's only I think they only have had one so far. Yeah, I haven't. Yeah, I loved it. Yeah, it was, it was pretty good. It was pretty good. And I know we're gonna get introduced to a few new actors this year. And I can't wait to see how that goes. It's pretty exciting. I don't know. I was grateful for the recap. It was like, we went no, where did we leave off? It's a good call and yet again, had to re subscribe to showtime. Right? Say that and yeah, that's the only way that they're gonna get money out of me. But yeah, I'm excited for where it's going as well. Yeah, it gets into some some shockingly uncomfortable things. The sex in the artist studio was like, Ooh, okay. And then the scene in the flashback where she's talking to a friend and accidentally knocks it over. I thought that was great. And it had a real Werewolf in London feel. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I was like, Yeah, you're you're talking to your decaying buddy. And I liked the very ending with what she did with her decayed, buddy. Yeah, yeah, it'll be. It'll be interesting to see where they go with this. saying they've darkened it significantly. What was really staying on the same level over there was already on the last episode, at least over this series. Well, last week, I took your advice in Washington great animated series. This week, I took Kelly's and watched the great animated series. Elvis on Netflix. Oh, that's fun, isn't it? It's so much fun. And it's great. You know, since Priscilla, or Presley is involved in one of the editors. I would say you get his music. Yeah. And they play some weird they don't they play deep cuts. Yeah, you know, and it's and I just watched the last episode on ISIS wants to be a little rough. They for some reason, the fight scene and that one, they didn't have an Elvis song. They just had regular music. Interesting. So I'm only about five episodes in. Okay. Go right through them all. Agent Elvis. Yes. It's well worth checking out. And what's his name? The All right. All right. All right guy from dazed and confused, Connor. Hey. Yeah, that's such a great fun alphas voice. Oh, my God. I totally had forgotten that part. Well, we're seeing I don't know what I want to talk about next, you guys. It's like having, it's like it's like a really shitty Sophie's Choice. Not the good one where you're trying to figure out what kid to get rid of, sir. I've got two shitty movies a I saw and well, you know, you don't want to talk about them deeply. So you could probably just rattle both of them off. I'm gonna talk about the one that had a big budget. Okay, I saw the new Children of the Corn. Oh, no. Oh, man. What you're not talking about that for your remake today. I don't know what I was thinking. It's not like I I finished the movie and then said, I can't believe the 11th entry in this admittedly shitty franchise is not as good as the first one. But it is somehow not as good as the first one. It's got better actors in it. But worse writing and so you know, you're watching these, these kids kind of struggle with lines and and it's like, This is bad. There's one good scene and that we see he walks behind the rows and he is a basically a corn kaiju. And I was like, All right, here we go. And then not enough of him go anywhere. It is a prequel to the story. And so it tells the story of the kids killing all of the adults. And it seems like that should be a great movie to be our firm. No. Oh, it's been done before really well so come on. I wonder which how many of these Children of the Corn films have actually just been titled like this one Children of the Corn bowl in the Halloween is ice cream route. It's a franchise I really have paid very little attention to so I have no idea that like number three, I think it was was well worth watching Get she faced and watched number three. They launch you know an old lady in a wheelchair out a window showing That movie is awesome. Yeah, I remember seeing the first one and not thinking it was that exciting. So I don't know. I don't think it's for me. Um, but did you guys watch Mandalorian? Yes. Last year. Yeah, that's, um, feels like they're not really sure where they're going. But maybe they've figured it out. I kind of feel like they kind of feel a little differently about I think they know where they're going with me a hard time getting there. It's like, okay, this is an end game we're shooting for now, how do we get here because we need them to not be necessarily in the helmets all the time, and we need them to not be in hiding. Can't just be about the baby anymore. Or the child. Like it's very, I don't know that flashback episodes confused a lot of their viewers, including my mom was like, Who are these people? All right. So season one. You know, like, there's just it feels like okay, and then there was kind of an episode involving the channel. And then there was one nod. Now it seems like it's more about just the Mandalorian tribe. And that's cool. I think that that's a good direction to go. But I'm, it feels. I don't know sometimes I'm like, Oh, this is cool. And sometimes I'm like, I don't know where we're going. They did have a Game of Thrones kind of thing almost with Dragon. Like it looked like Dragon straight out with. I think the last three episodes have been my favorite. Actually. I loved that flashback episode. I loved it, too. It just felt like, what how does this tie in? I feel very much like, you know, one of the better episodes of andorre. Right? Yeah. And then the flashback in the next episode where we get to see grow, go and order 66 happening. Do you guys see that? That was Ahmed Best. Yes. And he was I think he played that same character in Is it a video game? No, it was a kids quiz show a quiz. Star Wars based quiz show. A call back to that nice. I'm glad to see him getting a little closure on his Star Wars experience. And I would say you know, you saying it doesn't have to be about the child anymore. Grow goo. But the title is the Mandalorian. And who knows what we're even talking about now anymore. We talked about groco. That's true. It will will grow who decided to become part of the Mandalorian tribe? I think that he's kind of stuck there now. Given beskar armor. His helmet though, could be a little weird. My ears gonna poke out the side. God I hope so. It's just really big. Just a really wide like spaceship sized. Okay, sack off has been a good addition. Great. Yeah, I'm so happy because I think the last time she was really utilized in something past Battlestar was, unfortunately, the Big Bang Theory, where they're just like, she's hot. We want to have sex with her. Look how she's on the show. Cool. Oh, man. It's Katie Sacco. I'm like, I'm so glad that she gets to act. Because she's really do I know. She's owning it? I was really surprised. She was in that big budget version of Oculus, right? Yes. And she really surprised she didn't just kind of, you know, migrate over to the horror films and become a big star. Yeah. Stuck with the Sci Fi Yeah. I saw one. Really good. Actually. Apple TV release again, the Tetris. I have. This is amazing. It is so goddamn good. And it is so like, it's all basically about trying to get the rights to Tetris. Soviet Union as it's collapsing. And it's just like, holy shit, man. It's like a spy movie. Sort of it's been 20 minutes into I'm gonna what the rest of this movie is going to be. Everything seems to have gone fairly smoothly. Like, Oh, okay. Holy shit. And it's really, really well done. It's a little funny, too, because it took a couple of scenes before I realize Hold on. That's Howard Lincoln. guy used to be the president of the mariners. If you've got the tickets, Nintendo owned the mariners for a very long time. Oh, I didn't know that. Sounds like Howard Lincoln doing all this stuff, sort of more in the background. He wasn't a main character. But I was like, okay, that's kind of funny. But it's really, really well acted really fun, really interesting. They do neat things to integrate video game imagery into it at times, like all the scene changes. It's that instead of a fade, and it's a turn to a video game and then turns into the real world. Thanks. Wow, that's really really I'm so glad you brought this up because Carlos sent me a text and said you know this Smells amazing. I was like, oh, put it on list and then completely forgot about it. Yeah, I'm watching this tonight. How many episodes is this guy? A Tetris is just Oh, it's just their film. Yeah. Oh, okay. For some reason when I saw the trailer I was like, oh it's a mini series okay yeah cuz so many things anymore. It seems like every now I know especially when it's on what is this streaming? Apple Apple? Yeah, yeah, like I just started watching the the consultant on Amazon and it is I thought it was a movie but it is a like it's only like eight episodes but yeah, that any good console starts off really good. Okay, here's where it's gone based on a Bentley little book. Oh, it is. Oh, that's even more interesting to me now. Okay. We're going to take a little break. But before we do that, I'm going to tell you about my third film, which was called kill her goats. Oh, I have seen ads for this freaking thing everywhere. Watch this movie. Okay, it is. It is made beautifully, and it is so goddamn stupid. Although if you want to see a bunch of beautiful women with their boobs bouncing around naked boobs. This is the movie for you. However, the end credits roll up with pictures of everybody. And they are literally credited as you know. Joanna played by Playboy Playmate 1992 Such and such. And that's their claim to fame, but I just watched this column. What the fuck am I watching? This is so stupid. Great gore. beautifully shot really, really bad. But what's funny about that one, I saw so many ads for so many weird ways and different people talking about on Facebook that I clicked on that I went to well which version I'm gonna get. I'm not gonna buy this. It's I sounds like I made the right choice. The thing is, is you know, when I see something like this, I'm like, Okay, this is a guy who raised a good amount of money and he's got some skill in this and everything. And really what he needed was somebody to say now I will write you a script that is focused on the kind of budget you have built here. And he did not do that. Yeah, we've run through a few filmmakers in our time. That's like you know, if you just produce stuff Yeah, you would be insanely successful Indeed. Indeed. But oh, well. Okay, we're taking a break and when we come back we are talking remakes. Playmates Toys, the finest collectibles within the Star Trek universe. How you choose to get around about here makes so little sense. Mon Gabby? Who would have thought that they would have been so fascinating? Certainly by Starfleet. Such drama. Oh you're all such savages. Enjoy your little