This week we discuss the 1985 film - MASK. Rocky Dennis (Eric Stoltz) is an intelligent, outgoing and humorous teenager who suffers from a facial deformity called "lionitis" and has now outlived his life expectancy. While his mother, Rusty (Cher), struggles to fight for his acceptance in the public school system, he proves himself to be a highly accomplished student. Though Rocky endures ridicule for his appearance, he finds love and respect from his mother's biker gang family, and even experien...
Jul 02, 2025•42 min•Ep. 79
This week we tackle the 1993 film A HOME OF OUR OWN! Widow Frances Lacey (Kathy Bates) is being sexually harassed by her boss while she tries to provide for her brood of six children. Also, her oldest son, Shayne (Edward Furlong), is constantly in trouble. When she's fired from her job, Frances decides to abandon Los Angeles. She and her family end up in Idaho, where she buys a dilapidated piece of land and tries to build a home. As she struggles to make a fresh start, Frances encounters both en...
Jun 27, 2025•45 min•Ep. 78
This week we discuss the film CASUALTIES OF WAR. Pvt. Max Eriksson (Michael J. Fox) is stationed in Vietnam under Sgt. Tony Meserve (Sean Penn). Though Meserve saves Eriksson's life during battle, the two men clash when the callous senior officer orders the abduction of Than Thi Oanh (Thuy Thu Le), a young Vietnamese woman, to be used as a sex slave. When Eriksson refuses to take part in the abuse of Oanh, tensions between him, Meserve and the rest of the unit heat up and finally explode during ...
Jun 20, 2025•52 min•Ep. 77
This week we dive into the 1997 horror/sci-fi flick EVENT HORIZON! After disappearing for seven years, revolutionary spaceship Event Horizon is rediscovered. The team of scientists sent to investigate find that the entire crew is dead, and a terrifying, malevolent presence is lurking on board. Hear our take on the film and on the review of SISKEL AND EBERT. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite pod platform and our YOUTUBE channel! Visit thecultworthy.com Visit https://www.themoviewire.com Video...
Jun 14, 2025•42 min•Ep. 76
This week we cover the obscure Robert Altman film - BUFFALO BILL AND THE INDIANS! By 1885, beloved cavalryman Buffalo Bill Cody (Paul Newman) has hired a publicist and producer to help shape and promote his traveling Wild West show, which presents historically inaccurate reenactments of conflicts between U.S. troops and Native Americans. Cody hires Chief Sitting Bull (Frank Kaquitts) to play himself, as a villain, in stagings of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. But, to Cody's dismay, star perfo...
Jun 05, 2025•47 min•Ep. 75
This week we cover the 1989 comedy - THE DREAM TEAM! Psychiatrist Dr. Weitzman (Dennis Boutsikaris) takes four mental patients on an outing to Yankee Stadium. Billy (Michael Keaton) is a nihilistic author, Henry (Christopher Lloyd) lost his bearings while working as a mailman, Jack (Peter Boyle) thinks he is the world's scapegoat and the childlike Albert (Stephen Furst) is obsessed with baseball broadcasts. When two corrupt cops incapacitate Dr. Weitzman, the four troubled men must fend for them...
May 29, 2025•46 min•Ep. 74
This week we tackle ..(get it?).. the 1988 film EVERYBODY'S ALL AMERICAN! Louisiana football star Gavin Grey had it all. He was an All-American champion who married his high-school sweetheart, homecoming queen Babs Rogers, and who was a hero to his hometown. Yet after a failed professional career, Gavin realizes that fame and success have passed him by and that he no longer is the hero everyone keeps reminding him he should still be. His dissatisfaction with his life leads to strains in his marr...
May 22, 2025•50 min•Ep. 73
This week we are covering the original 1981 version of THE AMATEUR! When the wife of CIA agent Charles Heller (John Savage) is killed by a group of terrorists in Munich, Germany, he decides to hunt down the escaped killers. However, he is only a code specialist without combat expertise, and he does not have agency permission. Using classified information, Heller blackmails the CIA into training him and sending him into Czechoslovakia, where the killers are currently located. Once he arrives, Hel...
May 15, 2025•40 min•Ep. 72
This week we cover the 1979 film BLOODLINE! A pampered heiress inherits her father's pharmaceutical empire when he dies in a suspicious accident, and soon finds herself surrounded by ruthless board members and grasping family members who will seemingly stop at nothing to profit. Hear our take on the film and the review of Siskel and Ebert. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite pod platform and our YOUTUBE channel! Visit thecultworthy.com Visit https://www.themoviewire.com Video: https://www.yout...
May 09, 2025•45 min•Ep. 71
This week we discuss FADE TO BLACK! Eric Binford is a lonely movie-buff who struggles to find his place in the world. The rejection by a Marilyn Monroe lookalike, who embodies his obsession, sends him on a killing spree during which he transforms himself into classic film characters. Hear our take on the film and on the review of Siskel and Ebert! Be sure to subscribe on your favorite pod platform and our YOUTUBE channel! Visit thecultworthy.com Visit https://www.themoviewire.com Video: https://...
