Mike Schulz talks with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about the utter failure of Haunted Mansion, both as a film (a cast whose individual comic sensibilities jar against one another) and a money-making proposition ($38.7 million to date against a $150 million budget). The straight-up horror film Talk to Me, directed by Danny and Michael Philippou, had better acting and started strongly, with a distinctly modern take on demonic-possession stories (cellphones get used a lot), Continue reading August 3, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Haunted Mansion,” “Talk to Me,” and “The Baker”→
Mike Schulz talks with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about 21 July 2023 being a date for the history books. There were two financial Goliaths released that very day — Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, which, by 25 July, had grossed $472.6 million worldwide against its $145 million budget, and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, having grossed $231.1 million worldwide against its $100 million (though, by producers’ standards, it will have to break $400 million in order to be considered profitable), as well as the plebeian David Continue reading July 27, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer,” and “Cobweb”→
Mike Schulz talks with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about their varying levels of enthusiasm for the forthcoming Wonka film. Schulz isn’t on board for it, whereas Levora and Pitra sound intrigued by what director Paul King, who was previously responsible for 2014’s Paddington and its 2017 sequel, will bring to the enterprise. Still, no one sounds so obsessed about the origins of Willy Wonka, not any more than they are about how Charlie Bucket’s grandparents became such bedridden parasites. Concerning Insidious: The Red Door, the weekend’s acknowledged blockbuster, which earned $74 million against its $14 million budget Continue reading July 13, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” “Sound of Freedom,” “Joy Ride,” and “Insidious: The Red Door”→
Mike Schulz talks with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about the terrific time he had watching Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny with his family, all two-and-a-half hours of it. “It’s not a great movie,” Schulz allows. “None of the sequels are great. But it’s got great stuff; and the best thing about it is Harrison Ford looks like he’s having fun.” Compared to 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Ford in Dial of Destiny seems both pleased to be involved and collect a fat paycheck (plus some filth-lucrative profit-sharing on the back end, no doubt). The Dial of Destiny also has some visual surprises, which, given the plausibility-straining physical stunt-work we’ve seen in sequels’ past, Continue reading July 6, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny,” “Past Lives,” and “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken”→
Mike Schulz talks with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about how, despite the warning signs, he didn’t hate Elemental, the latest Disney/Pixar animated joint. Given the film concerns anthropomorphic elements — earth, air, fire, and water — he was a bit flummoxed that earth and air didn’t figure hardly at all in the finished work. Apparently, the thematic thrust is whether fire and water can get along with each other without, you know, canceling one another out. Aside from the lack of songs from Earth, Wind, and Fire in the soundtrack, Continue reading June 23, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Elemental” and “The Flash”→
Mike Schulz, back from holiday, having seen no movies over the break, talks with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about how “man-oh-man” good Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was; about how the richness of the concept (infinite Spider-Men across an infinite multi-verse, each sharing special life circumstances that made their super-heroism possible) is matched by the eye-popping digital visual effects and the compelling voice-acting. “Favorite movie of the year?” asks one of the Deez. Continue reading June 15, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”→
Mike Schulz talks with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about having missed Kandahar, but he may have dodged a bullet there; otherwise, he saw the majority of the movies discussed last week. About The Little Mermaid, one of The Deez laments the exclusion of the song “Les Poissons” from the remake, which he felt was the best song in the original. Though the film was not designed to be a “laugh riot,” as Schulz indicates, Rob Marshall’s 2023 remake did do better than either man in the studio could have foretold ($209.2 million on a $250 million budget, and expected to grow, grow, grow). Continue reading June 1, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “The Little Mermaid,” “You Hurt My Feelings,” “The Starling Girl,” “About My Father,” and “The Machine”→
Mike Schulz reflects with Dave Levora (the presence of Darren Pitra not in evidence) over his nearly-thirty-year-long writing stint as a film critic for the River Cities’ Reader (“the mid-Nineties were the worst. . . Forrest Gump has not aged well at all. . . I hate Bravehart; I really hate Bravehart”) before discussing Fast X, either the tenth or the eleventh installment in the Fast and the Furious franchise — eleven if you count the Hobbs and Shaw spin-off with Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. Continue reading May 25, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Fast X” and “Master Gardener”→
Mike Schulz wants Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about Book Club: The Next Chapter, which he deems “a strange movie” because “it’s not really a movie”: There really isn’t a plot that makes sense or is in any way important. It sounds like it’s just an excuse to get Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen back together to hang out in Italy and drink like Germans. There are a few wisps of narrative here and there, but nothing to indicate that there are any stakes; Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon’s Trip series of foodies-abroad films feel like the Fast and the Furious franchise. Continue reading May 18, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Book Club: The Next Chapter,” “Hypnotic,” and “BlackBerry”→
