Brushing the cobwebs out of the way through the passage right at the back of the Failed Critics library, where nobody has been for centuries or more, we've found an ancient book containing spells for raising the dead. Using our powers wisely, we let Steve Norman, Owen Hughes and Tony Black conjure up some deceased actors, putting them straight back to work in brand new movies pitched on this very episode of the Failed Critics Podcast Halloween special. Resurrecting the dead in a triple bill is a...
Oct 24, 2016•1 hr 17 min
Before writer Callum Petch had even got his foot through the door upon returning from Ben Wheatley's Free Fire last Sunday, he was answering a telephone call from Failed Critics to let us know exactly how it - and the rest of the BFI London Film Festival - had been this year. This special bonus podcast is the result of that call, as Callum kindly rounds up five of the best, and a few of the rest from the 60th LFF. If you've been following his posts on the site, you'll have a good idea of which m...
Oct 21, 2016•1 hr 24 min
The Earth still spins, the sun still shines and Hollywood still makes trilogies that nobody in their right mind wants, with Ron Howard's third Dan Brown adaptation, Inferno, hitting cinemas last weekend. Rather than expend any amount of energy reviewing the Tom Hanks led mystery thriller, the Failed Critics instead run through a triple bill of film franchises that should have ended before getting to the trilogy stage. Boy, were there plenty to choose from! With regular host Steve Norman off cele...
Oct 20, 2016•1 hr 46 min
Welcome to our second episode of Failed Critics' basement lingering, video game-centric spin off, Character Unlock! Hosts John Miller and Andrew Brooker have stolen the keys to some of the shiniest and fastest cars you can ever imagine getting your hands on and they plan to tear around the streets for an hour or so. Celebrating the beginning of Silly Season 2016 by completely avoiding new releases for a couple of weeks, the boys delve into this year's FIFA iteration and the disappointing sequel ...
Oct 13, 2016•1 hr 4 min
All aboard! Every week Owen Hughes rides the Failed Critics steam train from host Steve Norman's caravan park in Swanage all the way to guest Andrew Brooker's residence in Milton Keynes, stopping at the exact same point along the way to peer through the windows of the FC HQ in Oxford. Unfortunately there are no affairs or murders for him to observe and fantasise about, only a depressed version of himself wondering why the bloody hell he sits through these uninspiring movies that 2016 keeps on ch...
Oct 12, 2016•1 hr 11 min
Ejecting the Blu-ray from our PS4 and using it for its intended purpose for a change, the Failed Critics have booted up a computer game or two and put the movies back on the shelf for the first ever episode of our brand new sister-podcast, Character Unlock. Andrew Brooker and John Miller host the pilot episode, kicking off with a run down from EGX 2016. It's not just top-down racing games that John got to play, as Battlfield 1, Forza Horizon 3, FIFA 17 and plenty of indie games went under his mi...
Oct 06, 2016•1 hr 28 min
Wahey look how quirky and gothic we are as hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes stumble around for far longer than they should on this week's podcast discussing Tim Burton's latest zany fantasy film, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Ooooh we're so weird. Steve's got a face full of wasps and Owen constantly props himself up with sticks else he sinks into the ground. It's fine though because of the randomness and wacky way we present ourselves so you'll have to love it. (Oh, by the way, ...
Oct 04, 2016•1 hr 4 min
Yeehaw, listeners! It's a darn tootin' mighty fine show we've got for you this week. Hosts Steve 'the kid' Norman and Smilin' Owen Hughes are joined by pardners The Liam With No Surname and Django Brooker for a special westerns triple bill episode. Their pistols are cocked and ready to fire on each of their favourite three westerns in honour of this week's big new release, Antoine Fuqua's The Magnificent Seven, starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke and Lee Byung-hun amongst others...
Sep 27, 2016•1 hr 38 min
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Failed Critics Podcast. Proving that they're not just a pair of losers with no friends, hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes are back again but this time Paul Field and Tony Black join them. As ever the podcast kicks off with a quiz, this week hosted by Steve, that puts the Failed Critics' soap knowledge to the test, before they move on to What We've Been Watching. Paul makes a bold declaration that Park Chan-wook's Handmaiden is the Oldboy director's be...
Sep 20, 2016•1 hr 19 min
Welcome to another episode of the Failed Critics Podcast where hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes were left entirely to their own devices as both guests bailed on them faster than Gareth Bale operating an AB 43HS-series. (It's a waste-handling baler. It bales stuff.) Hastily rejigging the content of the show just hours before recording, the podcast this week features a triple bill about drunks on film, suggested to us by Underground Nights co-host, Paul Field. Presumably in honour of the fact he...
