The Weekly Stuff Podcast #224 – Dragon Ball FighterZ, Digimon Story Hacker’s Memory and more!

It’s time for another episode of The Weekly Stuff Podcast with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman, a weekly audio show that explores the worlds of film, television, and video games. You can subscribe for free in iTunes by following this link.

On today’s show, we review of two of January’s plethora of video game releases, diving into the fighting game that’s quickly taken the gaming world by storm, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and chatting about the sequel to 2016’s Game of the Year, Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker’s Memory. These are two very different games that are sort of difficult to play on top of each other, but they’ve made for a rich start to the year in gaming. FighterZ is an amazing achievement in its genre that makes astoundingly good use of the Dragon Ball world and its characters, while Hacker’s Memory is just as clever, soulful, and surprising as the unexpectedly great JRPG it expands upon. And before we get to those reviews, we take a trip to Sean’s Beta Corner for thoughts on Metal Gear Survive, talk a little Doctor Who, and walk through some recent news, including an interesting Kotaku story about the state of Bioware and Anthem development.

Enjoy!

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:04:54

Stuff, including Sean’s Beta Corner: 0:04:54 – 0:20:53

News: 0:20:53 – 0:53:03

Dragon Ball FighterZ: 0:53:03 – 1:53:33

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth Hacker’s Memory: 1:53:33 – 2:28:03

Stream The Weekly Stuff Podcast Episode #224

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The Weekly Stuff with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman is a weekly audio podcast, and if you subscribe in iTunes, episodes will be delivered automatically and for free as soon as they are released. If you visit www.jonathanlack.com, we also have streaming and downloadable versions of new and archival episodes for your listening pleasure.

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #223 – Revisiting Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace

It’s time for another episode of The Weekly Stuff Podcast with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman, a weekly audio show that explores the worlds of film, television, and video games. You can subscribe for free in iTunes by following this link.

This week on the show, we’ve recorded the first in a series of conversations about three of the most ubiquitously discussed, ridiculed, and meme-ified films in the modern pop culture landscape: The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy. For all the attention these films have gotten over the years, how much genuine critical engagement – something deeper than just “LOL JAR JAR!” – have they truly been afforded? What do they tell us about a franchise that has resurged in cultural dominance in recent years, how did they set the stage for the digital cinema revolution we are currently living through, and what do they have to say about the politics of the 21^st century? These films are better, deeper, richer, and more critically rewarding than they get credit for, and we aim to rectify that gap, starting here with our in-depth discussion of The Phantom Menace. Whatever your thoughts on the film, we think you’ll find this conversation interesting, and only ask you go in with an open mind. And before the main topic, we also talk some Doctor Who, give our very early impressions of Digimon Story Cybersleuth Hacker’s Memory for the PS4, and go over a few news items, including the announcement of the new ‘Nintendo Labo’ product line for the Switch.

Enjoy!

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:05:28

Doctor Who Stuff: 0:05:28 – 0:18:22

Digimon Story Cybersleuth Hacker’s Memory Impressions: 0:18:22 – 0:28:55

News: 0:28:55 – 0:46:03

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace: 0:46:03 – 2:51:38

Stream The Weekly Stuff Podcast Episode #223

Download 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #223 as an MP3

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

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The Weekly Stuff with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman is a weekly audio podcast, and if you subscribe in iTunes, episodes will be delivered automatically and for free as soon as they are released. If you visit www.jonathanlack.com, we also have streaming and downloadable versions of new and archival episodes for your listening pleasure.

The Weekly Stuff Bonus #6 – Doctor Who: Kinda (Story 119, 1982)

It’s time for another monthly bonus episode of The Weekly Stuff Podcast with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman, where we will be discussing serials from classic Doctor Who history.

After two wonderful months spent chronicling the adventures of the Fourth Doctor, we jump ahead to the strange reign of the Fifth, played by Peter Davison, and the rocky tenure of producer John Nathan Turner. Kinda, the story we discuss here, is the Fifth Doctor’s third-ever serial, and it is one of the weirdest, wildest, and most unique Doctor Who stories ever told, steeped in dream sequences, surreal imagery, and bizarre plotting that, at the very least, adds up to an extremely memorable story. Is there more than just wackiness on display here? What do we make of Davison’s performance as the Fifth Doctor? And is Adric or Tegan a worse companion? We answer all these questions and more in our in-depth discussion of Kinda.

Stream The Weekly Stuff Bonus #6

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The Weekly Stuff with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman is a weekly audio podcast, and if you subscribe in iTunes, episodes will be delivered automatically and for free as soon as they are released. If you visit www.jonathanlack.com, we also have streaming and downloadable versions of new and archival episodes for your listening pleasure. 

2017 Denver Film Critics Society Awards Winners Announced - "Lady Bird," "Dunkirk" win top honors

The Denver Film Critics Society, of which I am a voting member, has today announced its winners in our 2017 film awards. I wrote about the nominations when they were announced last week, and was very happy with our batch of potential winners. The final victors, which you can read about below, are a pretty damn strong group as well. Our Best Picture award went to Lady Bird, my favorite film of the year, while Best Director went to Christopher Nolan for Dunkirk (I would have preferred this one go to Greta Gerwig, but Dunkirk is an obvious and extraordinary directorial achievement and I cannot fault his win here). Lady Bird also won Best Actress for the wonderful Saoirse Ronan, while Best Actor went to Gary Oldman’s transformative performance in Darkest Hour (I’ll pour one out for the great Harry Dean Stanton, who made our nominations but didn’t win in the competitive field). Supporting Actor wins went to Willem Dafoe and Allison Janney, while screenplay fields split between Jordan Peele’s original Get Out and James Ivory’s adaptation of Call Me By Your Name.

