Flix

It’s Kevin Smith’s birthday today! Happy Birthday to Kevin Smith! Let’s celebrate by continuing our deep dive into his back catalog and sharing the episode that, in all likelihood, we’re going to be the nicest to him about. • Chasing Amy is the one, for me. The film that took my Smith-ffection to the next level. Watching this film, young Dan was overjoyed to see Kevin Smith continue focusing on comic books and sweet dialogue as he had been doing with his previous films, but adding in relationship melodrama and much more Ben Affleck. What more could anyone ask for? • And so, with my heart full of that fear that comes with rewatching films you really liked for the first time in ages, I pressed play on Chasing Amy. Having watched it, is it any good? • To help me decide, I enlisted the help of a woman harboring a nuclear bias against the female lead, Tiffany B. Through our exploration of the film we chatted about the sexual arena being the hottest arena, Tasmanian Devil sex and perms, perhaps? • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen all of the films or none of the films, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

Continuing our journey down Kevin Smith’s rabbit hole, we find ourselves in the heady days of 1995 with Kevin’s follow up to Clerks where he attempted to spoil all the good favour he’d earned with that indie classic by making a studio dud. • Mallrats will always hold a special place in my heart, as it was the first Kevin Smith film I saw, thanks to a Christmas gift from my now-brother in law. He earned cool points that day for buying me an 18 certificate video (VIDEO) when I was only 15 or 16, but the journey he set me on with that film was worth even more. • My teenage brain was bursting with happiness watching these characters talking about comics and girls with equal parts eloquence and crassness. But watching it now, with my old, wizened adult eyes… is it any good? • To help me decide, I enlisted the help of my very own suitorette, Tiffany B. Through our exploration of the film we chatted about wearing your obese dad’s suit, how many godamn kids these days are named Pilot, and giving girls a chance so you can get into their parnts. • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen all of the films or none of the films, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

Kevin Smith will always have a special place in my heart. I fell in love with his films as a teen, and my respect for him has endured to my adulthood. • But even for a Kevin Smith fan such as I, his more recent efforts have been… lackluster. So I thought it would be a good idea to relive the glory days by delving into his back catalog to wash away the taste of Yoga Hosers. • It starts, fittingly, at the beginning, with Clerks. It was made with very little money and even less studio interference, but it produced a film that put Smith on the map and had people raving about him as a paragon of the indie film scene. But is it any good? • To help me decide, I enlisted the help of a fine looking woman who makes great lasagne and doesn’t cheat on me, Tiffany B. Through our exploration of the film we chatted about the correct pronunciation of the title for English people, how the film is really just Shakespeare in a way, and how relieving it is when a teacher shows up in a school play. • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen all of the films or none of the films, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster”, “Funny how?”, “Now go home & get your fuckin' shinebox!” Goodfellas is not bereft of iconic moments. • It’s one of those films, along with Scarface, that I’ve found a lot of blokes who aren’t massively into films love. Speak to any Tom, Mick or Darren and ask them what film they like watching when they’re knocking back cans of Tenants Super before going out on the lash, they will likely mention Goodfellas. • But it also has the critics’ adoration. The film is hailed as an all time classic of cinema, the high point of Martin Scorcese’s storied career, and the definitive cinematic look at organized crime in the US. But is it any good? • To help me decide, I enlisted the help of my own coke-addled, coiffured trophy wife, Tiffany B. Through our exploration of the film we chatted about angsty teen rebels, not liking things that gangsters don’t like, and why Road to Perdition is a better gangster film. • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen all of the films or none of the films, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

I love love, I’ll make no excuses for it. I love romantic films. I love seeing two hot people fall in love and be all cool and fun and sexy and then do a kiss. It’s like sports films: the formula is so well worn because it’s fantastic when it all works. • One of cinema’s most enduring love stories is that between Jesse and Celine in the Before Trilogy. Told over 3 films and 18 years, the story tells of them meeting, and chatting, and meeting, and chatting, and there’s a boat at one point. Basically they love to talk and they love each other. • The trilogy is part of the Criterion Collection, which lets you know how worthy and fancy it is. To quote the CC website: “Attuned to the sweeping grandeur of time’s passage as well as the evanescence of individual moments, the Before films chart the progress of romantic destiny as it navigates the vicissitudes of ordinary life”. Yeah, but are they any good? • To help me decide, I enlisted the help of someone just as romantic as I, but sometimes a little more eye-roll-ish at rom coms, Tiffany B. Through our exploration of all 3 films in this one podcast, we chatted about how women and men have biologically-enforced personalities, the wonderful work of Ariane Labed, and a cruel cinematic April Fool’s joke. • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen all of the films or none of the films, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

Some films have premises that are so outlandish you have to check whether they’re science fiction. This film, the latest from Short Term 12 director Destin Daniel Cretton, focuses on a black man who sits on death row, having been wrongly convicted of murder. And yet there’s no laser guns or hover bikes. Go figure. • Released last year, it’s based on the memoirs of lawyer Bryan Stevenson, a man who has dedicated his life to fighting injustice for people on death row and who will make you feel much less proud of what you’ve managed to achieve in your life to date. But is it any good? • To help me decide, I enlisted the help of our resident literary expert Tiffany B, so she can tell me why the book is SO MUCH BETTER OH MY GOD. Through our exploration, we chatted about mustaches that can stop traffic, Alabama being a dystopia and being so against the death penalty that you’ll kill anyone who disagrees with you. • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen the film or not, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

After a long delay due to illness, we are back, to pay a debt. I won our Oscar prediction contest, and as such got to pick the next film that we’d watch and do a Flix on. So I picked Tron Legacy, because I’m a good husband. • Tron Legacy is the 2010 sequel to the groundbreaking 1982 original, starring Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde, Garrett Hedlund and Daft Punk’s incredible soundtrack. • With Disney+ being unleashed unto the world, it’s the perfect time to revisit this ‘classic’ (legally I have to put the inverted commas there), and ask myself, after many years of listening to the soundtrack but not watching the film, is it any good? • To help me decide, I enlisted the help of a woman who fell asleep when we first went to see the film in the cinema, Tiffany B. Through our exploration, we chatted about euphemisms for nerd, people railing against God for abandoning them, and Daft Punk’s sideline as lullaby writers. • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen the film or not, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

The Oscars are imminent, and like previous years Tiffany B and I have been busily watching as many of the contenders as we could. And we’ve done a really good job, you guys. Seriously, you should be proud of us. • And what we found was… much like previous years. The Academy has held resolutely to their long held opinions that women can’t direct, if a film makes you laugh too much it has to be disqualified, and if any film celebrates the magic of Hollywood then it has to be nominated for Best Picture. • For each category Tiffany and I share what we think will win, what we’d like to win and, for the big ones, who we would have liked to be nominated and who that snub would replace. There’s maybe more opinions in this episode than any Flix we’ve yet done, and I had a blast doing it. • There are only the mildest of mild spoilers for a couple of films, so you can listen without fear that we’ll spoil the ending of Corpus Christi or For Sama. • Cheers!

