Feather back your Heavy Metal mullet, throw on your Cavariccis, and hop into your IROC Z for a trip back to October of 1988 when, according to Alien Nation, the Republican Party LOVED their immigrants! What’s funnier: Fred in a homemade condom costume or Tom Hanks and Sally Field performing stand-up comedy? Trick question! EVERYTHING IS FUNNIER THAN TOM HANKS AND SALLY FIELD PERFORMING STAND UP COMEDY! SIGOURNEY WEAVER TERRORIZING GORILLA-POACHERS IS FUNNIER THAN SALLY FIELDS AND TOM HANKS PERFORMING STAND UP COMEDY!!!!!!!! (Deep breath, Jason, deep breath). And speaking of Sigourney Weaver, what made Dan cry harder: the two hands of Dian Fossey and Digit the Gorilla coming together, or the “Two Hearts” of The Four Tops tearing our eardrums apart? Find out all this and more on Episode 21 of Opening Weekend!

A tragic plane crash, the brutal murder of a millionaire’s wife. Pshaw! That’s nothing compared to the carnage reaped by AHNULD and a handful of  bad one-liners! It’s October 4th, 1985 and the boys revisit COMMANDO, JAGGED EDGE, and SWEET DREAMS on Episode 20 of Opening Weekend!

1985 provided plenty of sweaty musclebound behemoths causing maximum damage…and that was just on Dan’s bedroom wall!  Which made a  bigger musical impact on viewers in 1985: Jessica Lange’s portrayal of Patsy Cline singing “Crazy” to Ed Harris or Fred playing the drums to Huey Lewis at his Bar Mitzvah to a bunch of sweaty 13 year olds?  And which twist is more mind-blowing and intriguing: the fact that we’re supposed to find any sexual chemistry between Glenn Close and Jeff Bridges or Jason’s secret dream of starting the Robert Loggia School of Performing Arts?  But really, who cares! AHNULD BLOW THINGS UP!!! AHNULD BLOW THINGS UP!!!!! And now, pet the deer. Ahhhhh….deer.

AND the boys tie up some loose ends and give out some missing “Sheilas” (and one “F—you ‘Baby’s Day Out’!”) Get ready to let off some steam, Bennett, ‘cus it’s Episode 20 of Opening Weekend!

Listen and Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and Transistor.

Zombies…  Aliens… American Presidents… Anxiety-inducing monsters of ALL stripes haunt the major releases of September 24, 2004 as the boys revisit SHAUN OF THE DEAD, THE FORGOTTEN, and FIRST DAUGHTER! Episode 19 of Opening Weekend has arrived!

When the new Batman’s girlfriend plays the old Batman’s daughter, one wouldn’t expect Jason (of all people) to fall asleep halfway through the proceedings, but that’s just the sort of mind-numbing fairy dust that Forest Whitaker sprinkles all over FIRST DAUGHTER! When the plot of the latest Julianne Moore movie is more confusing and convoluted than the 9/11 conspiracy theories that seemingly inspired it, you’ll understand why the movie is called THE FORGOTTEN! And when you start doubting that future filmmakers will ever be able to make an audience laugh at the concept of a global pandemic, look no further than the brilliance of Edgar Wright and SHAUN OF THE DEAD!

From laser light shows at the Egyptian pyramids to  cursory chest exams at the Al Hirschfeld clinic, excitement is the name of the game for our intrepid hosts as they dip a collective big toe into the Aughts with this, the 19th episode of OPENING WEEKEND!

What’s in the box? Plot? Nuance? Strong dialogue? Only one way to find out... Join the boys as they revisit September 22, 1995, and unpack SE7EN, SHOWGIRLS, and EMPIRE RECORDS!

Get ready for the ultimate exercise in frustration! Visit a music store where nobody seems to like or care about music! Enter a world of taboo sexual desire in which the greatest taboo is the fact that nothing sexy or desirable happens! And immerse yourself in a dark, jaded tale of violence and suffering that actually argues for a modicum of hope in humanity! Whaaaaa? I know! Crazy, right?

