Film Junk Premium Podcast #65: Bill and Ted’s Franchise + Buckaroo Banzai

Posted by on June 4th, 2018   Filed under: Featured, Film Junk Podcast, Premium Podcast

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Gentlemen, we’re history… With the recent announcement of a third Bill & Ted movie, we thought it was finally time to revisit the original two installments in all their late ’80s / early ’90s glory. We also decided to pair them with another ’80s musical sci-fi cult comedy, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. Along the way we philosophize about time travel theory, the crucial factors to assembling a great soundtrack, the blinding power of nostalgia and the strange career of Keanu Reeves. So is Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey a misunderstood masterpiece or just a misfire? Can any of us remember the plot of Buckaroo Banzai? Which member of the Film Junk crew is a true Bill & Ted head? Be excellent to each other and download this month’s premium podcast below.

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This series of premium podcasts was created to help support the regular weekly Film Junk Podcast. Head on over to Bandcamp and download full episodes for a minimum donation of just $1. As always, let us know if you experience any technical difficulties or if you have any other suggestions for future specials. Thanks for your support!

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  • Lori Cerny

    Well, Jay certainly had his own personal agenda for the premium.

  • Lori Cerny

    Glad to hear some love for Banzai. Me and my best friend in grade school watched the movie eight times in the theaters. It’s campy, self-aware, and doesn’t treat the audience like they are idiots.

  • Colin

    This is a pretty sad premium on many fronts… as Lori pointed out, the attacks on Frank were unfair and uncalled for. Take a look back at the number of horror premiums Frank has happily done and it’s clear that he’s fully justified in being able to enjoy one for a comedy series free from ridiculous personal inquisition.

    But more distressing is the amount of effort in this show… it clocks in at a whopping 102 minutes. Is that premium? For comparison, no premium (aside from the Home Alone commentary track) has ever charted in below 2 hours… including BttF where you guys forgot to do top/bottom 5s:

    Star Wars: The Prequels – 176~ minutes
    Star Wars: Original Trilogy – 193~
    Jurassic Park + Xmas – 247~
    Back to the Future – 132~
    Matrix Trilogy – 163~
    The Terminator Legacy – 165~
    The Batman Saga – 236~
    The Rocky Saga – 198~
    The Indiana Jones Series – 208~
    Trilogy of the Dead – 137~
    James Bond – 201~
    The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – 184~
    Alfred Hitchcock – 155~
    The Die Hard Series – 213~
    80’s Fantasy Films – 175~
    The Evil Dead Trilogy – 148~
    The Star Trek Original Motion Picture Franchise – 182~
    The Superman Franchise – 180~
    Independence Day Commentary Track – 144~
    The Alien Quadrilogy + Prometheus – 185~
    The Friday the 13th Franchise – 179~
    John Carpenter – 174~
    The Lethal Weapon Series – 158~
    The Harry Potter Series – 271~
    The Robocop Trilogy + Starship Troopers – 146~
    M. Night Shamalan – 194~
    Godzilla – 160~
    The Planet of the Apes Series – 188~
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Series – 162~
    The Exorcist Anthology – 157~
    The Halloween Franchise – 201~
    Kevin Smith – 175~
    The Toy Story Trilogy – 177~
    The Spider-Man Trilogy – 163~
    80’s Toys Franchise Films – 156~
    The Twilight Saga – 168~
    The Fast & Furious Franchise – 215~
    The Mad Max Trilogy – 152~
    Marvel: Phase One – 188~
    The Mission: Impossible Franchise – 145~
    Joe Dante – 164~
    A Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise – 163~
    Steven Spielberg Sci-Fi Spectacular – 213~
    Quentin Tarantino – 183~
    Michael Bay – 209~
    The Coen Brothers – 197~
    John Carpenter: Part 2 – 178~
    The X-Men Franchise – 189~
    The Jaws Franchise – 146~
    The Ghostbusters Franchise – 152~
    Tim Burton – 162~
    Rob Zombie – 152~
    Tobe Hooper – 145~
    Robert Zemeckis – 213~
    Home Alone Commentary – 106~
    Martin Scorsese – 208~
    King Kong – 139~
    David Lynch – 179~
    Edgar Wright – 137~
    Robert Rodriguez – 138~
    Stephen King – 144~
    80’s Vampire Movies – 131~
    David Fincher – 218~
    Wes Anderson – 152~
    Bill & Ted’s Franchise + Buckaroo Bonzai – 102~

  • Frankie Knuckles

    Just want to make one thing clear … in no way did I feel I was being “attacked” by Jay. We were joking around and escalating the argument for fun, if you could see our faces, it would be pretty obvious.

