Now Playing - The Movie Review Podcast

Twenty years before he was California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger went Commando to assassinate the deposed President of a fake Latin American country in this 1985 shoot-’em-up. Did the Austrian bodybuilder pump up his Terminator image with superhuman tree lifts and gratuitous shopping mall showdowns? Or are the corny catch phrases and play dates with daughter Alyssa Milano dead tired in 2022...

Centuries before targeting Arnold Schwarzenegger in the South American jungle, the Predator was making Native Americans their Prey in this prequel set in the year 1719. Can Comanche medicine woman Amber Midthunder silence the sexist naysayers by bringing down the cloaked alien that’s been picking off her tribe in the wilderness of the Great Plains?  And do grizzly bears and mountain lions pose jus...

Superman and Batman have been taken prisoner, so it’s up to their dogs Krypto (Dwayne Johnson) and Ace (Kevin Hart) to lead the rescue team in the first big screen adventure for the DC League of Superpets.  Did deranged guinea pig Lulu (Kate McKinnon) learn enough about being a supervillain from Lex Luther (Marc Maron) to successfully engineer an orange kryptonite plot that expels the Justice Leag...

Before there was a League of DC Superpets, there was Underdog… the clumsy police beagle turned into a flying canine crime fighter by mad scientist Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones). But can Walt Disney turn a 1960s Saturday morning cartoon created by cereal makers into something that satisfies the tastes of a new generation of superhero fans weaned on Richard Donner’s Superman?  And what can K-9 st...

Midnight Sun puts a new light on Stephanie Meyer’s first novel by retelling Twilight through the silver eyes of Edward the vampire.  Will fans still swoon over his love affair with Bella Swan knowing he was really fantasizing about committing violence against her body and soul?  And what do the rest of the Cullen clan think about a mortal girl from Arizona taking up so much space in their sibling’...

After five years living in the shadows, Kate Beckinsale returns to the Underworld universe ready to kick Lycan ass and win the Blood Wars for the vampires. But can the single mother prevent enemies on both sides of the conflict from hunting down and drinking the hybrid blood of her runaway daughter Eve?  And will Selene find true friends or just new hairdos when she follows the Northern Lights to...

Bella Swan grows up fast in Breaking Dawn - dealing with marriage, motherhood, and rigor mortis all in one giant Twilight conclusion. Will author Stephanie Meyer give her undead Heathcliff and Cathy the happy ending that’s so far eluded their teenage courtship? And are things better or worse between Edward and Jacob now that the werewolf has given up on Bella and imprinted on her baby girl instead...

Six years after putting Underworld on ice, Kate Beckinsale is slipping on a leather catsuit and Awakening to the joy of blasting more werewolves. But how will Selene adapt to a future where humans are now the Death Dealers, driving both Lycans and vampires into hiding?  And has eternal love Scott Speedman gone missing because he’s a captive of the evil Antigen Corporation… or because he’s ducking...

Chris Hemsworth and ex-girlfriend Natalie Portman attempt to bury the hatchet after she lifts his hammer and becomes another Thor in the latest Marvel adventure Love & Thunder. Is the superhero couple falling into a parent trap by rescuing the children of New Asgard from disillusioned zealot Christian Bale? Or is this God Butcher right to target Zeus (Russell Crowe) and the other disappointing...

The romance between sullen teen Bella and immortal vampire Edward gets overshadowed by the backstories of several supporting characters in Eclipse, Stephanie Meyer’s third Twilight novel.  Will battle scars and tales of war make readers think differently of Jasper Whitlock?  Does jealous Rosalie Hale become more sympathetic after hearing how she was turned undead? And what exactly happened to Bree...

Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina) spends his days hawking trinkets at a museum gift shop, and his nights sleepwalking around the globe as a mummified mercenary named Moon Knight.  Should the scatterbrained crime fighter try to figure out his multiple personalities in a sanitarium run by Black Phone predator Ethan Hawke? Or is this white padded cell really a front for a doomsday cult bent on bringing a veng...

Bella Swan can’t wait to die so she can spend all future birthdays sucking face with vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen in the second Twilight novel. Will things end tragically between the odd couple once author Stephanie Meyer starts quoting Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet? And is Bella’s native friend feeling the pangs of puppy love, or the onset of a werewolf transformation? Find out what’s in the...

With all of the Toy Story seemingly told, Pixar rockets back into the past to give us a cinematic origin story for Buzz Lightyear voiced by Chris Evans. Can the cocky Space Ranger learn to work with a team of misfits after his arrogance maroons the mission on a planet crawling with deadly bugs, lethal vines, and killer robots?  And does Buzz have a friend in robotic cat Sox the same way he clicked...

