Shat the Movies: 80's & 90's Best Film Review

Years of Shat The Movies debate were finally settled this week when Ash, Big D, and Gene carefully studied the Jamie Lee Curtis striptease in "True Lies." The song playing in the background wasn't "Leave Your Hat On" or "Cream." Ash was right: It's "Alone in the Dark." This Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron team-up was the first movie with a $100 million budget, reinvigorated Tom Arnold's ca...

Boobs. "Species" is a movie about boobs: great boobs, alien boobs, killer boobs, gooey boobs. But the 1995 movie that introduced the world to Natasha Henstridge is so much more. It made Ash and Big D sympathize with a killer alien. It made Michael Madsen try to be an action star. And it turned Gene Lyons into a sci-fi lawyer. In this edition, we put on our lab coats and dissect the mating habits a...

We all remember Christina Applegate as the ditzy Kelly Bundy from TV's "Married with Children," but people often forget she did '90s movies, too. Before starring in "Anchorman" and "Bad Moms," a young Applegate went dark and quirky with "Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead." Commissioner Brad N. told the Shat Crew to do its worst on this comedy, not knowing it was an Ash Schlafly favorite and jus...

Jim Carrey scored a perfect 0 Wipe Score with "Dumb and Dumber" and almost did it again with "Cable Guy." Can "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" keep the streak alive? Find out why Ace's look gets Ash worked up. Learn about proper dolphin stewardship from Gene. And reminisce with Big D about Super Bowl XXV as the Shat Crew explores the one-liners, physical comedy, and a surprising abundance of sexual si...

Ash makes Shat The Movies history as we motorboat our way through a star-studded film with the coolest movie poster of 1988: "Tequila Sunrise." This is a serious movie with serious cops who seriously love peanuts and throwing coffee while sleeping with witnesses and chatting on gigantic walkie-talkies. We've got saxophones, sunsets, swing sets, and more twists than a bowl of Olive Garden spaghetti...

When we think of the best '90s horror movies, we think of "It," "Event Horizon," "Jacob's Ladder," and "Scream." Nobody ever brings up "The Silence of the Lambs." Maybe they're too scared. This cinematic gamechanger introduced us to the terror Anthony Hopkins could unleash and reminded us just how sharp Jodie Foster's jawline really is. In this brothers' birthday gift to listener Jon R., The Shat...

Shat The Movies is no stranger to Nicolas Cage movies and teen movies; it was only a matter of time before the two collided in the '80s classic "Valley Girl," a film that stoked our loins and crushed our hopes.  It's something like "Romeo and Juliet"—in that both scripts have characters and things happen—but calling Randy and Julie star-crossed lovers is a stretch. "Valley Girl" feels more like a...

On paper, "Boogie Nights" looks destined to fail: A new, 27-year-old director Paul Thomas Anderson gambling on making a period drama about porn ... starring Marky Mark and Burt Reynolds ... based on a short film about a guy named "Dirk Diggler" that Anderson made when he was 18.  But instead of a campy tits-and-ass disco disaster, "Boogie Nights" turned out to be a breakout film powered by picture...

Canadian listeners Denis and Jillian commissioned this year's Shat Christmas comedy, "Trading Places," explaining that it's been their holiday comfort movie for years. Upon viewing, we're not sure it's a Christmas movie, or a comedy, or particularly comforting. But Trading Places made some bold social statements, helped elevate Eddie Murphy to one of the hottest names in Hollywood and got Jamie Le...

Most Shat films can only hope to be as funny now as the day they were released. "Office Space" might actually have gotten funnier over the years. That's probably because we're grown-ups now and can relate to commuting, quitting a job, getting laid off, and regurgitating corporate buzzwords.  In this episode, commissioned by listener Don Sauce, you'll hear career advice from Gene Lyons, music advic...

"The Transformers: The Movie" put us in a very strange position. Should we view the movie as children of the '80s, as adults in a 2020 pandemic, or through the eyes of Gen Z?  And that led to more questions: Why do Autobots turn into cars at the worst times? Is something creepy going on with Rodimus Prime and Daniel? Is Spike the worst dad in the galaxy?  Sometimes, a movie is just meant to be fun...

Here at Shat The Movies, we pride ourselves on seeing beyond nostalgia, beyond our personal memories, and really asking ourselves, "Does this '80s movie actually hold up?" That solemn task has never been harder than when Big D and Gene were forced to stare their own childhoods in the eye, tip their sombreros, and honestly dig into "Three Amigos." With Ash asking, "What is this movie?" and Randy Ne...

