will ashton

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

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

Good Time and Death Note Review — Cinemaholics

death note

I didn’t have enough time this week to do a formal review of Good Time, but our most recent episode of Cinemaholics sums up my thoughts pretty well. We also tackled Death Note, the Netflix Original Movie based on the anime series. It started out as a mini review, but Will Ashton and I went on for so long talking about it, the review hit feature length. We also talked about Leap! and Brigsby Bear.

This episode debuted our first ever “On Tap” segment. I interviewed Kayleigh Donaldson of Pajiba, and we unpacked the massive Handbook for Mortals controversy surrounding a YA book that supposedly cheated its way to the New York Times Bestseller List, perhaps to shore up a movie deal. It’s a fascinating conversation, and you can learn more about the story Kayleigh worked on about it here.

Go on…Good Time and Death Note Review — Cinemaholics

Who Was ‘The Dark Tower’ Made For? — Cinemaholics

dark tower

“Stephen King is obviously one of the most prolific writers of all time,” said Will Ashton on the latest episode of Cinemaholics, where we reviewed The Dark Tower and discussed at length why and how this movie confounds us. The show opened with a quick aside about our favorite Stephen King film adaptations, and as some of you might have predicted, I had some not-so-popular opinions to express about The Shining.

We covered a few extra movies in a shorter episode this week (our originally recorded episode with extended cast was unfortunately lost to the audio oblivion), including Lady Macbeth and Detroit. We’ve talked about both movies in previous episodes, but now we’ve all seen both and were able to share notes on two of the most impressive films in 2017. And Will capped the episode off with a mini review for Girls Trip, setting off a great discussion about summer comedies.

Go on…Who Was ‘The Dark Tower’ Made For? — Cinemaholics

Is Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dunkirk’ Really A Masterpiece? — Cinemaholics

dunkirk

Usually on Cinemaholics, we stick to covering one featured movie and leaving the rest for “mini reviews.” But for the second week in a row, the summer release schedule disagreed with us, so Will Ashton, Maveryke Hines, and I reviewed both Dunkirk and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets this week.

This was a more contentious episode than usual, with most of us differing quite a bit on both of these movies, particularly Valerian. If you’re at all interested in seeing either of these films, our conversation might prove useful.

Just two Mini Reviews this week: Aftermath (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Colossal (starring Anne Hathaway). The latter is a film I saw just this week as a blind buy on Will Ashton’s recommendation.

Go on…Is Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dunkirk’ Really A Masterpiece? — Cinemaholics

The Mummy Comes At Night — Cinemaholics

I’m still working on putting the mental pieces of my brain back together after sitting through The Mummy, and strangely enough, I’m almost as equally confused about It Comes At Night, A24’s would-be horror classic beloved by critics and ravaged by just about everyone else. Luckily, I had plenty of help on the show this week to navigate these new films and then some.

We finally managed to lasso in Andy Herndon from The D-Cast for the “Mummy” segment of this week’s episode. True, we brought him in for something completely removed from Disney (which he of course pointed out with sharp irony), but as expected, we had a great conversation and will have him back again soon.

Go on…The Mummy Comes At Night — Cinemaholics