Load Bearing Beams

I've heard of a doll, but a killer doll??!!  We examine 1988's Child's Play, the debut entry in the eternal Chucky franchise about an expensive doll inhabited by the spirit of a voodoo-practicing serial killer. 

It's the movie that broke Matt Stokes: 1994's "family" "comedy" Clifford, in which a man in his mid-thirties, Martin Short, plays a 10-year-old boy. Can you imagine??? Matt and Laci have a fierce argument over this cult classic. 

Hey people, our new episode about the movie Clifford (the one where Martin Short plays a child) will be out on Monday (Aug. 3). Until then, enjoy this classic from the archives. 

Laci and Matt examine the great screwball comedy My Man Godfrey (1936), a film in which Carole Lombard gives what Matt calls one of the great comedic performances in the history of film. Is he right, or is he just a snooty snobby snob who pretends to like old things? If you don't like old movies, we also have a lengthy discussion of whether or not Maggie Simpson is a character, and how she would rank among the great Simpsons characters if so. That discussion can be found at minute 49. 

Come on down south—to the Bayou, mayhaps?—to open the book and learn about the Ya-Yas and their many divine secrets in Laci's movie of the week: 2002's Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. 

The Beams are back in town to discuss James Cameron's sci-fi/action classic, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. And the first Terminator movie too. Topics addressed: Whether or not free will is a thing Laci is distracted by Sarah Connor not wearing a bra Problems with time travel The inevitable invention of an artificial superintelligence that destroys us all Whether you can be on your phone while watching a movie  A scary thing that happened to Laci and Matt's kid Whether Edward Furlong is good If you can't change your own universe via time travel, but you can create alternate universes that spring from the events you influence, should you care?   

Travel back with us to 1998. Your guides? The Two Eds... Norton and Furlong, of course! They're your stars of American History X! Exclamation points will make this episode seem more fun than it is! 

The Beams household turns its eye toward Joe Dante's 1998 action-toy picture Small Soldiers. This podcast addresses a number of questions, including: How many times do you have to hear a song before you can judge its quality? With Disney re-theming Splash Mountain to tell the story of The Princess and the Frog rather than Song of the South, what other Disney-owned intellectual properties would you like to see represented in the theme parks? What's Joe Dante's deal? Why does he love creatures so much?  All that, plus Matt explains how Small Soldiers predicted the Iraq War.

Laci chose Serial Mom, a 1994 movie directed by John Waters and starring Kathleen Turner as a mom who's also *record scratch* a serial killer?? We won't beat around the bush: This movie rules! And so does this episode, because we discuss: The algorithms are getting better by the day Matt's troublesome relationship with food Suburbia? More like, Conformia!  Remember video stores? Celebrity murder trials ...AND MORE!

Matt accidentally opens an evil, cursed book, unleashing a plague upon the Beams household in the form of The Mummy Returns. The only way to undo the curse is to thoroughly discuss the 2001 film starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. They discuss the history of the Mummy franchise, from its roots in the Universal Monster movies of the 1930s, to the mid-budget action pictures of the '90s and '00s, to the ill-fated Dark Universe of 2017. But it all comes back to one widely disliked sequel that Matt watched repeatedly as a youth and, to his surprise, still loves.  This episode references a video essay about The Mummy by YouTuber Josh Keefe: https://youtu.be/jajqS_f9ZXQ It also quotes extensively from, "What Ever Happened to Brendan Fraser," a GQ article from 2018 by Zach Baron. Read that article here: https://bit.ly/2Yougcg PLEASE support organizations (such as Color Of Change) that fight against racial injustice and police brutality. #blacklivesmatter

Please contribute to causes that advance social justice, especially in the place you live. We are proud to support New Orleans Safety and Freedom Fund, which is providing bail relief to people arrested right now for protesting police brutality. #blacklivesmatter Load Bearing Beams will resume its regular schedule with an episode about The Mummy Returns (2001) next Friday (06.12.2020).

Laci and Matt get sucked into a tangent universe, where they have to discuss Richard Kelly's 2001 time travel/prep school thrillerdrama Donnie Darko. Who is Donnie Darko, and why is he so dark? Plus, lots of discussion about time travel, dyslexia, and dads laughing at inappropriate times.

