Podcast Review: MeanDawg Top 5

MeanDawg Top 5 is hosted by creator Jay Haas. The show features Top 5 movie lists provided by Jay and his co-hosts, Dave Alluisi, Randy Anderson, and Mark Eichenberger. Like the best podcasts out there, MeanDawg is a gang of friends who sit around microphones and record a podcast. That’s the best thing about this show. The show is absolutely hilarious and fun, but the MeanDawg crew all have great taste in movies. They’re not film critics or film snobs, but they know what is good and what’s complete shit. When a group of movie reviewers love Bill Paxton, Akira Kurosawa, and Kenny Loggins that truly shows how awesome their taste in films is. Who doesn’t like Kenny Loggins? People with bad taste, that’s who! Danger Zone, baby!It’s very refreshing to hear a top 5 movie podcast that doesn’t have completely trash lists. When you hear something like the Movie Junkie podcast that isn’t funny and features favorite foreign film choices like The Ring, it’s refreshing to hear MeanDawg. Yes, I said The Ring. Not Ringu, which would actually make sense. THE RING and that was just a number five choice.The MeanDawg Top 5 podcast is easy to get hooked on and I guarantee that if you give it a listen, you will immediately click the get all button on iTunes and make your way quickly through the entire backlog of the show. You’ll listen to one show, have a lot of fun, and completely lose track of time. I’m listening to one right now and I’ve been laughing my ass off, but when I opened up iTunes I realized that only eight minutes were left. MeanDawg has been a bit off with the release schedule lately because of a busy Mr. Haas, but I’m sure things will get back on track soon and even though the release schedule has been a bit crazy, the episodes are better than they have ever been before. Join in on all of the lists, tournaments, hilarity, recommendations, and classic moments. One of the best podcasts out there, not just one of the best movie podcasts out there. There are few things that I can recommend as highly as this. Please check it out, because that’s exactly why I reviewed this podcast. I want you all to subscribe and love it as much as I do.Find the show at: http://meandawg.com10/10

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

10 Things I Hate About You is the adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew set in high school. The film follows various teenagers and their sorted love affairs throughout the days leading up to prom. Julia Stiles plays the angsty (is that a word?) Kat Stratford and Heath Ledger plays bad boy Patrick Verona. Patrick is payed by the baddie of the film, Joey Donner, to date Kat so that Joey can date her younger sister Bianca. Also, we follow Cameron and his pal Michael while they try to set up Joey as a pawn so that Cameron can weasel around and snake Bianca. Got all that?

I watched 10 Things I Hate About You on a recommendation from a certain friend. I realized that I should seriously stop listening to this person for my film recommendation needs as this was the same person who suggested Garden State, which is one of those films that people who want to pretend that they’re really smart about films always talk about. However, if they were smart, they would know that Garden State is an incredibly dull and pointless film that doesn’t have a single great aspect about it. But, I digress because this review is not about Garden State. The first ten or so minutes of 10 Things I Hate About You is pretty entertaining. After that, there isn’t anything exceedingly special or entertaining about the film. It’s pretty much your standard high school film. It is full of all the cliques, cliches, and stereotypes we all just love to see in a high school film. Wait, we don’t love seeing all those things?

The dialogue is almost all completely atrocious. It strides, wishes, and prays that it was funny, but it’s not worthy enough. Lines like, “What planet are you from? Planet Loser?” and responses such as, “As opposed to Planet Look At Me?” make you scratch your head and wonder how long the writer thought of a cracking good line like that. The performances are mostly average at best. Heath Ledger is good for what he was stiding to be in the film. He didn’t give a great or even good perfomance, but he’s someone that I always love watching. I don’t know how to explain that, but I think Ledger played many likeable characters and he seemed to be a likeable person in the real world. Julia Stiles is decent as the bitchy Kat and I liked her and Ledger best in the film.

10 Things I Hate About You is a collection of boring, high school romance fodder with the ocassional good scene. Overall, nothing special and nothing of note.

5/10

Director’s Commentary: Titanic

In this post, I will first be reviewing the director’s commentary of James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster, Titanic. At the beginning of the commentary, Cameron states that he believes that films should just speak for themselves. At that point, the viewer starts thinking that there will be prolonged moments of silence while Cameron just sits and watches. However, quite the opposite happens. Cameron talks non stop about his film and you can tell that he really cares about the film. The longest moment of silence is probably about ten seconds. Cameron reveals interesting tidbits and extremely interesting technological discussion about the film. The best parts of the commentary are when Cameron is describing all of the special effects shots and how they were able to pull them off. Cameron is not afraid to correct a few of the minor historical faults with the film. He apologizes to the relatives of Murdoch since no one officially knows how he met his demise and he corrects several other nitpicks people have had with the film. The commentary is so intriguing that it makes the film even better. It seemed to go by so fast and that was truly remarkable. Cameron shows why he is a film director and how much he loved this project.

