Movie Madness

Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski look at this week’s Blu-ray releases including a rather dour but excellent film with Damian Lewis and a flavorful, sexy, pulpy thriller making its debut on Blu. Peter recalls one of the weirder titles in Kino’s new Film Noir collection and they also go through the run of Star Trek’s Next Generation films as well as Jon Hamm as the new Fletch. A trio of new 4K’s...

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy discuss 13 movies this week. Well, Erik listens a lot as Steve saw a lot this week including a religious documentary (In Viaggio: The Travels of Pope Francis), Bruce Willis in a virtual Possessor remake (Assassin), Thomas Haden Church looking for aliens (Acidman) and horror films based around sound (The Unheard) and as little sound as possible (Enys Men). Steve als...

Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski look at this week’s new Blu-ray releases and it is quite the deep dive into eclectic taste. Criterion has one of the early films of a pioneering female director. Terrorists are trying to blow up the Super Bowl, kids battle aliens, a teenager searches for her mom and Natasha Lyonne goes up against Vincent Gallo. There are films with John Barrymore and Van Heflin,...

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy have a shortened week of movie reviews focusing on just five for the time being. They include a dark fable starring Adèle Exarchopoulos (The Five Devils) and a documentary on a European rock tour that had implications back home ( What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat and Tears). Zach Braff directs Florence Pugh in a tale of addition (A Good Person) and Sally Hawki...

Catching you up on the latest in Blu-rays, Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski look at offerings from John Woo, David Lynch, Bob Hope, Laurence Olivier and Dario Argento. That is just for starters. Peter gets to weigh in on some of his least favorite films from 2022 and one that pleasantly surprised him in 2023. They look back on a new edition from softcore master, Zalman King, as well as a barrag...

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy return to catch you up on two weeks of movies including Alec Baldwin and Anne Heche in a disaster film (Supercell) and a new animated film on Netflix (The Magician’s Elephant). One of the Farrelly Bros. reunited with Woody Harrelson coaching an intellectually-challenged basketball team (Champions) and Kiernan Shipka grows up with an intellectually-challenged parent...

Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski are back to get you caught up on your physical media and it runs the gamut from the 1930s up until the Oscars this weekend including one Oscar for Joan Crawford and another hopefully for Sarah Polley. There is also Greta Garbo, Susan Hayward and Shirley Temple. A film about making the perfect man and another teen comedy about hoping to romance the perfect woman....

For the better part of the last 20 years covering film festivals, I used to do a preview piece for eFilmCritic about South by Southwest called “10 Films To See.” Now that the site is no more I am bringing it to the Movie Madness podcast and offering those attending my suggestions to get on their schedule. They include a number of terrific documentaries about television and music, films where women...

The weekly movie reviews come at you quick this week with five new titles. Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy have opinions on all five including an uncomfortable tale of grooming that was chosen for the Chicago Critics Film Festival in 2022 (Palm Trees and Power Lines). Michael Shannon pretends to be an infamous author (A Little White Lie) and Stephen King’s evil kids get a prequel of sorts (Childr...

Some great new blu-rays this week to bulk up your physical media collections, especially in 4K. Criterion delivers one of the seminal comedies of the 1980s, Denzel Washington wins another Oscar and Peter Sobczynski reveals which film he would be happy to see win an Oscar this year. Francis Ford Coppola finally puts out an authentic cut, Indiana Jones gets an origin story and Dustin Hoffman has an...

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy look at six new movies this week. They include an acclaimed film from Ireland you may have heard about on our best-of-2022 show (The Quiet Girl) and a feature version of Idris Elba’s BBC series (Luther: The Fallen Sun). The star of Sex Education brings the author of Wuthering Heights to life (Emily) and hippies become Jesus freaks (Jesus Revolution). Finally, David...

Find out what you can get on Blu-ray this week with an update from Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski. They take a remembrance on the first time each of them saw Dazed and Confused, now in a new edition from Criterion. Blue Underground has a pair of Jess Franco titles newly minted in 4K. Jean Reno hunts a serial killer, Dean Stockwell is a werewolf and Steve McQueen magnificently fights Eli Walla...

