The Force Fed Sci-Fi Movie Podcast

This week Chris and guest host Dan break down the beloved video game franchise and TV series "The Last of Us". If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com.

This week, Sean, Chris, and Matt return with special guest Brian to continue their pilgrimage into Foreign Sci-Fi by breaking down the 1972 Soviet sci-fi film, "Solaris". This film is directed by the critically acclaimed, Andrei Tarkovsky, who's avant-garde filmmaking choices are debated between the podcast reviewers. Check us out! All thoughts and opinions expressed do not reflect the cast and crew of Solaris. If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com.

This week, Sean and Chris kick off "Foreign Sci-fi Month" starting with Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro's "The City of Lost Children". The episode also features Matt H and together the three amigos break down the steampunk, sci-fi-fantasy film the best they can. All thoughts and opinions expressed do not reflect the cast and crew of TCOLC. If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com.

This week Sean & Kyle finish off their review of the "Breaking Bad Franchise" with their breakdown of "Better Call Saul". The brothers discuss in length what they liked and disliked about the series, characters and overall thoughts on the franchise. All thoughts and opinions do not reflect those of the Better Call Saul cast and crew. If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Googe Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com.

This week Sean & Kyle continue their review of the "Breaking Bad Franchise" with their review of "El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie". All thoughts and opinions do not reflect those of the El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie cast and crew. If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Googe Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com.

This episode, Chris and Sean reunite to discuss Avatar 2, Blank Panther 2, and some of the movies they're looking forward to seeing in 2023. The duo also discusses the future of Forcefedscifi for the next year. If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Googe Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com.

This week Sean and Kyle kick off their Breaking Bad Franchise breakdown starting with "Breaking Bad". The brothers give a recap of their experiences while watching the Breaking Bad series and give it a rating. All thoughts and opinions expressed do not reflect the feelings of the individuals who made Breaking Bad. If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Googe Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com.

This week the Sci-Fi nerds return to take on 1987's classic "Predator" with special guest and superfan Phil Harms.......stick around..... All opinions expressed are solely Forcefedscifi’s and do not reflect the thoughts and opinions of the cast and crew of Predator. If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Googe Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com. Give us a like and subscribe to more content and as always, thank you, we will see you next time…

This week (recorded June 2022) Sean and Chris discuss Ezra Miller, their actions, and the future of The Flash and the DCU. All opinions expressed by FFSF are strictly their own and in no way are meant to be harmful or offensive to anyone. If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Googe Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com. Give us a like and subscribe to more content and as always, thank you, we will see you next time…

This week Sean checks in and rambles about the future of Forcefedscifi, his summer, movies, music, and sobriety. If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Googe Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com. Give us a like and subscribe to more content and as always, thank you, we will see you next time...

This week the gang takes on the movie Ready Player One with special guest Brian McLeod in one humorous and TJ Miller hating podcast episode. All opinions expressed are solely Forcefedscifi's and do not reflect the thoughts and opinions of the cast and crew of Ready Player One. If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Googe Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com. Give us a like and subscribe to more content and as always, thank you, we will see you next time...

This time, we’re taking a special look at the limited series Obi-Wan Kenobi and along the way we ask, is this peak Darth Vader, is Star Wars relying solely on nostalgia and what do we want from a second season? We are what you made us and this is Force Fed Sci-Fi..... All opinions expressed are solely Forcefedscifi's and do not reflect the thoughts and opinions of the cast and crew of Obi-Wan Kenobi. If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Googe Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com. Give us a like and subscribe to more content and as always, thank you, we will see you next time...

This time, we’re taking a look at the post 9/11 family drama War of the Worlds and along the way we ask, does Ray actually care about his children, are the aliens eating humans or just using them as fertilizer and should Morgan Freeman just narrate everything? Across the gulf of space, intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic regarded our podcast with envious eyes and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. This is Force Fed Sci-Fi..... All opinions expressed are solely Forcefedscifi's and do not reflect the thoughts and opinions of the cast and crew of War of the Worlds. If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Googe Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com. Give us a like and subscribe to more content and as always, thank you, we will see you next time...

This time, we’re taking a look at the broken family reconciliation classic, E.T. the Extraterrestrial and along the way we ask, did Spielberg intend for all of the Jesus allegories, how did this movie sink the video game industry and is E.T. really that scary? Podcast, phone home. This is Force Fed Sci-Fi...... All opinions expressed are solely Forcefedscifi's and do not reflect the thoughts and opinions of the cast and crew of ET. If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Googe Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com. Give us a like and subscribe to more content and as always, thank you, we will see you next time....

May the Forcefedscifi be with you! This episode Chris gives an update on Forcefedscifi, the media he has been consuming and the futureeeee. If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Googe Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com. Give us a like and subscribe to more content and as always thank you and we will see you next time

Chris and Sean spend this episode reflecting on the podcast, the personal and professional changes over the past 3 years, their favorite movies they've reviewed and what changes they expect for the future of the podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Googe Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com. Give us a like and subscribe to more content and as always thank you and we will see you next time

This time, we’re kicking off Spielberg Month with Close Encounters of the Third Kind and along the way we ask, was this meant to be so scary, is Spielberg preparing us for first contact and would you abandon your life to join aliens? TWA 517 do you want to report a podcast? This is Force Fed Sci-Fi...... All opinions expressed are by Force Fed Sci-Fi are strictly our own and do not reflect the thoughts and opinions of the cast and crew of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Googe Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com. Give us a like and subscribe to more content and as always thank you and we will see you next time.

Howard the Duck This time, we’re taking a look at the maligned yet….nope. Definitely not doing this for this movie. Run fast and far away as we’re in a bad mood after watching Howard the Duck and this is Force Fed Sci-Fi...... All opinions expressed are by Force Fed Sci-Fi are strictly our own and do not reflect the thoughts and opinions of the cast and crew of "Howard the Duck". If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Googe Podcasts, Podbean, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Forcefedscifi.com. Give us a like and subscribe to more content and as always thank you and we will see you next time.

This time, we’re taking a special look at the noir, ultra-dark, anti-hero crime film, "The Batman" and along the way we ask, is the world ready for an emo Batman, was the three-hour runtime really necessary and can we finally leave the DCEU behind and embrace a Bat-Verse? We’re a part of this too and this is Force Fed Sci-Fi..... All opinions expressed by Force Fed Sci-Fi are strictly their own and do not represent the thoughts and feelings of the cast and crew of "The Batman". If you enjoyed this episode, please check us out on our other streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Podbean, Google Podcasts, YouTube, facebook, Instagram, & twitter. Thank you for listening, please like, subscribe, and comment!

This time, we’re taking a look at the ultra-campy, space adventure Flash Gordon and along the way we ask why did Sam Jones walk off this movie, did Star Wars run so Flash Gordon could walk and what’s with all the 007 connections? Podcast….ahh-ahh! This is Force Fed Sci-Fi.... All opinions expressed are our own and do not reflect the thoughts of the cast & crew of "Flash Gordon". Please check us out on Spotify, ApplePodcasts, Googlepod, Insta, Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook. Feel free to check out our website and unique rating scale to get a better understanding of how we record and review our episodes. Thank You and ENJOY!! Here is the trailer to Flash Gordon, that throne room scene, and finally QUEEN singing Flash! Let us know what you think about it!

Weird Science (1985) This time, we’re taking a look at the pubescent wish fulfillment film, "Weird Science" and along the way we ask is Lisa just a witch, does John Hughes actually know how to write for women, and is this problematic or just a weird product of its time? So, what would you little podcasts like to do first? This is Force Fed Sci-Fi....... All opinions expressed our strictly our own and do not reflect the thoughts and opinions of the cast and crew of "Weird Science". Please follow, like, share, and subscribe. Send us an email at forcefedscifi@gmail.com if you want us to review one of your favorite movies or wish to send us a gift. Check us out on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Podbean, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter or anywhere else you get your podcasting. Finally, check out our website www.forcefedscifi.com for show notes, extra content and other episodes!

Dune 1984 This time, we’re kicking off our month of 80’s schlocky sci-fi with 1984’s Dune and along the way we ask, why does David Lynch want nothing to do with this movie, did this go unappreciated in its time and what’s with the homoeroticism? Fear is the podcast killer on this edition of Force Fed Sci-Fi........ All opinions expressed our strictly our own and do not reflect the thoughts and opinions of the cast and crew of David Lynch's "Dune". Please follow, like, share, and subscribe. Send us an email at forcefedscifi@gmail.com if you want us to review one of your favorite movies or wish to send us a gift. Check us out on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Podbean, YouTube, Tunein, Twitter, or Facebook.

This time, we’re taking a look at the post-apocalyptic, class war, climate change thriller Snowpiercer and along the way we ask, how has South Korean cinema changed Hollywood, exactly what box does this move fall into and would it be fun to live on a train? You suffer from the misplaced optimism of the podcast. This is Force Fed Sci-Fi.... All opinions expressed are our own and do not reflect anything from the cast and crew of this movie. If you'd like to learn more about us or check out more episodes click the links.

This week....Sean explains what happened to the audio from "Spiderman: No Way Home", updates on his favorite Chicago sports teams, his thoughts on the movie "Nightmare Alley", The Mandalorian, Octopath Traveler and South African House music. Here are some of the artists that Sean mentioned in the episode: "Mas Musiq"& "Aymos" the links are to their albums that Sean recommends you check out if you like house music. As always Like, Share and subscribe to more of our content on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook!

This week Forcefedscifi finishes up their Matrix suite with 2021's "Matrix Resurrections". Along the way we ask the all important questions such as: is this film really necessary, could Lana Wachowski get any more meta, and where the heck is Laurence Fishburne? We still know kung fu.....this is Forcefedscifi. Please share, like, subscribe, comment, and check out more episodes on our page! Let us know what movie or show you'd like us to review next!

The Matrix Revolutions On this episode, we explore why six months in between film premieres can lead to sudden fatigue for audiences, how a bloated cast leads to disinterest, why the action feels disjointed and anticlimactic and what happened to these actors after the trilogy wrapped? Tune in to the full episode for our rating and our choices of Lens Flares, Red Shirts and Toxic Fandom and check out our next episode as we review the new release, The Matrix Resurrections.

The Matrix Reloaded On this episode, producer Jeremy returns and we explore the massive marketing campaign leading up to Reloaded’s release, how MTV turned this film into parody fodder, why the CGI pioneered the look of modern blockbusters and Jada Pinkett Smith managed to redeem Will’s blunder at passing on the original film. Listen to our full episode for our choices of Lens Flares, Red Shirts and Toxic Fandom as well as our rating and tune in next time as we continue our deep dive into the Matrix series as we review The Matrix Revolutions.

This week Chris and Sean review some of their favorite Christmas movies, Chevy Chase, and whether Kvein McCallister would have been put in jail for murder.

Alien: Resurrection On this episode, we’ll examine Joss Whedon’s potential problems with women, why so many filmmakers have disowned this franchise, what it took for Sigourney Weaver to reprise her role and is genetic memory actually possible? Listen to the full episode for our breakdown as well as our choices of Lens Flares, Red Shirts, This Week in Toxic Fandom and the return of Who’s Not Doing Their Job. Tune in next time as we explore how deep the rabbit hole really goes as we resume our look into the Matrix series and the much hyped sequel, The Matrix Reloaded

This week we wrap up Sean and Kyle's conversation with PART 4. The brothers discuss the movie "Eternals" which includes their thoughts on the characters, the story, and what changes they would have made. Eternals is directed by Chloé Zhao and stars: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Harish Patel, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, and Angelina Jolie.

This week Chris and Sean continued their quest to conquer the Alien franchise with David Fincher's "Alien 3", starring: Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Lance Henriksen & Pete Postlethwaite. Comment, like, share and subscribe to more of our content and to our social media pages! Also check out our own unqiue rating scale as well as our co-hosts and producer!

For part 3 Sean and Kyle discussing movies they decided to recount their thoughts about their viewing experience of Denis Villeneuve's "Dune". Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, & Javier Bardem. Give us a like, comment and subscribe. Tell us what movie you'd like us to review next! Also, check out our unique rating scale!

This week Chris and Sean break down James Cameron's "Aliens" the beloved sequel that just might be better than the original film. Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Carrie Hennand, Bill Paxon, and Al Matthews.

This week Chris invites Jose to breakdown the newly released "Ghostbusters: Afterlife". Directed by Jason Reitman and starring: Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, and Paul Rudd.

For this part 2 episode of Sean and Kyle's conversation, they discuss Marvel, Disney, Buzz Lightyear, and Black Widow.

This week we dove into Ridley Scott‘s acclaimed space horror classic ”Alien”, starring: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John HurtIan Holm, and Yaphet Kotto. Please comment, like, share, and subscribe! Let us know what you enjoyed about the film and our review and as always check out our social media platforms.

This week Sean and his brother Kyle recap the Star Wars sequels and discuss their legacy.

Sean recaps his time away from the podcast, James Bond, Da Bulls & and how he hates Bears fans.

This week we dive into the flaming pile of trash of a film, Roger Christian‘s 2000 Battlefield Earth starring: John Travolta, Barry Pepper, Forest Whitaker, Kim Coates, and Sabine Karsenti. Along the way we ask, just how much Scientology lore is present here, why did John Travolta believe in this project so much, and dare we say, is there potential for a remake? Let's dive in... On this episode, we examine how John Travolta's devotion to Scientology doomed this movie from the start, how an all knowing alien is more boring than compelling, and why this film is not only bad, but a prime example of bad filmmaking. Listen to the full episode for Sean and Chris' choices of Lens Flares, Red Shirts as well as the latest entry of This Week in Toxic Fandom and their not so surprising rating. Always remember to listen and subscribe to our content on Facebook, Instagram, Apple Podcasts and Spotify! Please write in to tell us which movie we should add to the list! Check out our review scale, like subscribe, comment, and review our posts!

This week Chris checks in while Sean is away, he recaps his recent movie going adventures, reviews Chicago sports teams, and talks of his time away on vacation.

This time, we’re concluding our look into the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy and War for the Planet of the Apes and along the way we ask, is this a war film or a sci-fi film, is this more like Heart of Darkness or Bridge on the River Kwai and what’s the future of this franchise? Let’s dive in… On this episode, we examine how charismatic and devious Woody Harrelson’s character is, how Caesar is betraying the central tenets of his existence, how a sci-fi film manages to also be a war film, how Caesar’s legacy can live on after his community finds peace, how we can avoid the world depicted in these films and why this trilogy managed to be overlooked year after year. Listen to the full episode for Sean and Chris’ choices of Lens Flares, Red Shirts as well as a new entry for This Week in Toxic Fandom and our rating. Always remember to like and subscribe to our content on Facebook, Instagram, Apple Podcasts and Spotify! Also, tell your friends about us and write in to tell us which movie we should add to the list!

This time, we’re continuing our look at the reboot of the Planet of the Apes franchise and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and along the way we ask, what are the parallels between the Simian Flu and COVID-19, who is the real villain of the movie and is this a realistic depiction of a societal collapse? Let’s dive in Cast & Crew Directed by Matt Reeves: After Rupert Wyatt abandoned the chance to direct this film, Matt Reeves was hired on after directing Cloverfield and Let Me In. He had initially worked in television after developing the hit series Felicity. Starring Jason Clarke as Malcolm: Clarke has developed an everyman type of quality and had gained recognition after appearing in the critically acclaimed war film Zero Dark Thirty and has since appeared in The Great Gatsby, White House Down, Everest, Terminator Genisys and Mudbound Andy Serkis as Caesar: Serkis was the first actor to sign on for the sequel after meeting with Matt Reeves and had become a coach for the other actors who were unfamiliar with the performance capture technology. Toby Kebbell as Koba: Kebbell has become a well-rounded actor in recent years appearing in films like War Horse, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Warcraft and Kong: Skull Island and even provided the motion capture performance as Kong for that film. Gary Oldman as Dreyfus: While he had not yet won an Oscar, Oldman was still widely recognized as a quality actor and had just wrapped up his run as Commissioner James Gordon in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy Keri Russell as Ellie: Russell had risen to fame after starring on Matt Reeves’ television show Felicity and had even won a Golden Globe for her performance on the show. She has since transitioned successfully to films after appearing in We Were Soldiers, Mission Impossible 3, August Rush and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Also Starring: Judy Greer as Cornelia Kodi-Smit McPhee as Alexander Kirk Acevedo as Carver James Franco also reprises his role as Will Rodman in an uncredited cameo COVID-19 & the Simian Flu Throughout the course of Dawn, the pandemic that wiped out humanity is routinely referred to as the “Simian Flu” much to exasperation of characters like Malcolm and Ellie who had apparently worked at the CDC during the outbreak and had firsthand knowledge of the origins of the virus. There’s a brief prologue at the opening of the film that tracks the path of the virus of how it devastated humanity and left the remaining survivors in tatters. The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t quite reached the same levels of destruction as the “Simian Flu” did in this film, there are some obvious parallels to draw from that deduction. There were several degrading nicknames that were conceived during the summer of 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that directly influenced a rise in hate crimes directed toward Asian Americans. The nicknames come from a place of misunderstanding and fear and it’s a mood that permeates Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Who is the Real Villain? Sean and Chris had a healthy debate as to who the actual villain of the film really is. While the low hanging fruit would be Koba as he attempts to assassinate Caesar and kill the humans in San Francisco, an argument could be made for either Carver or Dreyfus as villains. Without Carver, the events of the film don’t really kick off as he’s the one who shoots Ash at the beginning of the film and brings Malcolm’s group into contact with Caesar. Carver then escalates an already tense situation when he pulls a weapon on Caesar’s infant son even after Malcolm had promised his group wouldn’t carry weapons. Carver does eventually get killed by Koba but as Sean pointed, Carver didn’t exactly have to be killed in order for Koba to carry out his insurrection. While Dreyfus is left out of the majority of the film, he does work his group into a frenzy and manages to become a villain with his final act of attempt...

This time, we’re taking a look at the return of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Black Widow and along the way we ask, why is Scarlett Johansson just now getting a solo film, is it possible to emotionally invest in a dead character and how does this movie set up Phase 4? Let’s dive in! PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE NOTES MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR BLACK WIDOW Cast & Crew Directed by Cate Shortland: While more well-known in Australian cinema, Shortland was personally selected by Johansson after viewing her film Lore. Shortland was also chosen from a list of all female directors. Another director on that list, Chloe Zhao, would eventually be chosen to direct Eternals Starring Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow: Plans for a Black Widow film were originally conceived in 2004 but the film labored in developmental hell until the MCU introduced their version of the character in 2010’s Iron Man 2 and as the character gained more and more popularity, plans were entertained to produce a solo film focused on the character that would be incorporated into the MCU. While the plans didn’t initially take off in 2014, 2015 or 2016, Kevin Feige announced in 2018 that a film would be produced and released in 2020 Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova/Black Widow: Pugh was cast in April 2019 following her performance in the wrestling film Fighting With My Family and began training immediately to star alongside Johansson David Harbour as Alexi Shostakov/Red Guardian: Harbour rose to prominence following his performance as Sheriff Jim Hopper in the Netflix series Stranger Things and was cast as the Soviet Union’s super solider answer to Captain America Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff/Black Widow: While Weisz hasn’t gravitated towards many blockbusters, she welcomed the chance to play a seasoned spy and an affectionate mother figure towards Natasha and Yelena’s characters Also Starring: Ray Winstone as Dreykov Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster William Hurt as General Thaddeus Ross O-T Fagbenle as Rick Mason Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine The Persistent Influence of Other Films As Sean and Chris noted during the episode, Black Widow contains an exhaustive list of other influences from past espionage films that can be exhausting to list out. The chase through Budapest contains many callbacks to films like GoldenEye, Mission Impossible: Fallout and the fight scenes are reminiscent of anything from the Jason Bourne series or from the Daniel Craig James Bond films. There is also a brief scene where Natasha is even watching the 007 film Moonraker as she’s initially in hiding (listen to our previous episode of Moonraker here). Moonraker and the James Bond films seem to be the primary influence on the look and feel of Black Widow. The villain lives in a floating palace as he plans to infect the world with a deadly virus and the climax takes place as the heroine is falling from the wreckage without a parachute. Perhaps, the filmmakers should have taken greater care to create some original sequences as opposed to borrowing from other films. Also, a fun fact that might have added to why these action scenes felt so bland or recycled. Apparently, Marvel special effects artists create action scenes before the scripts are even finished being written. Perhaps, that is why so much of the action in their films feels forced, bland, or nonorganic. Even if the actors wanted to add an element of improvisation it would be impossible due to the previsualized scenes. The Red Guardian While our hosts agreed that the other characters were welcome additions to the film, they concluded that the Red Guardian is worthy of continuing his story within the MCU. Sean and Chris agreed that the character has a rich history that could be explored. Alexi seems to embellish his time as the Red Guardian during prison when he mentions that he fought and had even punched Captain Ameri...

This week Chris and Sean got together to talk about the Cubs, Bulls, podcast, and new movies that are coming out.

This time, we’re taking a look at the classic reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes and along the way we ask, how has Andy Serkis never won an Oscar, is this movie a really long vacation ad for California and just how plausible is a cure of Alzheimer’s? Let’s dive in… Cast & Crew Directed by Rupert Wyatt: His first film, The Escapist, was the darling of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and afforded him the opportunity to direct Rise of the Planet of the Apes Starring Andy Serkis as Caesar: Serkis has managed to carve out a career as an actor, producer and director. Following his motion capture performance in Peter Jackson’s King Kong, Serkis was on the top of the list to give life to the main character of Caesar. James Franco as Will Rodman: Franco has had an interesting career to say the least. After rising to prominence on the television show Freaks & Geeks and later in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, Franco has also appeared on soap operas, stage and has tried directing several times. At this point in 2011, he was just coming off an Oscar nominated performance in 127 Hours. Tobey Maguire was actually the first choice to play Will Rodman. Freida Pinto as Caroline: This was one of four films Pinto appeared in during 2011 and had risen to international fame following her starring role in the Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire Also Starring: John Lithgow as Charles Rodman Brian Cox as John Landon Tom Felton as Dodge Landon David Oyelowo as Steven Jacobs From Tim Burton to Rupert Wyatt Believe it or not, this was not the first time 20th Century Fox attempted to reboot the Planet of the Apes franchise. Tim Burton had directed a remake of the original 1968 film that was released in 2001 and had starred Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter with Charlton Heston making a surprise cameo. The film was a critical disappointment as it currently holds a 44% on Rotten Tomatoes but managed to gross over $350 million. The journey to get the remake off the ground had taken close to 20 years and following the financial success of the remake, plans for a sequel were drawn but were cancelled with Tim Burton even going so far as to stating he’d “rather jump out a window” than return to direct a follow up. Fast forward to 2006 when screenwriting team Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver began developing a script involving chimpanzees and genetic testing. That script would eventually become Rise of the Planet of the Apes and kick off a reboot franchise as they were quickly becoming a trend in Hollywood starting with films like Batman Begins and Casino Royale. Jaffa and Silver had the daunting task of rebooting an iconic franchise but decided to go back further and explore the genesis of a world dominated by intelligent apes. They worked backwards from the mythology mentioned in the film including the first ape named Caesar and that the first uttered was “no”. Andy Serkis and the Art of Performance Capture Andy Serkis has widely been recognized as a pioneer of performance capture following his performance as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings film series and as Kong in Peter Jackson’s King Kong. While this recognition hasn’t translated to awards as the Academy doesn’t recognize performances like those, he has been cited for not only his performances but also his contributions to the technology required of performance capture and his work as he coached his fellow performers in his films. While performance capture is used sporadically in Hollywood, it has become the norm for actors in video games with games like The Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption II, L.A. Noire, God of War (2018) and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice being recognized as prime examples of utilizing performance capture for maximum effect. Hopefully one day, the Academy or other major awards will begin to recognize the power and work that can come from these type of performances. Who’s the Better Villain?

https://youtu.be/BpdDN9d9Jio This time, we’re taking a look at the highly anticipated sequel, A Quiet Place Part II, and along the way we ask, did Emmett and Regan rip off The Last of Us, how did Marcus become so selfish and what is next for the Abbott family? Let’s dive in… Please be advised that these notes will contain spoilers for A Quiet Place Part II. If you wish for your experience to be spoiler free, please pause here, check out the film and return! Cast & Crew Written, produced and directed by John Krasinski: The actor/director returns to direct the sequel of his 2018 directorial debut and also reprises his character of Lee during the film’s prologue Starring Emily Blunt as Evelyn Abbott Millicent Simmonds as Regan Abbott Noah Jupe as Marcus Abbott In addition, several actors were cast to fill new roles in the series: Cillian Murphy as Emmett: Murphy has become quite a frequent contributor to the Force Fed Sci-Fi podcast after appearing in our first episode Inception as well as Sunshine. Hosts Sean and Chris agreed that Murphy’s portrayal was among the best in the film and cemented his status as one of Hollywood’s most reliable actors. Djimon Hounsou as the Man on the Island: While his character doesn’t officially have a name, his scenes with Murphy are rather poignant as he’s able to provide some context as to the early days of the invasion and the trauma he’s experienced. Also Appearing: Scoot McNairy as Marina Man Okieriete Onaodowan as Ronnie Marco Beltrami also returns to compose the score as well as the new additions to the crew: Cinematography by Polly Morgan who had previously worked on the film Lucy as well as the television series Legion Editing by Michael P. Shawver who had worked on Creed, Black Panther and Fruitvale Station The Journey to Make A Quiet Place Part II Following the unexpected success of the first film in the series, Paramount immediately greenlit a sequel while Krasinski originally viewed the film as a one off without the need for a sequel. The original writers, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, did not return to the sequel and sought to do other projects. Krasinski himself was hesitant to return but was offered both to write and direct the sequel after the studio enjoyed his pitch. While the budget for the first film was a meager $20 million, a sizeable commitment was made to the sequel as the budget was increased to $61 million which allowed for the production to expand beyond the scope of the farm and woods setting in the original film. A giant soundstage was constructed for the film as well as on location shooting in western New York State. What is the Theme? As Sean and Chris remarked in their episode on A Quiet Place, they were amazed with how quickly the film’s theme became politicized across both aisles of the political spectrum and that doesn’t seem to be the case with its sequel. Building upon the themes of family from the first film, A Quiet Place Part II seems to focus on the idea of loss this time around. Every character in the film has lost something profound and Emmett in particular personifies this theme. After first meeting his character after he has seemingly agreed to shelter the Abbott family, we find out that his wife and young sons have died. Whether they died due to illness or were killed by the creatures is left to speculation but this has caused him to retreat within himself and initially wants to avoid searching for Regan when she goes missing until Evelyn appeals to his fatherly duties in finding her. While loss is prevalent throughout the film and this section could be filled with a breakdown with each character’s loss, A Quiet Place Part II explores what it means to be able to move beyond the loss and how we evolve past our grief. Loss is a universal human experience as everyone has felt the loss of a loved one either unexpectedly or over time or even the loss of a job,

This week Sean rambles about sports, the WWE, movies, life, and a vegan diet. Check out more content at our homepage and episodes page.

 This time, we’re taking a look at the spectacular spoof Mars Attacks! And along the way we ask what do the Martians have against birds, are humans supposed to be this excited for a first contact scenario and how did trading cards lead to big screen film? Let’s dive in… Cast & Crew Directed by Tim Burton: At this in point in the mid 90’s, Burton was at the height of his power and recognition. He had established himself with his unique style and dark yet comedic films with success like Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood. With Buton’s name attached to direct Mars Attacks all that was needed was an all-star cast.Starring Jack Nicholson as President James Dale & Art Land Glenn Close as Marsha Dale Annette Benning as Barbara Land Danny DeVito as Rude Gambler Jim Brown as Byron Williams Pam Grier as Louise Williams Martin Short as Jerry Ross Pierce Brosnan as Donald Kessler Sarah Jessica Parker as Nathalie Lake Michael J. Fox as Jason Stone Rod Steiger as General Decker Lukas Haas as Richie Norris Natalie Portman as Taffy Dale Tom Jones as Tom Jones Also Starring Joe Don Baker as Glenn Norris Jack Black as Billy-Glenn Norris Christina Applegate Sylvia Sidney as Grandma Norris Paul Winfield as General Casey From Topps to the Big Screen Mars Attacks did not begin life on the silver screen. The origins can be traced back to 1962 and a series of trading cards simply known as Mars Attacks! The cards were hugely popular in a Cold War America but the cards displayed scenes that were graphic and horrifying for the time. Due to complaints received, several of the cards had to be repainted but were ultimately pulled from production and distribution after a District Attorney from Connecticut began making inquiries into Topps and the cards. While the cards have been reprinted several times including several reboots, the original cards have now become collector’s items with certain cards fetching over $3,000 at auctions. In the early 90’s, screenwriter Jonathan Gems began work on a script and it was eventually greenlit by Warner Brothers. The original pitch for Burton to direct involved another movie which would’ve been titled Dinosaurs Attack but given how Jurassic Park had released in 1993, trying to make another dinosaur blockbuster would’ve sunk a movie studio at the time. With Burton on board to direct, he had to fill out his crew with his normal hires but the one snag was Danny Elfman. While working together on A Nightmare Before Christmas, a rift had formed between Burton and composer Danny Elfman who had previously worked together on all of Burton’s films and created a signature feel similar to how Steven Spielberg and John Williams have created their signature. The exact details of the rift aren’t known and probably won’t be to the general public but the two were able to work things out and Elfman managed to turn in one of his most iconic scores. How B Movies Influenced Mars Attacks! Tim Burton has not disputed that his influences, not just for Mars Attacks, but all of his films in general came from the science fiction films of the 1950’s including Plan 9 from Outer Space, The War of the Worlds, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Target Earth and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. There are also influences from the disaster films of the 1970’s like Earthquake, The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure that can be felt here in Mars Attacks. One of the question Sean and Chris ponder during the episode is trying to discern whether Mars Attacks belongs in the category of satire or parody. While satire is meant to subvert, parody is meant to make fun of but not to insult a specific genre or film trope. While our hosts disagreed on what the film actually is, it was all done for the sake of art as art is meant to subjective and no one is meant to draw the same meaning from the film.

This week Sean checks in and talks about upcoming movies, the movies he saw, sports news, and his personal life.

This time, we’re taking a look at the giant monster throwback film Eight Legged Freaks and along the way we’ll ask, why was there a time where David Arquette was a leading man in Hollywood, why don’t more citizens have guns in rural Arizona, is this movie nightmare fuel or just plain parody and how can improvising lead to a pretty decent movie title? Let’s dive in…. Cast & Crew Directed by Ellory Elkayem: The New Zealand born director was chosen by the producers to adapt a full-length version of a short film he had directed titled Larger than Life which centered around a giant man eating spider. He has since directed several direct-to-video films including a sequel to the comedy Without a Paddle. Starring David Arquette as Chris McCormick: Arquette had developed a reputation for playing goofy comedic characters following appearances on Friends as well as the character Dewey in the Scream Kari Wuhrer as Samantha Parker: Wuhrer’s big break came on the MTV show Remote Control and had appeared in films like Thinner and Anaconda Scarlett Johansson as Ashley Parker: While she’s now known as one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood, Johansson had humble beginnings but would later break through the following year with performances in Lost in Translation and The Girl with the Pearl Earring Also Starring: Scott Terra as Mike Parker Doug E. Doug as Harlan Griffith Rick Overton as Pete Willis Leon Rippy as Wade Jay Arlen Jones as Leon Eileen Ryan as Gladys Riley Smith as Randy Matt Czuchry as Bret A Brief History of Giant Monster Films Beginning with the Godzilla films, the popularity of giant monster (usually giant insect) films exploded in the United States. The Godzilla films were originally created as a warning for the unknown effects of radiation following the numerous atomic tests conducted in the Pacific during the late 1940’s and 1950’s. There were also concerns as the United States and the Soviet Union entered the Cold War and nuclear destruction was at the forefront of the world’s population. This international strife made a rich ground for Hollywood to mine as films like The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Them, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Attack of the Crab Monsters and The Blob all become drive thru cinema fodder for the decade of the 1950’s. These films are basic to say the least. Similar to how studio’s would make westerns in the 30’s and 40’s, the plots of these films usually involved some sort of radiation or chemical leak that affects local wildlife and transforms it into a giant monster that wreaks havoc on a small town, kills some of the local populace until the military arrives to kill the creature or some smart scientist who happens to be nearby finds a way to destroy the creature or the film would substitute giant local wildlife for a giant alien and the rest of the plot would remain the same. Obviously, this formula became dated and soon after the 50’s were over, these films quickly fell out of the style and television was quickly becoming the new desired media in Hollywood. The giant monster or kaiju genre has experienced a resurgence in recent years following films like Pacific Rim (which we have recently covered on Force Fed Sci-Fi) as well as Godzilla and its subsequent sequels such as Godzilla: King of the Monsters (which we covered in 2019) and Godzilla vs Kong (which will be covered in a future Bite Sized episode). It’s unclear what the genre will be like in the future but it is exciting to see great films being released with such a reverence for the genre. David Arquette as a Leading Man? While hard to believe now, David Arquette was a prolific actor in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Besides appearing in the films previo usly mentioned, he had also starred in Airheads, Never Been Kissed, 3000 Miles to Graceland and The Grey Zone but as Sean and Chris note during the episode, it’s hard to buy into him as a leading man that’s meant to...

