Myopia Movies

This week on the Myopia Movie Patreon exclusive episode, we complete the Alien Saga with Alien Covenant! Two Michael Fassbenders? Is this the best one?

Want to hear the whole thing? Join the Patreon! For just $5 a month, you can get the entire back catalog, an extra movie a month, and an extra Mission Briefing every other month!

In the meantime, please continue to rate and review us! We are on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and now Spotify and could use the support; the more ratings you give the easier it is for others to find us. Also, do you follow us elsewhere?  Facebook? Twitter? Myopia? Also, for those of you who are truly film folks, I have created a Letterboxd page! Check out what episodes we have done here (including Predator!)

Host: Nic

Every week on The Twilight Zone Zone,we go down Donald Liebenson’s list The 26 Episodes We Talk About When We Talk About The Twilight Zone from Vanity Fair, chronologically by release date and compare two episodes and choose which one to recommend. This week we watched “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” and “Nothing in the Dark.”

The setup is a little bit Saw and a little bit Waiting for Godot: an Army major (William Windom) finds himself in a circular enclosure with no doors, no windows, and no ceiling. He has no idea who he is or how he got there. And he’s not alone; present, but more resigned to their situations, are a clown, a ballerina, a hobo, and a bagpiper. This episode gives new meaning to the eternal question, “Why are we here?” Your mileage may vary as to the ultimate answer, but the questions posed (“How long will we be here?” “What’s up there?”) are profound in or out of The Twilight Zone.

Many actors got their start on the Zone—none more famously than Robert Redford, who appears here as a policeman who is shot outside of the door of an elderly woman who refuses to leave her condemned apartment for fear of being taken by “Mr. Death.” For more before-they-were-big moments, see Robert Duvall in “Miniature,” Burt Reynolds in “The Bard,” and Charles Bronson in “Two.”

Host: Nic Hoffmann

Panel: Matthew, Jeremy and Daniel

This week on Myopia Movies, we watched Danny Glover clean up the streets, which, I assume, is why he is the President in 2012. We watched Predator 2, why did Men in Black not star Gary Busey? 

If you have not yet, check out the Patreon! We have old episodes and special episodes that are exclusive! Check in to hear us talk about the Alien franchise!

In the meantime, please continue to rate and review us! We are on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and now Spotify and could use the support; the more ratings you give the easier it is for others to find us. Also, do you follow us elsewhere?  Facebook? Twitter? Myopia? Also, for those of you who are truly film folks, I have created a Letterboxd page! Check out what episodes we have done here (including Predator!)

Host: Nic

Panel: Daniel and Matthew

A tie: these are two Serling-penned episodes whose messages feel distressingly relevant. In the first, Burgess Meredith stars as a librarian deemed obsolete by the totalitarian state and sentenced to death, though he gets to choose his manner of execution. In the second, a former SS captain returns to Dachau, where he encounters a former prisoner. These episodes are Serling at his most impassioned. When it comes to ideologies that fail to recognize the rights and dignity of man, or a race determined to “turn the Earth into a graveyard,” metaphor alone won’t cut it.

The Earth has changed its elliptical orbit and is headed toward the sun. In an abandoned New York apartment building, two women try to stave off their fate and retain their humanity. This is one of the most viscerally felt Twilight Zone episodes. You jump when a precious can of fruit juice is accidentally dropped; you sweat when the power operating the air conditioning is shut off; and you melt like paint on a canvas as a thermometer shatters. And then comes the episode’s switcheroo, which is so, so cold.

Host: Nic Hoffmann

Panel: Matthew and Daniel

Hello there! For our Patreon supporters, we have covered for Mission Briefing Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery! Enjoy a sample here, but if you are interested in the whole thing and the back-catalog, and our Alien series, join us!

