Max Volume: All things TV/Movies/Pop Culture

Weird movie, insane plot, feels like a half remembered dream but MY GOODNESS DOES IT WORK! Andrew and I gush about this 1 of 1 film.

Not a joke. This movie is underrated perfection. Listen as I and Andrew Steffen worship at the alter of James Caan.

Trailers are the best so I'm rankin' em. ENJOY!

Andrew Steffen joins me to discuss this loaded cast, bizarre plot and Rusty James based dialogue. It was confusing and we like it... or do we? Maybe.... or not....

Max has watched over 200 80s movies in the last 4 months. Listen as he unravels the mysteries of what made the films of the era so gnarly!

Soderberg. Clive Owen. Historical accurate bizarre medical practices of New York Hospitals in 1900. Synth techno pop music. What else do you need? No spoilers either, so if you were ever curious about the show come listen and find out why you need to rip through this small screen masterpiece.

Lost in time was this Nic Cage, Dana Carvey, Jon Lovitz vehicle that is equal parts slap stick and cornball. But by the end of the film you're oddly cheering for the bank robbing trio and you can feel the Christmas spirit sneak into your soul. It was odd, Cage is bouncing off the walls and the dad from Step Brothers is an FBI agent. Here we go...

ITS NOT THAT COMPLICATED. TIME TRAVELING JAMES BOND. IT'S INSANE, FUN, ACTION PACKED NOLAN BRILLIANCE. U DON'T NEED TO UNDERSTAND EVERY SECOND, JUST FEEL IT YOU CLOWNS. this movie rules, I rant about it, that's it. enjoy

Adorable high school rom com movie with punky Nic Cage pining over a rad Valley Girl named Julie. Andrew Steffen and I break down the joyously silly premise and the light dialogue and EPIC date scene montages while laughing the entire time. Because when a movie is tripendicular like this, you cant pass it!

Cher, Nic Cage, Old school New York, LOVE, family, chopped off limbs and baked goods! What else could you ask for in a sweet family romantic drama that swoons and swells with operatic flair and real world charm. Andrew Steffen joins me to discuss Nic Cage's sweeter side and the Apex of Cher's acting career. We love this movie something awful!

Murder mystery mini series are a dime a dozen. Thrillers that tantalize the mind about crime and wealth and New York socialite circles have been done to death, so why is The Undoing still mesmerizing? Cuz David E. Kelley is a master of intrigue and with a loaded cast, wealth envy and the arrogance of high society as a backdrop for crime is just cat nip for television viewers. Its so fun yet so frustrating! Lets talk about it!

Broh. Sports movies make me leak from the eyes so hard. So much glory and sacrifice and half time speeches an bone crunching hits and training montages and life long friendships and hardships and second chances and third chances and FIFTH CHANCES. My god its a majestic field of film, so lets count the top 10 together LIKE A TEAM!!!

WEIRDEST SHOW OF THE LAST 5 YEARS (twin peaks excluded) and I SOAKED in all the glorious HACKERMAN multiple realities, unreliable narrator vibes of it all. Sam Esmail directed the HECK out of this show that was basically 47 genres in one. Rami Malek's career defining role (sorry Freddie Merc) and it was dark and twisted and unexpected and beautiful and daring and it haunts my mind like a ninja spider! SO LETS DISCUSS!

DAMON OR AFFLECK? AFFLECK OR DAMON? A Question so universal and maddening many large scale world wars have been fought on this very question. So i'm going to solve this bomb of a question once and for all so that the world may be saved from boston actor based violence. But seriously I love both these dudes so it was a STRUGGLE to see who is superior, but find out we did. AND SO SHALL YOU, LISTEN AND FIND OUT OR FOREVER BE TORTURED BY BEN AND MATT!!

I used to be a douchey Vegan bro who would NEVER watch a show about hunting. But THIS show is the bessssst. It's calm, and responsible and beautiful and scenic and philosophical. So come with me as we stalk, hunt and dissect this delightful show that is a spiritual delight of adventuring outdoorsmen of the highest degree that travel all over the world for their passion!

Bro, Nic Cage rules, and this movie is the smartest coolest cold blooded Cage we've ever seen. He's a rag to riches based on a true story gun runner in the late 80s and 90s and its DOPE. So quotable, ethan hawke, tom brady's first wife, African War lords and sooooo many memorable scenes. This pod is all over the place but so is NIC CAGE. woooo!

Who doesn't love a B level 70s car heist movie STACKED with a godly cast, high end vehicles and endless jokes and montages with bad early 2000s techno blaring. So buckle up as Andrew and I worship at the alter that is MEMPHIS RAINES as we giggle at this hybrid low stakes Ocean's Eleven meets Fast and Furious... LETS RIDEEEE

He's better than Tom Hanks. Weird career with HUGE ups and MONSTER depths. He's been beetlejuice and batman and he can be the funniest guy in the room whenever he wants. Lovable actor, has a HUGE range of talents and he deserves more respect dammit! So follow me as we swim in the deep end of the Keaton shark tank!

THIS IS THE MOST MICHAEL BAY OFF THE CHAIN MOVIE OF ALL TIME NO I CANT STOP TALKING IN UPPER CASED LETTERS!!! Nic Cage at his insane movie star quirky badass peak, Sean Connery being a grizzled imprisoned James Bond and Ed Harris as a villain with a heart, CAR CASES, ROCKETS, WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOMS!!! 90s action movie glory broken down at a molecular level by Andrew and myself! ENJOY!!

I have been 80s movie crazy this past month! Beefing up my knowledge for another 80s film podcast I'm creating with a buddy, so its nothing but Michael J. Fox, John Hughes, Music Montages, and Bill Murray improve for me! 65 movies watched in about 30 days so I decided to super speed review all of them in under 30 minutes. Moronic? You betcha! But fun and superfluous, much like the 1980s as a whole...

i cut my oldest friend out of my life yesterday... my cable tv. The series finale's, the very special episodes, the Saturday morning cartoons, the ability to be part of the global conversation on entertainment. I owe it all to my dearest cable box. But alas, the world has changed and streaming rules the planet and I fucking hate commercials or passively watching sportsceneter for the 4th time today. So here's my swan song for a technology of the past . Thank you cable, I loved you dearly.

The Funniest Man of this generation. Weirdly his film career is a complete disheveled mess of classics, bombs, b movies and strangely dramatic emotional choices. Wanted to dig into what it must have been like to be so freakishly talented that no matter what role he played he was ALWAYS Robin Williams. So throw on your granny makeup, strap on some Peter Pan tights and make 3 wishes because IT'S...... SHOWTIME!!!!

Bro, just because its fart jokes, random cutaways and spastic pop culture references doesn't make it generationally great art! Family Guy is a low brow high concept masterpiece that really attempts to push the boundaries of how far television can go. It is responsible for where we are in comedy today, so I wanted to pay homage to its glory. ALL HAIL THE GRIFFINS!!!!

A podcast ABOUT a podcast ABOUT movies from a podcaster who podcasts about movies? The rewatchables is the best podcast of all time, a master class in breaking down cult classics in a 50% intellectual 50% silly manner that warms my heart. So I decided to NFL draft style rank the best of the best of this elite group and it was so much irrelevant fun. Enjoy!

Positivity and feel good warm fuzzies are at the heart of Ted Lasso and its cornball premise. It's 2020s Parks and Rec as we follow kind hearted mustached Mr. Lasso traverse the world of premiere soccer coaching with zero to no knowledge of the sport (he's an American football coach by trade). You'll laugh, cry and feel joyous about being a human as Lasso dad jokes his way through a bumpy existence. ITS DELIGHTFUL WATCH IT NOW

This show is heavy brooooooh, insane visuals, a podcast format that sometimes has NOTHING to do with the animation. But its wonderful, and profound and serious and silly and it defies logic or definition. So dive in to the simulated world view of Clancy and his space cast as the mysteries of the world are randomly and beautifully unraveled one chaotic adventure at a time!

16 years later and this show still RULES. First ever cultural hit with fully formed female leads. Felt bold and new as it was unafraid of sex dynamics or questioning relationship dynamics from a female perspective. Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte are all time characters who were witty, real and fabulous to their bones. Plus its like NYC fantasy life status times a billion. LOVED IT, DRINK A COSMO AND WATCH IT RIGHT NOW!

Why waste 4 hours slogging through commercials and bad refs and idiot commentators just to have a coin flip chance at a win? It's 2020 people, there's a perfect way to streamline/destress and thoroughly enjoy sports without monopolizing your day. So follow my step by step procedures and become a model of efficiency in your athletic enjoyment!

