Peak Viewing

Two years ago, we watched Hammer’s rendition of The Mummy, and we were not impressed. One year ago, we watched Hammer’s rendition of Dracula, and we were blown away! This week, we watched Hammer’s rendition of Frankenstein, and we were, uh, somewhere in the middle? Between the frankly bad monster makeup, the lazy storylines, and the incredible mad scientist lab, it’s safe to say we have mixed feelings. We also get into buying Peter Cushing as a 22-year-old ladies man, the changes with the monster from the novel, and our brilliant idea for a new podcast.

Bride of Frankenstein is a solid contender for the most unhinged sequel of all time. It’s a marvelous blend of humor, horror, whimsy, and sadness that keeps you on your toes every minute. There’s little lab-grown people in jars, interesting reinterpretations of scenes from the novel, a picnic in a tomb, and almost five minutes of screen time for the titular character! We get into it all, including James Whale’s terrific imagination, the censor’s terrible buffoonery, Elsa Lanchester’s towering hairdo, and much more.

Monsters are back on the menu! After we had a grand time covering Dracula and Nosferatu films last year, this year we’re talking about Frankenstein to coincide with Guillermo Del Toro’s new spin on the old classic. We’re starting with 1931’s Frankenstein, the James Whale film that arguably set the standard for what Frankenstein would mean more so than the original novel. You better believe we’ve got everything in this jam-packed episode. Simpsons references! Quotes from passages in the novel! Stories about little girls and hard-boiled eggs! Listen for our hour-long “speed run” recap of Mary Shelley’s masterpiece, and don’t forget: the scientist is named Frankenstein.

Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World might be the most underseen movie we’ve covered on this show (well, maybe the most underseen this century). Part of that obscurity is due to the Islamophobic times in which it was created, and part of it is that it’s simply just okay at best. Some of the questions we do our best to answer this week include: Could we write a 500-page report? How well did this movie perform in Romania? Why do we keep bringing up so many Coen brothers movies? Is Tiger Woods the Michael Jordan of golf? And how much of this thing is even shot in India?

Is Albert Brooks losing his edge? It’s the question posited by 1999’s The Muse, in which Brooks plays a screenwriter who feels left behind in a frustrating and absurd Hollywood. As he tells a story that would seem to be inspired by his own life, we find ourselves more disinterested than in previous films. Naturally, we take that feeling and channel it into several off-topic tangents! Mobile games that no one has ever played! Debates over covering Avatar: Fire and Ash! Something about a comedian named James Carr! And also, quite possibly the most diabolical Would You Rather scenario of all time.

Brooks follow-up to Defending Your Life is a smaller, simpler movie about what gets passed on from mother to son. As two sons of two mothers, we have some takes! While this is ultimately perhaps the least-relatable to us of this miniseries, we still discuss Albert Brooks and Debbie Reynolds’ chemistry, the multiple references to movies we’ve covered on this show, off-brand Snickers, document storage, calling your mother, and of course, all the mediocre songs in Mary Poppins.

As Ari Aster put it, Defending Your Life is “the feel-good movie for people who identify as feeling routinely bad.” Albert Brooks vision of the afterlife may be fully realized and wondrous, but it’s what it has to say about our own plane of existence that is really profound. We discuss everything about it, along with what clips would play at our own trials, the one or two poorly aged jokes, and how Henry almost died this week.

This week we talk about Lost in America, the mid-life crisis movie to end all mid-life crisis movies. Albert Brooks is skewering baby boomers who watched Easy Rider one too many times, and we’re asking the big questions. What age do you have to be to consider it a “mid-life” crisis? How much is the nest egg in 2025 dollars? What’s the deal with New York, New York? Could you live in a Winnebago long-term? And what’s the right age to watch Airplane?

Picture a man. Now give him all of the worst, most awful (non-violent) possessive traits you can imagine. Now picture a movie all about this man, and you might have something approximating Albert Brooks’ sophomore feature, Modern Romance. This damning indictment of the modern dating man was written decades before terms like “toxic masculinity” entered our everyday vocabulary, and for that reason it has an almost timeless quality to its satire. In between groaning over this man, we also discuss the fun meta filmmaking scenes, the terrible DVD cover, and how much Henry’s couch looks like the one in the movie.

Today we embark on a journey through the comedies of Albert Brooks. His first film, 1979’s Real Life, is a wonderful send up of reality TV, a genre of entertainment that effectively didn’t even exist yet! We discuss the myriad of ways this movie was ahead of it’s time, the interconnected web of alt comedians in this time period, a few embarrassing film blinds spots we still have, and of course, the Jumbotron CEO.

We’re taking one last dip into the Coens filmography with Ethan and Tricia’s new film Honey Don’t! This may not exactly be a "great" movie, but it’s enough of a step-up from Drive-Away Dolls that we both walked away somewhat impressed. We share our observations on audience reactions, IMDb plot keyword sickos, the hottest new addictive mobile game, and how we can no longer trust our own moviegoing opinions.

Tony Scott’s 2009 remake of The Taking of Pelham 123 is unfortunately the kind of remake that has all the edges sanded off. What was once a story about corruption and scorn in the hearts of all men has been retooled into a tale of just two men, one on a righteous path and the other tumbling down the crime-ridden ravine. Are they different? Are they the same? What was Henry’s secret agenda from last week? Why did Bill Clinton endorse Cuomo? And what the hell is MovieIQ?!

Our shortest miniseries to date focuses on two films, the original from the 1970s and the remake in the late aughts. This week we’re talking about 1974’s The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, the original story of criminals hijacking a New York subway car. Samuel read the book, and he’s disturbed! Henry heard the dialogue, and he’s delighted! We discuss the flavorful style of this movie, from the performances to the music, and tease a secret agenda behind this miniseries…

Now that we’re done with the movies Joel and Ethan Coen made together, we move on to the “solo” projects. We already covered The Tragedy of Macbeth last year as part of our Denzel Washington miniseries, so it’s on to Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls, a lesbian road comedy made with his wife Tricia Cooke. This movie (which we both found to be equal parts strange, funny, and bad) has its fair share of topic starters, so please enjoy our unhinged discussion on character actor cameos, southern accents, lesbian bars, and, of course, dildos. Way more dildo discussion than you would probably expect.

This week we discuss the final (?) film Joel and Ethan Coen made together, a western anthology that is tonally all over the place. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs may not be our favorite movie from the two brothers, but there is something remarkable about seeing all their styles and themes blended into six particular stories. In this tangent-filled episode we also discuss Detroit: Become Human, the origins of Samuel’s caffeine addictions, if Kevin Costner and James Cameron will ever get to finish their passion projects, an update to our Coens Tonal Alignment Chart, and our final rankings of their entire collaborative filmography.

As far as Hollywood send-ups go, Hail, Caesar! is pretty good. As far as Coen brothers movies go, Hail, Caesar! is… well, it’s near the bottom of our rankings. That’s not to say that this star-studded satire isn’t worth your time, it’s just, eh… we haven’t an opinion. On this episode we also get into Henry’s secret undercover job, Spielberg’s forgotten WWII film, and Hobie’s failure to keep it so simple.

This week we need no carpet on our floor. Come along and follow us as we talk about Inside Llewyn Davis, a love letter to the early 60s folk scene that is also one of the Coens most well-crafted stories. So don’t miss the train we’re on, don’t know that we’re gone, listen on as we discuss the film and go on tangents about what the best desserts are, Samuel’s hot (or not hot!) takes on leftovers, the eternal battle of Beyonce vs. Taylor Swift, and of course, Shachtmanism.

It’s time to go back to the Wild West and discuss the western masterpiece True Grit. The Coen brothers’ second film based on a novel is another grounded no-nonsense work of adaptation, but they still find plenty of avenues to insert their own unique voice. In between comparing this to the (great) Charles Portis novel, we also discuss Hailee Steinfeld’s wonderful performance, Carter Burwell’s effective score, leaf blowers, the unconditional affection of snakes, and how much you have to drink before you can call yourself an alcoholic.

Today’s Coen brothers film is perhaps their most idiosyncratic, an enigmatic and existential nightmare with more questions than answers. And while A Serious Man grapples with the hard-hitting questions as to the nature of our universe, we’re asking the really stupid ones! What’s the optimal office cubicle setup? Why are TV antennas not a solved problem? And what’s that movie where a character is a secretary but they actually call it something else and that’s part of it?

This week we’re getting in a run and talking about the raw intelligence with Burn After Reading, Joel and Ethan's zany follow-up to No Country for Old Men that remains a somewhat under-seen gem. Between the dancing gifs, wacky performances, and memorable lines, this is a very iconic movie that’s near and dear to both Henry and Samuel. So buckle up, keep an eye on everyone, and report back to us when it makes sense. After all, we’re not set up to mold hard rubber.