I Have Some Notes

We're ending our 6th season in style. Tune in this Friday, July 30th at 9PM MDT for a special LIVE broadcast of I Have Some Notes. We'll be joined by guest Stephanie Chan giving notes to Wonder Woman 1984. Catch the broadcast on our YouTube Channel or our Facebook Page.

Splash! A classic 80s rom-com with a stacked cast, a fun premise, and just enough flaws to make our show. We look at removing a problematic trope, giving Tom Hanks a relevant occupation and adding more context to the fishy romance. Splash discussion starts at 00:09:53.

Say what you will about Hollywood, back in the early 2000s they really had their finger on the pulse of sci-fi fans. What they were really clamouring for was a product placement packed, extremely loose adaptation of Isaac Asimov's I, Robot. Boom. Another home run for studio execs. Speaking of home runs, we landed Olav Rokne as a guest this week. Olav returns to the show to provide some history and context surrounding Asimov's work, as well as advocate for stories of his that would have made better movies. The I, Robot discussion starts at 00:16:18.

Christopher Nolan is a wonderful filmmaker who somehow keeps landing films right in our wheelhouse. Say what you will about the man, but he is never boring. There is always good reason to analyze his films forwards and backwards. Back again to reverse engineer TENET's script is follow podcaster and time travel expert Robyn Slack! Together we unravel this pandemic blockbuster's curious directorial quirks and overcomplicated heist plot. You may have noticed we are adding some general film discussion off the top of each show, which we hope you're enjoying. However, if you'd like to skip to the TENET discussion, jump to 00:14:03.

It took us six years to get to an M. Night Shyamalan flick, but the writing was in the corn fields, as it were, we were going to get there eventually. Signs is a film made famous by its plot holes, but it is the film's philosophy that commits the greatest sin. We look to tweak the meaning of Signs to something that would speak a clearer message.

We take a break from furiously rewriting blockbusters to kick back, relax and watch some classic comedies from our youth. Did they hold up? Are they still funny? Has the evolution of our social consciousness rendered them unwatchable? Join us as we relive the comedy stylings of the 80s and 90s with Dumb & Dumber, Liar Liar, Police Academy, Basketball and UHF.

Watching mediocre to bad movies is exhaustive work, so from time to time we believe we're entitled to treat ourselves. Birds of Prey is just a genuine blast of a film that honestly doesn't deserve a place in the cannon of I Have Some Notes, but don't worry, we still find some nits to pick.  Besides, if we didn't take on Birds of Prey we would have missed out on a glorious opportunity to have Glenna Schowalter back on the show. Together we examine all of Harley Quinn's successes, as well as some of the film's darker aspects. 

Plot holes…gotta catch 'em all! This week we're joined by celebrated musician, sketch comedy artist and newly minted podcaster, Robyn Slack, to assist in training Detective Pikachu to be a better movie. We contemplate the wisdom of casting Ryan Reynolds, meddle with father and son dynamics, and try to detect a better use for all that bad gas. Enjoy!

A behemoth of a movie requires a behemoth of an episode, so strap yourself in armchair screenwriters! If you had the stamina for Zack Snyder's Justice League surely you can survive 90 minutes of us rewriting the already rewritten.  But how could we talk about Zack Synder's Justice League without bringing on two of Edmonton's biggest and brightest comic experts to help us break it all down. That's right, Brandon Schatz and Danica LeBlanc from Variant Edition return to relive the the Super Friends all over again.

Blues Brothers 2000 is our first foray into Saturday Night Live movies, and it will likely stand as the most challenging to rewrite. Dan Aykroyd gave us precious little to work with, for a movie billed as a celebration of the Blues, the script feels like the equivalent of Hot Cross Buns. But all is not lost, Robin from Cinematological joins us to try and crack the musical code of this would-be comedy. Robin also provides a follow-up to our discussion on Netflix stream quality during our Pitch Black episode.

Pitch Black is a movie I dare say most of us remember fondly. After all, it gave us Vin Diesel, and what would the movie going world be like without that living pile of muscle? But, as with every film we choose, it's far from perfect. Listen in as we explore the many ways Pitch Black lets down its secondary characters and how giving them more depth could have made this movie the Pitchest of Black.

Sometimes when I walk away from watching a film for the show I'm not certain it will turn out to be a great episode. The Da Vinci Code is kind of bland and felt like it might not be that exciting to talk about, but boy was I wrong. We had tons to say about it, so much so that the first half of the show went 10 minutes longer than usual. So enjoy our spirited attempt to fix this famous book adaptation.

Take the first draft of your script, hire an A-list cast, sprinkle in some Guy Ritchie and voila! You've got a Robin Hood. Trouble is, will anyone watch it? They might have if only they had passed the script over to us for a punch up. Sadly, no one may remember that Jamie Foxx was once in a Robin Hood movie, but you'll remember this episode for all our great fixes!

The thing you have to appreciate about a director like Baz Luhrmann is that he doesn't make boring films. Regardless of the finished product's quality, there will always be plenty to talk about. And talk we did, discussing The Great Gatsby in all its glitzy glory and bombastic faults. We did decided – rather wisely, I think – not to relitigate the plot of a classic novel, instead focusing on how Baz could have been more successful in his adaptation (hint: no 3D). Enjoy!

We've been released from our cryogenic prison blocks to bring you an all new episode of an old classic. Are movies from the 90s considered classic now? Don't say yes, I want to maintain some illusion of youth. The boys who note take a cold hard look at Sylvester Stallone's Demolition Man, sending scenes back and forward through time in hopes of generation a better movie. Also this one is chock full of your comments, apparently you had a few notes for old Sly.

Ah ha! Fooled you. You thought we were done making pod for the year, and BAM! New Side Notes! It's a Christmas miracle, if you really stretch the definition of a miracle…and we are. We got together for this bonus episode to chat about the movies, TV shows and YouTube channels that made 2020 at little more bearable for us. We realized there were way more movies released in 2020 than we thought, and that we've barely seen any of them. Most of the films we screened were the stinkers we had to watch for this show…we made that sacrifice for you, I hope you know. Anyway, have a happy and safe holiday and we'll see you soon in the new year!

Skyscraper, finally! Yes, I know we're late on this one, sometimes life gets in the way of rewriting Hollywood blockbusters with friends. However, the show is here now, and we want to thank you (sort of) for suggesting Dwayne Johnson's ode to Die Hard, and for all the other great movie suggestions that we'll keep them in mind for future episodes. Speaking of future episodes, this is our last show of 2020. Unfortunately I (Gregg) am too swamped at my day job to produce more shows this year, so we're taking our holiday break early. Normally I would summarize the episode here, but I just want to take a moment to sincerely thank everyone for listening, it's been a tough year and making the show and getting all your input on these mediocre films has been one of the few bright spots. So, until 2021, stay healthy, stay safe, and keep watching the skies.

Christine is not a movie about a talking car, that's the first thing I learned watching it. It is a John Carpenter film. And while his skilled fingerprints are all over this movie, overall this vehicular horror could use some tuning up. Glenna Schowalter joins us again for a ride down Armchair Screenwriter Lane, helping us re-imagine the themes floating around the spookem infested car known as Christine.

We recently watched two heavy social media related documentaries, The Social Dilemma and Feels Good Man, both of which left us jonesing to work out our feelings about. Sorry, we don’t offer any fixes for the giant mess Mr. Zuckerberg has made, that’s a bit outside our wheelhouse. We do, however, dive deep into the social and political ramifications of his software and how Facebook, along with many other companies, shape our everyday lives for good and for ill.

Venom is good…actually? Sure there's a serious lack of Spider-man, and there's at least 40-minutes of pointless globetrotting, but overall we have to admit this film is pretty fun. Of course, that doesn't mean we didn't find plenty to tweak. I mean, the titular symbiote has some real motivation problems, and Riz Ahmed needs a better relationship with his new genocidal alien buddy Riot. No amount of fun can stand in the way of our movie meddling, and we do it all with fan favourite guest, Danica LeBlanc!