trick for the star and we're back. Hey, this was Micah selection. He wanted us to do remakes and we were like Yeah, so what and then he bought us hundreds of dollars with a drinks like dill poutine poutine I can't believe I missed it. It was why am I doing this I think getting free drinks. What the hell you trapped? I'm putting 10 minutes on the timer and I am going to start and for my remake I chose from 2005 the fog got something on my radar looks like a fog bank and that's moving straight toward us. Kind of fog moves against the wind What's wrong keep seeing horrible things happening what's happening? Get off the island. Why? Just go somebody out here. budget of 18 million box office have 46 million worldwide Rotten Tomatoes. Critics have it at 4% The audience has it at 19% I think that that's a little, you know, a little low. I would have said it was maybe 8% You know, directed by Rupert Wainwright, who has 29 credits several MC Hammer and Michael Jackson videos, stigmata and this film, which killed his career. Ouch. Since then, he has done a number of short films that have no but So Omar very sad, written by Cooper Lane, who has two credits the core and this film killed his career as well. John Carpenter, Deborah Hill are also credited, starring Tom Welling was 17 credits, Cheaper by the Dozen, one and two Draft Day, and 219 episodes of Smallville, where he plays Clark Kent, who also started Maggie Grace who has 52 credits, mostly TV 36 episodes of loss is what I knew her from but she also has done 10 episodes of California Keishon and 50 episodes of Fear the Walking Dead. I don't watch that. So never said I don't know. And it also starts to beautiful Selma Blair, who has 80 credits, including Cruel Intentions. Hellboy one and two, and a new recent favorite of mine, Mom and Dad. Love that movie. All right, you guys have both seen this remake? I assume. Ah, yeah. Nope. Oh, you have it? No. Time. This movie is awful. Yeah, I only picked it to be a jerk because I know Vanessa loves the original. Who would have thought that me being an asshole would somehow come back to bite me It's cruel and unjust world we live in it almost never happened. So. So through the opening credits, we are told the story of a ship full of people that is suddenly on fire. And then there seems to be four men who have escaped in a de but then one of them see something in the water and this ghastly hand reaches up and grabs him and then boom, title card. The fog. Oh, was there fog in this? There was a lot of fog in this digital fog. Oh. We are now in on Antonio Island, Oregon 134 years later, where the residents are planning a celebration to honor the founders of Antonio island with a statue of four founders being unveiled for founders for men in that dinghy. Coincidence? I think that stretch. Also were introduced to our hero Nick Castle, who is Tom Welling Nick castle. Yeah, it seems a little too pretty boy handsome to be running a charter fishing boat for tourists but whatever. On this particular trip there anchor deserves an old bag and seabed and an old pocket watch and a hairbrush from 134 years ago I bet falls out. We also find out that Nick has a girlfriend Elizabeth has been out of country for eight months finding herself or something. And he's been cheating on her with a local DJ Stevie Wayne. None of this matters in any way. Nope. Don't worry about it never brought up again. If it is character development. It is really shitty character development. Elizabeth, his girlfriend who's out of the country, she shows up out of the blue. If I could jump in here real quick. You had a look on your face and stuff that I thought you're about to put down the paper and go you know what I've done. I've had enough of this podcast. This film killed my career also. So Elizabeth shows up out of the blue and through a series of very stupid events ends up with a pocket watch, which apparently sets off the events that are going to unfold. She is handed the watch by a homeless dude. And as soon as she touches it starts to tick. Okay, tick four times and instead of going to unfold are basically a more complicated version of carpenters very basic ghost revenge story. A number of people are killed in unspectacular ways by CGI fog that sometimes works but mostly does not. Stevie Wayne ends up with a hairbrush that are some found washed up on the shore and it supernaturally burns down her lighthouse. Okay, no, I don't understand why the hairbrush grows hot, or yeah, it's just a hairbrush grows hot, and then burst into flames. Ghost heat. I mean, if it was a hairdryer, I get it. You gotta be careful with those. Yeah, maybe not 134 years ago, but I don't know. The fog comes along. And with a ghostly Galleon that we realize is the boat from the opening credits that had caught on fire. Oh, maybe that's the fire, right? Yeah. Okay, so see the four founders of the town, they made a deal with some people that they could use a corner of their island as a leper colony. But as the people from the colony were showing up on their ship on a very foggy night, the four founders took a small rowboat out to them and then lit the boat on fire killing everyone aboard. With the items from the sunken ship disturbed the leper ghosts are here to take revenge on the entire community of Antonio island. But there's a twist you guys that I'm sure that this was an aha moment for the writer and I feel really bad for him. Where he was like, I finally cracked the code on this story. Because you see, Elizabeth is the reincarnation of the leper ghost captain's wife. And that's what he's really there for. Oh, cool. Already. Like that little pirate our idea gave me that was good. So what am I got? Four minutes still shit. Okay, this movie sucks, for sure. And it's the first time that I've made it through this films in the entirety. I've made no effort to hide that I don't particularly like the original film. I think it's a soso 80s ghost story and it doesn't deserve the love it gets from carpenter fans because it is surrounded by two better films before it and two better films after it. Just really like the fog. Okay. 13 and Halloween precede this film, and then Escape from New York and the thing come after it. This is a bad part of a great run. No, no. You do. This was your first carpenter film ever. Yeah. 100% Well, and that being said, there is a lot I like in the original. I think it's really moody. And I think it's got some creepy creepy moments in it. And I really love like the first 20 minutes when things are starting to go weird in town. Now of course, that doesn't make any sense to that story either. Why? Milk and stuff is popping off in the store and lights are exploding. You know, before the ghosts get there. None of that makes sense. But it is eerie. And it works. Everything carpenter got right with $1.1 million. This movie took $80 million. Completely wrong. Oh, zero scares. The photography is shit. And it literally feels like a made for TV web movie with a bunch of young kids. I think that the the original fog might even be called elevated horror nowadays, because what I'm realizing elevated horror means to me is it has adults in it instead of kids. Usually Yeah. Interesting, huh? That's a strong mix. Yeah. I have some trivia. Deborah Hill died shortly before filming begin. Thank God. Thank you, everybody should be happy for her. Though credited as producer John Carpenter described his involvement thusly. You know, we love John Carter. He said, I come in I say hello to everybody. I go home. Oh, don't forget about the check. The check is very valuable here. In between takes and Vancouver press were granted access to the set. During Selma Blair's interview director Rupert Wainwright made a joke she didn't like I could not find this joke. I looked for this interview. Yeah. Anyway, in response, Blair reached into her shirt, pulled out a rubber breast enhancement pad and flung it across the conference room at him. Dead panning. That's the Adrienne Barbeau part of the role. Oh, yeah. And then finally, Tom Wellings character Nick Castle is named after Nick castle. We have to play the shape. And John Carpenter's Halloween, as if that could somehow make up for this shitty shitty movie. Vanessa? Yeah, I'm sorry. You know, I, I do need to rewatch this at some point. Because this was the first John Carpenter related film I ever saw. I saw the remake of the fog, which made me want to see the original the fog, which started the entire rabbit hole of John Carpenter movies for me. Isn't this like a 2005 film is that yeah, you're carpenter is new. Yeah, it's pretty near wild. Yeah. No wonder you think the original is much better if you found this incredible incredible the night for day shots at the start. I love it every moment. God I can speak no more of this. We're moving on, man. Okay, well I feel a little bad because I got to do a remake film that was probably significantly better than yours. Tell us about it. Willard from 2003. Night mom being here we'll add an awful name. If you had a strong name that Frank Martin wouldn't push around. What part of your fire Don't you understand? Let's go drink. I'm not hitting on you. Willard Willard Stiles didn't quite fit in. It's been a bad day. Everybody food but he's suddenly become very popular. You're the best friends that have ever had. Now Terry, Terry Terry Terry again guy who could never get a break he's about to get even we've come to see they'll do anything I tell them Do you think it's okay if I just put her inside sure it's, it's just the wind. Crispin Glover Okay, I like this movie. So I'm like we have mixed reactions here. I don't think I've seen it. Rotten Tomatoes. 64% from critics and 51% from audience, which was weird. I was like, I guess the critics see something the audience did not the budget could not find. Which was weird because it's not that all of them the movie box office 8.5 million. I think it probably did very badly. The director slash writer Glen Morgan has four credits, including Black Christmas from 2006. He wrote some of the redirected some of the new X Files and of course, Willard, he wrote 27 things he's more of a writer including the original X Files intruders final destination to the one and 21 Jump Street. The original. The producer on this as kind of a creative partner with him. His name is James Wong. He directed eight titles including Final Destination the one final destination three and Dragon Ball evolution which killed his career. He also wrote on The X Files which is I believe where they met but has continued to write on things like American Horror Story and the other things he did, however, right uncredited 1986 Trick or treat? I know. So, starring Christopher Glover, who plays Willard 72 rolls to his name. He's been in American Gods River's Edge Yamato Thoros cabinet of curiosities