We’re back with another episode of The Big Movie Mouth-Off podcast!

The podcast features the stars and producers of The Big Movie Mouth-Off film review show, which appears here at Big Shiny Robot! and on Xfinity (Utah On Demand and Channel 6). That lineup is: Jeff Vice from MSN Entertainment, Jimmy Martin from SLUG Magazine, and Bryan Young (me) and Elias Pate from Big Shiny Robot! and ShineBox Media Productions.

To download the latest episode from iTunes, follow this link.

There, you should rate and subscribe to the podcast.

This week, we talked about:

• Superbowl Trailers!
• In Memoriam: ???

Listen! Let us know what you think! Spread the word!

For those of you who don’t like iTunes, you can get a direct .mp3 here. And you can add the BSR! podcast RSS feed by right clicking this link.

And we found a review that slipped through the cracks that you’ll be sure to love: Gwyneth Paltrow’s Country Strong:

The new Spider-Man film starring Andrew Garfield is attracting a lot of attention lately. Be it the new suit, or incredibly awkward-looking pictures of said suit, everyone is talking about it. One thing that hasn’t been mentioned as of yet is what will the new film be called? Well now, thanks to the Hollywood Reporter, it can be told. The title for the Spidey franchise reboot is officially The Amazing Spider-Man. I for one think that’s a great title, it was rumored to be the original working title for Spider-Man 2, and I’m glad they decided to use it. It still says “Spider-Man” without having the same name as the first Raimi movie. Also included was a new image of the full suit. UPDATE: Now with ultra hi-res picture.

It certainly looks better than when the lenses are missing, I must say! Let us know what you think!

I’m not quite sure how it happened, but I ended up committing to writing an article in honor of Valentine’s Day.  So, I thought I would share some of my favorite romantic scenes from a few films that might be considered “geeky,” for various reasons.  And¸ out of the kindness of my heart, I’ve opted not to include anything from Twilight or its sequels.  You can thank me later.

So, just a small sampling of some of my faves.  This is in no particular order, nor is it in way meant to be complete.

1. Tangled

I can’t say enough how much I love this movie.  I wasn’t prepared to love it since I had yet to see a CGI film that compared to the majesty of Beauty and the Beast or any other traditionally animated film.  But it moved me.  In a way a movie hasn’t done so in a very long time.  Flynn Rider is cocky and adventurous; Rapunzel is naïve but stubborn.  And yet they truly connect and bring out the best in one another.  The scene in the boat as the lanterns light up the night sky is one of the most beautiful romantic scenes ever.  EVER.  The music, the animation, the way Flynn watches Rapunzel as she watches her lifelong dream come true.  It’s not his dream, but he’s experiencing it with her and even helps her participate in the ritual.  I suppose it sounds silly and not at all like my usual cynical self to say that this film captured the very essence of love, but for me, I think it did.

2. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Han and Leia have long appealed to movie audiences, but their relationship is a common one seen in film.  The rogue and the gal who is unwilling to acknowledge her feelings goes back to classic stories like Gone With the Wind and beyond.  Their banter provides more than entertainment; it is essentially foreplay, leading up to a climactic kiss in the Millennium Falcon.  Now, I know a lot of people like the “I love you!” “I know” scene from Cloud City, but I have to be different.  I like The Kiss.  Where Leia tells Han she likes men, and he tells her she likes him because he’s a scoundrel.  It appeared on the movie posters and is full of such steam and passion that fanfic writers are STILL writing X-rated stories about it decades later.  Makes you wonder what else happened on the Falcon.  Hey, just how long WERE they in space, anyways?  Makes you wonder.

3. The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride is a delightful blend of romance, comedy, and adventure, and it has endured through the years for just those reasons.  With lines like “Death cannot stop true love.  All it can do is delay it for a little while” Wesley has won the hearts of female audiences everywhere.  He risks all to rescue his ‘twue wuv’ from marrying an arrogant and scheming prince, and then there’s the line:  “Since the invention of the kiss there have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind.”  The couple survived the Fire Swamp, Wesley (sort of) lived through torture, and Buttercup didn’t REALLY marry the prince, so all ended happily ever after.

