School of Movies

Raiders of the Lost Ark

[School of Movies 2020]

Our year of Spielberg continues. Prior to Jaws in '75 he directed Duel and The Sugarland Express, and after it came Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 1941. We talk about all of these on our Quick Review Patreon bonus feed, but we are saving the Main Event shows for the ones we have a LOT to say about.

In 1981, a year after The Empire Strikes Back, Steve collaborated with his buddy George Lucas to give Harrison Ford his second iconic silver screen role; embodying the most famous adventurer of all time. Now the Indy movies may not be overflowing with deep, philosophical quandaries, but at least two of them are cinematic entertainment in its purest form, and we worked extra hard to find the details and flourishes that make this first outing such a classic. 

Guest

Kevin Veighey @GoldenTalesGeek 

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

[School of Movies 2020]

The immediate question will be "Hang on, where's the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" show? Why are we starting on Film Two? I'll go into detail on why in my intro, and we will hopefully do a show on Fantastic Beasts 1 in the future, but right now THIS is on the table.

The Magical World is at its lowest possible ebb. It's hard to say whether The Cursed Child or this movie were more unpopular, there's different gauges of success between the theatrical and cinematic mediums. But suffice to say we are now a long way from the deeply satisfying, bittersweet, not to mention highly lucrative end of the Harry Potter saga, both in book an movie form.

We brought in Lorin Grieve to pick over this confusing mess of a story, to try to figure out what went wrong, and maybe suggest some positive directions they could move in further down the line. 

Guest:

Lorin Grieve

Chrono Trigger

[School of Everything Else 2020]

A game I have a 25-year history with, just starting and stopping over and over like Groundhog Day (as I will detail in the opening of the show) and have now finally concluded my staggered, protracted journey with.

In the UK during the 90s things were not as richly abundant in terms of readily available JRPGs (again, I'll detail this), so Chrono Trigger was yearned for, but never released in 1995 over here. In fact the first official physical copies on sale on British store shelves were the DS version, 14 years later in 2009.

But it's one of the most beloved of its type, and on this show (which I had to recruit a couple of experts for, to fill in all those details and secrets) hopefully should go some way to determining why it became such an abiding favourite. 

And before you ask me to delve into a dozen more fifty-hour JRPGs, take into account that this commission was a VERY special case!

Guests

Kevin Veighey

Alexander Peregrine 

And many thanks to the commissioners: Kevin Veighey, Alexander Peregrine, Nicholas Kosky, Matthew A Seibert and Brian Legg.

Gen:Lock (Season 1)

[School of Movies 2020]

It's going to feel like we're teasing you with our cast-in-stone No Anime rule. However, there are various factors at work here. 1. This has an American writing team, so it's closer to Avatar and The Dragon prince. 2. It had a great first episode which we watched to decide whether we could talk about the rest. 3. It has an amazing cast. 4. At 8 quick episodes it's about the length of a long movie, rather than RWBY from the same team, which currently weighs in at 92 episodes and what we watched did not appeal. And 5. it was a commission, and we occasionally bend the rule with those.

All that said, you are in for a treat here, as the spiritual successor to both Pacific Rim and in a way RoboCop delivers dazzling visual treats with a progressive, inclusive and fun cast of colourful characters. It is absolutely worth checking out. You can either listen to our show first or afterwards. We do detail plot movements but I hope our discussion enriches rather than spoils the process of witnessing them for yourself, because you get some bonus perspective. 

Well done, Rooster Teeth.

 And many thanks to the commissioner: David Schuttenhelm