The Cult of Matt and Mark

 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 own scratch paper version of the timeline by the tenth viewing. Not sure what it's saying, or what the moral of the story is, but who cares.... it's late-stage Nolan and it's a hoot.Downlaod: 333 TENET

 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 reviews in us. We're still holding out for our Spotify pay day, but oddly no offers! And we're too lazy to put up a Patreon. I think moving nickes and dimes around into our banking account would be too humiliating at this point. Enjoy!Download: The 9 Year show

 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 on the movie, might want to fast-forward to 2:00:00 and listen to the 10 minutes of film discussion. I wouldn't really call this a Bonus Episode, because it wasn't planned... so here it sits. Enjoy?... .maybe?... It is, what it is...Download: 331 

 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 is defined and described in the movie, it's the Pre-Cog "Echo" which becomes the fulcrum around which the plot twists. Was this intentional? Who knows. There's a striking amount of causal motivation problems that we somehow forgive... Why is John A. being chased? I dunno, but I hope he gets away! Because the film making is so solid, we tend to forgive its motivational transgressions. However, none of this would ever be admitted to by Ebert, who thought this film was as water-tight plot-wise as a frog's a'hole in a Pre-Cog tank.Download: 330 Minority Report

 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 aware that Bill and Ted are inter-changeable, and always have been. While Wayne and Garth and Beavis and Butthead mimic some of the same Bill and Ted vibe, the latter characters are distinctly their own. Could you reduce B&T to a single characeter? Yes, would he be called Bed or Till? perhaps.. and it wouldn't really matter. Excellent!Download: 329 Bill and Ted Face the Music

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", highlighting Belushi's incredible knack for physical comedy that has not yet really been repeated. Oddly, the film takes place in 1962, but was filmed in 1978.. not sure why, other than it excuses the film somewhat from the timely anchors of a modern status quo. Download: 328 Animal House

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 various reasons and is most definitely the lesser of the films. But that's okay. Regardless, it isn't forgettable, which makes it a worthwhile watch some 30+ years later.Download: 327 Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

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 of shoe gazing and boring opening acts at the beginning, the penultimate "It's a Good Life" offers up some Rob Botin FX that make it both memorable and creepy. But in the end, it's Lithgow's Xanax deprived flyer that reigns supreme. Want to see something scary?Download: 326 Twilight Zone: The Movie 

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 who dragged their parents to the film for almost a solid year's run in the cinemas back in 1982. Withe "cute" puppetry of the alien itself, to the overwhelming purple score of John Williams, E.T. remains...Download: 325 E.T. the extra-terrestrial

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 clever film, it offers up a first contact story more pragmatic (strangely) from an alien standpoint, by keeping us a**hole humans and arms length with a proper filter. Oddly similar to Carl Sagan's plotline from Contact, including t.v. waves from space and "radioed" spaceship plans, we won't suggest the Cornell astrophysicist cribbed the film's idea. But for the record Explorers came out the same year as the novel Contact, so...Download:  324 Explorers

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, please be entertaining. We try to do our best to inject a little MST3K into the mix, but it is what it is... However, we are treated to a worthy Hoff' in an early role, noting his potential for future cheesy Sci-Fi outings like Knight Rider with a glint of Euro-trash..Download: 323 Star Crash

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 situation. Unlike the latter films, we're not fire-hosed with undigested CGI and stiff inconsequential acting. The sets and scenes of TESB are unique and atmospheric and pause accordingly to allow the viewer to take a virtual tour of the Galaxy Far Far Away.Download: 322 The Empire Strikes Back

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, when there's no one left to believe in it, it becomes not only irrelevant but absurd. This is more the story of the knowing citizens of Germany during Nazi rule, here from the viewpoint of Hitler's personal secretary, and the creeping compromises and guilty admissions that are self-excused in a disingenuous way. Morality was not mutated into the grotesque during Hitler's Germany, it was merely suppressed. Download: 321 Downfall

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 important questions even today. Could fertilizing the Earth with 92 Hitler Clones get us anything more than your standard shitty sociopath-type CEOs or could you actually hatch the 4th Reich? I suppose that question remains to be answered.Download: 320 The Boys from Brazil

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 into the purity of true Science Fiction, laying the ground work for such 21st Century film makers as Alex Garland and Shane Carruth. A "monkey's paw" story, we enter the mind of the main character Orr's "effective dreams." A type of reality-amnesia that reforms out of the sub-conscious, we see the scene change from dream-to-dream in a composite state of simultaneous utopia and dystopia. Filmed on a shoestring, we forgive it its production faults as its "big ideas" seethe with an intensity rarely awarded to greater films.Download: 319 The Lathe of Heaven

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, one that's enticed by the transformation of end-times, not one nostalgic for what was. While somewhat 2-dimensional, its characters hint at our specific pandemic moment, one that forces an appreciation of something perhaps more truthful, more atavistic than our current artificial landscapes and manufactured routines.Download: 318 High Rise. 

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 and our own myopic inconvenient take on this particular plague. There's been many before, there's one now, and there will be more in the future... that's the way this creaky millennia old civilization rolls, I'm afraid.Download: Special Episode

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 film and it's Roshoman approach to the high-profile Wonderland murders of the early 80's. There's a few stand-out performances, and Val-Kilmers' sleazy glean is charismatic, at least enough to make the film worth a watch.Download: 317 Wonderland

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 Mickey Rooney starring as the meth cook version of Mickey Rooney. With a now antiquated music video vibe (ala its director), Spun leaves you with drive-by portrayals of drugged out vignettes. Its characters lack back-stories, but in the end they don't need any. You know how they got to where they are, and you just want to see where the day takes them. Pop an old Blondie (or Judas Priest) cassette into your Chevette's tape deck, snort a crystal or two off our thumb, and kick back for a few days drive with Spun.Download: 316 Spun

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 ensemble in layered scenes that are great to watch. 20+ years on, it feels like the film came out yesterday. One thing is for sure... you'll never listen to Night Ranger's "Sister Christian" again without the jarring expectations of an ill-timed firecracker going off in your ear.Download: 315 Boogie Nights

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 film character like no other, also backed up by the fun Mexican-stereotypes of drug toughs played by non other than Luis Guzman and Danny Trejo (in one film!). So snort a line, kick back, and watch three days burn in the blink of an eye and enjoy... The Salton Sea.Download: 314 The Salton Sea

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. Is it a watchable good film? Kind of... But for a non-discerning 10 year old in the early 80's it was Dungeons and Dragons gold! Shot with Kubrickian precision, it's Barry-Lyndon quality night-shots give it a peculiar look that makes for an honest effort. The Beastmaster knows what kind of film it is, and it serves it up well. That and Rip Torn is a decent stand-in for the ominous "Thulsa Doom" villain archetype.Download: 313 The Beastmaster   

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 overestimating an experience despite one's better judgement. Was Bo Derek all that? Matt and Mark ponder... a Playboy model, yes, but what about those corn rows? hmm... Download: 312 10

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 film (resulting in its 5% RT rating), however it does beg one to wonder, would anyone make a movie like this now? It's hard to say. With free 24/7 HD streaming pornography one wonders if this type of VHS-rewind-for-the-odd-boob-shot is necessary anymore. Perhaps nostalgia reigns supreme for Blame it...Download: 311 Blame it on Rio

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" conversations embedded in Tarkovsky father's poetry. Meant to be a sublime journey into meaning, Stalker could have done more with the less it had to work with (in Matt's opinion). Perhaps worthy of 1.5 hours instead of the 2.5 it runs, it challenges the viewer. It's definitely not intended as entertainment (sadly), a fun romp it is not.Download: 310 Stalker (1979) 

