Archived Podcasts - Into the New Millennium/Some Bad Smells

Episode 79 - Doing It For The Fans

This description is going to be a bit lax for several reasons. Firstly, to play the sympathy card, Ian has not been well, hence the lateness of this ep. He edited the slippery customer, like a hero, but it's Leo here posting it. Hello.

Secondly, we recorded it together several weeks ago now and my recollection of what actually transpired may be a bit hazy. See, I can't even commit to how well I remember the incident. Shameful. I remember we were, unsurprisingly, talking about fans and how much of an influence they should be allowed to have on a creative project. Should one embrace them, or is that a disastrous move.

Should one, then, ignore them, or is that imprudent? There seem to be no easy answers, which probably explains why we chose it as an episode subject. So down the rabbit hole we go once more as we discover that the whole episode is, in fact, an extended discussion of why it is Leo has recently been working for payment in individual desk-based rotor air-cooling devices... Oh, the embarrassment.



Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/079DoingItForTheFans/079%20-%20Doing%20it%20for%20the%20Fans.mp3

Episode 80 - Films 2001 - The one with a monkey faced Lincoln memorial statue

Well, I won't pretend to be anything other than a wimp ... but I ... Ian ... am a tad unwell. So I'm going to shirk my duties and do a short write up this week. So to be brief: In 2001 Fantasy lands big time and gets much talked about.

Meanwhile the 90s goes through it's dying spasms with a heap of forgettable movies that should never have been made. Oh that was easy. I should be lazy more often! Incidental Music by Incompetech



Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/080Films2001/080%20-%20Films%202001.mp3

Episode 81 - So Bad We Smelt it Coming!

Every so often one becomes aware of a up coming film who's destiny as a much maligned flop seems so obvious that it's stunning it's got a cinema released at all. Surely somewhere in the process someone somewhere should have stepped in and said something.

Yet somehow at every single stage, from the initial pitch, to the casting, the choice of director and marketing there has been a dramatic failure in quality control. While it might be impossible to say for sure a film will be a hit until the movie going audience judges it the reverse is not true.
Indeed we here a the 80s Kids humbly submit that sometimes the stink of a movie can be so bad we can smell it coming a mile away. Most topically on our minds right now is the up coming 'Fantastic 4' reboot, of which we have heard very little that inspires any kind of 'Wait and see' sense of doubt about the radical re-imagining of Marvel classic comic series.

Every comment and leak seems to add another layer of dread and Leo and to a lesser extent Ian are all to happy to have a good moan about it all. This leads on to a wider discussion of bombs we saw coming in hopes of gleaning some kind of vital formula that we might disclose for the betterment of all mankind. Incidental Music by Incompetech.com



Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/081SoBadWeSmeltItComing/081%20-%20So%20Bad%20We%20Smelt%20it%20Coming.mp3

Episode 82 - Short Lived Noughty TV shows

This week Leo makes the bold claim that all Noughties TV series can be split into two categories. Those that had more than three seasons and those which had less.

Well, I expect most of you are thinking: "No Shit" but as Leo points out there are very few shows that got exactly three, normally if you get that far the fourth season is in the bag. So this week we tuck into the poor children who only had one or two years worth of shows before the deadly axe fell.

What we have is a collection of small briefly shining gems, unresolved arcs, curio eggs, the mundane, the muddled and directionless and the justifiably axed for reasons of public good taste. These shows for whatever reason occupy only a small space on the DVD shelf but today they're getting more time than their due as the 80s kids munch their way through these bite sized series.

Also Firefly. Incidental Music by Incompetech.



Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/082NoughtyTv1/082%20-%20noughty%20tv%201.mp3

Archived Podcasts - Getting Our Feet Under The 2000s Table

Episode 75 - Video Game Cinematics

With our humble show progressing into the 2000s, Leo's thoughts turn to Video Games and the growing blur between what is a 'Cinematic Experience' and what constitutes a 'Game Experience'. In the days of old 'Story' and 'Character' were something of the text heavy RPG variety, be it the Story
Rails attached to a turn based combat system or the 'point 'n' click' puzzle game. Then all of a sudden the consoles suddenly got just complex enough that game designers could treat us to lengthy engagingly acted cut scenes that assured us our tough guy with guns was three dimensional beyond his polygon count.

Suddenly games could be immersive and engaging worlds and the player could at last experience something like actually being there. Some games based on film franchises dispensed with retelling an actual film and instead set their stories in 'Officially Licensed' enclaves of their movie universe's canon. Other built there own universes now followed and wiki'ed with detail orientated enthusiasm by passionate on line communities.

This week the 80s Trio reflect on the memorable video games they played that crossed the Story - Game divide. From the PS1 classics to the roaring days of the PS2 and Xbox, to the rise and fall of the MMO and to the modern Video Game triple A block busters.

Incidental Music by Incompetech



Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/075VideoGameCinematics/075-Video-Game-Cinematics.mp3

Episode 76 - Resurrection of the Noughty Children

This week the 80s kids dig perhaps not so deeply into their long memories and summon back into existence their Noughties counter parts as they recount their changing lives and cinema visits during the first decade of the new Millennium. From Ian's cultural high life in Bath to his exile in Victoria Australia. From Justin's struggle to make it as an illustrator and quest to find friends who share his passions to his fateful meeting with Leo. From Leo's job hopping, city moving adventures to settled married life.

The Noughties were a time of a grown up kind of change for our batch of now 20s going on 30s pod-casting heroes. But most importantly they recount their experiences of seeing the films of this period, when they were fresh new and all sparkly and what is was like to actually be there. It's our usual scout head prior to starting a new decade. And along the way lies all that came just before the slice of time we are all living now.



Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/076ResurrectionOfTheNoughtyChildren/076-Resurrection-of-the-Noughty-Children.mp3

Episode 77 - Whatever Happened to the Evil Genius

In horror and Sci Fi of old the trope of the Mad Man ascending to new levels threat with the use of his knowledge was a well established archetype. Be it the white coated scientist with his dangerous theories that set him above nature and God or the Alchemist or dark occultist out to seize forbidden esoteric knowledge. They include fictional luminaries from Victor Frankenstein to Forbidden Planet's Dr Morbius and even Dr Herbert West of the Re-animator. Once they were a staple of story telling, now they are all but extinct in film and cinema.

This week in a ghoulish Halloween episode of the 80s Kids the terrible trio muse of the curious absence of the Evil Master Mind and via the medium of an hour long discussion podcast they attempt to unlock the mystery of their disappearance ... toying with forces they barely understand in the process.

Incidental Music by incompetech.com



Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/077EvilGenius/077-Evil-Genius.mp3

Episode 78 - The Films of 2000 - A New Spring Time for the Kids

At last the 80s Kids land on the shores of the Noughties and set to work the task of reviewing the films of this fresh millennial year. A year that is not so much known for it's genre busting iconic films and more for necessary evolutionary steps.

No one could call the first X Men movie anything other than functional but it puts down another vital stone on the path to our modern cinema. And Pitch Black proves highly successful due to it's Riddick genes of course. But as with all Evolution there are dead ends, TITAN AE failed to find its audience and has only faded in time due to its virtue of being a cartoon.

And the old Terminator Arnie is besides himself in clone action thriller "6th Day" making him a very literal 80s fossil. But all in all, and obviously excluding "Battlefield Earth" there really wasn't anything so terrible or offensive about this new start. Other than Leo gushing about Battle Royal of course ... but as a former teacher I suppose he finds some glee in the messy affair.

Incidental Music by incompetech.com



Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/0782000ANewSpringtimeForTheKids/078-2000-A-New-Springtime-For-The-Kids.mp3