Deep Blue Sea – The Podcast – Episode 43: Little Bouncing Sharks, Precision Jumping, and Shark in Venice
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Jay and Mark are joined by Emily Slade (@whythisfilmpod on Twitter) to discuss the sixth chapter on the Deep Blue Sea 2 DVD. In this episode, they talk about little bouncing sharks, precision jumping, and Shark(s) in Venice. Enjoy!
Make sure to listen to Why This Film Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts!
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Quick Thoughts: Grade – B- – The Simon McQuoid directed reboot brings a welcome dose of head smooshes, errant knife throws, and fights that end with people being split in half. However, the copious setup and expository dialogue keep it from being something special.
The latest reboot of Mortal Kombat focuses on several chosen fighters trying to prevent an apocalypse that will destroy earth. Their goal is to stop Shang Tsung (Chin Han), the ruler of Outworld from winning a 10th Mortal Kombat tournament in a row. The 10th victory will allow Outworld to invade earth, enslave humanity, and turn it into a gross place that features lots of statues, and endless arid landscapes (filmed in Australia, the location shoots add nice production value to the film). Understandably, Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), the protector of earth, and Cole Young (Lewis Tan), Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), Kano (Josh Lawson), Kung Lao (Max Huang) and Jax (Mehcad Brooks) don’t want this to happen, so they team up, partake in several training montages, and eventually engage in bloody battles with Outworld’s champions.
The majority of the press surrounding the reboot focuses on the R-rated violence and super choreographed brawls that showcase how hard the actors worked to get prepped for the film. While the fights do deliver some fun fatalities, it seems like the majority of the attention was focused on the fights and blood, and not on a cohesive story. To be fair, there is lots of story (maybe too much), but most of it is explained by characters who have to do some gnarly expository drops throughout the 100-minute film. Basically, in a film about a fighting tournament, there is a lot of talking about the tournament, and no actual event. It was a gutsy choice by writer Greg Russo to have the actual tournament take place in the not yet green-lit sequel, and hopefully with the film pulling in $20+ million in its domestic opening, the world will be able to see a proper Mortal Kombat.
The best part about Mortal Kombat is that it provides a showcase for Joe Taslim (The Night Comes for Us, The Raid), Lewis Tan (Wu Assassins, Into the Badlands), Jessica McNamee (The Meg), Josh Lawson (House of Lies), Mehcad Brooks (True Blood, Supergirl), Ludi Lin (Power Rangers) and Max Huang (Skiptrace, Bleeding Steel). They are likable actors who look the part, and trained incredibly hard to make the fights more believable (it’s nice seeing the actors do most of the stunts themselves). If anything comes out of Mortal Kombat, it’s that people check out The Night Comes for Us and The Raid, two action classics that feature Joe Taslim, and need more love.
Final thoughts: Mortal Kombat is worth watching, it just doesn’t have enough personality to make it be anything more than a fun action film.
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Quick Note – There’s no way to know how sweaty Fast Five is (it’s wildly sweaty). However, I tried my best to provide a reasonable number to a very random subject.
I love the Fast & Furious franchise, and have pretty much analyzed every aspect of the nine movies that have been released since 2001. With the 10th anniversary of Fast Five coming up, I remembered Shea Serrano (read his book Movies (And Other Things)), and copious publications talking about how sweaty Dwayne Johnson, and the rest of the characters in Fast Five are. Also, during an episode of Deep Blue Sea – The Podcast, we discussed strategic sweat with guest Nick de Semlyen, and the conversation lead us to the sweaty-lore of Dwayne Johnson. These observations and past conversations are correct, after rewatching the movie again, it’s clear that several characters seem to swim in Evian spray and glycerin concoctions that keep them looking like the characters from Deep Blue Sea after they’ve been waterlogged for several hours.
In honor of Fast Five’s upcoming 10th anniversary (April 29), here’s an in-depth study that compares the sweat output of Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) to the other central protagonists.
Data Collection
- I rewatched Fast Five, and took notes of the scenes that featured characters sweating. For example, when Dwayne Johnson sweats while looking at a computer, the note “Hobbs sweats while he is thinking” was included. The note were meticulous.
