Nathan Rabin's Happy Cast

It’s early September, which means late-summer/early-fall stinkers at the multiplex and the anniversary of 9/11. Lucky, for you, the latest Happy Cast has both! In this episode, Nathan and Clint return from the latter’s wedding to talk about Jennifer Garner’s perplexing, unbelievably racist comeback film Peppermint, along with 1995’s Fair Game, that other adaptation of the Paula Gosling novel besides Cobra. Cindy Crawford’s in it! We also take a knee and honor 9/11 by talking about the ways it’s been portrayed in film over the last 17 years, for good (25th Hour) or ill (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close). Take a listen, and never forget to subscribe and share! 6:19 - Scalding Hot Takes: Peppermint 35:27 - Control Nathan and Clint: Fair Game56:41 - 9/11 in Film 1:10:29 - Podcast Recommendations (We Hate Movies, Majority 54) 1:13:30 - Mailbag 1:16:57 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on iTunes Ask us questions at asknat

This week, Nathan and Clint follow Tracy Jordan's credo of "live every week like it's Shark Week" by talking about two toothsome shark movies - Jason Statham's cheese-fest The Meg and the film that bought Michael Caine a very nice house, Jaws: The Revenge. Along the way, we catch up to the James Gunn scandal and the bad faith actors of the alt right, answer some mailbags and recommend some pods! Put on your shark-fin hats, slap in your earbuds, and enjoy.  4:49 - Scalding Hot Takes: The Meg 27:05 - Control Nathan and Clint: Jaws: The Revenge 49:53 - James Gunn and the Death of Context 1:03:08 - Podcast Recommendations (Punch Up the Jam, The Dungeon Rats) 1:06:27 - Mailbag 1:12:35 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on iTunes Ask us questions at asknathanrabinshappycast@gmail.com! Theme Song by Jon Biegen

This week, we get down with the swing-for-the-fences joints of Spike Lee! Film critic extraordinaire Amy Nicholson (of the podcasts The Canon and Unspooled) joins us to talk about his latest, BlacKkKlansman, and her experiences attending her first Phish show. Meantime, we go it alone to answer the clarion call of our Patrons, as we suffer through nearly two and a half hours of ham-fisted social commentary and not-so-subtle misogyny with Lee's 2004 misfire She Hate Me! (You know, the one where Falcon lends his magical spermies to dozens of willing lesbians, also remember Enron?) 5:25 - Scalding Hot Takes: BlacKkKlansman 34:59 - Control Nathan and Clint: She Hate Me 5:20 - Amy's Phirst Phish Concert 1:13:24 - Podcast Recommendations (Unspooled, Beyond Yacht Rock, History Honeys) 1:17:57 - Mailbag 1:24:20 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on iTunes Ask us questions at asknathanrabinshappycast@gmail.com! Theme Song by Jon

This week, we're dangling off helicopters and running at full speed, desperately trying to catch up to Tom Cruise's tiny, ageless form in Mission Impossible: Fallout. Also, we look back at a younger, Chiclet-toothed Tom Cruise as the elfen lead in Ridley Scott's Lisa Frank-esque fantasy picture Legend. Along the way, we make Mad Libs out of press releases for the band Florida Georgia Line, discuss the James Gunn outrage, and lament the impending collapse of paid culture criticism! 7:15 - Scalding Hot Takes: Mission Impossible: Fallout 33:00 - Control Nathan and Clint: Legend 58:00 - Florida Georgia Line Mad Libs & The Nature of Failure 1:15:50 - Podcast Recommendations (The Long Shot, Spirits Podcast) 1:21:19 - Mailbag 1:27:37 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on iTunes Ask us questions at asknathanrabinshappycast@gmail.com! Theme Song by Jon Biegen

Nathan and Clint go it alone for the latest Happy Cast, as we celebrate the Paul Ruddnaissance with a long-overdue discussion of Marvel's latest cog in the cinematic universe machine, Ant-Man and the Wasp! Plus, we talk about the mid-aughts Rudd rom-com Over Her Dead Body, discuss the superhero sequels that are actually better than their originals, and figure out which films we'd recast with the Muppets. 5:08 - Scalding Hot Takes: Ant-Man and the Wasp 24:36 - Control Nathan and Clint: Over Her Dead Body 50:27 - Superhero Sequels That Actually Work 1:08:10 - Podcast Recommendations 1:13:07 - Recasting Movies With Muppets 1:14:55 - Happy Places

In our ongoing quest to talk to two out of three members of our favorite podcasts, this week's episode of Happy Cast sees us bringing on We Hate Movies superstar Andrew Jupin! Together, the three of us talk about the shockingly charming feature-length Pepsi commercial Uncle Drew, and thrill at the obviously impeccable rap stylings of Shaquille O'Neal in Kazaam.  After that, we get a little mushy with some wonderfully sentimental thoughts on movies that touched us in those squishy emotional places found only in the softest of beta cuck-boys like we. Take a listen, and let us know: If R. Lee Ermey and Tupac Shakur were both genies and got in a fight, who would win? 4:49 - Scalding Hot Takes: Uncle Drew 28:17 - Control Nathan and Clint: Kazaam 54:27 - Inside Out and Emotional Films 1:09:30 - Mailbag 1:19:16 - Podcast Recommendations (Hard Nation, Pod Save America, Lore) 1:25:46 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on iTunes

This episode of Nathan Rabin's Happy Cast is exclusively for the kiddies, as we bring on pop culture wunderkind and friend of the show Charles Bramesco (The Guardian, Vulture, et al.) to talk about the many efforts of films both Pixar and Pixar-adjacent! First, we squeeze into some tight spandex and discuss the surprising joys of Incredibles 2; then, we curl into a collective ball and weep at the masterful Inside Out. After that we get a little more downbeat, with a curious look at the what-if-planes-had-sex-and-fought-fires movie Planes: Fire and Rescue, and a sobering discussion on the ways we grieve for famous people who've taken their own lives online. It's a wild, crazy ride, so leave your capes at home and fire up your podcast player! 3:35 - Scalding Hot Takes: Incredibles 2 26:19 - Lukewarm Takes: Inside Out 45:54 - Control Nathan and Clint: Planes: Fire and Rescue 1:06:32 - Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade, and the Complexities of Social Media Grief 1:23:24 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @na

addle up, guys and ghouls, because it's another episode of Nathan Rabin's Happy Cast! This episode, Nathan and Clint skip Solo: A Star Wars Story to talk about a smaller film with a bigger body count - Leigh Whannell's 80s-tinged cyberpunk action flick Upgrade. Don't worry, we still get some Donald Glover chat in with the cult Derrick Comedy comedy Mystery Team, while we succumb to the evil whims of our Patrons by watching the dreadful James Wan ventriloquist-dummy horror film Dead Silence. Plus, we become the millionth people on the Internet to discuss the whole Roseanne cancellation dustup! 4:56 - Scalding Hot Takes: Upgrade 20:27 - Sub-Cult: Mystery Team 30:56 - Control Nathan and Clint: Dead Silence 44:34 - Literature Society: Jon Ronson's So You've Been Publicly Shamed, Plus Roseanne-Chat 1:05:45 - Mailbag 1:10:28 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on iTunes Ask us questions at asknathanrabinshappycast@gmail.com! T

It's time to make the chimichangas this week, as we're joined by special guest Dan McCoy of The Flop House podcast to talk the many faces of that droll mischief maker Ryan Reynolds! From his latest hit, Deadpool 2, to his cult role as cool-guy-waiter/pederast in Waiting..., our favorite Guy With a Pizza Place just won't stop the yuks! Along the way, we also dig into the glam glee of the Dino de Laurentiis-produced Flash Gordon movie from the 80s, and take that other bold truth-teller Ricky Gervais to task for all those barrier breaking Twitter tantrums.  4:14 - Scalding Hot Takes: Deadpool 2 25:00 - Control Nathan Rabin: Flash Gordon 42:51 - Control Nathan and Clint: Waiting... 1:04:22 - Ricky Gervais, Truth Telling, and Accountability 1:16:32 - Mailbag 1:23:46 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on iTunes Ask us questions at asknathanrabinshappycast@gmail.com! Theme Song by Jon Biegen

This week on Nathan Rabin's Happy Cast, we go it alone to sample from the vast buffet of superhero movies through the ages! First, we jabber about the TV season finale of movies, Marvels Avengers: Infinity War; then, we jam out to the slick 70s musical stylings and surprising emotional weight of intergalactic hangout movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2; then, you sadists make us sit through the execrable half-hearted comedy of Richard Lester's Superman III.  Not only that, we have a hard talk about the Rachel Dolezal controversy in the context of Netflix's The Rachel Divide, Nathan does a dramatic reading of LFO's "Summer Girls," and more! 4:33 - Scalding Hot Takes: Avengers: Infinity War 25:50 - Lukewarm Takes: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 41:33 - Control Nathan and Clint: Superman III 59:01 - The Rachel Divide 1:14:23 - A Dramatic Reading of LFO's "Summer Girls" 1:19:49 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on iTunes

