MRwOS reviews "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga". Plus, original music with Cheyenne Dane!

 Going to a movie this weekend? Have a listen to my review of "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga". Plus, I play an original song with guest Cheyenne Dane!

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (If You Can See Me)

MRwOS is BACK!!!!

 I've been retooling my movie review show to be more of a succinct audio podcast. Check it out and let me know what you think!

MRwOS: Movie Reviews with Original Songs

Ep. 2, MRwOS (Movie Reviews with Original Songs) - Dune, Part 2/ In Your Blue Eyes

 

If you liked Dune, Part 1, you'll LOVE Dune, Part 2!

Beastly Beasts!

Beastly Beasts - S2E3 Very Scary with Gerry McCreary

Talk Show. Comedy, Sci-Fi, Horror. Gerry (David Coile) interviews a trans-migratory animal specialist (Troy Fluhr), Batman's new arch-nemesis (Les Seabolt), and a cryptozoological animal handler (Chelsea Kramer). Tara Card (Wendy Gittleson) presents the Scary News, giving the latest on Harry Potter, a cannibalistic game show, and phantom puppies! Sponsored by the Move Like Hell Moving Company.

Very Scary with Gerry McCreary is a semi-improvised comedy interview show that discusses aliens, the paranormal and wild conspiracy theories.

Check out friends of the show:

The Word Strategist

Rocky Mountain Geek Tank 

Very Scary with Gerry McCreary: Twisted Time

Here's the latest episode of Very Scary with Gerry McCreary! 

https://soundcloud.com/davidlc/ep-5v-very-scary-with-gerry-mccreary

Talk Show. Comedy, Sci-Fi, Horror.
Gerry (David Coile) talks with Robert Trebor (Troy Fluhr) who claims to be from a parallel universe where time runs in reverse. Gerry's teenage neighbor, Spencer (Chelsea Kramer) drops in unexpectedly for a sandwich. And in Scary News, Missy Nomer (Anna Yale Anna Yale M French) tells us about the status the vaccine for the coronavirus, new health guidelines from the HHS department, and a unique idea for dissolving police departments.

Very Scary with Gerry McCreary is a semi-improvised comedy interview show that discusses aliens, the paranormal, and wild conspiracy theories.

Very Scary with Gerry McCreary, Episode V1

My dark, comedic alter ego, Gerry McCreary, is back! This time his podcast has moved to streaming video. Watch as Gerry, his producer Helen Spitz (Muriah Summer) and intern Anna Morphic (Anna Yale M French) bring you Scary News, receive a future report from the Time Flusher (Troy Fluhr), interview religious leader Windsor Whately (Leslie E Seabolt) and enjoy a performance by singer-songwriter Dan Harris. Join us as we delve into the fearsome, the fiendish and the fantastical!

Ep. 2: Very Scary With Gerry McCreary - Undercover Alien Were-Bear

Hey there! Here's the next installment of my improv comedy interview podcast! In this episode I talk to a Were-bear (Eric E. Farwell) and an Undercover Alien (Troy Fluhr), with a little help from my electronic personal assistant (Laura Kistner). Enjoy!
 

Day 9: In Your Blue Eyes

This indie rock tune was a collaboration with Jason Allen. Jay has been reading the sci-fi classic series "Dune", so we decided to write the song about that. This was super fun! I got to play electric bass and Jay played his signature charango. Still took about 4 hours to write, though. Comments and constructive criticism is encouraged.

Boring Details: Jay and I started working around 2:00. We often play a cover of the Pixies' "Where is my Mind" in concert, so I suggested we try doing a Pixies-esque tune, particularly with a melodic bass-line a la Kim Deal. I don't think it quite turned out that way, but that guided us at the beginning.
Jay's a professional bassist, but he started as a guitarist and also plays this Peruvian ukulele called a charango; anyway, he decided I should try my hand at bass this time and he would play leads on the charango. I used to own an acoustic bass, but it's been several years-- it's a lot heavier than an acoustic guitar, but it's damn fun to play!

I saw "Dune" as a movie as a kid, but I've never read the book, so I was in the dark about a lot of the specifics (and had apparently forgotten hugely important plot points... I'll have to watch it again, now). I wasn't sure how this was going to work out, since Jay has apparently never written or co-written a song before, but he was great! We worked pretty closely together on the lyrics and music.

