Podcasts about westerns

John, merritt and Niki reconvene for a fresh round of industry analysis and insight, covering such diverse topics as Fraiser, Mad About You, "fuck-ass Westerns," fluffy toilet lid covers, those 52 plastic-coated little guys, secrets for a successful gambling trip, what you can do with $120, and folks? Somehow even more.Welcome to If You're Driving, Close Your Eyes, a listener-supported comedy podcast where three noble explorers chip away at the crumbling foundations of reality, five or six simultaneous topics at a time. Hosted by Niki Grayson, merritt k and John Warren, and produced by Jordan Mallory, with music by Jordan and art by Max Schwartz.Follow us on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ifyouredriving.bsky.socialSupport us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ifyouredriving Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've been on a run of serious films, so it was time to mix in a Western comedy. At least, that's what this movie is supposed to be, but this is a comedy without a whole lot of jokes. We have some diverging opinions on this one, mostly coming down to the script, because this should be a much better movie than it is. But you can bet we both agree that James Garner is one of the most charming cutie-pies ever. Make sure to order the bars for the jail while we watch Support Your Local Sheriff! on Have a Good Movie! You can email us with feedback at macintoshandmaud@gmail.com, or you can connect with us on BlueSky! If you like the podcast, please subscribe, rate and review the show on your favorite podcatcher, and tell your friends. Intro and outro music taken from the Second Movement of Ludwig von Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Hong Kong (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 HK) license. To hear the full performance or get more information, visit the song page at the Internet Archive. Excerpts taken from the main theme to the film Support Your Local Sheriff!, written and composed by Jeff Alexander. Copyright 1969 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved. Excerpt taken from "Signature / Main Title (Instrumental)" from the film Blazing Saddles, written and composed by John Morris, Max Steiner and Mel Brooks. Copyright 1974 Warner Bros. All Rights Reserved.

This week, our old friend Greg Lamberson returns for his 29th appearance on Dread Media to run down Amazing Fantasy Fest 2025. Check out our preview of the whole nine-plus-day film festival as we wax poetic on strange Polish holidays, fish monsters, and stoner kung fu spaghetti Westerns. And find out why Greg called Des a "sick #@$%." Songs included: "The Amazing Kreskin" by Clutch, "Fantasy" by The Church of the Cosmic Skull, and "Illuminate the Path" by Arch Enemy. Send feedback to: dreadmediapodcast@gmail.com. Follow @DevilDinosaurJr and @dreadmedia on Twitter! Join the Facebook group! Support the show at www.patreon.com/dreadmedia. Visit www.desmondreddick.com, www.stayscary.wordpress.com, www.dreadmedia.bandcamp.com, www.kccinephile.com, and www.dejasdomicileofdread.blogspot.com.

