Gobbledygeek episode 97, “War! Huh! Good God, Y’all!,” is available for listening or download right here.

Memorial Day is next weekend, so to get in the spirit, the boys have come up with a list of the Official Gobbledygeek Top 5 War Movies. Without giving too much away, we’ll say there are a couple Spielbergs in there along with a couple others that are alternately meditative, pulpy, and batshit insane. Which, you know, war. Plus, Paul and AJ spout off about The Avengers some more, as both are baffled by a simple point that numerous critics have failed to grasp; and Paul mentions the Alabama Phoenix Festival, at which he’ll be appearing on a few panels from May 25-27. Check it out!

Next: the boys have decided to slack off or Memorial Day, so no show next weekend. When we come back, there will be a Geek Challenge! In the meantime, grill some hamburgers and hot dogs for us.

(Show notes for “War! Huh! Good God, Y’all!”)

Gobbledygeek episode 96, “Talking Turkey: Ernest Cline,” is available for listening or download right here.

This week, Paul and AJ are honored to sit down with Ernie Cline, author of the New York Times bestselling science fiction novel Ready Player One, which arrives in paperback on June 5. The three of them have a pretty epic geek-out session. Oh, they talk about the book, too. Ernie discusses his inspiration for writing Ready Player One, what the future holds for the film adaptation, his brutal experience writing the movie Fanboys, and the many virtues of the Alamo Drafthouse. Ernie also mentions how much The Avengers rocked his world, so after the interview, Paul and AJ obsess some more over the movie, its nooks, and its crannies (hint: mirrors!).

Next: The boys get in the Memorial Day spirit by talking about their favorite war movies. They love the smell of napalm in the morning.

(Show notes for “Talking Turkey: Ernest Cline.”)

Gobbledygeek episode 95, “Assemble,” is available for listening or download right here.

It’s here. It’s finally, really, actually here. The Avengers is in theaters. Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and the Hulk assemble into one giant superhero-palooza under the watchful eye of Joss Whedon. We hope it doesn’t spoil the episode very much if we say that the film more than lives up to our expectations. Paul and AJ discuss the film’s impressive structure, the insane giddiness of watching our heroes rumble with one another, and what Joss Whedon puts these iconic characters through. Among other things. There’s a lot of talking going on; there kind of had to be. Plus, the boys pay tribute to Adam “MCA” Yauch.

Next: Paul and AJ sit down with Ready Player One author Ernest Cline.

(Show notes for “Assemble.”)

Four years ago, two films gave the superhero genre a much-needed kick in the pants: Iron Man and The Dark Knight. They were on opposite ends of the spectrum–the former bright and funny, the latter dark and gloomy–but both felt honest, and honesty’s something the genre needed in order to mature. This summer sees the release of two films which seem destined to revitalize the genre yet again, and it’s only fitting that they are The Avengers, the end result of Marvel’s first wave; and The Dark Knight Rises, the last of Christopher Nolan’s Bat-flicks. The Dark Knight Rises is still a couple months off, but just as that one looks like it’s angling to be even darker and more despairing than its predecessors, The Avengers aims to be more colorful, rousing, and exciting than those leading up to it.

Any superhero movie that wants to be even semi-successful has to on some level examine the nature of heroism. When one doesn’t, which was a big problem in the period between Spider-Man 2 and Iron Man (give or take a Batman Begins), you wind up with something like Catwoman or Elektra or Batman & Robin. Marvel’s pre-Avengers efforts, which I’ve mostly enjoyed, have excelled at asking just why each of their heroes feels the need to suit up and take action. With The Avengers, an even bigger question is posed. Why would such disparate people, each with their own sets of skills, hang-ups, and needs, come together to form a team? Writer-director Joss Whedon, a veritable geek god, is the one tasked with providing the answer to that query, and he does so brilliantly.

