NinetyForChill dot Com - The Podcast: Recent Episodes
Russ Stevens
We do not always have the time for a two-hour movie. No one ever wants to sit down and watch a one-hour TV drama knowing that they might not be able to stick around for an entire second episode. With this said, 90-minutes (perhaps 75, maybe 99) is the ideal runtime. This concise time has given us some of the most rewatchable movies that may not win any Academy Awards, but are properly fun-sized for the audience. That is what NinetyForChill.com is all about, the fun-sized sweets be it experimental terror, outlandish horror, over-the-top action, or the most radical comedies and dramas. Your host Russ Stevens and his friends chat about the movies that require few cuts to put on basic cable when it comes to fitting into a two-hour time slot and embrace all the craziness that the censors will need to bleep or blur.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
It is never too late to start the New Year. Some people hope to just get out of their comfort zone. That is the goal of Brandy Stonum, or should we call her HappyBeebsMeowMeow.
With a Twitch handle like that, watching a movie where a feline plays a big role seemed perfect. So CatBusRuss was able to bend the rules of the podcast a bit, Han Solo style, and allowed Henry Selick's Neil Gaiman adaptation, "Coraline", be the focus of the show.
CatBusRuss has been trying to get one of his best Champaign/Urbana pals onto the podcast since about the inception of the show. The two chat about and have watched movies in each other's company over the past couple of years, so he thought content would come naturally. Our host thought the biggest issue was just finding a movie to fit the parameters of the pod, but people can just be nervous about putting themselves out there.
This was probably true of Russ until he had to cut his first wrestling promo. There were just too many quiet goth wrestlers in Peoria. Creating a character was the only in he had.
Brandy is a few weeks from bringing her Twitch channel online, so like our film's protagonist, she has to make the online world in her image and not have it handed to her. Hopefully, we can get her back on the podcast once her channel goes live, but until then, lets revel in her cinematic intelligence and patience when it comes to dealing with the CatBus.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
For the first time since CatBusRuss started making the annual trip to Evanston, ThePoeticCritic accompanied her little brother to B-Fest. It is a celebration of “The Best of the Worst” in motion pictures. That is a bit of hyperbole, and the two siblings will try to support that claim with there recap of the events. B-Fest at least met our host’s expectations. Bad musicals (The Apple), some deep hurting (She-Devils on Wheels), kaiju (Tammy and the T-Rex), and roller skates (The Monkey Hospital). If only there was some classic action, but we will let the elder sibling speak on that (Runaway).
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
Andrew "CouchManBakes" Tiede makes his 2024 return to "Ninety For Chill", and once again, the feature that he wanted to chat about was just over 100 minutes long. The feature is the Robert Rodriguez directed (and Quentin Tarantino co-penned) "From Dusk Till Dawn". This of course means that to cover this feature, CouchMan and CatBusRuss must partake in a marathon.
For the most part, Rodriguez's movies have fairly tight runtimes, so our host should have had no difficulty coming up with a movie marathon dedicated to El Rey. Well, the Tex-Mex tinged James Bond tribute "Machete Kills" was just a couple of minutes too long. To assure that we still have a Danny Trejo triple feature before Midnight's main event, Russ chose to open the festivities with the Tarantino/Rodriguez produced, Robert Patrick-led, vampire-themed bank heist flick, "From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money". To justify skipping "Machete", The Six Raven Movie House still programmed the original trailer with the first feature of 2007's "Grindhouse", "Planet Terror".
Andrew has yet to program a quadruple feature for his Sasquatch Cinema House, and the trend continues. Unlike the prior marathon (The Marathon: Child's Play, Wraiths, and Other THINGs), he skipped trying to find three sub 100-minute movies and just chose bangers from Rodriguez's filmography. These are the third "El Mariachi" tale, "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" and his collaboration with comic book legend Frank Miller, "Sin City".
On paper, this could be a contentious podcast. We have Amber Heard versus Johnny Depp after all. If Andrew's triple feature was not enough, his cinema has just become 420 friendly. Surely it is better to go to the Russ's theater that now features an arcade for the kids? Of course, the two cannot get too heated once their shared love for "Lucha Underground" is discussed.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
So "Ninety For Chill" is addressing the Chris Klein-led "Rollerball" remake. This obviously means the past couple of weeks have been a comedy of errors for CatBusRuss. These faults include: car issues, difficulty finding guests for the show and balancing them with his dating life, and enduring another "far right" kick.
Comedy is the key term in that paragraph. The "How Did This Get Made" movie podcast will be covering John McTiernan's "Rollerball" on Friday, January 26, 2024. To get the most out of this, our host is doing his homework.
To further be on the same page as the HDTGM crew, CatBus went into his vaults to review "Blitz". This British police procedural stars patron saint of Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas, and June Diane Raphael's podcast, Jason Statham. In other words, Russ could not manage the time to see the latest Statham action flick, "The Beekeeper". Nothing seems to be working out for the overworked podcaster.
To further emphasize the difficulties Russ has been having, he did have another chat about the state of cinema with ThePoeticCritic. Too bad the mics were not set up ideally. But the audio can be heard with a bit of static, so it maybe worthwhile to stick through this week's featured reviews.
After two movies reviews and forty minutes of chatter, you also get to further participate in the burial of Chris Jericho. CatBus may need to get through the "Terrifier" franchise to be fair to The Ocho, but after "Albino Farm", he is left thinking that Y2J may not be able to provide any positive contributions outside of the ring.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
Hopefully everyone has had a great start to 2024. With all the festivities, finding a guest was going to be next to impossible, so CatBusRuss got a week off to relax. Or did he?
These festive times means most people have little time, so our host had to make up for this with an action movie binge. This will be the closest to an Illinois Central College hosted B-Fest. that we think you can find. Russ wanted to clear out some of the cheap and/or hard to find DVDs from his queue. From his past two February trips up to Evanston, he thinks he has come up with a quadruple feature that would make the Northwestern programmers proud.
Not all of the flicks discussed will make the cut. If you want to learn more about Chris Jericho, stick around to the end for an "Android Apocalypse" review. In an attempt to get you ready for the CG chaos of "Black Mask 2: City of Masks", our host did revisit the 1996(9) Jet Li feature, "Black Mask".
The final line up of four fun-filled films is Ivan Drago vs Kano (95) in the mercenary tale, "Men of War", the mutant-pro-wrestling allegory, "Black Mask 2", Brian Bosworth vs. Lance Henriksen in biker porn, "Stone Cold", and the choose your own adventure, DC Animated Feature "Batman: Death in the Family". Imagine how that can turn an audience on each other.
All of the features can be found streaming (provided you want to spend $12.99 for BM2). The only way right now to watch "Stone Cold" is currently on Pluto TV via "Rifftrax". Here's hoping Bill, Kevin, and Mike's transfer is as good as my blu-ray.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
Ninety For Chill is closing out 2023 with some cinematic banter from ThePoeticCritic. CatBusRuss and his big sister discuss how the movie landscape has changed, be it offerings for the multiplexes or streaming services. Their primary concern: Where are the movies?
Our host is more concerned about where to stream them. With the top electronic retailer deciding to stop selling physical media, CatBus is out to grab the remaining worthwhile steelbooks. Too bad Universal/Comcast is willing to license their features to other streamers. Peacock should be enough to watch "The Super Mario Bros. Movie". He is not going to subscribe to Netflix.
Thank Viacom for keeping "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" on Paramount+. But what will happen in Paramount and WBD merge?
ThePoeticCritic is more concerned about the movie-going experience. She explains how there just does not seem to be anything to draw people in most weekends. "Wonka" was her grand exception to the rule, but Disney and DC movies are not bringing in the money that they use to. Taylor Swift shows that people want events to attend. Where are those grand narratives that should take screens away from the Swifties?
Despite the drama, we want to end the podcast on a positive note. At least Russ did. So he discusses his most recent binge to make sure he has all angles covered when determining the top discovery this year. The annual obligatory David Cronenberg feature is his adaptation of the play based on the book about the relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, "A Dangerous Method". Was it too grounded to take the top discovery spot from "X" or "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On"?
If only a Cronenberg would direct an "Evil Dead" movie. "Evil Dead Rise" was excellent, but was it anything more than a reskin on "Evil Dead (2013)"?
And to honor past guest of the show Jonathan "A Film to Fight For" Romeo, CatBus watched "Saint Maud" as per the suggestion from "Possessive Forces vs. #Cinemastodon's Exorcists". Stick around after the chat with TPC to hear our host's critique of this high-concept, A24 horror.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
To conclude this year's edition of "AllysAccessoriesShop on Etsy's Trash Feature Revue", CatBusRuss does his best to pit two actresses against each other. The girl of his offbeat film preadolescence, Winona Ryder, and the woman of his low-brow cinema adulthood, Milla Jovovich. How did "The Fifth Element's" Leeloo defeat "Beetlejuice's" Lydia Deetz? How convoluted is this episode going to be?
To add some cohesion to the closure of the Trash Feature Revue, our host decided to find a connection between Milla's and Winona's filmographies. The answer, Ben Stiller's "Zoolander". Jovovich is fifth billed and Ryder only has a cameo, but is more prevalent in the trailer. We can call that a tie, so whose film representing Y and # was better: The rom-com where Milla tries carrying David Krumholtz to stardom, "You Stupid Man"; Or the hippie movie led by a Kiefer Sutherland and Robert Downey Jr. ensemble, "1969"?
This could be messy because the Milla flick was introduced to Russ from the ex who was prior to Ally. Does this podcast compare his most recent relationships? Give it a listen and be as judgmental as you like.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
Who needs weird, Thanksgiving uncle drama when you can spend your post retail Black Friday vacation discussing the kids' films that traumatized us? Be it eventual trepidations towards animated musicals or live action films that tells Walt Disney's "Bambi" to "hold my beer" when it came to killing forest critters.
With that being ThePoeticCritic's suggestion for a podcast topic, CatBusRuss thinks it was wise to open the show with a conversation about her trip to the most recent edition of Chicago TARDIS. It is the "Doctor Who" convention that fills the void left by Rosemont's "Visions" comic con that ended 25 years ago.
After reminiscing about how great viewing rooms were at conventions, the two embark on providing a brief history of The Disney Channel and Nickelodeon before they spent money on programming. For Nick, they filled the time with package features on Sundays. For the House of Mouse, the time was more than likely filled with imported children features like "Dot and the Kangaroo". But if you wanted real trauma, turn to pre-prime time HBO offering of a French nature drama, "The Bear".
White washing the Australian Bush or wondering where the hell the American Humane Association was when there were live animals dealing with fates equal to those of Nicolas Cage in "The Wickerman", Russ left this binge with some reopened scars he never knew he had from childhood.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
The Thanksgiving season may have become the best weekend to catch a horror feature. Last year, CatBusRuss was blown away by "The Menu". It was released the weekend before the most popular celebration of colonialism. This past weekend, another product of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's "Grindhouse" became a reality with Eli Roth's "Thanksgiving". Perhaps it is just the association with food that makes flicks released on this weekend work out so well...done.
Of course, fans of that homage to exploitative cinema noticed that Roth's latest feature does not have the feel of worn film, grainy audio, and poor color saturation. The likes of The Cinema Snob found the "fake" trailer for this yet to be realized holiday slasher movie to be the best one thrown in between the double-feature. Could this premise be as much fun while being nice and polished...and without Michael Biehn?
In the event that was the case, CatBusRuss decided to find some gold in "Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy's Trash Feature Revue". Instead of watching a sappy Matthew Broderick feature, he chose to replace it with the 1989 anime, "Wrath of the Ninja". Ally never provided the letter X with a film, so our host decided to fill it in with what maybe the best A24 horror movie he has seen, Ti West's "X". Ninjas and Chekov's Alligator: If Roth misses, this podcast will still find a way to hit.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
After a very successful Spooky Month that carried into Veterans Day, CatBusRuss felt it would be best to return to just reviewing movies this week. It was an opportunity to catch up on Ally's Accessories Shop of Etsy's Trash Feature Revue.
As it turns out, we are in the home stretch when it comes to covering all of the DVD's Russ's ex-girlfriend bought him to ensure the podcast would have content for at least three years. Back when she would visit Skimble "The One Eared Angel" weekly, three discs per letter of the alphabet were provided to our host. This podcast is in its third year, so we are about out of the "gems" that she provided.
Her efforts to represent each letter of the alphabet left some of the characters in better positions. In other words, we are out of T, U, and V (the last review was for "Swingers"). But, September and October's need for horror left CatBus jumping from the letter L ("The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" [1979]) to the Letter P ("Puppet Master II"). So, to fill in for the missing letters, "Ninety For Chill: The #Podcast with CatBusRuss" returns to M, N, and O.
Russ hopes that you will find at least two of these films to be charming. "The Night Listener" has strong Toni Collette and Robin Williams performances. "The Oranges" has a superb ensemble trying to carry a taboo May/November relationship tale. And some of you may have been charmed by Vince Vaughn in 2001's "Made". CatBus knows this because since he had friends who thought they should act like one of the characters that Jon Favreau wrote for Vaughn. This unacceptable behavior helped to hasten his move from Peoria to Downstate's Liberal Hotbed.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
It took longer than expected, but perhaps it is for the best since Veteran's Day is coming up. Sam Marsh is a fan of spectacle, so he returns to the podcast to discuss Christopher Nolan's war epic from 2017, "Dunkirk". CatBusRuss is not as high on the auteur as most seem to be, but since this feature is one that Quentin Tarantino deemed to be a rewatchable, our host had to give it a chance. Fortunately, this is not "The Night of a Thousand Cats", the inspiration for the Til Schweiger character's name from "Inglourious Basterds".
Being a fan of movies that have runtimes which tend to restrict spectacle, Russ has kind of found Christopher Nolan's recent attitude to be pretentious. With his protest over "Tenet" being released on streaming, our host thought that the idea of something being too cinematic was insulting to audiences' intelligence. If your narrative is strong enough, spectacle is secondary. Of course, that is the opinion of someone who aspires to be a screenwriter of small scale comedies. It has been suggested that direction is a skill that intimidates him.
Sam seems to carry far less cynicism than our host. Russ enjoyed "Dunkirk", but we know he is far more likely to knit pick this feature. His guest does a great job of just telling him to appreciate the experience despite what he deemed as a lack of plot. This is why the best episodes of this podcast has someone to keep our host on track and off of tangents.
But we all think that the American education system needs to place more of an emphasis and funding on the arts...right?
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
Andrew "Couchman Bakes" Tiede returns to the podcast to discuss a third feature about THE actor of every kid who was babysat by a VHS tape deck, Kurt Russell. The challenge being, Kurt's movies tend to be too long to be discussed on this show. But never to disappoint the audience, CatBusRuss will allow "John Carpenter's The Thing" to be the primary topic. All the Couchman needs to do is come up with a horror movie marathon.
These "quadruple" features are based on two themes that can be taken from what maybe Carpenter's most influential feature: Who can you trust? What is the killer?
CatBus's Six-Raven Cinema House offers up 1956's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and 2011's prequel to 1982's classic to address the first theme. As for the second, he revisited the so rad its good flick, "The Wraith" starring Charlie Sheen.
At Andrew's Sasquatch Cinema House, the "Who" is addressed with a nerdier Elijah Woods versus aliens in "The Faculty". As for the what, how about the origins of Charles Lee Ray's after death adventures with 1988's "Child's Play"
There is obviously a film missing from the Tiede showcase. Can he make up for it with the theater's new massaging chairs? Russ thinks that maybe too distracting. Perhaps you need to be the judge.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
It would not be #SpookyMonth for "Ninety For Chill: The #Podcast" if ThePoeticCritic did not make her annual villainy felt. She has never been big for slasher movies, so it is Kaiju season. CatBusRuss explores her opinions on the late '70s "Godzilla" movies and admits to light Letterboxd stalking. He just needed to know why she watched "Billy the Kid Versus Dracula". If only Ed Wood could have kept Bela Lugosi clean...
As always when it comes to the CatBus's big sister, the conversation does devolve into a discussion about the current state of cinema. The two butt heads about "Wonka" and "Wish" again. How can she not respect the mere suggestion of an orange Hugh Grant and Alan Tudyk's hooved potential means box office success?
Before all of that, Russ attempts to get the annual trip through Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy's Trash Feature Revue back on track with Danny Trejo versus an electrified ghost. "Reaper" also features Jake Busey and English treasure Vinnie Jones. It is a bad movie gamble our host cannot resist.
CatBusRuss may be too old to be hip. He does not get the allure of Creepy Pasta. For our host, these ideas seem to be lazy attempts for older millennials to appear creative. They are just odd/disturbing images without any lore, a product of the ADHD era. To make up for the lack of depth, fans of the concept make themselves believe in it to hope to will these monsters into the zeitgeist. These efforts may have been better spent appreciating the tales of Stoker, Shelley, Wells, Lovecraft...
But, these efforts may bare fruit. There is now a generation born into a world that has always had the Internet. Attention spans be damned. Generation Z can open up Chrome and find these creatures and phenomenon and declare them as the demons of their time. "We're All Going to the World's Fair" is a film that explores the effects that creepy pasta may have on the most impressionable among us, teenagers. Even the most cynical (CatBus) cannot deny this is an intriguing concept.
Austin of "Take 'Em To The Movies, Austin!" brought this feature to Russ's attention. Jane Schoenbrun's film seems to really have connected with this week's guest who does his best to sell the movie to the jaded host. The two debate whether it is a deeply flawed feature, or the groundwork of the next great A24 career.
In the case of the prior, CatBusRuss took the time to see what fun Shudder had to offer (and find a feature starting with "Q" for "Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy's Trash Feature Revue". The Shudder Exclusive "Quicksand" appeared to have the potential for chaotic fun.
If Russ failed to deliver a great flick, maybe it is best to refer to Austin's opinion(s). https://takeemtothemoviesaustin.substack.com/
https://mastodon.world/@auzzy
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
Thanks to Jonathan Romeo, #SpookyMonth for "Ninety For Chill: The #Podcast" is officially in full swing. He suggested that if you want to talk about a feature that instills fear into the hearts of all, regardless of faith, "The Exorcist" is the film to chat about. This is a flick that CatBusRuss needed to see, but at 2 hours 2 minutes, how can this podcast be the place to discuss it? Fortunately both Jonathan and Russ are patient cinema fanatics, so devising marathons to build up to a main event is a task they are both up for.
At the previously established Six-Raven Movie House, Russ offers up three films with different means of exploring possession. His triple-feature opens with John Carpenter's tale of space Jesus vs. gooey devil "Prince of Darkness". The second bout of the card is Ash Williams vs. The Necronomicon with Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead 2". And for a co-main event, our host serves up a Cronenbergian feature, from the son Brandon Cronenberg with 2020's "Possessor". Is there anything more chilling than letting an assassin claim you body and determine it expendable? Enjoy the snacks and popcorn while figuring this out.
As for what is showing at Jonathan's Palladium, he gets straight to the Italian-sourced gore with Lamberto Bava's "Demons". This is followed up by tackling the faith he was raised on with Rose Glass's "Saint Maud". And his 10 o'clock show is a Ninety For Chill favorite, Paul W.S. Anderson's "Event Horizon". With a grill and fully stocked bar at his cinema, you should be ready to handle anything "A Mind on Fire" throws at you.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
Over the past year, there have been a few movies that CatBusRuss has recorded his thoughts about, but did not have the right episode to place them on. With films that peak his interests starting to roll out, will there be a place for these forgotten segments?
"Saw X" was a film that our host would not miss opening weekend for, but from speaking to potential guests for the show, he might be one of the few that are excited for this sequel. So a little variety in gory features might be needed to make this episode interesting for everyone. This week, the man who flunked logic, calculus, and data structures in the same semester decides to take a swing at cinema math.
"Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth" and "The Expendables 2" were two flicks he skipped publishing the prior week. They were meant for that weeks "Expend4bles" podcast. Russ's plan was to find a fifth entry to a franchise to round out that episode, but he just now got his hands on a copy of "Hellraiser: Inferno". So, to get to the number 10 this week, the sum of the sequels mentioned get multiplied by a part of Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy's Trash Feature Revue, "Puppet Master II".
X=(III+II)II or 10=(3+2)2. At least he did not try to tie these movies to "The Number 23".
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
September is finally offering CatBusRuss the schlocky cinema that inspired the creation of this podcast. You can have your MCU, give Russ gory action and horror movies. Show him what Tony Stark should have looked like after the third Snap. Time was going to made to get to “Expend4bles”. It is gruesome and fun, but creatively gutless. To remedy this and finish out his Netflix DVD subscription, our host watched an actor who did not return to the quadrilogy, Jet Li. This feature was “Unleashed”. And let’s acknowledge it now, Bob Hoskins is a stronger baddie than Andy Garcia.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
"Ninety For Chill: The #Podcast with @CatBusRuss" offers the world the ultimate questionable quadruple feature. If it was between 70 and 100 minutes in length and directed by Ken Russell during the '80s, it is here. CatBusRuss's weekend binge features the body horror classic "Altered States", Russell's reimaginings of 19th century British literature in "Gothic" and "Salome's Last Dance", and Hugh Grant and Peter Capaldi battle with a snake vampiress in "The Lair of the White Worm".
Weird things happen when our host gets ghosted. Aside from watching Ken Russell's "Altered States" to clear up his Netflix DVD queue before the service ends, CatBusRuss did not have much of a plan for what this week's episode would be about. Presuming that he would have a date on his day off, the best he thought he could do was watch "Lisztomania" to provide the audience with the entire range of craziness the director of "Tommy" had to offer.
And then, no response from the lass he had been chatting up through her bout with Covid. Add into the equation that the phallic ode to an early 20th century German composer was not streaming anywhere for free. Russ's response to these difficulties, lets watch all of the '80s Russell that meet the criteria of the podcast.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
FanExpo Chicago was lacking plentiful after hour activities, so after night two of the convention, CatBusRuss and his big sister decided to check out Greta Gerwig’s take on Mattel’s toy icon, “Barbie”. This is a fun recording since it it leaves us with a “Siskel & Ebert” feel. The two siblings get to focus on how this fun, educational takedown of the patriarchy left them feeling. If that is not enough embracing of the joy of motion pictures, our hosts get to argue about how the end of 2023 movies look and will end up.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
With the Labor Day holiday, CatBusRuss decided not to hassle anyone about recording a podcast with him. But because he went it alone last week, our host decided that classic conversations was what this week needed. When it comes to classic conversations on this podcast, you can usually count on ThePoeticCritic to come through.
Until B-Fest 2024, this episode effectively completes the preservation of the back catalog from the original Podbean for "Ninety For Chill". ThePoeticCritic helped her little brother out a lot with the first year of the show. Was it being nice, or was it to have a platform about why #FilmTwitter is the pits and how we need to listen to Martin Scorsese and prevent Hollywood's overlords from trapping Wes Anderson into fueling their IP machines. For two weeks in the summer of 2021, this was her platform.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
This episode of NinetyForChill may serve as a personality profile of its host, CatBusRuss. Since 1997 and "The Fifth Element", he has been a fan and apologist of Milla Jovovich. Her direct-to-video features do not scare him off, so he was intrigued by "Paradise Hills". Neil Marshall's "Doomsday" is one of his favorite movies. It would not be fair to Marshall if Russ did not check out his collaboration with Jovovich, the "Hellboy" reboot.
ThePoeticCritic is more of an influence of her little brother than he would like to acknowledge, but this lead him to give "Class Action Park" a viewing. That feature is about a very eighties attitude. Thus, it inspired him to finally watch the "Risky Business" DVD provided to him by Ally Higgins of Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy. Another disc Ally gave her ex-boyfriend was a no budget horror movie from 2016 called "Nocturne". After that trash feature, CatBus needs to reminisce about a good gore film, so it is only fitting that "Spiral: From the Book of Saw" was the first movie he saw after cinemas finally reopened.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
CatBusRuss is doing his best to overcome exhaustion. Fan Expo Chicago calls for exploration means there was no time for relaxation. Our host has worked himself sick, so he felt lucky to get in three movies since returning from Rosemont. And after starting the week with his Netflix DVD rental, "Another Earth", getting up the energy to watch 1979's "The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe" and 2022's "Thor: Love and Thunder" should be considered an accomplishment.
These three movies are all worthwhile. "Another Earth" is science fiction that challenges the genre's demand for visual effects. The adaptation of the first "Chronicle of Narnia" is an interesting attempt to sneak Christianity into schools. And while avoiding films in the franchise that are based around a new characters, Russ has enjoyed diving into Phase 4 of the MCU.
But all of these features present challenges to enjoy them. There is a very dour premise with the indie film. The cartoon features questionable character designs that make you wonder why they did not stick to their "Charlie Brown" style. And you can see why there are three credited editors on the Marvel movie. It is definitely going to be a one flick movie this week for the CatBus. His strength must be regained.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
CatBusRuss has made it back to Champaign/Urbana from taking his big sister, ThePoeticCritic, up to Chicago Fan Expo 2023. There was plenty of fun to be had, but there is a lot of stress that comes with planning to have the maximum amount of enjoyment.
The Fan Expo takeover of Wizard World (formerly Chicago Comic Con) has led to more blatant efforts to take every possible penny from the convention goers. And taking money from Netflix, WBDiscovery, NBCUniversal, and Disney while cracking down on what actors could and could not say was almost too much hypocrisy for our host to endure.
He felt that the standard panels that were for fans by fans were lacking, and the cool vendors seemed to stay away from the event. Fortunately, Russ had autographs to track down to make up for this time, but the con is becoming less and less intimate. The time was filled and (too) many cool things were bought, but the 2024 reducing itself to three days from four may be a blessing.
The CatBus had been dropping daily bonus episodes on ninetyforchill.com when it came to the first three days of the convention. This episode is a review of Fan Expo overall, followed by those three bonus podcasts.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
CatBusRuss returns to his blogging roots. This episode is dedicated to "Arena" from 1989. Our host wrote a review for this Charles Band produced feature back in 2019, and it caught the attention of one of the premier nerdy minds in the Champaign/Urbana metroplex, Tim Bates of Evil Penguin Games. Tim has had a big influence on his fellow retail geeks, like friend of the show Kodiak Thompson, by exposing them to media like the "John Dies at the End" franchise.
Tim and Russ have essentially been working together the past six years, but it was not until the CatBus shared his review of this feature on Facebook did the two expand their conversations from complaining about customers to movies. "Arena" was one of Tim's favorite movies growing up and at one time he owned a VHS copy of it. As for our host's relationship with the film, it took him 30 years to get around to it.
His fascination with gaudy, low-budget faire had only started in 2009. But he remembers growing up on early eighties "Star Wars" knock offs. Add in a tournament fighting element, and Russ wishes his cinema snobbiness had passed decades prior.
This is not to say that Russ has totally abandoned being a cinematic elitist. He still is a tired of a lot of big-budget studio films, but he knows dissing the mere concept of them may not be fair. Russ liked the first three phases of the MCU, so despite the fatigue towards the series, the fear of being too judgmental means he must continue with MCTuesday. For this installment, the feature he takes on is Sam Raimi's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness".
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
In this superhero, mega-budget obsessed world, it is easy to understand the regular movie goer's mindset that if something is cheap, it cannot be good. The feature will definitely not be exciting. Excitement is overrated, but a little heart in direction and a good script can make any five-figure budget worthwhile. Too bad exploitation encourages quick products over quality.
CatBusRuss's recent visit to Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy's "Trash Feature Revue" resulted in him finding "Killjoy", a killer clown, black-exploitation film that was all about taking the cash from any sucker. Thank science that this came as part of the nine-picture "Puppet Master" collection, but it is disheartening that Charles Band lacks quality control over what he puts his name on.
And then you have the likes of The Cinema Snob who preaches do not take rip offs of your favorite movies personally. His suggestion that I need to see "Shocking Dark (officially "Bruno Mattei's Terminator 2") proved otherwise.
This left our host in a state that maybe he did not know what good no-budget cinema was. Thankfully revisiting Ryan Thompson's "Zombie Apocalypse" and Marc Fratto's "Zombies Anonymous" showed the Cat Bus that there is still plenty of gold to be mined from aspiring filmmakers who cannot afford 4K or 35 mm cameras.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
CatBusRuss goes home to deal with plumbing issues at the folks’ house, but primarily to check out his first Quad Con with ThePoeticCritic. His big sister said, and was right, that this is really just a toy con, but there were some celebrities who had booths. If it was not for The Cinema Snob advertising his appearance, our host may have stayed in Urbana to catch up on “AEW: Fight Forever.” It all proved worthwhile thanks to some conversation with the YouTube legend and some great fan art across from his table.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss".
Sam Marsh is a lot like the aliens who seek political sanctuary in the "Men in Black" franchise. CatBusRuss thinks that is a fair thing to say because this is his first podcast guest who is from the Mastodon social media platform. Most people consider that to be another planet. Our guest is just like a Martian minding his own business and make a living on the Internet (vis-a-vis Earth), but has a lot to offer this planet. He feels there is no need to draw attention to himself.
But attention should be drawn to the first "Men in Black" feature from 1997. It is one of the few blockbuster smashes from the Nineties that is under 100 minutes in length. Our host was developing his cynicism for bloated movies at that time, so he just assumed it would not qualify for the podcast. He had not really given the rest of a franchise a chance. That is not really fair, so thank you Smarshian for bringing it back the CatBus to a simpler cinematic time.
There is a lot of audio foreplay in this episode. With MCU Next Tuesday being promised last week, Russ had to give "Black Widow" a watch. That is just something that can be denied. "Men in Black Widow", that could be a Marvel crossover event, or a Marvel porno parody.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The #Podcast with @CatBusRuss".
CatBusRuss has figured a way to kill two birds with one stone. It is now a question of how to get to that stone. Enjoying the physical media release of "Sisu" might be the perfect place to start.
Our host felt inspired to throw the planned Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy Trash Feature Revue Triple Feature aside to tackle something that just made it to retailer shelves. This almost made the task of finding a Redbox that carried this Finnish, English-language action film fun.
Russ laments about the need for video stores to return and how he will be tackling the biggest movies in Hollywood in the future with the series "MCU Next Tuesday".
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The #Podcast with @CatBusRuss".
CatBusRuss gets himself ready for the five hours of driving to and from C2E2 by playing back a pair of conversations with his travel companion, ThePoeticCritic. These discussions are where the two siblings have to come to terms with how they may now be the biggest cinema snobs in Central Illinois. Our host was a little more resistant in fully embracing that Martin Scorsese is right to bash the negative effects that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has had on creativity in Hollywood, but once his big sister informed of him of the Disney Drones' disdain for Seventies auteurs, he knows what side to stand on. This sounds like a dyer podcast, but it allows us the chance to further praise Kubrick, Allen, Cronenberg, all things Criterion, and Bigelow's most fun movie, "Near Dark". The cinematic salad ThePoeticCritic is presenting maybe better described as Chicago-style Popcorn. It is a mega podcast where you just need to embrace the cheesy and the sweet.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The #Podcast with @CatBusRuss".
CatBusRuss finally got to celebrate his 40th birthday with the London trip his dad wanted to go on three years ago. It was centered around Cubs baseball, but that victory over the Cardinals (Series split, but it is England, so let us considerate an aggregate win of 14-8.) only took up so much time. He had to amuse himself on the flight and the one day with no American pastime.
Thanks to United Airlines entertainment system, a movie marathon was formed. Russ finally caught up on “The Banshees of Inisherin” on the way to England. The flick is 1:53, but the other feature was “Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark” at 1:05, so it balances out to 90 minutes per show. When there was no baseball, the Stevenses went and saw “The Book of Mormon” on the West End. And the flight home was an Isabella Rossellini double feature of “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” and Robert Zemeckis’s “Death Becomes Her”. Another interesting line up the CatBus would love to have a theater to moderate for.
This episode was recorded using the "Spotify for Podcasters" app with no computers to reference information from. Let me apologize for butchering any movie titles and failing to pay proper respect to "Marcel" director Dean Fleischer Camp's.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The #Podcast with @CatBusRuss".
Andrew "@CouchManBakes" Tiede has been one of the most reliable and fun repeat guest to bless "NinetyForChill" with his presence. He has really helped CatBusRuss make great audio content, so it is about time that he got to chat about a feature that he has been pushing for since " Big Trouble in Little China": CouchMan Lo Pan vs. Jorge Shen". That picture is "Tombstone", another feature starring Kurt Russell.
But this picture is 2 hours and 10 minutes long. It does not fit the format for a podcast dedicated to features between 70 and 100 minutes. How will we get this to work?
CatBus has been trying to offer up some work arounds. Thanks to an experiment that the "Screen Drafts" podcast came up with to reassess their past episodes, The Marathon, a compromise was made possible. Our host and his guest will each make up their own tribute night to perhaps the greatest supporting actor of all time, Sam Elliot. Both showcases will end with the most beloved take on the tale of Wyatt Earp, but each moderator will have their own format. Andrew gets two two-hour movies and a grill to open up "Sasquatch Cinema House". His competitor gets three 100-minute timeslots and a popcorn machine to debut the "Six-Raven Moviehouse".
Will "The Good Dinosaur", "The Big Bang", and "Thank You for Smoking" draw more people to Russ's cinema in spite of "Roadhouse" and "Tombstone" being ran back-to-back? Will having to endure "Ghost Rider" ruin Andrew's audiences night before it gets started. Since both movie theaters are BYOB, who knows?
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The #Podcast with @CatBusRuss".
Nothing seems to be working out for CatBusRuss. He is doing a lot better mentally, but that maybe out of spite. The day after he finished producing "Toss Back Tuesday: Jim Carrey Under 100 Minutes", the podcast scheduling plans were all screwed up. "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" was the big Blu-Ray release for June 6, 2023. Its theatrical run was released the week prior to the April movie CatBus wanted to see the most, Nicolas Cage starring as Dracula in "Renfield", so the resources our host used to find out that the physical release date of the Nicholas Hoult film was going to be a week after the billion-dollar cartoon seemed correct. You can only imagine his dismay when he started ringing out customers who brough up the vampire disc along side the plumber flick.
Russ did get around to seeing the movie when it was still in theaters. This would have been in its third week of release. As noted in "Nicolas Cage & The Unbearable Weight of Massive Filmography", our host ended up dealing with unexpected cancellations of this feature during its second weekend. He decided to sit on the review he recorded from the parking lot. Being the only other person in the cinema for the flick, expecting the physical release to be just a couple of weeks away seemed like a fair assumption. Sadly, Comcast/Universal seemed to do nothing but fumble in their efforts to make this feature profitable. Fortunately, "NinetyForChill: The #Podcast" is going to make an effort to further make this feature relevant.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The #Podcast with @CatBusRuss".
If there was anything you could count on as brief, fun films, it was cartoons. Then the Disney "Renaissance" came, and animated features became longer and longer. Joe Golwitzer (@quidpro_joe) and ThePoeticCritic (CatBusRuss's big sister) look back the time where VHS was king and animation was cheap. Joe and @CatBusRuss chat about TV shows that were adapted for the big screen. ThePoeticCritic and our host go on and on about animated features from the 1980's addressing at least one feature for each year. If you were not the youngest child in the family, you learned to become a fan of animation to remain sane because you know the younger siblings are going to demand these feature to be played on a constant loop.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The #Podcast with @CatBusRuss".
CatBusRuss could not have fallen into a more appropriate way to close out the month of May (a.k.a. AniMay [anime + May]). Coinciding with the release of "Fast X", our host watched a couple of features that actually succeed at what the Vin Diesel franchise tries to capture. These are crazy stories that do not get caught up in male soap opera and "Just Kiss Already!" moments. Unlike "The Fast and the Furious" franchise, both "Redline" and "MFKZ" are must see films for entirely different reasons.
Neither of them are thankfully a "Point Break" knock off. Each represents an element that "The Fast" franchise that just seems to be too ridiculous. "MFKZ" is all about the craziness presumed of non-white communities and how action packed that must be. "Redline" is all about the living life a quarter mile at a time, or should I say parsec. Each feature should be seen by any animation fan. One for its "Saints Row" vibe. The other for nearly being perfect.
"The Truman Show" was a feature that some would say has aged like a fine wine, but there seems to be many who still have a bitter taste in their mouth. What would Hollywood be like if this feature received its roses back in 1998 instead of 2022 at Cannes? Would Jim Carrey have become the post-modern Tom Hanks? Is he American enough to usurp the two-time Oscar winner's greatest title of "America's Dad"?
Before this podcast recording, CatBusRuss had only seen the third act of this Peter Weir classic. He was thoroughly impressed by the direction and could tell that Carrey was providing the performance of his lifetime. The first chance he found a discount on the digital release, our host knew it was a must buy. Finding the time, and perhaps the motivation, to watch it was the challenge.
His living situation the past seven years could be to blame. Perhaps he did not want to break the initial rules of the "NinetyForChill: The #Podcast". This feature is officially three minutes too long. More than likely though, it may have been the thought of further enduring ThePoeticCritic's obsession with everything that was late nineties Jim Carrey. This week, CatBus faces all of those challenges with a 130 minute conversation with his big sister about what may be one of her favorite features of all time.
As for Ani-May, CatBus watched the return of Studio Ghibli with Goro Miyazaki's "Earwig and the Witch", another tale of strange adoption.
Help NinetyForChill: The #Podcast get away from paywalls by subscribing to "Ninety For Chill: The #Podcast with @CatBusRuss".
CatBusRuss is pondering how often he should be releasing new episodes of "Ninety For the Chill". This current season has had a great balance of episodes dedicated to his own personal binges and conversations with great guests. But with so many podcasts having a monthly or biweekly release schedule, is the CatBus working too hard?
The episode for next week is in the can, so this week, our host is keeping up the ani-May theme by watching Studio Ghibli's spiritual successor's, Studio Ponoc, first feature, "Mary and the Witch's Flower". It is a fun kids film. Then CatBus pulls out some reviews that sum up his own maturity. It starts with coming of age in the punk rock world with "London Town" and moves on to the oversexed college experience with Gregg Araki's "Kaboom".
From sexually explicit cinema, CatBus makes a quick transition to the other extreme of indie cinema with the Soska Sisters' remake of David Cronenberg's "Rabid". Cronenberg was one of the two patron saints of this podcast. The other is Stuart Gordon. What sounds better than Gordon with Lance Henriksen? To find out what that is like, you will hear a review for "The Pit and the Pendulum". If that is not enough of a Henriksen fix, stick around for a review of Stan Winston's directorial debut, "Pumpkinhead".
One of the worse things about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that they insist that you stick around until the credits conclude for what is essentially a tease for the next feature in the franchise. It is far more forgivable in "Turning Red" to just feature the father dancing to some boy band, but it is still not part of the narrative of the feature that you paid to see.
So what if you cut out the six minutes of credits and the teaser for an inevitable sequel to a feature that is only 50 seconds past 100 minutes? You have sold CatBusRuss on allowing "NinetyForChill: The #Podcast" to address Ryan Reynolds in his greatest role "Deadpool". Leave it to Andrew Tiede to find another loophole in the parameters of this movie podcast. Like Han Solo established, the feature is 100 minutes, if you round down.
As a bonus, CatBus pays tribute to the month of AniMAY by finally getting "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence", and ends up giving more credence to the underappreciated quality of the controversial, live-action adaptation of the franchise. If only Scarlett Johansson and Reynolds would have made it, the synergy of this episode would demand admiration.
It was an inevitability that Nicolas Cage was going to get at least one episode of "Ninety For Chill" dedicated to his works. With the amount that he works, there maybe more to come. As long as he keeps it weird of course.
CatBusRuss was doing his best to catch a showing of "Renfield" before it leaves the big screens this week. That feature is not quite the box office success that was expected, so our host was hedging his bets for a slice of podcasted fried gold by finally going through his cheap, "How can you not buy this Nick Cage flick?" collection. "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" features the best of all things currently nerdy with Cage and Pedro Pascal playing off each other, and was critically acclaimed. If only a Champaign/Urbana multiplex could offer a great theater going experience, the feature would be a great A-feature of a double feature.
Unfortunately, Phoenix Theatres 16 in Savoy must base what shows they will go through on what money they are getting from online sales. IMDb's showtimes be damned. It maybe a conspiracy to stop audiences from cashing in their emergency tickets based on previous poor experiences. So the weekend ended in a long night for the CatBus. Once he got home from trying to make something out of getting dressed on a day off, "Jiu Jitsu", from the minds that rebooted the "Kickboxer" franchise, was next on the queue. The idea of Cage versus a "Predator" knock off should have made major bank. Find out why this was the definition of a B-Feature.
This week's episode is proof that you can actually meet genuine people at comic cons. One half of "In Love, with Movies" hosts, Nic, comes on the show to chat about Ruben Fleischer's only undisputedly good feature "Zombieland". CatBusRuss and his guest did not take a lot of notes suggesting that it maybe one of the best paced comedies of the current century. Watching the feature was more than a pleasant palate cleanser after visiting "FeaDotCom (.com)" for Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy's "Trash Feature Revue".
The two end up realizing the kind of comfort cinema sci-fi comedies can be. It is only appropriate that it pulls so much from "Ghostbusters" with very little shame. Zombieland's characters may not evolve, but like the three NYU professors who got into paranormal investigation, they do not have to. If they did, the audience might leave feeling betrayed (which may explain the lack of success of "Gangster Squad" and what CatBus feels is an underappreciated sequel "Double Tap"). If the premise is enough, why mess around with it too much? Of course this film got a crappy television show when Amazon said hold my beer.
This is essentially a follow up to last week's episode "Gold Diggers of 1933 and Nintendo 2023". CatBusRuss took time to defend "The Super Mario Bros. Movie", so there was a temptation to see the film that he was attempting to stand up for. But one movie and no guest did not feel right. Also in that episode, our host explained to ThePoeticCritic why the "John Wick" franchise qualifies for NinetyForChill: The #Podcast. If you make a perfect movie that is under 100 minutes, you need to expand that universe, thus earning more time with your sequel.
The decision on what feature to see at the cinema came down to this: What other movie could the CatBus watch at home that would be an appropriate double feature? Sadly, there are not a lot of video games that are either adapted as family movies or animated ones. Russ never played "Rachet & Clank" and he might need to save "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" for another Jim Carrey conversation with his big sister. His iTunes collection does have the Bob Odenkirk comedy "Nobody" which was written by Derek Kolstad, the writer of the "John Wick Trilogy". It seems the better double feature is "Nobody" and "John Wick: Chapter 4".
Finding a guest for NinetyForChill was going to be especially tough during Easter week. Fortunately, holidays mean family get togethers. Thus, CatBusRuss was able to tempt his sister, ThePoeticCritic, to give him a couple of hours to chat about pre-code musical cinema (primarily "Gold Diggers of 1933") when he returned to Morton to celebrate the savior (be it the Christ or the patriarch of their family). Of course, most conversations with the wisest cinephile of Central Illinois bring up what is happening at the movie theaters and #FilmTwitter. This week, do the Brothers Mario deserve to rule the box office?
ThePoeticCritic was curious about her little brother's opinion on whether "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" should have focused on the adult fans of the franchise, parents dragged to the cinema by their wee ones, or just the kiddos. CatBus's biggest concern about Hollywood is the alleged comic book movie downfall and what should fill that void. Should it be maximalist extravaganzas like Baz Luhrman's "Elvis" and Christopher Nolan's "Tenet" or just great stories like Luhrman's "Strictly Ballroom" and Nolan's "Memento"? For those fond of Busby Berkeley's glorified music videos (and I suppose "Flash Dance"), our host may not please you with his thoughts about "Gold Diggers of 1933".
"NinetyForChill: The #Podcast with @CatBusRuss" is officially reborn. It kind of seems appropriate that we celebrate the festivities with another festival, the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. The headliners (Chris Evans, Zachary Levi, Tenoch Huerta, etc.) are not usually featured in films that are common to this podcast, but their stories are worthwhile listens that may inspire. For the likes of CatBusRuss and ThePoeticCritic, their primary reason of attending is to just enjoy and embrace the nerd culture. ThePoeticCritic is there for the shopping and her "Supernatural"-obsessed boyfriend. CatBusRuss is there for the networking and the panels. Panels to burn down with his hot takes against maximalist cinema and how Bulbasaur is truly the 001 Pokémon. As for networking, 2023's event shows his weaknesses and his willingness to learn to open up. Come and learn about the fun and trauma that can be had at Chicago's premier geek convention.
NinetyForChill: The #Podcast goes back to its roots by refreshing some of its first podcast with its associate producer, Ally Higgins. This acts as a profile for the Etsy seller (Ally's Accessories Shop) who has donated nearly $300 in used DVDs of feature ranging from absolute trash to under appreciated features that demand reappraisal. These two conversations explore her tastes be it Studio Ghibli and Makota Shinkai, the 21st century action movies she embraced while living with CatBusRuss ("Resident Evil" and "Underworld"), or what she let HBO rot her brain with "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" and "Flashdance".
Two of the best guests to have come on to NinetyForChill: The Podcast have been Kodiak Thompson and ThePoeticCritic. With that said, we cannot allow their debut episodes to not be featured on the feeds for Apple, Spotify, and Amazon Music. More importantly, the filmographies that were discussed are legendary. Kodiak and CatBusRuss discussed Henry Rollin's sub 100-minute movies including our guest's favorite feature "He Never Died". ThePoeticCritic and our host have a conversation about Jeff Goldblum's lesser known nineties features, but more importantly David Cronenberg's "The Fly". We could have gone on and on, but the CatBus did not know the lack of limitations Zoom had at the time.
As this version of NinetyForChill: The #Podcast winds down, CatBusRuss is continuing to preserve the episodes that Podbean has allowed to slip from the major podcast (Apple, Spotify, Google, etc.) feeds. When it comes to talking about John Cena and vampires, it seems our host is alone when it comes to his fascination with the genres. Thus, the show's producer only has about 20 minutes of insight on the topics (recorded) and it is all right here. In this bonus episode, we alternate between the 16-time champ and vamps with "The Marine" (2006), "Daughter of Darkness" (1990), "The Suicide Squad" (2021), and "Bloodsucking Bastards" (2015).
Before we move on from Podbean, CatBusRuss wants to ensure that some of his favorite recordings will remain on the feeds of the major podcast apps (Apple, Spotify, Google, Amazon Music). We return to month five of NinetyForChill: The #Podcast with what was first a two-episode conversation with Joe Golwitzer about the sub-100 minute filmography of Adam Sandler. The two cover nearly all of the feature that qualify for the show ("Billy Madison", "Happy Gilmour", "Little Nicky", "The Wedding Singer", "Bedtime Stories", "Hotel Transylvania", "Bulletproof", etc.) while going on tangents about "Star Wars", Brad Pitt, and, like the best movie podcasts out there, Gerard Butler.
CatBusRuss's taking on a second job is providing him with fewer opportunities to record new episodes of NinetyForChill: The #Podcast. He will make time to create weekly content, but the world does not revolve around him. On top of that, where is the time for him to watch new movies? Fortunately, family stepped up to help him out this week. ThePoeticCritic has a lot to say about the state of cinema at the moment, and she wanted a platform. The two siblings have a boundless conversation to address their favorite actors, the upcoming and previous Oscars, and hopes of fewer comic book movies.
As for movie reviews, our host was able to watch Costas Mandylor of "Saw" fame star in a 2022 knock off of the franchise he is best known for with "Death Count". With that said, we never saw Det. Hoffmanr die. So could this be considered a spinoff?
This is a case of CatBusRuss trying to make chicken salad from chicken waste. Between starting a second job and his scheduled recording falling through at the last minute, he did not have a way to line up a new guest. But, with Podbean only allowing a hundred episodes to show up on the top podcast apps, there is a fear that some of the past episodes will be lost when/if the podcast changes platforms. We cannot lose our only episodes (thus far) with JD Greving of JDHD and Jessica Kwazz from "2nd Chance Movies". Thus, welcome to the Stealing Harvard (2002) and Spaceballs (1987) mega episode. It also features NinetyForChill legend ThePoeticCritic.
CatBusRuss returns to Northwestern to challenge his cinematic endurance with the 40th Edition of AO B-Fest. “American Ninja” with a crowd sounded fun, but Willem Dafoe in the “Rock ‘n Roll Fable” “Streets of Fire” made it clear that this 24-hour marathon was a must attend. And surely “Xanadu’s” infamy was over blown…right?
Since the original "Friday the 13th", it is safe to say that a third of slasher movies try to subvert audience expectations with a third act twist. Just trying to identify the killer may have become a stale concept far too early in the genre, so some films are dependent on discovering the deep-seeded why behind a killer's motivation. Much of the time, that ends up holding a fun or even brilliant film back. CatBusRuss and "Booze, Boobs & Blood's" Rae explore two examples of this: 2003's "High Tension" and 1983's "Sleepaway Camp".
Jeff Goldblum maybe NinetyForChill's "In case of fire, break glass" metaphor. It is an easy means to bring ThePoeticCritic back on the show to discuss a classic sci-fi feature. (With Jim Carrey's rubberface, we would be consider that to be syfy.) The guy who was the blue alien may draw TPC out, but Peter Weller seems to have an ability to capture CatBusRuss's attention. Throw in some Clancy Brown, and he will be there. Needless to say, our host has the Shout! Factory's Steelbook of 1984's "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension", an underappreciated blueprint of how all comic book movies should operate.
Andrew Tiede and CatBusRuss investigate what maybe the spiritual sequel to "The Goonies", Joel Schumacher's "The Lost Boys". With this rewatch, our host was actually intrigued by ThePoeticCritic's opinion that this feature is nothing more than rose...should we say...blood-tinted nostalgia. Thankfully, this week's guest reminded CatBus the national treasure that is Timmy Cappello. These two eighties kids always have a ball watching this vampire feature, and throw in their parallel paths to their forties, we get some fun Cubs and wrestling themed tangents to accompany the blood sucking fun.
This week's movies are solely escapism for CatBusRuss. "Top of the World" is "Die Hard" meets "Ocean's 11" where Dennis Hopper and Peter Weller face off over Tia Carre. "Cyberjack" (Tubi's "Virtual Assassin") is "Die Hard" in the not too distant future with Brion James versus Cannon's "American Ninja". With the Bruce Willis classic turning 35, perhaps the year should be dedicated to "Try Hard" movies. But, the more pressing issue for CatBusRuss is trying to honor one of his best friends, Skimble the #BastardCat" who had just passed away.
The foul-mouthed Gregory Carl returns to "NinetyForChill: The #Podcast" to exemplify what MTV's most recognizable characters of the nineties may have become if they were middle aged. CatBusRuss and Gregory discuss "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America". It is a feature that is a celebration of immature comedy and how fun it truly can be, and perhaps the actual influence it had on adolescents who grew up with it.
