LoFiTop5

Today we’re breaking away from other topics to go back to school and suss out the Top 5 College movies. We have a fun chat exploring differing perspectives from Jeremy (repping Gen X) and JT (millennial), whose ages impact this category in so many ways. The guys have a whiplash back & forth comparison of two “classic” college films, Animal House and PCU, but you don’t need to be a real genius to listen. So whether you are just the waterboy for the school team, a musician with perfect pitch, or just the freshman who protects endangered species, we hope this episode will really feel old school for everyone.

Another week, another AFI Top 100 Film, this time we revisit Mike Nichols’ award-winning flick, The Graduate. Beyond a little general chit-chat, this episode’s Top 5 Questions include “Name the Life Advice Quote” (relatedd to One Word: Plastics), “What’s up with Ben and Elaine, 10 years later?”, and another game Jeremy’s made up for JT, finding the common thread between this movie and Blade Runner, Castaway, Inception, and others. Also, JT has to figure out what Mr. Nichols has in common with Whoopi Goldberg and Mel Brooks (and 13 other specific celebrities). All in all, it’s a good post-collegiate romp!

In this week’s episode, we dive deep into “That Guys”, a gender-neutral term for our favorite character actors in movies - you know, when you see a Xander Berkeley or, as our friends at the Rewatchables puts it “Joey Pants” on-screen and you say to yourself, hey, I know that guy. Yeah. Them! In fact, we can name drop our James Hongs and Bruce McGills and Larry Hankins all day, and we’ll bet you have no idea who we’re talking about (respectively - the bad guy from Big Trouble in Little China, D-Day from Animal House, and Carl from Billy Madison). Also features a brief discussion of why there aren’t more women as well-known character actresses - and how we hope that’s changing in more modern times.

With Jeremy out of commission this week for Spring Break, you might say that JT was in a bit of a pickle. An American Pickle, even...So in a rare solo-episode, JT dives into the 2020 film An American Pickle! Somehow he manages to talk about Encino Man a lot more than you might think anyone should, which Franco is the best Franco, and, of course, a fair amount of BIlly Zane talk. So what could be a better snack of a podcast than a discussion about An American Pickle!

This week, JT and Jeremy re-watched the classic film noir - how classic? Like 21st on the AFI Top 100, 11 Oscar noms, and a Metacritic score of 92. In this weeks Top 5 Questions About… we discuss topics such as “how would you recast this in 2021?“, “How bout that ending?“, and a little guessing game where JT has to guess which other epic (and not-so-epic) movies did screenwriter Robert Towne pen? If there’s one thing we’re sure of - there’s a lot more laughing in our episode than in this dark, DARK, film. As Always, We Just Watched contains spoilers, so if you haven't seen this classic yet, go watch it first!

On a scale of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to 10 Things I Hate About You, this episode goes to 12 Monkeys (because there are so few movies with the number 11). That’s right everyone, this week’s theme is the Top 5 Movies with a number in their title - not including sequel numbers. The good news, there’s absolutely no math required to listen, nor will you need a sixth sense to see what these three amigos (ok, just two of us), talked about all the way into our 25th hour.

Wedged somewhere between Critters and Total Recall comes Saturn Award-winning 80s SciFi action flick Alien Nation, or as w think of it “buddy cop movie, but with aliens and space goo”. In this episode, JT asks Jeremy the Top 5 Questions about Alien Nation, including a comparison of other classic 80s aliens like the Ewoks, Howard the Duck, Audrey 2, and the entire cast of Spaceballs. Our Gen X host does his best to convey the significance of this movie on pop culture in the late 80s (with a TV series and multiple follow-up made-for-TV movies). Also - fair warning - there’s a lengthy discussion about… space goo.

Grab a tissue everyone, because on this week’s episode the boys let all the emotions fly as they stammer their way through their lists. And this is all the stuff that makes guys cry - dogs, sons, dads, dogs, daughters, sports, death, dogs, sports, and… Robin Williams movies (don’t agree? It’s not. your. fault!). As a mysterious voice once said: If we record it, they will listen.

t just arrived on HBOMax this week, but we watched this solid movie about an obviously very important story. Now regular listeners know: we aren’t professional reviewers, and we do enjoy being the “LoFi” guys - so this is us taking the lighter side of the discussion. And we can prove it because we’re ready to throw down this premonition “this is the only podcast to legitimately weave in discussions of Judas and the Black Messiah with Miss Congeniality, Point Break, The Karate Kid, and Dirty Dancing.” Finally, as always, we do have a Billy Zane reference, he’s like the “hidden Mickey” of our 'cast.

While Hobbs & Shaw is the spinoff we clearly deserved, JT and Jeremy aren’t so sure it’s the one we needed. This episode has the gents going through their pantheons of favorite movies, selecting the characters they just need to see moar of. With a particular, but not manic, focus on henchmen/buddies, selections include (only) a few superhero movies, the greatest swordsman that ever lived, a lamp-loving sidekick, and the manager of an elite underground hotel. As a final hint, some of the actors/actresses include Robert Duvall, Donald Glover, Tessa Thompson, Kevin Smith, and one of both of our fave’s John Leguizamo.