Ramblin: An Amblin Podcast

Hut hut! It’s time for some football! Pee Wee football that is as we take to the field to discuss the 1994 sports family comedy ‘LITTLE GIANTS’, directed by Duwayne Dunham and starring Rick Moranis and Ed O’Neal as bickering brothers with rival Pee Wee football teams. Seeing as Andy and Josh's knowledge of NFL and American football is somewhat limited, the Ramblin boys call in assistant coach Rhys...

Good day, Ramblin fans, can we get an azooga!? We welcome you to the clubhouse as we assemble a group of little rascals to aptly chat about all things THE LITTLE RASCALS, the 1994 Penelope Spheeris-directed adaptation of the classic Hal Roach ‘Our Gang’ short films from the early era of Hollywood. In our clubhouse we welcome back returning guests Jack Buckley and Seb Jones and let chaos reign as o...

Yabba Dabba Doo! We’re back and this time we’re heading to the town of Bedrock through the courtesy of our two pairs of feet to meet The Flintstones. This 1994 adaptation of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon from the 1960s was much maligned by critics at the time of its release, but is the Brian Levant directed movie starring John Goodman and Rick Moranis really all that bad? To help us take apart the com...

We finally arrive at one of the most crucial films in both Spielberg’s and Amblin’s filmographies, 1993’s Best Picture-winning SCHINDLER’S LIST. To help us in our examination of the film’s portrayal of the Holocaust, Jewish life and Oskar Schindler, we’re very lucky to be joined by Chief Executive of UK Jewish Film, Michael Etherton. Together we break down the film’s aesthetic choices, Spielberg’s...

After a brief hiatus, the Ramblin boys are back, baby, with an episode on a film that was so hard to track down that we almost had to do the unthinkable and skip it. Yes, that’s right, we’re talking A DANGEROUS WOMAN, Stephen Gyllenhaal’s 1993 melodrama starring Debra Winger, Barbara Hershey and Gabriel Byrne. It’s a film that comes the closest to not actually existing out of any we’ve covered yet...

It’s time to chow down on some brian grain and get weird with it in our episode on the second film from Amblin’s animation house - Amblimation - the other 1993 dinosaur movie WE”RE BACK! A DINOSAUR’S STORY. With a script by JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO’s John Patrick Shanley and multiple hands on the wheel, the final product needs to be seen to be believed, as our makeshift herd will attest. Join us as...

It is time for the episode that has been 65 million years in the making. That’s right folks, let us at Ramblin welcome you to JURASSIC PARK - the 1993 mega-blockbuster directed by Steven Spielberg that became the highest-grossing movie of all-time. To excavate the mines of this cinematic milestone, we invite Jurassic expert Jack De La Mare - founder of the site Jurassic Outpost - to share his expe...

It is 1993, the start of a big year for Amblin Entertainment. But on our way to JURASSIC PARK, we got a bit lost and ended up in A FAR OFF PLACE - the directorial debut of ALWAYS cinematographer Mikael Salomon and one of the earliest roles for future Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon. Released by Walt Disney Pictures, the coming of age adventure drama has fallen into obscurity, forgotten by most incl...

On we blindly stumble, as the Ramblin gang tackles Peter Bogdanovich’s 1992 adaptation of classic farce NOISES OFF. For this episode we’re joined by our resident expert on the matter (she’s seen it three times in the theatre!) Emily Tatham, who helps bring the requisite amount of chaos to a discussion of a movie about a play that goes horribly wrong. Together we take a journey through Bogdanovich’...

‘Have to fly, have to fight, have to crow, have to save Maggie, have to save Jack… Hook is back.’ It’s time to take flight with Ramblin once more as we head for the second star on the right and straight on till morning to discuss Steven Spielberg’s take on the Peter Pan legend - 1991’s ‘HOOK’, starring Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman and Julia Roberts  - which asks the question, what if Peter Pan g...

Howdy pardners, we’re back. Sorry for the hiatus, one of your fine feathered hosts got struck down with dreaded ‘rona. Don’t sweat it though Ramblin’ fans, as we’re back on the saddle to continue our epic journey through the valley of Amblin Entertainment. That’s right we’re back in the Old West, this time with an animated mouse, with our look at sequel ‘An American Tail: Fievel Goes West’. We’re...

We sail the ocean blue / And our saucy ship's a beauty / We are sober men and true / And attentive to our duty… This week, our duty takes us not to the H.M.S. Pinafore but on Martin Scorsese’s impressionistic river ride into the dark underside of America. That’s right, we’re talking 1991’s CAPE FEAR! Along for the ride is multi-hyphenate film journalist Hanna Flint (@HannaFlint), who helps us unpa...

