The Projectors

200 Cigarettes (1999)

This is it! The final episode of 2024. Happy New Years! Goodbye to the title of MOVIEHUMPERS. For 2025 GOING forward we are THE PROJECTORS. We jump into next month’s theme as early as tomorrow but we close out a most wonderful time of the year with a New Year’s themed flick that we probably liked a little better in our youth. We were certainly the target age range in terms of “pitching coolness” with this ensemble featuring young stars who got their starts in the eighties and nineties. Ensembles can definitely be a challenge. You can’t deep dive into everyone but you really got to establish some personality and spin a lot of plates and it can be confusing to know when your character is funny or if they’re just annoying. Sure, we can see ourselves in some of the characters in this setting of New Year’s Eve in 1981 New York City but sometimes the abyss stares back at you. Risa Bramon Garcia’s only feature film is the holiday ensemble “200 CIGARETTES” from 1999 and it stars many such as Paul Rudd, Christina Ricci, Kate Hudson, Ben Affleck, Martha Plimpton, Courtney Love and Dave Chappell among many others. Elvis Costello is also in this and based on some evidence we see at the end of this film we think that Elvis may have done something very very bad. Like Cosby style bad. Maybe he did maybe he didn’t but there’s some smoke and the implications are there. We should probably detain him and ask some questions at the very least. Goodbye, MOVIEHUMPERS. Hello, THE PROJECTORS!
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Holiday Affair (1949)

Christmas is in the can. New Years is just around the corner but it’s still that most wonderful time of the year and your soon to be permanently renamed movie talk feed/show/pod is here with another Christmas classic featuring one of our favorites, Robert Mitchum. A fairly strange tale for the Hayes code time as two men, one a rich niceboy and the other a broke swaggart, are after the same single mother. It’s a dirty game and Connie’s rascal kid has a preference real quick. You know where this will go but it’s an interesting journey to get there with some nice performances. Don Hartman’s 1949 classic Christmas rom-com “HOLIDAY AFFAIR” stands out as worthy little charmer for the holidays. It also stars Janet Leigh & Wendell Corey who plays Carl who, despite being NOT the love interest, might be the nicest guy on the planet in 1949. Mitchum’s “Steve” is not so nice in comparison but you know he’s gonna get you outta them britches. Maybe even late era Mitchum when he was just walking around with those big glasses. He was also constantly drunk. He threw a basketball at a lady and knocked out her teeth. Does that eliminate him as our dawg? …not yet. The needs to be a deliberation period. For now let’s discuss HOLIDAY AFFAIR!
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Eight Crazy Nights (2002)

With Christmas in the can, now Hanukkah’s the man. When it comes to holiday themed movies, Hanukkah might be even more scarce than Thanksgiving but for the third day of Hanukkah we got the Sand-man coming up in the clutch with the 2002 animated holiday film “EIGHT CRAZY NIGHTS” directed by Seth Kearsley. By “Sand-man” we mean, of course, Adam Sandler who wrote and produced this crude animated comedy that isn’t without laughs and a bit of charm but does it merit the category of contemporary holiday classic? When it comes to Adam Sandler fare, we’re all over the place. We’re very up and down. We never know how we’ll feel. He hits it for us or he doesn’t but nothing but respect for the Sand-man who seems to be a very very good friend to the people he came up with. Sometimes he even sacrifices a good movie for his friends. Is that the case here? Why do all those horrible things keep happening to our boy, Whitey? He’s the sweetest dude. His sister, Eleanor is the most consistent laugh in the flick. Also…poo. Is there enough poo in this movie? It’s a musical too but we can only vouch for the quality of one song. “Technical Foul” actually goes. Remix that shit for the clubs. Happy Hanukkah. 
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The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Merry dang Christmas. Yeah, we got a Christmas Day drop. Angela is making us work on a major holiday for little to no (zero) pay. She’s a real “Ebenezer Scrooge”. This episode of MOVIEHUMPERS (soon to be “THE PROJECTORS”) might be the loosest one yet. Way more loose than your mother. What are we saying? Why are we being so antagonistic? Is this what Christ would have wanted? It’s HIS day. HIStory. The fuck is “wassailing”? I don’t know let me look it up… “To encourage the spirits of the trees to ensure a good harvest”. Wow, it’s about crooning the trees so that you get bountiful cider. Real old world shit. Wassailing turned out to be cooler than I thought it would be not unlike “THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL” from 1992 starring Michael Caine and our felty friends, The Muppets. Directed by Brian Henson and the first Muppet film after Jim Henson’s death. We all know the story. Hell, this is our second film adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” this month. The real question in every adaptation is, of course, “What do the ghosts look like?”. A bit more unsettling considering what one might expect from the world of Muppets. Could a Muppet ever be an official Moviehumpers/Projectors “DAWG”??? Truly, I Miss Piggy might be the only one. We love how she attacks people. She sparked our lifelong love of karate. God bless us everyone.
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Rankin/Bass Christmas: Movie Review 6 Pack

