Three O’Clock High is a 1987 teen comedy directed by Phil Joanou, starring:

• Casey Siemaszko as Jerry

• Anne Ryan as Franny

• Richard Tyson as Buddy Revell

• Whit Bissell Award winners Stacey Glick as Brei (Jerry’s sister), and co-winners Scott Tiler & Guy Massey as Bruce and Scott, amateur documentary filmmakers.

Written by Richard Christian Matheson and Thomas Szollosi.

Released in 1987, a critical moment for teen comedies. Just two years prior, we got Weird Science (twice!), Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. This one didn’t quite land the same way. It underperformed at the box office and didn’t win over critics for the most part.

So… what happened?We don’t really know. But we're talking about why we liked it!

Today, we’re talking about this overlooked gem of the genre. Loosely riffing on the 1952 western High Noon, Three O’Clock High gives us a surreal, anxiety-laced day in the life of Jerry Mitchell. He’s just a regular student who accidentally crosses paths with Buddy Revell—a hulking new kid with a violent reputation. The showdown is set: 3 o’clock, after school, in the parking lot. No escape.

Unlike its teen comedy peers, this one leans darker. It’s not Bad Boys, but there’s definitely more blood and missing teeth than the movies above.

Instead of cliques and awkward prom moments, we get likable characters squaring off against a clear villain. It’s a refreshing twist—less detention hall, more clumsy sheriff-vs-bandit showdown.

Also we get a killer soundtrack by Tangerine Dream!

----

Follow Matt:
Matt has over 100+ on LetterboxdYou can reach out on Bluesky:@MovieMattSirois Terrible movies often find him, even under under the alias Marcus at ⁠⁠⁠Movie Asylum of the Weird, Bad and Wonderful.

Follow who we follow: ⁠⁠⁠Once Upon a Geek⁠⁠⁠ and  ⁠⁠⁠The Fade Out Podcast⁠

Pitch Black is 2000 a sci-fi/action horror film directed by David Twohy.Starring:

• Vin Diesel as Richard B. Riddick

• Radha Mitchell as Frye

• Whit Bissell Award winner Cole Hauser as Johns

• Keith David as Abu "Imam" al-Walid

• Rhiana Griffith as Jack

• Whit Bissell Award winner Lewis Fitz-Gerald as Paris

Pitch Black was an instant classic for us when it dropped back in 2000. The film that launched Vin Diesel’s career features a fantastic cast, striking imagery, and a vibe that’s equal parts eerie and cool.

It performed well as it more than doubling its modest budget and spawned two (soon to be three) sequels, animated shorts, and a surprisingly excellent video game.

Critically, the reception was mixed. The cries of “derivative!” aren’t entirely off-base and are pretty easy things to say regarding genre films. That's not what we're about though. We're about consuming sci-fi coolness. And Pitch Black absolutely delivers every course.

Yes, it leans into familiar tropes and trappings, but if we're being honest, that’s kind of what we came for.And we’d argue that passing it as just derivative misses the point. For fans who want this kind of story, Pitch Black offers something special: great performances, a very human core, and inspired creature effects and camera work that reward you if you’re paying attention. We love it.

---------

Follow Matt:
Matt has over 100+ on LetterboxdYou can reach out on Bluesky: @MovieMattSirois

Terrible movies often find him even under under the alias Marcus at ⁠⁠⁠Movie Asylum of the Weird, Bad and Wonderful.

Follow who we follow:

⁠⁠⁠Once Upon a Geek⁠⁠⁠ and  ⁠⁠⁠The Fade Out Podcast⁠

Today, Matt & Todd are joined by guest Gabe Crate to explore the original Planet of the Apes saga one last time (sorta, the movies, anyway).

Released in 1973, Battle for the Planet of the Apes is the fifth and final film in the series, directed by J. Lee Thompson (who also helmed Conquest) and starring:

• Roddy McDowall as Caesar

• Claude Akins as Aldo

• Natalie Trundy as Lisa

• Austin Stoker as (Bruce) MacDonald

• Whit Bissell Award winners Paul Williams (as Virgil) and Lew Ayres (as Mandemus)

Arguably the weakest entry in the franchise, with the least new ground to cover—but also, maybe, the most approachable. On one hand, it feels like an extended TV episode designed to tie up loose ends for the franchise faithful. On the other, it’s a well-directed, well-acted film with solid set pieces and the most hopeful ending of the series.

Sure, the ideas and budget may have been running low, but the performances pull you in and keep you there—right up to the confusing finale. Maybe it deserved better. But this is what we got, and honestly? It’s an awful lot of fun.

