Pete MC and Law play catch up as they wait for Ammon to stop being a dick. Together they deliver lots of television and film reviews, get obsessed with Fonzi, find out more about Kambiz, get pissed off at This Is Us, and talk way too long about reality television. Also – Binge Brother is a thing. Watch your assholes.
0:02:05-Law and PeteMC are here. You’re welcome. #kambiz. Ammon will be showing up later, and maybe Moreno. Maybe. Pete’s cousin, Justina (who was on The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros) gets discussed. More Challenge talk. Law wants to contribute elements to Pete’s bar. What a nice asshole. What? Better Call Binge news. New site is on the way. Update from Moreno. The Cloverfield Show is in your podcast queue right now, bitch! #sport bowl. Chad C.’s appearance on the Bingecast, dissected. What a drunk cocksucker.
0:34:41– GOOGLE VOICE….which happens after more Challenge talk and Pete’s progress with finding a new band. Fonzie.
1:15:45-TV ROUND UP. Pete and Law perform live sounder drops. Then the boys discuss Waco and Hell’s Kitchen. Ammon shows the fuck up. Channel Zero. Gilberggggeeeee talks Altered Carbon. Law discusses Celebrity Big Brother. This is Us update, you crocksuckers.
2:35:01-WHAT DID YOU WATCH? Pete watched Insidious: The Last Key. Cloverfield: Paradox is chatted about. Ammon goes next with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Jungle, Kong: Skull Island and Return of the Jedi. He’s got a theme going here! Solo trailer. Law checked out My Friend Dahmer, Brigsby Bear. MFC (Movie Fan Central) is going the way of the dinosaur. Mission: Impossible Fallout trailer.
As you may have noticed, it’s been Star Wars central around BingeMedia.net. Garrett has been going through each Star Wars installment in his Binge Aftertaste retrospectives and also revisiting each one in written form. But the biggest undertaking has been recording a commentary for each episode. When we initially flirted with the commentary idea, it seemed like a huge task but almost everyone in the BingeMedia offices wanted to participate in at least one, making the scheduling and execution of it that much easier.
And that’s the power of love.
Sorry wrong movie.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the commentaries, that listened to each one and shared it like crazy. And of course Sneak Juan Carlos for all of the sweet ass poster. We love you all. Here are links to each commentary.
Here’s our final commentary for Return of the Jedi! This time Law and I invite one half of the Sounder Twins, PeteMC, to tackle the fun and gloriousness of Episode VI. Listen as our disappointment increases at what a sissy Han Solo becomes; laugh with us as R2D2 forgets that he can fly; marvel at the fact that Pete might’ve drank his own piss.
Welcome to week two of The Binge Movie Aftertaste’s three plus week Star Wars retrospective. Here, Jason Morris and I once again welcomeAdventure Amigos‘own David Mayne to go over Episodes 6 and 1, Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace respectfully. In going through the trenches of this space fantasy franchise, Jason has become gradually more annoyed, with Dave and I sometimes praising it too much. But our senses will be put to the test this week, as we find out whether even Dave and I can defend the Ewoks and Jar Jar. Or, will Jason surprise us all and be the defender?
Grab your beer and get ready to shift through this continuous look at the saga that began it all.
1983 was the peak of my Star Wars fan craze. I was six years old, watching Saturday morning cartoons on an everlasting loop, and playing with Star Wars toys. I also had the books, the records -sometimes combined- and the wallpaper. I was not the mostly cynic person you know today. Advertisers, seeing the money to be had, would advertise Return of the Jedi every other commercial break. You could not watch The Smurfs without seeing a series of moving images involving Luke with a green lightsaber hacking away on Jabba’s barge. THIS, as they said, would be it.