In this week's episode, I take a look back at the movies and streaming shows I watched in Summer 2025. This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Ghost in the Serpent, Book #1 in the Ghost Armor series, (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store: FALLSERPENT50 The coupon code is valid through September 15, 2025 (please note the shorter expiration date). So if you need a new audiobook this fall, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 267 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is September 5, 2025 and today I'm doing a review roundup of the movies and streaming shows I saw in Summer 2025. Before we do that, we will have Coupon of the Week and a progress update on my current writing and audiobook projects. First up, this week's coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Ghost in the Serpent, Book One in the Ghost Armor series (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store. That is FALLSERPENT50. This coupon code will be valid through September 15th, 2025 (exactly one week). So if you need a new audiobook to listen to as we head into fall, we have got you covered. Now for an update on my current writing and audiobook projects. I am pleased to report that the rough draft of Blade of Flames, which will be the first book in my new Blades of Ruin epic fantasy series is finished. The rough draft came at about 90,000 words long, which was what I was aiming for. Next up, I will be writing a short story set as sort of a bonus in that plot line called Thunder Hammer and that will be the backstory of one of the characters in Blade of Flames. And when Blade of Flames comes out (which will hopefully be later this September), newsletter subscribers will get a free ebook copy of Thunder Hammer. So this is an excellent time to subscribe to my newsletter. I am also 8,000 words into Cloak of Worlds. At long last, I am coming back to the Cloak Mage series after nearly a year's absence. Longtime listeners will know the reason was that I had five unfinished series and I wanted to spend the summer of 2025 finishing the unfinished ones and focusing up so I will only have three ongoing series at any given time. I'm hoping Blade of Flames will come out before the end of September and Cloak of Worlds before the end of October, and after that I will be able to return to the Rivah series at long last. In audiobook news, recording is finished on Shield of Power. That will be excellently narrated by Brad Wills and hopefully once it gets through processing and quality assurance and everything, it should be showing up on the various audiobook stores before too much longer. Hollis McCarthy is about halfway through the recording of Ghost in the Siege, which was, as you know, the last book in the Ghost Armor series that just came out. And if all goes well, the audiobook should be coming out probably in October once everything is done with recording and quality assurance and all that. So that is where I'm at with my current writing and audiobook projects. 00:02:34 Main Topic: Summer 2025 Movie/TV Roundup So without further ado, let's head into our main topic. The end of summer is nigh, which means this time for my summer movie review roundup. As is usual for the summer, I saw a lot of movies, so this will be one of the longer episodes. For some reason I ended up watching a bunch of westerns. As always, the movies are ranked from least favorite to most favorite. The grades of course are totally subjective and based on nothing more than my own opinions, impressions, and interpretations. Now on to the movies. First up is the Austin Powers trilogy, the three movies of which came out in 1997, 1999, and 2002. The Austin Powers movies came out just as the Internet really got going in terms of mass adoption, which is likewise why so many Austin Powers and Dr. Evil memes are embedded in online culture. Despite that, I had never really seen any of them all the way through. They've been on in the background on TBS or whatever quite a bit when I visited people, but I've never seen them all. But I happened upon a DVD of the trilogy for $0.25 (USD), so I decided for 25 cents I would give it a go. I would say the movies were funny, albeit not particularly good. Obviously the Austin Powers movies are a parody of the James Bond movies. The movies kind of watch like an extended series of Saturday Night Live skits, only loosely connected, like the skit is what if Dr. Evil had a son named Scott who wasn't impressed with him or another skit was what if a British agent from the ‘60s arrives in the ‘90s and experiences culture clash? What if Dr. Evil didn't understand the concept of inflation and demanded only a million dollars from the United Nations? What if Dr. Evil was actually Austin's brother and they went to school together at Spy Academy? Michael Caine was pretty great as Austin's father. Overall, funny but fairly incoherent. Overall grade: C- Next up is Horrible Bosses, a very dark and very raunchy comedy from about 14 years ago. It came out in 2011. Interestingly, this movie reflects what I think is one of the major crises of the contemporary era, frequent failures of leadership at all levels of society. In the movie Nick, Dale, and Kurt are lifelong friends living in LA and all three of them have truly horrible bosses in their place of employment, ranging from a sociopathic finance director, the company founder's cokehead son, and a boorish dentist with a tendency to sexual harassment. At the bar, they fantasize about killing their horrible bosses and then mutually decide to do something about it. Obviously, they'd all be prime suspects in the murder of their own bosses, but if they killed each other's bosses, that would allow them to establish airtight alibis. However, since Nick, Dale and Kurt are not as bright as they think they are, it all goes hilariously wrong very quickly. Bob Hope has a hilarious cameo. If the best “crude comedies” I've seen are Anchorman, Zoolander, Tropic Thunder, and Dodgeball, and the worst one was MacGruber, I'd say Horrible Bosses lands about in the middle. Overall grade: C Next up is Cowboys and Aliens, which came out in 2011. Now I almost saw this in 2011 when it came out, but I was too busy to go to the theater in July of 2011, so I finally saw it here in 2025 and I would say this was almost a great movie, like the performances were great, the concept was great, the scenery was great, the special effects were great, and the story was packed full of really interesting ideas, but somehow they just didn't coalesce. I'm not entirely sure why. I think upon reflection, it was that the movie is just too overcrowded with too many characters and too many subplots. Anyway, Daniel Craig portrays a man who wakes up with no memory in the Old West, with a mysterious bracelet locked around his wrist. He makes his way to the town of Atonement, and promptly gets arrested because he is apparently a notorious outlaw (which he doesn't remember). While he is locked in jail, space aliens attack the town. The aliens, for unknown reasons, abduct many of the townspeople, and Daniel Craig's character, who is named Jake even if he doesn't remember it, must lead the town's effort to recover their abducted citizens. Harrison's Ford has an excellent performance as this awful cattle baron who nonetheless has virtues of courage and fortitude that you can't help but admire. An excellent performance. That said, the movie was just too packed, and I thought it would work better as a novel. After I watched the movie, it turned out that it was indeed based off a graphic novel. Novels and graphic novels allow for a far more complex story than a movie, and I don't think this movie quite managed to handle the transition from a graphic novel to a film. Overall grade: C Next up is Heads of State, which came out in 2025. This was kind of a stupid movie. However, the fundamental question of any movie, shouted to the audience by Russell Crow in Gladiator is, “are you not entertained?!?” I was thoroughly entertained watching this, so entertained I actually watched it twice. Not everything has to be Shakespeare or a profound meditation on the unresolvable conflicts inherent within human nature. Anyway, John Cena plays Will Derringer, newly elected President of the United States. Idris Elba plays Sam Clark, who has now been the UK Prime Minister for the last six years. Derringer was an action star who parleyed his celebrity into elected office (in the same way Arnold Schwarzenegger did), while Clarke is an army veteran who worked his way up through the UK's political system. Needless to say, the cheerful Derringer and the grim Clarke take an immediate dislike to each other. However, they'll have to team up when Air Force One is shot down, stranding them in eastern Europe. They'll have to make their way home while evading their enemies to unravel the conspiracy that threatens world peace. So half action thriller, half buddy road trip comedy. The premise really doesn't work if you think about it too much for more than thirty seconds, but the movie was funny and I enjoyed it. Jack Quaid really stole his scenes as a crazy but hyper-competent CIA officer. Overall grade: C+ Next up, Captain America: Brave New World, which came out in 2025 and I think this movie ended up on the good side of middling. You can definitely tell it went through a lot of reshoots and retooling, and I suspect the various film industry strikes hit it like a freight train. But we ended up with a reasonably solid superhero thriller. Sam Wilson is now Captain America. He's not superhuman the way Steve Rogers was and doesn't have magic powers or anything, so he kind of fights like the Mandalorian – a very capable fighter who relies on excellent armor. Meanwhile, in the grand American political tradition of failing upward, Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, who spent years persecuting The Hulk and whose meddling caused the Avengers to disband right before Thanos attacked, has now been elected President. To Wilson's surprise, Ross reaches out and wants him to restart the Avengers. But Ross (as we know) did a lot of shady black ops stuff for years, and one of his projects is coming back to haunt him. Wilson finds himself in the middle of a shadowy conspiracy, and it's up to him to figure out what's going on before it's too late. I was amused that lifelong government apparatchik Ross wanted to restart the Avengers, because when the Avengers had their biggest victory in Avengers: Endgame, they were essentially unsanctioned vigilantes bankrolled by a rogue tech billionaire. Overall grade: B- Next up is Ironheart, which came out in 2025. I'd say Ironheart was about 40% very weird and 60% quite good. It's sort of like the modern version of Dr. Faustus. The show got some flak on the Internet from the crossfire between the usual culture war people, but the key to understanding it is to realize that Riri Williams AKA Ironheart is in fact an antihero who's tottering on the edge of becoming a full-blown supervillain. Like Tony Stark, she's a once-in-a-generation scientific talent, but while she doesn't have Stark's alcohol problems, she's emotionally unstable, immature, ruthless, indifferent to collateral damage and consequences, and suffering from severe PTSD after her best friend and stepfather were killed in a drive-by shooting. This volatile mix gets her thrown out of MIT after her experiments cause too much destruction, and she has to go home to Chicago. To get the funds to keep working on her Iron Man armor, she turns to crime, and falls in with a gang of high-end thieves led by a mysterious figure named Hood. It turns out that Hood has actual magic powers, which both disturbs and fascinates Riri. However, Hood got his magic in a pact with a mysterious dark force. When a job goes bad, Riri gains the enmity of Hood and has to go on the run. It also turns out Hood's dark master has become very interested in Riri, which might be a lot more dangerous for everyone in the long run. Overall, I'd say this