Episode 194 - AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME / GOLDMEMBER

Yeah, baby! We get groovy with Nate Tapp in a special Shags-giving episode as we feast on the two sequel installments of Mike Myers' spy spoof trilogy. From Mini-Me to the Mole, it's a shagadelic spread fit for a Fat Bastard. Oh behave!

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
Directed by Jay Roach
Written by Michael McCullers and Mike Myers
Starring Mike Myers, Heather Graham, Michael York, Robert Wagner, Rob Lowe, Mindy Sterling, Seth Green, and Verne Troyer

Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)

Written by Michael McCullers and Mike Myers

Starring Mike Myers, Beyoncé Knowles, Michael York, Robert Wagner, Seth Green, Mindy Sterling, Verne Troyer, Fred Savage, and Michael Caine

Episode 192 - FIGHT CLUB

Whether you consider it a haymaker of socio-political satire or a manual for radicalizing restless young men, Fight Club clearly knows how to land some punches. Grimy yet seductive, the movie has become startlingly prescient in presenting what once seemed like an extreme response to economic and spiritual crisis. It's too bad the rules say we can't actually talk about it...

Sean Davis meets us at a very strange time in our lives, as we give a blow-by-blow of the mischief, mayhem, and (subliminal?) meanings of Fight Club.

Fight Club (1999)

Directed by David Fincher
Written by Jim Uhls
Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk
Starring Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, Jared Leto, and Meat Loaf

Episode 109 - THE MATRIX

The Matrix is a movie all about different kinds of awakenings, destined to trigger imaginations with its effective mix of heady themes, classic drama, and stylized action. Its groundbreaking visuals and mind-bending flourishes set the tone for a decade of blockbuster cinema, and its depiction of a human society tranquilized by technology still resonates today.

Special guest Andrew McNally joins the show to upload some especially fascinating insights on politics, philosophy, and Laurence Fishburne's dusty head. Come along as we finally awaken from our embryonic state of blindness, and find out how deep this rabbit hole goes.

The Matrix (1999)
Written and directed by the Wachowskis
Produced by Joel Silver
Starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Gloria Foster, and Hugo Weaving

Follow the white rabbit to our Matrix content:
The Matrix
The Matrix Reloaded
The Animatrix
The Matrix Revolutions

Episode 82 - 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU

To an American high school student, few writers seem as imposingly archaic as William Shakespeare. Yet ol' Billy Shakes understood, perhaps better than anyone else, the romantic warfare that is a quintessential part of the teenage experience. That feisty, melodramatic spirit animates the backbiting and bon mots of 10 Things I Hate About You, a memorable part of the Bard's cinematic renaissance in the 1990s.

Guest host Lindsay Marie Mead is our prom date for this lighthearted story of accidental infatuation adapted from The Taming of the Shrew, which updates the timeless tale with prescient casting, wacky interpretations of high school clichés, and a healthy dose of rock 'n roll girl power.

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
Directed by Gil Junger
Produced by Andrew Lazar and Jody Hedien
Written by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith
Based on The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
Starring Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, Andrew Keegan, David Krumholtz, Gabrielle Union, Susan May Pratt, Allison Janney, Daryl Mitchell, and Larry Miller

Episode 64 - THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT

A shrewd blend of the old and the new made The Blair Witch Project a polarizing phenomenon and a runaway box office hit in the summer of 1999. It was a nearly ancient story--naive young people get lost in the spooky woods--dressed up in a fresh (at the time) found footage approach, implying through its first-person perspective and savvy marketing that this time, the horror was real.

But are the gimmicks that turned Blair Witch into one of the most successful independent films of all time still as effective after so many imitators made its innovations seem trite and commonplace? We gird ourselves to experience the worst student film shoot ever and search for meaning in this infamous cinematic experiment.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez
Produced by Robin Cowie and Gregg Hale
Written by Jacob Cruse and Eduardo Sanchez
Starring Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard

Episode 52 - WILD WILD WEST

In this episode we go way, way back--not just back to an alternate-history version of the American West, but also back to the retrograde masculinity and offensive sophomoric humor of pop culture in...well, in almost any time, sadly.

An unholy alliance of ego-stroking and trend-chasing can explain much of Wild Wild West, the film that finally gave Jon Peters the giant spider he always wanted. But is the movie the right kind of dumb juvenile fun?

We peel back the layers of Wild Wild West's steampunk aesthetic and latent homoeroticism in a scintillating debate, including a bonus discussion of the music video for Will Smith's iconic contribution to the film's soundtrack. So swallow your pride, don't let your lip react, and enjoy this wild, wild What Were We Watching!

Wild Wild West (1999)
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
Produced by Jon Peters and Barry Sonnenfeld
Written by S.S. Wilson & Brent Maddock and Jeffrey Price & Peter S. Seaman
Based on "The Wild Wild West" created by Michael Garrison
Starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Salma Hayek, M. Emmet Walsh, Bai Ling, and Ted Levine

Episode 51 - GALAXY QUEST

On Christmas Day in 1999, at the height of anxiety over the "Y2K Problem" in which technology might finally have been our undoing, Galaxy Quest was released in theaters to remind audiences of a more optimistic vision of the future worthy of Gene Roddenberry. Not only did the film parody Star Trek the franchise, but Star Trek the phenomenon, lovingly sending up every element from the real-life drama between cast members to the culture of fandom the series helped create.

Trekspert Charles Benimoff returns to the podcast to lend us some context and to argue why Galaxy Quest deserves to be an honorary part of the Star Trek canon, if only to keep that pesky even-odd curse firmly intact... By Grabthar's hammer, what an episode!

Galaxy Quest (1999)
Directed by Dean Parisot
Produced by Mark Johnson and Charles Newirth
Written by David Howard and Robert Gordon
Starring Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, Daryl Mitchell, Enrico Colantoni, Missi Pyle, and Justin Long

Episode 47 - CRUEL INTENTIONS

Frothy literary adaptations for teen audiences were all the rage in the '90s (Clueless, She's All That, 10 Things I Hate About You), but the venomous Cruel Intentions operates on a different, nastier level. Transporting the sensual decadence and moral decay of 18th-century French aristocracy to the bourgeoisie of late 20th-century Manhattan, the film is refreshingly frank in its casual deception of seductive mind games and sexual expectations.

But is there any redeeming quality in the sleazy subject matter, or is titillation the only goal? We'll find out as we celebrate Valentine's Day with a tale of malice and manipulation in the name of love.

Cruel Intentions (1999)
Written and directed by Roger Kumble
Produced by Neal H. Moritz
Based on the novel Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair, Sean Patrick Thomas, Joshua Jackson, Swoozie Kurtz, and Christine Baranski

Episode 41 - THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH

Cool gadgets, big stunts, beautiful women, and cheesy puns - these are the talismans of the five decade-plus James Bond franchise, the magic items that sustain its singular mojo as it subsumes and exhausts nearly every significant cinematic trend of the past half-century.

On the cusp of the new millennium--during a time of serious transition in the action genre--The World Is Not Enough appeared to be one final throwback to this classical style of Bond filmmaking.  Charles Benimoff joins the podcast to discuss whether TWINE is simply a perfunctory game of Bond trope bingo, or if it has something more to offer underneath its familiar trappings.

The World Is Not Enough (1999)

Directed by Michael Apted

Produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli

Written by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein

Starring Pierce Brosnan, Sophie Marceau, Robert Carlyle, Denise Richards, Robbie Coltrane, Judi Dench, and Desmond Llewelyn

Episode 10 - STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE

Where were you in '99?  If you were like us, you were on the Internet gobbling up every morsel of information and hearsay about the first installment of a new Star Wars saga, eagerly speculating how it would echo and expand upon the original trilogy.

It's safe to say that few were expecting what was in store for us: a weird mishmash of Jar Jar and Jake Lloyd, parliamentary motions and midi-chlorians.  But that's what makes The Phantom Menace a uniquely fascinating film.  It's one of the most idiosyncratic mega-blockbusters ever made, and perhaps the last massively commercial film that so deeply expressed a singular creative vision.

Our friend and fellow Lucasfilm obsessive Eric Wheeler joins our expansive discussion of Episode I, the first installment of a plan to cover all six Star Wars films before the series returns to theaters in 2015.  (We're scattering them over a whole year to avoid Force fatigue.)  The hour-plus episode is our longest and most absorbing conversation yet as we take our first steps into the mercurial mind of George Lucas.

Now this is podcasting!

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
Written and directed by George Lucas
Produced by Rick McCallum
Starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ahmed Best, and Ian McDiarmid

Check out the rest of our series on the Star Wars saga:
Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Episode IV: A New Hope
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Episode VII: The Force Awakens
Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

Solo: A Star Wars Story
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Star Wars: Clone Wars
Star Wars Holiday Special
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure