"Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?"

Who could say things better than Groucho Marx? That's a trick question because no one could - he, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo made such a dynamic team that their five first films at Paramount studios, between 1929 and 1933, remain among five of the funniest damn movies on the planet.

Do they have the best stories? Who cares when you have four anarchic Jews who want to make you laugh? Do they have the best songs? A few are certainly among the freshest and funniest of the era, but we can leave the great songs to the others - we gotta get Harpo pulling something insane out of his pants (don't worry ladies, it's only everything except that!) or Chico being... well, Chico to the fullest!

"I could dance with you till the cows come home...But I would rather dance with the cows till you come home."

Jack and Andrew talk about these early films, from arguably the first sound musical comedy to to this day the arguably supreme comic satire on war (aside or alongside Strangelove, you decide). and see how they grew, if at all, from theatrical bozos to real FILMmakers:

THE COCOANUTS (1929)

ANIMAL CRACKERS (1930)

MONKEY BUSINESS (1931)

HORSE FEATHERS (1932)

DUCK SOUP (1933)

And join us next episode where we talk about their films at MGM (basically, the rest of their career).

songs:

"I Must be Going"

"I'm Against It" (The Ramones)

Clips from:

Duck Soup

Animal Crackers

The Pervert's Guide to Cinema

Horse Feathers

Can you ever really understand a film when it challenges perceptions of reality? Persona was one of the key films of the 1960's and marked a turning point for the career of Ingmar Bergman - known for his philosophical and poetic examinations of spirituality, existential questions and real deep-raw-human hurt and pain and love and anger and all of those things, he went into a mode with Persona where it was... well, what was it exactly?

Can Andrew, our faithful co-host and man who has actually already talked about Persona before (hear ep 14 for more on this)make heads or tails of this after five viewings? If not after this, when? And what does Ingmar Bergman (who you'll hear here in brief snippets) have to say about all of this?

From 1966, this is PERSONA.

First, Jack and Andrew take a look back at this summer of movies for 2016... and why it was so thoroughly mediocre and forgettable (and we also quote and mention an article written by Jessica Ritchey, "Hollywood Gave Up on You", which you can read at the link below.

Then, Jack and Andrew talk about the movies they've seen in the three weeks(!) since the past full three-part episode, and the movies stretch from the new releases from Werner Herzog and Laika animation studios (the makers of Coraline and Paranorman), to the beginning of feature epics with D.W. Griffith's films from 1915 and 1916. Also, more Star Trek and Wes Anderson! Get ready to dig in to a full course meal of cinema that involves plenty of wages - some of those by the makers of Ben-Hur!

Movies discussed (starts 21:40 in):

1) DANCIN' IT'S ON! (2015)

2) WAR ROOM (2015)

3) THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)

4) INTOLERANCE (1916)

5) KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS (2016)

6) SAUSAGE PARTY (2016)

7) STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT (1996)

8) THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU (2004)

9) THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES (2013)

10) LO AND BEHOLD: REVERIES OF THE CONNECTED WORLD (2016)

http://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/hollywood-gave-up-on-you-the-summer-movies-of-2016

"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality..." (some Warners exec right now, probably)

So tonight, Jack, Andrew, and Guest Star Matt(TM) bring you a review of the classic 1935 classic that's all about the brave firemen of the world and the women they love, SUICIDE SQUAD! (Well, this movie does exist, but wait, no, wrong version, right, it's 2016, gotcha, let's correct that).

By now a lot of words have been written about the movie - and a little known aggregator called Rotten Tomatoes had been blamed for a lack of love for the film (without remembering what makes up the site, don't forget) - but what did WE think of it, that's what matters here! How did David Ayer (of Training Day and End of Watch) fare helming a Dirty Dozen/Escape from New York/Guardians of the Galaxy hybrid with the Baddest-Bunch of DC super-villains? How about the Big Bad Villain they face off? Just how did the follow-up to that monumental success Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice work out? And can you sense any sarcasm with that last sentence?

Once again we are joined by Matthew Catania - seek out https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com for many more thoughts on this and other movies, shows, comics, action figures, et al - and try to unpack the good, the bad, and the... Insane Clown Posse of SUICIDE SQUAD.

clips from the film are featured. Podcast is owned by us.

::CORRECTION: In the podcast Jack states Tom Hardy was cast as Captain Boomerang - according to IMDb he was actually cast as Rick Flagg, but did drop out due to The Revenant, we apologize for the error::

Batman! Doctor Strange! Harley Quinn! King Kong! Edward Snowden! Wait, what?