  • josh kolb

    It’s a buck.

  • josh kolb

    Super fun premium. Have any of you seen Alex Winter’s Freaked? Fits right in with this conversation.

  • Sean

    When we first started doing these we kind of screwed ourselves by setting a pretty high bar in terms of quantity and a low bar in terms of price point. I can’t blame you for feeling that the value of an episode like this is less, but the pace is one we aren’t really able to maintain anymore. We kind of just decided that we’re going to start doing some shorter premiums and keep having fun with them rather than make it feel like a chore. We hope you still find them worthwhile, but if not, that’s cool too.

  • Sean

    It was suggested by several people and I don’t think any of us have seen it but I may try to check it out in the near future.

  • josh kolb

    Super worthwhile. Loving it.

  • Niklas

    Can’t you change the price point? I never pay $1 because thats ridiculously low and I know its supporting the regular show as well.

  • devolutionary

    Yeah even though I was late to the movie, I was bummed to discover that a sequel never materialized. Same goes with Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins.

  • devolutionary

    “Frank! An erection…what is it?”

  • Samb

    Regarding anchovies — I agree they weren’t that popular a pizza option by the late ’80s (when I happened to spin pies for a living…we’d keep a couple of tins in the cooler, but might do 3-4 anchovy pizzas a week), but I get the sense they were more popular back in the days when the average adult was killing his/her taste buds with cheap liquor and cigarettes. I know my older relatives were into some gross shit like that….

  • Sam

    I’m perfectly fine with the length of the premiums. The only thing I miss is some kind of regularity with them, but fully understand the time and effort that goes into them, so it’s mostly me just being selfish.

    Nonetheless, had a lot of fun with this premium once again. Loved the grilling of Frank.

  • Kasper

    Loved this premium, the erection banter was stellar.

  • Kasper

    Oh, if there’s one premium I’d love to hear if you guys are planning on making them shorter in general it’d be getting Scott on to talk Akira, having him be the resident weeb and Jay being a curmudgeon about anime is the worst thing ever.

  • Samb

    Akira + Ikiru = premium gold

  • Indianamcclain

    From what I remember Freaked is funnier than both of the Bill and Ted films.

  • Oso Jugo

    Jay should watch Perfect Blue if he doesn’t like anime. I think the mass of anime is worthless in general myself but Perfect Blue is what anime could be. Apparently it was a big inspiration for Aronofsky’s Black Swan. Or he ripped it off.

    The entirety of Perfect Blue can also be found on the youtube.

  • Kenneth Serenyi

    It sounds like Jay wanted “Excellent Adventure” to be more like “Time Bandits”. I agree with Frank’s assessment of the corn dog scene, especially since the girls call Freud a geek, Socrates repeating the insult to him, and Freud not knowing what it means. The erection joke would be over most kid’s heads and would only be noticed during later viewings.

  • Hunter Allen

    I pay $1 practically every time and I’m also fine with a 102 minute premium. BARE MINIMUM.* I mean, it’s feature length. It’s fine.

    That said, if you guys raised the price a bit, I wouldn’t hate it; I’d prefer a more expensive premium to a Pateron thing. On the other hand, I’d need a hook, as Frank would say, and would be way more hesitant to lay the dollar(s) down on stuff I didn’t especially care about, e.g., an Errol Morris premium. Still, the main thing is, I do worry a bit about Filmjunk lately, like you guys (by which I kind of obviously mean he, Jay) might be beginning to feel the weight of the years, and while I’m not sure more income can take that weight off, I guess it couldn’t possibly hurt, so go nuts, I guess. Just not too nuts?

    *Now, while this is mainly supporting Jay rather than FJ overall, I did buy How To Build a Time Machine. Bare minimum nevertheless, though: I got it with no picture, because I wanted it sometime this century (I did get it; thanks Jay!); and because for some reason it already costs eight fucking dollars to send a package from Canadatown, Ontario, across a fucking lake to Pittsburgh; and while I have no idea exactly how long a Jay sketch takes, my guess is he didn’t do the math re: $10/drawing and is making somewhere around the (American) minimum wage on them, and I really didn’t want to add to that horrible, hilariously self-imposed burden.