It’s Christmas Eve! Bob bless us everyone. We will let you pick into your stockings early and give you a holiday themed 6-Pack featuring hour long stop-motion TV specials by those seasonal legends Arthur Rankin & Jules Bass. Or just Rankin/Bass if you wanna get nasty under the mistletoe. These are the specials, a few based on some old hit Christmas songs, that generations came to know and love and added a mythology to the holiday season that still seems to resonate in pop culture. You know who we’re talkin’ about. Rudolph, Santa, Heimey, Topper, Aeon, Heat Miser, Mrs. Claus and the Great Ack. Everyone loves the Great Ack. These specials span over two decades. We found links to all the specials we discussed so we will pop a convenient link list for you below if you want to revisit any of them. Merry Christmas. We will return tomorrow for a Christmas episode you will be too busy to listen to.
 
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964): https://archive.org/details/rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer-full-movie-1080-p-hd
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (1970): https://archive.org/details/santa-claus-is-coming-to-town-1970_202203
The Year Without Santa Clause (1974): https://archive.org/details/theyearwithoutasantaclausrankinbassproductions1974
Jack Frost (1979): https://archive.org/details/JackFrost1979
Rudolph’s Shiny New Year (1976): https://archive.org/details/rudolphs-shiny-new-year-1976-1080p-hd
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1985): https://archive.org/details/the-life-and-adventures-of-santa-claus-1985-hd
 
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Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

It’s Christmas week here at MOVIEHUMPERS (soon to be called THE PROJECTORS) and we’re hitting up another classic era Christmas romantic comedy. The farce gets pretty thick in today’s discussion but the charm is consistent in this comedy of errors starring a beaming Barbara Stanwyck in Peter Godfrey’s 1945 comedy “CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT”. Stanwyck plays Liz, a society gal who writes fictional first hand accounts of farm wife life. When a nice war hero, inspired by Liz’s articles, wants to stay and visit then Liz has to figure out how to fake it all for the soldier and also her boss for fear of being fired. There’s some contrived other plot points that thread this all together, including an engagement that Liz gets wrangled in to, but it’s pretty hard not to feel the romance between the hunky sweet sailor and the society gal. Also starring Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet, Reginald Gardiner and S.Z. Sakall. If only she could tell him the truth and keep her job. I mean, she could. Why should her boss care? She’s moving magazines ain’t she? Stanwyck is a worthy comedic lead and this is one of the funnier of the Christmas Classics we’ve discussed. 
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January 2025 Preview + Big Show Changes!