His first, best masterstroke is also his simplest: these people don’t particularly like each other and don’t even want to be in the same room together. Would Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), a cocky billionaire, have anything to do with Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), an old-fashioned soldier stuck in a bygone era? Not really, especially when  you consider that Tony’s dad knew both of them and liked the boy scout better. What would Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), turning a new leaf by helping the helpless and ignoring his true power, have in common with god of thunder Thor (Chris Hemsworth), who does nothing but embrace his power? Pretty much nothing. The reason they’re forced to unite is Thor’s mischievous brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Having attempted to steal what he believed was his rightful throne in Asgard, Loki now seeks to dominate Earth, the planet that his brother so dearly loves.

Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), director of shadowy government agency S.H.I.E.L.D., gathers the heroes together. They spend the first half of the movie stuck in their ways, bickering and at odds with one another. That bickering, by the way? A pleasure for your ears. Whedon’s dialogue has always been one of his strong suits, from the quips of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the futuristic Old West speak of Firefly, and you can feel how much fun he had just throwing these guys together and letting their personalities clash. It doesn’t hurt that his cast oozes with talent. In particular, the always charming, always sarcastic Downey Jr. tears into Whedon’s words with relish. Hemsworth has some great Shakespearean sparring to do with Hiddleston, but he also reveals a natural humor that wasn’t always apparent in Thor. Evans could easily have been the squarest of the bunch as Captain America, but Whedon–who did an uncredited rewrite of Cap’s solo film–turns that squareness into something down-to-earth and appealing. Perhaps the most impressive of the bunch is Ruffalo, who adds new layers of humanity to the screen incarnation of Bruce Banner; instead of brooding on his own problems, he’s a big-hearted guy trying to conceal his dark nature.

By the time things go to hell and Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and the Hulk have to get down to some serious Avenging, we know these characters well enough that we can anticipate their responses and delight in the ways Whedon pairs them off and builds their relationships. By the way, if you haven’t seen at least a couple of the five previous Marvel films, I suppose you could enjoy this one at face value, but this is basically their season finale, so prior experience is deserved as well as rewarded. And if you know your Joss Whedon (if you’re reading this blog, you probably know that I do), you know that no one does season finales better than this man. The film is structured as a series of increasing escalations, from Loki’s arrival at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters via the cosmic Tesseract cube, to superhero-on-superhero battles, to an explosive mid-air action sequence, all before a truly enormous and inspired finale. It feels at once much more epic and much tighter than the origin stories that came before.

Whedon has a lot of heavy-lifting to do, and lift it he does, but there are a few smaller elements worth focusing on. S.H.I.E.L.D. spy Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), previously seen disguised as Tony’s assistant in Iron Man 2, has a much more substantial role in The Avengers. Whedon has a history of writing strong female characters (you won’t find a more compelling feminist manifesto in the last couple decades of genre work than Buffy), and it’s to his credit that Black Widow leaps from underwritten background player to stylish, witty heavy hitter. Johansson, giving her best performance in years, is more than up to the task. Another distinctly Whedon theme that gets worked into the movie is the inherent distrust of authority, this time of S.H.I.E.L.D. Certain practices are called into question which throw new light on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s role in these films. Loki is a master manipulator, and plays the team against one another, but Nick Fury is just as manipulative, even if his goal is more virtuous on the surface.

If I have any quibbles, they’re to do with the film’s beginning; I mean the very beginning, when Loki arrives on Earth and proceeds to destroy the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility. Compared to the rest of the film, it’s weakly staged, and gets things off on unsure footing. Jeremy Renner has formidable presence as stoic archer Hawkeye, though I question something that’s done with his character in the opening. It prevents us from getting to know him for a good deal of the movie, especially considering his one previous appearance in this universe was a brief cameo in Thor. Whedon’s always been better at middles and endings than beginnings, though, and he quickly rights himself.  Something which might rankle others but didn’t bother me is the lack of explanation surrounding the Chitauri, the alien army which Loki enlists to help him take over Earth. It’s the classic situation wherein a king recruits an army to help him invade a land, and I didn’t really need to know anything beyond that. In fact, the whole deal with the Tesseract is one huge MacGuffin to spur on the characters and the action. I like Hitchcock, so I’m okay with MacGuffins as long as they result in engaging films with fascinating characters. This one does.

