Have You Ever Seen

The Newman/Taylor love (well, hate) fest is the order of the day in the Next 121 Project. The Mississippi-living Pollitt family fuss and feud for the entire movie, but Newman's booze-chugging Brick is their linchpin…for some reason. Burl Ives as Big Daddy actually out-acts his mendacious co-stars, but the script (or maybe it's Tennessee Williams' play) lets them all down…in Bev's eyes, at least. I...

Tear off your hat and shout "YEEHAW" for the Next 120 Project, an episode which could be subtitled "The Wrath Of Tom". Maybe he has so much wrath because of all the impossible-to-miss homosexual undertones, which  Howard Hawks  denied even existed…but he  did  cast  Montgomery Clift , so. Bev didn't love  John Wayne's  career-changing work the way many others did and we  both  had problems with th...

The Next 119 Project has us spitting nails about the horrendous presidency of  George W. Bush , as documented (mostly accurately?) by America's Provocateur-In-Chief  Michael Moore . As dreadful as things are in 2018, it's easy to forget that the second-most-recent Republican Commander-In-Cluelessness did his best to do the worst. Our outraged liberal leanings are on full display here, so if you ca...

The 3rd and final waste of our time in "Movies We Hate Month" smacks the taste out of one of the biggest box-office successes of all time. Jim Cameron's "save the trees" sci-fi extravaganza is pretty in 3D, but it's also pretty 3dumb. This story has been told many times before---so fair usage for Cameron & crew---but did the screenplay have to be so lazy? And laughable? And just plain dreadful? No...

The 2nd week in "Movies We Hate Month" digs deep into a very shallow rom-com. The Next 117 Project gleefully hacks on this  McConaughey / Hudson tripe, which—bad as it is—really just represents  all  the insulting rom-coms that make women look stupid and make men look like idiot lugnuts. We can do better than this cruelty, people, so stop buying tickets to see this hooey! But you can't do better t...

The Next 116 Project staggers back 8 short months to re-look at  Guillermo Del Toro's  Oscar-nabbing smash. The Fish F*%^er didn't touch us as deeply the first time we peeped at it the way it did for so many others. Did we see things differently this time or is this an appropriate choice for the 1st selection in "Movies We Hate" Month? Actually, it's a complicated answer to that question, so you'r...

We're going back to when times were pleasant (well, for a certain type of person they were) in our Next 115 Project podcast.  Tobey Maguire  and the high-larious  Reese Witherspoon  headline the tremendous cast ( Macy ,  Allen ,  Daniels , on and on). Director  Gary Ross  tackles a lot of topics, starting with a brilliant comedy, then turning the movie into a racial parable. One of us has issues w...

Chris Walken has a premonition that the Next 114 Project is a complex episode. Both the 1st half's murder mystery and the 2nd half's future-president-turned-madman angle resonate today....probably more than did even in 1983. We admire those storylines, but David Cronenberg's superhero origin story is a bit too choppy and episodic. In any case, there's definitely a lot of meat on these bones. To ta...

The Joker dominates the Next 113 Project (which is as it should be) as we spend nearly an hour jawing about the greatest superhero movie of 'em all. Or is it? The flick sure isn't perfect, although  Heath Ledger's  performance is.  Christian Bale  gives probably the definitive version of Batsy (with the voice that launched a thousand impressions) and one of us thinks  Aaron Eckhart  is just a shad...

Get your A.I. butler to help you strap on your gold-titanium-alloy suit as the Next 112 Project podcast digs moderately deep into a superhero revenge story.  RDJ  had already made his comeback before this movie, but this whopping success made him a true movie star…and a very rich man. Director  Jon Favreau  handles the material as well as he almost always does (underrated talent) and he crafted a...

The Next 111 Project is our last podcast in June and the movie is a (mostly) jovial cartoon noir. Full marks to  Bob Hoskins  for selling that the toons are really there, but the main event here are those classic cartoons and, of course, the made-up ones too (like  Roger  &  Jessica ).  Bob Zemeckis'  technical mastery is at its peak, but let's not forget how good he is with story and character. T...

Grease is the 110th effort in the Next 100 Project series and this was not an easy movie to review. As popular as it was and still is, the  Travolta / OLJ singathon's story and characters can't keep up with the uber-famous songs. But, man, those songs are beloved for a reason. For great java, you just gotta hit up  SparkplugCoffee.com  and don't hesitate to save 10% on your first order by using th...

This 25-year-old monster movie game-changer that, for a while, was the biggest blockbuster ever. Steven Spielberg has made better films (character-wise, especially), but the technical wizardry and action sequences are hard to top. The dinosaurs still kick (and, well, bite) ass. And, hey, we've got the reasonably triumphant return of Reasonably Good Questions! Also, help out our sponsor and go to S...

