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Director Frank Marshall (ARACHNAPHOBIA) brings us the true story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571. The Fairchild FH-227D was carrying a rugby team and various related friends and family when it crashed into the Andes mountains in October 1972. A compelling true survival story with impressive location photography and awe inspiring scenery, time has been cruel on this as it all too often has the feel of a soap opera despite the decent acting talent involved which includes Ethan Hawke, Josh Hamilton and Illeana Douglas.
It's also comforting to know that despite my fear of plane crashes, being suddenly thrust into a survival situation I'm hopelessly ill-equipped for and the notion of freezing or staving to death, all I'd need to do to survive an air disaster is smoke a lot of cigarettes and eat my friends ass. Sounds good.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
I'm sorry to have to disappoint you but the idea that snowflakes are unique is not entirely true, there being eight main types of shapes at the molecular level, with 39 sub-categories which then order themselves via weak hydrogen bonds to each other, resulting in the symmetrical hexagonal shape of the snowflake. At the atomic level they are indistinguishable, being comprised of the same oxygen and hydrogen atoms and in that sense of course we're all interchangeable and alike but a part of the same: the snow, me, you, the phone you're listening to this on, because all atoms of any element are identical. Not close or similar, but exactly identical. Is that profound? I don't know but it's worth bearing in mind while you listen to me and my snowmies discussing the Top 5 Snow scenes or movies.
Dan has been talking about the documentary 14 PEAKS: NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE for a few weeks now and with his visit to Nepal on the horizon we thought we'd take the time to review this celebration of extraordinary and almost unimaginable courage, strength and determination. Nepalese climber Nims Purja and his team scale all 14 mountains above 8,000 metres in 6 months and 6 days, a task for which the superlatives barely do justice. These are truly incredible people, doing incredible things for incredible reasons and there's some food for thought in Nims' pleas for greater recognition and acknowledgement of his accomplishments in light of the relative glorification of western mountain-climbers, when their achievements are rooted in the hard work of their Sherpa support teams. Unmissable.
We unanimously agreed THAT GIRL LAY LAY is the best kids thing we've ever reviewed on the pod. The Netflix series sees an A.I. avatar from a personal affirmation app materialise in the real world to help boost the self-esteem of 14 year old Sadie, a sentence I only just about understand and a concept which made me feel so old I soiled myself in solidarity with my geriatric brethren. Helpfully that chimes with the theme of the episode "Boombox Burger Bop" in which Sadie's parents struggle for relevance when performing their 10 year old burger jingle. At one point Lay Lay says "hashtag don't sleep on crypto" and I wanted to kill myself. But rapper Lay Lay (real name Alaya High) really does have some flow.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
GHOST was a smash-hit 1990 supernatural romantic thriller that created an iconic and often parodied pottery scene which holds up surprisingly well. The story sees Patrick Swayze's Sam Wheat, an investment banker, struggling to articulate his feelings to his very much adored girlfriend artist Molly (Demi Moore). When Sam is murdered in a mugging gone wrong his spirit stays behind to help protect and warn Molly that this act of violence was not as random as it first seems. Bruce Joel Rubin's excellent screenplay provides the emotional backbone to an entertaining, well told story with a cast of good-looking and talented actors, a classic combination. The special effects remain mostly fairly effective and Vincent Schiavelli almost steals the movie in two scenes as the terrifying ghost of a suicidal subway victim. Not the sandwich shop in case you were wondering. If you thought AIRPLANE! Director Jerry Zucker was the obvious choice to tell the tale you're a genius because the writer cried when he found out.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Since all attempts to capture proof of ghosts on film consist of grainy night-vision footage more like an amateur Pornhub channel than indisputable proof of life after death and your guaranteed never to encounter a ghost in real life unless you're completely insane, the cinema is where the idea of the spirit of a dead person or animal who refuses to depart the physical world has played out to greatest effect. From discussing masterpieces like THE SHINING or CASPER through to more lightweight entertainment like POLTERGEIST or RINGU the conversation never gets more personal than when Sidey recounts his experiences of catching THE WOMAN IN BLACK when he was far too young. Sure it makes for a funny story on a podcast but were the years of sleepless nights and trauma worth it? Of course they were, it didn't happen to you.
The absolute first thing you're going to notice about David Lowery's terrific and ambitious 2017 supernatural drama A GHOST STORY is the aspect ratio, it being filmed in a nostalgia evoking 1:33:1 format with vignetted curves, not because you’re an insufferably smug film enthusiast who likes to point these things out but because film is primarily a visual medium in my opinion and that is literally the first thing your eyes will see. Examining the existential horror of death, the passage of time, love, loss, the inevitability of mortality, whether creativity gives your life purpose and meaning and providing the single most authentic portrayal of grief in film via the much-discussed pie-eating scene, this absolutely blew me away. Ignore the lukewarm reception from a couple of the dads and take it from me, this is a must-see film.
The town of Pontypandy is home to one of the most prolific arsonists known to man, Norman Price. Perpetually aged 7 since his debut in the very first FIREMAN SAM episode (The Kite) way back in 1987, presumably his enforced endless youth fuels the rage behind his yearning for incendiary adventure. We watched Norman's Ghost, the twelfth episode of the seventh season which eschewed the charming hand animated puppetry of the original series for the soulless, bland CGI design that was common back in 2009 when this first aired. A lengthy and preachy monologue from the titular smoke eater rounds out the 10 minutes 32 seconds, which fails to deal with the big issues like 'where does all the funding come from?' and 'is the character Bella Lasagna a bit racist?'. Appalling.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
On it's release Blue Velvet (1986) caused a bit of a stir. Initially shown at the Montréal World Film Festival in August 1986, and at the Toronto Festival of Festivals, the film received both a chorus of boos and cheers. So pretty standard film festival reactions then!
The movie contains some very graphic and shocking scenes of violence and a performance from Dennis Hopper than will live long in the memory.
The Dads try to make some sense of it all, and leave with heightened anticipation for our next David Lynch instalment.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Skyscrapers are of course symbols of male domination and authority, immense metal and concrete phalluses penetrating the sky itself so of course Hollywood loves to gaze adoringly at them. This week sees us discussing the Top 5 Skyscrapers and whether we're leaping out of them, smashing through them, climbing across them or using them to stage elaborate scenes of public affection we have many stories to discuss. DO YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE.
ROOM is a 2015 drama about abuse, suffering and rape which I was worried would go full misery porn but thankfully it's also about hope, strength in adversity and acceptance. Excellent performances from Brie Larsen but especially Jacob Tremblay as 5-year-old Jack anchor the film which features many distressing scenes alongside well-crafted sequences of tension and quiet emotion from Director Lenny Abrahamson.
We jumped into episode two of the first season of the fifth incarnation of Voltron, Netflix's VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER. Fantastic action scenes coupled with a just-right level of self-aware humour makes this an excellent addition to the Bad Dads kids tv review section.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Ed Harris's passion project POLLOCK (2000) chronicles the life of the abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock. Underneath the fascinating character study of an alcoholic, bi-polar artistic genius, this is a love story at its core. Pollock's wife, an influential artist in her own right Lee Krasner, was instrumental in establishing his genius motivated by a recognition of his dazzling talent but more importantly because she knows that is when Pollock is at his most fulfilled. At times vibrant, at times depressing and dark and a story that ends in tragedy, this is an Oscar winning movie on a fascinating subject that we all had managed somehow to miss. Don't make the same mistake as us and check this out.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
We were delighted to have the ART NINJA Ricky Martin join us this week to talk about craft storage solutions, the responsibility of being a beloved childhood icon, cardboard horror movies, his experiences with ADHD and much more. Ricky presented an art themed sitcom for CBBC between 2015 and 2019, making 55 episodes and reaching and inspiring thousands of children to create their own works, including all of the Dads kids (whether they knew it or not). We review 'Day Of The Baby' and 'Day Of The Not Quite Christmas', episodes selected by Reegs's kids.
For most people the joy of painting purely to express yourself is confined to childhood which seems like a terrific shame given the enjoyment it can give you. I myself love dipping my brush, priming my canvas and applying my strokes. Oh and I also quite like painting. This week’s Top 5 sees us discussing the very best of Paintings in movies and tv, and in doing my research this week I discovered the urban dictionary definition for painting, which I am far too polite to repeat here.
I had high hopes for SNAKE EYES: GI JOE ORIGINS in that it was literally the only ninja movie I could find that had a reasonably recent mainstream release in the last 1 to 10 years which is either a damning indictment of my research skills or an illustration of the paucity of the modern ninja film movement. Henry Golding stars as the titular swordsman, destined as we know to wear the cool costume and to sell millions of toys but what you probably didn't expect was that this was going to be a dissection of the motivation and consequences of revenge featuring acrobatic combat, neon-soaked Tokyo backdrops, an energetic camera, an ambiguous hero and three giant homicidal anacondas. I'm not going to say this is unmissable but it is the kind of thing that were you searching for a recently released Ninja movie for a specially themed week of a podcast you co-host, and you chose this and you had to watch it and you maybe weren't that enthused about it and it turned out to be pretty good actually, with well-staged fights and richer thematic content than you had expected you would be pretty pleased.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Can you really call yourself a fan of cinema if you haven't seen the 1962 David Lean classic LAWRENCE OF ARABIA? Yes of course you can, but at least one of the dads hadn't seen it before, so the question is has that mistake been rectified?
This sprawling near 4 hour epic sees up and comer Peter O'Toole star as T.E. Lawrence in a story based on his life. Stationed in Cairo during World War I, a stranger in a strange land, Lawrence successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes in order to fight the Ottoman Empire, crossing an uncrossable desert in the process. Despite the movie being 60 years old, it's themes about colonialism and east meets west culture clashes are still relevant.
Also worth catching if you want to see Obi-Wan Kenobi in brown face.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Until next time, we remain...
Bad Dads
11 Mar 2022
Kaiser! The Greatest Footballer Never To Play Football & Ren and Stimpy
"I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere."
There's more than a grain of truth in what Anakin Skywalker says in one of cinemas most cherished and beloved moments, during the universally acknowledged high point of the entire Star Wars franchise, STAR WARS: EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES. This week we're discussing Sand and yes that really is the title of this week’s Top 5. Top 5 Sand.
Carlos Kaiser was a professional footballer for more than a decade, played for four of Brazil's top clubs and was a teammate of the 1994 World Cup winner Bebeto. There's just one catch: during his entire career he never actually made an appearance. The documentary KAISER! THE GREATEST FOOTBALLER NEVER TO PLAY FOOTBALL explores the extraordinary lengths he went to in order to fabricate a career including:
bribing ball-boys to chant his name during matches so he would appear to be a cult hero
paying youth-team players to injure him in training so that he wouldn't be able to play
scaling a fence to start a fight with opposition supporters to avoid being brought on as a substitute
justifying that fight to the furious team owner - arguably the most dangerous criminal in Brazil - by claiming that he had been defending his name. a move that earned him a new contract
posing as superstar Renato Gaúcho to gain access to clubs and women
An extraordinary and at times uncomfortable story told in a tonally jarring way that never seriously humanises its subject or forces him to confront the many troubling aspects of the tale relating to sexual consent. Maybe not a great documentary but an interesting story nonetheless and accessible to non-football fans.
We finish up this week with REN & STIMPY in the specially selected and fondly remembered episode "Son of Stimpy". Starting outside a quiet, modest suburban house at Christmas for a true story they just made up, Stimpson J. Cat is watching television when he accidentally breaks wind. Attempting to convince Ren of this virgin birth but to little avail and with his 'son' Stinky lost in the big city, Stimpy is heartbroken and falls into a deep depression with Ren's persistent sexual advances an unwelcome distraction. Thankfully Stinky eventually returns home with his fiancée, a discarded fish head, and the rejuvenated cat can officiate at their wedding allowing the marriage to be consummated in one of Ren's nostrils. Absolutely mental.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Until next time, we remain...
Bad Dads
16 Mar 2022
Midweek Mention... The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
It's a typical day in the life of Dr. Buckaroo Banzai; having completed a particularly tricky brain surgery and successfully piloted his Jetcar to test the "Oscillation Overthruster", a device he designed that allows objects to pass through solid matter, he finds himself drawn into an intergalactic conflict between warring alien species, the Red and Black Lectroids. With his nemesis Dr Emilio Lizardo having broken free from the Trenton Home for the Criminally Insane hellbent on securing the Overthruster for himself and the world on the brink of nuclear war, Banzai and his band The Hong Kong Cavaliers must uncover the truth behind what happened in Grover's Mill, New Jersey on October 30, 1938 whilst also protecting the suicidal identical twin sister of his late wife.
A 1984 B-movie homage starring a relatively unknown Peter Weller, narratively this is a mess and its hyper nerdiness means it could only ever have a niche following despite its towering $17m budget. And where exactly did all that money go? It certainly wasn't on the sets, lighting, camera, special effects or audio, though Sidey does have a theory. Barely establishing a cultural footprint despite the array of top 80's talent involved including John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Clancy Brown and Vincent Schiavelli, this is a real curio. Hard to recommend exactly but worth checking out if you're a fan of cult cinema.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Until next time, we remain...
Bad Dads
18 Mar 2022
Sorry To Bother You & Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum
What makes a great title for a film? Should it encapsulate the essence of the story, tell us something via symbolism about the characters or locations involved, be instantly familiar and memorable or generate intrigue? No, like everything important in life, size is the most important quality which is why this week we're looking at the Top 5 Movies With Long Titles.
SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (2018) is a scorching satire-cum-fantasy comedy in which the skint Cassius "Cash" Green (LaKeith Stanfield) gets a job at telemarketing firm RegalView and becomes a huge success by using his White Voice. Promoted to the executive floor to become a Power Caller as his colleagues unionize around him, Cash's life is never the same again after meeting CEO Steve Lift (Armie Hammer) whose company WorryFree promises lifelong job security and housing in exchange for what looks suspiciously like slave labour amid pastel-hued prisonlike living conditions. Writer/Director Boots Riley provides a debut to remember with the early establishment of a unique and playful visual tone complementing the absurd magical realism of the final act and a memorable rapping scene in which the audience is confronted with the dehumanisation of racism that might provoke laughter or feelings of extreme discomfort, probably both. This one comes highly rated from the Bad Dads, check it out.
XAVIER RIDDLE AND THE SECRET MUSEUM was Reegs's attempt to double down on the whole long titles thing and shamelessly exploit a popular US kids tv show in the hope of securing a few new listeners. If you did find yourself here keen to hear what two Jerseymen thought of the Charles Schultz inspired artwork and wholesome historical content coupled with discussions about problem-solving and whether children should have beards or not, then you are in luck because that's exactly what you'll get.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
MULHOLLAND DRIVE is director David Lynch's 2001 surrealist Hollywood noir masterpiece. Made as a pilot for a tv show that never happened, is it more than a series of barely connected parts with extra bits of weirdness thrown in for weirds sake? Multiple think pieces and online theories would vehemently disagree with that assessment but even if that disconnected peculiarity is all there is, that's still a lot to enjoy. Funny and violent and creepy but without conventional story-telling, this is potentially the ultimate version of the emperors new clothes with scenes involving seemingly random identity switching, stories that are setup and never completed or expanded upon, or that don’t tie in to other scenes in noticeable ways, random song and dance routines, baffling, unexpected and unexplainable plot twists and a reading of the movie that basically says at multiple points “it was all a dream”. What connects the amnesiac Rita who is struggling to work out why she was almost killed, why she has a bag of money and a mysterious blue key with a secret conspiracy by shadowy forces to recast a Hollywood movie, a bungling hitman and a monstrous figure behind Winkie's diner? You decide. No literally you do, David Lynch isn't saying.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Whilst you may have laboured under the misapprehension that the pen was a mere writing implement, in the world of movies it can do so much more. Mainly kill people according to our research. Will we find any benevolent biros when we discuss our Top 5 Movie Pens?
LOVE & MERCY alternates between two key time periods in the life of The Beach Boys singer songwriter Brian Wilson, the 1960s and late 1980s, showing how he got into and out of a period of prolonged mental illness which occurred during the production, release, and reception of the critically adored but initially commercially disastrous PET SOUNDS album. A sensitive portrayal sees Paul Dano and John Cusack playing Wilson in the different time periods with his overbearing father and the monstrous psychiatrist Dr Eugene Landy as the abusers in his life and Elizabeth Banks as Melinda Ledbitter, the woman who eventually became his wife and freed him from his pharmaceutical prison. An extraordinary biopic causing one Bad Dad to reappraise Wilson as a serious artist as we see how he transcended his influences, combining the rock and or roll of Chuck Berry, the vocal harmonies of The Belmonts, the Spector Wall of Sound and surf guitar riffs to create a new sound that took the world by storm and continues to captivate now.
