Welcome back to another exciting edition of the Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! Dion Baia and J. Blake are doing a double feature this week, covering a forgotten but classic franchise, F/X from 1986 and FX2 from 1991, both starring Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy. The boys discuss the many legendary character actors who fill out both movies, and amazing premise that has become a common theme on the podcast, the fascination movie audiences had/have with practical SFXs—specifically makeup FXs; and the terrific rollercoaster rides these films take us on. So come reminisce about 2 forgotten gems on another enthralling installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
Welcome back to another all new edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers’ Summer of Sequels! This week J. Blake and Dion Baia are getting crazy with the cheese whiz, and doing an epic double-feature! They’re taking on a film that has been called the most watched movie of all time, the MGM1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz, AND its unofficial Disney sequel which has now become a cult classic, The Return to Oz, from 1985!
In their longest running podcast to date, Dion and Blake attempt to do this massive topic some justice. On the 100th anniversary of author L. Frank Baum’s death, they discuss the original book published in 1900; the fellas unpack the 1939 MGM movie that turned 80 this year; and analyze the 1985 film which people deemed too dark and scary for a Disney film, even though it was the closest rendition of the Baum material to date. They chart what is faithful to Baum‘s original work and the incredible impact his book series has had on the world. So you better hit the bathroom now and do some stretching, because this is gonna be a long one as the boys ‘ease on down that yellowbrick road with Dorothy, in an all new exciting, hilarious and informative edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
*(Okay, with a podcast this long, the boys are bound to misspeak: They accidentally referred to the 1900 bookThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz as The Wonderful World of Oz. They regret the error. Also, Dion misspoke when bringing up Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre, calling it Shelley Winters’ Faerie Tale Theatre–-which would be a completely different thing; Dion also accidentally referred to Jack Haley as the Cowardly Lion when discussing the make-up scars on Bert Lahr‘s face; and, when mentioning Deanna Durbin‘s 1945 film Lady on the Train, Dion called it The Stranger on the Train– his apologies.)
Welcome to another brand new edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! This week J. Blake and Dion Baia are celebrating a movie that’s turning 20 this year and has become a cult classic for many. The boys are going into space this go-around with the sci-fi comedy epic, Galaxy Quest, from 1999!
Dion and Blake also have named this one the “tangent” episode, as the fellas go off on some left turns, discussing seeing this in the theater together back in the day, what other films they’ve seen together, Star Trek, After School Specials––among other things. They laugh about the layers of comedy within Quest and the brilliant casting and the obvious (and not so obvious) nods to the Star Trek franchise and its fans. It’s a celebration of multiple proportions this week as the boys explore the mysteries of the Thermian’s Omega 13 device in an all new, hilarious and informative installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
We here at Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers were extremely saddened to hear about the passing of icon David Bowie, after losing his eighteen month-long battle with cancer.
Originally our plan was to open up 2016 with a podcast dedicated to our female listeners, covering a movie near and dear to the hearts of so many women who’d grown up watching and loving a 1986 film directed by Jim Henson, which if you haven’t already guessed, is Labyrinth, starring Jennifer Connelly and Mr. Bowie.
It is also the 30th anniversary of the film and along with the 69th birthday of Mr. Bowie on January 8th, we thought the Henson film would be the perfect way to open the year. So J. Blake and Dion Baia recorded this podcast in the early morning hours of Sunday the 10th, and it was not until the late evening of the same day that we along with the rest of the world heard the devastating news of his passing. We immediately decided to forego our usual format and release this podcast as we recorded it, as almost a dedication to Mr. Bowie. Certainly it is a seminal body of work for both he and Mr. Henson, which has now become a cult classic that has amassed a huge fan base worldwide. We hope you enjoy this edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers, and we’d like to extend our sincere condolences to Mr. Bowie’s family, friends and fans. RIP Mr. David Jones.
To close out the long and hot summer, J. Blake and Dion Baia have embarked on a journey that will take them out of the trailer park canyons of California and up into the galaxy to help defend the cosmos against horrifying alien evildoers who are hell-bent on, well… doing whatever they plan to do- and the key to this adventure is provided to us by one cleverly disguised, humble arcade game console. Yes, we are talking about the highly-underated 1984 film The Last Starfighter, directed by Nick Castle.
Yes Joystick Jockeys, this cult classic is hailed as the first film to showcase CGI Imagery to replace the tradition Stop-Motion and Practically Special Effects, and is sometimes forgotten for that milestone. But how does a space film in a post-Star Wars world stand out without ultimately being compared to the property that set the bar? The boys reminisce about the era of the late 1970’s and 80’s when one actually had to go out of their house and travel to a local arcade or restaurant if they wanted to socialize while gaming, and/or see the latest and greatest in video game technology vis-à-vis the big console units. Has time and the public been fair to this ground-breaking film? Can this movie actually be considered as influential as Star Wars in certain circles? And what’s this film’s 3-way connection to John Carpenter? And does Blake‘s Lance Guest story really involve a late-night encounter in the adult section of a 24-hour New York City store? Well we’re not pulling any punches on this all new edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! Inter-stellar!!
The boys are back, kicking in the door with a beloved classic for this week’s all new edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers, and it is a trip to a world of Pure Imagination, with 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Dion and Blake dig deep into the dark side and undertones of this film which, to be fair, has some pretty surprising things going on in a 1971 child’s film. Based on renowned author Roald Dahl‘s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, what evidently led to Dahl practically disowning the movie, even though he was signed on to write the screenplay? How important was the casting of Mr. Wonka in this film, and more to the point, how awesome is Gene Wilder? What about the 2005Tim Burton remake? How does that fair to this version, and what does Wilder himself thing of the ’05 version? Dion and Blake also reminisce about their own experiences in meeting the cast of this classic film. So come on down for an all-across-the-board audience favorite, in this all new installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
