I Have Some Notes
147 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 years ago - ★★★★ - 9 ratingsJoin Liam Creswick, Gregg Beever, and Scott C. Bourgeois as they examine Hollywood's most mediocre movies and attempt to rewrite a better film. How could the Man of Steel be less of a Man of Heel? What could Ghostbusters II have done to make bustin' feel good again? What could have made Star Trek: Generations a film for a…generation? All these answers and more on I HAVE SOME NOTES!
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Episodes
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
June 27, 2022 05:34 - 1 hour - 134 MBSeason finale we have reached. Fix A bad movie, we will. It’s been seven seasons of playing armchair screenwriter on this show, but I dare say no movie has evoked as much emotion and exasperation as The Rise of Skywalker. A deeply flawed movie from start to finish, no director has earned a place on this podcast quite like J.J. Abrams. As we mention in the show, you all came through big on your fixes for this one, and we sadly could not get to them all. However, we did want to highlight tw...
Ocean’s 8
June 13, 2022 04:03 - 54 minutes - 76.3 MBDanica LeBlanc, Anita Bourgeois, and Erin Beever are back for another podcast takeover, and this time they've brought IHSN veteran Glenna Schowalter with them! The movie? 2018's women-led heist extravaganza, OCEAN'S EIGHT. Together the takeover team works out a new conniving angle for Anne Hathaway's character, as well as adding some much-needed tension when the thieving is at its peak.
Cloud Atlas
May 30, 2022 03:48 - 1 hour - 85.9 MBCloud Atlas is an ambitious film about the ties that bind us through the passage of time. It is thoughtful and expertly edited. Does it deserve to be picked apart in the traditional I Have Some Notes fashion? Probably not. However, you suggested and voted for it, and we're not in the habit of disappointing our listeners. While there are some obvious problematic choices the Wachowskis and company make that could be very easily cleaned up, many of our other notes are more of the picking nits ...
Cruella
May 16, 2022 03:08 - 54 minutes - 76.3 MBFor our 101st movie fix, Cruella, because here at I Have Some Notes we allow numerical coincidence to dictate the show. In all honesty, Cruella was a pretty good time. It wasn't the least notes we've given to a film, but it was certainly close. Still, the lore of the film was hotly contested, making this a fun episode.
100 Movie Fixes! Batman
May 09, 2022 05:13 - 1 hour - 105 MBWe have officially fixed 100 movies, and still no calls from any Hollywood execs. This is a free service we're providing here, you'd think they'd at least reach out and say "thank you", especially on our 100th movie birthday. One person we would like to thank is Colin MacIntyre, this show's original host, for returning for this momentous occasion. Believe me, it isn't easy watching mediocre movie after mediocre movie and to hit the century mark really feels Herculean to us, and Colin was a ...
Side Notes - Our Movie Pitches
April 21, 2022 19:38 - 1 hour - 114 MBYou've heard us talk about fixing a lot of movies, how about our own movie pitches? We've got great ideas, but Hollywood isn't returning our calls, so now we're giving them away for free! Returning guest Robyn Slack of the Quantum Kickflip podcast joins us to pitch some wholly original movies, except the ones that are pitches for existing properties…then they're just mostly original.
Robot Jox
April 04, 2022 03:53 - 56 minutes - 78.6 MBRobot Jox spent its budget on some cutting-edge special effects for 1989, and not much else. While the giant mechs looked great, the robot choreography itself was a bit dull. But that aside we found plenty of other easy wins to punch up this B-movie classic. Olav Rokne (of the Hugo Book Club Blog fame) returns for this sci-fi romp! He lends his insights into the genre as well as sharing stories about one of the screenwriters, who he knows personally.
Robocop (2014)
March 21, 2022 00:08 - 1 hour - 84.7 MBA classic 80s character is stripped apart and rebuilt by the modern-day Hollywood machine. Robocop may not have been the most cynical of reboot cash grabs, but it certainly missed many of the opportunities it set up for itself. That's where we jump in to reprogram some of the film's themes and attempt to add some contemporary pathos to a script ironically lacking humanity.
