The Film Board
The Monuments Men
Might be best to start off a conversation about George Clooney’s latest, The Monuments Men, by telling you what this film is not. It’s not a comedy.
February 18, 2014
For all you proper film enthusiasts who would like to peruse the films of TruStory FM’s entertainment podcasts by release decade. Get ready for a firehose of film history in these here stacks.
Might be best to start off a conversation about George Clooney’s latest, The Monuments Men, by telling you what this film is not. It’s not a comedy.
“Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” is worth exactly what you pay for it. And possibly slightly less. Such is the verdict of The Next Reel Film Board this month as we take on the Kenneth Branagh-helmed thriller.
Winding his way back and forth across the expanse of Middle Earth, Peter Jackson brings us his second stab at “The Hobbit” with “The Desolation of Smaug,” the fifth film in the Peter Jackson Middle Earth Cinematic Universe.
We’re headed back to Asgard this week as we gather the Film Board to take on “Thor: The Dark World”! Join Andy Nelson, Pete Wright, Steve Sarmento, and Tom Metz as we meticulously dissect the strange attraction we have for a hero with no flaws, and is also a god.
We’re on a trip to space with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in this month’s Film Board review of Cuaron & Son’s astro-tacular, Gravity.
The next time your young daughter asks you if she can take Joy to your house on the other side of the neighborhood, the correct answer is a resounding “no.”
Hellllllloooooooooo! Welcome to episode #100 of The Next Reel, everybody! And what a better way to celebrate than to finish the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy series that we started in March 2012 with our episode on Edgar Wright’s latest film, “The World’s End.” Another genre film filled with poignant character moments, riotous moments of comedy, fantastic writing from beginning to end, and solid and assured direction, Wright finishes off this pseudo trilogy (that he started with “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz”) with a film that actually does help tie all three films together thematically while still remaining its own complete film. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we delve into the frothy tale of five guys revisiting (or to some extent reliving) their past as they try to finish a 12-pub crawl they never completed before only to have it rudely interrupted by alien invaders.
Spoiler alert — the crew is as divided on “You’re Next” as we have ever been on this show. Director Adam Wingard’s home invasion horror romp has been hailed as “clever,” “deliciously twisted,” and that it “streamlines the gory stuff for something truly shocking: good characters.” So, is it really the refreshing attempt to turn the genre on it’s ear? Or is it dumb dumb stupid dumb and the sign of the fall of civilization?
The Film Board gathers! It’s a full house this week as we take on the latest clawed brawler from Marvel, “The Wolverine.” The crew agrees: there are some stunningly beautiful sequences in this film, and while Jackman’s Wolverine rarely disappoints, on the whole the film loses steam tragically too early and delivers an ultimately forgettable experience.
The curse is broken! The Film Board gathers and we finally have a movie that all of us like! It’s Brad Pitt against the world’s nasty plague problem on the show this week and Steve, Andy, and Pete talk about why you should see this film, why you should like this film, and why it’s culturally far more relevant than a run of the mill zombie thriller.