ThunderamaDome

What is non-exploitative exploitation? Malibu Bay Films Producer Arlene Sidaris, film partner and widow to legendary "B-movie" writer and director, Andy Sidaris, joins ThunderamaDome to explain what their attitudes were towards nudity and violence and what it was like working on films such as "Hard Ticket To Hawaii" with Andy. Find out how their type of filmmaking both embraced the action movie stereotypes of the '80's and also played against them. Listen to Arlene explain what it was like working as one of the first female TV producers in Hollywood and what kind of obstacles she faced. So come Beyond ThunderamaDome with us and Arlene for this very special segment!

Over-the-top action B-movies occupy a unique space in the mid 80’s - and in our hearts! With the advent of VHS, video stores and cable channels, kids were introduced to cheaper movies that added two scoops of their own exploitation formula: blood, explosions and…gasp…nudity!  In this episode, we punch our ticket with Andy Sidaris’s "Hard Ticket to Hawaii." Was this an exploitation film? Or did it add something more to the action genre by cleverly inverting some of the male-oriented clichés?  Maybe it did both? Join us as we hop aboard this highly entertaining movie that stars Playboy Playmates in the lead roles, bold and beautiful Ron Moss, bad guys named Shades and Skater, airborne blowup dolls and a deadly snake straight outta your toilet. And if you can remember the very first movie you saw with nudity, well, we do too. We talk about that and a whole lot more on this episode - so come on down to the 'Dome with us and say, Aloha!

Meet Judy Kim, owner and operator of the Gardena Cinema - the last single-screen movie theater in Los Angeles that's run by a family. Or at least, what's left of her family. It's really just Judy now and despite her love and commitment, the cost of keeping a single-screen theater alive is not without its challenges. Covid. Strikes. Decreasing movie audiences. Most people would have given up by now, but not Judy. By making huge sacrifices and adapting her business model, she's turned the small community theater into a larger communal destination movie house for cinema fans all across Los Angeles and Orange County. Her optimistic attitude has even inspired a small army of volunteers, all trying to help save Gardena Cinema. So grab your popcorn, and let's all go to the movies.

The world punched a gift horse in the mouth when Quentin Tarantino's and Robert Rodriguez's double-feature release of GRINDHOUSE sadly flopped at the box office in 2007. But it really was a gift to cinema fans since the release was just as much about the theatrical experience as it was about the actual movies. Why the heck did it fail? And why the heck does Tarantino's slowburn DEATH PROOF still seem to get more accolades than Rodriguez's action-packed PLANET TERROR?  As we continue on with our "fear of being forgotten" theme for this episode, we focus on the gravitational pull of PLANET TERROR being so strong it can now graduate from the yearly Halloween watch list and reclassify itself as a...Thanksgiving movie!  Listen and find out why on our special holiday-themed episode!

We face our fears as we examine Frank Marshall's "Arachnophobia" - eek! But what does athazagoraphobia mean?  It's the fear of being forgotten!  We jabber on about how not-talked-about-films can still matter. Along the way, we throw in the fear of pooping in public, past fears of dying before the Star Wars prequels finished, Peter Cushing Cornflakes boxes, the digital hologram tour of Dio, and saved prints of Nosferatu. And if you're afraid this makes no sense, just listen, because we tie it all together before web-slinging our way through one of our favorite horror-starter films, "Arachnophobia"....actually, scratch that. It's not a horror, it's a thrillomedy!

The loving deconstruction of genres continues with Rian Johnson's hardboiled high-school booster shot of a debut, "Brick." We discuss how Rian Johnson's entire filmography challenges the preconceptions of whatever genre he chooses to tackle and how he's always artfully subverted those tropes in a new and interesting way. Then we gumshoe our way through "Brick" and find out why it always ranks in the top five or top ten-thousand of And It's Me, Joel's favorite movies.

What does it take to "reinvent" yourself to find the job that makes you fulfilled? That's the question I asked three ex-colleagues from my nine-season run on the TV series, "Suits." I interview composer Christopher Tyng, editor Peter Forslund, and the main man himself - creator, writer, showrunner and eventually director, Aaron Korsh. They all give me their backstories and how they made the jump to their current positions. An inspiring look at these three careers and why being open to change and other possibilities was critical to their success - and how they found something they loved.

Can it be that Gore Verbinski's "Rango" is Johnny Depp's best film? That's the text Hollywood Nate received one day back in 2011 from And It's Me, Joel and we put it to the test here. This episode discusses how "Rango" pumped some much-needed blood back into Westerns with its unique blend of humor and action and how it pushed the conventions of the genre, while also, remaining loyal to them.

As we set out to do battle with Peter Yates's "Krull," we examine the Arthurian legend of Excalibur and how both "Krull" and "The Last Starfighter" rely on setting up their stories with their own versions of this myth. We discuss John Boorman's "Excalibur" and Disney's "Sword and the Stone" being the best adaptations and then use the sword in the stone analogy when picking movies out - the times we found kings, and the times we found duds. Find out where "Krull" ranks. Special Guest Charles Phoenix returns to tuck us in at the end of the episode as he says good night to the drive-ins that have darkened their screens over the years.

In 2020, my 64 year old Russian-born step-mother-in-law, Valentina, had been an American citizen for 15 years, but she didn't have any idea what a drive-in was. And since the only way to watch movies with an audience during the pandemic was at the drive-in, my family and I decided to take Valentina on her very first experience. Beyond ThunderamaDome gets its own spotlight with this segment: a 2020 trip to the West Wind Las Vegas Drive-In documenting the night with all its ups and downs. What makes the drive-in so special? Listen and find out. Includes Special Guest, Charles Phoenix, the midcentury pop culture expert on all things Americana.

For our 2nd episode, we rev the engines on our nostalgia meter by talking about which arcade games from our youth we wished were magic tickets into secret videogame lands. We recount how Covid helped America's dwindling drive-ins regain their significance during the pandemic and then we time-travel with our audio segment back to 2020 for the Drive-in Edition of Beyond Fest that we attended.  Then we put all our quarters into Nick Castle's "The Last Starfighter" by talking about how much we love this film.

Enter the 'Dome with us on our first episode as we tackle the 1970's Italian film genre of Eurocrime, what it is and why it's so cool! We also compare movie deaths of characters that scarred us over the years and then we scar you with our Most Haunting Film Deaths segment for Beyond ThunderamaDome - where Hollywood Nate asks some of his co-workers from his "Suits" days about which film deaths always haunted them, and why that can be a good thing! Our Main Event is the double-feature pairing of Ruggero Deodato's "Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man" and Enzo G. Castellari's "Street Law." Also included, a SpendoVision segment chock full of Eurocrime-centric goodies you can buy.