Toy making genius Jimmy DiResta helms the Netflix series MAKING FUN in which his posse of impossibly bearded friends make improbably stupid objects for children just for the sheer hell of it. To show kids if they can dream it up, it can be built. As inspirational as all that sounds don't be fooled that Jimmy is a fan of kids, he most definitely isn't. In fact he dislikes them almost as much as he dislikes safety goggles. Burn! This week the team make a pair of Unicornicycles and just like in any real project the idiot customer changes their mind halfway through and adds a completely new requirement, in this case for the bikes to be able to fart glitter which is no worse than anything I have come across in the work place.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Complete guff says Sidey but with TOP GUN's sequel TOP GUN COLON MAVERICK due out on May 27th, Peter thinks this supposed '80's classic is due a re-watch. Hot shot pilot Tom Cruise competes to be crowned the best at the elite flying school of the US Navy. The movie frames rival aerial ace Iceman (Val Kilmer) as the bad guy, someone who had it in for Maverick from the start, but every time he confronts him he’s completely justified: concerned about Mavericks flashy flying style, his repeated disobeying of direct orders, casual attitude towards safety protocols and perhaps most egregiously, abandoning his teammates to pursue personal goals. The movie never bothers to tackle any of these concerns, insisting Iceman is a pussy, look at him get upset about not obeying the rules and regulations in these multi-million dollar instruments of death etc. and this point is literally never addressed as even in the big climax Maverick contravenes his instructions, albeit becoming a hero in the process.
It's a cliché to talk about the homoerotic content in this movie but it would be an omission not to mention it; there are many tense long glares of mutual respect and admiration, locker room scenes, a 4 minute topless and well-lubed beach volleyball sequence set to Kenny Loggins's "Playing With The Boys", a cringe worthy seduction routine and a baffling sexual relationship between Kelly McGillis's civilian astrophysicist, Charlie and our leading man which seems to involve him following her into the toilet and taking multiple showers.
This suffers heavily from being lampooned by Hot Shots! but still retains some charm mostly because everyone involved plays it as earnestly as possible and the flying scenes featuring real footage of F14's continue to impress. It's curiously apolitical given it was made in 1986, with even a hint of criticism of the military in the subplot about Maverick's father, a pariah hero shot down the wrong side of enemy lines. Probably not what you remember if you haven't seen this in a while but an interesting time capsule of absurd 80's values, very competently made. TOP GUN? More like average gun, but that doesn't scan as well.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
An egg is of course the fertilized ovum of an animal that grows and develops as an embryo inside some kind of organic vessel. And as delicious as that sounds, they are only to be consumed when they are hot, never cold as everyone in their right mind truly understands. Last week you may recall Sidey snorting with derision at the thought of compiling a Top 5 Eggs but it turns out Howie was some kind of egg savant, listing numerous egg or egg related scenes and movies in a matter of seconds. Sadly our favourite ginger insult magnet isn't joining us this week and neither is Bad Dad Dan, still journeying in far flung places, which is a shame because the pun potential as far as eggs are concerned is cracking. Should I make a few of my own? Maybe I'll whisk it.
Jane Campion won the Best Director Oscar at the 94th Academy Awards, which was a sterile affair with very few incidents to note of any kind, for the THE POWER OF THE DOG, which is definitely NOT a western. In 1925 Montana, wealthy cattle farm owner George Burbank (Jesse Plemons) marries widower Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst), much to the anger of George's brother Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch), a macho, vicious bully who prefers spending his days working the ranch and his evenings tormenting Rose. As Rose's son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) begins to spend more time with Phil, a more complicated picture emerges. Is Phil a desperately repressed and lonely individual pining for his former lover? Or are we watching the grooming process of a sexual predator? A fascinating and often very beautiful movie with stunning cinematography, this was liked or loved by all of us to some degree or another. Like an arthouse period drama slash revenge thriller, with a straightforward narrative that was more a triumph of mood and tone for my money. Well worth checking out. But not a western.
Peter's refusal to honour the central conceit of the show and instead focus on his childhood favourites continues as we look back at BANANAMAN. Essentially the DC superhero Shazam! but for Bananas, when schoolboy Eric eats a Banana he becomes the potassium filled superhero. We review season 2 episode 3's "Trouble At The Mill" in which our hero runs afoul of his villainous counterpart Appleman. This British animation classic features The Goodies who were less than impressed by the final product apparently and even back in the day I wasn't all that keen on this beyond the theme tune. But what a theme tune it was!
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
THE MAGICIAN (2005) is an Australian mockumentary written, directed by and starring Scott Ryan as Ray Shoesmith, an amoral hitman who allows film student Max to document his life. Across three disparate stories we come to understand but never sympathise with the calculating, violent and dangerous Ray, but what puts this film head and shoulders above movies treading a similar path is a truly memorable performance from our charismatic lead as well as a 'so black even light can't escape' style sense of humour which runs throughout the lean 1hr 25 minutes running time. Completely unknown to me and a bit of a gem in my humble opinion, check it out.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Before your phone rendered the entire idea of literature redundant as it continues to deepen its inexorable grip on your soul, you may well remember reading something called a book. They aren’t novel to noted bibliophile Howie; well he can at least recall seeing a movie which had books in it as he picked the Top 5 Books in Movies for us to discuss, presumably in an ill-fated attempt to convince us he isn't the knuckle dragging simpleton we know he is.
We watched BOILING POINT, the astonishing Netflix film from writer/director Philip Barantini. Things deteriorate over the course of one evening for Head Chef Andy; already metaphorically spinning plates before entering his restaurant, a snivelling little pencil pusher has downgraded his Health and Safety rating to three stars. With a dining room packed full of obnoxious racists and demanding Instagram influencers, an unexpected visit from partner/mentor/rival Alastair Skye and a famously caustic food critic comes at exactly the wrong moment. Front of house Beth's hopeless inexperience shows as she increases the pressure on a kitchen already burdened with language barriers, basic health violations, lazy kitchen porters, self-harming pastry chefs and, if you can believe it, much, much more. An utterly compelling technical achievement, the cast are all excellent with dazzling performances from Stephen Graham, Vinette Robinson, Ray Panthaki and Stephen McMillan in particular. Filmed in a single take which strengthens the general mood of anxiety that starts as soon as this film begins and continues to gather pace right towards the climax, this is highly recommended by all of the Dads.
Andy Day is Cbeebies longest serving presenter, starting way back in 2007, so the chances are that if you have spawned a child since then you will have heard of him. Unlike two of our dads who profess to being oblivious of the multi-talented performer. Not to worry though, Andy superfan Dan is on hand to guide us as we discuss ANDY AND THE BAND, a two season CBBS series about a problem-solving kiddy rock band who help their fans. In the episode "Ruby the Superfan", Andy's sister Ruby wants to meet her hero, a vlogger named Fay Moss putting their latest gig at risk. With roadie Whiff dressed up like a one-man Whitesnake and only too happy to take their place, will the band appease Fay and her surly bodyguard Sebastian long enough for Ruby to meet her idol AND make the gig in time? Will there be a cleverly crafted message about being aware of what might be fake or true in the media which also subtly highlights the collective vapidity and lies of social media and plots about how you should avoid celebrity worship and learn your friends are your real heroes? Well, yes. now that you come to mention it. Good wholesome content. Although thinking about who the groupies are for this band is a troubling thought.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
A few months back Sidey, Dan and Reegs sat down to talk about PAUL (2011), the Simon Pegg and Nick Frost comedy in which two sci-fi fans tour of the USA's UFO heartland crosses paths with an extraterresterrial named Paul. It really was a great episode, probably one of our strongest ever, but unfotunately none of us bothered to press the record button that night so several weeks later we attempted to review it again, occassionally misremembering things and being less confident in our take etc.
Having time to think about it again I didn't like it all that much. Paul is just Seth Rogen, Pegg and Frost are lost without Edgar Wright, qouting lines from other iconic franchises in by-the-numbers scenes does not constitute telling jokes in my opinion and there's a slightly sneery and superior pride in the movies atheism, often at the expense of crude jokes about christianity which is really just unnecessary. Just not funny enough given the collective talent here, supervised by SUPERBAD's Greg Mottola and a supporting cast featuring Kirsten Wiig, John Carrol Lynch, Jason Bateman and Jeffrey Tambor. The other guys liked it though so what do I know?
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Until next time, we remain...
Bad Dads
15 Apr 2022
Lars and The Real Girl & The Epic Adventures of Morph - Episode Re-Release
The Dads are on holiday but will be back as usual from 20th April. In the meantime enjoy this special rereleased episode where we discuss LARS AND THE REAL GIRL...
Original show notes below.
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“The lack of women directors in the industry is no joke. The top 100 films of 2019 were helmed by a total of 113 directors, 89.4 percent of whom were male and 10.6 percent of whom were female.” So said Women and Hollywood’s Melissa Silverstein after the 2020 Golden Globes once again featured an all male lineup in the Best Director category in a year where Greta Girwig (Little Women) and Lulu Wang (The Farewell) have had a strong case for inclusion. With this in mind, the Bad Dads Top 5 this week features those movies directed by women, and some of our favourite movies are included.
My sex doll and I have been together for 5 years this week. To celebrate our anniversary I thought I'd spice things up a little so I bought a book - the Karma Sutra for Dummies. And with that thought, let's move swiftly on to this weeks main feature: Lars and The Real Girl. Despite the sensational and ludicrous premise (a socially awkward young man pretends a sex doll is real), this thoughtful and uplifting film united the Dads for it's sensitive examination of what a community support network could look like for someone struggling with mental illness.
The sex talk continues with a nostalgic look back at a recently relaunched favourite. Yes morph is making a comeback! Talk about 50 Shades of Clay. Aardman Animations Epic Adventures of Morph hit the television screens earlier this month and you can hear our take on this once beloved classic. As usual it doesn't take too long before the conversation veers off topic.
We love to chat with our listeners - you can usually find us annoying people on Twitter (@dads_film), on Facebook or via email at [email protected] Please do get in touch, especially if you have something you'd like for us to review.
Until next time, we remain...
Bad Dads
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
This weeks Midweek Mention was chosen by Dan and sees his love affair with sports movies continuing with 1999's MYSTERY, ALASKA.
Rusell Crowe stars as Justin Beiber (near enough) : sheriff and captain of the local ice hockey team in the tiny fictional town that gives the film its name. When a Sports Illustrated article is published about the towns open pond style skating it attracts the interests of the NHL and an exhibition game between the New York Rangers and the local community is arranged, propelling the inhabitants of this cold hamlet to the centre of national focus. A heart-warming character movie about a small town that makes it big, with a sprinkle of star power courtesy of Burt Reynolds and an unexpected cameo from Mike Myers (not Halloween), this one failed to make much of an impact on the box office and critical reception was largely negative. What will the dads make of it?
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
As impossible as it is to imagine if all you ever do is listen to his razor sharp mental gymnastics and displays of intellectual acuity on the podcast, but Bad Dad Dan can from time to time be forgetful so it wasn't completely clear to me at first whether this week’s Top 5 Ice was chosen despite having the similarly themed Snow selection by Dan himself only a few weeks back. And hopefully whilst you ruminate on that shock revelation about the reliability or otherwise of Dan's memory, it will distract you from the fact that I don't actually have a proper way to end this paragraph.
THE KING OF STATEN ISLAND is in some ways a very conventional Judd Apatow film: aspiring tattooist and self-medicating slacker Scott Carlin (Pete Davidson) is an acerbic 24-year-old with delayed onset adulthood. When firefighter Ray (Bill Burr) begins dating his mother (Marisa Tomei), Scott struggles to accept their relationship whilst finally being forced to confront the death of his father, also a firefighter, who died in action heroically attempting a dangerous rescue. Apatow's body of work often places male protagonists with arrested emotional development in situations of extreme life crises, but this is an unusually poignant and moving story arc, made even more authentic and real when you realise that Davidson's own fireman father died during 9/11. An honest and real, if not always likeable, depiction of someone with depression and anxiety processing real-life trauma, the movie finishes with just enough hope to feel uplifting without being corny. Excellent support from Maude Apatow and especially Bel Powley levels out what is a male-heavy cast which also features a great turn from real life former firefighter Steve Buscemi.
Dan picked THE LOUD HOUSE on his daughter’s recommendation, so we watched two episodes "Left in The Dark" and "Get the Message". 11-year-old Lincoln Loud is desperate to watch the live season finale of his favourite tv show about the Academy of Really Good Ghost Hunters (ARGGH) but as the only boy in a family of eleven, he'll have to come up with a way to occupy all ten sisters before he can commandeer the TV. An instantly relatable premise turns out to be a great way to introduce the siblings, with each character getting an early chance to make an impression and some wholesome values on display as whilst the siblings fight it's clear that they respect, love and look after each other which is especially important given that the unexplainedly absent parents are almost certainly drug addicts or dead. The show has extremely strong representation which is something that we like to see with an interracial gay married couple, a trans character and a bisexual. Bit of everything really, so that's nice. Continuing the long tradition here at Bad Dads of finding out that art we like has been made by people of dubious character, writer Chris Savino was Me Too'd like so many other pieces of sh*t we have talked about on the pod. What a majestic world we live in.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. Try us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook B
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
The first thing we needed to get straight is whether it's pronounced "plaid" or "plaid" and then with that debate settled we move on to discuss the 1982 Steve Martin parody of and homage to Film Noir DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID.
When physicist and part time cheese enthusiast John Hay Forrest dies in a suspicious car accident, his daughter Juliet (Rachel Ward) hires private eye Rigby Reardon to investigate his death, unwittingly setting them both on a path towards cheese obsessed nazis hell bent on destroying America. Carl Reiner co-wrote and co-starred as the villanious Field Mashall Von Kluck whilst also taking up directing duties. The movie ingeniously recycles footage from classic 40's and 50's films, the vast majority of which none of us have seen, and is fittingly dedicated to its editor Edith Head who won eight Oscars for Best Costume Design over a long and influential career.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Sidey is famed for his sartorial elegance so it should come as no surprise that he picked the Top 5 Suits for us to discuss. By the end of this week’s show, you'll know your two-piece from your three-piece, your tuxedo from your dinner jacket and your shell suit from your tracksuit.
SOUND OF METAL is director Darius Marder's 2019 story about Ruben, a drummer in the experimental heavy metal band Blackgammon and the impact of his devastating and sudden hearing loss on his ongoing issues with sobriety. Riz Ahmed was Oscar nominated for his portrayal and it’s a transformational and powerful performance but it's supporting actor Paul Raci, himself the son of Deaf parents, who steals the movie as Vietnam veteran and recovering alcoholic Joe, the charismatic leader of the community. A rallying call not to treat individuals with disabilities as broken, waiting to be fixed, we all enjoyed this moving journey alongside the fascinating insights into the Deaf community and culture it also provides.
As a father to two girls I've been subjected to more than my fair share of unicorns over the years and feel strongly that this week’s kids feature, the animated series REGULAR SHOW, has it right: The Unicorns Have Got To Go, which is coincidentally the title of the episode we watched. Mordecai and Rigby find their friendship tested when Mordecai is more interested in buying new cologne 'Dudetime' in order to attract waitress Margaret than spending time with Rigby playing the latest exciting video game, Strong Johns. But when Mordecai sprays himself with the aftershave the only thing attracted to him is a group of douchebag unicorn bros, out for a good time and definitely not trying to trick you into drinking a cup of their suspiciously spermy looking cocktails. Soon things get out of hand; Rigby's trampoline gets broken and park manager Benson, a sentient gumball machine, appears to be sexually assaulted. Will the boys rid themselves of the hangers on and patch up their failing friendship inside 12 minutes?
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
THE THING is John Carpenter's 1982 horror masterpiece, combining a simple but sensational premise with some of the most incredible special effects ever devised from legendary prosthetic makeup designer Rob Bottin.
Crash landing on earth over 100,000 years ago, an unknowable alien entity has lain dormant in Antarctica until unfrozen by a doomed scientific team. It's unique ability is to precisely mimic any life it comes in contact with and this ingeniously paranoid idea sees the audience in the same predicament as our hero MacReady (Kurt Russell, THE CHRISTMAS CHRONICLES); not knowing which of our excellent ensemble cast might be the cosmic abomination until their face splits open to reveal some grotesque transgressive horror. As tension mounts and the team start to fracture, scenes of almost unimaginable awfulness unfold from a terror truly beyond human understanding and the ambiguous downbeat ending is an all-time classic.
Tune in to hear us discuss Ennio Morricone's Razzie nominated score, gather tips on how to spot which characters might be The Thing and unpack the unsettling existential implications of its terrifying central conceit. The iconic poster was conceptualised, painted and delivered to the studio in less than 24 hours by the wonderful film poster artist Drew Struzan and a copy of his artwork hangs on my office wall so if you can't tell already I'm a bit of a fan of this one.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
When it comes to onscreen violence there's nothing quite like a beheading to get the blood pumping. Whether it be in service of the story or the audiences blood lust, screenwriters have chosen time after time to lop off a character’s head, so this week sees us discussing the Top 5 Decapitations. Perhaps we missed one out, if so head on over to Twitter or any one of our channels to let us know.
