This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt discuss the documentary, ‘Dick Johnson Is Dead’, the first one in quite a while due to Chris’ loose ban on the genre. Does ‘Dick Johnson Is Dead’ show Chris the error of his ways? Then it’s on to Sherlock Holmes fanfic ‘Enola Holmes’, that answers the question, what if Sherlock also a younger sister with the ability to move things with her mind and fight demons from another dimension. Wait, that’s not right. There’s the exhilarating rundown of the big r...
Nov 27, 2020•44 min
This week on The First Run, it’s all aboard the Train To Busan again! This time, Chris and Matt visit what’s affectionately known as the ‘Peninsula’. Just what have those kooky zombies been up to in South Korea all this time? Then they’re tour of South Korea continues with Netflix’s #Alive. This time your trapped in your home as zombie hordes overrun your town. How will you survive? What will you eat and drink? And are you able to make any friends along the way? There’s the stunningly entertaini...
Nov 20, 2020•52 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt go apartment hunting with their pals from Netflix. First up is ‘His House’, the story of refugees from war-torn South Sudan area as they try to adapt to a new life in the U.K., while someone… or something may have followed them. If things don’t work out there, Matt and Chris head on over to LA to see what’s shaking at this ‘1BR’ in this apartment complex that’s worked hard to build a community. Really hard actually. There’s the always delightful rundown...
Nov 13, 2020•43 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt discuss Sofia Coppola’s ‘On The Rocks’, an Apple+ exclusive. Bill Murray reunites with Coppola, previously working together on the fantastic ‘Lost In Translation’. In this venture, Rashida Jones and Marlon Wayans join as a couple whose marriage is potentially dissolving. Murray plays Jones’ father and the two team up to find out of Wayans’ character has been unfaithful, while trying to work out their own family issues. Then our sorta’ Horror Anthology M...
Nov 06, 2020•51 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt catch up with their old pal Borat in ‘Borat Subsequent MovieFilm. This time, Borat is sent to America to present Trump with a gift, his daughter. Or is he…? Does lightning strike twice as we revisit a character whose last film made Chris laugh so hard he cried? Then our makeshift Horror Anthology Movie Marathon carries on with Shudder’s ‘The Mortuary Collection’. Always notoriously hit or miss, how do these tales measure up? There’s the oddly satisfying...
Oct 30, 2020•57 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt discuss Brandon Cronenberg’s ‘Possessor’. And the emotional toll it took on Chris’ soul. Brandon has an interesting take on an elite assassination team. Then our non-marathon of Horror Anthology Films continues with ‘Scare Me’. A couple of crazy kids hang out in a remote cabin after the power goes and tell each other scary stories and all the fun that entails. Until there is no fun. There’s the reliable review of the big releases on physical media, feat...
Oct 23, 2020•49 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt discuss the low budget sci-fi thriller, ‘The Vast Of Night’. It’s in the 1950’s in Cayuga, New Mexico. And something strange is afoot. Weird sounds are being captured by the local telephone operator who then enlists her deejay pal to try and figure out what’s going on… Then the Halloween festivities begin with the British horror anthology film, ‘Ghost Stories’. It’s the beginning of a month of horror anthologies, a genre that misses more than it hits. M...
Oct 16, 2020•43 min
This week on The First Run… listen. Matt and I love horror anthologies. And Shudder premiered Glenn Danzig’s anthology, ‘Verotika’ awhile back. We’ve heard…things and decided we needed to check it out for ourselves. The film features three tales of terror, loosely linked by…hell, we don’t know. Then our Neo-Noir Marathon wraps with 1974’s ‘Chinatown’. Jack Nicholson plays the hard-boiled detective stuck in the middle of a governmental corruption scheme, as well as some truly horrifying family ma...
Oct 09, 2020•54 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt head out west for Kelly Reichardt’s latest film, ‘First Cow’. A simple story about companionship against the harsh world of national expansion in the early 1800’s. Then the Neo-Noir Marathon continues with its penultimate film, ‘Phoenix’. The German film tells the story of a concentration camp survivor desperate to reunite with the man that may have betrayed her to the Nazi’s. It’s a dramatic thriller with stunning stakes and an ending you won’t soon fo...
Oct 02, 2020•40 min
This week on The First Run, we’re discussing the Netflix original, ‘The Devil All The Time’, featuring an all-star cast of Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Haley Bennet, Riley Keough, Mia Wasikowska, Bill Skarsgård, and more! Does this rural thriller about intertwining lives linked by disaster and violence live up to its epic aspirations? Then our Neo-Noir Marathon continues with Park Chan-wook’s ‘The Handmaiden’, a story of love and betrayal in Japanese occupied Korea. With a career of truly stun...