The weekly movie edition goes lite this week as Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy look over five new movies. They include one of the best horror films Steve saw at a film festival last year (Huesera: The Bone Woman) and a darkly comic thriller about proving one’s manliness that is one of the best films of the early year (The Integrity of Joseph Chambers). Steve looks at the second film from a quick...

Comic book expert, Erik Laws, returns to talk with Erik Childress about the third Ant-Man film and the beginning of Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Phase 4 did not close out well by either of their standards so they were certainly in the mood for a good palette cleanser. Unfortunately, this one did not go down nearly as smoothly as the previous films with Paul Rudd. They wonder if Kevin...

Peter Sobczynski returns for an update on the Blu-ray scene with Erik Childress. Between cylindrical objects in the sky and noxious chemicals causing evacuations you might think Kino was marketing its collection of new Francois Truffaut films. Criterion puts out what may be the definitive version of a Shakespeare classic and Shout Factory has your martial arts covered. There are also more recent s...

Seven new movies and a modern classic release this week. Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy are here to tell you what to check out, if anything. They reflect a bit on James Cameron’s Titanic back in theaters for its 25 th anniversary and then Erik tackles a new romcom with shades of a film in its 23 rd anniversary (At Midnight). Steve looks at a pair of horror films about getting lost in the desert...

There’s a little something for everyone this week on the Blu-ray scene. Especially if you like it weird. Peter Sobczynski joins Erik Childress again to talk about Criterion’s release of one of the landmarks of international cinema. Barbara Hershey takes on apartheid and Rory Calhoun explores as Marco Polo. Peter chimes in on the Black Panther sequel while there are also new 4K releases of an Oscar...

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy are back with the weekly movie reviews and they certainly have a lot in common. Maybe not with Pamela Anderson who is the subject of a new Netflix documentary (Pamela, A Love Story). Haley Bennett and Sam Riley are the latest exes to end up with the same booking (She Is Love). Noemie Merlant begins to unravel as a new mother (Baby Ruby) while Michelle Monaghan will...

Peter Sobczynski joins Erik Childress to catch up on a couple weeks of Blu-rays. Udo Kier’s a vampire, Timothee Chalamat is a cannibal and Vinegar Syndrome is serving up some Flesh and Fantasy. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz go for a long drive, Mel Gibson goes to war as does Gene Hackman for the French. The pair look back on an ‘80s teen relic and its growing popularity over the years and remember t...

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy once again experienced this year’s Sundance from the comfort of their domiciles, but that in no way affected their viewing numbers. In just a sampling of what they saw, they discuss over 25 films including documentaries about Michael J. Fox, Brooke Shields, freediving, our evolvement with the camera and the strange saga of a bootleg video store. They talk about som...

Sundance is on the horizon but Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy are still checking in with nine movies you can see right now; one of them from last year’s Sundance (When You Finish Saving The World) and another from ten years ago finally making its debut (Virtually Heroes). Steve catches up with Jafar Panahi’s latest (No Bears) and Erik watched a documentary about the Laemmle family business from...

The weekly Blu-ray edition of the show is here with Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski going through a number of titles from overseas distributor Powerhouse Films which includes John Huston doing Freud, Rita Moreno slapping Marlon Brando, George C. Scott as Sherlock Holmes and the debut of a controversial “director.” They get into the unique history of Chuck Norris’ Missing In Action films and ge...

The first batch of movie reviews for 2023 from Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy arrives with quite the show. 14 reviews in all ranging from some late acclaimed 2022 catch-ups from the international scene (Broker, Saint Omer) and another mystery with Edgar Allan Poe as a participant (The Pale Blue Eye). Erik describes what could be the nuttiest plotline of the new year (The Devil Conspiracy) and St...

The first Blu-ray show of 2023 with Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski brings about a variety of age-old classics to films fresh out of theaters. In-between there are films with early work from Joan Crawford, Matt Damon, Brendan Fraser, Diane Lane and Laura Dern. TV episodes are turned into movies, the bullied let their tormentors be setup for murder and Sonny Chiba is an executioner. Brandi Carl...

For the year-end show spotlighting their choices for the best films of 2022, Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy are joined by Collin Souter from the Christmas Movies Actually podcast to offer his selections as well. It was a year where the funny often came with the sad. A transition period through the pandemic where filmmakers were forced to adjust or find new commentary on a society that has drifte...