187 Signs

Signs, signs, everywhere signs... A film about apostasy that just happens to be set in the midst of an alien invasion, M. Night Shyalaman's Signs explores the importance of belief systems and the human brain's need to create constructs via pattern recognition. Mel Gibson, the mad genius bastards that he is, delivers one of his best performances as the recently faithless Reverend Hess. An exercise in less is more, Signs brings tension to the table sorely lacking in current films. M.Night shouldn't be dismissed due to his recent bombs, and here he's firing on all cylinders.  

Download: 187 Signs

186 Sixteen Candles

Matt and Mark continue the John Hughes theme this week with the first of the Ringwald trilogy films, Sixteen Candles. A product of the 80's, the character of Jake portrayed here should no more be the focus of teenage girl wish fulfillment than a drunken frat berserker armed with roofies and the tenderness of a Viking war chief. But back then, things were different. Matt and Mark agree that the true "hero" of the film and focus of most of the action is Farmer Ted. A freshmen with a motor, he provides the late night hilarity and action while the passive Samantha merely laments her predicament and falls asleep before midnight.

Download: 186 Sixteen Candles

185 Planes,Trains and Automobiles

A little late for Thanksgiving, we offer up our review of the John Hughes holiday classic Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Matt coughs up a few anecdotes regarding his experience with the modern marvel we know as domestic air travel, while Mark picks apart the turkey carcass of Neil Paige's fairy tale domesticity, complete with the awaiting water-eyed angelic housewife and the immaculate oven, complete with a photogenic 25 lb butterball.

Download:  185 Planes, Trains and Automobiles

184 Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory

Ending the "For the Kids..." movie review marathon this week, we give our spin on the classic Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. Matt stumbles trying to offer up his take on the titular character, while Mark cuts to the chase and sizes up Willy as an entrepreneur akin to Silicon Valley monomaniacs like Musk, Jobs, Bezos, and Gates. Paranoid and zealous, Willy lives a hermetic world where those who don't share his vision of a candy utopia are not to be trusted and tested. Meant to be a wholesome family musical, Willy Wonka is more dark comedy with a cutting wit and little regard for handling kids with kid gloves.

Download: 184 Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory

183 Transformers The Movie

This week we review Transformers The Movie, a result of the 80's high concept marketing campaign for the toy industry. Back in the day, Matt and Mark used to watch after school half hour advertisements for Mattel and Kenner in the form of Transformers and the like. Wasted Youth? Who knows. Mark laments dragging his mother to see the film twice while Matt decries the resurgent recycling of 80's toy culture. Is Transformers a good film? Hard to say really. Like wandering minstrels of the Medieval Era, its hard to put oneself in the shoes of the audience to gain any kind of appreciation, but it may be safe to admit, it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Unless you're Michael Bay of course, then you'll hump it forever.

Download: 183 Transformers The Movie

182 The Neverending Story

Matt and Mark's "For the Kids" movie review marathon continues with our take on the 1984 classic The Neverending Story. The world of Fantasia is being destroyed by The Nothing, a metaphor for the grinding gray of adulthood and diminished imagination. At least that's the way Matt saw the film, where The Nothing's werewolf agent Gmork is nothing more than a stand in for any HR manager in a nameless multi-national corporation. A film with astonishing classic affects, Mark points out the brilliance of it's set pieces and characters while rattling off the whose-who of its talented credit list. Also, it can be agreed that Atreyu is one of the more metal names to come from a children's story (take that Veruca Salt!).

Download: 182 The Neverending Story

181 Watership Down

Matt and Mark's "For the Kids" marathon continues this week with the "family" adventure film Watership Down, a famed animated production from Britain released in 1978. Despite Matt's decades long ignorance regarding the film's name (It's a place? What? Not some esoteric reference to societal downfall?), we try to suss out what's great about this film. With realistic depictions of violence and a naturalist style, it marginalizes the familiar animated tropes of Disney-esque anthropomorphism, elevating it to something greater. And why a film about rabbits? Because there's perhaps a universal truth to be told from creatures who must fear everything, a justified dread that taps into our vestigial brains and perhaps a reason so many children remember this film.

Download:  181 Watership Down