PODCAST

Reel Deep Dive

Ryan Valentine

Does the world really need yet another movie podcast? Probably not, but I made one anyways.

arts performing arts

All Episodes

00:30:01

Legends of the Hidden Temple (1993-95)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/08/14

Following the smash success of Double Dare, children's cable network Nickelodeon produced a flurry of game shows over the course of the next decade and a half. Legends of the Hidden Temple, like most of these programs, imitated Double Dare's blend of trivia questions and obstacle course challenges. However, as one would likely infer based on the title of the program, Legends of the Hidden Temple framed itself in the aesthetic of "lost world" adventure romances like King Solomon's Mines, The Man Who

00:46:03

Viva Las Vegas (1964)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/08/07

Shortly after his ascent to pop superstardom and teen idol status, Elvis Presley ventured into filmmaking with Love Me Tender (1956). The strong profits of that feature led to lightweight musical comedies becoming the central focus of Presley's career. He appeared in over 30 movies between 1956 and 1969, most of which are forgettable trash made to promote mediocre, hastily-written songs that Presley was openly disinterested in performing. Elvis' movies are frequently blamed for the career decline

00:53:05

Character Studies: Daria (1997-2002)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/07/31

Spinning off from Beavis and Butthead, Daria is a coming-of-age animated sitcom centered upon its titular protagonist, an intelligent, disaffected, and cynical teenage girl making her way through a school and home environment that doesn't understand her. One of the more popular and well-reviewed programs of its particular era on MTV, the show has had a lasting impact on an audience of American millennials who entered their young adulthood while watching it. Ryan is joined by Sylvan and Cheryl as

00:34:58

Key Episodes: Primal Season 1 (2019-2020)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/07/24

While releasing the long-delayed final season of Samurai Jack, animator Genndy Tartakovsky was surprised by how much viewers loved the lengthy stretches that presented action and/or contemplation without any dialogue. This energized him to dust off an old idea and refurbish it as Primal, an adult animated fantasy series centering upon the unlikely partnership between a Neanderthal and a Tyrannosaurus. The duo (named Spear and Fang in the show's scripts) were united by mutual loss and most of their

00:34:17

Slaxx (2020)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/07/17

Slaxx, a 2020 Canadian horror comedy, is about a clothing outlet being terrorized by a pair of jeans possessed by the vengeful ghost of a slain sweatshop worker. As that brief description implies, Slaxx is both deeply absurd and highly didactic. It crams a lot of indictments of fast fashion, the retail mindset, and capitalism into its lean 77 minute running time, but also tosses in plenty of slapstick murder gags and broadly awful caricatures getting what's coming to them. Ryan is joined by Cheryl

00:35:24

Felix the Cat: The Movie (1989)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/07/10

Felix the Cat has taken quite a few strange turns since the character's debut in 1919, but the absolute oddest take is arguably the feature film co-produced by a Hungarian and American partnership. Development dragged from 1985 to 1987 and the resulting movie, which inexplicably dropped the character into a high fantasy setting reminiscent of He-Man or Heavy Metal, was released to critical dismissal and tepid box office several years later. This effort was part of an unsuccessful campaign to turn

00:39:15

The Thing From Another World (1951)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/07/03

Loosely adapted from John W. Campbell Jr.'s novella by Howard Hawks' production company, The Thing From Another World was a moderately profitable sci-fi thriller with a surprisingly lengthy reach across pop culture. Its plot points quickly became common tropes in genre filmmaking, its most memorable scenes were widely imitated, and it has gotten several remakes over the course of the past seven decades. Ryan is joined by Rachel, who considers John Carpenter's 1982 remake among her personal

00:39:40

Barbarella (1968)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/06/26

Adapted from the French comics series by Jean-Claude Forest and produced by Italian film kingpin Dino De Laurentiis, Barbarella shared cast and crew with Danger: Diabolik and went through a slew of writers (including Terry Southern) before reaching its final form. It's odd to remember that Jane Fonda was far from the first choice for the starring role when one considers how strongly the part looms over her public persona, but even a cursory glance at her vivid, dizzying, salacious, and humorous

00:47:13

The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/06/19

Developed during the troubled production of The Black Cauldron (1985) and released when Disney was at a very low period, The Great Mouse Detective was a modest success that convinced new CEO Michael Eisner and new chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg that animated features were still a relevant facet of Disney's business strategy. Based upon Eve Titus and Paul Galdone's Basil of Baker Street, The Great Mouse Detective marked the the first major contributions of many figures who'd become instrumental to the

00:46:16

Summer Stock (1950)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/06/12

Judy Garland suffered a significant blow to her reputation when, plagued by addiction problems, she was fired from 1950's Annie Get Your Gun and then spent three months in a Boston rehab facility. Summer Stock was conceived by MGM as a comeback vehicle for Garland since it harkened back to the backyard musicals that served as reliable moneymakers for the star throughout the 1940's. Director Charles Walters and romantic lead Gene Kelly considered the goofy and simplistic story to be beneath their

