Verbal Diorama

Whosoever listens to this episode, if they be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.

It's Phase 1 of the MCU. We've just had Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2 - all very grounded and Midgard-based. It was the perfect time, therefore to not only introduce a cosmic location, but a character steeped in rich Norse mythology. In 2011, we got Thor, aka Doth Mother Know You Weareth Her Drapes In Space.

This movie introduced the masses to the titular God of Thunder (or is it God of Hammers?), as Chris Hemsworth proved he could do more than play Captain Kirk's father, and gave the unworthy, spoiled crown prince of Asgard eventual humour and humility, in this very traditional fish-out-of-water tale of a god, literally amongst men, transported to small town Puerto Antiguo, New Mexico where he meets physicist Jane Foster, as well as a recognisable Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

An adaptation of Thor had been in the works since 1991, with Sam Raimi keen to take on the Asgardian God. This movie was rejected by 20th Century Fox, but had it been greenlit, the superhero movie landscape would look very different today....

I would love to hear your thoughts on Thor!

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SUPPORT VERBAL DIORAMA....

Leave a 5-star rating/review: Apple Podcasts or Podchaser

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Thank you to all the patrons Simon E, Sade, Claudia, Simon B, Laurel, Derek, Jason, Kristin, Cat, Andy, Mike, Griff, Luke, Emily, Michael, Scott, Mark, Brendan, Ian, Lisa, Sam, Will, Jack, Dave and Chris!

Buy Merch! https://verbaldiorama.com/merch

Tees, mugs, hoodies and totes are available!

EPISODE THANKS TO....

Most excellent patrons:

Brendan, for his Patron thoughts!

Andy from Geek Salad for his Patron thoughts. You can find him @geeksaladradio on Twitter

Derek from The Midnight Myth for his Patron thoughts. You can find him @TheMidnightMyth on Twitter

Sam from Movie Reviews in 20 Q's for his Patron thoughts. You can find him @MovieReviewsIn on Twitter

Follow, subscribe & listen to Geek Salad, The Midnight Myth and Movie Reviews in 20 Q's in your podcast app of choice!

Twitter peeps

• @ItsAMusicalPod
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Theme Music: Verbal Diorama Theme Song

Music by Chloe Enticott - Compositions by Chloe

Lyrics by Chloe Enticott (and me!)

Production by Ellis Powell-Bevan of Ewenique Studio

Welcome to the third Nanorama episode - episodes slightly shorter, but focusing on interesting titbits of information.

For this episode, I'm concluding the Alien franchise by talking a little about the saga's attempts at crossover events:

Alien vs Predator was conceived instead of James Cameron's Alien 5, and was going to be the crossover event to end all crossover events. An Alien and a Predator smackdown, set on Earth, given a very distinct Resident Evil vibe, thanks to its director Paul W.S. Anderson. While it didn't set the critics alight, it did decent enough box office to give us a sequel....

Aliens vs Predator: Requiem continued the story from the end of the first movie, with the inclusion of the Predalien. It's a shame the movie was so dark that the audience could barely see the creature. Directed by first-time directors, and experienced visual effects artists, the Brothers Strause; AvP: Requiem wanted to up the stakes, make it more personal AND more gory....

1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4....

Everyone's favourite movie uncle Tom Hanks isn't as known for his directorial or screenwriting career, as he is for his many Oscar-winning acting roles. That Thing You Do! was his first foray into both directing and writing, and boy does he knock it out of the park with this.

It's a charming, sweet, nostalgic tale of Erie, PA teenagers Guy, Jimmy, Lenny and Tobias (the retrospectively named bass player!). They are the Oneders, and they enter a talent competition with a ballad written by Jimmy and Lenny, but that replacement drummer Guy ups the tempo on, causing everyone to want to dance along.

The Oneders, renamed The Wonders, along with Jimmy's girlfriend Faye, go on a whirlwind of musical success, but the music industry is not a forgiving master, and like many real life bands, the Wonders become one-hit wonders.

