Gobbledygeek

Wise man say: forgiveness is divine, but only listening to Paul, AJ, and Nowheresville director/Smoke Gets in Your Ears co-host Joseph Lewis discuss the original 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film will get you past those pearly gates. Or something, a little birdie told us. But not, like, a mutant bird. Anyway. The gang has wildly varying experiences with the Turtles and the movie: Paul is old enough to have read some of the Eastman and Laird stuff when it was new, and saw the movie in theaters; AJ, being a wee little bairn, claims this is the first movie he ever saw and has loved the Turtles ever since; and Joe, well...Joe's right in the Turtle-loving demographic, but he never got into them as a kid, and that pattern holds 20-some-odd years later. How does the film hold up? Is it slathered in enough mozzarella to deserve bargain bin status? Or does it remain crisp, like the finest pepperoni? To put a merciful end to all pizza-related puns, I'm ending this description right here, so you know, go listen. Plus, the gang gets weird with Mandatory Fun and talks about Marvel's Avengers NOW! initiative.

Next: that other Smoke Gets in Your Ears co-host, Kenn Edwards, drops by for the next installment of this year's Four-Color Flashback, discussing The Sandman: Vol. V - A Game of You.

We discussed Snowpiercer briefly on our most recent epsiode, but there was too much monkey business going on to talk about it in-depth. So we had to go all-out and do a bonus episode, the sort of episode that fits in between the cracks of our elaborate continuity, featuring none other than The Debatable Podcast host Greg Sahadachny. Shoes as hats, rave cars, orgasmic school teachers...this movie's nuts, and we do our best to honor that babbling about it incoherently.

A new day has dawned, one which doesn't smile too favorably upon humanity. In Matt Reeves' Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the apes have taken over...well, mostly. As Caesar and company learn, a small faction of humans still resides in San Francisco, and they believe the key to their continued existence lies in the apes' territory. It's not a swell situation, as Paul and AJ discover in their discussion of the second film in this new Apes franchise. They chat about the complexity of Caesar and Koba's relationship, the likable (if simplistic) human characters, and the palpable sadness at the film's core. Plus, the boys hop aboard the Snowpiercer train.

Next: the gang (including Nowheresville director and Smoke Gets in Your Ears co-host Joseph Lewis) straps on their musty old half-shells to revisit the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, AKA OGTMNT.

We here at Gobbledygeek are avowed fans of big-budget epics, be they superheroic or Tolkienesque. But independent film is an important part of any moviegoer's diet, one many don't have access to. Which is why Paul and AJ are thrilled to speak with Kurtiss Hare of the Nightlight Cinema, the new arthouse theater bringing indie film to Akron, OH. Kurtiss talks about the Nightlight's origin, the incredible response to the project's Kickstarter, and how he hopes the theater will grow. Plus, Paul gets an education from some Masters of Sex and AJ revisits the classics.

Next: we stop picking fleas off each other long enough to discuss the latest in the modern reboot of the classic Apes franchise, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Just taking a guess here, but you probably don't want to go to Hell. Probably don't want to rule it, either. And neither does Lucifer, the original fallen angel himself, which sets in motion the events of The Sandman: Vol IV - Season of Mists. Pop culture academics (and Wanna Cook? authors) K. Dale Koontz and Ensley F. Guffey join Paul and AJ for another installment of their Four-Color Flashback series exploring Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. The gang finds much to discuss, whether it be the assortment of mythological envoys sent to The Dreaming, Dream's reunion with one-time lover Nada, or even, uh, the Merkin. Plus, Dale and Ensley went to Slayage, which was the opposite of Hell. Though the squirrels might beg to differ.

Next: we'll be chatting about independent film and local business with a representative of Akron, Ohio's brand new Nightlight Cinema.