Film Maker / Film Watcher

Our podcasters are back.  Finally.  But this seasonal opener is about firsts, not finals (despite the third film’s title).  Richard and Greg review three feature films that were the first in their day to use the latest technology – for sound, vision and movement.  But how do these films stand up today?  Does the technology serve or drive the story?  And what was the role played by Alka-Seltzer?

The Jazz Singer (1927)  http://tinyurl.com/fmfw-05-01-talkie
Westworld (1973)  http://tinyurl.com/fmfw-05-01-cgi
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)  http://tinyurl.com/fmfw-05-01-capture

How appropriate that our second minisode has a double-barrelled name!  Tim Burton’s sequel has been 36 years in the making – but is it worth the wait?  Our dedicated film reviewers get down to the local cinema to find out.  Not wanting to invite disaster, Greg works hard to stop Richard from saying That Name three times in a row.  Enjoy this Minisode Minisode.  (We can say with confidence that there might be other Beetlejuice film reviews out there, but how many of them mention Mr Burton’s long-lost cousin, Ed?)

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)  https://tinyurl.com/fmfw-minisode-02 

Not every premiere happens in Hollywood.  So roll out the red carpet along your hallway (or a red bath towel across your passenger seat) as we launch a new venture for our podcast.  Minisodes!  Richard and Greg review the newly-released, cameo-filled blockbuster that is the third Deadpool film, then rush back to the studio to share their thoughts.  The film (if not the studio) is remarkably blood-soaked — so maybe your carpet/towel doesn’t need to be red to start with…

• Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)  https://tinyurl.com/fmfw-minisode-01

Holy Kris Kringle!  Can it be that our dynamic duo of Richard and Greg find the Christmas Feels in a new round of movies?  Will they declare “Batman Returns” a Christmas movie?  Just what exactly is at the heart of the mysterious Christmas parcel?  And is there really a “rapidly approaching Season 5”?  For the answers to these and other questions, tune in today – same Pod-Time, same Pod-Channel!

It’s been a long break between episodes – a whole Christmas cycle in fact.  Following tradition, Richard and Greg get their reviewing skates on with three Christmas movies, as a lead-in to our rapidly approaching Season 5.  Are they rusty?  Are the films Christmassy enough for Greg?  And has he brought another seasonal sound effect to antagonise Richard?  There’s ho-ho-only one way to find out…

Season 4 has been bookended by THREE Christmas episodes – so “seasonal” greetings are in order.  Richard and Greg keep with tradition and review three Christmas films – including a musical about a Christmas zombie invasion (which is just SO in keeping with the spirit of the last year).  But what Christmas prop will Greg bring in this year to keep Richard in line?

Melbourne has gone from the world’s most livable city to the most locked-down – and our Season 4 has stretched across this period.  Way back in “the early days”, we held a Friday Quarantine Film Night festival to restore the shared film-watching experience to our audience. Now that we’re (finally! hurray!) coming out of lockdown, we bookend Season 4 with reviews of three of those FQFN feature films as a pretty-darn-obvious exercise in nostalgia.

Our reviewers seek lockdown escapism through films based on Disneyland rides, despite the fact that one of them has never been on these rides.  But they sidestep the obvious choice – as Richard was born on “Talk Like a Pirate Day” (and needs no encouragement to perform) and Greg’s afraid of Caribbean planks.

Richard and Greg leave the Confessional to push deeper into the spiritual realm.  They sample three ghostly films across different genres (horror, comedy, and existential exploration).  Of course, one reviewer’s “existential exploration” can be another’s snoozefest.  The abiding philosophical question is: Which reviewer felt which?

It’s Greg’s turn in the FMFW Confessional and there are significant gaps in his Film Watching CV.  Although he makes an interesting myth diagnosis of “Pretty Woman”, our first two films are but pitstops on the way to the Big Question – has Richard’s beloved “Rocky” improved Greg’s opinion of Sylvester Stallone since our Season 1 review of “Cliffhanger”?  Perhaps that’s why our middle film is “Great Expectations”…