To Create Confusion

To Create Confusion- Lethal Weapon 4

We wrap up our look at the Lethal Weapon series with the fourth, and as of now, final film, 1998’s Lethal Weapon 4. The series is pretty clearly out of steam by this point, but the movie is watchable, especially for the American film debut of Chinese actor Jet Li, who steals every scene he’s in. This film finds Riggs, Murtaugh & their family having to take down a group of Chinese Triads. We talk that, plus Big Cat’s visit to the Monster Mania convention & other topics.

To Create Confusion- Lethal Weapon 3

We’re back and it’s the Two Man Power Trip lineup of TCC this time as Ryan & Big Cat go it alone for the third entry in the Lethal Weapon series, 1992’s Lethal Weapon 3. This is the first of the series your intrepid cohosts recall seeing with a lot of frequency, but in retrospect, it signals a series that was beginning to run out of gas. This time, Riggs & Murtaugh have to take down a dirty ex-cop with the help of previous ally Leo Getz & new ally Lorna Cole. It’s a breezy watch but the under...

To Create Confusion- Lethal Weapon 2

After a bit of a hiatus we’re back, and we’re resuming our look at the Lethal Weapon series with Lethal Weapon 2. In this one, Riggs & Murtaugh have to take down a group of shady South African diplomats who use their diplomatic credentials to run a crime ring. We love this one as it builds up to maybe the most famous line in the series: “DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY!!!” Plus, we talk the history of Apartheid era South Africa, what we did during hiatus & get into CIA-music conspiracies. It’s just been ...

To Create Confusion- Lethal Weapon

We’re back after a bit of a break and as the Christmas season starts to come into focus, we’re starting another series, the Lethal Weapon films. We begin in 1987, with the Christmas themed first film, which find LAPD cops Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh trying to bust up a gang of ex-Special Forces soldiers turned drug traffickers. We do an extended riff on the career of star Mel Gibson, who has been revealed this century as a massive asshole and all around crazy person. Plus, we talk holiday...

To Create Confusion- Halloween

On a special edition of TCC, we pay homage to the spooky season with one of, if not the, greatest horror movie of all time, 1978’s Halloween. John Carpenter’s film didn’t invent the slasher film, but it absolutely perfected it and this movie still remains a great watch all these years later. The premise is simple: child murderer Michael Myers is all grown up and escapes an institution to return and terrorize his hometown of Haddonfield. The object of his wrath is Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curt...

To Create Confusion- Mission: Impossible- Fallout

We wrap up our look at the Mission: Impossible films with the sixth entry in the series, 2018’s Fallout. Picking up where we left off in Rogue Nation, Ethan Hunt and the team have to stop an offshoot of The Syndicate, The Apostles, who are trying to obtain weapons grade plutonium to make a nuclear bomb. This has the most insane Tom Cruise stunts yet as he flies a helicopter, jumps off buildings and jumps out of an airplane, all for our amusement. Plus, we rank the movies in the series up to now

To Create Confusion - Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation

On this episode we hit the fifth movie in the Mission: Impossible series, 2015’s Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. In this movie, Ethan Hunt and his team must stop a rogue group of secret agents who have banded together as the shadowy group, The Syndicate. This movie contains two of Tom Cruise’s most insane stunts, including hanging off the side of an airplane & holding his breath underwater. We talk the making of those stunts, hit on our favorite scenes and have a side conversation about t...

To Creat Confusion - Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol

On this episode we have the full team assembled again to discuss the third film in the Mission: Impossible series, 2011’s Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol. This one finds Ethan Hunt have to stop a terrorist from launching a Russian nuclear missile, but oh there’s so much more to this movie than that as Tom Cruise does his craziest stunt to date: climb the outside of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest building. Plus he gets two new team members in the form of Paula Patton as Car...

To Create Confusion- Mission: Impossible 3

On this episode we tackle the third film in the Mission: Impossible series, 2006’s Mission: Impossible 3. Directed by JJ Abrams, this film sees Ethan Hunt trying to stop international arms dealer Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) from obtaining a superweapon called the Rabbit’s Foot & all the double crosses & crazy stunts that follow in its wake. Plus, we talk horse paste, popes and the weirdest year of Tom Cruise’s career.

To Create Confusion- Mission: Impossible 2

We go back to the Year 2000, a time when Fred Durst was king, Napster was a thing and Tom Cruise decided to once again choose an impossible mission. It’s Mission: Impossible 2, the John Woo-directed sequel and this one drew a mixed response from the crew. Big Cat & the returning Kaya Papaya loved its nonstop action & 2000 nostalgia, while Ryan and Rachel thought it got too far away from the series’ origins and was way heavy on John Woo’s signature flourishes (lots of slo-mo, doves, lots of sh...

To Create Confusion- Mission: Impossible

We’re back after a bit of a hiatus (sorry, life got in the way for all of us) and we’re starting our new series, the Mission: Impossible films, which are still going strong with Tom Cruise still running intensely & doing insane stunts. To start, we go back to the series’ roots, which were not in action, but in an elaborate spy thriller. Oh sure, there’s plenty of crazy action sequences, but this one is a Brian De Palma film through and through with a focus on tension. We meet master spy Ethan...

To Create Confusion- F9

(The following episode contains spoilers) We wrap up our look at the Fast Saga with the franchise’s newest film, F9. In this movie Dominic Toretto is called into action to stop his long lost brother Jakob, working on behalf of an obnoxious dictator failson, from attaining a device that could control worldwide weapons systems. But that cannot prepare you for the awesome ridiculousness of this movie, which just keeps upping the ante of absurd set pieces. Plus, we rank the series, do Matthew McC...

