Big Daddy Dispatch November 2021 (Patreon)

Dispatch Fifty Nine, November 2nd, 2021



Hello WHM Family!


Holy crap we are back on the road! As of this writing we are in between two legs and we have to say, it was so much fucking fun playing for you folks in Cleveland, Chicago, and Detroit. It was great getting out of our respective hovels, traveling to some very cool cities and meet a ton of terrific people. Please accept a huge, humble thank you to those who came out to say "hi." during this insane and unprecedented year. You folks continue to rule and we are incredibly lucky to have you as an audience. 

Oh, did we mention we also put out a TON of Spooktacular content in October too? How do we do it? Booze. The answer is booze. 


Banner Credit: We Hate Movies The Big Daddy Dispatch by Felipe Sobreiro

Image Credit:  We Hate Movies Live at Zanies Chicago by the Zanies Chicago Digital Team

THE WHM FALL TOUR CONTINUES!!! 

If you read the intro to this dispatch and are in the South East of these United States and were thinking to yourself, "Damn! That sounds like a lot of fun...I'd love to see one of those shows!" Well, you are in LUCK! Because the 2021 WHM Fall Tour is JUST GETTING STARTED, see below for the remaining dates, most of which are just two weeks away.

Just a note for you Nashville folks, if you had tickets to the Zanies show on November 21st, that show has been RELOCATED to the City Winery. Same night and same movie! Your tickets will be refunded from Zanies (and if they haven't been yet, please contact them directly), but you do need to buy NEW tickets to the City Winery show. Link below! We apologize for the inconvenience! 


Get you tickets now before it's too late! We don't know when we'll be out this way again!


NOVEMBER: 

11/18, Charlotte, NC - Under Siege at The Comedy Zone

11/19, Asheville, NC - Junior at The Orange Peel

11/21, Nashville, TN - Footloose (1984) at City Winery

DECEMBER:

12/9, Brooklyn, NY - The 10 Year Anniversary Show (One Year Late): C.H.U.D. at The Bell House


Tour posters will be available for Purchase, just $10 in CASH ONLY, if you don't mind. Come see us live! You'll regret it if you don't!

Tour Art by the Incomparable Felipe Sobreiro

LAST MONTH ON WHM

Episode 570 – An American Werewolf in London (Patrons Only)



For this month’s WLM, the gang tackles one of the only great werewolf movies ever made, featuring one of Griffin Dunne’s best performances and sharp direction by murderous professional John Landis. How close are these two really? Did the fathers of these two “men” forget to teach them how to shut up where you’re not wanted? Wouldn’t this nurse get tossed for dating a patient? Plus, a lengthy discussion on manners and courtesy in werewolf maintenance.

Episode 571 – An American Werewolf in Paris

To kick off the 2021 Spooktacular, the boys head off to the land of wine and cheese and lack of support for the Iraq war to talk about the truly dreadful sequel to Landis’s beloved original, in which werewolf Julie Delpy tries to outpace annoying sex pest Tom Everett Scott. What is this horrible daredevil club? Wouldn’t you tell this guy to fuck off if he stalked you for a date? Why are there evil werewolves too? There are lumps of moss and rock that look better than the CGI werewolves in this one.

Episode 572 – Halloween H20: 20 Years Later



Eric, Andrew, Steve, and Chris return to Had – what’s this? – sunny California? Okay…to do battle alongside Laurie Strode for like the third time to finally destroy beloved white-faced murderer Michael Myers. Why is there a field trip to anywhere on Halloween? How many glasses of wine is Laurie Strode taking down a day? Is Josh Hartnett the worst possible son for Laurie to have to deal with? Also, get out of here, Michelle Williams. You should be romancing Dawson or winning an Oscar or some shit.

Episode 573 – Stay Alive

One of the most requested titles in show history finally hits the main feed. Andrew, Chris, Steve, and Eric join a group of video-game-obsessed cranks, including Frankie Muniz, Jimmi Simpson and Ben Foster’s less-compelling brother, to take down the titular video game that kills its players. Does any of this make any sense? No. No it does not. Why is Frankie Muniz dressed like that? Can we get one good kill here or is that just plain out of the question? Triple-point score if you can guess how many carriage deaths happen in this.

