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Spoiler Alert

Taping a new podcast series, Doug Benson takes on Hollywood schlock.

LOS ANGELES -- Debuting a podcast titled "Doug Benson's I Love Movies" by taping it at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in L.A., comedian Doug Benson (star of The Marijuana-Logues) conjures chats on current movies in a way that will remind you of chats with your friends in basement rec rooms, and college drinking games.

Taping two episodes back to back, one with comedic actor Brian Posehn, and the second with Posehn’s buddy and roadmate on The Comedians of Comedy tour, Patton Oswalt, Benson and his guests had fun with the fact that these would be airing seven days apart, but somehow the other guest would still be around shouting in remarks from the audience (or was there already, whichever the case may be).

A highlight of the shows was Benson and his guests sharing a game based around the Leonard Maltin annual movie guide -- in which you give someone the year of a film, then mention the lowest listed cast member and work your way up until they get it or are stumped. This looks like fun, especially with the energy they put into it, and if nothing else, the show gives audiences this gem.

Benson and guests reach backward and forward, partly with the game, but also recalling obscure titles in their discussions -- Oswalt likens “Snakes on a Plane” to “Wolfen,” another animal horror movie that few will remember. The duo are baffled by this flick -- Benson doesn’t mind spoiling films by giving away something, then saying “spoiler alert” afterward, but we’ll be kinder here -- that it starts with a guy on a motorcycle somewhere, and takes awhile to get to the plane, much less the snakes.

With both guests, Benson also manages to cram in little interesting bits about their careers -- and these are all spoiler alerts in a way -- that Posehn gets shot in the head in Rob Zombie’s horror flick “The Devil's Rejects,” and Oswalt’s role at the beginning of “Magnolia” actually symbolizes the first frog to fall in the movie, before a deluge much later in the film.

If its beginning is any indication -- and Benson made no promises as to whether there will be future installments -- “I Love Movies” is going to be well worth catching each week.

 

 
   

     

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