As we approach Halloween, the spooky and the scary are foremost on the minds of Dean and Phil, and we aren’t just talking about the actors’ negotiations with the giant media companies! Of course, your friends in broadcasting and podcasting DO talk about those negotiations, but they also discuss such spooky films as the 1980s vampires-with-great-hair spectacle The Lost Boys, the influential Ingmar Bergman classic The Magician, the beloved modern Japanese masterpiece Ring, Disney’s misbegotten Haunted Mansion, Alex Garland’s fascinating Men, and the “Citizen Kane of horror movies”, 1973’s The Wicker Man. All that, plus two non-scary recent releases, the Guy Ritchie-directed spy comedy Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre and the Ashley Park-starring Joy Ride get reviewed, and the beloved Oscar-nominated character actor Burt Young gets remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”.

 

Following up on one of their best episodes ever, your friends in podcasting return with the latest installment of Dean’s Down Under Bucket List (before he moves to Detroit)! Then, after a discussion of the visual symbolism of watching Aretha Franklin and John McCain memorialized in back-to-back days, Dean and Phil tackle the current season of “Better Call Saul”, the upcoming season of “Man in the High Castle”, the new movie from Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman) and the Spike Lee joint Do The Right Thing (at almost 30!). Then, an actress with a once-promising, high-profile career who was shot and killed by police and the writer with the most ever combined Tony and Oscar nominations are remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”.

It’s a special Top Ten show! Your friends in podcasting count down their all time favorite War Films! It’s amazing how many different sub-genres of war films, Dean and Phil discover and more than thirty films actually get discussed. Trust us – It’s totally awesome.

Dean Haglund is down under, enjoying his new home in Sydney, Australia. And if this show is to be believed, Phil Leirness is on his way to visit Dean via “swim” (is that a new mobile app?). So, talented, funny, and razor sharp ladies Karen Forman and Lily Holleman step in to help your friends in podcasting change the way they “change the way you listen to the internet”!

There is the familiar – Live Events of the Week, movie reviews, the Bechdel test, appeals for racial and age diversity in mainstream media, and an appeal for more opportunity for women both in front of and behind the camera. Bottom line: “Shame on you, Hollywood!”

Karen and Lily also celebrate the Tony Awards, Lifetime Movies, and “Game of Thrones”.

All in all, it’s an “outward display of inner self-love” and it just might save Christmas!

One day late, but well worth the wait.

Am I right, ladies?

 

Before taking off on their holiday travels, your friends in podcasting, Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness are doing what they do best: Making sense of a (show business) world gone wild …

They weigh in on the cyber terrorist attack against Sony. They celebrate a milestone achieved by one of their favorite shows. They discuss live events starring the likes of Angela Lansbury and Jeff Goldblum. They dish on an animation price-fixing lawsuit, the decades-long Roman Polanski judicial drama and the idea of actors owning a copyright interest in their performances. They discuss casting news that has them hopeful and casting news that gives them pause. They champion three outstanding films from earlier this year that you probably missed that are available now on home video and they warn you against an award-hopeful Christmas Day opener that is without a doubt one of the worst films of the year. All that PLUS much more as they wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

All together now (singing): “We need a little Chillpak, right this very minute!”

Hear all about Los Angeles’ design for a new green space that will rival Manhattan’s High Line (and will give bicyclists and pedestrians an uninterrupted path from Burbank all the way to downtown), learn why Canada doesn’t have game shows, remember L.A.’s first official film czar as well as a folk music icon and some of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s great on-screen roles, and appreciate the difference between “English” and “Irish” …

All that, PLUS, your friends in podcasting examine the storytelling in Harmony Korine’s The Spring Breakers, make sense of the success of The Lego Movie, the failure of The Monuments Men and the claim that Chris Pine’s days as a leading man are numbered following the failure of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

With a full week’s supply of insight, irreverence and inspiration, it’s YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour. Enjoy!