Phil (in Hollywood) and Dean (in the environs of Detroit) checked in with each other before, during and after Sunday night’s Oscars and recorded their conversation about the movie industry’s big night. There are insights, there are jokes, there is snark, there are criticisms, and oh, yes, Dean has been drinking!

On Christmas Eve in the nation’s capital, your friends in podcasting (and broadcasting!) got together in-person for this very special (and pre-recorded) holiday treat! Dean discusses his Los Angeles adventures, including the Cerritos mall, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and nudists! Phil discusses his east coast adventures, including a visit to the Hillwood Estate of Marjorie Merriweather Post and the night his beloved cat, Fuzz Aldrin, decided to go walkabout! They touch briefly on the death of beloved novelist Joan Didion, and they discuss a handful of holiday season cinematic releases, including (more on) Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, Being the Ricardos, King Richard, Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Matrix Resurrections. There is even time for a brief follow-up on the zen brilliance of Bill Murray, and there is a photo shoot during the show! Join Dean and Phil as they ring out the final week of 2021 in style …

This week’s show begins with an email from a listener in Ireland about dialect coaches and “Hollywood accounting”. After that, Dean and Phil analyze the box office struggles of the brand new In the Heights and this inspires them to look back at two song and dance films that opened on the same day many years ago, both based on the same dance craze. It also inspires them to look ahead to big blockbuster hopefuls coming out this month as well as smaller “smart house” movies all looking for some post-pandemic domestic box office love. The Angelina Jolie vehicle Those Who Wish me Dead gets reviewed. Casting news for “John Wick 4”, the Marvel MCU and “Indiana Jones 5” gets discussed. Phil follows up on his discussion of “The Undoing” by singling out two actors (and their characters) who make the show ultimately worthwhile(ish). Dean offers up an English-language Netflix series shot in Sweden as a viewing recommendation, he regales with tales of the art work he has been creating, and he reveals another of his all-time favorite episodes of “The X-Files”. Finally, Dean and Phil compare notes on their travel plans for the summer before playing an entire four-round “Steven Seagal” edition of their Vintage Movie Ad game!

12 years ago this week, your friends in podcasting were recording their first show in stereo (rather than the two channel mono that was absolutely bonkers) and were discussing Gary Oldman’s sex appeal and The Last Mimzy. A clip from that discussion opens week’s show before Phil provides an update on his recovery from AND preparation for eye surgery, and Dean provides an update on some very interesting live comedy shows he is doing. One is his improv episode of “The X-Files” and you can see it this month in Detroit! Then, the gents move this week’s episode into the Chillpak morgue, where a maverick U.S. Presidential candidate, an all-star pitcher who became a controversial author and a successful actor, one of the greatest character actors of all time, a legend of Italian cinema, and a star of the original “Willy Wonka” all get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. A couple more thoughts related to last week’s discussion of what approach will most likely lead to creating great television get shared. Then, Dean and Phil discuss the controversy surrounding the American Cinematheque and the landmark Egyptian Theatre. Finally, they compare notes on Alfred Hitchcock’s fascinating Rope and the recent releases Us from Jordan Poole and Under the Silver Lake from David Robert Mitchell.  

Robbie Consing is one of the top storyboard artists in the film biz. Since starting in 1991, Robbie has lent his illustrating talents to the pre-visualization of more than forty feature films. He has worked on such blockbusters as Batman Forever, The Rock, Face/Off, Armageddon, Inspector Gadget, The Haunting, Mission: Impossible 2, Pearl Harbor, Minority Report, X2, Terminator 3, National Treasure, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Transformers. He has collaborated with such acclaimed directors as David Fincher, Oliver Stone, John Woo, Bryan Singer, Steven Spielberg, Doug Liman and JJ Abrams. Currently, he is hard at work on the new Spider-Man reboot. Most important of all, he’s a loyal listener of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour! And now he’s our guest!