The School of Movies Archive

[Digital Gonzo 2012]

This time we’re focusing on the popular, troubled, dark, flawed and twisted sequel to Burton’s 1989 smash hit.

This was the only big-screen Catwoman until this year’s Dark Knight Rises and the only Penguin if you don’t count the 1966 Batman film or the frankly fuck-awful Catwoman (2004). It has Christopher Walken acting as himself, Michelle Pfeiffer in skin-tight vinyl, licking herself, Batman murdering three men in cold blood, a raw-fish-munching, diminutive, obese, sex-pest and many, many clowns.

Guests:

Neil Taylor of TheKiddDogg

Sharon Shaw of School of Movies

Jerome McIntosh of GameBurst

Paul Gibson of Gonzo Planet

[Digital Gonzo 2012]

The 1989 film. This is the second of the Batman shows. This time we’re covering one of the most successful blockbusters of its day, a movie that redefined how Hollywood handled it’s big, fantastical character pieces. It followed on from Richard Donner’s Superman (1978) as the next significant step in comic-book movies, jump-starting a series that would dominate the 90’s in the way The Man of Steel dominated the 80’s.

With a soundtrack by Prince, a starring turn from Jack Nicholson’s Joker and spectacularly 80’s sensibilities, this review gave us so much meat to chew on and remains eminently quotable. Whatever your thoughts on Tim Burton are, he handled this film very well for the age of big business, shoulder-pads and rubber suits… and of course those wonderful toys.

Guests:

Nikki Taylor of TheKiddDogg

Joshua Garrity of Cane and Rinse

Leah Haydu of Some Other Castle

Jerome McIntosh of GameBurst

Paul Gibson of Gonzo Planet

[Digital Gonzo 2012]

The 1966 film. This is the first of more than twenty of our shows reviewing the many many movies that have been made about The Batman, starting way back with Adam West and culminating with The Dark Knight Rises.

On the chopping block we have an extremely divisive depiction. Some will find it irritating, shallow, pointless and boring, others consider it a masterclass of camp humour. Will we manage a balanced view?

Guests:

Nikki Taylor of TheKiddDogg

Joshua Garrity of Cane and Rinse

Jerome McIntosh of GameBurst

Paul Gibson of Gonzo Planet

[Digital Gonzo 2012]

33 years after the original film, the director that started off the series returns to the same universe to start a new one. Ridley Scott’s PROMETHEUS is arguably the most anticipated prequel to be released since The Phantom Menace, but is that word even an apt description of this film, considering what happens and what doesn’t? You could make a case that it serves as a remake as well. What’s certain is that after only a few days of release and before it’s even out in the USA, this film has caused a storm of negative and lukewarm responses, and a backlash of equally vociferous defense. 

This time there is opposition and a clash of opinion as we set out to get a balanced yet impassioned view on the movie. Spoilers abound from the start so be sure to watch it before listening.

Special Extended Edition: This version of the podcast now includes my final analysis at the end (around the 1.44 mark), answering many of the questions raised by the film by examining the original script by John Spaihts. This is available to view on YouTube with a ton of visual aid by searching for “Digital Gonzo: Prometheus Final Analysis”.

Guests:

Sharon Shaw of School of Movies

Joshua Garrity of Cane and Rinse

Matt Ramsey of GamerDork

James Perkins of The Digital Fix

[Digital Gonzo 2012]

Quadrilogy (nonsense noun) Definition; “The greed-motivated act of adding a superfluous and worthless sequel to a trilogy that has been finished. Origin; Alien Resurrection.” - Oxford English Dictionary.

After Fincher’s effort ended Ellen Ripley’s story, the geniuses at Hollywood started plans for how a person could “get better” from being dead. Somebody mentioned cloning and within seconds a treatment was drafted.

Thereafter the future director of the fabulous film Amelie, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, along with scripting duties from the man behind Firefly brought us the disgusting fruits of the lowest points in their careers.

Ripley’s back. It’s 200 years in the future, Weyland-Yutani is no more and absolutely everything that doesn’t make a lick of sense in this cinematic turd is explainable by “Alien DNA”. This is the podcast review where some of us actually went berserk.

It’s hilarious. You’re welcome.

Guests:

Sharon Shaw of School of Movies

Leah Haydu of Some Other Castle

Joshua Garrity of Cane and Rinse

Matt Ramsey of GamerDork

James Perkins of The Digital Fix

[Digital Gonzo 2012]

David Fincher’s directorial debut has been maligned by most and loved by few. It’s a flawed, filthy, foreboding and occasionally really effective story. The end result of thirty script rewrites and years of troubled development. We get our teeth into how studio meddling by Fox left this project multibuggered to the point where it almost ended up an Alan Smithee picture. Fincher certainly disowned it and everybody involved was frustrated and disappointed, as were audiences everywhere. We examine this twenty-year old curio with great enthusiasm, starting with the utterly soul-destroying deaths at the opening.

Oh and huge props to Harry Partridge whose idea for rather brilliant videos I shamelessly copied for a neat bit of audio in this show.

Guests:

Sharon Shaw of School of Movies

Leah Haydu of Some Other Castle

Joshua Garrity of Cane and Rinse

Matt Ramsey of GamerDork

James Perkins of The Digital Fix

[Digital Gonzo 2012]

(Note: This episode has been significantly improved with a 2021 Re-Edit that can be found on the main School of Movies feed)

James Cameron took the helm and made this sequel into something that complimented and expanded upon the masterful original. With more of a Sci-Fi action feel, the director of Avatar, the only great Terminator films and Piranha II: The Spawning chose to focus on humorous machismo, strong female characters, and a socio-political, anti-military, anti-corporate agenda… it would not be the last time.

Once again we tried to be as serious as possible, once again we failed, hence the multitude of outtakes at the end which include at least one of us in the grip of hysterics.

Guests:

Sharon Shaw of School of Movies

Leah Haydu of Some Other Castle

Joshua Garrity of Cane and Rinse

Matt Ramsey of GamerDork

James Perkins of The Digital Fix

[Digital Gonzo 2012]

In this first and arguably best outing, directed by Ridley Scott, we take a look at a haunted house story set in space. A B-Movie creature feature lent integrity from its serious tone, sparing and masterful handling of tension and significant influence on several genres.

This was the film that made British-born Scott a key player in Hollywood, introduced the world to Sigourney Weaver, created one of the most iconic females in cinema history and one of the most terrifying monsters.

My crew and I try our level best to maintain a serious and bolted down tone throughout but inadvertently drummed up some of the funniest moments on Digital Gonzo yet. Maybe even a few Gonzo meme’s already exist within the darkened corridors of this episode. Stay tuned to the very end for that reason.

Guests:

Sharon Shaw of School of Movies

Leah Haydu of Some Other Castle

Joshua Garrity of Cane and Rinse

Matt Ramsey of GamerDork

James Perkins of The Digital Fix

[Digital Gonzo 2012]

This is the sixth and final of the official MARVEL superhero movie reviews for now. In the future we will be returning to Marvel with reviews of the Spider-Man and X-Men film series’, and maybe a few of the others like Daredevil, 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Ang Lee’s Hulk. We will also be covering any subsequent movies from the Marvel cinematic universe including Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Captain America 2 and the inevitable follow-up to The Avengers. But right now we’re focusing on this culmination of years of setup and expectation as The Avengers Assemble.

This is actually the first ever Gonzo show I’ve recorded where myself, my guests and the rest of the world have only just seen the film in question for the first time. in fact it launches in the USA tonight. This makes for a slightly different discussion, not least because this is also the culmination of four years of waiting, longer if you’re a Marvel fan. It is also a new beginning for comic book movies and my theory is that in twenty years this will be seen as one of the first truly successful crossovers.

Some of the things we didn’t mention on the show that need mentioning…

1. The Helicarrier was awe-inspiring.

Guests:

Nikki Taylor of TheKiddDogg

Joshua Garrity of Cane and Rinse

Jerome McIntosh of GameBurst

Paul Gibson of Gonzo Planet

[Digital Gonzo 2012]

This show covers the not the first but certainly the finest cinematic outing for the star-spangled man with the shield..

This was another tough movie to make happen considering America’s relationship with war over the past decade. If they had gone too patriotic the rest of the world would have hated it, too down on America and the domestic box-office would suffer greatly. In the end the smartest thing to do was to put Steve Rogers in the context to which his character was created. The simpler times of the 1940s where heroes were lantern-jawed and villains were hideous and motivated only by hate. It could have been disastrous. It wasn’t. Find out more inside, true believers!

To finish off we also talk about some of the best and worst MARVEL video games out there as well as some wild speculation on what might happen in The Avengers that will seem dated within hours once people start seeing it.

Neil and I also place a bet.

Guests:

Nikki Taylor of TheKiddDogg

Joshua Garrity of Cane and Rinse

Jerome McIntosh of GameBurst

Paul Gibson of Gonzo Planet