This week on Alcohollywood, we (along with Nick Freed of Consequence of Sound) face our greatest challenge as we take on the aggressively weird, hyperkinetic 2011 high school horror meta-comedy Detention! Music video raconteur Joseph Kahn (of Torque…fame?) self-financed this off-kilter, virtually indescribable tale of high school students, horror movie slasher villains, time travel, alien vegetarians, body swaps, man-fly hybrids, and Dane Cook in his most restrained performance.
With its incredibly schizophrenic pace and high ambitions, the movie throws everything at the wall and tries to see what sticks, creating a film that you will either absolutely love or absolutely loathe. Who loved it? Who hated it? Find out in our episode, and be sure to check out our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
Happy New Year, listeners! We’re breaking in 2015 with 15 Minutes – a poorly-timed, mediocre cop thriller from 2001 starring Robert De Niro and Edward Burns. The two play a homicide and arson cop, respectively, who have to track down two crazy Eastern Europeans who commit a series of serial murders in order to cater to the Jerry Springer-heavy nature of American notoriety and fame. The movie tries to juggle Michael Mann-esque high-octane cop action with Network-like satire of media, but becomes a bit too pulpy and conservative to make it work. Still, we (along with guests – and old friends – Todd Kuhns and Meredith Sladek) dig into the myriad problems of this interesting failure, along with our custom cocktail and drinking game*!
We had an awesome year in 2014, from contributing to another book, having at least another 25,000 downloads, getting awesome guests like Nathan Rabin of The Dissolve and Justin Gerber and Randall Colburn of Consequence of Sound, and more. Thanks so much for everyone who’s been listening and supporting us, and we plan on making 2015 better than ever!
*If you want to see pictures of the boozy Russian-inspired pastrami on rye Clint made for the recording session, be sure to check out our Instagram page!
Merry Krampus, listeners! We’re celebrating Christmas by dipping back into the horror well with Daniel Lackey of The Nightmare Gallery and Ele Matelan of Our Fair City and WildClaw Theatre, as we dig into the Finnish horror flick Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale! A micro-budgeted curiosity from 2010, Rare Exports follows the travails of a small rural community in Finland who runs afoul of the historical Santa - now a homicidal, mute old man who’s more Hannibal Lecter than Kris Kringle.
From herds of nude old men to dozens of children in rucksacks to defensive use of gingerbread, this movie’s got quite a bit of charm to it, and we highly recommend it if you’re not just gonna be watching The Interview on Christmas Day. Check out our custom cocktail to lighten up your holidays, not to mention our drinking rules!
Konnichiwa, listeners! This week, we take on our first Japanese anime (on the show) with Grant of Chip & Ironicus and James of Geekspotting with Satoshi Kon's Paprika! This incredible, fascinating film follows the search for a stolen dream device, which is being abused to 'hack' into people's dreams and causing them to disappear and blur the lines between fantasy and reality. As the walls of the dream world begin to warp and collapse, it's up to the sprightly, powerful dream-warrior Paprika (and her more sedate real-life alter ego Chiba) to save the day.
It's a tremendous work of animation, with an incredible, fluid visual style and plenty of thematic material to unpack - we do our best in the episode, along with our custom cocktail and drinking game!
Relevant Links:
Every Frame a Painting's Video on Kon's use of space in time in his films, including Paprika
Radioclub.jp (click on the GUEST BOOK to find our secret message)
ANNOUNCEMENT: We recently contributed to a book on the Thin Man series of detective comedies, called Thoughts on the Thin Man, which you can find in print and Kindle form on Amazon!
Happy AlcoHolloween, listeners! We (along with guest Julia) wrap up Horror Octorbor this year with Halloween III: Season of the Witch, arguably one of the most divisive Part 3s in horror history!
Instead of following the Michael Myers formula, John Carpenter and director Tommy Lee Wallace chose to try to make Halloween an anthology series with this installment - here, an evil Irish corporation hatches a scheme to summon the forces of darkness through kitschy Halloween masks, with only a dorky May-December couple to stop them. The film's still a big mess, but there's a bit of goofy fun to be had, with its odd mixture of Invasion of the Body Snatchers psychological torment and just the right amount of camp. Even still, we've got a custom cocktail and drinking game to go along with it, so check it out below!
Also, click here to check out Clint's recent guest spot on The Lair of the Unwanted!
"Hello, listener. I wanna play a game.
All your life, you've wanted a custom cocktail and drinking game to one of the more insane entries to the Saw series.
Today, this opportunity will be given to you.
