The Movie Loft Podcast

Send us a textThis scientific romp was part of the ultimate trio released in August 1985. Real Genius, Weird Science, and My Science Project were released within one week of each other and just one month after Back to the Future. With Martha Coolidge at the helm, this movie spared the usual sophomoric fare we all love the '80s for. I love those sentence-ending prepositions. I ain't know much, but I know what I like. And I likes me some Val Kilmer. With no pandering to the usual bully/nerd tropes, this movie was rewritten and executed in a way that reveres the nerds and underdogs, full stop. 

Send us a textJust some low key stories for posterity in this episode. Linden love and the lumps along the way.

Send us a textThis is the caliber of story that barely makes the cut for public consumption. Anything south of this stays in the family vault of recordings. If you've listened to any of The Malden Chronicles, the background and reference as to how this kind of scenario came to be is of little concern. And how it all went away is a tale unto itself. If you find it offensive or hard to take, please forgive me.

Send us a textHere's another one from 2020 that was never going to see the light of day. It was originally over an hour. We can't put anyone through us walking through the movie minute by minute, so it's now about 25 minutes. Enjoy the silence....

Send us a textWe're going back to 2020 with this episode. Well before The Movie Loft Podcast was available on any streaming platform. As I've mentioned before, we have a whole unreleased first season in the back of our vault. It may not rival the Paisley Park archives, but there are obviously some uncut gems in there. And No Retreat, No Surrender is one of them. A 1986 classic featuring JCVD 1.0. I was truly shocked to find this in there. Trust me when I tell you that there are some unreleasable episodes. We were feeling our way to the middling road we find ourselves on today, and it wasn't pretty. So how does this one feel so current!? We had it! Then we lost it. When we found it again, I guess we knew it was time to launch the zeppelin. How in the world I got Tony and Phil to discuss so earnestly a movie they despised, I was made for this...at least this movie.

Send us a textHere is an excerpt from The Malden Chronicle – Crime Does Pay episode. This is a slightly longer edit of the original story, so you can hear that some of what hits the cutting room floor is just as juicy.

Send us a textThis is an excerpt taken from The Malden Chronicles – Tales Of The City episode. I always remembered it as a story of my brother intervening to protect a woman from her attacking boyfriend. How wrong I was....

Send us a textThis is an excerpt from The Malden Chronicles – Rooms For Rent episode. That time a stereo of ours grew some legs and moved to a new address.

Send us a textThis is an excerpt from The Malden Chronicles — Rooms For Rent episode. That day at the Granada Theater when the Melrose football team wanted to see what all the fuss was about with the Malden/Medford rivalry.

Send us a textThis is a short excerpt from the Midnight Madness epiode. The Song Remains The Same riot at Granada Theater, Malden Square, December 1980. 

Send us a textI'm splashing out four dollars for going six minute over my plan this month....you better appreciate it. Whatever your favorite six minutes may be, imagine that is where I spent all that extra scratch, just for you. On Christmas night, we went to see Nosferatu in the theater for a TMLP field trip. And although Robert Eggers had us huddled together and quaking with fear afterward in the lobby, we still had something left in the tank. Enter Running Scared, a 1986 Peter Hyams epic tale starring Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal. The cast is rounded out nicely by Steven Bauer, Joe Pantoliano, Dan Hedaya, Jimmy Smith and our true hero, Jonathan Gries.And there may just be a very special guest at the table to help us ring in the new year! Dropping that ball like it's hot.

Send us a textChristmas is a coming and the egg is in the nog! Enjoy our holiday double header of A Christmas Story and Black Christmas! Two great Bob Clark offerings that go great together. And don't forget to get over to Zayre for those last minute gifts for the grandparents. They're usually bought real close to the register itself. Am I the only one that was confused about Sears and Zayre as a child? Probably.

Send us a textHere's some holiday company brought to you from a few Maldonians, Derek, Mic and Jamie. They sit down with me to shoot the proverbial shit. It should have been more Christmas centric, and that's in there for sure. I just took my hands off the wheel too much. So the edit is light and the episode is long. Hopefully you can find your way through this TMLP visit. And if you are a Maldonian, maybe you got an honorable mention. We were all over the road with this one.Merry Christmas! 

