Free Episode Archives - Page 3 of 10

145 – The Two Jakes

Jen and Tim marvel at the cursed, ill-conceived, bloated sequel to Chinatown, The Two Jakes.

Errata: Jen was wrong and Polanski fled the country in February of 1978, not 1977.

The Two Jakes derailed the Robert Towne/Jack Nicholson friendship, which had been forged in the early 60s while both worked for Roger Corman, for at least a decade. Towne admitted as much in Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. However, in a 2006 interview, Towne parries a question about the film thusly:

Well, in the interest of maintaining my friendships with Jack Nicholson and Robert Evans, I’d rather not go into it, but let’s just say The Two Jakes wasn’t a pleasant experience for any of us. But, we’re all still friends, and that’s what matters most.
Robert Towne

So, you know, awwwwww.

The History Channel website has the cold hard facts about Jack Nicholson’s 1994 road rage incident, in which he attacked another motorist’s car with a golf club.

A man kneels to push over the smallest domino in a line of dominos of varying size, the largest being taller than the kneeling man. The smallest domino is labeled "singer/songwriter gets wrong address" and the largest is labeled "Chinatown." — 🤪

142 – Money Movers

Tim and Jen welcome Doug Waugh of B-Movie TV and the Slashers podcast to discuss an overlooked Australian heist film that’s heaps good: Money Movers!

Purchase Umbrella Entertainment’s blu-ray of Money Movers at their website!

Urban Dictionary has a detailed entry on the Australian slang term “toecutter,” if you’re curious.

The “Barge Arse” clip Tim referred to may be viewed here.

We talked about Money Movers director Bruce Beresford way back in our episode about flop anthology film Aria, and Jen would like to formally apologize for calling him a “genteel hack.”

139 – Talk Radio

Key art for Talk Radio (1988) directed by Oliver Stone, featuring Eric Bogosian

Jen and Tim welcome back Josh of The Worst of All Possible Worlds podcast to discuss the Oliver Stone version of the Eric Bogosian play, Talk Radio from 1988.

Jen got the date of the crash of Air Florida flight 90 wrong— it happened in January of 1982.

“The comment that brought Howard Stern his most notoriety during his time on Washington, DC radio in the early ‘80s was the infamous Fourteenth Street Bridge Incident. As morning man at ‘DC101’ WWDC, Stern was reacting to the Air Florida flight that crashed into the bridge in February 1982. ‘What’s the price of a one-way ticket from National to the Fourteenth Street Bridge?’ he asked. ‘Is that going to be a regular stop?’”
Via insideradio.com

Also Stern did not call the actual Air Florida ticket counter, because as most of us know, talk radio prank calls are faked. Just ask Bryan of Street Fight Radio! In fact, you can hear a deep dive into shock jocks for a pledge as low as $1 over at the Street Fight Patreon!

Poster for Street Fight Radio special, Shocktober — hey who did this cool artwork? someone named Jennifer Albright!

Shortly after his murder by white supremacists, a memorial piece about shock jock Alan Berg appeared in Rolling Stone. The author of the piece, Stephen Singular, later expanded this piece into the book Talked to Death: The Life and Murder of Alan Berg. You can read the original Rolling Stone article here.

And don’t miss our freewheeling episode with the TWOAPW guys about a sad little fake Hammer film, IT! starring Roddy McDowall!

136 – 50 States of Fright

Rachel Brosnahan in "The Golden Arm" — bury me with my out-of-context viral video clip

Tim holds forth on the mind sickness that led to short-lived streaming service Quibi before diving into a review of short-form horror anthology 50 States of Fright. Jen just tries to keep up!

This AV Club article is pretty emblematic of the unkind response to the first episode of the series, “The Golden Arm.”

Watch Tim’s video work over at YouTube! Hit Like and Subscribe!

Oh I almost forgot to post the funny dog fart video

For more anthology horror, check out our episode on Hammer House of Horror!

133 – The Jericho Mile

Tim and Jen effuse about an early Michael Mann joint for television, the prison story The Jericho Mile!

