Network

Yes, it’s Network. Could you expect anything else after Medium Cool? Maybe. But you’d be wrong. It’s Network. Let’s look at this documentary… errr fictional satire from the mind of Paddy Chayefsky and executed with the deft touch of Sidney Lumet.

Reading off a prompter is difficult. Yes, it still has the plastic on it because I wasn’t shooting video through it. I’m not that much of a maniac. Will I keep using it? Probably not. It’s extremely In The Way. But this is another way that production technologies have been democratized.

I realize there’s an entire laundry list of things that could have been touched upon which I did not. Again, an injury is limiting my computer time. Computer time includes recording and editing so I need to be economical with both. The character of Diana Christensen is probably one of the most interesting because of how she’s written but, also, because the romance plot is actually a larger part of the movie than I sometimes realize. So she’s got screen time and there’s plenty of time to examine her. And I think that, choosing her, to represent what she represents is maybe a bit… biased. Hackett could have easily been that, too, or there could have just been a dude. I know that they, for economy, combined Max’s love interest with Max’s rival and it works but she’s one of the very precious few women in this movie–which is also probably documentarian as well. Maybe bringing this lens to bear on this specific point is fruitless. But it wasn’t brought in the podcast.

I think I did completely forget to mention the other two academy awards. Faye Dunaway takes it and there’s a really good photo of her the next day looking real blase. It’s called “The Morning After” and it’s the kinda photo that would make me want to be a magazine photographer. Getting to wake up in the morning and do shoots like that is the dream. The other Academy Award was given to Chayefsky for the screenplay which, if you’ve seen the movie, is no great surprise.

Medium Cool

If you have the opportunity to watch this prior to listening, I would want that for you. But it’s probably not streaming anywhere. I mean, someone might have uploaded the entire film to YouTube but you never know.

Yeah, I’m just digging through my own movie history at this point. Finding the origins of the origins. I’ve had some physical issues that prevent me from being on a computer for extended periods of time so yeah, there were some things that made it through the edit, and yeah, there were some things that I would normally talk about that I didn’t. But I think I get to the heart of the matter well enough.

2022 Wrap up

Hey everyone, just looking back on 2022 for a second. Just taking a breath.

“Late Night Radio”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

I think I only mentioned Hearts in Atlantis for 3 movies this year? That feels like a low number but that’s what my data is telling me.
Dazed and Confused, Bull Durham, and High Fidelity.

Maybe the transcriptions are off.

Grosse Pointe Blank

By AllPosters.com, film is copyright 1997 by Hollywood Pictures, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13679554

The squad from High Fidelity are at it again? in what is the kinda prequel, in a meta production sense, and a really great movie in my eyes. It makes me feel good. The cast really brings it, the movie is fun, and I think it set up some conventions or archetypes that carried forward into movies we see today (I think, at any rate).

This is the first time I actually make something that sounds like it’s in car so if you’re in a car it’s double messed up. A bold strategy, Cotton. I didn’t talk about the action at all. I realize that. The action isn’t huge but it’s good. They’ve got Cusack doing the most he possibly can which might have actually been all of it (I can’t remember at the moment–it’s been absolutely nuts this entire past month and the month before). Makes it feel good. It’s not too serious, not too goofy. Groundedly whimsical.

There’s a lot of daytime in this movie. I think they intentionally wanted it to feel more like a high school reunion movie that has an assassin in it than an assassin movie taking place at a high school reunion. The big action scene is set in the middle of the day. It’s cool. It really genuinely is.

If I had to choose a favorite little shot I would choose the one set in Debi’s bedroom when Martin is leaving. She tells him “you’re a fucking psy-cho” and does like a hand talking thing. That was an improvised gesture–she previously saw John and Joan doing that to each other between setups. That’s one great part but the opposite shot, John’s kinda manic wild “don’t rush to judgement on something like that” is just very unique and fits perfectly. Unhinged but just under the surface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgGTP5Cevrs – (2948) Benny “The Jet” Urquidez • Highlight – YouTube

“Cool Rock”, “Blue Ska”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

I love the movie. It’s worth a look. A lot of nostalgia for this one. Check it out. I’m @coolmarkd on twitter for as long as it lasts.