Background: Raking in the benefits of spearheading two huge franchises (Star Wars and Indiana Jones) George Lucas was nonetheless in a stressful time of his life. He was coming off a divorce from the person many say saved Star Wars from obscurity, film editor Marcia Lucas, and still wanted to hand his series off to other directors so that he would not put up with the ‘burden’ of working with actors. After his war with the Director’s Guild forebode him from hiring his friend Steven Spielberg, Lucas asked The Empire Strikes Back‘s Irvin Kershner to come back for a second go around. But the former university professor turned Lucas down, citing a massively stressful shoot and mounting pressures that he did not want to live up to again. Lucas even famously had a meeting with a hot at the time commodity known as David Lynch. Lynch was coming off his hugely successful, Oscar nominated film The Elephant Man and was looking to do something in the science fiction realm. But something tells me the quirky Lynch did not see himself meshing well with the visionary but very hands on Lucas, and passed on the project. The fact he decided to take Dune instead is a topic to be discussed another day.
Less famously, Lucas took a meeting with Canadian B movie schlock director David Cronenberg. Now THERE’S a match made in hell if I ever saw one, and reports indicate that meeting didn’t get much past the hand shaking/greeting phase.
Enter Welsh filmmaker Richard Marquand. Coming off the character drama Eye of the Needle, in Marquand Lucas saw a man who knew how to work with actors and would allow Lucas to concentrate on the technical aspect of the film. Though future recounts by actors and crew members on the film say Lucas ended up doing a lot of the film’s directing. If he wasn’t telling Marquand how the Ewoks walk, he was getting in arguments with him over the film’s overall vision. Now there is a line a producer walks when producing a film. But you have to remember. This was Lucas’s baby (as Steven Spielberg will point out to him while the prequels were in the planning stage), and his hands on approach might be looked at as a filmmaking version of bullying. But if this indeed was going to be the series’ swan song, I don’t blame the man for wanting to get it right.
As for me personally, I believe I already outlined what my expectations were going in. I was all set to see Return of the Jedi on the big screen, and NOTHING was going to stop me. My father seemed to be almost as anxious as I was, and we were all set to see the movie we had waited three years to see. You have to remember. The end of Empire was a HUGE cliffhanger. I still was trying to wrap my head around whether Darth Vader was telling the truth about his father’s true fate, and we had no idea how -or if- Han was going to be fully rescued. Though I DO specifically remember a TV ad that had the funny exchange with Han and Luke in Jabba’s palace which goes like this:
Han: Together again huh?
Luke: Wouldn’t miss it.
Han: How we doin?
Luke: Same as always.
Han: That bad huh?
But this time, we were not going to the film alone. We dragged my mom to the movies with us. Now I was too young to know under what circumstances my father was finally able to get my mother to see the film with us. But I know for a fact she was not as excited as we were. Maybe it was sheer curiosity. No matter the circumstances, I have not heard the last of how she felt afterward.
What I Thought Then: Though I didn’t realize it at the time, Return of the Jedi was everything I could have asked for and more. It was bigger than life. It had huge space dog fights. It had massive amounts of new characters (MERCHANDISING!). And it had Luke being the one who brings balance to the Force. It was a tour de force (rim shot) of everything Star Wars. I don’t remember much about that late 1983 night at the movies. But I DO remember nudging my mother every thirty minutes or so asking when they were going to finally use lightsabers. The lightsaber battles were so exciting to me, that I did not care about Luke’s emotional tug of war with the Emporer.
I also had a love/hate relationship with the Ewoks. Though not in the way most do. They were some of the funniest things about the film to me. But one thing always disturbed me. People like to remember the Ewoks as being ‘cute,’ and ‘cuddly.’ However, I remember being traumatized by the fact that these ‘cute’ and ‘cuddly’ things were about to roast our heroes for dinner. It wasn’t until I saw the future Ewok movies and indulged in some book and record stories containing the furry creatures that I finally was able to accept them. Of course, the fact they helped our heroes in the end also helped.
As far as my immediate thoughts after seeing the movie, I don’t think I was really able to process what I had just seen. A fact which is startling to me, because three years earlier, at the ripe old age of three, I had questions galore. As I said in my last column, I could not stop talking about Empire in its aftermath. Here, I had underlining feelings, no doubt. But Return didn’t really register with me until months later, when I would read about it and process it. I am not sure if that makes it good or bad. All I knew was that Darth Vader ended up being something I was not sure I liked. What did I do right after the movie was over? Well, I slept like I was supposed to (we ended up going to a late showing.) And then, got up early to watch Empire on our front room VHS. Because I wanted to remember Vader as the bad ass he was.
What I Think Now: On its surface, Return of the Jedi isn’t any more complicated than the first two Star Wars films. But it took awhile for me to understand that there is something deep past its surface which makes it something so much more. Though I will say, in watching it now, I can point out one thing I think almost kills it, and that’s its acting.
Last week, I could not stop praising how good a job Carrie Fisher did in Empire‘s most dramatic scenes. She had to do a lot of acting with her eyes, and she did it well. It is a skill in acting which is harder than you might think. Having said that, the difference between her then and here is astounding. Fisher is terrible in Jedi. Don’t get me wrong. I am not discounting the work she does in Jabba’s palace. From being Jabba’s destroyer to having another swinging moment with Luke (of course, the slave outfit too), Leia has some fine moments. But after these scenes, Fisher is merely background noise. She has an embarrassing few lines when Luke is getting ready to leave to confront Vader, and her recount of the ‘I know’ line from Empire is cringe inducing.
Across the board, Return‘s acting is pretty insufferable. Though I don’t think it is all the actors’ fault. You need a sturdy hand when it comes to pulling off a science fiction storyline. It isn’t too often that you can see a behind the scenes tug of war come across onscreen. But I feel it is pretty evident the more you watch Return. Lucas is feeling forced to direct scenes he did not deem filmmable, and the result is not too pretty.
Though the good news is there is still plenty to love about Jedi without having to dwell on its inadequacies. The Emporer, a character we had heard about for two straight films, finally makes his presence known in Return of the Jedi. Played by Ian Mcdiarmid, the evil ruler is scary and menacing. He also has a laugh that is as maniacal as it is gleeful. The folly artists did a great job of echoing it every single time he uses it. The entire triangle storyline with him, Vader, and Luke is magnificent filmmaking, as the drama between them builds and builds until its climax. As a child, I did not understand that Luke was not going to fight his father unless he absolutely had to. I also did not understand how the evil one sitting in the chair wanted it to happen just as much as I did.
There are also quite a few subtle moments I did not pick up on before that I did in this last viewing. For example, right after Luke is captured and brought before his father, they have a discussion about how Vader is hiding the fact he was once Anakin Skywalker. The conversation ends with Vader sending Luke away, and there is a slight moment of what seems to be reflection. Vader, by himself, stands and looks into what seems to be nothingness, almost as if he is contemplating what he is eventually going to end up doing at the film’s climax.
There is also a slight bit of symbolism here that I had not noticed before. Right after Luke cuts off his father’s hand (following the best crescendo John Williams has ever composed), Luke is congratulated by the Emporer, and slowly looks at his own hand. As he does this, it is in the red lights of the throne room itself, symbolizing blood and the blood lines at war. I have no idea why it took this long for me to notice that, and whether it was Lucas or Marquand (or screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan), it is an outstanding way of outlining a family plight.
Earlier I dogged the scene with Luke & Leia when Luke reveals he has to leave. But there is one moment in that series of scenes which I love. After Luke leaves, Leia is crying and greeted by Han Solo, who comes out to see what is going on. After asking her if she is ok, she tells him she cannot tell him what was said. Han implies she told Luke, therefore showing a hint of jealousy. Seeing the situation as being hopeless, he throws his hand in the air and makes like he is going to walk off. Now the old Han, the one we met in Star Wars, would do exactly that. But this time, he turns back, and softly tells Leia that he is sorry. It is here that we know he is in love with her, and that he has in fact changed. I guess being encompassed in carbonite will do that to someone.
Overall, a revisit to Return of the Jedi merited a lot more positive feelings this time than bad. Despite some pretty bad acting, I still enjoy the hell out of it. It is a fitting conclusion to a series that indeed revolutionized cinema. Wait, were there more?
In Conclusion:Return of the Jedi marked the end of an era. Yes, there were more Star Wars movies to come. But I would never again be that innocent six year old child waiting with baited breath to see the characters I had followed for so long be either christened or damned onscreen. It marked a family outing that I still remember to this day, and isn’t that truly what going to the movies are all about? Memorable experiences?
