Podcast #17 – Special Effects

We’re back! After a short hiatus, the Film Pigs return with a brand-new podcast talking about Special Effects in the movies. Plus, all of the usual fun stuff like News, the Nic Cage Memorial Bizarre Line Reading, Movie Jail, a Straight-To-DVD Corner with Tonn Slingdog, and a rousing game of Impressionivia that is in no way incorrectly scored.*

* The game of Impressionivia is scored incorrectly, which is why Skelton has a degree in theater and not, say, math.

This time, on a very special episode of The Film Pigs Podcast:

  • 0:00:00 – Intro
  • 0:01:30 – Movie News
  • 0:08:09 – Host Stephen Skelton presents this episode’s theme: Special Effects
  • 0:32:38 – Movie Jail
  • 0:41:02 – The Nic Cage Memorial Bizarre Line Reading
  • 0:47:58 – Straight-To-DVD Corner With Tonn Slingdog
  • 0:51:54 – Impressionivia!
  • 1:10:25 – The Bottom Five: Worst Special Effects
  • 1:11:52 – A Moment of Positivity
  • 1:12:46 – Outro
++ Falk wins, 38-37

6 thoughts on “Podcast #17 – Special Effects”

  1. The worst special effect I’ve ever seen is the Scorpion King at the end of THE MUMMY RETURNS.

    I suddenly felt like they’d switched the reels with a Playstation game when that bullshit swerved onto screen.

    1. And it certainly didn’t help that the Scorpion King emerges and then immediately does the People’s Eyebrow.

      Hey, Pigs. Great to see you back. I think you’re on the mark about how obvious puppetry can evoke a much more visceral response than a CGI puppet.

      For my money, one of the most terrifying movies I’ve ever seen is still the original King Kong, and that’s just a stop motion puppet. That movie scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. Nowadays, I see kids who don’t even flinch when they see either of the remakes of this movie.

    2. The reason why those effects are so bad is they never finished them. They were still working on it two weeks from the release date when it had to be pushed out to make it to cinemas.

      Great episode, Todd’s whale singing and Close Encounters music were some the funniest things I’ve ever heard.

  2. Very interesting discussion. I’ve recently been looking forward to ‘The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn’ (this is actually why I’m glad you didn’t put Spielberg on trial this time around) and the effects in it really fascinate me. These advancements in motion-capture are really impressive, right up there with ‘Avatar’. And it makes you wonder weather or not somebody like Andy Serkis could/should be nominated for Best Actor.

    I think the biggest problem is, as you said, the story revolves around the effects when it should be the effects supporting the story. The effects should help the story along, absolutely.

  3. Kudos to the prison sentence for Dennis Dugan. I would have protested the death penalty, citing the ballet scene from Brain Donors as one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

Leave a comment or scream in ALL CAPS