Phil is back from a weekend excursion to Catalina and regales with tales of his trip. Dean previews his forthcoming trips to London, Los Angeles, Japan and Europe. Many different Netflix shows starring comedian John Mulaney get discussed, and his work ranging from stand-up to sketch to performance art gets analyzed. Three recent movies also get analyzed: the “found footage” horror favorite Late Night with the Devil, the Ian McShane-starring indie thriller American Star, and a modern classic from France, The Taste of Things. Finally, Hollywood giant Roger Corman gets remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”.

 

After traveling across the country (on Spirit Airlines), Phil has been laid up all week, sick as a dog. Dean has been avoiding the dazzling nighttime Aurora displays put on by the current solar storm. They both have a great deal of show biz news, views and reviews on their minds, however. First off, Dean previews the forthcoming Ryan Coogler-led “X-Files” reboot, hipping us to its premise. Then, he and Phil make sense of the Ryan Gosling-starring The Fall Guy, both appraising its merits and explaining its box office failure. The future of action as a genre on both the big and small screens gets analyzed. Jerry Seinfeld’s utterly silly, possibly sly Unfrosted and the seething reaction to it get dissected. Everybody’ seems to love Netflix’s new series “Baby Reindeer”, except for the possibly defamed subject of it! Dean and Phil come at this one from all angles. Finally, Phil explains what went wrong with Taika Waititi’s recent true-life sports comedy Next Goal Wins and expresses confusion over why Hulu’s “The Bear” is considered a comedy.

Phil is in Malta. Before he left, he sent Dean an itinerary of his trip. Dean was aghast. That itinerary was a jam-packed 7 pages of information about travel, accommodations, meals, beverages, sites and activities. On this week’s show, recorded prior to departure, Phil sat still long enough to answer Dean’s questions about the trip. 

This past week, your friends in podcasting & broadcasting were reunited in Michigan. You can hear all about the tour Dean gave Phil of some of his Detroit stomping grounds, and their neighboring environs. You can learn about the Mandela Effect. You can get your taste buds watering as you discover the joys of Detroit pizza and home-made ginger ale. You can recoil in horror at both the latest behavior by the AMPTP and the studio moguls in their ongoing conflict with the Writers Guild as well as the reasons Trader Joe’s had to remove some products from its shelves. All that, plus the number one song in the country, the most legendary pubs in the world and a very special guest pops in from time to time to lend her irrepressible spirit and joie de vivre!

Dean is back from Amsterdam and he and Phil have a lot to discuss! Dean has advice on travel, and has stories about Vermeer, Rembrandt and Heineken. Phil has stories about TCM host (and Czar of Noir) Eddie Muller, and stories about stepping down from his roles at the famed Los Angeles Breakfast Club. Dean and Phil discuss the possible forthcoming writer’s strike in Hollywood and in “Celebrity Deaths” remember the inventor of the game Settlers of Catan, the Oscar-winning production designer of the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” films, an Oscar-nominated character actor and a cartoonist beloved by several generations of fans.

Happy 2023, everybody! Dean and Phil get the year off to a good start by regaling each other (and you) with their respective holiday week road trip adventures. Dean drove all the way back to Detroit and Phil explored the two-lane back roads of Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as the mean streets of the Big Apple. Because it’s “in with the new”, your friends in broadcasting and podcasting will reveal their resolutions for 2023. They will also say goodbye to a couple of notables who left us in December 2022, including a key David Lynch collaborator, the “Hollywood Cat” and an editor with whom Phil was working. All in all, a very inspiring and personal and irreverent installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour is on tap!

Happy St. Stephen’s Day, Happy Boxing Day, Happy (final day of) Hanukkah AND Happy 2nd Day of Christmas! Dean and Phil celebrate it all by comparing notes on their holiday celebrations, by sharing stories of Dean’s jury duty and of Phil’s cross-country travels with THE Fuzz Aldrin! Film critics everywhere have been weighing in on the best movies of 2022. Dean and Phil will check in on their consensus picks (thus far). They will also discuss a handful of current and recent releases, including Guillermo Del Toro’s “Pinocchio”, the dark satire “The Menu”, Ti West’s “X” and “Pearl”, and they re-visit the recent comedy actioner “Bullet Train”, using it as an excuse to analyze the work of Ryan Reynolds, and to celebrate the greatness of Michael Shannon.

This week’s show opens with a brief interview with one of the stars of a “Live Event of the Week”. Dean is in Washington, D.C. and he gives a full report on one of the most beautiful road trip sights he has seen and an exhibit at the National Gallery focusing on Joseph Singer Sargent. Phil has just returned from his (penultimate?) trip to Turlock to finalize “family business” and he is in an exhausted, tormented, philosophical mood, opining on family, marriage, and alternate universes. The comedy of the Marx Brothers, Billy Wilder, Marilyn Monroe and See How They Run gets dissected, and in “What We’re Reading” the art of Edward Hopper, the comedy of Martin Short and the poetry of Betsy Holleman Burke get discussed. Finally, in “Celebrity Deaths”, the lives and legacies of a Canadian voice actor, a Japanese star of an American miniseries, a blues singer, a sitcom producer and a law student-turned-best selling novelist all get explored.

Because Dean will be traveling to the UK, next week’s episode will be a special, pre-recorded, “theme” show. On this week’s show, Dean previews his trip. Phil shares an email from a loyal listener like you (YES, YOU!) about a rare and hard (impossible?) to find program from 30 years ago. That leads to a tribute to the late, great Robert Morse. Phil then pays tribute to a friend of his, a fixture of The Los Angeles Breakfast Club, who was as old as that 97 year-old club of hospitality and friendship when he died this past month. Phil also previews a speech he is giving this week at the club about Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Phil’s recently-acquired appreciation for the greatness of James Mason takes another turn and leads to an appreciation of the greatness of Paul Newman! Dean’s recent derision for all things Michael Mann gets explored and several of the most beloved AND a couple of the most under-appreciated crime films of the past 40 years get examined. Finally, Dean and Phil discuss the differences between disrespect and irreverence, the necessity of the latter and the unhealthy aspects of the former. Somehow this discussion involves both This is Spinal Tap and Elon Musk! From the heart-tugging to the thought-provoking, from the groan-inducing to the funny-bone tickling, it’s all on the menu!

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 …