Ep. 789 - Blink Twice (GUEST: BJ Colangelo)
Added 2024-08-27 16:00:13 +0000 UTCDavid, Devindra, and Jeff take aim at the new John Woo film The Killer, assess the grandiosity of Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1, and go into battle with Ren Faire. Then, BJ Colangelo joins us for our review of Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut Blink Twice. Check out BJ’s podcast This Ends at Prom.
We're making video versions of our reviews! Be sure to follow us on the following platforms:
Weekly Plugs
David - Dave’s Patreon: The Real Surprise Guest Is The Friends We Made Along The Way
Devindra - Engadget Podcast on Pixel 9 reviews and Gamescom
Jeff - Bird Detectives
Shownotes (All timestamps are approximate only)
What we've been watching (~00:14:56)
David - The Killer (2024), Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1
Devindra - The Killer (2024)
Jeff - Ren Faire, The Killer (2024)
Featured Review (~00:58:53)
Blink Twice
SPOILERS (~01:14:35)
Support David's artistic endeavors at his Patreon and subscribe to his free newsletter Decoding Everything. Check out Jeff Cannata’s podcasts DLC and We Have Concerns. Listen to Devindra's podcast with Engadget on all things tech. You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993.
Credits:
Our theme song is by Tim McEwan from The Midnight. This episode was edited by Noah Ross who also created our weekly plugs and spoiler bumper music. Our Slashfilmcourt music comes from Simon Harris.
If you’d like advertise with us or sponsor us, please e-mail slashfilmcast@gmail.com.
Comments
I really don't buy brushing off the girlboss critique. This movie is completely uninterested in what it really means to reach that level of wealth and the consequences for everyone else. There is a relationship worth exploring between what that wealth requires and the Epstein Island of it all. But you can't look at that and keep the current ending.
Mark Harper
2024-09-15 11:21:04 +0000 UTCI just had a chance to watch Blink Twice and thus listened to this episode, and gotta say I also loved the movie, but had the smallest, dumbest nit to pick with it. The difference between venom and poison is that venom must be injected to have its effect, while poison can be ingested, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Now obviously no venom does what the snake venom in this movie does, and we don't see exactly what they're doing with the extracted venom before they drink it. But generally while being bitten by a venomous creature can harm you, drinking the venom will not, unless you have cuts in your mouth, esophagus or an ulcer in your stomach. This didn't affect my enjoyment of this movie one bit though.
Stranger2Reality
2024-09-10 10:17:43 +0000 UTCI was hoping someone was going to make a Geena Davis “The Long Kiss Goodnight” call back. Not gonna spoil it but the call back was right there!
Pete Ek
2024-09-03 06:50:35 +0000 UTCFor years now when Devindra starts his review I just skip forward 3-5 minutes to get back to the grown up chat. I had to re-listen to check who actually said this.
Mark P
2024-09-03 06:12:11 +0000 UTC"my name is Jeff" was right there for Cannata at the intro
Jim DiGiuseppe
2024-09-03 02:46:05 +0000 UTCIf you are genuinely curious to know why John Woo is highly regarded, Dave was on a nearly 3 hour long episode of the Screen Drafts podcast in 2021 with Dan Trachtenberg where they go over Woo's filmography and describe in detail what they like and don't like about most of his films, with plenty of disagreement between them. https://screendrafts.libsyn.com/john-woo-with-dan-trachtenberg-david-chen
NR
2024-08-29 14:42:50 +0000 UTCI bought the VHS of *The Making of* Jurassic Park - trained me up on my knowledge of Stan Winston, Phil Tippett, Michael Lantieri, etc. we only had 10 or 15 videos, and this was heavily in rotation!
Simon Columb
2024-08-29 10:36:30 +0000 UTCDoesn’t change the fact that she is a nepo baby!
Olivia Oliver
2024-08-28 20:17:28 +0000 UTCI agree, I just wish they'd stop cherry picking her for reviews of films she is most likely going to rave about. She even commented on that in this episode. Bring her in for a genre/sci-fi film or something! :)
Papool Chaudhari
2024-08-28 16:24:14 +0000 UTCI don't have a problem with trigger warnings, but here the trigger warning gives us two words, that, for a mystery/thriller, are spoiler. The whole time I was watching the movie and trying to figure out what is going on--as one does while watching a mystery/thriller--I had those two words seared into my head. Regardless of your thoughts on having a trigger warning, I absolutely do not appreciate a big spoiler mere seconds before the movie started. I am aware that this isn't a spoiler for the entire film, but it is still enough of a spoiler for a mystery/thriller movie to be problematic. I'm actually shocked Jeff didn't bring this up (And surprised the spoiler aspect of the trigger warning wasn't discussed at all), since he is so spoiler averse that he refuses to watch trailers. You'd think having a spoiler seconds before the feature started would have bothered him, especially for a mystery/thriller. I wouldn't be so bothered on this spoiler if it wasn't a mystery movie, where you are watching and trying to figure out the mystery.
