Reels & Wheels

Cobra (1986) is an 80's cop movie that you can absolutely love (in theory) if you get past how reprehensible it is. Sylvester Stallone is a cop who plays by his own rules. His peers don't like the fact that he kills everyone he should be arresting, but they let it go because he "gets the job done." Joining us to talk Cobra and its iconic 1950 Mercury is podcaster and comic Matthew Carter. Matt act...

Wax on, wax off! The Karate Kid (1984) is a classic that still inspires people today and is still talked about - and it's a great car movie to boot. From Mrs. Larusso's Chevelle wagon to Johnny Lawrence's Avanti II to Mr. Miyagi's collection of 1940's classics, cars were almost as integral to The Karate Kid as... well, Karate. Learn a lot of interesting facts in this episode as James and Sid talk...

The apocalypse happens. Jan-Michael Vincent is pretty chill about it. George Peppard suggests driving from southern California to Albany, New York in an armored all-terrain vehicle. They do that. Movie over. Improv comic and movie buff James Roach joins James and Sid to talk about Damnation Alley, a movie where NOTHING HAPPENS. Enjoy long scenes where a guy shaves and discusses the rotation for ta...

Remember when they did a post-apocalyptic pilot for a new Knight Rider series that never got picked up? Probably not. Knight Rider 2010 was part of a group of attempts at syndicated shows called the Action Pack. Unlike the Action Pack's successes (Hercules, Xena), it never got to be a series - but at least we got this bizarre pilot! Ed Carden of The Pushers and The Push Comedy Theater turned us on...

It's the movie that kicked off the most prolific car movie franchise ever - The Fast and the Furious. It's a wake up call to the world - the tuner community has arrived and it's time to accept it. Sid and James are joined by Kristen Lee of Jalopnik to talk about the influence this movie had on car culture and whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. So... how about the movie itself? Good? Bad?...

On this episode, James and Sid tackle Battle Truck. It's a movie about a TRUCK that's (get this...) equipped for BATTLE. This post apocalyptic Max Mad/The Road Warrior wannabe actually had it's US release one month before The Road Warrior. It's got everything that made Mad Max successful - an ambitious director with a vision, a cool truck and a, um, villain. Only difference is that Battle Truck is...

Ok, maybe it doesn't make sense to leave an unstable prototype alone in a warehouse where anyone can reactivate it without at least taking the wheels off, but dammit KARR was awesome. The original Knight Rider gave us two episodes featuring KITT's evil prototype, the Knight Automated Roving Robot (KARR!) and each featured a different take on what was possibly KITT's greatest nemesis. Trust Doesn't...

Cars 3... Is it a shameless cash grab to sell toys or an homage to the fans of the first movie?  The answer is probably both. The Cars universe expands quite a bit with plenty of great new toys to sell to your kids. However, Cars 3 also goes back to the successful formula that made the first movie a hit. Sound familiar? It's taken the same path as the first three Toy Story movies and the first thr...

Sure, it's a stoner movie. But it's a stoner movie with character growth, literary significance, great dialogue and some insightful car choices. Heck, how often do we get to do an episode of Reels and Wheels where the hero car is a Toyota Camry? It was time! It was the Camry's time! Sure, it's boring and it's basic, but that's the point. If you need a car - a reliable car - to get you from point A...

Hey, look! It's a new movie that is supposed to be like "The Fast & The Furious" but in France! Let's watch it and talk about it on Reels and Wheels! ...and that's where things went downhill. Overdrive (2017) sucks. The dialogue is terrible, the plot makes no sense, and whoever wrote it clearly wasn't really a car person. But we watched it. We suffered so you wouldn't have to.  Do yourself a favor...

How do you bring NASCAR to a mainstream audience in movie form? Tom Cruise, I guess. I mean, it beats Stroker Ace. Days of Thunder was actually the last of an era - the last time producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson got to do a high budget action movie before the studio got too mad at them to do it again. There is a lot to love, though - the portrayal of racing as a dangerous obsession by i...

Sid and James are joined by their good friends Josh Horowitz and Brett Stillo of the "5 Minutes of Banzai" podcast for a quintessential cult classic - The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension! If you're a Reels and Wheels listener, you probably remember Josh and Brett from the Big Trouble in Little China episode and their "5 Minutes in China" podcast. We enjoy going on each other...

