Episode 2 Scoreboard

Round two of the trivia game has closed, and I'm happy to see that it brought us a few new players.

One little slip-up though: In my haste to come up with questions, I'd forgotten that Tobey Maguire was in DECONSTRUCTING HARRY. Thus my superhero question is a dead end. As such, I have decided to give everyone who entered the point for that question.

Here are the results after two rounds, with everyone's point pickup for this episode listed in parenthesis...

Rachel Thuro 32 (+12)
Rhys Bendeix-Lewis 25 (+20)
Duke 12 (0)
Shane McNeil 12 (+12)
Courtney Small 10 (+2)
Andrew Robinson 3 (0)

Rhys makes an impressive climb by being first to answer, but rachel maintains her early lead. Lots of time left on the game clock gang, email us your answers for episode three when it drops tomorrow and see if you can give Rhys and rachel a run for their money.

Hatter's Questions
Orson Welles was the only person to be nominated for acting/writing/directing the same film before Woody (two have done it since).
I was going for Spider-Man, believing that neither Andrew Garfield nor Tobey Maguire had been in an Allen film. As previously stated - I was misled.
"Rhapsody in Blue" plays over the opening sequence of MANHATTAN.

Simon's Questions:
Woody has acted in 30 of the films he has directed.
"The defendant did commit an adulterous act..." is from EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX * BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK
Seven Woody Allen films include the name of a place in the title.

Entries for Trivia close at noon EST on the Friday after the show; please email all answers to filmlocker@hotmail.com. The prize dvd/blu-ray can be worth a maximum $30 USD on Amazon.com

"I'm a World Renowned Claustrophobic" (Simon reviews MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY)

I know I said it before, but with 41 films, it's going to take me a while to get through all (or even most) of Woody Allen's body of work. Something I've also said before, is that I'm happy I can defer to Simon when trying to settle on where to start.

Take MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY.

With a title like that, one might think it's complete farce, but according to my Brit friend, it's quite celever (if flawed). Here's a snippet of his take on the film...

Apparently, originally this Murder Mystery was squeezed into Annie Hall but, thank God, the Marshall Brickman/Woody Allen script for Annie Hall has no murder element whatsoever. But, Allen does team up with Marshall Brickman to complete this script so it does remain as chirpy as Annie Hall but without the heart. I think it was Madonna who said that "there are all the songs about people breaking-up and getting together - but none about staying together". This film has a great strong central theme in how couples can stay together...

The full post can be found here.

"You Inspire Me" (Hatter Reviews YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER)

As much as we effused about Woody Allen during the podcast, there's one side-effect that comes with being such a prolific director: The films aren't all winners.

Take last year's offering, YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER. Oddly enough the film wasn't bad per se, it just wasn't up to the level that one might expect from a Woody Allen film. Here's part of what I had to say about it after taking it in at TIFF 2010


Just about every character in YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER seems to have the same mindset. Almost to a man, they seem to believe that their lovelife is in a rut and that they need to make a change. They need someone else - anyone else. If they shake off the person that has held them back, then suddenly their every wish will come true and their life will be filled with meaning and love. Problem is, it seldom works that way...

The full post can be found here.

"Fucking Men!" (Simon Reviews HUSBANDS AND WIVES)

In a lot of ways I need to thank Simon for picking Woody Allen for the podcast as it pushed me to chase down more of his films. This of course led to many wonderful hours with my blu-ray player as I got to experience films like SWEET & LOWDOWN and this week's feature film, HANNAH AND HER SISTERS for the first time.

One such film was HUSBANDS AND WIVES, which Simon has a great review of over at Screen Insight...


Now I know that I have had this coming for a while. A Woody Allen fan who has not been disappointed … it was inevitable really. There are films which are weaker, granted, but more often than not, an awesome cast approaching a high-concept comedy-drama will always have merits. Fact of the matter is, Husbands and Wives simply doesn’t have enough scope in its concept and the characters – notably Mia Farrow and Judy Davis – are simply not likeable or relatable for us, as an audience, to enjoy their company for a hundred minutes...

Guess I liked it more than he did, eh?
The full post can be found here.

Further On Up the Road (Looking Towards Episode 2)

As we get ready to move on from our Scorsese debut, here are two clues to the director that we'll be talking about this weeked in episode two...




H: Could you have ruined yourself somehow?
M: How could I ruin myself?
H: I don't know. Excessive masturbation?
M: You gonna start knocking my hobbies?