At the Flicks

Horror franchise – You’re joking, not another one!

You’re joking, not another one, is a quote made famous by Brenda from Bristol about another election. Brenda could also be talking about horror film sequels. Sequels that come so often they turn into that word “franchise”.

Are they any good, or are they just a Xerox copy of the original template. To make sense of it all, Lucy, Jeff, Graham and Neil discuss this horror film legacy. OK, so just Lucy and Jeff discuss it while Graham fiddles with the volume control and Neil hides behind that a mysterious crate in a corner of the room.

Lucy and Jeff each bring a favourite to the party and asks “where did it all go wrong”. Lucy has Saw and Jeff has Halloween.

It’s not all negative as we talk about some themes that can actually work when played out over a series. Finally we ask, what horror films could do with a franchise – their scope just far too limited with one movie. The answers to this might surprise you.

If we have missed your favourite horror series off this list, please let us know. As always, it would be great to hear from you.

Take care and stay safe – at least until the next Halloween show.

How could we have a series of Halloween specials without a Carry On Streaming?

Unthinkable.

Having agreed that, how do we make our special special? Well, we bring in our streaming expert Declan, and Jardiel from Pulp Cereal to talk about one of the more intriguing shows of recent months. We are referring to Showtime network’s Penny Dreadful : City Of Angels.

Hang on, I hear you say, isn’t this just a sequel to Penny Dreadful from a few years ago? What is so special about that? Firstly, it is not a sequel. Actually, apart from the name it has no connection. The story is set in 1930’s Los Angeles, whereas the original was set in Victorian England.

Secondly, it is a stylish detective series with a strong cast and a monster (or God) or two.

It is also a show which creates strong opinions. There are those on this podcast who didn’t warm to the show, while others loved it. Only one person sat on the fence – and surprisingly it wasn’t Neil.

What did you think Penny Dreadful : City Of Angels? Are you team for or team against? As always please let us know your views and we will include them on future episodes.

So, if you are thinking of binge watching this series for Halloween, let us help you make your mind.

Staying in watching this will probably be a lot safer than going out trick or treating this year.

Enjoy and stay safe.

Welcome to the start of At The Flicks’ spooky season.

How better to start our series of shows than with a discussion which embraces classic horror movies. Not to be left out, wWe also look at modern horror films and ask the question – which is better – the old or the new.

To join us for this discussion is a new voice to At The Flicks. Andy comes on board for semi regular chats about movie genres and will give us his opinions on what is worth watching or avoiding in the movie world. Here Andy gives us his views on horror movies.

Can Andy persuade Neil and Graham to watch some of his excellent choices? Neil maintains he has previous watched some of them, but offers no evidence to refute his claim while Graham maintains the best ones are actually science fiction and therefore rationalised his viewings.

So come with us as we talk The Exorcist, The Blair Witch Project, Get Out and many others.

If any of your favourites are missing from this fascinating discussion, please let us know.

And if you like this, listen out for our next Halloween treat coming very shortly.

Take care and stay safe

A very special announcement from At The Flicks for the spooky season. Oh and also another opportunity for Jeff to torment Neil

Welcome to the latest movie review show from your At The Flicks team.

The first thing you will notice is there is no Neil this month. Luckily, at great expense to the team (it’s coming out of your wages Neil), we were able to get an expert impressionist at short notice to stand in for him. For the most part all he had to say was “I agree with Graham”, so I don’t think anyone will notice the difference.

Where was Neil I hear you ask? Great question. It appears Neil had checked his Grinch diary and found he had doubled booked the evening. In classic Green Misery style Neil told us, “sorry I have booked an evening meal with myself today, I just can’t cancel that again”. The conspiracy theorists amongst you will start to suspect that this is all part of Neil’s not so subtle ploy to drive Jeff insane. A charge Neil has yet to respond to without laughing.

Luckily, the rest of the team, Graham, Phil, Darren and Jeff were all on hand to discuss the films they had seen. In fact this show is the nearest to a full cinema review episode we will have for at least 4 months. The show includes reviews of

Tenet – A film that earned much praise from some and derision from others (ie Jeff). Neil’s view “I agree with Graham”.

The Broken Hearts Gallery – Where Jeff’s incisive review was heavily censored by the new James Ferman, or as we call him, Graham. Neil’s view “I agree with Graham”.

Our streaming reviews this month include

Enola Holmes – One of those rare films we are all in agreement on. This is good when you consider Neil’s view “I agree with Graham”.

As an added bonus this month, we had the chance to review festival favourite The Magic Bomb. This is an A list Hollywood plot made on a minuscule budget. We are hoping to have an interview with director Randy Gordon-Gatica in an upcoming episode. Check out our initial thoughts on the film.

Finally there is Darren’s Dash, which this month includes Bill & Ted Face The Music and the controversial Netflix film Cuties.

We hope you enjoy the show and also hope you take part in our poll of who should be on the next review show – Neil or his excellent impersonator. When told about the poll, Neil said “I agree with Graham”.

See you next time and make sure you stay safe.

Welcome to the At The Flicks take on the Star Trek films. Over a podcast series we will be talking about the movies and what they mean to us.

As this was an idea from Darren, he gets to sit in the captain’s chair guiding us through each of the adventures. Tech guy Graham becomes science officer Spock (are those ears real Graham?), making the technical decisions which each month will get an episode on air or delivered to a black hole. It is 50/50.

For the part of the grumpy doctor there was only ever one person who could take on that role. Jeff. Shame he passes out at the sight of blood. Apart from that, being miserable and constantly moaning about “universes” is something he a world leader at.

