72 - The Boy Next Door

On the surface: a slick attempt to bring back adult erotic thrillers to the mainstream. Deeper down: THE BOY NEXT DOOR actually tried to reinforce traditional family values by showing Jennifer Lopez she should forgive her cheating husband instead of hooking up with her psycho neighbor. As is usually the case, America wasn’t ready for this. Listen to Alex and Julio as they praise everything this sexy J-Lo vehicle gets right and easily forgive the few things it gets wrong - just like she should’ve done in the movie.

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Bonus! - Our Fourth Anniversary!

Four years of doing this show. Holy cow. Join us in this birthday celebration as we hand out our annual awards: The Embries and The Rousies! Also, The Gad. And a new addition to the Contrarians Awards Family, The Ruffalo! Don’t worry, we explain it all in the episode. It’s a fun walk down memory lane, and the last year worth of Contrarians episodes!*

*The Summer of Travolta isn’t included in the festivities** because it had its own awards ceremony in the Travolties episode.

**That said, The Ruffalo does encompass our entire run, including The Summer of Travolta.

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71 - The Kids Are All Right (and Halloween 2018)

Sooner or later, somebody was going to try to demystify gay women in a mainstream movie. Sooner or later, straight white men were going to pay for all the stuff they’d gotten away with since the dawn of time. So 2010 saw the arrival of THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, a movie that’s a little too overzealous in how it depicts that lesbians “can screw up too” and very overzealous in how it nails Mark Ruffalo to a cross. Listen to Alex and Julio as they navigate the dangerous waters of comedic #MenToo precursors and try to figure out what kind of person would name their kid “Laser”!

Also, a spoilerific discussion of the new HALLOWEEN movie (after the plugs section) because, well, you know the original HALLOWEEN is one of Alex’s favorites movies ever.

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70 - The Mummy (1999)

How do you feel about a Mummy Movie that features The Sandman more than the expected “man wrapped in bandages”? Do you think Brendan Fraser was an Indiana Jones knock-off or a worthy heir to Harrison Ford’s adventuring roles? Is Stephen Sommers’ movie too dumb to be fun or too fun to be dumb? It’s our seventh Gray Area episode and just as 1999’s THE MUMMY split the Tomatometer, so it has split The Contrarians as well! Julio will be on the offensive and Alex on the defense as they discuss the depiction of Americans as a destructive force, Imhotep’s adorable fear of cats, the allure of sexy librarians and more!

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69 - Buffy The Vampire Slayer

There was a Buffy movie before there was a Buffy TV show, and to say something got lost in the translation is an understatement. Listen to Alex and Julio as they mourn all the cool things the vampire slayer left behind as Joss Whedon sold out to get some sweet small screen money: an effortlessly cool Watcher like Donald Sutherland, actual creepy vampires like Pee Wee Herman and Roy Batty and, oh my god, the hotness of Prime Time Luke Perry. How do you let a 90210 star slip through the fingers of your teenage franchise??? Also: the argument is made that Kristy Swanson was playing a much more complex role than Sarah Michelle Gellar.

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68 - Donnie Brasco

Like a direct-to-video project accidentally getting theatrical release, DONNIE BRASCO rolled into movie theaters as a gangster movie that couldn’t afford proper gangsters. Listen to Alex and Julio as they discuss what happens when Johnny Depp is asked to play a normal person, what happens when Al Pacino tries to imitate Robert DeNiro and what happens when your screenwriter is a little too proud of all those cool mobster words he learned during his research. Also, the role of Nagging Wife will be played by Anne Heche tonight. Enjoy!

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Bonus! - The Travolties

One Travolta, thirteen movies and a whole bunch of made-up awards. It's The Travolties!!!! Listen as Alex and Julio recap The Summer Of Travolta while doling out recognition to the best and the worst of the past four months. Also: a "Where is Travolta now?" segment, the promised "Travolta Taco Bell Menu" and more!

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67 - Be Cool

Is there anything cooler than being meta? Yes: being John Travolta and being meta at the same time. Alex and Julio arrive at the last stop in The Summer of Travolta as they contend with a sequel that wasn't content to be a sequel. BE COOL is a sequel about sequels. And understanding that is what makes the difference between actually being cool and being someone who gave this movie a bad rating in the Tomatometer. Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace get together on the dance floor, for crying out loud! James Woods gets shot! Repeatedly! And don't even get us started on the gone-too-soon career of Obvious-Travolta-Heir Christina Milian...

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66 - Get Shorty

What did John Travolta do as soon as he rose from the dead like a Brooklyn Phoenix in the mid 90s? He made a movie that was all about him bullying his way through Hollywood. Listen to Alex and Julio begin to close the book on The Summer of Travolta as they discuss how uncomfortable it is to watch Gene Hackman try to be funny, compare Rene Russo's character to Princess Peach, criticize Danny DeVito's lackadaisical work ethic and are appalled at how quickly the movie disposes of Napoleon Dynamite's Uncle Rico. It's Part One of the Summer of Travolta Finale!

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