Full Cast And Crew

Well, it's come to this. Was it curiosity? Was is discovery? A sense of completism? Oxygen deprivation? Whatever it was, I've now watched '2010: The Year We Make Contact' and I leave it for you to decide whether I'm any better for it.

We've come to the end...or is it the beginning? This is part 4 of my series of episodes about the emotional and intellectual contact Stanley Kubrick made between movie-goers and his epic science-fiction film of 1968. Here's the amazing mashup between Pink Floyd's 'Echoes' and the final sequence of 2001. Please sign up for my newsletter if you haven't; it's free and filled with random recommendations based on what I'm reading, watching and listening to on a given week. Some of it podcast-adjacent and some totally unrelated.

In Part 3, I geek out into how incredible and evocative the HAL sequences are in this film; what an amazing sense of character and personality Kubrick creates through the use of Doug Rain's iconic, best-in-class voiceover and the varying cutaways to HAL's electronic eye in scenes featuring the computer. Be sure to check out my other episodes covering the other sections of 2001. Next up: THE STAR GATE sequence in Jupiter And Beyond The Infinite.

In part 2 of my four-part series on 2001, I am going through the TMA-1 (Tycho Magnetic Anomaly One) sequence in which Dr. Haywood Floyd of "The Council" visits the International Space Station, diverts some Russian scientist attentions, presents a specious, US Governmental coverup of the Clavius discovery to a group of cowed committee members, and then embarks to Clavius base on the Moon to visit the Monolith. This sequence famously uses Johann Strauss' 'The Blue Danube' as well as additional modern pieces by Ligeti. Here's the hilarious video making fun of the exposition scenes in the latest Mission Impossible movie. Tom, we kid because we love! Check out my totally free newsletter. It's full of recommendations and podcast-adjacent ephemera. Also it's a place to hear from you!

The first of my four-part series on Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' covers some introductory approach notes and the first sequence in the film: 'The Dawn Of Man'. In these episodes I want to avoid a nerdy technical discussion about how the filmmakers did what they did in this extraordinary, still-vital film masterpiece and instead focus on the remarkable ability of the film to inspire thoughts and feelings in its viewers. For a bibliography of resources consulted in the research of these episodes, check out my 6/13 newsletter for links to materials you might find of interest.

I'd never seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre before this episode. I had also never seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre II. Regrets, I have a few. And this apparent chainsaw-sized hole in my film-going life is at the heart the Brad Caleb Kane Experiment In Terror that are our Cannon Fodder series of episodes. Find out what happened in this chaotic mess of an episode.

Cannon Fodder continues! John Frankenheimer finds himself directing for Cannon Films with Roy Scheider starring in Elmore Leonard's own adaptation of his 1974 novel 52 Pickup. Watch 52 Pickup on Prime before it leaves this weekend. Watch the excellent Cannon Films/Golan Globus unauthorized documentary Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films Watch King Cohen, the Larry Cohen documentary, featuring Martin Scorcese. Listen to my episode on Roy Scheider's brilliant performance in All That Jazz. Subscribe to my newsletter, [indistinct chatter], it contains recommendations for movies, music, tv shows, books, and musings on popular culture and the events of the given day. It's free. Listen to the first Cannon Fodder episode about the Charles Bronson flick 10 to Midnight, with my special guest, Brad Kane.

In this week's episode it's the debut of 'Cannon Fodder', a recurring series of episodes where I watch a curated selection of films made by schlockmeisters Golan/Globus in the 1980's for their Cannon Film Group, one of the most entertaining production shingles you'll ever hear or see. In Brad's view, he is a man of the people's cinema and I am a high-minded, opinionated cinephile. Duly diagnosed, I agreed to expand my horizons under Brad's careful tutelage. The result is either an epic argument or filled with surprises...or both. Here's a great must-see documentary about the "Go-Go Boys" as they're known. Here's some info about my frequent guest Brad Kane. Watch '10 to Midnight' Here's the Cannon Group's wiki page.

For the hardest of the hardcore Full Cast and Crew Smiley Heads out there...as promised, here are the Tinker Tailor commentary tracks. Wasn't sure how folks would consume there: would you benefit from a countdown timed to the episodes on YouTube so you can watch and listen? Or will you just listen to these like a normal episode without watching along? LMK and if I can tweak the format to help out on the subsequent commentaries I will.

Long before 'Waiting For Guffman', Christopher Guest directed 'The Big Picture', a heartfelt, hilariously incisive movie about making movies. The film was greenlit during British film executive David Puttnam's brief tenure running Columbia Pictures. Co-written by Guest's 'Spinal Tap' co-star Michael McKean, who also turns in an unexpectedly warm and heartfelt performance, 'The Big Picture' is worthy of rediscovery for its impressively spot-on send-up of both Los Angeles and the studio executives who populate the business. The film stars Kevin Bacon, McKean, J.T. Walsh, Emily Longstreth, an uncredited Martin Short, Fran Drescher, Jennifer Jason Leigh. You can watch the film here. I've launched a newsletter that contains recommendations for movies, tv shows, books, podcasts, and music and you can subscribe and check out last week's issue here. Or here: https://mailchi.mp/d32d4f0985fa/indistinct-chatter

Ryan Coogler's original film 'Sinners' defied the so-called conventional wisdom of Hollywood and dropped only 6% week-to-week in its box office performance. It was also the subject of a fascinating online discourse about how the film's box office performance was written about in industry media. In this episode I recount the online controversy surrounding some of the reporting on the film and give you my own take on having seen the film. Enjoy! The McKinsey Report mentioned in the podcast: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/black-representation-in-film-and-tv-the-challenges-and-impact-of-increasing-diversity

'Caddyshack', it turns out, is kind of a miracle of last-minute producer-led stitching together and salvaging, resulting in one of the more quotable films in comedy history. Hard to believe that at the time, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, and Rodney Dangerfield were not yet the massive film stars they'd become as a result of this movie. This episode delves into the coke-fueled nonstop party that was this film's production, a production that would contribute to the untimely death of co-writer Doug Kenney on a cliff in Hawaii where he'd gone to dry out. Doug's death was one of the first casualties of this scene due to drugs, soon followed by John Belushi's.

Why doesn't anyone believe me when I say I loved going to see this movie??

An episode in memoriam of Val Kilmer, who died this week. Mentioned in this episode: 'Val', the excellent, moving, insightful, thoughtful documentary compiled from decades of Val Kilmer's home movies. 'Tombstone' is many people's favorite Kilmer film. 'Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's The Island of Dr. Moreau' is a fantastic making-of-a-trainwreck documentary about one of the most hilariously troubled film sets in Hollywood history. Watch 'Heat'. It's always good for you. Enjoy Val as Gay Perry in Shane Black's 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'. One of the best 80's comedies is 'Real Genius'. Read the Digital Renegade newsletter.

Don Simpson was one-half of one of the most successful production partnerships in Hollywood history. His reality-distortion-field helped bring about films like Flashdance, Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, The Rock, Crimson Tide, and Days of Thunder, films that collectively grossed more than $3 billion dollars. Don Simpson's life is a cautionary tale with an ignominious ending forever ensconced in Hollywood history. His appetite for drugs, prostitutes, plastic surgery, black Levi's 501 jeans (worn once and discarded), wrecking Porsches, pharmacology, peanut butter, and pizza got the best of him at age 52. Listen in for the outrageous tale of how a pudgy kid from Alaska talked his way into transforming big-budget Hollywood blockbusters for a new decade. LINKS: Buy my guest Charles Fleming's definitive book about Hollywood in the 80's, High Concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood Culture of Excess. Don & Jerry on Charlie Rose, less than a year before Don's death. A pretty good but exploitational multi-part tv documentary about Don Simpson. Now-cancelled Hollywood gadfly James Toback's 'The Big Bang', starring Don.

What does it say about your favorite podcast host that he considers the 1979 BBC adaptation of John le Carre's seminal espionage novel 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' to be COMFORT VIEWING?? Nonetheless, as Smiley would say, there we are. In this episode, curiously one in which I am still totally unresolved as to how best to approach this series in episodic fashion, I explore the myriad genius aspects of the production.

Considering the versatile, endlessly watchable and iconic American actor Gene Hackman.

HERE IT IS! Your most-anticipated episode of the year.

I'm joined by David Schumann of the IG and YouTube accounts @vhsrevolution as we each offer up our Top Five out of the 10 Best Picture Nominees ahead of Sunday night's Academy Awards telecast. And yes, I will be doing my Postmortem Recap episode following the broadcast. Follow David on Instagram here. Check out David's YouTube Channel here.

Here's the third of my episodic trilogy about George Roy Hill's films 'Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid', 'The Sting', and, now: 1977's 'Slap Shot'.