Episode 74: Top 5 Films of the 90s - The Redemptioning Part 2

And so the final hour of the 90s has come at last ... But as the sun sets on this much maligned ten year period the 80s kids have one final task to perform, finish their top 5 films of the decade they all claimed to have very little love for. Tricky.

Nevertheless our full quartet of 80s Kids will rise to the challenge: Sue's Number Two choice proves people will do anything these days to get off television and Justin's number two involved a lot of confused children stopping strangers in the street and asking for directions in French.

Ian's number one involves post apocalyptic babysitter getting into a crazy caper and Leo's number one film of the 90s is famous for many things, one of which is spoon denial.

And with that done the Sun rises, FINALLY, on the 21st century and the 90s are now but a memory. This is what we call a happy ending!

Incidental Music by Incompetech.

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/074Top5FilmsOfThe90sTheRedemptioningPartTwo/074%20-%20Top%205%20Films%20of%20the%2090s%20-%20The%20Redemptioning%20Part%20Two.mp3

Episode 73: Top 5 Films of the 90s - The Redemptioning Part 1

As Winston Churchill once said: "This isn't the End, it is not not even the beginning of the End but it is perhaps the end of the frigging 90s!!" Yes it's that magical time again where 80s kids come together and finally fess up what their top 5 fav movies of that particular decade actually are.

This week we deal with numbers 5 to 3! Ian's number five is the charming tale of a small town entrepreneur starting a window cleaning business, Leo's Number Five is about a drawing contest and Justin's Number five was just well drawn.

Leo's number four is just so unreal, Justin's involves lots of bold men in leather, Sue's choice needs batteries much to Ian's annoyance.

Justin's Number three has skimpy outfits all round, Leo's number three has him quite beside himself but maybe that's because Sue's Number three choice has him looking like Death warmed up. Next week ... Number Two and One!

Incidental music by Incompetech.

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/073Top5FilmsOffThe90sTheRedemptioningPart1/073%20-%20Top%205%20Films%20off%20the%2090s%20-%20The%20Redemptioning%20Part%201.mp3

Episode 64: The New Arc Shows - Buffet The Episode Slayer

And then 'Buffy' happened and somehow TV was just so much more interesting. But why? This week the 80s Trio tackle this and other questions as we delve into what was on the goggle box in the late 90s. Turns out 'Buffy' and 'Angel' aren't in fact all that ground breaking when you take it apart and look at the pieces but the whole hung very well together and it is the show that finally convinced the world that Story arcs could work.

Not that everyone was convinced, with shows like 'Mutant X', 'Voyager' and 'Sliders' still very much clinging to Roddenberry's great end credits reset button, but these are its dying days. Like a building storyline ending in a climax a wave of new shows came thundering in ready to embrace story progress like 'Charmed' or the sleazy and surreal 'Lexx' ... or for that matter the decade stomping 'Stargate'.

The UK also shone brightly as vampire lethal sunlight for the briefest of moments with the dearly missed and almost forgotten 'Ultraviolet', and the same channel that gave us that also gifted as the nerd joy that was Simon Pegg's 'Spaced.' Oh for sure, the late 90s had it's awful piles of crap like 'Andromeda' and the truly turgid 'Millennium' but overall the decade rounds off in interesting shape.

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/064Late90sTV/064%20-%20Late%2090s%20TV.mp3

Episode 62: 1996 - It's Not Me, It's You

And so the gang arrive at 1996 where the power of 90s mediocrity seems at its height with slew of below par action movies. Like a failing marriage people seem to be putting in the effort and saying all the right things but the magic just isn't there. 'Eraser', 'Independence Day', 'Broken Arrow', 'Dragonheart' and the like just don't seem to have any real shelf life.

In an effort not to get lost in another hour of moaning the 80s Kids try to remember some of the gems up front like 'From Dusk Till Dawn', "Star Trek First Contact', 'The Frighteners' and 'The Craft'... but even here favor isn't universal. Perhaps it's a year to enjoy smaller scale films like 'Trainspotting' or 'Fargo' as these seem to be the more iconic survivors. Oh well. Press on we must! And we take what pleasure we can pointing out the rising sun on the horizon.

It's not that we hate 1996... we just upon reflection we feel indifferent about it. Apologies for the variable sound quality of Ian this week, this is due to technical issues with the recording and wasn't obvious when the show was being taped.

