ADHD-DVD

This week we've lost the Muppets but are keeping the great caper as we're roped in to one last job with 2008's The Brothers Bloom, written and directed by Rian Johnson, and starring Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz, Rinko Kikuchi, Robbie Coltrane, Maximilian Schell and Ricky Jay. And we're joined by Hayley's long-time friend Max Johnson (no relation) to talk a film that both Max and J Mo have owned for more than a decade without ever watching -- a lively con artist comedy with a well-earned gut punch of a finish.

In addition to the wider resumé of Rian Johnson as a director (Brick, Looper, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Knives Out, Glass Onion), this episode also features discussions on: The Bear, Heels, Justified: City Primeval, Marvel Snap, Matchstick Men, Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants, the Ocean's trilogy, Paper Moon and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, among others.

If you'd like to watch the movie before listening to our discussion, it is readily available in Canada on a number of free streamers, including Tubi, Plex, Hoopla and the CTV app.

We'll be back next week, most likely joined by Wrestling Brain's Josh Custodio to talk Charlie Kaufman's masterpiece Synecdoche, New York.

Good mornin'! Good mornin'! We talked the whole pod through... Yes, this week we've unintentionally crafted the perfect triple-bill, following up The Muppet Movie and Bowfinger with yet another showbiz comedy musical as we go puddle-splashing in our brightest yellow coats with 1952's Singin' in the Rain, co-directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, and starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor, Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell and Rita Moreno. If comedy is the genre that does not hold up with the age, this just might be the exception that proves the rule as the film is just as dazzling and hilarious as it was 71 years ago, and it's influence is still felt today, quite notably in this summer's Barbie.

Beyond just Barbie, other movies discussed in this episode include: Talk To Me, Oppenheimer, Michael Clayton, Blue Beetle, Past Lives, Friedkin Uncut, The Exorcist, High Noon, The Greatest Show On Earth, Into the Woods, Detour, Fast X, and 80 For Brady.

If you'd like to watch the movie before listening along -- which in this case you absolutely should -- it is currently streaming on Crave in Canada at the time of publication.

We'll back next week most likely talking Rian Johnson's conman caper The Brothers Bloom, which is currently streaming for free on Tubi.

Got you, suckas! Steve Martin Month concludes with an underrated gem of a comedy that hates Hollywood but deeply loves The Movies, 1999's Bowfinger, directed by Frank Oz, written by Steve Martin, and starring Martin, Eddie Murphy, Heather Graham, Christine Baranski, Jamie Kennedy, Robert Downey Jr. and Terrence Stamp. A movie producer at the end of his rope, Bobby Bowfinger's one last shot at Hollywood success goes up in smoke when action star Kit Ramsey won't agree to be in his movie -- so they make the movie anyway, starring Ramsey without his knowledge or consent. A classic comedy for both Hayley and J Mo's teen years, today we put the film on trial and ask whether it deserves to bask in the heavenly light of the ADHD-DVD film canon.

Other topics this week include bad anniversaries, 12 Angry Men, Little Miss Sunshine, Borat, sex scenes in movies with your parents, The Producers, The Player, Dolemite Is My Name, The Jerk, Trading Places, and The Asylum Films' Transmorphers. Hyperfixations this week include film noir (in particular, 1945's Detour) and the British comedy game show Taskmaster. And we both pick our Top 5 All-Time Steve Martin Movies!

Like so many of the comedies we've covered this month, this film is sadly not available for streaming at the time of publication. But if you can track it down, it is very much worth the time and effort to do so. Godspeed.

We'll be back next week doing... something. We'll confirm on Twitter when we know which movie it is, so follow us there @ADHDDVDpod.

