Thank God For Movies

It's Jon vs. Will on this week's bonus episode of Cinemaholics. Who will prevail? Hard to say. But they do their best to battle out their differing takes on not only Godzilla vs. Kong , but Legendary's overall "MonsterVerse" to date. Their latest effort comes to us from director Adam Wingard and stars Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Shun Oguri, Eiza...

The Courier  is a new Cold War drama directed by Dominic Cooke and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel Brosnahan, Jessie Buckley, Merab Ninidze, and Angus Wright. The film follows the true story of Greville Wynne (Cumberbatch), who assisted in delivering crucial intel from a source in Moscow before and during the Cuban Missile Crisis of the 1960s. The film originally premiered at Sundance 2...

Directed by Kitao Sakurai,  Bad Trip  is a new hidden camera comedy starring Eric Andre, Lil Rel Howery, and Tiffany Haddish. The prank film has just come out on Netflix after a series of delays from Orion Pictures. This review is an excerpt from Episode #213 of the Cinemaholics Podcast. Our intro music this week is “U” by Wieland & Ulrich. LINKS Follow us on Twitter: &nb...

Bob Odenkirk is an unlikely action hero in Nobody , a new thriller from Ilya Naishuller, the director of Hardcore Henry . We discuss the film and Odenkirk’s surprising turn in it as a seemingly mediocre guy who goes full John Wick when a mob of Russians begins to target him and his family. Afterward, we discuss Bad Trip on Netflix and The Courier , which recently hit theaters. Show Notes: 00...

Special guest Mekishana Pierre joins us today for a bonus review of “Invincible,” a new animated superhero show created by Robert Kirkman and adapted from his 2003 comic book series. We discuss our general, spoiler-three thoughts on the first three episodes of the series, which you can watch right now on Amazon Prime Video. And the show features a stellar voice cast: Steven Yeun, J.K....

This month on Extra Milestone, we jump back in time 75 years to discuss Gilda , a cult classic film noir starring Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, and George Macready. Directed by Charles Vidor and co-written by Jo Eisinger and Marion Parsonnet (with an uncredited contribution from Ben Hecht), the story is adapted from the work of E.A. Ellington, and it centers around gambling con man Johnny Farrell (Fo...

Don’t worry, this shouldn’t take four hours. Special guest Adonis Gonzalez joins us to review Zack Snyder’s Justice League , the epic “Snydercut” or director’s cut of the 2017 superteam movie dud, which has just premiered on HBO Max. We discuss the legacy of Zack Snyder’s filmography, his work on the DCEU (DC Extended Universe), and the potential future of...

South By Southwest 2021 was held virtually this year, and its film festival portion certainly had plenty to offer all you Cinemaholics. We get into some of our general thoughts of the festival and discuss common themes between the premieres. Plus we dig into our favorite films, from indie headliners like The Fallout and Violet to crowd-pleasing darlings like Language Lessons and Best Summer Ever ....

Directed by Aoife Crehan,  The Last Right is a new road trip dramedy about two estranged brothers who embark on a journey across Ireland to reunited two deceased brothers. The film stars Michiel Huisman, Niamh Algar, Samuel Bottomley, Brian Cox, Colm Meaney, Michael McElhatton, and Eleanor O'Brien. This review is an excerpt from Episode #211 of the Cinemaholics Podcast. Our intro music this w...

You might remember Soleil Moon Frye as Punky Brewster. But in her debut film,  Kid 90 , the former child star re-examines a decade of her life in the aftermath of the hit show using the format of a highly personal and experimental documentary. Carrying a video camera everywhere she went in the 90s, Frye managed to capture the highs and lows of her friends growing up around Hollywood and...

Today we're saying  yes  to reviewing  Yes Day , the latest family comedy film directed by Miguel Arteta and now available to stream on Netflix. Based on the children's book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal,  Yes   Day stars Jennifer Garner and Édgar Ramirez as two normally uptight parents who allow their children a full 24 hours where they get to make the rules. The film al...

Tom Holland and Ciara Bravo star in Cherry , a new heavy drama on Apple TV+ from the Russo Brothers. We discuss the film and its interesting…perspectives on this week’s show, along with reviews for Yes Day , Kid 90 , and The Last Right. We open the show with a quick, super-serious crossover with Biff and Marty from Collision Movie Smackdown, in which they interview “Tom Holland....

