"Episode 184" - JOEL SCHUMACHER'S BATMAN FOREVER

When an auteur filmmaker's ambitious vision is compromised by the Hollywood studio system, what's the right thing to do? Demand a do-over, of course! And thanks to years of persistent pleas from fans everywhere, we finally get to experience our generation's defining DC comic book movie event the way its creator intended.

That's right, we have seen the Schumacher Cut of Batman Forever... What? Were you expecting something else?

Guests from our theatrical cut episode Gensho Tasaka and Eric Wheeler re-enter the Batcave to debate all the changes, from the Flying Graysons singing an Icelandic sea shanty to the controversial inclusion of Mark Hamill as the Joker in that weird nightmare sequence. Brian Rudloff and Sam Stovold also join the roundtable, bringing not-so-trivial expertise from their own Batman Forever podcast (bafflingly titled Marvel Star Wars Explorers). 

Holy April Fool's Day, Batman! We wish! 

#ReleaseTheSchumacherCut

Episode 165 - ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN

Arriving to mixed reception upon release and with stiff competition from a juggernaut of the Disney canon, All Dogs Go to Heaven is a film whose dark sensibilities nonetheless left an indelible mark on young minds of a certain age. But you can't keep these good dogs down, as further examination unearths the occasional moments of haunting beauty contained in this uneven exploration of life, death and resurrection.

Does an intersection between the strong creative voice of Don Bluth and comedic stylings of Burt Reynolds and Dom De Luise make any kind of sense on screen? What exactly are the religious implications of Charlie's ascent to, and rejection of, heaven? And why in the world is there a singing alligator in this movie? Guest hosts Brian Rudloff and Sam Stovold make music together in tackling these questions and more in a very special episode that could only release on April 1st! Treasure it now, because after this you can never come baaaaack.

All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
Directed by Don Bluth
Produced by Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, and John Pomeroy
Written by David N. Weiss
Starring Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Judith Barsi, Vic Tayback, Loni Anderson, Ken Page, and Charles Nelson Reilly

"Episode 141" - SUPERMAN LIVES

In an alternate universe, a movie like Superman Lives would never have been made. Luckily for us, the stars aligned in 1998 to bring us this controversial collision between the minds of Kevin Smith and Tim Burton. The end result is what you might expect from the partnership of a garrulous geek and arty introvert: a very different kind of Superman story for the misfits of the world.

Just as Michael Keaton dusts off the batsuit for a scene-stealing cameo, our man in Gotham Gensho Tasaka returns once more to talk polar bears, giant spiders, gay robot sidekicks, and that surprisingly poignant Jay and Silent Bob scene. It's a bird! It's a plane! It's...




















...April Fool's.

Superman Lives (1998)
Directed by Tim Burton
Produced by Jon Peters
Starring Nicolas Cage, Courtney Cox, Christopher Walken, Kevin Spacey, Chris Rock, Dwight Ewell, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, and Michael Keaton

Episode 23 - STREET FIGHTER

April Fool!  It's the perfect time to debut our special "anti-podcast" feature, What Weren't We Watching, and record our thoughts on a film that somehow slipped through the cracks of our childhoods: the 1994 video game adaptation Street Fighter.

You can practically see the seams in this notoriously troubled production, which nonetheless stands as an appropriately colorful and wacky interpretation of a plot-thin game featuring a masked toreador-turned-cage fighter with metal claws and a green mutant that electrocutes people.  The movie only compounds the madness with an "American" military officer played by Jean-Claude Van Damme, numerous sartorial in-jokes, and a tone that veers between madcap and murderous.

Street Fighter (1994)

Written and directed by Steven E. de Souza

Produced by Edward R. Pressman and Kenzo Tsujimoto

Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Raúl Juliá, Ming-Na Wen, Damian Chapa, Byron Mann, Kylie Minogue, and Wes Studi