The Wages of Cinema

Sometimes things in cinema history, as in art and in politics and in life, don't repeat but they rhyme. A good question to posit now: is the new HALLOWEEN, which we have to distinguish between the other *two* films out there in the past forty years named that (perhaps they got scared off by adding names after Halloween after two particular dud entries in 95 and 2002 that we shall not name here - t...

What is a studio to do when they have the rights to a much beloved (very) 1990's comic book villain staple (co-created by none other than Todd MacFarlane - look at the guy, you can tell) BUT now the rights with Spider-Man - the one people kinda sorta *really* want to see - are sort of up in the air between one studio and another? When you got Tom Holland around as Peter Parker... what if you just...

Multi-generational saga, check Chapter titles, check Pulp Fiction costumed characters, check Bob Dylan references up the wazoo? Oh, double check. Is it any good? Um.... Jack and Korey saw Life Itself. Is it as bad as everyone (or the critics, not sure how many audience members have seen it) is saying? Find out here in this not-un-spoilery review of the new epic drama from the creator of This is Us...

How to describe properly a movie - so called anyway, this barely qualifies - that rests comfortably in the IMDb.com Bottom 100 ranking of films? Is it a dream? A nightmare? A lucid dream? An instructional guide for bubbles and/or milkshakes? Jack and Korey watched Oogieloves, so you don't have to. wagesofcinema@gmail.com

Oh my God! Neil Breen has a new trailer for his next cinematic "masterpiece" (I put that in quotes as I'm not sure who said it) ---oh what's that? And we watched some trailers from the San Diego Comic Con or something. Con? Like a Con job? Oh no... - Here's what we watched and discussed (with Korey's lamentations about the lack of movies in the world that aren't sequels, remakes, reboots, etc etc)...

And we're back! Ain't no stopping now (No stopping!) No one does it better! Oh, wait, actually that's just the song that opens the episode, from the Cannon films classic BREAKIN' which we discuss on the latest episode of Wages of Cinema. - But FIRST - we discuss for the first 34 minutes about the James Gunn situation on Twitter, where Disney decided to can Gunn after some offensive tweets came to...

How BIG can this review get? This isn't a very SMALL movie is it? How many times will Jack straighten his non-existent tie as he makes bad small-thing jokes? How does a Steven Universe song figure into all of this. Jack, Korey, the OG co-host Andrew and Guest Star Matt (of https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com) are all on this episode for the THIRD Marvel Cinematic Universe entry in 2018, and this...

NSFW of course... For this special, jam-packed, three-film extravaganza(if you can call them all in the traditional sense 'films'), we needed some help... and who better than the co-host on the previous SEX in CINEMA episodes (those previous ones being numbers 7.5 and 27.3) - ANDREW! This is quite the threesome! .... no, no, that's not right, get your minds out of the gutter! We are professionals...

We're back! Thank you so much for continuing to listen and support us. We have a lot to catch up on here, and we also get into a discussion on representation in film criticism. We got the latest from the director of 20 Feet From Stardom on one of the legends of children's television; unnecessary but passable remakes/reboots; national treasure Eric Roberts; A24's latest WTF offering on over 2 thous...

We saw Star Wars... at a DRIVE-IN! Hear how that was like... and then also the movie itself, which... well, you'll find out, just like you'll hear how much the eagerly anticipated uh back-story for Han is... like his NAME! oh well. wagesofcinema@gmail.com

Where else can you go from the first Deadpool? Turns out, you can go to many places - and especially other rather 'colorful' characters (that includes you, grim-face Josh Brolin as Cable) - and once again the Wages of Cinema is there to see all the X-Men skewering and slicing/dicing mayhem and don't give AF comedy that Reynolds and company have in store (and don't forget the most important charact...

So, we saw this separately this time, for various reasons, which makes our reactions to this third collaboration, another suburban dramedy, between director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody pretty fresh. And... boy oh boy do we have some thoughts (and by we I mostly mean Korey - note from editor). Spoilers begin at 22 minutes in, and yes there are BIG spoilers in this review (just listen for t...

Well.... you know how it goes. When four 'Wagers' combine, our powers make up the Wages of Cinema MEGAGROUP! And from here we can... sit around and talk about movies, such as Infinity War, which has enough characters to make up the population of a small country. (in case you want to hear our thoughts on previous Marvel movies, check out the MCU playlist on Soundcloud!) Spoilers at... yeah, 7:39 mi...

