Late to the Movies

The Journey Ends, though Happy Hobbit-days continue as we discuss the final movie of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy - The Return of the King. Ben, Cory, Greg, and Robbie make a final stand against one of three movies to ever win 11 Academy Awards and the only fantasy film to win Best Picture. Directed by Peter Jackson, based on the novel by J. R. R. Tolkien, and featuring Elijah Wood, I...

Happy Hobbit-days continue as Late to the Movies scales The Two Towers (2002)! Ben, Greg, and Robbie discuss the epic middle chapter of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Directed by Peter Jackson and featuring Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, John Rhys-Davies, Bernard Hill, Christopher Lee, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Hugo Weaving, Karl Urban, Liv T...

Happy Hobbit-Days! This holiday season, Late to the Movies takes a long walk to Middle-earth to cover Peter Jackson's seminal Lord of the Rings trilogy. Up first - Ben, Cory, Greg, and Robbie offer their swords, bows, and axes to The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Directed by Peter Jackson, based on the novel by J. R. R. Tolkien. Featuring Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sea...

Animation Month ends on Late to the Movies with Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox! Ben, Anthony, and Kay dig in to all the anthropomorphized antics of this 2009 stop motion Roald Dahl adaptation. Directed by Wes Anderson, screenplay by Anderson and Noah Baumbach, and starring George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, and Owen Wilson.

Animation Month continues on Late to the Movies with the ultra-influential Akira! Ben, Cory, and Noah discuss the motorcycle jackets, psychic babies, and cyberpunk dystopia of this 1988 animated classic. Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo.

Animation Month keeps swingin' on Late to the Movies with 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse! Ben, Greg, Ray, Robbie, and Will discuss the groundbreaking, eye-popping, poignant instant superhero classic, produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman, and starring Shameik Moore with the voices of Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mah...

It's a new month and that means a new theme on Late to the Movies: November is Animation Month! Ben, Bree, and Sam kick it off with a discussion of Brad Bird's 1999 classic, The Iron Giant. Directed by Brad Bird and starring the voices of Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., Vin Diesel, and Christopher McDonald.

It's Halloween on Late to the Movies! Spook 'Em Up Month reaches its thrilling conclusion with 1996's Scream. Ben, Jeffrey, and Kate talk about the chills, kills, and jokes of Wes Craven's genre-revitalizing classic. Directed by Wes Craven, written by Kevin Williamson, and starring Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich, Jamie Kennedy, and Drew Ba...

It's a very special Spook 'Em Up Month DOUBLE Episode (Whoa!) as Late to the Movies podcasts a spell on 1993's Hocus Pocus (15:40-56:00) and 2022's Hocus Pocus 2 (starting at 56:00). Ben, Greg, Jordan, Ray, and Robbie hop on their broomsticks and Roombas to discuss Salem, nostalgia, and the almost-thirty-year-old Disney witch franchise. Hocus Pocus was directed by Kenny Ortega and written by Mick...

This week on Late to the Movies... Spook 'Em Up Month takes a phantasmagoric trip to the Japanese countryside with Nobuhiko Obayashi's House! Ben, Cory, Miles, and Noah discuss the technical wizardry and narrative lunacy of this 1977 cult classic. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi, story by his daughter Chigumi, script by Chiho Katsura, and starring Kimiko Ikegami and Yōko Minamida.

Spook 'em Up Month continues on Late to the Movies with John Carpenter's "The Thing" (1982)! Ben, Bree, Sam, and Vaz huddle around the burning wreckage of their sub-zero research facility to discuss their favorite puppets, scares, and existential questions in this incomparable horror/whodunit mashup. Directed by Carpenter from a screenplay by Bill Lancaster, starring Kurt Russell, and featuring Wi...

It's spooky season, so you know what that means - Spook 'em Up Month! A totally common phrase to describe horror movies, which is what we'll be focusing on this October. Up first, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist! Ben, Greg, Ray, and Robbie go for a swim, climb a tree, and throw a rope into hell as they discuss this horror classic. Directed by Hooper and written by St...

It's the finale of 'Back to School Month' on Late to the Movies, and we're marking the occasion with the most-requested topic yet - Mean Girls! ...and also the direct-to-ABC Family sequel, Mean Girls 2. Ben, Bree, Kay and Sam talk about Lindsay Lohan, high school, and trying to make fetch happen in the 2004 original (00:00-58:30) before turning their attention to the very strange, very unnecessary...

