FSGM 36

Despite the fact that QT's "Django Unchanged" is on every podcast about movies in the world, it's just too good not to mention, and mention we do. Jason squirms while he and Matt discuss the controversial  use of a certain word that will remain unwritten here, which Matt says a bunch. Don Coscarelli's latest offering "John Dies at the End" is given the throws Jason back to the 80's video store days when you had to actually discover cult for yourself. Matt continues his Orson Welles exploration with his review of "The Lady from Shanghai". Peppered with mention of other movies, trailers, and musings on the state of film, the conversation turns melancholy as Jason expresses concern over the well being of "genre" in Hollywood. Will he be okay? Can Matt calm Jason with his unflappable spirit? Tune in, and find out.







Enjoy,

FSGM Mgmt.

(and check the podcast here...thanks!)

Episode 35...back on the wagon.

Hey Hey! Welcome back Fat and Skinny fans. Episode 35 marks a new landmark in Fat and Skinny history. This is the first episode where we recorded from two separate, remote, locations!!!! Sure this technology has been around for a while, but our film fortresses only just got internet...so there ya go. Sounds pretty good all things considered...and let's face it, we really don't want you guys to grow accustomed to a certain style of recording.
This is also the episode where we seem to fall right off the wagon, but that should be fairly obvious right off the bat. And speaking of bats...wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.
First, we get into Season of the Witch (the Nic Cage version) If you ask me, we spend more time on it than it deserves. (That's one of the first scooby clues that we're loaded) However, I would say we were talking less about the movie, and more about Nicolas Cage, the man. We are into enigmas here at Fat and Skinny. If only Uwe Boll would direct a Cage video game, superhero movie. (With Ron Perlman...the newest FSGM movie crush)

(I'm saying watch the Romero Season of the Witch...and Knowing)

Cage may be a batty actor. That's why we love him. Speaking of bats...finally. We get to Chosen Survivors. The 1974 post apocalyptic, animal attacks film. With bats. It rules. It seems to have Panos Cosmatos fingerprints all over it.

The whole movie is up on Youtube. It was also teamed up on DVD with The Earth Dies Screaming. (Because both movies were written by Harry Spalding)

Harry Spalding did NOT write The Last Days of Planet Earth. I just happened to watch that movie after Chosen Survivors at The Vortex Room. It's a Toho production. I dug it. I was pretty boozie.

And to bookend with the concept of the right film for the right time...we present Pop Skull!(directed by Adam Wingard)The Southern fried, J-Ho, post-psych drug movie. The Ring meets Enter the Void...on 2000 dollars.

It's a wild one.

Yup, it's another signature episode alright.

~Fat and Skinny 2012
xoxo

Episode 23. It's a cosmic coincidence.

...did you know that the number 23 is linked to all manner of cosmic co-ink-i-dinks. It's true(ish). Look it up.

And speaking of cosmic...it's another 'Spacey' episode of Fat and Skinny. And I ain't talkin' Kevin.

Ya see, I was sooooooooooo pumped to talk about Scream 4 I forgot to mention actually why it really is so awesome. I'd like to blame these slips of the mind on my desperate attempt NOT to spoil the intro to Scream 4. It really is a hoot, and sets the tone to the whole film. However, the surprise is almost everything.
Anyhoo, I fumbled and in doing so forgot to mention some stuff...
First, (and this is actually super embarrassing ) my real good buddy (and occasional Fat and Skinny commenter) Jeremy Wheeler had a bunch of his rock posters featured in the film. (You can even see them in the trailer...see below) I was more than stoked to see so much his work in the movie. So super proud of the dude. And I forget. Put it in my show notes. And I forget. (But, you should see my notes.)
I'm sorry buddy. That's a 'my bad'. However, I'm still super stoked and proud of the fella. Go here and check out his work. Stella!
http://jeremywheeler.net/
Second, unlike Scream 1 and 2,(i can't recall 3) Scream 4 seems to mimic different visual styles from all sorts of various sub-genres. There seems like bits Final Destination, Texas Chainsaw, the Chainsaw re-make, and numerous direct to disc teen bodycount films. If you know 'film' (and by which, i mean, genre) it adds to that layer of how we perceive our media. It also adds that 'rap battle' attitude that seems to recall Cravens earlier career.
(The whole Jaws to Hills Have Eyes to Evil Dead to Nightmare on Elm Street back to Evil Dead II) By the end of the film you almost get the feeling Craven is saying, "Ya know what...I started something." Then by    emulating all the various styles it proves to all the young Turks out there that have been biting the Scream formula that he can do it that way too.
Hmmmmm, maybe it's just a message to every director in the game...'that's not not snarky, meta-commentary on media through horror, THIS is snarky, meta-commentary on media through horror.'

