Are You Screening? Podcast

This week we look at The Fall Guy and if there's one overall theme to looking at this one, it's that we were both surprised that it worked out pretty well, despite some goofy moments, AND we were just as much surprised by the extent to which this bears no resemblance to the original show... at all. Still, it's mostly a fun, popcorn jaunt with some heart and it surely serves its purpose and hasn't...

Two movies that... serve a purpose perhaps, but don't offer much. "Roadhouse" and "Ricky Stanicky" both had more potential, and both can't get out of their own way. Remember, you can also catch the video version of our podcast now on YouTube.

It's that time again, and as much as it is perhaps unnecessary to rewarn people of the worst movies last year, it's now in a list! Thankfully, we don't need to overly revisit bad movies, which means we can also bring you a couple of recent Netflix releases, Damsel and Spaceman. We'll let you know what to stay away from, if you've managed it so far, and who knows what else we'll get up to.

The second part of the Dune extravaganza actually managed to surprise, though it had some flaws and a strange ending. As much as we liked the first installment, there was a lot that could go wrong. Tune in and find out what we thought about the massive undertaking, why it worked, and why it occasionally didn't.

This week we are taking on the Best of the Year, but it's also our first episode that we are also doing on video.  Things might sound a little strange here and there, and that'll be why. Also, this one got away from us a bit on length, mostly because we had a lot of Honorable Mentions. It was a wild year to be sure, which made lists both easier and harder, but at the very least ours aren't the sam...

This week we actually just cranked through a lot of films to end the year before next week when we dare to offer you our Best of the Year list. We hit too many to go over, including such winners as Past Lives and Dream Scenario, and ended up with some of our biggest differences ever, which was really surprising in some cases. This was largely a result of Shane hating everything and me being a suck...

As we run headlong toward our Best of the Year list, and the Can't Win Awards, we're trying like hell to get through as many films as possible... and it only works so well. This week we finally get to Oppenheimer, which hit us pretty much as we expected... tune into to find out what that means. We're also looking at two real gems of the year, even if we didn't rate one of them that highly, May Dec...

This week we finally look at Killers of the Flower Moon as we head into our wrap up of as many movies we didn't get to as possible before our Best of the Year list and our "Can't Win" Awards. Killers didn't really impress us, as is perhaps the case with several of the biggest titles this year, and we'll let you know exactly why. Also, in a bit of a strange move as we waste time when we have better...

The Critics Choice Awards happened and it was a great show once again. This week we look over the winners and let you know how we feel about them (and sometimes what I actually voted for), and we review (though rather quickly) The Holdovers and Saltburn. The Holdovers got Paul Giamatti the win, and as we mentioned in a previous episode, he deserved it, and it was a year with some serious competiti...

You may be expecting our usual, end of year shotgun blast of reviews where we try to hit as many movies as possible each episode, but because this year threw off our ability to get a couple of episodes out - even as we prepare to add video to the mix - we've decided to run through some of the major categories of the Critics' Choice Awards nominations in order to highlight and discuss said nominees...

In a wildly rare move... sort of, we are only covering one film this week, Poor Things. As usual for the pre-award rush, we've been hyping the fact that we would need to share several movies per episode, but this week... accidentally, we are laser-focused on Yorgos Lanthimos' latest, and this treat with Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and Willem Defoe is certainly worthy of our attention... even if it i...

This week we are really gearing up for awards season, which seems crazy. Before we get too close to four or five films a week territory, we have a couple of big titles to tackle, and neither of them impressed us much. The Marvels is getting a wild world of pro and con commentary, but where does it really land, and why? The Killer, which is weirdly, The K__.ller, owing to the graphic novel, is a lo...

This week we are taking a look at what turns out to be a truly special movie, Five Nights at Freddy's, at least in terms of messing with our ratings. We're also covering a couple of other films, including Totally Killer. As much as it may seem absolutely crazy, because we are very serious film critics, Five Nights played havoc with our thoughts about rating movies. So much so that we have been ins...

We're avoiding a lot of Halloween this week, but there's still "Haunting" in the title. While horror, or at least horror-ish, titles are moving around the box office rankings, we're looking at A Haunting in Venice, the third effort of a semi-vanity project.... just like in our last show. Is this one worth your time, or has this gone on too long?

This week, as we move from stellar box office, to the curious case of a winning holiday weekend... to the box office black hole, we're looking at the third installment in the increasingly curious Equalizer franchise. This one is a vanity project that won't die, and while the first one was... fair enough, it's becoming hard to tell why we ever picked the name in the first place. Does this one hold...

The shocking blockbuster that is Barbie has taken the year's box office by storm, and it is at the center of intense debate and... unusual awards talk. So where does the film land when not merely analyzing the feminist debate within, and how does the film showcase Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig, and Ryan Gosling, apart from making a lot of money? We'll let you know how well this one delivers. Apologi...

The Impossible team is at it again, sort of, and this time they find themselves up against a whole new kind of enemy. The cultural boogeyman of the decade is AI and there's no reason our Impossible heroes shouldn't jump on the bandwagon. It's no secret that Cruise uses the franchise to... work out some fantasies, and the question has long been whether or not it all comes together to deliver someth...

After a bit of a break we are running full steam into massive, tentpole season, although many of them don't seem to be doing quite as well as we might hope.  There was a time that Indiana Jones might have made twice as many movies and the all would have killed, but we aren't exactly in those times, and the question of whether or not a new Indy adventure is worth it is... well, a fairly live questi...

As we start to hit the big-money releases, we're going to look at the new, animated Spider-Man effort. The first one smashed into the cultural awareness in a way we haven't seen in a while, and there are high hopes for this one, but will it live up to the fascination? With the potential to become an epic sub-franchise of the superhero genre, this one could be the key. We'll let you know if this on...

As we approach some really big titles hitting theaters, we're taking on Sisu and looking at some other titles that may easily get overlooked. The box office ahead looks to be dominated by a few titles, but the numbers aren't quite reaching expectations and we're going to continue to try to showcase other options... in case Barbie isn't for everyone.

As we move into the summer, and some truly big releases, Fast X hits the scene and the potential puns abound.  Is this one the charm? Do the high revving thrills and surefire excitement have surprises in store? Is this worth watching at all? Even if you haven't seen any of the others? We will dodge a lot of these questions and many more as we try to wrap our heads around reviewing this one. Or, we...

It's time for more Marvel adventure, but Guardians of the Galaxy isn't quite the same beast after two previous movies and appearances in several other features. This one may focus on a character, giving us our villain, but it seems not to focus on anything. We'll let you know if you need to get this one and we'll hit up one or two other things as well.

This week we're trying to catch up with three titles - Super Mario Bros, Renfield & Cocaine Bear. It's a wild mix to cover all at once and spans a lot of potential tastes, and unfortunately none of them really wowed us. We'll let you know if you need to seek any of these out and give you some quick takes on a few other things, like Picard, and the strange way a lot of these titles seem to connect.

As the theatrical window slows a bit, we're looking at some streaming release titles before getting into the late April/May black hole. A couple of surprises here, odd as they turned out to be, as Tetris and Murder Mystery 2 didn't really turn out the way we thought they would, for good or ill.

This week finds us borderline astonished with Dungeons & Dragons, though I liked it even more than Shane. This may well survive the entire year as the most surprising film of the year. Screwy fun, not too serious, and solid characters turned what could have been a "fan only" snooze into a popcorn hit.