RandomChatter

Hollywood has been remaking everything under the sun recently. So this week we look at the few things they haven't touched yet, focusing specifically on 80's movies. Do we really want a Goonies sequel? What about a Fletch remake? Should everything be left alone, or are there films that are okay to work on further?

When Hollywood says they're so desperate for content that they're remaking the likes of Short Circuit and Adventures in Babysitting, that's really scraping the bottom of the barrel.  This week we look at past remakes, at what makes a good remake, and at the flood of remakes to come.

As you've noticed, it's that time of year again for the flood of summer movie trailers. But can you really judge a book by its cover -- or in this case, a movie by its trailer? To find out, we've invited Joe (Trailer Trash Talk) back to the show. Do trailers show all the good parts of the movie? Do they spoil too much? Do they mislead you? Let's talk trailers!

This week we've got guest host Eric Fullerton joining us as we talk about how online gaming affects our "real" lives, as inspired by the documentary Second Skin, which just debuted at SXSW.

In this week's show, Brian and I wade through the sludge of recently-announced remakes and sequels, and we finally get to our Summer Movie Preview! Technically we cover both the spring and the summer, but let's not nit-pick. There are a lot of (hopefully) great movies coming out this year, even aside from the obvious choices such as The Dark Knight and Iron Man. We're bringing you a quick run-down of what to expect.

This is why you don't podcast at 2 a.m. Of course, maybe that actually helped the show! We've got all four hosts on this week's news show, and boy do they ramble on. They blathered for long enough that we had to push the Summer Movie Preview segment to next week's show (none of this rambling was my fault, of course).

That's right, it's Oscar time. This week, after looking at a handful of news items (Deadpool!), we discuss the Oscars. No, we're not going to recap the Oscars. Instead, we're mainly going to complain about Cameron Diaz, talk about how grateful we are that Sean Penn was nowhere to be seen, and be bitter that Golden Compass allegedly had better effects than Transformers.

It's Anakin Skywalker versus Mace Windu in one last, final, knock-out brawl! Final, that is, until the inevitable sequel they set up in the film. Oh, and there's not really any knock-out. Or even a brawl, really. I dare say our review of the movie was more interesting than the movie itself. If nothing else, it was more fun to record than it was to see the movie. But before we get to that, there's news to cover. After all, now that the writer's strike is over, we need to know when our favorite shows are coming back!

We've been "under construction" a bit here, so it's been a few weeks since we've had a show posted. However, we're back on track now, with a new website we'll be tweaking out over the next week, and two new shows to post. First up, we recap the entertainment news from the past week. Err... last week, in this case, but it's all still relevant. And as a favor to Wes, one of our fellow podcasters over at the Control Point podcast, we've gone spoiler-free for this episode! Show Notes: • • 00:16 - I swear it's Brian's fault... • • 00:42 - Box Office Results • • 03:54 - Status of Ledger's projects • • 07:47 - Freddy's Back! • • 11:22 - New Star Wars theatrical release...? • • 13:54 - Arrested Development theatrical release...? • • 14:55 - Teaser for the new M. Night Shyamalamadingdong film, The Happening • • 17:11 - Go watch the trailer for Hancock • • 18:03 - Peter Jackson doing The Hobbit... but so is Del Toro. • • 19:53 - Recap of G.I. Joe casting • • 24:25 - MPAA: "Oops, we're stupid." • • 32:03 - More on the writer's strike • • 38:38 - Tangents: Hulu, MyVu, Apple TV, video iPods • • 42:34 - Studios producing fewer pilots in future, regardless of strike •

Technically, this review contains spoilers. However, they're so minor I seriously doubt they'd affect anyone's enjoyment of this movie. Especially not to people like Jeff, who's more concerned about the fact that the movie didn't explain anything about the monster. Or to people like Ren, who felt the monster was merely a victim and misunderstood. For normal people like Brian and I, the movie was great. Show Notes * 00:15 - Brian skips his usual obnoxious intro * 00:20 - We're back! * 02:02 - "If you haven't seen the movie yet.... don't?" * 09:30 - Spoilers start here, but there's not much to spoil * 14:07 - Comparisons to The Blair Witch Project * 18:19 - Comparisons to 9/11 * 21:29 - Was J.J. Abrams trying to say anything with this film? * 23:50 - Comments on the actors and characters * 28:15 - Pacing problems permeating the prologue * 33:46 - Jeff is "very much a closure-guy," just so you know. * 36:51 - Brian's Final Thoughts: Jeff is also entitled to be as wrong as he is. * 39:09 - Ren's Final Thoughts: The monster was cheated. * 45:17 - Jeff's Final Thoughts: Jeff's not a film critic. Moving along... * 48:08 - Erik's Final Thoughts: It's not a monster movie. It's a survival movie.