Film Review Podcast Episodes

In this short episode of Bad Dads Film Review, Sidey, Reegs and Cris (with Dan away) review The Birthday Cake, the 2021 New York mob thriller and debut feature of Jimmy Giannopoulos, starring Ewan McGregor, Val Kilmer, Jeremy Allen White, William Fichtner, Lorraine Bracco and Luis Guzman. They discuss the plot, the poisoned cake, the handheld and out-of-focus visual style, the rushed dialogue and why a great cast is not enough, and land on a not-recommend.

In this episode of Bad Dads Film Review, Sidey, Dan, Reegs and Cris review Fackham Hall, Jimmy Carr's 2025 period-drama parody starring Thomasin McKenzie, Ben Radcliffe, Damian Lewis and Tom Felton. They discuss the Downton Abbey meets Naked Gun premise, the murder, the vicar, the Tolkien cameo and why it is a medium recommend. The episode also celebrates 100,000 downloads and includes a walking football report, Professor Brian Cox at the O2, what the dads have been watching and the top five halls.

In this episode of Bad Dads Film Review, Sidey, Dan, Reegs and Cris review Mickey 17, Bong Joon Ho's 2025 sci-fi black comedy starring Robert Pattinson. They discuss the footballer-based names, the failed macaron business, the expendable job and the 3D-printed deaths, Mark Ruffalo's Trump-style Marshall, Toni Collette, the Creepers, Mickey 18, comparisons with Moon, and a sharply divided verdict. The episode also features a walking football report, what the dads have been watching, and this week's top five sevens.

In this episode of Bad Dads Film Review, Sidey, Dan, Reegs and Cris kick off Seven Week with a review of Se7en, David Fincher's 1995 serial-killer thriller starring Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kevin Spacey. They discuss Fincher's comeback after Alien 3, whether the film is too dark to watch with the lights on, Somerset's seven days to retirement, each of the seven murders, the Nine Inch Nails opening credits, Doe's apartment, the final scene in the desert, Brad Pitt's reaction, why it is one of the few films where the bad guy wins, and why it still holds up thirty years later.

In this episode of Bad Dads Film Review, Sidey, Dan, Reegs and Cris review The Big Lebowski, the Coen brothers’ 1998 Los Angeles stoner-noir starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Turturro, Tara Reid, Peter Stormare, David Thewlis, Flea and Sam Elliott. They discuss The Dude’s rug and the inciting bog wash, Walter’s world of pain gun-pull on Smokey, Donny being told to shut the fuck up, Brandt and the Little Lebowski Urban Achievers, Maude on the flying trapeze, the dirty-underwear ringer, Jesus Quintana’s all-time entrance to the Gypsy Kings, Walter smashing the wrong Corvette outside Larry Sellers’s house, the marmot-that-is-actually-a-ferret, the green-polished toe, Jackie Treehorn’s drugging and the Busby Berkeley bowling dream, Donny’s death and Pismo Beach eulogy, Sam Elliott’s cowboy sign-off, Lebowski Fest and the Jeff Bridges Hall of Fame moment, and where The Big Lebowski sits in the Coen brothers’ 1990s run alongside…

In this episode of Bad Dads Film Review, Sidey, Dan, Reegs and Cris review Kingpin, the Farrelly brothers’ 1996 bowling comedy starring Woody Harrelson, Randy Quaid, Vanessa Angel and Bill Murray. They discuss Roy Munson’s rise and ruin, Big Ern McCracken’s all-time comedy villain performance, the hustle that costs Roy his hand, the Amish prodigy Ishmael Boorg, Claudia’s hustle on the road to Reno, the ESPN-style tournament staging, the bowling-ball rose, the detachable-rubber-hand strike, Roy losing the final by one pin and still winning his life back, the Trojan Condoms endorsement as “The Rubber Man,” the half-million-dollar gift that saves the Boorg family farm, and where Kingpin sits in the Farrelly brothers’ early run alongside Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary.

