Radio vs. the Martians!

“KANEDAAAAAA!!!” “TESTUOOOO!!!” We’ve returned with a long-awaited panel episode! This time, we’re popping some capsules and tearing our motorcycles through the ruins of Neo-Tokyo with Tobiah Panshin and Joe Preti of the View from the Gutters comic book podcast. We’re digging into Katsuhiro Otomo’s groundbreaking 1980s apocalyptic manga epic about ps...

In our newest episode, we talk more with Patrick Johnson about video game violence and how it does — and mostly doesn’t — apply to real life. We take a long hard look at the trainwreck that is the filmography of Adam Sandler, why his movies are so ugly and stupid, and struggle to say something nice about him. We explore the wide pendulum swing of the quality of Netflix’s or...

We continue our chat with friend Patrick Johnson to chat about some actor faces’ leave them with little choice but to be cast as villains, and how sometimes playing against type can be great. We debate the merits of the new Duncan Jones Netflix feature, Mute . And then, we take a critical look at the new Bruce Willis-helmed Death Wish remake, and why this probably isn’t the best time t...

Moscow’s toughest detective. Chicago’s craziest cop. There’s only one thing worse than making them mad. Making them partners. It’s time to feed our parakeet and reacquaint ourselves with Miranda laws — even if the Soviet method is more economical — because it’s time to go back to the decade where Schwarzenegger reigned supreme: the 1980s. We’re joine...

In this extra-sized episode, we talk more with View from the Gutters ‘ Tobiah Panshin about the past, present and possible future of comic books as a medium and an industry. We talk about how old Marvel letter columns reveal both angry letters from Tobiah’s mom, and how Wolverine was initially the least popular X-Men character. We react to the puzzling tirades about “SJWs”...

We’re joined again by Tobiah Panshin for a stream-of-consciousness style talk about swearing on cable television, the portrayal of violence and smoking in Marvel Comics, and how the hell we’re supposed to pronounce Ra’s Al Ghul’s name. We also try to square Batman’s paradoxical career as a street level urban vigilante with his sci-fi adventures with the Justice League...

Yabba Dabba Doo. In another one of our Single Serving Selections , it’s time to pull on the little bird’s tail and slide down the brontosaurus’ neck for a chat with Tobiah Panshin of the View from the Gutters comic book podcast. This month we’re talking a deep dive into the DC Comics 2016 gritty reboot of Hanna Barbera’s modern stone age family in The Flintstones . We...

T he rules have been reset. We close out Terminator Month with Week Four, where we jump into our homemade time displacement machine with Sam Mulvey of Ask an Atheist   to break our brains trying to sort out the continuity of the sequel…prequel…soft reboot(?) that recreates the franchise for a new generation: Terminator: Genisys . When John Connor sends soldier Kyle Reese back to 1984 L...

Judgment Day is inevitable. In Week Three of Terminator Month , we arrive in the post-James Cameron era of the franchise to rob a veterinary clinic and destroy downtown Los Angeles with Dave Brouillette of the Hands Free Football podcast. Our mission, to dig into the long-anticipated sequel that returned Arnold Schwarzenegger to the series that made him a star: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ....

Same Make. Same Model. New Mission. We’re back! In Week Two of Terminator Month , we kidnap Joe Preti of the View from the Gutters podcast, and force him to help us break into Cyberdyne Systems headquarters. Our mission this time, to dive into the biggest Arnold Schwarzenegger blockbuster of all time: Terminator 2: Judgment Day . A decade later, another more advanced Terminator has arrived f...

That Terminator is out there! It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop… ever, until you are dead! Welcome to Terminator Month , where every week we explore the franchise that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a household name. In Week One, we learn to assemble pipe bombs in a seedy motel with...

In which, we join Matthew Amster-Burton to circle the dead horses of popular culture with clubs and go to town. We sift through the dirt shoveled over the recently aborted attempt at a Universal monsters cinematic universe. Did it have to be bad? We ponder the question: If we’re inevitably going to revisit established characters and franchises, why not make new and surprising things out of t...

We’re Ready To Believe You. It’s the premiere episode of our Single Serving Selection series where we dissect a smaller helping of popular culture for you. In our first selection, we get kicked out of university, and break out the proton packs with author, blogger and host of the Spilled Milk Podcast , Matthew Amster-Burton. We’re talking this month about the 1984 supernatural co...

