The Popzara Podcast, the official podcast from Popzara.com.
Episodes
Sunday Oct 29, 2023
Sunday Oct 29, 2023
1993 was a big year for the movies with blockbusters like Jurassic Park, The Fugitive, Sleepless in Seattle, and Mrs. Doubtfire among many others now considered stone cold classics.
Friday Oct 27, 2023
Friday Oct 27, 2023
It’s Popzara’s Movie Time! Podcast Halloween Schlocktober!, our yearly dose of creepy movie mayhem! Our harrowing hosts Ethan “Bloodlust” Brehm and Nate “Entrails” Evans are your personal guides for this shocking smorgasbord of four shlocky horrors scraped direct from cinema’s bottom-barrel that prove you don’t need blockbuster budgets to have a good time. Also: listen for a special intro from none other than horror legend Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead and one of the films listed below). Happy Halloween!
The Movies: Shlock Til You Drop
First up is 1986’s Troll (the original and not the “best worst movie”), directed by effects guru John Carl Buechler (Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College) that epitomizes the “high-concept / low-budget” genre of horror/comedy that ruled the 1980s home video circuit. Next is 1987’s Street Trash, directed by Steadicam master J. Michael Muro (a favorite of James Cameron) and one of the most celebrated of all “melt movie” classics.
Third is 1996’s Leprechaun 4: In Space, directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith (one of Quentin Tarantino’s favorites, apparently). It’s not just the best of the Warwick Davis-starring franchise but among the most bat$h!t crazy concepts ever stitched together. Last is 1989’s Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge, a reworking of the Phantom mythos directed by Richard Friedman where the real star is the mall itself (RIP) and not an early appearance by Pauly Shore.
Friday Oct 27, 2023
Friday Oct 27, 2023
It's-a me, Mario! I tried announcing that on the street one day, but mostly had garbage and tomatoes thrown at me, and I think I also got mugged. I guess not everyone has the panache and flair to pull off being the world's most famous plumber, especially now that he's become a major movie star.
Friday Oct 27, 2023
Friday Oct 27, 2023
Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can! I guess the song's referring to the cool things spiders can do, like crawling on walls and biting people, not, y'know, getting crushed by a wad of toilet paper and flushed when they show up in the bathroom. There's no variant in the Spider-Verse where even the most fanatical fan wants that to happen - and it certainly wouldn't make a great comic book or movie.
Friday Oct 27, 2023
Friday Oct 27, 2023
In the ever-evolving landscape of cinema, where careers often burn brightly but briefly, few directors can lay claim to one spanning five decades, and even fewer can match the enduring brilliance of Martin Scorsese. With a filmography that includes classics like "Taxi Driver", "Goodfellas", and "The Departed" he has been, and still remains, a master storyteller with a keen eye for detail and deep understanding of human nature.
Wednesday Oct 25, 2023
Wednesday Oct 25, 2023
Just in time for Halloween comes Mimi's Tales of Terror, nine frightful tales illustrated by the manga maestro himself, Junji Ito, and adapted from the original Japanese urban tales collected by Hirokatsu Kihara and Ichiro Nakayama's Shin Mimibukuro (New Earmuffs), a book that’s impossible for Japanese fans to find, let alone English readers. A version of Ito’s adaptation was originally published back in 2002 as Mimi no Kaidan Kanzenban (Mimi’s Ghost Stories), though like Kihara and Nakayama’s original, good luck finding a copy these days.
Saturday Oct 21, 2023
Saturday Oct 21, 2023
This generation’s teen movie trend, which started out as a niche indie subgenre circa 2018, has slowly been shifting towards the mainstream in the past couple of years. In a way, these films harken back to the ‘90s when the focus was on younger, more pre-pubescent leads, as opposed to the older high school or college subjects of the ‘80s and ‘00s.
Wednesday Oct 18, 2023
Wednesday Oct 18, 2023
No stranger to crafting biographies about creative people many consider among the world’s most innovative and influential, Walter Issacson (Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo Da Vinci) now turns his attention to Elon Musk, a man many feel is both admirable and deplorable, a Gen Xer more likely to find inspiration from Mel Brooks and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy than the Great Books of the Western World. Whether you consider Elon Musk (the man) a hero or villain could depend largely on your personal politics, or your appetite for hero worship.
Monday Oct 02, 2023
Monday Oct 02, 2023
It’s The State of Gaming Podcast, Popzara’s in-depth look at what’s shaking up the gaming landscape delivered on a monthly basis. Our hosts Cory Galliher and Nate Evans guide you through the best, worst, and everything else making headlines and headway in the world of interactive entertainment.