#Flix 139: Cats aka “That moment will stay with me" • I’ll start this by saying I’m more of a dog man, myself. My own dog, Baxter, is one of the purest sources of joy in my life, so I’m going to be a little biased against a film centered on his natural enemies. • I’d seen the trailer to Cats, I’d read some reviews, I’d felt the brow of the world furrow with confusion. I knew what I was going into when I bought a ticket for Tom Hooper’s latest. But I’m a man who believes that people who pass judgement on films they haven’t seen are cowards, and if I wanted to have an opinion, I needed to witness this cinematic curiosity. But we all know what curiosity did to Cats. • I am a man who had loved films that the critics hated. This podcast is built upon opinion being king, and opinion is deeply personal. So I went in with a mind as open as I could muster. But did I like it? • To help me decide, I enlisted the help of a woman who loves dogs maybe even more than I, Tiffany B, to chat about words that rhyme with 'bookcase', BBC’s new can’t miss reality show, and feline witness protection. • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen the film or not, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

Martin Scorsese dissed Marvel films last year. Dissed them hard. Luckily for him, as much as I am a ride-or-die MCU fan, I’m also professional AF, so I was able to put my personal feelings to one side when discussing his new pile of bullshit, The Irishman. • Telling the story of a professional hitman, the film covers decades in the life of Frank Sheeran, utilizing top notch de-aging technology to allow Robert De Niro to play him at all ages. The technology is also used in a lot of Marvel films, and used a lot better IMO, but that’s neither here nor there. • It’s been nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. But is it any good? • To help me decide, I enlisted the help of a woman who is allergic to films over two and a half hours, Tiffany B, to chat about Hulk Hogan, riding feminist horses so long you get saddle sore, and challenging Robert de Niro to a fist fight. • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen the film or not, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

We’re living in a time where the rich are super duper rich, and the poor are crazy poor. It’s a sad state of affairs that doesn’t get explored a huge amount through film, not least of which because a lot of the studio executives that green light these films are part of the super duper rich club, and they don’t tend to come off too well when this kind of thing is brought up. • Cue Parasite, a film from the director of The Host, Snowpiercer, and that Netflix film from a couple of years ago about the genetically modified super pig. This film delves into the wealth gap, but takes the wonderful choice to make it just as funny as it is depressing. • It won the Rotten Tomatoes Award for being the best reviewed film of 2019, which is high praise indeed. But what did I think? • To help me decide, I enlisted the help of our resident expert on the subtleties of the Korean class system, Tiffany B, to chat about being simultaneously confused and impressed by symbolism, the longest morse code message in history, and how some actresses are just so damn park. • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen the film or not, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

There were thousands of films released between 2010 and 2019. Thousands. What kind of monster would ask his friends to pick their favourite 3 of them? Sorry, what kind of monster with two thumbs would ask his friends to pick their favourite 3 of them? This guy! • Tiffany B, Jen, Sara and I sat around on NYE to discuss these picks, and revel in a decade of wonderful cinematic delights. • All of the discussions are spoiler-free, so you can listen worry-free. In fact, it seems like there’s not really any reason at all to not listen. So stick it in your ears! • Cheers!

2019, eh? What a great year for film. Except if you’re reading this historically, in which case… 2019, eh? The year Disney plunged the dagger into the heart of the cinema industry with their monopolising of family entertainment. What a terrible year for film! • In the midst of this though, there were some incredible films released. Who am I kidding? You’ve listened to the previous episodes, you know that Disney films were front and center for me, I’m suckling at the teat, they’ve got me hooked on their cinematic heroin already. But beyond that, and beyond me, what other films would people pick as their absolute top three of the year? • Tiffany B, Jen, Sara and I sat around on NYE to discuss these picks, and revel in a year of wonderful cinematic delights. • All of the discussions are spoiler-free, so you can listen worry-free. In fact, it seems like there’s not really any reason at all to not listen. So stick it in your ears! • Cheers!

Star Wars is done and we’ll never get another film from this franchise. That’s the cold hard facts of the matter and I can’t help you if you don’t believe me. All we have to remember this 42 year old franchise is this, the third installment of the 3rd trilogy that makes it the ninth film overall but only if you don’t count Rogue One or Solo. • It had the tough job of chronologically following the most divisive Star Wars film of all time, The Last Jedi, a film loved by critics, liked by most fans, disliked by some other fans, and hated with the burning passion of a thousand exploding suns by a small minority of mouth breathers. So how do you follow that? How do you make everyone happy? By bringing in JJ Abrams. Again. • So far, it hasn’t worked, as the critics have not taken to it in the same was as they did with The Last Jedi. But screw the critics, what did I think? • To help me decide, I enlisted the help of someone who’s even more passionate about the Wars of Star than I, annual Flixer Aaron, to chat about Kylo Ren being emo, Adam Driver making a bargain with the fine people at ILM and the cutest Star Wars buddy movie coming to Disney+ soon. • There's a spoiler-free section (as if you haven’t seen it already), followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen the film or not, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

The more I hear about Nazis, the less I like them. Just bloody numpties, aren’t they? All that hating? And murdering? And wanting to bring about a golden age of blonde people when they’re being led by a brunette? Yeah, not for me thanks. Smell you later, Nazis! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out! Or rather, maybe do! • Taika Waititi agrees with me. The writer/director of Thor Ragnarok, What We Do In The Shadows and Boy (which I would definitely recommend) has decided to officially join the anti-Nazi brigade by making a film all about them, and without delving into spoilers too deeply, they don’t come off too well. The story of a young Nazi boy who wants desperately to join the Hitler Youth, and is encouraged to do so by his imaginary friend who looks like Adolf Hitler, Jojo Rabbit is a comedic satire of the 1940s (and maybe, if you look hard enough, today). • Some people have heralded it as a highlight of the year, others have dismissed it as an anemic criticism of National Socialism. But what did I think? • To help me decide, I enlisted the help of someone who’s just as firmly anti-Nazi as Taika and I, Tiffany B, to chat about cute kids, disliking the quality of being deliberately annoying, and wanting people to be Jewisher. • There's a spoiler-free section (even though the film came out over 40 years ago), followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen the film or not, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

And as Halloween draws to a close (a couple of weeks ago) we at Flix bid a joyous farewell to films designed to scare the bejesus out of you for another year. To commemorate the end of the season, I decided to go out with a bang and watch a film described by many as the scariest of all time. • The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a 1974 film co-written and directed by Tobe Hooper. It follows the adventures of a quintet of young people as they venture off the beaten path in rural Texas, and meet some of the locals. But will the locals be happy and welcoming, or nasty and murdery? The answer may surprise you. • It’s held up as a classic by critics and audiences alike, but is it any good? I mean, it’s from ages ago, so probably sucky, right? Not a patch on the remakes? Right? Guys? • To help me decide, I enlisted the help of someone who’s just as excited to be rid of Halloween, Tiffany B, to chat about concern for Marilyn Burns, the downsides of shooting for 30 hours straight and being shocked at outstanding old man makeup. • There's a spoiler-free section (even though the film came out over 40 years ago), followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen the film or not, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

It’s Halloween, which means the scary films come out to play. I am, as has been well documented, a baby when it comes to matters of horror, so the Scream franchise appeals to me greatly. Horror-lite, if you will. • So I decided, to celebrate the witching season, to review all of them. All four of these blood-soaked, self-referential, metafictional bastards. There’s a lot of implausible murders, a lot of tips of the hat to other films, and a lot of dead teens. • But are they any good? Have these 90s staples held up to today’s scrutiny, or are they lost to the rubbish heap along with Blockbuster, floppy disks and that screensaver that was a maze? • To help me decide, I enlisted my fellow horrorphobe, Tiffany B, to chat the saga of Gale and Dewey, Ursula the Sea Witch and the most valuable papers in existence. • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen the film or not, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

