Tag Archives: battlestar galactica
There Is No Such Thing As A ‘Reboot’
I saw the new Godzilla yesterday. I enjoyed it a lot, but I’ve been weirded out for months over the fact that I’ve had to call it something I’ve never had to call a Godzilla film. Just like how I recently had to call a Bond film something that, in 50 years of recasting and returns to ground zero, I’ve never had to call a Bond film.
I’m all for specialized vocabulary. Film needs its own exclusive words to describe its own processes, but ‘reboot’ is not one such word. I’ve asked people time and again to define it, and I’ve read about it online—god help me, I’ve even read the Wikipedia page for it. It’s just not a real and distinct concept. It’s a cheap marketing buzzword, that’s all it is. And more than that, the very existence of the term is symptomatic of a rot at the core of contemporary filmmaking.
Posted in All Posts, John's Essays
Tagged abel ferrara, ant man ant-man, bad lieutenane, battlestar galactica, edgar wright, friday the 13th, godzilla, godzilla 2014, humphrey bogart, invasion of the body snatches, j.j. abrams, john carpenter, john d'amico. movie reboot, john damico, john huston, maltese falcon, matthe mcconaughey, movie reboots, movie remake, movie remakes, peter lorre, port of call new orleans, remakes, renee zellweger, smug film, smugfilm, spider-man, spiderman, star trek, star wars, texas chainsaw massacre 2, texas chainsaw massacre: the next generation, the hobbit, the maltese falcon, the maltese falcon 1931, the story of floating weeds, the texas chainsaw massacre, the thing, the thing from another world, werner herzog, yasujiro ozu
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Smug Film Podcast Episode #3 – Movies That Got Us Into Movies (4/21/14)
1:15:47 | View on iTunes | Download Mp3
On this episode, I am joined by fellow Smug Film contributors John D’Amico and Jenna Ipcar. We discuss the movies that got us into movies, and were our gateway into obsession. As always, we go on tangents along the way, take a quick break for a movie joke by comedian Anthony Kapfer, and then close the show with questions from our mailbag.
If you have a question for the show, leave it in the comments or email us at Podcast@SmugFilm.com.
If you enjoy the podcast, be sure to subscribe on iTunes, and leave a rating and a comment on there as well. Doing this helps us immensely as far as our ranking on there, which is what allows people to be able to discover us. Word of mouth is always best of all though, so spread the word!
Movie Stuff Referenced in this Episode:
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Posted in All Posts, Podcast Episodes
Tagged 2001, 2001 a space odyssey, 29 days later, a clockwork orange, a hard day's night, alan mehrez, albert magnoli, alfred hitchcock, aliens, altered states, anthony kapfer, anthony kapfer comedian, apollo 13, back to the future, batman, batman begins, batman tv show, battlestar galactica, big, blake edwards, bloodsport 2, bloodsport ii, blow, blue velvet, breakfast at tiffany's, breakfast on pluto, brian depalma, bryan singer, buckaroo banzai, casablanca, christian nyby, christopher nolan, chuck russell, cody clarke, commando, danny boyle, david cronenberg, dawn of the dead, dawson's creek, death wish, detour, disco pigs, do the right thing, don hartman, don siegel, donnie darko, ed wood, edgar g. ulmer, edgar wright, eric rohmer, ernest b schoedsack, ethan coen, fargo, ferris bueller's day off, film joke, film jokes, film podcast, forrest gump, francis ford coppola, frank oz, geoff murphy, george romero, going home, groundhog day, hal ashby, handbuilt city, handbuiltcity.org, harold and maude, harold ramis, herbert b. leonard, holiday affair, howard hawks, irvin s. yeaworth, irvin s. yeaworth jr., james bridges, james cameron, jaws, jenna ipcar, joe vs. the volcano, joel coen, john badham, john carney, john damico, john ford, john g. avildsen, john hughes, john patrick shanley, joseph kosinski, jurassic park, ken loach, ken russell, king kong, kirsten sheridan, krzysztof kieslowski, kurt neumann, lee unkrich, lost, lost highway, magnolia, manhunter, mark l. lester, marnie, merian c. cooper, miami vice, michael curtiz, michael mann, mike's murder, movie joke, movie jokes, movie