Two Geeks and a GIT Classic Movie Reviews

Actor and director Penny Marshall passed away on December 17th, 2018 at the age of 75. Because her impact on film was so entertaining and so profound, Buddy, Chad, and Jeff decided to push back their second look at Blaxploitation films. Instead, this episode looks at Penny Marshall's first "big" hit, with 1988's "Big!" Directed by Marshall and starring Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, John Heard, Jared Rushton, Jon Lovitz, and Mercedes Ruehl, this film follows 13-year-old Josh who makes a wish on a strange arcade fortune teller, and gets it when he wakes up the next day big... in an adult's body. This film features some stellar performances, none the least of which are the child actors! Truly a classic in the history of film, and deservedly netted Tom Hanks an Oscar nomination for Best Actor!

Happy holidays from Buddy, Chad, and Jeff! For the second film in our "Twisted Christmas" pairing, we move ahead five years to Disney's first full-length stop-action animated film! From the mind of Tim Burton, directed by Henry Selick, and featuring the music and vocal talents of Danny Elfman, it's 1993's "The Nightmare Before Christmas!" Starring Chris Sarandon as Jack Skellington (although the singing Jack is Danny Elfman) and co-starring the voices of Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Glenn Shadix (of "Beetlejuide" fame) Paul Reubens, and the incredible vocal talents of Ken Page, this is the story of what happens when the leader of one holiday discovers that there are others, and decides to try to do a different one better than it's been done before! With amazing animation, a truly imaginative story, and flat-out fantastic music, this became an instant classic! Plus, find out what year the trio is going to focus on for their "New Year's" pairing!

Happy holidays from Buddy, Chad, and Jeff! It's the first of our "Twisted Christmas" pairing and it starts with 1988's Bill Murray-led "Scrooged." Directed by Richard Donner, and starring Murray, Karen Allen, John Forsythe, Bobcat Goldthwait, David Johansen, Carol Kane, and Robert Mitchum, this is a modern re-telling of the story of Scrooge, but this time with a lot of laughs to go along with the normal pathos-filled morality tale! It's a practical-effects smorgasbord combined with a delightfully creepy-yet-christmas-y score by Danny Elfman and some top-notch acting performances that combines to be the gift everyone wants for their holiday season (even if someone doesn't quite agree)!

Part 2 of our look at radio personality biopics takes a radically different turn from our first! Petey Greene (Don Cheadle), an ex-convict, charms his way onto WOL, the number one rhythm and blues station in Washington, DC with the help of program director Dewey Hughes (Chiwetel Ejiofor) in 2007's "Talk To Me!" It's rough at first, and tempers fly, but after a devastating turn of events on the national scene, Greene demonstrates his true talent and brings DC through a dark and dangerous night! Directed by Kasi Lemmons, and co-starring Taraji P. Henson, Mike Epps, Cedric the Entertainer, and Martin Sheen, this film demonstrates how radio, and the right person at the right time, can unite a community for all the right reasons! Plus, discover what two "twisted" films the crew has picked out for their holiday episodes!

This pairing is all about radio personality biopics, and we're starting with perhaps the most well-known radio personality of all time, the self-proclaimed "King of Media," Howard Stern, the the 1997 film based on his book of the same name, "Private Parts!" Directe by Betty Thomas, and starting Mary McCormack, Paul Giamatti, Allison Janney, and, as themselves, Fred Norris, Robin Quivers, and Howard Stern! This is an inside look into the history and evolution of one of the most notorious radio personalities of the 20th and 21st centuries, even if some of it is a bit of hollywood magic rather than the actual truth. But it shows that the Stern we all know and love (or hate) from on-air is only a character, a personality that he puts on to do his shows, and that he is subtly but substantially different "in real life!"

