The Third Reel: A Movie Podcast

Halloween is over, but we’ve got one last dose of horror before everything turns festive and a bloke in a red suit starts entering houses without permission. On this Reel Kwik review from The Third Reel , Dan and Dale tackle Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil . Can the filmmaker behind Barbarian and Weapons give this beloved survival horror franchise the big-screen treatment they’ve been waiting for? He...

We’ve reached the end of The Twilight Saga , and nobody is more surprised than us that we’ve survived. This week, we review Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012) , as Bella, Edward and Jacob return for one last round of vampire politics, questionable decisions and intense staring. After a less-than-impressed journey through this infamous film series, even Rachael’s enthusiasm has taken a few bites, can th...

After Eclipse left us riding high, the gang was feeling pretty good about the Twilight saga, finally. Dan and Dale had even agreed it was the best Twilight film so far—which, in hindsight, may have been the moment we got too confident. So naturally, we were looking forward to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 . Even Rachael’s warnings couldn’t dampen our spirits. And oh dear. Oh, deary dea...

Rachael is on sabbatical, honey. Naturally, the only reasonable response is to feed Dan’s ever-hungry Marvel monster and keep the Spidey fever swinging at The Third Reel. This week, Dan and Dale tackle our personal ranking of every Spider-Man film — a neat “Top 10” in theory, except there are actually 11 of them. So, yes: it’s a Top 10 that shamelessly contains 11 entries. Maths was never Peter Pa...

It’s our 100th episode of The Third Reel —a sentence we’re still processing, mostly because it implies we have somehow had 100 things to say about movies. To celebrate this wildly unnecessary but genuinely lovely milestone, we’re hosting our very own awards show: no red carpet, no acceptance speeches that run for 14 minutes, and—unless something goes terribly wrong—no envelope mix-ups. We’re looki...

So… we were supposed to be bringing you Episode 100 this week. But because we are nothing if not committed to making this monumental milestone absolutely perfect, we decided to take an entire extra week to get it right. Which means, naturally, we’re celebrating by giving you a Patreon freebie about Brokeback Mountain . That’s right. While you patiently wait for our 100th episode, enjoy this very s...

The gang is back in Forks, and after the frankly devastating experience that was New Moon , expectations are… somewhere beneath the floorboards. Our last Twilight review left us with one major question: can this franchise actually produce a film we genuinely like? Even Rachael, our resident self-confessed Twilight fan and designated expert on all things Edward, Bella and aggressively dramatic star...

The chaos continues. Last week, Legally Blonde somehow climbed all the way to #2 on our Top 100 Films Ever , proving once and for all that this list will do absolutely anything but make sense. 🤷‍♂️ Despite the questionable decision-making, plenty of great films joined the list. But as the rankings take shape, so does the animosity between our hosts . Friendships are being tested. Opinions are bei...

The chaos continues 🎬 Part 2 of our Top 100 Films of All Time saga is here, where the list gets tighter, the opinions get louder, and the sabotage gets… frankly, personal. This isn’t just a ranking. It’s a full-blown cinematic turf war. Current standings include: 1. The Dark Knight 2. Saving Private Ryan 3. Jurassic Park 4. It’s a Wonderful Life 5. Shaun of the Dead 6. Shrek 7. The Iron Giant 8....

It topped all of our most anticipated lists at the start of the year… and now The Odyssey has finally landed. A couple of weeks into its cinematic run, with plenty more time still to catch it on the big screen, we’ve sat down for a Reel Kwik to give our full thoughts. And without spoiling too much up top… yeah, we loved it. Simple as that. Join all three of us as we dive into what makes this one s...

Twilight landed with all the grace of a vampire in Crocs… so naturally, we’re back for round two. 🌑 In this episode of The Third Reel , Dale, Dan, and Rachael dive headfirst into The Twilight Saga: New Moon — the broodiest, slowest, most “stare out of a window while sad indie music plays” sequel in cinematic history. After both Dale and Dan slapped Twilight with a lukewarm 5/10, the big question...

Welcome to a brand new format from The Third Reel: our quest to build the Top 100 Films of All Time (According to Us) … and yes, it’s exactly as unhinged as it sounds. This isn’t your polite, panel-based, “let’s all agree and hold hands” kind of list. Absolutely not. This is cinema carnage. Rankings are thrown, stolen, boosted, and occasionally launched out of a moving vehicle. Each episode, the t...

