The Latecomers

Show Notes Five walk into an elevator and one walks out – this week we talk Devil, a 2010 M. Night Shyamalan production. We’ve got some shady people locked together and a sad cop watching with enough smarts to listen to the Catholic who knows the danger they all face. It’s a mostly real-time horror flick that relies on fears we all have – you know, that you’re going to be stuck in an elevator with...

Show Notes This week we watched Liam Neeson pick up his mantle of action hero in 2008s Taken. It’s surprisingly paced and full of short effective fights that make up a satisfying action movie. Maggie Grace is a believable, if too resilient teen, and Famke Jansen is a terrible co-parent, rounding out a typical American family facing a sex-trafficking threat. Good thing he’s honed those skills.   Re...

Show Notes Home invasion classic The Strangers brings the Masked Man, Dollface and Pin-up Girl to a newly fractured couple, fracturing them even further. Is this a statement about class? Maybe. Is James being a dick because he’s hurt? Probably. How is Kristen’s skin so good while she is smoking like a chimney? That one is easy – it’s because she’s Liv Tyler. And who is Tamra and why are they looki...

Show Notes We watched the best superhero movie – or at least top 3 – this week with the second film in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, The Dark Knight. Incredible cast, unbelievable performances, great writing, and insane effects and set pieces all come together to form a tour-de-force that we could watch over and over again, maybe even just to hear Michael Caine tell us about rubies the size of a ta...

Show Notes Creepy kid alert! Adorable kid alert!   If you like kids, we’ve got ‘em this week in The Orphanage. Sick ones, dead ones, creepy ones, ghost ones. How can a movie that ends with a suicide be uplifting? The magic of storytelling, that’s how.     Recommendations: Gastronauts (Dropout)   Next up: The Dark Knight (2008)     Email us at latecomers@gmail.com Find Amity @ www.amityarmstrong.co...

Show Notes This week we watch a naïve midwife and a cynical gangster, whose mostly cynical because he’s actually a cop, in Eastern Promises. One of the least Cronenbergian David Cronenberg films is best remembered for a naked bathhouse fight, but which has some deep and nuanced characters played by thoughtful actors and interacting in interesting and eminently believable ways. But also, there’s a...

When in an emergency situation, it may be better to do as you are told… if not you might cause an(other) outbreak. We watch a single family take down a whole country (and probably the rest of the world) in 28 Weeks Later from 2007. A dad starts the film in a thrilling sequence as a coward, becomes a liar, makes some terrible choices, and then kills so many people. The kids he raised are uninterest...

Show Notes Daniel Craig makes his Bond debut in 2006’s Casino Royale. Montenegro and Venice are just a couple of expensive places his 00 status takes him. Surrounded by the excellence of Mads Mikkelsen, Eva Green and Jeffrey Wright, the rebooted series shines – all under the watchful eye of Dame Judy Dench. How many acts does the film have? About 5. But all of them are full of action, and most con...

Show Notes Free Palestine You know it’s gonna be a rough one when Mark Walhberg is the voice of reason even as he yells every line. We watch the epitome of infiltration this week with Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. DiCaprio is the good guy, Damon is the bad guy, Martin Sheen doesn’t deserve what he gets and Vera Farmiga, unfortunately, gets stuck in the “woman who is criminally terrible at her jo...

Show Notes Free Palestine   This week we marvel at the speed and dexterity of one of the best martial arts actors in Thailand’s Tom Yum Goong, or here in the states, The Protector – Tony Jaa coming for the people that took his elephant. If you want to see a baby elephant, a pangolin, martial arts bmx and roller bladers, a four minute uncut fight scene, a dominatrix with a whip, a giant and a capoe...

Show Notes Free Palestine   This week we watched some Spanish magical realism – maybe – with 2002’s Intacto. An underground world of betting with your luck – and ultimately your life – and the people who are caught up within it. Do you feel lucky?     Recommendations: Ghost Story (Podcast currently available free on Apple Podcast or on Wondery), Bay Curious Podcast (for Bay Area voters)   Next up:...

Show Notes Free Palestine   This week we watch one of the scariest movies of the 2000s, Gore Verbinski’s The Ring. Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Shannon Cochran and Brian Cox make a quartet of terrible parents that damage some already damaged children. We learn that you shouldn’t hide a kid in a barn or a well, nor should you attempt to pet an animal who clearly doesn’t want to be touched. We lea...

Show Notes Free Palestine   Sometimes you wake up on a fishing boat and you don’t know who you are. If this has happened to you, consider yourself in good company, alongside Matt Damon in this week’s movie, the Bourne Identity from 2002. It does matter who you keep close to you, and when that person is a desperate drifter with a tiny car, keep your head on a swivel because she doesn’t know what sh...

Show Notes Free Palestine   Time for a road trip – keep your hands inside the vehicle, driver gets to choose the music, and for the love of God do not taunt the truckers. We watch Steve Zahn break all of those rules – probably – much to the detriment of his brother and everyone else they come in contact with in 2001’s Joy Ride. In a movie that is way better than it needs to be, we are off on an il...

Show Notes Free Palestine   It’s time to watch a military debacle with Jerry Bruckhaimer and Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down. How many helicopters does it take to complete a mission successfully? Two more than they had apparently. We spend some time talking about media and propaganda and the merits of telling a “true story” as well as the merits of American exceptionalism. Also, a game of name the...

Show Notes We're back to give you a roadmap of last 25 movies we think are worthy of discussion when it comes to thrills. From 2001's Black Hawk Down to 2016's Train to Busan, we go around the world, war zones to Zombies. We'll talk ghosts, witches, murderous STDs and much, much more. Come along for a preview, and then join us next week for Black Hawk Down (available to rent on all your favorite s...

Show Notes Free Palestine   This week, we are going into the woods with three terrible film makers who think wearing jeans on a camping trip is a good idea and can neither read a map nor keep their hands to themselves. The Blair Witch Project, a pioneer of found footage films is up this week. Lemuel gives us outdoor tips and we discuss the benefits of unionization. You can see the cause of my dist...

Show Notes Free Palestine   This week we go flying and don’t negotiate with terrorists. Harrison Ford plays a noble president surrounded by ignoble hijackers who is trying to save his wife and daughter, and anyone that wasn’t murdered immediately. How bullet proof is this plane? Very.   Recommendations: Twisters (In theaters) and Twister (Max)   Next up: Blair Witch Project (1999) (Amazon Prime)  ...

Show Notes Free Palestine   One of the greatest casts of all time and an unflinching look at racism and the failures of the judicial system in the US and particularly in Mississippi. Joel Schumacher directs the adaptation of a John Grisham novel that tells the story of a white lawyer representing a black man and all of the machinations that go on around them. It looks directly at the inherent raci...

Show Notes Free Palestine   David Fincher, Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt – what could go wrong. Other than all the murders, of course.  We watched Se7en this week and discuss murder, body horror effects, sin, and the merits of harming yourself for or during the filming of a movie, how much a film should fill in the gaps as to “how” something happens and when it matters and the benefits of used booksto...

Show Notes Free Palestine   Buckle in for a possibly uncomfortable flashback as we discuss Outbreak from 1995. Viruses, helicopter chases, sweaty Patrick Dempsey, intense Dustin Hoffman, scared Cuba Gooding, Jr., cocky Kevin Spacey, tough Renee Russo, and a monkey who doesn’t know its own power make for a tense against the clock thriller.   Recommendations: Quiet Place Day One (In Theaters)   Next...

Show Notes Free Palestine   It’s time for Sandra Bullock to take on an early tech billionaire 1995’s The Net. Horny floppy haired assassins, men who are patently terrible at their jobs, pixelated and pixelating computer viruses and vindictive over-inclusive police records all come together to make Angela Bennett’s life hell.   Recommendations: Stopmotion (AMC+) [ Handmaking Coraline for some proce...

Show Notes Episode 6.5 19   The Killer (1989) #19 of 50 Thrill makers: Gun Fu!   Free Palestine   John Woo takes us on a hell of a ride in The Killer from 1989. Guns, beautiful women, churches with good vibes and homo-romantic overtones this week as we watch a tale of an assassin with a golden heart, his best friend and the cop who comes to love him. It’s full of gunfire and has the most heartbrea...

Show Notes Free Palestine   Mamet and DePalma bring us into a slick but dangerous 1930s Chicago in 1987’s The Untouchables . Fancy dress, guns, Ennio Morricone music, and snappy dialogue bring us into the fictional non-fiction world of Elliot Ness and Al Capone. Powerhouse cast, powerhouse script, quotable from begin to end, and introducing Patricia Clarkson, can this movie do any wrong. Listen to...

Show Notes Free Palestine   We’ve got some OG anti-AI media this week with WarGames from 1983. Matthew Broderick just wants to play the latest video game, but Dabney Coleman has put his opponent in charge of the entire American military complex – it’s not a great combination.   Recommendations: Ennio (Hulu)   Next up: The Untouchables (1987) (Showtime)   Email us at latecomers@gmail.com Find Amity...