Ok fine. You’ve all been clamouring to hear what the official Flix word on Joker was. I get it. It’s a film that has dominated movie discussions ever since it was announced, and will continue to do so. There were several stages to this: • The film is announced: “A Joker origin story? Wha?” The first image is released: “No purple and green? Wha?” The trailer is released: “This actually looks pretty amazing. Wha?” The first reviews come in: “It might inspire angry young white people to commit atrocities when historically they’ve needed no such inspiration? Wha?" The film wins the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival: “So this is this year’s Roma? Wha?" • But as we all know, there can be no true discussion of this film without Flix getting in on it. So here we are and here it be. Is this film worth all the hype? • To help me decide, I enlisted the funniest person I know, Tiffany B, to chat clowns, misery and a subtle smokey eye. • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen the film or not, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

I don’t dig on horror films too much. The feeling of terror is one that carries none of the thrill it does for others. Terror is terror, and should be avoided like phone conversations and gin based cocktails. But for reasons that escape me, I found myself drawn to It when it came out in 2017. The trailer was great, the clown stuff is creepy, and I was rewarded with a top notch film. Scary, sure, but rooted in character and meaning. • So now we’ve got the 2nd installment, where the kids I grew to know in the first one have now become Hollywood adults. All of them. Even the weird one who didn’t leave their home town is played by the Old Spice guy. • But as we all know, attractive people don’t necessarily make films good. I mean look at Ocean’s 12. So is this worth your while? • To help me decide, and give me strength, I enlisted the help of Tiffany B, someone I know is even more of a fraidy cat than I am. • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen the film or not, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

As a man terrified of death, I often find myself drawn to cinematic examinations of it. If I stare into the abyss (with my hand held tight by a great movie) for long enough, then maybe I’ll start to see some comforting logic unfurl to soothe me on this bleak and meaningless rock hurtling through space. • One of the things that helps push back the darkness is my love of bao. I love the cloud-like dough, I love the intensely tasty insides, and I love that they fit neatly in your hand. I love bao. Especially on screen. No other food will make me food horny quicker. • So to find this, a film that deals with mortality, and also is set amongst a Chinese family which means that delicious-looking food is never far away, is a rare treat indeed. But, bao aside, is it any good? • To help me decide, I enlisted the help of Tiffany B, someone else who both gives my life meaning and makes me food horny. • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen the film or not, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

It’s always trepidatious jumping into a film series after the first one. Will I be able to keep up? Will there be plot points that don’t make sense to me? In the case of Hobbs and Shaw however, technically the 9th installment in the car-based Fast and the Furious series, I think I might be ok. • It’s The Rock and Jason Statham saving the world through punching. There are still cars, but much more emphasis on the aforementioned punching. Men, cars, robots. There’s nothing these guys can’t punch. But is the high level of punchery indicative of a high level of quality? • To help me decide, I enlisted the help of a woman as fast as she is furious, Tiffany B, and a couple of Flix first-timers, Jen and Sara. Because who better to review the latest film in a series aimed at the teenage boy in all of us than 2 married couples who’ve seen hardly any of the preceding films? • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen the film or not, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

He’s a pervert, occasionally abusive to women, puts actors in danger and I’m confident that if I spent more than 10 minutes in his company I’d find him to be a little much, but god dammit Quentin Tarantino knows how to throw a film together. • From his attention grabbing debut with Reservoir Dogs, his films have always had energy and controversy and Sam Jackson. His latest, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, has no Jackson, and plenty of controversy. But is it any good? • To help me decide, I grabbed Tiffany B, got her to pop her shoes off, stared at her bum for a bit, then cut her ear off and got chatting. • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen the film or not, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

4th films are often pants. For every Rocky IV or Fury Road, there's an X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Catcher, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or even, god help us, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. • It's a long list of crud, that many film franchises have avoided being on simply by sticking with 3 films. But not Toy Story. They said 'to hell with it, no one's asked for this, everyone loves the original trilogy, but we're so confident with these characters that we're going to wheel them out for a number 4’. • Was it a terrible idea? Is the film more Thunderball than Endgame (which is technically the 4th Avengers film)? Tiffany B joins me to work out whether the film is FOURmiddable or FOURgettable. • Cheers!

My wife and I went to a bar with our dog, Baxter, and got into a conversation about the best Disney songs of all time. It was a typical, fun, light-hearted conversation that many people might have. And then I went and ruined it. I grabbed my bag, grabbed the dog, grabbed my wife and ran home. I knew, in my heart of hearts, that this conversation would make a fun little 30-minute episode of Flix. We made our picks, we had some laughs, and because we'd had a couple of drinks, we were both absolutely fine with singing. So listen to this podcast, tell us what YOUR GoldSilverBronze of Disney songs is, and be thankful you're not married to someone who will yank you out of a fun night out to run home and record a podcast. Listen and love!

And then Endgame finished, and I caught my breath, dabbed myself dry from tears and other stuff and pondered to myself: "What's next?” • Well, it's this. Spider-Man: Far From Home. It's the film with the unenviable task of following the 2nd biggest film of all time, at a time when it's still fresh in people's minds (indeed in certain places people can still watch it in cinemas). And how do you follow such a behemoth? Well, by bringing in Jake Gyllenhaal, because when has that ever been a bad idea? Aside from Prince of Persia. • To provide the level headed response to such a film, and to comfort me through the fact that, having seen this film, I find myself in an MCU desert, where no other films have been confirmed in their release dates so I JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT I HAVE TO LOOK FORWARD TO ANYMORE, is Tiffany B, the true hero in all of this. • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen the film or not, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

A review: • "SATC2 takes everything that I hold dear as a woman and as a human—working hard, contributing to society, not being an entitled cunt like it's my job—and rapes it to death with a stiletto that costs more than my car. It is 146 minutes long, which means that I entered the theater in the bloom of youth and emerged with a family of field mice living in my long, white mustache. This is an entirely inappropriate length for what is essentially a home video of gay men playing with giant Barbie dolls" - Lindy West • But it can't be THAT bad, can it? To help me decide, I enlist the help of the best woman I know, Tiffany B, to see if the women presented in this film are worthy of the feminist labels they've been carrying around since 1998. • There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen the film or not, there's something for you to listen to! • Cheers!

Ok guys, here it is. It feels as though my life has been building to this film for some time now, and to have seen it and experienced it now leaves me somewhat deflated. No need to look forward to it anymore, because I've seen it. I feel like someone emerging from a nuclear fallout shelter to gaze out upon a decimated planet and wondering, "now what?" If you'd like to put a smile on my face, to give me some level of meaning in this meaningless desert, you could do a lot worse than listening to this. It's me roping my wonderful wife Tiffany B into chatting about Endgame with me, and discussing its pros and cons. We laugh, we ponder, we get angry, and we get emotional (Tiffany keeps her shit together, I do not). Give me 90 minutes of your time, on a commute, on a morning walk, or when you're having a deep bath. Show me that life AE (after Endgame) is worth living. There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen the film or not, there's something for you to listen to! Cheers!

Typical. You wait for decades for a decent Captain Marvel film, and two come along in a few months! But this is, of course, nothing to do with Marvel's Brie Larson-starring behemoth. No, this is DC's Zachary Levi-starring hopefully behemoth, a film that hopes to emulate the empowerment young women felt when watching their Captain Marvel destroy spaceships without breaking a sweat, and empower young men to have the confidence to foil muggings, busk and fake their way into buying beer. Higher faster further indeed. Whether you've seen it or not, there's something for you, so have a listen!