May 01, 2025•50 min•Ep. 70
This week we discuss the film Serial! Inspired by the Cyra McFadden novel The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County, Serial is director Bill Persky's (TV's Kate & Allie) satirical look at the lifestyles of California's 1970's hippie culture. Viewed through the eyes of Harvey Holroyd (Martin Mull, TV's Roseanne), a man perplexed by the behavior of his wife Kate (Tuesday Weld, Pretty Poison) and their liberal-minded friends, Serial lampoons everything from feminism, free love and sexual p...
May 01, 2025•49 min•Ep. 69
This week we cover the 1979 film YANKS! Matt (Richard Gere) and John (William Devane), U.S. soldiers stationed in England during World War II, are both beginning affairs with British women, but they soon find their romances complicated by moral dilemmas and a clash of cultures. Jean (Lisa Eichhorn), a girl from a working class family, has caught Matt's eye, and John is trying to woo the elegant Helen (Vanessa Redgrave). However, both woman are already involved with local men who have left for th...
Apr 17, 2025•46 min•Ep. 68
This week we cover the sci-fi spoof GALAXINA! When an interstellar police cruiser is sent to recover a precious blue crystal in the 31st century, crew member and android Galaxina (Dorothy Stratten) is left alone as the others are put into suspended animation as part of the mission. While bumbling Capt. Cornelius Butt (Avery Schreiber) and the others sleep the years away, Galaxina begins to fall in love with the pilot of the vessel, Sgt. Thor (Stephen Macht), but their romance is complicated when...
Apr 09, 2025•46 min•Ep. 67
This week we tackle another "discovery" with 1992's BLINK. Blinded at the abusive hands of her mother as a young girl, Emma Brody (Madeleine Stowe) is now a musician in Chicago. After an operation, she partly regains her sight, but sometimes she can remember things only hours after first seeing them. When she thinks she sees the person who murdered her neighbor, the police detective John Hallstrom (Aidan Quinn) becomes involved both with the case and with Emma. Now the killer is after Emma, and ...
Apr 01, 2025•45 min•Ep. 66
This week we cover THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS! Justin and I wrap up Musical March with this fun film starring Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton! Miss Mona (Dolly Parton) runs the Chicken Ranch, a brothel with a long history in a small Texas town. The locals have a good relationship with the institution, and Mona is respected in the community. The sheriff, Ed Earl Dodd (Burt Reynolds), also looks out for the Chicken Ranch due to his past with Miss Mona. However, when pious reporter Melvin T...
Mar 28, 2025•43 min•Ep. 65
This week Justin and I continue our month of musicals with A CHORUS LINE! Hundreds of hopefuls congregate at a cattle call for Broadway dancers. A sour director, Zach (Michael Douglas), and his brusque assistant (Terrence Mann) whittle down the ranks until they're left with 16 dancers. All tell their life stories -- some tragic, some comic -- and explain their love of dance. Tension mounts when Cassie (Alyson Reed) -- once both a big star and the director's lover but now desperate for a part -- ...
Mar 18, 2025•48 min•Ep. 64
This week we are covering NEWSIES!! In this musical, homeless New York City newsboy Jack "Cowboy" Kelly (Christian Bale) befriends two newcomers to his trade, brothers David (David Moscow) and Les Jacobs (Luke Edwards). When publisher Joseph Pulitzer (Robert Duvall) sets new rules that make it harder for the young newspaper salesmen to make a buck, the boys go on strike. Bryan Denton (Bill Pullman), a journalist who's sympathetic to their plight, gives them some tips in public relations, as the ...
Mar 15, 2025•56 min•Ep. 63
This week Justin and I tackle the first movie of Musical March - HAIR, directed by Milos Forman! In New York City for the first time while on his way to enlist in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, Oklahoma farm hand Claude Hooper Bukowski (John Savage) meets up with a freewheeling group of Central Park hippies led by the irrepressible George Berger (Treat Williams). When the unlikely friends meet upper-middle-class debutante Sheila Franklin (Beverly D'Angelo), sparks fly between the country ...
Mar 05, 2025•44 min•Ep. 62
This week we take a break from film reviews to play a little game. I test Justin's brain power by playing clips of Siskel and Ebert reviews where he has to guess the film that they are discussing. Play along! Be sure to subscribe on your favorite pod platform and our YOUTUBE channel! Visit thecultworthy.com Visit https://www.themoviewire.com Video: https://www.youtube.com/@back2thebalcony...