It could easily be a cautionary tale, but it's just so joyous and charming, invoking an era of timelessness, recalling the bygone days of Americana, the British Invasion that started with The Beatles, as well as the politics of the music industry, with an earworm of a theme song that might even be better than the theme song of this podcast. This was a passion project for Tom Hanks, and you can tell. It oozes careful thought, and the level of behind the scenes talent working on this movie belies Hanks' inexperience behind the screen.

Everything about this movie is, excuse the pun, wonderful. Liv Tyler has beautiful hair, and RIP Adam Schlesinger.

I would love to hear your thoughts on That Thing You Do!

GET IN TOUCH....

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SUPPORT VERBAL DIORAMA....

Leave a 5-star rating/review: Apple Podcasts or Podchaser

Join the Patreon: https://verbaldiorama.com/patreon

Thank you to all the patrons Simon E, Sade, Claudia, Simon B, Laurel, Derek, Jason, Kristin, Cat, Andy, Mike, Griff, Luke, Emily, Michael, Scott, Mark, Brendan, Ian, Lisa, Sam, Will, Jack, Dave and brand-new patron Chris!

Buy Merch! https://verbaldiorama.com/merch

Tees, mugs, hoodies and totes are available!

EPISODE THANKS TO....

Most excellent patrons:

Andy from Geek Salad for his Patron thoughts. You can find him @geeksaladradio on Twitter

Laurel from The Midnight Myth for her Patron thoughts. You can find her @TheMidnightMyth on Twitter

Follow, subscribe & listen to Geek Salad and The Midnight Myth in your podcast app of choice!

Twitter peeps

• @WeWatchedAThing
• @DWLundberg
• @A_November_Man
• @The_FJ_Podcast
• @cheapseatcast

Instagram folk

• @girlymovienight

Facebook chums

• None this time

Theme Music: Verbal Diorama Theme Song

Music by Chloe Enticott - Compositions by Chloe

Lyrics by Chloe Enticott (and me!)

Production by Ellis Powell-Bevan of Ewenique Studio

Featuring five-time award winning podcaster Nicholas Haskins..... and Tits McGee.

Actually, it's me, Em, Tits McGee is on vacation. Joining me is the Ron Burgundy of podcasting. A man who has many leather bound books and whose apartment smells of rich mahogany, a man who can play jazz flute like no other - Nicholas Haskins of the podcast Nikoli's Kitchen.

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, if not a movie everyone's seen, is definitely a movie everyone has quoted. The lexicon of Anchorman still holds true, but not many people know that Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone were loosely based on real news anchors: Mort Crim and Jessica Savitch. Savitch in particular was a trailblazer for women in news, starting as a diversity hire and becoming the station's first female reporter and one of the first women to anchor an evening network news broadcast.

Sixty percent of the time, it’s a movie that works every time, because while the zeitgeist surrounding the movie still holds up, the movie itself (especially in the light of modern sensibilities and the #MeToo Movement) really kinda doesn't. This is despite the fact it was a radical re-think behind scripted comedy, and really one of the first of the 2000s era improvised Judd Apatow bromantic comedies.

Verbal Diorama, in German though, does actually mean "whale's vagina".

Joining me to discuss Anchorman is Nick Haskins, host of the podcast Nikoli's Kitchen and creator of Livestream for the Cure. He's the best of men and I'm delighted that he not only joined me for this episode, but he will be returning in future, too. You can follow his soothing honey vocals at @NikolisKitchen on Twitter, and listen out for me kicking off Season 3 of Nikoli's Kitchen very soon!

I would love to hear your thoughts on Anchorman!

GET IN TOUCH....

• Twitter @verbaldiorama
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SUPPORT VERBAL DIORAMA....

Leave a 5-star rating/review: Apple Podcasts or Podchaser

Join the Patreon: https://verbaldiorama.com/patreon

Thank you to all the patrons Simon E, Sade, Jardiel, Claudia, Simon B, Laurel, Derek, Jason, Kristin, Cat, Andy, Mike, Griff, Luke, Emily, Michael, Scott, Mark, Brendan, Ian, Lisa, Sam, Will and Jack.

