Full Cast And Crew

Fargo  is a 1996  black comedy   thriller film  written, produced and directed by  Joel and Ethan Coen .  Frances McDormand  stars as Marge Gunderson, a pregnant Minnesota  police chief  investigating roadside homicides that ensue after a desperate car salesman ( William H. Macy ) hires two criminals ( Steve Buscemi  and  Peter Stormare ) to kidnap his wife in order to extort a hefty  ransom  from...

  Jason's guests this week on the pod are Micheal Chernus and Emily Simoness, a married couple who join him to take a very deep dive into all the wonderful, like, greatness, man, of 'The Big Lebowski'.   Michael's a Julliard-trained stage, TV, and film actor currently appearing on TV as speechwriter Ken Rosey opposite Edie Falco on the CBS series 'Tommy'.     You might have also seen him as  Piper...

The Princess Bride  is a 1987 American  fantasy   adventure   comedy film  directed and co-produced by  Rob Reiner , starring  Cary Elwes ,  Robin Wright ,  Mandy Patinkin ,  Chris Sarandon ,  Wallace Shawn ,  André the Giant , and  Christopher Guest . Adapted by  William Goldman  from his 1973 novel  The Princess Bride , it tells the story of a farmhand named Westley, accompanied by companions be...

Rosemary's Baby  is a 1968 American  horror film  written and directed by  Roman Polanski , based on the novel  Rosemary's Baby  by  Ira Levin . The cast features  Mia Farrow ,  John Cassavetes ,  Ruth Gordon ,  Sidney Blackmer ,  Maurice Evans ,  Ralph Bellamy ,  Angela Dorian ,  Clay Tanner , and, in his feature film debut,  Charles Grodin . The film chronicles the story of a pregnant woman who...

Network  is a 1976 American  satirical   drama  film written by  Paddy Chayefsky  and directed by  Sidney Lumet , about a fictional  television network , UBS, and its struggle with poor  ratings . The film stars  Faye Dunaway ,  William Holden ,  Peter Finch  and  Robert Duvall  and features  Wesley Addy ,  Ned Beatty  and  Beatrice Straight . The film won four  Academy Awards , in the categories...

The Bad News Bears  is a 1976 American  sports   comedy film  directed by  Michael Ritchie  and written by  Bill Lancaster . It stars  Walter Matthau  and  Tatum O'Neal . The film was followed by two sequels,  The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training  in 1977 and  The Bad News Bears Go to Japan  in 1978, a short-lived 1979–80  CBS   television series , and a 2005  remake . Notable was the score by ...

Dirty Dancing  is a 1987 American  romantic   drama   dance film  written by  Eleanor Bergstein , produced by  Linda Gottlieb , and directed by  Emile Ardolino . It stars  Jennifer Grey  as Frances "Baby" Houseman, a young woman who falls in love with dance instructor Johnny Castle ( Patrick Swayze ) at a holiday resort. The film was based on screenwriter  Eleanor Bergstein 's own childhood. She o...

Phantasm  is a 1979 American  science fantasy   horror film  directed, written, photographed, and edited by  Don Coscarelli . The first film in the  Phantasm  franchise , it introduces the  Tall Man  ( Angus Scrimm ), a supernatural and malevolent undertaker  who turns the dead of Earth into dwarf  zombies  to be sent to his planet and used as slaves. He is opposed by a young boy, Mike ( Michael B...

The Outsiders  is a 1983 American  coming-of-age   drama film  directed by  Francis Ford Coppola , an  adaptation  of the  1967 novel of the same name  by  S. E. Hinton . The film was released on March 25, 1983. Jo Ellen Misakian, a  librarian  at  Lone Star Elementary School  in  Fresno, California , and her students were responsible for inspiring Coppola to make the film. [2] The film is noted f...

12 Angry Men  is a 1957 American  courtroom drama film  directed by  Sidney Lumet , adapted from a  teleplay of the same name  by  Reginald Rose .  This  courtroom drama  tells the story of a  jury of 12 men as they deliberate the conviction or acquittal of an 18-year old defendant  on the basis of  reasonable doubt , forcing the jurors to question their morals and values. 12 Angry Men  explores m...

Young Frankenstein  is a 1974 American  comedy horror  film directed by  Mel Brooks  and starring  Gene Wilder  as the title character, a descendant of the infamous Dr.  Victor Frankenstein , and  Peter Boyle  as the monster. The supporting cast includes  Teri Garr ,  Cloris Leachman ,  Marty Feldman ,  Madeline Kahn ,  Kenneth Mars ,  Richard Haydn , and  Gene Hackman . The  screenplay  was writt...

Alien  is a 1979  science-fiction   horror film  directed by  Ridley Scott  and written by  Dan O'Bannon . Based on a story by O'Bannon and  Ronald Shusett , it follows the crew of the commercial space tug  Nostromo , who encounter the eponymous  Alien , a deadly and aggressive extraterrestrial set loose on the ship. The film stars  Tom Skerritt ,  Sigourney Weaver ,  Veronica Cartwright ,  Harry...

