We were under the mistaken impression that Basic Instinct was a Prestige film, because neither of us had seen it. What we got was a softcore, movie-length episode of Red Shoe Diaries directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone. Whether it’s thrilling satire or a satirical thriller, we certainly had quite a bit of fun with it
At it’s heart, Gran Torino is about an old, set-in-his-ways (racist) war veteran realizing that he has more in common with the hardworking, honest Asian family next door than he does with his own spoiled American family. The trouble is, the guy is just so damned racist that it’s hard to get comfortable with him. And even when his opinion of the family next door changes, the offensive language he uses to describe them doesn’t. Gran Torino is a tough movie to talk about.
Ask the average person what they think of when they hear the name Rambo and they’ll probably say something about an over-muscled rageaholic murdering dozens of people with weapons meant to be mounted on vehicles. Even if they know better, they’ll probably agree that this first movie in the franchise is called “Rambo”. Neither of those things is entirely accurate, so we’re setting the record straight in a podcast covering one of Sylvester Stallone’s best movies.
Road to Perdition is the only movie we could think of that features Tom Hanks as anything other than a wholesome heroic type. It turns out he’s an honest-to-goodness actor and he can absolutely pull off the Irish gangster dead set on avenging his murdered family, especially when he’s sharing the screen with other talented actors such as Paul Newman and Daniel Craig. Who knew!
Our belated obsession with The Queen’s Gambit has lead us back to our formative years to cover a movie that also has a young chess prodigy at its center, Searching for Bobby Fischer. It’s an under-celebrated classic about being successful without losing your decency in the process.
80s movies don’t get much more classic than this! Join us for The Breakfast Club, the genre-defining teenage drama from John Hughes. We talk about the pressures of being a teenager, how the movie explores those pressures, our own teenage years, and whether this movie holds up in 2021.
Another year of charity marathons is in the books and it was certainly worthy. This year we raised $17047.74 for the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund and had a ton of fun doing it. Join us as we recap the event and for a special wrapup interview with Connor from the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund discussing their work as well as the damage that Alzheimer’s does and preventative measures you can take to reduce your likelihood of developing it.
I didn’t know much about “The Troubles” in Ireland going into this movie and, to be honest, I don’t feel like I know any more coming out of it. History lessons aside, The Boxer includes some excellent performances from the entire cast in a movie that is more of a meditation on borrowed resentment than a traditional boxing story.
It’s been 10 years since Sorkin and Fincher released The Social Network, a movie about the origins of Facebook. So how has it aged? Join us on the podcast as we discuss this, and many other questions.
Join us for a discussion of Steven Spielberg’s incredibly breezy, semi-biographical movie based on the life of a high-school-aged 1960’s check forger who collected over $4m in cash before being caught by the FBI.