Now Playing -- The Movie Review Podcast

Long before Bella had to choose between vampire and werewolf boyfriends, Kate Beckinsale was two-fisting pistols to save star-crossed Lycan lover Scott Speedman from her judgey undead family in Underworld. Is the director of Live Free Or Die Hard a wise man for placing the story of Romeo & Juliet inside The Matrix? Or is Len Wiseman just a letch inventing excuses for getting his future wife out of corsets and into tight leather?  Find out if Jakob, Stuart, or Arnie stake a claim for The 2000s’ other fangs and fur Gothic romance when you Listen Now.  

Turns out Jack Nicholson did not forget Chinatown as advised, but pulled double duty 16 years later as director and star of the sequel The Two Jakes. Did Harvey Keitel hire our heartbroken private eye because he needs help confronting a duplicitous wife, or because the sting will provide cover when he murders a business partner? And how did the long lost daughter of Faye Dunaway wind up owning an LA suburb built atop an explosive reservoir of oil and gas?  Join kitty cats Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie as they follow the money down the well.  Listen Now!  

Jack Nicholson goes sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong in the Oscar-winning 1974 noir Chinatown. Can the private eye connect the dots between the missing girlfriend of a city official and LA’s vanishing water supply? Is femme fatale Faye Dunaway really falling for the gumshoe, or just taking Jake to the bedroom to stop him from seeing who’s drowning her hubby in the pool?  And why does tycoon John Huston want to be an orange farmer so bad? Get the full picture in a podcast your sister, your daughter, and the entire family can enjoy.  Listen Now!

11-year-old Charlie McGee might look like just another snowflake who can’t manage her emotions, but tell her she’s no Drew Barrymore and you’ve got a real Firestarter on your hands in 2022.  Is proud papa Zac Efron pushing his telekinetic daughter to make the right choices, and avoid being captured by Native American assassin Rainbird and The Shop?  Or will the next High School Musical end with a thermonuclear explosion?  Find out if Blumhouse has made a barbeque out of a classic novel when you listen to the latest Stephen King podcast.    

Dr. Strange presents the illusion that his latest Marvel movie is a routine affair, but In the Multiverse of Madness might actually be another zombie splatter comedy from Evil Dead director Sam Raimi. Can Benedict Cumberbatch’s callous sorcerer fix his relationship with Rachel McAdams, and save America (the country and the teenager) from the wrath of monster mom Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen)?  And is it possible there’s a reality where The Inhumans are cool?  Listen Now as Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob make their 28th incursion into the MCU.       

Jeremy Renner cuts his Yuletide New York vacation short after fangirl archer Hailee Steinfeld (Bumblebee) starts wearing his infamous Ronin suit to fight crime in the Disney Plus miniseries Hawkeye. Will the Marvel mercenary make it home for the holidays with only six days to defeat the Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio), new Black Widow Florence Pugh, a one-legged, deaf martial artist, and her entire Tracksuit Mafia?  And why does wife Linda Cardellini want her old Rolex wrapped up and under the tree so badly?  It’s Christmas in May when you Listen Now! 

Is The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent driving Nicolas Cage into a booze-fueled early retirement (or did he just make too many embarrassing flops)? Now the Oscar winner has to accept a humiliating offer to host a lavish birthday party for fanboy cartel leader Pedro Pascal.  Will those “nouveau shamanic” acting techniques be of any help to Agent Tiffany Haddish when the CIA needs Cage to play spy and free a kidnapped politician’s daughter held at a Mallorca compound? Listen Now as Stuart, Jakob, and Arnie face off with Nic’s latest crazy comedy.     

Nic Cage first used his “massive talent” to become an action star in the 1996 Michael Bay extravaganza The Rock. Can his Beatles-loving biochemist teach the original James Bond Sean Connery anything about being cool, as they team up to expel Ed Harris and his terrorists from Alcatraz?  Or will Candyman Tony Todd steal the show by launching a fleet of missiles loaded up with delicious-looking green gumballs of flesh-eating virus?  Listen Now to find out if Stuart, Jakob, or Arnie are ready to cut Cage some friggin’ slack, and let him out of movie jail.

Sega’s speedy mascot races back to movie theaters to offer an encore helping of attitude in Sonic The Hedgehog 2. This time the video game icon not only battles Jim Carrey’s mechanical contraptions and manic comic timing, but the oversized fists of new nemesis Knuckles (voiced by Idris Elba).  Are James Marsden’s days of being a helicopter parent over now that flying fox Tails is ready to lift the hedgehog to the next level?  Find out if this sequel receives any Blue Justice from the podcast hosts when you listen to the latest Now Playing Arcade installment.

Oscar-winning joker Jared Leto sinks his teeth into another comic book villain role as Morbius, a hematologist who turns into a “living vampire” after tinkering with bat DNA.  Can blood brother Matt Smith (Dr. Who) convince the superpowered physician to turn his back on humanity, and join him on a New York bender biting babes and breaking things?  Or will the good doctor accept Michael Keaton’s offer to take down Spider-Man in some future sequel instead? Find out how much the latest Marvel movie sucks for Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart when you Listen Now.    