Howdy, Happy Placers! To celebrate our six-month anniversary of Happy Cast (and the one-year anniversary of Happy Place), Nathan and Clint bring on friend and collaborator Brock Wilbur - the man who brought ethics to video game journalism himself! Together, we talk about two disastrous video game movies: the Rock-tastic disaster porn tentpole Rampage and, as per the wishes of our mighty Patrons, the 1994 high-kicking dystopia Double Dragon.  Along the way, we grill Brock about the latest happenings with the Knife of Aristotle and NXIVM, our upcoming book on the video game Postal, and Uwe Boll's unquenched desire to punch Alex Jones in the face. Enjoy, won't you? 9:24 - Scalding Hot Takes: Rampage 31:35 - Control Nathan and Clint: Double Dragon 51:32 - The Knife of Aristotle and the Fate of NXIVM 1:11:01 - Uwe Boll, Alex Jones, and The Punching of Faces 1:25:46 - Mailbag 1:30:53 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on iTun

Strap on your nostalgia goggles and assemble your Funko Pops, it's another episode of Nathan Rabin's Happy Cast! This episode, Nathan and Clint peer through the rose-colored VR glasses of Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One, desperately dig deep into the fractured cult psyche of Neil Breen's Pass Thru, and try to kick the habit of the '80s anti-drug crossover cartoon Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.  Meanwhile, Josh Fruhlinger (the Comics Curmudgeon himself) joins the party to wax poetic about the surprisingly solid Garfield: His 9 Lives and the acidic comic strip legacy of the Lockhorns! 4:37 - Scalding Hot Takes: Ready Player One 27:25 - Control Nathan Rabin 4.0: Pass Thru 47:25 - Control Nathan and Clint: Garfield: His 9 Lives (w/Josh Fruhlinger) 1:16:47 - The Big Whoop: The Lockhorns (w/Josh Fruhlinger) 1:34:25 - Control Nathan and Clint: Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue 1:47:59 - Mailbag 1:54:16 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and s

The monkey business never stops on Nathan Rabin's Happy Cast, as Nathan and Clint go ape for the second movie where Clint Eastwood drinks with a pet orangutan, 1980's Any Which Way You Can! Along the way, we pick up a friend - We Hate Movies' Eric Szyszka - to talk about ape torture, overly sexualized Ruth Gordons, and the erotic power of a good '70s mustache.  That's not all: Nathan and Clint break down the dire direct-to-Netflix action comedy Game Over, Man!; gush over the cult 80s film that celebrates both tae kwon do and friendship, Miami Connection; and do a dramatic reading of one of Nathan's...wordier comments on his Boondock Saints II review. Right turn, Clyde! 4:30 - A Dramatic Reading of A Particularly Ribald Comment from Nathan's Boondock Saints II Review 14:53 - Scalding Hot Takes: Game Over, Man! 32:28 - Control Nathan Rabin 4.0: Miami Connection 51:23 - Any Which Way You Can (w/Eric Szyszka of We Hate Movies) 1:28:42 - Mailbag 1:36:12 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Cl

We're going ape on Happy Cast this week, as Stinker Lets Loose! author Mike Sacks joins us for a triple feature of monkey mayhem - Clint Eastwood's cult trucker/monkey saga Every Which Way But Loose, the execrable Golan-Globus comedy Going Bananas, and a deep dive into the legacy of Stinker Lets Loose! and the nature of novelizations. But first, Nathan and Clint go on an angry deep dive into Eli Roth's angry, lazy retread of Death Wish, starring an increasingly turtle-esque Bruce Willis! 2:16 - Scalding Hot Takes: Death Wish 21:14 - Every Which Way But Loose (w/Mike Sacks) 45:14 - Control Nathan and Clint: Going Bananas 1:04:46 - Stinker Lets Loose! (w/Mike Sacks) 1:19:01 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on iTunes Ask us questions at asknathanrabinshappycast@gmail.com! Theme Song by Jon Biegen

Greetings, all you ghosties and ghouls! For this special pod-AGHAST of Nathan Rabin's Happy Cast, we're de-FRIGHT-ed to welcome the one and only Elliott Kalan of The Flop House, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return and The Daily Show with John Stewart! In this special hour-long segment, we bite into the bilious bag of bile that is the last three episodes of Tales from the Crypt's first season - "Only Sin Deep," "Lover Come Hack to Me," and "Collection Completed." Before that, though, Nathan and Clint put on their capes and cowls to r-EVIL in the cultural moment of Marvel's Black Panther with a review of that film, and one of its pre-CURSE-ors: 1994's black superhero film Blankman! 05:19 - Scalding Hot Takes: Black Panther 24:14 - Control Nathan and Clint: Blankman 40:56 - Tales from the Crypt (with special guest Elliott Kalan of The Flop House, The Daily Show with John Stewart and Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return!) 01:46:03 - Mailbag 01:55:20 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrab

It's amore over on Nathan Rabin's Happy Cast, as Nathan and Clint light some candles, put on some slow jams, and suffer through some of the hokiest, most hackneyed romantic media the world has to offer!  We break down the mysterious appeal of the kink-confused Fifty Shades film franchise, show we're not 'fraid of no ghosts with the bizarre Nicholas Sparks adaptation Safe Haven, and discuss the complicated sex life of the former Mrs. Li'L Wayne, Karrine "Superhead" Steffans in her memoir, How to Make Love to a Martian.  (Don't forget to contribute to my GoFundMe to help pay for my Weird Al touring expenses, and let us know if you want to see a live episode of Happy Cast in Chicago while I'm there!) 4:04 - Scalding Hot Takes/Lukewarm Takes: Fifty Shades of Grey/Fifty Shades Freed 31:14 - Control Nathan & Clint: Safe Haven 49:29 - Literature Society: How to Make Love to a Martian by Karrine "Superhead" Steffans 1:00:20 - Mailbag 1:06:33 Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohol

The latest episode of Nathan Rabin's Happy Cast drops today! This time around, we celebrate the highs of Peak Nicolas Cage with Mom and Dad, the lows of M. Night Shyamalan with The Last Airbender, and the no-respect doldrums of Rodney Dangerfield's kid-focused efforts ("Where's Rodney?", Rover Dangerfield). Also, we dig into just what's going on with that lovable scamp Donald Trump! Not to speak out of turn, but that rascal seems up to no good.  4:17 - Scalding Hot Takes: Mom and Dad 21:06 - Control Nathan and Clint: The Last Airbender 41:20 - No Respect January: Where's Rodney? and Rover Dangerfield 1:07:22 - The Radical De-Contextualizion of Donald Trump ​​​​​​​1:22:35 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on iTunes Ask us questions at asknathanrabinshappycast@gmail.com! Theme Song by Jon Biegen

This week on the Cast, Clint and Nathan get through the January blues with Liam Neeson's punch-throwing insurance salesman in The Commuter, gush about the filmmaking mastery of Edgar Wright's Baby Driver, and celebrate the highs and lows of Rodney Dangerfield's career with his final film Angels with Angles and hit comedy album No Respect. Enjoy! 2:00 - Scalding Hot Takes: The Commuter 23:53 - Lukewarm Takes: Baby Driver 42:34 - Control Nathan and Clint: Angels with Angles 1:00:14 - Great Moments in Comedy: Rodney Dangerfield's No Respect 1:08:16 - Mailbag 1:12:12 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on iTunes Ask us questions at asknathanrabinshappycast@gmail.com! Theme Song by Jon Biegen

Happy New Year! We're live in-studio once more at Clint's palatial podcast laboratory, with the ever-adorable Declan Haven Dilla Rabin as our special guest. To usher in 2018, we kvetch about everything from the toxic one-two punch of David Ayer's recent film output (Bright and Suicide Squad); reminisce about the heady days of Shia Labeouf's rise to stardom with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; celebrate Steven Seagal's bafflingly hateful alt-right screen The Way of the Shadow Wolves; and much, much more. 3:05 - Scalding Hot Takes: Bright 18:06 - Lukewarm Takes: Suicide Squad 32:41 - Control Nathan and Clint: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 48:34 - Literature Society: Steven Seagal's The Way of the Shadow Wolves 1:01:13 - 2017 in Review, and Resolutions for 2018 1:11:35 - Mailbag 1:18:23 - Happy Places

To usher in the Christmas season, we brought in special guest Alonso Duralde (What the Flick?!, Linoleum Knife, author of Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas) to spin some Yuletide yarns with us. This week, we ruminate on the fan blowback to The Last Jedi, trade our top ten lists for the year, discuss the curious resurgence of Rachel Dolezal, and help each other through the Noel nightmares of Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas and Pottersville. Enjoy!  3:38 - Scalding Hot Takes: Star Wars: The Last Jedi 18:39 - Our Top 10 Movies of 2017 44:42 - The Zeroes: Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas 57:38 - Control Nathan and Clint: Pottersville 1:12:24 - Mailbag 1:22:48 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on iTunes Ask us questions at asknathanrabinshappycast@gmail.com! Theme Song by Jon Biegen Support Nathan Rabin's Happy Place and get neat bonuses like patron-exclusive stuff over at https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace