Now Playing - The Movie Review Podcast

Make America Race Again

Roger Corman re-stages his cinematic Death Race a half-century after ruling the drive-ins of the 1970s. But can new Frankenstein Manu Bennett (The Hobbit) keep pace with his 2050 competition, which includes a pugilistic pop star, a religious zealot from Texas, a genetically altered himbo, and an AI-powered driverless car?  And does the fascism of Chairman Malcolm McDowell (Clockwork Orange) resemble the politics of anyone we know in 2017? Strap on your VR helmet and join fast-talking hosts Jakob, Stuart, and Brock to find out now!

Road Kill Bill 

David Carradine risks life and limb to become the most celebrated driver of Death Race 2000.  But does this automotive Frankenstein actually score more points with peace-loving rebels once he starts mowing down the folks responsible for this freeway carnage and avoids hitting women and children crossing the post-apocalyptic streets? And how much mileage do Sylvester Stallone (a year before Rocky) and Martin Kove (Karate Kid) add to their careers by taking Roger Corman’s armored go-karts into theaters four years before Mad Max? Find Out Now!

How many licked Titans does it take to get to the center of Hollow Earth?

Rebecca Hall (Iron Man 3) and her Monarch scientists know it’s a bad idea to bring together Godzilla x Kong after their 2021 showdown. But somebody has got to stop a giant ape named Skar King and his captive ice dragon, Shimo, from creating a New Empire that freezes out humanity. Can Titan veterinarian Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey), paranoid podcaster Brian Tyree Henry (Eternals), and Skull Island survivor Kaylee Hottle improve our odds?  Find out as Jakob, Arnie, and Stuart return to the MonsterVerse. Listen Now!

The Comeback of the Original Spice Girls 

Stuart is back airing his blasphemous opinions about Frank Herbert’s Dune-verse with a podcast review of fifth installment Heretics of Dune,  Things have gotten Scattered in the time since the wormy God Emperor left the throne. Find out how a new generation of Bene Gesserit and Atreides descendants are faring on the rebranded desert planet. Listen Now!

Call Me By Your Mouse

Emperor Christopher Walken and Harkonnen hardasses Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Austin Butler (Elvis) are ready to turn the page on House Atreides as Part 2 of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptation gets underway. Can vengeful Timothee Chalamet worm his way into the heart of cynical Zendaya, and convince the indigenous people of Arrakis to follow their messiah into an interplanetary war? And why does Josh Brolin always seem to have his hand on a weapon of mass destruction?  Find Out when you Listen Now to this epic podcast! 

NYPD Blue Balls 

Eight months before starring as Al Bundy on Married… With Children, Ed O’Neill tried to keep pace with Gene Hackman in a TV spin-off of French Connection. Did NBC execs cancel this potential 1986 series because gruff narcotics detective Popeye Doyle was still murdering folks and violating civil liberties like it’s 1971?  Or is the bigger problem that a future sitcom shoe salesman would rather sit on his ass watching sex tapes of Audrey Landers (Dallas) than chase down crooks?  Find out if this failed pilot solves the Middle East crisis when you Listen Now!

He’s strong til the finish, cause he eats his spinach (and stopped shooting heroin), he’s Popeye the Jailer Man!

Gene Hackman crosses the pond to catch The Frog that avoided capture during a big time U.S. drug bust in the 1975 sequel French Connection II. But will it be any easier to find Fernando Rey on his home turf when the New York cop doesn’t speak the language and Marseilles police don’t condone his brutal investigative methods? And can fill-in director John Frankenheimer (Manchurian Candidate) replicate the adrenalized rush of the original car chases when so many characters are strung out on smack? You’ll know the score when you Listen Now!

Sadly, not the same Frog who hooked you up with a Rainbow Connection

Director William Friedkin (The Exorcist) pioneers ‘70s buddy cop formula with his five-time Oscar-winning breakout film The French Connection. Has all that foot-picking in Poughkeepsie prepared crass New York City cops Gene Hackman (Superman) and Roy Scheider (Jaws) for the amount of legwork required to catch heroin smuggler Fernando Rey? And are the filmmakers the biggest criminals of all with their blatant disregard for bystander safety and traffic laws while shooting a legendary high-speed car chase? Listen and Find Out!

The sleeper has awakened.    

Stuart invites readers and sci-fi fans to follow him inside the wormhole once more as he renews his mission to cover Frank Herbert’s entire Dune literary saga. Find out what happens to Paul Atreides and his family after the movies stop, and son Leto II is proclaimed God Emperor of Dune in the pages of a mind-expanding fourth novel. Things get spicy when you Listen Now!

Closing Time

Tom Hiddleston keeps on slippin’ slippin’ into the future (as well as 19th Century Chicago) in the concluding season of his Disney+ series Loki. Can Oscar winner Ke Huy Quon stop the Norse God from glitching everywhere all at once by making dramatic repairs to the space loom that weaves time together? And will Jonathan Majors remain an ongoing MCU presence after being convicted of offscreen villainy, or must Owen Wilson and the TVA Minutemen purge the actor from official Marvel canon?  Don’t waste a second looking for the answers. Just listen now!

Insects & The City

Dakota Johnson is clairvoyant EMT Madame Web, the only one who sees a future for marginal Spider-Man characters starring in their own Sony features. Can the fashionista paramedic protect a trio of teenage girls, including Sydney Sweeney (White Lotus), from toxic “ceiling guy” Tahar Rahim? And does the presence of Adam Scott (Severance) in this ambulance mean the actress is less than 50 Shades from Aunt May?  Find out if Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart will perform the compressions to bring this DOA superhero flick back to life when you Listen Now!

The Kingdom of the Club Girl Skulls

While under house arrest, Shia LaBeouf looks out Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window and finds more than meets the eye to David Morse (Green Mile) in the 2007 thriller Disturbia. But can the Transformers star find the physical proof that women are going missing next door if his ankle bracelet always rats out his location to Detective Viola Davis?  And is mom Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix) or sexy new neighbor Sarah Roemer the next to vanish?  Find out what capital improvements have been made in the half-century since Hitch’s original. Listen Now!

DePalma Does Hollywood

Director Brian DePalma (Carrie) reopens Rear Window 30 years later to give struggling actor Craig Wasson (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3) a peek at murder in the Hollywood Hills. Is the beautiful woman on the other end of his telescope the victim of a Peeping Tom killer wielding an oversized drill? Or is working girl Melanie Griffith playing a cruel prank on a man who likes to watch rather than take action? Find out if Alfred Hitchcock is spinning in his grave over the way his classy 1954 story of voyeurism has been turned into a sordid 1984 softcore flick when you Listen Now!

The Dog Who Knew Too Much

Photojournalist Jimmy Stewart breaks his leg in the line of duty and winds up stuck at the Rear Window of his Greenwich Village apartment, suspecting a neighbor of murder. But did his camera lens actually capture Perry Mason star Raymond Burr in the act of chopping up his wife? Or is the injured Peeping Tom merely projecting his marital anxieties about Grace Kelly onto another unhappy household? Join Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie as they stare deeply into Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 tale of voyeurism and trace its ongoing influence on cinema. Listen Now!

Trading Places

Boris Karloff’s Universal Monster was thought dead but emerges from a scorching sulfuric bath looking like Lon Chaney Jr in the 1942 sequel Ghost of Frankenstein. Should this reanimated giant leave his besieged castle to hook up with a distantly related brain surgeon capable of ending his homicidal impulses?  And would the creature be better swapping his criminal brain with the cranium of the kindly doctor he killed, the little girl he kidnapped, or the abnormal bean of devious Bela Lugosi? Find out if this fourth Frankenstein chapter is a gas. Listen Now!

Well, that’s one way to break a hung jury!

Boris Karloff ends his run as a Universal Monster by getting the Son of Frankenstein to perfect the electrical waves powering his reanimated body. But can the operation be considered a success if the green guy continues to leave a trail of corpses in his wake? And has Bela Lugosi become the real monster of the franchise as new assistant Ygor, despite doing nothing more sinister than playing encouraging flute tunes for his oversized friend?  Listen Now as Stuart, Jakob, and Arnie debate whether this 1939 sequel restores honor to the Frankenstein name.

Wedding Crashers

Elsa Lanchester dons the most famous beehive hairdo in movie history to walk down the aisle with Boris Karloff in The Bride of Frankenstein. Can director James Whale marry his campy sense of humor with the unused parts of Mary Shelley’s darkly philosophical novel and create an even more outrageous 1935 sequel?  And will the Monster finally give a piece of his mind to the madman who made him now that he’s gained the ability to talk?  Stuart, Arnie, and Jakob request your attendance as they discuss one of cinema’s most unholy unions. Listen Now!

The Original Champion Bodybuilder

Lightning has struck Now Playing in 2024, prompting Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob to have alive-ly debate about Frankenstein… starting with the Big Guy’s 1931 debut as a Universal Monster. Is Boris Karloff’s portrayal of an accidentally murderous reanimated corpse even more iconic than Bela Lugosi giving you the evil eye in his Dracula cape?  And how dramatically did director James Whale amputate Mary Shelley’s source novel to breathe new life into this fable about a scientist playing God? Listen to how this classic creation was stitched together right now!   