A highly skilled jewel thief, Frank (James Caan) longs to leave his dangerous trade and settle down with his girlfriend, Jessie (Tuesday Weld). Eager to make one last big score in order to begin living a legitimate life, Frank reluctantly associates with Leo (Robert Prosky), a powerful gangster. Unf ortunately for Frank, Leo wants to keep him in his employ, resulting in a tense showdown when he fi...

Harold and Maude  is a 1971 American  coming-of-age   black   comedy-drama  film directed by  Hal Ashby  and released by  Paramount Pictures . It incorporates elements of dark humor and  existentialist  drama. The plot revolves around the exploits of a young man named Harold Chasen ( Bud Cort ) who is intrigued with death. Harold drifts away from the life that his detached mother ( Vivian Pickles...

The  Star Wars Holiday Special [a]  is a 1978 American  television special  set in the universe of the  Star Wars  science-fiction media franchise. Directed by  Steve Binder , it was the first  Star Wars  spin-off film, set between the events of the original film and  The Empire Strikes Back  (1980). It stars the main cast of the original  Star Wars  and introduces the character of  Boba Fett , wh...

Seven  (stylized as  SE7EN ) is a 1995 American  crime thriller film  was directed by  David Fincher  and written by  Andrew Kevin Walker . It stars  Brad Pitt ,  Morgan Freeman ,  Gwyneth Paltrow ,  Kevin Spacey  and  John C. McGinley . The film tells the story of David Mills, a detective who partners with the retiring William Somerset to track down a  serial killer  who uses the  seven deadly si...

Rocky  is a 1976 American  sports   drama film  directed by  John G. Avildsen , written by and starring  Sylvester Stallone . [3]  It tells the  rags to riches   American Dream  story of  Rocky Balboa , an uneducated, but kind-hearted  working class   Italian-American  boxer, working as a debt collector for a  loan shark  in the slums of  Philadelphia . Rocky, a small-time  club fighter , gets a s...

In a Manhattan cafe, word processor Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne) meets and talks literature with Marcy (Rosanna Arquette). Later that night, Paul takes a cab to Marcy's downtown apartment. His $20 bill flying out the window during the ride portends the unexpected night he has. He cannot pay for the  ride and finds himself in a series of awkward, surreal and life-threatening situations with a color...

Planes, Trains and Automobiles  is a 1987 American  buddy film  written, produced, and directed by  John Hughes . The film stars  Steve Martin  as Neal Page, a high-strung marketing executive, and  John Candy  as Del Griffith, a goodhearted but annoying shower  curtain ring  salesman. They share a three-day odyssey of misadventures trying to get Neal home to Chicago in time for  Thanksgiving  with...

High Noon  is a 1952 American  Western film  produced by  Stanley Kramer  from a screenplay by  Carl Foreman , directed by  Fred Zinnemann , and starring  Gary Cooper . The plot, depicted in  real time , centers on a town  marshal  who is torn between his sense of duty and his love for his new bride and who must face a gang of killers alone. Though mired in controversy with political overtones at...

9 to 5  (listed in the opening credits as  Nine to Five ) is a 1980 American comedy film produced by Bruce Gilbert, story by Patricia Resnick , screenplay by Resnick and Colin Higgins , and directed by Higgins. It stars Jane Fonda , Lily Tomlin , and Dolly Parton as three working women who live out their fantasies of getting even with, and their overthrow of, the company's autocratic, "sexist, ego...

Scott Frank's adaptation of Elmore Leonard's classic crime novel, an arbitrary set of circumstances and not-so-arbitrary bad career moves on behalf of Soderbergh led to the creation of one of the great 90's films and one of the best adaptations of Leonard's work ever put on screen.  One of our hosts is a big fan. The other...well...there's hope for him yet. PODCAST NOTES for Episode 57: 'Out Of Si...

Skeptical graduate student Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) befriends Anne-Marie McCoy (Vanessa Williams) while researching superstitions in a housing project on Chicago's Near North Side. From Anne-Marie, Helen learns about the Candyman (Tony Todd), a knife-wielding figure of urban legend that some of  her neighbors believe to be responsible for a recent murder. After a mysterious man matching the Ca...

Alan J. Pakula's 1976 masterpiece 'All The President's Men' brilliantly tracks The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on the hunt of the story of the Watergate break-in and it's serpentine connections to Nixon's White House.  Featuring still-vital filmmaking and cinematography, use of split diopter lenses and incredible dolly shots as well as iconic performances from Robert Redford,...

We started out planning to do Brian De Palma's 'The Fury' starring Kirk Douglas and Amy Irving, but...in the end...it was just not weird and Brian De Palma enough for us so we switched to 'Phantom Of The Paradise' and got everything we asked for and more. Chris sells his soul for podcasting (00:00), Brian De Palma's The Fury trailer (2:30), Amy Irving and Andrew Stevens in 'The Fury' (4:30), 'Phan...