November 2020 - Have You SEEN This?

088 – The Lawnmower Man

Pierce Brosnan and Jeff Fahey in Lawnmower Man (1992) — 😐

Tim holds forth excitedly about “the most accurate depiction of virtual reality as a profound concept that is silly in its execution.” Based on the Stephen King lawsuit!

GenXers may remember Nintendo’s failed “virtual reality” console, the Virtual Boy. If you’re unfamiliar and were wondering what the heck we were talking about, you can’t go wrong with the Angry Video Game Nerd’s very funny and profane video on the topic.

“The Sixth Finger” is an Outer Limits episode that appears to share some plot inspiration with Lawnmower Man.

Here’s that Tom the Dancing Bug comic Tim didn’t get a chance to summarize (it parodies “Flowers for Algernon”).

Peter Gabriel’s “Kiss That Frog,” video directed by Brett Leonard

Screenwriter Josh Olson brings us a movie that he swears is actually funny and good! It’s the little-seen Serial from 1980! Featuring Martin Mull, Tuesday Weld, violent gay bikers, Sally Kellerman’s boobs, casual homophobia, Tommy Smothers in a headband, hot tubs, est probably, psychologically disturbed children whose acting out is played for laughs, etc.

Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!

For the curious, here is the full Kevin Thomas review of Serial from 1980 that we mentioned on the episode:

You can also hear more of Josh with Dave Anthony on The West Wing Thing, or with Joe Dante on The Movies That Made Me, or check out our episode on Beyond the Valley of the Dolls!

086 – Wild Side

Jen and Tim discuss Donald Cammell’s posthumous thriller, Wild Side from 1995.

Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!

Wild Side went straight to video. Sadly, director Cammell committed suicide in 1996. However, while some have connected his death to the failure of his last project, we found that the story wasn’t quite so pat.

We were indebted to the only definitive biography on the man and his work. Get a copy of Donald Cammell: A Life on the Wild Side by Rebecca Umland on Alibris.

For another frank flick from the 90s, try our episode on David Cronenberg’s Crash!