Watchcast Schedule for March 2024: '90s Heroism Cont'd!

Hey everyone! Been a while since I've done one of these, but with Twin Peaks on ice for a little bit, we're back to doing movies over on the ol' Watchcast, and as such it's time for me to tell you what we've got coming up in the month of March.

And what we're going to be doing is pivoting off of the movie choices Brad and Vinny made to round out February. Hot on the heels of Dick Tracy and Darkman, we're going to be watching a quintet of non-Marvel '90s superhero movies (we already took a peek at what '90s Marvel filmmaking looked like last year when we did Captain America and Blade) of wildly varying degrees of quality! Here's what we've got lined up for the next five weeks.

Monday, March 4th: The Rocketeer (1991)

As we were working through our last two movies, folks on our community Discord kept bringing up The Rocketeer as something they'd like to see us revisit (or in Brad's case, visit for the first time), and we were more than happy to oblige. This deeply Disney-fied adaptation of an '80s graphic novel is something I hadn't seen since I was a kid, and while the movie didn't quite live up to my memory of the hype around it, one thing about it absolutely did: that costume kicks ass.

Where to Watch 

Monday, March 11th: The Crow (1994)

This is one I've been looking for an excuse to revisit pretty much since we started doing the Watchcast, and now I finally have a good enough reason. It's hard to overstate how big an impact this movie had on 13-year-old me, with my burgeoning moodiness and lightly gothy leanings picking up steam. I loved the movie so much that I went out and bought the James O'Barr graphic novel and must've read it dozens of times. Which is to say nothing of the soundtrack--the actual secret reason I've been itching to talk about this one--which is easily in the running for one of the best licensed soundtracks of all time. Brad and Vinny have little to no direct exposure to this one, so I'm very curious to see if they take to it 30 years after the fact.

It's worth noting there is a 4K edition of The Crow on the way, but it won't be out until May. As always, I remind our intrepid listeners that these episodes do not expire, so if you want to wait for the best possible version of the movie to be available, no one will think less of you.

Where to Watch 

Monday, March 18th: The Phantom (1996)

Y'all ever just have the urge to Slam Evil? Well buckle up, because now's your chance. After the healthy, but somehow still unsatisfying dose of Billy Zane we got watching Twin Peaks, the boys were anxious to see more with our disarmingly handsome friend, and what better way to get more of that than with this totally ridiculous, not particularly good adaptation of an ancient comic strip? This is maybe one of the most "you probably caught this on a lazy Saturday afternoon on cable" movies of the '90s, and having not seen it in at least 20 years, I'm going to guess it's every bit as risible as I remember it being. If nothing else, we'll have plenty of actors to talk about with this one (Catherine Zeta-Jones! Kristy Swanson! James Remar! Treat Williams! Cary Hiroyuki Togawa! Patrick McGoohan!).

Where to Watch 

Monday, March 25th: Batman (1989)

I know that traditionally we haven't done very many movies that all of us have seen numerous times, and yes, I know this is technically an '80s movie, but with how often Batman has come up as the blueprint for the many superhero action blockbusters that came after--several of which we have covered, and will cover on this podcast--it seemed appropriate to throw this one in the queue and give it its proper due. We'll talk about the hype, the merchandising, the Prince soundtrack, and all the ways in which this movie defined both what Batman became in the ensuing years, and how blockbusters would be marketed for decades to come. And yes, we'll also talk about how good this movie is, because guess what? It still kicks ass.

And for anyone who says "you should have done Batman Returns instead!" know that you are seen, you are valid, and maybe when we get to December, there might be a little something waiting for you under the Bat-tree.

Where to Watch 

Monday, April 1st: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

Yes, we're bleeding over into April here with this theme, but this movie will represent a bit of a transition into next month's theme (more on that in a few weeks), and I just couldn't turn down an opportunity to take another look at one of the more surprisingly great hero movies of this era. Honestly, everything about this movie should have aged horribly, but TMNT is a rare kids movie with rubber-suited heroes that is somehow still pretty good even when watching it as an adult. For one thing, it's darker than you'd expect a movie about ninja-goddamn-turtles to be, but not so dark that there's no fun to be had with this extremely silly origin story. I've actually seen this in the last few years, so I'm not just spitballing here. That said, I have no idea how it's going to play with Brad and Vinny, and I cannot wait to find out.

Where to Watch 

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And that's our schedule for the month of March! As always, thanks to everyone who's been listening and watching along with us. We'll see you at the movies!