Filmjitsu! The Podcast that wields films as deadly weapons

The fireworks may be over and the grill has gone cold, but Filmjitsu is still celebrating! This week, Jay and Mike recount their trip to the theater for the long-awaited return of Masters of the Universe . After a first trailer that inspired more dread than excitement, could a reported $200 million blockbuster based on an '80s toy line really succeed where the 1987 Dolph Lundgren adaptation stumbl...

Since this episode lands on Father's Day, Jay decides to do something thematic for a change and assigns Mike one of the most acclaimed and divisive films of the 21st century: Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life . Is the film a profound meditation on fathers and sons, memory, grief, faith, and the very nature of existence? Or is it an overlong exercise in whispered narration, floating cameras, and c...

On this episode of Filmjitsu, Mike decides he'd like to "extend winter" a little longer by assigning Jay the Netflix holiday rom-com Hot Frosty . A calculated attempt to exploit Jay's well-documented affection for romantic comedies, this weird take on Frosty the Snowman stars Hallmark Channel royalty Lacey Chabert and a magically animated snowman blessed with abs that could cut glass. Is it a surp...

This week on Filmjitsu, Mike is subjected to Bolero , the infamous 1984 erotic drama directed by John Derek and starring his wife, Bo Derek, in what may be the most lavishly photographed vanity project ever unleashed upon unsuspecting audiences. Was this a genuinely misguided attempt at prestige filmmaking, or simply expensive late-night cable fodder pretending to be profound? Mike and Jay attempt...

On this episode of the podcast that wields films like deadly weapons, the guys return from a brief hiatus to tackle one of the strangest high-concept movies of the last decade: The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot . Starring the eternally weathered and deeply mustachioed Sam Elliott, the film answers its wacky title with meditations on aging, government conspiracies, and wartime trauma....

On this special “From the Vault” episode of the podcast that wields films like deadly weapons, Jay and Mike hit pause on their usual cycle of cinematic punishment to dig into the archives and revisit a piece of Filmjitsu history. With many of the most infamous “bad movie” staples already covered during the show’s original run, some titles have been left in limbo... until now. This week, the vault...

On this episode of the podcast that wields films like deadly weapons, Mike is sent straight into the molten chaos of Volcano (1997) , the disaster of a disaster movie starring Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, and what appears to be a Hell of a lot of molten Velveeta flowing through the streets of Los Angeles. Directed by Mick Jackson, this late-’90s spectacle swaps out an actual volcano for an endless...

On this episode of the podcast that wields films like deadly weapons, Jay is forced to endure Roar (1981), the infamous “no animals were harmed” production where, somehow, nearly every human involved absolutely was. Starring Tippi Hedren and directed by Noel Marshall, this real-life experiment in living alongside big cats quickly becomes a chaotic showcase of exactly why that should never be attem...

Justice arrives on this episode of the podcast that wields films like deadly weapons. Mike and Jay finally tallied the listener poll results for 2025's Dueling Double Bills series, and because the guys tied during last year’s competition, they were saddled with an appropriately cursed outcome. Jay must face the chaotic animatronic pairing of Tammy and the T-Rex and Howard the Duck , while Mike som...

With Oscar season upon us, Mike and Jay revisit one of the most debated Best Picture winners of the modern era: Crash (2004), Paul Haggis’s ensemble drama about race, prejudice, and the tangled moral collisions of Los Angeles. Hailed in 2005 as urgent and important, and dismissed just as quickly in the years since as heavy-handed and self-congratulatory, Crash now lands in a cultural moment where...

In one of the stranger twists of fate, Mike slaps Jay with the exact movie Jay had been planning to assign next: the sun-bleached slab of questionable ‘80s excess known as Blame It on Rio . The infamous 1984 comedy stars Michael Caine and was directed by Stanley Donen, yes, the very same Stanley Donen who gave us Singin’ in the Rain . This time, however, decorum is tossed aside in favor of ribald...

This week on Filmjitsu , Mike takes on As the Gods Will (2014), Takashi Miike’s candy-colored death-game nightmare where innocent children’s games turn lethally absurd in record time. Equal parts brutal, bizarre, and uncomfortably playful, it’s a film that dares you to keep up as the rules change and the bodies pile up because... reasons? After the main review, the guys unleash their Bottom Five D...

On this episode of the podcast that wields films like deadly weapons, Mike bludgeons Jay with a three-hour, brown-toned cudgel of 1997 prestige cinema called The Postman . Another Kevin Costner-as-savior slog, this one delivers its punishment via sheer runtime, self-importance, and, somehow, Tom Petty as the mayor of a post-apocalyptic city. After the main review, pack a lunch and be sure to leave...

