At the Flicks

And so our short Halloween season draws to a close.  Before we return to our crypt, we have one more treat for you.

Niall Browne from Movies In Focus joins us to discuss what would make his perfect Halloween triple movie bill.  He selects a very diverse and entertaining trilogy of vampire films.

We have 

- Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Terror – probably the vampire film that started it all. Niall talks about a very special screening he attended last year which featured an orchestra accompaniment 

- Dracula Prince Of Darkness – Hammer’s Dracula sequel which brought back Christopher Lee.  Why this one out of all the canon of Hammer movies?  Niall relates a very personal story as to why he made this selection.

- John Carpenter’s Vampires – A film that is like a fine wine.  It gets better each year.  John Carpenter’s style, James Woods acting and of course Carpenter’s excellent music score.  What’s not to like?

All that remain for us to say is have a very happy Halloween and we will see you At The Flicks

Bye for now.

Recently Graham and Jeff recorded a podcast about the science fiction films of Stephen King.  That podcast will shortly be available as part of Jo Durrant’s Beautiful Universe series – thanks Jo for inviting us to participate.

One of the comments made during the recording was “you’re wrong” (frequently said to us) “Stephen King is horror not science fiction”.  On such statements worlds turn.  We thought it would be an interesting idea to turn the discussion 180 degrees.  Are Stephen King’s science fiction stories actually horror ones in disguise? An even better idea was to turn that into a podcast for At The Flicks as part of this year’s Halloween series.

That’s it, a novel way to reuse our ideas but from a different perspective.

Now for the sake of clarity we would say we have not duplicated Jo’s show, this is just a subset of titles told in a very different way.  We talk about the following

- Carrie

- The Dead Zone

- Firestarter

- The Running Man

- The Lawnmower Man

- The Stand

Graham and Jeff discuss each of these in turn to decide should it be classed as horror or science fiction.  The result may surprise you.

But what about you, faithful listener, what would you put against each of those titles – a H for Horror or S for Science.  Why not set up your own table in advance and check your results against ours.  Please let us know your scoring.

As for us, we are now off preparing the final Halloween show, the icing on a rather dark cake.  Come back soon to find out what that is.

See you there or perhaps At The Flicks watching Smile 2

What’s better than one Carry On Streaming a month? You guessed it – two! 

Velcome to our annual Halloween Carry On Streaming special for 2024.  Dec is back to tell us what’s best on the various streaming channels for this spooky channel.  And being the second streaming of October it’s only fitting we release this on the second night of our Halloween specials. This year Dec’s selection is mainly scary movies (and who doesn’t love them).  Netflix comes out on top with a few original movies that are well worth watching – we rate Don’t Move and Time Cut very highly indeed.  

Of course, it wouldn’t be Dec if he didn’t recommend at least one subtitled TV series to annoy Jeff, so this year he picks two.  Of the two we think Don’t Come Home is truly terrifying.  

But we don’t stop at streaming – there are also a few radio recommendations for you.  Danny Robins has a special Uncanny for the season and Jeff tells us a real-life ghost story connected to that show.  You’ll have your light on all night after listening to that tale.

Even Graham gets into the spirit and watches a horror film which he actually enjoyed (at least that what he’s telling us). 

We hope this helps in your Halloween planning.  Come back tomorrow for another in our short Halloween season. 

Bye for now.

Welcome to the start of our annual Halloween season.

Halloween is famous for its tricks and treats. So, for regular listeners to the show, we start off with a treat, a Phil and Jeff movie review. It’s the box office hit of the season, Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which has just been released on streaming (and is still showing in cinemas if you fancy the big screen experience).

Before you check out this comedy horror, why not give our spoiler free review show a listen? A note of caution, it proved to be too scary for Graham who refused to go into the cinema.

As you would expect from a Jeff and Phil review, there will be extreme viewpoints, ramped up to 11, for this show. Phil believes Tim Burton is a sell out and this is just another commercial example, while Jeff calls it a 2024 masterpiece and Tim Burton’s most personal feature in years. In fact, Jeff acclaims this sequel as better than the original. Those are fighting words in some circles!

Apart from talking about the film itself, the fatigued duo also discuss Tim Burton’s career. Phil continues with his sell out theme for recent years and Jeff, while praising the director, makes the startling discovery concerning which films of Mr Burton’s back catalogue he has missed.

After that, all three challenge each other to come up with a triple Tim Burton movie evening for Halloween. To find out what everyone picked you’ll have to listen to the show. However, dear listener, what would your pick be – what would make the perfect Tim Burton triple bill, please let us know what your thoughts are.

We hope this review starts your Halloween season with a smile. Come back tomorrow for another in our short Halloween season.

Bye for now.

Our Autumn Carry On Streaming show has finally arrived! Not just a show, more life counselling guidance.  Host Declan is back, giving you something to be entertained by as the nights draw in and the constant rain dampens everyone’s mood. 

To make this selection, Dec spent his Summer wading through the mire to make sure we only recommend the very best.  Shows you may have missed from earlier in the year such as Ripley, The Gathering and Dark Matter.  Or, if you are up to date, what’s hot for the season.  There’s BBC’s excellent comedy drama Ludwig starring David Mitchell or the latest Slow Horses from Apple TV with Gary Oldman once again on top form. 

And that’s just a taster of what we discuss.  How about that for a starter?  And if all this isn’t enough,  Dec’s Halloween streaming selection is coming very shortly.

At The Flicks – we only recommend the best.  See you very shortly for our spooky spectacular.

Way back in episode 220, we spoke to American novelist and journalist Jared Feldschreiber about his excellent novella Reckless Abandon.

One of the strengths of the story is how it weaves real life and fictional characters together in its tapestry. One of those real-life characters who crosses the pages is legendary actor Dustin Hoffman. It is well known that Dustin Hoffman is something of a perfectionist, always looking to attaining excellence in his work, and driving others to do the same. This has led to some critics calling him difficult to work with, yet his technique has produced incredible performances in such films as Rainman, The Graduate and Midnight Cowboy. It’s also true that not everything he has done has been successful; that’s what happens when you take risk. Some of those less successful films contain some incredible Dustin Hoffman performances that are sadly not as well known as that found in his more successful work.

Recently we have been talking to Jared about this very topic and collectively thought it would be interesting to create a short series of shows to highlight some of those now forgotten films and the work Dustin created for them. Our aim is to bring these movies to your attention and perhaps encourage you to give them a second chance (or even a first chance if you haven’t seen any of them before).

First up and the subject of this show is Billy Bathgate. This is a 1991 feature based on the acclaimed book by E L Doctorow about the influence 30’s gangster Dutch Schultz has over a young impressionable teenage in the Bronx during that tough decade. Sadly, the feature was a box office disappointment for Touchstone pictures on first release and has been overshadowed by other more acclaimed gangster films from the same period, such as Goodfellas and Bugsy.

During our discussion about Billy Bathgate we will talk about:

· The production problems

· Was Dustin Hoffman miscast?

· Is this Shakespearean in approach?

· Bruce Willis’s performance

· The real Dutch Schultz

· The positive qualities of the movie

And more besides…..

Have you seen Billy Bathgate? If so what did you think about the film – do you think it is worth revisiting?

Please let us know.

Until our next visit to Dustin Hoffman lost classics, we’ll see you At The Flicks

The At The Flicks team have often been referred to as Brats (ok, just one member in particular), so when Darren suggested we review a movie called Brats, it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

It is not however our origins story.  Instead, it is a documentary about the mid 80’s movie brat generation, told by one of their own.  Actor turned director Andrew McCarthy (who appeared in St Elmo’s Fire and Less Than Zero), felt that the term movie brats, as coined by writer David Blum, was something of a put down.  While it’s certainly true that the article that coined that term was less than flattering about that unique generation of actors, for many of us at that time, a “movie brats” movie was something to seek out and savour. 

For Andrew McCarthy, both the director and essentially on-screen narrator, Brats became a voyage of self-discovery as he revisited both the past and other members of the so called Brat Pack.  He chats to Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore and Ally Sheedy amongst others.  What emerges is a fascinating study of youthful American movies of the period coupled with a satisfying self-reflection story.

As for the At The Flicks team, things we learnt in our discussion were:

·         The Breakfast Club and The Cotton Club are not related.

·         Why we believe Anthony Michael Hall wasn’t referred to

·         Why Molly Ringwald didn’t appear in the documentary

·         Why Graham and Darren hate the music video of John Parr’s song Man In Motion (Jeff on the other hand loved it)

·         Which one of the participants gave the most insightful reflection on the past

Oh, and the team all realised they dislike the author of the original article, who is interviewed by Andrew McCarthy later in the documentary.

So, if you have an interest in 80’s cinema then this is a documentary you really don’t want to miss.  We all gave it a thumbs up, which means Phil wasn’t in the review group!

