Movie Meltdown - Episode 174

This week we have the mandatory discussion every movie geek has to have about... The Avengers. Once we’ve fulfilled the Marvel/Joss conversation quota, we move into this week’s installment of The Grind. There we address the topic "Disappointments", and what happens when you get your hopes up about a movie, and it doesn’t deliver.  

And for one reason or another we get around to... The Hunger Games, Wes Anderson, Congo, Rubber, Twilight, singing for bears, Spun, The Wolfman, Jarhead, Pete Postlethwaite, mission-based movie, Meatloaf on a saxaphone, media and relationships, the Mission: Impossible series, Charles Dance, James Bond, Jim Carrey, Sucker Punch, loved 35mm prints, darker superheroes, Indiana Jones, The Blair Witch Project, War of the Worlds, Melancholia, Super Mario Bros., Revolutionary Road, the Alien series, movie fever-dreams, Men in Black, Werewolf Lawyers, Series 7, Steven Spielberg, Beginners, Superman Returns, ape movies, Spider-man, The Bread My Sweet, Frankenstein, Harry Potter, The Clone Wars, a gaggle of girls in the lobby, Jack Bauer, American Beauty, Paul Thomas Anderson, Dan Hedaya, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The X-Files, shaky camerawork, hang around after the credits, Huck Finn, werewolves with fanny packs, YA Lit., Road to Perdition, Drive, I know I had a Zappa record and... do you wanna see my probe droid?

“Everyone’s logic was... well it wasn’t that bad. I’m like... but it wasn’t that good.”

Movie Meltdown - Episode 173

It's a Super CreepFest including... flying babies, they keep finding interesting ways to keep beating that dead horse, Carnage, putting your head in an oven, Valhalla Rising, evil kids, Ninja Turtles with zombies, not your typical bigfoot movie, Christoph Waltz, The Anniversary Party, Hostel, Tilda Swinton, Thunderstruck!, cartoon blood, Kermit hosting The Tonight Show, children are evil, claustrophobic and tedious, Crab Man, Hard Eight, Norway comedians, Becoming Elmo, rooting for the War Horse, Philip Baker Hall, Orphen, if you like to pretend like you’re in New York, John C. Reilly, Ving Rhames, Picasso's Guernica, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jay Leno, My Boyfriend's Back, Troll Hunter, Portlandia, Roman Polanski, Phoebe Cates, We Need to Talk About Kevin, George W. and Bigfoot, the Forrest Gump of horses, Joshua, zombie Easter bunny, a bigfoot hunter’s convention, more on Bugsy Malone and Roxanne... you don’t have to wear that dress tonight!

“All you have to be is undead... and you’re doing it wrong!”

Movie Meltdown - Episode 172

Well... there's not much else to say... except - ZARDOZ!!! So start listening...

But amongst all of the insanity, we also bring up... Jiro Dreams of Sushi, the tabernacle scene, floating heads, half the audience was high, The Exorcist 2, Mulholland Drive, what will the afterlife be like?, a brilliant Monty Python sketch, Star Trek, Titus, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Planet of the Apes, nude photographs of Burt Reynolds, everything but the kitchen sink, James Bond, green bread, Kenneth Branagh, man diaper, Aladdin, religion, The Man with the Golden Gun, Men in Black, a Zardoz hot air balloon, sci fi themes, The Lady from Shanghai, wrestling grandma, inflatables by..., Darby O'Gill, Deliverance, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Doomsday, George Lucas, The Time Machine, Wild Wild West, killed by The Full Monty, Enter the Dragon, Wizard of Oz, hairy Connery, a movie having legs, an unnecessary wedding dress, Jack Kirby, Electric Zardoz, Princess Leia, riding horses, Krypton, The Avengers, Jonestown, DVD vs. theatrical, Excalibur, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and The Lord of the Rings meets The Beatles.

Spoiler Alert: Just watch "Zardoz" before listening... then you'll understand (well, sort of).

