Now Playing -- The Movie Review Podcast

Eddie Murphy was the biggest comedy star of the 1980s when he decided to spend Another 48 Hrs razzing rednecks and dodging bullets back in San Francisco. Now Nick Nolte is the one who stands to go to jail, after false charges are brought against the cop while he chases phantom drug dealer The Iceman.  Can director Walter Hill keep the boys competitive with the big action sequels of the era, or does the pair spend too much time repeating the first movie's greatest hits to keep pace with Lethal Weapon 2 and Die Hard 2?  Listen and find out!

It's detective Nick Nolte's worst nightmare - spending 48 Hrs handcuffed to scene stealer Eddie Murphy in his movie debut.  How much damage can the pair do in two days as they tear through San Francisco looking for Warriors James Remar and David Patrick Kelly, and a Porsche full of money?  And should director Walter Hill get his dick bronzed for pioneering the action-comedy formula that paved the way for Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour, and all those future foul-mouthed buddy cop franchises?  Spend a little time with the Now Playing team and find out!  

It's taken almost 25 years for The Craft to conjure a sequel, but now the Legacy of the 1996 wicca hit continues with a new generation of female spellcasters joining the circle. Can four teen witches work together to defeat sinister stepfather David Duchovney, and some toxic high school boys?  Or will Lily, the new Witch of the West, lose confidence in her powers after mother Michelle Monaghan (Mission Impossible 3) spills a dark family secret?  Find out if Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob are in a bind about this next chapter of the coven when you Listen Now!

Blessed be! Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart are under the spell of The Craft, the first high school movie of the '90s to stick up for the wiccans. Strange things start happening when naturally gifted magick user Robin Tunney blows into an LA Catholic school from the North, and joins a coven of weirdos led by Wicked Witch of the West Fairuza Balk. Is hunky football jock Skeet Ulrich the snake-in-the-grass that will undo all this supernatural Girl Power? Or were the foursome mistaken for ever putting their trust in deity Manon? Join the circle and Listen Now!

Most Americans remember the First Gulf War as a quick and decisive U.S. victory, but director Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) sees it as the beginning of a White House corporate takeover in his 2004 version of Manchurian Candidate. Should shellshocked Denzel Washington get back on his meds, and stop accusing fellow soldier Liev Schrieber of being a sleeper agent?  Or is this Vice Presidential hopeful really in the pocket of Big Pharma, or worse… his mother Meryl Streep!?  Find out if this remake truly is a dream by Listening Now!   

Election got you stressed?  Tune out today's political noise and vote to reinstate the 1962 Manchurian Candidate instead. Can troubled soldier Frank Sinatra stop Deep State Communists from using a brainwashed Korean War vet to gain control of the White House?  And would the country be any better off run by Angela Lansbury, who uses her windbag husband and the power of television to promote Red Scare fake news and Murder, She Wrote reruns?  Find out if Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie endorse this paranoid classic.  Listen Now!       

Aloha from Shrieker Island, a tropical paradise where Wall Street suits pay for the pleasure of blasting bio-engineered Graboids all weekend long!  That is, until the big worms dig under the ocean and take over a neighboring wildlife preserve. Fortunately Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) has gone native, and left his Arizona compound to hunt his nemesis one last time!  Are his odds improved by bringing along Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite), Jackie Cruz (Orange Is The New Black), and a badass chick with a bow and arrow? Feel the vibes of the latest Tremors now! 

Michael Gross may be known most as the father from Family Ties, or Ted's dad on How I Meet Your Mother, but to a generation of monster movie fans he'll always be Burt Gummer: Grabboid Hunter. Michael joins Arnie for this exclusive, in-depth interview as he reflects on his 30 years a Burt, and some spoilers for the newest film Tremors: Shrieker Island!   This podcast does have SPOILERS for Shrieker Island, but they're at the end and there is a warning before those topics are discussed.

It will be A Cold Day In Hell before Burt Gummer lets the IRS take away his Nevada land and business! Which is why he and faithful cameraman Jamie Kennedy have signed on for a seventh Tremors adventure. How are Graboids and Ass Blasters thriving in the snowy mountains of the Canadian Arctic?  And can Burt be much help to the bug hunt once he’s diagnosed with worm poisoning, and needs to extract antibodies from his underground enemy in order to live?  Find out if the podcasters warm up to the next installment when you Listen Now!

Monster hunter Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) traces the Bloodlines of his subterranean nemesis all the way back to a slimy cave in Africa in the safari-minded sequel Tremors 5. How much bigger and badder has Graboid evolution become on the Dark Continent, with the introduction of nocturnal Ass Blasters and detachable snake tentacles? And what kind of relationship does the cranky survivalist hope to forge with flamboyant new cameraman Jamie Kennedy (Scream)? Go off the grid with Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart and find out now!

