metacinematic

    Ah the Christmas specials we watch year after year. You know all the classics like Rudolph, all the animated shows Christmas episodes, Eyes Wide Shut. But did you know that you should be watching your favorite mobsters on Christmas? Seriously, they can play a mean Santa. And I mean “mean.” Episode 10 of Season 3 of the Sopranos, “To Save Us All From Satan's power” opens with the ghost of Christmas past in the form of memories of Big Pussy Bonpensiero who currently sleeps with the fishes, and how Tony tries to figure when it was exactly he was turned FBI informant when we are shown some flashbacks to 1995. Jackie Aprile Sr is still alive and boss of the family, and a sit down is brokered by Big Pussy between them and Uncle Junior's crew. Except Pussy is mysteriously MIA from the sit down. Fast forward and Tony and Silvio are kicking themselves for not realizing what was wrong. Whenever someone is found out to be a rat, it was prudent to try to figure out how much info...

    The 1988 movie Willow is better than Lord of the Rings. That's me puffin away as the unpopular opinion puffin of the week. You heard me correctly, the movie that according to an un-sourced internet rumor was supposed to be an adaptation of the JRR Tolkien Lord of the Rings Books after George Lucas failed to secure the rights, did a better job being its own thing than did the Lord of the Rings trilogy. And before you fight me on this, I'll tell you why, no I'll show you why: Story Simplicity. Less is more. An aging out of control queen has advisers who foretell of a prophecy that a baby will be born and grow to destroy her. So she orders babies with a certain mark to be killed. A woman smuggles a baby out to save her, and then the baby is found by a simple little farmer with big dreams. Willow has to return this baby because the townspeople think she a bad omen, but on the way, he learns the baby is a Princess named Elora Danon who is prohesized to bring about Bavmor...

    Sopranos is filet Mignon, medium rare, with a nice dry wine. Red wine, blood red. The prequel many Saints of Newark had a chance to be a great steak but that's just not on the menu tonight. Here's why. The plot was all over the place. This movie's plot should have been much simpler OR this should have been spread out as part of a mini series or even the first few episodes of a new show. They didn't have enough time to delve into why the events of the movie were happening, why were the riots going on. We could have had time to understand the black community portrayed in the show, with tensions between the rival gangs increasing until an ultimate standoff. Why didn't they make a new show? We don't need 7 seasons necessarily like the Sopranos, but I would have settled for one or two. It could have had SOME explanations of why Tony was the way he was and the events that were talked about in the Sopranos. Hopefully, the show could have stood on its own as w...

  In keeping with tradition, I'm going to be a little contrarian and a little controversial. This is a look at the symbolism in the Wicker Man and how the cult-like people of Sumerisle compare and contrast to the protagonist and his religion. This is MOSTLY a defense of the pagans, up to a point, which we'll get to by the end of the video. Pagans, or heathens, were names given to the country people who had not yet been converted to Christianity, and who believed in the Old Gods. These people were very close to nature with its cycles and bounty, a particular fascination and reverence to the Sun and how it provides life, and the sowing and harvesting of food, thanks to the benevolence of the gods. Much of what we know of the pagans today was provided by potentially hostile sources, Roman writers who didn't approve of the pagan behavior and considered them barbaric. In the movie the Wicker Man, a Scottish policeman arrives at a remote island after receiving an anonymou...

  If Game of Thrones could be set in modern times, and you threw in lots of cocaine, and keep the similar amount of prostitutes, it would have to be Succession. Who will sit on the big chair? How could so much craziness come from such a simple plot? I'm not saying it's character for character comparison to Game of Thrones, but as far as the high stakes game of which one of these ruthless rich and powerful people are going to be sitting on the throne, and become even more rich and powerful, then this show is pretty close. The Old Man Logan Roy is Tywin: ruthless and self made rich, would sell his own sons up the river. And also a little Robert Baratheon as far as his health is concerned. Logan's plans to retire and name a successor as well as his stroke set the rest of the family in chaos trying to figure out who it is that will take over, who will the rest of the family allow to take over, and if Logan wakes up, how will they continue that plan with or without Logan...

  Was it all a dream? Sounds cliché I know, but in this video I'm going to talk about the dream sequences in the Sopranos and how they might connect to both Tony's coma and the end of the whole show. There are many dream sequences in the show. Christopher has a dream, Dr Melfi has a dream, but most of the dreams are Tony's. Now in the real world, you may take your dreams seriously and look for signs and how they may affect your life or messages from your subconscious, or you may think dreams are merely a way for your brain to unpack the senses you've experienced in recent waking life and are not all that important. That's fine either way, but we as the audience have to look at Tony's dreams as having been deliberately written by the writers to convey some signs and messages meant for us . One of the most dream centric episodes is the Funhouse, the last episode of season two. In this episode, Tony gets food poisoning and repeatedly goes in and out of dreams...

  Game of Thrones was one of the most critically and financially successful shows ever made. It's hard to believe it's already been 2 years since the finale, but I think we're going to be talking about it for many years to come. Case in point, I have 6 videos about the Sopranos and one with hundreds of comments. Game of Thrones is a magnificent show but that doesn't mean everything about it was great. There's an awful lot to fix, but in this video lets fix the Battle of Winterfell. Early Game of Thrones was about the interpersonal relationships between the members of several powerful families, most f them very wealthy, all of theme competing for total rule, the Game of Thrones, a game where you either win and become emperor of an empire of 7 kingdoms or you die. This was one dangerous game of chess. It wasn't a story so much about the battles between the families and characters but how the decisions of one affected the rest, and how just a little more cunnin...

  Captain Edward Jellico appeared on the Star Trek the Next Generation Episode Chain of Command Parts 1 and 2. He was given command of the USS Enterprise when Captain Picard was relieved and assigned to a dangerous mission. Friction between the Cardassians and the Federation was intense and the stakes were high. The secret mission was imperative as well as Jellico's negotiation with the Cardassians. Many people on the crew had a tough time adjusting to the new captain as well as the whole situation, most of all Commander Riker, the crew's first officer, the next in command under the captain. I'm going to tell you why the hate Jellico gets is undeserved as well as the label of tyrant because of his allegedly tyrannical style of leadership. One of the reasons, is Commander Riker's failing grade performance during the episode, during the mission, and his failure to adjust to a new captain. The Starfleet is a military style organization with ranks and similar chai...

  Hear me out. Labyrinth is movie about a girl who struggles to get her baby brother Toby back from Jareth, the goblin king. Jareth came into possession of Toby, because Sarah gave him to Jareth. She said the right words to have goblins show up, take Toby and send him to the center of the labyrinth, the goblin king's perimeter defense system, filled with trickery, pitfalls, and a set of rules that you soon learn change with the wind. Goblins don't just come and take anybody. You have to really want them to come, and say the right thing, with intention. Here's the thing, and spoilers. One, it's a kid's movie, a parable with a cautionary tale and lesson learned. Two, the fantastical events of the movie with all the fantastical characters all happen in a dream. She falls asleep here: … she wakes up here.... If you notice, the characters and setting of the dream are all in her bedroom. This is a trope done before in movies such as Time Bandits. Both movies ...