You can buy a beautiful blu-ray of the film from Kino Lorber, but if you just can’t wait to see it, it’s on YouTube. And we highly recommend it!

The 1977 film Short Eyes, based on Miguel Piñero’s incendiary play, is free with ads on Tubi.

For more Michael Mann, check out our episode on The Keep!

130 – Loose Cannons

Jen and Tim enlist favorite guest Mike Rosen (bitterkarella on Twitter) to explicate the inexplicable Dan Aykroyd/Gene Hackman buddy cop comedy, Loose Cannons!

Not to get all fact check dot org on you all, but the Dissociative Identity Disorder website has science-based information on what was misrepresented as “multiple personality disorder” in the movie.

Busy Inside is a compassionate documentary about people with DID.

Read an article about the Southern California Sorcerers, a writer’s group which included future Loose Cannons scribe Richard Matheson and some other guys like Rod Serling, Ray Bradbury, and Harlan Ellison. Excelsior!

Hear the closing theme sung by Katey Sagal (!), ripped “straight from the uncompressed Laserdisc track.”

127 – Bamboozled

Damon Wayans examines a racist collectible in Bamboozled (2000)

Tim and Jen welcome back Sean Morris to discuss one of Spike Lee’s most fascinating and controversial trainwrecks, Bamboozled.

Per Sean’s recommendation, check out the official video for “Lovin’ It” from Little Brother’s “too intelligent” album The Minstrel Show.

If you’re curious about the camera Spike Lee used to make Bamboozled, you can read a history of the Sony DCR-VX1000 here.

In 2005, Dr. David Pilgrim wrote a powerful essay about the collection that became the foundation of the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. In “The Garbage Man: Why I Collect Racist Objects” he reflects on the emotional toll collecting exacted on him, as well as the anger and sadness the objects still inspire and the lingering stain of anti-black bigotry in the United States.

Watch the Levi’s 501 button-fly jeans commercial directed by Spike Lee and starring…Rob Liefeld lol

124 – Outland

Lobby card featuring Sean Connery in a scene from Outland, 1981

Jen and Tim revisit an old favorite, Peter Hyams’s “High Noon in Space,” aka Outland!

Jen is incorrect when she asserts that John Wayne was considered for the part of Marshal Will Kane in High Noon; Kramer and screenwriter Carl Foreman wanted a hot young star like Brando or Gregory Peck. Wayne, along with other Hollywood reactionaries including Hedda Hopper, did pressure Gary Cooper into withdrawing from a proposed production company headed by High Noon screenwriter and HUAC target Carl Foreman.

The story of High Noon and Carl Foreman is told at length in Glenn Frankel’s book High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic. You can read an excerpt on the Vanity Fair website.

By the way, you can browse the Outland press kit!

For more sci-western fun, try our episode on The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.!

121 – Fight Club

LEGO Fight Club soap by Tim Heiderich (timtoonstudio on Instagram)

Jen and Tim talk about a movie that people still like to misinterpret wildly even twenty years later: Fight Club!

Read Alexander Walker’s excoriating review from the Evening Standard.

‘The movie gradually makes its analogy with Nazi Germany even more overt. Pitt and Norton raid liposuction waste dumpsters at night, retrieving “the richest cream fat in the world”, that’s been siphoned out of the obese, and rendering it into red soap tablets they then flog to exclusive boutiques. It’s unbelievable any film would dare use, even as such a sick gag, a sequence reminiscent of that chapter of the Holocaust in which Nazi thoroughness rendered the Jews down into similar, no doubt less pricy soap bars. But Fight Club has no reticence, no memory, no shame.’
Alexander Walker on Fight Club

The artist Tim evoked but couldn’t name while discussing performance art is Tehching Hsieh. Watch his reminiscence on his remarkable work One Year Performance 1980 – 1981 (Time Clock Piece) on Vimeo.

Also, don’t miss our recent discussion of the unloved Aykroyd joint Nothing But Trouble with Chapo Trap House’s Matt Christman!