Nerd Culture Podcast

METROPOLIS
Released: 1927
Director: Fritz Lang
Written by: Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang
Starring: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge

First, a little background before we get to the review:

The history of the film print of Metropolis is a fascinating story in its own right. The original cut of the movie was 153 minutes long, but was edited down for release outside Germany. Some felt the movie’s original running time was too long, but the controversial themes of the movie also ensured that some edits were performed to alter or obscure the message of the original.

Over time, this constant re-editing saw much of the original footage lost, seemingly forever. In 1984, music producer Giorgio Moroder released an 80-minute version of the movie, adding a new (and entirely inappropriate) contemporary pop soundtrack. While unsatisfying, Moroder’s version did manage to bring the movie back into the public eye and fuelled the efforts of others to try and restore it to its original glory.

These efforts resulted in the release of a restored 124 minute version of the movie in 2001. This version restored the original orchestral soundtrack and used still shots and narrative captions to fill in the missing scenes. While far more satisfying than Moroder’s version, the movie still felt incomplete. It seemed like this would be the most fans would ever see of Lang’s visionary movie.

In 2008, however, a 16mm copy of the original film was discovered at the Museo del Cine in Argentina. This version was over 20 minutes longer than the 2001 release. In New Zealand, another print of the movie was found to contain 11 scenes missing from than the Argentinean version. These two prints were used to create the most complete version of the movie available.

This new version runs at 145 minutes, with narrative captions inserted to describe the missing 8 minutes of story. While still not complete, and with the new footage cropped from the original 35mm print, this restored version of the movie adds new subplots and increased tension and suspense in several key scenes.
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Hi and welcome to Nerd Culture Podcast’s inaugural Audio review!

We love doing reviews for our fan’s to read, but sometimes real life gets in the way (damn work!) and it can be a bit difficult to find the time. Our normal practice was to see the movie, record ourselves discussing it, then write the review based on that discussion. But the other day I had a brainwave! Why not dispense with the written review and post our discussion, like mini podcasts! And the Audio Reviews were born.

Our first audio review is for the just released Conan the Barbarian remake.

After listening to the review, how about leaving a Comment or send send us an email at feedback@nerdculturepodcast.com? We would love to read your opinions 🙂

CONAN the BARBARIAN

Released: 2011

Director: Marcus Nispel

Writers: Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer, Sean Hood

Starring: Jason Momoa, Stephen Lang, Rachel Nicols, Rose McGowan

Audio length: 24 mins

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Your S#!tness – a Your Highness review

Released: 2011

Director: David Gordan Green

Writers: Danny McBride, Ben Best

Starring: Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman

I like to consider myself to be fairly tolerant and forgiving of films. I have often demonstrated my willingness to sit through a bad movie, to either give it a chance to get better or have fun laughing at its many faults and generally have a good time. There are plenty of movies perfect for the latter, my all time favourite being Robot Monster, but other classics like The Last Dragon, The Core and Tango & Cash also spring to mind. Movies so dumb that you can’t take them seriously and really shouldn’t. Unfortunately, Your Highness is nowhere near as good as any of these films.

What you need to know

Your Highness tells the story of Prince Thadeous (McBride), a foul mouthed, lecherous idiot who lives in the shadow of his older, handsome, more successful brother Prince Fabious (Franco). Fabious returns home from yet another successful quest with a young lady in tow, who he rescued from imprisonment in an evil wizard’s tower and now plans to marry. But the evil wizard appears and re-kidnaps the bride to be, prompting Fabious onto a new quest, with his reluctant brother in tow.

Along the way they are betrayed by their soldiers, and meet opponent/ally Isabel (Portman). After some ‘adventures’ they eventually infiltrate the castle, defeat the wizard, rescue Fabious’ bride and Thadeous proves his worth.

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Cowboys & Aliens

Released: 2011

Director: Jon Favreau

Writers: Scott Mitchell Rosenberg (story), Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman (screenplay) and 6 others!

Starring: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde

What you need to know

Cowboys & Aliens started life as a concept script at Universal Picture/Dreamworks. When nothing came of it Rosenberg published it as a comic and paid vendors to stock it in order to make it appear more successful than it was and therefore a more lucrative prospect for the film studios. It was a gamble that paid off, with Universal Picture/Dreamworks again teaming up to produce the film. The final product however, is substantially different from the graphic novel version (which is good because the comic story was terrible).

A wounded man awakens in the New Mexico desert, with a strange device on his wrist that he can’t remove. After a brief altercation with some locals, the sheriff recognises him as outlaw Jake Lonergan and arrests him, with the assistance of a mysterious young woman, Ella, who previously expressed a lot of interest in Jake’s wristband and apparent amnesia.

He is eventually freed during an alien attack on the town and is caught up in a posse of townsfolk determined to track their missing kin. Along the way a little more is learnt of Jake’s past, he is violently re-united with his former gang and he survives yet another alien attack. Ella however is mortally wounded and dies, but later resurrects herself and reveals her origin.

Eventually the group join with the gang and some Indians and they all attack the aliens. The townsfolk are saved and Ella sacrifices herself to destroy the ship and the remaining aliens.

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Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Released: 2011

Director: Rupert Wyatt

Writers: Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver

Starring: James Franco, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto

What you need to know

A reboot of the classic Apes series, ‘Rise‘ sees scientist Will Rodman (Franco), develop a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease, which not only arrests the disease but also increases brain functions. His best test subject is the female chimp ‘Bright Eyes’, (named for the discoloration the drug causes to the subject’s eyes and also a nod to the name given to Heston’s character in the original ‘Planet‘ film), but in order to protect her newborn she goes berserk and is shot dead. Will takes the baby chimp home and rears him. Christened Caesar, he quickly grows into an adolescent and reveals his high intelligence, caused by the drug passed in vitro from his mother.

During this time Will has also administered the drug to his father with great results. Spurred by this success, he constantly asks for controlled human trials but is rejected by his employer Jacobs, based mainly on the disaster of Bright Eye’s rampage. He continues to work at home researching the now adult Caesar and his father. Eventually the drug begins to fail and a desperate Will reveals all to Jacobs and he is greenlit to begin work on a new version of the drug. While he is at work the now ailing Rodman Snr gets into an altercation with a neighbour, who Caesar attacks in order to protect him. This leads to Caesar being imprisoned in an animal welfare facility for apes, where he is poorly treated. There he meets orangutan Maurice (named for Maurice Evans, who played Dr Zaius), gorilla Buck and various chimps. With his enhanced intelligence, it’s not long before he is in charge of his fellow apes, and he plans to escape.

Meanwhile, trials are underway on the new version of the drug, which will now be administered in gaseous form. During the procedure one of the scientists is accidently exposed to the gas and later becomes quite ill, even spitting up blood on the same neighbour earlier bitten by Caesar. The drug is successful on the test ape however, and Jacobs is delighted. Caesar escapes the animal shelter in order to procure some of the drug, takes it back to the shelter and exposes all of the apes to it. With the now super intelligent apes by his side, he then leads a revolt and escapes from the shelter with the intent of heading to the forest Will used to take him to play and exercise. Along the way they free other apes from both the research facility and the zoo. The Police attempt to stop the exodus on the Golden Gate Bridge, but the majority of the apes manage to escape. During these events the man the sick scientist infected is seen heading for a flight and wiping his bloody nose.

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