Eye of the Storm Movie Podcast

This week we review and discuss Masters of the Universe, a science fantasy action movie directed by Travis Knight and starring Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes and Jared Leto, about Prince Adam as he returns to his home planet, Eternia, to take his destiny as He-Man, and save his home from the evil forces of Skeletor.

We discuss our reaction to the newest incarnation of He-Man from the perspective of someone who didn't grow up with the 80's cartoon and has no nostalgia for the franchise, whether the movie lives up to the potential of its source material, why the movie's tone ruined much of the movie for us, why Marvel humor has at this point overstayed its welcome by almost a decade in our opinion and why movies still go to that well, we discuss who the target audience for this movie is and wonder what a nine year old would even get out of this movie and whether He-Man can be relevant in 2026, whether the movie has anything to say about masculinity, and much more.

Check out our other reviews and clips on all major platforms here:
https://linktr.ee/EyeOfTheStormMoviePodcast

00:00 Intro
00:20 Movie Recommendations (Scary Movie 6, Spider-Man Noir, Koala Man)
07:31 Synopsis & Overall Impressions
16:17 Spoiler Discussion
53:50 Conclusion & Ratings

This week we review and discuss Backrooms, a science fiction horror movie directed by Kane Parsons and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve and Mark Duplass, about Clark, a furniture store owner, and Mary, his therapist, discover a dimension of seemingly endless liminal spaces accessed through the basement of the store.

We discuss the impact the backrooms had on us as a concept, what it means for movies that a movie studio gave a 20 year old first time director full creative control over an original concept, whether the backrooms are scary in the first place and whether the movie succeeds in realising the horror of liminal spaces and building on the original idea effectively and whether explaining the backrooms aided or diminished the horror, how liminal horror compares to its cousin cosmic horror and to real world horrors such as global warming and pandemics, and much more.

Check out our other reviews and clips on all major platforms here:
https://linktr.ee/EyeOfTheStormMoviePodcast

00:00 Intro
00:18 Movie Recommendations (Fuze, Don't Trust The B--- in Apartment 23)
06:58 Synopsis & Overall Impressions
11:58 Spoiler Discussion
54:38 Conclusion & Ratings

In "Have You Seen?" we discuss a movie that some of us know well and others have just now seen for the first time.

This week we revisit Dark City, a 1998 neo-noir science fiction movie directed by Alex Proyas and starring Rufus Swell, Kiefer Sutherland and Jennifer Connelly, about a man who finds himself suspected of murder and proceeds to clear his name while on the run from the police and a mysterious group known as the "Strangers".

We discuss how this movie is one of the gems of the late 90's/early 2000s era of philosophical science fiction and how it holds up today compared to more well known entries such as The Matrix, what the movie has to say about identity and human nature, how we are is shaped by what we remember, how the movie has one of the strongest endings that makes full use of the story's themes and established facts up to that point, how the twist of what is happening to the protagonist was received by a first time viewer, why we can never disprove that the universe is 10 minutes old, and much more.

Check out our other reviews and clips on all major platforms here:
https://linktr.ee/EyeOfTheStormMoviePodcast

This week we review and discuss Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, a science fiction action movie movie directed by Jon Favreau and starring Pedro Pascal, Jeremy Allen White and Sigourney Weaver, about Din Djarin and his apprentice Grogu who are enlisted by the New Republic to rescue Rotta the Hutt in exchange for information on a target.

We discuss our reactions to the first Star Wars movie in 7 years, why every aspect of the movie while competent left us cold and struggling to care about the story of its characters and what lessons should have been learned from previous Star Wars movies, what Disney's failure to do so means for the future of Star Wars and whether Star Wars will ever be exciting again and whether that matters, why the movie feels like a video game in the worst ways and how this impairs the story, and much more.

Check out our other Star Wars reviews here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6U5nBLtmb5sr3DzWAJG1g6

Check out our other reviews and clips on all major platforms here:
https://linktr.ee/EyeOfTheStormMoviePodcast

0:00 Intro
0:19 Movie Recommendations (The Simpsons Season 37, The Boys Season 5)
06:18 Synopsis & Overall Impressions
10:32 Spoiler Discussion
54:03 Conclusion & Ratings

This week we review and discuss Obsession, a supernatural horror movie movie directed by Curry Barker and starring Michel Johnston, Inde Navarrette and Megan Lawless, about a man who who buys a supernatural toy that grants him his wish for his childhood friend Nikki to fall in love with him, resulting in horrifying consequences.

We discuss the surprising box office success of this movie when similar movies are usually ignored by audiences, whether this might be the first true Gen Z horror movie, debate who the real villain in the story is and how this compares to our expectations going into the movie, whether the depiction of Nikki's possession makes sense or if too much of it is just there for shock value and how this impacted audience reactions when we saw the movie in theatres, how this movie compares to other stories about love potions and "monkey's paw" type wish fulfillment, and much more.

