Podcasta la Vista, Baby! Episode 31 – FUBAR

Heroes Don’t Retire. They Reload.

This month, we’re joined in the studio by not one, but two guests, Carol and Dave Brouillette of the late Hands Free Football soccer podcast, and suffering through all eight episodes of the Arnold-helmed Netflix series, FUBAR!

For decades, CIA operative Luke Brunner has been living a double life. To his suburban family, he’s been a traveling salesman of exercise equipment. But this work cost him his marriage and strained his relationships with his adult children. Now with retirement looming, Brunner looks forward to the chance to possibly winning back his ex-wife. But when he’s called back into action for one last mission, he’s shocked to discover that his daughter Emma has also been working in espionage for years. Now they must work together to take down an international arms dealer, repair their relationship, and keep their work and home lives separated.

Podcasta la Vista, Baby! Episode 26 – Pumping Iron

“Blood is rushing into your muscles and that’s what we call The Pump. Your muscles get a really tight feeling, like your skin is going to explode any minute, and it’s really tight – it’s like somebody blowing air into it, into your muscle. It just blows up, and it feels really different. It feels fantastic.”

This month, we’re hitting the weights and getting a good pump with Dave Brouillette, as we bench press the 1977 bodybuilding docudrama that got Arnold noticed in Hollywood: Pumping Iron!

Cameras document – or is it dramatize? – the lives of the world’s leading bodybuilders as they prepare to compete for their sport’s top 1975 amateur and professional championships. One is junior high school teacher, Mike Katz, who aspires to the title of Mr. Universe. Another is shy underdog, Lou Ferrigno, who hopes to flex his way to the title of Mr. Olympia. But to do that, he must topple the reigning five-time returning champion, a certain popular and charismatic Austrian, just a couple years away from Hollywood superstardom.

Mike is Back on Ryan Daly’s Cheers Cast!

Mike is back on Ryan Daly‘s Cheers Cast, for a chat about the ninth episode of Cheers‘ fourth season, “From Beer to Eternity.”

After being handed another humiliating softball defeat by their rivals at Gary’s Olde Towne Tavern, the gang at Cheers is looking to turn their luck around. Sam challenges Gary to the one sport that he hasn’t been beaten them at yet: bowling. And Woody just might be their secret weapon, if only he hadn’t been traumatized in a tragic bowling accident years before.

Check it out!

Episode 34 – American Movie

“There’s no excuses, Paul. No one has ever, ever paid admission to see an excuse. No one has ever faced a black screen that says: “Well, if we had these set of circumstances, we would’ve shot this scene… so please forgive us and use your imagination.”

In another of our Single Serving Selections, we’re going somewhere that the show has never gone before: non-fiction! It’s time to max out our credit cards and hassle our moms until they agree to play extras in our movie, because we’re being joined by Patrick Johnson for a discussion of the 1999 documentary, American Movie.

Telling the story of an aspiring filmmaker’s quest to create his dream project — by first completing the low budget horror movie that he had abandoned years earlier. Now, he struggles against a lack of funds, the hapless ineptitude of his friends and family, a burgeoning alcoholism, a lack of talent, and his own self-destructive personality to make something great.

But don’t worry. It’s alright, it’s okay, there’s something to live for. Jesus told me so!

Black Ops Episode 8 – This Is Not Funny, You’re Not Funny, and I Don’t like You

In our newest episode, we talk more with Patrick Johnson about video game violence and how it does — and mostly doesn’t — apply to real life.

We take a long hard look at the trainwreck that is the filmography of Adam Sandler, why his movies are so ugly and stupid, and struggle to say something nice about him. We explore the wide pendulum swing of the quality of Netflix’s original programming. And finally we dig into their poorly realized original film, Bright and wonder what could have been.

Episode 15 – Fighting Games

SF2

HA-DOOOU-KEN!

Mike and Casey hit the arcade and stack their quarters, because this month we’re in head-to-head combat with Ask an Atheist‘s Sam Mulvey and Nathan Martin of the Seattle Retro Gaming Expo. This month we’re talking about the gaming equivalent of the O.K. Corral: Fighting Games!

We look at the genre’s roots with classics like Karate Champ, and the genre’s 1990s explosion with titles like Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, King of Fighters, Clay Fighter, and countless clones. We explore the genre’s connections to side-scrolling beat ’em ups, and the competitive — and often intimidating — culture that’s sprouted up around these games.

Music: 
“Ken’s Theme” from Street Fighter II by Yoko Shimomura

Previously titled: “Finish Him!”