Cinema Psychos Movie Reviews

In this exhaustive filmmaker retrospective, The Cinema Psychos dive deep into the dark, beautiful, and terrifying world of Guillermo del Toro. We analyze how the modern master of monsters humanizes traditional creatures, turning them into sympathetic allegories for the 'other' while showing that humanity is often the true villain. From his indie roots with Cronos and studio struggles on Mimic to b...

Brain Damage (1988) might legitimately be one of the greatest anti-drug movies ever made — it just happens to deliver that message through a talking, brain-eating parasite pumping psychedelic blue juice directly into a guy's brain. This week on The Cinema Psychos Show , we're revisiting Frank Henenlotter's wonderfully deranged 1988 cult horror movie Brain Damage . Brian thinks he's found the ultim...

Charlie Kaufman was hired to adapt a nonfiction book about orchids. Instead, he wrote himself into the script — twice — and made one of the strangest, most self-aware movies ever released by a major studio. Brian and John rewatch Adaptation (2002) and break down Nicolas Cage's dual performance as neurotic screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and his fictional twin brother Donald, Meryl Streep's Susan Orle...

Is Hellbound: Hellraiser II the best sequel in horror history? With Hellraiser back in the cultural spotlight this year — Halloween Horror Nights' 2026 and the long-awaited Hellraiser Revival game both dropping this fall — we figured it was the perfect time to revisit the film many fans consider the series' high point. Film critic Robert Brian Taylor (Collider) joins The Cinema Psychos Show to mak...

Sports Month closes out with the quintessential non-sports sports movie: Rocky (1976). Brian and John are joined by Dustin and Nate from The Silver Linings Playlist Podcast   to break down Stallone's underdog script (allegedly written in three days), the real Chuck Wepner vs. Muhammad Ali fight that inspired it, Carl Weathers' criminally underrated Apollo Creed, and a running theory that Rocky him...

Tonya Harding loved skating. The skating world never loved her back — and I, Tonya (2017) is the mockumentary-style biopic that dares to ask: who's actually the villain here? Brian sits down with KT Baldassaro (MovieRunTime & What If I Don't Like It) to break down Margot Robbie's snubbed performance, Allison Janney's Oscar-winning turn as the worst mom in cinema, Sean Eckhardt's delusional hitman...

A League of Their Own (1992) is the rare baseball movie that isn't really about baseball — it's a sibling rivalry story, a look at 1940s sexism, and (we'd argue) one of the best examples of age-accurate casting in film history. Brian and John break down Penny Marshall's classic: Tom Hanks' pivot from comedy to the dramatic roles that led to Cast Away and Forrest Gump, the Kit/Dottie rivalry that d...

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a beautiful mess — and it might be the best MCU Spider-Man movie yet. Both hosts land on 8/10. We weren't planning to cover this one. Then we saw it, and we had to record an emergency bonus episode. Brian and John break down why Destin Daniel Cretton's Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the most grounded, consequence-driven Spidey film Marvel has made — and why it owes more...

Eric Idle and Lorne Michaels teamed up in 1978 to make the greatest Beatles parody you've probably never seen — and it worked so well that Paul McCartney sent back a real letter saying he didn't find it funny, while John Lennon loved it so much he never returned his copy. This week on Cinema Psycho Show, Brian and John dig into The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash , the SNL-adjacent mockumentary packe...

This is a spoiler-filled review and discussion of Super (2010), directed by James Gunn and starring Rainn Wilson and Elliot Page, covering the film's violence, its most divisive scene, and what it means that its director now runs DC Studios. Before James Gunn was directing Superman, he wrote and directed Super (2010) — and it's way darker than you remember. Brian and John are joined by Josh Axelro...

Fargo (1996) turns 30 this year. On this episode of The Cinema Psycho Show, hosts Brian and John are joined by Katie and Nat from The VHS Club podcast to revisit the Coen brothers' Minnesota crime classic — including why detective Marge Gunderson spent most of the investigation with almost nothing to go on but a single vague description of her "funny looking" suspect. In this episode: Why Fargo's...

This is a spoiler-filled review and discussion of Obsession (2026), directed by Curry Barker and starring Inde Navarrette and Michael Johnston, covering the film's themes, performances, and ending. Obsession is finally on digital — and Inde Navarrette's performance as Nikki is going to haunt you. Brian and John are joined by returning guest Jordan the Grey Witch to break down Curry Barker's indie...

Happy 4th of July — we're doing it differently this year! Brian and John are joined by returning guest Henry O'Brien (Film Obsessive / Stuff I Watched Substack) to review Oliver Stone's BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY (1989) — and make the case that this is not just Tom Cruise's best performance, but one of the most underseen masterworks of American cinema. In this episode: • Why Stone's 5-act structur...