In the meantime, please continue to rate and review us! We are on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and now Spotify and could use the support; the more ratings you give the easier it is for others to find us. Also, do you follow us elsewhere?  Facebook? Twitter? Myopia? Also, for those of you who are truly film folks, I have created a Letterboxd page! Check out what episodes we have done here (including other movies with kids playing sports like Rookie of the Year (1993) and The Mighty Ducks (1992))

Host: Jon

Panel: Nic and Daniel 

Every week on The Twilight Zone Zone,we go down Donald Liebenson’s list The 26 Episodes We Talk About When We Talk About The Twilight Zone from Vanity Fair, chronologically by release date and compare two episodes and choose which one to recommend. This week we watched  "The Grave” and “It’s a Good Life”

Months before Lee Marvin, Strother Martin, and Lee Van Cleef starred in John Ford’s classic Western The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, they co-starred in this episode, a Western ghost story (ghostern?) about a gunman who is dared to make a midnight visit to the grave of the freshly gunned-down killer he relentlessly pursued but failed to capture. It boasts a great script, eerie atmosphere, and Lee Marvin at his Lee Marvin-est (“I don’t get my nerve from this gun . . . I had it long before I could even pick one of them up”). And the ending is a real grabber.

The twist is revealed right up top: the monster who has made the world go away, save for his rural Ohio village, is a six-year-old boy (Bill Mumy) who can read thoughts, control even the weather with his mind, and transform those who would wish him harm into “grotesque walking horror.” Demon kids are always creepy, but this episode plays like the ultimate nightmare of a society destroyed by the spoiled children of overindulgent parents. (Yes, The Simpsons did this one, too, with Bart as the monster.)

Host: Nic Hoffmann

Panel: Matthew and Daniel

This week we leave the traditional Alien Franchise, but return to the sweet and confident embrace of Ridley Scott for an art film with a bonkers ending. 

Host: Nic

Panel: Jeremy, Daniel

Every week on The Twilight Zone Zone,we go down Donald Liebenson’s list The 26 Episodes We Talk About When We Talk About The Twilight Zone from Vanity Fair, chronologically by release date and compare two episodes and choose which one to recommend. This week we watched “The Obsolete Man” and “A Game of Pool”

“The Obsolete Man”

Burgess Meredith stars as a librarian deemed obsolete by the totalitarian state and sentenced to death, though he gets to choose his manner of execution. 

A sure-bet episode featuring two stellar performances by Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters, playing it straight and cool as the late “Fats” Brown, a champion pool player who takes Klugman’s Randolph Street pool jockey at his word when he says he would do anything for just one game against the dead legend. This episode boasts some great dialogue (“Nothing’s impossible; some things are less likely than others”), and sage observations about the risks needed to become a champion and the responsibilities of carrying on a legacy.

Host: Nic Hoffmann

Panel: Matthew, Jeremy and Daniel

This week on Myopia: Defend Your Childhood, we watch Ed O'Neill fight Rick Moranis and we all learn a little something about....well, I could have sworn I learned something....We saw Little Giants, do you think nicknaming a preteen girl "Ice Box" could lead to neurosis? 

If you have not yet, check out the Patreon! We have old episodes and special episodes that are exclusive! Check in to hear us talk about the Alien franchise!

In the meantime, please continue to rate and review us! We are on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and now Spotify and could use the support; the more ratings you give the easier it is for others to find us. Also, do you follow us elsewhere?  Facebook? Twitter? Myopia? Also, for those of you who are truly film folks, I have created a Letterboxd page! Check out what episodes we have done here (including other movies with kids playing sports like Rookie of the Year (1993) and The Mighty Ducks (1992))

Host: Nic

Panel: Daniel, Lauren and Matthew

Every week on The Twilight Zone Zone,we go down Donald Liebenson’s list The 26 Episodes We Talk About When We Talk About The Twilight Zone from Vanity Fair, chronologically by release date and compare two episodes and choose which one to recommend. This week we watched "The Long Distance Call” and “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?”

You can explore the vast reaches of The Twilight Zone and not find an episode as profoundly messed up as this one. On her deathbed, a five-year-old boy’s grandmother bemoans how lonely she will be “far away,” and wishes aloud that her beloved Billy could go with her. Worst. Grandma. Ever.

Take mysterious footprints leading away from a pond where an unidentified flying object has crashed, a snowbound diner, and six (or was that seven?) stranded bus passengers, and you’ve got yourself a “regular Ray Bradbury.” Which one of them is the monster from outer space? This entertaining episode plays like a supernatural William Saroyan play (complete with a colorful coot portrayed by Jack Elam), with one of the series’s most famous reveals.

Host: Nic Hoffmann

Panel: Matt and Daniel