As someone who’s been enamored of both Marvel Comics and Joss Whedon for a very long time, their cinematic mind-meld feels like a match made in heaven. Whedon discards the earlier films’ weaknesses, their limp third acts and most impressively, given the insane amount of pieces at play here, their sense of too much effort for too little gain. This is a wild, beautifully assembled comic book brought to life, exploding with bright colors and generosity of spirit. It is very funny, plays off everything we’ve come to know about these characters, and progresses them just enough so that they can continue their adventures elsewhere. And what of that whole question of what it means to be a hero? Well, heroism involves sacrifice, especially when you’re part of a team. Not only do others have to sacrifice for your benefit, you have to sacrifice too. Sometimes those sacrifices can hurt. The heroes in The Avengers desperately need to learn that. They do, in the most satisfying way imaginable.

I like pirates. I enjoy inherently silly things. I’m an admirer of Aardman Animations, having greatly enjoyed Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run. I guffawed at the trailer for The Pirates! Band of Misfits enough times that I ventured out to see a children’s movie on a Sunday afternoon all by my lonesome, then felt super awkward when dads started filing in with their kids. So it’s with some puzzlement that I report that Pirates! has few belly laughs, and perhaps worse, nothing that makes it particularly memorable.

For a film with a runtime of 88 minutes, the first half-hour feels like a laborious set-up for a plot that doesn’t really need to be set up. The Pirate Captain (voiced by Hugh Grant) doesn’t exactly inspire fear on the high seas, manning a crew that’s strictly amateur hour; each one has as descriptive a name as their captain, such as the Pirate with a Scarf (Martin Freeman), the Pirate with Gout (Brendan Gleeson), or my personal favorite, the Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate (Ashley Jensen), a play on that old trope whereby girl pirates disguise themselves as boy pirates. Despite his ineptitude, the Cap’n still has his sights set on winning the Pirate of the Year trophy.

To do that, though, he’ll need to rake in some big booty. After raiding nudist and ghost ships, the crew happens upon Charles Darwin (David Tennant) via attempted robbery, though he has as little gold as they do. Luckily, Darwin realizes that the Captain’s beloved parrot (Polly, natch) is actually the last surviving dodo. Cue visions of the Captain winning that trophy. This sets off a chain of increasingly ridiculous situations, most of which aren’t as funny as they should be.

I need to stress that Pirates! is not a bad movie. In fact, its anarchic whimsy reminds me more than a little of Monty Python. There are so many things here that I like in theory. The funny names, yes, but also the fact that directors Peter Lord and Jeff Newitt, working from Gideon Defoe’s adaptation of his own books, have irreverent fun with historical figures. In its initial U.K. release, the film was titled The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, and unfortunately, one can surmise why it had to be renamed for the U.S. market. I’m hoping British audiences wouldn’t understand why I was so surprised to see not only Darwin, but jokes about evolution (Darwin’s monkey Mr. Bobo bears more than a passing resemblance to his owner), while watching a family film in an American theater.

The film’s two biggest assets are its animation and its voice cast. Aardman has made a couple of underwhelming forays into computer animation, but stop-motion is still their bread and butter, and it looks wonderful here. The hand-crafted characters and sets are blended with CG backdrops to beautiful effect. As far as human characters go, their stop-motion folk have more personality than any brought to life by former parent company DreamWorks, maybe even more than Pixar. Those characters are given voice by a number of talented British actors, including Gervais alums Freeman and Jensen (The Office and Extras, respectively), along with Grant, Gleeson, and Tennant. That’s not to mention Imelda Staunton as an evil Queen Victoria, who shows off some rather un-queenly skills during the big finish.