podcast, mystery science theater 3000, nashville, neil jordan, network, night of the living dead, o brother where art thou, o' brother, on the edge, paul thomas anderson, pauline at the beach, pee wee's big adventure, peewee's big adventure, peggy sue got married, penelope spheeris, penny marshall, peter yates, plan 9 from outer space, podcast, podcast ad, podcast advertising, princess bride, pulp fiction, purple rain, quentin tarantino, raising arizona, rambo, rambo; first blood part ii, red eye, ricahrd lester, richard donner, richard kelly, rob reiner, robert altman, robert zemeckis, rocky, ron howard, rushmore, saved by the bell, saving private ryan, scarface, seinfeld, shaun of the dead, sidney lumet, smug film, smug film podcast, smugfilm, smugfilm podcast, spike lee, sponsor a podcast, stand by me, stanley kubrick, star trek, stephen lisberger, steven spielberg, sunshine, ted demme, ted kotcheff, the adventures of buckaroo banzai across the 8th dimension, the big lebowski, the birds, the blob, the blob remake, the boondock saints, the breakfast club, the decalogue, the fly, the fly remake, the friends of eddie coyle, the goonies, the handbuilt city, the lone ranger, the princess bride, the terminator, the thing from another world, the usual suspects, the wind that shakes the barley, the wonder years, thief, tim burton, toy story 3, tron, tron legacy, troy duffy, under siege 2, under siege 2: dark territory, upstream, upstream john ford, w.d. richter, wargames, wayne's world, wes anderson, wes craven, what about bob, where art thou?, who framed roger rabbit, zack snyder
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Robocop: Times Change
Robocop (2014)
Directed by José Padilha
Screenplay by Joshua Zetumer
117 min.
Very minor spoilers ahead.
When they rolled that screen open to 2.35:1, I knew it wasn’t going to be like Verhoeven’s. The original Robocop is a minor masterpiece, one of the most cutting satires of the 20th century. It’s dingy, clunky, sarcastic, and howling—just like the ‘80s that spawned it. Our new Robocop—which is, for all practical purposes, the second Robocop remake in recent memory, counting the spectacular Dredd—is none of those things. It’s shiny, sleek, and “tactical,” as Michael Keaton’s character says.
The memorable ultra-violence of the original is gone. In its place, there’s a smooth, sanitized finish over everything, which gives it all a sort of uncanny creepiness—a quality best exploited in one of the film’s high points, in which we learn just where Alex Murphy ends and Robocop begins.
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Posted in All Posts, John's Reviews
Tagged alex murphy, battlestar galactica, blackwater, cattle queen of montana, chopping mall, dredd, fdr, franklin roosevelt, gort, hitler, john damico, jose padilha, joseph mccarthy, joshua zetumer, klaatu, lyndon b. johnson, michael keaton, robert wise, robocop, robocop 2014 review, robocop remake, robocop remake review, robocop review, ronald reagan, the day the earth stood still, the terminator
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Red Tails: Watch It And Feel Like A Kid Again
Unlike the Star Wars prequels, here’s a plot young kids can actually follow.
Red Tails (2012)
Directed by Anthony Hemingway
Screenplay by John Ridley and Aaron McGruder
125 min.
Right off the bat, I should warn you that Red Tails is not a good movie. At least, not in the traditional sense. It’s not even good ‘for what it is’. It’s just plain bad. But you will have a good time. You’ll be laughing at ineptitude in damn near every scene, but, even with all its cheesiness, this movie will touch you on a very deep level—in fact, partly because of its cheesiness. Let me explain.
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Posted in All Posts, Cody's Reviews
Tagged aaron mcgruder, anthony hemingway, battlestar galactica, cody clarke, community, eternal sunshine, fringe, hbo on demand, jim carrey, john ridley, matt stone, mr poppers penguins, parks and rec, parks and recreation, red tails, red tails movie, red tails movie review, red tails review, shameless, smug film, smugfilm, the office, the wire, treme, trey parker, true blood, where the wild things are
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