Midweek Mention Episodes

This midweek Bad Dads Film Review episode begins, naturally, with Reegs’ fresh haircut, the cost of beard sculpting, and a brief detour into barber-chair intimacy before Sidey reveals the week’s selection method: a hectic week, two shorter episodes, no proper theme, and a number-based Amazon Prime roulette that landed the Dads on The Bad Education Movie.Sidey sets the table with a confession: he never watched the BBC Three sitcom, partly because he “genuinely” cannot get on with Jack Whitehall’s posh, fumbling toff persona. Reegs admits, with some shame, to having seen bits of the TV series and the movie before. Cris has only watched the end, and Dan arrives ready to query how this became a feature film in the first place.The film itself is described as a 2015 feature-length send-off for Jack Whitehall’s BBC Three sitcom, following teacher Alfie Wickers and his class on a school trip that veers from Amsterdam chaos to Cornwall, the Eden Project, a kidnapped PTA chaperone, a mi…

This week on Bad Dads Film Review, the dads brave record-breaking heat, abandon the man cave, and review Shane Meadows’ This Is England (2006) — a bruising coming-of-age drama about grief, belonging, skinhead culture, racism, and the poisonous simplicity of nationalist hate.The episode starts with the recording circumstances becoming part of the texture: England are playing later, it is unbearably hot, birds may or may not be audible, and the dads are adopting the careful pacing of an England tournament side. From there, Sidey frames the film as the second Shane Meadows pick after the much-loved Dead Man’s Shoes, while Pete explains how Meadows often drew from lived experience, with Shaun Field loosely based on Meadows himself.The dads praise the film’s 1983 setting as almost painfully accurate: the corner shops, council-house interiors, clothes, hair, glasses, playgrounds, charity-shop trousers, and anti-Thatcher atmosphere all feel completely lived-in. Shaun is introduced as…

This week on Bad Dads Film Review, Sidey, Reegs, Dan and Cris head into Neo-Tokyo for Katsuhiro Otomo’s landmark 1988 anime, Akira — a film of biker gangs, psychic children, military coups, exploding cities, and one of the most famous motorbike slides in cinema.The episode opens, naturally, with Cape Verde apparently “thrashing” Spain nil-nil and a warning that football chat may start bleeding into the pod. From there the Dads connect Akira to the recent motorcycle theme, with the iconic “Akira slide” providing an obvious bridge into one of animation’s most influential images.Reegs guides the plot through the aftermath of World War III, the rebuilding of Neo-Tokyo, the Capsules biker gang, Kaneda’s red bike, Tetsuo’s resentment, and the discovery that the mysterious Akira is not quite the character most first-time viewers expect. The group dig into the psychic test subjects, Colonel Shikishima, the hospital sequences, Tetsuo’s power spiral, the Olympic Stadium, the jars of Aki…

This week on Bad Dads Film Review, the dads review Abigail (2024), Radio Silence’s blood-soaked vampire/crime-comedy about a kidnapped ballerina who turns out to be much more than a bargaining chip.The discussion kicks off with the film’s biggest structural problem: the marketing gives away the vampire twist almost immediately. Reegs frames the intended joke as the characters thinking they are in a slick, quippy heist movie while the audience already knows they are actually trapped in a quippy horror film. Dan, who had avoided the poster details as much as possible, got closer to the intended reveal experience and was expecting something more like The Omen or The Ring.The dads walk through the setup: Abigail’s Swan Lake opening, the assembling of the anonymous criminal crew, Giancarlo Esposito’s Lambert giving everyone Rat Pack aliases, and the group discovering that the girl’s father is the mythical underworld figure Kristof Lazaar. From there, the episode tracks the film’s g…

This week on Bad Dads Film Review, the dads saddle up for DC’s supernatural western misfire Jonah Hex (2010) — a film with Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Megan Fox, Michael Fassbender, Will Arnett, Michael Shannon, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lance Reddick, somehow compressed into a chaotic 80-minute runtime.The discussion covers Hex’s rushed origin story, his half-burned face, his ability to interrogate the dead, Gatling guns mounted on horses, Megan Fox’s noble-prostitute plot-device role, and John Malkovich’s Quentin Turnbull trying to blow up America’s centennial celebrations with inexplicable glowing cannonballs.Sidey is especially brutal, calling it a contender for the worst films ever covered on the pod — not quite Cats, but firmly in the danger zone. Dan is more forgiving, mainly because it is short, Josh Brolin is watchable, and Megan Fox looks “smoking” throughout. Reegs spots the kernel of a better supernatural western buried under the mess, while Cris, having skipped the…

This week on Bad Dads Film Review, the lads tackle Saipan (2025) — the football drama built around the infamous Roy Keane vs Mick McCarthy bust-up before the 2002 World Cup.After some classic warm-weather and football-season banter, the episode gets into the film’s central conflict: elite standards colliding with international-camp chaos. The review covers Keane’s mentality, the training-ground conditions, federation politics, and why this fallout still divides opinion.The dads discuss the performances in detail — especially the actor playing Keane and Steve Coogan as McCarthy — and debate whether the film is balanced or occasionally cartoonish in how it dramatizes events.A key thread through the conversation is that the film doesn’t fully force a “right side”; it presents enough for the audience to choose whether Keane’s demands were justified or whether his delivery cost Ireland too much at the worst possible time.

This week the Bad Dads dive into The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (1984) — a Shaw Brothers revenge classic packed with brutal choreography, wild practical stunt work, and pure old-school kung fu energy.

We kick things off with a deep discussion about Cris's newly cultivated mustache (a strong Luigi vibe, according to Dan), before breaking down the chaotic chemistry of a blind man and a deaf man trying to solve a murder. From Kevin Spacey and Joan Severance to hilarious police station escapes involving a gold coin and Shalimar perfume, the Dads debate whether the comedy holds up today.

This week, the Bad Dads wade deep into "The Bathtub" to review Benh Zeitlin’s indie darling Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012). Facing off against apocalyptic floods, giant prehistoric boars (Aurochs), and the harsh realities of off-the-grid poverty, six-year-old Hushpuppy carries this movie on her tiny shoulders.

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.

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…

This week the dads tackle Paul Verhoeven's infamous erotic thriller — the fourth highest-grossing film of 1992 and quite possibly the most rewound VHS tape in rental shop history. Basic Instinct turns 33 this year, and it's still just as wild as you remember. In this episode: The legendary interrogation scene and the great Wayne Knight sweating debateWhether Sharon Stone knew — and whether Paul Verhoeven is telling the truthNick Curran: the "anti-Columbo" and arguably cinema's least heroic he...

Bad Dads Film Review goes full courtroom chaos this week with My Cousin Vinny (1992) — the fish-out-of-water legal comedy where two broke New York kids take a wrong turn into the Deep South… and somehow end up charged with murder because of a misunderstanding that starts with a can of tuna . Sidey finally ticks off a long-standing gap (he’d never seen it), and we break down why this film still works: a tight premise, a brilliant “outsider vs small-town system” vibe, and a courtroom structure tha...

The premise (simple, but the film isn’t): A privileged but messy NYC teenager, Lisa (Anna Paquin) , causes a moment of distraction that leads to a bus hitting and killing a woman (Allison Janney) . In the immediate aftermath she lies to the police —claiming the light was green—helping the driver (Mark Ruffalo) avoid consequences. The rest of the film is Lisa spiralling through guilt, grief, anger, and a need to “make it right,” while the city and everyone around her keep moving. What we talked a...

This week we head into full remake territory with Doug Liman’s glossy, bone-crunching update of Road House . Jake Gyllenhaal steps into Patrick Swayze’s boots as Dalton: a drifter, ex–UFC fighter, and walking concussion who takes a job cleaning up a Florida Keys bar where violence isn’t a possibility — it’s a nightly guarantee. From the opening underground fight circuit to the neon chaos of the Road House itself, the film wastes no time establishing its tone: sunburnt, hyper-kinetic, knowingly r...

A gritty, twisty one-night siege thriller that actually looks great (yes, you can see what’s happening). The RIP throws Matt Damon and Ben Affleck into a paranoid, internal-corruption nightmare where everyone feels suspicious and every conversation sounds like it has a second meaning. The setup Miami PD captain Jackie Veles is executed by masked hitters after sending one last message and ditching her phone in the river. The FBI descends on the TNT squad (Tactical Narcotics Team), grilling Damon’...

We went in expecting a messy anthology and came out with a genuinely original love letter to Oakland, 1987 — four stories that start as separate vibes and then click together in the final act like a mixtape that suddenly makes sense. The setup is pure mood: people spilling out of a cinema after The Lost Boys , a bright green “something in the air” glow hanging over the city, and a pulpy, comic-book style that flirts with Sin City / Scott Pilgrim energy. It’s stylish, funny, and—when it wants to ...

We start this one the only way we know how: Pete quits his job (casually), we open a bottle of potentially corked wine (possibly poisonous), and then—somehow—end up reviewing Avatar 3 , despite half the room not even watching Avatar 2 . Pete’s approach is simple: he’s not here to defend or attack Avatar. He’s here to report back from the front lines of three hours and ten minutes of James Cameron doing what James Cameron does. The setup (in plain English) You’ve got: Jungle people (from Avatar 1...

This week’s episode begins in full “Bad Dads” mode: we’re recording with barely any gear in sight, arguing about blinking lights, and realising—mid-flow—that “Island Week” might have scrambled everyone’s brains. But the chaos is fitting, because the film we tackle is The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) … a movie so famously cursed it feels like it was assembled in a panic from whatever footage survived the production. Based on the H.G. Wells story, it follows Edward Douglas (David Thewlis) , a plane...

This episode begins the only way we know how: absolute chaos. We veer from wills, tits, and Stranger Things before eventually remembering we’re meant to be talking about a film. If you’re new here, that’s the show. The film in question is Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare — a swaggering WWII caper based on a real black-ops unit hand-picked by Churchill and Ian Fleming. Set in 1941, it imagines the birth of modern special forces: not rules, not honour, just twenty feral speciali...

Die Hard is the kind of “comfort violence” film that never gets old, and your recap hits basically every reason it works. A few extra bits worth calling out (because they’re the secret sauce): It’s a Christmas film for structural reasons, not vibes. Christmas isn’t just background dressing. The party only happens because it’s Christmas, the building is half-staffed because it’s Christmas, McClane is only in LA because it’s Christmas, and Hans’ whole timing depends on a holiday lull. Remove Chris...

Sugar, Cheer, and Corporate Trauma – Elf (2003) This week on Bad Dads Film Review, we crack open a modern Christmas classic and ask the hard questions: how much maple syrup is too much maple syrup, and is Christmas cheer a viable alternative energy source? Our main feature is Elf (dir. Jon Favreau), the 2003 festive juggernaut that turned Will Ferrell into a full-blown Christmas institution. Ferrell plays Buddy, a human accidentally raised as an elf at the North Pole, who travels to New York ...

Fairs, Fixed Games, and Failed Backhands – Islands (2024) This week on Bad Dads Film Review, we’re off to the fair and then straight to the Canaries for a slow-burn midlife crisis with added camel corpse. We kick off with our Top 5 Fairs – everything from sinister funfairs and pleasure islands that definitely aren’t safeguarding-approved, to world expos, tunnel-of-love metaphors, and the sheer horror of Simply Red – Fairground lodging itself in your brain for days. Along the way there’s a rol...

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 increasi...