Waka waka! Steve Martin Month continues as this week we welcome Jackson McDonald (Roxy Fever, History Lesson: Part II) back to the program to discuss a pair of movies that are actually good, as we get movin' right along into 1979's The Muppet Movie, directed by James Frawley, and starring Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Charles Durning, Austin Pendleton, and a long list of cameo appearances including Edgar Bergen, Mel Brooks and of course, Steve Martin. While it's not officially the movie of the week, we also spend a great deal of time talking about 1981's The Great Muppet Caper, which sees last week's standout star Charles Grodin give an all-timer performance opposite Ms. Piggy. Two delightful films that make for a lively discussion on the unsolvable puzzles of Henson's puppetry.

We've also got Theatre Reports on Oppenheimer and Last Voyage of the Demeter, and continue to shake our heads in disbelief that Prey never got a run in theaters, while J Mo, Hayley and Jackson are all fixated on music in the dog days of summer.

If you'd like to watch The Muppet Movie or The Great Muppet Caper before listening along, they are both available for streaming on Disney+ and come strongly recommended.

We'll be back next week to wrap up Steve Martin Month with 1999's Bowfinger, directed by Muppet maven Frank Oz, and ponder whether it is worthy to be inducted into the ADHD-DVD podcast canon. See you then!

Steve Martin Month continues as this week we're heading down to the fern store and haggling over haircuts with 1984's The Lonely Guy, directed by Arthur Hiller, and starring Steve Martin, Charles Grodin, Judith Ivey, Steve Lawrence and Robyn Douglas -- a much wackier movie than last week's entry, though one that can't quite tonally balance all of its ambitions, losing its comedic edge to a rather rote romance. Still, the movie is quite funny, with the majority of its laughs belonging to Grodin, who is right at home mining comedy gold out of the absolute worst person to talk to at a party. Can Martin's charm and Grodin's misanthropy lift this movie above its rom-com trappings? We watched it to find out.

Other works discussed on this episode include some bonus Martin movies like L.A. Story, Baby Mama, Traitor and The Man With Two Brains, as well as what might be a career-best turn from Grodin in The Great Muppet Caper. We also talk a little video games, as J Mo wades into Star Ocean: First Departure R, while Hayley has become ensnared in the music of one Taylor Swift.

If you'd like to watch this week's episode before listening, good luck! Just like last week this one is not readily available on streaming in Canada.

We'll be back next week with another Steve Martin movie, though his role as Insolent Waiter might be considered more of a cameo, as we cross off a long-standing unseen from J Mo's collection: 1979's The Muppet Movie, currently streaming on Disney+.

Steve Martin Month begins! As the comedy icon is set to return to the small screen early next week with Season 3 of Only Murders In The Building, we trace Steve Martin's love of crime comedy and detective noir all the way back to 1982's Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, directed by Carl Reiner, written by Reiner and Martin, and starring Martin, Reiner, Rachel Ward, and a whole host of classic stars of the past including Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Ava Gardner, Burt Lancaster, Ingrid Bergman, Veronica Lake and Vincent Price, as footage from old noir films is edited into an entirely new comedy. It's an incredible conceit when it really works, though the movie could perhaps use a little more Wild And Crazy Guy energy to hold it all together. Plus: We go deep on Barbie now that J Mo's seen it, Hayley is super into the new Carly Rae Jepsen album, and who doesn't like an ice cream treat?

This is a difficult film to find online, so if you're looking to watch along with us this week good luck! Unless you live in Chetwynd, British Columbia in which case it is at your local library. And speaking of Chetwynd, stay tuned to the bitter end of this episode for a Peace FM radio throwback dripping with the kind of noir vibes this movie is all about.

We'll be back next week with another Steve Martin comedy from Hayley's DVD collection, 1984's The Lonely Guy, which pits Martin opposite Charles Grodin -- a match made in comedy heaven.

While we are usually trying to tie deep cuts from our physical collections into the topical release of the week around here, this week on the show we celebrate the release of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning: Part One by, well, watching and talking about it immediately upon its release, as it makes a direct line into the hallowed annals of the ADHD-DVD canon. It's the podcast's most anticipated movie of the summer, and we go nearly two hours breaking it at all down, so strap in for spoilerific discussion on 2023's M:I-DRP1, directed and co-written by Christopher McQuarrie, starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Esai Morales, Vanessa Kirby, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Carey Elwes and Shea Whigham. It's a movie we both enjoyed enormously and strongly recommend you catch in theatres -- something you may wish to do before listening to our discussion.

