The Wages of Cinema

First of all, you may be seeing this already by the time the Oscar nominations are announced, which is 8 AM Tuesday morning (EST). By then, you will know for sure if DEADPOOL, the foult-mouthed, ultra-violent, hard-assed satirical passion project for Ryan Reynolds gets nominations... yes, really, and Jack explains why this could happen(!) Then Andrew brings up something on his mind - what's a wors...

So Martin Scorsese has a new film out. Ok, good, go see it. That's it, right? Hold the phone: this is a PERSONAL/PASSION project from this man, who has made a handful of very personal films (not that almost all of them don't matter to Scorsese in one way or another), like Gangs of New York, Raging Bull, and in particular with the case of Silence, The Last Temptation of Christ. What does a story in...

Now, sadly, we do come to the end of this 2016 year of the Cinema Immersion Tank, where the hosts of the Wages of Cinema went through 11 movies - and one together - five times in five days over the course of a year. Jack and Andrew reflect on the experiences of seeing these films, some for the very first time, others for the first time since childhood, what changed, what got better or worse or wha...

Now for the $64,000 question... what in God's name did ANDREW think of Vertigo when in the CINEMA IMMERSION TANK? Check out his thoughts here on Alfred Hitchcock's flawless (?, we'll see about that) masterpiece VERTIGO (featuring music in this episode by Bernard Herrmann, under fair use)

We end the year on our spectacular... 71st episode! Sure, why not! 71 is a number, so we'll take it! On this episode, we bounce around topics and films like what the implications (both good and bad) could come from the certain A New Hope actor being in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story; why Wonder Woman won't be good (according to Andrew); Jack catches up on two films Andrew's talked about in previous...

"It's because I look like her... it's not very complimentary." We now come to a close with the Cinema Immersion Tank for this year. It's been quite a ride, but now we must, sadly, bring it to some sort of end. And, hey, how about THE ultimate James Stewart Christmas movie, right? That story of love and redemption and being a pillar of the community and uh.... no, wait, this isn't George Bailey! Da...

(SPOILERS BEGIN 33:04 into the podcast - note the appearance of the vintage Burger King Empire Strikes Back commercial. Cool?) So, what happens when Disney/Lucasfilm decide to forge ahead with not just new 'Episodes' in the Star Wars saga - finally completing that much touted 9-episode arc Lucas talked about decades before - but do spin-off films, movies that explore the universe? And it's.... ano...

What makes this - another, (sigh?) Disney Princess narrative, and a musical, and an adventure story with a cute sidekick (and another sidekick that's a total foole idiot) - different than the other Disney movies? What if it doesn't have a (gasp) male romantic lead that she is pining for? How about full on allusions to Herculean and Greek mythology, among other things? Or songs that, you know, come...

Let's talk about some movies, shall we? It's right after Thanksgiving and Jack and Andrew have seen some movies, boy howdy! Jack goes through a number of new releases, and also goes back to the birth of cinema to talk about silent short films that you should all see. Andrew meanwhile checks out a slightly obscure French pulp thriller and a classic Robert Redford espionage film from 1975. email us...

We finally, after a six month wait (hopefully you were all waiting), have a new episode of our LOCAL VOCAL series. Jack from the Wages of Cinema talks with local filmmakers, actors, artists, musicians and writers in the New York City and North-East New Jersey area. Everyone here does something interesting and exciting and entertaining. Haven't heard of em yey? Well, you will now! Gianmarco Soresi...

Hasn't this year been great? Haven't you just had a lot of fun paying attention to the news? Aren't you so happy about the election results? We just want to go dance in the streets! ... Actually, no, we don't. We don't know about you, but things aren't looking so good in the world right now, however you think about the Presidential election results. So we aren't here tonight at the Wages of Cinema...

Now time for the usual question: WILL ANDREW SURVIVE, AND WHAT WILL BE LEFT OF HIM? He got into the Tank to check out Tobe Hooper's iconoclastic, horror-tastic, hard-to-watch-still-today classic, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. So come on in for some head cheese and what may be the most efficiently told horror movie of all time. (score from the movie, this podcast owned by Wages of Cinema) wagesofci...

On this episode 68: HEAR! Andrew bring up an issue that's bugged him in the weeks since recording the episode (Dr. Jack & Dr. Andrew's Case Files #3) on Heaven's Gate, and then he also brings up to Jack what it means that Marvel is into this 'origin story' formula and what it means for their movies (also expanding on their review, ep 66) HEAR! Jack catching up with a little more old-school Godzill...

