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This week on Fabulous Film & Friends we’re taking on the monumental challenge of dissecting Francis Ford Coppola’s sprawling, controversial and somewhat divisive 2024 opus, Megalopolis starring Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LeBeouf, John Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Grace Vanderwaal , Kathryn Hunter, and Dustin Hoffman. Plus, as a bonus James Remar, and D.B. Sweeney in essentially featured background roles.

I’m your host Gino Caputi and joining me this week are two of my sturdy and stalwart fellow film snobs, who had the guts and determination to get to the movie theater before the film was yanked from screens, Joe Field, and Gordon Alex Robertson.

Before we go bonkers, don the Coppola sandwich board and howl at the masses, the synopsis:

 In the dark days before the impending collapse of New Rome, Caesar Catalina, a man who can stop time and space, ventures to create a utopian city using “Catalinium,” the Nobel Prize-winning element he invented. He seeks to replace his decaying city with a new vision for a brighter future but said vision faces setbacks on many levels. Despite political, financial, societal and familial obstacles raining down on him, Catalina’s  unwavering spirit cannot be deterred.

A deserved critical and financial bomb or a misunderstood masterpiece? 

Find out!! 

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This week on Fabulous Film & Friends we’re going to back to the late 1950’s early 1960’s when men smoked heavily, recklessly enjoyed sophisticated cocktails and liked their women the way they wore their suits: skinny and tight! A time when spies and cold wars were the talk of the town, and all the cool cats admired two preeminent and influential thrillers. We’re talking 1959’s North by Northwest directed by the Master of Suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock and starring Carey Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis, Ned Glass, and Marin Landau against 1963’s Charade, directed by Stanley Donen and starring Carey Grant again, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, James Coburn, Ned Glass again, and the mighty George Kennedy. 

I’m your host Gino Caputi and joining me this week are two of suave, millionaire Men’s Men in their own right, David Johnson DMD and Author/Producer George Young. 

Before we break out the martinis: the synopses:

North by Northwest follows the exploits of slightly mild-mannered ad agency owner Roger Thornhill who is mistaken for a government agent and abducted.  After that, he is thrown into a world of shadow-y art dealers and fast-talking female special agents who will do anything to protect and advance their positions. Roger’s only way out is to follow the trail of mystery to its presidential conclusion. 

In Charade, Regina Lambert, a soon to be divorcee quickly finds out she’s a widow whose ex-husband has hidden a fortune, by 1963 standards.  With both the government and four of her husband’s former associates following her to find the money, she falls s hopelessly in love with one of them, though his identity is never quite known. 

Which is the coolest caper? 

Find out!!

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As we blast off into our 4th Season here at Fabulous Film and Friends, and with the recent release of Alien Romulus, we thought it only fitting to take a look at ALL the Alien movies, minus the execrable Alien v. Predator films, starting with 1979's Alien directed by Ridley Scott and starring Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphett Koto, John Hurt, Veronica Cartright and Ian Holm followed by 1986's Aliens, directed by James Cameron and starring Sigourney Weaver again, joined by Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Lance Henrickson, Carrie Ann Henn, William Hope, Jeanette Goldstein, Mark Rolston Al Matthews, and Paul Reiser. Then we get 1992's Alien 3 directed by David Fincer, starring Weaver once again, with Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Ralph Brown, Pete Postelwaite, Brian Glover, Holt MccAllany, Lance Henrickson and a veritable slew of bald British day players yelling, "You bloody wanker!"

Then there's 1997's Alien Resurrection directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet starring Ms. Weaver, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman, Dan Hedaya, Brad Dourif, JE Freeman, Kim Flowers Gary Dourdan, Dominique Pinon and Michael Wincott.

Then there's a long break in the actual franchise with the aforementioned cash-grabs Alien v. Predator films thrown in the mix and the series starts up again in earnest with 2012's Ridley Scott directed prequel Prometheus starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall Green, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall, and Guy Pierce. 

In 2017 we're treated to Alien Covenant, once again directed by Ridley Scott starring Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Cruddup, Danny McBride, Callie Hernandez, Carmen Ejogo, Guy Pearce, everybody's favorite prankster, Jussie Smollet and blink and you'll miss them cameos by Noomi Rapace and James Franco. 

Which leads us to 2024's Alien Romulus directed by Fede Alvarez and starring Callie Spaeny, David Jonsson, Isabella Merced, Archie Renaux, Aileen Wu, Spike Fearn and a posthumus Ian Holm. 

I'm your host Gino Caputi and the guests today are Burton Brown, David Johnson, DMD, Joe Field. 

With seven movies to cover we're going to get right into it, with one synopsis. 

Alien movies started off about a crew of space miners serving on the enormous mining vessel the Nostromo who while in cryosleep on their return to Earth with their minerals and ore in tow, are given orders to stop on the planet LV-426 to investigate a distress signal coming from a derelict spacecraft. While investigating the phenomena the crew inadvertently bring an alien on board their vessel. The Alien picks off the crew one by one and it is only warrant officer Ripley who survives by destroying the Nostromo and ultimately shooting the alien out into space. 

An internet meme sums it up thusly:

Alien 1 - A team of miners faces an Alien

Aliens - A team of marines faces a lot of Aliens

Alien 3 - A group of convicts faces one Alien

Alien Resurrection - A team of pirates face 5 Aliens

Prometheus - A team of scientists inadvertently create the 
Alien

Alien Covenant - A team of colonists face a a lot of Aliens

Alien Romulus - A team of babyfaced Gen Z 'ers face  a lot of Aliens

Which is Queen of the Hive? 

Find out!

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On this 90th episode and Season 3 finale of Fabulous Film & Friends we’re going to dig into 2024’s Wildcat, centering around the life and works of Great American Author Flannery O’ Connor and directed by Ethan Hawke, starring the director’s daughter Maya Hawke, Laura Linney, Phililip Ettinger, Cooper Hoffman, Steve Zahn, Rafael Casal, Alessandro Nivola Christine Dye, Vincent D’Onofrio and Liam Neeson. 

I’m your host Gino Caputi and joining me this week to try and unpack all of this literary and cinematic heaviness are Lit major and self-proclaimed  QUEEN of the College Library check-out counter, my kid sister Roseanne Caputi, Author, hyp-MO-therapist and pop culture critic Joe Field and a man who lived the life of O’Connor’s Southern heartthrob OE Parker, replete with tattoo long before it was fashionable: Gordon Alex Robertson. 

Before the duel of wits begins: the synopsis:

Wildcat details the physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and familial battles author Flannery O’Connor endures after she is stricken with Lupus and desperately attempts to ascertain God’s purpose for her and her gift for writing sardonic and uncomfortable grim morality tales.

What do we all make of this endeavor? 

Find out!!

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This week on Fabulous Film & Friends it’s the moment all yall cowpokes been watin’ fer.  

We’re biting the bullet and comparing the two star-studded “Gunfight at the OK Corral” epics, pitting 1993’s Tombstone directed by George Pan Cosmatos starring Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliot, Bill Paxton, Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn, Stephen Lang, Dana Delany, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Joanna Pacula Michael Rooker, Thomas Hayden Church, Jason Priestly, Billy Zane, Billy Bob Thornton, Charleton Heston and Robert Mitchum against 1994’s Wyatt Earp directed by Lawrence Kasdan and starring Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid, Michael Madsen, Tom Sizemore, Bill Pullman, Linden Ashby, David Andrews, Isabella Rossellini Mare Winningham, Jobeth Williams, Catherine O’Hara, Allison Elliot, Annabeth Gish, Joanna Going, Mark Harmon, Jeff Fahey,  Lewis Smith, Adam Baldwin, Martin Kove, Jim Caviezel, Tea Leoni, Betty Buckley and Gene Hackman.  

I’m your host Gino Caputi and I have quite a lineup of hired guns on this edition starting with my kid sis and prairie loving Roseanne Caputi, the sons of Eastern Oregon and Northern Utah, Burton Brown and David Johnson, DMD, Texas Joe Field and the rootin’ tootin’ est actor photographer this side of the Columbia River, Gordon Alex Robertson. 

Alright, before we throw down and draw: the synopses. 

Tombstone finds retired lawman Wyatt Earp and his brothers Virgil and Morgan along with their wives settling in the Arizona mining town of Tombstone to seek their fortunes. Their plans go awry when Curly Bill Brocius, Ike and Bill Clanton and rest of The Cowboy gang start making trouble and allegedly kill the Tombstone Marshall Fred White. The Earp Brothers don the tin stars and are sworn in once again to face off with the members of the gang at the legendary OK Corral. 

Wyatt Earp basically tells the same story except with a bit more backstory more and A LOT more padding. 

Which film wins the duel? 

Find out!!

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This week on Fabulous Film & Friends we’ve jumped on that bandwagon and got a full fledged case of Deadpool-mania!

That means we’re going to discuss all three of Ryan Reynolds happy little R-rated capers which started in 2016 with Deadpool directed by Tim Miller, starring Ryan Reynolds, TJ Miller Morena Baccarin, Brianna Hildebrand, Stefan Kapicic,  Ed Skrein, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni and Gina Carano. Then continued with 2018’s Deadpool 2, directed by David Lietch and starring pretty much the same cast minus Skrein and Carano with the addition of Josh Brolin, Zazie Beets, Julian Dennison, and Rob Delaney. And capped off with the most marketed and hyped movie of my lifetime, 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, directed by Shawn Levy and starring Mr. Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as well as a good portion of the previous supporting cast in cameos along with Matthew MacFadyen and Emma Corrin as villains. 

I’m Gino Caputi and my solitary guest today is author, hypnotherapist and comic book shop royalty Joe Field. 

I have to announce that Deadpool & Wolverine raked in 440 million over the July 26th 2024 weekend, the highest opening weekend box office haul for an R rated film ever. Was it  Ryan Reynolds’ and Hugh Jackman’s over-the top marketing strategy of appearing on nearly every talk show and commercial for a month that helped or hurt its box office. Could it have been more if they hadn’t seemed so transparently mercenary? 

Before we get into it, the synopses:

Deadpool 1-3 are about Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool. the “Merc with a Mouth” a cynical 4th wall breaking character who makes scores of naughty puns while killing bad guys in over-the-top grotesque CGI enhanced ways. His powers are just like Wolverine’s, he’s unkillable because he heals and regenerates faster than it takes for his body’s functions to shut down due to loss of blood. Or something like that. 

Which Deadpool Film gets the killshot?

Find out!

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On our 87th episode we’re looking back at the year 1996, a simpler time when humanity came together and made big hits out of unsophisticated and unabashedly emotional sci-fi adventures. We’re talking Independence Day directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Margaret Colin, Mary McDonnell, Robert Loggia, James Rebhorn, Brent Spiner, Vivica A. Fox and Randy Quaid and Star Trek First Contact directed by Jonathan Frakes and starring Patrick Stewart, Frakes, Brent Spiner, Levar Burton, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Alfre Woodard, Alex Krige and James Cromwell. 

I’m Gino Caputi and returning for the follow up to our sci fi 1994 episode which compared Emmerich’s Stargate to the previous TNG Star Trek film subtitled Generations are  author/hypnotist Joe Field and Utah IT tech and reformed TNG superfan Burton Brown. 

Gentlemen, welcome. Before we get into it, the synopses:

The people of the planet Earth are utterly astonished and horrified when on July 2nd 1996, an enormous spacecraft, half the size of the moon, launches 10 city-sized spacecraft over the world’s major cities which proceed to blow them to smithereens. It’s up to President Tom Whitmore, Ace Fighter Pilot Captain Steve Hiller and MIT genius David Levinson to devise a plan on Independence Day to stop the alien army. 

In Star Trek First Contact Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s old foe the cybernetic Borg return to conquer the Federation once and for all by traveling back in time to the mid 21st Century to stop Warp Drive Pioneer Zefram Cochrane from making first contact with an advanced alien species. Picard and his brave crew of the brand new USS Enterprise E risk losing their ship and being stranded in the 21st Century forever when they follow the Borg into the past in order to thwart their nefarious plan. 

Which film is the winner of the battle of the invincible aliens? 

Find out! 

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This week on Fabulous Film & Friends we’re giving our first impressions of Kevin Costner’s Horizon An American Saga Part 1. The actor/director headlines the production along with Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Luke Wilson, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Will Patton, Abbey Lee, Jena Malone, Tatanka Means, James Russo, John Beavers, Jamie Cambpell, Michael Angarano, Dale Dickey and Jeff Fahey

I’m Gino Caputi and joining me this week is Roseanne Caputi, my kid sister and my good friend, actor, photographer, gunslinger Gordon Alex Robertson. 

Horizon follows several characters of the American Old West whose lives and personal fortunes intersect on a settlement land named Horizon, deep within Apache territory. 

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On this 85th episode of Fabulous Film and Friends we are going to connect the dots between three seminal cautionary tales from the 80’s: 1984’s Repo Man directed by Alex Cox and starring Emelio Estevez, Harry Dean Stanton, Olivia Barash, Jennifer Balgobin, Dick Rude, Tracey Walter, Sy Richardson, Vonetta McGee, Richard Foronjy, Tom Finnegan, Eddie Velez, Del Zamora, Zander Schloss, Fox Harris and Jimmy Buffet. Then 1987’s River’s Edge directed by Tim Hunter starring Keanu Reeves, Crispin Clover, Ione Skye, Daniel Roebuck, Joshua John Miller, Josh Richman, Roxana Zal, Jim Metzler, Tom Bower and Dennis Hopper and topped off with Robocop, also from 1987 and starring Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Kurtwood Smith, Miguel Ferrer, Paul McCrane, Ray Wise, Jesse D. Goins, Felton Perry, Del Zamora, Dan O’Herlihy and the inimitable Ronny Cox. 

I’m Gino Caputi and returning to the program to break down all this cynicism and disaffected young adulthood are my sister Roseanne, the lit major, Joe Field, the author/hypnotist and back again after a long fitful stint in suspended animation, the photobug and funny man Gordon Alex Robertson!

Okay before we suit up and start taking names, the synopses:

In Repo Man, Otto, an LA punk, gets fired from his job as a grocery clerk but finds his true calling when a tough-talking stranger named Bud convinces Otto to join his team of auto repossession agents. Bud, Otto and the entire network of the repo men run into an existential crisis when a mysterious car that has a reward of 20k is believed to have an alien in its trunk. 

River’s Edge is loosely based on true events and catalogues a turmoil of emotions or lack thereof that a group of teens encounter when they discover one of their friends, John aka Samson, has murdered his girlfriend while another friend, Layne, swears them all to secrecy. 

Robocop looks into the future where the Detroit police are privately owned by a corporation called Omni Consumer Product. After Alex Murphy a brave but naive officer is killed in the line of duty by a ruthless crime lord named Clarence Boddiker, Murphy’s body is given to OCP for a pilot program that transforms Murphy into a cyborg called Robocop. The program seems to work and Robocop starts cleaning the streets until he realizes all is not right in his programming and there are sinister forces that led to his creation, including a pact between OCP VP Dick Jones and Boddiker’s gang.  

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On this episode of Fabulous Film and Friends we are looking back at two middling, lackluster sci-fi adventures from 1994 that have mysteriously stood the test of time: Stargate, directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Kurt Russell, James Spader, John Diehl, Jaye Davidson, Viveca Lindfors, Erick Avari, Alexis Cruz, Mili Avital, Leon Rippey, French Stewart, and Djimon Hounsou, which was released in October of ‘94 then Star Trek: Generations which was released a month later, was directed by David Carson and starred Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Levar Burton, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFaddon, Malcolm McDowell, Walter Koenig, James Doohan and William Shatner. 

I’m Gino Caputi your host, and back for more, especially if Star Trek is to be discussed I have series regular and IT tech Burton Brown, and representing the fresh eyes of the younger, non-cynical generation, author hypnotherapist Joe Field. 

The synopses:

In Stargate, a crack squad of US Special Forces led by Colonel Jack O’Neill with an assist from archeologist Dr. Daniel Jackson travel through a mysterious circular dimensional portal that was discovered in Giza Egypt in 1928 and kept a secret by the military until the mysteries of the portal could be unlocked. Once on the other side, Jackson and O’Neil discover they are on the planet Abydos with a culture very similar to ancient Egypt. There they befriend the locals and do battle with the god Ra, revealed to be an alien who has enslaved humans on this planet and is intent on destroying the human race on Earth through the Stargate. 

In Star Trek Generations a single-minded, pleasure-seeking and murderous Dr. Tholian Soran attempts to destroy an entire solar system in order to get back into a heaven-like, temporal portal in the universe called The Nexus. It is up to the crew of the Starship Enterprise D, led by Captain Jean Luc Picard to stop Soran. Unfortunately, Picard proves to be too weak for the task and finds his ship and crew destroyed, the mission failed and he himself is trapped in the Nexus. Except…Captain James T. Kirk is also in the Nexus having landed in it 78 years earlier the Enterprise B encountered The Nexus on a rescue mission. Picard and Kirk join forces, leave the Nexus and stop Soran through the power of team work. 

San Francisco Chronicle Film Critic Mick LaSalle, when summarizing the 1994 Year in Film wrote, “In 20 years will anyone still be watching Stargate? Or Star Trek Generations?” 

I agreed with him wholeheartedly that these films were nothing but forgettable, but here we 30 years later and are still watching these works. Add to that, Stargate has had five spinoff  TV series on the subject and they’re still planning cinematic reboots. Star Trek Generations was listed implausibly as a one of the great epics in the 2004 book Epic movies and will forever be remembered as the film that killed off Captain Kirk. 

So, the burning question is WHY have these films endured? 

Find out!

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