The 108th dip into the Next 100 Project pond takes us into the world of Reality Television and the fake world of Truman Burbank. Our podcasts spend a lot of time praising fine films, but this is truly one of the most-fascinating pictures of the modern era.  Jim Carrey ? Wow.  Laura Linney  and  Ed Harris  (complete with his God complex)? Somethin' else.  Peter Weir's  world of make-believe is  fun...

The 107th installment of the Next 100 Project is  Paul Newman  at his early-60's peak.  Patricia Neal  and  Melvyn Douglas  won Oscars for their strong performances (ol' Paulie News did not) and  Brandon de Wilde  is pretty good too. The story is really about  his  character, come to think of it. Anyway,  Martin Ritt's  cattle tale is terrific in every way (the script,  James Wong Howe's  cinemato...

Laugh big (HAHAHAHAHA!) as you drink in the Next 106 Project podcast.  Errol Flynn  is the perfect Robin Hood in the eyes of a lot of people. Bev, however, didn't agree with that sentiment or all the critical love. Ryan isn't as gunned about the picture as he used to be either. Context is key though because this action flick  is  80 years old…TODAY!  Oh and pound those keys that will take you to ...

Our 105th Next 100 Project podcastaroo goes back to Philly as the son of  The Count Of Monte Fisto  punches his way into the elderly Eye-talian Stallion's lonely life.  Michael B. Jordan  is strong as Adonis Creed and Ryan Coogler's writing & direction are top-notch, but the stand-out here is  Sly Stallone , who's doing the finest work of his spotty career. What a dynamite sequel/reboot in a legen...

It's the Top 100 Project's 250th episode! (please clap) But this is the Next 104 Project and it takes us back into the dark world of serial killing as  Charlize Theron  dominates in one of the best performances anyone has ever given. Director  Patty Jenkins  virtually disappeared after this excellent debut (we'll talk about why that might be) and Theron's talent hasn't always been respected either...

In the most logical move in film history, Charlton Heston plays a Mexican (cue the hilarity!) in our 103rd Next 100 Project endeavour. He's actually pretty good and Janet Leigh is also strong in a difficult role. Orson Welles outdoes 'em all though as an extremely corrupt cop…and also as the film's brilliant director. This was a B movie when it came out, but it has become a noir classic. Technical...

For the 102nd Next 100 Project podcast (and our 248th podcast overall), we dive into "Fred" Hitchcock's supposedly favourite movie with all its squirm-inducing sexual innuendo. This flick has some of The Master's best-ever devious subtext. Bev's also got intriguing theories about Uncle Charlie's true identity and about Hitchcock's possible contempt for America during WWII. Ryan gets to bust out hi...

The 101st edition of the Next 100 Project (yup, 101 out of 100) delves into humour and romance and also Ryan's passion, having poetry read to him while tied up. Wait…no! Baseball! The performances in the  Costner / Sarandon  /  Robbins  love triangle are fantastic, but  Ron Shelton's  script (with all that delicious dialogue) is the key to the movie. Plaaaaay podcast! Oh, but first hit up  Sparkpl...

The Next 100 Project reaches episode #100 and we do it with an in-depth pre-Easter chat about a life-changing Jesus movie.  Willem Dafoe  is galvanizing as the Big Guy in  Marty Scorsese's  passion project, but what stands out the most are the revolutionary ideas in the story and in the script. Even atheists should give this movie a chance. Strap in because we've got a lot of holy topics to tackle...

To commemorate 5 years of this podcast (March 25th, 2013, saw us kick off the Top 100 Project), we're releasing a special edition of one of the all-time classics. We trimmed the fatty two-part editions of our original  Citizen Kane  'cast while adding some new thoughts & theories. Just a little anniversary gift from us for those who haven't already heard us gab about AFI's Greatest Movie…or maybe...

The 99th episode of the Next 100 Project goes all the way over to rainy New Zealand to investigate what happens when a mute woman has to fight to keep her "voice" (ie. her 88 keys).  Holly Hunter  and  Anna Paquin  won Oscars as the fiery mother & daughter, as did their writer/director  Jane Campion . Ladies rule! Complicated story, beautifully done. For a tasty dose of joe, go to  Sparkplug Coffe...

Dudes, the Next 100 Project's 98th venture is possibly our greatest chit chat yet. Bold claim, yes, but one of the funniest movies ever made inspired us to up our wisecrack game.  The   Coens  are among our very favourite movie-makers, mostly because of how unique & hilarious their scripts are. And what a cast!  Bridges ,  Goodman ,  Hoffman ,  Moore ,  Buscemi ,  Turturro ,  Stormare ,  Elliot ....