Recovered

Our deep dive into giant monsters continues as Godzilla, formerly Gojira, makes the jump across the ocean to Hollywood! Eventually. Takes a couple of tries. In 1998, the director of Independence Day tries to adapt the big scaly boi for America, making big changes in design and backstory, with what could be called mixed results. Sixteen years later, the director of Rogue One kicks off the Monsterve...

The much referenced saga begins, as Dan and Keith dig into Gojira, Godzilla to his western friends, by visiting each of the five eras of Toho Studios' Godzilla franchise. From the original classic, through to his Avengers-style team-up flick Ghidora the Three Headed Monster, to the back-to-basics revivals of Godzilla 1985 and Godzilla 2000, to the more serious reboot of Shin Godzilla and the...

A day at the circus gets very noir as Dan and Keith walk down two different Nightmare Alleys. Carnie Stanton Carlisle has dreams of making the big time with a mentalist act, one he must purloin from his employers in the carnival, and that dream goes very well until it very doesn't. In 1946, swashbuckling actor Tyrone Power tried to break out of his usual type as the con man Stan, in a version...

It's way back to the Golden Age of Hollywood and the early days of Dreamworks animation, and Dan and Keith take on two movies about con artist pals and the woman they meet along the way getting into shenanigans in exotic locales. Back in the 1940s, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour kicked off a hugely popular seven film series of road movie hijinks in Road to Singapore, which helps pr...

While schedules align and kaiju rampages are absorbed, Recovered brings back an old favourite with April Fool's Day, the episode that made our hosts reconsider some life choices. Ask if you can you remake a movie whose signature is a twist ending, re-experience Keith learning about the glories of G Vs E, and dig into what might be our least favourite remake to date. And some bonus content fro...

Get ready for some Nights of Frights as Recovered digs up the 1980s camp creepshow classic and the 2010s remake. In 1985, suburban teen Charlie Brewster suspects his new neighbour Jerry Dandrige is a vampire, a claim his girlfriend Amy as associate "Evil" Ed find dubious. He must convince faded horror actor Peter Vincent, host of Fright Night, to help him take up arms against The Vampire...

The X-Men film franchise was weird. Highs and lows and continuity just all over the place, and rather than sum it all up, Dan and Keith and special guest/X-Men enthusiast Munsi Parker-Munroe dig into its weirdest chapter: that time they took two tries at making a movie out of the Dark Phoenix saga, and hired  the same writer both times.  In 2006, Brett Ratner replaced Bryan Singer to wrap up the X...

Get ready for a lot of punching and a little plot as Recovered takes on Road House! In 1989, Patrick Swayze is a legendary bouncer (something we're assured exists) out to save a struggling Kansas bar from the local tyrant rich man through calm, Zen, and if needed some fisticuffs. Jump forward to about a month ago, and Jake Gyllenhaal plays a very different Dalton out to save a somewhat differ...

Back in early 2023, Dan and Keith did a special two-part episode looking at franchises speeding towards a reboot, and reboot/remakes hitting screens in 2023. Now they return for updates: which franchises are getting closer to hitting the screen? Which are farther away somehow and why? Plus Dan gives brief reviews of Wonka, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Evil Dead Rise, and Ghostbusters: Fr...

Recovered is taking a brief break to process some unfortunate real-world issues, and while we do that, we're pleased to bring back one of our favourites, Crimes and Punishers. Get ready for pizza parties, pity parties, and an attempt to make "Yummy in my tummy" feel threatening as Dolph Lundgren, Thomas Jane, and the late, great Ray Stevenson bring three very different takes on Fran...

Dan and Keith are back in the old west as a young girl, a grizzled marshal, and a cocky (and creepy) Texas ranger seek justice-slash-revenge in two takes on True Grit. In 1969, an aging John Wayne plays slightly against type as Rooster Cogburn, while still basically being John Wayne. It's considered an all-time classic western, so who would remake it? Joel and Ethan Coen, that's who. Thr...

Grab your corset, rent your limo, and prepare to celebrate with bad choices, because Recovered is going to the prom! For murders! Back in 1980, scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis and not-yet-comedy icon Leslie Nielsen teamed up for Prom Night, a Canadian made horror movie about four teens hunted by a masked killer due to their past misdeeds... well, eventually. After a while. Nearly three decades later...

