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 135 - UNBREAKABLE

As Hollywood was still casting a wary eye upon superhero films, along came a movie that unapologetically embraced the language of comic books to tell a cinematic story. Unbreakable is still one of the moodiest superhero movies ever: deliberate, somber, and whisper-quiet with a pair of stars playing against type, it stands as perhaps the apotheosis of M. Night Shyamalan's unsettling modern parables.

Sam Stovold and Kev Young join us to ponder the implications of real-life superpowers and an extended Shyamalan-iverse in an episode that ends with a shocking twist! (Or does it...?)

Unbreakable (2000)
Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Produced by Barry Mendel, Sam Mercer, and M. Night Shyamalan
Starring Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Wright, Spencer Treat Clark, Chance Kelly, and Charlayne Woodard

Episode 89 - PLANET OF THE APES (2001)

Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake is the orphan of the erstwhile sci-fi franchise, a film made with great expense and expectations that failed to re-ignite the public's interest in simian social allegories. Yet it is also a triumph of technical craft, and pays homage to its predecessors in its total commitment to immersing the viewer in a primeval, primate-dominated world.

Sam Stovold joins us for an analysis of this much-debated Apes installment, helping us praise its performances, question its themes, and attempt to explain its idiosyncratic approach to time travel.

Planet of the Apes (2001)
Directed by Tim Burton
Produced by Richard D. Zanuck
Written by William Broyles, Jr. & Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal
Based on Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti, Estella Warren, Kris Kristofferson, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa