Everyone's seen Spirited Away. Everyone's seen Princess Mononoke. Almost nobody has seen the 1984 Miyazaki film that's better than both of them. Richard Lewis, Thorin, and MonteCristo break down Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, the pre-Studio Ghibli masterpiece that handles environmentalism with more intelligence and nuance than anything Miyazaki made after it. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for adver...
Jun 28, 2026•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 104
The Wachowskis walked into a studio with a copy of Ghost in the Shell and said "we want to do that, but for real." Four years later, The Matrix made a billion dollars. Ghost in the Shell made nothing on release. Richard Lewis, Thorin, and MonteCristo break down why the 80-minute anime the Wachowskis ripped off is deeper, smarter, and more relevant in the age of AI than the franchise it spawned. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and...
Jun 21, 2026•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 103
There is a sentiment going around that Akira is mid. Richard Lewis, Thorin, and MonteCristo are here to tell you that the internet is wrong, but also that the people who told you it was a flawless 10 out of 10 masterpiece were wrong too. The truth is more interesting than either side. Akira's animation is a genuine 10 out of 10. Nothing from 1988 looks like this. Almost nothing from 2026 looks like this. The craftsmanship is immaculate, every frame hand-drawn with a fluidity and detail that make...
Jun 14, 2026•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 102
Open Range (2003) proves Robert Duvall can carry a western on his back — even when Kevin Costner is standing right next to him. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
May 31, 2026•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 101
A Civil Action has the most stacked cast of any movie you've never seen. Robert Duvall, John Travolta, James Gandolfini, Tony Shalhoub, John Lithgow, William H. Macy, and Stephen Fry. It's a 6.5 out of 10 film elevated to must-watch by performances alone. Richard Lewis, MonteCristo, and Thorin break down why Duvall's Harvard defense attorney is the best thing in the movie and why the movie itself can't keep up with him. Into the AM: men's apparel from tees to bombers to denim. Memorial Day sale ...
May 24, 2026•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 100
Robert Duvall wrote it, directed it, and delivered his career-best performance in it. The Apostle is a $5 million Southern Gothic character study about a charismatic Pentecostal preacher who murders a man with a baseball bat at his own children's Little League game, flees to small-town Louisiana, and builds an entirely new congregation from scratch. He is a wife-beater, a womanizer, a killer, and a true believer. There is no rug pull. Richard Lewis, MonteCristo, and Thorin break down why this is...
May 17, 2026•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 99
Colors came out in 1988 and was the first film to put the Bloods and Crips on screen by name. It feels cheesy now. It would have felt raw as hell then. Richard Lewis, MonteCristo, and Thorin open the Robert Duvall arc with the movie that crawled so Training Day, The Wire, and End of Watch could run. PrizePicks — Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/FOURPLAY and use code FOURPLAY and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswi...
May 10, 2026•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 98
Marty Supreme should have won Best Picture, One Battle After Another is a career Oscar that might age like milk, and Michael B. Jordan playing two characters in Sinners is basically Mario and Luigi in different colored hats. Richard Lewis, Thorin, and MonteCristo break down every major film of the 2026 Academy Awards in a sprawling and contentious Oscars special. Manta Sleep — the Manta Pro sleep mask has 100% blackout coverage, fully adjustable Velcro eye cups, cooling gel, and is fully machine...
Apr 12, 2026•1 hr 55 min•Ep. 97
After Kill Bill nearly broke them, Richard Lewis, Thorin, and MonteCristo close the Tarantino arc with the film that was supposed to prove he still had it. The verdict: Inglourious Basterds contains two of the finest scenes Tarantino has ever directed (the farmhouse interrogation and the basement bar), but the rest of the movie can't sustain the altitude those scenes reach. What could have been a profound meditation on the power of cinema, the banality of evil, and Jewish catharsis instead settl...
Apr 05, 2026•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 96
Kill Bill held a special place in a lot of hearts. The Whole Bloody Affair was supposed to be the definitive version: Tarantino's original vision restored as a single four-and-a-half-hour film. Richard Lewis, Thorin, and MonteCristo sat through all of it, and what they found was the precise moment Quentin Tarantino disappeared up his own references. Everything that made Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction brilliant, such as the compelling dialogue, the clever homage, the subversion of genre, is repl...
Mar 29, 2026•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 95
Pulp Fiction is one of the most hyped films in cinema history and Richard Lewis, Thorin, and MonteCristo are here to confirm that even after 30 years the hype is entirely earned. What shocked them most wasn't the violence or the nonlinear structure, but how slow the film actually is. Strip away the iconic moments seared into cultural memory and what you find is a movie dominated by two people talking, and it's riveting every single time. Mint Mobile: Ditch overpriced wireless. All plans come wit...
