TMR 066 – Full Metal Jacket
Total Movie Recall
This week on Total Movie Recall, we go to the suck. Steve develops a thousand yard stare reserved for veterans of nightmare wars and mediocre podcasts. Ryan chalks up another point in the Irresponsible Father column, reflecting on his father’s prudent decision to let him watch this vision of insanity at a tender age yet again. If you listen to this episode, you can go to my house and fornicate with my sister. Full Metal Jacket (1987) d. w. based on his novel Starring: as as as as as as as Stanley Kubrick's take on the Vietnam War follows smart-aleck Private Davis,...
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TMR 065 – Harold and Maude
Total Movie Recall
This week on Total Movie Recall, we watch the first Manic Pixie Dream Girl ever on screen, who is not a girl at all, but is most decidedly a woman. It’s the perfect post-2020 movie, and not just because of the constant suicides. It’s twee and precious and we absolutely loved it. Harold & Maude (1971) d. w. Music by: Starring: Cult classic pairs Cort as a dead-pan disillusioned 20-year-old obsessed with suicide and a loveable Gordon as a fun-loving 80-year-old eccentric. They meet at a funeral, and develop a taboo romantic relationship, in which they explore the tired...
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TMR 064 – The Neverending Story
Total Movie Recall
This week on Total Movie Recall, we learn that while some stories never end, mothers do, and that’s the beginning of how a serial killer is made in this unflinching look inside the mind of one disturbed little boy. Hang in there with us, listen to this, and watch it again and try to tell us you didn’t witness a psychotic break as this poor boy retreats inside the dark fantasies of his mind. The Neverending Story (1984) d. w. , Music by Starring: as Atreyu as Bastian as The Childlike Empress as Teeny Weeny On his way to school, Bastian ducks into a bookstore to...
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TMR 063 – Wild Things
Total Movie Recall
Ah, the good ole days of passing around R rated spank tapes. This movie is so trashy, it gave Charlie Sheen HIV. (1998) d. Starring: When teen debutante Kelly fails to attract the attention of her hunky guidance counselor, Sam, she cries rape, igniting a scandal that results in his arrest. Sam appeals to Ken, a hack personal-injury lawyer who has never handled a case that couldn't be helped by a prop neck brace. Soon, a second victim, Suzie, comes forward, and Detective Duquette discovers that the unfolding case is far from what it seems. Things discussed in the...
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TMR 062 – From Dusk Till Dawn
Total Movie Recall
Remember the innocent 90s, when white directors thought they had the N-word pass for some reason? What do you think their “woke” movie would look like? Probably like this, where the N-word is replaced by horrific rape and Mexican jokes. This proto-edgelord movie was looked at as such a good time romp that it was considered the perfect vehicle to transition from the hit network show ER to the big screen. What a simpler time… From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) d. w. (story), (screenplay) Starring: On the run from a bank robbery that left several police officers...
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TMR 061 – Napoleon Dynamite
Total Movie Recall
This week on Total Movie Recall, we try to decide whether this is a charming, unique film about staying true to yourself, or a nightmarish descent into the insanity that comes with living in a barren, desolate landscape like rural Idaho, where the Uncle Ricos of the world keep subterranean dungeons for unsuspecting Debs. This might say more about where our heads are at right now than about this beloved comedy. Napoleon Dynamite (2004) d. w. , Starring: In small-town Preston, Idaho, awkward teen Napoleon Dynamite has trouble fitting in. After his grandmother is injured in...
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TMR 060 – Dolemite
Total Movie Recall
This week on Total Movie Recall, these two born-insecure honkies break down the seminal Blaxploitation movie of 1975 and do a pathetic job of trying to reconcile its progressive vision of black empowerment with the misogyny of the pimp game. It gets complicated. Dolemite (1975) d. Story by: Starring: Dolemite is released from jail after being wrongfully convicted to take on rival pimp Willie Green, corrupt police officers who framed him and even the mayor! With the help of his friends: Queen Bee (the madame of his brothel), Creeper (the heroin addict Hamburger Pimp), Reverend...
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TMR 059 – Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Total Movie Recall
This week on Total Movie Recall, things get Freudian as they did for every little boy who stared confusedly at Jessica Rabbit and wondered what was happening to them. Handsome, chiseled leading man Bob Hoskins soldiers on in spite of the bleeding ulcer all that booze gave him, and Christopher Lloyd goes to eleven with his unhinged, terrifying performance. Did hentai exist before this movie? Because it sure as hell did after it. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) d. Starring: Down-on-his-luck private eye Eddie Valiant gets hired by cartoon producer R.K. Maroon to investigate...
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TMR 058 – The Princess Bride
Total Movie Recall
This week on Total Movie Recall, we take a hard pivot from all the toxic masculinity of weeks past and Steve shows his gentle, romantic side. Somehow, Ryan makes this about his sad sack heartache but in the end, everybody calms down and moves on with a nice mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. The Princess Bride (1987) d. w. Starring: A fairy tale adventure about a beautiful young woman and her one true love. He must find her after a long separation and save her. They must battle the evils of the mythical kingdom of Florin to be reunited with each other. Based on the...
