The Gen X Files

Pull up a stool and listen to your ol' Stepdads ramble on about the crazy adventures they've been on, the movies and TV shows they've been watching, and what video games they've been playing.

It's time to open your mind and let your imagination run wild, as we cover The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, the near-perfect film from Terry Gilliam, starring John Neville, Sarah Polley, Eric Idle, Winston Dennis, Charles McKeown, Jack Purvis, Jonathan Pryce, Uma Thurman, and the incredible Oliver Reed! (Oh, and a rather weird cameo from Robin Williams.)

Adventure month continues as we delve into the mundane world of babysitting... unless you're Elizabeth Shue and have a crazy friend Brenda who tries to unsuccessfully run away from home. That's right, it's Adventures in Babysitting, the feature film debut of Chris Columbus, co-starring Keith Coogan, Anthony Rapp, Maia Brewton, Ron Canada, George Newbern, and Vincent D'Onofrio.

Orion Pictures wanted a 'red, white, and blue-collar Bond' in Remo Williams, but budget cuts didn't allow the movie to truly bloom. It's still a rollicking good time, even if you don't think it's as good as it was when you first saw it. Starring Fred Ward, Joel Grey, Wilford Brimley, J. A. Preston, and Kate Mulgrew.

Welcome to Adventure month! First up the cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension! Written by Earl Mac Rauch, directed by W. D. Richter, and starring Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Lewis Smith, Christopher Lloyd, Clancy Brown, Vincent Schiavelli, Dan Hedaya, Robert Ito, Pepe Serna, and Carl Lumbly. It's a weird movie that deserved to be seen...

Pull up a piece of carpet and take a secret sip of beer with your ol' stepdads as we discuss the Christmas movies we've covered this month, along with new TV, movies, and video games we've been playing.

While this is definitely a Christmas movie, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York should not have been made. It's a remake of Home Alone that came out 2 years before, but with worse pacing and less stakes. Written by John Hughes, directed by Chris Columbus, and starring Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard, Tim Curry, Brenda Fricker, and Catherine O'Hara.

Well, look at that, it's our 200th episode! We're celebrating by having a Christmas Vacation, courtesy of National Lampoon, John Hughes, and Chevy Chase! Also starring Beverly D'Angelo, Johnny Galecki, Juliette Lewis, Brian Doyle-Murray, Randy Quaid, William Hickey, Mae Questal, Miriam Flynn, Diane Ladd, John Randolph, E.G. Marshall, and Doris Roberts!

Is it a Christmas movie? Not in the conventional sense, but yes, it takes place over Christmas and culminates with a bunch of New Yorkers singing on New Year's Eve: it's the return of the Ghostbusters in the underrated Ghostbusters II! Starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver, Ernie Hudson, Rick Moranis, Annie Potts, and Peter MacNicol.

These four epic comedies range from the most amazing comedy ever made (It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World) to a fantastic British historical comedy (Those Fantastic Men in their Flying Machines) to a waste of talent (Scavenger Hunt) to the best modern epic comedy, which is saying a lot, since it came out 43 years ago (The Cannonball Run). We'll also discuss movies and tv and video games!

We close out our epic comedies month with the most successful epic comedy (after the perfection of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, of course): The Cannonball Run. Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Farrah Fawcett, Roger Moore, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr, Adrienne Barbeau, Mel Tillis, Terry Bradshaw, Jack Elam, Jackie Chan, and Jamie Farr having a ton of fun on screen. Written by Brock Yates, who creat...

Today, we cover and overlooked gem that had the best cast of actors, doing their best with a pretty dreadful script. It's Scavenger Hunt, a wannabe It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, from 1979! Starring Richard Benjamin, James Coco, Scatman Crothers, Ruth Gordon, Cloris Leachman, Cleavon Little, Roddy McDowall, Robert Morley, Richard Mulligan, Tony Randall, Dirk Benedict, Willie Aames, Stephanie Far...

