“Now I know what a TV dinner feels like”
The Spoiler team are back and we’re kicking off series 5 with a listener choice, John McTiernan’s action-thriller ‘Die Hard’, starring Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia and Alan Rickman.
Despite Paul stating emphatically in his introduction that ‘Die Hard’ is not a Christmas film, Andy and Rachael set about trying to convince him that it is by employing tenuous links and obscure lines of dialogue. As Rachael and Paul struggle to remember if this is the one with the building or the aeroplanes, Andy ties himself in knots with elaborate theories on symbolism, all for the sake of a lousy pun.
While the team seem to enjoy the film, they also enjoy picking it to pieces for its racial stereotypes, wobbly dialogue and an inverse snobbery about people who work from behind desks. Andy has to be restrained and, ultimately, censored in his determination to quote the movie’s most famous line, Rachael admires Bruce Willis’s funny little pout and the team imagine an alternate universe in which Frank Sinatra played the role of John McClane. And, of course, everyone loves Alan Rickman.
Elsewhere, Andy looks at the art of the movie sequel and lists five sequels which have equalled or surpassed the original films from which they stemmed. Controversially, at least as far as Paul is concerned, the list does not include ‘Ghostbusters 2’.
This week’s scale: 640 million dollars in bearer bonds or £6.40 in a postal order
The SPOILER Awards - Lockdown Special (Episode 56)
Pride (2014, Ben Schnetzer, Dominic West, Andrew Scott): SPOILER Episode 55
Dark Season 1 (2017, Netflix Original Series): SPOILER Episode 54
Top Gun (1985, Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer): SPOILER Episode 53
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1902): SPOILER Episode 52
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018, Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee): SPOILER Episode 51
Singin' in the Rain (1952, Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor): SPOILER Episode 50
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008, Dir: Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett): SPOILER Episode 49
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (2015): SPOILER Episode 48
I, Daniel Blake (2016, Dir: Ken Loach, Dave Johns, Hayley Squires): SPOILER Episode 47
Ex Machina (2015, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac): SPOILER Episode 46
Detectorists Series 1 (2014, Mackenzie Crook, Toby Jones, Rachael Stirling): SPOILER Episode 45
Labyrinth (1986, Jim Henson, Jennifer Connelly, David Bowie): SPOILER Episode 44
SPOILER Puppeteer Special: Nigel Plaskitt (Pipkins, Spitting Image, Little Shop of Horrors)
Boyhood (2014, Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke): SPOILER Episode 42
Amelie (2001, Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz): SPOILER Episode 41
Cool Hand Luke (1967, Paul Newman, George Kennedy): SPOILER Episode 40
Django Unchained (2012, Quentin Tarantino, Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio): SPOILER Episode 39
Wonder by R J Palacio (2012): SPOILER Episode 38
Big (1988, Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins): SPOILER Episode 37
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