Gleaming The Tube

This time out we discuss Eddie Murphy's late 80s hit Coming to America,  a film that is packed with stars (James Earl Jones! Arsenio Hall! John Amos! Louie Anderson! Samuel L. Jackson!), packed with laughs, and packed with romance and heart. What it's not packed with is skateboarding but there's juuuuuust enough to justify our covering the film for this podcast. Our discussion also finds us discus...

1988’s BIG, directed by Penny Marshall, stars Tom Hanks as Josh Baskin, a pre-adolescent boy whose wish to be "big" transforms him physically into an adult. Kevin and Mike discuss Hanks' performance, the wave of "kids who turn into adults" films that swept cinemas circa 1987/1988, Hanks' made-for-tv classic of Dungeons & Dragons-related hysteria "Mazes and Monsters", and whether or not this mo...

2023’s BARBIE , directed by Greta Gerwig (who also co-wrote the film), is based on the long-running and popular doll line from Mattel. In the film Barbie (Margot Robbie) has to travel from Barbieland to the real world after suffering an existential crisis. And someone on Venice Beach has a skateboard. Kevin and Mike are joined by children's book author Phaea Crede to discuss the film, the toy, pat...

We're joined by Joe Crowe, co-director of DragonCon's American Science Fiction Classics Track, to discuss 1984's Gremlins  (an American science fiction classic if ever there was one)! Kevin, Mike and Joe discuss the film, the creation of the PG-13 rating, the movie's tie-in novelization, Joe's experience interviewing Zach Galligan onstage at DragonCon, Mike seeing Sha Na Na at age four and thinkin...

2009’s Observe and Report , directed by Jody Hill, tells the story of mall security guard Ronnie Barnhardt (played by Seth Rogen), who is called into action to stop a flasher from turning a shopper's paradise into his personal peep show. But when Ronnie can't bring the culprit to justice, a surly police detective played by Ray Liotta is recruited to close the case. And there's a bunch of skateboar...

1976’s THE SHAGGY D.A. , the 19th and final film directed by Robert Stevenson for the Walt Disney Company, finds Dean Jones (the king of 60s and 70s live action Disney) playing Wilby Daniels who, for reasons too complicated to get into during this episode description, keeps transforming into a dog while trying to run for district attorney. And his son skateboards. This movie's got it all - pie fig...

Kevin and Mike are taking a break from watching and discussing a terrible skateboard movie and instead invited their friend Christian Campagna from the Talk About the Passion podcast to join the show this week. The three of them then proceed to rattle off their top 5 instances of popular songs being played in films. It's a wide-ranging discussion that touches on some of our favorite films from the...

1995’s GLORY DAZE tells the story of Jack Freeman, played by a young Ben Affleck at his most sour and unlikeable, and his four college housemates as they face graduation and make an attempt to prolong their carefree lifestyles before going their separate ways. At one point Affleck's character says “Wanna get a 12er and shred?" and then skateboards around to a New Bomb Turks song, hence why we're c...

1994’s THE CROW, based on the comic series by James O’Barr, tells the story of ERIC DRAVEN who is resurrected one year after he and his fiance’ were brutally murdered and does the only sensible thing: paint his face like a mime, don his tightest leather pants, and then exact revenge on those who done wronged him. Kevin and Mike are joined by Gary Mitchel from A Podcask of Amontillado to discuss th...

1976’s CAR WASH, directed by Michael Schultz from a screenplay by Joel Schumacher, tells the day in the life of the employees of the titular CAR WASH as they engage in what can only be described as SHENANIGANS APLENTY. The film has a great ensemble cast, cameos from Richard Pryor and George Carlin, one of the catchiest theme songs ever put to celluloid, and a surprisingly robust amount of skateboa...

2000's NEXT FRIDAY is a sequel to the popular 1995 film FRIDAY - it was written by and stars rapper turned actor Ice Cube, directed by Steve Carr and is inferior to the first FRIDAY by every possible quality metric one can imagine. Still, this one has skateboarding in it so Kevin and Mike endeavor to discuss it. In between lamenting that this film is not as good as its predecessor our hosts tackle...

2004’s SAVED!, directed by Brian Donnelly (who also co-wrote the film) follows a teenaged girl played by Jena Malone who attends a Christian high school and, as part of an attempt to “cure” her boyfriend of his homosexuality, winds up pregnant and facing the ostracization of her classmates, most notably the self-righteous Hillary Fae, played by Mandy Moore. The film also stars Patrick Fugit, Marti...

2010’s NIC AND TRISTAN GO MEGA DEGA tells a day in the life of two 10 year old skateboarding twins - this is an obscure film (it doesn't even merit its own Wikipedia page) aimed at very young children, so Kevin enlists his young daughter to give her thoughts on the film as well. What it DOES have is a ton of skateboarding, animated cockroaches, broad performances, and cake-eating punk rockers. Meg...

