Now Playing - The Movie Review Podcast

Diamonds may be forever, but Daniel Craig only has one more shot at bringing James Bond to life in No Time To Die. Will longtime nemesis Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) ruin the superspy’s chances at Happily Ever After by blowing up his Italian holiday with Lea Seydoux?  Or will Rami Mallick prove to be the bigger threat as he uses nanotechnology and a Zen Garden of Death to poison the world? Find out i...

Folks might think of Mila Kunis as a typical All American Girl, but the 70’s Show actress proves she can be an American Psycho II after homicidal yuppie Patrick Bateman attacks her babysitter. Is this coed so eager to land a job hunting serial killers with the FBI that she’s willing to murder everyone in her criminology class?  And how do the Now Playing hosts grade William Shatner, beaming down i...

Tom Hardy was struggling to make room for Venom in his life even before natural born killer Woody Harrelson, his screaming mad girlfriend Naomi Harris (Skyfall), and a blood red baby symbiote crashed their picture. Does sequel Let There Be Carnage bring an end to the reporter’s unconventional marriage to the gooey, black alien parasite? And is Michelle Williams proof that things get better once yo...

Christian Bale might look like just another vapid investment banker, but behind his well-groomed features and aerobicized body lies the mind of an American Psycho. So how did predatory Patrick Bateman go from graphically torturing women in one of the most misogynist books of the 1990s, to having a female director turn him into the punchline of the 1980s in this millennial horror comedy?  And will...

Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House stood as a horror classic for nearly 60 years before director Mike Flanagan (Hush) expanded its walls into a 10 episode miniseries for Netflix.  Nell, Luke, and Theo are now the children of house flippers, spending the summer of 1992 seeing ghosts in renovated basements and hallways. Should the Crain siblings blame specters like Tall Man and Abiga...

Producer Steven Spielberg and director Jan DeBont (Speed) poured a lot of time and money into remodeling Shirley Jackson's classic ghost story into the much reviled 1999 remake of The Haunting.  Long before she played clapping games with Ed and Lorraine Warren, Lili Taylor was conjuring bad spirits during her stay at a mansion where hundreds of child laborers perished.  Do we need Liam Neeson’s sc...

Could the next Legend of the Marvel Cinematic Universe be an unassuming San Francisco parking valet who prefers late night karaoke to taking down his father's infamous Ten Rings terrorist cell?  Martial artist Shang Chi is ready to answer the call for a modern Asian American superhero. But do comedienne Awkwafina, Crouching Tiger star Michelle Yeoh, and the Man Who Would Be The Mandarin (aka Ben K...

Paranormal investigators engineer a blind date between a homeless wallflower and the noisy poltergeists of Hill House in The Haunting - the original 1963 movie adaptation of Shirley Jackson's classic ghost story. Director Robert Wise took a break between his Oscar-winning musicals West Side Story and The Sound of Music to craft one of the most beloved haunted house movies of all time! But will mod...

40 years after nerdy Dustin Hoffman made his stand on foreign soil, preppy screenwriter James Marden borrows those iconic cracked spectacles so he can spar with some backwoods football jocks he calls Straw Dogs. Can new director Rod Lurie replicate the original film's signature brand of cruelty in small town Mississippi? And will disgruntled wife Kate Bosworth stick with her Superman Returns co-st...

Dustin Hoffman discovers that Jolly Old England is no refuge from the violence and social unrest of 1971 in the original Straw Dogs.  Writer/director Sam Peckinpah pioneered the home invasion horror movie with this story of an American mathematician channeling his inner savage to beat back an angry mob storming his wife's modest farm.  Does the 50-year-old classic still have the power to shock mod...

Marvel might not always appreciate the irreverent humor of director James Gunn, but DC is happy to bring the Guardians of the Galaxy mastermind on board The Suicide Squad. Idris 'Black Superman' Elba leads a rebooted team of criminals - including old favorite Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and new hotshot Peacemaker (John Cena) - to a South American island coup that threatens the interests of Amanda...

Dev Patel sets out to prove he's more than a Slumdog Millionaire by pushing away from King Arthur's Round Table, and picking up a sword to do battle with The Green Knight.  Will Stuart, Jakob, and Justin lose their heads over this decidedly sinister spin on a classic 14th Century poem about chivalry?  And can indie director David Lowrey (A Ghost Story) dethrone Peter Jackson and become cinema's ne...

Having crapped out on two previous live-action G.I. Joe adaptations Hasbro is ready to roll the dice again, betting big on Snake Eyes. This mute ninja is arguably the most popular Joe, but is he just as cool when he takes off the mask and he's the romantic guy from Crazy Rich Asians? Our hosts won't be silent with their thoughts! Listen now to know if they recommend this film -- and knowing is hal...