Now on to the film…

Titanic and I have a very special relationship. I watched this film many times in my younger years because it absolutely enthralled me. It was one I always rented when I went to the video store. Since that point, that nostalgia has stuck with me. However, it seems that those who were praising Titanic so much in 1997 have now completely changed their tune. Now they all talk about how overrated the film is and now the film seems underrated to me. There are so many fantastic aspects of the film that I truly enjoy: The special effects, the cinematography, the score, the costumes, the editing, the astounding transition shots, the sets, and, for the most part, the acting. The only fault I can see with Titanic is the dialogue. The dialogue is fairly average, but I think the actors were so good that they pulled it off and the dialogue did not seems as bad as it could have been in the hands of other actors. Plus, it has Bill Paxton! Come on, you know a movie is awesome when Paxton is in it! In all seriousness, I really love Titanic and it’s somewhere in my personal favorite films of all time. I highly recommend it, but I highly doubt those of you reading this haven’t seen Titanic.

Director’s Commentary from James Cameron 9/10
Titanic 9.5/10

I know I’m going to lose so much credibility with that rating, but I could care less. Titanic is a wonderful viewing experience, so fuck off! Yes, I know. Very professional.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Little Miss Sunshine follows the young girl Olive Hoover, who dreams of winning the beauty pageant titled, you guessed it, The Little Miss Sunshine Pageant. The whole Hoover family treks west to California so that Olive’s dreams can come true. After that, craziness, hilarity, and drama ensue.

Little Miss Sunshine is the perfect blend of hilarity and drama. We see a family separated at the beginning of the film and the lengths they go to for Olive bring them closer together. We see moments of comic genius and then we’re suddenly hit with a scene of tragedy and drama. There’s an absolutely hilarious dance routine in the beauty pageant, but we also get a tear jerking moment at the expense of Paul Dano’s character. This works incredibly well and makes this an absolute winner of a film.

The performances are absolutely spectacular, which is ideal for a character driven movie. Alan Arkin is absolutely fantastic as Grandpa and he provides most of the best humor in the film. Steve Carell shows what he can truly do in this film and his performance completely took me by surprise. Abagail Breslin is also delightful as Olive. At first, I was reluctant to watch this and I honestly don’t know why that is. I just didn’t feel like watching this movie, but I am very glad that I did. It is fun to watch and it is most definitely a feel good film. I think that you can now tell that I am an absolute sucker for character driven films and for feel good films. Obviously, I absolutely loved this film.

Overall, pure joy and fun to watch. It absolutely deserved the Best Picture of the Year nomination it received.

9/10

Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

Grosse Pointe Blank stars John Cusack as hit-man Martin Blank. The film starts off with Blank’s various attempts to bump off random people, but soon Blank gets a letter from his high school which notifies him of the upcoming ten year class reunion. Martin is reluctant to go at first because he doesn’t know how to explain to his old classmates what he does for a living. However, he decides to go back and visit his old flame Debi Newberry, played by Minnie Driver. The film follows these two and their new romance and it also follows the attempts to kill Martin as he goes around Pointe Blank for the first time in ten years.

The performances in this movie are average, at best. Cusack plays Cusack, which is all he really ever does. But, it almost always works and this reviewer felt it worked in Grosse Pointe Blank as well. Cusack has done worse, but he has also done better. Newberry and Aykroyd do alright as well, but nothing spectacular. The plot is a bit strange and it is something that I have never seen before.

The film is billed as a comedy, but I didn’t find myself laughing out loud very much. There were a few audible laughs here and there, but overall the film comes off as more amusing than hysterically funny. It is a fun film that is good to put on when you’re bored or in the mood to be entertained. However, I would much rather watch Cusack in Better Off Dead than this film. As a final note, the film’s soundtrack is absolutely fantastic on it’s own, but it doesn’t seem to fit in with the film. The music is great, but it just felt like they were sticking it in there without any thought to how it actually worked in the film. Blister in the Sun is a fantastic song, but what was the purpose of it in Grosse Pointe Blank? Overall, an entertaining and amusing film, but not very funny.

7/10