E74- The Phantom (1996)

For the second October episode of our continuing hero's journey, we're going to HELL with the JNCO jeans of superheroes: the 1997 live-action film adaptation of Todd McFarlane's Spawn! And while it's hard to hear ourselves think over John Leguizamo's incessant fart jokes, we still manage to talk clown-style bidets, the satisfaction of nanotechnology-based movie tech, what might cause a dog to go to hell, and the lost art of "ew, anchovy pizza" jokes.Want to support our show? Pay what you can at our PatreonWant to contact us? Email us at [email protected] or join the Discord server!Want more gaming content? Hang out with Brandon on Twitch and check us out on YouTube!Like what you hear? Leave us a review on your favorite podcast-thing!Theme music by Jesse Gelina, a.k.a. Saint Coelacanth, whose work can be found on YouTube and Twitch!

For this first October episode of our continuing hero's journey, we don our facepaint, grab our electric guitar, and settle in to watch "a movie about a man who even the devil could not handle, because his gothicness was off the chart" (-fh147): the 1994 adaptation of James O'Barr's comic The Crow! And while the film may be generally lacking in crows (yes, that bird's actually a raven), it makes up for it with incredible texture, lighting, Brandon Lee's charisma, and Ernie Hudson's mustache (it just makes us feel safe, y'know?)Want to support our show? Pay what you can at our PatreonWant to contact us? Email us at [email protected] or join the Discord server!Want more gaming content? Hang out with Brandon on Twitch and check us out on YouTube!Like what you hear? Leave us a review on your favorite podcast-thing!Theme music by Jesse Gelina, a.k.a. Saint Coelacanth, whose work can be found on YouTube and Twitch!

This episode we trade in our purple Phantom suit for a nose prosthetic disguise, slam a couple of martinis, and take to the streets with Alec Baldwin in the 1994 film The Shadow! Along the way we celebrate the life and work of the great Tim Curry, speculate on the many missing pieces of Lamont Cranston's origin story, and even find time to fit in a quick safe sex PSA. Release the Phurba Cut!Want to support our show? Pay what you can at our PatreonWant to contact us? Email us at [email protected] or join the Discord server!Want more gaming content? Hang out with Brandon on Twitch and check us out on YouTube!Like what you hear? Leave us a review on your favorite podcast-thing!Theme music by Jesse Gelina, a.k.a. Saint Coelacanth, whose work can be found on YouTube and Twitch!

Hot on the jetpack-heated heels of last episode's Rocketeer, we SLAM into this next leg of the hero's journey in skintight purple as we explore the 1996 adaptation of one of comics' earliest heroes, The Phantom! Along the way we talk Beau's bisexual awakening, Brandon's face blindness, and the timeline where Kevin Smith got really buff in the 90's and built a wholesome manosphere.Want to support our show? Pay what you can at our PatreonWant to contact us? Email us at [email protected] or join the Discord server!Want more gaming content? Hang out with Brandon on Twitch and check us out on YouTube!Like what you hear? Leave us a review on your favorite podcast-thing!Theme music by Jesse Gelina, a.k.a. Saint Coelacanth, whose work can be found on YouTube and Twitch!

On our Patreon bonus episode this month, we squeezed in a little extra superhero action with the 1991 live-action adaption of Yoshiki Takaya's manga The Guyver! Watch along with us as we pose a series of questions, all mostly pertaining to Mark Hamill, such as: why is he in this garbage fire? Why is he chewing gum and smoking cigarettes at the same time? Why is his face on the poster of The Guyver when (spoilers) he is not, in fact, The Guyver? We can't promise we discover adequate answers to any of these questions, but hop on over to our Patreon for the full episode to see what we come up with!Want to hear the full episode? Pay what you can at our PatreonWant to contact us? Email us at [email protected] or join our Discord server!Want more gaming content? Hang out with Brandon on Twitch and check us out on YouTube!Like what you hear? Leave us a review on your favorite podcast-thing!Theme music by Jesse Gelina, a.k.a. Saint Coelacanth, whose work can be found here!

Our adventures with comic book heroes continue, and this episode we're donning jet packs and blasting up into the zeppelin-filled skies to cover Disney's 1991 adaptation of Dave Stevens' comic The Rocketeer! Paul Sorvino followed us over from Dick Tracy, but we're too busy crushing on Timothy Dalton and Jennifer Connelly to really notice him- and let's not even talk about Billy Campbell's Cliff Secord (no, seriously, Beau does NOT want to talk about him). And while there's a lot to like about this film, forgive us if we come off as slightly disinterested this week; we'd just really rather be watching Commando Cody.Want to support our show? Pay what you can at our PatreonWant to contact us? Email us at [email protected] or join the Discord server!Want more gaming content? Hang out with Brandon on Twitch and check us out on YouTube!Like what you hear? Leave us a review on your favorite podcast-thing!Theme music by Jesse Gelina, a.k.a. Saint Coelacanth, whose work can be found on YouTube and Twitch!

Over the next few months we're taking an extended look at comic book heroes, and since August is Brandon's birthday month, we're kicking things off with one of his favorite childhood films: Warren Beatty's 1990 adaptation of Dick Tracy! Join us as we dive into this vibrant world of bright primary colors, shadowy villains, and the trail of walnut shells and chewed scenery left in the wake of Al Pacino, all in pursuit of an answer to the eternal question: "When do we eat?"Want to support our show? Pay what you can at our PatreonWant to contact us? Email us at [email protected] or join the Discord server!Want more gaming content? Hang out with Brandon on Twitch and check us out on YouTube!Like what you hear? Leave us a review on your favorite podcast-thing!Theme music by Jesse Gelina, a.k.a. Saint Coelacanth, whose work can be found on YouTube and Twitch!

This week Bond season comes to a close with one final conversation about his latest outing: IO Interactive's 2026 action-adventure game, 007 First Light! We traded in the Aston Martin for the Lotus Esprit submarine car so we could do a real deep dive here, so come along as we get into some extensive discussion about the gameplay systems, narrative themes, and everything in between, and along the way try to decide once and for all: what do we hate more, ledges or AI? (It's AI)Want to support our show? Pay what you can at our PatreonWant to contact us? Email us at [email protected] or join the Discord server!Want more gaming content? Hang out with Brandon on Twitch and check us out on YouTube!Like what you hear? Leave us a review on your favorite podcast-thing!Theme music by Jesse Gelina, a.k.a. Saint Coelacanth, whose work can be found on YouTube and Twitch!

It's Bond round 2, and this time we've left the comic shop and are on the franchise's main turf over at the cinema with potentially the worst experience we could have there: 2002's Die Another Day! This 133 minutes of movie gave us much to consider during that time, such as: which did the writers misunderstand more, DNA or the NSA? How many sensual fig chews stand between a PG-13 sex scene, and a hard R? And does anyone remember where we parked? Shoot, we KNEW that invisible car was a bad idea...Want to support our show? Pay what you can at our PatreonWant to contact us? Email us at [email protected] or join the Discord server!Want more gaming content? Hang out with Brandon on Twitch and check us out on YouTube!Like what you hear? Leave us a review on your favorite podcast-thing!Theme music by Jesse Gelina, a.k.a. Saint Coelacanth, whose work can be found on YouTube and Twitch!

It's James Bond month! And on the way to our final mission of covering the game 007 First Light, we've made a couple of stops at some other lesser-known (and maybe less-respected) Bond adventures. This week: the graphic novels Vargr and Eidolon, collecting the first two arcs of Dynamite's James Bond by Warren Ellis and Jason Masters! We talk Warren Ellis' take on Bond (that is, when Beau isn't too busy imagining Garth Ennis'), recoil at some of the violence, recoil further at the male chauvinism, and then reemerge to rave about that killer color palette.Want to support our show? Pay what you can at our PatreonWant to contact us? Email us at [email protected] or join the Discord server!Want more gaming content? Hang out with Brandon on Twitch and check us out on YouTube!Like what you hear? Leave us a review on your favorite podcast-thing!Theme music by Jesse Gelina, a.k.a. Saint Coelacanth, whose work can be found on YouTube and Twitch!