This week, as we return to republishing once again, turned out to be quite the surprise, as we look at two movies that could not have less in common. The Gorge, with high-powered stars and a furiously wonky plot, pulled us in to a surprising degree. Perhaps more surprisingly, Conclave, which I could not really be less interested in on a bullet-point reading, leaned so heavily on its cast that you could hardly help becoming a bit enthralled.
Jun 27, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 209
This week is a special episode... sort of, being that we are Bangor, ME residents, and while we didn't love The Life of Chuck, it's a fascinating collaboration-ish with Mike Flanagan taking on a King story. We also take a look at The Accountant 2, the sequel to a film we both rather enjoyed, but a sequel that misses the mark when it comes to justifying its existence.
Jun 20, 2025•55 min•Ep. 208
This week we're catching up more with some republish episodes, and here we're looking at The Brutalist and a couple of others as we were trying to wind up the year.
Jun 18, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 207
This week we're finally nailing down our Best of the Year lists, and despite the fact that we say every year is crazy, this one is really nuts when it comes to our lists... at least if you compare them to a lot of other critics. So much money was dumped into things that were supposed to launch onto everyone's radar this year, and so many of them bombed, were rather awful, or both. So what gets on the list, and how does that compare to titles that won awards? Tune in to find out and learn about t...
Jun 11, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 206
We have a few episodes left in our republishing effort and this week we've got Nosferatu. We kick off taking a shot at Eggers and an interview celebrating the box office success of the film, and then let you in on all the reasons it is mostly underwhelming.
Apr 25, 2025•55 min•Ep. 205
It's that time again, we have to get on to our yearly lists, but before we dive in there, we thought we better touch on the movies we haven't covered, because we don't want people thinking we just didn't see the films that pop up on other people's lists... or that got nominated for things... or won things. We're checking boxes as fast as we can and running though films this week, and you may be surprised to learn which films we need to highlight (because they probably won't be on our Best List)...
Apr 15, 2025•59 min•Ep. 204
Awards season has wrapped with the Oscars, but before we get to a rundown of noteworthy films we haven't covered next week, and our Best of the Year lists the week after, we have to visit a truly underwhelming Marvel film. Captain America: Brave New World could barely hold our attention, and it seems fitting to get it out of the way before we start talking about good films.
Mar 04, 2025•52 min•Ep. 203
We continue our insane adventure of republishing/catching up with Joker: Folie a Deux, Brothers, and My Old Ass. It's the strange kick off to the year's film with huge budgets that bombed and a couple of smaller titles that were quite a bit better than expected. The sequel to the massive hit ought to have made plenty of money, but it had trouble long before it came out, and rightly so. We'll let you in on these and more... including just some director bashing.
Feb 24, 2025•57 min•Ep. 202
We're continuing our insane republish/catch-up extravaganza with The Instigators & Jackpot!...two movies that, depending on which of us you side with, maybe are at best unnecessary. We also run through some TV this week, because... at the time... there was a lot we wanted to champion and weren't sure they would get enough attention. Check out our thoughts and share, like, subscribe, and otherwise trick your friends into listening to us.
Feb 19, 2025•57 min•Ep. 201
We continue our catch up/republish adventures with Deadpool & Wolverine, as wild and screwy a movie as 2024 could manage. We also take a helluva shot at the Olympics and the insanity of events.
Jan 31, 2025•58 min•Ep. 200
As we continue with our catch up/republish episodes, we get to Inside Out 2, one of the best of the year, and the impossible to search IF (Imaginary Friends), and finally Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. It made for a strange episode, because Inside Out 2 was almost indescribably good, but somehow wasn't quite a 10/10, and the other two were passable while filled with flaws that make them potentially annoying.
Jan 22, 2025•52 min•Ep. 199
As we continue to catch up/republish we look at Furiosa and Hitman this week. Two movies that coud hardly be more different, and both a bit disappointing in their own ways. Furiosa, while serviceable and filled with moments of fun, doesn't live up to the expectations set for it, and Hitman just couldn't seem to get out of its own way and wouldn't commit to a story. Give a listen for all the details and be sure to subscribe and share.
Jan 14, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 198
This week (?) we're bringing you our Can't Win Awards (again... sort of), and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Massive apologies to our fans as many of our episodes over the last six months have been up and down, seemed to be up but weren't really, and have had all sorts of other problems. And, that doesn't even cover some serious delays in publishing. We'll be catching up rather quickly, so further apologies as we shotgun many episodes from the past few months.
Jan 02, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 197
This week we look at The Fall Guy and if there's one overall theme to looking at this one, it's that we were both surprised that it worked out pretty well, despite some goofy moments, AND we were just as much surprised by the extent to which this bears no resemblance to the original show... at all. Still, it's mostly a fun, popcorn jaunt with some heart and it surely serves its purpose and hasn't really, in our humble opinion, managed reviews that make a lot of sense, by some anyway. To our fans...
Sep 27, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 196
Two movies that... serve a purpose perhaps, but don't offer much. "Roadhouse" and "Ricky Stanicky" both had more potential, and both can't get out of their own way. Remember, you can also catch the video version of our podcast now on YouTube.
May 23, 2024•54 min•Ep. 195
It's that time again, and as much as it is perhaps unnecessary to rewarn people of the worst movies last year, it's now in a list! Thankfully, we don't need to overly revisit bad movies, which means we can also bring you a couple of recent Netflix releases, Damsel and Spaceman. We'll let you know what to stay away from, if you've managed it so far, and who knows what else we'll get up to.
