Synchtube Tropers (Riff on Videos and Movies)

Here's an oddly urban equivalent to some of the general themes we've seen a lot of in the coven favorite Invasion Day (If only this had those stupid wristbands):

I give you Bushwick, starring WWE Superstar Dave Bautista and Brittany Snow...

EDIT: Nope, change of plans. Dammit... Tonight, we'll check out Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death.

edited 19th Nov '17 5:24:34 AM by SeanMurrayI

Aww, and I made a New York themed-aftershow and everything, too...

Anyway, someone mind removing the episode of There Will Be Brawl I added last night? I asked for it to be removed yesterday and it got moved down instead.

Alright, let's get to this.

First up, see how well you fare as Jonathan Frakes presents another silly game of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction.

Then, at the top of the coming hour... Well, I wish I had a better opportunity to hype this one earlier: Shannon Tweed, Adrienne Barbeau, and Bill Maher star front and center in an odd send-up of pop culture, 1980's political figures and public personalities, B-movies... and feminism (and fragmentation between different feminist movements) in Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death, set in the famous and world-renowned avocado jungle that is definitely not a totally made up thing in San Bernardinho, California.

Join us! https://cytu.be/r/TroperCoven

Gonna be sorry to miss out on this one.

We've watched this one a long time ago, aaaand... It wasn't well received. At all. However, it does have its fans. Stephen King, in particular, speaks positively of it in Danse Macabre (Specifically, in the chapter titled "The Horror Movie as Junk Food" that opens with his recollection of the first time he watched Robot Monster after smoking some dank reefer) where he prides himself on his personal "discovery" of a cheap B-movie that he feels succeeds at being "horrific." Fairly lofty praise for an obvious retread of House of Wax with a miscast Chuck Connors in place of Vincent Price.

So we'll give it another shot. Here comes Tourist Trap.

edited 20th Nov '17 9:13:57 AM by SeanMurrayI

Tonight, we get caught in a Tourist Trap! Oh shit! I hope it doesn't cost us an arm and a leg, or more!

Before that, the usual Ghost Stories and Action Man.

It's a trap! https://cytu.be/r/TroperCoven

~Bisected8 ~Morgikit ~lewattoo ~Noaqiyeum ~FingerPuppet ~ColonelCathcart ~CompletelyNormalGuy ~TAPETRVE ~Rockonman ~SpaceWolf ~MapleSamurai ~Tomodachi ~iflewaway ~MysticEclectic ~spacealien ~Gehayadren ~Shippudentimes ~Germi91

Now I remember why it got a 1.

It sucks.

I kinda liked the ending.

So Charles Manson finally died yesterday (What took him so long?), and I've spontaneously decided on pushing out the most tasteless thing I could think of.

Imagine if Robot Chicken had a shittier budget, only focused on the Manson Family murders, attracted an inexplicable number 90's, 2000's "punk" musicians who became too big for the Warped Tour but barely big enough for airplay on MTV2 (instead of Seth Green's friends), and was in such poor taste that the real names of all the principle figures had to be changed just to cover their own asses. Then you'd get Live Freaky! Die Freaky!

Nearly all the character names based on real people in this story are altered by changing a single letter to 'H'. Hence, Charles Manson becomes "Charles Hanson"... "Sadie" Atkins becomes "'Hadie' Hatkins"... Sharon Tate becomes "Sharon Hate". You get the picture. For whatever reason, though, the nicknames of key Family members "Tex" and "Squeaky" are unchanged.

Celebrity voice talent includes every member of Green Day (Billy Joe Armstrong voices Manson himself, surprisingly enough), Tim Armstrong of Rancid (who is also credited as the producer and helped distribute this through his own record label), Davey Havok of AFI, Benji and Joel of Good Charlotte, Travis Barker of Blink 182, Sean Yseult of White Zombie, Henry Rollins... and Kelly Osbourne and Asia Argento(?!?!?). Just to name a few.

edited 21st Nov '17 9:07:53 AM by SeanMurrayI

I'm rewatching Cocktail () all of a sudden.

All these years, and I never noticed Rick Astley is wearing David◊ Lynch's◊ clothes◊ That's fucking amazing!

edited 21st Nov '17 11:03:11 AM by SeanMurrayI

We are all terrible people and are going to burn in Hell.

After a few more rounds of Gamesmaster and Action Man, we get off and running at the top of the coming hour with the very tasteless Live Freaky! Die Freaky!, starring Billy Joe Armstrong as Charles Manson— I mean, Hanson. (At least, it's less than 80 minutes long)

Join us! https://cytu.be/r/TroperCoven

It's tasteless alright. Tasteless for the sake of being tasteless. And very 2000s. I admit, some parts made me laugh, but most of it is just trying too hard, or maybe not trying hard enough. Trying too hard to be offensive, but not hard enough to be creative.

I laughed more than I should. I also am the only person not to vote this movie an X.

So, remember Michael Bay? Creator of such "timeless" movies as "Transformers, Armageddon, and Pearl Harbor'' ?

Well, turns out his earliest work was the classic Got Milk? ad "Aaron Burr".

Yes.

This one:

Excuse me while I rethink my life.

Dude, that's not his "earliest" work. Michael Bay was directing music videos in the late 80's and early 90's for years before that commercial.

Here's one from 1990...

We had already ran this one this past September, but, honestly, what better way to acknowledge Thanksgiving is there?

Blood Rage.

edited 22nd Nov '17 9:40:24 AM by SeanMurrayI

Makes sense, Bay's movies always felt like overlong commercials.

Hope you've all been well, it's been a busy couple weeks for me; just last week, my grandmother was in the hospital, thank God she's better now. Still working my ass off with music.

