Welcome to the latest edition of the Pre-Weekend Recap, One of Us’ attempt to help you catch up with the features that debuted on the site this week. Our podcast hosts, writers, and bloggers have been diligently working to produce great content for your consumption and it would be a shame if you missed any of it, so the Recap is here to help prevent that.
Below you’ll a selection of some of the stuff we published this week, complete with description and links. All you have to do is kick back and enjoy the content! Let’s not waste any more time, check out what we have to offer!
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World of UScast: The British Bodcast
This week, we published the second episode of World of UScast, the feature where we feature a podcast from an international partner. The British Bodcast was the show in the spotlight this time. The hosts proclaim that their mission is to turn good old Americans into fully fledged Anglophiles through the power of radio. Give it a listen and find out if they’re successful!
If you live outside the United States and you have or would like to create a quality podcast for the World of Us show family, please get in touch with us at oneofusnet@gmail.com. Your podcast could be on the next episode!
Tonight, You’re All Going to be Part of a Social Experiment
The One of Us crew likes to support each other in each of our individual endeavors, whether they are professional, recreational, or in this case, academic. Angelo of the INTERN-Net has one last hurdle to overcome before he graduates from college and it involves a research project with a survey component. As much as I’d like to say more, I don’t want to impact your answers to the survey, so go ahead and check out Angelo’s post and help him earn his degree!
Ash & Fern: A Beginner’s Guide to the World Cup
Supposedly, Ash and Fern are going to the World Cup this year, but they might actually burst from excitement before they get there. Soocer, or futbol, is the world’s most popular sport, but a staggering amount of Americans know little about it. Fear not, Fern’s latest post is here to teach you a thing or two about the world’s game. Not only is this piece informative, but there’s a great video of soccer players pretending to get injured, so definitely give this one a look.
Watch A Movie With Us: First Subscriber-Only Commentary Now Available!
Big announcement for our Time Lord and Jedi-level subscribers: the first of your free subscriber exclusive Watch A Movie With Us audio commentaries is available for you to download right now! All you need to do is head over to your subscriber-specific forum and click on the download link. If you’re a $10/month or $25/month subscriber and have not joined our forum, registration is absolutely free! Head over, sign up, and access your special commentary! Of course, you paid for this privilege, so please do not share the link with anyone else and don’t tell anyone what the movie is. If you’d like to become a subscriber, take a look at our subscription packages and sign up today!
Highly Suspect Reviews!
One of Us’ review crew, The Unusual Suspects, have four, count them four movie reviews for you to listen to this week. Yeah, they spoil us, but that’s because they’re good like that.
– First, Marvel’s most famous mutants attempt to re-write history and prevent global catastrophe in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
– Next, Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore get a trip to Africa subsidized by the movie industry under the guise of filming a comedy about two families on a vacation in Blended.
– On a more positive note, Jon Farvreau directs and stars in Chef, a film about a veteran culinary artist who gives up on the standard restaurant business and tries his hand at running a food truck after a critic crushes his spirit.
– Finally, the half-black daughter of a wealthy English admiral discovers that riches and privilege do not insulate her from racism and seeking fulfillment beyond her plush upbringing in Belle.
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Director Amma Asante takes a somewhat flourished and hypothesized look at the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), inspired by a famous 1779 painting of her and her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray (Sarah Gadon). Dido was the half-black daughter of a very rich English Admiral who, despite the mores of the time, decided to legitimize her as his child and left a sizable fortune in her hands.
Of course, this can’t stop racists from being racists, and as she explores outside of her gilded cage (maintained by foster parents Emily Watson and Tom Wilkinson) she discovers a more complex world, and a love decision to be made, between a titled lord from a disdainful family, and a poor idealistic lawyer. All this leads (speculatively) to a courtroom drama that will decide the course of the law as regards to slavery, but that’s neither here nor there….WHO WILL SHE FALL IN LOVE WITH?!? omg.
Chris, Ashley and JC put on their Unusual Suspect caps and ring this Belle.
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Jon Favreau suffers more than most from blockbuster fatigue. I mean, if his Cowboys and Aliens was any indicator, it was past time to take a step back and rediscover his joy. In this case, it turned out to be returning to the sweet and funny style of indie films that he helped popularize with 1996’s Swingers.
In Chef, the title refers to Favreau who plays LA culinary artist Carl Casper. He may be the head of a top-notch restaurant, but when a famed food critic (Oliver Platt) accuses him of having become uninteresting in his prepared fare, a heated and public discussion leads to him throwing it all away and trying something both new (a food truck) and old for him (cuban sandwiches).
Mixing unbelievably appealing food porn tours, an extremely affecting father-son bonding tale, and a LOT of really great and funny cameos by some pretty big stars, Chris, Brian and Martin are sure you’re going to want to see Chef and listen to their Highly Suspect Review…
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“Sure, it’s a new Adam Sandler movie, but this one has a chance of being good…”
Oh, how those words have come back to haunt me. The latest vehicle for Sandler’s mish-mash of family-friendly and the same ol’-same ol’, had an cautious optimism for me because he co-stars for the third time with Drew Barrymore; a team-up that has previously released two of the better films in Sandler’s filmography.
I suppose I should have realized that statistically, this didn’t stand a chance.
Sandler and Barrymore play two single parents with Brady Bunch-sized and gendered offspring who, in order to get a cheap family vacation to Africa have to take it together, despite the the two adults really not liking each other.
And oh, how calculated wackiness ensues!
Chris, Ashley and JC take the bullet on this one. Share their pain.
Greetings Time Lords and Ladies and welcome back to Big Finishing Move! This is where we take a gander at output of audio giant Big Finish and let you know what is and is not worth your time and hard earned dollars. It’s taken me almost half a year, but we’re finally back with one of my favorite pairs in all of Who, Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred as the Seventh Doctor and Ace. Is their return to this series a triumphant one or DOA? No more preamble, let’s get to it and find out!
TARDIS Team: Seventh Doctor, Ace, and introducing Mr. Hex
In the year 2021, strange doings are afoot at St. Garts Hospital in London. The Doctor and Ace have gone undercover to investigate what is going on the building’s mysterious and heavily guarded 31st floor. Along the way, and much to the Doctor’s dismay, a young man named Hex ends up involved in their plans. Hex will have to keep up and keep his head down if he wants to come out the other end of this alive.
This entry sees the entrance of a new companion, one Thomas Hector Schofield (Hex to his friends). His presence in this and the stories that follow allows for some personal growth for Ace, as she takes on the role of mentor and friend for Hex as the Doctor did for her, with her own spin on it of course. It allows her to grow naturally into a more mature and seasoned role, a move started at the end of the Classic TV run. Big Finish attempted to continue this growth but their efforts up to this point were mostly unsuccessful.
Speaking of elements that were meant to give Ace depth and failed, this story takes place during Ace’s “McShane” period. In a previous story, Ace had started having people call her by her last name. The idea seemed to be that only kids had nicknames, and since it had already been established she hated her given first name (Dorothy), having her go by her last would make her seem more grown up. Thankfully this boneheaded idea was abandoned soon after this story and she went back to just using Ace, but you can feel them trying to push the silly change on the audience by having her repeat “Just McShane” over and over again. It isn’t anything that breaks the story, but it feels heavy-handed and as this change was ultimately pointless makes it all the more distracting.
Another of the weaker elements in this piece is the music, it just doesn’t seem to fit the overall tone set by the actors and it becomes more grating the longer you listen to it. The music is trying to be disconcerting, but it pushes too hard and hops the rail into the annoying. Perhaps if it had been used in a different kind of story this music could have worked, but it is a bad match for this one.
The villains work wonderfully for the story, but it is a little disheartening because it looks like the story is going to branch out into something really new and different for them only to have them snap back to their old behavior. Everything still works fine, but I can’t help but feel there was a huge missed opportunity here.
What makes or breaks the story here is the listener’s ability to connect with Hex. Philip Olivier’s performance sells Hex’s everyman charm and is easily the highlight of the whole thing. Hex isn’t special, he’s just a really good guy, and interestingly enough that is what makes the character work. Given how over the top both Ace and the Doctor can be, Hex’s “average joe” nature gives the seasoned listener a chance to watch the established characters interact in new and exciting ways and provides an easily relatable character for newer fans to latch onto. Hex’s backstory does hold a few juicy secrets planted across Big Finish’s work, but none of it changes the simple straightforwardness that is Mr. Hex. There are better stories featuring these characters and this isn’t required listening in any way, but what is here is fun and entertaining and serves as a great introduction to a new main character.
Purchase Doctor Who: The Harvest Here:
Keep in mind, faithful readers, that Big Finish aren’t the only people who do audio drama thing, We here at One Of Us happens to have our own show by the name of Infinite Variations!
For next time, we’re going to keep riding this train of mystery and horror with:
Check out my previous reviews:
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There is no fate but what we make it, and the Unusual Suspects are always hellbent on making sure that fate involves copious amounts of booze and comic books. This week, Chris, J.C., and Ashley swill from a giant frosty tankard of nerdom with X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Bryan Singer’s return to the X-Men franchise has been preceded with much geek excitement, and made this flick one of the most anticipated of the summer. Will Days of Future Past live up to the hype or will it have us wishing we could travel back to a time where X2 was Singer’s last franchise contribution?
Slipping into their leather battle suits, our own super team of critics battles the forces of mediocrity and tedium in this X-ceptional, if Highly Suspect, Review.
I’m sure that Warner Bros. and DC were very happy to announce the name of their Batman and Superman film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice yesterday. I’m also pretty sure their happiness was little dampened when Batman v Superman and Justice League writer David Goyer and fellow writer Craig Mazin went on a sexist and insulting tirade about Marvel’s She-Hulk on the most recent episode of the Scriptnotes Podcast. Their statements have generated a universally negative reaction. Read below to find out why.
Craig Mazin: The real name for She-Hulk was Slut-Hulk. That was the whole point. Let’s just make this green chick with enormous boobs. And she’s Hulk strong but not Hulk massive, right? … She’s real lean, stringy…
David S. Goyer: She’s still pretty chunky. She was like Chyna from the WWE.
Mazin: The whole point of She-Hulk was just to appeal sexistly to ten-year-old boys. Worked on me.
Goyer: I have a theory about She-Hulk. Which was created by a man, right? And at the time in particular I think 95% of comic book readers were men and certainly almost all of the comic book writers were men. So the Hulk was this classic male power fantasy. It’s like, most of the people reading comic books were these people like me who were just these little kids getting the shit kicked out of them every day… And so then they created She-Hulk, right? Who was still smart… I think She-Hulk is the chick that you could fuck if you were Hulk, you know what I’m saying? … She-Hulk was the extension of the male power fantasy. So it’s like if I’m going to be this geek who becomes the Hulk then let’s create a giant green porn star that only the Hulk could fuck.
Wow. Okay, there’s a lot to analyze here. I’m going to do my best to sift through these “eloquent” statements.
Even though I wouldn’t call myself an expert on She-Hulk, I’m very aware that Mazin and Goyer are both wrong about the character’s personality and history.
She-Hulk, known as Jennifer Walters in her civilian life, was exposed to gamma radiation through a blood transfusion from her cousin, Bruce Banner. That’s right, her cousin. I can’t say what goes on at the Mazin and Goyer family reunions, but I’m pretty sure She-Hulk creators Stan Lee and John Buscema didn’t create the character so the Hulk could fuck his cousin.
Yes, female characters in comics are sexualized. There’s no question about that. Is it possible that Mazin and Goyer were talking about how She-Hulk was a sexist character when she was initially conceived in 1980? Maybe, but the language they use says otherwise. Goyer refers to She-Hulk as “chunky,” a statement that I’m having trouble understanding.
What does She-Hulk’s being “chunky” have to do with anything? Is Goyer so intimidated by women with curves that he feels need to describe them as chunky? I don’t know, but that statement really irks me.
It’s also notable to point out that Walters embraced her gamma irritated condition and moved forward in her life. She eventually opened her own law firm and worked as a lawyer to represent many Marvel superheroes. She didn’t sink into a pit of sorrow or self-loathing. She embraced her body and mind in order to be the person she is today in Marvel comics.
If all this wonderful sexism isn’t enough for you, Goyer had a few choice words to say to fellow comic book readers. Goyer asked the audience “How many people in the audience have heard of Martian Manhunter?” With their replies, Goyer treated them to an ever-so mature response. “How many people that raised their hands have ever been laid?”
Read his further comments about J’onn J’onzz and you’ll be shaking your head in sadness by the time you’re done.
“He can’t be fucking called the Martian Manhunter because that’s goofy. He can be called Manhunter… The whole deal with Martian Manhunter is he’s an alien living amongst us… So he comes down to Earth and decides, unlike Superman who already exists in the world now, that he’s just going to be a homicide detective… So instead of using super-powers and mind-reading and like, oh, I could figure out if the President’s lying or whatever, he just decides to disguise himself as a human homicide detective. Dare to dream!”
“I would set it up like The Day After Tomorrow. We discover one of those Earth-like planets… So maybe like… we get the DNA code from that planet and then grow him in a petri dish here… He’s like in Area 51 or something and we’re just basically… doing biopsies on him.”
Goyer seems to have a hand in every DC film adaptation at the moment. Remember fellow readers, this is the guy who has conceived the story for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the screenplay for Justice League, both of which will feature the Amazonian warrior princess, Wonder Woman. Based on his recent comments, I’m very concerned of his potential portrayal of Diana Prince. Wonder Woman is one of comics’ strongest female characters and has recently received much acclaim thanks to writer Brian Azzarello’s current run on the character. To put her cinematic debut in the hands of someone who has used sexist language so casually makes me more than worried.
Well, at least Zack Snyder’s involved. It’s not like Snyder has directed a film that’s completely misogynistic and sexist, right? Oh yeah, I completely forgot about his misogynistic and sexist film, Sucker Punch.
What about you reader? Are you offended by Goyer’s remarks? Think people are overreacting? Concerned about the future of Wonder Woman in film? Let us all know in the comments below.
The biggest sporting event in the world is less than a month away, and despite what ESPN might try to tell you I’m not talking about the Super Bowl. I’ve been dreaming of going to a World Cup for as long as I can remember, and I honestly still can’t wrap my head around the idea that Ash and I actually get to go this year.
I know that a lot of you, probably most of you, have no idea what it’s like to be a soccer fan. Americans avoid soccer for a million reasons, some of them perfectly valid. No, there isn’t a lot of scoring. Yes, there are some rules that are fairly hard to understand, especially if you aren’t a hockey fan. And yes, there are often more dives in the first 15 minutes than in an entire NBA game.
But I can promise you this, despite what you’ve been told your entire life soccer is NOT boring. So in preparation for the World Cup, and since most of you won’t be able to avoid seeing at least some of it on TV, here’s a quick rundown of what you need to know if you’re a total soccer neophyte.
Soccer in itself is simple, you try to score more goals than the other team. Each team has 11 players on the field and only the goalkeeper is allowed to use his hands. Similar to hockey there is an offside rule, but honestly you’ll only think about that when a goal gets called back because of it. Fouls are called and result in free kicks for the fouled team. That’s really all you need to know. Again I know the lack of scoring is a big deal for some people, but the sheer ecstasy (or agony) when a goal is scored is more than worth the wait. Or you can always join my mom’s camp and maintain that the answer is as simple as bigger goals.
Speaking of goals, there’s one more rule: when someone scores, you have to mark the occasion for as long as you can in one breath, at least once. That’s an official FIFA regulation.
The key to understanding the World Cup itself is understanding the national teams. Most countries have at least one professional soccer league and those leagues can and do use players from around the world. Like the NFL or NBA your allegiance is largely based on where you were raised, or familial ties. But in soccer, there is a bigger dream, that a team made up of players from your country would beat the best players from every other country on earth. And there we have the World Cup. It takes 3 years to qualify for a World Cup, you have to beat out other teams from your region to earn the right to compete. (For decades in the middle of the 20th Century the US wasn’t able to do this. The game really has grown by leaps and bounds here.)
Once your team has qualified you can relax for about 5 minutes until the draw. The World Cup is played with a group stage first (8 groups of 4) where after a round-robin the top 2 teams from each group advance to the knockout stage. Obviously these groups have to be drawn “randomly” to be fair. Like everything else FIFA does, the draw is overly complicated and not at all random. I drew this back in December to try to explain the process to a coworker, I’m pretty sure I made it worse.
If you’ve watched SportsCenter since December you’ve probably heard the phrase “Group of Death.” There is at least one in every World Cup, and as you can imagine from the name, this is not the group you want to be in. Naturally this is the draw the soccer gods punished the US with. We have to deal with Germany and Portugal, ranked 2 and 3 respectively in the world rankings. (If you can only name 2 soccer players, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo is probably one of them.) And the fourth team is Ghana, the thorn in our side that has eliminated us from the last 2 World Cups. Clearly this is not ideal.
But really, as the vast majority of us will never play in a World Cup (or play professional soccer in any capacity), the World Cup is largely about the fans. More than 2.5 million tickets have been sold for the 64 games. Like me they are all hoping for an adventure unlike anything else. There will be goals and penalties and a whole lot of beer, but the real takeaway from the World Cup will be a shared experience. Whether you watch from the comfort of your living room, a local pub, or your seat behind the goal, you know that you are sharing that moment with millions of people around the world. If you ask me, that’s what the World Cup is all about.
You can expect a couple more pre-World Cup posts over the next couple of weeks, basically because I can’t think about anything else at this point. We also hope to post from Brazil (and do lots of tweeting @fernmays and @adonnell5) so you can follow along with us, but the internet may be a bit of an adventure in northern Brazil.