Nerd Lunch

As the Christmas celebrations continue on After Lunch, Michael and Rob welcome back Jody Collins to the show to talk about one of his favorite Christmas movies. It's Serendipity, starring John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale, Jeremy Piven, Molly Shannon, Bridget Moynahan, and John Corbett. The movie is a sweet and funny love story with some lovely surprises, but it also raises philosophical questions about fate, free will, and the romantic notion of The One. 

Happy Holidays! To kick off a busy Christmas season on the show, Michael and Rob welcome back Mike Westfall (Advent Calendar House) to discuss this year's Christmas Carol adaptation. It's Edwin L Marin's 1938 film starring Reginald Owen as Scrooge and Gene Lockhart as Bob Cratchit. The movie makes severe cuts to the story while adding other plot elements, but that's not all. There are also bad wigs, the most cheery Fred ever, a super cute Ghost of Christmas Past, and much much more.

Michael, Rob, Jody Collins, and Becky Tyler each create a mixtape with ten of their favorite '80s songs. Some songs have personal importance, others are simply iconic, but all 40 help define the decade musically for our panel. Listen and let us know which playlists most reflect your taste and what songs (whether we mentioned them or not) best exemplify the '80s for you.

Michael and Jess finish Universal's solo Frankenstein movies with The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) before checking out the introduction of Lon Chaney Jr's iconic werewolf character in The Wolf Man (1941). Then they wrap up with the creation of Universal's Monster Cinematic Universe in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943).

Michael, Rob, and Karen continue their Bondathon with a game-changing entry in the series, The Spy Who Loved Me. Co-starring Barbara Bach and featuring Caroline Munro, it introduces new recurring characters like Jaws and General Gogol while also raising the bar for sheer spectacle. But is it also good?! 

Michael and his wife Diane visited upstate New York for Halloween. They eventually ended up in Sleepy Hollow to spend time with the Headless Horseman, but also got to visit with one Mr Rob Graham and his wife Collette. In this special in-person recording, Michael and Diane talk with Rob about their Sleepy Hollow adventure and Rob shares his and Collette's recent spooky trip to Universal Studios and Disney World in Florida. 

Moby the Bard and his Bunnymen companions check into an inn to clean up after their recent griffin hunt. But their sleep is interrupted by screams and murder, leading the trio to investigate and assist a former pirate accused of the crime as well as his adopted daughter. Dungeon Master Ben Graham leads Rob Graham, Jeff Somogyi, and Michael May in their first full Dungeons & Dragons adventure together. Be sure to check out Episode 183 for the players' discussion of their histories with the game and the introduction to Ben's world.   And visit the After Lunch website to see maps from the adventure: The City of Trellan and a sketch of Jackson's exploration of the Drop Inn.

Michael and Jess open the sarcophagus on Universal's first three Mummy movies: The Mummy (1932), The Mummy's Hand (1940), and The Mummy's Tomb (1942).

With the recent release of Mike Flanagan's adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher, it seems like a good time to rerun this conversation about Edgar Allan Poe between Michael, Jessica Hickman, and Darla Ecklund from the old Filthy Horrors podcast.  The episode begins in a cemetery as we dig into "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Masque of the Red Death," and "The Raven," with side-trips to other Poe stories and favorite adaptations of his work. Note: It was windy at the cemetery and the sound overwhelms the discussion a few times during that section of the episode. We cleaned it up as best we could, but if it's bothersome, you might want to skip ahead to about 21 minutes into the show. At that point we've moved inside and the audio is clear for the remainder of the episode.

Happy Halloween! Michael, Rob, Pax, and Becky finish the Underworld films with a visit to the ice vampires as they talk about whether Blood Wars is a satisfying conclusion to the series.

Michael, Rob, Pax, and Becky return to the main Underworld timeline to briefly check on the Underworld: Endless War animated shorts before seeing what happens when humanity discovers the existence of vampires and werewolves in Underworld: Awakening.

Michael, Rob, Pax, and Becky travel back in time to the Dark Ages to witness how the war between the Underworld werewolves and vampires began. And whether the lack of Kate Beckinsale at all affects their enjoyment of this prequel to the previous two films.

Michael, Rob, Pax, and Becky return to a look at the second Underworld film to see how well it deals with the awakening of Marcus from the end of the previous movie, adds to the world of the series, and develops Selene's relationship with Michael Corvin.

Michael, Rob, Pax, and Becky Tyler are talking about the Underworld movies in this week leading up to Halloween. Starting, logically enough, with the first one starring Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Michael Sheen, and Bill Nighy. It's an old favorite for some of the panel, a second look for one, and a brand new experience for yet another.

Michael, Rob, and Pax wrap up this month's Lounge with conversations about shark movies, ZZ Top, The Fall of the House of Usher, Ahsoka, Only Murders in the Building, After Party, “buying” digital movies, Haunted Mansion, Us, To Be or Not To Be: A Chooseable-Path Adventure by Ryan North, finishing the Harry Potter series, Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss, Totally Killer, the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina TV series, From Dusk Till Dawn sequels, Batman ‘66, Black Mirror, favorite museums, Reservation Dogs, The Changeling, the Criterion Channel, The Creator, The Pope’s Exorcist, It Lives Inside, and No One Will Save You.

Michael, Rob, and Pax gather again in the Lounge to talk about things they hate (and their tolerance for people who like them), favorite comics artists, re-visiting favorite art vs seeking out new art, appearing in documentaries, The Classified Dossier: Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula by Christian Klaver, Edgar Allan Poe, Joe Hill, James Bond comics, high school reunions, the surprising relevance of gothic stories to modern society, Jason X: The Experiment by Pat Cadigan, and The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay.

Michael and Rob welcome Joanna from Bloody Popcorn and Shawn Robare to create a horror-themed streaming service. Each panelist controls a sub-channel that includes 5 favorite horror films, 5 favorite horror-related TV series, and an original series created by the panelist themself. Listen and see if your favorites are available! (Special thanks to Shawn for the name: 'screaming service'.)

Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about the third Planet of the Apes movie in which the series keeps going in spite of the planet's literal destruction at the end on the previous film. How convincing is the continuity? How well does the bold, new direction work? And what do Victor Newman and Khan Noonien Singh have to do with it?

Michael, Rob, and Karen discuss fun houses, slide whistles, kung fu nieces, and Mary Goodnight's espionage skills in this comprehensive conversation about Roger Moore's second Bond film. It's The Man with the Golden Gun, starring Christopher Lee, Maud Adams, Britt Ekland, and Hervé Villechaize.

After spending a lot of time talking about the Conjuring and Amityville Horror movies, Michael and Jess finally get around to discussing the three Universal Frankenstein movies starring Boris Karloff as the Monster: Frankenstein (1931), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and Son of Frankenstein (1939).