Tag: Movies

Episode 144: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home: Does it Hold up?

Andi and Lise watched the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (the whale movie!) to determine if it holds up after all these years. Here, the Star Trek crew has to save Earth from destruction by an alien probe. To do that, they need…whales. Trust us on this! It’s a great plot device! Unfortunately, whales have been extinct for centuries. So the crew devises a way to go back in time to late 20th-century Earth to find whales to save the Earth of the future. Does it hold up? Listen and find out! 

Also note the tribute to the crew of the space shuttle Challenger at the beginning of the film. Challenger exploded January 28, 1986, killing all seven crew members. Star Trek IV premiered in theaters November 26, 1986. More on the tribute at THIS LINK. 

Star Trek IV original trailer HERE. 

Shout-outs: Lise actually  has a HALP shout-out—she’s working on a project and would like recommendations for cozy mystery series, especially those that include animals. If you have some, hit LGO up on Twitter or Lise (see below for links). Andi shouts out the PS4 game Horizon Zero Dawn, which she’s currently playing on “story” mode because she’s decided she’s actually a hoarder gamer and would much rather explore the world and collect resources. 

Twitter links: @LGOpodcast, @LiseMacTague, @andimarquette 

And please like and subscribe! Thank you! 

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Episode 135: The Nightmare before Christmas: Does it Hold up?

This week, Andi and Lise discuss the 1993 animated Tim Burton musical film, The Nightmare before Christmas (one of Lise’s faves). This film was nominated for an Oscar but lost out to Jurassic Park that year. Here, Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King and linchpin of Halloween, is searching for something more and ends up trying to replicate Christmas, which does not go over well. Themes of self-discovery, finding community, and realizing your mistakes are interwoven throughout. Creep factor can be a little high, and there were a few problematic element, but overall, it’s still a visually stunning film and ultimately uplifting. 

Original trailer LINK HERE. 

SHOUT-OUTS: Lise just got another tattoo – shout-out to Matt Terry at Sweetheart Tattoo in Fredericksburg, VA! Listen in to find out what it is. And Andi just finished reading The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science, about how science isn’t always ethical. Please remember to utilize your local libraries for your reading needs. 

Find Lise on Twitter: @LiseMacTague 

Find Andi on Twitter: @andimarquette 

Find the podcast on Twitter: @LGOpodcast 

Please remember to like and subscribe; it helps other find us. AND TWEET YOUR HALLOWEEN COSTUMES AT US.  

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Episode 132: Everything Everywhere All at Once

Andi and Lise really enjoyed this movie starring Michelle Yeoh that explores various themes around the idea of connection and finding meaning in our lives against the backdrop of the multiverse, absurdist comedy, action adventure, and moments of poignancy. Here, Yeoh plays Evelyn Wang, who lives above the laundromat she and her husband own. They’re being audited by the IRS; her husband is trying to serve her with divorce papers but she doesn’t realize it because so much is going on; her father is living with them and she doesn’t have great history with him; and she’s practically estranged from her daughter. And then suddenly, she’s brought into the multiverse as the one person who might be able to save it from a potential threat.  

So many layers! This is one they’ll be thinking about for a while. A few minor spoilers, but they don’t detract from the impact of this movie. 

Movie Trailer HERE 

LA Times article with the movie writers (mild spoilers) 
Rent it on Amazon Prime. 

Shout-outs: Lise is jazzed about Adrian Tschaikovsky’s Final Architects sci fi series. She read the first book, Shards of Earth, and the world-building is amazing. She ran right out and bought the second because she had to know what happened next. Andi is reading the second in the Dread Nation series by Justina Ireland, Deathless Divide. Alt-history zombies. What’s not to love? She also started watching the TV adaptation of the comics Paper Girls on Amazon Prime and is really enjoying it. Tense and creepy! 

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Episode 123: Black Widow

Andi and Lise discuss the 2021 Marvel blockbuster film Black Widow, starring Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff and Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Natasha’s sister. One of the overarching themes that Andi and Lise really enjoyed is the exploration of family – what it is, what makes it, and how it can create an infrastructure in your life whether you want it to or not. We love superhero movies fronted by women (passes the Bechdel test!) and we love them more when they explore the complicated nature of family dynamics. Great pacing and special effects, great interactions between characters. 

Black Widow trailer 

Shout-outs: Lise is watching Lost in Space on Netflix and enjoying the family situations going on there. Andi has started watching Star Trek: Discovery and realizes that yes it is a great show. 

Find us on Twitter: @LGOpodcast; @andimarquette; @LiseMactague 

And our website: lezgeekoutcast.com 

Please like and subscribe! It helps spread the word and share the love. Thanks! 

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Episode 121: Mr. and Mrs. Smith: Does it Hold up?

Andi and Lise unpack the 2005 spy/assassin romance movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and determine that it holds up in some ways but not in others, particularly with regard to gender roles. But on sheer character chemistry, Jolie and Pitt are an excellent action duo. 

Original movie trailer HERE. 

IMDB info HERE. 

Shout-outs: Lise has been playing a lot of Mario Kart, and finds it’s an excellent mindless escape from…well, everything. Andi has been watching The Gilded Age on HBO Max, and notes that things really haven’t changed all the much in terms of the American racialized caste system, but following the individual characters navigating social and economic change is interesting. 

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Episode 118: Looking forward to 2022

Andi and Lise were joined by book reviewer and fellow podcaster Tara Scott (she/they) to chat about things they’re all looking forward to in 2022 despite the continuing pooshow that is the world. 