Eight-legs, two fangs and an attitude. In this episode, we take you on a journey from the deep jungles of Venezuela to Canaima, California, as we follow the adventures of Big Bob, a lovable previously unknown species of spider who has plans to make it big in the USA. On his way he finds love and starts a family, but quickly becomes the target of a community resistant to change and new ideas. Can B...

After an extended Christmas break, Ramblin is back, baby! This time we’re joined by Ollie Guthrie (@OGEpisodes), graduate of the Institute of Gremlins 2 Studies, to delve into Joe Dante’s jekakqzzzzz&”&##%* Your usual episode description writer has been temporarily indisposed as, in my esteemable opinion, ‘Gremlins 2: The New Batch’ requires a level of nuance only attainable by, say, havin...

Ramblin heads to Hill Valley for one last time as we round out Robert Zemeckis’ 'Back to the Future’ trilogy with this goofy little Old West delight. Fellow Warwick grad Robin Kerrison (@robinjames_) joins us on the proverbial locomotive, and together we ponder how adorable Doc and Clara are, how thrilling that steam train climax is, and how Jules and Verne are somewhat… unsettling. So don your po...

It’s time to jump into the fiery crater that is the 1990s, and our first step of the journey takes us to the Big Wu and beyond with John Patrick Shanley’s existential mid-life crisis rom-com ‘Joe Versus the Volcano’. The first in the unofficial Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan ‘meet cute’ trilogy, Joe is a stranger film than its appearance may lead you to believe. We won’t be making our voyage to Waponi Woo alo...

Whoa, this is heavy - we’re already done and dusted with the 1980s, the decade responsible for some of Amblin’s greatest movies - as this review more than goes to show. So, before we hit the wilderness of the 90s, join us for a look back over the decade that was, as we reveal a number of categories that allow us to ramble once again about some of our favourite aspects of the journey so far. We exp...

Is that smoke in your eyes or are you just that happy to hear us? Climb aboard as we take off in our podcasting cockpit once again to fly over the rich canopy of Amblin Entertainment. In this episode, our attention turns to Steven Spielberg’s ‘Always’ from 1989, the last 80’s Amblin movie. Strap in as we battle the flames of this romantic drama, itself a remake of 1943’s ‘A Guy Named Joe’, trying...

You have to come back with us! Where, you ask? Back to ‘Back to the Future... Part II'! That’s right, gang, it’s time to load up Mr Fusion and set the time circuits to 1989 as the Ramblin boys return from their hiatus to talk about Robert Zemeckis’ looney sci-fi sequel. Returning guest Dan Kelly (@DeekingAround on Twitter) is also along for the ride, which covers such storied ground as the disappe...

Allow us to introduce you to ‘Dad’, the Amblin movie that very few seem to know exists. Despite starring Hollywood legend Jack Lemmon, ‘Cheers’ star Ted Danson and a young Ethan Hawke hot on the heels of ‘Dead Poets Society’, this multi-generational comedy-drama is a film that has very little cultural footprint (and a sparse IMDB trivia page). We take a look at how it came to be and offer our thou...

Once upon this same earth, beneath this same sun, in the winter of 1988, Amblin Entertainment released ‘The Land Before Time’, and kids have been emotionally traumatised ever since. Don Bluth’s second and final Amblin movie sees a group of young dinosaurs making an incredible journey to find the Great Valley, all within 59 minutes. We put together our own herd by inviting our two friends, Nicole D...

Hollywood, 1988. Director Robert Zemeckis, along with producer Stephen Spielberg, somehow convinces Disney to bankroll a live-action/animation hybrid containing a plethora of characters from rival studios, lurid film noir plotting and the libido of a teenage boy. How did he do it? What was its effect on blockbuster cinema? And who did set-up that little cartoon leporid? All of this and more will b...

There’s something strange going on in a rundown apartment block on New York’s lower east side. To check it out, we’ve invited our guest, writer and friend Steph Brandhuber (@StephBranded) to see what’s what. We discover some Amazing Stories within concerning a deeply lovable elderly couple, a wannabe artist with a milky beard who grinds everyone’s gears, and of course some incredible 'Fix It' flyi...

After a brief hiatus, we take flight once again with the next film in the Amblin Entertainment timeline, Steven Spielberg’s 1987 adaptation of JG Ballard’s novel, ‘Empire of the Sun’. Starring a young Christian Bale in a tale that offers a unique perspective of World War Two, we dive into the underrated Spielberg war epic, admiring its use of imagery and exploring its relationship with its source...

Strap in and get ready for a podcast of incredible proportions. Martin Buddery (@TheMovieNerdSB) joins us as we miniaturise and intravenously enter the world of Joe Dante’s overlooked 1987 classic ‘Innerspace’. Follow us as we latch onto the optic nerve and look at the film’s glorious Looney Tunes excesses, explore the rich subgenre of shrinking movies and discuss how much of a snack Dennis Quaid...