The Vincent Charles Projekt

Five bandmates. Motorcycle ninjas. One nightclub gig worth starting a gang war over. Welcome to Miami Connection, where most of the connection happens in Orlando, and everybody seems to know taekwondo.

Vincent Charles, Ordy, and Janelle welcome special guest Brad Slager for an extended celebration of a gloriously strange cult movie. They revisit Dragon Sound's performances, the opening drug deal, the rival band's escalating grievances, Uncle Song's diner, the beach detour, and Jim's emotional family story. From questionable musical miming to a rescue mission built around improvised weapons, the panel follows the film's increasingly wild turns through the finale and the alternate ending they discuss.

Along the way, they trade stories about Florida, eighties fashion, soda loyalties, Maximum Overdrive, and why a movie made with this much enthusiasm can be impossible to dislike. The plot may have sinkholes, but the friendship holds together.

An extended episode of The Vincent Charles Projekt on KLRNRadio. Expect strong language, adult humor, and full-film spoilers.

The Three Musketeers gave us sword fights and chaos. The Four Musketeers keep the jokes coming, then let the consequences catch up with everyone. Vincent Charles, Ordy, and Janelle dive into Richard Lester's swashbuckling sequel: the breakfast at La Rochelle, Athos and Milady's history, Cardinal Richelieu's schemes, Michael York's D'Artagnan, and a cast that makes every bad decision look magnificent.

They compare the lighter first film with this darker follow-up, trade favorite performances and set pieces, and ask how much of seventeenth-century politics was just a bar fight in expensive clothing. The conversation also wanders into the two-film production story, old-fashioned theatrical intermissions, future Projekt picks, and next week's gloriously unlikely Miami Connection. Recorded for The Vincent Charles Projekt on KLRNRadio.com.

Expect strong language and full-film spoilers.

What do you get when radioactive waste, sea monsters, surf rock, biker gangs, beach parties, and an indestructible housekeeper collide in 1964?

You get ‘The Horror of Party Beach’—a movie advertised as the first horror musical despite being only intermittently interested in either category.

Vincent Charles, Ordy Packard, Jeff, and Janelle examine this gloriously confused drive-in production, from its fish-faced monsters and inexplicable motorcycle gangs to the Del-Aires soundtrack, Eulabelle’s effortless command of every scene, and the scientific discovery that sodium is apparently humanity’s best defense against radioactive aquatic mutants.

The panel discusses the movie’s collision of horror, beach-party comedy, surf music, romance, and accidental satire; its eventual appearance on ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’; and whether ‘Zombie Stomp’ deserves to become a genuine Halloween standard.

They also consider the film’s surprising cultural time capsule, compare its music and monsters with ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show,’ and contemplate giving the entire public-domain spectacle the KLRN Players treatment.

It’s surf, schlock, sodium, and sea monsters—exactly as nature intended.

What happens when Bruce Willis follows ‘Die Hard’ with a live-action cartoon involving Vatican espionage, singing cat burglars, Leonardo da Vinci, a machine that manufactures gold, and villains who appear to have escaped from an entirely different movie?

Vincent Charles, Ordy Packard, Jeff, and Janelle revisit ‘Hudson Hawk,’ the spectacular 1991 critical and commercial failure that eventually found the cult audience it deserved.

The panel examines the movie’s strange mixture of action, slapstick, old-fashioned road comedy, espionage parody, musical timing, and unapologetic absurdity. They discuss Bruce Willis and Danny Aiello singing their way through robberies, Andie MacDowell’s impossible performance, Richard E. Grant and Sandra Bernhard’s aggressively deranged villains, and James Coburn somehow lending dignity to the entire operation.

They also explore why contemporary audiences and critics rejected the movie, whether anyone involved understood what they were making, and why its unpolished enthusiasm remains more entertaining than many carefully manufactured blockbusters.

Grab a cappuccino, synchronize your watches—or choose the correct song—and join the Projekt for a celebration of one of the strangest action comedies ever committed to film.

The Vincent Charles Projekt travels to filthy, heavily armed, and extremely hungover 17th-century France for Richard Lester’s 1973 adaptation of ‘The Three Musketeers.’

Vincent Charles, Ordinance Packard, Jeff, and Janelle Waz discuss Michael York’s D’Artagnan, Oliver Reed’s magnificently disreputable Athos, Richard Chamberlain’s Aramis, and the spectacular cast surrounding them—including Raquel Welch, Faye Dunaway, Christopher Lee, Charlton Heston, and Geraldine Chaplin.

The panel examines the film’s physical comedy, wonderfully chaotic sword fights, practical stunt work, historical liberties, memorable costumes, and the production decision that eventually divided the story into ‘The Three Musketeers’ and ‘The Four Musketeers.’ They also revisit Oliver Reed’s legendary drinking, Michael York’s cinematic legacy, questionable French belts, disappearing swords, Wishbone, candy bars, and why the Musketeers apparently considered sobriety a greater threat than the Cardinal’s guards.

It’s seventies filmmaking, French intrigue, crossed swords, spilled wine, and the kind of movie discussion that becomes increasingly accurate—or at least more confident—as the bottles get lighter.

What if a mild-mannered corporate executive discovered that murder solved considerably more problems than updating his résumé?Vincent Charles, Ordy Packard, Jeff, and Janelle Laws revisit ‘A Shock to the System,’ the severely underappreciated 1990 black comedy starring Michael Caine. Caine plays Graham Marshall, an overlooked middle manager trapped between a miserable home life, an insufferable boss, younger colleagues circling his job, and a promotion that slips through his fingers.