Now, who could we ask about their all-time top favorite movies? How about the new co-host of the podcast, Korey?! This has been a long time coming and here Jack and Korey talk about her favorite movies, which is an eclectic batch of family animation, prestige drama, and pot boilers made for the ladies (usually). Also, Woody Allen, Richard Linklater, and and Michel Gondry all in one podcast! (And s...

Jack and Korey talk at great length about the new horror-thriller that marks John Krasinski's first big studio effort as director (and of all things produced by *that guy*? To find out who you gotta listen to the episode). Then, another 2 minute movie mile (give or take a couple) that ranges from two highly specific and very different auteurs, to direct-to-video schlock, and Nicolas Cage being his...

What, might you ask, do the new films by super-mogul-sometimes(no always)-auteur Tyler Perry and Academy Award winning, super-meticulous, pushing-boundaries-of-technology-and-cinema Steven Soderbergh have in common? Well, dear listeners, we're still not sure! But we jammed two reviews of them into one episode anyway; while we don't exactly compare the two films, we thought they went well together...

So what happens when a franchise's first director - in this case Guillermo del Toro, who had a pretty surprising film that worked out well - steps back to just a producer role and the guy who's done, well, episodes of Daredevil (yey) and episodes of... Spartacus: Blood and Sand (huh? But it has a colon like this movie does, so yey I guess?) steps in? You get Pacific Rim: Uprising, which takes the...

If you go a little ways back into the podcast - on Soundcloud we have the helpful Playlist that has all of our Local Vocal episodes - you can find that episode 5 was a talk with writer, actor and now director Devin T Klos. It was a good conversation, but we had to have Devin back on the podcast as he has directed his first feature: IDOL WORSHIP. We talk how the idea came to being, the challenges o...

WHO WON! WHO LOST! YOU DECIDE! ... woops, wrong show. Sorry, ERB. Anyway, here were the 90th academy awards ceremony. As if with a movie shoot, now we got take TWO of Jimmy Kimmel AND Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway presenting best picture. Did they screw it up this time? Well.. find out on the podcast Jack and Korey did to discuss it. We also talk Guillermo del Toro and the Shape of Water, why Get...

So, how do you follow up on introducing a very pissed-off Wakandan prince in Captain America: Civil War (you can search for episode 47 to find our thoughts on that film)who appears in a rather nifty black suit? Well, if you're Marvel, hiring Ryan ("Creed", "Fruitvale Station") Coogler is a great way to go about it, but also by populating your film with the best in African-American (or African-Brit...

"Pleasebabypleasebabybabybabyplease!" With these immortal words of a come-on as Mars Blackmon, Spike Lee burst on the cinema world in 1986 with his ultra low-budget debut, SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT. 31 years later, he decided to expand this story of a young, independent woman with three men in her life (and bed) to a ten-part, roughly 5 1/2 hour long Netflix series. How does 1986 compare to today? Well....

We haven't done this in a LONG time, which makes this all the more satisfying to bring back: the "Two Minute Movie Mile" (or 2MMM for short), where we each get two minutes (or four if it's one we both saw) to discuss a movie. You got to get it out in those 120 seconds or it'll never happen again! Mwahaha. Anyway, here are the movies Jack and/or Korey saw: THE SNOWMAN (2017) MAN BITES DOG (1992) ME...

Jack's wife Korey (aka "Wifely Duties" Korey, as you can find on the playlist on Soundcloud, or as she's known now as "Co-Host Duties Korey") joins us on the first official episode as regular co-host! This is a long, meaty discussion of the 90th Oscar nominations. HEAR! Jack's theory about why The Post could get best picture as a way to spite Harvey Weinstein (or make a correction, you pick) - Kor...

We have a special announcement for you all. But... as Sid would say...

Andrew has more to say The Last Jedi, and both hosts have a lot to say about internet hype (Jack goes into a tangent on Bob Dylan) and about audience expectations, then Jack sees a woman fall in love with a fish man, Andrew talks about It's a Wonderful Life for the 800th time (or so), and Jack sees Bill Murray and Rita Hayworth at their peaks (and Michael Shannon... sometimes). Films Discussed: ST...