Weekly Movie Throwdown

In this episode, we put a bow on Clooney/Pitt Fixer Month with Wolfs, the streaming double-team they put out this week through Apple TV+. This is our first film in the series that features both of the stars, for better or worse. Does it reach the high bar we set last week with Michael Clayton? Listen to find out. But be warned: this is spoiler-adjacent, so if you don't want to hear any of the actu...

This week, friend of the show Gerik Gooch joins us to discuss the much beloved George Clooney fixer film Michael Clayton. It's director Tony Gilroy's debut in the director's chair, though the film's note-perfect script is far from his first. We discuss that and a whole lot more. __________________________ You can find everything we're discussing this month at this fun Letterboxd list page . ______...

This week we take a break from Clooney/Pitt Fixer Month to return to our Rewatch & Reconsider series where we make a case for a film that's generally considered to be "bad," but at least one of us thinks is still a lot of fun. We're discussing Nicolas Cage's 2007 entry into the Marvel world, Ghost Rider. __________________________ You can find everything we've discussed in our Rewatch & Re...

Clooney/Pitt Fixer Month continues this week with the Coen Brothers' 2016 Hollywood satire Hail, Caesar! There's a lot to love about this film, but it's also easy to get lost in the details. We discuss its pros and cons, and one of us nerds out over the on-screen typography a bit. __________________________ You can find everything we're discussing this month at this fun Letterboxd list page . ____...

This week we kick off Clooney/Pitt Fixer Month with Andrew Dominik's Killing Them Softly from 2012. It's one of only 22 films to ever get an F rating from Cinemascore, and in the episode we try to get to the bottom of what made audiences dislike it so much. __________________________ You can find everything we're discussing this month at this fun Letterboxd list page . __________________________ S...

This week we wrap up M. Night Shyamalan month with Old, his tale of a mysterious beach that affects its visitors' aging speed. We also look back on the entire month of films and discuss what we learned about the writer/director and his approach to filmmaking. __________________________________________ And if you’d like to log as you go you can find everything we discuss this month on our Letterbox...

This week we continue M. Night Shyamalan month with his latest film, TRAP. It's more of the same from the writer/director, but with some fun new ideas (at least according to one of our hosts). __________________________________________ And if you’d like to log as you go you can find everything we discuss this month on our Letterboxd list page here . __________________________________________ Still...

M. Night Shyamalan month continues with UNBREAKABLE, the film many consider his best work to date. In the episode we discuss the comic book aspects of it, how it’s photographed so beautifully, the great performances, and much more. __________________________________________ And if you’d like to log as you go you can find everything we discuss this month on our Letterboxd list page here . _________...

It’s M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN MONTH! We’re kicking things off with one of the director’s more recent films, KNOCK AT THE CABIN, which we hope might be one of the titles that prove he’s settled into being the director we hoped he could be. There’s no twist, but there are still a lot of the better hallmarks of his filmmaking.  __________________________________________And if you’d like to log as you go yo...

In this episode, we wrap up Summer Blockbusters month with Twisters, the tentpole studio film of 2024. Currently, it's grossed north of $200 million, making it an undeniable candidate for our theme. Mike and Steven break down the expectations of the film, its highs and lows, and there's some big-time tornado talk. __________________________________________ And if you’d like to log as you go you ca...

This week Steven and Mike welcome a special guest onto the show. Gerik Gooch is a filmmaker and cinephile who brings with him the holy grail of modern summer blockbusters: 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day. This contemporary classic from director James Cameron was the first film with a $100 million budget and the first to break $300 million at the international box office, so its status as a smash...

This week we're doing something a little different on the Weekly Movie Throwdown. When there are five-week months we'll post four films inside our topic for that month, and then we're going to offer up a bonus episode where either Mike or Steven brings a bad film to the show that they love and it's discussed . . . for better or worse. The series is called Rewatch & Reconsider, and it kicks off...

In a world where action and comedy ruled the summer, one film defied all expectations. 1990's Ghost—a romance/thriller/comedy—took the box office not only through the summer, but it was the highest-grossing film of the year. It won Oscars, it revived classic songs, it relaunched the pixie haircut. And despite a lot of hurdles to getting made, it came out with the exact ingredients it needed to bec...

This week Mike and Steven kick off Summer Blockbuster month with 1989's Batman. This Tim Burton classic had a huge impact on Mike as a kid, and he wasn't alone. The film started a craze of Batmania due to its marketing and merchandising. With Michael Keaton in the title role and Jack Nicholson as The Joker, it became beloved and set the bar for just how big summer blockbusters in the nineties coul...

In this episode, Mike and Steven round out Hitman Month with a real gem: Grosse Pointe Blank. This George Armitage-directed rom-com is a beloved story of getting a second chance in life and, well, leaving your career as an assassin behind. It explores regret, existentialism, FOMO, and . . . unions. With great performances from John Cusak, Minnie Driver, Dan Aykroyd, and a whole slate of other acto...

Hitman Month continues this week with David Fincher's Netflix film The Killer. He is a director around whom there is a lot of conversation, primarily because of his meticulousness. Mike and Steven get deep into that in this episode and their different interpretations of the film. They also close out the show with a familiar topic: the state of movie theaters. ______________________________________...

This week Mike and Steven talk in-depth about Richard Linklater's new film Hit Man and how it fits into this month's theme of . . . hitmen. They also discuss Netflix's baffling release strategy of putting these films into a very small number of theaters for a short period of time.__________________________________________And if you’d like to log as you go you can find everything we discuss this mo...

In this episode, we kick off hitman month as we discuss the movie Joel Schumacher's Assassins, a vehicle for Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas that really allows them to show off their acting styles. One is batshit crazy and the other is like a stone statue—guess which is which. Julianne Moore gives a ramped-up performance as well that will serve her well in the films she'd do with Paul Thom...

This week we're wrapping up '80s TV Show Adaptation Month with a doozy: Michael Mann's 2006 Miami Vice. It's a bold swing that ended up being very divisive but is seeing a rise in popularity lately. With quite a lot of on-set drama—including shootings and hurricanes—and diva-like behavior, there's a lot to talk about and we get into all of it. __________________________________________ And if you’...

In this episode, we discuss another beloved '80s TV property, The A-Team. The 2010 film version makes nods to the original, but they don't necessarily all hit the mark. With a bit of a tonal issue and way-too-big CGI swing, the film, directed by Joe Carnahan, is fun but could be a lot more so. We have a lot of love for the TV show, so this was always going to have to work hard to win us over. Ulti...

This week's episode looks at David Leitch's latest film, The Fall Guy, starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. Much to their surprise, Mike and Steven both enjoyed it for the most part. The discuss its fun tone, the TV show on which it's based, and much more. At the end of the show, prompted by the film's opening weekend box office numbers, they talk about what the rest of the summer—and Hollywood...

In this episode we kick off a month of '80s TV show adaptations with one of the best: Lord and Miller's 21 Jump Street from 2012. The film stays fairly true to the series but the tone is way lighter—something we think might be necessary to successfully bring one of these now-campy shows to the big screen. The R rating helps, too. We discuss all of that, along with a whole lot more. _______________...

In this bonus episode, we deviate from our usual monthly theme to discuss Civil War directed by Alex Garland. It's a disorienting, fence-sitting road movie that stars Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura, and Stephen McKinley Henderson. We discuss why Garland, a Brit, took on this story, the technical aspects of making the film, what its budget means for A24, and a lot more._________________...

This week we round out our month of Dev Patel films with 2020's The Personal History of David Copperfield, a delightful contemporary-feeling period piece directed by Armando Iannucci. Like other films the actor was involved in, this one felt the wrath of COVID times and was barely seen in theaters. A shame since it's beautifully made and a lot of fun. But it is streaming (at least for now), so we...

So far this month we've looked at Dev Patel the actor, but this week we're examining his work as a director. Monkey Man is his first film behind the camera and it's clear he's been paying attention while on the sets of people like Danny Boyle and David Lowery. This film, in which Dev also stars, is a visually striking revenge story set in India—something we don't see a lot of in America. It's been...