Masters of The Universe (1987) is the ultimate 80s movie debate. Is it a sci-fi epic, or is it a glorious, awesomely bad disaster? Let's find out. When Mattel teamed up with Cannon Films—a studio legendary for running on sheer sweat, blood, and wild choices—to bring He-Man to the big screen, the results were unforgettable. In this episode, the Cinema Psychos are joined by Justin from Epic Film Guy...

🚨 Subscribe to our newsletter!- https://the-cinema-psychos-show.kit.com/9e9a267e76 🎉 EPISODE 400 🎉 — and we're celebrating with the remake nobody asked for. For Father's Day, BrIan and John are joined by Old Man Brad (Tomb of Terrors podcast) to review THE STEPFATHER (2009) — a PG-13 slasher remake so soulless it makes you appreciate the original even more. In this episode: • Is Dylan Walsh doi...

🚨 Subscribe to our newsletter!- https://the-cinema-psychos-show.kit.com/9e9a267e76 Before Batman, before Beetlejuice — Michael Keaton was making people lose their minds in a gangster parody so dense with jokes it makes Airplane! look restrained. Brian is joined by special guest KT Baldassaro to dig into the 1984 cult classic Johnny Dangerously — a PG-13 movie that somehow snuck in an exploding-ba...

🚨 Subscribe to our newsletter!- https://the-cinema-psychos-show.kit.com/9e9a267e76 Seven years since a Star Wars film hit theaters. Disney's biggest star wars streaming property was given a $165 million budget — while every other Star Wars movie got $500-600 million which makes you wonder, did Disney short change this movie on purpose? Brian and John break down why The Mandalorian & Grogu felt le...

🚨 Subscribe to our newsletter!-   https://the-cinema-psychos-show.kit.com/9e9a267e76 Amy Adams' FIRST movie. Kirsten Dunst. Allison Janney. Brittany Murphy. Ellen Barkin. Kirstie Alley. All in one movie from 1999 — and nobody talks about it. This week on Cinema Psychos, Brian and John are joined by Amanda and Lucy of Wine & Crime — the true crime & comedy podcast — to dig into Drop Dead Gorgeous...

🚨 Subscribe to our newsletter!-   https://the-cinema-psychos-show.kit.c... Does Amy Heckerling's Clueless from 1995 still hold up after 31 years? This re-imagining of Jane Austen's Emma starring Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, and the immortal Paul Rudd represents the pinnacle of mid 90's culture, fashion, and slang (as if!). In honor of 90's movie month, we are cracking open th...

🚨 Subscribe to our newsletter!-   https://the-cinema-psychos-show.kit.com/9e9a267e76 Is Reality Bites the ultimate 90s time capsule — or just a movie full of people you want to shake? We dig into Ben Stiller's 1994 Gen X classic and we're not holding back. Brian and co-host John are joined this week by Rachael and John of the YaJagoff Podcast, Pittsburgh's beloved local institution — for a full m...

What happens when two wealthy socialite heiresses end up in the pacific northwest at the height of The Great Depression. You get The Wilde Girls, a new indie film that I had the pleasure of viewing recently. So let's break down the good and bad in this movie filled with bears, button men, and heart. Synopsis: The year is 1932. Two clueless socialite heiresses with zero survival skills find themsel...

Subscribe to our newsletter so the algorithm can't stop you from finding us- https://the-cinema-psychos-show.kit.com/9e9a267e76 In 1996, Touchstone Pictures looked at Shaquille O'Neal, looked at their checkbook, and said: "Genie movie. Let's go." Nobody wrote a real script. Nobody asked questions. And somehow, nobody noticed the kid protagonist falls nine stories into an abandoned building in the...

Kevin Costner spent $200 million making a Mad Max ripoff on the open ocean — and the man has gills behind his ears. That's right. Waterworld's hero is a merman. A gill-having, web-toed, pee-drinking merman. And Cinema Psychos is here to ask the only question that matters: Really That Awful? Brian and John go full deep dive on Waterworld (1995), one of Hollywood's most notorious production disaster...

McDonald's killed Batman. Then Warner Brothers buried him in neon. After Batman Returns traumatized parents and Christian groups, McDonald's panicked and pulled their Happy Meal deal. Warner Brothers, terrified of losing fast food merchandising money, forced a course correction that gave us Batman Forever—a neon-soaked, toyetic mess that abandoned Tim Burton's gothic vision for Joel Schumacher's c...

Is Panic Room just Home Alone For Adults? David Fincher's 2002 home invasion thriller is sharper, darker, and weirder than you remember — and this week we're breaking down every inch of it. Brian, John, and returning guest Anastasia Elfman revisit one of the most underrated thrillers of the early 2000s. They cover Fincher's Hitchcockian direction, those impossibly fluid CGI camera moves, and the f...