Apr 18, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 194
The second part of the Dune extravaganza actually managed to surprise, though it had some flaws and a strange ending. As much as we liked the first installment, there was a lot that could go wrong. Tune in and find out what we thought about the massive undertaking, why it worked, and why it occasionally didn't.
Apr 15, 2024•52 min•Ep. 193
This week we are taking on the Best of the Year, but it's also our first episode that we are also doing on video. Things might sound a little strange here and there, and that'll be why. Also, this one got away from us a bit on length, mostly because we had a lot of Honorable Mentions. It was a wild year to be sure, which made lists both easier and harder, but at the very least ours aren't the same as everyone else's. Please also check us out on YouTube, and like and subscribe there, etc....
Mar 01, 2024•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 192
This week we actually just cranked through a lot of films to end the year before next week when we dare to offer you our Best of the Year list. We hit too many to go over, including such winners as Past Lives and Dream Scenario, and ended up with some of our biggest differences ever, which was really surprising in some cases. This was largely a result of Shane hating everything and me being a sucker... apparently. Tune in to find out about several movies you need to check out so that you are ful...
Feb 13, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 191
As we run headlong toward our Best of the Year list, and the Can't Win Awards, we're trying like hell to get through as many films as possible... and it only works so well. This week we finally get to Oppenheimer, which hit us pretty much as we expected... tune into to find out what that means. We're also looking at two real gems of the year, even if we didn't rate one of them that highly, May December and American Fiction.
Feb 05, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 190
This week we finally look at Killers of the Flower Moon as we head into our wrap up of as many movies we didn't get to as possible before our Best of the Year list and our "Can't Win" Awards. Killers didn't really impress us, as is perhaps the case with several of the biggest titles this year, and we'll let you know exactly why. Also, in a bit of a strange move as we waste time when we have better things to do, we talk about the Oscar snubs and how I unfortunately caused them, or predicted them,...
Feb 01, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 189
The Critics Choice Awards happened and it was a great show once again. This week we look over the winners and let you know how we feel about them (and sometimes what I actually voted for), and we review (though rather quickly) The Holdovers and Saltburn. The Holdovers got Paul Giamatti the win, and as we mentioned in a previous episode, he deserved it, and it was a year with some serious competition. Saltburn hasn't managed a lot of love, and is becoming famous simply for the talk surrounding a ...
Jan 18, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 188
You may be expecting our usual, end of year shotgun blast of reviews where we try to hit as many movies as possible each episode, but because this year threw off our ability to get a couple of episodes out - even as we prepare to add video to the mix - we've decided to run through some of the major categories of the Critics' Choice Awards nominations in order to highlight and discuss said nominees that way. We will get you our take on several of the most noteworthy films that way, and review the...
Dec 30, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 187
In a wildly rare move... sort of, we are only covering one film this week, Poor Things. As usual for the pre-award rush, we've been hyping the fact that we would need to share several movies per episode, but this week... accidentally, we are laser-focused on Yorgos Lanthimos' latest, and this treat with Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and Willem Defoe is certainly worthy of our attention... even if it isn't quite the 10/10 I was expecting. It is close though.
Dec 07, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 186
This week we are really gearing up for awards season, which seems crazy. Before we get too close to four or five films a week territory, we have a couple of big titles to tackle, and neither of them impressed us much. The Marvels is getting a wild world of pro and con commentary, but where does it really land, and why? The Killer, which is weirdly, The K__.ller, owing to the graphic novel, is a lot of potential that doesn't really amount to anything as cool as it should have been.
Nov 16, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 185
This week we are taking a look at what turns out to be a truly special movie, Five Nights at Freddy's, at least in terms of messing with our ratings. We're also covering a couple of other films, including Totally Killer. As much as it may seem absolutely crazy, because we are very serious film critics, Five Nights played havoc with our thoughts about rating movies. So much so that we have been inspired to revisit our show from ages ago where we dive deep into how we come to our ratings. Look for...
Nov 08, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 184
We're avoiding a lot of Halloween this week, but there's still "Haunting" in the title. While horror, or at least horror-ish, titles are moving around the box office rankings, we're looking at A Haunting in Venice, the third effort of a semi-vanity project.... just like in our last show. Is this one worth your time, or has this gone on too long?
Oct 14, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 183
This week, as we move from stellar box office, to the curious case of a winning holiday weekend... to the box office black hole, we're looking at the third installment in the increasingly curious Equalizer franchise. This one is a vanity project that won't die, and while the first one was... fair enough, it's becoming hard to tell why we ever picked the name in the first place. Does this one hold up? Is it worth your time? We'll let you know, and we're going to jump into a few other things as we...
Sep 27, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 182
The shocking blockbuster that is Barbie has taken the year's box office by storm, and it is at the center of intense debate and... unusual awards talk. So where does the film land when not merely analyzing the feminist debate within, and how does the film showcase Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig, and Ryan Gosling, apart from making a lot of money? We'll let you know how well this one delivers. Apologies for the a massive technical failure throwing things off a bit in the episode....
Aug 23, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 181
The Impossible team is at it again, sort of, and this time they find themselves up against a whole new kind of enemy. The cultural boogeyman of the decade is AI and there's no reason our Impossible heroes shouldn't jump on the bandwagon. It's no secret that Cruise uses the franchise to... work out some fantasies, and the question has long been whether or not it all comes together to deliver something that holds up to the first couple of films. We'll let you know where this one lands. We've also ...
Aug 23, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 180
