Movies That Make Us

It’s the end of March Madness and we are going out with the movie Rubber that features a sentient tire named Robert that has psychokinetic powers. Yes, you read that right, a sentient tire who can use its mind power to kill. Directed by French director Quentin Dupieux and was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010 to positive reviews. It’s a very meta movie that deals with the filmmaking and vi...

Welcome to a very special, giant sized episode of Movies That Make Us! We welcome friends Blake from The Lettuce Inn Podcast, Craig from Matinee Heroes, and Josh from The (0s Kid YouTube Channel as we discuss Zack Snyder’s Justice League! We talk about what worked, what didn’t and overall how the film was. Was it an improvement over the theatrical cut? Did Zack Snyder deliver what the fans wanted?...

This week, the Movies that Make Us team continued the theme of March Madness with the 1981 cult film Time Bandits. Directed by Terry Gilliam, whose film library includes Twelve Monkeys, The Fischer King, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and more. This is a lower budget fantasy/sci-fi film that has a star studded cast including Sean Connery, Michael Palin, Shelley Duvall, Ian Holm and deals with cel...

Welcome to the start of March Madness here at Movies that Make Us and we start off with the 1993 film So I Married an Ax Murder starring Mike Meyers, and Nancy Travis. Myers plays Charlie MacKenzie, a man afraid of commitment until he meets Harriet (Travis), who works at a butcher shop and may be a serial killer. Myers also plays his own character's father, Stuart. What are your thoughts o...

It’s time for Staff Picks from your Movies that Make Us crew and this month, we each selected a Director with offbeat, unique, and interesting points of view/films. Tracy discussed three films from the library of Darren Aronofsky: The Fountain, The Wrestler, and Black Swan. Three very different films, but still work together in excellent character development and cinematography. Jake selected Tim...

Welcome to the final week of Rick Moranis month here at Movies that Make Us! This week we are discussing the 1987 film Spaceballs: The Movie starring Rick Moranis, John Candy, and Bill Pullman. Make sure to buckle your seatbelts because we are going to Ludicrous levels of silliness in this episode. A screwball comedy that gently mocks such sci-fi classics as Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, and Planet...

Welcome to week two of Rich Moranis month here at Movies that Make Us and we are discussing the 1989 film Parenthood starring Rick Moranis, Steve Martin, and Dianne Wiest, Keanu Reeves and Joaquin Phoenix. The film follows multiple families and how they deal with raising children and overcoming the obstacles live throws their way. Much of the film is based on the family and parenting experiences o...

Welcome to the start of Rich Moranis month here at Movies that Make Us and we start off with the 1990 film My Blue Heaven starring Rick Moranis, Steve Martin, and Joan Cusack. Based on the life of Henry Hill (renamed Vinnie Antonelli), a mobster who was placed into the witness protection program who you might know from the film Goodfellas. The film follows FBI Agent Barney Coopersmith (Rick Morani...

This week, the Movies that Make Us team is introducing staff picks. Once a month, we’ll recommend films to check out based on a theme. For February, we each selected three films from the a cinematographer that we enjoy. Val recommends checking out the work of American cinematographer Rachel Morrison, and the three films she chose are Black Panther, Cake, and Mudbound. She was the first woman nomin...

It’s the final episode of Jack Black January, and this week Val, Jake, and Tracy discuss the clever and surprising film Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle . Taking the 1995 film starring Robin Williams as a starting point, this film creates its own identity and in many ways improves on the original. It’s got Jack Black, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gilan.  It’s Jack Black’s to...

In this week’s episode, Jake, Val, and Tracy continue Jack Black January with Michel Gondry’s Sundance film Be Kind Rewind This quirky film is about two store clerks who inadvertently erase the footage from all of the tapes in their video rental store. In order to keep the business running, they re-shoot every film in the store with their own camera, with a budget of zero dollars. It’s a love lett...

In this week’s episode, Jake, Val, and Tracy continue Jack Black January with Jared Hess’ film Nacho Libre. This offbeat comedy film stars Jack Black as a friar in Mexico who helps feed children at an orphanage. He begins to wrestle in matches at night to earn money for the kids, and desperately works to keep his identity a secret so he won’t be forced to leave the order. It’s the follow up to Hes...

