Alcohollywood

This week on Alcohollywood, we (along with Nick Freed of Consequence of Sound) face our greatest challenge as we take on the aggressively weird, hyperkinetic 2011 high school horror meta-comedy Detention! Music video raconteur Joseph Kahn (of Torque…fame?) self-financed this off-kilter, virtually indescribable tale of high school students, horror movie slasher villains, time travel, alien vegetarians, body swaps, man-fly hybrids, and Dane Cook in his most restrained performance. With its incredibly schizophrenic pace and high ambitions, the movie throws everything at the wall and tries to see what sticks, creating a film that you will either absolutely love or absolutely loathe. Who loved it? Who hated it? Find out in our episode, and be sure to check out our custom cocktail and drinking rules!

This week on Alcohollywood, we strap on our bowler hats and grab our wobbly bamboo canes as we tramp it up with David Rheinstrom of Twenty Questions Tuesday with David & David and Our Fair City by watching the Charlie Chaplin silent classic City Lights! In this delightful classic, our beloved Tramp (Chaplin) finds himself falling in with a comely blind flower girl and an eccentric millionaire, all while navigating the harsh world of the big city. Ambitious, timelessly hilarious, and heart-wrenchingly sweet, it's commonly considered one of the best films of all time - now we're here to help you drink to it. Listen and check out our drinking rules and custom cocktail below!

This week, we dive into the Fire Swamp, cross a Sicilian with death on the line, and get out our six-fingered gloves along with Geek Girl Chicago as we check out Rob Reiner's 1987 classic fantasy-comedy The Princess Bride! The ultimate loving homage to the trappings of sword-and-sorcery fantasy romances, this adaptation of the William Goldman novel is probably one of the most beloved comedies of all time, and for good reason: the performances and script are spot-on, and the few hints of sneaking subversion of the fantasy genre never undercut the proceedings in a cynical way. Still, we manage to find a few topics that haven't been discussed about this much-talked-about film, including: Should the characters have all died of blood loss at the end? Was Westley really gonna slap Buttercup? Would Fred Savage have gotten along with Bastian from The NeverEnding Story? Is the bit with Billy Crystal a bit too schtick-y? Find out the answers to these questions and more, along with our custom cocktail and drinking game

Happy New Year, listeners! We’re breaking in 2015 with 15 Minutes – a poorly-timed, mediocre cop thriller from 2001 starring Robert De Niro and Edward Burns. The two play a homicide and arson cop, respectively, who have to track down two crazy Eastern Europeans who commit a series of serial murders in order to cater to the Jerry Springer-heavy nature of American notoriety and fame. The movie tries to juggle Michael Mann-esque high-octane cop action with Network-like satire of media, but becomes a bit too pulpy and conservative to make it work. Still, we (along with guests – and old friends – Todd Kuhns and Meredith Sladek) dig into the myriad problems of this interesting failure, along with our custom cocktail and drinking game*! We had an awesome year in 2014, from contributing to another book, having at least another 25,000 downloads, getting awesome guests like Nathan Rabin of The Dissolve and Justin Gerber and Randall Colburn of Consequence of Sound, and more. Thanks so much for everyone who’s been listen

Merry Krampus, listeners! We’re celebrating Christmas by dipping back into the horror well with Daniel Lackey of The Nightmare Gallery and Ele Matelan of Our Fair City and WildClaw Theatre, as we dig into the Finnish horror flick Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale! A micro-budgeted curiosity from 2010, Rare Exports follows the travails of a small rural community in Finland who runs afoul of the historical Santa - now a homicidal, mute old man who’s more Hannibal Lecter than Kris Kringle. From herds of nude old men to dozens of children in rucksacks to defensive use of gingerbread, this movie’s got quite a bit of charm to it, and we highly recommend it if you’re not just gonna be watching The Interview on Christmas Day. Check out our custom cocktail to lighten up your holidays, not to mention our drinking rules!

Harry Connickuh, listeners! For our fourth celebration of O He With the Golden Voice, we (along with Kat and Michael of Burning Brigid Media) bring you a drinking game, cocktail and perplexed review of 1995’s Copycat, starring Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter as an agoraphobic psychologist and a cop trying to track down a copycat serial killer. Connick Jr. is in it way less than we thought, playing a grubby hick serial killer whose presence haunts Weaver and inspires the film’s main villain, but his chipped-tooth slurring and overacting is certainly one of the more memorable elements of this gimmicky, derivative thriller. While Weaver and Hunter are both great in it, the characters are stuck in an unfortunately workmanlike thriller that can’t quite get over its own sloppiness. We also delve into a variety of  subjects, including poopsocking, ancient Chinese racial slurs, and a ukulele-based Connickuh carol for all to enjoy!