is about in the same vein as Agatha All Along, an interesting show constructed around a very morally questionable protagonist. Overall grade: B Next up is A Minecraft movie, which came out in 2024. I have to admit, I've never actually played Minecraft, so I know very little about the game and its ecosystem, only what I've generally absorbed by glancing at the news. That said, I think the movie held together quite well, and wasn't deserving of the general disdain it got in the press. (No doubt the $950 million box office compensated for any hurt feelings.) One of the many downsides of rapid technological change in the last fifty years is that the Boomers and Gen X and the Millennials and Gen Z and Gen Alpha have had such radically different formative experiences in childhood that it's harder to relate to each other. Growing up in the 1980s was a wildly different experience than growing up in the 2010s, and growing up in the 2010s was an even more wildly different experience than growing up in the 1960s. Smartphones and social media were dominant in 2020, barely starting in 2010, and implausible science fiction in 2000 and earlier, and so it was like the different generations grew up on different planets, because in some sense they actually did. (A five-year-old relative of mine just started school, and the descriptions of his school compared to what I remember of school really do sound like different planets entirely.) The Minecraft game and A Minecraft Movie might be one of those generation-locked experiences. Anyway, this has gotten very deep digression for what was essentially a portal-based LitRPG movie. A group of people experiencing various life difficulties in a rural Idaho town get sucked into the Minecraft world through a magic portal. There they must combine forces and learn to work together to master the Minecraft world to save it from an evil sorceress. As always, the fundamental question of any movie is the one that Russell Crowe's character shouted to the audience in Gladiator back in 2000. “Are you not entertained?” I admit I was entertained when watching A Minecraft Movie since it was funny and I recognized a lot of the video game mechanics, even though I've never actually played Minecraft. Like, Castlevania II had a night/day cycle the way Minecraft does, and Castlevania II was forty years ago. But that was another digression! I did enjoy A Minecraft Movie. It was kind of crazy, but it committed to the craziness and maintained a consistent creative vision, and I was entertained. Though I did think it was impressive how Jack Black's agent managed to insist that he sing several different times. Overall grade: B Next up is Back to School, which came out in 1986 and this is one of the better ‘80s comedies I've seen. Rodney Dangerfield plays Thornton Melon, who never went to college and is the wealthy owner of a chain of plus-sized clothing stores. His son Jason is attending Great Lakes University, and after Thornton's unfaithful gold-digging wife leaves him (Thornton is mostly relieved by this development), he decides to go visit his son. He quickly discovers that Jason is flailing at college, and decides to enroll to help out his son. Wacky adventures ensue! I quite enjoyed this. The fictional “Great Lakes University” was largely shot at UW-Madison in Wisconsin, which I found amusing because I spent a lot of time at UW-Madison several decades ago as a temporary IT employee. I liked seeing the characters walk past a place where I'd eat lunch outside when the day was nice, that kind of thing. Also, I'm very familiar with how the sausage gets made in higher ed. There's a scene where the dean is asking why Thornton is qualified to enter college, and then it cuts to the dean cheerfully overseeing the groundbreaking of the new Thornton Melon Hall which Thornton just donated, and I laughed so hard I almost hurt myself, because that is exactly how higher ed works. The movie had some pointless nudity, but it was only a few seconds and no doubt gets cut in network broadcasts. Overall grade: B Next up is Whiskey Galore, which came out in 1949 and this is a comedy set in Scotland during World War II. The villagers living on an isolated island have no whiskey due to wartime rationing. However, when a government ship carrying 50,000 cases of whiskey runs aground near the island, wacky hijinks ensue. I have to admit the first half of the movie was very slow and deliberate, gradually setting up all the pieces for later. Then, once the shipwreck happens, things pick up and the movie gets much funnier. Definitely worth watching both as a good comedy movie and an artifact of its time. A modicum of historical knowledge is required – if you don't know what the Home Guard is, you might have to do some Googling to understand the context of some of the scenes. Regrettably, the version I watched did not have captioning, so I had to pay really close attention to understand what the characters were saying, because some of the accents were very strong. Overall grade: B Next up is Happy Gilmore 2, which came out in 2025. This was dumb and overstuffed with celebrity cameos but thoroughly hilarious and I say this even though it uses one of my least favorite story tropes, namely “hero of previous movie is now a middle age loser.” However, the movie leads into it for comedy. When Happy Gilmore accidentally kills his wife with a line drive, he spirals into alcoholism and despair. But his five children still love him, and when his talented daughter needs tuition for school, Happy attempts to shake off his despair and go back to golf to win the money. But Happy soon stumbles onto a sinister conspiracy led by an evil CEO to transform the game of golf into his own personal profit center. Happy must team up with his old nemesis Shooter McGavin to save golf itself from the evil CEO. Amusingly, as I've said before, the best Adam Sandler movies are almost medieval. In medieval fables, it was common for a clever peasant to outwit pompous lords, corrupt priests, and greedy merchants. The best Adam Sandler protagonist remains an everyman who outwits the modern equivalent of pompous lords and corrupt priests, in this case an evil CEO. Overall grade: B+ Next up is Superman, which came out in 2025 and I thought this was pretty good and very funny at times. I think it caught the essential nature of Superman. Like, Superman should be a Lawful Good character. If he was a Dungeons and Dragons character, he would be a paladin. People on the Internet tend to take the characterization of superheroes seriously to perhaps an unhealthy degree, but it seems the best characterization of Superman is as an earnest, slightly dorky Boy Scout who goes around doing good deeds. The contrast of that good-hearted earnestness with his godlike abilities that would allow him to easily conquer and rule the world is what makes for an interesting character. I also appreciated how the movie dispensed with the overused trope of the Origin Story and just got down to business. In this movie, Lex Luthor is obsessed with destroying Superman and is willing to use both super-advanced technology and engineered geopolitical conflict to do it. Superman, because he's essentially a decent person, doesn't comprehend just how depraved Luthor is, and how far Luthor is willing to go out of petty spite. (Ironically, a billionaire willing to destroy the world out of petty spite is alas, quite realistic). Guy Gardener (“Jerkish Green Lantern”) and the extremely competent and the extremely exasperated Mr. Terrific definitely stole all their scenes. The director of the movie, James Gunn, was quite famously fired from Disney in 2018 for offensive jokes he had made on Twitter back when he was an edgy young filmmaker with an alcohol problem. I suppose Mr. Gunn can rest content knowing that Superman made more money than any Marvel movie released this year. Overall grade: A-   Next up is Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, which came out in 1988. This was a very strange movie, but nonetheless, one with an ambitious premise, strong performances, and a strong artistic vision. It's set in post WWII Los Angeles, and “toons” (basically cartoon characters) live and work alongside humans. Private eye Eddie Valiant hates toons since one of them killed his brother five years ago. However, he's hired by the head of a studio who's having trouble with one of his toon actors, Roger Rabbit. Roger's worried his wife Jessica is having an affair, and Valiant obtains pictures of Jessica playing patty cake (not a euphemism, they actually were playing patty cake) with another man. Roger has an emotional breakdown, and soon the other man winds up dead, and Roger insists he's innocent. Valiant and Roger find themselves sucked into a dangerous conspiracy overseen by a ruthless mastermind. This movie was such an interesting cultural artifact. It perfectly follows the structure of a ‘40s film noir movie, but with cartoons, and the dissonance between film noir and the cheerfulness of the toons was embraced and used as a frequently source of comedy. In fact, when the grim and dour Valiant uses the toons' comedy techniques as a tactical improvisation in a moment of mortal peril, it's both hilarious and awesome. Christopher Lloyd's performance as the villainous Judge Doom was amazing. (I don't think it's a spoiler to say that he's villainous, because his character is named Judge Doom and he's literally wearing a black hat.) Like, his performance perfectly captures something monstrous that is trying very hard to pretend to be human and not quite getting it right. And the amount of work it must have taken to make this movie staggers the mind. Nowadays, having live actors interact with cartoon characters is expensive, but not unduly so. It's a frequent technique. You see it all the time in commercials when a housewife is smiling at an animated roll of paper towels or something, and Marvel's essentially been doing it for years. But this was 1988! Computer animation was still a ways off. They had to shoot the movie on analog film, and then hand-draw all the animation and successfully match it to the live film. It wouldn't have worked without the performance of Bob Hoskins as Eddie Valiant, who plays everything perfectly straight in the same way Michael Caine did in A Muppet Christmas Carol. So kind of a strange movie, but definitely worth watching. And it has both Disney and Warner Brothers animated characters in the same movie, which is something we will never, ever see again. Overall grade: A Next up is K-Pop Demon Hunters, which came out in 2025. Like Who framed Roger Rabbit?, this is a very strange movie, but nonetheless with a clear and focused artistic vision. It is a cultural artifact that provides a fascinating look into a world of which I have no knowledge or interest, namely K-pop bands and their dueling fandoms. Anyway, the plot is that for millennia, female Korean musicians have used the magic of their voices to keep the demons locked away in a demon world. The current incarnation is a three-woman K-Pop group called Huntrix, and they are on the verge of sealing away the demons forever. Naturally, the Demon King doesn't like this, so one of his cleverer minions comes up with a plan. They'll start a Demon K-Pop Boy Band! Disguised as humans, the demon K-Pop group will win away Huntrix's fans, allowing them to breach the barrier and devour the world. However, one of the Huntrix musicians is half-demon, and she starts falling for the lead demon in the boy band, who is handsome and of course has a dark and troubled past. Essentially a musical K-drama follows. I have to admit I know practically nothing about K-Pop groups and their dueling fandoms, other than the fact that they exist. However, this was an interesting movie to watch. The animation was excellent, it did have a focused vision, and there were some funny bits. Overall grade: A Next up is Clarkson's Farm Season Four, which came out in 2025. A long time ago in the ‘90s, I watched the episode of Frasier where Frasier and Niles attempt