POP ART: Episode 27, Snatch/The Twelve Chairs

“Hope for the best, expect the worst.” Running short of cash? Need some extra income? Would some rare and precious jewels help out? But what if everybody else and their cousin are after them as well? Just in time for Episode 27 of Pop Art, the podcast where my guest chooses a movie from popular culture and I’ll select a film from the more art/classic side of cinema with a connection to it. This time, my guest is writer/director/producer Drew Hall (Convergence, now on Amazon), who has chosen Guy Ritchie’s British crime farce Snatch, while I have chosen the Mel Brooks film nobody has seen or heard of, The Twelve Chairs, both with a disparate group of characters trying to locate some jewels. And in this episode we answer such questions as: Which movie is a vending machine snack and which is a well prepared steak? What is the primary difference between Ritchie and Tarantino? Why did Woody Allen and Mel Brooks’ careers go in different directions? Why did Gene Wilder not do The Twelve Chairs? What is a Dennis Farina and would you want to be one? How well does Ritchie’s style hold up today? What is the source material for Spaceballs?