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A discussion of cult films by two guys located in a basement somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Matt holds a B.S. and M.S. in physics, and works as an aerospace engineer. Mark holds a B.S. in biochemistry and works as a research technician... both are graduates of Snohomish High School Class of 91/92 respectiviely, none of which qualifies them to discuss film in any meaningful way... so... "caveat emptor" and all that.
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Never fear, we are here!! ... with another podcast! I don't remember when we reviewed a movie last, but here you go. Beware, this podcast is mostly Mark and Matt catching up, but we throw a little commentary about Nolan's TENET your way. A puzzle of a film that separates the nerds from the boys. You aren't paying attention unless you've made your o…
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Matt and Mark arise from our collective Winter of Discontent and throw a little convo your way. No review this go 'round, just a little movie/film this-and-that sprinkled with our usual nonsense. We've been at it (kind of, sort of...) for 9 years, so if there's any reason to push out another podcast... Not dead yet, I'm sure we have a few more revi…
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We intended to review Color Out of Space, but to actually label this podcast a review of such would be deceptive. Our podcast went off the rails with our current zeitgeist discussion of the run-up to the U.S's precarious Presidential Election and Mark and Matt's contentious opinions on all things 'Rona. So, if you want to actually hear our opinion …
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This go 'round we review the Spielberg Sci-Fi adaptation of the Phil Dick short story of the same name, Minority Report. Not a bad adaptation and it has the can't lose dynamic of the great Tom Cruise combined with the solid film making of Spielberg, however Matt and Mark still remain troubled by the titular focus of this film. While Minority Report…
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It's been along while since Mark and Matt rapped at ya', but are we still doing this goddamn pandemic thing? Geezus. Anyway, we head to the virtual movie theater and catch a showing of the new Bill and Ted movie. Is it good? It's a decent Bill and Ted movie, and taps the same vein of the original. Despite its 30+ year heritage, it becomes painfully…
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This week we complete the Twilight Zone director ensemble review them with Animal House by John Landis. For 1978 it pioneered the modern SNL-style comedies that we've all grown accustomed to (and perhaps tired of), but for its time it was somewhat ground-breaking. Standing out among all the fun performances was perhaps John Belushi's "Bluto", highl…
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This week we finish up the Mastermind George Miller's Mad Max film series with the odd-man out of the even-film set, Beyond Thunderdome. A PG version of Mad Max 2's more visceral R, it has a little for everyone, kids, Tina Turner, pig killers, etc... A decent movie, there's really nothing to complain about, but alas it's a tad milquetoast for vario…
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What's better than a Richard Matheson screenplay directed by mastermind George Miller? F#$kin' nothin! That's right... the finale of the oddball Twilight Zone: The Movie is the ridiculously amazing remake of the original Shatner episode "Terror at 20,000 ft". Is it worth the milquetoast offing's by Spielberg and Landis? Perhaps. But like a series o…
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Matt and Mark review another kids mid-80's sci-fi film with the indelible E.T. the extra-terrestrial. Spielberg pioneered the mythic utopia of 80's California sub-urban life, a virtual "Oz" ripe for the visitation of a wayward space farer. There's very little for adults here, which is perhaps the reason it has lost staying power with the Gen-X'ers …
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Matt and Mark review the Spielberg-ian mid-80's kid's adventure film Explorers. The film stars the pre-teen Ethan Hawke and River Pheonix in what can only be described as an Elon Musk ferry tale, from inventing your own spaceships to scoring chicks and coming up with an underground boring system powered by nothing more than a 9 volt battery. A clev…
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Once again Matt and Mark have a lot to say about current affairs (it's 2020... so, it's like every week these days), and less to say about the Star Wars coattails outing "Star Crash", a movie poorly engineered in order to capitalize on the Lucas pop culture phenomena. A bad move, of course, it's major sin is that it's boring. If you're going to bad…
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For the 40th Anniversary Matt and Mark review the best of the Star Wars "ennealogy" Episode 5, The Empire Strikes Back, as we should. Why is this one the better? A host of reasons one could say, but it's really the scenes and production of TESB that makes it what it is. Care is taken with each scene to frame the acting and gravitas of each situatio…
