At the Flicks

It’s the first holiday of the year (well, it is if you are in the UK). Easter is upon us.

Raining, cold and the added benefit of the kids home from school. No point going away for the holidays as most of the time will be spent in a queue waiting to show your new blue passport! What to do? How about staying home and watching some quality TV?

That’s all very well I hear you say, but how do I know what’s good and what’s not? Luckily, we have an expert to guide you. Yes, Declan returns to advise you on what’s worth seeing – either on catch up on and or something new for the holiday period.

Amongst the highlights we talk about are:

The Gold (BBC iPlayer) – 6 part series about the search for the villains and the missing gold after the 1983 Brinks Mat robbery

Great Expectations (BBC iPlayer) – A new version of the Charles Dickens story, made in a gritty style thanks to writer Steven Knight

A Town Called Malice (Now TV or Sky Atlantic) – A crime thriller set in the 1980’s as a London gang relocate to the Costa Del Sol

Ted Lasso Final Series (Apple TV) – Ted and the gang are back for one last season. Hilarious and heartwarming

**The Power (Prime Video)** – A new science fiction series which we discussed years ago with Kirk Doman

The Cleaner Season 2 (BBC iPlayer) – the latest from Greg Davies

And many more

Plenty for everyone, unless you are our Neil. His viewing is just one show – The West Wing, on constant repeat. We have now had to explain to him a number of times that it is not a documentary and the Trump years really did happen. Hopefully we will make the breakthrough we are all praying for and his viewing return to normal shortly.

For everyone else, have a great Easter and happy viewing, whether on the small or large screen.

See you At The Flicks

Welcome to the first of our two At The Flicks year start shows.

Year start I hear you ask, but it’s almost Easter! A fact we cannot argue with (although Neil tried). However, our shows, like the At The Flicks team, can be compared to a fine wine. Aged to perfection and a perfect accompaniment to your film going menu. Of course, some members (or bottles if you prefer), have aged more than others and come in smaller containers.

Now you, dear listeners, might say we are simply late. And that is the subject of the show – the late obituaries that held special meaning for the At The Flicks team from 2022. Normally this would just be part of the year start show. However we had so much to say, so much eulogising of our heroes, that we did not want to trim down any of our comments. So, we made it a special show in its own right.

Just who are we talking about:

• Philip Baker Hall

• Raymond Briggs

• Robbie Coltrane

• Mike Hodges

• Ray Liotta

Each member of the team made a selection that was personal to them.

As well as those illustrious names, we have our own roll call of greats and some of their achievements.

In short, this show is the At The Flicks tribute to some of the great names that passed in 2022. Enjoy our celebration of their lives.

Until part 2 of our year start show, which we promise to deliver before Christmas, we’ll see you At The Flicks.

In this episode of At The Flicks, your team of Graham and Jeff are talking to novelist and journalist Jared Feldschreiber. Jared has written an evocative novella called Reckless Abandon.

What’s it about, I hear you ask. Here is the description of Reckless Abandon from the Tree Of Film website

“Reckless Abandon. depicts an up-and-coming playwright who deals with the toils of assembling a “dream project” involving Bob Dylan, Woody Allen, and Dustin Hoffman, and is set in the summer of 1984.”

Reckless Abandon gets the thumbs up from the team because of its realisation of a time and place along with its insight into the creative process. We were very fortunate to be able to talk to Jared about his book and his intentions (please note there are no spoilers here, our aim is to encourage you to read his superior work). As well as discussing the novella, we talk to Jared about his time covering cinema for various publications and the festivals he has attended. He is truly a globe hopper, from his formative years in New York and then to other parts of America, spending time in Israel to where he is now currently living, Poland.

He has some fascinating stories which he shares with us. During the course of the show as well as discussing Reckless Abandon at length we also get the opportunity to talk about the current world focus on Eastern Europe from the Poland based Jared. At The Flicks hasn’t done an in-depth interview on this scale for a while. We certainly enjoyed talking with Jared and we hope you enjoy it too, and that it encourages you to purchase a copy Jared’s excellent novella Reckless Abandon (links below). As always, we look forward to our listener feedback.

See you At The Flicks

The title for the show is Darren’s Dash : Found Footage. It’s already upset Jeff he’s always wanted to make an At The Flicks found footage film, there was even a script for it – it’s called The Scare Neil Project.

However, let’s forget Jeff’s dreams (and Neil’s nightmares) and return to this show.

Why that title? Well as Graham explains at the front of the show, it was recorded during the hottest day of the UK Summer 2022. Present for that recording were Darren, Phil, Emma (from Emma At The Movies) Jeff, Graham and Neil. A crowded house. Thankfully they were not all together – that would have made it unbearable. All done remotely. Which created its own problems and ultimately led to the delay.