The fifth and final end to the story. Once and for all. No bombs. No bullets. Good night, nurse.

That is… except for the TV series. And the animated series.So maybe don’t lose your tack and saddle just yet.

Follow Matt:
Matt has over 100+ on Letterboxd

You can reach out on Bluesky:@MovieMattSirois

Terrible movies often find him, even under under the alias Marcus at ⁠⁠⁠Movie Asylum of the Weird, Bad and Wonderful.

Follow who we follow:

⁠⁠⁠Once Upon a Geek⁠⁠⁠ and  ⁠⁠⁠The Fade Out Podcast⁠

Our name is The TV/Movie Rewind Podcast. As a grim evening falls once again in the thick woods of historic olde New England, two men—Matt & Todd—are joined by a new arrival in town: Katherine, for part two of their discussion on the gothic horror classic Dark Shadows (1966–1971).

That’s right—we came back. There’s just too much to say.

This time, we dig into some of our favorite characters, motivations, scenes, flubs, and how the show continues to serve as a source of creative inspiration. We’re joined in our dive today by long-time Dark Shadows fan Katherine Gonzales.

Among other talents, Katherine is a content creator who shares her love for DS and Dark Shadows-inspired music on YouTube, along with her own experiences with the paranormal. She’s a veteran of many DS conventions, with an encyclopedic knowledge of the show and a genuine enthusiasm that made exploring Collinwood one more time with her an absolute joy.

You can find Katherine's DS-inspired creations on:

YouTube: like DS deep dives Here, and today's outtro:

This week we have an extra treat at the end featuring Discount Artificial Sweetener's song: 'Styrofoam Tombstones', fans should really like this one, Matt & I think its great.

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.

-----------

Follow Matt:
Matt has over 100+ on LetterboxdYou can reach out on Bluesky:@MovieMattSirois

Terrible movies often find him,even under the alias Marcus at ⁠⁠⁠Movie Asylum of the Weird, Bad and Wonderful.

Follow who we follow:

⁠⁠⁠Once Upon a Geek⁠⁠⁠ and  ⁠⁠⁠The Fade Out Podcast⁠

Today on the TV/Movie Rewind Podcast, Matt & Todd get reanimated and rearmed with Universal Soldier—Roland Emmerich’s 1992 sci-fi action flick that boldly blends high-octane combat with Frankenstein, war crimes, and plenty of roundhouse kicks.

Starring:

• Jean-Claude Van Damme as “LUC, SAD!” Luc Deveraux, a memory-wiped near-automaton as confused about what he is as he is about who he is.

• Dolph Lundgren as “ANDREW, MAD!” Sgt. Andrew Scott, a completely unhinged maniac with a necklace made of ears and probably loves Casualties of War for all the wrong reasons.

• Ally Walker as Veronica Roberts, a journalist just trying to do her job and not get murdered by government cyborgs.

• Whit Bissell Award winners Jerry Orbach (as Dr. Gregor) and Robert Trebor (as the motel owner), plus genre favorites Ed O’Ross and Leon Rippy.

This is great early-90s action:

• Government conspiracies

• Secret military programs

• And a plot that could be described as RoboCop meets First Blood with a dash of Short Circuit if Johnny 5 had been developed by Cyberdyne Systems.

• Van Damme kicks people. Lundgren screams about betrayal. There’s a diner fight, a farm showdown, and a final battle that ends with a hay baler and some light existential horror.

Despite 5 sequels, this one is often forgotten in the larger pool of muscley-action films. For one, Van Damme’s box-office draw was waning, and it could be said that this kind of action film a dying genre in 1992, especially with Die Hard a few years earlier establishing a new action archetype.

Lastly, at least in America alone, 1992 would be dominated by other classics such as:

Disney’s Aladdin, Academy Award Winning Unforgiven, Basic Instinct, Reservoir Dogs, A Few Good Men, Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Batman Returns, and The Bodyguard, to name a few.

This one had an up-hill battle for your memory, so we’re giving it another look. You should too!

Follow Matt:
Matt has over 100+ lists on Letterboxd

You can reach out on Bluesky: @MovieMattSirois

On Facebook terrible movies often find him even under the alias Marcus at ⁠⁠⁠Movie Asylum of the Weird, Bad and Wonderful.

Follow who we follow:

⁠⁠⁠Once Upon a Geek⁠⁠⁠ and  ⁠⁠⁠The Fade Out Podcast⁠

Today on the TV/Movie Rewind Podcast, Matt & Todd ride out with The Seven Magnificent Gladiators—Bruno Mattei’s 1983 sword-and-sandals spectacle courtesy of Cannon Films.

