Robert and I double-down on one of the key movies of our formative years, the Vince Vaughn breakout film, Swingers. This is a fun romp of a movie that tests the boundaries of what could be done today and ended up being a quote-fest a la our Billy Madison or Lebowski episodes. I’m supposed to be impressed because he’s wearing a backpack. This episode is so money, and you don’t even know it.
Wannabe actors become regulars in the stylish neo-lounge scene; Trent teaches his friend Mike the unwritten rules of the scene.
SWINGERS Hip and hilarious – critics and audiences alike are raving about this must-see comedy hit that’s so money, it catapulted Vince Vaughn (THE BREAK-UP, WEDDING CRASHERS) and Jon Favreau (COUPLES RETREAT, IRON MAN) to stardom! It’s the laugh-out-loud look at a fun group of friends who spend their days looking for work and their nights in and out of Hollywood’s coolest after-hours hangouts! When the lovesick Mike (Jon Favreau) can’t seem to shake a relationship rut, his smooth, fast-talking buddy Trent (Vince Vaughn) decides he’ll do whatever it takes to show Mike a good time! Whether laughing over martinis in smoky cocktail lounges…or searching for beautiful babes on an outrageous road trip to Vegas, the young SWINGERS are determined to rewrite the rules of modern dating!
Based on a suggestion by a listener and to highlight the recent anniversary of the atom bombs being dropped on Japan, we cover “Barefoot Gen” and also briefly contrast it with “Grave of the Fireflies”.
Demanding unconditional surrender and using the pretense of invasion as political maneuvering while showing the destructive capacity now wielded to brewing adversaries, an entire generation of innocent civilians are murdered in cold blood with the wrong answer to the philosophical trolley problem.
The movies both show the horror of war at home that is then amplified at the dawn of the nuclear age.
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Hiroshima, August 1945. Gen is a cheerful elementary school student living in Japan during World War II. After years of living with difficult wartime rationing and impoverished conditions, Gen and his family have managed to maintain a relatively normal and happy life. All that is about to change when an atomic bomb destroys their city in an instant.
While Gen and his mother manage to survive the attack, the rest of their family is not so lucky. In the face of adversity, Gen manages to maintain his cheerful spirit and never loses hope that things will get better for him, and for the entire nation of Japan.
Based on the world renowned manga ‘Barefoot Gen’ by Keiji Nakazawa, Barefoot Gen captures the spirit of a nation struggling to redefine itself and gives us encouragement to overcome strategy and cherish human life. – Amazon Editor
As the Empire of the Sun crumbles upon itself and a rain of firebombs falls upon Japan, the final death march of a nation is echoed in millions of smaller tragedies. This is the story of Seita and his younger sister Setsuko, two children born at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and now cast adrift in a world that lacks not the care to shelter them, but simply the resources.
Forced to fend for themselves in the aftermath of fires that swept entire cities from the face of the earth, their doomed struggle is both a tribute to the human spirit and the stuff of nightmares. Beautiful, yet at times brutal and horrifying.
The stark fact is that the Japanese leaders, both military and civilian, including the Emperor, were willing to surrender in May of 1945 if the Emperor could remain in place and not be subjected to a war crimes trial after the war. This fact became known to President Truman as early as May of 1945. The Japanese monarchy was one of the oldest in all of history dating back to 660 B.C. The Japanese religion added the belief that all the Emperors were the direct descendants of the sun goddess, Amaterasu. The reigning Emperor Hirohito was the 124th in the direct line of descent. After the bombs were dropped on August 6 and 9 of 1945, and their surrender soon thereafter, the Japanese were allowed to keep their Emperor on the throne and he was not subjected to any war crimes trial. The Emperor, Hirohito, came on the throne in 1926 and continued in his position until his death in 1989. Since President Truman, in effect, accepted the conditional surrender offered by the Japanese as early as May of 1945, the question is posed, “Why then were the bombs dropped?”
Are you not entertained? Is that not why you are here? We get in the Russell Crowe, Oscar-winning epic, Gladiator.
The general who became a slave. A slave who became a gladiator. A gladiator who defied an emperor.
We’re seriously vexed about the false dichotomy between the two modes of rulership being fought over here.
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When a Roman general is betrayed and his family murdered by a corrupt prince, he comes to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge. Director Ridley Scott’s triumphant Gladiator is an unparalleled combination of vivid action and extraordinary storytelling that earned five Oscars® including Best Picture.
Set in Roman times, the story of a once-powerful general forced to become a common gladiator. The emperor’s son is enraged when he is passed over as heir in favour of his father’s favourite general. He kills his father and arranges the murder of the general’s family, and the general is sold into slavery to be trained as a gladiator – but his subsequent popularity in the arena threatens the throne.
Here is a link to the ClimateRight Air Conditioner that I ‘brojected’ into my office with two old chairs, 6-4×4’s, an old garden hose, and 5 socks:
It works like a dream and took care of the humidity and heat problem I’ve been fighting in my office. Highly recommended.
This is a sweeping movie that elicits a fun discussion.
If you like bread and circuses, you’ll be sure to enjoy this one.
We’ll be back next week with a review of Barefoot Gen. A somber look from the other side of the atomic bomb drops on Japan. You should be able to find it on YouTube as well.
We meander a bit more on this episode than most as we use the film/book series as more of a jumping off point for our rants about conscription and the near limitless thirst for government power. The Hunger Games film series consists of four science fiction dystopian adventure films based on The Hunger Games trilogy of novels, by the American author Suzanne Collins.
May the odds forever be in your favor.
The Hunger Games trilogy takes place in an unspecified future time, in the dystopian, post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, located in North America. The country consists of a wealthy Capitol city, located in the Rocky Mountains, surrounded by twelve (originally thirteen) poorer districts ruled by the Capitol.
The Capitol is lavishly rich and technologically advanced, but the districts are in varying states of poverty. The trilogy’s narrator and protagonist Katniss Everdeen, lives in District 12, the poorest region of Panem, located in Appalachia, where people regularly die of starvation.
Speaking of the Capitol, here is a new article by Czarina Denman also discussing the Hunger Games:
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As punishment for a past rebellion against the Capitol (called the “Dark Days”), in which District 13 was supposedly destroyed, one boy and one girl from each of the twelve remaining districts, between the ages of 12 and 18, are selected by lottery to compete in an annual pageant called the Hunger Games. The Games are a televised event in which the participants, called “tributes”, are forced to fight to the death in a dangerous public arena. The winning tribute and his/her home district are then rewarded with food, supplies, and riches.
The purposes of the Hunger Games are to provide entertainment for the Capitol and to remind the districts of the Capitol’s power and lack of remorse, forgetfulness, and forgiveness for the failed rebellion of the current competitors’ ancestors. [-Wikipedia]
During the episode, we made mention of a lecture by Robert Higgs on the concept of conscription being the keystone for justifying any lesser action by the state, which paves the road for the justification of anything:
READINGS:
“War and Leviathan in Twentieth-Century America: Conscription as the Keystone”
“Crisis and Quasi-corporatist Policymaking: The Case in Historical Perspective”
“The Cold War Is Over, but U.S. Preparation for It Continues”
Higgs, Against Leviathan, chapters 24, 25, and 30 https://amzn.to/2sQ7yuH
Also, if you want to get into our roots, we discussed the Hunger Games briefly about two years ago back in our Read Rothbard Podcast days:
And also at Anchor.FM where you can even leave us messages of up to one-minute long that we can plug into the show, and respond to. Give it a try and we’ll see how it works together!
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Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to listen to this episode on the Tom Cruise vehicle Mission Impossible. It has spawned numerous sequels stretching over two decades. He must be doing something right. Plenty of random analysis in this one.
This episode will self-destruct in 5 seconds.
Hasta lasagna, don’t get any on ya.
Ethan Hunt, a secret agent, is framed for the deaths of his espionage team.
A former Russian spy selling international intelligence on the black market… a list containing names of the top undercover agents in the world… a corrupt agent doubling for an unknown organization… a mysterious arms dealer… a spy agency ready to disavow the actions or existence of any of its members captured or killed… and one man on a mission which seems impossible…
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When U.S. government operative Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his mentor, Jim Phelps (Jon Voight), go on a covert assignment that takes a disastrous turn, Jim is killed, and Ethan becomes the prime murder suspect. Now a fugitive, Hunt recruits brilliant hacker Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and maverick pilot Franz Krieger (Jean Reno) to help him sneak into a heavily guarded CIA building to retrieve a confidential computer file that will prove his innocence.
During the episode, we made mention of the MTV Movie Awards spoof of Mission Impossible, here it is for your enjoyment:
We hope you enjoy this episode! We’ll be back next week with a review of The Hunger Games! We will have a fun guest article related to that movie series coming out with the release of the episode.
And also at Anchor.FM where you can even leave us messages of up to one-minute long that we can plug into the show, and respond to. Give it a try and we’ll see how it works together!
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With the release of Deadpool 2 upon us, we felt it a good time to jump on that astro-turfed viral-marketing highway and do the original. This is a movie right up Robert’s alley, so we go with some maximum effort and fanboi out a touch. This goes a bit longer than we have as late but there’s plenty of discussion and mirth to be had on this episode. Enjoy.