Hey, anybody want this bowl of Garmonbozia we just cooked up? Oh, wait, doesn't that translate to 'Pain and Anguish'? Oh, correct, yeah. nevermind. Not one to back away from a (self-imposed) challenge, Jack checked out Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, the feature film spin-off/prequel for the iconic television show that made everyone want coffee, pie and a dancing Man from Another Place (or at least...

So what do you get when you take Marvel, Benedict Cumberbatch, magic, and the director of Sinister (not to mention the co-writer formerly known as CARLYLE on Spill.com, remember that, maybe, possibly), and a whole load of magic and psychedelic sorcery and trippy visuals? Somehow, Doctor Strange comes together. But did it for the hosts of Wages of Cinema? Jack and Andrew saw the movie and, as with...

Though this was actually, technically, talked about this waaay back at episode 8.4 of the podcast (correction: Jack said episode 4 or 5 in the recording), it's always worth going back again to one of those notorious films that shook up the industry despite the fact that, as irony would have it, at the time not too many people saw Michael Cimino's doomed follow-up to The Deer Hunter: HEAVEN'S GATE....

So in the most important news you'll see all week: Jack finally watched a bunch of Godzilla monster movies (plus Rodan)! Meanwhile, Andrew watched Captain America: Civil War again and has some new nitpicks; Jack goes to a horror movie marathon; arthouse audit with Herzog and one of the best new independent films in years. 1) GODZILLATHON: Godzilla Raids Again (1955) Mothra vs Godzilla (1964) Ghido...

This week in our main topic, we at the Wages of Cinema decided to do two things for this Halloween movie season: first, discuss the many horror tropes and concepts, things that we sometimes take for granted (too for granted, or just have come to accept as givens like jump scares and creepy children and so on); second, Jack and Andrew do something a little different: they each pitch some original i...

The Italian director Dario Argento, behind such films as The Bird with Crystal Plumage, Deep Red, Tenebre, Inferno and Phenomena among many others, including the film under discussion in the Cinema Immersion Tank today, SUSPIRIA, once said, " Films are dreams. Many, many critics say to me that my films are not good because they are too unbelievable, but this is my style. I tell stories like they a...

And now let's talk MOVIES! Jack kind of dominates this one - Andrew talks about Grand Hotel, though he's seen a couple other films Jack has so he chimes in - and it's the wide variety we like to bring to Wages of Cinema, from Japanese monster movie to resistance war movie to broad parody to Patrick Swayze kicking everyone's ass and the latest from Tim Burton, Mark Wahlberg, and that guy who stirre...

Just when you think it's safe to back to Japan that dangnabiit lizard comes out of the water and does... wait, is THAT what our King of the Monsters looks like now? Holy sushi, Batman! But the real question this time as Toho brings back Godzilla for the first time in 12 years (their longest time without him - even Godzilla 85 was only a 10 year wait), what new can be done with him? Well, what if h...

Mommys alright Daddys alright They just seem a little weird Surrender... Surrender... But don't give yourself away (accent on the y in away!) Anyone remember Over the Edge? Ever seen it? Good, because Jack took a dive into total anarchy and youth rebellion and angst and boredom and ROCK AND ROLL to bring you this podcast. So listen up and know what it's like to go to school on acid, shoot BB guns...

Not always the brightest prospect, is it? A remake of a remake - something that wasn't even that original when the Americans took what Akira Kurosawa decided to make in 1954 as a repurposing of what he thought of as *templates from the Western*. Do we get here Antoine Fuqua doing his King Kong (also a remake of a remake) and having the time of his life, or is it like filtered coffee through one of...

Still so much more to talk about- we might even impress Barry Champlain mayhap with such talk: we get back where we left off in discussing Stone's "Vietnam Trilogy" with Born on the Fourth of July, and we go on through with the likes of JFK, Natural Born Killers, Alexander (the *many* cuts), to his latest release, Snowden (which Jack got to see right before recording). It's a big one so strap in....

The world would probably - no, let's put aside probably, most certainly - be different had Oliver Stone not made that decision after Vietnam to become a filmmaker. Hell, the world might be different had he not decided to *volunteer* to go to Vietnam to fight (at a time when that was not the majority way, usually it was 'you got drafted, you go'). Because Stone, for whatever you think of his work,...