1-Week Rental | Behind the Scenes Film Analysis

Hey folks, we're off this week, but we'll be back next week with our  Fast Five  episode, as the Summer of Rock rolls on! In the meantime, enjoy some samplings from the additional bonus material available on our YouTube channel ( https://youtube.com/ @loadbearingbeamspod ).  Time stamps: 1:30  — Top-Five Jurassic Park Movies (excluding Jurassic Park ) 9:06 — Revisiting Gareth Edwards's Godzilla (2...

Well, a movie finally broke us. Horror and mortal terror have a face. In the absolutely dreadful "family film" Tooth Fairy (2010)—quite possibly the worst movie our podcast has ever covered—Dwayne Johnson plays Derek Thompson, a hockey player who specializes in knocking out opponents' teeth. He has a lot on his plate: He's dating Ashley Judd, who has two kids: An adorable little girl who loves him...

Dwayne Johnson followed up his debut lead performance in The Scorpion King with The Rundown . Released as Welcome to the Jungle outside America, The Rundown might be his very best movie. Along with Seann William Scott, Rosario Dawson, and a deliciously hammy Christopher Walken, The Rock is firing on all cylinders as both a physical and emotional actor. He can be funny when called to be, but leaves...

The Summer of Rock begins as Laci and Matt dive into the movie career of Dwayne Johnson with his first leading role in The Scorpion King (2002). The Rock first graced the big screen a year earlier in The Mummy Returns , in a brief prologue in which he plays a character who seemingly has nothing to do with the sturdy nice fellow he plays in Scorpion King . And now he gets to lead a picture. And wha...

We're off this week, preparing for the Summer of Rock, which starts next week with an episode about  The Scorpion King  (2002). In fact, here is our schedule for the rest of the month: June 13 -  The Scorpion King  (2002) June 20 -  The Rundown  (2003) June 27 -  Tooth Fairy  (2010)   In the meantime, please enjoy Matt's semi-spoiler-y review of  Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning . And ple...

Friend of the Show Wade Hymel makes his triumphant return to the podcast, and he's brought with him I Love You, Man (2009).   So what's up with men, huh? With their man caves, and their jam seshes, and their pizza pies. Can't live with 'em, can't help but love 'em, am I right?   And how do adults make friends anyway? It's pretty weird. Somebody should make a movie about it.   Oh, that's what this...

Join us at Stan Mikita's for crullers, dear listener, as we go through one of the very best comedies of the 1990s: It's Wayne's World . Excellent.   But is it truly Wayne's world? How much control does Wayne really have? What does he want? What does he stand for? And will he ever transcend the limitations of his corporeal space? We definitively answer these and so much more, as we cover both the m...

Laci and Matt are broadcasting to you from a cabin in the woods, where they're eating canned cat food with oven mitts, trying to dodge that pesky Grim Reaper. But the rats need their cheese, so here's a new episode about Final Destination (2000). (You're the rat, I guess.)   It's the movie that launched one of the great horror franchises. A franchise that Matt posits is Friday the 13th for the dec...

Matt's declaration that he was forever finished with the Marvel Cinematic Universe lasted all of one movie, once Thunderbolts* started getting good reviews. So he went out and saw it, and thought it was..... okay. But to go through it, he needed to bring on two big-time fans of the movie, so Neophyte Reviews and Screen Time Kota join the show for a discussion of Thunderbolts* and the Marvel Cinema...

Please note: Like how Death Proof uses fake film grain to make it seem like it's an older movie, only to stop doing it halfway through, Laci and Matt's audio improves halfway through this episode. You might not even notice the audio isn't great in the first half... but if you do, just know it gets better eventually.   Friend of the Show Cinema Chris joins Laci and Matt to talk about Quentin Tarant...

Hey folks, we had to make a programming change this week because one of our bodies did a medical oopsie and we ended up in the emergency room. Everything's fine... but wait till the bill comes, am I right?? Anyway, we had to push back our Death Proof  episode, so now, we have unlocked our  Royal Tenenbaums  episode from behind the Patreon paywall. See you in a week! Love you goodbyeeee.

Friend of the Show Jen ( @JenWalksN2Walls on TikTok) joins us to cover Sister Act 2 . We once again follow the misadventures of Deloris (Whoopi Goldberg), a Las Vegas headliner who selfishly abandons the backup dancers, crew members, and support staff who rely on her show to make their living, all so she can go be a substitute teacher at a Catholic school for some reason. Seriously, is she paying...

