Not a lot of people can name any of these movies besides Paul DeMarte and Mike Genova, childhood friends who have been doing the Rabbit Troop Sucks podcast for the past year.
The Denver-based podcast brings up little-known movies like the 1986 horror film Nomad, with Pierce Brosnan as a French anthropologist who starts following a group of L.A. street punks, or the 1994 sci-fi action movie No Escape, with Ray Liotta. Other films feature famous stars in early and embarrassing roles, like Angelina Jolie in the 1993 movie Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow, which was her first lead role.
The two friends "try to dissect the film" to bring up fun facts and insights to fuel the banter and that rolls out during each hour-long episode. They'll celebrate the podcast's one-year anniversary on Saturday, July 15.
"We review all sorts of crazy films that people haven't seen for twenty or thirty years and have just forgotten about," DeMarte says. "There are film fanatics who want to know more about these early films, where did people start, and I think a lot of people want to revisit films."
DeMarte and Genova both play music, so they had audio equipment available to start up the podcast, which was conceived during a few nights of drinking and talking movies. The name is a reference to the Adult Swim show Home Movies and the misfit humor of the show's characters. The podcast has aired 56 episodes since its inaugural show last summer.
The hosts usually watch the movie they'll review together just before taping. Then they settle in at the recording studio in DeMarte's basement while sipping bourbon or tequila to try to keep things "somewhat jovial," DeMarte jokes.
"We try to make sure everyone's just having a good time," he says. "I think the fans or listeners that we have usually are asking us to keep it lighthearted and comical."
DeMarte and Genova both play music, so they had audio equipment available to start up the podcast, which was conceived during a few nights of drinking and talking movies. The name is a reference to the Adult Swim show Home Movies and the misfit humor of the show's characters. The podcast has aired 56 episodes since its inaugural show last summer.
The hosts usually watch the movie they'll review together just before taping. Then they settle in at the recording studio in DeMarte's basement while sipping bourbon or tequila to try to keep things "somewhat jovial," DeMarte jokes.
"We try to make sure everyone's just having a good time," he says. "I think the fans or listeners that we have usually are asking us to keep it lighthearted and comical."
DeMarte and Genova usually get together with friends for each episode, where they talk about the people who made the obscure films they're discussing, how the actors went on to other roles that made them more famous, and their thoughts on what they watched.
Although DeMarte is from New Jersey and Genova is from Maine, they try to make connections between the films they're reviewing and the Mile High City, where they've both lived and watched movies for more than twenty years. Genova runs an IT department for an insurance company downtown, and DeMarte works as an English teacher at the University of Colorado Denver.
The first film they reviewed was 1998's Phantoms, which was filmed in Georgetown. It features a 25-year-old Ben Affleck as the sheriff of a fictional ski resort town called Snowfield when it comes under attack by an evil spirit.
They also reviewed the 1987 horror flick Night Vision, by Denver director Michael Krueger. Next week, they plan to review 1990's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to pay homage to the closing of Casey Jones, a TMNT-themed pizza bar in Denver named after a character from the show.
"Unfortunately, we don't find tons and tons of Colorado-based films. A lot of them tend to be bigger-budget films like About Schmidt or Dumb and Dumber," DeMarte says. "When we talk about things Denver-related, it's usually more about records shops, live shows that we're seeing, restaurants we're going to."
The podcast has a small following of about fifty to a hundred people, and DeMarte and Genova occasionally take recommendations from fans. One of DeMarte's favorite fan suggestion was Wildcats, a 1986 sports comedy featuring Goldie Hawn as an aspiring football coach at an inner-city Chicago High School; the movie also stars Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes.
"Some of the other films we've gotten into are a mix of films we've never seen before or, now that we're going to really examine them, films that we really want to re-watch," DeMarte says.
He re-watched An Evening With Beverly Luff Lin, a 2018 crime comedy with Audrey Plaza, and Freejack, a 1992 film with Emilio Estevez and Mick Jagger about bounty hunters from the future kidnapping a Formula One racer. Sometimes it happens that Genova and DeMarte haven't seen the movie they plan to discuss; other times it's the first viewing for just one of them, which is part of the fun.
"It was fun to be like, 'Wow, I watched these at sleepovers,' where Mike's like, 'I've never even heard of this damn movie,' and vice versa," DeMarte says.
They also look for movies by going through TV channels, free streaming services like Tubi or Crackle and films that they've purchased in the past. Although they pick projects that seem to be forgotten or unknown, they're always hoping to find diamonds in the rough. "We're not just making fun of all these films," DeMarte says. "We're mining for some gems out there, and we have found some awesome films. But we've also found some clunkers along the way."
The movie that they're reviewing for the one-year anniversary on July 15 is Jolie's Cyborg 2, which is a sequel to Jean-Claude Van Damme's 1989 movie.
"It's rough," DeMarte says about the movie. "It was a weird story, and I think Angelina Jolie said somewhere that she regrets doing it. I don't blame her."
DeMarte and Genova feel like they've gotten a handle on the early challenges of a podcast, like setting up and editing the show — and they've developed a good rhythm in their conversations. Now they just want to grow their audience.
"It's rough," DeMarte says about the movie. "It was a weird story, and I think Angelina Jolie said somewhere that she regrets doing it. I don't blame her."
DeMarte and Genova feel like they've gotten a handle on the early challenges of a podcast, like setting up and editing the show — and they've developed a good rhythm in their conversations. Now they just want to grow their audience.
"A lot of podcasts crumble after ten to twenty episodes," DeMarte says. "One awesome thing about film is it's endless, and we keep finding more and more. If anyone who loves film, wants to know more about film, wants to know about actors or even just have a good time, we totally invite you, no matter who you are."
