EPISODE 278 - We’ll Just Wing It

Take notes Michael Bay, this is how you “wing it” in a pinch. I’ve mentioned before that our move to Saturday has not been that smooth. It continues even now. You’re going to hear a rather odd opening this week. Somehow I forgot to copy over a file and we found ourselves without one of our signature show opens. Luckily, I did have our theme music, so five-minutes before the show started we decided to “wing it” and do our open ourselves, on-the-fly. It was a little rough, but worked in a pinch. Where does Michael Bay come in? If you haven’t heard by now while at a Samsung presentation during CES he walked off the stage after a brutal minute or so of umms, errs and trailed off sentences. Bay skipped a line on the teleprompter and was unable to recover. He told everyone at the press gathering that they would just “wing it” but that didn’t happen. Stating on his website that he rarely lends his name to anything, that fact that he did lend it to the new 105-inch curved, UHDTV from Samsung and then couldn’t say anything about it without the prompter seems very odd. If this product was so amazing you were willing to slap your name on it — which you apparently don’t do that often — why not talk about what made you do so? Comments on his site and elsewhere suggest that perhaps he suffers from a public speaking phobia. But he’s a movie director! He has to talk to dozens, sometimes hundreds of crew, actors and extras all the time! The whole situation is just bizarre. And, it’s fodder for us to poke a little fun at his Bayjesty. Joel McHale on THE SOUP said it best, “Since when does Michael Bay care about scripts?” That’s one of our big talking points this week. Another is all the movies leaving and coming to Netflix in the new year. When the clock struck midnight a number of favorites vanished from Instant Cues all across America. Contracts expired, meaning the streaming service had to pull dozens of titles. ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, TITANIC, TOP GUN, AS GOOD AS IT GETS, SCARY MOVIE, STREET FIGHTER, PUMPKIN HEAD… all gone. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The complete list is in the Show Links below. And while so many good flicks are leaving Netflix, there are at least 26 that showed up on January 1st. AMERICAN PYSCHO, SCROOGED, SPACEBALLS, STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, DEATH RACE 2000 and RAGING BULL just to name some. Now this is only happening in the US market. Other countries may still be able to watch these titles or may have their own list of what’s coming and going. Plus, there’s a chance some of these titles will return again someday in a new deal struck with studios. Until then, you can always look for them on Amazon Instant Video or buy them on DVD. While on the subject of DVDs, during this week’s list of new releases coming Tuesday, we dive into an impromptu list of movies during which we all got laid. And then Mike throws in one that you probably shouldn’t have sex during. Comic-Con is quickly becoming known for the debacle that is its ticket purchasing process. Every year they change something, whether it’s the prices or how you obtain said tickets and every year it pisses people off and doesn’t go as planned. This year they’ve opted to sell only single day passes. Their hope is that it’ll curb those who buy all four days and don’t go all four days. The convention has become incredibly popular and incredibly crowded. By selling single day passes, organizers believe folks will just buy badges to go on just the specific days they’re interested in making it cheaper and freeing up space for more folks to attend as well. Is this a good decision on their part? Are they looking out for attendees’ best interests? Orrrr, are they just being greedy and wanting more money? Before you answer that, I should also note that the prices are going up this year along with these changes. There’s only one way to get an actual four day pass, and that’s if you buy one to the preview night as well. Only those buying that $35 preview badge will have the option of buying a four day. A total of $200. Now I’ll ask the questions again: Is this a good decision on their part? Are they looking out for attendees’ best interests? Orrrr, are they just being greedy and wanting more money? Send us an E-Mail or voice message with your thoughts. If you’re a regular eBook shopper and you notice an unusually large influx of Sherlock Holmes stories in the coming months, there’s a reason for that. The world’s greatest detective is entering public domain here in the United States. He’s been that way in the UK since 1980, but a recent court ruling found that all but the most recent ten published stories are now public domain. You’re free to write your own Holmes and Watson mysteries as long as they don’t include any elements from the last ten stories. Those will also be public domain in about eight years. This is how copyright law SHOULD work. Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate (his family) argued the works were still under copyright. Essentially, they were trying to squeeze a few more bucks out of the author’s old writings. My response to that is… it’s been over a hundred years! You made your money off it. Now it belongs to everyone. Can we get this judge to take a look at the hypocrites over at Disney and what they’ve done with copyright rules? There are so many ways you can die. At least a thousand, according to that series on SpikeTV. One way you wouldn’t want to go, and a way that would certainly make a good segment on that show, is to die from an atomic wedgie. That’s what happened to an Oklahoma man after he got into a physical altercation with his 30-year-old stepson. He was knocked unconscious and while out cold, the stepson gave him the fatal wedgie. With his underwear stretched over his head, the man suffocated. Now the stepson is under arrest for homicide. I would say, lets leave this one out of the guy’s obituary… but it’s all over the news at this point, so nevermind. And the lowest grossing movie at the box office for 2013 has been found. It’s a British horror and sci-fi number called STORAGE 24. It centers on a group of people trapped in a storage facility where an alien monster or some other creature is on the loose. Escaped from a crashed military plane. The writer of the script also gave himself the lead role. This is a perfect option for those actors frustrated with not getting cast in leading parts. Just write your own damn movie. STORAGE 24 ran for just one week at one theater here in the US and earned a staggering $72! The actor, Noel Clarke, according to one interview, sounded like he’d be writing and starring in another film whether this one did well or not. Given your track record so far, why waste time writing it? It might be better if you just wing it. Show Links MichaelBay.com: CES Vulture: What Is Expiring From Netflix Streaming on January 1st? Huffington Post: 26 New Movies Added To Netflix On New Year’s Day “Storage 24″ on IMDb Comic-Con Wikipedia: Sherlock Holmes The Oklahoman: Oklahoman given ‘atomic wedgie’ died from asphyxiation “Storage 24″ on IMDb Buy “Storage 24″ on DVD