This week Chris Checks in on the podcast, he talks about Michael Collins passing, May the fourth be with you, some future films in the Marvel universe, DA BEARS, and podcast news with the upcoming film ELF and Mars Attacks! As always subscribe, like, and post about us on your social media! We are on a plethora of streaming platforms, and would love for you to comment on our videos. Thank you and enjoy the minipod.

This time, we’re taking a bite sized look at the Monster Verse’s latest offering in Godzilla vs Kong and along the way we ask what was the point of Mecha Godzilla, why is Hollow Earth now so important to the plot and where does the Monster Verse go from here? Let’s dive in…. Cast & Crew • Directed by Adam Wingard: He had previously horror films such as You’re Next, Blair Witch and the Netflix adaptation of Death Note. He was announced as the director of this film in 2017 prior to the release of Godzila: King of the Monsters. While the director of that film, Michael Dougherty, did not direct this film, he did help to develop the story and even receives a credit for his work. • Starring Alexander Skarsgard as Dr. Nathan Lind: The eldest son of legendary actor Stellan Skarsgard, Alexander has managed to find himself in compelling yet entertaining films for the past decade beginning with Battleship and The Legend of Tarzan as well as shows like True Blood and The Stand o Rebecca Hall as Dr. Ilene Andrews: She rose to prominence following appearances in films like The Prestige, The Town and Iron Man 3 and really helps to round out the cast o Brian Tyree Henry as Bernie Hayes: Henry is approaching superstar status as he has appeared in films like Child’s Play, Widows, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Joker. He is set to star in the MCU’s latest ensemble film The Eternals as he’s slated to portray the first gay superhero in that film series • Also Starring: o Shun Oguri as Ren Serizawa o Eiza Gonzalez as Maia Simmons o Julian Dennison as Josh Valentine o Lance Reddick as Guillerman (Most of his scenes ultimately ended up on the cutting room floor) o Demian Bichir as Walter Simmons • Reprising their roles from King of the Monsters o Kyle Chandler as Dr. Mark Russell o Millie Bobby Brown as Madison Russell o Zhang Ziyi was also set to reprise her role but her role was cut out of the film during editing The Creation of the Monster Verse It seems that creating film universes is the newest trend and while it’s not advised to come at the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Monster Verse has done a good job of holding their own in terms of the critical reception and box office returns. The Monster Verse wasn’t originally envisioned to become the franchise it eventually became, the reboot of Godzilla directed by Gareth Edwards in 2014 was released to major box office numbers as well as some of the most positive reception for a film that year. During that same year, Legendary Pictures had announced they had acquired the rights to the Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah characters as well as the film rights to King Kong. Following the success of Godzilla and the acquisitions of its adversaries, it seemed inevitable that we would eventually see the two Titans clash on screen. Kong did receive a sort of reboot for that franchise in 2017 as Kong: Skull Island was released to similar fanfare that accompanied Godzilla. Godzilla vs Kong was originally announced in October 2015 for a 2020 release which gave Legendary Pictures plenty of time to build their universe with the only other release being Godzilla: King of the Monsters during that time. Legendary also released Pacific Rim: Uprising but this film is not considered to be part of the Monster Verse. In addition to these films, an anime series was announced in January 2021 that would be set on Skull Island and tell stories of shipwrecked characters during their time on the island. The Existence of Hollow Earth While briefly mentioned during previous films in the Monster Verse, Hollow Earth plays a much more prominent role in Godzilla vs Kong as we see that it’s how Godzilla was able to navigate the globe quickly and explain the odd climate and creatures that live on Skull Island. The idea of Hollow Earth comes from the year 1692 as Edmond Halley theorized that the Earth is entirely hollow or contains a large space and if the name Halley sounds familiar,

This weekly check-in features Sean rambling about future episodes, Mortal Kombat, the Oscars and octopuses. What do you think about these topics? Email or comment on our posts!

Zack Snyder’s Justice League This time, we’re taking a special look at Zach Snyder’s Justice League and along the way we ask, could Ben Affleck have been the best onscreen Batman, exactly how much of the film is in slow motion and is there a future for the DC Extended Universe? Let’s dive in… Cast & Crew Directed by Zack Snyder: After previously directed Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Snyder took on the humongous task of putting his touch on the DC Extended Universe by directing Justice League. However, during production, Snyder’s daughter, Autumn, committed suicide and Snyder along with his wife and producer, Deborah, left the film and Joss Whedon was hired to take over the director duties. Whedon would ultimately wind up rewriting the majority of the film and reshooting close to 80% of the material Snyder had previously shot for the film. The cast from the Whedon Cut of Justice League remained unchanged but here’s a quick rundown: Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry/Aquaman Ezra Miller as Barry Allen/The Flash Ray Fisher as Victor Stone/Cyborg Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman Ciaran Hinds as Steppenwolf Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth J.K. Simmons as Commission Jim Gordon Joe Morton as Dr. Silas Stone There are also some newer additions in keeping with the continuity of the previous films: Willem Dafoe as Vulko Jared Leto as The Joker Harry Lennix as Calvin Swanwick/The Martian Manhunter Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor Joe Mangianello as Slade Wilson/Deathstroke These two actors had previously appeared in the original Justice League but their scene was completely reworked for the new edition Aftermath of the Justice League Following the release of Justice League in 2017; the film became a massive critical and commercial flop due to Whedon’s rewrites, reshoots and bloated budget of nearly 300 million. Estimates vary on the budget but Warner Brothers had projected that the film had to make over $675 million for the film to become profitable. However, due in part to the critical reception and the lack of major marketing (40% on Rotten Tomatoes and 45% on Metacritic), Justice League only managed to gross $658 million and ultimately cost Warner Brothers $60 million. Due to Justice League flopping, it put the future of the DC Extended Universe in jeopardy even with the success of films like Wonder Woman, Shazam, Aquaman and Joker bolstering the concept of the shared universe of DC heroes. Even actors in the film expressed disappointment such as Ciaran Hinds who publicly decried his character’s depiction in the film noting it was drastically different from what was originally imagined. Other actors like Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa also expressed their disappointment in Whedon’s decisions in his new cut. Almost immediately following the bomb of Justice League, a fan movement was born on social media and could summed up with a simple hashtag, #ReleasetheSnyderCut and took off from there. It can’t be stated enough just how the original Justice League threw off the trajectory of the entire series with directors Patty Jenkins and James Wan basing their films off of what Zack Snyder was working on with his cut of the film. Deborah Snyder, who was one of the main driving forces for the films, left the project along with her husband, ultimately crippling the series. Following the growing fan movement and building for over two and a half years, Warner Brothers announced in May 2020 that Zack Snyder would return to release his original vision for the film. He was given $70 million in additional funds to reshoot scenes with the original cast returning, update the visual effects and finish the film score from Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL. Major Changes from Joss to Zack After viewing the film in its four hour entirety,

Avengers: Age of Ultron This time, we take a look at the techno God complex blockbuster, Avengers: Age of Ultron and along the way we ask, was this the last true standalone film in the MCU, how could ten seconds on the Internet make you want to destroy the world and how does Tony Stark make artificial intelligence look so easy? Let’s dive in…. CAST & CREW Written and directed by Joss Whedon: Following the success of The Avengers in 2012, Disney and MCU architect Kevin Feige, immediately hired Whedon to write and direct the sequel for the series. Whedon drew inspiration from The Empire Strikes Back and The Godfather Part II when constructing the screenplay and character arcs The majority of the cast from the first film return to reprise their roles from the previous film including: Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark/Iron Man Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America Chris Hemsworth as Thor Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury Paul Bettany as JARVIS/Vision Several familiar faces return to the MCU to reprise their roles from previous films as well as many newcomers: Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch James Spader as Ultron Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue Creating Age of Ultron and the Unused Ideas As Whedon was essentially given carte blanche to do with the plot as he saw fit, several ideas were concocted for the film but would wind up being unused. These ideas included: Introducing Captain Marvel but this was shot down by Kevin Feige after concluding that it would be too early to introduce the character. She was later given her introduction in 2019’s Captain Marvel Introducing the Maximoff twins caused speculation as to whether or not mutants would be introduced in the MCU but at the time of production, the X-Men and the rights to the characters in that series belonged to 20th Century Fox which had not yet been acquired by Disney. Given the studio’s acquisition of the now named 20th Century Films, it’s likely we will be seeing the mutants and their respective characters arrive in the MCU in the next several years. Recently, it has come out that Whedon and actor Paul Bettany wished to introduce Vision as being totally naked when he emerges from the Regeneration Cradle during the film’s third act. This was also shot down by Kevin Feige given Disney’s reputation as a family friendly studio It’s also worthy to note that Age of Ultron really foreshadowed several moments or scenes in future films of the MCU which included: The coming conflict between Captain America and Iron Man in Civil War as well as fueling the motivations for the main villain, Baron Zemo, in that film. Through Thor’s vision in the pool, the events of Ragnarok are teased and the eventual destruction of Asgard The introduction of Ulysses Klaue and the prominence of vibranium play a pivotal role in Black Panther The subsequent films in the Avengers series, Infinity War and Endgame, are alluded to with Tony experiencing a vision of his dead comrades as well as uttering the phrase “That’s the endgame” at one point in the film. Thanos also makes an appearance during the film’s mid-credits sequence as he picks up the Infinity Gauntlet saying “Fine, I’ll do it myself”. Sean and Chris make note that while the MCU has had some truly great films in the series, Age of Ultron has stood out as being one of the last truly standalone films in the series overall. It certainly builds upon the events of The Avengers but it doesn’t rely on the events of the Iron Man, Captain America or Thor films and makes an effort to be recognized as a standalone effort.

It's one of your co-host Sean Michael checking in to let you guys know that we are adding 2 new "bite-sized" episodes (as Chris likes to say). So, in the next few weeks look forward to us reviewing 2021's Justice League and Godzilla Vs Kong. Stay tuned and please write and subscribe to our channel, we really appreciate all the fan support. If you have a sci-fi film you want us to review please email us at forcefedscifi@gmail.com or write us a comment! Have a great rest of the day and a good 2021! Thank you, Sean Michael C.

This time, we take a look at the body horror isolationist classic The Thing and along the way we ask what’s the deal with Kurt Russell’s hat, what kind of research happened at Outpost 31 and was this movie spoiled right from the beginning? Let’s dive in…. Cast & Crew Directed by John Carpenter: Prior to directing The Thing, he had directed Halloween, The Fog and Escape from New York and had previously passed on the chance to direct this film but the opportunity came back around after directors Tobe Hooper and John Landis passed on the project. Starring Kurt Russell as MacReady: Russell and Carpenter previously collaborated on a television film Elvis as well as Carpenter’s action cult classic Escape from New York. Russell was about 10 years into restarting his film career after an injury derailed his burgeoning baseball career Keith David as Childs: This was one of David’s first major film roles after having become a prominent stage actor. He’s since gone to have starred in other films like They Live, Platoon and and Mrs. Smith as well as several voiceover roles in video games like Halo and the Mass Effect series Wilford Brimley as Blair K. Carter as Nauls David Clennon as Palmer Also Starring Richard Dysart as Dr. Copper Charles Hallahan as Norris Peter Maloney as Bennings Richard Masur as Clark Donald Moffat as Garry Joel Polis as Fuchs Thomas Waites as Windows Before these actors were cast, many other actors were considered for these roles including Christopher Walken, Jeff Bridges, Nick Nolte, Sam Shepard, Brian Dennehy, Kris Kristofferson, Ed Harris, Tom Berenger, Scott Glen, Fred Ward, Peter Coyote, Powers Boothe, Lee Van Cleef, Jerry Orbach, Isaac Hayes and Ernie Hudson Rob Bottin’s Legendary Creature Effects Universal had originally set the budget for The Thing at $10 million but this was increased following Carpenter’s suggestion as well as storyboards for the visual and creature effects that were to be created by artist Rob Bottin. Carpenter took to Bottin’s designs so well that he was able to influence the story as well as the actor’s rehearsals. His suggestion that the Thing would retain a little piece of what it had previously assimilated and would be seen in future creatures. He also contributed the idea that whoever was taken over would not be aware that they are the Thing until it would start to reveal itself in a large group setting. Bottin worked so much on the film that he ended having to be hospitalized at different points in production for exhaustion, double pneumonia and bleeding ulcers. He also never took a day off for over a year and lived on the Universal backlot. Bottin was only 21 years old at the time and had previously worked on a horror film titled The Howling and due to his hospitalizations, special effects legend Stan Winston was brought on to assist in production specifically for the Norris Thing scene. Winston even refused to take a credit for his work and instead received a “thank you” in the final credits. What is the Message of The Thing? Carpenter is a fan of incorporating an overall message in his films. His later films are more overt with this messaging and early films hide this in some subtle ways. He has repeatedly mentioned that Halloween is meant to address the notion that the suburbs are safe. The majority of his films have this message in some way but Carpenter is also outspokenly liberal in his political views and this was apparent in the cult classic They Live about disguised aliens that have hidden among the population and have placed subliminal messages to unsuspecting people to “Purchase” and “Reproduce”. While The Thing lacks any sort of major political message, Carpenter addresses themes of nihilism, isolation and the fact that danger can be lurking even in the most remote part of the world. Mystery has continued to surround the themes of the film most specifically aroun...

This time, we take a look at the future noir crime thriller Minority Report and along the way we ask just how far is the government willing to go to stop crime, does Tom Cruise not run enough in this movie and why 2054 will hopefully be just alright? Let’s dive in… Minority Report Movie Cast and Crew Directed by Steven Spielberg: At this point, Spielberg had established himself as the director in Hollywood. He had made hit after hit for over 20 years by the time Minority Report was released and this was his first time pairing with actor Tom Cruise. Starring Tom Cruise as John Anderton: Cruise has had staying power in the film business since he came onto the scene in the early 80’s and has now become one of the top actors in Hollywood and is able to sell a film based on his attachment alone. Colin Farrell as Danny Witwer: In the early 2000’s, there was no actor hotter than Farrell after appearing in the films Tigerland, American Outlaws, Hart’s War, Phone Booth and S.W.A.T. Max von Sydow as Lamar Burgess: Sydow enjoyed a nearly seven decade long film career including several Oscar nominations and worked up until his death in 2020. Also Starring: o Neal McDonough as Gordon Fletcher o Steve Harris as Jad Watson o Kathryn Morris as Lara Anderton o Samantha Morton as Agatha o Tim Blake Nelson as Gideon o Peter Stormare as Dr. Eddie FROM THE MIND OF PHILIP K. DICK One of the most prolific science fiction writers of the 20th Century also gave us some of the most memorable films of the genre; Philip K. Dick wrote stories that would later be adapted into films like Blade Runner, Total Recall and Paycheck. He also wrote the story for Minority Report and for the most part, the film is faithful to the original plot. There are some differences but that’s almost become the norm with a Philip K. Dick story. The rights to produce a film based on Minority Report were optioned back in 1992 and was originally envisioned as a sequel to the 1990 film Total Recall starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and it’s likely this version of Minority Report would’ve starred him as well but the film labored in developmental hell for so long that the film went through several different versions before the filmmakers settled on the version that released in 2002. Development originally began in 1997 and many actors were either offered roles or were cast including Matt Damon, Meryl Streep, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Jenna Elfman and Javier Bardem. Production was delayed twice; once so Cruise could complete Mission Impossible II and another time so Spielberg could direct A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and these delays caused the original cast to be shuffled around. PRESCIENCE OF TECHNOLOGY In the years since Minority Report was released, it has been cited as being particularly prescient for its display of future technology. One of the main points of the film is every citizen being scanned via their retinas literally everywhere they go throughout Washington, D.C. and this forces Anderton to undergo illegal surgery to swap out his eyeballs. Retina scans or other forms of biometric security are becoming more and more prevalent among technology firms as well as financial institutions in order to better safeguard sensitive equipment. The use of these retinal scanners are then used to create personalized advertisements when people walk into a particular store. These advertisements are tied to an individual’s shopping history and in a precursor to today’s tracking cookies, make recommendations based on that history. The idea of using technology to stop or prevent crime has also made its way to the real world via IBM and the University of Memphis. Working together, they developed the Criminal Reduction Utilizing Statistical History (CRUSH) program to be used by the University of Memphis to help the Memphis Police Department predict and help stop crimes. It was credited for helping reduce crime in Memphis by 31%...

This time, we review and take a look at the forgotten dystopian classic Logan’s Run and along the way ask why do dystopian films want to take the fun out of reproduction, why only keep humans alive until 30, and how did this film get lost in the shuffle? Let’s dive in… Logan's Run Movie Cast and Crew Directed by Michael Anderson: The English director had previously made the original film adaptation of George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 and his film, Around the World in 80 Days, had won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Starring Michael York as Logan 5: He is more popularly known as Basil in the Austin Powers film franchise, but had appeared in the adaptation of the popular musical Cabaret. Richard Jordan as Francis 7: Logan’s Run was one of Jordan’s first roles, but would appear in Dune and The Hunt for Red October prior to his death in 1993. Jenny Agutter as Jessica 6: This was an early film role for her as well, but has since appeared in An American Werewolf in London and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Farrah Fawcett-Majors as Holly 13: She was on TV during at this time in The Six Million Dollar Man as well as Charlie’s Angels and thus, received prominent billing due to her rising stardom at the time. Peter Ustinov as The Old Man: The legendary actor has won two Academy Awards for his roles in Spartacus and Topkapi. Roscoe Lee Browne as Box: While not exactly appearing on-screen in Logan’s Run, Browne would later become a very accomplished voice actor; The Real Ghostbusters, Batman: The Animated Series and Spider-Man. From the Page to the Screen Logan’s Run is based on a novel of the same name by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson which released in 1967. Almost immediately after the novel’s release, it was optioned for a future film adaptation, but it labored in developmental hell for years. The producer who had originally acquired the film rights, George Pal, had differing opinions with his screenwriters in regards as to the tone of the film. The writers originally wanted to incorporate relevant themes at the time of the late 1960’s, but Pal wanted a more fun sci-fi romp. These rewrites caused production to be delayed as Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey had revived the science fiction genre among audiences. Pal would later leave the project and fellow producer Saul David stepped in with a new writing team who made significant changes from the novel to the film. For starters, the original age limit was raised from 21 to 30 to allow for a wider range of actors and extras to be involved in the project. The biggest spectacle of the film, the Carrousel, was created specifically for the film and is not a part of the original novel. It was simply a means to create a ceremony of sorts while the original novel simply had people "go to sleep." The backstory of the Cubs is also explained in greater detail and even giving Jessica a friend who is part of the juvenile gang. One of the biggest changes is the idea of Sanctuary. In the film, Sanctuary is not real while in the novel, Sanctuary does exist, but it is located on Mars and requires a rocket ship to reach it. While audiences always expect to see some changes from a film’s source material, Logan's Run does a decent job of retaining the major elements of the film, but making it more watchable for a 1970’s movie going audience. The Relevancy of Logan's Run At first glance, the film seems like a campy sci-fi romp with cheesy special effects and you’d be sort of correct, but it’s also interesting to note several major parallels to today’s world. The major element being the reliance of technology in both the film and our world. There’s smart homes, magnetic rail cars and a gigantic computer that seems to control every aspect of the mega city. Nearly every home today has some type of smart technology from a refrigerator to a

This time, we’re taking a look at the space travel/horror film, Sunshine, and along the way we find out if the cast and crew of the Icarus 2 has the “right stuff,” we’ll look at how a sudden turn can totally derail a film, and is a remake of this film possible? Let’s dive into our Sunshine movie review and commentary... Sunshine (2007 Film) Movie Cast and Crew Directed by Danny Boyle: After gaining international prominence following his directorial efforts in Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, Boyle decided to wade into the science fiction genre and was tagged to direct Sunshine. He would later direct the award winning films Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours. Written by Alex Garland: Garland and Boyle had previously teamed up together to make 28 Days Later and was asked to collaborate again for the making Sunshine. Cillian Murphy as Robert Capa: He had also worked with Boyle after starring in 28 Days Later, but had gained prominence after appearing in Batman Begins. Chris Evans as James Mace: Before being cast as Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he had previously starred in the Fantastic Four films as well as the parody film Not Another Teen Movie Rose Byrne as Cassie: After appearing in the epic film Troy, she was handpicked by Boyle to appear in this film Rose Byrne provided the voice of Mother in Netflix's I Am Mother, check out our review Michelle Yeoh as Corazon: Following appearances in Tomorrow Never Dies, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Memoirs of a Geisha, Boyle gave her carte blanche to pick whatever role she wanted even saying a character could and would be rewritten to fit her gender. Also Starring: Cliff Curtis as Searle, Hiroyuki Sanada as Kaneda, Troy Garity as Harvey, Benedict Wong as Troy, and Mark Strong as Pinbacker “The Right Stuff” for Sunshine As Chris and Sean outline in the podcast episode, Boyle had the actors go through an extensive to-do list in order to prepare for their roles. This list included: Forced to live together as the crew of the Icarus 2 would’ve been living together for 16 months at the beginning of the film Enrolled in space training/SCUBA classes Watched The Right Stuff Toured a nuclear submarine to provide a sense of claustrophobia Rode on a KC-135 “Vomit Comet” as well as a Boeing 747 simulator Read Moondust which is a collection of stories from astronauts who have walked on the Moon As this list was meant to prepare non-astronauts for a space, real NASA astronauts go through an extensive training program which includes: Space shuttle/space craft basics in case repairs are necessary Medical procedures to care for injured crewmates Survival training in case they are required to live in space without aid They also take language courses in Russian in case they need to communicate with the Russian Space Agency One of the holes pointed out in our podcast is that on a typical space mission, the astronauts are cross trained to perform one another’s tasks in case something catastrophic were to happen with one of the other crewmates. This is an aspect not typically discussed in other space movies. When one crew member is incapacitated or killed, it doesn’t immediately sink the mission, but rather those duties of that crew member are then dispersed among the remaining crew. Astronaut crews are millions of miles away from Earth and any sort of aid so they are on their own and must be able to function smoothly with any type of unexpected incident. Horror in Space! Roughly halfway through the film’s second act, the crew of the Icarus 2 discovers the derelict spacecraft of the Icarus 1 crew. They go aboard to search for supplies hopefully to maybe find out why the crew went missing and their mission failed. Sometime during this excursion, the former captain of the Icarus 1, Pinbacker, sneaks aboard the Icarus 2 and begins to sabotage the mission and kill the remaining

This time, we review the fascistic satire war film Starship Troopers and along the way we wonder if it’s right to poach 18-year-olds for your military, is it really a Paul Verhoeven movie if there’s no nudity, and how did this movie spawn an entire direct-to-video franchise? Let’s dive in… Starship Troopers (1997) Cast and Crew Directed by Paul Verhoeven: As Chris remarks during the episode, this may have been the point of Verhoeven’s career where he was fully actualized having directed Robocop (which we’ve previously covered with special guest Brian McLeod), Basic Instinct, Total Recall and Show Girls. While his career hasn’t enjoyed the same popularity in recent years, he became known for hyper stylized violence, subversive yet relevant content and of course, nudity. Written by Edward Neumeier: He had previously collaborated with Verhoeven on Robocop Casper Van Dien as Johnny Rico: Van Dien had developed quite a reputation working on television prior to being cast in this film having appeared on shows like Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman, Beverly Hills 90210, and Married with Children Denise Richards as Carmen Ibanez: This is considered by many to be Richards’ breakthrough role as she starred in Drop Dead Gorgeous, The World is Not Enough and Wild Things after starring in Starship Troopers Dina Meyer as Dizzy Flores: Meyer was also cast following a run on Beverly Hills 90210 as well as a memorable run on FRIENDS as a romantic partner of Joey Neil Patrick Harris as Carl: Harris was slowly working on rebranding himself as a serious actor after he was primarily known as a child star on the show Doogie Howser, M.D. Jake Busey as Ace: The son of legendarily crazy person Gary Busey, Jake has become more a bit actor, but is willing to accept roles with little prestige especially in recent years as he appeared in the third season of Stranger Things and several episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Also Starring: Michael Ironside as Rasczak Patrick Muldoon as Zander Clancy Brown as Zim Dean Norris as Commanding Officer Seth Gilliam as Sugar Earth in the Future While it’s not explicitly mentioned when this film takes place, it’s set sometime in the 23rd century when interstellar travel is now possible and militaries are more advanced than ever before. The government is also controlled by a group of veterans or military officers having overthrown a prior regime that was run by intellectuals and bureaucrats. This is the briefest of world building we receive in the course of the film which seems odd given Verhoeven’s attention to detail in films like Robocop and Total Recall. In this world, citizenship is not guaranteed and can only be obtained through a term of military service, but while citizenship is guaranteed, safety is not. Throughout the first act of the film, we see veterans who have given part of themselves in service of their society. Rico’s teacher, Rasczak, is missing his arm but is given a prosthetic when he joins up again. Even the recruiting officer is missing an arm and both legs. While Rico is initially shocked to see this, it doesn’t deter him from joining and he’s naïve to think that something like that won’t happen to him until he arrives at the initial invasion. Naivety is common among the recruits in Rico’s class as they all have their reasons for joining including getting money for school, career military aspirations, reproductive rights, political careers, and in Rico’s case, a woman. Although prior to Rico enlisting, he’s easily led by Rasczak into joining and by letting him think it’s his own decision to join and risk his life. These opportunities are not available to individuals who do not enlist and even the simple act of creating a life is prohibited to them unless they join and serve. Subversion Through Satire In interviews after Starship Troopers was released, director Paul Verhoeven has stated numerous times that this film is mean to be viewed as a satir...

This time, we look at a modern cult classic with our Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow film review and along the way ask, why is Angelina Jolie so prominent in the film’s marketing? How influential was the “digital backlot?” And, was resurrecting Laurence Olivier a smart move? Let’s dive in… Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow Cast and Crew Directed by Kerry Conran: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was Conran’s directorial debut and remains his only credit as a director. Conran has remained relatively quiet since Sky Captain’s release having only directed a commercial for Coca-Cola and a short film that premiered in 2012. Jude Law as Sky Captain/Joseph Sullivan: By 2004, Law had become an international movie star and in that year alone, he had starred in I Heart Huckabees, Alfie, Closer, The Aviator and A Series of Unfortunate Events. His casting as the titular 'Sky Captain' was seen by many as his foray into adventure films. Gwyneth Paltrow as Polly Perkins: At the time, her career had begun to wane following her Oscar win for Shakespeare in Love. Following that performance, she starred in Bounce, Shallow Hal and View From the Top. Her casting was announced at San Diego Comic Con in order to drum up interest for the film. Giovanni Ribisi as Dex: Ribisi has a knack for finding quirky yet entertaining films and he actually signed on for this film without reading a script. He was shown a teaser trailer created by Conran and one of his producers in order to nail Ribisi. Angelina Jolie as Frank Cook: Due to her commitments filming Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life, she could only be on set for three days. She helped to add credibility to the film following the casting of Law and Paltrow. Also starring: Michael Gambon as Editor Paley and Bai Ling as The Mysterious Woman The Rise of the Digital Backlot If you’ve watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, you probably noticed the film has an odd color palate and design. This is due to Conran utilizing what became known as a “digital backlot.” Conran is a fan of cinema of the 1930’s and 40’s as well as animation techniques. Following his apprenticeship in a Disney animator program, he thought many of the techniques he learned could be applied to a live-action film, but upon realizing that many studios would not be willing to take a chance on a first-time director with a brand new concept of filming, he decided to make the film himself. He spent many years in the 90’s working on a Macintosh computer and even produced a crude teaser trailer with homemade bluescreens. This trailer was then shown to a friend of Conran who in turn showed it to an additional friend and agreed to produce the film. This producer and Conran would spend the next ten years working together in an attempt to get their film onto the big screen. Prior to shooting with a full cast, Conran shot the film himself and then created moving storyboards in order for his actors to understand how scenes would unfold and how to move during these scenes. In an effort to save costs, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was shot in a total of 26 days utilizing entirely blue or green screens and incredibly minimal set design. The short production time allowed for the crew to work on the complex visual effects which mostly included overlaying the live action footage with the previously rendered animation from Conran’s prior shoot without his principal actors. Conran noted he would end up working 18 – 20 hour days in order to help create the 2,000+ visual effects shots seen in the film. In addition to this new style of filming, Conran also wanted to digitally resurrect a deceased actor for the role of Dr. Totenkopf, Laurence Olivier. This was a challenge due to the fact that Olivier had been dead for 13 years at the time of filming and the fact that this had never been attempted before in a major motion picture. Conran and his team mostly used footage and audio from Oliv...

This time, we we look at the 2013 sleeper hit with our Pacific Rim film review, and along the way we ask if the giant Jaegers are actually possible? Does Ron Perlman play the best character in the film? Finally, we examine Pacific Rim’s complicated legacy. Let’s dive in… Pacific Rim Movie Cast and Crew Written and Directed by Guillermo del Toro: Del Toro came into the project almost by accident as he was pitching a different movie, an adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story At the Mountain of Madness, but when this didn’t materialize, he read the story treatment for Pacific Rim developed by Travis Beacham and immediately signed on to direct the film. Charlie Hunnam as Raleigh Becket: At the time, Hunnam had achieved popularity after starring as the lead character on the FX series Sons of Anarchy. He had previously been considered for a role in a past del Toro film, Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori: Kikuchi had risen to international fame following her Oscar nominated performance in Babel and has remained a star in Asian cinema in the years since Pacific Rim. Idris Elba as Stacker Pentecost: Elba has had a varied and impressive career over the past 20 years. From roles on shows like The Wire, Luther and The Office as well as films like Thor, The Jungle Book (2016) and Beasts of No Nation. The role of Pentecost was originally offered to Tom Cruise who declined due to conflicts in his shooting schedule. Also Starring: Charlie Day as Dr. Newton Geiszler Ron Perlman as Hannibal Chau Robert Kazinsky as Chuck Hansen Max Martini as Hercules Hansen Clifton Collins, Jr as Tendo Choi The Odd Journey to Pacific Rim The production of Pacific Rim actually began in 2006 when screenwriter Travis Beacham conceived of a film where giant robots battled giant monsters. While basic, the concept evolved over the next several years until he had a 25 page treatment. Then, in 2010, Guillermo del Toro was announced to be directing the aforementioned H.P. Lovecraft film, but this project was ultimately cancelled after del Toro was unwilling to compromise on the film’s budget as well as the eventual “R” rating for that film. Following that cancellation, del Toro partnered with Beacham to continue working on the script for the next year. Finally, in 2012, del Toro and his team were able to begin shooting and the schedule was hectic to say the least. Del Toro is notorious for the control he exerts over his productions. He often does not employ a second unit to shoot scenes that do not include principal actors or prominent scenes, but due to a condensed shooting schedule, he had no choice but to utilize a creative scheme to get his movie completed. He decided to use what he called a “splinter unit” that would arrive on set prior to the main schedule that included several actors and crew members and they would work on off days in the production. Del Toro also worked eighteen hours per day as well as encouraged improvisation and looser movements. In addition to the crazy production cycle, the post-production cycle was also tumultuous with a last minute decision to convert the film to 3D which added 9 months to the post-production schedule. When Can We Get a Jaeger? Obviously, the literal big technology on display in Pacific Rim is that of the Jaegers, the gigantic twin piloted robots that have been built to battle the monstrous Kaiju that are emerging from the Pacific Ocean. Is the technology currently available to develop these giant robots? In short, no and there are very compelling reasons why it’s not. For starters, the sheer size of the Jaegers. Just because something is bigger, doesn’t mean that it's better. The amount of energy needed to move these robots would be staggering and would actually be weaker than say a robot of regular human proportions. In addition, there aren’t any materials that are strong enough to create the ultra-tough Jaegers.

This time, we go over our Waterworld Movie Review, a massively overbudgeted epic of a film. Along the way we ask, how shameless is this film a rip-off of Mad Max, is this a pro-environmental film, and is Dennis Hooper a convincing villain? Let's dive in... Waterworld Movie Cast and Crew Directed by Kevin Reynolds: Reynolds has establish a solid working relationship with Kevin Costner after directing films like Fandango, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and Rapa Nui that all featured Costner. Therefore, it seemed natural for Reynolds to direct this Costner-led sci-fi adventure film. Kevin Costner as the Mariner: In the mid-90's, Costner was Hollywood's leading man starring Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Dances with Wolves, JFK, and The Bodyguard. Think how popular Dwayne Johnson or Tom Cruise is now and you have an idea of how much of a box office draw Costner was during the late 80's into the 90's. Dennis Hopper as The Deacon: While the legendary actor has had a stellar career, his star had faded as the 80's rolled into the 90's and really began when he accepted a role in the now infamous adaptation of Super Mario Bros. He returned to prominence again after his villainous performance in Speed, but never returned to the renown he enjoyed during the 60's and 70's. Jeanne Triplehorn as Helen: She was just beginning her career as she starred in films such as Basic Instinct and The Firm. Since then, she's been a mainstay on television after long runs on the shows Big Love and Criminal Minds. Tina Majorino as Enola: If the name doesn't sound familiar, viewers may remember her the young clothing and hair accessory vendor in the cult classic Napolean Dynamite. She has also appeared in television shows such as Veronica Mars, True Blood, and Big Love. Also starring: Michael Jeter as Old Gregor Kim Coates as Drifter R.D. Call as Atoll Enforcer Gerard Murphy as The Nord Jack Black as Smoker Plane Pilot (this is a 'blink and you'll miss it' cameo) An Underwater Production Initially, Waterworld was already approved for a budget of $100 million. Now that was in the early 90's, and was a massive budget. Adjusted for inflation, that would be equivalent to $174 million today and this had the makings of a success for any studio. It had a decent science fiction premise and Hollywood's most prominent actor at the time, but the budget slowly began to creep up. A storm had destroyed many of the massive sets that were built for the film forcing the production to shut down to allow for the sets to be rebuilt. This added $35 million to the budget and by the time filming had wrapped, the production budget came out to be $175 million. With promoting and marking costs added, Waterworld's final budget came out to $235 million. Many aspects of the film would be just as troubled. The film's original composer, Mark Isham, was fired after completing about a quarter of the music and was replaced by James Newton Howard. Costner remarked that Isham's firing was due to his core sounding "too bleak and ethnic" for the tone of the film. In addition, Kevin Reynolds left the production citing frequent clashes with Kevin Costner. Prior to the film, Costner had won an Oscar for directing Dances With Wolves and maybe thought his input would be welcome given his past success. However, according to Reynolds, Costner became a "backseat director" and forced Reynolds to leave the film entirely. The relationship was strained so much that the two would not work together until Costner was cast in the miniseries Hatfields & McCoys. It Could Happen ... Sort Of The premise of Waterworld is that Earth has become completed submerged following the melting of the polar ice caps and has forced the remaining humans to live on the water. This premise isn't entirely from fiction, as there has been recent geological findings that had led researchers to theorize that Earth was entirely covered in water roughly 3 billion years ago. However,

This time, we review the family survival drama film A Quiet Place and ask how did John Krasinski go from office prankster to survivalist farmer, is this a film with social commentary, and why have a baby during the apocalypse? Let’s dive in… A Quiet Place (2018) Cast and Crew Written, directed and starring John Krasinski as Lee Abbott: Krasinski rose to prominence following his starring role as loveable goofball Jim Halpert on the US version of The Office where he gained a reputation as a comedic actor. Then he slowly began to turn around that perception by appearing in 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi and the Amazon Prime series Jack Ryan. A Quiet Place also helped him separate him from his Jim Halper role even further. His appearance in A Quiet Place not only cemented a new perception of Krasinski as an actor, but also as a director as this was only the third time he sat in the director’s chair and his first time as a director for a major studio. He also shares screenwriting credits with fellow writers Bryan Woods and Scott Beck. Emily Blunt as Evelyn Abbott: In real life, Blunt and Krasinski are married, but had not starred together in a film before A Quiet Place. When Krasinski signed on to direct, Blunt was initially hesitant to appear in the film until she read his script and asked him to be cast in the role of Evelyn. For a more in-depth review of Blunt’s early career, check out our past episode on Live. Die. Repeat: The Edge of Tomorrow. Millicent Simmonds as Regan Abbott: Simmonds is deaf in real life and even coached her fellow actors in the use of American Sign Language (ASL). Her casting was intentional as Krasinski wanted a young deaf actress to play his daughter in the film. She also suggested two of the more poignant moments in the film when Regan stops her father from putting in a new hearing implant and at the end of the film when Lee signs to his daughter “I have always loved you.” Noah Jupe as Marcus Abbott: In spite of his young age, Jupe has already appeared in several big-time productions like The Night Manager, Suburbicon and more recently Ford v Ferrari and along with his young co-star, they are able to contribute to the film in ways that many actors their age wouldn’t be able to do. Politicizing Parenthoood After watching the film and reading interviews of John Krasinski, it is easy to interpret the film’s theme as that of parenthood. Not only parenthood, but also how to prepare one’s children for the future in addition to how to deal with guilt following a family tragedy. However, since we live in a society that refuses to accept a simple explanation, critics have been analyzing this film for any sort of deeper political or social commentary. Krasinski did mention that he watched horror films with a social commentary like Jaws and Get Out for inspiration, but did not intentionally make this film with an eye on direct commentary. New Yorker writer Richard Brody called the film “the antithesis of Get Out” with a conservative and pro-gun message. It’s difficult to determine how Brody came to this conclusion, but he seems to fixate on the inclusion of guns in the film. Krasinski has directly rebuked this critique in subsequent interviews saying that while he can understand how someone could come to that conclusion, really his sole intention with the film was to make the theme about parenthood. In contrast to Brody’s review, Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Barron noted heavy religious themes with a pro-life message in the film citing the family’s agrarian life and Evelyn’s decision to have her baby in spite of the apocalyptic circumstances. Krasinski isn’t going to respond to every critique and any self-respecting director will defend their work in spite of the criticism. Even though the film has only been out for a couple of years at the time of this writing, there have been wildly different themes and interpretations other than what is onscreen.

This time, the Force Fed Sci-Fi team binged so we could bring you our own Netflix's Space Force review and rating. While watching the latest Netflix comedy Space Force we asked ourselves how is Mark Naird different from Michael Scott, is John Malkovich the new everyman of Hollywood and did Netflix somehow defeat the US Government? Let’s dive in…. Space Force Cast -Steve Carell as General Mark Naird: Carell has made his career in comedy after a long stint as lead character Michael Scott on the US version of The Office and in roles in films like Anchorman, The Forty Year Old Virgin, Get Smart and Crazy, Stupid, Love. Carell is also credited as a creator and executive producer on Space Force along with co-creator Greg Daniels, who also created the US version of The Office. There are noted similarities between the former show and Space Force, especially the use of a single camera, the deadpan comedy and various workplace hijinks. As Chris and Sean note during our podcast episode, Carell’s performance as Naird is more believable than Michael Scott as a General Naird-like individual that can be found in just about every workplace imaginable. -John Malkovich as Dr. Adrian Mallory: Malkovich’s film career extends back to the late 1970’s and has appeared in films like Empire of the Sun, Of Mice and Men, Being John Malkovich, Burn After Reading, Secretariat and RED. In recent years, he’s developed a reputation of portraying manic characters like in RED where he plays a paranoid, ex-CIA assassin who’s convinced of a major conspiracy to eliminate him and his former colleagues. In spite of his stellar resume, he has yet to receive an Academy Award for his efforts, but hopefully that may change in the next several years. He’s truly able to show off his range with the character of Dr. Mallory in Space Force as we see him and Naird have a lot of friction due to Mallory being a true scientist and Naird being military. However, in the end, they have truly tender moments among being colleagues / friends. -Also Starring: Ben Schwartz as F. Tony Scarapiducci Diana Silvers as Erin Naird Tawny Newsome as Captain Angela Ali Lisa Kudrow as Maggie Naird Fred Willard as Fred Naird (His last credited role prior to his death in May 2020) Is Space Force Real? While the Space Force as we know it gained traction in late 2019, its actual history extends back to 1982 when it was known as the Air Force Space Command and its mission didn't exactly have war-like objectives. They were primarily responsible for launching satellites, ensuring the friendly use of space, weather forecasting, missile warning and navigation. This was originally a division within the United States Air Force and not its own separate branch as we now know it to be. The Air Force Space Command was dissolved on December 20, 2019 with the signing of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2020 and was formed into its own branch that became simply known as Space Force. The mission of the new Space Force is wildly different from that of its predecessor. Its primary missions include space superiority, domain awareness, control of space, missile warning and defense and nuclear command. In essence, this branch is responsible for the militarization of space in spite of the International Space Treaty that discourages nations from utilizing space for these purposes. While its first mission was successful in March 2020, it remains unclear what the future of the Space Force will look like and how they could shape future battlefields. Space Force Satire Obviously, Netflix's Space Force is inspired by the real world decision to create a new branch of the military along with the sometimes farcical quality of the Presidential administration. There are many allusions to POTUS, but he is never directly named along with POTUS’ propensity to tweet about anything and everything. Even the First Lady is not safe as her fashion sensibility is dragged in one e...

This time, we discuss yet another Ethan Hawke film with a Daybreakers film review and along the way we ask, how can the Spierig Brothers have major issues with big pharma, why does this film disregard literal centuries of vampire lore, and is Ethan Hawke really half-assing his job as an actor? Let’s dig in…. Daybreakers Movie Cast and Crew Written & Directed by the Spierig Brothers: The Brothers have firmly placed themselves as working exclusively in the horror genre including this film as well as Predestination (also with Ethan Hawke), Jigsaw and Winchester. Starring Ethan Hawke as Edward Dalton: We’ve previously discussed the early career of Hawke in our past episode reviewing Gattaca. He had a great career following the release of that film and had major clout heading into Daybreakers. It’s rare for him to take on a genre film of this type, but he’s also starred in the remake of Assault on Precinct 13. Willem Dafoe as Lionel “Elvis” Cormac: As our podcast hosts observe, many people of their generation became aware of Dafoe following his performance as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in the original Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, but Daybreakers isn’t a film for him to lean on in terms of strength of his acting career. He’s done a good job of redeeming his career following Oscar nominated performances in The Florida Project and Eternity’s Gate as well as turning in an acclaimed performance in The Lighthouse. Sam Neill as Charles Bromley: While many would argue Neill’s peak was in Jurassic Park, he’s managed to turn in solid performances since that release. There was a great opportunity for Neill to be a great villain in this film and is instead reduced to Bond villain type tropes. Also Starring: Isabel Lucas, Michael Dorman, and Claudia Karvan Daybreakers Movie Summary: A Reflection of Our World? As we discuss in the podcast episode, living during a pandemic certainly helps to change one’s perspective of this film. No one in 2009 could’ve imagined a global pandemic that would affect everyone and force us to confront a new reality. In Daybreakers, a global pandemic has changed the majority of the world’s population into vampires and the population was quick to accept the new normal and discard the old ways of humanity. However, even though this world is dominated by vampires, we still see some reflections of our world including freak outs in coffee bars as well as a critique on big pharma and the healthcare for profit system. Right away, we see the effects of addiction when a homeless, starving vampire is dragged away to an unknown fate as well as the introduction of the subsiders which, are vampires who have become so desperate for blood that they have started drinking their own blood. We also see the rich, corporate elite controlling the research and ultimately use the medicine that would only enrich themselves as opposed for the greater good. In the end, Edward’s colleague has a breakthrough regarding the blood substitute he was working on earlier in the film, but at the same time, Edward has developed a cure that will turn the vampire population back into humans. However, his colleague wants to prevent him from releasing the cure as it would give him wealth and power in this world. On the flip side, due to the nature of the cure Edward developed, he’s able to give it away for free just through the act of other vampires biting him and drinking his blood. We also see the futility of humanity and their struggle in the second half of the film. The vampire army which isn’t exactly an army, but instead it’s more of a hunting party as their sole purpose is to track humans and imprison them for eventual feeding and killing. We also debate the need for an “army” in this film as the only resource worth fighting over now is blood and the “army” is just used to capture humans. Edward is brought to a group of human survivors who have attempted to turn to politics to help mediate the divide between the surv...

This time, we’re taking a look at the cult film Dredd (2012 movie) and along the way we ask, how does this film compare to the original film from 1995, how can a character thrive with little to no emotional development and just how badass is Ma-Ma? Let’s dive in…. Dredd (2012) Cast and Crew Directed by Pete Travis: Travis’ primary credit before Dredd was the 2008 assassination drama Vantage Point and has not done too much since this film wrapped up with the exception being a History Channel miniseries Project Blue Book. Written and Produced by Alex Garland: Garland has become a new voice in the sci-fi genre having previously written films like 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Never Let Me Go as well as directing Ex Machina and Annihilation as well as the recent F/X series Devs. There were reports in post-production that Garland took over the editing process from Travis with Travis supposedly being alright with this arrangement. This may suggest that Garland was more hands on during filming than previously believed, with star Karl Urban even suggesting in 2018 that Dredd should be considered Garland’s directorial debut and not Ex Machina. Starring Karl Urban as Judge Dredd: It’s hard to imagine Karl Urban being a lead actor in a solo film, but that’s only because he’s been in so many great ensemble films like Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings and Red. He’s also appeared in films like Doom, The Bourne Supremacy and The Chronicles of Riddick, as well as an appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe while appearing as Skurge in Thor: Ragnarok. Olivia Thirlby as Anderson: Thirlby’s breakthrough came in 2007 after appearing in the off-beat comedy Juno, but has since gone on to appear in No Strings Attached and Chappaquiddick; although, she doesn’t have many widely known credits to her name. Lena Heady as Ma-Ma: Heady has been a mainstay in cinema and television for almost 30 years now, but is best known for her appearances in films like 300, The Purge and Fighting with My Family as well as being part of the main cast of Game of Thrones for nearly the entirety of the show - if you’ve watched it, you’ll understand that’s quite an achievement. Wood Harris as Kay: Harris got his start in the beloved Disney/Sports film Remember the Titans, but has also displayed his range in projects like The Wire, Ant-Man, Creed and Blade Runner 2049. In Dredd, we get to see him play off of the character of Anderson for most of the film. Domhnall Gleeson as Techie: Gleeson’s character doesn’t have a name in the film, but it’s clear that he’s been suffering at the hands of Ma-Ma for years prior to the events shown. Gleeson himself has come up other times in our podcast (listen to our episodes on the Star Wars sequel trilogy as we touch on him playing General Hux) and has proven in recent years that he’s an incredibly talented actor History of Judge Dredd: Comic Character to Big Screen The character of Judge Dredd has a pretty unique history after beginning life as a comic character. The character was created as part of British sci-fi comic, 2000 A.D., that debuted in March 1977. While the character hasn’t evolved too much over the past 40 years, Dredd has found himself in unique storylines such as Dredd coming back as a zombie to judge criminals as well as venturing beyond the wall to combat gangs of mutant nomads. Judge Dredd has remained 2000 A.D.’s most popular character and even received a film adaptation in 1995 starring Sylvester Stallone. Before continuing, this original film needs to be discussed. For starters, one of the original characteristics of Dredd is that he NEVER removed his helmet, no matter what. However, since the original film starred Sylvester Stallone and he still looked good at one point in his career, he consistently removed his helmet throughout the film much to the chagrin to the fans of the original comic character. Another issue is the film’s rating of PG-13 in spite of the comic’s reputation as bei...

This time, we review the Silence of the Lambs rip off The Cell (movie) and along the way we ask just how obvious can the religious symbolism get, did this movie contribute to society’s morbid obsession with serial killers and why is J-Lo’s butt front and center in the frame? Let’s dig in…. The Cell Movie Cast and Crew Directed by Tarsem Singh: Prior to directing The Cell, Singh had built a career in the early 1990’s directing several popular music videos including R.E.M’s “Losing My Religion” and Lou Reed’s “What’s Good.” While The Cell serves as Singh’s directorial debut, he’s since gone to direct heavily stylized films like Immortals and Mirror Mirror. Written by Mark Protosevich: While Protosevich doesn’t have many credits to his name, he is just as famous for the films he didn’t get to work on. Prior to the Batman film series being rebooted in 2005, he was approached to write a sequel for Batman & Robin. He had even finished a draft and helped cast several roles before Batman & Robin flopped and any plans for a sequel were immediately scrapped. He was also contacted by Steven Spielberg for story ideas for a planned fourth film in the Jurassic Park franchise before a soft reboot occurred in 2015 with Jurassic World. Jennifer Lopez as Catherine Dean: Lopez’s musical career was just beginning in 1999 & 2000, but she had built a successful career as an actress having appeared in films like Jack, Selena, Out of Sight and Anaconda. Following her appearance in The Cell, she transitioned to romantic comedies to avoid being typecast as well as focusing on a music career that has garnered international fame. Vince Vaughn as Peter Novak: Vaughn’s career direction was still unclear at this time after appearing in the highly acclaimed Swingers as well as the maligned sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park and the unnecessary remake of Psycho. Vaughn’s portrayal of the dogged FBI agent even had to be toned down in the editing process in order to soften his character. Vincent D’Onofrio as Carl Stargher: We’ve covered D’Onofrio on our previous episode reviewing Men in Black but his career has been long and impressive which includes long runs on Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Netflix’s Daredevil as well as film appearances in Jurassic World and the recent Magnificent Seven remake. Also Starring: Dean Norris as Agent Cole, Jake Weber as Agent Ramsey, Dylan Baker as Henry West, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Dr. Kent The Cell vs the Losing My Religion music video As our podcast show hosts point out during the episode, the symbolism of The Cell is obvious at times and this can be traced back to Singh’s beginning career as a director of music videos. The film has not transitioned well in the digital age as the film appears grainy at times as well as it having issues in sound design. In addition, films released during this same time have made the successful transition to a digital format, The Cell has not achieved that as of yet. The graininess of the film gives it a sort of music video quality which would have been fine if The Cell was a shorter film. Having to sit through a nearly two hour long R.E.M video is exhausting. Singh even managed to recycle several of the sets he used for R.E.M’s now legendary music video for the song Losing My Religion. There are some aspects of the film that are beautifully framed such as the opening dream sequence in the desert and the final battle sequence between the angelic Deane and the lizard demon version of Stargher. However, several of Singh’s artistic influences are incredibly obvious upon further research and include references to 20th Century artists like H.R. Giger, who created the design of the creatures in the film Alien, and Odd Nedrum who infamously created a painting of a woman defecating in the forest. If he utilized imagery from Salvador Dali, that may have been pushing it. Though, one strong aspect of the film is the incredible costume design.

This time, we’re taking a look at the influential cult classic Brazil (movie) and along the way we ask if George Orwell’s 1984 really played a part in developing the script, asking how influential is this film and is anyone safe from the ire of Terry Gilliam? Let’s dig in…. Brazil (1985) Cast & Crew Directed by Terry Gilliam: We’ve previously covered Gilliam and his “style” in our previous episode about the movie 12 Monkeys but this film was an early example of his talents much earlier in his directorial career. Prior to this he had directed films like Time Bandits and Jabberwocky and had gained the distinction of being the only American born member of the Monty Python comedy group. He also wrote for many of their sketches and films and brings a certain quirky quality to his dialogue and scenes. He had a hand in writing Brazil, but there is some controversy as to who helped him compose the first draft. For over 20 years, he had contended that his friend, Charles Alverson, did not help him write the screenplay. Now, Alverson was paid for his work and was ultimately not credited in the final product. However, when the first draft was published that contained Alverson’s original notes, Gilliam had to own up and admit he had been throwing Alverson under the bus for over two decades. Jonathan Pryce as Sam Lowry: Pryce wasn’t just beginning his great career in the mid 1980’s, but he had developed a solid reputation while performing on the London theater scene and had even earned a Tony Award. Brazil is considered his breakthrough performance and has since gone to act in projects like Tomorrow Never Dies, Game of Thrones and was nominated for his first Academy Award for The Two Popes. Kim Greist as Jill Layton: Not much is to be said about Greist in this role. She really just occupies the screen and doesn’t offer much compared to the other actors in the film. Other actresses considered for this role were Jamie Lee Curtis, Madonna and Rosanna Arquette. Tom Cruise was also considered to play Sam Lowry so we have to wonder what a version of Brazil would look like with Madonna and Cruise in the main roles. Robert De Niro as Harry Tuttle: In spite of his prominent billing, De Niro is only on-screen for a limited time. De Niro originally sought the role of Jack Lint. but that was given to Michael Palin as his status as a family man would offer a unique juxtaposition to Lint’s role as a state sponsored torture artist. De Niro still wanted a part in the film so Gilliam offered him the smaller role of Tuttle. Also starring: Jim Broadbent as Dr. Jaffe Ian Holm as Mr. Kurtzmann Bob Hoskins as Spoor Katherine Helmond as Ida Lowry Michael Palin as Jack Lint 1984 ½? For those unfamiliar with George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel, it follows the lives of two government employees who fall in love with each other and begin an illicit affair. Their affair is discovered and they are forced into a reprogramming regimen and become brainwashed drones of their society. It sounds eerily similar to Brazil after watching the film. In fact, the film was developed under the name of 1984 ½ due to the similarities of the plot and characters. There have already been several adaptations of Orwell’s book including one as recent as 1984, the year prior to the release of Brazil. But, if you are thinking that Terry Gilliam would be fan a of the original novel to develop an entire sequel film to the novel, well you’d be surprised to learn that Gilliam has admitted to never having read 1984. That’s like asking someone to replicate the Sistine Chapel when they’ve never even left the country. Gilliam has stated that while the novel 1984 is a jumping off point, he sort of took his own version of the book and wrote a film from a contemporary perspective rather than looking far into the future as Orwell when writing his original novel. An adaption of Orwell’s book by Gilliam might be interesting to see,

This time, we’re ascending a borrowed ladder after watching Gattaca and along the way we wonder if this is really the future, why everyone is dressed like they’re on Mad Men, are genetics the next wave of discrimination, and what’s it like living in a post-sex world? Let’s dig in… Gattaca Movie Cast and Crew Directed by Andrew Niccol: Prior to taking on Gattaca, Niccol had built a career directing television ads and took on the film industry in 1997 in his directorial debut while also writing the screenplay. He’s since gone on to write The Truman Show and direct films like Simone, Lord of War, In Time and Anon. Danny DeVito served as a producer for the film. He has had great success in this avenue of his career as he’s produced films like Pulp Fiction, Reality Bites and Erin Brockovich Ethan Hawke as Vincent: Hawke has enjoyed a steady career since the mid 80’s and his performance in Gattaca has certainly aided in that. He had previously starred in films like Dead Poet’s Society and Reality Bites and really enjoyed a breakthrough following Gattaca. He has since starred in films like Training Day, The Purge, Boyhood and First Reformed. Uma Thurman as Irene: Thurman also enjoyed sustain success in Hollywood while serving as Quentin Tarantino’s muse after her breakthrough Oscar nominated performance in Pulp Fiction. While some of her film choices are questionable, no one has questioned her acting ability. Jude Law as Jerome: Gattaca was Law’s real breakthrough performance and has continued to star in great projects in the twenty years since its release like The Talented Mr. Ripley, Enemy at the Gates, Road to Perdition, Sherlock Holmes and entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Captain Marvel. He gets a great opportunity to show off his acting skills here as an engineered man who is struggling with the “perfection” he was given. A Brief History on Eugenics The primary “science” shown in the film is that of eugenics, or the practice of selective breeding to eliminate certain “undesirable” traits. Those words are in quotes for a reason and we’ll get to that. The concept itself has roots in ancient times when Spartan elders would inspect every newborn boy to determine if it was suitable for the warrior lifestyle. The actually word “eugenics” emerged from an unlikely source; Charles Darwin. Not the man himself, but from his half-cousin named Francis Galton who sought to apply Darwin’s theory of evolution to humans. Beginning in the early 20th Century, eugenics was gaining traction at universities and societies were formed to encourage eugenics as a form of parental responsibility. The British formed a society in 1907 with America following in 1921. International conferences were held that even enlisted religious figures to support the idea of eugenics with many countries adopting sterilization procedures for mental patients in the 20’s and 30’s. It seemed that everyone was taken in by this “science” with Winston Churchill among one of the more vocal supporters in the United Kingdom. However, attitudes began to shift against eugenics when the Nazis took power in Germany. Ernst Rüdin, a Nazi who helped form the scientific basis for the racist policies of the Third Reich, was never prosecuted for the propagation of these ideas. The horrors of the Holocaust do not need to be discussed here. but let’s just say that it is truly one of the most horrible things ever documented in history. Many ethnic groups and “undesirables” that were deemed by the Nazis were targeted for eugenics, forced into camps and were either killed or became part of horrific experiments. Needless to say, people came around to just how awful the idea of “eugenics” could be and has now been dubbed to be a pseudoscience. As discussed in the podcast show, our hosts debate whether or not eugenics could be a good thing (i.e. in the way of eliminating certain diseases or weaknesses), but inevitability,

This time, we review the robotic crime thriller Ghost in the Shell movie (2017) and in today’s episode we explore if this version of Tokyo exists in an alternate reality, how much does this film borrow from Blade Runner, and did Ghost in the Shell really start the conversation of “whitewashing” in Hollywood? Let’s dig in…. Ghost in the Shell movie cast Directed by Rupert Sanders: Prior to taking on Ghost in the Shell, Sanders was well-known for directing Snow White and the Huntsmen which was a darker take on the classic fairy tale starring Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth. However, Sanders' personal life would be thrown into disarray following leaked photos of him and fellow actress Kristen Stewart carrying on an illicit affair. Scarlett Johansson as Major: Johansson was a well-established star at the time of this film having appeared in multiple films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Margot Robbie passed on this role in order to star as Harley Quinn in the DC Extended Universe and Johansson signed on for a cool $10 million payday. See our review on the film Her where we discussed Johansson as well. Pilou Asbæk as Batou: Game of Thrones fans will recognize Asbæk after he appeared in the last several seasons of the show, but has mostly appeared in Danish cinema since he came on the scene beginning around 2009. Juliette Binoche as Dr. Ouelet: Binoche has been an acclaimed actress for over 30 years and rose to international prominence following her Academy Award performance in the war epic The English Patient and then alongside Johnny Depp in Chocolat. There’s a noted lack of female diversity in the film and Binoche offers a sort of maternal care and identity to Major throughout the film. Michael Carmen Pitt as Kuze: Fans of the show Boardwalk Empire will recognize Pitt following his performance as Jimmy on the show for which he earned numerous award nominations. However, there are times in the film that we forget he’s even in the film. There are long stretches where he is not seen and he isn’t a constant presence as he is initially feared to be. Also Starring: “Beat” Takashi Kitano as Aramaki Chin Han as Togusa Peter Ferdinando as Cutter Ghost in the Shell Manga: From the Page to the Screen Ghost in the Shell is actually the English name for a Japanese manga and entertainment franchise that was originally known as Mobile Armored Riot Police. The manga series ran for a year and a half during 1989 to the near end of 1990. The plot of the manga and the film remain mostly unchanged; an elite police squadron named Section 9 is tasked with hunting down and eliminating cyber criminals in a cyber-punk dystopian version of Japan in the near future. The top cop in this unit is Major Motoko Kusanagi was anglicized for the film to Mira Killian, but the original name was kept for the human whose brain is placed into the robotic shell. The English version of the manga didn’t make its way to America until 1995 when Dark Horse Comics published a one volume translation of the manga with an anime adaptation premiering in the same year with a sequel that followed in 2004. Beginning in 2002, a television cartoon was developed consisting of two season and 26 episodes. Much of the imagery showcased in the films and the cartoon do make its way into the film due to Rupert Sanders being a self-proclaimed “mega fan” of the series. In 2008, DreamWorks Pictures and Steven Spielberg acquired the rights to produce a live action film adaptation, but Spielberg would eventually drop out of the production enlisting other producers and filmmakers to eventually bring the manga to the big screen. Margot Robbie was the first choice to play Major, but when she passed on the project, the role was offered to Johansson with the rest of the cast announced in 2016. The casting of Johansson to play Major caused controversy with critics of the film accusing the film of “whitewashing” the manga.

Join our podcast show's hosts Chris and Sean as they give an update on the status of Force Fed Sci-Fi amidst the Corona Virus (COVID-19) outbreak. Plus, learn a few more personal things about them as they share what they've been doing with their sad little lives (just kidding of course). Stay healthy and stay safe! Enjoy!

This time, we’re going back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in reviewing 2015’s Ant-Man and along the way we question how Paul Rudd manages to look so young, is Ant-Man that integral to the MCU and can we really shrink like they do in the film? Let’s dig in…. Ant-Man Movie Cast & Crew Directed by Peyton Reed: We’ll get to how Reed came into the director’s chair shortly, but he had directed other comedic films like Bring It On and Yes Man. The choice as Reed for director definitely raised some eyebrows at the time. Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man: According to development notes, Rudd was one of two choices to play Lang along with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and was so integral to the production team and developing the script that he even earned a screenplay credit. Michael Douglas as Hank Pym: In the comics, Pym is the original Ant-Man and takes on the role of mentor as he chooses Lang to be his successor and assist him in sabotaging Pym’s former protégé. Douglas has had a legendary career and adds a certain gravitas to the film. Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne: Lilly got her start in the television show Lost and has had starring roles in films like The Hobbit as well as other films in the MCU. Corey Stoll as Darren Cross/Yellow Jacket: Stoll has managed to pull down a 20 year career in Hollywood and has always appeared in decent films like Salt, Midnight in Paris, Black Mass and First Man. He may be guilty of slightly overacting in Ant-Man, but this is also during the same time when the MCU hadn’t quite figured out their villains. Also Starring: Michael Pena as Luis Tip “T.I.” Harris as Dave Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon Judy Greer as Maggie Lang Bobby Cannavale as Jim Paxton Dave Dastmalchian as Kurt From the Comics to the Cinema You never would’ve thought it, but Ant-Man has one of the more interesting paths to the silver screen. There were rumors of a film in development going as far back as the 1980’s. Those plans were scrapped once Disney had released Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and then in 2000, radio shock jock Howard Stern had approached Marvel to try to purchase the film rights. For what reason remains unclear, but it could be Hollywood conjecture that no one has bothered to refute after 20 years. Then in 2003, Edgar Wright, fresh off the success of Shaun of the Dead, and his screenwriting partner Joe Cornish had written a treatment for the film, but Wright wasn’t officially announced as the director of the film until 2006. The film then labored in development hell for almost 9 years due to script revisions and Wright taking on other projects like Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs the World and The World’s End. Wright had leaked that Ant-Man was not a priority for them at the time as it was not considered for franchise potential. Granted, this is still in the infancy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the entire Infinity Saga had not been determined yet. Then in 2012, the project was advancing and Wright had even screened a test reel at that year’s San Diego Comic Con and Kevin Feige, the mastermind of Marvel Studios, announced that Ant-Man would be part of Phase Three of the MCU and had moved the release date to July 2015. After this announcement is when things start to go downhill. There were numerous debates whether to shoot the film in England or the United States and casting had taken longer than anticipated with Paul Rudd being announced to play Scott Lang in January 2014 with most of the principal cast rounded out in April. Then in May, Wright dropped a bombshell by announcing he was leaving the project due to “creative differences”. Disney/Marvel has remained somewhat quiet as to whether Wright quit or was fired, but Wright has come out saying “I wanted to make a Marvel movie, but I don’t think they were ready to make an Edgar Wright movie” which may sound a bit egotistical. Wright had a great track record up until this point so maybe he could’ve bit the bu...

