Loaded Couch Potatoes

On their most recent podcast, KUFO-Portland’s Cort and Fatboy had an interesting talk with local film critic Mike Russell in which they discussed Pixar’s current box-office goldmine Up.

Russell floated an interesting theory about how to interpret the film … one involving Carl dying at an early point in the movie after being court-ordered to vacate his home.  In this reading of the film, everything in the movie beginning with the morning on which Carl and his helium-powered home take flight represents a deathbed fantasy of how the elderly widower wishes his life could play out.

I have to say that I definitely come down on the Fatboy side of this argument in feeling like this particular reading is probably the wrong way to go.  However, Russell makes some good points, and it’s an entertaining discussion no matter which side of the issue one lands on.

What I ended up taking away from the conversation was no small amount of amazement that a summer kiddie movie could spark this type of conversation.  That, and a renewed conviction that Pixar is the best thing going in Hollywood.

Click here to visit Cort and Fatboy’s website.  The podcast in question is the one labelled Thursday, June 11, 2009 (Part II).  The talk about Up begins at about the 28-minute mark, but as always with Cort and Fatboy, the entire show is well worth a listen.

For those who don’t know, Cort and Fatboy are radio personalities at KUFO in Portland.  I’ve been listening to their podcasts for about a month now, and I’m pretty much addicted: these guys are fucking awesome.  Or, as they might say to avoid an FCC fine, frakking awesome.  It’s a very geek-friendly show, as that little Battlestar Galactica reference I just snuck in might indicate.

One of their regular guests, film critic Mike Russell, absolutely eviscerated X-Men Origins: Wolverine on their show this past Friday, and for anyone who thinks a hilarious, geek-friendly radio-based podcast might be something they’d be into, this would probably serve as a good introduction to what these guys do.

Visit their downloads page here, and download the show for Friday, May 1.  As usual, the entire show is well worth your time, but if you want to hear only the Mike Russell segment, it begins at around the 40:00 mark with a discussion of a Muppets-themed film fest that is going on in Portland.  The talk about Wolverine begins at the 48:15 mark.

I didn’t like Wolverine much when I watched it this past Thursday, but I didn’t quite hate it, either.  Russell and Fatboy did hate it, and they are very much willing to tell the world exactly why.  I don’t agree with some of what they say, but a lot of what they point out is so concise, hilarious, and right-on-the-money that it almost makes me want to never review another movie until I can be as good at it as they are.