Episode 204 – Lucy (2014)

“Looooothy!! What crazy hijinks you up to now, huh? Did you go and super-evolve your brain and develop god-like powers on the night I’m bringing Caesar Romero over for dinner?”
“Waaaaahhhh, Rickyyyyy! I went and perpetuated a false scientific theory that’s been disproved multiple times! Waaaahhhh!!!”

Now THAT would have been a film for the ages . . .  but sadly our final entry in “Focus On: Scarlett Johansson” does not follow my brilliant concept but does give us both Ms. Johansson AND Morgan Freeman and if you could bottle their combined voices and sell them, you’d have the world’s newest super-drug. Luc Besson, the man who gave us “Fifth Element,” “Taken,” and “The Professional” tackles the speculative fiction concept: given that we only use 10% of our brains, what would happen to someone whose brain suddenly began evolving to the point where she could use 100% of her mental potential? TL;DR – nothing, because that whole “we only use 10% of our brain” thing has been proven to be nonsense time and time again (with the exception of Bumpy who uses a percentage of his brain that is too small to be measured by any current scientific equipment). But if we can get past this rather large “I call no way!” aspect, is this movie fun to watch, given the cast and the director? Give a listen; you’ll barely have to use 2% of your brain to follow along.

Poll question: what’s an older movie that you enjoy that could just NOT get made today?

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3 thoughts on “Episode 204 – Lucy (2014)”

  1. I could not stand this movie and Mike in particular covered many of the reasons for that. I agree that it could have been split into two separate interesting films – but it wasn’t. Luc Besson is such a mixed bag. You both mentioned a couple of the really good films but he also made “Valerian and the city of 1000 Planets” and “The extraordinary adventures of Adèle Blanc-sec” the latter of which involves a pterosaur.

    Quite a few films I can think of wouldn’t be made today. the silent film “Pandora’s Box” has never really been remade even though its a heralded classic. It also involves a woman who is sleeping with nearly everyone in her life including the father of one and the ending is still shocking to this day and there just doesn’t seem a way to handle it in a way modern audiences can get behind. The two others I am sure others will mention are “Blazing Saddles” and “Life of Brian”. “Brian” was hugely controversial when it came out and religious right was no where near as powerful then as now and today they are heavily armed as well. I would count on violence if it was made today.

    1. I really wanted to like “Valerian.” I even bought it recently to give it another chance. There’s just nothing there. It’s VERY pretty to look at and that’s it.

      I was really surprised that you were the first and only listener to mention “Life of Brian.” Seems such an obvious choice. “Blazing Saddles” was a favorite.

      Thanks, Vince! We always love hearing from you!

      1. I really wanted to like Valerian to and tried not to be too picky but OMG my eye started rolling right from the opening and they finally rolled right out of my head and into another room to watch something else. The visuals were stunning but that waste of effects talent made it worse for me! I saw Life Of brian the first weekend because the church was threatening to try and kill. 80% of the line to get in was unsuccessful and priests trying ot see it before it was put on the banned list!

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