Month: January 2022

Top Blu-Rays of 2021: Ryan’s Favorite 21 Blu-Rays-Number 19 Pig

19. Pig (2021)

Choosing to leave his former life behind, a well known chef, Rob (Nicolas Cage) lives in the Oregon wilderness with his beloved truffle pig. They hunt and gather truffle’s for an up and coming restaurant supplier, Amir (Alex Wolff).

One night Rob is assaulted and his pig is stolen. Rob leaves his cabin and returns to Portland with Amir to find his pig. Along the way we learn that Rob remembers every meal he has ever prepared and uses this skill (and a few others) to find his pig.

Pig, is a revenge movie. But not in the traditional sense. Rob’s journey is one of discovery, heartbreak and violence. Again, the violence is not over the top, it serves as a way for Rob to get information about his pig. Rob actually doesn’t inflict violence on anyone, he uses his knowledge and his memory to tap into something much more visceral.

Nicolas Cage is outstanding in the film. After having to endure his over the top antics in several movies last year it was really nice letting him just be an actor er, I mean a thespian. His performance is subtle and powerful, that anchors a well told story.

I went into this movie almost oblivious to what it was about. I knew how it was sold and it doesn’t come close to how the movie plays out. I have left my review purposely broad and not too specific because you should experience this movie with as little knowledge of the film as you can, it makes it that much more impactful.

Grade: A

Pig Video Quality

Pig arrives on blu-ray finding a solid, not overwhelming video presentation. The film overall has a somewhat depressing color palette which fits the film properly, however there are some instances where the grain becomes pixelated which can be distracting. Overall, a pleasant viewing experience.

Grade: B

Pig Audio Quality

Pig squeals its way onto high definition with an impressive 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix that brings the film to incredible life. The film relies heavily on dialogue, where some of the most heartbreaking moments occur, in quiet places, making the crystal clear words that much more important. One scene delivers a couple of blows that hit the mark.

Grade: A

Pig Bonus Features

Nicolas Cage Cooks: This is one of the coolest most interesting bonus features I have watched in a long time. Broken up in two parts, Nicolas Cage works with some really talented chefs to create two dishes. First is “Three-Mushroom Tart” with Chef Chris Czarnecki, the second is “Pigeon and Pommes Anna” with Chef Gabriel Rucker. What I loved about these mini docs, is that Cage is in the middle of production of the film and is learning how to make these dishes for the film. The cameras are in the kitchen with Cage and the Chefs pull no punches. They get after him when he doesn’t prepare the dish properly, and to Cage’s credit he embraces the challenge and asks questions. A seemingly fluffy bonus feature is a great one.

Deleted Scenes

Theatrical Trailer

Overall: B+

Pig is one of the most surprising and great films of 2021. Anchored by an incredible performance by Nicolas Cage, Pig should not be missed.

Overall: A-

Show Time: A Statistical Recap of Filmsplosion 2021

Well, it’s been a few hours since Filmsplosion 2021 came out. Did you get a chance to listen to the whole thing yet? If not, don’t read the rest of this post, as we’ll be looking at all the Nerds’ Top 10 lists.

So, in putting this together, I basically assigned every movie a scored based on where it was on a Nerd’s list. If it was their #1 film, I gave it 10 points; if #2, 9 points; and so on until our #10 films received 1 point each. If it was one of the eight films that appeared on more than one list, then it has a combined score.

(In case you forgot, I did this for Filmsplosion 2019 and Filmsplosion 2020.)

Now, we’ll get to which of the eight movies had the highest average score, but first, we’ll look at the movies that scored the highest overall.

So, here are the HIGHEST SCORED MOVIES of Filmsplosion 2021:

  1. The Suicide Squad (27 points)
  2. Spider-Man: No Way Home (25)
  3. Last Night in Soho (17)
  4. TIE – Pig, No Time To Die (12)
  5. TIE – Eternals, Belfast*, The Green Knight* (10)

Of note, Belfast and The Green Knight only appeared on one list each. The two other movies that appeared on multiple lists, The Last Duel and Halloween Kills, had 8 and 6 points, respectively.

As someone who didn’t like The Suicide Squad, I’m frustrated that it beat out Spider-Man: No Way Home for the top spot in 2021. *sighs*

Unsurprisingly, if we look at these films’ average scores (total score divided by number of lists it appeared on), it doesn’t look all that different.

