This week on Alcohollywood, we're tackling the 1987 crime drama The Untouchables, starring Kevin Costner and Robert De Niro as Eliot Ness and Al Capone, men on two sides of the War on Booze in Prohibition-era Chicago. This masterfully directed, thrilling film features an Oscar-winning performance from Sean Connery as the Irish (yet surprisingly Scottish-sounding) Jimmy Malone, exploding kids, a dated and uneven score from Ennio Morricone, and more shotguns than you can wave a parasol at. Nonetheless, we show you how to watch this movie the "Chicago way" - with some booze in your glass!
It's one of the Coen Brothers' most well-known and tremendously popular movies; it's spawned a convention series and a religion, and nearly everyone knows at least one line from this movie. This week on Alcohollywood, we're covering The Big Lebowski, the dark comedy/neo-noir/Gulf War period piece that has more or less defined the careers of both the Coen Brothers and Jeff Bridges. The search for a replacement for his prized, pissed-on rug sends aging hippie Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski (Bridges) on a journey fraught with danger, ferrets, nihilists, bowling, and much more! We've got a lot to talk about here, so pour yourself either our signature drink or the White Russians the Dude is so fond of, and check out our review and drinking game here!
SPECIAL GUESTS: For this trip through SoCal in the early '90s, we're bringing along with us Matt K and Ry the Movie Guy from another great podcast in the Chicago Area, CinemaJaw; also, look out for their next great episode, which they were gracious enough to have us on as guests! (Due to some technical difficulties, 47:00 to 48:30 is a little lower-quality than usual, so be patient; the audio quality clears back up quickly.)
This week on Alcohollywood, we're sailing up the Moon River with the 1961 romantic comedy Breakfast at Tiffany's, starring Audrey Hepburn as the first Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Holly Golightly! Based on the Truman Capote novella, the film follows Paul Varjak (George Peppard, pre-making plans come together in The A-Team), an aspiring writer who falls for the sprightly woman-about-town (Hepburn) and has plenty of 1960s sex comedy antics doing so. The film includes such treats as 1) a horribly offensive Asian stereotype played by Mickey Rooney, 2) dime-store heists in animal masks, and 3) the world's least creatively-named cat.
This week on Alcohollywood, we review The Avengers! Now, we went through Marvel Month so that you, our loyal followers, could be completely ready for this cinematic masterpiece. Unfortunately, it seems our airdate this week comes before the actual release date of the film in the United States, so we thought we'd just cover that OTHER Avengers movie - the 1998 abomination starring Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman as posh, droll British secret agents attempting to stop Sir Sean Connery from holding the British ecosystem for ransom (we think).
A disastrous adaptation of the cult 1960s TV show, The Avengers features awful late-90s CGI, a confusing and nonsensical plot, bored, wooden acting, and the lamest excuse for "camp" we've ever seen. Put on your bowler hat, sip some tea (British people only drink tea, right? That's all we got from this film) and climb in your man-sized hamster ball for our drinking game and review of The Avengers!