1-Week Rental | Behind the Scenes Film Analysis

Laci and Matt end their hiatus and return to the podcast by first explaining their family news that partially explains the long absence. Then, they go into all three of Pixar's  Cars  movies in excruciating detail. Fiery arguments ensue. For example: Both agree that Doc Hudson (Paul Newman) is a jerk, but they disagree about why. Matt defends the much-maligned  Cars 2 and the character of Mater (L...

TGIF, right? Working hard or hardly working? On an all-new episode of the podcast, in an episode Matt calls "Mystic Stirrer" and Laci calls "The Tale of Two Bacons," the Splendid Spouses discuss  Stir Of Echoes , the movie from 1999 about a creepy kid who sees ghosts that isn't  The Sixth Sense . Then, it's more hardscrabble workin' folk in Clint Eastwood's  Mystic River (2003).    Time stamps: Ma...

We may all go a little mad sometimes, but one thing that won't drive you PSYCHO is listening to this podcast about Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 shock-tastic thrills-a-minute slasher joint. Happy Halloween.    Time stamps: Psycho : 12:00 Best horror movie decades: 36:20   Do you want us to talk about YOUR movie? Leave a review of our podcast on iTunes, and in your review give us the name of your load-be...

In an extra-scary episode of the show, Laci "R.I.P." Roth and Matt CHOKES talk about the classic Disney Halloween film  Hocus Pocus  (1993). But wait... classic? This pile of garbage?    Also, hear our abbreviated thoughts on  What's Eating Gilbert Grape  in lieu of an actual episode on the film, and then we review Netflix's  The Haunting of Hill House .    Time stamps: Hocus Pocus : 01:29 What's...

When Matt was in college, he took a film class where the professor showed Danny DeVito's  The War Of The Roses  (1989), a movie in which an affluent couple go through a bitter divorce. At the end of the movie the professor asked who in the class sided with Michael Douglas, and who sided with Kathleen Turner. The divide split evenly on gender lines—the women sided with Turner, the men with Douglas....

It's a Steven Spielberg double-header as Laci and Matt pit their cherished, beloved load-bearing beams against one another.  First up:  Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) whose title, we all know, refers to a physical interaction with an alien. We all know this.  Then it's  The Color Purple  (1985), whose title, as we all know, refers to naturally occurring purple. We all know this.  Time s...

Get shibby with us as we discuss  Dude, Where's My Car? (2000) and all its fascinating and devastating implications. What can the continuum transponder tell us about the effects of quantitative easing? How could Jesse and Chester have used Bayesian probability theory to determine where to first look for their car? And wouldn't this movie be better if these two nice fellas were just boyfriends the...

Synecdoche, New York is a life-affirming romp about how gosh-darn fun it is to make gorgeous works of art! (Maybe we misread it.) Topics covered include mourning Philip Seymour Hoffman, traveling for work, how buying a house is basically buying a burning building that will smell, whether a nice person can be a great artist, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , and constructing your own reality...

After a month away, Load Bearing Beams returns to talk 'hood... parenthood, that is! Ron Howard's 1989 feature warmed audiences' hearts everywhere, but how does it hold up today? Then Laci and Matt give real talk about child rearing, pregnancy, and the perpetual exhaustion that comes with being a parent, as well as the movies and TV shows that accurately show all of this. Finally, they discuss  Te...

Brother Of The Show Elliott Stokes hops aboard to discuss all three of Francis Ford Coppola's  Godfather  films.  Do you want us to talk about YOUR movie? Leave a review of our podcast  on iTunes , and in your review give us the name of your load-bearing beam and why it's so important to you. Website:  www.loadbearingbeams.com Twitter:  @LoadBearingPod YouTube:  LoadBearingBeams

Matt and Laci watched  Little Nicky  (2000) and  Slums Of Beverly Hills  (1998) two weeks ago and barely remember them. Still, they bravely trudge ahead and discuss their feelings on revisiting the two films after more than ten years.  PLUS: Thoughts on  Solo: A Star Wars Story , more debate about the merits of the Foo Fighters, and an examination of when phone calls became the worst. Time stamps:...

Due to a family emergency, Laci and Matt weren't able to record a new episode this week, so instead we present seventeen short clips from the podcast that are just plum terrific. They are: "John Williams Loves a Buffet" (from  Hook ) "Is Jim Carrey Funny?" (from  The Grinch ) "Shouldn't Young Doc Brown Recognize His Future Self?" (from  Back to the Future Part II ) "Farting Your Dinner" (from  Nac...

We lost most of this episode, but we salvaged a debate about whether or not the Foo Fighters are good and included a 20-minute bonus review of  Avengers: Infinity War and Matt's thoughts on the weirdness of how voice-over narration is used in the 1996 film  Matilda .   Time stamps: Foo Fighters [09:20] Avengers: Infinity War [14:55]   Do you want us to talk about YOUR movie? Leave a review of our...

