Tag: documentary

Discovery Channel still has it

 

The Discovery Channel switched over from educational programming to reality shows (except for that one week when they air every shark show ever made) years ago. But, they like to test the audience to see if they still have their old credibility every so often by airing their equivalent of Fox’s Alien Autopsy.

Viewers were taken in once again by Discovery’s “what if?” documentary, Mermaids: The Body Found despite it not being about ghost hunting, crab fishing or pumpkin chunkin’. Despite this repeated success, executives are worried about being called the Network Who Cried Mermaid and have greenlit several new test specials, including:

  • How It’s Made: Crack Coccaine, AIDS and Other Government Inventions
  • Lobstermen: They’re Actually Half-Lobster, Half-Man
  • Gullible: It’s Written On Your Ceiling (No, Really. Look!)

MasterChugs Theater: ‘Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop’

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year and half, you’ve at least heard of The Tonight Show debacle that happened last year. Conan O’Brien‘s short-lived reign as the show’s host only lasted 7 months, but the fallout from his departure lasted significantly longer. Though it was certain O’Brien would land another show with ease, as part of his exit deal with NBC, O’Brien was prohibited from appearing on TV and radio for six months. To fill the gap, O’Brien went on his “Legally Prohibited from being Funny on Television Tour.” But even during this time, O’Brien often found himself in front of a camera, as Rodman Flender filmed a documentary, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, about the trip.

Nearly a year later, that film is out. Continue reading MasterChugs Theater: ‘Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop’

MasterChugs Theater: ‘Best Worst Movie’

What’s the difference between a typical bad movie and a Best Worst Movie? That’s the question explored by Michael Stephenson’s highly entertaining new documentary, in which he examines the experience of being part of Troll 2—both during its shooting and in the wake of its years-later cult rediscovery. Continue reading MasterChugs Theater: ‘Best Worst Movie’

MasterChugs Theater: ‘Beer Wars’

A war is brewing.

It’s not the type of war that you see in the Transformers movies, where you have two sides fighting a civil war, though differing philosophies are part of the reasons behind the battle.

It’s not a war between two equally matched sides. No, this is definitely more of a David versus Goliath type of battle.

To tell the truth, this war isn’t even one with blood. That is, unless you subscribe to the “money is everything” theory seen most prominently during the eighties. In that case, something’s being bled dry.

What we have right here are Beer Wars. Continue reading MasterChugs Theater: ‘Beer Wars’

MasterChugs Theater: ‘The King of Kong’

Because of our highly important alcohol conference, we’re running a MasterChugs Flashback this week. Enjoy!

The sporting world has known its share of classic rivalries: Ali and Foreman, Evert and Navratilova, Barkley and Godzilla. To this storied pantheon of titans we can now add Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe, the crème de la crème of competitive Donkey Kong players.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters follows Steve Wiebe; an average dude living an average life with a wife and two kids. He’s the kind of guy who’s always had a hobby — be it baseball or music — but for one reason or another, has always come up short, mostly due to a string of bad luck dating all the way back to high school. A huge Donkey Kong fan from back in the day, Wiebe gets it in his head that he wants to try for the record — a high score secured by the great gamer Billy Mitchell back in 1982. A score that remained on top for years and years and years … until now. But it won’t be easy; Mitchell is a celebrity in the world of gaming, as well as a self-made millionaire due to his line of hot sauce. He’s a legend, who comes with a legion of fans and henchmen. Remember the Mantle/Maris home run race in 1961? Yeah, well this is even more intense.

No, really. It is. Hit the jump to see why. Continue reading MasterChugs Theater: ‘The King of Kong’

MasterChugs Theater: ‘Bruno’

You will never view pygmy sex the same way ever again.

Like many other dangerous and controversial comedians, the role-playing guerrilla satirist Sacha Baron Cohen knows how to draw an audience into a conspiratorial relationship with him — and then make you squirm anyway. Bruno, his newest quasi-documentary stunt comedy, is, if anything, a crazier, funnier, and even pricklier pincushion of a movie than Borat, his 2006 tweak of all things dumb, bigoted, and American. Teaming up again with director Larry Charles, Baron Cohen once more wanders the U.S. landscape in the put-on guise of an egomaniacally doltish yet weirdly resonant pest. This time he’s Bruno, a cretinous and very, very gay Austrian fashion-celebrity-fame whore in skintight hot pants and a frosted mop of Eurotrash hair that spills over his forehead like the tail of a dead squirrel. Continue reading MasterChugs Theater: ‘Bruno’