Pod Hard

The Hitcher (1986)

PLAYTIME #2!

Jonas Högberg & Anders Hultqvist fortsätter att se filmer med leksugna individer, den här veckan The Hitcher, en skräckaction som heter duga med en Rutger Hauer i sitt livs roll.

Följ med när oskuldsfulle ynglingen C. Thomas Howell plockar upp Hauer en stormig natt och får sitt liv förstört de kommande dagarna. Filmen bär på en drömsk kvalité - samtidigt som den levererar feta biljakter med Terminator-minnande tunggung.

Rutger Hauer har en närvaro som ingen annan, blir motiverad när folk säger ifrån, bjuder på finger fries, är möjligtvis en allegori för ondskan, spränger bensinstationer, ömkar för offer med oladdade pistoler, gör en Rödluvan och Vargen på ett motell och offrar en tand för filmkonsten.

Vila i frid, din underbara galning.

"Actually we're all from Mars around here, we keep our spaceship out back. So... what planet are you from?"

Aliens (1986)

PLAYTIME #3!

Jonas Högberg och Anders Hultqvist saliverar som St Bernhard-hundar i veckans avsnitt av Pod Hard. På menyn hittar vi nämligen en av tidernas fetaste actionfilmer: Aliens.

Anders hyllar James Cameron för att han monterar åtminstone sina 80-talsfilmer med tydligt definierade byggklossar och är så förtjust i Sigourney Weavers leading lady-egenskaper att han kan tänka sig att byta ut alla andra skådespelare mot The Rock.

Jonas beskriver Alien som teoretisk kurragömma och Aliens som tripp, trapp, trull: ett stegrande kaos med ständigt nya nivåer i intensitet. Dessutom lägger han in en mycket omotiverad dolkstöt i ryggen på Joe Dante.

Podd-duon diskuterar Ripleys robotism, skvallrar om James Camerons fruar, sågar scener från Special Edition, sörjer utvecklingen för marinkårssoldater på film, hyllar rörelsedetektorns tydlighet, hoppas på en rebootquel och vill släppa Bill Paxton lös.

"Get away from her, you BITCH!"

Pod Hards nyårskarameller 2019

THIS IS FOR THE FANS!

Pod Hard vinkar hej då till 2019 på bästa sätt - med en mustig podd om decenniets bästa actionfilmer och en hel rad årsbästalistor om filmerna som Jonas Högberg & Anders Hultqvist sett under året som gått.

Detta inkluderar klassiska listor som Bästa Douchebagbeteende Från Hjälten, men mestadels nytt trams som Bästa Skurkar Som Bevisar Sin Skurkighet, Bästa Weapon Unleashed, Bästa Jacka och Bästa Bomb I Brallan.

Förutom allt detta trevliga spoilar Pod Hard-duon sin nya plan för podden, en ovanligt ambitiös sådan.

Från oss alla till er alla: GOTT NYTT ÅR!

Action Movie History 1878-1909

What happens in Sweden stays in Sweden... until now. The fine fellows producing Pod Hard, a podcast about action movies, have started using their vocal cords in an anglo-saxon way.

Jonas Högberg & Anders Hultqvist have also made a small reboot to their style and will be tracing the history of action movie cinema for quite some time going forward.

In this first episode we are dialing the clock all the way back to the 1800s, discussing photographic guns, fence jumping pumpkins, Michael Bay-precursors, early Youtube-cat movies, the first cool action hero (aptly named The Dude), the concept of cutting to the chase in a very literal way and much much more.

You'll also find out how to stop a motor car. Enlightenment and oodles and oodles of fun awaits!

Links for the most important movies we talk about.

Action Movie History 1910-1919

Get ready for a jam packed episode on the origin of action cinema as Pod Hard panelists Jonas Högberg & Anders Hultqvist tear into the 1910s.

People are now truly getting the hang of things like editing, pacing, set building and camera placements - and are doing crazy ass stunts. Especially women!

The trains are out of control but pioneering stunt bad asses Helen Holmes, Pearl White, Anna Q Nilsson and Gene Gauntier know how to quickly adapt to dangerous situations.

Comedian legends Roscoe Arbuckle, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd throw people out of frame, fall on their asses and runs around in a Bugs Bunny-instilled frenzy.

And charmer/parkour-king/heavy hitter-brawler Douglas Fairbanks is setting a bar that will undoubtedly inflict action heroes of today with altitude sickness.

Learn about the beginnings of animation and green screen, "cinema jockeys" and pie in the face-shtick, breaking the fourth wall-shenanigans and parallell editing-mastery and much much more.