Big Daddy
March 07, 2022 02:57 - 1 hour - 89 MBIf you grew up in the 90s Adam Sandler probably had a large influence on your sense of humour. He likely did not have a large influence on you as an eventual parent, however. While Big Daddy was certainly a more "mature" turn for Sandler at the time, his childish instincts prevented it from being a really touching comedy about fatherhood. Speaking of fatherhood, German Villegas of the Modern Manhood podcast joins us this week. The entire upcoming season of Modern Manhood is all about child ...
Highlander II: The Quickening
February 22, 2022 02:17 - 1 hour - 84.4 MBHighlander II was so efficient at burning the goodwill of its fanbase George Lucas took it as a personal challenge, and that's how we got The Phantom Menace. We're not exactly Hollywood historians around here, but we're pretty sure that's how it went down. For some reason, the minds behind Highlander thought the best way to continue the story of a 500-year-old sword-fighting immortal with a rich background, not even Forrest Gump could hold a bucket of shrimp up to by making him an alien who...
Eternals
February 08, 2022 02:13 - 1 hour - 93.5 MBWe're diving back into the MCU once again for Marvel's Studios The Eternals, a film rich in characters and short on development. The Note-ernals take passes at spreading the dense plot out over two films as well as dropping an entire sub-plot to make a more breathable single film. We also find an interesting twist on the main villain that would have been far more thematically relevant.
Armageddon
January 25, 2022 00:38 - 1 hour - 86.3 MBOne good asteroid movie deserves another, we always say. For the second time in a row, we're tackling a planet-killing plot device, this time of the Michael Bay variety. Truly there was one simple fix to this oil-riggers-in-space fantasy, and we happened upon it quite quickly. However, we do spend a great deal of time taking shots at Michael, even as Liam is trying to get us to talk about what we liked about the movie.
Don’t Look Up
January 10, 2022 04:20 - 1 hour - 103 MBNot since our Interstellar episode have we spent more time praising a film than giving it notes. Don't Look Up may have been polarizing with audiences, but for the hosts of this show, it was a unanimous thumbs-up. We may have only found a few things to tweak, but that didn't stop us from having a lively discussion about what the film wanted to accomplish and why. This was a fun one, enjoy!
Side Notes: Favourites & Disappointments of 2020/21
December 22, 2021 03:46 - 1 hour - 122 MBWe typically use our last show in December to sum up the best and worst movies of the year. However, we skipped the tradition last year and, thanks to a certain mutating virus, haven't been able to see all the films we would have liked in 2021. So instead we decided to talk about our favourites and least favourites of the pandemics era. Also, we spend about 20 minutes complaining about a Spider-man movie we haven't seen yet. That's a thing that happened. Thanks for sticking with us another ...
Love Actually
December 06, 2021 04:24 - 1 hour - 97.4 MBLove Actually is every kind of romantic comedy you want it to be. It’s got star-crossed lovers, it’s got love triangles and it’s even got your classic 90s style sex romp. Anita Bourgeois of The Read-Along joins us to sift through an actual plethora of love stories in an attempt to fix them all.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
November 21, 2021 22:55 - 1 hour - 104 MBKingsman: The Golden Circle is a deeply flawed film, which should make it the perfect fodder for our show, but can it be too flawed? Matthew Vaughn really stretched our capacity and desire to reimagine his movie, to the point that Liam felt the need to apologize to previous films we've given notes to. Thankfully Evan MacDonald from Kino Lefter stopped by to help. With our combined notes, we explore deleting the resurrection of Colin Firth, eliminating the weird drug plot, and generally givi...