By a listener's suggestion, Laci and Matt discuss 1988's animated/live-action/neo-noir PG-rated sex comedy Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The whole gamut of topics is covered, including: 1) Roger Rabbit's star power (Is Roger Rabbit supposed to be as famous and popular within the reality of the film as Bugs Bunny was in our reality? And if so, how popular was Bugs himself within the Roger-verse?) 2) Kids' ability to just watch movies and not need to have everything explained to them 3) Animators don't get the credit they deserve 4) The bizarre cultural artifact that is Cool World and animated movies that look like kids' movies but are actually aimed at adults 5) Matt has a controversial take on how great a movie this is All that and much more!  Also, this video essay by Patrick (H) Willems is mentioned in the episode, and is highly recommended: https://youtu.be/JKe8qCzPdkI

In this very special episode of the show, Laci and Matt team up to take a look at a movie that holds a special place in both their hearts: Ri¢hie Ri¢h (1994). They learn that Macaulay Culkin was depressed during the making of the film and that it sent him into retirement, and that the film has spawned a robust fan theory community on Reddit. They share of their favorite theories and much more in this gold nugget of an ep.

Hello, friends. To honor the mothers of the world this weekend, we're covering a movie about the best mothers in the animal kingdom: crows. In addition to discussing The Crow (1994) and the tragic death of Brandon Lee, Laci dives into her mysterious past as a goth kid. Plus a detailed breakdown of the career of the professional wrestler Sting as well as the fall of the Roman Empire. All of that and a discussion of movies Laci and Matt have pretended to like to seem cool. (Sorry about the spotty audio in some of this. It's not a giant deal, but there's some weird echo-y stuff.)

Matt reached far back into his past to grab this VHS classic. He couldn't wait to see Laci's reaction to the second live-action Turtles film. It's pure distilled nineties action, dude! The result: Divorce? Hope it was worth it.

Hop in a time machine folks, and do the Bartman with us all the way back to the early 1990s, a time when Steve Martin could semi-convincingly play a normal family man just trying to make it in this crazy world on a 9-figure annual salary. Laci and Matt examine both Father of the Bride (1991) and Father of the Bride Part 2 (1995), plus share the heart-warming story of their own engagement and matrimony. PS: Thanks to Wade Hymel for re-doing our theme song! 

For the sixth or seventh time, Load Bearing Beams returns after a lengthy hiatus. For real this time! Laci and Matt discuss the 2013 Brad Pitt zombie movie World War Z and Matt's associated love of the apocalypse. Plus an analysis of what the 2011 film Contagion gets right and wrong about pandemics, and much more.

Laci and Matt end their hiatus and return to the podcast by first explaining their family news that partially explains the long absence. Then, they go into all three of Pixar's Cars movies in excruciating detail. Fiery arguments ensue. For example: Both agree that Doc Hudson (Paul Newman) is a jerk, but they disagree about why. Matt defends the much-maligned Cars 2 and the character of Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), while Laci makes her case for Cars 3 as the best of the series. They've seen these movies way more than you have.  Time stamps: Cars - 14:55 Cars 2 - 38:00 Cars 3 - 44:50 Do you want us to talk about YOUR movie? Leave a review of our podcast on iTunes, and in your review give us the name of your load-bearing beam and why it's so important to you.   Website: www.loadbearingbeams.com   Twitter: @LoadBearingPod YouTube: LoadBearingBeams

TGIF, right? Working hard or hardly working? On an all-new episode of the podcast, in an episode Matt calls "Mystic Stirrer" and Laci calls "The Tale of Two Bacons," the Splendid Spouses discuss Stir Of Echoes, the movie from 1999 about a creepy kid who sees ghosts that isn't The Sixth Sense. Then, it's more hardscrabble workin' folk in Clint Eastwood's Mystic River (2003).    Time stamps: Matt got hearing aids - 0:00 Stir of Echos - 10:35 Mystic River - 27:00   Do you want us to talk about YOUR movie? Leave a review of our podcast on iTunes, and in your review give us the name of your load-bearing beam and why it's so important to you.   Website: www.loadbearingbeams.com   Twitter: @LoadBearingPod YouTube: LoadBearingBeams