Awesome Movie Year

The tenth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1984 features the Best Picture Oscar winner, Milos Forman’s Amadeus . Directed by Milos Forman, written by Peter Shaffer (based on his stage play) and starring F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge and Jeffrey Jones, Amadeus was nominated for eleven Oscars and won eight, including Best Picture. The contemporary reviews quoted...

The ninth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1984 features the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner, Marisa Silver’s Old Enough . Written and directed by Marisa Silver and starring Sarah Boyd, Rainbow Harvest and Neill Barry, Old Enough was the first Grand Jury Prize winner at the newly rebranded Sundance Film Festival. The contemporary reviews quoted in this episode come...

The eighth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1984 features Jason’s personal pick, John G. Avildsen’s The Karate Kid . Directed by John G. Avildsen from a script by Robert Mark Kamen and starring Ralph Macchio, Noriyuki “Pat” Morita, Elisabeth Shue, William Zabka, Martin Kove and Randee Heller, The Karate Kid was a box-office hit that launched a long-running franchise. The contempo...

The seventh episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1984 features one of the year’s most notable foreign films, Sammo Hung’s Wheels on Meals . Directed by Sammo Hung and starring Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung and Lola Forner, Wheels on Meals is considered a classic of Hong Kong martial arts cinema. The reviews quoted in this episode come from Marc Savlov in the Austin Chronicle ( h...

We're taking a break from our regular season on the awesome movie year of 1984 to feature a special Christmas bonus, Joe Dante’s holiday horror-comedy Gremlins . Directed by Joe Dante from a screenplay by Chris Columbus and starring Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton and Frances Lee McClain, Gremlins was a commercial success and has since become a holiday favorite. The contemporary reviews qu...

The sixth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1984 features Josh’s personal pick, Thom Eberhardt’s Night of the Comet . Written and directed by Thom Eberhardt and starring Catherine Mary Stewart, Kelli Maroney, Robert Beltran and Mary Woronov, Night of the Comet was a moderate box-office success and has since become a cult classic. The contemporary reviews quoted in this episode com...

The fifth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1984 features our pick for the year’s most notable documentary, Jonathan Demme’s Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense . Directed by Jonathan Demme, Stop Making Sense captured Talking Heads performances over four nights at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater and is often considered the greatest concert movie ever made. The contemporary r...

The fourth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1984 features the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner Paris, Texas . Directed by Wim Wenders from a screenplay by L.M. Kit Carson and Sam Shepard and starring Harry Dean Stanton, Dean Stockwell, Hunter Carson, Nastassja Kinski and Aurore Clément, Paris, Texas won three awards, including the Palme d’Or, at the 1984 Cannes Film Festiva...

The third episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1984 features the year’s biggest flop, Walter Hill’s Streets of Fire . Directed and co-written by Walter Hill and starring Michael Paré, Amy Madigan, Diane Lane, Rick Moranis, Deborah Van Valkenburgh and Willem Dafoe, Streets of Fire was a box-office failure following Hill’s success with 48 Hrs . The contemporary reviews quoted in this e...

The second episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1984 features our pick for a notable filmmaking debut, John Hughes’ Sixteen Candles . Written and directed by John Hughes and starring Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Michael Schoeffling, Gedde Watanabe, Haviland Morris and Paul Dooley, Sixteen Candles launched Hughes’ career as a director after his earlier success as a screenwrit...

The first episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1984 features the top-grossing film at the box office, Martin Brest’s Beverly Hills Cop . Directed by Martin Brest from a screenplay by Daniel Petrie Jr. and starring Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Lisa Eilbacher, Ronny Cox and Steven Berkoff, Beverly Hills Cop grossed $316.4 million worldwide and launched an ongoing franchis...

NOTE: This episode was originally a timed exclusive over on our producer David Rosen's Patreon. Sign up to one of the tiers for access to more great content from us, Piecing It Together, All Rice No Beans and David Rosen. https://www.patreon.com/posts/waiting-for-year-39564661 In this special bonus episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1996, we’re talking about Christopher Guest’s inf...

