The School of Movies Archive

Sneakers

[School of Movies 2016]

Another commissioned show, this one is a heist movie with a stellar cast that we had literally never seen before. It's also rare as unicorn horn in that it's a movie about hacking and tech that DOESN'T make you say "That's not how computers work!"

Requiring some veteran perspective we recruited Alasdair Stuart and Marguerite Kenner. The two of them took us through the myriad details of this now-forgotten treasure.

Guests:

Alasdair Stuart of Escape Pod

Marguertite Kenner of Cast of Wonders

 

Jumanji + Zathura

[School of Movies 2016]

With all those fantastic beasts rampaging around New York city right now we went back to a movie that turned that concept into big business.
Naturally we read way, WAY too much into the story and turn both this film and its little-seen sequel Zathura into deep, psychological learning experiences for the protagonists.

This is another commissioned show.

Guests:

Brendan Agnew of Cinapse

Congo

[School of Movies 2016]

In 1993 Steven Spielberg directed the movie Jurassic Park, adapted from the book by Michael Crichton.

It was a wildly successful family blockbuster.

Immediately all studios began a mad dash to replicate that formula.

Paramount believed they had cracked it with this film in 1995, written by Crichton in 1980, featuring a cast of genuinely talented actors and seemingly going for an Indiana Jones-discovers-King-Solomon's-Mines-with-rabid apes vibe. However, the results, as you will hear, fell so short of Jurassic Park that Congo is barely in the same medium. Less a movie and more a confused 110 minute commercial advertising a product you can't work out but probably has something to do with diamonds or laser guns.

This episodes was commissioned by Maureen Foley (who guests) and Nick, and features Neil Taylor and Brenden Agnew.

Guests:

Brendan Agnew of Cinapse

Maureen Foley of New Century

Neil Taylor of TheKidDogg

 

We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story

[School of Movies 2016]

On this sad, grim, dark week... here's a stupid movie about cartoon dinosaurs that get smart eating magic cereal!

Obviously we'll get political and angry later on, but right now I think what everyone needs most of all is to laugh together, so here you go.

This animated movie was released on Thanksgiving 1993, produced by Steven Spielberg, surfing the dinosaur craze of his own Jurassic Park, but actually put into production several years before and mismanaged the whole way. It's a higgledy-piggledy mess of half-thought-out ideas and pandering to kids that the meddling executives clearly see as adorable little morons.

It's John Goodman's first voice role, it's confusing and cringe-worthy, sickeningly sweet and occasionally alarmingly horrific for no good reason. It has a song that will stick in your head and not a shred of logic in any of its 72 minute run-time. And this is one of the funniest shows we've done, so kick back, forget about how awful 2016 has been for a little while and let us take you back to a simpler time, 1993.

Guests:

Harrison Brockwell of Talk Film Society

Brendan Agnew of Cinapse

The Purge + Anarchy + Election Year

[School of Movies 2016]

This is our show about the initial three Purge movies (I can assure you of more to come). 

The premise is pretty simple. In an alternate timeline America has ruled that on one night of the year every crime (including murder) is legal. Over time this has done wonders for their economy and is celebrated by the overtly patriotic, the rich and the insanely bloodthirsty, but proves an annually terrifying span of hours for the poor, the homeless and the vulnerable. This premise raises many practical questions which we ask throughout the show. 

We cover, in turn, the home invasion thriller The Purge (2013) and its sequel, dark, urban chaos sci-fi, The Purge: Anarchy (2014), followed by nail-biting political thriller, The Purge: Election Year (2016). 

We are of course releasing this in a time of great unrest for America (and the watching world). We figured rather than placating you with pink, fluffy distractions we'd cover some fairly savage dystopian satire.