Incidental music by Kevin Macleod of incompetech.com

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/0621996-Itsnotmeitsyou/062%20-%201996.mp3

Episode 58: 1995 - Conflict At The Heart Of The Decade

The year is 1995 ... and it's WAR! Never before has there been a year so divisive and wrought with opinion battle lines. Really it seems like the whole year has been designed to split opinions even after nearly two decades. We start with "Batman Forever" where opinions are at least somewhat united on loathing it, reasons are of course divided as to why but at least everyone is marching in the same general direction.

Bond returns with "Goldeneye" which in our opinion is just about the only Pierce Brosnan 007 that's worth a damn. "Bad Boys" looms into view with it's definitive example of 90s action ... but the long shadow of Michael Bay passes thought it. Oh well .. "Die Hard with a Vengeance" is another oasis of unified opinion. But then comes "Judge Dredd" which Justin, the greatest 2000AD fan in the building, is actually at peace with after the passing years, Leo and Ian are on hand to shake him.

"Johnny Mnemonic" is championed by Leo ... amazingly. Onto "12 Monkeys" which we can all agree is Gilliam's high point .... Leo disagrees. "The Quick & the Dead" proved to be another rare save point for our trio's unity. "Waterworld" is ranked as not that bad not actually a flop by Leo ... "Se7en" however is crucified for it's dumb ending by some. Furious words and insults are exchanged as the team bicker over "Usual Suspect" which Leo still loathes with a burning hatred ... much to the pain of Justin and Ian.

Still at least we can all rally around "Toy Story" and have a group love in on that ... well no .. Justin has harsh words for it. We end with "Hackers" and "Strange Days" which are both rated in turn as 'Terrible' and 'Too Long'. Really that's the year in a nut shell.

Incidental music by Kevin Macleod of incompetech.com

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/0581995ConflictAtTheHeartOfTheDecade/058-1995-conflict-at-the-heart-of-the-decade.mp3

Episode 54: 1994 - Mary Shelly's Pulp Fiction And Other Comic Books

It's hard not to sum up this '1994' Episode as 'Just another one in the 90s' and saying it with a deep sigh. So to shake things up a little we open with Leo's thesis on the state of comic books in the 90s and the result film offerings we have to enjoy this year, "The Crow" and the "The Mask" are the more well known adaptions, "Time Cop" was a surprising adaptation, "Blankman" was not an adaption of anything other than one man's Nerd-phobia that never should have seen the light of day and "The Fantastic Four" which didn't. Which is a shame we feel.

'Was this a good year to be doing a Media Course with Film studies?' Ian asks, remembering back to that fateful year when he and Leo were doing just that. Oh the sweet memories of arguing over "Mary Shelly's Frankenstein" with a lecturer. And of course "Pulp Fiction" the movie that enchanted film students of the period, much to their current shame.

Sure, we might have bitter words for Tarantino now, but as a film in it self what do we make of it? "Natural Born Killers" was Oliver Stone's bastardized Tarantino script, which induced a bitter headache in Leo. Good times.

Onward we go for our action hit with Schwarzenegger's "True Lies" to the glee of Justin and Stallone's "Specialist" which no one can remember in any detail at all. Then they all hurry past "Speed". Ian beams up to the doomed Enterprise D to give a good telling off to all involved in "Star Trek Generations." "Stargate" And "Leon" were also this year and we note their presence as their long term effects were not felt or appreciated at the time.

Also a glut of 90s turkey is ready for our gang to eat with "Street Fighter" and "Blown away". We round off by musing on "Interview with a Vampire" which apparently is not as good as people thought at the time ... and really that sums up the 90s in a nut shell.

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/0541994MaryShellySPulFictionAndOtherComicBooks/054-1994-mary-shelly_s-pul-fiction-and-other-comic-books.mp3

Episode 53: The Wasteland of early 90s TV

This week our Trio rummage deep into their old, dog eared copies of the TV Times and cast their minds back to the Genre TV series of the early 90s. For the UK it was a poor offering, having axed Dr Who the BBC deemed it unnecessary to replace it with anything. Red Dwarf seemed the only game in town, that and the cripplingly dire "Crime Traveler" or the misshapen "Bugs". Science fiction seemed to bubble out on anything but actual drama, surviving on game shows like "Interceptor" or "Crystal Maze."

The doctrine was clear, post Star Wars people expected special effects with their Sci Fi and TV couldn't do that, it was American imports like "Star Trek - The Next Generation" or do without. Thankfully Next Gen was prospering quite well, along with "X Files" and any other half way decent Genre show on Sky Satellite channels. For terrestrial viewers they had to make do with the lack lustre also rans like "Sea Quest" or the 'little low budget show that could', "Babylon 5".

