Better Movie...Maybe?

We are entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the first time with Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (2022), aka WandaVision the sequel. This isn't a bad movie, but we've seen the multiverse done better. Marvel has a proven formula for masterfully weaving the story of several movies--and now TV shows--together, but are they doing too much now and alienating more casual viewers?

TW: The movie deals with sensitive subjects including molestation, rape, and suicide.

In today's episode, we revisit The Butterfly Effect (2004) starring Ashton Kutcher. As Markis so accurately describes it, it’s a time travel movie where every timeline is the darkest timeline. We all agree that the rapid-fire intense trauma experienced by the main characters could have been dialed back. Plus, we learn of a director's cut that manages to push the envelope even further.

It’s long overdue, but we review The Batman (2022) available on HBO Max. If you liked our Justice League two-parter back in S1, you’re in for a treat as we have the DC Defender Bradford Wise back as a combative guest bringing all the smoke. We get into some heavy debates regarding who’s the best batman and whether this movie deserve to be included in the conversation for being iconic.

We talk through Mother/Android (2021), a Hulu Original that follows a pregnant couple’s journey during a robot-apocalypse. While there are many movies out there with a similar setting (Terminator, I, Robot, and The Mitchells vs. The Machines to name a few), this film takes a bold approach to barely including any robots and skip most of the action sequences with time jumps. However, the payoff comes at the ending, which is unintentionally hilarious.

We are joined by returning guests Monic & Jenelle from the Is Marriage Worth It? Podcast to discuss the HBOMax Original, Moonshot (2022). Not to be confused with Moonfall, this RomCom features a quirky pair of students who travel to Mars for love. We discuss the leads romantic chemistry and how it is as complementary as apple sauce and hotdogs. We also try to determine where the sweet spot is between creepy and cute for following someone you like to another planet. For more insight on relationships, Check out Is Marriage Worth it? https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/is-marriage-worth-it/id1559649091

Deep Water (2022) is an erotic psychological thriller on Hulu starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas. The mood of this film, as one of us describes it, is like you’re stuck at an awkward dinner party and want to look away but can’t. The chemistry between the sexy Ana de Armas and the sad Ben Affleck is believable, yet questionable. The movie features a number of adult situations, so consider this your warning for inappropriate jokes. Didn’t we just review a family movie last week?—-talk about range.

Today's episode is on the latest Pixar movie Turning Red (2022), available on Disney+. This film addresses the topic of puberty from the perspective a teenage girl using a clever metaphor. We discuss the nostalgic elements that we all could relate to and show appreciation for the diverse representation. Special thanks to Julianna Giordana for coming back as a special guest to keep the guys from going off track with mansplaining.

Today we discuss the Netflix original film The Adam Project (2022). This movie deals with the tricky concept of time travel and features some surprisingly touching emotional moments. It stars Ryan Reynold, who we’ll readily admit is not our favorite actor. So to balance our bias, we brought on special guest Chris Vazquez who is a huge fan of the Reynold’s sarcastic charm. Will he be able to convince us that Ryan Reynolds is a better movie star than, say, Tom Cruise?

We're back for Season 3! And to kick things off, we're reviewing the sequel to one our most listened episodes, GI Joe: Rise of Cobra. Is Retaliation better than the original? Most of us would say no, however Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is in it, so that's definitely something.

BONUS EPISODE! We’ve referenced the Matrix on our podcast many times. So even though we’re on break prepping for S3, we had to talk about Matrix Resurrections (2021), the sequel to the trilogy that no one asked for. Remember all the dope fight choreography and groundbreaking-concepts from the original Matrix? Well, this movie had none of that, but we did get a radically different take on Morpheus and a lot of cringeworthy meta dialogue. We brought on special guest, lifelong Matrix fan Julianna Giordana, to help us try and make sense of this film.