Ludicrously Specific

Jesus Christ, Daffy Duck, and some ninjas walk into a bar. Just a usual day on Ludicrously Specific. But before that, we unpack the wonders of Trashathon, a new event at the Hollywood sponsored by the Incredibly Strange Archive and Vinegar Syndrome, and the absolute dreck (complimentary) that screened there. 

Skeet's been hacking away at #ACenturyOfCinema. Doug's been hacking away at the releases of 2024. Darren's been hacking away at Twin Peaks. And we've all been hacking away at the legacy of Gene Hackman. Join us for a double in-memoriam, followed by a few rounds of What We Watched, featuring a killer lawn mower, the worst idea for a date movie ever (Takashi Miike edition), a Roger Corman movie with a Winnie the Pooh connection, and your favourite: much more!

Two episodes in one month?!? Hold onto your monocles, the surprises are only beginning as we explore the best and worst of cinema in 2024. Will Skeet praise a film that rhymes with "curiosa"? Will we talk for two hours yet again? Who's to say? 

You know we couldn't let the year go by without another episode, right? (Well, we *could*, but we didn't.) Join us for everything from Dr. Seuss to Dr. Acula, from sheep to ants, from laughter to tears, from digressions to distracting cats, and - yes - more!

Is this thing on? Oh, yes it is. Get ready for two hours of zombie ninjas, oversized canaries, Pablo Escobar's cocaine hippo, and whatever the hell XTRO is. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. From Victor Erice to Bruce Leung, join us for a ramble as we discuss - that's right - what we watched for the last three months. 

Roger Corman may be the only man who was involved with the making of more films than we could mention in a single podcast. But that doesn't mean we don't try! Come celebrate BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, THE TOMB OF LIGEIA, DEATH RACE 2000, A BUCKET OF BLOOD and much much more. Plus we conclude with a brief (lol) round of What We Watched, which explains why this is the only Roger Corman tribute you'll hear about that brings up LUST, CAUTION!

If you pay attention to obscure UK boutique Blu-ray labels - and who doesn't? - you know that Radiance is the most exciting new player in the market. Profiling two of their titles from Europe in the mid-70s would have been specific. Choosing two that had male nudity would be very specific. But two that also have their plot disrupted by the arrival of a sniper? Well, some might say that's ludicrously specific. Welcome to Man on the Roof, Goodbye & Amen, and quite possibly a digression or two. (Okay, definitely a digression or two.)

Two martyrs, three sperm donors and a kajillion ninjas walk into a podcast. And then there's the robot, the senile mother, and the devil. Tune in for ninety minutes of everything we've been watching: comedies, classics, current releases, and, of course, a Godfrey Ho film. 

ELMER GANTRY. DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS. Two films bound together by nothing whatsoever. Except the sinister urge of Rob Zombie, who sampled them both on the first track of one of his albums. The Sinister Urge, to be specific. 

You know Darren wouldn't let go of the holidays that quickly. We're kicking off the year with a few faves since our last recording, from Christmas-y musicals to two takes on the future 90s style at the absolute opposite ends of the budget and quality spectrum to, of course Godfrey Ho. We also take a surprisingly soulful detour into the question: if you could watching only 10 more movies before you die, would you choose films you'd seen before or films that were new to you? And finally, we close out with a film that would have made our best of last year had we seen it in time: GODZILLA MINUS ONE. 

Another Christmas, another set of Christmas-adjacent movies. But what *is* Christmas-adjacent, anyway? What makes a Christmas movie? And why does Darren love TV movies so much? All these mysteries - and more - are explored through the lens of two 70s tv movies featuring Sally Field available on YouTube that you've probably never seen: MONGO'S BACK IN TOWN and HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS. Plus, a completely unrelated but highly passionate plug for GODZILLA MINUS ONE, in cinemas now!

Is 2023 over already? No, sorry. But we're over with 2023, and so we're chatting about our best cinema experience, biggest cinematic disappointment, our favourite film of the year, and much more. From Hundreds of Beavers and Rat Race to Stop Making Sense and Oppenheimer, join us for another ramble where we traipse through films that are sublime, films that are ridiculous, and at least one film that is, quite possibly, both. 

