Afterthoughts

On this episode of Recommend or Refute, Ryan pays tribute to the late Carl Weathers by bringing Action Jackson (1985) to the episode. John finally follows up that Black Dynamite episode we posted by talking about his experience with Michael Jai White's latest homage to Black Cinema: Outlaw Johnny Black (2023). And Dixon takes a film trip to Argentina to see how they do heist films with the The Delinquents (2023). Plus a bonus tangent about streaming services that quickly devolves into old men yelling at clouds!

John picked the movie this week, so you know it's gonna be a fuckin' doozy.  We're talking about Richard Rush's batshit crazy passion project The Stunt Man (1980).  It's full of wild stunts, zany characters, and Peter O'Toole chewing the scenery like his life depends on it.  We've never seen anything quite like this.

It's time for the roundtable roundup known as Recommend or Refute. Jump back to the 1930s as Dixon talks about the impressively risqué, precode film Baby Face (1933). Get carried away in a signature rant about The Infinity Saga (2008-2019) with Ryan. And to cap it all off, take a toke of foggy thoughts from John's recent viewing of Inherent Vice (2014). Tune to find out what John's Owen Wilson impression sounds like.

Podcaaaaastin' in the rain, podcaaaaastin' in the rain! What a glooooorious feeeeelin! I'm haaaaaapy agaaaain!

On this very 2023 edition of Recommend or Refute, Ryan rags on the overblown Y2K crisis with Timebomb Y2K (2023), John shifts into drive and off-roads his way through the new Twisted Metal (2023) series, and Dixon talks about the 4 hours of life he and John spent sitting in the corner of the 3-Star Michelin restaurant of Frederick Wiseman's Menus-Plaisirs - Les Troisgros (2023).

Join us for our second ever listener request episode! Our listener Tyler recommended that we watch the 1962 samurai classic Harakiri, and we're very glad he did. This is one of the best movies we've seen in quite a while, and we had a blast breaking down this beautiful story of class and honor in feudal Japan. If you'd like to hear our Afterthoughts on your favorite movie, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and mention the movie in your review.

On this completely unscripted episode of Recommend or Refute, Dixon brings a Frank Capra comedy You Can't Take It With You (1938) that you actually can take with you in digital or blu ray form. John talks about the well-intentioned, but weirdly muddled allegory of Pleasantville (1998), and Ryan is starts the year off right with a movie the whole family can watch (entertainment not guaranteed) as he shares his experience with the Freaky Friday spiritual successor Family Switch (2023).

It's that time of year when we look back and celebrate the best (and worst) that 2023 had to offer. Join us as we discuss our favorite episodes, 2023 releases, and older films we just discovered.

On this episode of Recommend or Refute special guest Mark (who might be a Cylon) takes to space with Battlestar Galactica (2004), Dixon publishes his spoken word review of American Fiction (2023), and John claims the sky is falling --but it's a wholesome and chill kind of falling-- in Carol & The End of World (2023).

Happy Holidays from the Afterthoughts crew!  This week we're talking about Christmas in the context of America's favorite TV cartoon family, The Simpsons.

On this episode of Recommend or Refute, the Afterthoughts crew forgoes Holiday recommendations (those are yet to come) in favor of a semi-conventional episode. John's excited to introduce you to his new friend D.A.R.Y.L. (1985) and tell you about another 1980s family movie that's not really for kids, Dixon grabs a night cap in preparation to share his thoughts on Nic Cage's latest performance in Dream Scenario (2023), and Ryan tests the limits of our format as he attempts to cram Air Bud (1997) and 8 other Air Bud Entertainment related features into this episode --WE WON'T LET HIM GET AWAY WITH IT! Well, maybe we'll let him get away with some of it.

Tune in to hear two sane men try to help another man down off the cinematic ledge that is animals playing human sports, and stick around after the usual outro to hear an extended conversation on our dream Air Bud scenario.

We're finishing our anime series with Hayao Miyazaki's career-capping triumph The Boy and the Heron (2023). Join us as we dive deep into the film's meaning and discuss its place among Miyazaki's other great works.

Ryan's gone missing, but John and Dixon are holding down the fort with two new movies each. John discusses the latest Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman (2023), as well as Mike Flanagan's new Netflix project The Fall of the House of Usher (2023). Dixon delves into some Nicolas Cage schlock with The Old Way (2023) and marvels at the tragic beauty of Lakota Nation vs. United States (2023).

This episode could have been and should have been about an entirely different film; however, fate didn't permit the discussion of our initial pick. While the decision of what to watch and discuss was left to Ryan, he went MIA somewhere on a flight over the fictional country of Parmistan. We're sure he'll be fine, but just in case we're sending in our two remaining co-hosts --Dixon and John-- to discuss their way through this totally unique and original foreign nation, all while wielding the wisdom and insights granted by the ancient, 1985 fighting techniques of Gymkata (1985). Join them as they talk about one of John's top picks from Schlocktober, the differences between contemporary action and '80s action, and mix in some Gymnastic conspiracy theories along the way.

On this round of Recommend or Refute, we've got another eclectic sampling for your consideration. Dixon talks journalism and classic Hollywood with His Girl Friday (1940), John is #SorryNotSorry for bringing a narcissistically made piece of indie schlock known as  Honorable Men (2004), and Ryan brings another animated limited series about cyberpunk dystopia in the form of Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix (2023).

In the second episode of our mini-spotlight series on anime cinema, the Afterthoughts crew is jumping from the fantastical fairytale world of Hayao Miyazaki. We're catching the next interstellar transport ship out to Shin'ichirô Watanabe's jazzy sci-fi western film (and related series) as we discuss Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001). Is it able to stand on its own if you don't know anything about the show? Does it appease followers of the series? These and many more questions will asked and answered (to some extent) as we go Knockin' on Heavens Door with the bounty hunters of the Bebop.

This week on Recommend or Refute, Ryan follows up on our Scott Pilgrim episode and dives into the new Netflix series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023), Dixon gets uncharacteristically nostalgic talking about The Simpsons Movie (2007), and John scrapes the bottom of the trash heap with Neil Breen's latest dumpster fire Cade: The Tortured Crossing (2023).

With the impending release of Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and The Heron (2023), we've decided to kick off a short series of anime film discussions to ready ourselves for the visual feast Studio Ghibli is sure to serve up. What better way to start that than with a Hayao Miyazaki joint? Join Dixon, Ryan, and John as journey into the waste and the war-torn lands of Howl's Moving Castle (2004) to discuss and discover the motifs and meaning in this fantastical love story. What's up with the wizard war? Does a pretty girl's heart just taste better than other hearts? Why is everyone able to cast spells without knowing the means to break them? The Afterthoughts crew is going to do their best to answer these questions and more as they cobble together the core reasons Howl's Moving Castle may still be roaming around in the minds of film lovers today.

We're talkin' about some shiny new movies this week. Ryan breaks down the latest and greatest comic book green screen extravaganza with The Marvels (2023), Dixon struggles to articulate the emotional experience of Godfrey Reggio's new film Once Within a Time (2023), and John double dips with the heartbreaking documentary Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993) and the John Carpenter horror film In the Mouth of Madness (1995).

Travel forward one hour, eight minutes, and fifteen seconds with the Afterthoughts crew as Dixon, Ryan, and John discuss Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes (2020). Aside from this film being a charming, grounded, and oddly cohesive story about time travel --Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020) is also our first ever Listener Request episode. We're excited to set our vocal time dilation devices (microphones) opposite of each other and see what topics our future and past selves interweave. You have two options, give this episode a listen or risk a time paradox and a subsequent run in with the time police. We think the choice is obvious, but we'll leave it up to you --even though we know you're gonna listen to it because future you sent us a carrier pigeon saying you would. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