Alcohollywood

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!

This week on Alcohollywood, we saddle up with Our Fair City writer (and friend of the show) David Rheinstrom to take a look at Silverado, the 1985 ensemble Western written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan! The film stars Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Scott Glenn and Kevin Costner as a ragtag band of gunslingers who help each other deal with their personal demons and long-standing rivals, including Brian Dennehy as a corrupt sheriff and Jeff Fahey as an unhinged outlaw. Silverado has a great, fun energy to it while also deftly juggling a complex plot and a large cast of characters. We've also got a custom cocktail and drinking rules to help you beat the heat of the Old West!

In the wake of a horrifying kidnapping, Clint must go Jared-less for this week’s episode of Alcohollywood! Joined by grizzled detective (and previous guest) Max and special guest, comedian Kris Flanagan, the trio attempt to keep Jared alive by enduring and drinking to The Watcher, the 2000 serial killer thriller starring James Spader and Keanu Reeves (who was under duress for the making of the film, his signature literally having been forged on a contract)! This film, in which grizzled ex-cop Spader is chased in Chicago by a serial killer he unsuccessfully chased in his old job, feels like the try-hard little brother of Se7en, with none of the screenwriting savvy or directorial style to make it really work. Director Joe Charbanic (who clearly only directed shitty MTV music videos before this) employs every horrible directorial choice you could imagine, from stuttering frames over half the movie to strange flashes of white and film negative, leading to one of the ugliest movies we’ve seen on the show. However,

Come and get it, listeners – Nick from Consequence of Sound comes back to continue our exploration of cinematic Beatles efforts with the strange, bizarre creature that is The Magic Christian! Based on a novel by Terry Southern, the film is a hippie-tastic, Pythonesque journey in which Peter Sellers’ obscenely rich social prankster adopts homeless Ringo Starr and takes him through one ham-fisted counterculture prank after another. The result is the kind of disjointed experimental film we saw a lot of in the 70s, but without any of the nuance or cleverness to ground it. Nonetheless, it’s a bizarrely entertaining watch, especially with our custom cocktail and drinking rules!

This week on Alcohollywood, James and Ruben (our resident geek experts from the Geekspotting podcast) join us to check out Terry Gilliam’s feature-length debut, Time Bandits! Fed up with his dreary, gadget obsessed parents, young Kevin falls in with a group of dwarf thieves using a time map from God to steal riches throughout history. We’ve covered Gilliam before with our Brazil episode, and Time Bandits has just as much of Gilliam’s dark whimsy as many of his other early classics. Join us for our custom cocktail and drinking game!

Erin go bragh, listeners! It’s St. Patrick’s Day weekend, and Alcohollywood (along with guest Jeffrey Gardner of Our Fair City) has decided to buck the trend by talking about a good movie about Irish mythology – the animated film The Secret of Kells! A fictionalized account of the story of the Book of Kells (an illuminated account of the Four Gospels that is an integral part of Irish history and culture), The Secret of Kells utilizes a fascinating animation style that evokes traditional Irish art, and the illustrations of the Book of Kells itself. The result is an intriguing and charming look at Irish mythology, and it’s certainly not to be missed. Luckily, we’ve got a custom cocktail to wash down all that Gaelic, and some drinking rules to guide you through the film’s Irish mysteries!

This week on Alcohollywood, Mark (from the classy science-y comedy podcast Blastropodcast) joins us with our look at Disney’s attempt to cash-in on the Star Wars craze, The Black Hole! A group of hapless scientists and astronauts exploring a black hole find a haunted house-ship occupied by Dr. Hans Reinhardt (Maximillian Schell, channeling Captain Nemo) and a bunch of robots. Once there, they find betrayal, mystery, laser gun fights and surprisingly un-Disney disembowelings – elements that make for a rather atonal, if refreshingly earnest, science fiction picture. Shockingly dark for a Disney movie, the film shows everything from horrifying murders to zombification to a literal descent through hell! The production design is stellar, and John Barry’s score is romantically macabre, but the monotonous, flat acting (even from acting legends like Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster and Ernest Borgnine) and the languorous pace stop the movie dead in its tracks. Still, there’s fun to be had, so take a listen and check o

It’s Oscar season this week, and on Alcohollywood we’ve got Ry from our friends at CinemaJaw to help us talk about Best Picture nominee Gravity! Acclaimed director Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men) gives us this simple-yet-strong tale of survival and faith in space, as astronauts Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) find themselves stranded in space after a cloud of space debris destroys their shuttle. The two must overcome obstacle after obstacle, as Cuaron sends his camera floating right alongside them, capturing both Clooney and Bullock’s strong performances and the gorgeous visual effects. We also cap the episode by talking about Oscar picks and making our predictions for who will take home the trophies this year! Listen to our episode below, and check out our custom cocktail and drinking game! NOTE: The audio quality drops a bit during the quiz, but picks back up to normal at the end. Apologies for the technical difficulties!

This week on Alcohollywood, we dig into the grit and grime of Joel Schumacher’s 1993 thriller Falling Down! On a sunny Los Angeles day in the early 90s - in the face of poverty, scalding heat, and the boiling pot of post-Rodney King race relations – Bill “D-Fens” Foster (a powerful Michael Douglas) finally snaps and starts a long walk home, taking out his frustration on societal ills in the process. Meanwhile, an easy-going cop on his last day (Robert Duvall) finds himself the only one able to put together the pieces of D-Fens’ little crime spree, culminating in a crazy, harrowing dark comedy/thriller that is absolutely captivating to watch. Luckily, we’ve got our custom cocktail to wash down your Whammyburger, and drinking rules to go along with them – enjoy!

Happy Valentine’s Day to all you lovers out there! Check out our drinking game and custom cocktail for 1970’s classic romantic film Love Story! It's the classic tale of a rich white kid (Ryan O’Neal) and a poor, spunky college student (Ali MacGraw) who fall in love and deal with the melodrama that ensues. Our regular Valentine’s guest Julia joins us for discussions of Ali MacGraw’s deadly disease, father/child relationships, and the ins and outs of Harvard Law. Love means never having to say you’re sober, so give us a listen!

This week on Alcohollywood, we head for the land of the lost with the found footage flick The Dinosaur Project! Equal parts Cloverfield and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, the film follows a group of experts who head for a mysterious African island, hoping to find dinosaurs. Well, guess what they find? Despite the goofy premise, we actually had quite a bit of fun with The Dinosaur Project, since it commits itself quite well to the found footage gimmick and has a fair bit of visual style. The CGI isn’t great, but not bad considering the film’s low budget, and the acting is solid. Be sure to explore this film with our signature cocktail and drinking rules!

This week on Alcohollywood, Clue guest Theo returns to us to check out the 2001 Japanese thriller Ichi the Killer! One of the most violent movies of all time, this film by acclaimed director Takashi Miike follows two violent men living in a depraved world of rape and violence – the stylish yet sadistic Kakihara (Thor’s Tadanobu Asano) and the emotionally unstable killing machine Ichi (Nao Omori). The film’s long for its subject matter at 130 minutes, and its narrative gets confusing, but it’s a movie that will stick in your mind. Check it out along with our custom cocktail and drinking rules!

Welcome back, friends! We took a week off to rest, revitalize, and let Clint open his show (which you can see if you’re in the Chicagoland area) – now we’re back with the Tina Fey cult high school comedy Mean Girls! Recurring guest Lise ‘Kat’ Evans joins us as we dive into this well-regarded time capsule of 2000s culture and metahumor, featuring a pre-mummy Lindsey Lohan as a sheltered homeschooled girl entering the jungle of high school cold turkey at 16. There, she must contend with ‘mean girl’ Regina George (Rachel McAdams), as well as navigate the intricate social hierarchies of high school. Listen to us blab on about high school flicks, Amy Poehler’s nipple play and more, along with our custom cocktail and drinking rules!

This week on Alcohollywood, we delve into the complex Godzilla mythology with 1964’s Mothra vs. Godzilla (aka Godzilla vs. The Thing)! This film pits the famous lizard against mystical island god Mothra over control of Mothra’s giant egg! Part of the great Toho tradition of weird rubber monsters fighting each other, it’s certainly an interesting, crazy ride to endure. Grant of Chip & Ironicus joins us as we talk about miniature ladies, noble savages, and the hard world of investigative journalism. We’ve also got a double dose of cocktail for you, so check out our recipe and drinking rules below! NOTE: There’s still 6 days left to donate to the Indiegogo for Ephebophilia, the play Clint’s directing in Chicago – drop in a buck or two here!