Sep 25, 2020•47 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt embark on a double feature centering around loss. So prepare for some good times! First up, Charlie Kaufman of ‘Being John Malkovich’, ‘Adaptation’, ‘Synecdoche, New York’, returns with the Netflix original, ‘I’m Thinking Of Ending Things’. A film that confounds and…entertains…? Then our Neo-Noir Marathon continues with Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of ‘The Executioners’, or more precisely, a remake of J. Lee Thompson’s original version from 1962. Does S...
Sep 18, 2020•52 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt make a potentially catastrophic decision to go back to the theaters and watch Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’. Nolan’s not quite time travel, sci-fi spy film is finally here after numerous delays due to Covid and his potentially reckless insistence that it be released in theaters. Granted our hosts did both go see it. So was it worth Matt and Chris potentially risking their lives? (Of course not.). But was it good? Then the Neo-Noir Marathon kicks off with ...
Sep 11, 2020•49 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt are joined by the Crooked Table podcast’s Robert Yaniz Jr. and catch up with old friends with the return of Bill S. Preston, Esquire and Ted ‘Theodore’ Logan in ‘Bill & Ted Face The Music’. It’s been almost 30 years since we last saw our intrepid heroes. Have the finally united the universe in song? Then it’s on to a film many thought would never be released…and after all of this, should it have been? That’s right, it’s the long-delayed ‘The New Mut...
Sep 04, 2020•1 hr 19 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt travel back in time in preparation of next week’s ‘Bill and Ted Face The Music’ episode and accidently end up in Soviet Kazakhstan in 1983. Turns out a couple of cosmonauts crash landed there with a third, unidentified passenger and things are NOT going well. We’re discussing the Russian import, ‘Sputnik’. Then it’s quantum leap 2019 as Julia Garner portrays Jane. An assistant at a film production company dreaming of being a producer. Unfortunately, the...
Aug 28, 2020•59 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt take a little time for themselves, kick back, and head to ‘The Beach House’. But what fresh horror awaits them there from the dark depths of the ocean? Then it’s on to ‘Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga’. Will Farrell and Rachel McAdams play an Icelandic musical duo that finally have their big chance to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. Will hilarity ensue? There’s the always sometimes entertaining review of the big releases on p...
Aug 21, 2020•51 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt decide to take it easy and watch the latest time loop comedy, ‘Palm Springs’. If any genre of comedy is in danger of repeating itself… Is ‘Palm Springs’ able to provide a fresh take, or are we stuck with the same repetitive jokes? Then the International Sci-Fi Marathon wraps with the Japanese import, ‘Big Man Japan’. With the most unsettling kaiju we’ve seen, does this mockumentary deliver the thrills and the laughs? The show rolls on with the big relea...
Aug 14, 2020•49 min
This week on The First Run, it’s not quite a clip show! Matt has been stuck with no power and no way to record, so Chris brings you a treat! A while back before everything went to hell, he guested on the ScreenFix podcast, featuring frequent TFR guests The Lady Wan and JC ! So we’re bringing you the super special discussion of Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker. Because you can never get enough Star Wars talk! ScreenFix is a great show where they discuss a film and then share how to improve it. Ba...
Aug 07, 2020•1 hr 28 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt review the Netflix original, ‘The Old Guard’, starring Charlize Theron. What happens when you get a group of nigh immortal folks together? Well, you fight bad guys of course! So does Netflix have a brand spanking new franchise on its hands? Then the International Sci-Fi Marathon continues with the Spanish import, ‘Timecrimes’. What possible trouble could you get into if you were able to travel back in time 90 minutes? Apparently a lot. There’s the regul...
Jul 31, 2020•57 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt discuss the Tom Hanks vehicle, ‘Greyhound’. Hanks plays a destroyer captain navigating potential Nazi submarine infested waters as he and his crew attempt to escort supply ships to the Allies during World War II. Then the international science fiction marathon continues with our second Tarkovsky film, ‘Solaris’. A widowed psychologist ventures to a space station orbiting an ocean world to strange goings on and deteriorating mental health of the skeleton...
Jul 24, 2020•52 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt discuss the dementia-based horror film, ‘Relic’. Emily Mortimer stars as a woman dealing with her mother’s dementia, and the impact it has on her and her own daughter. Oh, and there’s something super creepy happening too! The International Sci-Fi Marathon continues with the German miniseries, ‘World On A Wire’. A film that answers the question: “What if we’re all just part of a computer program, man…?!?”. But in German. And long. Then there’s the venera...
