I Have Some Notes

We don't like to assign blame around here, but this episode is all your fault. We could've watching Home Alone: 2, or Paul Giamatti in Fred Claus but no, you made us watch Jingle All the Way. The only thing jingling were our pain receptors. But, being the consummate professionals we are, we made our list of notes, checked it twice, and found which plot points were naughty or nice. This is our last episode of the year, as we take a holiday break, but we'll have some bonus content for you in January and hopefully new full episodes shortly after that. (Cover art by our very own Colin MacIntyre)

It's hard to imagine a bigger mess of a good franchise. Sam Raimi will always be remembered as the one who first fully realized Spider-man on film. Unfortunately he'll also be remembered for laying one of the super-hero genre's biggest spider eggs. Spiders lay eggs right? That metaphor tracks? Anyway, the boys are back (literally) to pontificate on two problematic pals posturing powerfully in the pale populous light of New York City. How will we fix a movie so dense with villains it makes Joel Schumacher blush? Thwip that play button to find out!

No. But, hey, if you want the long form discussion, it's actually pretty fun and interesting. Plus, Danica Leblanc is back, fresh off (or fresh before, as it turned out) her turn as host of I Have Some Notes. Sorry this episode is late, but sometimes life is the movie that ruined your childhood. I know that didn't make sense, I'm so very tired. Just listen to the show and we'll see you all again in two weeks.

Reboots. The internet loves 'em. Especially when the reboot makes changes to the source material. Everyone says collectively "hmm…that's a really interest choice, I am looking forward so seeing that." Then we go see the movie and afterwards everyone has a pleasant, polite conversion about whether they liked it or not. Yup, that's the internet we know and love. As you know, a couple years back Sony gave Paul Feig the Ghostbusters franchise to play with and he said "all the Ghostbusters are women now" and the internet said "oh, neat!" and we never spoke of it again…until now. If the level of sarcasm in this post were a Twinkie it would be thirty-five feet long and weigh approximately six-hundred pounds. That's a big Twinkie. On with the show!

Back in May we played a game attempting to predict the Rotten Tomatoes scored would be for each 2018 summer movies. We played The Price is Right rules, so who ever was closest without going over took the point. All the contestants are back – Colin, Gregg, Scott and Liam Creswick* – to tally up their points and see who best predicted the quality of this year's summer blockbusters. See all the results and follow along with this handy-dandy spread sheet (visit ihavesomenotes.com if you can't use the link in your podcatcher). Weirdly in the episode we kept calling the prediction episode "The Price is Wrong" instead of "Rotten", but I now realize we should have called it "The Price is Ripe" which would've been aces. *The part of Liam Creswick will be played by Danielle Newman

Did you miss us? Sure, we were only gone a couple months but I bet you missed us. Movies can't fix themselves, right? Season 4 is upon us and so is, coincidentally, the hockey season. In light of that fact we dusted off an old sports classic from your childhood, The Mighty Ducks, a movie more fond of flatulence than Brett Kavanaugh. Joining us on the bench this month is Mighty Duck's super fan Danielle Newman who claims to watch it twice a year(!). She also claimed the Edmonton Oilers themselves once employed the "flying V", and I'll be damned if she wasn't right. Enough of my scribblings, smack that play button to hear our pitch for a better Mighty Ducks movie.

Part two of your bonus content while we get set for season four. You know we like to talk about Star Trek on the show, and wouldn't you know it, we do it some more this week! Hey, it's not everyday that Patrick Stewart steps out in front of crowd and announces he's going to play Jean-Luc Picard again. I realize that happened weeks ago, but so did the recording of this episode, so it was top of mind. We also spend some time, along with guest Brandon Schatz, recommending things you watch. We fancy ourselves taste makers. Is it working? Are you making our tastes? Alrighty, see you nerds in two weeks for the start of a new season, we're pumped, hope you are too!

As promised, we are delivering some bonus Side Notes for you while we're on break. Brandon Schatz joins us again as we shoot the poopie about a wide variety of movie things, including: The Meg and peak shark movie. Han Solo and it's surprising box office take compared to Rampage. Star Wars IX casting of Billy D. Williams and use of Carrie Fisher. Hudson Hawk for some reason. Our favourite bad movies (with plenty of recommendations). The loss of the R rated action hero. How to get started with Mystery Science Theatre. And comic books that don’t have movies that should. Enjoy, see you again in two weeks for another bonus episode.

Tell me, dear listener, do you bleed…tears of joy knowing that we're about to fix Justice League?! We had to do something big for the season finale, DC's biggest cinematic event to date seemed most appropriate. All your favourites are here: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, that robot guy and the guy who swims a lot. At long last the super friends are together to take on the classic DC villain…uh, Stephen Wolf? There's certainly no shortage opinions when it comes to Justice League, something that became immediately apparent by all the comments you guys sent us. Some were virtual novels, which was awesome to see. You know who else has opinions about super hero movies? Comic book store owners, and we got one! Brandon Schatz, co-owner of Variant Edition Comics & Culture here in Edmonton, joined the IHSN crew to correct this cinematic mistake. Special thanks to Andrew Phillips for the our cover art for this episode. Andrew's a fantastic artist, we highly recommend checking out his Twitter page.

