The Cult of Matt and Mark

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

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

 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 Full Metal Jacket

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Matt and Mark take an objective look into whole the Harlan Ellison-James Cameron kerfuffle over the origins of the film The Terminator. After much deliberation, we determine that not only is Harlan Ellison kind of a dick, but that Cameron should be given credit for taking the nascent Outer Limits episode Soldier and fleshing it out into a more exciting action packed narrative. Regardless, its always nice to entertain the notion of traveling back to Reagan's big hair 80's and getting the chance to blow that miserable decade back to hell. Download:  120 The Terminator

It's a storm of swords and a clash of kings this week as Matt and Mark enter the bloody battle space of drama film reviewing. Secrets and Lies is not a popcorn movie, unless you like to salt your popcorn with the tears of bleak desperation and catharsis. But one thing Mark and Matt did conclude during this contentious and disagreement fraught podcast is that the dramas one likes are deeply personal, and perhaps for unexplained reasons lacking resolution. Even if you haven't seen S&L, tune in and see what reviewer becomes a feast for crows. Download: 119 Secrets and Lies

This week we head down river into the "squeal like a pig" back woods of Southern hill billy-dom when we review the unforgettable John Boorman film Deliverance. Not necessarily an essay on the nature of violence, Deliverance offers up questions of morality vs. civilization's legal framework. Because it's one thing to be a victim of violence, it's another to be at the mercy of unknown justice. An adventure story perhaps, Matt argues that it is something more, while Mark wrestles with contrived plot mechanisms and ham-fisted allegory. Download: 118 Deliverance

Would you like to play a game... with Death? Only really a stalling tactic, Max Von Sydow's Antonius Block endeavors to play Death a game of chess, not necessarily to put off the inevitable, but offer God a chance to make himself known. A literal movie, Ingmar Bergman's The 7th Seal dispenses with metaphor and allegory, instead relying on stunning visuals to deliver its point. Endlessly parodied and borrowed, The 7th Seal is a cornerstone of our collective cinematic language. Download:  117 The Seventh Seal

Heading off for a savage journey to Heart of the American Dream, Matt and Mark discuss the pros (Matt) and cons (Mark) of the Hunter S. Thompson adaptation Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Terry Gilliam. Matt attempts to slice and dice the absurdity, comparing such existential musings with the likes of Sartres and Camus, while Mark shrugs his shoulders at the irredeemable assholes which are Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo. It's hard to argue either way. Download: 116 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas