295 Fire and Ice

This go 'round we review the Bakshi/Frezetta joint Fire and Ice from 1983. For its time, a solid outing by the sorta like 'em/hate 'em Bakshi (Cool World anyone?). Crutching heavily on Frazetta's muscular fantasy exotica, the look of the film and its rotoscoping bring to life the static comic book "je ne sais quoi." Matt laments the luke warm relationship with adult themes and animation while bemoaning the silly look of today's live-action comic book fair. We both take a nostalgic journey into the sci-fi book cover art of yor, discussing our favs. While not to be left out, the mall standard Thomas Kincaid (painter of light) is given his due credit for his pre-historic matte work on F&I. Sadly, his fantasy contributions never usurped his twee cottage themes beloved by grandmothers in middle-America.

Download: 295 Fire and Ice

294 Krull

Matt and Mark review the 80's sci-fi/fantasy fusion film Krull! Diametrically opposed, Matt and Mark square off about what Mark liked and Matt did not! A highly derivative epic, Krull attempts to mash-up the tropes of high fantasy classic quest with something a little more Star Wars. Does it work? Despite its many stumbles of illogic and poorly sketched motivations, Krull is a well-filmed and produced popcorn movie with a decent set of supporting characters and a few trippy set pieces. Nostalgia may have been Matt's greatest enemy here, while Mark enjoyed it for what is... whatever that may have been.

Download:  294 Krull

293 Two-Lane Blacktop

It's Matt and Mark's 7th Anniversary of doing the podcast, and for this go 'round we finish up with our 70's car movie theme with the artsy Two-Lane Blacktop. With a set of steamy hunky rock n' rollers racing about in a built out 55' Chev, this is as American as it gets... or is it? TLB has been debated as a 'metaphor' due to the sparseness of its character sketches (if they can even be called sketches at all), but what they're a metaphor for and what archetypes they represent are not obvious or clear. In the end, we don't really know these characters other than what meaning we graft on to them. Despite it's subtext, the film captures the early 70's zeitgeist of the post-Love era, which if anything, is an interesting cultural time more and more alien to us 21st Century folks.

Download:  293 Two-Lane Blacktop

292 Death Race 2000

This go 'round Matt and Mark continue our 70's car movie them with the campy Death Race 2000. Like a macabre Cannonball Run, DR2K takes place in a futuristic dystopia where the sweaty masses (somewhere off-camera) are appeased by the breads and circuses of the titular race. Does it make any sense? Not really, but we go with it anyhow. Composed of farcical racers and their campy race cars, one can help but be reminded of far better fair in Swarzenegger's Running Man, specifically when it comes to production value. Matt takes issue with lack of geographic framing (no St. Louis does not have a Mediterranean climate and rolling coastal mountain ranges) while Mark highlights some of the film's more nonsensical nonsense. Perhaps more salient in the early 70's than it is today, DR2K remains entertaining high concept.

Download: 292 Death Race 2000