Such a fantastic film. My favorite of last year.

Dorkman, I agree with your tweet, it probably is about time I get around to this one.

Static Blu Ray menus are the worst! What's the point of having the technology to make animated menus and just sticking a still photo on there? Ugh. It stinks of laziness and not actually giving a fuck.

So I saw this movie in theatres when it first came out with my sister. I was actually looking forward to it for awhile and  was surprised at how empty the theatre was. I loved it a lot despite not understanding any of the dialogue during the after apocalypse story. My sister liked it a lot too, she cried during the end but she cries at everything so it wasn't a huge deal. Then I saw it again a month or so later with my girlfriend at a cheap $3 dollar theatre. And I also saw it at a residence movie night back at university. So I really thought I could keep along just by listening to the commentary (without having to watch the movie side by side). But as hard as I tried I really couldn't lol.

I'm glad to see you guys liked this movie, I thought it was one of the best movies I'd ever seen after I watched it. I think the fact that there was so much in it made it a lot more interesting to me, and I didn't have much problem following along the first time. Although I did get a lot out of it the second and third times I watched it. I've also read the book and I prefer the movie tbh. The book just didn't have the same impact on me.

Great, great episode guys. Perhaps I'll give the movie another shot when it drops below $10. I still maintain its much more admirable of an achievement than it is an actually successful one. And I don't think its a case of the movie being too smart or highbrow, as you guys suggest. I think it has the opposite problem of being waaay too on the nose dialogue-wise. In fact, a lot of my problems with V for Vendetta are mirrored here, I think I just really dislike the way the Wachowski's write dialogue, and I think having to compress these stories as much as they do does their writing no favors. Speed Racer is a similar thing too come to think of it, great editing and story structure choices, but way over-indulgent and too long for its own good. If they had someone to rein them in a bit and polish their work, they could be the visionary's you say they are, but for me they're more miss than hit.

Ultimately, I absolutely see the brilliant editing and mirroring they're doing throughout, but I can't get on board because I keep rolling my eyes every 5 minutes at each of these stories. Its interesting academically, its an impressive accomplishment, I'm glad it got made, but I think the movie deserves a lot of the criticism it's gotten, and I doubt it'll end up being a cult classic in the long run.

I'm glad I listened to this commentary. Made me think about the subtleties of this movie more than I had. When I saw it, I went in knowing nothing but trusting the filmmaking pedigree. I spent the first hour waiting to get a handle on things and playing spot the Hanx. When things started coming together, I enjoyed finding the causality between eras, and after a while, it became clear to me as a series of stories of noble people standing against oppression in various forms across history.

Then there was another hour of movie, and I sat through the message that oppression is bad five more times. I GET IT, MOVIE, SLAVERY IS ALWAYS BAD.

I can appreciate better after this commentary that there is a subtlety in the variation of storytelling techniques, but when one of those techniques is just to tell you what they're trying to say, they kinda sacrifice their claims of subtlety.

Your milage may vary, and I liked them showing how art can inspire people across eras. It's a powerful idea, that ideas in the end are all we leave behind and that sometimes one story can change the world, but I don't think this is necessarily one of those stories.

Dude, sorry to read about your mum. Hope she gets better as soon as possible

Cancer is a bastard.