The biggest games of the month include: Starfield, Mortal Kombat 1, Chants of Sennaar, Lies of P, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Payday 3, and Disgaea 7.
On the software charts Madden NFL 24 touchdowns in first, Namco Bandai’s Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon debuts high in second, Gearbox Publishing’s Remnant II stays strong in third, and Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom stays solid in sixth. Further down show the PlayStation 5 effect as Sony’s God of War: Ragnarok turns in sixteenth, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XVI is right behind in seventeenth, Gran Turismo 7 returns in eighteenth, and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales in nineteenth.
But there’s more! Did you know Elon Musk was such a hardcore gamer? Read Walter Issacson’s Musk book and you will! It’s probably best to avoid the Switch version of Mortal Kombat 1 for now, possibly forever. Immortals of Aveum developer Ascendant Studios laid off nearly half their staff.
Netflix is into gaming! But not as much as they’re into gaming anime! Castlevania: Nocturne is here, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft (starring Hayley Atwell) is coming soon! So is Devil May Cry! Your pricey new iPhone 15 Pro will play the Resident Evil 4 Remake – and it’ll probably get super hot doing it!
Want to learn the history of Karateka and the future of interactive documentaries? Listen to our chat with games historian Chris Kohler (when you’re done listening to this episode, naturally).
Friday Sep 22, 2023
Friday Sep 22, 2023
Our guest on this episode of the Popzara Podcast is a veteran of the gaming industry who knows a few things about remembering (and collecting) classic games, Digital Eclipse’s editorial director Chris Kohler, whose career as a journalist, historian, presenter, and, naturally, an actual game player, make him uniquely qualified to talk about The Making of Karateka, the first title in his company’s planned Gold Master Series of “interactive documentaries”.
Last year’s Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration signaled a momentous change in what a collection of older games could be: using the medium to let players experience and interact with both the games and their history. The Making of Karateka narrows this focus to a single title, telling the story how a teenaged Jordan Mechner (Prince of Persia), inspired by his love of Bruce Lee and martial arts films, would innovate game design by applying cinematic elements and a greater emphasis on story with 1984’s Karateka on the Apple II computer. There was more to the story, of course.
Our own amateur archivist Nathan Evans and Chris deep dive into the creation of Digital Eclipse’s groundbreaking series, the “gamification” of gaming history, how the relationship between Jordan and his father Francis Mechner may be the real story behind Karateka’s success, and how Nintendo’s year of unparalleled successes in 2023 may be the catalyst for others to start taking the preservation of gaming history more seriously.
Friday Sep 08, 2023
Friday Sep 08, 2023
Joining our resident blockhead Nathan Evans on this episode of the Popzara Podcast are the writing/cartooning duo of Luca Debus and Francesco Matteuzzi to talk about their new book Funny Things: A Comic Strip Biography of Charles M. Schulz, a unique look at the life of the cartoonist that uses comic strips to illustrate his Midwestern roots to creating the world’s most beloved comic strip, Peanuts.
2022 was the centennial of Charles Schulz (1922 – 2000) birthday, and what better way to celebrate the creator of Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Snoopy and Woodstock than with a lovingly created look at his life through comic strips? The guys discuss the world’s love of Peanuts, finding the right moments of Schulz’s life to share with fans, giving lesser known cartoonists (Jim Sasseville) their due, similarities with Bill Watterson’s Calvin ‘n Hobbes, how finding the right partners (Bill Melendez, Vince Guaraldi) helped bring Peanuts to life, and so much more.
Thursday Sep 07, 2023
Thursday Sep 07, 2023
It’s The State of Gaming Podcast, Popzara’s in-depth look at what’s shaking up the gaming landscape delivered on a monthly basis. Our hosts Cory Galliher and Nate Evans guide you through the best, worst, and everything else making headlines and headway in the world of interactive entertainment.
The biggest games of the month include: Baldur’s Gate 3, Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, Immortals of Aveum, Atlas Fallen, Blasphemous 2, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles, Sea of Stars, and Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy.
Other notables include: Quake 2 Remastered, Red Dead Redemption Remastered, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, WrestleQuest, and Vampire Survivors (Switch).
Circana remains the gaming industry’s best snapshot of what’s moving and shaking up both physical and digital retail shelves across the country. All estimates are for entertainment purposes only. Total sales of new gaming hardware and software topped $4.18 billion, a slim 1 percent uptick over last year.
