Author: Podcast Rob

Hey all, PCR here.

I’ve been seeing a lot.. a LOT of chatter lately about “Justice League 2” and how the Snyderverse should and will be continued and, I have to admit… it’s only slightly less annoying than when people were clamoring for The Snyderverse in the first place.

Let me be clear, was “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” better than Whedon’s?  Admittedly, it felt like it had more gravitas to it and was a more ‘serious’ movie.  That said, the whole concept of “The Snyder Cut” was bullshit from the beginning.  Zack and his (vocal) fans on social media made it seem like there was a finished movie hidden in a file cabinet somewhere, when in reality, it still cost over $70 million to film.  Snyder has also gone on record talking about the “torture” and horrible experience it was working with Warner Bros to get his vision made, to the point that the relationship has deteriorated immensely and reports are *now* coming out that WB wishes the ZSJL was never made in the first place.

My opinion?  ZSJL was a creation of the COVID pandemic.  Things were shut down, hardly anything was being filmed or created,  and here WB had an opportunity to ‘relaunch’ something that didn’t get a resounding review originally into something, hopefully, better.  Had COVID never happened, it is unlikely that Zack’s ‘vision’ ever would have seen the light of day.  What’s worse, is that the whole “Release the Snydercut” movement was fostered by a VERY vocal minority of fans with severe entitlement issues, and *now* reports are floating around that this was all at least a semi-coordinated effort by Zack, his people, and fans with multiple social media bot accounts.

After ALL that, there is STILL a group of ‘fans’ SO hung up on this that they’re lobbying for WB to sell the rights to Netflix to continue the Snyderverse.

My question… when is enough enough?

He did his Superman movie ($258 mil budget, $668 mil box office), He did Batman vs Superman ($300 mil budget, $870 mil box office).  Justice League *barely* doubled it’s money with $650 mil box office on a $300 mil budget.  The movies weren’t great, weren’t reviewed well, and did not do the kind of money that was predicted for them.  BvS has set a record for Worst Opening Week Friday to Second Week Friday Decline, and the worst Friday to Sunday of opening weekend decline since 2015’s Fantastic 4.. yet the entitled cries are the same.. “Just let him do his movie” He did.  “Just give him one more shot..”  Shot given.  “Just sell it to another streaming service…”  Oh, the streaming service that has a history of cancelling great content before Year 3 so they can save on residuals?  THAT service?

It’s time for the ‘silent majority’ of fans to look at the ‘vocal minority’ and tell them to pound sand.  The “Snyderverse” has come and gone.

It had it’s chance.

Let it go before we see crazed fans driving around in jacked up Pick-Up Trucks with huge “Justice League” flags flying from the back saying Zack got robbed…

– PCR

Hey Somethings,

Back on November 4th of last year, I made a blog about some games I was looking forward to.  Well, since then, I’ve had a chance to play some of them and…   well..   I wanted to give my thoughts.

Need For Speed Unbound

Man,  I wanted to like this game.  The controls were solid, I did enjoy the mix of art styles, the customization was good…   so what went wrong?
To start, it was.. well.. how the game started.  You start by choosing one of three beat up cars to restore.  “Ok, cool” I thought.. I was down for that.  Except.. once you choose your car.. it’s restored!  Ok.. so.. moving on.  The controls of the first car you get are… in a word…SLOPPY.  You can’t control it… the turning is horrendous….  it’s just a hot mess.  It made me feel like when I tried to play the ported 2016 “Need for Speed” and the controller wouldn’t sync right.  After about an hour of trying to fight through it.. you find out (thanks to the story), that it’s SUPPOSED to be that way… oh.. joy.  Ok.  Bad taste in my mouth aside, let’s keep trying it.  It’s not that it’s bad.. it just gets super repetitive, and, regardless of the difficulty level, the cop chases are nearly insurmountable.  It also had this weird jump-cut mechanic at the end of a race… “Hey!  You win!  Freeze-frame-pan-around-your-car…  and then as soon as it unfreezes and you’re back in the game, there are 3-5 cops right behind you… even though there were none in the race.  It all felt very.. .forced.. and not fun.

