Movie Madness

The weekly movie review edition of the podcast adds seven titles from the Thanksgiving holiday. Erik Childress checks out the 1980s hi-jinks of trying to obtain a Nintendo (8-Bit Christmas) while Steve Prokopy delves into the new Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) and the stylings of classic songwriters of old (The Beatles: Get Back) and new (Encanto). The pair debate whether the directorial debut o...

Black Friday and Christmas are coming up, so what better time to talk up some Blu-rays you may want to add to your wish lists. Erik Childress and Sergio Mims discuss a great documentary that should be on everyone’s shelves about one of the greatest television shows ever produced. For the kids Shout Factory has a whole lineup of new Laika packages and the pair also get into who is a Labyrinth guy a...

The weekly review edition of the show with Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy never plans out a theme but sometimes they just appear. Post-Thanksgiving shopping is never quite as bad in this week’s horror film (Black Friday) and the same might be said for Abel Ferrara’s new work (Zeros and Ones). Why is Alanis Morrissette complaining about her documentary (Jagged) when a teacher has a more serious b...

Erik Laws normally joins the show to talk comic book adaptations, but a certain 1984 film is a favorite to many of us so he joins Erik Childress for a discussion of Jason Reitman’s modern follow-up to his father’s classic. Ghostbusters: Afterlife has drawn quite the division between those nostalgic for the original and critics who believe the fan service has reached a fever pitch. Has Reitman fill...

The weekly movie review edition of the show arrives with nine new films. In documentaries, Steve Prokopy looks at one about the current Secretary of Transportation (Mayor Pete) while Erik Childress looks at how Juggalo culture became synonymous with gangs by the government (The United States of Insanity) and both dig in to the life of The French Chef (Julia). Steve covers a film about human traffi...

Movies never stop and neither do the Blu-rays which is why Erik Childress and Sergio Mims continue to talk about them so you can build your physical media collection. It may only be on DVD but any cornucopia of Richard Pryor material is a gift and they discuss a new one from Time-Life. Sergio digs into the Arrow release of Ridley Scott’s Legend and Criterion’s The Damned. They go through a variety...

Eight new movies are after your attention on the weekly review episode with Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy and it’s a pretty solid lineup with at least one big exception. Erik reminds you of Stanley Nelson’s terrific documentary on the infamous prison standoff (Attica) and Steve looks at a new breed of vampire film (Dead & Beautiful). There’s a voice inside Olivia Munn’s head and its not pleasan...

The Marvel Cinematic Universe enters the next phase of its current phase with Eternals, Chloe Zhao’s now follow-up to her Oscar-winning Nomadland. Erik Childress brings back comic book expert, Erik Laws, to dive into the comic’s history as well as the film which has drawn quite the discourse from critics. Has Marvel fatigue reached an apex where even the only second woman to ever win Best Director...

Aside from all their duties as film critics, journalists, radio show hosts and TV guests, Erik Childress and Sergio Mims also each produce film festivals in the city of Chicago. Erik created the Chicago Critics Film Festival, the only event curated entirely by film critics and Sergio has been producing the Black Harvest Film Festival for over 25 years. Both events are taking place this year in Nov...

It’s a light week on the weekly review show, but there is a still a half-dozen titles to discuss between Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy. They include Michael Shannon trying to bring a collegiate rowing team together (Heart of Champions) and hypnotherapy going wrong for Kate Siegel (Hypnotic). For those who wanted an Army of the Dead prequel sans the zombies, you got it (Army of Thieves), but you...

It’s Blu-ray time again on the podcast. Erik Childress and Sergio Mims concentrate on just a few studios but a lot of titles including films from a silent film comedian. Sergio goes over some recent musicals released by Warner Archive as well as an Errol Flynn war film. If you ever wanted to see Strother Martin in a horror film, Arrow Video has one for you along with a couple of new 4K titles. One...

You want movie reviews? You get them here as Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy give you the standard they love to hit with ten reviews, including revisiting the emotional powerhouse from SXSW (Introducing, Selma Blair), another documentary about the January 6th insurrection (Four Hours at the Capitol) and even another about one of the legendary makeup artists (Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Sa...

