The Cult of Matt and Mark

Are you ready for the feel good movie of 1985! ... No? Perfect. Let's watch Threads! The unrelentingly bleak UK film about the realities of nuclear war. Humanity may survive such an apocalypse, but what does it really mean to survive in world without progress, a civilization in regression... ugh... so hopeless... Anyway, Threads will make want you want to fire up the XBox and play a little Fallout 3 to dissolve the gloom. Armageddon was supposed to fun, wasn't it? Download: 115 Threads

A strangely influential John Carpenter B-movie, They Live's premise of an Alex Jones alien conspiracy to take over our planet Republican-style could only be effectively pulled off with a healthy serving of camp. Matt indulges his loathing for all things moneyed and corrupt while Mark puts it all in perspective. So OBEY and enjoy! Remember to like us on Facebook and tune in to Matt's mini Sci-Fi animated film short festival. Download:  114 They Live

We conclude our Dan O'Bannnon'othon this week with the 1995 Screamers. Not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, Matt finds himself in the odd position of defending cheesy B-grade sci-fi to Mark. Despite being ridden with plot holes and degraded by lack of production value, Screamers achieves in theme what many more blockbuster offerings only hint at. Holding true to its Philip K Dick short story source material, Screamers surpasses the likes of Paycheck and Minority Report without the Hollywood head-start. Download: 113 Screamers

Mark gives Matt enough rope to hang himself when Matt goes on a hippie-hating tangent in the guise of scientific credibility this week when we review the cult classic Altered States. What is consciousness? Does it matter when you're talking about insight into our own inner human experience? Maintaining its high for the first part of the film, AS descends into silly farcical horror the latter half, which is to not necessarily diminish its effect. Download: 112 Altered States

Matt and Mark review the Verhoeven 1990 classic Total Recall starring Arnold Swarzenegger. Matt struggles to evoke the sense of sci-fi wonder in Mark when he becomes fixated on the notion of a Hilton hotel room on the planet Mars, complete with cheesy wall art. But despite this, Matt and Mark do thoroughly plumb the Phillip K Dickian notion of "what is real" and Total Recall's deft delivery thereof. Total Recall's true magic is its ability to literally spoil the plot for you 1/4 of the way in, yet keep you riveted until the very end. Download: 111 Total Recall

Matt and Mark try to get closer to Closer this week when we review the 2004 adaptation of the titular play. Like Mike Nichols other film The Graduate, this film examines the lives a self-involved privileged and generally unlikable people, daring its audience to take a stake in their relationships' outcomes. Is there a 'theme' here? Hard to say, but memorable well written scenes, this movie has many. So why do you like this movie? Perhaps you're a f*&%ing caveman!!! Download: 110 Closer

A simple twist on the "Most Dangerous Game", Predator extrapolates big game hunting into the interstellar. When compared with the chicken-shit style of hunting ala Dick Cheney's "fish in a barrel" Texas ranch shoot-your-friend-in-the-face or the deservedly maligned Melissa Bachman lets-blow-away-an-endangered-cat-because-I-can nonsense, the Predator plays fair, allowing its prey to shoot back. So when Ahneld asks the question "What da' hell ahr you?" and the Predator mimes back the question, the exchange is more poignant than it may seem..  Download: 108 Predator

The Dan O'bannon-othon continues this week with the 1979 classic Star Beast (original title) aka Alien. Matt and Mark discuss at length Mr. O'banon's hand in making this film and his purity of vision compromised for better-or-worse by the deft hand of Ridley Scott (probably for the better). While the alien xenomorph is a beautiful monster designed by H.R. Giger, its ingenious biology was not as much a consequence of stylistic creativity than it was plot necessity, which may have worked even better. Download: 107 Alien

David Lynch's proto-Twin Peaks film Blue Velvet lays the groundwork for many of the quirks that define the film maker. A tale of curiosity, sex, trauma, and torture, Blue Velvet deals in darkness, but not in an exploratory way which many have criticized as giving the heavy subject matter short shrift. However, to take anything else out would be to leave the film bereft of its powerful imagery and atmosphere. Crack a Pabst Blue Ribbon you fucking fucks, and enjoy, because this... is... it! Download:  106 Blue Velvet

Don Felder, the unsung hero of the most loved/hated band ever The Eagles, bestows some righteous licks upon the adult animated universe in this week's cult classic Heavy Metal (1981). Another notch in the belt of Mark's Dan O'bannon'othon, Matt takes a nostalgic trip into his 80's adolescence and remember his first exposure to the T&A laden comic book magazine. Not exactly up to the snuff of today's slick CGI bombast, Heavy Metal does lay the groundwork for future tropes however. Download: 105 Heavy Metal 1981

This week Matt and Mark review Kubrik's A Clockwork Orange. Viddying the horror-show ultra-violence and some of the ole in-out in out, we seek the film's thematic elements through its stylistic fog. While Alex is a miserable, violent, and possibly irredeemable bastard, he provides us a window into an alien personality that we experience but with whom we aren't necessarily asked to sympathize. And that may've been  the films worst sin in many critics' eyes, thus dismissing a beautifully wrought film of near artistic perfection. Download:  104 A Clockwork Orange

Once again Matt and Mark return to the sub-genre of horror comedy. A highly rated film by Alien screenplay writer Don O'Bannon, RotLD sets the mood for all slapstick zombie horror to follow ("brains... more... brains"). While Mark indulges the silliness and touts its original ideas, Matt is less engaged. Not necessarily an indictment of the film per-se as much as a 'been there, done that' attitude calloused by henceforth imitators. None-the-less a worthy outing. Download:  103 Return of the Living Dead

And finally.... John Carpenter's The Thing is reviewed this week on The Cult of Matt and Mark. While much is to be said about the making of this strange dread-filled movie adaptation of the original Campbell novella, Matt and Mark delve into the viability of The Thing as an organism, attempting to rationalize its motives, desires, and biology. Dismissing Ebert's dismissal of this seminal Sci-Fi horror classic, we are drawn to the film 30 years on, engaging it again and again with homage prequels and video games as we try to capture a little of Carpenter's original paranoid beauty. Download: 102 The Thing

Matt and Mark are back in movie review mode this week with our take on the UK soon-to-be cult film Kill List. Skillfully made by Ben Wheatley, with measured pacing and realistic dialogue, the film is a mash-up domestic drama, hit man thriller, and horror. While echoing the Wicker Man (Podcast #10), the Kill List, whether intended or not, does not tie up its loose ends neatly, which is both evocative and maddening. Download: 101 Kill List

It's The Cult of Matt and Mark's 100th Episode, and this week we decided to take topics from our loyal listeners, film related and otherwise. So come join us, knock back a few (we always do), and allow us to waste your time with inadequate answers to very thoughtful questions/topics! Much thanks to friends of the show Aaron C. of Ireland and Tom H. of Australia. Download: 100 Bonus Episode