It takes a lot to get Tiffany B and I excited about a horror film. There've been scant examples of us actually leaving the house in order to see something that's deliberately setting out to scare us. Us was one of those films. We'd seen Get Out and loved it, we'd seen a crackerjack trailer and loved it, we also watched some Key and Peele and really enjoyed it even though there was a strong likelihood that it would have zero bearing on the film. Did we go in with expectations too high? Maybe. But a lot of the early reviews seemed to suggest that expectations couldn't possibly be too high. Get 'em higher, the reviews seemed to suggest. And so, with expectations grazing the clouds, we plunged into the world of rabbits and jump suits and those bloody golden scissors. Whether you've seen it or not, there's something for you, so why wouldn't you have a cheeky listen on the way to work? Listen and love!

D-U-M-B-O! D-U-M-B-O! D-U-M-B-O! D-U-M-B-O! He's D! Directed by Tim Burton. He's U! Unlikely to win an Oscar. He's M! Mixed reviews. He's B! Blessed with a pretty great cast. He's OoooooooOOOOOOooooooo! Tiffany B joins me to find out whether cinema's favourite pachyderm is worth all the pachydough they spent on the film. Whether you've seen it or not, there's something for you, so why wouldn't you have a cheeky listen on the way to work? Listen and love!

The MCU is back. After what seemed like years of time but was actually closer to 8 months, we are back in the comforting bosom of the multi-billion dollar grossing behemoth. Marvel have done that Marvel thing of grabbing a director (or in this case, pair of directors) whose largest film to date cost the same as the average Marvel wig budget, and told them that as long as they bring a keen eye for characterisation and moments of nuance in amongst the destruction, that the crazy action will kind of take care of itself. And so it is Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden who have been brought into the limelight, along with their star, Brie Larson, to wage a war on the Skrulls, on Thanos, and on insecure arseholes on the internet who can't help but equate a female-led superhero film with their own castration. It's a tough job, but as someone who's married to someone like me, I know that women are pretty comfortable with tough jobs. That tough-job-haver herself, Tiffany B, joins me here to add her opinion, and her adoration of Annette Bening. Whether you've seen the film or not, we've got something for you. Listen and love!

Most of the time you watch films and they’re in the right language, but then sometimes the film is in another language and you have to read the film. It’s tricky, because you can’t look at people’s faces as much as you’d like because you’re looking at the bottom of the screen where the writing is. Sounds rubbish, right? But here’s the thing. Some people love them! Some people love them so much in fact that they nominate them for the Best Picture at the Oscars! Outrageous, right? They’re not even in English! Roma is one such film. Alfonso Cuaron’s black and white ode to his childhood maid/housekeeper/servant is making every reviewer in the world kiss it’s butt with big, vague lips. Is it all that and bag of tortilla chips? To find out, I enlisted the help of MY housekeeper Tiffany B. I felt her insight would be SO important in this endeavour. #representation Listen and love!

Newsflash guys: Back in the bad old days, people didn't like each other simply because of the colour of their skin. They looked at the amount of melanin in that person's skin, and if it disagreed with their paint colour chart, they were super mean to them, up to and including murdering them. That kind of mean. Obviously that never happens anymore because we're all cleverer than that, but that's why we're so lucky that films like Green Book are made, to remind us of how racist people were when the film was set... I want to say 250 years ago? To decide whether this film, starring MAhershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen, was any good I chatted with the biggest Mahershalady (it's what his fans call themselves maybe) Tiffany B. Listen and love!

I needed an oasis of geekery in the midst of all the award season movies. I put up the geeky signal into the sky, and Aaron Sosa swooped in to save the day. Here, we detail which films have piqued our curiosity, which we're not too fussed about, and which film we're not sure will even be released. Listen and love! And let us know which films YOU'RE looking forward to this year!

A lot of people's gods don't like gay people. It's strange to think of an omnipotent deity concerned with where you like to put your tongues and hands and gonads. Seems like there'd be bigger fish to fry. But sure enough, a lot of people's personal gods just find it abhorrent to lay with another of your own gender. For those looking to make the change for gay to not gay, helpful people provide camps where you can go to rid yourself of the compulsion to do naughty things with naughty parts that look like your naughty parts. And I assume they're all happy places, right? Because people are getting closer to god? Or does it not generally work out that way? Well, you can find out in Boy Erased! I'm joined by my wife, Tiffany B, to discuss the film, and by necessity religion in general. It's a real positive discussion, honest. Listen and love!

Power struggles. Fancy costumes. Very well spoken meanness. All these are hallmarks of period dramas. But along comes a film like The Favourite (check the spelling, yanks), which dares to step away from convention in two main areas. 1 - This film is funny. 2 - The leads are... WOMEN! I know. Not content with taking our jobs, taking our Senate seats, and taking our balls, now they've come for flouncy costumes and being funny. THOSE WERE OUR THINGS, YOU XX CHROMOSOME ARSEHOLES! Still, it'll keep Tiffany B happy at least. Whether you've seen The Favourite or not (and you should, it's won Golden Globes now), this is an appropriate podcast for you to listen to. At least the beginning! Listen and Love!

Aquaman, Aquaman, does whatever an Aqua can Talks to fish, they're his allies Can rock the boat, make it capsize Look out! Here comes an Aquamaaaan. Is Aquaman terrible? Does something smell a bit FISHy with the film's quality? Is it a wasted opporTUNAty? Do the filmmakers need to go back to SCHOOL? Should they have left the filmmaking to SALMON else? Is it just a load of CARP? Are they GILLty of making a bad film? Is it a SOLEless mess? Is it aTROUTcious? Or are these just FISHious rumours and it's actually good? To help me find out, I'm joined by my own little mermaid, Tiffany B. Listen and love!

I wish I may I wish I might On this star I wish tonight I want some things from films in 2019 I want them now I want them all and I don't care how Merry Christmas!

How many Spider-Men is too many Spider-Men? We've already seen 3 separate cinematic Peter Parkers swing and web and suffer and chafe since 2002, and in that time we've all become pretty well versed in the trials, tribulations and travails of the wall crawler. So how to bring out another Spidey film without it seeming rote and played out? You have a Spider-Man film that isn't about Peter Parker! Yeah, Peter shows up anyway (3 different Peter Parkers in fact), but the familiar story beats are swept through and rejiggered in a way that give you a different angle on the classic character. But this isn't Peter's film. It's Miles Morales' time to shine. But how shiny is he? To discuss, I am joined by the supercool Spider-Gwen to my genetically altered pig, Tiffany B. Listen and love!

Feminism. What's it all about REALLY? Is it a vindictive plot to emasculate the male population with snide comments and the wiggling of little fingers? Is it an attempt for them all to gain access to our bathrooms so they can ogle us when we drop our trousers and underwear to our ankles when we wee in a urinal? Or is it, as Steve McQueen asserts in Widows, his latest movie, women having to clear up after men have made lots of mistakes? As a man who is currently on a 32-year hot streak of making mistakes, I have to say I'm not too upset if that last one is true. Starring Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki and Michelle Rodriguez, and co-written by Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn, Widows tells the story of a group of women forced to pull of a heist to steal the money to cover the debts their criminal husbands died with. Joining me to discuss this is the clearer of the bulk of my mistakes, Tiffany B. That's right, a woman on a podcast! Welcome to the future, fellas! Listen and love!

It's a testament to the power and importance of Stan Lee, that even I, an absolute nobody making a movie podcast that no-one listens to, feels the need to pay tribute to him in some way. This is what I came up with. Joining me, as ever, is the Joan Lee to my Stan Lee, Tiffany B, who gamely suffers through my fanboying in silence, as is her role in these podcasts sometimes. Listen and love!

