Old v. Gold

Season finale and conclusion of our 2-part Star Wars smackdown video spectacular! We move on to 1980's "The Empire Strikes Back" as H.P. Mendoza and Mark Del Lima rejoin us for our second tour of the Star Wars universe, which ends, as many family vacations do, with a really awkward father-son moment. After our usual vote, we then take on the question: which is the better film, "Star Wars" or "Empire"?

Part 1 of our 2-part Old v. Gold Season 2 finale spectacular takes on a movie that's as old and yet as omnipresent as The Force: "Star Wars." This edition of the podcast comes in two flavors: the usual audio and our first video version. Returning podcast panelists H.P. Mendoza and Mark Del Lima of Ersatz Film join us as we try to look past all the tinkering that's been done since the movie 1977 release to see if there's really a good film underneath our voracious nostalgic appetite for this sci-fi landmark. The audio version of the podcast extends the discussion to include the lovability of stormtroopers, more on the film's avoidance of emotion, and, as required, a reference to the dreaded Holiday Special. Next week, the second contender in our Star Wars smackdown: "The Empire Strikes Back."

We hide behind our space couches and revisit the horror of 1979's "Alien," the (only) Ridley Scott movie about space predators (worth talking about). Tom Skerritt, the white male captain and thus surely ultimate survivor, leads a small crew of industrial tow-jockeys against a clingy, gooey menace. Also Sigourney Weaver is there.

In Robert Zemeckis' 1997 film "Contact," a child raised in a single-tragedy household grows up to be Jodie Foster and a scientist listening for signals from extraterrestrials, which are tough to hear over all the mansplaining directed at her. Last year's "Interstellar" reminded us of this movie in a lot of ways, good and bad, and not just in both films' McConaugheyness.

This week, we hit the 1988 quasi-musical "Earth Girls Are Easy," starring the Blum! And also Geena Davis, and pre-"In Living Color" Jim Carrey and Damon Wayans. Watch music-video director Julien Temple pretty much hijack a few great and funny Julie Brown songs and turn them into a collection of carefully composed shots that might possibly be considered a movie.

The year is 1994. A new science-fiction series with groundbreaking computer graphics and not much budget at all debuts in syndication. It carries a secret, revolutionary agenda of long-form serialization. It also carries some dubious acting and set design. The name of the show is "Babylon 5."

Out of the TV static left when 1982 signed off comes Steven Speilberg's-- um, Tobe Hooper's "Poltergeist," which among its many frights and delights also raises a killer tree of unanswered questions: What is the light and do we run toward it or away from it? What's up with the daughter's secret sex life? Who the hell dyes their hair while bathing? Did the movie really expect us to buy that Zelda Rubenstein's spiritual-guide character was named "Tangina"? And come on, who really directed this?

The 1988 Japanese animation classic "Akira" blows up our screen - and, of course, Tokyo - bringing us, yes, plenty of yelling, but also plenty of action, cinematic vision, trippy cosmic plot developments, reflections of the state of mind of an entire damaged nation, and a surprising but welcome lack of sailor-skirted little girls.

An initial discussion of the darkness of Santa Claus leads naturally to a January podcast about 1986's "Big Trouble in Little China," a comic epic stage-fighting romp from title-preceding director John Carpenter and star Kurt Russell - who may or may not actually be the hero of this quietly subversive little piece. OK, maybe not "quietly," because there's plenty of splosions, and we guess about $11 million worth of lightning. And Kim Cattrall is there being feisty.

In 1985, Val Kilmer was a "Real Genius," which it turns out is one rank below "Top Gun," at least chronologically. In what some (well, one) consider Kilmer's greatest film role, he shepherds a younger and perhaps realer genius through a college gauntlet of enemy dickey-wearers, mysterious closet passer-throughers, an administrator serving the perpetrators of a military weapons system, wacky parties, and even a girl!

It's interstellar attackers vs. the world - read U!S!A! - in Roland Emmerich's 1996 epic-wannabe "Independence Day." Can Jeff Goldblum work his magic and make this movie worth it, or will he be overpowered by Will Smith's quips? And what do those mean old space folk have against our tourist landmarks, anyway?

