This month on Bride of Alternate Ending, Tim and Brennan are covering the 1989 experimental body horror masterpiece(?) TETSUO: THE IRON MAN! Thank you so much for being a patron!
With Escape Room Tournament of Champions hitting theaters this week, we decided to mix it this episode up a bit. You see, your respective hosts each have an unfounded confidence that they are, in fact, the most talented Escape Room-ers, that probably ever existed. I say this because, JUST last weekend, the AE crew traveled to Escape in Time - Madison to test our wits in their new Cryosleep room.
The short story is, we only used one clue and made it out of the room with 20 whole minutes to spare and basically we all think we own the place now. That said, the experience left us with lots of questions.
Rob: "How much of the experience is automated vs. managed by the Gamemaster's manual control?"
Carrie: "What's the weirdest thing you've seen on the hidden cameras?"
Tim: "Do you give discounts for superior human beings, who are able to navigate complicated clues more quickly than anybody you've ever seen?"
So for this episode, we have the pleasure of sitting down with Sara and Cheris the owner and Gamemaster at Escape in Time - Madison, to find out from the experts how Escape Room Tournament of Champions stacks up AND to ask the obvious question "which of us really was the best player"?
Note: this is an "Spoiler Free" episode, but expect a series of grunts and moans and "mmmhmmmms" as we try to have a knowing conversation, void of explaining any of the twists.
In worth mentioning, Carrie and Tim commiserate on Black Widow, Rob takes on the task or reviewing Space Jam: A New Legacy and Tim reviews the new Nic Cage flick, Pig (which he kind of loved, to the surprise of nobody).
Tune in and we hope you enjoy this fun episode!
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Black Widow is coming to theaters next week, and with it, a nearly two-year drought in the theatrical output of the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes to a close (I mean, come now... they don't call it the Marvel Direct-to-Streaming Television Universe, now do they). And with 23 extant films making up this biggest and baddest franchise of modern filmmaking, that's more than enough for us to make our comparative lists of the top 5 MCU movies. For some of us, this means the cream of the crop of modern blockbuster filmmaking; for others, it's the most tolerable of a bad bunch. But anyway, Tim felt like he owed something to Rob and Carrie for muscling through Studio Ghibli week, so here we are.
In Worth Mentioning we discuss The Tomorrow War, No Sudden Moves, Fatherhood and Pride thanks to Patron Ellie Cook.
This month on Bride of Alternate Ending, thanks to Patreon subscriber Travis, Tim and Brennan are covering the David Cronenberg classic VIDEODROME! Thank you so much for being a patron!
This week on Take 2, Carrie joins Brennan to discuss her official number 1 favorite Studio Ghibli film, PONYO, and how it got that way.
One-third of the Alternate Ending team couldn't possibly be more excited for our next topic, which has been gifted to us from Patreon subscriber Gavin. And since he's the one writing this post, there's not going to be any dissenting views on the idea that Japan's Studio Ghibli is one of the most wonderful, special, spirit-lifting film production companies in the history of the medium (we'll agree to pretend that Miyazaki Goro never tried to follow in dad's footsteps). And thanks to Gavin's generosity, we get to spend an entire episode in rapturous joy that we get to discuss our top 5 Studio Ghibli films! From totoros to tanuki, we'll be celebrating all of the blissful wonders that Studio Ghibli has to offer
In Worth Mentioning we cover Luca, In the Heights and The Last Laugh, thanks to Patreon Space Ice.
This week on Take 2, Carrie joins Brennan to nominally discuss 2018’s Love, Simon although it’s mainly just tangents about coming out, improving the world, and swallowing.
Our next podcast topic comes to us thanks to Patreon subscriber Not Fenimore, who has left us with an intriguingly open-ended topic: our top 5 movies for parents. Whether this means the top 5 movies for parents who have been conscripted into watching movies with their kids, the top 5 movies for parents to use as teachable moments about life or morality or such things, the top 5 movies for parents to learn how to handle their children, or something else entirely, has been left as an exercise for the list-maker. Tune in next Monday to find out how the three of us all defined that phrase, and learn what two people who are themselves parents, as well as one avowed child-hater, think makes for good parenting media.
