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The Rewind Movie Podcast
Batteries Not Included (1987) - Episode 116
Season 6
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Oh it's them. The little guys. My little munchkins! We’re strolling back to the Amblin Entertainment heyday with Matthew Robbins’ cute, nostalgic, intergalactic robot heartwarmer *batteries not included.
Elderly corner café owner Frank Riley (frequent Hitchcock collaborator Hume Cronyn) and his flighty, seemingly bewildered wife Faye (Cronyn’s real-life partner Jessica Tandy) struggle on as two of the last remaining tenants in a condemned East Village New York townhouse, rejecting the aggressive tactics of local thug Carlos (Michael Carmine) who is in the pay of the developer who seeks to level this last crumbling vestige of the old neighbourhood in order to build monumental glass skyscrapers. Joined only by a pregnant young woman (Elizabeth Peña), a disheartened artist (Dennis Boutsikaris), and a near-mute former boxing champion-turned-handyman (Frank McRae) they face certain eviction until, suddenly, the damage the building suffered when Carlos and his gang attacked it miraculously seems to fix itself. Faye discovers a pair of mysterious, mischievous ‘miracles’ - improvised flying saucers made of household objects - that may offer a ray of hope for this unlikely cooperative.
Originally a pitch by future Master of Horror creator Mick Garris for Steven Spielberg’s big budget anthology series Amazing Stories, the producer instead developed the project for the theatrical release, enlisting the thematically appropriate Short Circuit creators Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson along with future Simpsons writer/Pixar legend Brad Bird to pen the script. Patrick takes Gali, Devlin and Matt on a comforting trip back to an era of emotionally resonant, feel-good family sci-fi comedy dramas, as the gang talks cute robots, alien fixations, Boomer nostalgia, and the nascent power of the Grey Pound during the post-Cocoon era of the Reagan Eighties.
Head to rewindmoviecast.com for all our previous episodes, blogs, essays and more, and check out our merchandise at our Teemill store, where you can find shirts, sweatshirts, tote bags, and poster prints inspired by our favourite cult films, including many we’ve covered here on the podcast (including this one!).
Get in touch with us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and if you'd like to submit a request, correct our constant mispronunciations, or have a chat about whatever is on your mind, you can email rewindmoviepodcast@gmail.com. Thanks for listening!
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The Predator (2018) - Episode 129
01:59:16||Season 7“Well, we took a vote. Predator's cooler, right?” Our LV-RMP series, running through the combined Alien and Predator series, arrives at Shane Black’s 2018 sequel, the confusingly named The Predator. A military sniper (Boyd Holbrook) witnesses a runaway Yautja ship crash landing in a Mexican jungle, and barely escapes with his life and a rucksack full of the creature’s hunting tech, which he intends to stash as evidence of extraterrestrial life. While a shadowy arm of the government tries to keep him under wraps by sending him to a psychiatric ward alongside a gang of misfit soldiers and marines with a colourful array of sweary conditions, his package inadvertently ends up with his estranged young son, necessitating a guns-blazing rescue mission as our alien hunter is in hot pursuit - while an even more deadly interloper stalks them all.30 years after appearing as a supporting actor in the seminal original, Black leveraged his post-Kiss KIss Bang Bang career renaissance to helm an $88 million project from a screenplay written alongside his key early collaborator Fred Dekker. Hopes were high for a return to form, but a lukewarm critical reception and middling business ensued. Were Gali, Devlin and Matt any more enamoured, or was this another underwhelming entry that failed to recapture the magic of John McTiernan? Rewind Movie Podcast merchandise, and shirt designs from some of our favourite films, available here.If you have a film you’d like the gang to tackle, send us an email at rewindmoviepodcast@gmail.com. For introductions, essays, playlists, and the full back catalogue of episodes and specials, find us at rewindmoviecast.com.