Spongebob No Chance

Jason Mamoa does his best to salvage The Lost Kingdom of DC’s Justice League saga in this deep-sixed 2023 sequel to Aquaman. Is estranged brother Patrick Wilson better off in jail than helping crustaceans like Dolph Lundgren cockblock Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and his Black Trident? And how big a barnacle is Amber Heard after all her unflattering court appearances? Nicole Kidman may have “come to this place for magic,” but does the heartbreak of watching her career sink with the Snyderverse really feel good in a place like this!? Find out now!

Squid Games

Alan Moore’s Watchmen disbanded in 1985, but their legacy lives on in a 2019 HBO miniseries where a Rorschach-inspired militia and the offspring of Ozymandias (Jeremy Irons) try to harness the power of Dr. Manhattan. Can Regina King (Jerry Maguire) prove both Black and Blue lives matter as her masked crime fighter works with Tim Blake Nelson, Don Johnson, and former Silk Spectre Jean Smart to find a cop killer? And will showrunner Damon Lindelof (Lost) take more risks than Zack Snyder in bringing the DC superheroes to the screen?  Find out now!

Christmas with the Cranks

The walls are coming down on civilization’s last city as Patricia Clarkson (Green Mile) and her wicked scientists race the clock to extract The Death Cure from Maze Runner test subjects. How much blood will Dylan O”Brien have to spill to stop his infected friends Rosa Salazar and Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Phineas & Ferb) from becoming rage virus zombies?  And is crank-y rebel leader Walton Goggins (Justified) any more of an ally than heavy Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones)? Listen Now as Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob help you find your way to the trilogy’s end.

Here Comes The Hot Steppers 

Dylan O’Brien and his Maze Runner friends leave the labyrinth only to find themselves navigating a charred landscape full of rage virus zombies in second chapter The Scorch Trials. Can Giancarlo Esposito (Mandalorian), Lili Taylor (Conjuring), and Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan) offer these kids sanctuary from wicked scientists wanting to milk their brains? And would our hero do better to stop chasing Kaya Scodelario and date infected pistol-packer Rosa Salazar (Bird Box) instead? These burning questions get answered when you Listen Now!

Thinking Outside The Box 

Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart survived the harrowing gladiator matches of The Hunger Games only to stumble into a labyrinth of dangers in the 2014 adventure The Maze Runner. Can Teen Wolf star Dylan O’Brien decode the secrets tucked within these giant granite walls, and find an escape path for a marooned tribe of teenage boys? Or will this flight to freedom be thwarted by an army of biomechanical spiders, bully Will Poulter (aka Adam Warlock), or the arrival of a girl (Kaya Scodelario)? Listen Now as the hosts guide you through another YA dystopia.

The Town That Dreaded Markdowns

Director Eli Roth (Hostel) has a lot to be grateful for this Thanksgiving now that a decades-long mission to expand his Grindhouse joke trailer has finally blessed the multiplex. Will holiday viewers be delighted to dine on a 17-year-old turkey overstuffed with gorey kills and T&A exploitation? Say a prayer for Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob as they gobble up this 2023 horror-comedy. 

Charlie’s Bangles

Brie Larson mixes it up for the sequel to her 2019 Captain Marvel debut by bringing estranged niece Teyonah Parris (WandaVision) and gushing fangirl Iman Vellani (Ms Marvel) into her 2023 Marvels adventure.  Can the trio stop trading places long enough to thwart a hammer-wielding Kree (Zawe Ashton) from disrupting the Skrull peace negotiations?  And have the years Sam Jackson spent assembling the Avengers prepared him for a mother-Flerken job herding cats in space? Listen to find out if Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob are annihilators of the MCU’s 33rd movie.

It’s Not Easy Being Green 

Sam Jackson returns from the far corners of the cosmos to help extra-terrestrial bud Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) stop a Secret Invasion of Earth by shape-shifting Skrulls. Are White House envoy Don Cheadle and MI-6 agent Olivia Colman smart to discount the aged Avenger after he broke his promise to find these radicalized aliens a new planet to inhabit? And is Nick Fury keeping other surprises about his personal life, and his time in space, tucked underneath that eye patch? Listen Now as Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart expose the truth about this 2023 Disney+ miniseries!

Choke-E-Cheese and the Riflefire Explosion

Security guard Josh Hutcherson (Hunger Games) spends Five Nights At Freddy’s looking for the reason why his younger brother went missing back in the 1980s. Could the animatronic mascots of this condemned pizzeria be at the center of a string of unsolved child abductions? And will his socially awkward little sister be the next victim after having a sleepover with these rock and roll robots, and sketching their dark secrets out in crayon?  Listen Now as Justin, Arnie, and Stuart suit up to spend Halloween inside the Now Playing Arcade.

The Coyote of Wall Street

Martin Scorsese is back with longtime acting muses Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro in the 2023 Oscar hopeful Killers of The Flower Moon. This time Leo is the taxi driver, chauffeuring Lily Gladstone around Oklahoma as uncle Bobby conspires with an entire town to fleece her Osage tribe out of oil profits. Can Jesse Plemons (Breaking Bad) get the FBI to stop this wave of poisonings, bombings, and shootings before the white devils succeed in Native American genocide? Listen Now as the hosts speak truth about Leo and Marty’s sixth collaboration.

Can God be Love if He lets such awful things air on network television?

Ron Perlman (Hellboy) is the Tak of the Town after his attempt to become the next Pennywise in the 2006 Stephen King effort Desperation. Will the possessed policeman ticket motorists Tom Skerritt (Dead Zone), Steven Weber (The Shining), Matt Frewer (The Stand), and Henry Thomas (Doctor Sleep) for driving past a cursed Arizona mine, or because he’s jealous they were in better King adaptations? And what darlings will director Mick Garris have to kill in order to turn the 700 page novel into a two hour TV movie? Find out when you Listen Now!

Sometimes dead is better than straight-to-streaming 

Look what the cat dragged into Paramount Plus: a 2023 prequel to Stephen King’s beloved 1983 novel Pet Sematary.  Long before the infamous Indian burial site brought back dead pets and run over children as flesh-eating zombies, grieving father David Duchovny dug a hole to reanimate the son he lost in Vietnam. Can longtime resident Judson Crandall justify staying on these sour grounds after tracing his hometown carnage back through the Bloodlines of its founding fathers?  Walk this perilous road with Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob to find out now!

See saw with a seesaw

Saw is back, as is series star Tobin Bell as “Jigsaw” John Kramer. In this film, set mere weeks after the events in the original Saw, Kramer travels to Mexico seeking a cure for his brain tumor. Instead, what he finds is a scam that leads him back to his old “Jigsaw” ways with all new traps. Will this movie suck out your eyeballs with its violence and gore? Or do you need to put several ounces of gray matter in a jar to enjoy the tenth Saw release? Join our hosts Jakob, Arnie, and Marjorie now to find out!

I Know What You Did Last Century

The Phantom Killer returns to Texarkana nearly 70 years after first turning a quaint community into The Town That Dreaded Sundown.  But could the original culprit still be alive, uncaught, and wielding razor sharp band instruments in 2014? Or are these copycat slayings the handiwork of a disgruntled great-grandson, or demented fan of the 1976 Charles Pierce cult movie? And how much faith should be put in Anthony Anderson (Kangaroo Jack) and Gary Cole (Office Space) to crack the case?  Step back into the shadows with Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob and Listen Now!

The Texas Trombone Massacre

Texarkana becomes The Town That Dreaded Sundown after a psycho with a sack over his head starts terrorizing couples necking in secluded makeout spots. Can Oscar-winning Ranger Ben Johnson (Last Picture Show) expect to lead the largest manhunt in US history to this Phantom Killer if his klutzy driver can’t even keep the patrol car on the twisty gravel backroads?  And did Dawn Wells survive three seasons of Gilligan’s Island just to be shot dead in her kitchen? Listen and find out if this 1976 docudrama sheds new light on the unsolved 1946 true story.

A Hard Habit to Break

Valak continues to spread the evil of The Conjuring Universe throughout the churches of Europe in the 2023 sequel The Nun II. Can Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) return her nemesis to Hell with Father Burke out of the picture, and faithless bad girl Storm Reid (Euphoria) her only frIend? And will this demon in a wimple actually learn a thing or two about throwing shade from mortals after enrolling in a boarding school overpopulated with mean French girls?  Arnie, Marjorie, and Stuart are ready to perform the miracle of turning slaughter into whine when you Listen Now!

Law & Order: MCU

Emmy winner Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) sees her dreams of headlining a fun lawyer show get contaminated after cousin Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) accidentally turns her into She-Hulk. Does being a giant green hothead help the Attorney At Law win high profile cases for celebrity clients like Megan Thee Stallion and Abomination (Tim Roth)?  Or will the super-prosecutor be convicted in the court of popular opinion after haters launch a nasty social media campaign against her? Learn how angry Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob get about the 2022 Disney+ series now!