Typically great behind the scenes footage from NFL Films, focused on the coaching staff as opposed to a by the numbers recap of the season.
Spoiler-free Movie Review of Do Your Job: Bill Belichick & the 2014 Patriots:
This review is likely to be very popular in New England and hated most everywhere else, so I’m not really going to stretch too much here.
Do Your Job: Bill Belichick & the 2014 Patriots is a bit different than other NFL Films productions in that it’s a behind the scenes film about the coaching staff that led to New England’s fourth championship. (They did produce a more traditional season recap film in America’s Game: The Super Bowl that aired earlier this week.)
NFL Films is a wonderful organization with unfettered access to everyone in the No Fun League, but it’s still surprising to see such a reclusive organization as the Pats open up so candidly. Must have required a ton of cajoling of the hooded one.
Ably narrated by Lowell native Michael Chiklis, this examination of the coaching staff is an interesting look into the team, though it will just piss off those who already hate the Patriots.
Do Your Job: Bill Belichick & the 2014 Patriots is a unique and interesting look inside the team and provides insight into some of their more unorthodox choices. Not exactly fun in the way a season recap is, it will be certain to work equally well for those who love and hate the team.
Interviewed Patriots’ staff:
Robert Kraft – Chairman and CEO
Jonathan Kraft – President
Bill Belichick – Head coach
Nick Caserio – Director of player personnel
Josh McDaniels – Offensive coordinator
Matt Patricia – Defensive coordinator
Scott O’Brien – Special teams coordinator
Ivan Fears – Running backs coach
Brian Daboll – Tight ends coach
Chad O’Shea – Wide receivers coach
Dave DeGuglielmo – Offensive line coach
Brendan Daly – Defensive line coach
Patrick Graham – Linebackers coach
Brian Flores – Safeties coach
Josh Boyer – Defensive backs coach
Ernie Adams – Director of football research
Berj Najarian – Director of football administration
Stephen Belichick – Defensive assistant
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
n/a
The Representation Test Score: n/a
[schema type=”movie” url=”http://www.patriots.com/” name=”Do Your Job: Bill Belichick and the 2014 New England Patriots” description=”NFL Films provides an encompassing behind-the-scenes look at the Super Bowl-winning 2014 New England Patriots as told by the men who designed it. Airs September 9 at 8:00 PM ET on NFL Network” ]
Dungeons & Dragons turned 40 years old in January of this year (2014). In recognition, we are rebranding our site for one week to Now Very Beholder… and focusing just on the films that star or in some way revolve around D&D.
140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW
Yikes! Hunting down obscure things you thought were rumors seldom ends well. Barely watchable – for historical interest only… #FarOutGame
Spoiler-free Movie Review of Mazes and Monsters:
In yesterday’s Now Very Beholder review of Dark Dungeons, I advised you to go watch this movie instead if you wanted a humorous look at the Dungeons & Dragons paranoia. While I stand by my assertion that this tv movie is a more interesting time capsule, I want to make it very clear that I am not suggesting that you watch this movie. I don’t want that on my conscience…
It certainly is true, however that Mazes and Monsters is an entertaining diversion when you want to laugh openly at the foolishness of fundamentally scared and ignorant people. If you lived through this time and know better, it’s terribly amusing – unintentionally of course. Sort of like watching Reefer Madness or old government “duck and cover” educational films. It probably makes for a fantastic drinking game, too…
“I am the maze controller. The god of this universe I have made. The absolute authority. Only I know the perilous course which you are about to take. Your fate is in my hands.”
Possibly the only reason non-gamers would have sought this out is its unfortunate inclusion at the top of Tom Hanks’ filmography. The man has produced a great body of work and has nothing to feel bad about, but it must be a little bit galling to have this on his record. Maybe he could apply to have it removed?
What’s interesting, actually, is that he is definitely Tom Hanks in this one. Often when you see a now famous actor in an early role they are barely recognizable. Visually you see it, but they don’t have any real presence. But this really is a starring role and you can definitely see the outline of what he’s going to become.
