PODCAST: GLADIATOR

PODCAST: GLADIATOR 

Football star Aaron Hernandez went from the bright lights of the Super Bowl to a convicted murderer in a few years. The Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team, best known for its investigation of the sexual abuse scandal inside the Catholic Church, takes a hard look at the crisis facing football through the lens of Aaron Hernandez’s life and terrible crimes. Did a brain badly damaged by football contribute to Hernandez’s violent behavior? Did he keep secrets about his sexuality that collided with a hyper-masculine football culture? Did elite coaches and teams look the other way as Hernandez was spiraling out of control? Spotlight uncovered new documents, audio, and interviews to go deep into the story of what happened to Aaron Hernandez, and what it means for those of us who cheer on a violent game. From Wondery, the podcast team that brought you Dr. Death.

MY VERDICT: Despite knowing nothing of American Football and not having much interest in sport in general, I found this podcast thoroughly fascinating. The story follows Aaron Hernandez through his career and asks questions about how the people around him could have prevented his violent decline or whether the sport itself was to blame. I don’t know if all these questions were answered but I certainly learnt a lot along the way.

FILM 1982: 17 AGAIN

FILM 1982: 17 AGAIN

TRIVIA: Zac Efron called Matthew Perry for help on his lines and mimicking some of his movements to give a more authentic performance.

In one scene, Mike wakes up and begins describing his "dream" of being in high school again only to find his daughter, Maggie, caring for him. This is an homage to the counterpart scene in Back to the Future (1985), in which Marty McFly wakes up and finds his teen-aged mother caring for him.

Thomas Lennon and Matthew Perry also appeared in an episode of Friends (1994) - "The One in Vegas: Part One." Lennon played a blackjack dealer and Joey's "hand twin." Although they both appeared in the episode, Lennon and Perry did not share a scene.

Although they play mother and daughter in this film, Leslie Mann is only thirteen years older than Michelle Trachtenberg.

FILM 1751: BATTLE OF THE SEXES

FILM 1751: BATTLE OF THE SEXES

TRIVIA: In 1973, Billie Jean King was 29 and Bobby Riggs was 55. At the time of filming, Emma Stone was 28 and Steve Carell was 54.

Emma Stone was initially cast as Billie Jean King, but scheduling issues forced her to pass on the role. Brie Larson was ultimately tapped to replace Stone. After a few months, Larson dropped out. After Stone's schedule was cleared, she was able to take back the role.

Emma Stone put on 15 pounds of muscle for this film.

The film sugarcoats the tragic love affair with Marilyn. What was private until 1981 became public when Marilyn sued King by invoking the palimony law nearly destroying King's career. It would take years from then for King to rebuild what she'd lost.

Five of the supporting cast members are sketch comedy veterans. Steve Carell was a writer and cast member of The Dana Carvey Show (1996). Sarah Silverman and Tom Kenny were cast members of Mr. Show with Bob and David (1995). Fred Armisen was a cast member of Saturday Night Live (1975) and a cast member/writer/producer of Portlandia (2011). Chris Parnell was a cast member of Saturday Night Live (1975).

FILM 1702: TICKLED

TRIVIA: During a screening at the True/False Film Festival the film had to be stopped for nearly ten minutes while local police escorted two people from the cinema. The two were allegedly private investigators who had been spotted trying to record the film with a device hidden in a coffee cup.

The executive producer, the producer, the two directors, and one of the actors... all five were sued in US Federal District Court in an effort to stop the film from being shown. Source: Courthouse News ("Tickled Film")

FILM 1683: ICARUS

TRIVIA: The film was substantially edited after the premiere at Sundance Film Festival, where it was bought by Netflix. The new version debuted at Sundance London in June 2017 before being released on Netflix in August.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2016/march/the-brand-line-surgery/

FILM 1278: JERRY MAGUIRE

TRIVIA: Two lines from the film, "Show me the money" and "You had me at hello", are in the AFI's top 100 movie quotes (at numbers 25 and 52, respectively).

Jonathan Lipnicki showed up on the set one day telling everyone that, "the human head weighs eight pounds". Cameron Crowe liked it so much he wrote it into the script.

The title role was written for Tom Hanks.

This was Tom Cruise's fifth consecutive $100-million-plus film, a new record.

The parts of Dorothy and Jerry were originally written for Winona Ryder and Tom Hanks. Hanks was unable to commit to the project due to his work on That Thing You Do! (1996). Ryder was able to commit, but when screen tests were done with Tom Cruise, they "looked like brother and sister" when standing together.

The baseball field at the end of the film is the same field used in Hook (1991).

Film 908: Moneyball

Trivia: When Steven Soderbergh was still supposed to direct, he cast Brad Pitt and Demetri Martin in the lead roles and had already shot interview scenes with baseball players Lenny Dykstra, Mookie Wilson and Darryl Strawberry to be included in the film.

Despite suggestions in the movie that Scott Hatteberg was a bad-fielding first baseman, he ended the year with a fielding percentage (.994) higher than the league average for his position (.993).

Bill James, noted as the statistical influence for the main characters' analysis, is regarded by many to be the father of sabermetrics. This study of advanced baseball statistics is named after the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), an organization to which James and other sabermetrics pioneers belong. The film puts a heavy emphasis upon on-base percentage (OBP), though concepts like on-base-plus-slugging-percentage (OPS), now a widely-accepted measure of a player's hitting ability, are not mentioned. Concepts like runs created (RBIs plus runs scored), ERA+ and others widely used by statisticians are also not mentioned, perhaps owing to their increased acceptance in the years since the events portrayed in the film.

The Oakland A's set the new American League record for consecutive wins, with 20. The all-time Major League record is 26, set by the New York Giants in 1916, including one tie. Without ties, the record belongs to the 1935 Chicago Cubs (21 straight wins).

First baseball movie to be nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award (Oscar) since Field of Dreams twenty-two years earlier.

Cameo: Spike Jonze:  as Alán, the socially awkward partner to Billy Beane's (Brad Pitt's) ex-wife in the film.