After doing full career retrospectives on Michael Mann and Quentin Tarantino last year, it didn’t take long to figure out whose directorial career the Aftertaste was going to tackle next. An influencer, and someone whose films can be dissected to death, Christopher Nolan is someone who has a firm grasp on what kind of vision he wants to display. From Batman to focused World War II stories, Nolan has certainly run the gamut of what kind of stories he has to tell. But with the only Nolan related things covered in this podcast being his Dark Knight Trilogy, as well as him having a film called Tenet scheduled to come out this summer, we felt it was time to tackle the rest of his career. So join myself, Jack, and Matt as we look at what his career outside of the cowl has consisted of, while leading up to a review of Tenet.
As promised, in lieu of Tenet being released on multimedia platforms on December 15th, here is the final bookend to our long in development Christopher Nolan retrospective. To say that Tenet is in uncharted territory would be an understatement. As information of its making were being gradually released, there was a slight buzz that was bound to explode. But March brought everything to a grinding halt, including the movie industry. Suddenly, Tenet became more than just another Christopher Nolan blockbuster. It was being looked at as the ‘savior of the movie industry’.
Listen in as we discuss if the movie should have even been released this year, as well as the quality of the movie itself. Was it worth the wait and, is Tenet worth seeing at all?
It’s barely a franchise. The original came from the studio with Dino De Laurentis’s name on it. It’s been 28 years since its previous entry. So why the hell are we doing the movies of Bill and Ted, two movie doofuses who until this year, had made two movies that made decent money, but nothing worth writing home about. But despite all odds, this year has brought us a brand new entry entitled Bill & Ted Face The Music. Do I have to reiterate how crazy a year 2020 has been?
Now we’ve done franchises that waited awhile between sequels in the past. But a span of twenty-nine years, the amount of time between Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey and this year’s Bill & Ted Face The Music, is far and away the Aftertaste record for the number of years between films. So what made Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves finally come back to the roles that launched their careers? And is the film’s story, once again concocted by original writers Ed Soloman and Chris Matheson, worthy of the long wait?
Join Alyx, Jack, and myself as we answer these questions and more. And be sure to stay until the end, as Jack makes a bizarre proposition for a condition connected to a possible future retrospective.
Bill & Ted Face The Music (2020) (?/10, ?/10, ?/10)
It’s barely a franchise. The original came from the studio with Dino De Laurentis’s name on it. It’s been 28 years since its previous entry. So why the hell are we doing the movies of Bill and Ted, two movie doofuses who until this year, had made two movies that made decent money, but nothing worth writing home about. But despite all odds, this year has brought us a brand new entry entitled Bill & Ted Face The Music. Do I have to reiterate how crazy a year 2020 has been?
To say that Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey was a different creature than its previous entry would be an understatement. Rejected by fans of the first film, it has since grown to become a bit of a cult favorite. But a commentary done on this site proved that the film has not gotten better with age amongst some fans of the series. However, this was my first viewing of the film, so my perspective is something I have not had in the entire six year history of this podcast. How would I respond, and would Jack and Alyx like it at all? Listen below to find out!
Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991) (?/10, ?/10, ?/10)
It’s barely a franchise. The original came from the studio with Dino De Laurentis’s name on it. It’s been 28 years since its previous entry. So why the hell are we doing the movies of Bill and Ted, two movie doofuses who until this year, had made two movies that made decent money, but nothing worth writing home about. But despite all odds, this year has brought us a brand new entry entitled Bill & Ted Face The Music. Do I have to reiterate how crazy a year 2020 has been?
But before we get there, we have to review the first two. Join myself, Jack, and Alyx as we begin with the 1989 original, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. What are our memories of it, and is this one of those times when a movie that was a sentimental childhood favorite becomes a modern day laughable farce? Listen below to find out!
