Rotten Rewind

Rotten Rewind

By rotten rewindTV & Film
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Rotten Rewind episodes

  • The Last Boy Scout & Die Hard with a Vengeance (with Jake Ures)

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    The year is 1991. Tony Scott is still riding the momentum of his generation-defining phenomenon “Top Gun.” Writer Shane Black is the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood before the age of 30. Bruce Willis’ seemingly untouchable star power has been dealt a blow by the recent disaster known as “Hudson Hawk.” Producer Joel Silver is quickly developing a reputation as the most hands-on, hard-nosed producer in Hollywood, coming for Don Simpson’s title of belligerent coked-out super producer. So what happens when these 4 massive egos get together and make a $40 million action movie? You get one of the most vile, racially charged, toxic action comedies to ever get the greenlight from a major studio. Is there a “Bad Boys II” without “The Last Boy Scout”? Probably not.

    Podcast regular and the only cinematographer who has read the 9/11 Commission Report front to back, Jake Ures, joins us again to unpack two of the defining buddy cop action comedies of the 90s. After the aforementioned "Last Boy Scout," we'll be diving into the barely rotten third installment in the "Die Hard" franchise, "Die Hard with a Vengeance" to discuss Bruce Willis' effortless ability to make us root for his toxic antiheroes.


    Is there any modern actor who can play washed-up action heroes the way Willis did in his prime? Is Jeremy Irons necklace hot? Did "Last Action Hero" need to be as brutally violent as it was and why is the answer a resounding "Fuck yes"? Are we still yearning for a time when the scariest thing Hollywood could imagine was a post-Soviet terrorist blowing up half of New York City to steal some gold? Is Bruce Willis the only man who can still make us laugh at a "Yo Mama" joke? There's only one place to find out.

    1 hr 28 min
  • Last Action Hero & Small Soldiers (with Chad Alligood)

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    Between the one-two punch of "Predator" and "Die Hard" and going to federal prison for illegal wiretapping, vulgar auteurist John McTiernan satirized the genre he helped redefine with Hollywood's biggest star and screenwriter. The result? According to McTiernan, himself: “Last Action Hero was the worst time I’ve ever had in this business.”

    Actor Chad Alligood joins us on the podcast again to unbox the 90s satire, "Last Action Hero" while waxing nostalgic about his birthday party seeing Joe Dante's takedown of American imperialism, "Small Soldiers."

    Why did "Last Action Hero" fail to connect with critics and audiences? Why did the studio insist on releasing the film in the wake of "Jurassic Park" even though they knew the film needed more work? Is Arnold Schwarzenegger capable of satirizing his own image? Does the main teen actor belong in the Rotten vault of Cummy Actors™? How did critics like Roger Ebert fail to understand the targets of Joe Dante's satire in "Small Soldiers?" Will anyone ever play a better shithead neighbor than Phil Hartman did in the 90s? Find out right here on the hottest podcast on the planet.

    1 hr 11 min
  • Flashdance & Rocky IV

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    History might tell you that the Cold War ended in the late 80s, but it actually ended in 1985 when Sylvester Stallone directed the fourth installment of the "Rocky" franchise and sent the braindead American hero to Soviet Russia to avenge his best friend's death.

    Today on the podcast, we continue our descent into Vulgar Auteurism with two films that defined 80s aesthetics and film as we know it: the aforementioned "Rocky IV" starring Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Brigitte Nielsen and a very horny robot, as well as the iconic dance drama "Flashdance" starring Jennifer Beals.

    Both films were massive hits when they were released, but critics viewed them as the death of cinema as we knew it. Utilizing MTV-style editing and taking the montage to new extremes (35% of "Rocky IV's" 90 minute runtime is literally montage), both films represented the changing of the tide in Hollywood filmmaking and opened the door to commercial/music video directors like Tony Scott, Michael Bay and David Fincher.

    We interrogate both films' lasting impression on Hollywood, as well as the ambiguous racial undertones of "Flashdance" and the not so ambiguous anti-Communist propaganda of "Rocky IV." Has an actress ever looked as good as Jennifer Beals does in "Flashdance?" Did Apollo Creed simply fuck around and find out in "Rocky IV?" Why is the love interest in "Flashdance" giving major Richard Ramirez vibes? Why is there a talking robot in "Rocky IV?" Did Stallone really improvise his famous "Can't we all get along?" speech at the end of "Rocky IV?" Will someone please plug Jennifer Beals' TV in???

    We're answering all these questions and more in our latest installment, right here on the #1 podcast in America.