4. Chasing Amy

Kevin Smith tackled romance in his film Chasing Amy, and though there is plenty of humor and pop culture references, it also has a lot of heart.  I’ve always loved Holden’s speech to Alyssa where he confesses his love for her, in spite of the fact that he knows she’s a lesbian.  There’s something so touchingly honest in his speech, as if he’s laid his heart bare for her, and her response will either destroy or save him. It’s a very different film from Clerks or Mallrats, but I still think it’s one of Smith’s best.

5. The Lake House

This isn’t the most perfect movie in the world, but I find myself watching it whenever it’s on TV, and part of it even takes place on Valentine’s Day.  Even Keanu Reeves in a romantic lead doesn’t deter me from watching.  This is sort of a modern fantasy, where two lonely people are brought together by a mailbox, though they live two years apart.  Yeah, it’s weird.  But the overall theme seems to be sometimes you just have to wait for love.  Don’t stop living in the meantime, and eventually true love will find you.  This is underscored by the reference to Jane Austen’s Persuasion, a book about love delayed for many years.  It’s a sweet film, and one that I think is worth viewing.

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6. Beauty and the Beast

Ah, my favorite Disney film. The story of a spunky bookish gal who seems to only attract jerks until one day she meets a prince under a terrible spell.  Again, I’m going to go with the less obvious romantic scene here.  Most would choose the ballroom dance scene, which is truly a masterpiece of animation (CGI and traditional animation combine to create a stunning sequence), but I’m going to have to go with the library.  I admit, I have a thing for books.  And libraries.  And instead of giving Belle “flowers, chocolates, promises [he doesn’t] intend to keep,” the Prince gives Belle his library, which appeals to her more than any generic gift.  It’s one of the sweetest, most romantic things I’ve ever seen in a movie.

I suppose I could continue with the list, but I’ll leave it at these few unusual picks of mine.  Oh, but I must also mention that scene from Attack of the Clones where Padme reveals that she “truly, deeply” loves Anakin before they are taken into the Geonosian arena.  I mention it only because my editor told me to.  I think the scene is cheesier than anything I saw in Twilight, but that’s just my opinion.  I know he’ll disagree.  Vehemently.

Editors Note: I asked Scarlett to put this clip on the list because it is, indeed, one of the most romantic and heartfelt moments in geeky cinema and every time I watch it it chokes me up. –Swank

But that’s the beauty of film.  It appeals to all of us in different ways, for different reasons.

So . . . what are your favorite romantic scenes from geeky movies?

Watch this-

To me- this looks like your standard assassin/government conspiracy film… with a twist: It looks like it doesn’t suck!

Sure sure, I can sit here and scream all day and all night about wanting to see something new come out of Hollywood- but since we all know that that isn’t going to happen, the next best thing I can ask for is to give me a refreshing look at the same thing.

You know- if you’re gonna give us a zombie film, make sure its a romantic comedy, and British… and… i f you INSIST on giving us the same old romantic comedy- make sure that in the end, they don’t end up together… or… if you want to throw a generic assassin/government conspiracy… make it about a 16 year old girl who is the epitome of badassery… alls I’m saying is: from the footage and the story bits they showed us in the trailer, its gonna be a “fresh” point of view… plus… plus… plus… look at the cast!!

Cate… freakin’… Blanchett! Sure… sure… her accent comes across a little… fake- but I guarantee that she gives a wicked performance, its Cate Blanchett… and then there is Eric Bana, alls I gotta say about that is- I’m on board with the Bana.

I will say though… that the font they used for the titles looked like the font from Where the Wild Things Are… which, suffice it to say- is a little off putting… Oh… and did they set it up to say that Hanna is some sort of super soldier? Ala- Captain America, but her dad totally ran to the north pole instead of letting her be a government stoolie? BUT, in the process created a “new kind of monster”?  These answers and more- Coming Soon.

My final thought- “Original Score by: The Chemical Brothers”  Ya- this probably got me as stoked for this film as I got for Tron when I found out that Daft Punk was doing its score (which they TOTALLY got gypped on the Oscar nod by the way… totally gypped.)

Thoughts?

Things are sure getting exciting in our Green Hornet adventure, aren’t they? Last week, the Hornet got ever closer to finding out who the head of the evil syndicate is, but just as he was to find out, his plane went out of control and crashed, seemingly with him in it! Can our hero have possibly survived, or is his body a green charred mess? Will Kato have to carry on alone? Is there good reason this episode is called Pillar of Flame? Well, don’t just stand there, hit play and find out!

