A Kenny Rogers' Roasters restaurant moves in across the street and beams red light into Kramer's apartment day and night, so he gets Jerry to switch apartments. Elaine buys George a sable hat on the Peterman account along with a load of other things for herself, then gets audited by their accountant. I take apart this classic eighth season episode scene by scene, praising all its loopy goodness and gently pointing out its mild gaps.

2008.03.10 — Entertainment | Movies | Movie Analysis | by Andrew Cole

Simon Pegg knocks one out of the... cricket pitch(?) as super cop Nicolas ~~Angle~~ Angel, who gets reassiged to sleepy little Sanford and discovers that there is an evil there that does not sleep. Nick Frost pulls duty as his comic sidekick and film professor. And a host of fantastic British actors support Pegg and director Edgar Wright's brilliant and hilarious screenplay. I focus on the failures in it, of course. But I do heap praise where praise heaps are due. I focus mostly on the themes and intricacies of the plot. I compare it to other films in various genres, including Cars, Doc Hollywood, Sharky's Machine, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Shaun of the Dead, Point Break, Bad Boys II, romantic comedies, and spaghetti westerns. But I'm nothing compared to Wright and Tarantino. Check out my voluminous list of films that Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino talk about in their own weird meta-commentary.

Introducing Zarban.com

2008.02.19 — Entertainment | Movies | Internet | by Derek Jensen

We at Tysto have been doing audio commentaries for movies for more than a year now. There is a small cadre of regular fan commentators out there, including Renegade Commentaries, MMM Commentaries, Adudathuda DVD Podblast, Sofa Dogs, and the pay service Rifftrax, which is the new project from the guys who brought you Mystery Science Theater 3000. But how do you find a commentary for a movie or TV episode you want to watch? Go to Zarban.

Audio commentary: Cars

2007.02.08 — Entertainment | Movies | Movie Analysis | by Andrew Cole

Owen Wilson is the voice of Lightning McQueen, the superfast city boy race car who is on his way to California to win the Piston Cup, if only he can ever get out of little old Radiator Springs. Paul Newman is wise old Doc Hudson and Larry the Cable Guy is dumb old Larry the Cable Truck, or should have been. Bonnie Hunt is way sexier than an automobile has a right to be, which causes me to ponder car anatomy. I complain about the title of the film. I explain the concept of setup and payoff. And I explore the difference between American-style animation and Japanese-style animation. But I focus primarily on the two main stories that conflict and the two sub-plots that complicate things further and how the film manages to keep them all from tearing the film apart.

8 things film makers should stop doing

2008.02.02 — Entertainment | Movies | Movie Analysis | by Andrew Cole

In the last 10 years, Hollywood has gotten very good at making big franchise pictures. We've gotten fun and high-quality fantasies like The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, good superhero treatments like Spider-Man and Batman Returns. Even bad action movies are better than most good action movies of 10 or 20 years ago, like Sahara, National Treasure, and Live Free or Die Hard. At some point, most filmmakers seem to have woken up one morning and said, "Hey, the story is really the important thing...." and "I guess we could have actually comedy writers write the jokes instead of just using the first bad pun that comes to mind...."

Just... don't put any more of these things in motion pictures, please.

Every film mentioned by Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino in their Hot Fuzz commentary track

2008.01.14 — Entertainment | Movies | Movie Analysis | by Andrew Cole

Hot Fuzz is an amazing movie. It's easily one of the funniest films I've ever seen and also one of the cleverest. In the new 3-disk super edition, director Edgar Wright invites fellow director, friend, and fellow action movie buff Quentin Tarantino to do a commentary. What follows is a tour de force of movie and television geekery from both directors. In the course of their commentary—which almost never actually comments on the scenes they are watching—Wright and Tarantino mention close to 200 movies.

Here is the list, with links to the Internet Movie Database so you can decide for yourself if you want to delve into the overlooked gems and weird schlock that inspired these two filmmakers.

Audio commentary: Vanishing Point

2007.12.16 — Entertainment | Movies | Movie Analysis | by Andrew Cole

Barry Newman is the mysterious man in the white Dodge Challenger, running away from the cops and his own screwed up life. I discuss the movie as a meditation on motivation, an allegory for the lost soul, and as a Caterpiller promotional film. I compare it (somewhat) with the 1997 version and with Smokey and the Bandit and American Westerns, but mostly with ancient mythology. I boldly suggest that beautiful women can represent both innocence and death, depending on whether they are nude or wearing a cloak and that "J. Hovah" is a little too on-the-nose for a character name. And I use my new CO3U microphone with very good results.