There were drop outs, near router melt downs, biker dramas and quite possibly a house fire! And you thought all the excitement is in the show. However, there is also plenty of that. There is also an upside to all of this. Given that we are so late in delivering this entertainment to you, you now have the added bonus of being able to watch all of Darren’s selections on the various streaming platforms. Just what has he picked I hear you ask. Well, we have :

Men – The Jesse Buckley / Rory Kinnear horror movie from A24. You can now watch this as part of your Amazon Prime Subscription

Dog – Channing Tatum and his canine friend. A warm hearted drama which is also on Amazon Prime

Wolfwalkers – An animated tale set in a mythic Ireland. This one is on Apple TV.

Everything Everywhere All At Once – The fantasy film with plenty of Oscar nominations. Currently available to rent on most streaming services.

As well as that you get some excellent TV recommendations from Darren.

This is the last Darren’s Dash in this format. We are moving to a new style show which will be uploaded every quarter. The team are currently refining and testing the new format and it is expected the first show will be out before Easter (but we are not telling you which year). That is, unless Graham stores the test tapes under his Easter joint back in that rapidly filling freezer.

Until the next time, when we return to more regular formatting,

See you At The Flicks.

The ramblings team of Elijah, Graham and Jeff are back for another random walk through the world of the movies.

As a special treat, this is one we have been saving for you as it relates to our year end show. In that show we revealed that the At The Flicks film of the year was Top Gun Maverick. Why did we think it was so good? Our ramble gives you some insight into our thinking. We talking excitement, Tom Cruise and fast planes. Interesting show fact, did you know Tom Cruise is one film star that our Graham has to look up to?

After we have waxed lyrical on Top Gun Maverick we also speak about another big hit from last Summer – Jurassic Park Dominion. I won’t tell you our thoughts on that one, you can discover that pleasure when you listen to the show.

Finally on the ramble we give a hint to the next ramble. Elijah’s favourite subject. The Rings Of Power, Amazon’s big series from last Autumn. This only scratches the surface of what Elijah has to say (being the huge Tolkien fan that he is) as there is a lot more coming in the next one. So much that it is less of a ramble, more of a trek.

See you on the next ramble or At The Flicks.

And that’s a wrap. Another film going year ends as At The Flicks brings it to a stylish close with an all star cast.

In fact, if this was a movie, the case would read something like this

Neil “can you help me find the cinema”

Graham “Mel’s number 1 fan”

Jeff “the grumpy one”

Darren “Dazza”

Phil “The Bear”

And guest starring

Kelly “horror queen”

Elijah “the ring bearer”

Declan “streaming king”

Steve “number one Star Wars fan”

As for the film choices, we have some incredible recommendations for you. Both Darren and Phil have some interesting left field choices for you while Graham and Steve pick the same top movie of the year (and one to watch at next year’s Oscars). Kelly has fascinating horror selections, including one she recommends you do not watch!

After all that, Jeff combines the main team’s choices to come up with the definitive At The Flicks top five of 2022.

Enjoy the show and thank you all so much for your company during 2022. We promise to have more top movie shows for you in 2023, including rambles, reviews, interviews and the continuation of our Star Trek movie series.

Until then, a Happy New Year to all our listeners. Stay safe and we will see you At The Flicks.

Today’s pick is an animated feature that was produced by an all woman team in the 1980's. Can you guess what it is?

Today’s pick explains how all the presents are delivered in one night. Can you guess what it is?

As 2022 progressed, our review shows became less and less. We were concerned that after a brilliant Summer start, the quality of releases dropped off substantially. As a result, we concentrated on the classics rather than the new releases (see our show 214).

Finally, as the year started to come to a close, some films we thought worth reviewing were released. From a Halloween ending to a potential Oscar winner, we just had to check them out and give you our views. Well, that is four members of the team. Unfortunately, one person lost his magic map and sadly could no longer find his way to the cinema. Rest assured we have all had a whip round and hopefully Neil will get his tracker back up and running for the new year.

So, I hear you ask, what films did you think were worth checking out. Glad you enquired – here’s what we checked out :

Black Adam – Dwayne The Rock Johnson as an anti-hero superhero. This one split the team – not hard to figure out who liked it and who didn’t. Very much along Marvel / DC supporting lines

The Banshees Of Inisherin – Is there anyone out there who didn’t like this movie? There is always someone in the At The Flicks team who is different. Does that rule apply this time, check out our review to be sure.

The Woman King – An old-fashioned epic, but not old fashioned enough for Neil who thought a female fighting force is a silly idea so he didn’t watch it. As for the rest of us, again we had differing opinions.

Halloween Ends – At least it lived up to the title. You might find some of our comments on this one surprising. We also asked At The Flicks Horror Queen Kelly for her views on the potential last outing for Michael Myers

Speaking of Kelly, she has a new slot on the show – a horror film column. Find out what’s coming early 2023.

So for our final review show, so you think we picked the right movies to chat about? Please let us know.

See you next time or At The Flicks

Today’s pick could only have come from Emma At The Movies!! Can you guess what it is?