Find Tara at The Lesbian Review, Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and Queerly Recommended. Also on Twitter, @taramdscott 

On the TV: 

Lise: animated series Legend of Vox Machina, Amazon Prime, based on “Critical Role,” a group of voice actors who have been playing D&D together for years. 

Tara: RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK Vs. the World (BBCThree) – a global spinoff. She’s also looking forward to RuPaul’s Drag Race in general (various platforms) and the show We’re Here (HBO), which follows 3 drag queens bringing luv to small-town America. 

Andi: Mandalorian season 3 (Disney Plus) and Only Murders in the Building (Hulu), season 2. 

Books: 

Tara: Count Your Lucky Stars (steamy F/F rom-com) by Alexandria Bellefleur and I Kissed Shara Wheeler (F/F) by Casey McQuiston. 

Lise: Rebecca Roanhorse, Fevered Sun (Book 2 in the Between Earth and Sky series); Naomi Novik’s third in the Scholomance series, The Golden Enclaves 

Andi: John Scalzi, Kaiju Preservation Society and Tochi Onyebuchi, Goliath; also Janelle Monáe’s The Memory Librarian, short speculative fiction featuring Black women writers and Black nonbinary writers and creators 

Games: 

Tara: Rune Factory 5 (Nintendo Switch) and Sea of Stars (Switch; other platforms) 

Lise: Starfield (Xbox) 

Andi: still learning Switch, plays puzzle/mystery games but looking for a FPS for noobs on the Switch 

Movies/TV: 

Tara: not feeling movies, but recommends Mythic Quest on AppleTV, a comedy show about a fictional video game studio working on the fictional game Mythic Quest 

Andi: Everything Everywhere All at Once, starring Michelle Yeoh as a woman who just wants to get her taxes paid but keeps getting sucked into the multiverse to save it. 

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Episode 117: The Matrix: Does it Hold up?

Andi and Lise enthusiastically re-watched the sci fi dystopic action movie The Matrix (1999) to determine how well it holds up 21 years after its release. The movie became a sensation (still is) and they’ll tell you why it still holds up in most ways and things they noticed with their 2022 perceptions (as opposed to their 1999 perceptions) that they thought were problematic. 

Matrix trailer 

Lilly Wachowski on BBC, 2020 

Vox piece on how The Matrix universalized a trans experience 

Shout-outs: Lise got a Nintendo Switch for Christmas and has been enjoying it immensely. Andi has been getting back into DIY stuff and discovered HGTV’s Home Town, where there’s a lot of community revitalization and restoration of historic homes going on in Laurel, Mississippi. 

Link to the planner Lise and Andi talked about. 

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Episode 115: The Princess Bride: Does it Hold Up?

Andi and Lise revisit the 1987 cult classic The Princess Bride, a comedy/romance/ fantasy/adventure that incorporates the story-within-a-story narrative style, in which a contemporary boy (meaning 1987) is sick at home and his grandfather stops by to read him a story, which is a fairy tale that incorporates classic quest elements. Clever story, great characters, funny, and the shifting from the contemporary scene to the movie and back in parts of the film lend this film a lot of its appeal. However, there are some things that definitely don’t hold up, and that’s part of the discussion. 

30th anniversary trailer 

IMDB 

Shout-outs: Lise highly recommends the animated series Arcane on Netflix, based on the game League of Legends. Discord between cities Piltover and Zaun and two sisters fight on rival sides of a war. Andi is finally reading Seanan McGuire’s Ghost Road series, starting with Sparrow Hill Road, the first book in it. The main character is based on the urban legends surrounding the ghostly prom date on the side of the road; the woman in the diner; the hitchhiker. Absolutely incredible world-building. 

Find LGO on Twitter 

@LGOPodcast 

Hosts @andimarquette and @LiseMacTague 

Website 

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Episode 112: Beetlejuice: Does it Hold up?

Andi and Lise discuss the 1988 Tim Burton film Beetlejuice, which has become somewhat of a cult [Halloween-ish] classic. They both agree that watching it again in current contexts made them re-think a few things and appreciate a few others, and both think this could be a candidate for a re-boot – as long as Tim Burton does it.  

Beetlejuice original trailer 

Beetlejuice IMDB page 

Oingo Boingo’s “Dead Man’s Party” 

Shout-outs: Andi shouts out Lise for getting her writing projects done! YAY! 

Happy early Halloween, all – Lise and Andi will not be live for the next show, but we’ll load up a Halloween show from the vault and be back in November with more happy fun times! 

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Episode 111: Gunpowder Milkshake

Andi and Lise discuss the 2021 Netflix movie Gunpowder Milkshake, a “neon noir” and cinematographically gorgeous stylized film with a great kickass female cast (including Karen Gilland, Lena Headey, Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh, Carla Gugino) in a female assassin plotline. However, it’s not without a few glitches and they’ll talk about those. Regardless, entertaining! Also, lots of stylized violence; we don’t recommend it for kids. 

Gunpowder Milkshake trailer 

Shout-outs: Lise has been playing The Outer Worlds by Obsidian Games, a first-person shooter in which a colonist ship is lost in transit and then when it comes out of transit years later, facing a conspiracy that threatens to destroy the colony. Corporate apocalypse themes! Andi started reading the Lady Sherlock series, set in Victorian London and written by Sherry Thomas. In this incarnation of Holmes, Charlotte Holmes takes on the pseudonym Sherlock Holmes while navigating the social hang-ups of the Victorian classes.

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