Film Utopia

Originally recorded and published in 2015 for our former podcast, Filmwerk. Please excuse our less-than-stellar audio quality efforts back then! With Bond in the news again, and in the run up to our 2025 Bond update episode coming later this month, we’ve decided to reach way back into the depths of our archives and resuscitate one of our classic filmography review series’, our nine-part, complete...

Originally recorded and published in 2015 for our former podcast, Filmwerk. Please excuse our less-than-stellar audio quality efforts back then! With Bond in the news again, and in the run up to our 2025 Bond update episode coming later this month, we’ve decided to reach way back into the depths of our archives and resuscitate one of our classic filmography review series’, our nine-part, complete...

Originally recorded and published in 2015 for our former podcast, Filmwerk. Please excuse our less-than-stellar audio quality efforts back then! With Bond in the news again, and in the run up to our 2025 Bond update episode coming later this month, we’ve decided to reach way back into the depths of our archives and resuscitate one of our classic filmography review series’, our nine-part, complete...

Originally recorded and published in 2015 for our former podcast, Filmwerk. Please excuse our less-than-stellar audio quality efforts back then! With Bond in the news again, and in the run up to our 2025 Bond update episode coming later this month, we’ve decided to reach way back into the depths of our archives and resuscitate one of our classic filmography review series’; our nine-part, complete...

We’ve made a YouTube Playlist of the full cues that we mention in this episode! Check it out HERE . On part 2 of our ‘Some Great Music Cues’ double-bill, Steven, Benjamin and Sean each discuss another five music cues from films that float their boat, either as stand-alone pieces, or within the context of the movie scene that they are a part of. We will be mentioning the likes of Tom Holkenborg (Ju...

We’ve made a YouTube Playlist of the full cues that we mention in this episode that we’d be delighted for you to check out HERE . As much as we are film fanatics, we are also just as much music maniacs, and when both are combined in the medium of film scores and soundtracks; even better! On this episode, Steven, Benjamin & Sean highlight some of their favourite film music cues from across the...

We’re back for another ‘Year in Film’ episode! Join us as we welcome back our co-host, Benjamin, from his short time away from the podcast and continue refusing to leave our cosy, nostalgia-tinted 1980s to talk our way through the films that made 1985 special for each of us. And, oh my, what a year 1985 was at the flicks! Absolute bangers such as Back to the Future, Fright Night, Rocky IV, The Com...

With the short break from our originally planned episodes for the start of 2025 still ongoing, Steven & Sean have taken the opportunity to indulge in a little passion-project of theirs! Italian horror fans are in for a treat as we delve into the four early films of Michele Soavi. Starting with the Joe D'Amato produced 'StageFright' (1987), then the Dario Argento co-scripted and produced 'The C...

In a very last minute change to our December episode, Steven and Sean wrap up 2024 in cinema to discuss the highs and lows of the year. Including new movies, legacy re-releases and stand-out physical media releases of the year.

Still pumped from our summer series in which we covered the major subgenres of science fiction in cinema, Steven, Benjamin and Sean have decided to revisit the topic in this bonus episode! We'll each be picking a film that we believe exemplifies the traits of all the subgenres we discussed previously: Time Travel, Science Out of Control/Machine Over Man, Dystopia/Utopia, Post Apocalypse, Alien Con...

We’re back for Part 2 of our Halloween Hellraiser Special! On this episode, Steven, Benjamin and Sean unpack the remaining movies in the Hellraiser series, including Rick Bota’s Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002), Hellraiser: Deader (2005) and Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005), followed by Victor Garcia’s Hellraiser: Revelations (2011), Gary J. Tunnicliffe’s Hellraiser: Judgement, and finally David Bruckner...

Happy Halloween! Continuing with our usual horror franchise "Halloween Special" format, this year Sean has picked the long running Hellraiser series for us to have a good old yarn over, across two episodes! Starting with the original 1987 movie based on The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker and directed by the man himself, the film series has developed over the years into all manor of miss-fires and...

We're back for part 2 of our Kathryn Bigelow theatrical retrospective! Things get a little heated on this episode with divided opinions between Steven, Benjamin and Sean as we discuss a more drama-focused and historically themed selection of movies from our beloved Bigelow. Including; The Weight of Water (2000), K-19: The Widowmaker (2002), The Hurt Locker (2008), Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and Detro...

