Missing Real with Mike D'Arrigo Mike D'Arrigo

By now we've gotten to see all our favorite "classic" Star Wars heroes return to the saga after a decades-long wait, and then they all got snuffed out.  Except for Lando, of course...the least "heroic" out of them all...he gets to live!  You remember he double-crossed the REAL heroes and was eyeing Princess Leia from the get-go.  Grrrrr...it's enough to make you wanna pull someone's arms out of their sockets (like the screenwriters?) but here we have a stand-alone movie about the coolest dude ever to zip through hyperspace: Han Solo!  Why, we'd be happy if EVERY Star Wars movie was a Han Solo adventure.  On the condition that he's played by Harrison Ford!  Which, sorry to say, he's not.  We've got a younger version of Han, and a totally new actor filling those boots.  Seems pretty iffy to say the least, but it turns out to be a decent movie after all, with some excitement and humor, familiar furry faces (Chewie, of course!  Not the effin' ewoks!) and just a slight touch of the Force.  Director Ron Howard did a great job with it, and I bet the making of this movie brought everyone involved some Happy Days.  Play this podcast and today can be one for you!  

Pop quiz: a giant asteroid is hurtling towards Earth and will spell certain doom when it hits!  Ignoring the fact that asteroids can't spell, name that movie!  Um, is this multiple choice?  Kind of...ya see, there were two movies out in 1998 about this imminent threat from some distant space quarry, but I'm going with the bigger, badder, dumber one: Armageddon!  Directed (can you call it that?) by Michael Bay!  Action and adrenaline aplenty here, along with a hit soundtrack album that I dare say is even better than Dirty Dancing!  But, never mind the music...who's gonna save the Earth?!?  Destroying this asteroid will take a lot more than just dropping some quarters at the old video arcade!  It takes Bruce Willis!  Yippee-ki-yay, Meteor Fragment!  (sorry...I had to)  
Now, while there's still time...listen to this podcast!  It ROCKS!  

In 1995, moviegoers and Godfather geeks were lining up to see Al Pacino and Robert De Niro share the screen for the first time ever in the crime epic Heat.   They might not have realized that in the 3 hour running time, they're together for maybe 3 minutes!  But OMG... those 3 minutes were riveting!   Even the other 2 hours and 57 minutes of it were pretty intense.  Crazy shootouts, double-crosses and heists, dysfunctional relationships, and a hopped-up live wire Al Pacino shouting at everyone he meets.  But when he finally gets face-to-face with De Niro, they chat over coffee.  Really.  That's the big hoo-ha: a quiet conversation.  What do they say?  "Say hello to my little friend!"  "You talkin' to me?" "You're out of order!" "Little bit...".  Well, thankfully it's a lot better than that!  This is probably Michael Mann's greatest work.  Crockett & Tubbs wish they were this cool.  Colorful clothing and Jan Hammer keytar solos ain't gonna cut it.  Get ready to feel some heat!   

 How many times have they tried bringing that bonkers science fiction epic Dune to the screen?  Better question: why do I keep watching all of them?  I'm still no closer to understanding what on Arrakis is going on.  It's not very likely that this podcast is going to enlighten anyone as to what Frank Herbert was getting at, but that's okay!  It's more fun than surfing on a giant worm, I promise.  Together with my good friend Dave Chan, we chew the spice and discuss both David Lynch's 1984 disaster and Denis Villeneuve's 2021 update.  None of it makes much sense, other than nonsense, but really...that's what you're here for, isn't it?  Enjoy!

When a stunningly gorgeous woman wants to have sex with you, for FREE,  the hour you meet her, that should raise a red flag.  Especially if she's really an H.R. Giger-designed alien creature masquerading as Natasha Henstridge.  Hey, it happens.  This 1995 movie delivers the blood and boobs (human and extraterrestrial, to be precise) and boasts a pretty impressive cast with a thankless assignment chasing this babe all over L.A. trying to stop her from getting pregnant and slaughtering her suitors.  Girl's got ISSUES!  But whatever species you might belong to, this is a really fun flick worth watching, even if it is a bit..."SIL-ly".