Episode 51 – Phantasm

Beware the ball, beware the tall man, beware the never dead.

We return this month to break into Morningside Mortuary and get some fuckin’ answers with returning guest Todd Maxfield-Matsumoto, because we’re digging up the 1979 psychedelic cult horror classic: Phantasm!

Living with his older brother Jody after the death of their parents, thirteen year old Mike becomes suspicious of a local mortuary and the frightening Tall Man who operates it. The brothers stumble onto a strange and dreamlike conspiracy involving murder, a maze-like mausoleum, stolen corpses, hooded minions, a murderous flying chrome sphere, and the unnerving supernatural being who controls it all.

Fun Size Episode 22 – Practical Porgs: It’s Not a Sex Thing, Yet

We sit down with our friend Todd Maxfield-Matsumoto to drill into pop culture ephemera and random nonsense.

Mike revels in the schadenfreude of having a movie theater rewards card and we all wonder when Johnny Depp became box office poison for us.  We touch on the recently released Blade Runner 2049, and how it stacks up against both the original, and other recent attempts to resurrect once-great franchises.

We ponder whether the Last Jedi‘s porgs are the next coming of the Ewoks or Jar Jar Binks. And we speculate about whether we actually want to see Jerry Lewis’ intentionally-lost Holocaust clown movie, the Day the Clown Cried.

Podcasta la Vista, Baby! Episode 9 – Escape Plan

Breaking out is an inside job.

After nearly forty years of waiting, it’s finally happened. It’s time to inject ourselves with tracking devices and ready our homemade sextants.  This month, we sit down with our good friend Todd Maxfield-Matsumoto to dive into the long-awaited team-up movie between Arnold Schwarzenegger and his longtime cinematic rival, Sylvester Stallone: Escape Plan.

Ray Breslin is a security expert who breaks out of maximum security prisons for a living. His skills are put to the test when he’s hired to escape from the ultimate black site detention center for the worst criminals on Earth, and staffed a corrupt warden and his violent costumed guards. But Breslin isn’t alone. His escape is aided a fellow inmate, played by our favorite Austrian badass, who thinks that teaming up with Breslin may be his ticket to freedom.

Episode 17.5 – He’s Kind of Just a Little Bit Weirdo Cultist

tom_cruise

In our latest bonus episode, Mike and Casey get ready to record our most recent episode and chat a bit about Orson Welles, great actors starring in shitty movies, and some of their favorite fictional cliches.

Later, we’re joined after recording the Spielberg episode with panelists Todd Maxfield-Matsumoto and Scott Kramer to talk about the upcoming Star Wars sequel, more of Steven Spielberg, and the many misuses and strengths of actor/cultist Tom Cruise.

Plus, a random cameo from Sam Mulvey!

Episode 17 – Steven Spielberg

spielberg

Hold on to your butts!

Mike and Casey are stocking up on Reese’s Pieces and heading to Devil’s Tower to compare scars with sound engineer Scott Kramer (the Expendables, Transparent) and the composer of our show’s theme song, Todd Maxfield-Matsumoto! We’re talking about the filmmaker whose influence defined big budget cinema for an entire generation, Steven Spielberg!

From Jurassic Park to E.T., and Jaws to Raiders of the Lost Ark, few filmmakers have had the impact on movies as both an art and an industry like Spielberg. We discuss his evolution as a storyteller, director and producer. We debate his legacy among film purists, mainstream audiences and critics.

Music: 
“End Credits” from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial  by John Williams

Previously titled: “A Childhood Sense of Wonder”

Episode 10 – Planet of the Apes

apeposter

It’s a madhouse! A MADHOUSE!

Mike and Casey invade the Forbidden Zone with our theme song’s composer Todd Maxfield-Matsumoto and Comics Should Be Good!‘s Greg Hatcher. This month we’re talking about the classic film franchise: the Planet of the Apes!

We talk about the film’s long-lived popularity, its relevance as socially-aware science fiction, its totally insane comic book adaptations in the 1970s, and its subsequent reboots.

We also try to wrap our minds around how an ostensibly family-friendly adventure series includes bloody religious imagery, nudity, babies shot with handguns, and total nuclear devastation.

Music: 
The Hunt from the Planet of the Apes” by Jerry Goldsmith

Previously titled: “Two-Fisted Misanthrope”

Episode 6 – Arnold Schwarzenegger

It’s not a tumor!

Mike and Casey get their asses to Mars with our theme song’s composer, Todd Maxfield-Matsumoto, and Ask an Atheist‘s Rebecca Friedman to talk about America’s favorite Austrian import, Arnold Schwarzenegger!

From cinematic machismo to the governor’s office of California, Schwarzenegger dominated the box office and ballot box for two decades. From Terminator to Twins, from Kindergarten Cop to Batman and Robin, few actors can match the cultural impact of the man who spawned a thousand catch phrases.

So crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of the women, because it’s time to talk about the man behind the muscles.

Music: 
“Theme to Total Recall” by Jerry Goldsmith
Conan the Barbarian the Musical” by Jon and Al Kaplan

Previously titled: “Cousin Balki on Steroids”

Episode 4 – George Lucas

george-lucas-carbonita74-751182A podcast six months in the making!

Mike and Casey reserve a booth in the Mos Eisley cantina with the composer of our show’s theme song, Todd Maxfield-Matsumoto, and Ryan Chaddock, creator of the Pantheon live action role-playing game, to talk about the filmmaker who has both attained geek sainthood, and reviled as one of its most controversial villains.

We’re talking about George Lucas, the man who gave us Star Wars… and then kept messing with it. We’ll explore the impact that Lucas’ work has had on our lives, and the post-prequel backlash that he’s still enduring, even more than a decade later.

Does he deserve it? Did we over-react? Show us on the bantha doll where George Lucas touched your childhood!

Music: 
“Leia’s Theme” by John Williams
“Howard the Duck Theme” performed by Dolby’s Cube featuring Cherry Bomb

Previously titled: “Kids Love Trade Embargoes”