It’s Disclosure Day… and Spielberg is back in the sci-fi cockpit 🚀 In this Kwik Review Reel, we’re diving into one of our most anticipated films of 2026 . On paper, it’s basically a cinematic bingo card: Spielberg? Check. Stacked cast? Check. Return to big, bold sci-fi? Oh, absolutely check. The trailer had us hook, line, and fully abducted. But here’s the thing… hype is a dangerous co-pilot. Wit...

The Review Series is back… and it’s sparkling in the sunlight ☀️🧛 Yes, somehow, some way, we’ve entered the world of Twilight — and we’re starting exactly where it all began: Twilight (2008). This one’s been a long time coming, with Rach campaigning harder than a vampire chasing a fresh paper cut to get it on the schedule. Her wish has finally been granted… but at what cost? Because here’s the tw...

This week, the popcorn’s a little quieter… but the stories? Absolute chaos. With Dan off on a mysterious “working trip” (we’re choosing to believe he’s method acting somewhere), it’s just Dale and Rach back behind the mic for a two-hander episode. And instead of forcing each other to watch something questionable again, they’ve turned their attention to something far more unpredictable… the cinema...

This week, we deliver the second dose of D — another 16-disc showdown packed with daring picks, dazzling classics, dark horses, and a few decisions that may genuinely derail our credibility. It’s double the debate, double the doubt, and definitely a descent into chaos as we attempt to determine which film deserves a duel with the reigning champion. Expect disagreements. Expect defensiveness. Expec...

The A–Z of Films is BACK… and the letter D has kicked the door off its hinges and made itself very comfortable 🎬 After A, B and C served up a surprisingly chaotic mix of predictable winners, shocking exits, and moments that made us question whether we’ve ever actually seen a film before… we’ve arrived at D. And honestly? This might be the most stacked, most stressful, most “how on earth do you ch...

This week on The Third Reel, we’re joined by director Keith Kopp and producer Luke Allen to talk about their ambitious upcoming feature First Christmas — and the very real journey of actually getting a film made. We dig into how Keith and Luke found their way into the industry, how their paths crossed, and how that collaboration has snowballed into their biggest project yet. First Christmas is alr...

Well… this isn’t what the spreadsheet said would happen. 📅💥 Due to a scheduling clash of truly cinematic proportions (think three protagonists, one calendar, zero overlap ), we’ve had to hit pause on our usual weekly episode. But before you dramatically cue the sad violin and wander off into the rain, we come bearing gifts. Instead of leaving you in a content drought, we’ve cracked open the Patr...

We survived the “good years”… but now things get weird . Welcome to Part 2 of our CineTiers MCU deep dive , where the gloves come off, the timelines split, and the phrase “it’s canon somewhere” gets used far more than it should. Picking up from Endgame , we dive headfirst into Marvel’s bold (and occasionally baffling) next chapter – ranking everything from Phase 4 onwards, right up to the latest r...

We’ve finally done it. We’ve opened the multiverse-sized can of worms that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe… and we’re not closing it anytime soon. Loved, loathed, memed into oblivion – the MCU is the cinematic juggernaut that simply refuses to leave the group chat. So naturally, we thought: let’s rank all of it . Dan is waving the Marvel flag like it’s Comic-Con opening day. Rach is sharpening th...

The series returns, the stakes are… oddly personal, and Rachael is once again in the hot seat. Welcome back to Make Me a Fan — the show within the show where friendships are tested, filmographies are weaponised, and opinions are absolutely not left at the door. Currently, the scoreboard reads like a dramatic trilogy: 🎬 1 glorious success (Rach falling head over heels for Florence Pugh) 🎬 1 crush...

The Icon Series returns, and this time Rachael steps up to the director’s chair to shine a spotlight on a performer who didn’t just enter scenes… he quietly took ownership of them and redecorated the place. We’re diving into the extraordinary life and career of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Not quite Old Hollywood, but every bit as golden. A master of nuance, discomfort, vulnerability, and the kind of i...

This week, we unleash the beasts. Joined by friend of the pod and quite possibly the world’s most qualified (self-appointed) monster movie expert, we dive fang-first into the wild, weird, and wonderfully chaotic history of monster cinema. From the gothic gloom of early Universal legends like Dracula and Frankenstein, through the skyscraper-scaling chaos of King Kong and the atomic rage of Godzilla...

The journey doesn’t end at Mount Doom… it ends here, in the comfiest of chairs, with a debrief that’s part therapy session, part tribunal, and part long-overdue reckoning. After trekking through three films, approximately 47 endings, and enough sweeping New Zealand vistas to make us consider early retirement as sheep farmers, we’re wrapping up our Lord of the Rings review series with a very specia...