Two Geeks and a GIT Classic Movie Reviews

Welcome to our Top-5 lists, a bonus for our faithful subscribers! Buddy, Chad, and Jeff discuss their personal top-5 westerns, and they cover a fairly wide range of the genre with their picks! There will be news lists periodically, but even more Top-5 lists are available to our Patreon supporters! Check out our Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/tgaag !

Episode 196: Sometimes the monsters are who you least suspect! That's the theme of our pairing this time around, and we're starting with what very well may be John Carpenter's best film, 1988's "They Live!" Written, directed, and scored by Carpenter, this film features wrestler Roddy Piper in the lead role, and he proves once and for all that (at the time) WWF wrestlers are as talented as Hollywood actors as he turns in a heartfelt performance! Then, you pair him with legend Keith David, and you have pair of protagonists who lead us through a film truly unique amongst all of the other movies made! Piper plays Nada, a homeless man searching for a job and a place in a world that increasingly doesn't seem to care. He meets Frank (David) on a construction job, and Frank shows him to a homeless camp near a church, where he can sleep and get some food. After going into the church, he stumbles on a box of black sunglasses, one of which he takes with him. But when he decides to put them on, he sees the truth of the world, a truth almost no one else can see. This is a unanimous high recommendation from our trio, and rightly so, for a film that stands out among any other Hollywood film yet made!

Episode 195: The second film in this computer espionage pairing simply couldn't be remade today with the same cast... it would cost too much money! We're talking about the second film penned by the team of Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes, with a little help from director Phil Alden Robinson, 1992's "Sneakers!" Starring Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix, Timothy Busfield, Eddie Jones, Mary McDonnell, Donal Logue, George Hearn, Ben Kingsly, Stephen Tobolowsky, and James Earl Jones, this is the story of a group of "Sneakers," hackers-for-hire who find a businesses security holes and report it to them. When they're approached by the NSA to retrieve a mysterious "black box," they embark on a mission that results in their acquiring something so valuable, any government on the planet would happily kill them all just to take possession of it! In fact, it's too valuable to hand to the NSA, so they have to figure out what to do with it, and how to survive until they do! Plus, the trio reveal which "movies about who the real monsters are" they're featuring for their next pairing!

Episode 194: It's computer espionage this pairing, along with two films written by the team of Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes! We begin with a film that was a major hit and introduced the world to a very young Matthew Broderick, 1983's "Wargames," directed by John Badham. The story follows David (Broderick), a young computer hacker, who inadvertently finds his way into the NORAD mainframe while looking for some new games, but also to impress Jennifer (Ally Sheedy). Unfortunately, the game he starts also begins a real build-up to nuclear armageddon, which Systems Operator Mr. McKittrick (Dabney Coleman) and General Beringer (Barry Corbin) must deal with! After discovering David and Jennifer's part in starting up the war game, the military take them into custody, then lose them as they head out to find the original programmer of the computer Professor Falken (John Wood). Although over 35 years old, this film still holds up today and is a fun, exciting thrill ride through to the very end!

Episode 193: The second film in our pairing of blockbuster Steven Spielberg films comes from 1993 and features several ground-breaking technical aspects that heralded a new generation of film! Jurassic Park was the first movie of its generation to really demonstrate the full and awesome power of computer-generated images as it tells the story of an eccentric entrepreneur Mr. Hammond (played by director Richard Attenborough) who brings a trio of experts (Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum) to an island off the coast of Costa Rica. On the island, Hammond reveals that he has funded the cloning of dinosaurs from DNA discovered in an ancient mosquito encased in amber, and created a theme park around his creations. Add to that a cranky computer programmer (Wayne Knight), an overworked project manager (Samuel L. Jackson), a dinosaur-hating head of security (Bob Peck), and Hammond's grandchildren Tim (Joseph Mazzello) and Lex (Ariana Richards) and the cast is assembled. When, as you might expect, things don't go quite as planned, the 2nd hour of the film becomes a thrill-ride like none other! Pair that with the majestic score by John Williams, and you have a cinematic treat for anyone who's ever wondered about dinosaurs! Plus, the trio reveal which two computer-espionage films will make up their next pairing!

