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PODCAST

Mary Versus the Movies

Sure, the 1980s were a great decade for film. But have you seen all of them? No, neither has Mary. In fact, some pretty big films passed her by, what with being in kindergarten at the time: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Moonstruck, My Neighbor Totoro... So it"s time to fix that. Artwork, opening and closing themes by Dennis Lingg Produced and edited by Mary Jones

tv & film film reviews

All Episodes

43:12

Episode 22 - True Stories (1986)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/08/13

David Byrne's mockumentary about a small Texas town, starring John Goodman, was a fun surprise--Dennis called it "Koyaanisqatsi as a comedy", and to Mary was a marriage of Wes Anderson and The Church of the SubGenius.

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31:47

Episode 21 - Mystic Pizza (1988)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/08/06

"They don't make 'em like that anymore" is a very tired sentiment, but it's been a while since we've seen a movie in theaters about working class girls coming of age, and this is a good one. Come for the dissing of Connecticut's pizza, stay for the mangled Antonio Gramsci references.

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30:57

Episode 20 - Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn...

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/07/30

This space-western that never goes into space, starring nobody in particular, and featuring all the crisp cinematography of an episode of Airwolf, is easily the worst film we've watched for this podcast. There's a lot of spleen-venting in this episode--you've been warned.

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31:34

Episode 19 - Johnny Dangerously (1984)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/07/23

This Amy Heckerling comedy starring Michael Keaton was a favorite film of Dennis's when he was younger--will it hold up to his own memories? Or will Mary be unable to see what's so funny about this gangster parody?

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51:00

Episode 18 - The Apple (1980)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/07/16

It's MTV meets Brave New World meets Rocky Horror meets the Bible in this 1980 musical extravaganza that we still can't make up our minds about, because wow, that ending really took us right out of it. And yet... we like it? We found so much to talk about whether this movie succeeds or fails that this episode is longer than our usual fair.

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35:51

Episode 17 - Shag (1988)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/07/09

We had mixed feelings about this forgotten coming-of-age story set in 1963 Myrtle Beach, SC. The film is enjoyable, but a combination of Southern Pride and 1980s sexual politics left us a little unmoored. CW: talking about an attempted sexual assault that happens in the film.

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31:47

Episode 16 - Xanadu (1980)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/07/02

We went into 1980's Xanadu thinking "this is gonna be a bad movie", and folks, we were both very right and very wrong. Is the acting wooden? Is the plot almost too simple? Is the directing middling at best? Yes, yes, and yes. But is the music great? Is there plenty of dancing? Does it have Gene Kelly rollerskating? Oh, absolutely. Unfortunately, the disco-fever-dream revival of 1930s musicals was a still-born genre, one that very few people embraced, but it has definitely has two converts in Mary

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29:34

Episode 15 - Silverado (1985)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/06/25

Our first guest! Mary's sister Anne comes by to talk about 1985's Silverado, written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan, and starring Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Scott Glenn, Kevin Costner, Brian Dennehey, and on and on and on. By the 1980s, the Western was dead, but that wasn't going to stop Kasdan from indulging in a little nostalgia for the genre. And while neither Mary nor Dennis had ever seen it, the film intentionally hews close to Western tropes so much that it didn't really matter, we could see

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35:15

Episode 14 - My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/06/18

Things get personal on this episode, which is a little shaggier than most. What happens when Mary decides to watch the beloved children's film My Neighbor Totoro, written and directed by the great Hayao Miyazaki, and is reminded of painful childhood memories? Well, it's not our funniest episode, but it's definitely our most emotional.

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43:48

Episode 13 - The Thing (1982)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/06/11

We go a little long on this one, but come on, it's John Carpenter's The Thing, one of the greatest sci-fi horror films of the last 50 years. The story of men stationed in Antarctica, trying to figure out which one of them is a shape-shifting alien, is a thrilling exercise in paranoia, where the audience is as much in the dark as the characters.

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34:46

Episode 12 - Outland (1981)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/06/04

Sean Connery is a marshal investigating a rash of suicides in a space mining colony in this somewhat obscure 1981 sci fi film. Mary was pleasantly surprised by this story of corruption described as "High Noon in Space". Is this one of Connery's best films? Is this one of Peter Boyle's worst characters? All these questions and more.

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41:51

Episode 11 - Honky Tonk Freeway (1981)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/05/28

We didn't know what to expect with this obscure comedy from 1981; little did we know we had on our hands one of the biggest bombs in film history. A friend of the show called it "Nashville meets Cannonball Run", and she wasn't wrong. Is it good? Is it bad? Yes.

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47:17

Episode 10 - Fitzcarraldo (1982)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/05/21

We were left pretty astonished by Werner Herzog's epic adventure film about the world most reckless opera fan.

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37:44

Episode 9 - Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/05/14

As an homage to film noir and classic Hollywood, this movie was built for Mary. As a Steve Martin-Carl Reiner comedy, it was built for Dennis. Two great tastes are pretty tasty together in the 1982 film that mixes and matches films from all over the studio system into a story of murder, Nazis, and java.

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46:39

Episode 8 - Dune (1984)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/05/07

We really don't know what to make of David Lynch's space-opera adaptation of Frank Herbert's cult sci-fi novel Dune. As critic Nathan Rabin would ask, is it a Failure, Fiasco or Secret Success? Too long? Too short? And why in the world was Sting cast? We really never answer these questions, because we're too baffled by the whole experience. So come and experience Dune, starring Kyle MacLachlan, Francesca Annis, Max von Sydow, Patrick Stewart, and many more in what the studios thought would be "Star

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31:09

Episode 7 - Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/04/30

Who knew this screwball comedy starring Rosanna Arquette, Aiden Quinn, Mark Blum, and most famously Madonna, would turn out to be a real gem of a movie? Definitely not Mary and Dennis, who were pleasantly surprised. Sit back, dream of a different life, get amnesia, and enjoy a trip through a pre-Giuliani New York City. Now updated with new music! For reasons!

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31:00

Episode 6 - Maximum Overdrive (1986)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/04/23

Even Stephen King, who wrote and directed it, admits Maximum Overdrive is the worst film connected to his body of work. Do Mary and Dennis think he's right? Well, yeah, but only because Mary can't remember anything about the TV movie The Langoliers. Join Emilio Estévez, Yeardly Smith, and a mostly forgettable cast as they take on some very angry trucks and an extremely coked-up Stephen King.

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34:41

Episode 5 - Road House (1989)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/04/16

What is there to say? One of the most famous "bad movies" ever made, and somehow Mary has never seen it, not even while flipping channels on cable, which is where everyone else encountered the Patrick Swayze masterpiece, which flopped in theaters.

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36:53

Episode 4 - Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/04/09

Even though she grew up watching the show, this is Mary's first time seeing Tim Burton's first film, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Does its child-like star irritate, or is he the heir to Bugs Bunny? How much do we miss Phil Hartman? And just how many times can Mary say "aesthetics" before you want to stop listening? All this and more.

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34:16

Episode 3 - Moonstruck (1987)

Mary Versus the Movies ·

2021/04/02

Did Cher totally deserve an Oscar for her performance? Is Nic Cage's performance turned to 11? Should Danny Aiello just stay in Sicily? Is this the best movie we've covered so far? Does the moon really hit your eye like a big pizza pie? The answers to these questions and more can all be found in this episode.

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