Movie Reviews In 20 Q’S Interview

Introduction

New Zealand

New Zealand (or Aotearoa – land of the long white cloud), truly is one of the most picturesque and photogenic places on earth. A small island nation of just over 4.5 million people, New Zealand is made up of two major land masses (North Islandand South Island) and a number of smaller islands including Stewart Island located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The two main islands are divided by a 22km stretch of water called the Cook Strait.

New Zealand is located approximately 1,500km east of Australia and about 1,000km from the Pacific Islands. Due to its relative remoteness and being water locked, New Zealand was one of the last countries to be found and settled.

The country is made up of some of the worlds most spectacular landscapes, from vast mountain ranges, steaming volcanoes to sweeping coastlines. It is a natural playground for thrill seekers and adventurers and those who simply want to visit for the culture and landscapes.

Nestled amongst the 4.5 million people are married couple Sam and Stacey Hurley the brains and brawn behind “Movie Reviews in 20 Q’s podcast”.

I made a series of telephone calls to their current Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern asking for money so that I could fly over in first class and personally interview Sam. But she didn’t return my calls. Sadly this mean I had to rely on Google email.

Their Story

What happens when you take a popular film, and ask 20 funny, poignant, or just plain weird questions about it?

Recently I interviewed the man behind this podcast one Sam Hurley to find out more about how he came up with the idea and concept behind this brilliantly funny podcast

1. How did you come up with the concept for Movie Review in 20 q’s?

I listened to a lot of movie podcasts and always wanted to do one. I had plans to do one with my good mates, who have been on the show, Spanky and Emma. But teeing up times when we were all available and in the same place would a been impossible to do on a regular basis.

When Stacey became keen we had the idea that we would do it from the different perspective of doing it as a film nerd, myself, versus her being a film newbie. Our early eps even still have this concept associated with it.

But I often don’t like things that don’t have a structure. Talking for a movie for two hours, like many other shows, without any real direction wasn’t my thing.

So I suggested we make our show different by asking 20 questions about a film.

We then made the decision that we weren’t going to ask the obvious questions, like what is this characters motivation? Or what themes resonated with you?

Instead we apporach this in a roundabout way. We ask the questions like

What character needs to get laid?

Or what aspect of the film reminds you of your everyday life?

We test recorded two episodes before we launched, Star Trek Beyond and The Fundamentals of Caring. We listened back and thought, wait… this is actually something special. So we ran with it and me, Stacey and Spanky did Ghostbusters, our first full ep.

2. How did you rope your wife Stacey into podcasting with you?

Short answer?

She got sick of me talking about doing one. I didn’t think she would be interested, and to be honey I think she was just doing the first couple to get off the ground, but here we are and she’s lasted this long.

3. Listening to you guys on the podcast it sounds like you have a lot of fun reviewing movies is it as much fun as it sounds?

We spend roughly an hour before the show working on our answers and making sure the gear is set up correctly. There’s been a lot of fights and tears in that time, mostly from me, when things don’t work like they should. And honestly it looks like everything is going to suck a fat one.

But once we hit record a switch flips and we remember why we are there. I’ve fell out of my seat laughing at answers before, and in one episode, Ant-Man and the Wasp, actually went hysterical. Only about a quarter of it is in the final recording, I was literally on the ground laughing and crying for ten minutes.

4. Who has been your favourite co-host on your 75 episodes of MRI2Q?

I love all my co-hosts equally but some are more equal than others. Like Stacey, she’s the real star of the show.

The podcast would otherwise be three dudes making the same points and same dick jokes, she brings a surreal yet normal perspective to the podcast and she often has the best answers.

5. Sam you swear a lot when you record your podcast do you swear that much in real life?

Whatthebloodyfuck? Do I? Na yeah I do, I often edit out a lot of my swearing if you can believe it. Some drunk episodes every second and third word are swear words.

6. How do you choose the movies that you review? Is there a process?

I send out a text messages about which films aare currently screening at the local cineam to see who’s interested usually. But we mainly just try to do popular films that a lot of people have seen, as it helps to have seen it. That said, we try to make our podcast as accessible as possible, and people have told us that even if they haven’t seen the film they can still listen along and get the gist of it and still have a good time, which is our intention. Often we let guests choose, but if it’s a Marvel film or whatever we will definitely do it.

7. Is there a movie that you refuse to review? If so which one?

I give a lot of grief to A Star is Born. I equally would give a lot of grief to any musical really. I’m not a fan, not sure why, they’re just not for me.

I have to say well played to one of our former guest Emily Higgins, who managed to sneak A Nightmare Before Christmas past us.

8. If your podcast was a porn movie what would it be called?

Move her Wahoo in 20 Screws

9. Are you a big Toni Collette fan?

Yep. Her and Cate Blanchette I see them as honorary kiwis in my opinion, they’re delightful.

10. If you didn’t podcast with Stacey who would you pick? Would it be Toni Collette?!

Toni would expose me for the amateur I am!

I’d love to record an ep with a couple of people. Kevin Smith would be one for reasons previously mentioned.

Also would love to get Jason, Paul or June from How Did This Get Made on, and one day I’d like to get Taika Waikiki, Lexi Alexander or Edgar Wright to chat about their films.

11. What is your favourite genre to watch?

Tough. I love Marvel films, and every Friday I watch a horror movie. I also have a thing for post apocalyptic films, sci-fi in general and thrillers.

12. Do you have a favourite director/writer whose work you admire the most?

Classically, Hitchcock or Kurosawa. More recently, Taika Waititi gets better with every movie. I’m also a big fan of Edgar Wright and the previously mentioned Kevin Smith.

But the one I most admire is Lexi Alexander

While I enjoy her films, what I really love most about her is what she does in the real world.

She’s brutally honest about the whole Hollywood concept, and life in general.

She’s actually one of the very few people on Twitter I will use my personal Twitter to search out and comment on, retweet or like.

She’s just one hell of an amazing badass who points out the double standards of situations, and doesn’t take crap from anyone.

She also also has the humility and courage to admit she’s wrong when she knows it.

The episode Punisher Warzone of How Did This Get Made, where she guests on it and talks about her film and everything that went wrong, is the podcast episode I’ve listened to the most.

13. MRI2Q’S bingo was a massive success did you know that this would be the case?

It was great from start to finish! We were both really happy with it and I always keep it in mind every time we do one now. If you want to play Movie Reviews in 20 Q’s bingo (which is highly addictive then you can print out your very own Movie Reviews in 20 Q’s bingo card below)

Movie Reviews in 20 Q's Bingo — Movie Reviews in 20 Q’s Bingo

14. Have you ever done a podcast, but then when you’ve listened to it back to edit it you’ve thought this is crap and if so have you re recorded it or abandoned it completely?

Yes, twice

For Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Arrival. Both just sucked.

We sounded like we would rather be off jamming our faces into a pot of boiling water than be there talking about them. We actually did them and Interstellar all around the same time.

We put out Interstellar but came to the conclusion that sci-fi’s don’t work as well on our podcast.

15. Is there a movie review podcast that you would like to be invited onto? If so which one is it?

Love to go on How Did This Get Made. Also been trying to tee something up with the We Watched A Thing guys for a long time. They’re good friends now and it will happen, regardless of how many times they say no. It will happen.

16. Which movies are you looking forward to reviewing in future podcasts?

All the Marvel movies. I can’t talk about Marvel enough. Plus Taika Waititi’s new film, Jojo Rabbit. Can’t wait.

17. Apart from Toni Collete who else is one of your favourite actors?

I was a massive fan of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro’s early work

Also really like Harrison Ford’s, but what kid didn’t want to be Indy or Han Solo growing up.

Recently, Hugh Jackman has been outstanding. In terms of actresses, Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett, Brie Larson and Natalie Portman always give great performances.

18. Do you think NZ film makers are the best at making movies?

We try our best with what we’ve been given. New Zealand films are very different from Hollywood or even British or Australian films. They go in directions that make people go, huh?

But I think that’s part of our sensibilities. I also think WETA is at the top of its game, and Taika is obviously one of our biggest names at the moment, maybe even bigger than Peter Jackson.

We might not make the best films, but no one can fault our effort.

19. What movie genre should Toni Collete star in next?

She can do anything. She really can. She’s done blockbusters through to indies and each time been great. I can’t think of anything truly villainous that she’s done, and there’s a villain called Moonstone in the Marvel comics that she would be great for.

Maybe the antagonist in Captain Marvel 2.

Would love to see her and Brie Larson square off against each other

20. Finally if I came to visit you guys in NZ whats the best things to see and do?

So much. If you’re into adventure or outdoors activities the list is endless.

Where we live we is right beside a surf beach, and also 45 mins from white water rafting, bungy jumping, international mountain bike tracks, and Hobbiton, where they basically filmed the Shire for Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.You get the best of both worlds with New Zealand too, our summers are hot and beaches cool, but if you’re into winter sports there’s amazing ski fields.

The best thing too is despite being so closely associated with Australia we have no snakes, crocs or spiders that want to kill you. There’s only one venomous spider and no one has been bitten by him in over 100 years so he might be a myth. Also we don’t have much in the way of sharks. It’s really a paradise here.

My thanks to Sam for taking time out to answer my questions.

In his email to me Sam has told me the following;