As for Neil, he will be wearing the red shirt and will not be a named character. That means his chance of surviving each podcast episode is as low as Donald Trump showing humility. Especially if Jeff can get him to walk by the air lock (either Neil or Trump).

With the crew in position it is time to start up the Jerry Goldsmith music which hopefully will give us a clue as to what direction we are setting off in. Listen in with us as we talk about :

Why isn’t the first Star Trek film very good?

How many different versions of the same film can there be?

Did the director Robert Wise know what Star Trek was about?

What is it about the transporter room accident that unnerves Darren?

All of this and more in a podcast which combines fun facts about the film with some very personal memories from the At The Flicks crew.

Enjoy and remember in these difficult days, live long and prosper.

It’s time to say goodbye to Sylvester Stallone’s character 'Rambo' as we discuss the film and the politics of Rambo : Last Blood.

In this movie Rambo comes home to America. A country very different to one he left when he went back to Vietnam in Rambo First Blood Part II. Ronald Reagan was President then and Donald Trump now. Which is quite fitting for a film where the Mexican border plays an important part in the story. Once again we discuss the politics of the film while also giving our views on the movie itself.

Along the way we tackle such questions as:

What did First Blood author think of this latest (final?) instalment of the Rambo series?

Has Sylvester Stallone become the John Wayne of our age?

Is the Rambo character a tragic hero figure forever doomed not to have a happy ending?

Is the film right wing propaganda or something more subtle?

Why does Neil confuse the Mexican / American border with a house boundary?

Why is Graham besotted with the director – is it because of his past associations?

All of these questions are addressed in our frank examination of the movie.

As usual with the At The Flicks team, there are disagreements about the movie. The battle lines are drawn between two members of the team akin to Rambo against the Russians.

Finally we would like to give thanks to At The Flicks contributor Elijah for telling some very powerful family stories over the course of this series. It is really appreciated.

If you have any comments about this show, or any others in the series, please let us know. We always love to hear from you.

The name’s Flicks – At The Flicks, and welcome to our James Bond special.

In anticipation of the opening of No Time To Die in the near future (fingers crossed), the team look back at the early days of the James Bond films. Team member Elijah has a special 'Rediscovering the Classics' as he talks about two movies. From Russia With Love and Goldfinger. Which stands the test of time better and how do they stack up against Dr No (you can find our thoughts on that film in episode 64)? Listen in to find out.

As an added bonus, Warren Ringham, the creator of the excellent 'Q The Music', joins us to talk about the music of the early James Bond films. We go from Monty Norman’s score for Dr No through to John Barry’s score for Goldfinger. Even Jeff, our film music specialist, learnt quite a bit listening to Warren.

So, put on your tuxedo, make yourself a vodka martini (shaken not stirred, of course), and settle down for a wonderful At The Flicks special.

Welcome to the latest movie review show from your At The Flicks team.

The first thing you will notice is that there are very few cinema reviews included in the show. No, it’s not because we are worried about going back to our local picture houses, it’s because Jeff had a theme for this show. Getting him to change his mind is like trying to get one of those old, rusty oil tankers to turnaround. It happens but veeerrry slowly. Don’t worry, we will be back at the movies for our next review show. If however, you are after some cinema films, listen out on this episode for Darren’s Dash.

As for the theme for this show, it is, guilty pleasure movies. Five reviewers and five personal choices for us to discuss. Before that however, we managed to persuade Jeff to include 2 relatively new movies to streaming. Well, for one film Graham got a 100,000 signature partition to prorogue the show for the inclusion of the latest Mel movie, The Professor And The Madman. Even though we are sure the repeated Mel Gibson signature is fake, we allowed it to be included. While discussing the film put Graham in a good mood, what did it do for the rest of the reviewers? We leave that for you to discover.

Also worth discovering are the guilty pleasures from the team

Darren choose the sequel to one of the greatest films of all time. All was going well until Jeff launched into a bizarre rant about one of the younger more innocent characters potentially becoming a serial killer.

Graham choose the first in a series of vampire vs werewolf films. We are sure that this selection had nothing to do with the tight fitting clothes the star was wearing.

Phil picks a childhood favourite. Neil, clearly getting old and his hearing fading, manages to review the wrong film!

Neil picks the right film for his review. However no one is certain how this can be called a guilty pleasure.

Finally there is Jeff. We are not certain if this is a guilty or a shameful pleasure. Please let us know, dear listener, what you think of his pick (or any of the others you care to comment on).

So there it is – our guilty pleasure film list. Next month it is back to social distancing and masks – and that is just for cinema planning meeting with Neil!

See you at the cinema and make sure you stay safe.

Bye for now.

Our examination of the politics of Rambo continues with the fourth in the series, simply titled Rambo. Uniquely, this film steps away from American involvement in foreign conflicts to look at the struggles of the Karen people in Myanmar.

In reality it is a brutal struggle and that is certainly reflected in the film. Without question. it is the most violent of the series. The team and Elijah look at why and along the way address some of these questions

- Why are the team watching different versions of the film?

- Who were the original directors short listed to make the movie and why did Sylvester Stallone ultimately take on that role?

- What are the penalties for watching this film in Myanmar?

- What line of dialogue from the film became a rallying cry for the Karen freedom fighters?

All of this and more interesting facts are addressed on the podcast. However as usual in these discussions (especially since we never meet face to face any more), we broaden our discussion to other related topics – more simply put, we talk about weaponry and hunting. Please bear us during these sections – we need this social interaction!

On a more serious note, Elijah tells us some real stories about missionaries and some of the hardships and dangers they have to face.

Despite its political relevance, Rambo is a film that split the team. What are your thoughts on this feature, please let us know.

Thanks for listening and as always, stay safe.