Movies That Make Us

It’s November and with Movies that Make Us, that means it's Nicolas Cage November. This week, we talk about one of the most talked about Nicolas Cage movies and that is Face/Off. Face/Off is a John Woo Directed film starring Nicolas Cage and John Travolta. The premise is that John Travolta's Character, Sean Archer, needs to infiltrate a prison that his nemesis Castor Troy was in, to get informatio...

It’s October and Movies that Make Us is taking a look at classic Universal Monster movies. This week, we visit Transylvania and discuss the 1931 classic Dracula played by Bela Lugosi. This is the first official version of the Dracula story written by Bram Stoker, Nosferatu came out in 1922, but wasn’t officially adapted with permission. It’s a story well known, but it’s fun to look back at the fil...

This week, the cast of Movies that Make Us kick of October with the first of our classic Universal Monster movies - The Creature from the Black Lagoon. The film is a 1954 black and white film that deals with a group of scientists attempting to find a humanoid creature that can live underwater in the rivers of the Amazon. It’s a shorter film, clocking in at 79 minutes, but has some great creature d...

Welcome to the first Monday of October and it’s time for Staff Picks! Once again, Val, Jake, and Tracy select three films and we discuss and recommend them to you. This month we all selected films that are G rated. Tracy picked the 1973 Disney classic Robin Hood . It’s the retelling of the classic English tale of the scoundrel that robs from the rich to give to the poor. He also selected the Disne...

On this very special episode of Movies That Make Us, we are coming to you live from FanX in Salt Lake! Okay, it was live at the time, but obviously recorded now. This was our big live panel at the convention, and we were glad to also welcome special guests Heather Price of Nerdy Bitches Podcast and Cheesy Bloomfield of Cheesy and Noel Go to Hell Podcast.  In this panel we went on a deeper div...

We’re halfway through our September to Remember here at Movies that Make Us and this week we are talking about the classic film The Princess Bride . This week, we’ll also be all over FanX, so please come say hi and hang out with us! This fantasy/family/comedy/action film is directed by Rob Reiner and was one of those keystone films for our childhoods. Princess Buttercup, Westley, Inigo Montoya, Fe...

Welcome to a September to Remember here at Movies that Make Us. With FanX just around the corner, we’re looking back at some of the classics of our generation and this week we discuss the 1984 film The Karate Kid . It’s the story of a teenage boy and his single mom who move from New Jersey to Reseda, California and his struggles to fit in, finding love, and overcoming the local bullies. He learns...

Welcome to another episode of Movies that Make Us! This week we’re discussing a current film called CODA .  This heartfelt story swept the juried prizes at the festival, winning the Directing Award, the Ensemble Award, the Grand Jury Prize, as well as CODA was purchased for $25 million by Apple and smashed the Sundance sales record just a year after Palm Springs did the same courtesy of HULU...

This week, the Movies that Make Us team got to gather together for an early screening of the new Ryan Reynolds film Free Guy and we had so much fun with the film, we had to talk about it on the show. Directed by Shawn Levy (Director of the Night at the Museum films, Date Night, and Real Steel) and starring Ryan Reynolds, Taika Watiti, Jodie Comer, and a host of cameos who we won’t spoil here. It’s...

It’s Val’s birthday month and we’re talking about one her favorite modern films (and Jake and Tracy love it too) Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse . The 2018 film introduced us to the idea of the multiverse and offered some new ideas and fresh characters in the Spider-Man universe. Strong visual animation helps tell the story of Miles Morales for the first time on the big screen, while the smart sc...

Welcome to another episode of Movies that Make Us! It’s the start of a whole new month, so it’s time for Staff Picks. This time we wanted to talk about Soundtracks and Scores. Film scores were traditionally performed by orchestras, and many still are, but today a film score might feature all manner of sounds and instruments. A film soundtrack is more a selection of songs chosen to be featured in a...

Welcome to another episode of Movies that Make Us! We’re wrapping up our “Reunited and it feels so good” month with a look back at the underappreciated film Muppets Take Manhattan. This is the third Muppets film and the first directed by someone other than Jim Henson. Henson was tired after filming The Great Muppet Caper and The Dark Crystal back to back, so he turned the director’s chair over to...