Audio commentary: From Russia With Love

2007.11.0 4— Entertainment | Movies | Movie Analysis | by Andrew Cole

Bond is back in one of the best but not best-remembered Bond flicks. Here, he is the subject of a direct attempt to kill him by involving him in a trap that SPECTRE knows he'll fall for precisely because he knows it's a trap. The lovely but naive Tatiana Romanova is their patsy and Red Grant their oiled-up angel of death. Along the way, a Gypsy catfight goes on too long, Bond keeps forgetting why he's in Istanbul and why he stole the Lector device. Tatiana redeems herself in the third ending, and I wonder how Bond is going to explain her to his girlfriend. I don't have the book to do extensive comparisons, but I do identify most of the cars, not that Bond drives them; he only drives a Chevy pickup.

Audio commentary: Dr. No

2007.05.10 — Entertainment | Movies | Movie Analysis | by Andrew Cole

The James Bond series leaps into action with guns blazing as Sean Connery spends several hours talking to British colonial officials and wandering around Jamaica looking for a clue. Then he turns up the heat and starts blasting by sneaking around an island for a while, hoping not to get captured, before getting captured. Okay, it's a little slow for what we've come to expect, but in 1962, this rocked. And even today, Miss Taro and Honey Ryder can still make your palms sweat. I compare the film to the book thruout and look for motifs, iconic elements, and firsts. I compare it to the Flint and Austin Powers movies that it inspired and to other Bond flicks. Note: Some comments are shaken while others are stirred.

Audio commentary: Ghostbusters

2007.05.21 — Entertainment | Movies | Movie Analysis | by Andrew Cole

An imperfect commentary for a nearly perfect film. Bill Murray is chief idiot to Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis in a modern Marx Brothers-style epic comedy thriller. Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, and Ernie Hudson support, not to mention Rick Moranis, William Atherton, and Yugoslavian supermodel Slavitza. Director Ivan Reitman delivers the goods in thrills and chills while the top-talent cast supplies the laughs. I describe the statue-spirit motif, the dual-story structure of the plot, the cartoonish nature of the Ghostbusters which makes them inherently merchandisable, and the evils of synthesizer music. I mistakenly say that Gozer has a "Grace Slick haircut" when I mean a "Grace Jones haircut."

Audio commentary: Murder at 1600

2007.04.17 — Entertainment | Movies | Movie Analysis | by Andrew Cole

Eighth in the Tysto commentaries and third in my White-House-related series, overly-dramatic lighting, multiple freak rainstorms, and a complete failure to get Diane Lane's shirt soaking wet detract from a fairly taut, multi-layered thriller. Wesley Snipes is a swaggering DC homicide cop who somehow beats the snot out of several highly-trained Secret Service agents and government assassins. Diane Lane kicks his side until she get a chance to save his ass. Alan Alda and that creepy guy from The Agency play "good cop, creepy cop." Dennis Miller miraculously avoids smirking too much. I say "that doesn't make sense" too much and explain a lot about the White House.

Presidential commentaries: The Sentinel & The American President

2007.02.11 — Entertainment | Movies | Movie Analysis | by Andrew Cole

I've added two presidential-themed commentaries to the Commentaries page, both starring Michael Douglas, as it happens. In The Sentinel, Michael Douglas provides a little secret service to the first lady while somebody stalks President Sledge Hammer. In The American President, Michael Douglas romances lobbyist Annette Bening in a bachelor pad White House.

Bonus: we built an entire website to explain the location of these films.

Milla Jovovich: Hollywood’s go-to girl for waking up naked in a laboratory

2007.02.04 — Entertainment | Movies | Movie Analysis | by Andrew Cole

If you're writing a screenplay that you think is right for Milla Jovovich, your best bet for getting her in it might be adding a scene in which the female lead wakes up naked in a laboratory. Conversely, if you're casting a movie in which a hot chick kicks brutal ass among dozens of faceless enemies (for example), you've got several choices: Jovovich as well as Charlize Theron (Aeon Flux), Kate Beckinsale (Underworld), and Rebecca Romijn (X-Men). But if your female lead needs to wake up naked in a laboratory, well, Milla is your girl.

Audio commentary: The Wizard of Oz

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