recently, he played Grendel in Beowulf and of course Back to the Future. He also has done a bunch of video game voice work, which was pretty exciting. So that was neat. Our Lee Emery plays Mr. Martin he has 121 credits to his name including full metal jacket, seven and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Also lots of voice roles, including Family Guy, Kung Fu Panda, The Simpsons and Toy Story as Sarge and Laura Harding, who plays Katherine, she has 65 roles to her name including Mulholland Drive as the hot one. She was also in the Punisher Love in the Time of Cholera and 142 episodes of Sunset Beach. I also love that she played mystery woman and beyond belief factor fiction in the segment, deadbeat daddy, Wow, incredible plots. Willard is this sort of shy introverted very nervous man who lives in a giant house taking care of his mother and working at his father's company under a horrible boss, who basically stole the company from his family. And once his father died, he was this old business partner partner. He had been turned into essentially a grunt and not a very good one at that. He's preoccupied with caring for his mother, so he's constantly late, and his boss has no problem belittling him in front of absolutely everyone in the company, usually humiliating him to a large extent. But behind closed doors, he's a little bit nicer to him, but not really, it's all it's very weird. His mother tells Willard that there are rats that need to be taken care of in the basement of their house. He goes down there and discovers there are tons of signs of rats. There's poop. There's stuff that's been eaten. So he goes to the store to buy a bunch of traps. The first attempt, the snap ones did not work. Here's a bunch of snaps and mill the night runs down and or at second night, he catches one rat and a glue trap. But he feels so bad he rescues it kind of washes the glue off and befriends it. This one he calls Socrates and becomes essentially best friends with it and hangs out in his pocket sleeps with him, it goes everywhere with him. And he realizes that through Socrates, he can teach the other rats things to do, like dig or come or stay. This becomes handy when his boss gets a flashy new car and then humiliates Willard. So he gathers the rest together, takes them to his boss's house and releases them where they can destroy the car. So after that Willard begins to create a deeper and deeper connection to the rats who are somehow all the rats from these sort of houses nearby end up coming and hanging out in his basement, there are zillions of rats. So they multiply they he gets them to kind of do worse and worse things. As mounting pressure comes over him in his personal life. He then there's an enormous rat that shows up named Ben, and a power struggle begins to form between him and Ben, and of course, the boss. In the meantime, there's a beautiful woman who has been hired to kind of take over for him and his work. He does not realize that she's hitting on him constantly. She is the hot chick from ball and drive, walking around saying, are you okay? And I saw this or something I can do free caring a little bit deeply fed too deeply for this super sweaty nervous guy. There you go. As things spiral further and further out of control. She gets nuts. Willard and Socrates end up kind of being against the world. And we end with hordes of rats versus Willard, who will win. This is a fucking crazy film. This was not what I thought I was going to watch. And I discovered that almost immediately with the opening credits, which is this sort of one camera arc motion, moving across stop motion animation of things unfolding and unraveling and there's rat bones that then open and scream and it's very sort of, yeah, it feels like a nightmare on or sorry, I'm a nightmare before Christmas, or Edward Scissorhands. It has this like really quirky, Gothic nature to its, there was a lot of insane tongue in cheek humor. In the beginning, he's talking to his mom, and she says, Oh, you don't have a girl. You never had a career and I should have given you a stronger name something like Carl, you are now Carl. Goodnight, Carl. All right. When he has to go and buy the rat poison and he's trying to figure out what to get. And he's sort of looking at all of them and he sees this little placard that tells you like, it's a guide. It's like, do you have these kinds of rods? Yes or no? Okay. Do you have this? Yes or no? Do you want to see the dead rods? Yes or no? And he finds the exact one he's supposed to get and then look, then it's out of stock. Moments like that, that play really well. It's just stylistic as fuck all the way through. It's really thoughtful, really well designed, beautifully constructed movie. The performances are exceptional, even though they're way over the top. They are just so fucking fun. It's an insane style. There are things though that I never want to see this movie again. There's a scene with a cat that I soon as they showed the cat. Oh, I was like, no, no, no, no. And it went exactly where I thought it was gonna go and it was so fucking upsetting that I don't. And also they just the set design. There's rat poop in ever increasing everywhere. It is depressing throughout all the characters are awful. Living trivia taglines um, where your nightmare and where your nightmares end and Willard begins a new breed Get a friendship. This spring stand up and bite back. And when the cat's away, the rats will play real, real good stuff. Fun prominently features the song Ben by Michael Jackson. The song was written specifically for the film Ben of 1972, which was a sequel to the original version of Willard in 1971. In Willards mansion hanging above the fireplace is an oil painting of his Father Martin styles. The father is actor Bruce Davison, who portrayed the titular character in the original 1971 version of the film. There were over 500 Rats used in this film, and subjected to extensive training before they are being put on the set. They were put into categories of different actions that they would then perform. The rat used in the film, The rescues in the film all had numbers inked on the underside of their tails so they could keep track of them. Thank goodness because of that how you would the rat Ben was played by a guardian, I think, pouched rats were they are actually super docile rats. They grow to be between 1010 to 17 inches large, they weigh between two and six pounds. All the shots of him are hilarious, by the way, because every reaction it's just like, Have you ever seen the Alfred Hitchcock thing where they they have a beautiful woman and then his face and then a baby and then his face? It's like that, but with a rat. It's like this harrowing thing. The rats sitting there having the same expression it had previously. Oh, he's menacing. Oh, he's really Yeah, it's like hilarious. It's just this wrapping sitting there in a slightly shadowed spot. Crispin Glover found our Li Mo aremy. Emery is yelling during the disciplinary scenes hilarious and would often be found laughing quietly off camera. And when Catherine brings over her ginger cat to cheer up Willard, the cat is named Scully. This is a direct reference to the ginger haired FBI Agent Dana Scully from The X Files where the both Glen Morgan and James Wong served as long time producers and writers. That was my pick. Did you like it? I really I did. I really liked it. But I also hated it. I was so upset like watching this movie. And I think maybe because I just watched The Elephant Man. I was like, not in the right headspace. And I was just like, Fuck you film the whole way through. If you like dark comedy, I think this is an incredible choice. I think you got to check this out. I really liked this movie. And I was really disappointed that it did so poorly. Yeah, it did her role. Perfectly ferociously. It does not do did. Chris Crispin Glover is one of those guys that I have really come to enjoy as I've gotten older. I don't know that I cared much for him as a younger guy. But women were a lot weird. And I realized it's it's a it's not an act. No. Yeah, he is a weird guy. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Now he's been up here for something in Northwest film forum years ago. Yeah. And I didn't go to it. But few people I know did and said yeah, he's really strange. weirder than you actually would think. This film always felt to me like, like it was supposed to be written by David Lynch, but then given to a different director who didn't have David Lynch's sensibilities. So it comes out a little glossier, but it's so weird. And just like, that's why I keep saying Tim Burton, it's, it's not a Tim Burton movie. It's not that but it has this odd quirky satire. Yeah. And it is really polished, but so grungy at the same time, that you're kind of like, I can see how this I'm not gonna watch the original. How does it compare? Have you seen the original? Yeah, very, very different. Yeah. I mean, same premise, but very different. I don't know. I thought it was good. I think you chose very well. Vanessa, thank you. Yes, probably better than your pick on for I would say one hundy. So you chose really well. You chose poorly. And I straddle the middle. Oh sir. I went with the remake of the last house on the left from 2009 But we're there yet. We are making the turn now. Last house on the left is you forgot it is the only house for miles Dan. Do you guys see the car today? I was thinking I could meet up with Paige. I don't think we've met on page this is married. But he feels like doing tonight. I think Justin here could be kind of cute. Evening you knew not to bring anybody back in. We made the front page that's what's going on. This is none of our business. I'm sorry, lady. Oh my god. We just can't risk it. Is To love the girls Jeff you got a saw house back there was bad our car trouble we're actually pretty lucky today seeing your house I've only one problem our daughter won't have the car back till tomorrow morning. You should probably just sleep here tonight we have a guest house did you hear that can you tell us who did this what are we going to do we don't have a car the phones are dead in there so you're really ready to do anything I have a warm say and pray shine you want to hear what I did your daughter was I can't move you're paralyzed from the neck down. I didn't have any rope or duct tape interesting apparently there's a 2022 remake as well, I think not seem to show up and disappear. So I'm not sure. Rotten Tomatoes 43 from critics 52 from crowd, which seems about right, actually. Budget of 15 million while a box office of 46 million Whoa. So it did relatively well even went and saw a remake of last house on the left. Why aren't there like three sequels to it? So it must have done something? Yeah, it's Directed by Denis LEUs. Who did