The Third Reel: A Movie Podcast

The Review Series is back… and it’s sparkling in the sunlight ☀️🧛 Yes, somehow, some way, we’ve entered the world of Twilight — and we’re starting exactly where it all began: Twilight (2008). This one’s been a long time coming, with Rach campaigning harder than a vampire chasing a fresh paper cut to get it on the schedule. Her wish has finally been granted… but at what cost? Because here’s the tw...

This week, the popcorn’s a little quieter… but the stories? Absolute chaos. With Dan off on a mysterious “working trip” (we’re choosing to believe he’s method acting somewhere), it’s just Dale and Rach back behind the mic for a two-hander episode. And instead of forcing each other to watch something questionable again, they’ve turned their attention to something far more unpredictable… the cinema...

This week, we deliver the second dose of D — another 16-disc showdown packed with daring picks, dazzling classics, dark horses, and a few decisions that may genuinely derail our credibility. It’s double the debate, double the doubt, and definitely a descent into chaos as we attempt to determine which film deserves a duel with the reigning champion. Expect disagreements. Expect defensiveness. Expec...

The A–Z of Films is BACK… and the letter D has kicked the door off its hinges and made itself very comfortable 🎬 After A, B and C served up a surprisingly chaotic mix of predictable winners, shocking exits, and moments that made us question whether we’ve ever actually seen a film before… we’ve arrived at D. And honestly? This might be the most stacked, most stressful, most “how on earth do you ch...

This week on The Third Reel, we’re joined by director Keith Kopp and producer Luke Allen to talk about their ambitious upcoming feature First Christmas — and the very real journey of actually getting a film made. We dig into how Keith and Luke found their way into the industry, how their paths crossed, and how that collaboration has snowballed into their biggest project yet. First Christmas is alr...

Well… this isn’t what the spreadsheet said would happen. 📅💥 Due to a scheduling clash of truly cinematic proportions (think three protagonists, one calendar, zero overlap ), we’ve had to hit pause on our usual weekly episode. But before you dramatically cue the sad violin and wander off into the rain, we come bearing gifts. Instead of leaving you in a content drought, we’ve cracked open the Patr...

We survived the “good years”… but now things get weird . Welcome to Part 2 of our CineTiers MCU deep dive , where the gloves come off, the timelines split, and the phrase “it’s canon somewhere” gets used far more than it should. Picking up from Endgame , we dive headfirst into Marvel’s bold (and occasionally baffling) next chapter – ranking everything from Phase 4 onwards, right up to the latest r...

We’ve finally done it. We’ve opened the multiverse-sized can of worms that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe… and we’re not closing it anytime soon. Loved, loathed, memed into oblivion – the MCU is the cinematic juggernaut that simply refuses to leave the group chat. So naturally, we thought: let’s rank all of it . Dan is waving the Marvel flag like it’s Comic-Con opening day. Rach is sharpening th...

The series returns, the stakes are… oddly personal, and Rachael is once again in the hot seat. Welcome back to Make Me a Fan — the show within the show where friendships are tested, filmographies are weaponised, and opinions are absolutely not left at the door. Currently, the scoreboard reads like a dramatic trilogy: 🎬 1 glorious success (Rach falling head over heels for Florence Pugh) 🎬 1 crush...

The Icon Series returns, and this time Rachael steps up to the director’s chair to shine a spotlight on a performer who didn’t just enter scenes… he quietly took ownership of them and redecorated the place. We’re diving into the extraordinary life and career of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Not quite Old Hollywood, but every bit as golden. A master of nuance, discomfort, vulnerability, and the kind of i...

This week, we unleash the beasts. Joined by friend of the pod and quite possibly the world’s most qualified (self-appointed) monster movie expert, we dive fang-first into the wild, weird, and wonderfully chaotic history of monster cinema. From the gothic gloom of early Universal legends like Dracula and Frankenstein, through the skyscraper-scaling chaos of King Kong and the atomic rage of Godzilla...

The journey doesn’t end at Mount Doom… it ends here, in the comfiest of chairs, with a debrief that’s part therapy session, part tribunal, and part long-overdue reckoning. After trekking through three films, approximately 47 endings, and enough sweeping New Zealand vistas to make us consider early retirement as sheep farmers, we’re wrapping up our Lord of the Rings review series with a very specia...

