It's the Christmas special 2011!

 Ho Ho Howdy folks!

The Gaffer and I love to bring you some of our favorite holiday traditions and memories each year in a two hour special filled with laughs, joy and rage. This year is no different as we discussed favorite films, things we remember as kids, and things that piss us off royal at Christmas. We also prepped you guys for a very successful Holiday edition of Tavern Trivia that took place the other day. We hope that you guys have a wonderful holiday, and we'll see you soon with a full report of the worst movies of 2011!

We heard music from the following films:
Home Alone - John Williams (1990)
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - Various (1989)
Silent Night, Deadly Night - Perry Botkin (1984)
Lethal Weapon - Micheal Kamen (1987)
Ernest Saves Christmas - Mark Snow (1988)
Seasame Street - All I Want for Christmas

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So many reviews, So little time.

 A bevy of reviews this week! We had our hands full talking about new releases, as well as paying tribute to the late, occasionally great Ken Russell, who passed away early this week after a varied career. We managed to trot out some of the scores to a few of his films, then got down to the business of reviewing Take Shelter, Hugo, The Muppets, and, mournfully, Twilight Colon Breaking Dawn Hyphen Part One Ellipsis the last of which caused the Boom Operator to have a pretty amusing meltdown, for obvious reasons. The worst part about all this Twilight horseshit is that it ISN'T OVER. We still have to endure another year of billion-dollar-earning mediocrity before the chalking off this turgid franchise and moving on. Other than that, the films we saw last week were pretty good. We're both happy to see the Muppets back in action. There's just something about those tactile puppeteering effects that trump CG every time, but that's a rant we've trotted out far too often.

Altered States - John Corigliano (1980)
Women in Love - Georges Delerue (1969)
Gothic - Thomas Dolby (1986)
The Lost Boys - Various (1987)
The Muppets - Various (2011)

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Thanksgiving week, and what are we thankful for?

Wow, what a Monday this was. Thank the great demon lord this is a short holiday week because the Boom Operator had an audible meltdown due to crankiness-induced aphasia, but other than that we dolled out practiced cynicism with due alacrity, taking down Lars Von Trier's teenager-in-a-black-turtleneck film Melancholia, a decent flick with a decent concept housed in a whingey lugubriosity befitting a high school freshman who just went off his lithium. It was a frustrating film that obviously cribbed from Tarkovsky's Solaris and The Sacrifice, influences I'm impressed that Von Trier has. Personally, I blame Twilight for the overall feeling of gloom pervading our persons and, indeed, the entire nation-state. Thanksgiving break can't come soon enough for us. We gabbed about muppets and upcoming DVD releases including, I shit you not, a movie called Antfarm Dickhole, which is about, um, well, what it advertises. Again, I blame Twilight. - The Gaffer

Berserk - Susumu Hirasawa (1997)
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey - David Newman (1991)
Black Belt Jones - Luchi DeJesus (1974)
21 Grams - Gustavo Santaolalla (2003)
Broken Flowers - Mulu Astatke (2005)

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There's a time and a place for everything...

Talk of the Hunger Games trailer lead us (somehow) to a space-themed show for this episode, along with discussions of the dystopian gladiator genre ala Battle Royale, Rollerball, Running Man, et al. I've read the Suzanne Collins novels, which have been one of the bigger Young Adult novel crazes of the last couple years, and they're meh-grade, breezy beach novels. But as I've said before, moderate novels often make good cinematic adaptations, so this/these film(s) might be something worth considering. The rest of the show was largely spent heckling the Boom Operator for my making him watch the cinematic trollathon that was Human Centipede II. My, but this film was a gem to behold, the filmic equivalent of "2 Girls 1 Cup" in its existential pointlessness and snickering repugnance. The Boom Operator stomped around and ranted for the entire duration of the film, which included inky blasts of diarrhea, a centipede suppository, and a fetal curb-stomp, among other things. I happen to be one of the few people who thinks that Dutch pervert (is that redundant?) Tom Six is actually a mordant comedian who is absolutely in on this filthy joke, and having a lot of fun telling it. And lest you were wondering, Human Centipede III is in pre-production...