NOTE: This episode was originally a timed exclusive over on our producer David Rosen's Patreon. Sign up to one of the tiers for access to more great content from us, Piecing It Together, All Rice No Beans and David Rosen. https://www.patreon.com/posts/space-jam-movie-39564336 In this special bonus episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1996, we’re talking about the animated/live-action...

In the second of two special Halloween episodes, we’re looking back to 2007, the year we covered in our second season, to talk about Jeremy Saulnier’s debut feature Murder Party . Written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier and starring Chris Sharp, Sandy Barnett, Macon Blair, Paul Goldblatt, William Lacey and Stacy Rock, Murder Party debuted at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival. The contemporary revie...

In the first of two special Halloween episodes, we’re looking back to 2007, the year we covered in our second season, to talk about cult classic Trick ’r Treat . Written and directed by Michael Dougherty and starring Dylan Baker, Brian Cox, Anna Paquin, Britt McKillip and Quinn Lord, Trick ’r Treat was sent straight to video in place of its planned theatrical release, but has since become a Hallow...

In this epilogue to our season on the awesome movie year of 1977, we talk about alternate movies we considered including in all of our different categories this season, and read suggestions from some listeners about which movies they hoped we would cover. Please like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in soon for the premiere of our sixth season, covering the awesome m...

In the finale of our season on the awesome movie year of 1977, we’re talking about this season’s audience choice pick, Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind . Written and directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Francois Truffaut, Bob Balaban and Teri Garr, Close Encounters of the Third Kind defeated Saturday Night Fever and Smokey and the Bandit...

The twelfth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1977 features our future cult classic pick, George Roy Hill’s Slap Shot . Directed by George Roy Hill from a script by Nancy Dowd and starring Paul Newman, Michael Ontkean, Lindsay Crouse, Strother Martin and Jennifer Warren, Slap Shot was a critical and commercial failure upon its release but has since built up a cult following. The c...

The eleventh episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1977 features our producer David Rosen’s personal pick, comedy anthology The Kentucky Fried Movie . Directed by John Landis and written by the team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, The Kentucky Fried Movie was a pioneering film of the spoof genre that helped launch the careers of its writers and director. The contempora...

The tenth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1977 features the Best Picture Oscar winner, Woody Allen’s Annie Hall . Directed and co-written (with Marshall Brickman) by Woody Allen and starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane and Paul Simon, Annie Hall was nominated for five Oscars and won four, including Best Picture. The contemporary reviews quoted in this epi...

The ninth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1977 features the Golden Globes Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) winner, Neil Simon’s The Goodbye Girl . Written by Neil Simon, directed by Herbert Ross and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason and Quinn Cummings, The Goodbye Girl won an Oscar for Dreyfuss and four Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy...

The eighth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1977 features Jason’s personal pick, Mel Brooks’ High Anxiety . Written and directed by Mel Brooks and starring Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Harvey Korman and Ron Carey, High Anxiety is a parody of the work of filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. The contemporary reviews quoted in this episode come from Roger Ebert ( https://www.roger...

The seventh episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1977 features one of the year’s most notable foreign films, Werner Herzog’s Stroszek . Written and directed by Werner Herzog and starring Bruno Schleinstein, Eva Mattes, Clemens Scheitz and Clayton Szalpinski, Stroszek has come to be regarded as one of Herzog’s best films. The contemporary reviews quoted in this episode come from Vince...

The sixth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1977 features Josh’s personal pick, Robert Benton’s The Late Show . Written and directed by Robert Benton and starring Art Carney, Lily Tomlin, Bill Macy, Eugene Roche, Joanna Cassidy and John Considine, The Late Show was nominated for several major film awards, including the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The contemporary reviews q...

The fifth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1977 features our pick for the year’s most notable documentary, bodybuilding showcase Pumping Iron . Directed by George Butler and Robert Fiore and featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno, Franco Columbu and Mike Katz, Pumping Iron helped bring bodybuilding into the mainstream as a respected sport. The contemporary reviews quoted i...