I have several other collaborations set up for later in the month, and I hope they're all as fun as this one turned out to be.

Passengers

I knew Passengers was getting mixed-to-bad reviews, but I really like Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, so I decided to see it anyway. As it turns out, it was a pretty solid film-- the performances are great and the plot, about two people waking up 90 years early on an interstellar trip, is thought-provoking.

I should mention up front that I believe the previews for this film are misleading. In one of the trailers, Chris Pratt's character says, "There is a reason we woke up early." That line is no where in the film, and it implies a certain twist or mystery that doesn't quite figure into the story. In fact, I don't think this film has any real twists. One of the things I liked about it is how it lays things out step-by-step lets us watch the consequences unfold.

The crux of the story revolves not around the ship's malfunctions or any cosmic machinations, but rather around an extremely selfish act performed by one of the main characters. It informs all of their interactions going forward, even when things get weird. I really enjoyed the ethical dilemma and the questions it raised, and I was a bit shocked to find out afterward that this was the source of many bad reviews-- many believe that the film doesn't handle the issue with enough gravity. All I can say is that the characters seem to act in a plausible way under extraordinary circumstances.

Sci-Fi fans should also know going in that Passengers is not really about the special effects, even though there are some good visual moments. After seeing Passengers and Rogue One within a couple days of each other, it really highlights how much Science Fiction isn't a genre so much a medium or setting. Star Wars is an adventure serial, Arrival is about witnessing the impossible, Inception is a psychological mystery, and Passengers is a meditation on loneliness. 

I enjoyed Passengers. There's probably a more sophisticated take on the same material, but some films are good not for the answers they give, but for the questions they ask. I suggest bringing a friend of a different gender and going out for coffee afterwards to discuss.

I'm interested in hearing opinions about Passenger's central conflict in the comments section, so anyone reading beyond the review, please consider the comments section a spoiler zone.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Over New Year's weekend, I finally got to see Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. For my money, this is the best installment since Return of the Jedi. The film has a stronger ensemble cast than any other Star Wars film-- Felicity Jones, Ben Mendelsohn, Mads Mikkelson, Forest Whitaker, Diego Luna and Donnie Yen are all either Oscar-level thespians or global super stars; Alan Tudyk is the lowest profile actor in the main cast, yet is still beloved of sci-fi aficionados everywhere. The series as a whole is plagued with clunky dialogue, and this installment is no exception, but Rogue One probably has the most fluid scripting since The Empire Strikes Back. And aside from some questionable attempts to revive dead actors with CGI, the special effects are top notch.

Despite all this, the movie still manages to disappoint, mostly because it doesn't feel quite like a Star Wars film. The original trilogy was objectively B-movie material, but what it had going for it was brutally efficient storytelling-- they were simple stories extremely well told. They trimmed the fat, while Rogue One has an entire middle-section that feels unnecessary. Furthermore, in their attempts to add moral complexity to the more recent films, I feel that they've diluted the charm of the original stories. There were times when Rogue One reminded me more of Dune (with Saw Gerrera's extremists) or of the relatively recent Battlestar Galactica reboot (with the social stratification and political squabbling within the Rebel ranks). Mind you, I like Dune and love Battlestar Galactica, but they occupy a different corner of the Sci-Fi multi-verse. I'm okay with Star Wars sticking to archetypal characters and themes, relying more on adventure and a sense of wonder.

One aside: I loved the characters of Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus. The idea of a wannabe Jedi with a buddy who keeps saving his ass is great! I'd love to see a film just about them. The other thing I liked about this duo is how, instead of being a call back to earlier Star Wars movies, it's a shout out to the Akira Kurosawa films that inspired the whole series in the first place.

One of the problems with the current trend toward extended universes is that blockbuster films have a harder time standing on their own. If it weren't a Star Wars film, I'd have fewer issues with it. Rogue One is solid, sci-fi entertainment, and would be even if it wasn't a prequel.

