Nicolas Cage: A Complete Works Podcast

This week, Roy Scheider appears in another direct-to-video thriller, this time featuring Ron Silver uncovering a conspiracy surrounding diamonds, the Holocaust, and his own family! If you can make it through the pretty boring first 80 minutes, the last ten minutes are actually kinda wild!

This week, we've assembled our own Impossible Mission Force to discuss the latest (and potentially last?) movie in the Mission: Impossible series, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING! Music Supervisor Kyle Cullen and Producer Collin join the Mikes to talk everything Ethan Hunt, the spectacular action setpieces, and some of the questionable story decisions. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to listen!

Roy Scheider stars alongside Olympia Dukakis in BETTER LIVING, a comedy about a dysfunctional family dealing with the surprise return of their father. The Mikes aren't crazy about this one, but have you been watching THE PITT? Because you'll be hearing a lot about THE PITT in this episode!

Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to discuss the entire MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE series leading up to the release of FINAL RECKONING. Join the Mikes as they dive deep into what is arguably the most consistently great franchise in blockbuster filmmaking!

This week, Roy Scheider stars alongside Sonia Braga in MONEY PLAY$, the final film from director Frank D. Gilroy (father of Tony and Dan Gilroy!). It's a Showtime Original Movie about a gambling duo on the run - also starring Jon Polito!

This week, thanks to a listener donation, Mike and Mike are looking back on their childhoods and diving into MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS: THE MOVIE! Listen to them talk everything Ivan Ooze, low-rent CGI, recognizing toys that they had, and why Digimon is better than Pokémon.

Nicolas Cage is back this week with a new psychological thriller from director Lorcan Finnegan, THE SURFER! Taking inspiration from Frank Perry's 1968 film THE SWIMMER, Cage stars as a man who starts to lose everything, including his sense of self, when he faces off against a group of surfers in Australia led by Julian McMahon!

Things come full circle this week as we hearken back to an earlier era of The Complete Works - if you liked CON AIR, boy do we have a movie for you! Not only is a shameless ripoff of CON AIR, but it's implied that it takes place... in the same universe??? Roy Scheider stars alongside Dorian Harewood, Ray Wise, Clint Howard, and a little girl named after a JAWS character in 1998's direct-to-video action movie EVASIVE ACTION!

It's time for an Off Mike Discussions episode! This week, Smith talks SINNERS and grapples with the legacy of Star Wars with REVENGE OF THE SITH back in theaters, while Mike D catches up with new releases like BLACK BAG and COMPANION! Plus, we've got some thoughts on the new season of THE LAST OF US!

It's time to get back in the Cage! Nicolas Cage recently starred in the VOD western GUNSLINGERS, also starring Stephen Dorff, Heather Graham, and Officer Mark Hoffman from SAW III, SAW IV, SAW V, SAW VI, SAW 3D, and SAW X. Mike and Mike will spend the episode debating the question: is this among the worst Nicolas Cage VOD releases?

This week, thanks to a Ko-Fi donation from one our listeners, we're talking about Sam Peckinpah's 1978 film CONVOY! Starring Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Burt Young, Ernest Borgnine, and more, it was one of Peckinpah's last films and his biggest box office hit - but does it hold up?

This week, we're talking about... possibly the most nonexistent movie we've ever talked about. Roy Scheider pops up for one scene in the 1997 comedy THE DEFINITE MAYBE, also known as NO MONEY DOWN! He joins a cast that includes Josh Lucas, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Al Franken, and Ally Sheedy!

It's a baseball double header for this month's Mike Makes Mike Watch - Smith is making Mike D watch Sam Raimi's FOR LOVE OF THE GAME, while Mike D is making Smith watch MAJOR LEAGUE! Baseball expert and major Yankees fan Producer Collin joins us for these two movies in which the Yankees are the bad guys - whoops!

