Midweek Mention Episodes

A nameless truck, an everyday salesman, and 90 minutes of pure escalation: this episode is all about Steven Spielberg’s debut feature, Duel (1971). We talk through how a simple setup – Dennis Weaver’s mild-mannered David Mann driving to a routine meeting – turns into a relentless nightmare when he’s targeted by a grimy tanker truck that seems less like a vehicle and more like a stalking predator. From suburban driveways to dusty California highways, we track every swerve, near–miss, and incre...

Arnold Schwarzenegger in a yellow jumpsuit, a murderous game show, and more terrible puns than should be legal – this week we’re diving into The Running Man (1987). Set in the far-flung future of… 2017, the film drops Arnie into a fascist police state where the government keeps the masses quiet with a wildly popular TV bloodsport. Framed as the “Butcher of Bakersfield,” helicopter pilot Ben Richards is forced onto The Running Man, a gladiatorial game show hosted by the gloriously slimy Damon ...

In this episode, we wade into Chinatown — a sun-bleached noir where water is power, everyone’s lying, and the system wins. We talk Jack Nicholson’s bandaged nose, Faye Dunaway’s glass-shard fragility, John Huston’s all-time villainy, and that ending that still guts you. Yes, we address the director caveat up front; then we focus on what’s on screen: A precision-engineered thriller that never wastes a line, a clue, or a cut. What we cover Why “Chinatown”? The title’s bleak punchline and wh...

Chimp genius or 70s hubris in a suede jacket? We dive into James Marsh’s Project Nim—the wild “let’s raise a chimp as a human” saga aimed at dunking on Noam/“Nim” Chomsky and proving apes can master language. What we actually get: sex-commune vibes, bad science, worse ethics, and one heartbreakingly charismatic chimp shunted between indulgent “parents,” media circuses, and grim laboratories. We talk: Language vs mimicry: 120+ signs learned…or just expert begging? The ‘parents’: breast-...

Neighbours — Episode 234 (Charlene’s Debut) We dove back into Ramsay Street for a pure hit of Aussie soap nostalgia: Neighbours ep. 234, a.k.a. the first-ever appearance of Charlene (a tiny, feral Kylie Minogue) breaking into a house and into British hearts. Why this episode slaps Iconic entrance: Scott grabs a “burglar” in the window… hat comes off… “Charlene!” Cue destiny, perms, and pop superstardom. Peak mullet era: Two mullets before the first ad break. Oxygen levels dangerousl...

The dads go full retro this week with The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, the 2007 documentary that turns arcade gaming into blood sport — complete with villains, underdogs, mullets, and enough ego to fill an entire arcade. In one corner: Billy Mitchell, hot-sauce magnate, self-styled all-American hero, and the reigning Donkey Kong world champion since 1982. In the other: Steve Wiebe, a laid-off family man from Seattle with a garage, a Donkey Kong cabinet, and an obsessive drive to final...

We don’t usually double up on an actor, but when Robert Redford died at 89, it felt only right to go again. A true Hollywood legend — Butch Cassidy, The Sting, All the President’s Men — Redford left us not just with an iconic filmography but also Sundance, a festival that gave countless indie movies a life. This week, we pay tribute by reviewing Indecent Proposal (1993). It’s the one where a young, loved-up couple (Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore) are offered a cool million dollars by Redford’...

The dads are back in the mid-90s sweet spot with Breakdown (1997), a lean, relentless thriller starring Kurt Russell and his glorious Hollywood hair. Jeff (Russell) and his wife Amy (Kathleen Quinlan) are relocating cross-country when their Jeep suddenly dies in the middle of nowhere. A friendly trucker (the ever-sinister J.T. Walsh) offers Amy a lift to a nearby diner. She never arrives. What follows is a stripped-down race against time, as Jeff discovers he’s stumbled into a gang’s deadly s...

This week the dads step into glamorous 1960s Europe with Blake Edwards’ The Pink Panther (1963) — the first outing for Peter Sellers’ bumbling Inspector Clouseau. For many of us, this was like watching it for the first time. Sure, we’d caught bits on Sunday TV over the years, but sitting down start-to-finish was a new experience — and a surprising one. Despite being branded a Clouseau movie, Sellers actually takes a back seat to David Niven’s dashing jewel thief Sir Charles Lytton and Robert ...

This week the dads take on Mad to Be Normal (2017), a little-seen British drama starring David Tennant as the controversial Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing. Set in 1960s London, the film follows Laing’s radical experiment at Kingsley Hall, where doctors and patients lived side by side without medication, shock therapy, or the heavy hand of institutional psychiatry. Instead, Laing championed empathy, conversation, and even LSD as pathways to healing — ideas that put him at odds with the medic...

How do you film the unfilmable? That’s the challenge at the heart of Michael Winterbottom’s Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, a delightfully meta take on Laurence Sterne’s famously chaotic 18th-century novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. In this week’s episode, the Dads dive into a film that blurs every boundary — between adaptation and behind-the-scenes drama, between actor and character, and between self-awareness and outright parody. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon...