I’ve mentioned everything that works because the reasons the movie doesn’t work are sort of hard to crack. There’s the simple plot, which is given more ornamentation than it needs. An attempt at Pixar-esque poignancy in the last act doesn’t feel earned. Ultimately, its charm and whimsy feel forced more often than not, which I imagine is a pretty subjective criticism. As much as I enjoy Monty Python, there are times when they’re just a bit too scattershot. The same goes for Aardman. Pirates! and its makers have their hearts and (for the most part) their minds in the right place, but the material feels more suited to a 30-minute special than a feature-length film.

Gobbledygeek episode 94, “Snow White Seeking a Friend in the Lawless Moonrise Kingdom,” is available for listening or download right here.

Bust out your surfboards and bikinis, boys and girls! Hollywood’s gearing up for its summer movie season, so Paul and AJ discuss the 10 movies they’re most looking forward to, four mutual picks and three solo choices apiece. We cover everything from superhero fare like The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises to quirky independents like Moonrise Kingdom and Safety Not Guaranteed. Plus, AJ talks about seeing Casablanca on the big screen, Paul heaps praise on the comics Saga and Prophet, and a retraction is issued in regards to Girls.

Next: So, hey, The Avengers? Yeah, we’re gonna talk about that.

(Show notes for “Snow White Seeking a Friend in the Lawless Moonrise Kingdom.”)

Our commentary track for Iron Man is available for listening or download right here.

Last month, Paul and AJ recorded a commentary track for Jurassic Park. Now, with The Avengers on its way, they decided to blab all over Jon Favreau’s instant classic superhero film Iron Man. Things that occur: Paul and AJ confess relative ignorance of Iron Man’s comic book adventures; AJ professes his desire to marry Pepper Potts; Paul admires Jeff Bridges’ beardliness; and much–too much?–Tony/Rhodey slash is read. Really. That happens. Several times.

Like last time, we give you some time to set up your DVD/Blu-ray, so you can go ahead and start the commentary before you start the movie. 

Gobbledygeek episode 93, “Titanic – Episode I: The Phantom Iceberg…in 3D!,” is available for listening or download here.

There’s been a disturbance in the Force…and that’s only the tip of the iceberg! Well, after that peach of a sentence, we’re about to be dragged offstage, so really quickly: AJ likes Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace; Paul likes Titanic. Paul hates Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace; AJ hates Titanic. FIGHT! Well, it’s actually a lot more civil than that, but yes, arguments are had, rants are ranted, bile is spewed. Plus, they also have a fundamental disagreement over the new HBO series Girls, so, you know, more fighting and stuff.

Next: It’s that time again…the Gobbledygeek Summer Movie Preview!

(Show notes for “Titanic: Episode I – The Phantom Iceberg…in 3D!”) 

Saying this upfront: NO SPOILERS. Paul and I have also discussed the film on the show.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A bunch of kids pack into an RV for a weekend of fun, sex, and sexy fun. That they encounter the extremely creepy owner of an ancient gas station on the way does nothing to deter them from their destination: a remote cabin in the woods, owned by one of the kids’ cousins. The place immediately seems a little off, there’s some disturbing stuff in the cellar, someone maybe reads Latin, and eventually bloody mayhem ensues. Though they should know better, each one succumbs to some very stupid behavior for which they will be punished.

This is the set-up for dozens, maybe hundreds, of horror movies. The Cabin in the Woods is something different. When we first meet these kids, they seem like lively, intelligent college students. They don’t seem like they would do some of the dumb things they end up doing. Which seems par for the course for this kind of movie, except The Cabin in the Woods dares to offer a justification as to why the victims would seemingly offer themselves up as fodder. There’s more here than meets the eye. Characters played by Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford are part of a shadowy organization which makes everything much more complicated. This I guarantee: If you’ve only seen the ads, which paint the movie as your generic Halloween Saw Massacre deal, it is not that. At all.

If you’re the kind of person who, after years of terrific genre TV, has been conditioned to squeal with glee when the words “Mutant Enemy Productions” or Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’s names pop up on the screen, you’ll understand what you’re in for. If not, what you’re in for is a treat. Whedon, who produces and co-writes here, has created bold, witty staples of modern geek culture such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly. Co-writer/director Goddard wrote for Buffy and Angel, as well as Lost; he also penned 2008′s found footage monster mash Cloverfield. Both of them have made careers out of subverting audience expectations, and with The Cabin in the Woods, they’ve nearly outdone themselves in that regard. So many horror tropes are dissected and upended that the movie comes across as a loving, but kinda pissed, piece of film criticism.

I apologize if I’m making the movie sound in any way academic, because that couldn’t be further from the truth. Sure, you’ll get a bonus kick out of the movie as a horror fan, but even if you’ve never seen The Evil Dead or if, like my mother, you haven’t seen a single horror movie in close to 30 years, you’ll still be entertained from start to finish. Whedon and Goddard’s wit is in fine form, with a bevy of quotable lines and laugh-out-loud moments. Oh, that’s right: this movie is funny. Really funny. If the kids feel like chess pieces in the grand scheme of things, that’s by design, and more than a little of Whedon’s trademark character work is evident here. Cabin is a great start to Goddard’s career as director; it’s clear he’s learned something from all those years working behind the scenes.

It’s fun seeing a pre-Thor Chris Hemsworth (the movie was filmed in 2009, but shelved for three years following MGM’s financial woes) as the dumb jock; and I enjoyed the performances of Anna Hutchison, Kristen Connolly, and Jesse Williams as the slutty blonde, the virginal innocent, and the bookworm, respectively. But it’s a real pleasure to see familiar faces from the Whedon stable. Fran Kranz gives a star-making turn as the perpetual stoner of the group, sort of like if his Topher from Dollhouse had been a total burnout. Amy Acker (Angel) and Tom Lenk (Buffy, Angel) have supporting roles for which they’re perfectly suited. Then there are Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford. I won’t tell you why or how, but they handily steal the show. Whitford, in particular, has some memorable moments. They’re both great actors with a knack for smart dialogue, and as such, it feels like they were born to speak the words of Whedon and Goddard.

Writing about this movie has been a bit of a challenge. People have been particularly wary of spoilers regarding the film, which is understandable; a big part of your enjoyment the first time around comes from surprise. Still, even if I had outlined the entire script for you, that wouldn’t have diminished your experience. Some of the things this movie does, and the places it goes, must be seen to be believed. It’s violent, gory, hilarious, and gifted with a truly inspired third act, all the while sharply commenting on why we consume and are obsessed with horror movies. Whedon has described it as “the horror movie to end all horror movies…literally.” By the time it’s over, you’ll know why. The Cabin in the Woods is just like every other horror movie you’ve ever seen, except it’s not.

Gobbledygeek episode 92, “Am I on Speakerphone?,” is available for listening or download right here.

Calling all jocks, nerds, sluts, virgins, and stoners: there’s a certain cabin you might want to take a trip to. Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’s long-delayed The Cabin in the Woods is finally in theaters this weekend, so Paul and AJ offer up their thoughts. We know the movie isn’t just about kids going to a cabin and getting sliced and diced, but how much can we say here without pissing off the Internet? As far as that goes, in lieu of a witty banter portion, we discuss our NON-SPOILERY thoughts on the film up top before getting into a SPOILERY discussion. So, yeah. It’s a barrel o’ laughs, there’s some arguing, and lots of affection for certain cast members. Why don’t you go ahead and walk down into that dark cellar?

Next: Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and Titanic were both recently released in 3D. Both of our hosts enjoy one of these movies, and both of them also hate the other one of those movies. Expect fistfights and the death of a friendship.

(Show notes for “Am I on Speakerphone?”)