Now Playing - The Movie Review Podcast

Quickly after Hannibal hit theaters production began on yet another installment of the Hannibal Lecter franchise, and this time instead of looking forward to Harris writing another Hannibal story they looked backwards to Red Dragon, Harris' first novel featuring the caged cannibal. Already made into a film in the 80's, Manhunter, now the story is retold in an adaptation more faithful to the origin...

Warning: This podcast deals with subject matter that will be objectionable to the vast majority of listeners. No one under the age of 18 should listen, and those over the age of 18 should listen with caution. Last year the world was fascinated by The Human Centipede. What started as an underground, unknown movie only shown at midnight in select theaters ended up a global phenomenon. Word of the se...

When Silence of the Lambs was received with critical acclaim and box office success, audiences waited with baited breath for the reunion of the cannibal and the agent -- Hannibal and Clarice. But despite audience anticipation, author Thomas Harris did not complete the sequel novel Hannibal until 1999, and upon its release many of the talent associated with the original film declined to return. But...

We covet what we hear, so listen now! It’s iconic. Fava beans and a nice Chianti. Quid pro quo. Goodbye Horses. Few thrillers have seeped into pop culture like The Silence of the Lambs. Based on Thomas Harris’s novel, the film united Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, and director Jonathan Demme to create a chilling crime story that not only captivated audiences but also swept the Academy Awards. As F...

Time for the main course of the Lecter books! Books & Nachos is now part of Now Playing Podcast. Before our book reviews were branded as Now Playing Podcast Book Reviews, they were released under a separate show called Books & Nachos. That podcast focused on book discussions, most of which tied directly into films we were covering on Now Playing. We’ve now merged those episodes into the ma...

Love at first bite Books & Nachos is now part of Now Playing Podcast. Before our book reviews were branded as Now Playing Podcast Book Reviews, they were released under a separate show called Books & Nachos. That podcast focused on book discussions, most of which tied directly into films we were covering on Now Playing. We’ve now merged those episodes into the main Now Playing Podcast feed...

It is in your nature to do one thing correctly: listen to this show! Before Anthony Hopkins was savoring fava beans and a nice Chianti, Hannibal Lecter first appeared on the big screen as “Hannibal Lector,” played by Brian Cox in Manhunter, the stylish 1986 thriller from Miami Vice creator Michael Mann. When a brutal serial killer known as the “Tooth Fairy” begins murdering entire families, FBI pr...

Death's not so bad. How do I know? I watched Elektra once. Daredevil may have turned a profit, but when Ben Affleck’s box office draw began to fade, 20th Century Fox opted for a spin-off instead of a sequel. And despite dying at the end of Daredevil, Jennifer Garner returned to reprise her role as Marvel’s deadly assassin in Elektra. Clad in her iconic red outfit, Elektra is now a hired killer try...

Murdock in Love After the success of X-Men, 20th Century Fox rushed another Marvel hero to the big screen: Daredevil. With Ben Affleck fresh off the success of Armageddon and The Sum of All Fears, the casting of the blind lawyer-turned-vigilante seemed poised to ride the same wave that had just propelled Spider-Man to box office glory. Backed by a strong supporting cast including Jennifer Garner a...

Dracula returns to show all-new ways to suck! Blade II slashed its way to over $150 million worldwide, so it was no surprise that the Daywalker returned just two years later for a third outing. What was surprising was that this time Blade didn’t come alone. Joining Wesley Snipes are Jessica Biel, Ryan Reynolds, Natasha Lyonne, and Parker Posey as a new generation of vampire hunters taking the figh...

Lock up your daughters, boys and girls. Now Playing Podcast returns! Blade was an unexpected hit in 1998, so in 2002, Wesley Snipes returned as the Daywalker for the first sequel of his career. This time the vampire hunter faces a new threat: the Reapers, a vicious breed of super-vampires that force Blade into an uneasy alliance with the very bloodsuckers he’s sworn to destroy. Behind the camera i...

I guess if you're immortal, cholesterol doesn't matter? By 1998, the only Marvel Comics character to get a wide theatrical release was Howard the Duck. But that changed when Dark Knight writer David S. Goyer brought Marvel’s vampire hunter to the big screen in Blade, with Wesley Snipes donning the black leather to wage war on the undead. Facing off against Stephen Dorff’s ambitious bloodsucker Dea...

