So you think Season Cinco is unique in its single-minded obsession with violence, retribution, and despair? You’re obviously forgetting Season Three Episode Three’s “Rascals.” Season Three began with Eric mourning the recently murdered Tim.
Read MoreThe Beyond (1981) #RetroReview
A masterpiece of atmosphere, gore, and surrealism, Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond celebrated its thirty-ninth birthday last week and is a personal favorite. Eventually released in the US as 7 Doors of Death in 1983 with an alternate score and missing some of the more gruesome scenes, the original Italian title is …E tu vivrai nel terrore! L'aldilà, which translates to “…And You Will Live in Terror! The Afterlife” and it’s also known as The Ghost Town of Zombies in Germany. The second entry of the director’s “Gates of Hell” trilogy, this is not a film for those who value narrative coherence above all else. Its strengths lie at more subconscious or visceral levels.
Read MoreTim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! S3E2: Chan (2008) #Cincothon2020
Season Three, Episode Two is one of my personal favorites---combining cringe-inducing weirdness, amped up bathos, and just enough strategically employed Richard Dunn, “Chan,” is a triumph for Awesome Show. Awesome Show’s penchant for dark humor started early in Season One. While Season Cinco is rightly lauded for having more disturbing and violent content, Season Three doesn’t skimp on the terror or the tragedy.
Read MoreTim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! S3E1: Resurrection (2008) #Cincothon2020
Season Three is upon us, CineDump, and with it comes more of the uncannily uncouth, the vitriolically violent, and the disturbingly dreamlike. Awesome Show continues its satirical takedown of capitalism, using Season Three, Episode One “Resurrection,” to exuberantly mock commercials and infomercials. The main saga of Tim’s return from death is devoid of all mystery or spiritual significance--instead, it is reduced to the amount of “hundos” Tim and Eric can earn through their production of Tiny Tigers.
Read MoreTim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! S2E10: Embarrassed (2008) #Cincothon2020
We’ve reached the end of Season Two, and like the end of Season One, there will be laughter and a whole lot of tears. In Season Two, Episode Ten, “Embarrassed,” Awesome Show reaches the apotheosis of its themes of competition and wicked fathers. From the nonsensical, joyous “Tumblers Better than Pumpers” song, to the rivalry that forms this episode’s main saga, competition forms the narrative core of this episode
Read MoreTim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! S2E9: Pepperoni (2008) #Cincothon2020
Awesome Show continues its exploration of family with Season Two, Episode Nine, “Pepperoni.” Throughout seasons one and two, Awesome Show returns again and again to the idea of family. While dads and dad-adjacent imagery have been fully explored, Season Two focuses more closely on motherhood.
Read MoreConjoined (2013)
I want to apologize to Joe Grisaffi, the mastermind behind this film and many others. Years ago, Joe was kind enough to hook me up with a copy of this film for review, and to be honest, I completely forgot about it. It wasn’t until I was scrolling through Amazon that I was reminded of my personal copy.
Read MoreTim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! S2E8: Innernette (2008) #Cincothon2020
Season Two, Episode Eight is a loving tribute to all of Cinco’s tacky glory. A companion piece to the much darker Season Cinco episode “Greene Machine,” “Innernette” combines everything we love about the Cinco Corporation: pointlessness, inelegance, and greed. Capitalism, like Fatherhood, has long been a staple of Awesome Show’s irreverent humor.
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