Die Hard On A Blank

It’s Die Hard on the USS Enterprise! This time of the show, Phil and Liam analyze STAR TREK FIRST CONTACT with the help of special guest Andy Maiorano, host of The AndyPlex podcast and an avowed Star Trek superfan! Set phasers to fun! When he is informed that a hostile race of cybernetic beings known as The Borg have launched an attack on Earth, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) disobeys o...

It’s Die Hard in a ghost town! This time week, Phil and Liam throw a bottle in the air and follow it into the desert, as they try to make sense of the dark and brooding action/thriller/western/gangster picture LAST MAN STANDING. During the prohibition era, mysterious gunslinger John Smith (Bruce Willis) rolls into the small, remote border town of Jericho, Texas, where two rival bootlegging gangs h...

Phil and Liam jump on the mic to talk about some guest appearances they have coming up, read a lovely (and crazy!) e-mail from a guest, and wrap about the future of the show. Cows In The Field (Liam and Phil talk Public Enemies on June 28) Force Five Podcast (Phil's episode arrives July 1) Hit Factory Podcast (Liam's episode on Breaking The Waves available now) Advertising Inquiries: https...

It’s Die Hard on Alcatraz! This time on the show, Phil and Liam attempt not to explode with excitement as they discuss Michael Bay’s 1996 all-star action classic THE ROCK, with special guest Bilge Ebiri ! When a group of highly trained Marines led by decorated general Francis X. Hummel (Ed Harris) take over Alcatraz and threaten to launch VX poison gas missiles at mainland San Francisco, the gover...

It’s Die Hard in a spy series reboot! This week on the show, Phil and Liam discuss Brian De Palma’s franchise-launching box office behemoth MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE! It’s DIE HARD in a spy series reboot! When a mission in Prague goes horribly wrong, IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) ends up as the only survivor, and is therefore wrongly assumed to be a mole that IMF director Kittrich (Henry Czenry) is...

It’s Die Hard on a plane! Again! But a bigger plane than Passenger 57! This week on the show, Phil and Liam discuss Stuart Baird’s popular 1996 action-thriller EXECUTIVE DECISION starring Kurt Russell and Steven Seagal* (*kinda). Is this one of the best ‘Die Hard on a blank’ films of the era? The guys aim to find out!  When fanatical terrorists take control of a 747 passenger plane heading from At...

It's Die Hard (on a blank) on another podcast! This week we joined Kris Tapley on the incredible SPEED oral history podcast 50MPH! We count down what we think are the best action films of the 90s! Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Note: At the top of this episode, we tease our appearance on 50mph, the podcast about SPEED . When we recorded, we thought that episode be out, but it'll be out on May 13, 2024! Find it at the link above. It’s Die Hard in a desert! This week on the show, Phil and Liam discuss John Woo’s 1996 action bonanza BROKEN ARROW starring John Travolta and Christian Slater! This is a film that Phil deepl...

It’s Die Hard in a time travel movie! This week on the show, Phil and Liam wrestle with 12 MONKEYS (though not literally, sadly). For this spirited discussion of Terry Gilliam’s challenging 1995 sci-fi mind-bender, the boys are joined by special guest Brad Peyton, director of such blockbuster hits as SAN ANDREAS, RAMPAGE and the forthcoming Netflix sci-fi movie ATLAS starring Jennifer Lopez! In a...

(4/11/2024) Please re-download this episode as uploaded a we uploaded a new version correcting a mistake from the original! It’s Die Hard in a hockey arena! This time on the show, Phil and Liam pile on the cringeworthy hockey puns with special guest Brendan McDonald, producer of the WTF podcast with Marc Maron and an avowed action movie aficionado. Together they analyze the 1995 action movie SUDDE...

It’s Die Hard in an epic crime saga! For this suitably epic episode, Phil and Liam are joined by special guest Katie Walsh - top Los Angeles film critic and co-host of the Michael Mann-themed podcast Miami Nice - to discuss the sprawling 1995 masterpiece Heat! When a team of elite professional thieves led by Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) pull off an audacious armored car robbery that leaves three...

It’s Die Hard in real time! The ticking clocks are everywhere (and so are the dodgy Christopher Walken impressions) as Phil and Liam discuss the 1995 high-concept thriller Nick of Time!   Mild-mannered accountant Gene Watson (Johnny Depp) arrives via train to LA’s union station, with his young daughter Lynn in tow. Shortly after his arrival, he is apprehended by Mr. Smith (Christopher Walken) and...

It’s Die Hard in a Bond reboot! In this episode, Phil, Liam, and guest Ben Rufus Green discuss the 1995 James Bond blockbuster GoldenEye and its many connections to the Die Hard franchise. They explore the premise of the film, its self-reflexivity, and the surprisingly high amount of ‘Die Hard DNA’ present in the movie, which goes way beyond the historical connection between the newly-minted 007 P...

It’s Die Hard on a train!  Casey Ryback is back and this time he’s…well…um…I…um…hey look, forget about all that, because the good news is that Eric Bogosian is in this movie! This week Phil and Liam hitch a ride on a hijacked death train as they scrutinize Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, director Geoff Murphy’s 1995 sequel to the original Seagal action classic! While travelling from Denver to LA vi...

This week we have a special bonus interview with acclaimed filmmaker William Eubank, director of LOVE, THE SIGNAL, UNDERWATER, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: NEXT OF KIN and the forthcoming military action-thriller LAND OF BAD, starring Russell Crowe and Liam Hemsworth! The guys talk to William about his relationship with DIE HARD, his favorite action movies of all time, his approach to the action genre, an...

It’s Die Hard in New York City!   It’s finally here! This week Phil and Liam drill down on one of the most beloved films in the storied Die Hard franchise: Die Hard With A Vengeance ! To aid them in their investigation of this all-conquering box office smash, the boys have brought in special guest Chris Tilly, a writer, journalist and editor at Dexterto.com and one of the hosts of the hugely popul...

It’s Die Hard in a nuclear sub! For this episode, Phil and Liam are joined by special guest Isaac Butler, author of THE METHOD, arguably the definitive book about the evolution of method acting! Isaac is a veritable encyclopedia about the history of the acting craft and he lends his incredible insight to this discussion of CRIMSON TIDE, “an anti-action movie” where two of the greatest screen actin...

It’s Die Hard in the skydiving world! Phil and Liam continue to chronicle DIE HARD’s influence on action cinema with a spirited discussion of the 1994 action-thriller DROP ZONE! After a daring mid-air prison-break results in his brother’s death, US Marshal Pete Nessip (Wesley Snipes) infiltrates the skydiving community in order to track down those responsible. He eventually uncovers the sinister a...

It’s Die Hard in a Kids’ Movie! For this very special Christmas episode, Phil and Liam step outside the usual format to discuss the beloved holiday classic HOME ALONE with special guest Paul Scheer!  That’s right - the actor, writer, director, author, renaissance man and podcasting superstar Mr. Paul Scheer returns to the show to illuminate the deep and sometimes surprising number of connections b...

A bonus episode this week as Liam is joined by film producer Gaylyn Fraiche! Gaylyn started her career as an assistant to Curtis Hanson on THE RIVER WILD. On this episode, she tells us sorts of stories from the set, how working on this movie has shaped her career, and the time Curtis Hanson, Meryl Streep, and David Strathairn asked what she thought of a scene. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcir...

For this episode, Phil and Liam are joined by special guest Blake Howard, film podcaster extraordinaire and the disruptive innovator behind One Heat Minute productions , to discuss the 1994 action-thriller THE RIVER WILD. Married couple Gail and Tom Hartman (Meryl Streep and David Strathairn) are in the middle of a relationship crisis and on the verge of separation, when they take their young son...

It’s Die Hard in a skydiving spy caper! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a flying penis! For this episode, Phil and Liam are joined by special guest Rob Hackett, a producer for James Wan’s company Atomic Monster and a HUGE fan of this wacky1994 skydiving flick. Rob has actually worked with TERMINAL VELOCITY’s director Deran Sarafian, giving him a unique insight into Sarafian’s personality, hi...

It’s Die Hard in the war on drugs! For this very special episode, Phil and Liam are joined by a VERY special guest: actor, writer, director, comic book author, renaissance man and podcasting superstar PAUL SCHEER! That’s right, the effervescent host of top film podcasts Unspooled and How Do This Get Made? chartered a helicopter and flew in to join Phil and Liam for an intensive analysis of this mi...

Welcome to the party pals! This is DIE HARD ON A BLANK, a podcast from Sugar23 that explores the influence of Die Hard on action cinema. In each episode, screenwriter Philip Gawthorne and film podcaster Liam Billingham will talk about one major action movie that was released after DIE HARD - the official sequels, the various imitators, all the way up to recent releases like VIOLENT NIGHT. They&#39...

It’s Die Hard in an action comedy spy romp! This week on the show, spymasters Phil and Liam have recruited special guest Bilge Ebiri - film critic for Vulture and New York magazine – to analyze TRUE LIES, aka “the American blockbuster riff on the French sex farce” (to quote Liam).      In this bombastic action comedy, seemingly unassuming computer salesman Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a...