Cinema Misfits Podcast, Episode 9: Part 2 of James Karen interview, Shutter Island, Cop Out, and the Worst Movies to Win Best Picture

The Misfits take a final look back at the January and February movies.  How did the big ego/small expectation, almost direct-to-video, and test-screening flops do?

https://imrud.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/fb-mp3.mp3″

6 ‘n 90.  Da Man reviews six films in ninety seconds.

https://imrud.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/6n90-mp3.mp3″

The Islander Part 2.  Nancy concludes her interview with character actor James Karen, who shares his final movie picks to take with him on a desert island.

https://imrud.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/karen2-mp3.mp3″

Da Man’s Fun Size Reviews

MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN.  With a title like Midnight Meat Train, I was hoping for a little softcore action, but no, it wasn’t to be (sadly, the filmmakers chose a different direction to go in).  No.  No.  No.  No.  No.  What we have here is an OK movie that might have received a theatrical release with a different title.  Course the stupid ending doesn’t help, and the film could definitely do with a little more, shall we say, female meat.  Lucky for Midnight Meat Train, they don’t grade movies like they do meat, ’cause no way is this thing getting the USDA Choice Prime rating.  It’s more like ground chuck–a day or two from expiration.  Still…I’m in!

Cinema Misfits Podcast: Bonus Academy Awards Episode (audio)

Join the Misfits for an evening at the Oscars — or anyway in front of a big screen TV, watching the Oscars.  All the predictability and tedium of the original three and a half hour show in less than a third of the time.  It’s a show Lou enthusiastically describes as “nice.”

https://imrud.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/oscar-ep-mp3.mp3″

Thanks for listening!

Subscribe at iTunes.

Cinema Misfits Podcast, Episode 8: Interview with James Karen, Reviews of Up, Percy Jackson and The Olympians, and The Wolfman

Up.  Maybe we’re just a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies who missed the bandwagon, but even so, nothing is going to stop us from putting in our two cents about Up.  It’s great!  So there.

https://imrud.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/up-mp3.mp3″

6 ‘n 90.  Da Man reviews six films in ninety seconds.

The Islander is where guests are interviewed by Nancy and asked to pick the ten films they would take with them to a desert island.  Nancy’s guest this week is character actor James Karen.  Among his many TV appearances are roles on Seinfeld and The Larry Sanders Show, and on the big screen he has appeared in Poltergeist, The Return of the Living Dead, Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster, and many other films.

From the Trenches: A “Bad” Woman

A couple of years ago, I taught a high school film history class to a group of particularly bright juniors and seniors.  Some of them were a little skeptical at first (“Are you gonna make us watch black and white movies, Miss?”), but I made an initial plea with them to “give it a chance,” and, as luck would have it, they all did.

For the most part.

They loved Chaplin in The Kid, as well as Buster Keaton in Cops, Singin’ in the Rain, which I screened to illustrate the transition from silents to talkies, went over BIG, especially with some of the girls, who fell fast and hard for Gene Kelly.  My Man Godfrey was appreciated, and the film led to some interesting discussions about history as well as the nature of comedy.  When we got to the 1940s, I hit cinematic pay dirt with, of all things, Mildred Pierce.  While Some Like it Hot probably proved to be the class favorite, overall, the Joan Crawford tour de force ran a very close second.  There was not one snarky comment about her eyebrows or shoulder pads.  Those kids were IN!