Tv Ate My Dinner

James Bond, Jason Bourne, Jack Bauer... The boys look at the best of the JB's and offer their survival tips to anyone looking at joining the spy game (on either side).  Do's and don'ts we picked up watching 24's CTU and Her Majesty's Secret Service, and some basic budget suggestions for gadget designers and supervillains who are probably just overthinking their jobs.  Plus a little zombie talk about George Romero's Diary of the Dead and the Day of the Dead remake.

Is Indiana Jones back, or are George Lucas and Steven Spielberg just dressing Harrison Ford up to try and re-capture their glory days?  We seem to have made up our minds on this one, but you give this episode a listen and decide for yourself.

Highlander 2?  House 2, the Second Story?  Any horror sequel ever made?  Which ones do you think should have never seen the screen?  Should there have been Back to the Future Sequels?  Or a Matrix trilogy?  If Aliens broke the mold, shouldn't they have stopped there?  And what about Star Wars and Indiana Jones?  Is it cinematic blasphemy to re-visit the only perfect movies ever made?  These are the things we think about, world.  We ask the tough questions.

In this over-sized long-awaited Season Premiere, the boys resolve all issues left unanswered in last season's cliffhanger finale.  What were the best movies of the nineties?  Why are they remaking Evid Dead?  Is Nathan Fillion the new Bruce Campbell or the new Harrison Ford?  If Indiana Jones can come out of retirement to save the world with crystal skulls, then shouldn't Ash come out of retirement to settle the Alien Predator conflict?  And what impact did the Matrix and the new Star Wars movies have on the nineties?  And if they can make a TV show about the clone wars, why not one about they early adventures of Han Solo and Lando Calrissian?  And we also talk about EPCOT Center for a few minutes.  I'm not sure why.

The Crow, Flatliners, Jurassic Park, Diggstown, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Fisher King, Nightbreed, Hal Hartley's Trust, The Usual Suspects, The Prophecy... What do all these movies possibly have to do with each other?  They were made in the nineties, my friends.  The age of the overcoat and the flannel shirt.

Were there ever any good movies made from video games?  Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Mario Brothers, Doom, Dungeon Siege, Double Dragon, Alone in the Dark, Bloodrayne, Silent Hill, Resident Evil... hmm, guess not.  Do Tron and the Last Starfighter count?

What are the great cartoons of your childhood?  Did you watch Dungeons & Dragons or Super Friends (or the Super Powers show)?  Remember Hanna Barbera classics like Thundarr the Barbarian and the Herculoids before Adult Swim caught hold of them?  Of were you a robot man?  Did you follow Voltron and the Mighty Orbots?  Were you a Transformers man or did you favor the Gobots instead?  Remember the Batman Animated Series and the awesomeness of the Tick?  Everyone watched He-Man and GI Joe, but do you remember Plastic Man and the original Space Ghost?  Remember the Real Ghostbusters and the original Ghostbusters (with the gorilla in it)?  How about Galaxy High, Teen Wolf and Turbo Teen?  The boys talk about these and all the toys that went with them (whatever happened to the Shogun Warriors anyway?), and somewhere in this still have time to discuss cinematic gems like Star Crash and Space Mutiny (the one that used the special FX from the original Battlestar Galactica TV show); we even talk about the Captain Am

In a world where anyone with internet access could get their own show, three friends stood together to make their dream of talking about great movie trailers come true.  But they're about to find out that there's more to trailers than Star Wars:  The Phantom Menace and Don LaFontaine voice-overs... and Darkman, Necessary Roughness, The Strangers, Star Trek VI, Superman Returns, and Patriot Games... and with a little luck, a little love, and lot of hope, they might just figure out what GI Joe and that Hey There Dililah have got to do with the rise of the modern day trailer.  And is Mad Max back from the dead?  Seriously, if that Doomsday movie isn't a throwback to the Road Warrior then... Oh well.  Just listen to the show.  Your life might just depend on it!

Time Travel!  The boys discuss time-bending classics like Quantum Leap and Back to the Future, the temporal antics of the many Star Trek incarnations, and the many faces of Doctor Who.  What are the real life applications of time travel and alternate realities?  Did Napolean Dynamite get it right when it comes to strapping yourself to a car battery and looking for a vortex?  And what does Predator 2 have to do with any of this?  Somewhere in all this there is also time for a little discussion of the new Knight Rider movie.

Is Superbad super bad for our economy?  Brooks and Sean ask this and other equally pointless questions, probing into the conventions of teen movies like the Stoned Age, American Pie and Juno, but also wondering why grown men collect action figures, how the Beanie Babies phenomenon got started, and how all this affects our ever-expanding consumer economy.  Somewhere along the line we also touch on why people are always saying Sean looks like Kevin Smith and the impact this has had on his opinion of Smith's movies.

What is junxploitation?  Well, you know all these movies (Pulp Fiction, Planet Terror, Sin City, RoboCop, Black Sheep, Hostel 2, etc.) about guys getting attacked in their man-business?  Well, the boys begrudgingly decide to delve into this disturbing cinematic trend by analyzing the long strange history of wang in film.  But they also take the time to exalt the awesome career of Karate Kid baddie Thomas Ian Griffith and discuss the virtues of the Star Trek unitard.  All in all, a weird and wild ride that might not be appropriate for office listening.

Want to survive the scenarios you'd face in movies like Cloverfield?  Would you have what it takes to sidestep Godzilla or lay low while King Kong is ravaging the city?  From hopping biting monster spawn to ray gun powered giant robots, the boys are there with the survival tips you need to make it through the night.

Who is the REAL Leroy Mercer?  Where can you get a good copy of Black Devil Doll from Hell?  When is The Dolemite Explosion coming to your town?  Just a few of the questions you can try to answer if you take up the TVAMD scavenger hunt!  If Battlestar Galactica 1980 can make it to DVD, why not Heat Vision & Jack?  And have you ever heard of Edmund Cooper's visionary scifi masterpiece, Slaves of Heaven?  Plus a little (more) discussion of the new Terminator TV show.  Is Summer Glau enough to save it?

Of all the underground art forms being exalted in the popular culture, comic books are among the least respected despite their influence on every other commercial art forms embraced by the mainstream.  If Spider-man and X-men top box office records alongside Batman and Superman while Dark Knight director Frank Miller dazzles us with big screen adaptations like Sin City and 300, why can't people accept the importance of Alan Moore classics like Watchmen and Swamp Thing?  And what about the great underground comics like American Splendor, Box Office Poison and the Devil's Panties?

Knight Rider returns and the boys are ready!  In this tribute to the Hof and his awesome computer car, the guys talk about the original KR and its follow-up incarnations.  Remember Knight Rider 2000?  How about Knight Rider 2010?  Did anybody watch Team Knight Rider?  Will the new car measure up?  And what will the future hold?  Knight Rider 3050, maybe?

Who are the unsung talents languishing in relative obscurity while millionaire entertainers are going on strike?  The boys talk about web sensations like Odd Todd and Homestarrunner.com (featuring Strongbad, Trogdor and Teen Girl Squad).  Are there internet treasures waiting to be tapped by mainstream media?  And what will it take for Hollywood to see that?

WRITER'S STRIKE!  The boys talk about the repercussions of the ongoing writer's strike and the impact it could have on quality television when the only shows left on the air are American Idol and I Love New York.  Also a bit of talk on Die Hard and its brutal body count of slain security guards.  As always, a dead-on laser focus discussion of relevant entertainment issues.

What are the movies that define a generation?  What movies defined yours?  The boys discuss this and how John Wayne and Star Wars represent the time in which they were made.  How does the Atari generation compare to the Halo generation?  What's the Breakfast Club for the modern age?  Listen and find out!

TVAMD:  The Jump the Shark Edition!  The boys discuss shows like Happy Days and their famous Jump the Shark moments.  At what point does a TV show overshoot its premise, lose credibility with its audience or lose its mind altogether?

The boys jabber about movies gone wrong, the wisdom of the continued Terminator franchise, and some stuff they've seen that they actually liked.  Also, weird adventures in movie theaters... Bonus Feature:  Learn how you can play the Kicking & Screaming game with your friends!  Are you a Max or a Chet?