Welcome to the 2025 ’Jitsu Awards ! Every January, the fools behind Filmjitsu gather for a very special episode, where Mike and Jay look back at the 25+ terrible movies they endured in 2025 and attempt to extract whatever scraps of value remain. Will Nicolas Cage take home Best Actor simply for showing up in Left Behind ? Can Roseanne Barr topple her co-star Meryl Streep from She-Devil for Best Ac...

Just four days before Christmas, the holiday that somehow balances goodwill and rampant consumerism with alarming confidence, Filmjitsu unwraps its latest seasonal offering: a full review of Love Actually . Richard Curtis’s 2003 all-star rom-com is a film that lives in two completely different cultural realities at once: perpetually lodged near the top of “Best Christmas Movies Ever” lists, while...

Filmjitsu rings in the holidays with Mike wielding a film as a deadly weapon that nobody asked Santa for: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie’s Island Adventure . A festive disaster more off-putting than kitty kibble fruitcake, and the guys follow it up with their Bottom Five Spin-offs , a rundown of the most unnecessary cinematic continuations ever inflicted on an audience. The...

Filmjitsu puts a (fashionably late) final piece of candy into your Halloween haul with a review of the 1987 no-budget German exercise in poor taste, Nekromantik. Yeah, it’s about what it sounds like, and yes, it goes exactly where you think it will. But could anyone have predicted that Mike would react so violently to Jay’s cinematic claymore that he’d end up in the hospital? Mike recounts how thi...

The Filmjitsu Halloween train keeps 'a-rollin' with special guests Justin Santo and Diego Santo-Munoz who join their dad, regular co-host Jay, for an impromptu examination of the entire Final Destination franchise! From death by speeding bus to piercings in uncomfortable places, this horror-heavy episode braves some dangerous and bizarre twists of fate during the main review of every film in this...

It’s that time of year again—the pumpkins are lit, the coffins creak open, and the Filmjitsu Halloween Series rises from the grave! In this first of three frights for the season, Mike hands Jay a slice of ‘90s pay-cable horror cheese: Tales from the Crypt Presents: Bordello of Blood! Starring Dennis Miller as a snarky private eye investigating a brothel full of bloodsuckers, this late-night relic...

After many years of bad-movie watching, the guys finally make their way to Uwe Boll, the infamous shlock director whose career largely consists of nearly unwatchable videogame adaptations. In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale was Boll's 2007 attempt at a big-budget, all-star adventure and Jay - on the advice of an old friend - drops this $60 million dollar bomb on Mike's head. As he's don...

Tackling something entirely new for Filmjitsu , Mike slaps Jay with the huge cinematic tortilla that is the 2019 documentary/mockumentary Wrinkles the Clown. And Jay, mouth full of water and brain full of contempt, does his best to keep himself together while discussing clown fear, parenting and Inuit folktales. This is a weird one for sure, but the guys return to their usual shenanigans while cou...

Attention Filmjitsu listeners! With no reason beyond a desire to watch and review a b-movie with a respected pair of other podcasters, Mike and Jay invited Ross Bratin and Tripp Burton from the movie-review pod A Tripp Through Comedy for their first Podcast Collab Special! And what movie could possibly warrant enough discussion for four film podcasters? Why Frankenhooker of course! This 1990 horro...

As "Hot Filmjitsu Summer 2025" concludes, Jay "Streep-slaps" Mike with the Meryl Streep grenade he annually pulls the pin on. This year Mike had to endure "She-Devil," a 1989 "comedy" about a housewife seeking revenge on her philandering husband by punishing the high-society romance novelist who stole him. Featuring the unlikely combo of Meryl Streep and Roseanne Barr as its headliners, "She-Devil...

Mike sends Jay back to the beaches of 1993 with Weekend at Bernie’s II , the definition of an unnecessary sequel that doubles down on absurdity by giving everyone’s favorite dead guy a tropical vacation, a voodoo curse, and an uncanny ability to boogie. Will Jay find the sun-soaked slapstick charming, or will Bernie’s reanimated antics leave them washed ashore in cinematic despair? After the main...

As the 2025 version of Superman cleans up at the global box office, Jay sends Mike to 1987 to watch the most maligned version of "the man of steel" this side of anything Zack Snyder touched. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was Christopher Reeve's final screen outing as the character which began with the largely beloved '78 Superman . Will their respect for the actor's undeniable skill and charism...