Archive for 2012|Yearly archive page
ALEX WEINER, HULK APPEARS IN TOILET BOWL, THAT CHILD GOT MUSCLES, WHY ELLIOTT GOULD WHY
In Podcasts on May 27, 2012 at 8:08 pm
I swear to you, this is the last shot of the film and Hogan’s line is ‘Who’s your daddy?’
The myth of Hercules just like you learned in school. You know, the one where Hulk Hogan was Zeus, Socrates was an aging neurotic Jew who lived in Heaven, Satan was actually the WWF’s The Big Show and, to prove his might, Young Hercules had to win a track meet in Burbank, California. We bring you Little Hercules in 3-D, a batshit insane cross between Clash of the Titans, Chariots of Fire and… uh… Encino Man? The film stars everyone’s favorite forgotten-physically-ripped-child-that-appeared-on-the-Maury-Povich-show Richard Sandak and a random collection of people who should feel very ashamed that they had the time to devote to this nonsense. Please note that the podcast is not available in 3D.
Joining us this week is actor Alex Weiner whom you may recognize from his appearances as Ricky the Pizza Guy on Blue Mountain State or in the film Territories. Watch for Alex in the upcoming feature films The Good Lie and Clyde Cynic as well as the short film Something More Than Nothing directed by none other than WDIE host Alex Rose and past guest Louis Lazaris.
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Music this week provided by Young Lungs – the song ‘Blood in the Streets’ can be found on the 7’’ record of the same name available here. You can also check out the video for the song here, directed by the aforementioned Louis Lazaris.
BEYOND BELIEF: FACT OR FICTION, JOHNNY WOOPS, NAKED GUY IN SF, SUE JOHANSEN, TONY CURTIS
In Podcasts on May 22, 2012 at 7:15 pm
With a title like that, I thought they would maybe get sucked into the videogame, but alas… At least we have Brainscan.
Keir Dullea and a highly bored Tony Curtis star in BrainWaves, a dumb horror/thriller by serial-killer auteur and possible Worst Director of All Time Ulli Lommell that we picked because it happened to be shot in San Francisco, from which Alex has just recently returned. Unfortunately this ain’t no Bullit, although someone does narrowly avoid getting run over by a cable car. Instead it’s more or less like the longest Twilight Zone episode ever while also pulling off the feat of being the shortest film we’ve seen yet. We discuss public nudity, Keith Moon’s solo album, Curtis’ almost-pathological need to play doctors in batshit insane Z-list movies and Dan’s tortured relationship with sex doctor Sue Johansen.
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Music this week provided by She’s Got A Habit. The song Call it Love can be found on the Blindfold Test EP, available here . They’ve also just released a live video for the track Different Directions which you can view here.
ALEX HATES GHOST MOVIES, GARDEN STATE SOUNDTRACK, KILMER 'N GOSS
In Podcasts on May 14, 2012 at 12:15 pm
By far the most exciting scene in Seven Below.
After several months, the stars have aligned once more and brought another Luke Goss / Val Kilmer pairing to the shores of Why Does It Exist? This time it’s an extremely familiar story of seven strangers trapped in a house WHICH MAY BE HAUNTED. Thankfully, Mssrs. Valium S. Kilmer and Vingaling Rhames are on hand to provide bug-eyed overacting as a small ethereal child runs around stabbing the rest of the cast until they dissipate into black smoke. Dodgy accents, unexplained coincidences and eye-rolling abound in this week’s episode, SEVEN BELOW!
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Music this week by Cinéma L’Amour. The song ‘Empty Bottles’ can be found at their Bandcamp.
HUBRISTIC NONSENSE, LOU 'TOP 40' REED, PAUL SIMON MOPES, PRINCE VALIANT HAIRCUT
In Podcasts on May 6, 2012 at 5:29 pm
I almost went for one of Mopin’ Simon, but this is more important in terms of archiving nonsensical shit.
