Really Awful Movies: Ep 175 – Fun in Acapulco

Elvis Presley. The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Here he is, or was, at near the peak of his powers (or just about to level off) in one of the many, many terrible movies he appeared in, FUN IN ACAPULCO.

The massive pop culture icon plays Mike, a former member of a flying trapeze circus act, who finds himself lost in…Acapulco, and needing to find work to make ends meet.

Jeez, that old yarn.

He gets connected with a little kid, who becomes his manager, landing him singing gigs at all the best hotels/clubs in the Mexican town, usually accompanied by horrible mariachi singers. Along the way, there are a couple of love interests (one of whom is played by Bond babe, Ursella Andress) and of course, a fierce (well, not really) rivalry between gringo Mike and a competitive cliff diver (again…once you’ve seen one mano a mano tilt between a lounge singer and a competitive cliff diver, you’ve pretty much seen ’em all).

On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, Jeff and Chris break down the phenomenon of Elvis Aaron Presley with a discussion about:

  • Graceland
  • The period when Elvis left to join the army
  • How we came to become familiar with The King
  • The movies Elvis made
  • Colonel Tom Parker
  • Graceland
  • The “27 Club.”
  • Whether Fun in Acapulco has any good songs
  • Fat Elvis, the Vegas years

And much, much more.

So thank you for listening…and…thank you…thank you very much.

 

Really Awful Movies: Ep 137 – Can’t Stop the Music

The Village People movie! Yes, Can’t Stop the Music follows the exploits of the infamous 70s disco group whose hits like YMCA and Macho Man are absolutely impossible to avoid (no matter how hard we’ve tried).

Go to a sporting event…and you’re bound to hear the da-da-da…and “young men,” etc, etc

As a bonus: in this film you get a young, roller skating Steve Guttenberg in the lead role and a pre-Caitlyn Bruce Jenner. And you get to find out how the group formed and got its name.

Directed by Nancy Walker (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Can’t Stop the Music is the first…yes…the first…Razzie Worst Picture winner.

Is it deserving of all the scorn? Mostly, but not quite. With a budget of $20 million, the film was released at the tail end of the disco movement and was an absolute flop.

Join us as we assess Can’t Stop the Music.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 81b – Evil Dead: The Musical, an interview with co-creator Chris Bond

Since it took to the stage in 2003, Evil Dead: The Musical has been a smash hit. On this episode of the podcast, we have a special Evil Dead: The Musical giveaway, two tickets to a Toronto performance of the hit show, February 17, 2016 at the Randolph Theatre. Listen to this episode for details about how to enter. And heads up: there are really cool secondary prizes too, so you can enter even if you aren’t in the Greater Toronto Area. These prizes are courtesy of Starvox Entertainment. A big thanks to them.

Chris Bond, the show’s director and co-creator, breaks down what makes the splatterfest so much bloody fun. We’ve had the good fortune of checking out previous runs of the show in Toronto and if you’re a fan of Evil Dead and Ash vs Evil Dead (and really, who in their right mind isn’t?) it’s absolutely MUST SEE stuff.

From its modest beginnings in a back-alley Toronto bar to off-Broadway and to Cleveland, Vegas, New Orleans, Seoul, and basically the world – the show has wowed fans wherever it’s been.

And don’t forget to check out the Really Awful Movies Podcast, with new episodes every weekend.