- I only included the sweat I saw on screen. This data is weird enough, I didn’t want to include hypothetical sweat. This meant I looked at arm, forehead, goatee, neck, chest, and shirt sweat. Also, there’s no way I could get a 100% correct answer, so like my other data posts, I went out of my way to make sure the data makes sense via research and actual testing.
- What does on screen sweat mean? I only noted the sweat I saw because I wanted to have somewhat reliable data. Sure, the characters sweat when they are offscreen, and it’s an absolute possibility that Hobbs sweats when he brushes his teeth. But, the viewer never sees the perspiration, so to include hypothetical sweat would involve way too much unreliable guesswork.
- Initially, actual sweat science was going to be applied to each character. However, the varying degrees to which the characters sweat (or don’t sweat at all), kept actual real world data from being used. Basically, Hobbs sweats while he does nothing, whereas, Roman (Tyrese) never sweats during his time in Brazil. While researching the film, I’ve learned the Fast world is filled with incredibly non-sweaty people, and a few super-sweaters whose perspiration is inspirational.
- To figure out how much they were sweating I used a few different methods. To not be a total jabroni, I went outside and cleaned gutters, moved around some concrete pieces from a slab that was recently broken up (I wish I had the idea a couple weeks ago), and jumped rope to get sweat data. I weighed my shirt beforehand, then weighed it again during various periods of sweat.
- I used a food scale to weigh the shirts, and I used drops of water to recreate the sweat.
- The weather was quite wonderful, so I wasn’t able to completely drench my shirt with sweat. That’s why I had to use other methods
- I used four shirts (V-neck and Under Armour), and I meticulously added water to pits, neckline, back and eventually the entire shirt. I weighed them during each step to make sure I had enough data. I didn’t soak the shirts under my sink, then flop them onto a scale. Care was taken to recreate the sweat (Yes, it’s weird).
- I didn’t bother researching sweat density compared to water. Why? Since the Fast world is so bonkers, I figured water would be a fine substitute.
Another Quick Note: This data is not 100% correct. The world will never know how much each character in Fast Five sweats. However, because I’m a maniac, the results are fair, and they are a solid representation of what we see onscreen.
How much does Luke Hobbs sweat in Fast Five?
- Amount of Sweat – 4 ¼ cups of water (34 fluid ounces of sweat – 1.0055 liter)
- Sweatiest Moment? – After Hobbs is done chasing Dom through the streets of Rio, his shirt, bullet-proof vest, head and arms are soaked. It’s impressive.
- Does he sweat too much? – Who am I to say? However, there’s a moment when his goatee sweats more than three grown men.
- Hardest Part of Data Collection – The finale of the film sees Hobbs fighting Dom (lots of sweat), engaging in a gunfight (more sweat), and then helping Dom (more sweat). The problem is, his shirt would be sweaty all day, so it was hard to gauge how much sweat poured out of him.
How much do the protagonists (Dom, Brian, Roman, Tej, Mia, Han, Gisele, Vince, Leo, Santos ) sweat in Fast Five?
- Amount of Sweat – 3 cups of water (24 fluid ounces of water – .709 Liter)
- Sweatiest Moment – While Vince has some wonderfully sweaty moments, the fight between Hobbs and Dom features Dom getting very sweaty.
- Do they sweat too much? – Nope – The crew rarely sweat. Does that make them cool? Are they so cool that they don’t sweat?
- Hardest Part of Data Collection – The characters rarely sweat. Dom, Vince, Mia and Brian are the main culprits. I had to give my full attention to catching sweat droplets. I never thought I’d ever do something like this….
Discussing the robbery in a hot warehouse – No sweat
Tej has been working in his hot Miami garage. No sweat
Finally! Sweat.
Initially, the results were surprising because it was a bit of stretch to consider that one character could sweat more than 10 other characters. However, after watching the movie again, there’s no comparison. It’s fair to say that the most unbelievable aspect of Fast Five is not the bank vault chase, it’s the fact that Hobbs sweats so much more than any other character. Even his team never sweats, and they have to take a car apart, and then put it back together – in a hot workshop.