With Podbean implying that they will charge CatBusRuss three times what he signed up for so that all of NinetyForChill's episodes will remain available on the Apple, Spotify, and Google Podcast feeds, he is out to preserve as many episodes as he can. This leads us to revisit his conversation with ThePoeticCritic where they gush about the virtues of Rifftrax. To freshen things up, our host watched "Biohazard" from 1985. It is an appropriate movie choice because Mike, Bill, and Kevin's commentary would have been greatly appreciated.
Andrew "Couch Man" Tiede returns to "NinetyForChill: The #Podcast" to take on what is arguably the most legendary Steven Seagal feature, "Under Siege". CatBusRuss appreciates having the TikTok all star on the show to discuss this "Try Hard" due to his military experience. Prepared to tackle the logistics of this film, the two will address the legendary villainy of Tommy Lee Jones, the awakenings released by Erika Eleniak, and the carny nature that star Seagal lives by. If this violent classic does not intrigue you to listen, perhaps a review of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" will amuse you.
While most celebrate the New Year with libations and giant balls, CoolMoviesDarth was binging features with reputations that are less than savory. Inspired to get to his next Netflix DVD and kick off the latest series of movies for Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy's Trash Feature Reviews, our host tackles a pre-fame/infamy Amber Heard video from 2004, "SideFX", and Charlize Theron's first attempt at neo-femme fatale, "Aeon Flux (2005)".
It is the end of the year, and ThePoeticCritic gives us some input on what some of the best movies Cool Movies Darth (b.k.a. Cat Bus Russ) found in 2022. Russ counts down his top 10 favorite finds from this year. To be thorough, this years collection of Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy's Trash Feature Reviews is concluded with "2020 Texas Gladiators". And how can 2022's top 10 list be complete without a David Cronenberg movie? "Crash" and "Crimes of the Future" are last minute watches durings Russ's six-day stint of holiday retail shifts.
It only seems appropriate to recognize the duality of Tim Burton's most beloved story, "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Thus, why not look back on Ally (of Ally's Accessories Shops on Etsy's Trash Feature Revues) and Cool Movies Darth's conversation about the underappreciated animation director Henry Selick's best remembered feature? Merry Christmas =^_^=
7Ceez from "The No On 15! All Cast" makes his debut appearance on "NinetyForChill: The #Podcast" to explore how Finland sees Father Christmas. He and Cool Movies Darth discuss the horror-themed fun that is "Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale". This is a film where Krampus is nothing more than King Kong to Santa's Denzel Washington. He ain't got s*** on him or his band on naked elves.
ThePoeticCritic is the greatest of sports. Aside from being Central Illinois's premier critical mind in terms of motion pictures, she tries to help Cool Movies Darth in obtaining the Christmas spirit via cinema. Did she expect to have this conversation shoved between two films about men thinking with their organs instead of their hearts when it comes to relationship? CM Darth doubts that, but to not show the importance of the Mark Ruffalo lead "XX/XY" and Ewan McGregor's "Young Adam" would be denying those with chauvinistic attitudes their lumps from Santa.
Cool Movies Darth thinks it was quite appropriate that he had to endure 20 minutes of technical difficulties to watch "The Menu". Surviving the experience was very similar to seeing if Ralph Fiennes was serious about killing everyone at the conclusion of the meal. That is a bit of hyperbole, but it really nails down why the cinema experience might be overrated. Fortunately, enduring the ordeal was worthwhile, and CM Darth would like to try and sell you on checking this flick out.
Cool Movies Darth is not really a Thanksgiving fan. The high school wrestling season started that weekend, so enjoying the feast was not really an option. Granted, NinetyForChill's host grew up a picky eater, so the holiday did not really offer anything for him. Let us not even get into familiar anxiety. Horror may be too extreme a term for the fourth week of November, but then came his career in customer service. So the "ThanksKilling" franchise and the Bruce Campbell produced "Black Friday" may be appropriate comfort viewing for the holiday season kick off.
Gregory Carl was so impressed by 1989's "Deadly Games" (aka "36-15 Code Pere Noel" and Cannon's "36-15: Hide & Freak") that it stuck around his mind an entire month after Christmas. If you were so over Christmas 2021, Cool Movies Darth would understand if you skipped giving that episode a listen back in January. But tis the season to be jolly, so what better time to learn about this French thriller about a nine year-old genius fending off a demented Father Christmas?
To get you ready to defend yourself against the madness of Black Friday, Gregory Carl and Cool Movies Darth take on the Chinese viral outbreak movie, "The Sadness". It is a COVID-19 inspired tale about a virus that will not kill you via lung failure, but by the perverse whims of the infected. This is a case of what does not kill will you makes you stranger, more violent, and what is most shocking, hornier.
I embraced the holiday season with some inspiration from ThePoeticCritic. She showed me the best use of “The Muppets” since “Muppet Vision”. To make sure I have about 100 minutes of stuff to talk about, the Xmas-themed “Sailor Moon S: The Movie” completed my private double feature.
Outbreak films have been around as early as the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" to say the very least, but most of these features focus on humanity being absolutely lost. Lost via body theft by aliens or demons. Individuality vanished due to a disease taking over the body and conscience. What happens when a virus removes your inhibitions and replaces it with madness? Cool Movies Darth investigates this idea as presented in the 1970s and the 2010s by reviewing Romero's "The Crazies", Cronenberg's "Shivers", and Joe Lynch's "Mayhem".
For the first time, "NinetyForChill: The #Podcast" has gone international. Rambling Ronnie has come on to discuss one of her favorite comedies and what is unquestionably the most important mockumentary of all time, "This Is Spinal Tap". This was the first R-Rated feature that ThePoeticCritic rented along side her little brother Cool Movies Darth. Needless to say, all parties are excited to tell the world aboot the excellence of this film.
Next week (November 8), "NinetyForChill: The #Podcast" will present a round table conversation about the film that launched the auteur careers of Rob Reiner and Christopher Guest, "This is Spinal Tap". To prepare for the humor and music, Cool Movies Darth decided to go on a musical-comedy binge. Roger Corman X The Ramones "Rock 'n' Roll High School", Zucker-Abraham-Zucker's "Top Secret", and the John C. Reilly showcase "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox" are all regarded as classics. What better way to prepare for a podcast that will turn the knob to 11?
Based on some stalking of ThePoeticCritics's Letterboxd profile, Cool Movies Darth was able to get on the same page for an impromptu podcast recording in October 2021. What we get is a discussion of which "Dracula" was the better between Hammer's Christopher Lee and the director or "Short Circuits" Frank Langella. They have a conversation of all things Dracula before Francis Ford Coppola gave us the dimmest Jonatha Harker.
Rae and Ween from "Booze, Boobs, & Blood Podcast" come to "NinetyForChill: The #Podcast" to close out #SpookyMonth. When they took up Cool Movies Darth's offer to come on the show, it was mentioned that they had only scratched the surface of John Whale's filmography during their Pride Month episode dedicated to him. Thus, CM Darth is more than happy to further engage the Universal Monsters. The result, a drunken, foul-mouthed conversation about "Frankenstein (1931)" and "The Invisible Man (1933)".
Cool Movies Darth is still looking for a guest to one day join him on an episode dedicated to the wild world of vampires. Hopefully, his efforts in reviewing the divisive and probably most financially successful John Carpenter movie "Vampires" and Adrian Paul's follow up to "Highlander: Endgame", "The Breed" will inspire one of his fine listeners the nerve to be on a future episode of the "NinetyForChill: The #Podcast".
ThePoeticCritic joins the likes of Gregory Carl as one of NinetyForChill's annual spooky month guests as she comes to chat about Kaiju movies. Cool Movies Darth did not know that his big sister had purchased the Criterion Collection's complete "Godzilla" box set, so he may have underestimated the knowledge that would be brought to the show. He gets to chat about the modern, less fun features, but TPC from Pumpkin Town brings the A-Grade knowledge about giant monsters to this episode.
For the Spooky Month, Cool Movies Darth has cleaned up and combined the two episodes dedicated to Gregg Bishop's 2008 zombie comedy, "Dance of the Dead". CM Darth and Mitchell Whitt from the "Morbidly Macabre" podcast were once coworkers at a place stereotyped for misfits, so a a Sam Raimi produced story about the undead versus the sci-fi club is right up their alley. Mitchell stands up for possibly misinterpreted Internet articles that claim this maybe one of the best (if not the best) zombie comedy of ALL TIME. If you have listened to HIM on "MM", take that with a grain of salt.
1987 may have been the peak of eighties horror. The Tommy Jarvis trilogy had concluded and Freddy was not going to top his bout with Patricia Arquette. Few would argue that neither of those franchises had what it took to surpass "Evil Dead II". The wise thing to do would have been to ride on Sam Raimi's coattails. In steps Kevin Tenney with "Night of the Demons".
When you need to mix up the themes and tones of your movies for spooky month, Don Coscarelli is a great auteur to turn to. Cool Movies Darth's introduction to this director was the nightmare fuel that is the "Phantasm". Kodiak Thompson's comes from the comedic craziness that is "John Dies at the End". Who can resist Bruce Campbell as an elderly Elvis Presley in "Bubba Ho-Tep"? If horror is not your bag, Doscarelli will still draw you in with one of his films.
Gregory Carl returns to "NinetyForChill: The #Podcast" to start #SpookyMonth off with a raucous horror comedy in "House". It seemed to be inspired by Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" which led Cool Movies Darth to feel like it may have been trying to beat the more comedic "Evil Dead 2" to the punch. That is an appropriate vibe since the Vietnam themes were huge in the mid 1980s, and 1985 was the year that Cannon released the first two "Missing in Action" movies to tug on the coattails of "Rambo: First Blood: Part 2" publicity.
In the event that Cool Movies Darth cannot come up with three more guests for #SpookyMonth, he is bringing back some of his most fun horror movie podcast episodes. This is a ThePoeticCritic (a non-horror fan) approved conversation and the first episode released on Podbean. Joe Golwitzer comes on the show to discuss the first eight "Saw" movies. CM Darth has cleaned the audio up and jumps right into the discussion.
Michael Biehn should be as highly regarded as great character actors like Bill Paxton, but for whatever reason, his work seems to be more difficult to find. The man's characters handles themselves better in James Cameron movies that Mr. Game Over Man, so he deserves a lot more respect. Cool Movies Darth is a fan, and is quick to rent any feature, regardless of budget, that Mr. Biehn has acted in. Thus, NinetyForChill's host revisited some of these rentals.
Cool Movies Darth has been wanting to record a Kevin Smith themed podcast, but did not want to spoil “Clerks III” by inane conversation a week after its debut. Our host immediately recorded his review and crushed dreams after checking out this Fathom Event.
Gregory Carl blesses "NinetyForChill: The #Podcast" with his presence again to discuss Ralph Bashki's "Fritz the Cat", the "first" X-Rated animated feature and the most successful independent animated film of all time. This is a movie that discusses a lot of issues that are still extremely sensitive today in regards to race relations while being as explicit as narratively possible, It is a film that needs to be chatted about, but not around the kiddies.
This week's Ally's Accessories Shop Trash Feature Revue is the hard to find (per DVD.com) British comedy "Wild Target" starring Emily Blunt. X is still a tough letter to represent, so Cool Movies Darth decides to have some fun with three degrees of Kevin Bacon as he also watched "Pokemon: Detective Pikachu" and "R.I.P.D." As a bonus treat, between the first two film, we get 25 minutes with ThePoeticCritic and what has been featured on her Letterboxd. Long live Ringo Star and Barbara Bach.
"Big Trouble in Little China" is a film of such greatness that Cool Movies Darth brings in two Internet powerhouses to chat about it. Friend of the podcast Andrew Tiede from Baking While Baked returns to represent the Midwest and Jorge from the "Not a Strong Start" podcast represents the West Coast. It is CM Darth's attempt to take the best of two cultures to properly honor The Horror Master John Carpenter and the wild aura of the eighties.
Cool Movies Darth is on his own this week, so he has chosen to go back to the library provided by Ally of Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy's Trash Feature Revue. If anything, this episode will provide an ideal movie binge for those who have to take the time to recuperate from Covid-19. Sadly, that is what the co-producer of this podcast is going through. Wish Ms. Ally well and tell her to tune to this episode dedicated to nothing but quality films she found for $3.33 at the Champaign, IL Disc Replay.
We come to the conclusion of Cool Movies Darth and Gregory Carl's conversation about Roddy Piper's starring debut, "They Live". The two being pro-wrestling fans, means their conversation will inevitably focus on the wrestling business, but they go down some intriguing rabbit holes. Fresh off attending Fan Expo, CM Darth suggests the concept that Kevin Smith is the modern day John Carpenter. Gregory is a fan of "Tusk" and "Red State", so is this suggestion that ridiculous??
