podcast 13

For our 13th episode, in an effort to expand themes of conversation, we cover the topic of romancing a woman. Not really, Because I think it’s apt (only I would, but it’s my podcast and I’ll do what I want) I read a bit from Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff about the Mercury Project test pilots. Then we talk about a weird movie that has some romance and do a few pitches for “romantic comedies”.

Next time we review Peter Berg’s The Kingdom and talk about and pitch political action thrillers.

bump music: Gustav Holst – Mars the Bringer of War
The Cure – The Perfect Girl

things fall apart (right click, save as)

This is supposed to be our sports/video games bit so Zack talks about the Rams. Then Zack feels compelled to tell the story of his sister-in-law’s illustrious high school basketball career … GO PANTHERS !?! For the first part of the recording she is there but then she leaves and so I will ask her to send in any correction/rebuttal so I can read it on the podcast. ‘Cause here at the futilepodcast we are fair, balanced … and unafraid.

Then, we begin preliminary discussion about how to woo a woman, as it is apparently what women want to hear about and we’re all about bringing in new demographics. It has something to do with a Cosmopolitan magazine article on finger length and testosterone levels in utero. I don’t know … things fall apart, ’nuff said.

bump music: Antonio Carlos Jobim – Triste
– One Note Samba
nine inch nails – Slipping Away

Podcast 12 (right click, save as)

We talk about Sunset Blvd. and posthumous narration. Which leads us to talk about film noir protagonists, and anti-heroes. Zack talks about Kingsley in Sexy Beast and I talk about Michael Mann’s Heat. We next talk about con movies since I review The Sting. This invariably leads us to talk about David Mamet for a bit (we’ll return to Mamet in full at some time).

We move on to review Running Scared and Shot ’em Up. The idea being that there is this new subgenre of action movies that are essentially non-stop gratuitously violent and ironic while thinking it’s awesome. We declare that these films work if they bring the style and don’t wink at the camera too much.

Correction: It was Keith in that episode of Voltron; he was the pilot of the blue Lion.

For our weird movies (we need to come up with a better title for the segment). I review Sneakers with Robert Redford and talk about how it would be nice if he would do more comedies. Then I review Missing in Action II: The Beginning and talk about how sometimes you need to bite a rat to break it’s back so it doesn’t chew your face off. Zack talks about Jack Ryan (Tom Clancy) movies and how the idea of Ryan being some super bad ass high school quarterback isn’t cool.

Our pitch segment this time is for light drama comedies (or what I’m calling James L. Brooks comedies). Zack’s is called Jacquzzi (sp?). Mine is more inane but marketable.

bump music: Brian Eno – Force Marker (Heat Soundtrack)
9 Lazy 9 – No. 9
DJ Food – Strange Taste
David Bowie – Subterraneans (All Saints)

Madden (right click, save as)
In this one Zack does what we hope will become a regular feature about video games and sports. I might talk about cooking or something non-movie related at some point too but not bloody likely. He also talks a bit about how football differs from Baseball as there is much more of an emphasis on statistics in baseball (a game where variables are easier to account for). He talks about SABRmetrics and fantasy sports a bit. Then in keeping with the video game aspect he talks about how newer video games have developed to become quiet cinematic. Specifically he sites Resident Evil 4 and Metal Gear Solid.

Halo 3 review (right click, save as)
I don’t know much about video games, fortunately my buddy Matt does. In this podcast I talk to Matt about the Halo games and his first impression of the 3rd game, in all it’s 1080p HD quality. We also talk about game technologies and how different games compare to this game, enjoy!

podcast 11 (right click, save as)

In this first of our proper long form podcasts with segments we start off with Zack’s review of David Fincher‘s Zodiac. We talk about how the film was shot digitally with a camera called The Thompson Viper. We next talk about the new action sub genre in films like Crank, Running Scared (not the one with Billy Crystal) and Shoot ’em Up.

In our new weird movies segment Zack talks about the Brando version of The Island of Dr. Moreau. Sticking with the island theme he next talks about No Escape. I talk about my love of ensemble cast multi-storyline narratives as expressed in Spielberg’s 1941. Then I defend Overboard as a good family comedy.

We close with a segment where we each do a movie pitch within a given genre and you, this is the interactive part, the listeners can email me ian.strope@gmail.com to vote on which pitch you like best. This week it’s period action movies. I pitch a CG kid’s movie about time travelling with matches and Zack pitches a biopic about Isaac Newton’s life after the calculus thing busting counterfeiters. The key is Gary Busey in a big powdered wig.

bump music: Boards of Canada – Olson
Cities of Foam – Barry Can’t do Flat Tops
Massive Attack – Better Things
Mogwai – Travel is Dangerous


The infamous drink fridge:

Fall TV review (right click, save as)
I do a Fall TV preview while Zack dozes off. Sadly this one is not about Black Lagoon, as soon as I finish the season I’m on it. Instead, I talk about House (A-), Chuck (C (for Chuck HA!)), Heroes (B-), Journeyman (B), My Name is Earl (B), The Office (B+), The Unit (A-), Madmen (B), Bionic Woman (C (for “Chickish”)), Life (B).

music: Journey – Anyway you Want it

Eastern Promises review (right click, save as)
We talk about David Cronenberg’s films and how they have changed from Spider and History of Violence to his newest one Eastern Promises. Zack compares Cronenberg’s more visceral quick and “realistic” violence to Peckinpah’s stylized “glorified” sloMo take on violence. And he also compares the dramatic style of Eastern Promises to Paul Verhoeven’s newest movie Zwartboek (g. Black Book).

Podcast 10 (right click, save as)

We talk about some Justice League movie which sounds like a real piece of shit. I talk about JLU and the Timmverse for a bit. I bring up my favorite character The Flash and one of my favorite fight scenes: Captain Marvel v. Superman. We are still watching Double Trouble. Which leads us to talk about Wrestlers in movies. Which leads me to talk about Suburban Commando for about 5 seconds (which is about 4 seconds too long). Which leads us to speculate about the new Halloween. Somehow from there we talk about Nabokov’s Lolita (it’s Carrol Quilty not Quimby my bad). Then in anticipation for the new season we talk about Metalocalypse primarily Dr. Rockzo who is the rock’n roll clown “Gigggity yeaaaahhhh!”

Zack enters into record the rule that: “you can only get winged in a cornfield.” And I talk about the brutality of Short Circuit 2. But really aren’t we Beyond Thunderdome?

Bump Musics: Al-pha-X – The Oddity Interval
nine inch nails – We’re in this Together

Podcast 9

In this one I talk about going 90 mph while listening to MMMMMM by The Crash Test Dummies. Then we discuss Blood Rayne for a bit though to be honest I’m speechless, though I do my best as a person with a degree in biology to discuss physiological realism in terms of blood. The average human body contains about 5.6 Liters of blood which is approximately 12 pints (I confuse my pints and my quarts in the podcast). We next try to do a top 7 list of racist portrayals of antagonists in film. I spend most of the time talking about the Jamaican drug lord stereotype and Zack brings up Live and Let Die (the Bond movie among other Bond movies). We do all this while really focusing on the movie in the background which is called Double Trouble staring Peter Paul and David Paul. We close by discussing the new A v. P movie.

Bump Musics: Samurai Champloo OST (Fat Jon) – Ole
Djengo Reinhardt – I’ve Found a New Baby (F)
– In a Sentimental Mood (E)