Episodes
Our 1980s Cult Favorites lap continues with Little Shop of Horrors, and we’re joined by Mike Manzi to talk all about it! After learning about the very specific way that Mike first watched this movie, we explore *just how much* Joe hated this movie and whether he’d like the Roger Corman version more. We talk about the most ’80s moments (in a movie basically set in the ’50s), take a semi-deep dive into the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and explore the two very different endings to this...
Published 03/26/24
Walter Hickey and Kim Bhasin return to the podcast to give a special shoutout to Miami and to talk all things 2 Fast 2 Furious! We kick things off with an award focus by briefly recapping this year's Oscars with Mr. Numlock News Awards Supplement, talking about Al Pacino's cell phone, and exploring the awards this movie won. We discuss John Singleton's presence (and Vin Diesel's absence), the movie's most 1980s moments, and the Shakespearean elements of 2 Fast 2 Furious. Joey explains Lance...
Published 03/19/24
It's time for another Life in the Fast Lane, and we're wondering: "7hat's in the bag?" We start things off with the 2 Fast 2 Furious Minute (#99), in which Joe wonders if the filmmakers are "toying with us" (???) and we both admire the movie's two best extras doing even more amazing background acting. We pivot to On the Streets to cover a lot of news, including Vin Diesel's post about the franchise's "grand finale" and a possible new title formatting. Is Vanessa Kirby the most successful and...
Published 03/12/24
Our first pit stop in the ’80s Cult Movies lap is Predator, and we’re joined by Mark Hofmeyer (Deep Blue Sea: The Podcast; Movies, Films & Flix) to talk all about it! After discussing another franchise with a naming convention as messed up as F&F, Mark pitches True Detective: Season 5 before we (finally) return to crazy credits. We discuss the evolution of the predator’s costume and design, the way the movie subverts ’80s masculinity tropes, and how it’s more of a slasher than an...
Published 03/05/24
It's time to kick off Lap 14, our '80s Cult Movie lap, and we're joined by Walt Hickey and Kim Bhasin to talk about The Fast and the Furious! After getting a refresher of their history with this movie, we kick things off by talking about the most '80s elements of this movie -- and the associated weirdness of this ask. Walt already starts connecting this franchise to D&D. We look at The Fast and the Furious as both the start of a franchise and as a standalone movie, we admire the second...
Published 02/27/24
Lap 14 kicks off next week, but we're taking a thousand-mile detour before we get there to talk about Michael Mann's Ferrari! After exploring the many past iterations of Ferrari, we discuss the history of the Mille Miglia and the connection this movie has to Entourage. Joe describes the experience of watching and understanding this movie as an Italian, and Joey discusses the moment where he realized that acting is weird. We rank the concepts of cars, sons, wives, and mistresses. Joe talks...
Published 02/20/24
We're closing out our Planes, Trains, But NO Automobiles lap and welcoming in Lap 14 in our mechanic-prescribed Lap 13 Tune-Up. We kick things off by, at long last, looking up various definitions of the word "vehicle" (and feeling validated) before we look back at the past lap's episodes, theme, and vehicles. Then, for the first time, we introduce our lap's sponsors -- Michael Moser and Josh Buckley -- as we share the upcoming theme... and some of their picks. Michael takes the character...
Published 02/13/24
We're a week "late" (and don't get us started on how overdue the next one will be), but the next Life in the Fast Lane is finally here, and it's all about Roman's Holiday: The Interquel! We're nearing the end of 2 Fast 2 Furious, and Minute 98 features a slew of acting extras, the likes of which we haven't seen in a long, long time. We then pivot to On the Streets: Presented by ReactionRocket, to cover *so* much news, including: What will the future of the franchise look like? Will the next...
Published 02/06/24
It's time for our last pit stop in the Planes, Trains, but NO Automobiles lap with a very fitting selection: Rumble in the Bronx! We spend a lot of time admiring Jackie Chan's physicality and comedy (and how they contribute to the best sequences in the movie) before sharing our love for the language dub and the decision to sub Vancouver for the Bronx. We talk about how little the plot matters (and how it doesn't pay off), break down the movie's threatening version of baseball, and explore the...
Published 01/30/24
It's time for our final Fast and Furious movie of the lap, Fast X, and we're joined by Zaki Hasan (@ZakisCorner) to talk about it! After learning Zaki's history with the F&F franchise, we discuss why Fast X didn't quite hit for him -- and why that doesn't really bother him. We create a new way to stylize the next movie's title that both makes sense and would still confuse everyone. We imagine bad news and wonder: if the franchise ended here... where would you tell people to stop watching?...
Published 01/23/24
We're back for another Life in the Fast Lane (and our longest title yet) to talk about another perfectly contained 2 Fast 2 Furious Minute, now enhanced by our Icons Unearthed knowledge. We then turn to On the Streets to cover the Vin Diesel allegations (as far as we understand them) before pivoting toward Icons Unearthed's least exciting episode yet (about Tokyo Drift and Fast & Furious). We further explore the inexplicable popularity of our George Pickens merch and hear from a bunch of...
Published 01/16/24
We're betting it all on black -- and heading to a small town carnival? -- as we're joined by Garrett Smith (@filmadelphia) to talk about Passenger 57! After establishing the particular ties we have to this movie, we compare Passenger 57 to other 90s action flicks and Garrett describes the much more interesting version of this movie he thought he was watching. We admire Elizabeth Hurley's complex backstory in the background of scenes, try to make sense of the villain's plan (and who's winning...
Published 01/09/24
We've got the hottest guest in town -- Brian Rodriguez, producer of Bravo Replay -- joining the show once again, this time to talk about F9! After Joey fumbles the intro (for a valid reason that wound up not mattering), Brian drops some major news... about Joey's life. We then explore F9 for the first time since the release of Fast X, discuss which F&F movies were the "most important one" upon release, and explore the ways the franchise's writers have retconned the franchise. Brian plans...
Published 01/02/24
Merry Christmas! Dr. Chris Podcasts is back to fulfill the obligation he made last December: to watch and talk about The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two! After talking about how little we remember from the first movie, we do our best to compare this movie to the that one, as well as to the children's entertainment of our youth. We talk about what we hoped this movie would be -- and what we'd like to see in a third one (which, as of now, does not exist). We talk about Tyrese's surprise...
Published 12/25/23
It's time for another Life in the Fast Lane, and this one reminds us of an iconic line: "Cars can't fly, Dom." (Hey Brian Rodriguez, if you're reading this, I hope it's okay that I used your trademarked word.) We kick things off by covering Minute 96 of 2 Fast 2 Furious, where the car is in the air! (But not yet on the boat.) We explore Carter Verone's bar setup, and we wonder: how is this movie going to wrap up in just four minutes? Joe shares an update on Turbos for Tots, and Joey shares a...
Published 12/19/23
We're headed underwater this week to watch Crimson Tide (1995) and ask: did we pick the right submarine movie to watch? After we program a streaming service for dads, Joe shares his history with submarines and we explore the Quentin Tarantino connections to this film. We dive into the U.S. Navy's issues with Crimson Tide, uncover a dark tale about a Sopranos actor in this movie (other than James Gandolfini), and talk about Denzel Washington's turn as a horse girl. We wonder: does this movie...
Published 12/12/23
We're headed back to the other timeline (??) to talk about Hobbs & Shaw with returning guest Kate Hudson! To coincide with the launch of her new podcast, Bravo Replay, we're wondering: which F&F movie is the most like a reality show? Which reality stars most closely align with Hobbs & Shaw? We get Kate's revised rankings (and her history with IMDb's Crazy Credits) before we discuss patron Randy Carter's theory of this as a future movie. We posit a world where Dom Toretto becomes a...
Published 12/05/23
We're back with our first Life in the Fast Lane in more than a month, and we're talking all about Bram Stoker's 2 Fast 2 Furious! You'll understand why when you hear us talk about the ninety-fifth minute of 2 Fast 2 Furious, which includes more than one moment that we completely forgot about. We also catch up on a lot of news about the Fastiverse in On the Streets, which also marks the moment when Joe learns about Roku City. We launch a new limited-run segment to cover Icons Unearthed before...
Published 11/28/23
Happy Thanksgiving! We're trying to get home to our families -- any way we can -- to talk about Planes, Trains & Automobiles! After trying to think of the (very) few Thanksgiving-based movies that have been made, we talk about the (insane) original runtime of this movie, John Hughes's original casting ideas, and the wild things this production decided to (or had to) spend money on. We talk about traveling before 9/11, our biggest travel frustrations (and biggest travel tips), and tales of...
Published 11/21/23
It's time to talk about more men in rooms (!!!) as we're joined by Aaron Neuwirth (of Out Now with Aaron and Abe) to talk about The Taking of Pelham One Two Three! After talking for a while about men staring at analog boards, we talk about the film's success exclusively in cities with subway systems and how the film's New York spirit shines through. We also talk about the many movies The Taking of Pelham One Two Three inspired, the beautiful simplicity of the bad guys' motives, and why the...
Published 11/14/23
We're firing up the zombie cars once again as we talk about The Fate of the Furious with Joshua Gulam, Fraser Elliott, and Sarah Feinstein, the co-editors of Full-Throttle Franchise! We talk about their book -- an academic book about Fast & Furious (published with Bloomsbury Press) -- where the idea came from, new descriptions and theories found within the text, and how they incorporate it (and the franchise) into the teaching. We also talk about the action highlights of The Fate of the...
Published 11/07/23
Happy Halloween! We're joined by returning guest (and lover of schlock) Christian Larson to talk about Troma's 1986 film Monster in the Closet. Shot in 1983 (but released three years later), this kids movie (?) marks the film debut of Paul Walker (and also Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson). We talk about our history with Troma, the movie's sort of surprising tone, and its earworm (or not) xylophone song. We explore Paul Walker's star turn (and his character's multiple Nobel prizes?!), the movie having...
Published 10/31/23
It’s time for another installment of Life in the Fast Lane, and Joe has a question for you: won’t anyone please think of the children? We kick things off with a relatively action-packed minute (#94) of 2 Fast 2 Furious, which includes a technological impossibility. We then shift into news about the Fast & Furious from both the real world and the dream world (including some heavy stuff and some very, very dumb stuff). We talk about the difficulty of sourcing and watching Shaky Shivers and...
Published 10/24/23
We’re taking a little journey on a little boat named the Titanic, and joining us on this expedition is Walt Hickey! After hearing about Walt’s new book, You Are What You Watch, we talk about non-cars that matter to him (cinematic and otherwise) before reading some truly pathetic crazy credits (and being reminded about IMDb’s humble origins). Joey recounts the tale of PCP in this film production’s clam chowder, we all remember watching this movie on VHS, and we talk about how young is too...
Published 10/17/23