Two Geeks and a GIT Classic Movie Reviews

2004 was a great year for underrated comedies, and our second film is an excellent example of how some films can exceed expectations! Directed by the trio of Jeff Schaffer, Alec Berg, and David Mandel, "Eurotrip" tells the story of Scott Thomas (Scott Mechlowicz), from Ohio, who discoveres a bit too late that he's in love with his pen-pal Mieke (Jessica Boehrs) after he mistakes her for a guy and tells her off after she proposes getting together. Scott and his best friend Cooper Harris (Jacob Pitts) embark on a madcap attempt to get to Berlin to salvage Scott's relationship. In Paris, they meet up with friends (and twins) Jamie (Travis Wester) and Jenny (Michelle Trachtenberg), and the four travel through Amsterdam, Bratislava, to Germany, where they find out Mieke has left for a Summer at Sea program leaving from Rome. They end up making it to Rome, but will they find Mieke in time? Will she forgive Scotty? Will there be a happy ending to this story? Also starring Kristin Kreuk and Vinnie Jones, and featuring cameos from Jeffrey Tambor, Matt Damon, Fred Armisen, Lucy Lawless, Deidrich Bader, and Mindy Sterling. Plus, the trio reveal which listener-requested pairing provide the films for the next pairing!

Every so often, a movie comes along that surpasses your expectations, especially when you're not expecting anything extraordinary in the first place. Our pairing this time around features two comedies that were so much more than anyone thought they'd be, both came out in 2004, and both share a cameo! First up, directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber in his first outing for a big-studio picture, "Dodgeball" follows small-time gym owner Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughn) facing off against an attempt to buy his gym (and remove the competition) from GloboGym owner White Goodman (Ben Stiller). In order to raise the $50,000 needed to save Average Joe's Gym, Peter, his employees Dwight (Chris Williams) and Owen (Joel David Moore), the banker hired to facilitate the take over of the Gym, Kate Veatch (Christine Taylor), and his customers Gordon (Stephen Root), Justin (Justin Long), and Steve the Pirate (Alan Tudyk) embark on a quest to become national Dodgeball champions! Also starring Rip Torn, Missi Pyle, Jamal Duff, Gary Cole, and Jason Bateman!

Kathy Bates is the focus of this pairing, and our second film was her second time taking a lead role in a film based on a Stephen King book, although this particular role was one King wrote with her in mind! Directed by Taylor Hackford, 1995's "Dolores Claiborne" starred Bates in the titular role. Dolores is a widow living in a small community in Maine, who witnesses the death of Vera Donovan (Judy Parfitt) who has employed her has a domestic for decades. Because of the circumstances of Vera's demise, Dolores is suspected of killing her, and Detective John Mackey (Christopher Plummer) is called to investigate. Mackey and Dolores have a history, as he investigated the death of her husband Joe (David Strathairn) some years earlier. Dolores' daughter, Selena St. George (Jennifer Jason Leigh) arrives to lend her support to her mother, but the reunion is both strained and revelatory as the story of both deaths comes to light. Plus, the trio unveil which two films made their "Movies which are funnier than they deserve to be" pairing!

We're focusing on another great Hollywood actress for this pairing, one who also seems to like acting in Stephen King properties! Kathy Bates is our focus this week and next, starting with her performance as an obsessed fan of a particular writer, in 1990's "Misery." Directed by Rob Reiner, this film tells the story of Paul Sheldon (James Caan), a successful writer who's been trapped by fortune into writing a series of romance novels, but it moving away from them after killing off his main protagonist. After crashing his car in s snowstorm, he's rescued by Annie Wilkes (Bates) who brings him into her home and tends to his rather severe wounds. While Paul is recuperating, Annie gets a copy of Paul's final "Destiny" novel and becomes incensed that he would kill off Destiny! This begins a cat and mouse game between Annie, who is forcing Paul to resurrect her beloved character, and Paul, who is trying desperately to escape! The film also stars Richard Farnsworth, Frances Sternhagen, and Lauren Bacall.

Our second look at the cheesier side of the apocalypse is from 1984, and shows us what happens when the comet (which apparently caused the extinction of the dinosaurs) comes back around in the year 1984, and only those enclosed within steel are saved from its effects in "Night of the Comet." Directed by Thom Eberhardt, the film stars Catherine Mary Stewart (of "Last Starfighter" fame), Kelli Maroney, and Robert Beltran (of "Star Trek: Voyager" fame) as three survivors who meet at the local radio station, whose automated broadcasts led them to believe there was still someone alive and on-the-air. Regina Belmont (Stewart) spent the night in a projection booth at a movie theater. Samantha Belmont, (Maroney), Regina's younger sister, spent the night in a storage shed. Hector Gomez (Beltran) spent the night in the cab of his freight truck. They discover, however, that the post-comet threats are two-fold: Crazed half-dead mutant creatures, and a think-tank of elitist scientists, and neither have the trio's best wishes in mind! Also starring Mary Woronov and Geoffrey Lewis. And finally, Buddy, Chad, and Jeff talk about which two Kathy Bates films (and Stephen King adaptations) make up their next pairing!

