Popcorn Culture

It’s a slow week in cinema releases, but there’ve been a slew of movies that either never made it to the big screen here in Malaysia (or that we didn’t get to review), including The Holdovers, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, so we’re discussing them all and dissecting which one is worth watching and re-watching. Then on Take Two, we’re looking at the movies we wish...

With Merdeka just around the corner, we’re having an all-Malaysian episode today! Kicking off with a review of Amanda Nell Eu’s much-lauded Tiger Stripes, in its full form on Netflix, before segueing into a discussion about the best that Malaysian film has to offer, before we close off with The B-Side as always. Image Credit: IMDb See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Alien franchise rolls on with its latest instalment, this time as a standalone interquel that takes place in between the events of Alien and Aliens, when young space colonists encounter a xenomorph, while scavenging on an abandoned space station. Helmed by Fede Alvarez, it’s a highly anticipated movie especially following the (relative) disappointments of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. We dis...

M. Night Shyamalan’s back with his latest high-concept thriller: this time about a serial killer trapped at a concert with his daughter, as the walls and law enforcement close in. We discuss whether this Josh Hartnett-led vehicle works, and whether the nepo baby accusations are warranted. Then on Take Two, we discuss the directors who are either the main draw for watching something, or the reason...

The second season of House of the Dragon is done and dusted, with the tensions between the Greens and the Blacks at an all time high and more glorious dragon battles. We discuss the entire season before getting into the question of on screen kings & queens on Take Two and closing it off with another one of Ramin Djawadi’s iconic themes from the franchise on B-Side.  Image Credit: IMDb See...

Carmy and the gang are back, cousins! Each season of The Bear has had its own unique flavours and travails, and Season 3 picks up exactly where we left off, with the crew of the newly formed restaurant on the search for their menu, and a good review. We discuss how this season stands up against the earlier ones, and then since the awards (and some viewers) keep insisting that The Bear is a comedy,...

Everyone’s favourite motor mouthed masked hero is back, partnered (for real this time) with a well-loved cigar-smoking Adamantium-clawed member of the X-Men! In other words, this week we’re reviewing Deadpool & Wolverine, and discussing whether this heavily anticipated reuniting of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman lives up to the hype. Then on Take Two, we discuss the moments when other actors h...

New FBI agent Lee Harker finds themselves tangled in the dark web of a Satanic serial killer known as Longlegs, played by the ever eccentric Nicolas Cage. We review the film, before reflecting on our favourite horror films on Take Two and then closing it off with Bernard Herrmann’s iconic score from Psycho. Image Credit: IMDb See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

House of the Dragon is back with its second season, and with all the hallmarks that have come to characterise Westeros: intense, twisted relationships, endless battles both literal and figurative, and more dragons than you can shake a stick at. We catch up with HotD Season 2 - or at least all the episodes that have dropped so far - before getting into the question of power struggles on screen in T...

Popcorn Culture is back, with some changes in the lineup and the show, and we’re kicking things off with a review of the latest installment in the A Quiet Place series, A Quiet Place: Day One. After that, we move on to hearing from folks about the movies and shows they've enjoyed the most in 2024 - so far at least - before capping off with a deep dive into Bobby Darrin’s Beyond The Sea, which play...

All good trilogies need a big finale, so for the third time, we're celebrating music on screeen, and talking about our favourite needle drops, famous film composers, and the movie songs and soundtracks that we just can't stop listening to. Image Credit: IMDb See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The TV landscape is an immensely crowded one these days, with new shows dropping every few days, and often, disappearing into the ether just as quickly. Despite that, 2023 proved to be a strong year for TV viewers, whether with adaptations that managed to capture fans both old and new (The Last of Us, One Piece), ongoing shows that kept raising the bar (The Bear, Succession), or unexpected new hit...

From the lightning-in-a-bottle craze that was Barbenheimer to awards contenders like Napoleon and Killers of the Flower Moon, 2023 turned out to be a stacked year for movies, especially those in cinemas. Despite two historic Hollywood strikes that shook-up the industry for good, the year saw heavyweight filmmakers like Nolan, Scorcese, Fincher and Scott produce some of their most intriguing works,...

Long before its release, Pendatang was making headlines, and for good reason too: it's billed as Malaysia's first fully crowdfunded movie (in part, so that it would also be free for all to watch), it's premiering on Youtube (in part, for wide distribution but also to sidestep issues of censorship), and it has an intriguing premise. It's a dystopian thriller, based in a version of Malaysia where di...

Directed by Jin Ong, Abang Adik has been making the rounds at film festivals and garnering acclaim along the way. The film explores themes that are familiar to many Malaysians: inequality, urban living, and family, through the story of two undocumented orphans living in Malaysia, Abang and Adik. While Abang tries to eke out an honest but modest living, Adik has different dreams - and then an event...

A new Hayao Miyazaki film is always a treat, especially since The Boy and the Heron comes after a 10-year gap since his last. The story revolves around a 12-year-old boy struggling to deal with his mother's death, when a talking heron tells him she's still alive and leads him to a magical world. We review the movie, celebrate the joys of hand-drawn animation, and discuss that Miyazaki magic touch....

Adapted from the wildly popular Japanese anime, this live action series managed to achieve that rare feat: the approval of the original's fans. Set in a fantastical world of oceans, islands, and pirates, the series tells the story of Monkey D. Luffy, who dreams of finding the ultimate treasure and becoming a Pirate King - and along the way, amasses an unlikely crew of friends, each with their own...

Wonka gave us the origin story of Willy Wonka. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes told us how President Snow, and the Hunger Games, came to be. Whose origin story do we want to see next, and whose origins are best left to uncertainty? In this Supercut, we go through some of our favourite characters and if we want to see their stories expanded. We also discuss if some not-so-interesting characters...

Did we need a whole movie about Willy Wonka's backstory? Probably not, but it's hard to be cynical about anything by Paul King, director of the heartwarming smash hits, Paddington and Paddington 2. Starring Timothee Chalamet as a young Willy Wonka and Hugh Grant as an Oompa-Loompa, the movie aims to explain how an ordinary man with big dreams became the eccentric owner of the world's most legendar...

The cat. The bat. The penguin. In the spirit of the holidays, we're throwing back to 1992's Batman Returns - the much anticipated yet highly controversial sequel to Tim Burton's 1989 blockbuster, Batman. With Michael Keaton reprising his role as Bruce Wayne and show-stealing performances by Michelle Pfeiffer as Selina Kyle and Danny DeVito as Oswald Cobblepot, Batman Returns amplifies the gothic e...

You talkin' to me?  I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart.  We were on a break!  Some lines are just imminently quotable... but which movies and shows actually top the list of being quoted most often (and let's face it, often out of context). That's what we explore in this week's Supercut, along with what makes a good quotable line, and why some endure over others.  Imag...

A teen/high school comedy with a twist, Bottoms is all about two unpopular queer teenagers (Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott), who inadvertently start a fight club in order to get the cheerleaders of their dreams. Taking its cues from Wet Hot American Summer, Bring It On and Heathers, it was a hit at the festival circuit. Now that it's made its way to our (streaming) shores, we take a look and discu...

We're breaking both the first and second rule of Fight Club this week, as we throwback to this modern classic from David Fincher. Starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, Fight Club explored male disenfranchisement, the disconnectedness of capitalist life, and mental health, in a highly stylised, highly violent and lurid way. We explore how the film has aged, and also discuss the many similar mo...

The premise of today’s Supercut is simple: if you could, what movie would you like to make? Would it be a quirky indie feature with up-and-coming actors, a big blockbuster action movie, a dark, futuristic rumination on humanity, or a laugh-out-loud comedy? Or something else entirely? The sky’s the limit, so we discuss our dream screen projects. Image Credit: IMDb See omnystudio.com/listener for pr...

A Ridley Scott film comes with certain expectations: epic scale, larger-than-life characters, and lots of bombast. Napoleon certainly ticks all the boxes. The movie reunites Jaoquin Phoenix with the director, in the titular role as the famed French commander who ascends to the throne, and the plot examines his story through his relationship with the woman who is said to be his one true love, Josep...