This week we’re donning our Ray-Bans, sliding across the living room floor, and revisiting the film that launched Tom Cruise into superstardom — Risky Business (1983). Equal parts coming-of-age comedy, satire, and cautionary tale, it’s a movie that defined a certain brand of 80s cool while slyly critiquing the era’s obsession with wealth and success. Directed by Paul Brickman, Risky Business follows Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise), a high-achieving Chicago high school student left home alone while ...

Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review! This week we’re heading back to the early 2000s with Paid in Full (2002), a gritty street-level crime drama from director Charles Stone III, which dives deep into the Harlem drug scene of the 1980s. The film stars Wood Harris, Mekhi Phifer, and rapper Cam’ron in a fictionalised take on the lives of real-life hustlers Azie Faison, Rich Porter, and Alpo Martinez. Wood Harris plays Ace, a quiet, hardworking laundromat employee who tries to avoid the street l...

Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review! This week, we saddle up for a gritty supernatural western as we take on Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter — a film that’s equal parts revenge tale, eerie morality play, and genre deconstruction. With Eastwood both in the saddle and behind the camera, this one takes the dusty tropes of the western and coats them in something much darker. 🌵 The Plot: Ghosts, Guns, and Guilt Eastwood stars as The Stranger — an unnamed, steely-eyed drifter who rides int...

Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review! This week we’re trading bullets for custard pies and gangsters for tap-dancing tweens as we revisit Alan Parker’s delightfully eccentric musical comedy Bugsy Malone (1976). It’s a film that plays like a Prohibition-era crime saga — if it were directed by Roald Dahl and cast entirely with children. 🕵️ Main Feature: Bugsy Malone (1976) Set in a stylized version of 1920s New York, Bugsy Malone tells the story of the titular small-time hustler (played by a ba...

Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review! This week we’re hanging off helicopters, sprinting across rooftops, and disarming nuclear bombs with the pulse-pounding Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018). Strap in as we break down the sixth entry in the franchise that somehow keeps getting better with age — just like Tom Cruise’s running form. Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, Fallout is a masterclass in high-octane action, espionage, and what happens when your best-laid plans go completely off the r...

Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review! This week, we’re stepping into the ring with Hands of Stone (2016), the boxing biopic that tells the story of legendary Panamanian fighter Roberto Durán. Directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz, Hands of Stone chronicles the life and career of Roberto Durán, one of boxing’s most iconic and ferocious competitors. The film stars Édgar Ramírez as Durán, delivering a fiery performance that captures both his aggressive fighting style and his turbulent personal life. R...

Groovy, baby! Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review, where this week we’re throwing on our crushed velvet, dialling up the mojo, and time-traveling back to the swinging '60s with Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997). Directed by Jay Roach and written by (and starring) Mike Myers, this outrageous spy spoof remains one of the most quotable and culturally impactful comedies of the ‘90s. 🕶 Setting the Scene: Shagadelic Spy Games Our story begins in 1967, where British super-spy Au...

Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review! This week, we’re descending into the mind-bending, minimalist sci-fi thriller that is Cube (1997). A cult favourite from Canadian director Vincenzo Natali, this low-budget psychological puzzle box is as disorienting and claustrophobic as it is thought-provoking. Cube begins in medias res: a group of strangers wakes up in a strange, sterile room with hatches on all six sides. Each door leads to another nearly identical room—some are safe, others are lethal...

Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review! This week, we’re bending time, smashing starships, and looping through one of the most mind-bending episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season 5, Episode 18 – "Cause and Effect". It’s a perfect example of how sci-fi can take a deceptively simple concept—what if you’re stuck in a time loop?—and turn it into a suspenseful, clever, and surprisingly rewatchable piece of television. 🌀 The Premise: Déjà Vu in Deep Space The episode opens with an expl...

Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review! This week, we're jumping into the gritty, morally murky corner of the galaxy far, far away with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), the first of Disney’s standalone Star Wars films and one that dares to tell a story where the Force doesn’t offer easy answers—and not everyone gets out alive. Directed by Gareth Edwards, Rogue One is set just before the events of A New Hope and follows Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), the daughter of Imperial scientist Galen Erso...

Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review! This week, we're diving headfirst into the chaotic, outrageous, and undeniably quotable world of Wedding Crashers (2005), a film that helped define mid-2000s comedy with its mix of raunch, romance, and relentless party energy. Directed by David Dobkin , the film stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn as John and Jeremy—divorce mediators by day and professional wedding crashers by night. Their philosophy? Weddings are the perfect place to score free food, drin...

Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review ! This week we’re dusting off our ruffled shirts and setting our time machines to the 1980s as we revisit The Wedding Singer (1998), a rom-com that’s equal parts sweet, silly, and synth-soaked. Directed by Frank Coraci and starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore , this nostalgic crowd-pleaser finds Sandler in perhaps his most charming role as Robbie Hart, a down-on-his-luck wedding singer trying to recover from heartbreak. After being jilted at the altar,...

Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review , where this week we’re going full rom-com with a film that brings swagger, charm, and a surprisingly heartfelt message to the genre: Hitch (2005). Directed by Andy Tennant and starring Will Smith in peak smooth-talking form, Hitch follows Alex “Hitch” Hitchens, a professional dating consultant known as the “Date Doctor.” His job? Helping awkward men win over the women of their dreams. His golden rule? No tricks, just helping guys be the best version of th...