BDP12: Marriage w/ Dan

Dan Maceira, Hans and Logan's former roommate, comes on the show. This episode contains everything you knew you never you wanted: more Marcus Myers, Hans' Marvel Universe knowledge gets challenged, politics, "My Wife's Balderdash", and more marriage discussion.

BDP11: Marcus Myers

Logan and Hans have to put a hold on the marriage discourse for their guest couldn't make it, but that's ok! Brotherly Discourse welcomes a new team member in Summer Intern Marcus Myers. As well, they answer a listener question about marriage, play "Would You Rather"; review How to Train Your Dragon 2, Forever EP from Midnight Alive, and VxV from Wolves at the Gate.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 review by LM

Dear Dreamworks Animation, why can't all your movies be this good?

The first "How to Train Your Dragon" was a big jump for the studio in terms of great storytelling. Out of all their films "How to Train Your Dragon" should be their gold-standard, but the studio stills suggests that Shrek will forever be its North Star. Dreamworks, Shrek is done and in the past. At least, it should be. Look to the future. Look to this franchise.

The first one was great, and the second is even better. "How to Train Your Dragon 2" breaks the sequels-are-never-better-than-their-predecessor stereotype (which is starting to become a common theme for the year). In it, we find a story that not only stretches the universe of "How to Train Your Dragon", but stretches our hero Hiccup as well. Gotta love character development. Plus, the visuals have obviously been upgraded too. The scenery is really starting to look ridiculously real. The characters themselves still look cartoonish, but because of their proportions. The detail in the skin texture is really starting to push the envelope. Overall, if you love great visuals, you'll love this movie.

Movies are more than visuals of course. Story is important. "How to Train Your Dragon 2" sets us five years after the first movie. Berk has fully integrated dragons into its culture as pets, co-workers, and vehicles. The people love their dragons, much more than their sheep, because in opening action scene the sheep are used as balls in a racing game of theirs. Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is older but still very much a young man struggling with growing up into the man his father Stoik (Gerard Butler) wants him to be. He has explored much outside of Berk and loves doing so, and in his exploration he discovers a new threat to the village in a man named Drago (Djimon Hounsou) who is wrangling an army of dragons. In his mind there is only one way to solve this, but his father disagrees.

Hiccup's friends Astrid (America Ferrera), Snotlout (Jonah Hill), Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Ruffnut (T.J. Miller), and Tuffnut (Kristin Wiig) want to help him out, but he ends up separated from them. Tuffnut, by the way, is a complete scene stealer a couple times. She's hilarious. We do get the pleasure of meeting Hiccup's odd mother Valka (Cate Blanchett). The more we get to know her, the more we see where Hiccup gets his nature and personality from. Her introduction as Hiccup's mother is pretty abrupt at first, but as the movie moves forward we get to know more bit by bit. Most characters are very well voice-acted and play a good role in the story. I do wish Gobber (Craig Ferguson) would be given more to do though. He was a very important character in the first film. Now he just plays comic relief when he is on screen.

The story moves at a balanced pace except for maybe a span in the second act it gets briefly dull. That happening doesn't stop the movie at all from being great. It's all expository dialogue. It's needed to give things context. Kids will love it. Adults will love it too. It's definitely darker than the first film as this movie tackles the idea of working-with-nature vs. using-nature with more defined good and evil sides of the coin. I do love the struggle of the competing ideologies as it manifests itself in a good battle. I'm thankful that the eco-friendly message isn't as heavy-handed as what is presented in the movie "Avatar". I'm not blind. I hear about global-warming and man destroying nature on the news. You can stop trying to turn movies into nature exploitation films. (ok, I'm done ranting) The darker story was a risk, but it pays off. If you're not careful it will suck you in and might cause you to shed a tear or two.

Overall, great movie. I would be surprised if it doesn't win the Oscar for Best Animated Picture, especially since Pixar has nothing coming out this year. It's biggest rivals will probably be "The Lego Movie" and maybe "The Boxtrolls" from Laika. With its beautiful animation, good story, and great, loveable characters, "How to Train Your Dragon 2" proves it should be recognized with the other great animated movies of this generation.

Rating: 82/100

BDP10: Marriage w/ Dyllon 2

In part 2 of their time with Dyllon Judkins, Logan and Hans ask questions and discuss marriage with their newlywed friend.

BDP9: Marriage w/ Dyllon 1

In part 1 of their time with Dyllon Judkins, the guys talk how Logan is bad with drugs, "would you rather" questions, E3 and video games, and nudity in the news.

BDP8: You're Beautiful

Hans and Logan tackle a profound topic, beauty, but before that, they answer listener questions, discuss crazy things that have happened around the nation,and make an announcement about what to expect in the next few weeks. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, BeyondPod, Podstore, Player FM, Podcast Addict, Podcast Republic, and Onecast. As well, go and support The Starship Renegade, who's song "Aftermath" is the intro and outro, on iTunes and Amazon mp3.

Beauty by LM

Episode 8 of the Brotherly Discourse podcast will be out soon (probably on Thursday). In BDP7, though, Hans mentioned he wanted to discuss a deeper topic, and after some brief thought, we found one. Beauty.

The existence of beauty has defined our way of life and the way we see the world. It is a fuel that combusts in an engine we call love. There are other metaphysical materials which move love but in the hearts of men beauty is the greatest, most powerful chemical of all. Through the centuries, civilizations have created and experienced the tolls and toils of beauty, and we see it clearly in their stories, legends, religion, and even history.

For Hans and I, we open our Bibles and see it there. David commits a scandalous affair as king because of beauty. Solomon writes a whole book called Song of Songs dedicated to the beauty of his beloved. Adam wasn't satisfied being alone, so to bring him peace and to sustain him, God created Eve.

Beauty is defined as "the quality that gives intense pleasure to the sight or other senses." Essentially, beauty is found in anything you extremely enjoy. Sights, sounds, feelings, scents and tastes are all part of beauty's anatomy. Besides the physical sensations, the spiritual effects are great: peace, rest, maintenance, inspiration, and growth. All things that are good are beautiful, but too much of good thing can be bad.

Consider men and their infatuation with women. This is perhaps why men can become so addicted to porn. The naked form of women isn't a bad thing, but it's how men selfishly try to feel powerful and pleased by a cheap image or video of beauty that's wrong (men and their need to be and feel strong will be a topic for another day). Where ever beauty is taken out from its original purpose, there we can find depravity.

I'm sure that last sentence can stir your imagination to a variety of situations where this happens. I will not go into all of them now. Feel free to voice your ideas in the comment section.

Hans and I get it into the idea of beauty for a good while in BDP8, and I hope you will listen and comment.

With love for all,
Logan Miltimore