Have You Ever Seen

We end 2019 with a show about our favourites of the year and our year in podcasting. The bulk of the episode though highlights our faves of the past decade. In this Next 177 Project, we count from 10 down to 1 about which pictures impressed us the most between 2010 and 2019. No spoilers about what those titles will be....well, except to say that we didn't even find room on our lists for Inception...

Before you see Greta Gerwig's take on Louisa May Alcott's classic feminist novel, gobble up our chat about Gillian Armstrong's 25-year-old version. The Next 176 Project throws a big hug around Winona Ryder  and her fellow March girls (especially  Claire Danes ) because your contract as a human pretty much demands you fall in love with lovely people like these. Ryder's effervescent performance as J...

Chevy Chase and Randy Quaid might repel people with their off-screen antics, but they and the rest of this cast do some terrific comic work in National Lampoon's 30-year-old holiday hit. The Next 175 Project has one of us gushing about this nostalgic fave while the other is set on nailing Sparky's epic anti-boss rant . Writer/producer  John Hughes'  decade-long run of beloved comedies was still in...

The Next 174 Project is a dandy of an episode as we rage on about slavery, racism, offensive words…and all of it in what ended up being Quentin Tarantino's biggest hit . He wasn't at his best in this flick, although that doesn't mean his direction or Oscar-winning writing are anything close to bad. He certainly always casts well and the performances by Leonardo DiCaprio ,  Jamie Foxx ,  Christoph...

Puppet your way into our portals for a lot more than 15 minutes as the Next 173 Project does some Malkoviching . This pic is remarkably creative and it's often high-larious. It's also one of the weirdest, saddest comedies of the past 30 years…or perhaps ever. There's more than a little darkness and pain, which doesn't always jibe with those explosive larfs. Director Spike Jonze and one of the worl...

We're back after a week off as we chat about the iconic Muppets in  their first movie . The Next 172 Project raves about the incredible puppetry and voice-work by  Jim Henson ,  Frank Oz and their cohorts. Those guys are unquestionably amazing, but Bev isn't thrilled that they are all, in fact, guys. Why weren't ladies being given at least SOME of the jobs of putting hands up felt bums? And why—ot...

To honour Veterans/Remembrance Day, the Next 171 Project harkens back to the Gulf War to dig into the rare war comedy that succeeds at both being funny AND shooting stuff up. Writer/director  David O. Russell's  moderate success helped firm up the acting cred of his Three Kings :  George Clooney ,  Mark Wahlberg  and  Ice Cube , all of whom are huge power-players in the industry now. And let's not...

Gabourey Sidibe's debut and Mo'Nique's outstanding performance (which won her a gold naked guy) are easily the highlights of the character study that is the subject of the Next 170 Project. Neither of those actresses has been cast much since (we discuss some of the reasons why), but they'll be hard-pressed to ever surpass what they did here anyway. Lee Daniels'  2nd film is certainly his best work...

The judgmental jerkholes who host the Next 169 Project want to play a game. That's great! Games are fun. Or maybe this game is over-stuffed with often illogical twists and it spawned a gore-filled franchise. Director  James Wan  and writer/co-star  Leigh Whannell  teamed up to make a tension-filled, low-budget film, but their product was also an inspiration for Escape Rooms . Hey, we're fans of th...

The Next 168 Project spends a lot of time ripping on  Brad Pitt's  lackluster performance as a glum vampire, which is a shame because we're normally big fans of his work. But, hey, he's the whiny plantation owner who chose to become a whiny immortal. Maybe the character—and the actor—not enjoying his role in these chronicles is justice for owning slaves (and for saying yes to playing this drip of...

Whatever you do, don't…fall…asleep. Well, at least stay awake until you've heard the Next 167 Project. Then sleep all you want. We continue our 4th Annual Scary Movie Month and jump to the excellent year of 1984 when  Wes Craven  wrote & directed one of the landmark horror flicks.  Robert Englund's  Freddy Krueger is probably the best-known slasher in history and the actor is dynamite in his minim...

Activate your power tools, horror fans, because Scary Movie Month is here! For the Next 166 Project, we drive our van down to the deep south to discuss one creepy and weird fright flick. As influential as  Halloween  was 4 years later,  Tobe Hooper's  "kill the teens" scarefest is just as much of an innovative landmark. We discuss if  Leatherface  is a villain or a victim and we heap praise on the...

Ten hut, you maggots! Wait, this isn't a movie about boot camp, although the award-winning performance by  J.K. Simmons  might make you think it is. It's not even a sports film, although it certainly does resemble one of those too. Nope, s'a flick about jazz. The Next 165 Project has us wrestling with the "teacher or torturer" dynamic. How much, ahem, motivation is too much? Is the fate of the  Mi...