This time, we’re returning to a franchise we covered in the early days of the show with Back to the Future Part 2 and along the way we discuss what the rules for a sequel are, how this film nailed some predictions yet got 2015 so wrong, and how Crispin Glover, the weirdest man in existence, managed to forever change Hollywood. Let’s dig in… Back to the Future Part II Cast and Crew With a couple of exceptions, the entirety of the cast and crew returned to produce Part II. Directed by Robert Zemeckis: After completing the first film in the series, Zemeckis became a hot commodity, and went on to make Who Framed Roger Rabbit? That film is great and we have no complaints to levy against it, but it was a clear indication of the technological lengths Zemeckis was willing to go to in order to accomplish his vision. If you’re unfamiliar with Roger Rabbit, the real world and the cartoon world are blended together with characters like Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse who coexist with humans in 1940’s Hollywood. The film blends live action and cartoon animations to create a surreal yet enjoyable experience and Zemeckis would carry this ambition into Back to the Future Part II Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly: At the time of Back to the Future’s release in 1985, Fox became an overnight sensation and would star in several major 80’s movies including Teen Wolf, The Secret of My Success and Casualties of War, but returned to the franchise to reprise his role in Part II Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown: Lloyd has enjoyed a great career thanks to his manic portrayal of this somewhat mad scientist and was more than willing to return to the franchise only if Zemeckis and Fox were signed on to return as well Elisabeth Shue as Jennifer Parker: Shue replaced Claudia Wells from the first film and while Jennifer plays a slightly bigger role this time around, she spends the majority of the film unconscious and waiting for Marty and Doc to fix the corrupted version of 1985 Thomas F. Wilson returns to play Biff and Griff Tannen Lea Thompson also returns to play Lorraine Baines-McFly Crispin Glover didn’t return to the franchise following a disagreement with the producers, he was replaced with Jeffrey Weissman who was disguised using prosthetics and flipping the actor to obscure the audience’s view of the actor’s face Alan Silvestri returned to compose the soundtrack as he had for the first film Back to the Future 2 Special Effects: I Knew it was a Fake Shark For the time of the film’s release, the special effects are incredibly advanced. For starters, it took the production design almost two years to build the sets. The production designer, who had previously worked on Blade Runner, undertook the project with a personal goal of making Part II look nothing like Blade Runner. If you’ve seen Blade Runner, you know that it is a very dark and sleek yet it has an edge to it. The team was given a blank canvas to do what they wanted, but there are differences between the Hill Valley square shown in the first film to that of the second film. Notably, the addition of the garden and fountain in the center and beefing up the technological advances are visible on-screen. One big addition to the film was the introduction of the Vistaglide system. The Vistaglide camera system enabled Zemeckis to insert the same actor at different points in the same scene. Hence why we see two Michael J. Fox’s playing Marty McFly Sr. and Marty McFly Jr., as well as Thomas F. Wilson playing an older Biff Tannen and a character named Griff in 2015. While these type of scenes existed prior to this film, the new Vistaglide system allowed for camera movement and dynamic action in these scenes. Introduced in the final moments of the first film, Doc had modified the Delorean to fly and that also had to be included in Part II. The Delorean exclusively flies in this film and it’s disguised rather well that you hardly notice it.

This time, we’re taking a look at 2014’s The Signal and along the way we’ll ask what exactly is this film going for? What would you do with bionic appendages? And what are the rules for a successful road trip? Let’s dig in…. The Signal Movie Cast and Crew Directed by William Eubank: Eubank’s first film, a sci-fi Indie feature titled Love, received critical acclaim and was then given a significantly larger budget to create The Signal. Love’s budget was a meager $500,000, while this film was budgeted at $4 million. However, our podcast show's hosts speculated that maybe The Signal would’ve been better served as an anthology type series or even as a video game. Eubank’s latest film, Underwater, was a commercial flop and given the lack of success seen with that film, Eubank may very find himself in director jail while he labors to find his next project. Starring Brenton Thwaites as Nic: 2014 was a big year for Thwaites as he also appeared in The Giver, Ride and Maleficent. He has since gone on to appear in bigger blockbusters like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and is now starring as Dick Grayson/Nightwing on the DC Universe exclusive Titans. However, The Signal doesn’t take advantage of Thwaites’ ability as an actor as most his characterization occurs via the use of flashbacks or from situations described by his compatriots during the film. Olivia Cooke as Haley: A relative newcomer at this point in 2014, Cooke also had a starring role in the modern retelling of the Psycho narrative in the A&E series Bates Motel, as an early love interest of Norman Bates. She’s since appeared in the Steven Spielberg adaptation of the novel Ready Player One. However, her character of Haley in this movie is largely absent for the second act of the film and much like with Brenton Thwaities, the majority of her acting talents were left off the table. Beau Knapp as Jonah: Knapp has been working steadily since 2011 and has quickly earned a reputation as a character actor having appeared in films like Super 8, Run All Night, Southpaw, The Finest Hours, and The Nice Guys and Death Wish (2018). Much like Cooke’s character, Jonah is front and center in the first act, largely absent in the second act, and sacrifices himself in the third act so Nic and Haley can briefly escape. Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Wallace Damon: There isn’t much else we can say about Fishburne’s legendary career at this point. For further details about Fishburne, check out our past episode covering The Matrix. There are times where it feels like Fishburne is too big for this film, but he adds a certain gravitas when surrounded by his younger counterparts. The Signal Movie Summary: So What's Happening Here? The Signal is noted for its unique evolution. It initially begins as a road trip film as Nic and Jonah are helping Haley across the country from M.I.T to Cal Tech. There’s also a romantic subplot with Nic contemplating the future of his relationship with Haley and if long distance could work for them (spoiler, it never works). Nic is also afflicted with some type of vague degenerative disease, but it’s never explicitly mentioned as to what that disease is and this is further enforced through the use of flashbacks that imply Nic was able bodied prior to the events of the film. While the three friends on this road trip, Nic and Jonah are tracking a mysterious hacker known only as the moniker “Nomad” who is partially responsible for all of them landing in trouble while attending M.I.T.. Nomad then lays a series of breadcrumbs to an unknown location somewhere in the Southwest when they are confronted or abducted. At this point in the film it’s unclear what exactly happens, and they suddenly awaken in a research facility run by Dr. Damon who enlightens Nic that what they encountered in the desert was probably an alien. Once the film makes this turn, things get even weirder from there. We gain almost no insight into the purpose for keeping Nic...

This time, we’re digging into Moon from 2009 and along the way we ask, what is on the Moon that humanity needs so badly, how is cloning simplified in this film and was this the beginning of Sam Rockwell’s prominence in Hollywood? Let’s dig in…. Moon Film Cast and Crew Directed by Duncan Jones: The son of the late musician David Bowie, Moon was Jones’ first foray into major film-making. The success of this low-budget, critically acclaimed Indie film, earned him the opportunity to direct Source Code in 2011 as well as Warcraft and Mute. He may have stumbled a bit with his last two outings but it’s not cause to place him in “director jail” just yet. While his next project remains unconfirmed, we can’t wait to see what he does with his career. Starring Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell: Rockwell wasn’t always known as the major Hollywood we consider him to be now, he was more known as a comedic actor or manic villain (see our previous discussion on Galaxy Quest) having previously appeared in films like Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The Green Mile and Matchstick Men, but 2008/2009 is when he started to change those perceptions after appearing in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Frost/Nixon and Iron Man 2. He has gone to win an Academy Award (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) and seems to be nominated for an award every year as he’s appeared in Vice and Jojo Rabbit since 2017. Kevin Spacey as the voice of GERTY: While Spacey does not physically appear in the film, there are few actors who are able to deliver the even keeled yet chilling performance of Sam’s robot caretaker. Before the sexual assault allegations came to light against him, Spacey was one of the most in-demand actors in the film industry. His credits are too numerous to list here as are his accolades, but his credit on this film adds a certain gravitas and credibility to the production that another actor might not have been able to pull off. Also starring: Dominique McElligot as Tess Bell Kaya Scodelario as Eve Bell (15 years old) Benedict Wong as Thompson Matthew Berry as Overmeyers Moon Visual Effects & Production Design While Moon itself has received critical acclaim, particular attention was paid to the look of the film including the Moon base where the film is primarily set and the special effects used to enhance the desolate Lunar setting. The Moon base itself was a full 360 degree set measuring almost 90 feet long and 70 feet wide and as our podcast hosts Chris and Sean point out, it looks lived in. Sam’s living space is peppered with photos of his family as well as a Tennessee Titans poster, but the base is not as pristine as seen with other planetary bases in other films. There are parts of the habitat that are dirty with layers of Lunar soil all over the floor, GERTY is covered with dents as well as the occasional coffee ring and Sam is even left to piece together a table using bins filled up with Lunar soil. His requests for repairs go unanswered as the list seems to be endless for Sam. For a film of this budget ($5 million), the visual effects are modest, but impressive. Obviously, the filmmakers wouldn’t have been able to afford computer graphics on the same level as a Marvel film. The company responsible for the computer graphics on the film, CineSite, has provided visual effects for blockbusters like Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, The Witcher and Independence Day: Resurgence, but often deals with productions of modest budgets. There are some obvious moments where the effects are clear such as seeing GERTY’s extra arm maneuvering around to assist Sam at times. The Lunar rovers seen in the film are actually miniatures and as our hosts also point out, it is appreciated when a film production will go the extra mile to add a sense of realism to the experience. What is on the Moon? As seen in Moon, Sam is nearing the end of his three year contract for Lunar Industries Limite...

This time, we’re taking a look at one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s unheralded blockbusters with The 6th Day and in this entry we discuss - 1) how Arnold consistently finds himself waiting to do another Terminator film, 2) did this film actually predict the resurgence of the XFL, and 3) what our thoughts are on cloning a beloved pet. Let’s dig in…… The 6th Day (film) Cast and Crew Directed by Roger Spottiswoode: The British director doesn’t have a ton of credits to his name, but he directed the late 80’s comedy hit Turner and Hooch that starred a young Tom Hanks pre-Academy Awards. Prior to directing The 6th Day, he took a turn directing a James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies, and while no one will say that it is the best Bond film ever made, having one of those belt under your belt certainly grants you some prestige. He actually took a pass on directing the next Bond film, and decided to direct this film instead. Arnold Schwarzenegger as Adam Gibson: We’re not going to dive into Schwarzenegger’s career in great detail as that’s been previously covered on our episodes on our Terminator suite of episodes that led up to the recently released Terminator: Dark Fate. Schwarzenegger’s career was beginning to fizzle out at this point in 2000. He hadn’t been in a profitable blockbuster for years and his recent role as Dr. Victor Fries / Mr. Freeze in the much maligned Batman and Robin, really left Hollywood with mixed feelings towards the legendary tough man. While Schwarzenegger will not win an Academy Award any time soon, he does a good job of carrying the film at times. Tony Goldwyn as Michael Drucker: Goldwyn’s career really began to take off following his supporting role in the movie Ghost opposite Patrick Swayze and in 1999, voiced the character of Tarzan for the film of the same title during the Disney Renaissance so Goldwyn was a hot commodity at the time. He certainly plays a more conniving villain than initially given credit for but he gets lost in the shuffle with the film’s other assassin’s that are pursuing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character. Michael Rapaport as Hank Morgan: Rapaport had a minor role in the shark attack film Deep Blue Sea and fans of the show Friends will recognize him as Phoebe’s cop boyfriend who takes the guys on a ride along. Rapaport has a distinct New York accent so odds are if you don’t know him by name, you do know his voice. According to Chris, he’d be the ideal actor to portray former NBA player Brian Scalabrine in a sports biopic. Robert Duvall as Dr. Griffin Weir: As our hosts point out during the episode, casting an actor of Duvall’s caliber in this film seems out of place. Duvall is clearly outperforming his colleagues in his scenes and seems to be acting like he’s in a different. Perhaps an actor like J.K. Simmons would’ve been better suited in the role but we’ll never know. Also starring: - Michael Rooker as Robert Marshall, Sarah Wynter as Talia Elsworth, Wendy Crewson as Natalie Gibson, Rodney Rowland as P. Wiley, and Terry Crews as Vincent (his feature film debut) The Not-So Distant Future Thanks to several title cards at the beginning of the film, we are told that this film is set in the future, but it is never explicitly mentioned where in the future the film takes place. In a behind the scenes documentary, Schwarzenegger says the film is set in 2015, but no indication is given to this at any point in the film. Since the film came out in 2000, the filmmakers assumed that the next fifteen years would be a banner year for scientific advancement and invention. For starters, the technology is advanced even by today’s standards with the prominent example being cloning. Dolly the Sheep was only cloned in the mid 1990’s. So, to assume that humanity would be able to clone humans in 20 short years following this is a massive leap. The history of Dolly and a brief overview of cloning will be covered below, but much like with artificial intelligence,

This time, we’re diving into French cinema and reviewing the 1965 neo-noir, thriller Alphaville and along the way we ask, is this film just ripping off the works of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, who exactly is Lemmy Caution, why does he look so haggard, and is there hope for an English language remake? Let’s dig in…. Alphaville Movie Cast and Crew Directed by Jean-Luc Godard: If that name doesn’t sound familiar to you, don’t worry since it wasn’t familiar to us either, but after doing some digging into his career, we discovered he’s one of the most influential filmmakers in French cinema and pioneered the New Wave style of film making during the 1960’s and 1970’s. While he exclusively made films in France, directors like Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Brian De Palma and Steven Soderbergh have cited Godard as an influence on their respective styles of directing. He was also awarded an Honorary Oscar in 2010 due to his contributions to the world of cinema. Eddie Constantine as Lemmy Caution: You may be noticing a trend of naming people you may not have heard of before, but Constantine is considered one of the legends of French cinema. Constantine was a well-traveled individual before he wound up in France - born in Los Angeles and emigrating to Vienna in order to jump start a singing career, but returned to America when that career path didn’t yield results. He then returned to Europe when the only acting parts he could get in Hollywood were minor roles and began performing in cabarets where he was discovered by legendary French singer, Edith Piaf and he helped her break into English markets. The character of Lemmy Caution became his signature role after this discovery, but more on that later. Anna Karina as Natacha Von Braun: At the time Alphaville was being filmed, Karina and Goddard were married and they continued to work together even after they divorced. Karina is also a legend of French cinema and continued appearing in films as recently as 2008. She also became known as a director, model, singer and writer during her iconic career. Who is Lemmy Caution? Alphaville doesn’t address this question until almost 50 minutes into the story, but as our podcast show hosts point out, the film really begins to move after this revelation. We’re introduced to Caution as a journalist named Ivan Johnson, but it’s not clear if he’s there looking for a story or just on holiday. It becomes obvious that he’s not really a journalist when he pulls out a handgun and begins shooting at an intruder in his hotel room. Lemmy’s real mission is to investigate the city of Alphaville and either destroy the malevolent computer that controls the city, Alpha 60 or to assassinate the creator of Alpha 60, Professor von Braun. The Alpha 60 entity does appear in the film, but as a disembodied gravelly voice that offers vague philosophy as it tries to control its population. Caution’s pursuit of Professor von Braun becomes complicated when he falls in love with von Braun’s daughter, Natacha, and his mission gains additional objectives as he now has to save her from Alphaville’s imminent destruction. The character of Lemmy Caution was created by a British author named Peter Cheney who started his career as a FBI agent, but later became a private detective (starting to sound eerily similar to James Bond). Despite Caution being an American agent created by a British author, he has yet to appear in an English language adaptation. Following World War II, American culture was heavily promoted in France and the population formed an attachment to the American liberators from Nazi occupation. French film producers began to mine for material that would appeal to audiences - Caution became an obvious answer to adapt for the big screen. Constantine would go on to appear as the character in many films beginning in the mid 1950’s to the late 1980’s, but Alphaville was a polarizing film at the time of release as fans had associated the...

This time, we break down a Children of Men movie review, a dystopian modern classic. With this movie, we discuss how this film takes steadi-cam to a whole new level, we wonder why Great Britain is the only country left standing after global catastrophe, and won’t someone think of the children?! Let’s dig in on Force Fed Sci-Fi! Children of Men Cast and Crew Directed by Alfonso Cuaron: Cuaron was beginning to come to the cinematic forefront with his prior film Y Tu Mama Tambien which brought him international acclaim and he was tasked to direct Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban after the previous film released. His Harry Potter also received worldwide critical acclaim with particular attention to the shift in tone for the series and being able to truly capture the spirit of the novels. He was brought onto Children of Men in 2001 and his time spent in the United Kingdom working on Harry Potter gave him unique insight into British society and culture that helps to flush out the look of Children of Men. Director of Photography, Emmanuel Lubezki: We tend to overlook cinematography on Force Fed Sci-Fi at times, but Lubezki’s contributions to this film cannot be ignored. To briefly summarize, the cinematographer is responsible for everything you see visually on the movie screen in terms of lighting and focus. While working on Children of Men, Lubezki and Cuaron worked together to develop the revolutionary long takes and camera system used in the film and pioneered techniques that are becoming the standard in Hollywood, but more on that later…. Clive Owen as Theo: The early 2000’s were good to Clive Owen. He was a finalist to take over the role of James Bond which ultimately went to Daniel Craig and while Craig’s contribution to the Bond franchise can’t be overstated, we can’t help but wonder what the Bond films would look like if Owen were cast. At this point in 2006, he had appeared in films like The Bourne Identity, King Arthur, Closer, Sin City and Inside Man. He brought a unique cynicism to the character of Theo. He’s playing a man who’s been beaten down by life and has little to no personal connections following the death of his young son and his subsequent divorce from Julian. Looking back at Owen’s career, Children of Men remains a standout from his great resume. Julianne Moore as Julian: Apart from her role in Evolution, Moore was easily the most high-profile actress to join the cast when she signed on in June 2005 having appeared in films like The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Boogie Nights, The Hours and Hannibal. She brings an emotional depth in the film as she interacts with Theo while balancing her desires to further the cause of the political group she’s leading. In many ways, she’s the only real virtuous individual in the film as everyone else wants to use Kee’s baby for political gains instead of just treating it as a baby. Michael Caine as Jasper: Caine’s career has too many credits to list off here (briefly talked about in our first film review episode on Inception), but needless to say, he had achieved legendary status at this point in 2006. In the film, Jasper and his wife are living in isolation in the forest, away from the political strife and tumultuous environment of London. In his prior life, he was a political cartoonist and his wife was a photojournalist; however, it’s implied that she was captured and tortured at the hands of MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence service, and has left her an invalid and doesn’t speak in the course of the film. The implications here are that journalism is either heavily censored or state run and perhaps they’ve become enemies of the state? Regardless, it’s a brilliant bit of characterization that doesn’t require any lines of dialogue to get across. Supporting Cast Members include: Chiwetel Ejiofor as Luke Clare-Hope Ashitey as Kee Charlie Hunnam as Patric Pam Ferris as Miriam Danny Huston as Nigel Children of Men: Book vs Film

This time, we 'Nuke the Fridge' on Force Fed Sci-Fi with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and take a look at the film's cast, the inclusion of an alien / inter-dimensional being, and the film's ending along with other topics! So strap in and let's whip away! The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Cast and Crew Steven Spielberg - Director: The legendary Steven Spielberg returned for another directorial project within the Indiana Jones franchise with this film. We have to ask though, was this film the start of the downfall of Spielberg. Really since this film was released in 2008, we feel he's only directed 'good' films and not any 'great' films, like The Adventures of Tintin, Lincoln, and Bridge of Spies. Where did films like Catch Me If You Can, Saving Private Ryan, Jurassic Park, and the original Indiana Jones films go? Our podcast host Chris almost thinks he just can't outdo himself anymore and that other filmmakers have caught up with him. This is entirely possible, but we hope we get a film soon from Spielberg that once again blows us away. Harrison Ford - Indiana Jones: Ford was in his 60's at the time of the making and release of this film. It was obviously exciting to see him return to one of his roles that shot him up to the top of the list of A-list actors. We really don't have issues with Ford's performance in this film, but there are issues we will get to eventually later on. It was impressive to find out Ford performed most of his stunts considering his age, but not surprising since he really does cherish this role, and supposedly want this role to die with him ... let's be honest Harrison, Hollywood will eventually reboot the character because that's the name of the game these days. Cate Blanchett - Irina Spalko: We realized as we were recording our podcast episode, that Blanchett is an extremely talented actress and has the ability to play a wide range of different types of characters. She delivers a great performance as a Soviet agent and antagonist of the story with Spielberg, Labeouf, and Ford praising her performance and embodying such a unique character with unique characteristics. Shia Labeouf - Mutt Williams: He was high on the actors-wanted list at the time due to his success with the Transformers franchise, but were his negative comments about this film what got him fired from the Transformers films? We don't know for sure, but we speculate it probably was. In any case, Labeouf takes on this role as Mutt Williams, which we later find out is Jones' son. A decent character in our eyes, but by no means an out-of-this-world character. Karen Allen as Marion Ravenswood: It was admittedly exciting to see her take on the role again of Indy's past love interest and mother to Labeouf's character. However, we felt she was underutilized. Our podcast show host Sean felt she was just there to tell Indy he had a son, and then ended up just driving the boats and cars during the chase scenes ... not much else as far as the purpose of her character goes though. Ray Winstone as George "Mac" Michale: Winstone plays a character who used to work alongside Indy, but has allied himself with the Soviets. We'll go into his fate during the film a little later, but not a very complex character who is blinded by greed and money, not to mention that he "tricks" the protagonists by saying he really is an agent infiltrating the Soviets, but pretty much says 'just kidding' later - was that part of his story really necessary? John Hurt as Harold "Ox" Osley: Hurt plays an old friend to Indy and surrogate father to Mutt who, for pretty much the whole film, has gone 'Coo-Coo for Co-Co Puffs' after staring into the crystal skull. His character was enticing and intriguing a the beginning, but fits into the film in an odd way for the rest of the film with being an odd comedic relief at times. Other Casting Notes - Sean Connery was approached to reprise his role as Indy's father,

Check out and listen to our podcast episode discussing our 2020 Oscar predictions and nominees! Who do you think will win? Best Picture Ford v Ferrari The Irishman Jojo Rabbit Joker Little Women Marriage Story 1917 Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Parasite Best Actor Antonio Banderas: Pain and Glory Leonardo DiCaprio: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Adam Driver: Marriage Story Joaquin Phoenix: Joker Jonathan Pryce: The Two Popes Best Actress Cynthia Erivo: Harriet Scarlett Johansson: Marriage Story Saoirse Ronan: Little Women Charlize Theron: Bombshell Renee Zellweger: Judy Best Supporting Actor Tom Hanks: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Anthony Hopkins: The Two Popes Al Pacino: The Irishman Joe Pesci: The Irishman Brad Pitt: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Best Supporting Actress Kathy Bates: Richard Jewell Laura Dern: Marriage Story Scarlett Johansson: Jojo Rabbit Florence Pugh: Little Women Margot Robbie: Bombshell Best Director Martin Scorsese: The Irishman Todd Phillips: Joker Sam Mendes: 1917 Quentin Tarantino: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Bong Joon Ho: Parasite Best Adapted Screenplay Steven Zaillian: The Irishman Taika Waititi: Jojo Rabbit Todd Phillips and Scott Silver: Joker Greta Gerwig: Little Women Anthony McCarten: The Two Popes Best Original Screenplay Rian Johnson: Knives Out Noah Baumbach: Marriage Story Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns: 1917 Quentin Tarantino: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Bong Joon-ho and Jin Won Han: Parasite Best Cinematography Rodrigo Prieto: The Irishman Lawrence Sher: Joker Jarin Blaschke: The Lighthouse Roger Deakins: 1917 Robert Richardson: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Best Film Editing Michael McCusker and Andrew Buckland: Ford v Ferrari Thelma Schoonmaker: The Irishman Tom Eagles: Jojo Rabbit Jeff Groth: Joker Jinmo Yang: Parasite Best Sound Editing Don Sylvester: Ford v Ferrari Alan Robert Murray: Joker Oliver Tarney and Rachel Tate: 1917 Wylie Stateman: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Matthew Wood and David Acord: Star Wars The Rise Of Skywalker Best Sound Mixing Ad Astra Ford v Ferrari Joker 1917 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Best Production Design Bob Shaw and Regina Graves: The Irishman Ra Vincent and Nora Sopkova: Jojo Rabbit Dennis Gassner and Lee Sandales: 1917 Barbara Ling and Nancy Haigh: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Lee Ha-Jun and Cho Won Woo, Han Ga Ram, and Cho Hee: Parasite Best Original Score Hildur Guðnadóttir: Joker Alexandre Desplat: Little Women Randy Newman: Marriage Story Thomas Newman: 1917 John Williams: Star Wars The Rise Of Skywalker (check out our podcast episode on this film here)

This time, we’re doing a Moonraker movie review by taking a journey with Her Majesty’s Secret Service and James Bond. We were also joined by special guest Colin Hope in our podcast episode and we asked, would James Bond make a decent astronaut? Is Hugo Drax a precursor to billionaire villains like Gordon Gekko? and how does the James Bond franchise manage to be a cultural zeitgeist time and time again? Let’s dig in on this edition of Force Fed Sci-Fi! Moonraker (1979) Cast and Crew Directed by Lewis Gilbert: Prior to directing Moonraker, Gilbert had already helmed two Bond films with You Only Live Twice and The Spy Who Loved Me so, he was no stranger to the franchise and certainly brought the unique flair the 1970’s required of Bond films. Roger Moore as James Bond: This was the actor’s fourth Bond film following the previously mentioned The Spy Who Loved Me. His films have since gained the reputation as being the weirdest and wackiest in the series. There are numerous gags that are more for laughs than thrills and Moonraker was no exception. Michael Lonsdale as Hugo Drax: While Lonsdale is more known as an actor in the French cinema, he plays a maniacal billionaire with aspirations of world colonization and eugenics, but for most of the film, he spends his time posturing against 007. From lavish meals to playing an automatic piano and surrounding himself with beautiful women, Drax is someone who wants to be like Bond and will go to every length to fulfill that wish. Lois Chiles as Dr. Holly Goodhead: While Chiles does an admirable job playing Bond’s CIA equivalent, she’s often discounted in the film simply because she is a woman, even though she proves herself more knowledgeable about space travel than 007. Chiles has gone on to distance herself from her portrayal of Dr. Goodhead citing that it’s impossible to live up to people’s fantasies. Richard Kiel as Jaws: Reprising his role from The Spy Who Loved Me, Kiel is actually given a romantic storyline involving a woman of his complete opposite after the producers received letters suggesting the villain become a hero after the character resonated with children. Numerous other veterans from the Bond series reprise their respective roles like: Bernard Lee as M Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny Desmond Llewelyn as Q. It Wasn’t Supposed to Be This Way…. If you’re familiar with the early James Bond films, the credits would often contain the line of “James Bond will return in [INSERT NEXT MOVIE]” and the film that preceded Moonraker was no exception with the next film in the series slated to be For Your Eyes Only, but obviously, this did not happen thanks to a little film called Star Wars. Following the release of the blockbuster in 1977, the Bond producers accelerated their original plan of making Moonraker sometime in the 1980’s to 1979 as it became clear that audiences wanted to see space adventures on the big screen. It’s the first film on Force Fed Sci-Fi that was made in direct response to another film. While For Your Eyes Only would still be released in 1981, moving Moonraker up in the production schedule certainly added unique challenges. The budget for the film was slated for $34 million which was the most expensive Bond film at the time and twice as much as The Spy Who Loved Me. The series is noted for its massive production design and globetrotting adventures, but the legendary spy going to space may not have been as complex as you’d think. To pull off the look of the massive space station for the film’s climax, the special effects team built an impressive miniature that they would blow apart with shotguns to simulate the station being destroyed. While the zero gravity scenes now seem hokey with other space films like Apollo 13 and Ad Astra pioneering new ways to showcase actors in the zero gravity vacuum of space, they were still impressive at the time and one of the scenes even contains the most zero gravity wires ever used in a ...

This time, Force Fed Sci-Fi welcomes its first guest, Brian McLeod, to take a look at Robocop! During our review, we discuss how the character of Robocop himself actually accomplishes little to no police work, could technology offer a solution to areas infested with crime, and is Robocop worthy to get a statue in Detroit? Let’s dig in….. Robocop (Original) Cast Directed by Paul Verhoeven: Born in the Netherlands, Verhoeven had a solid reputation as a filmmaker prior to taking on Robocop. His early collaborations with Rutger Hauer earned him worldwide fame and even earned an Academy Award nomination for Foreign Language Film in 1974. Robocop was Verhoeven’s first major Hollywood film and was able to blend many complex themes together to create an entertaining and memorable story. Starring Peter Weller as Alex Murphy/Robocop: Prior to his casting, Weller was relatively unknown, but starred in the cult hit The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension in 1984. He was not the first choice for Murphy as Rutger Hauer and Michael Ironside were considered, but their large frames would not fit into the Robocop costume. Weller has since gone to have a respectable career appearing in films and television and has earned his Master’s Degree in Roman and Renaissance Art as well as a PhD in Italian Renaissance Art History. Nancy Allen as Anne Lewis: While she does not have a ton of memorable credits to her name, she remained a consistent presence in the Robocop films and would go on to appear in this film’s sequel as well as the third film even after Peter Weller left the franchise. It’s unclear exactly of her feelings towards Murphy whether it’s professional or romantic, but she offers a unique morality to the film as no one comes out smelling like roses at the end. Kurtwood Smith as Clarence Boddicker: Before he was known as Red Forman on That 70’s Show, Smith turned in a rather convincing performance as this drug kingpin. Boddicker clearly has a bevy of mental issues including narcissism and megalomania and has a near total disregard for human life. Everyone around him is either a means to an end or they’re just a target. The filmmakers have commented that making Boddicker an intellectual was intentional even down to the rimless glasses he wore as it made Smith look like infamous Nazi officer Heinrich Himmler Is Robocop a Good Cop? Any police officer will tell you that most of what is seen on television and film is dramatized. Most of the job is filling out paperwork as every stop and movement must be documented and cataloged. Robocop seems to not be familiar with these procedures. First, he just leaves his precinct without informing the Desk Sergeant where he’s going or what area he plans to patrol. Second, he engages in both breaking up a convenience store lobby and an attempted sexual assault without returning to the precinct to fill out any sort of paperwork or arrest log. In addition, we don’t even see him arrest anybody! One of our show's hosts, Chris, is pretty sure that the convenience store robber was also just left dead in the freezer as Robocop drops a cool one-liner and exits the store. Finally, Robocop has a clear disregard for due process. After he interrogates one of Boddicker’s henchman, he breaks into a warehouse without obtaining a warrant and begins shooting up the joint. Not only would any normal cop be removed from patrol duty after a shooting, they would be assigned to attend some type of counseling to gauge how they feel after potentially taking a life. However, since Robocop isn’t technically human, he has no need for this type of post shooting procedure. Behind the Scenes You might be surprised to learn that the original Robocop script was actually written with the violence in mind as the producers went through several choices for the director’s chair before choosing Verhoeven. Several prospective choices wanted to tone down the violence and even Verhoeven was reluctant to t...