Team Shat is no stranger to Coen Brothers movies, but "Fargo" stands apart for its perfect casting, delicious darkness, and unmistakable backdrop. Listener Eric J. made Ash's year by choosing this almost-true-crime film that made Big D weigh the pros and cons of living in North Dakota and made Gene recall the tragic tale of a sexually frustrated stallion. Questions that came up this week include:...

Mention John Cusack, and most people think of "Say Anything," "Better Off Dead," or "High Fidelity," but Gene would argue Cusack's best film is the oft-forgotten "Grosse Pointe Blank," a movie that brought out the best of every actor in it. Thankfully, listener David from North of England was inspired by the movie's music and painful depiction of a 10-year high school reunion, giving us an excuse...

It's been a while since Shat The Movies covered a John Hughes movie, and this time we're going back to where it all started for the quintessential '80s director: "Sixteen Candles." This high school comedy cemented the roles Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall would play for the next decade, and it gave us some of the most iconic scenes in '80s cinema. In this podcast, the Shat Crew debates gir...

"Clerks" put director Kevin Smith on the map and taught '90s kids we all could be directors with just a roll of black-and-white film, a few friends, and a credit card. The conversations were witty, fast-paced, and perhaps a little too cheeky. The actors were unseasoned and awkward. The situations were edgy for 1994. And buried in all of it was a different style of storytelling that would blossom i...

The 1978 "Halloween" was a hit with the Shat The Movies crew, so we were overjoyed when loyal listener Tom C. in Texas chose its sequel "Halloween 4" as this year's Spooktacular special. "The Return of Michael Myers" has everything we loved about the original, minus the spectacular boobs, plus some great '80s special effects. Michael is deadlier. The town is more violent, and Dr. Loomis is a lot m...

Shat The Movies is proud to complete it's first film trilogy, and what better series than "Indiana Jones," whose original three movies began and ended in the Shatacular '80s. The Nazis are back, the leading lady is sly, and we are treated to the super, sexy, scandalous, slippery, scientific Scotsman Sean Connery in one of the best comedic pairings of the decade. "The Last Crusade" gave us back the...

Back in 2017, we awarded "Raiders of The Lost Ark" a perfect wipe score. The magical combination of Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, Lawrence Kasdan, and Karen Allen was irresistible and timeless. But change the writing, change the villains, and change the lead lady, and you wind up with a very different movie in the 1984 prequel—one with xenophobia, ridiculous physics, bloated scenes, and a very...

Every child of the '80s remembers "Maximum Overdrive," that cool horror movie where cars come alive and a green goblin semi-truck tries to kill Emilio Estevez. What we don't remember is how high Stephen King was when he decided to write and direct a film in which guns aim themselves, kids get run over by steamrollers, and aliens attempt to use cosmic broom against mankind. Still, there's a lot to...

In a year when seeing concerts became impossible, listener Chris T. commissioned a movie about four teenagers doing the impossible to see the greatest show of their lives: "Detroit Rock City." You wanted the best? You got ... the Shat Crew talking dead siblings, paper concert tickets, shitty moms, cutting class, dream Volvos, Detroit landmarks, Gene's old band, shaking your wee wee, Amanda Finch,...

If you love soccer and the world's nicest Nazis, then "Escape to Victory" is the movie for you. Listener Joe T commissioned this World War II POW tale from across the pond, then was kind enough to call in with the most professional voicemail we've ever received. "Victory" is a movie that proved actors want to be footballers, and footballers want to be actors, and the French Resistance always gets...

"Fast Times at Ridgemont High" did everything an '80s high school movie was supposed to do. It did it first, and it did it best. The cast of young actors grew up to be some of the biggest names in Hollywood, Cameron Crowe went on to write "Jerry McGuire" and "Almost Famous," and director Amy Heckerling changed America's view of teens again when she created "Clueless." Find out how "Fast Times" tau...

"Regulators, mount up!" Few words inspire more '80s Western nostalgia, and few movies manage to mix hot young actors with dusty old history the way "Young Guns" did. This film about the Lincoln County War has it all: Emilio Estevez in a likable role, Keifer Sutherland looking like a dream, Charlie Sheen being sorta normal. The kill count is high, the complexity is low, and through it all runs a wi...

"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" might be the movie the Shat crew was born to cover: Gene's a career journalist. Ash launched an entire podcast on addiction and recovery. And Big D really, really, really likes hallucinogens. So it's no surprise we had a lot to say about Johnny Depp's unforgettable performance as Hunter S. Thompson chronicling an insane assignment at Las Vegas motorcycle race. The...