Papool Chaudhari
2024-08-28 16:21:23 +0000 UTCMe too, I think she's hands down one of the best guests they have on, maybe even THE best guest.
Stranger2Reality
2024-08-28 15:09:12 +0000 UTCI love when you have BJ on the show. She is so smart and funny and speaks so well about film.
Michelle K
2024-08-28 14:59:26 +0000 UTCshoutout to Step Up 2 directed by the visionary Jon M. Chu
Casey Bishop
2024-08-28 14:30:28 +0000 UTCIt also reminds me of Barton Fink, in which celebrated playwright is brought to Hollywood to work on a run of the mill wrestling movie to give it “that Barton Fink feeling” but ultimately they don’t want anything genuine from him, just the superficial.
Cameron Stewart
2024-08-28 10:46:08 +0000 UTCI think people hold up Face/Off as his best American movie, and for me it’s goofy fun but it doesn’t hold a candle to his “real” work in HK. As I say I think that there is a crucial difference between the movies he writes himself and are his personal vision vs the ones for which he’s just a director-for-hire. Imagine if someone like Wes Anderson decided to do a run of mainstream, “commercial” movies written by generic Hollywood hacks, and put his visual stamp on them without much intention or meaning. That’s kind of how I feel about Woo. It is a shame that he seems to have decided to take Hollywood money and compromise what he can do. Those three early HK films I mentioned are wonderful (and Travolta or Van Damme are no replacement for Chow Yun Fat) He’s also made several Chinese films in recent years, which seem to have been positively received, although I haven’t seen them.
Cameron Stewart
2024-08-28 10:43:10 +0000 UTCDo Woo fans really consider Face/Off to be among his "worst work"? But even if what you say is true, we're talking about a filmmaker who hasn't made a good movie in what, almost 40 years or something? I dunno, maybe I'm just the right age to have been shaped by his American work before his HK stuff was known or available in America. If I'd been younger maybe it would be different. As it is though, I don't see myself setting out to keep watching stuff by someone who's work I don't enjoy. I just think that kinda stuff isn't for me.
Stranger2Reality
2024-08-28 08:00:43 +0000 UTCYou’re really judging him by his worst work. Woo’s early Hong Kong movies are terrific, and I agree with you that his American movies are not that great. It’s probably too late for you to give him another chance but A Better Tomorrow, Hard Boiled and The Killer are all fantastic, not one of the American movies comes close. I think being transplanted to the US where he had different crews, different cultural expectations, a different studio system, more interference, etc, led to movies that don’t really have the same cohesion of vision. They’re all fairly generic/dumb 90s action movie scripts that they were trying to “elevate” by putting a layer of Woo’s style overtop. Woo’s HK movies (which he also wrote) are very emotionally heightened, operatic and romantic and his ostentatious style is an expression of that. I think it only works when it’s built that way from the ground up, not when they’re trying to graft some of his stylistic flourishes onto a script that’s been passed around for a while. It’s maybe too late for you, after not enjoying so many of his American movies, to give his early work a chance, but I think you’d see where the hype came from.
Cameron Stewart
2024-08-28 07:48:35 +0000 UTCIn fairness, the trailers for The Crow made it look awful, and the fact that the studio didn't let critics screen it early was kind of a sign that it was going to be bad. In retrospect it's good they didn't review it as it had one of the smallest openings of any film this year, so I'm not sure how many subscribers even saw it.
Stranger2Reality
2024-08-28 07:45:13 +0000 UTCI'm not convinced John Woo has the kind of sense of humor to have intentionally made a bunch of "so bad they're good" movies. There was no difference between the movies you named and something like Windtalkers, IMO. I think he's a very earnest filmmaker, it's just his movies are not good except for being unintentionally funny. I'm not really a fan of movies that have nothing to offer beyond action anyway. I was when I was growing up and was an angsty adolescent, but now I expect a movie to have more going for it than lots of bullets and explosions. It was the same thing with Alien Romulus: I want characters I care about and an interesting story, not just set pieces and stunts. Those elements are additive if the movie has delivered on the characters and plot, but they're not enough to carry a film by themselves for me. To me that's the difference between some generic Chuck Norris movie and something like Predator. After seeing at least five movies from one filmmaker and finding them all to be bad, I don't feel compelled to keep digging in the hopes of eventually finding gold. People have different tastes, and Woo just isn't for me.
