cinemaholics

Cinemaholics Review: Justice League and The Punisher Season 1

Justice

Is Justice League the last comic book movie of 2017? If so, what a bizarre ending to one of the most bizarre years in comic book movie history (at least in recent years). What should have been the biggest comic book movie since, well, The Avengers, has arrived with little-to-no fanfare, but we’re here to judge the movie on its own, removed from any hype it may attempt to earn by merit of its seven icons.

I’m joined this week by my trusty cohosts Will Ashton and Maveryke Hines, but also special guest Craig Hanks from the Legendarium Podcast. You may remember I guested on that show to talk about The Dark Tower back in August, and per the holy podcast networking laws hiding in plain sight, it’s only fair to have Craig on this week to share his thoughts on Justice League, the DCEU, and where this frenetic franchise is headed next.

Aside from Justice League, we talk about The Punisher Season 1, plus some new movies you might be interested in. Pixar’s Coco (full review next week), Last Flag Flying, and Wonder get a few minutes each, and we finished out the show with some banter about new movies to come over the Thanksgiving holiday. 

Go on…Cinemaholics Review: Justice League and The Punisher Season 1

Cinemaholics Review: Lady Bird and Murder on the Orient Express

Murder

For the show this week, I’m joined by my regular co-host Will Ashton and special guest Kristen Lopez from Paste Magazine, Film School Rejects, and The Young Folks to review Murder on the Orient Express and Lady Bird, two films that honestly couldn’t be anymore different, but we’ll get to that in the podcast.

We originally recorded the show with Mini Reviews as usual, but sound issues forced us to cut the episode in half (which worked out because the episode had gone on far longer than planned). We’ll do those reviews for Coco, Last Flag Flying, and Walking Dead Season 8 next week.

That said, the main show covers two featured reviews at length, no spoilers for either. The first movie is Lady Bird, a wonderful A24 film directed and written by Greta Gerwig that has been topping many “best of 2017” lists already on the minds of critics. It’s yet another Oscar-worthy performance from Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn) complemented by a fantastic cast. Murder on the Orient Express is the second review of the show, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot in the adaptation of Agatha Christie’s landmark novel. It’s the classic “whodunnit” modernized for 2017, so be sure to manage your expectations if you’re planning on giving this one a shot.

Go on…Cinemaholics Review: Lady Bird and Murder on the Orient Express

Cinemaholics Review: Thor: Ragnarok and Stranger Things 2

Thor

I always feel bad about writing the headlines for these because we reviewed a lot more than Thor: Ragnarok and Stranger Things Season 2. We also talked about Wonderstruck, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Super Mario Odyssey (a game for once!), in addition to the heavy hitters you want to hear about.

On Thor: Ragnarok, we spent some time debating our opinions on the first two Thor movies, followed by a thorough discussion on this new film. Will Ashton and I had the most disagreement over the film, while Maveryke Hines had an opinion somewhere in the middle. As always, it made for a fantastic debate I’ll be curious to revisit in a few months when the dust has settled. For now, I can safely say that director Taika Waititi should be allowed to do whatever film he wants from now until the end of time.

Go on…Cinemaholics Review: Thor: Ragnarok and Stranger Things 2

Cinemaholics Review: Only the Brave and The Snowman

only the brave

I’m on the show this week with Will Ashton and Maveryke Hines to talk about Only the Brave, starring Miles Teller, Josh Brolin, Jeff Bridges, Jennifer Connelly, and Taylor Kitsch. Based on the true story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, this is one of the year’s best surprises. It’s a biographical film about wildfires, sure, but it’s packing some seriously good performances and quite a few gut punches.

We’re also reviewing the less impressive The Snowman, directed by Tomas Alfredson and starring Michael Fassbender and Rebecca Ferguson. Despite being one of our highly anticipated fall films, Snowman left Will Ashton in particular feeling quite…cold. His words.

