Movie Meltdown - Episode 191

If you thought we got nostalgic in the past - just wait 'til you hear this episode! Basically, anyone who ever grew up loving movies needs to hear this week's show. As we return to our series The Grind, we cover the topic... movies that touched us in a very special way. Ok wait, not like that! More or less what we discuss is: the first movie that just clicked with us and because of that viewing, we saw movies differently. Or... what made us fall in love with the whole idea of film and inadvertently made us into a movie geek. It's a big question, and it leads to some pretty amazing memories!  

And somewhere during all the sugary nostalgia, we also mention... the 4 o'clock movie, old weird cartoons, archeological movie recreations, snake handling, in our neighborhood... it was legendary, dinosaurs, Friday night movies at school, only paying a quarter for the movie, the projectionist had to get on the mic, the era of the airbrush, the clerk at the video store recommended..., you would plan your whole year around watching that movie, we just had to abandon the house..., the mystery of how it was being done, monkey love scene, traumatizing your child, recording them on VHS and watching them on Saturday mornings, the Panini stickers book, I think my parents thought I was just wasting time, being afraid of something on the TV screen, stop-motion, destroying rednecks, showing the National Anthem, Bantha Tracks, giant spiders, when I first got a VCR, the VW covered in fur, caring about a monster, running serials, The CBS Friday Night Movie, the communal aspect, movies about hair stylists, not everyone finds it funny, the romance of VHS, Roscoe Lee Browne, reading the holy tomes, the perfect desert color, ...it was playing on TNT, playing cartoons, it's a very freakish movie, cell phone jammers, being made fun of for seeing a movie, Super Scary Saturdays, infested with brown recluses, Leo G. Carroll, the "making of" book, Harryhausen, recreating the experience of a Saturday matinee, guys in make... how did they do that?, we were supposed to be watching this together!, Memories of Monsters, the South Park Drive-in, I watched that movie, a hundred times..., childhood tape recorder podcasts, this is scary but it's cool, hitting a kid for not appreciating classic films, hey mom, why don't you get more pantyhose, inventing marketing for movies, De Laurentiis, TV as it used to be, making movies an event for your kids, souvenir programs, you have to be a certain age... to understand this, obsession among the next generation, it's kind of cooler in black and white daddy, and that weird kid that used to come in the video store.  

"These are all stories that we tell each other all the time... just the grip that movie has had on our lives."

Movie Meltdown - Episode 190

All right kids... put on your space helmets, because we are about to blastoff with Luigi Cozzi's science fiction "classic" - STARCRASH! Epic outer space action ensues as we indulge in all the stellar special effects and fine acting that 1978 Italy had to offer!  Plus we feature a "One from the Vaults" memory from the (Stella) Star of the movie - Caroline Munro herself! Hear what Caroline thinks is a great "word" to describe this film. And what she first though when she saw her very special outer space costume!  All that plus the early acting skills of a young David Hasselhoff, the villainous cape-whipping of Joe Spinell, the over-powering futuristic hair of Marjoe Gortner and a career-making performance from none other then Oscar-winner Christopher Plummer!!  

So venture into the TechniColor stars with us as we also mention... the ubiquitous space wedgie, Ray Harryhausen, watching movies with Roger Corman, a planet of scantily-clad women, Jason and the Argonauts, a 70's bowling trophy, Rock-a-doodle, chewing the scenery, zipping up your spacesuit, Michael Bolton, Ming the Mericiless, the location scout, there's a fish in the percolator, Gizmo Duck, computers in '78, The Neverending Story 2, Piranaha DD, young Lily Tomlin in space, stairs or the fireman's pole?, The Brave Little Toaster, nervous robots, Scorsese in space!, beating Lucas to the punch, the first time I remember noticing product placement, porn without the sex, Willie Aames, that is no way to make a dildo, All Dogs Go to Heaven, robot chauvinism, space popped collar and robots with pirate swords.

Spoiler Alert: You don't want to ruin this fine film... go watch "Starcrash" before listening. 

"If 2001 made you feel like you were in space. This movie made you feel like, you were in someone's basement." 

  "...But it's an awesome basement!"

Movie Meltdown - Episode 189

This week we discuss hobos and what we see out the window... oh yeah, and movies.

