2 dads 1 movie by Steve Paulo & Nic Briana

Menace II Society opens with a cold truth and never looks away. For episode 60, Nic brings this Hughes Brothers gut-punch to the table -- a film he's been watching since high school, quoting with his college crew, absorbing into his bones -- and Steve arrives as a first-timer who's done his homework on the adjacent movies (Boyz n the Hood, Higher Learning, Colors) but not this one. He did, however, clock every frame of Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood. Which, as it turns out, is an oddly solid primer.

Some movies leave a line or two rattling around in your head for years. Wayne's World (1992) apparently colonized Steve's entire personality. The man is 46 years old and recently said "exsqueeze me, baking powder" on a Zoom call with his direct reports. In a professional context. With no apparent regret.

Sleeping with the Enemy (1991) lands on the podcast courtesy of Nic, who has a habit of bringing thrillers Steve has never seen. Pacific Heights, Cape Fear, The River Wild -- all Nic joints, all new to Steve. The streak continues.

Steve picked Goodfellas (1990) to kick off the '90s leg of 2 Dads 2 Decades, and the dads immediately acknowledged the absurdity of trying to review a movie that is, by any reasonable measure, perfect. Both discovered Scorsese around the same time — sophomore year of high school, mid-'90s, right in the post-Pulp Fiction window where you suddenly cared about what a good movie was and started hunting down the classics you were too young for the first time around. Steve's wife loves it so much she once built a Spotify playlist by adding every song as it came on, which, given the density of the soundtrack, is basically an entire decade of doo-wop and Motown in one sitting.

Nic brought the pleated-linen-pants-and-mullet energy this week with Road House (1989), a movie both dads discovered in their late teens and have been unironically-slash-ironically in love with ever since. Steve first caught it during a freshman year hangout in a dorm room with a big TV and a bigger DVD collection. Nic remembers it as the ultimate bro night movie — rewatchable, quotable, and conveniently unappealing to any women who might've been around. Not that there were options.

Beetlejuice (1988) is one of those movies where everybody thinks they've seen it more times than they actually have, and both dads discovered exactly that when they sat down with Tim Burton's PG-rated fever dream about dead suburbanites, haunted real estate, and a bio-exorcist with boundary issues.

Nic brings Wall Street to the table this week, and the reasoning is hard to argue with: how have the Dads spent 50-plus episodes in the '80s and '90s without Michael Douglas? Oliver Stone's 1987 ode to pinstripes and insider trading follows Bud Fox, a hungry young broker played by Charlie Sheen, as he claws his way into the orbit of corporate raider Gordon Gekko by way of Cuban cigars, 59 consecutive phone calls, and one very illegal stock tip he picked up from his dad. From there, things go exactly the way Martin Sheen's face tells you they will.

Steve brought a childhood favorite to the table this week, and Nic brought a grudge he didn't know he had. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) is John Hughes's love letter to the perfect skip day — a senior with no car but a god-tier hacking setup, a best friend's dad's priceless Ferrari, and a city full of places most suburbanites never bother to visit. Steve first watched it on LaserDisc in elementary school and has seen it a few dozen times since. Nic? He'd seen it once, maybe, and knew the ska band Save Ferris before he knew what it was referencing.

This week the Dads get detention along with The Breakfast Club, and what was supposed to be a conversation about a teen movie turns into something closer to a therapy session for two middle-aged fathers who suddenly can't stop seeing their own kids in every frame.

This week, the Dads continue their 2 Dads 2 Decades march with 1984's Ghostbusters.

For their 50th episode, the dads crack open a 24-pack of nostalgia with Strange Brew (1983), the Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas comedy that somehow became every kid's unofficial guide to Canadian culture. Nic picked this one as a palate cleanser after the heavier terrain of Thief and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and both dads went in carrying the same memory: this was the movie that taught an entire generation of American kids to say "hoser," "take off," and "eh" with unearned confidence. Nic admits the film basically served as his "mental Canadian embassy" well into college. Steve grew up quoting it with his friends and bonding over hockey culture. Neither had watched it in roughly twenty years.

