September 20th, 2021
Black Dahlia vs. Summer of Sam
It's an episode about killings, see? Put on a hat & smoke a lot of cigarettes while listening. A novel episode with 2 movies that are not Matt's favorites: hopefully you'll find his ability to discuss a movie of value, whether or not he loves them...
Notes: STEVE Park was the actor Matt couldn't remember from Fargo. Terence Blanchard has scored a lot of television, Matt meant movies were mostly Lee.
March 15th, 2021
- Alex Wheatle/
- Education/
The 2nd half of this series discussion, we have a foot in historical and the other in fictional - though based on historical policy & patterns. Then Matt gives his assessment of the entire series, followed by some spouting off about vaccines & masks a bit. As with the series, the goal is hope. Hope that the worst is behind us & we'll learn from the hardest times we all faced. Take care world; meanwhile we'll try to scrounge up some fun flicks to go over next time! <3
March 2nd, 2021
- Mangrove
- Lovers Rock
- Red, White, & Blue
Another episode featuring the mighty Steve McQueen, this time doing a chapter-based serial! In our 1st episode we cover 3 of 5 stories told, 2 of which are based on historical figures in England's recent history of racial conflict. Have at it!!
February 1st, 2021
- Green Room/
- Iron Sky/
- Inglourious Basterds/
Sometimes the real life drama can boil over & you need to ease the tension in your mind. Sometimes when we touch, the honesty's too much. So... watching nazis get shot might turn your day around!!
How 'bout it?!
LINKS: 3 Degrees of Anton Yelchin (has Fright Night link), Star Trek Beyond (has Cloverfield Paradox link), Blade, Shadow of the Vampire, Hateful 8 (has other Tarantino links), Alita: Battle Angel, Ocean's 11 (has Fight Club link where other Pitt movies are linked), Capt America Civil War, X-Men Days of Future Past (has 1st Class link where other Fassbender links are), Mr. Nobody.
IMDB ratings: 70/59/83. Maybe should be 78/64/86.
September 14th, 2020
Photo credit: Chicago Sun Times article.
Matt watched this the day we lost Chadwick Boseman. There was no way it'd feel good to put it out that weekend, but a postive part of grief paying tribute to those we lose. Technically part of (& the fulcrum of) the "We Need To Talk" series, it tells a superhero story while scrutinizing the ongoing story of relationships among races and nations. We think it's actually a good gateway to talking about such things with family & friends, which is why we recommend everyone watch it (again) to maybe gain some empathy toward what others go through.
Note: The score DID win an Oscar, as did Costume & Design; Kendrick Lamar was nominated.
Here is the crucial part of Chadwick's Howard speech. This might be the most inspiring 14 minutes you'll hear this year...
Links: Boseman: 42 (also has 12 yrs a Slave for Lupita Nyong'o), Message From The King (also Capt Amer Civil War). Michael B Jordan: Creed. Angela Bassett: Boyz in the Hood (Malcolm X link on that post). Daniel Kaluuya: Widows. Andy Serkis: LOTR 1/2/3, Planet o' Apes trilogy Forest Whittaker: Phone Booth, Street Kings, Good Morning Vietnam.
June 24th, 2019
- Sorry to Bother You (Tessa Thompson)/
- The Hate U Give (Regina Hall)/
- Addicted to Fresno (Aubrey Plaza)/
Once again we tumble scattered cinema into the dryer & see what shrinks. Focused on some stars you may see on the big screen this month, we pulled from some recent movies that perhaps didn't get ALL the attention they deserved.
Note: Matt was on the nose for Rotten Tomatoes critic score for Bother, but even the critics hated Fresno. (shrug)
April 15th, 2019
- Wandering Earth
- Green Book
- Arctic
- Alita Battle Angel
- Captive State
- Gloria Bell
- Us
- Hotel Mumbai
- Shazam
- Hellboy
Bite-sized glimpses of flicks in theaters at the moment as Matt maximizes his A-List membership. Trying this on as a once-in-a-while departure, so let us know what you think!!
Notes: Just under $6 million of the total earnings for Wandering Earth was U.S. ticket sales, not $2 million. It still deserves more of our money...
As a modern comparison of current film budgets - Creed II, a boxing movie, spent the same amount of money as Hellboy.
December 3rd, 2018
GUEST HOST: GODFREY!!!
- X-Men: Days of Future Past
a 2nd serving of service to Stan, we talk aboot the sequel to 1st Class by Matthew Vaughn (link for that HERE). Starting with The Wolverine last month, we have 1 more entree coming up. Come back to us for a strong finish. Though you do have to clean your plate before we offer dessert...
Links: Kick Ass link in 1st Class episode above - also links for Flatliners, Fassbender, & Fury Road (Hoult). John Ottman links are on the page for episode 247 HERE, though we forgot to link 8-Legged Freaks.
Artwork: Rich Davies. Some other sweet art at
http://cromeyellow.com/x-men-days-of-future-past-by-the-poster-posse/
April 1st, 2018
More TV.
How much more? III !!!
NOTES:
Here is an interesting essay about Taiwan.
February 17th, 2018
GUEST HOST: GODFREY!!!
Hotel Rwanda
Maybe the most serious we've allowed ourselves to get, as this movie is based on actual events. Though not an easy watch, it is of great importance that people know this story as a part of the larger chapter in our history where so many were murdered & no one came to their aid. Chock full of strong performers, this is somewhat relevant to Black Panther in ways we did not anticipate.
We also give a brief response to Black Panther in this episode. Go See It!!
