Category: Blog Posts

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

So it is LivestreamForTheCure time – last year Rob was the quizmaster in a battle of movie quotes… this year, I’m going to be the quizmaster and the game is going to be a lot different.

Without getting into all of the nuances of it, I was doing a lot of movie research the last week and looking at my list of movies, specifically their soundtracks, and I came across an interesting piece of thought candy.  If you are of a certain age, your cd binder or tape stack was filled with soundtracks. You couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing the theme song to the summer’s big action movie or the romantic ballad for that heartwrenching romcom.  A movie’s soundtrack was possibly better than the movie sometimes…

Well, that stopped. Now, of course part of that relates to the advent of streaming and the downfall of radio and CDs as a whole, but even with that being the case, after a particular year the trend just stops. There are a few exceptions (I’m looking at you Pharrell on Despicable Me and almost any Pixar film) but prior to the year 2001, the top ten movies are littered with amazing soundtracks and songs built for movies.

So, then, who should we blame?

Now, I’m not saying that we should lay the entirety of the blame at the feet of Chad Kroeger, but it does seem like after 2001’s Spider-Man, people heard ‘Hero’ and thought to themselves, ‘Well, I guess we have to stop making soundtracks… Nickleback ruined it’.

I, of course, could pick apart the top ten movies for the next decade and show how it is a decade of sequels, franchises, fantasy films, and big action flicks that have music ensembles versus single focal songs. I could do some deeper diving into the Itunes record charts and see how the individual tracks from these movies ranked on the streaming charts.  I could even self-reflect on the fact that I’m an older guy who may not be aware that the theme to Furious 6 or whatever was all the rage at the clubs and I’m an idiot for not knowing how popular it was.

Or… I could blame it on Nickleback.

I think it is quite obvious what the right answer is here.

So if you want to play along at home, come watch the Somethings live tomorrow, May 20th, and give to a cause that means a lot to us on Live Stream For The Cure.

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

Last week I got to go do something I haven’t done in a long time… go to the movies.

But what film did you go see Hatton? Was it that Dracula movie with Nicholas Cage? What about the new Pixar Disney Marvel Star Wars of the Rings?

Nope. I got together with old friends Wild Pig Chris & Bill and settle in to a journey to the planet Mongo to watch a football star save the universe behind the synth rocking track of one of the greatest bands of all time.  That’s right. Logan’s Run Flash Gordon.

I walked away from it feeling like I haven’t felt in years coming from a film, and I wondered if it was because I hadn’t sat in a big squooshy reclining seat with a THX sound system and a 20 foot screen since Mr. Stark turned into Dustbuster chow. I came to the realization that, where that all added to the moment, it was because Flash Gordon is one of the greatest pieces of trash ever made.

Please understand first that I hold the movie in high regard and that my usage of the term trash here in no way means the film is bad. It isn’t. It’s amazing, but there is not a single decision in that movie that doesn’t scream how cocaine fueled its era was. So, in a little history lesson, the movie was made by a mix of Italian and American/British folks. The Italian crew thought the movie was going to be a dark space opera. The english speakers thought it was a kitchy silly romp. This is why you have huge techno-color sets with exquisitely made high-fashion costumes. It’s why you get a scene where Ming’s right hand man’s face explodes out of its orifaces in one scene and Flash knocks out an army with a space watermelon with Looney Toon DONK noises.

Try and find another movie that feels like Flash Gordon and, importantly, doesn’t act like it knows it. Even the campiest Bolliwood mockbuster that plays its silliness as serious as possible still can’t hold a candle to Topal somehow pulling off being both Lex Luther and Otis simultaneously on one side, while the imposing presence of Max von Sydow puts on a sly smirking masterclass in evil vamping on the other.

I have seen Flash Gordon dozens of times as it was a staple of my teenage nonstop television diet, but until I saw it on the big screen… I don’t think I SAW Flash Gordon. You can listen to Jimi, but you can’t hear Jimi. Well, for the first time, I think I saw Flash Gordon in the brilliance it intended. It’s gaudy, it’s silly, it’s cheezy, and it’s a blended mess of ideas based on a dry sci-fi comic with a plot straight from a bad Dr. Who episode – and yet, somehow, it is an overly saturated rainbow of fun that doesn’t wink at its audience or apologize.

Ever have a movie experience that changed the way you looked at a film? Sound off in all of the places.

Send war rocket ajax… to breeeng back his boody…

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!

Have you seen Cocaine Bear?

Let me tell you, because I don’t watch trailers and I avoid discussion of something until I’ve seen it… I had no idea what kind of movie it was going to be. Obviously, the premise is silly so comedy was likely, but it could have just as likely been a ‘Giant Squid vs Ice Spider’ Asylum Films situation.  It made me look back and think of some of my favorite comedy horror flicks…

Slither – Featuring a bunch of people you love a little bit before you loved them, this James Gunn ‘alien slugs’ movie is just silly. It knows what it is and leans deep into its premise.

Killer Klowns – A movie that is as much a soundtrack as it is a movie, Killer Klowns has no right being as fun as it is given how dumb its premise is. That said, I’ve watched the hell out of this movie over the years.

