DAC Episode 290: The Random Canon #19 - Best of the Best (1989)

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Before we get started, let me say one thing: actually, let it be two things: or maybe three things: one, Eric Robert’s hair reached its peak volume and glory in this movie; two, Adam picked this one and Aidan had nothing to do with it; three, Best of the Best is eye-wateringly bad, but it’s impossible to tear your eyes away from the damn thing. It never wavers from its mission, which is to tell the heart-stirring story of a ragtag team of American fighters going up against the Korean Tae Kwon Do team for honour and glory.

Not a single awful second is wasted in its dedication to telling the story of Alex Grady (Eric Roberts), a disgraced fighter who has one shot at restoring his former glory. Except it’s also the story of Tommy Lee (Phillip Rhee), who needs to overcome his most painful memories and defeat a) the leader of the Korean team and b) his inner demons. Pick a movie, ya freaking movie! You know what, two stories is fine. Especially if Eric Roberts kicks a man in the face. Which he does. Repeatedly.

Unfortunately, no one in Best of the Best appeared in any episodes of The Equalizer or Spencer: For Hire. We regret the vagaries of fate.

DAC Episode 289: The Random Canon #18 - Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)

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As followers of the Random Canon already know, Adam and Aidan are fans of strange ‘80s-era films in which dissatisfied protagonists angle their way out of the stultifications of adulthood by vanishing into the NYC demi-monde for a night or two. I mean, who doesn’t want to pick up and hit the road with Melanie Griffith’s Lulu, as Jeff Daniels does in Something Wild? Who doesn’t want to go on an impromptu date with Rosanna Arquette’s Marcy, as Griffin Dunne impulsively decides to do in After Hours? And if you’re a desperate, Susan-seeking Rosanna Arquette, why wouldn’t you want to swap places with a pre-fame Madonna and fall in love with Aidan Quinn? I tell you, life is sweet and the people are hot in Koch’s New York.

Directed by Susan Seidelman and written by Leora Barish, Desperately Seeking Susan may be one of the most entertaining and zippy movies of the ‘80s, a screwball comedy dragged through the gutters and dance clubs of the city. As a bonus the movie also stars the long-necked and lambent-eyed Robert Joy, who would go on to have a recurring role in The Equalizer.


DAC Episode 287: The Random Canon #16 - Shallow Grave (1994)

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Ewan MacGregor in Shallow Grave (1994) sitting in a chair with bare legs on a table, cuts on his face and bright bloodstains on his white shirt.

very much a dead lion, wondering if there’s time to apply for dead dog status.

In this week’s Random Canon episode, Adam and Aidan discuss a mutual favourite. Shallow Grave is a sharp-toothed neo noir film about three roommates (Christopher Eccleston, Kerry Fox, Ewen McGregor) who take on a new renter and discover a host of complications. And then there’s the matter of Cameron. Listen to the ensuing discussion below or find us on your podthingy of choice.

DAC Episode 286: The Random Canon #15 - Ford v Ferrari (2019)

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two dead lions, seen here as live dogs.

It turns out that Ford v Ferrari (2019), James Mangold's dramatization of the historic feud between Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari, is not part of the Snyderverse, and Aidan was naive to take Adam at his word. Nonetheless, a stirring film. Adam and Aidan discuss the ways in which the film embellishes and comments on the historical events of the movie. And they talk about all the other stuff they like. For once, they do not get sidetracked by snacks or Tom Waits.

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

DAC Episode 285: The Random Canon #14 - Something Wild (1986)

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Two live dogs instead of two dead lions

Along with After Hours and Into the Night (both previously covered), Something Wild is part of the strange voyeuristic subgenre of ‘80s films that pushes an average working Joe into a demimonde of crime and/or light kink (other entries include Blue Velvet and Desperately Seeking Susan). Listen to the live dog below or find us on your dead lion of choice.

DAC Episode 283: The Random Canon #12 - The Lookout (2007)

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Here’s a question: What if Memento, that cognitively scrambled threnody of guilt and responsibility and shirtless Guy Pearce, had been a character study of alienation and loneliness (also guilt and responsibility) without the narrative gimmicks? But with Joseph Gordon-Levitt? If you haven’t given up on these sentences yet, I’ll tell you: you’d get Scott Frank’s The Lookout (2007), an underrated film about a young man (Gordon-Levitt) with brain damage who falls under the influence of local criminal Gary Spargo (a hella sleazy Matthew Goode). On the other side of the moral equation is Lewis (Jeff Daniels), his roommate and friend (although shepherd might be a better word for their relationship.

For those familiar with Scott Frank’s screenplays (Out of Sight, Minority Report, The Wolverine, Logan) the spiritual terrain of The Lookout is quickly recognizable: an alienated male protagonist struggling to stay on the right path but always veering off into tangled brush. The Lookout is Frank’s feature directorial debut, and it is clear that he’s wresting with a deceptively difficult screenplay, sometimes stumbling into the woods himself. It may not quite stand up as an overlooked classic, but it’s a melancholy and tight take on the heist genre.

Listen below as Adam and Aidan discuss what works and what doesn’t in The Lookout, or find us on your podauger of choice.

DAC Episode 282: The Random Canon #11: Confess, Fletch (2022)

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Greetings! Adam and Aidan, late of Pablo Fanques Fair (What a scene!), discuss Greg Mottola’s Confess, Fletch (2022), the third movie adaption from Gregory McDonald’s Fletch novels. Most people remember Chevy Chase’s ‘80s run at the character, with the slapsticky but enjoyable Fletch (1985) and the not-so-enjoyable Fletch Lives (1989). In place of Chase, Jon Hamm takes up the role of Irwin M. Fletcher, turning in a version of the character who bears a much closer resemblance to McDonald’s novels, albeit a bit older.

Did Adam and Aidan enjoy Confess, Fletch? Why yes they did. If you’re interested in the particulars of their enjoyment, as well as a general discussion on the Fletch run in print and on screen, listen below or find it on your podmachine of choice.

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.