Legends Podcast

The 2001 sequel to 1999's hit monster flick The Mummy saw director Stephen Sommers helm another Indiana Jones-inspired adventure through cursed tombs infested with creepy bugs. Joining Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, Arnold Vosloo, and the rest of the first film's cast was a professional wrestler and untested actor known only as "The Rock." The film was another box office hit, delivering the biggest...

Forty years ago, director John Carpenter followed his hit horror film Halloween with an action movie set in a year far off in the future: 1997! Starring Kurt Russell in his iconic role as the eye patch-wearing former soldier Snake Plissken tasked with a mission to save the President from the island prison of Manhattan in return for a federal pardon, the film was a hit and became a cult classic. Wh...

Fifty years ago, automotive journalist Brock Yates and Car and Driver editor Steve Smith conceived the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, a timed race from East Coast to West Coast of America. The first "Cannonball Run" from New York City to the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach, California, was covered in a widely-read article, and the race was run four more times throughout t...

Twenty-five years ago, Speed director Jan du Bont's latest action movie blew into theaters. Starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as a pair of estranged tornado chasers, the film was co-written by Jurassic Park author Michael Chricton and produced by Stephen Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy. While the screenplay went through several rewrites from script doctors like Joss Whedon, Steve Zallian, and Jef...

On June 4th, 2004, disgruntled Granby, Colorado, resident Marvin Heemeyer drove his secretly-built "Killdozer" through the wall of his garage and took it on a destructive rampage of vengeance against his fellow townspeople, who he believed had wronged him over the years. At the end of the day, Heemeyer had destroyed 13 buildings, including the town hall, the local newspaper's offices, several loca...

Forty years ago, Indiana Jones swung onto movie theater screens with his first epic adventure hot on the heels of some nasty Nazis in search of the Ark of the Covenant. Created by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman, and brought to life by screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, producer Frank Marshall, and director Stephen Spielberg. The film also featured a score by John Williams, cinematography by Douglas Sl...

Forty years ago, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table got the blockbuster treatment with John Boorman's 1981 production retelling the classic tales. Starring Nigel Terry as Arthur and Nicol Williamson as Merlin, the film also features Gabriel Byrne, Helen Mirren, Patrick Stewart, Liam Neeson, and Ciarán Hinds in some of their earliest film roles. Shot entirely on location in Ireland, the...

Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who produced the Academy Award-winning (and Legends fan favorite) animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, teamed up with director Mike Rianda on a family road trip movie about the end of the world for Sony Pictures Animation. Originally called Connected, the movie was scheduled for a 2020 release that was cancelled due to the pandemic. Netflix picked up the mov...

Director Chloé Zhao became the first woman of color to win Best Director at the Academy Awards this year with her 2020 film starring Frances McDormand. Based on Jessica Bruder's non-fiction book exploring the lives of van-dwelling transient Americans in the wake of the Great Recession, the film features many of the real-life people from the book playing fictionalized versions of themselves. The fi...

Author Tom Clancy ruled the '80s and '90s with his military espionage thrillers, starting with 1984's The Hunt for Red October, producing seventeen bestsellers and selling over 100 million copies in his lifetime, and spawning multiple motion pictures. His most famous character, CIA analyst Jack Ryan, has been played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine. Most recently, John K...

Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, perhap best known for co-founding the Dogme 95 filmmaking movement with fellow director Lars von Trier, is also famous for his intensely intimate character studies within ensemble casts. His latest film follows that trend, with Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang, and Lars Ranthe starring as four high school teachers who decide to get perpetually buz...

This player-versus-player video game hit arcades almost thirty years ago, and it quickly became infamous for its graphic violence, including bloody signature kill moves called Fatalities. While it's gotten the big screen treatment before, most notably in Paul W.S. Anderson's 1995 film, it's never earned the R-rating that the franchise deserves. The new film, released last month in theaters and on...