The software charts get interesting as Remnant II debuts in first, Diablo IV takes second, Final Fantasy XVI in fifth, Pikmin 4 debuts in sixth, and Exoprimal in sixteenth.
But there’s more! Nintendo’s Switch surpasses the lifetime sales of the Wii in the US! Was the Gran Turismo movie really the weekend’s number 1 at the box-office? You really shouldn’t sell stolen copies of Starfield. PlayStation Plus is getting a hefty price hike! There’s a new PSP coming – the PlayStation Portal! And Super Mario Bros. Wonder looks like the trippiest Mario adventure yet.
Monday Aug 28, 2023
Monday Aug 28, 2023
For Bruce Lee fans 2023 marks two anniversaries; both his untimely death and the release of Enter the Dragon, which would have catapulted him to worldwide superstar status had he lived to enjoy it. But Lee had been working on another project prior to his passing, surviving only in video fragments and notes. The version of “The Game of Death” released in 1978 exhibited little, if any, of Lee’s original vision.
Joining our own grandmaster Nathan Evans and returning champion Kevin (YouTube’s StoryDive) on this episode of the Popzara Podcast is James Flower, writer, editor, and director behind The Final Game of Death, a mammoth 223 minute analysis of both the surviving footage and the philosophical methodology behind Bruce Lee’s final film as part of Arrow Film’s exquisite Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest Limited Edition, which also includes beautifully remastered 4K editions of The Big Boss, Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon, commentaries, interviews and so much more.
Nate, Kevin and James gather on the field of (podcast) battle to chat about what it’s like to undertake such a project, the love/hate relationship fans have with Clouse’s original “The Game of Death”, how Lee’s film would revolutionize and influence martial art films and videogames, shameless “Bruceploitation” clones, “sanitizing” Asian content for Western audiences, physical media vs. streaming, the importance of proper film restoration, and the timeless appeal Bruce Lee still commands around the world.
Monday Aug 07, 2023
Monday Aug 07, 2023
It’s The State of Gaming Podcast, Popzara’s in-depth look at what’s shaking up the gaming landscape delivered on a monthly basis. Our hosts Cory Galliher and Nate Evans guide you through the best, worst, and everything else making headlines and headway in the world of interactive entertainment.
The biggest games of the month include: Exoprimal, Remnant 2, Pikmin 4, The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie, Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg, Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals, Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise Of The Dragons, and Disney Illusion Island.
But there’s more! Sony’s Twisted Metal series debuts on Peacock! Are you ready for the Mortal Kombat 1 beta? The PlayStation 5 hits a huge 40 million milestone (the Xbox Series X/S hits a different, less positive one). Is Nintendo’s next console already circulating among developers? Missing Netflix’s Castlevania animated series? Get ready for the Nocturne spinoff coming this September!
Monday Jul 10, 2023
Monday Jul 10, 2023
It’s Popzara’s Movie Time! Podcast!, where our own movie nerds Ethan Brehm and Nate Evans take you on an unscripted journey yakking and chatting about some of their favorite movie moments and cinematic scenes, from past and present, presented without snark and snobbery for your listening pleasure.
On deck for this episode are two classics from 1984 (perhaps the greatest year ever for pop cinema) that use videogames as a framing device that take our heroes into larger worlds they could have never possibly imagined.
First up is The Last Starfighter, directed by Nick Castle (Halloween’s original Michael Myers) and starring Lance Guest, Dan O'Herlihy (RoboCop), and Robert Preston (The Music Man) in a sci-fi fantasy that’s more Star Wars-lite than Buck Rogers. One of the first movies to extensively use CGI, it’s a perfect encapsulation of Joseph Campbell’s Hero's Journey, only with space combat and an entire race of aliens with male pattern-baldness (even the women).
Next is Cloak & Dagger, Richard Franklin’s Hitchcockian thriller starring Henry Thomas (E.T.) and Dabney Coleman (in a dual-role) in what could be the best 1980s kids movie you don’t hear enough about. Latchkey kids race from blood-thirsty terrorists as an Atari tape (yeah, tape) may hold the key to an international espionage plot. What more could you expect from writer Tom Holland, creator of Fright Night and Child's Play?
Even in a year overflowing with an embarrassment of riches, both movies managed to stand out. Did The Last Starfighter inspire Pixar’s Toy Story? Is Cloak & Dagger the most violent movie (made for kids) ever? Could either be rebooted and/or sequalized in today’s sensitive times? These questions and more will be answered - no quarters required!