Film Junk Podcast Episode #489: Birdman and John Wick

Posted by on November 3rd, 2014   Filed under: Featured, Film Junk Podcast

podcast489

0:00 – Intro / Jay Goes Dumpster Diving
14:00 – Review: Birdman
41:40 – Review: John Wick
1:02:45 – Headlines: Marvel Unveils Phase Three Line-Up, Furious 7 Trailer
1:14:30 – Other Stuff We Watched: Dinosaur 13, Jodorowsky’s Dune, The Battery, The Babadook, Carrie, The Howling, Slither, The Faculty, Invaders from Mars, Planet of the Vampires, Constantine, 20,000 Days on Earth
1:59:50 – Junk Mail: Logging Embarrassing Films on Letterboxd, Neglected Horror Subgenres, Where to File Foreign Films in a Collection, Where Jay and Sean Go Off the Reservation, Is Just Mentioning That a Spoiler Exists In Itself a Spoiler?
2:19:48 – This Week on DVD and Blu-ray
2:23:28 – Outro

Film Junk Podcast Episode #489: Birdman and John Wick by Filmjunk on Mixcloud

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  • Alicia Stella

    So cool to hear about a film I worked on my favorite podcast! I co-edited The Battery and did the foley. Thanks for watching. The film was made for $6000, you’re right, but the ending in the car wasn’t necessarily because of the low budget. It was more intended to be like Jaws in a car, where they’re trapped in a small place surrounded by monsters. They even sing “Show Me the Way to Go Home” as homage to Jaws. I agree though, the middle of the film definitely holds some of the more enjoyable sequences. My favorite is the apple orchard montage.

  • ECONOMYpolitica

    Birdman! Birdman!

    Scott the Comicbook Writer
    http://www.reconditepictures.com

  • FDB

    Sean, I’m pretty sure Tusk is going to VOD in the next week or so, but that kind of info is frustratingly hard to find.

  • Sean

    I just saw it announced for DVD and Blu-ray on Dec. 30th. I have not seen anything official about VOD.

  • Lori Cerny

    For architectural horror, I must recommend “House” (1977) AKA “Hausu”. It is very strange, but has one of the creepiest endings I’ve ever seen.

    Oh, and it has a Criterion release.

  • Sam

    Speaking of documentaries where you don’t have to be a fan of the musician/band to enjoy, I would recommend Jay check out Mistaken for Strangers.

    It’s a documentary technically on the band The National, but it’s really a lot more about the director of the documentary who also happens to be the sloppier, clumsier, and less successful brother of the lead singer of The National. He’s a fascinating subject and seeing as Jay is a fan of American Movie, I could see him finding something to enjoy in this one.

    It’s also only 75 minutes long which could be a selling point.

  • devolutionary

    Awesome that you finally got to watch the Howling Sean! There is a slight tie-in to An American Werewolf in London as Rob Bottin took over the wolf special effects after Rick Baker left to work on John Landis’ film instead. There was another cool animated werewolf silhouette used near the end of the movie which was scrapped for continuity.

  • Phil

    RIP Prescribing Frank
    2014-2014

  • Sam

    It was fun while it lasted. Also doesn’t help that Frank got a job again.

    Congrats by the way Frankie!

  • devolutionary

    Let it be known that I think the Film Junk crew does a pretty amazing job withholding as many spoilers as possible. Due to human error and perception, sometime the cat is accidentally let out of the bag; but let’s be real, the film discussion would be bare and almost useless if you couldn’t mention any notable plot details or character outlines.

    I’ve personally always felt that if an entire movie is ruined by a spoiler, then it probably wasn’t a very good movie in the first place.

  • FDB

    One of my personal faves in that genre is Intruder from 1989. It takes place almost entirely in a grocery store at night, and has a lot of the early Sam Raimi crew before they turned to exclusively making garbage like The Man With The Screaming Brain.

  • Indianamcclain

    Really expected Jay to like John Wick. Cheel continues to be unpredictable.

  • Tim

    WHAT?!?
    This sucks…
    RIP Prescribing Frank

    RIP Rant Alarm
    RIP Versus
    RIP Jay Singing
    RIP Anal Cancer
    RIP Toilet Breaks
    RIP Acid Reflux

    etc. etc.
    Half of the stuff that made up the #250 Clip Show Episode is now gone forever…
    Let´s reminisce about the wonderful times of Jay calling random kids “a bunch of fucking cocksuckers” and silently weep..

  • Gmangaz

    Wow. Have to say I’m totally surprised by Jay’s and Frank’s reaction (more so Jay) at John Wick. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that maybe Jay might have gone into the movie under the wrong circumstances coz I’m pretty sure Jay’s missed a few plot points, which might have soured his overall enjoyment of the film.

    I’ll not attempt to debate your review but rather try to clear a few things. Some SPOILERS apply:

    1) The dog was a gift from John’s wife to help him with his grief.

    2) John goes down the stairs not to investigate noise, but because he thought the dog wanted to take a dump (this was shown earlier). Also, he’s half-awake, his wife just died so maybe he had a lot going on his mind not to suspect an ambush? Also not to mention he’s been retired for 5 years?