Feb 25, 2025•38 min•Ep. 61
This week we take on the Siskel and Ebert special dedicated to Bill Murray. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite pod platform and our YOUTUBE channel! Visit thecultworthy.com Visit https://www.themoviewire.com Video: https://www.youtube.com/@back2thebalcony
Feb 18, 2025•50 min•Ep. 60
This week we do another listener request, but this time with a twist. Since Siskel and Ebert did not review Ernest Goes To Camp (but we love it anyway) - we decided to do a speculation episode on how we think they would have rated the movie! Hear our take on the film and the review of Siskel and Ebert! Be sure to subscribe on your favorite pod platform and our YOUTUBE channel! Visit thecultworthy.com Visit https://www.themoviewire.com Video: https://www.youtube.com/@back2thebalcony...
Feb 11, 2025•39 min•Ep. 59
This week we tackle the film THE THING. n remote Antarctica, a group of American research scientists are disturbed at their base camp by a helicopter shooting at a sled dog. When they take in the dog, it brutally attacks both human beings and canines in the camp and they discover that the beast can assume the shape of its victims. A resourceful helicopter pilot (Kurt Russell) and the camp doctor (Richard Dysart) lead the camp crew in a desperate, gory battle against the vicious creature before i...
Feb 04, 2025•50 min•Ep. 58
This week we are covering the 80's thriller THE HITCHER!! While transporting a car from Chicago to San Diego, Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) picks up a hitchhiker named John Ryder (Rutger Hauer), who claims to be a serial killer. After a daring escape, Jim hopes to never see Ryder again. But when he witnesses the hitchhiker murdering an entire family, Jim pursues Ryder with the help of truck-stop waitress Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh), pitting the rivals against each other in a deadly series of car...
Jan 28, 2025•42 min•Ep. 57
This week we cover David Cronenberg's adaptation of the William S Burroughs novel - NAKED LUNCH. Blank-faced bug killer Bill Lee (Peter Weller) and his dead-eyed wife, Joan (Judy Davis), like to get high on Bill's pest poisons while lounging with Beat poet pals. After meeting the devilish Dr. Benway (Roy Scheider), Bill gets a drug made from a centipede. Upon indulging, he accidentally kills Joan, takes orders from his typewriter-turned-cockroach, ends up in a constantly mutating Mediterranean c...
Jan 21, 2025•48 min•Ep. 56
This week we discuss the 1983 action flick BLUE THUNDER - as well as the Siskel and Ebert review of the film. Frank Murphy is a courageous and honourable Los Angeles police officer who is chosen to test run Blue Thunder, a high-tech experimental attack helicopter. While flying Blue Thunder, Murphy and his partner discover that the government intends to use the helicopter for corrupt crowd control and surveillance. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite pod platform and our YOUTUBE channel! Visit ...
Jan 14, 2025•50 min•Ep. 55
This week we discuss the Siskel and Ebert review of the indie darling DOGFIGHT. A young Marine named Eddie Birdlace (River Phoenix) is set to spend his last night in San Francisco with his military friends before they are deployed to Vietnam in 1963. Eddie and his friends plan to attend a cruel bar event called a "dogfight," which requires Marines to bring unattractive dates who will be judged for their ugliness. Eddie encounters a shy, frumpy girl named Rose (Lili Taylor) whom he brings to the ...
Jan 07, 2025•51 min•Ep. 54
WELCOME TO SEASON 2!! We kick things off with a conversation on one of the most controversial episodes of Siskel and Ebert - their conversation on FULL METAL JACKET and BENJI: THE HUNTED. Gene loved what Kubrick did - Roger did not. Hear us discuss their infamous debate on what it means to be a critic - and how we have discourse on what audiences want. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite pod platform and our YOUTUBE channel! Visit thecultworthy.com Visit https://www.themoviewire.com Video: htt...
Dec 31, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 53
This week we finish off 2024 and season one with an awards show covering the best and worst films, performances and reviews of the films we watched this years - check it out! Link in bio. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite pod platform and our YOUTUBE channel! Visit thecultworthy.com Visit https://www.themoviewire.com Video: https://www.youtube.com/@back2thebalcony...
Dec 27, 2024•53 min•Ep. 52
This week we are discussing the classic NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION! As the holidays approach, Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) wants to have a perfect family Christmas, so he pesters his wife, Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo), and children, as he tries to make sure everything is in line, including the tree and house decorations. However, things go awry quickly. His hick cousin, Eddie (Randy Quaid), and his family show up unplanned and start living in their camper on the Griswold property. Even wo...
Dec 17, 2024•48 min•Ep. 51
This week we are discussing the SISKEL AND EBERT review of THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT! Schoolteacher and single mother Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) lives an average suburban life -- until she begins having strange memories of unexplained violence and discovers that she has physical skills that she never imagined. Hiring private detective Mitch Hennessey (Samuel L. Jackson) to probe into her past, Samantha discovers that she's a well-trained government assassin who went missing after suffering a bou...
Dec 10, 2024•51 min•Ep. 50
