Really Awful Movies: Ep 190 – The Stepfather

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The Stepfather is a unique horror / thriller, featuring an amazing performance by Terry O’Quinn.

On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, a discussion of the long-lasting appeal of The Stepfather, how we came to have it cross our radar, and the phenomenon of depicting divorce and blended families on television in the 1980s.

The film, directed by Joseph Ruben (who most will know from his work behind the camera directing Sleeping with the Enemy and Money Train) is an understated, low-key flick with a few over-the-top moments of inanity. Still, there’s much going for it (solid performances and a killer score) and it inevitably spawned countless sequels.

In a suburban enclave in Washington State, we see button-up business man Henry Morrison (O’Quinn). He washes off blood in a bathroom, cleaning up the aftermath of a crime scene.

This is before changing his appearance (snipping off a ratty beard) and putting his belongings into a suitcase, and tossing them into Puget Sound.

After packing his things, Henry leaves through the front door of his house, nonchalantly passing the butchered remains of his family in the living room. One year later, Henry — now operating as an uber square real estate agent named Jerry Blake in the suburbs of Seattle — has married the widow Susan Maine. And Maine has a teen daughter, Stephanie.

The relationship between Steph (Jill Schoelen) and new dad Jerry is strained to say the least.

 

Really Awful Movies: Ep 189 – The Love Guru

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Whoa.

2008’s The Love Guru, pretty much sank Mike Myers. And that’s a DAMN shame. It’s a terrible movie, to be sure, but a terrific comedic talent like Myers, deserves another shot.

Despite supporting cast-mates like Justin Timberlake, Stephen Colbert, Jim Gaffigan, John Oliver and Sir Ben Kingsley, The Love Guru really lays a big-time egg. This is a monumental stinker, and while not on the level of Master of Disguise, it’s still something to behold. Juvenile zingers, tepid puns…sure, these were present in Austin Powers, but that had an indelible (eponymous) lead that left his mark on pop culture forever.

Not so here.

The Love Guru is lost in no man’s land, neither satirical enough to pot-shot self-help culture, nor lascivious enough to be a Charles Manson-type figure. It just hangs there on a vine.

In a nutshell (“help, I’m in a nutshell!” – see, Austin Powers was the kind of quotable film The Love Guru is not), Guru Pitka is brought in to help a Toronto Maple Leaf star get back together with his wife, so that he can win the Stanley Cup, and help get the Guru to the top of the Guru heap (usurping Deepak Chopra).

Behold, the movie that left Mike Myers in the dust as a comedic force.

On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, we talk about:

  • Scarborough, the east end of Toronto that inspired some of Myers’ greatest characters, such as Wayne Campbell.
  • The early days of SNL
  • Mike is back, as the host of, of all things, The Gong Show?
  • The Toronto Maple Leafs, our sorry excuse for an NHL team, once mighty, and now pretty much a shell of their former selves (or, uh, selfs?)
  • Why is it that comedians in movies have such a short shelf life?
  • What should Myers do next?

Really Awful Movies: Ep 188 – George Romero and Martin

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With the passing of George Romero, on this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, we look back at the famous horror film director, and examine a real classic from his oeuvre: Martin.

“He could be the boy next door,” is the tagline, and this “boy” (played by John Amplas) is en route by train from Indianapolis to Pittsburgh, where he is put under the care of great uncle Cuda.

Along the way, we get a glimpse of the “vampire” in action (the question as to whether Martin is a blood-sucker is open-ended indeed), where he feeds on a fellow passenger, knocking her out cold with an anesthetic before meeting Cuda on arrival in the Steel City. It’s an unsettling scene, creepy as all hell, in a film with many wonderful, shocking, and memorable vignettes.

Martin is a strange beast, a terrific film that explores some of the rich themes Romero brings up in Night of the Living Dead, Day of the Dead, and Dawn of the Dead: man’s inhumanity to man, the “undead” as a reflecting of ourselves, the animalistic nature of our being, corralling chaos into order…and many more.

Here, Romero deftly uses Martin as a conduit to tell a coming-of-age tale, a family drama (which just happens to have a bunch of juicy murders along the way), where a youngster is just trying to find his way in an often confusing world. This, as Martin struggles to controls his Freudian “drives” and turns to a late night talk show to provide a sounding board for the modern-day difficulties inherent in being an Old World vampire. Assuming he is Nosferatu, which is a big assumption.

So join us as we remember George Romero, Toronto’s adopted son, and the man who made horror films critically acceptable (to a point). Sure, he’s known for bringing zombies into the public consciousness, but let’s not forget that Martin completely upturned expectations surrounding the vampire mystique.