to open a restaurant and it all goes horribly (yet hilariously) wrong. At the time, I had no money, but I promised myself that I would never invest in a restaurant. Nothing I have seen or learned in the subsequent thirty years has ever changed that decision. Season 4 of Clarkson's Farm is basically Jeremy Clarkson, like Frasier and Niles, attempting to open a restaurant, specifically a British pub. On paper it's a good idea, since Clarkson can provide the pub with food produced from his own farm and other local farmers. However, it's an enormous logistical nightmare, and Clarkson must deal with miles of red tape, contractors, and a ballooning budget, all while trying to keep his farm from going under. An excellent and entertaining documentary into the difficulties of both the farming life and food service. I still don't want to own a restaurant! Overall grade: A Next up is Tombstone, which came out in 1993. The Western genre of fiction is interesting because it's limited to such a very specific period of time and geographical region. Like the “Wild West” period that characterizes the Western genre really only lasted as a historical period from about 1865 to roughly 1890. The Western genre was at its most popular in movies from the 1940s and the 1960s, and I wonder if it declined because cultural and demographic changes made it unpopular to romanticize the Old West the way someone like Walt Disney did at Disneyland with “Frontierland.” Of course, the genre lives on in different forms in grittier Western movies, neo-Westerns like Yellowstone and Longmire, and a lot of the genre's conventions apply really well to science fiction. Everyone talks about Firefly being the first Space Western, but The Mandalorian was much more successful and was basically a Western in space (albeit with occasional visits from Space Wizards). Anyway! After that long-winded introduction, let's talk about Tombstone. When Val Kilmer died earlier this year, the news articles mentioned Tombstone as among his best work, so I decided to give it a watch. The plot centers around Wyatt Earp, played by Kurt Russell, who has decided to give up his career in law enforcement and move to Tombstone, Arizona, a silver mining boomtown, in hopes of making his fortune. However, Tombstone is mostly controlled by the Cowboys outlaw gang, and Earp is inevitably drawn into conflict with them. With the help of his brothers and Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer's character), Earp sets out to bring some law and order to Tombstone, whether the Cowboys like it or not. Holliday is in the process of dying from tuberculosis, which makes him a formidable fighter since he knows getting shot will be a less painful and protracted death than the one his illness will bring him. Kilmer plays him as a dissolute, scheming warrior-poet who nonetheless is a very loyal friend. Definitely a classic of the Western genre, and so worth watching. Overall grade: A Next up is Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, the eighth Mission Impossible movie. Of the eight movies, I think the sixth one was the best one, but this one comes in at a close second. It continues on from Dead Reckoning. Ethan Hunt now possesses the key that will unlock the source code of the Entity, the malicious AI (think ChatGPT, but even more obviously evil) that is actively maneuvering the world's nuclear powers into destroying each other so the Entity can rule the remnants of humanity. Unfortunately, the Entity's source code is sitting in a wrecked Russian nuclear sub at the bottom of the Bering Sea. Even more unfortunately, the Entity knows that Hunt has the key and is trying to stop him, even as the Entity's former minion and Hunt's bitter enemy Gabriel seeks to seize control of the Entity for himself. A sense of apocalyptic doom hangs over the movie, which works well to build tension. Once again, the world is doomed, unless Ethan Hunt and his allies can save the day. The tension works extremely well during the movie's underwater sequence, and the final airborne duel between Hunt and Gabriel. I don't know if they're going to make any more Mission Impossible movies after this (they are insanely expensive), but if this is the end, it is a satisfying conclusion for the character of Ethan Hunt and the Impossible Mission Force. Overall grade: A Next up is Deep Cover, which came out in 2025. This is described as a comedy thriller, and I didn't know what to expect when I watched it, but I really enjoyed it. Bryce Dallas Howard plays Kat, a struggling comedy improv teacher living in London. Her best students are Marlon (played by Orlando Bloom), a dedicated character actor who wants to portray gritty realism but keeps getting cast in tacky commercials, and Hugh (played by Nick Mohammed), an awkward IT worker with no social skills whatsoever. One day, the three of them are recruited by Detective Sergeant Billings (played by Sean Bean) of the Metropolitan Police. The Met wants to use improv comedians to do undercover work for minor busts with drug dealers. Since it plays 200 pounds a pop, the trio agrees. Of course, things rapidly spiral out of control, because Kat, Marlon, and Hugh are actually a lot better at improv than they think, and soon they find themselves negotiating with the chief criminals of the London underworld. What follows is a movie that is both very tense and very funny. Kat, Marlon, and Hugh are in way over their heads, and will have to do the best improv of their lives to escape a very grisly fate. Whether Sean Bean dies or not (as is tradition), you will just have to watch the movie and find out. Overall grade: A Next up is Puss in Boots: The Final Wish, which came out in 2022. I don't personally know much about the history of Disney as a corporation, and I don't much care, but I do have several relatives who are very interested in the history of the Disney corporation, and therefore I have picked up some by osmosis. Apparently Disney CEO Michael Eisner forcing out Jeffrey Katzenberg in the 1990s was a very serious mistake, because Katzenberg went on to co-found DreamWorks, which has been Disney's consistent rival for animation for the last thirty years. That's like “CIA Regime Change Blowback” levels of creating your own enemy. Anyway, historical ironies aside, Puss in Boots: The Final Wish was a funny and surprisingly thoughtful animated movie. Puss in Boots is a legendary outlaw and folk hero, but he has used up eight of his nine lives. An ominous bounty hunter who looks like a humanoid wolf begins pursuing him, and the Wolf is able to shrug off the best of Puss In Boots' attacks. Panicked, Puss hides in a retirement home for elderly cats, but then hears rumors of the magical Last Wish. Hoping to use it to get his lives back, Puss In Boots sets off on the quest. It was amusing how Little Jack Horner and Goldilocks and the Three Bears were rival criminal gangs seeking the Last Wish. Overall grade: A Next up is Chicken People, which came out in 2016. A good documentary film gives you a glimpse into an alien world that you would otherwise never visit. In this example, I have absolutely no interest in competitive chicken breeding and will only raise chickens in my backyard if society ever collapses to the level that it becomes necessary for survival. That said, this was a very interesting look into the work of competitive chicken breeding. Apparently, there is an official “American Standard of Perfection” for individual chicken breeds, and the winner of the yearly chicken competition gets the title “Super Grand Champion.” Not Grand Champion, Super Grand Champion! That looks impressive on a resume. It is interesting how chicken breeding is in some sense an elaborate Skinner Box – like you can deliberately set out to breed chickens with the desirable traits on the American Standard of Perfection, but until the chickens are hatched and grow up, you don't know how they're going to turn out, so you need to try again and again and again… Overall grade: A Next up is The Mask of Zoro, which came out in 1998. I saw this in the theatre when it came out 27 years ago, but that was 27 years ago, and I don't have much of a memory of it, save that I liked it. So when I had the chance to watch it again, I did! Anthony Hopkins plays Diego de la Vega, who has the secret identity of Zorro in the final days before Mexico breaks away from the Spanish Empire. With Mexico on the verge of getting its independence, Diego decides to hang up his sword and mask and focus on his beloved wife and daughter. Unfortunately, the military governor Don Montero realizes Diego is Zorro, so has him arrested, kills his wife, and steals his baby daughter to raise as his own. Twenty years later, a bandit named Alejandro loses his brother and best friends to a brutal cavalry commander. It turns out that Montero is returning to California from Spain, and plans to seize control of California as an independent republic (which, of course, will be ruled by him). In the chaos, Diego escapes from prison and encounters a drunken Alejandro, and stops him from a futile attack upon the cavalry commander. He then proposes a pact – Diego will train Alejandro as the next Zorro, and together they can take vengeance upon the men who wronged them. This was a good movie. It was good to see that my taste in movies 27 years ago wasn't terrible. It manages to cram an entire epic plot into only 2 hours and 20 minutes. In some ways it was like a throwback to a ‘40s movie but with modern (for the ‘90s) production values, and some very good swordfights. Overall grade: A Next up is Wick is Pain, which came out in 2025. I've seen all four John Wick movies and enjoyed them thoroughly, though I've never gotten around to any of the spinoffs. Wick is Pain is a documentary about how John Wick went from a doomed indie movie with a $6.5 million hole in its budget to one of the most popular action series of the last few decades. Apparently Keanu Reeves made an offhand joke about how “Wick is pain” and that became the mantra of the cast and crew, because making an action movie that intense really was a painful experience. Definitely worth watching if you enjoyed the John Wick movies or moviemaking in general. Overall grade: A The last movie I saw this summer was Game Night, which came out in 2016. It was a hilarious, if occasionally dark comedy action thriller. Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams play Max and Annie Davis, a married couple who are very competitive and enjoy playing games of all kinds. Jason has an unresolved conflict with his brother Brooks, and one night Brooks invites them over for game night, which Max resents. Halfway through the evening, Brooks is kidnapped, with Max and Annie assume is part of the game. However, Brooks really is involved in something shady. Hilarity ensues, and it's up to Max and Annie to rescue Brooks and stay alive in the process. This was really funny, though a bit dark in places. That said, Max and Annie have a loving and supportive marriage, so it was nice to see something like that portrayed on the screen. Though this also leads to some hilarity, like when Annie accidentally shoots Max in the arm. No spoilers, but the punchline to that particular sequence was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Overall grade: A So no A+ movie this time around, but I still saw a bunch of solid movies I enjoyed. One final note, I have to admit, I've really come to respect Adam Sandler as an entertainer, even if his movies and comedy are not always to my taste. He makes what he wants, makes a lot of money, ensures that his friends get paid, and then occasionally takes on a serious role in someone else's movie when he wants to flex some acting muscles. I am not surprised that nearly everyone who's in the original Happy Gilmore who was still alive wanted to come back for Happy Gilmore 2. So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show enjoyable and perhaps a guide to some good movies to watch. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week.  

This week, our old friend Greg Lamberson returns for his 29th appearance on Dread Media to run down Amazing Fantasy Fest 2025. Check out our preview of the whole nine-plus-day film festival as we wax poetic on strange Polish holidays, fish monsters, and stoner kung fu spaghetti Westerns. And find out why Greg called Des a "sick #@$%." Songs included: "The Amazing Kreskin" by Clutch, "Fantasy" by The Church of the Cosmic Skull, and "Illuminate the Path" by Arch Enemy. Send feedback to: dreadmediapodcast@gmail.com. Follow @DevilDinosaurJr and @dreadmedia on Twitter! Join the Facebook group! Support the show at www.patreon.com/dreadmedia. Visit www.desmondreddick.com, www.stayscary.wordpress.com, www.dreadmedia.bandcamp.com, www.kccinephile.com, and www.dejasdomicileofdread.blogspot.com.

Westerns on a SaturdayFirst,  a look at this day in History.Then, The Adventures of Red Ryder, originally broadcast September 6, 1946, 79 years ago, Rodeo At Tarantula Springs. The Haciampa Kid plans to win the Tarantula Springs Rodeo Bronco contest...and no doubt about it. A crooked gambler complicates his plans.Followed by Have Gun Will Travel starring John Dehner, originally broadcast September 6, 1959, 66 years ago, All That Glitters.   Paladin is hired to safeguard a shipment of $50,000 in gold for the Pacific Savings Bank. Then, Gunsmoke starring William Conrad, originally broadcast September 6, 1954, 71 years ago, The Handcuffs. Hank Springer has been shot in the leg, but manages to strangle a deputy sheriff and escape being taken in for trial. Followed by Tarzan Lord of the Jungle starring Lamont Johnson, originally broadcast September 6, 1951, 74 years ago, Tarzan's Magic Amulet.  Tarzan uses his “magic amulet” to help a faithless young man believe in himself.  Finally. Fibber McGee and Molly, originally broadcast September 6, 1954, 71 years ago, Cattin' Around.  The return of Gregory Beauregarde Homer (the cat). Thanks to Richard G for supporting our podcast by using the Buy Me a Coffee function at http://classicradio.streamFind the Family Fallout Shelter Booklet Here: https://www.survivorlibrary.com/library/the_family_fallout_shelter_1959.pdfhttps://wardomatic.blogspot.com/2006/11/fallout-shelter-handbook-1962.html

