Junkfood Cinema

The heat is back on...so make sure to store your cupcakes in the fridge. This week Brian and Cargill head back to L.A. with Axel Foley as One Junky Summer heads into sequel territory once again. On paper, Beverly Hills Cop 2 shouldn't work. Despite Tony Scott at the helm, it cuts back on the action, is edited with a chainsaw, and strips the slobs vs. snobs appeal of the first. However, the comedy...

Cargill expected Project X to fit in perfectly with JFC's Summer of 87 retrospective, Brian however did not expect to be so emotionally affected by the story of Matthew Broderick and a chimp named Virgil. Turns out, Project X is one of the most perfect Junkfood movies of all time! Not simply because it is beautifully shot, powerfully moving, and expertly written, but also because it features a gat...

Welcome to prime time, Junkions! Junkfood Cinema slashes its way through The Summer of 87 as Brian and Cargill battle it out with The Dream Warriors! Is it safe to call A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 the best horror sequel of the 80s? What makes it hold up so well? How badass is John Saxon? Oh, we can answer that last one right now: all of it. All of the badass. Download, listen, share, and get ready...

One Junky Summer trucks on, and this week we wrestle with a longstanding challenge. For years, Brian has wanted to cover Sylvester Stallone's macho-piece Over the Top, but Cargill couldn't get over his distaste for it. There was however no avoiding Over the Top when discussing the junkiest flicks of 1987. Plus, returning guest (and Alamo Drafthouse programmer) Greg MacLennan threatened to fight th...

One Junky Summer returns as we kick off our season-long retrospective of the best genre films of 1987! First up, the flick that redefined buddy cop cinema: Lethal Weapon. Sure, it's a spectacular, hilarious, and quotable action comedy...but it's also an intensely dark foray into the scarred psyche of Vietnam vets?! Brian and Cargill delve into the darkness, the extended director's cut of the movie...

Make no mistake, the alien invasion has begun. Luckily it appears the invaders are only interested in robbing banks, stealing sports cars, and listening to heavy metal. It's a close encounter of the weirdest kind as Brian and Cargill uncover 1987's The Hidden. Michael Nouri and Kyle Maclachlan (two years before Twin Peaks) star in this oddball buddy cop movie about what it means to be human...well...

Writer/TV personality Jason Murphy joins us again for this very special bonus installment of Junkfood Cinema. We dug deep and uncovered a true gem. You've seen it, you love it, but you somehow forgot about it immediately after its 1994 release.  You wanted someone to jog your memory of this lost classic? Your wish is our command! Like the show? Consider supporting us on Patreon! For as little as $...

Grab your toothbrush, your swimsuit, and a whole mess of body bags, because we're heading back to Crystal Lake! This time, counselors Brian and Cargill are joined by author/screenwriter/TV personality Jason Murphy (The Modern Rogue, The Black Goat Motorcycle Club) as they dissect one of the most imperfect, but interesting entries into this or any slasher franchise. Beyond the patchwork Jason vs. C...

Hold on to your skulls, Junkions! Brian and Cargill continue through their March Madness series with David Cronenberg's Scanners. It may not be the granddaddy of psychic killer movies, but it's at least the daddy. And yet for as much as they love it, the guys come to the mind-blowing realization that Scanners is a deeply flawed film remembered more for a meme than for its story. However, the perfo...

It's the third anniversary of Junkfood Cinema and Brian and Cargill are bugging out as they welcome director/previous episode subject Joe Lynch (Wrong Turn 2, Everly) to join their discussion of the most Fulci-esque Argento movie of all time: 1985's Phenomena (aka Creepers). Can't decide if you want a serial killer giallo or a movie about a girl who can communicate with insects or a Donald-Pleasen...

Welcome to March Madness, our month-long celebration of mental thrillers and physic killers! To kick things off, Brian and Cargill haunt your dreams as they run alongside Dennis Quaid through the Dreamscape. That's right, 1984's other movie about a killer invading people's dreams that also happens to be 1984's other Kate Capshaw movie involving ripping out a man's heart! As much as the parallel th...

Last week, we lost a titan. An actor/director whose name was heard in countless previous episodes and, were we to have a Mt. Junkfood, his face would be etched in stone. Brian and Cargill run down their lists of favorite Bill Paxton performances. Cargill compares Frailty to Night of the Hunter while Brian has some issues with Twister that won't seem to blow over. Rest in peace, Bill. The game may...

