Twilight Zone Favorites: CFQ Spotlight Podcast 2:43.1

The Twilight ZoneDespite a trailer that features Santa Claus being shot out of the sky, a stop-motion animated sequence, a baby so stoned that it can crawl on the ceiling, and Neil Patrick Harris insisting he’s straight, we weren’t secure enough in A VERY HAROLD & KUMAR 3D CHRISTMAS’ genre bona-fides to dedicate an entire episode to it. So instead, Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French and Dan Persons reached some fifty-years deep into the vault to take a look at a television institution whose credentials are unassailable: Rod Serling’s THE TWILIGHT ZONE.
Come join Steve, Larry, and Dan as they each pick an episode (all of which are available on Netflix Instant View) to celebrate, compare and contrast, and discover in the selections legendary screenwriters, top-level acting talent, a penchant for creeping paranoia, and the tubbiest alien invaders ever.
Also in this episode: A discussion of the CG animated film PUSS IN BOOTS and Pedro Almodovar’s THE SKIN I LIVE IN, both starring Antonio Banderas. Plus: What’s coming in theaters.


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In Time: CFQ Spotlight Podcast 2:42.1

Running Time: Amanda Seyfried and Justin Timberlake live the fugitive life in IN TIME.
Running Time: Amanda Seyfried and Justin Timberlake live the fugitive life in IN TIME.

A world where everyone remains young and pretty forever? No, it’s not the CW prime-time schedule, it’s IN TIME, Andrew Niccol’s latest weaving of science-fiction speculation and wry social commentary. Imagining a civilization in which time literally is money — minutes, hours, days are earned and spent, the poor living a genuine day-to-day existence while the rich are practically immortal — Niccol casts Amanda Seyfried and Justin Timberlake as a two souls from the opposite sides of the time-line who decide to right what they see as an inequitable system, by violent means, if necessary.
Theofantastique.com‘s John W. Morehead joins Cinefantastique Online’s Dan Persons to look at how Niccol — who here produces, writes, and directs — brings this curious scenario to the screen, and discuss whether Occupy Wall Street should take time out from their protests in order to catch a screening.
Also: Dan delivers his verdict on the latest entry from the Shrekiverse, PUSS IN BOOTS.