In Worth Mentioning, we cover A Quiet Place, Part II, Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and The Paper Tigers.
This week on Take 2, Tim joins Brennan to break down everything Conjuring, Annabelle, Nun, Llorona, and whatever the hell else James Wan and company throw at the wall to see if it sticks!
Join us for our ranking of all 9 films, the struggle to figure out the series timeline, and the Greatest Showmanization of Ed and Lorraine Warren!
Well, we successfully rallied together to compile our Summer Movie Preview 2021 pull ourselves from our pessimistic trenches and look forward towards a new year with new theatrical possibilities! We know you may not share our optimism, just yet, but with the possibility of seeing A Quiet Place Part II together in a theater on the horizon, nothing can crush our spirits. For fun, we even went back to our last Summer movie preview and it's hard to believe that was TWO YEARS AGO.
Personally, I think we've come up with some very fine lists, most of which I'm excited to see (except F9, because Tim's the last person that actually watches those). While it certainly doesn't feel laden with masterpieces, there's enough to keep us interested taking our freshly vaccinated-selves to a well-spaced theater.
Throughout the Summer, we'll each pick away at each other's lists until we've seem all of the films we've discussed on the episode. When all is said and done, Tim will lock himself away and crunch the numbers to see who collectively had the best list of the year.
On this episode's worth mentioning we cover two patreon requests (and also two of Tim's favorites) F is for Fake and House (1977), as well as, Army of the Dead.
Our next Movie Club meetup is coming!
Movie Club Movie Meetup is Thursday, May 27th – Mark your calendars! If you're not a Movie Club member, you can sign up here!
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There was a tie in the poll for this month’s Bride of Alternate Ending, so Tim and Brennan are moving one of those fateful picks on over to the main feed and picking up a Carrie along the way! That’s right, we’re talking CASPER and the mass Devon Sawa sexual awakening that struck America’s tweens in 1995.
With the 14-month freeze at the North American box office starting to melt over the last few weeks, and looking to melt even more over the next few weeks, the Alternate Ending crew thought this would be a great time to celebrate the theatrical experience. Our next episode is dedicated to our picks for the top 5 movies to see on the big screen, the kind of film where watching it even on your fancy 4K home theater rig just isn't enough, whether because of the sheer scale of the images, the need for a raucous, enthusiastic crowd, or the chance to give strangers handjobs in the dark.
In Worth Mentioning we cover Stowaway, Things Heard and Seen, and The Kid Detective.
As a followup to Alternate Ending’s Oscars recap episode, Tim is joining Brennan this week to discuss EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: THE STORY OF FIRE SAGA, the Oscar-nominated song “Húsavík,” and the state of the Best Original Song Oscar in general!
The Oscars are over and I think we can say a collective "well, that was weird". The location, the speeches, the music trivia? On this 93rd Academy Awards dedicated episode we cover all of our Oscars 2021 reactions. We take a look at the best and worst moments, out thoughts on the upsets and the usual end to the whole affair. To be fair, it's not all bad. In fact, we find a whole handful of things that we really enjoyed. Most notably, it seems highly probable that somebody phoned in the 75+ humor troop, but I digress.
I should mention that there is a glaring miss on talking about the best dressed, so to be clear it was of course Viola Davis. **sizzle**
I would be remiss not to mention the Oscar Predictions contest! The rankings among us came in where you might expect, but with Tim bringing in 17 correct predictions that left Rob and I only 2-3 behind! That said, there are wiser (or better guessing) humans amongst us, so with a 19 correct answers, we announce the winner(s) of the 2021 Oscar Prediction Contest! Thanks for playing along with us!
In worth mentioning, we share our thoughts on the newest installment of Mortal Kombat and it's own highs and lows. Tim brings his "I'm not going to commit that it's the best film of the year, but I think it's probably the film of the year" pick with Twentieth Century.
Our next Movie Club meetup is coming!
Movie Club Movie Trivia is Friday, April 30th – Mark your calendars! If you're not a Movie Club member, you can sign up here!
