THE BIG 4-0

Another flaccid week at the 1983 box office, so this week THE BIG 4-0 looks back at two 1990's Ice-T classics, RICOCHET and SURVIVING THE GAME. Peter and Ron also discuss the career of Ice-T and their rap influences. Please remember to rate, like, subscribe, and tweet @finallevel - We genuinely love that guy! We'll be back next week celebrating the BIG 4-0's of THE BIG CHILL and PIECES...

In maybe our most 1983 episode yet, we celebrate the BIG 4-0's of two mostly forgotten trash-action flicks we instantly fell in love with: The bonkers this-is-what-you-get-for-making-Conan-a-hit, sword and sorcery adventure DEATHSTALKER; and the Golan-Globus Hey-it's-the-'80s-and-Ninjas-are-hot?-Well-here's-our-Cannon-Films-take-on-that-shit baller REVENGE OF THE NINJA!! As always,...

It's August 26th, 1983, and unfortunately there just wasn't much at the box office celebrating its BIG 4-0 this weekend. So, Peter and Ron take the opportunity to look back at two of their favorite Buddy action flicks of all-time: Clint Eastwood, Charlie Sheen, and Raul Julia in THE ROOKIE, and Bruce Willis and Damon Waynes in THE LAST BOY SCOUT. We feel these are seminal entries in the ge...

August 19th is the BIG 4-0 of Rodney Dangerfield's EASY MONEY, so this week THE BIG 4-0 becomes DANGERFEST as we also look at his 1980 classic CADDYSHACK, which Peter had never seen before. Come for our awful Rodney/Pesci impersonations, stay for Ron's terrible singing, and you may want to leave for *someone's* shit take on a perfect film - or just because (as sometimes - ok, often - h...

It's August 5th 2023, so we're celebrating the BIG 4-0 of Tom Cruise's breakthrough role in RISKY BUSINESS (feel free to fast-forward through Ron's Tom Cruise rant), as well as an early happy birthday to Stephen King's rabid dog CUJO, who celebrates his BIG 4-0 next week, August 12. Please remember to rate, like, comment and subscribe, and we'll be back in a couple weeks wi...

We're going from our shortest episode ever last week to our longest episode ever this week celebrating the BIG 4-0's of two '80s staples, the Chevy Chase franchise starter NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION and the Phobe Cates teen sex comedy (yep, another one in 1983!) PRIVATE SCHOOL. This episode somehow makes room for a lengthy Bruno Mars discussion, and we sing more than we have in an...

July 22nd we celebrate THE BIG 4-0's of two of 1983's biggest hits: JAWS 3-D and MR. MOM. Find out how we feel about the much-maligned shark sequel and if our fond memories of Michael Keaton's breakthrough star vehicle have changed since we were kids. As always, please rate, like, and subscribe; and we'll be back next time to wish a Happy BIG 4-0 to NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION...

This week on THE BIG 4-0, JULY 1st 1983 yielded a dearth of quality films, so Ron and Peter use the gap as an excuse to look back at the 1997 Keanu Reeves/Al Pacino thriller THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE and the 1993 Tony Scott/Quentin Tarantino/all-star cast modern classic TRUE ROMANCE. How do we think these two films have aged over the last 30 or so years? Tune in to find out! And please remember to...

It's June 24, 2023. THE TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE and PORKY'S II were released on this day, 40 years ago. So, you know what that means... We're putting on our party hats and entering another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wonderous land of imagination and film criticism. Next stop: THE BIG 4-0.

It's June 10, 2023, which means its June 10, 1983, here on THE BIG 4-0. This week we're grilling out and cracking a few beers in honor of TRADING PLACES and OCTOPUSSY's BIG 4-0's; and we even get a little chat in about the 1986 Sly Stallone junk-classic COBRA. Come for our deep thoughts on how TRADING PLACES explores race relations and how it's still relevant today but stay for...

It's June 3rd, 2023, which means we're wishing a Happy BIG 4-0 to Steve Martin in the under-sung comedy classic THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS and Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy in the ridiculous, but still-mostly-a-good-time Cold War-paranoia family thriller WARGAMES; both of which opened in theaters today in 1983! We also contemplate a BIG 4-0 after-hours discussion show spin-off (feel free...

Today, May 25th, is RETURN OF THE JEDI's BIG 4-0! Opening this week in 1983, the third STAR WARS movie went on to become the highest-grossing movie of the year. The same weekend, Linda Blair tried her hand at the women-in-cages genre with CHAINED HEAT. Find out how one of us who never much cared for STAR WARS feels about JEDI 40 years later, and how we think a movie like CHAINED HEAT fairs out...

This week on THE BIG 4-0 we're wishing a happy 40th to the bizzarro Richard Geere romantic drama BREATHLESS and the bizzarro Roy Scheider helicopter cop actioner BLUE THUNDER. Hear how BREATHLESS links to Quentin Tarantino and how BLUE THUNDER surprised us by being a completely different movie than we expected. As usual, by the end we're kinda flying by the seat of our pants (read: a *tad*...

This week THE HUNGER, Tony Scott's debut film about erotic vampire types starring a young Susan Sarandon, and VALLEY GIRL about (semi)erotic valley girls staring a young Nic Cage, celebrate their BIG 4-0's. Listen to see how we felt about these, er, "classics", 40 years later; and please remember to subscribe, like, rate, tell your friends, shout from the mountain tops, etc. Next...

This week on THE BIG 4-0 we're taking a look at two 1983 classics; one a bonafide (THE EVIL DEAD), one a surprise (LONE WOLF McQUADE), both awesome! And we welcome our second guest to the podcast; our good buddy Romero, who absolutely kills it and gives us our longest episode yet. Recording this one was a blast! Unfortunately, Romero's audio dropped out, unbeknownst to any of us at the tim...

This week we're doing a theme episode. That theme: Drunken, washed-up, underestimated, expendable cops getting a witness from one destination to another while under siege by crooked cops in their own force. Clint Eastwood has to get Sandra Locke from Las Vegas to a Phoenix courthouse past THE GAUNTLET of the entire Phoenix PD, and Bruce Willis has to get Mos Def through 16 BLOCKS in NYC to tes...

THIS WEEK we wish a happy BIG 4-0 to Sean Penn in BAD BOYS and the all-star, Tiger Beat-Heartthrob cast of THE OUTSIDERS. Ron gets on his soap box about the prison system and Peter reveals his love for Matt Dylan and crying during movies... So, yeah, don't forget to rate and subscribe! In two weeks, we'll be back with a bonus, theme episode on THE GAUNTLET (1977) and 16 BLOCKS (2006), and...

This week Peter joins us from somewhere in the fourth dimension...  Just kidding; he has a weird echo effect on his mic that wasn't present during recording, and we could not fix in editing despite calling in tech-support for help (hence the delay in getting this episode out).  BUT because we're talking about the Charles Bronson/Golan-Globus March of 1983 banger 10 TO MIDNIGHT, as well a...

This week on THE BIG 4-0 we talk THE STING II and THE KING OF COMEDY, both released this week, 40 years ago. We're trying out a new hosting service so please bear with any audio issues... we'll get there.  Please remember to rate, like, subscribe, etc.  Next time we'll be back with 10 TO MIDNIGHT and LAST MAN STANDING (1996 - yeah, yeah; not 40 years old, but someone here has never seen...

Here's another BONUS EPISODE recorded on Halloween of 2022, before we started posting shows.  We're way more muted and professional on this one (the probable reason why is revealed towards the end of the episode) looking at the surprising box office smash and cultural phenomenon, TOOTSIE; and the surprising box office failure and inability to capture the cultural zeitgeist (especially looking...

This week we wish a happy BIG 4-0 to David Cronenberg's February 1983 mindfuck, VIDEODROME, as we dig deep into it('s stomach) and welcome our first guest, our movie-buff buddy Casey, to help us unpack it all. As always please like, rate, subscribe, review, etc...  We'll post a bonus episode next week and return the following week with THE KING OF COMEDY.   

Happy Weekend, Everybody! To celebrate the beginning of a couple days of movie watching and throwing a few back, here's another one of our earlier episodes we recorded while we were still getting the hang of this whole podcasting thing.  I relentlessly step on poor Peter, and it's another one where I get, shall we say, looser as the episode goes along; but since we discussed THE HOUSE ON SORO...

And we were doing so well up to this point... This week we spiral completely out of control reviewing THE HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW, THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY, and once again also dipping our feet into the '90s with the Sylvester Stallone/Sharon Stone/James Woods/Eric Roberts/Rod Steiger "bomb", THE SPECIALIST.  We had a "blast" doing this episode, but things got so goofy we had to chop out...

We recorded this one in September 2022 while we were still figuring out how to do this whole podcast thing (apologies for the sound quality!); but since we discussed JOYSTICKS on this past week's episode, and we couldn't review that film without touching on its obvious inspiration - the surprise mega-hit from the previous year, PORKY'S - we decided this was as good a time as any to unleash one of...

Happy New Year to all you 40 HEADS out there!!!  It is now 2023, which means it's 1983 here on THE BIG 4-0.  We ring in the new year with the college video game/sex romp, JOYSTICKS.  We also discover that Peter has never seen the 1995 Sylvester Stallone/Antonio Bandaras/Richard Donner/Joel Silver hidden gem, ASSASSINS; so, we discuss this underrated thriller as well.  Please re...