Night of the Podwits!What is a Podwit to do in this crazy, maddening, evolving (for better or for worse) world?! Do the classics in film (or any art for that matter) age like a fine wine or do they deserve to be torn down and placed against what is now called a “classic” by today’s critics? Also, do franchises suffer or lose their “heart” after their creator dies, as in the case of Jim Henson’s Muppets or Ian Fleming’s James Bond? And did the Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger take a shot at his former bandmate, drummer John Densmore, when discussing the passing of their colleague, keyboardist Ray Manzarek? It’s all too much for us to handle in one sitting!!! Come have a listen and decide for yourself in another fuel-injected dose of the Podwits Podcast!

Footnotes:
io9: Why Wrath of Khan is Still a Bloody Great Star Trek Movie

Watching The Doctor

The weekend of May 18, 2013 will live long in my consciousness.  It will stand for quite some time as the weekend that two of my favorite franchises tried to hit one out of the park… and failed miserably.  You can count my “favorite” franchises on one hand.  Among them are Doctor Who, Superman and Star Trek (not necessarily in that order).  On Saturday, May 18, I went to see Star Trek Into Darkness and then I came home and watched the series 7 finale of Doctor Who, “The Name of the Doctor”.  Both let me down spectacularly.

Though it shouldn’t necessarily be said… there be spoilers ahead!

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Side CastsDion and Contributor J. Blake are back for another edition of The Podwits Side-Cast! This time around they discuss their love for the Blues. They chat about how some purists like to define it, what they themselves think the blues is, and the various artists they love within the genre. Dion and J. Blake then each share a ‘top 5′ list of their favorite blues albums, and why they think these 10 albums are clutch for any music fan. And please check out J. Blake’s band website, found here. 

 

 

(This episode of the Side-Cast was recorded prior to the passing of The Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek. The Podwits would like to send our condolences out to the family, friends and fans.)

Ray Manzarek, the outspoken founding member of the Doors, has died in Germany at the age of 74, after battling bile duct cancer. His keyboard playing became the defining sound for the legendary and groundbreaking rock ‘n’ roll group, a band who came to represent the counter-culture, the darker side of the 1960′s, the yin to the yang of the flower-power hippie movement.

Ray Manzarek

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Night of the Podwits!They’re back with another Podwits Podcast, for your listening enjoyment!

WONDER! with Brian as he tries to figure out how mockbuster specialists The Asylum continue to get away with their rip-off artistry!

WITNESS! J. Marcus’ expertise about The Asylum in this episode of his webseries My World With J. Marcus!

PONDER! the imponderable question: Samantha or Jeannie?

RAGE! with Dion over Me-TV’s thoughtless obstruction of his retro television consumption!

DARE! to view Bea Arthur Naked which, once seen, can never be unseen!

Yes, marvels and miracles are yours to behold in this week’s all-new Podwits Podcast!

Review by Luke Whitmire

After watching Star Trek Into Darkness, I know J.J. Abrams is going to make a brilliant Star Wars movie. Abrams is a perfect fit to direct the impending Episode VII.

Mr. Abrams has solidified himself as a masterful, propulsive and visceral filmmaker along with James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. The guy really knows how to place the camera, how to orchestrate action, where music should swell, and how to develop strong characterization. Only a few directors possess a certain conceptual talent to crystallize every film they make into a meaningful, entertaining and aesthetically profound experience for the viewer, and Abrams is blessed with that special innovative capacity. Into Darkness is ingenious, exemplary filmmaking that has the intelligence and emotional depth to render it fan worthy, even if it does get overly complicated and ludicrous at times.

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Review by Luke Whitmire
The Great Gatsby truly is a beautiful, rich spectacle that has gleaming and saturated colors with kinetic emotion. Buz Lurhmann’s visual style and palate has always been hypnotic, cinematic insanity, often beset with strong characters. Restraint isn’t his thing. In previous films like Romeo & Juliet, Moulin Rouge! and Australia, he used the same manic technique. I love his frantic aesthetic used in The Great Gatsby, especially to capture the loose and out-of-control times of the twenties, but Lurhmann uses it superfluously that it sometimes muddles the characterizations and themes.

The PodwitsThe boys are at it again in a brand-spanking new edition of The Podwits Podcast!  Join Dion, J. and Brian as they explore the hottest topics of today: can Robert Downey Jr. ever be replaced as the Invincible Iron Man?  How far is too far to go in a comic-book movie?  And what is the difference between “porn” and “porno”?  The answers to all this and so much more await you on this week’s Podwits Podcast!

For further viewing, please check out Audi’s brilliant commercial featuring Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto here.

And this week’s edition of The Podwits Podcast is brought to you, in part, by Dwarno.  Don’t know what it is?  Look it up.  You’ll be glad you did.  Or maybe not.

I was lucky enough to attend a very small screening of William Friedkin’s rarely-shown 1977 cult classic Sorcerer, a remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s French classic Wages of Fear, which has been called the most suspenseful film of all time. What made this screening such a treat was not only seeing a 35mm print of Sorcerer, but the rare Q&A by the director Friedkin himself which was held afterward.

Fans of the film will immediately understand what is so special about this event, which is that Sorcerer is out of print and hardly (if ever) screened or talked about anywhere except on small fan blogs. For Sorcerer fans, and Friedkin fans in general, this was an ultra-super-rare discussion of a film that is now, thanks to a lawsuit won by the director against Universal and Paramount Pictures, again able to be screened in public. Much to the delight of said fans, it will also see a Blu-ray release at the end of this year. (F**K YEAH!)   Read the rest of this entry »

In the 3rd and final installment of this special edition of the new Podwits podcast,Side Casts The Side-Cast, Dion and contributor J. Blake wrap up their discussion of the sad decline of the popular Horror Conventions from what they once were, and focus in on Italian Horror director Lucio Fulci’s famous career and the impact it has had on the world-wide genre. Come have a listen to the all new Side-Cast!

 

Footnote:

An error was made when discussing Lucio Fulci’s ‘Gates of Hell’ Trilogy- it is in fact The Beyond, City of the Living Dead (AKA The Gates of Hell), and House by the Cemetery, not Zombie.