Cool Movies Darth has returned home from C2E2 with all of the festivities (that he attended [Sorry Cosplay Ball]) documented for you. Was it better than Fan Expo Chicago? Who did he come to see? Did he do much to promote the NinetyForChill: The #Podcast? Cosplay's premier "Captain N: The Gamemaster" may finally be getting the nerd recognition he deserves. Or is he still pumped from the Danhausen photo op?
CM Darth was able to make up some sleep. With the Starbucks providing him the wherewithal to go back and get his badge, he was able to leave a main stage seat indentation for Billy Dee Williams, the “Kenobi” supporting players, and an Irish Michael Rooker.
Cool Movies Darth sums up the first day of this year’s Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. He attended the Channel Awesome & Nerds Know panel sandwich and offended Twitter with his takes on proper cosplay etiquette.
It only felt fitting to spend SummerSlam Weekend covering a movie starring the greatest heel in professional wrestling history, Roddy Piper. Gregory Carl from "The Mud Show" returns to "NinetyForChill: The #Podcast" to provide all the praise to perhaps the best feature starring a wrestler, "John Carpenter's They Live". This is a film so awesome that Cool Movies Darth suggests that it may have encouraged WWE to go into the movie business and resulted in CM Darth deciding to buy it a third time for all the possible special features that only Shout/Scream Factory can offer.
Michael Dubois and Cool Movies Darth pick up where they left off with their discussion inspired by Mel Brooks's debut feature, "The Producers". The conversation starts with exploring Zero Mostel's portrayal of Max Bialystock and his pension for seducing pensioners to fund his films. This leads into CM Darth's salacious adulthood, satirical takes towards parents, and "Star Wars" fandom. It only seems appropriate to attach a review for "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot" to this podcast.
Michael Dubois returns to NinetyForChill: The #Podcast to continue their tribute to the late great Gene Wilder with 1967's "The Producers". It only seems fitting to revisit Mel Brook's motion picture debut in honor of his recent 96th birthday. This feature is Cool Movie Darth's favorite from the auteur, but Michael would have preferred Nathan Lane's presence. What the two do agree on: We need more mocking of the Far Right via cinema.
Cool Movies Darth was able to binge "Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi" in 48-hours to prepare for Fan Expo in Rosemont, IL. Did he have the energy to thoroughly enjoy the reskin of Wizard World (and Chicago Comic Con before that)? There was Carl Weathers, Ron Perlman, Boyd Holbrook, and a bunch of Hobbits, but since there is only one "Return" (and it is not "of the King"), CM Darth was dedicated to the Kevin Smith content. Was he willing to put up with the challenges and lack of encouragement to get his Bluntman and Chronic Funko Pop! 2-Pack autographed? Here is his story.
NinetyForChill.com's Guide to Shudder, "The Mudshow's" Gregory Gathmann needed five beers and someone to chat about Phil Tippett's magnum opus "Mad God", so he came to Cool Movies Darth. The two were impressed with this dialogue-free, stop-motion, animated feature that took 30 years to make, but what does it mean? Is it good cinema or merely superb visual art? These two podcasters try to make sense of this feature and perhaps even their lives.
*Cool Movies Darth does not claim that this episode of NinetyForChill: The #Podcast is the end-all-be-all audio documentation of Christopher Lambert's career. CM Darth reviews two of his favorite Lambert sub 100-minute movies (Stuart Gordon's "Fortress" and Paul W.S. Anderson's "Mortal Kombat"), the film that spawned his most renowned franchise "Highlander", and, because all of the sequels qualify, "Highlander III".
NinetyForChill.com returns to Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy's Trash Feature Revue to provide you with opinions on DVDs whose values will not be affected by inflation. Cool Movies Darth takes us on a journey of traditional horror, no budget indies, and whatever Dark Castle Entertainment claims to be scary. This episode addresses the Full Moon Features' classic "Puppet Master", a vampire-fad character study in "Quench", the too vulgar for PureFlix "The Reaping", and a low definition attempt to cross Faust with Palahniuk in "Shadow Hours".
ThePoeticCritic returns to the podcast to give a thorough analysis of the sub 100-minute filmography of Jim Carrey. Cool Movie Darth considers the actor/comedian to be the last superstar of cinema. This episode tries to address the impact of TPC's second favorite North American actor and how movies have/will change without a name that draws people to the big screen.
Cool Movies Darth's trip through Mark L. Lester's filmography ends this week with a discussion about the greatest action movie DVD two-pack. This is a throwback to Gregory Carl's debut on "NinetyForChill: The #Podcast" and the double feature was "Bloodsport" and Lester's "Showdown in Little Tokyo". Dolph Lundgren, Brandon Lee, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Bolo Yeung: Can you come up with a greater action hero line up?
This week we celebrate almost all of the Mark L. Lester films that Cool Movies Darth has gotten a hold of. For Night 2 of Lester week, we hear CM Darth's takes on the director's high school/McDowell/McDowall exploitation pictures, "Class of 1984" and "Class of 1999".
To warm listeners up for Cool Movies Darth's further adventures in Mark L. Lester's directorial filmography, we return to Episode 35. Michael Dubois made his debut on NinetyForChill: The #Podcast to review what maybe the greatest good/bad action movie of all time, the Arnold Schwarzenegger starring "Commando".
Come for a chat about Karl Urban and The Rock's 2005 video game movie adaptation "Doom". Stick around for Cool Movies Darth's not safe for work conversation about wrestling and podcast merchandising featuring Andras from Ta2squid Podcast and Kollin (and his kids) from the Trashpanda Podcast.
No guest this week, so Cool Movies Darth returns to the cheap DVD bin that Ally of Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy provided him. This portion of the A to Zed journey takes us on a scary tour. Scary to some with the Steve Martin's Woody Allen inspired "L.A. Story" and Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris". Scary to the rest for featuring Lucio Fulci's "The New York Ripper". "Out of the Dark" represents Colombia and "It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want To" stands up for Pittsburgh.
Jeff Goldblum + Geena Davis + Jim Carrey = A great way to beat the monotony of shallow, capitalistic existence. CoolMoviesDarth was his standard dower self going into the weekend while ThePoeticCritic was sour about the lack of cool guests going into the Chicago Con season. Needing summer to start now, CM Darth turned to an 80's camp classic he just never got around to, "Earth Girls Are Easy". TPC just happens to offer some of the best insights into this Julie Brown vanity project.
Cats and pandas come to the rescue this week on NinetyForChill.com. "Turning Red" was released to physical media this week, so Cool Movies Darth found that we have a Pixar movie with the ideal runtime. That amused him for one night, but the greatest amusement may have been discovering "Red Dwarf XIII" was a TV movie. Enjoy this homage to the commonwealth and forgive his fandom that he may mistake for cultural knowledge.
Kodiak Thompson returns to offer up his insight about another horror comedy, Travis Betz's "Lo" from 2009. This romantic tale is all charm with a sense of humor that is akin to "John Dies at the End". It is like "Evil Dead" except the demons are more concerned with spouting and mocking philosophies instead of swallowing souls.
Cool Movie Darth has finally attended Ebertfest when he saw the Terry Zwigoff and Thora Birch hosted screening of "Ghost World". It may have only been to one of the 13 shows, but this is a movie that has an important place in his life, regardless of the extra 20 minutes. He does his best to describe the experience to his big sister, ThePoeticCritic, perhaps to distract her from the remaining month of cinema lacking Jeff Goldblum.
Well, life happens, and this week's scheduled interview fell through. Fortunately, Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy has provided Cool Movies Darth with plenty of films and inspiration. This week, "NinetyForChill.com: The #Podcast" catches up with five of those features: "Gothika", "Hawk's Vengeance", "Invitation to a Suicide", "Juno", and "King of California".
Cool Movies Darth addresses Sony's most important feature of Winter 2021, "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City". You may dispute this claim, but "Spider-Man: No Way Home" was really a Disney movie. Reimagining narrative video games and creating an action-packed, scare-light versions of Universal Picture's horror icons has been Sony's bread and butter since 2002. After 20 years of this, it is time to start repainting their established IP.
Cool Movies Darth goes back to HBO after 7pm in the 1980's to pay tribute to Sylvester Stallone. His films with the Cannon Group ("Cobra" and "Over the Top") serve as an excellent summation of the fun that studio provided neglectful Baby Boomer and their children. And NinetyForChill.com will dedicate itself to show why you should never overlook a Rutger Hauer feature, so "Nighthawks" makes this trifecta of Sly.
Gregory Carl returns to NinetyForChill.com: The #Podcast to critique the movie that established the equation of Rutger Hauer + Action Gimmick = Low Brow Gold. 1989's "Blind Fury" was an early 90s' basic cable Cubs/Braves rain delay stand by. A blind sword-swinging Hauer vs. Randle "Tex" Cobb screams entertainment. Why would you want to see the Cubs be the Cubs when the game resumed?
"Sportz Ballz" host Tim Loss (pardon calling him Timothy in the hasty intro) comes on to the podcast to discuss a film that had a seminal influence on his life, "Roadside Prophets". He and Cool Movies Darth nearly spend two hours discussing what would be Generation X's "Easy Rider". It is a mellow suggestion that the counter culture and cheeky nihilism could save the USA from itself. We would have at least been in a better place to handle 9-11.
ThePoeticCritic graces NinetyForChill.com: The #Podcast again with her thoughts on how the Academy Awards will either piss off #FilmTwitter or just be mocked for its failure to connect with the Marvel-loving loud mouths of Millennials and Gen Z. So Cool Movies Darth offers up suggestions on how to remedy this while setting up a lot of "The Simpsons" references to display the futility of making changes to the Oscars.
Cool Movies Darth and Michael Dubois resume their conversation about one of the most impactful children features in their lives, "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory". The two discuss the charms of Gene Wilder that Johnny Depp could only wish for, and how they may allow a real megalomaniacal chocolatier to get away with the crimes against humanity that Roald Dahl's most famous character commits.
NinetyForChill.com: The #Podcast is starting Michael Dubois's proposed Gene Wilder trilogy by discussing his favorite movie of all time, "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory". At least, it was coming into these recordings. Can two ultra-left anti-capitalists watch a feature about the Howard Hughes of chocolatiers and leave with the same respect that they had for this feature as children?
With "Showdown in Little Tokyo" sharing the marquee at the Norris University Center at Northwestern University, Cool Movies Darth was obligated to attempt to make it through the 24-hour, B-movie marathon that is B-Fest. He spent all 24 hours in the McCormick Auditorium, but did he watch all the movies? Sometimes, there are things so bad, you just need to shut the brain off.
If you need a director to provide you with a perfect 90 minutes of cinema, your best bet maybe David Cronenberg. The past two years on NinetyForChill.com, the best features Cool Movies Darth has found were helmed by this Canuck composer. Here, CM Darth offers his thoughts on three classics from the master of body horror: "A History of Violence", "Rabid", and "Naked Lunch.
If there is a master of spotting subtle horror on Shudder, it is Gregory Carl. This week he suggested a film that has a horror-worthy premise with "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane" featuring a 14 year-old Jodie Foster. It is a feature that turns the seemingly defenseless adolescent premise on its head while maintaining all that 1970s creepiness in all its glory.
If you remove the credits for "Ghostbusters (1984)", the runtime is only 36 seconds too long to qualify for NinetyForChill.com's parameters. Cool Movies Darth is a fan of "Solo: A Star Wars Story", so like Han, he chose to round the runtime down to the lower parsec. This allows him to address the latest film in the paranormal comedy franchise, "Ghostbusters: Afterlife".
After David Cronenberg has presented Cool Movies Darth with the best sub 100-minute discoveries for the past two years on NinetyForChill.com, the podcast feels it is imperative to remind cinephiles around the world how important the works of Stuart Gordon are. Be it Lovecraftian adaptations like "Dagon" and "Castle Freak" to charming low-budget sci-fi like "Robot Jox", there maybe no greater genre director than this late Chicago playwright turn auteur.
Michael Dubois makes his return to the podcast to further express his admiration for Samara Weaving with a discussion about 2019's action satire, "Ready or Not". Cool Movies Darth goes into this thinking the film was a step down from the quality of "Bill and Ted Face the Music", but only a baby step. Is Samara the next Uma Thurman? We will find that out.
Gregory Carl maybe late for Christmas, but comes strong by offering Cool Movies Darth this movie suggestion. What if instead of the Wet Bandits, Kevin was stalked by Father Christmas? And how about we give Macaulay Culkin a marvelous mullet? What you get is the 1989's French feature "Deadly Games", the plagiarism lawsuit against "Home Alone" that never materialized.
ThePoeticCritic sparingly drops F-Bombs, and because she and her little brother Cool Movies Darth were less than two weeks removed from their Disney World vacation, it made sense to hold off on some lengthier recordings to see how Disney will rule the world in 2022. There is of course some Goldblum talk, but the Mouse dominates the show with his rides and movies.
Cool Movies Darth returns from Walt Disney World (and to unemployment) to deal with his fascination about "The Aristocats" backpack/purse sold in Orlando. He reviews the animated movie and discusses his trip to the most dangerous place on earth, Florida. Thanks Ron Desantis for another family member's Covid diagnosis.
This past Christmas, ThePoeticCritic spent an hour with her little brother Cool Movies Darth to help comprise a list of NinetyForChill's best discoveries of 2021. Her movie research is not as narrow as this podcast's host, but she chooses five movies that will make the list. It is up to CM Darth to determine which five of the remaining 15 films will make for a well balanced countdown.
Oh, the best laid plans of mice. This week's original guest was a last minute scratch, but fortunately Cool Movies Darth can count on family. ThePoeticCritic was kind enough to grace us with her presence to focus on the 2003 Will Ferrell classic, "Elf", and the near 20 years since that have been without a Christmas classic.
Cool Movies Darth's plans for one horror movie podcast fell through, but fortunately you can rely on Lionsgate and Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy's Trash Features Revue. This week, CM Darth takes a look at Adam Wingard's cult classic, "You're Next" and revisits the even lesser budgeted "Nocturne" from 2016.
Gregory Carl and Cool Movies Darth team up like the "Snyder's Justice League" to provide an introduction into the world of DC Comics' Animated Features. The two bring up at least 20 of these films, and for the most part, at least one of them will recommend of each movie. Your hosts will also express how they got into these features and if you can take the short cut of watching these instead of reading the books that they are based on.
This week Cool Movies Darth covers the kaiju who beat out "Species (1995)" and "Life (2017)" to the alien hitchhiking to Earth trope, "The X From Outer Space (1967)", a rare, subpar addition to the Criterion Collection. The obsessive podcaster mismanaged his time to optimize his computer to retain some NSFW content. But his OCD allowed him to make sure every letter of the alphabet is represented when it comes to Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy's Trash Feature Reviews.
ThePoeticCritic is back and focused to start spreading that Christmas cheer. She fondly looks back on the holiday offerings that bring joy to the world indiscriminately while Cool Movies Darth focuses on the cynical side of the season with films like Dennis Leary in "The Ref" and Bill Goldberg in "Santa's Slay". What they can agree on is that their should be no seasonal restrictions on when we can watch "Ernest Saves Christmas".
In time for "Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City", Cool Movies Darth revisits Russell Mulcahy's "Resident Evil: Extinction". This Australian-helmed feature allows him to pick the brain of ThePoeticCritic who offers some insight into Australian Exploitation cinema. The most highly regarded of these features being "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior". She is fine with George Miller's efforts but has a fascination with exploitation.
Cool Movies Darth is hoping to contribute some support for the continuation of the "Ghostbusters" franchise and maybe ride along on a hashtag. He and Andrew Tiede are/were both looking forward to "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" and what better way to get in the best mood for it than gushing over the original? As a bonus, they breakdown the foundation for the series, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray and Ivan Reitman early 80s collaborations.
Thus far, Cool Movies Darth has provided 22 trash feature reviews provided by Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy. This week, we focus on the features that did not get prominently promoted on the podcast AND are actually worthwhile. "Johnny Handsome", "The Order" and "The Colony" prove that it is tough to go wrong with Morgan Freeman, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and the tag team of Bill Paxton and Lawrence Fishburne.
Michael Dubois comes back to the podcast to discuss the most excellent trilogy when it comes to doing fan service right, "Bill & Ted". If only Disney had thought about giving "The Rise of Skywalker" to Keanu Reeves and Alex Winters, the galaxy would be what Rufus and Kenobi would consider tranquil. What is there not to like about these films? There is casual homophobia in the first two, but it is fleeting and these films course correct perfectly as they go along. But because of the language used, Cool Movies Darth deemed that this episode's conversation should be left uncensored.
Finally, a comic book movie that can be featured on "NinetyForChill.com - The #Podcast" All we needed was a Tom Hardy vanity project. If you only focused on the craziness of his prior performance(s) as the character(s) instead of the action that surrounded them, this flick double downs on this formula.
Kodiak Thompson returns to the podcast to talk up Paul W.S. Anderson's attempt to combine "Alien" and "Hellraiser", "Event Horizon". Cool Movies Darth and his guest go over the most memorable video game features the auteur was behind as they try to figure out how this Lawrence Fishburne lead feature was Anderson's biggest financial bomb despite being his most original and impressive concept. It gets sad when you find out how much CG effects that look bad in 4K cost in 1997.
Fresh off of an endorsement from "The ID10T Podcast", Cool Movies Darth and ThePoeticCritic continue the spooky season with a couple of "Dracula" movies. We compare, contrast, and celebrate Christopher Lee from "Dracula" 1958 and Frank Langella from "Dracula" 1979. It is Hammer Films vs Universal and a John Williams score. Which is better?
Ally from Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy comes back to NinetyForChill to determine if Cool Movie Darth's vibe of "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" being overrated has any validity. Fans of this feature seem to buy anything Disney puts on Freeform. CM Darth must know. Is Henry Selick's film the reason for spayed and neutered millennial monsters?
Van Damme/Van Dam expert, Gregory Carl, comes back to the pod in a musical mood. Cool Movies Darth decides to introduce him to a film that could be the perfect partner feature with "The Lost Boys". This film is from an Argento and Fulci apprentice, Michael Soavi's "StageFright: Aquarius".
A comedy of errors has left us with a brief installment to NinetyForChill. Inspired by George Miller's means to make Mel Gibson feel something in "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior", Cool Movies Darth addresses how you rarely go wrong by killing a dog on the big screen.
ThePoeticCritic and Cool Movies Darth take you on a journey ranging from the Criterion Channel's Saturday Matinees for the smart kids to the directors with obsessions of dreamlike environments. The Spanish animated gem "Nocturna" and Wes Craven's "A Nightmare on Elm St" serve as bookends to this narrative that does quite a bit of juxtaposition of features like "The Never Ending Story" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". NinetyForChill tries to capture the motivation behind Terry Gillian's filmography in about 90 minutes.
Michael Dubois makes his NinetyForChill debut as a contributor and we tackle Mark L. Lester's 1985 action classic, "Commando". This is the feature that was created give some humanity to Arnold Schwarzenegger, but Michael thinks it maybe the Governator as his most wooden. Perhaps he should have been cast as a cooler at a Missourian bar.
This episode is an expression of the range of my best contributors, a five-star suggestion from ThePoeticCritic in "Class Action Park" and "Risky Business" from Ally's Trash Feature Reviews. It also serves as a summation of white adolescent attitudes from the 1980's. Fortunately, fine flicks the both of them are.
Gregory Carl returns to the podcast to demonstrate his range of cinematic knowledge. Gregory and Cool Movies Darth discuss the pre franchise work of writer/director James Gunn. We end up mainly focusing on 2010's "Super" and allow that to express our admiration of Gunn's most recent features and the inimitable Michael Rooker.
Like many of Wes Anderson's features, oddball circumstances had led to ThePoeticCritic saving my bum. She found Anderson's filmography to be interesting enough to give us some content. I bring the breakdowns of features like "Bottle Rocket" and "Rushmore" while TPC emphasizes the importance of his freedom from the revived studio system. Anderson is essentially the independent scene's cheerleader. Please forgive the "Heroes" reference.
ThePoeticCritic returns to the podcast and lets us know how we must stand up to Disney and their efforts to allow the Marvel Cinematic Universe to consume the whole of mass media and prevent new ideas from influencing aspiring film makers. It is a call to seek shelter in the Criterion Collection. Thankfully, their streaming channel has great Saturday matinees for the kids along side Cronenberg and Jarmush for Mom and Dad.
This week's episode is short and sweet. Cool Movies Darth offers up his opinion on the latest DCEU feature, James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad", to show that he has his finger on the cinematic pulse while offering up some vampiric movies to check out, Stuart Gordon's "Daughter of Darkness" and the 2015 office comedy "Bloodsucking Bastards".
J.D. Grieving from the JDHD Series graces us with his presence to discuss "Stealing Harvard". For a 17 year-old J.D., this helped lay the groundwork for his own style of comedy. For a 22 year-old C.M. Darth, I needed something to further bury the memory of "Freddy Got Fingered".
Gregory Carl is about to set the podcast world on fire with his upcoming Jean-Claude Van Damme podcast, so he was more than welcomed to talk action movies on this pod. I did not want to tread to much on his expertise, so we talked about what I consider to be the greatest DVD two-pack, "Bloodsport" and "Showdown in Little Tokyo".
Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy has provided NinetyForChill with plenty of features to critique, and it has come to the point that we need to catch up on the reviews. So CM Darth takes on the 2017 LA Thriller Fest Best Picture "Nocturne" and to prep for Episode 28's Jean-Claude Van Damme theme, our critic watched JCVD's 2001 "Indy Jones" knock off script "The Order".
This is the first podcast that I was waiting for the film's home release to drop. My return to the cinema started with "Spiral: From the Book of Saw". Because I saw the last show in Champaign/Urbana, it did not make much sense to talk about until this return to my favorite horror franchise until the DVD and Blu-rays dropped.
Jessica Kwazz from the "Second Chance Movies Podcast" expresses her love for Mel Brook's "Spaceballs" while ThePoeticCritic returns with the history of how this feature became a classic. ThePoeticCritic and I discuss why "Star Wars" was nearly abandoned while Jessica tells of her admiration of cinema's GREATEST franchise.
I just have to be upfront and apologize. A miscommunication with my guest resulted in only half the audio from "Spaceballs: The Podcast" being recorded. Hopefully my hot takes on WWE Studio's "The Marine" with John Cena will amuse you. If not, there are still some digital movie deals offered up to you. Things will be back on track with the next episode. Thanks for all of your support.
I have been asking for weeks for assistance in composing an episode dedicated to vampire features like "The Lost Boys" trilogy, "Near Dark", and the "Underworld" movies. Here is to hoping that this bunch of critiques will stir up some inspiration in my audience to step up and hold off on the garlic.
I sounded a bit more forgiving to the Adrian Paul and Bookeem Woodbine starring feature, "The Breed". And I show off my hominus nocturna knowledge by critiquing "John Carpenter's Vampire".
Letterboxd's ThePoeticCritic was kind of enough to return to the podcast. The only issue was, what were we going to talk about? Fortunately, as long as it involves cinema, there maybe no greater mind for film history in the Heart of Illinois than that of my big sister.
Our discussion about "The Lost Boys" and Joel Schumacher does not get to heated because it was so easy to talk up the importance of "Near Dark" and the how that film has many parallel's with other Kathryn Bigelow features.
We get to have a discussion about the absurdist humor of John Waters and how Woody Allen, for better or worse, is one of his closest contemporaries. This also leads me to ask if we needed a more absurd Stanley Kubrick.
ThePoeticCritic from Letterboxd (my big sister) offered up some wisdom when it came to our late 1990's VHS bonding. We pretty much give Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy's RiffTrax free advertising. Where did we direct this wisdom? I do my best to get her to tell us what she thinks is the best means to let the former "Mystery Science Theater 3000" make movies funny.
My older sister and I discuss how you should spend your money when it comes to getting your RiffTraxs. Then we argue about whether or not you need them to get through Zack Snyder's "Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice".
This week, my flexibility is demonstrated when it comes to coming up with content as I invite Andrew Tiede to the pod. He let me know what Ivan Reitman directed and Harold Ramis penned feature he wanted to gush over, so we talk about the sub 100-minute movies that got us to that paranormal comedy from 1984. And then we gush about the battle with the marshmallow behemoth. @The_Couch_Man on TikTok and I do our best to get from the original "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" to "Ghostbusters". The focus was intended to be about Harold Ramis's directorial debut "Caddyshack" and Ivan Reitman's minimal effort that Bill Murray carried, "Meatballs", but you cannot dismiss the features surrounding Dan Aykroyd rise which allowed him to sell a space janitor movie that nearly had a German-themed John Candy. This leads to reminiscing about the power of John Belushi that John Landis facilitated.
@QuidPro_Joe and I conclude our conversation that started with Adam Sandler's golden age that kicked off with "Billy Madison" and ended with "Little Nicky". We learn about his recent Vudu purchase from the Sandler filmography and how "The Longest Yard" created a need for him to express the joy that the former "Saturday Night Live" performer has provided him. And since it was the 85-minute mark of the conversation, the booze may have taken hold. We go from trying to defend the Sandler's cameos in obnoxious Rob Schneider movies to trying to determine our favorite sub 100-minute features that he starred in. That may have been the goal of the podcast, but when we leaned towards "The Wedding Singer" the podcast goes off the rails as Joe tells us how "Wonder Women 84" tried too hard to capture the 1980s.
