The Flop House is a comedy podcast devoted to the worst in recent film. Your hosts (Elliott Kalan, Dan McCoy, and Stuart Wellington) watch a questionable film, then engage in an unscripted discussion about the movie's shortcomings and occasional delights, while never being afraid of a pointless, silly digression or two hundred.
What's the deal with Netflix's The Electric State ? Well, for one thing we know that IT'S ELECTRIC... boogie woogie woogie. But also, it's a movie arguing for the primacy of real-life connection that feels utterly algorithmically designed, what with its Chris Pratts and Millies Bobby Brown and cute robot pals, and it cost... $320 million?? That can't be right. There must be a smudge on these accounting sheets. Anyway, we talk about it! Wikipedia page for The Electric State Recommended in this ep...
Elliott puts on his greasy overalls to look under the filmic hood, as we figure out what makes a good "robot movie," ask why Heartbeeps was a bad one, and see if we can pull out the robot defibrillator to restore its cinematic heartbeep. Subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, “Flop Secrets !” Go to Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch, go to www.squarespace.com/FLOP to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain....
We tie a bow around Max Fun Drive 2025 and our “Movies Without Spider-Man” series with (?) Paul Schrader's (?) magnum opus, Heartbeeps . It's the classic tale of a guy robot and a girl robot in love and also there's a bad stand-up comic robot and a mean cop robot and a baby robot and Andy Kaufman does one of the world's most irritating voices and what the fuck is this thing? Wikipedia page for Heartbeeps Recommended in this episode: Dan: Black Bag (2025) Stu: Rap World (2024) Elliott: The Comic ...
“Movies Without Spider-Man” Max Fun drive continues (please consider supporting our show !) with the thrilling (?) conclusion (??) of the Venom saga -- Venom: The Last Dance, the touching story of a boy and the black sentient goo he wears on his body that sometimes eats people's heads. There's one more week of Max Fun Drive — check out our event calendar ! Wikipedia page for Venom: The Last Dance Recommended in this episode: Dan: Windy Day (1967) Stuart: One of Them Days (2025) Elliott: The Empe...
Dan reveals a WEIRD and possibly EXTREMELY COMPLEX FOR HIM TO PUT TOGETHER stretch goal for this year's Max Fun Drive! Become a supporting member of Maximum Fun and help keep our show going and independent by visiting maximumfun.org/join today!
Here's a little taste of what's awaiting Max Fun members in the member bonus feed -- an all-new roleplaying adventure from gamemaster Stuart! In this edition, Dan, Elliott, and fan favorite guest Zhubin Parang play beachfront restaurant staff, on the first night of summer, trying to make it through a busy shift... but CHAOS is on the menu! If you'd like to listen to this, a whole heck of a lot of other bonus content from all the Max Fun shows, and (most importantly) support independent, artist-o...
It’s not MaxFunDrive without a wild kickoff spectacular! Former real-life VJ and host of MTV's Spring Break 1999, Dave Holmes, takes your favorite MaxFun hosts through some wacky ‘90s- and Spring Break-themed mini games!! Featuring: Dave Holmes, Jeremy Bent, Oscar Montoya, Dimitry Pompée, Tom Lum, Ellen Weatherford, Alex Schmidt, Brenda Snell, Drea Clark, Alonso Duralde, Dan McCoy, Jordan Morris, Manolo Moreno, Ella Hubber, Caroline Roper, Ella McLeod, John-Luke Roberts, Justin McElroy, Clint Mc...
We start out our special "Films Without Spider-Man" theme month (in honor of Max Fun Drive -- please consider supporting our show !) with one of the more ostentatiously-Spider-Man-free films of last year: Kraven the Hunter . C'mon, Kraven, we KNOW you guys know one another--remember that last hunt? Just swallow your pride and phone Spidey to drop by! We're cravin' it! We're doing a ton of extra stuff for Max Fun Drive this year -- check out our event calendar ! Wikipedia page for Kraven the Hunt...
We welcome one of the godfathers of bad movie culture, Harry Medved, of the seminal books "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time" and " The Golden Turkey Awards ," and discuss his PBS show "Locationland" where he and comedian Dana Gould visited the filming sites for Plan 9 From Outer Space ! And we also spend a little time talking to Locationland producer Harry Pallenberg about his father's work with John Boorman on Exorcist II: The Heretic (the Golden Turkeys' pick for #2 worst movie of all time) a...