Send us a textHere's an excerpt from and olde Malden Chronicles that needs to be highlighted this Christmas season. Enjoy Jamie's lost Christmas Eve of 1982. All the way from Malden to Littleton Massachusetts....the spirits were felt.

Send us a textThis is a simple tale of entrepreneurship, from brothers Donahue. Delivered early this year, here is the 28 Spring Street holiday classic, Robin Hood Trees. You don't need to sift through our catalog to find it. And what brings you this gem before Thanksgiving has even arrived at your miserable doorstep? Well, I was behind an 18 wheeler filled to the brim with trim this morning. All that green being delivered to Christmas tree lots in my neck of the woods. The truck even turned onto my road! For shame.Here's to doing and drinking, not sitting and thinking.

Send us a textThe Evil Dead is Sam Raimi's entrance into the world of proper filmmaking. And what an entrance it is. With his ragtag group of friends in tow, Sam handles this supernatural horror flick and all the demonic entities that have been conjured along with it handily. Trust us, Bruce Campbell and his boomstick make this the must-see spookablast treat of the Halloween season!

Send us a textThere is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to . . . 2015's The Witch: A New England Folktale. This Robert Eggers masterpiece is worth every lock of Michael J Fox's hair I had to harvest to get us there. Ralph Ineson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Harvey Scrimshaw and Kate Dickie made it more than worth our while. And being set in the 1630's in our neck of the woods is a siren song that refused to be ignored. You've seen it. You love it. Now you'll love us for loving it!

Send us a textCreepshow is the pinnacle of '80s horror anthology, and we're here for it. The dream team of horror came together to create this masterpiece. And that team is George Romero, Stephen King and Tom Savini.Tell me how a cast including Leslie Nielson, Ted Danson, Hal Holbrook, Ed harris, Adrienne Barbeau, E.G. Marshall and Fritz Weaver (among many others) somehow created a campy comic book based horror anthology for the ages. I'll wait.

Send us a textThe Fog is a sleeper in John Carpenter's canon. The soundtrack is not! This 1980 movie demands your attention with a stacked cast (see what I did there) of Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Hal Holbrook, Tom Atkins, Janet Leigh, John Houseman, and of course Tommy Lee Wallace. Beautifully shot and scored on a modest budget, this movie has aged like a fine wine. So many films that were critically panned have become classics over time, and John Carpenter has his share in that column. Which is a shame. I'm sure that had he been embraced as the master he was/is, we'd have more of these gems to enjoy. Creeping death to us all. 

Send us a textIt's casual. This Cameron Crowe flick, referred to as the spiritual sequel to Fast Times at Ridgemont High, brings together a cast on the cusp of breaking the decade of movies wide open.....right after its release. We've got Chris Penn (Footloose), Eric Stoltz (Mask), Ilan Mitchel Smith (Weird Science), Leah Thompson (Back to the Future), Randy Quaid, Rick Moranis and Jenny Wright (St. Elmo's Fire). With cameos by Leo Penn, Lee Ving, Sherilyn Fenn, Ronnie Wood, Ben Stein and Robert Ridgely! And a score by EDDIE VAN HALEN!!!!

Send us a textRound and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows. We're baaaaack. Another round of scraps from a sit-down with my brothers Jamie and Jeffrey. All that's fit for consumption. Blizzard of 1978, dirt bikes and motorcycles....we've got a little bit of everything for you in this one. Strap on your ear googles and you're ready to go!

Send us a Text Message.All we are saying is give peace a chanceAll we are saying is give peace a chanceRevolution, evolution, masturbation, flagellation, regulation, integrationsMeditations, United Nations, congratulations

Send us a Text Message.This Francis For Coppola classic demands your attention. Talk about a formative film! And with a cast of Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise...you just can't lose with The Outsiders. Stay Gold.

This George Lucas joint is the jam. Trust us! It's essentially Indiana Jones with a duck. Yeah, Yeah. That's the ticket. Whatever your opinion is, Leah Thompson compels you. The dark overlords possess you. And a baby Tim Robbins begs you. Don't look away. 

This movie is the perfect all-nighter watch. NYC in the mid 80s'? Please and thank you! And much like the misadventures of Griffin Dunne in this Martin Scorsese masterpiece, After Hours, I just couldn't get this one done. It was a long and winding road that took me at least twice as long as usual. Very apropos. Now that it's done. Let's all relish the absolute monster cast of....Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, Catherine O'hara, John Heard, Dick Miller, Bronson Pinchot, Cheech & Chong, Verna Bloom, Will Patton and all the bit players that round out this movie. 

