The Gen X Files

Adventure month continues as we delve into the mundane world of babysitting... unless you're Elizabeth Shue and have a crazy friend Brenda who tries to unsuccessfully run away from home. That's right, it's Adventures in Babysitting, the feature film debut of Chris Columbus, co-starring Keith Coogan, Anthony Rapp, Maia Brewton, Ron Canada, George Newbern, and Vincent D'Onofrio.

Orion Pictures wanted a 'red, white, and blue-collar Bond' in Remo Williams, but budget cuts didn't allow the movie to truly bloom. It's still a rollicking good time, even if you don't think it's as good as it was when you first saw it. Starring Fred Ward, Joel Grey, Wilford Brimley, J. A. Preston, and Kate Mulgrew.

Welcome to Adventure month! First up the cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension! Written by Earl Mac Rauch, directed by W. D. Richter, and starring Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Lewis Smith, Christopher Lloyd, Clancy Brown, Vincent Schiavelli, Dan Hedaya, Robert Ito, Pepe Serna, and Carl Lumbly. It's a weird movie that deserved to be seen by so many more people when it debuted.

Pull up a piece of carpet and take a secret sip of beer with your ol' stepdads as we discuss the Christmas movies we've covered this month, along with new TV, movies, and video games we've been playing.

While this is definitely a Christmas movie, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York should not have been made. It's a remake of Home Alone that came out 2 years before, but with worse pacing and less stakes. Written by John Hughes, directed by Chris Columbus, and starring Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard, Tim Curry, Brenda Fricker, and Catherine O'Hara.

Well, look at that, it's our 200th episode! We're celebrating by having a Christmas Vacation, courtesy of National Lampoon, John Hughes, and Chevy Chase! Also starring Beverly D'Angelo, Johnny Galecki, Juliette Lewis, Brian Doyle-Murray, Randy Quaid, William Hickey, Mae Questal, Miriam Flynn, Diane Ladd, John Randolph, E.G. Marshall, and Doris Roberts!

Is it a Christmas movie? Not in the conventional sense, but yes, it takes place over Christmas and culminates with a bunch of New Yorkers singing on New Year's Eve: it's the return of the Ghostbusters in the underrated Ghostbusters II! Starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver, Ernie Hudson, Rick Moranis, Annie Potts, and Peter MacNicol.

These four epic comedies range from the most amazing comedy ever made (It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World) to a fantastic British historical comedy (Those Fantastic Men in their Flying Machines) to a waste of talent (Scavenger Hunt) to the best modern epic comedy, which is saying a lot, since it came out 43 years ago (The Cannonball Run). We'll also discuss movies and tv and video games!

We close out our epic comedies month with the most successful epic comedy (after the perfection of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, of course): The Cannonball Run. Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Farrah Fawcett, Roger Moore, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr, Adrienne Barbeau, Mel Tillis, Terry Bradshaw, Jack Elam, Jackie Chan, and Jamie Farr having a ton of fun on screen. Written by Brock Yates, who created the actual race the movie is based on and directed by Hal Needham, a stuntman-turned-director.

Today, we cover and overlooked gem that had the best cast of actors, doing their best with a pretty dreadful script.

It's Scavenger Hunt, a wannabe It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, from 1979!

Starring Richard Benjamin, James Coco, Scatman Crothers, Ruth Gordon, Cloris Leachman, Cleavon Little, Roddy McDowall, Robert Morley, Richard Mulligan, Tony Randall, Dirk Benedict, Willie Aames, Stephanie Faracy, Stephen Furst, Richard Masur and cameos from Meat Loaf, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Vincent Price! Directed by Michael Schultz, who also directed Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Last Dragon!