Buy Merch! https://verbaldiorama.com/merch

Tees, mugs, hoodies and totes are available!

Theme Music: Verbal Diorama Theme Song

Music by Chloe Enticott - Compositions by Chloe

Lyrics by Chloe Enticott (and me!)

Production by Ellis Powell-Bevan of Ewenique Studio

I can't believe how cute this episode is!

On the surface, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion is a very simple premise. Two friends, happy with their lot in life, suddenly realise that maybe their post-high school existence isn't as brilliant as they first thought. Car dealership cashier Romy White and unemployed fashionista Michele Weinberger decide to go to their ten-year high school reunion AND pose as successful businesswomen to impress their graduating class.

Their ruse? They invented Post-its!

It's a '90s pop culture bubble of a movie, but it's also more than it's fluffy exterior might suggest. It really is all about the power of friendship, and that success is measured on your own terms. To some, success might be marriage and children, to others it might be writing for Vogue or becoming a billionaire entrepreneur. To Romy and Michele, success is being themselves, with each other.

I would love to hear your thoughts on Romy and Michele's High School Reunion!

GET IN TOUCH....

• Twitter @verbaldiorama
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• Website verbaldiorama.com

SUPPORT VERBAL DIORAMA....

Leave a 5-star rating/review: Apple Podcasts or Podchaser

Join the Patreon: https://verbaldiorama.com/patreon

Thank you to all the patrons Simon E, Sade, Jardiel, Claudia, Simon B, Laurel, Derek, Jason, Kristin, Cat, Andy, Mike, Griff, Luke, Emily, Michael, Scott, Mark, Brendan, Ian, Lisa, Sam, Will, Jack and Dave!

Buy Merch! https://verbaldiorama.com/merch

Tees, mugs, hoodies and totes are available!

EPISODE THANKS TO....

Most excellent patrons:

Andy from Geek Salad for his Patron thoughts. You can find him @geeksaladradio on Twitter

Griff from The Paul and Griff Show for his Patron thoughts. You can find him @paulngriffshow on Twitter

Kristin from So I'm Watching This Show / Another Buffy Podcast for her Patron thoughts. You can find her @soimwatching on Twitter or by following #anotherbuffypodcast

Subscribe, follow and listen to Geek Salad, The Paul and Griff Show, So I'm Watching This Show and Another Buffy Podcast in your podcast app of choice!

Twitter peeps

• @FilmEffectPod
• @anightmarepod
• @tannerhelps
• @Nerdrovert

Instagram folk

• @friendlysparpod

Facebook chums

• None this time

Theme Music: Verbal Diorama Theme Song

Music by Chloe Enticott - Compositions by Chloe

Lyrics by Chloe Enticott (and me!)

Production by Ellis Powell-Bevan of Ewenique Studio

You know the name. You know the number. He has a licence to kill, he likes his vodka martinis shaken, not stirred. He's a sexist misogynist dinosaur, a relic of the Cold War....

And then, along came GoldenEye. Propelling James Bond into the post-Cold War, post-fall of the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall, and a technologically advanced 1995. It had been six years since the previous Timothy Dalton Bond, and Pierce Brosnan's interpretation feels worlds, and decades, away from Dalton's.

GoldenEye was the first James Bond movie to not take reference from any of Ian Fleming's original novels or short stories, however instead is a direct homage to Fleming himself, and his work during the Second World War.

This was the millennial’s Bond, and while Pierce Brosnan’s career as Bond didn’t quite land the way this movie took off, Brosnan would create the template for a more modern James Bond going forward and leave a lasting legacy in the franchise that has so far remained unmatched.

Not to mention, that N64 game is cracking!

For England!

I would love to hear your thoughts on GoldenEye!

GET IN TOUCH....

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SUPPORT VERBAL DIORAMA....

