Hard Ticket

It's a hard ticket between Winter Light and First Reformed . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! We're rounding out our own 2026 "God trilogy" with a classic church dilemma: traditional or contemporary? Ingmar Bergman might have pioneered the public struggle of a director with his own faith, and Paul Schrader is no stranger to overt influence. These two films strike a remarkable similarity, wi...

It's a hard ticket between Bruce Almighty and Click . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! We're dumbing down our theological discussion from last week with two "divine comedies" from the lowest common denominator. It's Carey vs. Sandler, a battle of the 90s comedians lost in soft-Bible-core 2000s vehicles. Would you rather be instilled with the powers of God, or yield them in a MacGuffin that...

Last week, the Academy announced its nominees for the 98th annual Oscars, and we've got opinions. What's the consensus? Were you shocked? Stunned? Agape? What do you think was the biggest snub? Does anyone have their win totally locked down? We've got a while until we know the winners, but for now, let's enjoy some discourse!

It's a hard ticket between The Truman Show and The Matrix . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! This is our season two premiere, so we're kicking things off with one of our "duel of the fates" matchups: pairings we've had lined up since the conception of our show. This week's task is a truly hard one. To choose between these two classics is brutal . Of course, we had to. But which one do you p...

We interrupt this program to bring you... The Blind Spots! Josh and Jeff are "movie guys." Therefore, any time they haven't seen somebody's favorite, they catch this phrase: " What? You like movies and you've never seen ___?" On The Blind Spots , one of us has and one of us hasn't. This is our way to catch those final moments of not having seen a film, watch it...

It seems like the world is eager to leave behind 2025. But which movies did it offer worth taking with us into the future? In this special year in review, the Hard Ticket boys are drawing movies from a hat to get through as many of this past year's releases as possible. There's a timer, messages from past guests, and a whole lot of fun to see off this abysmal year. It's better than it...

It's a hard ticket between Sinners and From Dusk Till Dawn . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! For our season one finale and final matchup of the year, we wanted to talk about one of 2025's heaviest hitters. Seeing as Ryan Coogler based his smash hit on the 1996 Robert Rodriguez cult classic, we figured they'd be a fitting pair. Boy, were we right. From preachers to vampires to sieges to the...

It's a hard ticket between Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! Of course, in talking about the most contentious blockbuster of all time, this isn't a particularly hard ticket for some. In fact, both of these movies could be considered pretty contentious. Both could also be considered the best of their re...

It's a hard ticket between Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! In 1964, in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, two directors decided to take the same story in vastly different directions. The result is this notorious Sidney Lumet v. Stanley Kubrick matchup-double-feature. One is a satire, one a damning social mirror. Those, we suppose, could be the same thing...

It's a hard holiday ticket between Planes, Trains and Automobiles and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! Every year, some choose to watch both. They're holiday classics, after all. The holidays in question may be technically different, but we think a thematic genre universality binds them, as well as a tightly-wound holiday prick prone to rage-induced o...

It's a hard ticket between Into the Wild and Nomadland. Which one will you watch? Let's decide! This was the perfect scenario to bring on longtime friend of the podcast Rob Simmons, Jeff's creative collaborator, fellow filmmaker and adopter of the van lifestyle. Rob has a unique and certainly appropriate perspective to bring to the discussion concerning transience on film. Who did it better? Well,...

It's a hard ticket between Braveheart and The Patriot . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! In sort of a quasi-Thanksgiving episode, we're talking two flicks that impress an overwhelming amount of patriotism onto their audience. Yes, Braveheart does, too. It's Mel Gibson at peak Mel Gibson. It's the nineties at peak nineties. It's contemporary EPIC FILM in bold, capital letters. Which freedom...

It's a hard ticket between Risky Business and Ferris Bueller's Day Off . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! This matchup, an obvious one in retrospect, was suggested by Letterboxd user Scrambled, so we decided to invite them on to cover it! There's more to these two movies than just fancy cars and the windy city (although, those are some pretty cool similarities right off the bat). In this ep...

It's a hard ticket between Strays and Fixed . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! We're in the doghouse this week (and we'll never get tired of these puns). Between the two R-rated, canine sex-comedies of the 2020s, the comparisons just make themselves. Do you prefer the foul-mouthed pack of Josh Greenbaum's photorealistic Strays , or the hand-drawn, domestic defiance of Genndy Tartakovsky's F...

Well Linus, another Halloween has come and gone. We had a blast talking about all these horror matchups and bringing on this past month's guests. We had a couple dangling thoughts leading out of October and wanted to pull back the curtain and give you all a little behind the scenes look at what goes into planning these episodes and what we've got coming up for the future. As always, thanks for lis...

It's a hard ticket between Jaws and Halloween . Which one will you watch? Well, we brought aboard filmmaker and friend of the podcast Logan Bilbrough to help us decide! We're wrapping up our Hard Ticket to Halloween horror month, and we're going out with a bang. These two flicks are two of the biggest we've yet to cover on our show, so the ticket is harder than ever. This Halloween, are you ventur...

It's a hard ticket between House (1977) and Evil Dead II! Which one will you watch? Let's decide! Hard Ticket to Halloween continues this week with "horror of the absurd." These two flicks preclude genre trends (except maybe in reference to one another); they feel plucked out of time, indigenous to the minds of their notorious craftsmen. This is Sam Raimi vs. Nobuhiko Obayashi. This is as haunted...

It's a hard ticket between The Descent and Barbarian , so we brought in one half of the Head on a Stick team to help us decide! This week, Aaron Radcliff helps us determine which subterranean horror feature takes our ticket. Will it be Neil Marshall's leading-edge spelunking trip gone wrong, or Zach Cregger's contemporary Airbnb boogeyman story? Either way, we're content staying on the surface thi...

It's a hard ticket between Hostel and House of 1,000 Corpses. Which one will you watch? Well, we brought on Jeffrey Scott from our neighboring podcast Head on a Stick to help us decide! Hard Ticket to Halloween continues! And, at the request of loyal listener and longtime friend of the pod Hannah Guilliams, we're making our brave foray into the world of torture porn. What fun is any of this if we'...

It's a hard ticket to Halloween! And we're kicking off spooky season with two faux-horror flicks to ease us in. This week pits The Cabin in the Woods against Tucker & Dale vs. Evil . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! Is horror the tropiest genre? Eli Craig and Drew Goddard are certainly having fun playing with our expectations. These horror-comedies held our hands into the 2010s, pioneer...

It's a hard ticket between Big Shark and Sharknado . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! That's right, we had the pleasure of screening Tommy Wiseau's vaguely unfinished, long-awaited followup to The Room. Since it hasn't had an official release outside of very selective theaters, we go a little more in-depth about what you'll see when you can finally stream Big Shark from home. And, of course...

It's a gray ticket among the works of the Russo brothers post- Avengers . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! That's right, this week is a four movie matchup among 21 Bridges , Extraction , Cherry and The Gray Man . We know the Russos didn't direct all four (we see you Brian Kirk and Sam Hargrave), but how much of a difference does that actually make? Well, we'll tell you. Join us as we wade k...

It's a hard ticket between This is Spinal Tap and The Rutles: All You Need is Cash . Which one will you watch? Let's decide! Often cited as one of the classic mockumentaries, even popularizing the term into the 1990s and beyond, Spinal Tap brought its comedic spin on the "behind-the-music" genre to the mainstream. But did you know that Eric Idle of Monty Python fame beat Rob Reiner to the punch wi...

It's a hard ticket between Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Which one will you watch? Let's decide! These two tonally different movies have a lot in common: a surreal reality, relationship baggage, a geeky underdog protagonist and the girl who's constantly changing the color of her hair; and many more! For all our fellow cinephiles out there, this is a big one...

It's a hard ticket between 1917 and Dunkirk , and we've brought in filmmaker Davis Rohrer to help us weigh the options. Davis is the creator of The 6 Shop Films, a filmmaking team comprised of former and currently serving members of the U.S. Armed Forces. We thought he would provide some great perspective in our first episode covering war as a genre. These two movies are often cited as two of the...