Sons of the Forest

Man, I wanted to like this game…(sound familiar?)  The original “The Forest” was fun in a way that this one…   wasn’t?  Sure there are some new ‘things’ on the island to fight, but… it felt like the game knew that YOU knew you were going to see some shit.. so they turned that shit up to 11.  I can’t even say I didn’t like the game, more that I was just disappointed in the ending.  It was going along pretty well.. finding new gear… new things.. cool.. and then, just as it’s ramping up, it’s…..  CUTSCENE then ENDING and.. the cutscene was very… ‘bwahh?’  Was it an Early Access game?  Yes, and I suppose I should give it some slack for that.. but a game of that style shouldn’t have an ‘early access’.  It’s a narrative.  It should be completed before it’s released.  Instead, they were adding things as they went… and apparently still plan to do so.  Do they think the people who’ve already gotten the head-scratching ending will go back to see what extra exposition stuff they’ve added?  If so, they’ve guesses wrong with me.  Sons was very much a step back from the original.

What about you?  Have YOU played these games?  If so, let me know your thoughts over at the usual social media places you can find in the buttons up top!

Also, don’t forget, Livestream For The Cure VII starts May18th through the 20th.  Head to livestreamforthecure for info on how to watch and how to donate!

– PCR

Hey Somethings, PCR here!

It’s that time of the year again.  That time when we have the privilege.. nay.. the honor of being part of this year’s “Livestream For the Cure”!

Livestream For the Cure VII takes place May 18-20, from 2pm to midnight on the 18th, and noon to midnight the 19th and 20th.  Our goal this year is to raise $25,000 for The Cancer Research Institute for investments and research into Cancer Immunotherapy.  Over the previous 6 years, Livestream For the Cure has raised over $70,000, and this year, thanks to some generous folks who will match our raised funds, we have the potential to raise a total of $50,000 if we reach our goal.

When we started The Something Something ‘Cast 10 years ago, we always said, if we ever get a following, or an audience, or a platform from which to speak.. we had to use our powers for good.  Being lucky enough to become attached to this phenomenal cause and participate every year for the past 4, is something we look forward to each and every year, and we are once again humbled to be a part of this year’s event, on May 20th, at 2pm EST.

For those of you reading this (or, listening to this if you’re a member of our Patreon), we’ll be doing a 12 hour Twitch stream on Saturday, April 29th over at twitch.tv/somethingcast to help promote the event.  Early donations are welcome, and anyone who DOES donate early, take a screenshot of your donation confirmation and tweet it to us @STSTCast with the hashtag #CrushCancer and we’ll randomly pick 3 winners for some Something swag.

To keep up to date on all event news and happenings, check out www.livestreamforthecure.com!

Hey all, PCR here.

The original The Crow movie is one of my favorite movies of all time.  That is not to say it is one of my favorite franchises of all time.  City of Angels was an understandable and noble attempt to continue on after Brandon Lee’s tragic death, but the movie was sloppy and misguided and, in my opinion, doomed from the start merely because it was trying to be made at all and continue on.  Every movie after that was cash grab…  Salvation.. Wicked Prayer… the TV series with Marc Dacascos was “ok”, but I can’t give it any more praise than that.

Needless to say, the arc of The Crow franchise is almost as bleak as the story of Eric in James O’Barr’s original comic.  Which brings us to the reboot.  Or the attempted reboot.  Or.. the ‘many-times-attempted’ reboot.  Numerous names have been attached to the project… Mark Wahlberg, Bradley Cooper, Luke Evans, Jason Momoa, and most recently Bill Skarsgard.  The Skarsgard version has been filming in Prague and wrapped production in September of ’22.

My biggest question is…

…is this film needed?

Other than Hollywood’s seemingly unending need to consistently lack original ideas and continue having to go back to the well.. who’s honestly asking for this?  Is the multitude of failed and false-starts for this project something that will doom it before it even (eventually) hits theaters?

I love the comics, and I love the original.. but perhaps this is one we just leave alone.  In closing, I leave you with a comment original director Alex Proyas made in a podcast interview in 2019.

