Hard Ticket

It's a hard holiday ticket between Planes, Trains and Automobiles and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! Every year, some choose to watch both. They're holiday classics, after all. The holidays in question may be technically different, but we think a thematic genre universality binds them, as well as a tightly-wound holiday prick prone to rage-induced o...

It's a hard ticket between Into the Wild and Nomadland. Which one will you watch? Let's decide! This was the perfect scenario to bring on longtime friend of the podcast Rob Simmons, Jeff's creative collaborator, fellow filmmaker and adopter of the van lifestyle. Rob has a unique and certainly appropriate perspective to bring to the discussion concerning transience on film. Who did it better? Well,...

It's a hard ticket between Braveheart and The Patriot . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! In sort of a quasi-Thanksgiving episode, we're talking two flicks that impress an overwhelming amount of patriotism onto their audience. Yes, Braveheart does, too. It's Mel Gibson at peak Mel Gibson. It's the nineties at peak nineties. It's contemporary EPIC FILM in bold, capital letters. Which freedom...

It's a hard ticket between Risky Business and Ferris Bueller's Day Off . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! This matchup, an obvious one in retrospect, was suggested by Letterboxd user Scrambled, so we decided to invite them on to cover it! There's more to these two movies than just fancy cars and the windy city (although, those are some pretty cool similarities right off the bat). In this ep...

It's a hard ticket between Strays and Fixed . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! We're in the doghouse this week (and we'll never get tired of these puns). Between the two R-rated, canine sex-comedies of the 2020s, the comparisons just make themselves. Do you prefer the foul-mouthed pack of Josh Greenbaum's photorealistic Strays , or the hand-drawn, domestic defiance of Genndy Tartakovsky's F...

Well Linus, another Halloween has come and gone. We had a blast talking about all these horror matchups and bringing on this past month's guests. We had a couple dangling thoughts leading out of October and wanted to pull back the curtain and give you all a little behind the scenes look at what goes into planning these episodes and what we've got coming up for the future. As always, thanks for lis...

It's a hard ticket between Jaws and Halloween . Which one will you watch? Well, we brought aboard filmmaker and friend of the podcast Logan Bilbrough to help us decide! We're wrapping up our Hard Ticket to Halloween horror month, and we're going out with a bang. These two flicks are two of the biggest we've yet to cover on our show, so the ticket is harder than ever. This Halloween, are you ventur...

It's a hard ticket between House (1977) and Evil Dead II! Which one will you watch? Let's decide! Hard Ticket to Halloween continues this week with "horror of the absurd." These two flicks preclude genre trends (except maybe in reference to one another); they feel plucked out of time, indigenous to the minds of their notorious craftsmen. This is Sam Raimi vs. Nobuhiko Obayashi. This is as haunted...

It's a hard ticket between The Descent and Barbarian , so we brought in one half of the Head on a Stick team to help us decide! This week, Aaron Radcliff helps us determine which subterranean horror feature takes our ticket. Will it be Neil Marshall's leading-edge spelunking trip gone wrong, or Zach Cregger's contemporary Airbnb boogeyman story? Either way, we're content staying on the surface thi...

It's a hard ticket between Hostel and House of 1,000 Corpses. Which one will you watch? Well, we brought on Jeffrey Scott from our neighboring podcast Head on a Stick to help us decide! Hard Ticket to Halloween continues! And, at the request of loyal listener and longtime friend of the pod Hannah Guilliams, we're making our brave foray into the world of torture porn. What fun is any of this if we'...

It's a hard ticket to Halloween! And we're kicking off spooky season with two faux-horror flicks to ease us in. This week pits The Cabin in the Woods against Tucker & Dale vs. Evil . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! Is horror the tropiest genre? Eli Craig and Drew Goddard are certainly having fun playing with our expectations. These horror-comedies held our hands into the 2010s, pioneer...

It's a hard ticket between Big Shark and Sharknado . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! That's right, we had the pleasure of screening Tommy Wiseau's vaguely unfinished, long-awaited followup to The Room. Since it hasn't had an official release outside of very selective theaters, we go a little more in-depth about what you'll see when you can finally stream Big Shark from home. And, of course...

