Watch This With Rick Ramos

Neo-Nazi Family Drama: Tony Kaye's American History X Some films simply don't age well. With the passing years the problems of a narrative can become glaring. Such is the case with Tony Kaye's  American History X   (1998). A difficult subject that would have been better served with a revised script and a stronger director,  American History X  suffers from a forced and simplistic narrative. Good p...

A Time for Martyrs: Spike Lee's Malcolm X  Last Week Spike Lee, Ernest Dickerson, and Denzel Washington started Mr. Chavez & Myself on an artistic, political, and introspective j ourney. We originally intended to discuss this masterpiece in one episode, however art, life, and the conversation often dictate a different outcome. Last week was the "making" of  Malcolm X , this week WatchThis W/RickRa...

By Any Means Necessary: Spike Lee & The Making of Malcolm X  Cinema can change attitudes, englighten ignorance, strengthen understanding and faith. In 1992 director Spike Lee would partner with star Denzel Washington and long-time cinematographer (and NYU schoolmate) Ernest Dickerson to bring to the big screen the life of one of the most important firgures of the 20th Century, Malcolm Little to be...

Chaos, Frame by Frame: Alex Garland's Civil War We're on top of it. The podcast continues to look into the  possible disintegration of this country. We've discussed dystopias, comical and deadly serious looks at atomic annhilation, immigration abuse, fascism, paranoia, and now the full-on dissolution of the country. Last year Alex Garland directed  Civil War a well-acted, interesting look at the f...

Total Massacre - Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins   Not a whole lot is better this week, so Mr. Chavez & I find ourselves digging deeper into an examination, coping, and understanding of Fascism, Cruelty, and Troubling Political Rule with this week's film, Takashi Miike's 2010  13 Assassins . Miike's vision is typically brutal, violent, and magnificent.  13 Assassins exceeds the critical constraints o...

Operation Wetback: Richard "Cheech" Marin's Born in East L.A.  Somethings refuse to change and what was true three and a half decades ago continues to be true today. With a nation struggling under the hand of an adminstration refusing to look at human beings as anything more than numbers, "Cheech" Marin's  Born in East L.A. seems even more relevant today than it did when it premiered in the summer...

Mutual Doomsday: Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove /Sidney Lumet's Fail Safe   Recording a mere two days before Donald Trump fired on Iran, Mr. Chavez & I sit down to discuss nuclear war and the incredible self-destructiveness of humankind. In 1963 Stanley Kubrick would direct one of his earliest masterpieces. With a ridiculous and hilarious George C. Scott, frighteningly honest Sterling Hayden, a...

Kill Along to Get Along: Bernardo Bertolucci's  The Conformist Does Life Imitate Art or Does Art Predict and Comment on Life?  Regardless of Bernardo Bertolucci's reputation - admitted questionable actions in the realization of art - the Italian filmmaker is regarded as one of the great Auteurs of Cinema. Films from  1900   (1976) thru the Oscar-winning  The Last Emperor (1987), and the controvers...

Citizen Accused: Orson Welle's Film of Franz Kafka's The Trial Few authors can lay claim to creating a genre, however it could be argued that Franz Kafka did just that with stories like  The Metamorphosis , In the Penal Colony , and this week's cinematic adaptation, The Trial. The term  Kafkaesque , instantly builds a sense of excitement, confusion, and paranoia in readers - many whom are only fam...

Forest vs Iron Town: Hayao Miyazaki's  Princess Mononoke This week Mr. Chavez & I continue our exploration of Japanese anime with a look at 1997s beautiful and breathtaking  Princess Mononoke .  Mr. Chavez & I are both very new to the world of anime . . . these episodes are our ntroduction to this magnificent world. Featuring story elements of traditional folk tales, the hero's journey, and enviro...

High School Murder Tournament - Kinji Fukasuku's Battle Royale  This week Mr. Chavez & I look back to the beginning of the new millennium and an examination of the paranoia, violence, and uncertainty societies all over the world were facing. In 2000 Japanese director Kinji Fukasuku would bring to the screen one of the most controversial, thought-provoking, and challenging films of the new century....

Franchises, Sex Tapes, & The Future of Film On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Mr. Chavez & I dive back into the archives to remember this 10 year journey. A John Turturro working-class musical, a Sean Penn/Gary Oldman/Ed Harris Hell's Kitchen crime drama, Defining Decades, and a Salute to Martin Scorsese . . . This week we look back to episodes #411-416 in this continuing Journey of...

Superficial Sci-Fi: Rupert Sanders' Ghost in the Shell On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I dive into Rupert Sanders' 2017 live-action re-imagining of Mamoru Oshii's 1995 Anime-Classic, Ghost in the Shell .  There are so many things that can go wrong with an adaptation and Sanders manages to check many of those boxes. From casting Scarlett Johansson  in the lead role throug...