I will get into my feelings about Star Wars leading up to Episode I: The Phantom Menace in next week’s column. But for now, I will say Star Wars defined so many childhoods I don’t feel one column each about all the films is enough. The Jedi would return. But the feelings of astonishment that came with being a child would not.
I’d be lying to you (poorly) if I said the original Star Wars Trilogy isn’t my absolute all-time favorite trilogy. There have been some amazing contenders, specifically Lord of the Rings, but for my money nothing in the realm of entertainment has ever made such a lasting imprint on me the way Star Wars has. Some of my earliest memories were of watching Return of the Jedi over and over again on VHS, having no concept of the fact that there were “other” movies in the series until my Uncle Bill hooked me up with copies of Episodes IV and V. Before that, all I knew was Jedi, which in a lot of ways was a blessing in disguise. Jedi is very publicly the least well-liked of the trilogy, but for me that has never been the case. When your only exposure to Star Wars is the least liked film, and when you’re so young that you’ll go on monthly binges of watching nothing but that one movie, it does wonders for your taste later in life. Of course, after seeing the other two films, I slowly but surely came to love them all equally, as I do today. Sure, we can nitpick whether or not the twist in Empire even remotely makes any sense, or we can laugh at the clear smears of Vaseline on the lens to mask the Landspeeder’s wheels in A New Hope, but why? The sum total of that trilogy is something truly amazing that has rightfully earned its label as the most sought-after entertainment brand in the world. That was, until, the Prequel Trilogy, where everything went to shit.
If you’re a fan of bad movies then you’d be hard pressed to find three more peculiar and awe-inspiring monuments of failure. When viewed as a trilogy, the films have few redeeming qualities. For instance, Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi was an inspired choice. He truly made the part his own and blended the wisdom of Alec Guinness with his own more youthful sensibilities and is still the standout performance of the trilogy. That’s not to say his performance is sometimes awful in its own right, but more on that later. You see, many have gone out on a limb and blamed George Lucas, solely, for the failure of these movies. When measuring them in dollars and cents, they are a rousing success without question. The biggest issue with these films is the lack of finesse and development as an artist on the part of Lucas, where he somehow manages to take Academy Award winning/nominated actors like Natalie Portman and Samuel L. Jackson and make them sound as if they have all the personality of a wet noodle. The directing and writing is at the center of the mess that is the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, an abomination that most of us wish never happened.
Without going into the gory details, we all know where things are now. Disney owns Star Wars, Kathleen Kennedy is producing and masterminding the universe, Lawrence Kasdan is involved in several of the films now in development and it’s being kickstarted by JJ Abrams. Disney did everything in their power to remove Lucas from the equation, leaving him on with no more than a producing/story credit on the upcoming film. This is a good thing across the board. In fact, their main selling point behind this year’s Comic Con panel was to hammer the idea into our heads that the film is being made with “real, practical effects”, something that is welcome but annoying to hear over and over again. Despite all of this, here’s the thing…this past year is the last one where we won’t have a new Star Wars film on the horizon. Think about that. The only studio to do something near this level of production is Marvel Studios…coincidentally paired with Disney as well. There’s no argument that Marvel’s business model is the new Hollywood trend with everyone from Jurassic Park to Fast & Furious trying to build their own “universes”, but is this a good thing for Star Wars? We’ve all wanted this for a long time. Someone to come in and do another GOOD Star Wars film. I make no qualms about it, I am in the camp of wanting more of this universe on screen. My rationale is simple, and is tied to this past week’s Ant-Man.