-or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours and 11 Minutes (for the completists). For our second epic comedy, we have this fantastic period comedy about the early days of men trying to fly. Starring Stuart Whitman, Sarah Miles, James Fox, Alberto Sordi, Robert Morley, Gert Frobe, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Irina Demick, Eric Sykes, Terry-Thomas, Red Skelton, Benny Hill, and Yujiro Ishihara. Written a...

Join us as we delve into the greatest, most epic comedy of all time: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, from Stanley Kramer, starring dozens of the greatest comedians of all time: Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, Jonathan Winters, Edie Adams, and Dorothy Provine. Including an insane amount of cameos and guest...

Pull up a spot on the floor on listen to your old stepdads talk about body horror, the movies and tv shows we've been watching this month, what video games we've been playing, and a special guest (for real this time)!

This isn't your mama's werewolf movie... in fact, it isn't a werewolf movie at all! It's Wolfen, based on the Whitley Streiber novel, directed by Michael Wadleigh, in his only feature film directing foray. Starring Albert Finney, Diane Venora, Edward James Olmos, Gregory Hines, Tom Noonan, and Dick O'Neill.

Strap yourself in for a trippy mindbender from the one and only intensely insane director, Ken Russell. Featuring psychedelic drugs and sensory deprivation tanks, it's the feature film debut of William Hurt and also stars Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, and Charles Haid. The production was so intense, it might have just killed Paddy Chayefsky.

While appearing to be a 'remake' of a beloved 1956 thriller, based on a 1955 novel, but much like the Pod People, there's way more to the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers than what appears on the surface. Starring Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, Jeff Goldblum, and Veronica Cartwright and Directed by Philip Kaufman. It's one of the best movies we've ever covered and deserves to b...

In this episode, we wrap up Bill Pullman Month by talking to Bill Pullman! But really, we discuss his early movies, how much he means to us, and what movies, TV shows, and video games caught our attention during the month.

For our third Bill Pullman movie, we're covering one of his best performances in one of the weirdest movies we've ever seen: Brain Dead. Also starring Bill Paxton, Bud Cort, Nicholas Pryor, and Patricia Charbonneau. Written by Charles Beaumont 27 years prior and directed by Adam Simon. It's a wild and wacky movie that you have to see to believe.

Today, we celebrate Friday the 13th by exploring our second Bill Pullman film, and his first leading role: The Serpent and the Rainbow, directed by Wes Craven. It's a weird fever dream of drugs and zombies and voodoo and the political turmoil of Haiti in the mid-'80s. It's a hell of a journey.

With this episode, we start our most unexpected month, honoring the early movies of one of our favorite actors: Bill Pullman. He's a brilliant comedic talent, and our first Bill Pullman movie proves it. It's Ruthless People, from ZAZ (Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker), the guys who brought you Airplane!, Top Secret!, and The Kentucky Fried Movie. Co-starring Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Judge Reinhol...

Join us as we close out another Dog Days of Summer! We reminisce about Oh! Heavenly Dog, K-9, Turner & Hooch, and Top Dog (which we wish we hadn't watched). We also discuss games, movies, and TV shows we've been watching this past month. It's been a great, hot, month, and it officially ended with a cat randomly showing up on the studio's balcony.

Our last Dog Days of August film is also perhaps the worst film we've ever covered: Top Dog. It was so bad, it killed Chuck Norris's theatrical career. A mish-mash of genres with a tone that jumps around more than a kid in a bouncy castle, it's mostly noted because it came out 9 days after the Oklahoma City bombing... and features a terrorist group attempting to bomb a Unity rally. It&...

Now for perhaps the best dog movie of the month (let's not discuss the ending): Turner & Hooch, starring Tom Hanks, Craig T. Nelson, Reginald VelJohnson, Mare Winningham, and John McIntire. Almost directed by Henry Winkler, but actually directed by Roger Spottiswoode.