DESTROY ALL CULTURE

better to be a live knight than a dead hawk. DRAFT #1 You know what they say: sometimes you hawke the lady, sometimes the lady hawkes you. That may not be the premise or the moral of 1985’s Ladyhawke (the ‘e’ is silent), but - DRAFT #2 Few works of modern cinema adress the question of who hawkes the lady on the ladyhawke of world hawkeladies, but 1985’s Ladyhawke - DRAFT #3 Lady, every morn you gl...

did we learn nothing from zardoz? I don’t know where to start with 2012’s John Carter . Andrew Stanton’s first foray into live action, adapting a work that inspired most of the science fiction pulp classics of the 20th century, did not go well. Mired in production troubles and studio tensions, John Carter (of Mars???) bombed at the box office and produced a crater in Disney’s finances so deep that...

a live woodbeast. Every so often, Adam and Aidan watch a movie that feels like the equivalent of someone trying to write a 20-page English paper at 3 a.m. without having read the text. On the other hand, sometimes that mix of Monster Energy and desperation produces weird bursts of genius. How else to explain War Rocket Ajax, angry Wood Beasts and combative football in the court of Ming the Mercile...

In 1968, fans of science fiction movies had two options (please don’t fact check this, there’s no need): 2001: A Space Odyssey or Roger Vadim’s Barbarella . Which movie was superior? Critics are still fiercely divided on the question (again, please don’t fact check this), but I can tell you one thing: Stanley Kubrick never thought to shoot an entire film inside a lava lamp, which certainly seemed...

a live dog pretending to be a canadian. Quick: who’s the least Canadian man ever to walk this Earth? Who resolutely refuses to embody a single particle of Canadian-ness? If you answered with Elliott Gould, you’d be right. So who better to portray a mild-mannered Torontonian bank teller who runs afoul of a psychotic criminal, played by Christopher Plummer, aka The Least Criminal Man of All Time? Th...

once a live dog, always a live dog The Warriors ! The million-meme spawning, reality-adjacent adaptation of a 2,400 year old Greek poem, transformed into a carnivalesque vision of a New York City run by elaborately themed gangs straight out of a Lucy Sante book. Best known these days for David Patrick Kelly’s “Warriors… come out to play-ay-yay” line, The Warriors feels like an elegy for something...

some dead lions think they’re live dogs. Capitalism! Dream states! The non-narrative oneiric space of fulfillment that may be a train, or it may be the celluloid strip of film itself! Oh yeah, and Tom Cruise is there. Join Adam and Aidan as they break down Paul Brickman’s Risky Business . Listen below or find us on the podcasters of choice. DAC Episode 372 - Risky Business (1983) Adam P Knave and...

a live dog discovering that he doesn’t want to be a dead lion. The year 1983 had its share of radical concepts, but perhaps none pushed the envelope quite like Mr. Mom , which dared to ask: what if a man… took care of his children? The answer, it turns out, is chaos and wackiness. Can a harried Jack Butler (Michael Keaton) figure out which ham to buy? How about keeping track of his kids in a groce...

a buncha dead lions. There’s something I need to clear up before I get to the end of this sentence: Young Guns , the movie, should be called Young People Who Use Guns . I thumbed this bad boy into my VCR, expecting a detailed treatise on the age of every gun shown in the movie (at the very least, a consideration of what constitutes youthfulness in a weapon). Instead, it’s a thoroughly entertaining...

two guys destined for a ride to the stars, or maybe just mars. (in which Adam and Aidan spend some time talking about the prequel to Waldo’s Hawaiian Holiday) (diversions include embarrassing high school anecdotes, soundtrack enthusiasms, and the terror of a man with a disintegrating mind driving endlessly and aimlessly through Los Angeles in a Chevy Malibu, death and transcendence slowly fermenti...

a dead lion and a live dog Upgrading. It’s all anyone’s talking about these days. Some people say you should upgrade, others say you should downgrade. The other day I heard someone make a convincing case that we should all de grade. How about that? People are wild these days, with all the talk about different styles of grading and the most appropriate prefix for the word. Someone came up to me the...

the burden of civilization rests on these live dogs. What would you do if you woke up to find that 99.9% of life on Earth had turned to red dust, and the only who people who survived were screw-ups, mad scientists and introverts? If you’re one of the Belmont sisters, the answer to that question is shoot guns, go shopping and save children from vampiric scientists. Along the way you’ll learn the va...

schrodinger’s live dog/dead lion In recent years, the output of ‘90s-era Joel Schumacher has come in for reappraisal. His commitment to a maximalist aesthetic and gonzo production design now looks like auterist camp in comparison to the washed-out frames of digital filmmaking. Here at the offices of Destroy All Culture, it is our sincerest hope that Flatliners , Schumacher’s gothbrat opera of tran...

eight live dogs. “I’ll tell you. Nobody handles garbage better than we do.” Fun fact: if you listened to one episode of Destroy All Culture per day, then you started listening to this podcast exactly one year ago today! One entire year of our voices, piped into your ears on a daily basis. Frankly, we’re a little concerned for your mental health. Anyway, today we’re talking about the sheer perfecti...

the epitome of a dead lion It’s the start of what we call Spooky Season in the Destroy All Culture house. To start, Adam and Aidan watched 1987’s The Lost Boys , a movie that launched the careers of Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Patric, as well as instilling the notion of the Coreys as a kind of ‘80s pop gestalt entity. Topics discussed include: Lost Boys as a foundational ‘80s text; the time Aidan...

Welcome to Part Two of our MoviesThat Happen to Star Aaron Eckhart miniseries (MTHtSAE II). Can you picture Aaron Eckhart as a gruff-but-loveable biker? Casting director Margery Simkin and director Stephen Soderbergh sure could! Throw a bandana and some muttonchops on that chiseled face and ta-da: movie magic? Fortunately for America, Eckhart’s character is not the focus of Erin Brockovich . Inste...

Look, this is what happens when you let the earth’s magnetic field get out of hand [Morning at the Destroy All Culture house. Aidan is mumbling in his sleep, his forehead beaded with sweat, his eyeballs swivelling back and forth beneath closed lids. Adam enters.] ADAM: Aidan, are you okay? What are you saying? AIDAN: cuh… cuh… orrrre… ADAM: What’s that? Caw-hor? AIDAN: cuhhhh…. orrrre… ADAM: Cuh-o...

three live dogs taking a break from slaying lions Never have there been more references to Saskatchewan in a feature film than 1977’s Slap Shot , a sports fantasia disguising itself as a working-class drama. Listen below or find us on your podcast machine of choice. DAC Episode 362 - Slap Shot (1977) Adam P Knave and Aidan Morgan Download

Such dead lions, these two. In 2020, John Patrick Shanley adapted his successful play “Outside Mullingar” to a feature film , with results. Adam and Aidan have different opinions on the nature of those results. DAC Episode 360 - Wild Mountain Thyme (2020) Adam P Knave and Aidan Morgan

DAC Episode 359 - The Fall Guy (2024) Adam P Knave and Aidan Morgan Download

DAC Episode 358 - Running Scared (1986) Adam P Knave and Aidan Morgan Download

DAC Episode 357 - Prince of Darkness (1987) Adam P Knave and Aidan Morgan Download

DAC Episode 356 - Starship Troopers Adam P Knave and Aidan Morgan Download

DAC Episode 355 - Highlander (1986) Adam P Knave and Aidan Morgan Download

DAC Episode 354 - Doctor Who 2024 Adam P Knave and Aidan Morgan Download