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We made it to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier SEASON FINALE and we're feeling pretty proud. I guess the old adage is true "misery loves company," because I was feeling pretty solid about the collective AE jabs at the cheesy writing and blatant social commentary. Though, I overheard a gal tell Rob on a work call that she is "absolutely loving The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," that it's her "favorite Marvel series" and that she "loves it way more than Wandavision. Of course all of this feels completely absurd, but to each their own.
As I've mentioned (so many times) this show has led us down so many different tangents. We've met so many characters and only somewhat understand their motivations and we're left conflicted about what would even be satisfying for us at the point. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier SEASON FINALE ends up attempting the not-so-small feat of tying up every possible loose end. To add to the intrepidness, they roll all of this into the last 10 minutes of the episode.
To focus on the positive a bit, we do see that The Falcon has emerged anew, which some slick new gear. He is in fact, no longer The Falcon, but instead a flying Captain America. I have a whole set of issues with this, but you can listen to the episode to see if you agree.
All in all, would we personally recommend this series? Well, we'll talk about that on the episode too!
In our shows Worth Mentioning segment, we get a little personal comfort food, if you will. Brennan brings his thoughts on one his his childhood favorites, Animorphs. Rob talks about a new docuseries This Is A Robbery, that he's been watching when I fall asleep at 9pm. I cover the first episode of My Love: Six Stories of True Love, which I feel embarrassed about even as I type (but I'm probably going to keep watching on the ole' Nordictrack).
Share your thoughts on the episode in the comments or pre-submit your thoughts on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode we're covering to contact@alternatenending.com to get in on the discussion!
Episodes in this series:
New World Order S1 E1
The Star-Spangled Man S1 E2
Power Broker S1 E3
The Whole World Is Watching S1 E4
Truth S1 E5
Episodes will be released every Wednesday!
Next Up! By Patreon request, we'll be diving head first into the first season of The Nevers. We hope you'll watch along with us!
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5 episodes down, 1 to go! The Falcon and the Winter Soldier S1 E5, brings us... honestly, it's hard to remember. We recorded the episode 3 days ago and it's already a blur. If I'm remembering the high points correctly, it went something like: The fake Captain America gets relieved of his hero status and they ask nicely for him to return his shield whenever is convenient for him. Then the Falcon decides to pass off his wings to Torres, begging the question of whether or not this will make his Super Hero name awkward (maybe Wingless Wonder? Un-wing? We'll keep wordsmithing it a bit more). We get a random, but always welcome, cameo from "Elaine-from-Seinfeld" which only adds to the open questions that need to be resolved in this week's final episode. We were excited see Isaiah Bradley again, who provided some sage advice to The Falcon. These keen insights from his experienced mentor are completely disregarded, leading to a strange (and very lengthy) training montage that indicates Captain America's shield can be easily wielded by, just about everyone. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier S1 E5 has continued to bring us new characters and at this point we think it's best bet for ending would be to conclude like The Bob Newhart Show. We shall see!
In our shows Worth Mentioning segment, we get a little personal comfort food, if you will. Brennan brings his thoughts on The Office (which is probably retro for him, while Rob and I watched them "live" back in the old days). Rob talks about this super fun show Mythic Quest, which is basically the equivalent of The Office for gamers. And my show, well, I don't want to talk about it.
We are literally a week away from the Oscars and we're all (just Rob and I, actually) scrambling to see as many Oscar nominees as we can, in advance. Like all good procrastinators, we're taking our time to look back at years past at the best awards winners in the Academy's history, with our picks for the Top 5 Acting Oscar Winners!
For an added treat, Tim also drops in his bottom 5 acting Oscar winning performances. We all breathed a deep sigh of relief when Jessica Tandy narrowly escaped his list.
We had a lot to catch up on and lots of news to share! In worth mentioning, Rob reviews The Sleepover, Tim shares his big feelings on Chaos Walking and the crew decides to gang up on Carrie for her lack of film watching, while she was away at her Grandfather's memorial service this week.
