DAC Episode 281: The Random Canon #10 - The Blood of Heroes (1989)

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Also released under the baffling but evocative title The Salute of the Jugger, this is the strangest post-apocalyptic sports movie you’ll ever see. Rutger Hauer, Joan Chen and Vincent D’onofrio star in this tale of ambition, despair and beating people up over a dog’s skull. John Kenneth Muir called it “the Rocky of the dystopian genre,” and that’s about the best capsule summary you can get.

Adam and Aidan talk about its resemblances to Mad Max, the intricacies of The Game and its players (known as Juggers), and the elusive extended cut that adds several context-changing minutes at the end of the film. So skip your Rollerball. Do not go Beyond Thunderdome. And toss that ancient VHS copy of Robot Jox. The Blood of Heroes is here to kick your legs out from under you, whip you with a chain and steal your dog skull from your very hands. Listen below or find us on your podcast thingy of choice.

DAC Episode 280: The Random Canon #9: Easy A (2010)

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Whatever happened to chivalry? Does it only exist in 80's movies? I want John Cusack holding a boombox outside my window. I wanna ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey. I want Jake from Sixteen Candles waiting outside the church for me. I want Judd Nelson thrusting his fist into the air because he knows he got me.

Emma Stone in a black corset with a red "A" emblazoned on the right breast. Still from the movie Easy A.

What happens when the greatest aspiration of your adolescent life is to exist inside a teen movie? I suppose the answer lies in Easy A, the whip-smart star vehicle for Emma Stone. Adam and Aidan are pumping their fists and riding off on a lawnmower with this movie. Listen below, or, you know, iTunes us.

DAC Episode 279: The Random Canon #8: Touch of Evil

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A still from the movie Touch of Evil. Orson Welles points a revolver at someone off-screen.

When Orson Welles finally left the studio system, he left (or was pushed) with a splash. Touch of Evil (1958) is the beautifully directed but kind of nonsensical story of a brown-daubed Charlton Heston and a padded Orson Welles in a tale of murder, sleaze and corruption on the Mexican-American border. Among its many charms is a truly gonzo performance from Dennis Weaver as a night desk clerk. Listen below or find us on your podmasher of choice!

DAC Episode 276: The Random Canon #6 - D.E.B.S. (2004)

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D.E.B.S.! How is a movie that features a (misunderstood) villain named Lucy Diamond, a tartan force field (that matches the stars’ skirts) and a completely unmotivated lip synch scene to an Erasure song not a huge cult classic? Angela Robinson’s campy lesbian romance features ridiculous props, an even more ridiculous plot, and rarest of all for a lesbian movie, a happy ending. More movies like this, please. Llisten below or track us down on your podscatterer of choice.


DAC Episode 275: The Random Canon #5 - Into the Night

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They can’t all be hits. Or even particularly good. Aside from a brief appearance by David Bowie as a sleazy assassin, John Landis’ Into the Night is an unpleasant and slapdash affair. Jeff Goldblum delivers a career-worst performance, and a series of cameos from Landis’ director buddies fails to liven up the proceedings. On the other hand, it makes for an interesting counterpoint to Scorsese’s After Hours, in which a harried man in an unfulfilling job follows an alluring woman into a bizarre adventure.

Are either films as thrilling an adventure as listening to Adam and Aidan talking about them for an hour? Only one way to find out! Listen below or find us on your podcatcher of choice.

DAC 274: The Random Canon #4 - The Black Hole

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In 1979, Walt Disney Productions put the last nail in the lid of ‘70s science fiction with The Black Hole, a bombastic and misguided attempt on Disney’s part to shift gears from chintzy kid’s fare to more adult-oriented genre entertainment. 43 years later, Adam and Aidan refresh their memories and watch it again. Why, you ask. Why. Because suffering is its own form of pleasure.

Listen below, or find us on your podcaster of choice.

DAC Episode 273: The Random Canon #3 - The January Man (1989)

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Some months ago, when Adam proposed to Aidan that DAC shift its format to do regular deep dives into movies, Aidan could not have known that it was all part of Adam’s diabolical plan to have someone else end up watching The January Man.

