Dear Graham: Recent Episodes
Adam Young
We reviewed the Nicholas Cage / Pedro Pascal movie from last year. Two besties talking about two besties! You are invited to be besties with us too.
Listen at your own risk, we spoil the whole movie here.
Adam watched Rebel Moon and told me about it. He did not like it. I drank a Whiskey Daisy! He drank water. After we finished recording he said "you were getting real vulgar today!" Then we recorded a different ending. See if you can find where we split it!
Inane conversation about a meaningless subject for about twenty minutes. Had a pretty good time recording it.
I saw someone say The Marvels was the worst superhero movie ever, and that's ridiculous. I'll now list some worse superhero movies: Joker. Aquaman. Thor: The Dark World. Thor: Love and Thunder. Thor: The first Thor.
We're back, bb! Adam and Amelia put aside their differences to reunite for their fans. We review the movie Bullet Train, available on Netflix. Spoiler: we had a terrific time!
I'm gonna level with you. I don't know if 34th Street is in this movie. Is it where the apartment is? Is it a major street in New York? I know New York is a grid system. It's very hard to get lost there.
This is a good movie. The dude playing Santa kills it.
In this Classic Movie and Classic Cocktail installment, we review the 1957 film Desk set. Spoiler: We love it!
We review the lesser of Meg Ryan's romcoms that heavily feature a soundtrack and references to classic movies, but Amelia still would.
SPOILERS FOR JAMES BOND: NO TIME TO DIE
We watched the new James Bond and ponder the future of the Bond franchise.
Adam and Amelia review THE Suicide Squad, the second pandemic movie we have seen. This is not an R rated podcast, though Amelia does very briefly discuss boobs. Buttholes also come up.
We sat down to talk about the movie Jungle Cruise, which is both bad and good. Listen to find out why. Also I watched Fear Street on Netflix. What a weird series of movies. We don't talk about that in this episode, it's just on my mind.
Adam reviews the terrible film New Mutants, which was many years in the making. Adam also tells his most recent best nap!
In this episode, we discuss Adam's new editing skills and the Disney+ Series Mighty Ducks Game Changers. This episode also features our newest segment, best naps. We are in need of more naps. Otherwise we'll make up some. Please send us best naps. Thank you Jorie for your nap, although you go uncredited in the podcast. It sounds like a good nap.
We reviewed the strangely anti union movie The Replacements, starring Keanu Reeves, Jon Favreau, and some other people. What a nonsensical blast! Also tune in for the debut of our new segment, Best Naps.
By sheer chance, we watch our second religious themed movie in a row, so I guess we're celebrating Lent (if in fact you're supposed to celebrate a person being trapped in the desert for 40 days and nights, if that happened to me and people celebrated it, I'd reevaluate how I've been treating people). There aren't nearly as many good Lent movies for us to watch completely by accident as Christmas movies. What's the Lenten version of Die Hard, for instance? Boondock Saints? No Alan Rickman, not nearly as fun.
Anyway, Keeping the Faith is another of the late '90s, early '00s movies that aren't really made anymore. At least not with several well known actors for wide theatrical release. Everything's very meta and self aware now (which is fine, we liked Deadpool almost as much as the theater full of 13 year olds who saw it with us did, but we liked it more than their horrified parents who clearly did not do their research before coming to that film), and sometimes it's nice to just sit down and watch a comedy that somehow takes itself very seriously and has Ben Stiller in it. Is it a good film? I wouldn't say that. Is it a bad film? Probably not. It's background noise. Sometimes it's nice to just have some background noise. You're doing something completely unrelated and you can look up and say "Wait, Edward Norton directed this? The guy from American History X? What is that guy's deal, anyway?" Or you can wonder why Jenna Elfman's career in film didn't really take off because she's totally fine in this, and then Wikipedia her and wonder just a little bit less.
To summarize, it's a solid film with some laughs, but the real laughs are the friends we made along the way.
We review Dogma, a movie that we love against our better instincts. We watched it again immediately after recording. Amelia says the F word repeatedly, just like in the movie.
We review the 2001 movie America's Sweethearts starring John Cusak, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Christopher Walken, Stanley Tucci, and more. Critics hated it, we (for the most part) liked it very much!
