Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss

Gregory Carl returns to NinetyForChill.com: The #Podcast to critique the movie that established the equation of Rutger Hauer + Action Gimmick = Low Brow Gold. 1989's "Blind Fury" was an early 90s' basic cable Cubs/Braves rain delay stand by. A blind sword-swinging Hauer vs. Randle "Tex" Cobb & Sho Kosugi screams entertainment. Why would you want to see the Cubs be the Cubs when the game resumed?

Kodiak Thompson returns to offer up his insight about another horror comedy, Travis Betz's "Lo" from 2009. This romantic tale is all charm with a sense of humor that is akin to "John Dies at the End". It is like "Evil Dead" except the demons are more concerned with spouting and mocking philosophies instead of swallowing souls.

NinetyForChill.com: The #Podcast is starting Michael Dubois's proposed Gene Wilder trilogy by discussing his favorite movie of all time, "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory". At least, it was his favorite coming into these recordings. Can two ultra-left anti-capitalists watch a feature about the Howard Hughes of chocolatiers and leave with the same respect that they had for this feature as children?

After CatBusRuss reviews John Leguizamo's "Empire" our host and Michael Dubois resume their conversation about one of the most impactful children features in their lives, "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory". The two discuss the charms of Gene Wilder that Johnny Depp could only wish for, and how they may allow a real megalomaniacal chocolatier to get away with the crimes against humanity that Roald Dahl's most famous character commits.

And this is why ̄\_(ツ)_/ ̄ is the top trivia team in Downstate Illinois. James Slunder comes to the rescue to make sure CatBusRuss does the month of Ani-May right. The team's self-proclaimed anime expert suggested our host watch the prequel to the "Jujutsu Kaisen" television series, the 2021 motion picture "Jujutsu Kaisen 0".

The result of this suggestion is a clash between generations of fandom. We use the term self-proclaimed expert to describe James because he was not around during the days of Streamline Pictures/Central Park Media and multicolored VHS tapes. Our host feels there has to be something from his tape collecting days that gives him the edge when it comes to being an otaku.

Anime has become a lot brighter and more colorful, and CatBus may sound like an old man shouting at clouds because it is too busy for it to have that nineties, Suncoast charm. He also did not watch many magical high school themed cartoons.

Fortunately, JJK0 (James says that is what the cool kids call it.) is "Harry Potter" on steroids. Who needs Quidditch when you wield a cursed katana alongside a giant, anthropomorphic Panda and a classmate whose voice is cursed to the point that he can only safely speak in rice ball ingredients. And of course you have some "will they, won't they" relationship to tease some tension. This is how they needed to sell the third "Fantastic Beast" flick.

2024 may have been CatBusRuss's most productive Fan Expo Chicago, but it came at a cost. He had a great time learning how to host a panel when he presented "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss" live. Too bad the obsolete Fender PA system failed to record it. Or, the blame may fall upon the flash drive he bought from a dodgy phone repair kiosk at the Fashion Outlets of Chicago. But it was all about education, so sweating out a six-hour hangover after Fan Expo's Cosmic Celebration was a battle worth fighting.

Should Russ have drank half-a-fifth of Deep Eddy's Cranberry Vodka? He thinks he earned it after successfully debuting his first masked cosplay, Cubpool. This allowed him to impress his fellow nerds with photo ops and, with the mask being so confining, left him quite blind. Which means, it is difficult to shop when you cannot see. Money was saved. The owner of I Dig Crazy Flicks, LLC. cannot write off every toy he wants to buy.

The Deadpool mask's eye holes were so small, it felt like his eyes would soon be dried out. Thankfully for CatBus, the stars were out for day two of the convention. Sitting in the darkened main hall to hear tales from Alan Tudyk, the voice actors of "Hazbin Hotel", and the shared casts of the first two "Terminator" films allowed him to remove the hood and properly hydrate.

It was a fun three-days, but it did leave Russ feeling like he had been dropped seven feet by Sid Vicious. This means it felt appropriate to splice in his review of the 2020, no-budget, Cleveland-based, indie-wrestling feature, "Powerbomb" into this podcast episode.