Sequelcast 2 and Friends

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, Thrasher, Jersey Jason, and Russell Jung discuss Home Alone 3. A young child maims robbers in the midst of a spy imbroglio. An odd attempt to reboot the franchise, Home Alone 3 feels more like a lame James Bond spoof than an entry in this series. Violence against the baddies is softened somewhat, but calling this long in the tooth is all too kind. A lame soundtrack does...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, Thrasher, and Alex Miller discuss the Hiroshima Death Match, the second film in the original five-film Yakuza Papers cycle. A man from the streets joins a yakuza gang as an assassin, but a doomed romance muddies the water. Having a more focused narrative than other films in the saga, Hiroshima Death Match veers away from plot and onto character to great effect. The pers...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, Thrasher, and Alex Miller discuss the original Battles Without Honor and Humanity. A man chops off his finger when he doesn't need to and gets caught in the crossfire of warring Japanese gangsters. The start to the acclaimed 5-film yakuza saga, this has often been referred to as the Japanese Godfather. However, these films are quite different. The mob is not romanticize...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, Thrasher, Jersey Jason, and guest Josh Miller (writer for CHUD) discuss Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. A boy mutilates two robbers in New York City and racks up credit card bills illegally. A near remake of the original hit, Home Alone 2 lacks the warmth of the original. The violence is worse. Smoothing things out a little are a pair of creepy hotel staffers played by...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, Thrasher, Jersey Jason, and guests Susannah Gorah (Author of You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation) and James (Home Alone Enthusiast) discuss Home Alone. A boy mutilates two robbers.  A Tom and Jerry cartoon writ large with cartoon violence and a hero who is an asshole, Home Alone is a perverse family classic....

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and Thrasher discuss Star Wars Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker. A Skywalker rises, but which one and why? The ending to the nine-episode Skywalker Saga, The Rise of Skywalker feels like an entire trilogy crammed into one flick. There's a strong third act and some fun new characters, but the lack of focus in what is supposed to be a capper to the Sequel Trilogy is a bit...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and Thrasher discuss the rise of TV Shows on DVD. Once an anomaly dedicated to the odd episode of Star Trek or The Twilight Zone, TV shows on home media formats exploded when companies churned out TV Shows on DVD in complete season box sets. Mat and Thrasher take a trip through their past working in video retail, buying a crapload of DVDs, and wonder where the future of...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, Thrasher, Jersey Jason and special guest Marc with a C discuss Shock Treatment. Brad (Cliff De Young) and Janet (Jessica Harper) try to fix their rocky relationship by going on a game show.  A cult classic sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, this quirky musical has a muddled plot with great songs. Not as good as Rocky Horror Picture Show, but it's ahead of it's tim...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, Thrasher, and BJ discuss Star Wars Episode VIII The Last Jedi. Rey (Daisey Ridley) trains in the ways of the Force with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) while Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) continues to throw Dark Side temper tantrums. Rian Johnson writes and directs this controversial installment of the Skywalker Saga. There is a lot of plot at the expense of character development...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, Thrasher, and Jersey Jason discuss the original movie of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Newlyweds Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon) enter a spooky castle after their car breaks down.  A film of the cult London musical The Rocky Horror Show featuring some of the original cast, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is practically a ritual watch for anyone involved...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and Thrasher discuss Live Free or Die Hard. Based off an article from Wired magazine, Live Free or Die Hard has John McClane battling cyber terrorists.  The plot of cyber warfare seems more out of the 1990s than out of the 2000s, but we do get Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Lucy McClane playing a supporting role as John's now grown-up daughter. A tepid PG-13 rating does not...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, Thrasher, and BJ and Thrasher discuss Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens. An orphan (Daisy Ridley) and a former stormtrooper (John Boyega) team up with Han Solo (Harrison Ford) to try and convert Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) back to the Light Side of the Force. Released a mere three years after Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm, director J.J. Abrams sets up a zippy adven...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, Tony Minsent, Eric Windsor, and Sean Christopher Franson discuss their favorite and not so favorite video games from the PS4 and Xbox One gaming generation in this special live episode of Sequelcast 2 recorded at Wizard World Portland Comic Con 2020.  Follow the show on Twitter @Sequelcast2 Like our Sequelcast 2 Facebook Page Sequelcast 2 is delighted to be a member of...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, Tony Minsent, Eric Windsor, and Sean Christopher Franson rank the live-action X-Men movies from 20th Century Fox in this special live episode of Sequelcast 2 recorded at Wizard World Portland Comic Con 2020.  Follow the show on Twitter @Sequelcast2 Like our Sequelcast 2 Facebook Page Sequelcast 2 is delighted to be a member of The Batman Podcast Network. Hear more great...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and Thrasher discuss Die Hard. John McClane (Bruce Willis) is trying to patch things up at his wife's Christmas party when a terrorist group takes the whole thing over.  A classic through and through with the trademark 1980s touch of humor, Die Hard has fun characters, snappy dialogue, and plenty of action. The best of the series by a country mile, Die Hard continues to...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and Thrasher discuss Creed 2. Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) is pressured into fighting Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu), son of the man who killed his father. This so-so sequel plays more like a remake of Rocky 2-4 than a sequel to Creed. Burdened by the Ivan Drago plotline, it rehashes the familiar Rocky beats. Despite all that, some aspects really work. Tessa Thompso...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and Thrasher discuss Back to the Future Part 3. Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travels back to the Wild West era of Hill Valley to rescue Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd). A sincere way to cap off the trilogy, Back to the Future Part 3 pays homage to classic Western movies. Doc Brown really gets a moment to shine here. It feels like a victory lap of sorts, and the stakes are...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and Thrasher discuss Back to the Future Part 2. Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travels to the future, but an almanac causes complications. Nuttiness doesn't even begin to describe Back to the Future Part 2. Bob Gale's script yanks characters back and forth across multiple timelines with heavier science-fiction elements than before. There are hits and misses in here, but th...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and Thrasher discuss the rise of video streaming services in the past decade. YouTube was an early free platform, but paid services starting pimping their convenient streaming wares like Netflix and Hulu. In 2020, the streaming service market is going to get even more crowded with NBCUniversal's Peacock and WarnerMedia's HBO Max. Where does that leave the home viewer? Ar...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and Thrasher discuss Son of Dracula. Count Alucard (Lon Chaney Jr.) causes mischief in New Orleans. Less tragic and dramatic than Dracula's Daughter, Son of Dracula goes more for laughs with a hint of mystery. The Southern Gothic setting changes things up nicely, and Louise Allbritton has a grand old time playing the infatuated Kay Caldwell. As for Count Alucard, Lon Cha...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and Thrasher discuss Back to the Future. After screwing around with an old man (Christopher Lloyd), Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) gets stuck in 1955 with his horny teenage parents. A deft blend of science-fiction, romance, and comedy, Back to the Future gorges on baby boomer nostalgia. Alan Silvestri's noble score elevates the excitement. Great performances abound, but Ch...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and Sabrina Miller discuss The Bourne Ultimatum. Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) learns even more about his origins from Dr. Albert Hirsch (Albert Finney). This ending to the initial Bourne trilogy, later to grow into a quintet of features, answers some of the mysteries of the titular character brought up in the original flick. A tense thriller if ever there was one. Follow th...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and Sabrina Miller discuss The Bourne Supremacy. Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) tries to uncover more about his past in Germany and Russian. Director Paul Greengrass ruins competent action scenes with a shaky handheld camera style that won't quit. Karl Urban is rather memorable as the Russian sniper Kirill.  Follow the show on Twitter @Sequelcast2 Like our Sequelcast 2 Facebo...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and William Thrasher discuss Dracula's Daughter. Countess Marya Zaleska (Gloria Holden) seeks to destroy the body of Dracula to free herself from a vampiric curse. Dracula's Daughter might be the first lesbian horror film ever made. Comedic elements are ramped up a bit, but there's a fine bit of tragedy to the lead as well. Although not exactly a horror film in the tradi...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and Sabrina Miller discuss RoboCop 3. Now modified with a gun arm, RoboCop defends the homeless from OCP troopers. While RoboCop 3 has a better story than RoboCop 2, it also plays more to the kids. Everything feels cheap and a bit long in the tooth.  Follow the show on Twitter @Sequelcast2 Like our Sequelcast 2 Facebook Page Sequelcast 2 is delighted to be a member of Th...