School of Movies

Red Dwarf V

[School of Everything Else 2020]

The long-running British sci-fi comedy series gets its first podcast with us. We picked the season that's easiest to get into and most immediately funny. If a lot of people like this one and especially if newcomers get into Red Dwarf (currently available on Netflix UK and Britbox) then we will record more shows.

A ragtag crew of losers on their way back to Earth cross paths with all manner of androids, genetic mutants and time travel phenomena. Aboard we have Dave Lister, maybe the last human slob alive, Arnold Rimmer, the holographic projection of his pedantic boss, a fussy mechanoid named Kryten and a preening evolved feline known only as The Cat. They are semi-guided by the super-genius A.I. Holly who may have gone a bit strange over three million years. 

It is delightful how this show has held up over the decades, and if you're unfamiliar you're in for a treat. 

Guests

Hollywoo Actress  Maya Santandrea @Mayasantandrea 

Derrick Ritchie @thenewdelboy  

Kat Essman @Kat325 

 

Poltergeist

[School of Movies 2020] 

The same year that Steven Spielberg was directing E.T. fifty miles down the road he was also producing this magnificent Californian domestic ghost story. Tobe Hooper, director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Lifeforce here helmed what ended up as by far my favourite of his films. 

And there's many reasons why this one was so effective in 1982 and remains so today. Set aside the ghoulish fixation on whether or not this was a cursed set and journey with us into the intoxicating, otherworldly family drama that is Poltergeist, accompanied by the spine-tingling music of Jerry Goldsmith.

Guests

Chris Chipman of The Chipman Bros Tangent @The Chippa 

Brenden Agnew of Cinapse  @BLCAgnew  

E.T. The Extra Terrestrial

[School of Movies 2020] 

The Spielberg Season continues with this seminal classic about a gardener, abandoned and far from home, forced to throw his lot in with a group of strange aliens.

This is a means of Steve re-exploring the broken family of Close Encounters with a softer, child's perspective. And It's an intimate, playful, heart-aching tale that still absolutely stands up today.

It is absolutely worthy of a re-watch, especially now, when families are both locked in together and also separated and broken. 

Guest

Chris Chipman of The Chipman Bros Tangent @The Chippa

Terminator: Dark Fate

[School of Movies 2020] 

After 28 years of waiting and bad Terminator films they finally, FINALLY made a really good one... and nobody turned up. Unfortunately, if you comb YouTube the algorithm that prizes outrage over joy shunts to the top all of the angry boys who hated this box office failure.

But right here you will find a deep dive into why this is a brilliant legacy sequel to the first two. We will of course see more Terminator media again, most likely with yet another reboot, but for us and several of our guests, this is the conclusion to a Trilogy.

You don't have to see the film first, before listening. Far from spoiling it by talking about what happens I believe if we've done our jobs right we will actively enhance your viewing. This is a heavy episode, but there are heavy things going on in the world right now, and although we will be comforting you next week with the sweetness of E.T. we wanted to deliver a show that would tackle the storm. 

Guests

Brenden Agnew of Cinapse  @BLCAgnew 

Jesse Ferguson of Recorded Tomorrow @TheDapperDM 

From Sequentially Yours  Kaoru Negisa  @Moonpanther22 

and Debbie Morse  @bastet8300 

Resident Evil 2

[School of Everything Else 2020]

This show was recorded back in 2019 not too long after the remake of the 1998 game was released (in fact it was before the free DLC emerged) so there will be speculation regarding when Capcom would naturally proceed to a remake of Nemesis (which at the time of release is due out in a matter of days).

This was one of my favourite games of the 1990s, and the remake is one of my favourites of the 2010s, as well as being one of the most impressive and accomplished reworkings of a game that by modern standards is fairly simple and even clunky.

This show is being released at the time of a pandemic, the biggest in my lifetime, and people are scared. So there's a certain strange appeal about the notion of confronting our fears and seeing them symbolically rendered into disgusting undead beasties we can shoot, stab and evade. That makes this game either wildly inappropriate for our times or the most appropriate. 

Guests:

James Perkins @Mijmeister 

Derrick Ritchie @thenewdelboy 

The Phantom of the Opera

[School of Movies 2020]

I was six years old in 1986 when Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh released this hit musical adaptation of the 1909 Gaston Leroux Gothic novel. Far too young to appreciate it, and yet, thanks to a double cassette tape they brought back and many long periods in my bedroom building things with Lego it became a production that was very special to me.

And then in 2004 when I was 24 the Joel Schumacher film adaptation of that stage musical emerged and was mostly derided. Critics panned it, Phantom fans considered it unworthy and it seemed like only Sharon and I thought everyone involved did a great job with a tough to balance production.

This podcast episode is an absolute epic. We focus on the film and contrast it with the stage version, highlighting the original cast and the 25th Anniversary show which is available on blu ray. It’s not going to be for everyone, some people don’t like musicals, and some musical lovers don’t like Phantom, BUT if we’ve done our job right then some of you will be able to watch this thing with fresh eyes and listen with keen ears, with more focus on the details we draw out.

Guest:

Michaela Gray: @bookiesnacksize

The Bruce Lee Season

[School of Movies 2020]

This began life as a commissioned show for a PC game called The Stanley Parable, which we had never played, and on our run-through proved to be infuriating to us on many levels; mechanically, aesthetically and philosophically. We were sent back to play the Beginner's Guide, which was even worse, throwing Sharon into frustrated tears. 

So we requested from our sponsor that he pick something else. His choice was the Bruce Lee film "Fist of Fury". But having seen that I knew we wouldn't be able to mine from it alone, a show of the kind of thorough, entertaining and informative depth we usually go for. 

So because we had failed to connect with the indie PC game (and let this stand as a warning to all those of you who believe your indie PC game of choice will somehow surpass all the others and enrapture us, it most likely won't) we went all out and covered Bruce Lee's film career. This is the first of what's likely to be at least two shows on Bruce Lee, as we first cover his films and later on in some other context, the man himself, behind the camera. But in this one we examine in a modern context the following movies, some are okay, one is pretty great, one is absolutely wretched.

1. The Big Boss (1971)

2. Fist of Fury (1972)

3. Way of the Dragon (1972)

4. Game of Death (1972-1978)

5. Enter the Dragon (1973)

And many thanks to the commissioner: Paschal Dooley 

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.