Check out our other reviews and clips on all major platforms here:
https://linktr.ee/EyeOfTheStormMoviePodcast

0:00 Intro
0:19 Movie Recommendations (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, From Season 4)
06:26 Synopsis & Overall Impressions
11:50 Spoiler Discussion
53:27 Conclusion & Ratings

In "Have You Seen?" we discuss a movie that some of us know well and others have just now seen for the first time.

This week we revisit Misery, a 1990 psychological horror movie based on a Stephen King novel and directed by Rob Reiner, starring James Caan and Kathy Bates, about a novelist who is held captive by Annie Wilkes, an obsessive fan who forces him to rewrite his last novel to her expectations.

We talk about how the movie creates a sense of suspense and tension with only two characters while avoiding all the cliches of typical horror movies, why Annie Wilkes is one of the great villains of the psychological horror genre, how the movie anticipated modern fandom culture and when fans lose their humanity in their treatment of artists and how our reactions to movies we disliked in the past compare to that, we discuss what if anything artists owe to the fans that made them successful, and much more. 

Check out our other reviews and clips on all major platforms here:
https://linktr.ee/EyeOfTheStormMoviePodcast

This week we review and discuss Mortal Kombat 2, a fantasy martial arts movie directed by Simon  McQuoid and starring Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph and Tadanobu Asano, about Johnny Cage who is recruited to join his fellow Earthrealm fighters in an interdimensional tournament against the Outworld warriors and stop the tyrannical emperor Shao Kahn, with the help of Edenian princess Kitana.

We discuss our experiences watching this movie as someone vaguely interested in the lore of Mortal Kombat but never having played the games, whether the story holds up and what storytelling mistakes we thought undermined the journeys of the main characters Johnny Cage and Kitana, what we should expect from video game adaptations and which recent movies have gotten the adaptation right and which got it wrong, why Mortal Kombat 2 disappoints as a martial arts movie, and much more.

Check out our other reviews and clips on all major platforms here:
https://linktr.ee/EyeOfTheStormMoviePodcast

0:00 Intro
0:26 Movie Recommendations (Sleepers (1996), The Comeback (2005))
07:22 Synopsis & Overall Impressions
15:00 Spoiler Discussion
51:23 Conclusion & Ratings

This week we review and discuss Hokum, a supernatural horror movie directed by Damian McCarthy and starring Adam Scott, Perter Coonan and Florence Ordesh, about a man who travels to a hotel in Ireland, unaware that it may be haunted.

We discuss the movie's metaphor dealing with grief and guilt and the associated symbolism, why this movie worked so well for us when it came to creating dread and suspense and how this movie succeeds at the difficult task of making an unlikeable character likeable, how the movie lives from meticulous detail when constructing its plot and whether plot and allegory are always in alignment or whether they at times clash, why horror monsters in recent years seem to be so generic, and much more.

Check out our other reviews and clips on all major platforms here:
https://linktr.ee/EyeOfTheStormMoviePodcast

0:00 Intro
0:19 Movie Recommendations (Man On Fire,  Little Mosque On The Prairie)
03:28 Synopsis & Overall Impressions
08:03 Spoiler Discussion
52:36 Conclusion & Ratings

In "Have You Seen?" we discuss a movie that some of us know well and others have just now seen for the first time.

This week we revisit Cooties, a zombie comedy from 2014 directed by Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion and starring Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson and Alison Pill, about a group of elementary school teachers who fight to survive an outbreak among students that turns them into aggressive zombies when someone eats tainted chicken nuggets.

We talk about how this movie is built around the taboo of showing harm to children in movies and whether that is justified or is holding movies back, how the joke references the realities of being a teacher, whether this movie has been given a fair shake or if there is more to it and its characters than critics have been giving it credit for, we discuss the infamously reshot ending and how it changes the movie, and much more.

Check out our other reviews and clips on all major platforms here:
https://linktr.ee/EyeOfTheStormMoviePodcast

This week we review and discuss Michael, a biopic movie directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jaafar Jackson, Nia Long and Colman Domingo, about the life of Michael Jackson from his beginnings in the Jackson Five to the Bad tour in 1988.

We discuss to what extent it matters how much of a Michael Jackson fan someone is when watching the movie and what we got out of the movie, how that explains the massive split in audience versus reviewer scores the movie has received, whether the movie's storytelling holds up outside the concert scenes, what a Michael Jackson biopic should be and do and how this movie compares to that, the challenges and quirks of biopics in general, whether we think there will be a second movie covering the less glamorous parts of Jackson's life and whether there should be, and much more.

Check out our other reviews and clips on all major platforms here:
https://linktr.ee/EyeOfTheStormMoviePodcast

0:00 Intro
0:17 Movie Recommendations (The Negotiator (1998), The Adjustment Bureau (2011))
09:16 Synopsis & Overall Impressions
16:19 Spoiler Discussion
01:02:35 Conclusion & Ratings