Hi friends! This week, we are continuing our theme of “Reunited and it feels so good” with a film that is not only about bringing family back together, but is also bringing people back to the theaters in a big way: Black Widow. It’s a movie that fills in a lot of the background of Natasha Romanov, and Scarlett Johansson really gets a chance to step into lead role of her own film in the MCU. The fi...

Welcome to another episode of Movies that Make Us! We’re continuing our theme of “Reunited and it feels so good” with the underappreciated action film RED. This film stars Bruce Willis, Mary Louise-Parker, John Malkovich, Hellen Mirren, and Morgan Freeman. Willis is a “Retired and Extremely Dangerous” former CIA operative who is being hunted and he has to reach out to some old friends and even som...

This week, the cast of Movies that Make Us start our run of movies about gathering together (since we are able to record in person again!) and Val’s selection is The First Wives Club. The 1996 film is based on the novel of the same name stars Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, and Diane Keaton,  The film covers three divorcées who seek reparation for their ex-husbands who left them for younger women....

Staff picks are back for Movies that Make Us and we recorded together for the first time since Covid hit back in March 2020 and we couldn’t be more excited. We recorded over at Watchtower Coffee and Comics in Salt Lake City and had a wonderful time. For July, we each selected three films from the Western Genre. Tracy recommends checking out the 1903 film The Great Train Robbery to see one of the e...

This week, the cast of Movies that Make Us take on what is arguably the greatest film ever made, Citizen Kane . Since it was recently dethroned by Paddington 2 as having the best rating on RottenTomatoes.com, we decided to travel back to 1941 and see if Orson Welles’ film stands the test of time. The film explores the life of Charles Foster Kane through the lenses of those who knew him, those that...

Welcome to another episode of Movies that Make Us! We’re giving you a two for one deal today as we talk about the movies Paddington and Paddington 2 .  The sequel made news recently when it overtook Citizen Kane for the best reviewed movie on RottenTomatoes.com and since Jake and Tracy had never seen the film, we wanted to see what all the fuss was about. These are delightful films that reall...

On this week’s episode of Movies That Make Us, Jake and Tracy re-visit an old favorite of Tracy’s- Clifford. No, not the big red dog. This is the movie about the 10 year old named Clifford played by the then 40 year old Martin Short. Yep. You won’t want to miss this one. What did you think of Clifford? Should there be a Creed 3? Did Tracy say something you disagreed with? You can send all of...

On this episode of Movies That Make Us, the team went live for Utah Remote-Con 2 and talked about a favorite movie- Creed.  What did you think of Creed? Should there be a Creed 3? Did Tracy say something you disagreed with? You can send all of that feedback to podcast@moviesthatmakeus.com .  Did you miss the video premier of this episode? Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, and...

Tracy, Val and Jake welcome special guest Craig Price from Matinee Heroes, CastOff and new Stolendroids Network show Monday Morning Memory Wipe! We had a couple of rules- we could not pick any superhero movies and we couldn't pick Star Wars because we all know Star Wars had a huge impact on pop culture. Other than that, we could pick anything we wanted. We have each picked a movie that has had a h...

Welcome to another episode of Movies that Make Us! We’re finishing up our month long theme of growth, change, overcoming obstacles, and movies that make us feel good with this week’s episode Rudy . This biographical film centers around Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger who has dreamed of playing football at the University of Notre Dame since he was a child. He has to overcome obstacles of learning disabilit...

Welcome to another episode of Movies that Make Us! We’re continuing our theme of growth, change, overcoming obstacles, and movies that make us feel good with this week’s episode featuring Brittany Runs a Marathon. In this film, Brittany (Jillian Bell) lives in New York City and struggles with her weight and self esteem. She sets out to better herself and eventually wants to run in the New York Mar...

It’s April and the Movies that Make Us team has caught a case of spring fever! We’re excited to spend the month talking about films that deal with growth, change, and that make you feel good. Our first selection is the 2014 film Chef that was written, co-produced, starring, and directed by Jon Favreau. Favreau plays a chef who, after a public altercation with a food critic, loses his job at a popu...

Welcome to a very special episode of Movies That Make Us! It is our 100th episode! Join Tracy, Val, and Jake as they take a stroll down memory lane and talk about some of their favorite memories over the last 100 episodes, and even some forgotten memories, including the legendary lost episode- Ready Player One. Whether you have been a long time listener of the show, or a recent fan, join us for th...