You don't need an invitation to download this podcast, so download it now! Dracula, Lestat, Angel, Nosferatu, Spike...Jerry??? While Hollywood continues to mine all vampire properties to build on the current fang mania, the 1985 cult film Fright Night was not one with the name recognition that made it an obvious choice for a remake. But with Buffy the Vampire Slayer writer Marti Noxon handling the...

The eyes have it! Now Playing Podcast concludes its Final Destination retrospective with the fifth and newest installment in the franchise. When Sam and his coworkers narrowly escape a catastrophic bridge collapse on their way to a company retreat, they think they’ve cheated fate. But as always in this series, Death’s design is far from finished. With Tony Todd returning as the mysterious Bludwort...

Bowling alley pizza gives us similar convulsions - and we're not even vampires! Jerry Dandrige may have been turned to dust in Fright Night, but Charlie Brewster’s troubles are far from over. After months of therapy convincing him that vampires don’t exist, Charlie tries to move on with his life… until Regine, Jerry’s mysterious sister, arrives looking for revenge. With Charlie doubting his own me...

In 2009, horror stepped into another dimension: 3-D. While franchises everywhere scrambled to cash in on the gimmick, the Final Destination series returned with its fourth installment, bluntly titled The Final Destination. With Final Destination 2 director David R. Ellis back behind the camera, the film opens with a catastrophic speedway crash that gives psychic Nick a vision of death’s latest des...

Special Ed Jerry and Billy seem like perfectly normal neighbors… if you ignore the apple cores in the yard and the occasional garbage bag that looks suspiciously human-shaped. While the rest of the neighborhood goes about their business, teenager Charlie Brewster realizes the truth: the suave guy next door, Jerry Dandrige, is a vampire. In 1985, Fright Night revived the undead with a clever blend...

We will never look at Home Depot the same way again! You could say Wendy’s senior year is a real roller coaster. Graduation looms, friendships are shifting, boyfriends are on the chopping block, and she’s having crystal-clear visions of a coaster flying off the rails. When her premonition saves a handful of classmates from a deadly ride, they think they’ve beaten fate. They haven’t, but maybe Wend...

Seriously, dude, we're trying to eat...can't you at least walk downstream a bit? Daniel Craig. Harrison Ford. Jon Favreau. Cowboys. Aliens. These creatives and concepts had Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart racing to saddle up to see one of the few non-sequel, big-budget spectacles this summer. Based on a comic series, Cowboys & Aliens mashes up Western grit with sci-fi spectacle: six-shooters, alien t...

Can we find the pregnant woman now, please? In Final Destination, you can’t cheat death; you can only delay it. Part two picks up with the previous film's survivors still haunted by what they escaped, and Death ready to clean up loose ends. But Death can multitask, as we also have a new group of would-be victims trying to outthink a force that doesn’t play fair. With one of horror’s most infamous...

Galactus has the munchies and is following a surf dude for a snack... Is intergalactic weed involved? With Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, 20th Century Fox doubled down on Marvel's First Family, bringing one of the most beloved cosmic storylines from the comics to the big screen. The mysterious Silver Surfer (voiced by The Matrix's Laurence Fishburne) arrives as a harbinger of world-eat...

Wanna go take a listen? After Scream rewrote the rules of teen horror, a wave of imitators hit theaters. Most crashed hard, but one survived... In Final Destination, high schooler Alex (Idle Hands' Devon Sawa) has a premonition that his flight to Paris will explode. He and several classmates get off the plane only to discover that cheating death comes with consequences. As Tony Todd (Candyman) omi...

Doom's so vain I bet he thinks this podcast's about him. After decades of development limbo and one unreleased low-budget experiment, the Fantastic Four finally arrived in theaters in 2005 with a full studio push from 20th Century Fox. Positioned as the next Marvel team franchise to stand alongside X-Men, this big-budget adaptation brings Reed Richards (102 Dalmations' Ioan Gruffudd), Sue Storm (I...

Did Avi Arad shout "Flame On!" as he burned the negative? Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four launched the modern Marvel Universe in 1961, redefining superheroes as flawed, bickering, deeply human characters. On screen, though, Marvel’s First Family has had a rockier path. In this first chapter of our Fantastic Four retrospective, Stuart, Arnie, and Jakob go back to 1994 and the infamous Roge...

Watch as Michael Bay and co. transform world history! Transformers: Dark of the Moon stormed into theaters, smashing buildings and box office records, and dominating the Fourth of July holiday. Michael Bay’s third outing raises the stakes again, tying the Autobots and Decepticons to a secret Apollo-era conspiracy and unleashing some of the biggest action set pieces of the franchise. But does this...