Episodes

Sidey enthusiastically nominated the 2010 cult favourite, SCOTT PILGRIM Vs THE WORLD. This could possibly be the most Edgar Wright movie of all the Edgar Wright movies. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but something to do with sharp, quick editing, great soundtrack and fantastic casting. Whilst we know at least one of the Dads loves this movie, the movie was not a global smash. This one sadly lost out at the box office, and the audience's lukewarm response to the movie was reflected in th...

Mark Steven Johnson's GHOST RIDER (2007) sees daredevil stuntman - see what I did there because the same director also did the Ben Affleck superhero caper about a blind gimp lawyer called DAREDEVIL - Johnny Blaze make a Faustian pact with Mephistopheles which ends up in him becoming a flame-skulled bounty hunter. You know how those Faustian pacts can be. With steampunk Neo-clone villain Blackheart and his band of easily dispatched elemental douchebro's desperately seeking the maguffin which will...

Notoriously troubled production WATERWORLD (1995) wasn't the Box Office flop it was portrayed to be upon release by a critical establishment gleefully surfing a wave of anti-Costner feeling but it's also not the misunderstood gem that revisionists positioned it as a few years later when the movie was reevaluated free from the shackles of it's initial reception. Kevin Costner is The Mariner, a mutant who roams the seas of a drowned Earth and becomes the protector of Enola (Tina Marjorino), a you...

Reegs selected the 1986 Disney sci-fi classic FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR for our viewing entertainment. Joey Cramer stars as David Freeman, a 12-year old boy who falls into a ravine in 1978 rendering himself briefly unconscious and presumably sustaining terrible brain injuries, explaining the events of the rest of the movie which involves time travel, an initially hostile sentient machine from the planet Phaelon named Max (Paul Reubens) and the villainous NASA agency headed up by Dr Faraday (Howard...

THE THING is John Carpenter's 1982 horror masterpiece, combining a simple but sensational premise with some of the most incredible special effects ever devised from legendary prosthetic makeup designer Rob Bottin. Crash landing on earth over 100,000 years ago, an unknowable alien entity has lain dormant in Antarctica until unfrozen by a doomed scientific team. It's unique ability is to precisely mimic any life it comes in contact with and this ingeniously paranoid idea sees the audience in the ...

The first thing we needed to get straight is whether it's pronounced "plaid" or "plaid" and then with that debate settled we move on to discuss the 1982 Steve Martin parody of and homage to Film Noir DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID. When physicist and part time cheese enthusiast John Hay Forrest dies in a suspicious car accident, his daughter Juliet (Rachel Ward) hires private eye Rigby Reardon to investigate his death, unwittingly setting them both on a path towards cheese obsessed nazis hell bent o...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

To be a great dancer you need grace, athleticism and style as well as the emotional intelligence to convey symbolism through rhythmic human movement. Naturally this is fertile ground for us dads, well renowned aesthetes and admirers of the physical form. By which I mean that at least one or two of us have been to strip clubs. This weeks top 5 features some of the best dance scenes ever committed to celluloid as well as some of the strangest. Our main feature is David Hare's 2011 PAGE EIGHT, the...

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...