Oh, and there's talk about a movie that is essentialy "Jackie Chan meets Luis Buñuel". You need this episode of Pod Hard in your life. Get in!

Action Movie History 1920 (The Mark of Zorro)

Finally, Pod Hard has reached the roaring twenties in tracing the roots of action movie history, and 1920 should be considered a seminal year for action aficionados. Buster Keaton becomes a leading man, producing and directing intricate set piece-driven comedy and Douglas Fairbanks enters his swashbuckling phase with gusto. One man is a stone face devoid of emotion, the other all smiles and grins.

Jonas Högberg & Anders Hultqvist watches One Week and The Mark of Zorro, reporting on the action with characteristic guffaws and awe.

Of note from the episode: Handy Hank turn out to be Handsy Hank, Jean-Claude Van Damme get's competition for the most epic car based epic split, super hero stories like Batman and Superman owe quite a bit of thanks to Fairbanks Zorro, there's simply no such thing as the "shot out of a canon"-jump and there's always time to stop for breakfast mid chase.

"He isn't a man - he's a fish!"

Action Movie History 1921 (The Three Musketeers)

Take note, action movie-buffs, in the year 1921 a movie called Action was made! Unfortunately it appears to be lost, which means Jonas Högberg and Anders Hultqvist turn their scrutinizing gaze to Douglas Fairbanks and his swashbuckling ways yet again.

The Three Musketeers is the feature of the week as Pod Hard keep steaming on through cinema history, chasing pratfalls and fisticuffs. Harold Lloyd's Never Weaken, Buster Keaton's The Goat and Shōzō Makino's Gōketsu Jiraiya provide some silly extra content.

Some lessons learned: suicide comedy was all the rage in 1921, you don't need a puff of smoke to transform into a toad, you charge a bully like a bull, hats before horses, no tailor can ever take Douglas Fairbanks measurements and if you need a servant chose one who reflects before he acts.

"Pardon me madame, I must kill your friend."

Action Movie History 1922 (The Three Must-Get-Theres)

Disappointment cradles Jonas Högberg & Anders Hultqvist in this week's episode of Pod Hard. 1922 isn't a great year for action. Not even the loopy mad-man Douglas Fairbanks is able to save the day with his adaptation of Robin Hood. Some fancy fencing and drawbridge-climbing aside, it's a spectacularly boring movie.

Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd isn't up to par either. Apart from the beautiful finishing brawl in Lloyd's Grandma's Boy there's simply too much plodding plotting going on.

But wait! There is hope! And that hope is signed Max Linder, the French comedy superstar and his parody of Douglas Fairbanks The Three Musketeers - called The Three Must-Get-Theres! Which essentially is a madcap merry-go-round, Mel Brooks-style, only way better.

Linder's hero Dart In Again fights a horses hooves, catches a sword in his hands, dances up stairs, professes his love for a woman mid-fight, loses his breath almost a century before Old Boy made it cool, catches bad guys by the dozen with a lasso and rides in slow motion. This is what it's all about, folks!

"Exempt me sire. I am afeared of women!"

Action Movie History 1923 (Safety Last & Our Hospitality)

Move aside! The comedy giants of the 20s are back with a vengeance when Jonas Högberg & Anders Hultqvist turn the clock forward to 1923. Harold Lloyd is climbing buildings, Buster Keaton is leaping off of them.

In this episode of Pod Hard Lloyd's Safety Last and Keaton's Our Hospitality form a highly enjoyable double feature filled with real perils high above street level in skyscraper town and in the wild rapids of the West.

Buster Keaton's father show off his kung fu-skills, an old geezer attacks a toy train, people shoot out of their chairs, Lloyd has a tug-o-war with a pack of rabid house wives and the font size of intertitles gets the last laugh.

"The idea of working in your shirt sleeves! Think of the shock to your customers: women of culture and refinement."

Action Movie History 1924 (Sherlock Jr & Girl Shy)

Silent movies - a bore? Prepared to get schooled!

Jonas Högberg and Anders Hultqvist are flabbergasted. Never would the podcasting duo have imagined such heights for action cinema as they are confronted with when watching Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr and Harold Lloyd's Girl Shy in this episode of Pod Hard.

One thing's for sure: all the people making lists about the best chase scenes in movie history have apparently not watched any 1924-flicks!

Buster is riding a motorcycle sitting on the steering wheel, breaks up a strong man competition, escapes a collapsing bridge and enter a disguise through a window. Harold does a daring transition from car to horse by way of tree branch, highjacks a tram, goes bonkers with a fire hose on a rampaging fire truck and goes looking for a postman's whistle.

1924 rocks!

"I'd like you to meet my city cousin from Grand City - she was the first person there who could pronounce Mah Jong."