Our Amazon movie rental winner for their Top 5 Acting Oscar Winners submission was Snad321, yay you! And, we are ever-so sorry for making it weird and accidentally calling you Snads. Rob needs more sleep.
Movie Club Movie Trivia is Friday, April 30th - Mark your calendars!
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Well, we're still here. Here at Alternate Ending, we're nothing, if not resilient. I'm sort of joking, but as we make our way through The Falcon and the Winter Soldier S1 E4, the lingering feeling that this show was made solely for my Dad, is growing. I know we mentioned on our last episode that there were quite a few plot points to wrap up, but this episode has chosen to only unravel the spool more.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier S1 E4 brings us my favorite Marvaleers - the Wakandans are in town and they are NOT happy with Zemo. Ayo gives Barnes eight hours to use Zemo before the Wakandans take him. Zemo helps find sweet, innocent Carly Morgenthau at a funeral for her adoptive mother. Wilson speaks with Morgenthau alone and attempts to persuade her to end the violence, but because he sucks and nobody wants to listen to him, a fight breaks out. Lots more fighting, lots more wanting the super serum and yada yada. Morgenthau accidentally kills Hoskins and yada yada. THEN Walker wigs out and that's pretty much the episode.
We still don't know who the Power Broker is, Captain Underpants, I mean Walker is rogue and Zemo is just meandering around giving kids candy. It really does force you to ask yourself, how can this possibly resolve itself and more importantly, do we even care?
In our shows Worth Mentioning segment, things get a little weird (and it's always my fault) as I bring to the table docuseries about essential oils and the tantra (tAHntra? taaaantra?) to the dismay of everybody. Meanwhile Brennan brings something that sounds much more interesting with the show Money Heist and Rob shares a bit of insight into his odd obsession with youth sports with his review of the Netflix series Last Chance U. OH! And Rob and I are also pretty deep into Made for Love, the new hit on HBO Max, and we're really into it!
Share your thoughts on the episode in the comments or pre-submit your thoughts on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode we're covering to contact@alternatenending.com to get in on the discussion!
Episodes in this series:
New World Order S1 E1
The Star-Spangled Man S1 E2
Power Broker S1 E3
Episodes will be released every Wednesday!
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As a followup to Alternate Ending’s Top 5 Rivalries episode, Brennan is sitting down with Take 2 virgin Rob to discuss TWILIGHT, how it ended up on his list, and why he took it right the hell off!
Well, we made our way through The Falcon and the Winter Soldier S1 E3, we're half way there! This episode brought a few fun surprises, a flurry of new characters and a hefty smattering of loose ends. There is absolutely no way that this show can resolve itself in any sort of satisfying way, in only 3 more episodes, but godspeed to the writers.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier S1 E3 provides us more insight into the motivations of the Flag Smashers and leaves us grappling with who we really should to be rooting for (not a point that we entirely agree on). We also meet a few powerhouse ladies and dive into the different aspects of representation Marvel is infusing in each episode.
In our "shows worth mentioning" segment, Brennan brings a recap of all of the Animated Oscar Shorts and I brought my perspective on this terrible little mini-doc The Last Cruise.
Share your thoughts on the episode (or shows that you're loving!!) in the comments or pre-submit your thoughts on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode we're covering to contact@alternatenending.com to get in on the discussion!
Episodes in this series:
New World Order S1 E1
The Star-Spangled Man S1 E2
Power Broker S1 E3
Episodes will be released every Wednesday!
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With Godzilla squaring off against King Kong (for the second time!), we've turned our attention to some of the best versus-es in cinema history. We're getting ready to fight about the top 5 rivalries in movie history, the antagonism and fighting and lifelong grudges and discovering that you both have mothers with the first name "Martha", and all of it.
In Worth Mentioning, we cover Godzilla vs Kong, Assassin 33 A.D. and WeWork.
I'm calling it now, I don't think this is going to be my favorite show of all time (we can't all be Friends), but nevertheless, we're back with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier S1 E2, because it's fun to commiserate about the flare and flaws that come with millions of Disney's dollars.
