Matinee Manatees

Latest Episodes:

Godzilla (1998) May 10, 2019

Show notes

Redesignated simply "Zilla" by insulted fans of the series, Roland Emmerich's 1998 adaptation Godzilla stars Matthew Broderick, Hank Azaria, Maria Pitillo, and Jean Reno, and wishes it was Jurassic Park, which it very much is not. It is seventeen hours long and features several lizards. Fish! Boats! Simpsons voice actors! Guys named Jean! All of these things are in this movie. So. There's that?

The Shadow (1994) Mar 23, 2019

Show notes

We're doing 90s remakes of 30s pulps again! 1994's The Shadow directed by Russell Mulcahy and starring Alec Baldwin, is a strange, strange film. Join the manatees as they gush over Ian McKellen and Tim Curry's supporting roles, start suggesting edits almost from minute one, demonstrate an embarrassing lack of nuclear physics knowledge, and repeatedly struggle and fail to not call it The Phantom. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? But the ice is slippery! ... Wait. No. That's not how that goes.

Tomb Raider (2001) Feb 02, 2019

Show notes

We're starting 2019 off with the moderately notorious 2001 summer blockbuster Tomb Raider! Starring Angelina Jolie and Daniel Craig a little bit. But is it really as bad as people say? (Hint: yeah.) Float along with us as we force ourselves to finish this movie and take frequent breaks to talk astronomy, dream houses, and virtually anything else we can come up with to not focus on this movie. ... This one was kind of exhausting, guys. But! Listener choice episode coming up next month!

Interview With The Vampire (1994) Dec 15, 2018

Show notes

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!

Tombstone (1993) Nov 21, 2018

Show notes

Quite possibly the most macho movie ever made, 1993's 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 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!

The Phantom (1996) Oct 22, 2018

Show notes

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.

Labyrinth (1986) Sep 02, 2018

Show notes

Starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly, Jim Henson's 1986 classic Labyrinth holds a special place in a lot of 80s kids' hearts despite a rocky commercial release. But does it hold up to adults looking back? Float along and find out as we explore maze strategies, logic puzzles, and how many rock stars are actually in this movie. This one's a little less funny and more wistful than most, so fair warning! Bonus life update at the beginning, but you can skip to 17:00 if you'd rather just hear about movies.

Wild Wild West (1999) Jul 25, 2018

Show notes

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.

Batman Forever (1995) Jun 14, 2018

Show notes

Matinee Manatees is a year old, and to celebrate our 1st 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. Listen for tips on the best places to get recruited into a supervillain gang, advice on how to trick-or-treat properly, similarities between the Riddler and Mark Zuckerberg, and whether crowns or tiaras go better on manatees. Also, we talk about Batman. A little.

The Lost Boys (1987) May 05, 2018

Show notes

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.

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