LINKS Cheadle as Captain Planet, also pt II, pt III, & pt IV (which we didn't even know about!!!). The Slap Trailer. Also, here is a Slap spoof Trailer. Matt could not find the Hotel Rwanda Featurettes on YouTube.
August 27th, 2017
- Creed/
- The Hurricane/
- Ali/
Finally, the boxing episode you've all been waiting for! 3 variants on the sport of punch. We even mixed in some stuff about living legends of boxing & how their representation stands up to some scrutiny.
Links: Here's the '74 Foreman Fight Highlights. Here is Top 10 Ali Knockouts. Here is the Costner Speech.
Notes: Most important: there are at least 7 statues of Harriet Tubman, some that have only appeared in the last decade. Funny that Matt is so keen to mention his forgetting character names, as he used the name Carter instead of Porter for Payback. Whoooopsy! He also forgot to mention the strength of the Creed soundtrack that features Nas, 2Pac, The Roots, Future.
November 19th, 2016
Featured Art: Roby Amor - find more of his pop art works here http://robyamor.deviantart.com/art/The-Last-of-the-Mohicans-447170104
Allllrighty Then!! What started as an episode about escape became rather important (and long as this is only 1 of 3!). It can be hard for stories about American history to avoid feeling like a lecture. Few of them clock in at less than 3 hours, either. Last of the Mohicans is significant for so many reasons, the easiest of which is that it is entertaining. It also has many layers woven within it that do not feel as outwardly powerful as they in fact are. Learning a thing or two and walking away without hating an entire group is not always an easy task. This movie can make you think without a need to make you angry.
What else can be said? Tune in to find out. Then come back to us in 2 weeks to find out what else goes alongside this story with our conclusion to "Last of the _____" group.
Here is the article on the Pipeline: Good News.
LINKS: Bishop of Battle, Manhunter, LOTR pt I, pt II, pt III.
Trevor Jones: Richard III, Dark City, Dark Crystal, Cliffhanger, Excalibur.
Randy Edelman: Kindergarten Cop, Twins, Osmosis Jones.
November 7th, 2016
It's TV Time again!!! Join Matt as he acts like your personal TV guide. Television has been a great asset in learning the highs and lows of making serial entertainment. Modern media (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu) has learned from many of those lessons and started with a bang. Even Youtube is making original content. What a great time to absorb tons of visual fluff!! Staycations are now a possibility to catch up on your queue and binge some new shows at home. The quality of the home entertainment flood has increased drastically in the last decade or so. TV isn't necessarily in its death throes, but it is closer than some desire we imagine. Slip your shoes off & enjoy some joy over the babble box.
Shows discussed: Orange is the new Black, Daredevil, Luke Cage, The Get Down, Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, The Blacklist, Bojack Horseman, Bob's Burgers, The Ranch, Fargo, Dusk til Dawn, Ash vs Evil Dead, Preacher pilot, Lethal Weapon, West World, .
Our twitter is @CinemaSluts if you wanna find us there!!
Just for you peeps - Matt looked up the writers for Supergirl after all: half of 18 are women. Shane Black only wrote the 1st 2 LW films (3 & 4 were character writing credits). We discussed Jeffrey Wright in Casino Royale. He & Thandie Newton were in W (Powell & Rice), just in case you haven't had enough political input this year (wink wink nudge nudge).
Correction: Death style contractors are not a thing; Death STAR contractors was what he meant to say (as in Clerks - also applies to the thankless jizzmopper job).
June 10th, 2016
Morevel!! MorX-Men!!
This week, we take you down the path where the Fox lives. As it lives, it chokes out so much potential from various franchises & series. Is it better now than it was when they took hold of Xmen nearly 20 years ago (we know, right?!) ? Put on some leather & spandex and tune in to find out... We will say up front that the newer Xmen films have managed to attach new faces to characters that we can love (Lawrence, Fass & Mac).
Apocalypse thoughts. Matt had fun and liked Oscar Isaac's performance better than the trailers. Characters were under-used; if we look at ladies, Civil War did it better. His take was that Marvel lapped itself in the month of May, but really they lapped Fox.
While spending less than Marvel for CA Civil War (see our thoughts in the write-up for the last episode below), it made about 1/3 in its opening weekend.
LINKS:
March 13th, 2016
Fight Club/
This episode was going to be titled Violent Pornography for the longest time. We chose better, we like to think. Some movies are only the appeals they lean on: romance, violence, sex (listened to our
Better Than Sex episode?), plenty go deeper in their story. These 3 are epic in taking a magnifying glass to some harsher aspects of humanity. Ladies - sorry to say that the screen time is more dude-ish this week, but there is a lot to learn for everyone.
To say it even before you listen, none of these movies are what you think if you have never watched them. Compton is especially strong as a piece of music history for what N.W.A went through trying to take the gloves off with their songs. You do not have to be a fan to enjoy the story & respect the fight they endured. Neither of us box, but we can enjoy Rocky (except # 5)... oh yeah, go rent Creed too!!
A History of Violence got edged out of this for Compton, as the video release allowed us to consider it against one of the actual members in their own movie.
Here is a recent
Blackish clip with Laurence Fishbourne (for those who missed it).
BTW: Matt remembered 227 when he watched the
intro - do you?
Links John Singleton:
103 (also Fish & Cube).
Ice Cube: 24, 111.
Laurence Fishburne: 4, 71 (also F Gary Gray - Dir),
Angela Bassett: 102. Cuba Gooding, Jr: 137, 166 (also Brad Pitt).
Helena Bonham Carter: 17 (& Giamatti),
116.
