Beware my power...Fourth Wall's Fourth Hour

(Originally aired 9pm CT, 6/22/11 on WESN 88.1FM, Bloomington--Radio to the Far Left)

Episode IV (I've decided I'm going to roman numeral this, George Lucas-style) is here. This week in Fourth Wallverse, we talk Green Lantern--what went right, what went wrong. We also talk DC movies, and why they're behind their Marvel Comics counterparts, and we discuss some misogyny in comics and comic movies.

Feel free to download the podcast right here. Itunes continues to be a thorn in my technological side, but that should all be rectified soon.

Episode 3 is here!

Episode 3 is here! Hear what we say about Super 8! Why don't we reminisce?! Who doesn't love 70's Spielberg? Jason sees a very long movie, and why doesn't Kev like Lord of the Rings that much?

Direct download link to be find right over here.

Any comments, suggestions, or things you'd like to see? Throw them in the comments section, or hit the email link on the right side of the page.

Enjoy!

4th Wall with Jay and Kev Episode 2!

Just in time for us to record Episode 3 live tonight at 9pm CT

on WESN 88.1 FM (which, you'll recall you can totally live stream), here's last weeks episode. In this episode we talk X-Men: First Class in great detail, True Grit, Blu-Ray/DVD releases, and more.

*Editor's Note: I'll apologize in advance for the audio quality of this one. We didn't quite have access to the normal equipment, and so there's some audio hum, and Brian's mic wasn't top notch. It's all been squared away now, so we'll see you soon.

Here's a direct download link. Enjoy!

Fourth Wall w/ Jay and Kev Episode 1 is here!

(Record Date 6-1-2011) The first episode of Fourth Wall w/Jay and Kev is here for your listening pleasure. Or, at least, for your listening.

Originally brought to you live by our gracious friends at WESN 88.1FM in Bloomington, the show airs live at 9pm CST on Wednesdays, and streams at their website at the link above.

Come listen this week as we talk The Hangover, Part 2, Tom Cruise, upcoming DVDs, film directors, upcoming trailers, and Great Active American Film Directors with certain amounts of productivity.

You can get the show right here. When it finally shows up in iTunes, we'll get you that link as well.

Dead Again: LA Thrill-Noir Starring Two British People

In the late 80's, Kenneth Branagh made a name for himself with an excellent adaptation of William Shakespeare's Henry V. Critical acclaim aplenty, and what would obviously be a ready-made career in adapting Shakespeare for the screen, so what does he choose for his next directorial project?

A psychological, twisty murder mystery spanning 5 decades, of course.

I jest, but Dead Again is quite the solid little picture. Branagh has a knack for working with people--this much is certain. He gets performances out of people, including Robin Williams in a dramatic turn with what might some glints of his award-winning performance in Good Will Hunting.While the performances are good, there's one device he uses that I think is particularly clever, and after research, I find out was a late addition to the process.

As I mentioned, there are periods of the film that take place decades in the past. These scenes are played by the same actors (in different roles) as the modern day portions. So how to easily denote between the two? By using black and white for the past. The use of the device makes it a little more clear to keep track of what's going on, timeline-wise, and adds a nice visual touch. I did some reading on the ole Wiki', it turns out that was an effect that was added later, after some test screenings. Turns out that the test process isn't always used for dumbing down movies.

There's a big twist--I'm not going to spoil it here, even though the movie is approaching it's 20th anniversary. I suggest you check it out, so that we can talk about it.

I'm Not Even Supposed to Be Here Today (should have been like 3 weeks ago)

I guess we should have know that Alec Baldwin would have the funny in him. I mean - he was great on Saturday Night Live as a guest host, but who'd have thought he was as funny as he turned out to be on 30 Rock? Well, if you watched Clerks: The Animated Series - you just might have been that person (or the casting directors of 30 Rock).

It's both a shame and unsurprising that this series didn't last on ABC. Thank goodness though that this was released on DVD. I suspect Randal would own this one - either that or he'd have it airing all the time at the video store. There were a lot of witty, intelligent jokes if you stuck with the show (doesn't help that ABC aired the series out of order). The second episode has countless flashbacks to the first episode - which cracks me up! If you're a Clerks or Clerks II fan - you'll enjoy this. It is PG mode, but the commentary by Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith provide for all the R-rated moments needed for a die-hard Clerks fan.

With lines like, "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Dante Hicks is just like you. He lurves grape soda. He knows what it's like when the guy at the supermarket won't take your 'food stamps.' Or how it feels to wait all month for your "welfare check," to an all black jury of NBA players while waving his hands yelling, "Hey! Ho" Hey! Ho!" how can not crack up at Smith's commentary on how modern suburbanites continue to trip over their obliviousness and unknowing racism. I found myself cringing in Clerks-like or Tarantino-like uncomfortableness - and loving every minute of it.

I'm actually kinda glad that I missed writing about this for so long, because I think that Alec Baldwin's Leonardo Leonardo is based on Trump Trump. I'll bet money that if Clerks: The Animated Series were still on the air that Kevin Smith would have written an episode focusing around Leonardo Leonardo claiming that Barack Obama is not really a male - or black - or over the age of 35... There'd be something - you know it...

Paul McCartney is Really Dead: Or I Saw Him On TV Recently

The Beatles. One of the biggest bands in the history of, well, forever. A worldwide following, thousands and thousands of adoring fans. If something were to happen to one of them in their heyday, would it cause levels of panic heretofore unseen in the world?

According to the film Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison, yes. Yes it can.

Jason's premiere film for me in this format was the aforementioned flick, which I will refer to as PMRID, if I find the need to refer back to it. The crew behind this film purports to have obtained tapes recorded by George Harrison shortly before his death, which blows the lid off a huge cover-up by British Special Intelligence--namely that Paul McCartney died in a car accident in the 60's. Fearing some sort of epic mourning session by fans, they spent the time and money covering the death up by changing a man into Fake Paul, or "Faul", as the band reportedly took to calling him.

The film then goes on to confirm what diehard Beatles fans, and even casual listeners have heard before--that the Beatles, and Lennon in particular, went to great lengths to provide clues to fans, whether it's "Faul" facing away from the audience in pictures on album covers, to actually backmasking "Paul is Dead" into songs. Admittedly not a huge fan of the Beatles, I did find some of them quite interesting--if not a bit of a stretch.

Going in, I'll be honest--I was skeptical. Coming out of it, I'm still pretty skeptical. It's an interesting movie, because I'm not sure what the filmmakers' true intention was. If they were shooting for a full-on documentary, I have to question everything about it. For starters, they say that they have the audio tapes recorded personally by George Harrison. However, the voice that it has narrating the tapes sounds a lot like the cameo by the Beatles in the film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. (Warning: NSFW Language) Getting over that, it's still incredibly hard to believe something like that could get covered up by that many people for that long. Conspiracy theorists, on the other hand, are already willing to extend disbelief, so who knows?

On the other hand, if they were shooting for a mockumentary, more power to them. As a mock, the thing works perfectly. It's well drafted, has a solid enough footing in reality, but takes the ideas of the concept to some zany points. It almost seems to take itself too seriously, and that's what gives it some of that comedic effect.

Going in, I wasn't sure what to think, and to be honest, I wasn't sure I was going to want to watch it. Afterwards, though, I'm glad I did. I'm going to assume that it was put out there to give me a chuckle and entertain me, and it most definitely did that.