Dean is back from the UK and reports on his travels. Phil has been availing himself of classic movies and has thoughts on an indie gem from the 1980s, a mind-bending oddity from Joseph Losey, and a 1960 epic about the founding of Israel. The episodic series “Space Force”, “Barry” season 3, “Our Flag Means Death”, “Hacks” season 2, “The Book of Boba Fett”, “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and season 2 of “The Mandalorian” get discussed. Four giants of the music industry and 3 beloved character actors get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. Finally, Dean and Phil explain why Tom Cruise was probably the perfect person to produce and star in a brilliant sequel 36 years after the original, and Phil shares some inspiring words relating to Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Year 16 of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour gets underway with a truly mind-blowing episode! It begins with a celebration of Kane Tanaka, who was, at the time of her death, the world’s oldest-living human! Phil then corrects Dean on an urban legend involving John F. Kennedy and a jelly donut. The Zen artistry of Bill Murray leads to an appreciation of The Man Who Knew Too Little. The inappropriate workplace behavior of Bill Murray leads to a discussion of the firing of Fred Savage from the reboot of “The Wonder Years” and the resignation of director Justin Lin from the 10th “Fast and the Furious” movie over “creative differences”. Meanwhile, movies about multi-verses are EVERYWHERE, not just in comic book movies. Dean and Phil have thoughts, including an analysis of both Everything Everywhere All at Once and Memoria. This discussion also inspires Phil to share with Dean some “otherworldly” thoughts about Will Smith’s violent outburst at the Oscars. These thoughts involve both the curse of The Scottish Play AND the briefcase from Pulp Fiction. The bridging of different universes, different realms, will continue in the return of the “Live Event of the Week”, focusing on a great new play at the Boston Court Pasadena – BOTH AND (a play about laughing while black). There is also a brand new exhibit in the Getty Gallery of the L.A. Public Library’s Central Library called “Something in Common” that all Angelenos should check out. And finally, Dean and Phil answer an email from longtime friend and loyal listener Takako Nagumo about a sitcom on Netflix starring the president of the Ukraine. This will lead to an appreciation of wit as a leadership quality, and to an analysis of what ails Netflix, and where the streaming giant will go from here!

This week, YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour turns 15 years old! And Season 3 Episode 13 features several anniversary celebrations, including wisdom from a special guest, a story from Dean about why he is no longer a vegetarian and the return of a classic movie ad from the Vintage Movie Ad Game that saw Dean and Phil through the pandemic! There is also an email from a loyal listener who both asks a question and throws accolades in the direction of longtime friend of the show, Page Branson. Movies and moviemakers get discussed, including the very first big-budget, major studio adaptation of a television series, and the great director of last year’s Oscar-winning Drive My Car. Bill Murray has found himself in a lot of hot water. Dean and Phil will tackle the controversy, Bill Murray’s thoughtful response, and discuss empathy in great detail. Finally, in “Celebrity Deaths”, a rock drummer, a country music legend, a teen idol, and a chart-topping singer all get remembered.

 

 

 

 

On this week’s episode, Dean and Phil pick up right where they left off last week when they were discussing the SAG Award winners. Specifically, they will analyze what the foreign-language “Squid Game” winners tell us about the ways Americans in general (and younger generations in particular) consume their entertainment and their openness to subtitles. This conversation continues with a review of the multiple Academy Award-nominated Norwegian film The Worst Person in the World. Other nominated films get reviewed, including Coda, and the 1961 classic Judgment at Nuremberg gets reappraised. The box office triumph of The Batman and what it might mean for movie-going gets examined. An awards season controversy and what it means for the Best Picture odds of The Power of the Dog get dissected. Dean offers up a BBC Series recommendation. Finally, in “Celebrity Deaths”, one author, three musicians, and the “Freddy Krueger of Magic” get remembered.

On Christmas Eve in the nation’s capital, your friends in podcasting (and broadcasting!) got together in-person for this very special (and pre-recorded) holiday treat! Dean discusses his Los Angeles adventures, including the Cerritos mall, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and nudists! Phil discusses his east coast adventures, including a visit to the Hillwood Estate of Marjorie Merriweather Post and the night his beloved cat, Fuzz Aldrin, decided to go walkabout! They touch briefly on the death of beloved novelist Joan Didion, and they discuss a handful of holiday season cinematic releases, including (more on) Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, Being the Ricardos, King Richard, Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Matrix Resurrections. There is even time for a brief follow-up on the zen brilliance of Bill Murray, and there is a photo shoot during the show! Join Dean and Phil as they ring out the final week of 2021 in style …

Somehow, through almost 15 years of bringing you YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour free every week, Dean and Phil have never dedicated an entire show to the career, artistry and genius of Bill Murray. This week, that oversight gets remedied, as your friends in podcasting march right into the holidays by programming a film festival they are entitling “A Very Murray Christmas”. Featuring seven double features, discussion of numerous other titles, analysis of Murray’s zen approach to life, art, career and business, and an appreciation of some of his key collaborators through the year, we think this will be a particularly fun and festive hour!

It’s the midst of the holiday season. Travel plans are ramping up and the awards season is starting to heat up! The American Film Institute has revealed its honorees as the top (ten) films of 2021 and a consensus has begun to form through critics Top Ten lists about the best movies of the year as well. Dean and Phil discuss it all. They analyze (and “contextualize”) three new award-hopeful releases from major directors: Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth and Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog. They also celebrate foreign films, the Oscars, country rock, The Monkees, the Bronski Beat, New Orleans, The Beasts of the Southern Wild, Interview with the Vampire, telenovelas and more in “Celebrity Deaths”.

Dean and Phil get the ball rolling by discussing the most “fun” (?) cities in California. Then they discuss the role film critics play as we emerge from a pandemic. The quality and box office fortunes of The French Dispatch, The Eternals, Last Night in Soho, Dune, Venom: Let There Be Carnage and No Time to Die get analyzed and discussed. Phil sings the praises of a great Japanese film, a legendary Japanese actor, and a charismatic Japanese pop star. Dean sings the praises of Benedict Cumberbatch and his new film about a famous artist. Phil sings the praises of Mike White’s satirical “The White Lotus” and tackles the controversy surround Dave Chappelle’s “The Closer” from a much different angle. Finally, Dean intrigues Phil with his description of Channing Tatum’s Amazon Prime series “Comrade Detective”.

It’s Halloween season, so this week, Dean and Phil will get into the spooky spirit of things by celebrating “All of the Them Witches” – programming a dream film festival of witch-themed double-features! Of course, there is a ton of spooky, unsettling and downright terrifying show biz news for them to cover as well, including the potential resolution of the IATSE conflict with the AMPTP prior to almost all film and television productions getting shut down, the messy publicity slaughterhouse that continues to ensue following Dave Chappelle’s “The Closer” and Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos’ response to it, and a little bit of “inside” info regarding Marvel’s Black Widow. All that, plus really good box office news and a pioneering animator, a chart-topping bassist, and a best-selling YA novelist get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”.

The show begins this week with a lot of questions for Dean. What is Sci-Fi Valley Con? Who is Julian? There is/was a TV show called “Supernatural”? Is Detroit really Canada’s Tijuana? And a listener wants to know if Dean got bit by a monkey on “The Lone Gunmen”! You will learn the answers to all these and many more, including what Dean and Phil think of the controversy surrounding Dave Chappelle’s latest Netflix special. You will also learn about one of the greatest voices in comedy, about perhaps the greatest Hammond organist of all time, and about one of the most groundbreaking indie filmmakers of all time in “Celebrity Deaths”. After the break, Dean and Phil offer analysis on the new James Bond film’s box office performance in the USA and put that performance into historic context. They will do the same with the film’s quality. Finally, they will reveal what upcoming movies might get them to go back into a movie theater in the coming weeks.