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil – A movie that says ‘How do we take Army of Darkness’ and make it even sillier? Two hillbillies are mistaken as the traditional murdering crazy guys and it just goes from there.  It’s ‘what if Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a big misunderstanding?’ ..and that’s brilliant.

Now, there are a lot of other movies I could mention. Army of Darkness, but I don’t think its horror enough. Trick R Treat, but I don’t think its funny enough. An honorable mention goes out to National Lampoon’s Class Reunion, but I saw it as a kid and have no idea if it holds up. (It features a Smothers Brother for god’s sake). There was really only one winning pick.

Cabin In The Woods – I think it’s an obvious choice. It takes a great horror premise that could have been done and redone and just leaves you wanting so much more while telling a funny as hell story. It tweaks every horror trope and mocks everything it so clearly loves.  There is no way it couldn’t be my favorite.

So, what are yours? I do have expect Rob will see this and go ‘How come we didn’t do this as an episode’ — and the fact is I thought of that midway through writing it, hell I had to go check to make sure we didn’t already.  So, what are your favs? Let us know!

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

When I’m dealing with the decision fatigue of television.. specifically where I don’t have the energy to start a new show, nor do I want to suffer the likelihood of being disappointed and I don’t want to watch something I’ve seen a thousand times as background noise – I’ve found there is the perfect middle ground.

Paramount has Twilight Zone, Peacock has Alfred Hitchcock and Columbo. Perfect bite sized pieces that I can pick up and put down. Months later jump right back in on something I haven’t seen.. but it’s Alfred Hitchcock I want to talk about right now, because if you’ve never seen it, you are missing out.

Lets ignore the fact that Hitchcock himself is an amazing dry wit and, given that the show was on in the early 60s, every episode is the chance to bump in to a young Robert Redford or younger Christopher Lee. Those bits are just sprinkles.

What’s amazing is the range of episode types, from the ludicrously silly to the brutal social commentary, to the just plain good noir.

Here are some lessons to learn from Alfred Hitchcock Hour & Presents:
1 – Everyone’s in it for the money.

There is a running theme in this show where someone’s getting blackmailed for something. Whether it’s the butler who observed a wife’s infidelity or a nosy neighbor observing a wife’s infidelity, they’ll be fine as long as they pay up. That does lead to…

2 – Women cheat.

From what I’ve seen so far, there is a surprising lack of male infidelity. Sure, the occasional guy falls for another girl, but there is a much higher chance that some dizzy dame is two-timing her hard working bread winner. Which inevitably leads to…

3 – Men are cold-hearted killers.

Sure, you are a top advertising sales person who seems to be beloved by his town, or a nerdy guy Friday caught in something he shouldn’t’a seen. It doesn’t matter, in a moment of intense rage or surprise, every man has the ability to pick up that really odd ashtray and clobber someone over the head with it.

And lastly…

4 – You’re doomed.

It is a rare episode that ends in a complete happy ending. Maybe the wife tried to have you killed to hide her infidelity with the butler or the quirky cop got the final tip about what you were doing in your own closet with a hand cannon. No matter what your situation is, you are done for – and done for in dramatic fashion.

With that said, these are some life lessons that Alfred Hitchcock gives us, so watch your back… you are in grave danger.

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

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve watched a handful of newer gameshows. A couple of them are in the style of the studio game shows we know from being sick on a school day, and one reality show.  I didn’t hate any of them, but I most definitely didn’t like them, either. So let’s discuss the problems.

The first batch we’ll call the Modern gameshow. In a studio, with an audience, but each one of them is using the ‘So You Want To Be A Millionaire’ or ‘Deal or No Deal’ approach which is to slow down the content with tremendous amounts of hemming and hawing. The Box features challenges inside of a weird cube. Everything about this show I enjoyed except for the fact that a single question or challenge can last an entire segment between breaks. Cheat involves 4 people cheating on trivia questions, but each set of questions comes with a round of ‘Who was the cheater’ where the host vamps unendingly to stretch out that timeframe.

Why do they do it? Because if everyone is tense, the stakes must be important… but when you compare it to the cornball silliness of Price is Right or the spitfire trivia of Jeopardy, it all looks like the show is playing at 45 rpm.

The reality show was a newer NBC jam, The Traitors though.. this show.. it’s almost there.  The good is that it has over a dozen people in the house, there are Traitors who will ‘Murder’ every night and the object is to figureeout who they are and vote them out.  This should sound familiar to anyone who has played Werewolf or Mafia or Secret Hitler. Along the way there are challenges to increase the winnings and dramatic discussions about people acting weird.  The problem here is, in all of those listed games, there is a mechanism for the “good guys” to solve the mystery. In this show… there weren’t. The Traitors weren’t even incentivized to screw up tasks like The Mole (which is enjoyable as hell). If the traitors say nothing, they’re playing the same game as everyone else. Votes are arbitrary based on people over-reading each other.

These shows are all almost there, and I hope as we continue to move to a streaming, watch at 1.25x, fast forwarding world, we can get back to game shows that feel like there are stakes without big synthesizer breaks and lighting to signal us to be interested because until then… I’m not.