Have You Ever Seen

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...

MIB International comes out June 14th, so our Next 152 Project basks in some of that hype by jamming about the sci-fi/comedy blockbuster that started this oft-crappy (and oft-gooey) franchise. The original flick is still really funny with Will Smith's charisma, Tommy Lee Jones' deadpan stoicism and Vincent D'Onofrio's  buglike commitment bouncing beautifully off each other. The makeup, the F/X, Eg...

So Ferris Bueller plays  White Saviour  to a bunch of courageous, black, Civil War soldiers in the Next 151 Project. And, against the odds, it really works. This remains a powerful film 30 years on, especially when the focus shifts (at least somewhat) from  Matthew Broderick  to  Denzel Washington ,  Morgan Freeman  and friends. Broderick (and the man he portrays, Colonel Shaw) might be in over hi...

It's the return of the Now Playing Project! Horror flick Brightburn (aka A-Hole Superman) opens this weekend and Ryan decided to *gasp* pay money to see it on Friday afternoon. It's the new age of horror, man. You gotta support these creative ventures. This is a solo review. No Bev or Chris in this one. Oh, and there are huge spoilers in this episode, pretty much from the start. Also, Ryan gives y...

This marks 150 Next 100 Project podcasts (go figure on that numbering) and we get to rat-a-tat about the most sexually liberated musical of all time.  Tim Curry  is delicious in his best role (it's also his first role) while  Susan Sarandon  &  Barry Bostwick  are…fine. Director  Jim Sharman  and writer  Richard O'Brien  created a cultural touchstone with this cult blockbuster, which is still show...

Here come Hanks and Hannah in our Next 149 Project as we lip-wag about a fruit merchant falling in love with a mythical fish-babe. How can anyone not love this rom-com to the ends of the Earth? Well....we didn't. Splash was one of Bev's favourites as a kid, but now she has issues with Allen's attitude and we both wish the movie had been funnier. Hannah is perfectly cast though and there's definite...

We're gandering at our first Jimmy Cagney picture in almost 6 years…and what a hard left turn from his patriotic musical Yankee Doodle Dandy .  The Next 148 Project digs into the vicious 70-year-old crime flick where Cagney is unhinged and might even be over-acting, but in the right way. A great way. The supporting cast is solid too (including  Virginia Mayo  and  Edmond O'Brien ), but this flick...

Easter is coming, so it's time to cover a religious movie for the Next 147 Project. Catholic foul-mouth  Kevin Smith  bites off a lot more in this one than he ever had before, but he still manages to jam in a lot of jokes…often extraordinarily crass ones. As for the acting,  Alan Rickman  and  Chris Rock  shine.  Jason Mewes  does too, even though he is the king of those sex-obsessed, crass jokes....

Bev was not as gunned about the topic of our 146th Next 100 Project podcast as most critics (and a lot of  film people ) seem to be. That's a slight surprise because she's loved westerns way more often than not.  Howard Hawks'  lackadaisical pace fits the tone of "The Dude Redemption" because some of the best scenes aren't really about anything. It's mostly a "hang out" movie. The romance is a flo...