Friends on Friends

Lisa Kudrow is back with Billy Crystal for the sequel to Analyze This. Does the follow-up live up to the surprisingly enjoyable original? Absolutely not! In fact, this is patient-zero for explaining why comedy sequels are often a bad idea.

We're entering into the penultimate season of our series of watching every movie starring a Friend from Friends! Season 9 has some highlights (maybe the best Thanksgiving ep!) and some lowlights. Which is refreshing since last season of movies pretty much only had lowlights.

Matthew Perry hits an unfortunate nadir with this romcom? redux of Midnight Run. Perry plays a process server who flips the script with the help of his mark Elizabeth Hurley.

The Good Girl...a good movie! We finally break the streak of stinkers with Aniston's first real movie success The Good Girl. Aniston breaks free of her Rachel vibes with this pitch black comedy about a small Texas town and a boy named Holden...or is that Tom?

Lisa Kudrow does a favor for a friend (and a disfavor for the rest of us) by appearing in the film Bark! about a woman who thinks she's a dog. Kudrow plays a Southern(?) veterinarian who starts making out with the dog woman's husband. It's very dull.

What is there to say about this slog of a film. Vincent Gallo plays the world's least-convincing late night host? Tate Donavan is Courteney Cox's cross-dressing boyfriend. There's no plot to speak of. Courteney...what are you doing?!

Matt LeBlanc dresses like a woman to infiltrate a Nazi code-making factory. No, it's not a Joey subplot, it's All the Queen's Man a dire action-comedy that's light on both.

Let's take a look back at the movies and ahead at the show (or is it the other way around?). Rachel and Joey! Pregnancy! Phoebe's many guest star boyfriends. All this and more on Friends on Friends.

Mark Wahlburg lives his metal dreams as he gets promoted from lead singer of a tribute band to the real deal in Rock Star. Jen is the supportive, but suffering, girlfriend/manager along for the ride in this confused blend of comedy and drama.

Courteney Cox pretends to be her own therapist in order to win the heart of her hunky neighbor in this truly dire romcom.

Lisa Kudrow has a narratively pivotal, but yawn and you'll miss it voice role in Eddie Murphy's Dr. Dolittle 2. The plot is about trying to get her to hook up with a circus bear to save a forest from demolition. Doesn't Dr. Dolittle have better things to do?

Courteney Cox stars in what might be the dumbest movie we've covered on the pod so far. Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner are part of a slew of Elvil impersonators who rob a casino during Elvis week, but then the real trouble begins. Courteney plays the world's worst mom with a thing for Kurt.

Matt LeBlanc plays the boyfriend of Lucy Liu in McG's candy-colored cartoon extravaganza, Charlie's Angels.

Do you feel lucky? Well you might if you skipped Lucky Numbers, Nora Ephron's attempt at a black comedy Lisa Kurdrow stars with John Travolta in a saggy heist set in Harrisburg, Pa. Some good performances can't quite save a tone that never quite gels.

Guest stars galore, a wedding between two of our Friends and the Holiday Armadillo! It must be season 7 of Friends! Jacob and Danielle take a look at the next season of the show before diving into the movies that came out during it.

David Schwimmer is a priest in a New Mexican town that goes wild for a severed hand that grants miracles. Woody Allen is also there.

Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton and Lisa Kudrow...how could you miss? That's what Danielle and Jacob try to figure out as we break down the dull dramedy Hanging Up.

Jacob and Danielle are joined by a special guest for this VERY special episode! Hockey loyalty, Jacob's sexual awakening, Bruce Willis' hunkdom and more in this episode of Friends on Friends!

You'll Scream 3 times when you see Courteney's bangs in this one! How does Scream 3 compare to the rest of the franchise (not well). What actress does her best to win over Danielle? Who names a character Cotton? All this and more on Friends on Friends!

Matthew Perry has to pretend to be gay to protect his gay partner's mortgage, but falls in love with Neve Campbell in the surprisingly underrated Three to Tango!

Lisa Kudrow makes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance in the '90s pregnancy horror film, The Unborn. She plays the receptionist for an OBGYN who is genetically mutating fetuses to be stronger and more evil. Can a movie with exploding fetuses be pro-life? Are those Lisa Kudrow's clothes from home? Answers to these and more await!

It's time for a new season of movies, so we caught up with our Friends to see where everybody is this season! Season 6 features one of our favorite guest stars (from a future movie!), some nice single eps, and a proposal!

David Schwimmer ekes through with his dignity intact in the awful anti-gun Pulp Fiction knockoffIt's the Rage. In the film, he plays Andre Braugher's depressive lover who's erotically charged by guns.

Plan your bad movie night now, because we've got a contender in The Runner. Courteney manages to eke by with her dignity despite foot fetishes, pooped pants, exploding dogs and the one bad performance John Goodman ever gave.

The Friends on Friends have our first animated film to cover, and guess what...it's a masterpiece! Things get heavy as we talk Cold War annihilation and gun violence, but also tackle lighter subjects like "Who WB wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger to play in the Iron Giant" and "What does Danielle think Boba Fett looks like?"

Billy Crystal, Robert DeNiro and Lisa Kudrow team up for the wiseguy yuk-fest Analyze This. Dandy's a new Crystal fan, and we've got two great comedies in a row! Let's keep the hits coming.

Dandy finds great delight in Mike Judge's cult classic Office Space! What's it like sharing a name with a celebrity? What is Kung Fu? How quotable is this movie? All these answers and more on this episode!

Take a look at Friends season 5 in advance of our season 5 films! Does Vegas live up to England as a finale location? How are Monica and Chandler as a couple? Do you have an identical hand twin? All this and more!

David Schwimmer's fiancée is stranded on a tropical island with Harrison Ford in the survival rom-com Six Days, Seven Nights!

Lisa Kudrow joins Toni Collette, Parker Posey, and Alannah Ubach as temp workers at a credit agency in the fun, funny, but slight, Clockwatchers.

David Schwimmer's directorial career kicks off with a rocky start with Since You've Been Gone, the second high school reunion movie in the Friends on Friends canon. Schwim cast a few Hollywood stars like Teri Hatcher and Lara Flynn Boyle, then a lot of Chicago theater pals for this unfunny comedy that was meant for theaters but went straight to ABC.

Matthew Perry and Chris Farley race to beat explorers Lewis and Clark to the Pacific Ocean in Christopher Guest's often forgotten directorial work, Almost Heroes!

Jennifer Aniston falls in love with her roommate, a gay first-grade teacher played by Paul Rudd. Will they end up together? Well, the marketing wants you to think they might!

The '90s Indie Boom is alive with Dream for an Insomniac, a painfully quirky Gen X take on Garden State. Jennifer Aniston puts in a great supporting turn in this time-capsule of a movie.

Get Lost! Lost in Space that is! Matt LeBlanc makes a tragic career miscalculation by starring in this big-budget remake of the '60s TV camp classic. Bad CG, bad dialog, and boobarific costumes make for a surprisingly enjoyable bad movie.

Girls, you ever been stuck between Jason Lee and David Schwimmer in a romantic triangle? No matter your answer, then Kissing a Fool is the movie for you! A nice base-hit romcom with some laughs, some genuine chemistry and a handful of good creative decisions.

Lisa Kudrow co-stars in this Gay Indie Semi-Classic that you have to dig through a heaping helping of homophobia to get to. As the poster says: You'll Laugh. You'll Cry. You'll Be Offended.

David Schwimmer and Chris Cooper invent the breast implant in this early HBO original film. Bad wigs, a rushed plot, and more boobs than Danielle's ever seen in a movie before!

Our favorite Friends on Friends adjacent series returns with Scream 2! Courteney is still killing it as Gale Weathers and has really settled in as the only Friend with an iconic second role!

"I take thee Rachel"?!?! The Friends on Friends team looks back at the season 3 movies and ahead at Season 4 of the TV show in this very special episode.

Jennifer Aniston is sandwiched between Kevin Bacon, Jay Mohr and the perfect promotion in the genuinely funny Picture Perfect! How important is chemistry to a romcom? How many women started wearing backwards baseball caps after this movie? Why do so many women in movies work in advertising? These answers and more await!

Jennifer Aniston sporadically pops up in 'Til There Was You, a romcom with the extremely bad premise of "What if our romantic leads never meet?" Starring Dylan McDermott (or is it Dermot Mulroney?) and Jeanne Tripplehorn, 'Til There Was You is schmaltzy, boring, and badly conceived from jump. Naturally, Jacob and Danielle have a great time dissecting it.

Courteney Cox co-stars in a real stinkeroo, Commandments.Anthony Quin loses faith in God after his wife's mysterious disappearance, so in revenge, he dedicates himself to breaking all Ten Commandments. Cox is his sister-in-law who helps him break the one about adultery. Not much fun is had elsewhere.

Lisa Kudrow gets her first starring role, and it's a doozy! The Friends on Friends gang is visited by Danielle's little brother Steven as we talk Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion. The evolution of '80s nostalgia, accent rankings, freak dancing...this episode's got it all!

Matthew Perry falls for Salma Hayek (as do we all) in the pregnancy rom-com Fools Rush In!

