The Force Fed Sci-Fi Movie Podcast

On this episode, we'll examine how John Travolta's devotion to Scientology doomed this movie from the start, how an all knowing alien is more boring than compelling and why this film is not only bad but a prime example of bad filmmaking.

 

This week Chris checks in while Sean is away, he recaps his recent movie going adventures, reviews Chicago sports teams, and talks of his time away on vacation.

 

This time, we’re concluding our look into the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy and War for the Planet of the Apes and along the way we ask, is this a war film or a sci-fi film, is this more like Heart of Darkness or Bridge on the River Kwai and what’s the future of this franchise? Let’s dive in…

On this episode, we examine how charismatic and devious Woody Harrelson’s character is, how Caesar is betraying the central tenets of his existence, how a sci-fi film manages to also be a war film, how Caesar’s legacy can live on after his community finds peace, how we can avoid the world depicted in these films and why this trilogy managed to be overlooked year after year.

Listen to the full episode for Sean and Chris’ choices of Lens Flares, Red Shirts as well as a new entry for This Week in Toxic Fandom and our rating.

Always remember to like and subscribe to our content on Facebook, Instagram, Apple Podcasts and Spotify! Also, tell your friends about us and write in to tell us which movie we should add to the list!

This time, we’re continuing our look at the reboot of the Planet of the Apes franchise and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and along the way we ask, what are the parallels between the Simian Flu and COVID-19, who is the real villain of the movie and is this a realistic depiction of a societal collapse? Let’s dive in

Cast & Crew

* Directed by Matt Reeves: After Rupert Wyatt abandoned the chance to direct this film, Matt Reeves was hired on after directing Cloverfield and Let Me In. He had initially worked in television after developing the hit series Felicity.

* Starring Jason Clarke as Malcolm: Clarke has developed an everyman type of quality and had gained recognition after appearing in the critically acclaimed war film Zero Dark Thirty and has since appeared in The Great Gatsby, White House Down, Everest, Terminator Genisys and Mudbound

* Andy Serkis as Caesar: Serkis was the first actor to sign on for the sequel after meeting with Matt Reeves and had become a coach for the other actors who were unfamiliar with the performance capture technology.

* Toby Kebbell as Koba: Kebbell has become a well-rounded actor in recent years appearing in films like War Horse, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Warcraft and Kong: Skull Island and even provided the motion capture performance as Kong for that film.

* Gary Oldman as Dreyfus: While he had not yet won an Oscar, Oldman was still widely recognized as a quality actor and had just wrapped up his run as Commissioner James Gordon in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy

* Keri Russell as Ellie: Russell had risen to fame after starring on Matt Reeves’ television show Felicity and had even won a Golden Globe for her performance on the show. She has since transitioned successfully to films after appearing in We Were Soldiers, Mission Impossible 3, August Rush and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

* Also Starring:

* Judy Greer as Cornelia

* Kodi-Smit McPhee as Alexander

* Kirk Acevedo as Carver

* James Franco also reprises his role as Will Rodman in an uncredited cameo

COVID-19 & the Simian Flu

Throughout the course of Dawn, the pandemic that wiped out humanity is routinely referred to as the “Simian Flu” much to exasperation of characters like Malcolm and Ellie who had apparently worked at the CDC during the outbreak and had firsthand knowledge of the origins of the virus. There’s a brief prologue at the opening of the film that tracks the path of the virus of how it devastated humanity and left the remaining survivors in tatters.

The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t quite reached the same levels of destruction as the “Simian Flu” did in this film, there are some obvious parallels to draw from that deduction. There were several degrading nicknames that were conceived during the summer of 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that directly influenced a rise in hate crimes directed toward Asian Americans. The nicknames come from a place of misunderstanding a...

This time, we’re taking a look at the return of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Black Widow and along the way we ask, why is Scarlett Johansson just now getting a solo film, is it possible to emotionally invest in a dead character and how does this movie set up Phase 4? Let’s dive in!

PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE NOTES MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR BLACK WIDOW

Cast & Crew

* Directed by Cate Shortland: While more well-known in Australian cinema, Shortland was personally selected by Johansson after viewing her film Lore. Shortland was also chosen from a list of all female directors. Another director on that list, Chloe Zhao, would eventually be chosen to direct Eternals

* Starring Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow: Plans for a Black Widow film were originally conceived in 2004 but the film labored in developmental hell until the MCU introduced their version of the character in 2010’s Iron Man 2 and as the character gained more and more popularity, plans were entertained to produce a solo film focused on the character that would be incorporated into the MCU. While the plans didn’t initially take off in 2014, 2015 or 2016, Kevin Feige announced in 2018 that a film would be produced and released in 2020

* Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova/Black Widow: Pugh was cast in April 2019 following her performance in the wrestling film Fighting With My Family and began training immediately to star alongside Johansson

* David Harbour as Alexi Shostakov/Red Guardian: Harbour rose to prominence following his performance as Sheriff Jim Hopper in the Netflix series Stranger Things and was cast as the Soviet Union’s super solider answer to Captain America

* Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff/Black Widow: While Weisz hasn’t gravitated towards many blockbusters, she welcomed the chance to play a seasoned spy and an affectionate mother figure towards Natasha and Yelena’s characters

* Also Starring:

* Ray Winstone as Dreykov

* Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster

* William Hurt as General Thaddeus Ross

* O-T Fagbenle as Rick Mason

* Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

The Persistent Influence of Other Films

As Sean and Chris noted during the episode, Black Widow contains an exhaustive list of other influences from past espionage films that can be exhausting to list out. The chase through Budapest contains many callbacks to films like GoldenEye, Mission Impossible: Fallout and the fight scenes are reminiscent of anything from the Jason Bourne series or from the Daniel Craig James Bond films. There is also a brief scene where Natasha is even watching the 007 film Moonraker as she’s initially in hiding (listen to our previous episode of Moonraker here).

Moonraker and the James Bond films seem to be the primary influence on the look and feel of Black Widow. The villain lives in a floating palace as he plans to infect the world with a deadly virus and the climax takes place as the heroine is falling from the wreckage without a parachute. Perhaps, the filmmakers should have taken greater care to create some original sequences as opposed to borrowing from other films.

Also, a fun fact that might have added to why these action scenes felt so bland or recycled. Apparently, Marvel special effects artists create action scenes before the scripts are

 

This week Chris and Sean got together to talk about the Cubs, Bulls, podcast, and new movies that are coming out.

This time, we’re taking a look at the classic reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes and along the way we ask, how has Andy Serkis never won an Oscar, is this movie a really long vacation ad for California and just how plausible is a cure of Alzheimer’s? Let’s dive in…

Cast & Crew

* Directed by Rupert Wyatt: His first film, The Escapist, was the darling of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and afforded him the opportunity to direct Rise of the Planet of the Apes

* Starring Andy Serkis as Caesar: Serkis has managed to carve out a career as an actor, producer and director. Following his motion capture performance in Peter Jackson’s King Kong, Serkis was on the top of the list to give life to the main character of Caesar.

* James Franco as Will Rodman: Franco has had an interesting career to say the least. After rising to prominence on the television show Freaks & Geeks and later in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, Franco has also appeared on soap operas, stage and has tried directing several times. At this point in 2011, he was just coming off an Oscar nominated performance in 127 Hours. Tobey Maguire was actually the first choice to play Will Rodman.

* Freida Pinto as Caroline: This was one of four films Pinto appeared in during 2011 and had risen to international fame following her starring role in the Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire

* Also Starring:

* John Lithgow as Charles Rodman

* Brian Cox as John Landon

* Tom Felton as Dodge Landon

* David Oyelowo as Steven Jacobs

From Tim Burton to Rupert Wyatt

Believe it or not, this was not the first time 20th Century Fox attempted to reboot the Planet of the Apes franchise. Tim Burton had directed a remake of the original 1968 film that was released in 2001 and had starred Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter with Charlton Heston making a surprise cameo. The film was a critical disappointment as it currently holds a 44% on Rotten Tomatoes but managed to gross over $350 million.

The journey to get the remake off the ground had taken close to 20 years and following the financial success of the remake, plans for a sequel were drawn but were cancelled with Tim Burton even going so far as to stating he’d “rather jump out a window” than return to direct a follow up.

Fast forward to 2006 when screenwriting team Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver began developing a script involving chimpanzees and genetic testing. That script would eventually become Rise of the Planet of the Apes and kick off a reboot franchise as they were quickly becoming a trend in Hollywood starting with films like Batman Begins and Casino Royale.

Jaffa and Silver had the daunting task of rebooting an iconic franchise but decided to go back further and explore the genesis of a world dominated by intelligent apes. They worked backwards from the mythology mentioned in the film including the first ape named Caesar and that the first uttered was “no”.

Andy Serkis and the Art of Performance Capture  

https://youtu.be/BpdDN9d9Jio

This time, we’re taking a look at the highly anticipated sequel, A Quiet Place Part II, and along the way we ask, did Emmett and Regan rip off The Last of Us, how did Marcus become so selfish and what is next for the Abbott family? Let’s dive in…

Please be advised that these notes will contain spoilers for A Quiet Place Part II. If you wish for your experience to be spoiler free, please pause here, check out the film and return!

Cast & Crew

* Written, produced and directed by John Krasinski: The actor/director returns to direct the sequel of his 2018 directorial debut and also reprises his character of Lee during the film’s prologue

* Starring Emily Blunt as Evelyn Abbott

* Millicent Simmonds as Regan Abbott

* Noah Jupe as Marcus Abbott

* In addition, several actors were cast to fill new roles in the series:

* Cillian Murphy as Emmett: Murphy has become quite a frequent contributor to the Force Fed Sci-Fi podcast after appearing in our first episode Inception as well as Sunshine. Hosts Sean and Chris agreed that Murphy’s portrayal was among the best in the film and cemented his status as one of Hollywood’s most reliable actors.