You can see all the award winners below, with nominations repeated for clarity’s sake. All in all, I think our group did a great job this year recognizing what was extraordinary about film in 2017, and our final awards spread the love to a lot of different and diverse places. Read through the full list of winners after the jump…

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #222 – Nintendo Direct, Dragon Ball Beta, and 2018 Year-in-Preview

It’s time for another episode of The Weekly Stuff Podcast with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman, a weekly audio show that explores the worlds of film, television, and video games. You can subscribe for free in iTunes by following this link.

It’s a grab-bag style episode this week, as we cover a week’s worth of news items, including Thursday’s Nintendo Direct announcements, Sean reviews the beta for upcoming fighting game Dragon Ball FighterZ, and Jonathan talks about finally catching up on Pokken Tournament DX for Nintendo Switch. And for our main topic, we preview what’s to come in 2018 in terms of video games, looking at the confirmed games for Spring and discussing what we plan to play and review, and speculating about which games will and won’t come out through the rest of the year. We even play a silly game where we ‘draft’ which games we think won’t make speculated 2018 release dates, just for fun.

Enjoy, and come back for our next Doctor Who bonus podcast this Thursday!

Time Chart:

Intro & Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:08:19

Sean’s Beta Corner – Dragon Ball FighterZ: 0:08:19 – 0:21:00

Jonathan talks Pokken Tournament DX: 0:21:00 – 0:32:50

News, including Nintendo Direct: 0:32:50 – 1:13:45

2018 Gaming Year-in-Preview: 1:13:45 – 1:46:38

Stream The Weekly Stuff Podcast Episode #222

Download 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #222 as an MP3

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in iTunes!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

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The Weekly Stuff with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman is a weekly audio podcast, and if you subscribe in iTunes, episodes will be delivered automatically and for free as soon as they are released. If you visit www.jonathanlack.com, we also have streaming and downloadable versions of new and archival episodes for your listening pleasure.

2017 Denver Film Critics Society Awards Nominations Announced, led by “Lady Bird,” “Get Out,” “Call Me By Your Name”

Yesterday, the Denver Film Critics Society, of which I am a voting member, announced its awards nominations for our picks in cinema’s best for 2017. There were, as I wrote about with my Top 10 list, an extraordinary number of great films this year, and that has translated to the best group of nominations we have ever had in my years voting with the organization. And I don’t just say that because a surprising number of my pet nominees made it in – I say it because this is an unusually rich awards season that it starting to coalesce in very frustrating, exclusionary ways, and I think our nominations do a relatively good job celebrating the scope, diversity, and totality of the year in film. We’re still missing some crucial categories (like Cinematography, which I lobbied for and got added in 2015, only to see it subsequently removed), and everyone will have nitpicks here and there, but I think on the whole this is a group of nominees we can all be proud of. We will be voting later this week for the final winners, which will be announced next week, and I am very excited to see who and what comes out on top.

For a full list of nominees, followed by a little commentary from me on most of the categories, continue reading after the jump…

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #221 – Holiday Stories, Doctor Who Christmas Special Review & More!

It’s time for another episode of The Weekly Stuff Podcast with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman, a weekly audio show that explores the worlds of film, television, and video games. You can subscribe for free in iTunes by following this link.

For our first show back in the new year, we clear the deck with hours of holiday stories, reviews, and chats about games old and new we’ve been playing over the break. Sean talks about his Christmas at sea, with a mini-rant about a library on a cruise ship, while Jonathan reviews some Blu-rays he received as presents, including Twin Peaks: The Return and the new Doctor Who: Shada reconstruction. Sean talks about playing Assassin’s Creed Origins and revisiting Star Wars Jedi Knight II, while Jonathan recounts his weird tradition of playing Papers Please every Christmas, and his journey diving back into the Batman: Arkham series. We cover a few quick pieces of news, and then for our main topic review this year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special, “Twice Upon a Time,” the last episode written by Steven Moffat and starring Peter Capaldi. It’s the end of the wonderful era, and the start of something very exciting, and we have, as is our wont, a lot to say on the subject.

Enjoy!

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:03:00

Holiday Stories: 0:03:00 – 0:36:49

Holiday Gaming Stories: 0:36:49 – 1:27:00

News: 1:27:00 – 1:49:32

Doctor Who Christmas Special: 1:49:32 – 3:58:04

Stream The Weekly Stuff Podcast Episode #221

Download 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #221 as an MP3

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in iTunes!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!

The Weekly Stuff with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman is a weekly audio podcast, and if you subscribe in iTunes, episodes will be delivered automatically and for free as soon as they are released. If you visit www.jonathanlack.com, we also have streaming and downloadable versions of new and archival episodes for your listening pleasure.