In our latest connections episode, it's time to take two charismatic singers, put them on the streets of New York, give them percussion skills, and watch them squirm their way through very stressful situations, in luminous black and white. It's Frank Sinatra in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM and Harry Belafonte - *not* Sidney Poitier - in ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW! Spoiler section at end so listen with (relative) spoiler freedom as we deep dive into directors, musicians, and pretty much anything else we can think of. 

So: it's been a time since adulthood and winter bugs have allowed us to gather And it's only a few moments before the 24th Annual Movie Marathon. So it's a double duty episode: a rave about Auckland's (New Zealand's?) (Australasia's?) (The Universe's?) greatest cinemagoing event that doubles as a chance to shamelessly beg for our dream programming, and the usual onslaught of random things that we've been watching from the sublime to Telly Savalas. 

If it's a secret that one of your hosts loves flying guillotine movies, it's a very badly kept one. So when Steve dug up two flying guillotine movies with what some might call a ludicrously specific connection, it was happy times in podcastland! Come join us as we unpack THE DEADLY SILVER SPEAR and THE HEROIC TRIO - but don't forget to duck and dodge, and also check out S9E17 of MYTHBUSTERS for more info on how you might make your very own flying guillotine!

Agnes Varda, Ronald Reagan and Kinji Fukusaku walk into a podcast. You expect nothing less, right? 

One of the most celebrated films of all time joins one of the least celebrated films of all time. What of the many possible possibilities brings these two films together? Well, of the many options, there's the phrase "of the", but there's another connection between SPECTER OF THE ROSE and THE RULES OF THE GAME: their multi-hyphenated creators!

From Stephen King ripoffs and champagne-drinking birds to art documentaries and dueling werewolf flicks, from Peter Greenaway to Takashi Miike, from Jimmy Stewart to Gong Li, once again, it's a slice of something for everybody as we review another month of viewing in the Ludicrously Specific household! (Note: any resemblance to an actual household is purely coincidental.)

With the venerable institution Sight and Sound releasing not only its top 100 list but every last film that got a vote, we decided it was well past time to get classy and choose two feature films to watch. Short ones. Ones available on streaming services in New Zealand. And by female directors.  And *that* is how you get Valerie Massadian's NANA and Doris Wishman's BAD GIRLS GO TO HELL discussed in tandem, for the first and last time ever, on the same podcast. 

An existential Bergman classic. A Bible epic. A no-budget creature feature. Can you guess who watched what? If so, you know us better than we know ourselves! Some left-field viewing choices this month also include the second movie we've covered called DETENTION, Ernest Borgnine on a bus, Peter Sellers on a rampage, and a bear ... ON COCAINE?!?!?

What do Road House and Raw Deal have in common? If you say that they're 80s action movies, you're clearly not talking about the same film noirs that we are! And that's just the beginning of a long web of commonalities these two crackers share. We've divided this one into non-spoiler and spoiler sections, so if you're curious but averse to having too much ruined, you can safely eject before we give away every last thing (and also, for some damn reason, Skeet spoils Woman on the Run). Until then: enjoy!

It sounded so simple. We thought we'd watch every feature-length version of CAPE FEAR that wasn't CAPE FEAR (1962). Obviously there was Martin Scorsese's CAPE FEAR (1991), and less obviously, FORCE OF EVIL (not the film noir, but something much stranger and made for television), but our holy grail - the Bollywood version - proved elusive, while another version that shan't be named here (let's just say the title has three x's in it) ... well, we're far from prudish, but we have our limits. But nonetheless, we did what we do, and get into a rather robust disagreement over which cape we fear the most. 

Supernatural film noir, topless tennis smuggled into a martial arts film, Uruguayan cinematheques, 70s car chases, Bette Davis, and Jeff Goldblum. Join us for another rambling celebration of what's passed through our eyeholes in the last month!  (Also: WRECK, mentioned by Darren, is on TVNZ+ now. Call this a show note. Would you like show notes? Let us know!)

Throw a dart at Martin Scorsese's filmography and you could come up with a subset of films to discuss. But who throws a dart at the bloody Roger Corman-produced BOXCAR BERTHA and the prestigious Oscar-winning PG-rated THE AGE OF INNOCENCE? No points for realising the answer is us. Join us as we connect the dots on two of Scorsese's literary adaptations, and see who's team "rabblerousing Barbara Hershey" and who's team "internally tortured Daniel Day-Lewis". The answer may surprise you!