BABY DRIVER (2017) is Edgar Wright's thrilling heist caper, set to a propulsive soundtrack which weaves its way through every beat of the movie, almost like a trailer but for 2 hours and nowhere near as awful as that implies. Baby is coerced into working as a getaway driver for crime boss Doc but as his final job looms, life becomes more complicated when a crew of dangerous criminals becomes entangled in his newly found romance with waiter Debora. Jamie Foxx provides genuine menace as the psychotic Bats whilst Jon Hamm's Buddy is a more nuanced villain, striking a paternal role with the tinnitus and trauma suffering Baby. Lily James is fine as the love interest, so too is Eiza Gonzalez as enthusiastic but meaningless character Darling which just leaves the remaining cast to talk about: Ansel Elgort and Kevin Spacey which is all a bit problematic to be honest, with both men being accused and investigated of sexual crimes. Actually, what we should talk about is the movie, which is an inventive and thrilling genre film musical, not a combination you see every day. DP Bill Pope ensures the whole thing looks incredible and the movie is witty and impeccably edited. Maybe the final act doesn't quite match the pure fun of the build-up, but this is bravura filmmaking that comes with the approval of all of the Bad Dads, for whatever that is worth. Nothing.
RASTAMOUSE is a stop-motion animated tv series which first aired on CBBC in January 2011. The series follows the adventures of the eponymous(e) rodent and his mystery solving bandmates Da Easy Crew, as they assist President Wensleydale and the orphans of Mouseland with whatever constitutes the latest emergency. This episode sees the town engulfed in a scam when legendary film director Spike Cheese turns up to shoot his latest movie but why does he need so many orphans and what is he doing with them all? Sadly of course Rastamouse was deported as part of the Windrush scandal back in 2018 so we won't hear his take on a complicated issue about race which emerges out of the existence of the show, which the Bad Dads attempt to muddle through. Does RASTAMOUSE represent a homogenisation of Black cultures and is it therefore fundamentally a bit racist? As ever we don't know so don't look to us for answers.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Reegs selected the 1986 Disney sci-fi classic FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR for our viewing entertainment. Joey Cramer stars as David Freeman, a 12-year old boy who falls into a ravine in 1978 rendering himself briefly unconscious and presumably sustaining terrible brain injuries, explaining the events of the rest of the movie which involves time travel, an initially hostile sentient machine from the planet Phaelon named Max (Paul Reubens) and the villainous NASA agency headed up by Dr Faraday (Howard Hesseman, POLICE ACADEMY 2: THEIR FIRST ASSIGNMENT) who is desperate to get David alone with his staff for a few days.
I'm being silly but this is by anyone's standard a strong first act, with a creepy Amblin style atmosphere and a barrage of childhood fears distilled into pure nightmare fuel; the idea that your home might not be a safe place, that your family can disappear or change in an instant, that you might be taken away by the government and subjected to experiments and that those experiments might reveal strange things about yourself. It's a shame that the final stretch of the movie sees Max devolving into a braying idiot, with all the charm of, and vaguely visually resembling, a sort of futuristic speculum.
There were a few first time viewers as Dan sat down to watch this with his daughter and Sidey did the same with his as the pair of them enjoyed their inaugural viewing. Without the veneer of nostalgia and with this movie being almost 40 years old now, will any of the new viewers find something to enjoy?
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Top 5 Pre or Post Kill or Injury one-liners (11:29) Call Me By Your Name (34:12) Baby Tv (01:04:32)
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We begin this week’s show with a chat about the Top 5 Pre or Post Kill or Injury one-liners, a topic which baffled poor Dan with its complexity and caused one Bad Dad to lament that an interesting looking topic on paper does not always correspond to an interesting topic to talk about. Still, if terrible puns and worse impressions are your jam you might get a kick out of this week’s chat.
Our main feature is the 2017 Luca Guadagnino film CALL ME YOUR NAME, a coming-of-age story following 17-year-old Elio (Timothée Chalomet) and his awakening sexual relationship with American graduate student Oliver. Set somewhere in northern Italy in 1983, Oliver's secrecy over his homosexuality is mirrored in the Perlman families own cultural and religious identity as 'Jews of discretion' and as the burgeoning relationship heads towards its inevitable conclusion, Elio's father, in an almost movie stealing scene from Michael Stuhlbarg, demonstrates a model of loving and supporting parenting, completely accepting Elio's orientation and helping him to move onwards from his heartbreak. You do not have to be put off because the movie features long languid stretches of mood and place and the actors are switching from English to French to Italian and the mother is reading a 16th century German poem about unrequited love because everyone can enjoy a good peach masturbation scene. Also, Jewish queerness and the acceptance of your child’s sexual orientation are not often topics for movies so there's that too but be warned most of the Dads felt this was just a bit too slow and the movie skirts a line with the boyish Chalomet and the playing 24 but actually 30 Armie Hammer age difference being too much for some to tolerate. Oh, and Hammer is a cannibal in waiting too which is not great.
It should be noted that screentime for children under 2 years old is strongly discouraged by researchers and paediatricians due to its potentially adverse effects on behaviour and cognitive development. And with that disclaimer out of the way, BABY TV was certainly the first tv programme or channel my eldest ever watched so this week we settled down to chat about some of their terrible cheap looking flash style animations. HUNGRY HENRY is a Mexican cat who wears a neckerchief and sombrero and really needs to find a new restaurant since his local hosted by chef George never has his chosen order in stock. We are treated to a vague approximation of the production line in an almost charming segment that isn't quite the pinnacle of the Baby TV offering. No, that honour belongs to anthropomorphic easter eggs with small yellow legs and googly eyes known as EGGBIRDS, who will also feature in this week’s chat. With that kind of line-up why wouldn't you be listening in your droves?
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. Try us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review or on our website
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Notoriously troubled production WATERWORLD (1995) wasn't the Box Office flop it was portrayed to be upon release by a critical establishment gleefully surfing a wave of anti-Costner feeling but it's also not the misunderstood gem that revisionists positioned it as a few years later when the movie was reevaluated free from the shackles of it's initial reception.
Kevin Costner is The Mariner, a mutant who roams the seas of a drowned Earth and becomes the protector of Enola (Tina Marjorino), a young girl whose tramp stamp may hold the secret to finding dry land. Denis Hopper's maniacal "The Deacon" leads the villanous Smokers from the wreck of the Exxon Valdez and is a decent foil to Costner's stock stoically dull persona though not everyone agrees with that assessment, with Hopper winning the Worst Supporting Actor award at the 1995 Razzies and the film itself being nominated for Worst Picture, Actor and Director which seems a smidge unfair, especially when you consider Michael Bay's BAD BOYS was released the same year.
The stunts are all impressive and the set pieces are big and well designed albeit a bit bombastic for my personal taste but the movie is long and rambling and lacks world building, with a curiously small feel despite how impressive the sets are. Costner doesn’t quite have the charisma to carry off the man with no name but with gills vibe and the acquatic mutation itself barely features in the story in any meaningful way, either plot related or thematically, so they seem a weird digression without further explanation. A mixed bag which doesn’t withstand the inevitable comparisons to the superior MAD MAX franchise, but the glorious 4K UHD version currently showing on Amazon Prime makes this worth revisiting as an odd curio, and we’re all unanimously in favour of this being rebooted.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
This week’s show sees us discussing The Razzies, the annual award ceremony dedicated to celebrating the very worst that Hollywood has to offer. Publicist John J.B. Wilson held a reverse Oscars party at his house in 1981 in which Stanley Kubrick and Brian De Palma were nominated for Worst Director, Shelley Duvall was proposed for Worst Actress and FRIDAY THE 13TH was on the shortlist for Worst Picture which neatly sums up just how credible the awards have been since their inception. Harmless fun some may say, while others might declare the whole concept to be lazy, mean spirited and critically irrelevant, with a bought for membership who are subject to serious lapses in judgement, guilty of a nasty piling in type mentality and completely devoid of any understanding of what constitutes cinema or art. We'll discuss the award shows apparent antipathy towards Sylvester Stallone, the brave souls who turned up in person to collect their prizes and some undeserving recipients as we discuss the Top 5 Razzie Award Nominees or Winners.
NOBODY is director Ilya Naishuller's action thriller variation on the classic former killer who is brought out of retirement to deal with a personal threat type plot, sharing much in common both conceptually and aesthetically with JOHN WICK, a fact compounded by the involvement of that movies screenwriter Derek Kolstad and co-director David Leitch. The film's greatest achievement is making the star of this dark and violent tale the comedy writer/ character actor Bob Odenkirk who trained for 2 years to be believable as the brutal and efficient former 'auditor' Hutch Mansell, who becomes involved with Russian gangsters when his daughter’s kitty bracelet is stolen. With incredible and painful looking stunts, inventive fight choreography, a good sense of humour and a playful use of jazz and pop songs as ironic commentary this was of course a hit with all the Bad Dads though it never directly addresses the obvious criticism that could be made about it, namely that a movie about a man whose masculinity is in crisis and that rediscovers his joie de vivre through brutal violence is a bit of a disturbing theme. Poised for a sequel we probably don't need (but I would almost certainly watch), the main question is which celebrities should be toughened up and given their own action-genre classics...how about Larry David, Meryl Streep or Graham Norton? I would watch any one of those movies.
MR BENN was an animated children’s show which first aired on British television in 1971. He lived at Number 52 Festive Road and could nearly always be found dressed in a black suit, white shirt, black tie, and smart bowler hat, evoking proper British respectability to one and all. I say nearly always because Mr Benn's daily constitutional took him near a fancy-dress shop where, as if by magic, a shopkeeper appears offering him the chance to try on a costume and go on a fantastical adventure. Dan selected episode 2 "The Hunter" for us to watch and we were all delighted to see the subject tackled with a surprising amount of compassion for a show more than 50 years old.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. Try us on twitter
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Mark Steven Johnson's GHOST RIDER (2007) sees daredevil stuntman - see what I did there because the same director also did the Ben Affleck superhero caper about a blind gimp lawyer called DAREDEVIL - Johnny Blaze make a Faustian pact with Mephistopheles which ends up in him becoming a flame-skulled bounty hunter. You know how those Faustian pacts can be. With steampunk Neo-clone villain Blackheart and his band of easily dispatched elemental douchebro's desperately seeking the maguffin which will ultimately undo him, it's the Nic Cage inspired adlibs and character details that elevate this B-movie with an A budget to something approaching watchability. Eva Mendes is window dressing, the writing is appalling, the central romantic relationship makes no sense, it frequently resembles a badly rendered PlayStation 3 game when the title character is on screen, Peter Fonda looks bored, the stakes are low or non-existent, there are plot holes galore and it commits one of the ultimate cinematic sins in that it’s embarrassed by its premise. Yes, you would have to be a moron to enjoy this which coincidentally explains why we all did to some degree or another.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
When you think about scenes in movies, boiling water never is too far from the screen. Tropes such as demanding that someone grabs hot water and towels when babies are born or directors using the whistling effect of a boiling kettle to signify tension seem ubiquitous and there's always the numerous horror movies where some poor victim receives a splash of the hot stuff to relate. Not to mention FATAL ATTRACTION of course. With that said when we came to discuss the Top 5 Scenes with Boiling Water, we collectively struggled to remember a single film, scene, or line of dialogue anywhere, from any movie or tv show that was about the subject so join us as we muddle through that.
Howie's Netflix menu paralysis resulted in us watching HOLD THE DARK. When Medora Sloane's 6-year-old son is abducted from the remote Alaskan town of Keelut, she asks author and wolf expert Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright) to help track down the pack responsible. As her husband Vernon (an intense Alexander Skarsgård) returns injured from active combat duty to join the hunt, distressing revelations being to emerge. Director Jeremy Saulnier and writer Macon Blair (I DON'T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE) bring us this dense examination of human behaviour with strong cinematography and occasional explosive outbursts of brutal violence. Grim, bleak and utterly devoid of humour I found this one sometimes narratively incoherent and without a strong emotional performance or character to connect to.
SURF'S UP sees aspiring penguin professional surfer Cody Maverick competing against the world’s best in the Big Z Memorial surfing contest, including 9-time former champion Tank "The Shredder" Evans and dim-witted stoner Chicken Joe. After being stung by a sea urchin named Ivan, lifeguard Lani takes Cody to meet her uncle Geek but what does all this have to do with the disappearance of Cody's inspiration, Big Z? I don't know but I bet it won't be that they are the same person, Zeke having faked his own death to avoid having to deal with the humiliation of becoming second best at the sport he loves. Although I wouldn't bet a lot on that. Or anything. With a strong ensemble cast including Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, Diedrich Bader, Jon Heder and a memorable turn from James Woods as an ambitious otter and a genuinely novel and ambitious mockumentary aesthetic, incredible water effects and an improvisation heavy approach this was enjoyed by us all.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Sidey enthusiastically nominated the 2010 cult favourite, SCOTT PILGRIM Vs THE WORLD. This could possibly be the most Edgar Wright movie of all the Edgar Wright movies. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but something to do with sharp, quick editing, great soundtrack and fantastic casting.
Whilst we know at least one of the Dads loves this movie, the movie was not a global smash. This one sadly lost out at the box office, and the audience's lukewarm response to the movie was reflected in the opinion of at least one of your hosts.....
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
This weeks show was masterminded by Bad Dad Sidey who would have pleased the many protective headgear enthusiasts in our audience by nominating the Top 5 Helmets for us to discuss. Will we manage to talk about this subject without a lot of puerility and giggling? I wouldn't have thought so.
THE LIGHTHOUSE (2019) was director Robert Egger's sophomore effort after debut THE VVITCH polarised the horror community with its emphasis on tone and atmosphere at the expense of shocks and sees Willem Dafoe's Thomas Wake and Robert Pattinson's Ephraim Winslow as wickie's tasked with tending and caring for a lighthouse for a month on a small isolated island. Shot using a rare 1:19:1 aspect ratio using authentic Petzval and Bauch & Lomb lenses on black and white film which induces a sense of claustrophobia to go along with the anxiety created by the constant oppressive droning of the foghorn, this is in some ways a very conventional A24 movie, as it veers from tense period pscyhological drama to lovecraftian horror via fart jokes and Promethean allegories. I enjoyed this one more in retrospect than when I was actually watching it.
Sidey has been a big fan of THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT since his teens so thought we should finally give this the Bad Dads treatment. The episode "Dougal's Glasses" sees the disconsolate dog moaning and generally being a bit nasty as he fears his eyes have gone for good. Does this still hold up? Absolutely not.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Dan nominated the brutal and violent 1953 Fritz Lang film noir THE BIG HEAT starring Glenn Ford for us to watch and I’ll admit to being slightly less than enthusiastic when he did. How wrong I was. When Police Chief Tom Duncan dies by suicide, hardboiled Sergeant Bannion finds himself waging a one-man war with gangsters Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby) and Vince Stone (Lee Marvin) as well as the corrupt political establishment in this searing pulpy revenge thriller.
As better reviewers than us have noted, including Roger Ebert who loved this movie, Bannion's almost pathologicial pursuit of justice comes at a high cost, borne principally by the female characters: Bertha Duncan (Jeanette Nolan), the manipulative Police Chief's widow who is shot and killed, Lucy Chapman the unlucky potential witness, beaten, tortured and killed, Bannion's wife Katie (Jocelyn Brando) fated to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (and killed) and the superb Gloria Grahame as the disfigured femme fatale Debby (who is killed).
Subversive even by todays standards with a scorching script, sharp dialogue and moody visuals, this is one to check out and recommended even to those who would normally avoid this kind of thing.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
We're on something of a hiatus this week but a few months ago Dan and I watched something a little bit different...
I'm probably not going out on a limb when I suggest that Chilean surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky's THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1973) is not for everyone. Here is the plot as regurgitated using excerpts from my notes:
Twin girls in white are undressed and have their heads shaved while the drums on the soundtrack try to break my skull. Stuffed goats adorn a throne room that's painted like a Dulux colour chart. A hippo is in the bath. Jesus who was stoned to death by children has been revived by a man who has no arms or legs who then rolls a spliff for him. The conquest of Mexico is re-enacted using Toads and Iguanas. In a factory, artists produce masterpieces by using their naked painted asses. A mechanical penis and vagina about 2 metres tall does sexy things. A well-dressed woman leading the military explains that a computer is fed data about wars and revolutions which in turn tells the government what to do, for example creating toys to condition children from birth to hate Peru and become machines of war.
An alchemist can turn faeces into gold by vaporising it and breathing in the fumes.