The poster says "A biting comedy", but the comedic is a little sketchy with the odd intentions of this particular Nick Cage descent-into-madness story. Matt and Mark complete our Paranormal Cage theme with Vampire's Kiss. A little American Psycho, it offers up an asshole, complete with strange effete non-accent, and then let's us ride along as he spins out into a homeless vampire of a delusional existence. For whatever reason, it's a watchable weird film and a new/old take on Goth LARP'ing.Download: 309 Vampire's Kiss

Bees!!! Matt and Mark continue our "Paranormal Cage" theme with the much maligned/beloved bad movie remake of the sinister 1973 titular classic. As fans of the original, we both ponder why this version is such a failure. Yes there's the goofy bear scene, bees, and odd punching-the-lights-out of forest wandering women, but there's something at the core that fails. Matt speculates that unlike the original, where things are not what they seem, in this version you're served up pagan cult weirdos as soon as you get off the sea plane. Sadly, where horror once worked, farce now reigns.Download: 308 The Wicker Man (2006)

We're back for our run-up to Halloween. This go 'round we're thinking "Paranormal Cage", and to begin our offering, we review a film that's near and dear to our hearts: Drive Angry (Shot in) 3D. Why? Well, one of our good friends not only was the art director but had the privilege of getting his sandal-wearing ass killed by diabolical leader Jonah King! While no doubt a Cage paycheck film, it is a well wrought 'B' movie with all your typical camp: there's a sex-gunfight, schemes of satanic child sacrifice, and then there's Cage's hell jailbreaker bringing it all back home. And tying it all together is a superbly fun William Fichtner as the Accountant.Download:  307 Drive Angry

We're back (finally) and it's time to wrap up our "young lust" theme with the 1983 cult romance classic Valley Girl starring a young Nicholas Cage. A movie the breaks out from the teen-sex swamp of like genre films of the era, VG's character-driven story arc elevates it above the common Porky's-type drivel. Still with a dose of ample 80's boob shots, it has a little for everyone. Mark and Matt both agree it falls apart in the last 3rd of the film as it delves into the realm of silliness and cop-outs (violence doesn't really solve anything... it really doesn't... come on, this isn't Rambo folks). Oddly inspired by the titular Zappa hit, the linguistic impact of the era is not to be understated.Download: 306 Valley Girl

The penultimate entry into our "Young Lust" theme, this go 'round we review the Linklater Gen X love letter Before Sunrise. The first in the "Before Trilogy" we get off the train with Celine and Jesse for a night on the streets of Vienna. Matt works to give life to Mark's cold dead heart, and finds a few bits and pieces of Before Sunrise that lifts his current Morrissey fog. A film made over 25 years ago, the "simpler time" element is more in contrast than ever, a time before the slums of our current internet age befouled the purity of human-on-human interaction. While we know what becomes of Celine and Jesse in later entries to their story, Matt still appreciates this tattered Harlequin romance novel that is Before Sunrise's male wish fulfillment, while Mark? ... not so much.Download: 305 Before Sunrise

We continue our "Young Lust" theme with the crazy-ass Luhrmann joint Romeo + Juliet. Yes it's Billy Shakespeare (kind of), but the frenetic images and neck-snapping cuts overwhelm to a point that uptight Bard-heads may find "le'essence" diminished. Mark and Matt are not of that camp. An adaption for the MTV-video-games generation? Sure. But what the hell. Despite the R n' J focus, the film shines with its supporting players, specially Tybalt, Mercutio, Father Lawrence and the Nurse. So let's head off to our Sophomore English class shall we and enjoy some star-crossed love action.Download: 304 Romeo + Juliet

"Young Lust" continues with our review of  NC-17 rated The Dreamers from 2003 by Bernardo Bertolucci. Matt and Mark get into the world of the over-heated Paris apartment's artificial realms of cinema, sex, and sibling co-dependence. Heavily driven by the nostalgia of the chaotic Paris streets of 1968, it's hard not to see why the Bohemians of this era champion this film. However, there's something stranger and darker going on that's hard to comprehend. While having unending sex with Isabelle (Eva Green) for days on end sounds enticing (well, at least for dudes), the creepy monitoring of her brother Theo is the price Michael pays. So off the map is this strange trio, the mere act of asking someone out on a date breaks the status quo.Download: 303 The Dreamers

Our "Young Lust" theme rolls on with the odd-ball Rater R teenage sexual exploration movie The Blue Lagoon. There's a lot of things that The Blue Lagoon isn't, which may be it's problem. It's not an adventure story and it's not a steamy sex drama, leading to a confused movie going audience. What is it? A Disney-esque Cinemax cross-over and neither? Allegedly faithful to the 1903 book, its problems may lie in its true-faith adaptation of the original Victoria novel (which may have not been very good). Even Brooke Shields conspicuously placed hair frustrates the viewer. Regardless, the cinematography shines through even though everything else seems to pale (and shrivel).Download: 302 The Blue Lagoon 

Matt and Mark start our "Young Lust" theme with the classic Cameron Crowe late 80's teen romance film Say Anything! Why do all Gen X women love Loyd Dobbler? Why? Because he's an absolutely nearly perfect good guy with few/if-any flaws. Everyone loves Loyd and he loves everyone, despite his minor if negligible personality quirks like the "talking thing" and the obligatory adolescent aimlessness that was the hallmark of a generation. And at the end, we all cheer Diane's reunion with Loyd, because if she hadn't taken him back, we could collectively agree she's the worst human being on the planet. Download: 301 Say Anything

Matt is back from Scotland and it's time for our centennial bonus episode now that we've completed our 300th film review (sort of). A mixed back of discussion topics that are meandering at best. Hold fast and you'll get our last 100 episode recap. Hopefully we'll be around for a bonus episode in 2021! Hope you've had as much fun listening to us as much as we've had talking about movies for the past 7+.Download: Bonus Episode #4

Stop! Sparta-time... This week we review the obligatory 300 for our 300th podcast. Every one of our prior episodes like a fallen Spartan at Thermopylae, buff, ripped, free, and bloody. A perfect exercise in the notion of style-over-substance, 300 delivers a healthy plate of jingoism and old-timey masculinity to pump up our inner Conan the Barbarian. What is it about the "few against many" theme? Not sure, but suffice it to say the Spartans weren't your typically boot-strapping citizen soldiers. Atop a slave-fueled pyramid scheme, Mark and Matt ponder King Leonidas of Sparta's "freedom" rallying cry. I suppose everything's relative (and not exactly fair) in love and war.Download: 300

This review we go pre-Columbian with the Gibson action-chase film Apocalypto. Despite the criticism of its classic period Mayan portrayals, Apocalypto is a violent action film akin to modern fair. Why set it in during the Mayan fall? Why not? Despite it's odds-and-ends of Meso-american history, it commits no greater sins than your average sword and sandals epic. What Gibson shows us is something no one has ever seen in Hollywood films. Ever wondered what it might be like to be atop a Mayan period during an eclipse? Apocalypto gives you a peak, and for what its worth, it is distinctly memorable.Download: 299 Apocalypto

We get around to finally putting out another podcast, and this time? The Woo/Van Damme joint Hard Target! Complete with doves, sub-machine guy dude on dirt bikes.. this film has it all for those pining for a Cajun flavor Hong Kong actioner! Can we dismiss Van Damme's Belgian-Cajun creole and Wilfred Brimley's only known un-codgery film role? Yes we can! If you like a boot kick to the head at 40 mph hour along with class-warfare themes, order up some Hard Target!Download: 298 Hard Target 

"Wwwaaaah! Chewaaaah!" Time to Enter the Dragon with our Seattle homey Mr. Bruce Lee! Even though heavily borrowed from similar spy tropes, Enter the Dragon was daring in its marketing. While kung fu theater was a Hong Kong staple, bringing it into the US mainstream required a multi-prong (and multi-racial) tact that brought out Mr. Lee's savvy. "A white guy, a black guy, and and Asian guy walk into a bar/death-ring tournament..." Unfortunately Mr. Lee's pioneering legacy still has a long way to go. Asian leading men in the US mainstream are still absent for the most part some 45 years later, much to our detriment.Download: 297 Enter the Dragon 

