Media Sandwich

Epic Games breaks the record for largest fine or penalty ever assessed  by the FTC thanks to their predatory microtransaction mechanics on  Fortnite, hashtag great job, crapburgers. Meanwhile, Oppenheimer and  Barbie will release on the same day in summer of 2023, what a  double-feature! Avatar: The Way of Water doesn't hit its projected  opening weekend numbers, but that might be a good thing? He...

A genuinely pleasant surprise in the video game world helps take the stink off the continuing adventures of Microsoft and their fight to acquire Activision-Blizzard, while rumors swirl over James Gunn's massive shake-up of the DC movies. Mark Millar asks the question "what if you had to convince Willy Wonka you deserved superpowers?" And while some talk show hosts bid a fond farewell...

This foul year 2022 is almost at an end, and the entertainment industry  is revving up their marketing pushes for their 2023 content! First off,  EA and Respawn have little baby leak on Steam for Star Wars: Jedi  Survivor. Then a trio of big summer blockbuster movies dropped trailers  all on the same day: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,  Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and Marvel's Gu...

What is it with all these big entertainment companies posting their Ls  all over the place this last week? First Microsoft and Sony compete to  see which of them has more reason to complain about their exclusive  titles, then Disney exchanges one Bob for another Bob in an effort to  prevent more Strange World levels of box office failure. Netflix leaves  tens of millions of dollars on the table wi...

Appropriately, the Thanksgiving week is rife with old guys you know and  love, all of whom are going on new adventures soon. Sam Fisher is  putting on the goggles for a remake of the original Splinter Cell,  Indiana Jones is apparently going to punch some space Nazis on the Moon,  and John Carpenter is getting more video game money because an Escape  From New York reboot is in the works. We also s...

How do you heal a broken heart? Well, for starters, you welcome back to  the show Chris Pranger! After some necessary talk about the pop culture  icons we lost this last week, Chris gives an extensive run-down on  Pokemon Scarlet/Violet that releases this week, while Kyle provides some  thoughts on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Also, Guillermo del Toro  teases us with a glimpse at one of his man...

It's release week for God of War: Ragnarok, and Embracer Group kills off  a quality mobile gaming studio. David Zaslav gets confused as to what a  movie franchise is, but he's not confused about which money (and hate)  machine he wants to tie WB to for the forseeable future. The holiday  season is upon us, in the form of crappy sequels to questionable season  classics, as well as the Hallm...

Welcome to the spookiest episode of Media Sandwich ever! It's got  everything a modern haunted house has...the reanimated corpse of the  Call of Duty franchise, Elon Musk's insidious alien plot to take over  the world (of social media), James Gunn and Peter Safran investigating  the DC haunted manor, Mike Flanagan's attempted séance to communicate  with the screen adaptation of The Dar...

The word is out on Gotham Knights, and the word is...eh. Meanwhile, Silent Hill 2 gets a big next-gen remake, the Star Wars franchise flirts with the idea of maybe making feature films again sometime in the future, Amblin makes moves towards a sequel no one asked for, a comic book creator insists Matt Reeves stole his Riddler story and left behind a cryptic 3-hour movie, and Kyle finds out The Dai...

It's a big week for easily avoidable flubs by big media companies. First off, Comcast abruptly pulls the lever on the trolley equation that is G4TV (yes, they brought it back, only a year ago), the video game industry treats voice actors like garbage, and Netflix offers an enticing new price tier that sounds like absolute trash. It's not all bad news, however! Fans of Avatar: The Last Airb...

Post-surgery blues glue Kyle to the couch so he can provide updates on some previously discussed headlines, as well as some interesting news out of New York Comic-Con and some recent movie trailers both delightful (Violent Night) and baffling (Super Mario Brothers). Then a brief meditation on the true crime genre and how it sometimes trivializes real tragedy, and the whole debacle of Kanye West&#3...

A top-tier esports company steps right in it and loses an important partnership with Riot Games, meanwhile hotshot horror directors surprise execs on a special Zoom call, Star Trek has some major news about the Kelvin timeline going forward, a new comic book strikes Kyle's fancy, and the Super Bowl has a halftime performer locked in, which is what football is all about, right? Oh, and did you...

Happy video game news arrives in the form of this last week's Nintendo Direct, and not so happy news in the form of one of the most massive data leaks in the video game industry's recent history. Meanwhile, Columbia Pictures/Sony Entertainment is doing the release date shuffle on some of their biggest films in the next two years, Harvey Weinstein tries to do more dirty business from his pr...

It's a two-man sandwich this week, with the return of Chris Pranger! The guys try their very best to touch on every single item announced at Disney's D23 event, along with some spooky special screenings coming to Regal Cinemas, a legendary comic book artist's recent passion project, and Anna Kendrick's first time behind the camera to chronicle a game show psychopath. Music: "S...

The long Labor Day weekend results in some of Kyle's saltiest commentary yet. After a brief sidebar about the Steam Deck, we get some good news/bad news situations for Halo: Infinite and Splatoon 3, followed by a very Shia LaBeouf filled briefing on the Venice Film Festival. A hefty case against J.K. Rowling's newest stack of toilet paper scribblings transitions nicely into some vindicatio...

Rumors about EA being absorbed by even bigger business fish are less substantial than the rumors of Big Chungus becoming playable in WB's Multiversus. Meanwhile, Matt Shakman beams away from Star Trek 4 to helm another Marvel project, DC Comics trips over a bag of tamales while trying to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, and Kyle pauses his love affair with the latest movie from Laika long en...

This week on the podcast, the reviews are in on the Saint's Row reboot game (a thing that apparently exists), Ezra Miller's reign of terror comes to a conclusion, David Zaslav is a very old man who likes very old things, several milestone anniversaries are coming up for the comic book world, and is Rian Johnson finally making Kyle's dreams come true by casting a certain redhead as a certain rumple...

From deep inside a subterranean bunker where he's perfecting his Pepe Silvia bulletin board, Kyle dishes on the latest in entertainment headlines. On the cutting board this week: delay announcements for Hogwarts Legacy, a movie reboot of a fun 1980s TV show, the steady decline of a once-proud comic book publisher, and hot off the panini presses today, the sale of a major television network to...

One big, infuriating headline (you know the one) threatens to engulf the entire show while Kyle touches on Pokemon Presents, Gotham Knights, the Tomb Raider movies, a beloved actor's television debut, and a whole lot of nonsense caused by the corporate desire to feed failing platforms smaller, more successful ones in order to absorb their nutrients...er, their subscribers. Listen here or subsc...

It...is...alive! The Media Sandwich podcast returns with a more pop culture news orientation as Kyle skims the headlines for a quick look at all the entertainment coming your way in the near future. Topics include: Grand Theft Auto 6, DC's Death of Superman 30th Anniversary issue, Phases 5 and 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and all the upcoming television shows coming to you in August on...

The guys have a spoiler-filled conversation about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, after some serious talk about what is and isn't canon in Space Jam. Dan is able to play Half-Life: Alyx! The Sonic the Hedgehog movie gets a quick review, and then lots of Star Wars talk from the point-of-view of Chris's small children who just saw the Saga for the first time. Then Kyle says "literall...

Recently thawed out from their stint frozen during the winter storms, the Sandwich Heads are all buzzing from Marvel's WandaVision and all the possible directions the MCU can go. Fantastic Four? Mephisto? Black Panther 2? There are so many possibilities! And speaking of possibilities, has Dan unlocked an accidental perpetual power loop in his house, or is he on the path of going "full Gri...

Chris and Kyle tell a bit about playing pirates in high school theater, in a time when Linkin' Park was playing on the radio and suddenly pirates were kinda, sorta a thing for a while? Weird energy, that 2004 had. Listen in your browser or subscribe to the show in your pod-catcher!

This is so gonna be our year. You, us, everybody. We swear. Chris, Dan, and Kyle return to your ears with some mixed reactions to Wonder Woman 1984 and Pixar's Soul. But first...is Kyle living in a van down by the river? Also, Chris gives a review of indie game Thimbleweed Park and everyone is reminded to play Hades, one of the brief shining bits of goodness that came out of that wretched year...

 Just in time for his birthday this week, Chris receives an unwelcome message of encouragement from advertisers and chooses to spend nine minutes explaining his most recently viewed arc of "One Piece." Dan and Kyle can barely contain their confusion. Happy birthday, Chris! Listen in your browser to this value menu episode of the podcast, or simply subscribe to the show via your podcast app.