We watched a whole lot of trailers - ten in all - from the San Diego Comic Con (you can listen to us RIFF the trailers on YouTube, link soon to come), and we discuss our thoughts on them at length. So strap yourselves in for a discussion that goes from Harry Potter to King Arthur to Oliver Stone and what it means to have a comedic Batman movie.

Movies:

JUSTICE LEAGUE

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

SNOWDEN

KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD

BLAIR WITCH

SUICIDE SQUAD (remix)

WONDER WOMAN

DOCTOR STRANGE

KONG: SKULL ISLAND

THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE

have any thoughts or comments on the trailers discussed? Visit us on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/wagesofcinema), Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/wagesofcinema) or instagram (instagram/wagesofcinema) - [email protected] is our email

First, Jack and Andrew talk about some sad and good news about the current state of VCR's and VHS (in brief, they're dead, Jim), and Terry Gilliam's long-gestating Don Quixote film (which is finally in production!) Then, Jack talks about movies that he watched since the last episode, ranging from a sequel in another Hollywood franchise, an adaptation of Alan Moore, and Woody Allen's once-a-year offering.

(please note, there was a slight audio issue around 7:50 to 8:10 in the podcast due to a technical issue, we apologize for the snafu)

films discussed:

1) CAFE SOCIETY (2016)

2) STAR TREK: BEYOND (2016)

3) BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE (2016)

4) PLANET OF THE APES (1968)

(clip featured from The Simpsons for fair use purposes only)

Where to start with this one? If anyone's familiar with the work of former "enfant terrible" Harmony Korine (do we call him now 'Adult terrible?'), then you know the wild, manic, tragic, gross, idiotic, perverse and often comic vignettes that populate films such as Gummo, Mister Lonely, and Spring-Breakers.

He's an artist in the sense of, as director Werner Herzog would say, a "soldier of cinema", making a new f***ed up sandbox to play in. And Julien Donkey-Boy, his "Dogme 95" entry (listen to know what that was all about), is among his most outrageous, sad and ambitious efforts, also featuring Mr. Herzog in a performance for the ages.

What is there to see here in five viewings? Listen for more.

(clips featured are from Julien Donkey-Boy, Spring Breakers, and Puccini's opera, all for fair use criticism purposes)

So what is Zardoz? The tagline was "Beyond 1984, Beyond 2001, Beyond Love, Beyond Death." This was due to what we can assume was a lack of imagination - hey, it's science fiction, let's throw in the two standard-bearers of that of the 20th century - but perhaps the 'beyond love and beyond death' part rings true. Did the film's director and writer, John Boorman, know what he was doing?

Andrew watched this film five times, and for that he will do his best in under 7 minutes.

(NOTE - this is a re-broadcast due to some technical errors in the previous podcast, we apologize for the inconvenience)

Most often people celebrate 10th anniversaries for something that's, well, worth celebrating. But here at The Wages of Cinema - where, don't forget, we make sure sometimes to take on those wages and plenty of them - we think a little differently. What about not simply a bad movie, but one of the colossal auteur blunders of the 2000's?

On July 21st 2006, Warner brothers released the 7th feature film written-directed-produced-featuring Philadelphia's (once) golden-film-man M. Night Shyamalan, and it was met with critical and financial ruin, taking in 72 million dollars worldwide on a 70 million budget (and remember to always double for marketing for budget).

So what happened? How did it get made? Well, it's not *that* podcast, but we also have a combined podcast here with our REQUIRED READING segments, so we also look at Michael Bamberger's THE MAN WHO HEARD VOICES: OR HOW M NIGHT SHYAMALAN RISKED HIS CAREER ON A FAIRY TALE and combine this to make it a full course podcast about Shyamalan and how this cinematic disaster came to be.

(twist: there is no twist, sorry, go to an ice cream stand for some vanilla twist though, it's hot out! but we digress).

narfs not owned by us.

After we talk about some listener email questions (well, multiple questions from one listener), Jack sees a little movie that no one has seen before except EVERYONE ON THE INTERNET RIGHT NOW. He also goes on about the latest from Nicolas Winding Refn, Bryan Cranston, Ewan McGregor and a trashy bad-movie modern classic. Mostly new movies, and a selection ranging from a blockbuster to crime to the most artistic statements you can come across.

1) GHOSTBUSTERS (2016) (starts at 12:43 into the podcast)

2) SHOWGIRLS (1995)

3) THE NEON DEMON (2016)

4) OUR KIND OF TRAITOR (2016)

5) THE INFILTRATOR (2016)

clips from Ghostbusters trailer