Guns are obviously awesome. They look exciting, they sound loud, and you can spin them around like a cowboy and put them in a holster and you look like the coolest person in the world. The issue with them, and something that a lot of people overlook, is that using a small explosion to propel a chunk of metal at incredible speeds can also be quite dangerous, because if the aforementioned chunk of metal comes into contact with something softer than it, like human bones or human organs or human skin, then it'll just smash right through them. In some extreme cases, when the metal smashes through these key components of human beings, the human being struggle to be alive anymore. Which is a long winded way of saying that I don't know how to make an introduction of a film about a policeman shooting an unarmed black man funny, so maybe it can just be weird. Joining me is Tiffany B, who will endeavour with me to make the actual podcast discussion interesting and not depressing. I spew vitriol about teenage girls for a while, so that's something! Listen and love!

Tiffany B loves gothic horror stories. So to redress the balance caused by dozens of comic book films, sometimes it's nice to dive into the world of top hats, formality, grisly murder, and ghosts. And this one's made by Guillermo del Toro! It can't possibly be bad, right? Join Tiffany B and myself as we delve into this rich visual feast and work out whether it goes bump in the night, or yawn in the early afternoon. Listen and love!

Spider-Man may well be my favourite character in all of fiction. I carry a lot of love for that awkward teenage klutz. And a decent amount of love filters through osmosis to his supporting cast, including Mr Venom. He is arguably the most famous rogue in Spidey's extensive and celebrated gallery. But can he stand up on his own? Or without Peter Parker, is he just a pile of goop on the floor? To answer this, I enlist the help of my very own She-Venom, Tiffany B. Listen and love!

Isn't it strange to watch a film featuring widespread racism in this day and age? I can barely remember people being racist, and I'm old. Luckily for us, Spike Lee comes through to remind us of the bad old times, and the progress we've all made as a species, with this historical document of black people not having the best time of it against the terrors of the Coo Clucks Clan. Listen and love!

When will it end? When will you be sufficiently entertained? When will Tom Cruise get to stop trying to kill himself? When is enough enough for you monsters? Just let him rest.

Netflix is a hassle sometimes. If it only gave you a choice of 8 films to watch at any given time, you'd watch a ton of stuff you'd never heard of before, and choose what you wanted really quickly. But it shows you 8,000 films and asks you to wade through them to find the gem you want. But then sometimes, as you're sweeping through like a searchlight looking for escaped prisoners, you come across something that you haven't seen in ages but have very fond memories of. And then you ask your wife if she's seen it, and she says no, and so you press play and you watch it and then you record a podcast about it, and then you post it and write a thing about it and you kind of run out of ideas but if you just keep typing it'll make sense eventually, right? RIGHT?!

Tiffany B encouraged me, I think knowing how cool I am, to catalogue every rating I had given to films through Flix and my instagram account. I did it, I loved it, and I wanted to talk about it, because there's some odd decisions in there. It's not my place to judge past Dan, but I think maybe I'll lay off the hooch before reviewing things in future.

We live in a funny world. We live in a world where a film has been made about Ant-Man (both the Scott Lang and Hank Pym incarnations), the Wasp, Goliath, Ghost, Sonny Burch and Agent Jimmy Woo. There is no character too obscure for the MCU to sweep up in their all-encompassing sperm whale-esque hoovering of comic book history. I'm sitting in wait for Armless Tiger Man to show up in one of them, but until then, I must content myself with this, the 20th installment in the feature-length, multi-million dollar TV series called the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Will it be the first stinker? Probably not, but maybe. We've got 11 minutes of spoiler-free chat for all the Brits who have to wait until August to see it (thanks, World Cup) and plenty more spoiler-filled chat for everyone else in the world. Listen and love!

It's not 2004 anymore. There's a lot of great superhero films out there. So what can Brad Bird do to keep The Incredibles at the top of the pile? We try to ramble as little as possible here, which leads to a tight 40 minutes of chat. If you haven't seen the film yet, there's still some for you! But if you have seen it and want to discuss (or rather, listen to others discuss) the finer points of this film, listen on! Listen and love!

For a film series based around the idea that a long time ago seems a lot like the future, the idea of pushing the series forward by delving into the backstories of established characters seems par for the course. Do we need these films? Is anyone asking for them? Was anyone desperate to know how Han and Chewie and good ol' Miss Millennium Falcon first met? Absolutely not. But where there's merch to be sold, Disney shall appear. And yes, this was a film that was stricken with production issues, but so was Rogue One and that ended up being amazing. So let's set our expectations to one side (as much as we can) and enjoy with open minds and happy faces the story of the Corellian outlaw with the heart of smuggled gold, Han (pronounced Harn, no matter how English you might be) Solo.

The difficult 2nd album. You've done so well with that first one. People loved it. And then you have to sit down and attempt to hit those same highs with the 2nd. Do you stick with what got you to this point? Or do you mix it up? Deadpool 2 had that same issue. A first film beloved by many, hailed as a rip roaring success, and a breath of fresh air in the superhero movie world. But how do you keep people entertained when the novelty factor isn't there anymore? Let's fine out! Listen and love!

I love movies. Some of those movies I love are good movies, but a lot aren't. A whole lot of the movies I love are movies that most people aren't in love with. It's one of the most important things in life to be proud of one's own particular tastes, and in that vein, here is a review of 2006's Smokin' Aces, written and directed by Joe Carnahan. It wouldn't win any Oscars or end up on any reviewer's 10 Best of 2006, but I love it, and I won at the Oscars so I got to pick the film my wife and I watched, and so here we are. There's still spoiler-free stuff, despite it being 12 years old, and then lots of spoiler-filled, including my best efforts to explain the ending. Listen and love!

My wife has many skills. She's a terrific writer of poetry, the greatest driver I've ever been driven by and used to be a internationally recognised gymnast. But one of my favourite of her qualities is her ability to turn anger into a finely tuned laserbeam of caustic, frustrated speech. It makes me laugh. So I thought a great idea would be to download some films that I knew would make her angry, and get her to talk about them on a podcast. I'm going to call it Tiffany Bait. It's my new favourite thing. This is about Fifty Shades of Grey, the adaptation of the unfathomably successful mummy porn book about how great BDSM is. Or so I thought. There's a spoiler free section and a spoiler filled, but to be honest if you haven't seen this by now you don't care about it, so just listen to the whole thing!

10 years, hours of geeky joy and billions of dollars have been building to the biggest films in history, arguably. A combination of dozens of characters, worlds of affection and protectiveness, and the little matter of the end of the universe. Every instinct in me screams that they can't make a good film with this much going on. But I also said that about Captain America: Civil War, so what do I know? My long-suffering wife, Tiffany B, is as ever along to provide a more rational view, and does it ever so well. She is truly the Proxima Midnight to my Corvus Glaive. For those who haven't seen it, we don't judge, we give you 22 minutes of spoiler-free discussion. For everyone else, there's well over an hour of praise, criticism and spoiler-filled analysis. Listen and love!

My life recently has been a nightmare. Illness, hospitals, tax bills, veterinarians, contemplating the mortality of my loved ones, diarrhoea... It's been grim. So to ease back into the world of Flix, the wife and I decided that Isle of Dogs was the way to go. Wes Anderson is a reliably good filmmaker. His films aren't taxing. This film is about dogs, and due to our love for our dog Baxter being as powerful as a thousand exploding suns, we have to love this film. But did we? We've got about 10 minutes of spoiler-free chat at the beginning of this podcast, and then a big chunk of spoiler-filled chat examining the nitty gritty of this charming, offensive film. Listen and love!

