Top 5 Episodes

With the Bad Dads on the brink of implosion and Dan utterly oblivious the best way to lighten up the mood is for a quick trip to that happiest of places: the graveyard. Not for sex but for the Top 5 Movie Graves and whilst it might seem a bit gruesome at first we hope we manage to generate as many laughs as we do tears. Which is to say, probably none of either. I,TONYA is a movie that we had all wanted to see but somehow managed to skip, making this 2017 biographical drama of infamous tabloid v...

75% of the Bad Dads wear glasses which it turns out is a decent representation of the general public according to The Vision Council who I've never heard of. That seems like an awful lot if you compare that to the number of characters in movies who wear spectacles; usually it's as much a personality trope as it is a wardrobe choice, eye wear bestowing nerdiness, intelligence or cunning depending upon the style of frames chosen. We're talking about the Top 5 Movie Spectacles and that means sungla...

Stop the press! Who is Peter André? Well, you're about to find out as this week’s show is brought to you from the mind of the fanatical turophile himself. The second Indochina war waged from 1955 to 1975 with U.S. Marines landing on beaches near Da Nang, South Vietnam for the first time in March 1965. The war was politically and ideologically divisive on home soil in Washington and utterly devastating for the troops on the ground as they were largely outmanoeuvred, both sides sustaining terribl...

As the Europeans deify another bunch of hopelessly overpaid man-children so too the Bad Dads cash in with an episode devoted to that most infantile of sports, football. Bad Dad Dan is something of a football fanatic and has a touch of pedigree himself having played football under West Ham's very first attacking full-back/Manager, Syd King in 1902. The beautiful game lit a spark in Dan that could not be extinguished, which is how we end up here almost 120 years later with The Top 5 Movie With Bal...

Staircases have always played a vital role in cinema; any time our hero or villain needs to ascend or descend a level, the humble stair is there to allow it to happen. Ripe for injecting symbolism into a scene or used metaphorically to show our protagonists character development, the stairs are also a place where fights, chases and sometimes comedy can occur. So join us and go stair-crazy with this weeks Top 5 Set On A Staircase. The legendary 2000 A.D. is a British sci-fi comic which has been ...

Pussy is the undeniably obvious and deliberately provocative first word that's perfect to use if you have limited time to engage your reader and you'd like them to get to at the least the end of the first sentence of your description. In this part of the overview there originally was a story that ended up with Cats in the plot of Inception but then I realised there was a South Park episode where they did something with sheep and the plot of that movie so, time completely wasted and desperate for...

The subject of todays Top 5 is one of the great American actors; his collaborations with Martin Scorsese alone have created some of the most celebrated moments and characters in film history. A firm favourite of all of the Bad Dads, it's time we sat down to talk about Robert De Niro. 2016's MOONLIGHT directed by Barry Jenkins and based on Tarell Alvin McCraney's unpublished semi-autobiographical play "In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue" is this weeks main feature. An indie drama charting the lif...

If you have a car and a child, you will be painfully aware that even with the very best intentions it won't be long before the interior of your vehicle is a hoarder’s paradise. Assuming of course that the hoarder in question's idea of paradise includes odd socks, miscellaneous toys, hairbands, half eaten dried fruit and flakes of excrement. I've long worried/fantasised that some of this detritus, a stray water bottle or plastic horse toy say, will somehow become lodged under the brake pedal as I...

Did you know that the origins of frozen desserts are considered obscure? That there are several accounts of their history: some sources even describe ice cream-like foods as originating in Persia as far back as 550 BCE! No? Well why the fuck not? I'm embarrassed for us both. It's right there in the origin section of ice-cream on wikipedia should you ever be desperately short of ideas on how to introduce the Top 5 Ice-Creams in movies. I've eaten at McDonalds before as will have many of you. For...

Mad Mums takeover this week as Reegs's long-suffering wife makes the nominations. Most of us yearn to travel if only just to spend a few precious nights away from the little ones, to see strange new places and experience different cultures and we attempt to scratch that itch by discussing our top 5 film travel destinations. BOYHOOD is director Richard Linklater's 2014 epic literal coming-of-age drama starring Ellar - son of Robbie - Coltrane as the boy to whom said boyhood belongs. Academy Awar...

It's pure serendipity that this week sees the Bad Dads celebrating the top 5 British movies just as our Island prepares for war with France over post-brexit fishing rights that we had no vote in and were little more than a footnote in the overall deal until the reality of actually implementing changes affected professional fisherman in both the Channel Islands and France. What a ridiculous mess all this is, from the naive reassurances from local government that we would be unaffected by the deal...

You can't handle the truth! And the truth is that was probably the laziest possible way to introduce this weeks Top 5, which is all about Courtroom scenes. From high stakes and huge drama to reindeer hit-and-runs and everything in between, be sure not to miss out. Andy Samberg's usual effervescence is exchanged for something approaching an almost zen like nihilism in PALM SPRINGS, showing on Amazon Prime this week. Taking the time loop conceit and adding anarchic new twists and a strong emotion...

