Now Playing - The Movie Review Podcast

Sly didn't make Rambo, David Morrell did! 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 N...

Featuring David Caruso without sunglasses! John Rambo, as embodied by Sylvester Stallone, became one of the defining action icons of the 1980s. Though Stallone had already earned Oscar recognition for Rocky, his non-Rocky career was wobbling when he signed on to adapt First Blood for the screen. The result was a tense survival thriller that launched a franchise, reshaped Stallone’s image, and even...

If it's Halloween, then it's Now Playing reviewing Saw! After Paranormal Activity knocked Saw off its Halloween throne, the producers decided the time had come to end the game. This final chapter promises one last round of traps, twists, and moral reckoning - now in 3D! Arnie, Marjorie, and Jakob reunite to finish their own long-running trial of the Saw series, putting more thought into this final...

Don't you wish all bikers were hot like her? After 2003's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre carved up the box office, a follow-up was inevitable. But with Leatherface maimed and Sheriff Hoyt flattened, where could the story go next? Platinum Dunes chose to take the story back to The Beginning with a prequel cutting into the origins of the Hewitt clan. This chapter shows the birth of Leatherface, the ris...

This is my chainsaw. There are others like it, but this one is mine. After The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation limped quietly onto home video, it looked like Leatherface’s reign of terror had finally sputtered out. Then Michael Bay and his production company, Platinum Dunes, decided the franchise deserved a modern overhaul, delivering a remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. With a ne...

We hope you LIKE our review! Your friends Marjorie, Arnie, and Stuart bring you an exclusive podcast just for Now Playing Podcast Facebook fans with a review of The Social Network. Directed by David Fincher (Fight Club), this sharp, fast-talking biopic traces the rise of Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook, charting how one idea built millions of online connections while burning more than...

You carved me at 'Hello'. For the 20th anniversary of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Kim Henkel returned to the franchise to introduce Leatherface to The Next Generation. Featuring early performances from Renée Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey, the film positioned itself as a bold new chapter for Leatherface and his deeply disturbed clan. Instead, production delays and studio uncertainty...

The Podcast is Family. While Jason and Freddy dominated the late-’80s horror scene, Leatherface waited in the shadows. Then New Line Cinema, the studio nicknamed "The House That Freddy Built," picked up the franchise and aimed to turn him into their next marquee slasher with Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. This third installment trades regional grit for a more polished studio approac...

Incoming Podcast! By 1986, horror had gone mainstream. Freddy and Jason were minting money, and it was time to bring Leatherface back into the arena. Tobe Hooper returned to his own creation with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, aiming to revive the Sawyer clan for a decade that demanded bigger, louder sequels. With Dennis Hopper chewing scenery as a vengeance-driven lawman, Bill Moseley turning Cho...

It's gonna be FUUUUUUNNNN! In 1974, Tobe Hooper unleashed horror unlike any seen before and started the modern slasher genre with the seminal horror film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Audiences watched in terror as Sally and Franklin Hardesty and their three friends travel through a rural Texas town and pick up a hitchhiker, beginning their terrifying encounter with a crazed, cannibalistic family....

[Insert growl here] After Lost Boys: The Tribe became one of Warner Bros.’ top-selling DVDs of 2008, another sequel was inevitable. Enter Lost Boys: The Thirst, with Corey Feldman once again suiting up as Edgar Frog. This time, Edgar is strapped for cash and forced to infiltrate a vampire-run underground rave scene led by head bloodsucker DJ X. Does this latest chapter recapture even a fraction of...

It's ironic...usually you pay more for Angus, but here it was all they could afford. After two decades and more than a few false starts, the franchise returned in Lost Boys: The Tribe. Instead of Santa Carla, the action shifts to a new California beach town, where Chris Emerson (Epic Movie's Tad Hilgenbrink) battles a fresh pack of bloodsuckers led by surfer-vampire Shane (Angus Sutherland, Kiefer...

Have you ever looked up from his oiled breasts to notice how bad he's lip syncing? Before he was Jack Bauer, Kiefer Sutherland was David, the charismatic leader of The Lost Boys, a motorcycle-riding vampire gang in sun-bleached Santa Carla, California. When single mom Lucy Emerson moves there with her sons Michael and Sam, a beachside romance pulls Michael straight into David’s orbit, and into a w...

Next week, Now Playing will defeat the 7 evil movie podcasts Scott Pilgrim leaps from the pages of a cult comic series to the big screen in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, directed by Edgar Wright. Blending video game logic, indie rock attitude, and hyper-stylized action, the film follows slacker bassist Scott (Arrested Development's Michael Cera) as he battles his new girlfriend’s seven evil exes in...

They should have quit while they were a head (hah!) When The X-Files ended, Mulder was a fugitive, Scully had left the FBI, and the alien colonization plot was still unresolved. After years in development limbo, the franchise returned to theaters with The X-Files: I Want to Believe, reuniting David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson for another case. Instead of diving back into the dense alien mytholog...

We can't handle (or understand) the truth. Federal buildings exploding. FEMA conspiracies. Alien colonists working with shadowy government figures. That dense mythology fueled The X-Files throughout the 1990s, as FBI agents Mulder and Scully chased paranormal cases while slowly uncovering a larger plot to enslave humanity. In 1998, the phenomenon went cinematic with Fight the Future, reuniting Dav...

All these movies with dreams, and yet still no going to school without your pants on. Bursting onto the scene with Memento, Christopher Nolan has become one of the most-watched genre directors, breaking the box office with The Dark Knight as well as warping minds with The Prestige. So when one of this summer's biggest and most mysterious films of the summer is written and directed by Nolan, we at...

Yo, Adrien. Christian Bale called. He wants his Batman voice back. It's been 20 years since they've had their own film, but thanks to Robert Rodriguez, the Predators are back on the big screen! Producer Rodriguez and director Nimrod Antal are taking the alien hunter back to his jungle roots, and with the Predators going up against Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, and Danny Trejo, it's bound to ex...

How cool would it have been if the alien chest-bursted out of a Bigfoot? We could have seen a sasqualien! Paul W.S. Anderson's match-up between Aliens and Predators may have left many fans of both franchises out in the cold, but the box office tallies made a rematch inevitable; thus, 20th Century Fox gives us Aliens vs Predator: Requiem. Attempting to right past wrongs, the studio made this film w...

A pyramid under the Antarctic ice sounds like a James Bond villain's lair. After Freddy vs. Jason proved that horror crossovers could rake in serious cash, 20th Century Fox fast-tracked another long-anticipated showdown: Alien vs. Predator. Having already clashed in comic books and video games, cinema’s most iconic extraterrestrials finally shared the screen in a battle set beneath the Antarctic i...

Arnold isn't available? Then get me Danny Glover!! Remember 1997? The heat was 105 degrees, gangs ruled the streets of Los Angeles, and everyone was packing serious firepower. Relive those days along with Arnie, Stuart, and Brock as they review the period piece Predator 2. This sequel swaps jungle foliage for urban warfare as the alien hunter sets its sights on L.A., targeting what it sees as the...

Starring...Rich Little as the Predator! An invisible alien hunter stalks a squad of elite commandos in the jungle in Predator. And it’s no lightweight prey. The creature takes on a lineup that includes Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, Richard Chaves, and Jesse Ventura in a showdown that blends macho action with sci-fi horror. What starts as a straightforward military mission turns...

Let that be a lesson to you kids - always hang up your jacket! More than 25 years after Daniel LaRusso swept the leg and crane-kicked his way into pop culture, The Karate Kid arrives as a new-generation reboot. This time, the story moves to China, trades karate for kung fu, and stars Jaden Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness) alongside Jackie Chan (Rush Hour) in the mentor role made famous by Pat Mori...

One, two, Arnie's interviewing you... As part of our Nightmare on Elm Street retrospective, Arnie sits down with franchise icons Heather Langenkamp and Robert Englund for two candid, revealing interviews that go far beyond boiler room scares. Heather reflects on stepping back into Nancy’s world as executive producer and star of the documentary I Am Nancy, what it meant to revisit New Nightmare and...

Repeat after me - the sun is warm, the grass is green. In 1994, The Karate Kid tried to be the comeback kid in this soft reboot of the series. Gone is Ralph Macchio's aging protagonist, replaced by future Academy Award-winning actress Hillary Swank (Boys Don't Cry) in her first starring role. And back is Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) with his wisdom and unlikely training methods. This film failed to cat...