Wednesday, March 5, 2014

F This Movie! - RoboCop (2014)

Dead or alive, you're (re)coming with (re)Patrick and (re)Mark Ahn.



Download this episode here. (70.5 MB)

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Also discussed this episode: The Lego Movie (2014), Philomena (2013), I Married a Witch (1942), White of the Eye (1987), Bad Milo (2013), Violet & Daisy (2013)

18 comments:

  1. I felt like a major flaw with the movie was that Detroit didn't feel dangerous. Compare that to the hellhole of the original; this 2014 Detroit would take a diligent weekend to fix.

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  2. "He's able to shoot him through the power of love." Thank you, Mark Ahn, for making me spit coffee through my nose.

    And I Married A Witch is a delightful movie It's based on a novel by Thorne Smith, who also wrote the novel that the great ghost movie Topper is based on (if you haven't seen that Patrick, it's probably right up your alley). There's also a much darker version of the idea, Conjure Wife (written by Fritz Leiber), which involves a coven of witches protecting their academia husbands at a small college (and was made into a couple of movies, including the Terri Garr & Richard Benjamin movie Witches Brew).

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    1. You're welcome! I was motivated by the NPR vibe of our new microphones.

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  3. What I learned today: Patrick is in favor of killing children, as long as they are holding knives.

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    1. Look, everybody knows that advanced military grade robots can't distinguish the scale of threats. We have no idea how dangerous a knife in a robot fight is.

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    3. From the sounds of it a simple line of programming code could have averted the while problem and been a lot cheaper too.
      《command》if 《target》= 《child》 then 《dont fucking kill》《\command》

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  4. I also saw Bad Milo recently and afterwards I tweeted "it exceeded my expectations". Im not sure if its because my enjoyment was high or because my expectation was low.
    I found that the day after I was still thinking about it, but it was the emotional core of the movie that was ringing in my ears with some of the more "powerful" moments of Ken Marino's performance. I mean, its saying something when his pleading for Milo to go back up his ass carries some weight.
    Im clearly over selling this thing and the flaws I found were that it tries to have it both ways: a screw ball creature comedy horror about an ass monster complete with cartoon music and bug eyed reactions, and a sincere midlife crisis daddy issues story. The two approaches didn’t gel, but I give it "some" credit for trying to have a core despite its efforts being under pinned by extreme explicit exposition.
    I doubt it will hold up to a second viewing, pretty sure I got it all. 

    Im thinking about Bad Milo too much.

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  5. Hello,

    Slightly random, but while Ahn was searching for a description for Philomena it reminded me of dozens of other films which I can't seem to catagorize. It seems that along with Philomena; The Ride(I believe), Sex Drive, Due Date, and Guilt Trip, they all seem to be that 'buddies on a trip' movie genre and they are fantastic in my opinion. From that small list the 'genre' can span from dumb slapstick to also touching and profound; I have had many people bash the concept of two people in a car, but it is simple and great.

    'Nother bit of random, while the ramblings were spewing out of my iPad I caught mention of Hannah and Hit Girl(of Kick Ass) and I have to agree that there are a dizzying number of teenage 'action/sci-fi' films that are simply exhausting to try to catch up with and enjoy, if that is even possible. I suppose I am asking for anyone's idea as to the rash of these films? Is it simply because the large number of young adult readers inadvertently lead to the teen book hits being 'movie-fied', or that Hollywood wants to cast teenagers in more films to connect with a larger demographic?

    Well anyway, enjoyed the podcast greatly! Happy to be finally on the site!

    P.S. Sup JB!

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    1. Douglas-

      Welcome to the show! Feel free to stick with us.

      Did you mean "The Trip" instead of "The Ride?" I agree with you about liking conversations in cars; I guess it hasn't gotten to the point of cliche to me as it might have for others.

      I think the teenage female action lead comes from further back than teen fiction; the roots seem to come from "The Professional." It is an interesting observation to see that subgenre(?) merge into the teen action/scifi that you mention, although there still is some separation. "Hanna" is an adult movie that centers around a young adult; "The Hunger Games" is a young adult movie that centers around a young adult.

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  6. Please do a Robocop 2 podcast sometime this year. When it's on one of the movie channels, I have to watch the whole thing. It’s a step down from the original but there’s a lot to like in there. The commercials, Tom Noonan as Cain, & the final showdown between Robocop & the Detroit Police Dept vs RoboCain. The stop-motion animation isn’t as smooth as the original but it still works way better than most of today’s CGI any day. At least I know it’s something real (even if it’s a small model). I even laughed at a few of the reprogrammed PC Robocop bits. The major part I really hate & I’ll never forgive is the teenage brat drug cartel boss. I don’t know if it was an attempt at being “edgy” but it was stupid then & it’s stupid now.

    Does Arnold’s Jericho Cane from End of Days count as a good guy with that name? It’s spelled differently, but it still sounds the same, right (?).

    SPOILERS for anyone who still wants to watch Robocop (2014)


    The last third of the movie where the plot has Keaton become the main villain for no reason reminded me so much of a couple seasons of 24. Jack Bauer captures or kills the main terrorist but there are still 5-6 hours left in the season. The writers have to think of something to finish with so they have another layer of bad guys who show up to kidnap Jack’s daughter Kim or his love interest. It’s not organic to the main plot.

    Jackie Earle Haley’s character would’ve at least made a little more sense to make the big heel turn. Enough said about the remake.

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    1. Robocop 2: The Remake will have the Bauer daughter as Robocop. There's your heel turn!

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  7. Weird Thing: I used to have this strange reoccurring nightmarish dream where people were talking quietly and murmury and all at the same time, EXACTLY like you two at the beginning - so thank you for that bit of nostalgia and anxiety!

    Great, fair reviewing guys - an easy movie to do nothing but shit on but you only kinda farted in its face. I might actually watch the damn thing and though I don't care a whole lot about spoilers I stopped listening - if this movie actually has a surprise to throw at me I might as well not ruin it.

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  8. What can I say F heads. I watched it a few months back. And I cant remember anything about it. Except for the suit opening and the lungs exposed.
    I should go back to it but I dont think I can be bothered. Ill stick with the original.
    "20 seconds to comply" memorable

    Is there one single memorable line in the new film? I cant remember any

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  9. I didn't go back to the film but I have gone back to revisit the podcast which is much more enjoyable and memorable than the film and I realized when you mentioned Demolition man. Holy crap. You've not done a Podcast on Demolition man! I think this could make a great heavy action podcast. You could probably discuss the 3 shells toilet paper gag for 15 mins alone.
    To be more formal. Please consider my this my request. I thank you...

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