Announcement drop regarding some pretty big show changes! RSS feed changes, January's theme and movie announcements & OUR BRAND NEW SHOW NAME! 
January's upcoming schedule:
1/1 - Eraserhead (1977)
1/2 - The Elephant Man (1980)
1/3 - Dune (1984)
1/6 - A New Leaf (1971)
1/8 - The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
1/10 - Mikey and Nicky (1976)
1/13 - The Lusty Men (1952)
1/14 - Johnny Guitar (1954)
1/15 - Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
1/16 - Hot Blood (1956)
1/17 - Bigger Than Life (1956)
1/20 - True Love (1989)
1/22 - Dogfight (1991)
1/24 - Household Saints (1993)
1/27 - The Last Duel (2021)
1/28 - House of Gucci (2021)
1/29 - Napoleon (2023)
1/30 - Gladiator II (2024)
1/31 - The Sixth Sense (1999)

Scrooged (1988)

We’re deep into our second annual Christmas movie theme and we haven’t mined any material from, or inspired by, the Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol”. Fuck it, this year we’ll do two adaptations and maybe catch an old version of the story next year. This particular adaptation was prime basic cable Christmas break material when we were kids and in many ways it holds up and even impresses in certain ways. Bill Murray could carry a comedy in the 80s and his leading role of a stingy TV executive Scrooge-stand-in does deliver some quality jokes bouncing off of an extended comedic cast. Richard Donner’s 1988 Christmas comedy “SCROOGED” remains pretty worthy holiday cheer and there’s no shortage of prime 80s stars including Bobcat Goldthwait, Carol Kane, David Johansen, Alfre Woodard and Karen Allen. There’s also some nice appearances from veteran actors of TV and film such as Robert Mitchum, John Forsythe, John Houseman and Buddy Hackett. Miles Davis is even in this thing. Folks, you gotta bring out the bells and whistles when you’re adapting a story that everybody knows. You gotta throw some horror in there. Maybe even a little sadism. Just go with it. You might like it. 
 
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Santa Claus vs The Devil (1959)

At this point you’ve probably heard Andy Williams say it 500 times…it’s the most wonderful time of the year and in the spirit of Christmas Camp we’ve gone into some deep cut low budget yuletide filmmaking that isn’t without some imagination alongside some tediousness. Maybe it felt so dragging because we’re moving so fast in our technological world, man. Maybe René Cardona’s 1959 film “SANTA CLAUS or SANTA CLAUS VS THE DEVIL” starring José Elías Moreno and José Luis Aguirre is a gift from Mexico to the world in the name of goodness and good cheer and we all need to take our time and soak it in and admire the patience required of peace on Earth and good will towards men. Santa Claus, from his space cloud town antagonizes a demon called Pitch. With the help of enslaved children as well as his live-in lovers, Merlyn and Mr. Blacksmith, Santa attempts get Christmas handled before the demon corrupts all the children. Pitch does corrupt three kids but you completely understand them and are on their side. Santa should truly be shot in the streets like a health insurance CEO for all the child enslavement he’s doing in this movie. It doesn’t matter that he has super computers with big luscious lips on them. Lips that can do lots of things. Here’s the movie, it’s easy to find: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXI1x63SnoY
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The Bishop's Wife (1947)

We’re just ho-ho-hoeing along during this Christmas movie season and Mondays are often devoted to that period of film we call “the classics” and today we’re going for that Carey Grant razzle dazzle as we sit down to discuss one of his most charismatic performances in Henry Koster’s 1947 film “THE BISHOP’S WIFE” starring Grant as the angel Dudley who comes into the lives of a Bishop and his wife played by David Niven and Loretta Young after a prayer of guidance. It takes some convincing but the Bishop comes to accept that Dudley really is an angel but holy smokes this angel has been hanging out with his wife A LOT. She sure doesn’t smile for the Bishop like that. They’re going on all the dates the Bishop is too busy for. This Dudley has the whole parish fully razzed up. Is the Bishop gonna have to get like Jacob and throw down with this Angel or will his prayer be answered in ways he didn’t expect? Gee, I wonder what happens. It’s Hayes code so they definitely get into a three way. A very charming flick with some Gregg Toland cinematography and we got a link for you right here: https://archive.org/details/the-bishops-wife-1947-christmas-classic
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