Sucker Punch
November 08, 2021 04:09 - 1 hour - 98.9 MBHowever you feel about Zack Snyder, there is no denying he is a rich vein for movie podcasts such as ours. In fact, Man of Steel was the movie that inspired the creation of this show. While we've mined the depths of his DC offerings, listener Andrew Craig asked us to take a swing at Snyder's most polarizing film, Sucker Punch. Liam, Scott, and Gregg look to add contrast and connective tissue between the dream sequences while failing – as Zack did – to add more meaning to the film's central ...
Side Notes: What Makes Good Creepy Cinema?
October 25, 2021 00:20 - 1 hour - 94.8 MBHorror aficionado Glenna Schowalter joins us for a deep dive into the genre exploring what makes it tick. Is it the suspense? The scares? The atmosphere? The inventive R-rated kills? It will vary from person to person, to be sure, but this was an extremely fun episode discussing what we look for in a good horror flick. Let us know if you would like to hear more genre deep dives.
Event Horizon
October 17, 2021 00:29 - 56 minutes - 79 MBPaul W.S. Anderson had to wait an extra week for our Event Horizon episode, but we promise, Paul, it was worth the wait. Big thanks for Olav Rokne for saving our skin at the 11th hour, subbing in for Scott C. Bourgeois who was not available to record. Together we make minor tweaks to a flawed, yet charming sci-fi horror. A change in motivation here, a removal of a text crawl there. I'd say Paul got off easy.
Charlie‘s Angels (2019)
September 27, 2021 02:20 - 1 hour - 84.1 MBThe all listener curated season continues, and for some reason you picked Charlie's Angels (2019). I love you, listeners, even if I don't understand you. Thankfully, Glenna Schowalter of Quantum Kickflip fame returns to help the Altoids go down a little smoother (that's a funny reference to the movie, you'll just have to trust me). Together we shuffle around the plot twists, add some character conflict and remove weird and unneeded restraining devices.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
September 13, 2021 04:07 - 1 hour - 110 MBSeason 7 is here! Every movie this season will be chosen by you the listener, and for our season opener Chris on Twitter has selected for us SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY. Prequels are hard, and prequels of cool but relatively thin secondary characters are even harder. With the help of returning guest Robin Slack (Quantum Kickflip) we jettison some unneeded back story, merge two weak characters, and beef up Lando's love of robots.
Wonder Woman 1984 - LIVE!
August 20, 2021 03:18 - 1 hour - 106 MBA recording of our season ending live show with special guest Stephanie Chan! With Steph's help, we took Wonder Woman 1984's gnarly script and created something hella bodacious. Apologies for some of the rare digital compression noises, the audio is lifted directly from the live stream.
ANNOUNCEMENT: Live Broadcast Friday, July 30 @ 9PM MDT
July 25, 2021 16:52 - 2 minutes - 4.15 MBWe're ending our 6th season in style. Tune in this Friday, July 30th at 9PM MDT for a special LIVE broadcast of I Have Some Notes. We'll be joined by guest Stephanie Chan giving notes to Wonder Woman 1984. Catch the broadcast on our YouTube Channel or our Facebook Page.
Splash
July 12, 2021 04:10 - 1 hour - 87.9 MBSplash! A classic 80s rom-com with a stacked cast, a fun premise, and just enough flaws to make our show. We look at removing a problematic trope, giving Tom Hanks a relevant occupation and adding more context to the fishy romance. Splash discussion starts at 00:09:53.
I, Robot
June 28, 2021 04:03 - 1 hour - 89.9 MBSay what you will about Hollywood, back in the early 2000s they really had their finger on the pulse of sci-fi fans. What they were really clamouring for was a product placement packed, extremely loose adaptation of Isaac Asimov's I, Robot. Boom. Another home run for studio execs. Speaking of home runs, we landed Olav Rokne as a guest this week. Olav returns to the show to provide some history and context surrounding Asimov's work, as well as advocate for stories of his that would have mad...
