Second Take Cinema

Halloween is upon us and that means so is our final double-bill episode of the year! We're talking about the original British The Wicker Man and its infamous 2006 American remake (you know, the one with the bees!) and watching these two together may just be the ultimate guide on how not to do a Hollywood adaptation of an existing movie!

This week on the show we're talking about a pair of the ultimate cult classics, based (loosely) on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, it's Re-Animator and its sequel; Bride of Re-Animator! 

This week on the show we look back at the early days of the pre-eminent horror franchise of the 00s and the originator of the so-called "torture porn" sub-genre; Saw and Saw II.

The boys visit one of the iconic slashers of cinema history, everybody's favourite foul-mouthed doll Chucky as they sit down to look back at the first two movies in the Child's Play franchise.

Continuing our series of Spooky Month Double Features the boys take a look at Hereditary and Midsommar, two quintessential films in the so-called "Elevated Horror" movement. If you've listened to this show long enough, you can probably guess how we feel about that term. This episode isn't going to make us very popular. 

October is here and that means it's all horror, all month long here at Second Take Cinema! This year we're doing double features every week and we're starting here with two of the ultimate cult classics, from the excellent Sam Raimi and starring the brilliant Bruce Campbell, we're talking Evil Dead & Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn!

This week on Second Take Cinema we're discussing Duncan Jones' debut feature film Moon. This sci-fi indie flick boasts a very small cast largely centering on Sam Rockwell with other actors appearing in only very minor or voice only roles. Moon was a critical darling upon release and seemed to indicate a very promising career ahead for its director, has Duncan Jones lived up to the expectations set...

This week on Second Take Cinema we're reviewing perennial meme-factory Vampire's Kiss, a film in which Nicolas Cage spends 90 minutes losing his goddamn mind!

Jamie and Rory revisit the 2011 movie Another Earth, a film they both saw separately and both were disappointed by. Promising an intriguing and thought provoking story that asks questions about the idea of parallel lives and the paths not taken, the film instead spends a lot of time focusing on someone cleaning a house. At least, that was our perception the first time we saw it. All of these years...

Jamie and Rory tackle their second Robert Rodriguez movie since covering Spy Kids way back in season 1. Combining CGI with live action, Alita: Battle Angel is an adaptation of a Japanese manga with a mixed reputation. The first part in a planned huge undertaking, the sequel still has yet to arrive (and at present it doesn't look like it's coming at all) so we decided to look back and see if the fi...

Jamie and Rory go back to the MCU as they take a look at the second Iron Man movie and ask the question; did this film move the story along at all? Did it play things too safe?

Jamie and Rory take a look at the poorly-named Sorcerer which is actually an American remake of the French movie The Wages of Fear which we covered back in season 1. Poorly received on release, Sorcerer underwent a critical re-evaluation and many film aficionados consider it one of the most tense thrillers ever made. So of course, Jamie and Rory have to be contrarians...

On this week's episode of Second Take Cinema the gang take a look at one of the most famous movies of the 1980s; Raiders Of The Lost Ark. With Steven Spielberg and George Lucas running the show and Harrison Ford in the leading performance, Raiders seems almost destined to have become the franchise-starter that it turned out to be, but how does this movie hold up in 2026? Are the thrills still thri...

Things get heated on this week's episode of Second Take Cinema as the gang discuss the movie usually regarded as the Coen Brothers' Magnum Opus: No Country For Old Men. Is it a genius post-modern deconstruction of all of the narrative tropes Hollywood has held onto for decades or is it a messy meandering film being praised by the pretentious crowd?

We're finally doing it! One of the movies that inspired the creation of Second Take Cinema; Apocalypse Now. Often hailed as one of the greatest movies of all time, Jamie saw this movie at University and absolutely hated it. If you've ever listened to Jamie on a podcast before you're sure to know just how much he despises Apocalypse Now. Now he's (redacted) number of years older, not really any wis...

A brand new season of Second Take Cinema is here and our fourth season kicks off with an unusual episode for us in that we aren't discussing an old movie to see if it still holds up but rather a brand new movie in Christopher Nolan's epic retelling of Homer's Odyssey which recently did great numbers at the box office.  Jamie and Rory are also joined on the show by Benton who, as a keen fan of the...

It's the end of season 3 and the end of listener request month here on Second Take Cinema! For this entry we're going to Luke in Chelmsford who asked us to look back at this highly regarded 80s sci-fi movie and give it a second take. How well does Back To The Future hold up in 2026? How are those effects looking? And why-oh-why does this film love to keep us all uncomfortable with incestuous impli...

An obscure cult film from the 1980s, The Last Dragon is a mash-up of hip hop music with martial arts, produced by music legend and founder of Motown Berry Gordy. It's an unusual film that, whilst not good cinema in the traditional sense certainly has a sense of style and charm all its own. Will Jamie and Rory appreciate the unusual charms of The Last Dragon or will it go over their heads?  Ho...

Listener request month continues with Danny Boyle's low budget indie horror hit 28 Days Later which helped revive the zombie genre in the early 2000s and has gone on to spawn a franchise (28 Months Later and 28 Years Later). Jamie has seen this film many times but Rory never has. It's sure to be a fun experience seeing he reacts to it.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informat...

Requested by listener Tierra in Wisconsin, USA this week Rory and Jamie was watching cult Sci-Fi indie movie "Cube." A group of strangers wake up in a steel cube with no recollection of how they got there or how they know one another. Every subsequent room is an identical cube, some equipped with terrifying and brutal traps designed to whittle their group down. Will they band together to make it o...

It's the start of listener request month (or listener requests for slightly more than a month) and first up is Batman Begins! The start of Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, listener Craig claims this is the best film in the trilogy but Jamie has always considered it his least favourite. Will that opinion change with a Second Take?  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We wrap up season 3 of Second Take Cinema with a pair of movies made by musicians! Moonwalker is the vanity project by Michael Jackson at the height of his fame (and arguably madness). Rejecting narrative and traditional filmmaking in favour of a surrealistic blend of noir gangster movie, music videos, Looney Tunes and...Transformers? Meanwhile, Spice World made roughly a decade later is a testame...

On this week's episode of Second Take Cinema the boys return to the work of Mr Robert Zombie with his second ever movie "The Devil's Rejects." Jamie saw this movie when he was 14 and has maintained that this is the best movie in Rob Zombie's filmography. Will he still feel that way reviewing the movie in 2026 and how will Rory react to this blood-soaked grindhouse movie? Hosted on Acast. See acast...

After a stunning start with Iron Man, the MCU hit a misstep early on with its second movie out the gate; The Incredible Hulk. Or did it? The film has a mixed reaction and the lead actor Edward Norton was famously replaced by Mark Ruffalo going forward. There also weren't any solo Hulk movies after this (so far at least) which would lead one to believe this movie sucked and so we decided to give it...

Based on the popular play and featuring a cast of massive names including Al Pacino, Alan Arkin, Jack Lemmon and Ed Harris this is a contained movie about salesman facing the chop if they can't reach the increasingly high targets set by their corporate overlords. A meditation on capitalism, desperation and toxic masculinity, does the film resonate even more now than when it was released? Hosted on...