End Credits Show Notes for Thursday October 12, 2017

This week’s panel on End Credits has seen things you people wouldn’t believe… We have not seen attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, and we haven’t watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate, but we did watch Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 back-to-back. We’ll look at the lessons we learned from what is arguably Ridley Scott’s greatest film, and how they apply to Denis Villeneuve’s audacious follow-up that dares to go where no filmmaker has gone before. Or is that another franchise?

This Thursday, October 12, at 10 am, Adam A. Donaldson with Candice Lepage will discuss:

1) Blade Re-Runner. Before diving into this week’s review, it behooves us to revisit not just the film that formed the basis for a sequel 35 years later, but a film that ended up inspiring science fiction film, TV, books, and games for over three decades and counting. Directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, then hot off his dual franchise roles in Star Wars and Indiana Jones, Blade Runner was a complex and daring film vision, one that’s been dissected and recycled by many filmmakers both great and no-so great over the years. We’ll revisit the original Blade Runner, discuss its enduring appeal, and how its themes that still fuel dreams of electric sheep.

REVIEW: Blade Runner 2049 (2017). With this film, Denis Villeneuve dared to lasso a sacred cow and managed to find himself equal to the enterprise. The director of Arrival and Sicario teams up with fellow Canadian Ryan Gosling to pick up the story of Blade Runner set 30 years after the original, and they dared to not just match the cult classic, but surpass it. Bolstered by a great cast, including the returning Harrison Ford, and featuring the fantastic visuals of cinematographer Roger Deakins, 2049 is easily the best-looking movie of the year, but will it stand the test of time along side Scott’s Blade Runner? Time, and this week’s show, will tell.