The Searchers

We know you loyal listeners aren't chicken… or are you? Following Ghostwatch and Legend, The Searchers punch their tickets for the last train of spooky season, and the irony is thick: Ben, our resident horror hater, made the most horror pick of the bunch! It's Terror Train (1980), a movie pitched as "Halloween on a train" (even though it's New Year's?) so this year Halloween comes with a caboose....

Hey, everyone, spooky season continues, and this time Kevin leads us into the dark forest of Legend (1985). It's Tom Cruise's only team-up with Ridley Scott, a year before Ridley's brother Tony made Cruise a box-office giant with Top Gun. Throw in Mia Sara in her first film and Tim Curry under a whole lot of prosthetics. Which cut did we watch? The theatrical, Tangerine Dream score and all, so yes...

Two episodes in one day? It's a double drop! Hot on the heels of The Haunted Palace (1963), Ben and Chris trade the haunted castle for the high seas with The Searchers' first-ever pirate movie: Robert Siodmak's The Crimson Pirate (1952), starring Burt Lancaster and his old circus partner Nick Cravat, with Eva Bartok and a young Christopher Lee. Is a swashbuckler a fair October pick? Is Burt swingi...

Horror Adjacent™ Month rolls on! With Kevin off the trail this time, Ben and Chris light the torches for Roger Corman's The Haunted Palace (1963), starring Vincent Price in a dual role opposite Debra Paget (in her final film), Lon Chaney Jr., and Elisha Cook Jr. It's sold as "Edgar Allan Poe's," but it's really H.P. Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, and the guys can't get over the irony...

Hey, everyone! So Chris and Kevin have been hopping on the documentary train even when they don’t realize it! Following our coverage of the mockumentary, Waiting for Guffman, and a real documentary, Linsanity, the dudes jump onto the horror pseudo-documentary, Ghostwatch, from 1992. It’s not just any simple horror flick! This little gem scared the bejeezus out of viewers when it first aired on BBC...

Ben and Chris try something very different with their first Searchers review of a Spanish language film. Was it a terrible idea? Listen and find out. 

The Searchers are running the mainstream trail on this last episode before Horror Adjacent™ Month. Kevin and Chris cover whiny Spike Lee's claim to fame, Do the Right Thing (1989). Ben definitely did not use his newborn as an excuse to skip this episode.  Please rate us a 5/5, and review us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us. Follow us on Letterboxd.com if you'd like to see what we've...

On the latest entry of The Searchers, Ben is joined by returning guest Mitch Capps to cover not a Western but a "Western-adjacent" film. This time we're going back to a favorite director of the show, John Ford, with his early talkie The Lost Patrol starring Victor McLaglen and Boris Karloff. Listen as we compare this to the rest of Ford's filmography, discuss McLaglen's career, evaluate religious...

Back to Hollywood's Golden Age! Following our recent episode on David Lean's The Passionate Friends, Chris picks another gem from the '40s: Vincente Minnelli's The Clock, starring Judy Garland opposite Robert Walker. Does the perfect romance film exist? Take it from Haddaway: "What Is Love?" This one makes a strong case — strangers on a New York street become strangers on a train, and strangers fe...

Following last year's coverage of Buffalo '66, The Searchers turn to Vincent Gallo's second feature, The Brown Bunny (2003) — a film that generated controversy from its infamous Cannes premiere and the now-legendary feud between Roger Ebert and Gallo himself. Opinion on the film remains split, but a growing faction of cinephiles has embraced Gallo's cult status as filmmaker, actor, painter, musici...

The Searchers return to familiar territory with acclaimed Japanese arthouse director Wim Wenders — the second film of his covered on the pod, following The American Friend on episode 89. Ben and Chris dig into Japanese culture and the influences shaping Wenders' work. How good is Koji Yakusho's performance? Is Ozu the ultimate touchstone for Japanese cinema? And when will switch-glass bathrooms fi...

Two episodes dropping in the same week; aren't you all so lucky?! It’s been two years since we’ve covered a film from one of our favorite eras. What better than to return to it with another pick from Chris! It’s 1949’s The Passionate Friends, directed by David Lean and starring Ann Todd and the great Claude Rains, one of Kevin’s personal faves and known more to him as Senator Joseph Paine in Frank...

We here at The Searchers Podcast have taken you, dear listeners, over rough terrain, sprawling seas, steaming asphalt, and about 30,000 feet in the sky… but have we not yet taken you back in time?? Or even into the future?? Join Chris and Kevin as they embark on a rather intriguing journey, traveling through time. The Searchers are covering Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes by filmmaker Junta Yamagu...

Folks, it’s flabbergasting that we haven’t covered an historical epic until now! So in light of the release of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, we choose to either prep your palette for that new cinematic adaptation of Homer’s epic poem or provide you with a possibly better rendition of screen poetry with a previous Homeric adaptation of Iliad. One that made its debut over twenty years ago in brig...

Following John Candy: I Like Me and I Am Patrick Swayze, we’re on our third coverage of a documentary, peeps! This time an exploration of the life of not an actor, but an artist. An artist of sportsmanship, former NBA star, Jeremy Lin. It’s been over a decade since the film was released, but where has this hometown hero of Kevin’s been? It’s about time he takes a little journey with Chris and expl...

THE SEARCHERS PODCAST! Having journeyed through 124 episodes of questions, conversations, rabbit holes, revelations, and the occasional detour into the absurd, Ben and Chris continue onward. Ever since they first set out, they have traveled the highways and byways of cinema—collecting stories, challenging assumptions, and learning about life to the fullest. Striding ahead into Episode 125, microph...

Long time listeners know that there are two Schitt’s Creek fans on this show and no, Kevin ain’t one of them, and apparently that needs to be fixed. It’s Ben and Chris! Yet, Kevin’s pick for this episode is a little charmer that stars Schitt’s Creek’s two leads, Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara! In an entry that is sort of a spiritual successor to our episodes reviewing John Candy: I Like Me and O...

In this episode, The Searchers hop aboard the Swayze Train as Chris and Ben dive into the 2019 documentary I Am Patrick Swayze and revisit the life, career, and legacy of one of Hollywood’s most magnetic stars. From Road House to Dirty Dancing and Ghost (and more), the guys reflect on the movies that made Swayze an icon and why his performances still resonate decades later. Along the way, they unp...

Ben surprised both Kevin and Chris with his recent review decision: Arthur (1981). Let’s take a trip to when Christopher Cross’ hit, “Arthur’s Theme”, made its way through movie theatre speakers nationwide. This sweet comedy-drama set in the Big Apple’s confines, pitting the silly lampooned wiles of upper-class hollowness with the brash honesty of the blue-collar, just comes to depict a man-child’...

Ben is once again joined by John Grace from the Midnight Movie Cowboys to review Shogun's Shadow (1989), starring Ken Ogata and Sonny Chiba. The Searchers love to dig into foreign cinema, especially Japan's, so it was a no brainer. So what started as a listener request turned into another collab on obscure (ish) cinema, which is what we do here as you already know. We touch upon the film's 2022 Bl...

We’ve covered our fair share of recent releases over the past few years, but 2025 has been selective—only Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and John Candy: I Like Me have made the cut so far. So today, we return to another standout from last year. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis in his long-awaited return after seven years away from the screen, and directed by his son Ronan Day-Lewis in his debu...

The Searchers are again joined by Mr. Nick Langdon to discuss a Around the World in 80 Days starring Jackie Chan. This entry in the ‘Misunderstood’ mini-arc was of course chosen by Mr. Kevin Chan. In this Searchers episode, the group revisits this 2004 globe-trotting adventure to unpack its blend of steampunk (CGI) spectacle, Chan's Western style slapstick comedy, and Steve Cooganisms, and it is n...

Alrighty, loyal listeners! After the high-seas chaos of Cabin Boy, we’re trading waves for wheels and hitting the scorching asphalt. This week, Ben, Chris, and Kevin dive into a high-octane F1 racing drama starring Sylvester Stallone as part of our new “Misunderstood” film series. Directed by Renny Harlin and co-written by Stallone himself, this episode shifts into gear with conversations about ra...

Not every movie is a masterpiece, and not every comedy plays by the rules—but can a film be gleefully stupid and strangely brilliant at the same time? Join the gang as we dive into the wild fantasy comedy Cabin Boy (1994), the polarizing oddball from Disney’s now-defunct Touchstone Pictures banner (with a little Tim Burton magic in the producer’s chair). Chris mistook it as conventional when picki...

Kevin, Ben, and Chris return to the fun topic of Billy Biao Biao to discuss 1989's The Iceman Cometh and 1991's A Kid from Tibet. These are two vastly different films compared to most of Yuen Biao's filmography, figuratively and actually a departure from the Three Dragons' bread and butter. The Iceman Cometh is a pseudo-Highlander action film with time traveling warriors, and A Kid from Tibet is Y...