At the Flicks

Today’s pick is a family gathering which turns into a comic horror. Can you guess what it is?

Today’s pick is a British black & white classic. Can you guess what it is?

Welcome to our Summer special. We know what you are thinking dear listener, At The Flicks, late again. You might be right, or we might be early for Summer 2023, you decide, we couldn’t possibly comment.

Don’t go looking at the films under review to work out if they are released 2022 or 2023. It’s not that type of review show. This is a classic movie review show. To be honest, we haven’t been that impressed with many of the movies released recently, so we set a challenge for the review team. Pick a highly acclaimed movie you have never seen, then we would all review it. The selection process made for some very interesting choices. Now, we aren’t going to tell you who picked what film, you will have to listen to the show to find that out, however we will tell you what films were selected, and they are as follows:

The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari. The classic silent German film from when way back in 1921, when even our Graham was young. This film has received much renewed attention as a talking point in the Nicholas Cage feature The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent. Check this out to find out if the review team rate it as highly as Nicholas Cage.

Sunset Boulevard (1950). Billy Wilder’s acidic take on Hollywood turned out to be a marmite film for the review team. Listen in to find out who liked it and who didn’t.

Inherit The Wind (1960). Spencer Tracy and Frederic March star in this court room drama based on the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trail. The one that some in the team had not heard of but all of enjoyed. Also prompted a fascinating discussion about the relevance of the movie in today’s society.

My Fair Lady (1964). Pardon me. What, the Oscar winning British musical based on the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw? Is this a mistake? Not at all, although everyone thought the person who selected this had picked it for mischievous reasons, which I guess is a good clue as to who selected it.

Vertigo (1958). The classic Hitchcock thriller and Sight & Sound’s selection for the greatest film of all time. Do the review team agree with Sight & Sound – check out our discussion.

Five great films for which we give our views. Let us know what you think, if the show is a success, we will pick another five classics in the near future (or will that be the near past?).

Oh, one final comment, if you listen closely, you will find out how reviewer Darren got his name. A great story.

Until the next time, see you At The Flicks.

Welcome to At The Flicks, where this episode there is no hiding from the darkest of TV “entertainments”.

Yes, carry on streaming is back and our expert Dec returns to tell us what is worth watching for Halloween. But there’s more. Horror queen Kelly returns to add her thoughts on what is worth watching this season. Dec, Kelly and Jeff all with their separate takes on the ghoulish, no wonder Neil wouldn’t turn up and Graham has a crucifix in front of him!

What is included in the show that is so terrifying you may ask? Well, Dec gives us the details and recommends (amongst many others), the following

- Dahmer – Monsters : The Jeffrey Dahmer Story

- Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet Of Curiosities

- The Midnight Club

- The Bastard Son Of The Devil Himself (great title)

- The School Of Good And Evil

- The Witch Farm

And many, many more

As an added bonus, Kelly tells you all you need to know about the streaming service Shudder.

All these recommendations are far too much to get in over Halloween. In fact, it is more than enough to keep you going over the few short weeks to Christmas. Don’t worry if you run out of things to watch before that season is upon us, Dec will be back in December to give us his unmissable recommendations for the end of the year. We will be going from Happy Halloween to Merry Christmas before you know it!

Until then, stay safe and hopefully, if you are not watching TV, we will see you At The Flicks.

Welcome to the first of two Halloween specials from your At The Flicks team.

In this first show we introduce to you, horror queen Kelly. Kelly certainly knows her horror movies and has a tremendous knowledge on the subject. To prove this, we set her a challenge. We asked Kelly, if you were creating a Halloween movie marathon, what movies would you include.

I am very pleased to say, the challenge was accepted and the result is the show you are about to hear. The movie marathon consists of five classic films that never get old. We are not going to reveal the titles here, as that would be a spoiler (although the eagle eyed amongst you will see two of them in the trailer section below). However, this is not Kelly just giving us five titles. Oh no, there is much, much more here. Kelly tells us why she made the choices she has, why they are personal to her and some fun facts about each of the movies. Jeff tries to trade some of his stories, but quite frankly, this time he has met his match!

And speaking of meeting people, you will not be surprised to learn that Neil is nowhere to be seen during this Halloween count down of horror. His natural aversion to scary movies once again kicked in, plus he is still in mourning for the loss of his hero. Yes, Neil is missing his very own scream queen, the one and only Liz Truss.

Let’s forget Neil and return to the show. As an added bonus from Kelly, she has set a Halloween quiz for you. At the start of the show she will give you five questions relating to horror movies. How many can you get? Answers are at the end of the show.

So settle back, dim the lights and enjoy the first of our Halloween spooktaculars for 2022. Kelly will return as a guest on our next show as Declan talks us through the Halloween streaming events worth looking out for this year.

Enjoy your trick or treating and we will see you for a spooky movie At The Flicks.

Our early Autumn Carry On Streaming show has finally arrived! Not just a show, host Declan makes this a public information spectacular, turning him into our version of Martin Lewis! 