Admittedly, we were feeling the love (well more like, a solid first date where nobody does anything creepy) for episode 1. I don't know if the high just wore off a bit, but we collectively were feeling a bit blaahhh about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier S1 E2. If you've seen the episode, you be the judge if our thoughts jive with yours or if we just were feeding off of each others pessimism.
In other good news, my Dad reached out this week and after 3 short months of Rob telling him about Wandavision being on Disney+, he called to confirm how to login to his TV and wondered how to find WonderWanda. So what I'm saying is, this TV advocacy is really paying off.
We hope you'll share your thoughts on the episode (or shows that you're loving!!) in the comments or pre-submit your thoughts on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode we're covering to contact@alternatenending.com to get in on the discussion!
Episodes will be released every Wednesday for the next 6 weeks.
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As a followup to Alternate Ending’s Top 5 Belated Sequels, Brennan is sitting down with Carrie to discuss a movie both of them just watched for the very first time… ROCKY!
Join us as we discuss the moments in the film that haven’t aged quite so well, Carrie drops a bizarre truth bombs about the biology of empathy pain, and we generally just have a conversation that certainly won’t make anyone mad under any circumstances!
As soon as we hit 4 content feedback survey submissions and with 50% of those saying they were interested in a podcast dedicated to television, Rob deemed it necessary that the Alternate Ending community know our immediate feelings on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Unlike Tim, who after a long, stressful day unwinds with a little Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, sometimes Rob and I just won't make it through a 2-hour-and-something movie, by the time the kids have come down 17 times to tell us their thirsty or remind us that they hate school. So instead, what usually happens is we have a mini-marital spat about "somebody finding something good" (it's actually not that mini, it's one of our biggest rage-triggers) and one of us ends up wielding the unwanted power of finding something interesting for the next 45 minutes before we drift off.
So we'll just say it in hushed voices. We love TV. There. It's out there. We love movies too, but we also love what TV has to offer our fatigued-parent lives. The other thing is, we love talking about TV too... we bore our friends and neighbors with all of our favorites. It's fair to say that Rob is desperate for TV community... even my Dad is ghosting him...
All that said, the only way Rob could get me on board with starting a pod spin-off is to call this what it is, this is a podcast pilot. A 6 episode pilot - A Worthy Binge, where Rob and I will be joined by Brennan Klein to pick our way through the first season of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier!
Episodes will be released every Wednesday for the next 6 weeks.
We hope you'll share your thoughts on the episode in the comments or submit your questions our pre-submit your thoughts on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode we're covering to contact@alternatenending.com to get in on the discussion!
In Worth Mentioning, we cover Search Party, Servant and BrainDead.
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Brennan Letterboxd – Rob Letterboxd – Carrie Letterboxd
With a big thank you to Patreon subscriber Carter, we officially had the most fun we've had in a LONG TIME covering our Top 5 belated sequels. Despite having more overlap than we've had in awhile, we still manage to find ourselves carefully belittling each others picks. You know, like real friends do.
We had a lot to catch up on and lots of news to share! In worth mentioning, Rob reviews Flora & Ulysses and Carrie brings her loving feelings for I Care A Lot. Tim shares is not so loving feelings on Cherry but is able to rebound with much admiration for the Across 110th Street, in celebration of the life and many great performances of Yaphet Kotto. Tim and Rob both commiserate on Zack Snyder's Justice League Parts 2-3, while Carrie briefly naps in her chair.
Thanks to a hilarious "Tim's Sack" submission we all share our most horrifying movie date experience. Ahhhh sweet memories.
Our Amazon movie rental winner this week was Hunter Allen, highly recommend using it to rent Mary Poppins Returns.
Upcoming news:
Thanks to everybody who has already responded to our 2021 Feedback Survey! We've been overwhelmed by the thoughtful feedback and constructive criticism. Your thoughts will directly help us decide where to dedicate our time in Alternate Ending over the next year. If you haven't responded, the survey is open until April 5th!
Movie Club Movie Trivia is Friday, March 26th at 8p cst!
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