This time, Force Fed Sci-Fi is concluding its look into a galaxy far, far away after reviewing Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and along the way we asked, how much fan service is too much, are there any enjoyable moments in the final chapter of the Skywalker saga and what lies ahead for the future of the Star Wars franchise. Let’s dig in... Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Cast & Crew Directed by JJ Abrams: Originally, Colin Trevorrow was slated to direct this entry, but left the project due to “creative differences” with LucasFilm executives. Kathleen Kennedy and Abrams were quickly hired following his success after directing The Force Awakens. It could be that Trevorrow was more interested in taking the story in a different direction while LucasFilm/Disney was more interested in finding a “yes man” for the Star Wars saga As with The Last Jedi, most of the cast like Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac and Adam Driver returned to their respective roles once again with some surprises along the way: Harrison Ford returned in a Force memory as Han Solo and appeal his son’s conflicted nature but it’s likely he got the Marlon Brando treatment with cue cards shown off-screen along with a massive payday. Ian McDiarmid returned to the role of Emperor Palpatine as the shadowy evil pulling the strings behind the First Order. While his casting serves as a link to the Prequel and Classic trilogies. It almost diminishes the direction LucasFilm was attempting with this new group of characters. Richard E. Grant as Allegiant General Pryde: Grant is easily one of the best additions to the film as well as the best villain. He’s ruthless, cunning and has a unique history as it’s clear he served in the Empire during the timeline of the Classic Trilogy. Keri Russell as Zorii Bliss: While her character doesn’t receive much screen time, she’s a welcome addition to the film as she shines light onto Poe’s checkered past and her character seems to only serve as an additional deus ex machina during the final battle - we could see her pop up in a film or Disney+ series with Poe in the future (more on that in a bit). Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian: Williams returns to his role after 30 years and has become something of a reclusive hermit following an adventure with Luke. He’s not hiding like Luke was in The Last Jedi, but he’s also reluctant to rejoin the Rebellion until the very end of the film. Naomi Ackie as Jannah: Cool name, but probably our least favorite new character. She forms a bond with Finn as she is a former stormtrooper herself. She helps aid the Resistance in their fight at the end of the film. Following the passing of Carrie Fisher in 2016, it was later announced that she would appear in The Rise of Skywalker using unused footage from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi but her scenes almost feel incongruous to the overall film - as much as she is beloved to the franchise, the look of her scenes seem unnatural. The Rise of Skywalker Explained: So, What Happened? Let’s dive into explaining The Rise of Skywalker a bit, and for that we need to rewind back to the previous film. Following the backlash with The Last Jedi, it seems the filmmakers went out of their way to simply “play it safe” and wrap up the Skywalker saga in a pretty little bow. Problem is, JJ Abrams and screenwriter Chris Terrio interpreted this as retconning the events of The Last Jedi. By reintroducing Palpatine as the evil behind everything and implying that Snoke was created by him (semi-clone?) implies that Snoke really didn’t matter in terms of the overall story. In addition, characters who were introduced in The Last Jedi, like Rose Tico, were relegated to “desk duty” for the film and had either little to no lines or simply did not factor into the action shown on screen. Luke Skywalker’s characterization was also massively retconned. Following a battle where Rey nearly kills Kylo Ren,

This time, we’re continuing our look into a galaxy far, far away with Star Wars: The Last Jedi and along the way we ask, why does Sean hate this film so much, just how toxic are Star Wars fans, and what exactly is the theme that Rian Johnson is going for? Let’s explore this far away galaxy... Star Wars: The Last Jedi Crew and Cast Written and directed by Rian Johnson: Johnson has been the subject of a previous episode on the show (please check out Looper), but we feel like he kind of dropped the ball this time around given his convoluted mix of themes, plot lines that remain unexplored, and a disregard for the narrative set forth by The Force Awakens. With the exception of Harrison Ford, the entire cast from the first film returned including Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis and Domhnall Gleeson. Several new characters were cast in the film including: Laura Dern as Vice Admiral Holdo: Dern is an incredibly accomplished actress, but it seemed like her character only served the purpose of clashing with Poe Dameron and it’s only a disservice to her talent (she was previously covered on our Jurassic Park review, check it out if you get a chance) Benicio Del Toro as DJ: Del Toro may be phoning it in this time around. His character has a stammer and almost seems to act as this foreshadowing device for him being a traitor/snake. Rian Johnson almost considered this part being portrayed by the character of Lando (after all, just like Han, he once was someone looking to make some money). We're glad Rian Johnson did not go this route. Check out more about Johnson's thought process on this idea here. Another question though, did he end up getting killed in the explosion? We think most likely, but I suppose you never know (we didn't actually see it!) Kelly Marie Tran as Rose: Tran drew the most criticism of any actor in the film, but it wasn’t directed at her character or her use in the film. Instead the attacks were directed to her personally. We should reiterate that faults with the film lie with the filmmakers and not the actors themselves unless there is a legitimate argument to be had. We think she did a fair job at her part (not great, but certainly not terrible .. again blame can be put on the filmmakers too). Similarly to Daisy Ridley, Tran ended up deleting her Instagram account because of all of the harassment. No one should have to go through that, but we praise Tran and our host Chris has a crush on her?? Haha, just kidding everyone! Finally, as with the previous seven films in the series, John Williams returned to compose the soundtrack for the film with adding another amazing addition to his Star Wars score repertoire. What Went Wrong: Was The Last Jedi Terrible as So Many Believe? There’s a lot to unpack with that sentence. For starters, we want to point out that setting this film as a direct sequel to The Force Awakens probably did not help the story (where as we kind of think The Force Awakens jumped too far). What aided the classic trilogy as well as the prequel trilogy was there was maybe a few years passed between all of the films. This allowed for the characters to develop independent of what was shown on screen as well as for events to unfold that the audience did not require a full explanation to understand. This can be summed up best in the opening of the film when the Resistance has to flee their base despite having delivered a significant blow to the First Order by destroying Starkiller Base (how did the First Order reorganize so quickly!). This is then followed up with Poe dropping a Mom joke on General Hux. If you’re scratching your head after reading that, you are not alone (although our producer Jeremy enjoyed Poe's jokes up until the 'mom' part ... "Hi I'm holding for General 'Hugs' ... Ok I'll hold"). The whole tone of the film feels off compared to what we just saw in The Force Awakens,

This time on Force Fed Sci-Fi, we are beginning our look into the Star Wars sequel films with Episode 7: The Force Awakens. Along the way we ask, is 30 years simply too long a time to simply resume the saga, how can someone like Kylo Ren have both daddy and granddaddy issues and how much nostalgia is too much? Let’s take our first steps and dive in as we discuss and review The Force Awakens ….. Disney's Acquisition of LucasFilm and the Beginnings of the Next Triology To properly begin the story of The Force Awakens, we have to go behind the scenes for a little bit and travel back to 2012 when Disney acquired LucasFilm. A hefty price tag of $4 billion for the acquisition and with that, the announcement of a new round of Star Wars films would be produced. George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars franchise, had actually developed ideas for a new round of films as far back as the 1980’s, but made the prequels first to round out the story that the original trilogy started. However, Lucas never got around to making Episodes 7, 8 or 9. Our hosts speculate that the effort of making the prequels and the backlash he was receiving for those in addition to the near constant changes he was adding to the original films probably didn’t motivate him to direct another film. Following Disney’s major purchase, legendary producer Kathleen Kennedy was placed in charge of LucasFilm and tabbed JJ Abrams as the director for Episode 7 who quickly moved to say that Lucas’ ideas for the sequel films would not be used and they would proceed with their own creative group and ideas. There is much speculation as to why Abrams and Kennedy would go this route (probably Disney execs), but the bottom line is that Lucas had plenty of time to make those films and he simply chose not to do so. Star Wars The Force Awakens Cast List Original Cast Harrison Ford as Han Solo: Obviously Ford has had a great career outside of playing Solo, but he returns to the role that made him a star and is a bright spot for this film. Unfortunately, we are met with his death at the end. We won't lie, it got us feeling sad as we see a beloved Star Wars character's story come to an end, killed by his own son too! Carrie Fischer as General Organa: Fischer returns to her legendary role and contributes to the reunion of the original trilogy cast. The years were not exactly kind to Fischer as she struggled with alcohol and drugs, but it should be noted that she publicly spoke about it, even in seminars, to bring awareness to alcoholism and addiction. We thank you Carrie! Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker: While Hamill has no lines of dialogue, his presence in the film serves as a McGuffin. Our hosts believe that he was not made a bigger part in the film as it would be distracting from the newer, younger actors (as it was we already had Solo and Leia taking attention away from the newcomers). Anthony Daniels as C-3PO: It was nice to see him come back once again to reprise his role adding to the reunion of the original trilogy cast. Peter Mayhew/Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca: Peter Mayhew returned to role of Chewbacca, but did not perform the part for the whole film due to knee and back problems; therefore, newcomer Joonas Suotamo also portrayed the part of Chewbacca in this film, and would take over the role in subsequent films. Newcomer Cast List Daisy Ridley as Rey: Ridley’s major credits prior to being cast were several short films, but her performance helped launch her career as she’s since starred in films like Murder on the Orient Express, Ophelia and the Peter Rabbit series. John Boyega as Finn: Our hosts have discussed Boyega in a prior film on the show, Attack the Block and we finally get to see him in a major blockbuster film! Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron: Isaac had filled up his resume with several minor roles prior to 2013 when he landed the lead in the Coen Brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis and like his counterparts,

This time, Force Fed Sci-Fi takes a look at an overlooked classic in The Thing From Another World (1951 film) and discussed during our review about how problematic an author can truly be, why American history from the 1950’s provides context for the film, and does this film actually surpass its subsequent remakes? Let’s dig in and find out... Differences Between the Film and Novella It’s important to note that this film is based on a novella originally titled Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell and let’s just say there were many differences between the source material and the final product: The novella takes place at a research station in Antarctica while the film is set in the Arctic Circle. The design of the Thing is actually considerably different. In the novella, it’s described as having three eyes and is noted for having telepathic abilities and the ability to shapeshift. In the film, The Thing has become a plant-based humanoid creature with the ability to regenerate and subsists on blood. The crew of the research station in the novella is notably all male while the film contains a somewhat diverse crew of male and females. The film is still male heavy, it is the 1950’s after all The novella is much darker than the film with the research station containing a full working farm containing a whole stable of cattle who are then slaughtered so they will not be killed by The Thing and the story ends with 14 of the station’s inhabitants being gruesomely killed whereas in the film, only 2 of the researchers are killed along with the sled dog team John W. Campbell In addition to the notable differences between the novella and the film, the author Campbell, wasn’t exactly the nicest of people. He is described as taking the “devil’s advocate” approach to many topics and had many problematic views on slavery, integration and the Civil War. He was also a notorious chain smoker and even disputed the link between smoking and lung cancer and even embraced many branches of pseudoscience in the hopes of expanding medical discovery. He also wrote and glowingly praised the historical (villain) L. Ron Hubbard and began to experiment in Dianetics. Let’s just say Campbell was problematic to say the least. At The Time of the Film.. The Thing From Another World was released in 1951 and it’s important to understand the American cultural lexicon at the time. The Korean Conflict was just ramping up and would end in a stalemate a few years later. This was a serious blow to American morale as we were coming off a victory lap following World War II and would affect our fighting forces for years to come. The McCarthy Hearings on Communism were being televised across the nation and would abruptly end when Senator McCarthy was called out during a now infamous hearing with the quote “Have you no decency, sir?” and his reputation ruined following numerous reports by now legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow. For further context on the McCarthy Hearings, we definitely recommend the film Good Night and Good Luck. In addition to these historical events, Hollywood was ruled by what has become to be known as the Hays Code, a set of self-governing rules film studios went by in order to make their films as non-offensive as possible. For a complete breakdown of the rules outlined in the Hays Code, check out this link here or make sure to listen to our podcast episode. Basically, every film produced in Hollywood from the 1930’s to the late 1960’s followed this code and was eventually replaced by the rating system we know today. Interesting side note though, the first film to receive a PG-13 rating was the 1987 Cold War film, Red Dawn following the suggestion of Steven Spielberg. In hindsight, the Hays Code can be seen as censorship, but films did not receive the same type of releases we see now. Many films were boycotted regionally and the Code was a way of assuring that films could enjoy nationwide releases.

On this edition of Force Fed Sci-Fi, we took a look at and reviewed the Netflix film, I Am Mother. Among many things, we debated about how the world ended in this film, is society simply allowing technology to raise our children and just how freaky is that underground base? Let’s jump in and begin…. I Am Mother Cast and Crew Directed by Grant Sputore As far as we can tell, this is the only major film that Sputore has directed. His only searchable credit was an Australian television show where he directed several episodes, but for his first time in the director’s chair, he did a fairly decent job. While the concept may have been a bit too ambitious for him, we’re hoping to see more of him in the future. Clara Rugaard as Daughter Rugaard is another newcomer to the scene with not many credits to her name other than several Danish television shows. She brought a certain grace and naiveté to the film as her character has been sheltered for her entire life without any knowledge of the world beyond their bunker. Surprisingly, she outperforms the other two actresses in this film. Rose Byrne as Mother Technically, she was only the voice of Mother and Luke Hawker was the physical stand in during filming. She voices Mother as very even keeled and matter of fact, but that’s almost a given considering she’s voicing a robot. She has an accomplished resume, and while this is a fair performance, it's not going to be a role that's to notable on her resume. Hilary Swank as Woman The two time Oscar winner brings her acting skills to this film ... kind of. As mentioned previously, Rugaard outshines her counterparts in many regards in I Am Mother as we get no real insights into her background - how did she end up on the beach in a shipping container or who shot her near the beginning of the film? It’s hard to connect to a character when we don’t know much regarding their backstory, but of course we can't always blame the actor/actress as some of the blame can be put on certain crew members. For Starters, What Happened in I Am Mother? (a bit confusing...) I Am Mother mostly takes place in an underground bunker where the no-name daughter is being cared for by a robot simply known as Mother, but a question that our host Chris brought up in the podcast episode is how did this world come to be the way it is? It seems like there was some sort of cataclysm, but it is not immediately clear as to exactly what the event was - was it war, famine, a combination of both? We don’t find out until later in the film that Mother is part of a larger entity that was created by the military. Was its true purpose to really re-create humanity in the event of destruction? We're pretty sure that Mother and the robotic entity Mother is associated with eventually turned on humanity which, sounds eerily familiar to us but we suppose this idea isn’t exclusive to The Terminator. Set Production and Its Contribution to the Film The underground bunker does look great on film and the production design team deserves a lot of credit for what they accomplished, but the layout of this facility isn’t exactly clear. There’s an expansive living facility for all of the humans that will be grown and what we assume is a very large warehouse for storage, but there is also medical facilities and classrooms. The hallways are extraordinarily long, like Stranger Things season three long, and maybe a vehicle of some sort would have made navigating this facility a bit easier. The facility itself provides insight as to how far technology has come in the future. We see babies being grown in just a day and advanced medical equipment to diagnose almost immediately to determine what is wrong with a potential patient. It is an interesting juxtaposition to see how advanced the bunker is compared to how simply Hilary Swank’s character is living. After escaping an underground facility of her own where the inhabitants turned to cannibalism to stay alive,

For this edition, we are taking a look at the anime movie Akira (1988 film). We'll discuss Katsuhiro Otomo and the many parts he played involving this movie, the Akira characters, try to explain the ending of Akira as it is a bit confusing, give our own Akira movie rating, and more. Akira Quick Plot Summary The movie's main focus is about two young friends in a biker gang, Kaneda and Tetsuo, set in Neo-Tokyo (Tokyo was destroyed in an event only referred to as 'the singularity' which seems very nuclear-like). Tetsuo is captured after a biking accident by the military/government, is experimented on, and develops telekinetic powers. He slowly loses control of his powers and threatens the city of Neo-Tokyo. All the while his friend Kaneda, the leader of the motorcycle gang, tries his best to find him and save him from himself. Both young men are thrust into the chaos and dirty politics that surround the city. As the mysteries of a being known as “Akira” slowly unfold, it becomes more and more difficult for Kaneda to save Tetsuo. Director of Akira - Katsuhiro Otomo Katsuhiro Otomo is best known for writing and directing the film Akira, but he also created the manga of the same name that preceded the movie. He brought to life this controversial, but artistic manga that ended up being one of the most inspirational animes of all time. In addtion, Otomo added his critiques of Japan, it’s politics, and culture. We enjoyed Otomo's visual imagery and the animation is still impressive even thirty-one years later. It paints a grotesque picture of what the near future could become. His depiction of Neo-Tokyo is really something - a grand city, vast in technology and civilization; however, the metropolis is riddled with crime, terrorism, and isolationism that many of the citizens experience. The dystopian, cyberpunk styles with bright neon lights and colors all tied together with the soundtrack from Geinō Yamashirogumi and Tsutomu Ōhashi (Shoji Yamashiro) is so eerie that it’s almost impossible not to experience chills while watching the film. Particularly when Tetsuo finally begins to embrace his telekinetic powers and casts off on his brutal death rampage of the city. All-in-all, Otomo should be best remembered for introducing anime to mainstream audiences and having the courage to tell a brutally honest, yet, disturbing story of two young men. Akira Characters Shōtarō Kaneda The leader of the bike gang and protagonist. His character is a bit divisive to us. Kaneda’s character arch does take a long time to come to fruition in the story. His personality is abrasive and felt one dimensional for the majority of the film, until the end. His whole motivation was machismo oriented and it seemed his sole purpose for doing anything was to be cool and look cool. In addition, Kaneda is kind of a hot head, especially when things don't go his way. It would have been nice to have seen a more in depth explanation of Kaneda and Tetsuo's relationship as a child, but the film didn't give that to us until the very end. While Kaneda is very predictable and has a short temper, it does fit his character's background and age group (I guess we don't really know how old he is as the audience isn't told, but seems most likely he is a mid to late teenager). While his character arch does not reveal itself until the end like we mentioned, it is a positive change for good and was nice to see when it finally came full circle. He is met with a decision of either trying to save his friend or risking further death and destruction to innocent people. Kaneda’s arch is a great reflection on human behavior and how people tend to not change until trauma or insight. Also a random side note, his Michael Jackson Thriller outfit deserves a 10, it is absolute fire! Tetsuo Shima Tetsuo is the antagonist of the film. Early perceived as being the weak link of the bike gang and seemingly pushed around by Kaneda,

This time, we take a look at and review Terminator: Dark Fate, the latest entry into The Terminator franchise. We'll be looking at the Terminator: Dark Fate synopsis, movie cast, the somewhat controversial John Connor death, give our own movie rating, consider exactly how many intimidating women can one film have, and is this Arnold Schwarzenegger's last Terminator film? Let's dive in! (And if you haven't already, check out our reviews of the first two films in the franchise, The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day!) **WARNING, SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN TERMINATOR: DARK FATE YET** (In addition, apologies we have been behind on releasing our podcast episodes and web posts ... as Chris would say ... we've been too busy 'adulting' ... enjoy!) Terminator: Dark Fate - John Connor Death (Controversial?) Quite simply, it is quite a shock. The scene shows John Connor being found by a different T-800 and being shot several times resulting in the character's death. His mother Sarah reveals instant heartache as she was helpless to save her son. The majority of audiences probably felt that heartache too (we know we did). However, it seems some people out there aren't happy with this decision ... like, they refuse to accept it. Dani Di Placido with Forbes says that the scene "completely disregard(s) the only sequel that fans love - Terminator 2 … he was our main connection to the original films, and his death renders both of those movies pointless" (read more of his article here). Richard Trenholn with cnet.com writes "this prologue undermines Terminator 2 by killing a major character in such a cursory fashion it just feels silly." (read more of his article here). We acknowledge that some people are upset because you might say "Well what the heck was the point of the first two films!?" We get it. The first two films were all about the need for John Connor to survive. However, remember that the future with Skynet was averted at the end of Terminator 2. Okay, okay … the one small gripe we may have is the very quick and thrown-in fix of 'oh, well there was more than one terminator sent back at the same time to kill John Connor.' Let's say we buy into it though and continue. So, with the potential Skynet timeline being averted, anything can now happen. Many praise Linda Hamilton and her character in this film (we'll get to that discussion in a bit). John had to die for her character arc to evolve into what it is in Dark Fate. In addition, a sequel that is a soft reboot needs to be unique itself. We think with Connor not being the future resistance leader makes the film pretty unique from the others, don't you? All-in-all, take a deep breath everyone! Yes it's shocking, but let's embrace something new. Let there be new characters and let there be new stories. Alright … rant over. You may continue, haha! (As a side note, the scene includes the recreation of John and Sarah Connor along with an undamaged T-800 as if we were watching a Terminator 2 post-credits scene in 1991 - actually looked decent, so good job on the filmmakers part) Terminator: Dark Fate Timeline Clarifications (Confused Yet!?) Following the release of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the franchise has seen some less than spectacular sequels like Rise of the Machines and the aforementioned Salvation and Genisys. The latter two were designed to be the start of their own trilogy of films, but these were critical and commercial flops. So, plans were made by producer James Cameron to make a direct sequel to the films he previously made. While this could be seen as a vain attempt to regain control of his brainchild, this actually makes the most sense as the time travel elements in Genisys were too complicated to continue on and the franchise has been plagued with inconsistency following his departure. During the events of Judgment Day, Sarah and John destroyed Cyberdyne Systems, the company that would ultimately create Skynet and ...

This week, we’re continuing our look into the Terminator franchise by reviewing Terminator 2: Judgment Day. We'll take a look at the Terminator 2 cast members, best quotes, thumbs up scene, give our own Terminator 2 rating, and more. So let's dive in as we examine how James Cameron was able to construct a highly regarded sequel. And if you haven't already, go back to our previous episode / post as we talked about the first Terminator film in depth as well! Terminator 2 Cast Members and Crew While James Cameron, Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger all returned from the previous film, a lot happened for each of them during the time it took to make Judgment Day. James Cameron - Director / Writer Cameron would direct two of the most well-regarded science fiction films prior to The Terminator sequel between 1984 and 1991 with Aliens and The Abyss, but there was a lot of legal wrangling that took place behind the scenes in order for Cameron to return to make Judgment Day. He originally envisioned the T-1000 a part of the original film, but the technology didn’t exist in the mid 80’s to pull off that look. However, with the effects he pioneered in The Abyss, he was able to bring his vision of the T-1000 to the big screen. In addition, this could be considered his master class in how to design and direct an action film. The camera work is some of the best seen in the genre particularly during the freeway chase when the T-1000 has commandeered a helicopter and is chasing our heroes as the helicopter passes under a bridge at high speed and catches up to them as a shootout ensues. The hallway scene where we meet the Terminators is also among one of the best in the film as the T-800 and the T-1000 converge and we figure out who is the villain and who is the protector. The scene then moves to John as he tries to escape down the Los Angeles canals as the T-800 intervenes and saves him once again. The T-800 definitely knows how to help people escape as he easily dispatches the orderlies at the hospital in order to save Sarah and it leads to another spectacular chase scene. The film is book-ended by solid action in the first and third act but the second act is crammed with exposition that you almost forget they’re being chased by the T-1000. If there is one negative critique we have against Judgment Day, it would be here in this second act where John is trying to instill some personality into the T-800 and Sarah becomes so focused on her mission that she almost murders a man in cold blood. There are many scenes we can diagnose and break down, but the bottom line is that no matter what criticisms may be leveled at James Cameron, the man knows how to make a great action movie. Arnold Schwarzenegger - T 800 / "Model 101" Arnold was arguably the biggest star in the world at the time of Judgment Day’s release after starring in films like Commando, Predator, The Running, Twins, Total Recall and Kindergarten Cop between 1984 and 1991. Maybe it was because Arnold had transitioned to playing hero roles or maybe not, but the switch of him playing a non-villainous robot in this film compared to the first one was a good choice for his character, it probably would have been a mistake if they made him the ruthless terminator character he played prior. Linda Hamilton - Sarah Connor Hamilton was not exactly lighting up Hollywood prior to T2, but was making herself known on the small screen by starring on the short-lived, but critically acclaimed television series Beauty and the Beast opposite of Ron Perlman (Side Note: Game of Thrones creator, George R.R. Martin, also wrote on the show), but Hamilton gladly returned to the role that made her a star and turned in one of her more notable performances in her entire career. Robert Patrick - T 1000 Robert Patrick makes his first appearance in the franchise, and really his first big time role, as the new and deadlier Terminator, the T-1000.

This week, we take look at the classic and franchise-setting film, The Terminator! We'll be discussing The Terminator movie cast, The Terminator special effects, the Nike shoes product placement in the film, our own The Terminator film review and rating, and more! So take a seat, listen to our podcast episode and/or read and learn about this legendary movie (and if you leave, you'll be terminated...jk). The Terminator Movie Cast and Director James Cameron as Director/Writer We've briefly discussed James Cameron here at Force Fed Sci-Fi before when we discussed and reviewed Strange Days, which Cameron wrote. However, The Terminator was his directorial debut. And for his directorial debut, Cameron was beyond successful. Of course, we'll talk about the legacy a bit later, but we all know this first film spawned a globally known franchise. Arnold Schwarzeneggar as the Terminator / T-800 / "model 101" It may be safe to say that this movie helped Schwarzeneggar reach global fame while his previous film Conan the Barbarian was more of a break-through role. It's interesting to think as to why his terminator role raised his stardom. While it did help that this film was praised for its special effects, why did a part with little emotion and only 17 to 18 lines make Arnold famous? Prior to selecting Schwarzeneggar as the title role, Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone were in line to receive the part. In fact, Cameron wanted OJ simpson to be the terminator but decided against it (ironically) because he felt OJ could not convey a convincing killer. Schwarzeneggar was actually considered for the role of Kyle Reese first, but it's probably a good thing that his role switched due to Cameron wanting someone bigger and intimidating playing the role (kind of a no-brainer in our opinion). His ability to play such a brutal and murdering cybernetic robot with no emotion was excellent and well portrayed. Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese We weren't too familiar with Biehn's filmography prior to The Terminator. With that being said, we think he did a pretty good job executing the role of Reese. What we were intrigued about was casting someone who had more smarts to fight the terminator rather than another body builder. In addition, he's a kind of a scrawny guy. As we talked and thought about it more, you wonder how much actors like Schwarzeneggar and Stallone influenced roles of villains and superheros. Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor Hamilton does a great job playing Connor, who's arc is the most interesting, but doesn't reveal itself until close to the end of the film. For most of the movie, she's an unassuming and almost damsel in distress of a character. She doesn't believe in herself which makes her doubt Reese's story of her raising the leader of a future resistance. Maybe it's because the terminator has closed in on her and is about to take her life, but she musters up a lot of courage to start fighting back, even yells at Reese as he's badly injured, "On your feet soldier!" While Reese is the one who damages the terminator, its Connor that ultimately leads the cyborg a certain way so she can crush and defeat it. Paul Winfield as lieutenant Ed Traxler The police lieutenant that gets shot by the terminator during the police station ... we think massacre is a good word for it. Winfield would go on to appear in several other sci-fi outings, albeit small and brief roles, including Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the Star Trek The Next Generation series, as well as Babylon 5. He eventually had a bit of a voice-over career as well. Lance Henrikson as sergeant Hal Vukovich The police sergeant that also gets blown away during the incredible police station shoot up sequence. Henrikson was the veteran actor in the film actually with a number of credits prior, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but only had a small supporting role in this film. And a short and brief appearance by a very young Bill Paxton...

This week, we take a look at and talk about Lost In Space (1998 film). We'll take a look at the Lost In Space movie cast, talk about the Lost In Space movie sequel that never happened, the despicable (and questionable) characters including Spider Smith, Matt LeBlanc not being a believable action hero, and the fact that this film sort of doesn't even get the "lost" part right. Let’s blast off in search of Alpha Prime and then go into a time portal and forget why we’re on this journey…. Lost In Space Movie Cast William Hurt as John Robinson Now heading into this film, Hurt had a pretty solid resume after appearing in Oscar nominated films such as Children of a Lesser God and Kiss of the Spider Woman which he did win Best Actor for the latter. However, it felt like he started phoning it in towards the end of the film and stopped trying to carry the cast but his character isn’t that likeable to begin with since he knowingly puts his family at risk and he’s ignoring them for the majority of the film. Matt LeBlanc as Major Don West In the late 90’s, LeBlanc was on one of the biggest shows in television history, Friends. It’s really hard to imagine him in this very serious and tough guy role. On our podcast episode, Chris commented that he expected LeBlanc to shout out a line from his show like “Joey doesn’t share food!” or something for more comedic effect than straightforward seriousness. It’s also important to mention that Sean Patrick Flanery was considered for this role, but was let go during rehearsals as it was thought he closely resembled William Hurt. Heather Graham as Judy Robinson To say this film potentially derailed her rising star isn’t too far of a stretch. The year before, she starred in the cult hit Boogie Nights as Roller Girl and appeared in the mid 90’s comedy Swingers alongside Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn. With this film underperforming and being poorly received, it’s more than likely that she lost some opportunities to star in bigger films. While she did continue to receive work through the early 2000’s, she wasn’t exactly prominent until she appeared in 2009’s The Hangover. Gary Oldman as Doctor Smith We all agreed that the awesomeness of Gary Oldman cannot be said enough, but this is one of his rare films that we’d rather forget. While he stars in a great film literally every year going back to 1991, we question his choice to star in this film. One of the most distracting elements on Lost in Space is the fact that Oldman speaks in overly poetic language and fully embraces his turn as the villain. This may have actually been a decent effort, but the effort of his acting may have been too much compared to his co-cast members. Spider Smith This was quite an odd choice to turn Doctor Smith into the future Spider Smith. We'll get into some of the terrible effects this film included in a bit, but this character definitely contributed to the awful visuals as the computerized sight of Spider Smith makes the audience say "What the...?" If it the purpose of turning this character into something more terrifying, it really wasn't necessary. We understood that Doctor Smith was the villain with the usual dark villainous traits a protagonist carries. Jared Harris as Older Will Robinson This is just a small added note that Jared Harris appeared in the film. His voice was dubbed though in post-production. It sounds very odd if you know what Jared Harris' voice sounds like. If they didn't like his voice for the part, why did they cast him anyways? From Television Show to the Silver Screen We didn’t discuss the original show in great detail during the podcast episode, but the show was on television from 1965 to 1968 and was clearly some sort of Star Trek rip-off, but was also incredibly expensive to produce. Each episode cost over $130,000 to produce in 1965 which translates to just over $1 million in 2019 so it’s no surprise that the show lasted only three seasons. Interestingly though,

This week we take you back to philosophy 101 with our review of The Matrix. Join us as we take a look at The Matrix movie cast, talk about the red pill, blue pill meaning, ask the question 'are we living in a simulation?' and finally, give our own Matrix movie rating. Quick Philosophical Commentary The Matrix does serve as another cautionary tale very much like most modern sci-fi films. The film critiques our reliance on technology, human nature, reality, spirituality, and “are we truly living our best life." We followed a young hacker who could not come to grips with his mundane existence and ends up finding out that everything he knows is a lie. This film borrows elements from Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Christianity, though, not too heavy handed. The Matrix Movie Cast and Directors Directors - the Wachowski's The Matrix is written and directed by the Wachowski's. The film serves as their second directorial effort after 1996’s “Bound”. The Matrix was an international success and skyrocketed the Wachowski's to global fame. Critics raved about their direction, story, and use of mind-bending special effects. Our podcast show hosts had some commentary on their careers so far. Chris believes that the Wachowski's may have peaked with this film due to their follow-up films never catching the same fire as the first one. Sean felt otherwise, citing “Cloud Atlas” as a nice return to form for the Wachowski's, but does agree they have yet to make another film as universally acclaimed as The Matrix. Keanu Reeves - Neo/Thomas Anderson Keanu Reeves was sort of lucky in a sense to get the part of Neo since the studio seemed to want a few other A-list actors to have the role at the time. The list of actors who turned down the role included Will Smith (who went to film Wild Wild West instead … ha!), Val Kilmer, Brad Pitt, and Nicolas Cage. Johnny Depp also auditioned for the role, but ultimately it went to Reeves. It’s curious to think about how different the role of Neo would have been with Will Smith donning the leather and glasses. In the end we got Reeves, and not to disappoint. Reeves worked hard on perfecting his fight scenes which we believe have carried over to the John Wick films. Neo as a character took the audience on a ride throughout the film as we see him grow and become more certain of who he is and what he can do in the Matrix. Elements of religion with Neo representing a Christ-like figure were prominent as he served as “The One” and would end up dying and coming back to life. The only criticism was (Sean gave) felt Reeves' acting was stiff throughout the film; however, there's always the possibility this was a directors choice and preference. Laurence Fishburne - Morpheus Fishburne's character served as a mentor and coach throughout the film, sort of like Neo's Yoda. He awakens Neo to the idea that he is part of the machine and needs to “unplug” in order to truly live. Morpheus is cool, has great shades, and a solid fighting style. However, it feels like Morpheus and his whole crew were “too in for the win” or being so sure that Neo was the chosen one. While watching the film Morpheus would drop one-liners like a college philosophy professor and have Neo fend for himself. As leaders and mentors go, we would give him a C+. Carrie-Anne Moss - Trinity The studio initially wanted Janet Jackson to play the role of Trinity, but due to scheduling conflicts she had to drop out. However, the role eventually went to Moss who is quoted saying “she didn’t have a career before The Matrix. This film definitely was the turning point in her career as her fame shot up to the top, momentarily at least. Hugo Weaving - Agent Smith Agent Smith serves as our villain in the story, at least the "machine villain" in our own terms. He is set on finding Zion so he can finish what his program was meant to do. Agent Smith said he had been with the Matrix since it was created six cycles ago.

