In Episode Zero we go through our lists and explain the very simple premise and gimmick in a way that hopefully the average listener will understand, before randomly selecting our first film we will watch and discuss.
Our first film up for discussion is from Gee's list - the hit 80s comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles. It's Thanksgiving and Steve Martin and John Candy are on a road trip from hell. Was it hell to watch or comedy heaven?
Another from Gee's selection (what were the odds of that happening??? One in three) - Heat. Heists, capers, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, cops vs robbers - are they really so different? A crime thrill ride or car crash viewing?
Fate (with a little help) has determined that we watched Bouphe's pick - Frankenhooker. This gory 1990 horror comedy from Frank Henenlotter is about bringing a dead fiancée back to life using body parts from 'ladies of the night'.
Our first Neil Breen Episode - Bouphe's pick was the legendary auteur's film Twisted Pair. Was it an incomprehensible mess of a story or just too smart for the average small-brained mortal viewer to grasp?
Simon finally gets a film of his picked - Galaxina. A sci-fi masterpiece starring Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten. It's a comedy that parodies such classics as 2001, Alien, Stars Wars and Trek. - but what did our hosts make of it?
Another Simon pick - The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, what a mouthful. Simon could never finish this film on prior viewings, that's not a good sign.
A Gee's musical pick, Huge Jackedman stars as a fictionised version of the infamous PT Barnum. Will this film Rewrite the Stars or is it Never Enough? Those are two of the songs in the film.
A Simon pick. Dead Again, starring (at the time) married couple Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. Past lives. Murder. Mystery. Suspense. Scissors. So many scissors. Will this give us Vertigo or make us Dial M for Murder?
One of Gee's picks, Tropic Thunder, an action movie where everything goes horribly wrong, where the lines between reality and fiction blur, where Robert Downey Jr dons blackface and yet isn't racist?
Gee won again. The harrowing tale of a man wronged by society, a Vietnam vet with PTSD dealing with conflict inside his mind and out in the forests of the Pacific NW. Is it Rambo or Ram-boo? (As in booing with displeasure at something)
Bouphe finally gets a pick. This film is very important to her and sharing this experience means a lot. A 38-year old man is still in highschool; he sings songs, blows up a chemistry lab, murders fish and falls in love with a younger girl.