Send us a text We close out our final theme of the season with the 2008 film The Fall, about a young girl who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a movie stuntman recovering from a fall in a hospital in 1915 Los Angeles. Karl’s shakeup was that his pick had to include a fantasy element, and that comes into play as the stuntman tells the little girl a story about revenge, and her imagination fills in the details. The film was directed by Tarsem, who also directed some notable mu...

Send us a text Things get curiouser and curiouser as we fall down the rabbit hole into our penultimate film episode of the year. We continue to travel through the looking glass, this time with an unreliable narrator. And so we follow the travels of "Alice," a 1988 stop-motion film directed by our favorite Czech surrealist artist Jan Svankmajer, based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, if Alice lived in an East European nation behind the Iron Curtain. We also explore ...

Send us a text It's our final theme of the season! Things are about the get a little (or a lot) weird as we go 'Through the Looking Glass'. We'll be watching films that delve into alternative realities, parallel worlds, or mirror universes—where the line between reality and fantasy is blurred. First out of the rabbit hole is Gaspar Noé's Enter The Void from 2009. Starring nobody you've probably ever heard of, this film follows an American drug dealer living in Tokyo who is b...

Send us a text We close out our theme of “The Great Escape” with 1971’s Malpertuis (also known as The Legend of Doom House), a relatively obscure Belgian fantasy film about a sailor trapped in the mansion of his dying uncle (played by the legendary Orson Welles). The sailor and the fellow residents of the mansion are fighting for the uncle’s inheritance, and since Karl’s shakeup was that his pick must include a non human character, let’s just say the residents are not what they seem. We...

Send us a text Continuing on with our theme, we have one of the greatest escapes in literature! This week had to be a "period piece" and so we have chosen 2002's "The Count of Monte Cristo" starring Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce and a very young Henry Cavill. One of many, many film adaptations of the classic Alexandre Dumas novel of the same name. We also wonder what happened to Guy Pearce, Rachael promotes classic literature, and we test our knowledge of post-Napoleonic French aristo...

Send us a text It's our penultimate theme of the year and this round we are bringing to you "The Great Escape": Movies where characters are escaping—physically, mentally, or emotionally—from something or someone, whether it’s prison, oppression, or a difficult situation. The shake-up for this week is: Must Have an Ensemble Cast. The film should feature an ensemble cast, meaning multiple characters with significant, interwoven storylines. Well, given the requirements how could we not pic...

Send us a text We close out our “Power of Music” theme with Robert Altman’s 1980 musical extravaganza Popeye, starring Robin Williams as the titular sailor man who arrives in the town of Sweethaven searching for his long lost pappy. Karl had the added shakeup that his pick had to take place in a single location, and the aforementioned town of Sweethaven suits that perfectly. Joining Popeye on his adventure is Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl and the large and mean Bluto, played by Paul Smith. ...

Send us a text What will the power of music be like in the future? Well, if you’re unlucky enough to live in the world of the 2002 Gun-fu film “Equilibrium,” music, art and emotion will be pretty much forbidden. Starring Christian Bale, Sean Bean and Taye Diggs, this weird film, which is obviously riding on the coattails of the success of “The Matrix”, introduces us to a dystopian world where creativity and emotion are stifled by mass medication and brute force. We also discuss di...

Send us a text Oh, hello there, you vinyl-vaulting philistines and cassette-clutching casuals. Another cycle spins on the turntable of existence, and this time we're cranking the volume on "The Power of Music"—films where the soundtrack isn't just background noise for your popcorn munching, but the beating heart, the narrative needle scratching deep into the grooves of the soul. We're talking movies where melodies manipulate fates, chords construct characters, and a killer riff can redeem or ...

Send us a text We’re coming to get you Barbara. We are closing out our theme of “The Fall and Rise” with Tom Savini’s 1990 remake of George Romero’s zombie classic Night of the Living Dead, where a great many people fall and rise…FROM THE DEAD! There were several changes from the original in the remake, one of the major ones being how the character of Barbara is handled, which also lends itself to the fall and rise theme. Karl had the added shakeup that the lead actor in his...