“I personally tried to squash it every time I hear of one, not that I believe I’ve been able to. I think extenuating circumstances have stopped it being made because if Hollywood wants to make something that they don’t listen to schmucks like me who bring noble and moralistic issues. My point is that Brandon Lee made that movie what it is. He made that movie, he made that character. That character was not taken from a comic book, that was Brandon. And Brandon Lee died making that movie, he paid the worst price anyone could ever pay making a movie and it’s his legacy. The guy would have been a huge star after that movie. He wasn’t able to ever do that. That’s his final testimony to his talent and that’s why I finished the movie. I finished it for Brandon. After being devastated about what happened we shut down the production and I went back to Australia. Months later I went back and watched the movie and his family all the other actors, everyone involved, said ‘You’ve got to finish this movie because Brandon is so great in it’ and he was. I was able to watch it and see how great he was and I thought then the movie deserves to be completed because it’s his legacy. So that’s what the movie is, it’s not just a movie that can be remade. It’s one man’s legacy. And it should be treated with that level of respect.”

-PCR

Hey Somethings!

Way back in October of 2022, I wrote a blog article about “The Rise And Fall (again) of G4”.  In that blog, I mentioned how our podcast had gotten mentioned on an episode of Attack of the Show Vibe Check, but said the story would be for another day….

….well that day has arrived.

As I had mentioned before, I was super excited when G4 returned.  Not having cable, I do all of my viewing through streaming or Twitch, so I was a regular on their Twitch channel.  Due to work scheduling, the shows I watched the most were “Invitation to Party”, “Attack of the Show”, and “Attack of the Show : Vibe Check”.

I had gotten really good and really fast at screen-shotting things from Twitch to post on Twitter as I would make silly commentary about.. whatever it was they were talking about at the time.. but on this episode of Vibe Check, Kevin, Gina, and Will were playing a game of “Would You Rather”… and the question was, ‘Would you rather watch your parents have sex forever, or have sex with your parents once’.  As the discussion devolved even further (yes… further…), I believe it was Will who joked that the new G4 tag line had been changed from “We Never Stopped Playing” to “We Never Stopped Fucking”.  I immediately dug up a picture of G4’s tag line that they had in neon in their offices…

and turned it into this…..

which I tweeted out to them with the caption of “I like what you’ve done with the place….”.

The beauty of their twitch stream was that during a commercial break, the cameras were still on on the stream, so you could see them checking their phones and such.  Well, Gina checks her phone and starts laughing before turning her phone to show Kevin, who also starts laughing but… as she turned her phone I thought…”wait.. was that my twitter post?”  They come back from break.. and the rest… as they say.. is history.

I’m still sad to know G4 is gone, but I’m glad I got to see them return, and this clip will live on forever.

-PCR

Hey Somethings!

So, I get in these weird music.. ruts?  Trenches?  Time Loops?  Not sure what you’d call them, but I inevitably end up stumbling across a song I enjoy that I haven’t heard in *years* and that leads me down this rabbit hole of stumbling across other songs in an amazingly frenetic headlong dash… much like a Tesla at a school crossing.  So without further ado, here’s what’s currently been playing in my ride…

Take On Me – Reel Big Fish

I don’t think I ever fell in ‘love’ with Ska as a musical type, there are just certain songs/bands I enjoy that happen to be Ska bands.  I first discovered my enjoyment of Reel Big Fish on the BASEketball soundtrack and this song immediately grew on me.  Great cover, great song.

Click Click Boom – Saliva

Probably the only song I could ever actually tell you Saliva did (I couldn’t name another Saliva song), this one was part of my karaoke repertoire back in the “Before Times”.  One day, I’ll get back to karaoke… and I’ll probably dust this song off.

Inside Out – Eve 6

Another karaoke staple of mine from days gone by, I forgot how much I love this song until it wormed it’s way into my YouTube “mix” randomly.  There’s just a certain drive in this song that I dig, and it’s one of my favorite songs to sing harmony to.

Butterfly – Crazy Town

I’m sensing a pattern here.. all these songs were released between ’98 and ’01.  Another band that I can only name one song from, this song takes me back to a time when you couldn’t beat The Wiz, Napster was brand new, and “I See Dead People” was blowing people’s minds.