Leave a 5-star rating/review: Apple Podcasts or Podchaser

Join the Patreon: https://verbaldiorama.com/patreon

Thank you to all the patrons Simon E, Sade, Jardiel, Claudia, Simon B, Laurel, Derek, Jason, Kristin, Cat, Andy, Mike, Griff, Luke, Emily, Michael, Scott, Mark, Brendan, Ian, Lisa, Sam, Will, Jack and brand-new patron Dave!

Buy Merch! https://verbaldiorama.com/merch

Tees, mugs, hoodies and totes are available!

EPISODE THANKS TO....

Most excellent patrons:

Andy and Mike from Geek Salad for their Patron thoughts. You can find them @geeksaladradio on Twitter

Derek from The Midnight Myth for his Patron thoughts. You can find him @TheMidnightMyth on Twitter

Griff from The Paul and Griff Show for his Patron thoughts. You can find him @paulngriffshow on Twitter

Subscribe, follow and listen to Geek Salad, The Midnight Myth and The Paul and Griff Show in your podcast app of choice!

And also to Patron Brendan for his thoughts!

Twitter peeps

• @thatfkingguy
• @ShoottheFlick
• @Oral_mfc
• @SpyHards
• @ItsAMusicalPod
• @TheCinemaGuys
• @NikolisKitchen
• @alatereviewer
• @GorillaBrainPod
• @LaunchingTPilot
• @willf86

Instagram folk

• None this time

Facebook chums

• Erik

Theme Music: Verbal Diorama Theme Song

Music by Chloe Enticott - Compositions by Chloe

Lyrics by Chloe Enticott (and me!)

Production by Ellis Powell-Bevan of Ewenique Studio

SURPRISE!!

In the grand tradition of surprise Halloween episodes, and following last year's Halloween episode Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, I wanted to cover another underappreciated cult classic that probably not many other podcasts will this spooky season - Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Not the excellent TV series, (although I have done an episode on Hush), but the 1992 movie that introduced Buffy to the world.

Kristy Swanson is the eponymous slayer, in Joss Whedon's feature film writing debut, and it's a movie he's canonically abandoned, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer really doesn't deserve the hate. It's a fun movie, and Kristy Swanson really is a good Buffy, just not the Buffy we all know. It's the beginnings of a character that would evolve from 1997-2003 under the skills and talents of Sarah Michelle Gellar, but let's not take anything away from Swanson. This version of Buffy works as an introduction to the character, to slayer and vampire lore, and to elongated hammy death scenes.

With a big name cast, including Donald Sutherland, Rutger Hauer, Paul Reubens and Luke Perry, this Buffy might be a little more fluffy, but this Buffy also slays.

How funky is your chicken?

Happy Halloween! 

You could say Jennifer's Body was wildly misunderstood on its release in 2009. Just seen as yet another titillating teen horror capitalising on the sexuality of its lead actor Megan Fox, and heralded as neither funny nor scary; the Diablo Cody-penned, Karyn Kusama-directed, horror-comedy seemed to be destined for the DVD bargain bin....

And then, in recent years, the tide has turned because now people seem to not only understand it, but appreciate it.

Its commentary on female relationships, society's pressure on women and, more recently, the #MeToo movement highlighting sexual harassment and abuse in the media, and the commodification of women's bodies by powerful men, Jennifer's Body is now seen as a feminist cult horror and has been retrospectively reappraised. (TW for discussions of rape, sexual abuse and sexual harassment, specifically related to the Harvey Weinstein case)

Joining me to discuss Jennifer's Body is Helen O'Hara, editor-at-large of Empire, co-host of the Empire Film Podcast, author of Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film and host of the podcast Women vs Hollywood. It was amazing and fascinating to chat to Helen about this movie, and I'd highly recommend her book! You can find her @HelenLOHara on Twitter. Huge thanks for coming on to Verbal Diorama, Helen!

I would love to hear your thoughts on Jennifer's Body!

GET IN TOUCH....

• Twitter @verbaldiorama
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SUPPORT VERBAL DIORAMA....

