Are You Screening? Podcast

This week is all about Dune, though we hit a couple of other treats as well, and we'll not only let you know if you need to get to this one, but we look at some of the criticisms other people have as well.

Bond is back, and Daniel Craig finishes up his tenure in the role, but is this one worth it? How does it stack up as a Bond film? We'll let you know, and we'll also take a look at The Green Knight, now on home release, and Halloween Kills, which made a splash at the box office.

This week we're trying to catch up on things before we get to Bond weekend. We'll let you in on some of the latest - like Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Old Henry, Cry Macho, and Malignant - but we'll also run through our quick takes on some recent big entries on the small screen. Foundation, La Brea, and more.

It's a big week for us as Shang-Chi manages to get people back in theaters consistently. Is Marvel's continued reign deserved, or are people just showing up because it's Marvel? We'll let you know if this one is worth your time before it hits to stream, and we'll give you quick looks at Kate and Malignant. I'll also be giving my take on the Emmy's and certain controversy surrounding the awards.

This week we'll let you know just how surprised we were by Free Guy (and whether that was good or bad). We'll also give you some details on other things headed your way, review Reminiscence, look back again at Pig, and much more... well, not that much more.  

DC takes another stab at the general idea with "The Suicide Squad," and the results are a mixed bag of brilliant moments, charismatic efforts, and nonsense. Does it amount to something worth watching, or just a frustrating mess? Tune in and we'll let you know if this one is worth your time.

It's Disney again this week with Jungle Cruise and though we may have had a strange mix of expectations, this one both did and didn't live up to them. Do you need to rush out to catch this one? We'll let you know. We'll also give some impressions on Pig, the Nicolas Cage effort that has been winning over critics. Can a truffle pig adventure about a hermit living in the woods really be one of the best films of the year?

This week we're looking at a female lead double feature, one of which may or not be a bit camp, the other perhaps could have been more clear on how serious it wants it to be. Black Widow kicked theaters back into gear and still caused some drama on that front, while Gunpowder Milkshake released streaming and caused its own stir. Tune in and we'll let you know if you need to catch either of these, even if Shane and I disagree wildly about one of them.

This week action and mayhem square off as we look at F9 and The Tomorrow War, two films that are sure to polarize, as well as cause a lot of forgiving in service to "popcorn" fun. We also go back to Luca and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, and talk about some TV series that are on our radar.

Theater traffic is still running rough but The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard is technically the weekend winner. Is it worth checking out, and is it worth a trip to the theater? Does it live up to the first? We'll let you know, and we'll also give a special shout out to a few shows you don't want to miss, including "Kevin Can F**k Himself."

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It passed A Quiet Place 2 at the box office this week, and we'll give you a rundown on both. We'll also give you a quick take on Loki. Two "horror" movies in one week and they couldn't be more different, but they are both getting people to theaters. Are they worth your time?

We're trying to get you as caught up with things as we can this week, and we cover Army of the Dead, Wrath of Man, Cruella, and Those Who Wish Me Dead. It's a strange mix of heist movies, zombies, action, and live-action look at a cartoon world, and it all adds up to a front-runner for best of the year, horrible nonsense, and things that should have been better. Tune in and we'll let you know which is which.

This week we take another look at The Mitchells vs the Machines, which is a lot of fun, and we review Without Remorse, the latest Tom Clancy effort. Ultimately, Without Remorse isn't particularly bad, but it could have been a lot better. We also keep looking back at award winners of years past, a project that started out as an idea to give people some ideas of what to look for via streaming services in these theater poor times. Since I turned out that several years didn't have very inspiring nominees, we take a look at some of the best of 2005.

This week we take a look at Mortal Kombat, Stowaway, and The Mitchells vs. the Machines, and we take another look at some old Oscar winners by way of listener questions. Is it possible that Mortal Kombat is actually a decent effort? We wouldn't have expected to even entertain the question, but the trailer made us curious. Do things work out? We'll let you know, and if you haven't heard of The Mitchells vs. the Machines yet, you really want to check it out.

Going into the Oscars has thrown everything sideways in this movie season that can't stop trying to tear the industry apart. This week, we talk briefly about Mortal Kombat, which is as weird as you expect, and we catch up on Promising Young Woman. We also start taking a look back at Oscars past to see just how much these awards mean, especially several years later. Are any of the winners actually good, or still watched? Should any of them have won over the other nominees? The answers may surprise you.

As we enter the final stretch of awards season, this week we're looking at two popcorn flicks that seemingly have no business entering awards talk. Nobody, the new effort by the screenwriter of John Wick, and a movie that looks to tell a very similar story, and Godzilla vs. Kong, which looks to be a movie that you will like exactly as much as you predict. We also end up waxing poetic about the state of theatrical releases and where things seem to be headed in the wake of the Arclight closing.

We may be venturing away from awards season, and happily toward theaters moving closer and closer to some serious releases (cross your fingers), but the news of the day is the Snyder Cut, because certain people won't stop talking about it and we might as well join them. Whether or not a movie is worth your time becomes a very different question when it's four hours long... and you've already seen it, but it turns out that there isn't much need for convincing. For some, you're going to see it whether or not anyone says it's good or bad, for others, the opposite is true. If you thought it was bad to start, and few thought it was good, can throwing two more hours at it improve things? We'll let you know.

This week we're going over the Oscar noms and comparing them with the Critics' Choice Awards. The short version is that the Oscars are the CC plus Pinocchio. We're also covering Judas and the Black Messiah, which we did not love as much as the Oscars, but is still a worthwhile film.

With awards all anyone can talk about, we're running down the Critics' Choice winners leading into the Academy Award nominations, but there are still a lot of things coming out... even if theaters are still hurting. We'll take a look at Coming 2 America and let you know if it's worth your time, and we'll also throw out some quick impressions of other new releases.

It's that time of year again. That's right. It's our own awards! The Can't Win Awards were spawned from our hope to give some attention to the movies, actors and actresses, and yes, even screenwriters and directors, who just... let's face it, can't win other awards. There's too much out there not to highlight the films that just aren't big enough, or are too "genre" to be taken seriously. Tune in and find out who we thought needed a shout out this year, and a special award, and why Shane decided it was Vast of Night.