As always, if you need to play catch up with episodes, be sure to click here.

You’ll remember a week or so ago, I mentioned I was embarking on an adventure to watch the Star Wars films with someone who had never seen them before. You can read my initial thoughts about that here.

Earlier in the week we had the opportunity to watch the first two episodes of the saga.

Watching Star Wars with someone who has never seen it really did make me sensitive to the flaws of the film, and though I love Phantom Menace with all of my heart, there is no hook at the end of the film to make someone who has never seen it keep going.

The girl I watched it with wanted to continue, but she neither loved nor hated Phantom Menace. “It is so not as bad as everyone makes it out to be,” she told me. She rated it down the middle, 2.5 out of 5.

Jar Jar didn’t seem so grating to her at all, in fact she found Yoda much more obnoxious. It’s so fun watching the gears turn in her head about what’s coming and what’s not coming.

One of my favorite exchanges involved Senator Palpatine. “What… Is he the bad guy?”

“He’s a politician and they’re not to be trusted, to quote Obi-Wan.”

“Oh. Well, that’s not a no.”

But the differences Phantom Menace and the rest of the saga become much more apparent when you watch it through those new eyes and immediately before watching Attack of the Clones. I may have been more pumped to watch Clones after Episode I, but she was much more easily convinced when she realized Hayden Christensen was stepping in to play Anakin. She was a big fan of his work in Life as a House (which is a great, underrated movie, by the way.)

Attack of the Clones started and I could tell it blew her hair back a lot more than Phantom Menace. It has much more kinetic energy and a relentless pace that simply doesn’t let up. It kept a little bit more ahead of her than The Phantom Menace and she seemed every bit as taken by the love story in the film as I always have been.

Then we talked about the movies for another hour after Attack of the Clones ended.

She was excited to find out what happens next and we instantly began planning Revenge of the Sith. Out of five, she rated Attack of the Clones a 3. “It’s still Star Wars, but I’m still warming up to it.”

If she feels like Clones is a 3, my guess is The Empire Strikes Back will make her head explode.

Afterwards, she wrote thusly on her blog:

We watched Episode 1 and 2, because I demanded I watch them in order and he’s the first person who’s agreed with me on that. They were actually good! I don’t know why everyone hates on the prequels, but I’ve never seen any of them so I guess I have no comparison. They’re not my favorite movies or anything, but I definitely enjoyed them much more than I thought I would. They’ll still never live up to Trek or Firefly, but still. We’re continuing the saga over the next couple of weeks. I’m actually kind of excited to watch them all, which is amazing if you know me. I am the anti-Star-Wars girl, but he broke me down. Everyone give Bryan a round of applause!

Are there any questions you want me to ask her as soon as we’re done with the prequels, is there anything you want me to ask her before we start the classic trilogy?

Starring Jeff Vice from MSN Entertainment and Jimmy Martin from SLUG Magazine (and both regular panelists on The Geek Show Podcast), the Big Movie Mouth-Off is produced and directed by Bryan Young (me) and Elias Pate from Big Shiny Robot! It appears on Xfinity On Demand in Utah and on Xfinity’s Channel 6, on line, and at Brewvies Cinema Pub.

Please go seek these out on Xfinity if you can. They look best on a TV.

You’ll want to friend the Big Movie Mouth-Off on Facebook, too, as they are constantly giving away passes to advanced screenings of all the newest films.

You should also check out the latest podcast.

But for this week’s reviews:

First we have Sanctum:

Somewhere:

And The Mechanic:

The Eagle isn’t a terrible film, or even a bad one. It just isn’t especially a good one.

We have most of the elements of what ought to be a good movie, though. We have a great plot, based on the young adult fictional novel The Eagle of the Ninth, which centers around Marcus Flavius Arelius, a young Roman officer, played by Channing Tatum, sent to his first command in Roman-conquered Britain.

20 years earlier his father led the 9^th Legion into the north and were lost, losing their emblematic Roman Eagle, which had never happened in the history of the Empire. In response, Rome built Hadrian’s Wall to signify the “end of the world” and to both cut off the Britons above the wall and protect Roman conquest below it. That’s the story of the film, not necessarily history, (although loosely based on some historical events) but let’s go with it, shall we?

