My esteemed colleagues Steve Head and John Black graciously invited me back on “The Post-Movie Podcast” (which everybody should be downloading and reviewing on iTunes) over the weekend. Our discussion focused, of course, mostly on “The Amazing Spider-Man;” which I can only assume will provide further aggravation for people who are shocked – shocked! – that persons whose job is largely dependant on viewership and exposure choose to “dwell on” the most popular, noteworthy and heavily-searched movie on the planet at the moment…

http://player.wizzard.tv/player/o/i/x/134188919215/config/k-48276aa9ffcfb432/uuid/null/episode/k-aba251ea685299cf

The Internet would have you believe that I am the only person who thought “The Amazing Spider-Man” was overally pretty terrible. But, then, The Internet would also have you believe that a Rotten Tomatoes percentage means something relevant in film discussion (it doesn’t) and that having negative opinions about the prospects of in-production films and/or advertising materials makes one inelligible to opine on the finished product; so you should take The Internet with a grain of salt.

In any case, I’ve got no problem being in the minority on this one; but I won’t lie – it’s nice to be agreed with by smart, insightful people. People like the mighty Film Crit Hulk, who has penned his highly-negative take on the film over at BadassDigest. You should read it. ALL of it.

Yes, more. You didn’t think I was giving up my Friday slot, did you?

“Intermission” speculates on the film’s bizzare mid-credits tease…

The second best news about “Oz: The Great And Powerful” – whose first teaser-poster just debuted – is that Sam Raimi is directing it, and it re-teams him with James Franco (in the lead role) and composer Danny Elfman. The Elfman connection is especially noteworthy, as he and Raimi (previously longtime buddies) supposedly had some kind of falling-out a few years back but apparently have patched things up a bit, which is very cool.

The BEST news is that, despite the “Alice in Wonderland” connection being made on the poster (see below), Tim Burton had nothing  to do with this…

The film is a prequel to “Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” (presumably more in line with the general-pop-memory of the classic movie than the books) with Franco playing the con-artist/magician who winds up in Oz and gets wrapped up in an adventure that ultimately leads to his becoming The Wizard (or, rather, the Man Behind the Curtain.)

Frank L. Baum’s “Oz” books (which get really, reeeeaaaallllllyyyyy bizzare pretty quick after the one everyone is familiar with) are in the public domain (or are they not anymore?) and everyone in Hollywood is suddenly hot to get Oz prequel/spinoff/reboot projects of their own off the ground in a mad dash to beat the innevitable movie version of “Wicked” to the screen. Along with this there’s also a “Return to Oz”-style sequel cooking at Warner Bros., a CGI feature tied to John Boorman, a franchise-starter non-music remake of “Wizard” and several others in various stages of pitch/sale/greenlight. In addition, Anne Hathaway is attached to an Oscar-buzzy Judy Garland biopic that deals heavily with her turn in the original movie.

OMG! Major, garaunteed-multiple-cycles news involving a major celebrity’s personal life – the machinations toward which likely began weeks if not months ago – broke right around the same time that the trailer for said celebrity’s big new franchise-starter vehicle goes public?? WHAT ARE THE ODDS!?

“Jack Reacher” – retitled from “One Shot” – is based on a series of books by Lee Childs; spoken of highly by people I know, as-yet unread by me. I am told that Cruise looks/acts almost exactly the opposite of Reacher from the books; but I now really wish I could’ve seen this in theaters not knowing what it was for – I can only imagine how audiences reacted when, after all that (pretty-effective) old-school hard-ass buildup, the big reveal of this champion ass-kicker hero is… Tom Cruise.

Andy Griffith – actor, comedian, musician – died today at 86. He’ll be remembered (hopefully) as a much more influential voice in American comedy than he typically got credit for, but most-immediately for his popular sitcom and career revival as “Matlock.”

However – and I’m aware I’ll be the 500th movie-geek to point this out today – he gave probably his best performance as Lonesome Rhodes in Elia Kazan’s “A Face In The Crowd;” a movie made at the dawn of the television age that warned with eerie-accuracy about the danger of “average joe” political demagoguery. Viewed today, it’s like a distress-call from the past trying to warn us about right-wing talk-radio, Fox News, Beck, Palin, the Tea Party etc…
Observe this scene, which depicts Rhodes’ show (dig the faux-rural set;) wherein he invites a Senator he’s in-cahoots with to deliver discussion staged-rant against Social Security. Key detail: Rhodes helping the Senator sell his ideology to “the people” by nudging him toward a smaller, “folksier” word than “obsessed.” Update the clothes and this is a Fox prime-time show from right now:

Griffith’s Rhodes was an alcoholic reprobate (today he’s immediately recognizable as a straight-up sociopath) who turns out to have a natural talent for galvanizing and shaping the political behviors of “average Americans.” His schtick makes him a national star and, soon enough, a sought-after ally for nefarious politicians; as the producers who created him come to realize that they may have unleashed something fundamentally evil into the world. In it’s legendary finale, Lonesome proudly embraces exactly what he knows he is and who his “people” are:

Special tuesday episode, just for this week’s big Spider-Fail.

ALSO: Big Picture is on at it’s regularly-scheduled time for “Batman Revisited: Part II.”

“Batman Returns,” but you knew that.

ALSO! Escape to The Movies is on Tuesday this week with my review of “THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN!”

Laughed. My. Ass. Off.

INTERMISSION has text-reviews of “Moonrise Kingdom” and “Beasts of The Southern Wild”

…and it looks AWESOME!

IGN has the first red-band trailer for “The Man With The Iron Fists;” a gonzo tribute to the golden age of Hong Kong martial-arts films written and directed by the Wu-Tang Clan frontman with backup from Quentin Tarantino. My only regret is that thus far it can only be watched on IGN’s shitty media-player:
http://oystatic.ignimgs.com/src/core/swf/IGNPlayer.swf

Well, I’m on board – though to be fair like so many films before they had me at Lucy Liu.

It’ll be interesting to how – if at all – this is recieved. The RZA has supposedly forgotten more about kung-fu movies than any mortal man could hope to learn; but I feel like appreciation for this stuff outside of the hardcore film-geek set sort of “peaked” with “Kill Bill.” Either way, I’ll be there day one.