Now Playing - The Movie Review Podcast

Oh robot giiiiiirlfriend Arnie, Stuart, and Jerry continue their Transformers retrospective with Revenge of the Fallen, the second entry in the Bayformers saga. The Matrix of Leadership returns, Optimus Prime falls again, and the franchise leans hard into both G1 nostalgia and full-throttle spectacle. But do those callbacks and expanded lore actually add weight to the story, or does the scale over...

Two guys, a girl, and a magic ring Because you demanded it. Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart take a break from Marvel to shine a green light on DC’s Green Lantern. Starring Ryan Reynolds (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) as Hal Jordan, alongside Blake Lively (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants), Peter Sarsgaard Garden State), Mark Strong (Kick-Ass), and Angela Bassett (How Stella Got Her Groove Back), Green L...

More oil was used on Megan Fox than all the automobiles in this film combined! Continuing our Transformers retrospective, Arnie, Jerry, and Stuart shift gears into Michael Bay’s 2007 live-action debut, dubbed "Bayformers" by longtime fans. With Steven Spielberg producing and a massive effects budget bringing Autobots and Decepticons into the real world, the film aimed to turn a beloved ’80s cartoo...

You're not fooling anyone, Hot Rod. The next screw that falls out will be you For our first episode in the Transformers Retrospective Series, we roll back to 1986 and the animated big-screen debut of The Transformers: The Movie. Optimus Prime vs. Megatron, the rise of Hot Rod, a synth-heavy soundtrack, and a voice cast that includes Eric Idle (Monty Python and the Holy Grail), Leonard Nimoy (Star...

Now we gotta cut loose, with nukes! Our X-Men retrospective ends where the X-Men began. X-Men: First Class rewinds the timeline to the 1960s, recasting Charles Xavier (now Wanted's James McAvoy) and Magneto (now Eden Lake's Michael Fassbender) and rebuilding the franchise from the ground up. Matthew Vaughn, coming off Kick-Ass, takes the director’s chair while Bryan Singer returns in a producing r...

After this podcast, we're afraid Stryker is going to try to have our mouths grafted shut Hugh Jackman steps out on his own in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a prequel tracing Logan’s life from 19th-century Canada through wars, Weapon X experiments, and the events leading to his memory loss. While there's no Xavier's School, there's still a slew of fan-favorite mutants like Gambit (Taylor Kitsch), Sabre...

Multiple men discuss Multiple Man With Bryan Singer graduating from Mutant High to direct Superman Returns, and much of the original creative team gone, Brett Ratner (Rush Hour) stepped in to close out the mutant trilogy with X-Men: The Last Stand. The long-foreshadowed conflict finally explodes when a "cure" for mutation is announced, splitting the mutant community and forcing Professor X (Patric...

Bobby's brother was nominated for Worst Movie Sibling 2003 Three years after X-Men helped redefine superhero cinema, the mutants return with a bigger budget and new enemies. X2: X-Men United brings back Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen), and the original cast, but does the focus on Wolverine's mysterious background overshadow the team?  Join Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart as they bre...

The greatest trick Magneto ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist... When you think of superhero movies, you probably don’t think of concentration camps, civil rights allegory, and moral philosophy. But in 2000, Bryan Singer’s X-Men changed the conversation. Bringing Wolverine, Cyclops, Professor X, Magneto, and Rogue to the big screen for the first time, the film grounded comic book...

Max Headroom, Ace Ventura, and Freddy Krueger all rolled into one! Before Hugh Jackman’s claws, before billion-dollar box office, there was… Generation X. In 1996, Fox aired a made-for-TV movie intended as a backdoor pilot for an X-Men series that never materialized. Based on the comic spin-off, the film follows a new class of teenage mutants at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, this time led...

We don't need friends, we need you to download this podcast! Eleven years after the "final" chapter, Ghostface picked up the phone again. Scream 4 brings Sidney Prescott back to Woodsboro for the franchise's first true revival, blending legacy characters with a new generation raised on remakes, reboots, and online fame. Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette return, joined by a cast of y...

This time the review is personal! 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 Playi...

At least this movie doesn't have John Waters in it When Scream 3 hit theaters in 2000, it was billed as the final chapter. Kevin Williamson had always talked about a trilogy, and this looked like the end of the Ghostface saga. This time, the carnage moves to Hollywood, where actors on the set of the fictional film Stab 3 start dropping. Sidney Prescott is in hiding, Gale and Dewey are back in the...

Before it was a novella, it was a card game. 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 Podcast. We’ve now merged those episodes into...

Tori Spelling will not be playing Marjorie in the Now Playing Podcast movie adaptation Ghostface is back, and this time the body count is rising at Windsor College. Following the smash success of the original, Scream 2 doubles down on meta commentary, skewering horror sequels while trying to outdo its predecessor. Neve Campbell returns as Sidney Prescott, joined by Courteney Cox, David Arquette, a...

Who knew Jiffy Pop could add so much tension to a scene? With Scream 4 hitting theaters, it’s time for Now Playing Podcast to follow the rules and kick off a full retrospective of the Scream series, one of the defining horror franchises of the last two decades. It started in 1996, when Ghostface began stalking a new generation of teens, including Neve Campbell, Jamie Kennedy, Rose McGowan, and Dre...

Just when you thought it was safe to read on the beach! 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 Podcast. We’ve now merged those ep...

No, you won't find Now Playing Podcast on MySpace...it's not 2007. He has no powers, no girlfriend, no cool outfit, but Dave Lizewski can still Kick-Ass in a film from the future X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn. With its balance of humor and violence, and a foul-mouthed, violent 11-year-old Hit-Girl courting controversy, the film failed to catch on with mainstream audiences. But is this...

He who knows good movies burns at a screening of Man-Thing! Rising from the swamps comes a humanoid creature made of pure plant matter - Marvel's Man-Thing! A cult comic book character, Man-Thing was promoted to Marvel Movie Star in 2005 to capitalize on the popularity of his superhero peers, X-Men and Spider-Man. Premiering on the Sci-Fi channel, this film remains fairly unknown. Is it a treasure...

And you thought the MOVIE was bad..... This book review previously appeared in Issue 11 of Now Playing Podcast's sister podcast Marvelicious Toys. As that show is no longer, the review is published here as part of Now Playing. As we kick off Now Playing Podcast’s Marvel movie retrospective, Arnie turns to one of the strangest literary artifacts of the 1980s: the novelization of Howard the Duck. Wr...

Trapped in a podcast we never made... Welcome to Now Playing's Marvel Comics Movie Retrospective Series, where, in anticipation of the ultimate comic book crossover movie, The Avengers, in 2012, we will be watching and reviewing all the Marvel Comics films! This first portion of our Marvel Movie Retrospective is Marvel Misfits, the Marvel characters that don't quite fit anywhere else - Howard the...

Turn of the Dark, Turn on the Podcast These days, when Marvel makes headlines in 2011, it isn’t for Thor or Captain America. It's for a Broadway musical that seemed determined to crash harder than Gwen Stacy. Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark arrived with Bono and The Edge writing the songs, Julie Taymor of The Lion King producing, and a budget that keeps climbing as cast members keep falling. The sho...

Listening to this podcast is part of your plan The Adjustment Bureau pairs rising political star Matt Damon (The Bourne Identity) with dancer Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada) in a romance that literally defies fate. After a chance meeting sparks an unexpected connection, Damon discovers shadowy agents are manipulating reality to keep their relationship from derailing a carefully charted destiny...

Are our lives predetermined down to the smallest details? 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...

Omniscient mutant has the key to the future? 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 mai...