Witness the origin story of Wade Wilson, who adopts the alter ego Deadpool after a rogue experiment leaves him with accelerated healing powers…and a dark, twisted sense of humor.
Based upon Marvel Comics’ most unconventional anti-hero, DEADPOOL tells the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life.
Hold onto your chimichangas, folks. From the studio that brought you all 3 Taken films comes DEADPOOL, the block-busting, fourth-wall-breaking masterpiece about Marvel Comics sexiest anti-hero: me! Go deep inside (I love that) my origin story…typical stuff…rogue experiment, accelerated healing powers, horrible disfigurement, red spandex, imminent revenge. Directed by overpaid tool Tim Miller, and starring God s perfect idiot Ryan Reynolds, Ed Skrein, Morena Baccarin, T. J. Miller and Gina Carano, DEADPOOL is a giddy slice of awesomeness packed with more twists than my enemies intestines and more action than prom night. Amazeballs!
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We get into the Vin Diesel with hair flick, Find Me Guilty which is about the longest criminal trial in American history where one gang was being prosecuted by an even bigger gang. There are a lot of fun themes in this one worthy of discussion despite the poor box office numbers for this film.
When police arrest twenty members of the Lucchese crime family, the authorities offer Jackie Dee DiNorscio (Diesel) a bargain: a shortened prison term if he’ll testify against his own. But the wisecracking DiNorscio has other ideas. Refusing to cooperate, he decides to defend himself at his own trial… and proceeds to turn the courtroom upside-down in a hilarious fight that culminates in one of the most shocking verdicts in judicial history!
Sidney Lumet’s gripping courtroom drama resurrects a notorious 1987-88 court case in which 20 men said to be members of the New Jersey-based Lucchese crime family were prosecuted by the federal government on more than 75 criminal counts involving the usual assortment of mob activities.
After dragging on for nearly two years, the trial ended with a shocking outcome. Giacomo (Jackie Dee) DiNorscio (Vin Diesel), the goombah antihero of “Find Me Guilty,” alone insisted on representing himself. While driving both the judge (Ron Silver) and the mob kingpin Nick Calabrese (Alex Rocco) into paroxysms of rage and anxiety, Jackie, whose real-life nickname was Fat Jack, clowned and charmed his way into the hearts of the jury like an uncensored late-night talk show host in a bid to win their freedom despite his continued incarceration no matter the outcome.
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As the sequel is about to hit theaters, we revisit an old classic (that hasn’t aged well), Super Troopers. Five Vermont state troopers, avid pranksters with a knack for screwing up, try to save their jobs and out-do the local police department by solving a crime.
Super Troopers is a 2001 American crime-comedy film directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, written by and starring the Broken Lizard comedy group (Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske). Marisa Coughlan, Daniel von Bargen and Brian Cox co-star while Lynda Carter has a cameo appearance.
We hope you enjoy this episode that takes a fairly dark turn and mixes in a few quotable lines.
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Happy Easter everyone. We do a movie with a namesake related to the holiday and discuss 1996’s, “The Last Supper“. It’s about the type of people who think they are so smart and can fix everything wrong with the world, if it weren’t for the backwards heathens preventing them. Their smug solution is of course: murder
A biting black comedy, THE LAST SUPPER details the lives of five grad students who suddenly murder a bigoted, ultra right-wing dinner guest and then decide to rid society of its most offensive members. Featured in cameos as the reprehensible victims are Bill Paxton, Charles Durning, Jason Alexander and Ron Perlman.
Just like all the totalitarian dictators (democratic or otherwise), just on a smaller scale.
We hope you enjoy this unstructured, if lively discussion, where Robert and I are at odds on the film.
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We discuss the Will Smith film, “The Pursuit of Happyness” and get into a heated debate over whether this is an inspirational story about an entrepreneurial dreamer, or a guy with misplaced priorities making stupid choices and putting his child at risk. This is a fun one.
Will Smith stars in this moving tale inspired by the true story about a struggling single father who dreams of a better life for his young son. Finding themselves homeless, he risks everything by embarking on an unpaid internship in a highly competitive stockbroker training program where only one in twenty interns make the grade.
He thinks about Jefferson and how you have to pursue the happiness. You have to work for it. Not just harder, but smarter. The market is fickle. He took an entrepreneurial risk and failed. In my opinion, his biggest mistake is that he’s not taking care of his and his family’s needs. He’s spinning his wheels with that thing and needs to cut his losses.
Robert focused more on the entrepreneurial lessons and the heroism displayed be a dreamer chasing, consequences be damned.
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