Review: TBS Binge-A-Thon

I've been sick as a dog this week, which means I've been camped out in front of the TV in pure couch potato mode. Luckily, TBS has been putting on a "binge-a-thon" this week (between Christmas and New Year's), in which they show all their original programming from first to last episode throughout the week (apparently all of their shows are in their first seasons). I'm happy to say that this was not a wasted effort. Here are my thoughts on the shows, from worst to best:

Angie Tribeca was created by Steve Carell and his wife Nancy, and it's a comedy that follows an LAPD homicide detective and her questionably competent precinct.  Apparently the Carrels are big fans of Jim Abrahams and the Zucker Brothers, because it's exactly the kind of humor you would expect from the makers of Airplane, Top Secret or Hot Shots!  Unfortunately, the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker trifecta did it better with their Naked Gun franchise, and even more so with the original Police Squad. Angie Tribeca is full of corny jokes and manages to be amusing at times (a statistical certainty when they toss off as many gags as they do), but it lacks the deadpan performances that made Police Squad kick, and as much as I like Rashida Jones, she ain't no Leslie Neilsen.

It's been six years since Lost ended its enigmatic run, but here comes Wrecked with the parody no one was really looking for. I went in expecting the humor to be as stale as the premise, but it actually turned out to be pretty fun. It's very silly, but there are several good performances that keep it together. If you remember Lost fondly, or if you long for a more contemporary Gilligan's Island, this is probably a worthwhile program to check out.

The end of John Stewart's run on The Daily Show mostly led to a bunch of new satirical news programs. However, former correspondents Samantha Bee (who also now anchors her own comedy news program on TBS) and Jason Jones decided to break the mold and create the delightfully surreal sit-com, The Detour. Jason Jones stars with Natalie Zea, Liam Carroll and Ashley Gerasimovich, as a family on a road-trip to Florida. Along the way, they keep getting sidetracked in ridiculous ways. The episodes are a little uneven, but the performances are top notch-- they couldn't have cast this show any better. I found myself thoroughly charmed by the family, and I'm eager to see what happens in the second season.

Another former Daily Show correspondent, Wyatt Cenac, leads the large ensemble cast of People of Earth, a show about a local support group for alien abductees, while also following the machinations of the aliens working behind the scenes. I've found this show to be consistently the funniest of the bunch, with lots of great characterizations and inventive scenarios. I thoroughly recommend it for fans of both comedy and sci-fi.


My favorite show of the binge-a-thon was Search Party. It's a biting satire of self-involved 20-something hipster culture, while still managing to be an exceptional product of that aesthetic. Alia Shawkat (aka Maeby from Arrested Development) stars as a girl having her quarter-life crisis who becomes obsessed with the disappearance of an old dorm mate she barely knew in college. The mystery is twisty and engaging, and the sophisticated humor cuts deeply. The show has been picked up for a second season, but this 10-episode run is a complete and satisfying story all on its own. Some will be turned off by the four main characters-- they're all unlikeable in their own ways-- but if you appreciate finely crafted serialized television, you owe it to yourself to check this out.

Surprise! Ghostbusters isn't as good as Ghostbusters

The all new, all female Ghostbusters has finally hit the theaters, following a production rife with controversy. For the record, I've been a fan of Melissa McCarthy since she was on the Gilmore Girls, and I've enjoyed all of Paul Feig's directorial efforts since Bridesmaids (not to mention his great cult TV show, Freaks and Geeks); Their collaboration has produced some of the best movie comedies in recent memory. It's always risky to reboot a beloved franchise, but at least they were doing it with top notch talent; and with the massive, premature backlash the film has received, I've been really rooting for them to show up the haters.

I'm sorry to report that the film is merely so-so. That it doesn't rise to the level of the first Ghostbusters isn't a surprise-- even the original cast and crew fell short with their 1989 sequel, and they were all certified comic geniuses. But it also fails to rise to the lofty standards set by previous Feig-McCarthy collaborations.


It's not quite fair to compare this Ghostbusters with the 1984 version-- they were filmed in different eras with different comic sensibilities; but it's interesting to see where the differences lie. I'm surprised at how restrained the original film seems in comparison to the reboot. Part of that was by necessity-- special effects were both lower quality and way more expensive back in the early 80s than they are today; they were forced to develop gags more through the characters and story. But it's shocking to see how much broader the characterizations are in the new film. Kristin Wiig is the closest thing to a straight character in the reboot, but she's probably crazier than all of the original cast, save for Rick Moranis and (possibly) Bill Murray.

