Spaceballs

The Star Wars parody (with a bit of Star Trek and Lawrence of Arabia thrown in) may not be Mel Brooks’ best film, or his funniest comedy, but it is a film that grows on you with each successive viewing.

This episode is released in 2024 on Star Wars day, May the 4th, as in, May the 4th be with you.

Dan Miwa joins Troy Harkin and David Clink. Dan, being a first-time guest, is asked about his earliest genre memories, and his first genre love. He is then asked the standard 6 questions for first-time guests: Fave Author; Fave Novel; Fave Shorter Work; Fave Movie; Fave TV Series; and, Fave TV episode.

Troy presents a history of the film.

Troy and David and Dan do their Dream Cast and their Schrödinger’s Cast for the following 6 roles:

Lone Starr
(Bill Pullman)

Barf
(John Candy)

Princess Vespa
(Daphne Zuniga)

Dot Matrix
(Joan Rivers)
(voice)

Dark Helmet
(Rick Moranis)

Skroob / Yogurt
(Mel Brooks)

Dan Miwa, lover of all things science fiction and psychological fiction, merged his two favourite genres into his novel “Ret”. The story takes place on a distant planet, within an alien civilization and follows the life of a little alien through a journey of self transformation.

Much of the charm in Ret is how a story with a wild imaginative alien setting can be so relatable at its core.

Ret is not only a powerful coming of age story, it’s a depiction of human life that holds a mirror to the social challenges we face as a society today.

Ret reached #1 in Hot New Release and #2 Best Seller in all his sci fi categories on Amazon. The push for his novel doesn’t stop with the written word. Dan is currently working on converting Ret to a graphic novel and screenplay, as well, he is in the beginning stages of writing a prequel to Ret. Ret 2 Zombie Invasion… just kidding.

Troy and David continue their discussion on sports and games in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.

This is PT.2 of a 2-part episode.

This episode is being broadcast on Saturday, July 08, 2023.

Troy and David come up with an agreed upon list, what they think, collectively, are the top ten horror films of all time. They will also go into what did not make the list. On their previous lists, for top SF films and top fantasy films, they had their own top ten lists, and compared them. This time, this is one list.

There have been a lot of great horror films over the years, so it is difficult to come up with a list – this is very subjective.

Early horror classics are notably missing.
Movies from the last 10-20 years did not make the list.
Movies from outside the US, Canada, and the UK did not make the list.

Troy is a fan of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and that did not make it.

David is a fan of the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and that did not make it.

South Korea and Japan are notable for having had a number of great horror films. There are two Japanese films that have become classics of the genre, and were remade. The remakes were very good on their own, but do not, in our humble opinion, reach the greatness of the originals..

Ringu (Japan 1998) = 7.2 IMDB rating
The Ring (US – 2002) = 7.1 IMDB rating

Ju-On: The Grudge (Japan 2002) = 6.7 IMDB rating
The Grudge (US – 2004) = 5.9 IMDB rating

When it comes to South Korea, the top five South Korean horror movies, according to Rotten Tomatoes, are:
[https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/best-korean-horror-movies/]

#5 = GONJIAM: HAUNTED ASYLUM (2018) 91%
#4 = THE HOST (2006) 93%
#3 = TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016) 94%
#2 = THE WAILING (2016) 99%
#1 = SEOUL STATION (2016) 100%

Troy and David will do a deep dive on international horror films in a future podcast episode. There are horror films that have been produced in almost every continent, in many countries throughout the world, and these should be looked at in more detail, on another show.

The LA Film School has a list of the ten subgenres within horror:

10 SUBGENRES OF HORROR FILMS EXPLAINED
https://www.lafilm.edu/blog/subgenres-of-horror-films-explained/

Demonic Possession (The Exorcist)
Paranormal (Paranormal Activity)
Monster (Frankenstein)
Slasher (Halloween)
Zombie (Night of the Living Dead)
Gore / Splatter (The Evil Dead)
Witchcraft (The Witch)
Vampire (Interview with a Vampire)
Psychological (The Shining)
Comedic (Shaun of the Dead)

With just 10 films in Troy and David’s top ten, some of these categories may have more than one entry in the final list, and some will be missing entirely.

This is the last episode of season 3, and we quickly review the season, at the end of the episode.

We look forward to season 4, after a short break, and the first episode should be available on Saturday, December 24, 2022.

Top Ten Fantasy Films (pt. 2 of 2)

Troy Harkin and David Clink continue with their fantasy movie top ten lists, and the reasons for their selections.

Listen to Troy and David go over their lists, compare and contrast. Maybe you have some of the same films on your own top ten list?

     “The trouble with Jim was he looked at the world and could not look away. And when you never look away all your life, by the time you are thirteen you have done twenty years taking in the laundry of the world.”

Chapter 9, page 40, Something Wicked This Way Comes,
this selection is from ISBN 0-380-97727-3. Avon Books, Hardcover, June 1999.
copyright (c) 1962, 1997 by Ray Bradbury.

This episode of Two Old Farts Talk Sci-Fi is part two of our “Something Wicked This Way Comes” episode.

Something Wicked This Way Comes is a novel by Ray Bradbury, one of the great writers of speculative fiction of the 20th century. Bradbury was (and is) an influence on a generation of writers, including Stephen King.

The story idea began in Bradbury’s head, and found its way out via a short story, a comic, a screenplay, a novel, and a movie.

Troy Harkin and David Clink continue to look at the pivotal novel, in all its iterations.

We will also do our Dream Casting, and our Outside-The-Box Casting, which David has referred to as “Scream Casting,” but, going forward, may be called “Schrödinger’s Cast.”

Our special guest continues to be Sandra Kasturi. She was our special guest for pt. 1 (Episode 13). See author photo (a different one, this time) and a bio (same one from episode 13) below.

Sandra Kasturi is an award-winning poet, writer, and editor, with work appearing in many places including ON SPEC, several Tesseracts anthologies, and 80! Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin.

Her two poetry collections are: The Animal Bridegroom (with an introduction by Neil Gaiman) and Come Late to the Love of Birds (both from Tightrope Books).

Sandra recently won second prize in The New Quarterly’s Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest. She is also the winner of the Sunburst Award for her story “The Beautiful Gears of Dying” and ARC Magazine‘s Poem of the Year Award for “Old Men, Smoking.”