The Movie Crew Podcast

Episode 218: The Crew’s taking the Sam Wheat sexy pottery course while watching Jerry Zucker’s Ghost. In 1990 Ghost was a huge surprise box-office hit making $505 million worldwide. Whoopi Goldberg took home an Oscar for Supporting Actress, and Bruce Joel Rubin won Best Original Screenplay. This film has so much great filmmaking on display, and that pottery wheel scene is iconic. The Crew discusse...

Episode 217: The Crew’s wondering why the rum is all gone while discussing Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Director Gore Verbinski made Pirate films cool again after decades of box office bombs in the genre (Cutthroat Island, Pirates). The supernatural curse plot probably helped the box office with the shots of the skeleton pirates in the trailer. Johnny Depp became a super...

Episode 216: The Crew’s on a bus rigged to explode if it drops below 50 mph, while watching Jan de Bont’s Speed. Jan de Bont (the cinematographer of Die Hard) directs the best Die Hard knockoff that critics and audiences made a box-office hit in the summer of 1994. The pairing of Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock is brilliant and made both of them box-office draws. Everything works so well in the fi...

Episode 215: The Crew’s Fourth of July barbecuing with Aliens while watching Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day. This was a mega blockbuster, and is still one of the highest grossing original films. Will Smith became a movie star and released a huge movie every Fourth of July for the rest of the 90’s. Despite the alien invasion storyline the film follows more beats from a disaster film. The Crew d...

Episode 214: The boys are back in town! The Crew’s solving a crime with the help of a convict, while discussing Walter Hill’s 48 Hrs. This was Eddie Murphy’s first film and a huge box-office hit. Launching Murphy into stardom and laying the groundwork for the buddy cop genre that exploded in the 80’s. The Crew discusses... If you like our music intro, head over to Soundcloud and hear more amazing...

Episode 213: The Crew’s investigating a murder in the deep racist South while watching, In the Heat of the Night. This 1967 film was made during the civil rights movement and deals with racism better than lots of modern films. This is a masterpiece of a message film, wrapped in a genre story (murder mystery). The film won 5 Oscars six days after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The Crew di...

Episode 212: The Crew’s giving each other Macho High Fives while discussing Tango & Cash. Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell have great chemistry together as two LA cops framed for murder. The film was a box-office hit; which was welcomed news to Warner Bros after a troubled production. Three different directors were hired and fired, and Stallone did uncredited rewrites on set. Despite the revolv...

Episode 211: The Crew’s waiting by the phone for a ransom call, while watching Brett Ratner’s Rush Hour. This film was a box office hit and spawned two successful sequels. Jackie Chan already brought some of his Hong Kong martial arts films to the US theatrical market; but this was his first US financed hit. Chris Tucker became a hot talent after Rush Hour, building his audience after standout per...

Episode 210: The Crew’s searching for a lost Cheyenne tribe in the Oxbow, while watching Tab Murphy’s 1995 film, Last of the Dogmen. This film was a box office bomb, and has largely been forgotten. Not the film’s fault; both production companies went bankrupt within two months of the films release. This caused the theatrical release window too shorten and reduce the number of prints shipped to the...

Episode 209: The Crew’s falling in love with Brad Pitt’s long flowing hair in Edward Zwick’s Legends of the Fall. This film was Pitt’s first time delivering a leading man performance in a big budget studio film. And the box office dollars earned helped establish Brad Pitt as a movie star. But the supporting cast may steal the show (Hopkins, Ormond, and Quinn standout). Director, Ed Zwick continued...

Episode 208: The Crew’s running from a pair of man-eating lions while discussing Stephen Hopkins’ The Ghost and the Darkness. The film had a pair of stars (Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer), an Oscar winning screenwriter and cinematographer (William Goldman and Vilmos Zsigmond), and was based on a crazy true story. Despite all this talent, the film wasn’t a box-office hit. And the Crew has different...

Episode 207: The Crew’s running in the forest with a sexy Daniel Day-Lewis while discussing Michael Mann’s The Last of the Mohicans. This was the box-office success that took Michael Mann from TV (Miami Vice) to big budget films. Daniel Day-Lewis was fresh off his first Best Actor Oscar (he won three throughout his career). The soundtrack, cinematography, editing, and every performance are prefect...

Episode 206: The Crew’s trying to escape the Motaba virus while watching Wolfgang Petersen’s Outbreak. The film was a box-office hit in 1995, and had a loaded cast with hot newcomers (Kevin Spacey, Patrick Dempsey, and Cuba Gooding Jr.) and veteran talent (Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Donald Sutherland, and Morgan Freeman). Wolfgang Petersen treats the story like a disaster film, which makes it ent...

Episode 205: The Crew’s trying to escape a subterranean laboratory (The Hive) full of zombies and other T-virus infected monsters. That’s right, they’re discussing Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil. This 2002 film spawned five sequels and became the highest grossing film series based on a video game. If you like our music intro, head over to Soundcloud and hear more amazing music from aquariuswea...

Episode 204: The Crew’s playing chess with Death while watching Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. This conversation gets heated as arguments erupt over Bergman’s use of symbolism and heavy handed dialogue. The film is considered a masterpiece and launched (Swedish writer/director) Ingmar Bergman’s career. If you like our music intro, head over to Soundcloud and hear more amazing music from aquari...

Episode 203: The Crew’s spending the week in the woods with a flesh eating virus, while watching Eli Roth’s Cabin Fever. Eli Roth’s first feature is loaded with homages and started his own filmmaking career in the horror genre. In the early 2000’s, Cabin Fever was a different type of horror film in the heyday of Scream. But to be honest, the film is more of a comedy with gore than a scary horror m...

Episode 202: Long Live the New Flesh! The Crew’s been exposed to David Cronenberg’s Videodrome signal, which gives you hallucinations of sex organs. Videodrome is considered a cult classic now, but it was a box-office bomb in 1983. The plot is fairly simple, but the visuals and themes aren’t. The Crew can’t even agree what’s really happening... they discuss. If you like our music intro, head over...

Episode 201: The Crew’s suffering from PTSD after watching Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion. The film was a modest hit in 2011, making $136.5 million on a $60 million budget, and received critical praise. But with the COVID-19 pandemic happening, it’s truly terrifying. The Crew discusses.... If you like our music intro, head over to Soundcloud and hear more amazing music from aquariusweapon. Aquarius...

Episode 200: The Crew’s worried about the Russians polluting their precious bodily fluids as they discuss Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. This film is considered one of the greatest comedies of all time. It was a box office hit, and was nominated for 4 Oscars (The first of four Direction nominations for Stanley Kubrick, although he never won)...

Episode 199: The Crew’s running thru the streets of SoHo as they discuss Martin Scorsese’s After Hours. Griffin Dunne is Paul, a word processor stuck in the SoHo district of New York. He’s trying to get home after a bad date, but runs into problem after problem. Martin Scorsese and Cinematographer, Michael Ballhaus add loads of creative energy to the lighting and camerawork. The Crew discusses......

Episode 198: The Crew’s murdering all the jerks at high school while they discuss Michael Lehmann’s Heathers. The film was a box office bomb, grossing only 1.16 million. But home video gave Heathers new life and the film went on to influence countless teen comedies. Although most of the imitations miss the dark wit. The Crew discusses.... If you like our music intro, head over to Soundcloud and he...

Episode 197: The Crew's held up in an abandoned police station as they discuss John Carpenter’s Assault in Precinct 13. John Carpenter’s style and Panavision shots are on display here, in his first feature. Yes, we know technically Dark Star is Carpenter’s first, but that was an expanded student short. Assault on Precinct 13 was made on a budget of $100,000 and shot in only 20 days. So the movie h...

Episode 196: The Crew's robbing the rich and giving to the poor as they discuss Kevin Reynolds’ Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. This was the #2 movie at the box office in 1991, and the Bryan Adams song was everywhere. Kevin Costner was a huge movie star, but Alan Rickman’s performance and the music are the highlights here. If you like our music intro, head over to Soundcloud and hear more amazing m...

Episode 195: The Crew’s staring each other down as they discuss Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. This was the film that made Clint Eastwood a star. The plot is simple for a 3 hour runtime, but it’s the style and direction that keep the story moving. Leone believes in “show, don’t tell”, as most of the film is silent. It’s #9 on the IMDb Top 250 list, so if you have...

Episode 194: The Crew’s running through the Brazilian slums as they discuss Fernando Meirelles’ City of God. This Brazilian feature was nominated for 4 Oscars, and became a worldwide box office hit. It currently sits at #21 on IMDb’s Top 250 list. Everything in this film is pretty perfect, but the performances from the first time actors, they’re shockingly great. If you like our music intro, head...