Tom. FREAKING. Hardy. He's the lizard king of weirdo masked villains. HE DOESNT CARE THAT HE'S A BEAUTIFUL HUMAN BEING, THE MAN WANTS TO ACT! He wants deplorable strange roles and face coverings and strange accents and.... HE'S GOING TO BE JAMES BOND!!! It's perfect and it's strange so I wanted to delve into Tom Tom and all of his Hardiness that he'll throw into 007!!!!! AHHHHH SYSTEM OVERLOAD!!!

Fight Club is a bitch to think about.... What if you didn't originally understand it was a satire and were just pumped up to see Brad Pitt shirtless beating up random dudes in a dank basement?! What does it say about society and toxic cult leadership and our yearning for confident anarchists? Fincher made a complicated super enjoyable gross weirdly humorous movie that has layers bro..... so lets dissect them and figure out what was going on in Tyler Durden's beautifully unstable brain. WEEEEE

BACK IN MY DAY MUSIC VIDEOS WERE THE HEIGHT OF ENTERTAINMENT! Sadly as society crumbles this melding of music and film has lost its cultural relevance so I'm here to revive this glorious medium and remind you of its powerful and joyous properties! So grab your nostalgia shoes cuz we are going trouncin though the beautiful snow of memory lane! CARSON DALY I LOVE YOU

This movie BLEW my socks off! Like they are gone... A simple premise of 2 men having dinner and discussing the essence of humanity. It's profound and simple and complex and weird and intoxicating and really like nothing else I've ever seen. It feels like it was made yesterday even tho it's almost 40 years old. Such a rare and unexpected treat we should all enjoy!

I FREAKING love movies. And it got brought to my attention my top ten list contains about 93 movies, WHOOPS! So I chopped down my selections to an actual list that adhere's to the 10 movie categorization. It was IMPOSSIBLE but somehow we did it, so enjoy!

Charlie Kaufman broke me. I didn't want to do this podcast, or discuss his maddeningly sad take on existence. But Kaufman movies burrow in your cerebral cortex like deer ticks and refuse to leave until you acknowledge their presence. I watched Netflix's "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" Sept 2, 2020 right when it came out and I've thought about little else since. So here's my leaking head thoughts about the master of internal insecurity and fear and self-loathing and death and isolation (fades to black)

Yup. An electronic idiot box is my very best friend in the world, and I really enjoy that fact. The television gives us the gift of shows, films and live sports ranging from inspiring to harrowing. You can become an expert in South American politics or mindlessly laugh as Spongebob Squarepants eats way too much ice cream. No judgments, an on/off switch and portable stories that are collectively costing trillions of dollars right at your finger tips. Nothin better..... where's my remote?

Scenario! Aliens have made their way to earth, and they demand we use their advanced technology to splice together specific traits to create the world's greatest actor. This actor will perform for them to determine if the planet Earth is worth saving, so what will you choose? Tom Hanks affability? Denzel Washington's smile? The fate of the world depends on you and your pop culture evaluations! NO PRESSURE!!!!

It's been over a year and I can't get over it. Game of Thrones imploded its cultural importance and farted on the ashes with this abomination of a rushed half season. ITS NOT FAIR, IT WAS GENERATIONALLY IMPACTFUL AND I WANTED TO DISCUSS IT FOREVER AND GET SWEET DRAGON TATTOOS BUT NOW IT'S RUINED!!! YOU BLEW IT BENIOFF AND WEISS!!! I HOPE U ONLY GET YELLOW STARBURSTS FOREVER!!!

It's super rare to be i the star of an all time blockbuster movie, even harder to be the center of an iconic generational television show. But to have both on your resume?! It is rarified air that so few get to its a challenge to think of 4 who have the double whammy on their resume. Try it, I DARE YOU, you'll spend two hours failing miserably because its tough BRO! Luckily I had the time and decided to create the Mt. Rushmore of best television/movie combo lead actors, so sit back and enjoy!

As humans we universally love movies and animals, so why not combine our two passions in the first ever Movie character pet draft! I am joined by podcaster David Rosen (his film influence podcast Piecing It Together RULES) as we snag our top 5 animal companions across cinematic history. From bright eyed puppies to CGI icons we explore the gamut of furry, fluffy and scaly friends. Enjoy!!!

Ok, so you wake up and BAM bearded Robin Williams circa 1995 is in your face screaming that you are trapped in a life or death Jumanji board game scenario! And you have to draft fictional twin teams to aid you in your survival, because we like to keep things realistic on this show. I'm joined by my ACTUAL twin friends Jared and Ethan and we discuss the best fraternal and identical pairings in film and tv history when life and death are on the line!!!