Audiences may have first learned about Graboids in Tremors, but The Legend Begins 100 years prior in a prequel where Burt Gummer's great grandfather (also Michael Gross) finds his Nevada silver mine overrun with "dirt dragons". Can a Mexican prospector, badass gunslinger, and community of rejected immigrants find the firepower to defeat these mythical snakes before their American Dream is swallowed whole? And do Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart cotton to this fourth film in the franchise devolving into a Western? Saddle up and find out now!

Michael Gross and most of the original cast head Back To Perfection, Nevada for more Graboid hunting in Tremors 3. Too bad the man-eating worms are now considered an endangered species, and Burt and the locals are mandated to capture the desert pests humanely or be evicted.  Is a flashy tour guide able to steer the franchise in an eco-friendly new direction?  And are the monsters still a blast once they mutate again, and take to the air with the power of their farts?  Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart aren't about to move from their lookout spot. Join them Now!  

Those initial Tremors may be over, but Jakob, Arnie, and Stuart are now bracing for Aftershocks. Fred Ward takes the franchise south of the border for a cheap Mexican vacation without Kevin Bacon. What does it mean for the monster hunt when those wormy, underground Graboids take to the surface and metamorphosize into bipedal Shriekers? Has Earl done himself any favors by calling in the comedic firepower of guns enthusiast Michael Gross? Find out how much heat is coming off this straight-to-tape sequel when you Listen Now!

What’s shaking at Now Playing these days?  Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie are moving to Perfection, Nevada to join the cult devoted to Tremors.  The fun begins with a fresh look at the original 1990 creature feature, in which bickering handymen Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward contend with a stampede of supersized, subterranean worms gobbling up their town. Can the Footloose hunk make moves on a geologist while wriggling out of a tight spot?  And are Michael Gross (Family Ties) and country singer Reba MacEntire comedic dynamite together? Listen and Find Out!

A decade before his landmark slasher A Nightmare On Elm Street gave ‘80s mallrats insomnia, writer/director Wes Craven invited hippies inside The Last House On The Left for a tour of extreme horror movie violence.  What happens when four escaped psychopaths accept hospitality from the parents of the 17-year-old girl they just murdered?  Does revenge taste even more delicious served up as a home cooked meal on turned tables? Find out if this 1972 grindhouse classic still kills by becoming a Now Playing Silver Level Donor this Fall.

After ghosting audiences for the last three years, The New Mutants are finally ready to shut the history books on a half century of Boomer adventures, and let today's generation have their say about the X-Men. Will the five central Millennials prove to be superheroes or snowflakes once nightmare creatures pop the protective bubble surrounding their world? And is she-wolf Rahne (Maisie Williams) the next Hugh Jackman, or do expectations flame out like Berto (Henry Zaga) when these kids are compared to MCU icons?  The struggle is real so Listen Now!   

Current events putting you in a heinous mood? Never fear… fiftysomething metalheads Bill and Ted have seen the future, and return to the big screen ready to perform a song destined to heal an off-kilter universe. Have Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter grown up in the 29 years since their last cinematic adventure? And can daughters Billie and Thea traverse time and sign Jimi Hendrix, Mozart, and Death (William Sadler) to play in their dads’ defunct band Wyld Stallyns? It’s easier to Face The Music with friends Jakob, Arnie, and Stuart in your ear. Listen Now!

Sequels are always in danger of repeating themselves, but the problem becomes twofold for Bill and Ted when evil lookalike automatons hijack their second movie, and send the layabouts on a Bogus Journey to Hell! Can the wannabe rockers beat Death (William Sadler) at his own game, and get back to San Dimas in time to play a historic Wyld Stallyns concert? And is it beneficial for the boys to quit playing air guitar, and physically climb that Stairway To Heaven to plead their case to God? Find out if the hosts are excellent to each other and this movie by listening now!

Strange things are afoot at Now Playing!  For the next three weeks Jakob, Stuart, and Arnaldo Carvalho, Esq. are catching up on the cinematic exploits of SoCal slackers Bill and Ted, starting with their 1989 Excellent Adventure. Can these clueless metalheads pass their history final by hopping in a time-traveling phone booth, and bringing legendary figures like Socrates and Napoleon Bonaparte to a 20th Century mall?  And how accurate was this film’s prediction that Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter would change the future?  Listen Now and Party On!

Johnny Depp has trouble telling fact from fiction after hayseed stalker John Turturro shows up on his porch, and accuses the New England writer of stealing his short story Secret Window.  But is Stephen King the real plagiarist by presenting another tale of a tortured author using plot points cribbed from The Dark Half?  And can Depp flip the script on his bitter divorce once bad things start happening to his cheating ex-wife (Maria Bello, not Amber Heard)? Find out if the seeds planted early in this narrative bear fruit or corn at the twist ending when you Listen Now!