TENET
June 14, 2021 04:40 - 1 hour - 109 MBChristopher Nolan is a wonderful filmmaker who somehow keeps landing films right in our wheelhouse. Say what you will about the man, but he is never boring. There is always good reason to analyze his films forwards and backwards. Back again to reverse engineer TENET's script is follow podcaster and time travel expert Robyn Slack! Together we unravel this pandemic blockbuster's curious directorial quirks and overcomplicated heist plot. You may have noticed we are adding some general film di...
Signs
June 02, 2021 04:21 - 1 hour - 86.3 MBIt took us six years to get to an M. Night Shyamalan flick, but the writing was in the corn fields, as it were, we were going to get there eventually. Signs is a film made famous by its plot holes, but it is the film's philosophy that commits the greatest sin. We look to tweak the meaning of Signs to something that would speak a clearer message.
Side Notes: Comedy Redux
May 17, 2021 02:13 - 53 minutes - 74.1 MBWe take a break from furiously rewriting blockbusters to kick back, relax and watch some classic comedies from our youth. Did they hold up? Are they still funny? Has the evolution of our social consciousness rendered them unwatchable? Join us as we relive the comedy stylings of the 80s and 90s with Dumb & Dumber, Liar Liar, Police Academy, Basketball and UHF.
Birds of Prey
May 03, 2021 03:24 - 1 hour - 106 MBWatching mediocre to bad movies is exhaustive work, so from time to time we believe we're entitled to treat ourselves. Birds of Prey is just a genuine blast of a film that honestly doesn't deserve a place in the cannon of I Have Some Notes, but don't worry, we still find some nits to pick. Besides, if we didn't take on Birds of Prey we would have missed out on a glorious opportunity to have Glenna Schowalter back on the show. Together we examine all of Harley Quinn's successes, as well as ...
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu
April 19, 2021 01:42 - 1 hour - 114 MBPlot holes…gotta catch 'em all! This week we're joined by celebrated musician, sketch comedy artist and newly minted podcaster, Robyn Slack, to assist in training Detective Pikachu to be a better movie. We contemplate the wisdom of casting Ryan Reynolds, meddle with father and son dynamics, and try to detect a better use for all that bad gas. Enjoy!
Zack Snyder's Justice League
April 05, 2021 02:12 - 1 hour - 120 MBA behemoth of a movie requires a behemoth of an episode, so strap yourself in armchair screenwriters! If you had the stamina for Zack Snyder's Justice League surely you can survive 90 minutes of us rewriting the already rewritten. But how could we talk about Zack Synder's Justice League without bringing on two of Edmonton's biggest and brightest comic experts to help us break it all down. That's right, Brandon Schatz and Danica LeBlanc from Variant Edition return to relive the the Super Fr...
Blues Brothers 2000
March 22, 2021 04:32 - 1 hour - 92.2 MBBlues Brothers 2000 is our first foray into Saturday Night Live movies, and it will likely stand as the most challenging to rewrite. Dan Aykroyd gave us precious little to work with, for a movie billed as a celebration of the Blues, the script feels like the equivalent of Hot Cross Buns. But all is not lost, Robin from Cinematological joins us to try and crack the musical code of this would-be comedy. Robin also provides a follow-up to our discussion on Netflix stream quality during our Pit...
Pitch Black
March 08, 2021 02:58 - 58 minutes - 81.5 MBPitch Black is a movie I dare say most of us remember fondly. After all, it gave us Vin Diesel, and what would the movie going world be like without that living pile of muscle? But, as with every film we choose, it's far from perfect. Listen in as we explore the many ways Pitch Black lets down its secondary characters and how giving them more depth could have made this movie the Pitchest of Black.
Da Vinci Code
February 22, 2021 03:12 - 1 hour - 85.7 MBSometimes when I walk away from watching a film for the show I'm not certain it will turn out to be a great episode. The Da Vinci Code is kind of bland and felt like it might not be that exciting to talk about, but boy was I wrong. We had tons to say about it, so much so that the first half of the show went 10 minutes longer than usual. So enjoy our spirited attempt to fix this famous book adaptation.