And now for something a little... cheesier. This pairing is dedicated to a couple older, over-the-top looks at the end of the world, made even cheesier by the passage of time since they were released! First up, it's the second cinematic version of Richard Matheson's book "I Am Legend." Directed by Boris Sagal and starring Charlton Heston, 1971's "The Omega Man" looks at the world of a lone survivor after a plague has turned humanity into vampires. The film shows us Neville's (Heston) daily life, driving around empty streets, shooting at anything that moves, and then sequestering himself away in his fortress home and ignoring the taunts and attacks from the vampires outside, driven by their leader Matthias (Anthony Zerbe) to attempt revenge for the killing of the members of "The Family." It's only when Neville runs into Lisa (Rosalind Cash), a fellow survivor, that he discovers that there are several others left, and this discovery helps him develop a cure for the disease that causes the vampirism. Also starring Paul Koslo, Eric Laneuville, and Lincoln Kilpatrick.

The second film in our look at graphic novels (of the non-superhero variety) turned into films moves us one year down the timeline but back in time for the subject. Directed by Sam Mendes, 2002's "Road to Perdition" tells a tale of a mob family in the 1930s that is ultimately about fathers and sons. Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) is an enforcer for mob leader John Rooney (Paul Newman). When a conversation turns into a hit at the hands of Rooney's maverick son Connor (Daniel Craig) and is witnessed by Michael's son Michael (Tyler Hoechlin), Connor decides on his own how to ensure the kid's silence. This sets up the conflict between two fathers and two sons that spans the course of the rest of the film, in all its gritty, pale excellence. The film also stars Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ciaran Hinds, Stanley Tucci, and Jude Law. And the trio discuss which two totally cheese looks at the end of the world comprise their next pairing!

This pairing is dedicated to the wealth of material to be found in graphic novels, but specifically not of the superhero variety! First up, the first graphic novel-based-film to ever be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2001's "Ghost World," director Terry Zwigoff tells the story of Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson), two recent high school graduates who are searching for what the next step in their lives might be. Through a thoughtless prank, they meet Seymour (Steve Buscemi), an audiophile who Enid takes a peculiar interest in. The story spans their summer and their search for meaning and purpose in their lives. Also starring Brad Renfro, Bob Balaban, Stacey Travis, and Charles C. Stevenson Jr.

After starting in 1938, we move across the years to near the end of the career of the great Katharine Hepburn, a film co-starring father-and-daughter Henry and Jane Fonda. In 1981's "On Golden Pond," directed by Mark Rydell, Hepburn plays Ethel Thayer, wife to Norman Thayer (Henry Fonda). Normal is turning 80, and starting to experience memory lapses, but Ethel take care of him and keeps him grounded. Their daughter, Chelsea (Jane Fonda), her boyfriend Bill Ray (Dabney Coleman), and his son Billy (Doug McKeon), come to visit, and it's decided that Billy will stay with Norman and Ethel for a month while Bill and Chelsea head to Europe. Norman and Billy bond during the month, which only serves to drive home the emotional separation that's always existed between Norman and Chelsea. The film says a lot about families and curing estrangement, and was the last theatrical film Henry Fonda starred in. Plus, the gents reveal which two non-superhero-based graphic novels-turned-films make up the next pairing!

For the next two weeks, we're looking at the career of one of the greatest actors of all time, the legendary Katharine Hepburn. We begin back near the start of her career in 1938's "Bringing Up Baby." Directed by Howard Hawks and co-starring Cary Grant, the film that embraced the zany, madcap comedy and turned it into an art-form. Hepburn stars as Susan Vance, a young socialite with a penchant for twisting people around her little finger. She runs across staid and somewhat baffled Dr. David Huxley (Grant), who's about to get married to his fiance and assistant, Alice (Virginia Walker). David's attempting to woo Alexander Peabody (George Irving), the soliciter of Susan's Aunt Elizabeth (May Robson), in pursuit of a one million dollar donation to the museum. Add to that a pet leopard, a dog that just won't stop barking, a missing brontosaurus bone, and a colorful supporting cast, and you have an experience not quite like any other in cinema history!