Episode 574 – Leprechaun with James A. Janisse and Chelsea Rebecca



Dead Meat co-hosts and longtime friends of the show James A. Janisse and Chelsea Rebecca stop by to help the boys battle a small Irish goblin, who widely skirts doing anything that would make you care about his movie. What the fuck is Jennifer Aniston doing here? How long have we been in this diner? Can someone just punt this guy into a deep pool? My kingdom for a bigger body count!

WHAT ARE WE WATCHING?

This is a space for us to talk about some NON-We Hate Movies related content that we've shoved into our eyeballs in the last month: TV, Movies, Cartoons, and Sports (maybe?). Just about anything that isn't pornography.

Andrew: Well, October of course meant horror, horror, HORROR in my house. Well, more horror than usual, I suppose. Halloweekend saw me revisiting some personal faves including Beetlejuice, a film that is certainly not for children, but one all children should watch IMO. I mean, I watched it when I was like 5 and I turned out fine, right? RIGHT? We also took a look back at Romero's Creepshow which, to this day, excites the hell out of me. Ed Harriss's drunk-out-of-his-mind dancing during the "Father's Day" segment is reason enough to watch the film, but you also have Leslie Nielsen watching two snuff films at the same time, Stephen King acting like a coked-out lunatic, Hal Holbrook being publicly cucked by a non-stop wasted Adrienne Barbeau, and Clark Griswold's father getting completely covered in cockroaches. It's a real scene, folks! This year also saw us revisiting The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is still such a madcap delight. And the music still totally kicks ass. It's too bad Meatloaf turned out to be such a douchebag. Pledging fealty to a guy who fake fired you from a fake game show? Whatever, MEAT. We spent Sunday afternoon watching Mike Flanagan's Doctor Sleep. We didn't have time to burn the full three hours, so we checked out the theatrical cut instead. I'd only ever seen the Director's Cut before and I have to say, the DC is better, gang. That extra 40-ish minutes really helps flesh out the members of the True Knot and also just flows way better. The theatrical cut feels really rushed in comparison. I finished the High Holiday with a couple return trips to Franchise Town: Friday the 13th Part 2 and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Meyers. Both still rock in their own sleazy ways. 

Oh, and this month also saw me becoming a Dune guy. I watched the Arrow 4K release of Lynch's 1984 version for the first time last week. I don't get the hate. It's super weird and fun. Sue me. Yes, it's mighty condensed and feels rushed AF, but hey folks, Sting in that diaper? Yeah, I'm there. Then just yesterday, I finally got around to Denis's new adaptation. Holy smokes, folks. I really, really loved it. Yes, it's long; yes, it's slow; yes, it's two-thirds world-building; but hey, that's why the title card literally says Dune - Part One, everybody! If you haven't seen it yet, make no mistake, this is only half the first book and honestly, I would've been fine if they let this thing breathe even more. I sincerely hope when Warner Bros. goes to put out the 4k disc, they do what they did for Doctor Sleep and add any Director's Cut that Denis may have up his sleeve. After my morning screening, I left the theater and immediately went across the street to buy the first book. That's right folks, I'm a Dune guy now and I'm fine with that. Feels nice to care about something again. 


Chris: It’s horror month, kids! Here’s the highs and lows of what new horror I found this month:

Last Night in Soho: Somehow feels both rushed and inert. There are plenty of interesting ideas floating around in this one, and I can think of much worse fates than watching Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomasin McKenzie for two hours, but it does not come together until the very end and in no kind of satisfactory way for the mess that precedes it. At that point, I sadly had mostly checked out and was just enjoying the visuals. It should be stressed that unless you are a serious pervert, Giallo is probably not the genre for you to practice in or borrow from. Wright does not strike me as a serious pervert.

