The Good, The Pod and The Ugly

Send us Fan Mail LEATHER & WAX: BIGELOW'S THE LOVELESS and POINT BREAK with Kathryn Bigelow Scholar Ryan. FOUR FILMS BY FOUR DIRECTORS PICKED BY FOUR GUESTS 4X4 II IT'S THE EPISODE THAT ALMOST DIDN'T HAPPEN! DOUBLE THEME SONG! Due to losing an audio file (thanks, zencastr!) ace host and engineer Jack was able to, uh, re-do his part on half the episode. A feat that has to be hear...

Send us Fan Mail BACK TO SPIELBERG, BACK TO THE RED CARPET  THE FABELMANS (2022) is Steven Spielbergs cinematic memoir but with different names and the person playing him does not wear glasses. A story of a marriage slowly falling apart while a young man slowly figures out who and what he is through the art of filmmaking. The-artist-as-myth with Steven Spielberg being the artist.  Last year we did...

Send us Fan Mail VHS SPECIAL: PRETTY WOMAN & THE SCREENPLAY "THREE THOUSAND"     Ken and Jack dust off the VHS player for another trip back in time where you have to rewind.  PRETTY WOMAN . 1990 was a perfect era for VHS. The film transfers were all pristine so we no longer have the grainy, crappy transfers that marked so many classics from the 1970s (three of which, B RING ME THE HE...

Send us Fan Mail SEASON FINALE! MAMMA MIA & MAMMA MIA: HERE WE GO AGAIN! We have watched Meryl Streep movies for nearly six months. Did we learn anything? Great question! Listen and find out with our season finale featuring ALL of your favorite ABBA songs X2 along with songs you probably weren't familiar with in the second Mamma Mia film.  MAMMA MIA (2008) is a jukebox musical adapted fro...

Send us Fan Mail THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN and OUT OF AFRICA    This week: Two films released four years apart do as much to delineate Streep's meteoric rise to being one of the all-time great film actors as anything. FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (1981) is an adaptation of John Fowles' post-modern 1969 novel, which addresses directly the construction and themes of the "Vi...

Send us Fan Mail FOREVER YOUNG! WITH GUESTS: MEG, LEIGH and JOHN!  The fourth film in a row in Streep's remarkable late 80's, early 90's turn to comedy, DEATH BECOMES HER (1992) is the most successful of the bunch.  DBH co-stars Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis, who were bigger box office draws at the time (crazy!). It is directed by Robert Zemeckis, who was one film away from completin...

Send us Fan Mail STREEPS OF FIRE: SOPHIE'S CHOICE & DOUBT  TRIGGER WARNING: Doubt's central plot is whether or not a priest had inappropriate relations with a child and that is discussed.  Two of the best performances of Streep's career from two different decades. This is the episode where we truly extol Streep's brilliance in drama in two of her very best.  SOPHIE'S C...

Send us Fan Mail STREEPS OF FIRE: THE RIVER WILD  (1994) WITH BLOOD AND POPCORN'S ERIK! Following Streep's break from heavy roles after 1988's A CRY IN THE DARK , 4 out of 5 of Streep's next movies were sharp-ish turns to comedy ( SHE-DEVIL, POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE, DEFENDING YOUR LIFE & DEATH BECOMES HER) , with one prestige drama ( THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS) before she dec...

Send us Fan Mail CHRISTMAS ADJACENT #3!  ROCKY (1976) DIAL CODE OF SANTA/GAME OVER/PIERE NOEL/DEADLY GAMES/3615 DIAL CODE FATHER CHRISTMAS (1989) THE WORLD OF KANAKO (2014) TRIGGER WARNING: The World of Kanako features scenes of sexual assault that are discussed. Four our third year in a row we are doing a Christmas episode that, despite very few people being interested in, we are doing AGAIN. Thi...

Send us Fan Mail STREEPS OF FIRE: STILL OF THE NIGHT and A CRY IN THE DARK/EVIL ANGELS Join Ken, Jack, Thomas and Andi for two very important pieces in the Streep mosaic. Streep in the 1980s was a marvel of A-list perfection, starring in drama after drama, garnering awards like crazy and generally gathering a reputation as a highbrow accent technician. This week we start with the last movie Streep...

Send us Fan Mail STREEPS OF FIRE: THEY WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED in MANHATTAN and SHE-DEVIL!    We here at The Good, The Pod and The Ugly , like all serious fans of the four arts, struggle with separating the Art from the Artist these days. It's not easy when great works come from noxious, odious people who are later cancelled because of that stuff becoming public. Meryl Streep has worked steadi...

Send us Fan Mail Streeps of Fire SPECIAL EPISODE: MERYL WEARS PRADA Yes, we understand that this is technically our 102nd episode. Have you ever heard of a "soft opening" prior to a Grand Opening? That's what we're going with. THIS is our mammoth 100th episode!! We decided to cook up something a little different for this landmark episode. THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA was the Streep mo...