Playwright Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band opened in 1968 as an Off-Broadway production with a limited engagement - just five curtain calls. However, the show's popularity led to a change in venue to a larger theater where it ran for 1,001 performances from April of '68 to 1970. In 1970, William Friedkin directed the original cast in a film version from a script by Crowley, which made waves as...

Director Jamie Babbit made her feature debut in 1999 after she found success at Sundance with her short film Sleeping Beauties. Starring Natasha Lyonne as a high school cheerleader sent to conversion therapy camp, the film also features Clea DuVall and Melanie Lynskey as her fellow lesbian campers, along with Cathy Moriarty and RuPaul as the staff in the pink and blue John Waters-esque dreamscape...

Director Ang Lee had already achieved international success when he took the helm of an adaptation of Annie Proulx's short story that was co-written by Lonesome Dove author Larry McMurty. Starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as two cowboys who carry on a decades-long love affair that began on the titular mountain in 1963, the film was a critical and commercial success, winning multiple awards...

Director Peter Jackson rose to prominence directing horror-comedies, but it was his 1994 film Heavenly Creatures that earned him international recognition and his first Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay with his partner, Fran Walsh. Retelling the infamous Parker-Hulme murder case in Christchurch, New Zealand, forty years prior, the film introduced Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey to th...

Four years after its original release, the fifth film of the DCEU is back on screens courtesy of HBO Max. Zack Snyder's Justice League, however, presents an almost entirely different vision from Joss Whedon's theatrical version, and is the direct result of the unholy alliance between a troubled production, a rabid fanbase, and a streaming service hungry for buzz-worthy content. Adding $70 million...

The career of action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger is full of hits, but 1993 handed him his first major flop. Following his career-defining performance in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, the John McTiernan-directed spoof Last Action Hero saw Arnie play a fictional movie character from an action sequel starring… Arnold Schwarzeneggar. Opening in June of 1993, Last Action Hero was billed as "the next grea...

After facing a career downturn and seeing his personal life turn to tabloid fodder, Ben Affleck solidified his status as an actor-director with his sophomore outing, 2010's The Town. Starring Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, and Pete Postelwaite in his final film role, The Town followed up the first pic Affleck helmed, 2007's Gone Baby Gone, as another Boston-based crime drama. The...

In 2012, the French sci-fi action film Lockout asked the question: what if Luc Besson ripped off John Carpenter's Escape from New York? When a convicted ex-soldier is asked to infiltrate a floating maximum-security prison to rescue a member of the First Family in order to receive a pardon, hijinks ensue. Starring Guy Pearce as Snake - er, um, "Snow," - Lockout was panned by critics as "Escape from...

In 1997, the Canadian sci-fi horror film Cube asked the question: what if six strangers were trapped in a maze filled with traps and the only way for them to escape was by using... math? Okay, so on paper Cube is a movie that should not work. It was made for just $350K, in one room, with a bunch of unknown actors. There are a few special effects, but blink and you'll miss them. There are no answer...

The global box office shut down has led many theatrical releases to seek other avenues for distribution - including films seeking award recognition. Earlier this year, Amazon Prime released One Night in Miami…, which is the first film directed by Regina King and was written by Kemp Powers, based on his 2013 play. While it received showings at multiple film festivals - including the first movie by...

The global box office shut down has led many theatrical releases to seek other avenues for distribution. Earlier this month, Netflix released Space Sweepers, the first-ever South Korean space blockbuster, which had originally been aimed at cinemas. After multiple delays due to the pandemic, the film's studio sold the movie's exclusive rights to Netflix in hopes that it would be well-received and c...

This episode includes a discussion of suicide. If you are in crisis, you should call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or text the Crisis Text Line (text HELLO to 741741). Both services are free and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.   Last year brought a plethora of new original films to streaming services. In September, Netflix released I'm Thinking of...

Last year brought a bumper crop of new original films to streaming services. In July, Netflix released The Old Guard, based on the Image Comics series by Greg Rucka. Starring Mad Max: Fury Road's Charlize Theron as the leader of a group of immortal mercenaries, this globe-trotting action movie reportedly drew 78 million viewers in the first month of release. With a sequel reportedly in development...