This week, Roy Scheider pops up for a brief part in Francis Ford Coppola's legal thriller THE RAINMAKER! Based on a John Grisham novel and starring Matt Damon (in his first leading role), alongside Danny DeVito, Jon Voight, Claire Danes, Danny Glover, and more, this was Coppola's final studio film!

This week, Roy Scheider has been elected to a second term as the president of the United States, this time in the 1997 Dolph Lundgren vehicle THE PEACEKEEPER! It's a film that boldly asks the question, "What if DIE HARD took place in a missile silo?"

It's time for an Off Mike Discussions episode! This week, both Mikes have rewatched the entire Final Destination series (and they're willing to talk more about them for a Ko-Fi donation)! Smith is talking new releases like MICKEY 17 and BLACK BAG, while Mike D is back into TV in a big way with shows like REACHER and GANGS OF LONDON!

This week, Roy Scheider reunites with Gary Busey for another direct-to-video action movie from 1997 - this time also featuring Lorenzo Lamas and Kristen Cloke - it's time for THE RAGE!

Thanks to a listener donation, Mike and Mike are taking the time to look back on the films scored by Tangerine Dream! In this retrospective, we're talking six films that we felt were representative of the Tangerine Dream filmography: Sorcerer, Thief, Risky Business, Legend, Near Dark, and Miracle Mile - plus we toss in a couple of extras too!

This week, we've got a surprisingly solid direct-to-video action movie featuring not one, not two, but THREE pretty incredible car chases! Michael Madsen plays a former stuntman who gets broken out of jail by Keith David and then gets involved in a plot to kidnap the President of the United States - who is, of course, played by Roy Scheider.

It's time for another Mike Makes Mike Watch! This week, Mike D is making Smith watch John Sayles' thrilling neo-noir LONE STAR, while Smith is making Mike D catch up with Weird Al Yankovic in 1989's UHF!

We now enter the direct-to-video action thriller phase of Roy Scheider's career, and we begin with the first of two movies he made starring Gary Busey in 1997! Scheider is the villain of the movie, a landmine baron who kidnaps Gary Busey's daughter - it's time for PLATO'S RUN!

A dysfunctional family reunites for the holidays and past secrets finally get revealed. It's time to talk about Roy Scheider alongside Julianne Moore, Blythe Danner, Hope Davis, Noah Wyle and more in 1997's Sundance dramedy, THE MYTH OF FINGERPRINTS!

What did the Mikes think of this year's Oscars? We'll tell you! It's time to recap the 97th Academy Awards!

In 1993, Roy Scheider took on a journey to boldly go where no man had gone before... underwater! Yes, it's finally time to talk about the two-part pilot episode to Scheider's TV series, SEAQUEST DSV! We also discuss the turbulent production the show faced over the course of its three seasons.

It's time for another Mike Makes Mike Watch! This week, Mike D makes Smith watch an underseen western noir starring Sterling Hayden, 1958's TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN. Meanwhile, Smith is making Mike D catch up with the Bob Odenkirk action movie NOBODY so he can prep for Timo Tjahanto's upcoming sequel!

This week, Roy Scheider appears as a mob boss alongside Gary Oldman, Juliette Lewis, Lena Olin, Annabella Sciorra, and more in a movie that was so despised that Jon Bon Jovi wrote a song for it and then refused to let the producers use it - it's time for ROMEO IS BLEEDING!

It's been a while, but it's finally time for an Off Mike Discussions episode! Smith has been watching a ton of new releases like Captain America: Brave New World, Paddington in Peru, Companion, and Heart Eyes, while Mike D talks the new Wolf Man, Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent, Jonathan Glazer's Birth, and more! Plus, we've got some TV thoughts, including Station 11, Severance, Mythic Quest, and SNL 50!

This week, Roy Scheider plays a small but pivotal supporting role in David Cronenberg's cult classic, NAKED LUNCH! Adapted from the novel by William S. Burroughs, Scheider stars alongside Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, and more in what may be the strangest and one of the last great movie of his career.

