Episode 76 - MORTAL KOMBAT

Arriving at the tail end of Hollywood's initial mini-boom of video game adaptations, Mortal Kombat tried to kapitalize on a sensationalistic media kraze centered on the popular game's macabre backstory and gratuitous violence. The resulting PG-13 film is, at best, an uneven-yet-sincere attempt to kapture the game's spirit, but its lack of polish didn't stop it from enjoying a residual '90s koolness and kamp appeal--especially as subsequent films based on games failed to significantly raise the bar.

Our MK guru, Kevin Gutierrez, grabs an extra kontroller to join us in a discussion of Mortal Kombat as both movie and game, as we seek an elusive konsensus on what we want out of our video game flicks. Toasty!

Mortal Kombat (1995)
Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson
Produced by Lawrence Kasanoff
Written by Kevin Droney
Based on the video game created by Ed Boon and John Tobias
Starring Robin Shou, Linden Ashby, Bridgette Wilson, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Talisa Soto, Trevor Goddard, and Christopher Lambert

Episode 75 - ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

Following the lead of last year's panel discussion of The Force Awakens, WWWW strikes back with another all-star roundtable devoted to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the latest silver screen tale to emerge from our favorite far, far away galaxy.

We're joined by our ragtag crew of Blythe Borders-Ashe, Daniel Borders-Ashe, and Eric Wheeler to debate the merits of this new frontier in franchise expansion. It's a lively back-and-forth on a surprisingly controversial film, with takes hotter than the sauna at Darth Vader's Mustafar castle. And though we may all be divided on Rogue One's successes and shortcomings, there is something that truly unites us: the Force is with us, and we are one with the Force.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Directed by Gareth Edwards
Produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Allison Shearmur, and Simon Emanuel
Written by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy
Story by John Knoll and Gary Whitta
Based on characters created by George Lucas
Starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Mads Mikkelsen, Riz Ahmed, Alan Tudyk, and Forest Whitaker

Check out the rest of our series on the Star Wars saga:
Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Episode IV: A New Hope
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Episode VII: The Force Awakens
Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

Solo: A Star Wars Story
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Star Wars: Clone Wars
Star Wars Holiday Special
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure

Episode 74 - MEMORABLE MUSIC VIDEOS, VOL. 2

Nowadays you can meme a song into an unexpected hit, but back in the day topping the charts meant kissing the ring of Carson Daly in front of a horde of truant teens and underemployed adults packing Times Square, eager to see their idols visit MTV's famous high-rise fishbowl.  And to please this fickle audience day in and day out, you'd better have brought a hot music video.

Our second installment of the format we introduced nearly one year ago gathers six more promotional clips - this time with a heavy pop/R&B focus - as musician and YouTube personality Matt Palmer contributes his artistic expertise and passionately-held opinions to help us contextualize and question some of the most memorable videos from the music biz's last big unit-moving hurrah.

Music videos featured in this episode:

"Scream" by Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson (1995)
"Honey" by Mariah Carey (1997)
"The Boy Is Mine" by Brandy & Monica (1998)
"Unpretty" by TLC (1999)
"The Bum Bum Song (Lonely Swedish)" by Tom Green (1999)
"Thong Song" by Sisqo (2000)


More Music Videos

Vol. 1
Vol. 2
Vol. 3: Middle School Mixtape


Check out more of Matt Palmer:

Two Gay Matts on YouTube
Matt Palmer Music