From the confusion in Anthony Lapaglia’ eyes to the shame in Kyle Maclachlan’s pants, this week is a tutorial in actors regretting their choices — except when it comes to SE7EN, a movie so good it might even make you want to uncancel Spacey! (Nah, just kidding, he’s still done...)

Reviewing SHOWGIRLS and EMPIRE RECORDS in the same weekend might make us seem like GLUTTONS for punishment (See what we did there?), but rest assured - you’re going to LOSE YOUR HEAD over Episode 18 of OPENING WEEKEND! (Get it? Get it?) In fact, the DEADLIEST SIN of all would be not to listen! (OH MY GOD! HELLO!?!?! DO YOU GET ALL THREE OF OUR SEVEN JOKES????? I DON’T MEAN THREE OUT OF SEVEN DIFFERENT JOKES. I MEAN THREE JOKES ABOUT THE MOVIE SE7EN. HELLOOOOO? IS THIS THING ON??????)

This week the boys enter autumn with some Hollywood tearjerkers from September 18, 1998: ONE TRUE THING starring Meryl Streep, SIMON BIRCH starring the kid from “Simon Birch”, and - saddest of all - the parade of misery that is Brett Ratner’s RUSH HOUR... 

In the Olympics of Suffering that is this week’s trio of middling movies there are glimmers of hope to be sure - Meryl Streep’s brilliant acting, Jackie Chan’s balletic fight choreography, John Irving’s elegant negotiating to keep the name “A Prayer For Owen Meany” off of movie posters while still getting paid handsomely for the adaptation rights… But when grief strikes, it strikes hard. For example, which of these makes the boys want to crawl out of their collective skin more:  Mark Shaiman’s score for Simon Birch, Chris Tucker’s voice in Rush Hour, or William Hurt’s obliviousness to everything around him in One True Thing? It’s enough to make three grown men cry.

So pass the Kleenex (for totally different reasons than Fred did when revisiting ZAPPED last week) and settle in for A Very Special Episode of OPENING WEEKEND!

This week the boys share their Top Ten favorite “Back-to-School” movies after revisiting September 3, 1982 and the raunchy student bodies of FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH and ZAPPED!

Forget Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmatic - this week’s films are all about “the three S’s”: Scatman, Salami, and Spicoli! Sean Penn’s mesmerizing comic performance in Fast Times is indeed one for the ages, but in the spirit of fair play, might we also interest you in Aunt Esther from Sanford and Son shooting weiners at Albert Einstein with a bazooka? (And yes, you read all of that correctly...)

As a wary nation heads back to school, Jason, Dan and Fred take a trip down memory lane and catalogue their favorite cinematic odes to academia. How many Brodericks equals a Cusack? If John Hughes writes a film but doesn’t direct it, does it make the list? And at what temperature does the formula bend (but not break!) enough to allow both a superhero movie and Richard Nixon onto the list? Make sure to show your work and fill in the ovals completely, because Episode Sixteen (Candles) of Opening Weekend is here... I mean, “Present!”

Figuring that Baby’s Day Out had its charms (at least when compared with the likes of She’s The One and Disorderlies) the boys RETURN to the summer of 1994 to see what Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Sweeney, and Tommy Lee Jones’s hairdo are up to in the August 26 releases CORRINA CORRINA, IT’S PAT, and NATURAL BORN KILLERS!

This week’s films are a triangular conundrum befitting Tommy Lee’s old pal The Riddler - a movie about interracial relationships that tiptoes around issues of race (CORRINA, CORRINA), a movie about gender identity that refuses to address it’s protagonist’s gender (IT’S PAT), and a movie that laments our desensitized attitudes towards violence by desensitizing us to even more violence (THE FLINTSTONES... I mean NATURAL BORN KILLERS).

Marvel at the chemistry of Whoopi Goldberg and Ray Liotta, scratch your head at the presence of Ween in more than one scene of a major motion picture, and allow yourself to be as thrilled as you are confused at the ongoing saga of Sheila, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Dr. Merlot, and - in an OWP first - Gepetto (go back and listen to the episodes in order - it’ll all make some sort of sick, twisted sense!) during this — Episode 15 of OPENING WEEKEND!

This week the boys travel back to August of 1996 and a movie that explores a mysterious and horrific world filled with barely human oddities: Ed Burns’s SHE’S THE ONE. Then, later on, they also talk about THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU.

(> Needle scratch <)

“Everyone’s always talking about Dr. Moreau. It’s Dr. Moreau this, and Dr. Moreau that... Moreau, Moreau, Moreau! I’m a person too, y’know!” 

Oh, that’s right, Jan - sorry about that, everyone! We actually start things off with the week’s best movie (according to Jason, at least) A VERY BRADY SEQUEL...

From great actors who either phone it in or fly over the top to mediocre actors who barely register or make us want to throttle the celluloid they’re captured on, this week runs the gamut in terms of onscreen talent! Everyone is here, including the best and worst actors ever to share the initials M.B. — Marlon Brando (best known for The Godfather and On the Waterfront) and Maxine Bahns (best known for being Ed Burns’s girlfriend and being Ed Burns’s girlfriend).

From the world’s greatest thespian wearing a bucket on his head and Alice the Maid channeling Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker to Dan’s conspiracy theory about Mike McGlone’s parentage and Fred’s complicated feelings for the manager of The Partridge Family, Episode 14 of OPENING WEEKEND has it all!

The Village Bath Club must die! Long live the Manhasset Country Club! This week, Jason, Fred, and Dan travel back to August 14, 1987 and revisit CAN’T BUY ME LOVE, DISORDERLIES, THE MONSTER SQUAD, and NO WAY OUT!

Much like the Iran-Contra hearings that dominated the summer of ‘87, this week’s episode isn’t afraid to ask the tough questions! Questions like:

...If three Fat Boys fall in an elderly man’s mansion and nobody raps, have they made what could reasonably be called a “movie”? (What about Ralph Bellamy’s dignity? If it falls, can it get back up?)

...Which is more than exciting: watching paint dry, or watching a photograph be developed slowly over 12 hours in No Way Out?

...Which film features a squad of No-Frills Goonies, patented 80s homophobia, pre-teen smoking, and Holocaust-surviving monster hunters? (If you guessed Disorderlies, well... you might be right, but we’re talking about the other one.)

...Which Can’t Buy Me Love star resembles a cross between a young Jackie Mason and the poster for Ghoulies? (Hint: He’s neither a robot nor a chicken.)

...How many recurring characters does it take to get a letter in the mail sack? 

...And - most importantly - does Fred’s 10-year-old daughter have a keener knack for film criticism than anyone else on the podcast? (Don’t answer that last one! That’s rhetorical, dammit!)

From the boys’ favorite Gene Hackman performances to the eternal debate over whose childhood was better or worse than Patrick Dempsey crying himself to sleep in a shed... it’s Episode 13 of OPENING WEEKEND!

This week, the boys travel back to August 6, 1999 and the release of three very scary movies (for very different reasons): THE SIXTH SENSE, MYSTERY MEN, and THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR.

While Haley Joel Osment saw dead people, all Jason, Dan, and Fred could see were Pierce Brosnan’s butt and Rene Russo’s boobs...again and again and again. Thomas Crown Affair? More like Thomas Crown’s Got A PAIR! You think the costumes in Mystery Men are garish? Wait until you hear about the oversized, mustard-stained tuxedo Jason wore at his theme restaurant gig and the Tinkerbell wings (and nothing else) Dan wore one fateful Halloween night! From Fred’s exposed balls to the boys’ multiple rounds of Al Pacino impressions, we’ve got a sixth sense that you’re gonna love (or at least tolerate) Episode 12 of OPENING WEEKEND!