Are You Movie Mad?

It’s Andrew’s birthday and naturally it’s time to test your might with a bunch of fun games, trivia and Josh Lawson talk as he and Johnny sit through the latest video game adaptation. Commentary begins 5 seconds into the film and at the timecode 00:13:40

Grab your pie trays and prep the oven, we’re baking up a new episode. Johnny is convinced he’s about to watch a musical, and Andrew reminisces on his experiences seeing the West End show, as they both confirm long-held beliefs on pies, gravy and all things food.

Whilst we enjoy the break between the front 10 and the back 12, Andrew and Johnny have a little listen party to the soundtrack for the show, going track-by-track, laughing, loving, and maybe even singing along with it.

Almost a year ago we started a journey that did not go far, in fact the only released episode before the collapse of the world was a prologue to inform listeners of the journey. Like some Sisyphian podcasters, we’re pushing the boulder back up the hill this year and intend to cover all 9 Fast & Furious features released, once a week, in the build-up to F9: The Fast Saga, but this time there’s some new twists, and more understanding on the link between Dom’s Coronas and the horrendous nightmare year of pandemic that has taken so much from so many. COMEDY SHOW! Well, strap in, we’re doing this until Universal delay the film again.

Things are getting Gore-y again over here, as we return to the Gore Verbinski Filmography for a Brad Pitt/Julia Roberts/James Gandolfini comedy thriller drama hybrid. Will Andrew’s nostalgia hold up? Will Johnny fall in love with James Gandolfini? Will guns ever not be a horrible weapon choice?

On the season 2 Mid-Season finale Music City plays host to a Music Festival, where loves, businesses and gossip stories run rampant. Andrew is mopping up the juice and Johnny is dishing the deets, running through Jeff Fordham on Jeopardy, hair height of Gunnar Scott and multiple Tandy/Rayna sister hang-out scenes. Who will live? Who will die? Who will still be stuck in isolation?

As the Oscars come closer, we spend time with the original Promising Young Woman, Carey Mulligan’s first Oscar nominated performance, which means discussing school-based comedies, pitching Johnny’s own version of such a film and recasting Star Wars with the Entourage gang, naturally.

Oh mama is it getting messy in this drama, there’s couples breaking up, couples drinking hard, couples meeting up and daddy-daughter cycles to dirty up the waters too. Johnny runs through Season 2 Episode 9 of Nashville as Andrew considers the DMZ/TMZ gossip site feuds, Will Lexington’s hatless injury and the revenge of the shelving unit and Maddie Conrad.

Spoofing the crime and gangster cinema of the world is a tall order, but Johnny and Andrew are ready to make a podcast you cannot refuse. They go out of their way to not talk about the film by discussing at length the celebrity sightings and awkward interviews with the likes of Michael Shannon, Jason Isaacs, Billy Burke, Giancarlo Esposito, Tom Hanks, Jon Hamm and Jessica Chastain.

Luke ‘Hands Off The’ Wheeler is starting his stadium tour and Scarlett’s got a bit opener to go. Juliette’s kink-shaming a couple, Jeff’s counting beans, Gunnar’s writing a song, Rayna is spending time with men, and Teddy is the mayor of Nashville still. Andrew and Johnny spend time discussing the logistics of the ongoing Tampa-stadium-shows of it all, and prepare for another classic last-minute Rayna James Sorts Things Out With A Live Performance story beat.

Hey, we have never covered a film under the National Lampoon branding, so what a good time to look back at a Emilio Estevez/Samuel L. Jackson send-up from the early 90s, and also spend way too long looking at the imdb page for one Joe Estevez.

It’s tour season, and we’re in Houston, Texas, which is not in Nashville, for the Will Lexington/Layla Grant/Juliette Barnes concert opener, but also it’s Teddy’s wedding day, and Avery and Deacon’s open-mic show, oh and also Gunnar’s meeting with Jeff The Harvard Bean Counter. So much to get through, it’d be insane for Andrew and Johnny to pause recapping long enough to do any kind of comedic bits, right?

We’re ending the month with a SECOND music-movie, and this time it’s related to our weekly Nashville TV Show Recap podcast BACKSTAGE AT THE BLUEBIRD. Johnny loves the city of Nashville, and he’s excited to see the acclaimed Robert Altman ensemble drama. Andrew, meanwhile, is worried at the film’s length and Altman’s inherent unfocussed, improvised, overlapping-dialogue nature. Will things work out well? Will information regarding Disney’s cinema release plans of the year make the second half semi-engaging?

It’s the Invitational Polo Match in Nashville and it seems most people ARE invited! Deacon, Rayna, Juliette, Tandy, other characters, all together in a super-spreader event. Johnny talks through season 2 episode 6 of Nashville, detailing couple names, surprising relationship changes and all the big hat event fun, as Andrew becomes more and more averse to the relationships developing in the show.

It’s the sequel to Get Shorty and we’re in a post-Snyder Cut world, what could go wrong? We love music, we love cinema, one of us loves the last time Travolta and Thurman danced together, this should be a lay-up. Why does the return of Chili Palmer not work, and how much Aerosmith is allowed before things stop being cool? It’s a rough watch, and we try to make the most of it.

Rayna can’t sing and Deacon can’t play the guitar, but the magic of Nashville is that no matter what happens, Andrew and Johnny will always find the music in the soul of these characters. Maybe not so much Harvard Bean Counter Jeff, or Luke Whhhheeler and his big hats, but certainly the newly minted Bluebird Barback Bungalow Boys and Scarlett’s media training journey bring lots of mirth to this week’s episode.

From a comedy western to a western with comic elements, it’s time to get some Paul Newman Eyes in the mix, and the eternal charm of Robert Redford. Johnny has never much experienced either of them, and certainly not the palpable chemistry of the duo on screen, so what better time to pull this trigger? And since it’s the day before Zack Snyder’s Justice League drops, we make bold predictions all over the show as to what the 4 hours, 1 minute and 28 seconds contain.

Andrew is a day into first vaccination and settling in Backstage with bits for days, and Johnny has 3 whole pages of notes on this week’s Nashville episode to get through. A visit to the SNL reference dump and historical info on the landscape of lobster dishes and Andrew’s sibling rivalries bring the TV drama’s storylines into clearer view. Also, this week, we launch Bungalow Boys: The sitcom starring Gunnar Scott and Will Lexington.

We’re back in Mel Brooks territory for an acclaimed comic depiction of the wild west that nowadays comes with a disclaimer regarding its content. Will Johnny fall for the heady delights of Harvey Korman? (THAT’S HEDLEY DELIGHTS!) Will Andrew discover F9: The Fast Saga’s delay ON AIR? Will the saga of the Blazing Saddles TV show be explored in depth? Yes. Yes it will. So listen in.

Nashville, home of musicians, parents, sober companions, big shareholder parties, pretty much everything, except the rich mansion of a media company’s youngest and his betrothed. So Juliette’s off performing out-of-city whilst Andrew and Johnny try to recap an episode of the TV show Nashville that really spreads its wings far and wide.