The Franchisees

They made the chimps watch too much LiveLeak and it infected them with Rage, cut to 28 days later and the entire British Isle is fucked. That's right, we're getting our MiniDV cams out and going back to the glorious days of post-9/11 with 28 DAYS LATER. This film reinvented a genre when it came out... but how does it hold up now? Joining us are the three lads from a new screening series...

So it's come to this... the FINAL RECKONING. We've had so many reckonings over this series but this is the last one, we promise. To help us process this reckoning we've enlisted friend of the show, past + future + current guest, and musician extraordinaire Rob McLay.  There's much to talk about but before we get into the film we also discuss some other movies we've been wa...

We're back and we're talking about MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE, the first reckoning of an epic two-part reckoning. Ben remembers enjoying this one back in theatres in 2023, Alex has never seen it. Does it hold up? Is it a mess? Is the franchise past its prime??? Before we answer these questions (and more!) we also talk about the Cannes Film Festival and some other films...

We're back, Ben's been fired and replaced with friend of the pod/past and future guest Jordan Seccareccia, and Ethan Hunt saves the world again. We're talking MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT, what some consider the zenith of the franchise. Who are those some? Why your good friends Jordan and Ben. Will they be able to convince Alex to join the Fallout team? It's our most impossibl...

We're back, we've formed a Rogue Nation whatever that is and we have two very special guests leading the revolution: Corporal Niko Block of the Fail Army (and AWOL social media coordinator of The Franchisees) and Dr. Yuki, foremost scholar of and PhD-haver in Tom Cruise Studies.  We also talk about some other movies such as WARFARE, SINNERS, CHILDREN OF MEN, BETWEEN THE LINES, and PYAASA...

We're initiating ghost protocol, we've initiated it before and we're initiating it again. People have said some very bad things about our friend Ethan Hunt, some very nasty things. But we're going to initiate ghost protocol and make the IMF great again! We're back after a brief hiatus (sorry) with MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL. Tom Wilkinson initiates ghost protocol...

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to remember the name of the Hollywood Hack who directed MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III... who is it... what's his stupid name again... ah whatever I forget. Devin Shears joins us again to talk M:I III, the GOAT Philip Seymour Hoffman, and what is in many ways the craziest iteration of Tom Cruise/Ethan Hunt yet: the normal wife guy. He loves his wife!...

Three incredible artistic talents came together at the beginning of the millennium to create an astounding work of art: Tom Cruise, John Woo, and Limp Bizkit... together they produced MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 and we thank them every goddamn day of our lives. We're back to discuss M: I 2 with connoisseur of early 2000s cinema/vibes Katherine Vienneau. We've got the Chimera Virus, we've...

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to listen to this podcast. Please listen to it, please! Please accept the mission, we love you and we accept you, won't you accept us??  MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, the 1996 Cruise-De Palma classic! What can you say? Well, one of us likes it and the other is lukewarm. Still, it's nice to huff that new franchise smell! Before we talk about M:I and...

Three desperate men on a sweaty search for gold... sounds like this podcast, baby! We're back with the final episode in our Dollars Trilogy series, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY. Joining us is our good friend Jordan Seccareccia, thereby mirroring and completing the titular trio. Which one of us is good, which one is bad, and which one is ugly? Or are we each perhaps some odd combination? You...

The Man with No Name is back and this time his name is Manco and he has a friend Morty (played by Chief Van Cleef). They are in love and express that love by shooting each other's hats! FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE is the bigger, better, and richer sequel to last week's A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. Your hosts are joined by a special guest, friend of the pod Max. Max rode into town on a pale horse, jo...

A man... of few words. A man... with a poncho. A man... with no name. Although perhaps he does have a name and it's Joe but that's not important. We're doing the Dollars Trilogy aka The Man With No Name Trilogy, a series of spaghetti westerns directed by master filmmaker Sergio Leone and starring the god Clint Eastwood.  Before we talk about the film we also discuss what we've...

This episode is dedicated to Forky.  We're back with the fourth instalment of the TOY STORY franchise, the appropriately titled TOY STORY 4. 2019 was a lifetime ago, almost long enough to ask the question "does this movie hold up?" Yes, it's pretty good! Ben is a little "turnt up" in this episode so be warned! Join us next week for the cash-grab conclusion of the TOY...

It's a wonderful night for Oscar, Oscar Oscar, who will win? You, the listeners... that's who wins. Because it's our annual Best Movies of the Year episode hooray yay hooray! Alex and Ben talk about the year in cinema 2024 and countdown their favourite movies from #20 to #1. Get ready to here about all your favourite films and maybe even a few you haven't discovered yet. We won...

We're back with the beloved third entry in the TOY STORY franchise. Alex and Ben were very close to Andy's age when they first saw the film... needless to say, it hit them like a ton of bricks. Will this poignant and beautiful film still pull on their now-jaded heartstrings? At least one of them, yes! We also talk about Pixar's stellar run and eventual decline, the possible real-lif...

1999 was a legendary, leeeggggendary year for cinema. And animation  is cinema, no matter what those film snobs tell you! Please, please for the love of god accept that animation is cinema so that Guillermo del Toro can take a break.  The subject this week is TOY STORY 2, what some consider one of the greatest sequels of all time. Is it true? Does it hold up? Is it on the same level as the origina...

It's our 30th Franchise! Wow, time sure does fly when you're having fun... and there's nothing more fun than toys. What if these toys had a story of their own? Well you're in luck. Back in 1995, future-disgraced animator John Lasseter and company invented computers and used those computers to invent animation resulting in the first animated feature length computer animated feat...

The Mick Travis trilogy concludes in hilarious, sometimes baffling fashion. We also talk about EMILIA PÉREZ, HARD TRUTHS, "trade wars" and "juice lips" Join us next week for a new franchise: TOY STORY

Mick Travis is back in O LUCKY MAN!, at least some version of Mick Travis. Join him on an epic journey through the hellish and bizarre landscape of 70s Britain. From coffee salesman to superstar, and many stops along the way. This is a sprawling state-of-the-nation film akin to SOUTHLAND TALES or maybe I'm just making that comparison to get you to watch it, it's hard to tell.  We also ta...

wow jeez sorry it's late again ahh jeez guys I'm really running out of excuses here! please enjoy this episode on Lindsay Anderson's 1968 film IF...., not to be confused with the disgusting John Krasinski's IF (2024) and the even more disgusting Marvel's WHAT IF... ? we also take time to talk about the life and work of our beloved David Lynch who passed away earlier this w...

Sorry it's late again folks I keep getting burgled and I'm not even half as smart as any of these kids man like I can't build any of these traps I am struggling to defend myself my home is a shambles they took everything man they took everything they took my DVDs they took my Blu-rays man they took my 4K UHDs they took it all and I did nothing I just stood there and watched like a f...

Sorry it's late, please forgive me I was left home alone and had to defend myself against the flu.

Released in the shadow of America's darkest hour, HOME ALONE 4 teaches us all to live again, to laugh again, to love again. Do dark hours have shadows? Only time will tell. New kid again, this is definitively not "the boy" but he is playing a boy we are all familiar with: Kevin McCallister. Some things have changed (his parents are divorced) while some things remain the same (he end...

HOME ALONE 3, new kid, new world, new film, new life. Sometimes these are good things for a franchise. New means different, but does it also mean good? Hollywood megastar Alex D. Linz takes over from ol' has-been Culkin. There are 4 bad guys attacking from all fronts. They're after the chip Morty. People fall down and go boom. John Hughes wrote it. Much to consider and talk about! We als...