I do think it's fair to compare it to other Feig-McCarthy films, however. The last big ensemble movie Feig did was Bridesmaids, with both McCarthy and Wiig, and the relationships between the characters were strong and heartfelt. In Ghostbusters, they seemed a bit cursory-- just enough to get the story going. Both The Heat and Spy were female takes on classic male-dominated genres, and they did a great job of spoofing their source material. Ghostbusters could have used a bit more of that spirit; there were occasional references to the sexist backlash to the production, but I would've liked it to really cut loose with meta-commentary on the whole affair. My suspicion is that, even if the filmmakers wanted to do it, the studio wouldn't have let them. Anyway, spoofing a comedy that never became cliched is harder than parodying entire genres.


I thought the pacing of the film was questionable. Just as the characters were too consistently goofy, so were the scenes in the film-- there wasn't enough time spent setting up the jokes; they just came one after the other. I wish Feig had brought in a few lower key actors he's used in his previous films-- Rose Byrne's subtlety was sorely missed, especially with Kate McKinnon's constant mugging at the camera. The film also spent too much time chasing references to the original movie, while neglecting one of it's best original gags (I don't want to give it away, but they set it up in the third act, dropped it, then brought it back during the credits in a much less satisfying way).

That being said, there are some really funny moments in the film, along with some great special effects sequences. It's a disappointment, but you could do a lot worse at the cineplex this summer.

***

Bonus Content: Back in 2014, I picked my dream cast for an all-female remake (not a reboot or sequel). My picks were as follows...

Mila Kunis - Petra (Peter/Bill Murray role)
Mindy Kaling - Ramona (Raymond/Dan Akroyd role)
Felicia Day - Eberta (Egon/Harold Ramis role)
Jessica Williams - Winnie (Winston/Ernie Hudson role)
Chris O'Dowd - Dana (Dana/Sigourney Weaver role)
Kristen Schaal - Louise (Louis/Rick Moranis role)

Short Reviews: Mutants, Avengers and Nice Guys Singing with Gangsta Cats...

X-men: Apocalypse - Overall, a big disappointment after Days of Future Past and First Class. The first two films in the reboot focused on the competing ideologies of Professor X and Magneto with Mystique stuck in the middle, and that made for a compelling conflict. In this installment, they pay some lip service to the triangle, but mostly focus on introducing new characters and a generically realized villain. Aside from the design work done for some of the new characters (Storm, Psylocke and Nightcrawler look pretty awesome), the film is muddled and shallow. And if you're a comic book purist, you'll be thoroughly upset with the liberties taken with some of the characters.

Sing Street - Director John Carney has made headlines lately after trashing Kiera Knightley's work in his previous film, Begin Again. While I also had trouble with Knightley's casting in that film, Sing Street shows that Carney bears plenty of responsibility for his missteps. Like Once, this film is set in Ireland, but it's about a teenage boy in the 80s who starts a band to impress a girl. There's a certain sweetness and local flavor that lifts it up, but the songs are as mediocre as the ones in Begin Again and fail to fully support the rebellious stance taken by the story. The film is a pleasant, but fails to rise above the level of unreflective adult nostalgia.

The Nice Guys - Shane Black was once the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood, having penned the highly influential Lethal Weapon series. More recently, he's been directing his own scripts, most notably the massive blockbuster Iron Man 3, but also the cult favorite Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The Nice Guys follows in the vein of that small, neo-noir buddy film, but doesn't quite match its lofty virtues. The film makes some confusing choices at the beginning and then the last third of the film just sort of happens. However, the chemistry between Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling and Angourie Rice (stealing the show as Gosling's character's daughter) is glorious and alone probably worth the price of admission. I'm not sure if there's going to be a sequel, but I'd love to see this crew again in a better film.

Captain America: Civil War - For my money, the Captain America series has been the highest quality Marvel Studios franchise to date, and Civil War keeps the streak alive. I'm in awe of the Russo brother's ability to keep a movie this big this balanced. Every one of the huge cast of characters gets their moment in the sun, but unlike other superhero films, Civil War knows which ones are the stars and which ones are merely the supporting cast. The themes of the film are interwoven masterfully with personal motivations, and you also get the best mass superhero battle of all time! Highly recommended. See it again and again...

Keanu - I really enjoy Key and Peele's sketch comedy show and was looking forward to a feature length treatment of their sensibilities. But greatness on the small screen doesn't always translate to the big one, and in many ways Keanu feels like a comedy sketch stretched from 5 to 100 minutes. There are some very funny scenes, and Key and Peele put on some tremendous performances, but there's just not enough to carry you all the way through.

Crust Never Sleeps...