The second of our looks at improvised mockumentaries about music moves forward almost 20 years, to 2003's "A Mighty Wind!" If Christopher Guest and crew had a brilliant idea in "This is Spinal Tap," they'd perfected it with this movie! Directed by Guest, and co-written by Guest and Eugene Levy, this film takes place just after a giant in the Folk industry has passed away, and his children decide to stage a reuinion some of the biggest groups he helped along, as a tribute. The film co-stars Mary Gross, Harry Shearer, Michawl McKean, Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Bob Balaban, Jane Lynch, John Michael Higgins, Parker Posey, Jim Piddock, Don Lake, Ed Begley Jr., Larry Miller, and Jennifer Coolidge. The New Main Street Singers, the Folksmen, and Mickey and Mitch, with some baggage and more than a few issues, join the tribute concert. Along the way, we learn a lot about the groups (and in a couple cases, probably too much), and watch through the concert itself. Hilarious, full of original music that both pokes fun at, and serves as homage to, folk music of the 50s and 60s, this is an absolutely fantastic film, full of subtle (and not-so-subtle) humor, great music, and an outstanding acting job by Eugene Levy! Plus, the the trio return to one of their non-film-but-still-media loves for the next pairing!

It's improvised mockumentaries about music for this week's pairing, starting with the directorial debut of Rob Reiner, the film co-written by Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer, the ultimate send-up of rock mockumentaries, 1984's "This is Spinal Tap!" Starring Guest, McKean, and Shearer as the three members of "the loudest band in rock," this film follows the intrepid-yet-inept heavy metal trio through their comeback tour, touting the release of their new album "Smell the Glove." Featuring the additional talents of Bruno Kirby, Ed Gegley Jr., Fran Drescher, Patrick Macnee, Dana Carvy, Billy Crystal, Howard Hessman, Paul Shaffer, Fred Willard, and Angelica Huston, this film was the prototype for mockumentaries-to-come, establishing a genre that Guest and company have been successfully mining ever since!

Our second film in our pairing of live-action Disney musical fantasy films is the 1971 sleeper-hit Bedknobs and Broomsticks! The film shares several people, including director Robert Stevenson, star David Tomlinson, and musical scribes Richard and Robert Sherman! With the help of star Angela Lansbury, and co-stars Roddy McDowell, Sam Jaffe, John Ericson, and Reginald Owen, this film tells the story of Eglantine Price, an apprentice witch with a plan to help the war effort during World War II. When she gets three London orphans foisted off on her, things go from chaotic to truly magical! Nominated for five academy awards, and winner of the award for Best Special Effects, this movie answers the question "What happens when magically-animated armor goes up against a squad of Nazi soldiers! Plus, the trio discuss what documentary sub-genre they'll be tackling in the next pairing!

A magical nanny literally floats down from the sky to turn around the lives of a London banker, his suffragette wife, and their two precocious children. Directed by Robert Stevenson and starring Julie Andrews (who won an Oscar for the role), Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson, Glynis Johns, Arthur Treacher, Reginald Owen, and Ed Wynn, this became one of the jewels in the crown of Walt Disney's kingdom. With such memorable songs like Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, A Spoonful of Sugar, Chim Chim Cheree, and Step in Time, written by Oscar award-winning brothers Richard and Robert Sherman, this is the film that has entertained children and adults for over 50 years!

Part two of our Halloween horror pairing is the 1982 remake of "The Thing" by horror master John Carpenter! Based on the 1951 "The Thing From Another World," Carpenter took the sci-horror genre and turned it up higher than ever before! Directed by Carpenter from a screenplay written by Bill Lancaster, this version sees Kurt Russell, A moustache-less Wilford Brimley, T. K. Carter, David Clennon, Keith David, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Richard Masur, Donald Moffat, Joel Polis, and Thomas G. Waites as the crew of Antarctic Base US #31, an isolated research facility. A chance encounter with a Norweigen helicopter and its inhabitants spins their "normal" lives off into an otherwordly carnival of subterfuge, suspicion, accusation, blood, and terror. Plus, learn what cinematic balm the trio has prescribed for the post-Halloween weeks as they discuss their next pairing!