Here we are again. What to say? If you've read any summaries on older Malden episodes, you've got the lay of the land. If not, please indulge yourself. It really does provide a little more insight, which inevitably makes the listening experience more engaging. In the immortal word of Charlie Daniels...But I couldn't believe it, I just had to find out for myselfAnd I couldn't conceive it, I never would listen to nobody elseNo I couldn't believe it, I just had to find out for myselfThat there's some things in this world you just can't explain

Game over, man.

Hoosiers 1986. Gene Hackman takes us to the hoop with this classic tale of triumph and redemption. Commanding your respect and admiration along the way....unlike that louse of a drunk that Dennis Hopper plays. Shaking and shivering like a scared little bitch below the covers. I'm so cold....waaaaaah.It was Dentyne.

Join us on the flat circle, for the first in a seemingly endless loop of Terminator films. One and done. We're giving you the best of the lot. Best of the decade. Best of the genre. This is (unarguably) James Cameron's best film, thanks in large part to his brilliant (re)casting of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Earl Been, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton and Paul Winfield round out this inspired cast. Never forget Dick Miller, no matter how small his part may be.Bess Motta Forever..... 

Here we are again with another episode of The Malden Chronicles….Crime Does Pay. A few more unearthed stories from my older brothers Jamie and Jeffrey. Cue the Benny Hill music.Lean and mean. As usual, this sit-down has been trimmed down to 45 minutes from well over two hours. Dressed up in its best court suit and ready for public presentation. You'll have to trust the fact that a lot of the other stuff has to remain in the family breast pocket. I couldn't possibly edit some of the tales in a way that holds together, makes sense, and/or convince anyone that we're decent people. Although, I should probably assume that our ship of acceptance sailed with the maiden episode, “I'm Your Huckleberry.”

Merry New Year!Trading Places, 1983. Eddie Murphy, Dan Ackroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, Paul Gleason, Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy, Denholm Elliot, Jim Belushi, Frank Oz, Giancarlo Esposito, Al Franken, Tom Davis.....You're welcome.“Those men wanted to have sex with me!”

Here's a compilation of our past TMLP Christmas stories that's sure to give any Time-Life or K-tel Christmas collection a run for the money. Enjoy!

John Candy, John Hughes and Macaulay Culkin. What more do you want from 1989?! Uncle Buck closes out the decade with attitude and heart. Soothe your Thanksgiving hangover with our melodious voices, lulling you into a false sense of security. Until you find yourself wondering if your crazy, out-of-work, bum uncle will shave your head while you sleep. Just click play already! We've done the battle of the wills. The deck's stacked in our favor. You're just gonna lose again.

"The years hadn't softened Moronie. He continued to murder the English language, and anyone who got in his way. " 1982 may be The Year of Living Dangerously, but 1984 is most definitely the year of living Johnny Dangerously! This movie inhabits a special place in the realms of comedy, parody classics of the '80s. And the creative license taken on curse words has lived a quiet life of infamy in small groups of immature males for the last 39 years. Here's a roll call of how deep the cast runs. Michael Keaton, Joe Piscopo, Danny Devito, Marilu Henner, Maureen Stapleton, Peter Boyle, Griffin Dunne, Dom DeLuise, Glenno so Connor, Ray Walston, Alan Hale junior, Dick Butkus , Jack Nance, Bob Eubanks, Taylor Negron, and Joe Flaherty. You'll have to trust me that there are many more after reading that aggravatingly long list. Had to slip an adverb in here somehow.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice! If you repeat the word apathetic three times, plan on a late night pep talk from your three favorite hosts. One that will likely keep you from ever uttering that word again. Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Tim Burton, Danny Elfman and the year 1988. What more do you want?! This movie leaves one wanting for nothing on every level. If you happen to disagree, Robert Goulet will chum the waters of the bayou with your unappreciative ass. Sit back and grab a KitKat, some Reece's Pieces, a couple Twix, or all three, and enjoy Phil's Michael Jackson Halloween costume confession. We've decided to maintain our friendship despite what you're obviously going to end up thinking of him. Not that we'll disagree with you, but apathy is a real feeling and quite frankly, we could care more. 

