The High Tech Low Life Podcast: A Cyberpunk Media Retrospective

This week ya boys dip their toe into one of the more popular dystopias of the modern era: The Hunger Games, specifically the prequel A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.  And like any good quest into uncharted territory, they dare not go alone.  Thankfully, Kristen from the Astronomica podcast has been kind enough to join us and lend her considerable expertise.  Yes, I'm aware that Josh is actually quite familiar with the franchise bu...

While it may not be very cyberpunk, Sneakers is still well worth a watch and does kinda share some vibes skirting the edges of the genre.  Who doesn't like a good caper?  Who doesn't like this cast?  Who doesn't like watching a blind man drive a panel van full throttle over a multi-level parking lot?  Cyberpunk it isn't, but a fun and well-made movie it very much is.

The High Tech Low Life Podcast is a retrospective of cyberpunk fi...

What a strange bit of media Captain Laserhawk is.  Basically an extended commercial for a video game company, ripping off every cyberpunk trope in the book, you might expect it to be straight garbage.  Against all odds, however, it actually pulls off a fun and interesting little tale with some depressingly familiar dystopian world building.   Kudos to Ubisoft, I guess!

The High Tech Low Life Podcast is a retrospective of cyberpunk ...

In Time has an awesome concept.  What if time was literally currency?  What if centuries were horded by an elite that used the market to control and subjagate the majority of the population who had to toil and stress for every hour in the day?  Sounds like fertile ground for cyberpunkery!  Unfortunately this story is not told very well, and the result is kind of boring and hamfisted, and certainly not helped by some of the worst pe...

Screamers is a solid little under-the-radar, mid 90's sci fi film.  It has some quality dialogue, interesting story adapted from a Phillip K Dick novella, and some surprisingly solid special effects from a time period when the effects on low budget movies were frequently less than special.

The High Tech Low Life Podcast is a retrospective of cyberpunk fiction across all forms of media. Film, Television, Literature, Games, and Music...

After a freshly recorded introduction to discuss the various horrors and delights of the week, we rejoin our podcast in progress recapping The Fifth Element.  The back half of the movie is even more insane than the front, due in no small part to the introduction of Chris Tucker's Ruby Rhod, famous space radio DJ?  Twitch streamer? Podcaster?  We're gonna call him a podcaster. I know I'd like and subscribe.

The High Tech Low Life Po...

The Fifth Element only skirts the edges of cyberpunk, but after the gruelling slog that was Pluto Nash, we feel like we've earned something a little more fun.  Between the story, characters, costumes, and problematic director, however, there is far just too much to cover in one episode, so this one is a two-parter.

The High Tech Low Life Podcast is a retrospective of cyberpunk fiction across all forms of media. Film, Television, Li...

Surely it can't be that bad, right?  It's just negative hype!  It's just people piling on a movie that may not be great by any means, but isn't 6% Rotten Tomatoes worthy.  Maybe there are some moments that make it worth the time investment.  Maybe it's the critics who are wrong.

Nope!  This movie is B-A-D which stands for Boring As Dick (Dick is a guy I know and he's super boring). I wish it was fun-bad but it isn't, it's just bad-...

We are back to finish up our recap of All Tomorrow's Parties.  Listen and marvel at how, in the interest of time, Josh is forced to skip half the notes he painstakingly took, and yet we still manage to go way long.  Tune in to see what happens to Lainey, Rydell, Chevette, and most imporantly, Boomzilla.  Once again thanks to Geoff from Astronomica podcast for the assist.

The High Tech Low Life Podcast is a retrospective of cyberpun...

At long last we finish William Gibson's Bridge trilogy, or at least we start to finish it.  This is the first part of a two part recap of All Tomorrow's Parties, the final entry in the trilogy and, if one podcaster is to be belived, the final book of the 20th century.  We are also stoked to be joined by Geoff from the Astronomica Podcast once again to assist in breaking it all down for you folks.

The High Tech Low Life Podcast is a...

Pack your bags everyone we're heading to Mars.  Or at least our minds are.  Are they?  I don't know, the point is after this is all over it will FEEL like you went to Mars so just strap in, let your eyes glaze over, and your boys will take you on a journey.  Total Recall is this week's recap, and rest assured we both have a lot ot say about a movie that came around at the perfect time in history to permanently etch itself into the ...

Is it basically a children's movie from the 80's?  Yes.  Does it feature a white man playing an Indian character in brown face and imitating an accent?  Unfortunately also yes.  Does that make it a bad movie?  Surprisingly... not as much as you'd think.    Maybe it's just nostalgia talking, but we were prepared to do some heavy duty dunking on Short Circuit and ended up being kind of delighted by the whole silly affair, with some o...

This week we are recapping our newest movie yet, 2025's Companion, a movie about robots, humans, and a Russian.

The High Tech Low Life Podcast is a retrospective of cyberpunk fiction across all forms of media. Film, Television, Literature, Games, and Music are all on the table. In each episode we will revisit the property, it's influences, it's prescience, and enshrine it in the chrome and neon halls of Neo Valhalla.

Bluesky: @high...

Ben Affleck teams up with John Woo to make an exceptionally mediocre early 2000s techno-thriller, and we are here to talk about it.  So the deal is, Affleck's character reverse-engineers tech devices, then makes something better, then has his memory of the whole experience wiped as a sort of futuristic NDA.  The problem is that he takes on a job a little too big, gets in a little too deep, and then can't remember wtf happened or wh...

This week we return to true classic cyberpunk with a recap of the 1988 OVA: Appleseed.  It's an interesting production that hints at a lot of the philosophical themes that cyberpunk likes to cover, but doesn't have enough time to include that junk in with all the gunfights and excessive cursing.  What you get is a lot of fun, but pretty surface-level cyberpunk anime stuff, and we're cool with that. Big thanks to Isabelle Wolf for j...

Real Steel is a competently made film that is so utterly lacking in heart, humor, or any even remotely interesting idea beyond "wouldn't it be cool if big robots fought each other like boxers?" It's not particularly interesting.  So if you're one of those sadists that likes hearing us suffer, this one's for you, baby!

The High Tech Low Life Podcast is a retrospective of cyberpunk fiction across all forms of media. Film, Television,...

They Live may not be subtle, it may not be the best acted, or the best written film of all time, but oh man is it an entertaining film.  A tight 90 minutes of ass kicking and bubblegum chewing.  This week we spend about twice that much time recapping it and are honored to be joined by a very special guest: Stan from the Astronomica Podcast!

The High Tech Low Life Podcast is a retrospective of cyberpunk fiction across all forms of m...

Mute is a beautiful mess of a film.  So much potential, so many misplays.  If I was a sports guy I'd make an comparison to recent football games that have occurred because that last sentence really sounded like it would make a good sports analogy.  Unfortunately I am unfamiliar with the lingo of the grid iron, much like Duncan Jones is unfamiliar with navigating the complicated subject of child sex abuse.  The difference between us...

This week we have about 30 minutes of dystopia talk (skip forward if you value your mental health), and then DIVE deep into this week's book.  The Mountain In The Sea asks a lot of questions about the nature of intelligence and personhood, all in a pretty unique cyberpunk setting involving Mega Corporations, Aritifical Intelligence, and drone warfare.

The High Tech Low Life Podcast is a retrospective of cyberpunk fiction across all...