The Film 89 Podcast

It’s that time of year again because Episode 161 of The Film ‘89 Podcast is our 2026 Halloween Horror Special. Returning co-hosts John Arminio and Stephen Simpson are joined by a third guest-host making her Film ’89 debut. Co-founder and co-host of the brilliant Horror Movie Survival Guide Podcast , she’s also a filmmaker, actor, writer and, fittingly for the subject of this episode, an expert on...

On Episode 160 of The Film ‘89 Podcast, Neil, Skye and Leighton return to one of their favourite filmmakers, John Carpenter, to cover one of the films most requested by our listeners, Carpenter’s 1986 action-adventure-comedy-fantasy cult classic, Big Trouble in Little China, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Based on an original idea and initially intended to be a western, but later...

On Episode 159 of The Film ‘89 Podcast, we’re joined by three returning co-hosts; from New York, Boston and, quite fitting for the topic of this episode, Los Angeles, it’s Bill Scurry, Kyle Reardon and Jacob Rivera. The guys are wearing their best baggy bowling shirts and key-chains as they travel back in time 30 years to discuss a film as emblematic of the ‘90s independent film movement as any. W...

On Episode 158 of The Film ’89 Podcast, we’re joined once again by our very good friend and frequent guest-host, filmmaker and podcast producer, Kyle Reardon, to discuss, for its 40th anniversary, a cult classic film we’ve wanted to cover for some time now, starring Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell and Jennifer Jason Leigh, it’s director Robert Harmon’s multi-genre-straddling cult classic, The Hitch...

This week marks the 60th anniversary of the first-ever episode of Star Trek airing in the US on NBC on September 8th, 1966. The series ran for three seasons but would eventually transition to the big screen in 1979 in the form of director Robert Wise’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Whilst a critical and commercial success, The Motion Picture had something of a rushed production, and due to time c...

On Episode 156 of The Film ‘89 Podcast, Neil and Skye are doing something they’ve not done for several years, they’re reviewing a new comic book movie. What was once a regular thing on Film ‘89 tailed off with the downturn in quality of the Marvel Cinematic Universe post Avengers: Endgame , with one exception, 2021’s Sony Pictures collaboration, Spider-Man: No Way Home , arguably the last great en...

Episode 155 of The Film ‘89 Podcast is a full-on history lesson as hosts Martin Kessler and John Arminio take a trip back to 480 BC as they celebrate the 20th anniversary of Zack Snyder’s big screen adaptation of legendary comic book writer Frank Miller’s 300 . 300 tells the epic tale of the Battle of Thermopylae, and how an alliance of Greek city-states fought the invading Persian army in the mou...

On Episode 154 of the Film ’89 Podcast, Steve and Skye are joined by returning co-host, Becky D’Anna. A veteran of Hollywood movie marketing and a seasoned podcaster, Becky now has her very own podcast, the brilliant Hanging with Becky Podcast. The topic of this episode is a film that’s not only one of the Film ’89 team’s all-time favourites, it’s also become the most requested film for the team t...

Episode 153 of The Film ’89 Podcast lands just in time for this year’s July 4th celebrations, and there’s no more fitting a film that the guys could be covering than one that honours that great American holiday. Joining Neil and Skye (who definitely aren’t American) is returning co-host, filmmaker, producer and master cinephile (and importantly, an American), Mr Adam Rackoff. And the film they’re...

On Episode 152 of The Film 89 Podcast, Steve and Skye are joined by a trio of returning co-hosts, Jacob Rivera, Kyle Reardon and Leighton Winstone, to discuss one of the all-time great serial killer thrillers, director Jonathan Demme’s multi-Oscar-winning 1991 adaptation of Thomas Harris’ best-selling novel, The Silence of the Lambs. Starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn and Ted Levi...

On Episode 151 of The Film ‘89 Podcast, Steve and Skye are joined by a trio of guest-hosts that may be the greatest ever assembled for a single episode of the podcast as they celebrate the 40th anniversary of James Cameron’s Aliens . The sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi-horror masterpiece, Alien , Cameron’s film wouldn’t be a retread, but an evolution of the story of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney We...

The story of Episode 150 of The Film ’89 Podcast is one of ‘the episode that nearly wasn’t’. It was to be a gift to our listeners as Steve, Neil and Skye finally covered a film that has become the one most requested by our listeners to get the Film ’89 treatment, Raiders of the Lost Ark . The initial recording went well until, at the end, it quickly became apparent that Neil’s audio hadn’t recorde...

