The Movie Breakdown

Way back in 1993, there was no way of knowing that Groundhog Day would turn out to be one of the most influential movies. Its formula has been repeated by multiple movies in multiple genres. We actually reviewed ten different movies on the podcast that followed this formula including the classic Groundhog Day. We call them time loop movies because it is about at least one character that is stuck i...

  Long time listeners of The Movie Breakdown will have heard us mention all kind of different things on a recurring basis. One of them is that we have been against the critical consensus when it comes to the first Rambo movie, First Blood. The other thing we often mention is that we love revisiting movies and getting our opinions changed with a fresh perspective and viewing. It has been a long tim...

Anne Hathaway is an acclaimed actor now, but in the mid 2000s, she was known better for princess movies aimed at pre-teen girls. Along with Brokeback Mountain, it was The Devil Wears Prada where she started to move into more adult roles and prove herself as a diverse actor. Speaking of acting, Meryl Streep had been a beloved actor for decades, but her role here ended up being one of her most recog...

As a writer and podcaster on movies, I admit that I can sometimes fall into hyperbole when discussing movies that were major influences or reshaped a genre. It is very hard to argue against Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later being the most important and influential zombie picture since the game-changing Night of the Living Dead. The 2002 indy horror brought zombies back to the mainstream and played a hug...

Hey look! It is a bonus episode of The Movie Breakdown. We don't have a specific topic but rather just talk about a few different movie related things. We talk about movie endings, how we've never been team Fast and Furious, movie studios hesitancy to kill major characters and whatever else pops in our heads. It is a freeform discussion to tie you over until our big Monday show. As always, we had...

The muscled up one-man army action hero dominated the box-office thanks to stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. A shift happened in the 1990s where audiences started wanting something a bit different in their action movies. There was a rise of smaller but smarter and maybe a bit kinder action heroes that used their wits and intellect to overcome a series of different challenges...

  Unforeseen circumstance came smashing up against The Movie Breakdown this week and we couldn't record a new episode. Instead, we dug deep into the vault and pulled out an episode from way back in March of 2013. We review Quentin Tarantino's 1997 crime caper picture, Jackie Brown. Anyone who has listened for a few years now will know that I love this movie, but that wasn't always the cases. Both...

  For the second straight week, The Movie Breakdown is going to be hanging out in the 1980s and reviewing what many hold up as a classic. This time it was a giant box office hit that was geared towards adults rather than kids, and it was billed as a romantic comedy. We are going to dig deep into the Dustin Hoffman starring comedy about s male actor who poses as a woman in order to land work, Toots...

  The Movie Breakdown has surpassed 400 episodes and so, it seemed time to do something drastic. Long-time listeners may remember that for the first several months of the show, we would do an entire episode devoted to a single movie and dive deep into all aspects of it. For various reasons after doing the multi-review format for 7 years, we've decided to take a huge gamble and return to that style...

One of the major goals of The Movie Breakdown is to show love to film history and analyze major movies from the past. While we have discussed a few Silent Era movies, we haven't reviewed a picture starring who may be the biggest movie star during the Silent Era and was the first true box office powerhouse, Charlie Chaplin. We finally review one of his significant movies and the one that has the fi...

Wow! The Movie Breakdown has hit its 400th episode. Thank you so much for all those who have listened and supported us all the way back in 2013 when we started this little project. I don't think that I'd ever imagined back then that we would be going strong and continuing to grow an audience so many years later with 400 episodes to our name. I want to really let you know how much we appreciate eve...

  This week we've got some scary things for you like a haunted house, giant monsters and Robert De Niro in another family comedy. Amanda Seyfried stars in a 1980s set haunted house thriller called Things Heard & Seen. Then we have a big budget action comedy with giant creatures in the Dylan O'Brien starring Love & Monsters. We wrap up the movie reviews with the family comedy about a kid trying to...

It is a diverse episode of The Movie Breakdown as we look at movies from very different genres aiming for a variety of audiences. We have two big 2021 releases that both where originally scheduled for theatrical runs in 2020, but a little thing called a pandemic got in the way. We have a big Michael B. Jordan starring action thriller in Without Remorse, which has been in some form of development s...

Many times on The Movie Breakdown, we have complained about movie tropes and cliches. We prefer movies that are original, creative and fresh. But sometimes there is some charm and pure enjoyments you can get from a trope that is used effectively There is the belief that there are no new ideas but rather just reworkings and alterations of the good ones. This week we are looking at trope that were o...

Special effects and creature design master Carlo Rambaldi and friend It is a special episode this week as we spotlight some of the vital jobs in crafting a movie. We admit we are often guilty of mentioning the director and actors but leaving out most of the other crucial contributors to a picture. This week we take the time to discuss and celebrate some of the most talented people in Hollywood tha...

It is a huge episode of The Movie Breakdown with four reviews for a very diverse array of pictures. Two of the movies are huge career breakouts that turned the lead actors into global movie superstars. We dance all the way to 1977 with the disco era drama that made the career of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. Travolta has proven to be an actor that commits 100% and we discuss how this movi...

Being stuck at home for most of the year hasn't been very thrilling but we've got some captivating movie talk on The Movie Breakdown this week. Aneesh Chaganty had a huge break-out with his first feature, Searching, and we review his highly anticipated follow-up thriller, Run. We also have two very different documentaries with one looking at the life and career of one of the biggest rappers from t...

For the third straight week, we've got a King Kong review and this time it is Peter Jackson's 2005 version, which is a clear love letter to the original but also elevates the beloved creature feature subgenre to blockbuster epic status. We also review a picture that fuses hidden camera gags with a buddy road-trip comedy in Bad Trip. We continue our streak of looking at documentaries with Operation...

  You are going to go ape for this week's episode of The Movie Breakdown, because it is a gigantic show that we have for you. Not only am I apparently in the mood for really bad puns, but we are reviewing the grand daddy of the creature features and the movie that birthed a pop culture icon in 1933's King Kong. We dig really deep into this movie as we look at its impact and legacy. As well we revi...

Do you like Eddie Murphy? Then this is the episode of The Movie Breakdown you've been waiting to hear, as we review his first ever and his most recent picture. We go all the way back 1982 where Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte team-up in what is one of the first buddy-cop action comedies in the Walter Hill directed, 48 Hrs. Then we jump all the way to 2021 for the brand-new release and the sequel to a...

It's a Monday, so your ears must just be begging for some movie review chatter. We discuss three pictures this week, including Sam Raimi's 1998 psychological thriller, A Simple Plan. One of the goals of the podcast is to explore and celebrate movies from the past, especially some that may not be as remembered or talked about today. This picture was one of the big break-out moments for Raimi as it...

  The Movie Breakdown is coming at you with three movie reviews this week including the final movie in the teen romcom trilogy with To All the Boys: Always and Forever. You may remember we were fans of the first two movies, and so find out if it can keep its charm, energy and appeal. We also look at a very different kind of romance movie in the John David Washington and Zendaya starring Malcolm &...

For the last decade, I've read and heard many people bemoan that they don't make movies like they used to. Or I hear about how the original idea in entertainment is dying. Well, when I hear those things, I am motivated to point them towards A24, which is a distribution and production company that has released some of the most interesting and provocative wide release features of the last several ye...

Canada has been the home of several great actors but one of the true legends was Christopher Plummer. We pay tribute to the icon on the latest episode of The Movie Breakdown with reviews for four of his movies. His most well-known picture is probably the smash-hit musical filled with some of the most memorable songs in The Sound of Music. He also has a major supporting role in the Terry Gilliam di...

Valentine's Day is right around the corner and we're going to celebrate it with an episode we've called The Breakdown of Love where we will review four romance pictures. We are going all the way back to 1940 for the Howard Hawks directed and Carey Grant and Rosalind Russell starring screwball comedy, His Girl Friday. We also have an independent romantic comedy that turned into a big hit at both th...