Anchor Management

I think it would be fun to have Scott Aukerman, the big dog himself, on to talk about his star turn as young Michael Caine's back double for "Austin Powers in Goldmember". Not because it was such a great part, but how the hell he got such a weird part in a pretty big movie. And I agree I would love to have June Diane Raphael talk about "Zodiac", or ideally have her on with her comedy partner and fellow Earwolf host Casey Wilson, who also worked with David Fincher in "Gone Girl" to compare and contrast their experiences.

While I do think the quality of the podcast isn't what it has been, it is too easy and unfair to blame it all on Blaine as a DM. Dungeons & Dragons is a co-operative game, the DM creates the world with the players. Want to stop fighting giants? Turn around. Want interesting NPC's? Go into town to look for them. Sure, Blaine has not created the most memorable campaign, but the players are just not making interesting choices. Only Dan is trying to make things happen, so when he is the DM AND also has Brendon Small playing a real character you get that synergy that propels the story forward. Even Sark had trouble keeping his campaign fun and streamlined (the party searching that collector base was boring), until he had Sir Richard and Damian to play off of. Those characters made the story way more fun and when those strong characters (and Blackie Green) were gone, the story suffered. Try to describe Dag, Hug and Winter without using physical descriptors or the word 'weird'. It's pretty hard. They don't have strong personalities, goals, backgrounds or behaviors that shape their decisions. Whatever they decide to do with these characters, just have everyone sit down with the DM to discuss who their characters are and what they want out of the journey.

Yeah, I saw it and would not recommend it to people interested in the role playing games. It barely goes into the craft of being a dungeon master, you just see whatever else they do. Also, the central characters are just so unlikable, it is hard to care. There is a great documentary to be made about DM'ing, this is not it.

So Paul claims Gwen Stefani has never tried acting? Oh, if only there was someone, say, on that same panel, who had been in a movie with Mrs. Stefani...

Man, I'm so glad you guys are back. It just improves the quality of my Tuesdays. Are you going to cover "Ink Master" in the future? That show is so weird, but almost nobody talks about it. They have to tattoo actual people! As a challenge! In the first episode! And call them 'human canvases', which is just gross.

How can this be the worst video game movie, if it isn't even the worst Street Fighter movie?

There is an interview with Dave Foley about his work on Uwe Boll's "Postal" in Nathan Rabin's book "My Year of Flops", which is required reading for bad movie aficionados. In it, he explains that Uwe almost considers making movies as his performance art. Because he doesn't have to worry about financing, he is always thinking about how he can shock and piss off people, usually by writing his next movie while still filming another movie. He barely pays attention to directing and it shows. The only reason I hated this episode was because this means they won't be reviewing "Dungeons & Dragons" from 2000 anytime soon...

Great episode, good to see Paul F. Tompkins finally make an appearance on a podcast. It's weird a comedian of his acclaim had never been on a podcast before. More importantly, I had hoped you guys had discussed King of the Nerds. Because you like to riff on he guest judges, but last week the judges were friend of Earwolf Garfunkel and Oates! Could you please get them on the show to talk about their experiences as judges.

How about this reality show concept to produce with all that podcast survey money? It's two podcast hosts who, accompanied by their uptight British man-servant Engineer Brettford, search for the perfect reality show concept to produce. There are several contestants who all pitch their ideas and every week one gets eliminated. Somehow helicopter rides are involved.

Aw yeah! I've been a fan of Jensen since the Hype Men podcast (R.I.P.) and he does have one of the best Twitter accounts around. Plus his industry insider stories are such a treat, which make for such an entertaining episode. Hopefully Howard will show up on Get Up On This soon to continue the great Drake debate.

Most artists only skew their prism of reality up to five degrees when producing art. Do you know which artist always goes six degrees? Kevin Bacon.

Yay, Joe Mande! I love the Goof Troop! But did he even get introduced at all? Great episode, loved that you piccked up the final scene was the same as in Old Dogs, but I think they missed discussing the best moment of the movie:

Man, two episodes of HDTGM? in a week? 'Tis truly the season of giving! Jingle All The Way is a great piece of holiday cinema, which I used to love as a kid. Looking back, it's insane, Paul didn't even mention the best part of the movie (which I won't spoil if you haven't seen it), plus there is a scene that got remade in Old Dogs...

If you listen to today's Doug Loves movies with Paul, June and Jason, you might be pleasently surprised... well, not anymore, now that I've given that major hint. Still, looking forward to it!

While I don't think movies made outside of the studio system should get reviewed on HDTGM (how it got made: Tommy Wiseau is a crazy man with money somehow), I am very excited to hear from someone involved in the movie what working on it was like. Because everything I've seen or heard about him leads me to believe he is in fact an alien zombie that made a movie and does not know what breakfast is.