...but in case you want an 80's slasher from the 80's...it doesn't get more 80's than this...
Happy Birthday to Me

...speaking of perception. You can't tell a book by the cover in Simon Rumley's...
Red, White, and Blue

...speaking of red, white, and blue... we also manage to squeeze in an Australian film... or favorite past time...
Harlequin!

...N that's about it.
Join us next time when we talk about movies.
Always with the movies.

Cheers,
Matt DeLight 2011

Episode 21...Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Moustache.

...So Again. Here we are. At yet another episode. And again...we drink not beer...but Root Beer. Oh, and whiskey. I was drinking alot and alot of whiskey. (See if you can't spot the exact moment that I am drunk)

So the Root Beer I was drinking was Virgils...to be exact, (if you were interested)...and, it's hells of delicious. No one is paying me to say that (yet)... just thought you'd like ta know.

On to the movies. The glorious, glorious movies.
As our 'Par Usual', we are all over the map. But, it does seem to me that we manage a pretty awesome theme. And that theme happens to be, Awesome Moustache. I have finally come to grips that I, myself, will never be able to grow an awesome moustache, or ride a faux fixie, or even ferry folks across the Rio Grande on a barge... I can only experience these pleasures from afar. From the comfort of the video screen I live through these dreams. I am a far cry from the hipster my father was and wanted me to be.
Here's the trailers to this episode.
Please, don't look me in the eyes.

The first clip is from Barquero. It's not the trailer...I couldn't find it...but, then again...I didn't look very hard. Rather this is one persons favorite clips from the movie...I think. It's the whole movie in under 10 minutes...but, I don't agree 100% with the choice of scenes...but hell, that's this movie in a nut shell...once you see it, you can't help but spend more time with it than it deserves. Lee Van Cliff= Awesome Moustache.

Have you seen Animal Kingdom? Do you like crime movies? Can you just fucking watch this already so we can talk about the ending. Also, Guy Pearce = Awesome Moustache.

Then Quicksilver. Bacon is Eggs. When his world gets scrambled, he turns to the only thing he can trust.  His bike, and freedom!!!! But after Voodoo get wacked, will that be enough to save Tiny, Teddy Bear, and Airborne from the clutches of Gypsy!
~And if that kind of incoherent talk can get yer butt into a movie, than you are sure to enjoy this....cuzz it doesn't make a heap of sense. It's like a mystery, inside a box, inside enigma, wrapped around a middle finger. So fun. I just want to hug this movie and tell it it's beautiful.
Saving the best for last. Kevin Bacon=Awesome Moustache. Actually, he's King 'Stache. We bow before him and buckle at his wake.
...mmmmmmm.....bacon moustache.

~matt delight
2011

Tangerine Dream did the soundtrack to Near Dark...

...not that you would particularly know that if you listened to our podcast. I think we neglected to mention that in the last podcast. Ya know, Episode 14. The episode that talks about Near Dark in extensive detail...and the podcast that loves to talk about Tangerine Dream. Well, we missed it. Sometimes we are the most unorganized movie podcast in history...
However, I am also pretty sure we(well, Jason) has mentioned their musical prowess on Near Dark in a previous episode. Maybe episode 3 or 4...so I really don't feel too bad about it.
I also don't feel too bad about us talking at length about "I Come in Peace" aka Dark Angel. No one is talking about that movie anymore...and I kinda like that. It really is a solid actioner. And again, while I totally screw up the memory of the posters tag-line. (which happens to be the highly terrible/forgettable, "good cop. bad alien. big trouble.") I am just proud of dusting off these old movies, and bringing them back into the awesome floodlight which is Fat and Skinny.
Hell, with our heat, and Hollywood pull...expect to see that shit hit Criterion within the next few months.

I know...awesome! right?
As usual, we talk about a whole heap of other stuff. From big B Hollywooders(Resident Evil:Afterlife), to Z-grade Schlockers (Blood of the Zombie), to everything in between (<Rec>).

