Today, we’re talking about the 1993 Joel Schumacher film Falling Down. It follows a down-on-his luck man named William Foster (aka D-FENS)  over the course of a 24 hour period on a hot day in 1990’s Los Angeles. Sitting in traffic, surrounded by a cacophonous crescendo of standard LA traffic stimuli, he abandons his car in the middle of the freeway, and sets off on a cross-city trek from East LA to Venice. Along the way, he takes out all of his pent-up resentments on a murderer’s row of LA archetypes that include: a Korean shopowner, hostile Latino gang members, homeless people, fast food workers, construction workers, a neo-nazi who owns a gun shop, and - my favorite - his ex wife (who has a restraining order against him).

Join us to discuss how this film is still relevant today, as well as to revel in how disturbed Erin was watching it.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Kristina “Krissie” Rettig & Erin Maxwell

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song by: Spooky Dan

This week on Cinematix Problematix, we’re dissecting Robert Altman's 1970 war satire MASH*, the Vietnam-era movie that pretended to be about Korea so the studio wouldn’t panic. Join us as well to deconstruct this Robert Altman classic that has recently come under fire do to, well, a lot of things. Mostly having to do with Hot Lips. 

This film sports an incredible ensemble cast of Donald Sutherland (Hawkeye Pierce), Elliot Gould (Trapper John McIntyre), Robert Duvall (Major Frank Burns), Tom Skerritt (Duke Forrest), Sally Kellerman (Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan), and many others. This film has a run time of 1 hr and 56 minutes.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Erin Maxwell & Kristina “Krissie” Rettig

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song by: Spooky Dan

This week on Cinematix Problematix, we’re cracking open the Disney vault — the part they pretend doesn’t exist — to revisit the 1946 film Song of the South, a movie so controversial that even Disney+ is like, “Yeah, we’re good.” Join us as we eviscerate this Disney "classic," a movie that has the chutzpah to not only be racist, but boring. 

The film stars Ruth Warrick as Sally, Hattie McDaniel as Aunt Tempy, Bobby Discoll as lil’ Johnny, and Luanna Patton as Ginny, and the film has a brisk runtime of 1 hour and 34 minutes, and is still way too long.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Kristina “Krissie” Rettig & Erin Maxwell

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song by: Spooky Dan

This week on Cinematix Problematix, we tackle Gone With the Wind: Hollywood’s glamorous love letter to the Confederacy, complete with plantation nostalgia, enslaved people who “love” their captors, and a heroine who treats the Civil War like an inconvenient garden party. Scarlett O’Hara shines as a heroine who can charm her way out of starvation, while the film clings to a fantasy where slavery was mild inconvenience to a few people and that the Civil War was for States Rights.. It’s epic, it’s iconic, and it’s a three-hour denial of history wrapped in great costumes and moral rot. Please enjoy. 

This film stars Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Hattie MacDaniel, Olivia de Havilland, Butterfly McQueen, and Leslie Howard, and has an epic-worthy runtime of 3 hrs 58 minutes.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Kristina “Krissie” Rettig & Erin Maxwell

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song by: Spooky Dan

Today, we’re talking about the 1995 Paul Verhoeven film Showgirls. The film tells the tale of Nomi - a bright-eyed but street smart dancer who makes it to Vegas with nothing but dance leggings, a knife, a penchant for thrashing wildly, and a dream. While auditioning for a Vegas show, she catches the eye of aging starlet Cristal Conners and her lover/casino Entertainment Director, Zack Carey, which results in a vicious yet sexy tug of war for who will become queen of the stage. The fighter that she is (literally), Nomi is determined to not be taken advantage of while she turns to the dark side to take Cristal’s place as darlin’ of the Las Vegas strip. 

The film stars Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan, Gina Gershon, Glenn Plummer, Robert Davi, and Ungela Brockman and has a run time of 2 hours 11 minutes.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Kristina “Krissie” Rettig & Erin Maxwell

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song by: Spooky Dan

Today, we're talking about Richard Benjamin's 1994 film Milk Money. The film tells the tale of young Frank, who along with two adolescent friends of his, decide to hire a hooker named V to see what boobies look like. However, V has an abusive pimp and Frank offers to hide her in his treehouse, as young boys tend to do with prostitutes they just met. She then meets Frank's dad Tom who is immediately smitten, yet unaware that V is living in the treehouse. Long story short, a predictable love story develops between V and Tom with V's abusive pimp on her tail, and hijinks ensue.

The film stars Melanie Griffith, Ed Harris, Michael Patrick Carter, Malcom McDowell, Anne Heche, and Philip Bosco, and has a runtime of 1hr and 50 minutes.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Kristina “Krissie” Rettig & Erin Maxwell

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song by: Spooky Dan

Today, we’re talking about Joel Schumacher’s 1985 film St. Elmo’s Fire about - as IMBd puts it - “A group of friends, just out of college, struggle with adulthood.” And that is putting it kindly. The film begins with Jules, Kirbo, Billy, Wendy, Alec, Leslie, and Kevin all graduating from Georgetown and diving head first into the deep end of adulthood with nothing but privilege, good looks, booze, credit cards, and penchant for being complete jerks. As a matter of fact, the film should receive an award for the sheer amount of atrocious behavior demonstrated by our fashionably disastrous group of so-called adult protagonists. And all of it is passed off as charismatic, relatable, harmless tomfoolery which I can only justify by saying “Hey, it was the 80’s!”

The film stars Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Mare Winningham, Judd Nelson, and Andie MacDowell and has a run time of 1 hour and 50 minutes.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Erin Maxwell & Kristina “Krissie” Rettig

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song by: Spooky Dan

Today, we’re talking about the 1982 film The Toy starring Richard Pryor as Jack Brown - a struggling writer who gets hired by the affluent U.S. Bates to be a friend to his lonely but incredibly spoiled child, Eric.  You see, Eric just wants to be loved and hugged, but he also wants a full grown black man to dress in Spider Man costumes that he can torment for his own amusement. So he’s also a little f$%@ing demon. The film centers around the growing and unlikely friendship between Jack and lil’ Eric, where Eric eventually comes to see Jack as - GASP! - an actual human being.

The film stars Richard Pryor, Jackie Gleason, Ned Beatty, and Scott Schwartz and has a runtime of 1hr 42 min.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Erin Maxwell & Kristina “Krissie” Rettig

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song by: Spooky Dan

Today, we’ll be talking about the 1980 film The Blue Lagoon, which tells the story of children Emmeline and Richard who get shipwrecked on a desert island with an alcoholic yet incredibly handy cook named Paddy. Spoiler alert: Paddy dies after drinking an entire barrel full of rum, leaving these two completely clueless children alone, with nobody to tell them that getting it on with your first cousin is kinda gross. But that didn’t stop this film from TOTALLY going there. As the kids grow up, they figure out things about their bodies and learn the hard way (pun intended) how babies are made. All of this happens while they spill out some of the most frustratingly dumb dialogue of any movie I’ve seen.

The film stars Brooke Shields, Christopher Atkins, and Leo McKern as Paddy, and has a runtime of 1 hour and 44 minutes.

CREDITS

Hosts: Kristina "Krissie" Rettig & Erin Maxwell

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme Song by: Spooky Dan

And today, we’re talking about  the 1983 classic Trading Places, which tells the tale of The extremely wealthy Wall Street executives Duke brothers who decide to place a friendly bet to see if nature beats nurture. They take the star employee at their financial firm,  Louis Winthorpe III, and try to see if a destitute Black man, Billy Ray Valentine, can effectively take his place and learn the ropes of the finance world if he’s given all of the privileges of his predecessor. The Dukes' exercise their power to take away Winthorpe’s job, home, and wealth and transfer it to Valentine to see whether nature or nurture wins out. And then blackface, the n-word, and bad Jamaican accents ensue!

The film stars Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy, and Denholm Elliot. It is directed by Jonathan Landis and has a run time of 1 hr 56 min.

CREDITS

Hosts: Erin Maxwell & Kristina "Krissie" Rettig

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme Song by: Spooky Dan