Sneople At The Movies

It’s been a while since we’ve done an Unusual Double Feature, one of our favorite episode themes, so we are long overdue! This time though, it feels a little less unusual and a little more like a movie blind date - this week, we’re pairing up Sunshine (2007) and Event Horizon (1997)! This is more of a blind date because, like many couples who get set up by other people, these movies seem very similar on the surface: films set in space about going out towards unknown horizons with horror elements and multiple actors that the Sneople enjoy. The surface level is never enough for our hosts, of course, and it’s on a deeper dive that we start to see the real differences between these two cult classics - once of which being that one is better than we remember and one is. not as good as we remember. Maybe this blind date won’t work out after all. Warning: there are spoilers abounds for both movies this episode but also Event Horizon is from the last century and Sunshine came out almost 20 years ago so we don’t feel too bad about it.

Welcome back, beloved listeners! After a long summer break, the Sneople are back, better than ever, and so extremely ready to tackle this week’s long awaited topic: Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning! There’s a lot of ground to cover with this movie given it’s three hours long and closing out a franchise spanning decades, and the Sneople unpack it all with valiant effort. In-movie flashbacks, unseen forehead touches, refunded drinks, and confusing necklaces - not a single discussion topic is missed. More than one of our brave hosts actually fess up to crying at a Mission Impossible movie, but that’s probably not shocking. Also to put everyone’s mind at ease, as of upload date none of us have bought the novelty Mission Impossible popcorn bucket on Ebay. We’ve all stood so strong in the face of temptation. For now.

This week on Sneople, the Sneople cover a genre proves a little tricky to define, spans movies, tv, books, and comics, and incites an argument (or two) amongst our hosts - Urban Fantasy! This episode starts, as many do, with definitions - what exactly makes an urban fantasy movie, and how is it different from straight up monster movies or something with fantasy elements that takes place in modern times? After a quick but decisive discussion, the Sneople move onto some of their favorites of the genre, dig through multiple lists of “urban fantasy” media to decide if they actually count as part of the genre, and get into why it’s so hard to make urban fantasy work on film. They also, as always, get severely off topic, look at a lot of weird wiki pages, and learn about new weird stuff that they now obviously have to read/watch. Not necessarily in that order. If you disagree with their definition of urban fantasy and/or want to submit recs for good urban fantasy to read or watch, their email inbox is always open. Keep in mind that they are extremely right about what urban fantasy is, but arguing is still fun anyway!

Long delayed but also long in the making, this week the Sneople are finally doing a David Lynch memorial episode! Helena and Matty go a little off the deep end this episode (as they do every episode they’re left to their own devices), covering Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Eraserhead, Elephant Man, Dune (obviously) and so so much more. Warning, this episode is full of spoilers/discussion of a variety of Lynch films (though we avoid Twin Peaks spoilers for the most part) - if you wanna avoid that, come back at a later date. It’s okay! We’ll wait. Thanks David - we’ll be appreciating your work for years and years to come. XOXO to eraserhead baby, we love you little angel

This week is a (sort of?) somber episode, beloved listeners - we’ve recorded an homage to the life and career of Val Kilmer, an actor who had a big impact on all of the Sneople. From Top Gun to Batman Forever, Willow to Tombstone, and of course Heat to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the Sneople go through several films featuring Val Kilmer and the many many highlights in his work. Like any of our in memoriam episodes, it’s tricky writing our normal jokey summaries without feeling odd about it, so it’s time to be genuine for three seconds - he was a great actor who did some incredible work, and none of us would be who we are today without Kiss Kiss Bang Bang specifically. Thanks, Val. Unrelated, but still sincere - apologies for the delayed episode! We’ll have another one out next week per our usual schedule.