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Director Showdown is an idea that came about after months of intense arguments between Brent Carroll and Adam Daufen about which famous director was better: Spielberg or Kubrick? From those arguments, season one was created. Each new season pits two new directors against each other, and every other week Adam and Brent get together to make their case - sometimes with help from guests.
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Adam and Brent get into 'Transformers' with Delfinpod head honcho Emmanuel! They talk about what makes the action in this Michael Bay movie different from his others, other iconic franchises from the early-to-mid 2000's, and ponder why the leads of the movie had sex on top of their sentient car! It's a loose, fun one to welcome listeners back after…
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Adam and Brent get into Zack Snyder's audacious yet messy 2011 action film 'Sucker Punch'! They break down what works about it and what doesn't, where the disconnect might be for fully hitting on all cylinders, and what it means to make 'commentary about geek culture' and the inherent irony in doing so! They also praise Oscar Isaac for bringing a t…
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Adam and Brent get into Michael Bay's Action-opus 'Bad Boys 2' with friend of the show Zach Cavender! They discuss the changes from the first movie to the second, embracing the psychotic insanity of Michael Bay's cynical worldview and the best jokes from each movie! It's a fun discussion of one of the defining action-comedies of the 2000's so enjoy…
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Erik Casarez is back to talk Snyder's 2nd comic book adaptation, 'Watchmen'! They get into the works of Alan Moore, what works and doesn't work in Snyder's approach to the material, and a Carla Gugino corner! Thanks so much for checking out the season so far, and make sure to recommend the show to your friends and family. Next week we're talking Ba…
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Adam and Brent break down Michael Bay's box-office hit and critical failure 'Pearl Harbor'! They get into comparisons to other epics of the time (especially Titanic), where it fails in comparison, but also ways it could've been really special. They also do their first live commentary on Brent experiencing the R-rated scenes that make up the extende…
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Adam and Brent are talking Zack Snyder’s epic follow-up to ‘Dawn of the Dead’, the adaptation of the graphic novel 300, with Sean Menard joining once again! They break down their history seeing this movie, it’s breakthroughs in VFX and the real Spartan history the movie is pulling from! They also get into unexpected recent comparisons to 'The Green…
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Sean Menard joins Adam and Brent to talk Michael Bay's Space epic 'Armageddon'! How does the movie hold up on it's 23rd anniversary (again falling on the day we recorded the episode!) How does it compare to similar twin-movie of the era 'Deep Impact', what makes this one stand out from the rest of Bay's filmography, and why is this maybe Brent's fa…
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John Casares (resident zombie expert of the pod) returns to discuss the modern day Romero adaptation 'Dawn of the Dead'! The guys get into a bit of Zack Snyder's origins in commercials and music videos, their favorite zombie movies, and where this movie falls in the huge zombie resurgence of the early 2000's! Is this still the best movie Snyder has…
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Adam and Brent get into the first Michael Bay film of the season with 'The Rock', recorded on the 25th anniversary of the movies release! Their friend Brian Menard returns to get into a bit of Nicolas Cage, the heavy hitting writers that worked on the script, why Ed Harris is one of our best actors, and general cultural context for the movie. It's …
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Adam and Brent kick off season 10 with Michael Bay vs Zack Snyder! Going a bit out of order to cover Snyder's recent film 'Army of the Dead', they get into what makes the movie so much fun and how it stacks up to Snyder's other movies. From here on out we're going back to the beginning of each directors careers and we're excited to get into 2 moder…
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Adam and Brent are talking Kurosawa's near-final film and pivotal magical realist exploration 'Dreams'! They get into each of the 8 vignettes, talk what works best and what doesn't, and the darkness behind Kurosawa's late-in-life world view. Beyond that, they also rank their movies discussed this season and what they took away from these 2 director…
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The guys get into Lean’s final movie and penultimate episode this season, 'A Passage to India', the subversions they didn’t expect and what does/doesn’t work in execution. Brent also gives some context on the British Raj and Indian independence, areas that he definitely knew before the episode and didn’t have to read about to know the modern contex…
