Following his breakout success with American Beauty, director Sam Mendes had a variety of projects to choose from, including films like A Beautiful Mind, K-PAX, and The Shipping News. Mendes chose instead to adapt a graphic novel about a hitman and his son on the run in the Prohibition Era Midwest. Starring Tom Hanks, Jude Law, Stanley Tucci, a pre-Bond Daniel Craig, and featuring Paul Newman in his last on-screen film role, the film draws on gangster flicks, Kurosawa, Once Upon a Time in Americ...
Apr 13, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 622
Thirty-six years after the original film, a sequel to Top Gun was finally released. Develoment started in 2010 but was delayed by the death of director Tony Scott. Production began in 2017 with the hiring of Joseph Kosinski as director, with filming taking place in 2018 and 2019, with a release date pushed back several times due to the complex shoot and, of course, the pandemic. Multiple streaming outlets attempted to purchase the film, but returning star and producer Tom Cruise remained adamant...
Apr 06, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 621
Director Joel Schumacher was well-known for bring a dark and stylish flair to his films, from teenage vampires in The Lost Boys to benippled Batmen in in his neon-soaked Gotham City. By contrast, his 1993 potboiler starring Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall stands in the unflinching glare of the Los Angeles summer sun, with two middle-aged men on a collision course for a sunset showdown on the Venice Pier. Critics were mixed at the time of the film’s release, with Douglas’s character seen as the...
Mar 29, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 620
This week we’re talking about the final three episodes of season 1, “If You Can’t Win, Don’t Play,” “Hockey Brings People Together,” and “Don’t Poke the Bear,” with our special guest Sean. The back half of the season sees Shoresy attend his family reunion and face a dilemma when off-ice shenanigans force the studs to miss their game against the North Bay Norsemen. Faced with suspension, Nat, Miig and Ziig go to the NOSHO’s league commissioners to appeal. Finally, it’s time to face the Soo - the ...
Mar 22, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 619
This week we’re talking about the first three episodes of season 1, “Never Lose Again,” “Veteran Presence,” and “Know Your Role.” The first half of the season sees Number 69 of the Sudbury Bulldogs vow to never let his team lose again - and if they lose, they fold. General manager Nat finds the Bulldogs a new sponsor, and Shoresy recruits some veteran players to boost - or is it “bloost”? - the team’s hopes. Then, while reluctantly coaching rookie coach Sanguinet, Shoresy and the Bulldogs face o...
Mar 15, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 618
Director Danny Boyle made his big-screen debut with a shoestring budget film about four Scottish flatmates - one deceased - and a suitcase full of cash. This black comedy film, co-written by frequent Boyle collaborator John Hodge, raked in the most cash of any British film of 1995, even through the crew had to auction off props during production to buy more film stock in order to keep shooting. Starring Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, and Kerry Fox, the film was primarily shot in Glasgow a...
Mar 08, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 617
Director Rick Famuyiwa went from USC film school grad to Sundance darling to the Star Wars universe and was even the second of five directors attached to direct The Flash movie for WB DC. Common threads through his works are friendship and intersectionality within communities of color, on display his 2015 film starring Shameik Moore, Tony Revolori, Kiersey Clemons, Lakeith Stanfield, Blake Anderson, and Zoë Kravitz among others. Starring Moore as the real-life Miles Morales from Into the Spider-...
Mar 01, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 616
Spike Lee’s third film, released in 1989, presented a day-in-the-life portrait of a neighborhood: Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, on the hottest day of the year. Boasting an all-star cast including Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, and Samuel L. Jackson, along with the feature film debuts of Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez, the film was a hit at Cannes and a critical and commercial success. Widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever...
Feb 22, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 615
Writer-director Jordan Peele followed up his genre-bending breakout hit Get Out with Us, a straightforward horror film. For his third outing, Peele returned to the mash-up: this time mixing neo-Western with a Close Encounters of the Third Kind (and a bit of Jaws thrown in, but we’ll get to that.) Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer star as siblings who inherit one of Hollywood’s oldest working horse ranches, only to find out that some else has made their range its home. In a week when the country has...
Feb 15, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 614
Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe concluded last year with the release of Ryan Coogler’s follow-up to 2018’s Black Panther. Following the unexpected death of Chadwick Boseman in 2020 from colon cancer, Marvel chose not to recast the role, instead allowing the mantle to pass, in the film, to a new Black Panther, as had happened many times before in the comics. Marvel did not, however, advertise who the new Black Panther would be prior to the film’s release. For the sequel, a new threat ...
