Club Dread – Naughty Cal

Club Dread—Broken Lizard's follow up to Super Troopers—is a riff on 80s slasher films; and it boasts a cast of characters that are eclectic, dumb, horny, and ripe for the picking.

This, of course, is anchored by the Broken Lizard crew. There's Dave, the drug-addled DJ (Paul Soter); Putnam, the buttoned-up tennis coach (Jay Chandrasekhar); Sam, the chief of the Fun Police (Erik Stolhanske); Lars, the smooth-operating new masseuse (Kevin Heffernan); and Juan, the promiscuous dive coach (Steve Lemme).

Their characters here are wildly different from their respective turns in Troopers, and not all are created equal. There are a few swings and misses in the bunch. That is entirely forgiven, though, by the presence of Bill Paxton as "Coconut" Pete.

Paxton's Pete—a Jimmy Buffet-esque singer living out his days on his hedonistic vacation island—is just a treasure. The character is wonderfully realized. From album covers, to candid photos, to actual songs, the work the Broken Lizard crew put into crafting Pete is incredible. His vinyl greatest hits is actually available for purchase (I may or may not have bought it).

That performance owns the film and is probably responsible for why it's now a cult classic. Its need for that status is actually surprising. Despite the massive popularity of Troopers, Club Dread fell flat on its face at the box office.

On a budget of $8 million, it earned just $7.6 million. It was also diced up by critics. With 101 reviews, it sits at 29% on Rotten Tomatoes.

To hell with them, this movie is a bloody good time; so sit back, slug down one of Cutwater's Pina Coladas, and don't ask "Coconut" Pete to play Margaritaville! I, the Thunderous Wizard (@WriterTLK), Chumpzilla, Capt. Cash, and Mayor McCheese are never gonna lose those tails!

This Week’s Segments:

• Introduction/Plot Breakdown – How does Broken Lizard's sophomore effort fare? (00:00) 
• Lingering Questions – The Double Turn Podcast stops by for some drinking Pacman, and then we choose out favorite moments and lines from the film. (44:51)
• The "Ponytails, Cocktails" Trivia Challenge – Our brothers in beer at Hop Nation USA offer libations for the slain staff, and then Mayor McCheese challenges the field to trivia about the movie. (1:05:25)
• Recommendations – We offer our picks for the week and next up: We take a trip to Arrakis with Denis Villeneuve's highly anticipated Dune. Let the spice flow! (1:13:18)

And, as always, hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram to check out all the interesting factoids—the majesty of "Coconut" Pete's music and more—from this week’s episode!

You can find this episode of Hops and Box Office Flops on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, Acast, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Vurbl, and Amazon Music!

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