Grunt Work

Season 5 Super Spectacular!

August 6, 2020 by Grunt Work Leave a Comment

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This Week on Grunt Work…

It’s that time of year again! It’s time for the Season 5 Super Spectacular! That’s right, as we bring this long, long season to a close, we look back on what feels like the last 27 years that we’ve been living in Season 5 of Home Improvement.

This episode is filled with all of the things you’ve grown to love about our Super Spectaculars: our favorite episodes, moments, guest stars… we’ve even added a new category! We debate over this seasons MVP and reveal the results of the People’s Choice MVP (that’s you!) And of course we live up to our namesake by unveiling some VERY surprising Grunt Count results.

Yes, it’s been a season of trials and tribulations. We’ve had a lot of starts and stops. And we finally provide you with some explanations. To completely butcher a T.S. Elliot quote, “This is the way the season ends / Not with a bang but a whimper.” But we will return for Season 6 in due time. Thank you all for sticking with us and we hope to continue to bring you our special brand of entertainment for a long time to come.

**This week on Grunt Work: Nights…**

You’ve got your popcorn. You’ve got your seats. The theater darkens, the screen shines bright. And on that screen? Another theater. Another movie goer. And the theater darkens. And the screen within a screen shines bright. No, we’re not talking about Inception – we’re talking movies within movies!

What are your favorite fake films that reside inside the realm of real films? Unless our reality is also just a film in which the films we watch are the films within a film good god this is already messy.

This week we discuss our favorite examples of movies within movies from Boogie Nights to Matinee. I believe this is a relatively spoiler free episode, but fear not! We mention the film before we discuss it so if you’re worried about that sort of thing… just skip ahead – or go watch the dang darn film and come back! We’ll wait! (Update: Avengers: Endgame spoiler RIGHT AT THE END.)

What are your favorite examples of films within films?

Gain access to our Grunt Work: Nights episodes for as little as $1/mo. over on our Patreon!

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Bigfoot: The Unforgettable Encounter (Re-Broadcast)

July 30, 2020 by Grunt Work Leave a Comment

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Plot Synopsis

When Bigfoot – or A bigfoot, depending on who you ask – is sighted outside a small mountain town, an evil billionaire offers a one million dollar reward for Bigfoot’s capture, dead or alive. A media circus ensues as swarms of hunters arrive to search the woods for the creature, as well as a team of researchers who want to study it. But after Bigfoot rescues a young boy named Cody from a bear attack in the woods, Cody makes it his mission to convince the world that Bigfoot deserves to be free.

**This week on Grunt Work: Nights…**

Have you ever seen something so delectable, so scrumptious, so heavenly tasty that you ruined the delicate nature of your silk shirt that you happened to be wearing in the 1990s because you drooled all over it and it was privately a tragedy, but publicly you were probably better off because silk shirts on men were an awful fashion trend?

Well have we got the episode for you! This week we are talking about food on film. Those scenes that just make your mouth water with the most delicious gourmets you’ve ever seen. Movie food looks great for a reason!

Gain access to our Grunt Work: Nights episodes for as little as $1/mo. over on our Patreon!

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Patreon Sampler: The Hudsucker Proxy

July 23, 2020 by Grunt Work Leave a Comment

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We are off this week while we prepare and record our Season 5 Super Spectacular! So, in the meantime, enjoy this Patreon Bonus Episode celebrating Grunt Work’s 3-year anniversary!

As we swoop through the snowy skies of 1950’s Manhattan, we focus in on a beacon of light glistening over the rest of the city. Is it a clock? Nay! It’s a fireplace which we are huddled around as we have an informal chat about the movie The Hudsucker Proxy.

Yes! The oft-referenced Coen Brothers movie long time listeners will recognize. As a part of our 3-year anniversary, we’re covering one of Truman’s favorite films. Enjoy this extra-long episode of our (first?) fireside chat.

Tom and Huck (1995)

July 16, 2020 by Grunt Work Leave a Comment

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When Tom Sawyer (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), a rambunctious scofflaw, met Huckleberry Finn (Brad Renfro), an uncivilized drifter, they became immediate friends. Always scheming and planning, Tom wishes nothing more than to run away and become a captain of a steamboat. Huck already on the run is… good at throwing knives… and finding dead cats… However, when these two new friends cross paths with a psychopathic outlaw out to exhume a treasure map from a grave, they find their lives in constant danger.

This half-assed synopsis is eerily similar to a book report I gave in elementary school.

Games, Flames & Automobiles

July 2, 2020 by Grunt Work Leave a Comment

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This Week on Home Improvement…

With his 37th birthday approaching, Al Borland (Richard Karn) finds himself facing a midlife crisis. In search of a legacy, he decides to invest his life savings in manufacturing hundreds of copies of his Tool Time board game so he can sell them, get rich and propose to Ilene. But when Tim Taylor (Tim Allen) discovers that the game’s faulty wiring causes it to catch on fire during play, Al realizes that he stands to lose all his life savings refunding unhappy customers. But at the last minute, Tim comes to the rescue, deputizing Wilson (Earl Hindman), Heidi (Debbe Dunning), Jill (Patricia Richardson), Ilene (Sherry Hursey) and Al’s brother Cal to re-wire all of the games before they can be shipped. Overjoyed at this show of support from his friends, Al proposes to Ilene.

**This week on Grunt Work: Nights…**

Telepathic reporters. Time traveling heroes. Rita Hayworth has one, and so do some of the best films. This week we’re talkin’ holes – plot holes, that is! What are some of the most egregious oversights in movies? Spoiler alert for a handful of films that were released at least 20-30 years ago. (And if you haven’t seen Back to the Future, like, why are you listening to this and not watching that?)

Gain access to our Grunt Work: Nights episodes for as little as $1/mo. over on our Patreon!

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Alarmed by Burglars

June 25, 2020 by Grunt Work Leave a Comment

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This Week on Home Improvement…

When Wilson’s house is burgled, and his precious artifacts stolen, Jill becomes concerned for the safety of the Taylor household. She encourages Tim to install the biggest, most state-of-the-art security system money can buy, and even film a Tool Time episode about it. However, we yet again learn, that More Power is not the answer.

Meanwhile, Brad contemplates cheating on an exam!

**This week on Grunt Work: Nights…**

Do you find yourself going back to a certain movie over and over again? A film from your youth? One you watched with a loved one? One that just makes you laugh? Or one that you watch with the father of your date to the school dance because she got sick and needed to be driven home? We got you covered.

Gain access to our Grunt Work: Nights episodes for as little as $1/mo. over on our Patreon!

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