Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Movie Review: Best of 2019
Merry Christmas! End Credits has a wonderful present for you in the form of our annual look back at the best cinematic offerings of the year. So cozy up next to the fire, unwrap some of those candied treats from your stocking, and follow along as we gush about all our favourite movies from 2019.
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Movie Review: Black Christmas (2019)
This week on End Credits, we’re in a holiday mood. So we’re obviously feeling Christmas (in a way) because we’re reviewing the latest iteration of Black Christmas, but we’re also in a giving mood because it’s that time of year that Hollywood starts talking about giving out awards. To wrap up the last regular show this year, we’ll also talk about Richard Jewell and Star Trek.
Monday, December 2, 2019
CNDOP 2019
It's Canadian National Day of Podcasting! At least it was yesterday.
To celebrate, I've made a clip show.
These are the 6 Canadian podcasts I support through Patreon.
Guelph Politicast hosted by Adam A Donaldson
Faculty of Horror, hosted by Andrea Subissati and Alexandra West
The Nighttime Podcast, hosted by Jordan Bonaparte
Metis in Space, hosted by Molly Swain and Chelsea Vowel
I Hate It But I Love It, hosted by Kat Angus and Jocelyn Geddie
Nightmare On Film Street, hosted by Kimberley Elizabeth and Jonathan Dehaan
Thanks for listening!
Follow me on Twitter at Cinn48 or at CircleOfMedia.
Listen to my other shows The Village Podcast by The Bookshelf or every third week, give or take, on End Credits Radio.
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
The Stephen King Project - Pet Sematary
Sigh, this book is really not good.
When reading The Shining I noticed that King's writing style had changed, matured. I remember thinking to myself, while reading up about Jack Torrance's drinking and accidents before he arrived at The Overlook, that King had finally learned how to tell a character's back story without that character needing to be telling a story to another character, which is how almost all of the back story happened in Salem's Lot.
Salem's Lot was a good book. I enjoyed it. But I definitely noticed that the only way we learned about the characters was by them telling stories to each other. It's a fine way of finding out about their past, but it can become awkward to put characters in a position where story telling happens.
From The Shining forward, King's writing has gained more narrative ways of telling back story and they've been much easier and more enjoyable to read.
Until Pet Sematary.
Though to be fair, a lot of things about Pet Sematary are the worst parts of King's writing.
There is no foreshadowing, there is only giant freaking gongs. There is a part of the book early on, maybe the first night they are in the new house, where Louis is carrying Gage to bed and he gets a feeling of dread. So heavy handed.
There is also an absolutely unnecessary amount of description of things which don't matter. The first trip the entire family take together to the Pet Sematary is almost 9 pages long. Nine pages of describing tall grass, a view of the valley, a stand of trees that meet overhead, absolutely unnecessary. It's not like when King was describing the Marsten house or the hedge animals or the car, these places and things were also characters. The walk to the Pet Sematary is not a character. In fact the cemetery itself is also not a character because it's the Micmac burial grounds behind the cemetery which is the monster.
These were problems I was already having with this book, only a third of the way in after having started it almost 3 weeks ago.
But tonight, I've reached this new realization, that King has forgotten how to tell narrative. So much of this book is already Louis listening to Jud's old stories, but now, after having spent pages following the walk from the cemetery to the Micmac burial grounds, I am reading a passage of Jud telling Louis how he found out about the cemetery by recounting exactly the same trip I just read!
This book was published in the same year as Christine, and it shows. I'm not sure if it was an old draft of something he hadn't taken another pass at yet which he submitted because the publisher wanted something fast, or if it was some first draft he wrote because they wanted something and he never cared to make it better.
Either way, it's clear this book was not completed, not worked on to become the best it could, or even good. And it's kind of a shame, because the idea of whether to move forward from trauma or hold on to a past until it destroys you is a great idea. I hope somewhere in the later published books he comes back to the same idea.
___
I have been reading all of Stephen King's novels in chronological order of publishing date since June of 2019. Any documentation on my thoughts have been orally shared on The Village Podcast by the Bookshelf. You can listen back for updates there.
When reading The Shining I noticed that King's writing style had changed, matured. I remember thinking to myself, while reading up about Jack Torrance's drinking and accidents before he arrived at The Overlook, that King had finally learned how to tell a character's back story without that character needing to be telling a story to another character, which is how almost all of the back story happened in Salem's Lot.
Salem's Lot was a good book. I enjoyed it. But I definitely noticed that the only way we learned about the characters was by them telling stories to each other. It's a fine way of finding out about their past, but it can become awkward to put characters in a position where story telling happens.
From The Shining forward, King's writing has gained more narrative ways of telling back story and they've been much easier and more enjoyable to read.
Until Pet Sematary.
Though to be fair, a lot of things about Pet Sematary are the worst parts of King's writing.
There is no foreshadowing, there is only giant freaking gongs. There is a part of the book early on, maybe the first night they are in the new house, where Louis is carrying Gage to bed and he gets a feeling of dread. So heavy handed.
There is also an absolutely unnecessary amount of description of things which don't matter. The first trip the entire family take together to the Pet Sematary is almost 9 pages long. Nine pages of describing tall grass, a view of the valley, a stand of trees that meet overhead, absolutely unnecessary. It's not like when King was describing the Marsten house or the hedge animals or the car, these places and things were also characters. The walk to the Pet Sematary is not a character. In fact the cemetery itself is also not a character because it's the Micmac burial grounds behind the cemetery which is the monster.
These were problems I was already having with this book, only a third of the way in after having started it almost 3 weeks ago.
But tonight, I've reached this new realization, that King has forgotten how to tell narrative. So much of this book is already Louis listening to Jud's old stories, but now, after having spent pages following the walk from the cemetery to the Micmac burial grounds, I am reading a passage of Jud telling Louis how he found out about the cemetery by recounting exactly the same trip I just read!
This book was published in the same year as Christine, and it shows. I'm not sure if it was an old draft of something he hadn't taken another pass at yet which he submitted because the publisher wanted something fast, or if it was some first draft he wrote because they wanted something and he never cared to make it better.
Either way, it's clear this book was not completed, not worked on to become the best it could, or even good. And it's kind of a shame, because the idea of whether to move forward from trauma or hold on to a past until it destroys you is a great idea. I hope somewhere in the later published books he comes back to the same idea.
___
I have been reading all of Stephen King's novels in chronological order of publishing date since June of 2019. Any documentation on my thoughts have been orally shared on The Village Podcast by the Bookshelf. You can listen back for updates there.
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Movie Review: Zombieland: Double Tap
This week on End Credits, we catch up with some old friends: Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita, and Little Rock. No, we’re not planning a road trip, we’re reviewing the Zombieland sequel. We’re also going to talk about the new upcoming Matrix movie, some new trailers, and we’ll hear from our next panelist on their Top 5 of 1999!
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Movie Review: Between Two Ferns: The Movie
This week on End Credits, we’re going to take it easy with a Netflix flick that’s a fake behind the scenes documentary of a fake TV show. That’s almost too meta to be allowed, but the movie’s funny, so we’ll allow it. We’re reviewing Between Two Ferns: The Movie, and talking about clowns, friends, space wars, and the human stars of dinosaur movies.
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Movie Review: Hobbs & Shaw
This week on End Credits, why can’t we be friends? We will marinate on how opposites attract when it comes to action movies with this week’s review, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. Along with that, we’ll be discussing how another action star is portrayed in another recent release, the fall of a legend, new trailers, and how TIFF has done the impossible and made the genders roughly equal.
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Movie Review: Crawl
This week on End Credits, we’re going to avoid the siren song of The Lion King, and get into what the people should really want to see, survivalist horror drama. We’ll see if we survived Crawl, and we’ll see if we survive Scarlett Johansson’s latest controversy and the new Cats trailer, plus we’ll talk about the first announcement for TIFF and monsters in the movies!
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Movie Review: Child's Play (2019)
This week on End Credits, we enter the terrifying realm of the killer dolls. It’s been kind of a theme this summer with two killer doll movies coming out within a week of each other, but this week, it’s all about Child’s Play. Also, we’re going to talk about the latest MeToo casualty, sequel ennui, the future of movies, and the Napoleon Bonaparte bio-pic we’ve never got (but might?).
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Movie Review: Brightburn
This week on End Credits things are going to get meta. What happens when you take the story of the world’s greatest superhero and make him a bad guy? We’ll find out when we watch Brightburn. Speaking of bad guys, we’ll talk about Hollywood’s battle against new abortion laws, and the lost meaning of Godzilla. Also, we’ll also discuss being Booksmart and what Harrison Ford is mad about now.
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Movie Review: Detective Pikachu
It’s time for another End Credits, and this week we’re going where we’ve never gone before: in search of Pokémon. We’re going to be solving crimes in this episode with Detective Pikachu, and we’re going to be getting to the bottom of the latest news. On that account, we’ll talk about movie schedule musical chairs, a Furious producer, 10 years after Trek, and some new trailers.
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Movie Review: Shazam!
To listen to this week’s End Credits, all you have to do is say the magic word, “please”. Actually, you don’t even need to do that, just tune in to CFRU and listen as we review that other magic word-based movie, Shazam! Before that though, we’ll talk about a cinematic universe’s comeback, how we watch movies, Canadian Film Day, and this week in Disney news. (Yes, this is its own category now.)
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Movie Review: Heathers 30th Anniversary
This week on End Credits, we’re going to go back… Back in time! Instead of a new movies this week, we’re going to revisit an old movie. Heathers turns the big 3-0 this week, and we’re going to revisit this very complex film. Plus, we’re back on the Disney merger beat, we’ll discuss labour issues at movie theatres, and then we’ll look at another 90s remake, and the not so strange world of a filmmaker who might have lost their way.
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Movie Review: Us
This week on End Credits, it’s us, and it’s not us. Maybe it’s both. Who can say if we are who we say we are, or if we’re shadows of ourselves tethered to another reality? And if this preamble means nothing to you, then you weren’t part of the record breaking audience for Us this past weekend. We’ll review Jordan Peele’s latest, and talk about some other movie stuff, new films in production, and new trailers.
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Movie Review: Captain Marvel
This week on End Credits, we’ll call up AltaVista on AOL and download a Quicktime over dial up for directions to the mall to get a few grunge CDs… If this 90s overload isn’t an indication, we’ll come right out and say we’re reviewing Captain Marvel this week. We’re also going to engage in the ongoing debate about cinema vs streaming, and do a little video store nostalgia before talking about superhero movies, the ones coming out soon, and the ones that are not.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Movie Review: The Kid Who Would Be King
This week on End Credits, we accept our destiny to become the greatest movie show on community radio in Guelph! No mean feat to be sure. We’ll pull the sword from the stone and review the Arthurian-themed The Kid Who Would Be King. We’ll also talk about an award-filled week in the news including Oscars, Razzies, and Chainsaws, and some rather disgusting developments in terms of one of Hollywood’s top talents.
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
Movie Review: Worst of 2018, Most Anticipated of 2019
It’s the beginning of the new year, but that doesn’t mean that End Credits is done with the old one. At least, not yet. We’ll take one last look behind us this week as we consider the movies that make us glad to be leaving 2018 in the rearview. In the second half of the show though, we’ll look ahead to the various movies that make us happy that 2019 has finally arrived.
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