Diminishing Returns

We technically covered King Kong vs. Godzilla back during our King Kong episode in 2017 (episode #40) but Godzilla set an early precedent for "raiding again" and so, this week, we're joined by film-maker and critic, James Perkins, for an enthusiastic Diminishing Returns kaiju-konversation©. We had to do something what with Godzilla vs. Kong coming out later this month!

The first of many 2020 Coronavirus time-capsule episodes where we covered a film tying into a new release, only for the film to be yanked from the schedule at the last minute. This time, it's our Coming to America episode, tying into Coming 2 America, which is out on Amazon Prime Video this week.

Fight choreographer and stage-combat instructor, Kiel O'Shea, stops by to help Diminishing Returns dissect Ridley Scott's Gladiator.

What is this? A crossover episode? Yes. Diminishing Returns collides with The British Sitcom History Podcast this week, with a look at the 1972 film spin-off of classic sitcom Steptoe and Son.

It's Valentine's Day so things are about to get sexy. But it's also a Kubrick episode so things are probably also about to get cold and meticulous and obsessive. Phwoar!

Diminishing Returns are joined by Alana Johnston to tackle the divisive WW84 (or Wonder Woman 1984, depending on who you ask). To quote Alana: "It's a wild ride".

We forgot to delay our episode when Escape Room 2's release got delayed from this week, so screw it. Here's an episode about Escape Room featuring Calvin!

We're keeping things highbrow, this year, as we follow last week's Kes episode with an episode (finally) tackling the enigma that is Werner Herzog. Joining us to look at his 1977 film, Stroszek, is one of our most exciting guests to date: Herzog-expert, Dallas Campbell!

We're joined by Lianna Holston and Siena Jeakle of Tossed Popcorn (formerly Frankly, My Dear -- as referred to in the episode), a podcast where two people who don't watch movies watch their way through the AFI Top 100. Given that we're British, we thought we'd subject them to something from the BFI Top 100, instead, so here we are: Ken Loach's classic slice of social realist drama, Kes.

Introducing Wandy Newman Sings Diminishing Returns, the brand new album featuring never-before-heard outtakes from past Diminishing Returns recording sessions!

We're so nearly there... 2020 is nearly over. But first, we need to have a frank discussion about Peninsula, Tremors: Shrieker Island, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Tenet, Bill & Ted Face the Music, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run and Mank... in that order. Also: a fun music quiz. Who will win...

It's that time again where we release truncated Diminisode edits from our Patreon (available for $1 a month at patreon.com/dimreturns) into the wild alongside a whole load of extra commentary, quiz games and more! This week covers Cats, Bad Boys for Life, Dolittle, Sonic the Hedgehog, the 2020 Oscars, The Jesus Rolls and the live-action remake of Mulan. Come back next week for the rest of 2020 inc...

As is now Christmas tradition, we threw a selection of Christmas movies out to our Patreon subscribers and let them choose which one we should cover for what is now the fifth Christmas special of Diminishing Returns (that's almost as many as One Foot in the Grave). They chose Die Hard, so Calvin was furious - hear all about it, now!

First up: vote for Sol's iHeart podcast pilot, Development Hell, at nextgreatpodcast.com Now then... tying into the upcoming release of Pixar's Soul, we let Patreon select a Pixar film for us to cover on the show. They went with Monsters, Inc., so here we are.

First of all, head over to https://nextgreatpodcast.tongal.com and vote for Sol's new podcast pilot, Development Hell, to go to series at iHeartRadio! (It's nothing to do with that previous Development Hell show). Then you can listen to this week's episode with a clean conscience as Sol repeatedly begs you to go and vote in between discussing Con Air with Allen and preparing/eating his dinner. Yep...

In a move we bet nobody saw coming, Diminishing Returns brings you its first Christopher Guest episode!

After three weeks of zombie movies, SpongeBob and the worst James Bond movie ever made, it's about time Diminishing Returns got stuck into something a bit high-brow for a change. That's why we gave our Patrons the option to select a film off the American Film Institute's list of greatest movies ever made. Thankfully, they chose Citizen Kane, which also ties into the upcoming release of David Finch...

It's the end of the Pierce Brosnan era! Die Another Day is famously Sol and Allen's go-to answer to "worst James Bond movie of all time". Does it live up (down?) to the hype? As usual, Calvin is on hand to try and keep them in check.

Tying into the UK-release of Sponge On the Run, the third SpongeBob SquarePants movie, we're covering the previous two SpongeBob SquarePants movies, which is going to be interesting to say Allen has never seen a single episode of the series before...

The final, most Halloweeny part of this year's three-part Halloween special takes a look at our two remaining George A. Romero zombie movies: 1985's Day of the Dead and 2005's Land of the Dead. We also touch on Taurus Entertainment's continued attempts to draw blood from a stone.

This year's three-part Diminishing Returns Halloween special continues with the next two movies in George A. Romero's "Of the Dead" zombie franchise: Survival of the Dead and Dawn of the Dead. We take a look at Zack Snyder's 2004 remake, too.

Diminishing Returns are going big for Halloween, this year, with a three-part "Podcast of Horror" special! We've been wanting to cover George A. Romero's "Of the Dead" zombie franchise for years, now, but we've finally found a solid place to fit them all in in a way that can do them justice. Looking at the films in the order of their internal chronology, we're starting, this week, with Night of th...

It's a particularly exciting week for Diminishing Returns - not because of the films we're covering (definitely not). No, it's an exciting week because we're joined by the one and only Jeff Davis to discuss all things Teen Wolf, including its transition from a questionable Michael J. Fox vehicle into a sexy, teen-drama series on MTV.

Murder, murder, murder! In a Diminishing Returns first (not counting that Diminisode where we covered Knives Out), we take a look at a murder mystery movie! It's Murder on the Orient Express, taking aim at the 1974 Sidney Lumet film starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot and the 2017 Kenneth Branagh version in anticipation of its sequel, Death on the Nile, which was due out this week but has sin...

We had arguably the most exciting episode of Diminishing Returns yet all lined up, but our special guest had to postpone at the 11th hour, leaving us scrambling for content. We popped on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and two and a half hours later, we recorded this: an unusually impromptu edition of the podcast. Fret not, though, because we have yet another incredibly special guest coming up two...