285: Retrospectating 1999 - SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT

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On June 30th, 1999, Trey Park and Matt Stone’s HARD-R animated musical South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut first hit theaters. Released less than two years after the premiere of the Comedy Central series’ pilot episode, South Park’s move to the big screen was only a modest financial success. But it proved to be a legitimate creative breakthrough and eventual Oscar nominee that laid the track for Parker and Stone’s future animated experiments (Team America: World Police) as well as their celebrated foray into more ambitious, postmodern musical satire (The Book of Mormon).

Join us as we revisit a film for which the MPAA deemed us too young to buy a ticket in the summer of 1999. Yet not unlike our underaged, on-screen counterparts, we still managed to weasel our way into theaters for multiple screenings of this ground-breaking comedy.

Viva La Resistance!

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DO THE RIGHT THING turns 30!

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In honor of the 30th anniversary of Spike Lee’s seminal masterwork—in which race-relations and temperatures rise to a breaking point on a summer day in Brooklyn—we’re re-releasing our corresponding AFI Top 100 podcast episode. The film ranks [criminally low at] 96th on the 2007 version of AFI’s list and we recorded our conversation about it just over 3 years ago.

Join us as we break-down and talk-up one of the most important films of the 1980s- a movie that writer/director/star Spike Lee is still so proud of that he name-dropped it as the climax of his Oscar speech earlier this year.

It’s 30 years young and hasn’t aged a day. And that’s the double-truth, Ruth.

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284: Present Tense - Questioning Existence with TOY STORY 4 and Hand-Wringing About the Summer Box Office

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On our triumphant return to the present tense we sound off about the wild, weird, and existentially-conflicted fourth installment in one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed film franchises of all time.
We then turn our attention to another subject that weighs heavily on our minds and is also experiencing a bit of an existential crisis of late- the summertime box office.
The mercury’s rising and the box office numbers are dropping. What does is all mean..!?

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283: Retrospectating 1999 - RUN LOLA RUN (U.S. Release)

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On this week’s edition of our ongoing series “Retrospectating 1999” we revisit the forgotten German crime caper Run Lola Run.
Now, this film is technically attributed to 1998, which is when it premiered in Germany, Venice, and Toronto. But it first screened in the U.S. during the Sundance and Seattle Film Festivals (where it racked up multiple awards) respectively before finally getting a stateside release on June 18th, 1999.

It’s a miraculous movie that rarely gets talked up and we’re here to remedy that with a spirited discussion about fate, determinism, the metaphysical properties of electronic music, and the unexpected benefits of risking your last five euros on a make or break spin of the roulette wheel.

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280: We Like TV - GAME OF THRONES Wrap-Up

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It’s been a long time since we’ve dipped our cinematically-inclined toes into the television pool. But what better reason to do so than the conclusion of the most cinematic show ever to grace the small screen?
Join us for a break-down, wrap-up, and maybe even a defense of the wildly divisive final season of HBO’s beloved and reviled 73 episode experiment in long form storytelling.

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279: Retrospectating 1999 - STAR WARS: THE PHANTOM MENACE

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On the third Wednesday of May in the year 1999, an unprecedented cinematic event took place in movie theaters around the world. Twenty years later, we’re still trying to answer two questions about the most anticipated / most disappointing film of the 20th Century:
“What the hell happened?”
and
“What does it all mean?”
Join us for another edition of our ongoing series “Retrospectating 1999” in which we masochistically revisit THE PHANTOM MENACE in an effort to uncover the truth behind the infamous fiasco at the center of a legitimate cultural phenomenon.

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Grain of Salt - The Midnight Ride of the Monoculture: Excavating the Confluence of Avengers: EndGame of Thrones Weekend

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Dear Mr. Fantasy play us a tune
Something to make us all happy
Do anything, take us out of this gloom
Sing a song, play guitar, make it snappy

You are the one who can make us all laugh
But doing that you break out in tears
Please don't be sad if it was a straight mind you had
We wouldn't have known you all these years 

Something remarkable happened last weekend. Something that is unprecedented in the history of popular culture. Something that may never happen again. Something that quite likely signposts the end of an epoch or more likely signals the beginning of another. The confluence of events occurring between Wednesday, April 24th, 2019 when Avengers: Endgame opened in most countries around the world (interestingly enough, the United States was one of the last countries to open the film–two days later–perhaps inadvertently acting as reminder that it’s no longer the dominant global box office force) and Sunday, April 28th, 2019 when HBO aired the Game of Thrones episode “The Long Night” (in which the much-heralded Battle of Winterfell finally played out over the course of an epic 82-minute “telefeature”), may someday be remembered by historians as the last time that a true “monocultural” media event took place. And one in which the two dominant forms of mass entertainment–cinema and television–reached the maximum number of viewers and achieved the apex of their own cultural relevance in the same watershed weekend. Movies and TV may never again be this individually impactful–co-existing simultaneously and autonomously–as they were over the five day stretch in question.

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278: Present Tense - Podcasters Assemble for an Epic AVENGERS: ENDGAME Roundtable

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Marvel superfans and friends of the podcast, Anders Dahl and Ryan Julio join us this week as we lightning-round the 21 previous installments in the MCU’s Infinity Saga before digging deep into the franchise’s victory lap- the three hour emotional rollercoaster known as AVENGERS: ENGAME. A lot of personal growth, unexpected revelations, and soul-searching goes on in this episode so be forewarned- there will be SPOILERS not just about the film in question but also about your hosts. We could do this all day…

Skål Beer Hall (Anders’ Norwegian gastropub)
The Greyhound Bar and Grill (Ryan’s sports bar)
ETA (Ryan’s cocktail bar)

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277: Oeuvre - Wrapping and Ranking the Films of STEVEN SPIELBERG - 1971 - 2018

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What a long, strange trip it’s been. We began our journey through Steven Spielberg’s 32-film oeuvre in August of 2017.
20 months later we’ve finally arrived at our 8th and final podcast in the series- a thorough and passionate reflection and ranking episode.
Join us as we curate our personal hierarchies of the man’s filmography, break down his budgets and box office receipts, rank performances, scores, scenes, shots, and finally reveal which director will be covered in our next Oeuvre series (premiering May 14th)!
Thanks for following us on this epic campaign through Steven Spielberg’s 47-year feature filmmaking odyssey. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster and now it’s time for a new mission.
Viva la Oeuvre!

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276: Oeuvre - The 7th Age of STEVEN SPIELBERG - 2015 - 2018

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This installment is affectionately titled "Playing with House Money” and covers one film per year over four years, spanning 2015-2018:

-Bridge of Spies (2015)
-The BFG (2016)
-The Post (2017)
-Ready Player One (2018)

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275: Retrospectating 1999 - GO / ELECTION

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Twenty years ago today a film was released that caught director Doug Liman, writer John August, and a cast of hot young upstarts at a moment of perfect aesthetic and artistic unanimity. Go wasn’t a big hit at the time and was even dismissed by Leonard Maltin as a “junior Pulp Fiction.” But the film has aged in a lot of fascinating ways over the last two decades and on this week’s episode we engage in a rare disagreement about many of them.
We also dig deep into an analysis of Alexander Payne’s second (and best?) film Election and its significance in the context of Reese Witherspoon’s unique oeuvre.
Viva la ‘99!

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274: Present Tense - Nominating Our Favorite Baseball Movies, Overthinking US, and Legitimizing THE BEACH BUM

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We’re catching it up and breaking it down this week with a veritable smorgasbord of scintillating topics:
-Celebrating the beginning of the season with our favorite baseball movies (00:03:00)
-A SPOILER HEAVY litigation of the various interpretations of Jordan Peele’s US (00:14:20)
-A preemptive defense of Harmony Korine’s latest ode to hedonism, THE BEACH BUM (00:26:56)

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273: Retrospectating 1999 - THE MATRIX

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Twenty years ago this week a film came along that not only changed the way that we looked at science fiction, visual effects, and Keanu Reeve’s capacity for star power. It also legitimatized the fetishization of mirrored sunglasses, duster jackets, and leather pants. So pop your red pill, crank up the Rammstein, and dog-ear your copy of “Simulacra and Simulation.” We’re heading down the rabbit hole and back to March of 1999 for our definitive reevaluation of The Matrix. Never forget, there is no spoon!

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272: Present Tense - TRIPLE FRONTIER and the Utter Inevitability of Netflix Ubiquity

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Here at We Like Movies we’ve been extremely vocal about our love for filmmaker J.C. Chandor and have always self-identified as loud and proud “Chandorks.” But our dedication to the man’s body of work experienced some strain this past week on the occasion of his newest film premiering on Netflix.
Let’s just say that we have complicated feelings about Triple Frontier that we attempt to work out in a SPOILER heavy breakdown of the film, which develops—as these conversations often do—into a lot of hand-wringing and kvetching about the big red streaming giant that you’re probably watching out of the corner of your eye as you read this.
Zip up your windbreaker, bump the Metallica, and set fire to a stack of Benjamins. We’re heading to South America with J.C. Chandor and Ben Affleck and there may be some casualties along the way…

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270: Our Annual Oscar Postmortem (2019 Edition)

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The Oscars came out of the gates with a bang and ended with a whimper. The night’s big winner was vexing but there were some legitimate highlights that we’ll likely be talking about for years to come.
Oscars. We watched ‘em. We’re talkin’ about ‘em. So there.

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269: Retrospectating 1999 - OFFICE SPACE

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20 years ago today, a 10 million dollar workplace comedy directed by the 37 year old creator of Beavis and Butthead was released by a major Hollywood studio and audiences ignored it EN MASSE. Today it occupies rarefied air as one of the most beloved cult texts of the 1990s. On the occasion of Office Space‘s 20th anniversary we travel back to 1999 to talk Liquid Television, Cornholio, Generation X, and the enduring legacy of Gary Cole’s matching tie and suspender set. If you don’t listen to this episode expect a strongly-worded memo about TPS reports to land on your desk first thing tomorrow morning.

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