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) (?/10, ?/10, ?/10)
After doing full career retrospectives on Michael Mann and Quentin Tarantino last year, it didn’t take long to figure out whose directorial career the Aftertaste was going to tackle next. An influencer, and someone whose films can be dissected to death, Christopher Nolan is someone who has a firm grasp on what kind of vision he wants to display. From Batman to focused World War II stories, Nolan has certainly run the gamut of what kind of stories he has to tell. But with the only Nolan related things covered in this podcast being his Dark Knight Trilogy, as well as him having a film called Tenet scheduled to come out this summer, we felt it was time to tackle the rest of his career. So join myself, Jack, and Matt as we look at what his career outside of the cowl has consisted of, while leading up to a review of Tenet.
Though there have been plenty of emotional scenes in Nolan’s work, there was never any project of his which seemed too personal to him. His work, as Matt has pointed out previously in this retrospective, has been very clinical, and there hadn’t been that one film which came from a place within his heart. Until Dunkirk.
When Nolan announced that his follow-up to Interstellar was a World War II film based on an incident that happened in Britain which took place before Americans became involved, there were plenty of turned heads who didn’t think he could pull it off. But, what else is new? When Dunkirk came out in the winter of 2017, Nolan proved that he could indeed make a personal film which transformed to box office gold. Three years later, Matt, Jack, and myself review the three perspective film (or is it an experience?) and determine if it deserves to be placed among Nolan’s best work. Be forewarned. There is a review in this podcast which shocked the other two.
Ten down, one to go! Listen to the end as we talk about how we are handling the roll out of our Tenet review, and thanks a ton for all your patience as we get through this longer than expected retrospective.
Here it is. The end of our look at all the Hannibal Lecter films. And boy do we end on a great note.
Oh, I’m not talking about the movie being discussed. No matter how our reviews end up going, there is no argument that 2007’s slick high brow prequel Hannibal Rising, involving the upbringing of our favorite cannibal, is not a favorite movie among critics. In fact, it has a PHENOMENALLY high Rotten Tomatoes score of 15%. But is it at all enjoyable for anyone on this podcast? I will just say, maybe.
After Red Dragon was released to huge business, producer Dino De Laurentiis wanted to take the character in a new direction. That being a movie that looks at how Hannibal Lecter became one of the most notorious FBI wanted serial killers to have ever lived.
Or does it? Join me, Mike, and Matt as we dissect the film and make our own conclusions as to how this works as a cap off to Hannibal in our cinematic world. We also talk about how the TV show ended, and if producer Bryan Fuller will ever finish his take on this series of stories.
The Binge Aftertaste’s first Retrospective of the year also ended up being among its most fun. I want to thank Mike and Matt, who have both agreed to come back on for future series.
Until then, here are all four of our previous podcasts:
One year after the financially (but not critically) successful Hannibal took the film world by storm, producer Dino De Laurentiis saw fit to fix what he saw as a mistake. See, even though Michael Mann’s Manhunter has garnered quite a cult following -probably due to the way his 1995 film Heat was received- it was not a favorite of the auteur producer De Laurentiis. In fact, all the way up to his passing a few years ago, he had gone on record several times saying he flat out did not like it.
So what does he do? Back the Brinks Truck up to Anthony Hopkins’s house, and bring together what is quite possibly one of the biggest and most talented casts ever assembled for the 2002 redux Red Dragon. But that’s not all. There had to be a director highly capable of keeping all the onset egos in check, while moving the film along at a brisk clip, and telling a gripping story. All things that, of course, are associated with the talents of….Brett Ratner??
Join me, Michael Guarnieri, and Matthew Goudreau as we take the trip down this Ratner joint, and determine whether the man behind Money Talks and several Rush Hour movies is up to the task of following in the footsteps of Michael Mann, Jonathan Demme, and Ridley Scott.
And be sure to also tune in next week, when we will finish off the series by reviewing 2007’s Hannibal Rising, as well as rank each film. We will also have seen the entire TV series, and give our thoughts on that as well.
After Manhunter was a flop in theaters, producer Dino De Laurentiis sold the rights to the Hannibal Lecter character for cheap. At the same time, Jodie Foster, fresh off her Oscar winning performance in The Accused, read the book Silence of the Lambs and decided she wanted to produce a version of it. After some of Hollywood’s biggest names passed on the film due to its subject matter, Foster and director Jonathan Demme assembled a team of bit players who eventually made one of the most frightening and beloved (horror?) films of all time.
Join me, Matthew, and newcomer to the series Michael, as we eat some liver and fava beans, and take in 1991’s multi Oscar winner The Silence of the Lambs for dessert. How do we feel about it all these years later, and how does Michael feel about being put in this world for the very first time? Only one way to find out. We’ll help you listen, Clarice, by clicking the button at the bottom of this article.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) (?/10, ?/10, ?/10)
Note: If you have not seen the first Saw film, I recommend not reading this until you have. I am going to spoil the hell out of it. On another note, I also recommend drinking while reading this article. It’s the only way I can come off as a smart writer. Thank you.
So you know that little movie which came out about cars and made a $1 billion called Furious 7? Once upon a time, eleven years ago to be precise, James Wan, the director of that little car movie, started a horror uprising. Saw, Wan’s directorial debut, was released with little fanfare and ended up making over $100 million, spawning six sequels in the process. Much like New Line Cinema is considered the ‘house that Freddy built,’ I am pretty sure Jigsaw can claim he did the same for Lionsgate. At the time of Saw‘s 2004 release, no one had ever seen anything like it. Or had they?
Saw is one of those movies that someone either really likes or really hates. What it helped spawn, the ‘torture porn’ sub genre of horror, has had its fair share of debaters both for and against its merits. Zombie master George Romero has said that he does not get these types of films because they lack metaphor. He may have a point. But my whole approach to the horror genre is pretty much my approach to anything within the business. All press is good press. So whether it’s remakes, found footage, or ‘torture porn,’ as long as the genre is in the press, it can only mean good things.
Background: To this day, director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell swear they do not see their project as anything other than a scary thriller. Starting off as a 30 minute student film, expanded into a reel for studios, and eventually turned into a Lionsgate feature, Saw is generally credited with giving birth to the Americanized version of the ‘torture porn’ series of films which enveloped cinemas in the early 2000s. The traps they concocted for the film were not meant to titillate an audience -which I feel later sequels did out of necessity to the franchise- as much as have the characters do much like they hope their audience does, which is question their morals. Something to keep in mind about Saw is that it was meant to be a straight to DVD title. It was only after a successful Sundance screening that Lionsgate had enough confidence to release the film theatrically in October. That’s right. A horror movie was released October 29th. Go figure it’s successful, right? Oh, and speaking of confidence, Wan waved his direct working fee in exchange for points on box office returns. I wonder how that turned out for him.
Me, I have two words which describe what made me look forward to watching Saw: Fangoria Magazine. A longtime horror fan, I knew the genre once again needed a shot in the arm. The low end spoof franchises never held my attention, and the one note, self referential horror films which followed in Scream‘s wake were long past being interesting. So I picked up a copy of Fangoria one day on my way home from college and saw the famous picture of Cary Elwes reaching for a cell phone just out of reach on its cover, and I was immediately hooked line & sinker. Wan and Whannell were given a six page spread cover story, which would make me already cry victory if I was in their shoes. I showed that magazine to my girlfriend at the time, and I could not wait to see what the new revolution of horror would bring. Finally something new. Something different. But was it? I’ve been let down before. On opening day, I was fixing to find out if this was one of those times.
What I Thought Then: The final twist of this movie, Jigsaw being in the room the entire time, was just the cherry on top of the delicious horror sundae I found Saw to be. The word that came to mind after the film ended was refreshing. After the onslaught of bullshit films like One Missed Call and Dark Water, I was ready to be blown away again, and Saw accomplished just that for me. It was full of nihilistic and schizophrenic style panic. This was the most jolted I had been at the movies in quite sometime, and though it seemed awful violent at the time, I respected the suspense that was built around it. It was so refreshing to see a film actually take its subject matter seriously, and no winking or references to past franchises were in sight. Though Wan did slickly enter homages when he could. For example, the shot of us seeing nothing but the black leathered glove wearing hands of the killer is a direct homage to early films of Dario Argento.
I knew then that we were watching a director on the rise. Wan was given just over $1 million to make the movie as suspenseful as he could. This forced him to build Billy (Jigsaw’s doll) himself out of clay, paper-mache, and black ping pong balls, with Wan painting the irises for the eyes. This was the first time I felt a horror film was made by horror fans my age for horror fans their age. It felt like the perfect mismash of Seven and Silence of the Lambs, two of my favorite films from the 90s.
Before I get to the next part of this article, I want to commend the makers of Saw for one more thing. I compare what they did with the sets to how George Lucas constructed his for Star Wars 27 years before. Wan made his sets ‘used.’ Everything felt so grimy and dirty that I could literally taste the rusted steel in Shawnee Smith’s trap. My girlfriend and I could not stop talking about the film for days afterward. Perhaps unironically, we broke up a little over a week later.
What I Think Now: I had not seen the first Saw since days before the release of Saw 3-D. After watching it this time, I came to one conclusion: Saw is not a very good movie. Don’t get me wrong. It was jolting, and it was internally painful. But now when I watch the film, its plot holes are ridiculous. The idea that Jigsaw could lie motionless on the floor for 90 minutes is laughable, especially considering the electric shock Zep sends through Dr Gordon and Adam would have no doubt hit him as well, considering they were on a wet floor.
Speaking of Dr Gordon, this would lead me to Elwes. Now, I did not think about it at the time, because I was so encompassed in the film. But I am highly convinced that Elwes had no idea of what kind of film he was making at the time he shot Saw. His B-movie level reactions, especially towards the end, are almost enough to take me out of the film. People make fun of Sofia Coppola’s acting in Godfather 3. In my opinion, Elwes gives her a run for her money, and I do not feel Wan was seasoned enough to know the actor had no idea he was in a movie that was actually being serious about its situations. Not that Whannell was any better.
The danger of stretching a simple idea of two men stuck in a bathroom into a 90 minute movie about how those guys got there and need to get out of it is that it feels just like what it is: stretched out. Don’t get me wrong. Wan does what he can, and needs to be commended for building the world that would expand into a universe later on. But the simple truth is I found Saw almost unwatchable this time. It has a couple thrilling moments, and I congratulate it for introducing us to not just one (Jigsaw) but two (Billy The Puppet) new slasher icons. But I feel the film’s brief Halloween 2014 re-release flopping at the box office is enough to prove to me that Saw is not the legacy I originally thought it was. I’m glad it gave Wan and Whannell long lasting careers, as they both seem like nice guys who made the film they wanted to make. But the over enthusiastic fan of the film I was eleven years ago has almost disappeared.
In Conclusion: Make no mistake about it. Saw is an innovator. Notice the quick cutting, senses jolting style Wan clarifies victims’ paranoia. Future directors Darren Lynn Bousman, David Hackl, and Kevin Greutert took this style and amped it up with steroid induced intensity. Its style has been copied many times over by many horror films. In fact, if there is one thing that was kept consistent, at least through the first three films of the series, it was its ticking clock aspect of the story. In Wan’s first film, we knew someone would eventually cut their foot off. In the second film, we knew someone would cut flesh from the back of their neck off. And in the third, we knew eventually Jigsaw was going to get a gratuitous operation. Wan’s was the best, as the saws being used on chains made them wear down, which means when Elwes finally uses it on himself, the knot in my throat which was building and building over an hour and twelve minutes of its running time was finally let out. Though that metaphor can also be attributed to my overall feelings of the film’s lasting effect on me.