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This week, people always tell us we look like Han Solo as we're closing out P.T.August with one of Anderson's many five-star masterpieces, this time a classic rise-and-fall Hollywood story set in California's other film industry. It's 1997's Boogie Nights, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, and starring Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, Heather Graham, Don Cheadle, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Thomas Jane, Luis Guzmán, Ricky Jay, Philip Baker Hall, Nina Hartley, Robert Downey Sr., and Alfred Molina. Despite a pervasive undercurrent of darkness and dread, this is an often very funny comedy about the magic of The Movies and the pursuit of a dream, loaded with richly written characters and delightful performances. As our August canon consideration, it made for an enormously easy KA-CHUNK as a movie we both greatly enjoy. And to put a button on our month-long celebration, both hosts weigh in with a full PTA Power Ranking. Plus: Justin's back from the IMAX with a theatrical field report on Alien: Romulus!

If you'd like to watch the film before listening to our discussion, Boogie Nights is currently streaming in Canada on Crave and Starz at the time of publication.

Other works referenced on this episode include Edge of Tomorrow, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Don't Breathe, Alien, Aliens, Prometheus, The Mole, Derailed, Saw, Domino, Evil, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Lost, This Is 40, Twisters, Summer of Sam, 54, Normal People, and the entire P.T.A. catalog.

We'll be back next week to kick off SepTIMEber with 2002's The Time Machine, starring Guy Pearce and Jeremy Irons, and directed by H.G. Wells' grandson! It is... not streaming anywhere, and not even rentable north of the border, so good luck with that one. Until then, we'll see you at the movies!

This week we are once again fumbling our way to the end of a mystery as we're joined by our noir-comedy correspondent, as the great "Wild Eyes" Travis Woloshyn (Boom Pro Wrestling, Percy Jackson & The Olympians) returns to the program to talk a movie that is thematically linked to the last movie he was here to discuss. It's 2014's Inherent Vice, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson from the novel by Thomas Pynchon, and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio Del Toro, Jena Malone, Hong Chau, Martin Short and Joanna Newsom. If it's not Anderson's funniest film it's certainly right up there, with two heavyweight comedy performances from Phoenix and Brolin, who are just as adept at character comedy as they are at broad slapstick.

If you'd like to watch the movie before listening to our conversation, you may be out of luck! Inherent Vice is not currently streaming in Canada at the time of publication. You may however be able to find it in stock at your local library.

Other works discussed on this episode include The Long Goodbye, Trap, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, Wrath of Man, The Usual Suspects, Fight Club, Don't Breathe, Gremlins, Batman ('89), Jurassic Park, Melvin and Howard, Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom, Twister, Twisters, Riverdale, The Big Lebowski, Mandy, Her, C'mon C'mon, You Were Never Really Here, Joker, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Sleeping With Other People, Alien: Covenant, Tenet, The Candidate, A Talking Cat?!, and other entries in the PTA ouevre like Phantom Thread, Punch-Drunk Love, Licorice Pizza, Magnolia, and Hard Eight.

We'll be back next week to close out P.T.August with our monthly canon selection, as 1998's Boogie Nights is up for consideration this time. You can find that movie streaming in Canada on Crave, Starz and Hollywood Suite, so good luck to ya. Until then, we'll see you at the movies!!

This week, P.T.August continues with P.T.A.'s most recent output, and for the second time this year we're joined once again by the people's champion Matt Pollock to talk about a movie he has been smitten with since its COVID-era theatrical release: it's 2021's Licorice Pizza, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, and starring Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie, Skyler Gisondo, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Harriet Sansom Harris, and the entire Haim family. A collection of mostly true stories from 1970s L.A. embued with the golden glow of Anderson's own That One Summer childhood nostalgia, its led by two extremely winning performances from a pair of actors both making their big screen debuts. While not without its controversies, it's a dreamlike hazy hangout movie we all loved quite a lot.

If you'd like to watch the film before listening along to our discussion, Licorice Pizza is currently streaming in Canada on Crave and across the globe on the Criterion Channel at the time of publication.