@QuidPro_Joe returns to stand up for the career of Adam Sandler, or at the very least remind us of the 10 years where he was the most reliable cinematic comic. If only Jim Carrey did not take himself so seriously.
We discuss how Adam Sandler's classics stack up to Chris Farley's. Another guest expresses more love for Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia" which gives us a chance to reexamine everything from 1999. This includes a discussion that puts "Fight Club" in a battle with "Big Daddy". Who was the better teacher: Durden of Sandler?
Mitchell Whitt from the "Morbidly Macabre" podcast and I conclude our conversation about 2008's "Dance of the Dead". We talk about its strong and beyond appropriate gore effects, how it stacks up against other zombie comedies like "Fido" and "Dead Snow", and how we have to get the theater business, at least on the Champaign/Urbana level, ready to blow the minds of those who will coming back to Ebert Fest.
And I will say, it was a relevant weekend when it came to this podcast. Mitchell had just gotten married on Saturday (I am sure his registry on Amazon and Target have some items they could use that their guests did not claim.). Finding out about Mitchell's family living in Jacksonville lead to a New Jack story (Rest in Peace). And to further display my knowledge of low-budget zombie movies, I revisited "Last Rites of the Dead" a.k.a. "Zombies Anonymous".
Mitchell Whitt from the "Morbidly Macabre" podcast found that he was not alone when it came to the appreciation of "Dance of the Dead", a Ghost House Underground feature that was directed by Gregg Bishop ("The Other Side" and "V/H/S Viral") and written by Joe Ballarini ("A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting"). Ghost House Pictures was founded by "Evil Dead" and "Spider-Man" director Sam Raimi and his producer Robert Tapert, so it was only natural to be drawn to a feature their money was behind with humor and ridiculous zombies to fight. This led to a conversation that explores both of our experiences in high school. We discuss the concepts of: how prom really affects teenagers, the importance of trauma to really force us to grow up, and how we both ended up at one point or another in blue shirts with yellow tags. "Dance of the Dead" features characters that reminds all white kids how great it is to be done with public education.
The goal of this episode is to be brief, have fun, and see if I can get this onto YouTube. In other words, I am taking a little conversation with ThePoeticCritic and seeing if I can elaborate on it for just under 10 minutes. This is my best attempt at satire on my show, so let me know if it works.
My older sister was discussing how only Disney's inhouse features are requiring a thirty dollar fee to watch them as new releases. It seems the Pixar crew is upset that their feature releases lack the pomp and circumstance. This lead to me joking about, "If you want equality, we need a communist streaming service."
Letterboxd's The Poetic Critic and I examine the who/what/why/how the late 70's and early 80's fell in love with the concept of Jack Sparrow in space. Okay, the answer is "Star Wars" but lets give Stanley Kubrick some credit for "2001: A Space Odyssey" and more importantly "Silent Running" for setting the stage.
The biggest question we address is how did anyone think that creating galaxies could be done in 90 minutes. How much raping and pillaging can the "Ice Pirates" commit? Do all of Roger Corman's knock off count as a cinematic universe? How many space TV shows did the 70's have to offer? Should this genre have disappeared?
Stallone has a greater deal of features that fit into the NinetyForChill.com parameters. He is very aware of what films he is doing for a paycheck, and which one he is trying to be an artist with. When it comes to the art, he is usually involved with the script or is helming the feature. Of the movies I watched, "Cobra" was the only one which he penned, but it was produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. In other words, it is a Cannon feature and you need to listen to the Screen Drafts CANNON podcast to find the art they offered.
What we get this week is my visceral takes on the following Sylvester Stallone features:
- "Nighthawks" from 1981: This is Rutger Hauer's introduction to the podcast.
- "Cobra" from 1986: This was originally suppose to be "Beverly Hills Cop", and you can kind of tell, if you look pass the subtle fascism.
- "Over the Top" from 1987: Menahem Golan gets behind the camera to make you ponder the trauma of his childhood and how arm wrestling is suppose to fix it.
- "Escape Plan: The Extractors" from 2019: Stallone probably did it with an assurance that everyone would keep their voices' volume down to his level.
This week, we get to pick the brain of entrepreneur and this podcast's co-producer Ally of Ally's Accessories Shop. She was intimidated by the idea of coming up with a theme to chat about, but was eventually able to we resolved on discussing the dominant franchises of Sony's Screen Gems, "Resident Evil" and "Underworld".
Before she arrived at this, she mentioned the immediate sub 100-minute movies that left an enduring impact on her, "Flashdance" and "Killer Klowns from Outer Space". To ensure I could get the most content from her, I did my research, and now have one of these DVDs that I best try to drop back upon her.
We discuss the feminism concerns over Jennifer Beals most memorable feature, how the Klowns hold up in terms of other horror comedies like "Gremlins", and why zombies, werewolves, and vampires intrigue her so much. Is she on Team Edward or Team Jacob? The answer will surprise you.
I could go on about other anti-democratic propaganda like where am I going to eat breakfast. Thankfully, Coca-Cola is standing up to Georgia. When my podcast involves the "adaptation" of William S. Burroughs's "Naked Lunch" and the ironic take on Middle America that is "A History of Violence", to continue ranting about politics to promote this blog seems pointless.
This blog explores David Cronenberg films I have watched or rewatched recently. It actually turns out to be quite poignant when I investigate 1977's "Rabid" and the Soska Sister's re-imagining from 2019. They both serve as accurate prediction's of the American response to COVID-19. You end up admiring the Canadians for learning from their art. They do not have the mess that is occurring to their southern neighbors.
I chat with my older sister ThePoeticCritic to talk about her favorite (living) actor, Jeff Goldblum and his features that range from 91 to 96 minutes. Her immense knowledge and research (Thanks Mike and Mike at "Now and Then Movie Podcast") allowed her to give me a lot of incite into the story of one of the best character actors of the past 45 years. She also explains why half of my four-day Goldblum binge required some means of chemical escape. The features that are discussed in depth on this podcast are the David Cronenberg classic "The Fly", Larry Bishop's mess of a debut feature "Mad Dog Time", "Shooting Elizabeth" from his European excursions, and "The Great White Hype" a funny fighting film featuring the fresh from "Pulp Fiction" Samuel L. Jackson. ThePoeticCritic also provides opinions about every other Goldblum feature that qualify for the NinetyForChill.com standards.
Thank you Stuart Gordon for creating nothing but gems that I am proud to promote. Too bad he passed away before I could get a chance to tell him to quit picking on cats and Downstate Illinois. Yes, Chicago is where I want to be, but I will not forget that I was Peoria Made. Daisy from "John Wick" was asking for it. A feline would have stayed out of Iosef and his gang.
The lesson this week is to always keep coming up with content. I ponder when I am going to get sick of that. Thanks to these little extra steps when it comes to documenting nearly every "new to me" movie I have watched since September of last year has allowed me to provide a somewhat genuine episode of the podcast. It is almost like I never missed a beat.
Ally from Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy visited her/our cat Skimble and had a story about people food ruining the trail of cats left in her wake. People food and Skimble's expectations of partaking in dairy products lead to me wanting to discuss the Milla Jovovich/Emma Roberts feature "Paradise Hills" and his efforts to get his share of Ben & Jerry's Netflix & Chilled.
From there, Ally provides us with some reading suggestions and an update on her shop. I get to go off on some tangents about Robert Rodriguez's "Alita: Battle Angel" and pregnancy horror movies like "Snatchers". We also discuss why cats are so often horror movie victims. There is also my Super Bowl prediction that I willed into existence. You are welcome Tom Brady.
ThePoeticCritic guides us through a year-by-year breakdown of the most important/notable features of each year of the 1980s. This was a time where independent studios were looking to fill the void of a Disney company that was in the middle of restructuring. As a result, we go in depth about the rise and eventual fall of Don Bluth (An American Tail). We discuss the evolution of adult animation pioneer Ralph Bakshi (Fire and Ice), the end of Rankin/Bass's forays in to cinema (The Last Unicorn), I throw in a little anime from the Streamline Pictures era, and we mention all of the blink and you missed their airings on Disney Channel and HBO features.
The Poetic Critic had granted me a favor by being this week's guest. Her reward...she gets to address a big hullabaloo that over took #FilmTwitter. This poor taste insurrection started with someone boasting how they broke their own rules of not watching any features released before 1975. I guess this was to prove their belief that cinema was not worth anything prior to the year of "Jaws" because they found "Citizen Kane" to be a poor attempt at art.
It was not solely the stance that films were bad before the special effect shark. The lyrical assessor brought up a recent article that the legendary Martin Scorsese (I think I have now finally memorized the spelling.) about the art of Federico Fellini. In this work (per ThePoeticCritic [TPC]), he again discusses how he feels that corporations are more interested in delivering content to amuse instead of art to challenge.
FilmTwitter's Response To the Most Under Rewarded Director (to paraphrase): What does he know about art? All his films are about white males. The Marvel Cinematic Universe considers all cultures and races unlike the cinema before 1975 which was nothing but the celebration of white men.
I suggested doing a podcast about the "Phantasm" franchise. Kodiak Thompson wanted me to investigate the schizophrenic nature of "John Dies at the End". All of these features are from Don Coscarelli, perhaps the best auteur when it comes to affordable horror, so it was not hard to meet in the middle.
With the exception of his attempt to be a genre director, the American sword-and-sandals movie and HBO stable "The Beastmaster", all of Coscarelli's features come in at under 100 minutes. His filmography only features 11 full-length films and five of them make up the franchise that inspired the design of J.J. Abrams's Captain Phasma from the "Star Wars" sequels, so it should have not been overly difficult to cover his hits.
It was supposed to be as simple as press play in Audacity and get 20 or so minutes of us chatting about movies. The laptop was opened and the mic was out, so neither should have been caught by surprised, but I just started recording. And then...
ThePoeticCritic became more laser focused than I have seen her and gave me over an hour of material. Oh how the tables had turned.
The first weekend of February is usually the weekend of B-Fest, an annual 24-hour movie marathon of the finest B-movies that are available to the students and staff at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Being in Chicagoland, her friends from all over the country would fly in to take part in this extended:
audience-participation version of an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000; viewers are encouraged to voice their opinions of onscreen events, especially if such comments provide entertainment for the other festival attendees. (B-Fest.com)
@QuidPro_Joe returns to the podcast with a discussion about animated television shows which received adaptations/extensions to the big screen. He originally typed (I do not know if he meant it), "animated movies based of tv shows".
Joe did provide me with examples like "Transformers" and "Care Bears", but technically, the statement left the door open for films like "The Addams Family (2019)". Fortunately, in this case, our similar tastes avoided this feature. My apologies to the parents who allowed for such a toothless feature concept to be shown in 1.85:1. You will be excluded this week.
My guest this week is 10 years my junior, so we have a nice dynamic for this episode. I come at the topic from the establishment of this genre as solely being a means to introduce new toy lines (Care Bears, Transformers, GI Joe) while Joe offers incite from the Nickelodeon and Disney kids TV renascence inspired by the rise of Cartoon Network. "Duck Tales" serves as the middle ground.
Ally Higgins from AllysAccessoriesShop comes on and does her best to express her affection for anime, an animation style she was introduced to during our three and three-quarter year long relationship. We started with Studio Ghibli's classics like "My Neighbor Totoro", "Porco Rosso", and "The Cat Returns" and move on to the flicks where they just drew too many pictures. Makoto Shinkai's latest releases get some love and we find out Ally's surprising love for Mamoro Hosoda's library.
I talk with my friend Kodiak Thompson about the under appreciated talent and presence of Henry Rollins. When I said we were going to address Kodiak's favorite feature (and my second best discovery of 2019) "He Never Died", Mr. Thompson was ready to binge.
A long with "He Never Died" and "Feast", we were both able to share our experiences with the "Pontypool Universe" when we watched the fever dream that is "Dreamland". I also get to discuss my Vudu freebie feature, "Wrong Turn 2: Dead End" and how it has lead me to seek out assistance in producing a podcast episode dedicated to Sean Bean (I am looking for volunteers to talk about the man who always dies. Email russthebus07@gmail.com).
QuidPro_Joe and my original intention was to do a podcast about John Carpenter's sub 100-minute movies.
When it comes to 100-minute Carpenter, Joe realized that he was not as verse in that filmography as I was. So we decided to go with the second suggestion that I offered which was the "Saw" franchise, the sequels more specifically. Only "Saw III" runs too long for the pod's parameters, but with that being my least favorite, I figured it would not get too much love.
We still swoon over Carpenter, which makes my late Saturday viewing of "Dark Star" and related drunkenness worthwhile. We discuss the issues with how computer generated gore simply will not do. It allows us to transition to some David Cronenberg chat and my pitch for Jeff Goldblum to be the next Jigsaw apprentice.