This Oscar Race Checkpoint talks about the Academy’s New Invitees, the James Bond Franchises’ next director and casting rumors, upcoming TIFF World Premieres + release updates for potential contenders, and there’s some initial reactions to F1 and M3GAN 2.0 in a Box Office Report. ACADEMY NEWS: New Academy Members & Board of Governors - 1:33 007 NEWS - A Deep Dive into all the News & Casting Rumors: Denis Villeneuve hired as the next director of Bond 26 + Writer Possibilities - 6:38 Casti...
Jul 02, 2025•1 hr 8 min
This is our film study on Superman from 1978 starring Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder and Marlon Brando. We invent some fun segments for this retrospective, and we end with some speculation on the upcoming James Gunn film. SUPERMAN (1978) RETROSPECTIVE: NON-SPOILER REVIEW The Production Story - 3:11 Reading the Plot/Premise as a 1940’s Newsman - 8:26 The Marlon Brando Award for Most Monologuing - 9:30 The Director, Richard Donner + Non-Spoiler Script Thoughts - 14:27 Finding the R...
Jun 27, 2025•1 hr 8 min
We did it! Tom Cruise is getting an honorary Oscar alongside Dolly Parton, Debbie Allan, & Wynn Thomas at the Governors Awards. Plus, we talk Venice Bound Films, AI Rules, great trailers for Springsteen, IKWYDLS & Spaceballs 2 +++ reviews for 28 Years Later, How To Train Your Dragon, and Elio. NEWS: Governors Awards Recipients Announced for Tom Cruise & Dolly Parton - 1:14 Jafar Panahi calls for end to Iran/Israel Conflict - 6:18 MPSE Golden Reel Awards bans AI Noms - 11:50 Blumhouse...
Jun 23, 2025•1 hr 17 min
Hard Eight is a gambler’s gambling movie, a riveting neo-noir and the first episode in our PTA rewatch series, Boogie Mikes. Hard Eight stars John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson and Philip Baker Hall, and it premiered at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival from director Paul Thomas Anderson. NON-SPOILER FILM STUDY OF HARD EIGHT: PTA Bio + Movie Intro - 1:58 Expectations, Historical Significance & Non-Spoiler Story Thoughts - 10:37 Review of the Performances - 13:32 Review of the Pro...
Jun 20, 2025•1 hr 2 min
This Oscar Race Checkpoint includes Tribeca stories, takes on the Tonys & WB news + Reviews of Materialists, Ballerina, Final Destination & Phoenician Schemes & Trailers for Lost Bus, Eddington, Oh Hi & The Naked Gun. TRIBECA STORIES: Corner Bistro and the Burger People - 1:28 Josh Gad in A Tree Fell in the Woods - 4:16 Hal & Harper + Smashed - 6:32 Trouble en route to Gotham Burger Social Club, Minetta Tavern + Down the Hatch - 9:55 Gonzo Girl from Patricia Arquette, Camilla...
Jun 17, 2025•1 hr 7 min
What Is This Episode - Top of Show Introducing The Duke of Bettingham David Long! . SUMMER OSCAR BETS, PART II: Explaining Odds in Gambling (featuring Kalshi Odds) - 4:05 . Lead Actor: Who The Duke Claims Offers the Best ROI- 7:40 Lead Actress: A Conversation of Many “No” Bets - 20:06 Supp Actor: The First Lines of the Season - 28:24 Supp Actress: Maybe the Most Wide Open Category - 37:36 Director: A Universally Agreed to Nom, and Then… - 45:02 . Documenatry Feature: Or Where Dave and Mike Threa...
Jun 15, 2025•1 hr 2 min
What Is This Episode - Top of Show Introducing The Duke of Bettingham David Long! . SUMMER BEST PICTURE BETS: Explaining Odds in Gambling - 5:01 . After the Hunt, Sentimental Value - 8:51 Hamnet, Marty Supreme, Small Player - 18:29 Avatar 3, Highest to Lowest, Sinners - 29:00 Frankenstein, The Lost Bus, One Battle, Life of Chuck, Sorry Baby - 35:23 . Bugonia, Pressure - 44:40 BBB Journey, Springsteen, Smashing Machine - 48:00 Die My Love, Roofman, Wicked 2 - 52:24 Anemone, History of Sound, F1, ...
