The Review Show

Episode 260. We celebrated our second annual "National Treasure Weekend" watching another Nicolas Cage movie, 2002's Adaptation. Charlie Kaufman is hired to adapt Susan Orlean's nonfiction book The Orchid Thief into a Hollywood screenplay. As he deals with the book's lack of easy narrative structure, his loneliness and low self confidence, and his identical twin brother Donald pestering him in his...

Episode 259. We continue our coverage of The Good Place by talking about season three, with the fourth and final season discussion coming next month. Michael has reset the timeline so the humans are alive again on Earth, trying to be better people after their near-death experiences, but he and Janet soon have to reveal themselves after too much meddling. With the realization that every action affe...

Episode 258. We watched the 1996 movie The Watermelon Woman, the first feature film directed by a Black lesbian. Cheryl is an aspiring filmmaker working in a video store and trying to make a documentary about a Black actress from the 1930s and 40s credited only as "The Watermelon Woman." As she works to uncover this woman's identity, she discovers a queer history that echoes her own personal roman...

Episode 257. We watched the original 2002 run of the adult animated show Clone High, which now has a new reboot season streaming on Max! Government scientists have cloned famous historical figures, who are now teenagers trying to navigate high school. Joan of Arc has a crush on Abe Lincoln, who has a crush on Cleopatra, who has an on-again-off-again relationship with JFK, while Ghandi just wants t...

Episode 256. We watched the 1983 sci-fi fantasy movie Krull! Prince Colwyn and Princess Lyssa are to be married, for both true love and to unite their kingdoms to form a stronger army against the invading Slayers and their mysterious leader known only as The Beast. When the Slayers attack the wedding and kidnap Lyssa, Colwyn has to travel across the land of Krull to rescue her. He obtains the lege...

Episode 255. We're back to talk about season two of The Good Place, and we'll be watching season three next month. Michael is continuing to reboot his hellish good place simulation, but Eleanor keeps solving the puzzle. He confesses his scheme to the humans this time, and asks that they team up with him to keep the lie going, to avoid punishment from his bosses. In exchange, they insist he join th...

Episode 254. We're kicking off summer with the sweaty, tense 1953 movie The Wages of Fear. A massive fire strikes an oil field in South America, and the oil company needs to transport nitroglycerin from one base to another, to cause an explosion to extinguish the fire. Four men take the job, desperate to earn the money to leave their small town. The terrain is rough, the nitroglycerin is volatile,...

Episode 253. We watched the short-lived 2008 cartoon The Spectacular Spider-Man! A teenage Peter Parker, still new to being a superhero, struggles to balance his crime-fighting with going to high school, taking pictures for the Daily Bugle, being there for Aunt May, spending time with his friends, and dating, or even figuring who to date. Surrounded by a rogues gallery of foes and a wide cast of p...

Episode 252. We're starting another ongoing monthly series, talking about season one of the 2016 sitcom The Good Place, and we'll be back to discuss season two next month! Eleanor wakes up to discover that she's dead and has been sent to the "good place," a mysterious heavenly neighborhood where she has the house of her dreams and her true soulmate. This is a reward for all of Eleanor's good deeds...

Episode 251. We return to our nostalgic favorite, the 2004 indie movie Napoleon Dynamite, to discuss why it still charms us twenty years later and ask if it has kept its cult classic status. Napoleon is a high-schooler in the small town of Preston, Idaho, trying to impress his peers, get his family to respect him, and find a date to the school dance. He deals with a delusional uncle, petty teen ju...

Episode 250. We celebrate the milestone of our 250th episode by reading the silly and satirical 2016 Flintstones comics from Mark Russell and Steve Pugh. The Flintstones are living in a modern take on the same ancient city of Bedrock, dealing with issues like religion, politics, war, and consumerism, trying to be the best people they can as the help forge civilization itself. Click here to watch a...

Episode 249. We can't watch the new Mario movie without taking a good hard look at the old one first. We watched the 1993 Super Mario Bros movie, specifically the "Morton-Jankel" directors' cut with unfinished extra footage. Mario Mario and Luigi Mario are brothers, plumbers, New Yorkers. When their new friend Daisy is kidnapped by goons who take her through a mysterious portal at her paleontology...

Episode 248. We watched the first season of the Netflix animated series Arcane, based in the world of League of Legends. Amidst conflict between the high-class metropolis of Piltover and its neglected and crime-ridden undercity of Zaun, sisters Vi and Powder fight to stay alive and make a difference for their community. After a mistake that costs the lives of their friends, the sisters split up an...

Episode 247. We are now full members of the family as we finish all the movies in the Fast Saga: Furious 7 (2015), The Fate of the Furious (2017), F9 (2021), and some bonus talk on the spinoff movie Hobbs & Shaw (2019). The family rescues a kidnapped hacker who created an omnipotent software called God's Eye, with Brian enjoying one last action-packed job before he leaves for a quiet life with...

Episode 246. We watched Angelyne, a five-episode limited series from Peacock dramatizing true events. A mysterious woman called Angelyne started putting up billboards for herself around Los Angeles in the early 80s, unclear about exactly what she was promoting, just that she wanted to be a star. She became a fixture of the city, driving around in the city selling her own merchandise out of the tru...

Episode 245. We read the 2018 comic series Shazam and the Seven Magic Lands by writer Geoff Johns. Billy Batson and his adopted siblings find that whey they transform into their superpowered alter egos and visit the Rock of Eternity, they can travel to other magical lands. While exploring worlds of infinite amusement parks, talking animals, and living video games, they find the citizens aren't wel...

Episode 244. We watched the 2007 legal thriller Michael Clayton, written and directed by Tony Gilroy. Michael Clayton is a "fixer" for his law firm, cleaning up messes for their prestigious clients. They're defending the manufacturer of a potentially carcinogenic pesticide when the head lawyer on that case suffers a mental breakdown, and turns against the client. Michael Clayton has to look after...

Episode 243. We're continuing our ongoing monthly discussion on the Fast saga, covering Fast & Furious (2009), Fast Five (2011), and Fast & Furious 6 (2013). Brian reunites with the Torettos after Lettie is mysteriously murdered while trying to infiltrate a drug ring. Dom is already on the run from the law, and taking down Lettie's killer could make him a visible target to both criminals a...

Episode 242. We watched The Handmaiden, a 2016 South Korean film by director Park Chan-wook. In this erotic crime thriller, pickpocket Sook-hee takes a job as a handmaiden to the sheltered Lady Hideko, with the secret goal to convince her to marry Count Fujiwara, a fellow criminal who has hatched this plan with Sook-hee to steal the lady's riches. While the two women develop a close relationship,...

Episode 241. We listened to the audio drama The Left Right Game, created and written by Jack Anderson and starring and produced by Tessa Thompson. Alice is a journalist who finds the story of the Left Right Game, an urban legend where you drive your car in a left turn, a right turn, a left, a right, on and on until you pass into another dimension. Alice joins a caravan of cars trying to go farther...

Episode 240. We read the complete three volume run of Red Sonja, from writer Gail Simone and artist Walter Geovani. Red Sonja is a legendary hero in her fantasy world, known as the devil with a sword, slaying foes for whoever will pay her in gold, meat, and alcohol. She defends a small plague-ridden town from an old friend who's been driven mad by the shared trauma they both survived, she ferries...

Episode 239. Crack open the Coronas for our first monthly ongoing series of the year, covering the Fast & Furious saga! We watched The Fast and The Furious (2001), 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), and The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006), with the next three movies coming next month. Brian O'Conner is an undercover officer infiltrating the street-racing scene in Los Angeles, trying to stop a g...

Episode 238. We watched Swiss Army Man, a 2016 film by the Daniels, the directorial team behind Everything Everywhere All At Once! Hank is shipwrecked on an island, at the end of his rope, when a body washes up on shore. He's able to ride the flatulent corpse back to the mainland, where the body slowly wakes back up sentience. Hank calls his new friend Manny, and teaches him what it means to be al...

Episode 237. We watched the 2011 anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica, a deconstruction of the magical girl genre. Madoka and her friends fantasize about being magical girls, but when they meet a classmate who really has this secret identity, they learn about the dark bargain you have to make to gain that power. A cute alien creature asks you to sign a contract, granting you any wish, in exchang...

Episode 236. We're kicking off 2023 with the action-packed John Wick franchise, covering the first three movies in anticipation of the fourth chapter releasing later this year. John Wick is a retired assassin who is reeling from the death of his wife, focusing on caring for his beloved car and the puppy that his wife adopted for him before she died. When his car is stolen and his dog is endangered...