Event Horizon - Micheal Kamen & Orbital
Solaris - Sound clip from new, Edward Artemiev old
Battle Royale - 2000
Running Man - Harold Faltermeyer
Sunshine - John Murphy

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November is here! Time for Christmas.....

The Boom Operator and I must have been hopped up on goofballs for this podcast, because things got weird. We were fresh from our Halloween break and had a bevy of reviews to catch up on. We caught Real Steel, that Hugh Jackman movie that looked like a hybrid of Over the Top and Robot Jox. I can get behind throwaway entertainment when it involves robot punches, but that smug little kid ruined the movie for me. I spent the last hour of the movie wanting the robots to beat that little bastard into liquid with their giant robot fists. We went on to consider the reasonably spooky Paranormal Activity 3, and then the Boom Operator went solo on In Time and Tower Heist. The lackluster film season doesn't look to be stopping soon, so check out future podcasts for ample vitriol.

Die Hard - Michael Kamen (1988)
Escape from NY - John Carpenter (1981)
Ferris Bueller's Day off - Various (1986)
Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure - "In Time" (1989)

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Three Hour Halloween Special 2011!

(Sorry this is late, we swore we posted this right after airing it, but I'm an idiot and forgot to click "post")

Here it is: the Halloween special that our entire radio year pinnacles toward. We had a surprising lack of guests on the show, with the exception of perennial ghoul Grim Gravesly, who shambled in and chided myself and the Boom Operator for our awful puns (my personal favorite was Die-agra). But, for the most part we focused our 3-hour special on the music, stopping only to discuss some horror movie tropes, like how arbitrary and random it is to kill Boogeymen like Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger when their survival is inevitable. We also discussed horror genre trends, how we moved from psychological, heterodoxy-driven films to slashers, and the newer trend of voyeuristic "torture-porn". Halloween Tavern Trivia falls this Wednesday, and you don't want to miss that. Trust me.

Ed Wood - Howard Shore (1994)
Candyman - Phillip Glass (1992)
Bone Eater - Chuck Cirino (2007)
Tenebre - Goblin (1982)
The Frighteners - Danny Elfman (1996)
Friday the 13th - Harry Manfredini (1980)
Ghostbusters 2 - Various (1989)
Scanners - Howard Shore (1981)
Return of the Living Dead - Various (1985)
The Horror Of Dracula - James Bernard (1958)
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires - James Bernard (1974)
Transylvania Twist - Chuck Cirino (1989)

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Last podcast before the Halloween Special!

This is the last episode before our Halloween special; can you feel the Eldritch particles in the very air we breathe?? I thought so. In this podcast we discussed the "occupy" movement and would-be populist Michael Moore's attempts to capitalize on it. I did a quick review of George Clooney's The Ides of March to cap off this political diversion: meh. Then we delved back into ghosts and ghoulies: the new Hellraiser film is out, straight-to-DVD, and the first not to star Doug Bradley as Pinhead. This is obviously a lamentable attempt to keep the copyright for a still-planned remake; I'm sure it's terrible. The Boom Operator and I watched John Carpenter's gut-churning classic The Thing in preparation for the new prequel/remake (premake?). We expected to be disappointed by the CGI and the basic premise (to ruin some of the ambiguity of the first film) and we were, but not quite to the extent that we hated it. To cap things off we talked about the British sleeper Attack the Block which featured some rascally London chavs battling an alien invasion. This one we can recommend without ambiguity.



We heard music from the following films:
Alien Resurrection - John Frizzel (1997)
Predator - Alan Silvestri (1987)
The Day the Earth Stood Still - Bernard Herrman
The Thing - John Carpenter / Ennio Morricone (1982)
The Thing - Marco Beltrami (2011)

Boy these podcasts are starting to get spooky!

Can you feel the ambient horror permeating the sepulchral October air? The Boom Operator and I certainly can: podcasts, parties, and Tavern Trivia are all being primed for the following weeks, and all are going to be immersed in the spooky spirit of the times. We tried to slowly seep into the October horror mien with music from John Carpenter who, his flaws notwithstanding, composes his own eery, electro-minimalist scores. Later I ended up going on a tangent about Jesusween. Goddamn Jesusween is a thing, y'all! Apparently some Christians, who I guess regard Halloween as occultish, Satanic, or otherwise totally awesome, are starting this Halloween alternative where healthy treats and Bibles are handed out instead of candy. I guess they need more reasons for people to laugh at them. Anyway, my favorite part of this show was playing music from the old LucasArts game Grim Fandango, which we both love. Our time-honored Halloween Special will air October 24th, Tavern Trivia is October 12th, and Beat Bachs' Halloween Dance Party is October 28th. This is an exciting time to be alive.

We heard music from the following:
28 Days Later - John Murphy (2002)
Big Trouble in Little China - John Carpenter (1986)
Corpse Bride - Danny Elfman (2005)
Grim Fandango - Peter McConnel (1998)
Magic - Jerry Goldsmith (1978)

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October is here!

October has arrived. The month of creepy-crawlies, ghoulies, and gewgaws. Soon, pumpkins will line the streets and high fructose candies will line our stomachs. Needless to say, this is the Boom Operator and I's favorite time of year, and we started off right with a review of campy horror-comedy Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. Our verdict: good, harmless fun. We also disappeared briefly into our faux-intellectual asses to discuss the rise of internet "review culture" and the popularity of sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, who offer aggregate critic scores and can distinctly impact whether the casual viewer will view/validate a film. I'm a big fan of Metacritic; they often expose me to great limited-release films, but there are drawbacks to only seeking out the "best".

Stay tuned for next week's show, particularly if you're interested in the upcoming Tavern Trivia.

Don't forget to donate to our cause over at EXTRA-LIFE.ORG

This week we heard music from:
Judge Dredd - Alan Silvestri (1995)
Howard Shore - Spider (2002)
What Dreams May Come - Micheal Kamen (1995)
To live and Die in LA - Wang Chung (1985)
Swamp Thing- Harry Manfredini (1982)


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Catwoman, trivia nights & a dull weekend at the movies

So, we've been following the set-reveals and discussion surrounding Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises. Yesterday we got a sneak peek at Anne Hathaway's Catwoman costume...and it pretty much looks exactly like 1960s sex-kitten Julie Newmar. What the hell? Given that Nolan has been trying to make his Batman films as "realistic" and gritty as possible, I have no idea how they are going to play this. We'll see. Neither the Boom Operator or I caught any new movies this week, as the prominent releases starred Taylor Lautner and an animated lion from 1994, but I'd like to see Moneyball at some point, in spite of its accolades as an "Oscar-contender." Most of the talk was about the Faustian decline of Tim Burton, the lack of appreciation of Terry Gilliam, and our impending second plunge into bar trivia.

Speaking of which, Tavern Trivia part deux was another success! Thanks to all who braved the BBBBQ motorcycle rally and showed up, even that team of drunken troglodytes named *sigh* the "Weiner-Dicks." And if I have learned anything from our "Draw Your Own Poster" phase, it's that people love to draw dicks. You sick bastards. Our next trivia night will be Tuesday, October 11th, so pencil us in.

We heard music from the following films:
Bachelor Party - Various (1985)
Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus - Jeff Dana (2009)
Mission to Mars - Ennio Morricone (2000)
The Dark Knight - Hans Zimmer (2008)
The Fifth Element - Eric Serra (1997)
Time Bandits - Audio Clip (1981)

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Talk like a Pirate Day Podcast!