Do you like scary movies? The Friends on Friends crew does, especially when they're as perfectly executed as Wes Craven's meta-masterpiece Scream! Courteney Cox steals scenes and screams as newswoman Gale Weathers and even finds love on set. Listen now!

Lisa Kudrow shows up for a brief, but pivotal role in Albert Brooks' Mother. Is Brooks' neediness annoying or endaring? What is Gunther's relationship with his mother? Should adult men call their moms "mother"? These answers and more await on Friends on Friends!

We've finished the films of Season 2 and are about to jump into the films released during Season 3, but first, let's take a look at one of the iconic seasons of the show! Were Ross and Rachel on a break? How are their careers starting to pan out? What IS the opposite of hiding clothes? All this and more in this episode!

Jen gets another at-bat at indie cred as she co-stars in Edward Burns' sophomore film She's the One. Here, she plays the wife of a Wall Street broker who will absolutely not have sex with her no matter how hard she tries. Does Jen eventually get to get down? Listen and find out!

David Schwimmer tackles his first leading role by amping his Rossitude up by a million in Matt Reeves' debut film, The Pallbearer. Schwimmer plays Tom Thompson, a wannabe architect who is asked to be a pallbearer at his childhood friend's funeral. Just one problem. He has no memory of this friend. Some nice awkward comedy gets bogged down with an overly sincere love plot.

Matt LeBlanc kicks off his very short leading-man film career with the doomed children's baseball-playing chimp movie Ed. See as Matt LeBlanc tries to play mid-Western AND build a believable relationship with what is clearly a person in an ape costume.

Before we dive into the movies made during the second season of Friends, let's take a look at the show during its sophomore year. The cast is living with their newfound fame. Can they recapture the success of that first hit season or was it a fluke? Well...obviously, it continued to be a success, but they didn't know that then. Ross and Rachel, Monica and Richard, Joey and Brooke Shields...pairings galore!

Courteney Cox plays a blind woman who must find a way to describe her attacker to the titular Sketch Artist in this made-for-TV thriller/courtroom drama.

Lisa Kudrow has a small, but powerful role in The Crazysitter, an odd little Beverly D'Angelo comedy directed by MadTV's Michael McDonald. In the film, D'Angelo cons her way into a babysitting job when she decides to sell the children on the black market. Kudrow plays a Sally Jesse Raphael-type daytime talkshow host.

Matthew Perry appears in a real stinkeroo, Getting In. Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) directs this black comedy that's neither dark nor funny. Calista Flockhart, Dave Chapelle, and Kirsty Swanson also appear.

Courteney Cox faces the acting challenge of a lifetime...pretending Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, is a sexual being. In the first episode of Season One, we cover a film that exemplifies the '90s, from its catchphrase comedy to its extremely problematic ending.

The pre-season is over, and we're ready to start covering the films that came out while Friends was on the air! But first, a recap of the season with highlights (Rachel learning laundry!), lowlights (Marcel), and everything in between. Who is set up for movie stardom? Listen and find out!

Matt LeBlanc plays a slimy '50s greaser in Reform School Girl, a made-for-TV remake of the drive-in exploitation classic. Women in prison; tender/exploitative love scenes; Matt LeBlanc saying things like "Daddy-O," this movie's got it all!

David Schwimmer comes into possession of Twenty Bucks in this wide-ranging dramady that follows the travels of a $20 bill as it passes from hand to hand. Schwimmer plays a struggling hair-tonic salesman dating writer Elizabeth Shue. Appearances from Brendan Fraser, Gladys Knight, Steve Buscemi, Christopher Lloyd, and William H. Macy!

Jennifer Aniston gets her start with a starring role in *woof* Leprechaun, a low-budget horror flick that implausibly spawned an 8-film franchise. See what Rachel would be like if she was super mean, and check-in with Lep before he makes his journeys to Vegas, to Space, to Tha Hood, or Back 2 Tha Hood.

Matthew Perry joins a host of sitcom stars from the '80s for the made-for-TV classic Dance 'Til Dawn. Perry partners with potential prom queen Christina Applegate as she dictates the theme of Paris in Puce. Meanwhile, Kelsey Grammar and Edie McClurg rediscover their wild sides, and Alyssa Milano falls in love with a nerd.

Courteney Cox meets He-Man, Teela, Man-At-Arms, and a host of costumed baddies in Masters of the Universe, a low-budget adaptation of the popular '80s toy franchise. Will Courteney survive an electric blast from Skeletor? Can she use time travel to bring back her dead parents? Did any of her Friends co-stars ever see this film? The answers to this and more await in the first episode of Friends on Friends!