The VHS Strikes Back

Nothing But Trouble is the only movie directed by Dan Aykroyd, and if you watch it you'll realize why. This week is the pick of patreon Heath and it's the first, and last, time of watching for Chris and Dave. Does this deserve it's critical and financial flop status? Absolutely.

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Plot Summary:

A financier agrees to take lawyer to her business meeting. On the way, they run a stop sign in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and are arrested. But all is not as it seems: the courthouse and the "prison" are a maze of zany booby- traps and deadly contraptions. The antics of the captured couple as they try to escape from the mad judge and his bizarre family make up the rest of this unusual film.

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One of the most iconic and influential movies in modern times was The Exorcist (1973) and neither Chris or Dave had actually watched! This week, it's time to bring out the cushion to hide behind and remedy that situation.

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Plot Summary:

A visiting actress in Washington, D.C., notices dramatic and dangerous changes in the behavior and physical make-up of her 12-year-old daughter. Meanwhile, a young priest at nearby Georgetown University begins to doubt his faith while dealing with his mother's terminal sickness. And, book-ending the story, a frail, elderly priest recognizes the necessity for a show-down with an old demonic enemy.

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It's been a long time in coming and after starting this podcast with two of our favorite movies, and indeed one of our favorite trilogies, it was time to draw a line under this one. It's Chris' pick, and it's Back to the Future Part III. This science fiction western comedy film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Mary Steenburgen, Thomas F. Wilson and Lea Thompson.

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Plot Summary:

Stranded in 1955, Marty McFly receives written word from his friend, Doctor Emmett Brown, as to where can be found the DeLorean time machine. However, an unfortunate discovery prompts Marty to go to his friend's aid. Using the time machine, Marty travels to the old west where his friend has run afoul of a gang of thugs and has fallen in love with a local schoolteacher. Using the technology from the time, Marty and Emmett devise one last chance to send the two of them back to the future.

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As you wish! It's Patreon Hannah's choice this week and she's gone for the 1987 fantasy adventure movie, The Princess Bride. Directed and co-produced by Rob Reiner, and starring Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Wallace Shawn, André the Giant, and Christopher Guest.

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Plot Summary:

An elderly man reads the book "The Princess Bride" to his sick and thus currently bedridden adolescent grandson, the reading of the book which has been passed down within the family for generations. The grandson is sure he won't like the story, with a romance at its core, he prefers something with lots of action and "no kissing", but he lets grandfather continue because he doesn't want to hurt his feelings. The story centers on Buttercup, a former farm girl who has been chosen as the princess bride to Prince Humperdinck of Florian. Buttercup does not love him, she who still laments the death of her one true love, Westley, five years ago. Westley was a hired hand on the farm, his stock answer of "as you wish" to any request she made of him which she came to understand was his way of saying that he loved her. But Westley went away to sea, only to be killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts. On a horse ride to clear her mind of her upcoming predicament of marriage, Buttercup is kidnapped by a band of bandits: Vizzini who works on his wits, and his two associates, a giant named Fezzik who works on his brawn, and a Spaniard named Inigo Montoya, who has trained himself his entire life to be an expert swordsman. They in turn are chased by the Dread Pirate Roberts himself. But chasing them all is the Prince, and his men led by Count Tyrone Rugen. What happens to these collectives is dependent partly on Buttercup, who does not want to marry the Prince, and may see other options as lesser evils, and partly on the other motives of individuals within the groups. But a larger question is what the grandson will think of the story as it proceeds and at its end, especially as he sees justice as high a priority as action.

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It's Patreon pick time again, and Mr. Blake Byles has a lot to answer for! Bad Taste (1987) is a labor of love project by acclaimed Director Peter Jackson and starring, well, Peter Jackson and a bunch of his mates. This New Zealand science-fiction comedy horror film is like no other we've reviewed to date.

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Plot Summary:

Derek and his friends must investigate the missing people in a small village. Then they find out its human formed aliens that are really big headed monsters that used all the people in the small village into their snack burgers. Now, Derek must save the day and the world with his chainsaw before the meat eaters strikes the whole planet. Will Derek kill all the aliens?

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John Carpenter's 1986 movie, Big Trouble In Little China, was a fantasy martial arts action-comedy film starring Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun, and James Hong. Chris hasn't seen Dave's pick before, and this doesn't usually go well......

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Plot Summary:

Truck driver Jack Burton arrives in Chinatown, San Francisco, and goes to the airport with his Chinese friend Wang Chi to welcome his green-eyed fiancée Miao Yin who is arriving from China. However she is kidnapped on the arrival by a Chinese street gang and Jack and Wang chase the group. Soon they learn that the powerful evil sorcerer called David Lo Pan, who has been cursed more than two thousand years ago to exist without physical body, needs to marry a woman with green eyes to retrieve his physical body and Miao is the chosen one. Jack and Wang team-up with the lawyer Gracie Law, the bus driver and sorcerer apprentice Egg Shen and their friends and embark in a great adventure in the underground of Chinatown, where they face a world of magicians and magic, monsters and martial arts fighters.

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Two of Chris' least favorite genres are Sci-Fi and Horror. So for Dave's pick this week we've gone for the 1997 box-office flop, but cult-movie, Event Horizon. Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starring Sam Neill, Laurence Fishburne, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richardson, Richard T. Jones, Jack Noseworthy, Jason Isaacs and Sean Pertwee.

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Plot Summary:

In the year 2047 a group of astronauts are sent to investigate and salvage the long lost starship "Event Horizon". The ship disappeared mysteriously 7 years before on its maiden voyage and with its return comes even more mystery as the crew of the "Lewis and Clark" discover the real truth behind its disappearance and something even more terrifying.

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Loren Avendon can rarely have received more love from any other podcast and he's the star of Chris' pick again this week with Fighting Spirit (1992) aka King of the Kickboxers 2. Originally titled Fighting Spirit, the movie was retitled to King of the Kickboxers 2 after the success of the first movie. Directed by Teddy Page, written by Rod Davis and starring Loren Avedon, Sean Donohue and Greg Douglass and Michelle Locke. This movie may be added to an illustrious list.....

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Plot Summary:

Billy is a young fighter whose sister Judith was hurt after a near gang rape. When he learns she must have surgery, crime boss Russell has Billy compete in illegal street fights. When Billy learns he may get killed, he quits but is later killed by Russell and his men, who were the ones responsible for Judith's accident. After his death, Billy must rely on one man to seek revenge for him: his best friend David. However, David must train in martial arts before he can seek revenge. David seeks guidance from the ghost of Billy as well as Billy's trainer and ally, Murphy.

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Producer John Hammond is the Patreon pick this week and he's gone with Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). A controversial movie for behind the scenes, this was inspired by the tv series which originally debuted in 1959. This anthology movie was produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and John Landis, as well as directors by Joe Dante and George Miller.

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Plot Summary:

Prologue: a driver has a big surprise with his passenger. Segment 1 ("Time Out"): a bigot hates Jews, Black and Asians. One day he will live in World War II, be hunted down by the KKK and get attacked in the Vietnam War and feel the effects of his hatred. Segment 2 ("Kick the Can"): In a nursing home, the elder inhabitants learn that their minds can keep them young. Segment 3 ("It's a Good Life"): a traveler hits a boy in a bicycle with her car and takes the boy home. Soon she learns that the powerful boy brought her home indeed. Segment 4 ("Nightmare at 20,000 feet"): a writer is scared to fly and soon he sees a monstrous creature destroying the airplane engines during a stormy night.

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