Konnichiwa, listeners! This week, we take on our first Japanese anime (on the show) with Grant of Chip & Ironicus and James of Geekspotting with Satoshi Kon's Paprika! This incredible, fascinating film follows the search for a stolen dream device, which is being abused to 'hack' into people's dreams and causing them to disappear and blur the lines between fantasy and reality. As the walls of the dream world begin to warp and collapse, it's up to the sprightly, powerful dream-warrior Paprika (and her more sedate real-life alter ego Chiba) to save the day. It's a tremendous work of animation, with an incredible, fluid visual style and plenty of thematic material to unpack - we do our best in the episode, along with our custom cocktail and drinking game! Relevant Links: Every Frame a Painting's Video on Kon's use of space in time in his films, including Paprika Radioclub.jp (click on the GUEST BOOK to find our secret message) ANNOUNCEMENT: We recently contributed to a book on the Thin Man series of detective

This week on Alcohollywood, Mark Soloff of Blastropodcast and Ryan Bond of Our Fair City join us to slog through the three hour apocalyptic Western-y flop The Postman, starring/directed by Kevin Costner! In this follow-up to his other sci-fi flop Waterworld, Costner plays a rugged drifter in a desolate, apocalyptic Oregon, who takes up the mantle of “Postman” in order to deliver mail to these post-apocalyptic shantytowns and rebuild America. While there are some neat ideas behind it, the film’s bloated budget, languid pace, and miscast lead results in a three-hour snoozefest that even we have a bit of trouble putting into words. Luckily, we've got some help thanks to our drinking game and custom cocktail, so check those out below!

This week on Alcohollywood, Nick Ostrem joins us once more to talk the surprising cult film Samurai Cop, the recently-unearthed 1991 action-comedy starring Robert Z’Dar and Matt Hannon! The film tells the incomprehensible tale of bug-eyed karate cop Joe Samurai (Matt Hannon), his aloof partner (Mark Frazer), and their attempts to break down the evil Japanese Katana gang. Samurai Cop is a whirlwind of laughable acting, stilted dialogue, stunningly bad cinematography and more untouched boobs than you can shake a stick at. Still, we’ve got you covered with our custom cocktail and drinking rules! (If you need more information on just what the hell Samurai Cop is, the Red Letter Media interviews with Matt Hannonhimself provide some desperately required context for the film’s unique madness.) ANNOUNCEMENT: We’ve got a Twitter contest coming up too! Tweet @alcohollywood or email clint@alcohollywood.comwith the subject line ‘HORRIBLE BOSSES 2 CONTEST’ and tell us your favorite ‘boss’ in film history, and you may be c

“A dingo took my baby!” is one of the most famous lines in film history, but how does the movie itself hold up? Theo joins us as we head to the Australian outback for the Meryl Streep/Sam Neill true crime drama A Cry in the Dark (Evil Angels in Australia)! The film follows the infamous Azaria Chamberlain case, in which a months-old baby girl was tragically lost and killed out in the outback, and their parents, Lindy (Meryl Streep, in one of her many Academy Award-nominated performances) and Michael Chamberlain (Sam Neill) are put on trial for murder. The film’s surprisingly great, with two strong performances centering a sensitive and complex drama about the way media affects public perception of events, the willingness of a discriminatory public to think the worst of grieving parents, the coding of women’s behavior in the public eye, and more. We can’t honestly recommend the film enough, along with our custom cocktail and drinking game!

Special guest Nathan Rabin of The Dissolve grabs his golden ticket, jumps through the movie screen, and joins us to talk 1993’s meta-action flick Last Action Hero! In this ballsy, flawed, filmed-by-committee action-comedy, precocious movie buff Danny Madigan (Austin O’Brien) gets Houdini’s magic ticket and jumps into the movie world of clichéd 80s action movie cop Jack Slater (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Though the film’s ambitions are high, Last Action Hero is definitely not without its flaws, including its tenuous grasp of exactly what it’s parodying and other such issues discuss in detail in the podcast. Take a listen, and be sure to check out our custom cocktail and drinking rules below! (Nathan Rabin’s written about Last Action Hero before in his book My Year in Flops, which you can get here!)

This week on Alcohollywood, we uncover a lost, forgotten cult gem with My Favorite Year! Based loosely on the early writing career of Mel Brooks and his encounter with Errol Flynn on the variety show My Show of Shows, the film swaps those two for Mark-Linn Baker (Cousin Larry from Perfect Strangers) and Peter O’Toole as the hammy lothario Alan Swann. While this film is one of the few films to have a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, we had a bit more of a complicated time with it, as Jared and Clint (and guest Derek) get into a lively discussion of what works and what doesn’t work in this highly divisive comedy. Check out the debate on the episode below, along with our drinking rules and custom cocktail! (Don't forget to check out our alternate intro below, in which an improv bit goes horribly wrong/right, and we keep it for posterity!)

Happy AlcoHolloween, listeners! We (along with guest Julia) wrap up Horror Octorbor this year with Halloween III: Season of the Witch, arguably one of the most divisive Part 3s in horror history! Instead of following the Michael Myers formula, John Carpenter and director Tommy Lee Wallace chose to try to make Halloween an anthology series with this installment - here, an evil Irish corporation hatches a scheme to summon the forces of darkness through kitschy Halloween masks, with only a dorky May-December couple to stop them. The film's still a big mess, but there's a bit of goofy fun to be had, with its odd mixture of Invasion of the Body Snatchers psychological torment and just the right amount of camp. Even still, we've got a custom cocktail and drinking game to go along with it, so check it out below! Also, click here to check out Clint's recent guest spot on The Lair of the Unwanted!

This week on Alcohollywood, we strap cameras onto some oscillating fans and bring along Daniel Lackey of Forced Viewing and The Nightmare Gallery to talk Paranormal Activity 3! This third entry in the found-footage ghost/demon/whatever(?) series has all the thrills and spills you expect from the series: passive-aggressive bickering between couples, small noises in the night, time-lapse standing near beds, and so much more. Even still, we dig into the nature of found footage, especially this series. We also talk about what exactly makes us fear the idea of watching someone else’s home movies. Take a listen, and try out our custom cocktail and drinking game while you’re at it! ANNOUNCEMENT: Early next week, between this episode and our last Horror Octorbor episode, we’ll be doing a mini-episode of Clint’s coverage of the 2014 Chicago International Film Festival – including an interview with Evolution of a Criminal director Darius Clark Monroe. Stay tuned for that!

HELL-o listeners! Justin Gerber and Randall Colburn of Consequence of Sound joins us as we continue our spooky look at the third part of different horror series with The Omen 3: The Final Conflict! This time, baby boy Antichrist Damien Thorn is all growed up (and played by a smirking Sam Neill), in a position of political power, and all set to cement his rule over mankind by preventing the birth of the Nazarene. Standing in his way, of course, are a cabal of comically clumsy clergy, Damien’s dunce of a dame, and his terrifically tepid toady, all of whom try (and confusedly fail) to take down the Antichrist, with little margin for TERROR! Check it out along with our custom cocktail and drinking game!

"Hello, listener. I wanna play a game. All your life, you've wanted a custom cocktail and drinking game to one of the more insane entries to the Saw series. Today, this opportunity will be given to you. Clint and Jared of Alcohollywood (along with returning guest Dusty Wilson of Mercy Street Theatre Company) continue their month-long exploration of the third entry in a number of horror series with Saw III, in which Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) offers another series of karmic rust traps for yet another group of ungrateful, hapless protagonists. You will listen to this episode, watch the film and enjoy their drink. If you do not, you will... well, just miss out on a really fun dissection of a bat shit-crazy torture porn flick. Drink or don't; make your choice."

Welcome to our third Horror Octorbor, listeners! For this third round of our comprehensive cacophony of creepy kinoscapes, we're taking on the third installment of a bunch of different horror franchises. This week, we're starting with Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors! Dream Warriors sees Nancy (Heather Langenkamp, all dead eyes and Susan Sontag hair) helping to defend a group of new teens/victims (including Patricia Arquette) from Freddy Krueger in a psychiatric hospital. Kat Evans and Ele Matelan from Our Fair City join us for this spooky installment. Check our our episode, drinking game and custom cocktail below!

WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY A DRINKING GAME? This week, returning guest Derek joins us to talk about WarGames! The mid-80s Cold War-paranoid/video-game thriller follows David Lightman (a baby-faced Matthew Broderick), an enterprising hacker who accidentally prods a new supercomputer into starting preparations for World War III. The film is a perfect time capsule for so many cultural fears we had in the 80s, from the terror of nuclear annihilation, the distancing effect of technology on war, and the linking of video games to military technology. Check out what we thought of this Cold War war film/cyberpunk ghost story, along with our custom cocktail and drinking game below!

This week on Alcohollywood, we’re getting weird once again with special guest Nathan Rabin (staff writer of The Dissolve and co-author of Weird Al: The Book)! This time, we take on “Weird Al” Yankovic’s only feature film, 1989’s UHF! The film is a distillation of Weird Al’s carefree, joyful, tongue-in-cheek parodic style, as slacker dreamer George Newman (Al) acquires a UHF station and fills it with all manner (or AL manner?) of off-the-wall programming. The result is messy, but delightful in its own way, and definitely earns its cult status. Take a listen, and check out our drinking game and custom cocktail below!

This week on Alcohollywood, guest Theo helps us get in touch with our feminine, middle-aged side with Robert Redford’s The Horse Whisperer! When little Scarlett Johansson gets injured riding her horse, which itself becomes traumatized and aggressive, career-woman working mom Annie (Kristen Scott Thomas) takes both of them to ‘horse whisperer’ Tom Booker (Redford), who offers his homespun wisdom and chaste masculinity to this erstwhile city family. The movie’s gorgeous, but it’s also three hours long, and the romance-novel cliches abound; still, we actually had some surprising reactions to a movie we went into with some pretty low expectations. Take a listen, and enjoy our custom cocktail and drinking rules!