Have a great Thanksgiving guys! Sorry I haven't been around lately!

About that "Aaron Burr" commercial, it happened to air at an interesting time for me. I had read about some Japanese-developed video game based on US history, which showed a screenshot of "DC Aaron Burr", whoever he was. I did not know at the time. I asked my history teacher, who said, "You'll know about him later this year."

And I did, with that commercial. Which kids were quoting in class when the subject of Aaron Burr actually came up.

Happy Thanksgiving, Mystic! Here's hoping we catch each other for a movie after the holiday!

Anyway, our last night before American feasting day kicks off with... a retread to "Kaye's Good Cooking" to stay fresh in your minds before pigging out tomorrow and Lowtax back at it playing... Ripper of all things.

Then at the top of the coming hour, get ready to revisit the "Thanksgiving-themed Halloween retread with a twist"—Blood Rage ()

Join us! https://cytu.be/r/TroperCoven

Again, no movie tonight. To everyone joining us around America, have a Happy Thanksgiving. See you again for Kung Fu Friday.

Oh, Ho-Oh-HOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo...

Hope everyone enjoyed a great holiday. We return tonight for Kung Fu Friday.

This week, we feature Jimmy Wang Yu, a man who, among many interesting feats and accomplishments, helped launch the movie career of one young Jackie Chan. However, this paragraph from his Wikipedia page demands to be copy/pasted verbatim:

The guy's a total badass, and tonight we get to see him doing what he does best—portraying one-armed fighters.

Here's One Armed Boxer (Fun Fact: Our coven favorite Master of the Flying Guillotine, also starring Jimmy Wang Yu, is actually intended as a sequel to this very film we're running tonight).

I'm cross-posting this from another thread:

My mom had told me about it, saying that it's about a lawyer on the spectrum. The movie, however, never says that he is, or even hints at it. You pretty much have to be "in the know" to pick up on it.

Anyway, the plot is that a lawyer with a strong code of ethics ends up looking for new jobs and finding one, but constantly coming into conflict with his personal morals clashing with his coworkers and bosses. At one point, desperate for money, he makes a terrible deal - he turns in someone who a client he's representing worked with for reward money. This weighs heavy on his conscience (and is also illegal, since his client's guilt is confidential information), and also results in him being stalked by a killer seeking revenge.

Well, onto the portrayal of autism traits.

First off, the main character is black. With autism pretty much only being portrayed as appearing in white males (with few exceptions such as Abed from Community), this is a refreshing change.

He does some of the usual stereotypical autism things - his eye contact is a bit off, he talks a bit quietly, he bluntly says his mind and offends people (mostly when people upset his moral values by doing things like making fun of crime victims), and he eats a small variety of food, like the same brand of peanut butter - straight from the jar as food itself - every day.

There are also some things that I found very refreshing. Roman's strict code of ethics. It's super strict. When a partner at a previous law firm gives Roman a car ride and tells Roman that he (the partner) is receiving kickbacks from every criminal he gets off with a reduced sentence, Roman says to stop the car, then tells the man, "I can't work with you anymore," and promptly quits his job. He is honest to a fault, but he is so strict about wanting to do the right thing, that he turns down opportunities that could get him a lot of money. (Which may be why he decided to collect reward money on a killer that a client had a connection to - even though it violates his code of ethics and haunts his conscience later.) At one point in the movie, Roman compiles a massive legal brief that he plans to take to the Supreme Court, alleging - with 3,500 case studies to back him up - that the legal system is seriously flawed in the way it threatens people with severe sentences in order to encourage a plea bargain from people who may even be innocent. He tries to convince other skilled lawyers to join him on his quest to reform the justice system.

Anyway, will it teach the public about autism in any way? I'd say no, sadly. The knowledge that the main character is on the autism spectrum is outside the movie, and it's one of those things that most people will not pick up on. Nor will people be likely to associate Roman's autism with his strict moral code (and I note right now that the autistic protagonist of The Accountant - which is the movie set for Dec. 9 that many people in the Discord have agreed to attend - also has a strict moral code). Ultimately, it's one of those "if you know, you know, but if you don't, you won't" things. Much like some of the subtleties in The Accountant. But as a movie, I enjoyed it. Not the sort of thing I'd want to watch twice, but it was worth seeing.

edited 24th Nov '17 11:36:18 AM by BonsaiForest

Saw commercials for this one on TV. They were hyping it like this film marks Denzel Washington's greatest ever movie role (or something like that) which just seemed so hyperbolic, given the breadth of his entire filmography it simply couldn't possibly be true, although I can't say it looked like anything else I've seen him do before. Anyway...

Oh, Ho-Oh-HOOOOOoooooooooooo...

We return from Thanksgiving for Kung Fu Friday and a big hit of Godfrey Ho insanity.

Then, at the top of the coming hour, get set for Jimmy Wang Yu in One Armed Boxer.

Join us! https://cytu.be/r/TroperCoven

Tonight's feature appears on YouTube under the title "The best indie time travel movie you've NEVER seen!"

The top two comments for the film's trailer, below, are:

&

Tonight, we'll be the judge. This is 41.

EDIT: This is also going to mark our 1500th unique film title.

edited 25th Nov '17 6:46:15 AM by SeanMurrayI

Alright, let's do this!

First up, we'll see how we fare with another batch of stories on Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, presented by Jonathan Frakes.

Then, at the top of the coming hour, we figure out what to make of 41.

Join us! https://cytu.be/r/TroperCoven

We're finally getting around to it tonight! Best not to miss this!

He's mean! He's green! He's terrorizing Californian pot growers! He's Ganjasaurus Rex!

I guess this is our 1501st unique title.