Jul 17, 2020•51 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt watch Kevin James transform into a very fine person, as a he and a few of his other very fine people assault a family struggling with recent lost. But what they didn’t count on, was the young lady with some serious issues. Then the International Science Fiction Film-athon begins with Tarkovsky’s ‘Stalker’. What would you do if there was a place that granted her deepest desire? Would you just talk about it for what appeared to be forever? There’s the rel...
Jul 10, 2020•54 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt discuss the recent box office leader for weeks, ‘The Wretched’. What happens when a forest witch sneaks into town in the carcass of a hunted deer? Nothing good, let me tell you. Then acclaimed director Zhang Yimou returns with the martial arts adjacent political thriller, ‘Shadow’. Can a film this gorgeous have too dense a narrative? There’s the terribly exciting rundown of the big releases on physical media featuring the Streaming and Straight to DVD P...
Jul 03, 2020•57 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt are joined by David Rosen of the Piecing It Together podcast to discuss Spike Lee’s latest, ‘Da 5 Bloods’, featuring Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Jonathan Majors feature in a tale of five war buddies that venture back to Vietnam to recover their fallen friend’s body, and millions of dollars’ worth of hidden gold. And everything that can go wrong. Then, it’s on to ‘Extraction’. Chris Hemsworth plays Tyler Rake (seriously), an extraction expert hired to r...
Jun 26, 2020•1 hr 2 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt are joined by The Film Bee herself, Bee Garner of the In Their Own League network for our first international episode! First up is Eliza Hitmann’s ‘Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always’ starring Sidney Flanagan as a young woman navigating numerous infuriating, scary, and sad obstacles in her attempt to obtain an abortion. One of Chris’ most anticipated films of 2020 is finally here. Does the indie drama live up to its expectations, or is it a heavy-handed m...
Jun 19, 2020•1 hr 8 min
This week on The First Run, it’s a double bill of law enforcement misanthropy as Chris and Matt discuss Destin Daniel Cretton’s Just Mercy, featuring Michael B Jordan, Jamie Foxx, and Brie Larson. The director of this show’s much adored ‘Short Term 12’ returns with a film based on the true-life story of Bryan Stevenson. After delivering what may be a perfect sophomore effort, how do things fare this time out with a film practically made this this moment? Then our sadly topical show continues wit...
Jun 12, 2020•52 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt discuss Josh Trank’s Capone. Tom Hardy plays the infamous gangster in the final year of his life. Trank has a well-received debut with the found-footage super-hero thriller ‘Chronicle’. Then his Fantastic Four reboot ran into production issues, studio interference, and ultimately poor performance and reception. ‘Capone’ is Trank’s first film since that debacle. With total creative control, are we finally able to enjoy his true cinematic vision? Then our...
Jun 05, 2020•57 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt discuss Terrence Malick’s latest film, ‘A Hidden Life’. Based on the true story of an Austrian peasant farmer who refuses to swear an oath of loyalty Hitler and the Nazi party and its ultimate impact to him and his family. Malick has been criticized for what could be called a meander pace and just a dusting of self-indulgence. But when you’re one of the few directors that live up to the term auteur, does that matter? Then the 80’s Sex Comedy marathon co...
May 29, 2020•1 hr 7 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt discuss the latest from director Joe Begos, ‘VFW’. After recently discussing his prior film ‘Bliss’, a horror film about drug enhanced vampirism that we found, okay. So how does this Fangoria produced entry about a group of veterans fending off an attack by a drug dealer’s crew in a collapsing society. Does Begos out Carpenter John Carpenter? Then our 80’s Sex Comedy Marathon continues with the Porky’s inspired Canadian import, ‘Screwballs’. A bit more ...
May 22, 2020•54 min
This week on The First Run, Chris and Matt check in on one of their favorite, crazy sumbitch directors, Takashi Miike with his latest, ‘First Love’. What’s the craziest story of two young people falling in love? I assure you it’s not as crazy as this. Then our Raunchy 80’s Comedy Marathon continues with America’s sweetheart, Adrian Zmed. And also Tom Hanks. There’s the regularly entertaining rundown of the big physical media releases, featuring the Straight to DVD and Streaming Picks of the Week...
May 15, 2020•50 min
The week on The First Run, Chris and Matt discuss Elijah Wood’s latest offbeat picture, ‘Come To Daddy’. As a man with severe daddy issues (I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT! – Chris), ‘Come To Daddy’ sounds just like the film to stir up uncomfortable issues. But does director Ant Timpson balance the comedy and horror genres that always so hard to manage? Then the raunchy 80’s comedy marathon begins with ‘Porky’s’. Matt and Chris have regretted setting this one up since they thought of it. Can it po...
May 08, 2020•52 min
