Battleship Pretension

In this episode, West plays music composed by Isaac Hayes for three blaxploitation films.

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I decided to undertake a movie challenge in 2017. This seemed like a good way to see some classic movies that I have unfortunately never seen. The Battleship Pretension Top 100 list provided such a challenge.

I love Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. She gives 110% in her performance and it works. This was my second time seeing the film and it was a delight to revisit it. I think my experience watching Sunset Boulevard was enhanced this time by the Battleship Pretension Top 100 challenge, over 2017 I have seen a number of silent films so the story of an aging silent film actress trying to make a comeback connected with me more this time.

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This week we are coming to you “live” from Indy PopCon… where we experience lots of different aspects of our geek pop culture. But most importantly, we make a date… to sit down and talk with Phil Lamarr. You probably know Phil from his ill-fated appearance in Pulp Fiction, or his years of working on MadTV, or his numerous characters on shows like Futurama, Justice League, Samurai Jack, Static Shock, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and so many others. Join us as we talk with Phil about growing up in L.A., about working with Quentin Tarantino, about getting into the voice-over industry, about saving Spider-Man from falling off a train, about crazy movie theories… plus his thoughts on the somewhat recent popularity of super hero movies.

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In this episode, Lincoln and Tim are joined by Brian Park to drift and swing through Baby Driver and Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Shout! Factory has released Game of Death under its Shout! Select branding. It is the last film that Bruce Lee worked on before his untimely death. Game of Death was to be Lee’s directorial debut. However, his passing left the film unfinished. Producer Raymond Chow looked at what had been shot, and, with director Robert Clouse, decided to edit Lee’s original footage, constructing a new film and story line with heavy use of look-alikes.

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Title: Midnight Cowboy

Year: 1969

Director: John Schlesinger

Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro, John McGiver

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Repertory screenings may not be as abundant in Chicago as they are in LA/NY, but when you look around, there are many theatergoing delights. The Chicago Rep-port is a weekly(ish) series highlighting the best and most compelling repertory screenings in the Second City.

Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N State St

Journeys Through French Cinema, a special slate of films showing in conjunction with the new Bertrand Tavernier documentary My Journey Through French Cinema, continues with three more pivotal films of French cinema.

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In this episode, Tyler and David talk about their favorite Stan Lee cameos as well as what constitutes existing IP.

Since I’ve done so the last two days, let’s finish things out by starting with a complaint (yes, there are four days of Comic-Con; Sundays, though, are for margaritas and rejuvenation). This time, however, I’ll take my grain of salt. Over recent years, Comic-Con has taken measures to prevent people sneaking in or counterfeiting badges. Chief among these are the RFID badges (introduced at WonderCon 2016) that require the holder to scan themselves into and out of the convention. They haven’t stopped at the front doors, though; there are badge-scanning towers in other places, most notably a couple that appear as if they’ve sprung up like weeds in the corridors near panel rooms 1-6 and in and around the Sails Pavilion (the massive tent-like space that divides the two halves of the convention center’s upper floor and is the nexus of autograph-signing and various other Comic-Con sideshows). The effect of this, in addition to other measures like funneling cosplayers with fake weapons into one door to the exclusion of everyone else, is to turn the hallways and lobbies into nearly as frustrating a rat maze as the exhibit hall floor itself. Many of the time-saving paths I’ve developed over more than a decade are suddenly unavailable to me.

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In this episode, Michael and Eric discuss Pacific Rim and Innerspace.