In the interest of keeping his guests engaged (and broadening his horizons beyond the stuff he's already interested in), Ryan likes to alternate the choosing of Reel Deep Dive's subjects. The consequence of this policy is that Toby, Ryan's nine year old nephew, chose the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog film as the focus of this week's episode. Ryan had little interest in deconstructing this film (or even watching it), but it was Toby's turn to pick the movie and fair's fair.

One of the most beloved comedies of the silent era, Sherlock Jr. is a brisk, economically-edited film whose layers belie its short running time. Over the course of 45 minutes, Sherlock Jr. functions as a platform for madcap slapstick, a showcase for ludicrously-dangerous stunts, an opportunity to show off trick photography, a conduit for relatable physical acting, and plenty more.

Change is constant, but Hollywood was in an especially volatile position of flux in the late 60's and early 70's. The prestige musical, one of the most reliable moneymaking formats in filmmaking from the Depression onward, had crashed and burned with the failures of Doctor Dolittle (1967) and Hello Dolly (1969). Suddenly, the dependable formulas weren't working anymore.  

So far, every conversational topic in an episode of Reel Deep Dive has centered on a single film. In the hopes of shaking things up, Ryan and Rachel are breaking down two cinematic spins on the Bard's famous romantic comedy. The first one is Kenneth Branagh's 1993 effort starring Emma Thompson, Keanu Reeves, Michael Keaton, Kate Beckinsale, Denzel Washington, and Robert Sean Leonard. The other subject is Joss Whedon's 2012 film starring Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Fran Kranz, Nathan Fillion, Jillian Morgese, Clark Gregg, and Sean Maher.

The interconnected web of Marvel Studios films is easily the most successful movie franchise of the 21st century. Naturally, it's impossible  for something this massive to get along without drawing some detractors. 2017's Thor: Ragnarok is one of the earliest Marvel films to conscientiously reflect some of the common criticisms leveled against its predecessors (bland color grading, boring musical score, unremarkable villain, cookie-cutter direction, homogeneous tone, etc). Also, the film has an interesting dichotomy between its lighthearted approach and the heavy themes present in the story's subtext.

Reel Deep Dive starts commenting on television with this episode, a discussion about an MTV cartoon that built up a significant cult audience after its cancellation. While the program did launch the careers of noted directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, it's still best-known for its intriguing concept involving a high school filled with teenage clones of historical figures.

Most box office duds fade to obscurity once their underperforming theatrical runs have concluded, but a lucky handful stumble into positive reappraisal and a lengthy post-release afterlife. The most prominent example is arguably Frank Capra's 1946 Christmas perennial It's A Wonderful Life, but a number of other films earned enduring cult status once the advent of cable television spurred numerous stations to pad their programming blocks with then-unpopular films whose broadcast rights were cheap to acquire. This phenomenon was especially generous to 1980's cheese like Beastmaster (1982), Dragnet (1987), and several films directed by John Carpenter.

Any podcast devoted to movie nerd minutiae is obligated to talk about Alfred Hitchcock at some point. In addition to that, a podcast devoted to movie nerd minutiae is probably also required to touch upon auteur theory during its existence.

Parody lies at the bedrock of human expression. People have been poking fun at genre tropes ever since the first genre trope calcified into being.

There aren't many films that can be credited with creating an entire subgenre, but Airplane! certainly qualifies. It's difficult to imagine what the past four decades of parody films would've been like if this weird little lampoon hadn't been as big of a hit as it was. Airplane! turned the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker team into a cottage industry and it completely changed the career trajectory of character actor Leslie Nielsen, but its impact left even more ripples. Airplane! defied the assumptions of what kind of comedic film could make money. Airplane! redefined how a comedy film could be structured. Hell, it isn't even that much of a stretch to argue that the rapid fire, 13-gags-per-second pace of Airplane! influenced everything from The Simpsons to 30 Rock.