Speaking of segways, we also mention... the Sight & Sound Top Ten poll, paper or plastic?, Lizzy Caplan, drugged-up movie reviews, show me the way to go home, Hitchcock, how beautiful the late 70's were, Oddities, talking like Sean Connery, Monster Fighters, Punch Drunk Love, reading reviews, BASEketball, Vertigo, Samurai Night Fever, Lean on Me, Jaws, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Paul Thomas Anderson, Mean Girls, Rocky, Bottle Rocket, hobo names that are now available, Anthony Hopkins, The Sopranos, Black Dynamite, How I Met Your Mother, LEGO, silent films, Saturday Night Fever, Piranha, pickeled pigs, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Ed Sullivan, Breaking Bad, Rebel without a Cause... with disco, comparing scars, Empire Magazine, Deadwood, getting really analytical about Pootie Tang, Riding in Cars with Capotes, American Beauty, hanging out with your boss, having a bindle, Across the Universe, the Red Dawn remake, Bane, a rock climbing "incident", Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, pound for pound worth more then gold, and Movie Meltdown - The podcast you MUST listen from the beginning!!

Spoiler Alert: Random spoilers for Breaking Bad and The Dark Knight Rises. 

"There's a hobo living in my tree!"

Movie Meltdown - Episode 188

Unlock the cage and let loose the beast that we know as Tom Hardy! Yes, we are back this week with not-so-special guest (according to Scooter) co-hosts director Scooter Downey and actress Rose Sirna!! As they sit in for this week’s Sofa Theater feature: Bronson. Both the star Tom Hardy and director Nicolas Winding Refn have gone on these days to more mainstream success. So we take a look at their work just before they broke through, with this story about Britain's most notorious prisoner - Charles Bronson.

And as we do our best to destroy Rose’s innocence,  we also mention... Eskimo cookies, Thief, Billy Bob Thornton, if two hobbits had a baby, Fellini-vibe, reshoots, real life vs. cinematic interpretation, preparing you to be a drone, so Kevin Kline without being Kevin Kline, a mental picture of Rush Limbaugh, Ashton Kutcher, nihilistic and godless, Clean Shaven, Dominic Monaghan, movie stereotypes, The Fonz, Lost, breaking the fourth wall, Citizen Kane, getting in trouble in high school, Topher Grace, Sling Blade, Juan Mata, James Caan, the guy with the tennis racket, Raging Bull, being educated by movies and existential formaldehyde.

Spoiler Alert: Go watch “Bronson” before listening to this episode.

“It’s like Looney Tunes meets A Clockwork Orange or something?”

For more on Scooter and Rose’s movie go to: http://www.itsinthebloodthemovie.com/

Movie Meltdown - Episode 187

After a couple of months of jonesin’ for both coffee and our usual brand of movie geek conversation, we return to the coffee shop for a full-fledged episode of The Caffeinated Movie Geek! WITH special guest co-hosts director Scooter Downey and actress Rose Sirna!!

And while reminiscing over some favorite VHS memories, we eventually discuss... Batman Returns, John Vernon, Friends with Kids, setting a Zoomba world record, The Professional, Step in Time, a mermaid that turned out to be a drug mule, worst Vice-President ever, smutty but heartwarming, Mila Kunis, Pulp Fiction, Jaws, Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman, Breaking Bad, Junior, Blue Velvet, John Forsythe, Don’t Look in the Basement, Mary Poppins, Happy Together, Bewitched, John Carpenter, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, Tim Curry, Nazis at the Center of the Earth, riding a segway, Zach and Miri, Wizard People, Dear Reader, Phantom of the Opera, Topaz, Beverly D'angelo, Doc Hollywood, Adam West, W. Earl Brown, cheap date romance preserve, Friends with Herpes, Saving Private Ryan, Neil Jordan, Pete’s Dragon, Patrick Dempsey, Robin Williams, Laser Cats, Adam Scott, old-school technology upgrades, and Nolan’s Batman vs. Burton’s Batman.

“The best things in life have got to be hidden... like nazis at the center of the Earth.”

For more on Scooter and Rose’s movie go to: http://www.itsinthebloodthemovie.com/