Robin Hood
February 07, 2021 23:09 - 57 minutes - 80.4 MBTake the first draft of your script, hire an A-list cast, sprinkle in some Guy Ritchie and voila! You've got a Robin Hood. Trouble is, will anyone watch it? They might have if only they had passed the script over to us for a punch up. Sadly, no one may remember that Jamie Foxx was once in a Robin Hood movie, but you'll remember this episode for all our great fixes!
The Great Gatsby (2013)
January 25, 2021 05:11 - 58 minutes - 80.8 MBThe thing you have to appreciate about a director like Baz Luhrmann is that he doesn't make boring films. Regardless of the finished product's quality, there will always be plenty to talk about. And talk we did, discussing The Great Gatsby in all its glitzy glory and bombastic faults. We did decided – rather wisely, I think – not to relitigate the plot of a classic novel, instead focusing on how Baz could have been more successful in his adaptation (hint: no 3D). Enjoy!
Demolition Man
January 11, 2021 04:12 - 1 hour - 88.1 MBWe've been released from our cryogenic prison blocks to bring you an all new episode of an old classic. Are movies from the 90s considered classic now? Don't say yes, I want to maintain some illusion of youth. The boys who note take a cold hard look at Sylvester Stallone's Demolition Man, sending scenes back and forward through time in hopes of generation a better movie. Also this one is chock full of your comments, apparently you had a few notes for old Sly.
Side Notes - The Movies/Show That Helped Us Survive 2020
December 24, 2020 18:24 - 1 hour - 85.7 MBAh ha! Fooled you. You thought we were done making pod for the year, and BAM! New Side Notes! It's a Christmas miracle, if you really stretch the definition of a miracle…and we are. We got together for this bonus episode to chat about the movies, TV shows and YouTube channels that made 2020 at little more bearable for us. We realized there were way more movies released in 2020 than we thought, and that we've barely seen any of them. Most of the films we screened were the stinkers we had to ...
Skyscaper
November 06, 2020 02:22 - 1 hour - 98.3 MBSkyscraper, finally! Yes, I know we're late on this one, sometimes life gets in the way of rewriting Hollywood blockbusters with friends. However, the show is here now, and we want to thank you (sort of) for suggesting Dwayne Johnson's ode to Die Hard, and for all the other great movie suggestions that we'll keep them in mind for future episodes. Speaking of future episodes, this is our last show of 2020. Unfortunately I (Gregg) am too swamped at my day job to produce more shows this year, ...
Christine
October 20, 2020 03:43 - 1 hour - 84 MBChristine is not a movie about a talking car, that's the first thing I learned watching it. It is a John Carpenter film. And while his skilled fingerprints are all over this movie, overall this vehicular horror could use some tuning up. Glenna Schowalter joins us again for a ride down Armchair Screenwriter Lane, helping us re-imagine the themes floating around the spookem infested car known as Christine.
Side Notes: The Social Dilemma & Feels Good Man
October 05, 2020 04:10 - 1 hour - 92.1 MBWe recently watched two heavy social media related documentaries, The Social Dilemma and Feels Good Man, both of which left us jonesing to work out our feelings about. Sorry, we don’t offer any fixes for the giant mess Mr. Zuckerberg has made, that’s a bit outside our wheelhouse. We do, however, dive deep into the social and political ramifications of his software and how Facebook, along with many other companies, shape our everyday lives for good and for ill.
Venom
September 21, 2020 03:48 - 1 hour - 97.2 MBVenom is good…actually? Sure there's a serious lack of Spider-man, and there's at least 40-minutes of pointless globetrotting, but overall we have to admit this film is pretty fun. Of course, that doesn't mean we didn't find plenty to tweak. I mean, the titular symbiote has some real motivation problems, and Riz Ahmed needs a better relationship with his new genocidal alien buddy Riot. No amount of fun can stand in the way of our movie meddling, and we do it all with fan favourite guest, Da...
