Rocket Surgery (from The Incomparable Mothership)

Nov 17 2023 28 ep. 84 mins 443
Rocket Surgery (from The Incomparable Mothership) Podcast artwork

We place less-loved science fiction films from the past under our microscope and try to understand what went wrong.

  Arts  Leisure
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You See... They're Ducks (The Incomparable Mothership 691)

Nov 17 2023 88 mins  
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! For the holiday, we give you a turkey of a movie about a duck. It’s 1986’s “Howard the Duck.” (No way to conceal it.) Host Jason Snell with Annette Wierstra, Erika Ensign, Moisés Chiullán, Monty Ashley, Steve Lutz and David J. Loehr.

Saunter in From the Future (The Incomparable Mothership 630)

Sep 02 2022 68 mins  
The Summer of Time Travel meets Rocket Surgery as we watch the very 90s, good-bad film “Timecop,” the movie that answers the question, “What would happen if you tried to kick time itself?” Host Jason Snell with Joe Rosensteel, Annette Wierstra and Monty Ashley.

Mars Monkey Dance Number (The Incomparable Mothership 618)

Jun 10 2022 83 mins  
Rocket Surgery takes a time machine back to 1930 for “Just Imagine,” a visionary view of the far future of 1980 that’s three movies in one—and feels like it. Then we jump to the real 1980 where, instead of evil martian twins, we find “Flash Gordon,” quarterback, New York Jets. Host Jason Snell with Steve Lutz, Moisés Chiullán, Shelly Brisbin, Monty Ashley and David J.

We're Gonna Be Good CEOs (The Incomparable Mothership 580)

Sep 12 2021 91 mins  
As we prepare to exit the Summer of Spielberg, things have taken a bit of a turn. We’ve taken out our surgical tools to diagnose just what went wrong with “Ready Player One,” in which a director who is much more interested in movies than video games and who himself deeply influenced 80s culture is put in charge of a too-faithful adaptation of a book about video games and 80s

Lackeys Don't Wear Khakis (The Incomparable Mothership 561)

Apr 11 2021 88 mins  
After years of Monty telling us we should watch it, we’ve given in. It’s time to discuss 1981 South African karate movie “Kill and Kill Again,” a film featuring many middle-aged men kicking people, as well as a James Bond-style plot about a madman who wants to take over the world via an unusual application of potatoes. We cover strange ties to “CSI: Miami” and “The A-

I Want to Go to Dog Heaven (The Incomparable Mothership 543)

Dec 05 2020 54 mins  
Merry Kilmas! We begin our seasonal celebration of actor Val Kilmer with one of his most mysterious works, 1996’s “The Island of Dr. Moreau.” You’ll go in wanting to see Marlon Brando and David Thewlis, but you’ll exit talking about Goat Man and Dog Butler and why the last half hour of the film makes no sense at all. It’s a legendary disaster of a movie, and maybe that�

Words Aren't Cool (The Incomparable Mothership 520)

Jun 20 2020 88 mins  
It’s not 🧠🧑🏻‍🔬⚛️, it’s 🚀🧑🏻‍⚕️🔪. Emojipedia’s own Jeremy Burge joins our crew to watch the heck out of 2017’s “The Emoji Movie,” a very 😑 movie in which Patrick Stewart plays 💩 and we’re told that 🍆 belongs in the Loser Lounge. Host Jason Snell with Jer

Lucky Crime Shirt (The Incomparable Mothership 476)

Aug 31 2019 98 mins  
The Summer of Spider-Man concludes with 2007’s “Spider-Man 3”, a controversial sequel that’s packed full with villains (Sandman, Venom, and Extreme Sports Goblin) battling the increasingly unpleasant emo version of Peter Parker. Sandman’s daughter is very ill. Eddie Brock is an awfully unpleasant person. And at long last, the greatest character in the franchise—Bernard

Futterwacken Hats (The Incomparable Mothership 470)

Jul 20 2019 85 mins  
Our Rocket Surgery crew returns to the current decade to discuss Tim Burton’s billion-dollar 3-D smash hit, “Alice In Wonderland.” What if everything you remember fondly from Lewis Carroll was turned into a catchphrase? Why so much eye stabbing? Who is the Jabberwocky and what has it done with the Jabberwock? What does Johnny Depp bring to his role of a mild hat enthusiast? W

Lord of Board and Sword (The Incomparable Mothership 467)

Jun 29 2019 91 mins  
If we told you that there was a 1990s movie starring Martin Sheen’s brother featuring a post-apocalyptic world of skateboarding, sword-wielding Jedi dudes, would you believe us? Well, you shouldn’t, because we made it up on the spot. Concluding our trilogy of improvised “Rocket Surgery” episodes, this is “Last Dance of the Devil’s”, a film so bad that its title is mis