Back to School Month keeps rockin' on Late to the Movies with School of Rock! Ben and Robbie discuss what they've been watching recently before getting the Led out with Jack Black and his band of preteens in this 2003 classic. Directed by Richard Linklater, written by Mike White and starring Jack Black, Joan Cusack, White, Sarah Silverman, and Miranda Cosgrove.

Back to School Month continues with a VERY episode on 1988's (or maybe 1989's) Heathers! Ben, Bree, and Sam exchange greetings and salutations and discuss this iconic black comedy. Written by Daniel Waters, directed by Michael Lehmann, and starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, and Penelope Milford.

It's Back to School Month on Late to the Movies! First up, Ben, Kyle, and Lyndsey get their heads in the game with the 2006 Disney Channel Original Movie, High School Musical. Directed by Kenny Ortega and starring Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, and Monique Coleman.

It's the 50th episode of Late to the Movies! To mark the occasion, Ben, Greg, Ray, and Robbie talk about the year so far in movies, look ahead to Oscar season, and play a memory game about last year's ceremony. BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! In an unprecedented second segment (starting at 1:02:20), Ben, Kyle, and Lyndsey close out Summer Camp Month by discussing the recently released, very cinematic, choo...

Summer Camp Month continues with the endlessly quotable, cult-classic summer camp satire - 2001's Wet Hot American Summer! Ben, Bree, Colin, Sam, and Vaz gather 'round the campfire to talk about the many (MANY) soon to be very famous cast members, their favorite bits, and to play a couple games. Seriously, eventually there are games (starting at 59:30!) so just hang in there. Directed by David Wai...

'Summer Camp Month' rows along on Late to the Movies with 2012's Moonrise Kingdom! Ben, Cory, Greg, and Ray discuss Wes Anderson's very funny ode to childhood, coastal New England, and the 1960's. Directed by Wes Anderson, written by Anderson and Roman Coppola, and starring Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban, Jared Gilman, and...

Summer Camp Month continues on Late to the Movies, as our group of hapless counselors discuss 1980's Friday the 13th! Ben, Cory, Noah, and Robbie talk about the landmark slasher flick. They also talk about Jordan Peele's Nope ( spoilers from 02:45-18:20 ). Directed Sean S. Cunningham, written by Victor Miller, and starring Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Kevin Bacon, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Mar...

It's 'Summer Camp Month' on Late to the Movies! Ben, Robbie, and Will start our month-long look at movies set at summer camps with 1995's Heavyweights! Directed by Steven Brill, written by Brill and Judd Apatow, and starring Ben Stiller, Tom McGowan, Aaron Schwartz, Shaun Weiss, Tom Hodges, Leah Lail, Paul Feig, Kenan Thompson, Jeffrey Tambor, Jerry Stiller, and Anne Meara.

Welcome... to the Jurassic Park episode! This week on Late to the Movies, we're closing out 'Big Steve Summer' with the most block-busting of all of Steven Spielberg's summer blockbusters. Ben, Greg, Kyle, Lyndsey, and Ray jump in the Ford Explorer to discuss the thrilling set pieces, great performances, and very good puppets that make up this 1993 classic. Directed by Steven Spielberg, based on t...

'Big Steve Summer' floats on as Late to the Movies dives in to Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975). Ben, Robbie, and Will continue our month-long look at Spielberg's summer blockbusters by going back to the film that made summer blockbusters a thing. Starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, and Murray Hamilton and based on the novel by Peter Benchley.

'Big Steve Summer' continues with the one-time highest grossing film ever, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial! Ben, Martha, and Robbie will be here, always, as Late to the Movies' month-long focus on Steven Spielberg's summer blockbusters pedals along. This week's episode is on one of the most effective films about childhood, "imaginary" friends, and the government putting a big bubble over your house eve...

It's 'Big Steve Summer!' All month long on Late to the Movies, we'll be focusing on Steven Spielberg's summer blockbusters. Up first - Ben, Bree, Kay, and Sam discuss the Spielberg / George Lucas collaboration, Raiders of the Lost Ark. We talk about Harrison Ford's iconic turn as Indiana Jones, Spielberg's masterful action set pieces, and we cast a new Indy. Also, we definitely stay completely on...