The Worst Part of My Favorite Movie

For the season finale, we're joined by author Will Sloan (Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA) to discuss his great new book about the so-called "Worst Director of All Time," how to approach cinematic reclamation, and the movie he's seen possibly more than any other: Tim Burton's "Batman." You wanna get nuts? C'mon! Let's get nuts!

Award-winning sound and sound-effects artist Matt "Smokey" Cloud (Stranger Things, Predator: Badlands, The Naked Gun, many other titles) stops by to talk about "Die Hard."  We discuss producer Joel Silver's infamous "Whammo Chart," director John McTiernan's efforts to infuse a little Shakespeare into the material, and what creative choices set the film apart from other '80s action movies. Oh, and there's also an "Airheads" clip for all of the "Airheads" Heads out there.

We're joined today by Justin LaLiberty (curator and producer at Cinématographe) to talk about the world of boutique Blu-ray labels, the films of Paul Verhoeven, and the continuing relevance and endurance of "RoboCop." Is it Verhoeven's most wide-eyed look at America? How did his outsider's perspective help shape the material? Would the film have lost its edge had it looked like "Blade Runner," as Verhoeven originally wanted? Your prime directive... is to listen to this episode.

Film critic Katie Walsh (Tribune News Service, Los Angeles Times) braves facehuggers, chestbursters, and hordes of xenomorphs to talk about James Cameron's "Aliens." We discuss the evolution of Cameron's storytelling as his movies have become more ambitious, examine producer Gale Anne Hurd's role as "Cameron Whisperer" during the early phase of his directing career, and reflect on what makes "Aliens" such a satisfying sequel. Plus, we debut a brand new segment called Good Movie/Bad Movie! (Special thanks to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation for sponsoring this episode.)

Vulture critic Roxana Hadadi joins the podcast to discuss Martin Scorsese's "After Hours," and helps us trace the film's journey from once being considered a minor effort to now being viewed as one of the most pivotal movies in Scorsese's career. She also names the Scorsese film she'd most like to see added to the Criterion Collection, and offers her theory as to why Scorsese's work is often more fully appreciated a decade after the fact.