Other works referenced in this episode include Twisters, Targets, Scanners, Kim's Video, Michael Clayton, Saturday Night, The Ladies Man, Coneheads, It's Pat, Rebel Ridge, Hold The Dark, Green Room, Blue Ruin, Clueless, Dazed and Confused, Wild Wild West, An Evening With Kevin Smith, A Star Is Born, Maestro, Warrior, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, The Curse, Good Time, Coffee and Cigarettes, Down By Law, Rumble Fish, The Outsiders, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Mystery Men, Domino, Seven Psychopaths, Special When Lit, Pinball: The Man Who Saved The Game, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood..., among countless others.

We'll be back next week with more P.T.August as Travis Woloshyn joins the two-timer club, returning to talk another fumblingly comic detective noir as we watch Joaquin Phoenix and Katherine Waterston in 2014's Inherent Vice! Which is shockingly not currently streaming, at least not in Canada, so... good luck. Try the library! Until then, we'll see you at the movies!!

P.T.August rolls on with the only PTA movie neither host had seen before embarking on this month-long odyssey, a 1950s period piece set in the London fashion world that seems on the outside like a stuffy Oscar drama but packs some hidden humour in its dramatic depths. It's 2017's Phantom Thread, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps and Lesley Manville. While most folks would might work their way through a filmography in chronological order, we've fallen into an accidental cosmic alignment as this feels more in line with The Master than almost any other movie Anderson has made, boasting another terrific Jonny Greenwood score. Plus: Hayley's fired up to welcome her little niece into the world, while J Mo's got a theatrical field report on Deadpool & Wolverine.

If you'd like to watch the movie before listening to our discussion, Phantom Thread is currently streaming on Amazon Prime at the time of publication.

Other works discussed in this episode include The Hangover, The O.C., Deadpool 2, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men, X-2: X-Men United, X-Men: First Class, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Alias, Maestro, The Crown and Old.

We'll be back next week with returning favourite Matt Pollock as P.T.August continues with a much more youthful and funny film: 2021's Licorice Pizza, starring Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman, which can currently be found streaming on Crave and the Criterion Channel. Until then, we'll see you at the movies!!

This week, it's the first week of P.T.August as we're set to spend the next five Fridays indulging in the works of Paul Thomas Anderson, beginning with a Blu-ray J Mo's been carting around for 11 years now without having ever actually watched before now. It's 2012's The Master, written and directed by P.T. Anderson, and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Rami Malek, Laura Dern, Jesse Plemons, Ambyr Childers and Kevin J. O'Connor. Watching it now, it feels like PTA was a good four years ahead of the culture in exploring the dynamics of cults, how they operate and why people get sucked in to them -- a subject on which there are now countless documentary series, but must have felt cutting edge in 2012. Loaded with visual flair and anchored by a trio of tremendous lead performances, it's Anderson's own personal favourite of his films. Will our hosts agree? Plus: Hayley's still boiling over the cut kiss from the end of Twisters.

If you'd like to watch the film along with us this week, The Master can be found streaming in Canada on Amazon Prime, Hoopla and the Criterion Channel at the time of publication, the latter of which is also celebrating P.T.August with an August collection of Anderson's work.

Other works discussed in this episode include The Fabelmans, Deadpool, Deadpool 2, Species, Species II, Under The Skin, Evil, Plane, There Will Be Blood, Arrival, Night Bitch, Nocturnal Animals, Ren Faire, Fight Club and many more.

P.T.August continues next week as we get back at it with an unseen film-on-disc from Hayley's collection, as we watch Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicky Krieps in 2017's Phantom Thread, also available to stream at the moment on Amazon Prime. Until then, we'll see you at the movies!!

This week, it wouldn't be the final episode of July if we weren't talking about a huge new theatrical release, but we're doing it a bit differently this time around as for the very first time (officially anyway) we review two movies at the same time! July's canon consideration is 1996's Twister, directed by Jan de Bont and starring Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz, Cary Elwes, Lois Smith, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alan Ruck, Todd Field, Joey Slotnick, Jeremy Davies and Zach Grenier, but we spend just as much if not more time discussing 2024's Twisters, directed Lee Isaac Chung and starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, Sasha Lane, Katy O'Brian, Kiernan Shipka, David Corenswet and Paul Scheer. And we're joined to discuss both by returning favourite / girlfriend of the show Ashley Olson, a self-confessed "weather girlie" for whom the original film has been a lifelong fave. It's a delightful chat as two prairie girls roast an ignorant city boy for knowing nothing about storm tracking.

If you'd like to watch the films before listening along to our conversation, Twister is currently streaming on Crave and Starz in Canada at the time of publication, while Twisters can be found in theaters everywhere.

Oh, you thought we would be discussing other works this week as well? Well, we're not. Two movies is more than enough, you sickos.

We'll be back next week to kick off P.T.August, a month-long celebration of the works of Paul Thomas Anderson, beginning with 2012's The Master, a movie J Mo's been hauling around on Blu-ray for 11 years without ever having watched it. That all changes next Friday! So come on back now, as the rest of our PTA slate includes Phantom Thread, Inherent Vice, Licorice Pizza and concludes with our August canon entry Boogie Nights. Until then, we'll see you at the movies!!

We're teeing up next week's big return of the MCU with Deadpool & Wolverine by looking back at the first collaboration between director Shawn Levy and the Huge Jacked Man, a futuristic underdog sports movie about robot boxing. Yes it's 2011's Real Steel, starring Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, Hope Davis, James Rebhorn and returning ADHD-DVD favourite Kevin Durand. While it's often described as Robot Rocky, it hues much closer to a Robot Over The Top. Based on a short story by Richard Matheson that was adapted into The Twilight Zone episode "Steel", produced by Spielberg and Zemeckis, and backed by a winning cast, all the ingredients are here to make a smart and affecting family-friendly action movie, but like its sadsack loser protagonist, it just can't put it together. Plus Justin's got theatrical field reports on Longlegs and A Quiet Place: Day One.

If you'd like to watch Real Steel before listening to the show, it is currently streaming in Canada on Netflix at the time of publication.

Other works discussed on this episode include The Last Voyage of the Demeter, 13 Hours, The X-Files, Gladiator II, Anyone But You, Ticket To Paradise, The Mask, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, I Love You, Man, Succession, Speed Racer, Chappie, Australia, Les Miserables, Prisoners, The Last of Us, The Mandalorian, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, LOST, WALL-E, Transformers, The Simpsons, and Battleship.

We'll be back next week to welcome Twister into the podcast canon, and we'll be joined by Significant Other of the program Ashley Olson to discuss a film that is very near and dear to both her and Hayley's hearts. And of course you know we'll be talking Twisters as well, so come on back for what is sure to be a whirlwind episode you don't wanna miss. Until then, we'll see you at the movies!!

This week, after a 40th anniversary sequel went straight to Netflix, we're winding it back to a 23-year-old Eddie Murphy's breakout smash as a capital-M Movie Star. It's 1984's Beverly Hills Cop, directed by Martin Brest, and starring Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Lisa Eilbacher, Ronny Cox, Steven Berkoff, Jonathan Banks, Bronson Pinchot, and Paul Reiser. This one comes from J Mo's collection as it's a movie he's strangely never seen before, having been burned by other overhyped Murphy comedies of the 80s? Is this one worthy of the hype? We'll find out together, but if you've seen it I think you know. Plus: Hayley's watched Axel F. to see where this franchise is at after 40 years, while Justin's staying hydrated in the heat.

If you'd like to watch the movie before listening to this discussion, Beverly Hills Cop is currently streaming on both Netflix and Paramount+ in Canada at the time of publication.

Other works referenced in this episode include Twisters, Gladiator II, The Last Duel, House of Gucci, Napoleon, Speed Racer, Miami Vice (2006), Hot Rod, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Point Blank, Grosse Pointe Blank, High Fidelity, Charade, Driveaway Dolls, Maid, Blockers, Metro, Trading Places, Bowfinger, The Other Guys, The Santa Clause, True Romance, Scarface, Cobra and Tango & Cash among others.

We're back next week to tee up Deadpool & Wolverine by watching Hugh Jackman's previous collaboration with director Shawn Levy: a silly sci-fi rock-em sock-em robot boxing movie from 2011 called Real Steel, with Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie and Kevin Durand, currently streaming in Canada on Netflix and free with ads on the CTV app. And of course, we'll close out the month of July by inducting Twister into the pod canon. Until then, we'll see you at the movies!!

This week, we're getting dragged by the anchor-cable into an ancient war between angry bureaucrats and aloof teleporters as we jump in to the 2008 forgotbuster Jumper, directed by Doug Liman, and starring Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie Bell, Rachel Bilson, Michael Rooker, Diane Lane, Kristen Stewart and AnnaSophia Robb. After a June full of five-star films, we intentionally picked a stinker this week -- though it's a movie J Mo thrifted out of genuine interest, as the talent both in front of and behind the camera is formidable to say the least, and the movie's barely-explored concept is not without potential. But hey, sometimes the most fun episodes are the ones where we all agree the movie is a big hunk of junk. Meanwhile, Justin's going down the rabbit hole of the original series Star Trek films, while Hayley files a theatrical field report on A Quiet Place: Day One.

If you'd like to stream Jumper this week, you can't! It should be on Disney+ or Hulu but it's not. They want it to stay buried.

Other works referenced in this episode include Pig, The Great Muppet Caper, Clifford, Set It Up, The Ring, Joy Ride, Hot Rod, Con Air, The Spectacular Now, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Shattered Glass, American Made, Valkyrie, Edge of Tomorrow, The Bourne Identity, Speed, Speed Racer, X2: X-Men United, The Three Amigos, John Wick, The Happening and Behind Enemy Lines.

Next week, as Axel Foley returns in a direct-to-Netflix fourth installment, we're winding the clock back 40 years to the 1984 original Beverly Hills Cop, directed by Martin Brest, with Eddie Murphy and Judge Reinhold, currently streaming in Canada on Netflix and Paramount+. Until then, we'll see you at the movies!!

This week, we don't step behind the mic to be an audio driver... we do it because we're driven, as we go under the hood with the Wachowski sisters' much-maligned avant garde anticapitalist art film (for kids!), the 2008 anime adaptation Speed Racer, written and directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, and starring Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Fox, Roger Allam, Hiroyuki Sanada, Benno Fürmann and Richard Roundtree. Turned loose on kid-friendly fare after R-rated successes, the Wachowskis served up a visionary piece of art about what it means to be an artist, and the struggle to create under capitalism. A box office flop upon its release, it's gained a cult following in the years since, and count Justin as a Day 1 believer as he saw it twice in IMAX and all of its technicolor splendor has likely been imprinted on his eyelids ever since. It's a contentious pick to close out Masterpiece Month, a nomination for canon consideration so audacious that it just may test the limits of the very friendship undergirding this podcast. But fret not! Beyond hearing a nerdy boy yap about his nerdy interest for an impossibly long time, we also mark the midway point of the year by revealing our Top 5 films of 2024 thus far.

If you'd like to watch Speed Racer before listening to this episode, it is sadly unavailable to stream in both the US and Canada at the time of publication. But you should see it. It's great. (Can you guess which one of us writes this stuff?)

Other works discussed in this episode include Twisters, Civil War, Hit Man, Late Night with the Devil, Longlegs, Devil, Love Lies Bleeding, Dune: Part Two, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Challengers, Speed, Midnight Run, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Lisa Frankenstein, National Treasure, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pirates of the Caribbean II: Dead Man's Chest, The Matrix, V For Vendetta, Pacific Rim, Cars, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Yellowjackets, Nope, Alita: Battle Angel, and Gran Turismo, among countless others.

We'll be back next week to kick off another themeless month of madness on the show, as we're following Masterpiece Month by purposefully steering the ship directly into an iceberg and watching the movie that killed Hayden Christensen's leading man career. Yes, it's another box office dud from the summer of 2008: Doug Liman's Jumper, which sadly just like Speed Racer is not currently available to stream. Until then, we'll see you at the movies!!