Mar 22, 2026•1 hr 45 min•Ep. 94
Before Pulp Fiction made Quentin Tarantino a household name, there was Reservoir Dogs — a film so raw and transgressive it was banned in the UK for years, circulated on pirate VHS tapes, and became the blueprint for an entire generation of filmmaking. A guy who worked in a video store in LA wrote and directed this. Wrap your head around that. Richard Lewis, MonteCristo, and Thorin kick off Four Play's Tarantino Arc with the film that started it all. They dig into why Reservoir Dogs was banned in...
Mar 15, 2026•1 hr 58 min•Ep. 93
In 1995, a film predicted POV recording technology, VR experiences you can buy on the black market, deepfake manipulation, police brutality caught on camera, and a society addicted to experiencing other people's lives through a screen. It starred Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, and was written by James Cameron. Almost nobody saw it. Strange Days bombed at the box office, nearly destroyed Kathryn Bigelow's career, and has been virtually impossible to find ever since, as right now no streaming serv...
Mar 01, 2026•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 5
Four film lovers revisit The Matrix (1999) for the first time in years. The action still holds up. The philosophical ideas still land. But the script? That's where things get complicated. We break down the Hong Kong cinema influences Hollywood never credited, the Dark City and Invisibles connections, what Keanu Reeves actually brings to Neo, and whether the Wachowskis wrote a cyberpunk masterpiece or got carried by everyone around them. Plus: our 10-point rating and the one scene that still divi...
Feb 22, 2026•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 5
Was The Matrix the first film to ask whether our reality is manufactured? No! There are huge parallels between Dark City and The Matrix, with both films using some of the same themes, visuals, and even sets. In this episode of Four Play, we dive into Dark City (1998): Alex Proyas’ noir-drenched sci-fi cult classic that arrived one year before The Matrix and explored memory, identity, and control in ways that still feel unsettlingly modern. Is Dark City just a forgotten cyberpunk curiosity or is ...
Feb 15, 2026•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 92
Four Play begins a brand-new Cyberpunk Arc with a deep dive into Blade Runner: one of the most influential science-fiction films ever made. Released in 1982, Blade Runner didn’t just define cyberpunk aesthetics, it also reshaped how cinema explores identity, consciousness, artificial intelligence, capitalism, and what it means to be human. Decades later, its themes feel more relevant than ever. Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/FOURPLAY and use code FOURPLAY and get $50 in lineups when yo...
Feb 08, 2026•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 91
David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch is not an adaptation: it’s a psychological autopsy. In this episode of Four Play, we dive deep into one of the most challenging films ever released by a major director: Cronenberg’s surreal, disturbing, and deeply personal interpretation of William S. Burroughs’ life and work. Rather than translating Burroughs’ famously “unfilmable” novel to the screen, Naked Lunch fuses biography, addiction, sexuality, guilt, and creativity into a dream-logic nightmare that feels ...
Feb 01, 2026•1 hr 47 min•Ep. 90
THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU’RE DEAD (1995) is a time capsule of 1990s crime cinema: strange characters with even stranger nicknames who speak in impossibly slick slang. Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with Mando and get 20% off + free shipping with promo code FOURPLAY at https://shopmando.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising....
Jan 25, 2026•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 89
THE GREEN KNIGHT (2021) is often described as abstract, slow, or confusing, but those labels miss what the film is actually doing. Directed by David Lowery, this Arthurian adaptation isn’t a puzzle to be solved, but a moral fable about avoidance and the cost of refusing to grow up. In this episode of Four Play, Richard Lewis, MonteCristo, and Thorin break down why The Green Knight is less concerned with symbolism and mythology than it is with character. Gawain’s journey isn’t about heroism, it’s...
Jan 18, 2026•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 88
THE FOUNTAIN (2006) is one of the most ambitious, polarizing, and misunderstood films of the 21st century. Directed by Darren Aronofsky, the film weaves together three timelines: a conquistador’s quest for eternal life, a modern scientist racing against death, and a cosmic traveler drifting toward transcendence, which all bound by love, grief, and humanity’s refusal to accept mortality. Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/FOURPLAY and use code FOURPLAY and get $50 in lineups when you play y...
Jan 11, 2026•1 hr 50 min•Ep. 87
THE OLD MAN & THE GUN (2018) feels less like a typical crime movie and more like a gentle farewell not just to a character, but to an entire Hollywood era. Directed by David Lowery, the film stars Robert Redford as Forrest Tucker, a lifelong bank robber whose crimes are defined not by violence, but by charm, politeness, and an irresistible love of the game. As the final entry in our Robert Redford Arc, this episode explores why THE OLD MAN & THE GUN works as a perfect swan song. The film...