Adam, Amelia, and special guest Christopher review the classic of cinema The Princess Bride. Join as we discuss the plot, likes and dislikes, and recast the movie (starring ourselves!).
Recorded on time but released a week late, tune in to hear Adam and Amelia discuss the Jon Favreau film Chef, and also last week's Wanda Vision. I think. As I said, we recorded this a week ago.
Please enjoy this final installment of our Groundhog Day series, recorded the day before groundhog day and released two days after. Please also feel free to listen to it on repeat.
Adam and Amelia review the Tom Cruise/ Emily Blunt action movie Edge of Tomorrow, aka Live Die Repeat. Then they also chat about Wanda Vision and annoy each other.
We talk WandaVision episodes 1 and 2, and several Groundhog day films. But not the best groundog day films. Saving those for later.
We bring on two very special listeners to discuss upcoming films and also whether or not Dune is fascist propaganda, but that's pretty much all I remember and we don't have an answer for the second one.
Recorded on Dec. 28 so as to be released before NYE, but released after NYE because we forgot, join us for a sort of short discussion of A Holiday Affair (which we both very much enjoyed), plus Wonder Woman and Soul (one of which we enjoyed).
We continue to talk about Christmas movies this week, with a terrible Netflix film.
In this episode I was asked to name good Kurt Russell movies and I blanked, so I'm putting a list here:
Tango and Cash
Big Trouble in Little China
Sky High
The Thing
The Computer Who Wore Tennis Shoes (I've never seen this, but it's a guaranteed winner, title like that)
Happiest Season is the first of our Holiday films we watched. Amelia was lukewarm. I was warm. We're putting this episode out on a Wednesday because everything is chaos and days of the week are a social construct.
Logan Lucky is a good movie. Watch Logan Lucky. Especially with Hillbilly Elegy coming out recently, if you're going to watch one movie about Appalachia, make it this movie. This episode is brought to you by Daniel Craig in James Bond: No Time to Die.* If you see Daniel Craig and it looks like his eyes are screaming for help, what he's really saying is "please go see No Time to Die."
We received no money from No Time to Die, we're just excited Daniel Craig fans. If they want to pay us, though, we'll happily take their money. Except Daniel Craig's money. It's no good here.*
**Daniel Craig's money is no good here because he's British, and likely most of his money is in Pounds. We have concerns about the long term future of the Pound, and will therefore, not accept his money.
Hello! We reviewed the 1940 classic film The Philadelphia Story and also reviewed our drinks, a Pink Gin and a Hurricane! One of us liked our drink, the other did not, but we agreed on the movie. Shake up a cocktail and join us!
We are scheduling this episode in advance to come out the day before the 2020 US election, which is frightening. We loved this movie about protests and organizing but depending on the state of the nation we encourage all beloveds to listen to what their bodies need and do fluffy unimportant stuff if necessary (except unless you have not already VOTED in which case GO VOTE FRIENDS VOTE AGAINST TRUMP PLEASE and if you are considering voting for Trump please STAY HOME INSTEAD AND WATCH THIS MOVIE ON REPEAT UNTIL WEDNESDAY).
In this week's installment of Classic Movies and Classic Cocktails we watched The Haunting, after trying unsuccessfully to watch it some 6 years ago and getting too spooked.
We talk about Young Frankenstein, and ask what is acceptable in a comedy movie. Are we the people who should be deciding this? Yes. Or No. You decide. Are you the people who should be deciding that? Yes. Or no. We decide.
We attempted to cover a bunch of different Halloween things, to various degrees of success. We talk about those things in this podcast. We'll keep what those subjects are a mystery, not because we don't remember what they are, we definitely do, but because we just don't feel like saying them here.
This is a link we promised for one of those things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vwiRE0Drjk&list=PLpKhoKHxzdGJh_tkcsrMdZ4Mz5zFpgl7E
Are we putting podcasts out on Thursdays now? Or did we just forget to put this out 4 days ago. Who knows?
Nothing makes you appreciate Brendan Frasier like the 1932 version of The Mummy. It's no good. And not even in like a "well for the time it was impressive" way, it's just a struggle to watch. And yet Universal's tried to make universe of these monster films like 3 times since 2009.
Enola Holmes is good, watch that instead. Just a fun, easy to watch film.
Oh, and Machine Gun Kelly has a number 1 album and it's pop-punk? That's not in the podcast, I just don't understand how Machine Gun Kelly has a number 1 album that's pop-punk. That'd be like if they announced they were remaking Ghostbusters and Shia LaBeouf had been cast as Egon. That's fine I guess, but we all know he's more of a Venkman.
Anyway, here's a podcast.
Let's take a second and talk about how ridiculously well Robert Redford and Jane Fonda have aged. You've got two people who are ridiculously good looking at a young age, sure they're probably statistically more likely to be ridiculously good looking throughout their lives, but you're rolling the dice here. Val Kilmer, there's a guy who was ridiculously good looking as a young guy. Top Gun, whatever Batman he was in (I know it was Batman Forever, get off my back Jim Carrey), he was doing pretty well. But then he rolled snake eyes (is that how craps works? How do/does craps work? People always play craps in movies and they seem to shout out completely random numbers but everyone at the table knows what the table needs, it's gibberish to me) and he's present Val Kilmer: a guy who despite his tracheotomy says prayer cured his cancer. I don't wanna step on anyone's beliefs here, but... well...
Anyway, we recorded this like two weeks ago and realized we'd never put it out. Barefoot in the Park. It's solid.
Hooray for guests! Meghan and Bill joined us (social distance style) to chat about Arsenic and Old Lace while sipping some bubbly.
On this week's episode of Dear Graham, we talk about all of the things mentioned in the title!
We watched "An American Pickle" so you don't have to. But if you want to, you'll see lots of shots of Pittsburgh, including the spot we buy beer. But not too much beer, Mom and Dad. An acceptable amount. How much is an acceptable amount? Well, if you square the hypotenuse on the equilateral triangle, you'll arrive at your answer of 1 7/8ths.
*I have no idea what I'm even saying in these write ups anymore. Buy my product.
Adam and Amelia review the 2009 movie adaptation of the acclaimed 1980s graphic novel Watchmen. It was not their favorite.
Ummm... it's an all time classic children's movie. We talk about it.
Look, frankly I'm running out of things to say in these descriptions.
But I'll leave you with this word problem: I can paint a house in 5 hours, you can paint it in 3, how long does it take us to paint it together?
One of us accidentally subscribed to the DC Comics streaming service. Did you know DC Comics had a streaming service? Based on their revenue you haven't, but there's actually some decent stuff on there. Not enough for $7.99 a month, but some decent stuff.
Anyway, this episode is about the animated Harley Quinn show. It's good. You should watch it. But not for $7.99 a month, that would be an insane price point for a streaming service like this. Update: this show is moving to HBO Max on August 1st. Marked explicit because it's explicit.
We talk about the '90s film My Cousin Vinny, which tells the story of a mid level lawyer struggling with his own limitations in the harsh face of stardom.
OR it's a story about a low level lawyer who's struggling with his own limitations in the harsh face of court. It's really a tossup.
Adam and Amelia voyage interstate for this live review for Graham! Many thanks to Rachel for suggesting the movie and cohosting.
In our first ever $50 tier sponsorship, we reviewed Cheech and Chong: Up in Smoke as requested. You will note that our sponsor did not pay enough to be in the next tier up, or we would have said that we liked it. Join us for this (classic?) stoner romp.
This is the first in a possible series of films we'll talk about and drink about. Have any recommendations? Send them to us. Our email is in the show. (It is NOT in the show.)
Jorie thinks Paul Rudd shouldn't be able to find happiness. It's a controversial opinion, and one we here at Dear Graham do NOT endorse. We're pro Paul Rudd finding happiness.
