Late to the Movies

Music Month continues with 2010's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World . Ben, Greg, Martha, Ray, and Robbie get a life, gain the power of self respect, and discuss Edgar Wright's hyper kinetic box office bomb-turned-cult classic. Directed by Edgar Wright, based on the graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O'Malley. Starring Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead and featuring Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna...

Time for a new theme - it's May Music Month! This month we'll be watching movies that are NOT musicals or musical biopics but just about music or musicians. It'll make sense, I promise. Up first, a fake biopic: 2007's Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story ! Ben, Bree, Sam, and Vaz discuss Jake Kasdan's John C. Reilly-starring satire of Oscar-baiting musician biographies. Beau is Afraid Spoilers from arou...

Why not?! It's Draft Day in real life once again, so we're re-releasing our Draft Day episode, originally aired in April 2022. Ben, Bree, Sam, and Vaz discuss the many quotable lines, high stakes trades, and corporate tie-ins of Ivan Reitman's final film, because we are a Cleveland Girl and We Are Football. Directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Chadwick Boseman, Den...

Watch the Skies Month concludes with our last look at alien invasions and visitations - Close Encounters of the Third Kind ! Ben and Anthony carve a mountain out of mashed potatoes, get a sunburn on half their faces, and have a jam session with a spaceship as they discuss Steven Spielberg's 1977 sci-fi classic. Written and directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon,...

Watch the Skies Month continues with our latest look at alien invasions - John Carpenter's They Live ! Ben, Robbie, and Will wear sunglasses, run out of bubblegum, and have a six minute long fight scene while discussing the oft-parodied 1988 sci fi classic. Written and directed by John Carpenter and starring Roddy Piper, Keith David, and Meg Foster.

Watch the Skies Month - our exploration of alien invasions, incursions, and visitations - continues with 1987's Predator! Ben, Bree, Sam, and Vaz head to the jungle to discuss the Schwarzenegger-starring, sci-fi/monster movie classic. Directed by John McTiernan and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers.

It's the first episode of a new month, so we need a new theme - April is Watch the Skies Month, where we'll talk about alien invasions, encounters, and visitations. First up is Denis Villeneuve's Arrival ! Ben, Greg, and Ray talk in circles about this modern sci-fi classic. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, adapted by Eric Heisserer, and based on "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. Starring Amy Adams...

Our semi-comprehensive dive into this year's Best Picture nominees at the Oscars comes to an end with The Fabelmans! Ben, Bree, Sam, and Vaz dance in the headlights, dream about punching Seth Rogen, and move to Arizona and then Northern California to discuss Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical coming of age film... and I promise the episodes will be back to normal length next month! Directed...

It's almost time to bring our month-long look at some recent Oscar Best Picture nominees in for a landing, but before we do, we're gonna talk about the movie that (maybe?) saved theaters last year - Top Gun: Maverick! Ben and Anthony take the highway to the danger zone (sorry) to discuss Joseph Kosinski's instant popcorn-classic. Directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, J...

At long last, THE LATIES have returned! The Oscars were merely preamble to this, the TRUE biggest night in Hollywood. Ben, Greg, Jordan, and Ray deliberate and hand out some awards to the best and brightest in 2022 movies in this action-packed, special extended episode. Who will take home Best Picture? Which of us will win Best Song?! What could that last question possibly mean?!? Listen now to fi...

If you thought our semi-thorough round up of Best Picture Nominees from this year's Academy Awards was going to end once the Oscars were over... there goes that dream! Up this week - The Banshees of Inisherin ! Ben, Jordan, Lindsey, and Robbie portend death, work on their music, and repeatedly ask each other to go down to the pub like to discuss Martin McDonagh's latest tragicomedy. Written, direc...

Did something happen last night? Oh, that's right - Daniels' Everything Everywhere All At Once became the first film EVER to win five above-the-line Oscars, and won seven overall. Let's talk about that movie! This episode was recorded a couple weeks ago but the sentiments remain timely: Ben, Cory, Noah, and Pat talk about one of our favorite movies of the last year, and one that may have just hera...