Sep 12, 2016•1 hr 1 min
It's getting a bit musky in the FC HQ this week as Steve Norman, Owen Hughes and Callum Petch engage in their very own sausage party to review Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's latest collaboration. The foul-mouthed animated comedy pretty much divided the group down the middle, but you'll have to listen to find out who hated it, who thought it was fine, and who loved it. Elsewhere on the pod: hooked on an Ashton Kutcher-fix, Steve reviews time-travelling sci-fi The Butterfly Effect; Owen realises h...
Sep 05, 2016•1 hr 26 min
Welcome to this week's episode of the Failed Critics Podcast where we're once again Steve Norman-less. But don't panic! Tony Black is here to spare you the agony of having to listen to Owen Hughes attempt to host the show. Tony and Owen were also joined by special guests and lovely chaps Daryl Bär and Ben Challoner from the Sudden Double Deep podcast, whose wit, intelligence and fantastic insults make them a more than welcome addition to Failed Critics. Together the team try to come to terms wit...
Aug 29, 2016•1 hr 35 min
Murdered in his sleep, chopped up into tiny pieces and stuffed down the back of Paul Field's sofa. That's what we presume is the reason behind the Underground Nights co-host taking over duties from the absent Steve Norman this week as he joins Owen Hughes and Andrew Brooker for this week's triple bill podcast. Each of the trio picks three films that have frightened them - not necessarily the scariest films they can think of, but rather, those that have at some point in their lives scared them be...
Aug 22, 2016•2 hr 5 min
Awright, settle down you slags. The Failed Critics Podcast is here, keep your hair on you bunch of Berkley Hunt's. Influenced by the paedo-hunting vigilante killers in the expectedly awful geezer-movie Mob Handed, hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes are up to no good with their partner in crime, Callum Petch. As well as a full-on dismantling of the aforementioned since-proclaimed "worst movie" that Owen and Steve have ever made each other watch (nudging out the likes of Kill Keith, United Passion...
Aug 15, 2016•1 hr 31 min
Wearing skimpy clothes and carrying a baseball bat with a miserable face carved into it with a compass, Steve "Har-leaky Quim" Norman is not about to let your perception of his sexual promiscuity define him as he wanders in to lead this week's podcast, all about DC's latest entry to their extended movie universe: it's David Ayer's rogues-done-good ensemble actioner, Suicide Squad. Taking pot-shots at the film with his uber-cool Nerf missile launcher strapped to his bogey-covered sleeve, Andrew "...
Aug 08, 2016•1 hr 48 min
Refusing to stay down on the mat and not allowing our coach to throw in the towel, the Failed Critics are steadily climbing to their feet for one final round of the sports triple bill. The first of which was concluded back in August 2012, in time for the London Olympics. This one, coincidentally, is being released just ahead of the Rio Olympics! Almost as if it were intentionally planned that way... Hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes are joined by Andrew Brooker and - fresh from his local Richer...
Jul 29, 2016•1 hr 23 min
Welcome to another episode of the Failed Critics Podcast, boldly going where we've only been once before. That is to say, it's another episode without any guests! Steve Norman and Owen Hughes are left to their own devices, and yet still end up discussing two new releases. They review the latest sci-fi franchise to become a trilogy in Star Trek Beyond - well, one of them can review it as the other hasn't seen it (all) - as well as Spielberg's adaptation of everybody's favourite childhood author, ...
Jul 25, 2016•1 hr 6 min
Welcome to this week's Failed Critics Podcast, where the traditionally entirely-male line-up has been replaced, with hosts Stephanie Norman and Olivia Hughes, and their guests Andrea Brooker and Brianna Plank - and if anything, it's an improvement over the originals. The re-imagined, re-booted, re-failed foursome review the comedy film that seemingly hasn't been able to escape public opinion over the past fortnight (for both good and bad reasons) - that is Paul Feig's Ghostbusters, starring Meli...
Jul 18, 2016•1 hr 18 min
Welcome to this week's edition of the Failed Critics Podcast, where hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes are joined by special guest Paul Field to tackle a few new releases (and one not-so-new release). One new release that isn't reviewed (despite what was suggested on last week's podcast), due to an administrative cock-up of gargantuan-Stay-Puft proportions, is Ghostbusters. Sorry about that. You'll just have to tune in again next week. However, instead, Owen and Steve strived to stay awake long ...
Jul 11, 2016•1 hr 14 min
Influenced by this week's triple bill, getting ideas above their station and blowing a huge amount of money on an extravagant holiday because they didn't quite know what else to do with it, Steve Norman and Owen Hughes return in a feature-length edition of the Failed Critics Podcast. With the help of their good friend Liam, the trio ramp things up to 11 and have a great time doing it! I mean, that's what you do when you turn an otherwise weekly serialised show into a big-budget production, right...
