If you caught last week’s installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour, you know that Dean Haglund was attending a convention in Rhode Island this weekend and that Phil Leirness was NOT attending in order that he could get to the bottom of what has become almost total day and light blindness. Your friends in podcasting will regale you with many tales of these adventures on this week’s show. They will also weigh in on all the news surrounding “Avengers: Endgame”, they will discuss M. Night Shyamalan’s rumination on comic books, “Glass”, and they will play a lightning round of “Celebrity Deaths”, including one that hit very close to home for Dean and Phil. A very personal, funny and touching episode. We hope you enjoy!

The Academy Award nominations were announced this week and of the eight films nominated for Best Picture, only five ranked highly with critics (“Roma”, “The Favourite”, “Black Panther”, “BlacKkKlansman” and to a far lesser degree, “A Star is Born”). Only one Best Picture nominee finished in the top ten at the box office (“Black Panther”, which was the biggest hit of the year) and only one other even finished in the top 25 at the Box Office (“Bohemian Rhapsody”). What does it all mean? Only that it’s Dean and Phil’s turn! Your friends in podcasting count down their respective Top Ten Films of 2019 during this week’s 88 minute installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!

Your friends in podcasting ring out the old on the last day of 2018 by tackling the recently announced partnership between iTunes and theatrical film distributor A24, and by looking at the calendar year that was and analyzing week by week how the biggest movie hits and best films of the year were released. They only make it through the end of September, but at least 29 films get discussed, so keep those Netflix queues handy! Thanks for spending some of your year with us and we’ll see you again in 2019!

In the second of two face-to-face episodes recorded this past week while Dean was in Los Angeles, your friends in podcasting discuss two “Celebrity Deaths” and three current cinematic releases. The creator of “SpongeBob SquarePants” and the woman who co-wrote “American Graffiti” and who gave Princess Leia her fighting, courageous spirit are the celebrities remembered by Dean and Phil. The documentary “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead” (about Orson Welles’ 15 year-long effort to make the unparalleled “The Other Side of the Wind”), the heist thriller “Widows” from director Steve McQueen (“Shame”, “12 Years a Slave”) and “If Beale Street Could Talk” from director Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight”) are the movies Dean and Phil go into great depth discussing. on YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour.

This week’s episode was delayed by half a day because Dean Haglund is spending his final hours Down Under in a hotel, and because Phil hosted a live show in Los Angeles on Sunday night. On our final intercontinental connection, Dean and Phil discuss the last entries in Dean’s Down Under Bucket List and Phil’s love for the great western star Leo Carrillo. In “Live Events of the Week” the Los Angeles Philharmonic at 100, Herbie Hancock, Katy Perry, Kali Uchis, John Williams and more get discussed. In “Lawsuit of the Week” 102 year-old Olivia De Havilland’s forthcoming appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court gets previewed. And speaking of the Supreme Court … Your friends in podcasting offer up some words they hope might be healing. Then, they turn their attention to the small screen to discuss “Stranger Things” and “The Man in the High Castle” before discussing such big screen releases as American AnimalsVenom and A Star is Born. Finally, a legendary animator, and several key figures in the history of modern music are remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. So, sit back, relax and enjoy that Didgeridoo intro one final time …

Dean tells stories about the Sydney Opera House. Phil tells stories about an amazing interview he did for his “other” podcast and tells an hilarious story about his upcoming bachelor party. Dean and Phil then share “What We’re Reading” and compare notes on the healing nature of live classical music in the “Live Event of the Week”. A little good news about HBO’s terrific “Barry” is shared in discussion of the Emmy Awards and Dean sings the praises of the Canadian adventure series “Frontier”. Then, your friends in podcasting tackle a wide range of cinematic efforts, from Elia Kazan’s classic film noir Panic in the Streets to the Jack Lemmon vehicle The Days of Wine and Roses, from John Carpenter’s masterful (and initially rejected) The Thing to a current release that has met with praise and promising box office, even though it’s all sorts of awful. Finally a legendary and groundbreaking dancer is remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. Oh, yeah, and if that wasn’t enough, no actor, editor or filmmaker will want to miss the discussion inspired by an email from a loyal listener …

We were going to say that after a one-week absence (during which they released a spectacular pre-recorded episode with a special guest), your friends in podcasting come out with guns blazing … And then, as they were getting set to record, ANOTHER mass shooting in the USA occurred. Dean and Phil address the event and get into a seriously fascinating conversation about rage and despair and about how people can obtain the tools necessary to explore these bedrock emotions without being taken by them. Then, in the return of “Live Events of the Week”, Tchaikovsky and a non-binary gender identifying performer are celebrated, and Dean discusses his “Down Under Bucket List”, including scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef (a list item he has checked off, thank you very much!). Romantic comedies and diversity both get discussed in the wake of Crazy Rich Asians‘ box office success (and surprisingly decent reviews) and the documentary profile Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda gets recommended. Finally, the Chillpak Morgue is opened for “Celebrity Deaths” where the lives, accomplishments and lasting impacts of a true American hero, a giant of international diplomacy, the Oscar-nominated actress who founded modern improv, the journalist who coined the phrase “champagne wishes and caviar dreams” and the Queen of Soul are all remembered. All that AND Phil finally learns the usage of modern-day pronouns!

This week, we promise that Dean will NOT spend half the show working on home construction while on the microphone! He will regale us with tales of his final iprov comedy performance in Sydney prior to his move back to the USA. Then, your friends in podcasting discuss “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee”, NBC’s “The Good Place”, Patrick Stewart’s return to “Star Trek”, Q Anon (no, not the villain in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” – at least we think not) before turning their attention to movies. Such releases as Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp the elephant documentary Love & Bananas, the coming-of-age Eighth Grade, the sci-fi mind-bender The Endless, the award hopeful Leave No Trace and the early Denis Villeneuve films Incendies and Enemy all get discussed.

 

Following up on last week’s milestone (and VERY bizarre) episode #500 (where Dean and Phil took a road trip to a cemetery) is no easy task, and this week’s show proved to be torture in its production, so please forgive the (slight) delay in getting it to you and the (frequent) technical problems during it. This being 2016, there are, of course, new “Celebrity Deaths” to discuss. There is also an email from a listener like you (yes, YOU!). There is the return of “What We Are Reading”, several “Live Events of the Week” and New Year’s Eve plans get compared. Then, the subjects of year end critics’ lists and award nominations get discussed and a handful of new and recent films get analyzed, including Rogue One: A Star Wars StoryPatriots DayLion, and Lights Out. Is it possible that the best film of the year is also one of the best TV shows of the year? Find out NOW on YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!

Many years ago, your friends in podcasting had a very unique Summer Movie Preview episode that proved extremely popular. They’ve always thought of doing another, but for whatever reason, schedules never allowed. Finally, 7 years later, Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness have done their prep work and are ready to deliver. After all, what is more “summer” in the movie biz than a long-anticipated sequel?! Perhaps, a sequel no one asked for …

Oh, well … On this week’s show, Dean and Phil preview all the hopeful blockbusters as well as several of the smaller comedies, documentaries and independent films hoping to make their mark at the box office as “counter-programming”. They do this by analyzing these movies’ trailers. Is the trailer good or bad? What can be gleaned about whether the film is good or bad? Do they think the film itself is like or unlike the one being advertised? The services AND disservices done to the audience by the way these films are marketed and advertised gets fully discussed. Film distribution nitty gritty, summer movie previews and much hilarity on this week’s brand new episode of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!