The Monte Hall Effect

By: Tim Lloyd Tola Marts
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  • Summary

  • Tim Lloyd and Tola Marts are two leaders in the Seattle aerospace community with over forty years of experience between them dealing with aerospace and high tech issues. They're also avid film buffs, and in each podcast they'll take a different science fiction film and discuss three key facets: *Science: How well do the scientific ideas in the film reflect real science. *Fiction: Do the film's plot and characterization take the viewer on a fun or intriguing journey? And… *Film: Does the movie make the most of cinematography, so that it works better in conveying its ideas than it would in a book, or graphic novel, or play? At the end of each podcast they’ll give the film a percentage ratings for each of those facets. NOTE: there will be spoilers for the film being discussed, but they will try to keep spoilers for other films to a minimum. The podcast theme music- intro and outro- is written and performed by Guy Ellis, and more of his music can be found at https://soundcloud.com/gu42 and https://www.facebook.com/cloudcoverband/.
    © 2024 The Monte Hall Effect
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Episodes
  • 13: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

    13: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
    May 24 2024
    Tola and Tim are joined by our wonderful editor, Paul, to discuss the 1984 cult classic, "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension." Featuring an all-star cast including Jeff Goldblum as one of the least-weird characters, Robocop's Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd as John Bigbooté, Yakov Smirnoff, Ellen Barkin, Clancy Brown, and many more, this film was either a labor of love or made of cocaine...or all of the above! Tola and Tim address important questions like, can you drive a jet-powered car at 400 mph through a mountain, while Paul brings his musical expertise to questions like, what does a piccolo trombone sound like, and can you really play two saxophones at the same time? Final Score: Science 28%, Fiction 63%, Film 63%. Next up: Dune, Part 2! Special Guest: Paul Zastrow.
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    1 hr and 30 mins
  • 12: Aniara

    12: Aniara
    Mar 8 2024
    The boys talk “Call Your Boyfriend,” ABBA, The Swedish Chef, tasty pastries, the best dates to visit Minnesota, “The Rapture,” bleak (and unwatchable?) movies from Scandinavian directors, "Funny Games" (grrrrrr...), misunderstood "happy" endings, Avenue 5, Silent Spring, the cold calculus of actual human colonization, "A City on Mars" by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, the genetically perfect progeny of the oligarchy, yet more orbital mechanics (Tola rants about the plane of the ecliptic), getting straight to the existential horror, spaceships and colonies likely being more cramped than we realize, space being really big, but Mars not being really all that far away, the brilliant future of AI as a copyright and/or classroom cheating enabler, ignorance of the constellation of Lyra, Tola's requisite sailing reference, Chekhov's algae, the entropic nature of complex systems, "Aurora" by Kim Stanley Robinson, differing access to crayons, the profundity of William Shatner, an epic AI mike drop, Jayne Cobb's workout regimen, cults, giant space orgies that are not as much fun as they sound, the relative ease of interplanetary communication, the death of hope, random sci-fi puzzle boxes, confusion versus wonder, paying horribly for carrying even a small measure of optimism, failure cascades, the false dichotomy of saving Earth vs reaching for the stars, "Children of Men," being careful about what we watch and read in the middle of the night, space trying to kill you, the Lars von Trier oeuvre (h/t Brian Kamman!) and much more – all while taking in a movie based on an epic, book-length poem from Swedish Nobel laureate Harry Martinson. Content Warning: at several points we discuss the topic of suicide, which also factors into the plot of the film. If you are in crisis and need to talk to someone, text HOME to 741741 (in the US) for free help from a counselor. Thanks again to Paul Zastrow for sound editing this episode. Final score: Science (78%), Fiction (93%), Film (90%). Next up: "Buckaroo Banzai" as a palate cleanser! (re-posted 3/12/24)
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    1 hr and 31 mins
  • 11: Snowpiercer

    11: Snowpiercer
    Feb 11 2024
    In this episode the guys join the future Captain America, the former archangel Gabriel, the future Kim Ki-taek, the former Caligula, and the former Gene Kranz as they circumnavigate a frozen Earth in Bong Joon-Ho's 2013 Snowpiercer. They explore the mysteries of apex predators vs. reindeer, the merits of late- or post-capitalistic societies and meritocracies on a moving platform, the dangers of engineering's ability to (inadvertently) cause bigger problems than it solves, the late, lamented P.J. O'Rourke on El Salvador, cannibalism, the dangers of poor railway maintenance, the expectations of Anne McCaffrey's Pern series (if it ever came to the screen), science fiction poetry (Swedish and otherwise) and the late author Harry Martinson. Special thanks to Paul Zastrow for sound editing this episode. Final score: Science 78%, Fiction 83%, Film 95% Next up: the boys get arty and existential with 2018's Aniara.
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    1 hr and 25 mins

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