The Cult of Matt and Mark

Perhaps our most controversial film review yet! This week we discuss Sam Peckinpah's 1971 masterpiece Straw Dogs starring Dustin Hoffman. Actually Matt and Mark don't see what all the fuss is about, while graphic, the depiction of violence and rape fits a context of the human animal that isn't necessarily distorted or exaggerated.  It's perhaps easy to view the events of the film through the lens of civilized man with all of modernity's prejudices, but once removed, what we're really viewing is a primal (and hated) truth. Download: 039 Straw Dogs by Sam Peckinpah

A classic hard-boiled film noir set in a contemporary SoCal high school seems like an unlikely marriage, but somehow Rian Johnson's Brick, released in 2005 and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, mostly succeeds in pulling of the 'high concept' task. Mashing up a little Twin Peaks, spaghetti westerns, and Cowboy Beepop for style, Brick is an interesting recasting of familiar police procedural tropes. Similar to modern adaptations of Shakespeare (think 1996's Romeo and Juliet), the characters defy their surroundings without a wink and a nod, oblivious to their displacement while maintaining the illusion. Enjoy! Download: 038 Brick by Rian Johnson

In a shameless act of self promotion and a gap-filler until Matt and Mark's Hello-ween film review marathon, Matt reads chapter one of his indie novel Chronophage under the pen name M.G. Churchill. An extremely unprofessional reading, be warned, but if you're yearning to hear Matt's drone, this may hold you over. Book Description: Zara's mind has been re-wired to do away with sleep, a requirement for piloting mankind's first interstellar star ship. Her new brain is not without side-effects, however. Between consciousness and a semi-lucid state called 'drift-diving,' reality splinters. Amnesia and déjà vu become one, hours and days deleted. But Zara’s memories are classified, and she is told she no longer has a 'need to know.' After a mysterious agent propositions her for secrets in exchange for information about her missing father, a tempted Zara dismisses the notion. However when her flight status is unexpectedly revoked, dismay and resentment quickly changes her attitude... because this was not supposed to be the end. Prophetic visions of floating jungles and sentient insects haunt her. An alien terminus? So real, it must be fate. Zara soon sets out into the byzantine world of Lacus Somniorum, the Moon's clandestine Lake of Dreams in search of answers, not only about her past, but also her improbable future. Download: CH1 Chronophage

"If you want the ultimate, you've got to be willing to pay the ultimate price", which was about $3.00 for a matinee screening of Point Break back in 1991, Kathryn Bigelow's ode to surfer extremophiles. At the heart of the movie is Johnny Utah and Bodhisattva's (short for 'Bodhi') bromance, played by a quintessential Keanu Reeves and the late Patrick Swayze. Matt calls bull%$@t on Bodhi's warrior poet nonsense while Mark defends the Swayze character as less hypocrite and more paradox. Regardless, Point Break is a beautifully shot movie and basically a series of one-liners stitched together into script form. It's 100% pure adrenaline! Enjoy! Download: 037 Point Break by Kathryn Bigelow

The king without a sword! A land without a king! In 1981 John Boorman directed probably the most successful King Arthur film adaption ever with his beautifully wrought Excalibur. Filmed entirely in Ireland with a host of nascent Irish film stars including Gabriel Byrne and Liam Neeson, Excalibur fleshes out a Dark Age Britain that never was. While its Shakespearean overtones fail to evoke a human story, Matt and Mark agree: that really isn't the point. This a cursory Cliff Notes of Malory's Arthur myth produced for a matinee audience. Watch with some popcorn and enjoy! Download: 036 Excalibur by John Boorman

A game designed to exhibit the futility of individualism? Released in 1975, Rollerball directed by Norman Jewison and starring James Caan obviously didn't predict the near future scourge of NFL touchdown spiking. Attempting to tease out its Ayn Rand message, Matt and Mark get mired in the films portrayal of a flawed and corrupt utopia/dystopia, determined to preserve its collectivist status quo. But the film may in fact be more of a personal story. Jonathan E. is a man (and an individual) whose going to do what he's going to do despite any pragmatic justification to the contrary. Download: 035 Rollerball (1975) by Norman Jewison

In space nobody can hear you laugh. Sadly, that seemed to be the case when John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon (the writer of Ridley Scott's classic Alien) released their debut film Dark Star to audiences in 1974. Despite its poor box office sales, Dark Star has since become a cult classic with its generous mix of existential absurdity and Kubrik-style satire, giving new meaning to the word "smart bomb." Instead of focusing on Carpenter, which we plan to do in a later podcast, Matt and Mark discuss the late O'Bannon, whose mark on cinema is significant. O'Bannon would go on to contribute to the aforementioned Alien, but also wrote the scripts for some of Hollywood's most successful Philip K Dick adaptions, including Total Recall and Screamers. Enjoy! Download: 034 Dark Star by John Carpenter

This week Matt and Mark review 1997's Waiting for Guffman by Christopher Guest. In the mockocumenteray genre he made famous with follow-ups Best in Show and A Mighty Wind, Guest blends ad-lib sketch and musical comedy into a film length feature. Mark explores the plight of the characters, while Matt attempts to overcome his cynicism in order to embrace their delusional yet sincere need to entertain. Both of us wonder, however, if Guest's stereotypical portrayal of gay Corky St. Clair won't be the equivalent of "black face" a few decades down the road. Enjoy!  Download: 033 Waiting for Guffman by Christopher Guest    

Breaking the first rule of Fight Club, we're talking about Fight Club this week. David Fincher serves up a nihilistic schizophrenic parable about the inherent paradox of masculinity and modern civilization. Viewing the film in middle-age may have tempered Matt and Mark's ideological reaction to the subject matter, but we definitely avoid the old man "grumpitude" of Roger Ebert's less then complimentary review. More of an 'amoral' film, FC paints nihilism in a dysfunctional and harsh light when compared to our current consumerist hypocrisy; neither an attractive option. Fight Club stars Edward Norton, Helen Bonham Carter, and Brat Pitt. Enjoy! Download: 032 Fight Club by David Fincher

Usurping reigning champion Citizen Kane as the "Best Film of All Time" according to the British Film Institute (and thankfully so), Matt and Mark review Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 masterpiece Vertigo, starring James Stewart and Kim Novak. With such a weighty title, we try to give this film its due. Mark cuts to the l'essence of Stewart's John "Scottie" Ferguson character by calling Scottie out for his nascent pimp-hand as his obsession warps him into a most diabolical Pygmalion. Doing what M.Night Shyamalan attempts but rarely succeeds at, Hitchcock pulls off one of movie history's famous twists. With a beautiful mid-century San Francisco as the backdrop, Vertigo has most definitely earned its BFI accolades. Enjoy! Download: 031 Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock    

With a body count of 307, John Woo serves up a bullet-ridden slice of Hong Kong action with his 1992 breakout Hard Boiled. Cast from the Dirty Harry mold, Chow Yun-Fat's Tequila, with his ATF-Waco style of police intervention, is a hardened cop with a vigilante sense of street justice. Matt and Mark find it odd Tequila's ability to escape multiple manslaughter charges despite his sloppy gun play, but to inject reality into HB would only detract from its charm. Downlaod: 030 Hard Boiled by John Woo

Unlike the depressing Cormac McCarthy adaption of The Road, 1991's Delicatessen is a a post-apocalyptic cannibal movie that caters to a wider audience. Jean-Pierre Jeunet would go on to direct The City of Lost Children and Amelie, garnering more praise for his Gilliam-esque style, but with Delicatessen he burnished his quirky chops with this off-beat cult classic. Matt and Mark attempt a deeper discussion regarding vegetarianism vs carnivorism, but instead get mired in the bizarre notions of cultural delicacies. Download: 029 Delicatessen by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

We indulge a little of Peter "Action" Jackson's earlier works this week on the podcast when we review his zombie comedy-horror film Dead Alive, released in 1993. Matt and Mark speculate how the Oscar winning director of the Lord of the Rings films got from homicidal rat-monkeys and zombie-babies to Gandalf and Frodo. Strangely, we come to the conclusion that it wasn't too great a leap. Emulating the style of Evil Dead director Sam Ramie, we're treated to splatter-fest of hilarious proportions. Enjoy! Download: 028 Dead Alive by Peter Jackson

Another means to keep the haves and the have-nots separate, or a Brave New World? Matt and Mark discuss the near-future world of Andrew Niccol's Gattaca, released in 1997, starring Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke, and Jude Law. Mark takes the libertarian transhumanist stand while Matt remains a bleeding heart skeptic. Is it human nature to defy human nature? The answer is probably yes. Enjoy! Download: 027 Gattaca by Andrew Niccol

WTF! This week we review the 1983 classic Risky Business by Paul Brickman, starring pre-Scientology Tom Cruise and the stunning beauty Rebecca De Mornay. With recent news of TomKat's newly announced divorce, we couldn't help but get sidetracked into the Tom Cruise enigma (always entertainment blog-fodder). But despite his couch-jumping strangeness, Cruise is a most excellent actor and delivers up a nuanced and efficient performance as the Princeton-bound Joel Goodson. With near perfect dialogue, Risky Business is an 80's teen movie that sets the bar incredibly high, casting shadows over all future films in the genre. Enjoy! Download: 026 Risky Business by Paul Brickman