Enjoy nine free minutes from our Patreon-exclusive episode about the pilot of the American Office . Hear the full thing by subscribing at https://patreon.com/loadbearingbeams for $5/month. Matt and Wade go through the pilot episode of the American Office . They compare their personal fandoms of the show and how deep their knowledge runs, and then briefly discuss how the show was adapted from the B...

Hoppy Easter. We're taking the week off but don't want to leave you hopping. So here's our eggsipode about  The Truman Show , in its entirety, previously available only to our Patreon subscribers. We'll be back next week with an all-new episode about  Sister Act 2 . 

We welcome Hal (@ shestructured on Letterboxd) and Craig ( @gentlemanbaby on Letterboxd) from the Red Rose Film Club podcast to cover  American Psycho (2000), the Wall Street horror/comedy starring Christian Bale as Patrick "Jason" Bateman. This movie's got a lot going on, folks. And we get to it all—we determine who has the best business card, we explain why you wouldn't want Christian Bale as yo...

We bid a tearful farewell to our favorite actor, Gene Hackman, by discussing his hilarious evil Lex Luthor in Superman (1978). Richard Donner started the whole superhero movie idea with this film, but we won't hold that against him. How electric are Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder? How great does this movie look? And why are so many children getting smacked by their mothers?     Bonus video: W...

Enjoy 12 minutes from our Patreon-only bonus episode about  The Royal Tenenbaums !  Subscribe to  Load Bearing Beams: Collector's Edition  for $5/month at https://patreon.com/loadbearingbeams  

Laci and Matt head to Palm Beach, Florida, to con some rich geriatrics out of their money with their best pals, Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt. That's right, it's the perfectly cromulent 2001 crime-comedy Heartbreakers , brought to you by director David Mirkin (showrunner of seasons 5 and 6 of The Simpsons , and director of previous episode Romy & Michele's High School Reunion ).    Bon...

Our coverage of the late, great Gene Hackman begins with Laci and Matt getting sucked into the vortex of legal intrigue that is The Firm . And, okay, it's not exactly a Gene Hackman movie, but he's wonderful as always as part of this ensemble cast that is one of the all-time great ensemble casts. Seriously, this movie is a warm bath you can just slip into, not unlike Gene Hackman's character Avery...

Friend of the Show Screen Time Kota ( https://www.tiktok.com/@screentimekota ) returns to discuss the 1985 sci-fi film Enemy Mine . This hidden gem of an '80s sci-fi film has everything you want: practical effects, elaborate sets, miniature spaceships, matte paintings, and incredible makeup. Even more impressive is the performance of Louis Gossett Jr. underneath the intricate alien makeup. He and...

Matt has a new podcast! Don't worry,  Load Bearing Beams  shall be unaffected. In fact, it can only grow stronger. The new podcast will come out once per month and it's about the classic  Twilight Zone  series. Along with Friend of the Show Patrick Perot (the  10 Things I Hate About You  episode, the  Blair Witch Project  episode, Rural Route Nine), Matt will go through each episode of  The Twilig...

Austin Proctor of the Frightmares podcast joins Laci and Matt to go through The Devil's Rejects , the second film from director Robert "Robbie" Zombie. A family of demented devil freaks is running roughshod over Jimmy Carter's America, and the only thing standing in their way is a demented devil sheriff who just might be even more evil. Who will win? Answer? You, the listener, as we unpack this go...

Yes, this is a five-hour episode. Luckily, we have time stamps available for you so you can hop around to hear about the Oscar categories you find most interesting. With Laci out on assignment, Matt interviews a handful of friends and past guests of the show to preview Hollywood's Biggest Night™. With the Academy Awards ceremony looming in two days, he and his pals preview all of the major categor...

It only took us eight years but we finally reached 150 episodes. How about that? To celebrate, we squeeze into matching Union Jack dresses and slam our bodies down and wind them all around to discuss Spice World (1997), the notoriously bad (but secretly good?) Spice Girls movie.   To elder millennials, this movie's a big honking deal, folks, and we pull out all the stops to unpack exactly why that...

For Valentine's Day, we're celebrating the greatest American love story of all time: Isabella Swan and Edward "The Bad Guy" Cullen. That's right, after years of threatening to turn the podcast into a full-time Twilight show, we're finally doing it. For one episode, at least. But how to tackle such an enormous endeavor? Well, we've found the two perfect people to help us in our quest: Courtney and...