Special guest Matt Serafini joins us this week for a bonus review of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run , which is now available to stream on Paramount+. In addition to discussing this third movie about everyone’s favorite undersea sponge, we also wax poetic about the ongoing legacy of “SpongeBob SquarePants” and its impact on pop culture over the last 20 years. Sponge on the...

Moxie — or  MOXIE!  — is a new teen dramedy on Netflix and Amy Poheler's sophomore film as director (she also co-stars in it). It's adapted from a novel by Jennifer Mathieu and stars Hadley Robinson, Alycia Pascual-Peña, Lauren Tsai, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Nico Hiraga, Sydney Park, Josephine Langford, Clark Gregg, Ike Barinholtz, and Marcia Gay Harden. This review is...

Our indie palate cleanser of the week is  Sophie Jones , the directorial debut of Jessie Barr, who co-wrote the screenplay with her cousin Jessica Barr, who also stars in the film as a teen grappling with grief and her own girlhood in the wake of tragedy. Released through Oscilloscope Laboratories,  Sophie Jones is available to to stream now via on demand. This review is an excerpt from...

Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall are back in  Coming 2 America , a sequel to the hit 1988 comedy  Coming to America . Directed by Craig Brewer ( Dolemite is My Name ), this star-studded sequel boasts a lot of new characters, plus a ton of returning favorites, but does it measure up all these years later? You can see  Coming 2 America for yourself on Amazon Prime Video, and the cast inc...

We’re going on an adventure this week in our review of Raya and the Last Dragon , a new action fantasy film from Walt Disney Animation featuring the voice talents of Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Gemma Chan, Benedict Wong, Sandra Oh, and Daniel Dae Kim. Later in the show, we also review Coming 2 America , Sophie Jones , and Moxie . And we open the episode with a quick tribute to our cohost Ab...

Special guest Cory Woodroof joins us for our review of Boogie , the directorial debut of Eddie Huang, a chef and author of the memoir  Fresh Off the Boat , which is also the inspiration for the hit ABC sitcom. It stars Taylor Takahashi as Alfred "Boogie" Chin, a high school basketball player in New York who has to grapple with his Asian American identity, a new relationship, and a heated...

Should you walk, not run to theaters this weekend to see  Chaos Walking ? Directed by Doug Liman, this is a new YA sci-fi action western starring Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley as an unlikely pair who live on a planet where men's thoughts can be heard by anyone. We review the film and discuss its troubled production history on this bonus episode of the show. Chaos Walking  also stars Mads...

You may want to turn the sound on for this one.  Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry is a new Apple TV+ documentary from R.J. Cutler that profiles the recent rise of singer-songwriter Billie Eilish. It mostly covers the behind-the-scenes production of her debut studio album  When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?  and is playing now in select theaters through Neon. Thi...

Now available to stream on Hulu,  The United States vs. Billie Holiday is a new biopic from director Lee Daniels, and it stars Andra Day as the legendary singer Billie Holiday, who was targeted by the FBI for her refusal to stop performing "Strange Fruit," an anti-lynching ballad. Day recently won a Golden Globe for her performance, and the cast also includes Trevante Rhodes, Natasha Lyonne,...

Unlike Tom the cat and Jerry the mouse, we actually speak in this week’s show, as we discuss the new live-action family comedy Tom & Jerry , which just hit HBO Max and puts the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters into New York City with a host of human characters you definitely won’t care about. We also review The United States vs. Billie Holiday on Hulu and Billie Eilish: The...

Special guest Amanda the Jedi  joins the show for a bonus review of "Behind Her Eyes," a new psychological-thriller limited series from Netflix created by Steve Lightfoot and based on Sarah Pinborough's novel of the same name. The story follows Louise, a single mother played by Simona Brown, who sparks a love affair with her new boss David, a psychiatrist played by Tom Bateman. She only later...

This month’s Extra Milestone discussion is The Silence of the Lambs , which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. We discuss the ongoing legacy of this perennial classic from director Jonathan Demme and screenwriter Ted Tally (adapted from the novel by Thomas Harris), including how it shaped the modern landscape of true crime filmmaking and left a lasting impact on perceptions of the tra...

What if the squirrel you just saved from a vacuum cleaner became a superhero? In the new Disney+ family comedy  Flora & Ulysses — based on the children's novel by Kate DiCamillio — Matilda Lawler stars as Flora, a precocious comic book fan who befriends a squirrel named Ulysses who changes her family's life forever. The film also stars Alyson Hannigan, Ben Schwartz, Danny Rudi...