Send us Fan Mail MANN AGGED: HEAT 2 BY MICHAEL MANN AND MEG GARDINER Criss-cross apple sauce everyone and gather round as Thomas and Ken discuss HEAT 2, Michael Mann's first novel, published a few months ago, which acts both as a prequel AND sequel to his 1995 film masterwork. We get Hanna and McCauley in Chicago years before the events in Heat. We get Chris in South America after the events...

Send us Fan Mail STREEPS OF FIRE #3: JULIE & JULIA and KRAMER VS. KRAMER SPECIAL NOTE: This episode was recorded before the untimely and sad death of Julie Powell, who wrote the book, and is the lead character, in Julie & Julia, played in the film by Amy Adams. Condolences. Streep thirty years apart! Travel back to 1979 and the proto-men's movement galvanizer, Kramer vs Kramer! Streep...

Send us Fan Mail SPECIAL EPISODE: DENNIS HOPPER'S PAYCHECK ERA IN HORROR Note: We apologize for the title "Hopperween". Earlier in 2022 we released an episode called HOPPED UP covering Dennis Hopper's "madman" period as director, covering Easy Rider, American Dreamer (erroneously called American Movie in the episode by one of our dumber hosts) , The Last Movie and, fi...

Send us Fan Mail BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY & ADAPTATION - STREEPEAT A first for our podcast! Join us as we rewatch two movies we originally talked about during seasons focussed on Clint Eastwood and Nicolas Cage (boo, patriarchy!) but wisely shift our focus to Meryl Streep. We are joined by Shannon this week to discuss the books both movies were based on! 1995's BRIDGE'S OF MADISON C...

Send us Fan Mail SEASON 8 PREMIERE: STREEPS OF FIRE!  THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE & THE IRON LADY  Our Streep season begins! In 2022 Streep is an untouchable icon, as beloved as any actor in the modern era. You know what? To get there it took a whole lot of work in a whole lot of movies. Streep was once (we're talking the 1980s here) seen as a too-serious actress, good with accents, dismisse...

Send us Fan Mail THE FINAL FILM IN AN EPIC VHS JOURNEY TO THE EARLY 1970s   *TRIGGER WARNING: SCARECROW CONTAINS A SCENE OF SEXUAL ASSAULT*   VHS , in its heyday, was the best way to watch movies. They opened up a generation to movies previously impossible to see if they weren't circulating in movie theaters years and decades after release. You could argue our current nerd culture, where ever...

Send us Fan Mail VHS SPECIAL: FAT CITY  *FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY*    Listener, you can count on us.  VHS , in its heyday, was the best way to watch movies. They opened up a generation to movies previously impossible to see if they weren't circulating in movie theaters years and decades after release. You could argue our current nerd culture, where everybody has seen everything, was kickstarted b...

Send us Fan Mail VHS EPISODE: BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA **TRIGGER WARNING** THIS FILM HAS  A SCENE OF ATTEMPTED SEXUAL ASSAULT WHICH IS ADDRESSED ON THE EPISODE VHS, in its heyday, was the best way to watch movies. They opened up a generation to movies previously impossible to see if they weren't circulating in movie theaters years and decades after release. You could argue our curr...

Send us Fan Mail 4X4: MIKE NICHOLS PT. 4 of 4:  ANGELS IN AMERICA w/Anna Kline We have reached the end of both season 7 and our delightful 4x4 of directors and films (John Frankenheimer, Harmony Korine, Uwe Boll and Mike Nichols). We end with a late-career triumph by Nichols, his 2003 6-part adaptation of Tony Kushner’s masterpiece of mystery, heart and spiritualism at the end of the Reagan era. A...

Send us Fan Mail 4X4: MIKE NICHOLS PT. 3: THE DESIGNATED MOURNER In 1996 Mike Nichols did something extraordinary after a friendly table reading of Wallace Shawn's new play, THE DESIGNATED MOURNER , he agreed to play the main part of JACK for a theatrical run in London. Previously Nichols' only acting credit was an abbreviated run of WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF with Elaine May in...

Send us Fan Mail 4X4 MIKE NICHOLS PT. 2 OF 4: MEDIOCRE, SHE WROTE  HEART BURN & POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE    Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson playing fictional versions of Nora Ephorn and Carl Bernstein, written by one of the funniest women on the planet at the time? Directed by Nichols? SIGN US UP, right? Gosh, there is a lot to unpack on this episode. HEART BURN (1986)   When Mike Nichols colla...

Send us Fan Mail 4X4: MIKE NICHOLS PT 1: SILKWOOD (and early days). Mike Nichols (1931-2014) was a stage sensation early in life with unprecedented success as performer and director. His first two films, WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF (1966) and THE GRADUATE (1967), which won him an Oscar at age 36 began what looked like a world-beating career as a singular film talent with impeccably urbane taste...

Send us Fan Mail UWE BOLL PART TWO: HOW TO TRADE YOUR DRAGON IN THE NAME OF THE KING 3: THE LAST MISSION and ATTACK ON WALL STREET   This week join three of your favorite podcasting boys to duke it out in the proverbial ring as we discuss the famed Deutschland Destroyer himself- Uwe Boll for his second week as featured director extraordinaire! We’ve watched two of his most popular films- In the “N...