VIA VHS Podcast

In this episode of VIA VHS Rewind Review, we look back at the 1983 Burt Reynolds Comedy/Nascar film, Stroker Ace. It’s the later years of the Burt Reynolds era and his star power is starting to wane. Instead of taking the role of Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (a role that won Jack Nicholson an Academy Award) Burt decided to opt against evolving his career and instead agreed to another formulaic Hal Needham car movie. This was not a smart idea as Stroker Ace was poorly received by critics and by the box office, opening at 8th place against the likes of films like WarGames, Trading Places and Return of the Jedi. A far cry from Smokey and the Bandit who was only out grossed in 1977 by the original Star Wars. But is Stroker Ace a film that was just outdated and not fairly viewed by fans and critics. Would it have been a bigger hit if released at the height of Burt Reynolds fame? Wes and Spencer give their thoughts on a film that’s so American that Burt Reynolds and Dale Earnhardt share the screen. Find more VIA VHS content here: https://linktr.ee/viavhs Also, find Spencer’s Old Man Orange podcast as well as his comic Pizza Boyz here: https://linktr.ee/oldmanorange

In our first of three chapters, Indy competes with a mysterious contender to woo a young Italian beauty named Guiletta while taking advice from friend Ernest Hemingway. Then on the African plains in November of 1916, Indiana Jones and pal Remy get lost in their attempt to join their unit in Africa. As they trek back to Lake Victoria, Indy and Remy inadvertently join the 25th Royal Fusiliers, a unit of grumpy, aging men. Indy's knowledge of Trains and fluent German make him very useful as the unit battles The Phantom Train of Doom, in this feature length adventure. Finally in Ireland, 1916. Indiana Jones and Remy arrive back to Europe after their adventures in Mexico. Raising funds while waiting tables, Indy gets caught in another love affair around the time of the Easter Rising

Indiana Jones sows his wild oats juggling three girlfriend's while working on George White's Broadway show in 1920, New York. This episode features a young Anne Heche as well. Then in Vienna 1908, a very young Indiana Jones crosses paths with Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Alfred Adler all the while barely avoiding a major international incident due to his first childhood crush.

First we continue our story in Chicago where Indy's musical appreciation switches to the Blues, while the adventures heat up with Eliot Ness and Ernest Hemingway. We then travel tp Princeton, NJ where Indy is attempting to persuade his girlfriend's father to take his Hot Rod to the Junior Prom. While getting repairs, Indy stumbles into an adventure involving a stolen Thomas Edison invention. Finally we travel to Petrograd where Indy has befriended a group of young Bolshevik students. After taking Indy to hear a speech by Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik's attempt to prematurely start a revolution.

Young Indiana Jones is a spy in 1917 Barcelona, a neutral WW1 city. With a group of fellow spies Indy devises a scheme to create geopolitical love affair scandal in order to sway Spain to the allies. Pablo Picasso's art and Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets adds to this wacky mix between art, love and war. We travel to 1920's Chicago where a new found love for Jazz intertwines with a murder mystery and ruthless Gangsters like Al Capone

After his superiors have all been killed in a terrible battle in Flanders, Indy now finds himself in charge of the Belgian 9th Infantry. Then later pairing with the French 14th Company in Somme. In a failed escape attempt after being captured, Indy is sent to a maximum security prison on the Danube at Dunstersadt where he meets a young Charles De Gaulle

We continue our journey through the Congo as Indy and crew, near death have been intercepted and treated by German Albert Schweitzer. At first reluctant of being treated by a German, Indy becomes friends with Schweitzer and begins to see the hopelessness of the seemingly needless war he is fighting. In Austria, March of 1917. Indy, desperate to help end this terrible conflict of WW1 is tasked with helping two Austrian Princes across enemy lines with a message of peace that can help end the war.

First we travel to Verdun in 1916 where Indy is acting as a courier, a dangerous liaison crossing enemy territory. Indy is frustrated by the cavalier nature in which some superiors send men to die against impossible odds. Then we jump to later in 1916 where Indy is now stationed in German East Africa. This is definitely one of our favorite episodes as the action is intense and the stakes are high. Indy is tasked with a perilous mission crossing the Congo after being promoted for his heroic efforts in a battle. However, his defiance of orders in that battle has put him at odds with his superior. All of this made more intense by Indy having to make one of the toughest decisions of his life

We continue along in the Young Indy Chronicles with our first two 45 minute episodes which will make up the bulk of the series. We travel to East Africa in 1909 with Theodore Roosevelt as he’s hunting a rare Oryx. Indy is conflicted with Teddy’s ideals on conservation and also befriends another child from a local tribe. We then head to London in 1916 where Indy is looking for romance before shipping of to WW1 with the Belgian Army.

Years before the countless, big budget Star Wars shows streaming today on Disney+, LucasFilm’s first foray into live action television debuted on ABC, only this didn’t feature a Galaxy far, far away… Instead we were gifted a expansive, adventurous, high quality episodic series featuring the Adventures of a Young Indiana Jones. It’s hard to understate the scope of this show. For network television in the early 90s, almost nothing compares to the movie quality adventures we were gifted over the course of two seasons. Somehow, this show has been mostly forgotten and is vastly under-celebrated. Not only was The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles a technical marvel, featuring early experimental technology that would later be used on the Star Wars Prequels, but Young Indy also featured very well written and compelling stories, great acting featuring the star himself Sean Patrick Flannery as Young Indy, as well as cameos by young actors, Catherine Zeta Jones, Elizabeth Hurley, Daniel Craig and even a cameo from Harrison Ford as the Indy we all grew to love during the original films and lastly episodes directed by notable directors such as Frank Darabont. Please join Spencer and Wesley as they revisit this forgotten relic in anticipation for the release of Indiana Jones and Dial of Destiny this June and our review of all the films this #IndianaJune