A man in silk pyjamas with a face mask is being spanked by a chubby woman riding a mechanical horse. Children dressed as mickey mouse in a house like Swiss cheese; a man like a jedi, bearded, the kids celebrate him. They make purposefully shitty condos; at a huge meeting, the jedi speaks of conditioning people to work while an ice sculpture of a penis is brought in.
An old lady wielding a bloody soaked sword in a tree made of chickens, she castrates a man. Another man is covered in tarantulas and screams.
Under a tarpaulin a naked hermaphrodite jizzes milk from his tiger tits.
That's really just a snapshot of this experimental film which relies heavily on symbolism, a great deal of which flew way over my head. A loose narrative does emerge from the chaos which sees a group of people representing the planets - or perhaps the actual planets themselves, that seems equally plausible - ascend to the summit of the Holy Mountain in order to kill the Immortals and steal their secrets. An insane and often quite beautiful movie, when it's not completely and overwhelmingly oppressive that is, there's often incredible creativity and imagination on screen as we veer from one darkly comic scene of psychedelia to the next. Unforgettable.
In an alternate universe somewhere, Jodorowsky made a version of DUNE. I would love to see that!
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Until next time, we remain...
Bad Dads
15 Jun 2022
Listener Suggestion...So I Married an Axe Murderer
We have been subjecting ourselves to THE PENTAVERATE for reasons it is hard to explain so when Johnny Utah responded to our call for suggestions of movies that listeners think are worth revisiting, Mike Myers 1993 follow up to the pop culture smash hit WAYNE'S WORLD seemed like a good fit with our viewing trends. It was a surprise to me though that this week’s movie, SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER, would reference the recent Netflix's series central conceit, proving the Canadian has had the idea in gestation for over 30 years.
Charlie (Myers) is a commitment phobic beat poet who meets butcher and potential serial killer Harriet (Nancy Travis) when purchasing a haggis at "Meats of The World" in San Francisco. Featuring many of the Myers staples which have persisted into his recent output; portraying multiple characters on screen (how long until a Mike Myers film only stars Mike Myers?), schediaphilia, genre or self-aware characters, euphemisms and Scottishness, this is a pretty mediocre movie with a decent idea at its core; the commitment phobic man who finds reasons not to be with women finally taking the plunge with someone only to find out that they are hiding a few secrets.
Sadly, the leads have absolutely no chemistry (and now that I think about it, Myers is sort of weirdly asexual given how much of his stuff is about innuendo and how often it relies on the reproductive parts of the human anatomy), and the jokes veer dangerously into bad comedy club style improv at times. It has an absolutely f****g awful 90's soundtrack featuring "There She Goes" on four occasions during the films run time and unironic use of the Spin Doctors "Two Princes", there are plot holes everywhere, Harriet is a terrible butcher and you know how concerned I am about proper meat preparation, and everyone's hair is appalling.
Given all of this it would seem a no-brainer that we would be advising that you give this one a wide berth but with the Bad Dads ultimate arbitration of taste reduced to a single question of "were you not entertained?" and most of us agreeing that there were enough good cameos, weird or unusual touches or sharp writing that we were to some degree or another, well, make of that what you will. Probably that we have terrible taste or that we're easily pleased simpletons, either are true.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
FALLING DOWN (1993) begins innocuously enough when an unnamed white male in his 50's abandons his car in the blazing heat of downtown Los Angeles traffic with the simple and relatable enough desire to get home to his family. Meanwhile Martin Prendergast (Robert Duvall) is having a sh*tty last day on the job, stuck in that same congestion and heading towards a retirement he doesn't want from a police force that doesn't respect him, in order to become a carer for his unstable wife. As reports emerge of an unusual robbery at a supermarket and a gang-land dispute gone horribly wrong, Prendergast finds himself largely alone on the trail of "D-FENS" who leaves a trail of violence in his wake.
The double D's - Duvall and Douglas - are both excellent; Douglas in particular as William Foster, the simmering ball of rage and alienation at the centre of the movie, while there's many memorable and well-executed scenes which have had a lasting impact on popular culture but this has always been a movie with some dubious messages and a very dark point of view. As an audience we're invited to enjoy Douglas's rebellion, to somehow see him as defiant in the face of oppression and therefore by extension we should enjoy him terrorizing his targets which consist largely of low-income migrants, service or retail staff and blue-collar construction workers. Prendergast's wife's illness is treated fairly insensitively even for the 90's and there's a weirdly misogynistic scene where a police officer implies Foster's wife may have demonised her former partner. The confusing encouragement and insistence the film has on portraying Foster's gripes as legitimate are totally at odds with the parts about the racist white man with a machine gun, fascism and the unchecked entitlement of the Boomer generation which is really what this is all about. Unfortunately cited as an inspiration for disenfranchised and psychotic mentalists who believe that cathartically sticking it to the man involves going crazy with firearms, which let's face it is essentially anyone who supports The Second Amendment at this point.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
In the spirit of the movie we are reviewing I thought it would be humorous to make the show notes excessively long so that it would take you three hours to read them but it turns out that a) no one reads the show notes anyway and b) that would take me an extremely long time so instead you can recreate that experience by simply looping over these next sections a few thousand times.
Frank Darabont had already directed the Stephen King adaptation THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, initially a box office disappointment which at some point was apparently unanimously declared a modern classic, before he worked on bringing another of the Maine-born authors stories to the screen with 1999's THE GREEN MILE.
Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) is a Warden Supervisor at Cold Mountain Penitentiary's Death Row, given the movies titular nickname because of the green linoleum floor which leads from the doomed prisoners cells to the electric chair. Assisted by a team including David Morse's powerful but respectful Brutus, Barry Pepper's youthful Dean and Jeffrey DeMunn's humane Harry, his aim is to provide condemned men with dignity in their last days, an endeavour complicated by the sadistic Percy (Doug Hutchison), foisted upon him by virtue of the state governor's nepotism. When the physically imposing but gentle and childlike John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), sentenced to death after being convicted of the rape and murder of two young girls, joins the rest of the inmates on Death Row, inexplicable events will bind both prisoners and guards for the rest of their lives.
It's fair to say that Darabont takes his time breathing life into King's characters on screen; the movie has a whopping 189 minute run time and focuses heavily on drama and relationship building before introducing the supernatural elements to the story. Thankfully it is a superb array of actors that he has assembled, with the late Duncan giving perhaps a career best performance (Kingpin aside), a truly unforgettable villain in Hutchison's Percy and a talented ensemble cast featuring the likes of Bonnie Hunt, James Cromwell, Sam Rockwell and mouse-fondler Michael Jeter.
I didn't join the rest of the Dads for this review so I have no idea what they are going to say. I imagine at least one of us finds this maudlin, over-wrought and just too long. If I had been there, I might have talked about the troubling 'magical negro' aspect to the story (quoting Spike Lee there my friends, don't judge me) so consider yourself lucky you were spared that. Most of all I'm wondering just how long they will spend talking about the part where Michael Clarke Duncan touches Tom Hanks's penis. I reckon some of the guys could do 3 hours on that alone.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
It's never easy writing the show notes when you weren't present for the podcast itself and consequently don't have the overall tone of the discussion to guide you. For instance, the guys talked about the Top 5 Hacking or Computers Scenes, but was any of it interesting? Almost certainly not. And what will special guest Rupert have to say about it all? And who is Rupert anyway?
THE HISTORY OF FUTURE FOLK (2012) has sat unwatched in my Netflix queue since I first joined the service, so I was delighted when listener Pearcey suggested we should watch it. Charming, low-budget sci-fi which sees Nils d'Aulaire as Bill aka General Trius who came to Earth many years in search of a new home for his fellow Hondonians but decided to stay after hearing music for the first time and falling in love. Soon his blissful and peaceful new life is disturbed by the presence of another of his race, the not quite right Kevin. With a refreshing lack of cynicism and a strong alien bluegrass soundtrack, I'm hoping the rest of the Dads and the enigmatic Rupert feel the same about this indie treasure.
CAPTAIN PUGWASH is the spineless and stupid animated pirate captain of the Black Pig and is renowned for being awash with sexual innuendo. Everyone knows for instance about the characters Seaman Stains, Master Bates and Roger the Cabin Boy, and that ‘Pugwash’ itself is derived from an Irish word for rimming except of course none of that is true, and reality is far less exciting though there is a character called Willy if you really love that sort of thing. Hopefully the mysterious Rupert will set us all straight.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Of course, it seems obvious now to reimagine the iconic video game characters for 1993's SUPER MARIO BROS. movie as being captives in an alternate dimension steampunk police state where people evolved from dinosaurs, which has been infected by a sentient testicle fungus and opponents of the fascist regime are de-evolved into barely conscious lumbering abominations but it took the largely untried husband and wife team Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, writers for MAX HEADROOM, to bring this creative vision to the cinema screen.
Incredibly, this "gritty and adult" version of the beloved platforming franchise was exactly what Nintendo and the production company Lightmotive envisaged, though whether the dreadful pacing, incoherent plot, awful score (wtf Alan Silvestri) and staggeringly painful unfunniness was by design is another question. Still, it has inspired a following of devoted fans and as someone who is possibly more generous than most to movies, I can see glimpses of things people might enjoy about this; the chaotic sets, the weird costumes, the odd dialogue and all-round bizarreness but make no mistake, this is a terrible, terrible movie. Thanks for making us watch it Breachy!
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Just three Bad Dads this week and since that's three for the price of none, only you can judge whether that represents value for money. With all of us having equine obsessed daughters it seems suprising that it has taken us this long to discuss the Top 5 Horses, especially as reviewing our back catalog demonstrates that we've held a stable interest in them.
We’ve reviewed a couple of Steven Soderbergh movies on the pod already – MAGIC MIKE, BEHIND THE CANDELABRA - but after the latter's release in 2013, Soderbergh decided to retire from filmmaking, citing the "absolutely horrible" mistreatment of directors by Hollywood producers, before returning with 2017's LOGAN LUCKY.
And I say he retired but it wasn't exactly 4 years of sitting around and twiddling his thumbs. In that time, he composed an edit of HER for Spike Jonze (which he didn’t use but said helped him finish the movie), posted edits of classic movies such as 2001 and PSYCHO on his website, edited the Magic Mike sequel MAGIC MIKE XXL and then produced and directed two ten episode seasons of Cinemax medical drama THE KNICK. Anyway, after he'd stopped all that mucking about, Soderbergh directed and edited this heist comedy based on a screenplay by his wife Julie Asner, in which Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) loses his job as a bobcat operator beneath Charlotte Motor Speedway due to being deemed an insurance liability and so plans a perfect crime in retribution. Together with his brother Clyde (Adam Driver), a former veteran with a missing hand, and his sister Mellie (Riley Keough) the boys set out to break the Logan family curse and rob the venue on its biggest weekend of the year, the NASCAR race on Memorial Day weekend. Well-made, fun and with a good bit of the old cultural critiquing go on around America's treatment of disability and the ugliness of the insurance industry whilst giving a platform to show a little warmth to the less featured red states, we're glad he decided to get off his lazy arse and start working again.
From the people that brought you OCTONAUTS comes this not quite as charming redo of the same general principal, with a more cynical eye on penetrating the US market and toy tie-ins. We look at THE CREATURE CASES (Netflix), which came highly recommended by my youngest and sees Sam Snow, a snow leopard, and Kit Casey, a fox, working as agents for CLADE, the Covert League of Animal Detective Experts. It's monsoon season and the animals are escaping the perilous jungle floor to get to higher ground using the bullet train style Monsoon Express. But when the chief engineer is bitten by one of the venomous snakes aboard, it becomes a race against time to locate the perpetrator, extract their fang juice and synthesise an antivenom before the train crashes, killing them all. SPOILER ALERT, they do in fact all die.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
This week's notes were written before all the technical flummoxing that occurred, scuppering our collaboration. They are however too good to delete so please enjoy, whilst pretending there's finally someone interesting on this show to listen to!
Charlie Bingham, host of the Mountain Conversationspodcast and archaeologist with a specialist interest in the common ancestor between humans, chimps and bonobos may well see her work come to fruition when she meets the ape-like Bad Dads this week for a special collaboration. Responding to our plea for listener generated content, Charlie suggested that we should take a look at 2004's A CINDARELLA STORY and decided to join us to chat about it.
A modern day retelling of the classic story which sees Hilary Duff's Sam orphaned twice in the first 15 minutes and sent to live with her evil stepmother, Stifler's Mum in a plot Sidey's seen before in many a different pornographic video. Forced to live in the spacious attic room of an enormous suburban mansion, attending a well-funded wealthy Californian private school and with a steady job at her stepmother's Café, Sam is on the brink of meeting up with her secret online admirer Nomad in real life, but everything from her dim-witted step-sisters to the head of the mean spirited cheerleading clique will conspire to stop them from meeting up with each other. Chad Michael Murray may well have the most American name I've ever heard, Duff is very charming and the themes about following your dreams, sticking up for yourself, being a good friend and stopping caring so much what people think about you are good ones for the tweens that this is aimed and the "waiting for him is like waiting for rain in this drought: Useless and disappointing" line is one I'll always enjoy.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
One of the best things about podcasting apart from the fun of the actual recording, the really cool people we’ve been able to meet as a result of doing this, the chance we’ve had to indulge our passions, the unity and commitment it takes from 5 different people to spaff this nonsense out into the ether each week and the dedication to refinement of a craft even one as insignificant as this is the fact that you can in some small way reduce your self-worth to a number if you like, the number of downloads that you’ve had. And though it’s not important, it is a little bit important so here’s hoping that this week’s super niche Moomin based content will have us shooting up the charts. We start things off this week by discussing the Top 5 Creatures and there were plenty to choose from.
TOVE (2020) is a biography of painter, writer, illustrator and The Moomins creator Tove Jansson, set in three different time periods of the Finnish artists life. Born into a family of artists in Helsinki, her mother was an illustrator and her father, Viktor, a renowned sculptor so it was perhaps inevitable that she would find herself drawn into the family passion though Viktor's cruel dismissiveness of her Moomins drawings fuels her fear of failure. When she meets wealthy socialite and director Vivica Bandler it sparks a love affair spanning several years as her creative endeavours and love life become intertwined. This is probably not a stop everything, you must watch this now type recommendation from us but as the true story of the sexual liberation of a free-spirited woman who threw off the shackles of her domineering father to become an international sensation whilst also exploring the subtle heartbreak of being in love with a partner who doesn't feel precisely the same way, there is plenty to enjoy. Strong performances from Alma Pöysti, Shanti Roney and Krista Kosonen anchor this well-made, thoughtful and at times very beautiful movie.
Knowing that THE MOOMINS was written against the backdrop of the author's exploration of her sexual and romantic identity while defying her openly chauvinistic father makes it all the harder for me to talk about the sheer freaky what-the-fudginess of the episode we watched, "The Moomin Valley in Spring". The first episode of the 1990 cartoon series sees the gentle watercolour vista of Moominvalley (one word I'm reliably informed despite what it says in the title of the episode right there above) as the scene of a horrifying Twilight Zone style existential nightmare where Moomin is transformed into something like the Sumatran rat monkey from Peter Jackson's BRAINDEAD. Also, the cast of characters reads like a list of urban dictionary entries: I smashed her right in the Snufkin, last week Bruce tugged my Snork Maiden on a pedalo and I've never been able to walk the same way again, do you fancy a Mymble's daughter? etc.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
6 years after an assassination attempt goes horribly wrong, resulting in the death of his young son, FBI Agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) finally captures and subdues international terrorist Castor Troy (Nic Cage) however with time running out to defuse a bomb that will destroy the entire city of Los Angeles, Archer decides to undergo experimental face transplant surgery in order to pose as his nemesis and infiltrate a secret underwater prison where he can meet Troy's brother Pollox, the only one who knows its location. However, complications arise when Castor Troy awakes and assumes Archer's identity for himself...
It's not hyperbole to call John Woo's 1997 FACE/OFF one of the greatest action movies ever made. It treats its outrageous high-concept sci-fi premise respectfully and earnestly, features incredible stunts involving helicopters, planes, SUV's, boats as well as the expected John Woo staples such as balletic action, slow-mo and doves but more than anything what makes it successful is Woo's interest in the relationships between the protagonists. Infinitely rewatchable and featuring one of my all-time favourite Nic Cage performances, John Woo should have had an Oscar just for getting Travolta to say the joke about his chin.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Until next time, we remain...
Bad Dads
15 Jul 2022
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent & History of Swear Words
This week sees us celebrating the work of Oscar-winning-action-B-movie-mega-actor Nic Cage by completely avoiding talking about his films when we discuss the Top 5 Cages. Dan's lost his notes, Sidey's lost his mind and no one is 100% sure exactly what a "cage" is so it could be an interesting discussion.
In THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT Nic Cage plays Nick Cage, tormented by visions of his younger more successful self after losing out on his dream role as a Boston tough guy in director David Gordon Green's latest movie. With his career floundering and rapidly running out of money, Cage has no choice but to accept a paid celebrity guest appearance at millionaire superfan Javi's (Pedro Pascal) secluded Mallorcan villa however when CIA agents Vivian and Martin inform him that Javi is secretly the leader of an arms dealing cartel, Nick is thrust into a dangerous game of cat and mouse with his enigmatic benefactor, whilst simultaneously trying to repair relationships with his daughter and ex-wife.
Two of the guys really liked it so expect a more balanced review than these notes might suggest because I was bitterly disappointed by this. Setting up such an absurd attention seeking premise, with all the meta that the plot which features movies-within-movies and trope aware characters implies, then using it to portray one of Hollywood's known eccentrics as a bland, neurotic, self-obsessed everyman in a limp buddy comedy with an uninspired action movie style third act is a missed opportunity of such staggering proportions it makes my soul weep. Fundamentally misunderstanding what makes Nic Cage interesting as an actor and with dull commentary masquerading as foreshadowing, this is like if ADAPTATION was written by the guys who did TWO AND A HALF MEN. There's a way better version of this movie which lives in my head and in it we get a much more interesting portrayal of the man himself, references to BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW-ORLEANS, VAMPIRE'S KISS and DEADFALL and Pedro Pascal doesn't have all the best lines.
HISTORY OF SWEAR WORDS is a Netflix exclusive talking heads thing hosted by Nic Cage discussing words like "F*ck", "Sh*t" or "D*mn", but none of the other profanities especially not that other one you're thinking of which seems a bit of a f*cking disappointment to be honest.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Having frittered away this weeks budget on extravagances like cheese and pickled chillies, the Dads were forced to choose a movie available to them at no extra costs.
Step forward TRANSPORTER 3 starring the very excellent Jason Statham. A strange choice by Sidey, as he hadn't seen either Le Transporteur 1 or 2!
Mr Statham plays Frank Martin, a man whose name confused your hosts a lot more than it should have. Frank is the Transporter in question. A courier of dubious goods, who has a code, but will abandon that code a the drop of a hat.
Dan and Pete really enjoyed this one. Sidey was less of a fan but still found a few moments to enjoy. So make up your own mind I guess.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Sidey was very keen to watch C'mon C'mon, so the 2021 MIKE MILLS family drama was our main feature this week. Did it live up to Sidey's expectation? You'll have to listen in to find out!
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
SWINGERS was released in 1996 and Sidey in particular has loved it ever since.
Dan joined in the conversation as the guys try to pin down exactly why this film is such a hit with the fellas. Is it the eminently quotable dialogue, the brilliant soundtrack or the gents style? Possibly all of those things.
This movie launched the careers of Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn and Doug Liman. Not to give too much away, but we love this movie!
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Would it be fair to describe us as Podcast Royalty? No, probably not. But that didn't stop us trawling our way through the top 5 topic of Kings and Queens. A particular film franchise making its possible top 5 debut this week.
Our main feature this week was overshadowed by some Oscar night slap shenanigans. King Richard was Will Smith's ticket to gold statue glory. But have you actually seen the movie? If I recall Mr Smith was somewhat of a certainty for the Oscar nod. We cast our vote on the movie and the performance.
Completely unrelated to the royalty theme is the kids tv choice this week. Buddy Thunderstruck is a Netflix animation thingy. Netflix seem determined to make us choose the plot with the interactive content device. We've not been overwhelmed with excitement by this stuff before, but maybe things will be different this time...
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
The late 90's saw a run of films which deconstructed the idea that reality was an illusion; THE TRUMAN SHOW, THE MATRIX, DARK CITY all explored this theme in some way but David Fincher's 1997 THE GAME is the most paranoid of all of them. Michael Douglas is superb as affluent control freak Nicholas van Orton who finds himself involved in a conspiracy when brother Conrad gives him a gift certificate for the blandly-named Consumer Recreation Services promising a "profound life experience".
Some typically great Fincher filmatism coupled with the expert pacing provided by editor James Haywood and the saturated cinematography of Harris Savides, this is a gripping and intriguing thriller which relies on a constant stream of narrative invention to throw its audience off guard, sometimes establishing characters as unreliable and then challenging that view within the same scene. Yes the plot goes off the rails in terms of plausibility by the time we get to the unforgettable ending but does it really matter when a film can build so much mood and tension and subvert your expectations this well, even after having seen it a few times? Earns an extra star for somehow making me want the torture of a wealthy investment banker to stop.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
As my work involves sitting at a computer for long stretches and watching films requires even more screen time, what I don't really need in my life is yet another sedentary activity which is a shame because I really enjoy playing video games. This week we celebrate entertainments biggest industry, though you wouldn't know it given how little attention is devoted to video gaming in popular media. And you wouldn't really know it when you listen to us either as we try to avoid any computer game references in our Top 5 Games section.
Leigh Whannell is probably best known as the writer of SAW and the INSIDIOUS movies but in 2018 directed the furious and inventive Australian cyberpunk thriller UPGRADE based on his own screenplay. Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green) is a retro man living in a near futuristic world who restores old cars for creepy reclusive tech billionaires. When a brutal accident and robbery attempt results in his wife being killed and renders Grey paralysed from the neck down, experimental surgery to implant a tiny microchip called STEM in him might just start to give Grey his body back. Like a slice of 80’s or early 90’s Verhoeven, full of inventive world building, the script crackles and amuses and cinematographer Stefan Duscio makes virtually every scene dazzle through great lighting and unusual camera angles but it's the physical performance from Logan Marshall-Green as an at-times passenger in his own body which astonishes. Judicious use of an innovative visual effect that sees the camera housed in a gyroscopic mounting which then tracks a phone stored on the actors body gives the action scenes a strong and unique visual style and the massive downer ending only strengthened our love for this ambitious sci-fi action revenge flick. Give yourself an upgrade and watch this!
We round out video game week with a look at iconic anthropomorphic hedgehog Sonic in the animated series SONIC BOOM. Based on a recommendation from my youngest we watched the season 1 finale "It Takes a Village To Defeat a Hedgehog" which introduces the second most popular character in the canon, Shadow. Doctor Eggman calls together a complete rogues gallery including Dave the Intern, T.W. Barker and his two circus bears, the Lightning Bolt Society, and Charlie the mad archaeologist to talk about how they might bring down the spiny mammal which involves ambushing Sonic and his friends as they attempt to build their latest IKEA purchase. In the end the furry blue speedster needs a cheap shot while his rival is distracted in order to momentarily defeat his nemesis, the cheating little tw*t.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Based on a 1998 Frank Miller comic book which in turn was inspired by the 1962 Rudolph Maté sword and sandals epic THE 300 SPARTANS, 300 (2006) is Zack Snyder's very loose retelling of the events of the Battle of Thermopylae taking place circa 480 BC and I don't really think I can reasonably cram 1 more number into this sentence before it loses any semblance of aardvark.
Gerard Butler plays Leonidas, master chocolatier and King of the Spartans, the most feared and formidable of all forces in ancient Greece. Warned by a messenger that the God King Xerxes plans to invade their country and despite most males being raised from a young age to be brutal unthinking warriors obsessed with achieving an honourable death in battle, Leonidas is unable to convince the Spartan political hierarchy of the dangers that the Persians represent and so, leaving Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) in charge to persuade the Spartan Council of the imminent threat, he gathers 300 of his best men armed only with chiselled abs and ferocious amounts of guyliner to fight the invading empire in a suicide mission at The Hot Gates, where the narrow cliffs and raging seas prevent the Greeks from being overwhelmed by the enemies superior numbers.
Utterly po-faced and sincere despite the often ridiculous subject matter, the film has a distinct aesthetic brought to the screen straight from the graphic novel itself; colour desaturation, heavy use of CGI backgrounds and Zack Snyder’s signature speed-ramping technique all combined to visceral effect in the many scenes of fighting, dismemberment and bloodletting against an ever escalating and inventive adversary. Of course you might think that this is all incredibly silly, boneheaded testosterone-fuelled fantasy nonsense with a cliched script and terrible acting, you might find yourself adverse to the troubling ableist aspects to Miller's narrative or just be plain confused as to how a movie can be both incredibly homoerotic and incredibly homophobic at the same time and I wouldn't particularly argue with you but I got a kick out of this when I saw it at the cinema and probably enjoyed it more when I watched it for this review. A triumph of style over substance then but not an opinion completely shared by all of us.
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The word 'myth' refers to a society's collective stories, often involving Gods and the heroes that have offended them and Bad Dad Peter Andre has us thinking all about them and their cinematic representations and influences this week, as we kick things off with the Top 5 Mythical Characters.
THE NORTHMAN is the second Robert Eggers film we've reviewed in recent months, after the deranged and often unpleasant THE LIGHTHOUSE and sees the director taking on the Hamlet origin story in what I hope is the first of a marvel style Shakespeare shared universe. Alexander Skarsgård seems to have found a niche playing wolf obsessed psychopaths having also explored this territory in the exceptionally bleak HOLD THE DARK and here he continues that as Prince Amleth, seeking revenge for the murder of his father King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke) and the abduction and forced betrothal of his mother Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman) by his uncle Fjolnir (the excellently named Claes Bang). Eggers creates an authentic feeling world for his Vikings as well as portraying their spiritual side in a manner that allows us to enjoy the fantastical elements of their mythology balanced alongside the historical realism that is his trademark. An often incredible looking film, all bleak greys, lush greens and fire amongst the darkness at the gates of Hel, with timeless themes about anger and betrayal and how revenge wreaks damage on everyone connected no matter how tangentially, if you don't like dimly lit scenes of people making strange vocalisms to rhythmic drumming or sequences where people behave like dogs (a recurring motif for Eggers and for Willem Dafoe who at least doesn't have to do the barking this time) then you should probably avoid this, but if you’re okay with all that and you enjoy timeless and classic Shakespearean themes, young boys decapitating horses and Valkyries riding into a beautiful Valhalla then this is probably the movie for you. Looking forward to The Safdie Brother's HENRY IV (PART 1) followed by Ari Aster's RICHARD III and then the eventual and inevitable history play team up movie helmed by Yorgos Lanthimos.
ULYSSES 31 is an undisputed classic animated series for those of a certain age, who can hear the theme tune in their heads just by the very mention of that title, though none of us remember the numerical suffix. Updating Homer's The Odyssey, the first episode sets up the basic premise of the series, namely that it is the 31st century and space Jesus Ulysses has killed a giant cyclops rescuing his son Telemachus and his smurf friends but the ancient gods are angry and sentence them to roam the stars in stasis until they find the kingdom of Hades. I've already mentioned the theme tune but it really is one for the ages, the animation is excellent and inventive and the central conceit, retelling Greek mythology through the medium of space opera is an obviously great idea, credited to Jean Chalopin (THE MYSTERIOUS CITIES OF GOLD, INSPECTOR GADGET). Be warned though, the comic relief robot sidekick No-No is awful in both concept and execution.
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We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Produced and directed by prolific Hong Kong auteur Johnnie To, PTU: POLICE TACTICAL UNIT (2003) spawned a multi film franchise about which none of us knew a thing. When Sergeant Lo (Lam Suet) has his service weapon stolen during an altercation with local gangsters putting his dreams of promotion at risk, uncompromising Sergeant Mike Ho (Simon Yam) of the PTU gives him until dawn to recover it, but their situation starts to become more complicated when a local gang leader is murdered.
Set in a Hong Kong where the cops are little better than the crooks, this is a moody and sometimes demanding crime thriller. Even allowing for the films 88 minute run time the pacing can be challenging (a sequence of stair climbing surely extends to parody) but its lack of conventional structure, minimalist dialogue and unsentimental ending in which various facets of Law Enforcement conspire to uphold the reputation of the authorities, whatever the human or moral cost may be, makes this well worth catching up on. Features probably the best 'power dynamic between police and criminals represented by virtue of a seating plan in a café' scene I've ever watched.
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This week’s themed content sees us discussing those people whose job it is to enforce the law as we start things off with a rigorous interrogation of the Top 5 Police Officers. Will a thorough application of the rules prevent us from hearing about one dad's favourite Traffic Warden?
Sidey chose Hannes Halldórsson's 2021 gay buddy action spoof COP SECRET for us to review this week and we are awfully glad he did. Whilst investigating a mysterious criminal organisation which has been breaking into Iceland's biggest institutions but apparently not stealing anything, Reykjavik's toughest police officer, the hard drinking and reckless Detective Bussi, finds his professional and personal life become intertwined when he is partnered with pansexual Super Cop, Hörður Bess. With explosives having been found at the big football match between the Iceland women's national football team and the mighty Lionesses and bizarre animal fact quoting terrorist Ricky Ferrari having abducted Bess's brother Maggi, the cops have their work cut out for them before they even have a chance to think about love.
A deeply silly film which sends up and pays homage to the likes of DIE HARD and the FAST & FURIOUS movies by taking classic Hollywood action tropes and transporting them to the mean streets of Reykjavik, the director shows just how much can be achieved on a miniscule budget (reportedly less than Halldórsson had available for a commercial video shoot) as we also get strong vehicle chases and a number of action scenes featuring a dynamic camera and well-integrated digital and practical effects. A consistently funny script which almost has the frantic pace of a NAKED GUN movie, there are some excellent supporting characters in Steinunn Ólína Þorsteinsdóttir's grizzled Captain Þorgerður as well as unfortunate crew member Svavar (Steinþór Hróar Steinþórsson) who just wants a little more organisation but it is absolutely Bjorn Hlynur Haralsson who steals the show with a mega-acting performance reminiscent of Nic Cage as super villain Ricky, who speaks English with an accent somewhere between Donald Trump and Steven Seagal. My one complaint about the movie is that a story about one man’s complicated feelings about his own sexuality in this kind of setting probably had the opportunity to be a bit more progressive than this actually was; it didn’t seem to have anything interesting to say thematically about its premise because it’s never treated very seriously like everything else but this is the only action movie I know of in which the two male leads kiss in the climactic showdown before settling down together to live happily ever after. Also worth mentioning that director Halldórsson was until recently a professional footballer and becomes the second director after legendary glove smith Peter Jackson to save a Messi penalty. Probably.
What else would you close Police week out with but a review of POLICE ACADEMY: THE ANIMATED SERIES?. Season 1, Episode 2's "Puttin' on the Dogs" sees the inept officers attempting to deal with cat burglar The Claw while supporting the new canine cadet corps and trying to avoid a**hole Captain Harris who wants them all to fail for some reason. Look, I en
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Steve Martin apparently worked on the script for L.A. STORY for seven years before he and director Mick Jackson brought this romantic fantasy comedy to the big screen in 1991. Martin plays Harris K. Telemacher, a depressed weather presenter, trapped in an unfulfilling relationship with his socialite girlfriend and disheartened by the superficiality of the Los Angeles scene. After being dumped by his girlfriend and receiving cryptic relationship advice from a freeway sign he begins to fall for Sara, an English journalist - from London of course - writing an article about Los Angeles for the London Times. With that relationship complicated by Sara's pledge to reconcile with her ex-husband (Richard E Grant), Telemacher begins dating SanDeE* (Sarah Jessica Parker), a ditzy clothing store assistant and only an improbable weather based emergency will ensure the smooth running of the course of true love.
Witty and full of eccentricity, time has not been kind to some of the romantic elements of the story but the sharp, fast-paced comedy still remains entertaining and amusing.
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Dan had at least three different attempts to define a Top 5 this week proving just how desperately in need of rebooting this part of the show is, finally settling on the Top 5 Bands for us to discuss.
DAY SHIFT is Netflix's latest exclusive and is produced by the 87Eleven team, creators of the JOHN WICK franchise and the recently reviewed on this very podcast NOBODY. Stunt coordinator JJ Perry makes his debut with this action comedy in which pool cleaning vampire hunter Bud Jablonski (Jamie Foxx) has a little over 48 hours to make $10,000 in order to pay for his daughter's braces and tuition fees or his ex-wife will go to live with her mother in Florida. At the request of cowboy legend Big John (Snoop Dogg) Bud is given one last chance by The Union, a secret underground group of bounty hunters the scale and reach of which seems to change between scenes, and is joined in the unexplainedly lucrative vampire teeth hunting game by officious jobsworth Seth (Dave Franco) as comic relief and just how much hilarity ensues depends on how funny you think it is that he pisses himself in fear and makes for a slightly rubbish vampire when he gets turned in the final act (SPOILER ALERT). Meanwhile real estate agent Audrey San Fernando has Bud in her sights whilst she plans to establish a new paradise for her kind right in the LA valley.