It was the car of the future! In the late 1940's, a charismatic man named Preston Tucker got America excited about his innovative, futuristic car design... Sid and James welcome Steve Lehto, attorney, author and automotive journalist to talk about Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Francis Ford Coppola's surprisingly accurate portrayal of a man who sold his dream to the country, only to get squashed b...

Phantasm is a brilliant horror movie that bends reality and deals with heavy situations of confronting mortality and loss. It's also got a kick-ass 1971 HemiCuda that went on to become a mainstay vehicle of the Phantasm movie series. For this episode, James and Sid are honored to be joined by one of the stars of the Phantasm series, Reggie Bannister and his wife, Gigi. Not only are they a great co...

Wouldn't it be great if there was a line of toys that took everything you loved about your other toys and mashed them all together?! Like if you could have the best of Transformers AND GI Joe AND James Bond's cars AND the Spy Hunter car AND Bruce Wayne's gadgets?! That was M.A.S.K. This 1985 cartoon was Kenner's attempt to market a high-quality line of toys with a TV show meant to stoke kids' imag...

Could this be the greatest movie ever? At Reels and Wheels, we don't need to spend a lot of time extolling the virtues of Evil Dead 2 - Sam Raimi's brilliant directing and visuals, Bruce Campbell's amazing physical acting skill - it speaks for itself. We're just here to talk about a special 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88. Alan Vannucchi - comedian and horror movie expert - joins Sid and James to talk ab...

This week, Sid and I review the 90s Blockbuster spectacular, The Rock.  Starring Nicholas Cage, Sean Connery, and Ed Harris, a Humvee, a Ferrari, and hours of helicopters. We are joined by Tobias Ellis on this one, and it's loads of fun.

In 1991, Ridley Scott took a break from directing stuff like Alien and Blade Runner and allowed himself to be convinced to helm Thelma and Louise - and that was history. Joining Sid and James is a great friend and hilarious comedian, Holly Owens.  Thelma and Louise is an iconic feminist road movie. It's a slice of life on film that is beautifully shot, painfully realistic, and packed with great ch...

If you were anywhere near childhood in the 1980's, KITT was probably your hero and Knight Rider was probably the greatest TV show EVER. At least, that's how Sid & James felt then and still feel today. Christian Lee of PlaidDadPlog.com and DadSews.com joins Sid and James to talk about Knight of the Phoenix, the pilot that began KITT's illustrious TV career. To Christian, it didn't hold up as good T...

GoldenEye was a turning point for the James Bond Franchise - both in terms of actors and cars! After years of delay, Pierce Brosnan was finally able to step into the roll he was born to play in a movie that represents a generational shift in the franchise. GoldenEye also marks the first of a three-movie deal with BMW to provide the trademark James Bond supercars. BMW turned up the hype with the in...

Ok, we admit it. This is a super fun movie. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby features Will Ferrell in full Will Ferrell mode. In retrospect, the guy is extremely funny. What really knocks this movie out of the park is an excellent supporting cast, most of whom are playing against type. Joining Sid and James to talk about this movie and the state of NASCAR is comedian Tim Loulies! Tim gi...

A touch of creativity and the help of a good writer COULD HAVE produced a noteworthy sequel to one of the greatest car movies of all time, Smokey and the Bandit. Instead, everybody failed. Our hero Hal Needham failed to produce anything more than a week retread of the previous movie, our stars (with the exception of Jerry Reed) failed to show much interest in their own performances, and Pontiac fa...

Edgar Wright has created a masterpiece. This kick-ass car movie isn't just set to music... it's part of the music. Baby Driver goes a step beyond when it comes to car chase choreography and it's a car movie with great characters and plenty of fun easter eggs. Ed Carden of The Pushers (owners of The Push Comedy Theater) once again joins James and Sid, this time to bring his expertise as a huge fan...

The Love Bug... Cute Disney movie? Yes. Awesome racing movie? Even more so, yes! Sid and James are joined by Jason Torchinsky of Jalopnik to talk about the movie that started the Herbie franchise, the awesome cars that played supporting roles, and the surprisingly great racing scenes of The Love Bug. Not only is Jason a writer for Jalopnik, but he's also a VW Beetle owner and he's unusually passio...

Ah, the glorious world of late 1980's horror. In Warlock, a witch hunter doing battle with the titular Warlock in colonial America follows his adversary forward in time to the 1980's in order to stop him from destroying the world. Dragged into the middle of this mess is our protagonist, played by Lori Singer, who joins Redfearn the Witch Hunter on his quest to save the world from evil paganism - a...