Film Utopia

Film Utopia’s trek into the stars temporarily docks at Deep Space Nine and Steven, Benjamin, and Sean head into Quark’s Bar for a cup of Raktajino and a chat about the mid 90s TNG spin-off series. Coming off of the popularity of TNG was no easy task for any writer, and Steven and Benjamin certainly weren’t impressed with the lack of literal forward momentum of the show’s setting. However, for Sean...

The voyage continues as we tackle the powerhouse middle and late seasons of TNG, where the series continues going from strength to strength (apart from that mid season 7 run of shite episodes). But that doesn’t spoil it enough to stop the love train for all three of us as we continue to heap praise on the characters, the moral dilemmas, and the storytelling heights that cemented TNG as a sci-fi ma...

Steven, Benjamin, and Sean “make it so” and engage at warp 9.8 into Star Trek: The Next Generation. A new crew, a new ship, and much love all round as all three of us are massive fans of this particular series! We talk about the show’s rocky first steps, the gradual sharpening of its identity, and the characters who made the Enterprise-D feel like a top-heavy home. From the French Captain Jean-Luc...

Steven, Benjamin, and Sean beam back to the Original Series; the three seasons of Trek that started it all. It’s fond nostalgia overall, especially for the iconic brilliance of Seasons 1 and 2, where the stories hit warp speed, the ideas were truly “final-frontier-level,” and Shatner’s shirt seemed contractually obligated to be torn every third episode. We dive into classic adventures, legendary c...

This week on Film Utopia, Steven, Benjamin, and Sean break the established rules of transportation range and lens-flare their way into the Kelvin Timeline movies. Starting with the J.J. Abrams helmed Star Trek (2009) and its follow up, Into (Shit) Darkness, and finally the Justin Lin directed Star Trek: Beyond. Strap yourself in because things get… testy. There’s not a huge amount of love for J.J....

On this episode of Film Utopia, Steven, Benjamin, and Sean set phasers to stun and warp into the Next Generation era of Star Trek movies, covering Generations to Nemesis; a run of films that ranges from sublime to “why did they write it like that?” We tackle the saggy, pacing-challenged middle of Generations, mourn the disgracefully anticlimactic death of Captain Kirk, and collectively shake our h...

Welcome to the first episode of our giant summer retrospective! Yes! Goddammit, Jim! We’re doing Star Trek! All of Star Trek! Join us as Steven, Benjamin, and Sean boldly go back and revisit the original cast movies, from The Motion Picture to The Undiscovered Country, with wildly different energy levels, varying degrees of patience, and one host (Sean) who is clearly not firing on all thrusters....

Steven, Benjamin, and Sean crawl through the air vents of action cinema to break down the Die Hard formula, where it came from, and hopefully mention every last “Die Hard on a…” clone that followed. We talk about the films that honoured the blueprint, the ones that shamelessly photocopied it, and the ones that looked at John McClane’s shoes and thought, “Bare feet? Easy.” Expect Skyscrapers, boats...

Steven, Benjamin, and Sean strap in for a cinematic panic attack as we dive head-first into the bleak, obsessive, beautifully unhinged world of Darren Aronofsky. From the head-drilling mathematical madness of Pi, to the operatic nightmare of Requiem For a Dream – the cinematic equivalent of being run over by a train made of violins and bad decisions – continuing through the cosmic grief of The Fou...

Steven and Benjamin are joined by special guest Max for a general chat on Martial Arts action stars and movies. From early memories of David Carradine in Kung Fu to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies on video rental, through the action explosion of the 80s with Cannon Films mainstay Chuck Norris and beyond to the 90s DTV nonsense. Expect detours into Hong Kong cinema, the usual suspects of Van Damme...

Following on from last year’s MCU & DCEU episodes, Steven and Benjamin catch up with the latest releases from each studio to mostly share a collective ‘WTF?’. Expect candid reactions to Wandavision, Wonder Woman 1984, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and last but not least, Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

Film Utopia kick off the new year by winding back the cinema clock to 1994 for an in depth look at what floated our boats back then, and what still does now. A year of certified bangers to be sure, including Ace Ventura, Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, Forest Gump, Four Weddings and a Funeral. But also, bizarrely, a tonne of ‘twin’ movies: Skydiving? There’s Terminal Velocity and Drop Zone...

Steven, Benjamin, and Sean dive into the dynamic, bombastic, time-travelling, jungle-thundering, motion-captured musical universe of Alan Silvestri. We cover his entire theatrical composer filmography, from cult curios and early oddities, through the Spielberg/Zemeckis collaborations, all the way to the modern mega-franchises. It’s hard not to dwell on the heavy-hitters, so naturally, we spend amp...

Steven, Benjamin, and Sean spend some long overdue time paying tribute to the late, great Bill Paxton – one of our favourite character actors. With undeniable energy and some of the most memorable performances in cinema history, Paxton really delivered the goods for the three of us throughout our collective cinema-going history. Terminator, Aliens, Near Dark, True Lies, Titanic, Twister, The Dark...

Steven, Benjamin, and Sean take a breezy stroll through the first three phases of the MCU, from the spark of Iron Man to the finishing blow of Endgame. It’s a loose, lively chat packed with fond memories, strong opinions, and the occasional nerd detour. There’s unanimous love for Civil War, plenty of admiration for the early world-building magic of phase 1, and a healthy back-and-forth on the hits...

The FU lads strap themselves in for a rather strong worded chat about the DCEU; Every movie up to this point, from Man of Steel to Birds of Prey. Expect mixed opinions at the start, followed by unanimous lambasting as we talk through the films.

Steven, Benjamin, Sean, and Max return for Part 2 of our AvPvRvT franchise free for all, this time diving head first into the cold, corporate dystopia of Robocop and the time-shredding chaos of The Terminator. Expectedly, there’s unanimous love for Verhoeven’s Robocop, but the debate gets spicy regarding the Director’s Cut extra splatter – especially Murphy’s gloriously excessive death scene. Max...

Steven, Benjamin, and Sean are joined by returning guest Max for a monster mash of metal, mandibles, xenomorph goo, and time-travel tantrums. It’s Alien vs Predator vs Robocop vs Terminator – and absolutely nothing is sacred. In Part 1, we dive claw-first into the Alien and Predator franchises, plus the disappointing AvP double bill. While the holy classics of Alien and Aliens are lifelong favouri...

Time to raid the closet for those movie skeletons! Steven, Benjamin, and Sean come clean on a few embarrassing film choices that they find enjoyment in while others would rather do anything else than rewatch.

Steven, Benjamin, and Sean discuss all things sequels. The good, the bad, and the pointless. There’s far too many to mention, but we certainly try to mention as many as possible, especially from our ‘era’.

Steven, Benjamin, and Sean are joined by practical FX wizard Max to offer some insight into the goo-soaked, latex-stretched, animatronic madness of Rob Bottin’s legendary career. From the creeping dread of The Fog and the transformative nightmares of The Howling, to The Thing’s still-unmatched body-horror masterclass. We chart Bottin’s rise as one of cinema’s greatest ever special makeup effects a...

Before we went any further with our Film Utopia mission, we felt it right to reveal our very own ‘film utopias’. Steven, Benjamin, and Sean each deliver their top 10 movies of all time with, surprisingly, almost zero crossover. Steven’s penchant for ranking things and making lists in his spare time makes the task easy, whereas Benjamin and Sean struggle with the levels of OCD required to undertake...

Steven, Benjamin, and Sean finally deep-dive the directorial filmography of Canadian auteur film maker David Cronenberg. A master of psychological intensity, body horror, and the patron saint of psychosexual science fiction, Cronenberg’s filmograpy runs the gamut from head-popping, stomach-churning horror to supernatural thriller with pit stops at biographical history, comic book adaptations, and...

Steven, Ben and Sean return to the 80s once more to take a look at the year in film for 1987 – and are dumbstruck at how many classics reside there! Predator, Lethal Weapon, and Robocop all started in 1987, we also got horror classics Evil Dead 2 and Hellraiser as well as two of the best Vampire films made to date in The Lost Boys and Near Dark. But there were plenty of laughs too from Steve Marti...

Welcome to The Film Utopia Podcast! Steven, Benjamin, and Sean kick things off with a retrospective on one of their favourite years in cinema history, 1982. A year teaming with some of the most important and groundbreaking science fiction films ever created; The Thing, Blade Runner, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior), Tron, and E.T. – and that’s just one genre! Strap in...