Verbal Diorama

Good morning Angels. Good morning Charlie! Three, is the magic number. You have three blind mice, three little pigs and you always, always have three Angels. Three extraordinary women who work for one man, Charles Townsend, played by three extraordinary actresses. Drew Barrymore and her production company Flower Films had a vision for a Charlie's Angels movie; she wanted it to be fun, campy and in...

The Phoenix will rise..... But will she, though? I'm joined by ChinLin from The Bingeables Podcast to talk about the final part of Fox's landmark X-Men franchise, which started in 2000 and all but kicked off the modern fascination with superheroes. There's been sequels, prequels, spin-offs and now this, an(other) adaptation of one of the X-Men's most well known and loved story lines: The Dark Phoe...

Yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for us. Gaaaah me hearties! Ahoy there! This be Em and I be joined by me co-captain for this voyage across the seven seas, Sade from Offscreen Babble. It might be trifle bad luck to have women aboard yer ship, but avast! We batten down the hatches to reach that horizon, stoppin' off on islands filled with Aztec gold and copious amounts of rum, where we will always remem...

So, this is a little bonus episode I did after watching 2019's Aladdin and inevitably compared it to 1992's Aladdin; the movie I watched the most as a child. Spoilers for the new 2019 Aladdin (although to be honest, if you know the 1992 movie, you should really know the rough plot - it's very similar!) I also go into the production history of 1992's Aladdin, and the legacy of Robin Williams incred...

Pop quiz hotshot. There’s a podcast in your ears. Once that podcast reaches 8 episodes a guest is introduced. If that guest chooses the best action thriller movie, this podcast blows up (and by that we mean figuratively rather than literally!) What do you do? What do you do? Turns out you do a lot, for a long time and then take ages to get it out of the door. Trust me, I understand the irony of a...

So, you have this girl, probably a virgin but always beautiful and occasionally really stupid. She's in a slasher movie, so you know she's going to run towards danger, ignore all the signs of the monster and probably witness all her friends being slaughtered. She's the final girl. She'll probably survive to star in your sequel. But what if there was a movie that wanted to deconstruct all the trope...

Ahh, the 1950s. A time of tradition; where fathers were the breadwinners and worked the 9 to 5, mothers were homemakers and caregivers and children were obedient. Men ruled the roost, women ruled the kitchen and children were seen and not heard. Are you looking for the ideal place to raise your nuclear family? Choose Pleasantville! An idyllic black and white utopia with no sex, drugs, rock and rol...

Most movies contain some blue screen in some way (some, green!). If your movie is full of complex special effects, or set on some vast, wholly imagined alien world, you need that blue (or green) screen to be able to insert those computer generated backdrops, with your actors in the foreground pretending to be in that world. In the early 2000s, brothers Kerry and Kevin Conran had an idea..... what...

Miracles don't happen every day, especially in Hollywood. If something is too complicated, they'll make it easier. If something goes over budget, they'll cancel it. If it's too raunchy, they'll tone it down. You get the picture. Making a movie; a good movie, is hard in any town, but especially in Toontown. This ain't no fairy-tale; it's a story of sex, violence, murder and patty cake. Why don't yo...

It's not every day that you see a movie described as "a glorious ballad of bloodshed". Yeah, that's how I would describe Dredd and I did on this very podcast! I bet you're thinking of Stallone right now.... well get Sly out of your head because this Dredd is better, bloodier and more faithful to the source material than the 1995 version, and all the better for it. It's got a great score, great per...

SURPRISE! This is not episode 2. Well it is, but it also isn't, because episode 2 is about [redacted] and this is about Captain Marvel. I did a little minisode on Captain Marvel and how I felt about it after seeing it. The "real" episode 2 will be out shortly, but in the meantime have a listen to why I loved Captain Marvel so much. Let me know your thoughts on Captain Marvel too: Twitter @verbaldi...

Welcome to the first episode of Verbal Diorama! In this inaugural episode, I discuss the movie that literally sunk Fox Animation Studios; the groundbreaking and risk-taking Titan A.E.; a movie that's rich in history and legacy, as well as infamous for being one of the biggest financial flops of all time. *Hint* It's actually not a bad movie, I liked it, but it does have issues! I also briefly talk...