Shannon Tweed and Shannon Whirry: The Queens of B-rotica - Episode 128
02:00:16|In the early- to mid-1990s, a deluge of enterprising, low-budget filmmakers sought to cash in on the erotic thriller craze that swept into cinemas in the wake of the incredible success of the likes of Fatal Attraction at the end of the preceding decade - films that we at the Rewind Movie Podcast have been lauding in our dubiously-named RErotica series. We bring the series to a (maybe temporary) close with a look at two of the biggest stars to emerge from the DTV erotica craze - Shannons Whirry and Tweed - as they star in 1992’s Animal Instincts and 1994’s Scorned AKA A Woman Scorned, respectively. Boiling down the generic elements of their big budget forebears with ruthless efficiency, laced with the quirks of maverick creatives responding to fast turnarounds and budgets skimpier than the costumes, these staples of the video store, after-dark cable, and, for UK listeners including our panel, the nascent Channel 5 sought to match the daring sexual politics, dangerous thrills, and indulgent visual titillation of Hollywood productions on a shoestring.We discuss the directorial work of notorious adult filmmaker-turned-videauteur Gregory Dark, and journeyman actor-turned-cottage industry multihyphenate Andrew Stevens, in two prime examples of this once-lucrative subgenre that has been all but swept under the rug. Is there some insight to mine from revisiting these sketchy late night sleazy features; can it tell us anything about the minds and lives of the audiences of the era who ploughed millions into these films, only to see them drop off the face of the earth just a few short years later? Travel back with Gali, Devlin, Patrick and Matt to an era of slumming C-list stars, ambitious models-turned-actresses seeking their big break, and their cut-price misadventures behind the net curtains and under the bedsheets of suburban California in our B-rotica special. Check out our blog to learn more!Rewind Movie Podcast merchandise, and shirt designs from some of our favourite films, available here.If you have a film you’d like the gang to tackle, send us an email at rewindmoviepodcast@gmail.com. For introductions, essays, playlists, and the full back catalogue of episodes and specials, find us at rewindmoviecast.com.
Cliffhanger (1993) - Episode 127
01:47:42||Season 7“Don't bother to buckle up - you may not want to survive this.” We’re scaling the Rockies with Sylvester Stallone in his Renny Harlin-directed, vertiginous 1993 action adventure thriller Cliffhanger. After a tragic accident sends Mountain Rescue climber Gabe Walker (Stallone) into an eight month self-imposed exile, his attempts to reunite with his ex-partner Jessie (Janine Turner) are disrupted by the crash landing of a jet full of mercenaries in hot pursuit of $100 million worth of stolen currency that was cut loose in a daring, botched mid-air hijacking led by international bad man Eric Qualen (John Lithgow). Gabe and his former best friend Hal Tucker (Michael Rooker), who holds him to furious account for the aforementioned tragedy, are press-ganged into leading the recovery of Qualen’s spoils from the steep mountain tops - leading to a brutal chase across the snowy peaks as greed and survival collide. A much-needed hit for Sly following a troublesome box office run that included the notorious comedy flop Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, join Gali, Devlin, Patrick and Matt as they discuss the peaks and valleys of his career, the concomitant rise and fall of Finland’s most famous filmic export Renny Harlin, the appropriate level of angry swearing for a henchman, and the simple pleasures of a banana eating a monkey. Pick up merchandise based on this episode’s artwork here!If you have a film you’d like the gang to tackle, send us an email at rewindmoviepodcast@gmail.com. For introductions, essays, playlists, and the full back catalogue of episodes and specials, find us at rewindmoviecast.com.
Batman Returns (1992) - Episode 126
01:53:09||Season 7“Mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it.” We’re spending our Rewind Christmas in Gotham, with Tim Burton’s eccentric 1992 comic book sequel Batman Returns.An abandoned aristocratic child, born with unfortunate physical deformities, grows up in the sewers below the city streets, eventually waging a circus-centric war on the populace at the big tree-lighting ceremony some three decades later. The guest of honour at that event, business magnate Max Shreck (Christopher Walken), is kidnapped, coming face-to-face with The Penguin (Danny DeVito). The fast-thinking Shreck concocts a plan - orchestrate Penguin’s reemergence into polite society, and use him to depose and replace the incumbent mayor for his own greedy ends. Caught up in these machinations is mild-mannered executive assistant Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer), seemingly murdered for learning too much, who finds herself resurrected as a slinky, whip-wielding feline agent of mayhem and revenge. Also Batman (Michael Keaton) is there.After the pop culture phenomenon of his 1989 original, Tim Burton kept corporate paymasters Warner Bros. waiting, establishing himself as the inky, gothy outcast du jour with passion project Edward Scissorhands. When he finally returned to the franchise, he amped up the weirdness as the German Expressionism-meets-Gothic Noir aesthetic of the city reached new heights of abstraction, matched by a fevered, weird psychosexuality. But, is it Batman? Join Gali, Devlin, Patrick and Matt under the abandoned zoo for a festive feast of gadgets, goo, and grotesquerie.Pick up merchandise based on this episode’s artwork here!If you have a film you’d like the gang to tackle, send us an email at rewindmoviepodcast@gmail.com. For introductions, essays, playlists, and the full back catalogue of episodes and specials, find us at rewindmoviecast.com.
Shaun of the Dead (2004) Episode 125
02:01:04||Season 7“Okay. But dogs can look up.” We’re grabbing a nice cold pint and waiting for all this to blow over by spending our HalloRe’ewind episode with Edgar Wright’s beloved Brit rom-zom-com Shaun of the Dead, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year.Developmentally-arrested 29-year-old electrical store employee Shaun’s slacker lifestyle, mostly spent whiling away his nights with crass childhood friend Ed in the local pub, sees his girlfriend Liz give him the boot at a most inopportune moment - the advent of a zombie apocalypse that seems only slightly more grim and shambling than your average workday in North London. Armed only with a box of 12” records, a child-sized cricket bat, and his flatmate’s ‘borrowed’ Renault Megane, Shaun tries to rise to the occasion to bring Ed, Liz, and his mum to an impenetrable fortress (which is also, coincidentally, his idea of a romantic nightspot) …his local pub.Capitalising on the cult success of Channel 4’s Spaced, director Wright and star/co-writer Simon Pegg hoped to break a streak of poor quality TV-to-film transitions from British comedy stars, by infusing the movie with their genuine love for classic 70s/80s zombie fare. Matt and Devlin discuss the film’s part in the 2000s zombie renaissance and the British film industry’s brief hot streak, and talk influences, ripoffs, zombies-as-allegory, and other pearls of wisdom we gleaned from a Guinness Extra Cold beermat. If you have a film you’d like the gang to tackle, send us an email at rewindmoviepodcast@gmail.com. For introductions, essays, playlists, and the full back catalogue of episodes and specials, find us at rewindmoviecast.com. For specially designed merchandise, movie shirts, posters, and our famous Bingo Trope Totes and a poster based on this week’s episode cover image, head to DevlinDoesDrawing on Teemill.
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Late Return Fee
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Trainspotting (1996) - Episode 124
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Alien: Covenant (2017) - Episode 123
01:56:30||Season 7Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair. The LV-RMP series continues to explore the Ridley Scott sequel universe with 2017’s Alien: Covenant.The crew of an intergalactic colonisation vessel is jolted from hypersleep by a catastrophic freak event while it is under the control of the ship’s android, Walter (Michael Fassbender). Reluctant to return to the chambers, overmatched new Captain Oram (Billy Crudup) decides to follow a bizarre human voice signal, mysteriously emanating from a nearby planet - one that seems an even more perfect habitat than their distant destination. There, they find the remnants of the disastrous Prometheus voyage of a decade before, namely Peter Weyland’s personal android David (Fassbender), who has seemingly been using his time to develop his sinister new interests.On the heels of the mixed reaction to his return to the seminal franchise which he spawned, Ridley Scott and team return to the series’ original setup of a naive and increasingly desperate crew faced with the vicious indifference of instinctive horrors they are not equipped to face, albeit intertwined with the grandiose existential questions of his previous outing. Join Gali, Devlin, Patrick and Matt as they tackle what will seemingly be Sir Ridley’s last outing in the universe he created - including flute fingering, sick bay slipping, whiskey sipping and spaceship shower shagging.If you have a film you’d like the gang to tackle, send us an email at rewindmoviepodcast@gmail.com. For introductions, essays, playlists, and the full back catalogue of episodes and specials, find us at rewindmoviecast.com. For specially designed merchandise, movie shirts, posters, and our famous Bingo Trope Totes and a poster based on this week’s episode cover image, head to DevlinDoesDrawing on Teemill.
BLADE (1998) - Episode 122
01:43:50||Season 7“Remember what we told you. You keep your eyes open. They're everywhere.” We’re popping in for a quick blood rave with 1998’s Marvel Comics adaptation Blade.Titular daywalker Blade (Wesley Snipes), otherwise known as Eric Brooks, stalks the streets to hunt and kill vampires, driven by a thirst for revenge after his mother was bitten before going into labour, cursing him with a bloodlust that he slakes with a serum administered by his ornery father figure/weapons maker Whistler (Kris Kristofferson). When the undead, bratty upstart Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) starts challenging the established vampire hierarchy and attempting to raise an ancient blood god, Blade teams up with a recently-bitten haematologist to infiltrate the gang and kill Deacon - but the wily bloodsucker has his own plans…Preceding the first big screen X-Men movie by 2 years, and the establishment of the now-all-conquering MCU by a decade, British director Stephen Norrington’s gritty, violent, stylised picture stood in sharp contrast to the increasingly daffy Joel Schumacher Batman movies, turning a tidy profit on a moderate budget and helping lay the groundwork not just for future Marvel adaptations, but also the leather dusters and techno-fuelled kung fu that The Matrix would send stratospheric before the decade’s end. But, does Blade still deliver the goods? Or will Gali, Patrick and Devlin end up ice skating uphill trying to defend it?If you have a film you’d like the gang to tackle, send us an email at rewindmoviepodcast@gmail.com. For introductions, essays, playlists, and the full back catalogue of episodes and specials, find us at rewindmoviecast.com. For specially designed merchandise, movie shirts, posters, and our famous Bingo Trope Totes and a poster based on this week’s episode cover image, head to DevlinDoesDrawing on Teemill.