 It's October and there's a lot of nefarious things going on over at Mayfield Place. The Klopek's have moved next door, and to say they're anything less than completely sus is a vast understatement. The paranoia sweeps though the cul-de-sac goes like witching rumors through Salem Village. This is the Tom Hanks that we all came to know and love during his formative filmography years. This movie also gives us classic Corey Feldman in one of his more enjoyable later teen roles, and Bruce Dern in a role that is very atypical of his usual....although he was a real grouch. Brother Theodore is watching you!

A latch key and a Happy Meal. I only ever had the scratch for a single cheeseburger though. Why are Gen Xers aging in a very different way than most of our ancestors?

If you've ever dreamt of being so good at a video game that it leads to your recruitment to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada. Then get in loser! We're going back to 1984 to The Last Starfighter. Luke Skywalker....er....Alex Rogan has been playing Star Wars....er....Starfighter at the farm....er....trailer park for longer than I care to remember. Literally. The Last Starfighter is one of the earliest adopters of cgi in supporting a hefty part of a films aesthetic. And although it's glaringly obvious, there is a certain charm in the fact that the cgi generated universe resembles an actual video game. Robert Preston and Catherine Mary Stewart are a breath of fresh air, wonderfully offsetting Lance Guests' acting deficit. Funnily enough, the deployment of Alex's (Lance Guest) beta unit in the movie makes his primary character feel pretty stable. Until he deploys the Death Blossom that is! Curious? I thought so.

This is pulled from an episode that will never see the light of day. There was an on-air fistfight etc. I won't bore you with the details, but it is a nice story to warm you up for the impending onslaught of anachronistic holiday stimuli.  

Dogma, hearsay and the like.

If you consider California penal code sections 484207,  A597, and 217, theft, kidnapping, cruelty to animals and attempted murder something to laugh about, then you agree that Dragnet is a 1987 crown jewel of comedy. Tom Hanks before TOM HANKS is always a celluloid treasure to behold.P.A.G.A.N. People Against Goodness And Normalcy. Now I'm not saying that I subscribe to this acronym, but I'm not saying I don't either. Dan Akroyd and Tom Hanks team up in this buddy cop comedy. The stacked cast also gifts us with Christopher Plummer's maniacal laugh, as well as Dabney Coleman and his sibilant lisp. As Joe Friday and Pep Streebek, they're hot on the trail of this cult. Securing information on said cult by introducing Emil Muzz's balls to a desk drawer, they end up at a P.A.G.A.N. ceremony saving the virgin Connie Swail (I was waiting for Akroyd to call her an ignorant slut most of this movie). Let's not forget the nail biting battle with an enormous drug laden snake that ensues during the daring rescue. Star Wars anyone? Don't want to give away the BIG climax! That's all you get here.Enid Borden 4-eva. 

Just a few of the movies we feel compelled to watch during the dog days of summer. 

It's late August and time to visit your thieving labor day savior, Bernie. I'm a late comer to this punchline classic, but I'll be making it an annual destination in my end of summer movie rotation. I need to make up for lost time and atone for willfully avoiding this movie all these years. The irony in Terry Kiser being lauded for his mastery of physical comedy while playing a dead man is not lost on me. Neither is Andrew McCarthy seamlessly playing against type while Jonathon Silverman turns in a walk-on leading role. And our video game heroine from 1984's Night Of The Comet, Catherine Mary Stewart, bringing a just little heart to this dark comedy. It's too much and everything all at once. I feel like Christopher Columbus, just here taking the excited credit for an already discovered new world...to me. 

We're all wasted! Not really. Come to think of it, they didn't even end up using that song in the movie. They didn't use Light Up The Sky by Van Halen either. We can't help but wonder where or how the director would have deployed them. Using Cheap Trick, The Cars, Van Halen (You Really Got Me), and The Ramones tells us he knew what he was doing in these realms.What can I say? The concern with property resale values colliding with the fallout of the social discontent of adolescence was a real thing for the distracted parenting  of the 1970's. The white flight hit some unwanted turbulence while they were refilling their drinks. Children should be seen and not heard was developing into, children should neither be seen, nor heard.....but certainly dealt with when it interferes with any adult agenda. I have no idea what I'm talking about. I do know that when dear old dad had to eventually deal with the newly informed youth, which he was intellectually ill equipped for.....most of them split. If you're down with PWP, yeah you know me. That's Parents Without Partners for you lazy folk. Sort of a support (group) network for all the stranded mothers out there.