With his family dishonored, Marcus and his British slave Esca must travel above the wall and recover the Eagle to restore honor to both family and empire. Sounds cool, huh?

Well, it is. To a certain extent. And the direction here by Kevin MacDonald (The Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void), himself Scottish, is excellent. The action scenes are well put together and exciting. However, this film doesn’t have the guts to be Gladiator or Braveheart– literally.  The obvious constraints of trying to make this a PG-13 movie hurt this in many ways. Supposedly there is a lot left on the cutting room floor, so we may need to wait for the Blu-ray/DVD to really understand the director’s vision here. This may be a refreshing change to many who don’t like the typical R-rated violence you would expect from a film about the conquests of Rome, but it felt disjointed and some of the cuts seemed jumpy.

What Hollywood also needs to understand is that is they keep putting mediocre talent like Tatum (or worse, Sam Worthington) in leading roles you will continue to get mediocre films. I found myself interested in the quest, and the themes, but not the fate of the main character. While I was rooting for him at the beginning of the movie, there were times when he was in peril later in the film where I was seriously ambivalent about whether he lived or died.  Esca, the slave, became the more interesting character, thanks to a better performance by Jamie Bell, and the one who I was rooting for.

They’re also backed up by an amazing supporting cast, most of whom seem too good for this film: Donald Sutherland plays Aquila, Marcus’ uncle, veteran character actors like Denis O’Hare, and a great performance by Mark Strong (Kick-Ass, Sherlock Holmes, and this summer’s Green Lantern) round out this cast and would make up for Tatum’s woody performance if only he weren’t in almost every scene in the movie, and they are not.

My somewhat ambivalnce towards The Eagle might be partially because of one of the themes which becomes a bit muddied in the film. We get nearly beat over the head with the theme of honor: to one’s country, family, to self. And it’s very, very good. But a subtext about empire and its dangers and the violence necessary to perpetuate it might have hit a better chord if it were more developed. I think that’s a good commentary, especially since this seems tailored to an American audience who might need to hear that message given world events, but unfortunately one that may go over most audiences’ heads.

Overall, this is a film better than most of the fare we usually get in February, so in that sense it is surprising and enjoyable. However, I can’t in good conscience recommend that everyone rush out and see this when truly great films like The King’s Speech and True Grit are still playing.

The Eagle opens wide this Friday, Feb 11—might I recommend you watch it at someplace like the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, or Brewvies, home to the Big Movie Mouth Off, for those of you in SLC, as I believe a few beers will make this movie even more enjoyable.

2 ½ stars

The Eagle is rated PG-13 for battle sequences and some disturbing images.

From the Distributor:

A Focus Features presentation in association with Film4 of a Duncan Kenworthy production. Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell. The Eagle. Donald Sutherland, Mark Strong. Casting by Jina Jay. Music by Atli Örvarsson. Costumes by Michael O’Connor. Editor, Justine Wright. Production Designer, Michael Carlin. Director of Photography, Anthony Dod Mantle, BSC, DFF. Co-Producer, Caroline Hewitt. Executive Producers, Tessa Ross, Miles Ketley, Charles Moore. Based on the novel The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff. Screenplay by Jeremy Brock. Produced by Duncan Kenworthy. Directed by Kevin Macdonald. A Focus Features Release.

For more, please visit http://focusfeatures.com/the_eagle

It’s our THREE YEAR ANNIVERSARY here at Big Shiny Robot! and the weekly column we have over at IN Magazine is devoted entirely to us and our anniversary bash.

Click on the online version of the article, pick up a physical copy, or click on the version below to get all the details.

As always, click on the picture below for the version as it was laid out in print.

To reiterate the details, we’re having a Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 tournament on the big screen at Brewvies Cinema Pub on February 20th, 2011 starting at 3:00pm.  After that, we’ll be playing The Iron Giant for FREE on the big screen at 7:00pm.

We hope to see you there.

X-Men: First Class released their first trailer via their Facebook page. Presented without comment, we’ll sound off in the Comments below, as should you.

X-Men: First Class, directed by Matthew Vaughn, is set to open June 3, 2011 and stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, January Jones, Kevin Bacon, Nicholas Hoult, Jennifer Lawrence, Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Till, Edi Gathegi, Jason Flemyng, Oliver Platt, Morgan Lily, Zoe Kravitz, and Bill Bilner.