Great Villains are comprised of many components. From physical intimidation to tone of voice hundreds of things go into creating all time movie evil doers. So I decided to do the first ever evil facial hair ranking of film characters. From goatees to chinstraps to full on homeless beards each facial choice tells a story of the villainy behind the look. So buckle up cuz things are going to get hairy! Oh god.... that's so corny...

We all dream of one day waking up and being post-Aquaman successful Hollywood actor Vinny Chase and living a champagne toasting A list lifestyle! But in Entourage Vinny was nothing without his boys, his crew who would party with him and also give him the real talk kick in the butt when he needed it. So we decided to take the millionaire playboy formula 1 drivers from Netflix F1 Drive to Survive roster and have a draft about who would be the most fun to hang out with! My racing expert and best buds Jon Smith and Steve Kramer join me as we discuss, debate and laugh about this absurd yet somehow important topic! Enjoy!!!

Who doesn't want to run a Mexican drug cartel in the American Southwest?! I am joined by my dear friend and Breaking Bad expert Jon Smith as we pick rival characters from Vince Gilligan's world to create our own illegal enterprises! We dissect what made Breaking Bad so perfectly watchable while delving into all the incredible characters that made this an ALL TIME SHOW. Plus who doesn't like NFL/NBA style drafts for non-draftable pop culture topics? SAY MY NAMEEEEE!!!

We are all guilty of the one night full season watchathon that leaves our eyes bleary and our brains over stimulated. So I've developed a sure fire method of TV consumption that allows maximum enjoyment without the hangover of over indulgence. From when to watch episodes, to clothing choices, to snack picks I cover all your binge watching details!

This show is WILD. Insane amounts of violence, drama, inside looks into MMA fights and training, AND absurd family drama that somehow all works together. It's an addictive 40 episode dive into well made soap opera garbage television. So if you enjoy violence, chaos and personal demons involving muscle bound people who are also charming and funny this show is for you!

Who doesn't love a mindless early 2000s superhero movie with a nu metal soundtrack? Ben Affleck's fun joyride as a blind lawyer in New York who dresses like a leather daddy Satan and fights crazy bald Colin Farrell and Michael Clarke Duncan in 3 piece suits! Revel in the absurdity of the before times of marvel movies before the edges were sanded down. Come play in the mud with me as I over analyze this mindless joy!

Broh, John FREAKING Travolta steals 2 nuclear bombs from a stealth bomber in the deserts of the Southwest and bribes the US government for 250 million dollars?! Um YES PLEASE! This is the forgotten great bad 90s action movie, it has EVERYTHING from quippy dialogue to GIANT nuclear explosions to the classic teacher vs student battle with Travolta and Christian Slater! Oh and there's humvee chases and machine gun fights in coal minds! So come take a trip down memory lane and revel in the absurdity of this gem of a John Woo Film!

We all miss Game of Thrones (at least the first 6 seasons anyway, DAMN THOSE LAST 2 TIRE FIRES THEY CHURNED OUT!). So what is the best single scene in the shows long and storied history? The red wedding? The mountain vs the viper? The battle of the bastards?! Find out as I frame by frame dissect what made this specific scene so memorable on a show that captured the hearts and minds of the entire world for time. DRACARYS!

I love comparisons! So why not mesh together sports and film and get a chocolate peanut butter level combo of analyzing which film conductors are most like their athletic counterpart? From style of motivation, to success in their field, to critical acclaim and/or shunning they are the behind the scenes master motivators and artistic creators of two of the greatest forms of entertainment we have today, so lets have some fun and see who mirrors who!

Who doesn't love The West Wing?! It's uplifting, its aspirational, it makes you proud and patriotic just hearing that intro! So my great buddy and tv guru Steve Kramer came in to breakdown who was a better character the beautiful speech writer Sam Seaborn or the hard nosed know it all Josh Lyman! We had a blast doing this and if you've seen even one episode of the West Wing this pod is a must listen! What's next?

Parks and Rec is the best show ever! So why not deep dive into the most upbeat silly character in the show's long and storied history. Nothing better than watching a rockstar dreaming man boy gobble candy ask silly questions and trip, flip and fall over the screen for 7 glorious seaons. Andy Dwyer was a gift from the comedic gods as he added the juvenile humor and light heartedness that felt akin to Parks and Rec's soul. MOUSE RAT FOR LIFE!!!