Episode 192: This pairing focuses on the work of one of the greatest directors of our generation, someone whose track record is outstanding and unique. It's films by Steven Spielberg, and we're starting with the movie guaranteed to make you cry, even just a little bit, 1982's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial! The film stars Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and features two first cinematic appearances from C. Thomas Howell and Erica Eleniak! The story shows us what happens when an alien spacecraft is forced to leave one of its crew behind, and that creature gets adopted by a young boy, his older brother, and their younger sister. The bond that forms between the alien and the young boy is both wonderful and terrible, and things get rather tense once the government finds out the alien is here, but it's a Spielberg film, so you know things will work out for the best in the end, although not necessarily the happiest for all involved. This is a genuine classic and something everyone should see!

Welcome to our Top-5 lists, a bonus for our faithful subscribers! Buddy, Chad, and Jeff discuss their personal top-5 sports movies, and if you know anything about these guys, some of their picks may come as a bit of a surprise! There will be news lists periodically, but even more Top-5 lists are available to our Patreon supporters! Check out our Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/tgaag !

Episode 191: The second film in our Tim Curry pairing features a first for Walt Disney films, and does it with a star-studded cast in 1993's "The Three Musketeers!" One of many versions of the Alexandre Dumas tale, this one has a flair to it that most other attempts lack! The film follows the evil Cardinel Richelieu (Curry) who is attempting to overthrow the King of France. Backed by his faithful assistant Rochefort (played by the always-fascinating Michael Wincott), they disband the Musketeers on the King's orders and send three of them into rebellion: Aramis (Charlie Sheen), Athos (Kiefer Sutherland), and Porthos (Oliver Platt). At this point, a young swordsman named D'Artagnan (Chris O'Donnell) is headed to Paris to join the Musketeers. Along the way he meets the queen (Gabriel Anwar) and her handmaiden Constance (Julie Delpy) before discovering that the Musketeers are no more. After running afoul of the three, D'Artagnan ends up joining forces with them and they ride out to stop the Countess D'Winter (Rebecca De Mornay) who's helping Richelieu with his plot. Tim Curry's performance in this film is riveting and sinister, a perfect counter to Oliver Platt's swashbuckling Porthos! And the trio reveal which blockbusters from a certain director they'll be reviewing for the next pairing!

Episode 190: For this pairing we're celebrating the work of an under-appreciated genius known as Tim Curry. We begin with the film that was ahead of its time (it didn't "pop" until the VHS generation found it, and now it's a cult classic), 1985's "Clue!" Directed by Jonathan Lynn and written by Lynn and John Landis himself, the film (based on the board game of the same name) introduces us to Wadsworth (Curry) a butler hosting a unique dinner party. The guests are Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan), Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn), Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), Mr. Green (Michael McKean), Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull), and Miss Scarlet (Lesley Ann Warren). It's a murder mystery unlike any other, and that's part of the reason it didn't quite catch on until it came out for home video viewing, but has since become an eminently-quotable cult classic!

Episode 189: For the second film in our pairing from the urban fantasy genre, we move ahead to 1994 and Brandon Lee, son of famous martial artist and cinema star Bruce Lee, in his final performance on-screen in "The Crow." Directed by Alex Proyas, and set in Detroit, Michigan, the film stars lee, Ernie Hudson (of "Ghostbusters" fame), Rochelle Davis, Michael Wincott, Bai Ling, Anna Levine, and Tony Todd and spins the tale of Eric Dravan and his wife Shelly, both assaulted and horribly killed by a street gang. One year after their deaths, Eric is reborn as an avenging angel who seeks to right all of the wrongs from his death, including a few that actually lead to a better life for some. The trio also discuss the tragic death of Brandon Lee while filming, dying on-set in what investigators called a tragic accident... but was it? And finally, the Geeks and their G.I.T. reveal which listener request they're taking for their next pairing!