As per a request by Twitter user @SleekyOT, this pairing focuses on anime, and you can't talk anime without talking the one film that caused a revolution in the United States when it came out on VHS in the early 1990s, 1988's "Akira!" Based on the 6-issue manga series by Katsuhiro Otomo (who also wrote and directed the film), this story follows Kaneda and Tetsuo, fellow bike gang members and sort-of friends, through life in Neo Tokyo. After Tetsuo (almost literally) runs across a strange elderly child, he is captured, subjected to government tests, and finds himself possessed of great psychic abilities. Unfortunately, they may be too powerful for him to control unless he can track down the mysterious Akira and learns control from him! The American dub of the film features the voices of Johnny Yong Bosch, Joshua Seth, and Wendee Lee. This film is about a third of the complete story in the manga, and was completed before the comic was, rather like Game of Thrones!
The second film in our second time-travel pairing is probably the first film that comes to mind when someone says "time-travel movies." It is, of course, the 1985 classic "Back to the Future!" Directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, and starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, Thomas F. Wilson, Claudia Wells, Marc McClure, Wendie Jo Sperber, and the first cinematic appearance of Billy Zane, this film is a romp with a heart of gold and a sub-text that really examines the essence of time-travel paradox and its effects! Plus, the trio read a tweet from a listener who suggested the film that will start our next pairing!
This is our second pairing of time-travel films, and we're starting with a film that casually examines the ultimate question of time travel: If you can go back in time and change the past, should you? Directed by Don Taylor and starring Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen, Katharine Ross, James Farentino, Ron O'Neal, and Charles Durning, this film follows the U.S.S. Nimitz, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which is somehow catpulted back in time to December 6th, 1941, the day before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. They have the means to stop one of the worst attacks on American soil in history. Should they? Will they? We won't tell you (you'll have to watch the movie for that) but we will tell you all about the production and how the film ended up being such a love-letter to the U.S. Navy that they've used it as a recruiting tool!
Our second film for our "Films About Movie Theatres" pairing comes from 2001, and director Frank Darabont (who also directed "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile"), and tells the story about a Hollywood writer suspected of communist ties back in the McCarthy era, who loses his memory and gets mistaken for a "thought-dead" soldier miraculously returned from WWII in writer Michael Sloane's amazing "The Majestic." The film stars Jim Carey in his first serious (as opposed to comedic) starring role, Martin Landau, Laurie Holden, Bob Balaban, Jeffrey DeMunn, Hal Holbrook, David Ogden Stiers, and the final cinematic performance of veteran character actor James Whitmore. Plus, the film features the voices of Garry Marshall, Paul Mazursky, Syndney Pollack, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, and Matt Damon! This is a "Jim Carey movie" unlike any other, and a good story with a message that still resonates, especially in today's world! Plus, the trio let you in on which two time-travel films they'll focus on for their first pairing in that genre!
This pairing we're calling "Films About Movie Theatres," and we're starting with a semi-autobiographical look at the "Gimmick King" of the 1950s and 60s, William Castle, in 1993's "Matinee!" Directed by Joe Dante, and starring John Goodman as Lawrence Woolsey, the film takes place during the Cuban Missle Crisis, and juxtaposes that against the efforts of a schlock B-movie filmmaker to bring something new to the movie-watching experience, to bring a little showmanship back to the theatre, as it were. Co-starring Cathy Moriarty as Woolsey's long-suffering girlfriend Ruth Corday, the film also features Simon Fentin, Lisa Jakub, Omri Katz, Kelly Martin, Robert Picardo, and the final performance ever from the incredible Jesse White, not to mention smaller roles featuring some original B-Movie actors like Dick Miller and William Schallert! Plus, if you look quickly, you can catch the very first film appearance of Naomi Watts! A fun, gorgeous film about loss of innocence combined with the best in-theatre movie gimmicks of all time!
As per a request by Twitter user @SleekyOT, this pairing focuses on anime, and you can't talk anime without talking the one film that caused a revolution in the United States when it came out on VHS in the early 1990s, 1988's "Akira!" Based on the 6-issue manga series by Katsuhiro Otomo (who also wrote and directed the film), this story follows Kaneda and Tetsuo, fellow bike gang members and sort-of friends, through life in Neo Tokyo. After Tetsuo (almost literally) runs across a strange elderly child, he is captured, subjected to government tests, and finds himself possessed of great psychic abilities. Unfortunately, they may be too powerful for him to control unless he can track down the mysterious Akira and learns control from him! The American dub of the film features the voices of Johnny Yong Bosch, Joshua Seth, and Wendee Lee. This film is about a third of the complete story in the manga, and was completed before the comic was, rather like Game of Thrones! 
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