Send us a text THE POST-APOCALYPTIC MUSICAL FUTURE IS NOWWWWWW. Join us as we watch 1983's animated, demon-fighting, Canadian rock-opera "Rock and Rule;" featuring the music of Lou Reed, Debbie Harry, Iggy Pop, Cheap Trick, and Earth, Wind and Fire. Sounds pretty amazing, right? Unfortunately. . .this movie is not as great as it sounds on paper. So be sure to listen in to hear our terrible, terrible disappointment.

Send us a text Time marches on and it's already time for another new theme. Everyone has their ups and downs (or downs and ups) and that's exactly what we're dealing with this time around with "The Fall and Rise". This cycle we'll be dealing with movies about characters who face a dramatic downfall only to make a comeback, either physically, emotionally or socially. The shakeup for this week is "must include a major flashback". The movie must include one or more major...

Send us a text We close out our “Walking the Fine Line” theme with 1982’s First Blood, the first film to feature John Rambo, as portrayed by Sylvester Stallone. Karl’s shakeup this week was that his film must feature a major social commentary, and this one certainly fits the bill. The film tells the story of Rambo, who is trying to return to a normal life after returning from Vietnam, only to run afoul of local sheriff (played by Brian Dennehy) who wants him out of town. In this episode we di...

Send us a text This week we enter the gritty, black and white world of film noir with one of the greatest examples of the genre, “Double Indemnity.” Premiering in 1944, directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyk and Edward G Robinson, this is a tale of adultery, murder, corruption, greed and …. an insurance scam. We also welcome back guest host Brian, who joined us previously in our “Cocaine Bear” episode. So join us, won’t you? We’ll see t...

Send us a text We are back! It was a good break and hopefully some of you were able to catch up on older episodes you may have missed. Getting back to business we have our new theme: Walking the Fine Line. These will be films about characters balancing between right and wrong, sanity and madness or light and dark. The shake-up this week is the film must be one that none of us have seen before. Featuring Jake Gyllenhaal in two roles our first film is 'Enemy' from 2013, where ...

Send us a text Special Episode Alert! This week we take a field trip to the actual movie theater and watch “Weapons” to see what all the hype is about! This 2025 film, starring Julie Garner and Josh Brolin, is about a classroom of children (minus one) who disappear abruptly on the same night at the same time and leave everyone in the community with many questions and a mystery to solve. It is written and directed by Zach Cregger, also known for “Barbarian” which we all enjoy...

Send us a text We close out our “Time is an Illusion” theme with 2011’s Source Code, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a soldier forced to relive a dying man’s final eight minutes of life in an attempt to learn the identity of a train bomber. Karl’s shakeup was that his pick must have a twist ending, so our discussions are all about twists! We discuss what makes a good movie twist, go through some of our favorite movie twists, as well as some tips on writing a good twist from the “Maste...

Send us a text This week, our pick must reduce all saturation and so we watch “The Trial,” a strange and unusual film about a man who has been accused of an unknown crime and who has to navigate a timeless and labyrinthine judicial system, about which he knows nothing. Shot in black and white, from 1962, this visual treat is directed by Orson Welles and stars Anthony Perkins. It is based on the posthumously completed Franz Kafka novel “Der Prozess” and it certainly lives up to t...

Send us a text OK everyone, time for a new theme again. Speaking of time, we will be delving into films that play with time in unconventional ways such as time loops, alternate timelines or nonlinear narratives because our new theme is "Time is an Illusion". In addition to talking about time, relativity, quantum physics, car accidents, Ozzy Osbourne, Jaws and Iceland we will be watching a film that fits our new theme along with the first shake-up: "Must be set in a war-zone". Tha...

Send us a text We close out our “In the Shadow of Giants” theme with 1985’s horror comedy Fright Night, about a teenager who suspects his new neighbor is a vampire. Our discussion covers all things neighbor, from stories about notable neighbors we’ve had in our lives, to the group taking a quiz about how involved we would get with neighbor disputes. Did Rachael really live next door to a lady of the evening? Tune in to find out!