    1 hr 9 min
  • Pain & Gain (with Olivia Willke)

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    "When it started, America was just a handful of scrawny colonies. Now, it's the most buff, pumped-up country on the planet."

    - Daniel Lugo

    To celebrate the most buff, pumped-up country on the planet, Rotten Rewind is kicking off our most epic miniseries to date. For the next 6 months, we'll be asking listeners the question: "What is Vulgar Auteurism?" In its simplest terms, it's a movement that celebrates the reappraisal of filmmakers that critics have often scorned or even lamented as the death of cinema. In other words, it's a perfect subject for the podcast. And what better filmmaker to kick the series off with than the most buff, pumped-up filmmaker on the planet: Michael Bay.


    We're joined by #1 Bay Stan, Olivia Willke, to finally unpack one of the films we've been thirsty for since we first conceived of the podcast: Michael Bay's "Pain and Gain." A pulverizing, grimly funny, relentlessly entertaining satire on the American Dream gone awry, "Pain and Gain" might have been one of Bay's most well-received films at the time of its release, but that didn't stop a majority of un-American critics from trying to stop the party. Thankfully, we're here to put these unpatriotic cucks in their place as we pay our fucking respects to the big dick king of Bayhem. So join us as we discuss Bay's unfiltered vision of American vulgarity and the modern masterpiece known as "Pain and Gain."

    58 min
  • Vanilla Sky (with Logan Kenny)

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    All good things must come to an end. Today, we have to say goodbye to our month long retrospective on the Rotten works of America's last movie star, Tom Cruise. Critic and writer Logan Kenny returns to the podcast  to help us dissect the most divisive film of Cruise and director Cameron Crowe's careers, 2001's "Vanilla Sky."

    Crowe and Cruise made their long awaited reunion at the turn of the century with an ambitious remake of director Alejandro Amenábar's "Open Your Eyes," bringing back original Penelope Cruz to star alongside Cameron Diaz, Kurt Russell and Jason Lee. The results weren't quite a disaster, but to this day, the film has divided audiences and critics, potentially altering the future of both Cruise and Crowe's careers. A distinctive, challenging piece of American pop cinema, "Vanilla Sky" joins the ranks of misunderstood masterpieces like Spike Lee's "Bamboozled," Jane Campion's "In the Cut" and David Cronenberg's "Crash" as one of the defining films of the podcast.

    1 hr 19 min
  • Mission: Impossible 2 (with Jourdain Searles)

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    The "Mission: Impossible" series is the rare Hollywood franchise where each new film somehow manages to top the last. But in the year 2000, the series hit a slight critical bump when John Woo took over for Brian De Palma and delivered what is still the only Rotten entry in the lucrative franchise. Was it the early millennium nu-metal soundtrack featuring Limp Bizkit and Uncle Kracker? Was it the Oakley-sponsored lineup of tragic choices in eye-wear? Was it the slow motion Flamenco dance? The doves? The Iko-Iko remix?? Okay, granted some of these things are *not* great, but that's part of the film's endurance! Besides being the only certified Nu-Metal entry in the franchise, "Mission: Impossible II" is the only sequel that values vibes more than a twisty narrative, putting it more in line with Michael Mann's similarly maligned 2006 adaptation of "Miami Vice."

    We're joined by critic, comedian and co-host of the Bad Romance Podcast, Jourdain Searles, to unpack the sequel, as well as the rare on-screen chemistry Cruise shared with co-star Thandiwe Newton and why critics were not horny enough in the early 2000s. We also discuss important cultural topics like: Are British capable of being funny and when are we going to start sexualizing men the way we did in the 80s and 90s?

    Make sure to find us on Patreon for more exclusive content and bonus episodes at www.patreon.com/rottenrewind

    Follow Jourdain on Twitter @judysquirrels and listen to the Bad Romance Pod wherever you listen to podcasts!

    50 min
  • Cocktail & Days of Thunder (with Morgan Maher)

    If you've ever been a bartender, you've heard of Tom Cruise's "Cocktail." You've probably even seen it. Since it's release 34 years ago, the film has become something of a bartender's rite of passage. It's also so much darker than you'd ever think the movie where Tom Cruise flips bottles at a TGIF's would be.


    For our second installment in our Rotten retrospective on Cruise, we're looking back at 1988's "Cocktail" as well as his 1990 re-teaming with "Top Gun" director Tony Scott for the racing drama "Days of Thunder." Both movies were "high concept" studio films designed to further boost Cruise's celebrity, and both represented critical low points for the actor who would go on to star in the Oscar Best Picture winner the same year as "Cocktail."

