Devin & James are back in the Den to celebrate the 50th anniversary of some fantastic and influential films coming from Asia in 1975! We start with one of our favorite monsters in the Kaiju classic THE TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA! We then take to the streets with Kinji Kukasaku's brutal yakuza tale COPS VS. THUGS. Then things get more kung fu classical in the origin story of one of cinema's coolest weapons, THE FLYING GUILLOTINE. After that, we hop on THE BULLET TRAIN (No, not the Brad Pitt one. The Sonny Chiba one!). Our cinematic traveling continues down under with the Australian/Chines co-production, THE MAN FROM HONG KONG. From there, we go completely off the rails with the cinematic cotton candy that is SUPER INFRAMAN. Finally, we get a taste of horror (and some other things we'd rather not mention here) in BLACK MAGIC. All of these films are from Japan or China, but we make sure to check in on the rest of the continent with shout-outs to YEONG-JA'S HEYDAYS out of Korea, THE RARE BLUE APES OF CANNIBAL ISLE from Malaysia, the Bollywood classic SHOLAY, and DERSU UZALA, the Academy Award-winning Russian film directed by Akira Kurosawa!

Devin & James are back, and they're gonna need a bigger podcast. That's why they've brought back special guest CASEY O'CONNOR to discuss the blockbusters and award nominees of 1975! We start with a little film called JAWS, which some of you may have heard of before. We then move on to the Best Picture winner, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, followed by the Kubrick comedy (that's right, I'm calling it a comedy), BARRY LYNDON. We then take a turn toward Altman's NASHVILLE, before ending up in New York City for 3 DAYS OF THE CONDOR and DOG DAY AFTERNOON. Along the way, we also give shout-outs to SHAMPOO, THE GREAT WALDO PEPPER, and THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING. There must have been something in the water in 1975 (a shark, perhaps?) because these are some of the greatest, most influential, and important films ever made, celebrating their 50th Anniversary this year!

Devin & James are back in the Den with special returning guest star, CASEY O'CONNOR!! We needed an extra hand to take on the first episode of a new ongoing series about the cinema of 1975, with our first deep dive being into all the huge CULT FILMS of '75, celebrating their 50th anniversary this year! We start at the top with the iconic ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. We then take that time warp back to visit MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL. Next are a couple of exploitation classics from two grindhouse giants, Russ Meyer's SUPERVIXENS, and Rudy Ray Moore in DOLEMITE! We then see, hear, and feel Ken Russell and The Who's rock opera, TOMMY, with a LISZTOMANIA chaser. We finish off with a batch of post-apocalyptic films, each with its own bleak view of the future: ROLLERBALL, DEATH RACE 2000, and A BOY AND HIS DOG. And this is only the start of the discussion about all the incredible celluloid that came from 1975!

Devin & James are back in the DEN to conclude their discussion about one of the greatest American actors ever to hit the screen, GENE HACKMAN! This time around, we reach into some slightly more obscure territory. We get into his early Western work, in THE HUNTING PARTY and BITE THE BULLET. We also discuss two films he made with a frequent collaborator, Arthur Penn: the underappreciated TARGET and the stone-cold neo-noir masterpiece, NIGHT MOVES. Actress Joanna Cassidy shows up as a match for Hackman in THE PACKAGE and UNDER FIRE. We also discuss a couple of misfires that may fall short of greatness (or even goodness, in some opinions). Still, we make the case that Hackman makes them interesting watches anyway: LOOSE CANNONS (with Dan Aykroyd and an insane Hitler sex tape plot) and LUCKY LADY (which puts him in a literal throuple with Liza Minnelli and Burt Reynolds!!!!). All this, plus many more films to add to your list. We could have honestly gone into a third episode with Hackman as the headline topic, and we hope you join us to celebrate his unique presence in cinema. Gene Hackman was truly one of a kind.

