I Have Some Notes

Justice League

Tell me, dear listener, do you bleed…tears of joy knowing that we're about to fix Justice League?! We had to do something big for the season finale, DC's biggest cinematic event to date seemed most appropriate.

All your favourites are here: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, that robot guy and the guy who swims a lot. At long last the super friends are together to take on the classic DC villain…uh, Stephen Wolf?

There's certainly no shortage opinions when it comes to Justice League, something that became immediately apparent by all the comments you guys sent us. Some were virtual novels, which was awesome to see.

You know who else has opinions about super hero movies? Comic book store owners, and we got one! Brandon Schatz, co-owner of Variant Edition Comics & Culture here in Edmonton, joined the IHSN crew to correct this cinematic mistake.

Special thanks to Andrew Phillips for the our cover art for this episode. Andrew's a fantastic artist, we highly recommend checking out his Twitter page.

While we're thanking people, thank you, listeners! Your support made season 3 another success and we look forward to see you all back for season 4 in October. In the mean time, send us suggestions for films you want us to tackle and keep watching the skies.

Side Notes: Does Canon Matter?

When film franchises hit critical mass in popularity they often start to endlessly spawn spinoff novels, cartoons, TV series and comic books. For the hardcore fan it can be a mess figuring out what in all these spinoffs counts as canon – that is, what is officially part of the franchise's larger story.

Is it worth it? Does what counts as canon really matter?

Perhaps Evan Adnams can tell us. After all, he's a part of the I Have Some Notes canon, until our inevitable reboot, anyway. He joins Scott and Gregg to ponder whether story canon really matters and how it affects our enjoyment of a film.

Star Trek: First Contact

As you may have noticed, we're big on Star Trek around here and, as you might expect, we have notes for some of the more questionable Trek films. The Next Generation films in particular form a quartet of mediocre films that partially inspired the creation of this very movie fixing podcast. You might recall Star Trek: Generations was our second episode.

Today we continue our effort to repair the TNG filmography. Because we're such nerds of Trek we have a plethora of fixes for this one. We dreamt up no less than four pitches for a new version of First Contact. Some involve the Borg, some don't, others even involve the insertion of another Starfleet captain.

Joining us on the show is noted Trek trivia winner Evan Adnams who learned to dislike First Contact more and more as the podcast went along.

Side Notes: Celebrity, Social Media & Toxic Fandom

Let's be honest, it hasn't been a great year for fandom, Star Wars fandom in particular. With social media tools at their disposal, toxic fans have plunged their spiteful light sabers deep into the chests of the very people responsible for bringing their favourite characters to life. It's been incredibly frustrating and sad to witness.

In this Side Notes we discuss the perils actors, actresses and directors face being on social media and whether there are any antidotes to the digital poison spreading throughout the various platforms. Fair warning, we get a bit into the weeds on this one, not all of it is directly movie related.

Joining us again is social media strategist, Beverley Theresa, who helps us try to make sense of all this.

Fate of the Furious

Fast cars and gravelly dialogue, eventually we were going to get to a Fast and Furious movie, it was inevitable. In true I Have Some Notes we chose the most mediocre Fast film of them all, Fate of the Furious.

We tear down the latest installment of Vin Diesel's big-car-go-vroom epic to the nuts and bolts and rebuild the engine with some new motivations and elevated under used characters.

Social media consultant (to the stars) Beverley Theresa joins the family for our penultimate episode of season 3. Ride or die.

Side Notes - What Makes Adaptations Succeed or Fail?

Scott was feeling a little self-conscious about his insistence in our Congo episode that the book was better than the movie, so he made us record an entire episode that made it clear he's NOT a book snob.

I'm busting Scott's balls a bit here, really the episode evolved into an interesting discussion surrounding movie adaptations and what makes them succeed or fail. Since most films these days are adaptations there was no shortage of examples to pick apart.

Let us know what you think. Is there something specific you think makes and adaptation really click, or things you think the movie studios do that ensure massive suckage?

Thanks in advance for listening, make sure to check out all the other Alberta Podcast Network shows, all powered by ATB.

Cutthroat Island

Cutthroat Island may have been a record setting flop its director and star didn't want to be a part of, but…I can't think of a positive way to end this sentence.

Yes, Cutthroat Island, the 90s action pirate movie high on explosions but low on "pirate-ness". It's the kind of painfully mediocre film made for us to sink our cutlasses into. Join the I Have Some Notes crew and guest Alyssa Nider as we stab deep into the heart of Gina Davis and Renny Harlin's first and last swash buckling blockbuster.

Side Notes - The Price is Rotten

Summer blockbuster season is upon us and we decided to play a game of movie prognostication. We looked at the remaining blockbusters to be released this summer and tried to predict what Rotten Tomatoes score each movie would receive from critics. The rules: be the closest percentage without going over, Price is Right style. You can play too, just send us a message on Twitter or Facebook with your own predictions.

We'll return to this episode in September to find out how we all did. Judging by the early buzz from the Solo: A Star Wars Story premiere, we're already VERY wrong.

We are once again joined by comedian Liam Creswick for our game of The Price is Rotten. As always, we are a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB.

Congo

1995's Congo may be the quintessential case of the book being better than the movie, we basically had a glossy of ready made fixes. Don't worry, our final solution for Congo went well beyond Michael Crichton's novel, the episode didn't turn into a book report. Not entirely, anyway.

Comedian Liam Creswick joins us for his 3rd expedition on the show to discuss lasers, talking apes and the under use of Bruce Campbell.

I Have Some Notes is part of the Alberta Podcast Network crew, powered by ATB.

Side Notes - CGI: Hero or Villain?

Sparked by an article on The Verge claiming Infinity War’s Thanos is proof CGI super villains are bad practice, the Boys Who Note have a discussion about the nature of modern computer effects. Where do they succeed? Where do they fail? Why does puppet Yoda look so much better than animated Yoda? And speaking of special effects, Colin wants you to check out sweded trailers if you have not done so already. You will not be disappointed.