Hot off the success of his supporting role in Annie Hall, Paul Simon went full tilt boogie and wrote himself a starring vehicle in the form of One Trick Pony, an extremely mopey 1980 drama where Simon plays a less successful (and ostensibly much mopier) version of himself that opens for the B-52s, beds St. Elmo’s Fire alumni Mare Winningham and finds low-rent antagonists in a Top 40-centered producer played by Lou Reed and a clueless record company bigwig played by Rip Torn in a ravishing Prince Valiant haircut. Lots of pint-sized pondering from Simon and some of the most generic music of his career in this week’s Why Does It Exist?
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Music this week is provided by UN. The song ‘Go Seeker!’ will appear on their upcoming full-length, due out in June. You can find them online here and here.
ARMLESS EXHIBITIONIST, HARRY REEMS, MORE SEMANTICS OF NUDITY, NO SAUSAGE SANDWICHES
In Podcasts on May 1, 2012 at 8:38 pm
As you'll find out, the DVD was defective so I could not take screen captures. Here is a picture of some hot dogs.
Deep Throat made Harry Reems a highly unlikely star, but by 1980 his alcohol and drug abuse had pretty much killed his porn career. The obvious move was, of course, to go to Québec and take the straight-man role (no pun intended) in the least essential outing of the Maple Syrup Porn genre, Hot Dogs. Basically an even more sophomoric and plotless proto-Police Academy, Hot Dogs is so bored with its own identity that it barely has jokes and treats even its copious nudity as an afterthought. Consequently, we spend a good chunk of the episode discussing Lena Dunham’s show Girls, because we are people on the internet and the gods of the internet have asked all of us to chime with our opinions about Girls.
I also learned today that even singing a song on a podcast without consent might put you in the realm of copyright violation, so you should probably listen to this before the band Train sues us into oblivion for mistaking them for Jack Johnson.
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Music this week by Colors on Trial. The song The Inmates can be download for free here.
MICHAEL BIEHN, MOXY FURVOUS SUPERFAN, MY LADY D'ARBANVILLE, RENÉ ANGÉLIL, THE SEMANTICS OF NUDITY
In Podcasts on April 22, 2012 at 12:18 pm
You know things are about to get real when your tough guy antagonists look like Robert Rodriguez and Phil Lynott.
No study of Canadian tax shelter films would be complete without a zany snobs-vs.-slobs sex comedy. Hog Wild more or less fulfills that purpose by pitting a young Michael Biehn and his nerdy cohorts against the least threatening group of bikers in the history of cinema. At this point we know full well that nothing warms the cockles of Dan’s heart like pratfalls and foodfights and the film delivers in spades. Meanwhile, Alex rails against the perceived threat of CGI nudity, we discuss the Mario cartoon / live-action hybrid, our respective graduation songs and Jian Ghomeshi’s soothing monologues.
If you’re in Montreal this week, be sure to check out our live show! We’ll be introducing a 16mm screening of Saturn 3 at the Blue Sunshine Psychotronic Film Centre on April 27th! Entrance is 8$ with a free drink!
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Music this week is Wild Rose Country by Holland Creek. You can download their album Houses for FREE here.
BEAR EJACULATIONS, Canuxploitation, CLOTHING-OPTIONAL ISLAND, GIANT AMOROUS APE, VANITY
In Podcasts on April 15, 2012 at 2:27 pm
Guys, I know what this looks like. I'm here to tell you: this is exactly what's happening.
This week we welcome our friend David Bertrand of the Blue Sunshine Psychotronic Film Centre to the studio / bedroom for a viewing of the oft-overlooked Canadian tax shelter classic Tanya’s Island Although mostly taking place on an unnamed island (actually Puerto Rico), Canadian money and ‘talent’ was used in this tale of a dream-like love triangle between a beardo, Prince protégée Vanity and a giant fucking (literally) cave-dwelling ape. Although we struggled to identify the Canadian identity of this erotic classic, we struggled even more with trying to wrap our minds around its many intricacies. The shortest episode of Why Does It Exist? thus far, -perhaps, but certainly the densest and most thought-provoking.
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David Bertrand is a writer, filmmaker, musician and Renaissance man who has run a funky movie theater out of his Montreal apartment for the last two years. The adventure is ending in mid-May, so you have but a scant few weeks to make the best out of Blue Sunshine!
Music this week provided by Alice & The Intellects. The song ‘Make it Better’, off their album Balloon Ride, can be downloaded for free at their Bandcamp.
Canuxploitation, Legendary Canadian Politeness, Molson Export, Oliver Reed
In Podcasts on April 10, 2012 at 6:33 pm
Behind the scenes peek: if there's a poster here instead of a hilarious picture, I probably forgot the DVD at Dan's.
After a brief (yet predictable) MIA spell for Dan, Why Does It Exist? returns for a month-long foray into the exciting world of Canuxploitation and more specifically of tax-shelter films from 1978 to 1982. Capital Cost April begins in full swing with Tomorrow Never Comes, a Montreal-shot hostage thriller that essentially plays out like a low-wattage Dog Day Afternoon with 100% more cans of Molson Export. A whispery, roast-beefesque Oliver Reed leads negotiations with the unhinged Stephen McHattie as he holds his ex-girlfriend (Susan George of Straw Dogs infamy, wailing hysterically as always) hostage. Lots of character actors are trotted out to give exposition, everybody sweats a whole bunch and the rebellious spirit of 1978 Laval is stamped out in favour of non-descript suburban nonsense.
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Featured music this week are selections from Montreal supergroup Quatro’s newest EP, Les éclairs me donnent la vie. You can listen to and purchase it here.
NUDE ROWING, PETER SELLERS, RINGO STARR, SHENANIGANS, SWIMMING IN POOP
In Podcasts on April 1, 2012 at 2:49 pm
A Confederacy of Mustaches.
If, like us, the sight of Ringo Starr sitting in Peter Sellers’ lap sends you in a tizzy, you’ll certainly enjoy this week’s episode. The Magic Christian features everyone’s favorite diminutive drummer as a homeless urchin who is adopted by the richest man in the world. Together, they run around the English countryside paying people to do humiliating things, like eating parking tickets and various other wacky 60’s things. It ends with everyone literally swimming around in poop. Yul Brynner like you’ve never seen him! Norah Paré (Alex’s girlfriend and Ringo super-fan) joins us for a classy, classy viewing of this forgotten slice of 60’s nonsense.
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The featured artist this week is CTZNSHP. The song ‘On a Roll’ from their Swan Dive EP can be found here. The band will be recording a new album in the spring, so keep your eyes peeled!
BULGARIA, LOUIS LAZARIS, PIZZA MAN, VERNE TROYER CLIMBING OUT OF A TOILET
In Podcasts on March 26, 2012 at 8:57 pm
Mister Troyer... Are you... trying to seduce me?
We’re not always about farts and Burts here at Why Does It Exist? Sometimes we really delve into film history, analyzing trends and genres with depth and intelligent discussion. This week’s episode has us analyzing a document of unimaginable historical importance: Hard Cash, the very first direct-to-video action movie for both Val Kilmer and Christian Slater. History speaks of game changers; this, my friends, is a whole new game.
Witness as Kilmer robs Marlon Brando’s not-quite-dead body for all possible forms of showboating nonsense! Imagine a world peopled exclusively with shitty old brown cars from the 80’s! Hear about Darryl Hannah’s extremely low pleather pants! Marvel at the idea of Verne Troyer climbing out of the toilet! Sit in stunned silence as we explore the untold marvels of Hard Cash!
Along with us for this ride is Montreal-based filmmaker and former roommate Louis Lazaris. You can view Louis’ videos here and look at various other things that he’s done here. His video for the band Young Lungs drops in April, and his short film Something More Than Nothing (co-directed by Why Does It Exist? grand poobah Alex Rose) is set to air on CBC in 2012.
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Our featured song this week is Hold On (Throw It At Your Dad’s House) by Goose Hut. You can find them online here and here.
Why Does It Exist? 