When film franchises hit critical mass in popularity they often start to endlessly spawn spinoff novels, cartoons, TV series and comic books. For the hardcore fan it can be a mess figuring out what in all these spinoffs counts as canon – that is, what is officially part of the franchise's larger story. Is it worth it? Does what counts as canon really matter? Perhaps Evan Adnams can tell us. After all, he's a part of the I Have Some Notes canon, until our inevitable reboot, anyway. He joins Scott and Gregg to ponder whether story canon really matters and how it affects our enjoyment of a film.

As you may have noticed, we're big on Star Trek around here and, as you might expect, we have notes for some of the more questionable Trek films. The Next Generation films in particular form a quartet of mediocre films that partially inspired the creation of this very movie fixing podcast. You might recall Star Trek: Generations was our second episode. Today we continue our effort to repair the TNG filmography. Because we're such nerds of Trek we have a plethora of fixes for this one. We dreamt up no less than four pitches for a new version of First Contact. Some involve the Borg, some don't, others even involve the insertion of another Starfleet captain. Joining us on the show is noted Trek trivia winner Evan Adnams who learned to dislike First Contact more and more as the podcast went along.

Let's be honest, it hasn't been a great year for fandom, Star Wars fandom in particular. With social media tools at their disposal, toxic fans have plunged their spiteful light sabers deep into the chests of the very people responsible for bringing their favourite characters to life. It's been incredibly frustrating and sad to witness. In this Side Notes we discuss the perils actors, actresses and directors face being on social media and whether there are any antidotes to the digital poison spreading throughout the various platforms. Fair warning, we get a bit into the weeds on this one, not all of it is directly movie related. Joining us again is social media strategist, Beverley Theresa, who helps us try to make sense of all this.

Fast cars and gravelly dialogue, eventually we were going to get to a Fast and Furious movie, it was inevitable. In true I Have Some Notes we chose the most mediocre Fast film of them all, Fate of the Furious. We tear down the latest installment of Vin Diesel's big-car-go-vroom epic to the nuts and bolts and rebuild the engine with some new motivations and elevated under used characters. Social media consultant (to the stars) Beverley Theresa joins the family for our penultimate episode of season 3. Ride or die.

Scott was feeling a little self-conscious about his insistence in our Congo episode that the book was better than the movie, so he made us record an entire episode that made it clear he's NOT a book snob. I'm busting Scott's balls a bit here, really the episode evolved into an interesting discussion surrounding movie adaptations and what makes them succeed or fail. Since most films these days are adaptations there was no shortage of examples to pick apart. Let us know what you think. Is there something specific you think makes and adaptation really click, or things you think the movie studios do that ensure massive suckage? Thanks in advance for listening, make sure to check out all the other Alberta Podcast Network shows, all powered by ATB.

Cutthroat Island may have been a record setting flop its director and star didn't want to be a part of, but…I can't think of a positive way to end this sentence. Yes, Cutthroat Island, the 90s action pirate movie high on explosions but low on "pirate-ness". It's the kind of painfully mediocre film made for us to sink our cutlasses into. Join the I Have Some Notes crew and guest Alyssa Nider as we stab deep into the heart of Gina Davis and Renny Harlin's first and last swash buckling blockbuster.

Summer blockbuster season is upon us and we decided to play a game of movie prognostication. We looked at the remaining blockbusters to be released this summer and tried to predict what Rotten Tomatoes score each movie would receive from critics. The rules: be the closest percentage without going over, Price is Right style. You can play too, just send us a message on Twitter or Facebook with your own predictions. We'll return to this episode in September to find out how we all did. Judging by the early buzz from the Solo: A Star Wars Story premiere, we're already VERY wrong. We are once again joined by comedian Liam Creswick for our game of The Price is Rotten. As always, we are a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB.

1995's Congo may be the quintessential case of the book being better than the movie, we basically had a glossy of ready made fixes. Don't worry, our final solution for Congo went well beyond Michael Crichton's novel, the episode didn't turn into a book report. Not entirely, anyway. Comedian Liam Creswick joins us for his 3rd expedition on the show to discuss lasers, talking apes and the under use of Bruce Campbell. I Have Some Notes is part of the Alberta Podcast Network crew, powered by ATB.

Sparked by an article on The Verge claiming Infinity War’s Thanos is proof CGI super villains are bad practice, the Boys Who Note have a discussion about the nature of modern computer effects. Where do they succeed? Where do they fail? Why does puppet Yoda look so much better than animated Yoda? And speaking of special effects, Colin wants you to check out sweded trailers if you have not done so already. You will not be disappointed.

Colin, Gregg and Scott dig deep and discover Guillermo del Toro's  Pacific Rim was a secret sequel to Independence Day. It's true. That's the kind of movie sleuthing you can expect from I Have Some Notes, the Sherlocks on Blockbusters they call us. Of course, we also get into tweaking and punching up this monster smash, deleting some characters, amplifying others. I Have Some Notes is part of the Alberta Podcast Network powered by ATB.

Next month Marvel will culminate a decade's worth of super hero movies with their biggest team up yet, which makes us wonder if super hero movies about to peak or are there an infinite (get it?) number of films yet to come? Colin, Gregg, Scott and guest Erin Beever ruminate on the history of capes on film and prognosticate what comes next for a seemingly unstoppable pop-culture juggernaut. Will audiences tire as Marvel enters phase four, five or possibly six? Join us as we give definitive answers like "Maybe!", "Possibly!" and "Perhaps!" As always, I Have Some Notes is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network powered by ATB. ATB: it's like a bank for your money!