"Summer Surprise" continues, with an unexpectedly relevant movie selection from the online randomizer! As Disney's recent Haunted Mansion reboot is currently bombing in theaters (most likely on its way to be covered on this show someday), we take a look back at the original cinematic take on the popular ride, from 2003. Released the same year as Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, this was meant to seal the deal that theme-park-rides-turned-movies would be Disney's next big movie trend. Starring Eddie Murphy and from one of the co-directors of The Lion King, and based on one Disney's most beloved theme park attractions, it seemed a surefire hit. Instead, the so-so box-office performance and critical drubbing it received more-or-less put the kibosh on any ride-movies not called Pirates for quite some time. So...what went wrong? 

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And now, back to our regularly scheduled "Summer Surprise" programming. Travel back with us to the early nineties, a time when the world was still ninja-crazy, Leslie Nielsen's star-power was so on the rise that even a few minutes of screen-time seemed like it might boost a movie, and when Hollywood was ready to see if this Rob Schneider guy from SNL could maybe cross over into movies. Clearly designed by New Line Cinema to capitalize on their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles success, and meant as a star vehicle for a unique father-son martial arts team, the family action-comedy Surf Ninjas is admirable for its mostly Asian cast...still a rarity today, and almost unheard of from studio movies in 1993. But is that the only nice thing we'll have to say about it?

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"Jake JULYenhaal" concludes with a look at 2011's time-travel thriller, Source Code. But wait - was this legit hit actually meant to launch a franchise? We discuss the film's journey from spec script to movie to potential series starter, as well as diving into the movie itself. Do the story's logical and ethical hiccups hamper the film? Does it play fair by its own time travel rules? Is the man of the hour, Jake Gyllenhaal, better served here than he was in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time? And why the heck does Hollywood keep underutilizing Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga? All this, and more!

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We interrupt your regularly scheduled "Summer Surprise" programming to instead bring you "Jake JULYenhaal," a month dedicated to the failed franchise starters of Jake Gyllenhaal. First up, the 2010 video-game adaptation Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a rare example of Gyllenhaal trying his hand at "action blockbuster leading man." Despite a poor track record for previous video game movies, Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer were confident this would be the next Pirates of the Caribbean mega-franchise. Well, clearly, that did not happen. So what went wrong? Does the movie live up to the games? Is the casting of the movie too problematic to look past? Is there any movie Ben Kingsley won't do?? We discuss all this, and more!

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"Summer Surprise" continues with another YA lit adaptation, this time from one of the world's most successful authors. We're looking at Maximum Ride, the story of lab-created, winged teenagers on the run, based on the popular series by James Patterson. But this one has us in a new, confusing situation, as we're forced to question whether this even counts as a "movie." How does a bestselling series from a widely beloved author become something like...this? That's what we're here to try to figure out, because I guess someone has to do it.

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June is here, so you (maybe) know what that means! That's right, it's time for the start of our annual "Summer Surprise," where we let an online randomizer choose which movies from our oh-so-long F2F list we'll be covering next. First up, it's back to the land of misguided YA adaptations trying to cash in on the Harry Potter phenomenon. But this time, the source material actually pre-dates JK Rowling's works, as we examine The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, the 2007 feature adaptation of Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising Sequence" of novels from the 60s and 70s. Cooper's five-book series has stood the test of time, so why did we only get one movie, and why is it already mostly forgotten today? Listen on to find out!

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"Mike MAY-ers" concludes with our look at 2008's The Love Guru, Mike Myers' ill-fated attempt to kick-start another character-based franchise in the vein of Austin Powers. Instead, this movie essentially ended his days as a leading man. So just what the heck happened? Is the film's heart in the right place, or is it an insensitive, offensive trainwreck that everyone involved with should have known better than to participate in? We discuss all this, plus, we discover the randomly chosen films we'll be watching for our upcoming annual "Summer Surprise" series!

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We're kicking off "Mike May-ers," a month devoted to Canadian comic icon Mike Myers, with a look at his ill-fated Dr. Seuss adaptation, The Cat in the Hat. One of the more..., let's say, perplexing movies we've looked at, this one begs a lot of questions. Do adult jokes have a place in Seuss adaptations? Is the Cat in the Hat an inherently sinister character? What's the logic of the Cat's powers? And should Seuss's short, verse-focused books even be adapted to feature length in the first place? We discuss all this and more, as we examine the movie that made Dr. Seuss's widow swear off any future live-action adaptations of his work!

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We're closing out two month's of "Pulp Frustration" with a look at 1996's ill-fated adaptation of Lee Falk's classic comic-strip hero, The Phantom. Intended as a star vehicle for Billy Zane, The Phantom was shepherded by two mega-producers, and came complete with a script co-written by beloved genre icon Joe Dante. But when the writers aren't on the same page as, well, nearly everyone else involved, it can spell disaster. How does The Phantom stack up against the other pulp heroes we've seen so far? Is Treat Williams in a different movie than everyone else? And were they honestly expecting audiences to take that costume seriously? We discuss all this, and more, as we "Slam Evil!"

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"Pulp Frustration" continues, as we look at the movie based on arguably one of the greatest pulp heroes of them all, The Shadow! The Alec Baldwin star vehicle asks an intriguing question: When a character has a complicated, decades-long history, with various origins and abilities established across his different permutations in print, radio, and film, is it easy to make a definitive version of him onscreen? Well...nope! Still, in 1994, they gave it a try anyway. Join us as we discuss the film's odd narrative decisions, the character's debatable big-screen potential, and just what the hell is up with Baldwin's make-up job in the movie. Who know what failures lurk in the wallets of Hollywood? The Shadow knows!

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