A weekly investigation into the strange filmographies of cinemas most fascinating careers.
From the director who brought you The Godfather Trilogy, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Megalopolis, comes a movie made for... well... nobody really... I mean we don't even know if Jack is made for kids only, adults only, or both. Either way, Jeff, Stuart and Brian had a blast talking about the rise and fall of one of Hollywood's most famous/infamous directors.
Wait a minute... isn't this the third Aladdin movie? Wasn't there one in the middle? Return of Jafar? Well you are correct but Robin Williams isn't in that one because of a dispute between himself and Disney. Aladdin and the King of Thieves, the second direct to video sequel of the classic first movie, reprises Robin Williams in his famous role of the Genie. There's a couple of okay musical numbers but all in all its exactly what you'd expect from Disney's direct to video slop pipeline.
"Chewing gum helps me think!" "Sweetie, you're wasting your gum." Robin Williams and Nathan Lane play a gay couple who own and run a nightclub in Palm Beach Florida when their son's fiance's conservative parents (Gene Hackman & Dianne Wiest) decide to drive down to visit. An instant classic with great laughs and a joyful message of love.
It's Stuart's greatest fear, getting Jumanji'd into one of his board games. But wait a second... is getting Jumanji'd when you go into the game or when the game comes out of the game to you? This 1995 adventure film stars Robin Williams as Alan Parrish who has been sucked into a board game trying to survive the jungle for the past 26 years only to find out he must finish the game he started. This movie lived on a bunch of millennials VHS shelves!
A mouthful of a title but an important milestone of a film in queer cinema. Watch Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo in drag drive across the country to compete in the Drag Queen of America contest and run into all sorts of interesting situations and personalities of which themselves and the people they meet come away with the appreciation for expressing your truest self.
This week's episode features a classic 90's rom com where Hugh Grant and Julianne Moore are suddenly expecting! Hugh Grant, the usual non-committal lover boy, has to come to terms with whether he's truly ready to be a father. Robin's role in this? Well obviously its the Russian gynecologist.
A journalist explores the early life and career of famed children's author Dr Seuss through retelling of his most popular stories told through the lens of significant cultural and sociopolitical events. Robin pops in for a short but heartfelt sequence where he reads the Cat in the Hat to his daughter, Zelda.
Imagine Cloud Atlas but if it was boring.
If you were born in the 90's, this and/or Aladdin was your childhood introduction to Robin Williams. This heartwarming Chris Columbus movie has a dark spin among certain audiences, like Jeff.
Robin Williams reunites with Good Morning Vietnam Director Barry Levinson in this blank check, first draft film that combines the ideas of Willy Wonka, Small Soldiers, and Apocalypse Now.
MAKE WAAAAAYYY FOR PRINCE ROBIN!!! Robin at the height of his acting career hits another homerun as the titular Genie in Disney's 1992 animated classic, Aladdin. When the writers and producers were attempting to do some research on middle eastern culture, they decided going to the Saudi Arabian expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center was all that they needed. That all said, Robin's role as the genie is what will cement his voice and "stream-of-consciousness" mind into children and adults all a...
Jeff, Stuart and special guest Alex Wilson talk about Robin Williams' first feature length animated role as Batty Koba in FernGully: The Last Rainforest. Batty is a bat, as the name would imply, that suffered under human experiments which led to him having erratic mood changes where his personality switches like changing the channel on a TV.
Before FernGully, before Aladdin, Robin does a single scene voice cameo for a children's animated short film based on the penguin who wished he could fly. "Technically" this is Robin's first ever animated role in his career.
Williams first of his two collaborations with the legendary Steven Spielberg. Join Jeff, Stuart and Rebecca Johnson as the three all go toe to toe in debating the ultimate question: Is Hook a good movie?
Robin's second collaboration with Terry Gilliam involves a grungy New York city where a disgraced DJ played by Jeff Bridges befriends Robin Williams who plays a homeless man who believes he is a knight on a mission from god to find the holy grail.