They aren’t sweaty….He is.
Maybe it’s Johnson’s background in wrestling that taught him to always be spritzing, or that he went method as he saw Hobbs as someone who sweats more than any human alive.
Conclusion – Hobbs is a very sweaty person. All of the observations were correct.
If you like this random post, make sure to check out my other random data.
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- The Fast & Furious & Corona
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Deep Blue Sea – The Podcast – Episode 42: Beefcake Islands, Misty Quips, and Baby Shark Gangs
You can listen to Deep Blue Sea – The Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Spotify, Tunein, Podcast Addict, Amazon, Google Podcasts, and everywhere else you listen to podcasts. Also, make sure to like our Facebook page!
Please make sure to rate, review, share, and subscribe!
Jay and Mark are joined by Kaitlin McNabb (@kaitlinmcnabb on Twitter) to discuss the fifth chapter on the Deep Blue Sea 2 DVD. It’s a wild chapter that features petrified sharks, roaming groups of baby sharks, and a boat slowly driving into some large gasoline barrels. Also, this is the chapter that gives us the “Shark Mouth Camera,” which you need to see to believe. In this episode, they discuss beefcake islands, Misty quips and baby shark gangs. Enjoy!
Make sure to read Kaitlin’s review of Deep Blue Sea 2. It’s wonderful
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 360: We Summon the Darkness, Heavy Metal, and Twinkies
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
Mark and Zanandi (@ZaNandi on Twitter) discuss the 2020 thriller We Summon the Darkness. directed by Marc Meyers, and starring Alexandra Daddario, Maddie Hasson, and Amy Forsyth, the film focuses on a wild night of violence involving knives, cooking sheets, and boat motors. In this episode, Mark and Zanandi discuss fun horror, Johnny Knoxville, and cheeky characters. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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John’s Horror Corner: Wrong Turn (2021), not the hillbilly horror remake you were hoping for.
MY CALL: A decent horror film, but a God awful reimagining of Wrong Turn—which it clearly isn’t even trying to do. MORE MOVIES LIKE Wrong Turn: Well, of course, you need to go back to Wrong Turn (2003), and then perhaps the sillier but gory sequels. For more Appalachian Horror, consider Spell (2020), The Descent (2005), Evil Dead (2013), Jug Face (2013), Tucker and Dale versus Evil (2010) or Pumpkinhead (1988).
A group of friends hiking the Appalachian Trail stumble across an archaic tribe of long-secluded woodsmen and disappear. Determined to find them, a father (Matthew Modine; Stranger Things, 47 Meters Down) sets out looking for his daughter (Charlotte Vega; Another Me) recruiting whatever help from the rural locals he can.
I’m not impressed with this Appalachian cult of deer skull-masked mountain people. Their costumes, camouflage and booby trap shenanigans all seem far-fetched even for a horror movie. These guys always seem to be in the right place at the right time in the otherwise vast forest. It’s not cheeky or charming or amusingly self-aware. Quite the opposite—this is 100% serious and always delivered with a straight face. Yet the events that transpire felt very unrealistic, even in the context of a horror movie.
This film’s greatest saving grace would be how it celebrates brutal head trauma across multiple scenes. The first death scene features an awesomely mangled jaw and crushed skull. Some other brutal scenes include a spiked pit trap impalement and a savage cranial beating with a log. These visuals are more pleasing (to gorehounds at least) than the overall movie—which has none of Wrong Turn’s (2003) DNA to be found. In execution, this movie wishes it was The Shrine (2010) and it doesn’t even know it.
This script was clearly written for a more northern setting, and set in Virginia (not West Virginia as the source material) to ease us into a Wrong Turn state of mind. It’s sad how obvious it is that this was originally never meant to be a Wrong Turn script. At one point a character refers to hunting moose and elk… moose are found nowhere near Virginia! Perhaps that makes more sense of whatever language they spoke (something Germanic/Slavic/Scandinavian, I’m no linguist). Later in the movie, more dumb things transpire. The “cavern of the blind” was particularly ridiculous and smacked of something in an ill-written Hammer-era movie of the 50s or 60s depicted some lower circle of Hell.
REMAKE/REIMAGINING/REBOOT SIDEBAR: For more horror remakes, I strongly favor the following: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), An American Werewolf in London (1981), The Thing (1982), The Fly (1986), The Blob (1988), The Mummy (1999), The Ring (2002), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Dawn of the Dead (2004), The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Friday the 13th (2009), Let Me In (2010), Evil Dead (2013), Carrie (2013), The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014), It (2017), Suspiria (2018) and Child’s Play (2019). Those to avoid include Body Snatchers (1993; the second remake), War of the Worlds (2005), The Invasion (2007; the third remake), Prom Night (2008), Night of the Demons (2009), Sorority Row (2009), Patrick: Evil Awakens (2013), Poltergeist (2015), Martyrs (2015), Cabin Fever (2016), Unhinged (2017) and The Mummy (2017). I’m on the fence about An American Werewolf in Paris (1997), The Grudge (2004), Halloween (2007), It’s Alive (2009), My Bloody Valentine (2009), A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), Fright Night (2011), The Thing (2011; a prequel/remake), Maniac (2012), Rabid (2019), Pet Sematary (2019) and Castle Freak (2020), which range from bad to so-so (as remakes) but still are entertaining movies on their own.
The story doesn’t build to anything meaningful or particularly tense. But as critical as I can be, the finale scene was definitely satisfying even if brief. In fact, this movie would probably be okay if it had no association with Wrong Turn. Just call it “Appalachia” or “The Tribe” or “The Foundation” (the name of our tribe in this movie).
Not an upsettingly bad movie at all. It’s just fine really. But without gnarly-toothed inbred cannibals, surely a woefully disappointing “reboot” of the Wrong Turn namesake, doing no justice to the original property in any way, shape or form. That just put a sour taste in my mouth. Ultimately director Mike P. Nelson (The Domestics, Summer School) made a decent enough film that suffered from the studio’s desperate attempt to use the title and retain the rights to the Wrong Turn property for the sake of future cash grabs.
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John’s Horror Corner: Digging Up the Marrow (2014), a pleasant horror-comedy mockumentary about real monsters living among us.
MY CALL: This is a very charming, unpretentious, self-aware, playful mockumentary. This film was far from what I expected, but no less enjoyable for it. I’d love to see a sequel about the creatures of The Marrow. MORE MOVIES LIKE Digging Up the Marrow: For more mockumentary-esque or documentary-gone-wrong horror I’d strongly recommend Lake Mungo (2008), The Last Exorcism (2010), Grave Encounters (2011), Grave Encounters 2 (2012), The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014), Hell House LLC (2015), Demonic (2015), Ghost Stories (2017) and Butterfly Kisses (2018).
A breath of Horror Convention fanfare sweeps us away into nostalgia as we reflect on how and when and why we came to love horror. And if these monsters that we’ve come to love, or at least some monsters analogous to them, were in fact to exist then where would they exist?
At first, this feels like an absolutely real documentary. I love Grave Encounters (2011), but it’s so slickly written and shot; the complete opposite of Marrow, which is affably clunky and takes the time to reveal presumably true aspects of a director’s relationship with the fans and their physical fan mail. Describing his reaction to his fans’ love of his films and the genre, real-life horror filmmaker Adam Green (Hatchet I-II, Victor Crowley, Chillerama) is likably awkward in front of the camera as he introduces this documentary effort to tell the story of William Dekker (Ray Wise; The Lazarus Effect, One Missed Call, The Butterfly Room, Chillerama, The Rift)—a man who claims to have discovered “real” monsters.
Dekker explains on camera that these monsters are of human origin and they exist in The Marrow, an underworld hundreds of feet below the surface. This is where you know this film is not only not a real documentary, but a goofy satire. Dekker’s story is at times well thought out yet beyond unfeasible, but delivered with a straight face. From here things get hokey, clearly a deliberate comedy. I find the tone charming even if overtly goofy at times.
Accompanied by his real-life cinematographer (Will Barratt), Green’s interviews and fieldwork dig deeper into Dekker’s ridiculous claims… until they find actual evidence of a creature!
There is no gore at all and creature effects (heavily concentrated in one great scene) were limited by a very low budget. But there some very provocative visuals nonetheless and the movie hardly needs for us to see anything at all. This film instead thrives on the wacky entertainment value of watching Dekker’s story unfold. The story has its developments. They’re silly, but they work for the tone of the film. And everything builds to a final act that is goofy, ridiculous, deliberately stupid, kinda terrible and kinda wonderful.
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MY CALL: This was not good, and I dare not recommend it to anyone. However, a trusted fellow reviewer I know and trust quite liked this movie. So take my opinion with a grain of salt. MORE MOVIES LIKE The Cleansing Hour: The Unborn (2009), Grave Encounters (2011) or The Last Exorcism (2010).
Like Grave Encounters (2011) or The Last Exorcism (2010), the showrunners of a popular “live exorcism” webcast quickly reveal that the show is completely scripted down to the priest’s vows and the visual demonic manifestations. When one of their scripted sham exorcisms suddenly becomes very real, it gets interesting for our exorcism crew.
This initially has the vibe of a direct-to-VHS late 90s-era horror flick. Everyone is slick and stylish, but the writing just doesn’t sound as good as the characters think it does. The movie begins weak on all cylinders, and then burns the clutch when it tries harder.
There were some genuinely shocking moments. A man bursts into flames and it plays out far better than just a gag, complete with the cindered flesh of the victim reaching out and touching another crewman leaving charred remains stuck to them. This gave me hope for the film… but then everything that followed was retreading all too familiar ground with nothing new to add and unmotivated special effects. The possession vomiting looked great, but the execution of events around it (and maybe even the editing) softened its bite to such point that it just felt weak.
Our sham demon-battling priest (Ryan Guzman; The Boy Next Door) has some cheeky character moments; the possession victim (Alix Angelis) delivers some fingernail-cracking flair; and the producer (Kyle Gallner; Jennifer’s Body, The Cleanse) is the strongest character carrying the movie largely by himself. Ultimately, I felt the writing lacked the synthesis to link the scenes and muster dread. Often, I could see the movie was trying. But the introduction of the invisible rat-dog hellhounds and the full-form revelation of the demon at the end took me from finding this movie maaaaaaybe passable, to regrettable.
I’m not thrilled that I spent my time watching this, more often finding myself annoyed than amused. But at times it was somewhat entertaining. “At times” being far from most of the time. Most of the time I was underwhelmed by the weak sauce brought to the table. Director and co-writer Damien LeVeck (Dark, Deadly & Dreadful) had a nice idea, not original but nice enough for a movie. The follow-through just isn’t there.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 359: Super Dark Times, Swords, and Primitive Radio Gods
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
Mark and Jonny Numb (@jonnyNumb on Twitter) discuss the 2017 film Super Dark Times. Directed by Kevin Phillips, and starring Charlie Tahan, Owen Campbell and Elizabeth Cappuccino, the film focuses on the super dark times that follow a tragedy. In this episode, they discuss 1990’s nostalgia, film theories, and convenience store squid. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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Deep Blue Sea – The Podcast – Episode 41 – Sleeveless Welding, Cardigans, and Michael Beach
You can listen to Deep Blue Sea – The Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Spotify, Tunein, Podcast Addict, Amazon, Google Podcasts, and everywhere else you listen to podcasts. Also, make sure to like our Facebook page!
Please make sure to rate, review, share, and subscribe!
Jay and Mark are joined by Jeanette Ward (@Jeanette_y_ward on Twitter) to discuss the fourth chapter on the Deep Blue Sea 2 DVD. In this episode, they talk about nonsense clothing, Michael Beach, and shark surveillance. Enjoy!
Please make sure to check out the following links!
oceana.org – https://oceana.org/
smile.amazon.com – https://smile.amazon.com/
4ocean – https://www.4ocean.com/
ocean project – https://oceanproject.co/
Movies, Films & Flix 