This week, we’re taking a look at one of the most terrifying films ever made and one of the best films covered on Force Fed Sci-Fi so far, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978). Join us as we dive into the Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) cast, Invasion of the Body Snatchers Ending, give our own Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) review and rating. It's amazing how this movie for its time took multiple genre motifs, combined them, and turned this movie into a classic for both horror and science-fiction. Jump in with us and shriek your way through our discussion on this weekly edition of Force Fed Sci-Fi! Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) Cast and Director Donald Sutherland as Dr. Matthew Bennell Sutherland was actually something of an established actor prior to taking on the role of Matthew while previously appearing in M*A*S*H, The Dirty Dozen, Kelly’s Heroes and Animal House which also came out in 1978. Obviously Sutherland would go on to have further success and continues to star in films to this day and this film is definitely a notch in his resume. (We also just covered Ad Astra which also stars Donald Sutherland, check it out!) Jeff Goldblum as Jack Bellicec Another actor who would go on to have mega success in their career, Goldblum stars in this film as one of his early entries into Hollywood. We agreed that it was nice to see Goldblum simply act and not add any sort of pause or inflection as he tends to do nowadays. His character of Jack deals with quite a bit during this film as he constantly feels like he’s in competition with a colleague and discovers one of the "pod" extraterrestrials in his family business. Leonard Nimoy as Dr. David Kibner Nimoy’s casting was intentional on the part of Kaufman as the producers were hoping to break the typecasting Nimoy was dealing with following the conclusion of the Star Trek series. His character walks the line of being a hero and a villain as we don’t find out until later in the film that he’s in command of several of the "pod" aliens and is attempting to convert Matthew and Jack into the "pod" clone collective. Veronica Cartwright as Nancy Bellicec We aren’t sure how Cartwright can pull off looking scared all the time, but she does it well. She also played Lambert in 1979’s Alien and she was just terrified the entire time. It’s not a critique of her acting style, but adding her to play the part of a terrified woman was a great choice for the film. She seemed to be the last human alive in San Francisco at the end. Did she survive her being discovered at the end? Probably not, but more on that later. Brooke Adams as Elizabeth Driscoll While Adams has limited credits to her name, we feel like she did a great job in her performance of Elizabeth. It seems like she is the target of the "pods" as it’s not until the third time that she’s converted into one herself. Throughout the film she joins and stays with Matthew and his friends to figure out a way to battle the invasion, but it seems like an impossible task that’s laid out before them. Directed by Philip Kaufman We were surprised to learn that Philip Kaufman is something of a legend in Hollywood. While some of his bigger credits come from The Outlaw Josey Wales and Raiders of the Lost Ark as a screenwriter, he also directed The Right Stuff, a look at the early days of the NASA space program. He brought many of his personal influences to Invasion of the Body Snatchers as San Francisco is his hometown and wanted to showcase the city. Released at an Interesting Time in America's History As we analyzed during the podcast episode, Invasion of the Body Snatchers came out at an interesting time in American history back in 1978. The country wasn’t that far removed from the end of the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal was still fresh in the minds of citizens, crime was at an all-time high and gas prices were on the rise (ok, not as close to what they are today, but still).

This week, we've decided to do an extra bonus podcast episode by taking a look at the new film Ad Astra. Join us as we go over the Ad Astra plot summary, disscuss the Ad Astra movie cast and the Ad Astra director, give our own Ad Astra rating and review, and more. So strap in and blast off as we travel through space to find out just how good this film is! Ad Astra Plot Summary The film takes place in the "near future" according to the opening crawl. We find out that famed astronaut Clifford McBride left Earth 30 years prior on the LIMA project in order to try to find extraterrestrial life by being stationed towards the outer portion of the solar system. Unfortunately, he and his crew were never heard from again. After surviving a fall off of the international space antenna due to a surge that emanated from somewhere other than Earth, Space Command Major Roy McBride is told by a few of his superiors that they believe his father, Clifford, is still alive and that the surge, which is now repeating itself and threatens to disrupt Earth and its inhabitants, is emanating from the LIMA project stationed at Neptune. Roy is tasked with traveling to Mars to try to make contact with his father. However, there are concerns being kept from Roy about the mental state of Clifford if indeed he still is alive. Eventually, Roy finds out about these secrets being kept from him and forces himself to confront his father himself, all the while realizing his own emotional state is not in control as he always thought it was. He must not only confront his father in the end, but also confront himself and his own emotional and mental state. When Does Ad Astra take place? On our podcast show, Chris guesses that this film takes place at minimum 100 years into the future if not 200. We discuss that technology doesn't to have seemed to advance as much as we might think. We do see the development of energy-based pistols (laser guns) as we experience a fantastic chase scene on the moon, and we also see that the human race can travel to the moon and other planets faster than today which seems to have led to a bit of colonization on the moon and Mars. However, it is interesting to see that the ships traveling are still rocket-based and powered by fuel burning (it may be a different type of fuel since they can travel faster? but the audience doesn't really know, just our possible speculation). In addition, future-based films usually display a utopian or dystopian society. This society seems like it's the same, or as Chris simply put it on our podcast episode, things are okay (although, inflation has climbed really high as a pillow and a blanket costs $125 on a trip to the moon). With all of that being said, there are some futuristic elements that the audience experiences in this film, but it doesn't seem like a huge leap in technological advances; therefore, our guess is 100 to 200 years into the future. Ad Astra Director (and Writer) James Gray is the director of Ad Astra and was also the main writer. We guess that this film was almost like a pet project, that he really wanted to make this film. Gray supposedly wanted to make one of the most accurate films to depict space travel. He does a great job as we have mentioned on the podcast before that space is a hostile environment, and it is definitely shown that way in Ad Astra. Ad Astra Movie Cast Brad Pitt as Roy McBride Let's just start out by saying, wow! Pitt did a remarkable job with this character who needed to be portrayed as an extremely complicated man. Roy is a major with the Space Command who at first, seems to be someone who is constantly calm with his heart rate always being low (guess they needed to include his spectacular healthy heart rate to try to convince the audience he is of sound mind). However, the audience eventually finds out that he is really just pushing his emotions and feelings away and not dealing with them. This seems to be the cause of him separating from ...

We enter Vin Diesel's Riddick sci-fi movie franchise this week by reviewing and discussing the film Pitch Black. Along the way we will take a look at the Pitch Black movie cast, review some of the cheesy and funny Pitch Black movie quotes, and finally give our own Pitch Black review and rating. So shave your head and don those goggles (hopefully you really don't do that), and strap in for a ride. Pitch Black Movie Cast and Director David Twohy - Director Photo by Gage Skidmore While Pitch Black has gained cult status and Twohy wrote the screenplay for the critically acclaimed film The Fugitive, there really hasn't been much other success with his films whether it be directorial or writer. With that being said, overall Twohy did a nice job with this film, but we'll get into our compliments a bit more with our review and rating at the end. Vin Diesel as Richard B. Riddick Don't think anyone really refers to the character as Richard, but Vin Diesel's portrayal of Riddick definitely reached a point of popularity with this film, especially among sci-fi movie fans. The character of Riddick in this movie introduces himself as someone along the lines of an anti-hero, we think, it's a bit hard to describe, which is one reason we think audiences enjoy this film. The arc of his character is definitely intriguing as the audience is introduced to him as a killer and former prisoner, but when he begins to work together with the stranded crew in the movie to try to survive the hungry aliens, Riddick towards the end shows a tiny amount of heroism. Instead of leaving the remaining survivors behind as he was about to do at the final scenes, he has a change of heart - something that isn't evident at the beginning of the movie. While Vin Diesel is a well-known household name, let's take a dive into his acting career for a second. Has he been typecast as a tough and growling character in Hollywood? Really his career consists of his portrayal in the Fast and Furious franchise, this series with the Riddick franchise, voicing Groot within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (don't know if that really deserves a credit since he records "I am Groot" a bunch of times), and maybe known for playing Xander Cage in two of the XXX films (they really aren't that good). No judgement though, as he is an extremely successful actor and seems to be well-liked. Radha Mitchell as Carolyn Fry Really, another great character this film includes Mitchell's Carolyn Fry. Towards the beginning of the film she is the pilot of the spaceship that crash-lands on the planet and almost ejects the cargo that holds passengers to save herself and one other crew member, Owens, but he stops her. This is the exact opposite of how she feels at the end of the movie as she tells Riddick she would sacrifice herself for the survivors who are trying to get off of the planet. Cole Hauser as William Johns While Riddick and Fry have a more interesting character evolution throughout the film, Hauser is not what he turns out to be at the beginning either. Dressed and acting like a law enforcer, he turns out to be a bounty hunter. His selfishness in order to survive finally drives Riddick to lead him to his death eventually. We discussed in the podcast episode that Hauser is a bit typecast as well as he often ends up in an antagonist role, but he does a great job with those types of characters. Keith David as Abu (Muslim preacher) Lewis Fitz-Gerald as Paris Ogilvie Claudia Black as Sharon "Shazza" Montgomery Pitch Black Creatures/Aliens The name of the Pitch Black creatures, aliens, animals ... whatever you want to call them, isn't given in the film. However, they are labeled as 'raptors' for some odd reason that we couldn't figure out. In any case, as the planet goes into a 'pitch black' eclipse (see what we did there), these ruthless creatures raid the surface of the planet the stranded passengers have landed on.

This week, we don our exo-suits once again and face off against time traveling aliens as we take a look at Edge of Tomorrow, or Live. Die. Repeat. - whichever you prefer. We'll discuss the movie cast, sequel that is supposedly in development, and give our own movie review, and more. Edge of Tomorrow Movie Cast and Crew Directed by Doug Liman: Prior to directing this film, he was well-known for directing The Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith so his style of directing definitely lends to quick, but memorable action. It’s hard to quantify just how much influence a director has in the final product but Liman leaned heavily on his special effects to pull off the look of the Mimics as well the opening invasion scene. Tom Cruise as Bill Cage: Thanks to his big-time reputation in Hollywood, Cruise is one of the few actors who can deliver a box office return on name alone and we feel like he delivered one of his more nuanced performances as Cage does not immediately start out as an incredible warrior. He’s a public relations man who’s never seen a combat zone and is thrust into the largest invasion in history when he disobeys a direct order from his general and is shanghai-ed into service. When he’s killed during the invasion, he gains the ability to loop back in time, gain abilities and seeks to kill the Mimics once and for all. Emily Blunt as Rita Vrataski: In many ways, Blunt’s character is superior to that of Cruise’s. At one point, she gained the time looping ability during a battle at Verdun where she gained the moniker of “The Angel of Verdun” and by the way of montage, she begins to show Cruise the ropes and he begins to gain confidence in using the exo-suits. Later in the film, she and Cage develop feelings for each other, but it’s to maintain a storyline given the nature of the film and the time looping. We’d be okay if a sequel focused on Vrataski and left Cage on the sidelines. Brendan Gleeson as General Brigham: While Gleeson comes to this film with an impressive pedigree, we weren’t entirely convinced that he knew what type of film he was in. He plays his role completely straight laced especially in the scene where Cage and Vrataski give him the rundown of the invasion of the piece of equipment they’ll need to locate the main Mimic boss, the Omega. We don’t see a ton of Gleeson in this film as he’s in the opening scene meeting Cage and then again during that final meeting. Bill Paxton as Master SGT Farell: We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the late and great Bill Paxton who notched another entry in his resume before his death in 2017. His character reeks of cliché, but this is alright with us. We feel that if a film is going to go for clichés then it’s best to embrace them and run with them. Paxton definitely borrowed a good portion of his performance from that off R. Lee Ermey and his performance in the Stanley Kubrick classic Full Metal Jacket. The cast is rounded out with several Game of Thrones alums with Tony Way (Kimmel) and Noah Taylor (Dr. Carter). Edge of Tomorrow Development and Filming We were surprised to learn that this film was based off a Japanese light novel titled All You Need is Kill and plans had been in motion since 2010 to develop this into a major motion picture. Like many other films we’ve discussed, this one has an interesting production cycle. While Doug Liman was hired on as director early on, Brad Pitt was initially approached to star as Bill Cage and when he passed on it, the role went to Cruise. The script changed hands numerous times with Dante Harper originally being tabbed to write the screenplay and then it went to Joby Harold and it then transferred to Star Trek writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. With six months left before production began, the Butterworth brothers, Jez and John-Henry were brought on to re-work the script and Simon Kinberg eventually took over for them and finally, Christopher McQuarrie was brought on to finish the draft and get the ...

This week we take a look back at the Westworld original movie from 1973 that inspired the current hit HBO series. We'll dive into some information about the Westworld movie cast, compare the Westworld movie vs show, give our own Westworld film review and rating, and more. Let's enjoy ourselves as we talk about some murderous western robots! (Make sure to try out listening to the podcast episode and rate us on your favorite podcast app!) Westworld Film Summary At an amusement park containing three different 'worlds,' Westworld, Medieval World, and Roman World, visitors pay $1000 per day to play out their fantasies no matter how good intentioned or ill-intentioned they are. However, when a virus begins to plague the robots and androids that are the main part of the entertainment, begin to act differently and eventually become violently towards the park's guests. The film eventually focuses on one chase of a seemingly unstoppable killing robot after a man named Peter, who just had his friend John murdered. Does he survive? Watch the film, listen to the podcast episode, or read on to find out! Westworld By Michael Crichton Photo by Jon Chase While Crichton had already made one TV film prior to Westworld, this movie was his feature film directorial debut. And of course, Crichton was more of a writer with his career, therefore; this film was scripted by him as well. There was actually a question of why Crichton just didn't make this story into a book. He felt this story was more of a visual-told one. While we appreciate Crichton being willing to make this into a feature film, we think it would've done well as a book / novel as well. Many of us made the point that Westworld has many parallels to his famed Jurassic Park novel, which as we know was made into a film itself (check out our podcast episode for Jurassic Park). Essentially, both stories involve a tourist park attractions attacking its visitors: one story has robots killing and the other has dinosaurs killing. While the main story elements remained the same, we are glad he wrote Jurassic Park as it was turned into one of the best films ever made. Westworld Movie Cast Yul Brynner as The Gunslinger Yul Brynner in MGM's Westworld The legendary Yul Brynner was the marketed character in this film. Understandably so though, as he became a household name in the year of 1956. That year he starred in three major films including The King and I (his most well known role), The Ten Commandments, and Anastasia. He won the Best Actor Academy Award for his performance in The King and I. Possibly one of the best years any actor has ever had. We also cannot disregard his performance in the original film of The Magnificent Seven either. His role in Westworld was definitely a bit different, although our podcast host Chris states he is basically re-acting his The Magnificent Seven role, but just as a robot. In any case, Brynner actually doesn't have many lines, most of which take place in a bar scene towards the beginning of the film. While he his dialogue was limited, it was quite comical as he made fun of Richard Benjamin's character in the bar scene. While the last third of the film there is limited dialogue, it consists of Yul Brynner chasing Richard Benjamin's character. Maybe a bit too long of a 'chase' scene, but Brynner simply walks stoically with his shining eyes (which we loved by the way). That combined with the music, does create quite a suspenseful feeling. Richard Benjamin (left) & James Brolin (right) in MGM's Westworld Richard Benjamin as Peter Martin Benjamin actually has quite a few acting credits, but it seems that only a few were a success, including this role in Westworld. It seems he eventually became a bit more of a success with directing as he directed films such as The Money Pit and Made in America. We thought he did a decent job with this character. He is comical at times when he is timid next to his friend John as they begin to exp...

This week, join us as we discuss Evolution (2001 film)! Learn our thoughts (and criticisms) as we go over the Evolution film cast and characters, give our Evolution film review and rating, how wrong evolution is portrayed in the film Evolution, and more! Evolution Movie Summary and Synopsis After a meteor crashes in the Arizona desert, two local scientists investigate the rock as it slowly becomes an alien encounter and the creatures that emerge begin to evolve immediately. Soon afterwards, the military takes over the crash site and the two scientists are joined by a military aide and a firefighter trainee to battle the aliens before they take over the world. So, right off the bat, the film is oozing with science fiction. There’s a meteor crash, aliens, evolution (obviously), and government oversight. What more could a sci-fi fan want from this? A better movie would’ve been nice … more on that in a bit. Evolution Film Cast, Characters, and Crew Directed by Ivan Reitman: Reitman is best known for directing comedies such as Animal House, Stripes and Ghostbusters, but we feel like he fell a bit short of his past work. It’s important to note the similarities between Evolution and Ghostbusters. There are four main characters, three are qualified to deal with their situation with a civilian tagalong, there’s military/government oversight and a battle involving a giant creature at the end of the film. If Reitman was going to go for a Ghostbusters sequel, maybe he just should’ve gone for that. David Duchovny as Dr. Ira Kane: At this point in his career, Duchovny was well-known for his portrayal of Fox Mulder on the cult hit TV show, The X-Files, but much like Ivan Reitman, Duchovny seemed like he was phoning in his character. The only time he really emotes is when he’s trying to get to know or sleep with Julianne Moore’s character. Julianne Moore as Allison: Thankfully Moore offers up a great performance compared to the rest of the actors she’s surrounded. She’s struggling to deal with her male military bosses and she’s often overruled during meetings until she works up the nerve to leave and join forces with Ira. She’s also dealing with her emotions toward Ira and her animosity to him eventually turns into a ham fisted romance. Orlando Jones as Harry Block: While most of the comedy in this film comes from Jones’ delivery and performance, his character is certainly problematic while looking at it through today’s lens. He’s clearly using his position as a professor to potentially sleep with one of his female students, he uses his colleague’s computer to look at pornography and he cracks jokes about taking showers with his female volleyball players. As Chris points out in the podcast episode, if he were a real world person, there would a Sports Illustrated expose about how terrible he was. Seann William Scott as Wayne Gray: Prior to starring in Evolution, Scott also starred in the teen comedy American Pie and he continued his line of playing goofy yet loveable characters and Wayne is no exception. While he’s a bit of a dope in here, he does come through in several dangerous situations and proves to be an essential part of this group. Our Issues with Evolution There was a lot our hosts pointed out as having problems with: Sean’s lens flare included portrayals of the education system along with the military. Several other glaring issues include problems with how quickly evolution was shown in the film. Simply put, evolution on a scale like this does not happen. Evolution, even on a grand scale, occurs over the course of millions of year and is not nearly as dramatic as going from flatworms to giant bug eating trees. Chris’ lens flare includes the overacting and stunt casting of Dan Aykroyd as the Governor of Arizona. He definitely could’ve refined his performance a little bit and did not need to be as over the top as he performed. Most of the characters seem sex crazed and not overly concerned with just how grav...

Jack-in to this week’s edition of Force Fed Sci-Fi and The Force Fed Sci-Fi Movie Podcast as we discuss and review the 1995 movie, Strange Days. We’ll talk about the Strange Days movie cast, box office performance, give our own Strange Days movie review and rating, and more! Strange Days Synopsis Taking place on December 30th and 31st of 1999, Lenny Nero, a former cop, is roped into investigating the death of one of his ex-girlfriend’s best friends, Iris. She witnesses a murder, attempts to give Lenny evidence of that murder, but is killed herself before she can even explain to Lenny what had happened. Now, the murderers are after Lenny and his friend Mace. They have to track down Iris’ proof of what she witnessed and her murderer, while at the same time being chased and finding a way to survive. Why is this film considered sci-fi? So, the synopsis doesn’t sound like sci-fi at all if you noticed. At the time of its release, Strange Days was set in the near future at the turn of the century. However, the film doesn’t have any futuristic feel to it even though it’s technically taking place 5 years ahead of the current time period. The one aspect that makes this movie a sci-fi film though, is the “SQUID” technology that is used by the movie’s characters. This technology included a piece of equipment that attaches to the top of someone’s head, recorded their senses (sight, touch, etc.), and finally being able to use that attachment and recording to help someone experience someone else’s moment in life. The “SQUID tech” in the film had a very indie feel to it, as it looked like a hat made out of clothes hangers and wires that attach to a VCR. This tech when the film was released probably looked ahead of its time, but the look of it does not hold up 24 years later. These “clips” that are seen in the film are actually a bit brutal involving rape, murder, and death. We only get to see one positive clip where a small character who seems to be an amputee of some sort, gets to experience what it’s like running on the beach, looking down at the legs, and having a woman running by smile at him. If this technology were real, we’d want to see more clips like this one as opposed to the rest of the depressing SQUID clips we see in the movie. Strange Days Movie Cast Ralph Fiennes as Lenny Nero Fiennes was just coming off of his performance in the film Schindler’s List, which drove the director Kathryn Bigelow and the other filmmakers to choose him for the lead role in Strange Days. The other big name that was considered for the role was Andy Garcia. Ultimately, the role of Nero went to Fiennes. Lenny is seen more as a “rough around the edges” type of character at first. After being a cop, he sells SQUID discs that contain memories for a means of income. His lifestyle is complicated as he can’t move on from his ex-girlfriend, tries to pawn off fake rolexes, and even showing signs of being addicted to jacking-in to his own personal SQUID memories. In the end though, we see the main character solve the story’s murder mystery and move on from his past. While some may think Fiennes didn’t do such a great job with his part, we think he actually did really well and crushed this role, but the length of the film didn’t do him or the other actors any justice. The only odd acting the audience experiences from Fiennes is when he jacks-in and witnesses the rape/murder of Iris and the fack rape of his ex-girlfriend, Faith. In addition, some of the other reactions to the SQUID clips from other actors takes us out of the film for a moment, and is almost considered overacting in our eyes and possibly comedic. Angela Bassett as Lornette “Mace” Mason Angela Bassett as Mace was probably our favorite performance and character of this movie. Bassett’s performance is fantastic in our opinion as she plays a strong “muscle” character aside the main character of Lenny. We feel we get to know Bassett’s character the most too.

 This week we dive into Neill Blomkamp’s filmography as we watched Elysium and discuss the Elysium exoskeleton and the its possible real world applications, how the floating habitat and the Elysium space station is actually inspired from history along with simply reviewing the Elysium movie summary and the Elysium movie cast. So, get a big dose of radiation (don’t really do that), fit yourself for a powered exoskeleton suit and journey to space in this sci-fi action romp! The Elysium Movie Cast and Director Matt Damon as Max - The role of Max was originally offered to two individuals from the world of music: South African rapper Watkin Tudor Jones (aka Ninja) who passed on the role and Eminem who also passed on the role after producers refused to have the production based in Detroit. The role then went to Damon who had the action chops from the Jason Bourne series to bring to this film. While we are interested to see what this film would look like with Eminem, at times Damon seems to be phoning it in along with most of the actors. Jodie Foster as Secretary Delacourt - Foster starts off as the main villain but her character could’ve used more development and screen time as her eventual death does nothing for the audience. We just grow to despise her and there’s nothing sympathetic about her character as it seems like she was written solely for the audience to focus their hatred until Kruger takes over the black hat role. Sharlto Copley as Kruger - Copley is a frequent collaborator with Blomkamp having previously appeared in District 9 (which is in our list) but he’s relegated to a henchman type role until he kills Delacourt. However, he definitely plays up the insanity of his character and it often overshadows the story and the other characters in his scenes. Alice Braga as Frey - Sean and Chris feel like Braga provides the only nuanced performance in the entire film as she’s balancing her duties of being a mother and caring for her old friend, Max. She and Max have a past together, but not a ton of screen time is devoted to this and could’ve provided more context why they drifted apart prior to the events of Elysium. Director Neill Blomkamp - Prior to directing this film, he helmed the wildly successful District 9 which received acclaim for its story and visual effects and Blomkamp along with many of his collaborators returned for Elysium and this was not as well received as District 9. While Blomkamp is a good filmmaker and has great ideas to bring to the big screen, we feel like this was not his best effort so hopefully he can return to Hollywood soon and thrill audiences once again. Elysium Movie Summary Set in 2154, Earth has been ravaged by disease and famine. However, the wealthy have retreated to an Earth-orbiting space station called Elysium. Back on Earth though, a factory worker by the name of Max has been involved in a radiation-exposing accident. This leads him left with a deathly fate, unless he can make his way up to Elysium to use the wealthy's technology to cure himself. Along the way, he gets involved and in the way of Elysium's defense secretary's plan for a coup against the current president as she vows to use more power to protect Elysium from the rest of the Earth dwellers. In the end, he doesn't end up saving himself, but instead, saving humanity. Elysium Themes and Setting Elysium is set in 2154 as stated in the summary and let’s just say the world has not improved in the future. The world’s wealthiest individuals have left the Earth and built themselves a monstrous space station that is somehow visible from the surface. Crime rates seem to have spiked, there’s global food shortages and overpopulation has afflicted many regions. Sean and Chris debated during the podcast episode whether this version of the future is a dystopian creative look from Blomkamp or if this was to serve as warning for what we can expect in the next 100 plus years? Granted,

This week, we abandon a going away party for one of our best friends and risk our lives to rescue a friend on the other side of town after watching Cloverfield! Along the way we’ll go over the Cloverfield movie cast and how they thought they were auditioning for a sitcom, talk about the Cloverfield ending and future, and give our Cloverfield rating. In addition, we take a look back at the tumultuous history of the production along with the many name changes, how this film is just another movie where Manhattan and New York is destroyed and how Cloverfield really became a pioneer in the found footage genre. Cloverfield Movie Cast We were surprised to learn that the casting was carried out in secret despite not having A List actors at the time and during auditions, the prospective cast members were given scripts from JJ Abrams’ television shows like Lost and Felicity. TJ Miller as Hud In one of his early film roles, Miller doesn’t exactly show off his comedic chops but proves he can perform well in an ensemble cast and serves as the film’s narrator/camera operator until he’s killed by the mysterious monster (possibly chopped in half?). Lizzy Caplan as Marlena Prior to Cloverfield, Caplan was well-known from her role in Mean Girls but really branched out when taking on this film. While Sean may not have liked her character, she softened herself to the audience during intimate moments with Hud, she’s unceremoniously killed (maybe even the most gruesome death) before the group has a chance to escape. Michael Stahl-David as Rob While David is more known for roles in television (Narcos, The Deuce) this was another one of his early roles. Sean and Chris did feel like Rob was a tad irresponsible in dragging his friends and brother to rescue his one-time hookup through a city being ravaged by a giant monster (didn't really work out for any of them now did it?). Odette Yustman as Beth Mike Vogel as Jason Jessica Lucas as Lily Cloverfield Production Challenges Producer JJ Abrams was inspired to make Cloverfield after a trip to Japan and seeing how popular the Godzilla films were and wanted to give an American Godzilla to movie audiences. We think a Godzilla reboot would’ve just been easier at that time in Hollywood history. Of course we got that eventually anyways. (Check out our episode and review on Godzilla: King of the Monsters if you haven't gotten a chance) While the film was initially titled Cloverfield, the film underwent several name changes following the hype following the debut of the first trailer. Titles such as Cheese, Slusho and Greyshot were considered before the filmmakers returned to Cloverfield for the final name. It can be inferred that these names were chosen to just throw people off, like many studios and filmmakers do these days. Filming took place on opposite ends of the United States with most of the exterior shots actually shot in New York City and many of the action scenes filmed on the Warner Bros backlot in Los Angeles. Speaking of New York City... Hollywood's Love for Manhattan and New York Destroyed in Movies While researching Cloverfield, Chris came up with a list of films that have featured the destruction of New York City including (but not limited to): Independence Day The Day After Tomorrow The Planet of the Apes Marvel's The Avengers Godzilla (1998) Ghostbusters I Am Legend War of the Worlds A.I.: Artificial Intelligence There are plenty of other films out there that we didn't list as well that show New York destroyed in movies. Why the portrayal of the destruction in Manhattan so much? We think it’s simply just due to the fact that New York has an iconic skyline with incredible skyscrapers. Hollywood does seem to be trending away from destroying Manhattan though, in favor of locations like Los Angeles, London, and even our home city of Chicago a bit. Cloverfield's Place as a Found Footage Pioneer

 Welcome, to Jurassic Park on Force Fed Sci-Fi as this week we cover the the film Jurassic Park, the Jurassic Park original cast, clarifying Jurassic Park's chaos theory explanation, pining over the Jurassic Park music and score, and finally, covering our Jurassic Park rating and review! Make sure to listen to the full podcast episode and if you haven't subscribed to the podcast, you are missing out! Life finds a way, on Force Fed Sci-Fi! Jurassic Park Original Cast (Jurassic Park Movie Cast) Sam Neill as Doctor Alan Grant Interestingly, this role was offered to Harrison Ford initially, but he turned down the part. Then it went to Sam Neill. Harrison Ford in the main role would have been an intriguing watch that's for sure, but Sam Neill did a fine job. Jeff Goldblum as Doctor Ian Malcolm This role was also one that could have gone to a different actor, Jim Carrey. Our opinion is that this role was almost meant for Jeff Goldblum though, and wouldn't be well suited for Jim Carrey. Goldblum does a great job acting grandiose and confident with his character which adds a bit of humor in the film. Bob Peck as Robert Muldoon This is one of Chris' favorite characters in the film, even though he does not make it in the end. There's an appreciation for a character who is cautious of opening a place like Jurassic Park up. He understands the dinosaurs almost on a different level than the other characters. Samuel L. Jackson as Ray Arnold Sean found out that Sam Jackson's character's death wasn't being filmed because of the beginnings of his rise to stardom. Laura Dern as Doctor Ellie Satler Richard Attenborough as John Hammond Clarifying Jurassic Park's Chaos Theory To start off, the chaos theory comes from the mathematical world, but the general idea can be applied in other aspects. Essentially, the chaos theory shows that introducing a new factor into a situation changes the flow of things. The most simple example to think of is if you were to time travel back in time, the flow of time would be altered and further down the road, it could have huge implications. In Jurassic Park, the chaos theory is mentioned by Goldblum's character. He, as well as the other scientists that have been invited to the island, caution against producing these dinosaurs and introducing them into a time where humans dominate the planet. Who knows what consequences genetic engineering and these animals can bring if created? (being eaten by the way is an acceptable answer, lol). Basically, we come to a conclusion that introducing something new, like dinosaurs and genetic engineering, can potentially have a ton of adverse effects on the human race and Earth itself. Jurassic Park Music and Score The Jurassic Park music and score by John Williams was impeccable to say the least. The main theme is definitely one that almost everyone has hummed at least once at some point in their lifetime. One of our favorite scenes is when the main cast is arriving at the island. Mixing the scenery of the helicopter flying through the mountains and the main theme of the film by John Williams gives us goosebumps. A few other fun facts about the Jurassic Park music and score is that it peaked at number 28 on the Billboard charts. This doesn't happen very often for a film's score. This is just an attestation to how riveting the soundtrack and score was. In addition, this film was the 12th time John Williams worked on a Steven Spielberg movie. The 13th was Schindler's List which was released the same year and Williams one Best Original Score for at the 66th Academy Awards. We personally think Jurassic Park was a better score. Force Fed Sci-Fi's Jurassic Park Rating and Review Force Fed Sci-Fi's Jurassic Park rating lands on "would host viewing party" on our scale. Jurassic Park tells such a great story, is written so well, and also, something we mention in our podcast episode, the effects and computer graphics were phenomenal being one of the earli...

