The School of Movies Archive

[School of Movies 2016] This show covers both the 2014 reboot of the Turtles (recorded a year ago and stored in our vault for this very week) AND the 2016 sequel, Out of the Shadows.  It's Sharon and I going back to a series that has had patches of good, flashes of great but never produced a truly brilliant film. It's also been plagued by some horrible decisions on the parts of the creators, hair-...

[School of Movies 2016] Honestly,  the pains I went through to get this to you. It turned into a really fun but shouty show with a lot of editorializing.  I strongly advise against going to see this film. Listen to the show at least before you decide. It DOES go into every detail of the plot, but frankly I don't think we could spoil it any more than Fox, Singer and Kinberg have already.  Jerome Mc...

[School of Movies 2016] It's quickly jumped to the top of many a Marvel fans' favourites list. Combining the tone of Winter Soldier with the character lineup of Age of Ultron, this has been what people consider a worthy follow-up to the original 2012 Avengers Assemble.    It was an almost impossible task: To more than adequately adapt a Marvel comics crossover of dozens of books, built on forty ye...

[School of Movies 2016] We start off with my initial thoughts on coming back from the cinema. Then there’s a considerably more positive ten minute piece from Eric Jones. Then we get to the rotten meat of the whole bloody affair. Bob Chipman joins myself, Sharon Shaw and Jerome McIntosh to discuss the film in a more meta context, including what DC Warner’s options are, moving forward.  00.00.30: Fi...

[School of Movies 2016] In the run-up to Batman V Superman, let's take a dive into the mind of director Zack Snyder. Let's look at how he sees the world, how he sees the human psyche and how he sees women. Prepare for a furious battle of wills as Alex goes in guns blazing to take apart a film he never wants to talk about again, and Lorin Grieve defends the movie he loves. Sharon lies somewhere in...

[School of Movies 2016] We finally come to the dregs of the Marvel cinematic outings. After this it's things like the Hasselhoff Nick Fury, the early Captain Americas and Swamp Thing which barely qualify as movies.  * Ghost Rider (2007): Nick Cage as eccentric fusion of Spawn and The Mask on a motorbike.  * Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011): Cage sleepwalks in pursuit of Antichrist. Filmed i...

[School of Movies 2016] An unexpected, unprepared impromptu podcast about the Deadpool movie, which defied all expectations.  The adventures of a heavy-for-hire who gets cancer, leaves his girlfriend in secret to get it cured and ends up as a target for weird medical experiments by a company that wants to make super mercenaries out of the homeless and the terminally ill. He is tortured until his b...

[School of Movies 2016] This is a TV special movie from 1982 made by Rankin Bass (Thundercats/The Hobbit/Rudolph). It is essentially a Dungeons & Dragons adventure and very twee and earnest so you're going to have to leave your cynicism at the door.  It's based on a book of speculative fiction by Peter Dickinson whereby he presents the theories on how dragons might actually have operated and flown...

[School of Movies 2016] This is one of the most special and important animated movies to me. It’s a classic example of being perfectly underestimated. Both the movie and it’s rotund protagonist are anticipated by most to be a goofy, shambolic collection of pratfalls, but both turn out to be so much more. We discuss what may be the pinnacle of Dreamworks’ animated achievements to date, and to me, c...

[School of Movies 2016] This was recorded at the end of last year because we knew we had the Disney Robin hood show coming up and felt his mythos needed diving into some more. He is, after all, one of Britain's most abiding legends.  So we chose our favourite Robin Hood movie and ended up talking about how very silly it is instead. Contrived plot, hammy acting and historical inaccuracies out the w...

[School of Movies 2015] Part 1: A film so important and so passionately adored by us that we needed two shows and two groups of guests to fully cover, welcome to part 1 of our Force Awakens show. With us for this first outing in which we discuss Rey, Finn, Ren, Han, Huxx, Snoke and the hugely positive side of this effectively being a retelling of the events of A New Hope. Part 2: The second instal...

[School of Movies 2015] Bond is back! And this has been one divisive movie. On the one hand some folks hail it as a fantastic installment of the long-running series, proof that 007 is still flying high. On the other, it has been decried as proof of the exact opposite, seemingly underlining and exemplifying everything that was broken about the series back in the past when we had little else in the...