Jul 04, 2016•1 hr 54 min
With temporary host Paul Field getting to the ballot box and voting in blind panic to leave the Failed Critics Podcast after two long successful weeks, we finally have our Steve Norman back! Luckily, Steve hasn't done a Roy Hodgson as his team of Owen Hughes and Andrew Brooker don't bottle it on the grandest stage of all. Assuming that you of course agree that the "grandest stage" is of course a free audio podcast. This week's episode features reviews of three brand new releases, with a main rev...
Jun 28, 2016•1 hr 25 min
Uh-huh-huh-huh-uh. Uh-huh-huh-huh-uh. Cool. It's the second ever Failed Critics commentary! Think of this podcast as less like an insightful DVD commentary for 90's comedy Beavis & Butt-Head Do America, and more like a watch-along-with as the team talk over Mike Judge's cult classic. Speaking of the team, Steve Norman sits this one out so it's up to Owen Hughes to host on his lonesome. Thankfully Matt Lambourne returns from last year's Blair Witch Project commentary podcast, who is also join...
Jun 19, 2016•1 hr 33 min
Welcome to this week's edition of the Failed Critics Podcast. With Steve Norman away on holiday, it was up to Underground Nights's host Paul Field to sit in the driver's seat and lead Owen and Liam through one hour and 45 minutes of film chat, reviews, discussions and old-man-misery. The show begins as it always does - with a quiz! - before moving on to the latest news including The Passion of the Christ 2 (yes, it's getting a sequel) and Kevin Smith's long-awaited sequel-turned-TV-show Mallbrat...
Jun 13, 2016•1 hr 44 min
Welcome to this week's Failed Critics Podcast where hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes were joined by both Callum Petch and Andrew Brooker to review three new releases! Book-ending Callum's film-reviewing life in education with trips to Wonderland, he reveals that Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is the worst blockbuster of the 2010's - and why Alice Through The Looking Glass is no better. We also review Warcraft: The Beginning, confusing Steve no end as he can't tell the difference between it a...
Jun 06, 2016•1 hr 16 min
Your official (not "official" official) 17th best podcast, Failed Critics, as designated by New Media Europe's 'Best UK Podcast of 2016' award. Voting closed on Monday 30th May, with The Failed Critics Podcast ranked 17th out of 100 based on the number of Facebook votes we received. Thank you so much to anybody who helped us achieve this high a position by taking a few seconds to vote. On this week's episode, we draft in Underground Nights' very own Paul Field to help us run through a triple-bil...
May 29, 2016•1 hr 18 min
The lads are back! After a brief hiatus whilst James Mullinger was busy doing actual paid stand-up comedy, rather than fannying around on the internet talking about films with Paul Field, our Underground Nights duo return with a cult comedy special. They tackle the outrageous Danish road trip movie Klown and try and look back on James childhood obsession with the little known Scorsese feature After Hours. There's news - lots of news - as we discover the outcome of James trying to flog more gig t...
May 28, 2016•1 hr 54 min
Welcome to this week's episode of the Failed Critics Podcast, with your hosts ... erm ... Stan? Stuart? Stephen? Steve, Steve Norman, that's the fella, and Owen Hopkins-- I mean, Hughes. They're joined by Andrew Brooker to review, look at, discuss, scratch their heads and generally mull over the latest Fox-driven superhero movie, X-Men: Apocalypse. Before all of that, the trio run through the latest film news to cross their paths; namely the trailers for Ghostbusters (and why it might be OK to n...
May 22, 2016•1 hr 22 min
Hello listeners, what's your boggle? We wouldn't normally try to conjure up the image of a painted wall with the episode title, but we were somewhat shambolic this week, even by our own standards. With host Steve Norman suffering from agonising tooth ache during much of the recording, Owen Hughes and guests Andrew Brooker and Tony Black ran amok. A new round of the quiz kicked the show off, pitting Steve against Brooker and Tony, with Owen in the quizmaster's chair, before the group discussed th...
May 16, 2016•1 hr 18 min
Somebody hit the emergency switch at FC HQ earlier today. Only, what they didn't realise, was that rather than stopping the machinery from whirring so that they could untangle their hair from the press, it instead sent all of the guests that we keep on stasis in their cryochambers shooting straight out of the vents and into a large pile of limbs, flesh and scrawled-on notepads near the FC skip.Bugger. Whilst we sort that mess out, the only two left undamaged were hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hugh...
May 09, 2016•1 hr 48 min
Battle lines have been drawn. Treaties are being drafted. The U.N. were informed. It's Steve 'Captain Anyway' Norman on one side, using his sense of justice and principles to determine what's right. Opposite is Owen 'Irony Man' Hughes, putting his logic and rational thinking to the test. Listeners, choose your side as Civil War erupts on this week's Failed Critics Podcast! Andrew Brooker and Brian Plank are caught in the crossfire, therefore rather than being referred to as "guests" this week, y...
May 02, 2016•1 hr 51 min
