Podcast Like It's ...

Phil and Emily are joined by Vulture TV critic Roxana Hadadi for the second stop in the October Guillermo del Toro mini-series, Blade II (2002). Wesley Snipes's half-vampire Daywalker teams up with the Bloodpack, an elite vampire hit squad built to kill him (Ron Perlman and Donnie Yen among them), to hunt the Reapers, a mutant strain that feeds on vampires and humans alike. It opened March 22, 2002 against Ice Age and the E.T. re-release, made $155 million on a $55 million budget, and got three and a half stars from Ebert, who called it a brilliant vomitorium of viscera.The three dig into how del Toro took a David Goyer script and a New Line paycheck and used them to build the Reaper design that changed what a movie vampire's mouth could do, Snipes shooting three other movies during production so the crew shot around him with doubles and over-the-shoulder angles, the blood rave that opens the whole franchise's imagination, and why the Bloodpack getting wrecked is the most satisfying thing in the movie. Roxana makes the case that Luke Goss's Nomak is the hot vampire prince the genre owes her, the three poke at Ebert's soft spot for del Toro, and everyone agrees the last shot (sword, head, credits) is a flex. There's a real case here for Blade II as the movie where del Toro proved he could work inside the studio machine without filing down a single tooth. Gnarly, silly, and gorgeous about it. Same as the movie. Next week: Hellboy.Follow the show & guest:Podcast Like It's... - https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove - https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James - https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsRoxana Hadadi - https://www.instagram.com/roxana.z.hadadi 💜 Patreon (bonus episodes & video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits

Phil and Emily are joined by film journalist and podcaster Blake Howard (One Heat Minute Productions) to close out the 2000s Best Actress Oscar follow-ups mini-series with Michael Mann's Public Enemies (2009). Johnny Depp's John Dillinger robs Depression-era banks and romances Marion Cotillard's Billie Frechette while Christian Bale's Melvin Purvis and Billy Crudup's J. Edgar Hoover build the modern FBI around catching him. It opened July 3, 2009 against Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and made $214 million on a $100 million budget, and Phil, who left the theater disappointed that summer expecting Heat meets The Untouchables, has come all the way around on it.The three dig into the early digital photography everyone hated in 2009 and why it plays so much better now that projectors can actually show it, Mann's refusal to sentimentalize his outlaw (Ebert's read that the movie shrugs off myth gets a workout), Bale's understated Purvis in the year after The Dark Knight, Crudup's version of Hoover as the guy who quietly wins the movie, and the Depp-and-Bale on-set story that may or may not have happened. Blake makes the case for Public Enemies as the best film in the whole mini-series, and Phil agrees, then ranks the whole run, from this one at the top down to Pay It Forward dead last. There's a real case here for Public Enemies as the Michael Mann movie that got caught between the audience he had and the one he was about to find. Cold, beautiful, and stubborn about it. Same as the movie.Follow the show & guest:Podcast Like It's... - https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove - https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James - https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsBlake Howard - https://www.instagram.com/oneblakeminute💜 Patreon (bonus episodes & video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits

Phil and Emily are joined by writer, actor, and Horror Movie Survival Guide host Teri Gamble for Mark Palansky's Penelope (2006). Christina Ricci is an heiress born with a pig's nose thanks to a family curse, kept out of sight while her mother (Catherine O'Hara) hunts for a blue blood willing to marry her, which is how a broke gambler played by James McAvoy ends up being paid to get close. Reese Witherspoon produced it and takes a supporting role, making this the strangest imaginable follow up to the Oscar she had just won for Walk the Line.The three get into why the film sat on a shelf for two years between its late 2006 festival premiere and its actual release, how badly the movie undersells its own premise (nobody is buying Christina Ricci as the most hideous woman alive, no matter how many people scream and leap out of windows), and Reese Witherspoon's long run as the defining uptight blonde of the era. There's a real case here for Penelope as the point where the post-Oscar passion project stopped reading as a prestige move and started reading as a fairy tale nobody had asked for. Teri also arrives with fresh FernGully intelligence, as Teri always does.Follow the show & guests:Podcast Like It's... - https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove - https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James - https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsTeri Gamble - https://www.instagram.com/theterigamble💜 Patreon (bonus episodes & video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits