Friday Nights at Blockbuster

Pulsating to the hypnotic beat of Kabbalah era Madonna, The Devil Wears Prada is a product of it's time in more ways than one. Kate and I discuss some of the more problematic messaging to come out of this light workplace comedy, whether we have ever worked for a Miranda Priestly-like boss, and why Adrian Grenier's Nate gets all this hate online.

Hosts: Kate Vallely, Ciaran Vallely

This week Kate and I look back at the beginning of Kiera Knightley’s period piece domination. Jane Austen’s work has been the source for countless adaptations, but Joe Wright’s 2005 Pride and Prejudice stands out as one of the best. From the minor changes to the novel, to making Tom Wambsgans a credible leading man/love interest, there isn’t much about this movie that I think needs changing.

What a special day, I finally get to talk about Tom Cruise! (as if I haven’t found every chance to bring him up in the past) Not much of a breakdown on his running form, but that will come in a later episode I'm sure. Instead we focus on one of his only roles where he is an out and out villain. Kate also opens the door for another mailbag episode, so get your questions ready for her.

Hosts: Ciaran Vallely, Kate Vallely

Get in loser, we're talking about Mean Girls!

Hosts: Ciaran Vallely, Kate Vallely

Let it be known, I will only accept copaganda in the form on Edgar Wright parody homages! After hearing Kate disparage this movie (a movie she had not seen before I will add), I knew we had to do an episode on Hot Fuzz. Thankfully, she saw the error of her ways almost immediately, and ended up loving the movie. I would also like to take this chance to apologize to any listeners in the Dundas area for things said in this episode. It's only because I live in constant fear of what you are capable of doing.

Hosts: Ciaran Vallely, Kate Vallely

Action movies are definitely cyclical. They all seem to follow a formula until something comes along and breaks that formula. As a response to the late 90s futuristic tech sci-fi worlds, this series decided to go ultra grounded, real world cities, and back to basic combat. If he wasn't a star already, the success of this movie and franchise would eventually make Matt Damon one. And if nothing else, it's a movie and series that Kate and I can agree on, so that should count for something.

Hosts: Kate Vallely, Ciaran Vallely

I think by this stage it's clear that Kate and myself have different tastes in movies. So the only logical course of action was to put two movies up in the same episode and talk about each. As luck would have it, Kate had not seen Layer Cake, and I had not seen The Young Victoria. Both deal with power, corruption, wealth, and British class divisions, which sounds good and would have been better if either of us could have made that connection when we recored the episode!

Hosts: Ciaran Vallely, Kate Vallely

Very few studios have had as big of an impact in recent years as Pixar, so we of course had to talk about one eventually. And when deciding what to do first we chose a movie that Ciaran hadn't seen before, so Kate is the expert this episode! We rank our top 5 Pixar movies at the end (with typically chaotic results).

Hosts: Kate Vallely, Ciaran Vallely

Normally I would take this space to explain a little about the movie or why we decided to watch and talk about it. Maybe tease it with a joke, or just try some creative way to allude to the movie before you click play. However, this week something so shocking, so insane, so mind blowingly catastrophic was said on the podcast (by Kate of course) that I’ve decided to take this opportunity for a PSA:

Go see Francis Ford Coppola movies!

All of them, even the bad ones!

Right now (well after the podcast maybe).

I know that he hasn’t really made a classic movie in nearly 50 years. And I know he will always be defined by his work in the 70s and then the big swing and miss he took in the 80s and has more or less been working to pay off debts since, but still… it’s Francis Ford Coppola!

So tonight, or this weekend, or whenever you can carve out like eleven hours of free time, watch The Godfather, The Godfather pt.2, The Conversation, and Apocalypse Now.

Any questions, concerns, or hate mail can be directed to Kate Vallely.

Hosts: Ciaran Vallely, Kate Vallely

Every week when Kate and I sit down to record and build the catalogue of this podcast, the same conversation inevitably happens. 

"That should be enough episodes."

...

"Do you think we need one more?"

...

"You think we need one more."

...

"Ok, we'll do one more."