This week, Brian and Cargill come out of their shells to explain in absurd detail, the full T.U.R.T.L.E power of 1990's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Dark as the comic at points, dopey as the cartoon at others, featuring some of Jim Henson's best work and edited by...Sally Menke(?), TMNT is a criminally underrated superhero film that tastes better on revisit than a slice of Domino's pizza. Like th...

Welcome back to the podcast that is just...so cool. This week, Brian and Cargill take on 60 cops, 40 agents, 30 mobsters, and about 1,000 bullets to find True Romance. They discuss the movie's origins, its dizzying cast list, and how it appeared at the nexus point of independent 90s cinema. When it comes to Tony Scott films, we cover every conceivable aspect... froma diddled-eyed Joe to damned if...

Your favorite prophets of the cinematic wasteland invite you to join Denzel Washington on a pilgrimage to save what little of humanity remains after the great war tore a hole in the sky. Brian and Cargill discuss the beauty and brilliance of The Book of Eli, a discussion containing more than a few revelations. Ashes to ashes, Dorito dust to Dorito dust. Like the show? Consider supporting us on Pat...

This week, on the podcast with zero cool, Brian and Cargill invite you to hack the planet! Hackers is a time capsule of a movie that, while laughable in its wholly inaccurate depiction of hacker culture, is spectacular and thrilling in its similarly inaccurate depiction of the internet. As The Plague says, "there is no right and wrong, there is only fun and boring." We tend to agree.

Celebrate Rex Manning Day with Brian and Cargill! They discuss the inescapable 90s charm of Empire Records (from the director of Pump Up the Volume) as well as share their own stories of minimum wage hijinks. Damn the man, save the Empire!

Cargill and Brian would like to welcome you to The Rock! We take pleasure in gutting the notion that this 1996 actioner is basic, trashy, and/or brainless. The Rock is a uniquely structured spectacle that houses a wildly subversive political tone and one of cinema's most fascinatingly complex villains. All that, plus Brian can't stop doing a Sean Connery impression. Losers whine about their best,...

Brian and Cargill are joined by Austin author/filmmaker Owen Egerton as they all spend one night in the 1980 haunted house masterpiece The Changeling. Subtle at points, starkly terrifying at others, and featuring one of the most heartbreaking opening sequences in cinema, The Changeling was a groundbreaking movie that influenced generations of horror, including Owen's latest film The Axe Murders of...

Brian and Cargill usher in 2017 with a sneaky new episode of the podcast with far too many secrets...or at least secret sauces. They discuss the phenomenal cast of Sneakers, its ultra cool James Horner score, and where it sits in the Robert Redford spy trilogy. We could tell you more about this episode, but then we'd have to kill you.

Grab your Wild Cherry Pepsi and your Blackjack Gum and get ready to talk hard! Brian and Cargill turn on the truth and Pump Up the Volume with Happy Harry Hardon.

Alamo Drafthouse programmer Greg MacLennan joins Brian and Cargill to discuss the weird, wonderful rock fable that is Walter Hill's Streets of Fire. Why did audiences fail to connect with Streets of Fire, how did it influence Pulp Fiction, and what role was originally offered to...Paul McCartney? It's time for this flick to come out of the blue shadows and be regarded as the classic that it is!

Here at Junkfood Cinema, we always try to be nice. However, if you actually believe Roadhouse is a bad movie, Brian, Cargill, and special guest Derek Mahr are here to spin-kick some sense into your face!

Brian and Cargill prove they are your Huckleberries as they saddle up with the biggest cast of win that one western, hell one movie has ever assembled! Learn about the behind-the-scenes difficulties, quotable dialogue, and the factual inaccuracies that kept Cargill from loving Tombstone...until now. You called down the thunder and now you got it, it's Junkfood Cinema!

Brian and Cargill feast on a forgotten Michael J. Fox treat from the early 90s. You may have not seen Doc Hollywood, but we guarantee you Pixar has...we'll explain. On this Thanksgiving episode, we dine on the main course (of course), but that doesn't stop us from digging into the potatoes a little more than usual. Enjoy!