DeRazzled

Verhoeven Month continues as we begin our exploration of 1996's Showgirls, a movie that actively destroyed Jack's appreciation for breasts. Possibly the only NC-17 film we'll be covering on this show, we delve into what does and doesn't work about it, cover some of director Paul Verhoeven's background beyond what we did in our Starship Troopers episodes, marvel at the impact video rentals can have, make entirely too many references to Marvel Comics and Grant Morrison (but who is surprised?), talk about how poorly this film treats its black characters, and set the stage for part 2's coverage of screenwriter Joe Eszterhas. Kick back by the burning remains of your Andrew Carver record collection, lock up the chimpanzees somewhere safe, and have a medical professional on standby in case Elizabeth Berkley's writhing somehow throws out your back and hips just by watching.

CW: Sexual assault, racism, homophobia, reference to a sex club

Podcast plugged in this episode: Making A Martini (@MartiniMaking on Twitter)

Verhoeven Month continues as we bring you part 2 of our dive into 1997's Starship Troopers with friend and special guest Steve Luciano! We wrap up discussion of the production and the nightmarish on-location conditions, delve into some unfortunate setbacks during filming, cover the film's reception from test screenings and its official release, and marvel at just how wildly misunderstood this film was and how badly people failed to catch the satire. Join us and, at least for the next hour, forget about how a lot of this is still kind of a thing and increasingly distressing. 

CW: Fascism, xenophobia, violence, discussion of nudity, bad takes from professional film critics

Podcast plugged in this episode: Doom Generation (@DoomGenPod on Twitter)

HAPPY VERHOEVEN MONTH! With this November marking the 25th anniversary of Starship Troopers, we thought it would be a great time to bring on our friend and sci-fi enthusiast Steve Luciano on to talk about Paul Verhoeven's (formerly hated) satirical masterpiece. Joe presents some background on the film's production, Steve digs into Robert A. Heinlein and his book of the same title, Jack and Steve compare the film and the book, and we set the stage for how something can be so wildly misunderstood upon its release. Would you like to know more?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Due to Joe being sick on the day of recording, we had to record remotely. Despite taking several precautions after what happened with our Battlefield Earth episode, we unfortunately had some audio issues with this episode as well. We apologize to you listening and to Steve for this unfortunate occurrence. Thankfully we were able to still use the majority of the audio.

CW: Fascism, racism, xenophobia

Podcasts plugged in this episode: Making A Martini (@MartiniMaking on Twitter)

We return to wrap up our coverage of 2017's The Mummy, truly one of the worst performances of Tom Cruise's career. Jacks shares a truly horrendous anecdote about why Steven Spielberg won't work with Cruise anymore (allegedly), we dig into Universal's previous attempts to do Monster Universe crossovers and reveal all the known and rumored casting decisions that would have made up the Dark Universe, Joe goes on a bit of a tirade about the ethics of museum curation, and of course we attempt to fix this mess of a film -- but not before asking the question: Is The Mummy racist? Kick back and enjoy a tall glass of that awful black sarcophagus liquid as we finish this late Spooky Season journey. May Osiris (not Set) be merciful.

CW: Racism, Cultural Appropriation and Theft, Alleged creepy/illegal behavior connected to the Church of Scientology

Podcasts plugged in this episode: The Geeky Dad Podcast (@geekydadpodcast on Twitter)

You can't convince us that it's not still Spooky Season! In that spirit we sift through the sands to deal with 2017's The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise and Sophia Boutella. Jack kicks us off with some updates on horror movies he's watched since our actual Halloween special (namely, Halloween Ends, Hellraiser (2022), and  Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon). We dig into the writing of this film and the trouble that comes along long-running script reworks, bemoan the utter lack of Egypt in this thing, marvel at how relatively okay Russell Crowe was, and lament that we couldn't just be watching The Mummy (1999) starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weiss. Listen to find out what happens when you try entirely too hard to make a movie fit a star (who apparently wanted to channel Nathan Fillion) and also setup an entire cinematic universe with a bunch of shoehorned sequel bait.

CW: Mention of Scientology

Podcast plugged in this episode: The Geeky Dad Podcast (@geekydadpodcast on Twitter)

Due to life-stress and an untimely loss of a pet, we're not up to doing a full episode this week. But we do have this excellent collection of high-quality deleted scenes from the first 6 episodes of this season, which includes:

The Emoji Movie

Development Hell: The Amory Wars

Mommie Dearest

Development Hell: The Six Million Dollar Man

The Room

Development Hell: Superman Lives,  Part 1

We get into an unsurprising amount of comic book nonsense (including too many invocations of Alan Moore), bemoan Sony's childish leadership, wonder if polyamory or cell phones would fix CATS, delve into Jack's hatred of pop-punk, explore Jack's new career trajectory of shepherding actors into better final roles, ponder audio finger guns and the intricacies of podcast entrapment, and ask the age old question: did Zardoz give Connery a latex fetish? Enjoy as we continue to prep for next week's episode, which we promise will actually be part 1 of 2017's The Mummy.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYONE! We've got a a nice, long relaxed-fit special for you, chock full of horror you may know and love or may be learning about for the first time! Jack offers his (potentially offensive) rankings of the Halloween franchise, and then we break down the best and worst films by the following directors:

Jordan Peele

Takashi Miike

Karyn Kusama

Mary Harron

Clive Barker

Ana Lily Amirpour

Leigh Janiak

Wes Craven

We're also lucky enough to have some input to share from some friends and fellow podcasters: Tabbi Gray from the Happy Hour Podcast and Cam Sully from the Jacked Up Review Show!* We also got a fun, if off-prompt, bit of input from friend-of-the-show Matt Stoyanoff. Let us know your thoughts on these films/directors by emailing us at [email protected]! Kick back and relax with your favorite candy and pumpkin-flavored beverage and enjoy/rage over our takes!

CW: Sexism, violence against women, sexual assault, blood, gore, dismemberment, racism

Podcasts plugged in this episode: Happy Hour Podcast (@HappyHourShow3 on Twitter); The Jacked Up Review Show (@JackedUpReview on Twitter); Doom Generation (@DoomGenPod on Twitter)

*EDITOR'S NOTE: There were supposed to be more audio messages from friends included, but the only one that would actually upload properly was Matt Stoyanoff's. We didn't discover this until it was too late to do anything about. Our apologies.

Caleb Feigles of Making a Martini (now the official 2nd Best Podcast in Pittsburgh according to the City Paper!) joins us once again to explore what happened behind the scenes of 1980's Xanadu and attempt to fix it! Much like Jack's idea for Olivia Newton-John's character, we stretch our legs as a Double Threat by delving into both film history and true crime history. That's right, this one didn't just have divas backstage -- it also had a slew of horrible murders in its wake that could have ended up with Newton-John and Sandra Day O'Connor as victims. Get all the details as we polish off a bottle of 19 Crimes' Snoop Dogg Cali Red, dig into the production and the stage musical, imagine needlessly dangerous porn shoots on skates, take a fun detour into American Zoetrope, and wonder how Joe didn't have a worse night's sleep watching this movie after the Saturday that he had.

CW: Violence against women and children, murder, misogyny

Podcasts plugged in this episode: Making a Martini (@MartiniMaking on Twitter); F*** My Work Life! (@fmwlpod on Twitter)

We were gonna cover this one later this season, but with Olivia Newton John's recent passing (R.I.P.) we decided to tackle this OG Razzie Worst Picture nominee much sooner than expected. And y'know what, we're glad we did, because Jack actually really liked this one to the surprise of Joe and special guest Caleb Feigles of Making a Martini. We roll out our new format by giving a rapid-fire synopsis of the film (lest Jack be punished with horse noises) and covering what worked and didn't work with this 1980 day-glo laser roller disco fever dream. We lament the camera work and fashion choices made for Gene Kelly's last feature film role, declare our love for the work of Don Bluth, and wonder at what happens when you get a bunch of Tron in your Greek mythology. Kick back and relax after a long day of roller skating to Electric Light Orchestra and enjoy part 1 of our journey into Xanadu!

Check back next week for part 2, in which we take a closer look behind the scenes of this film and attempt to fix it.

CW: alcohol, discussion of drug use, discussion of sex clubs and bathhouses, mention of All Dogs Go To Heaven

Podcasts plugged in this episode: Making a Martini (@MartiniMaking on Twitter); Doom Generation (@DoomGenPod on Twitter)