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Conrad and Dan review forgotten fantastical films
Episodes
Tuesday Oct 03, 2023
Tuesday Oct 03, 2023
In this Patron's Choice episode, we're venturing into the territory of sword and sorcery master Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane (2009), M. J. Bassett's largely forgotten action adventure film starring James Purefoy as the brutal privateer turned Puritan avenger on a quest to rescue a young pilgrim girl from an evil sorcerer. This one vanished without a trace after a bungled release in the US, where it was held up by legal issues, so few genre fans had a chance to witness its glorious locations, gritty tone, bone crunching action and stunning stunts on the big screen. But does it stand the test of time, or is it an unremarkable addition to the post-Lord-of-the-Rings high fantasy boom of the noughties? Find out!
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Tuesday Sep 19, 2023
Tuesday Sep 19, 2023
We're revisiting the big budget adaptation of Stephen King's Dreamcatcher at long last! Not only is the film celebrating its 20th anniversary, it's also a movie Dan's been wanting to cover since he started reading the book 5 years ago when we started this podcast! He's finally finished it, despite a canine mishap midway through, so here we are... And what a spectacle it is. An isolated snowy landscape, an alien invasion, possession, red fungal infections, a group of friends with psychic powers... there's a lot going on in this one! And the pedigree of the artists behind it is astonishing: Lawrence Kasdan, the writer of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Empire Strikes Back, directs and co-scripts with Misery adapter and The Princess Bride scribe William Goldman, with a cast that includes Morgan Freeman, Damian Lewis, Jason Lee, Timothy Olyphant, Thomas Jane, Tom Sizemore and Donnie Wahlberg. And special effects by ILM! What could possibly go wrong?! A lot, it turns out. But is it still worthy of freedom from the oubliette? Find out!
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Tuesday Sep 05, 2023
Tuesday Sep 05, 2023
The incredible Vincenzo Natali, director of Cube, Splice and In the Tall Grass, joins us to explore Paul Verhoeven's final Dutch-language film before he launched his Hollywood career: The Fourth Man (1983). It's a visually stunning, darkly erotic thriller, with a Hitchcockian blonde, eye-popping and leg-crossing effects, and some subversive religious imagery. But is this hard-to-find tale of a drunken writer encountering a sultry widow of not one but three husbands a mischievous treasure... or a fever dream best forgotten? Find out!
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Support us on Patreon to nominate future films, vote on whether films should be released or thrown back, and access exclusive bonus content!
Tuesday Aug 22, 2023
Tuesday Aug 22, 2023
Dan and Conrad find themselves itching compulsively while padding around in a tinfoil-covered motel room searching for aphids. Yes, we're revisiting Bug (2006), the late William Friendkin's adaptation of Tracy Letts' play starring Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon, Lynn Collins and Harry Connick Jr. It's an intense psychological thriller set largely in a single room focusing on two lonely outcasts who go crazy in love... literally. Or maybe they really are the focus of a giant conspiracy involving medical experiments, child abduction, genetically modified insects and one giant mother super bug. We picked this one out of the oubliette before the sad news of the director's passing, so this comes as an unplanned but timely retrospective on the film Friedkin called his most intense piece of work. Where does it sit in his legacy? Find out!
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Tuesday Aug 08, 2023
Tuesday Aug 08, 2023
Melinda Mock of RetroBlasting and Dreamland guest co-hosts and, while Dan is away, leads Conrad into the weird fairytale horror of Troll (1986), Empire Pictures' second-highest-grossing b-movie, which has since been overshadowed by the internet memes of its largely unrelated and famously awful sequel. Featuring Noah Hathaway (The NeverEnding Story), Michael Moriarty (The Stuff), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (!) and Sonny Bono (!!!), it tells the story of the young Harry Potter Jr. – yes, you read that right – discovering a world of magic and terror when his family moves into a new apartment building infested by the titular Troll. It has everything you'd want in a video rental: Sonny Bono turning into a quivering green turd, June Lockheart brandishing a spear and a singing magic mushroom. But is it any good? Find out!
Check out Melinda's podcast Dreamland and the RetroBlasting YouTube channel.
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Support us on Patreon to nominate future films, vote on whether films should be released or thrown back, and access exclusive bonus content!
Tuesday Jul 25, 2023
Tuesday Jul 25, 2023
Manika Dulcio of the 'I've Been Meaning to Watch That' podcast visits us with a dusty old board game from 2005 called Zathura: A Space Adventure, and before we know it, we're thrust into a wild sci-fi adventure with meteors, dinosaur aliens and frozen older sisters! Jon Favreau's first big effects movie has been eclipsed in popular culture by the first adaptation of a Chris Van Allsburg children's book, Jumanji – with which it bears a striking resemblance – but it has a lot going for it. It features early appearances by Josh Hutcherson and Kristen Stewart, with Dax Shepherd and Tim Robbins as the responsible adults, some striking visuals and a captivating combination of practical and CGI effects. But did it deserve to fall into the memory hole, or should a new generation of kids give it a spin? Find out!
Check out Manika's podcast on iTunes, Spotify or wherever good podcasts are streamed!
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Support us on Patreon to nominate future films, vote on whether films should be released or thrown back, and access exclusive bonus content!
Tuesday Jul 11, 2023
Tuesday Jul 11, 2023
Avast, ye space mateys! Con and Dan haul anchor and set sail for the 80s yet again for a slice of semi-spoof space operatics in the form of The Ice Pirates (1984), which stars Robert Urich, Mary Crosby, Michael D. Roberts and features early appearances from Anjelica Houston and Ron Perlman. Set in another galaxy far, far away, where water has become a rare commodity, the film starts out as a heist caper, then takes a weird left-turn into castration and slavery before ending with a battle in a time warp on the way to finding a fabled water-rich planet. It has lasers and robots, but also knee boots, chain mail, cutlasses and an alarming amount of swinging on ropes. Not to mention something called 'space herpes'. But is it still entertaining when you're no longer 10 years old? Find out!
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Support us on Patreon to nominate future films, vote on whether films should be released or thrown back, and access exclusive bonus content!
Tuesday Jun 27, 2023
Tuesday Jun 27, 2023
Dan and Conrad join the ranks of the best and the brightest (and bored billionaires) as they blast off into low Earth orbit with Kate Capshaw, Lea Thompson, Tate Donovan, Larry B. Scott, Kelly Preston and a Leaf-like Joaquin Phoenix (yet to fully bloom in this early role). Yup! Our Patreons forced us to sign up for SpaceCamp (1986), the sci-fi adventure whose release was timed to capitalise on the teacher-in-space excitement of the Space Shuttle Challenger's 10th mission... but sadly limped out into the box office in the wake of a national tragedy. But, crucially, is this tale of teenage teamwork and survival against the odds an overlooked inspirational boost or just a painful memory? Find out!
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Support us on Patreon to nominate future films, vote on whether films should be released or thrown back, and access exclusive bonus content!
Tuesday Jun 13, 2023
Tuesday Jun 13, 2023
Film critic and Horror Queers co-host Joe Lipsett joins us to explore the body snatching invasion thriller The Puppet Masters (1994), an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's 1951 sci-fi novel starring Donald Sutherland, Eric Thal, Julie Warner, Keith David, Will Patton and Yaphet Kotto. Astonishing practical effects abound as parasitic manta rays from space leap merrily onto the backs of unsuspecting cast members, turning them into mindless drones bent on world domination. Their only giveaway? They have no interest whatsoever in Julie Warner's cleavage. Seriously, this is a plot point. It's gleeful straight-to-video fun from the height of the X-Files era, but does it hold up? Find out!
Follow Joe Lipsett on Twitter, read his work on Bloody Disgusting and check out the Horror Queers podcast!
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Support us on Patreon to nominate future films, vote on whether films should be released or thrown back, and access exclusive bonus content!
Tuesday May 30, 2023
Tuesday May 30, 2023
Writer, actor, comedian and all-round wonderful human being Mary Jo Pehl joins us as we try to untangle the twisted tale of Brian De Palma's Sisters (1972). Starring Margot Kidder (of Superman and The Amityville Horror fame) in the dual roles of demure French Canadian model Danielle and her psychotic, groin-stabby twin Dominique, and Jennifer Salt as the hard-boiled investigative journalist determined to prove the murder she witnessed from her apartment window, Sisters is at once a delirious Hitchcockian fever dream that would define the direction of De Palma's career and dark exposé of the forces ranged against the women's liberation movement. But is it a thrilling thriller or a shrill, tiresome pastiche? Find out!
Find out more about Mary Jo Pehl on her website, watch her show at Dumb Industries, buy her book and listen to her pointedly hilarious riffs with Bridget Nelson at Rifftrax!
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Support us on Patreon to nominate future films, vote on whether films should be released or thrown back, and access exclusive bonus content!