Film Junk Podcast Episode #460: Noah and The Grand Budapest Hotel

Posted by on March 31st, 2014   Filed under: Featured, Film Junk Podcast

podcast460

0:00 – Intro
3:45 – Review: Noah
51:30 – Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel
1:23:10 – Headlines: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trailer, Into the Storm Trailer, The Action Hero Championship Belt
1:39:50 – Other Stuff We Watched: A Brief History of Time, The Last Temptation of Christ, Capturing the Friedmans, Dogs, Louis Theroux’s L.A. Stories, The Pink Panther, The Wrestler, Black Swan, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, Grand Piano, Seven, Cosmos
2:33:05 – Junk Mail: Best Beards in Movies, Favourite Movies About Black People
2:42:00 – This Week on DVD and Blu-ray
2:45:55 – Outro

Film Junk Podcast Episode #460: Noah and The Grand Budapest Hotel by Filmjunk on Mixcloud

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  • Jr

    Favorite movie about black people (not a joke, look it up): The Watermelon Man

    Next episode can we do favorite movies about white people (The Big Chill) and favorite movies about MILFs (Cocoon)?

  • Essie

    Frank, were you inspired to learn about the WM3 case outside of the documentaries? If so, how could you still think they are innocent?

    Love Jay’s idea for a documentary blu ray releasing company.

  • pcch7

    You guys are crazy, The Grand Budapest Hotel was awesome and very funny imo.

  • Jameson

    Couldn’t agree more about Grand Budapest Hotel. Thought it lacked the charm of some of his other films.

  • FYI, there is a such thing as a pit-huaha. It looks like this:

  • Gerry

    I’m surprised you guys were so muted re Ralph Fiennes in Grand Budapest, I thought he was great.

    I’m hoping he gets a few best actor nominations come the next awards season.

    A favourite black-centric movie of mine is a TV movie (HBO I think) The Tuskegee Airmen.

  • guest

    Robert de Niro has awesome beards in The Mission and Angel Heart.

  • woo

    I have no idea what Frank’s talking about with Grand Budapest being Anderson’s most dense work so far. The plot is exceedingly simple and the characters one-note. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it but I was hoping for a bit more of a winding murder mystery plot as the trailers suggested.

  • Loren

    Here are the rules to Bill Simmons article on who holds the “THE ACTION HERO BELT”. I like Rule 3 when he talks about how Steven Seagal can’t take belt from Arnold with Under Seige .I suggest you read the article.. if you love action movies you will highly enjoy the article. He also has youtube clips of the films throughout. Below are the rules and here is the link to the article

    http://grantland.com/features/the-action-hero-championship-belt/

    Rule No. 1: Over everything else, I need to believe our hero can kick everyone’s ass, in any conceivable situation, at any given time. And he needs to believe this, too.

    Imagine the scariest dude on the planet (say, Nikola Pekovic after being fed a 32-ounce Red Bull/cocaine/stanozolol cocktail) beating up an entire bar, and then eventually he comes after our beloved hero. If I am not 100 percent convinced that my dude is winning that fight — OR, if I find it far-fetched that he’s winning it as he’s winning it — then he can’t capture the belt. This rule disqualifies A-listers like Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, Paul Newman, Keanu Reeves, Robert Redford, George Clooney, Will Smith, Ben Affleck and Tom Cruise a second time, as well as everyone who ever played James Bond,1Ethan Hunt, Jason Bourne, Iron Man, Batman or any other manufactured studio hero.

    Rule No. 2: During our hero’s apex, I would have seen his action movie no matter what the plot was, and no matter how lukewarm the reviews were.

    A good analogy: You know in no-limit hold ’em when someone calls a bet without glancing at their cards? They’re effectively saying, “I’m so good at poker, and I have so many chips right now, I don’t even care what my cards are.” That’s the final stage for an action movie star. The fewer words you can use to rope fans into your next project, the better. For instance …

    “Liam Neeson, airplane.”

    Done in three words. If Liam Neeson is beating people up, I’m there. The fewer words, the better. Remember this rule when we’re tackling the Vin Diesel issue. (Yes, there’s a Vin Diesel issue.)

    Rule No. 3: The body of work from a particular run matters more than a single movie.

    You lose the belt only if you (a) stop producing quality work, or (b) get blown out of the water by someone else. For instance, you can’t take 1992’s belt from an idle Arnold Schwarzenegger just because that lovable asshole Steven Seagal made Under Siege. Arnold didn’t have to release anything after the historic Total Recall/Kindergarten Cop/Terminator 2 trifecta. He could have released a one-man movie called Arnold Puts on Sunscreen and grossed $100 million. And actually, that would have been a better idea than Last Action Hero.

    But that’s the whole point of the belt: If you’re The Guy, then you’re The Guy. You don’t stop being The Guy just because you didn’t make a movie for 15 months. Does the belt hinge on a largely unspoken, admittedly ambiguous collective attitude? Absolutely. That’s what makes this column so absurd. Let’s write it, anyway. Here’s how our Action Hero Championship Belt has changed hands since 1968.

  • Loren

    Hmm might give “3.14” a watch again.. really loved it when I first saw it. The scene of the drill comes to mind. There is an Aronofsky film I haven’t seen and that is “The Fountain”. A sci-fi film I’ve been holding out on seeing, think I’m going to give it a go this week.

  • Sam

    Could Frank’s disconnect to Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” be rooted in the fact that the main characters are female?

  • Kim C.

    I am already fearing next week’s podcast about yet another uninspired geeky fanboy-creamfest. Talk about movies without a soul..

  • Ji-a

    Vengeance is not one of the deadly sins. The last one Frank is talking about is “wrath”, which is way different.

  • puff the jerrys dungeon

    its nice to hear a strong canadian black man talking about movies. sean’s black right? also transexuals. jay?

  • LordAwesome

    I’m guessing Jay isn’t a fan of Ozu, based on his stance on Anderson.

  • Nick Poliskey

    I am still mystified the love of Wes Anderson. All 3 of you guys gave Budapest relatively high scores and yet I didn’t seem to hear any of you say something good about the movie. I don’t think you should be giving higher scores to movies for assuming that after multiple viewings you will like it more.

  • LOBOMOBILE

    I don’t think that this should even be something you type out.

  • darksiders

    Very surprised you guys didn’t like GBH too much. I just saw it and thought it was one of Anderson’s funniest. Comedic timing was great. Ray Feines was great. Felt his production design fit the story and setting better than most of his other movies.

  • James Quall

    I actually thought Noah was awful. The effects were laughable, especially the rock transformers. And the quick imagery of the serpent, the apple, and Cain all looked like clip art. That plus the bad dialogue made this feel like a glorified TV movie. Was definitely expecting more from Aronofsky.

  • Michael English

    Futura was not used in TGBH.
    Archer was the primary font.
    FAIL.