To Create Confusion- Hobbs and Shaw

Our final episode before the new F9 is the Fast & Furious spinoff film, Hobbs and Shaw. In this one, Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw are forced to team up to stop a genetically engineered super soldier, aka Black Superman, played by Idris Elba. In addition, Ryan and Rachel detail a wild Father’s Day trip and prep for F9.

To Create Confusion- The Fate of the Furious

We’re heading down the homestretch in our look at the Fast Saga & we’re at the 8th movie in the series, 2017’s The Fate of the Furious. This movie had all kinds of behind the scenes drama as this was the first film in the series to be made without Paul Walker. The result is wildly uneven as while there are some cool set pieces, the movie becomes exhausting as it hops locations and defies the laws of science once too often. The idea is good though: the team, now joined by Deckard Shaw, must fa...

To Create Confusion- Furious 7

We hit the emotional high point of the Fast Series with 2015’s Furious 7. Hanging over everything in this movie is the death of Paul Walker, who died in a car accident during production. After some soul searching to determine whether they should move forward, the film was finished. This is the biggest, craziest Fast movie to date with some absolutely outlandish stunts (most notably jumping a car through three skyscrapers). The movie’s plot is relatively simple: elite special forces badass Dec...

To Create Confusion- Fast and Furious 6

On this episode, we tackle the sixth film in the Fast & Furious saga, the aptly titled Fast and Furious 6. In this one, Luke Hobbs calls in the retired Dominic Toretto and his crew to help stop an international weapons dealer named Owen Shaw, who intends to build a doomsday bomb and sell it to the highest bidder. Complicating things for Dom & the gang is that the miraculously still alive Letty has amnesia and is a member of Shaw’s crew. We talk that, The Rock getting in a massive real-life bu...

To Create Confusion - Fast Five

On this episode, we hit the peak of the Fast & Furious series as we tackle 2011’s Fast Five. This is the one where everything comes together: we get the “Avengers assemble” scene where Tej, Roman, Han, the brothers & Gisele join the team, the introduction of Dwayne Johnson as Hobbs & one crazy ass set piece after another. Plus, we discuss the recent oral history of The Fast and The Furious and some of the jaw-dropping Vin Diesel quotes therein.

To Create Confusion - Fast and Furious

We’ve hit the fourth film in our rundown of the Fast & the Furious saga with 2009’s Fast & Furious. Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and crew are back to embark on what in music is known as a “transition album.” The series becomes less about street racing and more about wild stunts and crazy set pieces. It makes for a kind of awkward film that sort of lumbers along. This movie did boffo business when it originally ran but it has aged rather poorly compared to the big budget wildness to come. Plus, we ...

To Create Confusion - The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

Buckle up folks, we’re going drifting with the third installment in the Fast & Furious franchise, 2006’s Tokyo Drift. The red-headed stepchild of this series, this film takes us to Tokyo inside the city’s street racing culture of drifting: basically just pulling your emergency brake at a high rate of speed. Anyway, the story involves goofy redneck Sean going to Tokyo where he comes under the mentorship of the lovable Han & runs afoul of the failson of the local Yakuza boss. They tried somethi...

To Create Confusion - 2 Fast 2 Furious

On this episode we dive into the second movie of the Fast & Furious saga, 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious. This film is a massive guilty pleasure for us as it is so goofy it’s hard not to be amused by it, in all the film’s “bro-ness.” We discuss this film, plus we have a mini-pod at the beginning as the gang dives into the 2020 action film Money Plane.

To Create Confusion - The Fast and The Furious

Our latest round of podcasts is going to cover the Fast & Furious saga and we begin at the beginning, with 2001’s The Fast and The Furious. Watching this today it’s hard to believe this franchise even got the word “saga” attached to it as the original features a plot ripped wholesale from Point Break and features enough Limp Bizkit music, Von Dutch work shirts and Ja Rule appearances to make it a distinct product of 2001. And yet, the movie has a fun charm that’s hard to top. Ryan and Big Cat...

To Create Confusion - Murder By Death

Apologies for the length of this show but there’s a lot going on here. First, we talk about the recent dramas involving Marilyn Manson, Gina Carano & Joss Whedon, then we dive into our movie, 1976’s Murder By Death. Chosen by Big Cat, this film is the prototype for the later cult classic Clue in that it involves a group of weirdos assembling at a country manor & someone gets murdered. Quite the cast in this one with Clue alum Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote (?!?), Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, ...

To Create Confusion - Wonder Woman 1984

So before it went off HBO Max, we decided to record for posterity our thoughts on the ridiculous late 2020 superhero extravaganza, Wonder Woman 1984. As fun as the first Wonder Woman film was, this one is basically the opposite with a film that is overlong, boring for long stretches & filled with more holes than a dozen donuts. Big Cat’s significant other Kaya Papaya joins us here, as she hates this film more than we do. Join us, as we form a layup line dunking on this extremely strange and b...

To Create Confusion - The Untouchables

Since this podcast started life as a James Bond podcast, we decided to pay homage to the late Sir Sean Connery by discussing his lone Oscar win in 1987’s The Untouchables. In this one, Kevin Costner plays Treasury agent Eliot Ness who seeks to take down Al Capone. Helping Ness is Irish cop Malone (played by Connery with his Scottish accent). We also talk our favorite Connery movies & much more

To Create Confusion - Innerspace

In our debut episode on the Anchor platform, we dive into co-host Hank’s movie pick, 1987’s Innerspace. A comedy that could only have been made during the late-1980s, Dennis Quaid plays a hotshot pilot selected for an experimental shrinking experiment. Things go awry though when Quaid’s Tuck Pendelton (what a name) is put inside the body of hypochondriac nerd Jack Putter (Martin Short). The two have to work together as Tuck/Jack are pursued by a slew of weirdo bad guys who want the shrinking ...

To Create Confusion (Trailer)