Kenneth Branaghs second film he directed involves a weird neo-noir almost pulp-like thriller where Branagh and Emma Thompson must figure out a murder from their past lives. Robin, who is only in three fairly short scenes, is playing a psychiatrist named Doctor Carlisle Cozy.
Known as "The Citizen Kane of Alcoholic Clown Movies", this film is full of fun surprises like baby Adam Sandler, murderer Tom Kenny and many more that you'll have fun discovering as the boys talk about Bobcat Goldthwait's Shakes the Clown!
Robin joins forces with Robert De Niro in this 1991 medical drama about a doctor who searches to find signs of life within patients frozen from a neurological disease. Through the discovery of a new chance at life, Robin and Robert both find new meaning and purpose in what it means to be alive. This is a major Stuart tearjerker movie.
This movie tries to be Dog Day Afternoon but with a used car salesman. Though Robin still makes a few jokes in this movie, there's not enough craziness to justify itself.
The 90's, what a wild time it was. Before the infamous celebrity "imagine" montage in the Covid-19 era, there was a TV special featuring every single famous actor in that era speaking on the cause of Climate Change. Robin representing the "Every Man" figuring out ways to help the planet and humanity's future. This is the Earth Day Special.
Oh Captain my Captain! Robin Williams enters the poetry classroom as Mr. Keating, a teacher for an all-boys prep school that teaches his class how to seize the day and make their lives extraordinary. Dead Poets Society is a film that stands the test of time and has influenced many young adults in how to navigate through their traditional lives whether it be through an educational environment or their home environment.
Travolta is back with his sequel to Cash Out... HIGH ROLLERS!!! This movie is bad. Why are we still doing this?
The boys close out this first era of Robin Williams career by summarizing his rise as a comedian who tried his best to get into the acting business. What started as Popeye and then misstep after misstep, he eventually got the guidance and wisdom of director Barry Levinson in Good Morning Vietnam that showed the world that Robin Williams wasn't just a comedian anymore, he was a movie star.
Robin has a 5 minute cameo in this movie, forcing us to cover it. Nothing really happens. The movie is quite boring and dull. Martin Mull seemingly plays himself but paints himself as a bad daytime TV talk show host? Wild.
From the mind of Terry Gilliam, comes a historical fantasy adventure where an old heroic man must take flight from a city under siege to find his old heroic friends to perform one last adventure. The film explores ideas of imagination, aging, death, and whimsical storytelling. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen goes down as a hidden gem of a movie that otherwise could have easily gone unnoticed in the Travolting saga.
After a number of flops and panned projects, Robin finally arrives as the perfect storm to audiences all over the world with his performance in the 1987 comedy war film, Good Morning, Vietnam. With a combination of untapped comedic improvisation to genuinely heartfelt dramatic moments, Robin soars in this movie that understands the perfect way to synthesize the talent of Robin Williams.
Not to be confused with the popular song from the hit broadway musical, Newsies; as well as not to be confused with the popular saying in Robin's later film, Dead Poets Society. Seize the Day is a low-budget PBS TV Movie in which Robin plays a down-on-his-luck man whose marriage is falling apart, broke, and can't seem to get a single win in life.
Club Paradise begins in Chicago Illinois where a retired firefighter played by Robin Williams takes his insurance money and opens a resort at a tropical island. Directed by Harold Ramis, this movie could've been another lampoon-esque classic but instead gets too busy with various themes and subplots muddy up the films cohesiveness. Rick Moranis and Eugene Levy are both funny in this.
This two hander starring Kurt Russell and Robin Williams follows the lives of two washed up dudes in their 30s who reminisce on their final high school football game where Robin's character "dropped the ball". Too bad everybody else involved in making this movie also dropped the ball.
In the height of the Reagan Era, Robin plays a russian who defects and lives a new life in America. The film is a fascinating introspective look on the immigrant story learning about the wonderful and strange things in this new country with his likewise immigrant friends who guides him on this new journey.