Devin & James are back in the DEN to pay tribute to one of the greatest performers of all time, GENE HACKMAN! Gene Hackman may have retired from acting 20 years before his unfortunate passing earlier this year, but in his five decades of filmmaking, he created a filmography that's impossible to match. In fact, we had to extend this out to two episodes. In this first of two, we discuss some of Hackman's earlier work, such as MAROONED and CISCO PIKE. We get into some of his heavy hitters, like HOOSIERS, MISSISSIPPI BURNING, UNCOMMON VALOR, and UNFORGIVEN. We also cover some of his lesser-seen titles, like the masterpiece SCARECROW, and the bizarre EUREKA. We even get close to his retirement, with HEARTBREAKERS, RUNAWAY JURY, and, of course, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS. Add a few mentioned along the way, and we are still just getting started. For deeper dives on a few of Hackman's other classics, please look up our episodes on THE FRENCH CONNECTION series, and our episode on Killer Couples, which explores BONNIE & CLYDE.

Devin & James are back in the Den, and it's full of bats! In this episode, we are covering a very specific type of vampire... OFF-BRAND DRACULAS! These vampires may have castles in Transylvania, look hot in a cape, or have an unnatural interest in foreign real estate, but they all owe their cinematic existence to the literary existence of Bram Stoker's Dracula. We start with NOSFERATU, covering Murnau's 1922 silent classic, through Herzog in 1979, and to Eggers in 2024. We then move on to a couple of Bela Lugosi films, where he plays a bloodsucker who is "definitely NOT Dracula" (legally speaking) with 1935's MARK OF THE VAMPIRE and 1943's THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE. We then head to AIP in the groovy 70's, when they redefined the old legend with 1970's COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE, featuring the underrated Robert Quarry as the titular count with a mouthful of fangs, as well as 1972's BLACULA, featuring a dignified performance by William Marshall that deserves much more credit than it's punny title suggests.

Devin & James are back in the Den to bid a final "ciao" to the TOUR OF ITALY series with a look at the violent world of POLIZIOTTESCHI movies! (or Eurocrime, for the pronunciation challenged.) Italy had a special touch with crime thrillers during their politically tumultuous "Years of Lead," and we go over some of the genre's highest points, starting with Enzo G. Castellari's HIGH CRIME (1973), starring Franco Nero, and Franco Nero's mustache. We follow that with Lucio Fulci's only crime film, the gloriously bloody CONTRABAND (1980). Then we get into the sticky details around the release of Mario Bava's underseen and underrated RABID DOGS/KIDNAPPED, and why two different cuts of this movie were finally released over 20 years after the movie was shot and abandoned in 1974. We follow that with some fun in Umberto Lenzi's THE CYNIC, THE RAT, AND THE FIST (1977), which matched up 3 of the genre's most iconic stars (Milian, Merli, & Saxon). Finally, we cover the influential second entry of Fernando Di Leo's "Milieu Trilogy," THE ITALIAN CONNECTION (1972), where actor Mario Adorf outshines hitmen Henry Silva and Woody Strode to give the most heart-pounding and heartbreaking pimp performance we've ever seen. We're sad to finally be leaving Italy behind (for now), but we closed out with some of our favorite movies ever committed to celluloid. Buckle in and hold on for some off-the-wall Italian mayhem.

Devin & James are back in the Den with their penultimate visit to Italy! This time we shift from focusing on one genre to examining a type of film that is not uniquely Italian, but they sure put their own style on: THE KNOCK-OFF. Low-budget films ripping off box office hits has always been a popular way for Producers to make a buck. Still, the filmmakers themselves can sometimes bring their own spin to a popular trope or trend and create works that rise above being called simply imitations. And then... there are the imitations. We make the case that there is plenty to enjoy about all the approaches, as long as you know what you're getting into. We start with the sharksploitation film that Universal Studios successfully took off the market for lifting the plot of Jaws in 1981, Enzo G. Castellari's THE LAST SHARK (with a bonus look at CRUEL JAWS). If imitation is flattery, then Bruno Mattei must be one of the most complimentary filmmakers ever to play the game, and we dive into his back-to-back sci-fi knocks-offs from 1989, ROBOWAR (Predator featuring a Robocop) and SHOCKING DARK (Aliens featuring a Terminator). We finish up with a couple of films that are inspired by the head-spinning, pea soup-spitting world of The Exorcist, but that build their unique plots and bizarre twists to create works that stand on their own, Alberto De Martino's THE ANTICHRIST, and Ovidio G Assonitis and Roberto D'Ettorre's BEYOND THE DOOR, both from 1974. Grab a can of Campbell's Pea Soup and a straw, and buckle in.