Other movies discussed on this episode include: Barbie, Oppenheimer, Lady Bird, The Nice Guys, Master Gardener, The Card Counter, First Reformed, Bombshell, Who You Gonna Call?, Adaptation., Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Fast X, The Lone Ranger, among others.

We'll be back next week, kicking off Steve Martin Month on the podcast with the noir satire Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, followed later in the month by The Lonely Guy, The Muppet Movie, and our next canonized entry Bowfinger. It's a month long celebration of all things Steve to coincide with the release of Season 3 of Only Murders In The Building. See you there!

This week, as Christopher Nolan wades back into the calamitously tense territory of the war-time historical drama with Oppenheimer, which opens in theatres opposite Barbie today, we're flexing our eye-acting skills and setting sail for France on a one-way trip to cross off the only Nolan movie neither Justin nor Hayley have ever seen before: 2017's Dunkirk, written and directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Mark Rylance, Barry Keoghan, Cillian Murphy, Harry Styles, Jack Lowden, Kenneth Branagh and Tom Hardy. It's an incredible feat of filmmaking on the kind of scale that studios seem to be fighting to take away from us, which makes it the perfect topic of discussion on the day SAG-AFTRA have joined their brothers and sisters in the WGA on the picket lines.

If you'd like to watch Dunkirk before listening to our conversation, it does not appear to be streaming in Canada presently but can be rented on YouTube.

We'll be back next week to close out July with another Fun Friday, as we induct Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning: Part One into the pod-canon. M:I-DR:P1 is currently screening in theaters, so we'll see you at the movies!

As Ethan Hunt returns to theaters this week with another impossible mission, we celebrate the release of Dead Reckoning: Part 1 by going back to another repeat collaboration with a director Tom Cruise found great success with: 1990's Days of Thunder, directed by Tony Scott, and starring Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Robert Duvall, Michael Rooker, John C. Reilly and Cary Elwes -- the latter of whom is back playing an onscreen foil opposite Tom now 33 years later in the latest Mission. Not just a re-teaming of Top Gun's creative team, the movie often plays like a loose remake of the previous film, just re-skinned within a different industry. But it's also arguably better than the movie it's following as well, with a wild production history that triggered a significant tidal shift behind the scenes in the film industry.

Meanwhile, Hayley's musical tastes continue to drift her further into the past, while J Mo's got theatrical field reports on Asteroid City, The Flash, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. And of course we can't make it out of this episode without talking at length about Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

If you'd like to watch Days of Thunder along with us before listening, it is currently streaming on Paramount+.

We'll be back next week to coincide with the release of Oppenheimer as we finally catch up with Christopher Nolan's last foray into historical drama, the 2017 war epic Dunkirk.

This week we're putting this whole frickin' town in our rearview, as we make a return trip to Affleckville alongside the sweetest man in Michigan, FED Talks podcaster and all-around film fan EJ Feddes, who has brought an unseen selection from his own collection: 2010's The Town, directed, co-written and starring Ben Affleck, and co-starring Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Blake Lively, Chris Cooper and Pete Postlethwaite in his final film role. Ben's follow-up to previous pod-fodder Gone Baby Gone, he's back on the Boston streets with a crime thriller often compared to Michael Mann's Heat -- a comparison it shockingly does not buckle under the weight of.

Speaking of, things get heated during a debate over whether mob goons deserve to be killed for the crimes of their capo. And J Mo needs to know: can you tell a city from its bridge?

To hear more from our lovely guest, including multiple episodes of his show on which Hayley has appeared, you can find EJ on his own show, FED Talks.

Hayley and Justin are back next week to tee up Dead Reckoning: Part I, as we finally watch the Tom Cruise race car classic Days of Thunder, directed by the late great Tony Scott.