Hot Date

Dan and Vicky tackle their first bona fide B movie with the Roger Corman produced Alien rip-off Forbidden World from 1982.  The movie began life under the title Mutant but was quickly re-edited and re-titled by Corman to take out most of director Allan Holzman's nods at humor and give the film a title he thought wouldn't stump viewers.  Also tacked on was a pre-credit battle in space scene Corman insisted upon as a shameless Star Wars riff. Dan makes the case that Forbidden World is a fun, atmospheric, capably shot and lit sci-fi horror hybrid that reaches beyond it's low budget constraints.  But Vicky ain't having it.  Her appraisal is less generous, taking issue with the acting, pacing and bad eighties clothing.  This Hot Date may get heated! Also on hand is the usual look at what our hosts have been watching and listening to lately, including 1960's Peeping Tom, the Mario Bava classic Kill Baby Kill, Ben Stiller's Zoolander 2 and the horror movie podcast Shock Waves (nee Killer POV).  And Vicky tells us wh

After a dispute over royalties for his two previous Edgar Allen Poe film adaptations, producer/director Roger Corman and American International Pictures decided to part ways. Corman approached Pathe Film to finance and release his next feature, another Poe page-to-screen effort, The Premature Burial.  He cast Ray Milland because his first choice, Vincent Price, was under contract with AIP.  Little did Corman know, however, that AIP was in the process of buying Pathe Films and soon found himself an employee of AIP again and his new film the property of the studio.   Dan and Vicky examine the taphophobic classic and how casting Ray Milland makes it different from Corman's more popular Vincent Price led Poe films.  They discuss recent watches like The Incredible Melting Man from 1977, Masque of the Red Death from 1964, the new thriller Green Room and the Maggie Smith vehicle Lady in the Van.  They also get on the Hot Date soapbox about separating an artist from his or her questionable real life actions and list

Semi-retired and living in the Caribbean, actor Peter Finch initially resisted starring in Network and director Sidney Lumet was equally hesitant to have a Brit play the pivotal part of American TV newscaster turned prophet Howard Beales.  But an audition tape where Finch did a spot-on American accent convinced Lumet that he'd found his man.  Tragically, Finch died soon after the film was completed but became the first actor to receive the Best Supporting Actor Oscar posthumously.   Dan and Vicky look at the multiple Oscar winning Network and the actors that brought it to such vivid life - Finch, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Robert Duvall, Ned Beatty and  Beatrice Straight.  They also eulogize the late Prince, discuss what they've been watching lately (Vicky's cuckoo for Penny Dreadful and Dan fears for his soul after taking in the entire I Spit On Your Grave series), and reminiscence about watching horror movies on Nantucket.  There's some great 70's music in this episode, from Rick Dees to The Bee Gees, an

It took British director Peter Yates and Yugoslavian screenwriter Steve Tesich, born Stojan Tešić, to tell the quintessential American coming of age story Breaking Away from 1979.  The film was set and shot in Bloomington, Indiana where Tesich's family emigrated to when he was a teenager and tells a story based on a bicyclist Tesich befriended during his time racing for Indiana University.  For his efforts, the screenwriter  received the Academy Award for Best Screenplay and the Golden Globe for Best Film (Comedy or Musical). Dan and Vicky take a look at this seminal sports film from the 70's and discuss how the nostalgic glow it casts put them in a good mood.  Not so good is the tumble Vicky took after seeing Dan's show -- you'll hear all about it -- and the cranky audience reaction to The Walking Dead finale -- Dan and Vicky give us their two cents.   They also read their FIRST viewer letter (!), talk about the movies and TV shows they've been watching lately (including 1983's The Entity and the The Nightma

On Hot Date 25, Dan and Vicky cover as much ground as the protagonists do in the 2012 film The Loneliest Planet.  In addition to their thoughts on the film, which stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Hani Furstenberg as a couple hiking through the mountains of the former Soviet state of Georgia, your hosts discuss recent celebrity deaths, their love of over pumped stars Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson, and AMC Theatres' dodgy ticket policies.   Vicky also bemoans the lack of good music in October of 2012 and tells us why she's putting off seeing Batman vs. Superman while Dan waxes nostalgic about his Saturday mornings as a kid and dissects media coverage of recent terrorist attacks.   But the focus is on the film and Dan and Vicky have lots to say about The Loneliest Planet and the troubled trio at it's center.  Shot on location in the rugged and beautiful Caucasus Mountains, director Julia Loktev cast real life mountaineer and first time actor Bidzina Gujabidze in the pivotal role of the tour guide.  He gets some love

A year after making his acclaimed directorial debut with Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino saw the very first script he every wrote make it to the big screen in a major Hollywood way.  Jam-packed with big stars and directed by hot shot Tony Scott, 1993's True Romance seemed destined for greatness but ultimately fell short at the box office.  Audiences were more in the mood, it seems, for the repressed entanglements in Scorsese's Age of Innocence than for the red hot, go-for-broke love between Patricia Arquette's Alabama and Christian Slater's Clarence.  Deemed too talky by some and too violent by others, True Romance ended up barely breaking even. Dan and Vicky take the film for a spin and find many reasons why it's now considered a bona fide cult classic.  They also get into the political mess that is Donald Trump, Dan 's newest off-Broadway show (Locusts Have No Kings, www.intartheatre.org), the glory that is Channing Tatum's dance moves, and all their recent watches from The Ruins to The Humans.   Who says

Coming off the successes of The Graduate and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, director Mike Nichols could have done anything he wanted.  He chose to reunite with Graduate screenwriter Buck Henry to adapt the ambitious and satirical Joseph Heller war novel Catch-22.  When that film was met with critical and commercial indifference (it's since become a cult favorite), Nichols then turned his sights to more familiar terrain -- the relationship drama Carnal Knowledge from 1971.   Armed with a cast of actors ripe for their breakout moment, Nichols fashioned a searing,  funny and frank look at contemporary relationships that had a local theater owner in Georgia getting arrested and the Georgia Supreme Court accusing the film of obscenity.   Dan and Vicky are back after some time away with a look at the Jack Nicholson, Art Garfunkel, Candice Bergen and Ann-Margret starring film.  Dan also talks about his recent play in Chicago (including the on stage accident that nearly ended it all), his new super GAY off-Broadway

The summer of 1983 was poised to be the season that SNL alum Dan Aykroyd broke out as a movie star with no less than three movies coming out in as many months.  He found success co-starring with Eddie Murphy in the hit Trading Places and made a brief appearance in the tragedy plagued but profitable Twilight Zone: The Movie.  But the third film, released before the other two and positioned as a starring vehicle for Aykroyd, would become one of the Canadian born actor's greatest flops.   Doctor Detroit, released May 6, 1983, is mostly forgotten today but boasts a cast of actors that would go on to greater acclaim -- Howard Hesseman, Fran Drescher, Lynn Whitfield, future Mrs. Aykroyd Donna Dixon, TK Carter and in a blink-and-you'll-miss-her non speaking role, Glenne Headly.   Dan and Vicky diagnose Doctor Detroit for Hot Date Episode 22 and agree that he's anemic and fairly malnourished.  But there's plenty for our hosts to get fired up about as they give their passionate thoughts on Netflix's Making a Murderer

For his first attempt at a Technicolor film and his first collaboration with James Stewart, Alfred Hitchcock chose to adapt the British stage play Rope's End as a series of 10 minute long takes. Loosely based on real life child murderers Leopold and Loeb, Farley Granger and John Dall murder a school chum in their apartment, hide his body in a chest of books and cooly host a party around him, aroused by the thrill of it possibly being discovered. Dan and Vicky's date with Hitchcock includes their opinions on the film, it's central long take gimmick, the homosexual themes and the performances of Granger, Dall and Stewart.  They also catch us up with what they've been watching recently -- the new Christmas horror film Krampus for Dan and lots of stand up specials for Vicky. And Dan hints at a none to pleasant run in with legendary screenwriter/playwright Arthur Laurents.  Add some communist witch hunts and a dude named Pee Wee Hunt and his orchestra to the mix and you've got a Hot Date not to be missed. The body

Keeping with tradition, Dan and Vicky pull together a top ten movie list to commemorate ten episodes completed.  Episode 20 is out of this world - literally - as our Hot Date podcasters discuss their choices for favorite space/alien films.  Suggested by loyal listener Kenneth Cooperman, Dan and Vicky pick a few science fiction classics you may have seen but also some stealth additions that may creep in under your radar.  They also offer runner-up and honorable mention choices and catch us up with what they've been watching recently. So strap yourself in, make sure your ship is pressurized and prepare for blast off as Hot Date looks to the skies for an alien movie fest.  And have extra fun figuring out the name of the song and artist played over the opening credits! 2016 starts with an interstellar bang on Hot Date 20 with Dan and Vicky.      

