In 2009’s He's Just Not That Into You, a romantic ensemble built on a bestselling advice book somehow wound up being about emotionally stunted men, red flag relationships, and one very confused Scarlett Johansson.

Truman and Landen dig through the all-star cast and pop feminism of this late-2000s relic to find out how a dating guide turned into two hours of mixed messages and bare-minimum boyfriends.

A glossy rom-com about mixed signals and missed connections, He's Just Not That Into You follows a group of Baltimore singles stumbling through love and heartbreak, loosely inspired by the self-help book of the same name. Directed by Ken Kwapis and starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Ginnifer Goodwin, and a pre-Marvel Scarlett Johansson, the film was a Warner Bros. release during the late-2000s boom of ensemble romances. It made money, got lukewarm reviews, and quietly slipped into cable rerun oblivion—despite a cast list that reads like People Magazine’s Class of 2009.

What You’ll Hear:

Follow the show for new episodes every Friday

Browse the season on Letterboxd: https://www.moviememorymachine.com

Tags: He’s Just Not That Into You, 2009, Ken Kwapis, Aniston, Affleck, Barrymore, Goodwin, Johansson, romantic comedy, ensemble film, dating movies, 2000s rom-coms

The Machine served up The Road to Wellville, and now it’s time to cleanse the palate.

– Five films that turn food into ritual, punishment, or power

Want more weird cinema and Machine-fueled chaos? Follow us here:

Tags: The Road to Wellville, La Grande Bouffe, The Decameron, Amarcord, The Master, The Draughtsman’s Contract, Food in Film, Decadence, Art Cinema

Enemas, cornflakes, and the unholy gospel of wellness.

What You’ll Hear:

The perils of turning cereal into cinema

Roy Brocksmith: The Greatest Character Actor?

The Trailer Game: predicting which bowel moments made the cut

The Next Movie Reveal — including a spicy clue from the Machine

Support on Patreon: https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod

Season watchlist on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/moviememorypod/

Tags: The Road to Wellville, Anthony Hopkins, 1990s Comedy, Wellness Satire

What if Amadeus and There’s Something About Mary had a baby—and fed it nothing but yogurt enemas? In this episode of Movie Memory Machine, Landen and Truman dive headfirst into The Road to Wellville (1994), a baffling, big-budget health spa satire starring Anthony Hopkins as cereal tycoon Dr. John Harvey Kellogg in a performance that must be heard to be believed.

Directed by Alan Parker (Evita, Pink Floyd: The Wall) and based on the novel by T.C. Boyle, this forgotten 90s movie is part cult curio, part studio misfire, and entirely unlike anything else. We unpack its shocking budget, overloaded cast, box office faceplant, and why this bizarre film might actually be the missing link in the history of adult-targeted Hollywood comedies.

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Broderick, Bridget Fonda, Dana Carvey, John Cusack, Colm Meaney, Lara Flynn Boyle

Directed by: Alan Parker

Written by: Alan Parker, based on the novel by T.C. Boyle

What We Cover:

Forgotten 90s movies with giant budgets and no audience

Anthony Hopkins’ most unhinged role (yes, more than The Father)

The real Dr. Kellogg: eugenics, gut flora, and wellness gone wrong

Why Alan Parker followed The Commitments with this

1990s retro-futurism and health fads on screen

Studio comedies for grown-ups: a dead genre?

Dana Carvey’s physical comedy masterclass

The box office bomb and bizarre marketing strategy

Does this film deserve cult classic status—or a yogurt cleanse?

Our final verdict: back to modern memory, or leave it forgotten?

Links & More:

🌐 Website: https://www.moviememorymachine.com

💥 Patreon: https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod

📽 Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/moviememorypod/

Subscribe to Movie Memory Machine for weekly deep dives into forgotten films, underseen bombs, and baffling studio choices that time tried to erase.

If you love forgotten 90s movies, cult comedies, and Anthony Hopkins giving 110%, this episode is for you.

How many ways can one girl discover she has terrifying powers? In this Movie Memory Machine Five For episode, Landen and Truman explore five thematically connected films to Carrie (2013)—ranging from Brian De Palma’s original adaptation to Cronenberg’s scanners, to telekinetic kids with lighter (or stranger) fates.

We cover:

Carrie (1976): Sissy Spacek sets the gold standard for prom-night horror.

The Fury (1978): More psychics, more explosions, and De Palma off the leash.

Scanners (1981): The king of head-splosions meets telekinetic warfare.

Matilda (1996): What if Carrie used her powers for whimsy instead of wrath?

Thelma (2017): Norwegian art-horror about queer longing and supernatural coming-of-age.

Along the way, we talk Stephen King, Danny DeVito’s taste for chaos, and whether Stranger Things owes royalties to every VHS tape from 1981.

Topics Covered

🎧 Subscribe for new episodes weekly and visit MovieMemoryMachine.com

💥 Support the show and access 200+ bonus episodes at Patreon.com/gruntworkpod

In this mini-episode, Landen and Truman revisit Carrie (2013) to play The Trailer Game and score how many moments they accurately predicted would appear in the movie’s trailer — from blood buckets to telekinetic locker room footage. But along the way, the conversation detours into:

How do you explain to your kid that their dad died… from a falling bucket?