Say "yes, cyborg officer" to 1987's "RoboCop." whose near-future science fiction trades in such preposterous notions as a crippled Detroit, unethical corporate overseers, and constantly referring to videoclips that are only a few seconds long. Also, in the next few days when you hear everyone buzzing about the "Nancy Allen mimosa sketch," this is the podcast they're talking about.

From the mind of Joel Schumacher springs 1987's "The Lost Boys," about a California beach town infested with gays-- um, vampires. Will the dreamy young newcomer be turned homosexual-- um, nocturnal by these rummage-sale-costumed hooligans, or can the '80s super duo of Feldman/Haim, or maybe Oily Sax Guy, save him? Join our three-quarters vampiric-- um, gay panel to find out!

This Season 2 sample of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" is "The Emissary," who is someone in this episode, but that's not important. What's important in this episode is feminism, the meaning and importance of marriage, questionable personnel management, what we all know the holodeck is really for, and, above all, FASHION.

A theme park filled with actual flesh-eating dinosaurs: what could go wrong? That's the question asked and answered by Steven Spielberg's 1993 film "Jurassic Park." Join us as we consider the movie's Spielberginess, Goldblumosity, science, effects, child-character abuse, and fashion choices. And recoil in horror with us at a bit of fan fiction that goes to more bad places than you can imagine (and makes this podcast more explicit than usual).

It's back to high school yet again for the proto-"Mean Girls": 1988's "Heathers," which brings us a brightly colored yet pitch-black tale of cliques and power. Does this movie still have something relevant to say between its beloved slang and zingers?

For "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," we're joined by some folks who know their way around the Alpha Quadrant: Captain Matt, Lt. Commander Eddy, and Dr. Ken from the Starboard Power Coupling podcast. With 30-plus years, several franchise series, and a (dreadful) movie reboot between then and now, does "Khan" still possess its genetically enhanced power?

Would you like to swing on a star? Or would you rather recall the 1991 Bruce Willis showcase "Hudson Hawk"? This difficult-to-describe antic comedy was a critical and box-office bomb, but is beloved by many today. How does it fare here? Well, don't make a drinking game out of us saying the word "ridiculous"-- it comes up A LOT, both for good and bad.

For Spooky Week, we've picked the spooky 1984 comedy "Ghostbusters," full of spooky slime monsters and spooky demon dogs and spooky sexual harassment!

Remember that movie about sinking oceancraft that James Cameron made? No, not that one - "The Abyss," the 1989 deep-seacret movie with Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. We dive in (HA!) to the 171-minute special edition.

Season 2 of Old v. Gold moves, with Spockly logic, to Season 2 of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." First up: "Q Who," which, besides serving up big scoops (a word Worf should never say) of the title character, also introduces us to those lovable scamps, the Borg.

Season 2 premiere! Ah, the '80s. When Americans were obsessed with skiing contests, French foreign-exchange students, Howard Cosell-imitating drag racers, and dancing Claymation fast food - all rigorously documented in exacting cinéma vérité detail by director Savage Steve Holland via "Better Off Dead," Fall 1985's required dose of John Cusack.

Old v. Gold's second season begins Tuesday, Oct. 7. New to the podcast, or need a refresher course on the concept? Enjoy this preview, which includes clips from both seasons.

The Old v. gold season finale! When you think of "Chariots of Fire," one thing comes to mind: guys running down a gloomy British beach in long underwear to the iconic keyboard theme song. But did you know that the O***r-winning Best Picture for 1981 also contains OTHER SCENES? Yes! Those scenes feature Ian Holm, Ben Cross, and the Borg Queen in a low-key tale of athletic skill, heritage, faith, and the classiest way to practice hurdles at your posh manor. Also, surprisingly, trowels are prominent.

A bunch of us black-palms get together and set our analytical lasers to beautify and/or brutally dissect"Logan's Run," the iconic 1976 sci-fi tale in which the color-coded denizens of a future Epcot Center live an erotically convenient, hermetically sealed life — then die a state-mandated, Cirque du Soleilesque death at 30.

Two kids with what ought to be world-conquering powers and conveniently sporadic vague memories wind up on the run from a large number of disturbing adults in Disney's 1975 "Escape to Witch Mountain."

Someone remembered "Trainspotting," Danny Boyle's acclaimed tale of heroin-dependent and -adjacent young men in Scotland as a kind of, um, funny romp? So here we are (in a session recorded a couple of weeks ago, before certain grim recent Hollywood news), to find out what we get from this energetic and artistic 1996 movie in 2014. (A hint: depressed.)

Using the Charm of Making, we weave a mist ... in time! ... through which we watchExcalibur, John Boorman's 1981 telling of the legend of King Arthur, full of verdant hills and glades, orchestral music from a completely different legend, and shouting British AC-TORS!

Old v. Gold goes on location, huddling in a shaky house among the redwoods of Northern California to view the pilot episode of "Twin Peaks," David Lynch's groundbreaking 1990 mix of surrealism, humor, terror, and donuts.

Kirk, Spock, and the rest warped to the big screen in 1979's "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." This first movie in the franchise isn't a five-year mission, but it is a, well, leisurely tour.

Joe Dante's "Explorers" presents, in their first theatrical-film roles, River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke - plus a third kid you haven't heard who more than holds his own against them - as young hobos or something who put their longing for the stars to the test. Speaking of tests, the third act ...

There's no movie or show to view this time! Instead, we gathered a few of our podcasters past and future to not just bring you updates on the oldies that we nostalgiamacated this year, but also share our favorite (and not-so-much) movies, series, and trends of 2013. Herewith, the meatiest chunks of our sprawling conversation.

Our two-part look at holiday classics wraps up with the stop-motion antics of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", an epic tale of non-conformity, questionable revenge, quality assurance in manufacturing, and lackadaisical snowman narrators.

Part 1 of our two-part look at classic Yuletide TV is a double feature: the decidedly downbeat, jazzy attack on commercial Xmas that is "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and the nonsense-encrypted holiday heist of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"

Save Ferris ... from the Middle Ages! Somewhere, sometime in Europe, Matthew Broderick is drawn into the cursed romance of Michelle Pfeiffer and Rutger Hauer in Richard Donner's 1985 "Ladyhawke."

In 1984's "The Last Starfighter," a bored young denizen of a strangely idyllic trailer park longs for something more - and gets it when his videogame prowess buys his ticket to adventure in a pioneeringly high-CGI universe,with the original Music Man, Robert Preston, as his charming huckster of a tour guide.

it's Ferris Bueller's Day Off, in which weirdly popular Matthew Broderick manipulates his friends, the mean ol' dean of students, a lot of answering machines -- and maybe the fabric of spacetime itself?

The NeverEnding Story brings us, all the way from Germany, weird capitalization and a truly interactive children's book. Follow the story within the story's hero, Atreyu, who's kind of whiny for a warrior but has fabulous hair, as he fulfills his random, seemingly goal-free quest in a dazzling and fragile wonderland.

1984's Red Dawn pits a gaggle of teenagers (and apparent Hugh Jackman fans) against the entire Soviet army, plus one Cuban guy, who have invaded the U!S!A! via one small Colorado town.

We return to the Enterprise, cruising at full impulse toward the end of Season 1 of Star Trek: The Next Generation. "Conspiracy" darkens the usual series tone as Picard is forced to cancel his beach vacation in Pacifica when he's lured into a (non-Tholian) web of suspicion and mistrust.

In the well-regarded 1988 action hit "Die Hard," Bruce Willis single-handedly withstands the assault on an L.A. office building by Alan Rickman and his crew of well-moussed thugs. But can this man-against-the-world milestone withstand the decades of clichés and knockoffs it spawned?

Our nostalgia beams to the small screen for the second episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "The Naked Now", which itself hearkened back to the original series by once more showing what happens when the Enterprise crew gets infected by a strange ... something ... that makes everyone act not Starfleety at all.

"Gremlins" brings us Joe Dante and Chris Columbus's 1984 Christmas vision of the terror inflicted on a strangely isolated patch of Americana.

Like no straight teenage boy ever, the hero of "Fright Night" forgoes available girl sex to investigate whether a vampire lives next door.