Apart from the usual subject of the streaming shows, telling you what’s best on offer, we also have another offer for you. Dec will tell you how to get the best value from the various streaming services around in the UK.  Want to save money on the high profile streamers – then come on in! How about finding out the best services that are available for free – yes, we have found those as well.  At The Flicks, not only great listening, it’s also wonderful value for your pocket.  If you know of any other money saving tips for streaming services, please let us know and we will pass them on in future episodes. 

Having said all that, great value streaming services are no good if the content isn’t worthwhile. Luckily, we have found some gems for you.  Classics on BBC iPlayer like Inside No 9 (although Jeff will be a bit more weary of showing this entertainment to unsuspecting members of his family in future – full story revealed on the show), and other BBC gems you might have missed like Avoidance and Life After Life.  From Sky / Now TV we all rave about Peacemaker, James Gunn on top form, the latest version of The Midwich Cuckoo’s (especially heartening for Graham who is a big John Wyndham fan) and the latest series of Barry, which Jeff called the highlight of the year so far. 

There is just so much quality entertainment out there on all the streaming channels, from Slow Horses (Apple), The Boys (Prime), The Lincoln Lawyer (Netflix) to She-Hulk (Disney).  Then there is the burning question – are you team Dragon or team Rings?  The big fantasy shows go to head to head.  Get our verdict here.

How about that as a starter?  There is much, much more available on the show.  And this can be seen as a warmup.  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.

Back in episode 57 (that’s all the way back to 2019, remember that time, the happy, pre Covid days?), we spoke to regular film goer Dingle about going to the cinema during the 1940’s.

In this episode we speak to another regular cinema goer, Tony, who tells us what life was like in British cinemas during the 1950’s. On this fascinating trip down memory lane, you will learn

- How many cinemas Tony could choose from in his local town

- All about double bills and newsreels

- The unexpected impact of smoking in cinemas

- How much it cost for a trip to the cinema

- Tony’s favourite films of the period

- Where you could go to watch foreign language movies in the 1950’s

As an added bonus, Tony tells us about attending the cinema during World War II as a child, as well as a fascinating perspective on the American forces in his town just before D Day.

A genuine trip down memory lane. We hope you find it as informative as we did. It was a real honour and a privilege to talk to Tony.

See you next time or At The Flicks.

Welcome to the latest show from the At The Flicks team. In this episode we speak to filmmakers Mark Brown and Laura Rees.

Mark has directed and Laura has produced an upcoming thriller called Dead On The Vine, which was made on a vineyard during the Covid lockdown period.  We have held this show back for a long period. The reason for that is, we chatted  to the talented pair just after they completed principal photography and we all felt the show would have more impact just prior to release.  

Well, that later date has arrived, as Dead On The Vine is to receive it’s world premiere this November at Kevin Smith’s Smodcastle Film Festival.  This is big news.  On the basis of what we have seen of the film, we believe Dead On The Vine is going to be a winner. 

As a bonus Mark also talks about his previous comedy film Guardians (trailer below) which you can watch on Amazon Prime.  We loved it and the script crackles with hilarious one liners. 

Finally just a heads up.  There are some slight sound issues with this interview, however we believe you will find this an entertaining chat with two very talented people.

Enjoy.

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.

At least we start off on an agreed course, talking about the latest Thor movie with member of the Marvel Taliban Graham.  The discussion takes an early left turn when Jeff brings in Waterworld to highlight his concerns about Thor Love And Thunder.  

We stay with superheroes to give our thoughts on the now shelved Batgirl movie and the potential future of HBO Max.

Finally, both Elijah and Graham have an in-depth discussion about the new Netflix series, The Sandman.

After that it’s back home for tea and scones, relaxing after another satisfying ramble.

See you on the next ramble or At The Flicks.

Bye for now.

It’s been a quiet Summer (at least in the cinema), which means we have taken our time in preparing this review show for you. The good news is, in the time we have taken in getting the show out, all of the films reviewed are now on streaming or available to rent on demand. (For some of the other Summer releases, please check out our new rambling series).

With this extra time, did we pick titles that perhaps we were all in agreement are future classics? Or they have some import into the human condition? Nope (and that isn’t a clue to one of the films), with one exception there were arguments galore in this episode. In other news, at least we have a quiz for you to start the show. Nice one Darren, although not too happy with the individual who won it and who is still parading around the At The Flicks office like a Gladiator winner.

Let’s draw a discrete veil over that ungainly sight and focus on the not quite great movies under review. They are:

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness – I am sure you can guess whose Marvel prejudices come to the surface for this film. Although as a fan of Sam Raimi, he had to tone down some of his commercialist Marvel attacks. As for the others, well you might find a few surprises in their usually prejudiced views for this one.

Father Stu – Graham now has it in his contract that we MUST review anything new in cinemas starring The Mel. Luckily that doesn’t happen very often as they usually come straight to streaming. No prizes for guessing how much Graham fawns over this one starring his hero. But are the others in agreement?

Firestarter – A remake of the Stephen King story. It is the one film we are all in agreement about. I’ll leave that there….

The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent – This one has cult Nicholas Cage written all over it. Perhaps an odd choice for the main review show, maybe a better fit for Darren’s Dash?

That’s the show, plenty of argument here, especially as Graham defends The Mel.

Join us for more reviews on the upcoming Darren’s Dash.

Until then, see you At The Flicks.