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Film Snuff

Tearing apart your favorite movies.
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Now displaying: April, 2018
Apr 24, 2018

In our first of many Mailbag episodes, we talk about James Cameron's comments about Marvel movies, Molly Ringwald's article about John Hughes' creepy writing, tell a story about how we met each other, and answer some emails and social media questions like: which movies we think are underrated and whether or not we’d be willing to donate our sperm to a listener.

Links we mentioned during the show:

Our "Best Of" list

James Cameron's comments about Marvel movies

Molly Ringwald's piece in The New Yorker about John Hughes' writing

Kevin Smith responding to criticisms of "Yoga Hosers"

Siskel & Ebert talking "Pee-wee’s Big Adventure"

What one dildo maker thinks the fish penis from "The Shape of Water" looks like

If you have a question, comment or fun story that'd you'd like to hear on a future Mailbag episode, talk with us (@filmsnuff) on TwitterFacebook and Instagram, or write us an email over at mailbag@filmsnuff.com.

Visit our website at https://www.filmsnuff.com.

Apr 17, 2018

Argo [BLEEP] this movie! The only thing funny about Ben Affleck's muddled film "Argo" about the Iran hostage crisis is that it's obviously a thinly disguised C.I.A. propaganda piece. Perhaps the Academy chose it as the 2012 Best Picture winner in the interests of national security.

The story focuses on Tony Mendez, a C.I.A. "exfiltration expert," who's tasked with secretly and safely extracting six Americans who evaded capture during the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. In what is now known as the "Canadian Caper," Mendez helped pull off a covert rescue mission where those six American embassy staffers posed as a Canadian film crew on a location-scouting trip. Canada was integral to this operation, but Ben Affleck would have you believe it was solely the result of good ol'-fashioned American ingenuity. 

The very-non-Mexican Ben Affleck plays Mendez. He barely registers as a human, so you almost don't notice him. That's Affleck's acting we're referring to. His character also seems to have some sappy backstory where he's estranged from his wife and son, and this is supposed to be triumphant at the end, even though it's unexplored, untrue, and ultimately comically unearned.

Bryan Cranston plays Mendez' C.I.A. superior whose entire character is to give the audience expositional information and to scramble around frantically behind the scenes to make stuff more suspenseful.

Alan Arkin plays famed movie producer Lester Siegel (a wholly invented character for no reason), and Arkin somehow got a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for playing the 'old man says dirty stuff and it's funny, ain't it?" stock character that’s in a lot of movies. Didn't he already win an Oscar for barely showing up in a movie playing the same character?

John Goodman plays the real-life legendary Hollywood makeup artist John Chambers, who helps Ben Affleck's character whip up this "fake movie" scheme. In real life, his involvement with the plan was much deeper, but in this movie, he seems to only serve the function of "guy who answers the phone later just in case." What a waste of the always underrated Goodman's talents. 

Eventually, everything culminates in a pot-boiler third act that is so laboriously labyrinthine, it instead feels like a watched pot that never boils. 

Join us as we break down all the facts this movie changed for its own benefit, groan at how this movie is yet again Hollywood writing a love letter to itself, and wonder if the Canadian ambassador who helped these Americans was secretly only interested in having an orgy with them.

Tell us what you think by chatting with us (@filmsnuff) on TwitterFacebook and Instagram, or by shooting us an email over at mailbag@filmsnuff.com.

This episode is sponsored by Stuffed Farms.

Visit our website at https://www.filmsnuff.com.

Apr 10, 2018

In this installment of our bonus segment "In Theaters," we give you our immediate reaction to seeing a new movie on the big screen. This time, we tackled the newest Stephen Spielberg film, "Ready Player One."

We discuss what we thought of all of the constant '80s references, the incessant '80s references, and the grating '80s references.

**NOTE: THIS EPISODE CONTAINS SPOILERS**

Quick Facts

Release date: Mar. 29, 2018

Runtime: 2 hours 19 minutes

Starring: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance, Philip Zhao, Win Morisaki, Hannah John-Kamen, Ralph Ineson, Susan Lynch

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Tell us what you think by chatting with us (@filmsnuff) on TwitterFacebook and Instagram, or by shooting us an email over at mailbag@filmsnuff.com.

Visit our website at https://www.filmsnuff.com.

Apr 3, 2018

Ben Stiller's 1994 directorial debut, "Reality Bites," focuses on the lives of four repugnant Gen Xers in their early 20s who are trying desperately to figure out who they are while also trying to find love. It's kinda like one long episode of "Friends," but it takes itself way too seriously, and nobody sticks their head inside a turkey.

Winona Ryder plays Lelaina Pierce, an aspiring documentary filmmaker who thinks that her friend group's day-to-day activities make for the most interesting subject matter possible. Throughout the film, we are annoyingly reminded over and over again that she was the valedictorian of her college class despite the fact that her actions demonstrate that she is of average intelligence at best.

Ethan Hawke plays Troy Dyer, a pretentious college drop-out who plays in a mediocre band and lords his supposed 180 IQ over everyone he encounters. He has been in love with Winona Ryder's character for years, but he doesn't know how to express it because he has the emotional maturity of a 10-year-old.

Janeane Garofalo plays Vickie Miner, a sarcastic ballbuster who uses humor and casual sex to keep people at a distance, but she is surprised and hurt when she finds herself sad and alone. She is also terrified of contracting AIDS, and we are really supposed to worry about whether or not she is going to test positive for it.

Ben Stiller plays Michael Grates, a rich and successful young TV executive who everyone in the film treats like garbage because he's doing well in life. He makes the mistake of falling for Winona Ryder's character, and she ends up smashing his heart to pieces.

Steve Zahn plays Sammy Gray, a non-character that they shoehorn into the movie in order to get credit for having a gay cast member because that was edgy in the '90s.

Join us as we try and figure out what generation we are exactly, remember how important Gelman from "Live with Regis & Kathie Lee" was in our lives, and discuss the definition of irony. 

Tell us what you think by chatting with us (@filmsnuff) on TwitterFacebook and Instagram, or by shooting us an email over at mailbag@filmsnuff.com.

This episode is sponsored by Ponzi Meditation.

Visit our website at https://www.filmsnuff.com.

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