Stephanie Meyer drove a stake into typical literary depictions of vampires when she published her 2005 bestseller Twilight.  What is it about Bella Swan that makes the chaste heroine so irresistible to every living and undead boy in Forks, Washington?  And was it a good look for suitor Edward Cullen to take off the Dracula cape and show off his sparkling personality?  Join Jakob and Stuart as they...

Kate Beckinsale steps away from the Underworld franchise so that her real life ex Michael Sheen can get some time in the sun as star of prequel Rise of the Lycans.  Did Bill Nighy start an eternal war when he adopted a werewolf cub destined to lead human slaves and wilderness beasts in an uprising against vampire aristocracy?  And does Death Dealer Rhona Mitra look enough like Selene to wear her i...

Scott Speedman may have morphed into the perfect halfbreed boyfriend for vampire Kate Beckinsale at the end of Underworld, but there has been no Evolution in her clan’s thinking when it comes to interspecies romance. Can the pair escape the nocturnal city and find a place for themselves within a primordial forest?  And what happens when winged Elder Marcus (Tony Curran) catches up with the Death D...

Long before Bella had to choose between vampire and werewolf boyfriends, Kate Beckinsale was two-fisting pistols to save star-crossed Lycan lover Scott Speedman from her judgey undead family in Underworld. Is the director of Live Free Or Die Hard a wise man for placing the story of Romeo & Juliet inside The Matrix? Or is Len Wiseman just a letch inventing excuses for getting his future wife ou...

Turns out Jack Nicholson did not forget Chinatown as advised, but pulled double duty 16 years later as director and star of the sequel The Two Jakes. Did Harvey Keitel hire our heartbroken private eye because he needs help confronting a duplicitous wife, or because the sting will provide cover when he murders a business partner? And how did the long lost daughter of Faye Dunaway wind up owning an...

Jack Nicholson goes sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong in the Oscar-winning 1974 noir Chinatown. Can the private eye connect the dots between the missing girlfriend of a city official and LA’s vanishing water supply? Is femme fatale Faye Dunaway really falling for the gumshoe, or just taking Jake to the bedroom to stop him from seeing who’s drowning her hubby in the pool?  And why does tyco...

11-year-old Charlie McGee might look like just another snowflake who can’t manage her emotions, but tell her she’s no Drew Barrymore and you’ve got a real Firestarter on your hands in 2022.  Is proud papa Zac Efron pushing his telekinetic daughter to make the right choices, and avoid being captured by Native American assassin Rainbird and The Shop?  Or will the next High School Musical end with a...

Dr. Strange presents the illusion that his latest Marvel movie is a routine affair, but In the Multiverse of Madness might actually be another zombie splatter comedy from Evil Dead director Sam Raimi. Can Benedict Cumberbatch’s callous sorcerer fix his relationship with Rachel McAdams, and save America (the country and the teenager) from the wrath of monster mom Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen)?  A...

Jeremy Renner cuts his Yuletide New York vacation short after fangirl archer Hailee Steinfeld (Bumblebee) starts wearing his infamous Ronin suit to fight crime in the Disney Plus miniseries Hawkeye. Will the Marvel mercenary make it home for the holidays with only six days to defeat the Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio), new Black Widow Florence Pugh, a one-legged, deaf martial artist, and her entire Tr...

Is The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent driving Nicolas Cage into a booze-fueled early retirement (or did he just make too many embarrassing flops)? Now the Oscar winner has to accept a humiliating offer to host a lavish birthday party for fanboy cartel leader Pedro Pascal.  Will those “nouveau shamanic” acting techniques be of any help to Agent Tiffany Haddish when the CIA needs Cage to play s...

Nic Cage first used his “massive talent” to become an action star in the 1996 Michael Bay extravaganza The Rock. Can his Beatles-loving biochemist teach the original James Bond Sean Connery anything about being cool, as they team up to expel Ed Harris and his terrorists from Alcatraz?  Or will Candyman Tony Todd steal the show by launching a fleet of missiles loaded up with delicious-looking green...

Sega’s speedy mascot races back to movie theaters to offer an encore helping of attitude in Sonic The Hedgehog 2. This time the video game icon not only battles Jim Carrey’s mechanical contraptions and manic comic timing, but the oversized fists of new nemesis Knuckles (voiced by Idris Elba).  Are James Marsden’s days of being a helicopter parent over now that flying fox Tails is ready to lift the...