Review Episodes

As impossible as it is to imagine if all you ever do is listen to his razor sharp mental gymnastics and displays of intellectual acuity on the podcast, but Bad Dad Dan can from time to time be forgetful so it wasn't completely clear to me at first whether this week’s Top 5 Ice was chosen despite having the similarly themed Snow selection by Dan himself only a few weeks back. And hopefully whilst you ruminate on that shock revelation about the reliability or otherwise of Dan's memory, it will dis...

This weeks Midweek Mention was chosen by Dan and sees his love affair with sports movies continuing with 1999's MYSTERY, ALASKA. Rusell Crowe stars as Justin Beiber (near enough) : sheriff and captain of the local ice hockey team in the tiny fictional town that gives the film its name. When a Sports Illustrated article is published about the towns open pond style skating it attracts the interests of the NHL and an exhibition game between the New York Rangers and the local community is arranged,...

The Dads are on holiday but will be back as usual from 20th April. In the meantime enjoy this special rereleased episode where we discuss LARS AND THE REAL GIRL... Original show notes below. ______________ “The lack of women directors in the industry is no joke. The top 100 films of 2019 were helmed by a total of 113 directors, 89.4 percent of whom were male and 10.6 percent of whom were female.” So said Women and Hollywood’s Melissa Silverstein after the 2020 Golden Globes once again feature...

A few months back Sidey, Dan and Reegs sat down to talk about PAUL (2011), the Simon Pegg and Nick Frost comedy in which two sci-fi fans tour of the USA's UFO heartland crosses paths with an extraterresterrial named Paul. It really was a great episode, probably one of our strongest ever, but unfotunately none of us bothered to press the record button that night so several weeks later we attempted to review it again, occassionally misremembering things and being less confident in our take etc. H...

Before your phone rendered the entire idea of literature redundant as it continues to deepen its inexorable grip on your soul, you may well remember reading something called a book. They aren’t novel to noted bibliophile Howie; well he can at least recall seeing a movie which had books in it as he picked the Top 5 Books in Movies for us to discuss, presumably in an ill-fated attempt to convince us he isn't the knuckle dragging simpleton we know he is. We watched BOILING POINT, the astonishing N...

THE MAGICIAN (2005) is an Australian mockumentary written, directed by and starring Scott Ryan as Ray Shoesmith, an amoral hitman who allows film student Max to document his life. Across three disparate stories we come to understand but never sympathise with the calculating, violent and dangerous Ray, but what puts this film head and shoulders above movies treading a similar path is a truly memorable performance from our charismatic lead as well as a 'so black even light can't escape' style sens...

An egg is of course the fertilized ovum of an animal that grows and develops as an embryo inside some kind of organic vessel. And as delicious as that sounds, they are only to be consumed when they are hot, never cold as everyone in their right mind truly understands. Last week you may recall Sidey snorting with derision at the thought of compiling a Top 5 Eggs but it turns out Howie was some kind of egg savant, listing numerous egg or egg related scenes and movies in a matter of seconds. Sadly ...

Complete guff says Sidey but with TOP GUN's sequel TOP GUN COLON MAVERICK due out on May 27th, Peter thinks this supposed '80's classic is due a re-watch. Hot shot pilot Tom Cruise competes to be crowned the best at the elite flying school of the US Navy. The movie frames rival aerial ace Iceman (Val Kilmer) as the bad guy, someone who had it in for Maverick from the start, but every time he confronts him he’s completely justified: concerned about Mavericks flashy flying style, his repeated diso...

Whilst you may have laboured under the misapprehension that the pen was a mere writing implement, in the world of movies it can do so much more. Mainly kill people according to our research. Will we find any benevolent biros when we discuss our Top 5 Movie Pens? LOVE & MERCY alternates between two key time periods in the life of The Beach Boys singer songwriter Brian Wilson, the 1960s and late 1980s, showing how he got into and out of a period of prolonged mental illness which occurred during t...

MULHOLLAND DRIVE is director David Lynch's 2001 surrealist Hollywood noir masterpiece. Made as a pilot for a tv show that never happened, is it more than a series of barely connected parts with extra bits of weirdness thrown in for weirds sake? Multiple think pieces and online theories would vehemently disagree with that assessment but even if that disconnected peculiarity is all there is, that's still a lot to enjoy. Funny and violent and creepy but without conventional story-telling, this is p...

What makes a great title for a film? Should it encapsulate the essence of the story, tell us something via symbolism about the characters or locations involved, be instantly familiar and memorable or generate intrigue? No, like everything important in life, size is the most important quality which is why this week we're looking at the Top 5 Movies With Long Titles. SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (2018) is a scorching satire-cum-fantasy comedy in which the skint Cassius "Cash" Green (LaKeith Stanfield) get...

It's a typical day in the life of Dr. Buckaroo Banzai; having completed a particularly tricky brain surgery and successfully piloted his Jetcar to test the "Oscillation Overthruster", a device he designed that allows objects to pass through solid matter, he finds himself drawn into an intergalactic conflict between warring alien species, the Red and Black Lectroids. With his nemesis Dr Emilio Lizardo having broken free from the Trenton Home for the Criminally Insane hellbent on securing the Over...

