Mildly Pleased

As June turns to July, we once again set our eyes on reviewing various films that have entered the Criterion Collection over the course of what we like to refer to as Criterion Month. Call it our own little corner of the Criterion Closet filled with films we’ve never seen, some potentially aligning with our […]

It’s wedding season at Mildly Pleased, so we took a look at one of the most wedding-fetishizing romantic comedies ever made. You won’t believe how many dresses Katherine Heigl wears! Or perhaps you will, because it’s right there in the title. Either way, the boys have fun discussing the rise and fall of Miss Heigl, […]

After talking about Flash Gordon two episodes ago, it seemed only fitting that we review Barbarella, producer Dino De Laurentiis’s first foray into sci-fi comic book adaptation. Of course, this one has a much dirtier mind, stemming from director Roger Vadim’s eagerness to bring campy eroticism into the far reaches of space with the help […]

Why did we choose to cover the 2000 flop, The Legend of Bagger Vance on this episode of The Pick? Well, you’ll just have to listen to find out. Mostly, we were just hoping that it was secretly a charming little magic-tinged film that transcended its problematic title character, but perhaps that was too tall […]

We’re not saviors of the universe, but we will save every one of us from subpar movie fandom. That’s right, The Pick is back with a look at the 1980 revival of the legendary comic book character, Flash Gordon. We get a bit into the history of this ancient franchise as well as the various […]

We’re already a month and a half into 2025, but with the release of the year’s first blockbuster this weekend (Captain America: Brave New World), the year in movies is just getting started. As is tradition, we once again get together to talk about the movies we’re looking forward to the most in the coming […]

Perhaps it’s fitting to take this depressing inauguration day (and unfortunate MLK Jr. Day) to reflect on what an ill-fated year 2024 was. However, we here at Mildly Pleased sat down once again, like we do every year, to reflect on the things that were pretty good but not great from the past year. Sure, […]

Before the holidays are upon us, we thought we’d drop a little bonus pod as a gift to anyone willing to hear us grumble about a half-baked Dwayne Johnson/Chris Evans vehicle. Here, we review the biggest Christmas movie of this holiday season, Red One, even if its bigness is by its own design and not […]

It’s that time of year again! Well, sort of. This year we’re pushing our annual Criterion Month back a month due to summer travel plans, which will perhaps give us time to buy some of the blu rays on sale at Barnes & Noble’s July Criterion Sale? Who knows, but one thing we do know […]

This will be our last episode of The Pick for a few months, and luckily we picked a fun one. On this episode, we review Battle Beyond The Stars, both as a tribute to legendary producer Roger Corman (who passed away last month) and also as a tribute to the enthusiasm we once had for […]

Despite the gap, we keep things in line with our previous episode by staying in the heist genre in this episode with the Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges vehicle Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. Though things had changed a bit in the heist movie by the time of the film’s 1971 release, there are still plenty of […]

Do you know where you are? You’re in The Asphalt Jungle, baby. And you’re gonna see some guys die! Or just get caught while trying to pull off a heist. This episode, we’re keeping it in the ’50s again with one of the more influential caper flicks of all time, while also looking a bit […]

This episode, we’re getting a little antsy while talking about those giant invasive species from 1954’s Them! We’re celebrating the film’s 70th anniversary by taking a look at the era of 3-D glasses, communist paranoia, and giant monsters borne of the atomic bomb. There’s also plenty of talk regarding the Wilhelm scream, the legendary stock […]

This week on The Pick, we’re going back to the ’90s (again) and back to David Cronenberg (again) by taking a look at 1999’s eXistenZ (which is not pronounced how you’d think). Yet, despite the familiarity inherent in this episode’s Pick, it’s far from a run-of-the-mill movie, even if it does feel fairly par for […]

We are, once again, back. We’re also back on our bullshit reviewing a movie with a cult following and a strange cultural footprint that we’ve been meaning to get to the bottom of. In honor of its 30th anniversary, we’re taking a look at Cabin Boy, the first and only big-screen collaboration between Chris Elliott […]

After a bizarre year for cinema, we set our sights on… possibly another bizarre year for cinema. That’s right, we’re doing our annual look ahead to our most anticipated (and least anticipated movies) of the new year. In 2024, superhero movies seem to be out (unless you’re talking about our least anticipated list) and what’s […]

Just when you thought 2023 was over, we’re here to take a slightly belated look back at the year that was. Kicking things off before we get into posting our Top Tens of 2023 over on Mildly Pleased is, of course, the award show that bears the site’s name. We’re talking about awarding the “good […]

Every time an underrated Christmas movie is acknowledged, an angel gets its wings. Or at least, that’s what we’d like to think after talking about The Preacher’s Wife, a Christmas movie that we enjoyed quite a bit despite it not being one of the big holiday movies everybody watches this time of year. We delve […]

We’re back in romantic comedyland, looking once again at Richard Curtis’s wish-fulfillment shenanigans (and another Julia Roberts movie) with a discussion of 1999’s Notting Hill. Even though we split on this one, it’s a fairly cordial conversation full of British accents and debate over the charms (or lack thereof) contained by its co-star Hugh Grant. […]

Needless to say, the gap between this latest and our last episode hasn’t been all that… brief. It wasn’t helped by the fact that The Pelican Brief is an overwhelming passable but unremarkable film, and one that pales a bit compared to some of the other John Grisham adaptations that were filling multiplexes in the […]

We end this Shocktober (for the most part) with a movie that’s hard to even categorize as a horror movie, even if it tackles one of the most iconic movie monsters. 1994’s Wolf sees the odd pairing of Mike Nichols’ actor-centric directing with modern-day werewolves and the results are… pretty fun if you’re willing to […]

As we make our way through Shocktober, this week we take a look at a horror movie of sorts (or perhaps an “erotic fantasy”) with the 1982 remake of Cat People. We discuss how effectively the film expands on its horror-noir inspiration and whether director Paul Schrader was the best person to bring this source […]

We’re rollin’ in with another episode of The Pick, this one aimed at the helicopter-fueled action flick Blue Thunder from 1983. We discuss pretty much every aspect of its modest cultural imprint, including its short-lived TV adaptation, as well as our fondness for its stars, Roy Scheider and John’s good friend Malcolm MacDowell. Weirdly enough, […]

After our usual summer break, The Pick is back with another batch of episodes that we kick off with 1999’s Mystery Men. What started as an intended tribute to the late Paul Reubens also ended up being a tribute to Smash Mouth frontman Steve Harwell, who also passed away before we recorded this episode. We […]

It’s that time of year again, when we take a break from the many blockbusters crowding our theaters and take a look back at cinema’s past and all of its various artistic triumphs and oddities. This year, Sean tries to power through some of his Criterion box sets, John picks some Tarantino favs as well […]