Have You Ever Seen

The Next 145 Project takes us into the world of pretty & popular teenagers in sun-filled Beverly Hills.  Amy Heckerling's  flick isn't all that deep, but  Alicia Silverstone's  big-hearted Cupid—wait, make that  Cher —has a lot more going on in that beautiful head than first meets the peepers. However, the romance between step-siblings Silverstone &  Paul Rudd  is HIGHLY questionable and the satir...

Today is our 6th anniversary, so yay for that, but also yay for one of the most influential, cool, wire-fu, sci-fi thrillers of all time. It's the ultimate Jeopardy question: "what is The Matrix?" The Next 144 Project spends nearly an hour digging into that (a movie that Bev thinks could have been called "The Exposition"), with its main plot point being a dude (not a damsel) in distress. Also, we...

Pop your Queen tape into the deck and dial up the Next 143 Project to hear us having a ball with this very worthy comedy.  Mike Myers  and  Dana Carvey made Wayne & Garth famous on  Saturday Night Live  first, but this big-screen blockbuster made them legends. Myers made director  Penelope Spheeris  want to hurl on many occasions and some of the gags in their movie are rather quaint now. Still, al...

Let's chase an awesome sword all over the Far East's countryside as the Next 142 Project peeks at a picture about tigers and/or dragons who are crouching and/or hidden. Ang Lee's wire-fu love story still packs a clanging wallop, emotionally and certainly viscerally.  Chow Yun-Fat , Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi are all immensely talented stunt-people, as well as being pretty solid at the emoting th...

The ultimate in gimmicky puzzle films (in a year that was filled with them) provides our juicy topic for the Next 141 Project.  Guy Pearce  plays one of the most unreliable narrators in film history and we speculate if he actually has "selective memory syndrome", rather than bonafide Anterograde Amnesia. Bev has strong feelings about who the real villain of  Christopher Nolan's Memory Movie is and...

Bonus episode! For the first time ever, we've got a timely review of the Oscars and our thoughts about the winners and losers, not just a preview show the week before. Find out what we liked and what we loathed about the big broadcast yesterday. Coming in August: a review of Green Book. Twit us: @moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis

Ah, that virtue of ignorance. It's just so unexpected. So cue the drummer and turn  Michael Keaton  loose as the Next 140 Project jumps deep into the Best Picture of 2014. We're not sure this was the right choice for the Academy's highest honour in what was a dynamite year at the movies, but we still enjoyed this funny & weird Broadway offering from  Alejandro G. Inarritu . There are some problema...

Awards Season is almost at an end, so it's high time for the Next 139 Project to talk about the terrific movie year that it was in 2018. Strangely, though, many of the Oscar nominees aren't so terrific, especially about half of the 8 Best Picture nominees. They had "won me over" qualities, but that doesn't make them all that good. We started this episode with an analysis of the history of women ho...

There's no point in pussy-footing around it. We think Driving Miss Daisy is cutesy crap. The Next 138 Project delves deep into this poor choice for the Academy's Best Picture of 1989 as we analyze the  Jessica Tandy /  Morgan Freeman  relationship. She's a cast-iron jerk and he's a paper-thin Uncle Tom. The actors do the best they can with these clumsy characters, but this film that thinks it's be...

Addict yourself to war and to the Next 137 Project by defusing bombs in Baghdad and by listening to us talk about that dicey topic. The huge Oscar success of 10 years ago might be the best picture ever made about the Iraq War and it even upset the mega-hit  Avatar  at the Academy Awards, so there's that. The movie has also lost some zing in the past decade. One Ellis has antipathy to it and especi...

Hail, the Next 136 Project! Hail! We've got a super-duper-sized episode this week, one that takes us into the shattered heart of a family in demonic crisis. This is another insta-classic frightfest in this New Age Of Horror. So many modern scary movies—Hereditary might be the pinnacle of this—have more subtext than text, more atmosphere than the planet and more great performances than this genre i...

Activate Joey mode! The Next 135 Project takes us to Tinytown Indiana as we delve into what makes a staggeringly good man return to his vicious mobster roots.  Viggo Mortensen  was just hitting his stride at this point in his career (as he was nearing 50 years old) and he leads a terrific cast.  Maria Bello ,  Ed Harris and  William Hurt  are all right on point.  David Cronenberg's  pictures can b...

The 30-year-old satire about high-school bullying is our 134th Next 100 Project episode as we begin the 4th Annual Month O' Bev. A very young  Winona Ryder  is impressively self-possessed in one of her many stand-out performances. Her co-stars (including  Christian Slater , in a break-out piece of Nicholson-esque work of his own) all do fine too, but this picture never really comes together…for on...