We sit down with our friend  Todd Maxfield-Matsumoto to drill into pop culture ephemera and random nonsense. Mike revels in the schadenfreude of having a movie theater rewards card and we all wonder when Johnny Depp became box office poison for us.  We touch on the recently released Blade Runner 2049 , and how it stacks up against both the original, and other recent attempts to resurrect once-grea...

In an episode, we look at the perhaps-necessary anachronism of period stories where the protagonist has strangely modern social attitudes. Does anyone really want the cowboy you play in a video game to be casually racist for the sake of accuracy? And we look at the way that outlier characters like Jonah Hex, John Constantine, and the Punisher nominally co-exist in a shared universe that they&#8217...

Breaking out is an inside job. After nearly forty years of waiting, it’s finally happened. It’s time to inject ourselves with tracking devices and ready our homemade sextants.  This month, we sit down with our good friend Todd Maxfield-Matsumoto to dive into the long-awaited team-up movie between Arnold Schwarzenegger and his longtime cinematic rival, Sylvester Stallone: Escape Plan ....

“Ah can’t do it anymore, Jeb! Ah can’t go on killin’ yankees when they’s fightin’ tuh give th’ black folks their freedom, an’ we’s fightin’ to preserve a world whut’s prob’ly better off dead an’ done with!” In our third episode, Mike and Casey we dive into possibly the most controversial and politically relevant as...

Wherein Mike and Casey discuss the weird evolution of HBO’s Game of Thrones from an almost obsessively grounded fantasy show to a fist-pumping, crowd-pleasing action fantasy. We react to what we’ve seen, read and heard of the upcoming Star Trek Discovery and Seth MacFarlane’s Trek spoof/homage, the Orville . And we talk about how many studios – mainly Marvel Studios –...

We sit down to continue our chat with Joe Preti and Bryon DiGianfilippo , and are joined by View from the Gutters ‘ Tobiah Panshin to talk about Keanu Reeves’ Constantine movie and debate what makes a good adaptation. We also dig into the admirable and visually stunning mess that was Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets . How can a movie have such high peaks and such tragic, deb...

“Whoa.” Pop quiz, hot shot! Mike and Casey pile into the time-traveling phone booth for a chat about one of Hollywood’s biggest stars with Bryon DiGianfilippo and Joe Preti from the View from the Gutters podcast, and if we go under 50 miles per hour, it blows up. What do you do? This month we dig into the multi-faceted career of a polarizing actor who has played everything from a...

In an episode, we continue to shake our canes at Hollywood blockbusters, spin offs, crossovers and shared universes, as Mike explains his rocky relationship with Fear the Walking Dead . What motivates the creation of a spin-off? Are they doomed to be pale imitations? Is the massive blockbuster franchise bubble heading for a burst?

We’re back in the studio for a continued conversations with our friend Kit Laika , to dig into why Dwayne Johnson may be the most likeable human being in the world. And then we tempt fate by taking a critical look at the first DC superhero movie to get universal critical acclaim in nearly a decade! Kit has an unpopular opinion about the new Wonder Woman film. What are the reasonable expectat...

When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. Stock up on holy water and grow out your sadness beards, because this month we’re joining Kit Laika to dissect Arnold’s turn-of-the-millennium supernatural thriller, End of Days . Alcoholic and suicidal, ex-cop Jericho Cane is a broken man. But he’s the only thing standing between a young woman chosen t...

We continue our talk with Greg Hatcher and dive into the world of comic books and beyond! We reminisce about Marvel’s 1970s misfit superhero team, the Defenders , and an absolutely batshit tale from writer Steve Gerber that includes stolen brains, absurd body horror, elves with guns, and the soul of an evil wizard trapped in the body of a baby deer! Plus, we look at the strange turn that com...

“Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women.” Crom, we have never prayed to you before. We have no tongue for it. Podcasts please you, Crom…so grant us one request: grant us a discussion with Greg Hatcher of the Atomic Junk Shop blog! Together we will travel back to an age undreamed of, and discuss the bloody fantasy epic that put Arnold...