[School of Movies 2015] The Craig era, previously discussed back in 2011 gets the royal treatment and we talk Sam Mendez, Roger Deakins, Thomas Newman, Javier Bardem, Ben Wishaw, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris and Her Majesty, Queen Dench.  Guests: Gary Blower of GamerBurst James Batchelor of Bond and Beyond Alex Boucher of Bond and Beyond  

[School of Movies 2015] Supergirl, released in 1984, after Superman III but before Superman IV may have been one of the key reasons that Wonder Woman never got a movie, that is of course up until Catwoman in 2004. Produced by Peter Burrell on a budget of $35 million that you'll wonder about the apparent absence of onscreen and bringing in an embarrassing $14 million.  We're probably being a bit ha...

[School of Movies 2015] For the third and fourth week of our SPOOKtacular we cover the Scream movies. In this one we kick off talking about the hugely influential 1996 original, arguably Wes Craven's best film.  It's a compelling whodunnit, it features a young, fresh cast you're actually supposed to like and features not only some good teen dialogue but a metatexual dissection of the slasher genre...

[School of Movies 2015]   The first half of this episode covers A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) and  A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989).  Horrormeister Neil Taylor of GameBurst joins us to discuss the man of your dreams. In t...

[School of Movies 2015] This is a look at three major cinematic outings for the boy who never grew up. 00.02.00: Peter Pan (1953) 00.39.00: Hook (1991) 01.08.00: Peter Pan (2003) The first includes Mr Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits and focuses on the animated Disney movie. The second part we take a look at the Spielberg live action sequel and the third is the 2003 adaptation directed by P.J. Hogan....

[School of Movies 2016] We're back on the Disney shows with Daniel Floyd, this time on the cusp of the 90s renaissance. This episode delves lightly into two of the last examples of their Dog/Cat/Mouse fetishism that defined the post-Walt wilderness years. The Great Mouse Detective, originally named Basil of Baker Street (from the novel) is Sherlock Holmes with rodents. Oliver is the Twisty Dickens...

[School of Movies 2016] Continuing our Disney podcasts with Daniel Floyd of Extra Histories, this one covers the fifteen year period between 1970 and 1985.  It was a dark and odd time for the once great animation studio. Their mentor and namesake had fallen and they were carrying on without him, or the acclaim that went with the bold and beautiful films of their golden years. The Many Adventures o...

[School of Movies 2016] Robin Hood (1973) is 83 minutes of amusing shenanigans. It's twee, minimally dramatic, fun and light with lovable simple characters. It did not restore Disney to the heights of Snow White and Cinderella popularity it had previously reached.  Originally we recorded a paltry ten minute chat about Disney's Robin Hood during our sessions with Daniel Floyd, because there really...

[School of Movies 2016] The Disney shows return. Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits is back to talk us through the difficult 1960s period for Walt Disney Studios. 101 Dalmatians The Sword in the Stone The Jungle Book The Aristocats Animation was changing, cinema was being influenced by television and for some reason people really liked British writers. In this show we'll talk about where Disney went af...

[School of Movies 2015] The Disney shows continue with Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty, guest starring Daniel Floyd once again. These were the last gasps for ink and paint animation. If you look at the lustrous colours and brush strokes you will see a distinct difference from the more penciled xerox process that ran from 101 Dalmatians all the way up to The Little Mermaid.  So it's a charmi...

[School of Movies 2015] The Disney shows continue with parts 12 & 13. Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits joins us once again to discuss the much-needed success of Cinderella for cementing Disney as more than just a one-hit wonder. Following this we delve into the absurd ramblings of Lewis Carol to talk about Alice in Wonderland. According to the Disney of the early 1950s royals will chase you down on b...

[School of Movies 2015] The Disney specials continue with parts 6-11 covering the period between 1942 and 1949 when, due to World War II the studio held off on major animated features and instead focused on cheaply produced package films designed to foster relations with South America and keep their struggling animation house afloat.  It’s an odd bunch, comprising Saludos Amigos, The Three Cabelle...

[School of Movies 2015] The Disney specials continue with parts 4 & 5 in a double bill. Dumbo and Bambi were two differing attempts from the studio to gain a success after the disappointing receptions to Pinocchio and Fantasia. Dumbo cost a lot less to make and Bambi was all about the artistry and portrayal of real animals. Find out in this episode if the elephant picture flew and how well the rea...