This podcast is about Bend it Like Beckham, but given the timing, we felt it was important to say the following:
We recorded this podcast 2-3 weeks ago, before the deaths of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, and before Christian Cooper was accosted in Central Park. We don’t talk about any of this in this episode because of the when it was recorded but after recent events we at Dear Graham feel the need to make it clear that we believe Black lives matter, trans lives matter, and institutionalized racism exists in the United States and needs to be dismantled. We condemn police acts of violence against black and brown bodies. We encourage our listeners to join us in acknowledging and dismantling our own internalized racism, engage in our communities, and donate to causes which support these and other true and just goals, including but not limited to the following: local bailout funds, local Black Lives Matter groups, Bend The Arc (Jewish action), and the fundraisers for the families of George Floyd, Amaud Arbery and others murdered by the state and by white supremacy.
Adam presents a list of movies about war and Amelia was pleasantly surprised by how much she was interested! We tried to go with movies that were as non jingoistic as we could and that glorified warfare or the military as little as possible. This episode is scheduled to come out on Memorial Day, a somber holiday, so we didn't make jokes like we often do. Amelia said "trajection" in the last minute of the episode but that is not a word, and she meant trajectory.
We had not looked up how to access any of the movies so here are some that are on various streaming services:
The Great Escape: Amazon Prime
Stalag 17: Amazon Prime
Inglourious Basterds: Netflix
At the time this podcast comes out, it looks like you have to rent the rest of them.
Amelia's off attempting the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, so we'll have to check in with her next week. Adam just rants about Star Wars movies for 12 minutes. It's bad. He would encourage not listening.
Recorded on April 16, Amelia reviews a radio program released on the week of recording that will certainly not be available to Graham by the time the episode is released. She uses the F word twice to express her disdain for the song "Wagon Wheel." Join us!
We talk about the classic film Josie and the Pussycats. I'm not sure exactly where you can find it (we paid for it) but I'd be willing to bet if you wait another ten years it'll be on Turner Classic Movies. I have a rule about TCM that if a movie doesn't have 4 stars, I'm not watching it. I think everyone should embrace that rule. Who has time for a 3 star movie from 1945? Not this guy.
The title's a lie. We don't really talk about Olaf's Frozen Adventure. But I bet that sucked you in. You want to hear about Olaf's Frozen Adventure. Well this episode will give you a little tease. Just a little taste of Olaf's Frozen Adventure. If you want the rest, you'll have to come back every week, and then one day we'll sneak it in there, but the episode title will be something you won't expect, like "Josie and the Pussycats." We do talk about Frozen and Frozen 2 though. And we recorded it long distance with Graham and Rachel over the phone, so expect poor audio quality. Graham uses the F word to express their love of Olaf's Frozen Adventure, so don't listen with your kids unless your kids are adults.
Adam talks about a movie he saw 13 years ago, hasn't seen since, and only has a passing recollection of. If you're looking for an in depth, smart discussion of this movie, this is not the podcast for you. Also we talk about Antonio Bandaras a lot, because he's a good, underrated actor. He's not in this movie. We just like him. We hope you do too.
Amelia reviews the Amazon Prime movie Troop Zero for Adam, who has not seen it. She particularly focuses on how the movie ends so if you want to not know how the movie ends before you watch it, best not to listen. Amelia had a great time both watching the movie and telling Adam about it. Adam would not have a good time watching the movie and awards it zero stars.
We recorded this a week ago and then forgot to schedule it. The title of this movie is way too long. A rare occurrence of actual drinking on the podcast, it will not happen again.
We're self isolating, so we watched The Natural, starring Robert Redford. It's a good (and according to Amelia, goofy) movie. You should watch it.
We asked a sampling of our listeners (read: Amelia's family) to ask us some questions so that our fan base can Get To Know Us. Find out the long awaited answers to questions including: What are ya drinking? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Can the next Charlie's Angels movie possibly be as good as the latest one?
Amelia's out of town, but I was tasked with putting out an episode anyway. Listen to me ramble for 12 minutes on a topic few people care about. I promise Amelia will be back next week.
We welcome back our most frequent guest, Jorie, who brings a love of the Muppets unmatched by either host. Also Adam is still sick. Send him thoughts and prayers. Or medicine. We'll see which is more effective. So far the Jorie* is out on medicine.
*jury
The first ever Dear Graham Live* Episode! We watch the Oscars Red Carpet and talk about our picks. Also we're sick so we cough a lot.
