Cinema Heroes

In a different universe, perhaps we would have gotten to see Shazam join the Justice League and fight alongside Henry Cavill's Superman and Ben Affleck's Batman. This movie gives us the origin story of Captain Marvel Shazam set in the same universe as Man of Steel, BvS and Justice League. Young Billy Batson is bestowed powers by a magical wizard but not given an instruction manual. What results is...

A young woman has literally fallen from the sky and turns out to be Kryptonian! Superman learns that she's his cousin and instantly feels protective of her. Batman, of course, is cautious and concerned. Throw in a little Darkseid, a little Wonder Woman and you've got yourself a movie! Check out what the guys think of this early DC animated film and let us know what you think of Superman/Batman: Ap...

Transformers! More than meets the eye! It's time to talk about the first sequel in the Transformers franchise: Revenge of the Fallen. Many assumed that title meant Megatron but, nope. There's a Transformer named The Fallen. If that makes you think this movie is going to be bad... just wait! But all is not lost. There are some good moments and cool scenes. Listen as Stew and Justin talk about what...

In Marvel's Phase Three, a few new characters were introduced including Doctor Stephen Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme. To mainstream audiences, he was a fairly unknown character, similar to the Guardians of the Galaxy, which was a huge hit. Doctor Strange was released in November of 2016 and looked like a superhero version of Inception or The Matrix. Despite a little controversy over the casting of...

The next movie in the DC New 52 series of animated films is Batman vs Robin. Alex Thomas joins Stew and Justin to talk about Damian Wayne, The Court of Owls and how this film holds up compared to the others in the series! What do you think of Batman vs Robin? Cinema Heroes YouTube Instagram Twitter  

This week Justin and Stew (whose audio WILL get better in a few episodes, I promise) discuss the penultimate (for now) Jurassic Park movie! Jurassic World: Fallen Kingom was released in 2018 and made enough money for a final installment to be released a few years later, but... should it have? What do you think of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom? Let us know!! Cinema Heroes YouTube Instagram Twitter

After Thanos snapped half of the universe out of existence, Ant-Man and the Wasp was released! Taking place roughly at the same time as Avengers: Infinity War, this film follows Scott Lang as he's under house arrest for helping Captain America in Germany during the events of Captain America: Civil War. Meanwhile Hope and Hank Pym set out to rescue Janet Pym from the Quantum Realm and, much to thei...

Time for another DC animated movie! This time it's the superb All-Star Superman based on the graphic novel by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. Adapted by the late-great Dwayne McDuffie, All-Star Superman has an amazing cast who all knock it out of the park, including Anthony LaPaglia as Lex Luthor. Justin and Stew were excited to re-watch and discuss this movie and we hope you enjoy it! Check it...

The movie that introduced us to Captain Jack Sparrow, the role that Johnny Depp is most known for (and got him an Oscar nomination) was released twenty years ago and spawned four sequels. It also made Keira Knightly a star and a household name and proved to everyone that you could, in fact, make a good movie based on a silly Disney ride. So how does the movie hold up after twenty years? Check out...

I suppose it's a bit of a stretch to say Chronicle is a "superhero movie" but it's definitely inspired by comic books and superheroes. Josh Trank's film focuses on three teenagers who are given superpowers and how they each respond to their "great power." It's a found footage movie, which works for the most part, but can be distracting at times (as far as found footage movies go, this one is near...

Based on the iconic graphic novel by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, Bryan Cranston plays Commissioner Gordon and Ben McKenzie is The Dark Knight in his first year of crime fighting as the Caped Crusader. Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer took a lot of inspiration from the graphic novel for Batman Begins and you can definitely see it when watching this movie. A great adaptation and a reall...

In 2007, Michael Bay delivered the long awaited live-action Transformers movie. Differing from the TV show and animated movie, this film is centered around a human teenager buying his first car and trying to hit on the hot, popular girl in school. He just also happens to be the descendant of an explorer who stumbled upon the frozen remains of Megatron. The map to the All-Spark (the cube that gives...