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Adam and Brent discuss the penultimate Kurosawa movie of the season, his 1985 King Lear adaptation 'Ran'! They talk the jarring evolution into color, 27 year gap between films, and his cynical approach to the story, drawing comparisons to Scorsese's 'The Irishman' and Miyazaki's 'The Wind Rises'! They also once again dive into what makes comedies g…
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What kind of movie podcast hosted by 2 dudes would be complete without a discussion about all things Snydercut? How much is it an improvement on the mess released in theaters 4 years ago? Is it objectively good or only in relation to what we've already seen? These things and more discussed this week on a preview of what is to come for Director Show…
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This week Adam and Brent are talking David Lean's sweeping romantic epic 'Doctor Zhivago'! They get into what makes the movie possibly an 'anti-epic', Omar Sharif's quiet and smoldering intensity, as well as Brent finding out what a 'gun name' is (he receives one in this episode) as well as what happened to the real Ryan Reynolds! It's a great brea…
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Adam and Brent are talking Kurosawa once again, this week his influential film 'The Hidden Fortress'! They get into the many artists inspired by the movie, the sense of humor of it, and even get another surprise phone call from their new friend Kenneth Branagh! Brent also makes a very funny and definitely unoffensive joke about George Lucas! It's a…
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Adam and Brent welcome back Brian Menard to discuss one of the most influential and impactful movies of the 20th century, 'Lawrence of Arabia'! The fellas get into some of the real history behind the events in the movie, the audacity to make a massive epic focused solely on such a strange, idiosyncratic man and lament the loss of movies like this (…
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Adam and Brent are breaking down Kurosawa's beloved Macbeth adaptation 'Throne of Blood'! They get into their history (or lack thereof) with Shakespeare's works, receive a call from a very special guest, and make a desperate appeal to the Tik Tok teens (Lets get #TarkovskyTikTok trending, people!) As usual, thanks so much for listening and make sur…
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John Casares returns to the show this week to talk David Lean's WW2 epic 'The Bridge on the River Kwai'! The guys get into what makes the movie a classic, break down their favorite beats of the movie, and talk their favorite 'bridge' movies! They also get a little bummed that this movie would never be made in the same way today as well as what make…
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Adam and Brent revisit David Fincher and talk his new movie 'Mank'! They get into the origins of the screenplay written by Fincher's dad, the history of Citizen Kane and fraught process of writing the movie, as well as the dense themes in Mank! It's one of Brent's favorite movies from 2020 and he gets into a few reasons why that is (aside from the …
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The guys decided for their 100th episode to discuss an under-appreciated franchise, National Treasure! They get into Jon Turteltaub's odd directing career, grandpa-movies as a genre, and National Treasure's bizarre place in Disney's franchise history! Also discussed is a bit about the shows journey and it's future, as the guys announce they are joi…
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Adam and Brent are talking the 1954 classic 'Seven Samurai'! The fellas break down the structure of the movie, get into what makes Mifune's performance incredible, and the timeless place this movie holds in history, including the many projects it's influenced. It's one of the very best movies covered yet on Director Showdown (Brent had somehow neve…
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Adam and Brent break down David Lean's underrated masterpiece 'Brief Encounter'. The guys discuss clever British writing, interiority and how it's portrayed in movies, and this movies long lasting impact on movies that would come out decades later. We think it's one of the best episodes of Director Showdown yet, and on a movie more people should ta…
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Adam and Brent kick off season 9 talking Akira Kurosawa's acclaimed and influential film 'Rashomon'! The two discuss his origins as an assistant for many years, the philosophy of Rashomon's story, the power of story and narrative to shape the truth, as well as it's many influences on films for years to come! We're excited for a different and slight…
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Adam and Brent decided to close out the season with one more silly meme episode, so they took the trip to Hell (Marwen) once again! They get into Robert Zemeckis's (Bobby Z's) career, Steve Carrell's weird filmography, what makes this adaptation of the famous documentary so misguided and awkward, and what kinds of changes could've made it a good mo…
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