CinemArcade

Everyone's favorite fearless feline hero gets to take center stage in the 2011 spin-off PUSS IN BOOTS! We're joined this week by Austin comedian and podcaster Aaron Salinas, who takes us through his history with Antonio Banderas' loveable swashbuckler, before booting up the Wii game that makes expected use of the console's swordfighting capabilities.  Hosted by Steve Guntli, Jennifer "JBan" Bannis...

Our SHREK-sploration comes to a close this week as we say goodbye to the big green ogre with SHREK FOREVER AFTER! This most recent entry (to date) sports much more sophisticated animation and a cleaner, more plot-focused structure, but has the series lost it's grimy soul? We'll get into it before busting out the PS3 multiplayer action game, which is already showing diminishing returns over the pre...

Is THE THIRD time the charm for the big green ogre? We're breaking it down this week as we cover SHREK THE THIRD as our shreksploration of Dreamworks' flagship franchise continues apace! Ailish Collins is back once again, stepping in for an absent Justin, as we struggle to remember the details of this air-light follow-up. Then, we're playing the PS2 action game that weirdly recalls beat-em-ups lik...

The big green ogre changed the game when SHREK debuted in 2001, and it's 2004 sequel showed that its success was not just a fluke. This week we're covering the monumentally successful SHREK 2, perhaps the financial and creative pinacle of the entire franchise. We're chatting this week with return guest Ailish Collins, who shares her special connection to the movie and also to the Gamecube game ada...

It's time to kick off one of our most-requested series to date: a five-episode deep dive into the swampy, fairy tale world of America's favorite ogre, SHREK! Hannah Neuhauser returns to the show to discuss the 2001 original, a fun summer comedy that wound up changing the way animated films were made and warping the collective brains of an entire generation. Then, we're checking out the Xbox game a...

Tough-talking guys, gorgeous gals, and lots of cars that go vroom; that's right, it's time for another Justin's Choice! This time, our resident gearhead has us in the pit for 1990's DAYS OF THUNDER, which reuinites the star and director of TOP GUN for a very TOP GUN-esque melodrama. Featuring Tom Cruise at his sexiest and Robert Duvall at his most lovably cantakerous, the movie doesn't have a lot...

It's our 150th episode! We thought we'd mark this milestone by digging up one of the least-likely movies to ever have a game adaptation: the 1982 raunchy teen sex comedy PORKY'S! This tiny little gross-out comedy from director Bob Clark became an unlikely sensation, making more than $200 million on a $4 million budget and creating an entire subgenre of horny high school knockoffs, but understandab...

Are ya ready kids? Because this week we're tackling the tiny yellow sponge who became a media juggernaut: SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS! We're covering the charming invertibrate's debut feature film from 2004, and exploring the generation-defining phenomenon that lives in a pineapple under the sea. Then, we're checking out the game adaptation for Xbox and discussing how SpongeBob is quietly one of the mos...

Sam Raimi, the enfant terrible of the indie horror scene, made his major studio debut in 1990 with DARKMAN! An original superhero story not-so-loosely inspired by "The Shadow," DARKMAN provides an early lead role for Liam Neeson, and a sort of prototype for what would become the Raimi house style. But is this an excercise in style over substance or is there something substantial lurking in the dar...

No other movie star has loomed quite as large as GODZILLA! This week we're checking out the icon of Japanese cinema in his very first appearance from 1954, and covering the long, complex, and fascinating history of filmdom's greatest kaiju. Then, we're digging in to a couple of classic games based on the character and his universe, including two oddball NES games and the SNES title SUPER GODZILLA!...

I am, I am... going to talk about NACHO LIBRE! This 2006 luchadore comedy offers an early starring role for Jack Black and a feature film follow-up for the director of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. But is this the right team to be telling this story? Or does this quirky family comedy offer enough charms to overcome that? We'll find out before popping in the DS-exclusive game adaptation, a hybrid of touch-scr...

Step through the giant ancient portal with us as we travel to a distant planet that looks strongly like ancient Egypt; if any of that made sense to you then you must be a fan of STARGATE! Roland Emmerich's splashy sci-fi spectacle has had a long and impactful tail in nerd culture, but is this movie the least essential part of it's legacy? We'll get into it, before playing the Sega Genesis game whi...

