The Pink Smoke podcast The Pink Smoke

A Pink Smoke tradition resurrected: our once annual Summer Movie Blockbuster Preview Extravaganza returns from the dead as we train a beady and judgmental eye on all that Hollywood has to offer over an increasingly marginalized and marginal summer blockbuster season. Even if audiences no longer flock (in droves!) to big budget star-studded special effects spectaculars the way they used to, it’s still worth considering what the immediate future holds for le cinema du multiplex.

Hosts John Cribbs, Martin Kessler and Christopher Funderburg are joined by Pink Smoke copache Marcus Pinn to discuss Fall Guys, Deadpools, Borderlandies, the ways in which Howard Stern resembles Brandon Lee, under what circumstances you might be willing to watch Daddio, how much of a benefit of the doubt George Miller has earned and betraying the true essence of Garfield. It is essential listening for All True Cinephiles. As essential as A Quiet Place: Day One or Despicable Me 4.

Support our Patreon:
www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke

The Pink Smoke site:
www.thepinksmoke.com

Christopher Funderburg on X:
twitter.com/cfunderburg

John Cribbs on X:
twitter.com/TheLastMachine

Marcus Pinn on Twitter:
twitter.com/PINNLAND_EMPIRE

Movie Kessler on X:
twitter.com/MovieKessler

The Pink Smoke on X:
twitter.com/thepinksmoke

Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two”
Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

“War… war never changes…”

Attention wastelanders, time to strap on the ol’ power armor and grab a rusty gauss rifle, we’re headed into (and out) of Vault 33 to explore the new streaming TV series based on the massively popular open-world RPG Fallout video game series.

Host Christopher Funderburg is joined by fellow fans of the video game series, screenwriter Tom Vaughan and critic Stephanie Crawford, to discuss the 8-episode first season of the new show from executive producer Jonathan Nolan (who also directed a few episodes.)

They talk about how to adapt a video game into a different kind of narrative art, how the specificity of the Fallout world translates into a new medium, the rifts within Fallout fandom, the charm of Walton Goggins and the perks of creating a bloody mess.

Support our Patreon:
www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke

Tom Vaughan on X:
twitter.com/storyandplot

The Pink Smoke site:
www.thepinksmoke.com

The Pink Smoke on X:
twitter.com/thepinksmoke

Christopher Funderburg on X:
twitter.com/cfunderburg

Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two”
Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

Episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers one week before their general release.

{www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke}

For the first episode of our new series 197:4 Fifty Years Later, we’re joined by the first guest ever to appear on the podcast, the peerless man of le cinema Brian Saur. The Pure Cinema and Just the Discs podcast impresario selected for our conversation to discuss one of the most maligned and neglected Best Picture nominees of all-time, the ne plus ultra of blockbuster disaster films, The Towering Inferno.

Star-studded cast featuring Steve McQueen (at the height of his box office power), Paul Newman (coming off 1973’s Best Picture winner, The Sting), Fred Astaire (shamelessly nominated for Best Supporting Actor), William Holden & Faye Dunaway (together two years before Network), Jennifer Jones, Richard Chamberlain and too many others to name battle a high-rise blaze in a special effects extravaganza that puts the spectacle in “Outrageously Outsized Hollywood Spectacle.” We do our best to ignore the consistent presence of OJ Simpson and put the focus where it belongs: on Sterling Siliphant.

We dig into the split-direction of disaster movie mastermind Irwin Allen and actor’s director John Guillermin, McQueen and Newman’s amazingly petty competition for screen-time, the utterly ridiculous Oscar the film did win, and why there should be more appreciation for Hollywood cinema doing what only Hollywood cinema can do. Stars, explosions, character actors, air-tight screenwriting and buckets of poured money into the blaze: join us in standing in awe of this monument to Hollywood blockbusterizing.

Support our Patreon:
www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke

Just the Discs podcast:
https://justthediscs.libsyn.com/

Pure Cinema podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pure-cinema-podcast/id1204885502

The Pink Smoke site:
www.thepinksmoke.com

John Cribbs on X:
twitter.com/TheLastMachine

The Pink Smoke on X:
twitter.com/thepinksmoke

Christopher Funderburg on X:
twitter.com/cfunderburg

Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two”
Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

Episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers one week before their general release.

{www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke}

1974 was a landmark year for film, a convergence of exciting international cinema and the original voices of New Hollywood that still resonates 50 years later. In our new series we invite a different guest for each episode to choose a 1974 movie to talk about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and everything else in between.

In this introductory episode, hosts Christopher Funderburg and John Cribbs discuss the idea behind the series and their relationship to movies from the year 1974. They go over the biggest films of the year: which were the most successful in terms of box office, critical success and long-ranging canonization? Why are these movies still relevant 50 years down the line?

Support our Patreon:
www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke

The Pink Smoke site:
www.thepinksmoke.com

John Cribbs on X:
twitter.com/TheLastMachine

The Pink Smoke on X:
twitter.com/thepinksmoke

Christopher Funderburg on X:
twitter.com/cfunderburg

Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two”
Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

In this episode, host Martin Kessler welcomes John Arminio of the Popcorn Eschaton! podcast to discuss Kevin Reynolds' underappreciated 1988 war film The Beast. Set during the second year of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, it follows a Soviet T-55 tank unit who lose their way in the mountains following a savage attack on a Pashtun village and the vengeful mujahideen soldiers tracking them, committed to destroying "the Beast." 

Kessler and Arminio dig into this "holy grail of tank movies" and how it smartly deals with themes of revenge and mercy, the Islam faith, Pashtunwali, overcoming language barriers and humanizing both sides of a "rotten war."

Popcorn Eschaton!:
https://soundcloud.com/zebras-in-america/popcorn-eschaton-1

Support our Patreon:
www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke

The Pink Smoke site:
www.thepinksmoke.com

Movie Kessler on X:
twitter.com/MovieKessler

The Pink Smoke on X:
twitter.com/thepinksmoke

Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two”
Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

The Pink Smoke brigade is back to discuss the movies of 2023. Hosts Martin Kessler, John Cribbs and Christopher Funderburg look back on a year replete with above-average horror films, new works from tenured auteurs and theoretical physicists battling it out at the box office with living dolls.

The conversation naturally digs into their personal favorites, including two animated masterpieces, a kaiju showpiece, a surprising amount of mainstream and direct-to-streaming releases, and a new bona fide classic from Brazil.

Support our Patreon:
www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke

The Pink Smoke site:
www.thepinksmoke.com

Movie Kessler on X:
twitter.com/MovieKessler

The Pink Smoke on X:
twitter.com/thepinksmoke

Christopher Funderburg on X:
twitter.com/cfunderburg

Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two”
Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"