It's a gray ticket among the works of the Russo brothers post- Avengers . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! That's right, this week is a four movie matchup among 21 Bridges , Extraction , Cherry and The Gray Man . We know the Russos didn't direct all four (we see you Brian Kirk and Sam Hargrave), but how much of a difference does that actually make? Well, we'll tell you. Join us as we wade k...

It's a hard ticket between This is Spinal Tap and The Rutles: All You Need is Cash . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! Often cited as one of the classic mockumentaries, even popularizing the term into the 1990s and beyond, Spinal Tap brought its comedic spin on the "behind-the-music" genre to the mainstream. But did you know that Eric Idle of Monty Python fame beat Rob Reiner to the punch wi...

It's a hard ticket between Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Which one will you watch? Let's decide! These two tonally different movies have a lot in common: a surreal reality, relationship baggage, a geeky underdog protagonist and the girl who's constantly changing the color of her hair; and many more! For all our fellow cinephiles out there, this is a big one...

It's a hard ticket between 1917 and Dunkirk , and we've brought in filmmaker Davis Rohrer to help us weigh the options. Davis is the creator of The 6 Shop Films, a filmmaking team comprised of former and currently serving members of the U.S. Armed Forces. We thought he would provide some great perspective in our first episode covering war as a genre. These two movies are often cited as two of the...

The celebration continues this week with the exciting conclusion to our tenth anniversary special "Ten Top Tens!" Last week, we talked about the top ten movies that we (Jeff & Tristan) have watched together, plus we covered our top ten movies we've yet to find a good match to cover for this podcast. This week, we cover our top ten bathroom scenes, our top ten recommendations for people who wan...

It's our Hard Ticket tenth episode special! It might not seem like much, but it's been a busy summer, and we want to celebrate ten episodes in the can with you, the listener! And what better way than to throw out a handful of our own top ten lists? Film folks love lists, after all, and top tens are the number one way to make 'em. So, Tristan and I agreed on five list topics and assembl...

It's a hard ticket between Hundreds of Beavers and two classic Buster Keaton flicks, Sherlock Jr. and The General ! Which one will you watch? Well, we brought back special guest Josh Brown to help us decide! Hundreds of Beavers has been tearing up the indie circuit these past few years as one of the most fun and impressive homages to the age of silent cinema in decades. Does it hold a candle to on...

It's a hard ticket between Chef and Big Night ! Which one will you watch? Well, we brought in special guest Josh Brown to help us decide! Also, we threw Ratatouille in there because I insisted. All three of these movies are three of the most notorious offenders of "food porn" this side of the cineplex. As such, the themes about creative expression and its limitations in the kitchen run deep. Which...

It's a hard ticket between American Pie and 10 Things I Hate About You ! The school year draws closer for all you students and teachers, but for these characters, they squeezing in some last hurrah before summer comes around. What exactly do these movies have in common? Well, we're happy to tell you... Which one will you watch? Let's decide!

It's a hard ticket between American Psycho and Vampire's Kiss ! We're taking our podcast to Wall Street in this latest episode, comparing Mary Harron's take on Bret Easton Ellis' satirical horror novel and the most balls-to-the-walls Nicolas Cage performance of the man's career. Just how much do these two movies have in common? Quite a bit, actually... Which one will you watch? Let's decide?

For us, it's not a very hard ticket between Batman Begins and Man of Steel . But wait! We brought in certified Zack Snyder fanboy Dallas Hartman to argue his case for the latter. So before you write this off as the biggest blowout of the season, let's hear what the man has to say. These two superhero movies are still extending their influence over the 21st Century's defining blockbuster genre. And...

It's a hard ticket between Independence Day and War of the Worlds (2005) ! Which one will you watch? Let's decide! This 4th of July, we're going full doomsday with two of the most iconic alien invasion stories in film. So, are you an idealistic patriot or a cynical individualist? And what exactly are you afraid of, anyway?

It's a hard ticket between Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon . The originals , by the way. Which one will you watch? Let's decide! It's 2025, and not only are these movies trending in the conversation of live-action remakes, but they were also the only two directorial collaborations between Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois. Did you know that? Did you? Thus, the similarities between thes...