Episode 75 - ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

Following the lead of last year's panel discussion of The Force Awakens, WWWW strikes back with another all-star roundtable devoted to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the latest silver screen tale to emerge from our favorite far, far away galaxy.

We're joined by our ragtag crew of Blythe Borders-Ashe, Daniel Borders-Ashe, and Eric Wheeler to debate the merits of this new frontier in franchise expansion. It's a lively back-and-forth on a surprisingly controversial film, with takes hotter than the sauna at Darth Vader's Mustafar castle. And though we may all be divided on Rogue One's successes and shortcomings, there is something that truly unites us: the Force is with us, and we are one with the Force.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Directed by Gareth Edwards
Produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Allison Shearmur, and Simon Emanuel
Written by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy
Story by John Knoll and Gary Whitta
Based on characters created by George Lucas
Starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Mads Mikkelsen, Riz Ahmed, Alan Tudyk, and Forest Whitaker

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

Episode 30 - D2: THE MIGHTY DUCKS

Disney's Mighty Ducks franchise re-invented the moribund "ragtag youth sports" genre for the 1990s, sanding off the edges of the protean and profane Bad News Bears and kid-ifying the wild wooliness of adult entertainments like Slap Shot and Bull Durham.

But of the many lessons children learned from the most lovable peewee hockey team in Minnesota - believing in yourself, working hard, and being true to who you are - none of them could boast the incredible stakes introduced in the second film, which doused the series' inspirational fire with a can of jingoistic kerosene.

Just in time for the 4th of July, special guest Lindsay Marie Mead joins us to look back at how D2: The Mighty Ducks and Team USA imprinted our minds with formative images of national pride, ethnic and regional stereotypes, and amazing female goaltenders who only get to play for 30 seconds of an entire tournament.

D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994)
Directed by Sam Weisman
Produced by Jon Avnet and Jordan Kerner
Written by Steven Brill
Starring Emilio Estevez, Kathryn Erbe, Carsten Norgaard, Joshua Jackson, and Kenan Thompson

Episode 27 - CAMP NOWHERE

Camp Nowhere is a product of every kid's dream about that one perfect summer - that if we just had the time and resources, we could turn those three school-free months into something worth remembering forever.

In this case, it means taking over a former hippie commune and turning it into a playpen of Super Soakers, Jetskis, and electric guitar solos, all in the name of non-specific, PG-rated '90s rebellion.  Christopher Lloyd adds to the film's far-out vibe by re-imagining his iconic Taxi burnout Reverend Jim as a former flower child who doubles as a kind of camp counselor/enabler of unsupervised minors.

Also, Brian Rudloff returns to the show to share his own memories of cinematic summertime bliss, and to help us decide if Camp Nowhere is more than a typical wish fulfillment fantasy.

Camp Nowhere (1994)
Directed by Jonathan Prince
Produced by Michael Peyser
Written by Andrew Kurtzman and Eliot Wald
Starring Jonathan Jackson, Andrew Keegan, Marnette Patterson, Melody Kay, Wendy Makkena, M. Emmet Walsh, and Christopher Lloyd

Episode 6 - LITTLE GIANTS

How prescient is Little Giants?  It's a movie about a ragtag peewee football team that eerily touches on several hot-button topics in the college and pro game: scurrilous recruiting, the glorification of hostile masculinity, and the spread offense.  It's no wonder it would essentially be remade six years later, with adults, as The Replacements.

How dated is Little Giants?  It's got concussion jokes.  It mercilessly makes fun of the fat kid.  Every camcorder in the film is only slightly smaller than a ghettoblaster.  It assumes the audience still recognizes John Madden as an actual football coach.

All this, plus the complexities of Icebox as a ‘90s feminist icon, in this week’s episode.


Little Giants (1994)
Directed by Duwayne Dunham
Produced by Arne Schmidt
Written by James Ferguson & Robert Shallcross and Tommy Swerdlow & Michael Goldberg
Starring Rick Moranis, Ed O'Neill, Shawna Waldron, and Devon Sawa