Max, Mike; Movies

Ah, bright college days! Frisbee games on the quad, cramming for exams, trying to choose a major, learning how best to extract the last drop of mortal terror from children . . . truly, golden years.  All this can be found in this week’s example of “Pixar Pix,” “Monster’s University,” the sequel you didn’t know you wanted (but Disney did.  Disney knows your dreams. Disney knows your desir...

Feelings.  Nothing more than feelings.  Trying to forget my feelings of love.  Or in the case of this week’s “Pixar Pix”, trying to forget my feelings of Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger.  Yes, we’ve got all the feels this week with “Inside Out”. Previously, Pixar has taken us to Scotland, Mexico and to infinity and beyond, but now they’re taking us to one of the most cha...

Wurra wurra, we’ve got us yet another “Pixar Pix”! This time, Mike takes the high road and I take the low road and we got to Scotland before Pixar! Seriously, we did; we visited Scotland decades before this movie.  But here we have an ostensibly “Disney” Pixar movie, which gave us Pixar’s only entry into Disney’s “Princess” line (the characters, not the cruise ships.  Or maybe both?).&nb...

Here we are with another of our “Pixar Pix.”  This week, we examine this carefully crafted animated documentary about one of the great fashion designers, Coco Chanel.  This movie traces Ms. Chanel’s roots from her childhood home in Maine-et-Loire, France to . . . Mike, why are banging your head on the table? Is something wrong? Oh, excuse me, maybe you don’t think it’s worth studying a fashion ico...

Welcome back to another edition of “Pixar Pix,” where we talk about the highs and lows, the hills and valleys, the pork and beans of one of the Great Animation Houses.  This week: cars.  You know, here in my car I feel safest of all     .  I can lock all my doors. It’s the only way to live.  In cars.  Well, with all due respect to Gary Numan, this movie...

So a few weeks ago we talked about Pixar’s masterpiece “Toy Story” as part of our “90’s” discussion and this made us realize (help us) that we had made a grave error by bothering to discuss any movie (please, call someone) other than those crafted by the geniuses at Pixar, which is now a part of that (the Disney troupers won’t let us go) most benevolent, kindly, and munificent family company, Disn...

Oh, cripes, don’tcha know, we’re here for one last go-around with “In Ancient Times: The 90’s,” and I’ll tell ya that for free, oh yah, those nice Coen boys, Joel and Ethan, they’ve done it up real nice, you betcha.  While them Coen fellas may have done ok with their earlier flickers like “Raising Arizona,” “Blood Simple,” and “Barton Fink,” this was one of their first major hits, y’know, tha...

Transvestites! We need transvestites! Wait, no, that’s not it . . . listeners! We need listeners! And here you are, we hope, at Max, Mike; Movies in our penultimate episode of our extended run of “In Ancient Times: the 90’s.” This week we’re taking a look at one of Tim Burton’s more . . . eccentric film choices.  And that’s saying something.  The guy has done movies about a twisted afterlife (more...

Hello, campers, and welcome to another Max, Mike; Movies entry in our series “In Ancient Times: the 90’s.” This week we’re discussing one of the shamefully few movies that celebrate our country’s most beloved and ancient holiday: Groundhog Day. Ah, the happy childhood memories . . . singing Groundhog carols, sipping traditional Nyquil-and-maraschino-cherry-juice punch, carving the stuffed groundho...

[Interior shot, an old model Dodge Dart. Max, Mike sitting side by side, wearing black suits. Mike is driving. The radio is playing Ray Stevens’ “The Streak”] Max: Hey, there’s a Jack-in-the-Box. You wanna get some drive-through? Mike: You know what they call a Jack-in-the-Box in France? Max: They don’t call it Jack-in-the-Box? Mike: No, man, they call it Jacques-in-Le-Box. Max: Huh. Interesting....

Welcome once again to Max, Mike; Movies as we delve into the antediluvian mysteries of “In Ancient Times: the 90’s”, a time so ancient that it’s really, really old.  Today’s installment concerns “Rushmore,” the award-winning documentary about the creation of one of America’s most famous monuments honoring some of our greatest presidents.  Located in South Dakota . . . hm? What’s that? Oh...

Ah, “In Ancient Times: the 90’s” The 1990’s . . . who truly remembers the events of such a distant time? Did we live in caves? Did dinosaurs walk the earth? Did we drive cars powered by our feet while yelling “yabba-dabba-doo”? Of course we did.  We all know we did.  But the 90’s was also the time before the rise of the Pixar Empire.  Believe it or not, there was a time when Pixar w...