So, Monday, September 19th was "Talk Like a Pirate Day," and the Boom Operator and I eagerly seized on that fact and made asses of ourselves for this entire podcast. We also used the, um, holiday(?) as an excuse to play music from an assortment of pirate films, taking a break to talk shop about the new Nicolas Winding Refn film we both saw this weekend, Drive. The short review: we liked, if not quite loved, this flick, and I expect it will help move Refn from little-known Tarantino emulator to hipster-crowd darling. It should be interesting to see where he goes from here. We interjected some of the electro-house from the film's wildly popular soundtrack before returning to swashbuckling with an audio clip from Roman Polanski's Pirates!

For those of you who follow our shenanigans here in Northwest Arkansas: Tavern Trivia at Smoke 'n Barrel will be back next week on Wednesday the 28th! We're in negotiations to make this more than a monthly affair, so get your brains lubed-up, get excited, and stay tuned.


We heard music from the following films:
Cutthroat Island - John Debney (1995)
7th Voyage of Sinbad - Bernard Herrmann (1958)
The Goonies - Dave Grusin (1985)
Drive - Kavinsky & Cliff Martinez (2011)
Pirates! - Audio from Walter Matthau (1986)


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Yub Nub and Lapti Nek, Ya'll

What did we get up to this week? Other than insulting Sarah Jessica Parker, which earned the ire of one fan, we reviewed Oscar-contender Shark Night and the MMA-boosting Warrior. But, eventually talk lead to this week's Star Wars Blu-Ray release and ol' goiter-neck Lucas's continued tinkering with the beloved saga, and lord did that ever lead to a rant. I reiterated most of what I said in an old Pajiba review of that scatological Clone Wars movie. Eventually, we decided to relinquish all sense of dignity and performed impressions of Star Wars characters (and let it be known, I can do an excellent Salacious Crumb). Obviously that was my favorite part of the show. Growing up, my brother had every figure of the Max Reebo band, and we would do onomatopoeia renditions of the cantina music. Ah, memories.

We heard music from the following films:
American Gladiators - Bill Conti & Dan Milner (1989)
Bourne Identity - John Powell (2002)
Cobra - Sylvester Levay (1986)
Return of The Jedi (B-Sides) - Meco & John Williams
Jaws - John Williams (1975)

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A podcast to bite your ankles off!

This week we had a running theme of tiny critters, mostly on account of the Boom Operator and I having seen Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, which featured menacing yeti-gremlins, and Apollo 18, which featured SPOILER some rocks. Naturally, this inspired a show filled with music from a bevy of little beast movies. Well, beasts, critters, tiny people, or flatulent midgets. Ugh, is Garbage Pail Kids still on Netflix Instant? Check that out when you feel the inkling to whiz 80 minutes down your leg. Anyway, we also talked how much we pwned our first live performance/trivia show at Smoke & Barrel. Seriously, we packed the house and thrilled the masses with wit and savoir faire. Evan, our generous host/co-owner of Smoke & Barrel has locked us in for every last Wednesday of the month. We're in negotiations to do more, but will need fan support/outcry to make that happen. Stay tuned.

We heard music from the following films:

Trilogy of Terror - Bob Cobert (1975)
Fantastic Planet - Alan Goreguer (1973)
Garbage Pail Kids - Various (1987)
Gremlins - Jerry Goldsmith (1985)
Arthur and the Invisibles - Eric Serra (2006)

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A little something for everyone.

This week we had a great time in the studio getting ready for our first Tavern Trivia night at a local watering hole. We also reviewed the films Our Idiot Brother and 30 Minutes or Less. One was surprisingly better than the other. You'll have to listen to find out which. We discussed odd remakes, retiring director rumors and brought back some classic scores from the vaults for all our recent new listeners. Enjoy!

We heard music from the following:
Oldboy - Hyun-jung Shim (2003)
Oceans Twelve - David Holmes (2004)
Peter Gun - Henry Mancini (1958)
Spaceballs - John Morris (1987)
Beverly Hills Cop - Harold Faltermeyer (1984)

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What makes nostalgia?

Boy did we have a lot of ground to cover this week! Reviewing three films in one show as well as touching on a weeks worth of goings on in the world of film. Over the weekend we watched the new Tribe Called Quest documentary as well as the new Conan and Fright Night movies. You'll have to listen to find out which we thought was pretty good and which we thought was a stale turd. We also had a great discussion about what makes things "nostalgic" and the future for nostalgia in the digital age. This is surely a podcast not to be missed!

We heard music from the following films:
Ghostbusters 2 - Bobby Brown and New Edition (1989)
Beats Rhymes & Life - The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest - (2011)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - John Williams (2002)
Lost in Translation - Various (2003)
Lost in Space (TV) - John Williams & others (1965)

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Cowboys, sexy romps, battleships and slow head shaking.

Boy did we have fun in the studio this week! So much to talk about! We reviewed Cowboys and Aliens as well as Friends With Benefits. We discussed global politics and gave you tips on how to become a millionaire in 8 weeks! You best download this one.

We played music from the following films:

Naked Gun 2 1/2 - Ira Newborn (1991)
The Hunt For Red October - Basil Poledouris (1990)
The Golden Child - Micheal Colombier (1986)
The Talented Mr. Ripley - Gabriel Yared (1999)
Planet of the Apes (TV) - Lalo Schiffrin
Cowboys & Aliens - Harry Gregson - Williams (2011)

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Flag waiving patriotic madness.

Tonight's show was all about patriotic badassery. Granted, neither of us get off waiving flags around and calling crap in our caps macaroni, but we were definitely enjoying playing music from a bunch of films about secret military ops, one man armies, and other general elite squad goings on. All of this of course led up to our review of the new Captain America: The First Avenger film.

Rambo 2 - Jerry Goldsmith (1985)
Operation Crossbow - Ron Goodwin (1965)
Philadelphia Experiment - Ken Wannberg (1984)
Rex Steele Nazi Smasher - Ryan Shore (2004)
Commando - James Horner (1985)


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Brimming with sexy goodness....

We apologize for this podcast being such a large download this week...but it was the only way to contain all the awesome that ensued. We discussed all manners of ridiculous movie news including but not limited to: Rupert Murdoch's crazy ass, The Dark Tower crumbling, the Evil Dead Remake, Harry Potter breaking every record you can think of, and fond memories of watching our first sex scenes on screen. This podcast is completely worth the download...if you don't think so, then you're dead to me.
We heard music from:

King Solomon's Mines - Jerry Goldsmith (1985)
The Evil Dead - Joseph LoDuca (1981)
The Touch - Basil Poledouris (2002)
The Last Unicorn - America (1982)
Bedknobs and Broomsticks - Various - (1971)

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I don't think we could cram more into this podcast if we tried...

In this weeks' podcast we had sooo much to discuss. Catching up from our week off for the 4th of July holiday, we reviewed Transformers 3, Horrible Bosses, and Jane Eyre. A ridiculous box office for the previous weekend led us into another disappointment in what people spend money on...however we suspect everyone will be shaking their wands in glee this weekend as Harry Potter will probably make all of our monies disappear.

5 Dolls for an August Moon - Piero Umiliani (1970)
Fantastic Voyage - Leonard Rosenman (1966)
Simpsons: The Movie - Hans Zimmer (2007)
Tristram Shandy - M. Nyman (2005)
My Stepmother is an Alien - Alan Silvestri (1988)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Alexandre Desplat (2010)

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A podcast so exciting we got a ticket.

We got pulled over by the fuzz just before the show which put a slight chip on our shoulder and had lots of fun banter about leeches, Chinese history and the films City of Life and Death and Cars 2.


Back to the Future - Alan Silvestri
Heat - Various (1995)
Crocodile Dundee - Peter Best (1986)
American Werewolf In London - Meco (1981)
Splatter Beach - Jon McBride (2007)
Tree of Life - Alexandre Desplat (2011)

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Knockin another late podcast out of the way

In our last week of playing podcast post catch up, we bring you the episode from 6 - 20. In this episode the Gaffer and I had a fun time screaming about the people outside doing the cha cha slide at some horribly lame event. Seriously. If you're a listener out there and want to hear Cupid Shuffle and Cha Cha Slide back to back...you've obviously not learned anything by exposure to us and need to download more podcasts and get your head straight. We also talked about movies. We ripped Dylan Dog: Dead of Night a new one...though I really wanted to enjoy this movie. No dice.

We heard music from the following films:

Rudy - Jerry Goldsmith (1993)
Dreamscape - Maurice Jarre (1984)
Caddyshack - Various (1980)
Danny The Dog - Massive Attack (2005)
The Howling - Pino Donaggio (1981)

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Podcast catch up!

Another week old podcast coming at ya! We'll be caught up with the posting before this weeks end rest assured. Maybe you should start tuning in live? The show's a lot more fun that way, and you can call us on air to boot. We discussed Super 8 in this episode as well as fun childhood memories. It's totally worth the download. Get it soon, cause a new episode will be online soon.

We heard music from the following films:

Los Amigos - Danielle Patucchi (1972)
Arthur and the Invisibles - Eric Serra - (2006)
Cowboy Bebop - The Seatbelts (1998)
Gypsy Magic - Vlatko Stefanovski - (1997)
Explorers - Jerry Goldsmith (1986)
Flight of the Navigator - Alan Sylvestri (1986)

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This podcast may be past its freshness date, but it's not expired!

Has this week been insane or what?! If you've been listening live, you haven't missed much (other than the day we took off for Memorial Day) but for you podcasters, we've been a little late getting things up and running. Sorry about that! It's been a flurry a month, I've started a new day job recently and The Gaffer still doesn't want to fiddle with uploading and blogging. In this podcast we talk about X-Men: First Class & Pom Wonderful presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

Tucker and the Man and His Dream - Joe Jackson (1988)
Midnight Express - Giorgio Morodoer (1978)
Godzilla (Various Films)
Planet of the Apes - Jerry Goldsmith (1968)
Sleuth - Patrick Doyle (2007)
Legend - Tangerine Dream (1985)
Miami Vice - Jan Hammer (1984)

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Would a blood sucker by any other name still be a vampire?

This we welcomed Priest with less than holy praise and played some music that made us think of Karl Urban's worst roles, remakes of horror movies and movies that call generic monsters "vampires", and discussed our latest plan for local take over. What's wrong with movies these days? Tune in and find out. We heard music from the following:

Risky Business - Tangerine Dream (1983)
Fright Night - Brad Fiedel (1985)
Doom - Clint Mansell (2005)
Judge Dredd - Alan Silvestri (1995)
The Omega Man - Ron Grainer (1971)
Interview with a Vampire - Elliot Goldenthal (1994)

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A podcast more epic than the Ragnarök!

This show should not be missed. The Gaffer and I had a bit of role reversal this week. We generally tend to agree on many things, and he tends to be the more crotchety of the two, but we had very different opinions on Thor. You'll hear all about. Seriously folks download this sucker, if anything but for the review of Hobo with a Shotgun and the epic music we played this week.

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We heard music from the following films:

Starship Troopers - Basil Poledouris (1997)
13th Warrior - Jerry Goldsmith (1999)
The Hitcher - Mark Isham (1986)
The Vikings - Mario Nascimbene (1958)
Valhalla - Ron Goodwin (1986)

We got him!

We got him. Such is the theme of the united states this week, and we decided to touch on the topic in this weeks episode. Less than 24 hours after the announcement of Mr. Osama bin whatever-your-name-is's death, we discussed a bit of politics, and special super strike force action teams! You'll see from our musical selections this week, we took things with an air of lightheartedness, of which you are all so accustomed. We also reviewed the new Takeshi Miike film 13 Assassins Enjoy the show. Here's what you heard:

Wag The Dog - Mark Knopfler (1997)
Commando - James Horner & Powerstation (1985)
Blue Thunder - Arthur Rubinstein (1983)
Enter The Dragon - Lalo Schifrin (1973)
Big Trouble in Little China - John Carpenter (1986)
Delta Force - Alan Silvestri (1986)


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