 Hop on your spaceship for this week's edition of Force Fed Sci-Fi and The Force Fed Sci-Fi Movie Podcast as we laugh out loud with the film Galaxy Quest as we cover the Galaxy Quest characters and aliens, mention some of our favorite Galaxy Quest quotes, discover just what exactly happened to a Galaxy Quest sequel and more. Strap in as we go on a Star Trek film spoof journey! Make sure to listen to our podcast episode and subscribe so you never miss an episode! Galaxy Quest Movie Cast Tim Allen as Jason Nesmeth The Home Improvement star was not the first choice as the actor who plays the actor who plays Commander Peter Quincy Taggart (I think that made sense?). In fact, some of the others who were offered / considered for the main role included Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, and Kevin Klein. We really thought Tim Allen fit the role perfectly. He sort of has that cheesy humor that fit well with this character as well as just the general idea of making comedic spoof of Star Trek. Sigourney Weaver as Gwen DeMarco Sci-fi star Sigourney Weaver didn't take on the role of someone opposite of aliens or ghosts in this film, but instead did a great job delivering humor to audiences as Gwen DeMarco, an actress who played Tawny Madison, a character that just repeated and posed questions to the spaceship's computer for the rest of the crew. While it sounds like one of the lamest jokes a Star Trek spoof could come up with, she delivers a performance that will make you laugh out loud. Alan Rickman as Alexander Dane We definitely argued whether or not Alan Rickman sort of stole the show a bit from Tim Allen. With his character being fed-up and negatively sarcastic about himself being a former star on a space exploration show mixed in with some brilliant acting (I love his facial expressions in this film), the comedic lines from the character are hard not to crack up about. Honestly, Alan Rickman was a vital part of this cast and without him, the quality of this movie would have been downgraded. Sam Rockwell as Guy Fleegman While Chris and Sean did have a Force Fed Sci-Fi redshirt pick for this movie (listen to the podcast episode to find out who ... rather what it was), Rockwell's character literally played a redshirt on the television show within the movie. Oh those poor Star Trek redshirts. Luckily, Rockwell's character gets to tag along for the movie's adventure, and kind of represents the character theme of "being able to grow." While Rockwell isn't the one you concentrate on a ton in this film, it's nice to watch one of his earlier roles where he still delivers a solid and funny performance. Tony Shaloub as Fred Kwan The Monk star actually and originally tried to obtain the role of Rockwell's character, but the filmmakers thought he was better suited for the role of Fred. Like Rockwell's character, Shaloub as Fred isn't focused on too much in this movie. Although, there is the awkward, but hilarious romance between he and Missi Pyle's character Laliari. Galaxy Quest Aliens The Thermians Mathesar, the leader of the Thermians - portrayed by Enrico Colantoni Quellek, a Thermian who admires Alan Rickman's character - portrayed by Patrick Breen Laliari (mentioned above already), a Thermian who plays the love interest of Tony Shaloub's character - portrayed by Missi Pyle Teb, the second-in-command for the Thermians - played by Jed Rees The Reptilian Humanoids General Roth'h'ar Sarris, the main protagonist in this film who seeks the destruction of the Thermians - played by Robin Sachs Lathe, Sarris' second-in-command - played by Wayne Péré Force Fed Sci-Fi's Favorite Galaxy Quest Quotes The humor holds up after twenty years of being released, especially for those of us who are Star Trek fans. A lot of one-liners that we love from this film: Before going out on stage at a convention, Rickman's character humorously and depressingly states, "I played Richard III ...

Apollo 13 Liftoff Force Fed Sci-Fi fans, we have a problem ... as we look back at the Apollo 13 film, go over the Apollo 13 movie summary, the cast of Apollo 13 the movie, and more. Join us as we go over our Apollo 13 movie rating and review. Failure is not option this time! (Too corny? Probably, but I had to). Finally, we just want to mention that we wanted to step away from sci-fi just for this episode to help commemorate the Apollo astronauts and the Apollo 11 50th anniversary of the moon landing! Read on and/or listen to the podcast episode and enjoy! The Apollo 13 Movie Summary Photo by Georges Biard The Apollo 13 movie summary goes a little something like this according to us here at Force Fed Sci-Fi ... During the Apollo program, we have the launch of Apollo 13. Prior to this mission, Apollo 11 and 12 were able to land on the moon and Apollo 13 was slated to do the same. Astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert are eager to make it to the moon, but an explosion occurs as a result of one of the liquid oxygen tanks sparking. Now, NASA has to frantically work to bring the crew home safely as there are many issues that arose because of the explosion (power consumption upon re-entry to earth and even having to build an extra carbon dioxide filter out of whatever the astronauts had on board). After a sling shot after the moon, it takes a while for the crew to return home safely, but with the great minds working on all of these issues, these three astronauts survived against all odds. The Cast of Apollo 13 the Movie Tom Hanks as commander Jim Lovell We at Force Fed Sci-Fi argue that while Hanks had his best roles in the 1990's (Apollo 13 included), Hanks does a phenomenal job at any role he plays, honestly. In Apollo 13, he takes on the great and historic role of astronaut Jim Lovell during the Apollo 13 mission. Hanks, other than the film calling for a bit of dramatization of the historical events, embodied Lovell perfectly. In addition, John Travolta was originally offered this role. Luckily we did not get him as portraying Lovell and were happy to learn that the role went to Tom Hanks. Kevin Bacon as command module pilot Jack Swigert Another great actor included in the Apollo 13 film was Kevin Bacon who played the command module pilot of the Apollo 13 mission, Swigert. Again, a great performance by another great actor taking on this type of role. We'll get into it a bit later, but the way the filmmakers wrote Swigert into the film isn't entirely accurate. Like many other things, dramatization of the film is necessary for a Hollywood film. Bill Paxton as lunar module pilot Fred Haise While we miss Bill Paxton, we have to talk about how wonderful he was in this film as well. Fred Haise had the unfortunate mishap of developing a urinary tract infection while on the Apollo 13 mission. While it's not an actor's dream to act out being sick (especially after taking off in a rocket and throwing up), Paxton did a fine job as Fred Haise. Gary Sinise as Ken Mattingly Gary Sinise had to play the astronaut who was grounded for the Apollo 13 mission (Swigert taking Mattingly's place). The film portrays Ken Mattingly as being pivotal in the role of getting the crew of Apollo 13 mission back home. While we weren't sure that he was the sole person at NASA to come up with the re-entry sequence for the capsule, he was a part of that group. Interestingly, Ron Howard let Sinise pick which character he'd like to tryout and read for, and he chose Mattingly. Ed Harris as flight director Gene Kranz Gene Kranz was portrayed by the great Ed Harris. Kranz was the daytime flight director during the Apollo 13 mission. We think Ed Harris captured the emotional composure that Kranz would have had to have during this time, but at the same time, you see him worried in the film a bit, especially as the initial explosion occurred on the spacecraft. With all of this, Ed Harris was nominated for best supporting actor...

Time travel this week with the Force Fed Sci-Fi team as we go over the film Looper (2012) and discuss the movie cast, give our thoughts on Joseph Gordon Levitt's makeup in the film, attempt to give a Looper movie explanation, and finally give our Looper rating and review. Hold onto your noses and don't forget to listen to the podcast episode! Looper Movie Explanation Many of us look for a Looper movie explanation after watching the film as the time travel doesn't seem to make sense and there are some plot holes here and there. While Rian Johnson even said himself that this film is more of a character study rather than a time travel movie, it would have been nice to have gotten a bit more science out of the film, even if the science is based off of theoretical time travel. One question that comes to mind is, the rainmaker (Cid as a grown-up having the loopers close their own loop, although we never see him grown-up as the rainmaker) is described as having a prosthetic jaw. Now at this point in the film, old Joe (Bruce Willis) hasn't come back in time yet, who ends up accidentally shooting Cid in the jaw. How can he be described as having a prosthetic jaw if old Joe hasn't come back in time yet to shoot him? If you have a theory, please explain it to us! The only thing we can think of is that Cid grows up to the rainmaker no matter what possibly? We'd like to think that with young Joe (Joseph Gordon Levitt) protecting Cid as a child affected him where he doesn't end up becoming the rainmaker though. He also becomes the rainmaker because his mother is killed, assuming it is a looper and most likely old Joe when he comes back in time. However, for whatever reason, in this timeline that we watch and get with this film, young Joe stops the loop this time by, unfortunately, sacrificing himself so that his older self didn't exist. This causes another time travel paradox and makes it difficult to explain the events of this film. If young Joe sacrifices himself by taking his whole life, then old Joe would never have had the chance to come back in time and cause the conflict that envelops the majority of the movie. These are only a couple of explanations that we can attempt to provide, but we also just pointed out the flaws that the movie poses in regards to time travel. Hence ... why we needed a bit more science about the film's time travel! Looper Movie Cast Joseph Gordon Levitt as (young) Joe Despite the appearance they decided to give Joseph Gordon Levitt (not his fault), he does a good job at playing young Joe. Apparently he studied Bruce Willis' mannerisms for a long time. It seems the filmmakers really wanted there to be a resemblance between old Joe and young Joe (apparently they didn't want to address the issue of their hair though?) Bruce Willis as (old) Joe We mention in the podcast episode that some say this is the last performance that Bruce Willis actually cared about and gave effort into his role. He did a great job in this film with his part, but after this, we do argue that Willis has only gone for the "B-level" action films since. What do you think? Emily Blunt as Sara Emily Blunt does a great job as Sara, Cid's mother. And while it is part of her character and doesn't have to do with Blunt's acting (which was wonderful as well), her character is not such a good mother. Cid has trouble controlling his emotions if you've seen the film. Her solution (until the final scene that is)? To hide until Cid is done dealing with the difficult emotions he is plagued with in this movie. Not such great parenting, right? Jeff Daniels as Abe While his role is smaller in this film, Jeff Daniels delivers more of a serious tone to his character, but is still able to keep a bit of a comedic tone. In my opinion, that can be hard to do for actors, but Daniels is a great actor and it isn't surprising he is able to pull this type of character off. Thoughts on Joseph Gordon Levitt's Makeup in Looper

 We here at Force Fed Sci-Fi wanted to do another bonus release on a few things Marvel and its Cinematic Universe by talking about Marvel movie box office totals and statistics, giving you a list of Marvel Studios movies in the MCU and a Marvel Cinematic Universe villains list ... just as a review and for your information :) , talking about the Spider-Man: Far From Home cast, our rating of the film, mid-credits scene, post-credits scene, and asking what does the future of Marvel movies after Endgame look like?  List of Marvel Studios Movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Over 11 years now (and still more to come), the Marvel Cinematic Universe now includes 23 films as of the posting of this page. Simply listed they are: Iron Man (2008) The Incredible Hulk (2008) Iron Man 2 (2010) Thor (2011) Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) Marvel's The Avengers (2012) Iron Man 3 (2013) Thor: The Dark World (2013) Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) Ant-Man (2015) Captain America: Civil War (2016) Doctor Strange (2016) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) Thor: Ragnorak (2017) Black Panther (2018) Avengers: Infinity War (2018) Ant-Man & The Wasp (2018) Captain Marvel (2019) Avengers: Endgame (2019) Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) Marvel Cinematic Universe Villains List Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane / Iron Monger (in Iron Man) Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky / Abomination (in The Incredible Hulk) Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko / Whiplash (in Iron Man 2) Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer (in Iron Man 2) Tom Hiddleston as Loki (in Thor and Marvel's The Avengers) Colm Feore as Laufey, King of the Frost Giants (in Thor) Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt / Red Skull (in Captain America: The First Avenger) Toby Jones as Arnim Zola (in Captain America: The First Avenger) Also appears as an artificial intelligence computer in Captain America: The Winter Soldier briefly Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian (in Iron Man 3) Ben Kingsley as (the fake) Mandarin (in Iron Man 3) His character's real name in the film is Trevor Slattery Christopher Eccleston as Malekith, Ruler of the Dark Elves (in Thor: The Dark World) Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes / The Winter Soldier (in Captain America: The Winter Soldier) Of course we all know once Bucky is not under mind control, he is not a villain anymore Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce (in Captain America: The Winter Soldier) Fun Fact, he actually does not become a villain in the Marvel Comics Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow / Crossbones (in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War) Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser, a Kree Commander (in Guardians of the Galaxy) James Spader as Ultron (in Avengers: Age of Ultron) Corey Stoll as Darren Cross / Yellowjacket (in Ant-Man) Daniel Bruhl as Helmut Zemo (in Captain America: Civil War) His role as a villain is minor in the film, as he is just there to manipulate the Avengers to fight against themselves Benedict Cumberbatch (uncredited) as Dormammu (in Doctor Strange) Yes folks, the hero played the voice of the villain behind it all in the film (they probably didn't want to credit him so the audience wouldn't be confused? What are your thoughts?) Mads Mikkelsen as Kaecillius (in Doctor Strange) Kurt Russell as Ego (in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) Michael Keaton as Adrian Toomes / Vulture (in Spider-Man: Homecoming) Cate Blanchett as Hela (in Thor: Ragnorak) Michael B. Jordan as N'Jadaka / Erik "Killmonger" Stevens (in Black Panther) Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue (in Black Panther) Walton Goggins as Sonny Burch (in Ant-Man and The Wasp) Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr / Ghost (in Ant-Man and The Wasp)

 A few weeks ago we got started with one of Will Smith's sci-fi genre films Men In Black, but this week we watched, discussed, and reviewed another one of his sci-fi films I, Robot! It was interesting to look into the I, Robot series of short stories which the movie is very loosely based off of as well as diving into the I, Robot movie cast, our final opinion on our I, Robot movie review, and a few more topics! Make sure to listen to Chris and Sean on the full podcast episode (especially around the last 10 minutes, I was cracking up listening to them!)! Let's get going and travel into a futuristic film that shows us what might happen if society relied on robots! I, Robot Series of Short Stories Isaac Asimov I think its appropriate this week to start with the loose origin of the I, Robot film and where some of its components came from. We don't think that the I, Robot series of short stories (later compacted into a book) by Isaac Asimov gets enough credit for actually really influencing robotic story-telling themes for years to come within the sci-fi genre. Ideas like the positronic brain that are part of Asimov's robots made its way to popular culture. Most prominently known would be Data in the series Star Trek The Next Generation. In general, Asimov brought a lot of attention to the theme of robotic psychology and behavior (or robopsychology) with his short stories and character of Dr. Susan Calvin, who is termed as a robopsychologist. This theme has continued on and is prevalent in many story-telling media involving robots. However, the most used idea in popular culture that came from Asimov's stories whether you realize it or not, are his three laws of robotics. I, Robot and the Three Laws I, Robot and the three laws of robotics that are showcased in the film are indeed originally from Asimov's I, Robot series of short stories. These include: "A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction (doing nothing), allow a human being come to harm" "A robot must obey the orders given [to] it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law" "A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws" We may not see a robot in popular culture specifically address these laws directly, but the underlying themes are there. How many times have we seen at minimum be told that no harm should come to humans as it is wrong to inflict pain injury to someone (although, sometimes the robots evolve like in this film and move beyond this rule deeming it necessary at some point). Hopefully, by reading this and by now you realize what kind of influence Asimov and his writing had on the robotic sci-fi genre and appreciate the work he provided the world. The I, Robot Movie Cast Will Smith as detective Del Spooner Will Smith starting his film career out with sci-fi / action adventure movies was a great move and choice on his part. He continued this trend with this sci-fi film. He does a good job again with his one-line jokes as we pointed out him doing the same thing when we covered Men In Black. We admire the positive ending as well for his character as he grew throughout the film to maybe be accepting of some robots and not continue to be suspicious of them. Bridget Moynahan as doctor Susan Calvin Sean and Chris didn't touch on this character a ton in the podcast episode, only that towards the end of the movie she shoots a gun with her eyes closed and about 10 minutes later is an awesome marksman with a handgun when needing to fight off the swarm of NS5 robots. In my opinion, the character was just average, but she is only a supporting character. I see that this film could have done without the character of Dr. Calvin, but she is the main character in the short stories, so you sort of have to include her I suppose. Alan Tudyk as Sonny On the flip side, Sean and Chris did talk about I,

 We are a bit late in the game with a podcast episode and posting on our take of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, but we still wanted to take a look and give our audience our view and thoughts on this movie. We'll dive into the Godzilla: King of the Monsters' post credit scene, the initial Godzilla: King of the Monsters box office standing, Godzilla: King of the Monsters titan list (it seemed like there were so many!), our Godzilla: King of the Monsters rating and review, and more! (Warning for Spoilers!) Godzilla: King of the Monsters Movie Cast and Brief Synopsis Synopsis: Following the events of 2014's film of Godzilla, approximately five years have passed. Monarch, the organization responsible for studying the Titans, are under pressure to start killing and destroying these Titans. That is until a scientist by the name of Dr. Emma Russell has created a machine that can help control the Titans, dubbed as the Orca. However, her actions are somewhat devious as her purpose for releasing them is to bring somewhat of a fall to man and bring balance back to Earth (with the idea of humans being a "virus" to the Earth). Her husband is roped into chasing her down to help prevent the awakening of the Titans. Along the way, the other worldly Titan King Ghidorah is awakened, but this does not bode well for the humans and Godzilla is forced to step in to help stop this powerful creature. Movie Cast: Kyle Chandler as Dr. Mark Russell Chandler plays a scientist who previously worked for the Monsterverse organization Monarch. He has become an animal communication / behavior specialist. Unfortunately, he gets roped into the film's conflict due to his ex-wife being involved in awakening the Titans. Vera Farmiga as Dr. Emma Russell The audience eventually finds out that Farmiga's character actually kind of turns out to be the main antagonist of the film. She's the one that wants to awaken the Titans that are either unhatched or in some type of stasis. To do this she needed to team up with Charles Dance's character (at the beginning it looks like Dance kidnaps Farmiga). Of course in the end, she regrets her actions, but much damage had already been done. Millie Bobby Brown as Madison Russell Brown who had previously starred in the popular series Stranger Things, plays the daughter of Chandler and Farmiga's characters. Her character seems like she is torn between which parent to follow, but is ultimately forced to follow her mother most of the film. Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa We here at Force Fed Sci-Fi are a fan of Ken Watanabe and go as far as to bring him up to legendary status, at least in our minds. In any case, Watanabe is one of the few characters that appeared in the 2014 Godzilla movie and his role is reprised in this sequel. We do enjoy his character in both films. Perhaps it's just that he plays a wise and caring character towards the Titans, but I know I had an issue with how much radiation he was exposed to as he sacrificed himself to help heal Godzilla (he should've died early on in that scene as he would not have survived that long). Charles Dance as Alan Jonah Should Dance have been made the main villain? We think so. We think Farmiga's character could have just been that classic scientist that became kidnapped and was forced to release the Titans under the force of Dance's character. However, that's not what we got, apparently it was all Emma Russell's plot. In any case, Dance did a great job and had some of the best lines and delivered them well. Godzilla: King of the Monsters Box Office Performance After being out a little over a month, Godzilla: King of the Monsters box office performance has earned $380 million over a budget of $170 to $200 million. So, the film has made up its budget and has not surpassed that much. We wouldn't call this a success at the box office, but at least it seems like it's going to make a bit...

 Watching the film Her will definitely bring about emotion with its audiences. It was just a perfect mix of great writing, great directing, and a great screenplay that gives us a deep and thought-provoking film. So join us this week as we discussed and talked about Her, the Her movie cast, the missing Her movie soundtrack, and giving our final Her film review! What is the film Her about? Spike Jonze (Source) Spike Jonze's film Her is about a recently divorced man named Theodore Twambly, installs a new personal assistant operating system. Eventually, he falls in love her (she names herself Samantha). They help each other grow as Theodore helps Samantha evolve beyond her programming and Samantha helps him navigate through his post-divorce emotions and loneliness. We think that one of the main messages this movie is trying to get across is that you are allowed to be more than what you are, especially if you are limiting yourself. Her Movie Cast Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore Twambly We think Joaquin did a fantastic job in this film, despite how odd he can be sometimes. The one thing we do know is that he really does commit to the roles he plays. Like many of the other cast members, he did a great job conveying the emotion and feeling of his character and the film to audiences. Scarlett Johansson as the voice of Samantha Johansson was actually not the initial voice of Samantha. It was Samantha Morton who originally voiced this role. However, later on, Spike Jonze decided in post-production that Morton didn't provide what was needed for this film and with her blessing, Johansson was casted as the artificial intelligence character. (Photo by Gage Skidmore) Amy Adams as Amy While Adams has a smaller and supporting role in this movie, she did great just like Joaquin did by conveying the emotion her character was feeling to the audience. There was actually a bit of a side-story cut from this film about Adams' character's documentary that she is making, which obviously would've resulted in more screen time for Amy Adams, but Jonze had the original two and a half hour runtime cut down to 2 hours with the help of Steven Soderbergh. and... Chris Pratt as Paul Rooney Mara as Catherine Klausen Olivia Wilde as Blind Date Her Movie Soundtrack Arcade Fire and Owen Pallet composed the music and score for the film Her. For some odd reason though, there was never an official soundtrack released for this movie! Why not? Who decides these things? This music for this film was actually very good in our opinion and we think the soundtrack would have sold well! There have been rumblings of it being released, but no good solid leads at this point. The Her score was ultimately nominated for an Academy Award at the 86th Academy Awards show, but lost to Steven Price's score for the film Gravity. Scarlett Johansson Song in Her: "The Moon Song" "The Moon Song" was composed by Karen Orzolek and the lyrics were written by her and director Spike Jonze! During the film, Scarlett Johansson sings the song which fit perfectly within its setting. During the end credits, Orzolek can be heard singing it, though. It was nominated at the 86th Academy Awards show for Best Original Song. Unfortunately, this nomination lost as well. This time to the well-known and at the time over-play song from Frozen, "Let It Go" (rolling eyes, haha!). In any case, "The Moon Song" is a very soft and gentle song, but captures the theme of love very well. Take a listen below! Force Fed Sci-Fi's Lens Flares Sean's Lens Flare this week is the fact that nobody wears belts in the future in this film apparently. Chris argues that maybe that's just the style for that time, but Sean says that if you have them, why aren't you using them! So Chris says it's a fashion statement, but Sean's reasoning is sound as if we stop using them in the future, why would we include them on our pants anyways?

The fun thing about bad movies is that you can laugh at how terrible they are and that's what we would categorize A Sound of Thunder (film) as ... oh wait, did we just give our rating too early? Meh, oh well. Hopefully you'll still stick around for the fun at just how terrible A Sound of Thunder is, how unmoving the A Sound of Thunder movie cast is, and finally, our overall A Sound of Thunder review. On your marks, get set ... hopefully you haven't left yet ... go! Differences Between A Sound of Thunder Short Story and Film There are several differences between the A Sound of Thunder film and short story (written by Ray Bradbury). Some of the subtle differences that didn't impact how terrible the movie turned out included: Eckels steps on the butterfly in the short story, while his partner in the film, Middleton, was the one who stepped on it (Middleton was not in the short story) The short story has the safari team go back in time to shoot a Tyrannosaurus Rex, while the film has the safari team go back to kill an Allosaurus (while the film had terrible graphics, it would not have mattered which type of dinosaur was used) Some of the HUGE differences that did impact how terrible the movie turned out included: The short story is about 10 pages long and the film is an hour and forty minute movie - so why does this make the film terrible? This short story was NOT meant to be dragged out into a new story as a film, or at least the one the filmmakers gave us. Still, we think filmmakers need to be cautious on adapting a short story like this into a full, featured-length film. The science in this movie seemed a bit odd. Granted we don't know how the future would change if someone was able to travel back in time and alter future events, and while the idea of time waves wasn't a terrible way to slowly change the present time (still not good, in our opinion) ... the "changes" that happened didn't make sense to us. We get random changes to certain types of vegetation as well as animals (evolutionary changes), but yet nothing happens to the humans until the final time waves are occurring? In addition, what was up with the character of Rand turning to a humanoid cat-fish? We were baffled, but also laughed hysterically at the same time :) Politics are discussed in the short story, and is actually one of the bigger topics the characters mention. However, was the topic of politics discussed in the movie? NOT AT ALL. It's actually one of the biggest things that change as a result of a butterfly being stepped on in the short story - instead of the moderate and gentler politician being elected, a fascist politician had risen to power. YIKES! But, that's an actual interesting part of the story! (and again, this was nowhere to be seen in the film) Essentially, there's a better story in the short story itself than there is in the film. Franchise Pictures: A Fraudulent Production Company $80 million was budgeted for this film; however, Franchise Pictures went under investigation by the FBI for fraudulently inflating their budgets on their films. This all happened around the time A Sound of Thunder was being developed. As a result, the real budget came down to $30 million as that is all that the investors could provide for the film. Essentially, Franchise Pictures went out of business during post-production of this movie, surprise surprise! One of the worst graphics we've seen in a film As the amount of funding and actual budget went down, the computer graphics in this film were crazy bad! Words cannot describe how many effects were done terribly. Since words cannot describe it, maybe this clip of the Allosaurus can give you an idea of the quality of computer graphics infused in this film... (it looks like SyFy channel movie of the week to us honestly) ... A Sound of Thunder Movie Cast By David Shankbone Edward Burns as Travis Ryer: This character was actually originally going to be play...

 On our regular episode this week, we were delighted to watch the Disney-Pixar film WALL-E! This film is fun and you have to kind of remind yourself for a film you haven't seen a while of the WALL-E movie summary let alone what the WALL-E acronym actually stands for, who is included in the WALL-E movie cast, especially the surprising Auto voice, as well as learning and taking a look at the WALL-E awards that were earned when this animated film came out. So join us these week as we explore these topics and more by listening to the full episode or reading our notes below! WALL-E Movie Summary The film starts out with a lone robot on what appears to be desolate and deserted planet Earth. WALL-E, the lone robot, is still performing his duties as a trash compactor essentially. However, along the way it seems that he's evolved and has developed a personality. He collects trinkets he finds intriguing, watches the film Hello, Dolly! (even tries to dance like them in the film). He is then surprised by the arrival of a robot which the audience learns comes from a human ship called the Axiom (one of the ships that left Earth when the planet was close to becoming to a point where sustaining life was not viable). The robot that arrives though, EVE, eventually meets WALL-E. They exchange pleasantries for a while and WALL-E shows her around and shows her his trinkets. However, once he shows EVE a plant, she completely shuts down. We learn that this was the robots mission all along, to see if life had begun again on Earth. A smaller ship comes to pick EVE up to take her back to the Axiom, but WALL-E was determined to stay with her and so he joins the ride in order to arrive to the human populated ship. But EVE and WALL-E have trouble trying to finish EVE's programmed mission of delivering a surviving plant as it is stolen; therefore, preventing the humans knowing that traveling back to Earth is a possibility. EVE and WALL-E eventually find out that the ship and the captain's first mate who is a robot himself, has been programmed not to return to Earth, even if life was found to be recovering. Apparently the decision was made when the humans first left as they thought there was completely no hope for the planet. However, with the heroism of EVE and especially WALL-E along with the help with some of the humans on the ship, they are able to program the spaceship to return to Earth to begin recolonizing. WALL-E Acronym and EVE Acronym  So were you wondering why the main character robots are called by their designated names? Well, WALL-E actually stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth Class. I suppose they didn't want to include the 'C' in there, which I don't blame them, that wouldn't have sounded as good of a name. Then, EVE actually stands for Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator. This name makes sense as she is sent down to the planet to search for potential life on a planet to ultimately see if colonization is possible. WALL-E Movie Cast Robot Cast: Wall-E Voice by... Photo Source Ben Burtt is the voice of Wall-E in this film. While the character himself doesn't say much (since he is a robot), we think he was spot on with conveying the motion with limited sounds he can make for the robot. But really, Ben Burt is more of someone who does sound design on films, including this film. Other notable films he was sound designer on were many of the Star Wars films (thank Ben Burt for the lightsaber sound "Vrooom" in our childhoods), but also the 2009 Star Trek reboot and another Pixar film Up! The man does great work, and here at Force Fed Sci-Fi, we really do thank him for his sound design contributions! EVE Voice by... Photo by Eric Charbonneau Elissa Knight is the voice of EVE (although WALL-E cannot say EVE apparently and calls her closer to the name Eva, but that's alright, it worked!). We think she did a wonderful job complementing the voice of WALL-E.