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy return for the weekly movie reviews with the lighter lineup but no less lively a discussion. They look at the various scenes of a writer’s marriage in Mia Hansen-Love’s Bergman Island and the history of a legendary band in Todd Haynes’ documentary, The Velvet Underground. Bobcat Goldthwait and Dana Gould go on with their comedy tour after a bad car accident in the...

Erik Childress and Sergio Mims have a lot of Blu-ray releases to catch-up on and they begin here with the latest from their friends at Indicator, Paramount, Warner Bros. and Kino. They discuss the confusion over the ending to Jagged Edge, the legacies of both Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Mommie Dearest. They also go through an array of titles from Kino including films from Billy Wilde...

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy continue to show why you can’t do this on the radio when they take the time to review another ten movies available this week including revisiting a film they disagreed on from Sundance this year (Mass). With Jason Reitman’s reboot just a month away, Erik takes a look at a documentary about the original (Cleanin’ Up the Town: Remembering Ghostbusters). He also discu...

An episode two years in the making. Or 15. Or nearly 60, depending on if you want to start with the beginning of the James Bond franchise, the stay of the Daniel Craig era or when his final outing as 007 was supposed to come out. It is finally time for No Time To Die and Bond expert, Sergio Mims, joins Erik Childress to do a full dive into the series. They talk Connery, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan and...

Continuing the recent trend of covering major film festivals virtually, Erik Childress is once again joined by Sergio Mims who gets to add the discussion with a lot more movies. They wade through a lineup that included a number of music documentaries ranging from rock to jazz, a pair of stunning crime docs about real-life standoffs with police in the 1970s and even one for the foodies. They discus...

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy hit the magic number again this week. Ten movie reviews for your curiosity including a trio of horror films to kick off October (Bingo Hell, Black As Night, No One Gets Out Alive). For lighter fare you can choose between Danielle McDonald wanting to become an opera singer (Falling for Figaro) or a pair of sisters trying to comically rescue their grandmother from a...

Another eight movies are on the docket for Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy this week. They include documentaries about the young star of Luchino Visconti’s Death in Venice (The Most Beautiful Boy in the World) and a non-binary black activist (My Name Is Pauli Murray). Ben Whishaw snaps, takes to the streets and goes on a crime spree (Surge) and Freida Pinto tries to solve a mystery happening unde...

Eight new films are reviewed on the show by Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy. They include two documentaries that take us out of this world (The Wonderful: Stories from the Space Station) and out of the mind of singer St. Vincent (The Nowhere Inn). Steve discusses an immigration romance (Blue Bayou) and both look at Aubrey Plaza’s attempt to revive a publishing house with Michael Caine’s surly aut...

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy once again go the extra mile reviewing a total of 12 new films on the show. They go from Mark Duplass and Natalie Morales looking at each other on Zoom (Language Lessons) to Sydney Sweeney looking at everything else – and us right back (The Voyeurs). There’s another mountain climber documentary (The Alpinist) as well as the relationship of two icons at their peak (...

Getting you ten movie reviews a week is becoming a standard here on the show. Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy deliver again with Shea Whigham as a social worker trying to protect single mother Olivia Munn (The Gateway) and Guy Pierce as a P.I. in the future looking for a missing person in a city of androids (Zone 414). Three neighborhoods you don’t want to move into include Gracie Gillam’s host f...

Not often does the Movie Madness Podcast dedicate an entire show to a single film. But there is one opening this week that can’t be done justice on the regular weekly review segment. Even one that has to do with justice with a character actually named Justice. Coke Daniels’ Karen with Taryn Manning in the lead role of an overtly racist white women hits so many buttons on the unintentionally hilari...

The Movie Madness Podcast celebrates its 250th episode with a look into one of the things that has made the theatrical experience so memorable over the years. It’s you. It’s us. It’s them. Erik Childress and Sergio Mims have had some memorable times at the movies going back decades and they are here to share a handful of the ones they cannot forget. Whether it be a rapturous response or a furious...

The title suggests something equally sweet and horrible and art can be both. There is certainly a lot of art and artists on this week’s movie review episode. There are influencers and a photographer in the remake of She’s All That ( He’s All That ). The music and life of Guy Clark is featured in a new documentary ( Without Getting Caught or Killed ). There’s the story of a domino artist named Lily...