Totally awesome video games! That's what Joysticks promises. Eugene, McDorfus and King Vidiot are running interference while we chew up the scenery of this 1983 T&A buffet. This movie has everything you do AND don't want you in your early 80s celluloid war chest. Scott McGinnis and Corrine Bohrer round out the casting staples of any great, but forgettable 80s flick. Joe Don Baker must have been blackmailed to be in this movie. Come to think of it, he was blackmailed IN this movie as well. Art imitating life...imitating art? Who knows. I'm as lost as that senile wizard wandering around the Gauntlet landscape with this summary anyway. PAC-MAN, Galaga, Defender, Asteroids, Zaxxon, Tempest, Two Tigers, Dragon's Lair, Pole Position, Track & Field, Star Castle, Centipede, Dig Dug, Tron, Missile Command, Donkey Kong, Robotron, Frogger, Burger Time, Rampage, 1942, Berzerk, Q*Bert, Joust, Rolling Thunder, Contra, Double Dragon.....that's enough characters for a great summary, right?

These bits fell out of my back pocket when I got up from piecing together the Tales of the City episode. Enjoy!

Here we are with another entry in the annals of life at 28 Spring Street. And the matriarchal leader is jettisoning the riff-raff like a lost installment in the Death Wish franchise. First mission was to reclaim the nights for sleeping. All five of us kids were reunited throughout the summer of 1980 in that house. Jamie and Justine were unceremoniously thrown out of dads house, so they were there from day one. Tommy and Tracy were taken for weekend visitation a month or so later and never returned. A lengthy custody battle ensued. And Jeffrey returned home when the system had no reason and nowhere else for him to go. All because dad bounced and left her gleefully holding the bag, watching the ship sink from a couple doors down while his kids were scattered to the wind. The house was lost and a new plan was hatched. Mum bought a house that would generate income while she worked three jobs to support her five kids. And we all worked to keep the house under majority rule for those first few years. It always struck me how many photos we have as a family, even with all the turmoil. Mum was obsessed with her kids is my takeaway. Film and time was not cheap, so the fact that they all exist is the logical conclusion for me. There are just about no photos from 80-83, which is a shame since it was the most colorful time. 

Let's do some sweet ass sliding through this BMX classic called RAD. A 1986 right of passage for those who had the passion for all things wheels. Once you retired those primitive four-wheeled strap-ons, it was time to go wheels up on a skateboard or BMX bike. In the off chance that you still had all your own teeth, you were probably allowed to experience all 3 of these cultural phenomenons at close range. If not, stand back and pump up the riders cru-ising by. We have a young Lori Laughlin improbably paired with the least capable looking BMX rider I've ever laid eyes on, Bill Allen. As well as an obligatory 1980s gymnast (unusually cast as an antagonist) as actor, Bart Connor. And last but not least, Bart's lackeys, a set or complete weirdo twins, Rex and Rod. I don't know why I'm writing a summary that may make you avoid this classic. I myself can't stop watching it. 

Meet is at Bronson Canyon Halfpipe. 9:00. Joust. Be there. No, YOU be there! You shut up, you little punk. It's time to get down with Corey and Tommy, and some boxing gloves on a chain. We're talking Daggers and The Ramp Locals. And don't let Tommy catch Chrissy with any Val jerks!"That wild Indian picture happens to be stylin', you don't know what you're talkin' about."

All of a sudden....

Now here's a little story I've got to tell, about one bad Barbara you know so well. It started way back in history, in a rooming house upon Spring Street.Here we are again with another Malden Chronicles periodical. We kick off in the usual place, right after a cowardly, deadbeat dad left his wife and 5 kids for (on) the neighborhood bicycle. And as if that wasn't enough, doing everything thinkable to twist the knife and kill the lights on the way out. Don't think you've won when someone takes that knee, there's always a plan. She ain't breaking up on impact. Mum had the capability to rebuild a better family. And we are that family. Better than we were before. Better, stronger, faster. I can't help all the pop culture references, IFYKYK.Trying to make some sense of it all, but I can see it makes no sense at all. Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor? 'Cause I don't think I can take anymore.