Oct 01 2015

Episode 55 – A Fistful of Dollars

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A Fistful of DollarsHaving just watched Yojimbo, it is time for us to watch the same movie made by another director.  The style of Sergio Leone is vastly different from that of Akira Kurosawa but he brings his own flair to the story of one man trying to clean out a crooked town in A Fistful of Dollars!  Instead of Toshiro Mifune, our protagonist is played by Clint Eastwood.  We compare and contrast the directors and actors who brought this story to life twice.

For our next episode, we are going to watch the same story again! This time, the results are not quite so impressive.  We’ll be watching The Warrior and the Sorceress!

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
A Fistful of Dollars poster Rating: 7.9/10 (246,616 votes)
Director: Sergio Leone
Writer: Adriano Bolzoni, Mark Lowell, Víctor Andrés Catena
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volontè, Marianne Koch
Runtime: 99 min
Rated: R
Genre: Drama, Western
Released: 18 Jan 1967
Plot: A wandering gunfighter plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride, and revenge.

Sep 15 2015

Episode 54 – Yojimbo

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YojimboWe are embarking on a three movie exploration of the same story! First up is a return to the great Akira Kurosawa.  His film, Yojimbo, borrows heavily from American Westerns and American film noir.  But it has a badass samurai twist courtesy of Toshiro Mifune.  We enjoy this relatively light offering from the Japanese master filmmaker as a prelude to exploring the work of another, quite different master.

Next up, we’ll be watching A Fistful of Dollars!

Yojimbo (1961)
Yojimbo poster Rating: 8.2/10 (140,366 votes)
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Writer: Akira Kurosawa, Ryûzô Kikushima
Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Eijirô Tôno, Tatsuya Nakadai
Runtime: 110 min
Rated: Not Rated
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
Released: 13 Sep 1961
Plot: A crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.

Sep 01 2015

Episode 53 – Django Unchained

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Django UnchainedSince there was only one other Quentin Tarantino film unseen by Jena, we knew we had to get to it as quickly as possible.  After showing her Jackie Brown a month ago, we took a look at Django Unchained for this episode.  Tarantino does another pastiche of Westerns, Blaxploitation and, because it is Tarantino, a little bit of almost everything else.  We hope you enjoy our conversation!

Our next movie will be a return to the world of Akira Kurosawa – Yojimbo!

Django Unchained (2012)
Django Unchained poster Rating: 8.5/10 (1,825,738 votes)
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Stars: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio
Runtime: 165 min
Rated: R
Genre: Drama, Western
Released: 25 Dec 2012
Plot: With the help of a German bounty-hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal plantation owner in Mississippi.

Aug 15 2015

Episode 52 – Foxy Brown

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Foxy BrownHaving just watched Jackie Brown, we decided it was time to introduce Jena to the Blaxploitation sub-genre with another Pam Greer classic – Foxy Brown!  Greer rocks a 70’s wardrobe in this film about revenge, revenge, and more revenge.  If anyone can get revenge, it would be Pam Greer.  We share some information about Blaxploitation films and spend a lot of time appreciating Pam Greer.  Because you really need to appreciate Pam Greer.

Our next movie will be the only other Tarantino film Jena hasn’t seen – Django Unchained!

Foxy Brown (1974)
Foxy Brown poster Rating: 6.5/10 (13,581 votes)
Director: Jack Hill
Writer: Jack Hill, David Sheldon
Stars: Pam Grier, Antonio Fargas, Peter Brown
Runtime: 92 min
Rated: R
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Released: 05 Apr 1974
Plot: A vigilante takes a job as a high-class prostitute to get revenge on the mobsters who murdered her boyfriend.

Aug 01 2015

Episode 51 – Jackie Brown

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Jackie BrownAfter much searching, we managed to find a Quentin Tarantino film that Jena hadn’t see yet!  That’s a lie.  It didn’t take that much searching at all.  We sat Jena down in front of Jackie Brown so she could enjoy a film that is not quite as obviously a Tarantino film than all of his other films.  Following the film, we had an in-depth discussion about Tarantino through the lens of a rather atypical work.  We also talked about some of his favorite actors and some of the actors who have enjoyed career revivals as a result of working with him.

In something of a natural progression, our next podcast will be about Foxy Brown!