* Djimon Hounsou as the Man on the Island: While his character doesn’t officially have a name, his scenes with Murphy are rather poignant as he’s able to provide some context as to the early days of the invasion and the trauma he’s experienced.

* Also Appearing:

* Scoot McNairy as Marina Man

* Okieriete Onaodowan as Ronnie

* Marco Beltrami also returns to compose the score as well as the new additions to the crew:

* Cinematography by Polly Morgan who had previously worked on the film Lucy as well as the television series Legion

* Editing by Michael P. Shawver who had worked on Creed, Black Panther and Fruitvale Station

The Journey to Make A Quiet Place Part II

Following the unexpected success of the first film in the series, Paramount immediately greenlit a sequel while Krasinski originally viewed the film as a one off without the need for a sequel. The original writers, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, did not return to the sequel and sought to do other projects. Krasinski himself was hesitant to return but was offered both to write and direct the sequel after the studio enjoyed his pitch.

While the budget for the first film was a meager $20 million, a sizeable commitment was made to the sequel as the budget was increased to $61 million which allowed for the production to expand beyond the scope of the farm and woods setting in the original film. A giant soundstage was constructed for the film as well as on location shooting in western New York State.

What is the Theme?

As Sean and Chris remarked in their episode on A Quiet Place, they were amazed with how quickly the film’s theme became politicized across both aisles of the political spectrum and that doesn’t seem to be the case with its sequel. Building upon the themes of family from the first film, A Quiet Place Part II seems to focus on the idea of loss this time around. Every character in the film has lost something profound and Emmett in particular personifies this theme.

After first meeting his character after he has seemingly agreed to shelter the Abbott family, we find out that his wife and young sons have died. Whether they died due to illness or were killed by the creatures is left to speculation but this has caused him to retreat within himself and initially wants to avoid searching for Regan when she goes missing until Evelyn appeals to his fatherly duties in finding her.

While loss is prevalent throughout the film and this section could be filled with a breakdown with...

 

This week Sean rambles about sports, the WWE, movies, life, and a vegan diet.

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This time, we’re taking a look at the spectacular spoof Mars Attacks! And along the way we ask what do the Martians have against birds, are humans supposed to be this excited for a first contact scenario and how did trading cards lead to big screen film? Let’s dive in…

Cast & Crew

* Directed by Tim Burton: At this in point in the mid 90’s, Burton was at the height of his power and recognition. He had established himself with his unique style and dark yet comedic films with success like Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood. With Buton’s name attached to direct Mars Attacks all that was needed was an all-star cast.Starring Jack Nicholson as President James Dale & Art Land

* Glenn Close as Marsha Dale

* Annette Benning as Barbara Land

* Danny DeVito as Rude Gambler

* Jim Brown as Byron Williams

* Pam Grier as Louise Williams

* Martin Short as Jerry Ross

* Pierce Brosnan as Donald Kessler

* Sarah Jessica Parker as Nathalie Lake

* Michael J. Fox as Jason Stone

* Rod Steiger as General Decker

* Lukas Haas as Richie Norris

* Natalie Portman as Taffy Dale

* Tom Jones as Tom Jones

* Also Starring

* Joe Don Baker as Glenn Norris

* Jack Black as Billy-Glenn Norris

* Christina Applegate

* Sylvia Sidney as Grandma Norris

* Paul Winfield as General Casey

From Topps to the Big Screen

Mars Attacks did not begin life on the silver screen. The origins can be traced back to 1962 and a series of trading cards simply known as Mars Attacks! The cards were hugely popular in a Cold War America but the cards displayed scenes that were graphic and horrifying

for the time. Due to complaints received, several of the cards had to be repainted but were ultimately pulled from production and distribution after a District Attorney from Connecticut began making inquiries into Topps and the cards.

While the cards have been reprinted several times including several reboots, the original cards have now become collector’s items with certain cards fetching over $3,000 at auctions. In the early 90’s, screenwriter Jonathan Gems began work on a script and it was eventually greenlit by Warner Brothers. The original pitch for Burton to direct involved another movie which would’ve been titled Dinosaurs Attack but given how Jurassic Park had released in 1993, trying to make another dinosaur blockbuster would’ve sunk a movie studio at the time.

With Burton on board to direct, he had to fill out his crew with his normal hires but the one snag was Danny Elfman. While working together on A Nightmare Before Christmas, a rift had formed between Burton and composer Danny Elfman who had previously worked together on all of Burton’s films and created a signature feel similar to how Steven Spielberg and John Williams have created their signature. The exact details of the rift aren’t known and probably won’t be to the general public but the two were able to work things out and Elfman managed to turn in one of his most iconic scores.

How B Movies Influenced Mars Attacks!

Tim Burton has not disputed that his influences, not just for Mars Attacks, but all of his films in general came from the science fiction films of the 1950’s including Plan 9 from Outer Space, The War of the Worlds, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Target Earth and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers.