Pop Culture Happy Hour: Talking 'Thor,' Summer Movies, And Losing 'Idol'

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On this week's episode of our round-table podcast, we dive into a discussion of Thor, a film that features big muscles, Natalie Portman, and even comparisons to Marlon Brando ? really! We pretty much liked this big, goofy summer movie, and while we don't think it's the best Marvel movie ever (by far), we think that if you apply just the right metric, it actually comes out looking pretty good. You should know that Glen uses the phrase "suitably Wagnerian," so you can look forward to that. (This discussion includes a general discussion of good guys and bad guys, but as always, we try not to give away many specifics.) As if that's not enough, this will also lead to some very interesting discussion about couple of old issues of the Thor comic ? you can find one of them here, but don't click that link until you hear the show.

We also briefly update our 2011 movies discussion from early in the year, looking specifically at our plans for this summer. (If you're expecting that this is going to result in Stephen's reaffirming his strong interest in a certain martial-arts-proficient bear, you will not be disappointed.) You'll also get to hear me talk about my great love of Bridesmaids, and listen to Glen explain the four things your superhero should fight in a superhero movie, in ascending order of importance. (See if you can guess what came in first!)

There are also two follow-up stories about all the great advice I get from Glen, including little matters of comics and hobbits.

Finally, what's making us happy this week includes Glen's favorite newspaper correction ever, Trey's favorite streaming album in the history of NPR, the show Stephen is happy to leave behind, and the show I was happy to find online again.

As always, you can follow us on Twitter ? follow me, Stephen,Glen, Trey and Mike. And if you're the kind of person who takes great pleasure in talking to other people (we are), please do join our happy band of followers on Facebook.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/05/13/136274907/pop-culture-happy-hour-talking-thor-summer-movies-and-losing-idol?ft=1&f=1048

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