This week, the Dads dive into Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Cameron Crowe's undercover-journalism-turned-screenplay debut brought to life by first-time director Amy Heckerling. Both Steve and Nic trace their history with the film back to high school sleepovers and VHS rewatches, and the rewatch hits different through 2026 eyes. The killer soundtrack gets immediate love, with Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Baby" and the Cars' "Moving in Stereo" earning their permanent spots in the cultural memory bank. The Dads walk through the Sherman Oaks Galleria opening with genuine nostalgia for a time when malls were thriving ecosystems, not just an abandoned Sears and a DMV, and spend a solid chunk reminiscing about their own local mall in Pleasanton and the lost art of getting dropped off at 10 and picked up at 4.

This week, the Dads fire up the cutting torch on Thief (1981), Michael Mann's gritty directorial debut that launched a career and divided a podcast booth. Steve came in completely blind, having never even heard of this Chicago-set crime noir, while Nic had been curious about it for years without ever actually watching. Fresh eyes all around, which makes the resulting conversation all the more combustible.

This week, the Dads kick off their new 2 Dads 2 Decades series with 1980's Airplane!, and Steve arrives with the ultimate childhood credential: he first watched this movie at two years old on laserdisc. His parents reconsidered their parenting choices when three-year-old Steve looked up at them and said, "What a pisser." Nic's introduction came via TV broadcast around age eight, and both Dads credit this Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker classic with shaping their sense of humor. Steve went deep on the research, watching the 1957 disaster film Zero Hour! that Airplane! spoofs nearly shot-for-shot, and spends much of the episode pointing out how many "serious" lines are lifted verbatim from that film, including "I picked a bad week to quit smoking."

This week, the Dads wrap up JanuArnie with Nic's personal favorite Schwarzenegger film, 1985's Commando, and Steve is seeing it for the very first time. Nic describes it as "black tar Arnie," the most purely distilled version of what makes Schwarzenegger movies tick, and he's been quoting it with college buddies for decades. The film wastes zero time establishing its chaos: four minutes in, three bodies are already on the ground, and the Dads haven't even gotten to the famous daddy-daughter ice cream montage where young Alyssa Milano smashes a cone into Arnold's face while deer eat from his hands like he's Snow White with biceps.

This week, the Dads take another step through JanuArnie with James Cameron's 1994 spy action-comedy True Lies, and Steve is practically vibrating with joy from minute one. He calls it possibly the most fun he's had watching any of the 45 movies they've covered together. The film doesn't let up for its full two hours and twenty minutes, and neither do the Dads, who find themselves completely won over by Cameron's crowd-pleasing magic. From Arnold emerging from a frozen Swiss lake with a perfect tuxedo under his wetsuit to subtitle parentheticals reading "perfect Arabic," the guys geek out over every slick spy detail while Tom Arnold's Gib provides running commentary from the surveillance van, lamenting his ex-wife who took the ice cube trays out of the freezer. What kind of sick bitch does that?

This week, the Dads get their asses to Mars with 1990's Total Recall, the second Verhoeven joint on the podcast and a movie that has seared itself into the collective consciousness whether you've seen it or not. Nic's pick here, and he wastes no time pointing out this is peak Arnie at peak powers, a cable descrambler classic, and one of the all-time great films for doing impressions of a man in distress. Steve agrees, noting that so much of our cultural love for Schwarzenegger comes from imitating the specific noises he makes, and this movie is absolutely overflowing with them.

This week, the Dads kick off JanuArnie with 1987's Predator, and it's clear from the jump that Steve would die for this movie. As in, top ten favorite of all time, no notes, completely unhinged levels of love. Nick's right there with him, calling it the ultimate guys' guys movie and the perfect beer-chugging, high-fiving experience. They walk through the testosterone-soaked helicopter ride, Jesse Ventura's sexual Tyrannosaurus energy, and the absurdity of Arnold arriving dressed like he works at Target.