    3) John Wick going on a killing spree without an end game is EXACTLY the point? I gleaned that his character arc is centred around a “Ticking bomb” motif (I believe a poster depicts this as well, the tagline being “Don’t set him off”). John is a cold-blooded killer, removing the object of his mourning meant he lost his ability to grief which is why he latched on to the killing bcoz it’s the only thing he’s good at and bcoz that’s his only purpose to exist since he lost everything.

    4) SPOILERS: The reason for the female assassin’s fate was because she broke the rule of “No killing” at the hitmen hotel.

    5) I think the cliche and outdated-ness was part of the film’s 80’s action throwback appeal? I felt that the movie wasn’t pretending to be anything else other than a fun cheesy B-action movie, with some added world-building elements that seemed refreshing for what’s a rather standard revenge plotline.

    Anyways my only counterpoint to Jay’s review is that I actually think the movie made many attempts at humour and didn’t take itself too seriously at all. The way many characters react to John Wick, Michael Nyqvist’s performance, and the world-building stuff reflect that. Just my two cents :)

  • Craig

    Strangely enough, one of the UK’s most respected and well known critics Mark Kermode is a fan of the Nicholas Sparks adaptations.

  • pcch7

    ERMAGHEEEERD!!!! I just saw that Trump announced the next season of Celebrity Apprentice, starring SIG HANSEN and David Hasselhoff among others like Ian Zierig and Vivica A. Fox.

  • Kasper

    “Is that dumpster juice?” is the new “did you fart?”

  • Elliott

    X-Men suits in pt1 are exactly like Planet Of The Vampires

  • Elliott

    I loved it. Watched it at Jumpcut Cafe in Studio City, CA last year, then went and paid Jeremy for a direct download! Congrats on the Blu Ray release, and great work!

  • Alicia Stella

    Thanks! Glad you like it. The bluray has a 90-minute making of documentary on it that we spent a lot of time and effort on as well. Some reviewers have said it’s perfect for indie filmmakers to learn from our mistakes.

  • schizopolis

    Appropriate that Frank would like a sexis & racist like Nicholas Sparks.

    K.O.C. go fuck yo self! Lol

  • Sean

    Whoa, back up a minute there… the Toilet Breaks are still going strong!

    Prescribing Frank is not dead as far as I know. I think we just forgot about it.

  • Essie

    Thanks a lot for the show.

  • Tim

    Glad to hear that~~
    The Toilet Breaks are a CLASSIC!!
    Maybe it´s just that Greg was very vocal about announcing Jay´s constant piss-breaks/sneaking away/avoiding XYZ whereas Sean and Frank are exceptionally discreet and hush hush about it to avoid stirring his wrath.

  • pcch7

    I listened to an old episode a couple of weeks ago when you did the Filmjunk Defence Force for Johnny Mnemonic and I rewatched the movie and actually liked it a great deal =D

  • John Abides

    Their problem regarding the death of Adrianne Palicki was how the dudes stood in a cross pattern, which might have made it possible to shoot the person on the other side. I assume they were not stupid enough to stand directly behind and were instead slightly misaligned, but I guess since the movie didn’t explicitly show an overhead shot we can assume they are morons.

    Sorry, that took a turn there. I enjoyed the movie and am bummed Jay and Frank hated it. I will grant that there was too much buildup before we saw John Wick kick some ass, but the ass that was kicked was appropriately awesome and I forgave the buildup.

    As I think about articulating my disagreements more, I realize that we saw a different movie (I’m talking to Filmjunk here). But tell me where you have seen all that action before? Besides The Raid. Yeah, it’s good, but we can have more than one movie in a genre.

  • j-diggle

    If Frank saw Wild Wild West twice on opening day, does that mean he didn’t see South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut at all on opening day? For shame.

  • LordAwesome

    IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE is a much bigger influence on ALIEN and a much better film than the frankly dull PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES.

  • Sean

    Yeah I think I saw that mentioned somewhere else too. I’ll have to check it out at some point.

  • Lior

    Do you guys have any plans to review Whiplash?

  • Sean

    Yep, hoping for an expansion on this one soon but will definitely be making an effort to see it before the end of the year.

  • Lior

    Awesome.

  • Sean

    Awesome. But did you watch the Japanese extended cut? I still have yet to see that version myself.

  • pcch7

    No, I wasn’t aware such a thing existed. Gonna have to look for it =D

  • ftracy3

    Was beginning to wonder if you were going to make any reference to the Planet of the Vampires dialogue clips in the original Space/Film junk theme music..I had only seen POTV after I had begun listening to the archives about a year ago and instantly recognized the dialogue when I heard it in the film–so I assumed that Sean was the guy who had pulled it together as he seemed more like “the host” back then. Was pretty amused to see you both had almost completely forgotten it and Sean only knew there was something familiar about it at first.

  • Kenneth Serenyi

    “Mom Mentality” is just science: http://onion.com/10zVlsu