When a young Furiosa and a Warboy meet in a different time, and a different life, with Voldamort serving them dinner before making the worlds most screwed up 'smores, you get The Menu. It's a tremendous performance by Ralph Fiennes, who pretty much never disappoints. Anya Taylor-Joy is pretty much perfect. Nicholas Holt is always solid. Together, they make a memorable movie with a twist on the culinary experience. Take a trip to the island and diner with Gretchen and Martin and they watch The Menu. 

Martin and Gretchen talk movies and more at Check the Gate. Follow along and chat with us on Instagram @checkthegatepodcast .

In 1979 Disney set out to make an ambitious film. Giant practical sets. Cutting edge camera movement. Specialized digital effects. Bigatures. All of that to join the frey of filmmaking studios trying to find their Star Wars. While The Black Hole wasn't their hit, it stands as an amazing film today. Filled with imaginative set pieces, a great villian, renegade robots, all set against the backdrop of a supermassive black hole. Gretchen and Martin watch this fantastic film and gush about it's practical effects and the poor judgement to not cast Sigourney Weaver. 


Martin and Gretchen talk movies and more at Check the Gate. Follow along and chat with us on Instagram @checkthegatepodcast .

Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is. And felt how awful goodness is.

It's Devil's Night. Our new favorite holiday and we're here for it with our newest episode. This time, we are featuring the 1994 Alex Proyas film, The Crow. The perfect, but now flawless, film that pushes the music video movie genre all the way past the stick margin. This fabulous movie, while met with great tragedy, is a classic that still holds up as a solid. It's part of Martin's regular rotation of films to watch. This was pure joy to see again. 

Martin and Gretchen talk movies and more at Check the Gate. Follow along and chat with us on Instagram @checkthegatepodcast .

Martin and Gretchen return to their podcasting roots, both with the Kaijucast and Check the Gate, with this episode. Shin Godzilla! A beautiful relaunch of Godzilla under the banner of Toho. This film is an amazing array of taught political satire questioning the political apparatus of Japan while stepping into the digital effects age with a digital Godzilla. It's a risky moved that paid off in spades for Toho. 

Martin and Gretchen talk movies and more at Check the Gate. Follow along and chat with us on Instagram @checkthegatepodcast .

If you ever wanted to see a Salvador Dali painting come to life, but be empty of meaning or purpose, then The Fall is for you. A lavish, gorgeous, sweeping film that covers 28 countries over four years. It took Tarsim 20 years to make the film. It is so beautiful to look at. Gretchen and Martin break down this film and talk about a few other Tarsim projects. 


Martin and Gretchen talk movies and more at Check the Gate. Follow along and chat with us on Instagram @checkthegatepodcast .

Martin and Gretchen return to the world of indie filmmaking, only this time with much better results. Pi, the 1998 Darren Aronofsky black and white. It's a fantastic dive into mental health, gematria and possibly an underground hasidic mob. Made for $60k, shot on film, with recognizable actors from mainstream projects you've watched, this film is a testament to what can be done with very little.

Martin and Gretchen talk movies and more at Check the Gate. Follow along and chat with us on Instagram @checkthegatepodcast .

All of these moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Unless you have a podcast. Then you get to keep them forever and comment on them relentlessly. Blade Runner is the seminal work of Ridley Scott. As if Alien wasn't enough to transform the landscape of science fiction and horror, he comes back to create a futuristic landscape that is emulated by nearly every director make distopynia future films. This movie has been a great love of ours and it is an absolute pleasure to have watched it for this episode in 35mm at the historic Hollwood Theatre in Portland, Oregon. 

Martin and Gretchen talk movies and more at Check the Gate

We dig into the cinephile lexicon of awesome movies not getting enough love for this Scorsese masterpiece. The 1999 film Bringing Out The Dead. Nic Cage in perfect Nic Cage form - not to crazy, just enough, not all the time, but right when we need him. This film is a fantastic run through the night for an ambulance crew in Hell's Kitchen. Tom Sizemore is killin' it. Good Goodman is rockin' it. Ving Rhames is preachin' it. It's peak Scorsese as he looks to the underbelly of society and makes it empathetic. As always, make sure you check out our other episodes and help us do all the things for people to be interested in seeing our show. Download the audio from all the apps that download.

Martin and Gretchen talk movies and more at Check the Gate.

Martin and Gretchen watch one of the best revenge movies made in the last few decades. Blue Ruin is perfect execution of a film. Especially on the tiny budget they had. Perfect story. Excellent twists. The pacing is superb. It is the perfect movie without all the side plots and lost threads. It's everything a movie should be in the thriller genre. We hope you enjoy!

Martin and Gretchen talk movies and more at Check the Gate.

Hey everyone. Gretchen and I have a few bonus episodes for you coming out of the Portland Horror Film Festival that happened June 12th through the 14th. It's a great festival and if you are a horror fan with a film, this festival is not to be missed. Our first bonus episode is with Karen Lam, a writer/director/producer from Vancouver, British Columbia. She debuted her film, Mrs. Chang's Perfect Teeth at the festival. Spend some time with us as we hear about how Takashi Miike is comfort viewing. 


Martin and Gretchen talk movies and more at Check the Gate. 

https://www.karenlamfilms.com/