Who Can Kill a Child?: Certified banger, folks. As the opening, arguably over-the-top salvo makes clear, the answer to the titular question is everyone and anyone, as long as it’s not done face to face. When the cherubic scamps are right in front of you, however, it’s a bit more difficult, even when they are ripping up your neighbor with a scythe and laughing about it. Props to Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, the director, who makes the acceptance of killing the youth no different from giving up on a future worth leaving to one’s own children. Eerie, unpredictable, thoroughly menacing, and lean in a way that so, so, so few films can pull off confidently. Bravo!

Suicide Club: This notorious Molotov cocktail of a movie, about a series of teenage suicides in Japan, from the wildly prolific Sion Sono is ugly, cruel, incredibly upsetting, and also kinda great. It says nothing good about me that I found this movie so difficult to turn away from, but man, King Sono gives you plenty of reasons to turn your head away. Honestly, much of the plot is similar to the insane narrative swerves of Tokyo Tribe or Why Don’t You Go Play in Hell? but there’s focus here that he has since given over to indulgence in his more recent extravagant productions. Not for the faint of heart, but worth the nightmares and general discomfort in my opinion.

Host: I put this off because I smelled a lesser version of the (fantastic) Unfriended series. Lo and behold, I was proven right. As a work of scrappy production, I guess I have some admiration for what’s being done here, but good gracious, with a flashlight and a magnifying glass I couldn’t find a shit to give about what was going on in the film itself, even for 50 fucking minutes. Very frustrating.

Eric: Well, I absolutely loved Dune and am pumped it'll be getting that sequel. It really worked out for me, I think Steve was in the same boat, I only read the first half the book! And I watched the movie on the half I read! Very thrilling. Grateful I will be able to finish the second half before the next film. Other than that, I liked but didn't love the new Bond. But don't worry I also just watched... Free Guy. Absolutely dreadful and it had no idea what it wanted to be or do. Ready Player Asshole.

Okay and now, Eric's Kung Fu corner. Only one movie this month and it's the modern set The Prisoner (1990) also known as Island of Fire. Unfortunately this movie sucks and it sounds great on paper. Jackie Chan is in it, he's a guy who goes to prison because he accidentally killed a card player while trying to win money to save his girlfriend's life who got stabbed in the liver, and needs a new one via the black market. And they stabbed the girl in the liver because Jackie Chan didn't take a dive in a high stakes billiards competition. At least this is my hazy memory. Maybe the plot's different, okay? But it's very much like this. Despite that riveting gambling plot, it's treated as an afterthought. I don't think Jackie's even in it until like 30 mins or so? Anyway, there's a prison gang leader who forces new fish to fight. They fight. They escape prison. They go back to prison. Highlight on the dub I saw was two police detectives reading a convict's wrap sheet and one remarking “This guy's got a record as long as my dick.” In addition to wasting the talents of Jackie Chan it also wastes the talents of Sammo Hung. I'd say skip it. Check out the supremely great Police Story if you haven't.

I blame the tour for only seeing one Chinese action movie this month! Yeah, it was shot in Taiwan and the Philippines but that's China to me. Let us tour China, Xi. We will pledge loyalty. Anyway, USA folks: Come see us in November!

Steve: I love two things: Hanging out with my wife and going to the movies. Luckily she likes going to the movies too, so we went a lot this month.

Dune: As my esteemed colleague Eric revealed a few paragraphs up, I only read the first half of the book and yep, that's what the movie was about, which was a happy accident. I loved this movie. It's a great year for my man Timmy C., he absolutely crushes it here doing the angsty and reluctant without being annoying (difficult to do, just ask Haden Christensen!), Rebecca Ferguson proves she can lead a big movie with a really nuanced turn as Lady Jessica, Jason Mamoa does some top notch Jason Mamoa-ing and ... boy oh boy do I need more Big Boy Stellan Skarsgård in my life! I feel like the last few times I've seen Stellan (who is one of my favorite dudes) is as the kindly professor in the MCU. Skip it! Let this man snarl, hiss, and be as wet as the sloppiest shit you've ever taken. He's really good at it. 

The Velvet Underground: Had the privilege of seeing this one at The Detroit Institute of the Arts which has a beautiful movie theater, and it was a really special experience. There's something about seeing a movie in a different city that kind of makes it feel a little more magical and this was one of those times. This feels like a bit of a thesis statement from Todd Haynes, a lot of the themes he's scratching at with Velvet Goldmine and I'm Not There are front and center here for the story of a band that he is very much in love with. It's absolutely infectious as my Spotify can attest, and it is full-stop one of the best Rock documentaries I've ever seen, and definitely on my list of favorite documentaries of all time. 

The French Dispatch: Wes is back, baby! And he's back with his densest and most visually stunning movie to date. Every frame of this film is relaying at least 2 - 5 pieces of information, which as impressive, it can be ... a lot. But I absolutely loved it and it only makes me want to see it again. I needed him to bounce back from Isle of Dogs, which is my least favorite of his films, and he did it in a big bad way. I loved the cast (including my man Timmy C.!) but the standout is Jeffrey Wright in his loving tribute to James Baldwin. Just wow. It was such a pleasure to watch him have so much fun with the zany dialogue and then turn on a dime and give one of the more affecting performances I've seen in an Anderson film. I'd very much like him to be nominated for an Oscar for this, please. It's very overdue.

PATREON MAILBAG LIGHTNING ROUND

Here's a fun space where folks on Patreon get to ask us Questions directly. This month's entry comes from 

Brandon from Omaha, Nebraska who asks: 

"I recently watched Tarantino discuss decades of movies being superior to one another. (He loved the 70's and was very critical of the 80's) Maybe starting with modern movies (70's?), which is all of your favorite decade for movies?"

Andrew:  I think it's totally okay for QT to say that about the 70/80s because I think he's just reacting to the decade of films that really raised him. So yeah, like Eric a bit further down here, I gotta go with the decade of films that mostly raised me. As a budding, young film fan, there wasn't a ton of repertory curation to my video store visits. I was watching stuff like Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Batman '89, Willow, The Terminator, etc. That isn't to say that I think it's the best decade for film, but it's my favorite. If I had to pick the best decade? It's gotta be the 1960s, if only because the Sixties was when you started seeing feature narrative film change so drastically. And not just here in America, either. You take a look at how film culture developed and changed in tons of other countries at the exact same time: France, the UK, and Germany are just a few examples. There was a seismic shift  in how narrative films walked and talked. You have this winning combination of films being made outside larger studios that also happen to be made by people who were either young children or just being born during WWII. So not Boomers, per se, but the folks slightly older than Boomers. Germany, for example, starts giving the world filmmakers like Werner Herzog, R.W. Fassbinder, Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta and Wim Wenders around this time and my god, that lineup of filmmakers alone! And that's just one country! So yeah, my fave film decade, just due to age and nostalgia, is the 1980s, but there's no doubt that the most important decade for film is the 1960s.  

Chris: All decades are equal, but I have a soft spot for the aughts. Great time for animation – nearly all of Satoshi Kon’s work was released in that decade, as were the four best Pixar films and one of Miyazaki’s mightiest one-two punches: Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle. Great time for blockbusters: the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Batman Begins & The Dark Knight, Revenge of the Sith (fight me!), the first two Raimi Spider-Man movies, Casino Royale, Superbad, Borat, and a quartet from Spielberg’s final stretch of bangers with Minority Report, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, War of the Worlds, and Catch Me If You Can. These are big, arguably stupid movies that I love without the tint of nostalgia. My eyes had already been deadened by the world by the time I saw these movies and they still made a major impression. Also includes one of the best American movie years of this century, 2007, which just marginally edges out more recent platinum years, 2016 and 2018.

Eric: I see what Tarantino is getting at, but sadly as a dumbfuck my favorite decade is probably the 1980's. That's probably because of childhood, and of course, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. There's Ghostbusters (the Patreon ep this month!) Batman, The Shining, Blade Runner, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future, Big Trouble in Little China, They Live, KRULL. My Goodness, KRULL! I mean I can keep going and listing shit. The Terminator. I mean there's a lot but I understand so much of this is blockbuster stuff that has now, fast forward 40 fucking years and their influences has rendered the modern movie experience almost inert. It's all blockbuster. So yeah, the 70s I can see as a “truer” cinema. Anyway, another decade I love is the 1930s. It has some straight up bangers: Dracula, King Kong, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Bringing Up Baby, Duck Soup, M, It Happened One Night, Modern Times, and of course Triumph of the Will (I'M KIDDING.)

Steve: Damn, this is a tough question. There's no great answer here, because I love the films Chris is talking about and I love the films Eric is talking about and I honestly get such a thrill out of movies from the 70's that any of which could've been my answer. However, for me it's got to be the 1990's. I'm going there because for purely nostalgic reasons and you can't give me shit about it! 

This is when I came of age as a movie watcher and there are so, so many of these movies that are on any number of my "desert island" lists that, if I had to choose a decade, it'd have to be the 90's. I'm talking Defending Your Life, Goodfellas, Fargo, Batman Returns, Clerks, Fight Club, Trainspotting, The Usual Suspects (Lord, I know), Scream, Boogie Nights, Casino,  Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, a lot of great Tarantino Movies and the only good Matrix movie (thus far)! There's just too many to name and too many I love.

NOVEMBER SCHEDULE

Say what? The Schedule in advance?! It's the least we could do! By subscribing to this newsletter you get a sneak peak at what we're putting out for this November! 

Episode 575 —  Zookeeper

Episode 576 —  The 6th Day

Episode 577 —  Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

Episode 578 — Chairman of the Board

Episode 579 — Taken: Live in Chicago! 


Patreon Episodes:

Patreon Exclusive We Love Movies — Ghostbusters (1984)

Animation Damnation — Extreme Ghostbusters: "Darkness at Noon" (s1, e1)

The Nexus: TOS: "Assignment: Earth" (s2 e26) TNG: "The Price" (s3, e8)

Gleep Glossary: Barada

Melr0210: 90210: "Wildfire" (s2, e8) Melrose Place: "Pushing Boundaries"  (s1, e28)


Find all this crap and enjoy it legally, just like we do! Now!

PATREON RSS BUG

If you’re having trouble with the RSS feed updating or episodes not appearing in your app, Patreon has acknowledged this bug and they have a fix: "Try un-subscribing and re-subscribing via your app by re-entering the unique RSS feed you were given and is on our Overview section of the Creator page. Or try using a different podcast app or RSS feed reader." 

Please consult this page and contact Patreon Support if the problem persists. We apologize for any inconvenience you’ve experienced on Patreon and truly appreciate your continued support!

UPCOMING NEWS AND PROMOTION




Oh my god, you're still not subscribed to our Youtube Channel? What is WRONG WITH YOU! If you were subscribed you would've seen our excellent October Mailbag. Also, you'd be able to watch the entirety of our Witchboard episode! Complete with visual gags (most of which are almost funny, see above). You'll find all sorts of cool shit like Green Rooms, VHS Trailer Games, Full Episodes like xXx, Weekend at Bernies II, The Punisher (2004), Witless Protection, and P.S I Love You! Eric has also put out great clip packages like David! Muppet Hitchcock Presents, Egg Lawyer, Lak Sivrak, the Wolfman of Star Wars, Michael Biehn at Comic Con, Loose Loomis, and many more! Like we said above these are great for sharing and introducing folks to the show. There's so much content there we can't list it all here. Just go and subscribe already! 



We just want to let you folks know that the Scanner Cop 1 & 2 collection is back in stock on the Vinegar Syndrome website! Why should you care? Well, A.) Those movies are awesome and B.) Scanner Cop features a synchable, hilarious commentary by your friends at We Hate Movies! Get your copy now before it's off the market! 

This month on Hooked on T.J. Hooker: Eric and Ben talk about Big Bill's space adventure and there's a strangler on the loose! Listen here!  

If you're a fan of the show and a fan of looking sharp, you should check out our merch on our TeePublic store! We've got awesome designs including our brand new 2021 Tour Logo by (you guessed it) Felipe Sobreiro! We also have a ton of great designs like The VHS Trailer Game Logo, Egg Lawyer, The Order of the Boop, The Kornkast design and many more, with more to come! 

That's going to do it for this month's Dispatch! Thank you all for your incredible support!

Take it easy,
Andrew, Chris, Eric, and Steve
We Hate Movies