Spoiler Filled Film Conversation, Hooray!
A bunch of Welsh people talking about films and making stuff.
After The Nightmare Before Christmas bridged the long gap between Halloween and Christmas, it took movies a surprisingly long time to capitalize on the success by making more stop-motion, spooky family animations to milk this wilderness period. ParaNorman came out at the tail-end of this revival period in 2012 and we all agree it is a marvellous, painstakingly made animation that inspires awe by the clear effort put into it, but we have an unclear consensus on how successful it is as a whole.
When you see a title like “I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle” you have no option but to watch it immediately, or at least we here at SFFCH had no option but to devour it whole and live with the consequences. We once again find a movie that the universe has seemingly snapped into existence solely for our consumption on this little niche podcast of ours and we are not left wanting. Clearly taking inspiration from The Evil Dead franchise, this movie is a uniquely British take on the comedy-horror genre involving satanic cults, murderous motorcycle gangs, banquet-hall bar-brawls, coffins in sidecars, poo creatures, out of place werewolf references and a ninja-star wielding priest C-3PO.
Total Recall? More like Total Rectal, amirite guys… (pause for laugh)… yeah, this guy knows what we’re talking about…
Anyway. Some long lost memories are very pleasant when they come back to you many years later, reminding you of a simpler time with old pals and the crazy things you did. And then there are those deeply repressed memories that surface which bring only misery, trauma and sadness. We’re sure you’re catching our drift with this intro, so we’ll just say we have some feelings about this 2012 remake that need dealing with and you get to be our put-upon therapist. Enjoy.
This week we are proud to present some quality animation from our home nation of Wales. And by ‘proud’ we mean wary. And by ‘quality’ we mean shoddy. And by ‘animation’ we mean… well that one’s still up for debate, we suppose. The Princess and The Goblin probably should have stayed in our dusty attic with the dodgy ghosts of our Great Grandmothers, but who are we to deny any part of our rich culture?
Enemy of The State seemed like just another far fetched, borderline sci-fi tech thriller when it was released in 1998, bypassing it’s implausibility with intense action and pacey style. But as we cast our watchful eye over it nearly 30 years later we discover that it is still definitely that, but deserves some props for it’s foresight that ages it slightly better than maybe it should have been. Also, it’s seemingly a stealth sequel to The Conversation from 1974, which is cool, we guess.
We wanted a submarine film, but they’re all about the Second World War, or some war at least. But do you know who you can trust for some crazy submarine hijinks? James Cameron. He’s always up mental underwater shenanigans. This week, we watched different cuts of The Abyss by accident and we cant decide which is better: the short version which is tight, but has a confusing ending or the long version with a bigger climax, but also features extraneous country singing.
Sometimes we just need to gush about films and there’s really only one director who, if we choose any of their films at random, we can pretty much guarantee will hit a bullseye: Akira Kurosawa. High and Low from 1963 is a crime drama that demands a little more of your attention than usual, but we think it is well worth your time when it is so thoughtfully and masterfully directed by one of, if not THE, greatest.
Happy New Year, one and all. What better way to begin a new year than to totally disregard the first few films of a major franchise and start watching the third entry. Luckily we all have just enough base knowledge of Pokémon to not be totally confused the whole way through, but my God does this movie try its best to confound us. One of us thinks this is the Pokémon film they wish they got as a child and the others are now questioning their friends sanity. Tune in to find out who now!
Merry Merry Merriment Season to one and all from the ‘Spoiler Filled Film Conversation, Hooray!’ group. We found some more Wrestling Christmas films, but we’re too scared to do them so instead we turn to Charles Dickens’s seminal A Christmas Carol, a story told so many times in so many different ways, and ask the question: what if Scrooge was a ruthless TV exec making a tv show of The Christmas Carol and he himself is then Christmas Carol-ed? Don’t worry, it’s not as confusing as it sounds. We’ve all seen this Christmas staple before here at SFFCH and seek to find whether we actually like this movie or not. Tune in to find out the answer now!
We indulge Jamie’s Exorcist obsession again this week by watching The Nickel Ride, a 70’s crime movie starring Jason Miller (and it doesn’t help that he looks like Jamie’s other obsession Harry Dean Stanton in this) as a criminal gang’s fence who’s professionalism is challenged by the evolving crime landscape and leave us wondering which will come first: being killed by the criminals or dying of an anxiety attack? This time we discuss: connections to the reality TV show Storage Wars, floating bald heads, all the craggy-faced middle-aged men, using annoyance as a pre-emptive psychic attack and getting angry at the poor beer-pouring etiquette.
Spoiler Filled Film Conversation, Hooray! 