Plot out of the way let's talk about the action which is really what this is all in service of and is frequently beautifully shot, with a mixture of long takes and still cameras in which we can admire the physicality of the stunt team, and insane video game inspired camera moves. A midpoint action scene involving Scott Adkins and Steve Howey as The Nazarian brothers is a standout and involves vampires bursting through the walls and ceiling of a house, often caught by shotgun blasts and being sent back through the air in a completely different direction, Adkins using wooden stakes as num-chuks, a man decapitated using a television and a woman fighting using only her legs with kitchen knives in between her toes. Later a thrilling sequence in which Bud and his daughter Paige are pursued after leaving a birthday party begins and is full of inventive use of drone footage and video game references.
Given all of the cool people involved, the fact that its well-crafted, well shot action genre fare with a blue collar protagonist and a story about creating power through gentrification, I feel I should love this more than I did but there's something which feels so forced about the world building in DAY SHIFT that it somehow feels like less than the sum of its parts. There is little to get behind in terms of characters, the final temple looks like it was built on the set of a children's tv gameshow, the actor who plays Audrey has no screen presence at all and the dialogue is frequently abysmal. Like the MEN IN BLACK reboot or the absolutely awful R.I.P.D with more beheadings. Don’t get me wrong I would watch the sequel and its precisely the sort of ridiculous high concept mashup thing – John Wick with vampires – that I want Netflix to lean into but given the talent involved I hoped for more than just great stunts and tolerable entertainment.
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Wouldn't it have been fun to review THE FLY (1986) and also the 1958 original version? I guess we'll never know, having only found time to cast our critical eye at the DAVID CRONENBERG remake.
There's no messing about as the movie immediately throws the two main characters together at some kind of nerd convention. I'm a fan immediately getting on with the story and not wasting precious time with wearisome world building. We've got a podcast to make and efficient story telling such as this is a boon to people like us!
I suppose the real test of a famous body horror movie from the 1980's is whether the visuals still hold up. Reegs and Sidey certainly think so. Let us know what you think of THE FLY on any of our social channels.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
A frequent highlight of putting the podcast together is reading Reegs' episode notes. He really does have a gift fir that kind of thing. Anyhow, he's off on holiday for a few days a left the notes to me. I can only apologise.
The topic for discussion for our top 5 is INSECTS. Reegs has a particular dislike of wasps, but I think we can all agree that the real idiots of the insect world are mosquitoes. Sadly none of those feature in the segment, but we do find room for spiders, praying mantis and the occasional cockroach.
Sidey (me) has already declared his love for MOONFALL. This is an example of real filmmaking joy. Have a stupid/outrageous idea. Then double down on it. No one wants a half baked disaster movie, you have to go all in. MOONFALL is absolutely guilty of doing just that and I for one and glad. You could say that the movie is stupid, poorly acted and a boring soulless CGI fest. You'd be wrong.
We round things off by looking at MAN VS BEE. It's like JAWS with without the need for a bigger boat. And it's not as funny as Jaws either.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. Try us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review or on our website
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III picks up immediately after the cliff-hanger ending of the second movie, with Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) receiving a letter from a stranded but happy Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), after a freak burst of lightning struck the DeLorean. Discovering that Doc was killed a week after writing the letter, Marty travels back to The Old West in 1885 to rescue his eccentric friend...
For such a beloved franchise, the BACK TO THE FUTURE series has always carried some ideas that are a little strange; a teenager that’s best friends with a reclusive 60-something year old local oddball seems a slightly odd choice of protagonist in the cold light of day as does Marty's plan in the original movie to pretend to try to rape his own mother in order to help George win Lorraine's affection whilst the existential dread of Marty coming back to a new house and truck and meeting fresh versions of his family, inferring a life that he didn't live all the while carrying memories of a life that no longer exists is never directly addressed to my knowledge.
After the high concept, great execution smash hit success of the first movie and the haywire craziness of PART II, the third film in the BTTF franchise suffers by feeling a little bit too small in comparison. Reversing the chemistry of the two leads, where Doc finds himself acting on his emotions when falling in love with Clara (Mary Steenburgen) whilst Marty has to stay calm and rational, is a charming way to round out the series and show how our characters have grown but overall the Old West setting is a bit uninteresting and a series known for zest and invention kind of fizzles out a little. Don't expect all the Dads to agree on that take, or do, it’s not up to me but do expect some discussion of the persistent and recurring incest themes, hot and confusing though they are.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Train week starts with a discussion of the Top 5 Dinner scenes because of course and because we've compiled a list of Top 5 Trains already. I can't even be bothered to type the various meal based puns I was going to dish up to you in lieu of anything interesting to say to introduce this topic.
We're on the record as being fans of the slow shuffle rather than a raging, furious flail - I'm talking zombies just to be clear here - but Yeon Sang-ho might just convince us otherwise with TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016). Fund manager and uninvolved father Seok-Woo (Gong Yoo) must escort his daughter Soo-An back to Busan during the middle of a zombie outbreak and like most great zombie movies this one tells us more about the people who are left behind which includes father-to-be Sang-Hwa (Ma Dong-Seok), expectant mother Jung Yu-mi (Seong-kyeong), teenage lovers Min and Kim and selfish executive Yong-Suk. With so many relationships to keep track of and the pace amplified by the DIE HARD or SPEED type element of the setting, sometimes the characters can seem a little stock but also sometimes subtlety can go fuck itself. Whilst TRAIN occasionally leans into melodrama, virtually every single one of the sacrifices, of which there are a surprising many, feels earned. A strong performance from the likeable Dong-Seok, themes about immigration and how populations are controlled by fear, accomplished visual effects and an inventive script which sees our knowledge of the zombie threat constantly evolving combine to make this a must see and not just for fans of the genre.
It seems incredible that we've never tackled Thomas The Tank Engine but here we are, finally checking out THOMAS & FRIENDS. Ringo Starr lives on the island of Sodor along with the titular steam engine and his various trainyard counterparts. One of the main things I remember about this universe is that all the characters were, without exception, awful. Gordon was an arrogant, pompous blowhard who looked down on the other engines, James was rude, proud, and vain, Percy was infantile and a worrywart, Thomas was a classic narcissist and Harold the Helicopter had a fungal nail infection and used to steal underwear. In this episode Thomas is fat-shamed, Gordon plays a terrifying prank on him then the narrator effectively tells us 'never challenge authority'. Quite something. Things to expect during this discussion: innuendo, theme music but not the one you’re thinking of, discussions of the levels of sentience and/or freewill of the engines, the nightmarish uncanny valley faces of the original series models and Thomas's scrapyard fate.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Until next time, we remain...
Bad Dads
14 Sep 2022
Midweek Mention... The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Garth Jennings's adaptation of THE HITCHHIKERS'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY starts much like the source material, when the Earth is unexpectedly demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass, before veering off on a contrived and underwritten love triangle which makes this 2005 sci-fi comedy only moderately successful. Hapless Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) and his friend, the experienced galactic journalist Ford Prefect (Mos Def), find themselves aboard a stolen spaceship piloted by two-headed Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell), depressed robot Marvin (Alan Rickman, and Trillian (Zooey Deschanel), the only other survivor of Earth's destruction.
Whilst some of the surreal humour and wit of Douglas Adams's original creation remains intact in glimpses, we're never made to feel the tragedy or sadness of Arthur's situation which was a key element of the books, and a plot which takes a long time to ago anywhere never really does. Freeman's Englishman everyman routine is perfectly suited, Mos Def is a surprisingly good alien but unfortunately Zooey Deschanel is awful and her character is thinly sketched at best.
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The rest of us were only too happy to derail Dan's well-thought out hitchhiker themed week in order to produce a hastily assembled and confused tribute of sorts to the death of Queen Elizabeth II, starting with a discussion of the Top 5 Queens.
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (2018) is a biopic of Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek), charting his journey from talented and ambitious baggage handler Farrokh Bulsara in the 1970's to frontman of arena rock band Queen, culminating in a recreation of their triumphant and iconic 1985 Live Aid performance. Paced like a Wikipedia plot summary this movie’s biggest crime is its inauthenticity: both its factual inaccuracy but more importantly it never feels very real and consequently I never felt I knew Freddie Mercury better after having watched it. Malek's excessive performance is so distracting I couldn’t work out if he was doing a caricature or simply trying to keep his prosthetic teeth in, and a broad and formulaic story never seems to have anything interesting at all to say about race, LGBTQ+ lifestyles or the experience of having HIV in the 1980's during the height of the AIDS crisis , territory covered much better by PRIDE or the British mini-series IT'S A SIN.
It's impossible not to mention an excruciating cameo from Mike Myers as a fictional embodiment of Queen's critics, an EMI executive of limited artistic vision who thinks the track from which the movie bears its name is too long, composed of nonsensical words and that teenagers will never bang their heads to in a car. Get it? Because that is the exact thing WAYNE'S WORLD did! If the best part for you was the recreation of the Live Aid performance where you can enjoy Malek pretending to be Freddie and lip syncing in front of the kind of weird CGI crowd you'd usually find in a video game just watch the f*cking original concert.
It's not really a surprise this one is such a mess. Sasha Baron Cohen was attached to the project for a long time but dropped out, objecting to what he saw as the sanitisation of Freddie's story by the producers, in particular I suspect Brian May and Roger Taylor who are portrayed as the most responsible members of the group and consequently are boring nonentities. Director Brian Singer was fired part way into filming which might have been because he rarely showed up to set leaving cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel in charge much of the time, or may have had something to do with the tsunami of sexual misconduct allegations which were heading his way, and the last third of filming and all the post production were completed by Dexter Fletcher (ROCKETMAN).
In the interests of balance I should probably say that not all of the Bad Dads felt the same way - in fact angrily so in some cases - and that the movie won several Oscars, Malek's performance in particular drawing praise, while a win for Best Achievement in Film Editing completely redefines the meaning of the words "Best", "Achievement" and "Editing". I can honestly say I’ve never seen a microphone get an origin story before, so there is that.
KING ROLLO is another David McKee creation, the man-child sovereign of an unspecified kingdom who is enraged when his resident M
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George Clooney explains how to be a Jedi to Ewan McGregor in director Grant Heslov’s debut feature, satirical war movie THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS. Reporter Bob Wilton (McGregor) investigates the New Earth Army, a branch of the US military tasked with advancing America's interests by exploiting the paranormal and the psychic. A stellar cast and a smart Coen-lite script gives us some funny moments but the tone wavers between screwball and scathing and sometimes misses both targets. Think Fear and Loathing In Iraq or The Big Lebowsk-IED, whilst it never quite lives up to the potential of its premise this is a solidly entertaining and original comedy which once again features Kevin Spacey as an insufferable ar*ehole, a part he was apparently born to play.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
We start with a complete lack of intro this week but don't worry it won't be too long before we settle into our usual bland patter as we discuss the Top 5 Hitchhikers. Expect a few stories from seasoned traveller Dan, having somehow once found himself in the Belgian Congo after draft dodging, or perhaps some other stuff that he did actually say.
LION (2016) is a biography of Indian-Australian entrepreneur Saroo Brierley which tells the amazing journey of his reunification with his family, 25 years after having become separated from them in a train station in rural India. Accidentally journeying 1600km to Kolkata (Calcutta) where his native Hindi makes him incomprehensible to the Bengali speaking locals, newcomer Sunny Pawar gives an astonishing performance in the harrowing first 40 minutes as five-year old Sheru, who finds himself homeless and almost the victim of sex crimes before he is eventually adopted by an Australian couple. Dev Patel plays the adult Saroo searching improbably for his home, Rooney Mara does as much as she can with the thankless task of obligatory composite girlfriend but it's Nicole Kidman and David Wenham's benevolent parents Sue and John who warm your soul in the movies second half, made all the more affecting by Kidman's personal situation as mother to adopted children, before a simultaneously uplifting and heart-breaking ending draws this emotional gut-wringer to a close. A complete lack of any real lion content and an extended cameo from Google Earth forces me to take a star off.
It's summer vacation and PHINEAS AND FERB find themselves challenged to a thumb wrestling competition by local bully Buford after an accidental public humiliation with an ice-cream. Meanwhile, probable Nazi Dr Doofenshmirtz is attempting to mind-rape people into attending his birthday party and only the brother's pet platypus Perry can stop him. With Phineas undergoing a rigorous training regime masterminded by former world heavyweight champion boxer Evander Holyfield, and thousands of tickets sold to the forthcoming bout, sister Candace has the chance she needs to finally obtain undisputable proof of the boys’ shenanigans. Sharp writing and consistent wittiness mean this Disney offering was a firm favourite in one Dads house.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE (2004) began life as a straight parody of Bruckheimer style action movie tropes before morphing into something more satirical after the commencement of the Iraq War, and successfully captures the sardonic fury of those who accused the US of pursuing recklessly jingoistic and interventionist foreign policies in the wake of 9/11, whilst simultaneously spearing the hypocrisy and vanity of the narcissistic Hollywood liberal elite and their self-interested and superficial virtue signalling activism.
On the face of it then TA:WP is a political movie but the SOUTH PARK not quite alumni's usual brand of bland devil's advocacy social satire means that the film's message, summed up in an expletive ridden monologue, is a confused 'violence isn't always the answer but it's necessary when there are no other options' bit of whataboutery wrapped up in a cringingly pro-Republican metaphor about the US political system, at least that's what it looks like from this side of the Atlantic, 18 years after the film’s release. Trey Parker and Matt Stone's persistent nihilism and equal opportunist approach to offensive content means there is plenty of homophobia, sexism and racism throughout.
Good job the whole thing is still very funny then, with the film’s casual discrimination and hostile stereotypes going well past ridiculous all the way to absurd. It also helps that the duo along with regular collaborator Pam Brady have a great understanding of the pace and mechanics of the action movies they deconstruct, complemented by polished cinematography from Bill Pope (THE MATRIX, BABY DRIVER) and painstaking production design. Though the puppets themselves were notoriously difficult to work with - the pair dubbed their approach 'SuperCrappyMation' and frequently expressed their hatred for the technique - we are treated to several great gags like the setup to an elaborate fight sequence or a graphic sex scene made all the funnier by the application of the medium they chose. The songs are catchy, the dialogue crude and the disdain for Michael Bay palpable. Matt Damon.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
With the Dads decimated by a combination of birthdays, studying and paddle board salesman conventions it's left to Peter and Sidey to bring us the epic conclusion to the strong Puppet theme which has taken over this week’s show. Starting with the Top 5 Puppets, naturally, the guys are on hand to discuss some rarely featured films and tv. Listen in, or don't, there's no strings attached and it's all very heart felt. Sorry.
All you have to do to emotionally reconcile with your son is saw your own arm off in Jodie Foster's THE BEAVER (2011) which asks its viewer to suspend disbelief for a number of wild ideas, including that it would be possible to move an enormous mural from a downtown city wall to a bedroom without ripping it or damaging it any way, either during the removal or reapplication of the painting process. Mel Gibson plays Walter Black, once a devoted husband, loving father and successful businessman whose suicide is unfortunately interrupted by a hand puppet he found discarded in a dumpster. Allowing The Beaver (Mel Gibson) to talk for him, Walter begins to reintegrate back into his life, with the furry glove enriching the people around him in various nonsensical ways dictated by a screenplay so mechanically obvious that Mel hits rock bottom at exactly two-thirds the running time. Anton Yelchin and Jennifer Lawrence are fine actors stuck in a chemistry-less dead brother romance sub-plot which has the pair arrested seconds after graffitiing a wall late at night only for Lawrence to then presumably return in broad daylight and complete her design without any interference and also has nothing whatsoever to do thematically with the main story. Foster's acting performance is probably fine in a thin role as Walter's wife which requires her to instantly accept the premise (good job someone did) but also have a threesome with the hairy, wild-eyed wood-eater and the Beaver.
Pedestrian direction, an uneven tone and an almost completely humourless approach all contrive to make this uninteresting to watch even if you’re tempted to, because despite Gibson mining his own pain, this is little more than a cynical public image rescue exercise designed to garner sympathy. Give this one a miss folks.
To the legions of CAPTAIN SCARLETT AND THE MYSTERONS fans now flocking to the podcast in eager anticipation of their favourite show finally getting the Bad Dads treatment, I can only apologise because just as with LAWRENCE OF ARABIA I didn't watch this one and so can't fairly comment on the first ever episode of this classic Super Mario Bros Animation thing. I have only dim memories of this, a darker THUNDERBIRDS, and scale model wars with the mysterious Mysterons. Hey do you think that's where they get their name? From being mysterious? This was probably amazing, let's say that.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
The last few weeks Top 5 discussions have included Dinner Scenes and Hitchhikers and understandably that's seen us talk about THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974), one of the most influential horror movies of all time. Director Tobe Hooper together with co-writer Kim Henkel establish fundamental and often repeated conventions of the slasher sub-genre such as the Final Girl trope, the connection of sex with death and physically imposing masked men chasing people wielding blunt instruments in this misunderstood and intense film classic.
Much more subtle than that lurid title might suggest, with a restraint in the depiction of violence matched only by the excess of the deranged ideas at the centre of the film, Art Director Bob Burns's macabre production design is a grim highlight. Avoid TTCM if you don't want to listen to 35 minutes of women screaming, which at least one of the Dads didn't want to do.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
The sandwich is one of humanities greatest discoveries, along with the wheel and RollBot, the robotic toilet paper valet, so we sat down to chat about them. Perhaps it's the sheer variety of fillings that you can put in between two pieces of bread which inspired us but there's a real assortment of unusual choices this week; once we get on a roll, it becomes difficult to wrap things up.
Ever since my youngest discovered Paddington I've been quietly chuckling about pairing Alejandro González Iñárritu's THE REVENANT with it for one of our reviews, due to the bear content which binds them both together, however I've yet to find anybody who thinks this is as funny as I do. Happily though the 2015 revenge drama and multiple Academy Award winner stands on its own right without my futile attempts at humour. When frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) sustains horrific injuries in a brutal bear attack and is left for dead by his hunting team in the Alaskan wilderness of the 1820's, the grief stricken trapper must use his survival skills to find his way home, fuelled by a single thought: vengeance.
A superb arthouse thriller with a refreshing lack of tedious discussions about the morality of revenge until the very end, it features a strong and often revolting lead performance from DiCaprio which finally snagged him a Best Actor Oscar opposite a terrific mumbly-mouthed Tom Hardy as the ruthless Fitzgerald, and fellow brits Domhnall Gleeson and Will Poulter particularly strong amongst the supporting cast. Iñárritu's collaborations with Emmanuel Lubezki often dazzle in a technical sense and this is no exception, but this really has one of the qualities of great cinema: that sense of transporting you to another time and place, and though plot wise it's all fairly simple stuff, the film has the confidence to plunge you into its world without holding your hand.
THE ADVENTURES OF PADDINGTON is a 2020 CGI continuation of the Paddington Cinematic Universe (PCU), set between the events of the first and second Paddington movies but closely mimicking the visual style and thoughtful morality of the original 1976 stop motion animation. You'll never f*cking guess what Paddington finds in Season 1, Episode 1's “Paddington Finds a Pigeon”. Sidey relives terrible memories and Paddington is almost universally panned, with Reegs a sole voice of reason against the braying moaning of the rest of the dads. Gary Barlow wrote the theme tune though so if you were on the fence before that might just sway your vote.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
When pseudocidal proto-emo Harold meets his opposite, manic pixie Grandma Maude, at a funeral, both will enrich the others’ lives in Hal Ashby's 1971 black comedy metaphor about the circle of life. Harold is obsessed by death, Maude by life and a blink and you'll miss it shot in the final third of the movie adds extra depth and context to its message. Bud Cort's muted, subdued and often monotone Harold is the yin to Ruth Gordon's spirited and energetic yang, and the movies pitch black sense of humour seems surprisingly modern for something which is over 50 years old. Rounded out with a strong Yusuf Islam / Cat Stevens soundtrack and some splendid cinematography (particularly the shots of Golden Gate National Cemetery) , it seems surprising that this was so widely trashed upon release and whilst some people will be unable to get past the unavoidably bizarre nature of HAROLD AND MAUDE's romantic relationship, the fact that it continues to find an audience is proof of the films enduring appeal. A listener wanted us to check it out and we are awfully glad they did. Thanks Rachel!
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Cinema has had a long relationship with cigarettes, starting in the early 1920's right through to the 50's where your favourite star was almost certainly aggressively hawking their product directly to you in their latest film as well as hacking up globs of green and brown sputum in between takes. Legislation and the momentum of social opinion saw a dramatic decline in depictions of smoking on screen over the years but let's face it, if you ever want to establish your character is tense or hedonistic or self-destructive, if you ever need to show they are stressed, have just had sex or are about to undertake a heroic suicide mission, if you need a single thing to show your audience that your protagonist is impossibly cool then you're not going to be doing that with a vape are you. We take time off from our busy lives to bring you the Top 5 Cigarettes, a discussion so good it will take your breath away.
GET OUT is Jordan Peele's sensational 2017 horror and follows photographer Chris as he runs a dizzying gauntlet of trying to remain politely affable whilst attempting to not be too offended when he meets girlfriend Rose's liberal parents for the first time in a wearying weekend away. It's MEET THE FOCKERS with racism then, right? Well not quite.
A movie which intentionally plays on the fear of white people, for example the worry that young black males might reasonably have of experiencing violence in predominantly white American suburbs or the existence of apparently well-meaning surface-level non-racist liberals who turn out to be monsters perpetuating schemes of marginalization, subjugation and literal appropriation, this is an astonishing debut with Kubrickian style attention to detail and foreshadowing, clever dialogue, tight writing, a moody and evocative soundtrack and new ideas and discussions represented on screen. An absolute must see from a unique voice, already its targets seem a little dated with the US having culturally and spiritually regressed about a century since 2017 and the subtle threat of neoliberal racism now far outweighed by the more overt xenophobia and bigotry of the hard right, which seems to have more of a platform than ever.
It's the end of winter and Quack the duck has just finished his latest installation of Snow duck art in PEEP AND THE BIG WIDE WORLD. When a bored Peep and Chirp discover the astonishing things you can do with beaver, life will never be the same for either of them again. Narrated by Joan Cusack and set up to promote an interest in exploration and education, one of the dads was less than impressed by the scientific content.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Danny DeVito’s blackly comic THE WAR OF THE ROSES (1989) charts the disintegration of a marriage as Barbara and Oliver Rose try anything and everything to drive each other out of the shared marital home during a vicious divorce battle. Capitalising on the obvious chemistry between leads Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas as well as their shared cinematic history in 80's romantic comedies ROMANCING THE STONE and THE JEWEL OF THE NILE, director Danny DeVito chooses to frame the story by having his lawyer character Gavin D'Amato tell a potential client, at work, about multiple sexual encounters which occurred between the lead characters, their eventual deaths (spoiler alert) and also the time he got a footjob during their dinner party.
Whilst the dialogue is slick the tone feels uneven, veering from broad slapstick to darkly humorous fantasy, with a little film noir thrown in because why not. Coupled with some overly elaborate camera moves and a preposterous number of split-diopter shots, the stylistic overload will exhaust you just as much as the relentless and unpleasant bickering of the lead characters.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Things get off to a flying start this week as we discuss the Top 5 Slow Motion moments: mind melting special effects, hilarious comedic scenes, big drama and a load of excellent nominations from our listeners help conclude this now completely rejuvenated section of the show. Huzzah!
We like to think we offer a broad spectrum of reviews, reflecting our various interests and love of all different genres of film. One area we haven't really tackled is the romantic comedy which led Dan to choose Netflix's LOOK BOTH WAYS for our entertainment this week and with a clever conceit which allows us to follow the different paths that artist Natalie's life takes when she finds out the result of a pregnancy test on her graduation day, surely this had the potential to be a surprise hit with the Dads?
That would have been nice but unfortunately despite the low bar this podcast set in the very early days, the key question of "were you entertained?", LOOK BOTH WAYS cannot reach even that. A reasonably charming performance from Riverdale's Lili Reinhart cannot compensate for the thinly-sketched love interests with personalities such as "wears tight jumpers and has dubious takes on animated movies" and "terrible drummer in an awful covers band", soporific plot and thematic blandness accompanying it's "everything will be okay" message, all delivered with competent but uninspired direction and one of the worst scores you'll ever be forced to hear. Reducing a movie about an accidental pregnancy, in Texas, to a dull, platitude filled rom-com seems insensitive at best with the current dismal state of affairs in the US, the baby timeline never seems to feature financial worries or trouble from either Natalie or Gabe in adapting to being a co-parent and the overall sense from both realities is that it doesn't matter whether you have a child, the most important thing is whether you snag a hot boyfriend. Warm and cosy I guess, in the sense that it made me want to go to sleep.
ODDBALLS is an animated adventure comedy from YouTube artists James Rallison and Ethan Banville. Episode 4 "Line Cutters" combines the social observation of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM with the inventive lunacy of RICK AND MORTY and sees James, a sentient marshmallow blob, and Max, a crocodile, at the front of the queue for a food stand selling ribs which have been slow cooked for 100 years by chefs infused with the DNA of Gordon Ramsey. When security rock Roxanne sends them to the back of the line following an incident with a girl from the future the duo will unravel a horrific conspiracy but also eat some tasty meat so every cloud etc.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Based very loosely on "The Golden Man" by Philip K. Dick, NEXT (2007) tells the story of Chris Johnson (Nic Cage), cursed with the ability to see 2 minutes into the future, except for when the plot demands it. Using his gifts to make modest wins in Las Vegas casinos and hiding behind the façade of being a cheap stage magician, Johnson finds himself reluctantly drawn into solving a terrorist plot by FBI agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore).
One of the stupidest movies ever made, and I mean that as a compliment, this is 90 minutes of fun featuring a fairly subdued Cage - though his hair is magnificent - and committed and earnest performances from Moore and Jessica Biel as love interest Liz, who is so far out of Johnson's league they might as well be playing different sports. The true star here though is the preposterous screenplay, with its mix of sincere but silly and unintentionally funny.
Huge spoilers I guess in the sense that we discuss the fact that two-thirds of the films running time is devoted to a series of events that never happened because it was all a dream.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Until next time, we remain...
Bad Dads
28 Oct 2022
Everything Everywhere All At Once & Star vs The Forces of Evil
The Top 5 Movies Set Over a Single Day or Night sees us chatting about those movies taking place in up to or under 24 hours, or in one case, 25 hours. Watch out time loop movie enthusiasts, damp squib Reegs is here to stop you bending the rules.
Ever since I'd heard about EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (2022), a martial arts comedy with a mind-bending concept from The Daniels, whose SWISS ARMY MAN delighted us with its mix of absurdity, vulgarity and profundity, starring the legendary Michelle Yeoh and Data from THE GOONIES I was pretty excited about the prospect of seeing it. Though I have mostly managed to avoid reviews and remain unspoilt, it has been impossible to avoid the hype that has surrounded it's release, with paragraph after paragraph already devoted to examining the movie’s plot and themes so my expectations were suitably high.
An intimidating film to talk about due to its dense plotting, genre mixing and jarring tonal moments where the absurd and ridiculous are juxtaposed with the genuine and heartfelt, on first viewing I found the experience borderline overwhelming and had a mixed initial reaction but having had the chance to think and rewatch it, I came to love it.
This is not an easy movie to synopsise, but I'll have a go. Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) runs a struggling laundromat with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), whom she married after rejecting her conservative father Gong Gong's advice not to, whilst coming to terms with her daughter Joy's sexuality and her worries as to what the judgemental Gong Gong will think of it. Oblivious to Waymond's attempts to file divorce papers, they attend a make it or break it meeting with an IRS auditor who eventually gives them extra time to submit their receipts. In between quite a lot of other stuff happens, most of it you're better off discovering yourself.
A film which rewards multiple viewings, with themes about family and parenting, rejecting hopelessness, the power of kindness but wrapped up in a complex science fiction device, featuring absurd and crude humour, inventive visuals and kick ass martial arts, which builds and resolves multiple emotional story arcs that all advance or expand upon the main story, centering on the complicated relationship between a mother and daughter, this is an utterly unique experience.
STAR VS. THE FORCES OF EVIL tells the story of princess Star Butterfly, banished to earth to practice wielding the awesome power of the Royal Magic Wand. There's a universe somewhere where this wasn't heavily derivative stylistically and conceptually of several other much better shows, but it isn't this one.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Stanley Kubrick's cinematic treatise on violence and free will, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971), gets the Bad Dads treatment as we tackle the story of Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), leading his gang of droogs and getting ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence accompanied by the bliss and heaven of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Controversial, sexually violent and disturbing and that's just our review.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Do you like fruit? Of course not but we tell our children we do because we want them to believe the ridiculous lie that fruit is real food, and that is what's important. I have an apple pretty much every day, that's how sound I am. We discuss the use of fruit in films and given their myriad of uses - mainly for smashing into during car chases or f****g - there is a lot to choose from.
Legendary British comic book writer Warren Ellis co-created a three issue DC Comics series called RED that inspired the 2010 action-comedy which is the subject of this week’s review. Whilst Bruce Willis might be on familiar ground as former black-ops agent Frank Moses, director Robert Schwentke assembles an unlikely cast to support him which includes Morgan Freeman as his CIA mentor, John Malkovich as a victim of illegal experimentation, subjected to daily doses of LSD for years, Helen Mirren as a retired MI6 assassin and Brian Cox as an ex-KGB officer who is still in love with her. This one really runs the gamut from average to mediocre, though anyone who can't enjoy Dame Helen wielding an enormous belt-fed machine gun or Brian Cox hamming it up more than Miss Piggy's bacon sandwich is dead inside.
GREEN EGGS AND HAM was the result of a bet between medical professional impersonator Dr Seuss and his publicist that he couldn't write a novel using only 50 words and the fact that the prestige-fraud claiming quack successfully produced one of the best-selling kids’ books of all time conclusively proves that children are idiots. This 23-episode Netflix adaptation features striking visuals and a strong cast including Michael Douglas, Adam Devine, Keegan-Michael Key and Eddie Izzard but that doesn't stop us from asking the important questions like just why is the titular food green and what might the devious Sam-I-Am be hiding? Watch out for an explosive finale to the review where two of the guys say they will watch more of this, and the other dad beats them to death for their lies and insolence.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Our Disney themed week begins with a review of 1960's SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON. After their ship is wrecked on a deserted tropical island, a family is forced to make a new home whilst simultaneously fending off a menagerie of dangerous animals and evading a band of cut-throat pirates. For many, this story will occupy a special nostalgic place in their heart and it's true that the plot and incredible production design still impress, whilst the presence of the great John Mills compensates for the painful performance from Ken Corcoran but unfortunately the distressing and frequent scenes of animal cruelty render this once classic family movie unwatchable. Our review is great though.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Bad Dad Peter has recently spent some time with his children in the USA and having sampled the finest our cousins from the other side of the Atlantic have to offer, he thought he'd recognise the high watermark of American culture, the film offerings of the Disney company, for this week’s show. Our top 5 Memorable Disney Moments features a broad spectrum of Walt's offerings.
It would be easy to dismiss the latest Disney Pixar movie as being a shameless TOY STORY cash-in and just like any normal adult my enthusiasm for a Buzz Lightyear origin story was virtually non-existent, so when the reviews came in and decreed almost universally that LIGHTYEAR was mediocre my expectations were lower than a crypto bros credit score. When Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear (Chris Evans) accidentally maroons the 1200 strong crew of The Turnip on an uncharted planet, he will stop at nothing to save their lives, even if it costs him his own. Buzz learning that he cannot fix everything and that he has to be willing to accept help is a meaningful character arc allowing the movie to discuss its themes of male vulnerability, what it means to inspire someone, how to respond to mistakes in life and wraps all that up in a plot which features an interesting use of real world physics like the Theory of Special Relativity. Enjoyed by all of our kids, this was a surprise hit.
Whilst there is an extremely unpleasant Urban Dictionary definition pertaining to STEAMBOAT WILLIE, which involves parts of the male anatomy, cigarettes and locomotive impressions, it's the slightly less scatological 1928 animated debut of Mickey and Minnie Mouse we're chatting about this week. It's a Disney classic so of course it features brutal animal violence which we know you all enjoy.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Denzel Washington once again collaborates with Antoine Fuqua to bring us THE EQUALIZER. A preboot-remake-aquel of the 1980's tv series, Denzel brings his usual dry wit and charisma to this tale of the OCD suffering Robert McCall who becomes embroiled in a war with Russian gangsters after intervening on behalf of Chloe Grace Moretz's child prostitute Alina. The Mark Twain quote that starts the movie invites us to superimpose some substance on McCall's violence-soaked quest for retribution but all things being equal (sorry) this is a more than familiar former black-ops operative turned vigilante white knight power fantasy. Good job it’s all stylishly executed and well plotted with an effective Martin Csokas as the ex-head of Soviet Secret Police Teddy whose sadism can't hold a candle (or hand-drill) to Robert's thirst for vengeance.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Srinivasa Ramanujan, the well known Indian mathematician, had almost no formal training in pure mathematics, yet he made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions, including solutions to mathematical problems then considered unsolvable. He also loved movies with numbers in the title and would have been right at home with this weeks TOP5 content.
Continuing the number theme was the RON HOWARD 2022 American biographical survival film based on the Tham Luang cave rescue. This one was tense AF, but gripping too. Featuring a great performances from Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell, this was a strong recommend from the Dads.
Rounding off the week was some kids thing called The Brilliant World of Tom Gates. Both Dan and Reegs were impressed, but I didn't see it having forgotten that the original choice of Zog had been switched for this. So I don't really know what to say here....