Leave a 5-star rating/review: Apple Podcasts or Podchaser

Join the Patreon: https://verbaldiorama.com/patreon

Thank you to all the patrons Simon E, Sade, Jardiel, Claudia, Simon B, Laurel, Derek, Jason, Kristin, Cat, Andy, Mike, Griff, Luke, Emily, Michael, Scott, Mark, Brendan, Ian, Lisa, Sam, Will and Jack.

Buy Merch! https://verbaldiorama.com/merch

Tees, mugs, hoodies and totes are available!

Theme Music: Verbal Diorama Theme Song

Music by Chloe Enticott - Compositions by Chloe

Lyrics by Chloe Enticott (and me!)

Production by Ellis Powell-Bevan of Ewenique Studio

Welcome to the second Nanorama episode - episodes slightly shorter, but focusing on interesting titbits of information.

For this episode, I'm continuing with the Alien franchise by talking a little about the saga's attempts at prequels:

Prometheus brought back Alien director Ridley Scott, to distance itself from the franchise and delve into the origins of humanity, and the story around Alien's space jockey with a big-name cast including Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron and Idris Elba, but while it was a financial success, audiences struggled with this Alien prequels reliance on philosophical ideas about the creation of humanity. and distinct lack of actual aliens....

Alien: Covenant, also directed by Ridley Scott, distanced itself from its prequel, by returning to its franchise roots and almost disregarding the plot and characters of the previous movie (bar Michael Fassbender's David). It was being worked on at the same time as Neill Blomkamp's Alien 5, which would reunite Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn as Ripley and Hicks. No guesses which movie out of the two got cancelled as a result....

They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky, they're altogether ooky, and they're finally on Verbal Diorama. **click click**

The Addams Family, based on Charles Addams' comic strips and the TV show that preceded it, might be a fun family Halloween movie, but the behind-the-scenes troubles for this production are so plentiful that it's a miracle that The Addams Family not only exists, but is as good as it is.

From fainting directors, to quitting cinematographers, the sale of the movie during production and rights issues that would plague the movie's release in certain countries on DVD 'til 2013, The Addams Family is like a swan - graceful and serene above the water, thrashing about below. Not that you can tell from the movie of course; even the visual effects still hold up 30 years later.

It's perfectly cast too, with actors that still define the roles - Anjelica Huston, the late Raúl Juliá and Christina Ricci - The Addams Family is a delightfully macabre Halloween movie that the whole family can enjoy, and is complimented by a sequel that in many ways is better than the original, but that's for a future episode. Let's not talk about Addams Family Reunion though.....

I would love to hear your thoughts on The Addams Family!

GET IN TOUCH....

• Twitter @verbaldiorama
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• Email verbaldiorama [at] gmail [dot] com
• Website verbaldiorama.com

SUPPORT VERBAL DIORAMA....

Leave a 5-star rating/review: Apple Podcasts or Podchaser

Join the Patreon: https://verbaldiorama.com/patreon

Thank you to all the patrons Simon E, Sade, Jardiel, Claudia, Simon B, Laurel, Derek, Jason, Kristin, Cat, Andy, Mike, Griff, Luke, Emily, Michael, Scott, Mark, Brendan, Ian, Lisa, Sam, Will and Jack.

Buy Merch! https://verbaldiorama.com/merch

Tees, mugs, hoodies and totes are available!

EPISODE THANKS TO....

Most excellent patrons:

Andy from Geek Salad for his Patron thoughts. You can find him @geeksaladradio on Twitter

Jack from Sequelisers for his Patron thoughts. You can find him @Sequelisers on Twitter

Subscribe, follow and listen to Geek Salad and Sequelisers in your podcast app of choice!

And also to Patron Claudia for her thoughts!

Twitter peeps

• @30Podcast
• @stoghz
• @Garbsy
• @DWLundberg

Instagram folk

• None this time

Facebook chums

• None this time

Theme Music: Verbal Diorama Theme Song

Music by Chloe Enticott - Compositions by Chloe

Lyrics by Chloe Enticott (and me!)

Production by Ellis Powell-Bevan of Ewenique Studio