"What the hell did I just watch?! You just watched Zardoz."

Movie Meltdown - Episode 171

This week we welcome special guest co-host comedian Alysia Wood. Listen as we discuss comedy, movies, and lots of other amazing tangents including... a brain is a noodle, genetically Texan, shark infested waters, Louisiana, do we have to be nice to people?, draining all your spinal fluid, on Codine for three weeks, Magnolia, and now there’s mice, Seattle, collecting all the phones, potato soup with rubber chunks, bargain dental work, Louisville, explaining how jokes work, doing meth with a medical background?, Los Angeles, wearing a bulletproof vest, drinking eight glasses of water, Hot for Teacher, making fun of mom, jumping qualities of education, there’s a lot of ellipsis, fat ugly or gay, Lewis and Clark, Jaws, ballet, Verizon suits, love comedy... hate jokes, laughing at the poet, a TSA training video, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, vibrating and punching you in the crotch, dying of lung cancer, spoofing bad 70’s action flicks, Bar-B-Q, a women’s health care provider, Arachnophobia, studying comedy, Botox, Dangerous, ADD, jump scares, riches to rags, racist in the name of Jesus, necessary awkward silence, Draw Something, shady deals, jumping from the balcony, boys picking on girls, a deeper layer of honesty, failing Spanish,do not tell your mother, hitting the Blockbuster, ziplining, Mad Max, come out of the closet or get plastic surgery, planning for debt, a nuclear thunder clap, attempting to move to New York, cocksucker was not on the list, you ruin everything, pity laugh, Cracker Jack modeling, Mitch Hedberg, Netflix, Hopatcong New Jersey, street jokes, you’re just a hooker, Titanic, and I never started it... but I’ll fucking finish it!

“Neurosis is definitely a big piece of the puzzle.”

Plus look for Alysia’s CD “Princess” available on iTunes, Amazon and many other outlets. Just go to http://princesswood.com for links to her album, upcoming tour dates, and that fancy multi-tiered mailing list.

Movie Meltdown - Episode 170

This week we tackle a juggernaut of the film world... TAXI DRIVER. A movie that has massively worked it’s way into the pop culture. But in re-watching it, we realize the bad-ass and cool associations it has today, may be misguided. So we try to dig in and see what’s really going on with the film and the character of Travis Bickle.

And while planning our trip to Harry Dean Stanton Fest, we also mention... Emma Stone, the guy from The Strokes selling you guns, ...and we got stuck with Molly Ringwald, Scorsese from above, Lexington Film League, Ally Sheedy, The Last Picture Show, How I Met Your Mother, for every generation there is a redhead, Keitel super powers, morbid self attention, The Madison Dance, sleeping with Elvis, a mix between The Wire and Sesame Street, subconsciously sabotaging yourself, studying the movements of a crab, Super, a man OF the system, Bugsy Malone, A Band Apart, Moonlighting, closer to Britney Spears then Sid Vicious, the creepiest thing you’ve ever seen, the returning Vietnam veteran, and are movies responsible for the way they are perceived??

Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t seen Taxi Driver yet, you need to realize how much you are just like the others... cold and distant.  

“This is just the perfect storm of cinema.”

Travis Meltdown artwork by Amy Wiedl. She is available for commissioned work, so e-mail her at: amywiedl@gmail.com

Movie Meltdown - Episode 169

This week, the gloves (and the earrings) come off as we prepare to do battle with The Thing! In this, The Thing Super Special, we address things all Thing-related including our Sofa Theater feature: The Thing (2011) as well as how it relates to The Thing (1982), The Thing from Another World and the novella “Who Goes There?”. Including comments on...the clothes question, selective memory, Tom Woodruff Jr., the darkness of The Thing, Howard Hawks, “Who Can it be Now?”, blowtorches in the Antarctic, the Brad Pitt of Norway, a super-nice military, traffic in the Antarctic, fighting the cycle of remakes... and the REAL reason you can’t trust The Thing. (P.S. - Just a note... let the credits play on The 2011 Thing.)

