The Movie Makeover

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: Only Callbacks in the movies This episode on  The Movie Makeover Podcast , we crack the whip one more time and take on  Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny  — the movie that asks, “What if Indiana Jones fought Nazis, time travel, personal regret, and also the unstoppable villain known as aging?” Or what if an entire movie is made up from only callbacks from...

Gladiator II storms into the arena wearing the armor of a masterpiece and hoping nobody notices the dents. In this episode of The Movie Makeover Podcast, we ask the big question: Sharks...why did it have to be sharks?!? Is this a worthy heir to Gladiator, or just a very expensive toga party with rage issues? We dig into the sequel’s lumbering plot, inherited gravitas, and all the ways it tries to...

Episode: “65 (2023)” You know that feeling when a movie sells you  “Adam Driver fights dinosaurs”  and you immediately start clearing your schedule like it’s a national holiday? Yeah… same. In this episode, we’re crash-landing into  65 , the sci-fi survival thriller that’s basically “space dad + angry lizards + one very bad travel itinerary.” It’s lean, it’s loud, it’s beautifully shot… and it sti...

In the  Movie Makeover  universe,  Assassin’s Creed  is the definition of a “how did you mess  this  up?” adaptation: a knockout premise, a stacked cast, and a time-hopping playground… somehow flattened into a cold, talky, grey slog that forgets the #1 rule of parkour ninjas:  make it fun to watch. In this episode, we put on the hood, sharpen the hidden blade, and  rebuild the movie from the leap...

The 2017 Academy Awards—honoring the films of 2016 should’ve been unkillable. Instead, Oscar Night played like a bloated rough cut with no producer in the room. On this episode of The Movie Makeover, we treat the ceremony like a failed prestige picture and fix it the only way Hollywood understands: with structure, discipline, and a ruthless trim. This was the year of  Moonlight , a film so precise...

This episode attempts the impossible: performing cinematic CPR on  The Godfather Part III , the movie that gave us 'Thunder can't hurt you', an opera house showdown, and a reminder that even legendary franchises can trip over their own gravitas. We dig into the weird pacing, the half-baked romance subplot, and the Vatican politics that feel like homework. Then we unveil our upgraded bl...

The year is 1999. The movies are legendary. The Oscars… needed help. In this episode of the Movie Makeover Podcast, we revisit the 2000 Academy Awards and give the ceremony the makeover it never asked for but definitely needed. We break down every category that fumbled, every nomination that should’ve been, and every win that aged like a Blockbuster late fee. Expect bold takes on  The Matrix ,  Th...

Justice League (2017): The Super Friends Intervention In this episode, the movie makeover team dives face-first into the glorious Franken-movie that is  Justice League (2017)  — the theatrical cut! Half Snyder drama, half Whedon quips, and 100% “Who asked for this mustache removal?” So naturally, we call in the experts… Not producers. Not screenwriters. Nope —  The Super Friends.

Step into the neon-drenched, shoulder-pad-powered future of 2017—yes, their 2017—where America has solved all its problems by doing the obvious: turning mass incarceration into live-televised gladiator combat. Enter Ben Richards, played by peak-era Arnold Schwarzenegger, a helicopter pilot framed for a massacre and thrown into a government-run game show where convicted “contestants” fight to the d...

Episode #5 They Live   The patron saint of The Movie Make-Over Podcast, John Carpenter, takes front and center when we explore his 1988 social commentary Sci-Fi classic, They Live. Starring, the Super Star of wrestling, Rowdy Roddy Piper, and the always reliable Keith David, this thinly disguised take on class struggle was a mid-level hit that was dismissed by the pundits at the time but has since...

We take a look back at the Oscar awards given to the films from 1980. We re-access the nominations and winners with the advantage that time has given us. With the additional years of access, reputation, and repeated viewings, we right the perceived wrongdoings that The Academy Awards perpetrated at the time the awards were handed out. With this power, we Re-Award the Oscars to our favorite films a...

Join us for episode 3, where we dissect Cowboys and Aliens, Jon Favreau’s 2011 follow-up to his immensely successful Iron Man movies. Daniel Craig stars as a cowboy in 1873 Arizona who wakes up with a piece of mysterious technology strapped to his wrist. With an All-Star supporting cast led by Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, and Sam Rockwell, the stage is set for a fun 2-hour romp that combines the b...

For our second episode, we break down the 1995 Denzel Washington & Russell Crowe cyberpunk thriller, Virtuosity. This early addition to the burgeoning Sci-Fi subgenre was intended as a star-making vehicle for Crowe and another stepping stone to superstardom for Washington. Two great actors are pitted against each other in the near future, where crime is fought with the most advanced technology...

Episode #1 Speed Racer.   For our inaugural episode, we chose Speed Racer, The Wachowskis’ 2008 adaptation of the beloved animated manga series from creator Tatsuo Yoshida. Coming off the success of The Matrix series, The Wachowskis could have chosen any project to their liking and were given the resources to do it on a large scale. They dove into this classic 1967-68 cartoon that held a special p...