Off The Wagon: Fatal Deviation

For the first time in a long time, Cian is joined in person for a podcast by messrs Ali and Tom to take down Ireland's first (and only?) homegrown martial arts movie, 1998's Fatal Deviation. There's no shortage of kicks, punches, Londis tarts, elderly gangsters or kung fu druids in this epic. A film made with considerable heart and effort. I think it's fair to say that not every punch landed, so to speak, but clearly everyone involved gave it their all. If you've ever wondered why winning a local fighting tournament would automatically give you control over a small Meath town ... well, you won't really find out exactly why this is. But when Jimmy Bennett goes head-to-head with unscrupulous drug runners in the fabled Bealtaine Tournament, he soon finds that there's everything to fight for!

Listen to the podcast here.

And, for the brave, find the movie here.

Off The Wagon Halloween Special

At last, it's time to gather round the campfire with Cian and Chris and get into the Halloween spirit! In this episode, our hosts share some of the finest true creepy stories they were able to gather from Cork and abroad. Many thanks to all of our friends who contributed their own personal tales of terror. Find out the truth about Clonakilty's terrifying 'creaky tree', discover what really scares our intrepid hosts, and travel with them on their own ghost-hunting escapades.

Listen to the podcast here.

Another Michael Crichton Podcast: Congo (1995)

Join Cian and Chris for (they finally have a title) 'We Need To Talk About Michael,' a podcast in which they watch the movie versions of Michael Crichton novels and compare them to the original books, if they can remember anything about them, at least.

This time around it's 1995's Congo, a tale of diamonds, killer apes, and sesame cake. Listen in to discover why you never want Jimmy Buffett to fly your plane, why Tim Curry should never play a Romanian, and whether a pound of sugar is more expensive than a primatologist.

Like the movie itself, this 'cast had something of a troubled birth. Recording issues plagued the episode, so Chris, being a tech wizard, used some supercomputer thinking machines to piece the audio back together. Though there are still some audial oddities throughout, the banter is worth listening to, so click below, journey in search of the lost city of Zinj with us, and STOP EATING MY SESAME CAKE.

Click here to listen to the podcast.

Click here to watch the trailer.

Off The Wagon Reviews: Name Of The Rose (1986)

If you've ever asked yourself, 'I wonder what Sherlock Holmes would have been like if he was a medieval monk played by Sean Connery,' then you've come to the right place! Cian and Eoghan don their robes to get medieval on 1986's The Name Of The Rose. Along the way, Cian gets schooled on historical matters and Eoghan learns the shocking truth that Hollywood likes to change the endings of your favourite books. Stay tuned for medieval murder mystery madness.

Listen to the podcast here.

Watch the trailer here.

Podcast Book Review: Neanderthal by John Darnton

In this episode of Off The Wagon Reviews, Cian and Andrew return to what they remember as a bad book from their college days: Neanderthal by John Darnton, only to find, to their horror, that they actually quite liked it! No question about it, this is assuredly the best book about psychic neanderthals you will probably ever read. And I doubt either expected to be drawn into a (somewhat) philosophical discussion about evolution, socialism and society, but that's what happened! So tune in for a more sober than silly take on a book that probably only got released due to the success of Jurassic Park. Oh, and special thanks to my dad, Kevin Gill, for the harmonica snippet at the beginning.

Listen to the podcast here.

Off The Wagon Reviews Jurassic Park Part 2

Cian and Chris return to finish off their T-Rex-sized rant about Jurassic Park, and they once again spare no expense in bringing you the analysis that was so big it needed two podcasts! Revel in the trivia; discover exactly what Dennis Nedry keeps on his desk, why Chris wanted to run like a Gallimimus, and choose your side in the infamous 'Tyrannosaur paddock moat debate.'

Listen to the podcast here.

As promised, we've now added some show notes. Below is a pretty good map showing someone's idea of how the Rex got out of her enclosure. Click here for a pretty good discussion about the confusion people have experienced watching this scene.

And here is Chris' map of the same scene. This is how we both imagined it went down when we were kids. Don't say we aren't good to you!

Off The Wagon Reviews: Jurassic Park (1993)

Well, it sure is nice to review a good movie for a change! I'm joined by long-time JP devotee and all-round good guy Chris Joyce to look into this seminal movie from our childhood. We take Spielberg's dinosaur opus apart to see what makes it tick in intense, scene-by-scene detail. Discover where I now keep my battery-operated screaming raptors, why Hollywood doesn't know what an eagle sounds like, how much Jurassic Park scientists earn, what the name of the amber-digging guy is, why you should never hire a single disgruntled employee to run your entire security system, and a whole lot of other things you've never wondered about!

Listen to the podcast here.

Off The Wagon Reviews Podcast: Ghoul School (1990)

This week, Ali gets misty-eyed reminiscing about kindly New York broadcaster Joe Franklin, Cian gets confused by plotlines that make no sense (underage janitors? mysterious zombie gas?) and the listening audience learns why the Blood Sucking Ghouls never hit the big-time of 80s hair metal bands.

Listen to the podcast here.

And if you're brave, watch the movie here!

Off The Wagon Reviews: Night Train To Terror

Here's a new podcast in which I'm joined from across the Atlantic by bad movie expert Ali Keane to discuss our personal history with bad movie-watching before we tackle the 1985 mess of a movie Night Train To Terror. Podcasting via Scype is presenting some difficulties with keeping background noise down, but the quality is not bad! A hand injury is still keeping my artwork at the level of a preschool child, but I'm doing my exercises and I promise that you can look forward to some quality illustrations as soon as I can produce them. Take a listen here.

Off The Wagon Reviews: The Martian

It's my first-ever podcast! I'm still learning how to do it, to be honest. Lots of room noise and such in this. But check it out anyway here.

A World Lit Only By Fire by William Manchester

In college, my brother hosted Bad Movie nights in conjunction with the college film society. They were reasonably well-attended, considering bad movie-watching was and still is a niche hobby (and rightly so), but they were fun events and all our friends came. Though we had independently stumbled across some cult classics such as the infamous Troll 2, we had no idea that across the world bad-movie watching was becoming something of a thing.