Movies That Make Us

Summary In this episode, the hosts celebrate their sixth anniversary and National Women's Day while sharing personal updates and discussing their current streaming obsessions. They delve into unique food choices, including mushroom coffee, and explore the world of documentaries focusing on cults and influencers. The conversation shifts to wrestling, highlighting John Cena's recent heel turn and it...

Join Us Saturday November 30 at 6:30 pm for our annual Disney Trivia Fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Details here: https://www.facebook.com/share/15SLufEoKo/ You can donate directly to the ACS for Team MTMU here: https://secure.acsevents.org/site/STR?fr_id=109408&pg=team&team_id=2753859 Summary In this episode of Movies That Make Us, hosts Jake, Tracy, and Val reconnect after a...

If you would like to donate to our American Cancer Society fundraiser, you may do so here: https://secure.acsevents.org/site/STR?fr_id=109408&pg=team&team_id=2753859 Summary In this episode of Movies That Make Us, the hosts reunite to discuss their experiences at FanX and LA Comic Con, share their thoughts on the film Joker, and dive deep into the animated movie The Wild Robot. They explor...

In this episode of Movies That Make Us, the hosts discuss the beloved film Toy Story 2. They share their love for the side characters, such as Slinky Dog and Bullseye, and reminisce about their own toy collections. The conversation delves into the emotional impact of the movie, particularly the poignant scene with Sarah McLachlan's song 'When She Loved Me.' The hosts also highlight the behind-the-...

Summary In this episode, the hosts discuss upcoming events like D23 and Star Wars Celebration. They also talk about the announcement of Robert Downey Jr. returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the potential for multiverse storylines. They share their thoughts on Thunderbolts and the excitement for FestEvil and FanX. The conversation also touches on personal topics like haircuts and birthda...

Help us fight Cancer and help those who are fighting Cancer, donate today! https://secure.acsevents.org/site/STR?fr_id=109408&pg=team&team_id=2753859 Summary In this episode, Tracy and Jake discuss their love for the video game EA College Football 25 and the return of the game after a 10-year hiatus. Val talks about her experiences with extreme heat in different parts of the country. The c...

Summary: In this episode, Tracy, Jake, and Val discuss various topics including the heatwave, running on ice, the upcoming D23 convention, the importance of showrunners, and the movie A Quiet Place: Day One. They appreciate the thoughtfulness and detail in A Quiet Place series and how it tells a complete story within each movie while still being part of a larger narrative. They highlight the stron...

Link to donate to Tracy's ACS fundraiser: https://secure.acsevents.org/site/STR?fr_id=108827&pg=personal&px=56467338 Welcome to another episode of Movies that Make Us! For the next few weeks, we are jumping into the science fiction genre, and we're starting off with the Ridley Scott film "The Martian." Released in 2009, this is the story of an astronaut left for dead on Mars, who has to fi...

Welcome back to another week at Movies that Make Us! In this episode we bring out all the feelings and the conversation gets animated about Disney Pixar’s latest film: Inside Out 2.   All of Riley’s emotions are back and a few new ones have joined Headquarters now that the puberty button has gone off. We discussed our feelings about the movie, the issue of fresh films vs. sequels, and can’t w...

Welcome back to Movies that Make Us. This week we’re doing something new, we’re discussing the new Star Wars series The Acolyte streaming on Disney+. Plus, we have a special guest star Dave “The Babe” Hoffman joins us as well. Everyone on the panel loves Star Wars. We have no issues with women in starring roles. We do have issues with bad pacing, boring characters, and some awful makeup and specia...

Welcome back to another week at Movies that Make Us! We’re diving deep into the well of nostalgia this week with a discussion about the 1985 Richard Donner film The Goonies.    We have a blast discussing the Indiana Jones for kids movie about a group of young kids who are seeking out the treasure of One Eyed Willie, avoiding the Fratelli family, and of course Chunk and Sloth.  We wa...

It’s time for another edition of Movies that Make Us and we’re giving you two movies in one episode! We’re discussing the Rise and the War of the Planet of the Apes. Matt Reeves takes the reigns of the Apes universe for these two films and expands the universe in exciting ways, and Andy Serkis continues to be the MVP when it comes to digital characters.  It’s an “After Dark” episode and we al...

