276 Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

A slice of life from the whimsical 80's, Matt and Mark review Bill & Ted! Not the first time travelling comedy by any stretch, it un-apologetically plays with the "fish out of water" routine to full affect. While Bill & Ted may be SoCal caricatures of the proto "dudebro" aesthetic, they are played by Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves as fully fleshed out 3D characters. Are the historical figures cartoonish? Very much so. But that serves the point in the end. Hidden within the obvious gags are tinges of subtle comedic moments. Before the pastiche of Wayne's World and the dynasty of Beavis and Butthead, there was Bill & Ted! Most Excellent! Party on!

Download: 276 Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

275 Annihilation

Can a recent movie be considered cult-worthy? Regardless, Matt and Mark have endeavored to review the recent 2018 release Annihilation. Based after Jeff Vandermeer's novel of the same name, it is a cinematic treatment of the sci-fi "New Weird" genre. An alien encounter film in the vein of Carpenter's The Thing and H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space" (complete with rainbow shimmer) it defies the almost obligatory anthropomorphic alien encounters so typical in film. Annihilation doesn't spend its time sketching its characters in a reality we typical expect. Its characters, while fully human, are as unreal in their interpersonal relationships as the alien vortex consuming Southern Florida.

Download: 275 Annihilation

274 The Ice Pirates

Matt and Mark review the space-camp early eighties cult classic The Ice Pirates. A pre-Spaceballs riff on all things Star Wars and other associated derivative Sci-Fi (e.g. Roadwarrior), it begs, borrows and steals shamelessly to stitch together a watchable silly film that for whatever reason has stuck in the consciousness of Gen Xers recalling their adolescence. There's some decent gags and the film mercifully doesn't attempt to take itself seriously (that would run an extra $10 million in budget).

Download: 274 The Ice Pirates

273 Solaris

Matt and Mark finally get around to kicking out another podcast. This time we review the 1972 Soviet sci-fi classic Solaris. A well-reviewed film and ground-breaking for its era, Matt and Mark decide that for whatever reason its slow trudging art-house chic has grown a bit shabby. In our review we compare the film to its Stanislaw Lem source material (and recent translation) in addition to the latter-day remake by Steven Soderbergh. But none-the-less, the questions this film poses to the audience require insight and introspection, a form of sci-fi film making that we so preciously crave, but so rarely receive.

Download: 273 Solaris 

272 Kelly's Heros

Burnin' Bridges! This week we review the 1970's ensemble war-heist film Kelly's Heroes. Filled with stable of well-known heavies including Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, and Donald Sutherland, it's a WWII film injected with Vietnam-era sensibilities. A cynical movie, perhaps? Maybe, maybe not. What it is is a whole lotta fun. Matt and Mark discuss the true logistics of the would-be denouement... because it does beg the question: how do you get a few thousand pounds of gold out of WWII's western front when the road home leads through Berlin? Maybe it's not for us to worry about. A cult classic? Probably not, but we like it, and that's all that matters.

Download: 272 Kelly's Heroes   

271 Anomalisa

Matt and Mark are back... to back! this week with our review of the 2015 Charlie Kaufman film Anomalisa. Using stop-motion puppetry to enhance the Fregoli syndrome metaphor, Anomalisa dissects the ubiquity and transactional nature of the protagonist Michael Stone. When he meets Lisa a momentary emergence of beauty invigorates Michael, but it's ephemeral and more of self-illusion than authentic. Anomalisa paints middle-aged human interaction as a desert of intimacy with its perceived oasis nothing more than mirages. Not a "feel good" movie by any stretch, it does attempt a level honesty most likely unattainable with live actors.

Download: 271 Anomalisa

270 Assault on Precinct 13

We near completion of our Carpenter box set this week with our review of the sophomore cult classic Assault on Precinct 13. A mash-up of Western tropes and a little Zombie Romero thrown in for good measure, Carpenter works up an atmosphere of claustrophobic doom despite the seeming implausibility of the story line. It's almost as if we don't really care. Why? Because Assault is a fun B-movie action film which is Carpenter's stock-and-trade. Strangely as Carpenter's budgets bloomed in the 90's/00's his films somehow suffered. A more-with-less artist, Carpenter begins to refine his directorial chops with Assault, a cult classic if there ever was one.

Download: 270 Assault on Precinct 13