Episodes Archives - Page 6 of 23 - Have You SEEN This?

178 – Brainstorm

Tim and Jen review a film of great technical genius and great vacuity of story: Natalie Wood’s final film, Brainstorm. But Jen liked at least half of it. Also, please send Tim all of your uneaten candy corn.

There’s a rundown on the Showscan process originally intended for Brainstorm from Douglas Trumbull himself on YouTube. Too bad it’s in 360p. This fine Japanese documentary on Trumbull is in much higher quality, though.

If you’re super into the dialectic and want to go beyond Noguchi’s and Lambert’s account of the death of Natalie Wood, former prosecutor Sam Perroni has written a well-researched look into the case called…Brainstorm!

And if you want more mind-bending visuals that weren’t appreciated by the public at the time, listen to our episode on the Wachowskis’ update of Speed Racer!

177 – Johnny Mnemonic

Information wants to be free, but entertainment is $5/month.

Jen and Tim struggle to understand the newly-minted cult status of a flop from Keanu Reeves’ himbo era, the cyberpunk thriller Johnny Mnemonic. They also put on hazmat suits and delve into the horror that is the comment section on Dina Meyer’s website.

For just $5 a month, hear it and over 80 more episodes on our Patreon!

Director Robert Longo talks about the rationale and process that led to his black-and-white edition of Johnny Mnemonic over at Screen Slate.

Screenwriter and god of cyberpunk William Gibson reflects on the film shortly after its U.S. release.

For more Dina Meyer discussion, listen to our The Evil Within episode!

176 – Witch Hunt

Tim and Jen dutifully cover the sequel to Cast a Deadly Spell, the Paul Schrader(!)-directed Witch Hunt.

For just $5 a month, hear it and over 80 more episodes on our Patreon!

Jen erred and called Schrader’s 2022 film Master Gardener “Master.” Was she thinking of the Paul Thomas Anderson film The Master? Who knows!

Be sure to watch Tim’s webseries Assignment Unexplained! And visit his website! And follow timtoonstudio on Instagram!

Discussing Julian Sands’ death, Tim alluded to the disappearance of experienced hiker Bill Ewasko, which you can learn more about in episode 47 of Adam Walks Around.

View the miracle of electrical kitchen appliances as filtered through the horny fixation of a teenage girl in a short riffed for Mystery Science Theater 3000, Young Man’s Fancy. Damn, that girl is SO squishy. Was it even legal to be that squishy in the 1950s?!

Speaking of sexuality and decades long past, here is the paper Jen was talking about that debunks the myth of “hysteria treatments” for women in decades past. Author Hailie Lieberman warns that the spurious paper is “a cautionary tale for how easily falsehoods can become embedded in the humanities.”

Smash that button like you’re a neglected victorian housewife and subscribe to our Patreon or listen to our episode on the previous film for free!

175 – Cast a Deadly Spell

A disheveled Julianne Moore and Fred Ward from the climax of CAST A DEADLY SPELL (1991) — “I miss the graboids”

Jen and Tim try to say something nice about a pay cable attempt at Lovecraftian horror/comedy, Cast a Deadly Spell. Also, Jen tries and fails to remember the time she massively insulted Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid out of nowhere.

Jen is so dumb she forgot to mention who directed Witch Hunt, the sequel to Cast a Deadly Spell: Paul fucking Schrader. Will we watch it? Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Tim confused Peter Scolari of Bosom Buddies with Mark Linn-Baker in Perfect Strangers, or maybe he was thinking of Bronson Pinchot. Does it matter?

Jerry Smith over at Certified Forgotten makes a fan’s case for the movie, so we’ll include it as a concession to an imaginary genre podcast Fairness Doctrine.

Finally, for more throwback horror, try our episode on the first Kolchak telefilm, The Night Stalker!

174 – Penda’s Fen

Tim is too cool to talk about a nerdy British kid’s coming of age story, so Jen and special guest @bitterkarella step in to talk about cult BBC teleplay Penda’s Fen.

For just $5 a month, hear it and over 80 more episodes on our Patreon!

BFI did indeed release Penda’s Fen on blu-ray in 2016, but it’s also available on YouTube!

The 2010 post that originally turned Jen on to the film may be found at John Coulthart’s excellent art blog, Feuilleton. At the time of writing, Penda’s Fen was almost impossible to see, as a home video release was far in the future.

As for Penda’s Fen, whenever a TV executive tries to argue that television hasn’t dumbed down I’d offer this work as Exhibit A for the prosecution. Rudkin and Clarke’s film was screened at 9.35 in the evening on the nation’s main TV channel, BBC 1, at a time when there were only three channels to choose from. A primetime audience of many millions watched this visceral and unapologetically intelligent drama; show me where this happens today. – John Coulthart

Jen mangled the words to the Bonzo Dog Band’s “Sport” a little bit (“Sport, sport, masculine sport / equips a young man for society”), but you get the idea.

Also, be sure to listen to our discussion of the Alan Clarke-directed The Firm, along with its inferior remake.

173 – Lake of Fire

Jen and Tim welcome reproductive rights expert Mellie to discuss an exhaustive documentary on A BIG COMPLICATED ISSUE: Tony Kaye’s overview of abortion in the US, Lake of Fire.

Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 80 other bonus episodes!

Looper has the rundown on Tony Kaye’s battle with New Line Cinema (and Edward Norton) over the final cut of American History X.

The Nation has a pretty good overview of the intertwining of anti-abortion activism and white supremacy in the United States.

Randall Terry is still alive, unfortunately, but Paul Jennings Hill, John Burt, John Salvi, and Norman Weslin are not.

Be sure to listen to Mellie’s first appearance on the show, where we picked apart the anti-abortion propaganda film The Silent Scream.

Want more discussion on reproductive ethics? Try our FREE episode on 1997’s Gattaca.

172 – Gattaca

Subscribe at the $5 tier on Patreon to hear the full episode and get two bonus episodes every month and access to our Discord!

Tim and Jen have a mild and cordial disagreement about Truman Show screenwriter Andrew Niccol’s flop first feature: Gattaca.

The Cinemaholic has an explainer for the ending, just in case you’re stupid.

The studio attempted to sell the film as a sci-fi thriller, going by the trailer. See it in 4K over at YouTube. Am I crazy, or is that Richard Kiley narrating for a touch of educational-television believability? Guess they spared no expense!

In an interview snippet, Gattaca cinematographer Slawomir Idziak talks about working on an episode of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s televised masterpiece, Dekalog.

Finally, if you want to hear our episode on George Romero’s Martin, it’s also free! (But first come to our Discord and talk to Tim about Traveller.)

171 – Faust: Love of the Damned

Jen and Tim welcome @bitterkarella to talk about a tWisTeD comic book movie, the Spawn before Spawn, Faust: Love of the Damned!

Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 80 other bonus episodes!

Read an interview with director Brian Yuzna to learn more about Fantastic Factory, the production company that brought you that titty inflation scene. He also talks about The Guyver!

If you found yourself confused by our reference to ”Two Wet Bears,“ you can watch it on YouTube. It’s an attempt to pass off a pencil test as a finished animated short, and features almost every year at Jerry Beck’s Worst Cartoons Ever panel at Comic-Con. (Also listen to our episode with Jerry about the Monkees’ sole feature, Head!)

This is the Sara Matthews Bitter Karella was talking about, by the way. Apparently she was uncredited in Repossessed, in spite of her memorable appearance. For shame!

Too much of a pussy for this xXxtreme anti-hero? Why not enjoy our episode with tons more pussy, Cats on Park Avenue!

170 – Cats on Park Avenue

A cat on a skateboard from Cats on Park Avenue (1989) — mrow!!

Tim and Jen scratch their heads over a Japanese musical that’s positively infested with cats, Cats on Park Avenue. It has nothing to do with New York or the musical Cats.

Hear the whole episode on our Patreon and get access to more than 80 other bonus episodes!

Complex has the story on how Disney literally killed five golden retriever puppies while making Snow Buddies, a direct-to-video follow-up to Air Bud.

Marty Stouffer became popular with his Wild America series on PBS. A few of his ex-employees alleged that he staged many scenes in the show, which he denied.

You can watch the scene from Sledge Hammer! that Tim mentioned, and after that you can watch the whole series on YouTube, because it’s right there and it’s a great show!

For more musical madness, try our episode on the Dr. Seuss-penned The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T!

169 – Dick Tracy

Warren Beatty and Madonna in Dick Tracy (1990)

Paul Jay returns to talk with us about Warren Beatty’s greatest love! No, not women— by all evidence it’s Dick Tracy. Also, we are interrupted by a dog.

View one of Beatty’s rights-maintaining Dick Tracy specials, in which he’s interviewed by Leonard Maltin while in character as his favorite comic strip detective.

We’ve talked about Warren a couple of times before on the show— once with beloved recurring guest Sean Morris for Bulworth, and once to inagurate the whole dang podcast with our Ishtar episode!

A small shaggy black dog sleeping on an ottoman. He is very cute. — Moose!