The rest of our mini reviews this week include a revisit of MINDHUNTER on Netflix, now that Maveryke and I have finished the first season. And Will talks about 1922, a new horror movie on Netflix based on the Stephen King novella.

Go on…Cinemaholics Review: Only the Brave and The Snowman

Cinemaholics Review: The Florida Project and Happy Death Day

florida project

We actually did more than review The Florida Project and Happy Death Day, but headlines can only be so long. This might be our biggest episode of Cinemaholics yet, with reviews for The Foreigner, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) on Netflix, The Babysitter on Netflix, and Mindhunter Season 1 on Netflix. In addition to all of that, I did a special On Tap segment with Alisha Grauso to discuss the Harvey Weinstein scandals and Hollywood’s sexual assault problem.

Needless to say, this is a Cinemaholics you don’t want to miss, especially because The Florida Project is gunning for my favorite film of the year, and from director Sean Baker no less, who also directed the 2015 gem, Tangerine. Keep your eyes on Baker for anything he does next, especially if it’s with A24.

Maveryke Hines and Will Ashton joined me on the show as always, and our reviews for The Foreigner and Happy Death Day were decidedly more divisive, but I wouldn’t have it any other way on this podcast.

Go on…Cinemaholics Review: The Florida Project and Happy Death Day

Is ‘Blade Runner 2049’ a Masterpiece? — Cinemaholics

Blade Runner

Blade Runner 2049 is out in theaters, and critics have showered the sci-fi sequel with praise, with many calling it a masterpiece. Unfortunately, this didn’t translate to box office success for the film. It opened with an abysmal $31.5 million domestically, far behind the blockbuster’s reported budget of $150 million. Keep this in mind the next time Hollywood tries to blame Rotten Tomatoes for underperforming weekends.

I reviewed Blade Runner 2049 with Will Ashton and Maveryke Hines this week on the show, and it’s spoiler-free, of course. For those of you itching to hear our spoilery thoughts, check the time stamp above to hear when our spoiler section begins. And as always, we reviewed a few other releases you might want to know about.

Will saw The Mountain Between Us, starring Kate Winslet and Idris Elba. This is a movie I’ve shown no interest in seeing for myself, and Will’s thoughts only confirm that decision. I talked about The Good Place Season 2 with a preface for checking out the first season, which is now on Netflix (newest episodes on Hulu). And Maveryke saw Long Shot on Netflix, a documentary about how a man on death row had his life saved by an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Seriously.

Go on…Is ‘Blade Runner 2049’ a Masterpiece? — Cinemaholics

‘American Made’ Is Fun, But Not Mandatory — Cinemaholics

American Made

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve shared a Cinemaholics episode here, but in my defense it’s been a traumatic few weeks for me personally. But the show went on despite my time shortages, and we managed to publish review episodes for Kingsman: The Golden Circle, mother!, and It since our Fall Movie Preview. You can dig into all those episodes, along with our bonus episode about MoviePass, here.

This week’s show features a thrilling discussion of American Made, starring Tom Cruise and directed by Doug Liman. It’s an episode you don’t want to miss because in addition to reviewing the film with Will Ashton and Maveryke Hines, I had a chance to mini review Battle of the Sexes, one of my favorite films of 2017. Other mini reviews this week include Jerry Before Seinfeld on Netflix, Star Trek Discovery on CBS, and Stronger starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Tatiana Maslany (another 2017 movie vying for my Top 10 of the year).

There’s a fun surprise for longtime fans halfway through the show. Sam Noland from Part-Time Characters jumped on for a quick intermission, and we tag-teamed some housekeeping for the work he’s doing on that show. And we opened the entire episode with a mini review from one of our listeners on 9/11. If you want to submit your own mini reviews or other feedback, be sure to email us anytime: cinemaholicspodcast (at) gmail.com.

Go on…‘American Made’ Is Fun, But Not Mandatory — Cinemaholics