Happy New Year, listeners – it’s the start of another year for Alcohollywood! To kick off 2014, we (along with guest Derek) try to solve the mystery of 3.14 with the Darren Aronofsky film Pi. Pi follows Max (Sean Gullette), an obsessive New York recluse who dedicates his life to the pursuit of a numerical value that just might explain everything from the stock market to the nature of God. Or, is he just going insane from cluster headaches and auditory hallucinations? Aronofsky’s debut film is a crackerjack thriller with a brash visual style that he would develop further in films like Requiem for a Dream. Pi also features the debuts of cinematographer Matthew Libatique and composer Clint Mansell. Check it out along with our custom cocktail and drinking rules, which we’ve got right here!

Happy holidays, everyone – the Alcohollywood Christmas special episode is here! This time, guests Julia and Todd join us as we take on the 1996 Arnold Schwarzenegger stinker Jingle All the Way, in which Arnold flexes his comedy muscles as a workaholic dad whose son’s love is contingent on the acquisition of the hot new Turbo Man toy. This ends up leading him on a merry last-minute chase through the Twin Cities, while crazy post office worker Sinbad is hot on his heels. The movie actually has its funny moments, mostly coming from Phil Hartman’s sleazy bachelor Ted, and it teeters on the edge of actually poking fun at the Christmas commercialism machine, only to back out at the last minute to let Arnold punch something. It’s a mess, but an interesting one, and we’ve got the custom cocktail and drinking rules to help you through your holiday viewing!

This week on Alcohollywood, we hit the high seas once again for the Robert Altman directed musical flop Popeye: The Movie! This 1980 mess of a film sees Popeye (a mumbling Robin Williams) enter the idyllic world of Sweethaven, only to fall in love with the wide-eyed Olive Oyl (Shelley Duvall), adopt the adorable Swee’Pea, and fight off the blustering Bluto (Paul L. Smith). Altman’s signature cinematography, with its muted backgrounds and emphasis on wide shots, has its similarities to the original Max Fleischer cartoons. Still, it also ends up treating everything with a weird distance. Add to that the limp performance of Harry Nilsson’s songs, and Popeye: The Movie ends up being an alienating, weird experience. Take a listen to our collective frustration, and wash it down with our custom cocktail and drinking rules!

Zdravstvuyte tovarisch! This week on Alcohollywood, we’re taking all you comrades for an Eastern bloc party with the 2010 Russian superhero flick Black Lightning! Produced by Timur Bekmambetov (of Night Watch and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter fame), this Russian love letter to blockbuster superhero movies sees Dima, a down on his luck college student, suddenly inherit a flying Volgo automobile modified by Cold War scientists using magic fuel. Slowly learning its powers, he uses it to become the superhero Black Lightning and save Moscow from the machinations of the evil diamond magnate Prof. Viktor Kuptsov. A derivative yet strangely charming blend of every Western superhero film of the last decade, combined with Russia’s love of fur-lined clothing and dance clubs, make Black Lightning a film worth checking out. Don’t forget to listen to our episode and check out our custom cocktail and drinking rules either!

All aboard this week on Alcohollywood, as we (along with guest Max) continue our double dose of dolphin movies with the George C. Scott vehicle The Day of the Dolphin! A sensitive story about a man and his dolphin masquerading as a '70s political thriller, this Mike Nichols film is the most dour treatment of a movie about talking dolphins anyone could expect. Scott plays Dr. Terrell, a grumpy marine biologist who develops a system for dolphins to understand and speak basic English, only for nefarious forces to steal the dolphins away from him. Check out our custom cocktail and drinking game below, and be to like, subscribe and share!

Harry Connickuh everybody! This week on Alcohollywood, it’s our favorite time of the year, where we (along with Jeff Award-winning composer Trevor Watkin) celebrate the life and career of everyone’s favorite slack-jawed crooner, Harry Connick Jr.! This time, we’re heading into the drink with the 3D family event of 2011, Dolphin Tale. This film tells the true story of Winter (herself), a dolphin who lost its tail in a crab cage and must be given a robot tail by master inventor Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman). Along the way, a pair of kids learn to bond with the animal while some surrounding adults (Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, Kris Kristofferson) nod approvingly. Dolphin Tale has all the hallmarks of mom-friendly theatrical fare: inspirational stories about ARE TROOPS, cute animals, and precocious kids. Luckily, we’ve got our custom cocktail and drinking rules to help get your ire up. Like, subscribe and share!