Max, Mike; Movies

Awright, M.L., I got one dilly of a flicker here, see? Good golly, it’s gonna be smash, see? Picture this: a drunk, washed up Hollywood screenwriter, see? Gotta weird name: Herman Mankiewicz. No, he didn’t work with Laurel and Hardy, he’s a serious gent. But here’s the kicker: he’s amazing, see? Just the bee’s knees when it comes to slapping those typewriter keys, get me? Fella’s on the outs and a...

Hey there, all you hep cats and kitties! We are movin’ and groovin’ here at Max, Mike; Movies with our wild and outta-sight episode of “Semi-Real People.” This week, unwind your minds and rethread your heads as we stretch the concept of the bio-pic to new dimensions.  How many times has this happened to you: you’re sitting around, flinging plates of mashed parsnips at passing marmosets (like...

Get your minds out of the gutter, you stunningly good-looking and flawlessly dressed listeners! This isn’t the week we talk about porn; this is another entry in our series “Semi-Real People” and while our other biopics have focused on legendary musicians, this week our subject is a different kind of rock star. Yes, this is the story of the early days of the N.O.T.O.R.I.O.U.S. R.B.G., Justice Ruth...

The time to hesitate is through and there is certainly no time to wallow in the mire, because we’ve got this week’s episode in our “Semi-Real People” series: 1991’s “The Doors.” The title is a bit misleading, as we discuss, as this is less about the entire band and more about Mr. Mojo Risin’ himself, Jim Morrison.  We learn some stuff about Morrison’s meteoric rise to fame and powerfully infl...

Episode one thirty-nine, Walk the Line! It rhymes! That was totally intentional! I’m not completely lying! Another in our biopic series “Semi-Real People” and we’ve got another musical icon . . . I mean, an icon of the world of music, not an icon that plays music . . . although he did play music . . . so I mean a living icon of music, not a mechanical one . . . of course, he’s not living anymore a...

Movies, movies, oi oi oi!!! Shove off, all you wankers and tossers! This week in our “Semi-Real People” series, we’ve got a right bastard of cinema, too right! Yeah! Anarchy on your movie screen! Face piercings! Mohawks! Leather trousers! . . . Safety pins . . . atonal guitar riffs? Barely functional bass lines? Ok, look, neither Mike nor I were particularly into the punk scene when it slouched in...

Welcome, welcome, and welcome again to a new series here at Max, Mike; Movies: “Semi-Real People”! In this series, Mike and I will be viewing, conferring, conversing, and otherwise hobnobbing about so-called “bio-pics,” movies that are (allegedly) true stores about (more or less) real people.  And we’re kicking it off with silence! ………….. Ok, that’s boring and doesn’t make for a good podcast,...

In this, our final entry in “Leaving ‘Em Wanting More,” our salute to sequels, we disprove the notion that THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE! Because in the case of the “Highlander” series, there are about five . . . including this one, 1991’s “Highlander 2” the sequel that no one asked for and the sequel that the subsequent movies all try to pretend never happened.  Yes, everyone’s favorite fake Scotsma...

In 1979, Ridley Scott astounded and terrified audiences with his iconic film “Alien.”  Apparently, Mr. Scott didn’t think much of friendly aliens like Wookies or E.T. or the eventual Greys from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”.  No, Ridley decided he wanted a movie involving the most pants-crappingly scary alien since . . . well, ever.  So, working with the brilliant and disturb...

Welcome to another in our continuing stooooory of two quacks who’ve gone to the dogs.  That is to say, Max, Mike; Movies and our series “Leave ‘Em Wanting More”.  This week, we want our mummy! No, not the nice, filial piety, wear a sweater ‘cause it’s cold out version but rather the pull-out-the-brains-through-the-nose-and-get-the-body-ready-for-Anubis, beware the curse version.  We...

The city.  It cries out for justice.  It cries out for salvation.  It cries out for discussions of movie sequels in a series called “Leave ‘Em Wanting More.” They call.  We come.  That’s the deal.  We are Max, Mike; Movies and we’re the podcast the city deserves, but not the one it needs.  No. Wait. Hang on.  Maybe it’s the other way around.  Or maybe w...

Here at Max, Mike; Movies, we’ve seen things you people can’t imagine.  Attack ships on fire some place or other.  Something or other glittering off the Tannhauser gate, whatever that is.  And lots of other stuff.  You can’t imagine it.  Don’t even try.  You’ll just hurt yourself.  This week’s “Leave ‘Em Wanting More” deals with the sequel that we had no idea we wanted, a movie that came right on...

Welcome to a sequel that I bet a bunch of people didn’t know was a sequel! Yes, Mel Gibson’s first outing as Max Rockatansky (yes, the character has a last name) in 1979 wasn’t exactly widely distributed (or known) over here in the States; the initial release even had Gibson’s voice dubbed, for fear that his thick Australian accent? would baffle U.S. audiences.  Okaaay, sure.  Here’s a s...

Welcome, dudes, to another of our, like, “Leave ‘Em Wanting More” . . . thing.  ‘cuz we’re talking about, y’know, sequels and stuff . . . so, like, you ever think that maybe we’re all living in, sort of a big computer game or whatever? And we don’t, like, even know it and junk? Yeah . . . yeah . . . us too . . . and, like, did you ever want a really involved explanation of why all this is hap...

From the people who brought you “Max, Mike; Movies” comes “Max, Mike; Movies II: The Returning Revenge of the Origins to the Future of the Next Generation on Fury Road.” In other words, we’re starting a new series called “Leave ‘Em Wanting More” and it’s all about sequels! Sequels, sequels and more sequels.  Those things that Hollywood used to carefully consider creating but now it’s “Your mo...

What is love? Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more . . . ow! Dang, I hurt my neck doing that head-bob thing. Here we are at the final episode of “Isn’t It Romantic” and what exemplifies romance more than those three little words: “you’ve got mail.” So many songs written about them . . . We’ve got another movie written by Nora Ephron and starring Meg Ryan (so it’s GOTTA be good), and it invol...

Welcome to another in our “Isn’t It Romantic” series! This week, we are down with the street, down with our bad selves, and down with love.  No, I do not in fact have any idea what any of that means, but we’re discussing that tribute to the so-called “sex comedies” of the 60’s “Down With Love,” which I’m sure you’ve all seen. . . which I’m sure many of you have seen . . . which I’m sure some of yo...

Oh, Meg Ryan, you are truly the Meg-est of the Ryans! So adorable, with your tousled hair and your scrunched up little grin.  You’re just SO GREAT, aren’t you? You can just get away with anything, can’t you? Sure, when your character in this week’s “Isn’t It Romantic” fakes an orgasm in the middle of a deli, it’s “adorable” and an “iconic moment of comedy” but when I do the same thing in a su...

Do you want to be rich? Sure, we all do! But how about being crazy rich? And also Asian? Well, do we have a movie for you.  Do we? Of course we do.  Why else would you be here? This week’s entry in our “Isn’t It Romantic” series is our most current movie . . . although 2018 does feel like a long time ago.  But anyway! This week’s movie is one of the most successful romantic comedies...

When you think of the screen couples whose sizzling hot chemistry lit up the screen and made movie audiences curiously sweaty, you think of Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore in “Ghost”, Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger in “9 ½ Weeks”, and of course . . . Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon in “Harold and Maude”? . . . Did I read that wrong? Yes, in this week’s episode of “Isn’t It Romantic” we’re tackling the roma...

Welcome to another episode of “Isn’t It Romantic”. Well? Isn’t it? ISN’T IT?! I’m waiting.  I can wait all day if necessary.  Thank you.  That wasn’t so hard was it? Wait, was that you or was it one of the Voices? Um, anyway, this week we’re traveling back to the era of black-and-white cinema with “Pat and Mike,” a movie that puts the focus squarely where it should be: on the rising...

Ah, “Notting Hill” . . . the sweet, coming-of-age story of a boy scout earning his merit badge in Knot-Tying-Specifically-Done-On-The-Side-Of-A-Hill, one of the rarest merit badges is all scoutdom.  Naturally, they had to drop the “K” in the American version of the film due to censorship and you’re not buying even a word of this, are you.  All right, fine, this end-of-the-nineties rom-co...

Romantic comedies.  A staple (or at least a paperclip) of Hollywood movies since the Pre-Cambrian era.  This genre has survived world wars, Great Depressions, and bell-bottomed pants.  We love us some meet-cute, will-they-or-won’t-they, will she marry the rich snob or the snarky but hunky pipe welder type movies.  And it’s funny! In this, our latest series “Isn’t It Romantic,”...

Well, it’s been fun and we all had a good laugh but now we come to the end of our “Pixar Pix” with this week’s entry “The Good Dinosaur.” Oh man, remember Halloween 2015, when all the kids were dressing up as Arlo the Apatosaurus? Sigh….. good times.  So this movie is based on a fascinating premise: what if dinosaurs had never gone extinct? What if the Extinction Asteroid had never hit the ea...

Holy campy tv catchphrase! It’s another episode of “Pixar Pix”! When last we left our Dyspeptic Duo, they were dangling above a vat of radioactive mayonnaise while Lord Doctor Baron von Naughtyguy was launching into hour three of his detailed description of his plan for world domination . . . or maybe they were just watching movies, I dunno, I wasn’t paying attention; I was just waiting for the po...