Cut and Splice: Reviewing, discussing and analyzing movies

We have a short discussion about the phenomena of disgraced actors from me too to other reasons why some talented people derail their careers and fall out of favor.

We start with a 36 minute review before getting into the spoilers of this one location showdown. We bring up Cillian Murphy and date the recording by wishing him that he'll get his Oscar for Oppenheimer.

In our Tropic Thunder discussion Matt brought up Babylon as an example of a movie that was about Hollywood, only with a very different approach. That got us talking about some uncomfortable movies and what they are trying to achieve.

We are joined by our friend and fellow podcaster Yusuf to discuss this irreverent and yet somehow reverent comedy. We start with a 36 minute review before we get into spoilers. We also discuss directors cuts vs. theatrical and the cultural significance of the movie and comedy in general as we move to more politically correct times.

In this short segment that didn't make the cut of our Oscars episode, we talk about Nolan's goal of continuing to make big films. Denis Villeneuve comes up as well regarding a silly comment he made and we also delve into a few directors that tend to go too far in their attempt to be unique.

We delve into some of the nominees, mention our favorites from the ones we've seen and sing Margot Robbie's praises. Quick correction: Anatomy of a Fall is mentioned to be a German film but it's a French film with a German actress.

In order to not derail our Oscars episode by delving too much into Barbie, we decided to give it a bonus episode before we deal with the rest of the movies.

We had a bit too much fun discussing this over the top movie. We start with a 27 minute review before getting into the themes and bloody details.

We took a few minutes to bring up our favorite westerns and discuss the genre as a whole.

We start with an 18 minute review of this intimate yet exciting western from Kevin Costner before getting into spoilers. We also get to discuss some of the ways in which the west actually was, compared to how it was presented in many westerns.

We have a short discussion about movies that should not be remade and give examples of remakes that were ill advised, as well as some movies that could be remade.

Our musician friend Mike Maye joins us for a discussion about this film which tracks the rise to fame of some of the most influential African American musicians and artists of the 50's and 60's. We give a 32 minute review before getting into spoilers.

Another meme, another discussion. This one took us in the direction of exploring the state of comedy in these times of censorship and self censorship.

This week, Jason's pick takes us to the world of tank warfare between the Germans and Soviets in WWII. We give a 23 minute review before getting into spoilers and dive deeper into all that is wrong and some that is right about this Russian extravaganza.

In this final episode of Israel month, we talk about antisemitism and as a whole the way history is relayed in movies, bringing up movies such as Oppenheimer and Gettysburg. We also talk about the generational divide in opinions and leadership.

This was recorded prior to the events on October 7th and was due to be released much later, but we felt it was appropriate to release it after Waltz with Bashir given the situation. We give a 25 minute review before getting into spoilers and along the way discuss some of the history regarding the wars of Israel.

In one of our last recordings, Gil took some time to give details on how it felt being in Israel when the war broke out on October 7th and what it was like trying to make it out of there. This is part of our month long focus on the conflict with another movie coming up as well as further discussion about the issue in another bonus episode.

In an unplanned coincidence, the next movie in our pipeline is a self reflective Israeli movie dealing with an aspect of the conflict in the middle east. We give a 21 minute review before getting into spoilers. We mostly avoid getting too deep into a political discussion, something we fail more so in an upcoming episode.

Our Minority Report episode went so long and in different directions that it made sense to make this second part a bonus. Here we delve into Cruise's career but begin by finalizing some thoughts about Minority Report while discussing some of the philosophy and elements and how they compare to other books and movies. The universe of Dune is brought up as well as Forest Gump and Demolition Man.

We tackle another Spielberg with our friend Andrew joining us. We start with a 27 minute review before getting into the spoilers and details of this complicated dystopian affair.