Jun 11, 2025•1 hr 21 min
We dive deep into analysis of new Oscar Contender Trailers like Wicked: For Good, Frankenstein, Wake Up Dead Man, Kiss of the Spider Woman, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey & more. Plus, we review The Life of Chuck, Dangerous Animals, Mountainhead, Karate Kid: Legends & lots more as well. TRAILER REVIEWS: Wicked: For Good - 2:00 Frankenstein - 8:22 Wake Up, Dead Man - 15:39 Happy Gilmore 2 - 19:27 The Black Phone 2 (SPOILERS FOR BLACK PHONE 1) - 25:06 Kiss of the Spider Woman - 28:13 A Big B...
Jun 06, 2025•1 hr 29 min
There’s Cannes Fallout, a new Box Office queen & king with Lilo & Stitch, plus major MCU news with the delay of Avengers: Doomsday. Plus, we review Friendship, The Rehearsal, Bring Her Back, Until Dawn, The Studio, new docs and many new trailers in this Oscar Race Checkpoint. CANNES FALLOUT: Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident Palme sparks international incident - 2:25 Netflix buys Nouvelle Vague, a Bono Doc Review + the full Acquisitions Tally - 7:52 FUTURE MOVIE NEWS: Avengers: Doom...
May 30, 2025•1 hr 22 min
It’s our 3rd episode on the 2025 Cannes Film Festival as we discuss award winners like It Was Just An Accident and Sentimental Value. Plus, we enjoy awards talk on Highest 2 Lowest, The History of Sound, etc. CANNES FILM FESTIVAL COVERAGE PART III: Palme D’or Winner - It Was Just An Accident - 1:47 Sentimental Value gets a 19? Minute Standing Ovation - 8:06 Recapping other winners like The Secret Agent - 16:30 The Young Mother’s Home wins Best Screenplay for the Dardenne Bros - 18:15 Resurrectio...
May 26, 2025•58 min
What Is This Episode - Top of Show “IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT” WINS THE PALME D’OR . MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING: OSCARS PROFILE: . Spoiler-Free Review: Scores, Box Office, and the Cruise-ness of It All - 3:21 Why Paramount Doesn’t Need This to Break the Bank - 12:13 Script Thoughts - 14:18 Chaotic, Boring, Mishandled…Amazing - 19:00 . Tom Cruise - 21:42 Ensemble - 24:34 Production Values - 26:55 . SPOILER WARNING - 30:12 . Spoiler-Filled Review: The Mike1 School of Film Marketing - 31...
May 25, 2025•1 hr
It’s part II of our Cannes Film Festival coverage, and we have a lot of passionate thoughts. You get our reviewing the reviewing, and we keep you up to date on those ovations. Plus, we discuss a half dozen trailers and review a batch of new movies while we’re at it. CANNES PART DEUX: Reviewing the Reviewers Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme - 1:24 Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague - 7:41 Lynn Ramsay’s Die, My Love - 17:37 Ari Aster’s Eddington - 23:49 The Secret Agent starring Wagner Moura -...
May 20, 2025•1 hr 18 min
What is This Episode? - Top of Show . CANNES IS UNDERWAY: DeNiro Hints at Trump Tariff Unrest - 2:24 Mission Impossible Meh - 11:23 . A “Febrile” Reviewing the Reviewers of the In Competition Films - 16:24 The Best Review of 2025, and What’s with These Pushes? - 28:11 . GOLDEN GLOBES ADD BEST PODCAST - 38:23 . CONTENDER TRAILERS: The Smashing Machine - 45:47 Weapons - 49:51 Highest 2 Lowest Teaser - 54:31 F1 - 57:44 Materialists - 59:28 Superman Trailer #8000 - 1:01:50 Conjuring Last Rites - 1:0...
May 17, 2025•1 hr 14 min
It’s the second half of our 100% Accurate Way Too Early Oscars Predictions for 2025/26. In this episode, we discuss the Supportings, Casting, Director, Picture and 12 categories in all! Cinematography - 2:16 Film Editing - 5:07 Animated 9:38 International - 13:09 Documentary - 17:51 Costume Design - 20:24 Production Design - 23:24 Supporting Actor - 29:00 Supporting Actress - 37:24 Casting - 41:17 Director - 45:00 Picture - 52:00 OUTRO - Go back and enjoy our entire Oscars Year In Preview Series...
May 13, 2025•1 hr 2 min
It’s Part One of our Way Too Early 2025-26 Oscars Predictions Special, or Guarantees Special as we should have called it. Screenplays, VFX, Sound, Score, Song, the Shorts, yes - The Shorts, Make-up & Hairstyling, plus Lead Actor and Actress are all discussed. Original Screenplay reveals films where we’re heavy + where Vegas leans - 3:07 Adapted Screenplay includes former winners, noms + a UFC champ - 11:37 VFX w/ Avatar & F1 + sentimental favorites & trailers that look good to us - 1...
May 10, 2025•59 min
We very much enjoyed Thunderbolts*, and here’s our full film study review treatment. Non-spoilers begins with big discussions on the MCU and its box office trends, and as always, we build to an Oscars Lens. Then we go beat by beat and discuss the plot in the spoiler filled second half. NON-SPOILER REVIEW SECTION: A big discussion of the recent phases of the MCU and their box office - 2:08 The Reception is very strong thus far - 9:01 Our different MCU intakes of late - 11:50 The Marvel Mental Hea...
May 05, 2025•1 hr 9 min
What Is This Episode - Top of Show . SINNERS OSCARS PROFILE: . Spoiler-Free Review: Historic Box Office/Review Scores and WB Redemption - 2:06 Coogler’s “Studio Ruining” Deal - 11:52 The Fumbling of Marketing Black Helmed Films Internationally - 15:00 Expectations/What is an Oscars Movie? - 18:43 . Michael B Jordan - 23:11 Casting/Supporting Performances - 25:37 Ludwig Göransson and Music - 28:06 Cinematography/Prod Design/Costume/MUAH/VFX - 29:50 How Many Noms? - 35:14 . SPOILER WARNING - 40:46...
May 02, 2025•1 hr 19 min
What is This Episode? - Top of Show Mike1 Almost Died . NEW RULES FOR ACADEMY VOTING: New “Must Watch” Rule - 4:00 Academy Widows Can Go to Screenings - 12:08 Casting Gets a “Bake-Off” Shortlist - 14:13 The “Diane Warren” Rule - 18:07 PGA Deadlines Moved - 22:15 AI Finally Gets Rules That Aren’t Rules - 23:55 Oscars/Awards Schedule Finalized - 27:27 . MIKE1’S TAKE ON THE STUNTS OSCAR - 30:42 BARGATZE TO HOST EMMYS, JLO TO HOST AMAs - 33:10 . FESTIVAL NEWS/FUTURE MOVIE NEWS: Cannes Adds More Pote...
Apr 25, 2025•1 hr 23 min
April’s box office bounce back is driven by A Minecraft Movie, and creatively, we have seen an upswing in the quality of 2025 films as well with Sinners, The Ballad of Wallis Island, Warfare, etc. In fact, AlsoMike delivers a baker’s dozen of new movie reviews in this episode. 3:10 - A Minecraft Movie: discussing the blockbuster box office, social media frenzy, and history of video game adaptations. 23:41 - Hell of a Summer: discussing the benefit of a smaller budget by NEON here for Finn Wolfha...
Apr 18, 2025•1 hr 9 min
Christina Jeurling Birro of the outstanding podcast, Pop Culture Confidential joins us to discuss the Cannes Film Festival and the films announced in the lineup for its 78th edition. Plus, we happily begin with some talk about the new Oscars Category… Stunts! Finally, we are getting a Stunts Design Academy Award - 2:09 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL COVERAGE Christina’s history attending & covering the Cannes Film Festival - 4:13 Eating on the run & the tight festival schedule - 6:51 What’s the de...
Apr 12, 2025•56 min
From A24 through Warner Bros, we go studio by film studio and discuss their known film slates and focus on the undated films that could vie for Film Festival love. A24: Eddington, Highest 2 Lowest, The Entertainment System Is Down, etc - 2:21 Amazon/MGM: After the Hunt, Madden, Hedda - 16:12 Apple Original Films: The Lost Bus, F1 - 18:11 Bleecker Street & Briarcliff: The Wedding Banquet, Sneaks, etc - 20:26 Disney: Deliver Me From Nowhere, The Roses, Is This Thing On? Etc - 21:38 Greenwich E...
Apr 06, 2025•1 hr 22 min
With Cinemacon in the rearview, we look ahead at the Fall & Winter Film Release Calendar and discuss the Oscars chances for all of the major films. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood 2 - 1:03 September’s A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, One Battle After Another, etc - 7:41 October’s The Smashing Machine, After The Hunt, Good Fortune, etc - 18:04 November’s Bugonia, Wicked: For Good, Zootopia 2, etc - 32:01 December’s Avatar: Fire & Ash, Marty Supreme, The Housemaid, etc - 39:15 OUTRO - We discus...
Apr 05, 2025•52 min
It’s a spring news catch-up episode! Conan & Nikki return as show hosts, Will Smith raps about the slap, and the Academy apologizes for their statement re: Hamdan Ballal. Plus, we dive into lots of Emmys, Sundance, studio shake-ups, and early takeaways from Cinemacon. Otherwise, sorry… the Once Upon A Time In Hollywood news dropped after we stopped recording on Tuesday night. So that’ll be discussed next episode. ACADEMY NEWS: Conan O’Brien returns as host for the 98th Oscars - 1:30 Will Smi...
Apr 02, 2025•1 hr 11 min
Mike1 returns to break down the Spring & Summer release calendar as we speculate which films could have Oscar chances, which films could have a chance to be hits for their studios, and which films the Mikes will enjoy watching most/least. Recent Oscar Noms from the Spring & Summer - 1:57 THE SPRING & SUMMER FILM CALENDAR: March Meltdown at the Box Office and a Death of a Unicorn Review - 4:22 April’s Warfare, Sinners & The Wedding Banquet give us hope - 7:48 May enters some marqu...
Mar 29, 2025•1 hr 17 min
Andrew Morgan of Recent Activity & What’s On Netflix returns to MMO for this Best (& Worst) of the 2025 Film Year Special Episode. We begin with how we handled our Oscars Hangovers, and then dive into some preliminary talk about how critics got onto their high horses after watching The Electric State. NOTE: All reviews in this episode will be spoiler free, only getting into some plot premise information. . OUR TOP 10 BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR THUS FAR: 10’s: Good parenting by Andrew & a...
Mar 20, 2025•1 hr 34 min
Izzy of Be Kind Rewind returns to MMO to give her Oscars thoughts and, most importantly, take Mike1 to school! Be Kind Rewind Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@bkrewind Be Kind Rewind Patreon https://www.patreon.com/c/bkrewind/posts Mike, Mike, and Oscar Linktree https://linktr.ee/mikemikeandoscar
Mar 11, 2025•1 hr 5 min
Variety's Chief Awards Editor Clayton Davis rejoins MMO to put a final bow on Oscars 2025...and cast the Awards Circuit Off-Broadway Conclave Play?! ***Spoiler Warning for Conclave at the end during the final question*** Make sure to check out Clayton's work at Variety! https://variety.com/author/clayton-davis/ https://variety.com/t/awards-circuit-podcast/
Mar 05, 2025•1 hr 15 min
What Is This Episode - Top of Show . OSCARS 2025 RECAP EPISODE: Red Carpet Fashion Takes From 2 UnFashionable Mikes - 1:53 Pros/Cons of the Broadcast - 7:53 . Show Open/Conan’s Monologue - 15:46 Culkin Finishes His Supporting Actor Sweep - 20:51 Video Packages for BP Noms - 23:04 Flow Upsets in Animated Feature - 24:12 A 50:1 Winner in Animated Short!!! - 27:12 . Paul Tazewell Makes Costume Design History - 28:55 Catholics vs Convicts Foreshadowed After Screenplay, MUAH wins - 31:22 The Bond Tri...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 26 min
What Is This Episode - Top of Show WELCOME THE DUKE, DAVID LONG! . OSCARS PREDICTION + GAMBLING PREVIEW SHOW: Explaining Odds + Welcoming Our Sponsor: Kalshi! - 2:02 . Sign Up kalshi.com/mmo and bet on the Oscars! . Best Picture: Anora v Conclave - Literally, Place Your Bets - 8:47 (Predictions - 22:43) Director: DGA All The Way? - 28:18 . Lead Actress: Odds + Any Love For Fernanda? - 33:36 Mikey vs Demi. Demi vs Mikey…And Glenn?! - 35:37 Predictions - 46:48 . Lead Actor: But You Can’t REALLY Pi...
Feb 27, 2025•2 hr 44 min
What Is This Episode - Top of Show WELCOME SCOTT FEINBERG OF THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER! https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/author/scott-feinberg/ . THE FEINBERG FINAL W/ SCOTT FEINBERG!: Who’s Scott’s Best Picture Winner? - 3:11 How Scott Forecasts in Feinberg + The Role of SAG This Year - 10:40 So Lead Actress Will Be…?? - 16:40 . What Happened at DGA, and The Brutalist’s Burden - 20:43 Why This Year’s Ratings Will Dive - 24:40 . How Netflix Didn’t Guard Against The Emilia Perez Debacle - 27:08 And...
Feb 22, 2025•1 hr 7 min