Nobody puts the Next 164 Project in a corner because that would be stupid and inaccurate. It's not a corner! There's a lot of discussion about that terrible line in this episode, plus there's more singing than we've done in a long time. We also had more Reasonably Good Questions than maybe ever before (Bev provided a few Reasonably Good ANSWERS) and we certainly dug into the issues of classism and...

Bonjour, nos amis! Auteur  Jean Renoir's  beloved French classic is the subject of the Next 163 Project. This is the rare film that actually gets better as it goes along. Jolly Renoir himself is a big highlight in this large cast of " Upstairs, Downstairs " characters. His picture was hated by his countrymen upon release 80 years ago, partly because it mocks the upper class who are oblivious to wh...

"Controversy Month" wraps up with the Next 162 Project as we analyze the greatest of the classic 007 flicks. Beloved as it is (especially by  the AFI ), it's also troublesome because of James Bond's staggeringly terrible sexism. Dude's a flat-out rapist in this movie, but the power of his loins convinces  his victim  to become a hero, so….that makes it okay? Well, of course not, but we spend some...

Darren Aronofsky's polarizing, unsubtle allegory about Mother Nature represents the peak of our "Controversy Month". Indeed, a lot of people hate this title(!). The Next 161 Project plows into this filmed scream of a movie as we analyze the metaphors, the symbolism and the disturbing arc of this never-ending story. Jennifer Lawrence  gets all soulful in an underrated performance (and even bares mo...

"Controversy Month" begins with this Next 160 Project podcast as we cover a clumsy flick about a virulent racist learning to respect at least 1 (brilliant) black person.  Green Book  was popular with a lot of people and even won the Best Picture Oscar for Peter Farrelly. Yup, the guy who made  Dumb And Dumber . And, yes, it's got some winning qualities as the actors, particularly  Mahershala Ali ,...

Our final episode in July digs into what might be  Ron Howard's  most personal film. For the Next 159 Project, we dig fairly deep into a dramedy with a fantastic ensemble cast and a top-notch screenplay by the  Ganz / Mandel  team.  Dianne Wiest  and  Joaquin Phoenix  are stand-outs, but  Steve Martin  and  Jason Robards  hit some home runs too. It sure isn't flawless (yeesh, that too-perfect endi...

With respect to The Secret In Their Eyes, Quentin Tarantino's masterpiece (?) was the best foreign-language film of 2009. It was probably the best film of 2009, period. This 158th helping of Next 100 Project talkiness is a thorough dive into this weirdly excellent movie, but we sure didn't cover everything. The layers! Brad Pitt ,  Melanie Laurent ,  Christoph Waltz  (we had trouble pronouncing hi...

What better way to enjoy the summer (and our staycation) than to spend 45 minutes jawing about a potential nuclear disaster? Fun in the sun, baby! The Next 157 Project has a lot of praise to dole out to  Jane Fonda ,  Jack Lemmon  and director  James Bridges  for their outstanding work here. Ryan has some love for producer/co-star  Michael Douglas  too, although Bev isn't quite as down with him (i...

We're back in the old west for the 156th gunshot's worth of the Next 100 Project. Italian directing legend Sergio Leone's Spaghetti westerns changed cinema. This entry, however, was arguably a superior film to any of those. Look at the ingredients.  Henry Fonda as a sadistic bad guy? Jason Robards being all cool and sly? Charles Bronson  just being Charlie Bronson? Claudia Cardinale as the superna...

For the Next 155 Project, we spend a good long while jamming about all the big-screen Spider-Man pictures, not just #2. In #2 specifically, though, Peter Parker is the young web-slinger with performance anxiety battling Doc Ock , the careless scientist who warps into a potential mass murderer. Despite that grim set-up, director  Sam Raimi  teamed with squeaky-voiced  Tobey Maguire  to make a brigh...

Perhaps the ultimate example of Pixar's uncanny ability to make people "ugly cry" is this funny, heartbreaking and unconventionally cast bit of brilliance from 10 years ago. The 154th Next 100 Project spends a bunch of time talking about DOGS!…and doing dog impressions. Bev loves Dug even more than you might expect and we both have doe eyes for this entire flick. The snapshot of the Carl / Ellie  ...

It's the 300th Ellis episode! Yup, the Next 153 Project represents the 3×100 times you've heard Bev & Ryan invade your earholes. Of course, there are more than 300 podcasts in total on this channel, but the numbers get confusing and who's counting anyway? So… Speed gimmewhatineed! This is such a fun thriller and it's one of the very best of the  Die Hard  ripoffs.  Jan de Bont  (directing his firs...