00:48:28

Shorts! The Three Stooges with Shemp Howard (1947-56)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/06/05

Generally speaking, vintage comedy fans consider the golden era of The Three Stooges to be the shorts made between 1934-1946 with Curly Howard as the third player. However, all things must pass and the group was forced to soldier on after Curly suffered a massive stroke and was rendered unable to perform. His brother Shemp Howard, who was part of the act in its earliest days, was brought in as a temporary pinch hitter and was persuaded to stay when it became clear that Curly was not going to

00:35:54

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/05/30

Based upon Winsor McKay's pioneering comic strip and animated short, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland was a joint production between Japanese and American animation studios that went through almost fifteen years of development hell before it was released to dismissive reviews and indifferent ticket sales in 1989. The roll call of those who worked on the film in some capacity can feel like a list of people who guided children's film for the next thirty years; notable names include Brad Bird,

00:38:03

Troll 2 (1990)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/05/22

Envisioned as an unofficial sequel to the completely unrelated 1986 horror comedy Troll, this infamous turkey was shot in Utah by an Italian schlock factory and was cast with locals with no acting experience. Troll 2 suffered from a variety of technical issues over the course of its production, including (but not limited to) cheap props, little attention paid to continuity, and a crew that didn't speak English and refused to let the actors correct the multitude of grammar and syntax errors in the

00:38:16

Phantom of the Opera (1943)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/05/15

A remake of the 1925 film that was first greenlit after the success of Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931), Universal's second adaptation of the Gaston Leroux potboiler tries to mix the gothic horror of its monster franchises with the pomp and opulence of a Hollywood musical. While financially and critically successful in its day (it's the only classic-era Universal horror movie to get any Oscar attention), movie nerds often consider this film to be one of the lesser cinematic renditions of the

00:33:38

Tales From The Darkside: The Movie (1990)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/05/08

Spinning off from the TV show of the same name (itself a spin-off of the 1982 film Creepshow), Tales From The Darkside: The Movie is a horror anthology movie produced by George Romero, directed by John Harrison, and featuring performances by Steve Buscemi, Christian Slater, Deborah Harry, William Hickey, David Johansen, Rae Dawn Chong, James Remar, and (in her movie debut) Julianne Moore. Moderately successful at the box office, Tales From The Darkside: The Movie enjoyed a lengthy afterlife as a

00:40:16

Doctor Strange (1978)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/05/01

Following the success of the Incredible Hulk television show that began airing in 1977, American networks tried to find another Marvel superhero who could captivate the viewers at home. Among their selected candidates was Doctor Strange, a heroic wizard whose comics had attracted a cult audience of children, fantasy nerds, and collegiate stoners ever since he was created by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee in 1963. CBS commissioned Philip DeGuere to direct a film that would serve as a pilot for a potential

00:34:22

Fire And Ice (1983)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/04/24

A heavily-rotoscoped sword and sorcery adventure film produced by iconoclastic animator Ralph Bakshi and beloved fantasy artist Frank Frazetta, Fire and Ice's crew featured such notables as Peter Chung (Æon Flux), James Gurney (Dinotopia), Maggie Roswell (The Simpsons), Roy Thomas (Conan), Gerry Conway (Spider-Man), and Thomas Kinkade (a bunch of ugly paintings at your local Hallmark dealer). Greenlit because of the recent success of Conan The Barbarian (1982) and The Beastmaster (1982), Fire and

00:39:37

Key Episodes: Jem (1985-1988)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/04/17

A virtual band descended from the precedents set by the likes of Alvin & The Chipmunks and The Archies, Jem & The Holograms were launched in 1985 by the toy company Hasbro. Hoping to capitalize upon the smash success of the music video format popularized by MTV, Jem would lace pop songs alongside a formula set by syndicated animated programs like He-Man & The Masters Of The Universe, Transformers, My Little Pony, and GI Joe: A Real American hero. Like those cartoons, Jem exploited the

00:38:41

Key Episodes: The Twilight Zone by Richard Matheson...

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/04/10

This recording is the third in a series that breaks down The Twilight Zone through its writing staff. If you'd like to visit (or revisit) the prior installments centering upon Jerry Sohl and Charles Beaumont, feel free to scroll down. You will not, however, miss out on any important context if you just dive in here. Probably the most esteemed Twilight Zone writer who isn't Rod Serling, winnowing down Richard Matheson's episodes to a representational trio is a mental challenge to anyone who is even

00:31:33

Dororo (2007)

Reel Deep Dive ·

2022/04/03

Osamu Tezuka's popular manga Dororo got adapted into two beloved anime series, once in 1969 and again in 2019. We're not talking about either of those here. The subject for today's episode is the 2007 live action Dororo film; it was intended to launch a trilogy, but that plan was scrapped after indifferent box office returns. Despite the film's disappointing gross, its connection to Tezuka's legacy and its weird imagery did endear it to a modest cult audience, particularly in the United

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