plus one, which is decently well done film, delirium and something called hardcore, which is definitely not the 70s film. Adam, Alicia who was in delirium, cell and standoff. Sorry, this writer written by Carl and Carl Ellsworth, who wrote the fairly underrated Disturbia and red eye, the Red Dawn remake the and unhinged did not see the Red Dawn remake not good. And Wes Craven is given a credit. Right? I don't know he was involved actually is producing. Starring Gary and Delahunt, who was an army of the dead 41 episodes of Fear the Walking Dead 16 episodes of Deadwood, No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. So he has a gruff voice. Oh, yeah. He plays the Dennis has character. Monica Porter, who was in Patch Adams 21 episodes, a Boston Legal saw, and a 303 episodes of parenthood realized that was a series for that long. Tony Goldwyn, who's in plain 124 episodes of scandal, the Belko experiment, he played Tarzan and Disney. Friday the 13th part six Jason lives was his first film. Well, I didn't know that. He's the asshole friend of Patrick Swayze and ghost. Yep. And Aaron Paul, from breaking that 62 episodes to that. He also played the Simpsons as his character from Breaking Bad. And he's in Mission Impossible three as the character from breaking that sort of. And Sara Paxton, who's in blonde, barbarian this year, cheap thrills, which is pretty damn good film and the innkeepers as cast is actually pretty good. But so right off the bat, you say yes, this is a much much, much larger budget movie, whether it starts off with two policemen taking one of the guys away in to jail and immediately shut, immediately sets up what turned out to be it felt very, very violent when they busted up and broke him out of the back of the car. And unfortunately, this is another movie like breakfast club when you've got a joke that started but you never hear the end. No. Very disappointing. The breakout is Like I said, brutal as hell. But they do do a do do they do a better job of setting up everybody in this movie, all the the parents and hurt the daughter have a lot more going on before she takes off and the bad guys have a little bit more going on other than just sort of being violent assholes. They're still fat, but you know. So they opens with the parents going to after the breakdown of the parents go to their cabin in the woods and they're hanging out and everybody's happy. Yay, we're happy family. The daughter is going into town to beat her friend. I'm sure this will end well for them. So she goes in to meet the family. And then there's a one of the killers is pretty young. And he is in there trying to buy cigarettes and she won't sell and he's like, Well, I'll trade you for some weed. So they go back to the hotel with him having fun with him when everybody else shows up. And of course, they're not happy that they're there. I mentioned Gary Dillahunt plays the original character. Krug the name definitely David has played he's a stronger actor, but he's David has was just so creepy and so uncomfortable to watch in that original movie. It's hard to recreate what he did. But he's she does a good job of being an asshole. Aaron Paul is also incredibly well rounded. Riki Lindhome and Spencer cheek Clark round out the rest of the villains and all solid dark performances all you know could be dismissed as cliche ish but at least they're giving it their all they're giving strong performances and Sara Paxton and Martha Martha marca SEC who played the two girls also very good which is weird because as reading review, not not a real review but like a letterbox Ramazan review, I do like the acting and this movie at all. Well, okay. Disagree with user movie turns dark after they're trying to get away they, as opposed to just sort of randomly driving into the woods like they kind of let's go out and party in the woods in the first one. This one they're trying to escape because they've just broken in a policeman killed two policemen. So they steal their SUV and try to get away. And one of the women messes that up and they get in a car crash and Aaron Paul's bloody nose and all that stuff. And the goes to the scenes that make the move the original movie famous, which are still uncomfortable in this movie, because it's always uncomfortable to watch certain acts be done on film, if they're done remotely well, and the scene and this one's done well enough that it's very uncomfortable to watch. It's very long, but unlike the first one where they do a series of chips to mess with the girls, this is basically one horrible thing and done. And watching the movie, it was like two days later, it's sorted left me it's kind of like faded the original last house on the left, if you think about certain things, disturbs me to this day. And it will always be an uncomfortable film but this one was like horrible to watch horrible bad by the angelic Yeah, kill all these people. I'm good with that. But after the movie watched a few days later, didn't have the same hold at all. Then they show up at the parents house of course. Our car just broke down Can we stay here? And like the original they eventually figure out and then its parents revenge time. It's in those scenes that are well done. It's it's decently directed it's decently acted. It it suffers from the originals. The onus, I guess, was it it was so dark and so creepy and so uncomfortable. And a lot of that came from no budget. Yeah, and