Would Carrie 3: Ennui be a better sequel than The Rage?

Could Julianne Moore have played Carrie herself in the 90s?

And is it okay to slow-dance with your teacher at prom if she’s Judy Greer?

Plus: thoughts on evangelical horror, Harry Potter comparisons, and an inspired (if cursed) pitch for Harry Carey.

We close with our next movie’s release date and a cryptic tagline: “A comedy of the heart… and other organs.”

Topics Covered:

– The Trailer Game: Carrie edition (2013)

– Carrie’s “bucket” death and its legacy

– Julianne Moore as Carrie: a missed opportunity?

– Evangelical horror and megachurch mayhem

– Judy Greer as the cool prom chaperone

– Could Carrie have thrived at Hogwarts?

– What if she was on the Poseidon instead?

– Real-time Googling of “magic powers”

– A cryptic teaser for the next forgotten film

Support the Show:

🌐 moviememorymachine.com

🎧 patreon.com/gruntworkpod

📽 letterboxd.com/moviememorypod

Nearly 40 years after Brian De Palma drenched prom night in pig’s blood and psychic rage, Carrie returned in 2013 with Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore. But did this remake modernize Stephen King’s story—or just repackage it?

In this episode, we trace the journey of Carrie (2013) from concept to release, explore how it compares to the 1976 classic, and ask whether it’s fair to call this version “forgotten”… or if we simply moved on for a reason.

Cast Includes:

Chloë Grace Moretz as Carrie White

Julianne Moore as Margaret White

Judy Greer as Miss Desjardin

Gabriella Wilde as Sue Snell

Portia Doubleday as Chris Hargensen

Ansel Elgort as Tommy Ross

Topics Covered

 Support the Show & Follow Us:

🌐 Website: moviememorymachine.com

🎧 Patreon: patreon.com/gruntworkpod

📽 Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/moviememorypod

The Playmobil movie may not have left much of a legacy, but it sparks a lot of conversation about how other films have approached fantasy, world-building, and childhood imagination — sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

In this 5 For episode, Landen and Truman pull five films that echo the structure, themes, or ambition of Playmobil: The Movie — and in most cases, improve on them. From modern animated juggernauts to nostalgic fantasy, they explore the good, the weird, and the unexpectedly connected.

Films Discussed in This Episode:

– The LEGO Movie (2014)

– The NeverEnding Story (1984)

– The Wizard of Oz (1939)

– Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

– Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

Topics Covered:

– Fantasy worlds as coping mechanisms

– The line between commercialism and genuine creativity

– The connective tissue between Playmobil and much bigger franchises

– Unexpected emotional resonance (and cooking subplots)

– Whether Truman will ever watch The NeverEnding Story

🔗 Support & Follow:

🌐 Full archive, bonus episodes & movie articles: https://www.moviememorymachine.com

🎧 Help keep the show alive: https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod

📽 Follow our film log: https://letterboxd.com/moviememorypod/

What happens when a toy company tries to copy The LEGO Movie—and completely misunderstands why it worked? That’s Playmobil: The Movie (2019), one of the strangest animated flops of the decade.

In this special mini-episode, we break down the Playmobil: The Movie trailer, play The Trailer Game, and dig into how the film’s marketing sealed its fate before it even hit theaters. We look at the bizarre choices behind the trailer, why audiences never connected, and how Hollywood keeps learning the wrong lessons from its biggest hits.

Cast Includes:

Anya Taylor-Joy as Marla

Daniel Radcliffe as Rex Dasher

Jim Gaffigan, Kenan Thompson, Meghan Trainor, and Adam Lambert

🎧 More Episodes + Support:

🌐 https://www.moviememorymachine.com

💰 https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod

📽 https://letterboxd.com/moviememorypod/

What happens when you chase The LEGO Movie with none of the charm, none of the budget, and none of the jokes? You get Playmobil: The Movie—a box office catastrophe that tried to turn plastic figurines into profit.

This week, we’re joined by Josh Boerman of The Worst of All Possible Worlds podcast to dissect one of the strangest failures in modern animation. We break down the movie’s bizarre tone, its baffling creative choices, and how it ended up costing over $75 million while making less than ten. From Daniel Radcliffe’s cameo to musical numbers that feel like tax write-offs, this is a journey into movie marketing gone horribly wrong.

Was it doomed from the start—or is there a forgotten charm beneath the molded surface?

Cast:

Anya Taylor-Joy as Marla

Gabriel Bateman as Charlie

Daniel Radcliffe as Rex Dasher

Jim Gaffigan as Del

Kenan Thompson as Bloodbones

Meghan Trainor as Fairy Godmother

Adam Lambert as Emperor Maximus

Topics Covered in This Episode:

SUPPORT THE SHOW

🎬 Full archive, bonus episodes & movie articles: https://www.moviememorymachine.com

🎧 Keep the show alive: https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod

📽 Follow us on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/moviememorypod/

📺 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MovieMemoryMachine

🎙 Check out Josh Boerman on The Worst of All Possible Worlds: https://www.worstpossible.world/