Sneople At The Movies

It’s been a while since we’ve done an Unusual Double Feature, one of our favorite episode themes, so we are long overdue! This time though, it feels a little less unusual and a little more like a movie blind date - this week, we’re pairing up Sunshine (2007) and Event Horizon (1997)! This is more of a blind date because, like many couples who get set up by other people, these movies seem very similar on the surface: films set in space about going out towards unknown horizons with horror elements and multiple actors that the Sneople enjoy. The surface level is never enough for our hosts, of course, and it’s on a deeper dive that we start to see the real differences between these two cult classics - once of which being that one is better than we remember and one is. not as good as we remember. Maybe this blind date won’t work out after all. Warning: there are spoilers abounds for both movies this episode but also Event Horizon is from the last century and Sunshine came out almost 20 years ago so we don’t feel too bad about it.

This week on Sneople, the Sneople cover a genre proves a little tricky to define, spans movies, tv, books, and comics, and incites an argument (or two) amongst our hosts - Urban Fantasy! This episode starts, as many do, with definitions - what exactly makes an urban fantasy movie, and how is it different from straight up monster movies or something with fantasy elements that takes place in modern times? After a quick but decisive discussion, the Sneople move onto some of their favorites of the genre, dig through multiple lists of “urban fantasy” media to decide if they actually count as part of the genre, and get into why it’s so hard to make urban fantasy work on film. They also, as always, get severely off topic, look at a lot of weird wiki pages, and learn about new weird stuff that they now obviously have to read/watch. Not necessarily in that order. If you disagree with their definition of urban fantasy and/or want to submit recs for good urban fantasy to read or watch, their email inbox is always open. Keep in mind that they are extremely right about what urban fantasy is, but arguing is still fun anyway!

Long delayed but also long in the making, this week the Sneople are finally doing a David Lynch memorial episode! Helena and Matty go a little off the deep end this episode (as they do every episode they’re left to their own devices), covering Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Eraserhead, Elephant Man, Dune (obviously) and so so much more. Warning, this episode is full of spoilers/discussion of a variety of Lynch films (though we avoid Twin Peaks spoilers for the most part) - if you wanna avoid that, come back at a later date. It’s okay! We’ll wait. Thanks David - we’ll be appreciating your work for years and years to come. XOXO to eraserhead baby, we love you little angel

This week is a (sort of?) somber episode, beloved listeners - we’ve recorded an homage to the life and career of Val Kilmer, an actor who had a big impact on all of the Sneople. From Top Gun to Batman Forever, Willow to Tombstone, and of course Heat to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the Sneople go through several films featuring Val Kilmer and the many many highlights in his work. Like any of our in memoriam episodes, it’s tricky writing our normal jokey summaries without feeling odd about it, so it’s time to be genuine for three seconds - he was a great actor who did some incredible work, and none of us would be who we are today without Kiss Kiss Bang Bang specifically. Thanks, Val. Unrelated, but still sincere - apologies for the delayed episode! We’ll have another one out next week per our usual schedule.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, beloved listeners - after weeks of waiting with baited breath, it’s finally time for this year’s Helena Awards! For those who don’t know, this beautiful yearly tradition has the Sneople running through a full list of categories both familiar and unique, old and new: from Best Actress and Best Picture to Tex Avery Awooga Wolf Award l and Stupidest Film (Affectionate), the Helena Awards has it all. It is, per usual, the highest of high notes to close out awards season on, and we are thrilled as always to host it. It’s also shorter than watching the actual Oscars AND there’s no ads so really, what do you have to lose? For those who wish to view the Helena Awards document, you can join the Infinity Break discord at bit.ly/InfinityTalks - it will be shared there in the Sneople channel! Just in case you wanted to revel in the glorious document formatting which, honestly, why wouldn’t you?