And while we cover several new and better ways to watch the Star Wars prequels, we also discuss... Inserts, a thinner Bob Hoskins, klaus kinski as a condiment, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the right time to introduce your kids to your favorite movies, Jessica Harper, Berkley needs her medication, NCIS, Malfoy in stage age make-up, a businessman is evil, The X-Files, having Topher Grace re-edit your movie, my discourse on Leadbelly and grits, the two-part breakdown of Richard Dreyfuss’s career, Tarantino, stupid things white people do, Veronica Cartwright, planet of the kittens, Aliens vs. Predator, pulling up in front of the house and honking the horn, bursting into song, Windows, a triple entendre, putting a lot of letters together that don’t go together, piercing your dogs ear, graphic, loving Showgirls, the nicest world ever depicted in film, beetle orgy, watching Batman each week on TV, we need an enemy from the outside, like Newman in Basic Instinct, killing myth, hot pie charts, the ancient conflict between graduate students and scientists, homemade pizza and The Muppets, getting bored with nudity, Thor is a closetfest, Fez as a detective, and talking smack about Firefly... just don’t do it.

Spoiler Alert: Spoilers for things all Thing-related such as... The Thing (2011), The Thing (1982), The Thing from Another World and the novella “Who Goes There?”. You have been warned.

“There should be more action pictures about grad students.”

Movie Meltdown - Episode 168

This episode... The Hunger Games, rooms full of giggling Eskimos, Bill Moseley, Jaws, what’s up with rich kung-fu knowing vampires, erotic cartoons, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2, Police Capt. Hook, David Lynch tells you about dental hygiene, the 30th anniversary of the Summer of ‘82, Salvador Dali, Alice in Wonderland: The Adult Musical, non-mutant Huck Finn, Home Improvment in a wilderness store, Troll Hunter, Creature Comforts, Jennifer Lawrence, Pan, Adrien Brody, Rango, Flesh Gordon, Shut Up Little Man, soccer moms, Teenage Alien Ninja Turtles, laughter canneries, The Big Sleep, maybe too intense for some viewers, my favorite thing Nicolas Cage ever said..., covert anti-feminist propaganda, you don’t mess with Ashley Judd!, making the sports noises, Barbie is like Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction, porn talk, caller number four you’re on the air, drunken history videos, my life’s goal... to steal a pizza, The Pillow Book, I’m pro-popcorn!, the Groundhog Day factor, Barbie’s acting resume, Joanna Cassidy, Brett Ratner...didn’t I go to high school with him?, Julie Adams, A Zed and Two Noughts, more on the David Lynch coffee commercial... and cookies. Lots and lots of cookies.

“They teach kung fu in hell don’t they?”

Movie Meltdown - Episode 167

This week we return to Green Room Coffee and Espresso and we’ll need all the caffeine to help us focus on figuring out this week’s movie. By special request, we were asked to try to decide exactly what was happening in the 2011 film “Kill List”. It is...well-made, disturbing, confusing and will more then likely bring about an initial WTF reaction. But with more thought and discussion, can we in fact decide what the hell we just watched??

And while we try to decide if we are discussing the movie OR helping finish write the movie, we also mention... True Grit, a picture of a world, Kurosawa, The Atheist Channel, Curse of the Demon, The Apartment Trilogy, The Crusades, the Cohen Brothers, Diane Ladd, a demon interior decorator, the stereotypical dark side of a librarian, Spaced, what the fuck was that polar bear about?, The Devil’s Daughter, can we just say the filmmaker is wrong?, House of the Devil, Shelly Winters, Rosemary’s Baby, the actress’s Twitter page, cultural mania, naked extras, Dreams, The Wicker Man, Burn Witch Burn, compartmentalized government, organized religion, The Ladykillers, I think your dead dad is really beautiful, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, ironic laughing, by the time you are Richard Gere - you know you’ve lost it all, and trying to alienate every movie-goer in the world!

Spoiler Alert: Seriously, you HAVE to see “Kill List” BEFORE listening to the episode. So get to it...

“...here the ambiguity is kind of amorphous, it could be all kinds of different directions. Where it invites you to like, Mad Lib your own version of the movie.”

Movie Meltdown - Episode 166

This week, we do in fact... talk about movies. And, at a coffee shop. That’s right The Caffeinated Movie Geeks mix things up a little this week, as we convene for our first caffeinated session at Green Room Coffee & Espresso Bar. There we meet our host Allen and continue with our usual level of movie geekery.  

And while we figure out our individual orgin stories, we also mention... a traumatic head injury and a Hillary Duff concert, Alphaville, motorcycle gang movies, John Carter, Dwayne “Not the Rock” Johnson, hipsters laughing at you, Anonymous, Russian Ark, David Lynch public service announcements, Wrath of the Titans, Hugo, narrated by a ghost, meet the man who runs the Nicolas Cage costume, Mr. Popper's Penguins, heroin chic, Tom Hardy, Jules Verne spinning in his grave, Aubrey Plaza, Anna Karenina, Jonathan Rhys Meyers vs. Jonathan Rhys-Davies, Sterotype Estates, the future of Back to the Future 2, hipsters moving in... there goes the neighborhood, Gnomeo and Juliet 2, Christopher Lloyd IS Venom, SyFy Channel presents..., Fat Dylan, Roland Emmerich, missing Halloween and peppermint candies, Hillary Duff IS Hillary Swank, not a fan people, the little funny-looking guy in Deuce Bigalow and the heavy kid from SuperBad, Reanimator, Journey 3, just put a Manson cover in your trailer and... someone needs to finish their cookie.

“It’s got CGI, you don’t need acting.”

For more on Green Room Coffee & Espresso Bar, go to:  http://www.greenroomcoffee.com/

Movie Meltdown - Episode 165 (aka: "Greg Makes Sex Sound Disgusting")

The fourth annual Oscar Meltdown party rages on as we enjoy crack... which leads to sex talk. Weird... but then again, maybe those go together just fine. And by the time we get to the “love ewe” discussion... well, after four years of this, you’d think there would be no way we could push the envelope further into the realm of bad taste. And yet... midway into that segment, even I thought... “I can’t believe we are having THIS conversation.” These are the things that crack leads to. Just say no kids...just say no.   

We also discuss the Oscar-caliber film “Creature” starring (extended cameo) Klaus Kinski as a lovable space perv. The movie also feature thunderstorms in space, Ferris Bueller’s dad, Simone from “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” and a cosmic creature that studied with Sanford Meisner. Plus we continue awarding The Foilers for the finest cinematic moments of 2011.  

And while we discuss the special ways we care about Rosario Dawson, we also discuss... Midnight in Paris, Land of the Lost was from 2009, seeing other people’s apartments, Invader Zim, naked chicks in space, ads on Facebook, is she wearing poison ivy on her boobs?, getting nothing from Michelle Williams, talking animals movies, The Help, black Woody Allen, Norm Macdonald, for some reason... having women actually be interested in you, living in a breadtruck, Amber Heard, Zookeeper, a west coast fumble, Bobby Brown, OCD sex, being a Nazi, Sinbad’s socks, space pegboard and dryer-vent tubing, meta snaky comments, one more reason Gonzo is awesome, best extra award, Attack the Block, Drive Angry, attractive young actresses and... if Justin Beiber were a football player AND ultra-right-wing Christian.

Foiler Alert: We totally discuss all the goings on of the 1985 movie “Creature”, but as one of the gang says... “And there’s no spoiler-alert, because it’s not fucking possible to spoil this movie.”

“ I mean I thought it was crazy that that was even nominated for best picture. I mean... come on.”