“Movie B.S. with Bayer and Snider” hits the double digits this week — show number 10! In celebration, Eric and Jeff agree that “Get Him to the Greek” is the best offering of new films this week, and that “Killers” should be left dead on the floor. They haven’t seen “Marmaduke,” but come on. Eric loves the creepy and insane “Splice,” while Jeff adamantly does not; there is debate. Also, Robin Williams’ career is revived in “Pitch Me,” and listeners are given a new assignment in Question of the Week: tell us your favorite remakes. E-mail us at moviebspdx@gmail.com
I’m sorry, I have to be honest; I hate that theme song. That is one of the absolute worst, most painful things I have ever heard.
I’ll still listen to you guys every week of coarse, I’ll just be skipping the first 30 seconds or so.
Sorry theme song really does suck…Id rather have a cold start then listen to that…bye
I’ve enjoyed the show and the rapport between you guys, but I can’t get down with Jeff’s negative account of Splice. I saw it opening night, and thought it was a very effective and adventurous movie, and I feel like there are answers to a lot of the criticisms here, which are dressed up as something more objective than they actually are.
First, plausibility is less of an issue than the reviewers would have us believe. One of the essential paradoxes in scientific thinking is that it’s both very structured, and sometimes very detached from any reasonable reality. This is what’s led to such medical disasters as David Reimer’s sex change because of a botched circumcision, which had disastrous consequences on his whole life. Obsessive scientists, overstepping their bounds, aren’t a complete implausibility, nor are disastrous failures at demonstrations of new technology, and as with any science fiction or monster movie, it works — it always works — because suspension of disbelief can cross the gap.
Second, the “great terrible events” of the third act aren’t so vile or reprehensible that they should invalidate the film. Horror is replete with representations of much worse acts, combinations of humiliation and sex and violence frequently perpetrated on helpless creatures and individuals, and the ones shown in Splice will definitely make people uncomfortable, but they shouldn’t scare or disgust any adult who’s prepared for a dark, dramatic film. As to whether the film “earns” it or not, I’d say that the rather bizarre third-act development isn’t just earned — it’s essential to the claustrophobic, surrealism-inspired tone that the film commits to. It’s thematically linked to Splice’s ongoing dialectic between objectivity and intimacy, which completely collapses as the situation escalates.
Anyway, I think it was a great movie, more complex than people will give it credit for. Thanks for the reviews, and I look forward to listening to more in the future.
Ah, the first episode with the terrible opening song.
Move B.S.? I guess so.