Find out who won the Oscars prediction game! Find out what film the winner is making the loser watch and review! Find out what films SHOULD have been nominated for the Oscars! Find out an interesting story about Stephen King!

Tiffany B and I are film masters. Guys, we watched a bunch of films this year (shout out to MoviePass) so we totally know what we're talking about. Best picture? We saw all the nominees. Best actor? All of them. Best actress? Nailed them. The films, that is. Supporting actors and actresses? Screenplays, both original and adapted? Director? Editor? Animated shorts? Live actions shorts? Guys, we watched ALL of them. Foreign Language film? C'mon, we're not machines...

Loads and loads of Hollywood producers-> "But if I cast a minority actor as the lead in a big budget film, no one will watch it." Marvel-> "Hold my beer." It's a Marvel film, so you know I was all over it. Tiffany B is getting fatigued a little with the Marvel films, but as soon as I told her about the Dora Milaje, Wakanda's all-female elite guard, she was pushing past me in the queue. For both people who haven't seen this already, here's 17 minutes of spoiler-free chat, and for everyone else there's a tonne of spoiler-filled where we get into the nitty and the gritty of this unabashed celebration of African culture, female strength, awesome masks and learning from your enemies. Listen and love!

Comic book movies are getting passe for a lot of people. The standard plots, the generic characters, the good guys always winning. But they still make a lot of money, so who cares? The studios will keep on pumping them out. But for whom? For me! And my good friend Aaron. We love them, love discussing them, love debating them, and love looking forward to them. At the end of 2017 we recorded a discussion all about which of these films we were most looking forward to in the upcoming year, and with Black Panther's imminent release, this was the last possible moment I could publish the podcast. I keep things close to the wire. Listen and love!

The world of artistic expression is wonderful, in large part because there's no hard and fast rules about what makes something good, and what makes something else bad. Subjectivity reigns supreme, and that makes things nice and interesting. With that in mind, please listen to our review of the universally praised awards magnet, Call Me By Your Name. If you don't know whether to see it, we've got 8 minutes of spoiler-free chat to entice you. If you have seen it, I'm sure you'll have lots of opinions that we can either agree with or vehemently disagree with. Either way, Tiffany B and I have got you sorted. Listen and love!

If a film wins Best Picture at the Golden Globes, you're damn right we're going to review it. If you're not sure whether to give this the time of day, listen to the first 7.5 minutes of this. If you have already watched it and want to discuss the nitty and the gritty of this pitch-black comedy, then we've got almost an hour of chat! Featuring my very own Frances 'don't fuck with me' McDormand, Tiffany B, we talk about a film that one of us gives 5 stars to. Who is it? Listen and find out!

Happy New Year! And what better way to look forward into the gaping maw of a new calendar's possibility than by looking back into the damned hellscape of 2017? My loudest friend, Aaron Sosa, and I discussed our favourite comic book movies just before Christmas, and I offer our conclusions and fanboying for your consideration here. Listen and love!

The general pattern of these podcasts is that I provide some squealing and my wife tempers that with some thoughtful analysis. But what happens when I am joined by someone so exuberant, so passionate, so loud, as to turn my fanboyish glee into hushed navel-gazing introspection? An hour and fifteen minutes of chat, that's what. The Han to my Chewie here is noted Star Wars auteur and canvas (he has tattoos) Aaron Sosa, and he goes deeper than a Sarlacc pit with his thoughts and emotions. Recorded after watching the film twice on the bounce and then sleeping for 4 measly hours, this is the most coherent we could be. Listen and love!

Moving to the US has been a wonderful, fattening adventure, with many upsides. But perhaps no upside is greater than the fact that my wife and I get to see Coco, Pixar's latest film, well over a month before we would have done had we still been in the UK. Crazy. But we provide 8 minutes of spoiler-free chat for all you Brits and Amuricans who haven't seen it, and then plenty more spoiler-filled chat for those who have. Listen and love!

I love comic books. I love comic book movies. I especially love Marvel comics. I especially love Marvel comic book movies. I try with all my might to not be biased, but DC films make it difficult. There've been 4 of them so far, and only one has risen to the heights of 'very good'. And that one wasn't directed by Zack Snyder... But I promise I go into each film hoping for the best. As I did with Justice League. It's building on the fine work done by Wonder Woman, it's got all of DC's heavy hitters, and it looks a lot funnier than all of the previous films in the franchise. What could go wrong? To discuss all of the highs and lows, I bring my own Wonder Woman to the mic, Tiffany B, and we talk for ages. As ever, if you've not seen the film, and are interested whether you should drop your hard earned shekels on a ticket, we give you 12 minutes of spoiler-free chat. If you have seen it and want to get into the nitty and gritty, we chat for friggin' ages about all the spoileriffic details. Listen and love!

It's Ryan Gosling's birthday! Well, it was yesterday, and to celebrate, my old lady and I decided to watch a few of his films that we'd missed and then detail our favourite three of his offerings (all spoiler-free). Will our choices match yours? Do you feel like you haven't seen enough of his films and want some inspiration? Listen and love!

I love Marvel films. There it is. I love squealing about them. With that in mind, I really try with this one. I try to present a balanced argument. I try not to let my fanboying fly too much. But then Jeff Goldblum pops in... To make sure there's some kind of logic going on, my wife, my comrade, my voice of reason, Tiffany B is on hand to kick off about how slow people walk. What did you think of the film? Listen! Love! Comment!

Happy Halloween! When thinking about film genres that scream quality, whilst not quite being in the league of 'erotic thriller', one of the poorest faring genres is the slasher film. But was it ever thus? Let's go back to the beginning this Halloween, with Halloween, the film that created the genre. Does a film from the *gag* 1970s hold up? Or is it best left where it is? Find out when Tiffany B and I celebrate the spookiest season with an uncharacteristic horror film. Do you love this film? Let us know!

Netflix is a double edged sword. Lots of selection, but on the other hand, LOTS of selection. Wouldn't it be easier if someone just told you what to watch, to save you of the hours of wading through various categories? Enter: Dan and Tiffany B. Watch The Meyerowitz Storied (New and Selected). Will you love it? Maybe. Not definitely. But if you watch it, you'll gather opinions about it, and be able to listen to the entirety of this podcast, instead of just the first 12 minutes! And really, isn't that the most important thing?

I feel like it's an important thing to be proud of your art-based opinions, even if they're unpopular. Which is why I will proclaim here: I didn't love Blade Runner. Super slow, weird story, kinda rapey in parts. However, it is a perfect film to sequelise, because it created a rich, full world of neon and rain, just begging to be revisted. And who better to revisit than Denis Villeneuve? I havent' seen all his films (subtitles? yuck!) but I love Prisoners, I love Arrival and I... very much like Sicario. Can this French Canadian director with the mostess craft an engaging story amongst the cracking visuals and depressing weather systems of this Replicant-infested future? Listen to find out! We chat spoiler-free for 15 minutes, and then delve into clearly delineated spoilery goodness, so there's something for everyone! Listen and love!

With the imminent release (sexy) of Blade Runner 2049 (a naming trope that I wish more films would adopt, as it would mean that Running Man, that crazy dystopian world of lycra bodysuits and murder game shows, would be called Running Man 2017), I decided it was high time to finally get around to watching Blade Runner, Ridley Scott's 1982 classic. Yes, I hadn't seen it, boo me all you want. As it makes any situation better, I enlisted the help of my very own scientifically developed superhuman, Tiffany B, and we got chatting. There's 13.5 minutes of spoiler-free chat if you, like me, had made it to 2017 without having seen it, and then plenty more spoiler-filled goodness afterwards if you have seen it and want to hear people talking about it in spoilery detail (which is pretty much the whole point of this podcast). Listen and love!

I have made 75 of these podcasts now. 75 of them. Ridic. Especially as 75 is probably around 6 times more than the total number of people who've ever listened to them, but I digest. In this episode, my wife and I celebrate our wedding anniversary by going to see a horror film. Maybe we were drunk. To balance the analysis out so it's not just us talking about the bits we watched from between our fingers, Tiffany's sister Charley (someone of far stronger constitution that us) came on board! We talk about the film in spoiler-free detail for 15 minutes, and then delve into spoiler territory for the rest. Listen and love and let us know what YOU think!

The Thing is one of those films that I love that I was desperate to get my wife to watch, but it was a tough sell. She's not a horror fan and is a feminist, and this is at least in large part a horror film and has 0 female characters. But luckily those geniuses at Cinerama decided to put it on the big screen as part of their 70mm festival, and so I grabbed those tickets with both sweaty mitts. Did the film win her over? Find out inside! There's 10 minutes of spoiler-free chat, and lots of spoiler filled so there's something for everyone. Have a listen and use our patented 5-point rating system to let me know what YOUR thoughts are!

Lawrence of Arabia was nominated for ten Oscars at the 35th Academy Awards in 1963; it won seven in total: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography (Colour), Best Art Direction (Colour), Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama and the BAFTA Awards for Best Film and Outstanding British Film. n 1991, Lawrence of Arabia was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the United States Library of Congress National Film Registry. In 1998, the American Film Institute placed it 5th on their 100 Years...100 Movies list, and 7th on their 2007 updated list. In 1999, the British Film Institute named the film the 3rd greatest British film of all time. But is it any good? To find out, my wonderful wife Tiffany and I watched it (all of it) and here bring you 9 minutes of spoiler-free discussion if you've not seen it, followed by lots of spoiler-filled chat if you have. Something for everyone! Listen and love!

Some films you want to watch right from the moment they're announced (anything with superheroes, most things with Michael Keaton, the Robert Rodriguez Grindhouse film). Some films you get dragged to by friends (Titanic, some horror films before I learned to say no). And some films you're forced to see by the incredible reviews they get. Dunkirk is one such beast. Tiffany B and I saw it en IMAX, as those frogs would say, and then spoke about it at length (we'll get more succinct soon, I promise). If you've not seen it, there's 10 minutes of spoiler-free chat to help you make up your mind, and if you have seen it, there's plenty for you too.

The benefit of Netflix is that it is able to shine a light on films that wouldn't normally get your attention. Films that you saw a nice trailer for once, but then entirely forgot about. It's nice sometimes to stumble upon those films and give them a watch. It's even nicer to then talk about them with someone and make a podcast letting other people know whether they too should take the time to seek this movie out. Is it a diamond in the rough, or rightfully hiding behind it's bigger, better cousins? Tiffany B and I discuss one such film, Table 19. It's got a great cast, a nice premise, and a story by kinds of indie films the Duplass brothers. But does it live up to the mild hype? Listen and find out!

San Diego. The hottest place on Earth. Where better to house thousands of the world's geekiest geeks wearing costumes indoors for 3 days? Anywhere colder, more than likely. This is the Glastonbury, the Woodstock, the Paris Fashion Week, of unabashed passion for comics. Except comics not so much anymore but movies baby, yeah. My glorious wife joins me to discuss all of the movie trailers coming out of this moviepalooza, in spite of the fact that, prior to recording, she warned me that she didn't really have particularly strong feelings about them. And she went and talked to me about them anyway! What a bloody trooper! Listen and love!

Just like everything in the world, sex plays a big part in the movies. There's an accepted wisdom that you won't go and see a film that doesn't feature at least one person you'd happily roll in the hay with, which is why there is a different standard of beauty in tinseltown. A real world 10 would be a TV 7, which is a cinematic 5. And whilst, to celebrate episode 69 (the sexiest of all numbers) I could have initiated an in depth discussion on the inherent flaws in that system, instead I just went with it and had a discussion with my wife, Tiffany B, about the people and characters in cinema that rev our engines. It's a husband and wife having a frank and open discussion about what turns them on cinematically. Will it be weird for you to listen to? Only one way to find out! Listen and love!

In the last 20 years, we've had 6 Spider-man films, including this one. Those 6 films are spread across 3 separate fictional universes, with 3 separate actors portraying Spidey. For the casual viewer, that can be a little confusing. So why the heckedy heck should you go and see this latest one? Well allow me to tell you here, in 8.5 minutes of entirely spoiler-free chat. If you have already seen it, well done, and there's even more chat that delves into the spoiler-filled details of it all. So there's something for everyone in here. If you're a geek, enjoy my references to Sinister Sixes and Miles Morales. If you're a normal, well-adjusted person, enjoy my heavenly wife's musings on superhero fatigue and how much Robert Downey Jr talks. Listen and love!

I love Edgar Wright. His cinematic output as a director is of a very consistently high quality, and he seems from any interview I've seen or heard of him to be a ruddy nice bloke. He is someone who grew up as a consumer, and has funnelled that love of what has come before to create his own artistic legacy by referencing, homaging and honouring his predecessors. He is a geek, and geeks are to be celebrated. But, when you're following up a fantastic trilogy of films and a super fun solo effort, the expectations are high. And then when you release a trailer that is as good as the Baby Driver trailer, those expectations scratch the stratosphere. Can this film possibly live up to the hype I personally placed on it? Listen here to find out, where myself and my sumptuous spouse Tiffany B discuss the film in 11 minutes of spoiler-free chat (so you can decide whether to go and see the thing) followed by plenty more spoiler-filled (so you can find out whether we thought that bit that you loved was as good as you did). Listen and love!

On my recent trip back to Blighty, I managed to snag some time with one of my favourite people to talk movies with, Mr Robin Persaud. And what better way to spend some time in his company than by waxing lyrical about one of David Fincher's best films. How have the last 22 years treated it? Well? Or like they've treated my hair- and waistline? Find out here!

Wonder Woman has taught people around the world that being the lead in a great superhero film does not require a Y chromosome. And that has given a lot of women a lot of self esteem. Now I've always been of the opinion that too much self esteem is a bad thing for everyone. And that's not just for women. But in this case, I'm referring to women. So I thought the time was right to delve into the annals of Netflix and dust off a classic, just to show the women who was to blame for female-led superhero films being thought of in poor terms in Hollywood. It wasn't all this film's fault of course, but lord knows it didn't help. Joining me on this celebration du merde is my favourite person Tiffany B, who I've rewarded for marrying me by making her watch this dross. What's your favourite moment from this film? Sound off in the comments. Listen and love!

I am a man. I like superheroes. All logic dictates that the only superheroes I could identify with would be male. I mean that just makes sense, right? And yet, here we are, with a superhero film STARRING A WOMAN. May wonders never cease. But was it any good? To get a balanced, less-drenched-in-my-testosterone viewpoint, I have enlisted the help of my very own Wonder Woman, Tiffany B. We discuss the film in spoiler-free and spoiler-filled detail, so there's something for you whether you've seen it or not! Listen! Love! Discuss!

In the world of movie remakes, the big question is always "WHY?" What are you adding to the film? What are you taking away? What is changing? What's different? Why the funk are you doing this? I don't always get the chance to see both versions of something, but when I saw Scarlett Johansson stuff herself into the tightest of tight catsuits for her controversial starring role this year, and then Cinerama featured the 1995 animated feature in their Anime festival lineup, I saw the opportunity to take both versions in. Were they any good? Which was better? Were either super racist? Listen now to find out!