Welcome back to Movies that Make Us. The newest chapter in the Planet of the Apes film hits theaters soon, so we are taking a look back at the Andy Serkis films and tonight we start with 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Andy Serkis is just on another level when it comes to motion caption acting and is remarkable developing the character of Caesar and laying the foundation for the next two mo...

Hello and welcome back to Movies that Make Us. This week, we’re discussing Alex Garland’s latest film Civil War. This movie tells the story of a group of journalists during the final days of a modern day Civil War in America and are traveling from New York to Washington in an attempt to interview the President before the war comes to an end. This is a powerful film that we hope will be recognized...

Welcome back to another episode of Movies that Make Us. We’re continuing to talk about sentient robots with this week’s episode of A.I. Artificial Intelligence. The Stephen Speilberg film is based on a short story that was originally going to be made by Stanley Kubrick. It’s a weird hybrid film that definitely mixes these two very different directors styles and we want to know what you think. Let...

Welcome back to another week at Movies that Make Us! AI is a burning topic right now and we want to talk about it for the next few episodes. The first one we discuss is Minority Report, the 2002 Steven Speilberg and Tom Cruise film about stopping murders before they happen.   This film still holds up really well on a technical level and the morality of the film holds even more true today. It’...

Welcome back to Movies that Make Us. This week we are going back into the archives to talk about the 1990 Tom Cruise film Days of Thunder. Tom Cruise plays Cole Trickle, a hot-shot driver who enters the high-pressure world of Nascar racing. He’s got a fast car, a hot temper, and a desire to win at any cost.  Did you miss the video premier of this episode? Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube c...

It’s time for another episode of Movies that Make Us episode and we’re diving into the cultural phenomenon of 2023 that generated memes and huge box office results…Barbenheimer. We start the episode with our thoughts on Oppenheimer, where we all agree about the strength of the film on a technical level, but Valerie enjoyed it more than Jake and Tracy. Barbie comes next with all of us thinking the...

Welcome back to another week at Movies that Make Us! We’re back from our trip to Disneyland where we successfully completed a 10k (6.2 miles) of running through the parks, and raising money for American Cancer Society. We recap a bit about the race and then we dive into a movie you may have overlooked in The Holdovers.   A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school remains on campus...

Welcome back to Movies that Make Us. This week, we are releasing an episode Jake and Tracy recorded while at Januarty 2024 a few weeks back. This was a fun little event to attend and be a part of. This episode is audio only, and in it Tracy and Jake talk a little bit about the event, a quick recap of their Disneyland trip and some of the movies they have enjoyed recently and what they are looking...

Welcome back to another episode of Movies that Make Us. This week we are talking about some of our favorite films of 2023. These aren’t necessarily the films we feel will be Best Picture nominees, but ones that surprised and entertained us. Films like Across the Spiderverse, Barbie, The Holdovers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and more are discussed, and we even talk about a few films that we were...

Welcome back to another week at Movies that Make Us! There’s a lot of movies to check out at the theater this Christmas holiday, and we are talking about a great film we feel might get lost in the shuffle, The Iron Claw. This is the true story of the Von Erich family who were famous wrestlers in the Texas territories, but the tragedies they suffer outside of the ring are the heart of the movie. Za...

Welcome back to another week at Movies that Make Us! We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and now that the holidays are in full swing and all the delicious treats are on the table, we’re discussing a movie full of sweets in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We talk about the original film with Gene Wilder, the remake/reimagining with Johnny Depp, and what we expect to see with the prequel sta...

It’s time for another episode of Movies that Make Us episode and we’re discussing films from the years we were born. This is a fun episode since we were all born in different years, and so we suggest a variety of different films. The years are 1975, 1979, and Jake hit the jackpot with 1982. In the coming weeks, we will be discussing the Marvel shows and movies released this year, Next Goal Wins, a...

Welcome to the latest edition of Movies that Make Us. This week we are celebrating our 200th episode with a look back at the best films from the year 2000. This episode will either break up our team, or bring us together even stronger as Tracy picks a film that shocks both Valerie and Jake. Will our heroes come back for episode 201?  What are your thoughts on films from the year 2000? We want...