This go 'round we review the Bakshi/Frezetta joint Fire and Ice from 1983. For its time, a solid outing by the sorta like 'em/hate 'em Bakshi (Cool World anyone?). Crutching heavily on Frazetta's muscular fantasy exotica, the look of the film and its rotoscoping bring to life the static comic book "je ne sais quoi." Matt laments the luke warm relationship with adult themes and animation while bemoaning the silly look of today's live-action comic book fair. We both take a nostalgic journey into the sci-fi book cover art of yor, discussing our favs. While not to be left out, the mall standard Thomas Kincaid (painter of light) is given his due credit for his pre-historic matte work on F&I. Sadly, his fantasy contributions never usurped his twee cottage themes beloved by grandmothers in middle-America.Download: 295 Fire and Ice

Matt and Mark review the 80's sci-fi/fantasy fusion film Krull! Diametrically opposed, Matt and Mark square off about what Mark liked and Matt did not! A highly derivative epic, Krull attempts to mash-up the tropes of high fantasy classic quest with something a little more Star Wars. Does it work? Despite its many stumbles of illogic and poorly sketched motivations, Krull is a well-filmed and produced popcorn movie with a decent set of supporting characters and a few trippy set pieces. Nostalgia may have been Matt's greatest enemy here, while Mark enjoyed it for what is... whatever that may have been.Download:  294 Krull

It's Matt and Mark's 7th Anniversary of doing the podcast, and for this go 'round we finish up with our 70's car movie theme with the artsy Two-Lane Blacktop. With a set of steamy hunky rock n' rollers racing about in a built out 55' Chev, this is as American as it gets... or is it? TLB has been debated as a 'metaphor' due to the sparseness of its character sketches (if they can even be called sketches at all), but what they're a metaphor for and what archetypes they represent are not obvious or clear. In the end, we don't really know these characters other than what meaning we graft on to them. Despite it's subtext, the film captures the early 70's zeitgeist of the post-Love era, which if anything, is an interesting cultural time more and more alien to us 21st Century folks.Download:  293 Two-Lane Blacktop

This go 'round Matt and Mark continue our 70's car movie them with the campy Death Race 2000. Like a macabre Cannonball Run, DR2K takes place in a futuristic dystopia where the sweaty masses (somewhere off-camera) are appeased by the breads and circuses of the titular race. Does it make any sense? Not really, but we go with it anyhow. Composed of farcical racers and their campy race cars, one can help but be reminded of far better fair in Swarzenegger's Running Man, specifically when it comes to production value. Matt takes issue with lack of geographic framing (no St. Louis does not have a Mediterranean climate and rolling coastal mountain ranges) while Mark highlights some of the film's more nonsensical nonsense. Perhaps more salient in the early 70's than it is today, DR2K remains entertaining high concept.Download: 292 Death Race 2000

Matt and Mark continue our 70's car movie theme with the quintessential movie that started it all, the original 1979 Mad Max. Mark declares it to be his favorite of the Max saga as its characters have yet to enter the realm of post-apocalyptic genre fiction. With real characters and a recognizable yet distorted quasi-present, we can feel Max's reality more than the nuclear wastelands of the Humongous. Matt revels in the badassery of the 70's muscle car with a middle-aged crisis wish to one day ride into the empty deserts behind the wheel of an 800 hp super-charged v8 pursuit special (specifically the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, a mere $83k). Hopefully fully equipped with Android Auto and a 4G link to my Spotify catalogue.Download: 291 Mad Max

Matt and Mark do up a double feature this week (kind of) for our 70's car-movie theme with the 1976 short "Rendevous" and the John Wayne 1974 Neo-Noir McQ. Matt waxes nostalgic over his favorite city Paris, while both Matt and Mark wax nostalgic over the uncrowded free-ways of early 70's Seattle. As Seattle natives, we ponder the set pieces of Wayne's McQ and its set-piece car chase, while parsing out the acting talents of the venerable and storied Wayne. Is it a Bullitt knock-off? Does it matter? Foreign to both Wayne's Western canon and the zeitgeist of early 70's popcorn cinema, we try to appreciate McQ with fresh eyes. Despite its mediocre reviews, Wayne is certainly a charismatic actor worthy of his legend.Download: 290 McQ (and Rendezvous)

Continuing our 70s car movie theme, we review the classic Vanishing Point. A road movie that's nothing more than a cross-country chase in a 71 super-charged Challenger, we probe the classic film archetype of Kowalski. Reaching for deeper themes, Matt and Mark ponder Kowalski's origin and try to parse his enigmatic back story. But in the end we determine it may not really matter. Do we care? Or do we just like road movies? Dunno. A man with death nipping on his heels. Kowalski meets it head on... literally. Download: 289 Vanishing Point

Continuing our 70's car movie theme (and our political discussions... sorry, fast forward ahead 15 - 20 mins) Matt and Mark review the inaugural Spielberg outing Duel. A made for TV movie, it's simple Plymouth vs Peterbilt road rage spectacle is not so much about the literal mechanics of the setup, but a psychological experiment. The Dennis Weaver character in his modern man impotence is an avatar for our own anxious helplessness. What makes Duel interesting is the "what would I do?" dynamic in each of its scenes. If the impotent David Mann was more a stoic Mad Max character, this film would fall flat. It's our annoyance of David Mann that makes this film relevant.Download: 288 Duel

This week Matt and Mark kick-off our 70's car movie them with 1978 comedy-drama Corvette Summer starring a recently minted Luke Skywalker (aka Mark Hamill) and a super-sexy Annie Potts of Designing Women fame. Sadly, at this point in Hamill's career the die was cast. His lack of acting chops and psuedo Buster Keaton physical antics would seem to doom him as an A-listers post Jedi. Thankfully Potts's "hooker with a heart of gold" Vanessa lit up our labido's to propel us through this silly snapshot of 70's pop culture. FYI... skip the first 20 minutes, if our political musings leave you feeling like Hamill covered in a drum of motor oil.Download: 287 Corvette Summer

Finishing up our zombie run, we review the Wes Craven "true life" zombie film The Serpent and the Rainbow. Steeped in voodoo, Wes goes to the source of the zombie origin story and brings to life (pun intended) the legend of the "undead." While the film conjures the supernatural, it's blended into the story in such a way that skirts the magical, making it a fun ride. Matt and Mark spend a considerable amount of time debating the "exotic fetishism" of Dr. Alan's character with only a modicum of genuine theory. Whatever the true impetus, we both agree it seems like a good time.Download: 286 The Serpent and The Rainbow 

Another international zombie entry into Matt and Mark's zombie Halloween run-up. A ridiculously simple "teens, cabin in the woods, monsters" combination, Dead Snow is a high concept film. One can almost see a couple of Nordic would-be filmmakers smoking a little of Amsterdam's finest pondering the simple combo "Nazis?... zombies?.. Nazi zombies!" And Voulais! Unfortunately, Dead Snow has a lot of grist for the mill, but fails in its ability to tie up plot elements and expand/exploit more intriguing ideas. Regardless what you might think about National Socialism, it's staying power as an ideology among the undead is remarkable. One hopes we don't experience an even worse horror, say Ayn Randian Objectivist Zombies? Shudder to think...Download: 285 Dead Snow

Our first back-to-back sequel review! This week we review 28 Weeks Later as part of our zombie film run-up to Halloween. Matt and Mark, while remembering the movie as decent, stumble upon a change-of-heart. While the first half is memorable, the second half is nothing more than a typical chase scene with a nonsensical ending that betrays the valor of its heroes. While some framing exposition to the military fallback protocols would have helped us invest in the situation, 28 Weeks dismisses the notion. And as result, we dismiss it as well.Download:  284 28 Weeks Later