Hal the Barbarian

Movie Meltdown - Episode 375 This week we welcome back one of our favorite special guest co-hosts - Hal Sparks. We discuss everything from the basics of coordinating a busy and multifaceted career to spending years working with the Disney company, to one of his favorite movies... this week's Sofa Theater feature: Conan the Barbarian. From the Robert E. Howard pulp beginnings to the black and white Marvel comics to Arnold Schwarzenegger's interpretation in the film world... we discuss a multitude of themes and aspects of Conan. And as we realize we are effectively just beloved, we also mention... James Earl Jones, The Princess Bride, Talk Soup, First Blood, it takes a couple of whacks, a modern studio system, Braveheart, directing the show, it's always been about the hustle, wolf pelts, manipulation of the gods, such a firewall between the organizations, homogenized network television, going down through the red light district knocking on doors, a great Wayne Newton-style villain, Andy Lau, Bill Burr, the biggest bottlenecks in creativity, making a snake arrow, the three jobs at one involved in stand-up, there's always a wild west aspect whenever industry goes through a transition period, the worst book that's ever happened to film, Cape Fear, Miller's Crossing, I think we're changing how we deal with ageing, the first Disney show to blind someone, cut someone's arm off, crush their leg... and kill someone, the industry is finally catching up to people's actual tastes, let a villain be a villain, doing Deniro, it's like living on a tightrope, I don't do a single job that's one thing, Every Which You Can, The Running Man, he's the Adam Sandler of action movies, Jim Jones and the Manson family... meets Cyrus from The Warriors, I find it a motivational... I find it very invigorating, it's always somebody's fault, viking hair, nano-computers combing your hair, it was a much more visceral reading experience, a masculine romance, Rocky Balboa, Kylo Ren, playing hash, a very Scandinavian way of doing it, the blood was in black ink, The Crow, Kurt Russell, disappearing into music, I felt so manipulated by the network, Chris Evans, muscle men and scantily clad women, The Expendables, we actually sliced a woman in half, shred metal and jazz, Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth, Dudley Moore, why some actors are considered difficult, Excalibur, Mr. T, I now go in with an assumption that whatever it is is doomed, no notes from the network, an 80's stand-up comic in sneakers and a sport coat and an iron age bank heist. Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers for John Milius' Conan the Barbarian. So go watch the movie before you listen. "I think the producers said, 'If we didn't have Arnold Schwarzenegger to play Conan... we'd have to build one.' " To keep up with Hal and all of his projects, follow @HalSparks on Twitter or go to: http://halsparks.com/