#17: A Salute to Bill Paxton

Mr. Bill Paxton 1955-2017

Hello HYSTO? friends!  We’re back after a three-week break, and we came back with a purpose: to honor the work of an amazing actor that we lost recently, Mr. Bill Paxton.

Paul chose Million Dollar Arm, a recent film, and one that Paxton has a small but pivotal role in.  I picked one of my favorite films  Frailty, which Paxton directed himself.  How did he do? Listen in to find out! We also discuss the movie True Lies, in which Bill gives one of his finest comic performances of his career (in our opinion). How does the rest of the film hold up?  Join us and find out!

All of this and, of course we also announce which movies we’ve chosen for episode #18. Please give us a listen as we pay respect to a man that left an incredible body of work behind for us to enjoy: the amazing Bill Paxton.

 

Jay

Frailty – 2001
Million Dollar Arm – 2014
True Lies – 1994

 

 

HYSTO? #17 is our tribute to Bill Paxton

Mr. Bill Paxton 1955-2017

As you all know, we lost Bill Paxton this year.  In honor of his extraordinary career we want to pay tribute to him and talk about three very different performances (out of so many) that Mr. Paxton left for us to enjoy.

Even though we’ve both seen it, we just had to include True Lies (1994) in this show because he’s just so damned good in it.  And we both want an excuse to watch it again.  We said we would break our own rules, didn’t we?

Would you buy a used car from this man?

Paul has chosen a baseball movie (ANOTHER ONE) starring Jon Hamm called Million Dollar Arm (2014) in which Bill plays Tom House, who is a real person according to Paul.  Of course I have no idea who he is, but Paul swears by Bill’s performance, so I’m taking his word on this one.

Nope. Still no idea who he is supposed to be…

My choice for Paul is the horror film (ANOTHER ONE) Frailty (2001) starring Matthew McConaughey and directed by…Bill Paxton.  This one has been on my short list for Paul since day one, so the choice was a simple one.  This movie is truly dark, and Paxton’s performance is absolutely haunting.  PLUS there’s lots of skeevy moments where I get to torture Paul, so it’s a win all the way around…

Paxton and his Frailty co-star, Otis…

…so please join us as we pay our respects to a great actor, a talented director, and the only man to have been killed by a Terminator, an Alien, and a Predator.

Jay

Episode #16 says it’s killin’ me, Smalls…it’s also killing a few men in Japan…

Hello, friends!  Episode #16 is finally here, and in it we cover two of the most disparate films you could ever think of: The Sandlot from 1993, and Audition from 1999.

Such a tasteful and refined young woman. What could go wrong?

I always knew at some point I would make Paul watch  Audition, but the person who really wanted to torture Paul with this horror classic is my husband Rick, so he gets full credit on this one.  And Paul lived to tell about it…

Meanwhile I had to watch another sports movie, and you know how excited that makes me…

You’re telling me there’s ANOTHER baseball movie next time??? NOOOOOOO!!!!

So gather the kiddies around your smart phone (not really) while you listen to us tear apart two movies that simply COULD NOT be more different.  Also: we announce our movie picks for Episode #17, which will be a special tribute episode.  Who are we saluting?  You’ll have to tune in to find out…

Enjoy!

Jay

Episode #16 just may feature the worst cinema torture yet…

Hello friends!  We usually record our show on the weekend and I post it by Sunday night, but we had some scheduling issues this time around, so we will be posting a few days later.

I really hope you all can join us, because I can honestly say that this may be my WORST CINEMA TORTURE EVER inflicted on Paul.  I’m talking about the Japanese horror classic Audition (1999 – Takashi Miike).  If you have even heard of this movie you know that Paul is in for an adventure he won’t forget…

“Hey everyone! Let’s play Audition! I’ll get the piano wire…”

My assignment from Paul was to watch the 1993 film The Sandlot directed by David M. Evans.  I watched this the film for the first time a couple days ago, and I have a (sand) lot to say about it.  (Rim shot!)

I can’t look at this picture without hearing the Bee Gees sing “Staying Alive”…

All this, PLUS we’ll be announcing our picks for the next episode.  I have a feeling Paul is going to come at me with guns a’blazing, so you won’t want to miss the fun!

Jay