 Force Fed Sci-Fi decided to see and release a bonus podcast episode this week focusing on the newly released film Men In Black: International! If you didn't already know, we released a bonus episode last week covering the first Men In Black film in preparation for this week, so check it out if you haven't already! Join us though for this podcast episode as we discuss the crew and cast of Men In Black: International, Men In Black: International Will Smith missing cameo, offer our Men In Black: International review, talk about the Men In Black: International budget, and a few other topics along the way! Don't forget! If you enjoy the podcast shoulder, make sure you subscribe on your favorite podcast app! **WARNING: Spoilers for the film Men In Black: International ahead!** Men In Black: International Plot The main synopsis for Men In Black: International on most of the websites prior to the film read something along the lines of a young woman named Molly seeks out the secret agency Men in Black and is eventually recruited into the organization. She is then paired up with Agent H to fight and stop a series of alien attacks around the world in order to save the Earth. Well this is relatively generic, so let's dive a bit deeper shall we? Yes we get Molly as a young girl discovering that Men in Black's agency exists and that she eventually finds the agency only to team up with Agent H. However, she and Agent H guard an alien called Vungus, who has actually come to Earth to warn of a problem with the Men In Black agency and gives a planetary-ending weapon to her. Then we find that different alien species are trying to obtain this weapon for their own use, but Agent M and Agent H set out to protect this weapon in order to prevent it from getting into the wrong hands. That is a bit more of an expansion on the usual plot that people were getting prior to the film and actually, you'll see in the rest of the show notes a few more details about the plot while covering some of the cast of Men In Black: International below. Crew and Cast of Men In Black: International Men in Black: International Cast Chris Hemsworth as Agent H Chris Hemsworth departs from his well-known Marvel Cinematic Universe role of Thor and takes a position within the Men In Black as Agent H in this film. His character struggles throughout the majority of the first half of the film. He's someone that doesn't like to follow the rules, gets in trouble, likes to work alone, and is almost too passive when it comes to important things...like his job (pretty important to monitor alien activity right?). Eventually, though, we think his interaction with Agent M (especially at the halfway point of the film) breaks him from his life of low values. The audience finally gets to see Hemsworth's character actually trying and realizing that he needs to shape up if he wants to save the world. By the end, Agent H sort of rediscovers his old self and is actually made as the probationary leader of the Men In Black's London division! Tessa Thompson as Agent M Tessa Thompson also departs from her character as the Valkyrie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and takes on the role of Agent H's partner for this film as Agent M. At first, we see her as a young Molly in the film who witnesses a visit from a cute alien, but witness her parents being neuralyzed because they've admitted to the Men In Black they saw the small alien. So now she knows the truth! Molly works hard to become Agent M as she is the one who sought out the Men In Black in the first place and succeeded. She passes the tests Agent O gives her and she is accepted as a probationary agent. Her first assignment, if you don't know already, is obviously to go to London where she teams up with Agent H against the main plot's antagonists. However, at the end, Agent O decides to bring her back to New York as she is no longer a probationary agent. Liam Neeson as High T

This week, the Force Fed Sci-Fi team watched the Doomsday (2008) film, which is another variation of a post-apocalyptic world, focusing more so on the Great Britain part of the world. Unlike our last film we reviewed and discussed, The Postman, where we didn't get an answer on what caused such a desolate world, at least Doomsday offers the explanation that the "reaper virus" is the cause of such a chaotic society. So join us this week, as we dive into the Doomsday (2008) film, the Doomsday movie cast and characters, and more! The Writer and Director of Doomsday, Neil Marshall Other Film and TV Accreditations Neil Marshall Neil Marshall wrote and directed the Doomsday (2008) film. Other projects Marshall has worked on include Dog Soldiers and the critically-acclaimed horror film The Descent. Marshall has also worked on television series episodes such as with Game of Thrones (episodes "Blackwater"and "The Watchers on the Wall"), Westworld (episode "The Stray"), and Netflix's Lost in Space. Inspiration for the Doomsday (2008) Film Marshall intentionally and admittedly took aspects from some of his favorite films and inserted them into this one. The ones we at Force Fed Sci-Fi recognized were Escape From New York, Excalibur, Gladiator, and Mad Max. We appreciate Marshall paying homage to these films, but at some points it felt like it was too similar and unoriginal. More on that later when we cover our thoughts on the ending of this film. Doomsday Movie Cast and Character Analysis Rhona Mitra as Major Eden Sinclair - Mitra did a nice job at playing the lead role. While there isn't much depth to her character in this film, but she does well playing a no-fear and confident female leader of a militaristic group while kicking butt. Rhona Mitra, Photo courtesy of Joits  Adrian Lester as Sergeant Norton - We think Lester and his character Norton didn't get enough screen time in this film. While there's a bit of a rough meeting between he and Mitra's character at the beginning, they form a strong bond, but it seems to be cut too short. However, within that limited amount of time, Norton is given a few decent action sequences. Probably most notably, Norton is given the most honorable death in this film compared to everyone else who is gruesomely murdered with a display of excessive gore. Craig Conway as Sol - It's always tough when it comes to characters like Sol in some of these films. Essentially, he is bat-sh** crazy. Most audience members don't relate to these types of characters, but you have to give Conway credit as he brought a high-level of intensity to the role. You can't miss him yelling and shouting all of his lines throughout the film, which all come with showers of spit and saliva (and actually we seem to remember him not even having lines in the last action sequence, just yelling and growling). Malcolm McDowell as Marcus Kane - One of the two most well-known actors in this film is McDowell. His part is limited, but important as he is the one the militaristic group is sent to find since prior to the infection causing post-apocalyptic world, he was a doctor trying to find the cure for the "reaper virus." However, we soon find that his character just pretty much gave up on all of that and decided to become the leader of a renaissance-like community. McDowell does a decent job at playing his character, but again it is limited. As Sean mentions in the podcast, we will eventually cover him again as he appears in the film Start Trek Generations and we may one-day cover A Clockwork Orange. Malcom McDowell, photo courtesy of GabboT Bob Hoskins as Bill Nelson - Hoskins is the second actor in the film we need to cover who is decently well-know (rest in peace). Again though, he has limited screen time as he pretty much gets Mitra's character ready and on her way for her and her squad's mission and at the end. Photo by James Laurence Stewart And Rounding Out The Rest Of The Cast...

 In honor of the upcoming film Men In Black International film (MIB International podcast episode now available!), we at Force Fed Sci-Fi wanted to revisit the film that started it all by talking about and reviewing the movie Men In Black. We decided to cover topics like the Men In Black creatures and aliens, the Men In Black ending, some of our favorite Men In Black quotes, and more! Let's start with the... Men In Black Cast Will Smith plays Agent J (Jay) in Men In Black (his previous identity being Edward James earlier in the film). As Sean and Chris discuss in this show's podcast episode, Will Smith had just completed and ended his popular show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, starred in the smash blockbuster hit Independence Day, and then was cast and released in this film Men In Black. It's kind of interesting as he finished the show and while he starred in the action film of Bad Boys first, he then cemented himself as kind of a sci-fi action star with Independence Day and Men In Black. We definitely don't think it's interesting in a bad way, but exactly the opposite as we think he did a phenomenal job taking up these types of roles (and still does). Sticking with Men In Black though, Smith did a great job! The mashup with Tommy Lee Jones' character made the film funny and of course Will Smith delivers his one line jokes with ease as he usually does. We'll get more into some of these jokes with our favorite Men In Black quotes later. Tommy Lee Jones plays Agent K (Kay) in Men In Black. Jones had won an Oscar 4 years prior to the release of this film for his portrayal in The Fugitive (our non-sci-fi film recommendation of the week) and had filmed several films in between the two in the meantime. As we mentioned, the contrast of Jones' and Smith's characters was impeccable and added to the movie's humor. Some people may not know that Clint Eastwood was considered for this role as well. While Sean and Chris think that you could trade Eastwood and Jones out on this week's episode, I disagree and think Eastwood would have brought too much seriousness to the character of Agent K. We also have in Men In Black, Zed who is portrayed by Rip Torn. We think Torn does a nice job playing the leader of the MIB agency in this film (and in the second one). We assume he wasn't asked back for the third MIB movie due to his legal troubles though. Despite his past, he has had some great performances to go along with a long career. Men In Black Creatures and Aliens So we thought it would be fun to identify some of the Men In Black creatures and aliens we meet in the first film along with some of the actors who portray them: Vincent D'Onofrio portrays the main villainous creature alien in this film. We never get the exact name of his species though! We get him referenced as "the bug," "cockroach," and as "Edgar," which is really the body he stole as a disguise (poor Edgar? nah he was a jerk, haha!). In any case, D'Onofrio gives a great performance in this film while making himself move awkwardly at times since he really isn't human, just disguised as one. Tony Shalhoub portrays Jeebs, a creature alien who apparently can grow his head back? I want to know, can he grow as many back as he wants? Or does he have a limited amount? We get see the Arquillians introduced in this film. Who are actually an important race involved in this storyline. We see a Cephalapoid at the very beginning of the film blink two sets of eyelids (although the second turn out to be gills since he was out of breath? Uh...alrighty then). However, we quickly say 'bye bye' as he jumps off of a roof. In this film we are introduced to the worm guys and Frank the pug. Like Edgar, we don't really get a name for these alien creatures. I am glad we got a big more of these characters in the second MIB film, though. Hopefully we'll get to talk about that in the future!

While falling flat on its face, Kevin Costner's film The Postman is an exhausting movie to watch. This week, we'll be discussing The Postman including Tom Petty's cameo, analyzing the characters and cast of The Postman, and how The Postman final battle fails to deliver a lack of a climax. Stick around to learn about how ridiculously long this film is and other gripes we at Force Fed Sci-Fi identified and/or listen to the full episode on The Force Fed Sci-Fi Movie Podcast! Brief Synopsis This film was based on a 1980's novel with the same title written by David Brin, and we will touch on that in the next section, but essentially this film is a world that has gone post-apocalyptic. The year is 2013 and society has broken down with no infrastructure and no government. At least in one part of the United States, a militia known as the Holnists reigns the nearby settlements with fear. Then comes a con-man who transforms himself into a revolutionary hero to stand against the Holnist militia and give the nearby settlements hope, which eventually spreads across the country to help organized society evolve again. Pre-Production and Surprising Facts You May Have Not Known  It is rumored that at one point, this film was intended to be directed by Ron Howard and Tom Hanks. We believe though that the story was going to have been changed quite a bit if the development involved these two Hollywood legends. Again, it is rumored that one of the original screenplays involved the moral message of the novel being reversed (which, David Brin did not take kindly to). Could this have been the direction the film was heading with Ron Howard and Tom Hanks? I guess we will never really know. However, Kevin Costner ended up as director, producer, and star as the main character for this film. Apparently, David Brin was happy that Costner became involved with this film and that the screenplay changed to portraying people missing organized society if a post-apocalyptic world were to occur. While this may have worked somewhere on paper, we at Force Fed Sci-Fi believe Kevin Costner did not succeed at this, in part because, while the novel was dubbed as a science-fiction book, the film was far from being a sci-fi film. The Postman Book vs Movie We think it's important to at least briefly mention the differences of The Postman book vs The Postman movie. Which, if you aren't familiar, the book was a highly acclaimed science-fiction novel when it came out in the 1980's. The Postman book, unlike the film, actually had science-fiction elements in it! There are reasons given to the reader as to why a post-apocalyptic world has presented itself and occurred. The novel explains that the fall-out of civilization was the result of several electromagnetic pulses and bio-weapons which led to the destruction of major cities. In addition, there is an encounter of what appeared to be a sentient artificial intelligence in the novel! Unfortunately, we get none of this in the film. It seemed like Kevin Costner wanted to take all of the sci-fi elements the book contained out and wanted to turn The Postman movie into a western-like film. While Kevin Costner is decent at starring, producing, and directing western films, trying to turn a sci-fi film into a western with The Postman failed terribly. It seemed to us that he really tried and forced his efforts to successfully do this. His films Open Range, Dances With Wolves, and even his recent western-esque Netflix film The Highwaymen (the two former Texas Rangers that hunted down Bonnie and Clyde in the 1930's) were good-to-great films! But again, trying to put a western twist on a story that was originally dubbed as a sci-fi book, was a recipe for disaster. Analyzing The Characters and Cast of The Postman Kevin Costner Photo Courtesy of Georges Biard (Wikimedia Commons) Kevin Costner played the title character of The Postman. Unfortunately, right here our sci-fi analysis had a bit of a gripe as we are gi...

  We typically think of aliens as having the shape similar to that of human bodies with skinny arms and legs, but what about the Attack the Block alien where these beings are pretty much animal-like. It was definitely a different take on an alien invasion film gifted to us by Joe Cornish. Without further ado, let's jump in to what the Force Fed Sci-Fi team discussed this week in regards to the sci-fi film Attack the Block, touching on the how the aliens' appearances were developed, the amount of effects that were used, and analyzing some of the characters! Joe Cornish Photo by Raffi Asdourian Joe Cornish was the writer and director for Attack the Block, which was his directorial debut. The first scene shot was of the mugging of Samantha, a character who is aspiring to be a medical doctor. Cornish was actually mugged in real life, which was part of the inspiration of this film. Of course, afterwards he added his love for science fiction. He went on to eventually write and direct the recent film The Kid Who Would Be King; however, this film was a flop and only made about half of its budget up through its box office earnings. More positively though, Cornish did contribute to the writing of the successful films The Adventures of Tin Tin and Marvel's first Ant-Man film. Special Effects and The Appearance of the Aliens Amount of Effects Used Due to this being a low budget film, the amount of special effects are very limited, and you could say extremely limited for being a sci-fi film. About only 100 effect shots were used. This is definitely a complete opposite of the film that was talked about last week, George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode I - Phantom Menace which had used close to 2000 of on-screen effects. So where were most of the effects used for Attack the Block? Creating the Attack the Block Alien Most of the on-screen effects were used for the look of the ravaging aliens in this film. Before we talk about the effects that altered the aliens appearance though, let's briefly mention the basics that were used. So, gorilla-type suits were built for two people to get inside and use. Our hosts mention in our podcast episode what a pain that would most likely have been as it most likely got warm in those suits. Meanwhile, the jaws on the suits were animatronic. These were the basics that were dealt with while filming. The appearance of the aliens came from graphics and effects later. The spiky fur was added along with the "no reflection black" the alien creatures possessed. Now, all of us here a FFSF think that these effects on the aliens were done well. For our hosts Sean and Chris, they claim they couldn't tell that the "no reflection black" was an effect added later. I respectfully disagreed with them :) In my opinion, it's pretty easy to tell the blackest of black colors used and seen were obviously digitally added, but maybe I'm just the smartest out of all of us ;) kidding of course. Finally, we get the illuminating color of the aliens' teeth. We think this was a nice add-on as it was the only color added to the appearance. For crying out loud these creatures didn't even have eyes! If, you were in a pitch-black room and this creature decided to show their teeth, that's all you would see ... creep! But genius on the filmmakers' parts. Exploring the Attack the Block Characters Obviously, the teenage gang consisting of Moses, Jerome, Biggs, Pest, and Dennis don't come off as characters you root for in a film at first as they mug the character of Samantha. However, as the film moves along, you sort of feel for some of the life situations these kids have to deal with. They may not be completely impoverished, but definitely live in the realm of a low economic status. Moses Photo by Gage Skidmore Moses is played by John Boyega who has in recent years become the character Finn in the latest Star Wars trilogy, and if you didn't know that ... where have you been,

The Force Fed Sci-Fi team decided to check out the film Brightburn this past weekend in theaters and we wanted to share our thoughts! We'll look at the Brightburn cast and characters, the Brightburn Superman comparison, give our Brightburn rating, and more! Since at the time of this posting, this film has just been released, we have to give a *Spoiler Warning* ... so continue at your own risk! Brief Synopsis and the Brightburn Superman Comparison The marketing for Brightburn made it pretty clear what this film was going to be about - a pre-teen who develops his powers, but doesn't turn out to be the usual hero and instead uses his powers to murder and terrorize. This film though has a blatant Superman comparison. An alien space pod crash lands in the middle of the U.S., a boy develops powers that include super strength, flying, and laser/heat eye vision. Sound familiar? Well I suppose if you aren't a comic book fan, you may not know, but this is exactly like the Superman origin story. There are some obvious differences since the main character turns out to use his super powers for purposeful murder. Brandon (the main character) doesn't exactly have the smartest of parents either. While they are loving and nurturing towards him, they make poor choices. If he had Clark Kent's parents, then maybe he would have turned out as a hero (probably not though). We'll get more into Brandon's parents in the next section. Brightburn Cast and Characters The main cast really only includes the following three Breyer family members: Jackson Dunn Jackson Dunn as Brandon Breyer - Dunn hasn't really done much in his career, which is to be expected as he is young. However, we surprisingly learned he made a brief appearance in Avengers: Endgame as the young Scott Lang as the team were (unsuccessfully) experimenting with time travel. That movie aside, Dunn does a decent job in this film. He delivers convincing performance as his character discovers his powers, but at a time in his life where he has not matured and does not deal with anger well (the people around him don't exactly help his situation either. Just for kicks (and because I love the movie) this is the clip that Jackson Dunn is briefly included in for the Avengers: Endgame film (he appears around 48 seconds): Elizabeth Banks, photo by Gage Skidmore Elizabeth Banks as Tori Breyer - Despite Banks' character of Tori being a bit flawed as in being in complete denial about her child, she delivers a good performance as Brandon's mother. As we identify in our podcast episode, Banks is actually a decent diverse actor. She can be cast in a comedic, horror, and even action-like role and does a decent job usually. In this film's case, her character just completely denies the fact that her son is a killer and murderer (the pieces of the puzzle blatantly fit, which the father has no trouble identifying). David Denman David Denman as Kyle Breyer - Denman as the father Kyle Breyer delivers a modest performance. The story more so focuses on Brandon and Tori most of the movie, and Kyle is including slightly. At least his character realizes early that his son has become dangerous as he is discovering his super power abilities. He's not too smart though when he goes and tries to murder his son in the woods. Prior to trying to murder Brandon, Kyle even says out loud that his son has never been sick or has even gotten a cut. So you think trying to murder him with a rifle is going to work? As you may guess, right after his self and ill-advised decision, Brandon does not hesitate to use his laser-eyes to burn a huge hole through his father's face. Possible Sequel and/or Brightburn Universe It's pretty obvious if you're paying attention enough to recognize the door being left open for a Brightburn sequel, and more likely a Brightburn Universe. The first clue is when Banks' character does a Google search for meteors that landed on the same night Brandon's...

Join us as we begin our journey to a galaxy far, far away and visit Star Wars The Phantom Menace, exploring and debating the questionable choices George Lucas made as the writer and director of the first prequel film. We'll talk about The Phantom Menace characters and cast a bit, how The Phantom Menace ending takes the audience on an emotional rollercoaster, and as always give our Force Fed Sci-Fi rating. Production and Pre-Production Topics While George Lucas wrote and directed Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope and it turned out relatively decent, he came back and decided to write and direct the first of the prequel films. Simply enough, he did not create a good film. He had not directed for quite some time and decided to put his hand on all aspects of the film. Is that such a smart way to do things? We think it would have been better if there was a bit more teamwork involved with the creation of this film and actually considering others' opinions and/or getting second opinions. Other Directors Were Asked, But Why Didn't They Take on The Phantom Menace? There were actually a few great directors out there that George Lucas went to in order to ask if they would be willing to direct The Phantom Menace. One of those being long-time collaborator of Lucas, Steven Spielberg. The other two that were approached included Ron Howard and Robert Zemeckis. All of them supposedly told Lucas he should direct it. In addition, it did seem the others had other projects on hand. If they did tell Lucas to direct it himself, we wonder if they regret their decision. Would this film had turned out better in the end if somebody else directed it? Filming On Location Versus Using Computer Graphics One bright spot to note as far as pre-production and production topics go, is the fact that there were some on-location scenes filmed. The Tunisian Desert was used for Tatooine as it was previously in the Star Wars franchise, along with a palace in Italy serving as the Naboo Palace, and finally the forest scenes being filmed at a Cassiobury Park in England. On the other hand, this film was the beginning of the excess use of CGI in the Star Wars prequel films. While the other two seemed to have a lot more CGI than the first, The Phantom Menace still overuses this type of technology. The Phantom Menace Characters and Casting Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn. Liam Neeson and his character were one of the brighter spots in this film we thought. We come to care about him and plays out the role pretty well. However, in regards to the character itself (which isn't Neeson's fault), we think that as the leader in most of the film he doesn't make the wisest of choices. Qui-Gon just believes Watto that he's the only one in town that owns the part their ship needs. In addition, he takes a huge risk betting the Naboo ship in favor of Anakin winning the pod-race. Despite Qui-Gon's faults, we unfortunately come to care about the character who ends up losing his life at the end. We shouldn't be surprised though, as this is a common theme in all of the first films in each set of the Star Wars trilogies. Natalie Portman as Queen Padme Amidala. We thought Natalie Portman did a mediocre job with her character considering the dialogue she was given and the dialogue/characters around her. The first scene between Anakin and Padme is ridiculously awkward, but we felt she did try her best to make the most of it and salvage that scene. Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker. Now Chris and Sean don't touch on Jake Lloyd as Anakin in this week's podcast episode that much. However, I myself have an extremely hard time trying to appreciate and like his acting and character. As we stated before, that first scene of Padme and Anakin is awkward. How cheesy is it that his first words to her are "Are you and Angel?" and later we get "My name is Anakin and I'm a person!" We think these written lines were atrocious and I really did not believe the performance of Lloyd,

Step inside to this edition of our podcast and article by looking into a not-so-happy future as the film 12 Monkeys predicts for us while we discuss our 12 Monkeys Review, take a look at the 12 Monkeys Movie Cast, would we want to see a 12 Monkeys remake, and more! Where Did the Idea for the Film 12 Monkeys Come From? In short, the idea came from the French short-film La Jetée. Does that sum it up for all of you? Probably not as I'm sure most of you have not heard of that film. However, 12 Monkeys barrows the majority of elements that occurred in La Jetée in its own film. The major difference being that the post-apocalyptic world was caused by a nuclear World War 3 versus a deadly virus as 12 Monkeys portrays. Apparently, executive producer Robert Kosberg was such a fan of the short-film, that he thought it could be made as full-feature length sci-fi film. He received the permission of the director and writer of , Chris Marker and pitched the idea to Universal Pictures, and Universal did eventually agree to pick it up. Other noteworthy facts include that Time Magazine ranked La Jetée as one of the top-10 time travel films of 2010 and The British Film Institute ranked La Jetée as the 50th best movie of all time! Terry Gilliam and the 12 Monkeys Budget Director Terry Gilliam - Original Picture by Rita Molnar Prior to this film, Waterworld starring and produced by Kevin Costner was released. Unfortunately, this film cost Universal unexpected and extra incurred expenses. As a result, the 12 Monkeys budget was set at around $29 to 30 million. In terms of producing a Hollywood Sci-Fi film, this budget was low. Enter the director of 12 Monkeys, Terry Gilliam. Luckily, Terry Gilliam was able to make the budget work. Supposedly, he and others would go down to flea markets for some of the props and set materials and we imagine that helped keep costs low. One of the bigger accomplishments by Gilliam included the persuasion of Bruce Willis to take a pay cut! As a result of keeping to the budget, Gilliam earned final cut privilege. The 12 Monkeys Movie Cast... James Cole, the main character was portrayed by the well-known star of Bruce Willis. Gilliam's first pick to play this character was actually Nick Nolte. However, Universal Pictures did not agree with Gilliam's choice which then led to Willis receiving the part. In hindsight, we think this was for the best as Nick Nolte has such a hoarse and gravelly voice (inspiration for Christian Bale's Batman perhaps?). In any case, Willis was a better choice and played the part well as he was able to play a character who is smart and strong when he needs to be, but is also vulnerable and in-touch with himself and his emotional desires. Jeffrey Goines was played by Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys. Luckily for Universal, Brad Pitt had started to make a name for himself as prior to this film he starred in relatively successful movies like Interview with the Vampire and Legends of the Fall. Pitt did a phenomenal job as an actor in this film. He earned himself a Golden Globe for best supporting actor as well as an Academy Award nomination, but lost that to Kevin Spacey's performance in Usual Suspects. How was Pitt able to portray a mentally ill patient so well? Apparently, Gilliam took away his cigarettes. A drastic and a bit mean way to do it, but gave Pitt what he needed as one can become shaky and shouting with nicotine withdrawal. Doctor Kathryn Railly was portrayed by Madeleine Stowe who Gilliam met with while working on the film adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities, which was abandoned and did not come to fruition. Doctor Leland Goines was played by the famous Christopher Plummer, who was not in this film a whole. We did feel like his character wasn't needed as it didn't add much to the film. We also are kind of wondering, why a southern accent in the city of Baltimore for this character? I suppose you can create whatever kind of character you want,

This week, we travel back in time and talk about Back to the Future including topics like Eric Stoltz being cast as Marty McFly originally, some of our favorite Back to the Future quotes, the obstacles the film had to endure to get its feet going underneath, and much more! Difficulties Getting Back to the Future off the ground... While Back to the Future turned out to be a great film, some of you out there may not know that it was difficult to get this story and movie moving forward. Studios did not want to pick this film up and it went through an insane amount of re-writes. Disney didn't want the film because of the Oedipal element, yet, as Chris points out in this show's podcast, they have no problem breaking the hearts of millions in some their movies (e'hem, Bambi). However, luckily Steven Spielberg and his production company Amblin Entertainment was convinced to take this film on along with Universal Studios. Did you know the original time machine was going to be a refrigerator instead of a car requiring the power of a nuclear reaction? The screenplay went through soooo many different drafts. Around 44 drafts if you were looking for a number. There were definitely some positives that came out of changing a few things. Then president and COO of Universal Sidney Sheinberg put his hand two cents in for a few ideas to be changed. For example, Sheinberg changed the name of Marty's mother's name from Meg to Lorraine, referring to Christopher Lloyd's character as 'Doc Brown' instead 'Professor,' and thankfully changing Doc's animal that he is so willing to do an experiment on from a chimpanzee to a dog. The one not so good suggestion that was played down as if Sheinberg was joking (even though he was totally serious about it) was naming the movie "Spaceman from Pluto." Did you just furrow your eyebrows? I know we did when we learned that. We are actually still a little confused as to why this popped into his head. The name has nothing to do with time travel which is the main component of the film. All we can say is, thank goodness it didn't take! Casting and Re-casting The story of Back to the Future, Eric Stoltz, and Michael J. Fox The casting of Marty McFly. Michael J. Fox was the original actor who was thought of as playing Marty McFly, but at the time he was locked in with his contract for the television show Family Ties. Therefore, Eric Stoltz was casted as the main character of the film. Simply said, he did not fit the role. They had shot several weeks with Stoltz. While he was a success in the film Mask, he was too dramatic for the role of Marty McFly. Fortunately, it was agreed Michael J. Fox could play the role as Marty McFly, but he had to film Family Ties as well! Ever notice in the film a few times where Fox has huge bags under his eyes? He was filming day and night between the show and the movie. What a trooper if you ask us. Really, it would not have been the same film if Fox was unable to participate in Back to the Future. Other Cast Members Jennifer Parker. The role going from Stoltz to Fox caused the character of Jennifer to be re-cast as well, even though we only really see her in 2 or 3 scenes in the film. Melora Hardin was originally set to play this role, but was explained as being too tall next to Michael J. Fox. I suppose that makes sense as height of characters is something that is considered often when casting for films. The part then went to Claudia Wells. Doc Brown. Christopher Lloyd plays the infamous Doc Brown in Back to the Future. He supposedly did not want to initially take the part for this film and eventually, his wife convinced him to take the role. In our opinion, this worked out well. Lloyd was able to bring his manic-type acting to the film and it fits well! Although, we do wonder what and how Doc Brown's 24 hour scientific service does (next time you watch the film, look at the truck in the mall parking lot). Biff Tannen. J.J.

Back in 2010, the film Inception was released and became a Christopher Nolan classic! However, it forced audiences to really have to think about the movie; contemplating the importance of the Inception totem, coming up with an Inception ending explanation for themselves, how the heck did they film that hallway seen, and much more to consider. Listen to this episode of Force Fed Sci-Fi as Chris and Sean discuss these Inception topics and more (or read our show notes)! How long did it take Christopher Nolan to make Inception? Nolan actually came up with the idea of Inception and pitched it back in 2002. But wait, didn’t it come out in 2010? Why did it take so long for Nolan to finish this film? Let’s explore Nolan’s timeline a bit… So, the original idea that was pitched and Nolan worked on was a horror film about “dream stealers.” Not sure what that movie was going to be all about. However, after pitching the film in 2002 and starting to work on it, Nolan himself actually put a stop and hold on it! He wanted more experience in the filmmaking process and directing. Nolan went on to make The Prestige and Batman Begins. These were actually relatively low-budget films. Which comes as surprise if you think about it today since superhero movies are given pretty big budgets. However, Batman Begins was relatively successful, which of course led to the huge hit of The Dark Knight. Now with some experience and success, Nolan along with Warner Bros. tackled Inception, and there was hardly any disappointment in our opinion! Inception Cast and Character Analysis Leonardo DiCaprio as Dominick “Dom” Cobb DiCaprio’s involvement as the lead role in this film was a good move for him as it felt like he hadn’t been in a big successful blockbuster film in a while. It obviously helped that Nolan pursued him for the role in the first place. Other casting considerations though went to Will Smith and Brad Pitt. However, I think most people in the audience were pleased with DiCaprio’s acting in this film. We think that he portrayed feeling guilty and shameful for his wife’s death very well. Sticking with that idea of feeling shameful and guilty though, we don’t get to see the character of Cobb at his best. We can infer that Cobb has at least been in the past one of the best at hacking into others’ dreams, but don’t get to see Cobb really that great at the job in this film since his projection of his wife, Mal, interferes constantly (the exception is when he pulls off “Mr. Charles”). However, we do have to keep in mind that the difficulty of him moving on from his wife is part of his character arc. In the end, we finally do see him let go of that guilt and shame. Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur As Chris says in the podcast, “Mmmmm, JGL.” Yes, women seem to pine over him. He does prove himself well in this film, though. Supposedly, he did all of his stunts except one, which is impressive! This especially is true with the rotating hallway scene. The set makers actually built a hallway that spun, and this must’ve been difficult for the cameramen (who did a great job) and the actors like Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Luckily, James Franco’s schedule interfered with him taking on this role as Franco was the preferred actor. Turning over to Arthur as a character himself though, we see him as Cobb’s partner. Is he really that great of a partner though? He vehemently says ‘no, inception cannot be done/shouldn’t be done’ when the team discusses it as opposed to supporting Cobb’s ability to be successful. However, this may have been part of Arthur’s character arc. Maybe he was more like the manager of the team; not in a leader-sense, but someone who keeps a level-head for the team. Ellen Page as Ariadne In our opinion, Ellen Page is the one piece that didn’t work out so well for this film. While we don’t know who exactly, we felt that there could have been a different actress that would have fit the role better as the team’s arc...

Welcome to Force Fed Sci-Fi! Meet The Force Fed Sci-Fi Team... Chris I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and developed a love for science fiction from marathons of The Twilight Zone with my dad and numerous viewings of Predator with his friends. I think sci-fi allows us to tell relevant and entertaining stories that are appreciated by everyone. Some of my current favorites include Black Mirror, Stranger Things and Blade Runner 2049. I'm also a fan of craft beer, Chicago sports, especially the Cubs, and all things that appeal to nerdy sensibilities. Sean In 1997 my parents bought us the Star Wars VHS trilogy set and instantly I became hooked on sci-fi adventure movies. That love for sci-fi transitioned into watching Star Trek Voyager, Independence Day, The Fifth Element and so much more. Sci-fi allows our dreams to become a reality. From films like Back to the Future 2 to Brazil, sci-fi is a genre that makes me feel like a kid again. Jeremy My passion for science fiction films and television was inevitable. My father was and still is a fan of many sci-fi franchises like Star Trek and Stargate. Naturally, I became a sci-fi fanatic as well since I was exposed to it growing up. Fast forward to today, and I can’t wait for the next big science fiction film to hit theaters when I see the trailer. It’s fun to immerse myself into a futuristic story that one day may be reality! Our Mission and Purpose... Our love for sci-fi is evident if you read our quick bios above. Our conversations about sci-fi films have always been fun and memorable. Then we decided we'd bring those conversations to you via the Force Fed Sci-Fi (Movie) Podcast as well as ForceFedSciFi.com! We uncover events leading up to these sci-fi films being released, hidden meanings and themes that might be lurking, our favorite and not-so-favorite parts of these films, nominations and legacies, and a few of our own quirky and unique picks from each film. Force Fed Sci-Fi Category Picks and Rating System! The Red Shirt of the Week... If you are a supreme sci-fi fan, you may know what a "red shirt character" from Star Trek The Original Series is. If not, it's simple. On quite a few episodes, if a landing party went down to a new planet, the team would consist of a few main characters, but also include a no-name character that wore a red shirt. If you haven't put the clues together by now, that no-name character often was the one to die in that episode. We try to pick out a no-name character with every sci-fi film we cover who dies. Sometimes there isn't anyone that dies, so in its place we may pick an animal that's killed or an object destroyed, and in rare instances, we may not have one at all. However, it is a fun element to include while we watch these films and to share those picks that we make with you and our audience! Family Guy touches on the Star Trek Red Shirt character briefly, but comically... The Lens Flare of the Week... Photo courtesy of Pkisme While many have been impressed with J.J. Abrams' versions of Star Trek and Star Wars, there was something noticed in these films that was included a bit much, especially in his Star Trek films. If you don't know what a lens flare is, it is when light enters the lens of the camera which is typically bright (sometimes blindingly bright) and in addition, the object producing light in the image or film is often blurry. While J.J. Abrams even recognized himself he included too many lens flares at times, we thought it might be fun to point out something in each sci-film that A) was included throughout the film too often, or B) did not really need to be in the film as it didn't add to the story. Force Fed Sci-Fi's Film Rating System... We have four categories a film can be labeled as: Wouldn't watch - watch it once and are comfortable never seeing it again Would watch - watch it if it makes it's way on television or Netflix Would own - adding it to your film collection in...