We've seen how Time Loop cinema moved from magical romcom to suspense thriller to sci-fi action, and now Dan and Keith jump back into the loops for slasher horror, and back to romcoms, now with a 2020s spin. First up, Happy Death Day, a proud part of Blumhouse's "But what if the popular thing were horror" collection, as a college student must relive her final day over and over...

Do you think Phil is gonna come out and see his shadow? That's right, woodchuckers, it's Groundhog Day! And subsequent movies inspired by Bill Murray's attempts to escape eternity in February 2nd. Instead of true remakes, Dan and Keith delve into how Groundhog Day popularized the time loop, and how the genre worked its way from magical romcom through multiple other genres and back t...

Time for some whodunnits and laughs as Dan and Keith delve into the comedic mysteries of Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher, investigative journalist. Way way back in the 1980s, Chevy Chase found success bringing the popular novel character to life as Fletch solves crimes through SNL sketches and determination. Over three decades and one failed attempt by Kevin Smith later, a new Fletch arrives in...

Keep your arms and legs inside your Doom Buggy and avoid flash photography, because Dan and Keith are delving into the Haunted Mansions! First, back in 2003, at the tail end of Disney's attempts to make hit movies out of their theme park attractions, Eddie Murphy brings... comedy, question mark?... to an adventure through the Gracie Mansion. Then, two full decades later, as Disney gives theme...

The Recovered Slasher Saga reaches the conclusion, as Dan and Keith take on the time Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes tried to reinvent Jason Vorhees and Freddy Krueger for a new generation, following the eras rules for a horror remake: bigger gore, too much CGI, and get a Supernatural cast member in there. Is this Jason the meaty murderer we'd been wanting? We certainly get a less cartoonis...

Recovered takes a break from iconic mass murderers for... lady assassins? Okay. We head back to the 90s for a young Luc Besson's breakout movie, La Femme Nikita, and its questionably necessary American remake Point of No Return with Bridget Fonda. Video Vulture John Tebbutt returns to walk Dan and Keith through his youthful love for the French original, the moments where he became connected t...

After 10 Fridays the 13th and seven Nightmares on various Elm Streets, Dan and Keith arrive at the penultimate stop of the slasher saga: the title bout of Freddy Vs Jason. The dream terrors of Freddy Krueger collide with the brutal and blunt kills of Jason Vorhees, while Dan and Keith battle over best or worst cast member, casting conspiracy theories, and whether the movie hinges entirely on the l...

Round two of Dan and Keith and Freddy Krueger, as the franchise goes from silly to dumb to... very meta. The slow slide from dread to cartoonish began last time with The Dream Master, and now the slide speeds up through The Dream Child and into the doomed-to-be-broken promise of Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. Then, three years after Freddy's claw glove was hung up, Wes Craven return...

Dan and Keith's Freddy/Jason deep dive continues as they move from Crystal Lake to Elm Street for the various dream-crimes of Freddy Kreuger. In part one, we look at how the original shaped the franchise Wes Craven never intended, how the second film is essentially the Super Mario Bros. 2 of horror, then debate whether the original or Dream Warriors is the best one and whether Dream Master is...

Time for a deep cut! We jump all the way back to 1940 for the classic comedy The Philadelphia Story, in which Katherine Hepburn is torn between Cary Grant, James Stewart, and the shlub she's actually engaged to who isn't either and thus has no chance. Dan's delighted to present a true classic, Keith is out to get Cary Grant Twitter cancelled, but then it's time to leap forward...

It's part two of our deep dive into the Friday the 13th Franchise, in which hockey-masked killer Jason Vorhees Lives, battles the New Blood, and takes scenic trips to Manhattan, Hell, and Deep Space. Dan and Keith break down the carnage from potentially the best installment to some of the worst, all of the ridiculous new lore lathered into the "Final Friday," and Jason's voyage...

A new multi-franchise crossover breakdown begins as Dan and Keith pack up the van for some fun at scenic Crystal Lake, home of the Vorhees clan! We unpack the Fridays the 13th, from their humble Kevin Bacon-wrapped origins, to the three-film journey to hone Jason Vorhees as a horror icon, to the beginnings of the Tommy Jarvis Triptych, in which the Jason saga got possibly as good and as bad as it...

Short answer yes, long answer, this episode. Before we abandon superheroes for super killers, Dan and Keith take a look at the DC Extended Universe that was, and the DC Universe to come. Did the last three movies deserve to bomb? Why did they? And beyond the movies, what chronic issues were pointing to DC Entertainment needing to get its house in order? And what does the rebooted DC Universe need...