A friend of mine recently found this old video. A group of friends and I put this together as part of the Boulder 24-hour filmmaking competition in 2008. It definitely looks like it was shot and edited in just 24-hours, but it actually won best comedy and best art direction. I wrote the screenplay (based on a story our group developed), did some acting and also composed the "Silly String Girl" theme song. Anyway, it's pretty wild-- if you appreciate non-sequiturs, you'll get a good laugh out of this one...

Mockingjay Part 2: Cheryl & Dave's Review

Star Wars may be the big ticket right now, but The Hunger Games has been a pretty great series as blockbusters go. Here's Cheryl's and my take on it.

We're trying a slighting different format this time where I'm critiquing the film and Cheryl is giving background information about it. Please leave a comment below and let us know how the new format works for you.

Enjoy!

Movie Reviews: Creed, Trumbo and more...

My dad was in town over Thanksgiving weekend, and we took the opportunity to do a movie marathon!

Sylvester Stallone hasn't been a symbol of quality in a long, long time, so it's easy to forget that the original Rocky (1976) won Best Picture, and was a pretty great film. Creed (2015) is a spin-off of the original Rocky series, and it captures much of the heart of the original. Stallone plays a supporting role as the aging champ helping out his deceased friend's son, and the film is better for it. It was a pleasant surprise. Recommended.

My favorite film of the weekend was Trumbo (2015), starring Brian Cranston (Breaking Bad, Malcolm in the Middle) as the eponymous character. Dalton Trumbo is probably the most famous of the blacklisted screenwriters during the Red Scare of the 1950s, having won multiple Oscars while writing under pseudonyms. It's a very political film, focusing on free speech issues (a subject very dear to my heart), but manages to be incredible entertaining at the same time-- this film oozes with old Hollywood charm. Highly, highly recommended.

Brooklyn (2015) stars Saoirse Ronan as a young Irish immigrant in 1950s New York. It's hard to go into the film too much without oversimplifying it, but I will say that this film has some really wonderful dinner table conversations. The movie is a romance, both about people and places, and it doesn't wrap up in a tidy way. It will leave you thinking, so bring someone along to talk about it afterwards.

Newspapers have been dying, so it's no surprise that we don't see movies about newspapers so much, anymore. But that's a shame, because there's something thrilling about a group of intrepid reporters fighting the system and uncovering corruption. Spotlight (2015) revives that tradition as it details how the Boston Globe uncovered the full extent of the Catholic child abuse scandal. It's not perfect-- I think it sometimes goes overboard trying to make active visuals while relaying key information-- but it's a worthy entry in the genre.

It's odd that the movie is called Victor Frankenstein (2015), because it's really about his assistant-- though I can understand why naming it Igor Stravinsky might be a bad marketing move. Daniel Radcliffe plays this revisionist version of Igor, which brings a lot of humanity to the character. I really appreciated the first part of the film, which explored his origins in the circus and his love for one of its acrobats. James McAvoy is well cast as the mad scientist who enlists Igor's help in conducting some horrific experiments. The last act is a bit overdone and deviates from the focus on Igor, but it will satisfy those who need a spectacular climax. Overall, it's a pretty neat take on the Frankenstein story.

I prefer to see films in the theater, but we did rent the local film Ink (2009), which depicts a dreamworld where the benevolent Storytellers try to protect us from the Incubi, who bring only nightmares. One little girl slips into a coma as the mysterious creature, Ink, kidnaps her unconscious mind. Will the storytellers retrieve her soul? Will her absentee father return to help out? This was locally done in Denver, and won Best Colorado Film from the Denver Film Critics Society. It's an uneven film, but visually it's stunning and creepy.

Sci-Fi Themes

Photo Courtesy of Star Trek Windjammer

I haven't done it a lot lately, but for a while I was writing short film scores for friends' projects. A lot of the projects were sci-fi themed, so I put together a compilation of those tunes. Most of them are instrumental, but there are a couple songs in there, too. Hope you enjoy!

The Martian: Cheryl & Dave's Review

If you haven't seen "The Martian" yet, I highly recommend it. On the other hand, Cheryl has some reservations...

Fantastic Four: Cheryl & Dave's review

Don't believe the anti-hype! Fantastic Four isn't anywhere near as bad as all the flack it's been getting.  See Cheryl's and my review for more...

Pixels: Cheryl & Dave's Review

Cheryl and I both thought "Pixels" was a bad film, but in somewhat different ways.  Check out our review below...