CinemArcade

One of the absolute strangest vanity projects in film history, Jerry Seinfeld's animated BEE MOVIE tries to graft his tried-and-true stage patter onto a world of tiny flying insects, and the results are... weird. We're talking all about the movie and it's bizarre afterlife as a meme factory before trying out the BEE MOVIE GAME for PS2, an open-world platformer that features some original content f...

The ultimate alien hunter sets his sights on the urban jungle this week as we look at the bleak, bombastic 1990 sequel PREDATOR 2! Danny Glover takes over from Arnold Schwarzenegger in a movie that has some really specific ideas about inner-city crime, but still boasts a handful of cool set pieces and some interesting new bits of lore. We're chatting about the film before checking out the Sega Gen...

Get to the choppa! This week we're talking about the bombastic, silly, diamond-honed perfection that is PREDATOR! John McTiernan's 1987 thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and some of the beefiest commandos in film history, this movie created one of the great screen monsters of the 80s and launched a fascinating franchise. We're catching up with Dutch and the gang before playing the NES adapta...

Slam evil! This week, we're unmasking THE PHANTOM, an infamous 1996 bomb that has maintained a surprising cult following! This old-timey superhero flick starring Billy Zane, Treat Williams, and a young Catherine Zeta-Jones is as straight-faced a throwback as you can expect... and we kinda love it. We're also taking a look at our most recent game to date, 2025's THE PHANTOM video game, which adapts...

Few actors have ever been so intrinsically tied to a character more than Sean Connery and James Bond. This week, we're watching the film that maybe most solidified his pop cultural persona, as well as a game that gives us one last experience with the master himself. It's FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, the first of many Bond films we'll be covering on this podcast.  Hosted by Steve Guntli, Jennifer "JBan"...

It's the showdown you didn't know you always wanted: tanks vs. dragons. Find out which one is superior in the pleasantly daft 2002 adventure REIGN OF FIRE! Starring Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey as post-apocalyptic dragon hunters in a world burned to ash, this film has gone largely forgotten but, like the fearsome winged lizards of the film, maybe it deserves to be unearthed. We're checki...

CinemArcade turns 100 this week, and we could think of no better way to celebrate than with a viewing of the seminal sci-fi classic STARSHIP TROOPERS! All three of your intrepid hosts are big fans of this hugely misunderstood satire from professional mischief-maker Paul Verhoeven. We're discussing the movie's long and strange road to cult stardom before talking about two recent games that are keep...

In 2010, M. Night Shyamalan, one of Hollywood's biggest blockbuster filmmakers, signed on to adapt Nickelodeon's "Avatar: The Last Airbender," one of the most popular and acclaimed animate shows of recent years. What could go wrong? Turns out a lot. This week we're holding our noses and covering THE LAST AIRBENDER, a bafflingly ill-conceived adaptation that manages to miss the point so hard it's a...

This week we are, shockingly, tackling our first Dreamworks Animation feature! The studio has a prolific output with a ton of movies to choose from, but we're starting our journey with the 2010 superhero parody MEGAMIND! Starring Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross, and Brad Pitt, the movie is actually attempting to tackle some complex issues; how successful it is is a matter for debat...

Nothing screams "2008" more than an action movie about a disaffected white guy who discovers the enervating power of ultra-violence! Timur Bekmambatov's WANTED, adapted from a graphic novel, offers plenty of high-octane, silly thrills, and if it doesn't have two brain cells to rub together, at least it keeps things lively. We're talking about the film as well as it's game adaptation, a sequel/preq...

In one of our deepest cuts to date, we're looking back at the visionary steampunk adventure THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN! This 1995 French film from directors Jeunet and Caro developed a cult following for it's innovative visuals, but it's become relatively obscure over the years, so learning that it had a PS1 game adaptation was a bit of a surprise. Join us for our takes on Ron Perlman, French cinem...

Five Spice Girls, five podcasters; it really only makes sense. This week we're joined by two of our returning favorites, Ailish Collins and Ashley Park, for SPICE WORLD, the semi-notorious starring vehicle for everyone's favorite UK sensation, the Spice Girls. We're talking all about the infamous movie, which was lambasted by critics at the time but has developed a loyal cult following; then, we'r...

Grab your hankies and get ready to fly into the rollicking adventure of UP! Disney/Pixar's 2009 classic has become one of the most revered modern animated films, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, but a highly emotional animated film starring an 80-year-old hero wasn't always the easiest sell. We're covering the film and the game adaptations! There are several different versions...

Forget PLAN 9 and THE ROOM and TROLL 2; when it comes to the worst movie ever made, MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE stands alone. This week is all about the insane true story of the "worst film ever made," a film that went from an obscure West Texas curio to a canonical film thanks to its coverage on "Mystery Science Theater 3000." We're talking all about the movie, the show, and the long-belated 2012 vi...

Oh what a lovely day! Today we're riding eternal, shiny and chrome into Valhalla with MAD MAX: FURY ROAD! This jaw-dropping 2015 masterpiece is one of the most technically accomplished and fully-realized visions of the last decade, but it had a long and, dare I say, furious road to conception. We cover some of the tumultuous behind-the-scenes stories behind the film, before getting behind the whee...

Rev up your Interceptor and get ready for a wild ride across the wasteland as we let loose with the first of our two-part retrospective on MAD MAX! This Australian indie film took the world by storm, becoming a surprise worldwide hit and ushering in a wave of post-apocalyptic knock-offs. While the 1979 original film doesn't much resemble the operatic madness that the series would embrace, it's sti...

A thriller? A comedy? Nope; apparently, 1990's ARACHNOPHOBIA is a "thrill-omedy." Whatever you may make of that branding, there's no denying that Frank Marshall's slick, funny monster movie is wildly entertaining, and, for at least one of our co-hosts, almost unbearably scary. We'll dig into this creepy-crawly cult classic before dusting off the lost 1991 home PC game, a side-scrolling shooter and...

Our STAR WARS saga concludes, at least for now, with RETURN OF THE JEDI, the 1983 classic that remains a little divisive amongst older fans. Kenny Madison of the Trek Wars podcast joins us to talk all things Jabba, Ewok, and uncomfortable gold bikini. Then, we're looking at three games, including the Atari 2600 jam DEATH STAR BATTLE, the 1984 isometric arcade game, and the conclusion of the SUPER...

We've arrived the darkest chapter of our STAR WARS trilogy, and almost inarguably the best: 1980's THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK! Originally criticized for being too serious and too heavy, time has been kind to EMPIRE, which is now seen as one of the canonical great American sci-fi films. We're discussing the movie with our good friend Katarin Nunez, then we're climbing onto our tauntauns for three EMPI...

How do we even begin to talk about STAR WARS? The massive, life-altering, cinema-changing, genre-defying epic masterpiece has gone beyond a mere fandom: it's an entire economy, an obsession, even a religion. We're going to attempt to capture all of our complex feelings about the series over the next three weeks, and we're starting with the original 1977 classic, STAR WARS! The great Tate Chitwood...

Follow the yellow brick road with us as we explore a true classic, 1939's WIZARD OF OZ! This timeless family gem has endured for close to a century now thanks to it's memorable songs, vibrant colors, and surprisingly dark undertone, and the smash success of WICKED has cast it back into the zeitgeist. We're joined by our buddy, the whip-smart Marissa Stubbe, to revisit the film, and check out it's...

Happy holidays everyone! We're celebrating the occasion by unwrapping that perennial Christmas favorite, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER! This Rankin/Bass animated special from 1964 is the longest continually-airing TV special in history, so we made an exception from our film-heavy format to let Rudolph, Hermey, Yukon Cornelius and the gang make an appearance. After the film, we're playing the vide...

The beloved YA novel series becomes a feature film with 2004's dark gothic family film LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS! Jim Carrey leads an all-star ensemble as the evil Count Olaf, trying to steal the inheritance from three industrious orphans. Ailish Collins is back to provide some literary context before we spring into the surprisingly solid Gamecube adaptation, where the three...

We feel the need... the need for speed. This week, we're discussing a crucial piece of 80's iconography, the film that made Tom Cruise a megastar and sent everyone on a highway to the danger zone, TOP GUN! This hyper-masculine megahit may have a head full of rocks but it's undeniably great entertainment; can the same be said about the NES game adaptations, or are those better left grounded?  Hoste...

Is it a music video compilation? An experimental art film? A propaganda piece? Or just a glimpse into a deeply unusual mind? Whatever MOONWALKER is to you, there's no question that it's a fascinating artifact, capturing the peak of one of the biggest pop cultural forces of all time, Michael Jackson. We're talking about the cult classic film before talking about the acclaimed game adaptations for S...