Clint and Jared of Alcohollywood (along with returning guest Dusty Wilson of Mercy Street Theatre Company) continue their month-long exploration of the third entry in a number of horror series with Saw III, in which Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) offers another series of karmic rust traps for yet another group of ungrateful, hapless protagonists. You will listen to this episode, watch the film and enjoy their drink. If you do not, you will... well, just miss out on a really fun dissection of a bat shit-crazy torture porn flick.
Drink or don't; make your choice."
Welcome to our third Horror Octorbor, listeners! For this third round of our comprehensive cacophony of creepy kinoscapes, we're taking on the third installment of a bunch of different horror franchises. This week, we're starting with Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors! Dream Warriors sees Nancy (Heather Langenkamp, all dead eyes and Susan Sontag hair) helping to defend a group of new teens/victims (including Patricia Arquette) from Freddy Krueger in a psychiatric hospital. Kat Evans and Ele Matelan from Our Fair City join us for this spooky installment. Check our our episode, drinking game and custom cocktail below!
WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY A DRINKING GAME?
This week, returning guest Derek joins us to talk about WarGames! The mid-80s Cold War-paranoid/video-game thriller follows David Lightman (a baby-faced Matthew Broderick), an enterprising hacker who accidentally prods a new supercomputer into starting preparations for World War III. The film is a perfect time capsule for so many cultural fears we had in the 80s, from the terror of nuclear annihilation, the distancing effect of technology on war, and the linking of video games to military technology. Check out what we thought of this Cold War war film/cyberpunk ghost story, along with our custom cocktail and drinking game below!
This week on Alcohollywood, we’re getting weird once again with special guest Nathan Rabin (staff writer of The Dissolve and co-author of Weird Al: The Book)! This time, we take on “Weird Al” Yankovic’s only feature film, 1989’s UHF! The film is a distillation of Weird Al’s carefree, joyful, tongue-in-cheek parodic style, as slacker dreamer George Newman (Al) acquires a UHF station and fills it with all manner (or AL manner?) of off-the-wall programming. The result is messy, but delightful in its own way, and definitely earns its cult status. Take a listen, and check out our drinking game and custom cocktail below!
This week on Alcohollywood, guest Theo helps us get in touch with our feminine, middle-aged side with Robert Redford’s The Horse Whisperer! When little Scarlett Johansson gets injured riding her horse, which itself becomes traumatized and aggressive, career-woman working mom Annie (Kristen Scott Thomas) takes both of them to ‘horse whisperer’ Tom Booker (Redford), who offers his homespun wisdom and chaste masculinity to this erstwhile city family. The movie’s gorgeous, but it’s also three hours long, and the romance-novel cliches abound; still, we actually had some surprising reactions to a movie we went into with some pretty low expectations. Take a listen, and enjoy our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
This week on Alcohollywood, guest Theo helps us get in touch with our feminine, middle-aged side with Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer! When little Scarlett Johansson gets injured riding her horse, which itself becomes traumatized and aggressive, career-woman working mom Annie (Kristen Scott Thomas) takes both of them to 'horse whisperer' Tom Booker (Redford), who offers his homespun wisdom and chaste masculinity to this erstwhile city family. The movie's gorgeous, but it's also three hours long, and the romance-novel cliches abound; still, we actually had some surprising reactions to a movie we went into with some pretty low expectations. Take a listen, and enjoy our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
This week, we see into the future with Ryan Bond of Our Fair City and Geek Bar Chicago as we dive into the convoluted world of David Lynch’s 1984 flick Dune! Because our listeners demanded, Jared and I watched the three-hour-long Alan Smithee cut of this adaptation of the classic sci-fi novel by Frank Herbert – somehow, this complex tale of political intrigue and religious prophecy 10,000 years in the future was both too complex and too over-explained. Still, we get into some great discussion of the ins and outs of this fairly divisive and ambitious cult film, so check out the episode, drinking game and custom cocktail below!
*Episode rule: Drink every time Clint says the word 'skinny.'
(Forgive the coughing; Clint was a little under the weather during this recording.)
It’s our 150th episode, and Alcohollywood is bringing back Chicago-geek power couple Clayton Faits (of Our Fair City) and Lauren Faits (aka Geek Girl Chicago) to talk about Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade! In honor of our very first episode, where we covered Crystal Skull, we decided to look back on the third Indy film! Here, the titular adventurer (Harrison Ford) must beat the Nazis to an historical religious artifact with great power – sound familiar? Along the way, though, he learns a few lessons about family from his bookish, stern dad (a wonderful Sean Connery) and gives a lesson in arithmetic to his friend Sallah (John Rhys-Davies). Crusade leans a bit much on the stuff people liked about Raiders of the Lost Ark, but its greater comedic edge, and the impeccable comic chemistry between Ford and Connery, help to make this one a classic.
