Mike and Casey continue their chat with Rebecca Friedman and Joe Preti, and they chew the fat about porno Mahjong, how the weirdest things end up at used bookstores, and why we just can’t stop thinking about nunchucks.
We also dig into the contrast of Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves, why Mike really really really doesn’t like the new Ghostbusters trailer, and why people keep getting Superman wrong.
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Oh, man, a righteous rant about who and what Superman is supposed to be. Your comments should be transcribed, and together with Greg Hatcher’s latest column over at the Comics Should be Good site, given to any writer as a guide before trying to write any kind of Superman story, regardless of whether it’s for comics, the movies or anything else.
Also, your entire discussion of Captain America as well, especially as portrayed in the recent Marvel movies – all I can say is: so totally co-signed. (It’s the reason I think Cap is my favorite character in the Marvel movieverse.)
Oh, incidentally, good title for the episode. As someone who grew up with parents who always kept chickens (and other fowl, including geese that terrified me back when I was smaller than them), I can say that yes, chickens are largely rather taciturn…
Hey Mike, I liked you analysis of the new Ghostbusters movie; Iyou really put the finger on the nose of what I couldn’t quite articulate. I would add that they are trying too hard, in a cynical drive to appeal to the lowest common denominator, to make it into an action movie as well. There is a preoccupation with fight scenes in the trailer (when I saw proton-pack-brass-knuckles I almost ragequit), not to mention that they seem to spend a lot of time trying to look like badasses, which seems antithetical to the Ghostbusters.
I also was a little taken with your suggestion of setting it in the same world at a later date, such as going with a franchises model. I was reminded of a XKCD comic in which it claims that Ghostbusters is the most American movie of all time because the characters have irrefutable proof of an afterlife and they start a small business trying to corner the market. Thinking along that, I pictured the time that Ghostbusters 1 & 2 take place in is a period were society at large is reeling from this knowledge, not to mention the respective crisis of each; I imagined something set 30 years later that is a rich development of the conceits of the setting, a world that looks nothing like ours. Ghostbusters has grown into a semi-religious/knighthood order (a character from the Order of Venkman makes me grin) that combat the ghost outbreaks, cult activities, and so on that plague the world now, not to mention all of the otherworldly weirdness and gods you see in the secondary material. I could see a shot of whatever headquarters Ghostbusters has with the changed painting from the end of Ghostbusters 2 gracing its entrance. Obviously, this is getting away from the comedy nature of Ghostbusters, but at least it is an interesting backdrop for this action-y angle the studio wants to take. Keep up the great work!