Dare! Dare to believe you can survive [another Michael Bay Transformers movie]. You hold the future in your hand. Dare. Dare to keep all of your dreams alive [of never having to sit through another one]. It's time to take a stand. And you can win, if you dare [to stay home when the Bumblebee solo film comes out]. Yes, listeners, it's fair to say that the reaction from Steve Norman, Owen Hughes and Callum Petch to Transformers 5 / Transformers: The Last Knight / Trans5mers was less than positive....
Jun 29, 2017•1 hr 31 min
Welcome back to our regularly scheduled programming. After a mammoth E3 last week, the Character Unlock guys are back to doing what they do: playing video games and talking an unlimited amount of nonsense. This week is no different. This episode, hosts John Miller and Andrew Brooker forego a news section - nothing much happened anyway - and jump straight into what they've been playing since the end of the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Having garnered some help in the form of a Twitter poll, the...
Jun 22, 2017•1 hr 12 min
Despite reports of different creative visions for this episode of the Failed Critics Podcast, hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes haven't left the project, but have brought on board Underground Nights co-host Paul Field to delve into some film news and reviews. The pod kicks off with Owen still in the big comfy leather armchair, pitting Steve and Paul against each other in a quiz themed around our main review this week; Jason Flemyng's directorial debut, the British horror-comedy, Eat Local. We f...
Jun 21, 2017•1 hr 11 min
The end is here!Join our hosts as they take apart the last of this year’s E3 press conferences. This episode, we focus on Nintendo who, as has become tradition, have foregone the big stage for a pre-recorded show.That means that we were treated to a super-short advert fest and not much else. Reggie introduced us to a few new games and detailed some E-Sports tournaments they have upcoming over the coming months. And not an awful lot else.Lots of Japanese games, as expected, with Xenoblade and Fir...
Jun 13, 2017•23 min
There is a light at the end of this tunnel. As the guys sit an go through the second to last showcase of 2017’s E3; the light can barely be seen as the tired, squinting eyes of our hosts are barely open.It’s 4am, and we’ve got games to talk about. Loads of games. Everything from the new God of War to the Uncharted expansion is trailered and talked about by our flagging hosts. Desperately trying to stay awake as Sony did nothing to help them out, with only Horizon DLC trailers and an extended Spi...
Jun 13, 2017•38 min
This isn't a tomb, it's an audio prison. It takes a couple of monsters in hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes to create a podcast episode (and nobody else) reviewing Universal's first foray into their new Dark Universe, The Mummy. It's just the two of them and they can make it if they try. To make up for the lack of guests, they take it upon themselves to review two movies each in What We've Been Watching this week. Steve chats about Irish comedy The Young Offenders and dystopian drama The White ...
Jun 12, 2017•59 min
As day three of E3 starts up and the guys have managed to get a few hours kip… it’s time for the Ubisoft conference.As tiredness and hay fever appear to be getting the better of the boys, join them in going through the developer’s advert-fest for 2017.Assassin’s Creed Origins makes it’s expected appearance. As does The Crew 2, Just Dance and the latest, much delayed South Park sequel.Surprises hit in the form of a Pirate filled naval combat game, a Rabbids and Mario collaboration and an expansio...
Jun 12, 2017•33 min
Seriously. This can’t be healthy.With only two hours sleep, we are back covering this year’s E3 press conferences. This time, it’s fan favourite - but not John favourite - publisher Bethesda.Quickly getting the records for latest ever E3 presser and the shortest ever E3 conference, join the lads as they pick apart the Skyrim publisher’s outing.Quake, Wolfenstein, Fallout and Dishonored all get a showing, pretty much as we predicted in our preview show last week. No real surprises this year, but ...
Jun 12, 2017•25 min
The E3 Hype train continues today as Microsoft’s Xbox Showcase rolls into town.Join the lads as they pull apart what could be the most important conference of the week as Microsoft formally announce the name of what we’ve all come to know as Project Scorpio.The newly named Xbox One X provides all of this episode’s talking points as we got a list of new games coming for the new machine. Old favourites, new favourites and even a surprise or two.And the most important announcement? A new… Porsche??...
Jun 12, 2017•32 min
E3 is finally here. That means late nights, early mornings and far more caffeine than is healthy.Let us begin this year's festivities with EA Play. The first show of the conference gets underway with a flurry of old favourites and ends with a very anticipated title.Hosts John Miller and Andrew Brooker dive into all the FIFAs, Maddens and Star Wars: Battlefronts that the publishing giant has to offer. Listen in to see what they thought.Follow the guys on Twitter (@CharacterUnlock) to see their th...
Jun 10, 2017•41 min
It's almost here! E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the start of the next 12 months of marketing is finally upon us for 2017. Hosts John Miller and Andrew Brooker will be spending a couple of hours talking all things E3, just like every other video game podcast, website, foghorn, whatever, right now. They cover everything in this preview episode, including what they would like to see at each show, the rituals they might or might not do every year for E3 and even throwing a few far out ideas...
Jun 08, 2017•1 hr 51 min
We've got what you want, what you need AND what you deserve on this week's Failed Critics triple bill special episode with not one, not two, but a whole bunch of Wonder Women - and we're not just referring to Maaya Brooker! Maaya joins hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes for a Wonder Woman inspired triple bill as they each pick three films directed and/or written by women, leading to quite an eclectic mix of movies up for discussion in our main feature. But before that, the team also review the l...
Jun 05, 2017•1 hr 41 min
Cue the sax, it's the Failed Critics Podcast: Latenight Softcore Edition, where host Steve Norman finally gets his wish to make Owen Hughes review Emmanuelle In Space, possibly the boobiest of all our quiz booby-prizes thus far. If you giggle when you hear naughty words, you're going to, well, giggle, when you hear our quiz. The new releases this week see the team joined by Maaya Brooker (making her podcast debut) to chat about the amount of bounce in a slow-motion run along the beach in Baywatc...
May 30, 2017•1 hr 10 min
Summer is (kind of) here, and what better way to celebrate the amazing hot weather we've been blessed with than listening to a couple of guys chatting about playing video games indoors? Welcome to the Character Unlock tangent-cast where ,in a surprisingly news heavy week that came with a ton of game playing too, hosts John Miller and Andrew Brooker seem to struggle to keep themselves on track. Desperately trying to talk seriously about the future of IO Interactive and their fan favourite Hitman ...
May 25, 2017•1 hr 24 min
Awight you pwopa nawty boys, oi oi! Brian Plank joins Steve Norman and Owen Hughes for a top, top podcast this week. We've got a review of Guy Ritchie's new movie, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. It's sick, bruv. Banterific. As well as the Kaiju drama(?) comedy(?) action(?) indie(?) flick, Colossal, starring Anne Hathaway. Following a news section which covers the casting of Tom Hardy as Venom, leading to more head-scratching about who owns what in the MCU, Steve continues the superhero theme ...
May 22, 2017•1 hr 8 min
This week Steve Norman and Owen Hughes are joined by regular Failed Critic Andrew Brooker as they delve in to Ridley Scott's latest instalment in the Alien franchise, Alien: Covenant, complete with Spoiler Alert as well as a spoiler free review. In the news we pay tribute to the late Powers Boothe and in What We've Been Watching Steve goes gangster with Guy Ritchie's Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Brooker watches some "balls out torture porn" with Fright Fest favourite Jessica Cameron's g...
May 19, 2017•1 hr 31 min
The seals have been broken and the armies of Heaven, Hell and Earth are locked in a battle to decide the fate of all eternity. Answering the call, your hosts John Miller and Andrew Brooker are here to make sense of the chaos that has ravaged the Earth. Ok, maybe things aren’t quite that bad, luckily, because no one wants these two to be the guys deciding the fate of humanity. I mean, it took the not-so-dynamic-duo three attempts and a ton of giggling like children to even get the episode off the...
May 11, 2017•1 hr 17 min
Ee arr, our kid. Yow wo' believe it, but we've only gon' an' published anuva bostin' episode! Ark at four half-soaked wallies blaberen about films an' that in a Failed Critics Dudleycast. Only kidding. The main feature of this week's podcast is a triple bill on British comedy films post-1980s in honour of Julian Barratt and Simon Farnaby's newest hilarious collaboration, Mindhorn. Tony Black, the mastermind behind the popular X-Files podcast, The X-Cast, joins hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes ...
May 10, 2017•1 hr 34 min
Where does a pirate keep his buccaneers? Apparently on the bucking Failed Critics Podcast this week, as Steve Norman and Owen Hughes are joined by both Andrew Brooker and Brian Plank for some jolly rogering - and to talk about Marvel's latest space adventure movie, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2! We've got a full spoiler-free review of James Gunn's second feature in the MCU, starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Kurt Russell and many more besides. As if that wasn't enough, we even dredged up our ow...
May 03, 2017•1 hr 14 min
Welcome to another episode of Character Unlock, the video game-centric (but equally shambolic) Failed Critics sister podcast. In our 17th episode, usual host Andrew Brooker has stepped aside to let his partner in crime John Miller take the reigns, guiding us through the news from the past couple of weeks and keeping things on track as the guys share their last couple of weeks of gaming. World War II is the focus of a big portion of this week’s news as the pair dig into the worldwide reveal of th...