Cyborg Awakening: Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell From time to time this podcast allows Mr. Chavez & Myself the opportunity to explore new genre's. With the encouragement and recommendations of WatchThis listeners, we have had the opportunity to engage in new experiences a number of times. Some of these new viewings have been from The World of Japanese Anime (Thank You, Mr. Burroughs!). This wee...

Synthetic Sexuality: Alex Garland's Ex Machina AI continues to hold our fascination. This week Mr. Chavez & I dive into Alex Garland's examination of Artificial Intelligence with 2014s  Ex Machina . Set, as Garland describes, "Ten minutes from now,"  Ex Machina  is a fascinating film with exceptional performances from Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, and Alicia Vikander. Few films are able to captur...

Bad Bitch, Cyborg, & Liquid Metal: James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgement Day Go to last week's introduction to James Cameron's  The Terminator . . . fast-forward seven years. Sarah Connor is no longer a "damsel in distress". James Cameron has worked his Sigourney Weaver magical transformation on another heroine, creating one of the great female action stars in all of cinema. Once again, Sarah Co...

Skynet AI 2029: James Cameron's The Terminator  If you grew up in the 1980s, you were living in a decade that would be controlled by raunchy teen sex comedies ( Porky's ,  My Tutor ,  Private Lessons ), John Hughes ( The Breakfast Club ,  16 Candles ,  Ferris Bueller's Day Off ), and the emergence of straight to video. However there was one genre that stood above all others and would forever alter...

Gonzo Hellscape: Terry Gilliam's  Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas In 1998 Director Terry Gilliam - a director whose cinematic career has been fraught with difficulty on the level of Job ( see 2002s  Lost in La Mancha ) was finally successful in bringing to the screen Hunter S. Thompson's 1971 Classic roman á clef  of excess, paranoia, idealism, and disappointment, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas: A Sava...

This week we continue digging through the archives to remember the past ten years of WatchThis W/RickRamos. (Episodes #395 - #410) Great Episodes . . . Great Discussions.  We dive into Mr. Chavez's Favorite Cinematic Decade - The 1990s, as well as looks at Horror both Domestic and International: Dante/Carpenter/Craven & Cronenberg/Kobayashi/Na Hong-jin/Jodorowsky, Oliver Stone, Defining the 80s, b...

Godzilla, the 60s, Hopes, & Monsters  A return to 10 years of WatchThis W/RickRamos (Episodes #384 - 394) - This week we return to the vault to look at one of the greatest movie monsters of all time . . . Toho's Godzilla . We look back on the tumultuous 1960s and the changing face of Cinema, Monsters, and Hopes for the Future. Take a listen and let us know what you think. We can be reached at gond...

Cynicism, Rogan, & What Would Carlin Say? - Remembering 500 Episodes We come back to this celebration as we look through the archives and reminisce and what these episodes have meant to us. Take a listen as we remember the good times, arguments, and great cultural gifts that Pop Culture, Music, Television, and - of course - Cinema have gifted us. It's a fun conversation . . . We hope you enjoy it....

Carry the Fire, Get to the Coast: John Hillcoat's The Road  Bleak & Dark, Hopeless & Beautiful . . . On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Mr. Chavez & I sit down to discuss one of the most brutal and powerful films to emerge from the studio system in decades. In 2009 Director John Hillcoat adapted Cormac McCarthy's 2006 novel  The Road . Featuring a career best Viggo Mortensen as "Man"...

Dumbing Down the Future - Mike Judge's  Idiocracy This is an especially fun one! This week Mr. Chavez & I take a trip into a very funny, very frightening, and very likely future. In 2006 20th Century Fox released Mike Judge's  Idiocracy  in a manner that almost guaranteed that no one would ever see it.  . . . but the film would survive. Judge's bleak and pessiimistic vision of the future - the yea...

Dreams with Gilliam, The Rolling Stones Through the Years,  The Silent Voice, The Magic of Tarkovsky, Zappa, A Trio of Very Different Noir On this week's episode Mr. Chavez & I return to reminiscing on 500 shows. We begin with the beauty and magic of Terry Gilliam with  The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , through a look at Rock 'N Roll and The Rolling Stones, A beginning series of movies that  de...

Cinematic Karma - Stanley Kubrick's                     A Clockwork Orange  WatchThis fan and BuyMeACoffee contributor, Alan Lamberg, suggests this week's title, Stanley Kubrick's 1971 controversial (masterpiece - ?), A Clockwork Orange. In the late 60s and early 70s the cinematic landscape was changing and evolving into a very different creature. Arthur Penn's  Bonnie & Clyde and Sam Peckinpah's...