"I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere." There's more than a grain of truth in what Anakin Skywalker says in one of cinemas most cherished and beloved moments, during the universally acknowledged high point of the entire Star Wars franchise, STAR WARS: EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES. This week we're discussing Sand and yes that really is the title of this week’s Top 5. Top 5 Sand. Carlos Kaiser was a professional footballer for more than a decade, pla...

Can you really call yourself a fan of cinema if you haven't seen the 1962 David Lean classic LAWRENCE OF ARABIA? Yes of course you can, but at least one of the dads hadn't seen it before, so the question is has that mistake been rectified? This sprawling near 4 hour epic sees up and comer Peter O'Toole star as T.E. Lawrence in a story based on his life. Stationed in Cairo during World War I, a stranger in a strange land, Lawrence successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab trib...

We were delighted to have the ART NINJA Ricky Martin join us this week to talk about craft storage solutions, the responsibility of being a beloved childhood icon, cardboard horror movies, his experiences with ADHD and much more. Ricky presented an art themed sitcom for CBBC between 2015 and 2019, making 55 episodes and reaching and inspiring thousands of children to create their own works, including all of the Dads kids (whether they knew it or not). We review 'Day Of The Baby' and 'Day Of The ...

Ed Harris's passion project POLLOCK (2000) chronicles the life of the abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock. Underneath the fascinating character study of an alcoholic, bi-polar artistic genius, this is a love story at its core. Pollock's wife, an influential artist in her own right Lee Krasner, was instrumental in establishing his genius motivated by a recognition of his dazzling talent but more importantly because she knows that is when Pollock is at his most fulfilled. At times vibra...

Skyscrapers are of course symbols of male domination and authority, immense metal and concrete phalluses penetrating the sky itself so of course Hollywood loves to gaze adoringly at them. This week sees us discussing the Top 5 Skyscrapers and whether we're leaping out of them, smashing through them, climbing across them or using them to stage elaborate scenes of public affection we have many stories to discuss. DO YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE. ROOM is a 2015 drama about abuse, suffering and rape wh...

On it's release Blue Velvet (1986) caused a bit of a stir. Initially shown at the Montréal World Film Festival in August 1986, and at the Toronto Festival of Festivals, the film received both a chorus of boos and cheers. So pretty standard film festival reactions then! The movie contains some very graphic and shocking scenes of violence and a performance from Dennis Hopper than will live long in the memory. The Dads try to make some sense of it all, and leave with heightened anticipation for o...

Since all attempts to capture proof of ghosts on film consist of grainy night-vision footage more like an amateur Pornhub channel than indisputable proof of life after death and your guaranteed never to encounter a ghost in real life unless you're completely insane, the cinema is where the idea of the spirit of a dead person or animal who refuses to depart the physical world has played out to greatest effect. From discussing masterpieces like THE SHINING or CASPER through to more lightweight ent...

GHOST was a smash-hit 1990 supernatural romantic thriller that created an iconic and often parodied pottery scene which holds up surprisingly well. The story sees Patrick Swayze's Sam Wheat, an investment banker, struggling to articulate his feelings to his very much adored girlfriend artist Molly (Demi Moore). When Sam is murdered in a mugging gone wrong his spirit stays behind to help protect and warn Molly that this act of violence was not as random as it first seems. Bruce Joel Rubin's excel...

I'm sorry to have to disappoint you but the idea that snowflakes are unique is not entirely true, there being eight main types of shapes at the molecular level, with 39 sub-categories which then order themselves via weak hydrogen bonds to each other, resulting in the symmetrical hexagonal shape of the snowflake. At the atomic level they are indistinguishable, being comprised of the same oxygen and hydrogen atoms and in that sense of course we're all interchangeable and alike but a part of the sa...

Director Frank Marshall (ARACHNAPHOBIA) brings us the true story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571. The Fairchild FH-227D was carrying a rugby team and various related friends and family when it crashed into the Andes mountains in October 1972. A compelling true survival story with impressive location photography and awe inspiring scenery, time has been cruel on this as it all too often has the feel of a soap opera despite the decent acting talent involved which includes Ethan Hawke, Josh Hamilt...

There have been some great movies and scenes set in hotels; I'm thinking of course of the likes of THE SHINING, THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, LOST IN TRANSLATION and video after video of heavy-eyed, heroin ingesting porn stars being thundered into next week and uploaded to Pornhub. But what can the dads come up with when they discuss the Top 5 Hotels? I'm upset to have missed this weeks main feature. English Director Ben Wheatley did the incredible KILL LIST back in 2011 which smashed horror and cr...

1999 saw the release of this absolute gem, starring Richard Farnsworth and directed by David Lynch. The Straight Story is the biographical tale of Alvin Straight and his journey to meet and reconcile with his older brother who lives two states across the USA. The difficulty for Alvin.... he can't drive and has failing health to contend with. So Alvin undertakes this journey on his trusty lawnmower, setting off on a near 400km journey. This is the first of three DAVID LYNCH movies that we'll be...