Well, I haven't listened to the episode yet, but I assume based on Teague's reaction to the film that it wasn't received particularly well by the panel at large. I dunno how I missed the live show, and I feel bad about that...

Anywho, I saw it and I thought it was OK. I have a longer writeup in the "random movie talk that blah blah" thread. I'm gonna guess that I liked it more than you guys, tho. I think it was Theron, her brother and the notion of giving her a bit of a tragic backstory thing that gave me that interest, though I wish they had acknowledged that at the end of the film instead of having Stewart basically just shit in her face with that last line.

I think it would have worked better if they had given Snow some kind of internal conflict to deal with. Or if they had given ANYONE some internal conflict to deal with. There really was none to speak of. The queen's brother seemed to have doubts in a few scenes, but never acted on them. The huntsman / prince / snow triangle could have been interesting, though that would have probably ended up feeling very Twilighty. Maybe have the prince grow up resenting his father's decision to flee, and have that resentment fester for ten years turning him into quite a dark fellow and not a heroic champion of goodness.

Oh well. I love the Mononokesque scene, and the abrupt end to it.

EDIT:

Executive Decision kinda does that as well. They set up Seagal to be the star who's gonna get on the plane and save the day, and then they kill him off before he can make it on the plane AND the scientist guy who knows how to defuse the bomb or whatever gets paralyzed. Didn't they also shoot fake bits for the trailer for that as well? So that the fact that they killed off Seagal was more of a shock?

Battleship is one of the funniest things I've seen so far this year. The bluray for that is going on my shelf right next to US Seals 2.

So.... is this going to be the format now?

Squiggly_P: You're right! I totally forgot about Executive Decision, that's a really awesome example of that, especially because Steven Seagal not only never dies in his movies, but usually never even gets injured or has to put up much of a fight at all. That movie rules. Deep Blue Sea is the only other big subversion that I can think of off the top of my head.

Hm. Good point.

I wasn't speaking to the new style writ large. The non-specific discussion episodes are great – unhinging from a film lets the discussion drive rather than a movie. More a warning that most movies ever in theatres are mediocre, which is more dangerous to comment and criticism than good or bad.

His post did, too. Duly noted, sirs.