Jackie Brown (1997)
Jackie Brown poster Rating: 7.5/10 (394,343 votes)
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writer: Quentin Tarantino, Elmore Leonard
Stars: Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster
Runtime: 154 min
Rated: R
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Released: 25 Dec 1997
Plot: A flight attendant with a criminal past gets nabbed by the ATF for smuggling. Under pressure to become an informant against the illegal arms dealer she works for, she must find a way to secure her future without getting killed.

Jul 21 2015

Did you miss us?

Hi there fans of our podcast!  You may have noticed that July 15th came and went and we didn’t post a podcast.  Yeah.  We’re sorry about that.

Things got pretty busy with CONvergence and putting together a fringe show and we just weren’t able to sit down and record.

Here’s the good news, though – we’ll be back on August 1st with a podcast about Jackie Brown!

Jul 01 2015

Episode 50 – Godzilla

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GodzillaOur latest episode is so big, we couldn’t do it with just three hosts!  For our viewing of Godzilla, we brought in Matt Kessen, who is an expert on all things Godzilla.  We watched a man in a suit rampage through Tokyo and it was awesome!  We talk about the cultural impact of the film, the political undertones of the film, and we even fill Jena in about the super dumb shit they did in the American remakes.

Our next episode will be…something.  We haven’t figured it out yet.  You’ll be surprised!!!!

Godzilla (1954)
Godzilla poster Rating: 7.6/10 (43,059 votes)
Director: Ishirô Honda
Writer: Takeo Murata, Ishirô Honda, Shigeru Kayama
Stars: Takashi Shimura, Akihiko Hirata, Akira Takarada
Runtime: 96 min
Rated: Not Rated
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Released: 07 May 2004
Plot: After a dinosaur-like beast - awoken from undersea hibernation by atom bomb testing - ravages Tokyo, a scientist must decide if his similarly dangerous weapon should be used to destroy it.

Jun 15 2015

Episode 49 – Edge of Tomorrow

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Edge of TomorrowThis week’s episode is all about an under appreciated gem from 2014 – Edge of Tomorrow. The film is an extremely creative action movie that has the added benefit of being the perfect Tom Cruise movie for people who hate Tom Cruise!  Is the film the perfect combination of Groundhog Day and Aliens?  In all fairness, it doesn’t have a lot of competition.  If you really want to blow your mind, try to figure out all the possible things that could happen after the conclusion of the film!

Next up, we shall tackle the original Godzilla!

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Edge of Tomorrow poster Rating: 7.9/10 (788,414 votes)
Director: Doug Liman
Writer: Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth
Stars: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton
Runtime: 113 min
Rated: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Released: 06 Jun 2014
Plot: A man fighting in a war against aliens must relive the same day every time he dies until he can find a way to stop their power source with the help of an elite soldier.

Jun 03 2015

Do you need more Reel Education?

Do you lament that you only get two Reel Education episodes per month? Do you long for more episodes about movies that feature lots of guns and fedoras and rain and shadows from Venetian blinds?

Your troubles are over, because we are proud to announce a brand new sister podcast named A Reel Education: Noir! The podcast format is the same, but the hosts seek to do a deeper dive into the shadowy corners of the film noir era, as well as explore films that influenced the genre, and discuss films that were influenced by the genre. (In other words, it’s a great excuse to watch a lot of film noir.)

New episodes of the new podcast arrive on the 7th and 21st of the month, which means if you subscribe to both A Reel Education and A Reel Education: Noir, you will get new cinema talk poured into your ears every week or so. So grab your whiskey and your favorite goon and head on over to ReelEduNoir.com!

Jun 01 2015

Episode 48 – The Lady From Shanghai

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The Lady from ShanghaiFor this episode, we return to the lovely Trylon Microcinema in Minneapolis to enjoy Orson Wells’ curious film noir, The Lady from Shanghai.  The film stars Wells and his then wife Rita Hayworth, who makes her first appearance on our podcast.  Melissa is the only member of our team who has seen the film before so both Tim and Jena have a chance to react to all sorts of weirdness that arises when an auteur has his vision compromised by studio interference.  On the other hand, maybe some of that interference wasn’t such a bad thing…

Our next episode will jump forward a few years as we watch Edge of Tomorrow!

The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
The Lady from Shanghai poster Rating: 7.5/10 (35,285 votes)
Director: Orson Welles
Writer: Sherwood King, Orson Welles, William Castle
Stars: Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane
Runtime: 87 min
Rated: Approved
Genre: Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Released: 14 Apr 1948
Plot: Fascinated by gorgeous Mrs. Bannister, seaman Michael O'Hara joins a bizarre yachting cruise, and ends up mired in a complex murder plot.