August 9

Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn, 1987

Welcome back to another edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! J. Blake and Dion Baia are in the midst of their epic, and legendary, 2019 Summer of Sequels Series, and this week the boys are taking on a cult-classic horror movie sequel, that is considered one of the best films of the genre from its time period; none other than Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn, from 1987, starring the man himself, Bruce Campbell.

The fellas get right into the nuts and bolts of this flick, laying out the back story and collaboration between Raimi and Campbell, and all the little Easter eggs and inside jokes layered within. They tap into Blake‘s expertise on the subject, as he is a huge fan of all things Bruce Campbell and particularly this series. They explain what the “Fake Shemp” is, and lament about how influential this film was at the time, and wonder how it is viewed by younger audiences today who are basically able to shoot a movie like this on their phone. So, just make sure you’re not accidentally reciting satanic rites or incantations that release any forces from Hell this week, in another enthralling and hilarious episode of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!

A big thank you this week to our sponsor, Take Care Of!

Extras!

As discussed in the podcast, check out Blake’s 2013 exclusive interview with the man, the myth, the legend himself, Bruce Campbell!

Have a listen of the boys 2015 Side-Cast Episode on Bruce Campbell, entitled the Fake Shemp!

And go take a listen to their 3rd episode of the SNMS on the Bruce Campbell 1992 classic, Mindwarp!

And please follow us on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook…@satsleepovers!

September 21

The Shadow, 1994

Welcome back to another edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! This week J. Blake and Dion Baia are celebrating their 4th anniversary of the SNMS Podcast! Keeping with the past anniversary episode themes, the boys have decided to cover the Alec Baldwin-helmed big screen production of The Shadow, from 1994!

The Shadow

Dion and Blake attempt to dissect this long-established property by going back to its roots in the Walter B. Gibson-penned pulp novels, trying to coherently lay out the different timelines of The Shadow from the radio, in print, and on both the large and small screens. They unpack the elaborate history of the man in black, drawing links to what was actually going on in the world during the early 20th century, and how the character went on to influence one of the most famous superheroes ever created.  It’s another educational, hilarious and exciting anniversary-installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!

Extras:

Check out this amazing book that Blake referenced in the cast, called The Shadow Scrapbook, published in 1979!

Take a look at some of this incredible artwork right out of Blake’s stash in the SNMS Archives, of The Shadow!

As Dion and Blake have proudly endorsed in the past, to begin your journey exploring the labyrinth of Old Time Radio, click here.

And to check out the The Shadow Radio Program directly, click here!

November 4

The Bruce Campbell Podcast – SNMS Presents: Side-Cast: The Fake Shemp

SNMS Side CastA brand new addition to the Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers rotation is the Podcast that started it all, Dion and Blake‘s Side-Cast. Originally airing on the sister site Podwits.com, the Side-Cast was the catalyst for what became SNMS. To showcase where it all began we are reissuing this series, highlighting the anthology podcast that covered a variety of topics, so they can breath a second life, and because eventually it will be a new off-shoot of the regular SNMS Podcast, where brand new podcast content will be generated for SNMS website.

(This podcast was originally published on July the 30th of 2014, we hope you enjoy!)

Dion and J. Blake are back for an all new, exciting episode of The Podwits’ Side Cast! The topic today is the man, the myth, the legend…. Bruce Campbell; and all things Mr. Campbell! The boys get into the nitty-gritty and talk about his mainstream successes like The Evil Dead and Burn Notice, but also get into some lesser known gems like Moon Trap, Running Time and Crime Wave, and even some forget beauties like The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.and Bubba Ho-Tep. A mandatory listen for any Campbell or Raimi fan, or any Film fan for that matter!!! Come on down and have a listen!

Footnotes:

Please check out J. Blake’s exclusive interview with the man himself, Bruce Campbell!

Have a listen to SNMS Podcast on Campbell‘s 1992 classic Mindwarp !

May 8

Hard Target, 1993

Welcome to another edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! This week J. Blake and Dion Baia delve way into the video racks and bring out a long-forgotten classic from the early 1990’s back when long, wet mullets were in style, and we didn’t question when villains were able to acquire scores of loyal and nameless henchmen with automatic weapons. Of course we’re talking the 1993 Jean-Claude Van Damme film Hard Target, which also debuted badass Action director John Woo to the Western Hemisphere.

Hard Target, 1993

The “Muscles From Brussels” puts in a Grade A performance in this entry into the sub-subgenre of hunting-men-for-sport films. The boys get into the career of JCVD, and talk about his highs and lows (the controversy of his off-screen beefs with other actors and the debate about his actual martial art ability, and the fascination he has for having twins in many of his films), and the age-old burning question of everyone’s minds: it is a slyly disguised mullet or just slicked-back long hair here? Hmmm…   And how awesome are Lance Henriksen and Wilfred Brimley in this movie? And what’s a Zanenabe? We got a lot going on in another exciting and highly informative episode of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!

Here is the original source material for what has begot practically an entire subgenre of film, the short story The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell (which Dion mistakenly referred to as ‘The Deadliest Game” in the cast).

Check out pre-fame JCVD (in the black tank-top and short, tight biker shorts) as he busts-a-move in the 1984 film Breakin’.

Have a look at this behind the scenes making of Hard Target.

Take a gander at a link to some deleted scenes from the film.

 

September 22

5 Rentals for $5 – 1990s Superhero Movies

As a quick preface to this post (and future posts), my local video store growing up, Captain Video in Cohoes NY, used to have a sweet deal where you could rent five old releases for five dollars for five days. Great deal right? Well as you can imagine, this deal came in handy for many a sleepover growing up…where you’d fire up the VCR and watch movies until your eyes just couldn’t stay open any longer. So “5 Rentals for $5” will be a recurring feature where we here at Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers will provide lists of five movies that would make for an awesome themed sleepover.

On with the show….

punisherposterThough Mark Goldblatt’s The Punisher was originally released internationally in 1989, alongside Tim Burton’s mega-blockbuster Batman, it didn’t find its way to the USA until 1991; making it an ideal sleepover rental for the (then) tweens of Dion’s and my generation. Because we are currently thought of as being in the midst of the “era” of the superhero film, it is easy to forget that the success of 1989’s Batman ushered in an entire decade of films focusing on masked heroes, mutant turtles and Power Rangers. So for those of you longing to get a little nostalgic or simply just looking to do a anthropological study about what primitive man watched during the Silver Age of home video, here’s a list of just five of the superhero films that the 90s had to offer that may be worth a revisit.
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