Masters of the Universe (1987)

Coby’s pick takes us back to 1987 for Masters of the Universe — Cannon Films’ big swing at turning a Saturday morning cartoon into the next Star Wars. It’s got swords, lasers, body oil, and one of the wildest blends of sci-fi and fantasy ever shoved onto a VHS tape. In Memory Lane, Coby talks about watching his grandma’s taped-off-HBO copy on repeat, rocking his He-Man action figures, and realizing even as a kid that this thing was cheesy… but still kind of awesome.

We break the movie down scene by scene — from Skeletor’s dramatic takeover of Castle Grayskull and Gwildor’s interdimensional hotdog roller of a Cosmic Key, to He-Man and crew crash-landing in small-town California. We hit every bizarre Earth moment, from Courteney Cox’s tragic goodbye at the cemetery to Gwildor’s BBQ-sauce beard, the off-brand bounty hunters, and Principal Strickland showing up with a shotgun. And of course, we relive the glowing-helmet Skeletor finale — complete with the “I HAVE THE POWER!” moment that still gives us chills, even if it looks like it was filmed on a church stage.

In Behind the Scenes, we get into how Cannon bet everything on this movie and nearly bankrupted the studio trying to make their own space epic. We talk about the constant budget cuts, how the story got moved from Eternia to Earth to save money, Dolph Lundgren’s battle with his own accent, and Frank Langella’s love for playing Skeletor — a role he called his favorite ever. Plus, the scrapped sequel that ended up turning into Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Cyborg and how Courteney Cox’s first film gig somehow survived the chaos.

Our Favorite Picks include the bounty hunter lineup, Evil-Lyn’s creepy disguise scene, and Skeletor’s cobra-armrest hover-throne. We also count down our Top 5 props we’d kill to own as kids — from the Power Sword and Cosmic Key to the Air Centurion hoverboard and Evil-Lyn’s staff.

Watch or listen to the full episode to see what Late Fee this intergalactic trainwreck earned — and find out if Masters of the Universe stays checked out forever.

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