Dec 21, 2025•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 86
SPY GAME (2001) looks like a slick, early-2000s spy thriller, but beneath Tony Scott’s kinetic style is a surprisingly thoughtful film about loyalty, institutional cynicism, and the quiet mechanics of real espionage. Rather than gadgets or superhuman assassins, SPY GAME is about phone calls, favors, leverage, and knowing the system well enough to bend it without breaking it. Robert Redford plays Nathan Muir, a veteran CIA operative on his final day before retirement, racing against the clock to ...
Dec 14, 2025•1 hr 45 min•Ep. 85
QUIZ SHOW (1994) shouldn’t work on paper: a quiet film about a 1950s game-show scandal, congressional hearings, and a rigged trivia show with no violence, no twist ending, and no flashy hook. And yet Robert Redford turns it into one of the most compelling American dramas of the decade: a deceptively sharp story about class, ambition, performance, and the birth of mass media. Raycon audio products are up to 20% off this holiday season! Go to https://buyraycon.com/FOURPLAYOPEN to save on Raycon au...
Dec 07, 2025•1 hr 45 min•Ep. 84
Robert Redford and Paul Newman reunite for one of the greatest con-artist films ever made and one of the most purely entertaining movies Hollywood has ever produced. In the first episode of our Robert Redford Arc, Four Play dives into The Sting (1973), a film that blends slick plotting, old-school charm, and razor-sharp chemistry between two of cinema’s most charismatic stars. Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with Mando and get 20% off + free shipping with promo code FOURPLAY at shopmando.com! Visit h...
Nov 30, 2025•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 83
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of the most influential works of horror, science fiction, and gothic literature, but does Guillermo del Toro’s long-awaited 2025 adaptation succeed in its representation of the novel? In this episode of Four Play, MonteCristo, Thorin, and Richard Lewis dig into why this debate the merits of the films visuals, story, and faithfulness to the original themes. While our hosts may not enjoy the source material, the ideas behind the story could be compelling on film ...
Nov 23, 2025•2 hr 2 min•Ep. 82
Before Black Mirror, before Love, Death & Robots, there was The Twilight Zone: television’s original nightmare machine. For this special Four Play: One Night Stand episode, MonteCristo, Thorin, and Richard Lewis step into another dimension to revisit four of the most terrifying Twilight Zone stories ever made: tales of paranoia, existential dread, and cosmic irony that still haunt audiences more than sixty years later. Ready to say yes to saying no? Make the switch at https://MINTMOBILE.com/...
Nov 10, 2025•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 81
Suspiria is one of the most beautiful and unsettling horror films ever made. Dario Argento’s 1977 masterpiece drenches witchcraft in light and color, turning a simple story about a dance academy into a surreal nightmare of sound, architecture, and occult energy. In this episode, MonteCristo, Thorin, and Richard Lewis close out Four Play’s Occult Horror Arc by examining how Suspiria reshaped the language of horror cinema. From Goblin’s legendary score to Argento’s impossible lighting, they explor...
Nov 02, 2025•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 80
When a wealthy family hires shamans to exhume a cursed grave, they awaken something far older and far more dangerous than they imagined. Exhuma (파묘) blends Korean shamanism, feng shui geomancy, and postwar trauma into one of the most striking horror hits of the decade. In this episode of Four Play, MonteCristo, Thorin, and Richard Lewis explore how Exhuma became Korea’s highest-grossing film of 2024, unpack the collision of modern faith and ancient ritual, and break down how the movie’s haunting...
Oct 26, 2025•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 79
Hereditary marks the rebirth of modern horror with a story where fate, family, and madness collide under the control of unseen forces. Ari Aster’s directorial debut turns grief into tragedy and domestic life into ritual, where every characters fate is inescapable and preordained. With Toni Collette’s raw, unforgettable performance at its center, this film doesn’t ask if evil exists, it simply shows what happens when it wins. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for infor...
Oct 19, 2025•1 hr 40 min•Ep. 78
Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968) didn’t just invent occult horror: it cursed Hollywood itself. A young couple moves into New York’s Dakota building, only to find their new neighbors are part of an ancient Satanic conspiracy. What begins as domestic paranoia becomes a slow descent into psychological terror and a film that redefined horror forever. Richard Lewis, MonteCristo, and Thorin open the Four Play: Occult Horror Arc with the movie that birthed the genre, discussing Polanski’s eerie ...
Oct 12, 2025•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 77