Just about my favourite thing in all of cinema is the long take or 'oner', whether it's to establish character or geography, to infuse a scene with intensity or drama or to present incredible skill and scale from impossible seeming new perspectives. They are often dazzling feats of vision and technical-endeavour, requiring countless hours of rehearsal and set dressing, incorporating complex camera moves, precision blocking and clever editing to achieve. So we're going to talk about them. There ...

When scholars look back at the history of human development it's almost certain that our greatest invention will be deemed to be language, eclipsing even lead paint, pornography and that device that delivers babies through centrifugal force by spinning the mother in a circle. There are many languages: more than 7000 in fact, although 23 of those account for in excess of half of the worlds population. Between the 5 of us Bad Dads we've just about mastered speaking English, so the idea that we cou...

The British drink tea, eat crumpets and are emotionally distant, class-obsessed xenophobes. The French wear berets, wouldn't be seen dead without a baguette under one arm and have questionable hygiene standards. The Italians are a nation of dark-haired, olive skinned plumbers who spend most of their time ingesting huge quantities of mushrooms, then jumping on the backs of turtles whilst on a quest to save a Princess. Yet despite our differences we collectively managed to establish the culture wh...

The Casino can be an intoxicating place in more way than one, especially if you like gambling which I don't. The unquestionable pathway to happiness that gambling guarantees, the glamour, the risk, the reward, the shared social experience: it all sounds awful, just as fake as the Eiffel Tower that famously adorns the Vegas strip. This weeks top 5 promises all of the subtlety and style of that famous American city, a mecca for the perpetually misguided and the intellectually stunted, so of course...

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has made in excess of 23 billion dollars worldwide since Iron Man's debut in 2008 and superhero movies have become so ubiquitous that we take them for granted but this wasn't always the case. When I was younger, the notion that there might be a shared cinematic universe featuring even top tier Marvel characters seemed fanciful, never mind the fact that we now have entire movies dedicated to the exploits of talking raccoons and mono-sentenced walking trees. 22 movies...

Imagine a world without music. No jazz, soul, punk, funk or gospel, no rock, no roll, no hip, no hop. You can't do it can you, and not only because your brain has been reduced to little more than a paperweight by endlessly scrolling the internet on your phone but also because it's impossible. People have music literally embedded in them; the human heart is by design an organ which is supposed to tirelessly and constantly beat in rhythm just for you to survive. Given the seemingly culturally univ...

Sidey's relentless bullying campaign finally pays off as Howie dramatically quits the show! Is just one of the ways the mainstream media would have wilfully misreported the fact that our favourite shouty ginger paddle boarder has decided to take a well earned break in order to recharge his batteries. We have a surprise guest instead and whilst I won't give away who it is let's just say that he has: featured on the pod before; not directed an amazing movie; not starred in a fascinating...

A lot has been written about the Second Amendment to the United States constitution over the years, much of it in dispute over what the right to keep and bear arms means for individual Americans. What I'm sure we can all agree is that when this constitutional change was ratified in December of 1791, everyone attending shared a common dream that one day they would be able to see an immense Austrian man operating a belt fed machine gun like a childrens toy as he indiscriminately murders wave after...

Who is the bravest movie character of all time? It could be anyone from Rocky to Ripley to Rambo to John McClane, and that will probably make for an excellent discussion some week but right now none of these people will feature in our Top 5 Film and TV Cowards. Dallas Buyers Club is the highly fictionalised very loosely based on a semi-true how much of it was it really though story of the life of Ron Woodruff who in July 1985 was diagnosed with HIV and given 30 days to live. The movies version ...

When I was 7 years old I had a recurring nightmare for a while in which a Tyrannosaurus-Rex would grow from a single pixel on my old CRT television, slowly at first and then emerging far beyond the edge of the screen until its tremendous body broke through the ceiling. Pausing for a dreadful roar it devours me in a single mercifully quick obliteration. The television itself was a PHILIPS 27CS6895 BACH but I don't remember the movie I watched which no doubt inspired those terrifying sleepless nig...

Just as the vastness of space has inspired creators for as long as our species has been able to cast it's gaze upwards so have the depths of the world's oceans similarly stimulated tales of aquatic mystery. Whether seeking to evoke fear, create a feeling of adventure or show man tested to above and beyond his limits, the catalogue of great Ocean cinema is as engrossing at is varied, and this weeks Top Movies with a Porpoise showcases the very best of marine life ever committed to celluloid. In ...

My father ran a successful construction company for many years and he was able to apply his fondness for maths, keen eye for engineering and practical skills on a daily basis to build anything from an individuals kitchen extension to complex and sizeable corporate or government driven erections (lol). What a huge disappointment I must be then when my DIY skills extend only as far as putting up pictures or installing a toilet roll holder - after several hours of fretting, crying and watching YouT...