In this short special episode, Kevin and Mike build off their discussion of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure to discuss other weird characters from the 1980s - like Max Headroom, Mr. T, and Sgt. Slaughter. What's the difference between a character and a comedic persona? Where does professional wrestling fit into all of this? Why would anyone spend this much time obsessing over obscure pop culture from 40 y...

"Pee-Wee's Big Adventure", directed by Tim Burton and starring Paul Reubens as the iconic man-child Pee-Wee Herman, is an absolute delight and - despite containing a minimum amount of skateboarding - Kevin and Mike will use any excuse to rewatch it. Pee-Wee returned in the Netflix original movie "Pee-Wee's Big Holiday" a few years ago (Pee-Wee himself rides a skateboard in that one) and that was a...

High Fidelity, based on the novel by Nick Hornby, tells the story of Rob Gordon (John Cusack), a thirtysomething record store owner and living embodiment of a certain type of insufferable pop culture obsessed dude (I TYPED WHILE HOSTING A PODCAST ABOUT SKATEBOARD MOVIES) as he navigates love, ex-love, and maybe – JUST MAYBE – figuring out that what someone is like is more important than what they...

1986’s Chopping Mall tells a story as old as time: three high-tech security robots turn into maniacal killing machines and start murdering the teenage employees of a shopping mall after dark. Also: someone skateboards inside the mall. Kevin and Mike are joined by Gary Mitchel (of the horror podcast A Podcask of Amontillado ) and Shaun Rosado (of PopCycled Baubles ) to discuss the film, its place w...

1976’s KENNY AND COMPANY, written, directed, produced, shot and edited by Don Coscarelli tells the story of young Kenny as he comes of age in 70s southern California, fighting bullies, having his first crush, and dressing up as a horrific bear-pig hybrid for Halloween. And he skateboards! Kevin and Mike are joined by pop culture writer Chris Cummins (who also hosts the great Twitch show Sci-Fi Exp...

1991’s The Commitments, directed by Alan Parker and based on the book by Roddy Doyle, tells the story of Jimmy Rabbitte, a young music fanatic who assembles a group of working-class youths to form a soul band named, in case the title of the film didn't tip you off, The Commitments! We see the band come together and then fall apart and also someone skateboards at one point. Kevin and Mike are joine...

2008’s RIGHTEOUS KILL pairs legendary thespians Robert De Niro and Al Pacino as two maverick chess-playing and little-league-coaching cops who are trying to solve a string of vigilante murders that one of them might be behind? Or the other? This movie sucks, is the synopsis. Oh, and it has a skateboarding pimp character - hence why we're covering it. Kevin and Mike dig into the careers of De Niro...

1986’s Pretty in Pink, written by John Hughes, tells a story of life, love, and social cliques among 80s high schoolers in the suburbs of Illinois. The film stars Molly Ringwald, Harry Dean Stanton, Andrew McCarthy, Jon Cryer and James Spader and has the bare minimum amount of skateboarding to qualify being covered on this podcast. Kevin and Mike are joined by their friend Jen Towers, who's been r...

2010’s SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD, directed by EDGAR WRIGHT and based on the graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley, presents us with the adventures of Michael Cera’s slacker musician Scott Pilgrim - who discovers that in order to win the heart of foxy new girl in Toronto Ramona Flowers he must fight and defeat her seven evil exes in combat! Kevin and Mike are joined by Preston Masterson from KISSIN...

Kevin and Mike are back and watching "Jackass Forever", the latest installment in Johnny Knoxville and company's ongoing efforts to engage in the most ludicrous stunts imaginable. Discussed in this episode: the Jackass franchise as a whole and its roots in skateboarding culture, what this latest installment says about aging, our favorite Jackass segments, and where we think all of this may be head...

Blue Crush tells the story of Anne Marie Chadwick (Kate Bosworth) and her friends as they prepare for the Pipeline surfing contest and navigate life, love and surfing the waves of Hawaii. Kevin and Mike are joined by the great Guy Benoit to discuss the intersection of surf and skateboard culture and lay out the reasons why Blue Crush is one of the greatest American movies ever made. (Yes, we're se...

2012's The Amazing Spider-Man may not be the most beloved cinematic outing of the popular comic book hero but it's the only Spider-Man movie that has our Friendly Neighborhood crime fighter doing some sweet kickflips on a skateboard. This time out Kevin and Mike are joined by special guests Joe Crowe (co-director of Dragon Con's American Science Fiction Classics Track) and ToniAnn Marini (of the G...