Episode #19 -- Cleopatra Jones — tara and andrew versus the scarecrow video movie guide

(or: "A Rejection of `Live at Bonaroo' and Everything it Stands for")

Cleopatra Jones is a Blaxploitation movie from the early 1970's that features Tamara Dobson as a secret agent of some sort, we think? It's never made entirely clear who she works for-- the first scene shows her riding a helicopter into Turkey to briefly assess some poppy fields before having them bombed by fighter planes, which seems kind of excessive. Our tax dollars theoretically paid for that?! Anyway, this gets her on the bad side of a drug kingpin named Mommy, played by Shelley Winters, and car chases, martial arts, dirt bike racing, and people getting chopped by junkyard machinery ensues. Oh, and there's a mid-tier bad guy named Doodlebug in it, which is quite possibly the least intimidating nickname we've heard of in a while. Lil' Archie sounds tougher than that-- it at least has the potential to be an ironic nickname for some hulking, thick-skulled, short-tempered lout. In case you hadn't figured it out yet, this is basically our sales pitch for our new villain nicknaming service. Send us an email-- you'll find our rates quite reasonable!

NEXT TIME: A homage to 1960's sex comedies that nearly made Andrew fling the disc across the room. Was it out of anger or because it was just that good? You'll have to listen to find out!