Elitist Bastards: An Overrated Gekko and A Bunch of Boring Owls

In this week’s Elitist Bastards Go To The Movies, Xpress film critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther discuss current releases Cairo Time, You Again, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, The Virginity Hit and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. They then delve into the classic Hammer horror flick Horror of Dracula (this week’s Thursday Horror Picture Show) and Pedro Almodóvar’s 1988 film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (next week’s Asheville Film Society screening). And to top it all off, the speculate on the quality of soon-to-open films Case 39, Chain Letter, Let Me In, The Social Network and Animal Kingdom.

Podcast produced/cohered by Steve Shanafelt for MountainX.com. The theme music is “1832” by E. Lee. Podcast image by Jeremy Dylan. The Elitist Bastards podcast is also available on the iTunes store as a free download. Click here to join the Elitist Bastards Facebook fan page.

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15 thoughts on “Elitist Bastards: An Overrated Gekko and A Bunch of Boring Owls

  1. T_REX

    Ken; did you really say that there was not a Fincher film that you liked? Seven, The Game, Fight Club???? I could understand not liking Alien 3 but the others are modern classics. That’s cool, to each their own. ( and I still say Benjamin Button was better than Millionaire )

    great podcast by the way

  2. Ken Hanke

    I haven’t seen The Game, but, no, I don’t like Seven or The Fight Club. I know that’s blasphemy in some quarters. But, as you say, to each his own.

  3. Justin’s concern that Fincher may suck the life out of THE SOCIAL NETWORK is understandable, but may I remind you that Rob Reiner made two wonderful films out of Aaron Sorkin screenplays. You don’t need to be Mike Nichols to make that kind material work.

  4. Ken Hanke

    Rob Reiner made two wonderful films

    OK, I haven’t seen either of these, but the words “wonderful films” and “Rob Reiner” are not in any sentence I would construct.

  5. T_REX

    Spinal Tap, When Harry met Sally, Princess Bride, A Few Good Men are titles I would use with the ____ is wonderful, heck even A Ghost in Mississippi.
    North is a true classic(ok,that is a joke)

    Ken, I respect you not liking Fight Club, Seven, Ben Button. My only question is,, what did you not like?

  6. Ken Hanke

    Spinal Tap, When Harry met Sally, Princess Bride, A Few Good Men are titles I would use with the ____ is wonderful, heck even A Ghost in Mississippi.

    I’m not stopping you. But I’m not joining you, either.

    Ken, I respect you not liking Fight Club, Seven, Ben Button. My only question is,, what did you not like?

    That’s not easily answered probably, but… Seven is too pointlessly nasty, dreary and nihilistic for my taste. Fight Club just doesn’t work for me. Again, it’s too nihilistic for me, but it also annoyed me because it thinks it’s cleverer than it is. Actually, so does Seven with it’s “what’s in the box?” business (not to mention that the character who’s partly in there might as well have been wearing a sign reading “eventual victim”). And Benjamin Button I just don’t think is very good and that Fincher is too cold and too smug to have the touch to pull it off.

  7. Dread P. Roberts

    I haven’t seen The Game

    I find it a little amusing that the Fincher film that I would consider to be his best work to date (Coulrophobia/Pupaphobia anyone?) is the one that you haven’t seen.

    I’m not stopping you. But I’m not joining you, either

    *Sigh* I always feared that one of these days I’d see you dismiss Princess Bride… nomatter how ‘inconcevable’ it may be in some quarters.

    To me, it’s all about the humor in the dialog. Reiner only succeeds when his sly, humorous dialog succeeds. And if there’s one genre of film that is the most subjective, it could be argued that it would be comedy.

  8. Jim Donato

    Seven was so pointlessly nasty, dreary and nihilistic to me, I’ve avoided every subsequent Fincher movie like a plague of boils. I simply cannot believe that he is making the English-language remake of the “Millennium Series” [a.k.a. “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”]. Ironically, the original title in Sweden was “The Men Who Hate Women,” which was changed to the more colorful, but less confrontational and unsettling moniker. If there’s another director who is as misanthropic [Kubrick is dead…] I’ll eat my theoretical hat. His misogyny is an obvious subset of his overriding misanthropy.

  9. Ken Hanke

    *Sigh* I always feared that one of these days I’d see you dismiss Princess Bride… nomatter how ‘inconcevable’ it may be in some quarters.

    I’ve never made a secret of this —

    http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/princessbride.php

    And if there’s one genre of film that is the most subjective, it could be argued that it would be comedy.

    The fact that people buy tickets to Will Ferrell and Adam Sandler movies attests to this.

  10. Dread P. Roberts

    I’ve never made a secret of this—

    You know, I’ve never even thought to bother with looking to see if you had a review. I actually agree with the majority of it. The only thing I’m not quite in accord about is the line “flat footed fantasy” (and I’m not really even a Rob Reiner fan). Other than that, I think it’s a perfectly agreeable write-up. Especially since you mentioned how the movie tends to improve on second viewing. I think that it’s ‘cult status’ is all about the multiple viewings, which seems to cause more appreciation for the dialog.

  11. Ken Hanke

    Especially since you mentioned how the movie tends to improve on second viewing. I think that it’s ‘cult status’ is all about the multiple viewings, which seems to cause more appreciation for the dialog.

    Bear in mind, this doesn’t mean I actually like it personally and I certainly have no plans to get any cozier with its dialogue via subsequent viewings. I know I’ve seen it three times. That’s more than enough.

  12. I haven’t seen The Game, but, no, I don’t like Seven or The Fight Club. I know that’s blasphemy in some quarters. But, as you say, to each his own.

    I didn’t really understand the praise heaped upon Fincher either until ZODIAC came out, which is an excellent film. Button didn’t appeal enough for me to check out.

  13. T_REX

    Yes, ZODIAC, I cant believe I did not mention that film. Another (yes, have to say it)fantastic Fincher film.

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