TO OUR FANS: Thanks so much to everyone who listens to Alcohollywood, whether it’s in your car, at the gym, or just sitting on your ass reading the Internet (as we are most likely to do). Each and every one of you who listens, gives us feedback, comments, talks to us on Facebook or Twitter, etc., is a star, and we raise our glasses to you. If you haven’t already, be sure to share the love by subscribing on iTunes or Stitcher, rating and reviewing us there, following us wherever we may be (even our Instagram, where we have videos of the punishment shots!), and just talking about us. If you’re feeling generous, you can even donate or buy our book – another one’s coming next year! We wouldn’t keep doing this if you weren’t still listening and reading, so please keep it up. It means the world to us.
This week on Alcohollywood, guest Nick of Three Brothers Theatre joins us to talk about yet another cinematic disaster – the 1994 film Clifford! Released unceremoniously in 1994 after being filmed in 1990, this abortive problem-child film sees Martin Short playing a precociously violent and demonic 10-year-old whose parents dump him on the unsuspecting Uncle Martin (Charles Grodin), whose life is completely destroyed over the next 90 minutes. Short’s creepy mugging and overblown schtick meshes poorly with the oddly nihilistic and dark tone of the film, resulting in a movie that’s as creepy as it is unpleasant. Luckily, we’ve got some booze and rules to help you get through it!
This week on Alcohollywood, we’re staging an intervention by making a drinking game for a film about alcoholism! Returning guests Andrew and Julia join us to take on Billy Wilder’s 1945 classic The Lost Weekend, about an alcoholic writer (Ray Milland) who endures a rock bottom bender over the course of three days. The film takes an unflinching look at the morality and psychology of alcoholism, a first for a movie of this type. The film is helped along with some creative imagery and Miklos Rozsa’s unsettling theremin score. (It's also a fantastic double feature with Double Indemnity, another Wilder film we've covered on the show before as well.) Take a listen as we share in Don’s dilemmas with our custom cocktail and drinking game!
This week on Alcohollywood, returning guests and Kat and James (from fellow podcast Geekspotting) join us to help us unpack the 1979 masterpiece The Visitor! A strange Italian mix of Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen, and Star Wars, this crazy film follows the interstellar battle between good and evil, as represented by Old Space God (John Huston) and a petulant little hell child named Katy (Paige Conner). Featuring Lance Henriksen as a sadistic basketball team owner and Franco Nero as Space Jesus, this crazy Drafthouse Films discovery is full of surprises. Check it out with us, along with our custom cocktail and drinking game!
CORRECTION: During the mailbag segment, we credit listener Jens Dietrich for being one of our pals at French Toast Sunday - that was a massive brain fart, and not only is Jens not affiliated with French Toast Sunday, he is, in fact, a dude. Many apologies!
This week on Alcohollywood, we get in touch with our primitive side with returning guest Theo as we check out the stark prehistoric film Quest for Fire! A strange blend of speculative historical documentary and hero’s journey, the film follows a small group of Neanderthals (including Silver Bullet’s Everett McGill and Bunraku’s Ron Perlman) who must travel to find a new source for fire after it is lost. Along the way, they encounter apelike homo erectus, advanced homo sapiens (including a mesmerizing Rae Dawn Chong) and prehistoric animals of varying levels of terror. The film itself is a fascinating watch that’s difficult to quantify, but we certainly give it our shot. Also be sure to check out our drinking rules and custom cocktail below!
This week on Alcohollywood, we take a break from video games, space cats and gangster lizards to take on something a little more sensitive – the 1979 Peter Sellers film Being There. One of his last roles, Sellers plays an unassuming, exceedingly ‘simple’ gardener named Chance, whose sheltered lifestyle is changed forever when his benefactor dies. Entering the harsh outside world, his tenuous grasp on reality and the nature of things manages to exert incredible influence on the people around him, including the President of the United States (Jack Warden). It’s a difficult (and utterly fascinating) film to describe, but we give it our best shot, along with writers/best buddies David and Clayton of Our Fair City! Also, check out our drinking game and custom cocktail below!
For the month of May, we’re kicking off Video Game Movie Month, where every week we take on a new film adaptation of a video game!
This week, we (along with guest Ryan Bond) wrap up Video Game Movie Month with the infamous film Super Mario Bros. The Movie! A completely wackadoo adaptation of the Nintendo game series featuring everyone's favorite plumbers, this film sees Mario (Bob Hoskins) and Luigi (John Leguizamo) becoming lost in a Blade Runner-esque dystopian dimension full of weird fungus, goth-club fashion and trolley/snowplow cars. Lost in a strange middle ground between campy fun and dark/gritty treatment of the material, the film simply doesn't know what to do with itself, and its behind-the-scenes drama is a good enough story on its own. Listen to us dive into this pile of crap with our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
(EDITING NOTE: The drink name accidentally got dropped in the 'cast itself, but we have it for you in the recipe below. Sorry about that!)
For the month of May, we’re kicking off Video Game Movie Month, where every week we take on a new film adaptation of a video game!
This week, Matt K from CinemaJaw joins us to talk about 1984’s video game-related film Cloak and Dagger! This one’s a bit different, as it’s not so much a video game adaptation as it is a tie-in for a failed Atari video game from the’80s, but we still think it counts. Young Davey (ET’s Henry Thomas) immerses himself in the imaginary world of Cloak and Dagger, only to find himself dealing with a real superspy threat with the help of imaginary hero/dad-figure Jack Flack (Dabney Coleman). Despite – or perhaps because of – its 80s charm, we found a lot to talk about, so check out our episode along with our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
For the month of May, we’re kicking off Video Game Movie Month, where every week we take on a new film adaptation of a video game!
This week, we've got a rogue's gallery of guests (from recurring guest Julia to playwright Dusty Wilson, to Grant of Chip and Ironicus) to talk about the 2006 horror game adaptation Silent Hill! When Rose (Radha Mitchell) steals her adopted daughter Sharon (Jodelle Ferland) away to the abandoned town of Silent Hill to try to solve the mystery of her nightmares, they both end up in a hellish Lovecraftian hellscape full of psychological rape monsters, crazy cultists, and more peeling paint than a small-town playground. Does this horror flick live up to the atmosphere of the games, or is it a case study in how poorly video game mechanics and structure translate to the screen? Find out, along with our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
For the month of May, we’re kicking off Video Game Movie Month, where every week we take on a new film adaptation of a video game!
This week, we head into space with House-guest Nick Ostrem to talk about the 1999 space-sim adaptation Wing Commander! Based on the 90s space dogfight games of the same name, the film follows the fight to win a deadly future space war between the humans and the Kilrathi, a race of space cats so deadly they live in dense green fog to hide the shoddiness of their rubber suits. Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard play newbie space fighter jocks who must get the job done amongst an international cast who is really too good for the cliched material they are given. Still, there's a strange earnest charm to the film that helps you through it, along with its slightly creative production design and incredibly standout score. This film is infamous for people buying tickets to it just to see the Episode I trailer and walk right back out of the theater – does the film deserve it? Find out while you enjoy our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
For the month of May, we’re kicking off Video Game Movie Month, where every week we take on a new film adaptation of a video game!
To get us started, Chris from the Nerd Outcast Podcast joins us for Paul WS Anderson’s debut feature, Mortal Kombat, based on the bloody fighting game of the same name! Telling the tale of three warriors forced to enter a martial arts tournament that will decide the fate of the world, this film is cheesy as hell. However, it goes about its business in a recklessly charming way that allows it to overcome its many faults. Throw in some wonderfully campy performances and some competent fight choreography, and you have a surprisingly solid video game movie. Test your liver’s might with our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
This week on Alcohollywood, recurring guest Derek joins us as we check out one of the more unconventional listener requests we’ve been given – 2009’s Japanese dramedy Fish Story! The tale of an obscure punk song that ends up saving the world from a deadly comet, Fish Story is an anthology film featuring vignettes from 1975 all the way to the apocalyptic world of 2012, showing the different ways in which the song (and the story that inspired it) dramatically affects people’s lives. It’s quirky and offbeat, to be sure, but the film is earnest and unpredictable enough to be surprisingly charming. If you can find it, you really should check it out – along with our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Jared and Clint recently recorded a guest spot on Geekspotting (our guests from the Time Bandits episode), which you can find here!
Also, Clint will be at C2E2 moderating the Let’s Play Panel Sunday, April 27th at 10:45am at McCormick Place, featuring frequent guest Grant of Chip and Ironicus, so be sure to check us out in room S401ab!
This week on Alcohollywood, Clayton Faits of Our Fair City and Chicago actor Andrew Saenz joins us to take a look at the Robin Williams science fiction vehicle Bicentennial Man! Adapted from the short story and novel by author Isaac Asimov, the film follows two hundred years of a robot butler (Williams) who strives to be human. This includes falling in love with the granddaughter of his original charge (Embeth Davidtz). Directed by Chris Columbus, the film is a bit of a sentimental slog of weepy scenes about life and love. That being said, it gives us a lot to talk about. Kick back and give us a listen with our custom cocktail and drinking rules!