135 Ringu (Ring)

The Horror... The Horror... continues this week with your marathon run-up to Halloween. We review the original Japanese Ringu (Ring) from which inspired the highly successful American remake. A minimalist fright-fest, gone are the typical gory tropes of traditional film horror, instead replaced by a meta-foreboding that will make you jump at the site of grainy old school television sets and the shrill ring of land line phones. Matt and Mark ponder Sadako's curse in the age of Youtube and wonder if its possible to curse an entire planet.

Download: 135 Ringu (Ring)

134 The Exorcist

Time to have a chat with Captain Howdy this week when Matt and Mark review the horror classic The Exorcist. Continuing on with our pre-Halloween "The Horror..." marathon, we discuss the disturbing Friedkin masterpiece that has few, if any, parallels. The Exorcist is strangely a movie for skeptics by skeptics, taunting one to ask terrifying questions about humanity's existence. While many think the opposite of love is hate, the opposite of love is indifference, and the demon occupier Pazuzu/Captain Howdy epitomizes this anti-human element by brutally perverting an innocent twelve year girl, while taking you a long for the ride.

Download: 134 The Exorcist

133 Pieces

And we're back! The Horror... The Horror... this week we start off The Cult of Matt and Mark's horror movie marathon on the run up to Hell'oween with the grindhousey Pieces from 1982. A movie that defines the slasher genre in all of its cliche'd silliness. Mark is able to appreciate the films nuances, while Matt laments his inability to partake in Washington State's new-found freedom to herbally enhance for such cinematic exploitation. Nowadays, it has been out done by the horror auters it inspired (e.g. Eli Roth), it gives the gory gross out the old college try.

Download: 133 Pieces

132 The Passion of the Christ

Matt and Mark are going on a summer hiatus, but will be back mid-to-late September for our Halloween run-up horror-a-thon. To tide you over, we review the Mel Gibson film The Passion of the Christ. Beloved by the devout, it's time for the atheists perspective. And it cannot be denied, TPOTC is a flat-out good film, regardless of its two-millennium of baggage. Matt takes a psychological perspective while Mark provides the Christian context. A film that is guilty by association, it deserves an honest viewing, even by the most cynical and critical among us. And the South Park guys can go hang. Anybody that wants their money back for TPOTC are nothing but assholes.

Download: 132 The Passion of the Christ

131 Stranger Than Paradise

Matt and Mark review the Jim Jarmusch indie darling Stranger Than Paradise. A film ahead of its time, it manages to capture the Kurouac feel despite its early 80's setting. Speaking to the aimless twenty somethings, there's a lot to relate to. Unfortunately in Jarmusch's endeavor, this atmosphere seems to come at the expense of plot and theme. What is this movie about? Not sure. Although, I'm sure Jim Jarmusch would retort in an ironic hipster quip that would leave you defenseless.

Download: 131 Stranger than Paradise

130 Escape from New York

The third and final review of the John Carpenter/Kurt Russell trilogy, this week we discuss Escape from New York. Mark's virgin viewing coupled with Matt's nostalgia result in contrary opinions. Does Escape from New York really not work? Does its unique premise and the quintessential movie anti-hero Snake Plissken override some of its more 2D performances? It's hard to say. But one could argue if it really matters in the end. One thing we do learn watching Escape, is that the rumors of Snake Plissken's premature demise may have been greatly exaggerated.

Download: 130 Escape from New York

129 This is Spinal Tap

Let's turn this up to 11! Matt and Mark have come to the realization that it's a challenge to review comedies properly, and Spinal Tap is no different. But we give it a go, and as such, end up rambling quite a bit. Perhaps more tangential than usually, on this podcast we try to probe the cliched and spoof-worthy realm of heavy metal pop music, a comedy rich landscape. Spinal Tap holds a mirror up to the self-indulgent adolescent rocker, and no matter how close it hits to home, bands to this day continue to indulge the silliness. Just as rock will never die, neither will Spinal Tap.

Download: 129 This is Spinal Tap

128 Full Metal Jacket

Does Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket romanticize war? Is it possible to make a war movie that doesn't? An interesting two-part film, Kubrick builds a loose narrative from vignette's that don't necessarily speak to one overriding theme. But one doesn't watch FMJ to hammer home the "war is bad" narrative, you watch it for its dark humor, you watch it for its quips, character sketches, and dialogue, and you watch it because its evocative. "Get some!"

Download: 128 Videodrome

127 Videodrome

This week we review David Cronenberg's 1983 classic Videodrome. If brain tumors were doled out to those who've casually watched tasteless sex and violence, we'd all be dead in the internet age. But back in 1983, when VHS acted as a sole source for content delivery of our collective perversions, Videodrome was perhaps more prescient and horrifying. Thirty years later, calloused to reality television and on-line video "obscenity" where everyone lives "online", Videodrome's blurred reality is more the norm than the exception. Enjoy a little Crononberg body-horror and long live the new flesh!

Download: 127 Videodrome

126 Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Could this movie get made today? If you're the strangely prudish Russ Meyer devotee, Roger Ebert, the answer would be "let this movie never get made!" As time travelers from the hyper-sensitive P.C. present, Matt and Mark disagree. Stacy's coming of age experiences with underage sex, reproductive mistakes, and poor judgement isn't necessarily the exception, but perhaps more the norm than uptight middle-aged white guy America likes to think. In the past, Jennifer Jason Liegh's Stacy probably would have been burned at the stake, but in early 80's American, she's just slut shamed by Ebert.

Download: 126 Fast Times at Ridgemont High

125 Sexy Beast

Just when you think you're out, they pull you back in! This week Matt and Mark review Sexy Beast starring a surprisingly menacing Ben Kingsley as the titular character. While Sexy Beast could easily be a straight up British heist film, it chooses to be something more. Which is strange considering its 85 minute run time. Kingsley's Don Logan is a sociopath with a single-mindedness that may be perfect for crime, but is cancerous when it comes to matters of the heart. Sexy Beast is well filmed and visually amazing, and one can only wonder if Donnie Darko's Frank the bunny was inspired by Sexy Beast's Uzi toting counterpart.

Download: 125 Sexy Beast

124 Big Trouble in Little China

John Carpenter's campy cult classic Big Trouble in Little China, chock full of classic special effects, still holds up to this day and as a result is a beloved favorite by many (more some, than others!... you know who you are). An original film concept if there ever was one, Big Trouble slips between Western tropes and Hong Kong Kung-fu awesomeness while mashing it up with Dungeons and Dragons, creating an adventure no nerdy teenage boy of the 80's could resist. Anyway, pour some green tea into your favorite bottle of Scotch, sit back, and enjoy!

Download: 124 Big Trouble in Little China

123 Borat

Very Nice! High Five! At the height of America's redneck propaganda in 2006, immersed in one of the most ridiculous overseas misadventures of the country's history, Sacha Cohen decided to hold up a cultural mirror to the ole' USA, resulting in Borat. Gag driven and loosely scripted, stereotypes both of the old world and the new are juxtaposed for laughs, sometimes mixed, sometimes spot on. However, the fact that Borat doesn't really resemble anyone from Kazakhstan may be the movie's most deft criticism of our cultural myopia and stupidity.

Download: 123 Borat

122 The Matrix

An epic podcast this week (and maybe our longest?), we enter the Matrix, a film that stylistically matches our appetite for thought provoking sci-fi. Like most sci-fi, the Matrix is derivative, but in all the right ways, especially when it comes to the questions Agent Smith poses to not only Neo and Morpheus, but ourselves. If your existence is defined as a prison, regardless of the cage, is it your duty as a human to escape it? Must human beings never serve a master? Red or blue, the choice doesn't seem to be that simple.

Download: 122 The Matrix

121 Bad Boys 2

What? You haven't seen the first Bad Boys? Sorry bro, you're totally not going to get Bad Boys 2. But if you dare, let Matt and Mark give you the neophyte's perspective. A quintessential Michael Bay action movie (although quintessential is a little too high bro) BB2 is a film lesson in why our current decade and a half has been a wretched low point in action film, devoid of suspense, care, or craftsmanship. BB2 is what happens when films are made purely based on marketing decisions, solely focused on profit margins. Michael Bay's talent lies in his ability to get asses in seats, $12.50 in hand, and for that, he and his ilk will unfortunately be with us for quite some time.

Download: 121 Bad Boys 2