Saturday, December 15, 2018

Interview With The Vampire (1994)

New episode is up!

We're back on our vampire kick with 1994's classic(?) Interview With The Vampire, written by Anne Rice, directed by Neil Jordan, and starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, a young Kirsten Dunst, and Antonio Banderas for like a hot minute. As a free bonus, you'll also get the manatees' grim prediction of when the book series may have jumped the shark, Sam's long war with films' portrayal of piano playing, and a summary of Ben's spec script for a vampire cowboy movie. FOR FREE!

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Tombstone (1993)

New episode is up!

Quite possibly the most macho movie ever made, the classic 1993 western Tombstone stars EVERYONE, including several stars we've seen on Matinee Manatees before. Tony has suspicions about lightning, Ben accidentally reveals what he looks for in a spouse, both gush over Doc Holliday, and everybody has a pretty good time. Float along with us to a super tough-guy Arizona 1881 from the comfort of your own bed, listen from the beginning to hear how things are going with the charity or skip to minute 8 if you hate podcast updates, and enjoy!

Monday, October 22, 2018

The Phantom (1996)

New episode is up!

1996's The Phantom is directed by Simon Wincer, stars Billy Zane, is widely reviled, and is actually awesome. We'll tell you how, and it's definitely not only because we're in love with Billy Zane. That's admittedly part of it, but. It's only... it's only about 80% because we're in love with Billy Zane. Float along with us for fun facts about the comics, embarrassing ignorance of basic geology, and a hypothetical casting choice that would have made this movie truly legendary.

Sunday, September 2, 2018

Labyrinth (1985)

New episode is up!

Starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly, Jim Henson's 1986 classic Labyrinth holds a special place in a lot of '80s kids' hearts despite its rocky commercial reception. But does it hold up to adults looking back? Float along with us and find out as we explore optimal maze strategies, logic puzzles, and how many rock stars are actually in this movie. This one wound up being a little less funny and a little more wistful than usual, so fair warning on that.

Also includes bonus life update content at the beginning! But you can skip to 17:00 if you'd rather just hear about the movie.

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Wild Wild West (1999)

New episode is up!

As a fairly obvious attempt to replicate the success of 1997's Men In Black, 1999's Wild Wild West underperformed pretty dramatically. But does it deserve its bad reputation? To find out, the manatees get academic in one of our most informative episodes ever, revealing secrets of the universe like the physics of how magnets work, why Harry Potter will never be as good as Lord of the Rings (no maps!), and the fact that chainmail was not a stunning new invention in 1869. It soon becomes fairly obvious that they don't remember much from history class, which works out nicely, because neither does the movie. It's, uh. It's really something, folks.

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Batman Forever (1995)

New Episode is up!

Matinee Manatees is a whole year old, and to celebrate our first birthday, we're doing a super-sized three-host episode! (It's an experiment, we'll see how it goes.) We're hanging out with Joel Schumacher again for his infamous 1995 classic Batman Forever, starring Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, and Chris O'Donnell. Listen in for tips on the best places to get recruited into a supervillain gang, advice on how to trick-or-treat properly, the similarities between the Riddler and Mark Zuckerberg, and whether crowns or tiaras look better on manatees. Also, we talk about Batman. A little.

Saturday, May 5, 2018

The Lost Boys (1987)

New Episode is up!

We're back at it with the vampire thing! Joel Schumacher's famous/infamous The Lost Boys (starring Kiefer Southerland, Jason Patric, Dianne Wiest and BOTH COREYS) is both a huge influence on virtually every vampire movie that came after it AND possibly the most 80's thing we've ever seen. But is it any good? The manatees dive right in and ask the really tough questions, like: Are DVDs really better than VHS tapes? Is the abandoned analogy in this movie about drug use or coming out of the closet? Would it be feasible for a modern vampire to subsist entirely on nazis? And, would you still even want to be immortal if they fed on poop instead of blood? (The movie brought it up, not us!) Float along under the boardwalk with us to lovely Santa Carla, California for 1987's summer classic: The Lost Boys.

Monday, April 16, 2018

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

New episode is live!

1990's Gremlins 2: The New Batch is directed by Joe Dante, stars Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, John Glover, and Haviland Morris, features Christopher Lee, Dick Miller, and Robert Picardo, and just might be among the best sequels ever made. On this there was no disagreement. Nervous about potentially boring the audience with a complete consensus, Ben attempts to manufacture conflict by announcing that he has beef with xenomorphs, New York style pizza, toll bridges, and cats; Tony gives babies a piece of his mind.

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Mean Girls (2004)

New episode is live! This month was our very first patron request, and it's a good one! 2004's Mean Girls starring Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams was, for some of us, a very special movie... in that we'd heard most of its most memorable lines quoted at us long before actually seeing it. But how does this high school teenage comedy hold up to an adult audience? Actually, surprisingly well. Get in, losers, we're going floating! (Remember that? Do you remember that quote? Do you remember when they said that?)

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Twilight (2008)

New episode is live! For February, home of the most weirdly forced romantic holiday of the year, we're watching of the most weirdly forced romantic movies in recent memory: 2008's Twilight! Starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, Twilight was pretty obviously geared towards a different target audience than yours truly, but we tried to give it a fair shake. Also included: more practical advice for hiding immortality, the science behind Vampire (baseball) Bats, obligatory rants on abusive relationships, and why this movie makes one manatee feel old (and not for the reasons you think). ... Twilight! Twilight (2008)

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

New episode is live! Of all of the retellings of the Robin Hood legend, 1991's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner stands apart, though not necessarily for the best reasons. The manatees dive in to unravel the movie's many mysteries: castle maintenance, Morgan Freeman's magical powers, vanishing dogs, and Alan Rickman's starring role in a completely separate movie. Y'all remember this one? Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)