Apr 27, 2017•1 hr 17 min
Look at me, listeners! I love you! It's all for you, Damian--- I mean, whatever your name might be! Happy birthday to us. Yes, backs are slapped and circled are jerks as we celebrate reaching the fifth year of the Failed Critics Podcast. Hip, hip... Beginning life as a one-man blog back in 2011, before spanning into an entertainment movie podcast on 25 April the following year, we've somehow survived over 260 episodes, three spin-off podcasts and a number of different movies that was too large f...
Apr 24, 2017•1 hr 28 min
Welcome to the Failed Critics Podcast as we review The Fate of the Furious, the eighth entry in the Fast & Furious series. It's an emotional rollercoaster this week. Tears have been shed about the noticeably absent (and some would even say crucial) member of the team, whose mere presence is what has made the previous entries so entertaining, so absorbing, and so full of heart and character. Alas, even without Owen around, Steve Norman, Callum Petch and James Diamond soldier on regardless. Th...
Apr 19, 2017•1 hr 13 min
And we're back. Fresh on the heels of the mammoth Mass Effect special episode - an entry that tested the sanity of everyone involved - hosts John Miller and (returning from exile) Andrew Brooker attempt to return to some kind of normality with very little in the way of success. Getting into the biggest news of the week straight away, the dynamic duo get into the newly released specs for Microsofts latest (but as yet unnamed) console: Project Scorpio. Demonstrating little-to-no understanding of t...
Apr 13, 2017•1 hr 35 min
All hope abandon, ye who download this podcast as Steve, Owen, Brooker and Liam invite you into one of their seven circles of Hell for a special religious movies themed triple bill, just in time for Easter. Alas, the sound quality takes a bit of a battering, as if the Devil himself mocked us by blowing down "the bugle of his ass-hole" in the background of the entire recording. Nevertheless, the four atheists persevered and each discuss three religious-themed movies of their choice. It was either...
Apr 10, 2017•1 hr 23 min
Are we a podcast that exists inside your iPhone? Or is this an iPhone with the ghost of the latest Failed Critics Podcast inside of it? Hmm. Someone should make a movie out of that premise. Until then, don't worry about it. Just hit play and listen to four gits, Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Callum Petch and Matt Lambourne, as they guide you through a sort-of anime special in honour of our main release review, Ghost in the Shell. As well as the brand new movie starring Scarlett Johansson, we also t...
Apr 03, 2017•1 hr 33 min
Welcome to the latest Character Unlock episode: Our Mass Effect love-in. First, an apology or two. We are very sorry for the quality of the recording this week. Whilst it isn’t as bad as it has been in the past, there are sections that fall far below the lofty standards we hold ourselves to. Secondly (and not completely unrelated) we are sorry about the delay in getting the latest episode to you. Whatever could go wrong, did go wrong this week and tech issues before, during and after recording h...
Mar 30, 2017•2 hr 50 min
It's morphin' time for your podcast hosts with attitude on this week's Failed Critics Podcast! Leading the pack is Steve Norman, with the power of Tyrannosaurus! Next is Andrew Brooker, with the power of the Mastodon! And finally it's Owen Hughes, with the power of the crappy flying one that no kid really ever wanted to play with! Yes, one of this week's main review features is the brand new Power Rangers movie. The team also get a Life as they chat about the latest sci-fi/horror aping picture t...
Mar 28, 2017•1 hr 32 min
Listen. Focus on the rain. Can you hear it? Find the rain. Now, once you've found it... sink into the pod! Yes, this week's main review on the Failed Critics Podcast is the chilling black comedy/horror/psychological thriller, Get Out. Let Steve Norman, Owen Hughes and Tony Black lull you into a false sense of security and then fill your head with nonsense for the following 60 minutes. Things temporarily go all weird on the latest episode as the team try to have a somewhat sensible conversation a...
Mar 23, 2017•1 hr
Welcome to a rather late edition of the Failed Critics Podcast this week as hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes are joined by Underground Nights co-host Paul Field. The ice cream's are on Steve. There's a hastily arranged quiz (circa 2009) to kick things off before a brief chat about remakes, reboots, reimaginings and re-adaptations following the news that The Matrix is the latest Hollywood property set for the prequel/sequel/revisit/remaster/whatever treatment. But it's our new releases this wee...
Mar 17, 2017•1 hr 5 min
It's finally here. The big day has come and gone, and Nintendo's latest home console has arrived. Hosts John Miller and Andrew Brooker have done everything in their power to avoid it. Enter, stage left: Jack Woodcock. The latest guest on the most shambolic of video game podcasts is Brooker's long-time Killzone buddy, Jack. A life long Nintendo fan and buyer of all things new and Ninty, Jack is the perfect guy to drag away from the Mario maker's latest hybrid console. He chats about the good and ...
Mar 16, 2017•1 hr 32 min