Dolph Lungren trains young gamers to become masters of a zombie universe in Dead Trigger, the 2017 film adaptation of a popular first-person shooter made for smartphones.  Can a Disney star, an MMA fighter, and the no-longer-little rapper Lil’ Romeo blast their way to Terminal City, and rescue the scientist who can cure the outbreak? Or will Cyglobe CEO (and soap star) Tamara Braun whack them for posing a threat to her gun sales?  Help Justin, Arnie, and Stuart answer the call for another trying video game movie when you Listen Now!      

Michael Fassbender learns the homicidal impulses that landed him on Death Row in 2016 can be traced back to the Assassin’s Creed he pledged to free-will-loving vigilantes in 1492. Can Oscar-winning scientist Marion Cotillard (Inception) cure the convict of his violent ways simply by plugging him into holographic re-enactments of his past life hit jobs? Or does Jeremy Irons have nefarious reasons for footing this exorbitant 23AndMe bill? Find out why gamers have such animus for this big-budget adaptation of the popular Ubisoft title when you Listen Now!

  Yakuza director Takashi Miike tries his hand at a different type of video game adaptation by bringing Ace Attorney Phoenix Wright to the big screen. Can the rookie lawyer find the guilty parties in three interlocking murder trials simply by cross-examining parrots and debunking photographic evidence of lake monsters?  And will the fashion police level charges against all those gravity-defying hairdos on display in the courtroom?  Find out if Justin, Stuart, and Arnie offer objections to the latest entry in the Now Playing Arcade when you Listen Today!

Robert Pattinson spent the last two years suiting up as The Batman so that he might score a hit movie for DC, and rescue a Gotham City drowning in drugs, violent crime, and political corruption. Will his plans for urban renewal be thwarted by unhinged assassin The Riddler (Paul Dano), or mob henchman Oz “The Penguin” Cobblepot (Colin Farrell)? Or will Zoe Kravitz steal the show as a limber cat burglar with a soft spot for strays?  Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie can help you crack the code on this dense new Caped Crusader adventure.  Listen Now!    

Nearly 50 years after she left Leatherface dancing in the street, final girl Sally Hardesty returns to face another Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2022.  Can she save a bus full of social media influencers who dared to unlawfully displace the serial killer from his retirement in small town Harlow?  And will Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade) use the survival skills she honed during a school shooting to fight back against the triggered madman once the power tools come out?  Brock, Stuart, and Arnie are abuzz with thoughts about this ninth franchise installment.  Listen Now!           

Tom Holland leaves Spider-Man and the MCU behind to head into the Uncharted waters of a popular Playstation video game.  Will his Nathan Drake solve a series of puzzles that lead to the legendary treasure of world explorer Ferdinand Magellan?  Or will he be conned out of the gold by greedy partner Mark Wahlberg, billionaire rival Antonio Banderas, or a host of femme fatales and modern day pirates?  All you have to do to unlock the opinions of host Arnie, Justin, and Stuart is download the latest Now Playing Arcade installment. Listen Now!    

Sharon Stone could have screwed like a mink, raised rugrats, and lived happily ever after with Michael Douglas. Instead, her icy crime novelist chances implication in new murders and wardrobe malfunctions 14 years later in Basic Instinct 2. Is pasty psychologist David Morrissey right to claim the femme fatale suffers from risk addiction, and will endanger all of London if she’s allowed to write a new book there? Or is the real poison pen being wielded by a tabloid journalist and a dirty cop? You may never come again after you score the latest Now Playing fix.

Michael Douglas has survived many big screen fatal attractions with dangerous blondes, but the slick yuppie courts a date with the sharp end of an ice pick after he beds Sharon Stone in the steamy 1992 thriller Basic Instinct.  Does this femme fatale write novels as a way of planning the future murders of unsatisfying lovers? Or is there a psychotic reader turning bloody acts from her books into San Francisco crime scenes?  Untangle all the double crosses and crossed legs when you join Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart for this kinky podcast review.  Listen Now! 

With “horror holidays” like Halloween, April Fool’s Day, and Friday the 13th routinely being celebrated with 21st Century remakes, it makes sense that someone would dig up My Bloody Valentine in 2009,. Can the censors stop the carnage now that it’s flying into audiences’ faces via 3-D?  And what kills a small town faster - a homicidal maniac stuffing residents’ hearts into boxes of candy, or prodigal son Jensen Ackles (Supernatural) closing down the local coal mine? Find out if the hosts are sweet on this second helping of Harry Warden when you Listen Now!  

Twenty years after a cave-in turned a coal miner into a cannibal, legendary psychopath Harry Warden returns to paint his hometown red in the 1981 original My Bloody Valentine. So why don’t moviegoers associate headlamps and pickaxes with February 14th in the same way hockey masks and machetes signify Friday The 13th? And were the cruelest cuts made by the MPAA, who edited out literal showers of blood in order to give the film an R rating?  Find out if Stuart, Jakob, and Arnie fall in love with this subterranean slasher when you Listen Now.