Napoleon is a movie that can’t decide on which story it wants to tell. The storyline of the steamy romance between Napoleon and his Empress Josephine bucks against the scenes of war. The visuals are gorgeous, the story is muddy. What is Ridley Scott trying to tell us, if anything, about this cantankerous emperor?
It’s time to revisit a great film. We’re rereleasing American Gangster for all the new listeners who have joined us since we released this episode a whole five years ago. Enjoy!
Special thanks to our commissioner Josh “Anubus21” from Saxapahaw, NC. This time he has something special to celebrate, his marriage to sweetheart Jessica. Congratulations, you guys! Josh selected American Gangster, the 2007 Ridley Scott crime drama starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Jim and I have never seen it, but it immediately fit right besides other greats like Godfather, Goodfellas, Casino, and Scarface in the pantheon of films about the criminal underworld. It’s a great looking, well written, and extraordinarily acted film, that touches on a lot of Bald Move hot buttons of racism, crime, drugs, and $50k mink coats. Thanks again, Josh and Jessica! Hope it was a great honeymoon five years ago!
Put your history books away and get ready for a tour of the highlights for the Roman Empire’s armor, skyline, and gladiator fights. Join us as we explore Gladiator’s plot, VFX, and acting and discuss what does and does not hold up two decades later. For a movie that was green lit with only 30 pages of written script and had the unfortunate death of an actor during production, Ridley Scott pulls together an epic tale of courage and revenge. Are you not entertained?
The Last Duel has been mostly pleasing critics, and it might please audiences if they were going out to see it, but it has been a big flop so far. We discuss some reasons why that might be after giving our opinion on Ridley Scott’s latest work.
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This week on Off the Clock we’re talking about the first three episodes of Ridley Scott’s turn to the small screen, the far future sci-fi series “Raised by Wolves.” Then we’re continuing our coverage of the cosmic / mundane horror series “Lovecraft Country” with episodes 3 & 4.
Special thanks to Sean Ray (previous commissioner of the Insidious series, and Blood Simple) for commissioning this late 80’s Ridley Scott crime thriller, Black Rain. Michael Douglas plays a cop alongside Andy Garcia that gets mixed up in a gang war between the Yakuza and a rival upstart over counterfeit US currency. The film explores the intercultural exchange as Douglas’s corrupt and brash NYC cop runs into the brick wall of Japanese police decorum and honor, but how successful it is in that exploration is an open question. The film is great looking, has some solid action sequences, and hilarious Michael Douglas hair, and it’s concepts don’t quite stand the test of time. But Andy Garcia’s chest hair is magnificent.
Jim and A.Ron have seen Alien: Covenant, and declare it to be gorgeous, ambitious, and filled to the brim lofty ideas, but that it’s also really, really stupid. Which is a shame, since that’s a flaw that mired it’s predecessor, Prometheus. Ridley Scott still knows how to shoot a film, no doubt, but has he forgotten how to put smart, sharply defined characters in peril without them being the dumbest, pettiest humans alive?
Jim and A.Ron saw Ridley Scott’s “The Martian” last night, starring Matt Damon, and have a lot to say about it. Note, the first part of the podcast is spoiler free, but then when we say we’re about to spoil things, that’s your cue to get out while the getting is good. Along the way, we talk about the trailers we saw for The Revenant, The Big Short, Joy, and Concussion.