Daniel and his mother discuss the ruthless nature of the Roman troops who occupy the land, it's nothing for them to kill a local citizen. Will there be an uprising…

There seems to be an epidemic of disappearing people in Pine Ridge. First Lizabeth, then a visiting woman who left her baby with the gents. Now the baby has gone…

Another adventure of George Valentine. A man writes to George with an intriguing challenge. He lives in a town where he runs a small newspaper, and is the single voice…

An installment of the Mystery Playhouse. An aging woman in a flaming red wig sings on the stage, a ghost of a time gone by. Albert butters Ellie up to…

Stan interviews a disgruntled man, and a confused woman. Why do they hate freeways so much? Will it help to get their problems out in the open with a freeway…

07 04-09-25 LHDW La Platea: Los mejores Westerns de la historia del cine. ¿Es Carlos Boyero el mejor crítico español?, levanta odios y pasiones

07 04-09-25 LHDW La Platea: Los mejores Westerns de la historia del cine. ¿Es Carlos Boyero el mejor crítico español?, levanta odios y pasiones

Yeehaw (in space!) The OSPod crew is exploring their musical interests and exposing their baking disasters in yet another thrilling installment of the Overly Sarcastic Podcast. So grab your ray guns and cowboy hats and listen along! Our podcast, like our videos, sometimes touches on the violence, assaults, and murders your English required reading list loves (also we curse sometimes). Treat us like a TV-14 show.OSP has new videos every Friday:https://www.youtube.com/c/OverlySarcasticProductionsChannelQuestion for the Podcast? Head to the #ask-ospod discord channel:https://discord.gg/OSPMerch:https://overlysarcastic.shopFollow Us:Patreon.com/OSPTwitter.com/OSPyoutubeTwitter.com/sophie_kay_Music By OSP Magenta ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of sex work, sexual assault. Spaghetti westerns are their own unique style, their own flavor, and one of the key issues is the dialogue is almost always sloppy and cheesy. Yet Sergio Leone, a true master of filmmaking, took that to a different artistic height, and really made it perfect with this film. This film is impeccably shot, with spans of John Ford's favorite locations that would make the father of the genre salivate. The cast is top notch, with a truly evil villain made all the more bad by the fact that they got America's Dad to play him. The only thing missing is punchier dialogue, but when it comes to Leone, it's worth the eye rolls to wait for the next incredible shot. Bide your time with a little harmonica as we watch 1968's Once Upon a Time in the West on Have a Good Movie! You can email us with feedback at macintoshandmaud@gmail.com, or you can connect with us on BlueSky! If you like the podcast, please subscribe, rate and review the show on your favorite podcatcher, and tell your friends. Intro and outro music taken from the Second Movement of Ludwig von Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Hong Kong (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 HK) license. To hear the full performance or get more information, visit the song page at the Internet Archive. Excerpt taken from "Man With A Harmonica" from the film Once Upon a Time in the West, written and composed by Ennio Morricone. Copyright 1968 Rafran - San Marco Production. Excerpts taken from the main theme to the film Support Your Local Sheriff!, written and composed by Jeff Alexander. Copyright 1969 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Discussing their favorite Westerns, this episode is a special "Voices of the West" edition with Harry Alexander and Bunker de France.

We are without our anchor Jordan Morris this week, so Emily and Matt took their ADHD medication and watched Tombstone, the hunk-filled 90's western starring Kirk Russell and Val Kilmer.Tune in next week when our movie will be... Hell Comes To Frogtown.-----Watch Emily Have You Seen This? on Mythical SocietyOr watch Emily on Mythical KitchenAlso buy some stuff from Emily's ETSY page FlemGemsSee Matt Lieb and friends at the Bell House in Brooklyn October 13th.

