Review Episodes

Vexillologists should be delighted this week as we attempt to raise the cinematic banner as high as we can when we discuss the top 5 Flags. From fictional countries to cartoon weaponry, it's actually churches that prove to be a surprisingly good place to go to collect them, after all it's a great place to seek pennants. LAST FLAG FLYING is Richard Linklater's frequently moving but not entirely successful exploration of patriotism, friendship and loss which sees former Marine Larry "Doc" Shepher...

Dan takes us back to a time he remembers fondly, the fabulous 50's and the birth of the boomer generation who single-handedly solve racism in Gary Ross's 1998 fantasy PLEASANTVILLE. I'm being unnecessarily cynical because on the one hand this is an entirely original fantasy with a great concept and unique visual style, a stirring Randy Newman score and beautiful themes about the power of self-expression but on the other it's a movie that seeks to address segregation and racism in a town populate...

Welcome back to another episode of Bad Dads Film Review, where your favorite film fanatic Dads unpack the best and worst of cinema and television. This week, it's all about schools! To kick things off, we're hitting the books with our 'Top 5 Schools' in film and TV. We'll be rating and debating the most iconic educational institutions, from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to Rydell High. Whether they're havens for superheroes, breeding grounds for drama, or just incredibly wacky, we'...

When a notorious gangster escapes from custody while being transported to Japan, rebellious but inept cop Nick Conklin (Michael Douglas) sets out to recapture him at any cost, in Ridley Scott’s action thriller BLACK RAIN (1989). Slightly more thoughtful than it might first appear, with America's position as a global power analysed through the lens of an unengaging and drawn-out organised crime saga that never quite gets going. A likeable performance from Andy Garcia as unfortunately beheaded par...

Seemingly emerging with many of his career trademarks already on display, THIEF (1981) is writer and director Michael Mann's film debut and features the auteur's usual meticulous attention to detail and commitment to realism in this terrific crime revenge thriller. When strictly freelance diamond heist expert Frank's fence meets an untimely demise he is forced into a meeting with mafia boss Leo (Robert Prosky), who persuades him to undertake one last, lucrative job. Somehow feeling fresh despite...

BLADE RUNNER (1982) is director Ridley Scott's sci-fi masterpiece; a huge influence on both movies and popular culture as a whole, a nightmarish vision of the future, a triumph of world building, lighting, and sound design with still excellent looking special effects and also it's a total bore. Set in the grimy, rain-soaked streets of a dystopian 2019 Los Angeles, Harrison Ford stars as Rick Deckard, a weary ex-cop forced back into his old job as a 'Blade Runner', assigned to hunt down and 'reti...

MEET THE PARENTS (2000) is a high water mark in cringe comedy and sees Ben Stiller's Greg Focker ready to marry girlfriend Pam but before he can pop the question, he must win over her formidable father, humourless former CIA agent Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro), at the wedding of Pam’s sister. Peter isn't a fan but the rest of us enjoyed the agonisingly awkward humour and some of us even thought there were quite interesting social and ethnic observations going on since the embarrassingly named he...

SHALLOW GRAVE (1994) starts off almost like a sitcom, with three friends trying to find an interesting housemate before it evolves into a deal with the devil type plot about paranoia and how money can ruin even the closest of friendships. Danny Boyle's debut was the movie that allowed him to make the iconic TRAINSPOTTING and features many of the director's stylistic and cinematic flourishes including the use of fish eye lenses, dance music soundtracks, a constant sense of momentum in the plot an...

Welcome back to another exciting episode of Bad Dads Film Review! We're your trusty band of Dad cinephiles, here to discuss, dissect, and occasionally disagree over the best and most interesting films the cinema world has to offer. Today, we delve into the murky world of drug cartels and moral ambiguity with Denis Villeneuve's gripping thriller, "Sicario". "Sicario", a 2015 action thriller, takes us into the heart of the US-Mexican border's brutal drug war. Emily Blunt gives a powerhouse perfor...

The undead enjoy nothing more than eating brains so if there had been an outbreak in the man cave this week they'd be going hungry as we sit down to talk about the Top 5 Zombies. Cris isn't a fan, Reegs doesn't let his enthusiasm prevent him from flailing around on one of his favourite subjects and Sidey and Dan were also there. George A. Romero practically invented the modern concept of the cinematic zombie in 1968's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and whether they've been used as a commentary on gre...

Obviously you've seen hundreds of movies in which a fame weary Elvis Presley didn't die and in fact switched places at the peak of his stardom with an impersonator, the real King of Rock and Roll instead winding up in a convalescence home with a cancerous lump on his penis alongside an African American John F. Kennedy, skin dyed by the C.I.A. and with portions of his brain replaced by sand, teaming up to fight the mummified remains of an Egyptian Pharaoh but BUBBA HO-TEP is the best and least ty...

Welcome back to another riveting episode where your favourite group of Dads delve into the intriguing dimensions of film and television. This week, we're packing our virtual spaceship and setting coordinates for an intergalactic voyage that explores the realms of both cinematic universes and the cosmos! We blast off with our 'Top 5 Space Journeys'. We'll navigate the cosmos, exploring everything from heart-stopping battles among the stars to serene celestial voyages, these movies have taken aud...

