Inferno (2016; Ron Howard) — Dare Daniel Podcast Episode 46

“You have three explainers in one room together. Who’s the alpha explainer?”

Farraday pointer superfans Daniel Barnes and Corky McDonnell don their Dante deathmasks to review Ron Howard’s pointless puzzle movie Inferno.

This 2016 sequel finds Howard the hack in an artsy-fartsy-for-the-sake-of-artsy-fartsiness sort of mood. Meanwhile, Hanks returns as Massive Headwound Harvard Symbologist Robert Langdon, who this time around suffers from amnesia. After watching Inferno, we should all be so lucky. Aptly named after hell, Inferno effectively killed the Robert Langdon film franchise. It certainly doesn’t help the only likable character in the movie is a plague.

Inferno is both frustratingly nonsensical and utterly empty at the same time. Minus the ginned-up Catholic controversy of its predecessors, the film instead revels in hokey nightmare visions, CGI drone chases, and nonstop Lang-splaining.

Elsewhere, Daniel and Corky discuss bio-tubes, horse statues, disease bags and Cynthia Rothrock knockoffs.

NEW DARES

Vampire Academy (Matt)

Hellinger (Doug)

Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (Ryan L. Terry)

INFERNO FACTS AND FIGURES

U.S. theatrical release date: October 28, 2016, on 3,576 screens

Domestic box office: $34.3 million (production budget: $75 million)

Critic scores: 23 on Rotten Tomatoes; 42 on Metacritic

This week’s craft beer: Bike Dog Brewing‘s The Wolf Within Hazy IPA (7.5% ABV– a collaboration with Lead Dog Brewing)

IMDB synopsis: “When Robert Langdon wakes up in an Italian hospital with amnesia, he teams up with Dr. Sienna Brooks, and together they must race across Europe against the clock to foil a deadly global plot.”

This week’s referenced movies: The Da Vinci Code; Angels & Demons; The ABCs of Death; Skullduggery; Transylmania; Ultraviolet; Once Bitten; Hellraiser; The Beautician and the Beast; Wes Craven’s New Nightmare; Freddy vs. Jason; Warcraft; Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens; Boo! A Madea Halloween; Cool as Ice; Bio-Dome; Vertigo; 300; I Am Legend; Snakes On a Plane; Pulp Fiction; Men in Black; Clerks; Batman

Ratings for Inferno: Daniel – Double Dare; Corky – Dare

RELATED CLIPS AND CLIPPINGS

Langdon’s nightmares

Secrets of the Palazzo

Inferno alternate ending

Ron Howard: Bump or Dump?

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