See you for the next gonzo review show or At The Flicks 

Bye for now

The hot horror movie ticket this Summer has been Longlegs, a film directed by Osgood Perkins (son of Anthony), which stars Maika Munroe and Nicolas Cage.   For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s a serial killer movie (which becomes something much darker as it progresses), set in the early 1990s.  Ah, I hear you say, doesn’t that sound like the Oscar winning Silence Of The Lambs? Indeed, there are some similarities. To investigate this connection further and of course review the movie, we sent in our intrepid FBI team.  There’s agent Jeff, the cynical one whose seen it all before, then there’s agent Phil, certainly our Fox Mulder and finally there’s agent “let’s hide under the bed as it’s too scary”, or as we know him, Graham.  Yes, Graham had decided even though this is a pop-up review show, there is no way he was going to pop up from behind the sofa to watch this!  That left Phil and Jeff, who you will not be surprised to learn had very different opinions on this one (do they ever agree?).  Their mission, apart from discussing the movie, was also to persuade Graham to check it out.  Get out from behind that furniture and press play!  As for what Phil and Jeff thought, Phil, who loves many modern horror films, loved its bold take on storytelling and scares.  Jeff, who mainly can leave modern horror films, hated it.  I believe his words were “all marketing and no content”. Check out our review show for two very different takes on what has proved to be a box office smash, although there was one surprising moment when they both praised an aspect of Longlegs.  There was only that one brief moment of agreement After all that, do you think Phil managed to talk Graham into watching Longlegs?  Check out the show to find out, but don’t be too surprised by the answer!  Until the next pop-up review, coming sooner than you think. Bye for now and see you At The Flicks

It’s been a long time since we revisited the classics with Elijah (the last one was show 174 where we talked 60’s Bond). It’s way past time we returned to that fascinating series and our return is SUPER.

Yes, we are talking Superman The Movie (1978) starring the late, great Christopher Reeve.

A film so big we also had to bring in the talent that is Niall from Movies In Focus. Not only is Niall a fan of this film, he has previously discussed it with the film’s legendary director Richard Donner. So, we have three fans in Niall, Graham and Jeff and newbe Elijah who had never seen it before (but, in an interesting contrast, is a fan of Zack Synder’s take on the story).

The scene is set for a fascinating discussion on a superhero from yesteryear.

Just what will you learn listening to this podcast:

- Who else was up for the role of Superman

- How Brando jokingly described how he was going to play the role to Richard Donner

- Who else was in the frame to write the music which has gone on to be one of John Williams most recognisable scores

- Which one of the team thinks Margot Kidder is the ultimate Lois Lane (and how all the others then disagreed)

- The original endings for Superman The Movie and Superman II.

A podcast which like the film is big, full of fascinating points of view and facts. Even Jeff doesn’t go off on one this time!

Please let us know what you think – if you enjoy it, we will bring our version of the Justice League (and Graham’s super villain) back to discuss Superman II.

Until then, see you at The flicks, perhaps standing in line with Elijah for the James Gunn take on the caped crusader.

Bye for now.

On previous episodes we have spoken to Phil Foster aka Phil The Bear about his fascinating series of director profiles. That’s where Phil watches all of the films linked to a major director and writes an in-depth article analysing both their career and their output. Following the article being published, we at At The Flicks then bring a small team together to discuss the work and the director in question with Phil.

That approaches changes with this profile.

Rather than take that holistic approach, we asked Phil to rate his top five Martin Scorsese features based on his rewatches. We wanted a top five and that’s what we got. So over six upcoming episodes we will discuss those five top selections. Wait, I hear you say, why six shows for five films? Well, after talking about the five (in reverse order) we will have our usual show to discuss the director and their career.

So, who is the first director for this new format? It is the colossal talent that is Martin Scorsese, and, trust me listener, it was a tough choice to get Phil to get his favourites down to five for this series. Also, they are not obvious selections – take this first one, number five in Phil’s list – The Color Of Money.

Yes, Phil has selected what many thought at the time (mid 80’s) as Scorsese sellout to commercialism movie, starring acting legend Paul Newman and up and coming new kid on the block Tom Cruise. It is also a sequel to a film (The Hustler) that was not made by him.

We talk about all of that in our entertaining podcast as well as:

- Who offered the project to Martin Scorsese

- Female characters in his movies

- If The Color Of Money can be classed as a sports film

- What other roles members of this cast could have played in future Scorsese features

- Was Paul Newman’s Best Actor Oscar deserved

- And much more

Please come with us on our Martin Scorsese journey – and think about this, if The Color Of Money is number five, what could possibly be number four?

The answer is coming in a few episodes time – until then, stay safe and we’ll see you At The Flicks.

Bye for now.