Tune in as your motley crew of Dads voyage through the vast universe of cinema, sharing their thoughts, theories, and endless dad wisdom. Today, we are setting our sights on the cosmos with the intriguingly futuristic film, "2010: The Year We Made Contact". As the sequel to Stanley Kubrick's pioneering "2001: A Space Odyssey", this 1984 sci-fi thriller directed by Peter Hyams carries the torch forward, exploring humanity's relationship with the unknown. The narrative picks up nine years after t...

Welcome to another thrilling episode, where we, a merry band of Dads, deep dive into the entrancing world of film and TV, sharing our musings, reviews, and occasional dad jokes. This week, we've put together a divine roster of segments that will take you on a heavenly cinematic journey. First off, we'll be exploring the 'Top 5 Gods in Movies'. From Greek to Norse, from benevolent to vengeful, we'll delve into the grandeur and mystique of these omnipotent beings as they've been portrayed in film...

Today, we journey back to the 18th-century Vienna with the remarkable cinematic masterpiece, "Amadeus". This 1984 film, directed by the virtuoso Milos Forman, is an opulent dramatization of the imagined rivalry between two of history's most influential composers - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. From a screenplay penned by Peter Shaffer, based on his own stage play, Forman constructs a lush tapestry of jealousy, divine talent, and the human tragedy tied to both. We marvel at the t...

Strap on your surgical mask and/or your combat gear as we kick off Operation week with a discussion of the Top 5 Operations. You’ll no doubt remember that our operation theme was inspired by us picking two movies with the word ‘operation’ in the title in a row so we thought we’d double down on all that operation action. From various kinds and sizes of operations, to operations in different places and countries, right through to examples of operations within operations, and operations within oper...

Ridley Scott's terrific depiction of the events of the Battle of Mogadishu kicks off Operations week as we watch 2001's BLACK HAWK DOWN. I thought I was being so clever picking this, with the disastrous events of Operation Gothic Serpent in which US troops extracted General Mohamed Farrah Aidid from the Somali capital at a terrible human cost providing the backdrop to a memorable scene of impromptu battlefield femoral artery surgery. If I'd patted myself on the back any harder at the idea of pic...

Argentina week kicks off with us getting raw as we discuss the Top 5 Movie steaks. Whether they're used as symbols of the choice to willingly subjugate yourself to an artificial reality like they are in THE MATRIX, the manifestation of your burgeoning animal instincts as in MADAGASCAR or even doing something really odd with them like eating them as they do in GOODFELLAS, the well-seasoned Dads have probably got you covered. OPERATION FINALE is the incredible story of the capture and extraction ...

Gripping legal procedural ARGENTINA, 1985 continues the Dads education in the South American countries cinema following our earlier viewing of THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES and this shares some similarities with that dazzling crime drama not least of which is star Ricardo Darin. Public prosecutor Julio César Strassera (Darin) reluctantly finds himself making the government's case against the former leaders of the military junta for crimes against humanity, as Argentina's nascent democratic government...

Sometimes the Top 5 section of the show supports the theme of a particular week, sometimes it’s used to explore a specific aspect of or contribution to cinema and other times it is the consequence of the returning Dan's failure to understand a joke at his expense. We open this week with a chat about the Top 5 Eagles. Who knows exactly how Sidey will cobble together something out of our ramblings about OPERATION FORTUNE: RUSE DE GUERRE, a title so forgettable it immediately induces retrograde am...

CHILDREN OF MEN (2006) is Director Alfonso Cuarón’s gloomy sci-fi masterpiece set 18 years after all women have suddenly and inexplicably become infertile. Whilst the rest of the planet is shaken by the death of the youngest person on Earth, Theo (Clive Owen) finds himself reluctantly drawn into escorting Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey) who might be carrying humanity’s last flicker of hope through an England divided by a refugee crisis and an austere authoritarian government. Gripping and grim in equa...

We have an amazing special guest this week as we’re joined by Meeg who helped kickstart Bad Dads Film review over three years ago and he picks up exactly where he left off, by not watching this weeks movie. My first car was a burgundy Fiesta with about 800,000 miles on the clock and a sticker of a dog on the rear right hand side window which was impossible to remove no matter how hard I tried which was not very. I don't remember what its number plate was; Peter might suggest a bar code would ha...

It's not hyperbole to say that this week’s kid tv section and outro is the best content from Bad Dads Film Review yet, the laughs, the thrills, the spectacular revelations! And what about that phone call from Harrison Ford? Incredible! Sadly, it's drinking week and appropriately scatter brained, we messed things up by failing to record our DEXTERS LABORATORY segment and the outro. Maybe we'll give the sociopathic scientist another go some day because Sidey and I enjoyed this and not only because...

Directed by Alexander Payne from a screenplay written by himself and collaborator Jim Taylor (I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY would you believe it), 2004's SIDEWAYS is a comedy about middle-age, depression and alcoholism. Miles Raymond (Paul Giamatti) is a divorced wine aficionado and unpublished writer of a terrible sounding semi-autobiographical novel who takes best friend and former television star Jack (Thomas Hayden Church) on a road trip through California wine country ahead of Jack's ...