Ahhh, magnolias. The flower that signifies spring; a symbol of hope, beauty and hundreds of frogs showering down from the heavens. Wait, what? Oh yes. Frogs. Lots and lots of frogs. Because how else would you tie together such divergent stories of; lives gone wrong, kid tv stars who never really grow up, toxic masculinity gurus and cops who lose their guns at crime scenes? No better way, we say! A...

Hello, children! Hello! Welcome to Uncle Max, Uncle Mike; Uncle Movies! Yaaay! We’ve got a super delightful, fun story for you this week about a funny man who lives in a cave with his wacky friends when one day a little girl comes to ask him some oh-so-important questions about her friend Billy and why he murders women and cuts off their skin.  What’s that, Producer Jimmy? We’re fired? Our sh...

Welcome back to another episode of Max, Mike; Movies in our series “In Ancient Times: the 90’s.” Say, do you want to be John Malkovich? Sure, we all do! But how many movies have addressed this very question? As far as we know, only 1999’s “Being John Malkovich” has dared to do this! Directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie “Normal? What Does That Mean?” Kaufman (a first effort for both), thi...

It’s Max, Mike; Movies! Max, Mike; Movies! Party time! Excellent! Random excited noises! It’s Monday, it’s “In Ancient Times: the 90’s” and it’s time to party! I’m your excellent host, Max Levine. With me as always is Mike. Party on Mike! . . . Party on, Mike! . . . Mike? Mike? . . . Dammit, you’re ruining this for me! Just say “Party on”! Why are you leaving me hanging? Did Bumpy put you up to th...

Booyah! Welcome back to another totally tubular episode of “In Ancient Times: the 90’s” here at Max, Mike; Movies.  Wait . . . tubular is from the 80’s, right? Oh, who knows.  It’s not like anyone from that era is alive today.  Whatever. Totally. This week we’re tackling Mike’s choice of an early Richard Linklater ode to the 1970’s (because that’s what we were into in the 90’s: Rich...

Whew! We conquered episode 100, now we go forward . . . to the past! Welcome to a new series on “Max, Mike; Movies” where we check out films of a surprisingly innovative and influential decade, back in the dim and distant misty times: the 1990’s, in a series we’re calling “In Ancient Times: the 90’s” (we were going to do the 1890s but there’s only so much you can say about a film showing Thomas Ed...

Great jumping midi-chlorians! We’ve made it all the way to episode 100 of Max, Mike; Movies! Who’d have believed it? Seems like only yesterday we were at episode 34.  They said we’d never make it; they said that we were mad! Mad, I tell you! They said we had to wear pants to the grocery store! Well, who’s wearing pants now, huh? Huh? As this is an extra special, super-deluxe, chocolate-fudgy...

Sushi.  Cold fish.  That’s what my ex-partner used to call me before he ran off with Bumpy the Wonder Pony.  Now it’s just me, alone, hunting podcasts and wondering . . . am I a podcast as well? Welcome to this week’s episode of “Max, Mike; Movies” and the last in our brief series “A Few of Our Favorite Things,” leading up to next week’s super-spectacular 100 th episode! This week w...

Hello, good evening and welcome to another edition of “Max, Mike; Wombats,” the show where it’s not what you know that counts but rather how many navy beans you can fit inside this week’s special marsupial guest.  Today’s episode, another in our VERY POPULAR “A Few of Our Favorite Things” series, is brought to you by Whizzo Butter.  Four out of five housewives can’t tell Whizzo Butter fr...

Welcome to another episode of “A Few of Our Favorite Things,” with another movie based on raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens . . . which would be a lot weirder the other way around. Whiskers on roses . . . how would that even work . . .? Let me check . . . and yes, of course, there’s fan art on that very subject. Regardless, we’re going to be talking about one of Mike’s all-time most-groov...

Welcome back. No, I can’t say that the world is all better now. Not even close. But we’d still like to offer you something to listen to, and this is what we have to offer.  This is how we approach the world, this is what we have to share, this is something we love.  So we’re putting it out there for you. We’re starting a new, short series this week: “A Few of Our Favorite Things,” where...

It was raining hard in the City by the Bay, as I stared at the words “Max, Mike; Movies” scrawled in peeling paint on the office door. My partner, as usual, was passed out on the ratty old couch after one too many Strawberry Quiks. Then suddenly the door swung open and he shuffled in.  A rabbit. Never trust a rabbit; I could tell right away that this one was going to be trouble. I was right ....

Howdy, folks! Welcome to another smurfin’ good episode of “Drawn Apart,” where we focus on movies that smurf together live action and smurfimated characters.  This week’s smurftastic entry, as you may have gathered from my immensely subtle clue-dropping, is 2011’s 3D animated smurf of a movie “The Smurfs,” which sees the near-legendary Belgian characters, stars of books, toys, tv shows, and probab...