Possibly one of the weirdest but most entertaining misfires* in cinema, The January Man stars Kevin Kline as a disgraced NYPD lieutenant brought back into the fold in order to catch a serial killer. The movie features one of the most over-the-top performances of all time from Rod Steiger, who looks confusingly like Carol O’Connor here. Why does he look so much like Carol O’Connor? And why is he screaming at Danny Aiello? These are the real mysteries of The January Man.

It’s a serial killer mystery that doesn’t care about the killer, a romantic comedy completely cynical about romance, a political corruption story that gets sidelined for a family drama that gets sidelined for a wacky tale of boho misfits solving crimes. It’s The January Man and it’s a hell of a lot of fun. Listen below! Or podcast us of choice.

*Adam may contend that The January Man is not a misfire, but Aidan writes these summaries, so too bad.

DAC Episode 272: Trek Amok

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It’s time to talk about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds! One of our favourite seasons of television comes to a close, which is sad, but it gives Adam and Aidan an opportunity to talk about it. It’s great until Aidan starts complaining about Star Trek and Star Wars fandom. Hoo boy. Fortunately, Adam rescues the episode from the rant corral by guiding it into the wider pastures of the differing natures of Trek and Wars fandoms. Speculations and hypotheses abound! So go on and listen below or podcatch it, choice-wise.

DAC Episode 271: The Random Canon #2 - After Hours (1985)

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Can you believe that After Hours, Martin Scorsese’s offbeat arty comedy of absurdist dread, is not one of Adam’s favourite movies? Aidan can’t believe it, and spends an hour haranguing Adam for his failure of taste.

Just kidding! Aidan turns out be very understanding - and, truth be told, he found After Hours a little less satisfying in 2022 than he did when he was impressionable teen in the mid-’80s. But it still feels like a refreshing dip into a different sort of film for Scorsese, who was grappling with career and studio issues at the time and decided to go for broke with this tale of a Manhattan word processor who spends one chaotic night in the wrong neighborhood. Listen below or podcatch it of choice.

DAC Episode 270: Looking for Dr. Strange

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On this episode, Adam and Aidan go on the hunt for Dr. Strange, finding him in - where else? - Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness! What do they think of this one? Is it, you know, good? How does the Raimi of it all factor in to the storytelling? Did they respect Wanda Maximoff’s arc from Wandavision, or did they decide that the only acceptable story for the Scarlet Witch is to turn her into a baby-crazy villain? So many questions.

As always, listen below or find us your iTunes of choice!

DAC Episode 269: The Random Canon #1 - McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)

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A stranger comes to town and invites the men at the saloon to play a round of cards. At a later point, he’s running through deep snow, hunting hired assassins as the local church burns.

If you recognized the opening and closing scenes of Robert Altman’s MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER (1971), you’re the kind of person who’ll enjoy Adam and Aidan’s Random Films, a biweekly feature in which the hosts discuss a film plucked out of their heads and nailed to the chopping block for their inspection. Listen below or on your iTunes of choice.

DAC Episode 266: A World Still Stranger

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On this week’s episode, Adam and Aidan discuss the impending end of the Arrowverse (but will this place become a Gotham Knights stan site? No) and wonder what could possibly come next. We also have a spoiler-free talk about Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and the second episode of Strange New Worlds. En. Joy.

Listen below or find us on your steampunk podcast machine of choice!

DAC Episode 265: New Who News and Strange New Worlds

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Greetings! On episode 265, Adam and Aidan talk about Ncuti Gatwa, Russell Davies and all things Who. Adam embarks on a Legends of Tomorrow rewatch. Aidan reflects on the curiously unsatisfying (for him) Moon Knight. Plus a Superman and Lois mid-season cliffhanger!

But really, we’re here to talk about the premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Was it exactly the Trek Adam and Aidan wanted? Listen to find out. Download below or find us on your iTunes of choice.