Stranger2Reality
2024-08-28 07:33:21 +0000 UTCFace/Off and especially MI:2 are not attempting to be serious at all. Most people agree there's a huge gap in quality between his HK and American works, so definitely don't write him off because you saw his "bad" films. There's a reason why so many people revere his early stuff.
Hahmstrung
2024-08-28 07:25:56 +0000 UTCSo many editing mistakes, horrible plotholes and details, dialogue, this version of the killer was so much worse
Prince Davis
2024-08-28 07:03:08 +0000 UTCFor the record DVDs are not HD, they are 480i (interlaced)
DarmineDoggyDoor
2024-08-28 00:15:09 +0000 UTCWhen you said you were debating between Blink Twice and The Killer remake, I thought you were making a joke about The Crow remake. Turns out, you weren't and I guess it wasn't on your radar at all for a review. (Odd of course because that was the other major theatrical release of the weekend, but I suppose not surprising given how films have been chosen the last couple of years for a main review. I wanted Blink Twice, don't get me wrong, just surprised The Crow wasn't even a consideration.)
Papool Chaudhari
2024-08-27 23:38:12 +0000 UTCI’m sorry, but opening up your review with “nepo baby nepo baby” is so lazy and completely dismisses her talent. She’s been acting for almost 20 years.
Garry L
2024-08-27 23:27:23 +0000 UTCLance Oppenheim, the director/producer of Ren Faire, has another solid doc called Some Kind of Heaven. It explores some eccentric characters living in Florida’s largest retirement community. Similar to Ren Faire, it’s beautifully shot and delves into a very strange aspect of American life. Highly recommend!
Mason Jones
2024-08-27 23:15:11 +0000 UTCA detail about the Blink Twice ending that I feel like I don’t see a lot of people mention is that Frida is seemingly on a campaign to take down all the men who visited the island, as shown by Kyle MacLachlan’s character being apprehended by security. She has King’s company and money but she also presumably has his contact list and proof of crimes, which she can use to get all of the visitors to the island arrested.
Cameron Stewart
2024-08-27 23:07:19 +0000 UTCThe LOTR extended edition behind the scenes vignettes are my happy place
Alexandra Patrikios
2024-08-27 22:00:02 +0000 UTCDangerous Days: the making of Blade Runner.
mepotts
2024-08-27 21:12:57 +0000 UTCI have to say, I've always been bewildered by the love for John Woo. My friends who are film nerds tell me I need to watch his Hong Kong films, but I've seen a bunch of his American movies, and they're all quite bad, so I've never been motivated to do a deep dive into what sure seems to be a poor filmmaker's oeuvre. My introduction to him was seeing Hard Target after renting the VHS from Blockbuster right when it was released, knowing nothing about who he was (this was basically pre-internet), and my friends and I just thought the movie was a joke, with the insane amount of slo-mo, and Van Damme punching out a snake and whatnot. Then I saw Broken Arrow in theaters, again without realizing it was the same director, and that movie was really bad, with Travolta at his most over the top worst. After that, I pieced together that it was the same director, and I've been out on him ever since. I went on to see Face/Off, Mi:2 and Windtalkers and found these all to be bad as well, if you look at them as earnest attempts at serious movies. They are enjoyable to laugh at for how absurd they get in parts (same with Hard Target and Broken Arrow), but these are not actual good movies. I know Woo is a big influence on guys like Michael Bay (who's movies are marginally more enjoyable, usually), and Woo was the first director to say "what if he was holding a gun in each hand", but I still don't get the hype. I guess if you're an action junkie you might like all the slow motion pyrotechnics, but he really has nothing else to offer, as everything else in his movies is laughably inept. He's always reminded me of what older porn movies used to be, where everyone is just there for the "action scenes" and all the in between stuff is hilariously awful. To each their own though.
Stranger2Reality
2024-08-27 20:20:08 +0000 UTC#JusticeForMI2
Hahmstrung
2024-08-27 18:18:26 +0000 UTCThe Killer: 20 minutes in I was asking myself if I would watch the remaining 1:45:00. I finished it but it’s not something I’d recommend. I do now want to see the original. Even without seeing it, I thought many stunt pieces were things I’d seen before.
David Jones
2024-08-27 16:43:37 +0000 UTCYou’re right about sanitized BTS stuff but watch what little they did for The Avengers. I don’t think ANY actor mentions Whedon. Noticeable in hindsight 😀
Mountain of Conflict
2024-08-27 16:23:28 +0000 UTCAlways a joy to have BJ on the pod, looking forward to this!
Linus
2024-08-27 16:18:43 +0000 UTCSummer movie wager episode is going to be hilarious 😂
Cardassian Vexillology
2024-08-27 16:04:15 +0000 UTC