Ant-Man shouldn’t have worked as well as it did but it proved a bunch of things to me all once. Slap “Marvel” in front of your movie and you will be #1 at the box office without question (see last year’s smash hit “Tyler Perry in Marvel’s ‘Medea Goes Transgender'”). Seriously though, you had a troubled pre-production, mostly unknown character, kind of bland trailers/promos and a director best known for rom-coms. It shouldn’t have worked, but it did, and I think it had to do with the corporate machine that is Marvel Studios. Marvel is bigger than any one piece of its films at this point, so much so that they can “will” their films to success. Granted, there have been some duds in the MCU, but they’ve done a good job taking the good elements from the shittier entries and using them later to further validate the company’s ideology, i.e. using older Howard Stark in the opening moments of Ant-Man. So let’s apply that logic to Star Wars. Will all the films be great? No, but odds are a few of them will be. Right now we have a 50/50 chance of Episode VII being a great film. People, it could very conceivably be an awful movie. All signs point to it hitting us right in the childhood with references to the original films, but honestly, this film could be a gigantic kick to the nads outside of that.
Where do I stand? I’m ok with this plan. I know Marvel is what Marvel is now but their structure has been imitated to give us Fast Five, the upcoming Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice/Suicide Squad and even the Rocky spinoff Creed. We can rage about the finer points of quantity over quality but in all honesty, so what? If they keep trying, odds are some of what we’ll be getting will be pretty good. Well, at least 50% of it.
So what do you think? Are you happy about the upcoming plan over the next few years or would you rather they left it alone? Let us know below! Enjoy your week and Binge On!
Welcome to the October 12th edition of “Working the Weekend with Luke”. I’ve got a little bit of everything this week. I read a book. I actually went to the movies this week. Yes, it was the movie version of the book I read. Bet you can guess what it was without looking at the title of this week’s column. I went to a concert last night, and of course, I’ve got the next entry in the trilogy countdown. So let’s get to it.
GONE GIRL-THE NOVEL
I haven’t read anything this good (I mean, besides all the great weekly columns here at Binge Media) since The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. The way Gillian Flynn constructs this bizarre series of events is done to absolute perfection. I’m not big on spoilers so I won’t give anything away, but there is so much to this book that I wasn’t expecting. First, you find yourself laughing more than you think you would, but in the best way possible. But the best part is that for the first half of the book, you develop a mindset about how the novel will progress and then just get completely blindsided. I couldn’t put it down. I started it on Wednesday night, getting through 112 pages before I went to sleep, and I read the remaining 300 pages on Thursday, the last ten in a passenger seat on the way to the 9:50 showing of…….
GONE GIRL-THE FILM
He may have already been, but if he wasn’t before, David Fincher has become my favorite director. He’s directed so many of my favorites anyway, from Seven to Fight Club to The Social Network, and he’s got another winner in Gone Girl. It’s rare when a movie can really stay true to the novel, but it was done here. I really dig that Gillian Flynn wrote the screenplay as well, as I’ve always believed this should be done more, as nobody can write the characters better than the person who created them. Her words added to Fincher’s brilliance and the chilling score of Reznor and Ross makes for one hell of a movie. David Fincher is the closest thing my generation gets to Alfred Hitchcock. That’s right, you heard me. Again, I’m not big on spoilers, so it’s difficult to write too much. What I can tell you is that the directing, the writing, and the casting are just about perfect.
A NIGHT WITH WHISKEY ROSE
About three months ago, I wrote a piece on a new country duo, Whiskey Rose. If you missed that, go ahead and click HERE to introduce yourself or just to revisit my own introduction to these lovely ladies. I met them a few months back when they were here for the Country Life Music Festival and this weekend, Skye and Kristen were back in town for an even better cause, to raise money for St. Jude. What I really enjoy about seeing Whiskey Rose is the simplicity. Two girls, two guitars, and two microphones. No lights, no lasers, just great music that even those who don’t particularly listen to country will enjoy, as evidenced by my buddies that came along who never listen to country and had a blast. The girls played for around three hours, a nice combination of a few covers that they put their own spin on and their own original songs, which they write together. One of their newest songs, “I’m Too Pretty To Go To Jail”, was a big hit last night, so much so that they played it twice. I said hello right before they went on and they were nice enough to come and join my table during one of the set breaks and they were just as sweet, personable, and humble as I remembered them to be. If you haven’t heard of Whiskey Rose, believe me, you will. Nice to see you again last night, ladies. I look forward to catching up with you again down the road. For more info on this dynamic duo, head over to whiskeyrosemusic.com.