Also, just so we are 100% crystal...this is Paul 'Wild Shit' Anderson...

...currently on the set of Castlevania. This is the man who only makes the WILD SHIT...and after being on the set of Alien vs. Predator all day, he still found the time to put a baby inside of Milla Jovitch's tummy. He is officially my hero.

Big love to all our listeners and fans.

~Matt DeLight
October 3rd 2010

ps... i have no idea when Paul knocked up Milla.

Is it summer yet?

We stand at the edge summer waiting, wanting to be dazzled. Searching for respite from the heat in the cool darkness of the local "Megaplex". While we’re there how ‘bout some entertainment, some bombastic, flashy, escapist fun. We are ready for pretty people in fantastic situations in some exotic locales to do impossible things. Give it a pulsing soundtrack with a half a dozen hit songs by whoever is hot right now. Throw in some jaw dropping state of the art special effects. Oh, and don’t bother with story or character development. Please make sure you leave plenty of holes in the what little story you do use, so  in two years I can drop another twenty bucks to find out what’s gonna happen in part 3, two years after that.

The sad thing is that I fall for it. I am almost always disappointed. So I begin my trips to the theater by lowering my expectation. I fill up in the food court, pre-complain about the commercials and the ticket price and the jerks that talk during the movie and the blah, blah, blah, and then go in anyway. And by being so jaded and skeptical I can sometimes actually enjoy a slightly better than average film even though I can’t really remember much about it the next day. But is that any way to live? With previews, you are in that darkened room for three hours or more.

Maybe it’s time to make Hollywood aware. If we could just, as a people, skip some of the fluff. Let the powers that be know that we want to be engaged and given the opportunity to be involved with our leading men and women. It shouldn’t be enough to just sit and watch because it’s in Imax or 3D. Let’s face it, on a regular TV, Avatar will barely be okay. Pixar (with the exception of Cars) has managed to make a string of incredibly entertaining, visually stunning films. They have heart and soul. They draw you in and entertain as they do it.

I know that a lot of people don’t care. The Wolverine DVD sales are well above 73,000,000 bones, selling more than 24,000 copies this week alone. And that’s 32 weeks after this piece of cinematic shit plopped. Stop buying it. There’s better stuff to spend money on, like food. People are starving in the street and people are buying fucking Wolverine!? New?

Jeez. Sorry about that. I forgot to take my pill last night.

We here at fat and skinny are not above pure entertainment. We spend a lot of our day, and a good many of our nights, panning for gold knee deep in a river of shit. Nine out of ten movies are barely watchable. But that’s it isn’t it? I ask you movie fans, casual viewers, cinema aficionados. Is it this search that keeps us going. Is it as fun to revile a bad film as it is to lionize a good one? It is.

So here I sit. As I read what I’ve written it be comes clear that the bad ones make the good ones better. And as the waters deepen, as availability of the vast canon of movies find there way to DVD and OnDemand, cable and revival house we, I, will keep watching. There isn’t really any real point to criticizing a film. Someone will like it.
But that doesn’t mean we’re gonna stop. After all that’s a huge part of the experience, talking about it.
 
Matt’s at Motor City Comic Con in beautiful Novi, Michigan this weekend so check him out if you there. He’s always wrecked when he gets back. It should be fun. And when he does get back we’ll do #8. I actually saw some stuff that should be fun to talk about.

Also, I posted my top 5 monster movies over at the Facebook and got a lot of good feedback. Keep it coming. I know I forgot stuff. I want to talk about it on the show.

Cheers - Jason

Lucky Number Seven(?)

Lucky? Maybe not. Good? Maybe not. But I think if we have anything to offer it's starting to surface. Technical difficulties, various degrees of inebriation, and lack of information are starting to distill into a free form discourse of usable information. They may not be the films you wanted to see. They may be the films you purposefully avoided. But dammit, if we reset your expectations, you might just find a movie that you will enjoy. And isn't that enough? If you see a movie we recommend and you hate it, you can still turn to someone at work and tell them about the shitty movie you saw last night. And the next thing you know you and that person are hanging out. You are watching shitty movies and hanging out and having the time of your lives. And you and that person cure cancer. Okay, I skipped a couple of steps. Fine. But it's a start.

