Nerd Lunch

This is the final rerun of Tangential Christmas Movie discussions from the old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast and it seems appropriate to close with the poster child for these kind of movies. People love to argue about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie, so we wouldn’t dream of spoiling where Jeeg and Michael fall on that topic.

Today we’re wrapping up Week 2 rerunning discussions of Tangential Christmas movies from the Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast. We’re actually not quite done yet, because there’s one more on Monday and it’s a doozy. But first, Jeeg and Michael talk about the Denis Leary vehicle, The Ref, from 1994.  And if you want to hear even more on The Ref on this very feed, check the old Nerd Lunch Extra Helping episode from December 2012 where Jeeg talks about it with Carlin Trammel.

Long before there was ever such a movie as Die Hard, the idea of Tangential Christmas movies was introduced by It’s a Wonderful Life. It gets played at Christmastime and has an important Christmas scene, but is it a Christmas movie? In this rerun from Michael's old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast, he and Carlin Trammel talk about that very question.

We’re still doing reruns about Tangential Christmas movies from the old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast and on this episode Michael talks with Lizzie Twachtman about a Bing Crosby classic. With Fred Astaire and Marjorie Reynolds, it’s 1942’s Holiday Inn.

Continuing our reruns about Tangential Christmas movies from Michael's old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast, this episode welcomes back Siskoid to talk about a movie that he mentioned in our discussion of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. From 1940 and starring the legendary team of Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, it’s Remember the Night.

Kicking off our second week of reruns about Tangential Christmas movies from the old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast with a discussion Michael had with our friend Kay about the 1934 classic whodunnit, The Thin Man starring William Powell and Myrna Loy.

Wrapping up this first week of reruns about Tangential Christmas movies from the old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast, Siskoid introduces Michael to an excellent French film, Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, starring Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo. If you’ve never seen it, we highly recommend it, but you don’t need to have seen it to enjoy the discussion.

In our next Sleigh Bell Cinema rerun, Michael talks to Shawn Robare about Savage Steve Holland's Better Off Dead... (starring John Cusack, Diane Franklin, and Curtis Armstrong) and how much it actually has to do with Christmas.

In another rerun from the former Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast, Michael talks with Nerd Lunch's Jeeg about the Joe Dante almost-Christmas classic, Gremlins.

This Christmas season is all about Tangential Christmas Movies on After Lunch. After our discussion of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang last episode, we're going to spend the next couple of weeks re-running discussions of other Tangential Christmas Movies from Michael's old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast. Starting with this one about Shazam! with Michael's son, David May.

Officially kicking off the Christmas season on After Lunch, Michael and Rob welcome back Jacob Bean-Watson (The Movie Connection podcast) to discuss the tangential Christmas movie, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Directed by Shane Black and starring Robert Downey Jr, Val Kilmer, and Michelle Monaghan.

Michael, Rob, and Pax finish this month's lounge discussion with what they've been watching and thinking about, including She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Mike Flanagan movies, Black Adam, The Sound of 007, Clerks 3 and the View Askewniverse, elderly action heroes, Jack Ryan, the recent Halloween trilogy, in-universe canons, and Twitter.

Michael, Rob, and Pax gather in the After Lunch After Dinner Lounge to talk about what they've been listening to and reading this month, including Agatha Christie, early Marvel comics, and James Tynion IV.

Christmas is a time for ghost stories. And though it may not be Christmas season for everyone yet, it's never too early for a haunted tale. Michael and Rob kick off what they hope is a new After Lunch tradition of November ghost stories by talking about Doctor Sleep, in which one of their favorite film directors adapts a book by one of their favorite authors.

Michael and Rob welcome back Chris Bailey (aka Charlton Hero) to the show to match up the greatest literary villains of all time in an ultimate showdown to determine the absolute best. Also featuring picks from Evan Hanson, who sadly couldn't join us for the recording. 

Michael debriefs Rob about his recent trip to Disneyland in (extremely) sunny California. Rob talks about what he liked and what he didn't, Michael adds some thoughts from his own trip there a few years ago, and they both compare it with Florida's Walt Disney World, which they're much more familiar with.

Happy Halloween! To celebrate, Michael and Rob welcome Bloody Popcorn's Joanna back to the show along with everyone's old buddy, old pal Jeeg to create the ultimate team-up of horror characters. Each panelist nominates two members of the team as well as a bunch of honorable mentions to flesh out the cast and come up with a story worthy of them all. And possibly even tie in with the Avengers of Science Fiction, you never know.

Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax gather in the lounge to talk about what they've been watching and thinking about, including mummy movies, zombie movies, what monsters they'd want to fight and what curses they'd prefer to have, and the scariest topic of all: cash.

Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax gather in the lounge to talk about what they've been listening to and reading, including Elvis, harpsichord music, Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula, and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Michael, Rob, and Evan confront vampires and theology in writer-director Mike Flanagan's 2021 mini-series, Midnight Mass. They talk about how the show handles vampire lore, its Stephen King influences, and the characters it creates, but mostly how it discusses big themes like faith, knowledge, addiction, sacrifice, and forgiveness.