Feb 08, 2023•59 min•Ep. 613
We’re ending the Most Dangerous Month where it began, with a remake of the 1932 classic based on the 1924 short story reimagined as a TV show released in short episodes on a steaming app in 2020, and then on another streaming service in 2021 when the first streaming service went bankrupt, and finally re-edited as a movie and released on a third streaming service in 2022. Look, we told you this month was dangerous! Longtime listeners will remember Hashtag #QuibiSucks, when we covered the rise and...
Feb 01, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 612
We’re continuing the Most Dangerous Month with another movie with a controversial history. From director Craig Zobel and horror producer Jason Blum, this politically charged take on the human hunting genre was pulled from release after two high profile mass shootings. In the meantime, it became a cause célèbre over its alleged portrayal of a certain red-hat wearing demographic. Ultimately, the film was released in theaters on Friday the Thirteenth - of March 2020: the very week the Covid-19 pand...
Jan 25, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 611
We’re continuing the Most Dangerous Month with a British invasion and the film formerly known as Boyz in the Wood. The debut film from music video director Ninian Doff tells the tale of four boys from the mean streets of Glasgow on a Duke of Edinburgh Award wilderness trip to the highlands of Scotland. When they find themselves being hunted, possibly by the Duke himself, they'll have to work together to survive. The movie premiered at SXSW where it won the Midnighters Audience Award and was pick...
Jan 18, 2023•59 min•Ep. 610
We’re continuing the Most Dangerous Month with a Japanese cult classic that was effectively banned in the United States for over a decade. Based on the controversial 1999 novel by Koushun Takami, concerns over the film's violent content and recent school shootings made it difficult to find a distributor, as well as complicated rights issues around the film's international release. Featuring a group of schoolchildren forced to fight to the death, Quentin Tarantino called the film one of his favor...
Jan 12, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 609
We’re kicking off 2023 with a month dedicated to hunting the most dangerous game: man! And we’re beginning The Most Dangerous Month by reviewing the film that started it all, the 1932 adaptation of the O.Henry award-winning Richard Connell short story. Produced alongside King Kong, the Pre-Code classic features a big-game hunter played by Joel McCrea and a castaway played by Kong heroine Fay Wray who both find themselves in Count Zaroff’s clutches on his man-hunting secret island. The film has b...
Jan 04, 2023•1 hr 6 min
Twenty Twenty-Two was a milestone year for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It completed “Phase Four” with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, boasted the return of Sam Raimi to Marvel with Doctor Strange and Mulitverse of Madness, and saw one of its first core characters receive an unprecedented fourth film with Thor: Love and Thunder. Meanwhile, the television side continued to expand with the moody Moon Knight, the Muslim Ms. Marvel, and the meta She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law further widening the scope...
Dec 29, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 607
Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol has been remade countless times, from Patrick Stewart to Bill Murray to the Muppets. The latest version, starring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds, incorporates both a meta-take on the source material and musical numbers - because the afterlife is a musical, for some reason. After a one-week theatrical run, this Apple Original Film was released on the tech giant’s streaming service Apple TV+. Now we’re getting in the holiday spirit with Spirited and deciding, in ...
Dec 21, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 606
Here come the holidays, and if you’ve ever felt trapped in a house with insufferable relatives fighting like terrorists or dodging Grandma’s fruitcake like bullets, might relate to director John McTiernan’s 1988 action movie. Released in July, this Bruce Willis-led shoot-’em-up launched the actor’s movie career and its title became shorthand for a high-concept thriller, “It’s Die Hard on a [blank].” Featuring Alan Rickman in a star-making turn as the exceptional thief Hans Gruber, the movie robb...
Dec 14, 2022•59 min•Ep. 605
The second film of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy hit movie screens twenty years ago this month. While the first was a major hit for New Line Cinema the year before, the success of the second installment was no sure thing. Star Trek: Nemesis was opening the week before, and the Christmas frame included new films from Spike Lee, Martin Scorcese, and Steven Spielberg. There was also the issue of the film's title with its cryptic reference to twin towers just a year after 9/11. Neverthel...
Dec 07, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 604
Christopher Nolan has been playing with time in past films like Memento, Inception, and Interstellar and nuclear bombs in his future film Oppenheimer. For his 2020 film, Nolan plays with both big ideas in a story about a temporal cold war with protagonists and antagonists moving forwards and backwards in time to prevent/cause the end of the world. Starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, and Kenneth Branagh, the film was highly anticipated but suffered repeated delays...