George has been having legal troubles over promising Elsie Tralfaz a spot on the radio, but is being sued when he couldn't follow through. Today George tries to get Gracie…

A boy with an unusual manner, and one with quite a vocabulary, stops in Mr. Keen's office. Jimmy doesn't have a case of a missing person, but a person who…

Here's a question for you: What do the beloved Westerns The Ox-Bow Incident, 3 Godfathers, Ride Lonesome, The Gunfighter, Nevada Smith and How the West Was Won all have in common? The answer is they were all filmed in the breathtaking hills of Lone Pine, California! On this special bonus episode, we speak with Steve Latshaw, Director of the Museum of Western Film History, about the exciting 35th Annual Lone Pine Film Festival. Packed with rare screenings, celebrity guests, fascinating presentations and exclusive location tours, this four-day celebration honors Lone Pine's remarkable on-screen legacy and its deep connection to the Western movie genre. Join us as we explore an incredible area where literally hundreds of your favorite films and TV shows, many of them Westerns, have been shot since the dawn of the silent era. To learn more about the Lone Pine Film Festival — or to purchase tickets for this year's festivities — CLICK HERE.

Mysteries abound in the swirl of troubles that Lum and Abner have found themselves in, while caring for the abandoned baby. Lizabeth is still missing, the Black Pelican who wrote…

Don flashes back to last year on Jack's birthday where the Beaver club is planning a birthday party. The Beavers talk about Jacks accomplishments as a highly rated football player,…

Today's host is a newcomer to the Hollywood scene, Gloria DeHavilland. She's looking for a trustworthy man to guide her around town. She sings; the Man I Love. Jack Carson…

Westerns and Comedy on a SaturdayFirst,  a look at the events of the day.Then, Gunsmoke starring William Conrad, originally broadcast August 30, 1954, 71 years ago, Obie Tater.  Two tough guys rough up Obie Tater to force him to tell where his gold is hidden. When that fails...Obie finds himself suddenly married. Followed by Have Gun Will Travel starring John Dehner, originally broadcast August 30, 1959, 66 years ago, Love-Bird.  Holly Bannon, a thoroughly rotten broad, hires Paladin to kill her husband...a nice guy! Then, The Screen Directors Playhouse, originally broadcast August 30, 1951, 74 years ago, Mother Is a Freshman starring Loretta Young.   Young reprises her role from the 1949 comedy.  Young enrolls in college to claim a scholarship and ends up attending alongside her daughter. Complications arise when both women fall for the same English professor, leading to lighthearted misunderstandings before love sorts itself out.Finally, The Couple Next Door starring Peg Lynch and Alan Bunce, originally broadcast August 30, 1960, 65 years ago, Fed Up Waiting on People. Thanks to Laurel for supporting our podcast by using the Buy Me a Coffee function at http://classicradio.streamIf you like what we do here, visit our friend Jay at http://radio.macinmind.com for great old-time radio shows 24 hours a day

Today's story is said to be the basis for Shakespeare's play, the Taming of the Shrew. Now let's take an express subway ride to storyland, and get started. A king…

Features Henry Fonda. A story of a woman who was kidnapped by a gangster, and found love while a fugitive. Cecil Be DeMill is still recovering from illness, so Edward…

An urgent phone call from the wealthy John Blake, isn't enough to interest the bulky genius of a detective. Archie learns of a will, and a letter that is to be delivered. Isn't this a job for a lawyer? Blake has his reasons for the confidential services of a detective. Though Archie thinks its going to be an easy job, Nero has his doubts.

Whether they want it or not, a threatening note left on their door means they'll be keeping the baby a little longer. Babies and women aren't the strong suits of…

Westerns and Crime on a ThursdayFirst,  a look at the events of the day.Then, Mystery in the Air starring Peter Lorre, originally broadcast August 28, 1947, 78 years ago, Beyond Good and Evil.  Lorre excelled in this outstanding summer series with works he selected himself!   An escaped convict kills a minister and takes his place in a small town while planning a bank robbery.Followed by Have Gun Will Travel starring John Dehner, originally broadcast August 28, 1960, 65 years ago, For The Birds.  Paladin undertakes to deliver an exotic pair of pea-fowl across the entire country. Can it be that easy?Then, Gunsmoke starring William Conrad, originally broadcast August 28, 1960, 65 years ago, Tumbleweed.  A professional hangman named Henry Maples comes to town with his own portable gallows. Simple minded Boog Wilson becomes his loyal friend...and shoots Doc! Followed by Night Watch starring Donn Reid, originally broadcast August 28, 1954, 71 years ago.  The first call: two women are fighting in a bar. They might be mother and daughter. An elderly movie actress has been hit by a car. A prowler has been caught in a backyard. Finally, Blackstone the Magic Detective starring Edwin Jerome as “the world's greatest living magician”, originally broadcast August 28, 1949, 76 years ago, The Criminal Who Caught Himself.  A German scientist in America is plagued by a Nazi saboteur. Thanks to Laurel for supporting our podcast by using the Buy Me a Coffee function at http://classicradio.streamIf you like what we do here, visit our friend Jay at http://radio.macinmind.com for great old-time radio shows 24 hours a day

Stan talks about his friend the abominable snowman for another visit in the Himalayas. Learn the real name of the snowman and meet his wife. Stan exposes how he gets…

Note: [also aired as episode 229]. A small trunk was bought at auction that contained a few articles of clothing, and a stack of recordings. Nick learns all he can…

Hey pals! We Read It One Night is back!! I'm jumping in feet-first with the incredible Danica Nava to chat about cowboy romance and Westerns. Danica's debut THE TRUTH ACCORDING TO EMBER became the first traditionally published all-Native romance (Native MCs, Native author) and she's reclaiming cowboy romance with her latest LOVE IS A WAR SONG. Enjoy the show! Connect with Danica: www.danicanavabooks.com; @danica_nava Britt Newton (cover artist): @holoske The Celluloid Princess Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Crisis Unbound podcast Menswear Guy 'Warrior Tonight' by Avery Fox Subscribe! Follow! Rate! Review! Tell your friends and family all about us! Support the podcast and buy us coffee WRION merch! Our feminist, sapphic, bookish Etsy shop! Instagram/Threads: @wereaditonenight TikTok: @wereaditonenight Facebook: We Read It One Night Email: wereaditonenight [at] gmail.com

A dutchman and the trail of money has Marlowe seeking after a Cloak of golden feathers. the cloak is over 100 square feet, and worth a fortune. A suspicious character…

Another day passes without word from the woman who left her baby in the care of Lum and Abner. They have decided to take the child to the county seat,…

It was a dark and stormy night, with a sultry dame and a hardboiled detective. The resulting fender vender sets Dick Diamond off to a repair shop, and a mystery.…

Audio is a little muffled, but OK. Molly gets confused as Fibber reads to her from a Western novel about cowboys and gunslingers. The old West is in Fibber's blood…

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of brownface. If this movie is the rebirth of the Western, it'd be hard to tell because it's a real mess. It's a classic, and it absolutely makes sense why, but it's also a total mess of a film. No one knows what movie they're supposed to be in, the script is missing a ton of connective tissue, and Steve McQueen has the audacity to be bad at acting and an insufferable tool. Still, Yul Brynner and Charles Bronson are total badasses, and this Western via samurai flick manages to be a little entertaining. But really, just go watch Seven Samurai instead. Round up the gunfighters as we watch The Magnificent Seven on Have a Good Movie! You can email us with feedback at macintoshandmaud@gmail.com, or you can connect with us on BlueSky! If you like the podcast, please subscribe, rate and review the show on your favorite podcatcher, and tell your friends. Intro and outro music taken from the Second Movement of Ludwig von Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Hong Kong (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 HK) license. To hear the full performance or get more information, visit the song page at the Internet Archive. Excerpt taken from the theme to the film The Magnificent Seven, written and composed by Elmer Bernstein. Copyright 1960 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayers Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved. Excerpt taken from "Man With A Harmonica" from the film Once Upon a Time in the West, written and composed by Ennio Morricone. Copyright 1968 Rafran - San Marco Production.

When a baby has been left in the care of Lum and Abner, the gents are worn to a frazzle. We learn how Lum has been dealing with the fussy…

Hosted by Frank Morgan. He talks to announcer Ken Carpenter about girls, then brings out the Andrews Sisters to join in with the cutting up. The sisters dedicate their song,…

Flashback to the previous Thursday to Jack's home in Beverly Hills. Jack learns that Rochester wants to have his own phone line installed. He needs it for emergencies, and to…

After a ship wreck, Bing and Bob talk about their ordeal on a life raft, before coming aground, and finding a camel. They ride and sing, the Road to Morocco.…

After much worrying, searching, and fretting, no clue has been turned up as to Lizabeth's whereabouts. Lum brings in a letter. Will it bring word of where Abner's wife went…

Stan opens with color commentary of a circus act. He then goes into a bit about the secret lives of those who serve as Good Humor Men. After a song,…

An old car crosses paths with Simon Templar, and it causes him to cross path with gun toting gangsters. Intimidation doesn't work well when used on the Saint. Always on…

Cedric enters the Jot ‘Em Down store to cheer up Abner since Lizabeth and little Pearl have come up missing. Abner makes plans to lay out the dragnet to cover…

Cavemen. Dinosaurs. Lasers. Robots. A mysterious medallion. A talking box. Choice meats! And oh that theme song. This barely begins to dip into the brain-bending fountain of wonders that is YOR, THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE. Javi, Paul and - intrepidly - Producer Brad have ventured to Yor's World and returned forever changed by this Italian adaptation of an Argentinian graphic novel that was distilled from a four-hour television mini-series, and is criminally unavailable on any streaming service or for digital rental or purchase. But they would not be denied (thank you Internet Archive), even though it required Javi to heed the film's counsel (“We will need a lot more hemp before we're through.”), while Paul Plot was sent into a fugue state. Because while we're all well-versed in spaghetti Westerns, this is a spaghetti fantasy that takes a stunning turn into spaghetti sci-fi, and somehow blurs the lines between bad and great, and stupid and genius — rendering this week's episode an absolute fever dream. There is simply no way you can prepare yourself… for YOR!!!Show Notes:Yor, the Hunter from the Future (1983) [Internet Archive] Yor's World (Theme Song) on iTunes and Apple Music1983 Box OfficeAugust 19, 1983 Weekend Box OfficeYor Movie Box Office ResultsNYT/Janet Maslin Yor reviewArchived Antonio Margheriti bioArchived interview with Edoardo Margheriti, Antonio's son.Fanbasepress article speculating on Antonio Margheriti connection to 2001: A Space OdysseyFollow us!InstagramBlueskyemail: Multiplexoverthruster@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week in the Wrap Party, Zeth and Jake talk about music and movie recommendations related to Harrison Ford, plus Zach Cregger's new movie Weapons, great Westerns, stacks of books to be read, and more. Join the party and get in touch with your recs, your reviews, and any insane story from Hollywood history that you want to tell us! Call or text (617) 906-6638, email disgracelandpod@gmail.com, or reach out on socials @disgracelandpod. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With seven decades in film and television, Clint Eastwood is undeniably a Hollywood institution. Emerging first as a star in Westerns, then as the embattled cop in the Dirty Harry films, the ninety-five-year-old filmmaker has directed forty features and appeared in more than sixty. The film critic Richard Brody just reviewed a new biography of Eastwood. “What fascinated me above all are the origins of Clint Eastwood-ness—the way he had an aura that preceded him before his career in movies.”  Brody joins David Remnick to pick three of the films that set Eastwood apart as an artist: “Play Misty for Me,” his 1971 directorial début; “Bird,” his bio-pic about Charlie Parker; and “Sully,” starring Tom Hanks as the heroic pilot Chesley Sullenberger.

It's been a hot minute since we've had a solid theme episode around Nicolas Cage. But just grabbing three movies of our patron saint is too easy. The man has a long filmography which makes it way too easy to cherry pick. So we decided to narrow things down and focus on Westerns made with Cage. First up is Gunslingers[2025]. We start off with some atrocious CGI establishing the era and time. Three men get into a fight, one gets burnt and another gets shot. Fast forward to a town called Redemption where retired outlaws all hide out. Mr Burnface shows up looking for his brother. The dead man in … Continue reading "Popcorn Pulse 247: Butchering Westerns"

This week in the Wrap Party, Zeth and Jake are talking about digging up some crazy, unexpected stories about Joan Crawford, plus music and movie recommendations inspired by the Hollywood icon, and suggest starting a support group for those who mistake Vin Diesel for Walter Matthau. Join the party and get in touch with your recs, your reviews, and any insane story from Hollywood history that you want to tell us! Call or text (617) 906-6638, email disgracelandpod@gmail.com, or reach out on socials @disgracelandpod. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices