Really Awful Movies: Ep 433 – Windy City Heat and One, Two, Many

On this episode of the Really Awful Movies podcast, two very different films featuring two somewhat similar Lolcows, who eke out a living these days as internet “personalities.”

Windy City Heat (2003)

Windy City Heat is a Comedy Central production, which is a stunt built around the premise of fooling a wannabe actor (Perry Caravello) into thinking he’s starring in some gritty action movie.

He’s not.

But the writers/producers (who include Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla) as well as the fake director (Bobcat Goldthwait) and screenwriter (Dane Cook) do a pretty darn good job of making him think he is. There is an ersatz audition processes, in which the unwitting Caravello beats out legit A-listers (or so it would appear) as well as craft services, trailers, dressing rooms, marquees, you name it.

And Caravello is put through the paces, increasingly wound up and gas lit in different, often hilarious scenarios. Think of this as a bit like Truman Show, except as a quasi-mockumentary. It’s earned a lot of traction of late, with plaudits from the likes of Howie Mandel and Tony Hinchcliffe.

One, Two, Many (2008)

This 2008 National Lampoon-distributed production stars another Lolcow, Stuttering John Melendez, an ex Howard Stern staffer best known for accosting celebs on red carpets with off-putting, embarrassing questions. Now, he’s the one who’s embarrassing – doing crummy, unprofessional, and very idiotic podcasts, all the while being very very intoxicated.

Melendez managed to get this one financed because of his association with the Howard Stern Show, which at the time was hugely influential.

The premise of One, Two, Many couldn’t be more simple, as befitting the star: it’s a guy looking for the Holy Grail of adding a third in bed. Weirdly, Jeff Ross and Mavs owner Mark Cuban are in it.

It’s a raunchy, stupid, derivative, and cheap looking affair with a couple of laughs…but…not too many.

Tune into the Really Awful Movies Podcast, new episodes of which are uploaded every Friday.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 404 – The Shining and Groundhog Day

In this episode of the podcast, my two favorite winter movies as befitting a cold snap in Ontario.

The two films on the docket are The Shining and Groundhog Day, which best exemplify the winter season spanning two different movies and genres.

In this episode:

  • Cold weather in Ontario
  • Fahrenheit vs Celsius
  • Winter as a setting for horror
  • The Thing and its omission from this list
  • Alien vs The Thing
  • The Shining and Top 10 Horror Movies of all Time
  • Groundhog Day and job/romantic dissatisfaction

Tune in, subscribe and be sure to pick up a copy of the two nonfiction books associated with this podcast, the homage to action films, Mine’s Bigger Than Yours! and the book devoted to weird horror movie kills, Death by Umbrella!

Really Awful Movies: Ep 371 – Zola

On this week’s episode of the Really Awful Movies podcast, a bit of a departure: modern exploitation. Ya’ll wanna hear a story?

It’s hard to categorize Zola, a 2020 American black comedy crime film directed by Janicza Bravo and written by Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris. It is based on a strange idea that absolutely, positively should not work: a viral Twitter thread from 2015 by Aziah “Zola” King and the resulting Rolling Stone article “Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted” by David Kushner.

Zola stars Taylour Paige as Zola, a part-time stripper who works at a Hooters restaurant, who is convinced by her new friend (Riley Keough) to travel to Tampa, Florida, in order to earn quick and easy money, only to get in over her head. That’s the premise to something pretty enticing.