The story of Mazes and Monsters is as absurd as its premise deserves. Back in 1979 a young student named James Dallas Egbert III disappeared from Michigan State University. He went into the steam tunnels that ran under the school and didn’t return. His parents hired a private investigator, William Dear, who didn’t let the fact that he had never heard of D&D before, nor the fact that Egbert’s friends had no knowledge of Egbert playing the game, prevent him from speculating to the press that Egbert had become obsessed with the game and went into the tunnels to play a live-action version of the game. While LARPing did exist in the late 70’s, coming up with this theory requires quite a LARP of faith (ar, ar, ar…)
Nevertheless, the press ate it up and reported it as fact. Never mind the fact that the boy was isolated, depressed and left a suicide note, Dungeons & Dragons must be the cause. Egbert had indeed gone to the steam tunnels to commit suicide, but was unsuccessful. He hid afterwards for weeks at friends’ houses before heading to Louisiana for a second failed suicide attempt. The youth did reach out to the PI while down there and asked Dear not to reveal the story, before a final suicide attempt in 1980 succeeded. Dear kept his promise to keep Egbert’s true story secret until 1984 when he published his account of the incident in the book The Dungeon Master.
Despite not being true, the idea that D&D and RPGs could cause a person to lose their identity and be unable to distinguish fantasy and reality was simply too good to pass up, and author Rona Jaffe didn’t, publishing the 1981 novel Mazes and Monsters, a barely fictionalized account of the apocryphal Egbert story. The made-for-tv movie that I’m only now getting around to talk about is similarly uninspired drivel.
Hanks plays the youth (Robbie) who goes off the reservation. He’s new to the college, having been booted out of his last school for playing too much Mazes and Monsters. All four players in the campaign are troubled, of course, providing some backstory but mainly just padding the runtime. One of the players, Jay Jay (Chris Makepeace) discovers the off-limits steam tunnels and rigs them with theater props to create a live-action campaign for the others. While in there, Robbie freaks out during a trippy sequence where he believes he slays a mighty monster and becomes his character, Pardieu the cleric. After that he’s no fun at all, breaking up with the only girl who plays the game in order to maintain a cleric’s vow of celibacy and obsessing about jumping off the Two Towers (being New York’s WTC).
Being able to laugh at how nutty a movie is only takes you so far in my experience. Your mileage may vary. If you like watching movies “so bad they’re good” you might have more stamina than I. My mistake may have been watching it by myself and/or not turning it into a drinking game. I’d recommend this game only to serious RPG fans and even then only to watch it with a group of same, preferably while partaking of mead…
The reviews for these two paranoia films may seem a bit unfair to the filmmakers and fans of Dark Dungeons as it appears I’m applauding in this film what I disliked about the other. The difference is entirely in the context; this movie is a relic of a time when this was a serious concern. The only thing at all wrong with Dark Dungeons (to me) is that throwback never plays like the original…
[schema type=”movie” name=”Mazes and Monsters” description=”Bound together by a desire to play “Mazes and Monsters,” Robbie and his four college classmates decide to move the board game into the local legendary cavern. Robbie starts having visions for real, and the line between reality and fantasy fuse into a harrowing adventure.” director=”Steven Hilliard Stern” actor_1=”Tom Hanks” ]
Have you ever had a Halloween in which you failed to watch this? Feels kind of incomplete, doesn’t it? 3rd Peanuts special is 1 of the best.
Spoiler-free Movie Review of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown:
Best piece of trivia I came across when researching this review? It was mentioned in the 20th anniversary Peanuts documentary and is also mentioned on imdb: “After this special originally aired, children all over the country sent candy to Charlie Brown out of sympathy.” I just love that…
I know I certainly always identified with Charlie Brown as a character growing up. I remember telling my dad during one of these specials that one of the kids at school said that I reminded them of Charlie Brown. I think Dad was offended on my behalf, but I didn’t really take it as an insult. I think all of us have moments of feeling like good ol’ Chuck. I don’t think I want to know a person who can’t empathize with Charlie Brown.
I’m not sure I could pin down which of the Peanuts specials is my favorite. A Charlie Brown Christmas was the first and greatest – a show that transcends a simple tv program – but this one really remains special.
So much about the program has entered popular culture that it’s hard to really see it with fresh eyes unless you watch it with a child (highly recommended). Then you can see the complete delight in watching Lucy yank away the football, getting kissed with dog lips, and the pure and beautiful conviction of Linus that the Great Pumpkin will rise out of the pumpkin patch, if only he can find the most sincere one…
It’s a real testament to Charles Schultz’s writing that these stand up as well as they do, despite the fact that they don’t shy away from dating themselves. Think of Snoopy’s antics as a World War I flying ace; this was a dated reference even when the show aired in 1966. And the Peanuts strips and animated specials are full of references that may be completely lost on modern audiences. It’s irrelevant – Schultz’s work remains about a boy named Charlie Brown. You don’t need to pick up the references to athletes of the day or anything to get the jokes or to understand his world.
(Actually, I was a real fan of the early days of air warfare as a kid; I actually had paintings of famous WWI battles on my walls, showing the last flight of Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron), his Fokker Dr. I being shot down by a Sopwith Camel near the Somme River, among others. So I was the exception, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. This is great comedy.)
Happy Halloween, Now Very Bad readers! I hope your pumpkin patch contains not a sign of hypocrisy.
[Cue fade out credits…]
Just wait till next year, Charlie Brown. You’ll see! Next year at this same time, I’ll find a pumpkin patch that is *real* sincere and I’ll sit in that pumpkin patch until the Great Pumpkin appears. He’ll rise out of that pumpkin patch and he’ll fly through the air with his bag of toys. The Great Pumpkin will appear and I’ll be waiting for him! I’ll be there! I’ll be sitting there in that pumpkin patch… and I’ll see the Great Pumpkin. Just wait and see, Charlie Brown. I’ll see that Great Pumpkin. I’ll SEE the Great Pumpkin! Just you wait, Charlie Brown. The Great Pumpkin will appear, and I’ll be waiting for him…I’ll be there! I’ll be sitting there in that pumpkin patch… and I’ll see the Great Pumpkin. Just wait and see…
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Pass
The Representation Test Score:
Yeah, I’m not doing this for a Charlie Brown cartoon…
[schema type=”movie” url=”http://www.peanuts.com/” name=”It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” description=”The Peanuts gang celebrates Halloween while Linus waits for the Great Pumpkin.” director=”Bill Melendez” actor_1=”Peter Robbins” ]
If you sat out The Clone Wars, drop your principled stand or risk missing a new series with the timeline & spirit of the Original Trilogy…
Spoiler-free Movie Review of Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion:
For all of the great things about Star Wars fans, they can be seriously stubborn. Many will not partake of anything Star Wars except the 6 feature films – and many of those would stop at the original 3. I have met serious fans who will not watch this or any other animated show, and it’s entirely their loss…
A very gifted group of individuals poured their heart and soul into creating Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a CG-animated series that ran for 5 seasons on Cartoon Network. After the purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney in 2012, all thoughts were turned toward returning to the timeline of the Original Trilogy and the planned sequels. The show was dumped to another time slot before being unceremoniously and unwisely cancelled in 2013. Fans of the show, aware (thanks to the fantastic communication of show-runner Dave Filoni) of a backlog of content already in production, wondered if any of the material would see the light of day. Filoni and his team were allowed to cobble together what they could finish with reasonable effort and expense, and fans had to wait until March 2014 for the abbreviated 13-episode 6th season (“The Lost Missions”) to be put out exclusively on Netflix.
The output of the show was 125 episodes and a feature film – that’s approximately 48 hours of new content set in the SW galaxy! That’s not counting the 25 mini episodes of the first Clone Wars 2D-animated micro-series by Genndy Tartakovsky from 2003-2005, which would bring the total to 150 episodes and 50 hours. That’s almost four times as much Star Wars content as the feature films provided – but since these weren’t the original films, some weren’t interested. That’s just very silly to me. Don’t make the same mistake by skipping Rebels.
For the kick-off of this new series, they tied what would have been the first two episodes together for a tv movie event titled Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion. Disney actually screened the movie one week early for users of it’s WATCHDisneyXD.com service prior to the television debut on Friday, October 3. I caught the show early, but due to the twin roadblocks of a regular job and a rather verbose writing style, I’m not getting my review out until the day after the official premiere. Sigh…
Interestingly, the show premiered on the same day that the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series debuted in the US six years earlier in 2008. Rebels has already been renewed for a second season by Disney, and it’s likely to be be a big part of the lead-up to the future films.
Star Wars Rebels is set five years before the events of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, when the few remaining Jedi are scattered and the Empire is in full swing. It’s an awesome time in the saga, full of potential and depicts what it was like before Luke and company started wrecking the place. Knowing more about the height of the Empire is fantastic, and I suspect I wasn’t the only kid wondering what happened in the years leading up to the original movie. I’ve always considered this era the most fascinating and I can understand why Disney wanted to quit the Clone Wars and get back into the Tie Fighters.
The promise of this time still needs to be backed up with good stories, and they seem to be on the right track. The series opens by following the exploits of an orphan named Ezra who scratches out a living on the streets before running across the path of a team of semi-criminals out to steal the same cargo of the Empire. The group of malcontents make up the crew of the starship Ghost and contain a diverse set of personality traits that seem to have been picked by focus group for maximum interest. That’s not really a bad thing, just be aware that you may experience sensations of déjà vu with some of this. The parallels to Firefly and other stories are unavoidable.
It is undeniably a kids show; I’m not sure why that’s supposed to be a problem. The original films were for kids, no matter how many fanboys insist otherwise. The Clone Wars was a kids show, albeit one that covered terrorism, suicide and torture at times. Depending on your perspective, being “for kids” is either a tremendous insult or a promise. Being “for kids” can certainly imply a dumbing-down, but it also hopefully carries the suggestion that you’re in for a good time; that the work in question will be meant to be enjoyable. That’s really important.
And Rebels fulfills on that promise. Watching the premiere event was like watching a movie and a fun one at that. As much as I loved The Clone Wars series and admired the skill involved, it never really was able to completely capture the spirit of the 1st film. That’s not a criticism – it was depicting a different, more complex time and a sensibility to match. Of course the subject matter of the original films was never soft – they do have the word wars in the title after all – but the spirit of adventure made it all seem more fun and carefree than it really was.
From the moment you see Stormtroopers march on screen you can’t help but be transported to that time and feeling. I can’t overstate how enjoyable it was to see Tie Fighters streaking across the skies and hearing the familiar sounds of their cannons and the troopers blasters.
The story is good, not great, and I’m absolutely certain that the show will have a cartoonish feel at times. The previous series certainly did and so did the films – yes, even the OT. The Clone Wars series seemed to alternate at times between adult stories too dark to let my daughter watch and ridiculously silly stories too goofy for me to watch. But most of the episodes lived in the comfortable middle ground where everyone could enjoy the wonder of the this galaxy and I expect Rebels to do the same.
I really shouldn’t have to sell you on this series – the images of Stormtroopers and Star Destroyers ought to do that. If you’ve complained in the past that nothing since Return of the Jedi has made you feel like you did when you played with your Kenner figures, give this a try. Don’t sleep on Star Wars Rebels; it’s going to be very good…
[schema type=”movie” url=”http://www.starwars.com/tv-shows/star-wars-rebels” name=”Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion” description=”Star Wars Rebels, set five years before the events of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, tells the story of the Rebellion’s beginnings while the Empire spreads tyranny through the galaxy. Five years before the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, the reigning evil Empire continues to tighten its grip of power and fear throughout the cosmos. But even amidst the tyranny and oppression of these dark days, a glimmer of light emerges. Meet the ragtag crew of the starship Ghost : Twi’lek pilot Hera, street-smart pickpocket Ezra, team leader Kanan, alien enforcer Zeb, explosives expert Sabine, and Chopper, the cantankerous Droid. Together, they embark on action-packed adventures, battle ruthless villains, and ignite the very first Spark Of Rebellion against a surging tide of Stormtroopers, TIE fighters and the mysterious Inquisitor.” director=”Steward Lee” ]
I refer you to Spinal Tap: “The review for “Shark Sandwich” was merely a two word review which simply read “Shit Sandwich”.” Enough said.
Spoiler-free Movie Review of Sharknado 2: The Second One:
Sorry, guys. It doesn’t work twice. It wasn’t even fun to laugh at. The product placement was more gruesome than the gore, and nothing was as scary as all of the plastic surgery. When everyone is in on the joke, it’s not really a joke anymore.
[schema type=”movie” name=”Sharknado 2: The Second One” description=”A freak weather system turns its deadly fury on New York City, unleashing a Sharknado on the population and its most cherished, iconic sites – and only Fin and April can save the Big Apple.” director=”Anthony C. Ferrante” ]
A freak weather system turns its deadly fury on New York City, unleashing a Sharknado on the population and its most cherished, iconic sites – and only Fin and April can save the Big Apple.
Interviewed Patriots’ staff:
