Now Playing - The Movie Review Podcast

Test your patience. It's been a hot minute since movie theaters hosted a Mortal Kombat tournament, but now the notoriously violent video game reboots itself on IMAX screens and HBO as an R-rated cinematic free-for-all.  Can Raiden and damned ninja Scorpion light a fire under a mediocre MMA fighter, a double amputee, a girl without a dragon tattoo, and a loudmouth Aussie, so they're prepared for a...

Milla Jovovich and director Paul WS Anderson are hoping to recapture lightning in a bottle as they leave behind the zombie hordes of Resident Evil to chase bigger video game beasties in the 2020 blowout Monster Hunter.  Will a team of grizzled UN soldiers find their way home after a sandstorm sweeps them into an alternate reality where giant crabs, worms, and dragons sit atop the food chain?  And...

Adam Sandler tries his hand in the Now Playing Arcade with the 2015 video game farce Pixels.  Space invaders have brought classic coin-op characters to life, and now Pac-Man is gobbling up Manhattan, while Centipede conducts a pub crawl through London. Is it possible for a washed-up Atari addict to save a country that was stupid enough to elect Kevin James to be President?  And can Q*bert, con art...

Godzilla Vs. Kong is a rivalry as old as the Hollow Earth (or at least the Japanese showdown of 1963), and now their battle to be crowned King of the Monsters is 2021's biggest movie event.  Will the Now Playing hosts cheer for the big ape as he breaks free of Project Monarch chains that have shackled him since Skull Island?  Or is the angry green lizard still our fav, despite being slandered as t...

Godzilla won the box office when he took down a MUTO (and most of San Francisco) in his 2014 Hollywood comeback. Now Mothra, Rodan, and all of the Big Lizard's former co-stars burst forth from the Hollow Earth to challenge the throne. Have eco-terrorists made it possible for three-headed Ghidorah to be crowned 2019's King of the Monsters?  And are these Titan battles stranger than the things Milli...

It was a decisive victory for The Legion of Doom when Warner Bros. executives handed Zack Snyder's unfinished superhero team-up Justice League to Avengers mastermind Joss Whedon. Internet trolls were not kind to this last-minute attempt to leave the Darkseid behind, and tell jokes at Superman's wake.  Their aggressive social media campaign has paved the way for the original director to assemble a...

It wasn’t so long ago that Elizabeth Olsen was blowing up the big screen in epic films like Avengers: Endgame.  What curse has befallen her career that Scarlet Witch is now slumming it in a cheesy sitcom called WandaVision?  Is Marvel experiencing some Growing Pains while trying to raise the TV profile of their superheroes?  And is Paul Bettany merely a special guest star on the series, or has his...

30 years after finding the perfect wife in New York City, Eddie Murphy's King Akeem is once again Coming 2 America to meet the son he sired with one-night stand Leslie Jones.  Will Millennial prince Jermaine Fowler follow in his father's footsteps, and marry for love?  Or will despot Wesley Snipes bring civil war down upon Zamunda if his daughter isn't made the royal bride? And are these wedding h...

Eddie Murphy let his soul glow in a new romantic light for the 1988 fairy tale Coming To America, starring as an African royal looking for his bride in downtrodden Queens, New York. Will any woman see Prince Akeem's true worth once he goes undercover as a poor exchange student working the janitorial crew of a fast-food restaurant?  And can audiences spot Murphy and buddy Arsenio Hall in all of the...

Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie are not going to Stand for another crummy TV miniseries, so CBS better hope their nine-hour take on Stephen King’s beloved novel doesn’t choke like a Langolier downing ham Bronson Pinchot.  Whoopi Goldberg leads an all-star cast of survivors rebuilding civilization in the aftermath of a deadly virus. Will they (or audiences) be tempted to shun the grind of a Colorado commu...

Did Valentine's Day lack that spark of danger you crave? Why not spice up your life by joining in a round of Gerald's Game? Carla Gugino leaves her Spy Kids at home, and consents to some light bondage in a remote Maine cabin, in an effort to save her marriage to yuppie Bruce Greenwood.  What happens when she's left shackled to the bedpost with no one but a feral dog and figments of an overactive i...

Madchen Amick saw her fair share of weirdness living in Twin Peaks, but nothing could prepare her for a date in the pet cemetery with one of Stephen King's Sleepwalkers.  Will the virginal high school student survive a makeout session with a feline vampire intent on stealing her breath?  And can the Now Playing hosts stop gasping over the dated computer effects, and numerous incestuous lovemaking...

Stephen King is hosting a fire sale in Castle Rock - the fictional Maine setting for some of his most iconic stories. Now everything… and everyone... must go, unless local sheriff Ed Harris can shut down the dirty dealings of sinister new shopkeep (and O.G. exorcist) Max Von Sydow!  Will these small town residents sell out their neighbors for the chance to own enchanted objects that corrupt their...

Arnie, Justin, and Stuart have shed a lot of tears while suffering through the 11 previous Uwe Boll video game adaptations, but the divisive director/producer can't hurt the podcasters anymore if they can survive Far Cry. Til Schweiger (Inglourious Basterds) stars as the mercenary boat skipper who takes on an island of mutants like in the original installment of the first-person shooter.  Can the...

Is Bloodrayne storming the Nazi death camps because she wants to take down The Third Reich and stop Hitler from becoming a vampire?  Or because the bisexual bloodsucker is kinky for more steam room threeways?  Director Uwe Boll wants to have it three ways too, as he reuses the sets and cast of this video game adaptation to simultaneously make a Bloodrayne "spoof" with obese asskicker Blubberella,...

Almost everything has changed for Bloodrayne now that the daywalking vampire has left her European medieval castle, and traveled to the American frontier town of Deliverance, for a "high midnight" showdown with an undead Billy The Kid. Should gamers continue to feed their quarters into a series saddled with tax cheat Uwe Boll? Or does the much-maligned director prove to be better at shooting Spagh...

Kristanna Loken trades her Terminatrix leathers for a sword and fangs to star as the half-human, half-vampire assassin Bloodrayne. Does the video game vixen score many points with PlayStation fans by beating up on fat rocker Meatloaf, or picking a fight with everyone's favorite pacifist Sir Ben "Gandhi" Kingsley?  And can anyone win against an End Boss as bad as director Uwe Boll, whose track reco...

Before we leave behind a stressful year of coronavirus and social turmoil, Now Playing needs to travel back in time to 1984, and see if Wonder Woman can provide the big screen fireworks that quarantined audiences have been missing.  Will heartbroken Gal Godot really give up her tiara and Amazonian strength for the chance to be with Steve Trevor (Chris Pine)?  And was it always Kristin Wiig's wish...

John David Washington had some trouble infiltrating hate groups as a BlacKkKlansman, but that's child's play compared to the lengths he goes to unlock the secrets of Tenet.  Christopher Nolan's 11th big screen adventure is his most twisted look at time yet - an IMAX sized optical illusion that reflects back on James Bond flicks while simultaneously pushing audiences into the uncertain future of a...

CBS attempted to change its image as “the old persons’ network” in 1991 when it greenlit Stephen King’s Golden Years, a series about a top secret lab experiment that rapidly de-ages an elderly janitor.  Can the 8 episodes of this prematurely cancelled TV drama find new life edited down into a four hour movie?  And why is Felicity Huffman footing the bill for this afflicted man’s flight from justic...

Eddie Murphy was the biggest comedy star of the 1980s when he decided to spend Another 48 Hrs razzing rednecks and dodging bullets back in San Francisco. Now Nick Nolte is the one who stands to go to jail, after false charges are brought against the cop while he chases phantom drug dealer The Iceman.  Can director Walter Hill keep the boys competitive with the big action sequels of the era, or doe...

It's detective Nick Nolte's worst nightmare - spending 48 Hrs handcuffed to scene stealer Eddie Murphy in his movie debut.  How much damage can the pair do in two days as they tear through San Francisco looking for Warriors James Remar and David Patrick Kelly, and a Porsche full of money?  And should director Walter Hill get his dick bronzed for pioneering the action-comedy formula that paved the...

It's taken almost 25 years for The Craft to conjure a sequel, but now the Legacy of the 1996 wicca hit continues with a new generation of female spellcasters joining the circle. Can four teen witches work together to defeat sinister stepfather David Duchovney, and some toxic high school boys?  Or will Lily, the new Witch of the West, lose confidence in her powers after mother Michelle Monaghan (Mi...

Blessed be! Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart are under the spell of The Craft, the first high school movie of the '90s to stick up for the wiccans. Strange things start happening when naturally gifted magick user Robin Tunney blows into an LA Catholic school from the North, and joins a coven of weirdos led by Wicked Witch of the West Fairuza Balk. Is hunky football jock Skeet Ulrich the snake-in-the-grass...

Most Americans remember the First Gulf War as a quick and decisive U.S. victory, but director Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) sees it as the beginning of a White House corporate takeover in his 2004 version of Manchurian Candidate. Should shellshocked Denzel Washington get back on his meds, and stop accusing fellow soldier Liev Schrieber of being a sleeper agent?  Or is this Vice Presidentia...