In this week’s episode of Movies That Make Us, Tracy, Val, and Jake are getting ready for a big year of podcasting, and kicking off Jack Black January with The Big Year. This 2011 comedy follows the adventures of three different birders attempting to find as many species of bird in North America between January 1 and December 31. This film stars Jack Black, Steve Martin, and Owen Wilson and is a g...

In this week’s episode, Val, Jake, and Tracy discuss underappreciated Christmas films. We’ve all seen National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Elf, It’s a Wonderful Life, and A Christmas Story , but there’s so much more out there.  Val selected The Holiday a romantic comedy about two women who swap homes in L.A. and England over Christmas and discover themselves. Jake chose While You Were Sleep...

In this week’s episode, Tracy, Val, and Jake welcome Collin from Stolendroids Podcast as we break down all the announcements from Disney Investor Day 2020. And man, there were a ton of announcements to talk about because Disney basically owns everything. From Hulu, to FX, NatGeo, Lucasfilm, Pixar, Disney Animation, Disney Plus, and Pixar, we are covering it all, and letting you know what we are lo...

In this week’s episode we are discussing the 2016 film Hidden Figures. This film tells the untold story of the African-American female computers that helped launch a man into orbit for the United States. Join Tracy and Jake as they discuss what this film gets right and what some of the misses were. How does this film hold up? Is it worth re-visiting? The answer is yes to both questions. So if you...

In this week’s episode, Tracy, Val, and Jake take a look at The Last of the Mohicans. This film follows its protagonists in the North American colonies during the French and Indian war during the year 1757. We talk about how beautiful this film is, the shots that just stand out, and how timeless it feels, even all these years later. The acting is solid, the music is amazing and the storytelling is...

In this week’s episode, Tracy, Val, and Jake are discussing the 1995 epic period piece, Braveheart, directed by and starring Mel Gibson. This film is 25 years old this year, which is unbelievable. But has it aged well? Our team will discuss. We each have memories of this film and what it meant to us when it came out until now, and we share some of those stories. Plus we get into some of the messag...

In this episode, Tracy, Val, and Jake are taking a look at 17 Again, where Zac Efron plays a younger version of Matthew Perry. And that’s not even the weirdest part of the movie. This film was big because it was the first time, really, that Zac Efron was able to step away from Disney and show he could still lead the show. In reality, it wasn’t a huge departure from his previous roles, but it at le...

In this episode Tracy, Val, and Jake are breaking down a modern classic in 13 Going on 30, starring Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo. In a similar plot to Big, Jenna is a 13 year-old who wishes to be 30, and wakes up the next day as an adult. But this one is slightly different because she actually wakes up 17 years in the future in her future apartment and future job and future life. Our team disc...

In this episode, Val, Tracy, and Jake discuss two films with the same name- the 1976 Freaky Friday starring Jodie Foster, and the 2003 update starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan.   One of these two has not aged well, and was hard to sit through without cringing for a variety of reasons. The other holds up. But which is which? Find out in our episode! What do you think of Freaky Friday...

In this episode, Val, Tracy, and Jake are discussing the classic, somewhat magical Big, starring Tom Hanks. There are a lot of movies that fit in this genre of body swapping or magically aging movies, but Big may be the most classic and maybe even the best. But why does it work so well? Join our trio as they discuss how this film works, why it works, and why Tom Hanks is amazing. Its seems like he...

In this video, Jake and Val discuss the new Netflix film, Enola Holmes, starring Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Sam Claftin, and Helena Bonham Carter.  This film was more fun than we thought it would be, and the cinematography was beautiful. Find out what else we liked about the movie and let us know what you thought of the film. We also discuss the future of movies- Theaters vs. streaming...

In this week’s episode, Jake and Tracy talk all about the exciting world of children’s competitive chess, and the brilliant prodigies that play chess. Of course we are discussing the film Searching for Bobby Fischer. The guys break down why the cinematography in this film is so good. They break down some of the moments where the shots are telling the story, and how powerful that visual storytellin...

In this week’s episode of Movies That Make Us, Tracy, Val, and Jake discuss the Christopher Nolan Film, Inception. Probably his most well received film, maybe even his masterpiece, Inception still has people talking. We discuss where Interstellar fits in with the rest of the Christopher Nolan films out there. Is this one the best? Our team weighs in and answers that question. And they enjoy the co...