It's 2023, and we're changing things up. From now on, we'll have a ramble of films we've seen as a standalone episode at the start of the month, and a deep dive into two films midway through the month. At least, for as long as we can keep it up! From BLOOD GAMES to ROVER DANGERFIELD to DIAL H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, and some little sci-fi film called NOPE, get ready to ramble through a month's worth of watching with Darren, Doug and Steve. 

Are you ready for this year's Ludicrously Specific Christmas special? We certainly weren't, which is why we recorded this three days after Christmas. That's okay, because when it comes to seasonal topicality, the three films that we found to chat about make DIE HARD look like THE NATIVITY STORY. So after a pre-chat that lasts longer than that leftover holiday ham, join us as we discuss three of the most seasonally-adjacent films out there: THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE, ROCKY IV: ROCKY VS DRAGO, and THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE.

Have you watched the documentary BLANK CITY? Neither have two of our hosts. But one early morning viewing by our third host led to this installment covering three of the films profiled therein that emerged from the No Wave scene of New York in the early 80s. Meet three spray painting directionless protagonists in an urban ruin. Not your hosts. We don't know how to spray paint.

Can you be forgiven for assuming we're dead? Probably, we're nice like that. Can we be forgiven for not bothering to not having a theme for our first episode in over six months? Probably not, but here we are! From the sublime to the ridiculous, we're back together, and only our enthusiasm is infectious!

Long promised, finally delivered! Our in-person reunion. All the usually talking over each other with no awkward pauses on Skype! Recorded in the runup to Christmas, some discussion of seasonal favourites, and an excursis on Darren's favourite year in movies: 1964.

We thought we'd reunite in person soon HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA sorry about that. It seemed plausible once! Anyway, we got together on what once was to be the opening night of the NZIFF in Auckland to chat about Doug's bespoke replacement, the Auckland Online Film Festival (AOFF), as well as the gargantuan number of films we've been watching in the last month of lockdown.

What's the greatest year for film ever? Steve thinks it's 1987. So we talk a lot about 1987 movies, but that's not specific enough. What about movies that start with the letter R? Reasonably specific? And that are *also* rated R? Now we're talking ludicrously specific. Join us for RAGE OF HONOR, RAMPAGE, and RITA SUE AND BOB TOO in a episode that's epic length even by our standards!

The breezy ARACHNOPOBIA, tense WARNING SIGN, and grimy MANIAC have a few things in common. They're all first films, they're all horror films, and for some freaking reason, Doug owns all three soundtracks on vinyl, yet has never watched them. Until now! Hear we think ... after we clear our throats for an hour or so discussing lockdown viewing!

We had plans. So did you. And now New Zealand's in lockdown. So instead we fired up the Skype and talked about what we've been watching and going through since our last record. And if you're hoping Skeet got a new microphone, well, there's a quote from BAD SANTA for the occasion, but it's unprintable.

Bogart. Eastwood. Li. Which one is the enforcer? Are they all enforcers? If so, what are they enforcing? Find out as we eventually discuss THE ENFORCER, THE ENFORCER, and, um, THE ENFORCER, but only after 90+ minutes chatting about our last month of cinematic adventures.

It's the question on everybody's lips: did Jimmy Carter, while President of the United States, watch movies three nights in a row with people he had or would have personal connections to? A ludicrously specific question that probably doesn't deserve an answer, but here we are, discussing CITIZEN'S BAND, JEREMIAH JOHNSON, and WAIT UNTIL DARK, alongside our recent viewing, in a marathon-length episode.

Recently, Yaphet Kotto left this mortal coil, leaving behind an astonishing body of work. How to pick only three films to talk about? Simple: choose films where he was second-billed in 1975, ranging from the sublime to the stultifying. Join us for a chat about REPORT FROM THE COMMISSIONER, SHARK'S TREASURE, and FRIDAY FOSTER.

Ever heard of the QT Film Fest that once acted as Austin's film nerd mecca? We raided its playlist for three films with familial relations in the title: THE DION BROTHERS, SWITCHBLADE SISTERS, and BROTHERHOOD OF DEATH. But first, our usual banter, from the mutually adored JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS to the divisive PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN to the deep obscurity CENOTE.

Get ready for us to talk about three five-letter driving movies: DRIVE, SPEED, and CRASH! But if you're expecting Ryan Gosling, Keanu Reeves, and kinky Cronenberg sex and/or Paul Haggis moralising, expect differently! We've got Jimmy Stewart, a brazen ripoff of THE CAR, and one of the greatest undersung action films of the 90s. But first: our wrapup of 2020!

Recent big screen outings of FROM DUSK 'TIL DAWN and BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA at Auckland's Terror-Fi film festival made us curious: could we add a third film that would connect with these in a ludicrously specific way? The answer, unfortunately, was yes. On the bright side, INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE made us laugh, and we also took the time to compare our Sean Connery accents and discuss some of his underseen outings in a memorial to his passing.

Remember when we said we were doing a music season? We lied. After an Auckland lockdown necessitated a lengthy interruption, we're back in the same room for the first time in months, on the eve of the greatest horror retrospective to hit Auckland in our collective memories. But before we get to that, there's chats on everything from BLUE VELVET to a one-man version of FIRST BLOOD. Hey, it's not specific this time, but at least we're back.

Sorry, A Tribe Called Quest fans. This time we're weaving together the Hamptons, the Australian outback, and, well, Saturn through the magic of jazz performers who have not only been on the silver screen but also made recordings with the phrase "'Round Midnight" in the title. Sounds pedantic? There's a reason! Join us as we make our way from Louis Armstrong to Sun Ra via Miles Davis with HIGH SOCIETY, DINGO, and SPACE IS THE PLACE.

In season 2 of Ludicrously Specific, we're back in the same room and diving into the world of music. But don't look for "films scored by Bernard Herrmann" or "rock biopics" - that may be specific, but it's not *ludicrously* specific. And that's what you need to bring AMADEUS, ALTERED STATES and WITCHFINDER GENERAL together - movies which, needless to say, were all sampled by heavy metal bands whose names begin with the letter C.

Ah, the golden age of Hollywood. When young Kiwis went to LA with stars in their eyes. Yes, you're right - it's the 1990s, but the films are set in the late 40s or early 50s, and thanks to Skype, the audio quality is set in the 20s. Join us as we chat about quarantine viewing then kick into three time capsules: MULLHOLLAND FALLS, CAST A DEADLY SPELL, and ROUGH MAGIC.

One of the saddest losses of 2020 is filmmaker Stuart Gordon. Best known for his H.P. Lovecraft adaptation RE-ANIMATOR, he went back to the well several more times - and so did we! Come join us in a deep dive through Gordon's other Lovecraft feature adaptations: DAGON, CASTLE FREAK and FROM BEYOND.

This time, Ludicrously Specific goes mad! We've got chicken transformation, pioneering (albeit disastrous) camera techniques, and the emotional nuance of Chuck Norris. Join us as we explore three of Tubi's most rage-filled offerings - THE ANGRY RED PLANET, SILENT RAGE, and FURIOUS - and prepare to discover which one is tolerable, which one is tedious, and which one is freaking terrific!

We take a trip to Fantasy Island with our most obtuse connection yet, lashing together zany beach antics, desert diner life and New York under siege through the cast of "Delphine/The Unkillable". BEACH BLANKET BINGO, ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE, and LITTLE MURDERS ... just another day at work for the Ludicrously Specific crew.

Something happened on the way to the release of our third episode: New Zealand went under lockdown. While we've still got two pre-recorded episodes coming, we thought we'd test out a Skype record, chat about life under quarantine, and share our top three cinematic experiences at the 24 Hour Movie Marathon (that can be discussed in public). Sorry for the marginal audio quality.

Making detainees eat green sludge. Wasting perfectly good liquor in a bar brawl. Racially inflammatory monologues. None of these are the reasons the three films this week got banned in New Zealand in 1973. Join us as we chat HORROR HOSPITAL, KING BOXER, JOE, interrogate censorship law and make bad Dad jokes.

What do a bored Christopher Lee, a miscast Henry Silva and a mugging Kenneth Williams have in common? It's almost too easy: they all feature in the ninth instalment of a franchise film about spying that was partially shot in studios in London. From James Bond to Mr. Moto by way of the CARRY ON series, join us for laughs and pain in our pilot episode of Ludicrously Specific.