Each Dear Graham is recorded Live in front of a studio audience*
**Studio audience is often an annoyed cat.
Graham and Rachel stopped by to talk about their most anticipated films of 2020. Well really Adam's, because he put the list together. But they react to his list. This episode is super long. And there's swearing. But if you want to know what comes out in 2020, this is our list of those movies.
It's every movie we saw in theaters this year... including movies from 2018 if we saw them this year. That's a little loophole for us there. There's also a bunch of recency bias in this. But we don't care. This is our season finale, we'll be back at it at some point in 2020. When? We don't know. Sponsor an episode, we'll come back then.
*This episode brought to you by Bill and Meghan Young
**This is our first explicit episode. Amelia wants it known that it's not R rated, because she only says the F-word once
After listening to this episode, let Adam know if you have any idea what the plot of a wish for wings that work is. The rest of the episode is other Christmas movies that you probably know the plot of.
Amelia and Adam review (for a bit) the second Jumanji film, then get distracted by how great Joan Cusack* is.
*She does not appear in this film.
Amelia and Adam are fighting. Nah we're not. Or are we? Anyway, we talk about the new Charlie's Angels. Amelia liked it, Adam did not. Enjoy the banter get slightly more aggressive toward the end.
Amelia and Adam go over Adam's ranking of animated Disney Villains. Amelia reacts with the disdain she has for all things Disney. But both our heroes still had a good time.
We watched the 2006 romance "Just Like Heaven," which opens with a bad cover of the title track and stays on that level pretty much throughout. We had an alright time. We had a great time doing this podcast. Amelia wants everyone to be aware of Scooby Doo's real name, even though she gets it wrong. She knows she gets it wrong. She does not care.
We review Untitled Goose Game. Spoiler: One of us loves it. We also talk a bit about Zombieland 2 but Amelia is pretty checked out by that point because she remembered she has to bake something for work tomorrow.
We round out Halloween by watching the movie It, two years after it initially came out. Amelia was spooked, Adam didn't get the hype.
Amelia and Adam review the outstanding '90s witch film Practical Magic, staring the incomparable Stockard Channing. Also Academy Award winners Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. We like it. Adam's mom is also a big fan, as Amelia makes very clear.
Adam's note: We looked up more about Dianne Wiest after this recording, and it turns out she was in the Lost Boys. Not sure how we missed that. Either wiest, we'll try to remember who she is when we start our spinoff podcast "Boy Woody Allen's Movie's Sure Make Me Uncomfortable Now."
As an additional side note, Dianne Wiest has won 2 Academy Awards for her work in Woody Allen films. She wasn't nominated for her role in the Lost Boys, which, in our opinion, must have been some sort of clerical error. That's a joke because she's pretty bad in the Lost Boys.
Fair warning: This movie does not contain Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, but if he were in it, he'd probably play the main love interest, and frankly the film would be better for it. If he played like a third Aunt or something I'd be cool with that too.
Adam, Amelia, and special guest Jorie review the Sleepy Hollow episode of Wishbone! Wishbone: Jack Russell terrier, literature enthusiast, womanizer.
Amelia thinks Peter Frampton directed The Lost Boys. Classic stuff. Either way, we're kicking off Halloween month with a glittery bang.
Amelia and Adam spoil Big Trouble in Little China. One liners. Racism. Gracie Law. This movie has everything.
We just got back from San Francisco. We're sick. We're tired. We're sick of being sick and tired. We haven't watched this movie recently and Adam thought he remembered way more of it than he actually does. But he's very sure that Sean Connery is James Bond.
Errata: The famous librarian's name is Nancy Pearl; Amelia mistakenly mentioned Stephanie Pearl, who is a famous knitter (Stephanie Pearl McPhee)
We review the 1984 (maybe) cult-classic Streets of Fire. It has a good soundtrack. It's not a good movie. It's also not a terrible movie. As always, spoilers abound. If you're afraid of being spoiled for a 35 year old movie, don't listen. If you're Michael Pare, whose name Amelia can't pronounce, don't listen.
Hi Graham! This podcast is for your ears only. It's about Fast and Furious Presents: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Jason "Not the Rock" Statham punch each other for a bit and then they're family forever. Spoilers abound because Amelia only recaps the last 30 minutes of the movie.