This week, the Dads close out the 2025 Dadvent Calendar with Rocky IV (1985), a film they openly question is even a movie at all. Steve's verdict: it's two boxing matches and four music videos loosely tied together with a little bit of dialogue. Nic calls it eight montages in a trench coat. They're both right. The Dads marvel at the sheer audacity of a 91-minute runtime that somehow contains nearly 30 minutes of training sequences, driving montages, and flashbacks set to complete songs that fade out naturally, as if Stallone couldn't bear to cut a single track short. The Christmas bonafides are slim: the final fight takes place on Christmas Day, there's a tree visible behind Rocky's son, and the robot wears a Santa hat. That's it. That's the Christmas.

This week, the Dads crack open another window of the Dadvent Calendar with Die Hard (1988), the action Christmas classic that redefined what an everyman hero looks like when he's barefoot, bleeding, and absolutely not having it.

This week, the dads open another door on the Dadvent calendar with Home Alone (1990), the Christmas classic that feels impossible to skip during the holiday season. Steve and Nic dive headfirst into the beautiful chaos of the McAllister household, marveling at the absolute sociopath behavior of packing for a two-week international trip the night before a morning flight. They wonder aloud why an eight-year-old is trusted to pack his own bag when Nic's own wife still has to check his suitcase for missing socks. The dads dissect every baffling detail: the family's inexplicably red-and-green permanent decor, the suspicious number of mannequins in the basement (Buffalo Bill would be proud), and the staggering fact that $122.50 bought ten pizzas in 1990. They also note, with some alarm, that every single pizza appeared to be topped exclusively with kalamata olives and zero pepperoni.

This week, the dads continue their Dadvent Calendar with The Ref (1994), a pitch-black Christmas comedy where a cat burglar named Gus hijacks the wrong couple and spends his Christmas Eve playing unwilling marriage counselor to a pair of wealthy Connecticut WASPs who simply will not stop fighting. Steve brought this pick to the table as a movie he's loved since college, one he watches nearly every holiday season. Nic came in cold, his Dennis Leary fandom from the "No Cure for Cancer" days somehow never steering him toward this one until now.

This week, the dads tackle Trading Places (1983), the John Landis comedy that asks the age-old question: what if you took a rich guy's entire life and gave it to Eddie Murphy? What follows is the dads marveling at how this movie somehow gets away with everything, from its gleefully un-PC opening minutes to Jamie Lee Curtis in one of her most revealing roles. They're genuinely impressed by Eddie Murphy's performance, calling out his ability to sell both the comedy and the emotional beats, and they can't stop talking about Dan Aykroyd's commitment to the bit, especially during his spectacular downward spiral. The gorilla suit comes up. The Santa beard comes up. The sheer audacity of the third act comes up a lot.

This week, the dads take on 1997's Face/Off, and Steve is practically vibrating with excitement because he's been waiting to do this one since before they even started the podcast. The John Woo-directed, Nicolas Cage-starring bonkers masterpiece gets the full breakdown treatment, starting with a delightfully nerdy timeline tracing how Sam Raimi, Quentin Tarantino, and the Oscars accidentally conspired to give us a movie where two A-listers literally swap faces. They dig into the absurdity of the premise, the logistics of the surgery, the unhinged performances, and the question of whether anyone on earth could have sold this role better than Cage. It's a love letter wrapped in gleeful confusion.

This week, the dads drop into Raising Arizona (1987), a madcap pivot in their Cagevember journey, trading military convicts and green flares for baby snatching and pomade-covered jailbreaks. Steve confesses he’s never actually seen the film all the way through—cue Nic’s delight—while both marvel at the Coen brothers’ signature weirdness already in full bloom. They dig into Cage’s charmingly chaotic performance as Hi, debate whether this version of his southern accent is the best he’s ever done, and immediately start crafting a headcanon where Hi and Cameron Poe exist in the same cinematic universe. And yes, Ed is a cop, dammit.