Due to the Wicked Curse (the curse that breaks the podcast when we talk about Wicked the movie for too long). Thankfully, we were able to push through to present to you - our extremely belated Oscars episode! First and foremost, it’s time for a very long What We Sneep spanning back into (checks notes) late 2024. We got Christmas movies, we got movies that we just happened to see on Christmas, we have Helena frantically trying to catch up on Academy Award noms, we have Firefly for some reason, and basically any other type of movie you can possibly imagine. After that, we go through the Oscar noms from Best Picture down, and Helena puts in their guesses for what will win, fantasy football style. Yes, the Oscars have already happened. It’s fine. This just means you get to do the math on how good Helena’s guesses were! The next episode should be on our regular schedule (barring something happening due to the Wicked Curse), and will be our favorite awards show, The Helena Awards! However, if you want to double check on timing or even just bug us about um. whatever? Then you can find us and any Sneople updates on the Infinity Break discord, bit.ly/InfinityTalks!

Happy Snanniversary, beloved listeners!! We’re back after our long break and celebrating our FIVE YEAR (???) anniversary with another film commentary, so load up your DVDs or what have you - it’s time for a watch-along of National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets! Despite the massive What We Sneep backlog, we skip that segment to get right into the thrilling and extremely confusing action of National Treasure 2. During the process of the film, many questions come up: why is everyone and their mom in this film? What does the Lincoln Assassination have to do with any of this? Is Bruce Greenwood’s version of the president single? Only some of these questions are answered, and more continue to pile up even until the credits roll - you’ll have to listen to find out more. Or ask us, I guess, but then you would miss out on National Treasure 2 and no one wants that. Probably. Also in the process of uploading this episode, it was discovered that Mount Vernon has a National Treasure themed tour, which was extremely exciting until we found out the cellar is closed for renovations right now. Can’t win ‘em all.

The end of 2024 is fast approaching, beloved listeners, and with it comes both the return of Helena and a rush of new films just in time for the holiday season. This week, the Sneople are starting Awards Season Talk! Helena’s got a lot to catch up on RE What We Sneeped, but after that Ezra joins them to talk about all the latest and greatest (?) hits of the season - this was going to be an episode just about Conclave, but is it really a Sneople episode without getting distracted? In this case, the Sneople veer off into talk about the upcoming awards season, what’s likely up for awards this year, and how winning an Oscar can impact a career. Warning: this episode does have some spoilers for Conclave, so if you want to go in blind you may want to save this one for a later date! This is also our last episode of the year! We’ll be back mid-January, for more inevitable Awards Season Talk. Thank you for another lovely year, and we’re excited to spend the next one with all y’all! I’d drop green heart and snake emojis here but I don’t want to break any formatting. Just imagine them in your mind’s eye.

Welcome back, beloved listeners! This week we’re back after a little break with a new guest - Johnny Rinaldo! You know, the person who makes our incredible intro and outro music? Yeah. AND he’s here to talk about one of his favorite shows of all time - Scavengers Reign! After a LOT of off topic chatter about the new Dragon Age game and who we’re romancing, we finally get back on track with the plot of Scavengers Reign for those who have yet to see it or haven’t watched it in a bit. From there, there’s a dissertation on the characters we hated the most (and why we found them interesting anyway), the beauty of both the visuals and the storytelling, and why we are so incredibly desperate for a season two. Also, there’s some explanations as to why we can’t watch shows we care about while we’re eating. That’s our designated Youtube time. Warning for this episode: we get in depth with spoilers for the entire series! If you haven’t watched it yet and want to go in spoiler free (which we do recommend), go ahead and watch it before listening to this episode! Don’t worry, we’ll be here when you’re done.

Happy Halloween, beloved listeners! This week, we’ve got a topic that is both very seasonal and has been a long time coming - vampires! After getting thoroughly distracted for like ten whole minutes by National Mole Day, the Sneople crack open the massive topic of vampire media with a project that’s been haunting Matty for years - Dracula Watch! They don’t linger too long on that Sisyphean task, however, because there is simply too much to cover: Interview with a Vampire, Being Human, Twilight, and (obviously) Buffy the Vampire Slayer to name just a few. John Carpenter’s extremely famous and beloved film Vampires may or may not come up too. Unclear. Also genuinely if you have a rec for a good Dracula adaptation that didn’t come up in this episode, please email us at sneopleathemovies@gmail.com. At least one of us is dying out here.

We have a new game for you this week, beloved listeners! Ben from Syndicated with Lesley and Ben returns to the show to play a Chaos in Stereo classic with us - Is It More Like? The rules of the game are simple: in each round, one of the hosts thinks of a movie, and the other hosts each take turns trying to guess said film by asking if it’s more like one movie or a different one - for example, The Wickerman (1973) or John Wick (2014). The host being asked will say which movie is more like the one they’re thinking of, and the guessing continues until the guessers figure out the movie! There are additional smaller rules mentioned in episode as well, but that’s the basic premise. Note: This episode is missing some initial audio, so it opens with an explanation as well as the rules of the game instead of the normal Sneople opener. Who knows?? Someday,…..the full episode may be recovered…………………. Also in this episode Matty says that I Know What You Did Last Summer came out in 1977 instead of 1997 but they want everyone to know that was a verbal fumble and they promise they knew the correct year the whole time, they swear.

Welcome back, beloved listeners! This week we’re catching up (mostly on Helena’s backlog) with a flashback to high school English class: Roses and Thorns! We’re taking a twist on a long What We Sneep by going through each movie or show we watched and giving it Roses (things about the movie/show we liked) and Thorns (things we didn’t). From Four Weddings and a Funeral to Deadpool and Wolverine to several Alien movies, Matty and Helena cover a wide range of media and get deep into why they loved/hated/liked/felt nothing about all of them. There is, as you may have guessed, a non zero amount of discussion about the Saw movies, and less thorns about the first one then you may expect. We will say in advance that this episode is a little more explicit than usual but lets be real - the show is tagged explicit for a reason. Y’all know what’s up.

Thrilling news, beloved listeners! We have a very special guest this episode - Lys (@daunt_lys on twitter) is on to discuss alien movies with us! After clarifying that this is, in fact, an episode about the genre of alien movies rather than the Alien franchise and also discussing the horrors of the Borderlands movie, the crew gets into the meat of alien movies. By that, we of course mean that all three of them get deeply distracted by Pennywise lore to the point where Ezra’s side of the call crashes, and Lys desperately tries to remember a very weird Nic Cage alien movie they saw. Eventually, they all talk Alien (the franchise) and alien (the concept) movies enough that, for the first time in Sneople history, Matty and Ezra gleefully receive Pop Culture Homework in the form of some recommendations from Lys, who may or may not be handing out stickers depending on the results of said homework. Yay! I, the publisher of this episode, am only sort of sorry for the episode picture. If you’re podcasting via a service that doesn’t show the picture, good news! You’re safe from this very bad joke we describe in episode anyway.

Welcome back, beloved listeners! This week, we’re tackling some movies with bizarre plot twists: The Da Vinci Code, Dracula 2000 and (vaguely), our old friend Van Helsing (2004)! This episode opens with a brief review of the (fascinating? unhinged?) plot of The Da Vinci Code for those who haven’t seen the film or read the book - Matty fell into that category before seeing this movie for the show and boy howdy, they were not ready for the twists this movie had in store. From there, the Sneople dive deep into a discussion on the what, the why, and the what the hell was all that of this movie, before moving onto Dracula 2000, another equally weird film they covered in Episode 62. Lots of crosses and God Talk here folks. Be forewarned. I know we barely talked about Van Helsing this episode but let’s be honest, we’ve talked about that movie enough to last a lifetime. I think we’re set.

We’re back, beloved listeners, and we’re ringing the imaginary boxing match bell in celebration of this week’s Remake Rumble: 3:10 to Yuma (1957) versus it’s 2007 remake! Per any good Remake Rumble episode, the Sneople spend a little time explaining the basic premise of the films before diving headfirst into the differences, what they like or dislike about each, and what makes each of these movies like, SO gay. This doesn’t even cover the fact that there is some very serious discussion on how attractive Russell Crowe is in the remake - it didn’t come up in ep, but Glenn Ford as Ben Wade? ALSO distressingly attractive, just saying. Obviously you’ll have to listen to hear the winner of this remake rumble, but we’ll say this - it’s a lot closer than you might think. On a more serious note, apologies for the delay in releasing this episode! It’ll shift our schedule, but we’ll be back in two weeks with the next Sneople episode, putting us back on our standard biweekly release. I am trying so hard to not make this announcement sound like a corporate email. Yeehaw.

The summer season is in full swing, beloved listeners, heat waves and all! In order to cope, the Sneople are discussing Summer Movies! Like any good Sneople episode, this one features categories galore, like the difference between a movie that makes you think of summer, a summer blockbuster, and a Summer Movie (with many overlaps in-between). With categories comes lists featuring many of the Sneople’s summer faves, such as Jaws, Twister, and National Treasure, a movie duology they’ve somehow never done an episode on. There’s of course also plenty of discussion of what makes summer movies appealing all year round, and the woes of having to get off a vinyl seat when you’re wearing shorts and it’s hot out. The Sneople also want to make it clear they’re not joking about the popsicle rec request in the outro, btw. We’re dying out here, popsicles are a must and we’re on the lookout.

IT’S THEIR BIRTHDAY and by they we mean Matty and by it’s their birthday we mean it was their birthday two weeks ago. The important part is it’s their Birthday Episode and they have a doozy of a triple feature this week - Mad Max 2, Max Mad: Fury Road, and Escape from New York! After their new accidental segment, Concert Talk, Matty gives a brief summary of all three films (more or less), as well as the reasoning behind pairing the three together - spoiler, its mostly how Fury Road and Escape from New York connect to Mad Max 2. From asshole protags to apocalyptic wastelands to Kurt Russell’s marker tattoo and everything in-between (including Bruce Spence, who loves to be in a sequel), the Sneople compare and contrast these three films and why they work well together. There’s also a fair amount of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome affection and Waterworld dunking, if that’s your jam. Also Matty forgot to mention this in the episode, but they noticed during their most recent Fury Road rewatch that they drive their cars the American Way (with the driver sitting on the left) in that movie vs the previous three movies, where they all drive the Australian Way (ie with the driver sitting on the right). It’s been haunting Matty ever since. Why did it take them so long to notice? Was the change because it was produced by an American company? What does George Miller have to say about this? George please pick up the phone the people need to know.

Happy Pride, beloved listeners! This episode, the Sneople are celebrating with an extremely appropriate topic - Camp Film! After a hearty What We Sneep, the Sneople get into describing what they think camp even means when it comes to film, a topic that’s more difficult to tackle than they expected. From there, it’s the camp films and directors they love, why they’ve stood the test of time, and why camp is important to them as queer people. There is, of course, a lot of distractions along the way, but you legally can’t get mad about it because it’s Pride. The Sneople do also spend a lot of time talking about Speed Racer (2008), a movie they decided wasn’t camp, but you have understand - it’s hard not to talk about Speed Racer when you have the chance. They’re not sorry.

No Ezra this week, beloved listeners, so we’re having our dear friend Ben Hamlin of Syndicated with Leslie and Ben and Parascience back to talk with us about something we didn’t realize we were so passionate about: Movie Trailers! After catching up with Ben on what he’s Sneeped recently, our trio dive in to trailers they’ve recently seen, ones they remember from their childhood, and trends they both like and dislike. There’s also a decent amount of discussion on why trailers are the way they are today (negative), and why they find it hard to care about the trailers when they sit down in the theater these days. There is, shockingly, more than a little bit of getting off topic but to be fair, the group remembered that not everyone knows who Kit Fisto is and that caused a mild ruckus. If you want more Ben related content, you can listen to him talk TV on Syndicated with Leslie and Ben, run a creeping and crawling tabletop game with Matty and Ezra on Parascience, and find him (and Matty!) on twitch.tv/infinitybreakgaming every Tuesday at 6:30 PST for Chaos in Stereo!