Ronin

Do you like car chases and spy stuff? If so you’ll like Ronin. Probably. I like Ronin. I love Ronin. Ronin is my #3 favorite movie. There are car chases. And spy-like stuff. Heist-like stuff, too. You like heists, right? Don’t give me that face–I know you like heists. Spies doing heists? That’s even better.

I have the Ronin DVD but I watched it on Starz. It’s available for rent in a bunch of places. Tweet @coolmarkd and let me know what you thought.

Additionally Mark is going to be on theSUNSHINE SUMMIT 2019! The Sunshine Summit, hosted by Sunshine and PowerCuts’ Heather Welch. Mark will be appearing live March 12th at 8PM EST (March 13th 1PM NZT). You can see all of the info at SunshineSummit.live!

Brick

Do you like mysteries? If so you’ll like Brick. I like Brick. I love Brick. Brick is my #3 favorite movie ever and we’re counting down from 3 -> 1 to close out Season 1 of Mark’s Movie Collection. You really should watch the movie before listening.

Brick is on Netflix right now and might be on other services. If you buy Brick on DVD you get some really really good commentary tracks with the lovely and wonderful Rian Johnson. He’s not messing around–this is deep cut commentary and he’s in this movie game to win this movie game. Johnson goes hard in the paint. There isn’t a whole lot of extra stuff because this was actually a very small independent production. But it’s so good.

Tweet @coolmarkd to let me know what you thought.

Additionally Mark is going to be on theSUNSHINE SUMMIT 2019! The Sunshine Summit, hosted by Sunshine and PowerCuts’ Heather Welch. Mark will be appearing live March 12th at 8PM EST (March 13th 1PM NZT). You can see all of the info at SunshineSummit.live!

Gone In 60 Seconds (1974)

If you ever wanted to watch a movie about stealing cars and running from the cops you probably came across GISS ’74. You probably didn’t learn a whole lot about stealing cars or running from the police but you may have realized that you came across the inspiration for Need For Speed:Most Wanted and countless of other movies.

Meet Eleanor and check out this crazy indie film for free on Amazon Prime and go ahead and listen to the episode. This isn’t an affiliate link–I’m just trying to make it convenient for you to follow along. That’s why I release on Sundays, you know. Give you a chance to watch the movie.

St. Elmo’s Fire

B-B-B-BONUS! It’s actually a bonus because it’s a bad episode. I recorded this after being way tired, under the weather, and ostensibly intoxicated. It didn’t sound great, either. It’s actually a long episode so re-recording it wasn’t really on the table.

Critical response was quite poor but let’s go through this age-appropriate Joel Schumacher version of a John Hughes movie. Yes, I realize that Joel Schumacher would later give us Batman & Robin but this was a very different Joel Schumacher.

Tweet @coolmarkd to let me know what you thought of the movie. I don’t think it’s streaming for free anywhere but it can be rented at most outlets. We got this in an 80’s movie set that we bought a few years ago so I had the disc on hand (and it worked).

Spider-man 3

What’s better than two villians? THREE VILLIANS!!!!1 And that’s the main thrust of this Sam Raimi-directed web-fest chalk full of kinetic comic panels and quippy wall-walkers.

Lets go over this Sony-fueled ’00s nostalgia whiplash together as we wade through the mire of Spider-man 3’s script. Catch me @coolmarkd on Twitter and let me know what you though of it.

Top 3 Movies EVER – Mid-season Update

Hi, everybody! Hi, Dr. Nick!

This is actually just a little bit of a restrospective on the current state of Mark’s Movie Collection: The Podcast: The Movie: The Podcast: The Collection and how we’re doing. It get’s going but I drop my Top 3 favorite movies EVER and I lay out the path for the rest of Season 1.

Sounds good? Good.

HMU FAM @coolmarkd

Spy Game

Check your assets and make sure your station chief has the latest status reports because this is the Tony Scott-directed spy thriller aptly titled Spy Game. Spy Game is perhaps one of the better movies in terms of addressing what spies actually did.

Robert Redford and Brad Pitt hit up various locales, do various things, in a really cool movie that is very unlike the others in its cohort (it came out in 2001). This is a movie that I used to watch quite often so go ahead and give it a look-see.

Spy Game is currently streaming on Hulu and you can watch it there. This isn’t an affiliate link.

@coolmarkd on Twitter. Let me know what you thought.

300

Mark isn’t going to do episode numbers anymore. They’re passé. In this episode he’ll get into 300 dudes (amirite??) but also get into technical difficulties and podcasting realities and you’ll learn a lot about Mark—maybe more than you’ve ever wanted to know about how things work for Mark in this process of Mark’s Movie collection.

Editing a collection is probably the most important thing that an artist can do. The audience, or the viewer, only sees the successes of the artists and judges them as such. The audience does not follow the artist day-in and day-out doggedly pursuing failure after failure. The viewer doesn’t see the artist attempting to drown themselves in a bottle. Not trying to be a downer, here. Not talking about genocide or anything but this is not that. This, however, is not edited. This is pretty much how it happened.

There is no link. There is no movie. This is, perhaps, the complete failure of a podcast. But it won’t be the last episode. Mark will return….

MARMOVCOL006 – Darkman

Turn of the lights–stay in the dark while watching Darkman! Darkman Darkman Darkman Darkman (whooo!) Darkman Darkman Darkman Darkman (whooo!) Let’s jump in to Sam Raimi’s 1990 super superhero creation Darkman–a pretty wild movie starring Francis McDormand and, ostensibly, Liam Neeson. Let’s lurk from shadow to shadow together on this journey into insanity.

You should definitely watch Darkman before listening to this podcast and you can check it out on Cinemax or on Amazon with this non-affiliate link. You can start a 7-day trial of Cinemax if you have Amazon Prime. I legitimately don’t know the details but that’s what it said for me.

Holla at me, young’n, @coolmarkd on Twitter. LMK wat u thot of dis flicc HMU fam. Lit AF. Servo AF.

MARMOVCOL003 – The Bourne Identity

Who are you? Who am I? Who is Jason Bourne? We’ll not really find out with this HD-DVD of The Bourne Identity! Together. I also know who I am. I’m Mark D: dad, IT guy, and generally bad movie nerd. Let’s fight assassins and hang out through Europe and do stuff.

With Jason Bourne. On Mark’s Movie Collection.

If you haven’t seen the Bourne Identity yet, you can check it out on Amazon. These aren’t affiliate links–watch it where ever you want but go ahead and watch it to avoid spoilers.

MARMOVCOL002–The Frighteners

Prepare to be… FRIGHTENED! by The Frighteners. This week Mark watches Peter Jackson’s first “big budget” movie The Frighteners starring Michael J. Fox and Trini Alvarado. This isn’t a first viewing but Mark is looking at this with fresher eyes and even weighs in on the Lord of the Rings movies as well as other stuff.

Will he change his mind on Peter Jackson? Does he even like this movie? Tune in to find out.

Not sure if The Frighteners is streaming but you can check it out on Amazon

MARMOVCOL001 – Top Gun

Welcome to episode 1 of Mark’s Movie Collection which features…. Top Gun. We’ll take a -4G dive into this testosterone-burning action flick which, we discover, is actually something else.

 

To be fair there is a bit of foul language in this one. It was really late at night and I was drinking. Tweet @coolmarkd to talk about this movie.

 

Check it out on Amazon

MARMOVCOL000 – Pilot

This is an introduction to Mark D (@coolmarkd) and Mark’s Movie Collection, the podcast. Mark is an IT guy, dad, and generally poor nerd with limited movie experience and he’s going to explain who he is, with regards to movies, so that there’s some context when he starts talking about the movies he has in his collection. This is an overview and is not even remotely exhaustive.

Recorded and produced by Mark Diaz using Reaper
https://reaper.fm