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Matt and Mark enter Hitler's bunker this go 'round as we review Downfall, the intimate depiction of the Third Reich's final hours as it finds itself ruling over a dramatically smaller and smaller piece of Germany. While this is Hitler's story, it's also the story of the evaporation of national socialism into nothing. Like all imagined ideology, whe…
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This go 'round Matt and Mark review the 1978 speculative fiction film The Boys from Brazil. Loaded with actual science, we get to see the acting powerhouses of Gregory Peck and Sir Laurence Olivier mix it up with the acclaimed Police Academy actor Steve Gutenberg! A nature versus nurture debate tied in with cloning ethics, a film that offers up imp…
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Matt and Mark go cult arcana this week with the 1980 PBS production of the Ursala Le Quin classic The Lathe of Heaven (Watch it on YouTube for free!). Hidden away for more than 20 years due to a broadcast rights issue, it stuck in our collective cinematic consciousness. A pioneering film in contrast to the more bombastic space opera fair, it delves…
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One of Matt's favorite authors J.G. Ballard introduced us to a special quirk of the future near-apocalypse and thus the term "Ballardian" was coined. The film adaptation High Rise depicts an absurd apocalypse, a break down of society with no fundamental driver. But that's not exactly the point. The point is the emergence of a different human being,…
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Matt and Mark throw off the movie review mantle for a little free-wheelin' chat. So for the post-apocalyptic hordes who really wanted to listen to a podcast of the film adaptation of J.G.Ballard's High Rise, you can skip on to the next episode and not suffer 30 minutes of our free-wheelin' intro. Here we're chatting about the world-crisis pandemic …
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This week Matt and Mark review the mediocre Wonderland, capping off our So-Cal Drug/Porn/Val-Kilmer loose theme. While not a great film, it bookends our four film review. While we spend a great deal reviewing our current global pandemic (sorry.. just skip ahead enlightened mutants of the far future) we do get into some of the decent points of the f…
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Matt and Mark continue our SoCal drug-fueled cinematic voyage into the world of Spun. A more realistic if not overly frenetic depiction of tweaker life in the fringes of LA's exurbs. A powerhouse of acting talent turned up to 11, Spun features a wealth of Y2K actors including John Leguizamo, Brittany Murphy (RIP), Jason Schwartzman, and of course M…
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Matt and Mark review the exceptionally great Paul Thomas Anderson film Boogie Nights this go 'round. A humanizing portrayal of what is known (or viewed as) as an objectifying/de-humanizing industry, we join the young DD on his nascent career into the ever-changing adult film industry. All A-listers in their own right, every actor fills out the ense…
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This go 'round Mark and Matt review some stylized drug-fueled So-Cal tweaking with the Val Kilmer film The Salton Sea. A film that somehow romanticized meth use in a weird away, we ride along with Danny Parker / Tom Van Allen on his circuitous route to redemption and revenge. Along the way we meet the Vincent D'Onofrio incarnation of "Pooh-Bear", a…
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This geological epoch, Matt and Mark review the Sword and Sorcery/Sandal 80's fantasy film The Beastmaster. Chronologically speaking, a simultaneous release (more or less) with the Milius classic Conan The Barbarian, The Beastmaster lacks the exotic "Je ne se quoi" of the former with a more "back lot" quality that speaks to its production quality. …
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Matt and Mark review the Dudley Moore classic 10, a mid-life crisis film with a more manic honest depiction of sexual irrationality of the 40 year white male than our previous Blame it on Rio review. Can you ever really live a fantasy? Probably not, and 10 makes that argument in genuine comedic fashion. The brain has the odd prediction for overesti…
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From Mark's "The Great T!ts" film catalog, we review the 80's sex comedy "Blame it on Rio." In this film the "ancient" 47 y.o. Michael Caine has an affair with the nubile daughter of his best friend and as you would expect... hi-jinks ensue. What could have been an honest potrayal of the obligatory mid-life crisis episode ultimately fails in this f…
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Matt and Mark review the Tarkovsky Soviet-style Sci-Fi film Stalker. A film that introduces the "The Zone", similar to that of the recent Annihilation's "The Shimmer", is an alien anomalous zone arrived via meteor to the planet Earth. A journey into The Zone promises revelation and wish fulfillment, but sadly this film only delivers "elliptical" co…
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