Dungeons & Dragons
September 09, 2020 03:13 - 1 hour - 101 MBSeptember marks the beginning of season six of I Have Some Notes. Six seasons, where does the time go? What is time? I seriously don't know anymore. Speaking of milestones, we pass 100 episodes like three shows ago and didn't even mention it. Acknowledging significant milestones is for suckers. Anyway, for the 104th episode *party streamers* we watched DUNGEONS & DRAGONS with our wonderful guest and D&D expert Glenna Schowalter. It's the kind of movie that takes gleeful pride in making all...
The Old Guard
August 24, 2020 03:32 - 1 hour - 91.4 MBThe Old Guard is a pretty decent movie…there, the end, no need to listen to the show! I suppose if you missed the dulcet tones of our voices, we’ve got some tweaks that might be fun to consider. Gregg adds a new sentimental brotherly subplot, Scott sends Nile into the arms of the villains in the first act and Liam eliminates the TV pilot-esque stinger. Special thanks to Deja for providing research on this film for us. He dug up all sorts of great tidbits including the fact that the post-pro...
X-Men: Dark Phoenix
August 10, 2020 02:37 - 1 hour - 103 MBA listener recently asked if we've done an X-Men film yet, and we thought to ourselves: Wow, what an excellent untapped franchise! Of course, what better film for us to tackle than the worst one. This could be our last stand, friends. Liam, Scott, Gregg and special guest Olav Rokne take their first class in X-Men, united by the franchises' potential future, haunted by its past. Together we look to stave off the screenplay apocalypse and attempt to resurrect Dark Phoenix.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
July 27, 2020 02:56 - 1 hour - 88.4 MBIndiana Jones, beloved cultural icon and with a fan base that spans generations, surely suggesting rewrites to a sacred franchise will go over well on the internet. Liam, Scott and Gregg struggle mightily with trying to fix the character of Willie Scott, while finding a bit of an easier time eliminating the films offensive elements. The end result is a reimagined story that belongs in a museum.
Tron: Legacy
July 13, 2020 04:32 - 1 hour - 88.1 MBWe're back from a brief hiatus! Hope the armchair screenwriting community got along without us, we certainly missed you. This week we're programming updates for the TRON: LEGACY, Walt Disney's attempt to cash in on a property that made almost no money the first time around. Sounds like a great business strategy to us! We spend time tweaking the villain, adding conflict for the main characters, and building a new plot device to beef up the secondary characters. Tune to the episode then let ...
Programming Note
June 15, 2020 03:40 - 2 minutes - 3.52 MBSorry, everyone, the newest episode has been postponed. In the wake of the horrific murder of George Floyd and the massive protests that followed, now doesn’t feel like the time to riff on mediocre movies, so we’re kicking the Tron Legacy episode down the road a bit. We’ll be back soon, but in the meantime, if you are looking for ways to listen, learn, and participate in the fights against systemic racism, here are some things you can do. On the listen and learning side you can start right...
Dante's Peak
June 01, 2020 02:02 - 46 minutes - 64.8 MBAt the height of their careers, Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton joined forces for an explosive disaster movie that had all the trappings of a certified hit. Unfortunately the box office did not agree, and this rather decent volcano flick has laid dormant ever since. Untill now! We power up our script rewriting robot and attempt to pull Dante's Peak out of the rubble.
Alita: Battle Angel
May 25, 2020 14:58 - 58 minutes - 81.5 MBJames Cameron spent years trying to put a live action version of Alita: Battle Angel up on the silver screen, and once he finally did it took us less than an hour to tell him all the things he could have done better. Sorry James, such is the nature of the internet, eventually three white guys with microphones are going to unnecessarily disassemble all your good work. Truthfully though, Alita is not a bad film, and while we put it through our notes process, most of our proposed changes revol...