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
We've been stanning for Colin Farrell for some time now and following his portrayal of quiet and modest heroism in THIRTEEN LIVES. I thought we should take a look at his back catalogue to work out whether there were early signs of his promise. It turns out there were. PHONE BOOTH (2002) is Joel Schumacher's expertly-paced, gimmicky thriller set in real time and virtually a single-location which sees Farrell captivating as the sleazy and obnoxious New York yuppie who finds himself engaged in a cat and mouse game with Kiefer Sutherland's psychotic sniper. Tense and claustrophobic and showcasing a number of amusing early noughties trends, from the fashions and styles to the editing and themes, this is well worth a rewatch.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
We're going full edgelord this week as we discuss the Top 5 Most Controversial movies, from some of the most distressing cinema we've ever seen to the most divisive. Expect buttery sex acts, cannibals, violence, a discussion about whether movies are guilty by association to their problematic stars, and of course, Star Wars polariser, THE LAST JEDI.
Written, directed by and starring LA comedy writers Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe, GREENER GRASS (2019) is an absurdist comedy about the extreme politeness, weaponised passive aggression and hostility of the suburbs. Jill Davies' (DeBoer) impulsive decision to give away her baby to best friend Lisa (Luebbe) has far-reaching consequences, threatening her relationship with pool water obsessed husband Nick and exacerbating son Julian's behavioural issues. Based on a short comedy film and with several SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE cast members involved in supporting roles, those roots sometimes show themselves as this is not entirely successful as a feature length movie but its consistent funniness and surreal examination of persistent cultural ideas about not offending people, performative gestures of kindness, the ridiculous keeping-up-with-The-Jones's struggle for validation and how women are constantly apologising for minor transgressions makes this well worth catching.
We finish things off with POLLY POCKET which was a fondly remembered plaything for some of our partners and wives but unfortunately was reduced to a charmless animated commercial when we watched it, with weak characters and poor pacing.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
ZERO EFFECT takes the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle short story "A Scandal in Bohemia" and updates it in a 1998 comedy slash mystery from Jake Kasdan which Sidey loves and I had never seen before. Bill Pullman is tortured soul Daryl Zero; the world's greatest private investigator and a recluse who will only be represented in public by his long-suffering assistant Arlo (Ben Stiller). Together, Zero and Arlo have solved some of the world's most bewildering criminal cases, including The Case Of The Man With Mismatched Shoelaces and The Case of the Hired Gun Who Made Too Many Mistakes. When wealthy businessman Gregory Stark (Ryan O Neal) hires the duo to find missing keys to a safety deposit box, Zero uncovers a secret involving Gloria Sullivan (Kim Dickens), a paramedic with a mysterious past, whilst also finding himself slowly falling in love with her.
Both the Downey Jr. SHERLOCK movies left me cold and beyond KNIVES OUT I would be hard pressed to name anything in this genre that's raised even a semi out of me recently so I'm probably not the best to review this because beyond the excellent opening 40 minutes where we are introduced to Zero and his world, I found the movie to be meandering and sometimes predictable during the actual mystery. A huge lack of chemistry between Pullman and Dickens doesn't help and the ending seems somehow both abrupt and overly long at the same time though Sidey will point to all the stuff that's good about it: the off kilter neo-noir aspects, Bill Pullman's magnetic performance, the pulpy mystery and surprising denouement so if you are a fan of the Sherlock Holmes mythos or the crime mystery genre and haven't seen this, you should absolutely check it out.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
We're not just killing time this week as we discuss the best murderers in movies, but what exactly does that mean: memorable murderers, murderers who can't remember, most kills, actors who murder a lot? Why yes, all that and more.
Having attempted to tackle the rom-com with the vapid LOOK BOTH WAYS we thought we'd try again with genre heavyweight Richard Curtis's ABOUT TIME (2013). The night after a disappointing New Year’s Eve Party, unlucky in love Tim (Domnhall Gleeson) learns that part of his paternal inheritance is the ability to time travel and uses his new skill in the one way any 21-year-old would: by trying to get laid. Bill Nighy perfects his bumbling non sequitur routine as Tim's dad alongside Lindsey Duncan's charmingly stoic mother, Lydia Wilson as free-spirited sister Kit-Kat does as much as she can with a by the numbers sub-plot added only to increase the dramatic stakes and Rachel McAdams is endearing as love interest Mary and what starts as a fairly standard romantic comedy evolves into a film about family and love and the death of the people you love most, with a beautiful message about taking the chance to be present each day which profoundly changed me for at least half an hour I have to say.
Not everyone felt the same however; the ethics of Tim's time travel is never discussed, neither are the existential implications for them both in that they don't share common memories of meeting or making love for the first time. It's a movie about a controlling narcissist then who gets to create a perfect life for himself by manipulating women as at least one of us implies, and features a plot which makes less and less sense the more you think about it and which seems to introduce and then break key rules of its world just for the purposes of drama.
Based on the work of Brazilian author and artist Ziraldo, THE NUTTY BOY is adapted from the popular "O Menino Maluquinho" comic and sees pan-headed Nutty's dad promise him an afternoon of foosball and hot dog pizza. A well-meaning attempt to stop the unethical imprisonment of school mascot Lazarus, a frog, threatens his perfect day. Visually reminiscent of the work of Charles M. Schultz, we enjoyed the fusion of relatable storyline (kids first day) and crazy antics (laser babies with terminator eyes).
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is a biographical parody film directed by Eric Appel, who co-wrote the screenplay with "Weird Al" Yankovic. The film is a satire of biopics and wildly exaggerates Yankovic's life and career as an accordionist and parody songwriter. Sidey recently watched this one and you now listen to his sales pitch!
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Scorsese collaborator Paul Schrader penned TAXI DRIVER and that is the laziest but inevitabliest comparison for FIRST REFORMED which tells the story of Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke), reverend, tour guide and souvenir shop salesman for the eponymous church as it approaches its 250-year reconsecration. Undergoing a spiritual crisis of his own, he is approached by expectant mother Mary (Amanda Seyfried), who asks him to talk to her husband, an eco-activist depressed because he believes it's morally wrong to bring life into a world with the planet on the brink of irreversible environmental damage and civilisation ill-prepared to deal with multiple social crises. The exhilarating conversation lights a fire in Toller and as his alcoholism and illness grows he finds himself on a path which sees him questioning corporate megachurch and benefactors Abundant Life and its relationship with energy company Balq Industries.
It’s not often that you find a deep philosophical and theological discussion as an inciting incident in a movie and its rarer still to find one that seems authentic and richly relatable even to those with little interest in organized religion. My wife and I did have a conversation about the ethics of conceiving in an already over populated world (our rationale was that 'two in, two out' seemed just about fair in terms of headcount production) and about the fear of the kind of world our children would grow up in but eventually closed our eyes and ears to the overwhelming mass of evidence that told us not to and went with blind hope for the future, a sentiment that Schrader would presumably endorse. The writer and director's own strict Calvinist upbringing meant he'd never even seen a film until he was 17 when he sneaked away one night to watch HOME ALONE. Actually, it was WILD IN THE COUNTRY but that doesn't make as good a punchline. After becoming a published film scholar (following the encouragement of Pauline Kael no less) with his seminal work Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer, a book bought up in every review of this movie and which I haven't read but based on the title alone I can assume is some sort of comedy, Schrader transitioned to screenwriting and his utterly unique perspective means that yet again indie production and distribution specialists A24 have delivered.
I'm such a shameless fanboy for A24 now, having watched 14 of their movies for the pod and found all of them to be at least interesting and at best profound, though I tend to think of their 'A24-ness" as a secondary quality of the movie based on their body of work being aesthetically, politically and conceptually different and distinct from one another. I don't find the idea of enjoying all that a production company has to offer that unusual having been used to a music scene in the 90's and early noughties where the record label alone - Warp Records for example - was enough to inspire me to hoover up new talent. With a business model built around producing unique and original films that other sequel and franchise-obsessed major film studios wouldn't or couldn't take a chance on and a mission to bring the arthouse to the mainstream, the cynic in me expects their decl
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
This weeks Midweek Mention is a glorious mishmash of ultra low-budget niche-interest film-making and Sidey trolling as we start our winter celebrations with a look at The Asylum's HOME ALONE with dogs clone, BONE ALONE (aka ALONE FOR CHRISTMAS).
When Dad (David Deluise) and family mistakenly accuse talking German Shepherd Bone of almost ruining Christmas, he is packed off to the worlds worst kennel rather than taken to Grandma's house to enjoy the festivities. Realising that their house will be robbed by an overly flirtatious postman and his two idiotic goons, one of whom looks like Mackenzie Crook on crack, Bone is forced to escape and defend his home before Christmas is ruined for real this time.
BONE ALONE is not a good movie in any conventional way and any enjoyment that can be extracted from it is mostly of the 'so bad it's good' variety though the pure sadism of the crafty canines and the absurd plotting are particularly entertaining. There's also the comically cheap special effects, awful performances, homages to popular culture - hey, remember that scene in DIE HARD where John McClane is crawling around a ventilation shaft? This movie remembers it too - and Z-list actor Kevin Sorbo, popping up as an evil dog catcher named Quentin in order to recreate memorable scenes from JAWS and then disappear from the movie, never to be heard from again. A jaw dropping SIXTH SENSE style twist ending reveals that Dad's father is Santa and also he has never been to his son's house for some reason.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Until next time, we remain...
Bad Dads
16 Dec 2022
Falling for Christmas & Waffle and Mochi's Holiday Feast
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
We thought it might be fun to laugh at Pete's dentistry related misfortune. First up for this week was MARATHON MAN. Dustin Hoffman undertakes some pretty extreme dental surgery which was all to relatable for poor Pete.
Featuring some great performances from Hoffman and Olivier, this is in the sweet spot of espionage thriller movies that really do it for me.
Howie didn't enjoy Hoffman's running technique. So a mixed response all in all.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
As we're all no doubt aware by now Peter has had some very real difficulty with his teeth. Two double root canal operations and a hefty bill were at the forefront of our thinking when coming up with ideas for this weeks show. Expect a hire car themed episode soon so we can laugh at Peter some more...
Teeth are a set of hard, bony enamel-coated structures in the jaws of most vertebrates, used for biting and chewing. They also provide a great deal of inspiration for memorable movie moments as we discovered this week. Some fantastic nominations online too - thanks so much!
We were all very surprised when Pete nominated Teeth, the 2007 American comedy horror film written and directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein. Dawn O'Keefe is a teenage spokesperson for a Christian abstinence group called "the Promise". Dawn promotes the sanctity of the human body and promises to save herself for marriage. However teenage hormones and a trip to the lake lead us to the inevitable moment we waited for from the moment the movies started. And then we have various repeats of the same moment with slightly different motivations, but ultimately the same result. This one left us slightly underwhelmed but not a total dud. We also discovered that you can replace the lyrics to Hakuna Matata with vagina dentata with hilarious results.
We're approaching 300 episodes and we somehow still haven't talked about SpongeBob. Until now. I think mainly it just feels like a derivative of Ren and Stimpy, but we all still got a kick out of it. So go watch it with your kids I suppose.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Here is another entry in the "movies that did quite well, but no of the Dads no it exists" category. REAL STEEL is the story of Hugh Jackson and the tender story of the rekindling of the broken father & son relationship through their mutual love of boxing robots.
Jackman plays the absolutely appalling human being Charlie Kenton. He's a down on his luck gambling ex boxer who sells his son for US$50,000 (not adjusted for inflation). Despite not displaying a single redemptive characteristic throughout the overly long run time, the parental bond grows. Set to a backdrop of fighting robots, which is surprisingly dull, the predicable story meanders its way to the ending you can see coming a mile off.
Dan and Sidey pick the bones out of this one, with Pete refereeing the contest. Christmas no 1 or Christmas turkey. We will let you know....
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
1990 saw the release of the bewilderingly popular HOME ALONE. This movie was so successful that it holds the Guinness World Record for box office takings for a comedy. Sidey especially finds that statistic hard to stomach given his powerful distain for this film.
We all know the story... Hideous family leave hideous child behind, while hideous burglars try to pillage the family silver. I'd have preferred if the story had more of an unsolved child murder take, but that's just me.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Henry Cavill has been in the news a bit recently. First up he gunned The Witcher. Presumably as he was donning the cape again as Superman. Then all of a sudden that wasn't the case. How quickly things change.
Anyhow, Mr Cavill is from sunny Jersey. Just like your Bad Dads. Feels like the time is right to take about some of his filmography.
First up this week we're taking a look at the 2015 entry - The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Dan and Sidey love a bit of espionage, so hopes are high for the adaptation of the TV series set in the Cold War. However, it's a Guy Ritchie movie, so you never know how this will play out...
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Man from Jersey plays the Man of Steel! Our fellow islander make it big with his star turn as Superman in Zac Snyder's take on Kal-Els origin story.
In no was biased we get wax lyrical about Mr Cavill and his super buff physique. The film is not bad too! If you remember the previous version of this, you'll recall General Zod and his cronies turn up on Earth and wage war in an attempt to get Superman to give up the Kryptonian codex. This is a retelling of that story, but with much more brutal building destruction. Basically a city zoning officials wet dream.
Zac Snyder has a pretty distinctive style which you're no doubt familiar with. That will pretty much determine how much you'll enjoy this movie. We did enjoy it, but would have enjoyed Henry Cavill to have another stab at Superman with an original story. Never mind.
Reegs would be very cross if we didn't mention Hans Zimmer's score which he thoroughly enjoyed.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
In Bruges is a movie I've heard so much about and never had anyone say a bad word in its general direction. And yet despite that that I've still never found the time to see it.
This week it's another double bill, basically because this is now a Colin Farell stan account *
Part one of the double bill sees Dan and Sidey touch down In Bruges and talk about how endlessly quotable this movie is. Chemistry, performance, comedy, tragedy and violence. This movie has it all. We loved it, but Sidey still found a way to criticise it. What a miserable sod!
* stan account is some term that young people use. I stumbled across it on TikTok and felt 1000 years old.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
We'll get back on to our usual programming soon, but for this week we're taking a look at The Banshees of Inisherin. Serendipitous timing as this nabbed some big awards at the Golden Globes this week. I assure you that is a compete fluke, we are in no way organised enough to plan these things!
Banshees sees the In Bruges can team up once again to tell the story of a friendship gone sour. Were they able to repeat the success of their previous outing? The Hollywood Foreign Press certainly think so, but more importantly, what did Dan and Sidey think?
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
The sixth collaboration between British action film legends Jesse V. Johnson and Scott Adkins sees the actor in unfamiliar territory as antihero Cain Burgess, escaping from H.M.P. Belmarsh after the death of his mother and seeking vengeance on the gang who made him a hardened criminal in the 2019 action movie AVENGEMENT. Former stuntman Johnson together with co-writer Stu Small conjure up that rare thing; a film that doesn't portray revenge as glorious but acknowledges what a destructive and ugly act it is and some of Adkins best work to date sees him emotionally and physically scarred as the intimidating lead as well as employing a ferocious and violent fighting style over some of the more acrobatic martial arts we are sometimes used to seeing from him. Strong support from Thomas Turgoose as wannabe tough guy Tune, Craig Fairbrass as double-crossing brother Lincoln and Terence Howard as criminal accountant - surely a tautology - Stokes round out an impressive cast.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
A real mongrel of a show this week starting out with the third thing you think about whenever the island of Jersey is mentioned after millionaire tax dodgers and Henry Cavill which is of course cows. Let’s hope you know your Ox from your Buffalo as we chew the filmic cud whatever that means.
Zhang Yimou is a Chinese director who first caught my attention when I was going through a Jet Li phase with HERO and then again with 2005's HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS and I remember enjoying his mix of historical fiction and martial arts so when Netflix suggested I watch 2016's THE GREAT WALL I thought why not. Well the people who would tell you why not would point to Matt Damon's laughable Irish accent, lack of chemistry with sidekick Pedro Pascal and a plot where the climax is one of those endless horde of CGI monsters swarming a tower while our heroes demonstrate some improbable skill type deals. Of course, if you are unfailingly optimistically forgivable and don't mind those tropes like me and enjoy Zhang's artistic trademarks like soldiers in detailed and colourful armour arranged in formation, flying arrows etc. combined with a swords and sandals style script and big blockbuster special effects then you might just enjoy it but it's safe to say the general conclusion from the Dads was that this was cinematic bilge.
Former shock video maker Stevin John who once filmed himself stood on a toilet backwards and defecating on a friend while naked and wearing a bicycle helmet's cynical kids advertising construct BLIPPI has a new friend this week with spin-off to the Blippiverse MEEKAH. Similarly exploitative, empty-calorie style product, lacking any educational or artistic value and featuring a brightly dressed moron with an almost psychopathic sense of charm and wonder engaging in some of the most mundane activities you've ever seen. Complete garbage, the human race is worse for having created it.
We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
Until next time, we remain...
Bad Dads
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