We're going from zero to hero this week as we cover Disney's 1997 interpretation of HERCULES! Coming right smack in the middle of the studio's major renaissance, the film was dinged at the time for being too lightweight, but it's that very breeziness that makes it a delight. We're covering the film before booting up the 2.5-D action platformer for the PS1 and PC! Hosted by Steve Guntli, Jennifer "...

Get ready to head to the hyperkinetic world of the future, where hands are used for feet and even the grass can kill you, as we cover the 2005 bomb AEON FLUX! Adapted from the cult MTV animated series, this movie gave Charlize Theron her start as an action heroine, but heavy studio meddling left moviegoers more baffled than enthralled. We go into exactly what went wrong before checking out the act...

This week we're closing the sarcophagus on the MUMMY franchise by looking at the oft-overlooked third entry, THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR. This movie mixes up the formula by adding a new villain, a new setting, and a new Evie, but do all these changes work for the better or is the series being resurrected for no good purpose? We'll find out before checking out the last of our MUMMY games,...

The Rock arrives as a movie star in the goofy barbarian actionerTHE SCORPION KING from 2002! This spinoff of the MUMMY franchise centers the pro wrestler to see if he has legs as an A-list star, and (spoiler alert) the guy has got the goods! We talk all about the Rock's career, review some of the history of the sword-and-sandal genre, and then take on two games: RISE OF THE AKKADIAN on Gamecube an...

Our buddy Jeffrey Chatman joins us this week to talk about the splashy sequel THE MUMMY RETURNS! Made less than 2 years after the original became a sleeper hit, the movie falls into a lot of traps that sequels often do, resulting in some predictable plot beats and some legendarily shoddy CGI. But is there anything worth salvaging from this quickie sequel or is is better left to rot in its tomb? We...

This week we're unearthing a new four-part miniseries exploring the 1999 reboot of the Universal classic THE MUMMY! Starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, the rip-snorting crowd-pleaser became a generational favorite and something of an awakening moment for a large portion of the population, launching a huge franchise in the process. We're checking out the first film in the series, as well as i...

Guys! The guardians! They're rising! And we're here to capture the holiday-ish magic!  This week is all about Dreamworks' largely forgotten animated film RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, in which the public-domain representatives of holidays (and seasons? And the concept of sleep?) come together to defeat the forces of cynicism. Which is ironic, because I feel like we approach this episode with a great deal...

Merry Christmas and a bah, humbug to you all! This week we're fully embracing our Christmas cheer (or lack thereof) by checking out the 2009 iteration of Charles Dickens' timeless classic A CHRISTMAS CAROL! Robert Zemeckis' stop-motion animated film features Jim Carrey as Scrooge, but don't expect the manic energy he brought to the Grinch: this is Carrey at his most stately and subdued, and weathe...

Dr. Seuss' timeless holiday classic gets a loud and abrasive feature-film adaptation with Ron Howard's HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS from 2000! Jim Carrey is putting in some work behind all of that amazing (and apparently agonizing) makeup, but is that enough to get past the film's harsh and weirdly creepy tone? We'll get into it, before we check out the game adaptation for the Dreamcast and PS1!...

What's this? Why it's an episode on the exquisite animated holiday staple THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, the perfect way to bring us into a month of Christmas movies! We cover the entire grueling saga of getting Henry Selick and Tim Burton's vision to the screen, and wax nostaligic about the incredible animation and timeless Danny Elfman score. Then, we're checking out two long-belated video game...

Don't you dare interrupt our groove, because this week is all about Disney's fun and featherlight comedy THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE! Despite it's loose and silly trappings, this was actually one of the most troubled Disney animated productions ever, and it was almost a very different movie than the one we ended up with. We're joined this week by actor and improviser Ananya Roy to revisit this 2000 a...

Catch the excitement! Catch the adventure! Catch... the baffling vanity project and massive box office bomb HUDSON HAWK! This week, we talk about the film that almost killed Bruce Willis' career before it had even really begun, a wildly expensive, tonally scattershot action comedy that suffered more behind-the-scenes drama than almost any other film of the 90s! And since this is the early 90s, any...

We're going big this week, and we do mean big: we're talking about Guillermo Del Toro's giddy genre throwback PACIFIC RIM, in which massive mechs pummel the crap out of gargantuan monsters, and we just get to sit back and enjoy the popcorn. It's a film that seems tailor-made for a video game adaptation, and yet the film produced only one half-hearted effort that isn't even available anymore; thank...