Orca is one of those movies. It polarizes Fat and Skinny. Then it brings us together in one huge hi-five. What more can one ask of the shared experience of motion picture. Episode 7 is the real first episode of Fat and Skinny. Hang in there. We're coming for your love. Cheers, Jason

Lexicon (is a) Devil

Yup, I just titled this post after a Germs song. Why? Because, that's the kind of quality pop culture quality you can expect from Fat and Skinny Blog and Podcast. Hopefully you enjoyed the first episode. We woulda had another episode for ya... but, we were too busy saving pregnant woman from burning buildings.
Naw...that's not true.
Actually, we were smoking all this killa kush,  getting mad krunk, HOLLA!
Naw, that's not true either. (But, I did manage to drink some Old Crow brand whiskey)
Actually, the truth of it was we did manage to record a second episode. And, no foolin', it was amazing. Quite possibly the best thing ever recorded in recording history...ever. Not just in podcast history, but in the whole spectrum which is sound...the best. Think, if The Beatles and The Beach Boys (in the hight of their collective powers) got together, and made a record called Abbey's Pet Sound Road....and yer still Twenty Million Miles to Earth
Then we deleted it by accident.
Oops.

Don't worry, we'll make podcast history again, real soon. So Stay Tuned (wouldn't it be awesome if every time I made a movie reference it would be a link that you could click on...yeah, I don't know how to do that)
(wait, I just figured it out...20 minutes later)

Anyway, that gives me time to discuss the first episode a bit. Fat (who, from this point on I'll just refer to as Jason) made the point that maybe some people wouldn't know exactly what I was talking about, due to my use of slang and self conjured lexicon.(See, the title actually did make sense)

So here is part one, of what will hopefully be many, on the Skinny( who from this point on will just be referred to as Matt) Dictionary.

• Boo-Urns - This is anything that stinks. A stone drag. Taken from the episode of The Simpsons, a Star is Burns. Remember, the whole town hates his movie and is booing it, but Smithers...ever the toadie, sez..."no, they're not saying Boo, they are saying Boo-Urns" Classic
• Jumping the Shark- This is more common slang, definitely not of my invention, that many of you readers may already know. But, I get this question all the time on what this means. It refers to any thing(band, franchise, t.v. series, etc. etc.) that goes from classic(or "good") and turns into something else completely. It's generally regarded as a very, bad, bad thing. It's in reference to Happy Days when Fonzie had to 'Jump the Shark.' It was a two part episode. Why the fuck did Happy Day need two part episodes?

That's all I have for now, their might have been some others...but, I talk like this everyday. (I'm sure it's very annoying) So I don't hear it. These are just the ones that Jason called me on.

Alright, I've got to buy comics.

Stay Posi,

Matt DeLight

2010

PS...I don't even like that Germs song. Or, more specifically, I haven't listened to it in over a decade. Sorry, Darby.

Meanwhile, back at "The Ranch"...

We like movies...alot. Thus the Podcast and The Blog. I'll be honest, I'm a lazy blogger. Most of this is due to me being confused and baffled by most tabs and buttons on the internet. I can absolutely assure you I am screwing this way up and Jason will go in later and fix my mistakes...I seriously can't even tell if I loaded the picture right.  I'm sooooo analog, that sometimes it hurts.
Ask me how many VCR's I had in my old apt.? I think the answer will surprise you.

But, I digress.
The point, is that it should come to little surprise that I am a lover of Star Wars. It is, in many ways is my Achilles Heel and possible entry point to the concept of true love.

 So the other day I had the honor to visiting Skywalker Ranch. I lost my shit. I can't really say it was this totally amazing story, that has changed the course of my life forever. I will say that simply being there was like an incredible drug, that later I found it hard to come down from.
I took a bunch of photos, many too boring to even entertain post...mostly taken because, IT'S AT SKYWALKER RANCH!
I had actually been taken to "see" Star Wars as an infant at the Drive-In. It felt like I had come full circle in a way. I now fear my own mortality.
I mention this to you all, cuzz I felt you should know we are legit. We are movie weirdos.
Here's some Flickr photos you can enjoy or just tolerate.
Skywalker Ranch Pics

Also, I just watched Blood Creek(American title...can't recall other off the top)... Eh.
The vampire horse, with it's head on fire, is pretty sweet thou.