So, THE AVERAGE SCORES for the eight films that appear on multiple lists are:

  1. The Suicide Squad (9)
  2. Last Night in Soho (8.5)
  3. Spider-Man: No Way Home (8.3)
  4. TIE – Pig, No Time To Die (6)
  5. Eternals (5)
  6. The Last Duel (4)
  7. Halloween Kills (3)

I find it interesting that Last Night in Soho had a higher average score than Spider-Man, but I’m assuming that’s because Zach and Ryan both put it in their Top 3, while Brad sand-bagged Spider-Man at #6.

Of the 10 highest-grossing movies of 2021, in terms of domestic box office, three of them appeared on multiple lists (Spider-Man, Eternals and No Time to Die) and two of them appeared on one Nerd’s list (Shang-Chi and A Quiet Place, Part II). Looking at 11-20 at the 2021 domestic box office, five more appear in Filmsplosion 2021 (Dune, Halloween Kills, Encanto, Cruella, and Candyman).

One more thing I wanted to examine is how our selected films break down by genre. How many action movies do we have? How many dramas? Super-hero flicks? etc.

So, for this assessment, I went by each film’s most basic genre. Our choices are: animation, action, comedy, documentary, drama, and horror.

And, like the last two years, I’m also making superhero its own category because they really are becoming a genre unto themselves, much like Westerns did in the 50s and 60s.

I’m generalizing which category it’s in based on my own experience in either seeing the movie or watching the trailer, and most were pretty straightforward to categorize. In the few cases where I was uncertain, I went by which genre was listed first on its IMDB page.

So, without further ado, let’s look at the BREAKDOWN OF THE FILMSPLOSION LISTS BY GENRE:

  1. Drama (11)
  2. Horror (8)
  3. TIE – Superhero, Action (6)
  4. Comedy (4)
  5. Documentary (3)
  6. Animation (2)

Dramas lead for the third year in a row, but Horror performed much better this year than in the previous two years I’ve done these breakdowns. Animation dropped significantly, as the only two entries were on my list, and Comedies didn’t do as well as they have done in years past. Man, are we all depressed or something?

Superhero as a genre did better in 2021 than in 2020, mostly because most, if not all, the MCU and DC movies slated for 2020 were pushed to 2021. It’s about on-par with where the genre performed in 2019. In fact, I think the only big 2021 superhero movie that didn’t appear on anyone’s list was Black Widow.

Thanks to Brad, I put all the Nerds’ Filmsplosion lists below so you can see for yourselves which genre I categorized each movie as.

Give the lists a look, in case you forgot what everyone picked. I also think looking over everyone’s lists by genre is very interesting, as you can see some Nerds lean more on one genre than others. Again, not a bad thing — just something to take note of.

Zach

  1. Belfast – drama
  2. Last Night in Soho – horror
  3. Promising Young Woman – drama
  4. The Sparks Brothers – documentary
  5. Pig – drama
  6. The Tragedy of Macbeth – drama
  7. Halloween Kills – horror
  8. Judas & the Black Messiah – drama
  9. Spencer – drama
  10. The Matrix: Resurrections – action

Brad

  1. The Suicide Squad – superhero
  2. The French Dispatch – comedy
  3. Psycho Goreman – comedy
  4. Zack Snyder’s Justice League – superhero
  5. Pig – drama
  6. Spider-Man: No Way Home – superhero
  7. Sound of Metal – drama
  8. Stalker – horror
  9. Justice Team – superhero
  10. Cruella – comedy

Henry

  1. The Green Knight – drama
  2. Drive My Car – drama
  3. The Suicide Squad – superhero
  4. No Time To Die – action
  5. Woodstock 99: Peace, Love and Rage – documentary
  6. Swan Song – drama
  7. Don’t Look Up – comedy
  8. Eternals – superhero
  9. Malignant – horror
  10. Candyman – horror

Corinne

  1. Spider-Man: No Way Home – superhero
  2. Encanto – animation
  3. Dune – action
  4. Eternals – superhero
  5. Shang-Chi – superhero
  6. No Time To Die – action
  7. Wish Dragon – animation
  8. CODA – drama
  9. The Last Duel – action
  10. The King’s Man– action

Ryan

  1. Spider-Man: No Way Home – superhero
  2. The Suicide Squad – superhero
  3. Last Night in Soho – horror
  4. A Quiet Place, Part II – horror
  5. The Last Duel – action
  6. The Beatles: Get Back – documentary
  7. Mortal Kombat – action
  8. Fear Street – horror
  9. Halloween Kills – horror
  10. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City – horror

Well, that’s all I had, folks. Hope you enjoyed this statistical breakdown of the 2021 Filmsplosion episode! 🙂

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