The Gen X Files

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.

Take the younger brother of a famous comedian trying to make his own name and a police dog that doesn't play by the rules, and you get K-9, the 1989 film starring James Belushi and Rando the German Shepherd as Jerry Lee. It's a mystery that James Belushi needs to solve, and only Jerry Lee can help.

What happens when you ask Chevy Chase to make a dog movie? You make him a P.I. and kill him off, only to be reborn as BENJI! It's Oh! Heavenly Dog, the weirdest Benji movie ever made. Starring Chevy Chase, Jane Seymour, Omar Sharif, and Benji! Written and directed by Joe Camp.

Gather round the campfire with your ol' Stepdads, as we discuss the Blockbuster Bombs, Howard the Duck, Hudson Hawk, and Last Action Hero. We also discuss some great movies we've watched, TV shows we're into, and Video Games we just can't put down. Oh, and Jim has a rant about some words that he LOATHES.

Regarded as one of the biggest bombs of the '90s, we dive into Last Action Hero, Arnie's first real disappointment in Hollywood. (Yes, we know Red Sonya was a flop, but he was a Hollywood baby at that point.) From John McTiernan and Shane Black, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austin O'Brien, Anthony Quinn, Charles Dance, F. Murray Abraham, Tom Noonan, Frank McRae, Bridgette Wilson, Me...

What happens when an actor gains too much celebrity? You get Hudson Hawk, a Bruce Willis vehicle that had just a little too much Bruce Willis in control. It's a perfect example of how not saying no to someone can make a movie so so so much worse. It's our second Blockbuster Bomb: Hudson Hawk!

Howard the Duck was a pet project for George Lucas, who, upon realizing that doing a live-action adaptation with a CGI lead wasn't going to work, lost interest and handed it over to Will Huyck and Gloria Katz, who wrote American Graffiti with Lucas. This was just the beginning of a long mess of a production, leading to one of the biggest Blockbuster Bombs of all time. Starring Lea Thompson, Ed...

Grab a stool and sit next to your ol' Stepdads, as we wrap up June Doom III by discussing Independence Day, Mars Attacks, and Armageddon, our '90s apocalypse movies featuring loads of cities being destroyed. We also discuss our movie picks of the month, which TV shows we'd been watching, and the video games we've been playing. The Gen X Files, for all things Gen X!

It's Armageddon, the popcorniest doom flick ever filmed. Written by 9 different writers, directed by Michael Bay, and starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Owen Wilson, Will Patton, William Fichtner, Michael Clarke Duncan, Steve Buscemi, Keith David, and soo soo many more! Grab that bucket and turn off your brain as we dive deep into Armageddon!

What better way to experience the end of the world than through the eyes of Time Burton? It's Mars Attacks! the sci-fi throwback starring Jack Nicholson, Jim Brown, Danny DeVito, Lukas Haas, Natalie Portman, Annette Bening, Glenn Close, Rod Steiger, Pierce Brosnan, Michael J. Fox, Sarah Jessica Parker and so many more!

Today is our Independence Day! And it's the start of June Doom III: Revenge of the Doom, where we dive into apocalyptic movies. First order of destruction: alien invasion! From Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, starring Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Vivica A. Fox, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia, Brent Spiner, Adam Baldwin, and about a billion other people.

We wrap up Classic Connery month by discussing just how fabulous Sean Connery is, the movies and tv shows we've been watching, and the video games we've been playing. Join us for a rollicking good time!