John Hughes month concludes on Cracked Movie Club! By 1989, John Hughes was closing out a decade of wild success with teen comedies and had been steadily branching out into more adult-oriented fare, most of which starred John Candy. Hughes kept that train rolling with Uncle Buck, starring Candy as the titular uncle who has to care for his brother’s kids after a family tragedy. Out of the surprisingly few films of which Candy was the star, Uncle Buck was the most successful, and its production inspired John Hughes to create Home Alone, which isn’t bad for a movie most of you probably haven’t seen.

On this week’s episode, Tom is joined by Cracked’s David Bell and The Bechdel Cast’s Jamie Loftus as they discuss how the movie was almost not filmed in Hughes’ home state of Illinois, whether or not Uncle Buck is in the mob, and why every teen in Winnetka is goth.

John Hughes month continues on Cracked Movie Club! There’s no better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than by watching John Hughes’ 1987 film Planes, Train and Automobiles, his first adult-centered feature after a string of teen angst hits. Although not a big hit when it was released, the movie has gone on to be arguably Hughes’ best liked film, as well as one of the best liked films of its two stars, Steve Martin and John Candy (Candy’s terrible mustache notwithstanding).

On this week’s episode, Tom is joined by Cracked’s Michael Swaim and comedian Matt Braunger as they discuss how John Hughes’ classic road trip movie became an unspoken classic, how the film’s stars managed to perform a near 200 page screenplay without committing any major felonies, and whether or not John Candy’s character is actually a vampire.

John Hughes month continues on Cracked Movie Club! In 1986, John Hughes was on a roll that had suddenly transformed him from a screenwriter of adult-oriented comedies to the king of teen angst movies. He kept that train rolling with Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, a movie he pitched and wrote in a week about a high school senior who skips school for the day and takes his girlfriend and his wet blanket best friend on a series of hijinks through Chicago. Meanwhile, they are pursued by the villainous Principal Rooney, who is played by a real-life child predator, which ups the stakes somewhat.

On this week’s episode, Tom is joined by Cracked’s Alex Schmidt and Katie Goldin as they discuss Hughes’ incredible ability to churn out quality films in such a short period of time, the unexpectedly brilliant casting of a 29 year old man to play Ferris’ put-upon best friend Cameron, and whether or not Ferris is a figment of Cameron’s imagination or is perhaps God Himself.

John Hughes month continues on Cracked Movie Club! In 1984, after writing a string of successful comedies, Hughes made his directorial debut with Sixteen Candles, which launched the careers of 80s it-girl Molly Ringwald, John and Joan Cusack, and that weird guy who would go on to play the janitor in The Breakfast Club.

On this week’s episode, Tom is joined by guest host Bridgett Greenberg and Cracked’s Kristi Harrison as they discuss the numerous amazing but often-overlooked performances in the film, how the film’s status as a classic coming-of-age comedy is weighed down by its many problematic aspects, and whether or not Jake Ryan’s pants have a belt built into them.

John Hughes month begins on Cracked Movie Club! Back in the 1980s, John Hughes changed the idea of a teen movie from a bunch of dopey kids dancing on the beach to a bunch of mopey kids talking about their depressing, broken lives (and also dancing). No other film more perfectly exemplifies this than 1985’s The Breakfast Club, Hughes’ hit film about five misfits sharing a Saturday detention together, which set a template for teenage dramedy that Hollywood still follows to this day.

On this week’s episode, Tom is joined by Cracked’s Carmen Angelica and Jenny Jaffe, the creator and star of IFC’s Neurotica, as they discuss the impact The Breakfast Club still has on teenagers decades after its release, how Nicolas Cage was too expensive for Hughes to cast (a problem no film made in the past five years has encountered), and whether John Bender is actually cool or just an insufferable, boring asshole.

John Carpenter month continues on Cracked Movie Club! In 1978, a young independent filmmaker named John Carpenter was approached to direct a movie called The Babysitter Murders, about a group of teenage girls being stalked by a killer. A title change and a William Shatner mask later, Halloween was released, launching Carpenter into the mainstream (or as close to the mainstream as he ever got) and setting the template for slasher films (and unabashed cash-ins) like Friday the 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street for years to come.

On this week’s episode, Tom is joined by Cracked’s Alex Schmidt and bestselling horror novelist Jason Pargin aka David Wong as they discuss how the cultural landscape of America when Halloween was released contributed to the film’s success, the charming low-budget ingenuity that went into the film’s surprisingly sparse production, and how the movie’s male hero Dr. Loomis is easily the worst psychiatrist in the history of the universe.

The year was 1982, and John Carpenter was white hot. Coming off a string of successes like Halloween and Escape From New York, Universal Studios approached him to direct a remake of Howard Hawkes’ The Thing From Another World. The result was The Thing, a landmark sci-fi horror film that set the bar for practical special effects, creature design, and tin-can tension. And everyone hated it.

This week, Tom is joined by Cracked’s David Christopher Bell and comedian David Huntsberger as they discuss the construction of the incredible special effects for The Thing, the lengths Carpenter went to create a constant feeling of paranoia in the film, and how fantastically little of a shit Wilford Brimley gave about the whole operation.

As the 1980s drew to a close, John Carpenter released They Live, an indictment of Reagan-era politics, a sharp critique of the economic disparity in America, and also a movie about Rowdy Roddy Piper wearing a pair of magic sunglasses.

On this week’s episode, Tom is joined by guest host Bridgett Greenberg and comedian Matt McCarthy as they discuss the surprisingly still-relevant themes of They Live, John Carpenter’s ongoing quest to discredit any and all forms of authority, and the legendary performance of Roddy Piper as John Nada, which is simultaneously soulfully understated and lip-wigglingly insane.

John Carpenter month begins on Cracked Movie Club! Way back in 1981, John Carpenter was an emerging low-budget horror director with a few modest successes to his name when he released his dystopian action masterpiece Escape From New York, the movie that launched Kurt Russell’s career as an action star by casting him as the most objectively ridiculous character in cinema history on a mission to rescue the president from the prison island of Manhattan.

This week, Tom is joined by guest host David Bell and comedian Brodie Reed discuss the incredibly innovative miniature work that went into creating Escape From New York, the film’s post-Watergate anti-government themes, and exactly how many terrible snake tattoos Snake Plissken probably has on his body.

Kathryn Bigelow month continues on Cracked Movie Club! In 1995, Bigelow released Strange Days, her vision of a near future in which people can record their everyday lives, and buying and selling those recordings has become the most popular form of entertainment. Meanwhile, civil unrest reaches a fever pitch after one of those recordings captures the murder of a prominent black entertainer at the hands of the LAPD. In other words, Bigelow’s predictions were absolutely correct.

On this week’s episode, Tom and Abe are joined by Caitlin Gill as they discuss the technical wizardry required to create Bigelow’s visionary sci-fi film, the intense themes woven into the story, and how many times Ralph Fiennes mentions his ridiculous necktie.