How about you?  What’s been shuffling around on YOUR playlist?  Hit our socials and let us know!

– PCR

Look.. let’s face it.. Hatton and I feed off each other’s creativity.  Hatton makes a blog last week referencing LOST.. and it sits in my brain until I have to let it out.  I’d make some pithy joke about it being like entering The Numbers into Desmond’s computer, but.. I liked Desmond, and this post is about the other side of things.

19 years later, these are my Top 5 Unanswered Mysteries from LOST

5 – What the hell was the Cork in the Pond in the Cave?

Out of all the things I WASN’T expecting to see in the ‘Heart of the Island’.. was a kiddie-sized wading pool carved out of rock with a big cork stopper in it.

I mean… what?

Was this an analogy for the writers being so pent up with unanswered BS from previous seasons is was akin to a stopper in the pool of their creative brain?  I mean, that would have been a better explanation than whatever they had for.. whatever that was.

4 – Annie

No, not the redheaded, pupil-less orphan, I’m talking about the only friend a young Ben Linus had while growing up in the Dharma Initiative.  Did you forget about her?  So did the show.  Lindelhoff and Cuse went so far on the DVD commentary for “The Man Behind the Curtain” to say that she was going to be a ‘huge part of upcoming storylines’…. SO big apparently, she was mentioned in one episode ever and then promptly never heard from again.

3 – Horace’s Cabin

I was convinced we were going to get some kind of answers about the island once the survivors found this… the circle of ash around it.. the person in the chair.. but, much like a lot of the rest of the show, it got ‘weird’ without ever being really explained.  Some of the biggest ‘huh?’s.. why could it move around the island?  What was the circle of ash keeping in (or out)? Who broke the circle?  Why… 19 years later do I care?

2 – Libby

I thought Libby overall as a character was great, and I enjoyed that she was a love interest for Hurley.  Hurley did keep mentioning that he felt like he knew her from somewhere, and it turns out they were both in Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute at the same time.  Why did they not remember each other?  Was it the same reason Ben Kenobi didn’t recognize R2?

1 – Walt being ‘Special’

The BIGGEST “wtf” letdown of the show in my opinion.  They tease up Walt being special, even show us him (apparently?) telekenisis-ing birds into a glass door… he ‘seems’ to be able to make things he thinks about happen, but we’re never given proof that it’s not more than coincidence.. I mean.. he MUST be right?  Why else would Hurley and Ben convince him to go back to the island to ‘help Michael’ even though Michael is dead?  According to Lindelhoff, Walt is special “because he is”.  Thanks Damon…

What about you?  What are some of YOUR biggest unsolved issues with LOST?  Let us know at all the usual places!

– PCR

Hey Somethings! PCR here!

I’ll start by saying, if you’re a member of our Patreon you can HEAR our blogs now!  If you’re not, head over and check it out, help support our show, and get your Something early, uncut and unedited!

So, there are a LOT of movies coming our in 2023.  Honestly, it’s been a while since I’ve seen one in the theater… but I do have a list of movies that I’m hyped to see (either in theater, or streaming) and some that… I’m not so hyped about.  Let’s get to it!

Ant-Man and The Wasp : Quantumania (Hyped)

The first Ant-Man movie to me was… ok.  Wasn’t great, wasn’t terrible.. but fun.  Ant-Man and The Wasp was a bit of a better offering, but I still feel the strength of that movie was in the moving along of the greater MCU narrative at the time.  I don’t think Quantumania will be any different.  I’m predicting an “ok” movie what will be amazingly overshadowed by setting up Jonathan Major’s Kang flexing as the MCUs next Big Bad.

Air (Hyped)

You don’t have to be a huge basketball fan (I’m not) to know the name “Michael Jordan” and what he did for the sport.  Directed by Ben Afleck and staring Ben, Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, Viola Davis, Chris Tucker, Chris Messina and Marlon Wayans, this is the story about how a sneaker company struggling to find it’s identity went all in on a rookie who just would just happen to turn out to be the GOAT.