WWII strategy video game Company of Heroes moves the battle lines from computer consoles to movie screens with a stealth 2013 cinematic adaptation.  But will Justin, Arnie, or Stuart decorate rising action star Chad Michael Collins, Vinnie Jones, or any of the other B-list actors in this platoon for their efforts in stopping Hitler from getting the nuke?  And who thought it was a good idea to put...

Scarlett Johansson breaks away from the Avengers after seven Marvel movies together so that her Russian secret agent Black Widow can finally headline her first solo adventure. Will Natasha Romanoff wipe the red from her ledger by hunting down the man who confined her childhood to war games in a Red Room?  And does super soldier father David Harbour, scientist mom Rachel Weisz, and tag along little...

A Japanese gangster helps a little girl navigate a treacherous red light district in search of her missing mother in the sprawling adaptation of 2006 video game Yakuza (aka Like A Dragon).  Will the pair find their way through a dense plot involving a Korean assassin, klutzy bank robbers, desperate teenagers, bickering cops, and a flashy psycho who beats underlings and enemies alike with his baseb...

Is new father Dominic Toretto and his family of furious drivers slowing down 20 years into The Fast Saga?  Only when they rocket to space and race their souped-up vehicles in zero gravity!   This time Vin Diesel faces off against long lost brother John Cena, who’s hitched his wagon to sexy IT support Charlize Theron in a bid to hack the planet.  Will the Now Playing hosts be magnetized by all the...

Everyone in 2021 wants to blame Bill Gates for putting microchips in vaccination shots, but the practice was pioneered by Allstate pitchman Dennis Haysbert in the 2016 Dead Rising sequel Endgame.  Hallmark Channel hunk Jesse Metcalfe returns as the intrepid reporter hero, this time leading hackers and marksmen through a city overrun with zombies to rescue his missing camerawoman and avert genocide...

Why are the Dead Rising all over East Mission, Oregon if the government has a miracle drug that can prevent zombie outbreaks?  It's all part of Operation Watchtower, a top secret plan to give the military unprecedented access to American lives.  But will anyone find out the truth if TV journalist Jesse Metcalfe insists on airing the story exclusively on middling streaming service Crackle?  And can...

It’s not The Devil, but Now Playing’s loyal listeners, that made Arnie, Majorie, and Stuart do another Conjuring film after so many hellish experiences in the franchise.  This time the Warrens are heading to court in the 1980s to help a man beat a murder rap by insisting he was possessed by a demon escaped from his waterbed.  Does Ed have the heart to keep fabricating these “true stories”, or are...

Blood-soaked prom queen... tween pyromaniac... axe wielding book critic... just some of the scary women that have leaped from the pages of Stephen King's horror fiction onto the big screen. Now hardened New England housekeeper Dolores Claiborne is ready for her day in court. Will Kathy Bates eclipse the Oscar-winning work she did in Misery as she stands accused of pushing her cruel employer down t...

George Clooney and his Ocean’s co-stars made casino heists look easy, but they never had to crack a safe being guarded by an Army of the Dead. Can Dave Bautista and his colorful crew of mercenaries bypass reanimated Elvis impersonators and a zombie white tiger to lay claim to a Vegas jackpot before nukes are dropped?  And is writer-director Zack Snyder pushing his luck by returning to the horror g...

Ladies and gentlemen, I have one piece of advice for you. No matter what Jigsaw tells you, there's no escape from a Jigsaw trap. None! Oh, there's pain in a Jigsaw trap, but you don't want pain...you want an escape. And Chris Rock's new movie Spiral: From the Book of Saw shows there's no escape from a Jigsaw trap. So play the game, and our podcast review of Spiral, now.

Anthony Mackie shields himself from the pressure of becoming the next Captain America by taking to the sky as The Falcon for Marvel’s second Disney+ miniseries, and it’s made Sebastian Stan angry enough to relapse back into The Winter Soldier.  Can these two set aside their differences long enough to save the world from a group of political extremists enhanced by super-soldier serum?  And do these...

Tom Clancy techno-thrillers typically feature desk-bound diplomats on the hunt for missing subs and rogue nukes, but the stakes are much more personal for Michael B Jordan (Creed) as he seeks vengeance against the hitman who murdered his family in Without Remorse.  Could the Navy Seal-turned-CIA operative start WWIII by breaking out of jail and heading to Russia in such a rage? And will Amazon Pri...