It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights, it's time to... RANK the Muppets??? Yes, thanks to a Ko-fi donation from one of our listeners, the Mikes are ranking every theatrically-released Muppets film from worst to best!

This week, we've got another early 90's Cold War thriller, and this time it's a John Le Carré adaptation starring Sean Connery and Michelle Pfieffer in the lead roles - Roy Scheider appears alongside them in THE RUSSIA HOUSE!

This week, it's time to return to the Michelle Yeoh season to talk about the brand-new spinoff movie featuring Yeoh's character from Star Trek: Discovery, STAR TREK: SECTION 31! How does this Paramount Plus original fare against the long cinematic legacy of Star Trek films? Let's find out!

It's time for the first Mike Makes Mike Watch of 2025! And this time we... sort of accidentally created a great double feature of bleak, snowy westerns? This time around, Mike Smith is making Mike D watch THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD, while Mike D is making Smith catch up with a classic spaghetti western, Sergio Corbucci's THE GREAT SILENCE!

This week, Roy Scheider co-stars with Bonnie Bedelia, Arliss Howard, and Andre Bruagher in a surprisingly solid HBO movie from the early '90s. Scheider is hired to photograph a death row inmate as he's being executed, but he begins to discover that there may be more to this case in 1990's SOMEBODY HAS TO SHOOT THE PICTURE!

It's finally. here! It's time for the Mike & Mike 2024 Year-in-Review Spectacular! We're counting down our Top 10 Films of 2024 - PLUS, we'll be counting down our Top 10 Discoveries of 2024, AND we'll be looking ahead at some of the films we're most excited about in 2025. We didn't plan it this way, but we simply couldn't stop talking about all of our favorites, so this is now the longest podcast episode we've ever recorded! Special thanks to Kyle Cullen, Producer Collin, Jackie and Danielle from No More Late Fees, Mike Emmons, Nick Wermuth, Vin Craig, and Charley Macorn for their contributions to this episode!

This week, Roy Scheider enters the '90s by almost starting an international incident at the end of the Cold War! Re-teaming with his 52 PICK-UP director John Frankenheimer, Scheider is joined by Jurgen Prochnow and Harry Dean Stanton in THE FOURTH WAR!

Since we didn't get to talk about it for our annual in-person episode, Mike and Mike recorded this quick bonus episode to discuss Robert Egger's latest horror film, NOSFERATU!

Roy Scheider closes out his '80s with a police procedural slasher about a series of murders that tie into Astros baseball games. We brought on resident baseball expert (and horror movie enthusiast) Producer Collin to help us talk about it!

It's time for the annual in-person holiday episode! Now, usually these episodes center on whatever the big holiday blockbuster is that season, and this time around, the timing didn't quite work out for us to do NOSFERATU (though that one's coming!). So, since our Music Supervisor Kyle Cullen had never seen DIE HARD, we decided it was time to make it happen! Producer Collin also joins us to talk John McTiernan's celebrated 1988 action classic - and probably the greatest Christmas movie of all time.

'Tis the season to watch some Christmas movies, and in true Mike and Mike fashion, we picked the most violent ones. It's time for a Mike Makes Mike Watch - Mike D is making Smith watch Ben Wheatley's hitman horror movie KILL LIST, while Smith is making Mike D catch up with the zombie musical ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE!

This week, Roy Scheider as a college debate coach, alongside master debaters Kirk Cameron and Jami Gertz - what starts as a college ensemble movie then takes a hard pivot into the kind of thing you'd expect from a Kirk Cameron vehicle. This is LISTEN TO ME!

It's time for another Mike Makes Mike Watch! This time around, Mike D is making Smith watch Takashi Miike's AUDITION, while Smith is making Mike D finally get around to Martin Scorsese's THE IRISHMAN!

This week, Roy Scheider co-stars alongside Adam Baldwin as two at-odds assassions in a bleak, nasty thriller from the screenwriter behind THE HITCHER and NEAR DARK - it's time for COHEN AND TATE!