EP #198: VHS Summer V – Val Kilmer

VHS Summer returns for its fifth and final installment! Jason is joined by Evan Crean (Spoilerpiece Theater) to rank and review five of Val Kilmer’s most iconic performances. From boy genius to gunslinging legend, Kilmer’s range is on full display in this eclectic lineup:

Real Genius (1985)

Willow (1988)

Thunderheart (1992)

Tombstone (1993)

Heat (1995)

Which film enters the Vault, and which get left out in the summer sun?

They told you not to rewind. You did it anyway.

We’re talking suburban malls, sex pests, and sleepless summers, all through the warped plastic of a rental copy that’s seen too much.

Every week, a new lineup. A new meltdown.

INSTANT REACTION: Superman must reconcile his alien Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing as reporter Clark Kent. As the embodiment of truth, justice and the human way he soon finds himself in a world that views these as old-fashioned.

A group of survivors of the rage virus live on a small island. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors.

INSTANT REACTION: Plagued by a recurring violent nightmare, a college student returns home to find the one person who can break the cycle and save her family from the horrific fate that inevitably awaits them.

INSTANT REACTION: A fading midwestern town in which Frendo the clown, a symbol of bygone success, reemerges as a terrifying scourge.

EP 196: 2008’s Box Office Countdown (5–1) – Jokers, Jones, and ABBA (ft. Phoenix Clouden)

Episode Description:

It's a strange mix of gritty realism, nostalgic absurdity, and pop musical euphoria

Films Discussed:

Mamma Mia! (5) – Meryl, ABBA, and summer dreams you can sorta almost sing along to.

Hancock (4) – A drunken antihero gets a redemption arc, and the movie continues.

Kung Fu Panda (3) – The animated surprise that kicks harder than anyone expects.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2) – Aliens? Fridges? And the first real internet backlash blockbuster.

The Dark Knight (1) – Ledger’s Joker, Nolan’s vision, and the box office juggernaut that changed the game. But is it...good?

IN THIS EPISODE:

Phoenix defends Kung Fu Panda as top-tier animation with real heart and craft.

Jason revisits Hancock and some tone deaf creative choices.

Can Mamma Mia! actually work as a movie?

Was Crystal Skull ever really that bad, or just a victim of overhype?

And does The Dark Knight still hold up as the superhero movie to beat?

EPISODE 195: 2008’s Box Office Countdown (10–6) – Iron, Espionage, Penguins, and Robots (ft. Robert Yaniz Jr. & DW Lundberg)

Episode Description:

This batch has it all: MCU beginnings, Pixar magic, Bond reboot blues, and a certain talking lion who just can't catch a break.

Films Discussed:

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (6) – The animals are back and... still trying to get home.

Quantum of Solace (7) – Bond is brooding, brutal, and possibly bored.

Iron Man (8) – The movie that launched a universe (and Robert Downey Jr. into legend).

WALL·E (9) – A near-silent ode to love, loneliness, and environmental collapse.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (10) – Slightly darker, slightly edgier, but did anyone notice?

IN THIS EPISODE:

Was Quantum of Solace an artistic casualty of the 2008 writers' strike?

How Iron Man became a bigger gamble than anyone remembers.

Why WALL·E might be Pixar’s boldest and most bittersweet gamble.

Robert, DW, and Jason try to answer the eternal question: "Who actually watched Prince Caspian?"

From Armored Avengers to existential robots, the back half of 2008’s top 10 is more influential than you might think.

EPISODE 195: An American Original! – No apologies, no half-measures, all fire. (ft. Joe Buttice)

Episode Description:

Strap in for manifest destiny, surfboard theology, Cimmerian steel, and teenage guerrilla warfare.

Films Ranked:

Dillinger (1973) – Milius’s directorial debut, mixing gangster cool with mythic Americana.

Big Wednesday (1978) – A lyrical, wave-soaked ode to brotherhood and the end of an era.

Conan the Barbarian (1982) – Barbarism, Nietzsche, and epic vengeance in the Hyborian Age.

Red Dawn (1984) – Wolverines! Teenage insurgents defend America in a Cold War fever dream.

IN THIS EPISODE:

Joe defends Red Dawn as both fantasy and prophecy

Jason meditates on Big Wednesday as the most personal of war films

The complicated politics, masculine myth-making, and the man behind the bombast