What's the deal with Netflix's The Electric State? Well, for one thing we know that IT'S ELECTRIC... boogie woogie woogie. But also, it's a movie arguing for the primacy of real-life connection that feels utterly algorithmically designed, what with its Chris Pratts and Millies Bobby Brown and cute robot pals, and it cost... $320 million?? That can't be right. There must be a smudge on these accounting sheets. Anyway, we talk about it!

Wikipedia page for The Electric State

Recommended in this episode:

Dan: The Rule of Jenny Pen (2024)

Stu: Morvern Callar (2002)

Elliott: The Clock (2010)

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Elliott puts on his greasy overalls to look under the filmic hood, as we figure out what makes a good "robot movie," ask why Heartbeeps was a bad one, and see if we can pull out the robot defibrillator to restore its cinematic heartbeep.

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We tie a bow around Max Fun Drive 2025 and our “Movies Without Spider-Man” series with (?) Paul Schrader's (?) magnum opus, Heartbeeps. It's the classic tale of a guy robot and a girl robot in love and also there's a bad stand-up comic robot and a mean cop robot and a baby robot and Andy Kaufman does one of the world's most irritating voices and what the fuck is this thing?

Wikipedia page for Heartbeeps

Recommended in this episode:

Dan: Black Bag (2025)

Stu: Rap World (2024)

Elliott: The Comic (1969)

“Movies Without Spider-Man” Max Fun drive continues (please consider supporting our show!) with the thrilling (?) conclusion (??) of the Venom saga -- Venom: The Last Dance, the touching story of a boy and the black sentient goo he wears on his body that sometimes eats people's heads.

There's one more week of Max Fun Drive — check out our event calendar!

Wikipedia page for Venom: The Last Dance

Recommended in this episode:

Dan: Windy Day (1967)

Stuart: One of Them Days (2025)

Elliott: The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987)

Dan reveals a WEIRD and possibly EXTREMELY COMPLEX FOR HIM TO PUT TOGETHER stretch goal for this year's Max Fun Drive!

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Here's a little taste of what's awaiting Max Fun members in the member bonus feed -- an all-new roleplaying adventure from gamemaster Stuart!

In this edition, Dan, Elliott, and fan favorite guest Zhubin Parang play beachfront restaurant staff, on the first night of summer, trying to make it through a busy shift... but CHAOS is on the menu!

If you'd like to listen to this, a whole heck of a lot of other bonus content from all the Max Fun shows, and (most importantly) support independent, artist-owned, worker-owned media, become a member at maximumfun.org/join today! 

It’s not MaxFunDrive without a wild kickoff spectacular! Former real-life VJ and host of MTV's Spring Break 1999, Dave Holmes, takes your favorite MaxFun hosts through some wacky ‘90s- and Spring Break-themed mini games!!

Featuring: Dave Holmes, Jeremy Bent, Oscar Montoya, Dimitry Pompée, Tom Lum, Ellen Weatherford, Alex Schmidt, Brenda Snell, Drea Clark, Alonso Duralde, Dan McCoy, Jordan Morris, Manolo Moreno, Ella Hubber, Caroline Roper, Ella McLeod, John-Luke Roberts, Justin McElroy, Clint McElroy, Mike Cabellon, Sierra Katow, Hal Lublin, Danielle Radford, John Moe, Christian Dueñas, Christian Duguay

We start out our special "Films Without Spider-Man" theme month (in honor of Max Fun Drive -- please consider supporting our show!) with one of the more ostentatiously-Spider-Man-free films of last year: Kraven the Hunter. C'mon, Kraven, we KNOW you guys know one another--remember that last hunt? Just swallow your pride and phone Spidey to drop by! We're cravin' it!

We're doing a ton of extra stuff for Max Fun Drive this year -- check out our event calendar!

Wikipedia page for Kraven the Hunter

Recommended in this episode:

Dan: Last Stop in Yuma County (2023)

Stuart: The Monkey (2025)

Elliott: Mr. Vampire (1985)

We welcome one of the godfathers of bad movie culture, Harry Medved, of the seminal books "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time" and "The Golden Turkey Awards," and discuss his PBS show "Locationland" where he and comedian Dana Gould visited the filming sites for Plan 9 From Outer Space! And we also spend a little time talking to Locationland producer Harry Pallenberg about his father's work with John Boorman on Exorcist II: The Heretic (the Golden Turkeys' pick for #2 worst movie of all time) and the oft-referenced Zardoz!

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Wow! The first new Star Trek movie in eight years! What's that you say? Oh. TV movie? And it's less a "movie" and more a "we were going to develop a new series and that fell through so we made it a one-off, 90 minute thing?" Huh. Well, Star Trek: Section 31 may not be a "movie" in the same way we've used that word for most of its existence, but it was still a good excuse to hang out with our friends Adam and Ben from Max Fun's terrific Trek shows Greatest Gen and Greatest Trek, so every cosmic cloud has a silver lining, we guess.

Wikipedia page for Star Trek: Section 31

Recommended in this episode:

Dan: Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)

Stu: Troop Beverly Hills (1989)

Elliott: Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979)

Adam: Babylon (2022)

Ben: Down With Love (2003)

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