Friend Of The Show Caleb Hogan joins the show live in studio to discuss his Listener Choice (because he's a Listener as well!) movie: 2006's  Nacho Libre . Jack Black plays Ignacio, a friar in rural southwestern Mexico who longs to be a luchador. But that makes this movie sound much more conventional than what it is, because, really, it's just  Napoleon Dynamite , but in Mexico instead of Idaho, a...

In an episode Laci calls "A City Of Their Own" and Matt calls "A Light Of Their Cities," the Dangerous Dyad discuss 1992's baseball picture  A League Of Their Own and 1931's alienation picture  City Lights . A League Of Their Own  starts right off with the annoying wrap-around modern story that then flashes back to the action you bought your ticket for. Why do so many movies do this? Does  League ...

In 2001,  Corky Romano rode a wave of movie vehicles led by  Saturday Night Live  alumni whose titles were the first and last names of their fictional protagonists. The movie was not a success. It derailed Chris Kattan's career. It has a 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the most poorly reviewed movie covered on the podcast.  But is it actually that bad? Could the critics have been correct?...

In an episode Laci calls, "Ace Soup" and Matt calls, "A Detective, Duck!" the Cromulent Couple once again wade into the uncertain world of comedy. Comedy is hard to discuss. You either find something funny or you don't.  Case in point:  Duck Soup (1933), an 85-year-old movie that Laci, having never before seen a Marx Brothers movie, found utterly hilarious. And case in counter-point:  Ace Ventura:...

Friday  (1995) is a slice-of-life comedy from the mid-nineties that has spawned a million quotes and memes repeated ad infinitum. It's one of those movies that's hard to appreciate afresh. But Matt had never seen it, and Laci hadn't seen it in a long time, so at a listener's behest, they watched and talk about. To make a long story short: It's really funny, and actually really deep. We recommend t...

Guys: things used to be weird. In 1996,  Beavis & Butt-Head Do America  earned $61 million at the box office. Matt loved it as a teenager, and still loves it as an adult. But it leads to perhaps the biggest divide Laci and Matt have ever had on this podcast, as she is physically repulsed by it. What exactly is going on here?  Then, in  The Pick-Up Artist (1987), a film helmed by accused serial sex...

Listener Polliwogwannabe suggested Luc Besson's 1994 classic  Léon: The Professional , a film Laci mistook for a kids movie about a cartoon mouse. Turns out she had actually seen it before, because it fits right into her mid-nineties canon of thrillers featuring antiheroes in dark clothing who like to talk about pop singers. Matt had never seen it. WHAT DID WE THINK? Only one way to find out: By r...

In an episode Laci calls "The Black Bird Interviews" and that Matt calls "Vampires Of Malta," the Peerless Pair discuss 1994's vampire/journalism film  Interview With the Vampire  and 1941's detective/raptor movie  The Maltese Falcon . Topics covered include Tom Cruise's career, Kirsten Dunst vs. Natalie Portman, the  Twilight Saga, and Humphrey Bogart's mouthpiece.  Time stamps: Interview With th...

A Listener joins us to talk about his Choice! Friend Of The Show Wade Hymel makes his triumphant return to LBB to discuss 2007's  The Bucket List , a movie about death and the meaning of life. And that's what this episode is—a mediation on mortality, self-actualization, and the strange arc of human life, from infancy to mature adult to immature elderly person. Wade is technically a listener, so th...

In an episode Laci calls "Rocky House" but that Matt calls "Rockin' At the Dollhouse," Laci and Matt discuss the feel-good movie of all time,  Rocky  (1976) and the feel-bad movie of all time,  Welcome To the Dollhouse  (1996). What follows is weirdly intense discussion about mortality, bullying, and happiness. Also: Matt's senior class trip to Disney World sucked. Time stamps: Rocky : 06:08 Welco...

In an episode Laci calls "Ever Men" but that Matt calls "X1: X-Men Ever After," the pair discuss  Ever After  (1998) and  X-Men  (2000), two movies that, to everyone's surprise, are both pure delights!  Ever After , Drew Barrymore deploys a most unconvincing British accent to play the French commoner Danielle de Barbarac who pulls off a most sinister rouse and pretends to be the Comtesse de Lancre...

Jumanji Fever is sweeping America—nay, the world—and  Load Bearing Beams  catches the fever by viewing Welcome To the Jungle 's predecessor, 1995's much more somber, pensive, and scaled-down film,  Jumanji . A listener selected this movie for the show, as neither Laci nor Matt was a big fan of it growing up. But this movie is much beloved by millions of people, so the show sets out to figure out w...