The Kulturecast

On this week's Kulturecast we near the end of our Singin' September marathon with another cult classic: True Stories. Directed by David Byrne and co-written with Stephen Tobolowsky and Beth Henley, the film tells the story of a small town in Texas getting ready for the state's sesquicentennial celebration. It features an ensemble cast including Pops Staples, a young John Goodman, and Byrne as the...

On this week's Kulturecast we continue our Singin' September marathon with a new take on the musical genre: Stage Fright. It's the story of a killer who is set loose on a high strung music summer camp on the eve of the resurrection of The Haunting at the Opera. It features Allie McDonald, Meat Loaf, and Minnie Driver, along with a fantastic supporting cast. The guys are joined by guest co-hosts di...

On this week's Kulturecast we continue our Singin' September marathon with one of the most celebrated cult films ever, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and its "sequel" Shock Treatment. Rocky Horror has been shown in theaters since it's release in 1975, making it the longest running film in history. It was followed by Shock Treatment, which is more of a spiritual sequel to the original but features...

On this week's Kulturecast we keep on with our Singin' September marathon with another cult classic musical, Little Shop of Horrors. The film features Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene as they attempt to deal with the ramifications of owning a carnivorous, singing plant. It also features Steve Martin in an minor role and some great cameos from Bill Murray, Christopher Guest, and John Candy. We spoke w...

On this week's Kulturecast we start our Singin' September marathon with one of the most popular musicals of all time, Grease. It's a tale of young love, pompadours, poodle skirts, and the occasional off-color comment. Its a lot of singing and dancing all with a doo-wop/disco flair. We also spoke with Barry Pearl who played Doody in the film on what it was like going from stage to screen, working w...

On this week's Kulturecast, joined by guest co-hosts Sean and James, we round out our Page to Screen  marathon with a review of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.  It's a film about Bob Hoskins as a hard-boiled detective who gets mixed up with a cartoon rabbit and must clear his name when he is framed for murder. We also got to speak with author Gary K. Wolf about his thoughts on the film, what it was like...

On this week's Kulturecast we continue our Page to Screen  marathon, joined by guest co-host Quinn Fleming, with a talk about The 13th Warrior based off the book by Michael Crichton. The film features Antonio Banderas as Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan, an Iraqi poet, who unwittingly becomes the final member of a group of vikings that are on a mission to fight back an ancient evil plaguing their lands. We spoke...

Delivered on this week's Kulturecast we continue our Page to Screen  marathon with a look at Going Postal, the TV miniseries based off the book of the same name by Terry Pratchett. It's the story of Moist von Lipwig, a con man sentenced to death, who is given the choice of hanging or revitalizing the defunct postal system. It all takes place in Terry Pratchett's Discworld as well, which was the au...

Served up on this week's Kulturecast we continue our Page to Screen  marathon with a look at the Hannibal Lecter franchise: Hannibal Rising, Manhunter, Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal. The franchise is critically-acclaimed with Silence of the Lambs being the only horror film to win an Oscar, with Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster winning for their roles in the film. We are joined in our discussi...

We take a break this week from our Page to Screen  to talk the newest film from Guy Ritchie, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. The film is a big-screen adaption of the 1964 MGM television series of the same name, and it features Armie Hammer and Henry Cavill. They play opposing spies caught up Cold War shenanigans that must work together to take down a nuclear threat. It's a new take on the spy genre with...

We continue on with our Page to Screen month, this week talking cocaine, business cards, and serial murder in American Psycho. It's the story of Patrick Bateman, a New York yuppie who murders, maims, and mutilates other Wall Street socialites. It's a controversial film that features a large cast of well known actors including Matt Ross, who we spoke with. He talks about the film, working with Chri...

We soldier on with our Page to Screen month, this week taking on Sean Connery as a Holmesian Franciscan friar William of Baskerville in The Name of the Rose. The film features a large cast of well known character actors, including the great Elya Baskin, a very young Christian Slater, and William Hickey. It's a murder mystery with an interesting setting, and some mild philosophical musings on relig...

We continue on with our Page to Screen month, where we look at films that are based off of books, with the 1999 live-action version of Animal Farm. The book deals with the terror of communism as shown allegorically through animals taking back a farm from the farmers. The voice actors in the film are quite well known: Patrick Stewart, Kelsey Grammer, Julie Louis-Dreyfus. It's an interesting film th...

