VCRWORLD

Are you ready for the ultimate showdown? Not only will Brian and Drew each reveal their 10 favorite 90s movies, but they will also compete—no holds barred—to guess each other’s lists. Imagine The Dating Game meets Celebrity Deathmatch meets AFI’s Top 100. We promise you’ll be surprised, enraged, and hopefully delighted by our final selections. Then, once the dust settles, let us know if you’re Team Brian or Team Drew. Let the games begin!

This week’s guest is a pinball wizard, proud Canadian, former Video Van-Go employee, and oh yeah, founding member of one of the most essential bands of the last 30 years. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the supremely talented Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies to the VCRWORLD orbit! We talk 90s tour stories, run-ins with The Wallflowers, free boxes of X-Files VHS, what inspired the band’s unique lyrical style, and of course, movies movies movies. The conversation might’ve only lasted one night but it felt more like … ONE WEEK! Sorry, had to. And finally, Ed reveals his top five favorite movies of all time. What a blast!

You know Max Minghella from The Handmaid’s Tale and The Social Network and so many great roles … but did you also know he’s a genuine collector of VHS? We find out what’s on his shelf today and how he got back into the lost art of watching tapes. It’s all fun & games until Brain (once again!) takes aim at Bruce Willis and Die Hard. We discuss our favorite action movies and heroes from the VHS era, then learn what inspired Max to start acting in the first place. We’re really excited to share this one with the VCRWORLD community, because it’s obvious our guest loves this stuff as much as we all do. Check out Max Minghella in Season 4 of The Handmaid’s Tale airing now on Hulu and in Spiral - May 13th. Yippee-ki-yay, y’all!

No big deal, we’re just chatting with one of our biggest childhood idols this week. Brandon Crane—who played Ben Hanscom in It and Doug Parker on Wonder Years—joins VCRWORLD to share what it was like to come of age on screen. He takes us back to the summer he spent becoming best friends with the ‘Losers Club’ and how close they all got to be. We ask him what he learned from being on set with Tim Curry and John Ritter and so many other brilliant actors. Most importantly, did Pennywise give him nightmares too? Finally, if you must know, we all share our thoughts on the remake and how movies may have changed a bit in the past 30 years. What a journey!

It ain’t over yet! We pick up right where we left off last week with Todd about to spill his guts on what inspired Alien’s beloved Chestburster. And speaking of Chestbursters, Brian shares how it feels to eat ribeye every night when he’s on The Carnivore Diet. Will Todd accept Brian’s challenge to join him in this bloody delicious endeavor? Will Drew storm off the podcast halfway through to get a snack? You’ll have to listen to find out. Thank you Todd for having more staying power than any VCRWORLD guest to come before. We did it!

Todd Strauss-Schulson (director of A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas, The Final Girls, and Isn’t It Romantic) enters the VCRWORLD vortex and he’s not going anywhere until we get answers! What is The Final Girls really about? Which posters were hanging up in your childhood bedroom? Die Hard or Driving Miss Daisy? These are the things fans demand to know. Then, just when you think the convo is winding down, Todd drops a VCRWORLD-exclusive bombshell on Brian and Drew. Make sure you listen to the very end and join us next week for Part 2 of our discussion with Todd. That’s when things really get weird.

Well, VCRWORLD’s debut appearance on Howard Stern didn’t quite go according to plan. In a span of fifteen minutes, you’ll hear super-talented voice actors Matt Friend and Barrett Leddy starring as Howard, Robin, Andy Cohen, Gilbert Gottfried, Elton John, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Jeff Goldblum, and god knows who else. As mad as we were to get overshadowed during our own guest appearance, we are thrilled to have witnessed firsthand the incredible vocal and comedic genius of Matt and Barrett. Till next time.

Brian and Drew welcome multi-talented Madeline Zima (from Californication, Mr. Nanny, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and so much more) to VCRWORLD to talk about her lifelong acting career, branching off into directing, and pretty much everything else under the sun. The discussion veers from early memories on set to the big philosophical questions we face today. Will we live to see a time when human beings merge with machines and what does that mean for the future of our species. Don’t worry, we also reveal our childhood crushes and ponder why 90s movies never go out of style. Huge thanks to Madeline for a great hang.

No, we’re not out of ideas, but Brian and Drew thought it’d be fun to shoot the shit this week without any idea who might say what. Just two old friends looking back at how they met, biking while bonding, and how much wildlife Drew’s cat drug in, literally. We also go deep on two BIG topics: 1) Brian’s philosophy on raising kids, and 2) Drew explains why the hell he watched Willy’s Wonderland twice in 48 hours. It’ll be a hoot!

Time to talk about the lost art of video rental with the writer and director of The Last Blockbuster. Taylor Morden and Zeke Kamm join VCRWORLD to reminisce about the sights, the smells, and the staff picks at the video stores we all grew up on. Find out how the last Blockbuster on planet Earth keeps the lights on and what we think the future holds for browsing shelves of movies together in person. Note: Please return this podcast within 48 hours of listening to avoid late fees.