Movie Schmovie

Steve, Ron, and John take a trip back to Haddonfield, Illinois for the last time—three more times! It’s all in the name of wrapping up their Halloween Watch-em-all mini-series with coverage of the trilogy of (as of now) final installments in this curiously durable but certainly tired franchise, all directed by David Gordon Green: Halloween, Halloween Kills, and Halloween Ends.

Ron, Steve, and John try to keep their zoo open by watching Fierce Creatures, the 1997 comedy that attempted to repeat the success of A Fish Called Wanda. They also enthuse about Jeremy Saulnier’s new Netflix thriller, Rebel Ridge, and Ronald and John share some thoughts on that hit Beetlejuice sequel.

The guys check out experimental true crime semi-doc The Speedway Murders, which combines dramatic reenactments, talking head interviews, and speculative footage, and then dig into a couple of equally experimental recent horror films: Cuckoo and Strange Darling.

Steve, Ron, and John take a look at two new releases: an animated adaptation of the first half of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s seminal graphic novel, Watchmen, and the latest entry in a franchise that keeps on kicking (and hugging faces and dripping acid blood), Alien: Romulus.

As often happens, the title of the eppy says it all. This time Ron, Steve, and John endure and /or enjoy the next four Halloween sequels in their summer-long Watch-em-all commitment: 1998’s Halloween H20, aka the return of franchise heroine Jamie Lee Curtis as prototypical final girl Laurie Strode—and then three other movies, one of which features Busta Rhymes using kung fu on Michael Myers. Welcome to DangerTainment!

The guys discuss perhaps the bleakest animated talking animal movie ever made, Martin Rosen’s The Plague Dogs (1982), before moving on to the much cheerier subject of incestuous royals engaged in bloody civil war, aka the second season finale of House of the Dragon. Then Steve and John try to escape their ambivalence about M Night Shyamalan’s latest mid-budget thriller, Trap.

John mislabels a boy band, Ron is suspicious of Robert Downey, Jr’s intentions, and Steve is all in on Hugh Jackman. Come for the Required Viewing pick (the intensely violent hostage/revenge thriller known as Kill) and stay for three grown men having a (gasp!) reasonable conversation about the MCU. It can be done!

Saddle up and join in as Ronald, Steve and John hit the trail for a week’s worth of television and film offerings. We’ve got Westerns and Comics and Galaxies far, far away… OH MY!

Ron, Steve, and John return to the ongoing Watch-em-all series with the next three installments in the Halloween franchise, 1988’s Halloween 4: The Curse of Michael Myers, 1989’s Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, and, from 1995, Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers. It would be simplistic to say that the quality declines as this trilogy of films proceeds, and it would also be correct.

The guys talk about 2022’s “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” the Nicolas Cage action buddy comedy John chose as this week’s Required Viewing. Then the trailer for Robert Zemeckis’s upcoming effects-driven, time-spanning drama, Here, is discussed. Ronald also digs into his recent physical media purchases, and somewhere in there we call it a show.