It was a battle-ax royale at the box office in early 1964.  The Joan Crawford film Strait- Jacket had come out exactly a month before but it was this Bette Davis vehicle, Dead Ringer, that came out on top.  Dead Ringer was the number one film in the country two weekends in a row and continued the recent trend of Grand Dame Guignol films -- grotesque horror/thriller movies starring once popular Hollywood actresses moving into middle age. Dan and Vicky rate Davis's performance in Dead Ringer, her second time after 1946's A Stolen Life portraying twins, and discuss how Hollywood treated and continues to treat it's aging leading ladies.  They also look at what was happening in music, movies and history in early 1964 with nods to Beatlemania, John Glenn's inner ear and the Leaning Tower of Pisa and run down the things they've been watching and reading recently.  Vicky also does a shout out to her own dead ringer, visiting sister Denise Aguero, and teaches Dan all about barrel chests and Chicago serial killer H.H.

Part of then 31 year old Ethan Hawke's audition for Training Day was a series of casting sessions with star Denzel Washington.  It was after one of those reads that Hawke left fuming, upset that Washington had taken an improv too far, insulting and cursing him.  But director Antoine Fuqua saw exactly the relationship he needed for the characters in the film and offered Hawke the role of rookie Jake Hoyt.   Dan and Vicky cover the action thriller and it's two riveting stars but also discuss the proximity of it's initial release to the horrific events of 9/11.  They share their thoughts on the relationship between entertainment and real life tragedy with the Paris attacks  fresh in their memory.  Vicky also opens up about a mugging incident that left her afraid but not beaten. But it's not all serious on Hot Date 18.  Their shenanigans include a JLo takedown, a report from the New York Horror Film Festival and a suggestion for a hissing radiator inspired Hot Date drinking game!   King Kong ain't got nothin' on 

Is it a 2010 or a 2009 release?  Things get confusing on Dan and Vicky's 17th Hot Date. They chose a random date in January of 2010, usually a deadly month for movies, and came up with the fairly classy Michael Hoffman film, The Last Station starring Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren.  The film was dropped in a few theaters for an Oscar qualifying run in late 2009, but actually went wide in January of the following year, hence the confusion.  But the Academy wasn't confused and the strategy paid off with Oscar nominations for both stars.   Dan and Vicky examine the drama, based on the last few months of famed Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy's life, and chek hov their likes and dislikes.  Also, Vicky rages against the Entourage movie, pushy New York subway riders and know-it-all podcasters.  Ke$ha and Nicky Minaj pay a visit. And Dan discusses the 11(!) horror movies he watched at the Scary Movie 9 Festival at Lincoln Center.   You should be russian to listen to Hot Date 17: The Last Station.  Dan and Vicky ar

Director Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream) came up with a unique strategy for funding and staffing his debut feature Pi.  He approached family, friends and everyone in between with the promise that if the film was a failure, he'd give them $50 on top of their initial investment of $100.  The cast and crew had a different incentive -- he asked them to work for a deferred salary of $200 per day plus a cut of the box office if the film made any money.  After premiering at Sundance, the $60,000 film got a $1 million dollar distribution deal and ended up grossing nearly $3.5 million when released to theaters in the heart of summer blockbuster season, July 1998.   Dan and Vicky trip out on the surreal, nerve-rattling pleasures of this indie success story while also dissecting it's themes of religion, mathematics and the universe.   They also get into what scary stuff they've been watching for Halloween, Dan's teenage, psyche-scarring viewing of Bob Guccione's Caligula, their love of Shania Twain, a

Steve McQueen, David Soul and Sam Elliott were all attached to the car chase classic Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry when it was to be a direct adaptation of the novel The Chase and had no female protagonist.  But after years of fits and starts, B movie producer James Nicholson acquired the property, brought friend and frequent collaborator Peter Fonda on board, had the script changed to make the leads a bickering couple and rode into history with the film as a top grosser for studio 20th Century Fox.  Dan and Vicky buckle their seat belts for a wild and bumpy ride through Southern California with too cool Fonda, firecracker Susan George and stoic Adam Roarke.  They give their thoughts on the casting, the car crashes and the insanely nihilistic ending, considered one of the most shocking in movie history. They also take detours to discuss their love of 80's sitcom Growing Pains, the fall's crop of new shows, some lost 70's horror gems, Jackson 5's Dancing Machine and Susan George's teeth.   Hot Date 15 puts the pedal

It seems incongruous that producers would have originally wanted Vanessa Redgrave for the title role in 1966's Georgy Girl because sister Lynn seemed an absolute perfect fit and, indeed, ended up making it her breakthrough role.   The film co-starred James Mason, Alan Bates, Charlotte Rampling and, in a small role, Redgrave's mother, Rachel Kempson.  It was a huge hit in the UK but an even bigger one in the United States, much to the relief of Columbia Pictures who had sweated the young, unknown leads, the avant-garde shooting style of Canadian director Silvio Narizzano and some risque subject matter.   Dan and Vicky give their impressions of this counter culture classic while also touching on William Friedkin's controversial gay thriller Cruising, TV's Scream Queens, riding the New York City subway during Comic Con, Connie Stevens and why Dan needs to see a therapist!   FunikiJam everyone!  And if you want to know what that means, you'll have to listen to Hot Date with Dan and Vicky #14.  It's Groovy man. 

It took three William Faulkner stories to make the sultry, southern classic film The Long, Hot Summer and one difficult movie icon to almost unmake it. Although Orson Welles was director Martin Ritt's one and only choice to play burly land baron Will Varner, the two clashed continually on the sticky Louisiana set.  They would eventually make up after the movie was finished but Ritt seems to have definitely earned the moniker the industry gave him later -- the Orson Tamer. In stark contrast, leads Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were in the throes of a love affair on and off screen and would eventually get married just two months after the film wrapped.  Their union became one of the longest and loveliest in movie history.   For episode 13, Dan and Vicky discuss the joys of watching two lead actors fall in movie AND real love on screen, compare this film to other Southern Gothic films of the time, and give their thoughts on the wonder that is Orson Welles. You'll also get the latest dope on the Pope, M. Night

2008's Zack and Miri Make A Porno was Kevin Smith's most expensive, most high profile film at the time so a lot was riding on it's success.  Could Seth Rogen prove his star turn in the prior year's Knocked Up wasn't a fluke?  Could Elizabeth Banks (replacing the previously announced Rosario Dawson) hold her own in her first headlining vehicle?  Could a hard R movie with the word "Porno" in it's title be a crossover hit? Would this finally be Kevin Smith's entre into mainstream Hollywood? Well everyone involved went on to flourishing careers, but Zack and Miri Make a Porno would not be the raucous hit Harvey Weinstein was hoping for.  He had a hard time getting news outlets to run ads for the film, famously fought with director Kevin Smith over the film's marketing, and had the misfortune to release it amidst the most damaging recession since the 20's.  On their Hot Date, Vicky gives us a little background on the career of Kevin Smith, tells us about her recent love for everything Sherlock and wonders who the

Melissa Sue Anderson was eager to break out of the house that Michael Landon built when she signed on for 1981's slasher Happy Birthday to Me.  She was still screaming and crying but this time it was from trying to avoid being shish kebabbed by a mysterious killer and not from the trials of prairie life.  She was joined by tough guy film legend Glenn Ford as her psychiatrist, Canadian stalwart Lawrence Dane as her preoccupied Dad, future soap superstar Tracey Bregman as her best friend and fledgling actors Lisa Langlois, Lesleh Donaldson, Matt Craven and David Eisner who would all go on to healthy careers.   Dan and Vicky discuss Happy Birthday to Me's place in slasher history and how it's twisty and convoluted plot was a departure for the genre.  They also take a look at the minor controversy that greeted the film when it premiered on DVD in 2005 and how the Canadian government's tax system of the era inadvertently gave rise to the beloved horror subgenre affectionately titled Canuxploitation.   There's a tr

Hot Date is in celebration mode!  Dan and Vicky have reached episode ten and want to shake things up and do something special for our loyal listeners.  Instead of bantering about one film, our hosts pull out all the stops and pick their ten favorite films from ten randomly chosen directors!  As a bonus, they'll also choose runners-up.   There's a filmmaker for ever taste -- horror, comedy, action, or drama.  We won't reveal the filmmakers here but rest assured they are some of the most exciting artists working today and one who is no longer with us.   As always we hope to start a Conversation, provide some Blazing commentary, Fly in the face of the ordinary.   Okay, okay enough clues!   Subscribe and listen now to Hot Date episode 10 with Dan and Vicky.