Special Guests: John Dahl, David Warfield Guest Co-Hosts: Jedidiah Ayres, Rob Spencer
Rob Spencer joins Mike and Jedidiah Ayres -- our full-time co-host for this Val-halla series -- as we discuss some Val Kilmer films. We start with the neo-noir Kill Me Again (1989). Written by David Warfield and John Dahl (who also directed), it stars Kilmer as a private detective who's hired by the two-timing Fay (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer) who's on the run from the psychotic Vince "Vega" Miller (Michael Madsen).
Dahl and Warfield speak about the making of the film and the struggle to get their visions to screen.
Rob St. Mary and Rob Spencer join Mike to dig into Alex Proyas's Dark City (1998), the tale of John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell), who wakes in a cheap hotel room with no memory, a dead body nearby, and a city that refuses to add up. Detective Bumstead (William Hurt) closes in while the pale, bald Strangers rearrange reality every time the clocks stop — building a world that is simultaneously a locked-room mystery, a Philip K. Dick nightmare, a Kafka story with a superhero ending, and a filmmaker's self-portrait: the Strangers as producers, Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) as the compromised writer, and Murdoch as the protagonist who tears through the painted backdrop and seizes the apparatus.
The conversation covers the film's three screenplay stages and two finished cuts, the studio-mandated voice-over that Proyas spent a decade trying to undo, and Roger Ebert's role as the mechanism of the film's survival. Mike and the Robs also place Dark City within the remarkable 1998–99 cluster of simulated-world films — The Truman Show, The Matrix, eXistenZ, The Thirteenth Floor — and examine what it means that Murdoch's triumphant ending leaves the city still a construct, still running on hidden machinery, with only the god changed.
Mike joins hosts Rob Spencer and Joe Odber of Caliber 9 From Outer Space for a hard-boiled double feature spanning two very different crime cinema traditions. First up is Across 110th Street (1972), Barry Shear's gritty portrait of violence and dread on the mean streets of New York. Then the conversation shifts to Milan for Gambling City (1975), directed by Sergio Martino.
The episode includes a Spoiler Territory section for both films. Listeners who haven't seen Across 110th Street can skip ahead to the 1:16:42 mark, and those avoiding spoilers for Gambling City can jump to 2:10:17.
We continue our Australian month with Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds, the stark 1989 feature debut of Alex Proyas. Before The Crow or Dark City, Proyas delivered this sun-blasted sci-fi Western set in a post-apocalyptic desert where the wind blows land desert bakes.
A lone wanderer, Smith (Norman "The Norm" Boyd), emerges from the dunes and collides with siblings Felix and Betty Crabtree (Michael Lake and Melissa Davis), who survive on beans, religious fervor, and flying mania. Smith's arrival fractures their fragile world, igniting jealousy, spiritual dread, and Felix’s obsessive dream.
Cullen Gallagher and Rob Spencer join Mike to explore Proyas’s theological undercurrents, and the film’s singular place in late-’80s Australian cinema.
Mike joins Caliber 9 From Outer Space for their landmark 100th episode, celebrating the milestone with an ambitious and eclectic triple feature: Brian De Palma’s Sisters (1972), John Sayles’s The Brother from Another Planet (1984), and John Hough’s Hammer favorite Twins of Evil (1971).
Along with hosts Rob Spencer and Joe Odber (and fellow guest Sammy from the GGTMC), Mike digs into the films’ shared fascinations with identity, social fractures, and psychological duality -- whether explored through De Palma’s split-screen paranoia, Sayles’s still-timely critique of American intolerance, or Hammer’s lurid Gothic stylings.
The group avoids major spoilers for The Brother from Another Planet and only lightly touches the ending of Twins of Evil. However, Sisters receives a full spoiler discussion, with a clear cue for listeners who want to skip ahead: you can safely rejoin at 1:35:59.
It’s the show’s longest episode to date and a lively deep dive befitting the occasion. Congratulations to Caliber 9 From Outer Space on reaching 100 episodes—and here’s to many more.
Mike was asked to return to the Caliber 9 from Outer Space podcast where he talked about the 1948 Anthony Mann film Raw Deal where Dennis O'Keefe is torn between two women as he battles against Raymond Burr. Rob Spencer and Joe Odber also opted to allow Mike to fawn over the 1986 film Raw Deal from director John Irvin, a strange poliziotteschi set on American soil starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mark Kaminski, a small town sheriff who has to go undercover to help his friend Harry (Darren McGavin) to avenge his son. Mark also shares some valuable advice for when alcohol and baking don't mix.
Special Guests: John Dahl, David Warfield
Guest Co-Hosts: 
Guest Co-Hosts: 
Mike joins Caliber 9 From Outer Space for their landmark 100th episode, celebrating the milestone with an ambitious and eclectic triple feature: Brian De Palma’s Sisters (1972), John Sayles’s The Brother from Another Planet (1984), and John Hough’s Hammer favorite Twins of Evil (1971).
Along with hosts Rob Spencer and Joe Odber (and fellow guest Sammy from the GGTMC), Mike digs into the films’ shared fascinations with identity, social fractures, and psychological duality -- whether explored through De Palma’s split-screen paranoia, Sayles’s still-timely critique of American intolerance, or Hammer’s lurid Gothic stylings.
Mike was asked to return to the