Joyous Christmas Eve and such from the Elliseseseses as we explore  Will Ferrell  with his comedy phasers set on hilarious in this Next 133 Project podcast. This is a textbook example of an actor doing great work in a role that few others could even play at all. Despite some third-act problems and a miscast (and possibly disinterested)  James Caan , Elf is a true Christmas classic. It's sweet, con...

It's the one about Sharry Bobbins! The Next 132 Project gets into all of our complaints about this over-long and plot-flimsy Disney favourite. We just don't have the same enthusiasm critics and crowds do. You can't argue though that it's a beloved musical with top-shelf songs and a lovely debut performance by  Julie Andrews . Bev has thoughts about how this movie commits the sin of crossing class...

With this 131st Next 100 Project episode, we dig into what at least one of us thinks is  Sam Raimi's  best work.  Bill Paxton  was never better and  Billy Bob Thornton  &  Bridget Fonda  are terrific too in this "what would you do?" movie. These immensely relatable characters are doomed from the start by a twist of fate and  Scott Smith's  tight screenplay makes all the ensuing darkness seem so lo...

The Next 130 Project takes us back to post-WWII Italy as we gaze at director Vittorio De Sica's piece de resistance. The amateur actors ( Lamberto Maggiorani and Enzo Staiola ) are just as good as any longtime pros. Good God, their well-earned pathos! We're treated to many shades of emotion (desperation, shame, loyalty and love) as our heroes battle to maintain their dignity...always dignity. The...

The Next 129 Project marks 275 episodes in total for the Elliseseseses (although we're getting close to 300 overall on this channel) and this one looks back at The Old Coots & The Kid Up At The Lake.  Hank Fonda  &  Kate Hepburn  are wonderful together in what proved to be his final film and one of her last.  Jane Fonda  is as good as ever in her small—but vital—role. Also applause is due for dire...

Next 100 Project ep #128 gives us a nice turn on the "they went looking for America and instead found themselves" angle. Albert Brooks' yuks riot slips in clever commentary on the entitlement of people who want to chuck it all, but only if they have a nice camper and a really big nest egg. Just don't say "nest" or "egg!" Oh, and don't rely on 22, 22, 22! Julie Hagerty & Brooks are a delightful com...

Episode 127 in the Next 100 Project focuses on another comedy, this time EGOT winner  Mel Brooks'  crass comedy classic.  Zero Mostel  &  Gene Wilder  are loud (especially Mostel) and their characters are thieving scumbags, but they make for a good ha-ha combo. While weren't in total agreement about the strengths of this movie, it's hard to deny that certain things haven't aged very well and come...

This is something, piece of cake! It's a day before the mid-terms, so it's time for the Next 126 Project to get all political again. Actually, the vitriol is pretty muted this time. We focus on the funny. And Wag The Dog is that.  Dustin Hoffman  is hysterical,  Anne Heche  is at her best and  Robert De Niro  wisely plays the closest thing to a straight man as there is in  Barry Levinson's  flick....

The Next 125 Project is our final choice in Scary Movie Month and it's got us yapping about the big bad red guy for the 2nd week in a row. While  Ruth Gordon's  Oscar-winning work feels a little silly now,  Mia Farrow  gives the performance of her life. Controversial writer/director  Roman Polanski's  red-letter moments are worth the hype, but what about the movie as a whole (especially as a horro...

The Next 124 Project digs very deep into a movie that audiences didn't appreciate the way film nerds and movie critics did. Beautiful to look at, well-acted (archaic language and all) and dense with meaning,  Robert Eggers'  very first motion picture is like delicious butter. The tone, in particular, is pitch perfect. We analyze just when  Thomasin  became what she became, whether or not the famil...

The Next 123 Project flies back 55 years to tackle our 7th  Hitchcock thriller. This isn't Hitch's finest work (nor his finest hour from a #metoo standpoint) and  Tippi Hedren  is subpar as one of the last in a long line of Hitchcock Blondes. There  are  some solid F/X (especially for the time), some effective freak-outs and tense scenes, at least. The movie also gets better as it goes along, with...

The 122nd edition of the Next 100 Project is our 1st of 4 consecutive horror pictures in Scary Movie Month. It's also the 1st episode that was recorded in our new house! You'll definitely notice (and no doubt prefer) the difference in sound quality. Anyway, Maika Monroe is really solid in the lead role of this fascinating & extremely effective freakshow. David Robert Mitchell takes influences from...