I Have Some Notes

When we think of director Neill Blomkamp we think of District 9 and not a lot else. While the once up-and-coming director may be short on execution, he's never short on ideas.

Elysium is the kind of film tailor-made for this podcast: tons of fun, interesting ideas that don't quite come together. The result? An absolute banger of a show!

Barbarian is a very good movie and we talk about it. Okay, now on to the important stuff.

For the last six years, I Have Some Notes has been privileged to be part of the Alberta Podcast Network, the brain-baby of founder Karen Unland. Karen's love for local art built a platform for so many of us to stand on and gave us the opportunity to fund our passion projects. Although the APN ended its operation in March, will be forever grateful to Karen as well as Fawnda Mithrush and Breanne Byrne for their tireless work promoting ours and so many other great Alberta-grown shows. We're also thankful to all our dedicated sponsors whose contributions were crucial to keeping the lights on.

But as we say goodbye to the network, a new chapter begins for I Have Some Notes. Today we are excited to announce our show is now sponsored…by YOU! Yes, we have started a Patreon to keep the armchair screenwriting going for many seasons to come. So, if you are able, we humbly ask for a tiny sum of $4 per month. It would mean the world to us to have your support!

But that's not all, we have also started a new Discord Server! Let's face it, Twitter is a tire fire and not a great place to have fun, nuanced discussions about movies. Come join us where we'll be talking about all the latest Hollywood buzz and maybe holding rewriting some movies on the fly. It'll be a great time, so come join us!

Join our Discord Server!

As 90's action schlock goes, Sylvester Stallone's Judge Dredd is probably better than you remember. The money is all on the screen with great sci-fi sets and a badass animatronic robot. However, we wouldn't be reviewing it on this podcast if it were perfect. The plot is derivative, the villain is boring, and the satire the comic is known for is completely missing.

Listen in as we (mostly Liam) add contemporary social commentary and introduce a new criminal element as the backbone for Dredd's wrongful conviction.

John Dies at the End is a delightfully absurd horror comedy, or at least it would be if it had been better produced. Writer and Ph.D. candidate in Media and Cultural Studies, Pete Morley, joins us to relive this beloved web serial turned cult-classic novel turned mediocre movie in a collective effort to punch it up.

Bless the entertainment conglomerate Disney for churning out mediocre movie after middling movie that will keep this podcast well-supplied into the next decade. Perhaps century.

What film has Disney brought to the Gods of Rewrites as its next sacrifice? Thor: Love and Thunder.

Joining us to reimagine Taika Waittit's second crack at making Marvel magic is comic expert and fellow podcaster Josh Skaar, host of Talking SMAC (Superheroes Movies Animation Comics). Together we seek to eliminate some of the cringe subplots while taking Mjonir-sized swings at a film that is more Mighty Thor than Thor.

Some movies are just made for our podcast. Don't Worry Darling is a beautiful, well-made movie that takes aim at misogyny and the patriarchy in interesting ways but juuuuuuuuust can't quite bring it home.

Liam, Gregg and Scott differ on the level of mess Oliva Wilde's film is, but none can deny how engaging it was to watch. And hey, we're glad we did because it was a lot of fun to reimagine some of the twists and character arcs in a way that could've made for a stronger film.

You can have it fast, you can have it cheap, but you can't have it good. That is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze in a half shell. While not necessarily a bad film, this rushed Turtles sequel was a treasure trove of missed opportunities, some of which should have been fairly obvious to the filmmakers, assuming they had the time to read the source material.

Liam and Gregg take time to fix some minor issues, while Scott goes for broke with a page-one rewrite that celebrates the 90s cartoon.

It is always a bummer when a movie has a killer premise and completely whiffs. M. Night Shyamalan is back on the show for a second time and up to his usual twisty shenanigans (Shyamanigans?). This time the twist completely undermines his premise and makes us think far too much about the mechanics of his magic beach.

Listen in as Liam, Scott and Gregg make one simple change to OLD that helps all the pieces fit more cohesively into place.

Happy New Year, fellow armchair screenwriters! We take a short break from rewriting mediocre movies to talk about some good ones that don't need any rewrites. Liam, Scott and Gregg discuss their top films of the year including one they all agree was a cut above them all.

It's our final movie rewrite of 2022! We hope you're all having a safe, happy holiday curled up in front of the fire listening to us deconstruct and rebuild Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho.

Admittedly this one was a bit intimidating, but ultimately we landed on several solid paths to a more thematically cohesive and perhaps more contemplative film.

WARNING! Last Night In Soho deals with themes of sexual violence, as does our discussion.