Just as they did on Episode 147, so they are doing so again on Episode 149 as the Film ‘89 team travel back in time to 1966, this time to celebrate the 60th anniversary of both a film and television show that, for a brief two-year period, was a worldwide phenomenon. Starring Adam West and Burt Ward, the television show is of course, Batman, and it would then transition to the big screen with 1966’...

On Episode 148 of The Film ‘89 Podcast, we’re back talking Star Trek as we continue our coverage of the original crew’s big screen adventures. Having already covered the first three films for each of their 40th anniversaries, it’s now the turn of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , which brought an end to the “Genesis Trilogy” consisting of the second, third and fourth Trek films, where the story in e...

On Episode 147 of The Film ‘89 Podcast, Skye and returning guest-host Stephen Simpson are celebrating the 60th anniversary of and also taking an in-depth look at the making of director John Frankenheimer’s epic, nearly 3-hour-long motor racing drama, Grand Prix . Starring James Garner, Yves Montand, Eva Marie Saint, Toshiro Mifune and a huge international supporting cast, Frankenheimer’s movie is...

On Episode 146 of The Film ‘89 Podcast, Neil and Skye are traveling back in time 35 years to discuss a film that represented something of a transition from the typical ‘80s action film to the genre’s ‘90s iteration. Based on a script by Shane Black that Warner Bros. were willing to pay a then record setting fee of $1.75 million for, and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Tony Scott, The Last Boy Scou...

On Episode 145 of The Film ‘89 Podcast, Steve, Skye and returning guest host, filmmaker Kyle Reardon, celebrate the 70th anniversary of legendary director John Ford’s epic 1956 western, The Searchers . Directed by one of the most revered and influential filmmakers ever to step behind a camera, and starring one of cinema’s true icons, John Wayne, in one of his most complex roles, The Searchers tell...

On Episode 144 of The Film ‘89 Podcast, both Neil and Skye are mistaken for Paul Allen as they discuss director Mary Harron’s 2000 adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ 1991 novel, American Psycho . Set in Manhattan during the Wall Street boom of 1989, American Psycho follows the life of a wealthy young investment banker named Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale). Bateman narrates his everyday activities,...

On Episode 143 of The Film ‘89 Podcast it’s that time of year again. Towards the end of every year since 2022, Film ‘89 has celebrated the 60th anniversary of a James Bond film. In 2022 we started with Dr. No , in 2023 we covered From Russia With Love and last year we covered Goldfinger . Now Skye and one of the greatest film poster artists working in the business today, Tony Stella, return to cel...

On Episode 142 of The Film ‘89 Podcast, Neil, Skye and regular co-host, Jacob Rivera are celebrating the 30th anniversary of an all time classic from 1995, David Fincher’s serial killer thriller, Seven , starring Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kevin Spacey. Based on an original screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker, Seven would go on to become one of the most successful films of 1995,...

On Episode 141 of The Film ‘89 Podcast, Steve and Skye are joined by returning guest-host, John Arminio to give you their in-depth and spoiler-filled review and analysis of director Guillermo del Toro’s latest film, his adaptation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, Frankenstein , a book and character that’s arguably seen more big screen adaptations than any other. Starring Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi and...

It’s that time of year again on The Film ‘89 Podcast as we bring you our 2025 Halloween Horror Special. Joining Skye are two returning co-hosts, Stephen Simpson and John Arminio, and the horror film they’ve picked as the focus of this episode is Tom Holland’s 1985 cult classic, Fright Night , starring Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse and Roddy McDowell. Based on an original script b...

On Episode 139 of The Film ‘89 Podcast, Skye is joined by frequent co-host Leighton Winstone as well someone making her long awaited return to Film ’89 after she first appeared 5 years ago on Episode 55, our very good friend, Leanne Kubicz. This battle-hardened trio will be smearing axle grease across their brows and packing as much water as they can carry as they head into a post-apocalyptic wast...

It’s become something of a recurring theme on The Film ‘89 Podcast of late where the film being discussed has been described as “one of the big ones”, a film of such significance to the hosts that it fills them with an almost dread anticipation that they might not do it justice. No film fits that bill more than the one being discussed on Episode 138, an episode that Neil and Skye have been teasing...

Episode 137 of The Film ‘89 Podcast marks the first time that the guys revisit a film that’s already been covered on a previous episode. 5 years ago on Episode 52, Neil and Skye recorded an audio commentary for the 45th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s 1975 masterpiece, Jaws . That episode remains one of Film ‘89’s most downloaded episodes and one that regularly gets mentioned by listeners as one...