Drat Pack

Thanksgiving is nearly upon us, and the Why Watch crew is not very thankful for one of their dumber duller movies, 2005's looser-than-your-holiday-dinner-pants adaptation of the DC property Constantine starring Keanu Reeves. Why are Tilda Swinton and Peter Stormare the only magnetic presences? What's a half-breed angel or demon, and how could they exist in the first place if angels or demons can't...

No, it's not about adaptations. What a premature call THAT one was! Instead, we're talking about weaknesses. Be it a guilty pleasure or a kick to the crotch, we all have our weak spots, and movies are no exception. In this mini episode, the Why Watch crew gathers to talk about what one thing will make them interested in a movie despite all other warning flags. As usual, there's also the reveal of...

Our annual Halloween spooktacular is back, and this time it's featuring Dark Shadows! Ha ha, no, not the sequel to last month's The Shadow,  but a 2012 Tim Burton movie based off a gothic 60s soap opera you probably don't have much reason to remember. There's a whole bunch of Burton's usual gimmicks on display here, be they the washed-out colors, the Danny Elfman score, or the very talented and ve...

This mini, the crew imprisons a spirit they found lurking in their apartment, magically binds it to the table of their game room, and uses the latest scientific techniques to determine what, in fact, makes it tick. Or something like that. Actually, it's a lot of talk about what makes a movie scary to them, but really, it's the same basic idea. As always, there's plenty of drat chat about jump scar...

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows! And who remembers that weird time in the '90s when a bunch of studios made unsuccessful movies based on old-time pulp heroes? The Shadow remembers! And who can take this weirdly incoherent character sketch of a movie and reshape it into something worth watching? Well, hopefully Leigh, Brendan, Chris and returning guest Michael Messi...

For this mini, your pals at Why Watch decide to do something a little different. Each of them chooses a movie they wish had a sequel but never got one and pitches an idea for a sequel to it. Brendan tackles a dark animated movie from his childhood, Leigh continues an 80s sci-fi romance, and Chris of course posits a sequel to an over-the-top martial arts / historical drama / horror movie mess. All...

What do you get when you take a horny stupid jock boy and have him switch bodies with an uptight anal-retentive nerd girl? Did you guess It's a Boy Girl Thing, a "hilarious" take on gender roles that felt already years out of date by the time it was released that also featured Sharon Osbourne as an American mom, an endless series of sex jokes, and the song Candle in the Wind on endless repeat? No....

Are you adequately prepared for some sizzlin' hot takes??? Hey, wait, where are you going? Look, we went through the trouble of defining the parameters and writing things down so please listen. This mini episode sees the Drat Pack tackling critically-acclaimed movies that they just don't care about- not that they're BAD or anything, but they just don't do anything for us! We also do a brief thing...

What do you get when you take a studio desperate to reclaim its place at the top of the animated movie food chain and sell it on a pitch for a more grown-up action movie? Well, you get The Black Cauldron, or maybe Treasure Planet, or also possibly parts of Dinosaur, but in this specific case you end up with Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Join two-thirds of the Why Watch crew and their special auxiliar...

The crew is, for a brief time, all together this week, and we decide to spend the time chatting about our favorite sequences from film and TV alike. Join us as Leigh remembers how to podcast again and Chris and Brendan threaten to derail the entire discussion with talk of sexuality research and favored San Francisco haunts, then prepare for a DEEP DIVE into Disney when we reveal our next movie. As...

Let us tell you about our day so far. A themed cocktail in Boston, sat through the 2008 Doug Liman movie Jumper, took a little nap about thirty minutes in because it was a real snooze. Oh, yeah, we got our special guest Meghan Coyne to join us from Portland. And then we jumped back to discuss the poorly-realized universe and rules of the movie, the stunning lack of chemistry between the two leads,...

No, but not the movie Home Alone. Look, life comes at you fast, and sometimes you end up having to record a mini episode where no one is actually available. So really, there's nothing much to this one. It's summer! We were all very excited and had a lot of difficulty scheduling! So anyway, here's just Brendan letting you all know what the next movie and drink is. It's like two minutes long, so the...

Long ago, in the early year of 1978, the animator Ralph Bakshi forged a questionable adaptation of maybe 50% of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The fellowship of the Why Watch join forces with special guest Faith Johnson to analyze the problems of this dull and poorly-conceived semi-animated misfire. Is there actually a way someone could condense Tolkien's three dense volumes into two movi...

Look, it's an entire episode of Brendan's favorite segment, Looking to Score! Leigh, Brendan, and Chris gather together to discuss their favorite film scores, composers, the use of themes and leitmotifs, and sometimes even video game music because when YOU have your own podcast, you can discuss what YOU want. Also there's a drink recipe for our next movie, a feature about a certain ring and the lo...

HEADS UP: Apologies in advance for the audio problems due to our remote recording- we’ll explain in the episode, but enjoy a belated Star Wars Day (or The Force Aw8ens or whatever) with our Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones discussion! Leigh, Brendan, Chris, and Brendan sit down with a bloody sandy drink to discuss what specifically makes Anakin a bad character, what is Count Dooku’s pu...

What's this jazz? A mini episode that's effectively just a regular episode? Sure, why not! The movie may have come out a few months ago, but the two Brendans and Chris have still been mulling over La La Land a lot. What precisely was it that had the three of them leaving the theater thinking "Meh?" Sit down with the guys of the Why Watch crew as they discuss the characters, the songs, and how the...

We're gonna watch a bad James Bond / We're gonna drink some cocktails / We're gonna fix this movie / We're gonna discuss this film now / I guess it's Die Another Day? That's right, podcast listeners, our movie this month is the 23rd James Bond movie, the woefully incoherent Die Another Day. Leigh, Brendan, Chris and other Brendan kick back with some drinks and talk about the glaring issues at hand...

Heeya! Pow! Hi-keeba! These are just some of the noises that someone might make in an action movie. To hear the others, please listen to our discussion minisode on the subject! There's a whole bunch of conversation starters at play here, including acting, story, and what flavors of action make your pectorals flex with excitement. We'll announce the upcoming movie we'll be punching up along with TW...

An incomprehensible sci-fi plot, sex as an economic commodity, and an indie sensibility that just won't quit- take all these ingredients, throw in a winter sangria, and what do you have? Regrettably, you have the 2005 Hal Hartley movie The Girl from Monday. Harkening back to last year's Bunraku, Leigh puts forth this mopey mess for Brendan and Chris to make sense of. How could this Dutch-angled dy...

Sometimes, you want to get an episode in the can and so you record it before the Academy Awards. This is one of those times. In lieu of any discussion about that CRAZY Best Picture thing last night, here is the second part of our conversation about romantic comedies. Because really, what else can we talk about for March if not the Oscars? St. Patrick's Day movies? 45 minutes about Darby O'Gill and...

Back in 2011, there was just one question on everyone's lips: how many dudes have you fucked? Leigh, Brendan, and Chris take on What's Your Number?, a rom com that deals with the fallout from this very question with their special Valentine, Caitlin Crain. Is the movie actually slut shaming the main character? How much unclothed Chris Evans is too much unclothed Chris Evans? Will Leigh ever stop ta...

Love is in the air and rom coms are in your ears on our latest minisode! Leigh worked long and hard to break down romantic comedies into ten cloyingly-named categories for her, Brendan, and Chris to discuss: from Chance Encounters of the Third Kind to Rom Com Cons. Slip into something more comfortable as we reveal our special Valentine's Day romantic comedy movie and drink recipe, and rate us on i...

The wives of Stepford have a secret, and if that secret is how to remake The Stepford Wives as a dark comedy, they're certainly not sharing. Nonetheless, Leigh, Brendan, and Chris are as eager as a trophy wife is to clean her kitchen to tackle this half-baked coconut cake of a movie. Topics for the discussion group include a comparison to the original satirical thriller, what the hell happens to t...

It's a new year, and as is befitting the end of 2016 we are all very tired and / or sick. The entire Why Watch crew used text-to-speech apps to record this very short episode with no additional information other than our January movie and drink recipe. Enjoy the bleak and horrible future represented by this minisode, and rate us on iTunes and Stitcher, follow us @whywatchpodcast, like us at facebo...

Odds are, at some point you've had to sit through at least one amateur production of The Nutcracker. However terrible it may have been, the Why Watch crew will still guarantee that it's less inept and woefully executed than The Nutcracker in 3D. Curl up with your spiked hot cocoa as we discuss Tim Rice adding lyrics to Tchaikovsky's score, the casting of Nathan Lane as Albert Einstein as Dr. Dross...