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PODCAST

Movie Memory Machine

Grunt Work Podcasts

Movie Memory Machine is your guide to the forgotten films of the ’80s, ’90s, 2000s, and beyond.Every week, our rogue time machine drops us into a different year to revisit wide-release movies that history left behind—cult favorites, forgotten flops, and everything in between.Along the way, we uncover behind-the-scenes trivia, oddball production choices, and the cultural baggage these movies left behind.Then we decide: does this movie deserve to return to modern memory—or stay lost in time?

tv & film performing arts

All Episodes

42:55

Mini-Transmission: Nightmare Alley (2021) | Mentalism...

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/11/07

After six months of secret preparation, Landen unveils a mind-reading experiment that goes wildly off the rails. What begins as a crystal-ball séance turns into one of the strangest on-air pranks in Movie Memory Machine history.WHAT YOU’LL HEAR Landen’s elaborate attempt to “mentally program” Truman into naming a specific actor How a single Jennifer Connelly guess derails months of setup The shocking reveal of six hundred prerecorded actor names A confession, an existential crisis, and a

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135:25

Nightmare Alley (2021) – Guillermo del Toro’s Darkest...

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/10/31

Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley (2021) set out to dazzle audiences with a lush film-noir vision of ambition, deceit, and carnival grit, so why did it vanish almost as quickly as it arrived? Truman Capps and Landen Celano climb into the Machine to find out how a star-studded prestige remake could be both immaculate and strangely unmemorable.A remake of the 1947 noir classic, Nightmare Alley follows con-man Stanton Carlisle as he rises from sideshow hustler to high-society psychic, weaving a

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17:24

5 For: In Dreams (1999)

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/10/27

The Machine pulls Truman and Landen back into the dream realm with five films that share In Dreams’ fascination with psychic visions, prophetic nightmares, and reality slipping sideways. From Stephen King to cryptids, remakes to cults, this is a guided tour through cinema’s strangest dreamscapes.WHAT YOU’LL HEAR The nightmare that connects Neil Jordan’s In Dreams to the Nightmare on Elm Street remake (and why both missed the mark). The moral weight of prophecy in The Dead Zone — and why

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34:06

Mini-Transmission: In Dreams (1999) - Psychic Killer...

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/10/24

Annette Bening’s throwing computers, Margo Martindale’s scolding patients, and Robert Downey Jr. might be Bluetooth-paired to a printer across town. The Machine’s latest Mini-Transmission dives into the surreal dream logic of In Dreams (1999) — with plenty of scuba, psychic sync-ups, and badly rendered CGI fish.WHAT YOU’LL HEAR Truman’s confession: he just wants Margo Martindale to yell at him (and Landen’s real-life brush with her politeness). The mystery of In Dreams’ CGI fish — and why no

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139:29

In Dreams (1999) – Robert Downey Jr. in a Fairy Tale...

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/10/17

In Dreams (1999) is a psychological thriller that opens in a fairy tale and ends in a flood of glass, apples, and psychic bleed-through. Directed by Neil Jordan and starring Annette Bening, this dark fantasia tried to rewire genre expectations, and nearly drowned in the process.In Dreams is a 1999 psychological thriller where a New England illustrator begins having vivid, terrifying visions of a serial killer only to discover those dreams might be real. Directed by Neil Jordan and starring Annette

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19:25

5 For: The Skeleton Key (2005) – Body Swaps,...

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/10/13

What happens when the Machine pulls five films bound by voodoo, hypnosis, and the horror of losing yourself?In this “5 For” episode, Landen and Truman unlock the eerie lineage that connects The Skeleton Key to haunted consciousness and body-swapping mayhem. WHAT YOU’LL HEAR How I Walked with a Zombie (1943) shaped modern horror, colonial guilt, and the invention of the jump scare The Others (2001) as gothic melancholy and family tragedy in disguise Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017) reimagining

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36:10

Mini-Transmission: The Skeleton Key (2005) – The Dark...

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/10/10

Landen and Truman start with a simple question: what kind of man truly earns his Panama hat? From there, the Machine drags them back into the bayou for a delirious round of riffs about body-swapping, drumming ghosts, and one very misleading trailer for The Skeleton Key (2005).Somewhere between hoodoo law books, trumpet-player jowls, and a fanny-pack confession, the spooky dimension gets louder than ever. What You’ll Hear The eternal question of who can really pull off a Panama hat A dive into

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131:11

The Skeleton Key (2005) — Hoodoo, Horror, and Hidden...

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/10/03

The Skeleton Key (2005) promises Southern Gothic chills but locks its story inside a swamp of twists and hoodoo lore. Nearly forgotten in the decades since its release, the film invites us back to Louisiana to ask whether its spell still holds.Set in the shadowy bayous of Louisiana, The Skeleton Key (2005) follows Caroline Ellis (Kate Hudson), a hospice nurse who takes a job caring for an elderly man in a decaying Southern mansion, only to uncover secrets tied to hoodoo and the house’s dark past

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15:33

5 For: The Vampire's Assistant: Cirque du Freak (2009)

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/09/29

What do Alex Winter mutants, Tim Burton fever dreams, and Macho Man in a cage match have in common?They’re all freaky detours on the strange, slimy, transformation-heavy road paved by Cirque du Freak. WHAT YOU’LL HEAR Five films connected by freaks, transformations, and uncanny communities A genuine love–hate rant about Basket Case 2 Spider-Man, pro wrestling, and the freak show that is Sam Raimi’s career The lingering trauma of a hostel room haunted by Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter A

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33:42

Mini-Transmission: The Vampire's Assistant: Cirque du...

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/09/26

The Machine delivers a vampire movie that doesn’t suck… it punches.In this Mini-Transmission, Truman and Landen unpack Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant with confusion, frustration, and a deep dive into a freak show that left them feeling personally attacked. What You’ll Hear: Is Darren Shan fanfiction or middle school fiction? The untapped greatness of Ray Stevenson and a villain with actor energy The Trailer Game: how many freaks fit in two minutes? Logistics of Mr. Tiny’s limo,

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134:04

The Vampire's Assistant: Cirque du Freak (2009) – YA...

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/09/19

Released at the height of Twilight fever, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant (2009) tried to launch the next big YA franchise — and fell flat on its face. We’re going back to the circus to ask why this fantasy oddity vanished into the shadows.Based on Darren Shan’s bestselling YA novels, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant (2009) follows teenager Darren, who stumbles into a hidden world of vampires and sideshow outcasts after making a fateful pact with the mysterious Larten Crepsley

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18:35

5 For: Hotel Artemis (2018)

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/09/15

A dystopian hotel, a crime gone wrong, and one very dumb movie with a basketball death match. This week, the Machine delivers five thematically entangled transmissions for Hotel Artemis — from siege thrillers to pop culture-saturated criminals. WHAT YOU’LL HEAR Five thematically related films that echo Hotel Artemis’ dystopian setting, crime-laden plot, or ensemble structure A nostalgic riff on The Purge’s original script and its budget-conscious premise Safe space shootouts and

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35:22

Mini-Transmission: Hotel Artemis (2018) – Don’t Take...

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/09/12

In near-future Los Angeles, the Hotel Artemis treats wounded criminals — but our hosts are more concerned with countdown etiquette, 3D-printed weapons, and where Jeff Goldblum keeps his tiny hand bomb.What you'll hear: Heist etiquette, countdown anxiety, and why masks should stay on — even in your sleep Sci-fi tech that makes no ergonomic sense (looking at you, jade egg communicator) The Trailer Game returns: glitches, rules, and a guess about California Dreamin The Machine delivers our

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140:58

Hotel Artemis (2018) – The B-Movie That Dreamed of a...

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/09/05

What if your health insurance got you shot?In Hotel Artemis (2018), Jodie Foster runs a secret hospital for criminals in riot-torn Los Angeles — but despite ten unbreakable rules, nobody seems to follow any of them, including the movie itself. Set in the not-so-distant future of 2028, Hotel Artemis follows a covert Los Angeles hospital for criminals operated out of an abandoned art deco hotel. As riots explode in the streets over water shortages, the hospital’s no-nonsense nurse (Jodie Foster)

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20:09

5 For: Body of Lies (2008) – Spies, Beards, and...

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/09/01

The Machine wrests control of the list and serves up five films that echo, challenge, or outshine Body of Lies (2008). From Cold War shadows to desert firefights, these movies test the limits of trust, tension, and espionage on screen. A black-and-white classic spy story with Richard Burton and moral fallout The beard-to-weight Oscar conspiracy of Syriana Why Spielberg’s Munich lingers longer than expected The controversy, urgency, and Jessica Chastain of Zero Dark Thirty Sicario and the

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34:17

Mini-Transmission: Body of Lies (2008) – “Cut the...

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/08/29

Leonardo DiCaprio side-sips a beer. Landen sprays beer out his nose. Somehow, that’s still more memorable than anything in Body of Lies.This Mini-Transmission spirals from forgettable marketing into prop comedy, actor auditions, and the least effective interrogation techniques ever recorded. Why Body of Lies has one of the most boring posters and marketing campaigns imaginable Truman and Landen’s beer-soaked reenactment of Leo’s bizarre drinking habits A live-read audition of “Cut the

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02:12:40

Body of Lies (2008) | The Most Forgettable Movie of...

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/08/22

What happens when you take a CIA thriller, strip it of personality, and add brown contact lenses? Body of Lies (2008) is the rare war-on-terror drama that forgets itself while you’re still watching it.Released in 2008 by Warner Bros. and directed by Ridley Scott, Body of Lies stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a CIA operative running ground operations in Jordan and Russell Crowe as his remote, micromanaging superior. Based on a novel by Washington Post journalist David Ignatius and adapted by The Departed

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25:25

Mini-Transmission: The Rundown (2003) | Between The...

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/08/15

What do Brazilian fight scenes, video game sound cues, and a referee with a whistle have in common? This Mini-Transmission dives into the sonic mayhem of The Rundown (2003), plays the easiest Trailer Game of all time, and ends with a cryptic new clue from the Machine.WHAT YOU’LL HEAR A spirited debate over whether a jungle fight scene is secretly reffed by a whistle-happy sports official A haunting PlayStation startup sound hidden in the score The easiest (and most accurate) round of The

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14:56

5 For: The Rundown (2003)

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/08/11

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02:24:17

The Rundown (2003) | The Rock in the Jungle (Before...

Movie Memory Machine ·

2025/08/08

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s first big shot at movie stardom came in The Rundown (2003) — a jungle action-comedy from a studio that couldn’t decide what it wanted.This week, Movie Memory Machine digs into the awkward birth of a blockbuster franchise that never was. In The Rundown (2003), Dwayne Johnson stars as Beck, a bounty hunter sent to the Amazon to retrieve his boss’s son — only to run into rebels, a tyrannical gold mine operator, and more fruit-based slapstick than expected. Directed by

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120 results

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