If you're Matt and Todd, you had us at either "Bruno Mattei" or "Cannon Films." But both?? We’ll chip in for the 4K restoration ourselves.

If you're not familiar with that glorious pairing, it’s hard to explain just how much these movies mean to us. They're not trying to win awards—they're trying to inject pure entertainment into your bloodstream, like they've got a vendetta against subtlety and the solution involves kilotons of TNT strapped to a Chevy Caprice.

What you're watching is the source code of entertainment. Just go along for the ride, and you will have a good time.

The Seven Magnificent Gladiators is wild, it’s fun, it’s dubbed... and it’s working on a budget. An inspired remix of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (by way of The Magnificent Seven), this version asks: “What if we did that in ancient Rome… on a Cannon budget… using actors who were already wearing swords-and-sandals for another production?”

Starring (and our choice as their Magnificent Seven counterpart):

• Lou Ferrigno as "Han"—yes, Han. That’s what the "H" on his belt stands for. Definitely not Hercules, who Lou was coincidentally played at the same time. (Yul Brynner)
• Sybil Danning as Julia the most mercenary of the group (Brad Dexter).
• Brad Harris as Scipio, Han’s right Han-d (Steve McQueen).
• Emilio Messina as Goliath the gentle giant (Charles Bronson).
• Giovanni Cianfriglia as Festo (We'll go with Robert Vaughn I guess?).
• Sal Borgese as Glafiro (I swear he throws a knife or something in this, so he'll be James Coburn).
• Rubert Mura as Vendrix (Horst Buchholz).
• Carla Ferrigno as Pandora.
• Yahudi Efroni, earning our coveted 'Whit Bissell' Award as The Emperor.
• Dan Vadis as Nicerote—the most fashion-forward warlord this side of Humungous or Raven Shaddock.

It’s Cannon. It’s Mattei. It’s awesome.

Find and reach out to Matt on: Bluesky: @MovieMattSirois.bsky.social


Facebook:  The Movie Asylum of the Weird, Bad and Wonderful

Follow who we follow: Once Upon a Geek
 and Fade Out Podcast

edited 7/26/25: Apologies for the original audio, the hisses and my illness :(

Our name, is the TV/Movie Rewind Podcast.

As night falls on Matt & Todd, they find themselves drawn into the gothic madness of Dark Shadows. Dark Shadows is a show born from the literal dream of Dan Curtis in 1966, fleshed out by writer Art Wallace, and brought to moody life by directors Lela Swift, John Sedwick, and Henry Kaplan.

Set designer Sy Thomasoff, composer Robert Cobert, and writers Sam Hall and Ron Sproat helped build what would, by 1968, become a cultural phenomenon—an unlikely soap that reshaped supernatural storytelling for generations, airing on June 27, 1966 on ABC until April 2, 1971.

For horror fans today, Dark Shadows is a cornerstone. It carved a path for everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel to True Blood and Anne Rice, maybe this.

What begins as a tale of mysterious genetics and brooding intrigue spirals quickly into the story of a tortured vampire thrust into increasingly deranged predicaments.

We're talking soap opera insanity: At one point remorseful vampire astral-projects through time to defeat the mute ghost of a warlock… but instead helps him (with help from another warlock…) fight a phoenix that said warlock (the future-ghost one) accidentally created… this runs afoul of the plans of the witch (who created the vampire). That’s before fancy-knifed assassins, magic severed hands, a werewolf curse, yet another even more powerful warlock show up, and 400 more episodes before the narrative ends abruptly.

It’s homage. It’s theft. It’s divine melodrama. And it’s also… 1,225 episodes. Not every one is a masterpiece. Pacing? Glacial. Takes? Singular. Flubs? Frequent. Stone walls? Rattling. Bats? Unapologetically rubber. No blood, the violence is rather tame, but if you can get ‘into it’ there is so much fun to be had here.

As essential to genre history as Dracula, Star Wars, or Star Trek, Dark Shadows is a wild, shadowy ride. This is best enjoyed with someone who's ready to lean into the madness.

Dark Shadows stars (for the most part):

Alexandra Moltke (Isles) as Victoria Winters

Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins

David Selby as Quentin Collins

Lara Parker as Angelique Bouchard

Joan Bennett as Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard

Louis Edmonds as Roger Collins

Nancy Barrett as Carolyn Collins-Stoddard

David Henesy as David Collins

Kathryn Leigh Scott as Maggie Evans

John Karlen as Willy Loomis

Thayer David as … we’ll go with “Stokes”

Grayson Hall as Julia Hoffman

Joel Crothers as poor, poor Joe Haskell

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.

Find and reach out to Matt on: Bluesky: @MovieMattSirois.bsky.social
Letterboxd
Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠Movie Asylum of the Weird, Bad and Wonderful.

Follow who we follow:
⁠⁠⁠Once Upon a Geek⁠⁠⁠ and  ⁠⁠⁠The Fade Out Podcast⁠

Deep Blue Sea is a 1999 sci-fi monster movie directed by Renny Harlin, starring Saffron Burrows, Thomas Jane, LL Cool J, and Samuel L. Jackson.

This film may have been the first American big-budget shark movie to hit theaters since Jaws: The Revenge. Deep Blue Sea however decided to splice science-fiction into something that as much resembles Alien, or Thing from Another World.

The science is vague enough to hold together with confident lines that try real hard... and OK some of the plot could be tighter.

This is a 1950s B-movie plot, no doubt, but we think they do an admirable job of giving you enough MovieScience™ to work with, some very entertaining characters, great scenes and plenty of blood as a reward for going along.

Find and reach out to Matt on:

Letterboxd @MovieMattSiroisBluesky @MovieMattSirois.bsky.social

Facebook ⁠Movie Asylum of the Weird, Bad and Wonderful.

Follow who we follow: ⁠⁠⁠Once Upon a Geek⁠⁠⁠ and  ⁠⁠⁠TheFade Out Podcast⁠

Today, Matt and Todd tackle the fourth entry in the original Planet of the Apes saga: Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), directed by J. Lee Thompson. Starring:

• Roddy McDowall as Caesar

• Don Murray as Breck

• Ricardo Montalbán as Armando

• Natalie Trundy as Lisa

• Hari Rhodes as MacDonald

• Severn Darden as Kolp

The first film said it all—right? The second one blew it all up—done and done. The third swept away anyone left from the second—this has to be the end...

Except it’s not.

Conquest brings the action roaring back (see Beneath), but with a chaotic crescendo that might just be the most memorable ending of the entire series.

Seriously.

You might think it has nowhere left to go.

What more is there to explore in this ape-human dynamic? This film knows that you already know the stakes. What you get here is a raw, streamlined rebellion tale with serious sci-fi edge and a cathartic payoff.

It’s arguably the most approachable film in the franchise. Accessible even if you haven’t seen the others... though you really should.

We hope you enjoy the uprising as much as we did.

Matt reviews and ranks more movies including newer ones at ⁠Letterboxd⁠

You can find out what he's following on Bluesky @MovieMattSirois.bsky.social

Check out favorites of what we follow, at: ⁠⁠⁠Once Upon a Geek⁠⁠⁠⁠ and  ⁠⁠⁠⁠The Fade Out Podcast⁠⁠ As Marcus he reviews all sorts of films but unlike here, they often they range from bad, worse, or terrible at the ⁠⁠⁠⁠MovieAsylum of the Weird, Bad and Wonderful⁠.

Today, Matt and Todd take aim at a film that needs no introduction... but we're giving it one anyway.

The Wild Bunch (1969) is a brutal, operatic action-western from the legendary Sam Peckinpah, featuring a powerhouse cast led by William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Jaime Sánchez, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, and Robert Ryan.

The Old West is dying, and Pike Bishop (Holden), a hardened outlaw, rallies his gang for one last big score: robbing a railway gold shipment. When the plan goes south, they're relentlessly pursued by former comrade-turned-bounty hunter Deke Thornton (Ryan). What follows is a violent, visceral masterpiece that grapples with fading codes of honor among men with a bent understanding of it.

If you’ve never seen this film, it earns our highest and easiest recommendation. Whether you’re a long-time fan of “horse operas” or just discovering the grit and grandeur of classic Westerns, The Wild Bunch is essential viewing. We think it would appeal to any action fan of all ages.

Matt reviews and ranks more movies including newer ones at ⁠Letterboxd⁠

You can find out what he's following on Bluesky @MovieMattSirois.bsky.social

Check out favorites of what we follow, at: ⁠⁠⁠Once Upon a Geek⁠⁠⁠⁠ and  ⁠⁠⁠⁠The Fade Out Podcast⁠⁠ As Marcus he reviews all sorts of films but unlike here, they often they range from bad, worse, or terrible at the ⁠⁠⁠⁠MovieAsylum of the Weird, Bad and Wonderful⁠.