Here it is. The final march. The last stand. The emotional, slightly overlong, absolutely iconic conclusion to our Lord of the Rings deep-dive series. In Part 2 of our Return of the King review , we pick up from the chaos of Pelennor Fields and charge headfirst into everything that follows: the battles, the sacrifices, the speeches that make you want to run through a wall for Gondor… and yes, ever...

We did it. We actually did it. After trekking through Middle-earth like slightly underprepared hobbits with a podcast mic, we’ve reached the crown jewel: The Return of the King . Or as we’re calling it, The Return of the Return of the King , because nothing in this trilogy happens just once… especially endings. This week marks the beginning of the end (but not the end… there are several of those),...

We sent one man, one podcast, and an unreasonable amount of expectations into space… what could possibly go wrong? In this Reel Kwik Review, we’re diving headfirst into Project Hail Mary , the latest film from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, starring the ever-reliable Ryan Gosling, some delightfully weird science, and yes… spider-shaped aliens. Because cinema. This was one of our most anticipate...

No, the robots aren’t writing the scripts just yet… they’re just helping build the set. This week on The Third Reel , we sit down with multi-award-winning filmmaker Toby Hyder , who’s quietly (and very cleverly) using AI not to replace storytelling - but to enhance it. Think less “AI takes over Hollywood” and more “AI carries the heavy bags while the humans make the art.” Toby breaks down how he w...

New format alert! 🚨 After a while tinkering in the podcast lab (and possibly knocking over a few beakers), we’ve emerged with something fresh for you lovely listeners: The Third Reel Tier List . You know the drill. The internet’s favourite pastime. Ranking things into neat little rows of judgement. S Tier, A Tier, B Tier… and the dreaded D Tier. Usually it’s chocolates, crisps, or the correct ord...

C is for culmination. C is for confrontation. C is for crowning a champion. Part 2 of our A–Z of Films C tournament crashes in with the remaining 16 contenders, all competing for the right to challenge last week’s victorious classic. Only one film can complete the conquest and be crowned the ultimate C movie. Will a cool cult classic cause an upset? Could a crime caper claim cinematic glory? Or wi...

C is for chaos. C is for cinema. C is for us catastrophically trying to crown a champion. The A–Z of Films is back and we’ve crash-landed on the most competitively stacked consonant in the canon: the letter C . Previously, Alien and Birdman bagged the lofty A and B belts… but who claims the coveted C crown? We’ve carefully curated (and mildly quarrelled over) 32 colossal C-class classics. The whee...

In this Reel Kwik Review, we head to the windswept chaos of Emerald Fennell’s 2026 adaptation of Wuthering Heights , the film currently brooding its way across cinemas worldwide. Did it do justice to Emily Brontë’s gothic fever dream of a novel? Thankfully, Rachael actually read the book, so we have at least one qualified adult in the room. 📚 We dig into whether Fennell’s version captures the tra...

This week, we crank the volume on music biopics with the brilliant music journalist Sean Kerwick. From Robbie Williams’ latest cinematic journey in A Better Man to the genre’s all-time greatest hits (and, yes, the cringiest misses), we debate, dissect, and occasionally gasp at questionable wigs, bad accents, and plot twists that make you go “really?” We dive deep into the history of music bio...

The wall holds… until it doesn’t. In Part 2 of our Two Towers deep dive, we return to Middle-earth to cover Acts 2 & 3 , our final thoughts , and the scores — and yes, this episode is absolutely dominated by Helm’s Deep . Often cited as one of the greatest battle sequences ever put to film, the Battle of Helm’s Deep didn’t just raise the bar — it obliterated it. Rain-soaked chaos, brutal scale...

We’re back. The review series returns. The hobbits are traumatised, the fellowship is scattered, and Middle-earth is very much going through it. This week on The Third Reel , we begin our deep dive into The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers , kicking things off with Part 1 , where we tackle Act 1 only . Part 2 lands next week, covering Acts 2 & 3, our final thoughts, and the all-important scor...

Oscar season is looming, the buzz is buzzing, and we’re cracking open one of the most talked-about literary adaptations of the year — Hamnet . With Jessie Buckley earning serious awards chatter, we ask the very important question: has the Shakespeare well finally run dry… or is there still emotional gold to be mined from the Bard’s personal life? 👀🎭 Based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell , Hamne...

To celebrate the release of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple — a film we are… let’s say cautiously sceptical about — we decided not to review it at all. Instead, we’re heading back to where it all began: Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s grimy, raw, pulse-pounding horror classic 28 Days Later , the film that kicked off this apparently new franchise and redefined fast, angry “infected” (they are not zo...