This week, the dads storm Alcatraz with The Rock (1996), continuing Cagevember with a Bay Area blast that hits all their shared sweet spots: peak Nic Cage, unkillable Connery energy, and that VHS-era swagger that begs for popcorn at midnight. They kick off by reveling in the pairing and the setting, swapping personal history about first watches and how wild it felt to see familiar San Francisco locations on screen, even while clocking a few geography sins that only locals would notice.

This week, the dads climb aboard Con Air (1997), where Nicolas Cage’s mullet meets maximum security at 30,000 feet. From the first moment, Steve and Nic can’t decide if they’re watching an action classic or a fever dream stitched together from discarded Garth Brooks lyrics. They marvel at Cameron Poe’s mix of chivalry and chaos, debate whether that accent is a war crime, and lose it over the idea of anyone willingly sitting next to Steve Buscemi on a flight.

This week, the dads close out Shocktoberfest with a Halloween movie that dares to ask: “What if we removed the only thing people liked?”

This week, the dads sink their teeth into The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Jonathan Demme’s unnervingly polite horror-thriller that turned dinner conversation into a crime scene. Nic, who picked this one, calls it one of the rare prestige films that’s also straight-up terrifying, while Steve revisits it for the first time in decades and can’t believe how well it still hums. From the opening FBI training sequence to Lecter’s glass cell, the guys get lost in that strange mix of elegance and menace that makes this movie unforgettable. It’s not just the horror of what’s happening — it’s the dread of who’s watching.

This week, the dads take on The Thing (1982), John Carpenter’s icy paranoia-fest that’s equal parts monster movie and trust exercise gone wrong. Steve brought this one to the table as a personal favorite, while Nic admitted he’d somehow gone his whole life thinking he’d seen it — only to realize five minutes in that he hadn’t. What follows is a gleeful descent into suspicion and slime, as the guys break down how this Antarctic nightmare manages to feel both enormous and claustrophobic at once. It’s Carpenter at his most controlled, and the dads are here for every quiet stare, sudden scream, and flamethrower blast.

This week, the dads descend into Jacob’s Ladder (1990), the psychological horror that proves sometimes your mind is the scariest place on Earth. Nic, who picked the film, revisits a movie that left him rattled years ago, while Steve watches for the first time—instantly confusing it with The Lawnmower Man, because of course he did. As part of their Shocktoberfest series, the guys dive headfirst into Adrian Lyne’s trippy Vietnam fever dream, where Tim Robbins plays a mailman haunted by demons, memories, and the occasional post-shower existential crisis. It’s weird, it’s grimy, it’s got Danny Aiello as a chiropractor who might be God.

This week, the dads dive into A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Wes Craven's slasher masterpiece that introduced the world to Freddy Krueger and his very particular brand of sleep therapy. Steve—who's been a horror devotee since begging his mom to take him to Gremlins at age 4—picked this one to kick off their Shocktoberfest theme month, while Nic admits he stayed away from slashers until college, traumatized by an ill-advised childhood viewing of Pet Sematary. Both hosts marvel at how Freddy became such a cultural icon that kids trick-or-treated as him before ever seeing the films, complete with that jump-rope chant everyone somehow knew.

This week, the dads tackle Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), Tim Burton's directorial debut that introduced audiences to both his distinctive visual style and Paul Reubens' beloved man-child character on the big screen. Nic picked this one after rediscovering it through his filmmaker friend who always championed the film's creative inventiveness, and both hosts were shocked by how well it holds up after decades away from it.

This week, the dads tackle Tommy Boy (1995), Chris Farley's star vehicle that perfectly captured the sweet-natured physical comedy that made him a legend. Steve picked this one as a core memory from his teenage years, when Farley was at his peak and SNL-spawned comedies ruled the multiplex.

This week, the dads dive into Martin Scorsese's 1991 thriller Cape Fear, where Robert De Niro trades his usual New York growl for a chilling Southern drawl as Max Cady, an ex-con hellbent on destroying the lawyer who buried evidence during his trial. Steve experiences this psychological nightmare for the first time while Nic revisits a personal favorite that inspired one of the greatest Simpsons episodes ever made, complete with Sideshow Bob hiding under the family car.

This week, the dads crank it up to 11 with This Is Spinal Tap, Rob Reiner's 1984 mockumentary about Britain's loudest heavy metal band and their disastrous American comeback tour. Nic gets only his second real taste of Christopher Guest's genre-defining comedy after years of hearing about amps that go to 11 and drummers who spontaneously combust, while Steve revisits a personal favorite that helped shape his love of improvised filmmaking.

Michael J. Fox could do no wrong in the late 80s, and The Secret of My Success proves it, earning $111 million on a $12 million budget despite lukewarm reviews. Nic picked this PG-13 romantic comedy about small-town Brantley Foster's meteoric rise through a Manhattan corporation.

Steve picks the ultimate quotable comedy Friday (1995), and the dads dive into Ice Cube and Chris Tucker's hood classic that basically created its own language. From "Bye, Felicia" to "puff, puff, give," this movie spawned more everyday phrases than Shakespeare.

This week, the dads tackle John Carpenter's sci-fi cult classic They Live (1988), and Steve discovers he's been living a lie. He thought he'd seen this Rowdy Roddy Piper vehicle but absolutely hadn't. While Nic picked this one for his love of Carpenter and childhood wrestling fandom, Steve gets his first taste of what happens when you put on those special sunglasses.

Would you like to know more? This week, the dads enlist with Starship Troopers, Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 satirical sci-fi epic that dares to ask: what if fascism looked hot and the future was full of bugs? Rico, Dizzy, Carmen, and the gang may be beautiful, but their war is brutal — and the propaganda machine is always watching.

This week, the dads go full slapstick with The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, the 1988 Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker comedy where every line is a setup, every gag has a gag, and Leslie Nielsen’s Frank Drebin is the king of oblivious chaos.

This week, the dads take a wild swing at Happy Gilmore, Adam Sandler’s 1996 comedy about a hockey reject who turns golf into a full-contact sport. He’s got anger issues, a killer drive, and one goal: win the tour, save Grandma’s house, and punch as many smug jerks as possible along the way.

This week, the dads try to make it rain responsibly (and hilariously) with Brewster’s Millions, the 1985 Richard Pryor comedy about a broke minor league ballplayer who suddenly has to spend $30 million in 30 days — without telling a soul why — or he loses out on $300 million more.

This week, the dads dust off the fedora and join Indy for The Last Crusade, the 1989 adventure where archaeology gets reckless, Nazis get punched, and father-son bickering steals the show. Harrison Ford is back as the world’s least subtle professor, but this time, he’s got Sean Connery along for the ride as his delightfully grumpy dad. Nazis, secret tombs, booby traps, and Grail lore collide in what might be the most fun Indy romp of them all..

This week, the dads hack into Sneakers, the 1992 techno-thriller where an all-star crew of professional misfits breaks into places they probably shouldn’t, and uncovers secrets they definitely shouldn’t. Robert Redford leads a team that includes Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix, and David Strathairn in a twisty, witty caper that makes cryptography look like a full-contact sport.

This week, the dads get cryo-frozen and launched into the dystopian utopia of Demolition Man, the 1993 sci-fi action satire where everything’s clean, polite, and aggressively Taco Bell-branded. Sylvester Stallone is John Spartan — a demolition-prone cop thawed out to stop Wesley Snipes’ neon-haired supervillain Simon Phoenix, who’s turning the future into a cartoon crime spree.

The dads are back — and so is the T-800 — for Terminator 2, James Cameron’s 1991 sci-fi action landmark that somehow made killer robots emotional and liquid metal cool. Arnold returns with a leather jacket and a new directive (protect, not terminate), while Linda Hamilton levels up to full-on action legend as a hardened, haunted Sarah Connor.

This week, the dads slide into the absurd world of Fletch, the 1985 mystery-comedy that gave Chevy Chase his most iconic role (and maybe his most chaotic wardrobe). Whether he’s undercover as a beach bum, a doctor, or someone named “Ted Nugent,” Irwin M. Fletcher is always armed with a fake name, a deadpan insult, and at least one outrageous lie.

This week, the dads head to Queens with Coming to America, Eddie Murphy’s 1988 comedy crown jewel. From royal palaces to fast food counters, we follow Prince Akeem’s quest to find a queen who loves him for who he is — not just his crown.

Blast off to nostalgia-land with Steve and Nic as they revisit a bygone era when arcade games ruled the universe—or at least a California trailer park.

Vaya con Dios, listeners! This week, the dads catch a wave straight into Point Break, the 1991 adrenaline-soaked fever dream where surfing, skydiving, and armed robbery collide in the most beautifully bonkers way possible. We’re talking Keanu’s stone-faced rookie charm, Swayze’s zen outlaw swagger, and a plot so wild it makes extreme sports look like spiritual awakening.

Call, fold, or go all-in — this week the dads ante up with Rounders, the 1998 cult classic that made poker feel like high-stakes destiny. We’re talking Matt Damon at peak earnestness, Edward Norton in full wildcard mode, and John Malkovich chewing scenery (and Oreos) as the unforgettable Teddy KGB.

Buckle up your life vest and start rowing — this week, the dads brave The River Wild! We’re diving into the 1994 whitewater thriller that somehow stars both Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon (and yes, Bacon is very much in full psycho mode). It’s the family vacation from hell, complete with dangerous rapids, awkward teen energy, and way too much talk about rope knots.

Grab your boomstick and hop in the nearest medieval death pit, because this week the dads are taking on Army of Darkness! Bruce Campbell swaggers his way through time as Ash Williams, and we’re right there with him — talking wisecracks, one-liners, skeleton armies, questionable medieval accents, and all the insane practical effects that made this cult classic a genre-defying blast.

In this episode of 2 Dads 1 Movie, Steve and Nic provide an in-depth review of the 1993 movie "The Fugitive" starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. The hosts discuss the film's engaging plot, incredible pacing, and the excellent performances by its cast, particularly praising Tommy Lee Jones' portrayal of U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard. They highlight key scenes, the chase sequences, and the film’s focus on action and suspense. They also delve into the movie's technical achievements, such as the practical effects used in the iconic train crash scene. The conversation also touches on small critiques and the potential consequences faced by Richard Kimble after proving his innocence.

This week the Dads are taking a look at Steve's pick, the 1987 comedy classic SPACEBALLS. It's one of Steve's top ten comedies of all time... but Nic has never seen it!

On this episode of 2 Dads 1 Movie, Nic has selected the 1990 landlord thriller Pacific Heights, starring Matthew Modine, Melanie Griffith, and Michael Keaton.

On this episode of 2 Dads 1 Movie, the guys travel back in time to the year 1992, a time when the music coming out of Seattle was taking the country by storm. Filmmaker Cameron Crowe captured the look, the sound, and the vibe of grunge in his film Singles, starring Kyra Sedgwick, Campbell Scott, Bridget Fonda, and Matt Dillon.

For this episode, Nic has chosen Toy Soldiers from 1991, starring Sean Astin, Wil Wheaton, and Louis Gossett, Jr. This is one Steve had never seen before, so without the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, how would he respond to the story of a gang of terrorists / criminals / cartel members (whatever they are) taking over a posh boarding school and threatening to blow everyone up?

For this very first episode of 2 Dads 1 Movie, Nic and I had the same dilemma that all dads have, at least those looking to have a hobby, or a creative outlet, or a personal life: finding the time. So even though we decided to embark on this nostalgiafest together back in December, what with the holidays, a business trip, and family outings long in the planning, it wasn’t until February 2nd that we found the time to sit down across a table in Nic’s office conference room and record.