Read it and Weep

It's absolute chaos as Hunter's gambit continues. We watch the German/Soviet movie Hard to be a God which isn't great but does feature excellent wigs.

Next up: IT'S ALL COMING UP HUNTER! We're watching Girl with a Temper (in auto-caption auto-translate Russian).

You're forgiven for not having heard of PJ, we may be the first people to watch it in many years. And that's because it's a very okay movie with some really fun stuff but just not that memorable. If it weren't for Hunter and Ezra's gambit we definitely wouldn't have watched it. BUT! If you become a Meat Buddy (or stay one) you might win the copy of the DVD we watched autographed by Ezra! Join now.

Next up: Hunter tries part two of the four-part move with another weird jump to the 1989 film It's Hard to be a God.

For some strange reason, Alex wrote an episode of Sex and the City where Carrie Dates a Mummy. You can read the whole script here but here on this bonus episode, we've got a table read of the script featuring an awesome voice cast of RiaW faves. It's weird. It's dirty. It's kinda funny. Check it out now!

Carrie - Sarah Hatheway

Nesmin - Omar El Akkad

Samantha - Bri Pruett

Dirk/Mark Wahlberg - Dru Johnston

Miranda - Katie Nguyen

Steve - Stephen Carter

Charlotte - Rachele Friedland

Hot Bar Tender / Annoyed Woman - Ezra Fox

I wish I could tell you you're going to learn a lot from watching the movie Soylent Green, but honestly, the thing you already know is 90% of it. So this is one where we watched it so you wouldn't have to.

Next up: After some shenanigans, Ezra travels via Brock Peters to the 1968 film P.J. that we know nothing about because it gives a 50% chance of scoring Hunter some points eventually.

We take another big jump back in time this week as Anthony travels via Orson Welles to the British noir film The Third Man. We talked a bit about this back in our Secret Santa episode because Hunter gifted it to Alex but now everybody's seen it so we can all get excited about Alex's references.

Next up: Alex travels via Joseph Cotten to the 1973 movie that everybody knows the ending to but none of us have seen Soylent Green.

With his first pick of the Season Hunter travels via the Scatman to the absolutely unwatcheable 80s animated toy commercial The Transformers: The Movie. It's a headache-inducing mind-dumbing pinball machine of a movie and I'm mad at him for picking it.

Next up: Anthony sends us via Orson Welles to The Third Man (1949). Previously discussed as a Christmas present Hunter gave to Alex, now the whole team is going to watch it.

This week Anthony flies us via a very short Anjelica Huston cameo to one of just three movies to win the big five Oscars at the same time: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Not the funniest movie to talk about, but we do our best.

Next up: Hunter chooses to move via voice from Scatman Crothers to the 1986 animated feature Transformers: The Movie. And THAT is a tonal shift if I've ever heard of one.

Season 5's second move: Alex swims through Noah Taylor to the 2004 Wes Anderson flick The Life Aquatic that is stylistic as hell but doesn't quite come together for us, landing it as only the 3rd best movie of the new season.

Next up: Anthony flies via Anjelica Huston to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, depriving Alex of a scoring opportunity.

What do you think? Should we add a deck of special powers? What powers do you think should be available?

Mentioned in this episode

• Vegan haggis! What? Why? Apparently it's very good. https://thepeskyvegan.com/recipes/vegan-haggis/ h/t Katie
• We reacted to this crazy looking coffee maker:

For the first move of the game, Ezra chose to move via Bill Paxton to the 2014 Cruise Missile movie Edge of Tomorrow AKA Live. Die. Repeat if you like spoilers in your title. The movie is great but it ends up in a somewhat controversial place in our Season 5 masterlist. What are your thoughts?

Next up: Alex moves via Noah Taylor to the 2004 Wes Anderson (more like WET Anderson, am I right?) flick The Life Aquatic. Anthony has the ability to give Alex the first points of the year, but will he do the right thing? Find out next week.

Mentioned in this week's episode:

• Hannah recommends this episode of The Anthropocene Review about a terrifying Russian space walk: Podcast about terrible Russian space walk: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-anthropocene-reviewed/id1342003491?i=1000533191994
• Hannah also recommends Stanly Tucci's book about food: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/books/review/taste-stanley-tucci.html

Welcome to a brand new season of Read it and Weep! This year we're doing something slightly different: we're playing an overly complicated game! Listen now for all the rules and a fun conversation about Thomas the Hank Engine in space.