everybody just giving it their all in more uncomfort no gloss ways. And this film is very glossy, so blues a little bit of that. taglines. If bad people hurt someone the love how far would you go to hurt them back? Okay. If someone hurts someone you love how far would you go to get revenge? I really try and turn the last spaghetti at the wall. That's right. recapture a little bit what I just said but the less experienced but incredibly intense performances in the original making much more official visceral feeling. Wes Craven had a point behind what he was doing. He wasn't just making a rape revenge movie he was talking about out things of Vietnam, things going on in the world and none of that no social commentary is brought forward into this film at all. So the depth of the movie is definitely much more shallow. They sit here and said here after a few days, the film's uncomfortable nature fades, but the original still sits around going. The film was more or less shot in real time, which is an interesting move and helps it move a little bit better and keeps everything flowing because you don't move away from a scene you don't. Other than you know, they don't drive for 20 minutes. They skip that stuff, but everything else is told in real time and that keeps that tension at a nice level. One thing I thought was very good removal from the original was the weird cops and they're really dumb humor. You know, they kept cutting into these two bumbling cops. Couple little notes David Hess was offered a cameo but declined. Raven Craven agreed to the remake because of the money involved. I was sure. Like I had to send somebody to college, I'm sure. And Eli Roth was initially approached to direct because he tried to rename me before Quentin Tarantino said no, don't do that go out and do hostile Part Two instead. So may have been a good choice may have not been a good choice. You know, it depends on which one you like. But it did enough positive enough in it was originally going to be direct to video director whenever streaming. But it tested so well that it did get a theatrical release, and, frankly, did quite well. I think partially because it's intense and disturbing. But it is not. What the original was just no interest in seeing this. I'm a little surprised you chose this one. I didn't think you'd like the original. Like is a hard word with any movie like that. Right? I respect what rest was did a lot. I think he made a hell of a disturbing dark, commentating or sure film. But part of the reason I picked this is I just kept going through and every everything was I looked at it maybe that was all like the fog where it's just like 2% 5% Yeah, and this one is like 50%. Let's see what it's like. And it's it's not disturbing enough and uncomfortable enough for the crowd that loves last house, the original last time the left. But it's probably too uncomfortable and disturbing if your favorite stories are JSON or Friday or something like that. So it's in a weird place. That's like it's kind of forgotten. And I think that's sort of where it ends up. Yeah. I will not be seeking that one out. Yeah, I'm right there with you. Okay, well, that's it then Vanessa, I believe that you've got a sub genre for next week. Oh, man. Okay, well, it's been a little bit because of Mike as tick throwing us all off a little bit. But I've had one in the cooker. I think I would like to go with babysitting the dead. So you've got a dead person, whether that's a zombie or a corpse or whatever, and you have somebody else who needs to be watching after them. I like it. Yeah, I'll be interesting. Yeah, it's a good title to babysitting the dead man. Uh, yeah, everyone's Well, I got something I got a brain it works well that is pretty much the show then I got one in the cooker too. So you guys are gonna have to get out of here. I thank everybody for liking and sharing posts for participating in the value for value model for reaching out and dropping off a line at the strange aeons radio hotline, which is 253-237-4266 really, really appreciate everything you guys are doing to help us spread the word. Bring on tell us this stuff. What remake Do you think worked? Yes, we all know the Dawn of the Dead remake was good. Try the other ones. The thing? Yes. It's good. Come on. The thing remake is game. Excuse me. That's the the carpenter is the one that was the pre approval is a remake. Oh, she's sorry. No, it took me a minute. Like I only has good sweaters that I avoid remakes. I think they'll suck and just don't bother watching them. I have not seen the thing remake. So well. Yes. I would love to also hear you because I have a couple of remakes that I really love and would love to hear what you guys recommend or tell us to totally avoid nothing. Nothing beats that 78 Division of the Body Snatchers. Ha. Oh good. Oh good. Okay well that is the show then we are coming back in seven short days and we are talking babysitting the dead transportation other considerations for strange aeons radio produced by Pan an airline. When you think of traveling think of pan and you can't be expected. Yes, the strange aeons radio stay at econolodge ever. It's an easy stop on the road. You know? Strange aeons radio is recorded live in front of a studio audience. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a positive review on your favorite podcast app. Set we will set a play for this super sweaty nervous guy