#278: Fighting Spirits, Pt. 2: Mortal Kombat (2021)

The Next Picture Show

Telegraph Road Productions

Tv & Film, Film Reviews, Film History

4.6 • 819 Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2021

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The new MORTAL KOMBAT, directed by Simon McQuoid, drops a new, nobody protagonist, Cole Young, into the videogame world’s established mythology, positioning him as an outsider within a generations-spanning supernatural battle. That conceit is a big part of why we chose to pair the film with John Carpenter’s BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, but does it make for a compelling movie narrative? No, it doesn’t, and we discuss why in our debriefing on MORTAL KOMBAT, before bringing it into conversation with BIG TROUBLE to compare the two films’ respective approaches to violence and the supernatural, how they each work (or don’t) in the East-meets-West tradition of Hollywood martial arts films, and how each deploys the figure of the motormouthed antihero to very different effect. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your radar. Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, MORTAL KOMBAT, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. Your Next Picture Show: Genevieve: “Interior Chinatown” by Charles You Scott: Blake Edwards’ A SHOT IN THE DARK Tasha: Amp Wong and Zhao Ji’s WHITE SNAKE Keith: Frank Borzage’s HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT Outro music: “Mortal Kombat Anthem (Club Mix)” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Being a marketer is no sweat.
0:02.0	You just have to manage dozens of channels, launch hundreds of campaigns, score thousands of leads and...
0:06.0	Okay, fine. It's a lot of sweat.
0:08.0	Unless you have HubSpot's AI-powered marketing tools to help you do all that and more.
0:12.0	Get started at HubSpot.com slash marketers.
0:15.0	Do we really need another computer?
0:17.0	One that's faster. More powerful. Not everyone does.
0:20.0	But to reinvent music using a neural
0:22.1	processor, work off the grid with all-day battery, or bring your vision to life with AI-powered
0:26.8	co-creator, then a copilot plus PC can make a difference. A powerful AI computer is not for everyone.
0:33.3	But if you're trying to change the world, even if just your own, we built one for you. Microsoft Copilot Plus PCs powered by Snapchat, the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever.
0:43.2	Bachelor life varies with you switching settings.
0:46.6	It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present.
0:50.2	You believe that someone out of the past can enter and take possession of a living being?
0:57.0	We may be true with the past, but the past is not through with us.
1:04.3	Welcome back to the next pitcher show, a movie of the week podcast devoted to a classic film
1:08.5	and the way it's shaped our thoughts on a recent release. I'm Tasha Robinson, here again with...
1:12.7	Keith Phipps, Scott Tobias, and Genevieve Kosky.
1:16.3	On last week's show, we talked about Big Trouble and Little China, John Carpenter's 1986
1:20.6	action fantasy, which updates a weird Western into a movie that still feels a lot like a weird
1:25.4	Western, even though it swaps the familiar hero and sidekick roles. The other half of this pairing is pretty short on sidekicks.
1:31.8	Here, there are just antagonists and protagonists, warriors and monsters.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Telegraph Road Productions, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Telegraph Road Productions and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.