    We're joined by actor Morgan Maher to talk real life service horror stories, while Kourtney dishes out some hot takes on catering. Is "Cocktail" a companion piece to Cruise's "Risky Business" in its dark depiction of Reagan-era individualism and consumerism? Why doesn't the movie want to acknowledge that the all-star bartenders are flipping bottles at a TGIF's??? What war was Cruise's young aspirational bartender fighting in? Has Cruise ever replicated the on-screen chemistry he has with future (and now ex) wife Nicole Kidman? Is "Days of Thunder" the movie that officially broke Don Simpson (or was it all the cocaine, collagen, and fat injected into his dick?) Was "Days of Thunder" propaganda for the tourism board in Glendale? And most importantly... Does "Cocktail" deserve its podcast record low of 7%?!

    Find us now on Patreon for exclusive content and bonus episodes at www.patreon.com/rottenrewind

    1 hr 20 min
  • Top Gun (with Jake Ures)

    Is Tom Cruise the last American movie star?

    For the next four weeks, we'll be diving headfirst into the Rotten filmography of the man that has spent the better part of his career daring God to strike him down. Today, we're kicking things off with the movie that helped catapult him into the A-list and changed blockbuster filmmaking forever: Tony Scott's high-octane bromance, "Top Gun."

    Cinematographer Jake Ures joins us to unpack the homoerotic tension and Cold War-era propaganda of the film, while praising the massively influential work Scott and D.P. Jeffrey Kimball did in the 80s. We also discuss legacy sequels, the magic of the "Top Gun: Maverick," the underrated Anthony Edwards, Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson's golden era, and of course, the unstoppable force that is Tom Cruise.

    1 hr 4 min
  • waterworld & escape from LA (with chad alligood)

    After two months of global destruction, dystopian wastelands and the divorced dads that will do anything to protect their stacked daughters, we say goodbye to our ROTTEN APOCALYPSE miniseries. For our grand finale, we're looking back at one of the most notorious disasters of the 20th century and an underrated late career banger from one of our best directors. First up, it's the infamous 1995 flop "Waterworld" starring Kevin Costner as a half-man/half-fish/100% incel living in a post-apocalyptic world that is, yes, all water. After that, we're welcoming the great John Carpenter to the podcast for the first time ever(!) with his only sequel, "Escape From L.A." starring Kurt Russell as the legendary Snake Plissken.


    Was "Waterworld" really the financial disaster it was pegged as even before audiences got the chance to experience it? Are the VFX that bad in "Escape From L.A."? Is Kevin Costner the very definition of white privilege in Hollywood? Should John Carpenter only make movies for under $20 million? Why does everyone in "Waterworld" want Costner's cum so badly? Is Kurt Russell a goddamn national treasure? Would you rather live in a post-apocalyptic world where you get to surf the LA river with Peter Fonda or one where the best thing that can happen is you find some dirt to sell? We're joined by Chad Alligood to discuss all this and more right here on America's #1 source for all things Rotten.

    Be sure to follow us on PATREON next week as we transition to exclusive episodes for our subscribers, as well as bonus episodes and some very tite merch coming soon!

    1 hr 21 min
  • hardware & doomsday

    For our penultimate episode in the ROTTEN APOCALYPSE miniseries, we're talking about two of the most obscure titles in the series: cult director Richard Stanley's 1990 cyberpunk debut "Hardware" and Neil Marshall's 2008 dystopian greatest hits thriller "Doomsday." One of these movies ended up being one of our favorite podcast discoveries yet, while one is definitely one of our least favorite podcast watches to date (hint: the good one is a robot slasher movie featuring a repugnant voyeur who peeps on his neighbors fucking and says some of the most unhinged shit ever put in a major studio movie).


    Did anyone else mix up Dylan McDermott and Dermot Mulroney in the 90s? Did you know Dylan McDermott is a hardcore Christian and dated Julia Roberts in the late 80s?? Was Malcolm McDowell really broke in the 90s and 2000s or did he just have a really shitty agent? Did Richard Stanley publicly out Harvey Weinstein on a podcast 9 months before the New York Times piece broke? Was Iggy Pop one of the more underrated character actors of the 90s? Who do you call when Kate Beckinsale isn't available? We're answering all your pressing questions and more on America's #1 podcast.

    55 min

About Rotten Rewind

From the publisher's feed

A film podcast that digs through the bottom half of the Rotten Tomatoes barrel to re-evaluate, over-analyze and show our appreciation for all things Rotten.