Ben gives an update on the 2023 Laties episode (coming next week!) and reads the results of the fan voting (you guys liked a lot of movies this year!).

It's Oscar Season! This month on Late to the Movies, we'll be talking about the current crop of Best Picture nominees. First up, Cate Blanchett stars in Todd Field's long-awaited return - Tár! Ben, Greg, and Ray are on hand to choose love, tackle Mark Strong, and obliterate themselves before the public and God. Written and directed by Todd Field, starring Cate Blanchett, and featuring Nina Hoss, N...

On the grand finale of Big Jim Winter, we cover James Cameron's (and the world's) highest grossing film ever - Avatar! Ben, Bree, Kay, and Sam 'Sivako' (rise to the challenge) of discussing the 2009 technological marvel and... classic? Directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sigourney Weaver. LI...

Big Jim Winter continues with one of James Cameron's weirder movies - 1994's True Lies! Ben and Anthony discuss the epic stunt set pieces and bizarre marital drama of the first film to cost 100 million dollars. Written and directed by James Cameron, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis, and featuring Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Art Malik, Tia Carrere, and Eliza Dushku.

Big Jim Winter continues! Our month-long journey through James Cameron's filmography goes interstellar with 1986's Aliens! Ben, Noah, Robbie, and Will discuss the classic sci-fi action/thriller. Written and directed by James Cameron, starring Sigourney Weaver, and featuring Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, and Carrie Henn.

In honor of Titanic's re-release this weekend and continuing our month-long James Cameron theme, we're re-releasing our Titanic episode! Originally released in March of 2022 in our Oscar winners month, we figured we should re-up it for anyone going to see James Cameron's remastered epic in theaters. Back to regularly scheduled programming on Monday with Aliens!

It's the start of a new month which means a new theme - all February long we'll be talking about the films of James Cameron. That's right: it's Big Jim Winter! Ben, Bree, and Sam kick things off with the movie that launched James Cameron's (and Arnold Schwarzenegger's) career, 1984's The Terminator! Directed by James Cameron, co-written by Cameron and Gale Ann Hurd, and starring Arnold Schwarzeneg...

It's the finale of Sight and Sound Month, and that means we're talking the number one ranked film on the latest Greatest Films of All Time Poll - "Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles"! Ben and Vaz discuss Chantal Akerman's 1975 slow-cinema classic, the first film directed by a woman to top the Sight and Sound Poll... or to even be in the top ten. Next week: The Terminator! Written...

Sight and Sound Month continues with number 8 on the list - David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001)! Ben, Greg, and Ray talk through... a LOT of feelings about the neo-noir classic before discussing the soon-to-be announced Oscar nominations (starting around 1:11:00). Directed by David Lynch and starring Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, and Ann Miller. Links: Sight and Sound Poll 2022: ht...

Our tour of the Top 10 films from the most recent Sight and Sound Poll of the greatest films of all time continues with #2, Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo! This one actually topped the poll in 2012, but is it any good? Yes. Ben, Bree, Sam, and Vaz take a long drive around San Francisco and discuss the landmark film, while only occasionally slipping into very, very bad Jimmy Stewart impressions, and th...

Sight and Sound Month continues with the 10th ranked film on the most recent decennial Sight and Sound Poll - 1952's Singin' in the Rain! Ben and Martha discuss the legendary musical-comedy that launched the career of Debbie Reynolds and secured Gene Kelly's place in film history. Directed and choreographed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, starring Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds and f...

...and a Happy New Year! Late to the Movies kicks off 2023 with a new theme for the new month - we'll be picking a few films from the Top 10 of the latest decennial Sight and Sound Critics' Poll! Up first is the longest reigning #1 in the poll's history, down to #3 this time: 1941's "Citizen Kane"! Ben, Anthony, and Kay are on hand to discuss the life and times of Charles Foster Kane, Orson Welles...

Happy Hobbit-days reach their thrilling conclusion with a classic (...ish) Rankin/Bass holiday special - 1977's The Hobbit! Ben, Greg, and Robbie talk about the songs, insanely stacked cast, and occasionally bizarre voice acting of this hand-drawn take on the classic Tolkien tale.