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TMR 057 – Heat
Total Movie Recall
This week on Total Movie Recall, Ryan stares out the window of his furniture-less modernist home at the endless, uncaring ocean while Steve sleeps on the floor with his hand gripped around his pistol. The pseudo-philosophy of this movie seems deeper than it is because it’s endlessly reflected in all the glass buildings of Michael Mann’s uber-masculine vision. Sure, it may be pretentious, but that’s the point, and if you’ve got a problem with that, I will take you down, because we ain’t exactly doin’ thrill-seeker podcasts with “Born to Lose” tattoos on our chests. (1995) d....
info_outlineThis week on Total Movie Recall, we acknowledge that The Wizard of Oz is, yes, a classic. However, it’s missing a certain je ne sais quoi, and we try to put our fingers on exactly what it needed. We conclude that classic, whimsical children’s film needed more childhood lobotomy, forced imprisonment, Queens pulling their own heads off, and Veruca Salt. Or Fairuza Balk? Potato potato.
Return to Oz (1985)
d. Walter Murch
Based on books by L. Frank Baum
Starring:
Fairuza Balk as Dorothy
Nicol Williamson as the Nome King
Jean Marsh as Mombi
Piper Laurie as Aunt Em
Brian Henson as Jack Pumpkinhead
Dorothy discovers she is back in the land of Oz, and finds the yellow brick road is now a pile of rubble, and the Emerald City is in ruins. Discovering that the magical land is now under the control of an evil empire, she sets off to rescue the scarecrow, the tin man and the cowardly lion with the help of her new friends.
Things discussed in the show:
Electroshock Therapy / Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
The Willies - Labyrinth - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Tik-Tok of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Ozma of Oz
PEN15 (Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle, Sam Zvibleman)
Booksmart (Olivia Wilde, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, Jessica Williams, Jason Sudeikis, Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte)
Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts)
Is the expression "call a spade a spade" racist?
Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde
Superbad (Greg Mottola, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bill Hader)
Raised by Wolves (Aaron Guzikowski, Ridley Scott, Travis Fimmel, Amanda Collin, Abubakar Salim)
Dune - 1984 (David Lynch, Frank Herbert, Kyle MacLachlan, Virginia Madsen, Francesca Annis, Sting, Dean Stockwell)
Alien: Covenant (Ridley Scott, Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride)
American Murder: The Family Next Door (Jenny Popplewell)
Lifetime made for TV movies
8 Inch Betsy - The Mean Days
Army Wives (Katherine Fugate, Brian McNamara, Wendy Davis, Catherine Bell, Sterling K. Brown, Terry Serpico, Sally Pressman, Kim Delaney, Drew Fuller)
Unsolved Mysteries
Rescue 911 (William Shatner, David Teschendorf, Gene Babb)
Last Podcast on the Left (Ben Kissel, Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski)
My Favorite Murder (podcast, Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark)
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
Paradise Lost 2: Revelations
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
How The Satanic Panic and the novel Michelle Remembers ruined lives.
Siskel and Ebert hated this movie
The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton)
Flying Monkeys
Sucker Punch (Zack Snyder, Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish)
Veruca Salt
Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, Roald Dahl, Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum)
The Waterboy (Frank Coraci, Tim Herlihy, Adam Sandler, Adam Sandler, Kathy Bates, Henry Winkler, Fairuza Balk, Clint Howard, Rob Schneider)
The Craft (Andrew Fleming, Peter Filardi, Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman, Ken Kesey, Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman, Scatman Crothers, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Will Sampson)
Frankenstein (James Whale, Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff)
PTSD, Soldier's Heart, Shell Shock
Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley
Invasion of the Triffids / Day of the Triffids (Steve Sekely, Howard Keel, Nicole Maurey, Janette Scott, killer plants)
White Fang (Randal Kleiser, Jack London, Ethan Hawke, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Bill Moseley)
George Lucas
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton)
The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton)
The Godfather Part III (Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Andy Garcia, Diane Keaton, Joe Mantegna, Talia Shire, Bridget Fonda, Sofia Coppola)
Apocalypse Now (John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Harrison Ford, Dennis Hopper)
Star Wars Clone Wars S4/E8 - "The General" (James Arnold Taylor, Dee Bradley Baker, Dave Fennoy)
Alice in Wonderland
Commando (Mark L. Lester, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rae Dawn Chong, Dan Hedaya, Alyssa Milano, Bill Duke)
DMT (drug)
Punk archetypes (Rocksteady and Beebop, punks in the Toxic Avenger, Oingo Boingo, Sex Pistols)
Uncanny Valley
Se7en (David Fincher, Andrew Kevin Walker, Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, Gwyneth Paltrow)
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Rainbow
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Steven Spielberg, David Koepp, George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Shia LaBeouf)
Pantera - Cowboys from Hell
Joel Silver
Pumkinhead (Stan Winston, Lance Henriksen, Jeff East, John D'Aquino)
Excalibur (John Boorman, Nigel Terry, Helen Mirren, Nicholas Clay, Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart)
James Earl Jones
Garden Gnome
Amelie
Alchemical Elemental beings (Gnomes, Sylphs, Salamanders, Udines)
Eastbound and Down (Ben Best, Jody Hill, Danny McBride, Steve Little, Katy Mixon)
Joseph Campbell
The Ramones - "Psycho Therapy" & "Teenage Lobotomy"
Dexter (James Manos Jr., Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, David Zayas)
American Horror Story (Brad Falchuk, Ryan Murphy, Lady Gaga, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Denis O’Hare)
Babe Pig in the City
Oz the Great and Powerful (Sam Raimi, James Franco, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz, Mila Kunis, Zach Braff, Bill Cobbs, Bruce Campbell, Ted Raimi)
Next week: The Sixth Sense