It's Steven's choice for our latest director deep-dive and this time he has picked Kathryn Bigelow! With numerous accolades to her name, a filmography that runs the gamut from iconic cult horror to Oscar winning war drama, and one of the finest action directors of a generation, Bigelow has long been a high ranking filmmaker for the three of us at Film Utopia. We have split her 10 theatrical releas...

Steven, Benjamin and Sean conclude their look at science fiction subgenres with an examination of the bizarre fascination with placing the noun ‘punk’ after various technological descriptors to create a subgenre within a subgenre for seemingly no other reason than superficial aesthetics. Yes, we're talking about Cyberpunk. And Steampunk. And Biopunk. And all the other 'punk's'! While Sean and Benj...

For the second time this year, the Film Utopia Podcast breaks from its traditional show format of legacy movie coverage to discuss Alien: Romulus; the latest film in the long-running Alien franchise. Hot on the heels of an impressive opening weekend, the Fede Alvarez helmed entry is certainly making waves, both financially and critically. But opinions seem to be divided; and they certainly are amo...

On the penultimate episode of our science fiction subgenres series, we discuss all things alien invasion, contact with other worlds and alien abduction stories in movies; including some literary influences to the world of cinema. Join us as we talk our way through the early days of the genre in the 1950s and 1960s with the likes of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Invaders From Mars (1953) rig...

For part 5 of our Science Fiction Subgenres Series, Steven, Benjamin & Sean dive into the world of oppressive societies, shady governments and brutalist aesthetics with Dystopian set movies. We're calling it Utopia/Dystopia, though. Despite struggling to identify a utopian set narrative that isn't really just a dystopia in disguise! Join us as we talk all things "Orwellian", from Gattaca (1997...

In part 4 of our Science Fiction sub-genres series, Steven Benjamin and Sean tackle the topic of "science out of control", or "machine over man", or "we've gone and created something for the betterment of mankind, and now it's going to kill us all"! Join us as we discuss our way through the tropes of the sub-genre and touch base with a wide variety of movies such as The Matrix (1999), Fantastic Vo...

In Part 3 of our Sci-fi sub-Genres in Film series, The FU trio dive into Space Opera – and spend much of the discussion debating precisely what defines the term, and what exactly constitutes a Space Opera in the first place! From influential sci-fi authors of the 1940s, 50s 60s and 70s such as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Philip K Dick, to the serials and comic strips of the 1930s such as F...

Archive Episode! Originally recorded and published in 2015 for our old podcast, Filmwerk. Please excuse our less-than-stellar audio quality and editing efforts back then! Ahead of Mad Max: Fury Road, Steven, Benjamin & Sean dig deep into the George Miller created Mad Max movie franchise! From the trailblazing 1979 original, to the seminal sequel, Mad Max 2 (1981) – or “The Road Warrior” in the...

At the time of preparing our latest Sci-fi Subgenres episode, ‘Post Apocalypse’, George Miller released his recent Mad Max spin-off; Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. As we’re all big Miller and Mad Max fans here and also, as Furiosa is topical to our last main show episode, Benjamin & Steven decided to have a chat and share their ever-so-slightly divided reaction to the Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsw...

Steven, Benjamin & Sean continue their exploration of the many Science Fiction sub-genres with a discussion on Post Apocalyptic set movies – and have plenty of debate over what constitutes a Post Apocalypse Movie in the first place! From ‘Mad Max’ to ‘Children of Men’, with pitstops at ‘Akira’, ‘Wall-E’, ‘Waterworld’, the multiple ‘The Road Warrior’ clones of the 1980s and many more in between...

Science Fiction! The Film Utopia Podcast summer project gets rolling with a wide look at the sub-genre and concepts of time travel in movies. From time machines to time loops, and paradoxes to alternative histories. Steven, Benjamin & Sean talk about some of their favourite time travel movies, as well as the ins and outs of time travel as a story telling device and macguffin. Movies mentioned...

Steven, Benjamin & Sean conclude their deep-dive of iconic cult movie director Stuart Gordon with a thorough chin-wag about his latter filmography. From Castle Freak (1995) to Stuck (2007). The FU trio discover some hidden gems among these lesser known films and find themselves with differing opinions on others! Follow us on X Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Facebook