In this episode of Bad Dads Film Review, Sidey, Dan, Reegs and Cris review Mongol, Sergei Bodrov’s 2007 historical epic about the early life of Temüjin, later known as Genghis Khan. They discuss the film’s huge steppe landscapes, Temüjin choosing Börte as his wife, the poisoning of his father, Targutai’s betrayal, Jamukha as blood brother and rival, repeated captures and escapes, Börte’s loyalty, the film’s code of law and leadership, the final battle in the thunderstorm, and whether the film offers a whitewashed or culturally different view of Genghis Khan as a unifier and law-bringer rather than only a conqueror.

In this episode of Bad Dads Film Review, Sidey, Dan, Reegs and Cris review Mongol, Sergei Bodrov’s 2007 historical epic about the early life of Temüjin, later known as Genghis Khan. They discuss the film’s huge steppe landscapes, Temüjin choosing Börte as his wife, the poisoning of his father, Targutai’s betrayal, Jamukha as blood brother and rival, repeated captures and escapes, Börte’s loyalty, the film’s code of law and leadership, the final battle in the thunderstorm, and whether the film offers a whitewashed or culturally different view of Genghis Khan as a unifier and law-bringer rather than only a conqueror.

In this episode of Bad Dads Film Review, Sidey, Dan, Reegs and Cris review Pig, Michael Sarnoski’s 2021 drama starring Nicolas Cage as Robin Feld, a reclusive Oregon truffle hunter searching for his stolen pig. They discuss the film’s misleading revenge-thriller premise, Cage’s restrained performance, Alex Wolff as Amir, the Portland food underworld, the underground restaurant-worker fight club, Robin’s past as a legendary chef, the Eurydice restaurant scene, fine-dining pretension, chef culture, the emotional meal cooked for Darius, the death of the pig, the ending with Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire,” and why the film becomes a story about grief, memory and letting go rather than revenge.

The Bad Dads turn to Netflix for The Life Ahead, the 2020 Italian drama directed by Edoardo Ponti and starring Sophia Loren as Madame Rosa, a Holocaust survivor and former sex worker who now cares for the children of other sex workers in Bari. The conversation begins in properly jaded Monday fashion — recorded after England’s glorious defeat of Mexico at the Azteca, naturally — before moving through recent watches including The Armstrong Lie, Marco Pierre White YouTube rabbit holes, the new Cape Fear, Shot Caller, The Boys, and a brisk top-five round on dynamite and explosions. When the dads get to the film, Sidey sets up Madame Rosa’s world: she is elderly, Jewish, traumatised, proud, and scraping by, pawning her candlesticks to cover the rent. Into her life crashes Momo, a young Senegalese orphan living with Dr Cohen, who steals Rosa’s bag in the market and is then forced to apologise. The apology goes badly, but Dr Cohen persuades Rosa — via an increasingly persuasive cash of…

The Bad Dads return to early Scorsese with Mean Streets, the 1973 New York crime drama that helped put both Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro properly on the map, while giving Harvey Keitel one of his defining early roles. The conversation opens with the film’s famous line: “You don’t make up for your sins in church. You do it on the streets.” From there the dads immediately spot the Scorsese DNA that would later become unmistakable in Goodfellas: Catholic guilt, low-level gangsters, bar-room rituals, restless needle drops, family obligation, small neighbourhood pressure, and men who confuse loyalty with self-destruction. Sidey walks through Harvey Keitel’s Charlie, a small-time operator caught between his Catholic conscience, his uncle Giovanni’s criminal world, and his need to look after Johnny Boy. Dan highlights Charlie’s religious conflict — the guilt, the fear of hell, and the candle-burning self-punishment — while Cris and Reegs pick up on how tight and claustrophobic th…

In this episode of Bad Dads Film Review, the crew is completely out of their depth covering the "Top 5 Floods" in cinema history, before diving into the 2025 Latvian animated masterpiece, Flow. After navigating the high waters of cinematic floods (including a nod to the flipped cruise ship of The Poseidon Adventure), the main feature takes center stage. Flow follows a cat surviving a catastrophic flood alongside a capybara, a lemur, and a large dog. With no humans, no explanation, and zero dialogue, it still managed to beat out Inside Out 2 for Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards. The Dads break down why this quiet film earned their absolute strongest recommendation.

In this episode of Bad Dads Film Review, the crew (minus Dan) takes on Christian Gudegast's 2018 heist thriller *Den of Thieves*. Reegs and Cris break down the high-testosterone showdown between an elite crew of ex-military bank robbers and a morally bankrupt Sheriff's unit led by a swaggering Gerard Butler. Described as *Heat* on protein shakes and tribal tattoos, the film delivers intense action and a surprising amount of fun. Despite Sidey not having seen it yet, the glowing review and strong recommend from Reegs and Cris (who gave it "Five tens outta five") have convinced him to add it to his watchlist.

God's Pocket (2014) In this Pocket Week episode, the dads dig into *God's Pocket* (2014), one of Philip Seymour Hoffman's final releases. They unpack the film's bleak tone, grimy neighborhood setting, and chaotic chain of events around Leon's death, Mickey's funeral-money horse bet, and the escalating violence that follows. The verdict: strong performances (especially Hoffman), interesting moments, but an uneven film that lands as a moderate recommend.

In this episode of Bad Dads Film Review, the hosts venture into the Australian Outback to review the 1971 classic Walkabout. Directed by visionary filmmaker Nicolas Roeg in his solo debut, the film stars Jenny Agutter, Luc Roeg, and David Gulpilil in a haunting story about two civilized schoolchildren stranded in the wilderness who are rescued by an Aboriginal boy on his traditional rite of passage. The Dads (Dan, Reegs, Sidey, and Cris) discuss the film's stark contrast between modern, regimented society and the natural world. Topics include the film's almost entirely improvised 14-page script, the stunning cinematography, the absurdity of maintaining a formal school uniform in the desert, and philosophical debates on human evolution and modern conveniences. Despite Dan initially confusing it with another desert survival movie involving a dog, the hosts uniformly praise Walkabout for its hypnotic pacing and powerful thematic depth. If you enjoy visually driven 1970s cinema or t…

The Conspiracy (2012) Trust no one. Question everything. And definitely don't answer your phone if it just repeats your own number back to you. This week, the Bad Dads (minus Pete, who is off skiing) review the 2012 found-footage thriller The Conspiracy. Directed by Christopher MacBride, this low-budget Canadian indie starts as a fake documentary exploring the psychology of conspiracy theorists before spiraling into a full-blown survival horror about the very secret societies it's investigating. The Setup: We meet Aaron and Jim, two documentary filmmakers who set out to profile Terrence, a stereotypical street-preaching "kook" with a megaphone and a house completely wallpapered in newspaper clippings connected by red string. Terrence is arguably the best character in the film, blending wild paranoia with genuine historical psy-ops (like the Lusitania and the Gulf of Tonkin) to make you question reality. The Disappearance: When Terrence suddenly vanishes, Aaron inherits his…

In this episode of Bad Dads Film Review, Dan and Reegs review I, Swear (2025), the BAFTA-winning biographical film about John Davidson — a Scottish man whose Tourette's syndrome shaped his entire life, and who went on to become an MBE and a prominent advocate for people living with the condition. The episode opens with the BAFTA controversy: John Davidson experienced a tic during the ceremony, saying a racial epithet while two Black actors were on stage. Dan and Reegs address the internet reaction, the BBC's editing failures, and why watching the film itself provides the clearest possible answer. The film charts John Davidson's life from 1983 in Galashiels — played as a child by Scott Ellis Watson in a debut performance both hosts describe as exceptional — through a devastating adolescence, a diagnosis with no support infrastructure around it, a remarkable friendship with Dottie and her son Murray, a series of community jobs and landmark legal moments, and ultimately a clinical …