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11. The Last Starfighter - Summer of '84
02:02:25||Season 3, Ep. 11The Last Starfighter is... dead? Alive? Any good as a movie? These are the questions that bedevil Paul, Javi, and the ever gung-ho Producer Brad as they discuss the endearing curio that is Nick Castle's The Last Starfighter. Not as well-directed as Return of the Jedi, not as handsomely produced as Gremlins or Poltergeist, and not nearly as well-written as ET, The Last Starfighter nevertheless works its humble charms on the Overthruster Gang, even as they cannot help but munch on such morsels as Robert Preston's insanely jolly performance, which appears to have been lifted from a 1960s Broadway musical, the inherent contradiction of naming a weapon "the Death Blossom", and VFX that were way ahead of their time back then, rapidly fell behind their time soon thereafter, and now seem to belong to no time at all. Folks, look, this was an okay movie, and you are going to have a great time listening to us liking it with a little bit of an attitude, but there really is one thing about this movie that lifts it to our love and admiration and that is how it showcases some of the great rental warehouse props of the 80s. This movie was made for about a buck fiddy, and they rented everything they possibly could to avoid building from scratch. As a result The Last Starfighter is a prop-spotter’s goldmine - and the vein leads straight to THE GREATEST GENRE PROP OF ALL TIME. So yeah, come for the feelgood saga of a trailer park kid who becomes a galactic hero - we're here for it - but stay for the props! Oh the beautiful props!SHOW NOTES:US Theatrical Release Date: July 13, 1984Weekend Domestic Box Office Chart for July 13, 19841984 Top-Grossing Movies - The NumbersThe Last Starfighter (1984) AFI CatalogThe Last Starfighter movie review - Roger EbertMORE WARS IN 'LAST STARFIGHTER' - The New York TimesThe Last Starfighter's Lance Guest explains how he got the role ...Interview With Catherine Mary Stewart - Last Movie OutpostNick Castle — Director of 'The Last Starfighter' — Talks Being a Horror Icon and a Writer/Director - Script MagazineHow 'The Last Starfighter' Became a Cult Classic — and Why a Sequel May Finally Take FlightThe Last Starfighter (1984) - Modern Trailer [Fan Edit]Mad Cave Comic Book Sequel to The Last StarfighterWorld Premiere of Last Starfighter Musical Opens Storm Theatre's Off-Bway Season Oct. 15-30 | PlaybillTHE LAST STARFIGHTERS concept reel
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10. Gremlins - Summer of '84
02:31:00||Season 3, Ep. 10The cinema of the 1980s brought us many great showdowns: Kirk vs. Khan, Rocky Balboa vs. Clubber Lang, Tom Cody vs. Raven Shattick… and now PAUL VS. JAVI! And what brought these two to go toe to toe? None other than Joe Dante’s beloved Amblin classic Gremlins! Join us as Paul and Javi - refereed by the ever equitable Producer Brad - clash over this timeless phantasmagoria of small town Americana, par-for-the-course ’80s orientalism, and unhinged looney tunes puppet mayhem and ultra-violence. Find out what happens when Javi buys unreservedly into the insanity while Paul insists on even the slightest semblance of verisimilitude. It’s Phoebe Cates at her most lovable… right up until she spoils it for the world that THERE’S NO SANTA CLAUS! It’s Zach Gallligan and Corey Feldman as breathtakingly age-inappropriate best friends! It’s Dick Miller as the living manifestation of Reagan era malaise and xenophobia! It’s peak puppetry as a bunch of adorable fuzzy little critters turn into reptilian incarnations of rapacious late capitalism with a love of classic Disney cartoons! It’s wild, it’s crazy, it’s a grand guignol of puppet violence disguised as a Christmas movie… it’s GREMLINS!Show Notes:US Theatrical Release Date: June 8, 1984Weekend Domestic Box Office Chart for June 8, 1984Weekend Domestic Box Office Chart for July 6, 19841984 Top-Grossing Movies - The NumbersGremlins (1984) - AFI Catalog EntryGremlins movie review & film summary - Roger Ebert‘Gremlins’ (1984) Review - The New York TimesJoe Dante Reflects on 35 Years of GREMLINS - NerdistHow ‘The Temple of Doom’ Changed the MPAA Ratings System'Gremlins 3' Delayed to 2028 by Warner Bros.The Gremlins MuseumHIGHLIGHTS OF STRUGGLE FOR DISNEY - The New York TimesKey & Peele - "Gremlins 2" Brainstorm - Uncensored
9. Conan the Destroyer - Summer of '84
02:37:49||Season 3, Ep. 9All too often, nostalgia seduces us into remembering things better than they actually were. But every once in awhile, the opposite occurs, and we get to re-experience something that turns out to be far better than our memory somehow maligned. Listen as Javi, Paul, and the ever mystical Producer Brad return to the days of high adventure as their dread is transmuted into delight by the startling revelation that the Conan sequel does not actually suck, but is kind of awesome! Arnold Schwarzenegger returns as Conan (with more lines!) to embark on a perilous quest with the promise of the ultimate reward. Joining the fray alongside the returning fountain of wizarding wonder that is Mako are iconic Grace Jones, imperious Sarah Douglas, impish Tracey Walter (cosmically transported from Repo Man), impetuous Olivia D’Abo, and imposing Wilt Chamberlain. And while the absence of Milius and Stone is certainly felt, we get rollicking D&D campaign scored by Basil Poledouris (if with less robust orchestra) elevated by an unexpected feminist twist, alongside more impalements than one would ever expect for a PG rating, not to mention one of the gnarliest monster killings ever committed to celluloid (thanks to a fantastic creature design by the great Carlo Rambaldi). Glory to Crom! And bring on King Conan!Show Notes: US Theatrical Release Date: July 29, 1984Weekend Domestic Box Office Chart for June 29, 19841984 Top-Grossing Movies - The NumbersAFI|Catalog - Conan the DestroyerRoger Ebert's "Conan the Destroyer" movie reviewFILM:SCHWARZENEGGER IN NEW 'CONAN' - The New York Times
8. Top Secret! - Summer of '84
02:00:27||Season 3, Ep. 8Between the blockbuster successes of Airplane! and The Naked Gun!, Jim Abrahams and the Zucker Bros. took a more scattershot satirical turn with Top Secret!, which parodies everything from Cold War spy thrillers to Elvis rock and roll musicals to WWII espionage dramas to ’60s beach party movies to an entire flashback remake of The Blue Lagoon. Skillfully surfing these crashing waves of colliding genres is none other than an impossibly young, beautiful, and charming Val Kilmer in his film debut, deftly demonstrating he can do pretty much anything with dazzling aplomb, including a show-stopping oner shot backwards. Kilmer plays Nick Rivers, an anachronistic American rock star on a cultural exchange to East Germany who gets caught up with an inexplicably still-active French Resistance to rescue an imprisoned scientist forced to build a diabolical doomsday weapon. Join Javi, Paul, and the cunningly clandestine Producer Brad as they go skeet surfing through this tsunami of sight gags that includes a giant pooping pigeon, an underwater saloon fight, and the greatest on-screen performance ever by a cow wearing boots. Show Notes: US Theatrical Release Date: June 22, 1984Weekend Domestic Box Office Chart for June 22, 19841984 Top-Grossing Movies (Inflation-Adjusted) - The NumbersAFI|Catalog - Top Secret!Roger Ebert's Top Secret! movie review & film summaryFILM: 'TOP SECRET!', PARODY OF SPY MOVIES - The New York Times1984 Sears Christmas Wish Book (with Fred Savage modeling)The First Giant Restaurant Chain: Howard Johnson's: Rise and FallThe Most Unsung Leading Man of His Generation: Val Kilmer (1959-2025)Pinto Madness – Mother Jones
7. Star Trek III - Summer of '84
02:32:01||Season 3, Ep. 7They say the third time’s the charm, and if you’re Star Trek, the third time is all about the charm. The studio may have cut the budget and schedule to cash in on the success of "Star Trek II,", but when you have a cast that has worked together for decades - and a director who is part of that cast - the characters can’t help but come through, especially when they are all on a mission of friendship. Spock may have died in "Star Trek II," but the gods of retconning were having none of it, and so the crew of the Enterprise had to suit up in their civvies, steal their old ship in a sequence that stands among the best of the franchise, and go on a search… for Spock! Of course, with Christopher Lloyd and John Larroquette as Klingons, they might as well have called it “the search for sitcom actors on hiatus”… and yet, weirdly, it works. There’s this accepted wisdom that the odd numbered treks are the worst, but revisiting this movie after many years, Paul, Javi, and the always-logical Producer Brad found it to be an absolute delight, a feast of wonderful character moments, awesome new ships (lookin’ good, Excelsior, and how you doin’ you sexy Bird of Prey?) and long-awaited franchise payoffs wrapped in a TV-movie like execution that strains to match the humor and emotion on display. Star Trek III may be known to many as the movie where Paramount’s cost-cutting led to the recasting of Kirstie Alley, but to the Multiplex Overthruster gang, it is a warm and comforting bowl of Fal-tor-pan, served up with a hefty dose of humor and the indefatigable camaraderie of a cast so tight that, together, they can overcome any obstacle… even when that obstacle is the search for more profit!Show Notes:US Theatrical release date: June 1, 1984US Weekend Box Office June 1, 1984US Weekend Box Office June 15, 1984US 1984 Top Grossing MoviesAFI Catalog Entry for "Star Trek III"Roger Ebert's "Star Trek III" reviewNYT "Star Trek III" reviewVonda N. McIntyreAlan Dean Foster
6. Ghostbusters: Summer of '84
03:03:14||Season 3, Ep. 6To this day - twenty-two years later - you can still walk into a room anywhere in the civilized world and shout “Who ya gonna call?” and get an emphatic hollaback of “GHOSTBUSTERS!” Is there more that needs to be said? Yes, there is. About three hours worth if you’re Paul, Javi, and the preternatural Producer Brad! For a franchise that has been rehashed, rebooted, re-animated, and spun-off so many times, the original still holds the power to provoke laughter, surprise, wonder, and, occasionally, a low grumble of “dude, that Venkman’s kind of a lech." It was the eighties, and if you were an alum of SNL, times were good, especially for Dan Aykroyd, who, along with Harold Ramis and Ivan Reitman turned his longtime obsession with the the paranormal into a humongously budgeted comedic spectacle on the scale of the epic blockbusters of Lucas and Spielberg. Anchored by a master class in snark presented by Bill Murray, with Ramis, Aykroyd, and everyman extraordinaire Ernie Hudson rounding out the titular team, the supernaturally amazing cast includes Sigourney “The Most Exhalted Queen of the Universe” Weaver, Annie “the unsung MVP of the Ghostbusters” Potts, and the ever lovable Rick Moranis as the world’s most indefatigable accountant. Let’s face it folks, there’s two epochs in history, before “he slimed me” and after “he slimed me," and the Multiplex Overthruster crew has seen them both. So dust off your Tobin’s Spirit Guide, power up your PK meter, and bust out the neutrona wands, because many Zuuls and Shubs are about to find out what it’s like to be roasted on the depths of the Sloar, and there’s only one call to make - GHOSTBUSTERS!Show Notes:US Theatrical release date: June 8, 1984US Weekend Box Office June 8, 1984US 1984 Top Grossing MoviesAFI Catalog Entry for GhostbustersRoger Ebert's Ghostbusters ReviewNYT/Janet Maslin Ghostbuster ReviewA look at Dan Akroyd’s original script for ‘Ghostbusters’Dan Aykroyd Explains Spooky Way He Came Up With Original 'Ghostbusters' IdeaTeenage Sigourney Weaver Seen Enjoying Beatles’ Hollywood Bowl Concert in ‘Eight Days a Week’ DocCasper's creators aren't so friendly - UPI ArchivesPatrick Nagel
5. Streets of Fire: Summer of '84
01:53:19||Season 3, Ep. 5In this gritty, neon-soaked, leather-wearin’, motor oil-stinkin’, rockabilly-singin’, pole-dancin’, pickaxe-swingin’ installment, Paul, Javi, and the tough-talkin’ Producer Brad travel to another place, another time to bear witness to a “rock’n’roll fable”. It’s Streets of Fire, one of the oddest mainstream summer movies of the eighties; a feature-length music video that is equal parts western, Road Warrior dystopia, Blade Runner quasi future noir, and Berlin sex club fashion show! It’s Diane Lane, Michael Paré, Rick Moranis, and Willem Dafoe at his palest and most consumptive in Walter Hill’s confounding valentine to toxic masculinity! So rev your engines, fire up your neon, and crank up that eighties soundtrack - because these streets are not gonna burn themselves!Show Notes:**This episode has been updated to correct for missing audio. Please redownload if your version has dead air in the first 5 minutes. Thanks!**US Theatrical Release Date: June 1, 1984Streets of Fire AFI Catalog EntryWalter Hill Treated Screenplays Like Literature and Inspired a Generation of FilmmakersHow Did This Get Made: A Conversation With 'Streets Of Fire' Co-Writer Larry Gross - SlashFilm40th Anniversary Interview with Michael PareRoger Ebert's Streets of Fire reviewNew York Times' Streets of Fire review