Wow! The first new Star Trek movie in eight years! What's that you say? Oh. TV movie? And it's less a "movie" and more a "we were going to develop a new series and that fell through so we made it a one-off, 90 minute thing?" Huh. Well, Star Trek: Section 31 may not be a "movie" in the same way we've used that word for most of its existence, but it was still a good excuse to hang out with our friends Adam and Ben from Max Fun's terrific Trek shows Greatest Gen and Greatest Trek , so every cosmic ...
The Goofmaster returns to quiz Stuart and Elliott about some IMDb "Goofs" from 1980's movies that didn't live up to the standards of viewers with enough free time to log movie goofs on IMDb. There’s been SO MUCH DEMAND for FlopTV that — you know what? — we’re going to leave episodes up for an extra two weeks, so that late buyers can still have the time to check out the shows (and that means one last chance to snag some tickets )! Just be sure to watch before MIDNIGHT (eastern time) on March 19! ...
A lot of stuff happened... HERE . Well. Not that much stuff, actually. Like, six couples lived here. Most of them were pretty boring. But at one point there were dinosaurs! That's pretty cool, right? Anyway, enjoy our discussion of the latest installment in Robert Zemeckis's inexplicable slide from "can do no wrong" to "can do ... wrong!" There’s been SO MUCH DEMAND for FlopTV that — you know what? — we’re going to leave episodes up for an extra two weeks, so that late buyers can still have the ...
The Flop House crew brainstorms ideas to revitalize Universal's Dark Universe, discussing potential plots, necessary scenes, and modern takes on classic monsters like Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein's monster, Gill-man, Invisible Man, and Dr. Jekyll. They also explore crossover opportunities with other Universal franchises and merchandise tie-ins.
Harold and the Purple Crayon is a lovely, enduring children's classic (if you've never encountered it, have Steve Buscemi read it to you !) -- did Hollywood treat it with gentleness and respect, when they decided to use it as the jumping-off point for the movie " Harold and the Purple Crayon ?" The answer may not surprise you! The LIVE tapings of season 2 of FlopTV end TONIGHT with TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze ! But a season pass gets out access to the full line-up thru the end of February ! ...
Elliott completes a loose trilogy of minisodes -- one per Peach -- all about the changing of the year. His take? What New Year's resolution would you make on behalf of various franchises? The final episode of season 2 of FlopTV debuts in one week, but your ticket gets you access thru February! Full line-up/tickets here ! And while you’re clicking on stuff, subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, “Flop Secrets !”...
For our first full episode recorded and released in 2025, we wanted to start things off with a bang, so we watched the sequel to a love-it-or-hate-it film, except this time around most non-John Waters/Quentin Tarantino folks seemed to just hate it. That's right, it's the further adventures of that notorious clown prince of stair dancing, the Jokester, in... Joker: Folie à Deux , the film that got the lowest Cinemascore EVER for a "superhero movie." What will WE make of it? The two LA fire-relate...
Dan looks forward to the year ahead, and asks the rest of the Flop House gang which of 2025's cinematic offerings float their cineaste boats. We’re in season 2 of FlopTV! Tune in for individual episodes, or get a price break with a season pass! Full line-up/tickets here ! And while you’re clicking on stuff, subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, “Flop Secrets !”
As we all recover from our New Year's hangovers, enjoy this, the second of our two live shows from last May's "Saint Audio Podcast Festival" in Oxford, England. We discuss Spice World , a film we also had the privilege of introducing at The Ultimate Picture Palace , for a screening the evening before, and -- honestly? The movie was a total blast. We hope you have fun listening to the love fest. We’re in season 2 of FlopTV! Pop in for individual episodes, or get a price break with a season pass! ...
As New Year's approaches, and we say goodbye to 2024, Stuart takes us on a gamified tour through the year in movies. We’re in season 2 of FlopTV! Tune in for individual episodes, or get a price break with a season pass! Full line-up/tickets here ! And while you’re clicking on stuff, subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, “Flop Secrets !”
We discuss Borderlands , a video game movie that got delayed for several years, with extensive reshoots where an uncredited director took over for Eli Roth -- but it's probably okay, right? It's not like that sentence has at least five red flags in it... We’re in season 2 of FlopTV! Pop in for individual episodes, or get a price break with a season pass! Peruse the full line-up and/or get tickets here ! And hey, while you’re clicking on stuff, why not subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, “Flop Secrets ?...
Though we've done our best to not let it disrupt the show, Elliott's a busy bee these days and had to sit this one out, so Dan took the rare opportunity of being able to finish his sentences to get to know his old pal Stuart a little better... but with a film-related twist. We’re in season 2 of FlopTV! Tune in for individual episodes, or get a price break with a season pass! Full line-up/tickets here ! And while you’re clicking on stuff, subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, “Flop Secrets !” Save on the ...
Welcome to a brand new, bite-sized game show from SmartLess Media: this is ClueLess, where every episode contains a different main game and cliffhanger puzzle, and every episode this season also contains Sean Hayes! Host Elliott Kalan (Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, The Flop House) will lead Sean and a rotating guest through each episode's conundrum, from anagrams to pop culture math puzzles to singing robots and more! New episodes every Monday and Thursday, follo...
We took a short break around Thanksgiving, which means YOU finally get to hear one of our LIVE episodes from Oxford's inaugural Saint Audio Podcast Festival ! We were extremely excited to finally do a show in the UK and see some listeners from across the pond, and -- because we were in England -- we HAD to talk about 1998's The Avengers (aka "the non-Marvel-one), a legendary mega-flop and a despoiling of a beloved British TV series. Note: We performed in Oxford's Town Hall, which was an absolute...
The thrilling conclusion of our definitive action hero rankings, as determined by Stuart's totally scientific, non-bullshit method! We’re in season 2 of FlopTV! Tune in for individual episodes, or get a price break with a season pass! Full line-up/tickets here ! And while you’re clicking on stuff, subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, “Flop Secrets !” For a limited time, visit AuraFrames.com and get $45 off Aura’s best-selling Carver Mat frames by using promo code FLOP at checkout. Head to factormeals.co...
"But Trap wasn't a flop!" you scream to the heavens. "Neither financially, nor critically!" you wail, desperately. "It made 83 million on a 30 million budget! And it got a mixed, but not- awful 52 on Metacritic!" But the uncaring Gods of Flop offer no comfort. Because whatever your personal feelings, Trap has inspired STRONG OPINIONS, and besides, when you have a great guest like Linda Holmes , you surrender to the whims of the floppiverse. We’re in season 2 of FlopTV! Pop in for individual epis...
Stuart uses the scientific and not-at-all random method that he perfected in his rankings of horror movie villains to help us determine the ultimate movie action hero. We’re in season 2 of FlopTV! Tune in for individual episodes, or get a price break with a season pass! Full line-up/tickets here ! And while you’re clicking on stuff, subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, “Flop Secrets !” For a limited time, visit AuraFrames.com and get $45 off Aura’s best-selling Carver Mat frames by using promo code FLOP...
You KNEW this episode was coming, and we got to it as soon as we could! We discuss Francis Ford Coppola's defiantly personal, defiantly incomprehensible, personal-fortune-destroying Megalopolis ! And for such a mega flop olis episode we enlisted the help of Roman Mars, a man who knows a thing or two about architecture and design, and who's currently co-hosting a podcast series with Elliott about The Power Broker , a book about Robert Moses (clearly an inspiration for Adam Driver's "what if Rober...
Hallie may not have seen a ghost this Halloween season, but Elliott caps off Shocktober (a little late, in "no theme No-vember") by quizzing all of us about whether we've seen cinematic ghosts, in the course of our many Flop House viewings. We’re in season 2 of FlopTV! Tune in for individual episodes, or get a price break with a season pass! Full line-up/tickets here ! And while you’re clicking on stuff, subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, “Flop Secrets !”...
Bad news first: we discussed Dear David , a horror movie based on a Twitter thread posted by a guy who used to do comics for Buzzfeed, released by "Buzzfeed Studios" -- a sentence that gives us a headache just to type. The good news? We're joined by Star of the Show, Hallie Haglund , whose ever-delightful presence inspires us all into a lot of giggle fits and silly bits! We’re in season 2 of FlopTV! Pop in for individual episodes, or get a price break with a season pass! Peruse the full line-up ...
Since Stuart is infamous for missing mid-and-post-credit scenes, Dan quizzes him (and Elliott) about what might have possibly happened in various movies that included a li'l extra something at the end. We’re in season 2 of FlopTV! Tune in for individual episodes, or get a price break with a season pass! Full line-up/tickets here ! And while you’re clicking on stuff, subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, “Flop Secrets !”...