Then an accidental death on a subway platform changes everything. Graham realizes that he got away with killing someone—and begins viewing every new obstacle as increasingly murder-shaped.

The panel examines Caine’s wonderfully restrained performance, Elizabeth McGovern’s role as Stella, the detective who knows more than he can prove, and the film’s final lighter reveal. They also debate whether the movie is a darkly comic masterpiece or simply an hour and a half of watching a psychopath eliminate everyone who annoys him.

Along the way, the conversation detours through the Caine–Hackman theory, ‘PCU,’ ‘Crime and Punishment,’ ‘The Equalizer,’ confusing 1990s movie ratings, ‘Starcrash,’ cursed podcast schedules, and the important question raised by one suspicious cup of coffee: “Oh, honey... is that really good?”

A flying saucer crashes near an Arctic research station, its frozen pilot returns to life, and humanity discovers that its first extraterrestrial visitor is an intelligent, blood-drinking vegetable with the general disposition of a very angry carrot.

Vincent Charles, Ordy Packard, and Janelle Woz revisit the influential 1951 creature feature ‘The Thing From Another World.’ Jeff may be absent from the panel, but he still contributes from the chat as the group examines a movie that turned out to be considerably better than its giant-carrot premise suggests.

The discussion covers the film’s claustrophobic Arctic setting, overlapping dialogue, capable characters, practical effects, and the military-versus-science conflict embodied by Captain Hendry and the dangerously optimistic Dr. Carrington. The panel also considers James Arness’ imposing alien, Margaret Sheridan’s refreshingly capable Nikki Nicholson, exploding doors, improvised electrical defenses, blood-fed seed pods, and the astonishing survival of a stunt performer engulfed in flames.

Along the way, the story detours into ‘Star Trek,’ ‘The Simpsons,’ ‘Flash Gordon,’ ‘Pontypool,’ questionable yacht-club clothing, evil electric blankets, and whether any scientist determined to communicate with a homicidal plant should simply be shot before he turns off the generator.

It’s an affectionate look at a smart, atmospheric classic whose final warning still works more than 70 years later: Keep watching the skies.

In the 23rd century, everyone lives inside a dazzling domed city; nobody worries about growing old, and life is an endless parade of pleasure, color, and questionable shower-curtain fashion. There’s only one catch: when your crystal starts blinking, you report to Carousel and explode in front of a cheering crowd.

Vincent Charles, Ordy Packard, Jeff, and Janelle Woz revisit the 1976 dystopian science-fiction classic ‘Logan’s Run.’ The panel examines the film’s pleasure-obsessed society, its Sandmen and runners, the spectacularly bureaucratic death carnival known as Carousel, and the surprisingly flimsy logic holding the entire civilization together.

They compare the movie with William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson’s darker novel, discuss Michael York’s already-overdue expiration date, Richard Jordan’s relentless shouting, Jenny Agutter’s gravity-defying wardrobe, and Peter Ustinov’s cat-filled life as the last old man anyone has ever seen.

Then there’s Box—the frozen-food robot whose strange delivery, cheerful personality, and brief appearance somehow make him the most memorable character in the entire movie. Everybody loves Box, and this panel is no exception.

It’s disco astronauts, exploding citizens, dangerous prop weapons, gratuitous nudity, questionable special effects, and a society that destroys its entire infrastructure before asking what anyone will eat tomorrow—The Vincent Charles Projekt style.

Vincent Charles and Janelle boldly venture into the gloriously chaotic universe of 1978’s Message from Space, a Japanese science-fiction spectacle directed by Kinji Fukasaku and starring Sonny Chiba and Vic Morrow. What follows is part movie review, part nostalgic reckoning, as Vincent revisits a childhood favorite filled with interstellar battles, questionable special effects, sentient space walnuts, and—most importantly—a spaceship with sails.

Along the way, the pair examine the film’s unmistakable Star Wars influence, its baffling characters and plot turns, the arrival of Sonny Chiba, and a finale that throws nearly every science-fiction idea imaginable onto the screen. Naturally, the conversation also wanders through Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Spaceballs, reused Hollywood sound effects, and Janelle’s continuing Michael Eddington fixation. Is Message from Space an overlooked cult classic, an incoherent space opera, or simply the greatest walnut-delivery system in cinematic history? The answer may be all three.

The Vincent Charles Projekt ventures into the bargain-bin fantasy kingdom of Hawk the Slayer, where magic swords fly through the air, automatic crossbows never seem to need reloading, and Jack Palance devours every available piece of scenery.

VC, Ordy, Jeff, and Janelle celebrate the gloriously low-budget 1980 adventure while dissecting its wooden hero, questionable fight choreography, foam weapons, wrinkled gold sets, disco-infused soundtrack, and cast of elves, dwarves, witches, warriors, and enthusiastic British character actors. What begins as a straightforward revenge story quickly becomes a fantasy fever dream that feels like a twelve-year-old Dungeon Master assembled his friends, accepted every ridiculous character idea, and somehow managed to get the campaign released in theaters.

The crew also wanders through Krull, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Dungeons & Dragons, George Harrison, medieval hairstyles, terrible accents, and the many familiar faces hiding throughout the production. The script may be nonsense, the swords may bend, and the special effects may involve silly string. Still, Hawk the Slayer remains exactly the kind of wonderfully terrible movie the Projekt was created to appreciate.