Nighthawks' Podcast

The boys are back in town. The boys being The Nighthawks and that unflappable archeologist and relic hunter Indiana Jones.

Tonight the boys discuss Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom!

In this prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark, the titular Indiana Jones finds himself with Girl Friday Willie Scott and a plucky Chinese orphan as he embarks into the jungles of India in search of the lost Sankara Stones.

The stones have magical properties precious to local villagers, but they are sought after by a mysterious Thugee cult that has occupied India's Pankot Palace. It's up to Indy, Willie, and Short Round to infiltrate the Temple of Doom, recover the stones, and emancipate the enslaved villager children.

It's black magic and racial insensitivity from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas; in a film starring Harrison Ford, Cate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, and Amrish Puri...

For this episode, and the next several episodes, the Nighthawks Podcast embarks on a great quest that started in 1981.
At the end of the 20th century, the world was introduced to a swashbuckling mid-century hero. Archeologist by day, relic-hunter and Nazi puncher by night.
Harrison Ford stars as Indiana Jones whose first adventure started for the Lost Ark of the Covenant in the Steven Spielberg and George Lucas project Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's a juggernaut of a franchise that just won't die, the supporting cast features Karen Allen, John Rhys-Davies, Paul Freeman, and Alfred Molina.
Slide into the conceptual Nighthawks diner for coffee, pie, daring-do, scandalous affairs, rival polymaths, and evil Nazis.

What have you been watching lately?

With the Nighthawks gearing up for some special episodes over the summer, they decided to lead off with a whole episode devoted to the latest movies in Matt and Trevor's queue and some of the latest movies to hit theaters!

Discussed in this episode:

A 1950s Drive-In Classic starring Steve McQueen becomes a sloppy and violent 1980s practical effects slime-fest when it comes to the amorphous THE BLOB.


Originally pitched as an episode covering the 1988 The Blob only, the Nighthawks both watched the 1958 The Blob for the first time, doing homework for this episode, and they can’t help but talk about it.


In both movies an object crash lands from space outside a small town populated by small town folks. A poor old man happens upon the object, touches a bubbling mass inside, and is eventually and horribly consumed, as the mass pulsates, grows, expands, and begins to hunt down the delicious townspeople.


In the 1950s it was about young teenagers who aren’t believed by the establishment, and the town that has to band together for survival.


In 1988 the town’s teenagers are also the vanguard against The Blob, but at the heart of the story is a dark underplot involving shadowy government dealings and agents with unclear motives.


Each movie has its value, and both are on the menu tonight in the Nighthawks conceptual Diner.

It's that time of year again, for the glitz, the glamor, the pomp, the circumstance, the ceremony, the reaction shots from Meryl Streep...


It's time for the 93rd Annual Academy Awards, otherwise known as The Oscars, hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.


In the Nighthawks Cafe is Oscar Czar Cameron Maris, breaking the nominees down for Trevor and Matt, and one thing is undeniable: The Oscar nominees this year are great...and super depressing.


Serve up the after dark coffee and pie and follow along on your Nighthawks Oscar Czar Unofficial Oscar Ballot, available at www.nighthawkspodcast.com

It's the title bout that you've been waiting for (since 1963).


One is a giant killer man-eating gorilla with a heart of gold.


One is a radioactive gila monster that is driven by unstoppable instinct.


This is Godzilla vs. Kong.


This is Lizard vs. Monke.


Kong has been living larger, older, and grayer in captivity since 'Nam, and is held by the Kaiju study team Monarch. Kong wants out.


Meanwhile Godzilla has come ashore in Florida and has shed his previously benevolent character developments.


Millie Bobby Brown (booster for Godzilla) teams with her friend Josh and undercover conspiracy theory podcaster Bernie Hays, to find out why Godzilla has a case of the Mondays.


A scientist, played by Alexander Skarsgård, must take Kong into the entrance of the fabled hollow earth, to find Kong's origins, and a source of energy that could tip the SCALES (pause for emphasis) out of Godzilla's favor and into humanity's.


Brewing underneath is a millenia-old war between titans, a mortal rivalry between ancient Kings Kong and ancient Gods Zilla. A rivalry that these two scions just can't help but reignite.

On the back of our discussion of Citizen Kane comes the discussion of a movie made nearly 80 years after Citizen Kane, about the making of Citizen Kane.


Mank is the 2020 offering from director David Fincher, exploring the troubled and complex person that was Herman J. Mankiewicz. A man who would be the writer of a movie that man consider the best American film ever made.


Mankiewicz must contend with William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies, Orson Welles, and Louis B. Mayer on his journey to not only write the script while bedridden, but to advocate for his own credit on the film.


An all star cast features Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Tuppence Middleton, and Charles Dance.


Not for the uninitiated, Mank calls back to the movie that inspired it on a level that should remind listeners to give Citizen Kane a rewatch before digging into Mank.


Joining Matt and Trevor in the Nighthawks Diner is Guest Co-Host Cameron Maris, who also is the Nighthawks Podcast Oscar Czar, and member of the Nighthawks House Band: Middle Class Joe.


Middle Class Joe on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MiddleClassJoeMusic/


Middle Class Joe on Band Camp: https://middleclassjoe.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-end-you-will-lose