The thing is America was also having a hand in special effects lite fantasy shows like "Early Edition" or "Quantum Leap" which frankly made a mockery of the idea Genre TV was too expensive. Anyway ... "New Adventures of Superman", "Hercules" and "Xena" also rolled about being objects of enjoyment for at least some period of their run. But really this is the bit in history that TV makers of the future would refer to as "Before Buffy" and after that everything changed. But that's a story for another time. For the moment it's very much make do and mend.

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/053TheWastelandOfEarly90sTv/053-the-wasteland-of-early-90s-tv.mp3

Episode 49: 1992 - Reservoir Kids

There can be no clearer symptom of 90s rot that to examine the sad turn the Alien franchise took this year with its bleak, nihilistic descent into death. A further example of a beloved 80s film series going off the boil would be "Batman Returns" although a more appropriate title might have been "Penguin Arrives".

Fortunately the 80s kids are here and more than ready to mete out some well deserved revenge. Lurching out blinking into the moon light comes "Bram Stoker's Dracula", presumably named such to avoid confusion with all the other Dracula films based on the same book. Despite fleeting moments of brilliance the Prince of Darkness staggers disappointingly back to its crypt once again, allowing younger, fresher vampires a stab at the jugular.

They sadly ran headlong into "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and much like how Buffy deals with Vampires this film is badly executed. All the same, this is the year of "Reservoir Dogs", the film that put Quentin Tarantino on our map. Sadly the passing years have not been kind to his once loyal 80s kids fanboys who do little but stand and watch while Sue and Leo give our once loved writer director a real ear full. And not in the Mr Blonde way.

The dark connection between Steven Seagal and Wesley Snipes its mused on but really everyone was far too distracted by Sharon Stone crossing her legs in "Basic Instinct". Then things go a little surreal as David Lynch proves beyond any doubt that Twin Peaks fans have in fact been wasting their time all along. And thus the "Candy Man" was summoned to dispense his usual hook/bee based justice upon the transgressing films of 1992!

Incidental Music "Cool Vibes" by Kevin Macleod of incompetech.com

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/0491992ReservoirKids/049-1992-reservoir-kids.mp3

Episode 45: 1990 - Nineteen Eighty Ten

Fleeing from the modern day tyranny of Michael Bay our three heroes finally arrive in the year 1990 and set about unravelling the mystery of why the 90s sucked so bad when it came to films. And yet the year is heady with the sweet after scent of the 80s with only a vague murmur of the horrors to come later. Could the rumors be true? Is this really the fabled year Nineteen Eighty Ten?

Things start out with Leo, Justin and Ian squeezing into the delorean and driving by the horde of sequels at 88 mph. "Robocop 2", "Predator 2", "Back to the Future 3", "Exorcist 3", etc ... before finally getting their ass to "Total Recall" where our trio gush once more over Schwarzenegger and Verhoeven. Memories restored Leo fondly invokes "Darkman" and the fact half the script is the name 'Julie'. Justin retreats into timeless fairy tale land with the bleak but emotional "Edward Scissorhands", whom is highly praised for not running.

Meanwhile Ian puts on a shell suit and wags his nunchucks excitedly about to the puzzlement of all. Near Death follows with "Flatliners", followed by everyone clambering over the furniture to stay off the ground for a "Tremors" discussion and general strangeness breaks out for "Wild at Heart". But in the end theirs no avoiding "Ghost" ... will the guys bless it as it ascends in a column of light or will they cast it down into the horde of shifting, howling shadows? Listen and find out.

Incidental music "Hit Man" composed by Kevin Macleod of incompetech.com

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/0451990NineteenEightyTen/045-1990-Nineteen-Eighty-Ten.mp3

Episode 44: Return Of The 90s Bros Rated E For Extreme

And so we arrive at the dreaded 90s ... long have the 80s Kids spoken in terror at its coming and lamented its harvest of awful films. But most of all, how can we have a podcast called "Revenge of the 80s Kids" that about an entirely different decade?

Well, it's because our defiant trio lived through those ten years and came through it with the campaign medals firmly nailed on their chests. Time for a flash back episode! It's time for our 80s Kids to grow up leave home and at some point along the way, meet each other.

In the meantime, what's on at the pictures? YES! Our band of 80s heroes this week cast their minds back and try to think of the films they actually went and saw on the BIG Glowing Rectangle during the 90s.

Along the way we hear the story of how Justin traumatized his Mum with a family visit to the pictures, of Ian's supreme failure to see the Count of Monte Cristo and Leo's disgust at a film he calls "One of the seminal texts as to why 90s films were awful".

Incidental Music by Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech.com

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/044ReturnOfThe90sBros/044-Return_of_the_90s_Bros.mp3