The Franchisees The Franchisees

Ladies and gentlemen, rev your engines! All the way from post-apocalyptic London, England it's 'Mad' Maxim Gertler-Jaffe, joining Benno and Lexo for a poddo about the original MAD MAX film by director George Miller. Throw a shrimp on the barbie, Australia dingo koala Malcolm Turnbull. It's a classic of independent action cinema and the beginning of a beloved and ever-evolving franchise!

Before we talk about the wasteland we discuss the latest edition of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival. Maxim (and Ben) talk about some warm documentaries from the fest, share some classic favourite docs, and talk about the difference between essay films and video essays. 

Next week we talk about THE ROAD WARRIOR. Keep your eyes peeled for Maxim's upcoming documentary HOW TO ROB A BANK on Netflix June 5th!

Follow us @thefranchisees on Instagram and Twitter and email us at thefranchiseespod@gmail.com

Chaos reigns

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This episode is dedicated to Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986)

[loud beating and flogging noises]

ahhh! ohhh ouch ohhh nooo! ow! owww! We’re back ahhh stop oh god ow! With a new episode on a film from the twisted mind of Mel Gibson ouch! Joined ahh ohhh ow owwww by returning guests AHHH Jordan and Katherine. 

[flogging continues]

We talk about ow ouch oh god why have you forsaken me owww the life and career of Mad Mel before diving into a rapid fire round ahh ouch ohhhh of movies we’ve seen recently. Then we get to the film of the week ahhh stop oh god stop, The Passion of the Christ. 

Enjoy! We’ll be back next week to talk about an equally painful film ouch you’re killing me please stop, Lars von Trier’s Antichrist.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @thefranchisees and email us at thefranchiseespod@gmail.com

He has risen again! He being Jesus Christ of course, our lord and saviour and friend of the pod. Alex and Ben are back with Part II of the epic Christ Quadrilogy where they explore weighty themes like religion, resurrection, sin, and salvation. 

This week we're covering Martin Scorsese's (and Paul Schrader's) THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST. Joining us are returning guest Jordan Seccareccia and, finally completing the Westelaken Exodia, Lucas. We talk about our experiences with religion and debate the merits of Scorsese's controversial adaptation of the gospels. 

We also talk about live events we went to IRL such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and the Jonathan Rosenbaum talk at U of T. Ben also reminisces about K-holing and disassociating with Ellen DeGeneres.

This is a long episode where we actually spend most of the time talking about the film so if you've never seen it before, don't resist the temptation!

Join us next week for "Mad" Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, it'll be a doozy.

Listen to Westelaken: https://westelaken.bandcamp.com/album/i-am-steaming-mushrooms

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @thefranchisees and email us at thefranchiseespod@gmail.com

I loooove you Jeeeesus Chriiiiist. Jesus Christ I loooove you, yesss I dooooo.

Happy April everybody! We here at The Franchisees are good, honest, god-fearing folk and have decided to celebrate the death and resurrection of friend of the pod and future guest, Jesus of Nazareth. We've picked a quartet, a tetralogy, or (much more stupidly) a quadrilogy of Christ films to push together into one big holy franchise. First up is the late Norman Jewison's crunchy hippie Christ classic, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR.

Returning guest Devin Shears joins us to share his love of the film. We begin by discussing our relationships and experiences with religion and then dive right into talking about the film and musical theatre in general. We've pushed our usual discussion of what we've been watching to the end, so you can find it there.

Join us next week for Part II of this pious series in which we will be praising THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST from the beloved team of Paul Schrader and Martin Scorsese.

Ted has risen! Ted 2 unto others as you would have Ted 2 to uh yourself.

We're back with the sequel to Seth MacFarlane's lovable children's film TED, the appropriately titled TED 2. Ben was lukewarm on the first Ted film and Alex remembers disliking Ted 2 when he watched it on a plane many years ago... how will the lads feel about Ted 2 now? 

Well, it is an improvement! Funnier, sillier, more gags. The main plot is kind of weird and gross but what were you expecting? Anyway, this is a short and fun episode. Getting all the goofiness out now before we delve into a more serious topic next week.

And that serious topic is...? Jesus! For the holy month of April we are discussing a quadrilogy of films about Christ, our lord (?) and saviour (??). Next week we are doing JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR so please join us then!

You can follow The Franchisees on Twitter and Instagram @thefranchisees or email us at thefranchiseespod@gmail.com