Classic Movies Live!

In 1993, an enormous corporation gave a small group of creatives the opportunity to create their dream project based on one of the biggest media franchises of all time. Despite behind-the-scenes troubles, including a production schedule that ended up being significantly different than originally planned, the film finally released against all odds... only to be met with relative apathy from the moviegoing public. But over the years, that film would be reappraised, with new fans discovering it on home media and kicking themselves that they weren't there in the first week. Hundreds of weeks later, our hosts sat down to talk about that movie in yet another exploration of a certified classic. No, it's not Super Mario Bros.; this week, Pierre and Jeff break down Batman: Mask of the Phantasm! Written and produced between seasons 1 and 2 of Batman: The Animated Series, Mask of the Phantasm finds Batman facing his past when a mysterious figure called the Phantasm begins killing mafia bosses in Gotham City. At the same time, Bruce Wayne's old flame Andrea Beaumont comes back to town to... visit? Settle some business with her father's successor as CEO of Beaumont Industries? It's a little unclear, but it's up to the World's Greatest Detective to make it clear, and discover what Andi's been up to since they last met... and learn how this all ties back to the Phantasm. Jeff takes a few points from this review of Mask of the Phantasm by Darren Mooney on Letterboxd. Check it out, it's a good read!

This week on Classic Movies Live! our hosts take a quick detour to talk about a verified, certified classic! This is the companion piece to our previous episode on No Country for Old Men, covering the other big player at the 80th Academy Awards: There Will Be Blood! Considered by many to be director Paul Thomas Anderson's magnum opus, There Will Be Blood stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, an oil-man attempting to strike rich in the town of Little Boston. As Plainview buys up the land in town, promising untold riches and prosperity to the people of Little Boston, he runs up against Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), a local preacher and "son of these hills" who is, to put it lightly, not fond of the way Plainview conducts business. There Will Be Blood would go on to be nominated for 8 Academy Awards, winning Best Actor in a Leading Role for Daniel Day-Lewis and Best Cinematography for Robert Elswit. Perhaps just as impressively, it was the second movie that our co-host Jeff would see in the Dundee Theatre in Omaha, Nebraska, becoming the centrepiece of a formative experience to his development as a cinephile. You know the drill: both our hosts have seen this movie, and they've got thoughts! Are they good thoughts? Bad thoughts? Oil thoughts? Tune in as Pierre and Jeff dissect another classic movie... live!