The 1980s was a time when action movies crashed noisily into American culture and seemed to take it over. They created a kind of film that had hardly been seen before; films where cops—for the most part—wreaked holy hell upon bad guys in the name of justice and then made snarky jokes about it.

I love movies and I especially love commentaries. So I got myself a microphone and produced some of my own. This is the master list of all my commentaries.

Alfred Hitchcock presents his first big hit with all the trimmings: the innocent man taking it on the lam, the tough and beautiful blond sparring with him, the quirky humor, and the weird conclusion.

Listen as I compare the film to Young and Innocent and North by Northwest, talk about Hitchcock’s early work and developing style, and stumble over British currency.

The greatest of great apes is trapped by tiny men and dragged to New York, where he runs amok, all for the affections of a dame. Join me as I give a little of the history of the production, point out some of the successes and failings, analyze the structure, and mock the stuntman who gets squashed by a giant ape foot. I frequently compare the film to the 1976 version and occasionally to the 2005 version.

This is kind of a quickie commentary with (for the first 15 minutes) my little niece.

William Goldman edits Simon Morgenstern’s rollicking adventure of pirates and princesses, swordplay and swamps down to “the good parts,” and I put all the missing pieces back in, carefully reconstructing the original narrative, in all its gruesome, graphic, weird, and perverse detail.

Join me as I divulge the not-safe-for-children truth. Rated M for mature.

Join me in an in-depth analysis of this terrific 1958 samurai film and detailed comparisons to the Star Wars movies it went on to inspire. I detail the connections between the characters and events in this with those in the Star Wars movies, ridicule the central characters, and boldly suggest that this movie needs a villain like Darth Vader.

Join me as I give the first feature-length werewolf movie a gentle ribbing even while admiring its entertaining aspects. I explain the history of werewolf lore and cinema, and I compare it to vampire and Frankenstein stories, not to mention the Hulk. And I disassemble it as a metaphor for serial killers versus a metaphor for puberty.

Discovering that the Tysto site layout was broken in Internet Explorer, I’ve done a lot of experimenting and investigating in the last few days. I’m not fluent enough in CSS to figure out exactly why the layout looked fine in Firefox but the sidebars were misplaced in IE, so I gave up and pulled the [...]

Mike, Crow, and Tom Servo are forced by evil mad scientist Doctor Forrester to sit and watch the 1955 stink bomb This Island Earth. They make the best of it, assaulting the film with every fiber of their beings in this, their grab at the big-screen brass ring. I make the most of it as well, delivering calm, cool analysis all along the way, such as comparing this film to Citizen Kane and explaining why I’m not commentating on Mystery Science Theater 2000 or Mystery Science Theater 1000.

Join me.

BB Rodriguez engages in a little Time travel to the mid-1960s to look at the Medicare and Medicaid debate and how that all turned out. Turns out: surprisingly well—and in some surprising ways.

Success, alterations, positive side effects, and 130 years of German national health care. Time travel is amazing.