TRILOGY COUNTDOWN
#10-THE INFERNAL AFFAIRS TRILOGY-IF YOU MISSED IT, CLICK HERE
#9-THE NAKED GUN TRILOGY-IF YOU MISSED IT, CLICK HERE
#8-THE LECTER TRILOGY-IF YOU MISSED IT, CLICK HERE
#7-THE MAN WITH NO NAME TRILOGY-IF YOU MISSED IT, CLICK HERE
#6-THE KARATE KID TRILOGY-IF YOU MISSED IT, CLICK HERE
#5-THE BACK TO THE FUTURE TRILOGY-IF YOU MISSED IT, CLICK HERE
#4-THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY-IF YOU MISSED IT, CLICK HERE
#3-THE TOY STORY TRILOGY-IF YOU MISSED IT, CLICK HERE
#2-THE ORIGINAL STAR WARS TRILOGY
STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, RETURN OF THE JEDI
Is there really anything that I could go into detail about that you don’t already know. It’s Star Wars for crying out loud. So for the #2 entry in the trilogy countdown, instead of listing all of the awesomeness that is this trilogy (that would take way too long), here’s a few pics from the only real Star Wars trilogy. Seriously, don’t even pretend that you liked the prequels, outside of maybe the last half hour of Episode III and Samuel L. Jackson’s purple lightsaber and the small hope that he might say “May the force be with you, muthafucka.”
A NEW HOPE
I’ve always loved this scene. Obi-Wan proves that he was always the teacher, even if at that moment, Vader doesn’t quite realize it.
Okay, let’s just get this out of the way. A kiss for luck. Gross. That’s either George Lucas not thinking ahead or being a really perverted individual.
I really don’t have a witty comment for this. It’s just to let you know that I was done talking about the first movie.
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
If only we all had a mean little green man to guide us through life.
“What do you mean you drank all of my Colt 45?” Maybe that’s why Lando can’t think straight and is forever changing his mind, and maybe Boba is always too drunk to actually do his job. Seriously, if you really think about it, he’s the worst bounty hunter ever.
“I love you.”
“I know.”
BADASS!
Arguably the biggest “oh damn” moment in movie history.
The same look I get when any stranger I ever meet tells me that they’re my father. And seriously people, if you’re going to be unoriginal, at least get the line right. Vader never says “Luke, I am your father.” Google it.
RETURN OF THE JEDI
The scene that sped up the sexual awakening for so many young boys. No, I’m talking about Leia in the bikini. Take your fat guy fetish somewhere else sickies.
Until Jar Jar Binks came along, the most annoying characters in the Star Wars universe. But at least they were helpful.
Nothing funny to say here. This is just the best scene of the entire trilogy. The final showdown between father and son is done perfectly. The camera angles are fantastic, but what really makes this scene is the musical score. It honestly gives me goosebumps every single time I watch it.
Dad doing the right thing. “If I can’t kill my son, then there’s no way that I’m going to let you.”
Come on, admit it. You still know it doesn’t look right when Luke takes the helmet off and his dad isn’t black.
“But I saw you kiss Luke on numerous occasions. Like, really kiss him.”
Just so you can put back into your brain that Hayden Christiansen does NOT belong in this shot.
I know I made a few jokes, but in all sincerity, the original trilogy is simply fantastic. The originality and the great storytelling makes for a great cinematic experience and these movies will continue to be discussed forever. Are you a Luke guy or a Han guy? Are you a C-3PO guy or an R2-D2 guy? Who shot first? And on and on and on. I lived for these movies as a kid, as did millions of other kids. They tried so hard to ruin the legacy with the prequels and who the hell knows what we’re in for with the next trilogy, but standing on its own, it’s hard to get better than the original Star Wars trilogy.
Okay, I know that was a lot to deal with this week, but I hope you enjoyed it. Come back next week for the final entry in the trilogy countdown. Think you can guess what it is? Take a shot below or follow me and tweet @THElukenorris.
And as always, here’s your Beverly Hills, 90210 clip of the week. I choose…..