The One Where We Come Back
Quote: Yup, Moms… They just do things. [Bridget Serdock]
We are so sorry we disappeared on you! October was a tough month for us thanks to Hurricane Maria, so it was a lot harder to get together, record, or even upload an episode. But now things are looking up and we’re here with a lengthy review of our favorite Netflix show of the moment, Stranger Things 2.
Go on…Part-Time Characters: Stranger Things 2 Review
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
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.
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
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.
Special guest Andy Herndon from The D-Cast came on Cinemaholics this week for a spirited discussion about Steven Soderbergh’s new film, the rural heist “comedy” Logan Lucky. Of course, we also found time to dig into some other notable films, including The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Wind River (one of my favorite movies of the summer), and The Glass Castle.
Will Ashton and Maveryke Hines were also on the show this week, and we had a bit of a debate going on around Logan Lucky in particular. We also got some closure on Will’s opinion of Annabelle: Creation early on in the show, and Mav and I talked about a couple of shows we’ve been watching this week, including Marvel’s The Defenders Season 1 on Netflix.
Go on…Logan Lucky…Was That Supposed To Be Funny? — Cinemaholics
We had a special guest join us this week to help review Atomic Blonde. You might remember Robert Yaniz Jr. from our Alien: Covenant episode a few months back, but he also hosts his own entertainment podcast, Crooked Table. Robert gave us an early spoiler-free review of The Defenders Season 1, as well, which premieres August 18th on Netflix.
Will Ashton was out this week on vacation, but Maveryke Hines and myself came back to cover Ozark, Detroit, To The Bone, and The Incredible Jessica James. We also introduced a new segment we’d love your feedback on: “Would you even watch this?” The rules are simple: one of us describes the trailer for an obscure movie as a pitch for the other person to go see it. Let’s see if we can do a better job hyping up audiences than the actual marketing for these movies (probably not).
Go on…Atomic Blonde, The Defenders, Ozark, and Detroit — Cinemaholics