Month: November 2020

088 – The Lawnmower Man

Tim holds forth excitedly about “the most accurate depiction of virtual reality as a profound concept that is silly in its execution.” Based on the Stephen King lawsuit!

Curious about the student film based on the actual King short story? 

GenXers may remember Nintendo’s failed “virtual reality” console, the Virtual Boy. If you’re unfamiliar and were wondering what the heck we were talking about, you can’t go wrong with the Angry Video Game Nerd’s very funny and profane video on the topic.

“The Sixth Finger” is an Outer Limits episode that appears to share some plot inspiration with Lawnmower Man.

Here’s that Tom the Dancing Bug comic Tim didn’t get a chance to summarize (it parodies “Flowers for Algernon”).

Peter Gabriel’s “Kiss That Frog,” video directed by Brett Leonard

087 – Serial

Screenwriter Josh Olson brings us a movie that he swears is actually funny and good! It’s the little-seen Serial from 1980! Featuring Martin Mull, Tuesday Weld, violent gay bikers, Sally Kellerman’s boobs, casual homophobia, Tommy Smothers in a headband, hot tubs, est probably, psychologically disturbed children whose acting out is played for laughs, etc.

Hear the entire episode for a pledge of only $2/month and get access to all our other bonus content!

For the curious, here is the full Kevin Thomas review of Serial from 1980 that we mentioned on the episode:

Kevin Thomas shreds Serial

You can also hear more of Josh with Dave Anthony on The West Wing Thing, or with Joe Dante on The Movies That Made Me!

For more Josh, check out our episode on Beyond the Valley of the Dolls!

086 – Wild Side

Jen and Tim discuss Donald Cammell’s posthumous thriller, Wild Side from 1995.

Hear the entire episode for a pledge of only $2/month and get access to all our other bonus content!

Wild Side went straight to video. Sadly, director Cammell committed suicide in 1996. However, while some have connected his death to the failure of his last project, we found that the story wasn’t quite so pat.

We were indebted to the only definitive biography on the man and his work. Get a copy of Donald Cammell: A Life on the Wild Side by Rebecca Umland on Alibris.

For another frank flick from the 90s, try our episode on David Cronenberg’s Crash!