Late to the Party

In 1988 George Lucas and Ron Howard jammed J.R.R. Tolkien into a Star Wars mindset along with cutting-edge special effects and came out with a "dragon" so terrifying Matt instantly blocked it from his memory. Sydney and West watched "Willow" for the first time, and with Matt they revisit the fantasy would-be franchise-launcher that features Warwick Davis, Val Kilmer, a disturbingly-moist human-to-pig transformation sequence, old ladies wailing on each other, a likely sexual predator with a pretty blatant double-standard, probably-offensive fantasy slurs, and more.

It's a reverse episode of Late to the Party! Sydney and West watched a lot of Spy Kids growing up, but Matt was "too old" for it by the time it came out in 2001. Is it the frantic hyperactive mess he was always expecting? Does it hold up for West and Sydney? Was the whole movie just a coded exposé of the Weinstein and Epstein crimes?

Ever had "one of those days"? Apparently everyone did in the late 90's. Forefathers of Rap-Rock Limp Bizkit were everywhere in the late 90's and early 00's with hits like Nookie, Break Stuff, Rollin', and My Generation. They even had the fastest-selling rock record at the time. Matt rocked out to the Limp B-I-Z-K-I-T. West and Sydney had never heard them before and listened to the albums "Three Dollar Bill, 'yall" and "Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water" to catch up. How do Fred Durst's sick rhymes and Wes Borland's face-melting guitar riffs sound in 2020? And why did that Limp Bizkit vs. Nine Inch Nails beef never take off?

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K as Matt, Sydney, and West talk about Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, a classic that EVERYbody saw when Matt was a kid, but Sydney and West have never seen. How does it hold up for them? What's it like to date a "Ted"? And does anyone ever get over the super-awkward experience of trying to ask girls out at the mall when they were teenagers (or, you know, time-travelling historical figures)?

Horrific killer klowns from outer space terrorize a town with some outstanding puppetry work. Matt caught the "biker scene" of this movie as a kid and hard-noped it right out of there. Now he returns to it with West and avowed horror-head - and former haunted house clown - Sydney to see how it looks with the benefit of being a grown adult. How does this movie play with the "youth" in 2020? And how did we fall bass-ackwards into it being a metaphor for this year? (Note: This episode was recorded on May 24, 2020.)

What do you get when you put all the 80's and 90's era action movies in a blender and add love? Apparently a movie that only 14-year-old Matt saw. West, Sydney, and Matt look at the 1994 love letter to action movies, "Last Action Hero," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. How does a 26-year old movie based on the action tropes and pop culture of its era hold up? (The first half of this episode was featured on an internet webcast in support of the locally-owned, KC-based theater, Screenland.)

Younger generation folks West and Sydney talk with the "seasoned" Matt and special guest Kelly about the 1984 comedy "Splash," featuring Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah, John Candy and Eugene Levy. Sydney shares her delightful stories of ultra-dark mermaid documentaries, while Kelly and Matt marvel at the surprisingly high amount of mermaid sex and (sometimes) digitally removed butts in this classic from their childhoods.

As a child, Matt believed in the power of turtles and a bitchin' soundtrack. Sydney and West have some... legal questions... about human/turtle relations. What does the group make of this 30-year-old ode to giant turtles, ninjutsu, pizza, and misused sporting equipment?

Who knew that Val Kilmer made a secret Tony Stark origin story movie back in the 1980's? Matt starts to realize why he likes nerdy brunette women, while everyone tries to figure out the difference between talking like you're smart and actually being smart, along with their emotional tolerance for witty pranks.