I am in the UK this week, which means that we decided to watch and review a film set in London, so as to be... symbolic? I don't know. For whatever reason, we ended up with John Landis' ode to hairiness and practical makeup effects, An American Werewolf in London. It's cited as an inspiration by a cavalcade of directors, and that transformation scene is still talked about with reverence and hushed tones, but does it hold up for two people who're watching it for the first time 36 years after it came out? The glorious Tiffany B joins me once again for this spoiler-free (because WE hadn't seen it before this week) and spoiler filled discussions, so there's something for everyone. If you're looking to skip the spoiler-free, jump to around 13 minutes. Listen and love!

It's always good to try new things. Anime was a stranger to my treasured wife and I, and so when the Cinerama (Seattle's most epic movie experience) had an anime festival, it seemed a very good opportunity to acquaint ourselves with the ways and whys of this most Japanese of movie styles. This is our second toe dipped into the water, and we went in bright eyed and bushy tailed, expecting something spectacular. And spectacular it was. And a bit gross. And very shouty. But was it any good? We discuss the film here in spoiler-free and spoiler-filled detail, so there's something for everyone and you've no excuse to not listen. What do you think of this film? Love it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Let me know!

For regular listeners (so... both of you), you'll know that we at Flix have recently implemented a structure to these reviews, of the Producer's Pitch to give a general understanding of a film without spoilers, and then our 5-point rating system to get into the spoiler-filled nitty gritty of a film. I decided to get more structured for the sake of brevity. But now we come to the system's first big test: a Marvel Studios film. Those who know me will tell with rolled eyes and exasperated shaking of heads how effusive with praise I am for Marvel's canon of films, and have been ever since Iron Man 1, all those moons ago. But I have tried, with this episode, to keep my fanatical wailings to a minimum. It's still almost an hour, but it's far less than I could have done. Joining me in this madness is the long-suffering Tiffany B, who I'm sure just wanted to go to sleep on a Sunday night, and as ever, demands some kind of medal of valour for being my wife. Have you seen the film? What were your thoughts? Let me know! Listen and love!

I have wanted to get into Hayao Miyazaki's films for a good long while. Everyone loves him. He's the animated Japanese children's version of Paul Thomas Anderson. Widely regarded, award winning, seen as very 'worthy'. So when the Cinerama, Seattle's most epic movie-going experience, decided to put on an Anime festival, I knew I had to dive in. So myself and my lovely wife Tiffany B watched, and thought, and then said things into a microphone. And now you can listen to them! If you haven't seen the film, there's a spoiler-free review here, and it's followed by a spoiler-filled review for those who have seen it! So have a little listen and let me know what you think of the film!

My wife and I heard about this Korean film that was apparently really good even though it wasn't in English or anything. So we just watched it on Amazon Instant Video. God, yes, ok, we're cultured, stop making a big deal about it. Turns out, it's actually really good. How good? Well you'll just have to listen to find out. We have around 8 minutes of spoiler-free analysis, followed by plenty more of in depth, spoileriffic discussion. Listen and love!

There is no such thing as a good film. Here at Flix, I am very conscious to try to avoid describing films as simply good or bad, because it's all subjective. There are many factors, entirely aside from quality, that might inform your opinion regarding a particular film. Here, myself and friend of the show Robin Persaud detail some of the films we love, but the world at large seem to almost unanimously believe are bollocks. Are there any of your favourites in here? What are some of your (possibly) guilty pleasures?

Nostalgia is a powerful force. People looking back to their childhoods with rose tinted glasses will step over their own family's graves to relive their glory years. Disney is testing just how far they can push that feeling, by repackaging all of their old classics (seriously, look it up, they're ALL getting remade) and making people pay to see a film that's pretty much something they've seen dozens of times before. Jungle Book wasn't great last year, but it made a tonne of money, so here's Beauty and the Beast for you. Remaking one of the greatest animated films of all time (the first ever cartoon to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars) is a herculean task. How did they do? Tiffany B loves the original film more than she loves me, so her input here was very important. It's spoilers all the way, but you've seen the original, I know you have, so shut up and listen. Hey, shut up and listen. That's a great catchphrase!

It's the birthday of one Quentin Amadeus Tarantino (not his middle name). To celebrate, my wife and I decided to chronicle our picks for his best 3 films of all time. Now, QT isn't the most prolific director (deliberately so, on his part), only having directed 8 films so far (if you put Kill Bill as one film, which is a point of contention for me, as you'll hear from the podcast) so it's likely that there's some doubling up. Do you agree with our picks? What are YOUR GoldSilverBronze Quentin Tarantino films?

My wife, Tiffany B, and I had ourselves a little wager at the Oscars. We made our picks of what we thought would win, and whoever got the most right would get to choose a film, any film, that would be watched by the both of us, and reviewed in a Flix. The film we ended up watching was Doubt, the deliberately-paced film adaptation of a stage play concerning Catholic paedophilia. Guess who won. Even though this is a 9 year old film, we're still sensitive of spoilers, so if you haven't got around to seeing this, fear not, there's still a solid, chunky 15 minutes of podcast for you. For people who have seen it, you'll forgive us if we then take our time dissecting this thought-provoking movie. Sorry, film. This is a film. If I'd have won, you can bet we'd have watched a movie.

What were you doing 17 years ago? Was your life massively different than today? Probably, right? Well Hugh Jackman was portraying Wolverine in X-Men, a film that was so old people didn't even trust that superheroes could wear their costumes on film. And now, in the year of our lord two thousand and seventeen, he is pulling himself into the claws once more. The film is receiving almost universal acclaim and cleaned up at the box office in its first weekend. But is it all it's cracked up to be? If you haven't seen it and want a little push in the right direction, I've got you. If you've seen it and want to discuss all the juicy details of that final act, then I've got you also. I've got you all, in fact. So shove this in your earholes and let me serenade you with intense, geeky thoughts on Mr Jackman's fond farewell to the role that brought him into all of our lives.

And so here it is. Hollywood's biggest night is upon us, and in a few scant hours the winners will be elated and drunk, and the losers will be despondent and drunk. Although really, who cares? A film marketed as starring 'Oscar Winner Emma Stone' is still just starring Emma Stone, and you know who Emma Stone is and whether you like her work or not, so the Oscar thing really doesn't make a difference, right? I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking this. In any event, my wife and I have watched a lot of films in preparation for tonight, including all of the best picture nominees, all of the best directors, and all of the best writing nominees. Impressive right? What, it isn't? Well damn... In any event, we are more clued up for this ceremony than we have been to anything ever, including most exams (I cannot speak for my wife on this last point) and so we're ready and raring to go to give our predictions and our hopes. Join us, to see how well we did! And share your own predictions with us as well!

It's the Oscars today, and in true Daniel Swan form, I've left everything til the last minute. My wife and I have put in a lot of work (ok, going to the movies) over the last few months and we sit now having seen all Best Picture nominees, for the first time ever. We've already done full length Flix's on some (Manchester By The Sea, La La Land, Moonlight and Arrival), so there are a few that needed clearing up. Here they are, as pithily as we could manage (it's not super pithy). So if you haven't seen Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell Or High Water, Hidden Figures or Lion and are interested in our thoughts, here they are, bereft of (anything but very mild and predictable) spoilers. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Let us know! Also stay tuned for another podcast within the next hour! Excitement!