It's Been Done Before

We keep the scary times rolling with this week's zombie-virus outbreak movie, 28 Weeks Later. The franchise that reinvented the modern zombie, quickly sets the tone in the opening few minutes; and shows what it might take to save your life in this apocalyptic hellscape. It is a high tempo horror ride that is a bunch of fun and stars some pretty good actors. Our coward, Don, learns that he should not tell people someone is dead unless you see them die and pays a heavy price because of it. We learn that none of us like it when siblings have rhyming names. Why won’t Flynn just help get the group of survivors out of harm's way? Why doesn’t Scarlet make a bigger deal about the possibility of Alice, Tammy or Andy potentially having the cure to the Rage virus in their blood? We had a real good time with this one, we hope you do too.

We’re continuing our scary movie month this week with a super creepy movie remake, 2002’s The Ring. This one is a tale as old as time. A reporter investigates her niece’s mysterious death, she finds a weird VHS tape, she watches the tape, she is cursed to die in seven days. I’ve seen it happen a thousand times. The VHS tape dates this movie a little bit, but it is still a really entertaining flick. We get an emotionless child and a jangly walking female monster to keep the tone very unsettling. Whomever cast David Dorfman as Aidan deserves an award because he is one of the spookiest kids in cinema history. Why would Rachel bring the tape back to her house? Why was she so quick to show the tape to Noah? Did the cameraman that filmed the tape and the editor that cut it together die a week after it was created? Who did they pass on the copy of the tape to? If you are the kind of person that gets scared easily, you might want to listen to this episode with a dog in the room.

In this week’s episode we’re talking about Romeo and Juliet with vampires and werewolves, better known as the wildly popular Twilight: New Moon. Happy Birthday Bella! One of us loves this movie (Brit), one of us hates this movie (Matt) and one of us owns this movie (Mike). Most of the story and tension in this one is born out of the idea that Bella really wants to be a vampire and Edward and Jacob really don’t want her to be a vampire. Matt and Brit are Team Jacob and Mike is strongly in Team Edward’s camp, even though Edward is a creep. How does Edward get away with giving Bella the Harry and the Hendersons treatment when he breaks up with her? Why isn’t Jacob using that sexy body and boyish charm to find someone better than Bella? So many of the problems in this movie could be resolved by having the characters talk to each other. Vampire breaks girls heart, werewolf heals girl’s heart and then vampire and girl live happily ever after? Sounds like Jacob got the short end of the stick in this story. Listen in and enjoy our silliness.

This week’s movie is Karate Kid Part 3 and we have a very fun guest with us, comedian and podcast host Ronnie Ray. First off, we know there is a little bit of an audio issue and you can rest easy knowing that our producer Kevin has been viciously disciplined for his transgression (think Peter Greene in Pulp Fiction.) Shouldn’t this be called The Karate Man instead of The Karate Kid? Why did they make a Karate Kid movie with 90% less karate and 100% more bonsai trees? Why doesn’t Mr. Miyagi get drunk in this one? Kreese’s life is in shambles after losing the All Valley Karate Tournament and choking his student out in public. There is one reason to watch this movie, Terry Silver! He may be the craziest super villain of the 1980s and he may have been a child soldier. Our hero Daniel has a cute love interest in Robyn Lively, AKA Teen Witch, that is very eager to spend time with him, but just wants to be friends. We also are treated to a story of the time Ronnie Ray met Mike Barnes. This movie is long, slow and boring. Save yourself an agonizing two hours and just listen to us.

This week we’re talking about the modern Grindhouse classic Crank 2: High Voltage with our guest Jon Herak. This movie is a totally crazy thrill ride and oh so much fun! Does Chev Chelios have the same condition as David Dunn (Bruce Willis) in Unbreakable? Is there a more romantic love story than the tale of Chev and Eve? Is full body tourette's a real thing? Is Bai Ling a real thing? This movie is so over the top that a Godzilla style fight scene breaks out at a power plant. If your decapitated head was placed in an aquarium with a bunch of tubes attached to your neck, would you survive? What strange thing will Chev have to do to keep himself alive in Crank 3? All this and much more in this episode of It’s Been Done Before.

On this week’s episode we’re talking about Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues with our guest John Mannella. Three out of the four of us enjoyed this movie and one of us really thought it was a turd. This might be one of the dumbest comedies of all time. With all the talented and funny people in the movie, how could it be so bad? Was this whole movie improvised? Who was calling for this movie to be made 9 years after the original? How, with 9 years of time to write the script, were these the best jokes they could come up with? This movie is way too long and it is packed to the gills with bigotry and misogyny. My recommendation would be to listen to us and never watch this movie. Guess which one of us wrote the episode description. Enjoy!

This week, for the love of God, you must remember the rules! No bright light, don’t get them wet and whatever you do, DON’T FEED THEM AFTER MIDNIGHT! We’re taking a trip down nostalgia lane with 1990’s Gremlins 2: The New Batch. This movie is goofy, weird and oh so much fun! OMG, so many wild and crazy Gremlins in this one. Why is everyone in New York fairly comfortable with seeing Gremlins running around? Has sexual harassment in the workplace not been invented yet? Why doesn’t anyone point out that all of the Gremlins are Gizmo’s offspring? Who made that gigantic tarp that mimics the New York City skyline at night so quickly? Does Mr. Clamp end up running for president in this alternate reality? Is Gremlins 3 going to be about Forrester and the lady Gremlin having a wonderful life together? We probably won’t get to the bottom of all of these questions, but it will be fun trying to get there.

This week we’re making Brit and all of the rest of you ladies happy by talking about the extremely lucrative sequel Magic Mike XXL. Matt and Mike learn a little bit about the female psyche in this one. Is this the sexiest road trip movie ever? How many montages can you fit into one movie? Should we consult Jada about starting our own subscription based strip-club? Will the next sequel focus more on Mike’s failed moving business? Which city will host the next Stripper Olympics? Listen in as we try to answer all of these questions and more on It’s Been Done Before!

Magic Mirror on the wall, which is the fairest podcast of all? What would happen if you crossed Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves with Game of Thrones? We are not 100% sure but we think it would look a lot like this movie. This week we’re talking about Snow White and the Huntsman, the story of Thor protecting Bella from Furiosa. The movie is beautiful to watch and much more fun than two of us expected it to be. Did the magic mirror put a hit out on Snow White? What’s going on with the relationship between Ravenna and her brother Finn? The seven dwarves were very well cast and a welcome surprise. Was one of the dwarves resurrected at the end? We also debate whether or not Kristen Stewart should be in this movie. Hit us up on Twitter, Instagram or email to let us know who you think would have been a better Snow White.

This week, we’ll make you famous! We’re talking about Young Guns 2 with our first guest, Tony Valle. (Applause!) This semi-biographical western has an all-star cast and it is a delightfully entertaining film. We talk about all the fun, trouble and hijinx that Billy and his gang get involved in throughout their trip down the "Mexican Blackbird” into Old Mexico. Most of this one is a lovefest. Three out of the four hosts really liked this one, bonus points for guessing who the lone dissenter is.

Get your blue bouquet of flowers out, because this week we’re all going purging! Listen in as we ramble on about 2014’s The Purge Anarchy. We have a bunch of questions, but not so many answers. Why couldn’t the first movie be more like this one? What are so many people doing wandering around the city on Purge night? Is this movie a secret Punisher movie? Who is in charge of cleanup the morning after Purge night? What’s happening on social media during The Purge? We’ll try to get this figured out. Stay safe everyone...

Join us this week as we tell you how It’s Been Done Before...The first stop on our journey is the 1998 classic(?), Blues Brothers 2000. Is this movie the cure for insomnia? Two of our hosts think so. Listen in as the gang breaks down this unnecessary and unfunny sequel to the hilarious 1980 original. They will try to find out why this movie exists, what Dan Aykroyd and John Landis were thinking and what did Dan Aykroyd use to blackmail his co-stars into being a part of this film? Will we meet back up with Elwood and Buster in Blues Brothers 3000? We can only hope.

It’s the show before the show to let you know about the show. Got all that? Good. Matt, Mike and Brit introduce the podcast and themselves to the world by talking about what they plan for the show and by sharing their favorite movies, genres, directors and actors. It’s just a little bit of quality time with the gang to get to know a few things about them and what they like.