Dec 01, 2022•57 min•Ep. 603
South Korean director Lee Chung-hyun adapted the 2011 English-language film The Caller into a 2020 Korean-language thriller starring two of his country’s biggest actresses. The film, written and directed by the then-thrity-year-old former advertising agent, earned multiple awards and nominations despite its pandemic-forced streaming-only release. Focusing on two young women connected across time by a mysterious telephone, the film packs in twists and turns along the way. Now we’re picking up the...
Nov 23, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 602
Director Duncan Jones followed up his breakout hit Moon by developing a time-loop script from The Black List about a solider trying to prevent a terrorist attack. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, and Jeffrey Wright, the movie was mainstream hit, eclipsing Moon’s box office with $147 million. Now we’re charging the drivers and starting the sequence to see Source Code. For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please ...
Nov 17, 2022•57 min•Ep. 601
Six hundred episodes ago, Legends Podcast reviewed Predator, the classic Arnold Schwarzenegger-led jungle actioner directed by John McTiernan, for our very first episode. To celebrate our anniversary, we’re revisiting the franchise with its latest installment, the Amber Midthunder-led period-piece actioner directed by Dan Trachtenberg. With some special guests along for the ride, we talk about our favorite movies and favorite memories. The podcasters are old, hunter has become the hunted, and th...
Nov 09, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 600
Earlier this year, director Shawn Levy re-teamed with his Free Guy star Ryan Reynolds for a Netflix original film about a young boy who meets his time-traveling-test-pilot older self. Also starring Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldaña, Catherine Keener, and introducing Walker Scobell as a spot-on version of the young Deadpool actor, the film was a hit for Netflix with an estimated 3 million viewers in the first weekend. Now we're getting in touch with our inner child with The Adam Project....
Nov 02, 2022•52 min•Ep. 599
In 1975, Tim Curry led a cast of misfits, including Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon, in a big-screen version of a modest musical hit from the London theater scene. Although the Broadway version closed after just fifty performances, the film version is still in limited release today, making it is the longest-running theatrical release in film history. Especially popular around Halloween, many showings involve audience participation. While it’s not particularly spooky, it is another musical, and...
Oct 26, 2022•59 min•Ep. 598
Twenty-five years ago, director Paul W. S. Anderson followed up his video game adaptation Mortal Kombat with an R-rated hard sci-fi scary movie. Starring Sam Neill after Jurassic Park and Laurence Fishburne before The Matrix, this cosmic horror was rushed to release in order to fill a Paramount slot in theaters vacated by James Cameron’s Titanic after the latter film ran overtime in production. While Cameron’s movie about a lost ship would go on to a December release that saw it win 11 Oscars an...
Oct 19, 2022•54 min•Ep. 597
Director Edgar Wright followed his work on the TV series Spaced with his 2004 “Zom-Rom-Com” movie, which would retroactively become the first installment of the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy. Reuniting Spaced stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as two slacker housemates faces with a zombie apocalypse, the film was cult hit and launched the careers of international Wright, Pegg, Frost. As Legends of Halloween shambles along, we’re heading to the Winchester to have a nice cold pint and wait for all ...
Oct 13, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 596
Anne Rice had enormous success in the 70’s with her best selling novel, which launched a series of books. Its gothic and romantic tale of two men and their adopted daughter was consumed by readers of the occult all over the world. Film rights to the book sold for $150,000, before it was even published. But it took over 10 years for everything to fall into place, before fans got to see the visualization of what only lived in their imaginations. This week AMC launches a series, retelling the story...
Oct 06, 2022•54 min•Ep. 595
1974 saw the release of such treasured hits like The Godfather Part 2, Death Wish, The Longest Yard, Zardoz and Get Christy Love. But the one film that set audiences rolling in the floor with laughter, was set in 1874, with a star studded cast of comedy gold. This week we round up the horses, suffer gastral disasters, wooden horses, penis jokes and the N-Word more times than I care to count. We jump into the Way way back machine to light a match and bring you Mel Brooks’ classic, BLAZING SADDLES...
Sep 29, 2022•49 min•Ep. 594
Released this February, Venom director Ruben Fleisher’s take on Sony’s hit puzzle platformer video game series was a thing that happened. Starring Tom Holland as Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as his mentor Victor Sullivan, the film also includes Antonio Banderas as the bad guy, along with actresses Sophia Ali and Tati Gabrielle. As the first film put out by Sony’s new division Playstation Productions, it was met with underwhelming reviews and seen as poor in comparison to the games that spawned...
Sep 21, 2022•50 min•Ep. 593