Probably most famous for being the last film of Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, The Crow is a dark tale of vengeance directed by Alex Proyas. Despite Lee's on-set death, the film was finished and released and is considered by some to be a brilliant comic adaptation. It was received well by critics and audiences alike with most reviews praising Lee's performance. So how does the film hold up nearly...

In the 80's, Transformers were huge. The toys were amazing and the TV show was a hit. So the next logical step: give them their own movie! Released in 1986, Transformers ended up being a box office disappointment and sparked some controversy over one character's death. The movie has a bit of a cult following now and is considered a classic. Have you seen it? What do you think? Let us know! *Justin...

Universal Studios decided it wasn't done with Isla Nublar or Jurassic Park and hired director Colin Trevorrow to helm the franchise's fourth film. Although this sequel ignores parts 2 and 3 and is considered a soft reboot, whatever that means. This time around we've got a whole new cast of characters. In fact, we've got whole new dinosaurs, including one that was genetically engineered: The Indomi...

The New Mutants was plagued by a number of problems but the fact that the movie was delayed a bajillion times certainly didn't help things. Once it was released it was met with a cold reception and the movie was considered a failure. Now that a couple of years have gone by, is the film really that bad or were people just expecting too much from a movie they waited a long time to see? Check out wha...

**NOTE: Stew's audio is pretty terrible this episode. Long story short: He wore his airpods this time and when they connected, it changed his microphone settings. What can you do?** It's that time of the year! Where we look ahead and talk about what movies we can't wait to see! This year we had trouble narrowing it down to 10, so instead we did a Top 15 list! Let us know what movies you are lookin...

The follow up to Justice League: War is basically Aquaman: The Movie (similar to how Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox was a Flash movie). Based on the graphic novel of the same name, Arthur Curry is introduced to the Super Seven... I mean, Justice League! When Orm threatens to destroy the surface world, Arthur must accept his destiny and join forces with the League in order to stop him! What...

For our end-of-the-year episode, we are watching the final chapter in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Return of the King! Winner of 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Return of the King finishes the story started by Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn and the others in The Fellowship of the Ring. It's hard to believe this movie is 19 years old! We welcome back John to the podcast for th...

Is it a Halloween movie? Is it a Christmas movie? Take your pick! This week the guys discuss the 1993 stop-motion masterpiece The Nightmare Before Christmas. If you've never seen it, do yourself a favor this holiday season and check it out. Even though Tim Burton's name is above the title, he didn't direct it (although everything on screen is very much his style and design). It was directed by Hen...

*Note* I gave this episode an explicit tag purely for the title of the film (which is also the name of the main character), which some might find inappropriate. There is no additional explicit language in this episode. In 2010, about ten years into the Superhero movie boom, director Matthew Vaughn delivered Kick-Ass: a comedy, action movie that simultaneously spoofs the superhero genre while also...

One of the earliest DC animated films adapted the "Public Enemies" storyline written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Ed McGuinness. Featuring the voice talents of Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly and Clancy Brown, it's almost like a Batman/Superman The Animated Series reunion, except the animation resembles Ed McGuinness's style more so than the classic Bruce Timm style (which I appreciate. I like that they tried...

In 1999, Universal rebooted one of their classic monster movies The Mummy. Writer/Director Stephen Sommers took on the challenge and brought us a humorous, adventure filled take on the story. Featuring perhaps a career defining performance for Brendan Fraser and Arnold Vosloo, the film also features future-Oscar winner Rachel Weisz. But does the movie hold up after 23 years? Check out the episode...

Happy Halloween! We decided to do a special episode for the holiday and discuss the second half of Stephen King's iconic story: IT. IT Chapter Two was released in 2019 and follows the grown-up counterparts to our young heroes from the first film. There has been some negative talk over this movie in the past, so what do Justin and Stew think of it? Is it as good as the first movie? Check it out and...

Eternals is possibly Marvel's most divisive film. Critics didn't seem to care for it; it has the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of any Marvel movie at 47%. Yet it's different than any Marvel movie that came before it. With a very large cast of characters, Eternals is directed by Academy Award winner Chloe Zhao who, as Stew says, "manages to deliver a diverse, high concept, philosophical superhero fi...