Episode 29: Worth Fighting For

We discuss The Two Towers, two big Pilgrim's Podcast Family revelations (one of which we reveal), the Progeny describes an identity crisis in Chinese, 1970s music, the true identity of Episode 12's Tacitus, and more in this episode of The Pilgrim's Podcast.

Episode 28: There's Some Good in This World

We come up with a name for a rock band and talk about the Patriarch's history as a Parrot Head. Also, we discuss The Two Towers, the Enlightenment, dehumanizing language, Islamic terrorism, WWI and cultural disintegration, what The Lord of the Rings has to say about foreign policy, multiculturalism, and the true nature of patriotism.

Episode 27: One Does Not Simply...

We talk about Ahmed's clock, The Fellowship of the Ring, on-screen violence, the importance of cohesive artistic vision, CGI vs. storytelling, allegory vs. myth, the dangers of urban dictionary, and (of course) whether or not the ring symbolizes Donald Trump.

Episode 26: Lies Breathed Through Silver

We talk about how much The Lord of the Rings has meant to us over the years. Also: small towns, myth, holiness, the corrosive influence of power, and rebellion against God. What does the Ring symbolize? Is there a divine agency in the story?

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - A Decent But Disappointing End to Jackson's Middle Earth Saga

My review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The most frustrating thing about the Hobbit movies is how I can't quite manage to dismiss them completely. Reading my review of the first film is an amusing, if somewhat embarrassingly effusive, flashback to when I was still optimistic about the franchise. My second review had internalized the cynicism to some extent, but was still reluctantly positive. And with the third installment, yet again, I kind of enjoyed the film.

[Spoilers]

Throughout the two and a half hour run-length of The Battle of the Five Armies, I was fighting to hate it. Part of the problem is that Peter Jackson still shows flashes of his old genius, though marred by his utter lack of restraint. The film begins with the quick, dramatic dispatching of Smaug the dragon by Bard and Bard Jr. (really Bain). This act is accomplished using a cobbled-together bow to launch a giant arrow off of Bain's shoulder. The shoulder thing was a neat idea, a great element of added personal tension, but to convince us that a makeshift bow would launch a huge arrow off a little boy's shoulder...uh, no.

Agatha Christie's Poirot - The Labours of Hercules - Episode Review

My review of last week's episode: Elephants Can Remember.

It's practically a fact of nature that if you're cooped up with a number of people in a house in the snow, someone will be dead by the end of the weekend. If a small rotund Belgian man is there, you might as well call up friends (after calling your family solicitor) and say goodbye.

Complete with the requisite creaks in the night, the latest Poirot episode, The Labours of Hercules, must have been extremely difficult to adapt. The original consisted of a dozen quirky, loosely related short-stories, which culminated in a night-club called Hell (really). The adaptation picks a few of the best elements and combines them into a charming but bittersweet tale that feels unique in all the Poirot canon. We have German psychology, a dastardly serial killer, eccentric, hilarious foreigners, gorgeous vistas in a setting reminiscent of Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel, and the return of our favorite femme fatale, Countess Vera Rossakoff (and if you don't know who that is - SHAME - watch The Double Clue.)

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Indiana Jones Hits Middle-Earth

Review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

When I walked into the theater today, I had the title of this post ready and waiting. Last year's review was entitled "A Great Adventure, But Not as Great as it Could Have Been." The second installment had already earned the tag of "Terrible, But Not as Terrible as it Could Have Been."

*Many spoilers*

It turns out I was wrong. Like the first film, The Desolation of Smaug is certainly a mixed bag, but coming up on my horrendously low expectations, it quickly soared into my good graces.

The first movie was so disappointing for several reasons: Radagast. The Goblin King. Stupid dwarf humor. Black magic. Boring visuals. Lazy, ham-fisted foreshadowing of the other films. Ridiculously large, cartoonish action sequences. Not being Lord of the Rings.

How does film two compare?