Movies, podcasts and Wilford Brimley: Talking film with 'Nerds for Reel' | Arts & Culture

Here’s a recommendation you aren’t likely to get from “Ebert & Roeper:”

Watch the critically acclaimed “Get Low,” starring Robert Duvall and Bill Murray, and Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor’s “I Love You Phillip Morris.” But, sandwich them with three viewings of hyper-violent Rutger Hauer schlock-fest “Hobo with a Shotgun.”

That’s exactly the kind of advice you’ll get from “Nerds for Reel,” a movie-themed podcast from Ballard High School graduates Andrew Takahashi and Ben Horak. (You’ll also learn the only redeeming qualities of Larry the Cable Guy’s “Witless Protection” are Jenny McCarthy as a brunette and Eric Roberts.)

Takahashi, who graduated from Ballard in 2002, runs “Nerds for Reel” out of his Crown Hill living room, with Horak contributing from Vermont via Skype. The show features a rotating casts of friends and roommates as guests.

Takahashi started “Nerds for Reel,” now in its sixth episode, in late-February after getting into podcasts in a big way.

“Once I started listening to podcasts, I stopped listening to music entirely,” he said. “I couldn’t stop listening to it. I was just having so much fun listening to people having fun.”

That’s the ethos that guides Horak and Takahashi, who, before Horak’s move to Vermont, would get together weekly to watch “horrible, horrible movies, and also some good ones,” Takahashi said.

“If only one person is listening to it and having fun, that’s great,” Takahashi said. “Really, as long as we’re having fun doing it.”

So far, “Nerds for Reel” is averaging about 20 listeners per episode, though one episode recently cracked the 50-listener mark. Listeners include friends in Seattle, of course, but people are also tuning in from as far away as Germany and Egypt.

Takahashi started two abandoned podcasts, including one about professional wrestling, before “Nerds for Reel” took off.

He said he credits the universality of film for the success of this current venture. Unlike other topics, movies are familiar to people across cultures and interests. You can always get a laugh with a Nicolas Cage reference, Takahashi said.

“Basically, movies are a lot more accessible than professional wrestling,” he said.

While Takahashi is quick to point out that he and Horak are not professional critics, it can be fun for the audience to listen to people who love movies riffing and having fun, and “Nerds for Reel” is offering something unique.

Each week, Takahashi and Horak assign each other a terrible film to watch for the coming episode. But instead of just ripping the hapless movie apart, they try to find the positives in otherwise terrible viewing experience (before then completely ripping them apart).

And, if admitting to sitting through “Glitter” to an international audience doesn’t show a serious love of film, I don’t know what does.

Below, I talk movies with Andrew Takahashi and Ben Horak. Hear more of their thoughts on the "Nerds for Reel" podcast.

What are your three favorite films when you are trying to impress someone?

BH: “The Killing” by Stanley Kubrick, “Touch of Evil” by Orson Welles and “Sunrise” by F.W. Murneau.

AT: “Rush Hour,” “Rush Hour 2” and “Rush Hour 3.”

What are your actual three favorite films?

BH: “The Dark Backward,” “Dying of Laughter” and “Bad Boy Bubby.”

AT: “Groundhog Day,” “High Fidelity” and “The Wedding Singer.”

You find positives in terrible films, but is there any film that was completely unredeemable?

BH: I was hard-pressed to find anything positive with Larry the Cable Guy’s “Health Inspector.” It’s disgusting, racist, sexist. The list goes on. But, the thing that makes his movies so hard to like is the fact that they are completely unfunny. I love a good fart joke as much as the next guy. But, there’s got to be purpose and grace to accompany it. Otherwise, it’s just a fart.

AT: I’m sure he works very hard and there are a lot of people who find him very entertaining, so I don’t mean this as an insult to the man himself, but I’ve sat through two Larry the Cable Guy movies, and I can say from experience that there is not a reason to see “Witless Protection” and “Delta Farce.”

Name your top three Nicolas Cage hairpieces in film.

AT: Wow. That’s got to be the hardest question I’ve ever had to answer. There are so many good ones to choose from. I love his hair in “Raising Arizona.” “Con Air” proved that he can have long hair and totally kick butt. Last but not least, “Ghost Rider.” His hair is fire for half the movie.

BH: The “Bad Lieutenant,” the “Drive Angry” and the “Adaptation.”

What is the best piece of advice to be found in an Arnold Schwarzenegger film?

BH: To always get yer ass to Mars.

AT: “You should not drink and bake.” It’s just common sense.

Which film is more desperately in need of a remake, “Casablanca” or “White Men Can’t Jump?”

AT: I would love to see them remake “White Men Can’t Jump,” but only if Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes reprise their roles. They could make it now and have it out in time for the 20th anniversary next year.

Is there a movie you can’t convince your friends is actually good?

BH: There are multitude movies I love but can’t convince anyone to watch, let alone see the good in. There are also movies I love that I don’t show to people because I don’t want any negative criticism on them. They’re my own ugly children.

Give me the title, genre and star of a fictional film you wouldn’t be able to miss.

AT: “Sussudio” starring Phil Collins in a “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure”-type romp where he chases down the elusive Sussudio.

BH: “Guts!,” a horror/musical starring Brad Douriff. Any violent horror film I immediately see. But, if it’s also a musical and it’s got a B-movie star, I’m totally onboard.

“The Thing” or “Cocoon?” Pick your Wilford Brimley.

BH: “The Thing” always and forever is Brimley’s best roll, even though he doesn’t have that sweet ‘stache.

AT: “Cocoon.” You cannot go wrong with the dream team of Brims and Steve Guttenberg.

Give me the cast and a plot synopsis of “Nerds for Reel: The Movie.”

AT: Lowly podcasters Ben (played by Sir Ben Kingsley) and Andrew (played by famous English composer Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber) must take their podcast on the road (and outer space) in order to save the world from the impending meteor strike. This explosive action adventure comedy also costars Steve Guttenberg and Wilford Brimley.