Sequelcast 2 and Friends

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, Thrasher, and special guest Tokka (Writer for Mikey's TMNT ) discuss the animated TMNT feature from 2007. The Ninja Turtles have to stop Max Winters (Patrick Stewart) from opening a portal that will bring monsters to wreak havoc on the Earth. The only animated feature film in the series, TMNT has a Pokemon style narrative that would feel more at home over a single seaso...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, Thrasher, and BJ discuss Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3. The TMNT travel back in time to medieval Japan, and samurai travel forward in time to modern day Manhattan.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 has a better story but a tepid pace. Reminiscent of the hit miniseries Shogun, far too much of the story focuses on human drama as opposed to the turtles. Jim Henson Productio...

Host Mat Bradley-Tschirgi interviews guests Mark ( writer of TMNT Entity ) on the numerous Ninja Turtles comics and the film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze. The titular turtles fight Tokka (Frank Welker), Rahzar (Frank Welker) and Super Shredder (David McCharen). Much lighter in tone than the first film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Secret of the Ooze ditches much of the...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and William Thrasher discuss Death Wish 5: The Face of Death. Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) goes after Irish mobster Tommy O'Shea (Michael Parks). Oddly centered around the fashion industry, Death Wish 5 has Paul Kersey kill mobsters in ways that don't require a gun. At times feeling like a more violent version of Home Alone, Death Wish 5 never nails a tone. Michael Park...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and William T. Thrasher give a retrospective wrap-up of the 1980s animated Star Wars: Droids series. They discuss their favorite and least favorite episodes, dream up story arcs for a potential season 2, and find a vintage quote from writer Paul Dini explaining why Star Wars: Droids was a harder sell than Star Wars: Ewoks. One hopes as Disney transitions into streaming w...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, William Thrasher, BJ, and guests Steve Barron (director of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and Mikey (writer of Mikey's TMNT ) discuss the original live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film from 1990. Four mutated turtles battle against the evil Shredder (James Saito). A loose adaptation of the first batch of issues of the comic book, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles take...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and William Thrasher discuss The Next Karate Kid. Mr. Miyagi (Pat Norita) teaches Julie (Hilary Swank) karate as a way to manage her anger management. A soft reboot of sorts for the series, this one features a girl as the titular Karate Kid. The series is rather tired at this point, but Julie is different enough of a character from Daniel to keep things a bit fresh. Genr...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, William Thrasher, and BJ discuss The Karate Kid Part 3. Mr. Miyagi (Pat Norita) works with Daniel (Ralph Macchio) to save a beloved bonsai bush as Cobra Kai rises from the ashes. A more direct sequel to the original than the second film, this one features the welcome return of Martin Krove as the villanous John Kreese. The stakes are kind of lame and a step back from th...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, William Thrasher, and BJ discuss The Karate Kid Part 2. Mr. Miyagi (Pat Norita) takes Daniel (Ralph Macchio) to his hometown of Okinawa in Japan. They find plenty of trouble. Grander in scope than the first film, The Karate Kid Part 2 is often too complicated for its own good. Robert Mark Kamen's script deepens Miyagi by revealing more of his past, but the movie takes i...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, William Thrasher, Jersey Jason, and guest Russell Jung discuss the original Karate Kid. Mr. Miyagi (Pat Norita) teaches high school student Daniel (Ralph Macchio) to wax on and wax off. A Rocky knock-off for the tween set, The Karate Kid features the same director and composer as its boxing forbear. Robert Mark Kamen's script has more heart than you might expect. Martin...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, William Thrasher, Jersey Jason, and guest Evan Burkey of Watch Play Read discuss The Chronicles of Riddick. After growing a beard, Riddick (Vin Diesel) shaves it off and battles the Necromongers. A lot of turgid exposition mixed in with better special effects than last time. We get a good twist or too near the end, but it's not often to save the film. A real bloated pic...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, William Thrasher, and Jersey Jason discuss Pitch Black. A bunch of vagabonds including criminal Richard B. Riddick (Vin Diesel) try to restore power to their crashed spaceship the Hunter-Gratzner. A science-fiction drama with mediocre CG effects typical of the early 2000s, Pitch Black succeeds from its quirky characters and zippy pace thanks to a script from director Da...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, William Thrasher, Jersey Jason, and special guest Eric Lichtenfeld discuss Rambo, the fourth film in the series. Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is out harvesting snakes when he is recruited to escort a Christian missionary group to a dangerous section of Burma. After they get captured, he works with a team of mercenaries. A return to the dark psychological themes of the ori...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, William Thrasher, and Jersey Jason discuss Rambo 3. Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is now a competitive fighter who donates his proceeds to a Buddhist temple. However, he is roped back into action when he learns his mentor Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna) is kidnapped by Russians in Afghanistan. Bigger in scope than the last one, Rambo 3 suffers from a sluggish script. The...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and William Thrasher discuss Rambo: First Blood Part 2. Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) goes on a mission to photograph prisoners of war still stranded in Vietnam. However, Rambo gets a hold of his weapon and goes into battle with Russians. The prototypical Rambo flick, Rambo: First Blood Part 2 is more of a straight action picture. This one introduces the famous bow with exp...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and William Thrasher discuss Death Wish 4: The Crackdown. Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) is blackmailed by Nathan White (John P. Ryan) into bumping off drug dealers. The streamlined plot launches the viewer from one action sequence to another with aplomb. J. Lee Thompson manages to show off an impressive sense of scale during a gang warfare shootout. Gail Morgan Hickman's...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and William T. Thrasher discuss The Great Heep, the final "movie length" special of the 1980s animated Star Wars: Droids series.  A prequel to the final arc of episodes, R2-D2 and C-3PO are captured by the gargantuan Great Heep droid. So is their master Mungo Baobab and loads of other droids. Although there are some fine droid models and better animation than usual, this...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, William Thrasher, Jersey Jason, and guest David Morrell (author of the novel First Blood) discuss First Blood, the original Rambo movie. John J. Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) tries to hitch a ride to Portland, Oregon, but is instead thrown in jail by Sheriff William Teasle. Fueled by PTSD, Rambo escapes with his fighting instinct on high alert. His former mentor Colonel Sa...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, William Thrasher, Jersey Jason, and guest Tyler Smith ( Battleship Pretension ) discuss the animated feature Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. They also touch on the live-action Batman 1960s TV series and the animated Batman 1990s series. Batman has been portrayed in so many different ways there's bound to be a Batman that works for you! Along with the X-Men cartoon, Batman...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, William Thrasher and Jersey Jason, discuss Batman & Robin, Joel Schumacher's second Batman film. Batman (George Clooney) squares off against Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman), Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger), and Bane (Jeep Swenson). Featuring a pun packed screenplay, Batman & Robin succeeds better than Batman Forever by going full tilt into the land of camp. Taking inspirati...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, William Thrasher and Jersey Jason, discuss Batman Forever. Batman (Val Kilmer) faces off against Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones) and the Riddler (Jim Carrey). Batman Returns was criticized for being too dark, so Batman Forever lightened things up a bit with director Joel Schumacher. Jim Carrey is inspired as The Riddler playing homage to Frank Gorshin from the 1960s TV serie...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and William T. Thrasher discuss May the Source Be With You, A Star Wars parody episode of the rare sci-fi sitcom Quark. Next week they'll be back on their regular Star Wars: Droids schedule. Commander Quark (Richard Benjamin) and crew have to defeat the evil Gorgons with a little help from The Source (Hans Conreid).  The Star Wars connection here is rather light apart fr...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, William Thrasher and Jersey Jason, discuss Batman Returns, Tim Burton's second Batman film. The Bat. The Cat. The Penguin. The Sequel! After Batman reinvigorated the cinematic coffers of comic book flicks, Tim Burton was allowed to do whatever he wanted for Batman Returns. The story gets long in the tooth with too many villains and is more interesting in the villains th...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and William Thrasher discuss Death Wish 3. Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) and his elderly neighbors battle a nasty street gang. One of the sillier entries in the franchise, Death Wish 3 has more firepower than we've seen to date. The bad guys are less realistic and more cartoonish. A "fun" Death Wish movie, Death Wish 3 might just be the movie in the series best enjoyed w...

Hosts Mat Bradley-Tschirgi and William Thrasher discuss Death Wish 2. After his daughter is murdered, Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) tracks down and kills the thugs responsible. Grittier than the first, Death Wish 2 is the kind of sequel that is nearly a remake of the original. Vincent Gardenia makes a welcome return as Detective Ochoa and Jill Ireland (Bronson's real-life wife) has good chemistry...