It's our first Kulturecast of Page to Screen month, where we look at films that are based off of books. We open this month with the Coen Brothers take on Homer's Odyssey, O Brother, Where Art Thou?. We are joined by guest co-hosts writer Russ Linton and Leif Tilden, who we previously spoke to about his time as Donatello in the first two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films. Along with our guest co-h...

As we enter the home stretch of our Salute to Westerns, we look at two films that use the Western genre as a blank canvas for telling interesting stories: The Proposition and El Topo. One features Guy Pearce as a Australian outlaw who is tasked with killing his brother played by Danny Huston; the other is a surrealist western by the master auteur Alejandro Jodorowsky. We are joined by Mike White f...

As our Salute to Westerns begins to come to a close, we check out two films that are modern interpretations of the classic western genre: Slow West and Tombstone. One features Michael Fassbender as a drifter tasked with helping a lovesick immigrant, the other retells the story of the gunfight at the O.K. Coral. We also had the pleasure of speaking with Caren Pistorius, who played Rose Ross in Slow...

We begin to wind down our Salute to Westerns with two films that bend the genre in unexpected ways: The Way of the Gun and The Good, The Bad, The Weird. We are joined this week again by guest co-host Sean Liang from 2Survive, as well as having an interview with Kristin Lehman who played Francesca Chidduck in The Way of the Gun. As always, you can follow Chris Stachiw on Twitter at @HeelStach, John...

Our Salute to Westerns continues with two westerns that focus on comedy: Gunless and Support Your Local Sheriff. One features a gunman trapped in the Great White North with no gun, the other a snarky outsider who becomes sheriff of a boom town on his way to Australia. We also spoke with William Phillips, director and writer of Gunless, and Tyler Mane who played Jack in Gunless. As always, you can...

Our Salute to Westerns moseys on with the most iconic trilogy of westers: The Man With No Name trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, The Good The Bad and the Ugly). They feature Clint Eastwood as the eponymous Man with No Name as he traverses the West, gunning down outlaws, pitting warring families against one another, and searching for buried Confederate gold. The films were all...

We continue our Salute to Westerns with twos films, a contemporary take on the western, and a Sergio Leone film that defined the genre: The Salvation and Once Upon a Time in the West. They both share common plots, and are both great examples of why westerns are some of the most well done films in cinema. We also speak with Kristian Levring, the director of The Salvation about the film, and how wes...

With Monster Movie month behind us, it's time to saddle on up to our Salute to Westerns, and we start this month with two films that share the same source material: True Grit. While one features John Wayne in his Oscar-winning role as Rooster Cogburn, the other is directed by the Coen Brothers and features a star-studded cast including Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Josh Brolin. They are two very d...

We finish out Monster Movie month strong with another fantastic visit from Mike White from The Projection Booth and two awesome interviews. Not only do we get to talk about The Mummy but we also speak with Tuc Watkins (Mr. Burns) and Jonathan Hyde (Egyptologist) about their roles in the film. We also talk about The Relic, Peter Hyams 1997 monster-in-a-museum movie, that would have benefited from s...

It's another Kulturecast and we are nearing the end of the Monster Movie month. We are joined again by Russ Linton, author of Crimson Son, to talk about two monster movies that are as campy as they are fun: Carnosaur and Sharknado. We also have interviews with Raphael Sbarge (Doc from Carnosaur) and Thunder Levin (writer of the Sharknado trilogy). As always, you can follow Chris Stachiw on Twitter...

It's another Kulturecast and we nearing the end of Monster Movie month, a month filled with movies that have been surprisingly awesome. This week we talk about two movies that featuring creepy crawly creatures that are set on human annihilation: Eight Legged Freaks and Slither. We also spoke with Rick Overton who plays Deputy Pete Willis in Eight Legged Freaks about the film and what he's been up...

It's another Kulturecast! Since Jurassic World was the reason June's theme is Monster movies, it's only fitting we go all out and talk about not only Jurassic World but the entire Jurassic Park franchise. Sean Liang from the excellent 2Survive is back to help us guest co-host this Kulturecast 65 million years in the making, and we spared no expense at bringing you our thoughts on the new film, alo...