Fast X (Hyped)

Not crazy about it being “the first part” of a two part story wrapping up the Fast and Furious franchise, but whenever you get Dom and his crew together, you know two things going in.  1) You’re going to see some 0utlandishly entertaining stuff and 2) It’s all about family.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Hyped)

I hope this is Ford’s last crack of the whip.  Crystal Skull was… not good, and I’m hoping this instalment rights the ship before finding a way to move on for the future.  Based off Ford’s on comments on how impressed he was with the ‘de-ageing’ footage, I’m hoping to see equal parts current and flashback to avoid the suspension of disbelief of an 80 year old Indy still adventuring.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Not Hyped)

Wasn’t a fan of the second movie, it kind of felt uninspired to me.  I enjoy Pratt as Star Lord.. but in small doses.  We’ll see how this one fits in to the new arc the MCU will be taking, but I don’t feel the urge to run right out and see this though I’ll likely catch it on streaming once it’s out… eventually.

The Flash (Not Hyped)

Fun Fact : I dislike Ezra Miller.  I didn’t like his Flash in either version of The Justice League, and I could honestly care less about his solo film.  The ONLY thing that will make me possibly watch it is the return of the best Batman ever.  If I watch this, I won’t be watching a Flash movie, I’ll be tolerating The Flash in a Michael Keaton Batman movie.

What are some movies YOU’RE looking forward to (or not)?  Hit us on our socials and let us know!

– PCR

…to hate.

So, this blog was GOING to be about some of my favorite TV villains, but then I shifted it a bit to be some of my favorite TV villain ACTORS.. and that was when I came to a realization and had to make this about one man, and one man alone.

The man I love to hate.

The man who.. even when he plays ‘one of the good guys’, your brain keeps asking you..”But… is he?”

One man holds that distinction.  Regardless of if you know him as Harold Finch, Morton Norton, Leyland Townsend, or Benjamin Linus…  Michael Emerson will ALWAYS be someone who, when he shows up on my screen, I’m expecting him to be the worst of humanity.

Other actors do very well at playing ‘both sides’.  I loved watching “Oz”, and J.K Simmons and Christopher Meloni play some iconic villains there that defined their careers at that time, but they’ve also moved on to play some great non-villain characters as well.  Sure, J. Jonah Jameson may be a douchebag.. but no one sees him come on screen and think “Yeah… he’s definitely going to eat someone though”.  With Emerson, that always seems to be on the table regardless of who he’s playing.

He’s a brilliant actor who has made playing smart and socially awkward terrifying, and I urge anyone who hasn’t yet seen him to watch something with him in it.. be it Lost or Person of Interest or EVIL or anything else he’s been in.

– PCR

Hey Somethings,

You’ll hear about me talk about this a bit on an upcoming episode, but, I recently purged a bunch of my streaming services to cut down on expenses, and have been living the Tubi life lately.  Every time I start up a new free service (I did the same with Peacock), I inevitably find myself wrapped up in shows I don’t have to think very hard to watch just to see what they offer… so it’s a lot of “Fail TV” and “IdiotTV” and such as I typically watch as I’m going to bed and it’s easy to fall asleep when it’s something you don’t have to devote a lot of thought or attention to.  Invariably, I start looking for something else to watch, and… as the tug of nostalgia is strong.. I end up stumbling upon a show I’ve seen before but loved, and I watch it all over again.

Enter “James May’s Man Lab” and “James May’s Toy Stories”

James May is from the trio that, along with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, brought you Top Gear on the BBC for many years.  Beyond that, he brought us these two amazing shows as well.

Man Lab tries to ‘bring back’ the heyday of when men did (or could do) manly things… like.. change a tire, woo a woman, how to duel, or build a remote-controlled picnic table.  Airing from 2012 to 2013, Man Lab takes popular science and ramps it up just ‘extra’ enough to be hilarious yet still amazingly entertaining.

“Toy Stories” does the same when it comes to ‘going big’, but with less tongue in cheek and far more ‘extra’.

From building a nearly three mile long slot-car track, to a fiberglass Supermarine Spitfire at a 1:1 scale, Toy Story takes toys from May’s childhood, and blows right past “11” while ramping them up to 15.

If you’re a fan of British humor, science, and attempting the absurd, I highly recommend checking them out!

– PCR